The Chariton Leader, Chariton, Iowa Thursday, May 31, 1906 'THE EARLY PROSPECTS' - - - - - - - - This is an age of restless apprehension and the present seems hum-drum and the surroundings uninteresting. Skies far beyond the horizon only are azure and the beauties of nature appear in other climes. Why this condition exists it is hard to explain for certainly life offers as many opportunities here as in the regions now being exploited for commercial purposes -- but the unread is more attractive than the present state of existance. The past has a melancholy about it from which we gather great clusters of content in contemplation -- now that it is forever past -- melancholy because its associations are but memories. It is not likely there is a place in all the west country in its virgin state offering the advantages of Lucas County in its earlier days -- or where life could be more enjoyed -- with its broad prairies, interspersed with streams and small forests, with here and there patches that had yielded to civilized cultivation. Mountain scenery is grand, interlockin! g its mineral resources, but an Iowa prairie, with its deep, rich soil, expanse of waving blue stem grass and wild flowers is much more profound because it submits more readily to the needs of mankind. This picture is drawn from an observation of thirty-five or forty years ago. The face of nature has been so transformed that little remains of the original features. Population then was sparce and the commons were public property so far as its uses went and domestic animals from the Morgan horse down to the "hazel-splitter" hog chose its own feeding ground. Great herds of cattle grazed on the delicious grasses and sometimes thousands of sheep, the various flocks of the settlers, associated themselves as if for mutual protection against the avariciousness of the prairie wolves. In one of our school books we used to read a description of the Red River Valley with its wild herds of cattle and horses -- a scene appealing most vividly to the imagination. The writer brought ou! t the features so thoroughly that were he to attempt it at this time h e would immediately be accused of being in league with some immigration bureau. But the delineation was not over drawn. To Be Continued . . . Part 2