Lawrence and Topeka are large, bustling,
half-rural, handsome cities. I took two or three long drives about the
latter, drawn by a spirited team over smooth roads.
THE PRAIRIES (_and an Undeliver'd Speech_)
At a large popular meeting at Topeka--the Kansas State Silver Wedding,
fifteen or twenty thousand people--I had been erroneously bill'd to
deliver a poem. As I seem'd to be made much of, and wanted to be
good-natured, I hastily pencill'd out the following little speech.
Unfortunately, (or fortunately,) I had such a good time and rest, and
talk and dinner, with the U. boys, that I let the hours slip away and
didn't drive over to the meeting and speak my piece. But here it is
just the same:
"My friends, your bills announce me as giving a poem; but I have no
poem--have composed none for this occasion. And I can honestly say
I am now glad of it. Under these skies resplendent in September
beauty--amid the peculiar landscape you are used to, but which is new
to me--these interminable and stately prairies--in the freedom and
vigor and sane enthusiasm of this perfect western air and autumn
sunshine--it seems to me a poem would be almost an impertinence. But
if you care to have a word from me, I should speak it about these very
prairies; they impress me most, of all the objective shows I see or
have seen on this, my first real visit to the West. As I have roll'd
rapidly hither for more than a thousand miles, through fair Ohio,
through bread-raising Indiana and Illinois--through ample Missouri,
that contains and raises everything; as I have partially explor'd your
charming city during the last two days, and, standing on Oread hill,
by the university, have launch'd my view across broad expanses of
living green, in every direction--I have again been most impress'd,
I say, and shall remain for the rest of my life most impress'd, with
that feature of the topography of your western central world--that
vast Something, stretching out on its own unbounded scale, unconfined,
which there is in these prairies, combining the real and ideal, and
beautiful as dreams.
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