In the galaxy of States you will find no brighter star Than our own fair State of Kansas, leading most of them by far, In the fullness of her prestige, in the arts of peace and war, And her future mirrored brightly on the ages yet afar; With her streams of winding beauty, flowing through enchanting vale-Where her woodlands skirt the water shedding beauty through the dales, With her rolling hills and canons, forming landscapes truly grand, And her limitless prairies an unbounded sea of land.

Laden with the wealth of ages, waiting for the plowman's share To upturn its hidden treasures to the sunshine and the air; Waiting that the seed be planted, when a harvest shall spring forth That will feed the coming thousands from the East and from the North Coming to this land of promise that they may secure a home; Coming from the weary winter, t'where its rigors are unknown; Where the yieldings of the summer are not swallowed up in feed, For the teams which did the tending, leaving not a peck for seed.

Where the cattle feed on pasture, from the third until the twelfth, Leaving but three months of resting to this source of endless wealth Where the plowman turns his furrows from the first day of the year, Through all seasons, till December ushers in its Christmas cheer. Here a man can be a freeman, and an owner of the soil, Sit beneath his "vine and fig tree," and reap due return for toil; And the hoardings in the stocking, ne'er be drawn upon to spend, All the savings in endeavor, that an end shall meet an end.

We invite the honest toiler to this garden spot of earth, And extend the hand of welcome to these men of sterling worth; For we need them "in our business," in the schools, and in the church, And we need a few for office, that can keep themselves from smirch. Stay not on the sterile hillsides, pulling roots and picking stones; Seek this land of milk and honey, leave the hillsides to the drones. We have room for brawn, and brain, and for energy galore, And tho' thousands now are coming, there is room for thousands more.

--E. P. Ford.

 

Source:Kansas: its history, resources and prospects by The Kansas Bureau of immigration