Arts
In which we are introduced to some of the principal characters of these tales----the Peddler and Captain Maximillian Robin among them-----and the recurring themes of America’s distressed abundance, our woods and wealth ripped out of the earth, yet hope not exhausted by our inexhaustible expectations. After the Civil War our nineteenth century America was extreme, a time of delirious boons and desperate busts. The mighty white pine forests-----”green gold” as it was called-----which had carpeted the midwest land were nearly gone from clear cutting. Farms, ever larger, ever harder to keep, yielded fickle profit at the cruel mercies of giant Trusts of money and industry which extorted them. Daunting depressions in jobs and markets repeatedly crushed as many with debt and poverty as in the 1930’s, but no one spoke for welfare. Hence, such stories as this from the Badger State Banner of Black River Falls, Wisconsin: John Kuch, a farmer living in the town of Oakland, was found in his barn the other morning, hanging by his neck…. No cause was known. About 12 years ago, his father hanged himself in the same barn.16 January 1890