"Texas--you can see farther and see less"

[Bapopik at AOL.COM]

I don't know if Fred has this American phrase. Outlook magazine (1904)  seems 
a good cite for it.
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Entry from August 18, 2006 
“Texas—You can see farther and see less than any place on  earth”
 
It’s been said that in Texas one can “see farther and see less than anywhere 
 else in the world.” The phrase has also been applied to Montana and Alaska. 
It  appears to date from 1904, in a comment about Arizona and the west in 
general.  


September-December 1904, 

Outlook, pg. 85: 
“Son,” said  he, “in this country that is more cows and less butter, more 
rivers and less  water, and you kin see farther and see less than in any other 
country in the  world.” 
(Arizona—ed.) 

3 June 1909, Iowa , pg. 7(?):  
“No country is so good but that people are continually leaving in search of  
new Eldorados,” observes the Knoxville Express. “Thompson’s celebrated colt  
jumped out of a pasture into a plowed field. Adam and Eve were not content in  
the garden of Eden, and every year people leave Iowa for the regions out 
west,  south and north, where they can see farther and see less than anywhere on  
earth.” 

11 May 1923, Van Nuys (CA) News, pg. 18: 
When the  punitive expedition was in Mexico in 1916 and 1917, one of the 
newspaper  correspondents asked a negro trooper of the Tenth cavalry what he 
thought of  Mexico. The trooper studied a minute and then answered: “Well, boss, 
there is  more cows and less milk, more rivers and less water, and you can see 
farther and  see less than any country in the world.”—Judge. 

2 July 1942, Chicago  Daily Tribune, “In the Wake of the News” by Arch Ward, 
pg. 21: 
Did  you know that Texas has more cows and less milk, more rivers and less 
water, and  one can see farther and see less than in any other state? 
—Brazil Hoosier.  

20 August 1945, Helena (MT) Independent-Record, pg. 4: 
That  lone cat has done more to publicize Kansas than the Kansas professor 
who  recently said that it was possible to see farther and see less in Kansas 
than in  any other state except Texas. 

12 May 1949, Chillicothe )MO)  Constitution-Tribune, pg. 4: 
In Montana, one can see farther and see  less than anywhere in the world. 

26 January 1969, Chicago  Tribune, Alaska story by Kermit Holt, pg. H8: 
Comments an Oklahoman  in the next seat: “You can see farther and see less 
than any place in the world  except west Texas!” 

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