This ought to be the simplest thing in the world.  I just want to get 
the data in a single column.

You 'd think

cells of column 4 of worksheet 1

or

get value of column 4 of worksheet 1


But any Applescript line with "value" and "column" in it  yields the 
spinning beachballl of death, stopped only by force-quitting Excel. 
(Vers. 12.2.0)

get value of range "D1:D26" of worksheet 1

works, but I can't find a way for the script to find the number of rows.

last row of worksheet 1 --> row "$1048576:$1048576" of worksheet 1 of 
active workbook of application "Microsoft Excel"

How are they counting??

I've found several tutorials full of helpful information on how to 
create spreadsheets, but nothing about reading one. Microsoft's 
"Applescript Excel Reference" is basically a rehash of the dictionary.

There must be something absurdly simple that I'm overlooking.
-- 

Bill Steele
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