Iowa voter. [volume] (Knoxville, Iowa) 1867-1874, 1871-08-31
ABOUT KITES AND THINGS.

I Did you ever hear of the man who har-
messed pair Of kites to a lighs carriage,
ARRANGED a set of strings SO that he could
manage them, and took ride one hun
dred and fifty miles long? His kites were
Hike the common paper kites all boys
make, only they were twelve feet high
| and made of linen. And it really happen.
4 ed in England fifty years ago.
Putting kites to useful work seems
something like trying to lead butterflies
| into industrious ways; and yet, when you
think about 1t they have been useful a
good many times
More important to the world than the
IEnglshmaus carriage-drawing kite was
our own Ben Franklin's kite. 1t was
not famous for its beauty, for 1t was only a
silk handkerchief stretched across two
sticks, but it is immortal as the means OF
a great discovery.
You must know that Ben's kite flour,
ished more than 3 hundred years ago, be
fore the days of lightning rods and tele-
graphs, when the wisest man did not
know as much about electricity rs the
merest school. boy knows now, thanks to
Ben and his kite Been was much inter
ested in electricity and had shrewd sus.
picon that lightning was the same thing.
lie determined to find out about it. SO
one day when thunder cloud was coming
up, ia tcad of running into the house and
getting on feather-bed, as I've seen peo-
pie DO, he went out into the field and put
UP his kite When it was near the cloud,
he tied key to the end OF the hempen
string-and waited Pretty soon he saw
the loose fbres Of the kite string stand up
instantly he touched his knuckles to the
kew, and received an electric shock. That
| settled the matter. AS soon as lie found
out the nature of lightning, to protect
houses from its pranks he invented the
| lightning rod.
When the lightning leaves the clouds it
| ushcs at once the nearest way TO the
| earth. Ii house is in its track so much
the worse for the house; the lightning
| hasn't time to turn out But when men
| put up a ic.ly pointed re i over the house,
| expressly for path for the lightning, it
very amiably accepts the kindness and
travels down the rod instead of through
the house; which is more satisfactory all
| around.
| Perhaps you never heard Of another
useful kite, owned by man called Stgeple
Jack. He lived in E!iIbrg nearly
twenty years ago, and bis business, rs you
may guess from his name, was repairing
high steeples, upon which no one else
could 90. No steeple was SO tottering
that Jack would not mount it; and this is
how he did it: He just put up his Kite
and managed TO catch the cord on the top
of the steeple, then Jack who was 1.-THE
and thin--would climb this tiny rope, seat
himself on the top, and do his work. His
tory does not state how he got down from
his airy perch.
It's not necessary to tell our city boys
ANYTHING about Chinese kites, since the
Pscifc Railroad brings us so many OF
tim that every other boy has one but
The country boy may like to know that
they are as unlike the American kite as
ptsible In the first place they have no
tails. In the second place they are OF the
most fantastic shapes and gorgeous colors.
Tley are made and painted 70 represent
fines, owls, dogs, dragons, cats, ROSTERS,
AID funny little men, and, though they
ae not artistic, they can be recognized.
they are made of thick paper laid over
slit bamboo sticks, and it looks funny
eiough to see these grotesque Oriental
TOYS sailing over our sober American
towns.
The flying Of kites is as much nation
al game in China as base.ba is in Ameri-
"a 1t is not mere fun either, for the kite.
string is prepared with pounded glass and
nheT things, so that it will cut. Then
there are match games between the kite
hers, in which the object Is to cut each
dher's string and let the kite down. Tray
aers tell US that the little boys run after
the fallen kite in China exactly as they do
| il America, so | conclude that "boys will
he boys" the world over
| In America, kites come down and go
home at dark, like good children; but in
China they have lighted lanterns hung on
item, and fly them as late as they please
kite time" comes, | believe, in the
spring-and | would like TO have some
one tell me who regulates the time for the
various games. They succeed each other
as regularly as day follows night. First
there are kites, and by the time every boy
has one, down TO the baby, they suddenly
{" 90 out" and every boy has his pockets
full Of tops, wood and other wood,
ivory, iron, and tin. Balls drive out the
! tops, and themselves disappear before mar
bes And while write, every boy IN the
city, I'm sure, Is stalking over the ground
on stilts.-Our Young Fotks.