Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1871-10-18

the comman paper Kites all boys MAKE,
only they were twelve feet high, and made
: of linen. And it really happened in
England fifty years ago.
Putting kites to useful work seems some
thing like trying to lead butterflies into
industrious ways and yet, when you think
about it they have been useful a good
many times.
More important to the world than the
Engishman's carriage-drawlng kite was
our own Ben Franklin's kite. 1t was not
famous for its beauty, for 1T was only
silk handk erchlef stretched across two
sticks, but it is immortal as the means of a
great discovery.
You must know that Is MS kite flour
ished more than q hundred yelrs ago, be-
fore the days OF lightning rods and tele-
graphs, wnen the wisest man did not know
as much about electricity as the merest
school-boy knows now, thanks to Ben and
his kite. Ben was much interested in
electricity and had Il shrewd suspicion
that lightning was the same thing. He
determined to find out about it. So one
day when a thunder cloud was coming up,
Instead of running into the house and get
ting on a feather-bed, as I've seen people
do he went out INTO the field and put up
us kite. When 1t was near the clouds
he tied a key to the end Of the hempen
s.rlng-and waited. Pretty soon he saw
the loose fbers Of the kite string stand up,
instantly he touched his knuckles TO the
key, and received an electric shock. That
settled the matter. As soon as he found
out the nature of lightning, to protect
houses from its pranks he invented the
Lightning rod.
When the lightning leaves the clouds it
rushes at once the nearest way to the earth.
1t house Is IN its track, so much the
worse for the house the lightning hasn't
time 10 turn out. But when men put up
a nicely pointed rod over the house, ex-
prcssly for path for the lightning, it very
amiaby accepts the kindness and travels
down the rod instead Of through the
mouse; which Is more satisfactory all
around
Perhaps YOU never heard OF anothe ruse-
tu kite. owned by man called Steeple
lack. lie lived IN Einburg nearly TWEEN
81 years ago, and ms business as you may
-uess from his name, was repairing nigh
-teeples, upon which no one else could 20.
No steep.e was 50 lettering that Jack
would not mount it, and thus Is how be
did 1T: He just put up his kite aud man
aged to catch the cord on the top OF the
>teeple, then Jack-who was uthe AMI
thin-would climb this tiny rope, seat
himself on the Top, and do his worN. His
tory does not state how he got down from
ms airy perch.
1t is not necessary to tell city boys any
thing about Chinese kites. since the Pa
cJ e Railroad bring us So many OF them
that every other bog has one bat the
country boy may ike 10 know that they
are rs unlike the American site - pos>i-
BE- In -hc first place they have no tails.
Ia the second place ttcy are OF the most
fantastic shape, ana grorytou, c0ors.
Iney are made ami painted % represent
fishes, owls, dogs dra CONS cats. roosters,
and funny little men, AMI though they
are not artistic they can be rea0ulzed.
they are made OF thick paper Lid over
? -p.t bamboo stuck. and 1t .5oss funny
enough 10 See these grotys4ue Oriental
toys sailing over our sober American towns
The ayln. OF kites is o, much national
game ID CHINA as baseball IS No America.
II = not mere fan either .or the k'tes-trIny
IS prepared with pounded Z lass ana other
things, So that u viii not cut. Inca there
are match games between tae a',e-ty ers,
f Ia winch the object Is To eur each other =
~tr5uz anI let the site down. Travellers
rel. n, that the little boys run after The
fallen kite In China exactly "a, they do lu
America. so | conc uIo that boys Wi
Be boys the world over.
In America. kites comes down and g