Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1883-03-07
RAILWAYS ANp STORMS.

NAllsN n . NM NipAhos
II has often been insisted that rail-
ways exert infinite potency in direct
ing the course of rain-storms. The
railway system of the United States
converges at Indianapolis. The broad
district between the Ohio and the
great lakes Is striated with railways.
When Chi cago was burned IL was Inn
agined that the conveyance Mt that
point of the continental system of in
terminable conductors of electric cur
rents begot that intensity of heat which
melted the IribUte building of stone
when II sunk, n heap of ashes, to the
earth. II Is observed that rain-clouds
follow railways across once arid wes-
tern plains, and that vegetation
springs up along their line of march,
and trees rise, nodestly at first, to
kiss the steam rs 1t Is condensed, and
then TO battle their heads ut last IN
that atmospheric sea of which we tell.
The dry air is filled with invisible
clouds exhaled from the trees, and
visible clouds ut last are formed, and
conclusive forces of rafting, roaring,
thundeEous railway trains com
pei the unity of particles OF
moisture; and in diamond drops they
fall and cluster upon ears of corn aud
about the heads of golden wheat more
beautiful than Jewels, adjoining fairest
women in fashions rcvelries. Have
all these agencies co-opcrated in the
valley of the Ohio to beget this de-
luge now bending its rcssstless way
down the overwhelmed valley of the
Mississippi To the sen? Did the
pale-faced moon empty her horn OF
plenty upon Louisville and CIncinna-
ii? Did hillsides and valleys denuded
OF vegetation thrust the drenchiny
Hoods, full Of alluvium, into rivulets to
choke up rivers and overwhelm viii
lagos and farms? Did railways gen
crate electric currents to draw after
them clouds thus harnessed to count
less trains aud unload at Indianapolis?
Was there not cooperation of all these
forces made operative by man and ma
ture To beget this more fatal than
Noachian deluge? Can the signal bs,-
reau tell, or, ascertaining causes, can il
regulate or control the tempests and
the whirlwinds and electric forces that
drive about the invisible waves and
currents of the ocean ut the bottom OF
which we live9
AMERICA AND EuRoPE--THE DIFFER.
ENCE.
These facts have an American sig.
niticance demanding the attention OF
statesmen. and of the people. The
first conspicuous result OF the con.
struction Of the Suez canal was the dis.
eovery though when IL was first
opened IL was broad and deep enough
for the greatest ships commonly EN-.
ployed by mercantile countries that
vessels OF this description have stead.
ilyand rapidly grown greater In capac-
Ivy and In draft, II Is almost rs cheap
10 navigate n vessel of 5000 us one OF
1900 tons burden, and it costs as lit
tie, through the intervention ot
elevators and steam engines, to load
and unload the great leviathan of the
deep as the little winged sea birds that,
"protected' by navigation acts, sail
along our own coasts and may be
lowed through the iettles To New
Orleans. These jettles, like the Suez
Canal, already belong To a past age.
Each steamship added to British,
French, and German lines, plying he
tween New York and European ports,
Is longer and more eapaciolls than It's
predecessors. De Lesseps, anticipating
these facts and the final aband-
onment OF the Cape OF Good
Hope route from Western Europe TO