The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-08-05
OFF on VACATION JAUNTS.
A BRIEF TOUR NEAR HOME.

Purdue University - Battle-Ground Camp
Meeting Without Sunday Trains.
Correspondence Of the Indianapolis Journal
BATTLE GROUND, Ind, Aug. 4-Wishing
70 utilize my vacation, / concluded to turn it
into a tour Of inspection and learn some
thing. My first point of interest was Purdue
University. Its annual reports are elaborate
enough, but there is nothing like seeing for
yourself some things that the official reporter
neVer thinks of. OF COURSE, / found IL all desert
ed, except the faithful librarian and the laboriDg
men A vacation, with college professors and
students, means a general Settlement, and they
had scattered, no matter where, so far as the
thread l. OF my story is concerned. / did not care
to see either of them just now; / wanted to see
how my experiment with the institution WAS
working, for, while those who use the money of
she State in very expensive agricultural and in
iustrlal experiments are at work here. have
been experimenting on the experiment
for nearly twenty years, trying to give it
a more practical turn, and / am pleased to re
port very satisfactory progress. OF course my
work is not finished; but it was gratifying to no
tice that it has taken a direction that must re
guilt, within the next half century, in adopting
pfdCI1Cd1ty Ilo SuSEbSllUHS Gbdt L tdu W UiO
beginning-the funds and the entire machinery
Ct the institution to be devoted to expert
menting upon agriculture: mt exclusively or
even chiefly on what is called an experimental
farm, on which every bushel of wheat costs from
two to ten dollars and every pound OF butter a
dollar, but experimenting b. practical farmers
on such farms as are to be found In actual farm
life. Well, they have quit experimenting on
areek and Latin roots, and the boy or girl who
wants to dig about them is sent nearly a
hundred miles, to Bloomington III he wants to
teach the Young idea how to shoot In the most
approved method, he is sent nearly as far. to
Terre Hacte; and the expensive machinery which
turned out btTtter at a dollar or SO a pound has
been disposed of and the herd of patent cattle
has gone TO private exPerimenters, where equally
good butter is made at less than one-fourth the
cost of college-made butter. There has been an
extensive and expensive experiment. this year ON
wheat, its different varieties and the effect of
various kinds of fertilage. Wonder If it viii
extend through u series OF years to see to what
extent it will modify varieties by being sown In
close proximity to other v~arieties2 / trow not.
That will be a practical experiment not yet tried
here. However. they have a large field Of splen.
did corn, the result Of most excellent land and
every agricultural appliance that money can
buy. On the whole, my inspection developed a
satisfactory progress in the direction of my Ia
bors in behalf of the educational machinery of
the State. So many things yield to the logic of
events only, that we must learn to wait pa
tiently for the events. In this case they are
coming. By and by they will come in troops.
For a decade or more yet the people of the State
will waste thousands in attempting to maintain
three educational institutions. in each of which
much of the work of all is duplicated; but they
viii get over 1t ultimately, and they will make a
State University of which every man IN the
State will be proud, and these extensive and
beautiful grounds will be the site. Events will
bring this about. Many a railroad has found it
profitable to abandon whole miles of tracks and
millions of money invested in shops when con
eiHeed that they were not we'll located, and that
in concentration there is economy. The next Leg
~islature, like the last, viii probably yield to the
lobby and to log-rolling, and make injudicious
appropriations to keep all these schools in a
tsickly condition, with each clamoring for money.
But within fifty years, II not within twenty, all
this viii be changed, and all will be concentrated
at Lafayette or indianapolis. At Indianapolis,
If local interests shall prevent concentrating
here. Mark that
1extended my tour Of inspection to battle-ground
70 see what a camp meeting on a railroad would
took like, without Sunday trains. It is simply
splendid. No surging mobs of mere pleasure
seekers, no whistling of locomotives, and dis
tHrhance of the congregation, no posting of an
lmproviAedpolicema at every tentdoor to prevent
depreciation. but an is quiet and peaceful; preach
ing good, order excellent, and all obtained by a
respectful and earnest request to the railroad
not to run such trains. The railroad sacrificed
seventy per cent. of the profits of
their traffic to the grounds, and the
camp meeting at least fifty per cent of its ag-
gregate income from collections at The gate; but
with the camp meeting it was q matter Of con-
science, and with the railroad a matter Of com
ity and good breeding, and the thing was &C
complished. Acton will come to ityet For the
sake of money many a man win brave public
opinion and the dictates of conscience. for a
while, but conscience and a sound sentimen
viii sooner or later overcome the most ddesperate
case of cupidity. Even if the condolences of the
managers are obtuse, the withdrawal Of that
element, without which even the name of camp
FfepfITTQ heCOmeS an OffonGn. will bring If a0Olt.
U.L SEE.