Phillipsburg herald. [volume] (Phillipsburg, Kan.) 1882-1905, 1885-08-01
PHILLIPsBURG, KANSAS, SATURDAY, AUGUST 1, 1885

walked sOush for less than 400 feet.
/ when, down there in the canal, L saw
/ gulf water just twelve feet lower than
| the river, only a few rods north of
/ where I stood. You ask why don't
! they cut the bank two miles wide and
/ hIteen feet deep, straight to the gulf,
I only hftY-fiVe miles south, and thereby
I drain the flood waters of the river,
\ and so increase the outflow that the
/ bottom of the river viii deepen up to
/ It's rocky bottom or shoals? Well, now,
/ ancient citizen, you have me, sure.
/ Why don't theyP
| But, now, while this could be done,
/ there perhaps IS Il better place. 1t is
/ Just ten miles southeast Of New Or
/ leans, on the east side of the river. at
/ the Lake BOrgne canal outlet There
| the gulf is six miles east, while where
L stood it was ffty-fiFe miles away
| and were a side mouth made there as
| the Lake Burgne outlet, two miles
wide and fifteen feet deep, at most,
( the outflow of the surface water of the
/ river would be so great that there
/ could not be any overflow, and. con-
/ seQuently, the problem of how to dry
/ Louisiana is easily solved. When
that is done, then the Harvey or Bara-
/ TARA gulf-Water ship canal could easily
/ be made five hundred feet wide, fifty
/ feet deep, and straight as a pole, due
! south to the gulf. fifty five miles, and
/ through which could pass the biggest
/ ship that could be made. Gulf water
| should be used, and thus keep out the
| settings Of the Mississippi river.
/ These settings now drop, after meet
/ ing the gulf water. three miles out
/ from the river mouth, and are roach
1 ed up on the sea bottom Just like the
/ thread in weaving cloth. and the shi ps
/ can't pillow through it when drawing
/ more than, say, twenty-five feet, and
! were it not for the constant dredging
/ or passing OF the screw prOpellers of
| depth, the depth would be but about
/ twenty feet; so the TIvermen told me
in New Orleans quite recently.
/ Flowers on The Kansas Prairies.
/ Barbaric splendor of the scenes in
/ AIdG and H. fricaj75e seemed repeated
/ as the glorious panorama Of blossom
! ing prairie unrOlled day after day.
! Can you picture to yourself ten acres
/ Of pOrtulaca? or whole hiIlsides cur
/ tanned with what seems a superb
variety Of wistaria, except that it
/ grows on a stalk instead OF hanging
/ from a vineg Do you know how it
/ feels not to be able to step without
! crushing q flower, so that the little
/ prarie-dOgs, sitting cOntentedly with
/ their intimate friends the owls on the
/ little heaps of earth thrown up around
! their holes, have every appearance Of
! having planted their own front Yards
with the choicest floral varieties?
/ Think of driving into a great field of
! sunfOWers, the horses tFampliug down
| the tall stalks, that spring up again
! behind the carriage, so that one Out-
/ side the field would never know that
I a carriage-lOad of people were any
where in It; or riding through b
''grOve" of them, the blossoms tower
/ ing out of reach as you sit on hOrsn-
/ back, and tall hedge of them grown
! up as a barrier between YOU and your
/ companion! Not a daisy, or a butteT-
1 cup, or a clover, or a dandeliOn, will
! you see all summer; but new flowers
! too exquisite for belief; the great
/ white prickly peoples, and the sensi-
/ tive rose, with its leaves delicate as a
! maiden-hair fern. and its blossom a
/ countless mass of crimson stamens
/ tipped with gold, and family fragrant.
Even familiar flowers are unfamiliar
/ in size and prOfusiOn and color. What
/ at home would be a daisy, is here the
! size Of small sunhOwer, with petals
/ OF delicate rOse-plnk, raylng from q
| cone-shaped centre of rich maroon
shot with gold. A--had brought
with her numerous packages OF seeds
and slips, nobly bent on having rib
bon flower beds and mosaic 50rterres
/ about the house; bat she sat on the
steps and threw them broadcast, never
! knowing, in the prOfusiOn OF flowers
/ that would have been there anyway
/ whether hers ever came up or not
/ And how beautiful where the grasses
the most useful one the most beauti-
| full of all; the delicate little buffalo
! grass, - for which the prairie is IA
/ nous, waving its tiny ourled sicle of
/ feathery daintiness as if its beauty
were its only excuse for being, yet
/ bravely curing itself into dry hay
as it stands, when the autumn winds
/ begin 10 blow, that the happy docks
may ''nible, sharp tOOthed, the rich,
/ thick-grOwing blades" all through
/ the winter, without their being gath
/ cred into barns.-AJice Wellington
! Rollins, i75 H4rper's Magazine for June.
jay GOuId's AbstemiOus Habits.
ANY wide-awa Ike newspaper man,