Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-07-03
THE TOPICAL TALKER.
He Feared His Clothes Wonid Disnppear-
The Odd Local storms-The Word Dam
-FarmIn~ nm n SmaIl scale.


He Feared His Clothes wouid Disnppear-
The Odd Local storms--The Word Dam
Farming ON a Small scale.
Jam glad that Johnstown is no longer in
pressing need of clothes" said an elderly gen.
tleman to me yesterday. There was twinkle
in his eye as he said 1t, that prompted one to
ask him why he rejoiced that one Of Johns
towns needs was satisfied.
Because" said my friend. 81 can sleep now
with serenity and calm that have not known
since the first appeal was made for the sufferers
on June l. You see my wife, bless her gener-
Gus heart, as soon as she heard that clothes
were needed in Johnstown, gathered up every
thing in the shape of wearing apparel she
could find in the house and packed it OF to the
scene Of the disaster. Every day she found
some article of attire that could be dispensed
with by herself or by me and off it went to
Johnstown. Pretty nearly everything l own
in the way of clothes have on my back now.
For weeks have gone to bed haunted with the
fear that in the morning should find my last
suit of clothes gone. Now I've got my wife to
understand that need some clothes-just
few-as badly as the Johnstown people, and
do not have to wake at daybreak and keep an
eye on my Clothes"
THE way heavy rain and thunder storms
have been career1ng around Pittsburg during
the past week is, in classic phrase, caution to
snakes
A great mass of black clouds has been wont
to gather almost every afternoon in the valley
of the Ohio. and then proceed to Pittsburg In
the form of a semi-circle. The storm Of Mon
day afternoon was a very fair example OF what
we've been having In the way of storms. 1t
struck Pittsburg on the Allegheny bank pretty
hard, but on Fifth avenue only few drops
Ia laQh
sheets of water. Out in the East End 1t put
North Hlland avenue under water, and left
South Inland avenue untouched.
On the Fort Wayne Railroad the second
Beaver Falls express. leaving Allegheny at $40,
ran through very thick rain from the outer de-
pot to few hundred yards beyond Emsworth,
and after that the ground showed no sign OF
rain at all A similar local storm burst over
Sewickley on Saturday afternoon, but made
circle of Pittsburg.
In Texas and in the Southwest generally
storms are often found that proceed with such
regularity in given direction that careful
observer can often get out and keep out of the
rain by simply crossing the street. This phe-
nomenon is not often seen in this latitude. But
the other day it. was actually raining hard on
Fifth avenue when the superb cobblestones of
Diamond street were basking in the sun
-
THE word dam is being used by good many
people as a synonym for reservoir, lake or any
piece of standing water. Perhaps the defini-
ton Of the word dam from Webster's Una.
bridged Dictionary may not be inopportune at
this time. Here 1t is: Dam, noun; mole,
bank or mound of earth or any wall; or frame
of wood raised to obstruct a current of water
and raise 1t for the purpose Of driving mill
wheels or for other purposes. Any work that
stops and confines water in pond or basin or
causes it to rise.
Consequently it is not correct to speak Of q
dam overfowing. or being emptied, or of being
in any way an active. mobile thing.
~xx
FARMING on small scale struck me as hav-
ing plenty of drawbacks when saw a nice old
man wrestling with the potato bug the other
evening. 1t was his first experience, so heard
afterward, with the gaudy and greedy Colorado
beetle.
In the first place he had stirred in in equal
parts lot of paris green and -four. and this
mixture he put in a can through the bottom Of
which he had bored many holes. Then he
started to sift the paris green and -four over
about half an acre of potatoes. He had about
half finished the job when along came wiser
farmer who gazed with astonishment at the
others methods and said: IF you want that
ST. = to keep of the bugs you'll have to put it
on wet"
80 the dry mixture was laid aside and sort
of paris green soup prepared. And the way
that nice old man lugged out a tub and several
buckets Of water, and took OF his coat and tried
to hang it to a tree and failed six consecutive
times, and went to work stirring up the paris
green and the -four and the water, and the way
he dabbed the potato plants with the bug sauce
and po ured 1t into his boots and over his pants,
and the way he tried to work around it with
out swearing. all these sights compacted into
one vision of farming on a small scale were
enough to make a sympathetic man weep, and
determine to buy his vegetables of the man
with the unpainted wagon and the lame white
horse as long as he lived.