St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1891-09-28
VIEWS OF THE REVIEWS.


The North American-That we can
make rain is proposition maintained
by Gen. Dyrenforth and backed by what
he considers demonstration afforded
by his recent experiment in Texas,
while it is contest ted by Prof. Newcomb
to the extent, at least that the rain that
followed the lombard ment of the skies
by the general did hot have and could
not have, consistent with the known
laws of nature, the relation of cause and
effect. He does not say that rain-mak-
ing is impossible, only that Gen. Dyren-
forth, with his mortars and balloons,
cannot make it. The latter prefaces
his narrative of what he did on
the Staked Plains and what resulted or
more accurately. followed, with a pre-
Sentation OF the popular notion that
rain follows great explosions, and cites
many authentic instances which tend to
support the prevalent belief. 1t was to
demonstrate the sOundneSS or fallacy of
this that congress made the appropria-
ton and the secretary of agriculture
fitted out the expedition. 1t is a feature
of popular government that it has
vastly more regard for assumptions than
for scientific demonstration, and would.
sooner waste thousands on a notion than
spend dollar on scientific investiga-
ton. "ThoSe dam literary tellerS'' con-
tlnue to be as much of an object of is
like as when Mr.. Jewell was postmaster
general. f
To the mind unframed in practical
politics the question of rain-making re-
solves Itself INTO question Of what are
the conditions which produce rain. and.
when found, how can we artifciaIly
produce them? But the late congress
and the present secretary of agriculture
have had their reasoning faculties so
diSordered by their insistance on hitch
ing two contemporaneous events to-
gether and asserting that, because they
were SynchronouS, they were related as
cause and effect, that they fell easy vic
TINS to the popular notion. The mind
that accepts the syllogism: The country
is and has been prosperous; we have
and have had protective tariffs, there
fore the tariff is the cause of the pros
perty, is just the one to swallow heed
lessly the other: Explosions make
great noise; rain follows the noise;
therefore noise causes rain.
The difference in the two writer's is
that Gen. Dyrenforth generalizes loose
ly. reaching a conclusion from insult
fcient data, while Prof. Newcomb plods
along the scientific path, gathering
facts, making sure they are facts, dis
hnguishing between causation and CO.
incidence, and testing effects by known
laws, aims rather to establish truth
than theory. He rejects the generals
conclusion OF the rain-making power of
sound as unproven and improbable.
MIR. Bryce went into the wheat pit for
literary article, and has brought out
one by "Old Hutch" on Speculation In
Wheat" which is a disappointment
every way, while it is interesting read
ing. One would expect from the title
and the reputation of the writer to learn
something of the inner working of spec
ulatlve corner i'll wheat; how it is con-
celyed; the conditions needed to develop
IT; how 1T is managed and brought I'D to
the climax of brilliant success with
millions in It," or TO failure which
posts the cornerer on Change But
there is nothing of this i'll it. It is
rambling jerky talk, unrelated, with
CLEANS OF sbrewd COMMENT; a magnif-
leation of capital and speculation which,
he says, is ''capital in motion;'' dis
Jolnted effort to show that it helps both
the producer and consumer, and stands
guardful providence, preventing the
one from getting too rich and the other
too poor. But, as l said, the article is
interesting and worth reading.
Against the decision of the four dis
tinguished doctors who, in the Septem-
Der issue, gave their reasons why drunk
enness is incurable, Mr. Mines, the
Felix Oldboy of the books aud Journal
ism, sets the actual demonstration of
his own experience at Dwight. Twenty
years subsection to the "shakes'' which.
the doctors had pronounced incurable.
and which a country doctor did cure.
made him skeptical of the soundness
of the opinion of other doctors and man
ayers of dipsomania retreats that his
disease OF drunkenness was incurable.
And so, Ignoring them, he went to
Dwight. and declares that DIR. Keeley
with his hypodermics ana bichloride of
gold, has permanently cured him
The "GOld Club" composed of
those who have been treated, number
ing in August $50, keeps watch on its
members, dismissing them when they
fall back into drinking, and the club re-
ports loss from this of less than per
cent OF its number. While there is yet
so much that is mere empiricism in
medicine, one demonstration that dis
ease can be cured is worth a thousand
denials that it can be, and wher, as in
Mr.. Mines case, the appetite. passion,
disease, whatever you may call it, which
would lntermittently ''break loose and
run riot in my VEINS" TO oppose which
will is weak as straw, when this is
quelled and whisky is powerless to start
the fever, it must be conceded that the
durability of drunkenness is all estab-
lished fact which the doctors had better
recognize and bend to than deride and
sheer at. z. j. S.