The farmers' union. (Memphis, Mo.) 1891-1895, 1891-06-18
a Pratrie Grave.

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\ Pratrie Grave.
A Dakota farm.
A heaving emerald sea that mergcs,
at its edge, into u blue ocean of sky. \
range of low hills fringes the plain at
the northwest and at no other point of
the compass is there an object to relieve
the eye.
a traveller sees the same dreary
stretch of grass through which he has
passed for miles; he feels the same hot
wind upon his tired cheek he hears the
wild geese cry shrilIy overhead and the
ducks splash in the wild rice of some
marsh or slough-ev everything is a re-
petition OF sights and sounds that have
made themselves distasteful by famili-
ariIy. Monotony and Solitude are the
twin deltles that reign supreme.
The central object of q scene like this
an object that broke upon my eyes
after long days journey and filled me
with sudden solemn awe-was a
grave, prairie grave. 4 rude fence
was built around it and some wild ro.es
broke into blossom and peeped from
the rank grass that covered the mound.
There was no headboard-no word had
been left to identify the dead--the dead
that now lay in a solitary waste where
the silence was so terrible as almost to
speak of itself-the dead that had once
been the living and had moved in
spheres of life.
Perhaps the dweller of that lonely
tomb was man who had loved and
been loved. Death had parted him
from his idol aud now, when his loya!
heart was low, he had been inferred in
an isolated wild where never loved
one could bend over his mound and drop
the mourner's tear. Perhaps some one
was grieving, in an Eastern home, for
one who had left it, never to return
Perhaps fair faces were aging while
fond hearts hoped against. hope that q
lover, IL son, or a brother would return.
And this forsaken grave, if they could
but see it and know its occupant, would
tell them all
slluddercd and turned away.
But then, l miissed in after thought,
what cares the dead how lie his wasting
bones? And those he leaves they
not hope and hope and only awake to
the truth when they meet the lost one
face to face in that country from whose
bourne no traveller returns?'
A lnman heart is nothing. if not hope
ful, aud what can be more satisfying
aud sweet than divine fulfillment Of
hopes we cherish here?-Free Press.
a Peruvian Railway.
The Orova road is a very remarkable
rf I
perhaps not wisely but too we'll. The
difficulties surmounted are enormous.
The constructor, an American. Henry
Meiggs, used to sav, was told, at GER
tam arduous points. The line has to go
there aud if We can't find a road for it.
| we'll hand the track from balloons. "
This remark illustrates the boldness
and almost recklessness with which the
| line has been built; and even now, fine
as the work is, it is in constant danger
of destruction in many parts. Every
year sections Of the line, bridges aud
| viaducts are swept away by floods and
landslides which cannot tie foreseen. \
water spout bursts on mountain peak.
an immense volume of water, mud and
powders dashes down, and half an hour
later all is calm again; but the railway
track has disappeared, or enc of the
! bridges. will be found twisted into a
| knot, half mile away from its proper
i place. For this reason the line must
always be very expensive and uiificult
to keep in repair. The working of it is
also very exren>iv on account of the
high price of coal. aud the quantity
wasted by the continuous firing required
to force the train up the steep gradients.
Experiments, however, are now being
made with cheaper fuel, in the form ol
petroleum residum from the Taara
wells. AS it is, the locomotives have
twenty-two-inch cylinders, and the steam
pressure all the way has to be kept al
l40 pounds to the square inch. The
maximum train is five ears, weighing
eight tons each, and carrying ten tons
of cargo; and in order to drag thi
weight from Lima to Chicla. the loco
motive burns seven tons Of tirst-class
English coal. The maximum gradient:
are per cent. and the maximum curve.
i20 metres radius. This radius is fount
in all the tunnels, of which there ar,
forty between Lima and Chicla, til.
longest measuring 29G metres. Th.
number of bridges is sixteen, the long
est being the Nerrugas viaduct, nov
destroyed. The total distance from
Callao to Cbicla. where the rails end, i
eighty-six and one half miles. .-HG7'
pcr'S MOnthlu.