The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1892-05-29

deal of encouragement aud capital. My
well-diggers furnish nothing except their
clothes. They clothe themselves while
digging the we'll. do therest.
l had to borrow dynamite and carry it
to the works in my lap. also had to get
eighteen feet of hose, as the well digger
said he only had a few feet left. Hose, as
well as molasses and license is used in the
plural number here. We speak of those
hose, those molasses and those license.
This is the first we'll / have ever dug.
You get mind-reader or water witch nfst
before digging well. He divines by
means of hazel crotch the location of the
vein. Then you secure a we'll digger, who
does the actual digging at so much per
foot and found. One man who dug well
here years ago on my farm at So per foot
and found got down eighty feet and then
the well caved in on him. His widow has
since sued the owner OF the place, on the
ground that her husband did his part of
the contract faithfully, but was not found
according to agreement. 1t involves a
very fine legal point indeed.
In selecting site for house, | find
that have placed it so high that the we'll
is going to be unusually massive. In or
der to have the house where it would cas-
lily command view of Mr.. Vanderbilt's
tennis court, thus giving us the benefit of
the game without the fatigue OF playing it.
l have placed my well at such
an elevation that water will be my
most expensive drink this summer
My valet, whose duty it is to carry the
water, press my trousers and do the
chamber work at the barn, took one look
down the well yesterday and handed in
his resignation. The we'll was opened
in March, and the cornerstone laid with
Suitable ceremonies and speech made
by Mr.. Depew, but the work has seemed
TO drag some, owing to the fact that the
Tar Heel well digger does not own a set
of tools, neither does he furnish powder,
caps nor hose. Just as l would seat my
self in the library and proceed to work on
my great posthumous job, to be called
The Great Detective Series, or the Tedi-
Gus Task of Inspector Byrnes in Unearth-
ing and Bringing TO Justice the Man who
Struck Billy Patterson" my farming su-
perintendent would rush in and, making a
low salaam instead of wiping his feet,
state that the well sinker was out of pow
der
would then dismiss the farming super
intendent, telling him to return to his
duties. / call him my farming superin-
tendent because 1t has more prosper
Gus air to it. AS a matter Of tact, he and
his horse Lydia 4. Pinkham consti-
tute the farm force and entire pomo-
logical staff He is good stan, he and
Lydia. Together they are farming eleven
acres of Venetian red soil this year. and
putting holding on the lower edge TO
keep the potatoes from falling out OF the
ground and injuring Mr.. Vanderbilt's cot
ton crop and pajama plants, which are
growing on the farms Just below us.
Next year We will clear three more acres
OF white oak, leaving the stunps finished
oil artIsticatly with large carved acorn
or some such design, SO that the field will
not be so unsightIy, as is too often the
field will also be cleared OF tulip
and sourwood trees, the stumps
however, 10 be ''champered off" like a
newell post of the fifteenth century, and
on each one of these chaste stumps piece
of rustic china or PLAIN white ware will be
set with enough soil IN IL 10 sustain gerani-
uuls and other choice plants so that in
stead of miserable and unsightly neld
covered with biackened and repulsiye
stumps we will have an ornament Of some
kind wherever the eye rests.
When | bought the farm it was sur
rounded by a rough and most unsighty
rail fence. | have taken these rails. and
placing them IN groups OF three and
standing them on end TO form a sort OF
tripod, have hung theretrom the iron pot.
giving the farm the appearance of gypsy
camp. As II were. Tor here and there all
over the place may be seen these tripods
with kettle attached 20 each and beau
tiful hollyhock or nasturtium growing out
OF same az a great rate.
One reason, | think, why boys leave
the farm Is that the farm is not made at
,ractive. Ii is too prosy. Boys love art.
Theg love 70 see beautiful colors and
simple. artistic decorations We moan
over the fact that year after year less
American boys go into agriculture. while
our farms are gradually falling into the
hands OF the foreigner.
believe that | have solved the great
question. Boys so 10 the city, where they
md beautiful things and efforts toward
art NV boys shall never throw II Up to
me in future years THAI l failed 10 make
the farm attractive.
Nv only sorrow Is that the neighbors in
Buncom6e county and those who live near
me al Buck Shoals mislead me regarding
agriculture. They speak lightly of my