Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1892-03-19

better buckle down and pay off your
debt and be a practical man like your
father. And just remember that what's
yours is mine, and what's mine is my
own" Now, why don't the world ey.
claim, show admirably practical?" Be-
cause we see it in another light. When
it is put in black and white it looks so
sordid and mean. Yes it does, and what
wonder that when this man died his son
had a horror of that word practical and
was wrecked, lost in the seas of prodigali-
ty. He had to go to the other extreme.
So, now, grown up folks please don't tell
us that our trip isn't practical, isn't sensi-
BILE. I tell you it is. Anything is prac-
teal, is sensible. is good, that broad
ems the mind, enlarges the heart and soul
and rests the body. Mind, say rests
the body. Now that little word, presup-
poses work. We must work till we are
tired before we can lest.
Drop in few Jumps of coal that we
may have a fire when we come back.
Wait moment to see that it burns. It
goes. Hear it? We are off.
"What is that rustling, cracking noise?"
That's the breaking of the letters, the
freeing of the fairies that we're imprisoned
in the coal. See them hurrying away.
Can you hear their chatter of joy on be-
ing released to return once more to the
air of the kingdom whence they came.
Where they can hear the songs of birds,
see the blue of the sky, instead of living
thousands of feet underground. See that
beautiful fairy making obeisance to
Queen Ina, the beautiful. How the
fairies all stand to welcome back Lepi-
dodendron, for that is the name of the
beautiful fairy, who in her rustling,
green satin garments has returned to live
on the earth instead of inside it.
"Whence came thou?" asked the queen,
gazing kindly at the fairy.
Hundreds of years ago, may it please
your majesty, I was living as flower
tree in world very different from this.
but 1 was buried under huge masses Of
decaying vegetation. Year after year
other masses were added to the heap IN
til the weight and pressure was SO great
that we could scarcely remember what
we had been like. Mighty trees were
only a small block in the strata into
which we were pressed. We had lost all
o: our beauty. We could no longer see
the things which We had been used to
seeing. Instead of the damp delightful
air which made us grow to such huge
proportions we breathed fire damp and
dreadful gases and lived in the dark.
The heat caused by the great amount of
covering, also the heat from the inside of
the earth, charred our beautiful clothes
and we became coal. There are family
of us and that is our surname. We have
other names according to the pressure,
heat and locality of our homes. You
have heard of all of us. Bituminous,
Anthracite. Colorado Springs, Pittsburg,
etc.
Indeed, I have heard of you," ans
wered the queen, ''and pity you for the
wretched life you have lived. Ask what
you will and it shall be yours to repay
you for what you have suffered. You
may not live as you did live before you
became coal, for the world has lost your
kind. There are too many people, too
many living things breathing the air for
it to support your wonderful life, and the
wonderful trees end plants that you
knew. But look around you. choose
what form you wish to live in and it shall
be yours"
With a low bow the fairy replied.
"Most beautiful queen accept my thanks
for your kindness, but I was not always
miserable, though my lot was unpleasant,
for always expected to be of use, even
though I was black and hard and utterly
unlike myself that had lived in the Joy of
the sunlight Yet people who are useful
need not be unhappy. So I win ask Of
my queen that may become an oak tree.