The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1892-05-31

, ital. My well diggers furnish nothing
, except their clothes. They clothe them
selves while digging the well. 1 do the
, rest.
had to borrow dynamite and carry il
to the works in my lap. l also had tc
get eighteen feet of hose, as the well
digger said he only had few 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 well 1 have ever dag.
You get a mind reader or water witch
first before digging well. He divines
by means of hazel crotch the location
of the vein. Then you secure a well
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 three dollars 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 in
wolves a very fine legal point indeed.
In selecting a site for house, find
that l have placed it SO high that the
we'll is going to be unusually massive
| In order to have the house where it
would easily command a view of Mr..
Vanderbilt's tennis court, thus giving US
the benefit of the game without the
fatigue of playing it, 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
| chamberwork at the barn, took one look
down the well yesterday and handed in
his resignation. The,well was opened
in March, and the cornerstone laid with
suitable ceremonies and a 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 set
| of tools, neither does he furnish powder,
caps nor hose. Just as / would seat N.Y.
self in the library and proceed to work
on my great posthumous job, to be called
"The Great Detective Series, or the
Tedious Task of Inspector Byrnes in
Unearthing and Bringing to Justice the
Man who Struck Billy Patterson" my
farming superintendent would rush in
and, making a low salaam instead of
wiping his feet, state that the we'll sinker
was out of powder.
/ would then dismiss the farming
superintendent, telling him to return to
his duties. call him my farming super
intendent because it has a more pros
porous air to it. As matter of fact, he
and his horse Lydia E. Pinkham consti-
tute the farm force and entire pomo-
logical staff. He is good staff, he and
Lydia. Together they are farming
eleven acres of Venetian red soil this
year, and putting a molding on the lower
edge to keep the potatoes from falling
out of the ground and injuring Mr. Van
derbilts cotton crop and pajama plants,
which are growing on the farms just be-
low US.
Next year we will clear three more
acres of white oak, leaving the stumps
finished off artistically with a large
carved acorn or some such design, SO
that the field will not be SO rnsightly, as
is too often the case with newly cleared
land. One field will also be cleared of
tulip and sourwood trees, the stumps,
however, to be "champered off, like a
newell post of the Fifteenth century, and |
on each one of these chaste stumps a |
piece of rustic china or plain white ware |
will be set with enough soil in it to sus-
tain geraniums and other choice plants, |
1ot5 Il <,f, l. l.
slightly field covered with blackened and |
repulsive stunps we will have an orna-
ment of some kind wherever the eye
rests.
When l bought the farm it was sur
rounded by rough and most unsightly
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 therefrom an iron pot,
giving the farm the appearance of a
gypsy camp, as it were, for here and
there all over the place NAV be seen
these tripods with a kettle attached to
each and o beautiful hollyhock or mas
turtium growing out of same at great
rate
One reason, think, why boys leave
the farm is that the farm is not made at
tractlve. 1t is too prosy. Boys love art
They love to 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.
l believe that l have solved the great
question. Boys go to the city, where
they find beautiful things and efforts
toward art Ny boys shall never throw
1t up to me IN future years that failed
to make the farm attractive.
My only sorrow is that the neighbors
near me at Buck Shoals mislead me re-
garding agriculture. They speak lightly
of my efforts at art and misrepresent
things to me regarding the business.
They do it in spirit of raillery-a sort
of fence raillery, presume-but think
1t Is because they do not approve of my
style of farming and regard it as sort
of reproof to them for their lack of taste
and artistic sense.
Now, for instance, l regard it as
little bit unneighborly to take hold of
literary man and fill him up with facts
and statistics that cannot be demon
strated. l hate to be fooled with in that
way. Why should a man whom have
treated with the utmost kindness ever
since | came here go to work and tell
me that here in North Carolina four