The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1892-07-08
WORLDS FAIR CITY.
Entertaining Information from the
City by the Lake.
The Trea6 OF Things Political and His
torical--Grent Drainage Scheme-Ge-
ography of the Lake Region-In-
teliectual Status of the Age.
Especial Chicago Correspondence.l

4
! placed in a huge observatory from
which he views this broad continent
and the entire world with a calmness
ard an entire absence of passion that
makes him feel as being with them but
not of them. The tendency of events
! of late years has been to give
to this city such an eminently national
| and cosmopolitan character that il
! sometimes appears like Paris, being
| the representative of the whole coun-
! try, and an entirely impersonal repre-
| sentative, a mere machine to register
the movements of the country around
! it. Well, the worlds fair and the ma
| tional conventions centering interest in
! this section such a feeling is but natur-
al. 1t also enables one to think dispas-
siOnately of affairs which usually exer-
else individual feeling most violently.
I ran across a man the other day
who developed some rather peculiar
ideas on politics, leaving aside all par
tisan feeling. 81 think this year will
show some remarkable phenomena IN
politics. he said. "YOu have noticed
the strange conduct Of the weather
this spring. Well, politics will be just
as strange. Absurd? | thought you
would say so. The weather does not
make politics, of course. But may not
both be traced to the same source?
IL think it is true that great events
in human history have generally been
contemporaneous with remarkable nat
ural phenomena. l am not an astrolo-
ger. | know nothing of that science or
superstition, whichever you please to
call it. But ! do believe that the fund
amental principle of that now despised,
but once powerful, belief is correct.
AS I understand it, the principle is that
human affairs as well as all the rest of
nature are governed by certain laws.
We may be able to discern the opera
tion of these laws better in affairs
other than human, and from happen
ings in other parts of nature draw con-
cluSions as to our own affairs. a
''Some French astronomer has at
tempted to account for the recent pecul-
lar seasons by referring to the sun
spots, those eruptions of hydrogen and
other gases that project from the sun
fifty thousand miles or more and proba-
bly, exert some influence, magnetic,
electric, optic or thermic, upon our
earth. They had an extraordinary Win
ter in Siberia three years ago, next in
Russia. last winter in western Europe,
and fancy it will be here next winter
l believe the peculiar weather that has
prevailed here this season is due to the
same cause. .sa Ms-t
Now l have said, extraordinary
events frequently occur at the same
time in nature and in human affairs; 50
commonly, in fact, that both may be
owing to the same causes, if not bear.
ing any direct causal relation to one
another. Hence from the present ex-
traordinary condition of our atmos-
phere l conclude that there will be ex-
traordinary political events. / have an
idea that many Cf the old traditions of
our politics will be completely over
thrown. Some republican states may
join the democratic column and, on the
other hand, i have had intimations
that the south may not turn out solid
democratic front. Some people are
democrats. and others say that Illinois
or Iowa may fall away from the re-
publicans. | am not interested in it
beyond the way have indicated,
namely, of something extraordinary
being likely to happen. There is quite
as fnuch truth as poetry in Shakes
peare's saying:
sJVher FnrcarS dia IN, ra ara No coroe.a Saar
The heavens themselves tlaze forth the death
ofpr &c ST.
The trustees of the sanitary district,
commonly called drainage trustees,
have at last decided upon a route for
the great canal which is to relieve Chi
cago of its sewage and at the same time
improve the rivers down to the Missis-
sippi to make them more navigable.
The point at which work is to begin
has also been selected. The cut is to
be commenced between Willow
Springs and Joliet, where rock iorma-
tion rises to the surface and the work
will be the most difficult,
This drainage canal scheme which is
now approaching realization gives rise
to some peculiar reflections. In ancient
times it would have been thought i'm
pious presumption on the part of man
thus to reverse the operation of natures
laws and restore condition which ma
ture herself ages ago abandoned in
favor of the condition now prevailing.
This involves some interesting bits of
the history of this region of the ''new
world which is the old For the North
American continent is the oldest Of the
main lands of the earth excepting Aus
tralia- 1t is older than Europe, older
than Asia, the cradle of the human
race. so-called, and the Oldest part of it,
perhaps the oldest part of the inhabited
earth, is this our region of the upper
lakes.
Northern Wisconsin and the Gogebic
region is the patriarch among the lands
now inhabited by men. All of Lake
including half of the states
of Wisconsin and Michigan on either
side. was at one time huge glacier,
working its way southwark towards
valley. 1t cut channel
the rock at the south end of
Lake Michigan creating the low lands
where Chicago now stands. When the
glacier disappeared this immense lake,
covering much larger area than it
does. to-day, found an outlet to the
and the gulf of Mex
leo. The lower lakes, Erie and
Ontario, had an outlet to the |
by way OF the route
now followed by the Veland canal
But this condition of things was
changed. The falls of Niagara opened
and a current set in towards the At
lantic, the level Of the lakes fell. the |
outlet to the gulf became choked up,
the lake contracted AID gave up the |