Grand Rapids herald. [volume] (Grand Rapids, Mich.) 1892-1959, 1893-08-18
1T DID ALL GOOD
Successful Rain Making Effort
At North Park Sunday.
WEDNESDAYS SHOWER 4
Astnousst 20 ths Tsss-Ths Thaosy
Tia, Rain Can Be hsas b. Man
Fully Demonstrated.

Il think that every farmer. produce
raiser and every mac. ~ho for many
weeks past has yearned for rain. should
lock upon rs With thankfuineas. Tor
with little dynamite and some few
contrisances necessary IN the work. Ne
accomplished solnsthipg that shouhi 10
looked upon as being ncxt door 10
pheuomenon.s As the speaker do
claimed these words. be assumed eom-
Portable position In q large easy rocker.
threw one leg careiessly over GA afin II
the chair and pRlled aNay coiitentsdiy
az fragrant Havana. The speaker Was
H1ntiy Russell. the energetic suIsfin'
tendeat u North Park Association; the
listener vas Representatives OF thE
HERALD. and tbs conversation occurred
en- the broad vera 1da Of the pavilion at
North Park yesterday morning. "fes,
sir; while some pesp'e may be skeptioai
on the subject. am hrmly convinced
that the rain cf "Wednesday should be
attributed &C. our efforts IN ore than any
thing else. Why have such At opinion
il easily explained. In the first place
did you ever sc such peculiar
rainfall AZ that of Wednesday,
Didn't il look as though every drop that
fell passed through tine sieve and
only came down from above supply be-
cause 1t had tor There Is no sloub< but
what somewhere up above water rs,sted
peacefully in the clouds for many lays.
but the terrible fusilade Of dynamite We
made Sunday agitated the clouds to
such an extent that they had 10 give up
their load. and though il took about
fifty hours for this water TO make CD its
mind 20 come down. il finally slccuinbed
TO the inevitable, and as result We had
a very nice rain. You will observe in
the papers that il was not a general rain
in the state. jackson on the south re-
ceived touch Of il and Traverse City
on the north had slight visit, bur the
heaviest rain was in this neighborhood.
We do not pose as a Dyrenforrh, but we
have carried our theory out 10 letter
and have practically demonstrated that
rain can DO forced IL the experiments
are properly handled. In our ex-
periments Sunday we used about
20 pounds OF dynamite. we commenced
work on the water tower up on the hill
and carried the operations on down here
10 the river. Every visitor we had here
Sunday evening will tell you that tho
air was moist. and even Their many ex-
pected rain would fall in short time.
Prof. Dear aided me. and the results of
our efforts are we'll known. The wind
interfered greatly. but in spite OF all OBJ
stacles feel satisfied with the results.
liz we had mortar that we could have
used that rain would not have DELAYED
30 long before il decided to finally come
down. III another drouth visits us we
will make another test, but this time We
will be enabledto make far better expe-
riments. / shall try to secure the loan
Of mortar from the government. and
with that trearn we shall give tho
clouds such a shake up that more than
one day will be taken for them to re-
cover. l can tell you, though. this rain
making is peculiar business and one /
would not care TO embark in Tor a
livelihood Some may say the
rain OF Wednesday was an act OF Provi-
dence others will give you one excuse or
another. but one thing is certain there
was no prospects OF rain in the valley
before we agitated the subject OF rain
making tests. Quietly we made slight
tests before we definitely decided to let
the public know what our desires were.
These first tests were made one evening
last week. The next morning slight
shower visited Us. Thus encouraged,
last Sunday We branched out as full
fiedged rain makers. and with what re-
suits you well know. The next time.
though. we will be able TO moro wildly
demonstrate that IL there is a possibility
to make rain we can do il so thoroughly
that not even one skeptical person can
be found" Mr.. Russell then lighted
fresh cigar. sauntered into the pavilion
and the last seen OF him was at the re-
freshment counter giving some sugges-
tons TO his efficient aide, Mr. Stafford,
regarding the entertainment Of large
party OF picnicers that had just come
onto tie grounds.