The Wichita daily eagle., 1893-10-27

| Ii would furnish light to illuminate
every farmers home, every county lane.
as brilliantly as the streets and marbied
| halls OF the metropolis. 1t would fur
| nish motive power to run his plows. his
reapers and threshers, to haul his grain
TO market. TO Dropel his carriage, saw
his wood, and transferred along the
magic wIre-uniess, indeed, by that time
the way should be found of conveying
the subtle electric current without wire
IL could be used 10 mine coal. quarry
rocks, run railroad trains and what not.
Ii would furnish heat to cook the food
for himself and his stock. to hatch his
chickens. to keep the water in his reser-
VOLTS at the proper temperature for the
varieties CT fish with which he could
nave them each differently stocked.
The cost? Say $500 or $3.50 for the
wind pump, .or reservoir, diiching, thing
or piping, as The case might be. THIS
could be increased at pleasure. aud with
increasing means which it would give.
What trifl!pg expense-S12 to $50 an
acre. In irrigating countries it Is con-
sidered profitable 1T 800 an acre initial
cost and SO to S25 additional annually
afterwards.
1t necessary. and if with all the allow
ances made to keep on the conservative
side III the above calculations, the esti-
mate of my wind-milfs capacity be still
too high. put on every twenty or even on
every ten acres. aud still it would pay
pay IN profits per acre, pay III larger and
surer yield to less labor, pay In the
manifold economies that would result
from more thorough, scientific tiilage
OF tile smaller tracts, pay IN the denser
population supportable on given area,
pay IN the easier production that would
leave time and the refinements and
higher graces of character and life.
Is the above plan impracticabie? We
all know to what grief that valiant old
Spanish caballero came in his tilt with
the windmiils. Is this only Quixotic
fancy! Then let some one less visionary
point out the errors and suggest more
practical way. 1t is the province and
purpose Of man on earth to subdue it
and to improve his conditions, until at
last triumphant over the forces of nature
without and within he advances by
making past conquests his stepping
stones, and rising upon them to higher
and broader views. This conquest Of
the wild destructive forces of nature,
and this tanning and controlling of their |
powers to our serviceis but very crudely |
es stimated when looked upon merely |
from the standpoint of material gain. !
Their real significance Is in their
constantly increasing !
portion of the race from the low neces-
sites Of the perpetual struggle for
existence, and the increasing oppor- |
tunity given to rise from the grovelipg |
drudgeries Of animal existence. to look |
about, to turn the face heavenward. aud t
gazing into the ineffable mysteries of |
nature and of God, to grow in His /
likeness, and into the fulness Of stature /
Of His nob.est creation-man. "Heaven
helps them as help themselves is q
homely saying full of homeiy truth. In
Kansas, heaven has already done her
share. She has provided every element
'or the support of the highest type OF
Observation-Disclosures soil, sun, wind and
i'll perfection aud profusion,
Ill ready for Kansas genius and Kansas
enterprise to touch the magic button
hat shall bring them luto happy COLI
}ination, and now sine invitingiy says:
Help yourself:' j. S. GRIFFIN.
WICHITA, Oct. %, 1893.