Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1897-11-13
Written for The Evening Star.

'It Is difficult to convince the younger
generation how this city has grown in the
past thirty or thirty-five years. remarked
welI-known citizen to a Star reporter,
land particularly how that portion In the
northwest section in the city, west of 14th
and north of NJ streets has developed into
residence. from a farm section. While
the farms were not large as the ordi-
nary farms of the country they were farms.
nevertheless. and some of them were large
enough for all purposes They were not
garden farms exclusively. though the ma
jority of them were devoted to growing
market truck. / will never forget the
Miller farm the house of which stood about
where is now the corner of 18th and p
streets. Mr.. Miller not only raised a great
quantity of garden truck, but he had two
large grass farms connected with his place.
which he raised large crops Of hay.
Thirty-five years ago l was a big enough
boy to play base ball. and was member
of the Eagle base ball nine which play
fine ball for those times. One of Mr.. Mil
ler's sons was member Of our niEe, the
shortstop, think, and We were exceeding
~ anxious that he should play with U.S.
When spoken to about 1t. the Miller boy
said that his father would not let him play
until the hay. which had been cut on the
farm, had been raked up and stacked. The
club wanted the services of their short
stop. and wanted them bad. and the only
way to get him was for the entire nine
aided by at least nine others, who were
members of the club. though not on the
principal nine, for nearly all base ball clubs
those days had two or three mines, to go
up there and gather and stack up the hay.
1t took eighteen good-sized boys, with the
help of two farm hands, the entire MORN
ing and until nearly 3 O'Clock in the after
noon, to do the work We got our short
stop. but lost the game, which was played
as nearly all games then were, on the White
Lot / mention this to show that there was
very large crop of hay to be gathered
While up in that neighborhood few even
ingS since i told some boys about our ex-
periences in haymaking. AS they looked
around and the rows of fine brick
houses they could not realize it, and to tell
the truth. / hardly could do so myself
But what l told them was Gospel truth
X x =
1T is as clear to me as anything can be-
that is in the future" said a scientist who
is prominently connected with one of the
scientific Institutions of the government to
Star reporter, that It will not be very
long before the stock of coal in this coun-
try will run out. Already some of the best
mines have been deserted, and many 9TH
ers are almost worked out. There is enough
in sight to last some years. but the amount
consumed is increasing constantly. There
will have to be an END. What will supply
heat and motive power? Where will our
fuel come from? Electricity, / know, is de-
pended upon. but it requires coal, and lot
of it. 10 generate electricity. Our water
powers, OF course, can be relied upon to do
a great deal in that direction. and there
does not seem to be any limit to the dis
lance that electric power and heat can be
carried, as is instanced by the wonderfully
successful experiments now in operation
at Niagara and other places, where water
falls are being harnessed- There Is a theo-
hat a Tins ha oil trio
In the air can be brought down to the earth
and utilized fuel and motive power
though the experiments so far in that d.
rectiOn have not been as successful as could
De desired Ii is only fair 10 add, however,
that they have not been conducted on any
extended scale But granting that cleo
tricity will prove all that is expected of it,
L am convinced that it will all be needed
and even more. Where is the addition to
come from? 1t is nonsensical to go into
any such sort of calculations, but 1 am
firmly convinced that those who are to fol-
low US will have to fall back on water
We have plenty of water, and after we
have used it for all other purposes will
have water to burn OF course, the diff
Guilty will be to get means to burn it.
That 1t can be burned has been demonstrate
ed. The component parts of water hydro
gen and oxygen. furnish plenty of fuel,
when they are separated or are found in
the proportions desired Could we decom-
pose water and get the hydrogen and oxy-
gen IN the shape need Them there
would be no trouble, and the gradual dis
appearing OF coal mines would not be the
source OF alarm that 1t now is. There have
been number of stoves made to burn
water as fuel. and in a small way some OF
them have dore So After building a fire
with coal in the ordinary way, il IL could he
arranged that certain quantity of water
could be conducted 10 it: that is on the
bed or Goals. a fire could be kept I'D forever
naNns the ordinary calculations for the
burning out of the stoves and other parts
OF the apparatus. which has to be done
with coal or wood fires. One drop more
tnah the certain quantity needed, however
VIII put out the fire Science and invention
VIII eventually solve this matter, and 1t
may &c inside of the next fifty years that
we VIII De burning water as a fuel to run
our electric engines, which, in turn, will
run everything else That water contains
Inc necessary elements for fuel is sure
Inc problem that IS presented is to sepa-
rate theIn- so that they can get in proper
shape. IN proper proportions. in other
"oius- iof consumption fuel"
x = +
Those who have not given anv atten-
ton to the progress in the art of teacbin,
and educational matters in general" oh
served public school teacher to a Star re-
porter. ARE much more liable to criticiss
the present methods of teaching than 9TH
ers- only recently a gentleman who re-
s'oes IN Georgetown came to me- and ex-
perienced great wonder. because his six
80 wy "dS DcIfB Taught to write
sentences 1t seems to me- he said. that
We really live in topsy turveydoms when
ehi!dren who have not yet mastered their
a-phabet are asked to write out sentences.
HOW can they he asked, be expected to
write when they don't know their A n Crso
then explained to him that the modern
system OF teaching gave no attention to
the a u part of the educational systems
u the past 10 him 1t seemed like a con-
tradlction. that children could be taught In
write before they had learned their letters
or spell even words OF two and three let
ters, and yet ii is a fact chat they can and
are being taught by the hundreds of thous-
ands IN the Lublic and private schools all
over the country, and world where modern
methods prevail Learning the alphabet is
not necessary except an incident in the
system instead of being taught their let
ters IN the old-fashioncd way the letters
are used 10 teach how words are construct
ed To illustrate: 1 have just got a new
Grass OF little ones. of the twenty-three in
the class, at least seven OF eight only knew.
when they entered the class three weeks
ago, TWO or three letters in the alphabet
each Il do not know that they are thor