Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1897-01-16
WA-KEENEY, KANs, JANUARY 16, 1897.

the shrine of Mammon. He who but
passes by. and in passing judges that
this land must be given over to eter-
nal hush of utter desolation, whose
awful stiffness will be broken only by
the lowing herds of wandering cattle
or the uncanny cry of the coyote, mis-
judges the land and its people, And
when he is tempted to write his
wrongful impression and give them
wide publicity he places additional
obstacles in Il pathway already him
dered with stumbling blocks and
sharpened pricks. But inspired by
that hope which springs eternal in
the human breast" with unwavering
faith in his prOwess to subdue. tie
pioneer viii work out his destiny here
and with it give to succeeding gener-
ations broad domain of surprising
fertility
We have been asked if the legisla-
ture would be likely to continue the
appropriation for irrigation. To be
frank about it, unless the incoming
administration has three men in mind
who want places and who have pull
enough with the legislature to get
another appropriation worked
through. we don't believe any appro-
priation will be made. The irriga-
tion bill appropriation may have done
some good and demonstrated some
thing of general value. If so the gen
eral public hasn't found it out and
xxAI 4 r..
us when the law was p1ssed that. un=
der its provisions tie approf5flzrF6r
would be practically thrown away,
and we have seen no reason to change
our mind. There were a few things
that everybody knew before the irri-
CATION law was passed. They knew
for instance, that if a hole was dug to
water and pump put in that water
could be pumped out of that hole.
We might remark further that they
knew this, vet nothing in the irriga-
tion bill or in the manner of expand-
ing the appropriation has shaken the
public confidence in those two great
facts. There were a few things con
Eected with irrigation that the peo-
pie didn't know and wanted to find
out. One was in what locality in
western Kansas water could be de
pended on in wells. Another was how
deep they would likely to have to go.
and. lastly, how much it would cost
per acre to furnish water for irriga-
tion out of wells of different depths.
If they could get the information as
to where water could be found on the
highlands in western Kansas: how
deep it was: what it would cost to dig
the well, put in the pump, build the
reservoir and do whatever was neces-
sary to begin irrigation, how much it
would cost to pump water to irrigate
an acre. two acres. five acres. etc. out
of fifty-foot well, hundred-foot well.
or one hundred and fifty foot well.
they would then know whether or not
it would pay to try irrigating with a
pump in any given localitv- As it iS
the state has spent $50, 600 and demon
strated that in some places water can
be found in wells in western Kansas.
They don't know how much it will
cost per acre to pump water, say from
Il hundred foot We'll. We are not here
to criticise the irrigation committee
1t was the fault of the law. Mail
and Breeze.
..There are several kinds of hold
ups: says the Powhattan fat woman
in the Fairview Courier. land while
l think some of them ought to be pro-
hibited there are others that oughe to
be encouraged. The man that holds
up his town and works for its advan-
tage and does everything he can to
advance its Interests and induce good
people to locate there is just the kind
of hold up that I am stuck on. A
town that is not held up by its citi-
zens soon drops from view OF the pub
lie and people go there like they go
to the cemetery when they have
to. The buildings soon begin tt look
dclapidated. the people. what few re-
main. are a sleepy. sluggish looking
layout and eventhe dogs sneak around
with their tails tucked between their