The Marietta journal. [volume] (Marietta, Ga.) 1866-1909, 1901-09-05

1
vision and of reasonable powers of
imagination undertakes to suggest
the possible fate of New York and
Chicago. In both cities men are
raising immense structures of
steel. brick and stone to the
height of $50 feet or more. And
the'process promises to. continue.
| indefinitely. The question of the
outcome is asked, and asked qnite
! pertinentlv, will not the immense
weight placed upon Manhattan
Island become SO great that the
whole thing will slip into the bay?
Will not the immense structures
of Chicago be submerged in the
swamps from which that city rose ?
These questions are generally
dismissed with a smile. Most
men are not bothering their heads
about things that may happen
hundred years or more hence.
They are concerned with things
likely to happen within the span
of their own lives, and don't care
very much whether or not it rains
after they have passed from the
stage. But men who have time to
think cannot escape the inclina-
ton to give thought to posterity,
especially as events Of to-day are
demonstrating, quite forcibly at
times, that the conceptions of the
human mind may not be carried
out IN disregard of the great forces
which, after all, dominate life.
Every year hundreds of millions
of tons of iron, coal, oil, building
stone, phosphate rock and other
material are being removed from
the ground and distributed broad
cast over the globe. Thousands
of tons of steel rails are being
laid across the continents, scar
ring more or less the surface
wherever they are placed, and fire.
quently being carried for immense
distances through artificial bor-
ings in the mountains. Thous-
ands of tons of copper and steel
wire are being stretched to dis
tribute in one form and another
electricity generated at central
points for purposes of light, pow
er and heat, enormous quantities
of this element, perhaps the pri-
NAL element in nature, escaping
to influence the atmospheric con-
ditiOns of great cities and mark
ing i'll advance the path of the
tornado or cyclone. Contribute
ing, too, to notifications of cll-
mate are the smoke and steam
wasted in the industrial pursuits, |
while methods of agriculture,
numbering and kindred undertak-
ings work to the same end.
That weather conditions in this
country are changing, that sea-
sons are different from what they
were fifty years ago cannot be sci
entifically proved. Accurate OBJ
servations have not been made for |
a long enough period to insure the
means of absolute proof. Still
there is a distinct impression, |
wide spread and hardly contradict
ed by obtainable facts, that things
have changed. Streams that were
once navigable for sailing vessels
will now hardly bear skiff. Inl
many state east of the Allegha-
MES there are places called ports
or landings. The memory of the
origin of their designations 10
longer exist except among octoge-
narians. Streams that once car
ried tide water or had steady flow
all the year have either disappear
ed or are subject to alternating
dry beds and menacing freshets.
Lofty hills once topped with pri-
meval forests have been washed
to the bare subsoil, and fields
once capable of producing luxur-
ious crops are a succession of ugly
gullies hardly capable of sustain
ing klldeer or an AngOra goat.
Men know enough to understand
to some extent the part played by
streams and vegetation in determ-
lining climatic conditions, ond
they may readily comprehend that
revolutions now wrought in the
face of nature BY agriculture and
the advance of the pioneer must
have some effect upon the wealth
er. Until fifty years ago this
revolution was comparatively
slow. 1t was worked out as re-
suit of the actions of hundreds of
| thousands of men in their indi-
vidual capacity. But with the
oncoming of the industrial and
commercial age and the tendency
toward the mass action the work
has been done on a much broader
| scale and much mora ronid1y