Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1902-07-31

THE ACHIEVEMENTS OF SCIENCE.
Along no line of human activity has
such an advancement been made DUR
ing recent years as has been achieved
by science. Literature, music, sculp-
ture and painting must go back into the
moist and mildewy past for their most
glorious accomplishments, but the
golden age of science still lies several
miles out in the sweet bye-and-bye.
There was time, and not SO many
years ago, when about all the average
scientist needed was hair tonic and
a pair of steel-rimmed spectacles, but
great changes have come of late years
aud the scientist of to-day must be
equipped with about everything from
q monkey wrench to map Of the
Milky Way.
The scientist of the present must
be brave of heart and quick of limb,
ready to climb mountain or swim
creek, feel the pulse of nervous vol
cano or dive to the depths OF the sea.
Whenever anything happens, the
Heet-fQoted, and intellectual gem
tleman who may be seen get
ting in on the scene slightly
ahead of the policemen and the
reporters, is a scientist. He sleeps
with his boots on and is ready at
moments notice. At midnight, while
the rest of the world is trying to see
how loud it can snore without swallow
ing it's tonsils, a message is pressed
into his hand:
"You are commanded to proceed at
once to Buckskin, Kansas, where a
cyclone will strike Thursday. Remain
out where you can make careful ex-
periments and examina tons. If you
are personally picked up and carried
away by the storm, make careful
memorandum of your velocity, mean
average height from the earth's sur
face, objects through which you are
blown and objects blown through you"
"Run over to Africa at once, where a
strange light is reported to have been
seen in the heavens since the Is 4. As
certain whether it is an errs c comet
which has lost it's bearings, a signal
from Mars, or a newspaper inaccuracy,
any of which will be regarded with pro-
found interest by the world of science"
And thus it goes with the scientist.
He is honored, respected and sent for
on every hand. Yesterday he lived in
an attic, smoked an 1s-horsepower
blow-pipe, and had hard work to pay
his rent; Today the world purrs around
at his feet in humble affection. But
the world can we'll afford to do this.
for It owes much to the brave man who,
hairless and friendless, has toiled on
and on in the face of every discourage
ment, working night and day, often
Drawing the dangers of sea and flood,
enduring poverty and political ostra-
cism that the great, throbbing world
might learn the crop prospects for
Saturn or have hat rack that can
also be used as an egg beater and a dog
rnuzzle.
Take the farmer, for instance. Yes
terday he cut his wheat with a scythe,
and gathered his hay and potato bugs
by hand, to-day he has lightning-rod
contracts and a self-binder with red
paint and mortgage on it. Yester-
day the farmer led an humble and SIM
pie life, to-day he has every luxury
from barb-wire fence to an incubator,
and he can get his market reports by
telephone, thus ena bling him to de-
eide whether to sellhis eggswhen paid
or hold them till the next spring.
And what science has done for the
farmer it has also done for every body
else, more or less. The hotel and the
restaurant and the bank have changed
wonderfully. The livery stable, too,
has felt the touch of science, and it is
not the same to-day it was 50years ago.
Mar of the horses are the same, but
other things have changed.
Each day brings some new wonder,
each year means revolution. A few
years ago man sent his shirt to the
laundry and got it back the next week,
but to-day the laundry can take an
ordinary boiled shirt, yank the epider-
mis- off the bosom. amputate the tail
and both arms and return it to the
owner while he waits.
Even in the affairs of our national
government science has accomplished
wonderful things. Take, for instance,
in the matter of weather. Where,
few years ago manhad nothing to go
by but his patent medicine almanac
or his rheumatism, to-day he is able
to tell just exactly what kind of wealth
er the United States weather bureau
has ordered delivered for the succeed
ing days consumption. But the rheu-
matism was not without it's advan-
tages, for its forecasts were reliable
handy and did not suspend publication
on Sundays and legal holidays.
When man with the rheumatism
awoke in the morning the first thing
he did was to issue bulletin:
Sharp pains in left knee accompa-
MED by tinkling sensation in back of
neck. Rain in Missouri, Iowa and Illi-
noiS Michiran cloudy Indiana threat