The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1909-08-25


Some baby is taking its first grand ride
Toward the trees and the velvet grass;
And the sun looks more kindly down,
The wan little fellows are travelling, too,
James j. Montague in the Cosmopolitan
Magazine.
Project for Giants.
Down in the southwestern corner
OF the country great river flows in
a cash in the earth, approximately
one mile deep, for a distance equally
that from Albany to Buffalo. The
point at which the Colorado river cam
yon is approached by railroad in Ari-
iona has become one of the show
places of the continent. What would
happen if engineering skill could SO
far advance that it would be economi-
cally possible, some miles above this
show place, to dam the canyon, there
impounding the water? With the en-
ormous depth of the artificial reser-
voir thus produced, at least thirty
times the height of Niagara, the pow
er possibilities would be bewildering
in their magnitude. This dam would
flood the canyon up to approximately
the level of the table1and through
which it's course has been broken.
This would make incidentally possible
irrigation by windmill pumping thus
opening up an area Of fertility in what
is now unbroken desert.
At the single show place to which
tourists now go no great change need
be effected. After the water had been
once impounded the spillway from the
power station would send down ap-
proximately the same volume as that
which now flows there-and this is
one of the large rivers of the contin-
ent. During the impoundfng period
of course the stream below the dam
would go dry; and how long it would
take to bank up the basin of water a
mile deep and IA miles wide across
the top of the canyon, and back for
perhaps 100 miles, is something for
mathematicians to compute. A dam
to hold back such body of water
would prove one OF the greatest
works of man.
Would it not be odd if in some dis
tant age of the world another Pitts
burg should come into being in north
ern Arizona, and If, further, by pump
ing some of this embarked flood over
the surrounding tableland, which has
lain dormant for centuries, degree
of Verdure should there appear, in
that southern latitude, unequaled in
the world Boston Transcript.
Unpopular Proclamations.
A proclamation issued by the vice.
roy of the province that all opium
dens in Wanshire must close has gone
as most things appear to do
in China when it does not suit the
populace.
W
habitants and is surrounded by poppy
fields, nine-tenths of the community
indulging in the drug, while the city
itself contains innumerable shops for
retailing it.
When the appointed time came for
closing up, all the shops Ibid them
selves proud" Bright new lanterns
cleaned from the portals, while clean
curtains decorated the interior, and
trade was as brisk as ever. In other
words the opium vendors were Saving
face" a peculiar characteristic of the
and not even policeman, if
there is such thing in WanShien, en-
forced the order.
Opium smoking continues at Wan
shien in the same old way, and the
crop to be reaped this year is a third
bigger than last. What can viceroy
do when the people, to man, won't
listen, especially when the people know
that the proclamation may be only a
matter of form.-Shanghai Mercury.
Hunters Fires.
There is a bill in committee which |
gives the governor the right of pro-
the suspension of the hunt |
ing season at times of great drouth. |
Such a provision was passed in Yer |
mont last year. and another of like |
tenor has just been signed b ythe gov |
ernor of New York.
The largest number of forest fires |
and the most destructive occur during |
me months OF April ana OcCoDer- In
this state last year 80 per cent of the |
October fires were placed to the dis |
credit of locomotives. AS the law
now makes the offending railroads LA
BILE for the damages incurred, and |
eompels them to reimburse the towns
Tor the expense of fighting the fires of
heir carelessness, railroad fires will
be rapidly on the decrease.
To hunters z per cent of the fires
we're due, and to smokers per cent.
As most hunters are smokers, the state
must be doubly protected against
hem. Hence this emergency bill,
which ought to become law.-Boston
Post.
Robins Nest on Wheels.
A correspondent sends an account of
robin building in a child's motor car.
he toy car stood in the porch of a
ouse at Purley. and while there it
vas noticed that there was a collection