The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1909-11-08

OF bird-voiced melody!
II.
After a seafaring.
Tossed far by storm-swept tides,
10 sail safe into port,
Where no reef hides
Its mute malignity!
After the days long stress
TO greet the slow, soft night,
And days force to unbless.
The vague delight
OF sleeps EMBEDDING might!
I-W1ll1am Struthers in the Boston Trans
cript.
Good Roads in South.
Plans contemplating the expendi-
ture of between $20,0Oe,O00 and $685.
100000 for the permanent improve
ment Of highways in the south and
southwest have been launched during
the past twelve months. Some of
them have taken form in contracts
| awarded and work already done;
some have resulted in increased direct
| taxation or in the issue of state,
county, or township bonds, and others,
! involving the question of bond issues,
are still to be determined by voters.
These plans are a demonstration of
the deep and widespread practical in
tereSt in a movement that will adj
vantage the south beyond the out
come of any other action that has
been taken for its benefit within re-
cent years. So mOmentCuS is this
movement. SO full Of definite promise,
and SO bound to expand as details of
| it becomes known that the Manufac-
| turers' Record has undertaken cen
sus Of southern good roads sentiment
as embodied in reports from county
officials and others in the fourteen
southern states and in Oklahoma and
Missouri, closely allied to them, in
terested in the question of highway
| improvement.
Such records of county public
opinion on this vital subject have
analysis of them is full of interesting
| and valuable suggestions for, good
roads advocates. not only in the south,
but in the whole country. They tell
| of facts accomplished. of projects well
under way. of varying sentiments. of
aids to the movement. and of it's i'm
pediments. AS to definite accom-
plishments, allusion is made OF the
use of a portion of the funds avail
able under the 100000 state bond
der the Shoemaker law for the REIN
forcement of county funds; of the CO.
| operation of the state and the counties
| in Virginia; of the authorization of
the use of convicts in Georgia, and OF OF
Louisiana; of the great progress made
under taxation in parts Of North
Carolina, and of the hearty and
liberal support of bond issues In
! Tennessee, Texas, Alabama, and other
states.
The advance in some quarters may
be slow. but it will be sure. AS one
county official says, 1--WE have been
riding on the ground slide OF con-
servation for quite while. but when
we get on the wheel OF progress anu
substantial improvements, then you
will hear from U.S." The wheels OF
progress are going to give the SouIh
a system of the best kind OF ROADS,
and the giving will mean dlrect IN.
f1ence upon southern advancement
| on all lines within the next few years
| that has not been equaled in its Won
| derful record of the past quarter OF a
| Observation-Disclosures Record.
Distorting the Eartt's Shape.
| During the last congress of the In
| ternationa1 Geodetic association at the
institution of civil engineers in Lon
| don the celebrated investigator OF
earth tides, Prof. Hecker. read a most
interesting paper on that subject. he
declared that his was no new theory,
hut that he was the first scientist 70
perform any practical experlenmts IN
| support of it.
It was at Potsdam. in an under
ground room about ~ feet peloW tne
Surface. that Prof. Hecker's expert
ments were made to determine the
VARYING effect of the sun and moon
| on the earth. His apparatus consisted
of an extremely delicate horizontal
pendulum which could record even So
r,inute a variation as that of a hundred
thousandth part of a second
| Rv this means 1t was demonstrated
| that the earth was affected by the sur
/ and moon twice in each "a hours, ano
that the force exerted by the moon was
twice as powerful that of the sun
Apparently not merely the outer crust
but the whole mass of the eartn' Is
affected. and the sphere is really oe-
formed at these times Prot Heckel
believes that the earth Is rigid body
throughout, and that the theory of
yiscous stratum lying between the crust
| and a solid central core is erroneous
By further experiments he hopes event
Iually to determine the exact compost
| ton of our earth.-Harper's Weekly.
A Desert to Bloom.
BY a touch of President Taft's finger
Gup 9brou9h F Se ss
beginning at the Black Canyon, and 49,
go acres Of arid upland valley Lang Hd, il
RADIO will be made to blossom as the
rose. This is the largest single irrigation
project ever undertaken by the fedora
| The academic reasoner on constitutional
may If II he VII an that IS iT na
a function imposed by the national funda-
mental law on the United States Nc
one will listen to him. There is no DIFF.
ference of opinion among citizens on the
practical Importance of such efforts, mol
is there any doubt that in the case O.
rivers flowing from one state or terri
tory into another the federal government
is the logical agent for such service t
the general Internationally Eagle.
! Tests for Army Cats.
Cats are recognized on the staff oil
the French war office, but as the posi-.
ton of functionary is more priced In
France than it is in England. these
} animals are not selected in haphazare
fashion They are chosen for their size
and strength, and to fit them for ser
vice among military stores are sent fol
one or two voyages on warship. i
; they are found to cope effectually witt
the rats always to be found in the
II 1.o1ac &c chinu they are nromoted tn 6