The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1913-07-24

to light every home In the United
States; and again that if lights were
strung on wires fplacing the lights one
hundred feet apart, these wires would
reach twice around the world and ev-.
cry light would be going.
The editors spent the most OF the
afternoon seeing the sights at various
places around the dam, and 1t was
surely treat they will never forget,
thanks to the power company and Dr..
Barr. A visit to the dam will pay any
one.
Down by The Old Mill Stream.
John F. Dalton In Manson Democrat:
It was kind of the Southeastern Iowa
Editorial Association to invite The
Democrat man to It's midsummer meet
ing. last week, for it was an affair OF
considerable magnitude and there were
many bright minds there to gather
new ideas from. new places OF interest
to visit and new things to see, besides
there was feast of magnificent pro-
portions on Thursday evening, at the
Grand hotel hosiery OF no mean
proportions in the Gate City. All Of
these things more than compensated
for the ride Of torture" on the old Keo-
kuk & Des Monies railroad, the first
railroad built in Iowa, now operated
by the Rock Island, over which a part
OF the journey had to be made. 1t was a
clickety-click ride of many hot, dusty,
weary miles, down, down. down along
the Des Moines river; threading
through the hills, stifled by the smoke
and cinders from the putting. snorting,
wheeling little engine and begrimed
by the maddening dust from countless
automobile trails that cut and slash
their way through those everlasting
hills. It included taunt. backwards,
OF five miles from the main line down
into Keosauqua. the county seat of Van
Buren, county, town SO old that it has
whiskers and nearly all the inhabitants
have them, too. 1t is one of the oldest
towns along the Des Moines river ana
1T cuddles alone by itself in a huge
bend of the river, SO isolated by the
hills and the forbidding river banks
that 1t is quite unlikely that any other
railroad but the stub will ever try
to reach and rescue 1t from fits ante
railroad lethargy.
And then the noisy railroad takes
one down through the towns OF Ben
tonsport. Bonaparte and Pennington
towns with a history dating back be-
fore the civil war. towns that were
thriving little cities then and slumber.
Ing hamlets now, yet their very SOM
Violence breathes the story of their de
parted glory. when Bentonsport had
three busy paper mills and Pennington
and Bonaparte had sawmills and
woolen mills, all driven by power
snatched from the passing waters of
the Des Moines. Even the LUCE dams
of other days are no more. the floods
Of each recurring springtime having
taken them little by little until the last
yestigc is gone and the untrammeled
waters gurgle over their FOUNDATIONS
in care-free exultation because of the
victory they have won. Even the ia
AAioAS @'AONR AS1OtAClo uduu dL oUud-
parte. the dam which caused SO much
! trouble and litigation for years be-
cause OF its hating of the game fish
on their annual trekking up the river,
is no more, and the industry that
once flourished in the name of those
woodworking Scots is now only a
memory.
When Keokuk Is reached the whole
scene changes as If by magic. The
yellow waters CT the Des Moines merge
themselves into the whittier flood wa
tiers of the mighty Mississippi, Just af-
ter their release from their futile strug-
gle with the monumental work of Man,
the huge concrete dam which stretches
! itself In majesty across from the Iowa
to the Illinois shore and impounds the
waters OF the great river in huge
basin that sprawls itself back up the.
| river and over the bottom lands for
miles and miles. The lethargy Of the
Des Moines valley towns is superseded
by the rush and hustle of metropolitan
ism that has seized Keokuk and is
holding it up to the world as the city
of the greatest dam in the world. In
deed. the promoters and builders OF
that dam declare with emphasis that it
is a really greater work than even the
Panama canal, requiring more engri.
eering skill to build and being of great
er magnitude in Its way than the great
lsthmian ditch. It Is huge structure,
being considerably more than a mile
long and rearing its crest far above the
swirling waters that thunder down
against ii In angry protest against
their first imprisonment since the Crea-
ton made the channel their rightful
roadway The power house Is huge
concrete structure on the Iowa side,
wherein the machinery is housed to
form the electric current that is shot
away on slender wires across bluff and
valley IN fha hiyar of f,,duu4rv ", N a