Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-08-15
SOUTHWEST HARD
HIT BY DROUGHT
Missouri, Kansas and Okla
homa in Twelfth Day of In
tense Heat.
HUMANS SUFFER WITH
LIVESTOCK AND CROPS
Cisterns Dry-Springs Cease to Flow.
Mines Shut Down-Sun Cooks
Egg and Causes Fire.

KANSAS CITY, August 15.-How to
get water for man and beast and how to
save little out Of wrecked crops Of corn
and other late summer products present
ed to Missouri. Kansas and Oklahoma
an increasingly serious problem today.
1t was the twelfth day Of intense heat.
Scattered showers last night were in
effectual and, although half an inch of
water fell yesterday at Topeka, it was
in restricted limits.
Cisterns are dry all over the country
Springs that never before were known to
fail have ceased to flow. In many sec
tions good deep we'll Is a gold mine.
Long trains Of tank cars supply several
Oklahoma and western Kansas towns
with all the water they get. A train Of
thirty cars OF water was shipped from
Pittsburg. Kan, today to the mines of a
coal company in the PittSburg district to
be used by the hundreds of miners and
their families and for operating the COM
pany's engines.
The expense of shipping water. how
ever, is so great that several smaller
mines have shut down.
Families Camp Around Wells.
In a section of Seward county, Kan,
where no rain has fallen in two months,
the few wells that still give water are
surrounded by campers. families that
have closed house and gone to tent
near a water source.
Strange stories of heat pranks come
from all parts of the country. From
Alma, Kan, came a report vOuched for
by one Of the city fathers that a woman
in moment of desperation, wishing
IN L IL 81
of frying an egg in the sun. had pre-
pared a fresh laid one nicely in a
skillet with butter and fried it to a
t" on a flagstone before her door with
nearly a thousand dollars damage in
the home OF DR.. Theodore Kroesch at
Enterprise, Kan. was attributed by the
doctor to the suns rays shining through
lamp chimney In his study window
upon papers on a desk.
BY noon in most sections Of Missouri.
Kansas and Oklahoma the mercury was
we'll on the way to the hundred mark
In Topeka last night was the eleventh
hand-running. during which the ther-
mometer had not gone below Is. Last
nights minimum there was n.
Abandon Hope for Corn.
st. Joseph. Mo-, reports that farmers
in that vicinity have given up hope Of
saving their corn. and have found them
selves confronted with dried up streams
and wells, and the necessity Of driving
their livestock miles to water.
Wichita and surrounding country has
had an abatement Of heat during the
last two days, the thermometer not pass
ing % degrees. But the country Is
parched. The people of the city and
orchardists thereabouts are working hard
to save fruit and shade trees by digging
holes near the roots and carrying water
to them as regularly as they would to
horses.
Farmers in the great Arkansas valley
corn country, where 1t is usually said
to be "wet when everywhere else is dry.
are cutting much OF their semi-matured
corn and rushing it through a grinder
into the silos before the sun has drunk
all the juice.
Unique Schemes for Sleep.
Unique schemes have been adopted by
many residents of this city to obtain
sleep during the hot nights. Scores of
wealthy families on the South Side at
night start for the country in their motor
cars. When they come to an elevated
spot where the prospect of breeze seems
good they get out, pitch their beds in
the open and sleep there until driven
back home by hot rays Of the morning
sun.
Bert Coins, swimming instructor Of the
Kansas City Yacht Club, said today that
Il am always in the water and don't
take cold, but 1 would not advise any
one else to adopt my plan." he said.
Many persons sleep in motor boats on
the Missouri river, where the air is cool
after dark.