The Mena weekly star., 1913-08-21
DRIVES KANSAS 10 ITS KNEES
Gov. Hodges May Issue PrOclama- ton Setting Apart Sunday as Day of Prayer for Rain-DrOuth Dis
 aStrOuS in West Central States

aStr0uS in West Central States
 Kansas City, Aug. l5.-HoW 10 get water for man and beast and how to save little out of wrecked crops of corn and other late summer pro- ducts was an increasingly serious problem in Missouri, Kansas and Oklahoma today. It was the twelfth day of intense heat. Scattered showers last night were intellectual.
 CisternS Have Gone Dry.
 Cisterns are dry all over the coun- try. Springs that never before were known to fail have ceased to flow. In many sections a good deep well 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 30 cars of water was shipped from Pitts burg, Kas., today to the mines of a coal company to be used by the hundreds of miners and their fami- lies and for operating the company's engines.
 Tn a section of Seward county Kansas, where no rain has fallen in two months, the few flowing wells are surrounded by families that have closed houses and gone to tents near a water source.
 Fried Eggs in the Sun.
 From Alma, Kas., came a report that a woman determined to verify or kill forever the old story of frying an egg in the sun. She pre- pared fresh laid one in a skillet. with butter, and fried it 10 a TT on a nagstone, with only the sun fO" heat.
 Fire which damaged the home of Dr. Theodore kroesch at Enter prise, Kas,, was attributed To the suns rays shining through a lamp chimney in his study window upon papers nearby.
 II Nights Above 70 Degrees.
 Ry noon in most sections of the three states the mercury was well .on the way to the loo mark To- peka has had ii consecutive nights during which the thermometer has mot gone below 75.
 St. Joseph, Mo-. reports that farm -rs have given up hope of saving corn and have found themselves confronted with the necessity of driving their live stock miles to water.
 Wichita and surrounding country has had an abatement of heat dur ing the last two days. the ther- mometer not passing 9S degrees. But the country is parched. Or chardisls thereabouts were work ing 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.
 Cutting Semi-Maturcd Corn.
 Farmers in the Great Arkansas Valley corn country. where it usu- ally is said to he wet when every where 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.
 During the last four days Govern or Hodges of Kansas has received hundreds of letters asking him to issue a proclamation to set a cer- tain hour for all praying persons in Kansas to make application for rain.
 May Gall Day of Prayer.
 II was widely suggested that next Sunday afternoon he the appointed time. The governor has the matter of issGng the proclamation under advisement.
 The water supply of Kansas City, although drawn upon in the last week as it never has been before, la, shown no worse sign than -li-ht lowering of pressure in dis lanD quarters of the city. Agitation by pubjc-Spirited persons for bet ter water conditions for horses has resulted in the opening of a num- her of fountains. Along the streets of residence districts inc sign !. water your horses here" often . hangs bosdio a lawn faucet and a <. big pail.