Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1917-01-06
Dictagrams

Dictagrams
Anybody can swear off-it's the
stay-of that hurts, said little Rob-
ert Reed.
Perhaps you do not remember Rob-
ert- Well, Robert was a school read
er hero fifty years ago-the good lit
tie boy who never, never would use
the s'filthy weed
: What reader was it2 Well, 1 think
it was the Wilson series Possibly
that was the forerunner of the Wob-
bling Windrow series of things to
read. Perhaps not; the school read
ers finally came to an end and STOP
ped
Aunt Simpy says she is glad that
the holiday season is over. So many
comin's and COINS and doin's she got
so ffabbergasted she also lost her
is afraid she may have an attack of
nervous prosecution.
Little All Sid was Chinese kid, a
cute little cuss, l declare: with eyes
full of fun and a nose that begun
right up in the roots of his hair
How easy it is to remember the
silly things. 1 picked up that one
nearly forty years ago and the fool
thing still sticks-perhaps because
of its pithy description.
The catbird is rather rare in these
parts at any season, having been no.
ticed here only in recent years, conse-
quently it was something of sur
prise to see one in the park on the
first day of January.
Why are these dictagrams written2
Well, mostly for pleasure of putting
thoughts into words-jusu as some
people talk because they enjoy their
cranial reverberations.
%
Why does anybody read dictagrams?
Blestifino! But they are read, some
times, is proven by your present ex-
perience. Answer your ownquestion.
Strange as it may seem, there is
something tos be learned from the
writing and reading of these para
graphs. When one turns spoken
word loose he cannot recall it, and he
never knows when or where it may
be quoted for or against him, nor by
whom. 1t is even more SO with the
printed word, and even more import
ant that it should be the right word,
because il is on record and cannot be
changed or evaded.
o.
Now and then the writer catches
an echo of a dictagram, and most of
them come as pleasant surprises.
Some of them come from readers who
are hundreds of miles away-entiIe
strangers others come from
longlife acquaintances right at his
elbow. and all unexpected. Some
times the paragraph which the writ
er thinks of no Importance, whatever,
is the one the reader likes best and
remembers the longest. Sometimes
the line with the sharpest stinger in
IL uO6S DOl lIlO
and fails to get .'rise'' from any
source; and, on the contrary, some
times the most innocent observation
brings down the biggest avalanche
upon his devoted head All in all. he
rather enjoys it.
The year 1916 was the driest we
have had since 1910. the total precipi-
tation being 1888 inches. This is
about six inches below the average
rainfall and less than half as much as
fell in 1909, or in 1915. 1t is an old
observation that one extreme follows
another, but it does not follow that
the first dry year will bring total
crop failure. We can expect that,
however, in the second, because by
that time the subsoil moisture is ex-
hausted; hence, the prospect for 1917
is not very filattering.
During the year 1916, there were IS
marriage licenses issued in Trego coun-