The Pleasantville press. (Pleasantville, N.J.) 1912-1929, 1923-04-18

to fall unless Mother Nature was on
the job and turned on the faucet.
1t is a personal memory that casts
rather a long shadow which recalls n
active attempt to induce the clouds to
gather and the rain TO fall, which was
made in Nueces county, Texas, In the
year 1891. AS the writer understands
1t, Nueces county now is blossoiling
like the rose, or rather like a vege-
table, for the belief is in this remote
place of writing that moisture now is
there in plenty because of rainfall plus
irrigation, and that the vegetables,
notably onions, are growing politically
and proitably.
Artillery Didn't Succeed.
1t was not always so. There was
a time In 1891 and 90 when that part
of Texas in which Nueces county is
located went for more than a year
without a rainfall. At that time there
were rain-makers who believed that
If they bombarded the skies they could
be made to drip moisture. A battery
of artillery was sent to the temporarily
dry region in Texas and 1t blazed away
at the place where the clouds ought
to be. Nothing happened except a
great noise.
Another attempt of this kind, as
memory has 1t. was made In Kansas
with a like result of ~nothingness. It
became apparent that eve the con-
cussion of high explosives could not
bring anything out of the skies that
the skies did not want to part with,
and so the thought of some of the
rain-making enthusiasts turned to an
other kind of shell with which to pep
per the zenith.
A Chicago inventor, a man who
brought forth a good many good things
In his life along the Invention line, con
ceived the idea that II the skies were
bombed with %carbonic acid gas shells
rain might be induced to fall. The
theory, as one remembers it, was that
the compressed carbonic acid gas when
released produced cold and that the
chilling of the atmosphere would pro-
duce a condensation of moisture and
that 1t would precipitate itself TO the
grateful ground.
The trial was made and the precipi.
tation did not p~recipitate. The theory,
perhaps, was all right, but it seemed
likely that all the artillery of the uni
verse would be needed with an unlim-
tied supply of carbonic acid shells in
order to produce even so much as a
local shower.
White House Pets.
The oldest employees of the White
House, men who have served through
many administrations in one capacity
or another, say that every President
within their recollection has had an
animal pet of some kind. Presidents,
like other people, seem to have an en-
tirely human and humane interest in
animals.
The country may be tired Of hearing
about Laddie Boy, the dog by which
President Harding lays so much store,
a dog which is well tended and cared
for, when the Presidents illustrations
are not to be had, by a colored man,
Wilson Jackson, whom the correspond
ents loosely have dubbed the master
Of the hounds" Laddie Boys lot is
cast in pleasant places, as was the
lot of animals that We're adopted in
the families, or so to speak, onto lawns
of other Presidents.
The Wilson administration had no
kennel, but it had most comfortable
quarters for a black cat, a cat of
which President Wilson was as fond
apparently as he is of the number
thirteen, usually accounted, with black
cats, as being unlucky. There is a
story about this black cat which be-
of which can be affirmed by the present
writer for he was responsible for the
Introduction of the animal into the
White House, and indirectly response
BILE for Mr.. Wilson'S quick adoption OF
the ebony visitor.
How Wilson Got the Black Cat.
Possibly the story of the black cat
that the President adopted may not be
u~ninterestlng. One morning some
years ago there appeared in the Wash
ington Post this item of news:
when President Wilson went to
breakfast yesterday something soft
startled him by brushing against his
leg. He looked down and saw a black
cat. 1t first the attendant started to
eject the intruder but the President
interccded and the cat stayed with him
| throughout the meal and got a big
saucer of cream.
"All day the cat lay on the sofa in
the Presidents study and purred. No
body knows from whence she came.
She can stay at the White House If
she likes"
There vas n man who upon read
ing this knew from whence the cat
came" AT noon on the day before the
President found the cat in his break
fast room and gave 1t a saucer of
cream as a prelude to its adoption, the
writer of this happened to be walking
! through the White House grounds
when a half-grown, jet black cat came
to him and mewed for sympathy or
something to eat, very likely both.
Now the writer who was appealed
to is not particularly fond Of eats. He
has nothing against the cat as a cat,
but being Interested in Wild bird life
he knows no deep affection for either
Tom or Tabby.
1t was feared on the part of the man
who had met the cat, that being hun