Newspapers / The Concord Daily Tribune … / Jan. 29, 1923, edition 1 / Page 2
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PACE TVt THE CONCORD DAILY TRIBUNE I - The Slorq of Aqua Pura m WILLIAM ALLEN WHITE i hat His daughter tanac. tyvd a a UN Hw hat arts (im ogita I W'a. ns( fr afe a tW tar a Mary. tMl nrttbared by m- WMbu Be wafted ioial tka URta attfca Bursa TnZj too. taUrksg aiBlltf Ai aigM wftaa, the aalrt tM . . -..J u'. B th. Uali. ud J IHtla drifts apoa tka brakes Main, tb masters burning far luto Ut aigbt. nilllllMIIIIIIIIMIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIilllll P' BOPLE who write a boat Kansas, aa a rule, writ Ignorantly. and speak of tha state aa a finished product Kanaaa, Ilka Gaol of oM, U divided Into three parta. differing aa widely, each fr. in, the other, a any three count i lea la the aame latitude apon the slob. It would be aa un true tu Haaaifj together the Kgyptlnn. the Indian and the Central American, aa t apeak of the Kanaaa inaa with out distinguishing between the eastern Kantian, the central Kansan. and the western Kansan. Kastern Kansas Is a finished community like New York or Pennsylvania. Central Kansas is finished, hut ant quite paid for; und western Kansas the only place where there l any suffering from drought or crop failures. Is a new country old only In a Muck w hich is slowly con- I querlng the desert. Aqua Pura was a western Knnsai town, sot high up. fur out on the j prairie. It was founded nine years ago, at the beginning of the hentu. not i by cowboys and ruiliiins, hut by hon est, nmbitiotis men and womeii. of the six nitn who staked nut the town 1 Site, two Johnson and Barringer were Harvard men; one, Nlekols, mis from Princeton; and the other three, J'.einis, Bradley and Hicks, had oaiie from inland slate universities. When their Hives came West there w;is a I Vnssar reunion, and the lirst mail that arrived niter the post office had been i established brought the New York magazines. The town was like dozens of others that sprang up far nut in I lie I treacherous wilderness in that fresh, i green .spring of 1SHC. They culled it' Aqua Pura, choosing a Latin name to proclaim to the world that it was isot a rowdy town. Trie new yellow pine of the littTe village gleamed in the dear sunlight. It could he seen tor miles .hi a clear, warm day, as it stood upon a rise oC ground; and over in Maize, six miles away, the elec tric lights of Aqus Pura, which flashed otit in the evening before the town was six months old, could be seen di. tinctly. A sclioolhouse that cost twen ty thousand dollars was built before the town had seen its first winter; and the first Christmas ball in Aqua Pura was held in an opeii hoim- that cost ten thousand. Money was plentiful; two arid three-story buildings rose on each side of the main street of the little place. The fanners who bad (nken homesteads in the country around the town had prospered. Barringer was elected mayor at Die municipal election in the spring of '87, and lie platted out Barriuger'i Addition, and built a house there with borrowed money in June. There were two thousand people In Aqua Pura then. There was not a lawless element. There was not a saloon in the town. A billiard hall, and a dark room, wherein cards might be played surreptitious ly, were the ouly institutions whicb made the people of Aqua Pura blush, when they took, the Innumerable "Eastern capitalists" over the town who visited western Kansas that year. These "capitalists" were entertained at a three-story brick hotel, equipped with electricity and modern plumbing order to excel Maize, where the ho tel was an indifferent frame affair. This is the story of the rise, liar ringer lias told it a thousand times. Barringer believed In the town to the lust. When the terrible drought of 1HH1, with its furnacelike breath singed the town aifd the farms in Fountain county, Barringer led the majority which proudly claimed that the coun try was ail right; and as chairman of the board of count y commissioners, he sent a scathing message to the gov ernor, refusing aid. Barringer's own bank loaned money on land, whereon eoly Ave hundred eeaaty that year, Ik takes from era J the count i la Keuatain a ad the) tlTed no the railroad that Families were put He told his daily Tlaltora that ba area aaj the poor list wltboat duajraee It area almost a mark of psrrtlral dlsttnc tl-n- an I la the link towa naay de rteea vera la vogue to distribute the county funds during the winter. XL ere was no rata that winter and the snow was hard and dry. Cattle on the range suffered for water aad died by the thousand. A procession from, the little town started eastward early In the spring. White-canopied wagons, sought the rising run. t'hrtstmas eve, IM, the entire vil lage, fifteen souls In all, assembled at Barringer's house, lie was hopeful, even cheerful, and talked bitterly of what "one good crop would do for the country; although there were no farmers left to plant It, even If nature had been harboring a smile for the dreary land. The year that followed that Christmas promised much. There were spring ruins, and In May the brown grass and the scattered patches of wheat grew, green and fair to see. Barringer freshened up perceptibly. He sent an account of hss indebtedness on hotne-ruled ninnilla paer to his creditors in the East, and faithfully assured them that he would remit all ho owed in the fall. A few wanderers straggled Into Fountain county, lured by the green fields and running brooks. The gray prairie wolf gave up the dug out to human occupants. Lights in the prairie cabins twinkled baik, hope to the s!:irs. Before June there were a thousand people in Fountain county. Aqua I'ura's business houses seemed to liven up. There was a Fourth of July celebration in town. But the rain that spoiled the advertised "tire works in the eveuiug" was the last Thus the winter passed. The groan caaar with the light sab at March. By May It bad lost Its color. Br Junr B was brown, and the bet wlads cane again In August, curving the warped boards a little deeper on the floor of the hotel porch. Herders and travelers, Btraggllng back to the green country, saw bias sitting there at twi light, louklug toward the southwest, a grizzled, unkempt old man. with a shifting light In his eye. To each aa spoke to him he always made the same speech : "Yes. It looks like rain, but it can't rain. The rain has gone dry here. They say It ralued at Hutchinson, maybe so, I doubt It There Is no find west of Newton. He dried np In DO. They talk irrigation. That's an sM story In hell. Where's Johnson? Not here! Where's NlckoisT Not here! Bern Is? Not here! Brad ley? Not here! Hicks? Not here! Where's handsome Dick Barringer, Hon. Bichsrd Barringer? Here! Here he Is. holding down a hot brick In a cooling room of hell! Yes, it does look like rnin. doesn't it?" Cattle roamed the streets In the early spring, but the stumbling of the animals upon the broken walks, did not disturb him, and the winds and the drouth soon drove them away. The messenger with provisions came every morning. The summer, with its awful bent, began to glow. The light ning anil the thunder joked Insolently in the distance at noon; and the stars in the deep, dry blue looked down and mocked the old man prayers as be sat, at night, on his rickety sentry box. He tottered through the deserted stores calling bis roll. Night er'er Whwi the spring of 189,'f opened, Barringer looked ten years older than he looked the spring before. It was his habit to sit on the front porch of the deserted hotel and look across the pruiries to the southwest ml u-iitfh The hrpnkinp clouds taouttpr the crop had failed, to tide the farm- lhm ,,,.. f , t.ri,,M Hp M era over cm viuw, jmrmigei a Sig nature guaranteed loans from the East upon everything negotiable, and Aqua Pura tjjrived for'a time upon promises. Here and there, in the spring of 1888, there was an empty building. One room of the opera house block was vacant. Barringer started a man in business, selling notions, who occupied the room. Barringer went East and pleaded with the men who had invest ed in the town to be easy on their debtors. Then came the hot winds of July, blowing out of the souhtwest, Korchlng the grass, shriveling the grain, und drying up the streams that had filled In the spring. During the full of that year the hotel, which had been open only In the lower story, closed. The opera house began to be used for "aid" meetings, and when the winter wind blew dust-blackened show through the desolate street ot the little town, It rattled a hundred win dows in vacant houses, and sometimes blew sun-warped boards from the high vldewalk that bad across the gully to the big red grade of the. unfinished "Chicago Atr Line." Barringer did not go East that year. He could not Bot he wrote wrote regularly and braVely to the Eastern capi.alists whr-vere concerned in his bank and loun company; and they The Old Man's Lamp Was Seen by Straggling Traveler Burning Far Into the Night." that fell until winter. A carload of night he walked to the red clay grada aid from central Kansas saved a bun- j of the uncompleted "Air Line" und died lives in Fountain county that ; looked over the dead level stretches ot prairie. He would have gone away but something held him to the town There he had risked all. Here, per haps, in Ids warped fancy, he hoped to regain all. He bad written so often "Times will be better in the spring,' that it was part of Ills confession of faith thut aud "One good crop will bring the country around all right. This was written with red clay In the old man's nervous hand on the sida of the hotel, on the failed signs, on the deserted Inner walls of the stores In fact, everywhere In Aqua Pura. The wind told on him; it withered him and sapped his energy. One morning he uwoke and a strange sound greeted hi- erfrs. There was a gentle tupping in the building and a roar that was not the guffaw of the wind. He rushed for the door. He saw the rain, and bareheaded he ran to the middle of the streets where it grew colder and colder as thewlnter deepened and the Interest on defnulted loans came out. Barringer's failure was announced In the spring of '89 Nlekols had left. Johnson had left The other founders of Aqua Pura bat died in 's7-tt, and their families haf see the empty water tower silhouetted against sky. The frame buildings that rose in the boom days had all been moved away. He sat and waited, hop ing fondly for the realization of a dream which he feared could never come true. There were days when the postmas ter's four-year-old child sat with him. The old man and the child sat thus one evening when the old man-lghed: "If It would only rain, there would be half a crop yet ! If It would only rnin !" The child beard him and sighed iml tatively : "Yes, If it would only rain what Is rain, Mr. Barringer?" He looked at the child blankly and sat for a long Jiiue in silence. When he arose he did not even have a pretense 1 jf r - - f. 9 bwbbbbbW M 'sbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbB I Announcement The Citizens Bank, and Trust Company will occupy its new quarters at No. 24 South Union Street on Wednesday, January 31, 1923 ' This building has been plajined, erected and equipped throughout for the service and convenience of this com munity, and we cordially invite you to call on the Open ing Day and to inspect the arrangements we have made in your interest. The building will be open for inspection Wednesday afternoon from two until four o'clock. ' The formal opening will be held Wednesday evening from seven thirty to ten o'clock,, to which the public is cordially invited. Music and souvenirs. r CI1AS. 13. WAGOXEK I'roidcnt C. L. I'kOPST Assistant Cashier OFFICERS M. L MARSH " Vice President BOYD LUGGERS Teller DIRECTORS 'i ,c ... tmA A. V GOODMAN Cashier CARL BEAVER Teller Geo. L. Patterson P. C. Niblock C. M. Ivev M. L. Marsh Alex R. Howard A. N. James E. C. JJarnhardt T. Frank Goodman j)r. W. D. Pemberton P..F. Stallings 11. L. Umberger A. F. Goodman Dr. J. A. Patterson Chrs. 13. Wagoner r CITIZENS BANK AND TRUST COMPANY Concord, N. C. li'aiiio TraiiMiiLssioii I nrk-rground May Help Miners. rittuburjjh. .iniuVaft I'enclruiion of the earth's surface hy radio waves is , ..1.1. C .... I r . . was MHM rfn., n Th i ""J" " " HTTI 'l C. let' II1ICMI S fL :l k z.,: ? ''R.7ii i? iM.burgh Ni. from Maize with the day's supplies found him standing there, vacantly, almost thoughtfully, looking up. the rain dripping from his grizzled head, ! lion or the I iniiejl.NtutOM Rnre.u of Mines, in an effort to perfect its life saving system. The Idea buck f the nroJeet is d of hope. He grew despondent from ' nJ rivulets of water Urickiiug about velopmenl of a radio-plume thai will (ii now reseller to couiuiiililcale with eil- tonihed miners when all other menus of communication tove Immw cut off by explosion or other accident. Informa- ion from the i.iterlor of u stricken uiliie would by of-iho utmost service III, guiding Hie resetters and enabling Uiem to overcome tin engineering prob lems presented, and nmuy i'ciiicNtx hue lieen reeehod. by the btireuu to devise means lo urUlxc wireless meth ods for that purppet!. 'PH.. I 1 -J ..1 . . . w i ' . 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 , 1 1 . t-.prruiit'iiiH were curried out by c. M. Uoiiton r the I'lttHhuich station. Un eouJtUM-tlon with that hour, and a sort of hypochondria seized him. That fall when the winds idled the and in the railroad "cuts" aud the prairie was as hard and barren as the ground around a en bin door, Barrin ger's daughter died of fever. The old man seemed little , moved by sorrow. That winter the postmaster left. The office was dlscoiftlnued. The county commissioners tried to get Basringer his shoes "Hello, Uncle Dick," said the me selrger. "Enjoying the prospect? River's risln'; better come back with me." But the old man ouly answered, "Johnson? Not here! Nlekols? Not here! Bemls? Not herd Bradley? Not here! Hicks? Not here-! And Barrluger? Here! And trow God'a moved the rain belt weat Moved so to leave. He would not be persuaded i -'ar west that there's hope for Laiarut to get irrigation from Abraham." And with this pie old man went Into to go. The county commissioners were not Insistent. It gave one of them an excuse for drawing four dollars a day, from the county treasury; he rode from Maize to Aqua Pura every day with supplies for Barringer. The ola man corAed, ate, and slept in the oliice of the hotel. Day after ilay he put on his overcoat In the wln- araii aad with them the culture ant ttW ambition of the torn a. Bat Hajt erand made tht rounds of the vacant the house. There, when the five days rain had ceased, and when the great river that flooded the barren plain hod shrunk, the rescuing party, cooing from Maize, found him. Beside his bed were his balanced books and his legal papers. In his dead eyes were a thou- aand dreams. and receive inessngrs underground through the strain. About iV feet from tire receiving station in thoiinc was a six inch .bora bole from the sur face, lined with Iron pipe nnd cnulaiii ing electric light wires which extend er! trroughi!t the mine. The pres ence of the- wires, the ntiort "tf the engineers said. evidently assisted giputty In the roci'ptioSi. for When the receiving set veil carried to another part of the mine removed from tin Movies to Instruct (Mttlren In Swed ish Schools. ( Correspondence of Aesoeialed Press.) Stockholm. .Ian. tl. Thut motion pic ture Alms v ill be o ldish-My used MS H niediiun of education in the public school.-, o'f Sweden is now assured. The Superior Bonrd of Kdttcation has been won over to the idea und, in conjunc tion with the National Bureau of Mo tion Pictures It has issued inatructloiiH 0 makefile iibui operative. wires the signals were hardy uudlble Krom now on Swedish children will through l f,eel of cover. Tlw fact j learn their geography lessons from tlie, screen, iy wnicu nicy win aiso ne infonnutl concerning the customs, in dustries, etc., of (lie principal coun tries of the world. Films will be us- und sen! on tour from one school to the next. . All government Institutions uud industries will lie specially film ed fur the purpose of instruction. Inst ruction by motion pictures Iu the reirulur curriculum of the public 'u-booly. under competent teachers, Is tuken here to men n twite-gua rning of the children's islucnofi and u correc tion of the misinformation ami erron eous impressions now so often obtain ed from tlx commercial Dims in the public I beaters. Unit the signals were detected, howev er, even though faintly, whs taken as sufficient evidence by the engineers of transmission through the ground and to encourage further esperunentnUon.od In teaenlnn; natural sciences, nnd "The present nrollmiuur.v exnerl- in giving iustructton In the technique luenls," Sftjld the reporl in eoucluaion," of various trades. Physics can well while unsitccesstui in innuating any pructical methods of using wireless waves for underground commuuica- C. A. Ilodie, k. t'.IJioiiglns mid I'. Ik fesslcr. of the Wesllnghouse Klectiic fcMiinnfiicliirin cimimiiy. at the bu reau's exiH-rimentiil mine in Hruceton, I'a. ! 'i'iiey found that signals from KDKA. a hnwdilfHUlug atatlon eigh teen miles from the mine, ware record ed by u recehnl lucuied Inside tbc mine, and that it was possible to send ! taught through slow-tuoiion pli tares aud, us sterrographic projection liecoucs more iwrfect. solid geometry t Ion. nevertliclcsH indleste clearly thnt (inn 1 taught In a wuy not otherwise elect romagnctle waves may In? luude to travel through solid strata. The ab sorption, nr 1ih of luteiudly, with ills la net, klVfrf great lo lUe short wave lengths used In tlMsM cxpiTlmeuls. I oncer wave lengths arc known lo suffer Mis absorption ud may possi bly be foand practically effective un der certain conditions. . ttt raK PBUBV COMBKWT PAIS possible The Hoard of Kdllcillloll phi us a sys- teniatic inauguration .of new new scheme. 'J'Ihih one of the llrst steps Is lo give regular instruction lo the voniig tiiiehei's in the proper care and handling of projecting machines, aud other lllm apparatus. ' In certalu cases illnis will be pnr chased und Isi ouie the prois-rt ,d the scUooU. Other nlmi will be reotsd lmMrisnf IMseevery. "What we want to discover, -aid counsel, "who was the aggressor." "Kh?" said the fierce looUuv; wll noHti doubtfully. "Let me esplain." suld ctntusel patiently- "If I met you in the street and struck fuu In the face I should bo the aggressor." "No, uo. You don't understand. If I struck you without provocation T should be committing an act of ag gros, 'on." "Excuse m", b ias, you'd be commit ting suicide,'' declared the witness darkl). Aid to Praytr. Pruyor la always most effective when mixed with cquii! parti of sweat. Baltimore 8uu.
The Concord Daily Tribune (Concord, N.C.)
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Jan. 29, 1923, edition 1
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