Life — April 1, 1897 — page 15: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

261 NATURE AT THE PLOW. I" begins to look as if we had the bitin Nature’s mouth. Edison is reported to have said that the electricity wasted in an ordinary thunder storm would run all the machinery in a manufacturing city for a month, This certainly is most welcome information, A coal mine will never be able to stand competition with a great, voluminous-topped thunder storm that rolls up from the south- west, after six hours of ninety in the shade. Still, there will be difficulties connected with the matter, A storm might come up and pass entirely over before a company could be organized and shares sold preparatory to tapping the institution. If successful, after ex- hausting its electrical essence the company would find itself with an enormous cloud on its hands, several miles in expanse, which would settle down upon a whole | county as paralyzing and blighting as when a weary cow sinks to rest onthe tulip bed. It would not be available as a fertilizer, and would be as useless on a farm as a mort- gage. Besides, they would probably be taken to some particular local- ity to extract their vitality, just as pigs in the West congregate at the Chicago stock yards Now, any observant man will say that taking a thunder storm across a few States at will is a far different task from leading a pet lamb down the front walk. The former was never noted for docility. Still, they might be lured into almost any locality simply by in- stituting a Sunday-school picnic. ee This would be a dishonorable Z and humiliating mode of proce- dure, however. In spite of all these drawbacks, the day is coming when the rain- maker instead of the coal baron will fill his cellar with government bonds. > z 3 2 = w S z zr z = & x $ ° . 3 = 8 8 > z fe) I = z = z & x = comicbooks.com r