1 Summer Heat May | I Become Unbearable. 1 National Danger Impending From Forest Destruction. M THESE modern hot waves, with sunstroke and death on every hand, have become a serious problem for science to solve. Important facts are herewith presented on the subject. It Is be lieved that the rapid destruction of the great forests of the country by careless settlers, lumbermen and wood pulp makers are the chief cause of this marked recent change In our cll .etr-" I ''. : ■' , mate. And it is thought by some ex perts that without trees the earth would be uninhabitable. It is only in the United States and India, it is declared, that these devas tating heat waves periodically sweep vast areas. In Em-ope—Germany and France especially—where forests are protected by law and heavy penalties rigidly enforced for violations, such outbursts of heat, as a rule, are un heard of. It has long been known "to a mathe matical certainty" that drought in creases with the disappearance of for ests. Trees not only create moisture and invite rain, but their roots, leaves and underbrush hold the rain that falls long enough to be absorbed by the earth. As hills and mountains, by lire or axe, lose their forest, the soil dries up and vegetation languishes, while valleys and canyons are flooded, often With disastrous results. This is the case around Pittsburg and in other hilly localities which have been jT MM v &&%&&& GROWING CORN IN A FOREST IN NORTH CAROLINA —THE TREES HAVE BEEN GIRDLED TO KILL THEM, AND THIS PRIMITIVE SORT OF AGRICULTURE IS CARRIED ON IN THE INTERVENING SPACES. stripped of timber for fuel and manu facturing purposes. On the great plains rain seldom falls. iWhen it does it is a cloudburst. The washouts that come once in three or four years in Arizona are of inde scribable violence. Eastern readers would scarcely believe that on the parched alkali deserts a cloudburst a few years ago along the Southern Pacific east of Tucson in half an hour buried sections of the railroad track thirty feet deep in sand, filled gorges, changed the course of rivers, wound steel rails as if they were wire around the few straggling cottonwood trees skirting a dry stream twenty or thirty feet above the old track, and plowed cliasms in the tarantula beds clear down to solid rock. In that strange city of San Luis Po tosl, in Old Mexico, where the timber disappeared lone ago. I was told that it had not rained there for eight years. The dust was a foot deep, aud the burning heat of the sun seemed to wither the very faces of the muleteers driving thel* silver laden asses through the streets. In the spectral Middle Park of Col orado one sees a vast desolation of stupendous mountains, isolated and in clusters, absolutely naked—without tree or shrub. Ages ago the Indians, it is supposed, living in that once pas toral region, fleeing before invading tribes, burned the forests behind them. On every side, in a grand encircling amphitheatre, peaks of the lloeky Mountains rise to the snow lino hem ming in this Middle Peak, fortunately supplied with risers flowing swift anil deep from the canyons of the snowy range. Hut the rainfall is said to be decreasing with the destruction of pine forests of the higher mountains. In view of the vital necessity of pro tecting the timber yet remaining In Colorado, the Forestry Association, composed of the best men in that State, was early organized, stringent DESTRUCTION IN THE RED WOOD BELT OF CALIFORNIA. laws passed and vigilant watch kept to prevent destruction. The terror of fires in the Rocky Mountains is akin to that of volcanoes and earthquakes. When once started by careless hunters, a match thrown into a bunch of dry grass, or by in cendiaries, timber thieves and the like, vast tidal Avaves of flame sweep the pine clad slopes rising to lofty alti tudes and stretching for miles along the groat ranges. It has been observed that the absence of timber even In the mountain parks interferes with the rainfall, causing periods of drought, or violent rainstorms doing great dam age and passing quickly away. Irrigation, followed by vegetation and tree planting, brings rain. This has been demonstrated all over the greater West. In former times the summer storms were chiefly confined to the mountains of Colorado. Now they spread out on the plains, following the rivers, with their miles of wide areas of Irrigated fields and recently planted timber belts. Moisture begets moisture, and with it comes a milder tempered at mosphere, g3&*le showers and cooling breezes, Instead of erratic periods of drought, floods and cyclones. ▲ll this, with many other facta, baa | nn Important bearing on the phenom ena of heat waves now exciting so much concern. I called on Mr. George Sudworth, Acting Chief of the United States MODE OP REFORESTING A HILLSIDE BY ESTABLISHING BARRIERS OF BRUSH TO HOLD SOIL IN WHICH YOUNG TREES ARE TO BE PLANTED. Forest Bureau, in Washington, for his views. He said: "There is much difference of opinion on the subject among scientific men, but students of forestry are as a rule convinced that the wholesale destruc tion of trees In this country has had much to do with the recent aggrava tion of the meteorological phenomenon known as the 'hot wave.' "Hot waves may almost be said to be peculiar to this country. They oc cur in India, but In Europe and most other parts of the world they are un known. We find them uncomfortable, but as yet we have not learned with any degree of certainty the causes that bring them about. Future Inves tigatlon Is likely to throw more light upon the subject. I am satisfied a principal cause of the severe heated spells of recent summers has been the wholesale wiping out of forests. "That forests affect the air's tem perature there Is no doubt. Evapora tion within the limits of a forest goes on much more slowly than outside. This means moisture, and with mois ture Cullies a cooling of the atmos phere. In regions largely forested the temperature Is usually much lower. "We have long observed that areas originally humid are dried up by de forestation. Regions once heavily wooded, with plenty of water In streams and springs, have become parched, the streams being either dried up or nearly dry. The forest covered water-slied means a spongy layer of 'humus,' or leaf-mold, which absorbs rain. This sponge, spread over the soil, gives up its water slowly, and thus the supply of moisture remains in the water shed for a longer time. "Wipe out the forest cover, and the spongy layer disappears. Even though the amount of rainfall remains un altered, the smooth surface allows the water to rush away. There is nothing to hold the water, and so It passes off rapidly, leaving the ground dry. Water that falls on a slate roof runs off fast er than if the roof were covered with moss." Professor Fernow says of hailstorms that they seem to avoid forest covered areas. This Is certainly interesting to farmers and students of meteorology. The influence of forests upon fogs and clouds is marked and peculiar. Fog lingers in the woods when It is clear elsewhere. Trees act as condens ers, gatherers of dew, frost and ice, and this phenomenon is especially re markable In the so-called "Ice storms," where the accumulation of ice Is so great as to overload and break the larger limbs and branches. The man who has most carefully studied this subject Is B. Ribbentrop, Inspector General of Forests in India. He says forests nffect climate in a marked degree. History proves this in numerous instances where the de terioration of the climate of whole dis tricts, and even of entire countries, has followed the destruction of forests. The once well wooded Dalmatia is now a stony desert. Persia, former ly one of thtf granaries of the East, is barren and desolate over a large ex tent of Its territory. North Africa, which was oue of the main grain pro ducers of ancient Rome, is subject to tho severest droughts. Spain, Italy, Sicily, Greece and Asia Minor have also suffered enormously from defor estation. In the United States observing sta tions established in forests have re corded over and over again the fact that the air over wooded areas was both cooler and inoister than above the open fields. It has been claimed that forests ex ert an Important Influence in behalf of human health. Soil conditions in the woods are unfavorable to disease producing germs, especially those of cholera and yellow fever. Every forest Is an oxygen factory, and It Is declared that its production of that life giving gas Is of sanitary importance. Ozone Is ulso a forest product. ! The forest may bo regarded as a blanket, with which nature covers the earth for its protection. This blanket says Professor Mark W Harrington, "determines many of the feature? of climate." Snys Professor Sargent: "The for ests In the mountain regions are es sential to prevent destructive torrents and to maintain the flow of the riv ers." We consumed last year more than 30,000,000,000 square feet of sawed lumber alone. The annual consumption of our for ests is 25,000,000,000 cubic feet. To furnish this amount would require the produce of 1,200,000,000 acres of wood land, whereas our total forest area is less than 500,000,000 acres. It will be seen, then, that we are drawing upon our forest capital, whereas we ought to be using only the Interest. The greatest timber consumption is for firewood. We burn for heating and manufacturing purposes annually ISO,. 000,000,000 feet, board measure—four times as much as we use for all other purposes put together. However, most of the firewood supply is of timber unsuitable in size or quality for the sawmill. The conclusion of all this seems to be that because we must have tooth picks, matches, coffins and firewood, and, incidentally, wood for ships and houses, with timber thieves and in centlaries running riot destroying for ests, the globe is to be made uninhabi table.—New York Herald. OXYCEN FOR BALLOONISTS. An Improved Apparatus Designed by o French Savant. The investigations of Bert have made clear the action of oxygen on organ isms subjected to feeble atmospheric pressure. His numerous experiments have shown that the accidents to which one is exposed in rarefied ail OXYGEN APPARATUS FOR BALLOONISTS. can be avoided by keeping nearly con stant tho quantity of oxygen taken in at each respiration. Accordingly, since his time, aeronauts have carried with them oxygen, which they breathe through a flexible tube fitted with a mouthpiece. M. Cailletet, in a paper read before the Paris Academy of Sciences, re marks that this method of taking the oxygen is defective. Ever since birth we have been accustomed to breathe through the nose, and aeronauts have difficulty in giving up this habit and breathing through the mouth. Thus the oxygen inspired through the mouthpiece scarcely fills the mouth, and Is ordinarily rejected without Hav ing penetrated to the lungs. The author presented to the academy an apparatus enabling aeronauts to carry and have at their disposal large quantities of oxygen stored in small volume, and to assure the absorption of the gas without taking any particu lar care. It is composed (1) of one or several vessels containing liquid oxy gen, (2) of a recipient in which this is turned into gaseous oxygen, and (3) of a kind of mask which renders the res piration of the gas certain. Pure oxygen almost always causes nausea and illness. To avoid this M. Cailletet has placed in the mask a shutter with variable opening, ena bling the wearer to mix with the oxy gen a certain volume of air. The aero naut regulates this opening so that the oxygen Increases in amount with the height, and, with the object of pre venting the condensation of the water vapor contained In the respired gases, ho allows It to escape by a flexible tube furnished with a special valve and hidden under the aeronaut's clothes to prevent freezing. An Improvement In Needles. An Improvement has just been made by a French needle manufacturer, which Is said to have several advan tages. It is shown by the accompany i Li I L A NEW FRENCH NEEDLE. ing cut, which clearly also shows the nature of the innovation which lies in tho method of putting on the eye. A needle thus equipped is said to pass through the material with much more ease than is experienced with the old style, and the strength of the cotton cannot be impaired bj Its repeated passages through the cloth, as Is fre quently the case with the instrument now In vogue A watch may give tick, but a wu> jeweler doesn't. DR. TALMAGE'S SERMON SUNDAY'S DISCOURSE BY THE NOTED DIVINE. : Tlin IVrmmnlvp Word Tt Calls All Peoplo to GlndiißHfl What We Mont Nerd—Tlie Star of Faith—Tliore Is Pardon For All. ICopyrifrht. 11X11.1 Washington. D. C. —In this discnurse Dr. Talmage calls all people to gladness and opens all the doors of exnectancy; texts. Genesis vi. 18, "Come;" Kevelation xxii, 17. "Come." Imperial, tender and all persuasive is the word "come." Six hundred and sev enty-eight times is it found in the Scrip tures. It stands at the front gate of the Bible, as in mv first text, inviting ante diluvians into Noah's ark. and it stands at the other gate of the Bible, as in my second text, inviting the poatdilnvians of all later pores into the ark of a Saviour's mercy. "Come" is only a word of four letters, but it is the oueen of words, and nearly the entire nation of English vo cabulary bows to its sceptre. It is an ocean into which emnties ten thousand rivers of meaning. Other words drive, but this beckons. All moods of feeling hath that word "come." Sometimes it w-eeps and sometimes it laughs. Some times it prays, sometimes it temots and sometimes it destroys. It sounds from the door of the church and from the se raglios of sin, from the gates of heaven and the gates of hell. It is confluent and accrescent of all power. It is the heiress of most of the future. "Come!" You may pronounce it so that all the heavens will be heard in its cadences or pronounce it so that all the woes of time and eternity shall reverberate in its one syllable. It is on the lip of saint and profligate. It is the mightiest of all so licitants cither for good or bad. To-day I weigh anchor and haul in the planks and set sail on that great word, although I am sure I will not be able to reach the farther shore. I will let down the fathoming line into this sea and try to measure its denths, and. though T tie together all the cables and cordage T have on board I will not be able to touch bot tom. All the power of the Christian reli gion is in that word "come." The dicta torial and commendatory in religion are of no avail. The imperative mood is not the appropriate mood when we would have people savingly impressed. They may be coaxed, but they cannot be driv en. Our henrts are like our homes —at a friendly knock the door will be opened, but an attempt to force open our door would land the assailant in prison. Our theoloeical seminaries, which keep young men three years in their curriculum be fore launchine them into the ministry, will do well if in so short a time they can teach the candidates for the holy office how to sav with great emphasis and into nation am} power that one word "come." That man who has such efficient in Christian work, and that woman who has such power to persuade people to quit the wrong and begin the right went through a series of losses, bereavements, persecutions and the trials of twenty or thirty years before they could make it a triumph of grace every time they uttered the word "come." You must remember that in many cases our "come" has a mightier "come" to conquer before it has any effect at all. Just give me the accurate census, the sta tistics of how many are down in fraud, in drunkenness, in gambling, in impurity or in vice of any sort, and I will give you the accurate census or statistics of how many have been slain by the word "come." "Come and click wine glasses with me at this ivory bar." "Come and see what we can win at this earning ta ble." "Come, enter with me this doubt ful speculation." "Come with me and read those infidel tracts on Christianity." "Come with me to a place of bad amuse ment." "Come with me in a gay bout through the underground life of the city." If in this city there are 20,000 who are down in moral character, then 20,000 fell under the power of the word "come." I was reading of a wife whose husband had been overthrown by strong drink, and she went to the saloon where he was ruined, and she said, "Oive me back my husband." And the bartender, pointing to a maudlin and battered man drowsing in the corner of the barroom, said: "There he is. Jim, wakp up. Here's your wife come for you." And the wom an said: "Do you call that my husband? What have you been doing with him? Is that the manly brow, is that the clear eye. is that the noble heart that I mar ried? What vile drug have you given him that has turned him into a fiend? Take your tiger claws off of him. Uncoil those serpent folds of evil habit that are crushing him. Give me back my hus band, the one with whom I stood at the altar ten years ago. Oive him back to me." Victim was he, as million of oth ers have been, of the word "ce ." Now, we want all the wr. over to harness this word for good s others have harnessed it for evil, i i it will draw the five continents and I seas be tween them —yes, it will draw he whole earth back to the God from whom it has wandered. It is that wooing and persua sive word that will lead men to give up their sins. Was skepticism ever brought into love of the truth by an ebullition of hot words against infidelity? Was ever the blasphemer stopped in his oaths by denunciation of blasphemy? Was ever a drunkard weaned from his cups by the temperapce lecturer's mimicry of stag gering step and hiccough? No. It was, Come with mc to church to-day and hear our singing;" "Come and let me in troduce you to a Christian man whom you will be sure to admire;" "Come with me into associations that are cheerful and Ijood and inspiring;" "Come with me into joy such as you never before expe rienced." With that word which has done so much for others I approach you to-day. Are you all right with God? "No," you say, "I think not. I am sometimes alarmed when I think of Him. I fear I will not be ready to meet Him in the last day. My heart is not right with God." Come, then, and have it made right. Through the Christ who died to save you, come! What is the use in waiting? The longer you wait the farther off you are and the deeper you are down. Strike out for heaven! You remember that a few years ago a steamer called the Princess Alice, with a crowd of excursionists aboard, sank in the Thames, and there was an awful sacrifice of life. A boatman from the shore put out for the rescue, and he had a big boat, and he got it so full it would not hold another person, and as he laid hold of the oars to pull for the shore, leaving hundreds helpless and drowning, he cried out: "Oh. that I had a bigger boat!" Thank God I am not thus lim ited. and that I can promise room for all in this gospel boat. Get in, get in! And yet there is room. Room in the heart of a pardoning God. Room in heaven. 1 also apply the word of my text to those who would like practical comfort. Tf any ever escape the struggle of life, I have not found them. They are not cer tainly among the prosperous classes. In most eases it was a struggle all the way up till they reached the prosperity, and since they have reached these heights there have been perplexities, anxieties and crises which were almost enough to shatter the nerves and turn the brain. It would be hard to tell which have the biggest fight in this world, the prosperi ties or the adversities, the conspicuities or the obscurities. Just as soon as you have enough success to attract the atten tion of others the envies and jealousies are let loose from their kennel. The greatest crime that you can commit in the estimation of others is to get on bet ter than they do. They think your addi tion is their subtraction. Five Ininrtreft persons start for a certain goal of suc cess. One roaches it.and the other 499 are mad. It would take volumes to hold the story of the wrongs, outrages and defamations that have come upon you as a result of your success. The warm sun of prosperity brings into life a swamn full of annoying insects. On the other hand, the unfortunate classes have their strug gles for maintenance. To achieve a liveli hood by one who had nothing to start with and after awhile for a family as well and carry this on until children are reared and educated and fairly started in the world and to do this amid all the rival ries of business and the uncertainty of crops and the fickleness of tariff legisla tion, with an occasional labor strike and here and there a financial panic thrown in. is a mightv thing to do. and there are hundreds and thousands of such heroes and heroines who live unsung and die un honored. What we all need, whether up or down in life or half way between, is the infinite solace of the Christian religion. And so we emplov the word "come." It will take all eternity to find out the number of business men who have been strength ened by the promises of God and the peo ple who have been fed by the ravens when other resources gave out and the men and women who, going into this bat tle armed only with needle or saw or axe or yardstick or pen or type or shovel or shoelnst, have gained a victory that made the heaven resound. With all the re sources of God promised for every exi gency no one need be left in the lurch. I like the faith displayed years ago in T)rury lane. London, in an humble hr,me where every particle of food had given out and a kindly soul entered with tea and other table supplies and found a ket tle on the fire ready for the tea. The benevolent lady said, "How is that vou have the kettle ready for the tea when you had no tea in the house?" And the daughter in the home said: "Mother would have me put the kettle on the fire, and when I said, 'What is the use of doing so when we have nothing in the house?' she said: 'My child, God will pro vide. Thirty years He has already pro vided for me through all pain and' help lessness, and He will not, leave me to starve at last. He will send us help though we do not see how. We have been waiting all day for something to come, but until we saw you we knew not how it was to come." Such things the world may call coincidences, but I call them Almightv deliverances, and, though you do not hear of them, they are occurring e yerv hour of every day and in all parts of Christendom. Those who follow the advice of this world in time of perplexity are in a fear ful round, for it is one bewildered soul following another bewildered soul, and only those who have in such time got their eye on the morning star of our Christian faith can find their way out or be strong enough to lead others'with an all nersuasive invitation. "But." says some one, '"you Christian people keep telling us to 'come,' yet you do not tell us how to come." That charge shall not be true on this occasion. Come believing! Come repenting! Come praying! After all that God has been doing for GOOD years, sometimes through patriarchs and sometimes through pro phets and at last through the culmina tion of all the tragedies on Golgotha, can any one think that God will not welcome vour coming? Will a father at vast out lay construct a mansion for his son and lay out t narks, white with statues and green with foliage and all a-sparkle with fountains and then not allow his son to live in the house or walk in the parks? Has God built this house of gospel mercy and will He then refuse entrance to His children? Will a Government at great expense build life-saving stations all along the coast, and boats that can hover unhurt like a petrel over the wildest surge and then, when the lifeboat has reached the wreck of a ship in the offing, not allow the drowning to seize the life line or take the boat for the shore in safety? Shall God provide at the cost of his only Son's assassination escape for a sinking world and then turn a deaf ear to the cry that comes up from the breakers? "Rut," you say, "there are so many things I have to believe and so many things in the shape of a creed that I have to adopt that I am kept back." No, no! You need believe but two things—name ly, that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners and that you are one of them. "But," you say, "I do believe both of those things." Do you really believe them with all your heart? "Yes." Why, then, vou have passed from death into life. V\ hy. then, you are a son or a daughter of the Lord Almighty. Why, then, you are an heir or an heiress of an inheritance that will declare dividends from now until long after the stars are dead. Halleluiah! Prince of God, why do you not.«come and take your coronet? Princess of the Lord Almighty, why do you not mount your throne? Pass up into the light. Your boat is anchored, why do you not go ashore? Just plant your feet hard down, and you will feel under them the Rock of Age's. I challenge the universe for one in stance in which a man in the right spirit appealed for the salvation of the gospel and did not get it. Man alive, are you going to let all the years of your life go away with you without vour having this great peace, this glorious hope, this bright expectancy? Are you going to let the pearl of great price lie in the dust at your feet because you are too indolent or too proud to stoop down and pick it up? Will you wear the chain of evil habit when near by you is the hammer that could with one stroke snap the shackle? Will you stay in the prison of sin when here is a gospel key that could unlock your incar ceration? No, no! As the one word "come" has some times brought many souls to Christ, I will try the experiment of piling up into a mountain and then send down in an avalanche of power many of these gospel "comes." "Come thou and all thy liouse into the ark;" "Come unto Me, all ye who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest;" "Come, for all things are now ready;" "Come with us, and we will do you good;" "Come and see;" _ "The Spirit and the bride say 'come,' 'and let him that heareth say 'come,' and let him that is athirst 'come.' " The stroke of one bell in a tower may be sweet, but a score of bells well tuned and rightly lifted and skillfully swung in one great chime fill the heavens with music almost celestial. And no one who has heard the mighty chimes in the tow ers of Amsterdam or Ghent or Copenha gen can forget them. Now, it seems to me that in this Sabbath hour all heaven is chiming, and the voices of departed friends and kindred ring down the sky, saying, "Come!" When Russia was in one of her great wars, the suffering of the soldiers had been long and hitter, and they were wait ing for the end of the strife. One day a messenger in great excitement ran among the tents of the army shouting, "Peace! Pence!" The sentinel on guard asked, "Who savs peace?" And the sick soldier asked, "Who says 'peace?' " And all up and down the encampment of the Rus sians went the question, "Who says 'peace?' " Then the messenger respond ed, "The Czar says 'peace.' That was enough. That meant going home. That meant the war was over. No more wounds and no more long marches. So to-day, as one of the Lord's messengers, 1 move through these great encampments of souls and cry: "Peace botween earth and heaven! Peace between God and man! Peace between your repenting soul and a pardoning Lord!" If you ask me, "Who savs peace?" I answer, "Christ our King declares it:" "My peace I give unto yau!" "Peace of God that passeth all understanding!" Everlasting peace!
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers