RECLAMATION
"There are no useless American acres," Secretary Wilson is reported to have said. "The Government is seeking in all parts of the world for crops that have become acclimated to dry conditions, and it has been so successful that many places that were once accounted desert land are to-day supporting productive farms." Says Guy Elliott Mitchell, secretary of the National Irrigation Association, in an article on "Resources of the American Desert," contributed to The Technical World (Chicago):
"It has been estimated that in the neighborhood
of 100,000,000 acres of the American
desert can be reclaimed to most intensive
agriculture through irrigation; yet Frederick
V. Coville, the chief botanist of the Department
of Agriculture, does not hesitate to say
that in the strictly arid region are many
millions of acres, now considered worthless
for agriculture, which are as certain to be
settled in small farms as were the lands of
Illinois; and this without irrigation. This
applies particularly to the great plateaus in
the northern Rocky Mountain region. 'I
would confidently predict,' said Mr. Coville,
'that the transformation of these barren-looking
lands into farms, through the introduction
of desert plants, will be as extensive
a work as the enormous reclamation through
irrigation."
Moral wastes should be and can be
reclaimed, as surely as the American
deserts. There is no such thing as a
wholly useless life. (Text.)
(2628)
See Irrigation.
Doctor John Clifford, of London, tells this story about Gladstone. It relates to two young men who had got into drinking habits:
Gladstone knew of them, heard of the
downward road they were traveling, and felt
necessity laid upon him to try and reclaim
them. He invited them to Hawarden, impressively
appealed to them to mend their
ways, and then knelt and fervently asked
God to sustain and strengthen them in their
resolve to abstain from that which had done
them so much harm. "Never," says one of
the men in question, "can I forget the scene,
and as long as I have memory the incidents
of the meeting will be indelibly imprest upon
my mind. The Grand Old Man was profoundly
moved by the intensity of his solicitation.
Neither of us from that day to this
has touched a drop of intoxicating drink,
nor are we ever likely to violate an undertaking
so impressively ratified in Mr. Gladstone's
library." (Text.)
(2629)
Recluse Ignorance—See Money, Ignorance of.
RECOGNITION BY ONE'S WORK
Sir Antony Vandyck, the artist, once
visited the studio of Frans Hals, a fellow
craftsman, disguised as a stranger, and sat
for his portrait. Professing surprize at the
work, he said: "Painting is doubtless an
easier thing than I thought. Let us change
places and see what I can do." When his
work was finished, so skilful was it that
Hals rushed at his guest, and clasped him
round the neck in a fraternal hug. "The
man who can do that," he cried, "must be
either Vandyck or the devil." (Text.)
(2630)
RECOMPENSE
Lizzie L. Baker, in The Watchman, voices a common hope that the life to come will make the suffering of this life seem of no moment to us:
As they who cross with only sails
The wave-lashed ocean wide and deep;
Slow journey, baffled by the winds,
At last strike sail, safe harbor reached,
Forget the hardships of the way.
So when we reach yon heavenly shore,
The toil and suffering undergone
Will not find place in memory's crypt,
So fair the port for which we sailed.
(2631)
RECOMPENSE FOR KINDNESS
Ariosto tells us of a gentle fairy, who, by
a mysterious law of her nature, was at certain
periods compelled to assume the form
of a serpent and to crawl upon the ground.
Those who in the days of her disguise
spurned her and trod upon her were forever
debarred from a participation in those gifts
that it was her privilege to bestow, but to
those who, despite her unsightly aspect, com-
