this at a cost of human lives, superhuman labor, and a hundred million dollars; and, untilled, unproductive, leaching under the merciless sun, lie another million acres which will furnish the stage for the continuation of this drama.

ENGAGING ACTORS FOR THE PARTS

These monumental achievements of reclamation, which cannot be numbered on the fingers of many hands, find no better illustration than that afforded by the Uncompahgre project in Colorado. When the Government decided to make that desert yield crops and homes for the home-hungry, there was but one river through the valley-the Uncompahgre. That river was erratic, insufficient for those who might till the land through which it flows.

Now the valley itself is locked in by mountains 13,000 feet high, whose tops flash white all the year with snow. Beyond-far beyond the valley-flowed the Gunnison, swiftly, heavily, surely. But its flight to the sea was not through this valley; the Vernal mesa barricaded. it from the valley.

Why not wed the Gunnison to the Uncompahgre and forever assure water for the 150,000 acres soon to be thrown open to settlement? The suggestion thus to change the entire physical geography of that land sounded like the mental frothing of a fool. But the engineers set about their task.

For nearly six miles that Vernal mesa was pierced by a tunnel. Digging, blasting, drilling foot by foot, at last opened its far portal to catch the blue waters of the Gunnison from their half-mile deep canyons, then to carry them rushing to the valley, there for sixteen miles to plunge, twist, and disappear, and flash again through a huge canal until at last they should join the waters of the Uncompahgre. There is enough water for the irrigation of all that land.

But at what a cost! Ten years of superhuman labor, half a hundred human lives sacrificed, millions of dollars spent-such is the cost of bringing water to 150,000 acres on the Uncompahgre for the settlers who must have it or let that land be reclaimed by the desert. Thus ends the first chapter in the conflict with the desert on the Uncompahgre.

The conflict from now on must be waged by the settler. This settler may be a doctor, or a lawyer, or a merchant, or a factory hand. Wherever he comes from and whoever he is, he must bring

to this new land not a wealth of gold, but a treasure of will and fortitude. Here in this land lies his chance for a home and freedom-but he must win it! The land and the water and the great outdoors are there. The courage, patience, and the determination to make these yield a home must be rooted deep in the heart of the settler. Those who have not these things are better off in the cities, whether they be men of professions or day laborers.

Let us take the case of Collins, with his wife and three children. He worked

eight hours a day in the steel mills; his wife worked twelve over her stove and her tubs. They lived in a dismal tene

ment.

A great longing burned in Collins' breast. He dreamed of seeing his children laugh at play in the open; of seeing a smile and some faint color come into the face of the toil-worn mother. He gasped for the open world, where he could see the sun rise and set, and breathe sweet air. Finally, he set out for the Government land in the West.

The Government official who met him spoke of the hardships as well as of the rewards that lay sleeping in that desert; but Collins picked out his land, built a little hut, and started in to clear the way to freedom on his allotment of the Government's prescribed 40-acre unit.

Everybody in that little family put his shoulders to the wheel. The drinking water had to be hauled for miles. Whenever he could, Collins hired himself out to his neighbors. Then his land was cleared and his crops began to grow.

How does Collins stand today? Seven years ago when he took up his forty acres, he had his wife, three children, a few household goods, and fifty dollars in cash. Today, he owns the little home, and his stock, and doesn't owe the Government enough to make him frown.

But better than these things, he owns a new lease on life. He sees faint color creeping into the cheeks of his wife. He

clear-eyed. All the flatness has gone. from their chests and lives. Collins has saved his little family. A stout heart did it.

There are more than 16,000 families on the projects. Many have won their place in the sun; many have failed. We hear but little of that silent pilgrimage, that exodus of broken hearts and spent ambitions from these projects back to the cities.

But the projects will continue and men and women and children will continue to pour from the cities and villages to take their parts in this drama of the desert. There are twenty-seven of these primary projects now. They are in practically every Western State, some completed and producing, others partially completed. The effect of this reclamation in the desert lands upon the trend of population is strikingly apparent.

For example: During the last ten years the population of the 17 States west of the Missouri River has increased 42 per cent, while throughout the 31 remaining States the increase was only 17 per cent. There is a steady stream of pioneers working westward from the cities of the East.

I have read dozens of letters written by men and women who are ready to burn their bridges behind them and stake their all upon the chance of winning a home from the desert. The letters seem to be written in blood; they pulse between your fingers.

Here is the man who says his heart is drying up in the factory and in the tenement. He cannot bear to look at his tired wife and his little serious-faced children. He wants to get away. Should he wrestle with the desert?

"Sometimes", said a Government official to me, "I feel like resigning. Now what am I to say to this man? I know men just like him who have succeeded on the projects; I know others who have failed. I tell you it's a serious business to advise a man on such matters. You see, it's fully 95 per cent in the indi

A

WEAPON of the Middle Ages has come conspicuously into use in the present war. It is the "hand grenade"-a missile carrying an explosive, which is tossed into the enemy's the enemy's trenches, or, as often happens, flung at a foe making a bayonet charge. Long regarded as obsolete, it is being employed in a wholesale way and with remarkable effectiveness by the infantry of all the combatants in Europe. The matter is the more interesting for the reason that our own War Department for some years past has been quietly experimenting with such grenades-weighing a pound and a half apiece and loaded with the picric acid compoundknown as "dunnite"and, without making any advertisement of the results obtained, has adopted them for service.

uses.

The idea of reviving the use of these

not to be obtained from the arsenals, nor yet to be bought; so this ingenious officer undertook to manufacture them.

He started the business in a shed, which he called his "factory of medieval weapons", and, for lack of better materials, made his grenades out of empty provision tins. It was

NOT AS OLD AS THEY LOOK

weapons comes from practical experience gained by the Japanese in their war with Russia. There was a certain enterprising colonel of infantry in the Mikado's forces, named Amazawa, who, while the siege of Port Arthur was in progress, conceived the notion. that, in the kind of fighting then going on, hand grenades might be utilized to great advantage. Such things were

simply a matter of hammering the tins into such shape as to serve the purpose of bombs, each one then being loaded with high explosive and provided with a fuse. A few score of clever Japanese workmen turned out the missiles at a rate of several thousand a day.

Primitive as they were, these grenades did tremendous execution; and it is not surprising that professional

"A NEW WRINKLE" ON AN OLD WEAPON

The one fundamental improvement made in the old grenade is rifle propulsion. This bomb can be shot a distance of two hundred fifty yards.

fenced enclosure forty yards in diameter, in which had been placed ninety dummy men. Inspection of the injuries inflicted showed (according to the offi

cial report) that nine of the dummies were "killed", and that an additional forty-seven were rendered hors de combat. This (as the report said) "took no account of the incidental demoralization of the remainder." Being at that time engaged in hostilities with the Riff Arabs of Morocco, the Spaniards armed a regiment with these grenades. The Arabs were appalled by them, and to their effectiveness was

The Spaniards were first to make practical tests of the scientific hand. grenade in war. They undertook certain experimental tests at Madrid, where one such explosive missile was fired into a

attributed much of the success of the

campaign.

Now, as might be taken for granted, other means for throwing such missiles have been devised. The ingenious Colonel Amazawa extemporized for the purpose primitive wooden mortars, four feet long, reinforced by wrappings of bamboo rope, and mounted on light wooden platforms in such a way as to point upward at an angle of fifty-five degrees. Thus the requisite "high trajectory" was obtained-the tossing of a grenade, however propelled, being like that of a ball thrown up into the air.

To accomplish a similar purpose, the fighting men in Europe are provided with what are called "rifle grenades", -"the very newest thing" in warfare. They are discharged from the ordinary service rifle, and half a dozen of them may be carried by the individual soldier in a belt specially made for the purpose. Each grenade is a stout brass tube, five and a half inches long, one and threeeighths inches in diameter, and weighing twenty-three ounces when charged. The charge of high explosive is about one-third of a pound.

Each grenade of this pattern is provided at one end with an iron rod, which fits into the muzzle of a rifle. When fired, the missile will travel two hundred and fifty yards. If desired, however, the rod may be replaced in a moment with a sort of rope-tail, for grasping with the hand, enabling the holder to throw it a distance of forty or fifty yards. These rifle grenades are more commonly used for greater distances-particularly in cases where the enemy is approaching the barbedwire entanglements or other barriers that defend a more or less permanently occupied position.

Our own War Department has made many experiments with a view to finding out the most effective method of tossing grenades by hand. In every one of our infantry regiments there are a number of skilled baseball players. The idea has been suggested

ANCIENT SLING MADE UP-TO-DATE Instead of hurling stones, the modern slinger uses this explosive missile.

that these men, with others instructed by them, might form effective squads of "grenadiers"-the name formerly given to soldiers who used weapons of this kind, and which still survives as a designation, although without proper contemporary meaning.

The matter of the rope-end has been thought out incidentally in detail. It enables the grenade to be thrown a much greater distance. But unless men be thoroughly trained in this kind of work, they might do more damage to friends than to enemies.

It is beyond question that grenades of various patterns are destined to be used on an extensive scale in future wars. Already they are becoming