FAKMEES" STATE CONGEESS. 411 



yard, and I must confess that the snow got banked up in such a condition 

 that the thaw came near di-aining all the water into my cistern. Being 

 an attorney — about all the draining they do is to drain the money from 

 the people's pockets into their own — and when it comes to ditching — well, 

 they occasionally get into the ditch. An attorney, however, ought to be a 

 good authority on draining. A ditch is generally a subterranean affair, 

 arid as to subterranean, underground matters attorneys are experts. 



So, after interviewing all my good Irish brethren on the subject of 

 laying tile, and counseling with my county surveyor as to what the laws 

 were on this subject, it was determined that I should purposely inflict 

 upon 5^ou the injury your committee has provoked by telling you some 

 things you already know. 



Now, the Legislature, theoretically, is all right, but, like a good many 

 other ancient organizations, it has become modern and, therefore, a very 

 uncertain quantity. I venture to say that if you were to collect the total 

 amount of wisdom on the subject of drainage that is usually displayed in 

 our Legislature, it would not be of as much practical value as the wisdom 

 of a good' civil engineer, a practical farmer and a person who has had fiA'e 

 or ten years' experience in ditching. There is no doubt but what a good, 

 strong, well-read man could change every ditch law on our statute books 

 if he were so determined and would make the effort in the Legislature. 

 This, of course, is not due to the incapacity of our Legislature in general, 

 but the subject of drainage is a scientific matter, and not every person is 

 informed on the subject. It is "old straw" in the Legislature, it has been 

 repeatedly threshed over, and, like the old questions of "When Is Ground 

 Hog Day?" and "How Old Is Ann?" it comes up every session in some 

 form or other, and the general public runs the risk of something slipping 

 through. It is my earnest hope that the Codifying Commission appointed 

 by our Governor to codify the drainage and other laws will formulate a 

 plain, sensible, practical and general law on this subject and that the 

 next Legislature will pass it. Our present laws are too specific and are 

 full of idle details. We need something more general, more liberal and 

 less calculated to confuse the minds of the common people; in fact, that 

 the lawyers can understand, at least. There are so few Philadelphia 

 lawyers in my part of the State that sometimes we don't agree about the 

 laws and can not understand them. 



The present statutes upon the subject are fair, as compared with 

 other States. Indiana at one time was a very swampy State, full of 

 marshes and small ponds that were principally used as a loafing place 

 for frogs and a sort of headquarters for mosquitoes. By a pretty fair 

 system of drainage the farmers, who are after all the salt of the earth, 

 have so drained our State that now we may go out of doors at night 

 feeling that our friends will recognize us when we return, and our wives 

 may stay at home while we go to lodge, and are not afraid of the beauti- 

 ful, ecstatic and sweet music of a camp-meeting of bullfrogs as they sing 

 their requiems of their departing heroes. 



