The Evansville daily journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ia. [i.e. Ind.]) 1848-1862, 1856-12-13
TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION:


The STUYyEsANT PEAR TREE.-We have OBJ
lserved for some time past, with sad feeling,
.hs Gradual decay of this time honored relic
Of our city, at the corner of Thirteenth street
and Third avenue; the conviction becoming
stronger with every succeeding year that the
tree. which wears the crown of more than two
centuries, has reached the utmost limits of its
age. and will soon die. 1t is the only monu-
<ment of the far-famed Dutch Governor of the
New netherlands, chivalrous Peter the
Headstrong.
This tree was originally brought from Hol-
land; and the best chroniclerS calculate its age
to be aoout two hundred and ten years 1t
.was planted where it now stands by the
Dutch Governor, StuyVesant. His once ex-
tensiye farm was situated about two miles
from the most advanced part of the CITY,
,~'tict was at that time Wall street. Here he
laid out and arranged, with something of
Dutch regularity, his rich and extensive gar
dens, ornamented with trees brought from
various parts of the world. In these iavorte
grounds he loved to pass his hours of leisure;
perhaps under the shade OF those irut trees
he tnatured his warllke or stateSmanllke pro-
jects, or devised the proclamations which were
such a terror to his enemies. The boys In the
neighborhood would sometimes steal the un-
ripe fruit from the tender boughs OF the youth
full scons Of his watchful care. Year after
year his cherry and apple trees as they grew
to maturity were subjected to this rude havoc;
till, in process of time, the more cruel hand oil
Improvement" levelled them all 1t has long
since swept away every one OF those graceful
and stately inhabitants of the soil, The same
fate overlook the Governors splendid colfec
ton Of pear trees Only one has survived;
oNE-the lone representative OF former luxury
and magnifcence; the solitary witness oil
changing fortunes; the sole monument OF its
once wealthy proprietor.
This tree had long been robbed OF its garden
protection and the surroundings oil companion
Ship 1t stands alone on the public highway,
exposed, in its old age, to all the dangers that
can befal it in the midst of a dense metropolis
Hundreds pass it hourly without notice; Its
time honored associations, its past grandeur,
are unheeded by the busy throng. Its top
most boughs look abroad on ranges oil roofs
Hrd chimncys, and domes and spires, instead
3f the leafy honors Of its thousand lordly COM
peers. Its trunk is protected by fence sew
eraI feet high, from assaults on its bark by de-
structive boys or hungry animals. 1t failed
not year after year. with marvellous fidelity
10 Weld it's fruit-till within the last two OIL
three years-and this fruit, duly prepared
was partaken of by the old Society OF The
Knickerbockers at their anniversary meeting
Those not devoid of antiquarian taste viii
contemplate this curious monument OF the
bast with involuntary awe. Tall and majestic
and of monarch proportions, its foliage is sparse
and thin, like the scattered hairs of an cctoge-
harlan. Time has not bowed its stately head
but has sorely riaed its crown of verdure.-
One by one its smaller boughs have beer
broken off, and the time is fast approaching
when the tree over which two centuries have
rolled, which has seen three successive dynas
ties and so many passing generations, shal
itself fall under the power of the destroyer
What lesson does this hoary representative
Of vanished sovereignty teach us of the in
stability of earthly things, and especially o
human institutions!