The Kanzas news., 1857-09-26
Vol. 1--No. I3.
roo old to Plant rrees.

ZOO Old 20 E1anC Trees.
Read the following, from correspondents
letters to the Buffalo Courier, dated Saratoga
Springs. 1t conveys just reproof to those
who are too indolent, or think themselves too
old to plant trees
'sThis morning little dialogue, which I
CHANGED to oyerhear, amused me with a train
of thought an hour long.
1t was later than usual when 1 started,
and | found myself returning IN the hottest
part of the day After walking some dis
tance beneath the shade of friendly trees, |
came suddenly upon very sunny block.
looked up and beheld an elegant house with
a fine garden, that told of a tasteful and
wealthy proprietor. Just as l was wonder
ing why the good sense which had evidently
superintended the whole establishment could
net have been extended to relieve this glare
of sunlight, the voice of little child play
ing in the court yard clothed my thought in
words.
''I don't want to come in,'' said he.
s.But ii is too sunny for you out there,
nay little fellow; so be good boy, and come
in.''
''Oh dear" sighed the boy. 81 wish we
lived across the way, where the sun don't
corner. How came they. there, though,
grandpa; and why can't are have big trees,
too 90
The answer was not audible. But pres
emily the boys shrill voice was heard again.
''But why can't you plant trees in front of
your house, just like those he planted 20
Whereupon an old man of hoary head and
infrm step appeared on the threshold, and l
heard the words, ''Too old. my son when
grandpa came here to live, he was too old to
plant trees, It takes a great while to grow
trees, and, by the time they grew large
enough to shade him, grandpa would be
dead and gone
Too old to plant trees! thought l. What
a selfish old age that man must live! Afraid
to plant trees, lest another should enjoy the
shade of them Surely the experience of a
lifetime might have taught him this great
law of life, that one man labors and another
enters into his labors.
"Birds for others build the downy nest;
Sheep for others bear the fieeey vest;
Bees collect for others honeyed food;
Plows the patient OK for Others good"
And men cannot be an exception 10 the
general rule: for we are all created to be
dependent on each other, and everybody has
some other body happiness in his keeping,
and will be answerable for it when the great
Judge shall ask, ''Where is thy brother ?''
No man is ever too old to make or mar
the comfort of those whose lot happens to
have fallen within his sphere. And this
principle is so much a primary law of ma
ture, that our influence on one another lives
afrer we are dead, in the deeds we have done
or left undone. And no man should be sat
isfed to die, and leave the world neither the
brighter, the better nor the happier because
he has lived in it.
One generation must plant the tree, that
others may eat the fruit of it.
The ''bread cast upon the waters" was
not to be returned until ''after many days
Suppose Columbus had given up his pro-
jects of discovery, lest Others should settle
in country for which they did not have the
trouble of seeking?
Suppose those old men, our Pilgrim ta-
theirs, had said: eve are old, we have not
long to live; we will make ourselves COM
Portable, and let the next generation establish
religious tolerance for themselves.
Where would have been our Republic il
General Washington had said: '.The tree oi
liberty viii take SO long to grow, that it is
hardly worth my while to plant it %
Where were all our libraries, if all the
poets had said F.: can authors life Is only
WEAKNESS, and fame cannot reach him IN the
grave?"
Where had civilization stopped if the
great inventors, to whom we owe the incal-
culable benefits of steam, electricity and me-
chanism had said People cling to old
customs the world is given to its idols, lei
it alone 90 Watts worked not for a day, but
for all time. The proud boats which have
Joined the Atlantic with the Pacific, by nav
igating our long rivers and broad lakes, had
never existed if Robert Fulton had stopped
to consider how long it would take to riper
his plan of using steam power on water voy
ages.
Suppose Whitney had kept to himself tbs
secret of the cotton-gin, or Morse that o
talking by lightning. because men laughed
at the possibility of accomplishing either
and being public benefactors without public
gratitude is sorry work.
These men all know that God ordained
half the world to toll, and sweat, and groan
that the other half might thrive and rejoice
A Good Joke.
William Wells Brown, the colored orator
who is not so black as some white men
l.. 4 ~ A i, 1al