The weekly pioneer and Democrat. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1855-1865, 1858-07-15

HV otN Van pcii, uI UuC Cuii pit tuS uMhtt
price Of rainbows, or Of the sunshine, which
il the raw material oil those rich fabrics Of
the prismatic loom and when man says
he would not have taken hundred or five
hundred dollars for the fine oak tree on his
farm or outlot--which some providing vii
lain murdered in its prime, one night. for
iircwocd.-hc means merely to give expires
sion TO his own vague estimate Of the cost
Of reproducing such tree, NO nobly beau.
tiiul in that spot. Cost, indeed II cost
God perhaps a century to weave iis gor'
gcous web from the earth and from the mir,
to knit ,s delicate fibre from the sun and
from the clouds--to adjust its proportions Of
light and shade and color and linn its per
feet features on the blue canvass Of the sky
and who cuts II down cuts u gap Of a
hundred living years in the heart Of God
and in the life of man, never TO I've filed
again while the world stands.
And who was II that cut il DOWN. lts
divine beauty, one should think, might have
stood its sentinel, aud sheltered II from pro
fana,ion, ~ the sanciity Of art Is said 10
have protected the statues Of VERSAILLES
from the fury of the mob. For all sacred
symbols make il sacred, and there ~ that
upon II which the angel fixed 10 the tree Of
life at the Eas, Of the gardcn-a flaming
sword of twoedgcd meaning--to guard liz
halowHi shrine, the shrine Of tire worlds
oldest worship, from the Destroyer VIC
cnce.
Ay, who cut it down
Last year u grove, III in It's religious gloom
for Druids temple, stood upon the slope OF
one Of the hills which surround the city,
wanting but the cmbowered cottage TO have
been the prettiest picture Of home IN all
the city. Its now ~ bare and empty as II
an uprooting tornado had swept over II. A
few years since, too, the naked streets and
squares of this ci,y--thcn neither streets nor
suunrt~-- were covered with trees. On the
outskirts Of the city, where not long since
the undulating landscape was dark with
dense oak groves, stretching M far M one
could ~, now cape wide blanks Of dead
stumps, whose swart and rigid ranks are
scattered like head stones over vad ccmcte-
res, mute witnesses against the Infamous
s,upration which left them there ~ shorn
OF their royal pomp aud pride, and which
turned tho noble park, arching the paths OF
generations Of men and animals into dcs'
olate, hopeless wilderness.
The ancicnts had u superstition, which
Tasso rcproduocS In his Jerusalem that
trees were the abode Of genii, who shrek
In anguish from their cells 10 the cruel
stroke OF the axcman and 10 tho poet Il
fancy the mangled trunks Of the felled for.
a., drippci with prcternatural blood. But
the groans which these men have made who
cut down These trees, are not the sublmated
crcak Of falling timber alone, but veritable
groans from human hearts the groans Of
Il great los, which never can be supplied
and not lcss than II the tres ~ ruthltssl y
cut down were the incarnation Of spirit
Is its destroyer an assassin. And We would
gladly sc the villain who should attempt to
rob farm or house lot Of u tres, hung upon
its branches, and 10 be taught ib value
There are trees enough for Grewood In situ.
atoms where they serve no purpose Of orna.
ment. But the trss which for several years
pat have supplied half our population with
fuel have been stolen night after night, and
boldly in the open day, from lots Of which
they formed the chief element Of value and
which, In their dcnudcd state, In ceasing 10
I've attractive, have ceased 70 bc desirable.
This unchecked Vandalism, which has
swept like devastating fire over the country
round about us, licking up every green
thing, and turning the garden into desert,
has done more injury 10 Real Estate in and
out Of the city, than thousand panics. It
IL useless 10 mourn now for the beautiful
parks and groves which have everywhere
sunk ont Of sight before the ruthless axe Of
the barbarians.
But such On remain at least can b. spared.
Rigid Tcnn laws should protect what peither
the rights Of property, nor the common re-
strainis oi civilization, are sufficient ~ guard.
The villains who destroy the res around
us should be subject 70 the same sverities
a. thoe 10 which the old game laws Of Eng
land subjectod the poachers upon parks The
owner Of a tree within certain limits, has
himself no right TO cut il down lie may
do il, but he Is poor fool for his pains.
Bu, when "a is frequently the case, the