The Daily state journal. [volume] (Alexandria, Va.) 1868-1874, 1873-03-15
the solitary Gum-Fact and Fiction.

Truly, says Chestnut Burr" Virgini,
is not without its notable trees. At Abng
don is the father of all the willows in tn,
country, and is itself scion Of the willow
of Alexander Pope, at Twickenham, which
was sent to the poet from the East. Tht
Abingdon willow, presented by a British
officer to Colonel Curtis, ashington's
aid-de-camp, is then grandson OF the ole
family of Persia. The famous cherry tree
of Westmoreland, though annihilated BY
the destructive little Ratchet of the Father o
his Country still lives upon the page of his
tory. 1t IS unfortunate that we can boast
20 tree associated with the memory o.
Iohn Smith or. Pocahontas. The apple
tree of Appoinattox is famous, and has
perhaps, furnished unnumbered cords o.
paper.cutters, pen-holders and canes. But
there exists man to-day, q soulless icono-
clast, who says Grant and Lee held their
big talk several hundred feet away from
any tree whatever. Besides the oak al
Mount Vernon, set out by the hand Of
Washington, and the beautiful locust at
Arlington, whose shade was tavorite re-
sort Of General Lees, Fairfax county has
another tree that will rival in importance
the tripartite Oh, stnut, described SO enthu-
siastical,y by "Burr." will give its his.
tory:
Away up on high hilltop, apart from
any habitation, save rabbit burrow,
stands solitary gum tree. Away back
in the infant days of the Old Dominion,
when Patrick Henry was horrlfying the
House Of Burgesses with his treason, a
"century-living crow" from his perch
upon tallish pine tree, dropped q gum
seed at its base. An F. f. V. cleared HIM
a space in the forest, and at the edge
of the pines, despised and neglected, grew
the young gum tree. A neighboring per.
simmon, when the fall winds soughed
through her branches, told him the story
of how great army, but score of years
since, had passed near the base of the hill,
in all the gorgeous panoply of war, and
how few weeks later it returned, SCARED
and thinned, under the leadership of
Washington. IN. B.-There is no doubt
in the world that the persimmon lied, but
certain it is that the road is still called by
the credulous. the "Old Braddock Road.'')
The revolutionary war came and passed,
aud the gum tree, accounted no account,
was spared. Years passed. The clearing
grew up to pines. The tree throve. At
last, as coming events cast their shadows
before, the gum tree felt premonitions of
approaching evil. More and more numer-
Gus grew the "cullud pussons" who anx-
iously scanned its branches for the wary
and flavorous opossum concealed therein.
We know not by what chance the tree
escaped the ruthless axe. Probably
there was no 'possum up the gum
tree. Often at early dawn a butter
nut or two Of the human species would
ascend its perilous heights and gaze anx-
iously through rolled-up issue of last
years Enquirer toward the Capitol. Union
men, too, would climb to its top, and,
gazing in the same direction, exultingly
recite the s'Star Spangled Banner" Then
came war again, and this time the gum
tree knew how it was himself. Several
times did Confederate battery almost
shake the roots out of the gum, Smelling
the Yapks in Parker's grove. But there
weren't any Yanks there. Then the
dispatches to General Scott. One day, in
midsummer, right in sight of the gum
tree, passed southwark an army which ex-
ceeded all the traditions of Braddock. In
few weeks, like that army, back it came,
defeated, routed, dismayed. The gum tree
toldme that the "truly loil"picked up loads
of the blankets and overcoats which strewed
the road and slowed them away, forget
ting to give the government credit for them
when they put in claims for damages.
And SO. for four years more, till the gum
tree was a very veteran. with more bull
let's in his sides than cartridge-box
could hold; riven by lightning and charred
by fire but yet alive, and stretching his
gaunt, ungraceful arms toward heaven, as
if crying in agony with tie people, How
long, oh Lord. how long 2" At length
the end came, and the country
rested. The tree was now called Bad
gers Lookout" from some story about a
Yankee captain (who, by the way, with
characteristic ignorance, called the tree a
"Pepperidge"), who went up it to look out,
and whom experience taught to look out
and not do so any more. | dou't know the
story, and, like Washington, cannot invent
one, or rather as Mark says, can but
| won't. The tree stands still. o
course it stands still, but l mean il
stands yet. 1t will not live to hear
the salvos of many more Presidential
inaugurations. Its years are nearly mum.
bered. It has seen barbarism and civ
ilization, slavery and liberty, war an6
peace great epochs in the life of gun
tree. From the top the adventurous youtr
can see the glitterlng dome of the Capitol
the Sugar Loaf mountain Of .Maryland the
Catoctin of Loudoun and the Bull Run
mountain of Prince William. At its base
bathed in the last rays of the setting sun
is vineyard, emblematic OF the new era
II = A. u