The home journal. (Winchester, Tenn.) 1858-188?, 1875-12-30
EF- Our well.known townsman, \

EB- Our well-known townsman, Mr..
Samuel Smith, returned from St. Louis
the other day. While in the great me,
tropolis Of the West he went to see a
section of q tree, on exhibition. This
section is thirty feet long, and was
brought from California-we suppose
from the Yosemite Valley, but Mr..
Smith does not remember the precise
locality of its birth. II was brought to
St. Louis, at a cost of $4,000. by Mr..
Vivian and his son, who will take it to
Philadelphia to be seen by the world Of
people who will be there. 1t required
two cars for its transportation to St.
Louis, and there it has been "hollow wed
OUT by saving the section into eight
parts, lcngthwise, and then taking the
wood from the heart-part of each to
within eight inches of the periphery,
or, bark. From the wood thus taken
1900 good fencing posts were made,
and from the chips, which this opera
ton afforded, Mr.. Smith secured, with
others, from Mr. Vivian in person, the
one We now have in the Home journal
office, and which we consider a valua-
BILE treasure, and we hereby tender him
our thanks, for it has caused us to be
Happy in thinking, and affords us a sub
ject to "fll up" our paper with, which
we do with the hope, but with a doubt,
that it will please all our readers.
This section, seen by Mr.. Smith, is,
as we said, 80 feet in length, rs feet in
circumference and 25 feet in diamete:
When "hollowed out" the space left
afforded standing room for $50 per-
sons, allowing Is inches for each one to
stand in. The section was taken from
the body of the tree at 10 feet above
ground, and the tree was 276 feet high,
and 10 feet to the first limb, which, at
its outgoing. was 6 feet in diameter;
and the body Of the tree at that point
Ii feet in diameter. The tree, as evil
denced, Enthusiastically, by the rings in
it's trunk, was 2,250 years old, and who
knows how many years yet it would
have lived and stood had it not been
for the Centennial, and for Mr.. Wv
ian's Yankee progressiyeness? Per-
haps it would have been standing q
thousand years Understanding until
the death of this world-when it shall
be
Thrown topsy-turvy, twisted crisp'd
Baked, fried, or burnt, turn'd inside-out,
or drown'd.
Like all the worlds before, which have
been hurld
First out of, and then back again to
chaos,
The superstratum which will oyerlay u.s."
The specimen, or chip, ofthis great
tree resembles soft pine, except that it
has a delicate rose coler, which makes
it appear more beautiful. We hope to
live and be able 70 visit the Centennial,
and it will be no small pleasure for us
to call upon Mr.. Vivian and see this
section of California's great tree. But,
it is not the largest tree of the Yose.
mite Valley. We read Of some that
are SO feet in circumference, 81 feet in
diameter, aud over 300 feet high. In
fact, Mr.. Vivian told Mr.. Smith that
the one we are writing about was by
no means the largest. But it is large
enough to attract the attention of those
who will never, perhaps, visit Califor-
MIA, albeit the trip IS a short one, il
you have the greenbacks. And we are
ION our head to 60 and see these
hoary old survivors of the storms and
tempests of more than twenty centu-
ries-those "grand old kings Of the
woods, who counted their years by
centuries when Columbus set sail from
Spain, and we're in the green and vigor
Of youth in the days when the Star led
the Chaldean sages to the infant Sa
vior's cradle. We want to see these
Methusalahs of the forest, that have
stood in their loneliness for thousands
of wears, and watched the coming and
going of the sun; have seen moons
wax and wane have witnessed the ST.
lent, solemn marches Of the stars; be-
held new stars come out and old ones
flash and die; seen seasons come and
90 now listening with leaves astir and
rustling to the whispered condolences
of Eolus, and now bending their
gnarled and tangled tops to the sharp
rebuking blasts Of the north wind, and
vet triumphant over Time and Ten
pest, looking down upon the long and
dim procession of ages as they pass
How their far reach backward into
.--.il ..ro,e ,bo habnldoy-ayp