Morning appeal. [volume] (Carson City, Nev.) 1877-1906, 1880-04-09
APRIL o. 1850
NIAGARA FALLS.

The official report of the State Survey Com
nissioners of New York has attracted consld-
cradle attention, from the fact that 1T repre-
sents the scenery about the falls of Niagara as
being so rapidly despoiled as to make it neces-
sary to petition the Legislature of that State
to pass a bill looking to the preservation OF
the distinctive features of Natures handlwork
about that wonderful place. At one time the
land about the Falls was the property of the
State of New York; but private individuals
we're allowed to buy it in sections, and now it
has been used for private emolu ment until the
sense of the fitness of things is rudey shocked
by human Disagreement, and the sublimity OF
nature is Inundated by the Righteousness OF
mans greed. The common interest all man
kind has IN its preservation is attested by the
remarkable memorial the Herald printed sew
eral weeks ago, in which Englishmen of the
al !nity of Carlyle, Ruskin, Jewett, Houghton
and Max Muller felt free to unite with the
Americans of a corresponding type in prayer
to the Governor of New York, and the Gov
ernor General of Canada, beseeching the two
governments to come to the rescue. " Should
the islands and decivities of the Niagara
River, say these memorialists, " be stripped
of their natural woods, and occupied for man
afacturing and business purposes; should even
the position, size and form of the construc-
tions which the accommodation of visitors will
call for, continue to be regulated solely by the
int Of ind al
land owners, the loss to the world will be grea-
and irrepsrable. The danger may be meas
ured by what has aleady occurred. Therlvers
banks are denuded of the noble forest by which
they were originally covered, are degraded by
incongruous and unworthy structures, made,
for advertising purposes, wilfully conspicuous
and obtrusive, and the visitors attention is
diverted from scenes to the influence of which
he would gladly surrender himself, by de-
mands for tolls and fees, and the offer of ser
vices, most of which he would prefer to avoid.
Objects of great natural beauty and grandeur
are among the most valuable gifts which Prov
idence has bestowed upon our race. The con-
temptation of them elevates and Informs the
human understanding. They are instruments
of education. They conduce to the order of
society. They address sentiments which are
universal. They draw together men of all
races, and thus contribute to the union and
the peace of nations The suggestion, there
fore, that an ebjectof this class so unparalleled
as the Falls of Niagara, should be placed un-
der the Joint guardianship of the two govern
ments whose chief magistrates we have the
honor to address, is a proper concern of the
civilized world" The whole American peo-
pie are interested in the preservation of the
worlds wonder land it is a contamination great
ly to be wished that the effort now being
started may meet with genuine success. But
little is attempted in the present bill, yet that
little wsuld stimulate further endeavor toward
the grand result of trying to restore, as far as
may be, these lands to their primitive eondi-
ton.