Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1881-08-10
A Giants Fall.
CUTTING DOWN ONE OF CALIFORNIA;
BIG TREES.

tree he was about to fell our party look
ed about in vain search for some place
where its three hundred feet of trunk
could stretch out on the ground with
ou. submitting to the necessity forced
upon the man in the story, whose feet
were too long and the bed was too
short 1t could not be done without
first clearing a path for 1t, we all
agreed, but the woodman smiled a
knowing, superior smile. We looked
again, when he pointed down a slender
path, fern-carpsted, but clear OF trees.
that we had named Park avenue
But can you direct the fall OF that
mighty redwood, so that it will lie in
that path and not crush other trees in
its fall p we asked wonderingly. The
tree will fall between these two stakes,
without disturbing either OF them.' the
woodman said, driving tive stakes Ill
teen feet apart, and about one hundred
and fifty feet from the base of the tree.
| The woodman and his assistants framed
a scaffolding around the buttress Of the
stately pillar of Gods temple, upon
which they stood, raised ten or fifteen
feet above the ground. and together
send their keen-edged axes into the
rough, spongy bark. In the shade Of
that grand grove they looked like
pigmies, and their instruments Of devas-
tation like children's toys, yet 10
few hours they would PROSTATE what
nature had taken a thousand years to
raise. No ardent lover of art ever
witnessed the destruction Of his most
admired sculptured marble; no heathen
ever saw his idols shattered by invad-
ing Christian with more poignant grief
than ours when the woodman's Ak first
buried itself in the patriarch Of all our
noble SeguoiG gigantea.
The ladies insisted upon returning to
camp, aud said some unkind things
about the woodmen, and were savage
ly severe upon the unreasonable rail-
road contractor who had deprecated
their suggestion to run the track around
the tree instead OF over its roots. How
ever. as the tree was doomed whether
they pCuted in their tents or not, their
grief subsided sufficiently in an hour to
ALLOW them to be taken to a point
where the overthrow Of the monarch
could be safely witnessed. We climb
ed up trail to hill on one side OF the
tree, but found the intervening BRAN
ches too closely woven to allow OF
moro than a doubtful view. Ignering
the trail, we descended, AID in view Of
your handicap Of skirts, ladies, you did
make most mastery descent! How
lady who, in the city, requires to be
helped in and out of a carriage, can in
the country scanble through matted
underbrush, swing down by hanging
boughs. roll over fallen trees, slide
gracefully down bark chute, tumble,
Jump, fall, and finally land at the bot
tom of the hill cool and collected
though flushed, is problem she prob
ably will never explain, if she can &.
When We took our station, only little
way from the woodmen, we found that
they had flushed the work their axes
had to do, by cutting nearly halfway
through the tree on the side towards
which it was to fall. and were then
driving long double handled saw into
the tree on the opposite side. Although
the lower portion Of the tree still stoo1
firm and motionless, the graceful, lofty
top was already slowly 'waying, as
though conscious of and silently pro-
testing against its fast approaching
3rostratlou. 1t was a beautiful picture
before us, stretched 10 a frame of clrcl-
ing forest. The fern brakes flourish
ing in almost tropical luxuriance; trees
fallen ages ago, some blackened by
fire, the decay of Others hidden; the
vivid green of the baby sequodis.
A half score OF our party, scattered
about in their picturesque camp cos
tunes, and all hecked with the light
auivering down through the iDterstlces
of the leafy dome far above US; the
light which stole its colors from the
glow of Mars, the sky's deep azure and
the oceans emerald But suddenly
all ewes were directed toward the
doomed tree. Its protest was no lon
ger silent; a rafting report, as il a
rife volley had been fred, gave warn-
ing that the woodman's work was
nearly done. 1t sounded like a des-
perate angusish cry, which changed
again 10 a helpless groan. We held
our breaths. The towering head no
longer swayed in slow, solemn protest
but moved concluslvely. Then another
cry, The woodman jumped from the
scaffold. Thin steel had entered the
giants heart, for a stream Of its life
blood -'spuried out through the cruel
cut. The tree for a moment stood
motionless to its lighlest, farthest
branch, then slowly bowed his head,
the whole trunk shudderelng, then with
an awful crunchipg crashing noise that
filed the woods with dismal echoes
walls of the dying monarch's mourn
ing comrades-it plunged forward
The very echoes were drowned then.
There was terrific crash of wrested
limbs as a ragged rent was torn
through the woven branches OF the
trees. q whirling, shrieking rush oil air.
a laundering, deafening boom aud
shock that shook the ground like an
.,h.nato and ifploss. bleeding and