Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1881-06-23


How a Product Of the Garden OF Eden Eusf
grated 70 this Country.
You have seen and admired the weep
ing willow ree-the Salix Baby1onict
upon which the captive Hebrew
hung their harps when they sat dowr
BY the rivers Of Babylon and wep
when they remembered Zion" It is
native of the Garden Of Eden aud not o
America, and I will tell you how it emf
grated to this country.
More than 150 years ago a merchan
lost his fortune. He went TO Smyrna
a seaside city in Asia Minor, to recover
Ii. Alexander Pope, one OF the grea
poets of England, was the merchant'l
warm friend, and sympathized with hin
in his misfortunes.
Soon after the merchant arrived il
Smyrna he sent to Pope, as q present
box of dried figs. At that time ths
poet had built q beautiful villa a
Twickenham, on the bank of the rive
Thames, and was adjoining it with trees
shrubbery and Towering plants.
On opening the box Of figs Pope dis
covered in it small twig Of the tree
1t was q stranger to him. As it G ms
from the East he plan ed the twig il
the ground near the edge of the river
close by b villa. The spot accidentl,
chosen for the planting was favorable
to It's growth, for the tWig was from ths
weeping willow trea, possibly from th'
bank o one Of " the RI ers Of B bylon,
which fourishes best along the Dor
ders of water courses.
This little twig grew vigorously, and
in few years it became large tree
spreading wide its branches and droop
ing, graceful sprays, and winning th,
ins4 iration of the poets friends as wei
as strangers. It became the ancestor O
a the weeping willows inEu gland.
there was rebellion In the English
American colonies in l775. British
troops were sent TO Boston to put dow
the insurrection. Their leaders ez-
pected to end il in few weeks aftel
their arrival. Some young Officers
brought fishing tackls with them to en-
able them to ENJOY sport sitter the brie
war Others came to settle on the CON
isc ted land Of the rebels"
Among the latter was young Office
on the staff Of General Howe. Ht
brought with him, wrapped in oil silk
q twig from Pope's weeping willow d
Tgickenham, which he intended tC
plant on some stream watering hil
American estate.
Washington commanded an army be-
fore Boston, which kept the British i'm
prisoned In that city o long time agains1
their will. On his staff was his stepson
John Parke Curtis, who frequently wen
to the British headquarters, under ths
protection of a dag, with dispatches fol
General Howe. He became acquainted
with the young officer who had the vii
low twig, and they became friends.
Instead Of crushing the rebellion II
six weeks, the British army at Boston,
at the end of an imprisonment OF nine
months, was glad to fly by sea, for lift
aud liberty, to Halifax. Long before
that flight the British subaltern, salts
fed that he should never have an estate
in America to adorn, gave his carefully
preserved willow twig to young Curtis
who planted it in Abingdon, his estate
in Virginia, where it grew and -four
ished, and became parent of all tht
weeping willows in the United States.
Some time after the war Genera
Horatio Gates, OF the Revolution, set
tied on the Rose Hill farm, on New
York island, and at the entrance to /
lane which led from q country road tt
his house he planted a twig from the
vigorous willow at Abingdon, which BIZ
had brought with him. That countr,
road is now Third avenue, and the lane
is Twenty-second street. Gates man
sion, built of wood, and two stories il
height, stoed d near the corner O
Twenty street and Second ave
nue.. where / saw it consumed by fire il
1875. The tree, which grew from the
twig planted d at the entrance to Gates
lane, remained until comparatively I
few years ago. 1t stood on the north
east corner Of Third avenue and Twenty
second street. It was a direct descend
ant, in the third generation, of Pope's
willow, planted at Twickenham about
1872. Benson j. LOSING, IN HWper'
Y0uag Pe0Dle.