The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1885-04-29


And torrents dashed and rivulets played,
And fountains sported in the shade.
These grateful sounds are heard no more,
The springs are silent in the sun,
The rivers, by the blackened shore,
With lessening currents run;
The realm our tribes are crushed to get
May be a barren desert yet -BrYan.
THE heave, the wave, and bend
OF everlasting trees, whose busy leaves
Rustic their songs of praise, while ruin
weaves
A robe of verdure for their yielding bark,
While messy garlands, full and rich and
dark,
Creep slowly round them! Monarch of the
wood
Whose mighty scepters sway the mountain
brood,
Shelter the winged idolaters of day
And grapple with the storm-god, hand to
hand,
Then drop like weary pyramids away,
Stupendous monuments of calm decay.
John Neal
] HALTED at pleasant inn,
As my way was vending
golden apple was the sign,
From knotty bough depending.
Mine host--it was an apple tree
He smilingly received me,
And spread his choicest, sweetest fruit,
To strengthen and relieve me.
Full many little feathered guest
Came through his branches springing:
They hoped and flew from spray to spray
Their notes of gladness singing.
Beneath his shade laid me down,
And slumber sweet possessed me;
The soft wind blowing through the leaves
With whispers low caressed me.
And when | rose, and would have paid
My host so open-hearted,
He only shook his lofty head
blessed him, and departed.
From the German.
QUOTATIONS. FROM DISTINGUISHED AUTHORS.
THE wealth, beauty, fertility and health
fulness of the country largely depend upon
the conservation of our forests and the
planting of trees.-John Greenledf Whittier.
IMpARTING to waste places more than their
pristine beauty and associating the names
of departed loved ones with our work is a
poetic and sublime conception. 1t sym
bolizes our faith in a resurrection to higher
and better life when the hard struggles of
this sin-cursed world are passed.-Generdl
| Samuel f. Carr.
THERE is something nobly simple and
pure in taste for cultivation of forest trees.
! 1t argues, think, sweet and generous ma
! ture to have this strong relish for the beau
| ties of vegetation, and this friendship for the
! hardy and glorious sons of the forest. There
! is a grandeur of thought connected with
! this part of rural economy 1t is, if | may
be allowed the figure, the heroic line of hus-
bandry. 1t is worthy of liberal, and free
born, and aspiring men. He who plants an
oak, looks forward to future ages and plants
for posterity. Nothing can be less selfish
than this Washington Lruing.
WHAT a noble gift to man are the forests!
What debt of gratitude and admiration
we owe for their utility and their beauty!
How pleasantly the shadows of the wood
fall upon our heads when we turn from the
glitter and turmoil of the world of mani
| The winds of heaven seem to linger amid
their balmy branches, and the sunshine falls
like blessing upon the green leaves; the
wild breath of the forest, fragrant with bark
and berry, fans the brow with grateful
freshness; and the beautiful woodlight,
neither garish nor gloomy full of calm and
peaceful influences, sheds repose over the
spirit.-Suson Feaimore Copper
THE objects of the restoration of the for
ests are as multifario1s as the motives which
have led to their destruction, and as the
evils which that destruction has occasioned.
The planting of the mountains will diminish
the frequency and violence of river inunda-
tons, prevent the formation of torrents
mitigate the extremes of atmospheric tenn
perature, humidity, and precipitation; re-
store drled-up springs, rivulets, and sources
of irrigation; shelter the fields from chilling
and from parching winds; prevent the
spread of miasmatic efiiuvia; and, finally,
furnish an ineXhaustible and self-renewing
supply of material Indispensable to so many
cessful exercise of every act of peace,
every destructive energy of war.-George p.
Marsh.
Or the infinite variety of fruits which
spring from the bosom of the earth, the
trees of the wood are greatest in dignity
OF all the works of the creation which know
the changes of life and death, the trees of
the forest have the longest existence. OF all
the objects-which crown the gray earth, the
woods preserve unchanged, throughout the
greatest reach of time, their native charac-
ter. The works of man are ever varying
their aspect; his towns and his fields alike
reflect the unstable opinions, the tickle wills
and fancies of each passing generation; but
the forests on his borders remain to-day the
same they We're ages of years since. Old as
the everlasting hills, during thousands of
seasons they have put forth and laid down
| their verdure in calm obedience to the de-
cree which first babe them cover the ruins
of the deluge.-SuSdn Fenin,ore Cooper.
OUR forests are fast disappearing. In
their sheltering shade and the rich mold of
their annually decaying leaves, the greater
number of our lovelest plants are found
and when the AK comes, that cruel weapon
that wars upon natures freshness, and the
noble oak, the elm the beech, the maple
and the tulip tree fall with loud crash in
the peaceful solitude, even the very birds
can understand that floral death-knell
| sounds through the melodious wilderness.
A number of our choicest plants are threat
| eneu with eNtlnctlOn; Tor as the woods are
cleared away these tender offsprings, the
pretty flowers, which we so dearly cherish
will perish utterly. 1t is, therefore, well TO
| prevent as far as possible the destruction of
our native forests, as well as to plant forest
trees, If for no other purpose than the pres
ervation of the little helpless blooming
beauties that adorn our woodland shades.
-GuStdruS FrdnkenStein.
IT is great pleasure to think of the young
people assembling to celebrate the planting
of trees, and connecting them with the
names of authors whose works are the
farther and higher products of our dear old
Mother Nature. An Oriental poet says of
his hero:
Sunshine was he in a wntry place,
And in midsummer GOODNESS and shade"
Such are all true thinkers, and no truer
monuments of them can exist than beautiful
trees. Our word book is from the beech
tablets on which men used to write. Our
word Bible is from the Greek for bark of a
tree. Our word paper is from the tree
papyrus-the tree which Emerson found the
most interesting thing he saw in Sicily. Our
word library is from the Latin hber, bark of