The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1890-05-17
THE PRESS.
SATURDAY MORNING, MAY Ia.
NO TREES IN OAKLAND.
Have all b en- Cut Down In TWENTY
Years.
Correspondence of the Press.l

rcouespondence Of the Press.l
OAKLAND, Cal, May 16.-During nv
long stay away from California | used to
become garrulous in telling eastern peo.
pie what beautiful spot the city of
Oakland was built on. | said many
many times that as you approached Oak
land on the ferry boat from San Francisco
you saw scarcely any houses-only trees
-aroof or church spire sticking cut here
and there, but all the rest a sea of the
dark green foliage of the live oaks-to
me the most beautiful of the oak species
"a tree whose intent seemed to give
Shade and protection, its limbs curved
In SO gracefully, and having always the
tendency to spread in sort of umbrella
fashion toward the earth.
So in the course of ten or fifteen years.
while in ''the states" told this story of
beautiful Oakland EMPOWERED in her
grove of native oaks for six or seven
miles. l said that Oakland was one
place which gave proof that the Amer
lean could spare tree and knew a
tree also that was beautiful even if it
was native to the soil, and that he would
not cut such tree down and immediate
ly supply its place with an uglier one, a
scrubbier one and more sickly one, be-
cause it came from some other country
and it had become fashion and a craze
to plant it and insist upon it that it
was an ornament.
Yet to an extent this is just what the
Oaklanders have done.
How L have unconsciously lied about
Oakland all these years! l return and
find the native oaks nearly all cut down.
find Oakland as seen from the Bay of
San Francisco, not a sea of foliage, but
sea of housetops, and many of them ugly
housetops. find Oakland grown out of
all remembrance, her avenues stretching
miles and miles away into what was open
country, but quite bare of trees. A tree
here seems an offense. 1t is cut down
on the least pretext. have talked with
various people here about it in faint
hearted sort of way, and asked them
why they were SO hostile to trees. The
variety of reasons given me is surprising.
One said: ''Well, you know, we want to
get all the sun we can about our houses.
The trees keep it off,"
Another said: so, they're dirty things
about house, and especially about a
store. They're shedding things all the
time-leaves and bugs and worms"
asked why they cut down the road
a-aA Ia VII -
cause the roadmasters are down on 'em.
They keep the sun off and the roads
won't dry up fast enough. and get so
muddy"
They have no rain here at all for full
six months, and during that season the
dust that is developed is something not
to be understood or appreciated by an
eastern man until he gets on some of
these roads and tries to see (which he
can't do, because he will carry enough
of it for small farm in his eyes. When
the wind blows it blows here to some pur-
pose. 1t simply sends lin DUST farms,
gardens and plantations through the
air in binding masses. Real estate then
goes up and is travelling all the time.
And the air here will turn mud to dust
in no time at all, to speak hyperbolically
and hy-boreas-ly. 1t has wonderful
drying properties.
never quarrel with other peoples
tastes. If man prefers a desert to live
on and must make desert about him in
order to live comfortably, say he ought
to have the desert. 1t is his right. In
this country the rattlesnake, the burrow-
ing owl, which seems to turn its head
clean round as if it were built with a
ball and socket Joint in the neck. and
the ground squirrel dirt colored quad
ruped with NANCY, emaciated tail,
cross between a rat and a squirrel, a
poor, degraded thing, not fit to eat, al
ways full of fieas and endowed with a
wonderful capacity for tumbling into its
hole, where you can't get it when shot
dead-I say all these creatures prefer
and enjoy to live on treeless, arid, sun
baked lands. And really many of the
people here, in the1natter of trees, seem
to have the same tastes, and they have a
right to have them, because they can't
help having them.
wonder what in the future is done
with man who has lied about Oakland
as l have done for ten or fifteen years. /
didn't mean to lie. l thought was tell
ing the truth. Still did lie all the same
There is a remark somewhere which
reads, "All liars shall have share in the
lake of fire and birthstone" There seems
no modification in this matter, no excep-
tons at all where persevering course of
lying such as mine has been could have
extenuating circumstances connected
with it SO as to soften down the penalty
attached. 1t has black and sulphurous
look for me.
Some might infer on reading this that
was abusing or finding fault with Oak
land. No, l am not. The Oakland people
know better than | do what they want.
If a man prefers sour milk for breakfast
and want sweet milk, should quarrel
with him on account of his preference
for sour? By no means. The rattle
snakes, horned toads, tarantulas, burrow-
ing owls and ground squirrels prefer
their town lots without trees. Do quar-
rel with them? No. Ever since man
commenced or was commenced has he
quarreled, fought, killed, burned and
roasted his fellow man, because Fellow
Man might not like, or believe, or do, OF
eat, or drink what he did not think
proper to do, believe, eat or drink what
the other thought the thing for himself,
whether it was or not-and in many
cases it was not. No. Mine is simply
the peaceful, benefcent attitude of mere
difference of opinion or taste. The eagle
scars. The mole burrows. Shall the
mole prosecute the eagle for soaring? Or
vice versa?
Alameda, next to Oakland, and in sub
stance a continuation of it, is a very
beautiful place yet. Yet the anti-tree
mania prevails there. Often when a
street is newly graded the trees must go.
And they are going.
p M