Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1890-12-15
THE ARBoREsCENT GIANTS.

Qdlu ldu I'LL CIllnS W w WIN AI0
planting: 1.-The trees of Lebanon which
he hath planted"
THE ARBORESCENT GIANTS.
The average height of this mountain
is seven thousand feet, but in one place
it lifts its head to an altitude of ten
thousand No higher than six thou
sand feet can vegetation exist, but be-
low that line at the right season are
vineyards and orchards and olive
groves and flowers that dash the
mountain side VIII a very carnage of
color. and fill the air with arOmatics
that Hosea, the prophet, and Solomon,
the king, celebrated as 1.-The smell of
Lebanon" At height of six thousand
feet is q grove of cedars, the only de-
scendants of those vast forests from
which Solomon cut his timber for the
temple at Jerusalem, and where at one
time there were one hundred thousand
axnen hewing out the beams from
which great cities were constructed.
But this nation of trees has by hui
man icOnoclasm been massacred until
only Il small group is left. This race
of giants is nearly extinct, but | have
no doubt that some of these were here
when Hiram king of Tyre, ordered the
assassination of those cedars of Leb-
anon which the Lord planted From
the multitude of uses to which it may
be put and the employment of it in
the Scriptures the cedar is the divine
favorite When the plains to be seen
from the window of this stage in which
we ride today are parched under sum
mer heats, and not a grass blade SUR
wives the fervidity, this tree stands in
Iuxuriance. defying the summer sun.
And when the storms of winter ter
rify the earth, and hurl the rocks in
avalanche down this mountain side,
this tree grapples the hurricane of snow
in triumph, and leaves the spent fury
at it's feet. From sixty to eighty feet
high are they, the horizontal branches
of great sweep with their burden of
leaves needle shaped, the top of the
tree pyralnidal. a throne of foliage on
which might and splendor and glory
sit. But 50 continuously has the ex-
termination of trees gone on, that for
the most part the mountains of Leb-
anon are bare of foliage, while, am
sorry to say, the earth in all lands is
being likewise denuded.
The ak is Staying the forests all round
the earth. To stop the slaughter God
opened the coal mines of England and
| Scotland and America and the world
practically saying by that, Here is
fuel; as far as possible let my trees
alone" And by opening for the human
race the great quarries OF granite and
showing the human family how to
make brick God is practically saying,
Here is building material; let my
trees alone" We had better stop the
axes among the Adirondacks. We had
better stop the axes in all our forests,
as it would have been better for Syria
if the axes had long ago been stopped
among the mountains of Lebanon.
! To punish us for our reckless assault
on the forests we have the disordered
seasons: now the droughts, because the
uplifted arms of the trees do not pray
| for rain, their presence according to all
scientists disposing the descent OF the
showers; and then we have the cy-
clones and the hurricanes multiplied
in number and velocity, because there
is nothing to prevent their awful
| SuHaoI.
Plant the trees in your parks that
the weary may rest under them. Plant
them along your streets, that up through
the branches passers by may see the
God who first made the trees and then
made man to look at them. Plant then
along the brooks, that under them chill
dren may play. Plant them in YOU
gardens, that as in Eden the Lord may
walk there in the cool of the day
Plant them in cemeteries, their shade
like a mourner's veil, and their leaves
sounding like the rustic of the wings O.
the departed.
Let Arbor Day, or the day for TIT
planting of trees. recognized by TIT
legislatures of many of the states, b.
observed by all our people, and TIT
next one hundred years do as much II
planting these leafy glories of God a
the last one hundred years have accom-
plished in their destruction. When
not long before his death, I saw on tn
banks of the Hudson in his glazed cap
riding on horseback, George p. Morris
the great song writer of America,
found him grandly emotional, and
could understand how he wrote, "Wood
; which many of us have felt like quot