Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1895-12-26
THE BURNING BUSH"
A MODERN SPECIMEN OF The
MIRACLE" TREE.
f4ece OF 1t Brought to London-Its
Trunk Is Ineombustibie and 1t Ac-
tua1Iy Seems to Thrive Big Forest
Fires.
MOTHER historic

81 MOTHER historic
/ !. ]" !: ]. !.
N.. Isl al miracle seems
EA4<p lE to have been put
&k7@ Tk-S on scientific basis.
sSIxEEG rs The burning bush
" Via 80 of Moses, accepted
(@ GE7M ~ unfalteringly by
~ 10y biblical students, of
EGzVSg all the wonders re-
&AGRs lated in the Script
D0 Cres, has been con-
d Sidered as amonr
the most marvellous. The turnins
of the rod of Moses into a SER
pent has long been explained as
piece of Eastern necromancy. Many
travellers in India have seen jugglers
perform the very same feat. The smit-
ing of the rock for water has long been
deemed simply an instance of practical
judgment on the part of the great He
brew prophet in discovering a spring
and divulging it to his people with dra-
matte effect. But the burning bush"
has always been regarded as miracle
that must be taken upon faith alone.
The Scriptural account Ito be found in
Exodus iii, 2-5) says: And the angel
of the Lord appeared unto him (Moses)
in a fame of fire, out of the midst of a
bush: and he looked, and, behold, the
bush burned with fire, and the bush was
not consumed. And Moses said, will
now turn aside and see this great sight,
why the bush is not burned. And
when the Lord saw that he turned
aside to see, God called unto
him out of the midst of the bush, and
said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here
am I. And he said, Draw not nigh hith-
er;put off thy shoes from of thy feet, for
the place wherein thou standest is holy
ground" In a recent English foreign
Office report there is description of
lately discovered stunted tree that goes
by the name of the chaparro. II this be
not the veritable burning bush" that
burned with fire and was not con-
sumed'' it is very close to it, for expert
ments have revealed that it not only
resists fire for very long time but
that its trunk is practically incombusti-
BILE. 1t seems actually to thrive on
great forest fires in which it alone re-
mains unconsumed, for if a long period
passes without a fagration the cha
parro gradually decays and dies. In
huge conf1agration this strange tree
seems to start into life, as an ordinary
plant does when it is wet with rain
after long drouth. Amid the swirling
reds and yel1oWS of the flames it takes
on a new life, and after the fire has
swept past it is seen with new shoots
of vivid green springing out of it. At
such times the chaparros stand alone,
sturdy and strong, amid the surround
ing blackened trunks, the only living
things in a land reduced to sterility.
It is not accurate to say that the entire
tree comes out of a forest fire I'M
scathed. While the body Of the tree is
incombustible, itssmaller branches and
twigs burn They burn very slowly,
while the rest OF the woodland is going
up in smoke. The London scientists
who have looked into the matter believe
that the trunk of the tree, and its
branches in a smaller degree, exude IN
der the influence of great heat moist
ure that is sufficient, owing to its pecu-
liar chemical properties, to protect the
wood Commenting on the chaparros.
the English foreign Office report says:
cit is very remarkable that these fire
begotten plantations are nowhere
crowded to excess; on the contrary, the
trees are so regularly placed that their
aspect vies with that of the most care
fully formed gardens" While the word
'tree'' is used in the report the term
'sbush" would be more accurate, for the
chaparro is little more than that. 1t
seldom grows to a height Of more that
eight feet, and in appearance it much
more resembles a bush than even
smallish tree. It grows mainly in South
Africa, being more frequently met with
in the wild regions far to the west Of
the Transvaa1, in districts where few
white men have been The natives look
upon it with superstitious awe, and i'm
agine that a god dwells within its
trunk They avoid the groves of these
trees after nightfall. The wood is
tough and unyielding, and after a fire
will dull the edge of the sharpest in
strument A specimen of chaparro bark
is on exhibition in the museum OF the
Pharmaceutical Society, in Bloomsbury
Square, London