The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1897-11-24
THE GEORGIA HUM0RIST
PHILOSOPHER GIVES GOOD ADVICE TO
YOUNG AMERICA.
cumuIate Little knowledge of Every
thing They See Around and About Them.
Other Topics.
Here is a letter for the boys.

A
one and comparative ignorance of al
the rest. Great scientists, discoveries
aud inventors seem to be necessary
for the worlds progress and the good
of mankind, but their work is gene
rally at the expense of their health
and happiness. Sir Isaac Newton in
his last days exclaimed with sigh,
81 have made slave of myself. " His
great mind was always on strain in
one direction. 1t is said of him that
he had hole cut in the lower part of
the door for his favorite cat to enter
and exit, and when she had a pair of
kittens he had two smaller holes cut
for them. The mind is like the body.
1t must have variety of food. 1t is
like the muscles in the arms or legs.
If only one set are used the others be-
come weak and will gradually perish
away.
1 was talking not long ago to a
learned judge, man of fine judicial
mind and literary attainments, but
who acknowledged his very limited
knowledge Of nature and natures laws.
81 hardly know one tree from an
other" said he," excepting, of course,
the chestnut, hickory nut and walnut.
Yes, of course, [ know the pine and
the oak. Indeed I have never had
any occasion to know more, for I
was raised in town and books have
absorbed me-"
| was Illuminating about this be-
cause our little girls mother is teach
ing her to draw and to paint, and I
asked her to draw me chestnut tree,
an oak tree and maple tree. She is
working on them now and has to go
out and look at them and examine the
bark on the trunk, and the shape of
the limbs and the leaves. I wonder
how many boys and girls can
draw hickory leaf without
looking at one. I should like to
see their specimens. Thousands of
boys, especially country boys, know
all the common trees of their neigh
borhood, but it requires close and
careful observation to describe them
md point out the difference. Now
here are ten different kinds of oaks in
his country, but very few town raised
people can name half of them. Then
here are different kinds of hickories
md pines and ash and elm trees,
besides the blackberry, box elder, pop
ar, beech, locust and cottonwood.
Eugene LIE Hardy was very learned
md scientific Frenchman, but thought
chat American cotton grew on the cot
.onwood trees and that we gathered it
oy using ladders. 1t is said that a
Mr., jackson, OF Atlanta, is trying to
Introduce the ladder kind now, and
has got the trees up to Il feet high.
The study of the trees and shrubs of
this southern country is q delightful
and instructive recreation for Young
people, and I wish they would paw
more attention to it. OF course this
study requires some knowledge of bo-
ANY, but that is easily acquired. This
KIND of knowledge is more useful and
more comforting than college smatter-
ing OF calculus and comic sections and
rhetoric and logic. [ do not believe
here are ten men in Barlow county
who would know ginseng if they were
70 see 1t. Not many more know what !
$ father graybeard or white ash,
he medicinal shrub from which old
a. y. Simmons first made the original
simmons liver medicine in Gwinnett
'ounty. L know about that, for when
was young merchant I sold the first
lie ever made and continued to sell it
or him for several years and he told
ne what it was made of. T think,
hoagh, that father graybeard gave
mt about the time the old man died.
wish that our young people would
'cqulre habits of observing things
more closely as they journey along
Trough life. Some people see every
hing and some see nothing hardly.
When should trees be cut down that
ire wanted for wood? What kind of.
wood is the strongest and will bear the
greatest burden? What kind is the
most elastic? What kind the hardest
o split? What kind will last the
ongest in the ground? What kind
most suitable for pianos, chairs, furni-
ure or wainscoting? What kind for
1auls or wedges or canes? DR.. Oliver
iolmes must have studied all about
hese when he wrote the zone Hoss
hay
So the deacon inquired of the village folk
'here he could find the strongest oak
hat couldn't be split nor bent nor broke:
hat was for spokes and floor and stills.
10 sent for Lakewood to make the thills.
he crossbars were ash from straichtest ,
trees;
he panels were white wood that cuts like ,
cheese; :
nd the hubs OF logs. from the settlers ;
elm.'
But perhaps DR.. Holmes got it all q
ON some old honest wagon maker. q
+ they know. I'll bet that Mr.. Brad r
y, of our town, can answer eyerv +
lestlon. The boys ought to find ont '
at black locust and chestnut and n
age orange make the best posts, and t.
ack gum the best hubs, and persim- f
on the best wedges or gluts, and sas-
1ras the best bows, and white oak q
e best baskets. In England it is b
AIMED that a yew tree post will last II
niger than an iron one. The bows II
light to know that the banks of all T
,es are nonconductors of heat and !,
ii and keep them cool in summer and .