The Globe-republican., 1897-11-18

J; ! 8: J: J:
| SASNI the 0SQ Jake IuelI
>NNAy WI first swim until the
| 61H9 following FIR i day.
"N The solar and lu-
~ mar lights did not
break through the
thick, chaotic fog
Of the worlds manufacture until
Thursday. Before that there was
light, but it was electric light or phos-
phorescent light, not the light OF sun
or moon. But the botanical and po-
biological productions came on We'd
nesday-first the flowers, and then the
fruits. The veil of fog is lifted. and
there stand the orchards Watch the
sudden maturity of the fruit! In our
time pear trees must have two years
before they bear fruit. and peach trees
three years, and apple trees five years;
but here. instantly, complete orchard
springs into life, all the branches bear
ing fruit. The insectile forces, which
have been doing their worst to destroy
the fruits for six thousand years, had
not yet begun their invasion. The
curculiO had not yet stung the plum.
nor the caterpillar hurt the apple, nor
had the phylloxera plague, which has
devastated the vineyards OF America
and France, assailed the grapes, nor
the borer perforated the wood, nor the
grub punctured the nectarine. nor the
blight struck the pear. There stood the
| first orchard, with a perfection OF
rind, and an exquisiteness of color. and
lusciousness of taste, and an at
duence of production which it may
| take thousands of years more of study
| Of the science of fruits to reproduce.
Why was the orchard created two
days before the fish and birds, and
three days before the cattle? Among
| other things, to impress the world
with a lesson it is too stupid to learn
diet, and that the former must pre-
cede the latter The reason there are
in the world so many of the imbruted
and sensual is that they have not i'm
proved by the mighty, unnoticed fact
that the orchards of paradise preceded
the herds and aviaries, and fish-ponds.
Oh. those fruit-bearing trees on the
banks of the Euphrates, and the Gil
hon, and the Hiddekel! l wonder not
that the ancient Romans, ignorant of
our God, adored Pomona, the Goddess
of Fruits, and that all the sylvan del
ties were said to worship her, and that
groves were set apart as her temples.
You have thanked God for bread a
thousand times. Have you thanked
him for the fruits which he made the
first course of food in the menu Of the
worlds table? The acids of those
fruits to keep the worlds table from
being insipid, and their sweets to keep
It from being too sour?
At this autumnal season how the or
ci1ards breathe and glow, the leaves re-
| moved, that the crimson, or pink, or
saffron, or the yellow, or brown may
the better appear. while the aromatics
fill the air with invitation and remi-
niscence AS you pass through the
orchard on these autumnal days and
look up through the arms of the trees
laden with fruit, you hear humping
on the ground that which is fully ripe,
and, throwing your arms around the
trunk. you give a shake that sends
down a shower of gold and fire on all
sides of you. Pile up in baskets and
barrels and bins and on shelves and
tables the divine supply. But these
orchards have been under the assault
of at least sixty centuries-the storm.
the droughts, the winters, the insec-
tivora. What must the first orchard
have been? And yet it is the explor-
er's evidence that on the site of that
orchard there is not an apricot, or an
apple, or an olive-nothing but desert
and desolation. There is not enough
to forage the explorers horse, much
less to feed his own hunger. In other
words, that first orchard is a lost or
chard. How did the proprietor and the
proprietress of all that intercolumni-
alton of fruitage, let the rich splendor
slip their possession? 1t was as now
nest of the orchards are lost; namely,
by wanting more. Access they had to
all the fig-trees, apricots. walnuts, al
monds, apples-bushels on bushels
tree in the orchard. Not satisfied with
all but one, they reached for that. and
lost the whole orchard. Go right down
through the business marts of the
great cities and find among the weigh
ers and clerks and subordinates, men
who once commanded the commercial
world. They had a whole orchard of
successes, but they wanted just one
more thing-0ne more house. or one
more country-seat, or one more store.
or one more railroad. or one more mil
lion. They elutched for that, and lost
all they had gained. For one more
tree they lost whole orchard. There
are business men all around us wor-
ried nearly to death. The doctor tells
them they ought to stop. Insomnia
or indigestion or aching at the base OF