The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1897-10-22
BILL ARP'S WEEKLY LETTER.
PHILOSOPHERGWEsGOOD ADVICE
TO YOUNG AMERICA.
THE BOYS SHOULD BE 0BSERYsgT
Aud Accumulate Little knowledge u
Everything They See Around and
About Them.


knowledge Of many callingg renders a
man happier than perfection in any
one and comparative ignorance Of all
the rest Great scientists, discoveries
and inventors seem 10 bo necessary
Tor the worlds progress and the good
Of mankind, but their work Is gene
rally 40 the expense Of their health
and happiness. Sir Isaac Newton in
his last days exclaimed with n sigh,
81 have made a slave Of myself His
great mind was always ON strain in
one direction II is said of him that
he had n hole cut in the lower part Of
the door for his fayorite cat 90 enter
and exit, and when she had a pair Of
kittens he had two smaller holes cut
ior them The mind is like the body.
II must have a variety OF food 1t is
like the muscles i'm the arms on legs.
II only one set are used the others be-
come weak and will gradually perish
away.
1 was talking not long ago 60 a
learned judge, q man of fine judicial
mind and literary attainmcnts, but
who acknowledged his very limited
knowledge OF nature and natures laws
81 hardly know one tree from am
other" said NE" excepting, of course,
the chestnut, hickory nut and walnut
Yes, of course, 1 know the pine and
the oak Indeed L have never had
any occasion to know more, for 1
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 /
asked her to draw me a chestnut tree,
an oak tree and maple tree. She is
working on them now and has to 60
out and look at them and examine the
bark on the trunk, and the shape of
the limbs and the leaves. / wonder
how many boys and girls can
draw hickory leaf without
looking at one. 1 should like 10
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
and point out the difference. Now
there are ten different kinds of oaks in
this country, but very few town raised
people can name half of them. Then
there are different kinds of hickories
and pines and ash and elm trees,
besides the blackberry, box elder, pop
lar, beech, locust aud cottonwood.
Eugene lie Hardy was a very learned
and scientific Frenchman, but thought
that American cotton grew on the cot
tonwood trees and that we gathered it
by 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 IA feet high.
The study of the trees and shrubs of
this southern country is a delightful
and instructive recreation for young
people, and 1 wish they would pay
more attention to it. OF course this
study requires some knowledge of boz
tany, but that is easily acquired. This
kind of knowledge is more useful and
more comforting than a college smatter-
ing Of calculus and comic sections and
rhetoric and logic. L do not believe
there are ten men in Barlow county
who would know ginseng if they were
to see it, Not many more know what
Is father graybeard or white ash,
the medicinal shrub from which old
A. @. Simmons first made the original
Simmons liver medicine in Gwinnett
county. know about that, for when
l was a young merchant sold the first
he ever made and continued to sell it
for him for several years and he told
| me what it was made of. I think,
though, that father graybeard gave
out about the time the old man died,
wish that our young people would
acquire habits of observing things
more closely as they journey along
through life. Some people see every
thing and some see nothing hardly.
When should trees be cut down that
are 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
to split? What kind will last the
longest in the ground? What kind
most suitable for pianos, chairs, furni-
ture or wainscoting? What kind for
mauls or wedges or cahes? DR.. Oliver
Holmes must have studied all about
these when he wrote the zone Hoss
Shay"
$50 the deacon inquired Of the village folk
Where he could find the strongest oak
That couldn't be split nor bent nor broke;
That was for spokes and floor and stills;
He sent for Lakewood to make the thills;
The crossbars were ash from straightes
trees;
! The panels were white wood that cuts like
cheese;
And the hubs of logs from the settlers
| elm"