Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1900-10-01

gree to the other living creatures OF
God-the horse, the dog, the OK, the
cat; and it is but a just step forward
10 respect the flower
This is a matter particularly worthy
OF consideration in the summer
months, when the rich p1easurers and
the fresh-air children from the cities
and the good bourgeois as well rush
INTO the country for better air and wa
ter and the beauty of nature. All of
THESE have the same mischief in their
hands for the flowers and ferns-thev
cannot content themselves with Wit
Messing the beauty of the earth and
enjoying the sight, but they must
grab their handfuls or their armfuIs
OF flowers. If the new ideas of edu-
cation as adeVelopment Of human
character to finer sort could reach all
tnese people, they would not commit
these outrages, which are DESTROYING
all the rarer beauties in the country as
Chey have long since banished them
from the immediate SURROUNDINGS of
the city. Thus the trailing arbutus
used TO be very abundant around
Springfield, Chicopee and Holyoke:
ana now, while it may yet be found in
a good many spots, there are hun
dreds OF its old haunts that know If
no more. Blake's woods, now mem
DRY OF. the past, abounded with if 2O
years ago; it was found in manv q
piece OF West Springfield woods; it
was frequent near Ingersoll grove. In
Forest park it is catalogued as still
existing, but it can only be said to ex-
lst-lt does not flourish. Mt Tom.
since 1t became a resort, is not onlv
almost denuded of arbutus, in comnar-
lson ylth the past, but the walking
Tern, one Of the most curious and in
tefestlng OF plants, has nearly dtsap-
peared, and the cardinal flower is unite
extinct. 1t is the common fate of
lovely things in the rush of human
greed. Connecticut was so alarmed
over the plumber of the beautiful
fern and the arbutus, some
years ago, that the legislature put
Doth under protection by statute:
massachusetts ought to do the same
for the climbing fern does grow north
Oh the state line, though fortunately
very few know it. The lack of respect
Tor nature was shown, by the way in.
the use to which this lygodium pal
matum was put by those for whom it
was grabbed up by the roots. Deli
cate and graceful, with a light wild
these qualities were
killed by smoothing it out with hot
IRONS in order to hang in festoons over
ace curtains and disfgure ''parIors.,
The maiden-hair fern is another mar
velously beautiful plant that is treated
n similar fashion. If any one wants
o see what comes to country where
,ourlsts and summer people abound.
'ney can do it in the Scottish High
ands wherever the Cook and Gaze
parties and the cockney excursions
nave Travelled. Whoever sees a flower
or fern in crossing the Trossachs? Ex-
,ept, OF course, the heather, the gorse
Ind the bracken,-which are too hardy
Ind too ready at multiplication to be
9xterminated. They like our own
mountain laurel, sweet-fern, our
t1cksonia and eagle-fern (the same as
he bracken of Scotland, though less in
tature), survive ill-usage. But many
ears ago Lucy Smith (see Mr.. Mer-
Jams beautiful memoirs of civilian
nd Lucy Smith'O lamented the de-
truction of the daintiest forest flow
rs in Scotland and northern England
+ Of
hey loved them because they de-
troyed them.
OF course there are flowers that may
e plucked literally without stint,
UGH as the golden rods and asters.
ne 1ron-Weed and the vervain, the
x-eye daisies and the black-eyed
usans, the evening primroses, the st.
ohn's worts, the clovers, the loose
TRIES, the milkweeds, the joepye, the
aWkWeeds, the lettuces and other
ardy mryiads. But the anemones and
pring beauties, the poIygalas, the
rbutus, the spring yellow lily, the
the pyrolas and pipsisse-
as, the cardinal flower and the
'inged gentian,-all loveliest of the
oral realm, such vanish before the
andalism of those who ignorantly
link they love flowers. 1t is a trait
human nature,-loYe is but a SYM
d of sacrifice, commonly the sacrifice
others.
The lack of a true sense of love and
'Verence for nature is well exempli-
I'd by the conduct of people who visit
ountain park in Mount Tom There
a shoot of rubbish down the face of
lie of the precipices on the east side
ON the house on the peak that tes-
fies to this. And all through the re-
on round about luncheon baskets or
,xes or paper packages with decaying
mains of food are strewn One
rites to the Boston Transcript about
e evidence of this maltreatment Of
.ture near Boston. He says
''The same destructive love of ma
re- is hOwn nvnrU wnnlz nv fhp many