The news & observer., 1900-11-18
War About Shade Trees and Sewer
age Agitates Wilson People
"A TRUE TREE STORY WITH A MORAL
How Church Trustee Stood Up Agin" HI.
Pas or ana Prevs nted the Destruction
of a Lovely Oak Tree in the
Town of Wilson.

glory is its crown of lovely elms that
make it's streets shady and therefore
pleasant even on the hottest days 1t
has taken thirty years for these elms
to give the good town the finest shade
in any North Carolina town.
When it was a quiet and unpreten-
tlous town, if anybody had suggested
that the beautiful elms be cut down.
it would have precipitated a small-siz-
ed revolution. But it grew to be a
great business mart and needed the
modern city conveniences. An excel
lent system of water works was put
III by the municipality and then sew
erage followed. OF late there has been
trouble with the sewerage and it has
been suggested that it was due to the
fact that roots of the elms entered
the joints of the sewer pipes. That
belief, entertained by some of the
leading citizens, grew into such posi-
tive conviction that the Board of AL
dermen ordered the elms to be cut
down. Think of the proclamation of
that act! A Board of Town Commits
sioners never would have destroyed the
city's crown of glory. To cut down
the elms OF Wilson can be compared
to nothing except to suppose that
some invisible vandal should visit the
town some night while all the women
slept, and whack off their tresses and
shave their heads. What a sensation
that would create! 1t wouldn't change
the appearance of the lovely women
Of that lovely town more than the de-
struction of the elms would mar the
beauty of the town.
The work Of demolition had no
sooner begun than a great voice of in
| dignation was heard over the town
against it,. This protest eliminated
in public meeting, and the Mayor
| by direction of the meeting appointed
a committee of three cutters and
| three ''anti-cutters" TO investigate the
| matter of the sewerage and the trees
and report at a later meeting. In the
meantime the people of the whole
town are stirred up, and two parties
have Eee1 formed known as the Cut
tors and the Anti-Cutters, and each
side is sure that unless his proposi-
tion goes through the town is ever
lastin@lv ruined.
Now, if this were simply local mat
ter, no outside newspapers ought to,
have a word to say about it because.
being family quarrel, both sides
would rush in and destroy the offend
ing paper. But, though local in a
sense, it is general. for if elm tree
roots destroy the sewerage in Wilson,,
the same conditions will follow in
other towns in Eastern North Caro-
lima. Wilson's action will be taken as
a precedent and NAV determine the
fate Of every town in Eastern North
Carolina.
have never formulated MANY
creeds. but one is: you can cut
down fine shade tree in thirty min
utes, but it will take thirty years for
one to grow to full proportions" and
the other is: ''It is almost as bad to
cut down shade tree as to cut off a
mans head" | thought about these
maXims | invented when the Raleigh
folks cut down some trees in the cap-
ital city n few years ago, and they
came back when | heard that the
town of Wilson had begun to cut down
the elm trees, under whose grateful
shade the happiest days of my life
were spent. 1T made nv blood run
cold. and while | had no right to say a
word. | felt in me to wish that the
spirit of Jonas Crowell correctly
spelled Cromwell, for he is a descend
ant of old Oliver), still lowered over
the place.
And that reminds me of a story.
On the side of the Methodist church
in Wilson stands a magnificent oak
tree 1t has kept the burning sun off
the heads of many an urchin in that
Sunday school for a quarter of a CEN
tury. 1t is not as large a tree as the
one in Bishop Lyman's yard in Raj
eigh which the venerated divine valued
at five thousand dollars, but it is a
fine old tree. and before the present
church was built / have played base
ball under it's shade many an after
noon. and | love its every leaf and
bough. But-and that's ten wears
agO-there came a preacher to
minister in that church who did not
think there were ''-- in trees and
sermons in stones" and because the
tree rotted some shingles on one side
of the church, he determined that it
must be cut down. He is a good man,
a fine preacher, and that's the only
sin / ever knew him to harbor in his
heart. 1t took me ten years to for
give him for the thought of cutting
that tree down. | do not believe | ever
could have FORGIVEN him if the tree
had been sacrificed to his utilitarian-
ism. After conceiving the idea that
the tree should be cut down, this
preacher. who was a resolute man,
whose policy is to put his plans into
execution. hired two strong negro men,
with sharp axes. to cut down the tree
on certain Monday morning. They
were on hand, likewise the axes, and
likewise the preacher. They stood
minute in the grateful shade of that
fine tree, and the only thought in the
mind of that preacher was that the
tree rotted the shingles and stained
the paint on the church.
"a primrose by the rivers brim,
4 yellow primrose was to him
And nothing more. 81
He gave the order to the two ne
crroos To Let fall the awe and one Of