The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1903-06-07

prehistoric vegetation. and it is hoped the
government will pass a bill for their &C
QUESTION.
There are certain land agents in the
Stratford neighborhood who take a fiend-
ish pleasure In the work of devastation,
love to gloat on the fallen corpses of the
splendid old oaks and 'elns which they
mark for death with their traders brand.
The saplent and IRREGULAR bylaws" pro-
tect them in their wicked destruction OF
what can never be replaced, for these
same bylaws" have a kind of vague
standing order that no tree or branch
shall overhang the high road, thus prac-
ticalIy booming to death every stately
avenue of rich foliage and every grateful
bower of shade provided by intertwisting
bough of green in country lanes. 1t is
surely time strong protest was made
against this foolish Disagreement of the
beautiful English landscape. In Shake
speare's country the ruin is particularly
disastrous and heartrending. No one
seems to have the courage 20 speak, and
when one or two presons do protest, the
land-agents turn deaf ears to even the
most reasonable representations Many
a distinguished painter, many literary
student has come to me in anguish about
the destruction of Shakespeare's ''leafy
Warwickshire. and particularly about
the spoilation of Shottery What is to
be done? The place will be ruined. Can
no appeal from literary England be made
to the Marquis of Hertford?" One of our
Canadian nota bilities. over for the coro-
hot &c rrcf
it. Literary England is required. like
commercial England, in the words Of
the Prince of Wales, to wake up Liter
airy England is asked to save the most
valuable possession-the town and village
connected with the life and death of its
great master-mind Shakespeare. And
And literary England together with lit
erary America, and all literary Europe,
if they please) will do well to step for
ward just now and save Henley street,
the street where the poet was born. It's
simple and humble character-a Carnegie
free library of staring new material is
to companion and dwarft the birthplace
and the whole street will smell to Hea-
ven" of most unpoetic millions.
Everybody interested in a good cause
Stratford-on-Avon We in America can
build you up a city in no time, with all
the modern improvements; we can give
you electric light, electric cars and tele-
phones, and rush" and worry you
through your life at express speed; but
we can't give you an old-wOrld town like
this, full of romance, and poetry; we
can't give you the beautiful peaceful
outlines of ancient gabled houses silvered
by the moonlight. and old by-ways that
look Just as if one might meet Shake
speare himself round the corner. All 1
can say. after seeing this place, is: Take
care of it: keep it as treasure Of the
world, for which the world as it grows
wiser and saner will be grateful as long
as it lasts.
And it is high time TO take care of It;
time that the body-snatchers should be
arrested in their many acts of sacrilieg;
time that the soul-killers are checked and
utterly COMPOUNDED in their wanton at
tempts to steal the greatest literature in
the world from its true author and Great
or All the proofs of Shakespeare's genius
and work are today in Stratford-on-Avon.
the shrine which holds countless treasures
such as have never yet been properly ex-
amined. Let literary England therefore
look to it that the shrine be not pilfered
and desecrated before she is aware of the
irreparable mischief done. Far more pre-
cious than the crown jewels to Britain is
the fact that William Shakespeare was a
son of her soil. The hour has come when
she should by one invincible pronounce
ment Of authority guard his town, his
home. associations, name and memory
with such protection as shall forever pre-
serve and defend it from spoilation and
acknowledgements that shall never in
the course of future generations, so long
as the British Empire holds sway, be I'M
done or gainsaid.