The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1905-07-02

Top covering drawn BY four horses, can
ne driven through it. This tree was on
me right of u.s. it was to the left of us,
Il was above u.s. It was underneath us.
one of this same kind of trees in a neigh
oorlng grove was cut down few years
ago mat It's stump might be used as a
eaneihs floor by visiting tourists. So
nuse, SO gigantic is "Old Grizzly" that |
y mas one branch. one right arm alone,
twenty rect in circumference. When I |
$1,000 under this huge monster it lifted |
tseii SO nigh and so wide that l felt |
its size almost passed human concep-
eioh. why, wart on one of "Old Griz- |
zF cheeks would be large enough to |
De used for an Indian wigwam A goiter
en- ms neck would be big enough to house |
/ q Wnole FAMILY Of white folks and give |
| TO them a cellar parlor and bedroom |
floors, attic and cupola besiaes And |
It's myriads of roots are almost enough
to fence in the fields of an ordinary |
farm.
Mariposa Grove.
The trees of Marposa grove grand old
veterans are theyl No other living war
riors have fought so many battles What
mighty tornadoes have they defed! What
strength of a thousand Hercules is in
those iron backbones What nconauer-
able heights have theyl What forest fires
have they endured! But, after all, the
most impressive fact to me about these
| trees is not their great girth nor their
great height, but that they are living
trees They are not mummihed trees found
among the cemeteries of dead trees
What is the greatest fact that impresses
you about the big trees?" l asked a gen.
tleman. THAT they are alive" ne an
swered. Yes, that is the overwhelming
fact about Mariposa grove. Those big
trees are alive, Just as we are alive. You
can go and stand by some of them and
see their sides wrinkled and scared like
the indentations upon the cheek of the
sphinx of the Egyptian desert, but you
can feel that they are alive You can
see where some of their sides have been
burned by forest fires. In the Haverford
tree the wood burned out of one side
has left cavity large enough to shelter
twenty horses or head of cattle from the |
winter storms, yet the Haverford tree |
Is alive. The great Telescope tree had
forest fires eat into its sides and tunnel |
their way into its center and then from
the center burn up until you can stand
at the bottom of the tree and look up
through 1t and see the blue sky of the
heavens above you. Yet the Telescope tree /
is alive and still growing. The six hum |
dred trees of Mariposa grove are en- |
phatically alive.
AS l stood with uncovered head amid |
the huge trees of Mariposa grove "Old |
Grizzly the greatest of the group, If /
he could have spoken might have said:
white man of the east, you think you
belong to a race of kings, but l would |
tell you that you are not a king. You |
are so short lived that you are no more
to me than the insect which is born |
in a day, grows old in a day and dies
of old age at the setting OF the sun /
is to you. You think you know the past,
but | have seen more sights and heard /
more sounds than your people will ever
see or hear though they may live to i
be as old as Methuselah. My. ears have 1
heard the birth cries and the death rat
ties not of generations, but of species. I
While had been living thousands of +
years l heard the click of the trow
els and the groanings of the machinery i
that lifted the rocks and laid the cap
stones of the pyramids. When | stretched i
my head above the clouds so that | /
could see upon the other side of the
world 1 could see the thrones of the +
Caesars lift themselves and then totter /
and fall, l heard the angels chant the +
song of the Nativity above Bethlehem of /
Judaea. / have seen Athens rise In her /
power and the Grecian scu1ptors and the /
poets wax and wane and die. The old I
mound builders used to pitch their wig /
vans at my feet Backward, still back
coyotes call was heard among the hills
or the grizzly bear growled at the In
dams who afterward took their name | |
lived. Though l have lived at least 5000 |
years in the past, I am living still. Fur |
thermore, / will continue to live centuries
upon centuries after your voice has +
died away. shall speak to your great
great-great great great-great grandchil-
dren as / am now speaking to you" Oh, T
yes, the old trees of Mariposa grove |
teach nothing If they do not preach to
us the eternal purposes of God or of God I
working through the centuries.
Thousand Years Nothing.
A thousand years in Gods sight are I
but as yesterday, or as watch in the [
night. If the trees Of Mariposa grove
teach us this, how much more must |
the libraries of rock. among the shelves
of Yosemite hills teach the same les
sons. We look with wonderment upon
some of the vases or the household pot
terry used by the American or Mexican
aborigines. You say, They were heated
In fires thousands of years ago" Yes, |
but have you ever stopped to think when
the fires were lighted by the hands OF
God which hardened yonder rocks? Have
you ever stopped to reckon how old
must have been those pencils OF Ice which
wrote yOnQer chapters upon tuoSe hiii-
sides and which, millenniums ago, as
glaciers polished those walls until today
they reflect the light of the rising sun
as FURNISHED mirrors? Can you see with
naked eye the star as a signal fire burn
ing on the picket line at the farther
most outer edge of all stars? Can YOU
at a mere haphazard guess, state the
direct distance between this earth and
that star? Can you go up and up in Inn
agination until you see the zenith for a
footstool and the nadir for bright |
Jewel In your coronet The, IL you can,
you may estimate how long 1t took God |
in his eternal purpose to produce yon- |
der rocks and how long that eternal |
purpose shall live after the Yosemite val |
ley itself shall be cremated in the furn-
ace Of the earth's last confiagration. III
these rocks teach US that thousands and
millions of years In Gods sight
are as but second OF time,
do YOU not believe we can trust to his
care the few years we are upon this
If God can use the ages for playthings,
may we not be satisfied to let him do
with us as he will for the short space OK
threescore years and ten, which Is mans
allotted span upon earth? God is a spirit,
infinite eternal" Yes, the everlasting
rocks of Yosemite prove 1t. These rocks
shall echo the judgment call in that day,
when the angel shall stand with one root
upon the land and the other root upon
the sea, and swear that time shall be no
longer. But while time endures, every
where in Yosemite, you may hnd, as |
did God speaking, God pleading, God