Amador ledger., 1908-09-11


stood on the west bluff of the M iss.
issippi River, at the village of Dubu.
que, in Iowa, and looked with eager
eyes on the smoothly flowing, yet
terrible, flood OF yellow water as it
bore downward to the gulf.
The harvests had long since been
gathered and settlers we're coming
from many little clearlngs in the
forests with corn in the ear, wheat in
coarse bags, and fresh pork, the
slashed sides of which we're held
apart by sticks, to barter for salt,
tobacco, powder and lead. All else
they needed was grown in their
stumpy fields or taken by force or
stealth from the woods.
The lad of the bluffs was the son of
a settler. On his head was a cap
made from the skins of squirrels
which he had shot, and on his hands
were mittens made from the skin of a
wildcat which he had trapped. He
could call by name every tree that
grew III the forests
The boy saw the mighty river and
asked: "Why is it here and whence
did it Gomez" His father could not
tell him; his mother gave him the
manuscript books of his grandfather,
who had been school teacher in
Kentucky. But the question remain
ed unanswered.
There were other journeys to
Dubuque. 20 miles distant, for salt,
tobacco and powdeI-the father had
been a Scotch Irish miner in Illinois
and had taken large supply of lead
with him when he moved into the
wilderness. The buy always went
along on such journeys. He watched
upon the bluffs, trying to read on the
tace of the waters the knowledge he
wanted. Since then he has become a
famous discoverer and expounder OF
the truth in nature, but he received
no response from the river.
Then he turned 30 the bluffs,
stratum piled on stratum, and at that
instant was born one of the world
most distinguished and remarka BILE
biologists.
The full name of the boy has never
been known to the public. AS man
he signs himself and is called W.
McGee, no period being used after
either initial. Everywhere-in the
books he has written, in the learned
societies here and in Europe, of
which he is member, and in the
scientific and official records of the
government-he is always and only
WI McGee. After politely fencing
with him for five minutes, | suddenly
asked: ''But what name did the
minister use when he baptized your"
Was Never Baptized.
''My dear sir,' he replied, ''l have
never undergone that solemn and
peculiar ceremony"
Forty eight eminent Americans,
including capitalists like james j.
Hill and Andrew Carnegie, scientists
like John Hays Hammond, leaders of
labor like John Mitchell, and public
men like Senators Newlands and
Beveridge, have been made mem bers
of the new federal commission on the
conservation of natural resources.
1t is not too much to say, perhaps,
that the commission will begin the
most stupendous and brilliant work
for the public interest ever attempted
in the history of mankind. asked
DR.. McGee, for instance, what would
happen ultimately if the natural re-
sources of the country were not con
served.
america, he answered, "would
become uninhabitable; it would be
baked desert of clay and sand with
only a spot Of green here and there. >
The work OF the commission is
actually staggering in its magnitude
and in the splendid genius of its CON.
eeption. There are to be no more
foods. The Mississippi River is tC
stay within its banks. So is the
Ohio. The rains carry 1000, 900, O0(
of tons of soil into the Gulf o.
Mexico and the Atlantic and Pacific
oceans every year. The wash of thu
rains, in tons, about equals tht
annual freights of all the railways
lake vessels and river steamboats, il
the country. And the soil swep
away and lost is the richest part o
the earth IS surface.
impossible as it seems, the alarm
l.. A. Il