The Salt Lake herald-Republican. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1909-1918, 1910-04-24
Coneass Tn Crsss
BY MYRTLE K. cHERRYMAN.

dS the BLACK Forest or Germany, the
Boise de Boulogne, or John Ball park.
We can see. at viii, that 5ovial, philo-
sopnlcal company who followed the
duke in his exile from the "enviOus
court; We can hear jacques half-jesI-
ing cynictsms, and Amien's sweet
can we catch the genial accents OF the
good dukes voice as he brings gentle
ness from the toughest situations.
Wen might the duke find tongues
In trees" for they speak a various
language" The message of the tree
is two-fold, for. as 1t stands with its
roots In the firm and solid earth ana its
head lifted to the sky, It speaks to
poth the practical and the ideal side of
man. Idealists are often criticised for
walking with their heads in the clouds
but that is where heads should be
surely not grovelling in the earth, or,
ostrich-iike, hiding In q mass OF com
monplaces, thus thinking to escape ali
thought. IT Is only when the feet are
in the clouds that there is danger
Keep the feet firmly on earth and the
head may tower as high as It will. So
the tree has Its lesson for both sides of
practical, far-seeing man of today? It
speaks with a tone OF appeal, asking
to be saved for the sake of the coun-
try's good, for beauty and for use. The
rar-spreading branches are asking to
be used, not tied, and all over the
world people are beginning to listen to
these voices, many good men and true
being devoted to the cause of re-for-
estation.
And on the ideal side, the lessons are
even more inspiring. Just now, in the
spring, when as a friend said playfully
the other days, the trees are beginning
10 stick out their tongues" the appeal
is particularly strong. Resurrection,
the reward OF patience, hundred SER
mons are preached to us in each maple
fringe and willow catkin. Another lit
tie preaehment came to me one day,
when / was looking out at some barren
trees just before the new life had be-
gun. ] thought at first that nothing
could be more devoid of Inspiration
than the ugly, bare limbs of the naples
saw from my study window against
a bleak sky. And to add to the wretch
edness OF the view, a few dead leaves
to one branch. They seemed, too, like
worn-out beliefs. superstitions and
dogmag which, from mere force Of
habit, have chung TO man, long after
the time for falling. / was feeling
little disappointed in nature that she
too, should thus cling to the things Of
the past, when suddenly this f1lumi-
mating thought came to me: Next
month there Will be new leaves on that
tree. Now, no one ever saw any dead
leaves among the pale green shoots OF
april There! the problem IS solved
Let the new growth come and the old
leaves will fall away of themselves"
And so, too, with the stale supersti-
tons and dead dogmas. which haven't
had the decency to be buried when their
time came. Put a new thought into
the mtnd-a fresh, vital belief, in keep
ing with life as It is today, and the
dead things will fall away. Only keep
the tree itself alive; keep the mind and
heart awake to new impressions, and
growth will be as sure and steady as
spring itself.
So many are the summer lessons of
our big brothers of park and grove
that the weeks from June to September
are all too short for the coming of
them. One of the most stimulating OF
these suggestions is in the trees res
piration, for the scientists tell US the
tree eXhales oxygen and inhales carbon
deoxid. Not being creatures of action
their respiration is not SO Vigorous
as that of human bodies-but they
breathe all they need to; they never
neglect that function, nor imperil it
by absurd clothing or unnatural pos
lures. Isn't IL strange that the sim
plest function of life is one which we
perform so imperfectly?
Another lovely summer lesson OF the
tree Is its unfailing upward tendency.
One writer on this subject has oh
served big tree, craving for light had
its head in the ground and its roots in
the air. Pruned down so that its
branches could not go upward the trees
Innate craving for light had sent all its
forces into the few roots which still
pierced the earth, and up from these
had sprung a new shoot, rising straight
and symmetrical toward heaven. They
tell US tree eats and drinks, sleeps
and breathes as we do. Who can say
that tree doesn't pray? 1t is a crea-
ture of perpetual alteration. Let US not
be denied our birthright Of living light.
It is ours and we should claim IT,
though we are fairly uprooted by life's
storms. Let US take for our motto
what someone has said of the tree,
While there is life. there is aspira-
ton" What? droop and hide your head
in the loan because some i'll wind has
overthrOWn you? Never! Push I'D IN
spite of everything through the up-
light Of heaven waits to give your life
its color and bloom and fruitage.
Many are the exquisite things the
poets have sung to us about autumn
leaves. They tell us that the leaf is
most beautiful just as it is about to
die and they create of this fact COM
forting symbol Later-day scientists
have taken away the lOng-credited
theory that the autumn cOlOring comes
from the action Of the frost. They tell
us that 1T is only the natural ripening
or the leaf-as comfortable and normal
a process as the maturing of an apple |
And why should not human life ripen
in the same way? Should age mean
the biting and corroding of frost? No.
rather the maturing of ones powers,
and the heightening of beauty AS for
the fall of the leaf, Natures process
IS as easy as the closing of weary eve
ids over drowsy eyes. A healing
tissue forms between the stem and the
twig, so that there is no pain in the
parting. May we not learn from the
tree how to draw from the Infinite
Source just the elements needed to Gre
ate healing tissues, so that these part
ingS which so rend us now will be nat
ural and painless?
And then, when the zest and charm
of the red-and-gold shower is past
when the lately gorgeous limbs are
bare-there is again a beautiful revela-
ton. The tracery of the branches OF
our shade trees against steei-blue or
tron-gray autumn sky is an etching
more lovely than any artist can pro-
duce, and the very barrenness let's in
the waning light of the year when we
most need it. Moreover that absence
OF LEAKAGE has suggestion to our 4
hearts, telling us how, sometimes, the |
very luxuriousness of material pros
perity becomes bar to our visions of
the best.
The patience Of the winter tree is an
impressive spectacle. II there is any
thing which commands more respect /
than energy in action Ii is energy in |
waiting-the pregnant waiting for the |
right time to act. Patience is in no |
way allied to indifference OF lasBitude [
No, dull inertia cannot claim to be |
even a poor relation of noble Patience /
II we could only learn to push when !