The Thibodaux sentinel. (Thibodaux, La.) 1905-1912, 1910-09-24

more vivid, more vital than the rest;
| as though it possessed some occult
quality that speaks not merely to
the imagination, or to the general
| love Of nature per Sc, but directly to
the soul the oak for strength, the
ash for mystery, the birch for her
feminine grace and so forth; but the
pine, like sharp sword, pierces
straight through to that inner sense
of beauty which accepts or rejects
beyond ali question OF analysis. The
personality of this common" tree
touches the same sense of wonder
that is stirred by the presence of a
human personality. strong beyond
ordinary; and worship is ever subtly
linked with wonder.
The analogy is interesting. The
pine plants its roots where more
snowy trees faint and die; straight,
strong and sweet to the winds, it
f1ourishes where only gorse, heather
and toughly obstinate things can live.
Out of the rock, where there seems
not earth enough to feed violet. 1t
lifts its somber head undaunted;
scorched by the sun. torn by the blast.
peering into dreadful abysses, yet
utterly fearless, and yielding SO little
that the elements must pluck It up
by the roots before they can destroy
1t. Only lightning can break it. At
a height above the sea that means
death to other trees, it climbs sing
ing, "rock-rooted, stretched athwart
the vacancy" and even when the
main army =halts, stragglers are al
ways to be seen, leading forlorn
hopes into the heart of desolation
beyond. And If. amid the stress of
conditions, 1t cannot look well. 1t is
content to look Ill, showing a dwarfed
and stunted figure to the Skies Only
then, We elemental powers! what |
in the gnarled roots, what |
iron resistance in the twisted trunk, |
what dour endurance in the short |
thick limbs! It assumes the attitude !
of the fighting animal. back to the |
wall.
pictures of this courage against Titan
lie odds. For it has the courage of its
convictions-fne, simple, tenacious
as it has also that other quality of the
strong soul; the power to stand alone
("Some say there is a precipice where
one vast pine is frozen to ruin DER
piles of snow and chasms of ice mid
Alpine mountains.'') No one who
has canoed on Canadian lakes and
seen those frequent rocky islets, each
with it's solitary pine, can have ig-
1ored that there Is something strange
v significant In the sight of that
slender spire rising out of the heart
If loneliness-somet hing that thrills.
md thrills deeply, into the region
,eyond words. Unsheltered beneath
vide skies, remote from its own
lind, the tree stands there, splendid
n it's isolation, straight as temple ,
olumn and prepared for any shock. ,
Elm Fichtenbaum steht einsam," of {
there is more than the !
athos of Heine's poem in its unap- t
roachable loneliness; there is the ,
piritual suggestion of personality
his upright. se1f-sufficing tree upon
rock, buffeted by winds and waves.
skiing no sympathy and dreading no
ossible fate. The picture, symbolic g
the strong soul. conveys the in @
vitable parable. n
Compared with other trees, too, the q
inc does not change. One knows. of
curse, the tips of tender green that c
ONE with May and turn a pine wood
Ito a sea of bewildering beauty. But. +,
Tough deciduoug, one is never aware :.
lat anything is lost; it branches q
ever thin; it puts out, properly h
oeaking, no buds. And the monot- u
ny of pine forest is merely -
eject of it's great quality of con- 6
ancy. In summer its shade is deep u
:, it's recesses more cool than those
other woods; and in winter, just
hen most trees are leafess and I'M a
Die to fight, it bears the full weight q
the snow and meets the whole force g
the destroying winds. It stands to j.,
ce disaster when others faint or run. u
he analogy with man is again strik-
g and complete. Yet its qualities Sc
e not only negative. More than
ost, it gives out-without reward, al
ten without recognition; for the Ell
eat forests that sweeten the world pr
Ith their balsam, Hfe-giving odors. "
and most often in the desolate re- It