Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-07-12
TREESTE[lTALES
OF: THE PAST AGES
Mementoes of the Long Ago in
theDistrict Reservations.
ONE LEFT AS monument
BY THE FIRST PRESIDENT
Product OF. an, Acorn From the Grave
Of Confucius' Grows in Botanic
Garden.

built one of those high-perched houses
facing the Capitol's north front, and
planted several elms. He nu1st have
impaired to one sapling a germ OF hi,
own deathlessness, for the tree has tri
umphed over. a century. OF y time and
stands today a living shaft, reared b
nature. TO keep This memorytgreen.
The, Districts oldest finf,ahitants ar.
'theitr
8 sometof Them ,wersr big, andkgresn and
breezy{ when our spresentf mostAvenerahll
citizen was wearing a white slip and
trying to say dada They have growr
bigger and greener and breesier in the
fifty years that changed q hot-blooded
young army into q few old gentlemen
with canes. and birds will be nesting IN
their branches when the babies Of this
century are sans everything, in the next,
| unless
Unless Progress comes along with an
ak.
Many story telling trees Of the District
have been felled by this splendid vandal
that has already devoured our landmarks,
| sucked our pumps dry, steam-rolled our
most hallOwed associations and torn up
the bricks once trod by those who walk
with us no more. But in one thankful
instance even Progress had to back-step
| when 1t tried to put a bronze man In
the place that belongs to that Lafayette
/ elm.
Fashion Generally Followed.
The tree-planting fashion set by
Washington has been generally fol-
lowed by his successors, with Cleve-
land as the exception that proved the
rule. He had his own notion about
the nonsense Of planting tree for the
name Of the thing" though his wife.
when a bride, added a blood-leaf jap
anese maple to the historic collection In
| the White House grounds.
| Not far from the Washington elm"
stand the barbecue" trees that bark
| back to the Jackson administration.
They are the political relics Of two
circular grooves intended for barbecue
Icelebrations-one for democrats and the
other for whigs-and were planted by
James Maher jovial Irishman. who
owed his appointment as superintend-
ent of the Capitol grounds to the Presi-
dents personal friendship. The story
| goes that the superintendent had q
not to stand for. so he sent for Maher,
| and this is how the interview turned
out:
jimmy says the President. you
know how / like you. but you will have
to co.
And what's wrong with ye now.
general. dear? says Jimmy.
I'm told you are drinking again.
',And is that all that's troubling yer
Sure. and If everybody believed all the
bad stories told about you. where
would yourself be. general. dear?'
And Jimmy stayed on his job.
At White House Gate.
The bulletin" tree is q TALL sylvan SEN
tinel that guards the White House gate.
Most Of US remember that when Garfield
was shot the hourly bulletins issued by
the doctors were tackled on the bole Of
this tree. There was always a crowd
| around 1t. and when the government Of
fees let out the crowd became a mass
sides of the tree from the ratings to the
street. In the years that have passed
the Garfield tragedy has been forgotten.
Only the tree is left to tell the tale.
The Botanic Garden Is green with his
toric trees. One. near the Avenue gate,
served as a hitching post for John Quincy
Adams horse. way back in 1901, and
nearby are the peace" oaks which were
planted in 1858 from acorns brought from
Kentucky by John j. Crittenden and
periodically for peace at the beginning
Of the civil war. From the acorns Of
| these trees the late Supt. Smith raised
800 shoots. which were planted on the
OattlcHclQ Oh OnlCkdIu6ukds no pcASc
| oaks originally stood on the site now
occupied by the Grant monument, but
we're successfully transferred
In another part Of the garden grows
q young oak with gracefully outreachlng
branches aquiver with shiny leaves Its
cius
An American while ''sightseeing" the
tomb Of the oriental philosopher, who
wrote the six sacred books Of the Chinese,
lal k,aH0 NI3r&~
born, picked an acorn that had fallen
on the grave and brought 1t to Charles
A. Dana, then the master mind OF the
New York Sun. Mr.. Dana turned it over
to Representative Amos J. Cummings.
who gave It to supt Smith. And every
body knows without telling what the su.
perintendont did.
Not far from the ''Confucius' oak is a
beechnut planted by the late John A.
Bingham. who dearly loved trees. and at
owes it's existence to Garfield. who plant
ed it when a member Of the House.
Struck by Lightning.
Close to tho Capitol building stands an
arboreal Ajax, whose stripped bark Of
| fers contradiction to the theory that
lightning never strikes twice In the same
place Elliott Woods. superintendent of
| the Capitol, can tell you that he has seen
/ the dome struck several times and that
ON such occasions q tiny fork would dart
/ off at a tangent and strike the tree. But
Ajax. sturdy Of trunk and vigorously
sappy. defies each bolt, and puts the the
DRY on that everything dump where most
The wishing tree in Lafayette Square
IA a dwarf chestnut; its trunk gnarled
and suuatty, and with crooked branches
| that give magnificent shade. Tradition
claims that IL you make q wish while
hugging the tree 1t is bound to come true.
A colored woman who used to drag her
tired way through the park every night
| after a hard days service put her arms
as far around the trunk as she could
reach and wished her hardest for q bicy-
Gle She had barely got out OF the
| grounds when she picked up q bicycle
iamp. If her arms had been long enough
To reach clear around she would have
found a wheel She said SO. And she
certainly ought to know.
| prairie man who came to Washing
ton for the Inauguration discovered that
we waste too much ground on our trees.
Ground was made for crops. Trees are
| pretty and all that. but when you come
down to It, what are they good for, ex-
cent for fuel and for building?
/ IL he had put on his thinking cap he
might have recalled many trees with q
value not to be measured by cordwood
| ana lumber that grow in the fields of ira
dition. history and romance:
tree guards each Of the two rates at
the ends Of the world: the apple OF Eden
/ that shades the entrance we come In by,