Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1914-03-30
SAYS IT'S PITY GUN
CANNOT Be USED ON
FLOWER DESTROYERS
Physician Declares That Climbing
Through Woods Is Best
Spring Tonic
DENUDING wETzEL'S SWAMP
VandaIs Have Been Tearing Rare
Blooms Up by Roots Until
They Are Disappearing
DENUDINC WETzEL'S SWAMP
Its "a great pity gun cannot
be used in such cases"

In this trite way DR.. j. IL. Eager,
botanist, naturalist and QUITO door
man, laments that those who tear up
the tender flowers of Spring cannot be
duly punished
DR.. Eager has written a letter to
the Telegraph. in which he makes a
stirring plea that folks refrain from
roofing up the flowers when they are
on hikes through the woods. DR..
Eager, who is one of the city's best
known physicians, also offers the sug-
gestion that there would be a great
deal less sickness in the world If
people would spend more time in the
fields and woods. He declares there is
no better tonic than climbing in the
woods in scare hof birch, sassafras
slippery elm and so on. DR.. Eager S
letter is as follows:
r. the Editor Of The Telegroph:
The cartoon in Saturdays telegraph
was enjoyed by my many friends as
well as by myself, and it was nearer
the truth than you thought. Some
times not only close examination is
necessary, but often you take a slide
in the mud, or dip in the creek, or
perhaps you are impaled on the barbed
wire fence in your efforts to find the
first wild flowers. Old WetzePs swamp
was formerly the favorite hunting
ground, but year by year its hills are
being denuded and the search must
be prosecuted in more secluded glens.
Few Resist Desire
There are few people who can re-
sist the desire to dig up everything
IN sight, who enjoy going year after
year and seeing the wonderful displav
without destroying the plants; but the
greater number go with big baskets
and greedily tear every flower and
root from the earth. It's q great pity
a gun cannot be used in such cases.
Last Friday a friend and myself,
hunting Independently, found quanti-
ties OF hepaticas, or liverwort, blood
root saxitrase, toothwort and ane-
m9my. The bees were working these
early flowers. But still earlier the
bees visit the simplocarpus this
sounds better than to tell its other
name, skunk cabbage. Besides the
awakened vegetation the air is full of
life and the most conspicuous butter
fly, and one seen the earliest, is the
mourning cloak, purplish brown in
color, with yellow margins, edged with
row of blue spots The mourning
cloak hibernates in barns tree stumps
and wood piles and comes out early
Lots of birds were seen and heard I
mustn't forget to mention the patient
fisherman with rod and line and also
with dipnets making wonderful water
hauls.
As to Topics
/ know of no better tonic for anv
person than climb in the woods
searching for something-birch. sassa :
fras, slippery elm, wild cherry, flowers
birds, arrow heads, butteriies-anv-
thing only so you are hunting for
something with as much steam as Won
put into your work for bread and
meat Go into the woods for O. dav
and drink your fill from the many eX,
cellent springs, and If you must eat.
live on what Nature has prepared
birch. sassafras buds, water cress and
the. different mints. digging up the
Dubious roots of the toothwort and
the Indian cucumber. which reminds
you OF cucumbers After such a day,
If we carry nothing home in our bas-
kets. there is ample gain in dilated
lungs and stimulated blood"
]. H. EAGER.