Year: 1878

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 The following is an extract from letter writ ten by prominent Canadian lumber merchant to the Hon. David \. Wells:

 '"The State of Maine, which not long since could boast of more extensive pine forests, is now all but stripped of that valuable wood, and IS besides so far denuded of it's ce-supposed inexhaustible supplysof spruce that the lum- berers are forced to the head-waters and tribu- taries of every river in the State to hunt for supplies and are stocking their mills in a large measure with logs cut from sapphng poles of from six to eight inches in diameter, and sthis reckless and Wasteful saughtering is carried on to such an extent to supply the neighboring States and for shipment abroad, that few years will find the people of that state without building timber, either pine or spruce, for their home consumption. The northern sections of Michigan Wisconsin, and Minnesota are the only localities of the whole 26 States that are able to furnish supplies of white pine beyond the wants of their own respective States, and the demand on them is so heavy for all sec tons of the country that it will not be possible for them to respond to it for more than six or seven years longer Their main streams are all stripped, and the lumberers are now opera ting at the head-waters of their tributaries, where they are forced to bank many of their logs in dry gullies, depending on the winters snow and spring rains to produce freshets sufti- cient to float them to the main streams, and which often fail, as will be the case with many of them this season, for want of water to move them from where the loggers have hauled them. A number of railroads have also been built to secure the lumber traffic of these timber sec tions no less than six are now running through every patch of timber otherwise inaccessible to the loggers on the low peninsula of Michi- gan, hitherto the greatest lumber-supply y1ng State of the Union, and the mill-owners them selves having, many of them, exhausted their timber within team-hauling distances, are bus fly at work building railways on their own ac- count to enable them to reach what are now the outskirts of their once supposed inexhaus- tible timber resources. And here in these three timber sections, and in the positions l have pointed out, is to be found the whole white pine supply for the consumption of your whole country east of the Pacific slope, and were the whole of that supply brought to one point 1t could all be covered with the palm of ones hand or any ordinary map of the United States and yet notwithstanding this state of the case, the lumberers are eslaughtering away as if life depended on how soon they could rob the country of its timber wealth and bring about timber famine to the utter ruin of the wood industries of the country in which every mem- Der of the communityis is deeply interested. Not 

 keep their own markets continually largely overstocked, they have also made extensive preparations by fitting up their mills for the manufacture of deals, to drive, as their lumber | papers boast they will the Canadian supply out of the British markets, and they are be- sides at work using up the best of their white pine in the manufacture of boardwood and l square timber for the same markets. course more destructive to the forests. In fact, light l Al~o Ia+h de fo f1Ny describe the utter recklessness and folly ot their preceedings-they arc casting it bodily | into the fire"

 | A WORK OF ART IN SIX MINUTEs.--We were at the Cafe Chantant the other night. It is a building somewhat larger than the Corcoran gallery of art in Washington. It is great | place for music songs and dances. There was one very amusing feature. During one of the entrrctes they brought on an artist who was billed to paint marine view in six minutes, all finished for hanging Qhe picture, not the | artist .

 The canvas was brought on.

 l Out came the artist, a quiet, nervous-look- ing young man, about thirty years of age.

 His colors were all upon the palette, and his brushes were in his hand.

 "Attention," cried out the director.

 The artist seized huge brush.

 At signal the orchestral band struck up a clashing maddeningly nervous waltz.

 As the first note was struck the artist dash ed mass of yellow uponthe upper part of the canvas Then bit of blue, then white, a dash of purple shadow, and then, with quick twirl of a clean brush, dark-blue sea is dashed iu against the horizon.

 Two minutes gone.

 The waltz goes on faster and faster. The srush keeps time. A huge rock is sketched in with burnt sienna and black. A lighthouse with vermillion range light is dropped upon the top of the rock.

 Clash, clash, one, two, three, boat under full sail is thrown into the dim distance. Clash, crash, one two, three and another boat is plashed in. Light upon the waters is thrown in with free steady hand. A huge brush then carefully blends the edge of the masses, and with profund bow the artist turns to cheer ing audience, gratifled that he is through or time.

 And the wonder is that the picture is start ling, good in it's broad effects. It is strong and clear. The colors are good and not muddiy mixed. It was as good a novelty as l ever saw at any show and it beats all how it anus es the French people.-PGris C0'respon0e'a 9 Chtcag0 Times.