Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutZurich Herald, 1924-04-24, Page 3• BY : J Whittlesey The argument ter our Arbor Day ie Written around the Mediterranean. Sea, en letters of barren plain and stony :mountain.'mile higl and hundreds of miles wide. Forests, woode, and .groves are frequently mentioned in the Old • Teets hent, not in the New. So also are each trees as the fir,. cedar, Oak, and Pine. They; were gone by -Christ's time, and He`knew them not.. Thee Crusaders' cut :down the olive groves about Jerusalem to make siege timbers with which to batter in her gates. In the long turmoil which fol-. ]owed "there Was. no replanting, and the bills, of 4?alesitine took On that raclec•overed desolation from which those' slopes are being painfully re- deemed to -day. The Dead Sea has no bordering forests. The light aU of Syria and Anatolia. washes frightfully beneath the rain when there areno ma:3sed forest roots to hold it together:, Italy's• problem of bleak mountains, raging floods, and dry summer gulches Is modern: Stone cutting can 'give Italy houses', but cannot. give jeer soil. 'The only way to get that is to put the trees back on the hills.. In southern France the farmers ter- race their bare cut-off mountains• and carry up in" baskets the soil that has been washed down, for lack of forest ,• rootage to hold: it. An American sol- .dier saw .this, and said:. "The French -.ought to love their country. They've made a lot of it by hand!" They are carrying the, war of growth to victory over barren nature. The defeat of tide Great Armada marked the end of Spain's forests as well as of her naval supremacy. The ,Spaniard's "hatred- of a tree" became a proverb and .desolated the hill slopes. of Mexico and Peru as well as of Castile and Aragon; Turks and Spaniardss fought many years, but their destruction of trees conquered them both. Fire bared the mountains of Maderia (which means woad), and the resultant floods have swept much of the -'soil into the ocean. From An- gorato Lisbon the Mediterranean lands will never again support the human life they once did until the tree's have been restored. es d. In France, as in California, tree planting has improved the soil and softened changes of climate. Man- tnad•e :forests have anchored the sands' auk of Sem Frameisco and brought more rainto western Nebraska, (ever much of the eo-called "American Des- ert" trees now seed themselves. Both France and Germany have proved that permanent forests pay just as the Old Roman regions have proved that dead woodsmean' dead lands, Jahn Evelyn, friend of Sam Pepys, wrote his "De Silva," a forestry essay in Letiu, in those most heedless days of Charles. the Second. That book planted 'a million oaks in seventeenth- century England, and from these were 'hewn the keels that rolled down to Trafalgar and ended Napoleon's dream of mastery on the ,sea. When Ed- mund Burke likens the policy and con- stitution of a great country to that of the oak, he is, praising steadfast hu- man wisdom which plants for the needs of a hundred years hence. Our •individual part in all this is, clear, These life-giving trees are 'py�pe� '�Ui planted one by one exactly as they are. DEVELOPENT felled one by one. The gigantic figures of our lumber needs and lumber losses all root back to the acts of men who either care about trees and increase them or are careless of trees and des- troy them. Much of our country's area is owned and much of it will al- ways give its best service to the nation ea woodland. That must be made the owner's care. eseeeteeeiegag ? 4?eeeereereeee- - Photograph shows Livingstone's firs; view of the Zambesi, from one of the scenes in a new motion .picture play of the noted explorer's trip across Africa, the exteriors of which were made at the locale. Much can be done by lightening taxes on forest land, by making city, provincial, and national forestay ex- amples of the best art of tree raising, by proving that it pays to raise good crops of pulp and timber, by penaliz- ing heavily 'those abuses of greed and carelessness that turn the • green wealth of our new continent into the barren poverty of old Europe. But the base and driving power of this crusade for a better lite will always be found in that spirit of Arbor Day wherein, as Spenser's• "Faerie Queene" has said: Much can they prance the trees so straight and high, ?he sailing pine, the cedar stout ani tall; The vine -prop elm; the poplar never dry;. The builder oak, sole king of forests all. London Bridge Built Century Ago. On March 15, 1824, one hundred yearsago, the first pile of the London Bridge of to -day was driven deep in- te the bed of the Thames. The pres- ent granite Structure is the work of Sir Jahn Rennie (though his father actually designed the bridge) and was seven and a half years in the building. This was because' work had to be be- gun ink a hole. The authorities of that day insisted that Sir John build im- mediately above the odd bridge, the latter to be left standing until the new one was finished. Now, the old bridge, built way back in eleven hundred and something, stood on a hill, the foundations of the piers being 28 to 30 feet above the bot- tom of the river on either .side, this being the effect produced upon the river bed by the scour of the tides, up and down. For hundreds of years Lon- don Bridge had been a kind of dam, 700 feet of the river's 900 .feet of width at low water being at one time occupied by piers,; consequently the passage of the waters through the many arches resembled. a torrent. Eight hundred men were •employed on the new bridge, and of these forty lost their lives through accidents of various kind& The Corporation paid almost a million and a half pounds on the bridge and its approaches. It is a tradition. that you cannot cross London Bridge without seeing a White horse. Once upon a time one couldn't cross it without seeing also heade, human heads, fresh from the executioner's basket. Henry. VIII. es pecially was fond of derorating the bridge with heads. There is a story that the Bishop of Rochester's head was placed on -the` bridge and remained fresh and lifelikefor two 'creeks; so that crowds collected to see the mir sole, an incident which annoyed the King so much that he ordered it thrown into the river. This: was done, but they put Sir Thomas More's head in its place. IN QUEBEC SPRING RUSH TO GOLD FIELD PREDICTED. Increased Agricultural Settle- ment Will Follow as Natural Consequence. The most reliable and conservative authorities predict something of rush to the North-western Quebec gold field with the disappearance of the snows in the spring. The significanc of this, to the mining industry of Can ada is at once understood. Its bear ing upon the .agricultural industry of Quebec and the province's genera colonization efforts is not so readily seen. Yet it is painted out that a gold boom which is, justified by deposits and the permanence of the camp is the greatest oo•lonizing factor in th© history of developing countries, as the history of other gold mining areas has proven. This being the case, the Pro- vince of Quebec should benefit in peculiar manner. There would appear to be no doubt a have endorsed the gold area and ex- hibited their faith in its ultimate de- velopment. The most adequate trans- portation facilities are already pro- vided almost into the heart of the area and there is promis'e'of ext _- area is adjacent to a huge' block of splendid agricultural landthe worth ot which is definitely, proven. Much preliminary work has. been done by the provincial government already and &rec]al offers of assistance made to settlers. In every consideration Que- bec should experience in the spring which will bring with it as a natural consequence increased agricultural set- tlement. - Precious Seeds. e Suppose aa you are going out of th - front door some fine spring mornin - your,wife calls atter you, "0 John! want to have a bed of double petuni 1 this season. I wish you'd buy so seeds to -day." And suppose, adds Mr. Allison Gra that you should actually remembe your wife's request and should stop the seed stare on your way home. I spite of that strange feat of memo ' you are just an ordinary man; yo know nothing about petunias. Tint i a ,your wife mentioned seeds you thougl Ia petunia was a gland! Pituitary petunia, it was all the same to yo about the permanence of the Quebec gold mining area. No new mining area has had more thorough expert in- - vestigation and probably no rush` in history has had greater justification. Whilst ]'t is generally agreed that the field will develop slowly, this develop- ment is assured and the ultimate evo- lution of an industrial area of intense Of Praise. There is a potency in praise; Along earth's multicolored ways The threat of ill fades in eclipse If one wears praise upon the lips. activity,a: future certainty.` Such, an area definitely established and con- tinually expanding furnishes a profit- able and sure market' for a certain amount of.agricultural produce, and • inevitably prosperous farming areas develop about mining territories. It has been pointed out that many, of Quebec's farming ,settlers annually find their way across the Ontario bord- er to the vicinity of the Northern On- tarioo mininr camps. The praise of beauty, praise of good, Of human kindness, not of feud; - The praise of love and not of strife, For loving is the right of life, Give me to go through ail my days With Prayer which is the soul of Praise! —Clinton Scollard. Face It! Whenever a difficult task is yours, Just face it with courage, my son; Don't grumble, don't shirk—. Get quiiokly to work, And before you know it—'tis done! —E. E. Brown. Listeners are learners. --AND THE WORST IS YET TO COME - owe. PoRRcb BEA•P 104. WP+7CH Yosll HAT. ? -llfl BEEF 5�' tvv let BREA• p, . R 1TT 5c4EYr 4' Fee : t %""iN"L.niit,4a4 The New Mining Area. Tho new Quebec mining area is pe- culiarly situated. Roughly the gold belt runs along the southern edge of the Great Clay Bolt, which, with the excep- tion of the Prairie Provinces, eoutains the largest amount of unsettled fertile agricultural land in Canada. The area between the trans -continental railway in the north 'and the inter-provineiat boundary is somewhat greater than the Eastern Townships of Quebec, one of the greatest areas of varied produc- tion in the Dominion, whilst the pro- portion of arable land is 'much greater. There has been very satisfactory settlement in progress in the district since the concius'ion of the war, with a substantial agricultural output, which is sweling each year. To the south of the field, the new line of the Canadian Pacific Railway penetrates an old -established farming section with twelve municipalities and twelve towns and villages. The farming popu- lation of 10,500 has been successfully engaged in agriculture for years, send- ing its products down Lake Temiskam- ing. It le estimated that this area, now given direct co'mm'unication with Montreal, Torohto and other markets, has over 70,000 acres of fine land yet unproductive. It is in this expansive area, of which the townships of Rouyn and Bolsclhatel form only a small part, that the Que- bec Government has for .some time been concentrating its rol'a•nizattan ef' forts, to find homes for the young peo- ple of its older farms and alienated sons who are continually finding their way back to their native land. Colon!. nation lots have been broken, acreages on eacirprepare.d for'ineonming settlers', and houses and barns erected. Coloni- zation roads have been built at great expense and the most advanced steps taken to prepare the way for the 0e1- onists it is hoped to secure to popu- late the region. Adequate Transportation Paciilties. The development of the gold mining area MustMustinevitably set this ealoni- zation effort forward with cansidorable Wreathe. This has been the experience of Ontario, where some of the most prosp�el•ous farming s.ettlenrents ,have evolved about the mining areas, where with the adjacent. Mining oonnnuriitaes providing lucrative markets, the Tong waiting of pioneers was considerably shortened. Queleeo'o situation in this regard l:.eoulleely edeanit; tgootte. doth the pro- Viarlel ;government and the railways', A Poem You Ought to Know. "A Retrospective Review." Thomas Hood, with his inveterate habit of punning, said, "I have to be a lively Hood to make a livelihood." paid shim much for his fun and little for his fancy, Yet, among•poets of the second rank, he holds a secure place by virtue of his "Bridge of Sighs," "Eugene Aram," and "I Remember, I Remember." His famous "Song of the Shirt" did much to influence legislation against "sweat- ing." The fallowing verses, extracted from a longer poem, show both the humor and the pathos of Hood: Oh, when I was a tiny boy My days' and nights• were full of joy, My mates were blithe and kind! e No wonder that I sometimes..sigh, g And dash a tear -drop from mime eye, I To cast a, look behind,' as me A hoop was an eternal round i Of pleasure. In those days I found Ye , A top a joyous thing: ✓ But now these past delights I drop, at My head, alas, is all my.top, n And careful thought the string! ry i u My kite—how fast and far it flew! 'Whilst Ia sort of I' i1 r ,ranitlin, drew it My pleasure from the sky! ar 'Twas papered o'er with studious themes, You do know something about nastur- tium seeds perhaps; sa, after ,guessing at the amount needed for a flower bed, • you sayto the clerk: I "Give me an.ounce' or two of doubt petunia s!eeds." - - o your surprise the clerk sho siege of falling into a fit. When h TTOt" ;covered his power of speech rs. "D -d -double p -p -petunia :see An ounce! "Yes,: you say, "I want enough t make a nice bed of flowers." "Well," says the clerk, with a glanc of mipgled scorn and pity, "an 'ounc of double petunia seeds will cost you at a rough guess, at the rate of tw thousand dollars a pound!" it's your turn to stutter now. Bu you manage to explain that you don' want a petunia farm! You just wan a nice little -bed in the back yard. "AU you need is a packet of seeds,' says the clerk. He produces a very small envelope, takes your fifty cents and then re- marks.. "Guess you 'don't know much about double petunia needs. Let me show you." He tears open the packet and care- fully extracts a smaller envelope. "The seeds are in the inner envelope," he explains. "But you'll have to look sharp, or you won't find 'em. People often bring a packet back and say it was empty when it had enough seeds in it to, start `a garden. They are a great deal emalier than grains of sand. People sometimes mix them with sand when they plant them. That's almost the only way they'can see that they have planted them." Well, here;is something else that may` surprise you, a true story about the :Seeds of a common garden vege- table., Sonie years ago, the Equitable Building in' New York City was des- troyed by fire that burnt for three days. It was bitter cold weather, and the shell of the ruined building be- came: coated with ice from the streams of water played on it. On the ground door; was a bank. After the fire a re- prese'ntative •of a certain large need convene went to the bank to recover the valuables that the firm had de- posited in the vaults. I doubt whether sou Can guess which of the valuables he was most concerned about. It was cauliflower seed! Years be - ore the firm had developed a new variety known asp "snowball catrli- ower." At the timetimeof the fire their 'tire, drop cf seed from the snowball aulifiowers `o'f the season before was stared in the vault. It was worth orty-eight iiollars• a pound then, and he vault that the compauy hired was alf.full of. it. During the three days of the fire the v;sults had been exposed first to the eat of the flames; then they had be- ome coated with ice. The all-inrport- ant question was whether the little erm of life in those precious seeds ad witlistbod the experience? A ger- lination test `seas immediately trade, nd to�;the immense relief of everyone oncerned the seeds sprouted, If 1'' wore to prey for a taste whfoli (mid stand` Me in :stead under every riety of cirbuinstanee and be a urea ot',happiitee and cheerfulness nue through lire, and a shield against is ills . it would be a taste for ading.•-•Sir'John ldor'soholl. The tasks I wrote — my pleasant dreams, Will never soar so high. e My football's laid upon the shelf: I am a shuttlecock myself ws The world knocks to and fro. e My archery is all unlearned, he And.grief against myself has turned el ' s. I My enrolee and my bow! o Oh, for the garb that marked the boy— The trousers made of corduroy, e Well ink'd with black and red; e The crownless hat—ne'er deem'd an 111-- o • It only let the .sunshine still Repose upon my head! t Why We Doff Our Hats. ' t Most people extend the right hand on meeting a friend, but few realize ' that they are imitating the cavalier of i the Middle Ages, who held out au un- armed hand as token that his sword was sheathed, and that he was friend and not enemy. You take off your hat when you en- ter a house—but why? It is because the knight of old doffed his helmet— the elmet the most vital part of his armor—when he arrived to show that he came in peace. And as he touched his helmet on meeting a friend to show that he was prepared to unhelm, his descend- ant of bo -day touches or raises his hat. Even the clothes we wear are dis- tinct in showing allegiance to more an- cient ones, What is the Norfolk jacket but a reproduction of the chain - mail hauberk, with the belt for the sword? The frock coat is the old time wafenrok, which was worn over ar- mor. The clergyman's cassock is a sur- vival of the days when almost all men were skirted; while the wig which to- day barristers don links us with the time when every gentleman wore his horse -hair peruke. e 0 t c h a a �tw So to i re .Ai ` Busy Queevu tr.eQuanseenwhat Mahy ntanofyntrog'lall; n,d is by. no `lSpeople still hazily imagine a queen to be: a-gret8t lady of much leleure and .many Kiva leges who occasionally' wears &• crown inatead of a hat. $he i$ a busy and useful woman, an(l in the scene of be in.g fasbionable and e leader in ele- gant society she is not a great lady at all. Social dominance in a wider sense she of course has; but the British "sseart set" le not .the court set. In the rnatt',r'of clothes .she follows the fashions "after a fashion," but she has no instinct for style. Oddly enough. that circumstance adds to her pope- larity.' The great British public have long accepted the fact that to the wo- men of France and America belong' na- tur'ailystyle, chic and distinction; and the 1publlc rather distrust excessive eleganee as int -English. Their own Ideal is that of the Queen herself; clothes notable rather for good ma- terial than for, the manner in which. they; are made or worn, "Many a thousand EngIishwomen," says Mr. David Blumenfeld m the Montreal Star, "would rather not go out than bd .seen > in shoddy though fashionable costumes, 'Hats that cost' pounds on pound's adorn Queen Mary's head, but their' cost is by reason of the stuff in them, and not on account of the milliner's name. •'Vehat Queen Mary wears to -day Paris never wore, nor will,' was aptly said by one of the most fam•ous•drea'smakere in the world. "The Queen is up by nine o'clock and breakfasting in a tweed - tailor made goat and skirt. This meal she takes with the King and with any of her sons who may be at home. After breakfast, like the King, she has her correspondence to attend. to. Every. girl of from fourteen to sixteen writes) to the Queen begging for her auto-' graph; every lovelorn maiden in 'the last resort writes to her to expose her, gaping heart wounds', begging for a word of sympathy; ' every •pushing society matron or charity -bazaar dame tries to inveigle the Queen into • thei meshes of correspondence. "When her correspondence is finish,' ed the Queen will probably change her costume and motor out to a hospital or a children's home in which she may. be interested or to a 'large factory where hundreds of women are employ= ed. Women'swelfare although of- ficially a duty from the Queents• point of view, is as much a hobby with her as any of her private pursuits are." Domestic, motherly and wholly un- spectacular, Queen Mary is loved for the traits that have made her womanly rather than queenly. She has, how- ever, one unusual and most fortunate gift, a truly, royal memory for names and faces and far the characteristics; and family histories that belong with: them. "She is very often asked by, King George to come and chat in hie aparjtmeet with one of those many notables who are requested to call at the palace from time to time—explor- ers, men of s•ci'ence, famous foreign' diplomats and the like; and the Queen,' without being prompted, will at once begin to ask questions about things that happened to the nien' fifteen, twenty and twenty-five years before." Greater Than the Garter. Prior to June 26th, 1902, the day up. on which King Edward the Seventh would have been crowned, but for a sudden attack of appendicitis, the highest honor in his gift would, in most people's estimation, have been the Order of the Garter, and it is still th-e premier order of chivalry in the world. On that day, however, a new "Order" was instituted, which, for real distinc- tion, takes precedence of any other, It is the Order of Merit, which is limit- ed to twenty-four men and women of extraordinary eminence. It oonfers no title, only the addition to the name of the magical Ietter,s "0.M." Twelve outstanding figures in aur national life were originally selected for this honor, but, with the death of Lard Morley recently, there is now only one left of the original members, Admiral Sir Edward Hobart Seymour,' who is now in his eighty-fourth year. Among the present members of this unique order are Mr. Lloyd George; Earl Beatty, Lord Haldane, Earl Haig, and Thomas Hardy, the novelist and. poet. UR MUM FtUtAN 106 so W -- TACF l'styE.AREST Piece 'Co sot i NlOM- K►N t CHAKGE PLACES w 1111 MAt2GF+lt€s 2 ea 1 4 • `M 1 1 1 1