( J
10 Conservative *
FORESTRY. The American For
estry Association will hold au important
meeting in Omaha on Friday and Sat
urday , September 9 and 10. This meet
ing is hold in accordance with a vote of
the association at its meeting held in
Nashville a year ago and it was contem
plated at that time that this meeting
should be largely devoted to topics relat
ing to the "West ; it has , also , been ar
ranged that a number of "Western men
of many years' experience in the West
shall be placed upon the program so that
the "Great Treeless District" may have
a thorough representation.
Some of the topics that will be treated
are as follows :
"Where Does Our Timber Come From ?
Wind Break Its Value and Form.
Conifers on the Plain.
The Catalpa in Plantations.
The Extension of Native Forest
Growth in the Plains.
How Does Forest Growth Affect Cli
mate ?
The Forest Botany of Nebraska , Eco
nomically Considered.
Arbor Day and its Economic Signifi
cance.
Some of the well-known persons who
will take part in the meeting by present
ing papers are Dr. George L. Miller ,
Hon. R. W. Furnos , E. F. Stephens , O.
A. Keffer , C. L. Watrous , F.S. Phoenix ,
Henry Michelson , S. M. Emery , George
Van Houteu , C. S. Harrison. Prof.
Charles E. Bessey , B. E. Feruow , Prof.
Lawrence Bruner and George E. Kesser.
The exact topic assigned to each
speaker will be announced a little later
but , in the meantime , it may be under
stood that it is proposed to have a thor-
ouglily profitable program , made lip
from topics which will have the most
interest to those who are likely to bo in
attendance. The low rates on the rail
roads at this time will make it possible
for many to attend this meeting who
could , perhaps , not otherwise come.
The exact place of meeting in Omaha
will be announced in duo season.
Persons interested , or desirous of any
further information , are cordially in
vited to correspond with F. W. Taylor ,
Superintendent of Agriculture and Horticulture
ticulture , Trans-Mississippi Exposition ,
Omaha.
The officers of the association are :
Hon. Francis H. Appletou , president ,
Boston , and George P. "Whittlesey ,
recording secretary and treasurer ,
Washington.
The Earth's Shadow.
The earth has a shadow , but very
few over see it , except in eclipses of the
moon , or else few recognize it when
they see it. Nevertheless , many of us
have noticed on fine , cloudless evenings -
ings in summer shortly before sunset a
rosy or pink arc on the horizon opposite
the sun , with a bluish gray segment
under it. As the sun sinks the arc rises
until it attains the zouith and even
passes it. This is the shadow of the
earth.
| CURRENT COMMENT. |
Carping.
The most disagrecablo animal of the-
human species is the perpetual fault
finder. Whether ho bo the snarling lit
erary critic , according to Lord Beacons-
field's definition , the man who has failed
as an author , or the political Thersites
forever searching for flaws in public
policies and admitting no good but in
his own microscopic perspective , or the
social Jeremiah bewailing the taint and
rottenness in the customs and tenden
cies of the period , or the peevish grum
bler who is blind to all but the unpleas
ant sides of common things , it is the
same spirit in differ but fhrms. But it is
in the latter named phase that the
carper makes himself an all pervading
nuisance. The characteristic is largely a
matter of temperament , whether in a
Nordau or a Lombroso , dignified by tal
ent , or in the club's cynio , who mum
bles petty epigrams to the mingled
amusement and disgust of his fellows ,
or in the unhappy person forever find
ing fault with his circumstances and
sitting himself up as a victim of fate.
If ho does not spoil lifo for himself ( for
the carper often laughs in his sleeve
over his own ironies ) , ho tries desperate
ly to npoil pleasure for others. The
iconoclast by profession disdains to leave
the agreeable illusions of others un
touched. To do him justice , ho is quite
as apt to air his own skeleton as to rob
his neighbor's cupboard , and the effect
is fully as repellent. Illusions are a
very healthy part of life , after all , and
quite logical in the working of the
mental constitution. Without them ex
istence would lack salt , and the habitual
carper , posing as the truth teller , exer
cises as evil a function as when he dis
plays his unmitigated perversities. This
"bete noir" is in evidence everywhere
and should be avoided as we avoid cer
tain small unmentionable quadrupeds.
The Decay of Caste.
Au English contemporary deplores
the breaking down of caste privileges
and prejudices and finds in the consequences
quences an omen of England's political
and social decline.
"Wo have seen what fate has
overtaken France in her rage for so
called equality and the rule of the
people on a grandiose scale. There
is no clearly defined line drawn be
tween the leisured classes and Joan
and Jacques of the village commune ,
and the nation has known no real rest
or peace since the 'Man of Sedan' was
driven into the hands of his arch ene
my kinder to the royal captive than
the raging mob which had once boon
imperialists of a pronounced typo. Now ,
in ono respect wo have taken a leaf out
of the French system of morals and
ethics , and a page has been turned
which is not perhaps too readily re
placed. The governing or leisured
classes are evading their responsibili
ties , and the masses are gradually usurp
ing their places. "
Since when has England begun this
slide to perdition ? Surely her tremendous
deus power as a nation augmented to
imperial and worldwide dominion
really began with the expansion of her
commercial and manufacturing inter
ests. It is the development of those ,
raising men of all ranks of the social
cosmos to places of financial greatness
which has broken down the barriers of
caste. In other words , caste in England ,
or what is called so , for at least a hun
dred years has ceased to have adaman
tine walls. Any one can now break
through or leap over the partition who
has the genius of success. It is this per
petual commingling of the old blood
with the new , the re-enforcement of de
cayed families with the lusty vigor of the
yeomanry and the middle classes , which
have permitted the survival of so called
caste to be a force in modern English
life. The same influences work now
which have been molding a great people
ple for a century or more , only perhaps
with more organic force and directness.
The tool to the hand which can use it ,
place to talent which dares to aspire
and seize , that is the slogan of modern
English life , as it is of American. This
flexibility of rank gradation , now sub
merging the old , now uplifting the
now , has been the salvation of England.
It is the one thing which has made
caste tolerable. Without it the nation
would have ceased to have a royal fami
ly and nobility. It is the rigid preserva
tion of the superstition of the "saugre
azul , " or blue blood , which more than
anything else has ruined Spain. In the
one case caste has embraced democracy
and sucked its healthiest juices. In the
other it has withered in barren impo
tence and withered the nation with it.
An interesting matter not mentined
in the protocol has been laid before the
American members to be submitted to
the joint high commission which has
been sitting at Quebec to settle Anglo-
American differences. This relates tea
a monument to be erected to the mem
ory of Major .Richard Montgomery , who
fell on the Plains of Abraham in the
American attack on Quebec in the Rev
olutionary war. Several attempts have
been made at different times to got this
accomplished , but the Quebec munici
pal council concluded that it would be
scarcely consistent to memorialize the
name of one who foil in an assault on
British power , indeed in the attempt to
capture Quebec itself. Yet a uotablo
American some 20 years ago did a thing
similar in scope and spirit. There was
more magnanimity in Cyrus Field than
in the Quebec officials. Mr. Field erect
ed at Tappan , N. Y. , a monument to the
