'Cbe Conservative * 11
J" StorlingMor-
"
CHRISTMAS TUKES. .
ton , whoso fame
as the great tree planter ho should bo
more proud of than the worthy record
ho has written for himself as a states
man , editor and orator , in his paper ,
called "TiiE GONSEHVATIVE , " issues a
timely note of warning concerning
Christmas trees. Ho calls attention to
the young piuo forests that will bo
mutilated in the interest of the Christ
mas festivities , and says :
"Millions upon millions of the straight-
out , most symmetrical and vigorous
hemlocks , spruces , pines and balsams ,
will soon bo aboard freight cars and going
toward cities to bo put into homos for
Christmas trees , which shall boar tiny
bolls , dolls , boubousglass bulbs and all
sorts of jiinoracks for the amusement
of children. "
Let no one sinilo at this note of warn
ing as being far-fetched and unsympa
thetic. It is but another indication of
the growing souse of the commonwealth
of the world and the dependence of
human happiness upon the resources of
Nature. If the generation immediately
following us is to suffer a dearth of
lumber and if this denudation is to bring
aridity and render unfertile and
droughty the homes of men and women ,
it is a poor , blind homage we offer the
Christ child. And is not our contem
porary right when he Bays "the birth of
Christ should bo celebrated with more
common sense than by depriving human
families which will follow us of the
material out of which to construct and
embellish their homes. ' ' Unity , Novem
ber 80 , 1899.
When you sit by
NIGHT HAYE
your Christmas
IJjKKrf * . .
tree and the child
ren are dancing about its wonderful
fruitage of glass balls , dolls , candies ,
and various other child-pleasing com
modities , do not forget to tell them that
if that tree had been permitted to live
and grow to its natural size , one hun
dred years hence it would have made
lumber enough to construct a beautiful
cottage for a human home where child
ren and parents could have enjoyed life
as we do in the present generation , in
just such cottages made of trees once as
small as that. Do not forget to inform
them that if this silly habit of Christmas
trees had boon inaugurated 1800 years
ago and there had boon an annual de
struction of young forests at the celebra
tion of each one of the 1800 Christmas
times which have transpired since , there
would bo very few forests out of which
to gather material for building homes
even today. The waste and extrava
gance of the present will be paid for by
the homelessness and distress of the
future. Every Christmas tree is the
destruction of a possible cottage which
might have been built one hundred
years hence.
on , HOOK AY i
When Dewey , on the first of May ,
Bomnulcd his Spaniards in that bay ,
For him wo throw our caps sky-high ,
And If oloctlon hnd boon nigh ,
After that glorious event ,
\Vo would hnvo nmdo him president.
But now our ruler must bo drawn
From Princeton , where one good one's gone ;
When fame of foot-bull gets a chance ,
Dowoy's is not n circumstance ;
To Pee his laurels ho must yield ;
Ho never kicked a goal from field.
The most glor-
Point of the
ancient world , if
not of all history , was Athens. A city
that scarcely for its numbers would have
been known outside of one of our states ,
achieved more illustrious deeds , pro
duced more men of the highest order , in
more different kinds of greatness , loft
more wonderful records of its genius ,
and did more for human liberty , than
any people of our earth , at least within
anything like the same compass. It is
this last count which bears the soul of
the story. The rest would stand for
marvel indeed ; but the supreme value
of Athens is that she lives a perpetual
inspiration to the noblest nims of man ,
as a free and progressive being. She is
the world's University , from her own
time to date.
Why was the period of this glory in
i ts actual course so short , which was to
be so everlasting in its memory and in
fluence ? By all reason , not only from
her intellectual but from her political
ability , Athens should have endured
forever , a blessing to mankind. She
was quick to action as to thought , she
could organize as she could create , and
she feared no enemy without or within.
Her rapid fall , among inferior and
coarser foes , after her gradual and
majestic rise , would seem at a glance
not only the saddest but the most per
plexing of all tragedies. But the key is
all in our hands. The very innermost
of her motives and conditions , with all
their workings and effects , lie open
clearer to our sight than those of our
nearest acquaintance , for whom we have
no Thuoydides.
The trouble with Athens was that she
would not attend to her own business.
Put into the world to enlighten and as
sist the world , she began to insist on
conquering it instead. Having won a
noble fight for her independence , and
having triumphed over dangers thai
threatened her constitution from within ,
she could not rest in these great deliver
ances , and in the infinite conquests oi
that spiritual world which only wished to
be so conquored.and wherein she so easily
surpassed all the children of men ; but
she stretched out her orm in subjuga
tion of peoples who did not wish it and
to whose conquest she was never called
by man or nature. For awhile the ex
pansion went merrily on ; island after
island was taken in , and Athens passed
'rom commonwealth to empire in over-
increasing splendor. She felt herself
justified by the blessings she conferred ;
or she took the exhilaration of advance
ment for the approval of conscience.
At any rate it was her destiny , as she
loudly proclaimed. She assumed her
responsibilities , with a strength and
spirit of a demi-god. What should ail
her then ? Why should the strenuous
process ever cease , with its benefit to the
world ?
It is revealed in an instant , with a
mere glance at the nature of things.
The rest of the world at once began to
distrust Athens , then to fear , so to hate ,
and speedily to combine against. When
it was Homer , Solon , Aristides , Phidias ,
Sophocles , or Plato , all others loved to
draw near and honor ; that was a re
public all would wish to outer ; when it
was Ambition * ud Aggression , each had
to think , "my turn next , " and the world
is stronger than any of its members. In
self-defense it pulled Athens down. Her
mighty deeds of real martial glory when
she saved Greece and civilization against
Persia , made no after enemies , not even
Persia herself ; her petty spoils alarmed
all nations round. So may victory prove
worse in the end than defeat ; according
to its nature. Even if the fathers might
say "Now enough , " the sons must cry ,
"Shall we do nothing then ? "
Napoleon the Last conducted a
triumphant campaign in Italy , and even
showed a semblance of moderation in
the hour of victory. But it was this
very triumph , as now analyzed , which
prepared his downfall. Europe could
not quite tell why he had fought
Austria , nor whom else he would fight.
Had he been defeated then , he might
have dropped back and held on the rest
of his life in quiet ; but now he had
armed the course of the stars against
him. A country may be of the small
est or the greatest , it will come to the
same end in that contest.
The relative actual value of a Mex
ican silver dollar and an American
silver dollar , how much an American
dollar is worth in Mexico , and how
much a Mexican dollar is worth in this
country , are points which are but im
perfectly understood by the majority
of people. A Mexican dollar nominally
has 418 grains of silver , while an
American dollar , of the issue of 1878 ,
has but 412.5 grains. The Mexican dollar
lar is worth about 53 cents today in the
United States , whereas the American
silver dollar is worth approximately
100 cents in Mexico , because it is ex
changeable for any other dollar at a
slight charge for exchange. The stand
ard of fineness is about the same in
both coins. During a recent campaign
Mexican silver dollars were brought to
this country in quantities and sold for
50 cents each as an object lesson.