8 The Conservative.
THE PEERLESS EDITOR.
[ For THE CONSERVATIVE. ]
The Peerless Lender looked around
For something ho could do ,
When the smoke of battle cleared away ,
And his campaign was through ;
When his campaign was through , my friends ,
And all his toil was o'er ;
When the roorback roared into its lair ,
And the howgag hewed no more.
The lecture platform had its charms ,
As lecture platforms have ;
But the Peerless Leader's wearied mind
Was wanting other salvo ;
Was wanting other salve , my friends ,
Strange , weird SH it may seem ,
For even orators need rest ,
And that is no pipe-dream.
The managers of largo musees
Some tempting offers ma le ;
"O como and join the bearded damp ,
And put her in the shade ;
And put her in the shade , my friend ,
Surpass the tatooed Greek ,
And the Armless Wonder put to shame"
But the Peerless would not speak.
The Peerless Leader looked afar
To the land where heathen bow
To handmade gods in a gloomy mosque ,
As they do in old Hang Chow ;
As they do in old Hang Chow , my friends ,
And I heard the Peerless say :
"I would stack up high as a god on wheels ,
But I cannot get away. "
The Peerless viewed the ghastly wounds
He'd gained in Spanish wars ;
And he thought somewhat of starting forth
As a grim and gory Mars ;
As a grim and gory Mars , my friends ,
In the Filipino cause ;
"But I might get shot , " ho snid ; "then what
W.ould I do with my gifted jaws ? "
The Peerless looked at his Trenchant Pen ,
At his Trenchant Pen looked he ;
"I shall wield the lover that moves the world , "
He cried , in ecstatic glee ;
He cried in ecstatic glee , my friends ,
And pranced like a green bay colt ;
And we sit and wait in a weird suspense ,
Till lie gives the world a jolt.
KirVAIlD RUDIjING.
TREES.
[ Extracts from an article written for
the "Herald of Freedom , " published in
Concord , N. H. , on August 6 , 1841 , by
its editor. ]
We feel strongly inclined , in this
season of drought and glaring sunshine ,
to pay a tribute , to the magnificent trees
which embosom and adorn the other
wise unsightly little capital of New
' Hampshire , and to the eye of the
! *
observer at a 'distance multiply its
dwellings , and augment its dimensions
to the appearance of a small city. We
know no country village this side of the
water belter off than this on the score of
shade , not excepting old Worcester ,
Mass. , with all its stately buttonwoods.
And what a glorious object is a tree !
How magnificent a forest of them on
the boundless plain or the mighty hill
side I And the single tree there is
scarcely its match for beauty among un
intelligent objects on the face of the
earth. It is surpassed , perhaps , only by
him who walks among them in thinking
grace and beauty. "In form , " though
not in "moving" like him the tree
"how express and admirable. " The
solitary tree or the row or group ,
planted by human hands , or spared by
; honi from ordinary extermination , near
the abodes of men.
The thick-topped maple , with its whole
some looking foliage and impervious
boughs , in whose close and dark recesses
; he hang bird sings her "wood-note
wild" in the hot summer noon. The
.ofty , clear-limbed , opeu-boughed but-
; on-wood with its dainty leaf , its
scarred trunk and excoriated branches.
And the elm , the patriarch of the family
of shade ; the majestic , the umbra
geous , the antlercd elm. We remember
one at this moment in sight from our
old home on the banks of the Penigewas-
sett. We have seen larger , but never
one of such perfect symmetry and
beauty. It stood just across that cold
stream near the bridge "Fayette" by
the roadside on the margin of the wide
intervale. "One among thousands" it
stood of the multitudes which the taste
of its early proprietor had left dispersed
about on the broad landscape. It stood
upon the ground as lightly as though it
"rose in dance" and its full top bend
ing over toward the ground on every
side with the dignity of the forest-tree
and all the grace of the weeping willow.
You could gaze upon it for hours ; it
was the handiwork and architecture of
God , on which the eye of man never
tires , but always looks with refreshing
and delight. [ In 1891 this tree was
about eighty feet in height , and as per
fect as when my father described it fifty
years before. ]
We remember a clump of white pines ,
too right opposite on the other side of
the stream ; tall mast pines of the
primitive woods aborigines. We seem
to hear their evening murmur , mingled
with thQJlow of the rapids that hurried
by their foot. How they came to be
left there , we can hardly imagine. They
are on the verge of the village and must
have stood there since long before the
Mttlement of the town , and have sur
vived the ages of half a dozen hewing
and hacking generations. We remem
ber a crane lighting down on the tip-top
of one of the tallest of them , one day at
sunset.
# # * *
But we sat down to pay a hasty tribute
to the trees of Concord. We turn down
Main street to the patriarchs , the monarchs -
archs of Concord trees , and the peers at
least of any we have ever beheld this
side of old England , and indeed they
would show with reputation even there ,
and would scarcely dishonor one of the
royal avenues of Windsor Park , or even
that king of kingly walks , the "Long
Walk" from Windsor Castle , three miles
Vr
into Windsor Forest , lined on each side
with a double row of British Elms !
These royal Concord tress are about half
way between the south church and the
pitch of the hill below it. They range
along the west side of Main street high
up from the road , and cast their old
shadows toward sunset , far off into the
beautiful meadows and winding river.
They are doubtless the oldest in the
place. We have never seen any of such
venerable appearance. They stand so
thick as to interweave their long
branches. Yon look upward into their
dark tops , the giant branches running
away up into the wilderness of foliage
and bending off in great curves down
again over the distant road , intersecting
each other in countless Gothic arches ,
like the roofing and recesses in the
abbeys and priories of England ;
branches big enough for trunks to great
trees and then the trunks themselves
vast , shapeless , and rooted all abroad in
the ground , to withstand the wrestlings
of a century's winds among their mighty
tops. You feel awed and overwhelmed
as you look up , as when in Westminster
Abbey or old York Minster. Here you
are gazing on the originals , there on the
architectural copies the coping and the
lancet arch of the old cathedral being
borrowed doubtless from the tree ton *
ZTs
God built the elm and your Christopher | J
Wrens and Inigo Joneses the "solemn > &
temples" of Britain. Yet they get the
homage and admiration of men rather
than the architect of the universe.
We must release our readers and pen
with a call on every man to plant a tree.
It is a virtue to set out trees. It is lov
ing our neighbors as ourselves. Set out
trees not to make your home outshine
your neighbors ; but for him to look at
and walk under , and to beautify God's
earth , which he clothed with trees and
you cut them all down. Every tree is a
"feather in the earth's cap , " a plume in
her bonnet , a tress on her forehead. It is
a comfort , an ornament , a refreshing to
the people , and when peace and liberty
prevail , we will have an Eden of them
from one end of the land ( and the wotld )
to the other.
The H. W. Johns Mfg. Co. are at
work the Broad-Ex
on twenty-story -
change building , corner of Broad street
and Exchange Place , New York , applr-
ing their Asbestos Covering. We under
stand that the Riser Pipes alone require
over 40,000 feet of covering , and that
when the pipes are all covered there will
be put on between 50,000 and 60,000
feet. This is one of the largest build
ings recently erected in that section of
the city.
The H. W. Johns Mfg. Co. have a
very complete illustrated list of their
various Asbestos Coverings , which they
will be pleased to mail upon application.
i
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