Show HISTORIC TREES PASS AWAY historians and antiquarians can only regret while entirely unable to prevent their loss it is too bad that nature will not allow ali I 1 tow t trees r ees or some trees at any rate to live il v e forever in many places in this country in the east particularly the guides or tho the local historians once began their holding tales with under d er that tree the famous colonial una and n d revolutionary day trees are gone or are going some of tho the present day events which are likely to have patriotic or other sentimental interest for posterity might be staged purposely under thrifty trees 0 of f long lived species the charter oak Is gone the old elm ot of boston common la Is gone and the elm at cambridge under whose shade shad e washington took command of the continental tin army is gone the trees which alexander hamilton planted one tor for each of the thirteen original states li have ve either died of old age or have succumbed to the encroachment ot of a civilization which takes little heed ot of sentiment or of 0 natural beauty and the treaty irce broo at the base ot of which the whites signed a compact which unquestionably they broke with the indians is dead it was under this tree at sleepy hollow that washington irving wrote ot of ichabod crane and the headless horseman the old cottonwood at eighteenth street and the lake in chicago died many years ago A part of 0 it la Is preserved in the building ot of the chicago historical society but a bit ot of dead timber Is as nothing to the living tree the sequoias of california como come pretty close to living forever they certainly live long enough to satisfy for ages man kinds sentiment concerning deeds done in their shadow it is a pity that the ancient eastern and middle western elms cottonwoods cotton woods and oaks were not all sequoias trees ought to be spared for their own sakes but when they mark the scenes of stirring national events they ought to be tended with double care and solicitude |