The Nation's Wishing Tree 



NEXT to the tree immortalized by Longfellow in 

 the " Village Blacksmith," the National Wishing 

 Tree in Lafayette Square, Washington, D. C, cut 

 down in Januar)-, was perhaps our most famous chestnut 

 tree. The chestnut is thought by many to possess wonder- 

 ful powers over fortune. Perhaps you have had your 

 future foretold by the bursting chestnuts as they roasted 

 on the hearthstone. Perhaps the sight of a familiar chest- 

 nut tree recalls the happy day of youth when you went 

 chestnutting, and causes you to wish for a return of those 

 joyous times. And perhaps you have made your wish 

 under the Wishing Tree, and your wish has come true. 



The National Wishing Tree was a dwarf chestnut, a 

 scion from the famous Wishing Tree in Hyde Park, 

 London. It was located immediately west of the Jack- 

 son statue, and in plain view from all the windows on the 

 north side of the White House. 



As implied by its name, the Wishing Tree was sup- 

 posed to possess a magic charm which caused every wish 

 made under its branches to come true. The "oldest inhab- 

 itant," quoted in the Duliifh Evening Herald, says: 



" There is no particular form of wishing, though the 

 park attendant told me many years ago that most of 

 the wishers went up close enough to the tree to put their 

 hand upon its lower limbs. The wish must not be spoken, 

 and must not be divulged. 



" About forty years ago I was directed by the editor 

 of the Daily Chronicle of Washington, on which paper I 

 was then a young reporter, to explode the stories about 

 the tree; to show that they were the rankest kind of 

 superstition, and that wishes under an iron lamp post or 

 anywhere else were just as likely to come true. 



" I proceeded to do the exploding, and was perfectly 

 satisfied that there was a perfect explosion. And so was 

 the editor. Col. Robert Ingersoll, who for many years 

 lived in a house which faced the wishing tree. He be- 

 came interested in it, and in his many lectures on ' Super- 

 stition ' he did a great deal more exploding. 



" ^ly first personal experience with the tree was when 

 James Buchanan was President. The Prince of Wales — ■ 

 the late King of England — was the royal visitor. Miss 

 Harriett Lane, a niece of the President, walked through 

 the park with the prince one evening, on their way 

 to the residence of Lord Lynn, then the English Min- 

 ister at Washington, only a couple of blocks away from 

 the White House. 



" On their way they passed under the wishing tree, 

 and Miss Lane told the prince its story, and that it was of 

 Hyde Park and English stock. He became enthusiastic 

 and, on her challenge, went under the tree, grasped one 

 of its branches firmly and devoutly made a wish. 



" I have seen other royal visitors under the tree, 

 notably the Grand Duke Alexis of Russia, who recently 

 passed away ; King Kalakaua, of the Sandwich Islands, 



during General Grant's administration, and during the 

 Cleveland administration Queen Emsons, of almost equal 

 rank in the royal way. 



" This tree is also known to some of the habitues of 

 the park as the nurses' tree, for the nurses gathered 

 around it in preference to any of the other trees. Tea 

 made of its leaves cured many disorders, and is said 

 to have been especially useful in warding off attacks 

 of w^hooping cough. 



" I have been told that Abraham Lincoln, when Presi- 

 dent of the United States, went personally to the tree 

 one night for some of its leaves, with which to make a 

 draught for his third son, William Wallace Lincoln, the 

 little fellow who died in the White House only a short 

 time prior to the assassination of the President. 



" In those days there was a high iron rail fence around 

 the park, the pattern of the present fence around the 

 White House. The gates being locked and no one knowing 

 where the keys were kept, Mr. Lincoln personally helped 

 his coachman as he climbed the fence to get the leaves. 



" This tree figured in another way in President 

 Lincoln's life, for it was evidence during the assassination 

 trial that Atzerodt Payne and Dave Harold spent most of 

 the afternoon preceding the tragedy in the seat under the 

 tree. From this seat the best view is obtained of what is 

 taking place on the outside of the White House. 



" Singularly enough, it was in evidence during the trial 

 of Charles J. Guiteau, as also in his confessions and 

 admissions, that he, too, had spent a great deal of his time 

 during the five days that he declared he was under an 

 inspiration to kill President Garfield in that identical 

 seat. He used the seat, he said, as others had, for the 

 same reason that actuated the Lincoln conspirators; it 

 afiforded the best view of the White House. He also 

 said that he had found that particular seat more rest- 

 ful than any other in the park, and that it was while he 

 was sitting in it that he received the incentive to commit 

 his terrible crime." 



THE FIRST SOUTHERN FORESTRY CONGRESS 



Ar ASHEVILLE, North Carolina, the cradle of 

 American forestry, where, in 1898, Giflford Pin- 

 chot demonstrated that forests could be utilized 

 without destroying them, was held the first Southern For- 

 estry Congress, on July 11th to 15th. This meeting was 

 notable for the number of professional foresters in at- 

 tendance, and for the practical and instructive character 

 of the program. The States of Kentucky, Tennessee, 

 Texas, Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina were rep- 

 resented by their state foresters, three of whom, Besley of 

 Maryland, Maddox of Tennessee and Barton of Ken- 

 tucky, presented papers on state problems. Louisiana 

 was represented by Professor J. G. Lee and Henry T. 

 Hardtner, whose talk on the practical experiments in 



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