THE PIvANT WORLD 153 



petition in business ; one might add they will never receive it until 

 Americans cease to feel that Yankee genius will "find something else 

 when that is gone." 



Those who ' ' love flowers ' ' form a class following next in destructive- 

 ness. The aesthetic reasons which should appeal to this class fail because 

 the desire for possession follows appreciation so closely. Many a little 

 culprit stammers only, " I wanted it." It is not astonishing that love of 

 the beautiful is so closely connected with crime ; they are related as 

 intimately as love and passion. This leads to most ruthless destruction. 

 At Bronx Park last year large piles of flowers might be seen at the exit 

 gates, left there by violators of conspicuous signs. Wholesale devasta- 

 tions may be witnessed by watching the returning crowds at some of the 

 uptown ferries. Masses of fragile blossoms which will never revive are 

 carried over on every boat in the early flowering season. And for what? 

 A gentleman handed his wife a final addition to her floral spoils, saying, 

 " Now you have a bouquet for every window," meaning, not their dispo- 

 sition in the house, but the customary and too hasty mode of exit from it. 



As new towns develop we expect to lose many of our woodland treas- 

 ures. It is one of the prices of civilization, without doubt. Yet need 

 we lose our trees ? Ignorant real estate officials are doing more to destroy 

 these than we realize. How many of our new towns located on cleared 

 woodlands are entirely destitute of trees ! Often trees are planted ; two 

 or three years afterwards one may see lines of dead trunks, with here and 

 there a lone survivor, usually a foreign poplar, which affords neither 

 shade, fruit, nor yet pleasure to the eye. Along the Hudson River acres 

 of young native trees (not available for timber) have been so destroyed. 

 Here at least ten thousand were destroyed for every one planted. 



In this same district fresh air and other charitable societies have un- 

 consciously aided in this destructive work. Hundreds from New York 

 City are sent daily to a small creche where the ground owned could only 

 with difficulty provide standing room for the hordes brought there. The 

 woodlands near by have consequently suffered heavily. Such societies 

 should not transport more people than they can entertain on their own 

 grounds, or more than they can control elsewhere. Guilds and societies 

 for distributing flowers in schools and tenements are also responsible for 

 much damage in this direction. A general appeal sent out in 1902 to the 

 numerous branches near New York and Philadelphia asks for flowers and 

 twigs, but gives no advice or warning about collecting these. The sup- 

 ply is evidently considered inexhaustible. There is no anxiety about 

 future school and tenement children. One pamphlet states persuasively, 

 " from o?ie bush or tree the desired forty can be obtained." Would you 

 like forty twigs taken from your lilac bush or forty terminal branches 

 from any of your trees ? 



