"The first necessity for interesting nature study is an intimate acquaintance with some 

 locality. It does not matter how small, how commonplace, how near the city, — the nearer 

 the better, provided there are trees, water, fences, and some seclusion. If your own roof- 

 tree stands in the midst of it all, then that is ideal."— Dallas Lore Sharp, in "The Lay of 

 the Land." 



THE GUIDE TO NATURE 



EDUCATION AND RECREATION 



VOL II 



NOVEMBER, 1909 



No. 8 



A Freight Car Home Near to Nature 



BY EDWARD F. BIGELOW, SOUND BEACH, CONNECTICUT 



UDGE M. C. Matthews of 

 Dubuque, Iowa, has not 

 only a mind of his own in 

 matters judicial, but in the 

 selection of an office. When 

 not in the Court House he 

 lives with his books in a 

 freight car near his home in the sub- 

 urbs of Dubuque. For years his 

 decisions have been held in great re- 

 spect. No wonder they have "weight" 

 because, doubtless, many of them are 

 brought forth in his quiet hours of con- 

 temolation in a freight car! 



The judge is as 



genial 



as 



he is 



learned in the law, and no one enjoys 

 better than he a bit of pleasantry. It 

 is therefore quite natural that his 

 friends have made many a jocose re- 

 mark at his idiosyncratic form of study. 

 The car is without embellishment on 

 the outside with the exception of the 

 addition at one end of a well ventilated 



mosquito netting cage. In general ap- 

 pearance it is an ordinary, side-tracked, 

 worn-out freight car. But on entering 

 the car, one is astonished at the luxuri- 

 ous appearance. Mission furniture, 

 leather bound books, a picturesque 

 clock, a carpet and rugs make the 

 visitor think he has entered a first-class 

 city office. The effect of contrast has 

 here surely been brought to its highest 

 degree of perfection. 



The judge is surely a second George 

 Washington in one respect at least. He 

 is a Father of his Country in that he 

 has had twelve children, ten of whom 

 are now living. The family residence, 

 as stated above, is near by. The judge 

 surely is a man of diverse talents, en- 

 joying as he does a large family, with 

 sudden transits of bachelor isolation. 



It will be of interest to our readers 

 to know something of the biography 

 of this talented judge whose love of na- 

 ture has induced this novel, yet effect- 



Copyright 1909 by The Agassiz Association. Arcadia, Sound Beach, Conn. 



