COLLECTING CROOKED STICKS 



157 



with his eyes wide open, he sees many 

 things which the ordinary pedestrian 

 would overlook entirely. 



The letter "N" which was the first 

 of the series, was discovered in this 

 vicinity; likewise the letters "H," "O," 

 "P," ''S," "U," and "Z." 



The letter "H" formed a portion of a 

 root, and is the only exception in the 

 list, the other letters coming exclu- 

 sively from branches of trees. 



The letter "1" grew in a small park 

 adjoining the home of the late William 

 A. Wheeler Malone, N. Y., once Vice- 

 President of the United States. 



*'T" was cut from a scrubby tree about 

 fifty feet from the edge of the Grand 

 Caiion of the Colorado, in Arizona. 



"L" came from Lundy's Lane battle- 

 field, Province of Ontario, Canada. 



The letter "Q" was found growing 

 beside the trail leading to, and about 

 five hundred feet from the summit of 

 Mount Lowe, Southern California. 



"R" was discovered at the corner of 

 Queen Park Avenue, Toronto, not far 

 from the Parliament Buildings. 



The letter "T" has an exceptional 

 history. Mr. Miles was visiting the 

 tomb of Abraham Lincoln, at Spring- 

 field. Illinois, and, by a strange coinci- 

 dence found a workman pruning a tree 

 directly beside it. With his quick eye, 

 ]\Ir. Miles detected a branch which 

 would naturally form the letter T, and 

 in a moment it was his, with all of its 

 historical association and without a 

 hint of vandalism to his charge. 



"Y" came from the "Plains of Abra- 

 liam, Quebec, where "Wolfe died vic- 

 torious." 



"X" was found very near the Fifth 

 Corps headquarters Monument on Lit- 

 tle Round Top, Gettysburg, Pa. 



The letter "Y" has another bit of in- 

 teresting history. It was found form- 

 ing a part of a bush, growing where 

 the Union Army commenced the tun- 

 nel, which, when completed, terminated 

 in a chamber under Fort IMalone in 

 front of Petersburgh, Virginia. When 

 the mine was exploded, it created what 

 is known in history as "the crater." 



It will be noticed that, in addition to 

 the letters, a complete set of numerals 

 has been obtained in the same way; all 

 of these, however, having been cut from 

 .trees or bushes in the immediate vicin- 

 ity of Clifton Springs. 



In talking of this unique collection. 



Mr. Miles says that in no instance has 

 any twig or branch been bent or artifi- 

 cially twisted. Each letter and numeral 

 represents the actual formation by 

 Nature — a fact which renders this 

 alphabet all the more wonderful. 



We read often of how the preacher 

 obtains sermons from stones, books 

 from running brooks, and so on ; but, 

 so far as we know, it has been left for 

 Mr. Miles to obtain from Nature the 

 sum total of human knowledge, as em- 

 bodied in the alphabet and its corres- 

 ponding word combinations ! 



If you should by chance be in Clif- 

 ton Springs some time, stop your auto- 

 mobile in front of the Sanitarium, and 

 step just inside the lobby, and there, 

 protected by a frame, you will find the 

 original from which the above illustra- 

 tion was taken, and, if Mr. Miles hap- 

 pens to be at his desk, I know how 

 pleased he will be to tell you some of 

 his personal experiences connected 

 with collecting these bits of wood. 



T. A. Jagger, formerly of Harvard, 

 now of the Hawaiian Volcanic Ob- 

 servatory, with a number of his assist- 

 ants, narrowly escaped losing their 

 lives during the recent errtiption of 

 ^launa Loa. The party had ascended 

 the mountain for nearer observation 

 of the crater, and were caught by a 

 storm and avalanches almost in the 

 path of a lava stream. 



"Perhaps the most convincing sign 

 of this new-old faith is the unconscious- 

 ness of the unbeliever. He has no idea 

 that he is believing or having faith in 

 any thing. He is simply loving the 

 green earth and the blue sea, and the 

 ways of birds and fish and animals ; 

 but he is so happy in his innocent, 

 ignorant joy that he seems almost to 

 shine with his happiness. There is, lit- 

 erally, a light about him — that light 

 which edges with brightness all sincere 

 action. The trout, or the wild duck, or 

 the sea bass is only an innocent excuse 

 to be alone with the Infinite. To be 

 alone. To be afar. Men sail precarious 

 craft in perilous waters for no reason 

 they could tell of. They may think 

 that trawling, or dredging, or whaling 

 is the explanation : the real reason is the 

 mystery we call the Sea. — Richard Le 

 Gallienne in "The Phoenix." 



