THE AGASSIZ ASSOCIATIOX 



243 



Tragic Death of a Young Naturalist. 



On September 21st. only a few days 

 after his eighth birthday, little Robert 

 Walker of Chattanooga, Tennessee, was 

 struck by an automobile as he was cross- 

 ing the street to visit a candy store, and 

 almost instantly killed. His father is the 

 representative of The Agassiz Associa- 



was Robert and his brother Wendell who 

 at the dinner table said: 'Tell Mr. Bige- 

 low to come ; Wendell and I have $50 in 

 the bank ; we will bear his expenses. We 

 want to see him and hear him tell some 

 stories." I intended to allow him to carry 

 out his wishes, and you will remember 

 that when I wrote you I stated, 'You will 

 be amused when you learn who it is that 

 is putting up the guarantee fund.' 



"HE HAS THE MAGAZINES UNDER HIS 

 ARM." 



"SHOWS HIM FEEDING HIS PET KID." 



tion for Tennessee and for a long time 

 has taken active interest in the work. He, 

 his son and the other members of his 

 family are good naturalists. The editor 

 ■expected to visit the family last autumn. 

 but was unavoidably prevented. Under 

 date of October 7th ^Ir. Walker writes 

 as follows : 



'T am sorry that you did not know 

 Robert personally. He was a born natur- 

 alist, and the most affable, and genial 

 child that ever lived. He never failed 

 to •enjoy a beautiful sunset, or a glorious 

 sunrise, nor to try to show others the 

 beauty that was in nature. The plants, 

 the birds, the flowers, everything in 

 nature had a peculiar charm for him. 

 Three hours before the occurrence of the 

 terrible accident that took away his life 

 he was caressing his butterflies, feeding 

 his garden spider, and showing me the 

 spines on the back of an lo moth larva. 



"Last fall when we were anticipating 

 a visit from you and when the organiza- 

 tion here failed to keep its pledge to sup- 

 ply the funds that were to bring you. it 



"T enclose a photograph that I made 

 of him last winter when the snow was 

 on the ground, and as he was starting 

 out to solicit subscriptions for The Guide 

 TO Nature. He has the magazines tnider 

 his arm. The other photograph shows 

 him feeding his pet kid. This was taken 

 a few weeks before his death.'' 



Fill the Mind with Roadsides. 

 For, if we can fill the plastic minds of 

 growing children with thotights of the 

 beautiful world of nature, with the fas- 

 cination of the myriads of wee beati- 

 ties, more wonderfttl than a circus, we 

 can so saturate them with the good, 

 that no room remains for the morbid, 

 the inidesirable, the vicious. Let us 

 teach them to read roadsides, as well 

 as books. — "The Nature-Study Re- 

 view." 



Nature is so prodigal, 



She heaps her treasures up: 



If to her we look for joy, 

 Full will be our cup. 



— Emma Peirce. 



