24 



WATER 



gathered on their banks, is it not a pity 

 that they are being so despoiled by 

 thoughtless and reckless men, who wan- 

 tonly cut down the forests, waste the 

 trees that grow upon their banks? And 

 then, in our cities, instead of beautifying 

 the banks and profiting by the scenery, 

 foolish men turn the back doors of their 

 houses upon the rivers, build barns upon 

 their banks, make of them the dumping- 

 places into which they throw their rub- 

 bish, street sweepings, and old tin cans, 

 everything that will soil the water and 

 spoil the scenery. 



Do you not think that some day we 

 will again come back to the old love of 

 the river, even if we do not need it so 

 much as a highway now ? for railroads go 

 faster. We will keep them clean and 

 beautiful, for the pleasure and the health 

 they yield. You have heard of what a 

 dirty thing the Chicago river is, how un- 

 pleasant it is both to the sense of sight 

 and to the sense of smell. It is very 

 much the same with many of the other 

 rivers that flow through our great cities, 

 and even smaller towns. Some day the 

 children of our public schools, who are 

 now studying these things, will grow up, 

 and they will find out how to purify our 

 streams. They will restore their beauty. 

 Thev will love the fish in the water so 



much that they will prefer seeing them 

 alive to eating them when dead. They 

 will give back the rivers to the birds, 

 that will sing unmolested upon their 

 banks, and raise their little ones undis- 

 turbed in their nests, built low among 

 the sedges, or swinging loftily in the pop- 

 lar boughs above. 



So you see, my children, to know the 

 river is to know much of the geology of 

 the world, much of the plant and animal 

 life of the world, very much of the his- 

 tory of man, and very much of the higher 

 hopes and aspirations, the poetry, the 

 morality, and the religion of the human 

 soul. The rivers were here before man 

 was. They invited man. They nursed 

 him. They fed him. They marked the 

 places for his settlements. They helped 

 the organization of the state. 



By the way, as a closing lesson, sup- 

 pose you find out how many of the states 

 of our Union were named after rivers, 

 and see how many of the river names 

 you can discover the meaning of ; for the 

 rivers were on the earth before they were 

 named. The names are of men, and some 

 of them are verv suggestive. The rivers 

 are of God. They belong to nature, and 

 the^ show forth the laws of nature, which 

 are alwavs the laws of God. 





