496 INDIANA HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS 



old roadside oaks that had just been cut down for no other 

 object than the fuel, unless it was the gratification of bar- 

 baric pleasure to the Goth who ordered their destruction. 

 I have also just been reading an article in the "Western 

 Horticultural Review," published at Cincinnati, which 

 designates this as the age of destruction, while speaking 

 of the wanton wickedness of the way the Goths in the 

 vicinity of that city are sweeping off all the glorious old 

 trees that have beautified and adorned the hills which 

 surround that great town, and which afforded me such 

 cooling shades in days of Auld Lang Syne, where I used 

 to recline with book or pencil in hand, looking down upon 

 the busy hum below. No wonder, the writer alluded to, 

 calls it the age of destruction, when he looks out upon 

 those old hills during the burning days of summer, and 

 sees them stripped of their ancient oaks by a spirit of 

 Vandalism, that would blot out every line of beauty from 

 the face of the earth for a little immediate gain. It was 

 such a spirit that doomed to destruction a few months 

 ago, one of the oldest and most beautiful spreading trees 

 that ever lent its cooling shade to a lovely nook by the 

 seaside, because, as the owner said, "a down-east chap 

 offered $15 for the confounded old thing, and I thought 

 'twould give us a better view, and so I let him cut it." 



'Twas a noble old oak spreading wide by the sea, 

 Where the breezes came cooling and fresh o'er the lea, 

 While the dark waving foliage gave strength to the shade, 

 Where a thousand deep vows Indian lovers had made ; 

 For the noble old oak spreading wide to the breeze. 

 Like a vet'ran hath wintered long ages 'mong trees. 

 And hath witnessed the fading and passing away. 

 Of a nation of people God doomed to decay, 

 While destroying the oaks that o'ershaded the lawn 

 Comes a nation more ruthless than the red one that's 

 gone. 



Ruthless indeed — a perfect barbarian — who for the 

 value of $15, would cut down such a wide-spreading and 



