THE BOTTOM OF THE BOWL 



61 



the forests, changed from a broad, majestic 

 river into a shallow, muddy stream ; and the 

 beautiful prairies of Dakota turned under by 

 the plough and then allowed to run to weeds ? 

 Men must have coal though they ruin the val- 

 leys and blacken the streams of Pennsylvania, 

 they must have oil though they disfigure half 

 of Ohio and Indiana, they must have copper 

 if they wreck all the mountains of Montana 

 and Arizona, and they must have gold though 

 they blow Alaska into the Behring Sea. It is 

 more than possible that the "practical men" 

 have gained much practice and many dol- 

 lars by flaying the fair face of these United 

 States. They have stripped the land of its 

 robes of beauty, and what have they given in 

 its place ? Weeds, wire fences, oil-derricks, 

 board shanties and board towns things that 

 not even a "practical man" can do less than 

 curse at. 



And at last they have turned to the desert ! 

 It remains to be seen what they will do with it. 

 Reclaiming a waste may not be so easy as break- 

 ing a prairie or cutting down a forest. And 

 Nature will not always be driven from her 

 purpose. Wind, sand, and heat on Sahara 

 have proven hard forces to fight against ; they 



