SENTIMENTS ON RECREATION PLACES 



NATURE WAS KIND TO IOWA 

 From Inaugural Address of Gov. Wm. L. Harding, January 16, 1919. 



Nature was in a most pleasant mood when our land was fashioned. 

 She bounded us by two mighty rivers, here ever to be harnessed for 

 power unlimited. She pencilled the landscape for beauty and util- 

 ity. She left lake, and stream, and wooded hill, she gave forest and 

 prairie for the pioneer, and coal to turn the wheels of industry. 



> Life in abundance was hid in the soil, waiting only the hand of the 

 plowman and springtime's gentle kiss to blossom into a harvest 

 abundant to feed a hungry world. 



Here can be builded a civilization fashioned in the image of the 

 Maker and translated into reality by the genius of man that shall be 

 peer and leader of all the world. 



Play spots are necessary in building a permanent state. Men and 

 women are but children grown up. Heart joys and heartaches are 

 common to us all. Sentiment and tradition are threads that hold 

 us steady and bring us back to the old homestead or the place of 

 our birth. 



PEOPLE URGED TO PLANT TREES 



From Arbor Day Proclamation of Gov. George W. Clarke, made 



February 4, 1913. 



John Ruskin said : "While I live, I trust I shall have my trees, 

 my peaceful idyllic landscapes, my free country life and while I 

 possess so much, I shall own 100,000 shares in the Bank of Content- 

 ment." How we love the trees that sheltered our childhood ! Some 

 of the finest, sweetest memories of life are there. The tree that we 

 planted with our own hands many years ago, now strong against 

 winter storms and beautiful in summer sunshine, what a sense of 

 proprietorship and inexpressible comfort we have in it. 



"Oh, have you seen on a wayside slope 



The elms and maples, with branches high, 

 That some one planted, in faith and hope 

 Far back in the silent years gone, by ? 



