A NEW HOLIDAY* 



BY GEORGE WILLIAM CURTIS 



A NEW holiday is a boon to Americans, and this 

 year the month of May gave a new holiday to the 

 State of New York. It has been already observed 

 elsewhere.- It began, indeed, in Nebraska seven- 

 teen years ago, and thirty-four States and two 

 territories have preceded New York in adopting it. 

 If the name of Arbor Day may seem to be a little 

 misleading, because the word "arbor," which 

 meant a tree to the Romans, means a bower to 

 Americans, yet it may well serve until a better 

 name is suggested, and its significance by general 

 understanding will soon be as plain as Decoration 

 Day. 



The holiday has been happily associated, in this 

 State especially, with the public schools. This is 

 most fitting, because the public school is the true 

 and universal symbol of the equal rights of all 

 citizens before the law, and of the fact that educated 

 intelligence is the basis of good popular government. 

 The more generous the cultivation of the mind, and 



*From "The Editor's Study," Harper's Magazine, Copyright 

 1889, by Harper and Brothers. 



