THE AMERICAN FORESTS 173 



together with the network and sponge of tree roots, 

 absorb and hold back the rain and the waters from 

 melting snow, compelling them to ooze and perco- 

 late and flow gently through the soil in streams that 

 never dry. All the pine needles and rootlets and 

 blades of grass, and the fallen, decaying trunks of 

 trees, are dams, storing the bounty of the clouds and 

 dispensing it in perennial life-giving streams, instead 

 of allowing it to gather suddenly and rush headlong 

 in short-lived devastating floods. Everybody on 

 the dry side of the continent is beginning to find this 

 out, and, in view of the waste going on, is growing 

 more and more anxious for Government protection. 

 The outcries we hear against forest reservations 

 come mostly from thieves who are wealthy and steal 

 timber by wholesale. They have so long been 

 allowed to steal and destroy in peace that any 

 impediment to forest robbery is denounced as a cruel 

 and irreligious interference with "vested rights," 

 likely to endanger the repose of all ungodly welfare. 



Gold, gold, gold! How strong a voice that metal 

 has! 



O wae for the siller, it is sae preva'lin*. 



Even in Congress, a sizable chunk of gold, carefully 

 concealed, will outtalk and outfight all the nation 

 on a subject like forestry, well-smothered in ignor- 

 ance, and in which the money interests of only 

 a few are conspicuously involved. Under these 

 circumstances, the bawling, blethering oratorical 



