362 OUR NATIONAL PARKS 



aged long. An exception would seem to be 

 found in the case of our forests, which have 

 been mismanaged rather long, and now come 

 desperately near being like smashed eggs and 

 spilt milk. Still, in the long run the world does 

 not move backward. The wonderful advance 

 made in the last few years, in creating four na- 

 tional parks in the West, and thirty forest reser- 

 vations, embracing nearly forty million acres ; 

 and in the planting of the borders of streets and 

 highways and spacious parks in all the great 

 cities, to satisfy the natural taste and hunger 

 for landscape beauty and righteousness that God 

 has put, in some measure, into every human 

 being and animal, shows the trend of awakening 

 public opinion. The making of the far-famed 

 New York Central Park was opposed by even 

 good men, with misguided pluck, perseverance, 

 and ingenuity ; but straight right won its way, and 

 now that park is appreciated. So we confidently 

 believe it will be with our great national parks and 

 forest reservations. There will be a period of 

 indifference on the part of the rich, sleepy with 

 wealth, and of the toiling millions, sleepy with 

 poverty, most of whom never saw a forest ; a 

 period of screaming protest and objection from 

 the plunderers, who are as unconscionable and 

 enterprising as Satan. But light is surely com- 

 ing, and the friends of destruction will preach 

 and bewail in vain. 



