CHAPTER I. 



A MUTILATED LAND. 



When God turned America over to the Anglo Saxon race 

 it was a series of splendid forests, magniflcent parks, broad 

 prairies, with views unsurpassed by any land or age. 



When, the Pilgrims landed in that dreary December, they 

 were in the midst of a winter desolation, and disease carried 

 off half their number in a few months. But when spring came, 

 scenes of wonderful beayty opened all around them. The 

 trees put on their robes of green, the ground was covered with 

 flowers and the air was laden with their fragrance and tremu- 

 lous with the blithesome songs of the birds. Nature gave them 

 genial welcome to a new world. They stood on the margin of 

 a vast empire which unfolded before them scenes of beauty 

 and grandeur unknown before. Look at the condition. In 

 New England there were great forests of spruce, pine, and noble 

 deciduous trees, oaks of mammoth size in rich variety, the differ- 

 ent families of the ash, and the stately and wide-spreading 

 elms in all their majesty. Away in the North were magniflcent 

 forests waiting to welcome the settlers, furnish material for 

 his home, and defend Llm from the storms. Here were broad 

 rivers lined with trees languidly seeking the ocean. Charming 

 brooks, fringed with ferns and flowers, were murmuring songs 

 of content. Beautiful lakes were flashing like diamonds in 

 the bosom of fair Mother Earth. The inland waters were 

 margined with trees whose majestic forms and drooping branch- 

 es were mirrored in their placid faces. There were mountains 

 clothed with verdure to their very summits, and from their 

 sides springs were gushing, carefully protected by tr( c: 

 sheltering bushes so they CQuld not run dry. To the West 

 great prairies spread out into a vastness which was sublime. 

 They were Ood's great parks on, which He had bestowed es- 

 pecial care and forethought for long milleniums. They were 



