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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



Photograph from National Park Service 



SLAIN DEER ON A STATION PLATFORM NEAR YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK 



A national park is a modern counterpart for the ancient city of refuge, and within its 

 boundaries game is safe from the hunter ; but the heavy snows sometimes cause famine, and 

 the wild animals leave the park in search of food only to be shot down by those who are 

 waiting for them beyond the limits of the preserve. 



result is that they give something back 

 to me and I am an independent man." 



There is a secret in that too. It has 

 its application pretty much through life. 



AN ANSWER TO STRANGE PHILOSOPHIES 



Colorado, one-third of it forest ; and 

 yet when the King of the Belgians was 

 here the other month there was a dinner 

 given to him in one of our tine houses, 

 and he was served upon gold plates that 

 were literally dug out of the soil of the 

 State by a man who was a miner, the 

 husband of the woman in whose house 

 this dinner was given. 



If all Europe knew that a man by will 

 and skill and hard work could dig into 

 the soil of the United States and bring 

 out the gold, bring out that which makes 

 men rich, there would not be much feel- 

 ing there that any of these strange phi- 

 losophies that are being preached would 

 make great progress in America. 



I could go on and on and take each 

 individual State and show how intimately 

 it touches the Department of Interior. 

 Take Illinois. You would not suppose 

 that there was much in Illinois that 

 might interest this Department, which is 



primarily a department of development. 

 But outside of Chicago there is an ex- 

 quisite place, called "The Dunes," down 

 by the lakeside — a lovely place made by 

 the shifting sands — that some day we 

 ought to have for a park. 



A PLEA FOR THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 



Just outside of Chicago, also, there is 

 a model country school. Do you know 

 that we do not give the children in the 

 country districts a fair chance ? I wanted 

 several years ago to get Congress to ap- 

 propriate $300,000 that I might get a 

 representative teacher from each district 

 in the United States to spend a month at 

 that school in Illinois, where they could 

 find out how country children should be 

 taught, how each boy and each girl in 

 the school could be made to articulate 

 with father and mother on the farm. I 

 could not get the money. But some day 

 we will dignify the country school and 

 still more dignify the country school 

 teacher. 



Talk about being underpaid and not 

 being able to live, not being treated with 

 respect and having no dignity given to 

 you ! No one has as justifiable a com- 



