552 
FOREST AND STREAM 
Nov. i, 1913. 
Somewhere between an altitude of seven or 
eight thousand feet the left side of the car on 
which we were riding made an especially thrill¬ 
ing swing over the deepest canon we had seen. 
My daughter happened to be on that side, and 
the peculiar situation made her so sick, and 
struck her with such fear and trembling, that 
she refused to go any further, and as her hus¬ 
band would not stop with her, I had to. I have 
never rejoiced in my life before over the sick¬ 
ness of one cf my children, nor at the fact that 
my daughter’s husband refused to obey her to 
the letter, but I could but feel just a little 
thankful that something had happened to give 
me a reasonable excuse to get of? of that auto. 
I was in the condition of the old negress 
of whom I had heard. I11 a certain town in 
Texas a windstorm was playing havoc with the 
tin roofs, signs and awnings in the .business 
part of the town. The old negro cook, who 
was serving a family who fortunately lived 
somewhat out of the track of the worst part 
of the storm, opened the front door just enough 
to put her head out, and proceeded to solilo¬ 
quize thus as she looked out upon the ravages 
of the wind: “Uh-hu, how skeered dem sinner 
niggers must be—I'se sorter skeered myself.” 
I made up my mind to one thing, that it did 
not matter how often I visited Colorado 
Springs in the future, I would never attempt 
another trip by auto to Crystal Park, till the 
auto company that controls the road up the 
mountain had so thoroughly barricaded the 
•sides of the road next to the walls of those 
•deep gulches, and deeper canons so as to make 
it imposible for the auto to go of? into one 
■of them, either face foremost, backward, or 
sideways, no matter what happened to it. I have 
always had a great desire to be in an exceed¬ 
ingly calm state of mind when I am called to 
give an account to the Great Judge. I have 
no desire in the world to go by the way of an 
auto over a precipice 100 or 500 feet deep, or 
to be ushered out by means of a cyclone; 
hence my great caution. 
My daughter and I walked down the moun¬ 
tain in a most gleeful mood, never stopping till 
we reached good level road, where we waited 
in perfect patience for the homeward going of 
the auto. When we reached the city, though 
Pike’s Peak extended her beckoning arms, 
claiming a visit, not a one of our crowd, so 
far as I was able to find out, heeded the call. 
Too many had already felt too much fulness 
about the head and ears, and too much flutter¬ 
ing of the heart. Though this old landmark of 
the Indian, the trapper and the explorer of the 
past; this beacon by which the pioneer gold- 
hunters steered their wagons drawn by oxen 
into the marvelous and mysterious West; this 
goal of those who are in search of the grand 
and awful in nature, lifting its mighty peaks up 
14.100 feet above sea-level, thrilled our souls and 
brought forth pa-ons of praise to Him of 
whom it is said: “Thy righteousness is like the 
great mountains.” But with all this, none of 
us felt that it was worth the risking of a life 
that might, in the providence of a great and 
good God, be valuable in the years to come, 
just to have it said that we had been on the 
lofty heights of Pike’s Peak. So instead o.f 
essaying a trip to the top of the grand old moun¬ 
tain, we boarded an interurban car to the 
mouth of the celebrated Cheyenne canon, 
where we took an auto through the canon to 
look upon the beauties thereof and to be 
thrilled by the grandeur and loveliness of Seven 
Falls. 
At Seven Falls the top of the walls of the 
canon are reached by steps, to climb which re¬ 
quires a good deal of nerve backed by much 
physical strength. Many of our party refused 
to put forth the necessary strength, claiming, 
however, that it was for the want of nerve, of 
which they declared that they possessed an 
abundance: yet, the oldest person in the crowd-—- 
seventy-two—was among those who performed 
the feat of ascending the hundreds of steps. 
Not a great way down the mountain from 
where you ascend the steps at Seven Falls is 
the grave in which the body of Idelen Fiske 
Hunt Jackson was first buried—the body was 
afterward moved to Colorado Springs. You 
are allowed to .take a rock from the grave if 
you place another on it. 
The Cheyenne canon is not as large as 
many we saw, but for beauty and loveliness, it 
is hard to surpass. It is not to be wondered 
at that Helen Hunt Jackson found on the walls 
of this most beautiful canon inspiration in the 
production of her literary works which she has 
left as a monument to her name. The beauty 
and grandeur which fall upon the eye from this 
lofty eminence are enough to inspire the dullest 
mind and heart. Such scenes as surround you 
here stir the purest and best that is possible to 
mind and heart. It is said that a good mother, 
and a great mountain on which to ascend and 
meditate will make any man great. I had a 
good mother, but lacked the mountain. 
If you care to visit the Garden of the Gods, 
you will find things to interest you—Balance 
Rock, Cathedral Spires, Seal and Bear, and the 
lower of Babel. But time would fail me to 
tell of Manitou and the numerous things round 
about and in this noted resort to attract and 
please the marvelous Soda Spring, Cave of the 
Wind, Grand Caverns, Red Canon, Glen Eyrie, 
Ute Pass and Rainbow Falls. It takes longer 
time to see all these as they should be seen 
than we had to devote to them. 
It is now far up into the night and we must 
hunt our Pullman and lie down to think of the 
day s doing and in sleep get that recuperation 
necessary for the sights that we are to 1 see on 
the morrow as we hasten through some of the 
most wonderful scenery that the eye is per¬ 
mitted to behold on this continent, on our way 
to Salt Lake City. Of which we will tell you 
in our next. 
Old World Rolls Along. 
No matter what you say or do, 
De ole world rolls along. 
No matter if you’se gay or blue, 
De ole world rolls along; 
She’s a-runnin’ mad froo miles ob space 
At a regular breakneck pace. 
An’ ef you smiles or makes a face, 
De ole world rolls along. 
When you’se flush or when you’se broke 
De ole world rolls along; 
When you weep or when you joke, 
De ole world rolls along; 
When you’se bad and when vou’se good 
(She hain’t never understood), 
You couldn’t stop her ef you would, 
De ole world rolls along. 
When you sleep and when you wake, 
De ole world rolls along; 
When you’se hot or shiver an’ shake, 
De ole world rolls along; 
When you’se truthful, when you lie. 
When you give up — when you try — 
When you 1 i • e an’ when you die, 
De ole world rolls along'. 
—Florida Times-Union. 
Many Uses for Birch are Recorded. 
From furnishing material for a canoe in 
which to hunt whales some hundred odd years 
ago to supplying New England factories of to¬ 
day with 11,000 cords of wood annually for shoe 
pegs and shanks is, according to the Depart¬ 
ment of Agriculture, only part of the services 
the birch tree has rendered and is rendering the 
people of America. 
Sir Alexander Mackenzie, the Department 
tells us in a bulletin just issued on the uses of 
birch, hunted whales in a birch bark canoe. The 
animals were found at the mouth of the Macken¬ 
zie River. He failed to strike the game and con¬ 
cluded that it was probably for the best. While 
the canoes are frail, it is pointed out that the 
bark of which they are made resists decay longer 
than any other part of the tree. 
It would be difficult, the Department goes 
on to say, to estimate the value of the service 
of the birch bark canoes in the discovery, ex¬ 
ploration, development and settlement of the 
northern part of this continent. From the Arctic 
circle to the Great Lakes and southward for a 
century and a half that light but exceedingly 
strong and serviceable vessel threaded the lakes 
and rivers, bearing trade and carrying civiliza¬ 
tion where no other boat could go. The French 
explorers and missionaries made journeys of 
hundreds of miles in these canoes, often carry¬ 
ing cargoes which would seem beyond the capa¬ 
city of such frail vessels. 
The range of uses to which birch wood is 
put is surprisingly large. According to the De¬ 
partment the articles into which it goes range 
from church pews to kitchen tables, and from 
organ pipes to newel posts. We may have our 
first sleep in a birch crib and our last in a birch 
coffin. The spools on which we get our cotton 
and silk thread are birch spools, and the lasts 
on which our shoes are made are likely to be 
birch lasts. The largest of the spools hold 12,000 
yards, the smallest twenty yards. The wood’s 
beauty, strength and rigidity make it prominent 
as a material for musical instruments, and the 
same qualities bring it into extensive use for 
flooring. 
Many people have an idea that shoe pegs 
have nearly passed out of use, but the amount 
of birch previously mentioned as made into pegs 
and shanks yearly in New England seems to dis¬ 
prove this notion. Birch, the Department says, 
is often put on the market in imitation of other 
woods, and we may open many a door, sit on 
many a chair, and write on many a desk which 
we imagine to be mahogany, but which is really 
birch stained to resemble the genuine article. 
Nine species of birch grow in the United 
States, but sweet, yellow, paper and river birch 
are those most used. About 45.000,000 board feet 
of the wood finds its way to the market yearly. 
Paper birch is one of the few American species 
with a hold on the forest stronger than it had 
when America was discovered. Large tracts 
are now covered with this birch where there 
was little of it a century ago. It comes in after 
fire, and some tracts it has taken possession of 
cover hundreds of square miles. 
One hundred acres on the Florida national 
forest will be sown to maritime pine seed this 
fall. Maritime pine is the source of the French 
turpentine industry. 
