1028 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[JUNE 30, 1906. 

are passing from sight. We stand in a drench- 
ed fragrant purity and watch them leave us. A 
red glow burns serenely in the west as though 
the fumes of chaos having been dispersed, cter- 
nity were revealed. The sweetness of syringa, 
heavy and rain-soaked, fills us-with a multitude 
of living dreams, and the moon, its sphere wash- 
ed and radiant, seems but the consummation of 
an enticipated vision. 
What an acceptable and deliciously natural 
phenomenon is night, and especially June or 
summmer nights. They have been breathed 
irom the lips of poesy; from the shores of a 
stellar and lunar sublimity, whose magnitude 
yearns to draw near and Ceciunieern Under 
this gentle all-consuming swell, the clangor 
of existence sinks into a pool of quietude. It 
is the one shadow which rejoices us, and when 
we are able to be abroad, to press our thoughts 
literally against its tide of peace, listening to 
the dull throb of insect voices and feeling the 
warm immutable darkness fiow  tranquilly 
through nature’s pulses, it becomes an influence 
whick translates daylight into an illumination 
of mind. At times our relationship with the 
beaverly bodies and the heavens themselves is 
more eminently apparent than at others, It is 
a mutual transmigration that often takes place 
just at twilight when an indescribable hue is 
settling on the mountains and we behold the 
lamp of some great planet swung in the green, 
paling sky, faintly molten as though it had 
passed through a celestial fire. Evening is all 
sou]. It is the time when humanity aspires. 
Thus, “we will have a dawn and noon and 
serene sunset in ourselves. “ 4 ** So 
let our life stand to heaven as some fair 
sunlit tree against the western horizon, and by 
sinrise be planted on some eastern hill to 
glisten in the first rays of the dawn.” 
The early morning prelude of the birds in 
June constitutes one of its chief delights. If 
we chance to awaken and hear their rapturous 
micdly in the damp cool hours of dawn, we un- 
ccrsciously feel that the day will be the fuller 
and the better for it. After the sun rises, what 
an elysium of verdure and color is presented 
to the eye! One loves to see the beams pierc- 
ing the woods in smoky golden shafts and aver- 
flowing with clarified light the bosky «uplards. 
There is such infinite youth and promise on 
earth and sky! the health and delicacy of a 
serene and delicious temperament. The land- 
scape is immutable, and we have only to nour- 
ish ourselves with ‘melody of song and beauty. 
The clouds and sun-bathed roses, the warm 
sweetness of bloomy fruits and moonlit gardens; 
the dancing fireflies starred against night- en- 
shrouded hills, and above all the. hour of sunset! 
Late into twilight the crimson flush lingers and 
reflects its hue _on glazed meres and tranquil 
river marges. These slowly departing moments 
are ineffable and beatified, as though an eternal 
affinity were suddenly revealed. If we seek 
restoration, a new lease on life and fire with 
which to rekindle spiritual flame, let us embrace 
this immortal hour of sundown when at the end 
of a June day we receive its closing benediction. 
PAULINA BRANDRETH. 
The Eagle as an Emblem. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
In a recent communication addressed to your 
periodical which has been called to my attention, 
I notice a criticism of my having shot a bald- 
headed eagle. 
The author of this criticism, who gives his 
initials as W. B. M., of Saginaw, Michigan, 
curiously jumbles his remarks in suggesting what 
might happen to one who should molest an eagle 
located at Tamus Beach, which is carefully pro- 
tected by the people in the vicinity. Perhaps 
the author does not mean to insinuate that one 
who has shot an eagle in the far west which was 
under no sort of private care, would meditate the 
destruction of one which is protected. The care- 
lessness with which some people express them- 
selves gives rise to a good deal of misunderstand- 
ing as to what is meant. If the author does 
not mean to say that, he has made a statement 
which is not warranted by the facts; it would be 

IN THE CLOSE SEASON. 
Photo by J. B. Burnham. 
as absurd to say that as it would be to infer that 
a sportsman who has shot wild ducks from a 
blind would kill domestic ducks in a poultry yard. 
In regard to the sentiment expressed concern- 
ing the killing of an eagle, another idea is in- 
volved. I will not dwell upon the question of 
whether this bird should be protected in common 
with other game, because that does not seem to 
be the reason advanced by the authar of the 
criticism, although his statement in that respect 
is not clear. The adoption of some emblem, ani- 
mate or inanimate, to typify a nationality, is quite 
universal, and descends from a period, “whereof 
the memory of man runneth not to the contrary.” 
The eagle is more frequently used for such a pur- 
pose than any other specimen of bird or animal. 
The most notable exceptions are the Russian 
bear and the British lion. If sentiment is to ex- 
tend a general protection to a national emblem, 
then no patriotic Russian should slay a bear, and 
loyal Englishmen should permit the king of 
beasts to roam unscathed in the jungles of Asia 
and the African wilderness. 
It is well known that Benjamin Franklin 
wanted to substitute the wild turkey for the eagle 
as our national bird. We should be thankful that 
this did not happen, for think what a deprivation 
it would have been had patriotic sentiment. for- 
bidden our killing and eating the wild turkey. 
The thistle was one time the emblem of Scot- 
land, and it might be suggested to the thrifty 
Scot, who loves his country’s glorious past, that 
that obnoxious weed be allowed to flourish and 
overrun his fields if the national emblem is al- 
ways to be spared. 
Passing from national to religious sentiment, 
the lamb is emblematic of the Christian religion. 
If sentiment must intervene to preserve that 
which typifies its highest ideal, how can you 
reconcile the slaughter of sheep and lambs with 
an adherence to the faith? Enough! Sentiment 
is praiseworthy, but it must be leavened with 
common sense. 
In making selections from the animal creation 
to typify certain ideas, the imagination seems to 
exercise more influence than the judgment. The 
striking and comanding appearance of the eagle 
no doubt induced the Romans to affix his image 
to their standards. 
The European nations which have accepted 
that emblem have probably derived it from that 
- source, and very likely the general custom has 
exercised its influence in determining its adop- 
tion as our national symbol. The eagle is a 
piratical bird and preys indiscriminately upon its 
weaker neighbors. In a primitive age, when 
piracy was ‘considered an honorable calling, the 
fierce and rapacious nature of the eagle com- 
mended itself to the savage temperament. There 
seems no way to explain a devotion to the bird on 
its own account as distinct from its being a 
national emblem, except as illustrating a case of a 
“throw-back.” Slavish devotion to a symbol 
‘carried to the extent of treating the bird-or ani- 
ma] selected for that purpose, as being sacred, is 
not in accord with the enlightened spirit of the 
age. 
There is nothing particularly distinctive about 
the eagle as a national emblem, as there is in 
respect to the flag. The eagle is an emblem in 
common use, and is no more suggestive of the 
United States than it is of any other nation that 
has adopted it as an emblem. The American 
flag embodies an historical idea; there is not a 
stripe or a star without a meaning; it is a living ~ 
emblem; each new star appearing upon its blue 
firmament attests the national growth, which 
makes for the welfare and happiness of mankind. 
E. F, RANDOLPH, 
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