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FOUNDERS OF THE AUDUBON SOCIETY 

Dr WILLIAM BRUETTE, Editor 

Member of Audit Bureau of Circulation 


THE OBJECT OF THIS JOURNAL WILL BE TO 
studiously promote a healthful interest in outdoor 
recreation, and a refined taste for natural objects. 
August 14, 1873. 
REACHING CONGRESS 
HERE are several ways of letting your Rep- 
resentative and Senator know where you 
stand on proposed legislation. One—that of 
writing personal letters—is the manner most 
stressed. It is a valuable method, too—if your 
letter reaches its objective. This is no reflection 
on either the legislators or their office forces. It 
is only natural that, during a busy session, with 
mornings taken up with hearings (or investiga- 
tions),and the afternoons with sessions, they would 
not have time personally to. peruse the hundreds 
of letters they receive on various: subjects. During 
slack periods, however, all letters are read and re- 
plied to—although we are often lost in admiration 
of the manner in which Congressional letters can 
imply such fervid approval of our interest in a 
bill, without, as a careful analysis will show, com- 
promising the writers in the least. 
Probably the best way to be sure that your at- 
titude will be thoroughly understood, however, is 
by petition. A letter reaches only the individual 
to whom it is addressed—a petition reaches every 
reader of the Congressional Record. To make your 
petitions most effective 
1. State plainly but briefly what bill you are en- 
dorsing. Do not give just the number of the 
bill or the name of the introducer. Write it 
out—House or Senate (as the case may be) 
Bill No....., introduced by Sen. (or Rep.) 
Soe ar 9 , for the establishment of game 
refuges (or whatever the object of the bill 
may be). . 
This is of value to the casual reader of 
the Record, or the solon who is too busy 
to keep the object of every bill in his mind 
(if such a feat of memory were possible, 
in view of the thousands introduced each 
session. 
2. Have the names of personal friends of the ad- 
dressee head the list. If that is not possible, 
get names that will be familiar to him because 
of their prominence in the business, profes- 
sional or social world. 
This might sound like quilling, but it zs 
effective. It is only human for a man to 
be more interested in something that is 
sponsored by his friends or men whom he 
knows to be leaders in the community. 


3. Be sure to request that the petition be presented 
on the floor of the House or Senate. Many 
a flowery petition is left to blush unseen be- 
cause this simple request is omitted. Some 
Members of Congress make a practice of 
presenting all the petitions they receive to 
their respective Houses, but others do not. 
Be on the safe side’and request such presen- 
ation. 
That is all for the necessities. Now for the most 
important thing of all! After you have sent your 
petition in, follow its course. When you see it in 
the list in the Record (which is usually on file at 
your Public Library or leading newspaper office), 
drop your man a nice letter thanking him for the 
action, thereby proving your real interest in the 
matter by showing him that you did not deposit 
it on his doorstep like an unwanted waif, but that 
it is a child of your heart, which you have entrusted 
to his tender mercies, but which, nevertheless, you 
want to keep an eye on. 
He will know that you are in earnest and ap- 
preciate his efforts, and no one is so hard-boiled 
but what appreciation does not warm the cockles 
of his heart. Such a letter might be the drop of 
water that will turn; the mill-wheel of. his senti- 
ment in favor of your pet bill. 
THE SPELL OF THE CONE-BEARERS 
O earthly growths have the lure of the ever- 
green trees. They are the oldest living 
things. They go back to chaos and the mys- 
tery of the Ice Age. They ‘represent the trials of 
nature at the pinnacle of achievement. The suns 
of four thousand years have drenched individuals 
of this family, and today they strive and soar as 
living monuments. 
Man born in the shadow of such trees can not 
ignore nor forget them. He is a vigorous and 
dominant type of life for where the cone-bearers 
grow and dip with soughing anthem there is the 
“rhythmic swing” of the seasons. To’ live he must 
master the primitive, the idiosyncrasies of the 
elements. The trees are necessary to existence, to 
a major portion of labor and play. Dwellers of the 
cone-bearers are rulers of earth. As these trees 
are kings of the plant world, so their inhabitants 
dominate and control the destiny of the races of 
men. 
As a tree is of the earth earthly, so the love for 
trees must be intimate. ‘The appreciation has deep 
roots. Love for a tree, the shadows, the silence, 
the communion moments: sweep the mortal frame 
to its depths as solemnity enters the slender body 
of an Essene monk. 
Man can regulate his own existence when living 
in the echo of strange sounds, the song of bough- 
hid boughs, the threnody of somnolent boughs, and 
he drinks of life as one drinks from a wayside 
spring. He learns soon why many men are forest 
lovers, dreamers of strange dreams, users of wood 
in multiple ways. There is the solitude with all 
its mystery and beauty, the seasons in their variant 
raiment—all is as an open book in the original. 
Man needs no translator nor interpreter. To prowl 
and listen, to read and ponder the great tale of 
nature is to find life is the great adventure. The 
sheer beauty and fascination comes as “through 
the magic door.” 
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