The Capitol Hill News (Oklahoma City, Okla.), Vol. 9, No. 36, Ed. 1 Thursday, May 21, 1914 Page: 6 of 8
This newspaper is part of the collection entitled: Capitol Hill News and The State Capital and was provided to The Gateway to Oklahoma History by the Oklahoma Historical Society.
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v . <• r
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-V-
The
OLDEST
LIVING
THING
IN THE
WORLD
Robert H.Moulton
mm HOWLAND
N THE firing line In central Mexico,
in peril from cannon fire and mus-
ketry, stands the oldest living thing
iu the world—the famous cypress in
the churchyard of the village of
Santa Maria del Tule, in the Intend-
ancy of Oaxaca, two and a half
leagues east of that city. The dis-
turbances in Mexico have postponed
4 temporarily the attainment of tho su-
preme ambition held by Dr. Herman von Schrenk •
of St. Loula, which is to determine scientifically
the approximate ago of this tieator of the wnole
vegetable kingdom.
Experts, Judging by the gigantic bole of the
Santa Maria del Tule cypress, and by the slow
growth of this species, have estimated the age
of the patriarch of all trees to be between 5,000
and 6,000 years.
These figures are staggering to the imagina-
tion. Taking the lowest computation, when the
seed from which the tree sprang fell upon tho
earth King Menee was holding the first reign in
Egypt, of which we have historic knowledge—
3,000 years before the birth of Christ. It wus a
slender stripling, 200 years old, when Cheops
drove his subjects with the lash to the labor of
building the great Pyramid. It had reached a
lusty youth of 1,500 years when the Hebrews
made their exodus from the land of the Nile.
This living thing in tropical America was si-
lently building Itself to its present stature and
vigor seven centuries before Babylon reached its
greatest splendor. Ancient Nineveh, in the ninth
century before the Christian era, was u parvenu
compared with the Oaxaca cypress. The earliest
cuneiform inscriptions which archeologists have
unearthed in Assyria date back to only 1800 B. C.
—and the tree in Mexico which was to arise Iu
the distant future on a new and unknown conti-
nent had even then lived almost as many years
as separate the world today from the final recall
of the Roman legions from Britain.
This still flourishing tree of the twentieth cen-
tury had built its annual rings and spread Its
yearly foliage for ten centuries when Abraham
tended his flocks and saw u vision of the Jewish
race that was to be. It had lived 8*000 years
before David slew Goliath and Solomon erected
the temple at Jerusalem.
In the eye of its hoary antiquity, Troy, Athens,
the Macedonian kingdom and the Roman empire
were mere upstarts of time. Tho discovery of
America and the conquest of Mexico by Cortez
would seem, in its life, things of only u few
months ago.
The last scientific measurement of the Santa
Marla del Tule cypress was made by Dr. von
Schreuk in 1903, a century after Humboldt dis-
covered it while on his famous tour of the equa-
torial America. Dr. Von Schrenk found that
its trunk, four feet from the ground, had the
astounding girth of 126 feet.
An idea of its vast age may be obtained by
comparing it with a cypress described by Prof.
ABa Cray, which, although only 14 feet in cir-
cumference, was 670 years old. So slow is the
growth of the cypress that this tree had required
nearly seven centuries to attain a diameter of
54 Inches.
Dr. Von Schrenk. now an arboricultural expert
with a laboratory at the Missouri botanical gar-
den in St. Louis, was in 1903 connected with the
United States forestry service. While traveling
through southern Mexico he determined to in-
spect the Santa Maria del Tule cypress. Arriving
at the village, he introduced hirnself as an official
of the United States government who wished to
examine the famous tree. The mayor welcomed
him with elaborate ceremony.
Dr. V’on Schrenk learned that the tree wan
regarded as sacred in the vicinity and that it
was guarded night and day by two soldier senti-
nels. Escorted by as numerous and dignified a
retinue as the mayor could muster, ho marched
to the little graveyard In which the cypress
stands.
Before the broad and towering bulk of this
one life, which has persisted without interruption
since the date of the dawning of history, the visi-
tor halted in awe. Had the foliaged creature pos-
sessed eyes and a tongue, what treasures of in-
formation could It have added to the annals of
man!
But flights of fancy gave way to Immediate sci-
entific duties. Authorities on trees had declared
the discovery of the approximate age of thiB
cypress to be one of the most important problems
In arboriculture. They had expressed a hope
that the next scientist who should visit the an-
cient living monument would not fail to complete
the evidence needed.
The mayor of Santa Marla del Tule, however,
opposed a barrier of adamant. Measure the cir-
cumference of the tree*1 Surely. Photograph it?
Indeed, yes. But to take an instrument and boro
from the trunk a plug two feet deep and half an
Inch in diameter? Horrors, no.
In vain Dr. Von Schrenk urged that this ex-
periment had been made hundreds of times with-
out damage to trees, and that by counting tho
rings shown on the plug he could learn the tree’s
average rate of growth and thus solve one of
the great scientific problems of the world. The
mayor was all humility and submlssiveness. Any-
cwesfh&r &°qSUyzx JZze/jg «*•/
JXAger a# me-
sa=at/(?a/v (pyexeaf
ercneceer
roc jzxy&s woc>
thing he pos-
sessed was at the
disposition of the
distln g u 1 s h e d
United Slates of-
ficial. But touch
the tree he
should not.
So Dr. Von
Schrenk was
compelled to con-
tent himself with
changed the
measuring the bole, and with taking photographs
of the tree from the roof of the city hall. He
also observed a wooden tablet which Humboldt.
100 years before, had nailed to the tree, the un-
impaired vitality of which, for all Its 50 centu-
ries of age, had been shown by a growth which
half covered the tablet. Upon it, however, was
still legible tho autograph of the famous German
naturalist.
Though repulsed at the first trial, Dr. Von
Schrenk's ardor to be the first to obtain accu-
rate data by which to estimate the tree’s age
was only kindled the more. He determined that
at the first opportunity he would return to Santa
Maria del Tule for a second attempt, when he
BOY AND GIRL BEGGARS
OF DUBLIN
From out of the troubled scene of strikes and
lockouts, riots and baton charges, stands the
quaint and pathetic figure of the child beggar
of Dublin.
There are thousands of these child beggars.
They come from crowded rooms of squalid tene-
ments that once were the splendid homes of
wealth and fashion. Persistent as files, sprightly
as kittens, the Dublin street children have a
tenacious hold on life. Born in small, stuffy
rooms, enduring all the privations that increase
infantile mortality, these children of poverty
survive tho horrors of home and the cruelty of
the streets. And they learn to beg at their moth-
er’s knee.
When a Dublin street child solicits alms he
combines a recitation of beatitudes with a be-
stowal of compliments. He flatters, wheedles,
Implores and Invokes the saints in one breath.
Silence stimulates him, rebukes encourage him,
anger dismays him not. Running like a dog at
heel, he whimpers and whines, his pattering feet
keeping time with his monologue of woe. As
well try to shake off the grip of a bull terrier a9
to escape the Dublin beggar child w hen his keen
intuition has detected signs of weakness. He
provokes smiles, irritation, resentment, and,
above all, a great pity.
Truly, they are subjects of pity, these little
boys and girls of Dublin, with their miserable
rags, their old faces marked with the wisdom of
the streets, their grubby, tiny hands held out
for coppers. and their childish voices murmuring
the discord of tho beggar’s whine. Late at night,
with tho public houses closing and the cold rain
sending pedestrians scurrying homeward. I have
seen little girls of six or seven years dancing on
the glistening pavement. They havo been danc-
cing all the evening—not for Joy. but for charity.
Now they are tired, and their faces are drawn.
They try to smile but tho smile Is a queer twist
of pain. Their wet, ragged skirts cling round
their thin limbs. But still they dance the Irish
Jigs, now facing each other and circling and
v
hopes to find a mayor of more scientific sympathy.
He la awaiting now a cessation of revolutionary
troubles In Oaxaca.
Prof. Alphonse de Candolle, an illustrious botan-
ist, calculated that the Santa Maria del Tule cy-
press might be 6,000 years old. Prof. Asa Gray,
under one computation, estimated that it might
be 5,124 years old, and named It "the Nestor of
the cypress race, if not of the whole vegetable
kingdom."
Both these computations would make the Mexi-
can cypress older by from 1,000 to 2,000 years
than the giant sequoia tree of California in the
bole of which John Muir, the famous geologist and
archeologist, counted more than 4,000 rings. The
sequoias, however, being trees of more rapid
growth, gToatly surpass the cypress in height
In Louisiana, according to Dr. Von Schrenk, are
cypress trees which were 500 years old when Jesus
was born at Bethlehem. Some of these are in the
celebrated "Edenborn brake" in
Winn parish. The monarch of
the brake ie a tree which lumber-
men estimate would scale 23,000
feet of lumber.
The only trees which can ven-
ture to rival the Santa Maria del
Tule cypress, according to sci-
entists, are certain baobab, or
monkey-bread, trees of Senegal
and the Cape de Verde islands,
and the famous Dragon tree of the
city of Orotava, in Teneriffo. Nei-
ther of these trees, however, is
believed to be as much as 5,000
years old, although their antiquity
is estimated to be so great that
only that of the Mexican cypress
surpasses it.
"Upon the whole," writes Pro-
fessor Gray in his "Scientific Par
pers,” ‘‘we cannot resist the con-
clusion that many trees have far
survived what we are accustomed
to consider their habitual duration;
that even in Europe, where man
has so often and extensively
face of the soil, as his wants or
caprices have dictated, some trees, favored by
fortune, have escaped destruction for at least one
or two thousand years; while in other, and par-
ticularly in some tropical countries, either on
account of d more favorable climate, or because
they have been more respected, or haply moro
neglected, by the Inhabitants, a few may with
strong probability be traced back to twice that
period; and, perhaps almost to that epoch which
the monuments both of history and of geology
Beem to indicate as that of the last great revo-
lution of the earth’s surface.
"After making every reasonable allowance for
errors of observation and too sanguine inference
and assuming, in the more extraordinary cases,
those estimates which give minimum results, we
must still regard some of those trees, not only as
the oldest inhabitants of Lhe globe, but as more
ancient than any human monument—as exhibit-
ing a living antiquity, compared with which the
moldering relics of the earliest Egyptian civiliza-
tion, the pyramids themselves, are but structures
of yesterday."
curtsying with a natural grace that defies even
exhaustion.
They have learned the dance, maybe, on the
bare boards of a single room where they live,
sleep and eat, and to that room they will return
when the last of the crowd has gone. Wet, tired
and hungry, they will sleep heaven knows how
or where, and their chance of supper depends
upon the success of their dancing. This is Sack-
ville street, the finest thoroughfare in Ireland.—
Loudon Mail.
yv\oST
GLORIOUS
Some people like the
wintry day*.
When snow Is deep
In all the lanes.
When loirs Impart a
genial blaze
And mad winds
howl across the
plains;
Some people like the
spring days best.
When blossoms
flutter every-
where.
Wht-,. love is in the
maiden's breast
And there is fra-
grance in the air.
Some people like the
summer time.
When all the fruit-
ful fields are
green:
iYhen sea and
mountain are
sublime,
With Peace presiding o’er the scene;
8ome people think that early fall
Produces the most splendid days.
When frosts first come and over all
There hangs a dreamy, bluish base.
Ah, but the best days of the year.
The days that lessen every care.
The days when all the sounds we hear
And all things we see seem fair;
The days that keep our faith alive
And bring us hopes that are sublime
Are those superb days that arrive
Just prior to vacation time.
CANDID OPINION.
What is so rare as a day in June
when the underclothes you are wear-
ing are neither too thick nor too thin.
A man can generally get along very
well without the respect which he
loses for insisting on having what he
is entitled to.
It is an invisible line that divides
foolishness from tht. optimism which
is without effort.
Many a man thinks he is a martyr
when he works half as hard for his
family as he does for his lodge.
A very inferior man can become
prominent If everybody boosts him.
THINK OF IT.
NOT HOME OF ANCIENT MAN.
Theories regarding the antiquity of man In
Peru have not been strengthened by the expedi-
tion of Dr. Ales Hrdlicka of the National museum
of that country. The expedition covered several
hundred miles of the Peruvian coast, including
hitherto unexplored regions in the Western Cor-
dilleras. More than one hundred ancient ceme-
teries and many ruins, n large percentage of
which were previously unknown to science, were
examined, and over thirty boxes of skulls and
other material for future study were collected for
the National museum.
‘‘The result of the expedition." says the expe-
dition’s report, "failed to strength*:* • the theories
of the antiquity of man In Peru, hut tended to
prove the contrary. Aside from the cemeteries
or burial caves of the common coast or mountain
people and their archeological remains, there was
no sign of human occupation of these regions.
Not a trace suggesting anything older than the
well-re presen ted pre-Columbian Indian was found
anywhere; and neither the coast nor the moun-
tain population, so far as studied, can he regard-
ed as very ancient in the regions they Inhabited.
No signs indicated that any group occupied any
of tho site* for even as long as twenty centuries."
As One Who’s Bet . Humbled.
The head of the family drank his
coffee uncomplainingly, although Its
strength brought tears to his eyes.
"Why, father,” remonstrated his son,
"how could you swallow that lye?”
"My son," replied the old gentle-
man, "li’s not the first lie that 1 have
had to swallow, by any means ”
Their Share
"I see where fashionables had a
horse-back tea in Washington. I won-
der If the horses got any of It?"
"Oh, I guess each horse there had a
bit.”
New Modern Dancing
Tbe waning Hip«rt and Inatrnctor in New Tork
"Doer Sir:—I have nml Ai.len'h
owder to l>«* shaken Into
It Is a blessing to
I (lance
.KN’H
cool
iroTcnta corns and Boro, Acbing toot.
To Csol a Bum
and Take
the Fire Out
City. writes:
Foot-Manic, the antiseptic pow
tho shoos, for tho past ton jroare. It Is a t
all who an> couipolled to bo on their foot
eight or u*n hours daily, and find that Am
Toot-Mask keeps ray feet cool, takes the friction
from the shoe, preventscom.sandSoi
1 recommend it to all my pupils."
(Signed) K FLHTCIIKH IlALI.AMOl
SampleJTkxs. Address AlleaS.Ohusttid.LeUoj
Far M*re.
"Papa, how big is a croquet ball?"
"About the size of a grapefruit, but
more nutritious.”
A Household Remedy ’
HANFORD’S
Balsam ofJWyrrh
For Cuts, Bum*,
Bruise*, Sprains,
Strains, Stiff Neck,
Chilblains, Lame Back,
Old Sores, Open Wounds,
and aU External Injuries.
Made Since 1846.
Price 25c, 50c and $1.00
All Dealers
\
eck,^^
eBack,
. Wounds,
al Injuries. nJ
Perfectly Awful.
"Goodness!" exclaimed the St. Louis
girl; "what’s the matter?"
"Isn’t it awful r* sobbed the Bo&ten
maiden. "Isn’t it dre-dre-dreadful!"
"I don’t know what you mean.
What is dreadful?*’
"I’ve Just been thinking, and if we
adopt the theory of evolution we can-
not—oh, it is awful—we cannot get
away from the fact that some of our
ancestors were not married!”
What Practise Will Do.
"By gosh!” said Uncle Timson Tab-
balls, after he had returned from a
week-end visit in the city, "it’s simply
wonderful what practise’ll do fer peo-
ple. Take this thing of eatin’ with a
fork, for instance. I seen lots of peo-
ple at the huttel where I stopped at
who could take up gobs of } ’ackberry
pie without lettin’ a drop of juice leak
through onto the tablecloth."
"I tell you tho
man Whose chil-
dren are ill girls
I has a big advan-
| tage, after all."
'How do you
figure it out?"
"Think of the
things he can do
around the house without being afraid
of setting a bad example."
Sick cMjbvn&n
Reliable evidence is abundant that women
are constantly being restored to health by
Lydia E. Pinkham's Vegetable Compound
The many testimonial letters that we are continually pub-
lishing in the newspapers—hundredsof them—are all genu-
ine, true and unsolicited expressions of heartfelt gratitude
for the freedom from suffering that has come to these
women solely through the use of Lydia E. Pinkham’s
Vegetable Compound.
Money could not buy nor any kind of influence obtain
such recommendations; you may depend upon it that any
testimonial we publish is honest and true—if you have any
doubt of this write to the women whose true names and
addresses are always given, and learn for yourself.
Read this one from Mrs. Waters:
Camden, N.J.—“ 1 was sick for two years with nervous spells, and
my kidneys were affected. I had a doctor all the time and used a
galvanic battery, but nothing did me any good. I was not able to go
to bed, but spent my time on a couch or in a sleeping-chair, and soon
became almost a skeleton. Finally my doctor went away for his
health, and ray husband heard of Lydia E. Pinkham’s Vegetable
Compound and got me some. In two months I got relief and now I
am like a new woman and am at my usual weight. I recommend
your medicine to every one and so does my husband.”—Mrs. Tillib
Wateus, 1135 Knight St., Camden, hi.J.
And thls«one frdm Mrs. Haddock:
Utica, Okla.—“I was weak and nervous, not able to do my work
and scarcely able to be on my feet. I had backache, headache, palpi-
tation of the heart, trouble with my bowels, and inflammation. Since
taking the Lydia E. Pinkham’s Vegetable Compound I am better
than I have been for twenty years. I think it is a wonderful medi-
cine and I have recommended, it to others.”—Mrs. Maky Ann Had-
dock, Utica, Oklahoma.
Now answer this question if you can. Why should a
woman continue to suffer without first giving Lydia E.
Pinkham’s Vegetable Compound a trial ? You know that
it has saved many others—why should it fail in your case?
For 80 years Lydia E. Pinkham’s Vegetablo
Compound lias been the standard remedy for fe-
male ills. No one sick with woman’s ailments
does justice to herself if she does not try this fa-
mous medicine made from roots and herbs, it
has restored so many suffering women to health.
BMg Write to LYDIA E.E1NKHAM MEDICINE CO.
W (CONFIDENTIAL) LYNN, MASS., for advice.
Your letter will be opened, read and answered
by a woman and held in strict confidence.
What, Indeed!
Tompkins is one of the people who
has taken up the phrase, "What do
you know about that!"
The other afternoon his beautiful
stenographer laid down her paper and
said
"1 agree with Olga Nethersole in
the opinion that it is better to be a
mother than to have a career."
"Well," exclaimed Tompkins, "what
do you know about that!"
Why?
"T used to be very fond of that lady
—before she was married."
"She’s a pretty fine looking woman.
Why should the fact that she is mar-
ried cause you to think any less of
her?"
"You see, I’m the man to whom she’s
married."
Kickers.
"It is said that an acre of good fish-
ing ground will produce more food in
a week than an acre of land will pro-
duce in 12 months,’’ said the New
Yorker.
"And yet,” replied the Long Island
land operator, "men will kick when
they find the lots they’ve bought cov-
ered with water.”
Public 18 Punished.
Gabe—only one man in a thousand
can whistle.
Steve—But the other 999 think they
can.
Arkansas Jurisprudence.
Silas—Did you win your suit?
Jonas—Yes, I won it. but my fool
opponent took it to the circus court.
Makes the laundress happy—that’s Red
beautiful, clear
Cross Ball Blue. Makes
white clothes. All good grocers.
Adv.
As the world goes man goes with it
—so he might as well make the best
of it.
Make the Liver
Do its Duty
Nine times in ten when the liver is
right the stomach and bowels are right,
CARTER S LITTLE
LIVER PILLS
gently butfirmly convj
pel a lazy liver toj
do its duty.
Cures Con-^
stipation. In-a
digestion,
Sick
Headache,*
and Distress After Eating.
SMALL PILL, SMALL DOSE. SMALL PRICE,
Genuine must bear Signature
p a r\ c o th * pnt,er <1**1**
n L.M 1/ Lnu lug to buy anything
advertised in its
«- j.nsfstaou.d Insist upon having what they
ask for, refusing all substitutes or imitations.
RELIEVES
SORE EYES
No Time *.o Be Leaving.
"You don’t appear to be making any
preparations to go to war.”
"No, we’ve just got a new piano
player, and I want to eet : ome pleas-
ure out of it before it’s oh . d cut of
tune.”
iraniCTareiairEI
W. N. U., Oklahoma City, No. 21-1914,
Whenever You Need a General Tonic
Take Grove’s
Why the Delay,
“I can't understand it."
"Wlmt?"
"Why Agu'.naldo hasn't taken ad-
vantage of tills opportunity to start
something in the Philippines."
Dismal Trip.
"I)ld you enjoy the trip across the
Atlahi Miss Galtieeby?"
"Not a bit. It was so rough all the
way that tangoing on deck was out
of the question."
The Old Standard
Grove’s Tasteless
chill Tonto
Is Equally Valuable as a General Strengthening Tonic, Because It Acts on the
Liver, Drives Out Malaria, Enriches ttie Blood and Builds Up the Whole System.
You know v'uat you are taking when you take Grove's Tasteless chill Tonic, aa
the formula is printed on. every label, showing that it contains the well-known
tonic properties of QUININE and IKON. It has no equal for Malaria, Chills and
Fever. Weakness, General Debility and Loss of Appetite Gives life and vigor to
Nursing Mothers and Pale, Sickly Children. A True Tonio and Sure Appetiser.
For grown people and children. Guaranteed by your Druggist. We mean it. 60a.
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Rugan, E. E. The Capitol Hill News (Oklahoma City, Okla.), Vol. 9, No. 36, Ed. 1 Thursday, May 21, 1914, newspaper, May 21, 1914; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. (https://gateway.okhistory.org/ark:/67531/metadc860727/m1/6/?q=%22United+States%22: accessed June 27, 2024), The Gateway to Oklahoma History, https://gateway.okhistory.org; crediting Oklahoma Historical Society.