THE OLD WILLOW.
ON the campus about ioo yards south of
the College building, at the forking of
the drives and walks that lead, on the one
hand to the president’s house, and on the
other hand to the college, may be found at all
times a friend of the afflicted. Approach that
spot in June or January and we find that friend
in mournful silence bowing his myriad heads
with Nature’s grace, as if to drop the balm of
peace into every aching heart and weary soul
that perchance might pass beneath his spread
ing arms.
Not only the sorrowful, but even hearts
with joyful faces have given expression to
sentiments of love in praise of this old com
forter, who unconsciously inspires the admiring
soul with the grandeur of Nature’s forms and
facts, and proves our god a certainty.
What is there to admire ? The old weepi g
Willow! The name itself will send a thrill
through every heart that ever beheld this
venerable landmark on our beautiful campus.
The ancients loved its species and poets sang
praises in immortal verse. Ifwcturnto 138th
psalm we find an allusion to this species of the
willow in those oft repeated words which the
psalmist used to express the sorrow of the
children of Isreal in their captivity. “By the
rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea we
wept, when we remembered Zion. We hanged
our harps upon the willows in the midst
thereof.” From the fact that the species is a
native of the above country, it is known to
botanists as Salix Babylonica , while we who
are less precise in our discernment prefer to
know it simply as the weeping willow. The
tree is found also in various parts of Europe
and China, and frequently may be seen occupy
ing a place of prominence in drawings and
paintings made by the Chinese.
The tree is planted almost universally by the
enlightened people of Asiatic and European
nations, in their cemeteries, as expressive of
THE FREE LANCE.
a pensive melancholy,—The long and slender
lanceolate leaves appended to the thin and
wiry drooping branchlets moving slowly and
softly to the light breezes that sweep over the
dead and afflicted, fill the air as it were, with
a moving stillness like that which attends the
“still small voice,” It is said that Alexander
Pope introduced the first weeping willow into
England by planting a withe that had been
used in tying a package sent to him from
Spain. The wounded twig grew in the poet’s
garden and became a fine old tree that was
much prized by Pope, In his verses he fre
quently sang of the willows or osiers as some
are called.
“Let vernnl nirs through trembling osiers piny,
And Albion cliffs resound the Rural lny.
Mis drooping srvnns on every note expire
And on his willows hung each muse’s lyre.”
The willow is emblematic also of desertion,
as we find expressed in the following quota
tions from different writers ;
But let us turn to the specimen of this note,
the only tree of its kind on the grounds, and
undoubtedly one of the few that date their ex
istence with that of this institution. From the
ground rises three trunks measuring respect
ively three feet, five feet, and six feet 9 inches
in circumference, These spread and rise to a
height of fifteen feet, from which they divide
and sub-divide into the final branchlets that
reach a height of thirty feet, and spread over
a surface of fifty feet in diameter. Three years
ago, that portion of the tree on the smallest
trunk became too heavy for its support, and
the slender trunk split longitudinally at a point
about ten feet from the ground. It was then
tied to the heavier trunk by an iron rod, thus
saving a large section of the tree, The willow
“A willow gorlnnd thou didst scud
Perfumed last day to me;
Which did but only this portend,
I was forsook by thee.”
“1 must wear the willow garland,
For him that’s dead or false to me.”
—IIKKRICK
—Ch.uiwxi,