_Mr. Mayor, Ladies and Gentlemen_:
I want to thank you very much for your courtesy in receiving me, and
to say how much I have enjoyed being here. This is the first glimpse
I have ever had of the big trees, and I wish to pay the highest
tribute I can to the State of California, to those private citizens
and associations of citizens who have co-operated with the State in
preserving these wonderful trees for the whole nation, in preserving
them in whatever part of the State they may be found. All of us ought
to want to see nature preserved. Take a big tree whose architect has
been the ages—anything that man does toward it may hurt it and can not
help it. Above all, the rash creature who wishes to leave his name
to mar the beauties of nature should be sternly discouraged. Those
cards pinned up on that tree give an air of the ridiculous to this
solemn and majestic grove. To pin those cards up there is as much
out of place as if you tacked so many tin cans up there. I mean that
literally. You should save the people whose names are there from the
reprobation of every one by taking down the cards at the earliest
possible moment; and do keep these trees, keep all the wonderful
scenery of this wonderful State unmarred by the vandalism or the folly
of man. Remember that we have to contend not merely with knavery, but
with folly; and see to it that you by your actions create the kind
of public opinion which will put a stop to any destruction of or any
marring of the wonderful and beautiful gifts that you have received
from nature, that you ought to hand on as a precious heritage to your
children and your children’s children.