Letter from R[ichard] W[atson] Gilder to John Muir, 1899 Nov 2.

• Main Author: Gilder, Richard Watson
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: Scholarly Commons 1899
• Subjects: Environmentalist; naturalist; travel; conservation; national parks; John Muir; history; correspondence; letters; Baldwin; glacier; Alaska
• Online Access: https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/muir-correspondence/2465; https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/context/muir-correspondence/article/3464/viewcontent/muir10_1055_let.pdf

[illegible]Tell you the news Prom Pour Brooks Parm? Well,But there is news to tell!As long as my arm."What, a new she-calf born To this world forlorn?"Few things are finer Than a fine heifer-calf,And most things are minor;.But it 's better by half -The news that I speak of;Besides now we reek of Such farm news as this:You were here, when, what bliss!Alpha dropped on our planet,And we all ran to scan it.How it staggered and swayed,Groped, puckered, sucked, prayed On its knees, or it seemed so;But its mother never dreamed so,For there! what fun! Wisht!How the old cow it punished,With blows of its nose 2Till she rocked on her toes!-When its warm food it takes it -Your word, Herr Professor,Of "instinct" no less aMystery makes it;And so, Dr. Baldwin,Whatever it's called inYour books,'t is as queer,As -lots of things here;-How the soft thing, with silk down,Had learned to bring milk downWithout any teaching,Example or preaching.-But the old cows so quick went To breeding, that such news, Calves being frequent,No longer is much news;If the cows keep enthused upWe 'll soon be to PhiAnd next summer will see All the Greek letters used up!- No this is not the news From Four Brooks Farm -Nor the ice-pond builtWhere Hermit Brook spilt;Nor the great pine we foundThunder-burst in the middleAnd spread on the groundLike the strings of a fiddle,Not of this, not of that,-Such news now were flat,But something far racier!Muir, of Alaska,Path-finder, cliff-basker,Known of bird, known of deer(Grizzlies know him, won't harm),John Muir has been here,And has hitched to the farmA great blanket glacier!Don't flout it! don't doubt it!'T is as sure and as clearAs if on the rockWith chisel and knock,A giant of eldHis message had spelled,And ten thousand years afterWe read it,- with laughter05086 And loyal acclaim,-His ancestry, name, The work he was doing, The place whence he came, And the journey pursuing."This giant of eld.See his path," said John Muir,-"Here it held North-west to south-east Slow and sure Like a king at a feast Eating down ...