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fX&m 2?k. X r< r THE COUNTRYMAN. BY J. A. TURNER. “BREVITY IS THE SOUL OF WIT ” $1 A YEAR. VOL. III. TURNWOLD, PUTNAM COUNTY, GA., MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 1862. NO. 1. Third Volume. With the beginning of the 3rd volume of this journal, its form is changed, so as to make it more convenient for binding. This is a change which I am sure will meet the approbation of all my readers. I desire them to preserve The Countryman as the best and cheapest book they can have in their houses, and no doubt they desire the same thing. Even where you do not intend to have it bound, you can file the paper. Fold it carefully, cut it carefully, and with two strips of wood such as you have seen used in filing newspapers—with these two strips of wood and a couple of soft leather strings, you can preserve The Countryman, and secure for yourselves a book, every year, which will be worth more to you and your children than any other book you can obtain (except the bible) and at a much cheaper rate than you can ob tain it, from any other source. For such a book as each annual volume of The Countryman will give you, you would have to pay, elsewhere, $10 or $12. It contains the best things from all the best authors of the world. The success of The Countryman has been re markable. It had at first to contend with the odi um of being a little paper. This has been neutrali zed, partly by my giving the history of little pa pers,showing that Addison,Swift,Johnson,Gold smith, and many other great lights of English literature published papers much smaller than The Countryman is, and partly by the practical illustration which The Countryman gives that a little paper need not necessarily be a low, scurrillous, mean, and contemptible sheet. As the Fanner & Baptist remarks, in its notice of this journal, l 'goocl things are usually put up in small packages.” One universal acclaim of approbation has gone up from the Southern press in favor of this journal, and from divines, scholars, doc tors, lawyers, citizens, and soldiers, have come notes of encouragement to its editor. Nor has this been the only success of The Countryman. Most remarkable of all, has been its pecuniary success, at a time when it would seem ruin to begin the publication of a newspaper at only $1 per annum. A circulation in Virginia, N. Carolina, S. Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alaba ma, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, and Tennes see, and which would also have reached Ken tucky and Missouri, but for the war, has ena bled The Countryman already to more than pay expenses, and opens a bright future for it, when the clouds of war shall be dispelled, and peace once more smile upon our land. The cheapness of The Countryman is unpar alleled for the South and the times. I shall con tinue to publish it for awhile longer, at $1, but no doubt shall be compelled to raise the price. So you who want the paper at $1 instead of $2> had better subscribe immediately. As to the future of this journal, I will only, on this occasion, say this; There shall be no dim inution in the interesting characteristics of its columns. On the contrary, its excellence shall ever wax higher and brighter. Sketches. NIAGARA. Great was my rejoicing at leaving Sara toga, for I was very much bored, short as was my stay . there. They were cutting oats, all along the route, as we proceeded in the direction of Niagara. Indeed it seem ed as if we happened to follow up the har vest, everywhere, after we left home. We arrived at. the International Hotel about supper time. I slept that night by the sound of the mighty cataract, whose cease less roar came in at my window. The next day we went to see the falls. They are, of course, indescribable. Thou sands and tens of thousands have said this before, and yet how many have attempted the impossibility of portraying some of the wonders that greet the eye at every turn, on this spot of lavish grandeur { Five of us took a carriage, immediately after breakfast, and drove down to the sus pension bridge. In going over it, I caught my first glimpse of the cataract. It is seme distance from this, my first point of obser vation, and, as has been the case with so many others, my first sensation was one of slight disappointment. After looking a short time at the falls, I turned my eye down the stream, and beheld a sight of sin gular and terrific beauty.. The mighty vol ume of water, here forced into a compara tively narrow gorge, rises, in the middle, ten or twelve feet higher than at the sides, and greets the eve, a tremendous torrent ofheaving, surging water, of a dark green color, streaked with long, waving lines of sparkling white foam. On it- goes, with its heavy, irresistible swell, as the eye drinks in all its wild and indescribable grandeur. One cannot help thinking, “If 1 could only transfer this to canvass, what a passport to immortality would bo mine !” We passed the bridge, and drove up the river on the Canada side, to one of the houses where they furnish dresses in which to go behind the sheet of water. Sudden ly 1 recollected that I had left an article at the hotel which I wished to take with me. It was a long way back, by the bridge, and I wished to detain the party as short a time as possible. A little row-boat lay on the water, at the foot of the cliff on which we stood, many, many feet below, and I start ed for it, down a precipitous, rocky path, which wound through the shrubbery. Ar rived at the bottom, I got on board, and was soon t ossing upon the mimic waves. In going back to the American side, I obtain ed a fine view of the falls. The spray came uowu, borne on the wind, forcing me to button my coat, and turn iny face. When the boat struck the shore, I sprang out, and started, at a run, up a flight of steps, with out looking toward the top, supposing them to he fifty or sixty in number. Soon I be gan to tire, hut found I was not near the end. I came down to a walk, though still taking several steps at a stride. Finally, when about half way up, I could rise only one step at a time, and on arriving at the last, of the flight, I could hardly drag one foot after the other. My article at the ho tel was quickly procured, and on going back down those steps again, and counting, I found there were 290 of them. The little boat carried me quickly back to the Canada side, and I walked, alone, close to the falls. Soon I began to realize the full measure of sublimity in the scene before me. A little distance above the cataract, all is turmoil and confusion, but on the very brink of the precipice, the im mense body of water appears to grow slow in its movement, and then, with a deliber ate, solemu, awful majesty, it glides down, down, till, toward the bottom, it meets piles of smoky mist and snowy spray, rising up from the boiling waters belcw. In many places, soon after making its first plunge, it is broken into spray by the projecting rocks, but at this particular point it goes down in one smooth, unbroken sheet, giv ing the idea of calm, self-reliant, irresistable power. It requires views from many different positions, to give an adequate idea of Niag ara Falls. I wandered about, and gazed till I despaired of ever satisfying myself. At length I forced myself away, for that time, and wo drove to the burning spring. Paying ouv fee, we entered a small ante-room, and after a little delay were carried into the darkened apartment containing the myste rious fountain. The attendant lit a match and applied it to the end of a tube that rose out of a churn-like vessel, sitting in the wooden enclosure over the spring, and im mediately a tall, flickering flame shed its light over the room. After allowing it to burn a short time, the man extinguished it by placing his thumb over the aperture whence it issued. Then he relit it. Again >«573fo