Newspaper Page Text
THE COUNTRYMAN. •
- JL- .. JL . - a M. 1 V_y V—/ 1 -JL. -JL- -A. ▼. JL- —A— _JL_ ^ m
BY J.
A. TURNER.
—“brevity .is the sotm of wit$1
A YEAR.
VOL. III.
TURNWOLD, PUTNAM COUNTY, GA., MONDAY, OCTOBER 20, 1862.
NO. 4.
“The Old Place.’
Not many weeks ago, I stood beside the
grave, and assisted to consign to her long
home, a lady who was my class-mate at
school, but a few short years ago. We
buried her at “ the old place,” down by
the waters of Crooked Creek, away off from
the road-side, amid the oaks that stand fit
sentries over her own grave, her father’s
and her mother’s. It seems but yesterday
that this deceased lady’s family presented
an unbroken circle of parents and children,
joyous, happy, undisturbed by the shadow
of the d/irk visitor. Now the father and
mother sleep side by side, and one daugh
ter and a son sleep by them. One son
is a wanderer far away, one is in a distant
county in this state, 2 daughters reside
away from the old homestead, and still an
other son sleeps his long sleep upon the
bloody soil of the Old Dominion, oneofthe
long line of martyrs whose blood cries from
the ground for vengeance. Only one rep
resentative of the family is left at the old
home. And all this change has taken
place in the course of a few—a very few
years.
As I stood beside the grave of my de
ceased friend, all these thoughts came over
my mind : and it was sad—very sad !—to
look back and see the ravages of time. But
anon pleasant reminiscences came in like
stars to gem the night of sorrow that brood
ed around my heart, and the feelings they
brought were pleasant, though mournful to
the soul. There has always been for me
a charm about “ the old place.” The mag
ic scenes of childhood £re indissolubly con
nected with it. There was more of ro
mance about this “ old place” for my child
ish imaginings than about any other I wot
of. - Its reminiscences are connected with
my friends whose relations have never
been disturbed through all the mutations
time has wrought. Many a cloud has span
ned my sky since the mystery of life has
shrouded me : but from these friends has al
ways come sunshine. When I was quite
g boy, they moved up nearer to me, and
hence the home which they left, took the
name of “ the old placed’
The first charm of this “ old place” is
that it is such a secluded spot, It is situa
ted away off from the road-side, and you
never see it unless you go specially to see
d. And still it is perfectly convenient to
churches, schools, mills, and all the other
conveniences of the neighborhood. There
are two approaches to it, each one of which
leads through a dense wood. You go over
hill and valley, along a narrow road, with
giant trees on either hand, until the first
thing you know, the old rustic mansion,
amid oaks and cedars, looms up before you.
To my childish thought, it almost seemed
fairy-land.
It was very dear to me as a child, and I
will give some of the reasons why it was
so. Here I used to hunt and fish with my
friends. I had no possum dog, but they
had one whom they called Bringer. Brin-
ger was a cur, of a reddish color, and was a
good tree dog. With this dog my friends
and I used to go out in the woods upon the
creek, hunt the possum and the coon amid
the hoots of the owl, and hear Isaac talk
and laugh. And such laughter ! If any
one has ever seen any other colored gen
tleman who could beat Isaac laughing, then
I envy him. And Isaac lives to laugh yet!
When he laughs, he begins with a low
chuckle, grows louder by degrees, and then
fairly screams. You have heard of being
“'convulsed with laughter.” If you wish
to see convulsions from laughter, you should
see Isaac. He seems to have the St. Vi
tus’s dance, and you had better be out., of
bis reach when he does begin to laugh: fos
you can no more prevent his striking you
than you can prevent the sparks from fly
ing upward. *
Besides hunting the possum witli Brin-
ger, I used fo bunt birds and squirrels with
my young friends who bad a shot-gun be
fore one was allowed me. My father was
always very backward in allowing me to
have a gnn, because he was afraid of acci
dents: but my friends, who were a little
older than myself, had a sliot-gun, and a
good gun it was. Jim, and John, and I us
ed to hunt together, and-they kindly al
lowed me my turn in shooting. Many
were the birds and squiirels we used to kill.
We not only hunted, but we fished on
Crooked Creek—sometimes with the hook,
and sometimes with the seine. And then
when autumn came, what quantities of
chinquepins, muscadines, and hickory-nuts
we used to gather !
Down on the creek is a place called Slip-
ery Hill, where my friends used to go with
their wooden slides, and slide down the
steep slope. 1 was always very anxious to go
to this hill,bntsomehow it happened that I
never did so, and I have never seen it, up
to this time.
The greatest attraction of all, though, to
my childish mind, at *' the old place,” was
“ Lige,” and his drums, his cross-bows, and
his wagons.—In a future article I will tell
you about “ Lige.”
—. * ■»•- -
Dress,
“ Sterne was very fastidious about his
diess when be desired to write those essays,,
which, though apparently so easy, were the
result of great labor and care. When lie
was ill-dressed, he found that his thoughts
were slovenly. It is stated of the late ac
complished and beloved divine, Rev. Dr.
Nettleton, that when about to enter his
study, ho first carefully made his toilet.
Haydn, also, that eminent master of mu
sic, used to dress himself with particular
care before he sat down to composition.
Unless his hair was properly powdered, and*
he had his best coat on, his mind would
not work with exactness and vigoi. He
remarked that it roused his intellectual
energies still further to place on his finger
the diamond ring presented to him by Fred
eric II., and to have the finest paper be
fore him.”
I. Sylla.
“When L. Sylla beheld liis army giv
ing way before that of Archelaus, the Gen
eral of Mithridates, lie alighted from his
horse, laid hold of qn ensign, and rushing
with it into the midst of his enemies, cried
out, ‘.’Tis here, Roman soldiers, that I in
tend to die : but for your parts, when you
shall be asked where it was that you left
your general, remember to say, it was on
the field of Orchomemum.’ The soldiers,
roused by this speech, returned to their
ranks, renewed the fight, and became the
victors in that field from which they were
about to flee with disgrace.”
Demetrius.
“ When Detremius took Athens by as
sault, he found the inhabitants in extreme
distress for want of corn. He called the
principal citizens before him, and announ
ced to them, in a speech full of humanity
and conciliation, that lie had ordered a
large supply of grain to be placed at their
free disposal. In the course of speaking,
he chanced to commit an error in gram
mar, on which one of the Athenians im
mediately corrected him, by pronouncing
aloud the phrase as it ought to have been
given. ‘ For the correction of this one
solecism,’ said he, ‘I give, besides my for
mer gift, 5,000 measures of corn more.’ ”