Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

the countryman. 39 What is Life ? It seems to have been only a little while ago that I was chasing the butterflies From flower to flower, with childish glee : but now I am in the prime of life. Yet a few more years, and the bloom will fade from my cheek, old age will come on apace, and this frail, yet wonderful structure—this “ tenement ot clay ”—will return toits moth er dust—my spirit to the God who gave it, and 1 shall be known no more among men, save in the memory of a few friends.—Such is life ! The genial vvaimth of spring glows on the tender twig, tlie vital fluid begins to course its delicate fibres, and the bud putteth forth. Soon the blossom appears in all its beauty, pleasing the fancy, and charming the eye for a few days, until touched by the finger of time, when it fades, loses its vigor and beauty, and finally decays, and is known no more.— Such is life ! The sun—the golden orb of light—rises in the morning, ana peeping over the eas tern hills, sends his glowing rays over the earth to enliven and to cheer ; but soon he reaches the zenith of his glory, where his beams become more powerful, scorching the tender plant, and burning the earth with his heat. Now it is that all animated na ture quaffs the refreshing draught with in creasing pleasure, and seeks the inviting shadow of the umbrageous oak. But ere long, the king of day begins to wend his way down the western skies, his power be coming less and less, until finally he sinks behind the western horizon, and is lost to the sight. Darkness soon ensues, and all nature is wrapped in the dark mantle of ob livion and night !—Such is a picture of human life.—Youth is the morning of exis tence where all is hope and aspiration in the budding mind ; manhood is the noou- day, when the intellectual and physical powers are fully developed ; and old age is the evening-time, when the sands of ex istence are nearly run out.—and how soon the sun sets !—and the body disappears beneath the sod and the individual is lost in the oblivion of death, and quickly the darkness of forgetfulness closes in upon the scenes of earthly pilgrimage.—Such is life, and such are its vicissitudes !—Sim. Alex- SON.— Stockton, Tenn■ ■ ■ — Small Pox There have been 1 or 2 cases of small pox in our county, lately. The cases have been light, however, and the patients have gotten on very well. Efficient measures have been adopted by our Inferior Court to pre- rent the spread of the disease. THE OLD CHURCH BELL. ny w. n. SPARKS. Ring on, ring on, sweet sabbath bell, Thy mellow tones I love to hear! I was a boy when first they fell In melody upon my ear. In those dear days, long past and gone, When sporting here in boyish glee, The magic of thy sabbath tone Awoke emotions deep in me. Long years have gone, and I have strayed Out o’er the world, far, far away, But thy dear tones have round me played, On every lovely sabbath day. When strolling o’er the mighty plains Spread widely in the unpeopled west, Each sabbath morn I’ve heard thy strains, Tolling the welcome day of rest. Upon the rocky mountain’s crest, Where Christian feet have never trod, In the deep bosom of the west, I’ve thought of thee, and worshipped God. Ring on sweet hell—I’ve come again To hear thy cherished call to prayer:— There’s less of pleasure now than pain, In those dear tones which fill my ear. Ring on, ring on, sweet bell, ring on— Once more I’ve pome with whitened head To hear thee toll:—The sounds are gone, And ere this sabbath da' has sped I shall be gone, and may no more Give ear to thee, sweet sabbath bell— Dear church and bell sc loved of yore. Eatonton, Ga., July, 1862. Eatonton, Georgia, is my native village. Here 1 was reared and educated, and here my heart lias ever lived. I was on a visit to this place in July, 1854, after an absence of 30 years, sojourning at the house of my boyhood’s friend, Edmond Reid. I was aroused by the ringing of the old church bell, on sabbath morning. I bad not heard it for 30 years, and yet it was as familiar as though I bad listened to its tones each consecutive sabbath through all these long years. I wrote these lines at the mo ment SPARKS. Mr. Countryman :—I send the above verses to you, thinking you might publish them, for the sake of olden times, as a courtesy to an old citizen, and as a tribute to the sweetest-toned bell (it lias been said) on this continent A. Reid. The Countryman is delighted at having an opportunity to publish the foregoing, and returns his thanks to his fair correspondent ior placing them at bis disposal. “It is not so much through a fertility of invention that we find many expedients in any one affair, as through a poverty of judg ment, which makes us listen to everything that imagination presents, and hinders us from discerning what is best at first.” Yankee Episcopalians. In a late yankee Episcopalian conven tion, the ‘ Rev. Dr. Vinton’ introduced some resolutions to the effect, “ That, the House of Bishops concurring, this general con vention of the Protestant Episcopal con vention in the United States of America pronounce the action of the bishops of Vir ginia, Georgia, and South Carolina, in their consecration of Richard Wilmer, D. D., to the Episcopal See of the bishopric of Ala bama, to be irregular, uncanonical, and schismatic, and that liis jurisdiction in the Diocese of Alabama is void and of no effect, and that the special committee be instruc ted to consider and leport what further ac tion, if any, the general convention shall take to assert the dignity and enforce the lights of the Protestant Episcopal church in the premises.”—Now is not here the brazen-faced effrontery of the old-boy ] The ‘ dignity’ of the Episcopal church (yankee) must be ‘asserted,’ and the 'rights’ of the Episcopal church (yankee) be ‘enfoi- ced.' Why don’t the yankee Episcopalians send down an army to conquer and subdue the ecclesiastical rebels South, and hang the rebel ecclesiastical leaders, the bishops of Virginia, Georgia, and South Carolina 1 Well, well, well! These resolutions of the fanatic fool ‘ Vinton’ beat all the folly that lias been enacted even by the government of the idiot monkey. “ The man who thinks he loves his mis tress for her sake, is much mistaken.” “ Envy is destroyed by true frienesliip, and coquetry by true love.” “The groat fault of penetration is, not the falling short of, but the going beyond its mark.” “We may give advice, but we cannot give conduct.” ADVERTISEMENTS. 4 DMINIS 1 Ra iOR’is SALE. — W111 be solo, di iti6 late residence ot Mrs. Sarah Cox, on wedn sday, 5th November, all the perishable propeuty belonging to said estate, consisting of horses, cattle, stock ana pork bogs, sheep, corn, fodder, wheat, farming im plements, household and kitchen furniture, and many other articles too tedious to mention. — Terms on the dav of sale. S. J. McMILLAN, Adrri’r. Oct. 22, 1862. 3-5 2t HAT SHOP.—I cannot take any more orders tor 1 hats, because I cannot get suitable iininsr, bind ing, or bands. They are not to be had in the Con federacy. But I will manufacture hats lined and bound with homespun, and put them in Mr. Ellin- ger’s store in Eatonton, where those who want them at the price I have to pay for 2 pounds of wool can get them. Four pounds of wool for 1 hat used to be the old price —Persons who alrea y have wool at my shop can have it returned to them, or receive the highest cash price for it, if nay lining and b nding do □ot suit them " J. A. TURNER. Oct. 27, 1862, tf *N EXCELLENT OVER-COAT FOR SALE, very *■ cheap, at this office. Oct 27, 1862.