Abbeville press. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1860-1869, 1860-11-23
VOLUME VIII.---NO. 3 O.
A POET ON THE PRA1R1Ea,


NJ. Willis, writing to Ahe Hone Journal
hast week, has the following pretty thought:
Yet-=(pardon me, Spirit of>the Prairie
what man Is there, with liberality Of
choice, who would beeontent to live where
there are no mountains Who would take
as gift the famous hundred mile prairie
Of lllnois-(a farm of the extent of fertile
fiatness, without a fence D-on condition
Of there taking up his abode. bad never
realized before what cathedral influence
there is iu the mountains we dwell near-
how the sunsets and sunrises are made re-
verentIy sublime by them-how the storms
perform glorious anthems with the hill,
echoes-how the eye, which is lifted from
tue valley 20 the tall peak whcreon rests
the thunder cloud, carries the heart with it.
in an instinct Of involuntry awe The mere
prairie floor seems to me wilderness vita
out an altar-Nature without gallery or
done-ea earth without proper cau,hedral
wherein The elements shall unbidden wor-
ship God. -
And the following lively description:
10 overtake thunder shower, whirl
through it, and outrun it, was the first of
the days exciting novelties. We saw it
ahead Of us, on the prairie, as you 9see
simple black cloud il thessky, with sunshine
all around it. 1t was moving in the same
direction as ourselves, probably at about
twenty miles an hour; and we soon began
to cvertake it with our better barnessed
thunder and lightning. The, conductor
pointed the dark mass out to me some ten
or fifteen minutes before we entered the
outer skirt Of the shower; and we were 10
a peIting rain, with lightning and peals of
thunder, for perhaps ten minutes-emerg-
ing in fair weather on the other side, and
leaving the storm to.'lag after us, like the
SLOW coach that It. Was But, certainly, it
was very queer thus to give thunder and
lightning the 60 by. 1t seemed to me,
somehow, ahticipa,ory.o of another state of
things. When we 60 telegraphing about
at the beginning of our spirit travels in the
next life, am sure l shall have vague
impression of having done something Of
that sort before-this experience of distan,
cling we'll trained thunder cloud being
laid away i'll my memory.
But it is to the wild animals Of the prai.
rie that the switness of the rail train is
most, ost,inexpltcable. Ages upon ages have
established certain relative rates of speed
between maj. and the subject races of crea.
tion-she, mounted hunter being the fas-
test pursuer for which tile; elk and reindeer
the bear and the prairie wolf, the. .fox3and
Wild cat, the skunk. otter, aud marteu, are
tall prepared. The small line of rail
track, nearly hidden in grass, 10 not re-:
cognized by these wanderers over the vast
plains5of the West, and' while thinking
themselves safe in their own horizon.edged
wilderness. they suddenly see TIE coming
Of the new monster. 1t is a daily expert
ence on the trains on this railroad across
l!inois,.to overtake some ~one or moee. Of
them; audit is curious $50 the different
conductors and Lrakemen all told me) how
none of them seem to have the sagaeity to
escape by running off AT apgIss! Almost
invariably they fec before tina pursuer and
,un down, at last, 10, fall 'fainlng with Ter
ror and exhaustion:in the nejgLborhood of
the track.