The Camden journal. [volume] (Camden, S.C.) 1866-1891, 1873-08-14
From the Washington Sunday Morning Gazette
The Lady Of the Lake.
BY PROF. ]. ]. GIERs.

BY fhOf. j. y. dlEhS.
Harp of the South wake once again,
Let echoes sound glad. refrain;
For silent thou hast hung-and long
A stranger been to mirth and song.
Three o'clock last Sunday afternoon found
us embarking on the steamer Lady of the
Lake to participate in an excursion down
the silvery Potomac AS is customary in
the old country, we had attended divine SER
vice in the morning in temple built BY the
hands of man, and we could but feel sorry
for the eloquent preacher on account of the
want of attention shown him by his listners
We thought therefore, that in the evening
wo had perfect right to 60 where we could
worship in temple built by God himself,
and listen to sermon delivered by old Ma
ture, that breaches so eioquently:
Through the voice of the rivers that glide
Their waters forever from land TO sea;
Through woods and dells, where fow'rets hide
And teach their lessons with wild-bird and bee.
But we must here tell you that we set our
foot on board of that boat with fear and
trembling, as jenkins had told us that there
wasn't single lavender kid glove on board,
but an abundance of rowdies, real Modocs,
who didn't care two pins to pitch US over
board, aud transform our terrestrial taberna-
Gle into food for shiny catfish. He also hint.
ed to us that the Pharisees would certainly
pour their anathema maranatha upon our de-
voted head for daring to listen to q sermon by
sthn paorthodox female, Dame Nstsre, = on
eqa ithlk
our acquaintance forever. This was cruel,
but in spite Of all these warnings We did go,
and never were We more agreeably disap..
pointed There must have been about six
hundred passengers ON board, all strangers
to us, who, including ourselves. evidently
belonged to the middle classes of society,"
About half of this number were ladies and
children, with quite large proportion of
young mothers, all taking care and nursing
their own children, not leaving them to the
unreliable attentions Of mere hirelings. And
this must have been the reason of their look
ing so much better and healthier than the
children of uppertendom who are alas so
often deprived of mothers tender care just
when the poor things most need it, by tho
cruel dictates of that tyrant, Fashion. The
most lovely, plump, and best behaved baby
on board was surely little Ada Steward,
about two years old, who sat in our lap and
entertained us most pleasantly with her
childish ways for an hour or so.
She is radiant little creature
Sent to earth in love,
Beautiful in form and feature,
From the realms above.
What with little Ada smiling
Sweetly on her knee,
All her mothers care beguiling,
How happy she must be.
We only wish our boys, Joe, Ernest and
Carl could be with us; but where are those
dreaded rowdies? l can't find them any
where. There are on board large number
of young men brim-full of life and animation,
having been cooped up in the hot city all
the week long at their various avocations:
it is true they are not so sedate and quiet
perhaps as the blue-laws of Connecticut
would have required of them long, long ago
We take courage and follow thep on the
lower deck, and there We find that they are
actually guilty of drinking that irrepressible,
ungodly lager beer, also lemonade, and send
ing up ice.cream to their lady friends above.
Nov, if there is any sin committed, our con-
science must be too hardened to perceive it,
for all are sober, polite, orderly, and happy,
and the state Of the temperature must surely
be somewhat of an:excuse.for thirsty propen-
sites. But here is Mount Vernon in sight:
Toll the bell-for here sleeps Washington
The noblest man the sun e'er shone upon.
And see, yondcr are thc Notifications named
in his honor. We fcrvently hope, though,
that they may never be needed and that
the war.licnd may never again desOlate our
land:
Beautiful river beautiful river.
River Of Peace from source TO mouth;
NJ thy flow each heart shall quiver,
Each patriots heart from North % South.
And now we are making landing at Shady
Glymont, where quite number of our pas
sengers leave us for an evening ramble
through the woods, until the return of the
boat. We remain on board, though, and
enjoy the beautiful river scenery for about
ten miles further down, when the boat makes
q graceful turn and commences her journey
homeward The sun at last bids US re-
luctant good-cye and the stars come out. 1t
is getting rather cool, and we retreat into
The cabin as an ancient mariner ought to do.
We find large crowd round the piano listen
ing to the performance ofour youthful friend,