The Ouachita telegraph. [volume] (Monroe, La.) 1865-1889, 1878-06-07

and we can see the plOWnan walking
steadily behind his plow across the
field. Why, old pencil, sit we here
idle? People will say we are lazy
especially the non-paying subscriber.
Suppose, then, we buckle on our har-
ness for moment or so, If for no bet
ter reason, why, because 1t might not
fit we'll after too long an arrangement.
How I came here, reader, is no bus
iness Of thine, and Is, confess, some-
what surprise to me. For more than
ten years this jaunt has been in contem-
platlon, but as you may have exper-
fenced in your own plans of life, par
ticularly in the matter of leaving
home, the exact time for carrying the
visit into execution never arrived
Never arrived, I say, because, at last,
the occupant of the sanctum left his
tripod with precipitation and at 8
moment when few hours delay
might have removed still ten years
farther off q recognition of many kind
neases already too long deferred. This
is all the explanation you shall have.
Writing from a section of country to
which one returns after many years.
absence, it is but natural to speak Of
the changes wrought in the interval in
men and the face of the country. Bits
of personal history, recollections of
men, once prominent characters in
local affairs but now dead and gone,
and incidents clustering thick, crowd
themselves upon the writer's mind. I
stand among shadows, wrecks, strange
faces and stranger transformations
the accumulated results of eighteen
years. changes-and, like the man OF
many years whose candle is burned
nearly to the socket, live in remihis-
cences rather than in contemplating
what is, or is to be. But mutation is
the law of life and of nature, and he is
but a sorry philosopher who does not
recognize that there can be no rising,
without setting, sun.
The changes in the appearance and
condition of this section since 1860 are
many and mournful. All the large
plantations have been thrown out, and
where then there were fields of waving
corn and blossoming cotton one now
sees groves of pine and thickets of
briers and vines, or hills and meadows
overgrown with grass and struggling
clumps of bushes. stood yesterday
upon an eminence overlooking once
extensive farm. The residence, once
the home of refinement and plenty, is
unoccupied and gone to decay. The
orchard is unenclosed, prey to cattle,
and the wide acres are covered thick
with young pines, among which, here
and there, the domestic plum, with it's
red fruit, can be seen. The we'll wind
lass is in place, but ropeless, and the
we'll is long since gene dry for want OF
use. Hard by is another country home
whose head was a man of learning and
lawyer of distinction, and whose
amiable wife was the daughter of an
Ex-Governor of Alabama. The resi-
dence has fallen to the ground and the
helds look like virgin forest. But
the flags transplanted by the fair hands
OF the lovely mistress are growing and
nave claimed exclusive ownership of
the yard, spreading even into the adj
9acent woods. A mound of earth in
view OF my table marks the RESTING
place Of D. Rankin THOMPSON. and
Hector r. Mclean sleeps the sleen
profound in Texas.
The little town of Vernon from
which I write) was from 1854 to 1880
the most fiourishing village In North
Louisiana. 1t was then a much NOV,
active place than Monroe, and had An
extensive trade, besides being the con.
ter of excellent social and etlucation.,
advantages. 1t is not now whit :,
then was. Like other towns it I'm.
suffered from the war, but to this ma,
be added the staggering blow strucl
the parish in the formation of Lincoln
Vernon lost heavily in that Radica
transaction, but the place still exhibit:
evidences Of vitality and its inh abitants