Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1878-11-09
NEW PROVIDENCE.

NEW PROVIDENCE.
King frost with skillful finger,
touched our village last night
Left his delicate tracing on hill
slopes, on dismantled trees, and on
the stiff, stubborn brown weeds
The glad tidings he brings us is not
read at a glance. The glittering
silver filigree is an admirable orna-
ment for window panes, and fol
natures jewels, but we, as the
broken, stricken South, look
through the white veil to the ar
resting of the scourge. To the time
when this inimitable painter shall
shall leave his white mantle on the
city of Memphis, Grenada, Holly
Springs, Hickman ard every where
that grim death has stalked in such
absolute monarchy. / always re-
ceive the frost with thanks and
good cheer. His bold, white face
banishes the agues, sweeps miasma
from the land and brightens and
! invigorates all mankind. / think
summer is susceptible of making
us selfish if we are at all inclined in
that deplOrable direction. But
winters chill binds us closer to-
/ gether around the quick blazing
| hearth, combining comfort and
social intercourse.
| / have no social items to offer this
week. ! might, out of the wilder
ness of my Imagination, spin a fab
ulous story of a horse race that oc-
Cured in Saturn, or wonderful
game OF chess that l played with
the Man in the Moon, in which
game unquestionably was victor.
But l will not impose such on
Christians and scholars. / can
truthfulIy affirm, however, that
only a few days ago 1 stumbled
upon a deathleSs devOtee of niger
soils, which incident strikes me as
ridiculOusly improbable as the
above mentioned, yet it is deplora-
bly, true. He spoke enthusiastically
of Ingersoll's brains. Brains rs.
Iunacy. The incongruity of pig
my sending forth such false and
weighty opinions in so frail life
boat out into the broad waters of
Christian universe. That argues
brains, Ell? He feelingly referred
to his grace of dictiOn. Granting
that admitted, it can but be as Il
wall of foam, with no granite sup
port, tossed up for moment by the
alkali of an energetic genius and
doomed ere perfected. In few
words can pen my opinion of Mr..
Ingersoll. He is too much of a
fanatic to be followed, offers too few
rational ideas to be believed, and is
too Goddess to be respected. But
back to my items, and there is none.
| passed through the deserted streets
last night, the victim of a delayed
train, and found the old town silent
an asleep. l saw no flights in the
village" Allwas still and dark, save
the yellow lamp of night that hung
i'm its own Tich light low over the
river. It's beams were deceptive.
| would delude myself that there
was light i'm some wayside dwelling,
but a swift passing would bring ont
in relief the peeping, three-cOrneIed
face of the moon, and reveal its
same, slow, laughing light.
1t was evidently amused and well
pleased at king trost's revels here
on earth, for it was lending both its
light and smiles.
I must record my exceeding de-
light in reading in the November
number of Scribner an article en-
titled, "a Night With Edison"
and also my good fortune to meet,
few days later, an acquaintance
of that wonderful genius. l was
particularly struck with the piece,
/ as il followed the inventor from boy
hood up. His experience as train
boy, his poverty and his never
daunted thirst for knowledge. His
path has surely been rugged. The
+ graceless goddess of opportunity
/ did not scatter on his way education
and wealth, but he was tossed out
in the midst of earth's many mill
lions a pennyless boy. Still the
( spark of genius was implanted in
his soul, and that no ungracious
circumstance can ever eXtinguish.
He plodding along with no rec
commentator save a claim on
sympathy and his exceeding good
humor. See him now, a master
spirit of the age. Holding as it
were in one hand the black casket
of mysteries, and in the other a
bunch Of keys wrough by the cum
ming of his brain. He has stepped
over the stumbling stone of poverty
and has erected within the quiet
precincts of Menlo Park a home and
an establishment for his field OF
, labor. All honor To Thomas Alva
Edison, the boy who could push
through poverty, lOWlineSs and