Phillipsburg herald. [volume] (Phillipsburg, Kan.) 1882-1905, 1885-10-03
THE HERALD.
PHu4LIPSBURG. KANSAS
A SILVER SUNRISE
The Splendid and Peculiar PageaHt Of Morn
ing ia Southwestern Georgia.
KANSAS

mid silent spheres rises the deepening
night But the poet is yet to be who
will tell in numbers worthy OF the
theme the story of that magical drama
OF nature, the silver sunrise in Che
south, or in that part of il knowr as
the cotton belt Of south western GeOr-
gia- There the isOtherm is semi-trCpi-
cal. The almost hat, slightly undu-
latIng landscape is, or was twenty
years ago, under the high cultivation
Of the slave s. stem, sheet Of verdure
breathing incense in the months or
March, April, and May. The tall
cypress, tbe 'thick-leaved ambrOsial
live oak, the heavy-scented magnolia
grandidOra, form the upper foliage.
betting the clear dark ponds thar dot
the low, Hat. level tracts. Around
their sedgy borders the cranes and
eurlews call, on their dark bOsOms
swim the broOds of mallard and teal
ducks. All the beauty and pictur-
esQuB charm of nature do not belong
10 the mountain lands alone. To the
lover of nature in all her phases and
moods this pond land is as full of
beauty as of bloom. 1t is lively ut all
seasons of the Year, all hours of the
day, but especially when seen under a
silver sunrise.
Not every morning Of the whole
year round IS this wonder witnessed.
1t takes peculiar conditions OF the at
nlOspheTe to produce the phenOme-
non. To the savant BELONGS the task
of telling what the conditions are that
produce Il silver sunset. The effect !
will Try to describe. IN April or May,
when the early spring rams that have
soaked the porous soil and filled the
Inc
green hues to the earth, have ceased to
fall, whom the atmosphere is rariied
by heat that makes the young cot
Ton plants grow Visibly under Your
ey e; in the darkness of a morning that
is only slightly cooler than the night
IN which YOU have watched the mo-
tions OF the consultations in the cloud
less heavens, you may rise, as have
risen, morning after morning, to catch
that feeting first scene in the first act
of the spectacular drama of a sunny
dav in the sunny south.
Do not wait to hear the clock strike,
or look at your watch, but when dawn
is near, the swift-pasSing dawn of that
latitude, which you will know by the
low muTmur OF insect and bird life
around you, rise and hasten forth.
You can see the white sands under
your feet, but barely note the long,
gray MOSES that hang like stalacttes
from the branches OF the trees above
TOur head, only family in the gloom
made visible by starlight and the
BWift-mOVing dawn. In that latitude
Iwilight and dawn are matters OF only
Il few minutes. The stars blaze out, as
it were. IN the beams OF the Rising sun.
In the negro parlance of the old times:
fe "a Ifaf
you are about" The sedgy rims of
the ponds, the tall expresses and oaks,
the heavy trailing creepers of the
vines, the light sway my banners Of
the moss, every tiny blade OF grass
and leaf plant and weed, every flower
petal and wheel OF field cObWeb is
gemmed with beads OF dew, but il
does not drip. 1t looks almost or
quite like hOar-frOst spread over the
Ooean-like eXpanse of land and water,
like a white vel blending ard making
more beautiful the darker verdure of
the foliage around the pools, and the
glowing. emerald and color shades Of
the cotton and corn fields.
A thousand mOcking birds are all OF
. sudden cleaving the blue vault
above YOU with such strains of unpre-
msditated art as skylark never
dreamed of. In fact, if one of the
southern mOcking birds ever hears the
song of one of those English skylarks
which the late Isaac w. England
found q home for il the meadows of
New JERSEY, ne will beat him so badly
in his own song that the British warb-
Ger will hide his head under his wing,
poor thing, and die of grief and
Bhame,
Afar of from thicket and leafy COW
ert comes the cooling Of a thousand
doves, the soft whistle of as many
Quails, the shrill cries Of the redbirds,
Ehe shriller calls of the catbirds, and
notes of many another feathered song
ster, whose names YOU must learn from
Mr.. Audubon. The thrushes, too,
hardly less musical than the hooking
birds, sing from the leafy bOughs and
shrubbery near by.
While bathed, as it were, in this out
burst of liquid melody, this first
diapasOn of the opera of The day, sud-
denly, without warning, with no rosy
glow to herald his coming. up from
the white misty horizon bursts the sun,
n blaze of silver light bigger than the
biggest cart-wheel that ever was made,
Disabling, as if composed Of tBn thou
sand FURNISHED silver mirrors flashing
electric light through panes Of crystal,
flooding the landscape with silver lace
dotted with diamonds and powdered
with sparkling silver dust. The sense
of the exquisite cOlOrlng OF the scene
Is lost in the wOndrOus radiance shed
over the landscape that stretches miles
away. until the dazzling view is lost
IN the siivery haze of the horizon. 1t
looks as If all fairy land had met to
baltic on a field Of jeweled silver,
panOplied in silver mail. and every
shield and every spear decked and up-
ped with gems. Not one moment is
there rest ia this wondrOus scene,
which lasts bat few minutes, for the
first breeze of morning waYing the
sparkling banners Of long mos. and