The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1888-04-07
ANOTHER TENNESSEE TOUR.

ANOTHER TENNESSEE TOUR.
BY REV. j. w. HANSON d. d.
(Chicago)
If one would know the most agree
able sensations that sky and air and the
influences Of the season can bestow, at
that late period in the Northern win
ter, which we politely and euphemisti-
cally call spring, but which is really
the sourest and most vicious time of
all the year, he should fly five hundred
miles south in March. He thus re-
verses the order of the millions of
feathered bipeds, who at that time are
going in the opposite direction. And
it was one of the pleasures of the jour
ney to see the long, harTow-shaped
fOcks of waterfowl by da. and in the
stiffness of the night, when the train
paused, to hear the weird honk honk,
from the unseen batallins as they
coursed their unerring fight from the
Southern marshes, where they had
passed the winter months, toward the
lakes in the remote North, where they
will build their reedy nests and rear
their happy broods. And the pleasure
was enhanced to the unfeatnered biped
as he congratulated himself that he
was not such a goose as his winged
fellow creature in the sky for the ice
was on the streams, the tent like drifts
of the retreating armies of winter were
all along the route, and listened like
rushing the season. for a bird to be
such a goose as to venture further
north, at such time, alid II a0ugh only
geese would undertake the voyage.
And yet, all the birds were Of one
mind. The meadow laTks, blue birds,
robins, song sparrows, and other early
migrators were en- route for their places
of notification; the airs grew constantly
blander, the snow disappeared; the
grass grew green, the sky put on an in
creasing azure; and at Jackson, Ten
nessee, we saw summers sure harbing-
er, a fly Here too, the cheerful red
bird sang, and at Henderson the vege-
table gardens were green with early
products the hyacinth, daffodil, and
other flowers were in bloom the april
cot, plum, and peach had blossomed
the bees were humming their mono
tone, the diapason of industry, and
then the surprise of surprises, was
heard the ne Plus ultra of all the sounds
that can salute the tuneful ear in our
land, the marvellous music Of the mock
ing bird, the masculine prima donna of
the feathered choir.
The Mocking Bird.
| can think of no more delicious sit
uation than to stand under peach tree
in full blossom, spreading like can
opy above the head, pink cloud filled
with the blessed bees, making their
murmurous melody, while the mock
ing bird near by pours out his ecstasies
as though the world were now to be
forevermore glad and happy. Unlike
the nightingale, there is no note of sor-
row in his song His trills, and caden-
ees, and arias, and chants, and warb-
blings, his creScend0S and diminuendoS,
and staccdtOS are all in the major key.
The nightingale loves the gloom of
night, with the thrushes, "the sadder
the day the sWeeter the song" most
other birds will sing when clouds hang
heavy and even when the rain is falling,
but the mocking bird is the spirit of
sunshine and gladness. Every note
represents and expresses joy /; his very
behaviour suits the action to the word,
he sits on the trees tOpmost twig his
slim body vibrates and trembles with
his song. When he can no longer sit,
he futters into the air and falls again
to his perch, singing, and he not only
fills the air with his own original repOr-
t0ire, but like a feathered echo, ne filings
back to every other singer the note he
hears, better than he heard it from the
inventor of it. Oh, if this world were
only as glad as it seems when we list
to the mocking bird" there would be
no more heartaches; and sorrow and
signing would flee away.
In the North this matchless trouba-
dour is often heard in captivity, and
marvellous is the executive on his song,
even there, but it is only when the cloud
less sky and the color of leaf and bios
som charm the eye, and the perfume of
blossoms and the mingled scents of ma
ture regale the nostTils, and the blend
ing sounds of the universe unite in the
pean, and when the prime performer in
the orchestra is free, with his mate
near, and his home prospectively Or