The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1891-03-02
INTHE SUNNY SOUTHLAND
avAY DOWN UPON THE SUwANEE
RIVER, FAR, FAR AWAY"

Pare Old Plantations and Thriving
TOWNSHIPS South a Brunette Belle,
With the Warm Blaze CT the Sun in
Her Flashing Eye and the Warmth
Thereof in Fer Passionate Soul
Georgia the Eealthiest and Most
Promising Section Of the South.
.oecial Correspondence Of the Troy (N. y
Press.
"THEDE Soro," SAVANNAH, GA, Feb.
II 1s91.-Many years ego the Tamalpais
hotel at San Rafael, Cal, Just across the
bsv from San Francisco, was a favorlte re-
sort of the wealthy and cultured residents
Of the latter city. Istopped at 1.-THE Tamal-
nails, one night during the summer of 1877,
and a colony of San Franeiscans formerly
from Florida) occupied a suite of rooms
near me. The gentlemen of their party
were all of the highest class, socially and
mentally, being mostly bankers, with a
shrinking of judges and politicians. Almost
without cessation, throughout the entire
night in question. these jovial but in
eonsderate gentlemen vexed my
unappreciative ears with unctious repeti~
tions of two popular songs. 1t must be re-
Marty of convivial spirits repeating over
the cups the usual maudlin ditties of
hacchanalian vocalists. No, here were
sober digniied, brainy men who but few
hours before had thrown off ''the marshals
trnncbeon or the judges robe" and had
now simply opened the throttle valve of
impulse and given human nature "her
head, y so to speak. Over and over IN tervid
concert they sang the words Of that old
time song, commencing:
WAY down upon the Suwanee river,
Far far away;
There's where my heart is turning ever,
There's where the old folks stay.
And then one old graybeard invariably
shifted the singers off onto q melody, the
words Of which ran as follows:
Take me back, take me back to the land where
| was born,
Take me back to my sunny, southern home,
Where the mockingbird sings in the grove
every morn,
Take me back. and never more will roam.
An occasional brief intermission for
earnest, but to me indlstiuct conve sation,
during which could just catch the words,
Anniversary, forty years ago." ETC., &C.
Cured now and then, only to be broken
soon by some mercurial member of the
band taking up one of the foregoing re-
trains again, and every voice joining in
before the second line was reached. As l
couldn't get to sleep, | spent the time alter
natelv listening and wondering what on .
earth possessed these staid and elderly codg-
ers to pass the night like giddy young
jewellers around festal board shouting
and singing their monotonous songs. And
through all the intervening years that have
elapsed since then l have never been able to
understand just what was the matter with
those ''Old boys' who kept me awake that
summer night at San Rafael. by their
tedious rendtions of the two above men-
toned ballads. The mystery is solved at
last. | took the "Suwannee river route"
from Floridato Macon, Ca, q few days ago,
and now l can comprehend the ebullition of
patriotic feeling and heart longing that
caused those veteran forty-niners away of
in California to bubble over in melodious
repetition Of a song which voiced the love
Of their early home "far, far awav,n as
nothing else could give that love express
sion. The music of Home, Sweet Home"
that song of the soul, which has held the
world in thrall for half century, is all re-
tanned, intensified and localized in sway
Down Upon the Suwanee River" but to
realize the full power Of its honely pathos
one must first have seen the dreamy, pas
toral beauty Of the Suwanee valley, and
then hear a wanderer from that lovely
land, three thousand miles or moro away,
sing:
There's where my heart is turning ever,
Theres where the old folks stay.
Yes understood now what that meant
to the southern colonists at the Tamalpais,
and had l been born along the beautiful
Suwanee and left such charming country
as that to wander out in the wide. wide
world ss far as California, I would sit I'D all
night myself occasionally, think, if /
could find follow ramblers from there to
sing with me Of ''the old folks at homen I
am poor hand at giving statistics and as
| haveno respondent railroad folder of "the
Suwanee river route" to copy facts and fig
ures from, shall not undertake to tell of
the rare old pla0tationss or thriving towns
the Georgia Southern and Florida railroad
passes through in that section of it's terri
tory haliowed by the sweetest song of
modern times. Suffice it to say, ''the land
Is worthy OF the lay and if northern tour
ISIS to the sunny south fail to go ''way
down upon the Suwanee river" they viii
miss real treat in the way of sight seeing
What strange fascination there is about
tne south that draw and holds one las a
dark eye in woman" The north land has a
Ialr, blonde beauty. pale and cold as the
enow that enwraps her hills and wales to-
DAY. But the south is a brunette belle, the
oisze OF the sun in her flashing eye, and the
warmth thereof in her passionate soul A
man may tear himself away from the
aiiurements Of blonde charmer, but once
iet coquette of the brunette order fasten
her "orbs Of night" upon him, and mark
MN tor her prey, the heart within him
yeas beneath the witchery of her glance,
ana mets the ice before Soils burning rays
Lord Byron acknowledged the superior
S SosTm OF the southern type of loneliness in
his llues:
o. never talk again to me
VI northern chimes and British ladies.
IL mas not been your lot to see,
Like me, the lovely girl of Cadiz.
=, Inc swarming crowds OF tourists, lnvalids,
investment seekers. etc., from all over the
morlu that are this winter marching
through Georgia" enjoying her balmy air,
patrohlzlng her resorts and assisting to
poo!n her local enterprises and business
proyects OF all kinds, offer most convincing
evidence of the Irresistible attractions Of
ons Empire state Of the south" Familiar
as o. l am with every part of "Dixie's land"
rom =. the Potomac to the Rio Grande and
t tne Atlantic to the mississippi and admit
1Lng mat as a whole, as we'll as in
spoes 1t has wonderfully fascinating hold
upon the appreciation, should, if driven
W discriminate in favor of any one locality,
cypress my unqualified preference for Geor-
sIa as Tue healthiest, mos5 progressive and
pr.oeLmlslng section insthe south. Jay Gould,
" %leh That keen scent and intuitive genius OF
US Tor getting the first pick at the best
pIulhs In the financial pudding. has foreseen
tue prosperous future ahead of Georgia, and
10 uown hero figuring on big slice of the
pTOQUS awaiting IN in, 4ba