Virginia free press. (Charlestown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1832-1916, 1893-11-29
The su,caaee River.

the train approached long hollow in
the hills where one of those pleasant sur
prises occurred which 60 TO prove how
song may consecrate locality. A river,
not very broad or deep. but with GER
tain special grace and character of its
own lay in front Of our track. We had
good view of it as we came near the
wooden trestle bridge by which the line
was carried acros-ihe structures which,
until you become accimatized to Amer
lean travel, always make you wonder
whether they will carry the train this
time safely over. The river ran down
from the Georgian hills in lively cur
rent broken sometimes into rapids and
little cataracts where the red and black
rocks lay across its channel, and then
widening out into picturesque reaches
bordered by thickets Of dark green foli-
age and clumps of cypress and willow
In the clearings here aud there between
the woods which bordered it, stood isola-
ted negro cottages, around which you
could see little black children at play,
and the invarisbe pig, which is the
house guest of the nigger as we'll as Of
the Irishman. A punt was gliding along
on the quiet part Of the stream with a
negro on board dragging fish ngline
and the black buzzards circled over the
maize fields. Il was not striking scene,
but beautiful in its way. gilded as it was
by the rays of a magnificent sunset. Yet
should have forgotten it in few min
utes, as | had forgotten the hundreds OF
other rivers which the train had travers.
ed, had it not been that | happened 10
ask the conductor what was the name OF
this particular water.
Qate carelessly he answered That's
the Suwanee river, mister"
The Suwanee river In moment
the stream had for me new and extra.
ordinary interest. had not even known
that there was such a river in geographic
cal reality. or that it flowed through
Georgia and yet, here it was-real. au-
thenlic, aIive-leaping down through the
Southern forests. past the maize fields
and the cotton flats. to pour itself into the
Gulf of Mexico. In an instant every
thing around appeared to be full of the
song that all the world sings, "Way
Down Upon de Suwaneo Riber.' The
live oaks seemed to wave il in the even
ing air; The stream seemed to sing it as
it hustled over the rocks the birds in
the thicket had it in the soft musical
notes we caught and The crickets and
katydids beginning their sunset chirrup
Joined in the halfheard chorus. The
journey was no longer monotonous. To
be "way down upon the Suwanee rlber'
was to have come to corner of America
dedicated to the deep emotion Of our
common humanity-the love of home.-
[, there anybody who has not felt tho
charm Of the simple niger melody
When was playin' wild my brudder
Happy was !.
o, take mo TO my kind old mudder,
Dar let me lib and die.
All de world am sad and dreary
Eberywher roam;
o Odarkies. how my heart grows weary,
Far from de old folks at home.
There, indeed, were the old folks at
home, a white haired darkey sitting on a
log by the cottage door stripping maize
c0bs and shambling about among the
pigs and poultry, old Dinah, with yell
low bandana on her silver locks. Groom
ing some song which might perhaps be
the song Of the river. So. after all, it
was real and there was Suwanee
river, and the sunny peace and beauty Of
it we're Just what fitted well with the sem
timent of that touching and tender air
which has gone all through the world be-
cluse it holds in its unaffected music the
secret Of the pathetic retrospects Of life.
Just the spot it was to which a tired
man, be be niger or otherwise, might
look back 10 with attachment and afiec-
tion. We travellers coming suddenly
u pom il and ieaying it at thirty miles an
hour had Of course nothing but the most
ailing conc ern with "de Suawanee Rib
er." But one could imagine how dear it
might be to a native born, and how sin-
cere the original emotion was Of the song
writer, or else of some darkey from whom
he borrowed il, TO write and set TO such
soft and sympathetic music, "Dere's
where my heart is turning ever
Henceforward for me that Georgian
stream. with the dark groves fringiDg it,
aud the red crags. and the quiet reaches
of silver water giIded by the setting sun,
has place in the thought among the
famous rivers Of the globe, and l never
hear the melancholy music of the popular
nigger-lament without new feeling Of
what song can do, far beyond history and
important events, to consecrate spot in
| nat,,ra forayer and IN localize a univer-