Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1894-08-30
DOWN ON THE SUWANEE RIVER


/ DOWN ON THE SUWANEE RIVER.
| In that part Of the long journey
when we were passing through
Georgia, and at the moment when the
/ tedlum was worst, the train ap-
preached a long hollow in the hills
where one of those pleasant surprises
occurred which so to prove how song
may consecrate a locality. \ river
not very broad or deep, but with a
| certain special grace and character of
it's own, lay in front of our track
We had a good view Of it as we came
near the wooden trestle bridge by
which the line was carried across
structures which, until you become ac-
climatiZed to American travel, always
| make you wonder whether they will
carry the train this time safely over
| The river ran down from the Georgian
hills in a lively current, broken some
times into rapids and little cataracts
where the red and black rocks lay
across its channel, and then widening
/ out into picturesque reaches DOrdered
| by thickets of dark green foliage and
j clumps of cypress and willow. In the
| clearings, here and there between the
! wood which bOrdered it, stood isolated
negro cottages, around which you
could see little black children at play,
and the invariable pig, which is the
j house guest of the niger as well as
| of the 1rishman. A punt was gliding
along on the quiet part of the stream
with a negro on board dragging a
fiShing-line, and the black DuzzardS
circled over the maize fields. 1t was
not a striking scene, but beautiful in
| it's way, gilded as it was by the rays
of magnificent sunset. Yet [ should
! have forgotten it in few minutes as
/ l had forgotten the hundreds of other
! rivers which the train had traverSed,
| had it not been that [ happened to
ask the conductor what was the name
of this particular alter.
Quite carelessly he answered.:
That's the Suwanee River, misterr'
/ The Suwanee River! In a moment
! the stream had for me a new and eX-
! traOrdinary interest. l had not even
! known there was such a river in geo.
! graphical reality or that it flowed
Though Georgia; and yet here it was
! real, authentic, alive-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 everything around ap-
! peared to be full of the song that all
the world sings: "Way Down Upon
de Suwanee Riber." The live oaks
seemed to wave it in the evening air:
! the stream seemed to sing it as it
hustled over the rocks; the birds in
the thickets had it in the soft musical
notes we caught, and the crickets and
| katydids beginning their sunset CHR
| rup Joined in the half-heard chorus
The journey was no longer mOnOtOn-
Gus. To be "Way Down Upon de SUI
vance Riber" was to have come to
a corner of America dedicated to that
emotion of CUR common humanity
the love of home. Is there anybody
who has not felt the charm of the
simple nigger melody?
When I was playin' wild my brudder
Happy was [,
o take me to my kind old mudder,
Oar let me lib and die.
All the world ain sad and dreary
Everywhere l roam;
0 darkies, 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 cObS, and, shambling abOu
among the pigs and poultry old Dinah
with a yellow bandanna on her Silve
J locks grooming some song. which
J might, perhaps, be the song Of thu
} river. So, after all, it was real, ana
there was a Suwanee river, ant
| the sunny peace and beauty Of it wer
: Just what fitted well with the sent
ment of that touching and tender al
: which has gone all through the wort'
. because it holds ia its unaffectet
5 music the secret Of the pathetic retro
r spect of life. Just the spot it was I
t which a tired man, be he niger O
S otherwise, might look back to wit
j attachment and affection. We tray
: elers, coming suddenly upon it, an
S leaving it at thirty miles an hour, hai
S of course, nothing but the most fiji
K ting concern with de Suwane
S Riber" Put ono could imagine hoy
$ dear it might be to a native born, an
t how sincere the original emotion wa
r ok Of