The Atlanta constitution. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1885-19??, 1894-01-09
GIVE US A RESI-"
THAT'S WHAT ELL ARP SAYS THE
PEOPLE NEED.
Such Things as the Hawaiian Affair, Puipit
Controversies, Corbett and MITCHELL
Etc, Make the Philosopher Tired.
20. where shall rest be found,
Rest for the weary soul"

That is beautiful hymn. But the mind
wants rest too-rest from politics, from the
tariff, from silver and gold, from HaWan
and Rio Janeiro-rest from Evans and clay
and Atklnson-rest from the woman ques-
ton and pulpit controverSy-rest from the
swim and sush Of daily news-the murders
and suicides and lynchings-and rest from
Mitchell and Corbett.
Of course we must have politics and can
dldates and controversy and the news, but
once in d while the mind gets tired of all
these and needs rest l don't know better
place to find it than in a little quiet hamlet
that overlooks the sea or the gull where
one can gaze dreamily upon the waters,
and like Byron, become poetic and eXclalm:
''Rol on, thou deep and dark blue ocean,
roll
1t is good for to feel his insignifi-
canoe once in a while, and he can do it
here 1t is good to get away from the
restless, turbulent world, and let his mind
become calm and serene. He ought to
have a few old-fashioned books-such as
Goldsmith and CoWper and Tom Hood and
Irving and Ike Marvel-bookS that please
without a strain-bookS tender and true,
and that harden not the heart. There is
something about the ocean or a lake or a
river. or even little rivulet, that Gains
and comforts the mind. The little spring
branch is never failing delight to a child,
and the memory of it is fresh and green
in declining years. Byron says:
"And L have loved the ocean-and my de-
light when a boy was to wanton in thy
breakers"
But the little branch and the wash-hole
down in the willows good enough for
us. There is nothing in nature or art so
chanGeles.j and so soothing to the mind as
Water-fioWing, sparkling or falling water.
How delicious is sleep, how pleasant are
our dreams when the rain is pattering on
the roof. In my early youth my father was
poor, and the little shedroom where L
slept had no ceiling and the window nothing
but a shutter; but my mother tucked the
covering close around me and kissed me,
and the rain on the roof was the sweetest
music in the world. ] will never forget
tat little room and those blessed rainy
nights. The rich have many blessings but
a kind providence has saved some for the
poor that money cannot buy. The indians
had no lunatic asylums in the olden time.
but nature taught them that the sound of
falling water was the best cure for
diseased mind. Amicalola means mind
healing, and Amicalola falls was the place
where the Cherokees took their crazy In
dams and hid them guarded in little wig
vans the brink until they got Well
There are many legends of Indian maidens
leapinS from some high bluff into the dark
waters because of disappointed love- but
that is all fancy-the creative fancy of the
novelistS and story tellers. The old settlers
told me they never heard of such case,
nor of an Indian committing suicide; but
that they did sometimes take crazy one
to Amicalola falls and the sound of the
falling waters cured them. | think 1t
would be lifting change to call this beau
tiful sunny, breezy bluff by that express
siVe name instead of Clear Water. This
little place is as charming to us as when
we first came. Fishing, sailing, boating,
bathing and shell hunting still go on, While
the intervals are employed in reading. talk
fsa,N-
absent kindred and friends. There are none
to modest or make US afraid. Burns could
nave immortaized such a hamlet as he did
the cottage in the highlands:
1921 1 knew by the smoke that so grace
>(Slly curled
-. pove the dark trees that cottage was
~ near,
tnd L said to myself, if there's peace in
this world.
The heart that is humble might look for
it here"
The hooking birds are building in the
hawthorne bushes, and their inspiring songs
are almost unbroken by day and by night.
I know now where they spend their winters,
or there are thousands of them here, and
not an English sparrow to disturb their
tranquility AS / write, | can see score
OF them within few rods, and gentleman
told me that he killed $50 last summer in
an effort to drive them away from his
grapes to speak of. He enclosed many
punches in paper and in cloth, but it was
no protection, for they picked through
every covering.
| have been writing some fish stories, but
I find that these people begun on me easy.
They dident want to strain my credullty
at the start. Since my last letter, the fish
ing boys came in with 2,700 from one nights
netting, and Mr.. Orr, of st. Petersburg,
said that not long ago he estimated the
nights work Of some fishermen down below
i'm and they MUIR bered $1,000 They sailed
them down, and had seven barrels OF fish
roe for which they got cents a pound.
lust think of 27, 900 fish caught in one night.
Mr. Orr is from South Carolina, nephew
of Hon. James l.. Orr, and, of course, a
truthful man. He owns fishing boat that
plies between Petersburg and Sarasota bay,
and I am going down with him soon and
see these wonders of the deep with mine
own eyes. [ have been accustomed, and
perhaps hardened, to marvellous stories in
NV own town, and it strains mans faith
to believe everything he hears. Not long
ago a very respectable neighbor, who is
getting along in years, told me that when