The Yale expositor., 1895-05-31


Times. Here, where |
railr ads have pierced it, stations ap-
pear along their routes, small groups |
of smaller buildings, GASES in this vast !
desert of pines and solitude For little
voice save their own when the wind
stirs them has this wilderness OF pines.
Scattered here and there n sawmill ap-
pears, seeming lost amid its depths, on
its edges housed in frail, rough, plank
shanties dwell a few wild and lonely
looking Settlers" but through its great
heart little OF life is visible or audible.
A few roads used mainly by lumber
teams penetrate its sOlitudes, the plain
est trails being those used ny the cattle
that range it's WASHES. One wonders
where these half-Wild beasts find for
age to round out their carcasses so
bravely, these woods look so nude OF ali
green things save the tops of the SER
ried ranks of trees or the scruBpyasma.l
growth peculiar TO these pine wastes.
The dim and lonesome roads wind on
and on, you cross haIiOw depressi0ns,
narrow and sard-bed0ed, which in'the
states east of Texas would be little
brooks of murmurfng water, buthkere
they are dry and des6late hooking sand
beds Occasionally you reach acoceek
even gioomieC-lool5fng than itsidwarf-
ish kinsman. Its banks Hre wastes of
deeper sand, its shallow water sinks
silently and slowly past between it's
grassless banks, then slouches into
deep, forbidding pools on whose brink
yoG instinctively hesitate before per-
hitting your horse to drink.
Then your road skirts a basin, acres
in extent, flied with u dirty white
ooze of mud and water, containing a
vegetation coarse and sparse, remind
ing one oddly somehow of theTstealthy
Indian that so lately roamed.through
these wilds. Sometimes these basins,
shallower and drier, IRE dotted with
groups Of scruSby persimmon trees
these, in the wernacular, are termed
"persimmon flats" Beer ard turkeys
are said to inirabitithese solitary woods,
but neither living or dead have they
been visible to my eyes. Sometimes
not uftRn-a little prairie breaks the
monotony OF these serried ranks of
pines. On ami about these the people
cluster, their fraii mudsehimneyed
little houses enoroaoh on the great
forest. In the little fields women and
children toll beside the men through
the spring and again in the, cHtton dur
ing the autumn. Oh, the loneliness of
these lives! The churchless Sabbaths,
when men and boys gather to play
games and the women to chatter and
take snuff. oh, the ,delighteof seeing
a newspaper after q month OF depriva-
ton. The satisfaction it is TO know
that there is a world that itiVes and
moves and that some time one will get
out of the Texas pine woods and live
in that world too. At eventide you
hear, perhaps, from some little farm
stead a womaIs shrill voice calling the
cows hOme from the pine woods. You
see the men feeding their praise ponies
with ground peanuts and vines which
take the place Gf corn when the drought
cuts short that important grain, as in
the past season. Soon they gather
within doors and have supper b. lamp
light. Sometimes some kerry sagaclous
man tests your knowledge of geogra-
ply by queries that make you feel
youreslf iineal descendant, of tao wise
Solomon.
''Is not Australia in I!outh Mmer-
ica?"
Does not England join the iJsoited
States?"
have really been asked these ,sues-
tions and recovered sufficient preseuce
of mind to return correct answers.
In the early morning you roof Xour
head with a sunb0Inet, the universal
feminine head garb here, a bennet with
a crown that eleaves the air. tall aud
grand az a mountain peak. Then yeu
set forth through the dense Cog on -
bee line across the prairie TO vote
schoolroOm. Your feet sink deep IT,
the sandy path, and, perhaps, G
"norther" meets you. st is a Warrior
from away up north and it fights hard. |
Unwittingly the tears stream from
your red-rimmed eyes, your skirts lash
furiously in the sweeping wind But,
like the prairie ponies, you learn to
bow your head, arch your back, and |
press on. The school edlice is con-
structed of the omnipresent pine |
blanks, without any "corn6ers," as a |
Mississippi negro once said OF house |
of similar architecture. The children |
arc not bad, but it is hard to keep them |
quiet. In their restlessness they re-
mind one of nothing so much as the !
terrible screw worm. Their sports arc |
intensely realistic. They are hounds;
they hunt down one of their number as
a deer. They bay him with genuine
houndlike baylngj they tear him to the
ground, and, with huge wooden knives
the huntsmen STAY him. Or, as cow
boys, they bunch" each other as cat
tie, forcing the refractory ones back to
the range" and the lowing and bel
lowing is SO true to life 1t makes one
SILVER to hear 1t. This is life In "the
piney," as the prairie dwellers term It.
Farther on toward Plantersville the
farms grow larger; there are negro
tenants and many foreigners, prinsi-