The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1896-12-15
October Among the Hills and
DaIes of Eaurens.

are in the midst Of ice and snow
that cover the earth as O shroud,
we look back with much pleasure
to a month among the hills and
wales and under the hospitable
roof-trees of the dwellers of old his
toric Laurens. The month was
very happily spent, October, per-
haps the most beautiful month of
the year, was certainly at her best.
There were comparatively few
cloudy days, and only occasional
showers, which preserved the bril-
lance of the leaves and the fra
GRANGE of the flowers. "The bluest
of blue skies and q delicious at
mosphere. by day, were followed at
the evening tide by draperies and
pavilions, of crimson and vermil-
lion, for the departing sun who,
having finished his wonderful work
in the harvest fields had with
drawn from them his enripening
and enriching rays.
"The nights were radiant with
effulgent light of the lofty dome,
whose tapers, enlit by the fingers
of Deity, shone upon the royal
pathway of the planets-Venus
with Saturn and Mars with Jupi-
ter, to keep the vigils and tell of
the voices of the night"
Never before, in the writer's re-
collection, did he have the pleas
ure, during the entire month of
October, of being in meditation
fancy free" to watch the rise and
set of sun in the woodlands, and,
as Ian Maclaren, of "the Bonnie
Briar Bush" might say, make up
by meditation, in the sweet seclu-
sion and quiet of solitude, what
we lose by leaving the busy whirl
and excitement. of the city's
marts.
AS people I think we lack SEN
timent. True sentiment makes
lis strong when the days of adver-
sity come to us.
Dear, lamented Timrod, how
happily he expresses a thought in
the closing lines of one of his
sonnets:
son. % bs on why may not love and life
Why walk we thus alone, when, by our
side,
Love, like visible god, might be our
How would the marts grow noble and
the streets,
Worn like a dungeon floor by weary
feet,
Become the golden court-way of the
sum-"
A mornings walk through the
woodland halls, upon their carpets
of rosetint and saffron, yellow,
purple and russell, fringed with
the beautiful bee aster and the
golden rod, was certainly
inspiriting, and no less lovely and
enjoyable were the evenings, as we
went through the saths of the
forests aglow with richest tints
md shades of coloring, inhaling
the fragrant, free sweet air, and
watching the high lights aid
glinting from the eminences and
the shadows creeping upon the
lower situations.
Speaking of the beautiful in
sunset scenes. Ruskin has truly
and happily said that the Creator
could have given us simply ''the
blue sky for the fair weather and
the dull leaden sky for foul
weather." but, instead, for our
we rarely have two
evening skies alike. 1t is either
river of gold in the West, an
of amber in the North, a
sea of emerald green in the West,
or f1ecked in white with pale pink
and violet in the East. Often
zenith to sensitive horizon
the Heavens are suffused with lu-
.inous lights of varying shades,
ablaze with vast conf1agrations-
Then again We have islands with
pearl-tinted strands, tessalated
pavements, crimson-curtained cor
ridors, mountains and mirages of
marvellous m%agnificence.
Truly He "who meteth out the
heavens with a span," "fndeth
the sweet influence of the pleiades
and looseth the bands of orion"
hath caused "the heavens to de-
clare the glory" that man might
the grace and grandeur of
Jehovah's works.
But, alas, the enchanting scene
of the woodlands was but evanish-
ing, and d~issolving the beautiful
leaves have fallen, and marched
o million strong" They admon-
ish us that man is mortal and doth
fall as falls the leaf.
In view of this fact we should
learn that "the duties of life are
greater than life ITSELF" and "that
their most refined realization is to
be found in the service of hui
mainly"
r. H. GRENEKER.
Newberry, S. c..