Birmingham state herald., 1896-04-19

George c. Ball, Nineteenth street, between Tenth and Eleventh avenues, South Hlgh- lands. Telephone 9SS)
 There are a few things that put south arners to serious wondering whenever they are brought anew to our considera- ion. One of these subjects is nothing more nor less than the apparent lack or appreciation felt by us for the exquisite natural scenery which abounds in all parts of this favored section. To each one of us these beautiful landscapes have been familiar pictures since we first caught a glimpse of Gods sunlight and they have been so essentially part or our daily lives that we have rather ceased to enthuse-if we ever did-over scenery that far surpasseS any that glows upon the canvasses of the greatest painters of the world. It is, unfortunate- y the fad for Americans to go abroad for inspiration, as well as study, al though many of our best artists or late years have devoted themselves to the beauty and glory of their own country. But these painters are generally north erners and reproduce northern land scapes, while just here in the soutn-ln all parts of the south-there are views that shall yet make some man or woman famous in the artistic world. There are lovely valleys, filled with the tender beauty of a southern springtime; moun- tain peaks and ranges, the rugged splen- dor of which kiss the opalescent skies; he broad expanse of meadow ana heid, grand rivers, whose waters reflect the ;emi-tropcal luxuriance of low dropping banks; eyer babbling brooks-far pret- tier than that English stream of which rennyson crooned-which seem ever tying themselves into silver love knots, in and out between gray rocks ana De- meath the deep green trees, and far tr,xx- a,.f1S. ha
 ,ness of the tropics glow and burn in forest and jungle. The south possesses in pristine freshness a splendor Of color Ing and variety of scenery which await the brush of some gifted southerner to make immortal.
 No one will ever paint the south as 1t pulsates beneath the warmth of trop- ical sun unless in his veins there throbs southern blood just as no one can tell our legends, or sing our songs, whose tongue speaks not the soft vernacular or our section. Poet, author, artist must be instinct with love of the south, of it's traditions and its aspirations, or they cannot tell our story to the world or bring out upon the canvas the gorgeous coloring of this semi-tropical lana.
 The imitators of the world-the men and women whose only ambition is to follow in a beaten track, worn hard and firm by other feet, are never those who achieve anything worth recording In the battle of life The great pictures yet to be painted by southerners will not be those which reproduce what has already grown familiar to artistic people; they will be those which spring with new glory from southern genius, treating or our race and our section.
 The majority of the writers of the south who have become famous of late years are those who told our simple annals Tn fresh, natural way, which reached tne heart of the reading world. As people we are richer In legends and traditions than any other nation on the globe, ana outsiders are eager to hear our stories, provided they are well told, as they are prepared to welcome the first southern painter who can put upon canvas the beauty and magnifcepce of scene and color which surround him.
 These thoughts must have come to us all, for no man or woman who thinks can fail to be impressed with the ldea that some southern artist Is yet 10 elec- trify the world in the near future with his or her power to reproduce our seen. cry and types of the different classes or our people But they came afresh to me after hearing an accomplished woman describe, few moons ago, the loVelness of the Tennessee river and the charm or the legends which pertain to its curving  told was a revelation to most of us who listened to her description, and the ques- ton naturally comes to every woman 5 mind, Why is 1t that as race we are so indifferent to the great mines or ar, tistic glory which open at our very feet! The answer must be that our familiarity with the landscapes which will yet bring some painter riches and renoWn causes HIS to overlook their beauty and value In our effort to follow in the highways wherein all the world treads.
 AS little as we appreciate the 1act, as little as some of us know, of our pie turesaue surroundings, We have just here in Jones' valley some of the most exqu1- site bits of scenery that ever thrilled a painters soul with delight. And one or fhese rare spots is Hawkins Spring, Just a few miles from Birmingham, where gay picnic parties go summer after sum- ;oer, without fully realizing that they are surrounded by such wonderful beau- tv There the great rocks, painted Dy the land of the Creator in sort gray shades in prehistoric time, have been upheaved in some tremendous conVui- sion of nature. and now form Juttlns cliffs or undui. Ing waves of stone, De- heath the forest. The spring, cool and clear, with mysterious depths. is cupped in the firm, gray rocks and flows out into a picturesque stream, which wanders Tar away into the broad fields that lie be-
 
 side is a forest of cedars, with cool, in- yiting hooks; on the other rise the rocky summits crowned with oak and shrub. The glintng sunshine fiecks the emerald tinted grass that peeps up between the stones. and permeating everything is the vaccination of our southern atmosphere and the glory of southern spring. This is but tame, meager description of one of the most beautiful spots in Alabama. And such places dot the entire land scape of the south like jewels and only await the hand of genius to show them to an eager, waiting world.
 The following communication, while not strictly upon social lines, is published with pleasure knowing there are many Alabamians in complete sympathy with the sentiments expressed by the writer I agree with my correspondent and like his suggestion that few recent editions of some Alabama papers should be for warded to our philanthropic @ friend. Colonel Mcclure of Philadelphia. whose missionary tour through the benight- ed CD south more than year ago does not seem to have yielded such harvest of "conyerts' as he and his co-laborers had hoped But life holds disappoint-