Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1897-01-21
STREAM MADE FAMOUS.
Song Which is a Household Word
What the Reality is.

What the Reality is
To sit in a gorgeous box at some
splendid New York theatre, amid a
scene of life and brilliant glitter, and
hear the marvellous voice OF Patti
ripple away on the melody of Way
Down Upon the S'wanee River is one
thing, and to travel through the south
until, suddenly, with a squeak from
the locomotive, one looks from the
window Of a Pullman car and sees
for the first time in all his life the
clear, silent waters of this stream, is
quite a different thing. How many
have seen the SuWanee River through
the veil of sentiment and song under
the environment Of the first-named
order; and how few, comparatively
have actually stood upon the banks of
the river itself, listened to the soft,
low murmer Of it's meandering waters,
so clear, so beautiful and so blue IN
eddy places, with trees bending over
its bosom, all festooned with long,
waving Spanish moss, which SO
abounds in the western regions of
Florida Fewer still are those who
have lived upon the banks of this river,
long enough to make a study of the
people who dwell permanently in its
long, sweeping vales-the land of flow
ers, song birds and sunshine.
Just how a river, a narrow little
sand bottomed, blue-watered river,
hot NIL o1s+i % n
of the United States as does the Su-
vance could ever have become so fam
GUS in this wide world does seem
strange to one, when he comes to think
Of it, all because of a mere song. But,
after ALL it has a charm all it's own,
and the average visitor will find, when
he once falls under it's spell, that it
will linger with him with surprising
tenacity and grow upon him like the
shadow of some mysterious fascination.
No doubt there was some such inspira-
ton behind the lines:
Way down upon de S'wanee Rubber,
Far, far away;
Oars whar my heart am turnin'
ebber,
I1dI WudL u6 ora lOlhS SUdy.
Be that as it may, no such ideal
picture book songs as this are ever
heard on the Suwanee River in real
life, unless it be now and then, when
some resident of this section chooses
to hum a few lines of this same song
in spirit much the same as that Of
the deacon of the church who says
Amen when the preacher has fin
ished the morning prayer simply
agreeing to what the author of this
immortal song has written.
But there are songs along the Su-
vance River that are characteristic
and unique in all their primitive mel
Ody, pathOs and humor. The negroes
who are found at work along the
river, either on the little boats that
haul timber up and down from the
mills or phosphate from the mines, or
out in the lumber camps and fields
along the river bank, seem to be all
given to song. They go about their
work in the morning with a song, and
sing all the livelong day, grooming
some plaintive air in monotonous
fashion, or else joining in a chorus
where there are several of them, and
making the woods around fairly rever-
berate with the echoes of their camp
meeting hymns, such as this:
Jes' look over yonder what l see
Angels bid me ter come
See two angels calm at me
Angels bid me ter come.
Rise an shine, mourner,
Rise an shine, mourner,
Rise an shine, mourner,
Fur de angels bid 'er me ter come.
How their rich, mellow voices do
melt away in the distance as they join
in this sweet old air, and how the
plaintive strain seems to die away up
or the signing waters of the framed
river! And when they get to the
chorus how they swing around at their
work and bear down on the loud pedal
of their voices and throw the genuine
old jubilee vigor of camp-meeting into
the song. If they are cutting logs for
the sawmill nigh at hand they are apt
to swing their axes in full time with
the measure of the song, and this
gives it all the more interest and pee
uliar charm.
One Of the lively zig songs" that are
often heard in the lumber and phos-
phate camps along the Suwanee River