The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1898-03-04

again seen in this county, remaining IN
Griffin for a short while, he went TO
Florida, where he died. In time this
strange old man moved away, but he
still pays the neighborhood occasional
visits, and. old and feeble. he smiles as
the trains are loaded with granite for
distant places, and shouts to the sound
of the dynamite that tears and scatters
the great rock like chaff before the wind.
Returning to the region where the
countrymen Of Robbie Burns SO like
to dwell, we are lost in wonder at the
immensely of the granite supply of De
Kalb County. Miles on miles of solid
granite can be viewed from any want
age ground about Lithonia Granite
could be had here to build a Chinese
wall around the world. Greater than
the Klondike in the money value.
thousands of acres lie unsecured by the
hand of progress only waiting to be
turned into the channels of usefulness
and to the things of beauty.
Lying south of Lithonia is a region
| known as Arabia" and it is the only
region that we know in Georgia that
can boast of king. w. L. d. Crossley
| is the man that wears the grand title
! of King of Arabia He is old now
along in the eighties, but he is still hale
and hearty and none would dare dispute
his rights or question his judgment on
| matters of weight
| AS the sobriquet, king of Arabia y
| implies, Mr.. Crossley has been a man
of Importance in this district, and, of
course, there have been many thrilling
and interesting events in his long life,
| but as the typographical appearance
| of the section is so different to any
thing seen elsewhere in Georgia I have
not space for biography.
| Granite, granite, granite! One natur-
| ally exclaims at the great stretches of
granite that everywhere attracts the
eye. If it were proper to call it seas,
we would say great seas of granite.
At places an almost level rock reaches
out for a mile before you, gray and
grim, creating feeling that is easier
thought of than described. To the right
and to the left, in front and behind,
mountains of this grim granite look
down upon you just as if it has looked
for centuries upon centuries at the fleet
| ing things of the world. Many may
| come and many may go, but these
same gray and grim sentinels will stand
defying the elements and creating Won
der among men.
| We had passed out of the granite
region proper and had come to the
| fiourishing farms along South River
when our attention was attracted TO a
mountain away in our front, and hover
| ing around it like a dark cloud and still
pouring from it in a roaring fury was
a stream of bats as dark as midnight
| We learned that this was called Rock
Mountain, and that from time immem-
orial this same great swarming of bats
| was to be seen in the afternoons as
| they came out and in the mornings as
| they returned to the greet cave in the
mountain. No man can tell how lons
| this cave has been a den for these bats
| perhaps since the world began-anC
| the amount of bats that have died there
makes a bed of fertilizer that would en-
rich every hill of our county if it coulc
only be arrived at; as it is, only g
small portion can be fshed out and
utilized
| The day will come when people viii
come from across the ocean to see tht
| wonders of DeKalb County in hel
granite mountaineering Plunkett, IL
Atlanta Constitution.