The Van Buren press., 1898-09-10
NO TRACE WAS LEFT.
ARP Tells of the Disappointment of
Veteran Who Called on Him.
The Old Man Thought He Would Visit
His Childhood Home, Hut FOund
Everything Changed - Arp
Speaks ON Children.

A veteran called to see me yesterday.
He was not SO very old, but was gray
and bent and tired He had been to the
great reunion and was on his way back
to Mississippi. Il stopped over day to
see YOU" he said, land to revisit the
place where l was born, but | couldn't
find it and am very tired, for | have
been tramping over the hills and val
leys above here nearly all day" The
old man famed himself with his hat
and looked sad and disappointed. |
learned from Elm that he was born
somewhere between here and old Cass-
vile and his mother boarded some of
the hands who were at work building
the state railroad and there was
spring not far from their humble home.
Il thought" said he, that l could find
the spring and the branch and the wal
nut tree and blackberry patch, but
walked and walked and nothing looked
natural. Seemed to me that every
thing has changed and shrunk up. The
hills have washed down and the
branches nearly dried up and nobody
could tell me anything. You see, we
left here away back in the '40s, when
l was lad, and there is a new set of
people, but / thought l would find
somebody or something that remem-
bered." The old man looked away off
and sighed. OF course, we were sorry
for him. and tried to cheer him up. !
asked him about the Hoopers and
Trips and Akin and Underwood and
Latimers and Arthur Haire, but he
didn't remember them. He was a poor
boy and mixed with poor boys and they
had grown up and gone west, too. How
the old people do yearn for the friends
and the scenes of their youth After
50 years absence from his native state,
Judge Warner, our honored chief jus
tice, had this yearning to come over
him and he, too, revisited his boyhood's
home in Massachusetts,. He went with
fond expectation and came back sad
and disappointed. "My relatives Were
all dead or gone away he said. 81
found but one man who remembered
me, and he was blind and in the poor
house. The hills where | used to pick
Elueberries had been cleared and were
not 80 large or so high. The little
branches where | fshed for. minnows
bad all been ditched and were bridged
where they crossed the highways.
Everything was strange and l took no
comfort and have come back to good
old Georgia, my adopted mother, and
here | will stay until I die and ] wish
10 be buried in her friendly BOSOM"
Life seems to be but circle, and we
would all go back to the starting point
if we could. The startled hare when
pursued by the hounds speeds straight
forward for time, but after a mile or
two begins to bend its course, and
keeps on curving until it comes pant
ing on the home stretch to its familiar
resting place. And the pioneers tell
us that when a hunter gets lost in the
forest on a cloudy day and tries to
make bee line for home, he makes
curve unconsciously and gets back to
his starting point. Shakespeare says
and so the older we grow the more af-
| fection we have for children and their
innocent sports and pleasures. How
| fondly our minds and memories live
over again the little plays of blind
mans buff, milybright, hide and seek
trimble-toe, club-fst, hide the switch,
craney crow and many Others How
we admire their happy laughs and
| glowing faces as we draw near to them
now. No wonder that George Francis
Train in his gloomy moods wandered
to the park and drew as many children
to him as he could and played with
| them on the lawn.
But time shrinks more than nature.
The world is not so big nor the trees
so high as when we were children;
| but a year is not half so long-not
a tenth part so long-as it used to be.
| The days were never too long then,
for they were happy; but it seemed
like a lifetime from Christmas to
| Christmas. Children are the sweetest
part of this great big world. Not long
ago a cynical friend who has none said
they were an expensive luxury; so they
are-expensive not only in money and
labor and toll, but in anxious care; but
they repay it in love thousand fold.
| They are the life and comfort of every
good family. What would the world
do without them? Suppose they were
all grown up and there were no more
| to come-no day schools nor Sunday
schools-no playhouscs or toys or pic
ture books-no babies learning to talk
and say mamma or grandpa-no little
chaps to follow you about and love
you, and, the saddest of all, no more
mothers to fondle and caress and hug
| them to their bosoms. What a cold
and dismal world this would be-no
mothers. no fathers, no grandmas, no
nothing but grown-up people who
never played horse or sang lullaby
song.
Ny cynical friend says that children
make no return except in tilial duty
and no recompense but affection.
Well, that is enough. Parents do not
ask any more. The love and obedience
of good child is beyond price. The
disobedience and ingratitude of bad
| one is the most intense of all miseries.
There is not a greater contrast upon
earth than in the JOY or the sorrow
that children bring to parents. From
the time of old Eli until now this con-
trast has been going on. That poor
old man had the curse of God upon
him because his children were vile and
he restrained them not. | tell you,
| l. l.. L. -. l.rl q nd