The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1898-08-10

-A,Nctcran .callcl'to'scc nc yrstcr
day. lie was not 50 Very old. but was
gray and bent and tired. He had
been to the grca, reunion and was on
his way back to Mississippi Il
stopped over a day to sec you. he
said, "am.i to revisit the place where
I was born but couldn't find it and
am very tired, for have been tramp
ing over the hills and valleys above
here nearly all day The old man
famed himself with his hat and look
ed sad and disappointed. ! learned
from him that he was born somewhere
between here and old Cassvillc and
his mother boarded some of the hands
who were at work building the State
railroad and there was Il spring not
far from their humble home. 81
thought said he, that could find
the spring and the branch and the
walnut tree and blackberry patch, but
walked and walked and nothing
everything has changed and shrunk
up The bills have washed down and
the branches nearly dried up and
nobody could tell ne anything You
see, We left here away back in the
Sortics, when was u lad, and there is
new set of people, but | thought |
would find somebody or something
that remembered The old man
looked away off and sighed. OF
course VIC we're sorry for him. and
tried to cheer him up. asked him
about the Iloopcrs and Trips and
Akin and Underwood aud Latimcrs
and Arthur lIairc, but he didcnt re-
member them. He was Il poor boy
and mixed with poor boys and they
had grown up and gone west, too.
How the old people do ycarn for the
friends and the scenes Of their youth !
After fifty years absence from his
native State. Judge Warner our hon
orcd Chief Justice. had this ycarning
20 come over to him and he, too. re-
listed his boyhood's home in Massa
chusctts lie went with fond cxpcc-
tation and came back sad and disap-
pointed. "My relatives were all dead
or gone away he said. Il found
but one man who remembered me, and
he was blind and in the poor house.
The hills where used to pick blue
berries had been cleared and we're not
so large or so high. The little
branches where fshcd for minnows
had all been ditched and we're bridgcd
where they crossed the highways.
Everything was strange and | took no
comfort and have come back to good
old Georgia, my adopted mother, and
here I will stay until die and I wish
to be buried in her friendly BOSOM.
Life seems to be but circle, and
VIC would all 60 back to the starting
point if we could. The startled hare
when pursued by the hounds speeds
straight forward for time, but after
mile or two begins to bend its
course, and keeps on curving until it
comes painting on the home stretch to
its familiar nesting place. And the
pioneers tell us that whep hunter
gets lost in the forest on cloudy day
and tries to make bee line for home,
he makes curve nnconsciously and
gets back to his starting point. Shake
speare says that old age is but second
childhood, and so the older we grow
the more affection we have for chill
.lren and their innocent sports and
pleasures. How fondly our minds and
memories live over again the little
plays of blind man. 8 buff, milybright,
hide and seek, trimbletoc, club-ist,
hide the switch, craney crow and many
cthers. How VIC admire their happy
laughs and growing faces as we draw
near to them now. No wonder that
George Frances 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 she trees
so high as when we were children;
but 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 cynical friend who has none
said they were an expensive luxury:
so they arc-expensivc not only in