The leader., 1899-05-10
FROM OLD FRIENDS.
Bill Arp Receives Letters That Re
call the Long Ago.
The Public Easily Forgets Its Pio-
nccrs-yoIumes That belonged
TO MeIanchtbon "A Latin
Phrase Puzzles Arp.

Almost every DAY brings good, kInd
letter from some venerable man who is
lonesome or has a community of inter
est with me. and wishes TO write, for lie
knows that | will listen. There are
many more of them living than
thought, for Old men grow silent as
they near the end. They ponder and
ruminate, but make no noise. Provi-
dence is kind in giving 10 most of them
| children and children's children TO COM
fort them and to brighten up the pass
ing hours. An old man must be forlorn,
| indeed, who has none of these. Charles
Lamb, in his old and mellow days, wrote
sadly when he said:
Where are my playmates. the com
| panions of my childhood in the joyful
school days. All, all are gone--the old
| familiar faces gone before me to that
unknown and silent shore" But Lamb
was wifeless and chilclless and had a
right to he sad. lie should have adopted
some bright little orphan child who
would love him and call him father and
cling TO him in his declining years.
| Every old bachelor should.
| | have just received a good. long let
| ter from an old and forgotten friend
whom | knew in the long ago and sup
| posed was dead. lie is nearing his four
score years. but writes the same old
schoolmaster hand that his generation
| were taught to write He is i'm good
health and strong of mind and loves to
commune with memories Of the past
| the halcyon days, as he calls them.
wonder how many college boys know
that the pretty word halcyon comes
| from two Greek words that mean the
sea and an egg. When the elder duck
lays her eggs on the cliffs by the sea.
| il is always warm and pleasant weather.
and hence came the word haicyon-als,
| the sea, and Don. an egg. My friends
name is j. j. Richards. and he is the
| survivor of the three brothers William
{. and +. addison Richards, who were
| our foremost literary men away back in
the forties. They published Georgia
| Illustrated, and the Orion Magazine,
| and many beautiful legends of the Cher
okee Indians. This brother published
war paper called The Soldiers Friend,
| Of which | have some copies issued in
1864, in Augusta, Ga, and are little
gems. both in editorial and selected
matter. He now lives not far from Me-
| pherSon barracks. near Atlanta, and is
| the postmaster at Golden Gate. and still
| finds time and pleasure in writing po-
etry when the spirit moves him. He,
| too, has added some verses to John An
derson. Ny joe" These old men do not
| like the way that Burns left John and
his spouse sleeping at the foot of the
| hill, but want them to rise again and en-
JOY Heaven.
Wallace Reed ought to go out to that
Golden Gate and interview Mr.. Rich
ards and chronicle some of his memo
ries, for he is about the only literary
| link between the present and the past.
These pioneers should not be forgotten.
| Most all pioneers are. We eat the fruit
of the orchards and Vineyards and take
no concern about who planted them.
Not dozen people in Rome, a city of
$4,000 people. know who planted the
trees that give such magnificent shade
around the churches. or who first laid
out and ornamented the beautiful Myr-
| tie hill cemetery. Who knows of the long
and patient toll of Mark \. Cooper in
developing and building up the iron in
| dustry OF Cherokee. Ga? What en-
gineer sought and found the winding
| way of a railroad from Atlanta to Chat
| tanooga nearly GO years ago and
| planned all its curves and spanned the
| rivers and creeks with bridges? Not
| long ago | asked Il conductor on the
Nashville & Chattanooga railroad to tell
| me who planned that magnificent work
across the Cumberland mountains. and
| he could not tell me. Who founded old
| Franklin college, now the University of
| Georgia. and who conceived and pro-
| iected the establishment of the Yves
| levan Female college, the first female
college in the world? The antiquaries
| and relic hunters will pay big prices
| for old things, such as ancient coins and
| furniture and curios, but care nothing
| for the pioneers of our civilization, the
men who cleared the wilderness and
blazed the way for the generations to
come. This reminds me that a one
| armed confederate soldier who is now
pinched with poverty wishes to sell
two very old Volumes that We're pub
| lished in 1542-the "Iliad" and "Odys-
sey" of Homer. The binding is in whit
| ish leather with raised images and
| flowers stamped on ii and the auto
graphs on the title page are Albert,
Prince Glen bavrie, and Philip Melanch-
thon. And there is Latin inscrip-
ton as follows: Sum johann Conrad
| Rheumati, 1915
| Now if this be Melanchthon' genuine
autograph these volumes are of great
historic value, for no greater man has
lived or died IN all these centurics-the
| man at whose feet Luther knelt in rev
erence, and OF whom Erasmus eN-
claimed: My God, how profound is
| his learning. how exalted is his virtue"
| These two, Luther and Melanchthon-
sleep side by side in Wittenberg and in
| SEQ the king of Prussia elevated over
his grave beautiful monuments
| duplicate of that over Luther's. l do
not know what evidence this veteran
| has that Melanchthon ever owned these
| ancient volumes, but | Will know. 1t /.
certain. however, that they were pub
lished in his day and he could have
| owned them.
The Latin inscription reminds'one Of
another that was sent to me for trans
lation not long ago by friend in Ala
bama. 1t is on the top of Il massive gold
| headed cane that is an heirloom in the
family. There is crown engraved
| upon the golden head and underneath
are these words: "Epis noe ebor."
which are not good Latin nor Greek, but
| suppose are authorizations. At any
rate they pass my comprehension. The
cane descended from a distinguished
Episcopal bishop of New York city. The
more try TO solve such problems the
more am convinced that "a little learn
ing is dangerous thing" viii not