The free press. (Poplarville, Miss.) 1890-19??, 1900-11-15
BILL ARP'S LETTER
Takes a Trip Over the Georgia
Road From Atlanta to Augusta.
lie ELIMINATES ABOUT OLDEN TINES
a "sIicls" Scheme BY which He Came
Into Posses"ion of Some Railroad
Stock III His Young Days.


iourneyed on the old Georgia Railroad
from Atlanta to Augusta. 1t was the
first railroad [ ever saw and travelled
on. Ny good old father was one OF
the original stockholders. He sub
scribed $1,000 and paid it as it was
called for. In those days roads were
not built on bonds or questionable,
mysterious schemes. There was no
preferred stock or income bonds or
first and second mortgages, but every
thing was simple, plain and honest. J
have great reverence for that road. l
lived in Imwrenceville while it was
being built. Stone Mountain was our
nearest depot, and it was there I first
ventured to board train as L jour
neyed to Athens to enter college.
How solemn, how inspiring was that
ride. I remember that it seemed to
me that the trees and fences and farms
and habitations were all moving swift
~ backwards, while the train seemed
to be still and quivering on its track.
[ had the same feeling the first time l
ever went up in an elevator. 1t was
at the Gilsey House, in New York,
and I was not conscious of going up,
but thought the hotel was rapidly de-
scending into some subterranean cav
ity. Young people nowadays have no
such experience. They do not re-
member the time when there were nc
railroads or tele graphs, nor sewing
machines or cooking stoves, or match,
es or steel pens, and therefore they
cannot appreciate or be grateful for
the blessings they enjoy.
As we neared Stone Mountain and
I looked upon its bald, majestic sum-
nit 7 was carried back in memory to
the delightful days OF 10y youth, when
nearly sixty years ago that mountain
was our trysting place, and boys and
girls iourneyed there sixteen miles
from Lawrenceyille and spent happy
day and while there and on the way
we reyeled IL loves young dream and
eyes looked love to eyes that spoke
again I remember when there was
II LOW CT Oh Ol!db LlO az az . ~ 20 ~ W
err $50 feet high, whose slender top
did sometimes touch the clouds, and
it was built by Aaron Cloud, whose
very name made him a fitting archi-
tect. 1t was the first skyscraper ever
built in Georgia.
remember the delightful day when
brunette lassie with hazel eyes and
Indian hair assembled those winding
stairs with rae and as we sat together
on its dizzy pinnacle I thought l was
little nearer heaven than l had ever
been before. Under pretense OF shield
ing her from harm, 1 half enclosed
her with my arm and the palpitating
lace upon her bosom told me how fast
her heart was beating, and there al
most in the clouds we plighted our
troth. I remember when one winter
night the storm came and the rain de-
scended and the winds blew, ana that
towel fell and great was the fall of 1t.
I remember when there was a fine
hotel at the base of that mountain and
one night there was ball on the spaci-
GUS dining room, and "bright the lights
shone DER fair women and brave men"
and for the first time saw that queen
~ girl whom the boys called Becky
Lattimer, and whose dashing beauty
drew them to her as molasses draws
flies. Her father lived not far away,
substantial farmer, and a few years
later "our Becky" became Mrs. Rebec-
ah FELTON,, the wife of the learned and
eloquent doctor of Gainesville. l re-
member when that great solid mount
ain of granite seemed larger-yes,
much largar-than it looks to be now.
for was young then aud nature had
not begun to shrink with me. Every
thing is smaller now and every year
gets smaller still. As Pope says of the
dying Christian, 1.-The world recedes
it disappears, and so it will to
those who die of old age. Tom Hood
expressed it beautifully and patheti
cally when he said;
81 remember. I remember the fir trees
dark and high,
l used to think their slender tops were close
against the sky,
But now I'm growing older and find it
little joy
To know I'm farther off from heaven than
when was a boy"
L remember that historical town
called Madison, where many of my
college mates lived. They are all
gone now, not one is left to comfort
me in my declining years. 1t was
here l saw this railroad when was
boy of fourteen, and it was completed
to Madison. What a sensation of won
der and alarm as looked at the huge
leviathan that came putting down the
track with train behind it, My
father had to hold my hand, for |
trembled lest it should jump the track
and kill us all.
My father was proud of that road
proud because he helped to build it.
He kept that stock for II years with
out receiving dividend The stock
went down, down, down, till it reach