Marietta daily leader. (Marietta, Ohio) 1895-1906, 1900-02-15
The Suwannee River.
Plttshnrg Times.

was way down" there. It is in Flcri-
da. and in his day It was an inaccesl-
bic country. II Is pretty hard to get
there still, and do not know any one
among my acquaintance who has ever
see nthis river. see no excursions
advertised for the Suwanee river, l |
see no articles in the newspapers raw
ing over its attractions and l am sure
that there are not so many people liv- |
ing upon its banks US live along the |
Allegheny, the Monongahela, the Sus-
quehanna, the Juniata, the Schuylkill |
or any other of the rivers of Pennsyl- !
vania. It's shores are not even as pop
ular or as populous as those of our
own blue Juniata,' though the latter
has also been celebrated in song.
But when it comes to estimating a
place by its value in song and senti
ment the obscure the inaccessible, the
unknown Suwanee river beats them
all. The popular songstress who wants
to catch an audience always sings it,
and everybody with the slightest ear
for music knows the air. 1t looks,
on the surface, as If the whole nation,
regardless of rank or condition, was
pining to be down on the Suwanee.
But they do not go there and the Su-
vance continue sto flow in compare
tive neglect into the gulf, with per-
haps no suspicion of its great celebrity
among the rivers of the country. The
particular Individual who is supposed
to be expressing himself in the song
tells us that "There is where my
heart is turning ever There can be
no objection to his announcement of
this fact, but why does he torture us
with his longing for this particular
stream. If there's where his heart
was turning ever" why was it that he
did not satisfy that perpetual longing
by going there?
OF course, it may be said that he
could not get there, owing to the mae
essibility of the locality, of which |
have already spoken, but this objec-
| tion Is disposed of in a subsequent
stanza of the song, where he says:
All up and down the whole creation
Sadly roam,
Still signing for the old plantation,
And for the old folks at home.
If he can roam "up and down the
whole creation" a feat of wandering
which none of us can hope to emulate,
why can he not wander down to the
old plantation on the Suwanee? 1t is
within the bounds of creation and far
easier to wander to than many other
portions of the universe. 1t is difficult
to arrive at any other conclusion thar
that he is deceiving us; that hereally
and truly does want to get to the old
plantation at all, and that as sort OF
press agent Of the Suwannee he is try
ing to give it fictitious reputation.
Bue the song goes, and will doubt
less continue to go, in spite of these
glaring discrepancies, an din spite OF
the assertion of the singer that he is
eating his heart for the old plantation,
but nevertheless "wanders up and
down the whole creation" emitting
only this one spot. But he is not sim
gular in that. The singers of songs
are constantly prattling about the old
plantation, the old home and the old
neighborhood They are signing and
crying and pouring out their souls in
sentiment, but while no one is holding
them, they never go there. With
Gray they are always saying:
Ye happy fields, unknown to noise and
strife,
The kind rewarders of industrious
life;
Ye shady woods where once l used to
rove,
Alike lndulgent to the muse and love;
Ye murmuring streams that in me-
anders roll,
| The sweet composers of the pensive
soul,
Farewell! The city calls me from
your bowers;
Farewell, amusing thought and peace
full hours.
Now why did Gray bid farewell to
the blowers" and 'murmuring
streams?" Ii he was seeking happi-
ness surely he would stay where it was
to be found. 1t Is net to be presumed
that he was talking just to hear him
self talk, and that when the city call
ed him from the bowers he went to
seek more complete happiness there?
1t is a fact that quite fully SO out of
100 of the poems about the delights
and the happiness of the country have
been written by men who lived in the
city, but as a rule they continued to
live in the city to the end OF their
days. Even those people who dc not
write poems or songs are continually
prating about the delights of the
country, yet not one in 1000 of them
ever goes back to 1t, though, like the
individual in the Suwannee river song
they may have the leisure and the
means to wander up and down the
whole creation" Now l am net the
press agent for any rival of the Su-
wannee river, neither am l attempting
to di mthe fame of Stephen Foster or
any other poet or song writer; but l
am just inquiring why it is that men
and women are all the time extolling
the country, and the old creeks and
rivers and homesteads and neighbor-
hoods. when they have not only delib-