The sea coast echo. [volume] (Bay Saint Louis, Miss.) 1892-current, 1900-09-22
THE ONLY GULF COAST.
WHERE EARTH SEEMS IN LOVE
WITH HEAVEN.
Where the Salt Air Steals
the Honey from the Flow
ers Where Silver Streams
Steal Over Snow White
Sands, and Where the Poet
May Gaze and Rest His
Soul.

NAoJ NuHO ullu hcoU Ills
Soul.
Extracts from "Gulf Coast Winter Resorts, :,
advertising matter issued by the L. & N. Ran.
road Company:
For sunny scenes in sunny
lands. commend me to the trip
from Mobile to New Orleans over
the Tourists Route, the Ellen N.
A trip over the road once made
remains in the.memory like mu-
sic which has died upon the ear,
yet lives with melody within the
vaulted sanctuary of the soul.
Tho recollection of it calls up
balmy woods of signing pine
trees, where the breezes which
play upon the harp of nature
are sweet with balsam and heavy
with the ozone Of the salt sea wa
ter. Then there are somber for
ests where the long moss trails
from live-oak boughs, and touches
with gray fringe the thick bush of
the jungle, and the open fingers
of palmettos reaching FOR the sun.
And out Of this one sweeps into
the open lands, where overhead n
tender sky bends down so you can
almost touch its blue; and far
away the bright green waters of
the gulf rise up to blend with
heaven and laugh through all the
intervening distance as the nimble
sunbeams strive to catch the
white foam of the bursting bill
lows. It isa poem and O romance
For long miles nature dreams, or,
half walking, dallies with the
sweet embodiment of tropic fan
cies. Earth seems in love with
heaven as it lies dangerously gag
ing upward, and heaven bends
down, smiling with sunlight, TO
kiss the warm, full pouting lips
of the earth. Man loves and longs
as he beholds the scene; and,
watching the swell of the full
breasted sea and the fecmd pas
sion of the blossoming land, he
finds the warm kisses of the
sun .tlngling upon his own lips
till his heart is like garden
of rosebuds, and his spirit
is filled with the fragrance of
orange blossoms. Yes, he loves
and longs: He loves he knows
not what --he longs for an infinity
of such love, let it bear what fruit
it may; for out of tho cold north
he has come with the frost upon
his heart, aud the happy sun has
melted it, and the fountain of a
long-forgotten youth sends strong
currents pulsing and bubbling
through his veins. Gray of beard
he may be, and scant of locks as
he who brouget the bears to feast
upon the small boys who mocked
his badness, but nimble fancy
weaves the threads of retrospect
together into pictures of long ago,
and his old arms reach out into
the air to clasp soft waists that
have eluded him when all the
world was young. He smiles at
his own folly, and, smiling still,
he, mutters to himself, 'Juventus
mundi! Ahl eheul ehue! me mise
ratum.
"The miles are long-all miles
are long-but here the winter
tourist knows it not. Behind him
lie the northland SHOWS, and here
the sea foam CLEANS and all the
earth is frosted with the drifted
balm of creamy orange blossoms.
The earth is welded with the sky,
and in the yielding atmosphere
they hold their nuptiaI dalliance;
rosebuds and broad magnolias
bloom and scented blossoms of
the bay tree spring up-sweet
children of the sun and soil-for
heaven smiles soft benedictio1 on
them all the day, and all the night
the chaste moon filings her golden
glory, like a covering Of woven
dreams, about their slumbers.
Come when he will, come how he
may, it matters not, for heaven
hngers on the land, and on the
shore the soft waves skinner
with smile that breaks in laugh
ter as they kiss the beach.
Resinous pine and sturdy oak
and stubborn cypress trees spring
from the fecund earth; red berries
gleam from out the depths of dark
green leaves whose emerald knows
no russet painting of the autumn;
small silver streams creep over
snow white sands to seek the bo.
som of the sea; the salt air steals
the honey Of the flowers and
bears the balm of Gilead in its
breath, and robS the radiant, sun
beams of their genial glow and
lays its scented hands upon the
lips SO softly that you deem its
finger tips glvyed with new rose
leaves from the gardens of Gulis-
tan. Let him who will paint a
more perfect paradise if he can.
The poets eye looks upon this
and rests; his soul is satisfied.
Bay st. Louis Is next reached
by crossing an arm of the bay of
the same name, 1t has magnifi-
cent shell drives along its entire
frontage of eight or ten miles,
which are bordered with hand
some residences and extensive
boarding houses. Yachting and
rowing may be practiced both in