The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1901-08-07
Portman Letter.


for the pleasure forcgone in not having
been able to supply to the Intelligencer
the usual POrtman weekly.
THIS correspondent had boon over most
OF the ground 80 graphically-in an agri.
cultural sense-depcted by the Colorado
writer; noticed all the rejecting beauty
CT tree and grass and we'll naatu-st, sur
face. but noticed also other attractions
and indeed what might be dttrsctions
If possible-and distractions in fact-to-
ward which digression Miss Earle in ad.
dition to her agrarian views and impIes-
sions had little space in print.
The cities, especially, are not new to
the present correspondent, but they are
always impressive. They apotheosize
man, they lift his feet out Of the mire and
clay OF common structure, and set him
upon rock of creative impulses. They
lift his head from the common atmos-
phere OF bnsor consciousness and place it
among the stars. Never have we been
brought beneath the dome of q spire-
pierced sky, within the confines of great
banked phalanxes Of stone, guarding as
sentinels their street thoroughfare from
extinction, of towers of brick that rise
like Pisa the illumination of imultitudes
at night, of crushing. massing, creaking,
straining, vibrating monsters of ma
chinery that from basement to oupalo
wind and wrench and turn the affairs,
the finances, the accidental or predestined
destiny ofperhaps C million people but
we have said, CHOW wonderful ia manv'
The genius, MAN, has large amount Of
small things abuut him; he may be an
ant hiu, or ant mountain sometime; but
he Is q hill or mountain the same, and he
Will never cease to be this until the
Creator reconstructs his organization.
Man Is great In spite of himself. He
tries to r. little, to bring himself down
to the lepol of the beasts; but God who
will not h. withouta representative In
earth say .s the species as an earnest Of
what men may become in tho City not
made with hands.
This view OF the city and man in con-
junction with each other has always been
, sublime and pathetic condolences
moral fact that raises man to such
supreme hight. his works to such dig
nifty In spite OF himself. There is moth
Ing visible in the country that deifies
man as the creation of city.
Then st. Louis, the lady in her letter
mentions this city. In print how pleas.
ant would have been her Impressions Of
that vast railroad terminus through
which she passed, how from Its sublime
groined arches it would seem that CEN
turtles were buzzlng their sympathetic
message to the present day. That pro-
gress was the tenor of the tune that was
vibrating through the steel and iron
girders, through the frescoed domes and
the interminabie, incessant movement of
night unto day, and day unto night, in
side and out Its 800 feet track frontage.
The tunnel also mile long-that' is
recalled. The trains run through this
under hundreds of thousands OF tons of
brick and granite buildings AMI granite
paving In the city. During day or night
the uninitiated wonder why in even the
closed atmosphere the train official comes
il and with hurried action tightly closes
every window and transom aud In the
daytime the apartment lights. Soon
the mystery is explained by the dumb
vibration of walls, and roofing overhead,
and in spite of all precautions a smother
Ing sensation of smoke in eyes and nos
trils and an ushering as into eternity into
hollow in the earth and what without
lights would be thick darkness.
Once in the daylight, however, there is
soon Joyous sensation Of crossing the
greatest steel bridge of its kind In the
world and looking down upon :ne
Fathe- of Waters, that Is never clear and
whose heavy, slow, pacing body looked
as though it was carrying all the waters
Of North America.
All these achievements are wonderful
works of man that relieved from his
play ground on the farm reveals unto
himself his greatness.
There Is something not worth remem-
bsring, especially if memory partakes OF
feeling, and that Ia the journey through
the southern portions of Indiana, Illi-
nois and Kentucky where the slow coach
train drags literally through fire and
smoke. Here The coal regions where
flames thick with carbon as q smoking
lamp throw their smoke splotches large
as mosquitoes all around from ear to
mouth, where everything is coal and
coke and black faced white men or me-
groes with lamps In their caps to light
them down the coal shafts The streams
or drains which are thick pour along
their little gullies like oil from q hot pan
and are brown red, floating iron scum
on their iepelling surface. The car ins
In the regions are the poorest, their win
dows stuffed with rags or framing the
most miserable faces of no pronounced
NATURALIZATION not negroes. Yet
few Of the prettisst blonde haired, lily
complexioned. blue-eyed girls ever re-
membered were laughing with compan-
ions, showing that beauty and plainpess
from no condition rise" nor typify any
State. r. r.