Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1902-04-22
LETTER FROM THE SOUTH.
MAGNOLIA SPRINGS, ALA,
t,l.il = 1000
EDITOR PILoT

MAGNOLIA SPRINGS, ALA,
April S. 1902.
EDITOR PILoT
LII it were not that some of the tire es
are still in their first beauty of tender
yellow-green leaves one could easily
imagine it midsummer, rather than the
first of April The little wild flowers
covering the ground with brightness
are here in endless variety, but the
thing that impresses the eye first of al,
is the trees, so many of which afe white
and pink with bloom dogwood ti-ti
| fringe, azalia, II cannot name the rest
| The yellow jasemine trailing its
fragrant yellow beauty over tree and
busn was one of the first flowers out
and now just as we were mourning its
disappearance later growth of it has
burst ont upon us-a most pleasant sur
prise. The Cherokee roses are out
now and one comes upon them unex-
pectedly, Frightening some dark little
corner with their great white flowers.
But you should see the woods; they
cannot be described.
What do we find here for amnsements
What do we not hnd, rather. Certainly
we contrive with trips to the Gulf, boat
rides, sailing, bathing, fishing, picnics,
| parties, dances, golf, tennis, quoits,
and thousand other things, to keep
busy all the time. A trip was taken on
the Roberts one-half stormy day to
Sand Island, in the Gulf, just outside of
Mobile Bay; there we spent our time
listening to and watching the waves
dashing upon the beach, or gathering
sea shells, and cocoanuts washed
ashore from cocoanut ship wrecked
10 the storm of week before; into the
great lighthouse with its eight flights of
spiral staircase we aScended and were
rewarded by far-reaching view of the
gulf, and a glimpse, over the railing, of
our dimAutive friends on the sand be-
low. Another trip was made to Navy
Cove, on Mobile Bay, where walk of
qualter of a mile brings one to the
pounding, roaring Gulf waters, and one
of the attractions of that days events
was bathing in the salt water.
A favorite picnic place is at "Dyer's
Woods some four miles down the
river. There one may see many odd
sights, hear strange tales, and see some
grand old trees. 1t was during one of
those picnic trips that we were con-
Quoted BY "Chlotilde" and "Marie An
tolnette, " two small Creoles from fam
lily of eleven, TO see the largest pine
tree in the vicinity thro' the jasemine-
hung woods, over a fence, across great
slippery logs bridging a swamp. we
went to the tree which four of us,
stretching our arms to their utmost,
could barely encircle; the tree, so one
of our little guides informed us, was
dead (which we could see for our
selves it had been killed by man
who ''bo' he'd holes in it to see if it had
ha' ht;' we felt that man who would
destroy a tree like that deserved a
similar fate. Another time, upon a
grassy slope where an old house had
stood We found, enclosed by a rude log
fence, solitary grave, at its head, a
bridal wreath bush loaded with white
bloom, at its foot little green shrub.
Farther on, we viewed a supposedly
haunted house, well nigh fallen into
ruin, haunted by nothing more fear
some than lively little chameleons dart
ing out of sight at our approach.
But the best part of all the picnics we
had there was the narration of the
buried treasure by our guide, cook, and
all-round man for the day. | cannot
repeat his words, and the tale loses half
its charm thereby, but here it is in
brief:
Three years ago last September a
strange boat was seen on the river en-
tering a little creek not far from the
place where the events of this tale
transpired About midnight our guide,
who was across the river, saw I. light
over in these woods and took it to be
some midnight fish fry or lark of that
kind. The next morning he and an
other man, who had also seen the light,
came to the place and found hole
some five feet deep dug under a great
live oak tree, several OF the roots of the
tree having been sawed off during the
excavation, while in and near the hole
were fragments of a great earthen pot.
Our guide showed us the hole, now
partly filled with loose earth and leaves
and we saw the severed roots, several
inch es thick. Furthermore he related
how this tree once stood in the corner
of yard surrounding an old, old house,
fragments of whose hard floor yet re-
manned on the ground. MY uncle, 2"
said our guide, was eighty-seven year
oil when he died and be did not know
this house. But oil man ---, he was
older than my uncle, his father tot him
about this house, how it stood and how
it was made of logs chinked with moss
an clay with hard floor of this, kick
ing bit of the flooring. Pirates used
to come up this here river an | sup
pose they put the money there Many
time played all aroun' here when
was boy an never thought there was
any money buried under that OF oak
tree"
1t was romantic tale to listen to out
there under the trees with the very tree
and hole before our eyes, and the as
surance of our guides earnest French
twisted English to add to its mystery
He couldn't say how they knew that
the strange boat had carried off the
contents of the jar. nor how anyone
knew what the jar contained, but there
certainly had been pirates on the river,
the tree had stood IN one corner of the
old yard. and why should anyone have
come and dug such big deep hole and
sawed off roots of the tree and broken
up an earthen pot there, unless they
bad come to seek for gold and had
found its There was no refuting OF his
arguments, nor did we desire to dsbe-
lieve him; it was too charming story
to doubt In those woods.
This past month of March, Magnolia
| Springs has been full of people. Dur
| Ing the whole winter there Is a goodiy
population, but ii is March that drives
Northerners down here TO till the Inn
and its adjoining cottages until It over