The Savannah morning news., 1902-12-21
CHAPTER 1.
CHAPTER /.
THE YOUNG MAN WHO CAME TO
STAY.

travellers, RldnCl0g from CdF-WlnOOWSs
shudder and return their eyes to in
terror upholstery preferring even the
swaying caparisons of a Pullman to
the monotony without. The landscape
lies interminably level: bleak in win
ter, desolate plain of mud and snow;
hot and dusty in summer, in its fiat
lonesomeness, miles on miles with not
one cool hill slope away from the sun.
The persistent tourist who seeks for
signs of man in this sad expanse per
ceives a reckless amount of rail fence;
at intervals a large barn; and, here
and there, man himself, injurious. pa
tient, slow, looking up from the fields
alphabetically as the Limited flies by.
Widely separated from each other are
small frame railway stations-some-
times with no other building in sight,
which indicates that somewhere be-
hind the adjacent woods a few shan
ties and thin cottages are grouped
about a couple of brick stores.
on the station platforms there are
always two or three wooden packing
boxes, apparently marked for travel,
but they are sacred from disturbance
and remain on the platform forever:
possibly the right train never comes
along. They serve to enthrone Few
station loafers who look out from un-
der their hat-brims at the faces in the
windows with the languid scorn
a permanent fixture always has for
transient. and the pity an American
feels for fellow-being who does not
nd
train passes town built scatteringly
about a courthouse, with a mill or two
humming near the tracks. This is a
county-seat, and the inhabitants and
the local papers refer to 1t confidently
as "our city" The heart of the fiat
lands is a central area called Carlow
County. and the county-seat of Carlow
is a town unhappily named In honor OF
its first settler. William Platt, who
christened it with his blood. Natives OF
this place have sometimes remarked.
easily, that their city had population
of from five to six thousand souls. 1t
is easy to forgive them for such state
ments: civic pride is virtue.
The social and business energy of
Plattviue concentrates on the Square.
Here, in summer time. the gentlemen
are wont to lounge from store to store
in their shirt sleeves: and here stood
the old, red-brick courthouse. loosely
fenced in a shady grove of maple and
elno-"slipp'ry ellum"-called the
"Court-House Yard" When the sun
grew too hot for the drygoods box
whittlers in front of the stone around
the square and the occupants of the
chairs on front of the Pal
ace hotel on the corner, they
would go across and drape themselves
- 1nHar the
trees and leisurely carve their initials
on the top board. The farmers hitched
their teams to the fence. for there
were usually loafers energetic enough
to shout whoa" If the flies worried
the horses beyond patience. In the
yard, amongst the weeds and tall, I'M
kempt grass, chickens foraged all day
long: the fence was so low that the
most matronly hen flew over with pro-
priety and there were gaps that ac-
commodated the passage of itinerant
pigs. Most of the latter, however, pre-
ferrcd the cool wallows of the less i'm
portant street corners. Here and there
a big dog lay asleep in the middle of
the road. knowing well that the easy
going Samaritan. in his case. would
pass by on the other side.
Only one street attained to the dig
nifty of a name-Main street. which
formed the north side of the Square.
In Carlow county. descriptive location
is usually accomplished by designating
the adjacent. as. UP at Bardlocks.."
"Down by Schofields',' Right where
Hibhards i've" "Acrost from Sol.
Tibb's." or. "Other side of Jones
Field" In winter. Main street was a
series of frozen gorges and hummocks;
in fall and spring, n river of mud: in
summer continuing dust baan. II
was the best street in Plattville.
The people lived happily; and, while
the world whirled on outside, they
were content with their own. 1t would
have moved their surprise as much as
their indignation to hear themselves
spoken of as a secluded community"
for they sat up all night to hear the
vote of New York. every campaign.
Once when the President visited
Rouen, seventy miles away, there were
only few bankrupts land not baby
amongst them) left in the deserted
homes of Carlow county. Everybody
had adventures; almost everybody saw
the great man; and everybody was
glad to get back home again. 1t was
the longest journey some of them ever
set upon, and these elated as they
were over their travels. determined to
think twice ere they went that far
from home another time.
On Saturdays, the farmers, enlivened
the commercial atmosphere of Platt-
vile; and Miss Tibbs, the postmasters
sister and clerk, used to make a point
OF walking up and down Main street
as often as possible, to get a thrill in
the realization of some poetical express
sions that haunted her pleasingly;
phrases she had employed frequently
In her poems for the Carlow County
Herald" When thirty or forty country
people were scattered along the side
walks in front of the stores on Main
street, she would walk at nicely calcu-
lated angles to the different groups so
as to leave as few gaps as possible be-
tween the figures, making them appear
as near solid phalanx as she could
Then she would murmur to herself,
with the accent OF. soulful revel. THE
thronged city streets" and. within
the thronged CITY," or, Where the
thronging crowds were swarming and
the great cathedral rose" Although
she had never been beyond Carlow and
the bordering counties in her life, all
her poems were of city streets and
bustllng multitudes. She was one OF
those who had been unable to Join the
excursion to Rouen when the Presi-
dent was there. but she had listened
svidly to her friends descriptions OF
the crowds. Before that time her muse
had been sylvan. speaking OF "Flow'rs
OF May" and limiting at thoughts that
o'ereame her when she roved the
woodlands thrO'. but now the insDi-
ration was become decidedly munich
pal and urban. evidently reluctant 70
depart beyond the retail portions Of a
metropolis. Her verses beginning, 80,
my native city. bride 81 Hibbard's
winding stream, "-isfbbard's Creek
runs west 81 Plattyiiie, except IN time
q MIlILuILI - LLLl.--. -. .-..-.L.a L.