Times-promoter., 1903-01-02

h1gh tops or those trees seemed TO
reach the sky and men and women
walked and children played under
their shade, but not human being
in that town remembered him or knew
who planted those trees. He found
one old schoolmate, but he was blind
and in the poor house. Fifty-fye
j years ago when / first visited the lit
tie town of Rome / noticed a good
old man by the name of Smith ohm
ny Smith he was called-and he, too,
was planting little trees around the
churches. He was n lover of ornament
and he was doing it without pay, but
not without reward. They grew apace
and gave some shade before he died,
and kept on growing until they, too,
almost reached the sky and are
I, still there, a living, breathing monu-
ment to the good old man. But who
knows who planted them-who be-
sides myself? And there is my old
| friend and partner, Judge Branham,
who for 25 years has been working on
that beautiful cemetery on Myrtle
/ hill-making new walks and grading
them, laying off lots on the new pur-
chase, building walls on the steep
slopes, planting trees and flowers and
in many ways ornamentlng and
beautifying the city of the dead.
Within few more years he will be
one of it's sleeping citizens and later
on another generation will frequent
the romantic place and wonder who
shaped it into beauty, and nobody can
tell. DR.. Johnson said that every man
ought to plant tree or write book
or do something for the benefit and
comfort of those who are to live after
he is dead. Our forefathers did much
for u.s." he said, ''and we must pay the
debit
Last week our school girl wanted a
speech. Her mother and | ransacked
the books for one that was short and
sweet, and we selected three or four
to choose from. There was Mrs.
Heman's beautiful poem on '"Death:"
Leaves have their time to fall,
And flowers to wither at the north winds
breath
Then there was part of 'The Fish$
erman's Prayer" by Jean Ingelow, and
''The Last Leaf" by Oliver w. Holiness
which was not so solemn and liked it
the best. 1t just fits man l know,
and / never see him but what / think
of those sad and humorous verses:
81 saw him once before-as he passed by
the door
And again,
The paving stones resound as he totters
Ger the ground
With his cane,
And now he walks the streets and looks at
those he meets,
Sad and wan;
And he shakes his feeble head and it seems
as if he said:
They are gone!
The mossy marblesrest on the lips that he
had pressed
In their bloom,
And the names he loved to hear have been
carved for many ayear
On, ,the tomb
Our old man is in his ninetieth year,
and has seen trouble. He is tall and
STOPPING, and steps short and sure. His
friends are all dead, but he goes about
with long cane, and looks hard at
you when you stop to greet him, and
then he tries to smile, ii he knows
you.
when he was in his prime-ere the prun-
ing knife of Time
Cut him Gown
Not a better man was found by the crier
on his round
Through the town;
But now his nose is thin and it rests upon
his chin
Like staff,
And a crook is in his back and a melan-
choly crack
Is in hisaaugh."
Then the poet repents, and says:
Il know it is sin for me to sit and grin
AT him here;
But his old-fashioned hat and his breeches
and all that,
Are so queer
And now it becomes me to apologize
10 the readers of my recent letter, and
tell them that friend from Augusta
las supplied the missing links in my
history of the presidents.
Franklin Pierce's mother was Anna
Aendrick.
James Buchanan's mother was Eliz-
beth Speer.
Benjamin Harrison's mother was
elizabeth Irwin.
Millard Filmore's wife was Abigail
oowers.
Buchanan was the only bachelor
PRESIDENT.
And Alfred Iverson was United States
enator in 1861, instead of Ben Hill.
When / wrote that letter was la
'oring under some little excitement,
or that morning about four a. m. the
burglars got into our house and
,erused the front rooms and hall and
pstairs and found nothing they want
d. There was a feeble light in our
and they could see my pants