The Tupelo journal., 1903-03-06
much better, and the Philippines just
suits them exactly,

much better, and the Philippines just
suits them exactly.
But l am easy now, getting better
except on rainy days when the east
wind prevails-the same old east wind
that one of Jobs friends complained
about when he said: "Should a wise
man fill his belly with the east wind?"
L am getting stronger in my under
pins. Not long ago they were swollen
SO badly that away in the dead hours
of the night, while 1 was nodding in
my chair, L got up to see what time
it was, l lost my perpendicular and my
legs gave way and l fell in the fire with
the chair on top of me My wife heard
the racket and jumped from her bed,
and pulled me out. l did not get
burned, but bruised up my shoulder
where L struck the CRATE. And last
night while 1 was suffering in the alb
dominal regions she got a hot water
bag and placed it where it could do
most good, and | went off to sleep and
slept the sleep of the just until break
fast time, when all of a sudden the
bag burst and the hot water scalded me
amazingly before l could wake up.
/ halloed for help, and broke up the
breakfast, for they all came running,
and had to strip off my garments and
change the sheets and everything, and
had liked to have skinned me as clean
as a hog, for the water was still as hot
as fire. And so between fire and hot
water / consider myself an injured per-
son, but my wife thinks the scalding
did me good and increased the alacrity
of my movements.
But | am still calm and serene again
and enjoying the good reading sent me
by my good friends, Or. j. Win Jones
and T. X. Oglesby. Both books are
mastery indications of the south,
and between these two men | feel like
| am poised between the pill
lars of Hercules. Every truth
is double plated, and every rivet
clinched. Then there is my good
old friend, DR.. Ward, of Winona, Miss,
who stands in the breach and defends
us from all assaults. We have not had
since the wal so much good southern
literature as we have now. There are
George C. Smith and DR.. Massey and
Jim Galloway and Wallace Putnam
Reid, who are full of memories of the
good old times and the good old people.
How sweetlydid DR.. Massey's sketch of
Judge William c. DAWSON carry me
back to my college days when his boys,
Oscar and Edgar, were my college
,,D+o. and tho nnn6 old man mead 20
come to Athens to see them and fon-
die over them and used to talk to us in
our Phi Kappa society and gave us af-
f~ectionate counsel. These biograph-
ical sketches of our noble men are
most delightful reading, especially to
those who, like myself, were the con-
temporaries of many of them.
But | must stop now and rest. 1t
will not do for an old man to strain
his mind. Every little while my wife
says: "Now, get up and walk about
some," and l do it. She wants me to
dance the Elephantiosis or the Buzzard
Lope, and says | am getting better and
better every day., But some of these
old poems keep running in my mind:
When he was in his prime
Ere the pruning knife of time
Cut him down.
Not a better man was found
By the Waterman on his round
Through the town.
But now his nose is thin
And is pointing to his chin
Like a staff.
And a crook is in his back
And a melancholy crack
In his laugh"
Bill Arp, in Atlanta Constitution.