Lexington gazette. [volume] (Lexington, Va.) 1871-1962, 1904-10-12
DREAMING DREAMS
Musings in the Lovely Parks of
Lexington


ton, writes as follows in recent
issue Of the Nashville Christian
Advocate
| sat under wide-spreading
tree on the Washington and Lee
campus upon summer forenoon.
The students had all gone. The
grass was as smooth as n carIet,
and the immense spots of dark
green, which were visible as far
as / could see, marked where the
thick foliage of the elms and lin
den threw shadows on the light
green sward. The robins hoped
about undisturbed or called shriI-
ly from the trees. The light winds
of July gave every leaf tongue,
and from the boughs Of hundreds
Of trees came music as of surf up
on the sandy beach. o these ma
tuI e.vOices (! What mysterious
things they are The atmosphere
was so clear that House Mountain,
just back of me, seemed but few
hundred yards away. A single
soft, snowy cloud fioated eastward
beneath the azure vault. 1t was
not time to study, but to brood.
Perhaps there is no luxury equal
to the delight such a day, amidst
such scenes, gives to the senses Of
man.
/ had just walked as far as the
grounds of the Virginia Military
Institute, where the lawn, lately
alive with the boys in gay attire
marching as possessed of one soul,
was as silent as sentinel. A
group of children in white played
at some distance, and an old man,
likely an old student, walked
leisurely along, as though dream
ing of other days. The clock in
the tower struck, but there were
none to answer. wandered back
to the University campus and
thought of that strange, awkward,
punctiliously military, yet physi-
cally very unmiitary mar, whose
excitement over a drill, it is said,
was so great, and his imagination
so keen, that he would forget and
call the boys who pulled the can
non "horses :" the man who was
the butt of many joke, and not
q little ridicule on accOut of his
serious manner and baggy trousers,
as well as big feet. He seemed
again to walk on the old drilling
ground, yet not now the "Major,"
the teacher of natural philosophy,
but the world-known military
genius, "Stonewall" Jackson.
Once again near the old Wash
ington and Lee chapel, l entered
the little study, where all is dust
covered, but where an old leath-
er.covered, green chair, pushed
slightly back from writing table,
indicates that the man who left
the room vert in answer to some
call ard would return shortly.
That empty chair has affected me
strangely. Step across the pas
sage and you see the tomb of the
man who left the study, never
again to enter it. A step only be-
tween life and death, work and
rest!
On this glorious forenoon, while
all was still, ] could see the fault
less form Of Robert +. Lee passing
from that study to his home near
where | sat, and | thought Of the
two men whose lives are linked
forever in the history of a great
conflict, and who are here asso-
ciated forever in these two institu-
tions of Learning. Lee and Jack
son 1t il surely enough for one
town to boast that it holds the
ashes of these.
The people who have eyes to see
and see not, and ears to hear and
not, go to the Natural Bridge to
see the eagle or the Indian mark
ed on the rocks in the arch; they
visit Niagara to hear how many
gallons CT water come over every
minute, or how many cities could
be lighted by power generated
from this point. Bath tubs, elec.
trio lights, three full meals-these
constitute life!
What many of our people need
is to cultivate the poetical-the
ability to "see things hidden
from sordid eyes. Gibbon brooded
amid the ruins Of Rome till, mus
ing alone one day, the inspiration
came to write the "Decline and
FALL" Burns, walking on the
walls Of Stirling Castle one even
ing, became suddenly very quiet
and wrote out, by the next day,
"Scots what haze wi Wallace
bled." John Henry Newman, on
the ocean, bordering upon spiritual
things and praying for light, wrote
LEAD, Kindly Light. - Even
Charles Wesley, who could pro-
duce doggsrel enough at times,
was aroused at the sight of Lands
End to write, "Lo, on the Narrow
Neck of Land" containing as it
does real fire and insight.
The sum of it all is this: Cut
out Lee and Jackson from the
beautiful campus where l sat, and
yo,, hova fakan from IL somathin q