The Tupelo journal. (Tupelo, Miss.) 1876-1924, 1907-05-10

udS lIlVdUCO tIlC SdCTGu pICClIlCCS
of home, and taken our wives
and our daughters from their ac.
customed places by the fireside
and thrust them into the vortex
Of this ever outreaching mael-
strom.
But | started out to tell Of the
beauty and glory of the woods
by the way last November when
/ made my business trip into the
country. It was a beautiful day,
such a day as only the Southland
can furnish at this season Of the
year, the sky clear. but mellow
ed by touch of haze, with the
breeze just sufficient to fan the
hanging leaves or the broom
grass tussocked among the tim
Der. Here to the left in ever
widening stretches were prime
val oak and hickory, with an oc-
casional chestnut full of fruit, the
leaves just tinging with brown;
dotting the landscape at irregu-
lar distances, stood the gum with
it's foliage of carnation, while the
dogwood, which has such snow
white blooms in the spring, fash
ed it's red leaves and redder ber-
ries to view, like a pigmy among
giants. The whole landscape
was one panoramic view of va
rying colors, from the green of
the oak, the brown of the hick-
ory, the carnation Of the gum to
the mixed green and brown of
the chestnut. And as | moved
along, the scene changed with
the varying of the hill and dale,
and | said to myself as | stopped
and drank in the beauty of the
scene, Whose hand gave so del
icate and varied a touch to these
trees, shrubs and flowers? The
master painter of earth could
never make a wild flower of the
forest. The most wonderful
landscape painter whose brush
ever touched canvas has never
been able to make forest scene
stand out in freshness and glory
like this" You look again, and
the freshness and the vividness
of the scene before you tran
scends all canvas painting man
has ever been able to do. You
look in vain for the leaf shaken
by the wind on the canvas board,
but see and love it in the forest
before you. The trees, the birds
chirping in their boughs, the
squirrel frisking from limb to
limb, the many-tinted leaves
waving in the breeze and glis-
tening in the sunshine, each and
all declare that their Maker is
Divine. Resuming my travel,
and coming back to business,
which | had in the meantime
forgotten, felt a distinct drop
from the ethereal to the earthly.
AS l finished my business and
returned home, thought often
by the wayside why can we not
lay aside business ever and anon
and go into the, woods and the
groves and commune with ma
ture and natures God? Is there
no place this side of the grave
where we may lay aside business
for a time, and wander by the
purling brook, and listen to the
carol of the birds in the tree
tops, and gaze on the gnarled
trunks of the great trees Of the
forest, and gather the grapes
from the intertwining vines and
the scalys as they fall from the
trees, and watch the squirrel as
he cracks the nuts and hides the
acorn for his winter use, and
shake the simmons from the
the trees, and touch the red ber-
ries of the sumach to the tongue?
Oh! let us occasionally forget all
the wear and tear and worry of
business and seek to build up
our bodies and strengthen and
elevate our souls by communing
with nature.
Col. w. l.. CLAYTON