The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1908-05-30
Copyright by Joseph B. Bowles.)

Then the doors of the church would
open and the people inside would
slowly emerge for the last rites in the
drama Of Uncle Billy"
Country churchyards are generally
very beautiful spots, and flowers grow
in them on all sides. The sense of an
eternal Sabbath seems brooding
among the white headstones and over
the soft, grassy mounds that heave
between the quiet paths.
When we did not go to church we
used to drift of to the woods and lie
down under the century-old oaks and
watch the sunshine sift down on the
grass and the leaves. There was an
indescribable sense Of perspective in
looking into the tops of these wood
land elders and wondering just what
life and color and motion had passed
before them in long review since the
time when the tree first sprung as a
sapling from the hillsides.
One of these oaks slanted from an
abrupt slope towards shallow creek,
and under 1t spring dubbed up,
where watercresses grew, and where
the meadow-frogs rendezvoued. To
this spring resorted sundry catbirds,
jays and robins, fitting their heads
back and draining the cool water with
a particular relish. Fox squirrels
scampered up and down the broad in
cline of this great tree, and occasional
ly wayfaring crows perched in the top
most branches. The grass beneath it
was thick and soft, and a continual
breeze seemed ever-present in its up
per twigs, however still the air was at
its base. 1t was a veritable cloister.
The groves were Gods first temples; ere
man learned
To hew the shaft. and lay the archi-
trave"
And many an hour we dreamed and
unused under the shade of this forest
leviathan until the waning sun threw
shadows down from western battle
ments.
In the pastures and meadows the
sheep nibbled, budding in woolly
mass at the approach of any intruder,
and dashing away in panic at the sight
Of dog. Cattle grazed on the slopes,
Or. at the approach Of noon, chewed
the cud In the shade of elms and
naples.
After church was over the Sunday
schools took up, and the children sang
Sunday school hymns and studied or
-ecited their lessons until the time
;ame for them to go home. The usual
custom after church was to go visit
n.y." This meant another hitching up
IF the horses and a trip of from three
% seven miles to some neighbor's,
here to unhitch and stay to supper
md to sit around and discuss all the
Jews of the neighborhood.
The morning sermons are thrashed
'ver, the funeral, II there has been
me, carefully gone over. and the ante
'edents of the deceased, and of his
relatives commented on.
crops always furnish q fruitful theme
or argument or prophecy, and the
men and the women invariably sep
rate and talk In different groups. The
men often gravitate to the barn, the
to the parlor, and the children
Usually play in the yards. Visiting"
s one Of the tokens of society among
he married folks. and the organ is
pressed into service and a
title Sunday music and singing In
lulged In. A girl who can play the
rgan well has an accomplishment
which is considered an enviable one
q the country.
The advent Of some one from q dis
ant settlement always is hailed with
reat interest, and / have seen such
n arrival cross-questioned at length
y group Of interested bystanders. A
nan like that usually has a grist of |
resh news to dispense, and until he is
umped dry IL an object of general In
crest.
One of the peculiarities in life in |
he country is the fact that a great |
lany families are related to one an
Their by marriage, and nearly every
ody is everybody else's thirty-second |
ousin. The result is that there is a
ort of tab" kept by each person on
II the births. deaths and marriages
lat occur in the surrounding counties,
nd the interest manifested never
rows less on account of this distant
relationship.
Even when man takes his family
I'D moves to another state he general
takes his old paper. just to see how
lings are progressing in his old coun-
:. and when he comes back, as he
ten does, to take up his residence in
lie same neighborhood from whence
, formerly departed. he is "up to
lite" as to the neighborhood happen
gs. and can tell just who has died,
hos been married, and all other
ems Of local moment.
These Sunday 'visitings" are the
ee-for-all debating societies of the
strict. and friendships are cemented
feuds started at them ACCORDING m |