The log cabin Democrat., 1909-09-28

Rivers are, great studies. They are as changeable as a woman. yet ever keep in the same general course. Con- fined within certain limits with moods that vary, they wander on, obedient to the laws that hold them to their course. They are sometimes tempes- tuous and careless as men, wiping out at one sweep the farms that have claimed their ancient channels and as serting once again the full sweep of their individuality. Sometimes they sleep the peaceful repose of babe At other times they burn away and leave but the bed, from which the fe- vered waters rise again to commence the elemental cycle of vapor, cloud, rain, rivulet and river And each of l these rivers has Its own individuality. Some are long; some large; some deep; some shallow; some quiet; some turbulent.
 The Arkansas Is not long enough to be classed among the longest rivers of the world though among the tribu- taries to the Father of Waters it is second only to the Missouri. It is not large and does not spread out the ac- cumulated waters in wide sheets; yet at times, when the Aztec rain gods | pour out a deluge and the lower | courses are fed by the inflowing creeks and rivers, its magnitude Is majestic, inspiring, destructive. Nor is the channel deep. For the noun | tai nd ha irt and the plain white sand and all other varieties of sand from the mountains to the gulf are constantly filling in. | scooping out, rolling and gliding down the swift current, piling fin bars. building up islands or leveling the in- equalities of the bed. And the flow Is strong; the sweep of the waters is a mighty power, unharnessed. to go on. ever, to the sea.
 Whether at the snow peaked springs where it rises fin the Rockies and goes dashing down the mountain defiles whether fretting Its way between the man-built walls through the city of Pueblo or gliding through the pebbly foothills. whether winding its silvery way across the Colorado and the Kan sas plains or gliding on between the Oklahoma bluffs and hills. whether watering the mistletoe bedecked elms or the canebrakes in the state whose name 1t bears, the Arkansas has R beauty, charm. that makes one love | to dwell thereon. Anywhere along It's course It's acquaintance may be made nf oh ofy,t one feels a nobler, wider sentiment. like that which comes from the con tact with broad, free-minded man. However. since 1t cannot be consid- cred as a whole. let the acquaintance be narrowed to that beautiful sweep of the stream flowing between the Osage reservation and Pawnee coun- ty, Okla. where on one side or the other. and sometimes both, farms have been hewn from the wooded valleys; where the sandstone bluffs rise. sometimes 50, sometimes 100 feet, with inches where the great horned owl, the peregrine falcon and the huge turkey vulture find nesting | site, and where, in olden days, the eagles reared their young. Here the red waters hurry down, down. down. with swish that mingles with the rustic of the leaves. the shrill of in- sects and the cries of birds. In one sweet symphony that drowns the troubles, the stress of life. and gives new vigor to the one who can sepa
 Ezte himself from his business or his strife, as he learns new things first hand from. Gods great book.
 Here along the bottom roads the great cottonwoods rise. with massive pillars that reach up and up. over hundred feet. just right for a giants walking stick Great pecan trees. huge burr oaks. walnuts. hickories and three or four smaller varieties of oak, black. white. red and chin. suapin, are here Then there are great hackberres with the corrugated and winged bark. and here Is that beautiful black coated member of the rose family which has been designat cd by the natives as the shittim wood of the Sacred Book The wood is bard. the hardest of the forest trees. with the possible exception of the persimmon: but the persimmon sel- Aom gets beyond the bush size.