The Tupelo journal., 1909-12-24
Snap Shots
BY COL. w. L. CLAYTON.
Author of Pen Pictures Of the
Olden Time.

ltawamba, | knew and visited a tan
and lovely maiden whose conversation
and manner were a b~enediction for
many a day to come, and whose fare
we'll was so blithsome you wanted to
return again e'er you had gotten home.
This lady still lives, and now re-
sides in the city Of Tupelo, and a short
while ago, having visited her to bring
her a message from another old friend
from the far off Lone Star State. and
having brought in panoramic view be-
fore our minds eye some of the scenes
of our younger days, | arose to depart,
when she said with that old-time
sparkle in her eyes, Come to see me
oftener. The circle is narrowing"
What a sadness in those words, how
ever charmingly they were spoken.
The circle is narrowing" NY heart
ran out in sympathy with the senti-
ment, my mind was full of reminiscent
thought, and as | wended my way
homeward my mind went like a flash
of lightning from place to place where
| had lived all through these years,
and the truth of the declaration, the
circle is narrowing" forced itself upon
me more forcibly than | had ever real
lied it before. First in point of time,
as we had just been speaking of it. I
glanced TO the old home and neishbor-
hood where | knew and visited the
lovely maiden, ssand not a familiar face
in all hat section greeted my search.
Some | remember and know still live
in other places, but none minsle in the
old home scenes,of the maiden of "auld
lang syne." But to her especially the
halo of their glory fingers still.
you may break, you may bruise the
vase if you will,
But the scent of the roses will hang
roundi it STILL"
Then | looked over the field at old
Richmond, where | spent many happy
and joyous hours, and where | made
many friends and acquaintance, and
thought Of the happy homes and joy
Gus lives of those moving thrones, and
scarcely a familiar face came to my
mind of all that gay and happy throns,
The circle is narrowing"
In 1S57-think how long ago that
is-in 1887, | lived in S%pringville, Ala.
and twenty years ago | made a visit to
the old town, now grown new, and
those whom | had known in my young
manhood, save one lone pilgrim, had
either passed over the river or gone
west TO grow up with the country"
In 1858 | taght school at Martin
Academy, in what was then called the
Col. Taylor neighborhood, some seven
miles north west of where the city of
Tupelo is now situated, but which was
then woods and fields. This Taylor
neishborhood was composed of well to
do people and many of them were
slave owners besides. | made many
friends and acquaintance there, and
many of them have been a pleasure
and help to ME through the years. One
or two of them now live in Tupelo, and
| see them often, but, saw them and
one little faxen haired girl who went
to the school there, and who now sits in
the loneliness of widowhood, | know ct
none remaining. Some may and doubt
less do live in distant states, but they
are few and far between, and their
homes have passed into stranger
hands, whom | know not and they net
me. "Thecircle is narrowing"
In January, 1889. moved to old
Fulton, the country town of Itawamba
county and settled there to practice
law. No little town in all the country
ever had more noble or generous
hearted people than she. They lived
easily and tLey lived %srlendidly, and
were ready to lend a helping baud to
to those in want. Eut now, when you
90 there you see them not, Of all
those whom | knew there in 1889
there linger amidst that old historic
town now only three widows and two
men, one of them a very small boy and
the other about eighteen when | went
there.
In 1871, March 7, | settled in the
town OF Tupelo. 1t was really a mere
village then; and after / had remained
a short while, | knew almost every
,yor,n and child in the nlarp