Virginia citizen. (Irvington, Va.) 1891-1921, 1910-05-13
DISMAL SWAMP.
A Trip TO This interesting Spot.

rlIteen state Senators and ten friend.
Gncluding the editor of this paper)
spent two days on trip to Disma
Swamp and as guests Of Senator Les
ner at Ocean View last week.
| Lake Drummond, made famous il
Tom Moore's beautiful poem, which i
reproduced below, is easy of access b,
gasoline boat from either Norfolk O
Suffolk, and the trip can be made in
day-going and returning. No Vlr
gilman should go to his or her grav
without first visiting this famous local
ity. The scenery is beautiful, but tn
trip should not be taken between jun
LIST and November, because of "var
mints "sarpents, Lizards. lizard
and gizzards'', as hoary headed Afri
can of those wilds expressed it.
The soil is peat. or punk. for tw,
feet-in depth, and sparks left by hun
ters Frequently set fire to the soil
(which burns to the clay and is hard t
extinguish. 1t is thought by some tha
Lake Drummond, two-and-a-half by
three-and-a-half miles in dimensions
was excavated ages ago by the soil:
burning up. The lake will hardly aver.
age five feet in depth. The cypress,
juniper and other beautiful foliage
fringe its banks-if ''banks" they may
be termed. Along its shores are
thousands of hugh cypress stumps,
probably relics of the floral period,
tens of thousands of years gone They
are virtually imperishable.
The Virginia Senators had many novel
experiences on their trip to Lake
Drummond. One of these happened at
the supper table Wednesday night
The water served the senator's came
from Lake Drummond. 1t is juniper
water and is brownish in color. The
joke fell to Clerk of the Senate Booker.
He pulled his glass of Juniper to-
ward him, asked for the sugar bowl and
literally sweetened the fluid"
Several of those at the table noticed
the incident and started to laugh.
why, what's the matter" said the
senate clerk. 81 am useter sweetening
my tea"
The senators also tried their hand in
the art of Isaac Walton. Senator Owen
captured the honors. He landed a
string of dozen. Senator Thornton,
of Prince William, caught an eel and
had some trouble landing it. Several
times the boat, from which the eel was
landed, came near capsizing, as senator
after senator lodged the squirming
fish. .-
Several of the party had some fun
with four real Teddy bears" II seems
that Adam S. Wendal. at whose home
they stopped near the canal. recently
found bears nest" in the swamp.
The old bears were killed and the cubs
taken into captivity. These cubs were
brought out for the amusement of the
dignifjed Virginia solons, and they
played with them like children with
'ittens, one of them getting his hand
bitten painfully.
An interesting character to the SEN
tors was Uncle" Jack Marsh, who
las lived all his life in the heart of the
dismal Swamp. "Uncle Jack" RECALLED |
ne solons with yarn after yarn of |
'wamp life.
THE LAKE OF THE DISMAL SWAMP.
WRITTEN AT NORFOLK. IN vrRcrNIA.l
They tell Of an Indian brave, who lost his mind
p9n the death OF n girl he loved and who sudden
disappearing from his friends. was never after
larus heard OF. As he had frequently said In his
ne Dismal Swamp. il Is supposed that he had
.andered into that dreary Wilderness and had |
leo OF hunger. or been lost in of its dreadful
They made her a grave, too cold and
damp
For soul so warm and true:
And she's gone to the Lake of the
Dismal Swamp,
Where, all night long, by a fire-fv
lamp,
"She paddles her white canoe.
And her FREELY lamp soon shall see.
And her paddle i soon shall hear;
Long and loving our life shall be.
And I'll hide the maid in a cypress
tree,
when the footstep of death is near.
way to the Dismal Swamp he speeds
HIS path was rugged and sore,
through tangled juniper, beds of reeds.
hrough many fen, where the serpent
feeds,
And man never trod before.
nd, when on earth he sunk to sleep.
If siumber his eyelids knew,
e lay, where the deadly vine doth weep
s venomous tear and nightly steep
The flesh with blistering devil d
nd near him the she-wolf stirred the
brake. {
And the copper-snalSe breathed in his
ear, E
IL he starting cried, from his dream
awake, n
)h ! when shall see the dusky Lake. A
And the white canoe of my dear?' j
saw the Lake, and a meteor bright
2uick over its surface played u
Welcome" he said, my dear ones
light % ID
ID the dim shore echoed, for many a =
night, 1
The name of the death-cold maid. '
he followed boat of the birchen
bark, T
Which carried him off from shore;
r, far he followed the meteor spark. 7
wind was high and the clouds were 7
dark, VI
Ind the boat returned no more.
= Of. &C.,. VI