The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1911-12-01
CHAPTER XVII.

Recently / receiNeQ ieIlST Aotu
George Dalton, the poet and novelist,
who lives in Richmond Terrace,
Staten Island, and who owns land in
Franklin county. Florida, and who
subscribes to this paper. He has been
reading these commissions in prose
with verses stuck on them, like can :
dies on a Christmas tree, and he
speaks in his letter of this: He writes:
Markham about you" What fools We
are-especially me. I felt as though
was drunk.
So bought a book OF poems by Ed
win Markham and read them. Besides
the Man With the Hoe" there Were
twenty or thirty others. One of the
verses contained the beautiful thought
that music was the last appeal to
fallen man. The poets and prophets
have always contended that man was
fallen, and man never has taken the
idea very seriously. But it Is fact
But music is not the last appeal to
fallen man. How about the stars
And coming closer home, how about
the sea? The sea is kind of music.
It is clean and untamed. This brings
me to Frank Comforter and the pilots
The pilots always gather at ITALIA
hassee at the beginning of the session
They get a big room with five or ten
beds in it and keep house together
On the bureau or washstand is bot
tie of whiskey and box of cigars.
am a prohibition spellbinder, but my
father tried to raise me up according
70 his idea of a gentleman which was
besides certain other things, man
who always kept decanter of wnis-
key or wine for his friends. So, while
I don't drink intoxicants any more
being reformed by matrimony ano
poverty, / feel at home with drinking
people. Particularly l am at home
with people who have lived by the
sea- The sea flows in their veins. The
sea is the old friend of man. It is
Prometheus chained to the coastwise
rocks. The sea calls man to its side
and he sees the stars like a necklace
of diamonds on the white breast Of
the waves. On the sea "he goes forth
on long journeys and comes back I'm
wearied." The sea Is the cloistra
place to which man escapes from the
man.
Tallahassee is inland. Trees AM
hills surround it. 1t is pent. Farms
shut it away from the liberal spaces
of the shore. Negro huts ring i
around. The sense of adventure /:
lost to it. The old families cover i
like a mortgage. The political gas
house, which the capitol building is
stains the country with the Shiny anC
from the sambre oaks and you do no
forget A. S. Wells and John Hender'
son and the Leon hotel and the huddl,
of people too much Intent of eacf
others affairs. The place is marked
with the small pox pits of the little
ness of the hundrum everyday affairs
w. c. Hodges and John Neeley ant
t. VII OF ar a
in lawsuit over two razor-back hog
that were killed by the Seaboard All
Line, and Will Oven in a passion t.
keep the double damages from bein.
recovered against his clients-thes,
things I'LL the air and the patheti
figure of the negroes, living in lant
slavery, afflict one with the melan
gorgon of toll Expresses the landscape
The palsy of honors shakes the sou
from one, there.
But the pilots bring the ocean t
Tallahassee. In their room in tn
hotel come foregatherl If he won
have drink. give him a cigar" The,
begin to talk. They sprawl in thei
on steam tug in the bay. The sturd
boat rises and falls on the surge. TIL
gong rings in the engine room. 70
adjust the marine glasses to your eye
and fetch the ship on the horizon neal
The far blue plane stretches and un
dulates- There is a. sea gull and
| fish hawk Thank God! No wornal
| is going to come in with her stand
ards to crush us into school boys. n
bill collector will worry you with
dun. Here is the little snug kingdor
| of man. Here is an Eveless paradise
Here is no jealousy. No subtle com
| petition. We are free! The democ
racy of the sea has captured us an
| made US equal. 1t might be thou
sand years ago, and the shore, dim i
| the distance, may be England and W
are Morse pirates going ashore t
| plumber and beat out brains withou
| any woman hesitations of civilization
| Tonight we will be drunk as boile
owls from drinking out Of f1aggor
stolen out of English cathedrals At
| the hold of the ship is full of image
| and coins and jewels snatched off VIC
men whom we kissed and stabbed
/ death. Ho! hoi We are unleashed
| Fill up the cant Curse and rear an
| dance and sing and be coarse an
common and brutal. Ho! no! let tn
beast in US have sway and reign. TIL
sun sets in the water like red sf1iel
| heaven. The stars rush out. TIL
salt gale blows around us. We kill
| slave for fun and pitch him overheard
and then as the idea strikes our drunk
| en- fancy we throw overheard a liv
4 slave and watch the three sharks tbs
| follow us gobble him up and we chez
We have recovered our jungle ferocit.
The scuds gallop across the moon. TIL
orCfIIo11G Snlnndnr nanan fall