The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1912-03-06
MY EXPERIENCE IN
THE LEGISLATURE
~ C. n. FLOYD. in Apsischieola rsms,.

and gloriies one as the still Indian
river is giorifed by dawn.
There are certain experiences which
g. citizen Of Live Oak might happen
upon which would make that citizen
primarily g. citizen Of the United
States, and leave him only seconderily
a citizen of Suwaanee county. Were
president of the nation 70 take up
his residence at Live Oak after his Of
| ficsal career, he would. although a res
| icent of that town, keep his national
attitude and he would respond to the
emotion Of the country ut large more
readily than TO the emotion of the
| hynae OF my critic. And etstractIy II
| Is possible for q citizen of Live Oak by
taking thought, by the exercise of will
| power, to so interest hinses In ma
TONES aCairs, that finally he would re-
| spend more readily to the emotion III
| the nation than he would to the issues
| that agteate Suwannee county. For Ii
| is true. ACCIDENTALLY speaking, that my
critic Is as truly a citizen of the United
! States as he is citizen Of Live Oak
1t IL true also that the paragrapher of
the Live Oak Democrat Is just as GER
t&inly an inhabitant of Florida as he
ts OF certain precinct In the county
| seat of Suwannee county. and just as
certainly an inhanftant Of the Western
Hemisphere as he IL of Florida and,
emitting the obvious steps, just as GER
tainly ar inhaottant Of our solar sys-
| tenn as ne is of the town lot which
contains the house in which he lives.
A passenger in the cabin of a trans
| Atlantic palace steamer who lay in his
| bunk. hts eyes glued on a picture of
| Female above q calendar on the cabin
wall, and who remained for the whole
| journey oblivious OF the splendor of the
| snip and OF the noon time and the sun
set and the star rise over the ocean
and of the broad and beautiful thoughts
| growing from the drama of the Jour
\ ney, Is a symbol think of man. At
| least 1t powerfully tends to be an &C
curate symbol of me. II am merely
| what seem to be to the average OBJ
| server, short, fat, weak eyed, snub-
| nosed, obscure lawyer, living in small
| town, in a more or less frontier state,
| In more or less frontier nation, for
ever oppressed with debts and living
| from hand to mouth, the casual con-
| tempt which such a being inspires in
1 some Observers, finally I must enter
1 tain toward myself.
| But II there be an appeal from that
| Judgment? II 1 have right to a writ
| Of error to q supreme court7 II be
| something besides q hunk of meat in a
| bunk in a small room? II should per-
chance get tired Of the sQuabbIe for
petty of1ces in Live Oak or Apalachi-
/
law office or the management OF a vii
lage newspaper?
Now there is an appeal from that
| Judgment; by taking thought perfect
| that appeal; I am something other
than a hunk of meat in small cabin;
| by taking thought see the great ship
| moving across the ocean like q flock OF
/ firefiies under the lit midnight and hear
the solemn song Of Europe, the home
of my race and its thoughts and its
! dreams-@the choir invisible toward
which my journey takes me; / am
tired of the petty squabbles and the
daily grind; they pail on my soul; by
taking thought / can know the larger
emotions that make music from Chi
cago to Key West, from Jacksonville
to Portland in Oregon.
L repeat my incantation; and am
kinsman of Hamlet and Horatius. of
Napoleon and Byron; the marvellous
splsndor of Keats Hyperion" flames
through my mind like sunset over the
bay OF Naples and the epic cry in the
last scene of Ibsen's Ghosts rever-
oerates through my spirit like the
leaping of live thunder heard by Chiide
Harold across the lakes of Switzer-
land.
The same breeze that brought the
smell of magnolia flowers into the hall
OF the house last May rtppied the
moonlight that touched the fruit tree
tops when the lips of Shakespeare
kissed the lips OF Juliet. the feminine
spirit OF the world: the same tide that
! struggled with the rowers OF old gal
! Icons seeking Sidon sweeps past the
Sheu-pile now where meet the bay
and river of Apalaehicola; and when
! this hurrying day of one star has
passed into the dimme rday Of ten
| thousand stars which seem etsrraDy
| at rest because we are so far, I wave
my trivial self away. I gain 8 sense of
God, and the wide tide OF the glory OF
the universe and the mystery of Birth
and Death and the Soul climb over
the mad fats Of ny thoughts and ]
hold IN me the majesty OF life. CULVER
Ing and beautiful; and the neach hu-
man soul is the universe conscious,
and more beautiful than lilies and hya-
cinths and the eyes of children. and