McNairy County independent. (Selmer, McNairy County, Tenn.) 1902-1969, 1914-05-29


and hearts within as hard as steel
files, that value Is cents more than
they value your life; trains plunging
in tubes under the rivers $50 feet,
under the water and out again before
you have time to think where you are;
the bang, clang, clamor and boom of
ten million sounds, and the hard,
tense feeling that everything there
lives, breathes and works only for
the chance to get hold of your money.
0, the difference out in. Gods
country imam made the city. my
mother used to say, and God made
the country, where there is some
thing to think of besides your money
and how to get hold of it. | would
rather sit down to a mess of poke
salad, or of hog jowl and turnip
greens, in old McNairy. with kind and
friendly faces around me, than to
dine at Delmonicoes on truffles, and
pate de foie gras, with bowing and
scraping French walters waiting for
tips.
This reminds me that poke salad is
a favorite dish in Washington. A
handful of the sprouts. which hardly
makes spoonful when cooked, costs
dime in the market, and great
heaps of it are sold. The great fish
is shad, but neither that, nor any fish
that swims, is as good as the yellow
catfish of the Tennessee river. A
square of the thin belly part of yell
low cat, fried brown in corn meal, is
a better morsel than any king de-
yes-I mean catfish, of course.
Well, this beautiful springtime re-
minds US of the bright days that are
gone, and of the friends and kindred
that have gone with them where we.
too, will 60 some day. My father
was buried in old McNairy. near his
old home, nearly year ago; 1t hard
ly seems so long. He loved the sum-
mer time and its green leaves and
flowers, and the woods and fields of
his native land. Last Sunday night.
at one of the leading churches, Lin
coin Post, G. A. R, held memorial
services in honor of him and other
members Of the Post who had died
during the year. Distinguished men
were there. and | told some Of the
members afterward of the services in
the little Tennessee graveyard, led by
Mr.. Thrasher Of the Grand Army, at
which Doc Hurst and other comrades
were present, though the ranks had
grown thin. The words of the min
lister. the editor and the Grand Army
man were precious to me. Many
worthy people have since been laid
away in their narrow beds of clay,
but the thought. Of the parents lying
side by side under the cedars of their
native soil, united in life and in death,
and now in the immortal marriage of
eternity, comes nearer to ones heart
than any other. Do | not owe them
every good thing; the light of the eye
which tells me Of flower and tree and
all the sights of nature, and the ear
to hear, and the hearts to know and
remember them in death as in life?
Earth, embrace them in thy bosom;
Cover tnem, " naClVe 500,
Till their risen spirits blossom
In the garden field of God.
Centuried oak, cast thy shadow
On their happy childhood play,
Waving flowers and verdant meadow,
All in time shall pass away.
But the seed immortal sleeping
In the vale of Tennessee
Safely in the Fathers keeping
Grows through all eternity.
saw that marvellous old man,
Marcus ]. Wright, the other day. He
was somewhat feeble in body, but as
clear in intellect as he was sixty
years ago. Seated at his desk in the
Office Of the adjutant general of the
War Department, he was lookedu to
and respected by all as a model of
military learning and judgment, and
in the midst Of all his technical duties
he still had heart and thought for old
McNairy and its people, whom he
loves with devotion that knows no
bounds. General Wright is a far
greater man than even his old Ten
nessee neighbors know. You will
have to go to the big metropolitan
libraries where his histories and biog-
raphies are highly treasured, to know
the literary side of him, but he is the
sama oanial hind fr;apd and councolor