Greenbrier independent. [volume] (Lewisburg, Va. [W. Va.]) 1859-1980, 1916-07-21

Ing lew mOLleneS OF rest TOu Luy
agricultural labors, when a buggy
came along the read bearing Two
distinguished men. These two men
were Judge Homer A. Holt, the judge
of the circuit court and Col. B. F.
Harlow, then editor of The Green
bIicr Independent. / felt that 1 had
looked upon the faces Of two great
men, as indeed 1 mad. The one had
the power to loose and to bind and
control of life, liberty, and the pur-
suit of happiness, and the other was
a great editor. They were on their
way to term of the circuit court to
De held at Huntersville, where the
men who were responsible for the
entity Of the great County of POGO
hontas woulu be gathered together as
committee of the whole to pass
upon the state of the county. The
Judge and the editor knew nothing
! Of the mingled reverence, fear, and
profound respect that they inspired
in a boys mind.
Since then have mingled on terms
of familiar intercourse with men oc-
cupying similar responsible positions
with nothing like the awe that 1 felt
hen. l sometimes think that my
bump Of generation has got turned
ever somehow and that it has become
4 dent. l know that l have stood in
the presence of three respective presi-
dents of the United States without
being impressed or oppressed with
greatness, as was by those two men
in the buggy driving along lonely
road.
And 1 am not at al sure that the
men who are in control today have
all the elements of greatness of those
men I can first remember who had
passed through the furnace of war
and were then building up a better
and a greater nation on the ruins OF
the old. 1t is to be hoped that the
men of today will stand the test If
they are ever called upon to do so,
but we cannot be sure. 1t is said
that in that great conflict there were
many surprises. Men went under
who were expected to play leading
part, and other men went from the
bottom to the top with surprising
witness and came out shining like
gold of the seventh refining.
In the old days, Pocohontas county
occupied peculiarly dependent posi-
ton to Greenbrier county. That
county shut us in. It lay across the
entire width of the valley. We
went to Greenbrier to the railroad,
to the bank, to the lawyers, to the
schools, and to buy goods. All of us
had to go to Greenbrier but the
GreeI6rier people seldom came to
US. Our trade was highly fmpor-
tant to that county. And many a
rail our wagoners burned, for their
camp fires on the old Lewlsburg
read. l have often thought of our
old wagon trains when reading Kip
ling's opening lines in the Ballad of
the Kings JEST"
when Spring time 1ushes the desert
grass,
Our kafilas wind through the Khyber
pass.
Lean are the camels but fat the
trails,
Light are the purses but heavy the
bales,
As the snowbound trade of the North
comes down
To the market-square of Peshawur
town.
In a turquois twilight, crisp and
chill,
A kafla camped at the foot of the
hill.
Then bule-smoke haze of the cooking
rose,
And tent peg answered to hammer
nose;
And the picketed ponies shag and
wild,
Strained at their ropes as the feed
was piled;
Aand the bubbling camels beside the
load
sprawled for furlong a down the
road;
And the Persian pussy-cats, brought
for sale,
spat at the dogs from the camel
bale;
And the tribesmen beloved to hasten
the food;
And the camp-fires twinkled by Fort
Is