The vidette. (Iuka, Tishomingo County, Miss.) 1912-1967, 1919-10-02
Senator Bob Taylor's Tribute
To Old South.

II
three times governor OF Tennessee
and later United States senator. He
was the greatest word and phrase
| o inter of his age and the.literary
pictures that.he drew will 60 down as
masterpieces in Southern literature.
Here is Bob Taylor's tribute to
| Old South, taken from his natchless
lecture on THE Old Plantation"
There was once a civilization in
the land OF my nativity more
brilliant than any that ever flourish
ed in all the tide OF time. About
its ruins there clings a romantic
story o. vanished dreams made
holier and sweeter by lips that are
hushed and hearts that now are
dust, and there is little left but the
memory Of its departed glory. lin
gering among the tombstones and
monuments, like the fragrance OF
flowers that are faded and gone.
1t ruled from a throne OF living
ebony and made the world its trib-
utary. 1t opened the hoodgates OF
wealth and deluged the earth with
gold. It's realm was the sunny
South, the paradise of cotton, kept
by the dusky sons and daughters OF
Ham and amid its magnolia.scented
labyrinths OF shade walked the
chivalry and beauty OF a lordly race.
1t was a proud and imperial civ
ilaiztion, but. like great Caesar, it
fell with an hundred gaping wounds
and its blee ding corpse dissolved
into ashes long ago on the funeral
pile of war.
II would not stir your hearts to
pity nor recall those gaping wounds
tonight; but rather let me lift the
veil of memory and give you
glimpse Of the golden days of the
Id plantation before our Caesar
fell.
There, half hidden in the groves
If live oaks and magnolia trees,
where the hooking birds chuckled
and laughed, and the twittering
blue birds built their nests stood
the white. columned mansion of the
master. where life reached the high
tide of baronial splendor.
And stretching away to the
horizon were the snowy cotton fields,
alive with toilihg slaves, who with.
out a single care to burden their
hearts, sang as they toiled from
early morn till the close of day.
Every sunrise OF summer was
greeted by the laughter and songs
Of the datkies as they scattered ir
gangs and went forth in every direc
ton to begin the labors of the day
and the music tioated back to tn,
mansion to sweeten the mornint
dreams of the drowsy lords an,
ladies who still rested on thei
pillows. The negroes Of that da
we = the most musical and the mos
humorous race OF people who eve
lived in the world, and they WOW
j melody into every task they pei
formed; every leisure hour was file
with their mirth and merriment
md they were imbued with tn
pirit of Christian religion, and wer
firm believers in the providences c
Almighty God. There was not a
infdel among those millions c
slaves.
Il sat on the veranda of an oil
plantation home in the gathering
twilight OF evening and listened t,
the Ginning of the distant villag
bells and the responsive hymn o
the weary negroes as they cam,
fAocking homeward from the cottor
fields singing.
The negro quarters around thu
mansion were the shrines of limo
cent pleasure, where the dusky rev
elers gathered every night with banjo
and fiddle. to play. to pat and sing
and dance away the long, happy
hours.
: Il have heard them play and sing
until the very heavens seemed IL
turn into sheets OF music; every stat
was a note and every constellation
was q song. | have seen then
dance until the smoke and pleas
ure of the bonfire swung corners
with the moon5eams in the air.
have heard them laugh until the ri
pening corn grinned through tn,