Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1921-11-09
"A Visit to the Salt Plains of
Oklahoma.
Dear Advertiser:

Oklahoma.
Dear Advertiser:
The dying year is like the setting
sun in the west, richer and more col
sorful than at the zenith Of it's sum-
ymer tide, but what a glorious thing
in. this great west! l still
miss the Southern trees and the or
:ange and red foliage, for the leaves
drop here without turning brilliantly,
but there are compensations.
Sunday, a party of the faculty
:aook a long drive of about sixty miles
through this splendid level country
esthe Salt Plains Of Western Okla
homa.
like the Red Wood forests of Cal
ifornia and still, deep lakes and
mountains, but this country, too, has
Its charms. 1t hides nothing. It
spreads itself all before you and
rolls Son, and on endlessly. Whenever
Esee a hill in the distance, want to
get out of the car and caress it and
walk up it for the sheer joy of puff
ingsand blowing as I always do COM
iiiflgSup the hills in Edgefeld from
home. to town. I shall never mind
them again.
he The men in our party were armed
for hunting. We came upon the cum
little red fox SQUIRREL sitting
III the middle of the road eating his
noonday meal. / do not know why he
chose the exact center of the road to
dine. I would never do that, but he
is; endowed with winged feet. The
hunter in the party, when asked why
he did not kill it said, "That would
Be murder to shoot it with a shot
gun, too easy" 1 liked that. The
Mesterners have hearts, you know, as
we'll as southerners.
At long intervals, very long ones,
we passed farm houses, cosy enough
With sa group of trees around them,
from the maddening crowds
ignoble strife There was no smoke
curl rom any chimney, however,
aad when we drove to the back door
81 one unfriemdly III house there was no.
81 s,hsdsr giix.
days they commune with the glebe,
the plow and harrow "to fulfill their
homely joys and destiny obscure" so
on Sunday they all go, perhaps for
miles and more miles to sit around
fireside.
For my own part, as much as l
hate the city for purposes of home
life, think / would prefer the rum
bling of street car to the haunting
stiffness of these country places.
Their are not even any servants
quarters and each man works for
himself and he himself is his only SER
want problem.
The sides of the road were strewn
with corn shucks where there had
been recent corn shuckings, when the
surrounding country gathered, per-
haps at Farmer Browns" and work.
ed ar :. afterwards ate and drank and
told jokes. It is the sort of thing one
reads about. That is the JOY of wan
dering. We can read of these things
and then see them in our travels with
small or great thrills in proportion
to the strangeness of the event.
On either side of the road there
were green wheat fields like car
pet, thick hedges of mock orange,
called "wind brakes" which protect
the growing crops from the early
spring winds, a blue sky overhead
and colors in the landscape that
blended from green through yellow
and golden with beautiful effect. I
gazed and gazed, like Wordsworth at
the daffodils, and was filled with joy
over the scene, for one becomes a
nature lover in a moment, even if he
has not always been one, if he has
any beauty in his soul that reaches
out to meet the beauty around him.
1t is not always the spectacular,
the massive and the overwhelming
that appeals. 1t takes only lesser
soul to comprehend those things.
We passed on our journey, one lit
tie western town after another and it
is so almost anywhere throughout
the middle west. All the little towns
are exactly alike, except that the
sign over the drug store may bear a