Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1921-10-12
A Camp Fire on the chicaskis
River.

| l think if I were man, | Shouts
like to be a refined adventmer,s.;
wanderer with noble aspirations, tty
ing various professions in yari6p
states and countries and at last, TO
ward the latter end of my life cho0s
/ ing one from the many, and puttihs
all my summed up experience AM
knowledge of human nature into5Sit
In the eyes of the world ! WetsA
be rolling stone, which gathers II
moss, and in the process of gathering
moss, people do sometimes becoiat
moss backs, and to be of that9elssy
would be very distasteful to mess
In this procedure, would not -;
quire wealth, for that quality eSlasE
from stick-to-iveness, unless one I'M
inherited many fat money bagsfrs,
successful ancestor.
But my! the stories / could tsll
and the memories I could bask ins
the understanding heart IssagA
have, for in the days of wandeGass
would take little jobs with little
men and ! would try for big jobs Nsh
big men. ais
Now you say, that would notsbe
practicable, and l agree with SSftst
would not be for the money. 1t
there must be an exception Bs3at
proves the rule, and perhaps shslM
be that glorious exception. s
/ have a good friend who belis9ss
in reincarnation. One might, accofa
ing to that persons theory, returnStp
earth a number of times. UnforRi-
nately we do not agree. If we 5di1sI
should placidly and contentedly thtak
that might in some later existeAee,
have time to wander over the whgle
earth.
In order to think as she doessI
should have to reverse my Whole Srs
der of thinking. am SoutherIers
and conservative. 1t can not be. done
Do you remember the posma of
James Whitcomb Riley called y A
Life Lesson in which he sa2s " $ s
HeaYensholds a Il for ssszSs
So when l reach Heaven I shall be-
permitted to wander from one place
to spother. They will let me, for l
shalt be good child and behave my
self, or maybe 1 shall wander from
the seventh to the first heaven, and
have the more dignified saints aghast
at my adventures.
Forgive me for wandering with my
pen. sat down to write a perfectly
respectable letter about glorious
supper around a camp fire, and see
what my imagination has brought me
into. 1t is an incorrigible thing.
l had my fortune told once, and
among other things I was told that
I had as much imagination as six peo-
pie. No wonder it gets the best OF
me. My brain is only big enough to
control the amount allotted to one
person, and while / am keeping that
in bounds the other fve-sixths fly OFT
at tangent.
At last, to my subject. If you have
never sat around huge camp fire
near a lake, or river or prairie, and
eaten bacon with a tang of the woods
and fields in it, you have missed one
of your birthrights.
Shaded candlesticks, and nectared
drinks to the tune of music behind
palm leaves has no showing beside
it. The latter is studied, the former
elemental, primeval and natural. 1t
gives one different attitude toward
food. 1t assumes its proper position
in the realm Of living, along with
clothes and fuel.
One feels as ravenous as the cave
man, and picking up slice of bacon
and a piece of bread, lapses back a
thousand years, perhaps three thou,
sand before the time of knives ano
forks, and never misses them.. 1t re,
veals what thin veneer of civillza
tion is over our early uncouth ten
denotes.
A party of the faculty of the Uni
versity Preparatory School were
gathered last night around a camp
fire on the Chicaskia River. During
the evening, different ones would g
out and scout around with the aid o.
a huge fashlight for logs of wood
The sparks would fly and the Christ