The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-09-18
Ante Bellun1 Days h the
 Tennessee RiUer Valley
Alex Jackson Writes of the Stirring Days in Florence and of the Dreams of Future Greatness for the
 City With Its Seven Hills'

riads of pink blossoms; in the hot months of July and August the ser ried rows of corn. gorgeous in the coolness of its dark green array with nodding plumes of white; then in Sep tenber time the lighter tinge of the cotton fields with their infinite blos- somings of white and red and then the whiteness of its open bolls, fore runner of December snows-a land of plenty and peace, contentment and happiness
 A Land of Plenty
 Thorouhgbreds had gone forth to win honors, from the fashion course at Long Island to the Metarie at New Orleans.
 Pure bred Durham cattle roamed the pastures and from the churning each day section of the water to- ters" In single file carried buckets of buttermilk on their heads to the colored matron at the "quarters' to be distributed to the children left to her care while their mothers worked in the field.
 Sheep gave meat to be enjoyed and wool to be spun and knitted into winter socks, while there were hogs enough for three year old hams to hang from the criss cross rafters of capacious smoke houses.
 Coolers and popcorn were raised for winter stores and after frost the children got old Charles, the hog feeder, with his cart to go to the woods for walnuts and chestnuts and scaly barks to add thereto, with a hunting Of muscadines and persim- mons for present enjoyment.
 And to add to the plenty until it Go came black callers.
 Miss Sarah I got bushel of Wan nuts" Miss Sarah I dun fetch some scaly barks. Miss Sarah here's some Hick-o-nuts the chillen will like. All paid for in the coin of the realm
 Then the joy of the coming of the Ice King and the rush and frolic of the gathering of the ice.
 The second night is always colder than the first in country lore and the day after the first skim of ice on the pond is busy one. Wood is hauled to the shores of the pond and chopped for fires ready for the dawn straw has been hauled from the stacks to make a cover for the bot- tom Of the ice house and to line it's sides as the ice is put in. And if the thermometer registers 30 at sun uoWn, meaning 20 at sunup the or der goes to the quarters Be ready at day break"
 The Frost King is uncertain in the Tennessee Valley. This may be the only ice snap of the winter and the wind may shift to the southeast early in the day
 Miasma still fingers In uncleared swamps and malarial levers and con- gestive chilis are some summers abroad n lan formative to the home pack is lake Ice brought to Memphis by boat and by slow rail to the small towns at prohibitive prices. Fires light the erayness of the dawn and the thud of tn ax is heard as large sheets are cut out and pulled on the bank by hooks. Smashed into smaller pieces 1t is loaded into the wagons and started to the ice house where the unloading crew shovels it in a wooden chute to be carried to it's final desti- natlon, where men with heavy wooden mauls pound 1t up that 1t may coalesce into solid mass
 Shutdown usually finds the house full and the protecting straw piled on top. when the tired workers at the end the picnic day crowd to the white folks kitchen for a dram" before going to the blazing fires on their wide hearths. The fields are brown and bare except the green patches for next years grain; the oats, rye and barley have been cut and stacked and the wheat threshed and made into flour at the water mill some four miles up the river in Hay bye" time, but all the year each Saturday the four mule team. Hawk under the saddle with Fan, who kicks up when PVaT the pVbip ic o I, ,;c the wheel, with Snip and Snap for the leaders carry there the turn of corn to last house and quarters for the week.
 Effect of RaiIrdads
 Railroads have been built to Mem phis and Nashville and Louisville and stores built along the old highways have budded into towns. Intercept \ ing and handling by rail the business formerly brought to the little port at the foot of the shoals the latter. having served its purpose, drops into commercial oblivion, its warehouses. falling into decay, being the only mcmento of its former promise.
 One store remains to give postal facilities to the neighborhood and in- cidental merchandise to the planta- tloEs in the vicinity, which with the yearly cotton shipments to New Or leans and the return cargo of SUD- plies gives the busy merchant. of it's prosperous days enough for congen- ial occupation but still to allow nrm time to foregather with his friends at their almost daily meetings. and occasionally to remind them with an amused twinkle of the seven hills waiting for the great city.
 Four years destroy the work of for y. In the small towns, houses once