Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1922-01-11
Wednesday, January IL.
Miss Florence Minis Writes
From Oklahoma City.
Dear Advertiser:

Mark Twain once made several ill
remarks about Oklahoma, which re-
marks survived only because they
were witty. He wound up his male
diction by saying that one could see
father and see less in Oklahoma than
any state in the union. One can GER
tainlv see farther. In looking across
4he country, it is as though the eye
were supplied automatically with
high powered lens. If all of the states
east of the Mississippi were like it,
4 might on some clear night look for
the water tank at Edgefeld, but the
red old hills and the Ozarks and many
Others between would interfere with
my line of vision.
1t never seem sto me that am out
of the home surroundings until
cross the Mississippi, and after that
I am pilgrim in barren land"
At Memphis it is neither startlingly
wide nor imposing. Other ports have
given it the name of the "father
of waters" Nevertheless, it is with
a sort of reverence that one crosses
1t, anything so stupendous in nature,
and / saw fellow passengers drop
their newspapers or magazines and
gaze out, but the Arkansas and other
rivers were passed unnoticed.
One associates ideas with things
m nature from earliest childhood. The
Mississippi as the "father of waters"
IS the trunk of great family tree,
whose many branches water the crops
OF many states, and its coat of arms
might be historical, scenic or COM
mercial.
Although I had taken identically
The same trip before from Edgefield
20 Tonkawa with no change in the
.4rccfe or otherwise, except that Sat-
urday morning the Rock Island sat
Or stood in the station at Memphis a
whole hour after time for leaving,
by the watch, before it finally de-
cided to start on, ga slow train
through Arkansas" I saw for the
first time the capitol building from
the train at Little Rock. 1t was in
plain sight, and since capitol build
ings are a sort of hobby of mine, l
can't imagine how l missed it before.
But stranger still, and then perhaps,
not strange at all, I didn't know what
the capital of Arkansas was, in fact
had never thought that Arkansas
might have capitol at all.
Seeing the imposing building, I
remarked to myself that this must be
TIE chief building of this city, for
which have no lost love. Some states
like some vegetables have an innate
dislike for. Those states, have never
bothered to find out about, even as
some vegetables have never tasted.
Arkansas is chief among the states,
and spinach among the vegetables.
However, l have good friend in that
state, and / should rest uneasy if she
should find copy of this article.
I shall have to visit Arkansas
again, however, to see if 1 can find
the Ozark Mountains. Low peaks
Iocmed all along the journey, and
thinking they were the Ozarks, l was
delighted, but later learned that they
were the Magazine Mountains.
Now, / have been told that "con-
sistency is the mark of small minds"
but I believe in consistency when it
comes to names. 1t seemed to me also
that some of the small stations had
received their names by having some
one fiji hat with all the letters in
tn alphabet, and picking out several,
.fye or six OF the letters, regardless of
seuphony, had thrust them on the un-
.suspecting hamlets as name. 1t
seemed a pity that the train did not
stop at all of these, for the pronun-'
citation of each vould have been en-
tightening.
AT night, however, the hills acquir-
ed a very different aspect, different
from any sight l have ever seen be-
fore, and perhaps shall ever see
again. The night seemed to envelope
the world outside the train, and the
more startling did the scene appear.
A burning rail of light, like tinsel
draping a Christmas tree, curled it
self in strange shapes along their
sides. 1t was a forest fire purposely
..z;l4 ord tardad -So,. tho hl1,.n in