The Chronicle-star combined with the Moss Point advertiser., 1946-09-20

OF all the seasons, OF all the
various lights of day and night,
dawn and evening. which play
in evsr-changing rythms over
the Gulf of Mexico, to US the
most beautiful of all is a calm
night in summer with the big
yellow moon rising down the
coast.
One night early this month
we walked out Of doors and
saw that the sky was begin
ming to glow with the silvery
light of rising moon. The air
was soft and sweet, not OPP
%pressively hot, and yet with
out the faintest touch of chill
or moisture in il. 1t was the
sort of night in which q man
could lie down and sleep in
perfect content on the ground,
beneath the star-lit arch OF the
heavens. if he wanted to. Prob
ably it was the very last night
of full summer. A few days la
ter the first chilly rains of au-
tumn had set inland for us
the summer was over, even
though the weather was sure to
continue hot for another few
weeks.
The night we speak of had no
touch of autumn in it. The
light breeze was still sitting
in from the Gulf, a soft oce-
anie wind; and one could al
most sense the bainy Carrib-
bean islands and the tropic
verdue as it blew inward,
stirring only small splashing
waves on the full tide. II was
the kind of night TIT made
one wish to be out on the Gulf
islands, sleeping out in the
open with only a blanket
spread out on the beach There
would be no surf on a night
like this, no waves, no pine
trees bending and swaying in
the wind; instead the great
slow swells would come NOV
ing in slowly and Amos in
visibly from many miles out
upon the open sea, AMI roll
down the beach on the fun
tide with a long sigh. ABOVE
would be the rising moon, out
shining the stars in its part
of the sky. and leaving only
the more powerful const tlla-
tions visible, as il is upon a
star map-with all the tllous-
ands of lesser stars with theu
myriad points of light an con-
fusing twinkling wiped from
view. 1t would have been a
beautiful night to be on the
islands. Yet we venture to say
that from the Louisiana Coast
to Alabama, there were very
likely not ten people out on
this coastal chain-perhaps
not one, unless it we're a night
Waterman in the abandoned
government barracks on Horn
Island.
The civilized man has lost
his adventurous sense of life.
The islands are scarcely ten
miles out, but that is sufficient
to keep people away. 1t is too
far to row, too far to go with
safety in a small sailboat. And
not many people are interest
ed enough to find a boat that
will take them. So they have
become the haunt of "A rela-
lively small number of inter-
state fishermen and hunters,
many of them who only ven
ture into those parts to earn
a prosaic daily livelihood.
We felt very land-bound on
this last night of summer. II
wishing could have got us to
the, islands, we would have
been there.
We did the next best thing,
and that was to ride to the
beach and sit down watching
the beacons flashing out
through the channel to the
open sea. The moon was SO
bright that one could almost
see the structure of the bea-
cons themself out on the dark
er water. Round Island was a
beautiful, ghostly shadow on
the horizon. and one could
barely make out a tracery of
trees on the lower end of Horn
Island-perhaps indeed it was
only the imagination which
saw this far, rather than the
comiEe international chess