The Chronicle-star combined with the Moss Point advertiser., 1947-01-31

Not long ago, on the high
way between here and Jack
son, we stopped to eat lunch
in a town through which We
had passed probably hun
dred times in our lives, and
discovered that we really did
not know the town at all. A
place can look familiar from
n highway or railway train,
when you catch a glimpse of
it in motion. But only alight
at the depot. or park the au-
tomobile and walk about the
courthouse square. and you
will likely discover this it
possesses that mystery of its
own individuality and of its
own past; and that YOU are
an outsider, a stranger, though
perhaps you have lived your
whole life only a few score
miles down the road.
We shall not name the town
that we are speaking of now,
but it is one of the typical
small towns in the piney woods
section of the state. And it
could be any town. The only
point we wish to make is that
it seemed quite different when
we got out and walked around
the streets than it had ever
seemed before. And in our own
way we went exploring, and
for our own purposes we dis
covered" it, even though the
folks in the town had never
considered that it was lost.
It's been right up there on
the old Gulf and Ship Island
Railway-now part of the &c.
since the Civil War or there
abouts. Indeed when you get
out and walk up and down
the new streets and the old
streets and out around the out
skirts, YOU can see the differ
ent rings of growth in this set
tlement, just as you can in
the abundant pine stumps on
the eutover hills, which tell
so plainly that the destiny of
this little town, like so many
others in this section, has been
quite rs closely related to the
lumber business as tree growth
is to rainfall. And this is one
of the reasons our half-haur
trip of exploration was so re-
warding to us. That's all the
time it took: half an hour. But
as an Indian quickly reads the
signs of game and movement
in the forest. we read the sign
of man and his history in this
settlement, and then drove on.
Man indeed is the most con-
venient critter Of all to study
and track down. He belongs
to quite a numerous breed,
and he rarely covers up hist
tracks. He is right there for
you % watch all the time.
They tell nTe that squirrel
hunter studies the ground be-
meath a pignut or wild pecan
tree to see if there are any
nut droppings to show that
squirrels have been eating
above: that a turkey hunter
looks for feathers in the lit
tie elearings, and so forth down
the catalogue of wild game.
But all of these wild things
are shy. and run away, and in
one wav or another try to con-
ceal their tracks and their
nests end their methods of
getting food. But man is just
the opposite. He will make a
big noise when a little one
might do just as well. He
builds his house on general
principles about the same as
4 rnuskrat or beaver; but ne
paints il yellow so YOU will
be sure to see it. At first he
may make a simple path
through the forest. but then
he cuts down the forest SO
there can be no mistake about
the fact he has come through
there. He is so insistent that
you will know Just who he is,
and why, and who his father
was before him, what is mine
and what is thine" that he
builds courthouse to keep