Jasper County Democrat, Volume 1, Number 52, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 April 1899 — A Traveler's Reminescenses. [ARTICLE]

A Traveler's Reminescenses.

Louisville, Ky., March 25, It was damp and dismal this morning when we left Wheatfield. A fine, drizzling rain was falling, and raw gusts of wind were blowing from over the prairies. It was a morning on which the superstitious dread to leave home and friends because they fear that nature is predicting a bad future for them. Departure is generally accompanied by feelings of joy and hope, but when the train carried us swiftly past the little station of Stoutsburg and we heard the familiar click of the mail catcher, waived a farewell to the persons upon the platform, and turning caught a glimpse of the farm and farm-house around which are clustered many pleasant memories, a pang of regiet was felt as we realized that we were leaving the neighborhood in which we had spent many happy years. But life is a thorough training school, and the young man is to be pitied who never has an opportunity of tempering his will power by contact with the coldness of the outside world. If moments were measured by the pulse beat of anxiety, we waited at Shelby exactly one week for the south-bound train; but the clock slowly ticked away only a little more than one hour, of time. Shelby ought to be a town of poets j ! and singers because water for ages i I has been the theme of poems, and I : inspiration of songs, but we heard no music, nor poetry. No, a person must be content in listening to n long, didactic discourse on “duck shooting,” reading a ghost story, or studying with despair the railroad time tables. Just before our train arrived, however, the sun shone out brightly, changing the gray sky into a hazy blue, and dis-

pelling some of the gloom. Sunshine always brings laughter. So even here our spirits ’rose. Jasper county is not noted for its picturesque scenery. To be sure there are the sand ridges which are interesting to the geological student who takes pleasure in tracing the moraines of the ancient glaciers; but we thought our time from Shelby to Rensselaer could be more profitably occupied studying human, instead of physical nature. I wish a Bryant could ride on a passenger train. I am sure the study of faces would furnish a theme for a literary selection that would equal- “The Crowded Street.’’ We saw the stolid face of a Chinaman who had cropped his hair and discarded his shoes, thus sacrificing his chance of heaven for American ways. There were the happy faces of tourists and college students; the grave face of a politician who, with a book entitled “Gems of Thought” was busily engaged in writing and memorizing a speech which I presume is to be delivered as original and impromptu, and more interesting than all were the commercial men exchanging gleanings from broad fields of knowledge. Few of us realize how much the meeting and conversing with strangers has done to elevate society. As “Honest Abe’s” court House clock was—l believe truthfully for once—striking the eleventh hour, we left the old scenes for new. About eight miles from Lafayette we passed the Tippecanoe battle ground where, one morning at day-break some eighty odd years ago, was fought the memorable, and decisive battle between Tecumseh’s brother’s forces—l can not spell his name—and the American army under General Harrison. Across the ,valley upon the , bank of the Wabaah River is Tecumseh’s trail and Lookout from which point he patched up and down the river for the paleface. It is nice scenery all along this

river, but, of course, we Hoosiera do not know of it because it is in Indiana. It must be truly said that distance lends enchantment to a scene. In the United States, there are the lofty, snow-capped Rockies, the Aztec ruins in Mexico; the charming scenery of the Yellowstone Park; the Niagara; Mammoth Cave; the wild Adirondacks; and the beautiful landscape on the Hudson, yet our tourists think it necessary to cross the ocean and climb the Alps, or sail upon the R-hine to view grand scenery. This idea of going abroad seems to be pretty generally American. The Jasperite goes to Chickamauga to find a battlefield; to Kentucky to visit a cave; to Illinois to see a city, and returning home does not appreciate the industrial wealth, historical places, and natural wonders of our own great state. From the Wabash to the Ohio was a continuity of scene; and gradual change from the hustling North to the easy going South. Late in the afternoon we began to see a larger sprinkling of negroes at the railroad stations: more people standing in the doorways; stone fences; chimneys on the outside of the houses; fields of a greener tint; and frequently a flower opening its petals to the sun's lays to tell us that we were in a warmer clime. At seven o’clock we crossed the Ohio. Behind us was the dim outline of Indiana’s shore. Before us the lights of Louisville at which place we are to make our first acquaintance with the people of the Blue Grass State. Yours, A Member of the Crio.