Rensselaer Republican, Volume 13, Number 36, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 May 1881 — When Shall we Meet Again? [ARTICLE]

When Shall we Meet Again?

The following is one of the most brilliant paragraphs ever written by the late lamented George D. Prentiss: - ‘ ‘The flat of death is inexorable. There is no appeal of relief from the great law winch dooms us to dust. We flourish and fade as the leaves of the forest, and the flowers that bloom, wither and fade In a day, have no frailer hold upon life than the mightiest monarch that ever shook the earth with his footsteps. Generations of men will appear as footsteps on the seashore. Men seldom think of the great event of death until the shadow rails across their pathway, hiding from their eyes the faces of loved ones whose living smile was the sunlight of their existence. Death Is the antagonist of life, and the thought of the tomb is the skeleton of All fears. We do not want to go through the dark valley* although the dark passage may letur to paradise; we do not want to go down into deep graves, even with princes for bedfellows. In the beautifbl drama of ‘lon’ the hope of immortality, so eloquenilv uttered by the deathdevoted Greek, finds deep response in every thoughtful mind. When about to yield his life a secriflce to fate, his Clemanthe asked if they should meet again, to which he responds: ‘I have asked that dreadful question of the hills that look eternal—of the clear streams that flow forever—of the stare among whose fields of azure my raised spirits have walked in glory. All are dumb. But as I gazed upon thy living face, I feel that there Is something in love that mantles through its beauty that cannot wholly perish. We shall meet again, Clemanthe.’ " *

There resides In this parish, about seven miles from Natchitoches, an old negro named Friday Atkins. He claims that he wa»l born In 1787, in the state of Nortn Carolina, thus making his age 134 years. He lived In North Carolina twenty-three years and was then carried to Alabama, where be resided sixty-seven years. From Alabama he was to De Soto parish, Louisiana, llying there twenty- four years, and was then moved into this parish, where he has resided for the last twenty years- He Is not at all feeble, but makes his own living now. Last year be raised two bales of cotton weighing 500 pounds eaoh, and nearly enough oorn to supply his wants. He complains that his eyesight is failing him, but saps last year he shot bluebirds out of the martins’ nests, seldom missing them, but he cannot do it now, A number of persons know Friday Atkins, and can testify to his oeing a very old man. Probably he is the oldest person living in this state, and is a remarkable instance, of longevity of years in this rapid age of fast living and short existence. Naohitochee 1 indicator.