CHAPTER VIII.

แ MARCHING THROUGH GEORGIA."

When Sherman made his famous March to the Sea, the Boys in Blue enlivened their "tramp, tramp," with many a song as well as story--songs that were sung, not only on the march, but by the camp-fire, and echoed far and wide through the dim aisles of the Southern forest. Of these, no one was more popular than "Marching through Georgia." I do not remember ever to have heard it; if I have I did not know it at the time, as I could not even now tell it from "Dixie." But as any verse of the Bible may serve for a text, so the title of this old war-song is a good enough heading for the wayside observations of one who has been lately "marching through Georgia," from one end to the other, though he did not capture anybody, but on the contrary, must admit (if he had to confess the truth) that the people captured him.

I" invaded" the State from the south. It is less than thirty miles from Tallahassee, the capital of Florida, to Thomasville, which (to keep up the military phrase) was my first "strategic point." This is one of the new creations of the New South, that has sprung up in the pine woods. Dr. Metcalfe, the eminent physician of New York,

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GEORGIA LARGER THAN NEW YORK.

"discovered" it a few years since, and finding that it combined many of the features which he desired, recommended it to his patients as a sanitarium for invalids, from which (as is often the case) it became a fashionable resort for a great many besides, chiefly well-to-do people from Northern cities, who, not being kept at home by business, sought a pleasant retreat from the severity of their own climate. It has no great attractions of scenery, but is in a rolling and well wooded country, far enough away from the sea to escape the damp air, so trying to weak lungs. Here a number of fine hotels have been built in the woods, where one sitting on a broad verandah, may not only breathe an atmosphere that is dry and pure, but inhale the balmy odors of the forest. I am not surprised to find these pleasant camping grounds taken possession of by large colonies of Northerners, who swoop down on them "like the wolf on the fold —a class of "invaders," however, more welcome than the soldiers of Sherman, since, instead of coming with guns in their hands, they bring no other weapon than the gold which they scatter lavishly in a region where it is greatly needed.

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One has hardly an idea of the dimensions of Georgia, until he makes a journey across its whole length or breadth, as it stretches one way nearly five degrees of latitude, and the other as many of longitude. It is called the Empire State of the South, as New York is the Empire State of the North; but this does it injustice as to its magnitude, for it is larger in territory than New York by more than ten thousand square miles, the figures being for New York 47,000 square miles, and for Georgia 58,000! The latter has not indeed some features of our Northern "Empire," such as the Great Lakes on one border, and the mighty Port, which receives the commerce of all parts of the world, on the other; yet it has beauties of its own. If it

LINE OF SHERMAN'S MARCH TO THE SEA.

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has no Alpine heights covered with eternal snow, like Mount Hood, or other peaks on the Pacific Coast, it has sufficient variety in a surface which stretches from the mountains to the sea. On the north, the great Appalachian chain (which, coming down from Virginia, forms the boundary between the States on its eastern and its western slope, having the Carolinas on the one hand, and Kentucky and Tennessee on the other) at last looks down upon Georgia. From this mountain chain the Savannah river, running to the sea, divides Georgia from South Carolina, while the Chattahoochee, turning southward to the Gulf of Mexico, divides it from Alabama. Within these boundaries of nature lies the broad imperial domain of a State, in which there are no less than one hundred and thirtyseven counties, and which has three millions of inhabitants.

Central Georgia has not in its appearance much to attract the eye of a stranger. It has not even the interest of war, for Sherman's march from Atlanta was to the southeast, in the general direction of the Savannah river, though often at a long distance from it. The country is flat, and the towns have a rough frontier look, like the new settlements in the Territories of the West. Nowhere does one see the finished beauty of our New England villages. But my curiosity is always piqued to observe the mixed population. Some travellers note peculiarities of Southern dialect, but I do not see that they are greater than those at the North, or that the New Englander who "guesses,' has much to boast over the Southerner who "reckons." The negroes are a source of infinite amusement, as they swarm around every railway station, as if they had nothing to do but to enjoy this idleness-always happy, as they are easily pleased, any poor joke being enough to set them grinning from ear to ear.

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SOLDIER AND PREACHER.

In the crowds that fill the trains-it is a great mystery to me where they all come from and go to—there are many strongly marked faces of men whom it would be a pleasure to know. Whenever I see a man enter the car who has lost an arm or a leg, I set him down as an old soldier, and have a great desire to take a seat by him, and hear him fight his battles over again, for, strange to say, instead of being full of bitterness, and cherishing old animosities, no class are so free from them as these warworn veterans.

Among these was a man of fine presence, with an air half military, half ministerial, with whom, as he took a seat beside me, I fell in conversation. He proved to be, as I had thought, an old soldier, who, when he laid down his arms, took to preaching the Gospel. Having served in the army of the Confederacy, did not unfit him at all for serving in the army of the Lord. On the contrary, it rather fitted him for his special duty, inasmuch as he is now a presiding elder in the Methodist Church-a position in which he has at once to command and to obey. I have often thought that a little of this military discipline would not be a bad thing for any of us, ministers or laymen. We talked about the war with as much freedom as about politics or churches. As a soldier he had fought for the cause which he thought to be right, and I have no doubt fought bravely. Perhaps some of my Northern friends may think I failed in my duty that I did not seize the opportunity to give him "a piece of my mind" on "the sin of rebellion," with an exhortation to repentance; but, as that might have been followed by a piece of his mind on the wickedness (as he would look upon it) of invading his State, I do not think the conversation would have been profitable to either. He talked very frankly, yet without a particle of bitterness, nor did the fact that

UNIV. OF

VINNOJETVO

THROUGH MACON TO ATLANTA.

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he had left an arm on the field of battle make him feel that he had a right to hate every man who hailed from the North. So the conversation ran on for an hour, till he reached his home, when I was truly sorry to part from him; since I had found in him one who was certainly not an enemy, and "no more a stranger," but "a brother in the household of faith," whom, if I do not meet again this side of the river, I trust I shall meet when we both have "passed over the river, and rest under the trees."

It was evening when we reached Macon, and I saw it only as we passed round it, getting glimpses here and there into the lighted streets. I was sorry not to see it in the broad light of day, for it is reputed to be one of the most beautiful cities in the South, on high ground, and laid out in broad streets, lined with trees, with two or three colleges and other public institutions.

But another hundred miles remained of our long journey before we should finish our "marching through Georgia," and it was after ten o'clock when we rolled into the station at Atlanta, where the first face to greet me was that of Mr. Samuel M. Inman, who was waiting for me with his carriage, in which he "took me to his own home." Delightful it was, after a long day's journey, to be once more in that sweet atmosphere, to look in kindly faces, and receive the greeting of kindly voices. In such a home I spent the three or four days of my stay in Atlanta.

Of all the cities in the South this attracts me mostperhaps because I know it best-but apart from any personal associations, it has attractions of its own. It is a new city, risen from the ashes in which it was consumed a quarter of a century ago. And often it is with cities as with men, a resurrection is not only a rising to a new life but a better life than that it had before. I believe the people of Chicago look back upon the great fire that laid