Prepared by National Geographic Society,
Washington, D. C.—WNU Service.
IE Atlantic's rolling waves do
not break against the mainland
of Georgia, A startling state-
statement, that. Yet it is true,
for the surf shatters on the smooth
andy beaches of the islands that
stretch like a protecting band off the
const,
These are the famed Sea Islands of
Georgia, the “Golden Isles of Guale”
as they were known to Sixteenth cen-
tury Spanish map-makers,
The low-lying lumps of land,
spawned by the tides and winds off
the 100-mile are of the Georgia coast,
were once friendly hunting grounds,
where Indians stalked deer, wild tur-
keys, raccoons, opossums, and water-
fowl. Today, as subtroplc playgrotinds
and winter retreats of happy lIsola-
tion, they have again become hunting
preserves and game sanctuaries,
What history has marched across
the savannas and hammocks and be-
neath the mossg-scarfed arms of the
mighty live oaks of these islands In
the nearly four-century span since
white men entered this New world
theater!
Here, In the late sixties of the Six-
teenth century, came Spanish grandees
and black-frocked friars, from their
Florida headquarters at St. Augustine,
to plant sword and cross among the
Indians to the “glory of the King"
Here, too, came adventurous French
voyagers to trade and to make unsus-
tained colonial claims,
Bold pirates and buccaneers, such
as Argamont (the notorions “Abra-
ham”) and Blackbeard, after plunder-
ing along the Spanish Main, brought
into the hidden anchorages of these
secluded waterways thelr treasure
galleons and, under cover of the ls
land oaks, found respite from their
high Adventures.
Here, In the 1730's, came Gen,
James Edward Oglethorpe and his fol-
lowers, who, within a few years,
struck blows that helped preserve for
the Anglo-Saxon race a large portion
of the continent,
Refugee Santo Domingo planters,
escaped French royalists, human car
goes from African “slavers,” wealthy
antebellum aristocrats of the old
South, masters of extensive island
plantations; then ruin, and, finally,
delayed rehabilitation, mark the suc
ceeding chapters of the Sea Islands’
history
Five flags have waved over this off-
shore cluster of lands where some of
the earliest seeds of American trade
were sow
Lesson in Coastal Geography.
However, the unfolding panorama
gained from the vantage point of an
airplane cockpit is essentially a les.
son In coastal geography, not history,
even though isolated bits of old Span-
ish ruins, Oglethorpe's Fort Frederica,
and remnants from prosperous colo-
nial days can still be distinguished
through the foliage.
Between the leeward side of the is.
lands and the mainland lie expansive
reaches of salt marshes, ranging
roughly from two to eight miles In
width, Generally wide at the”north-
ern end, toward Savannah, they nar
row at the lower portion of Cumber-
land, thé southernmost member of the
Golden Isles.
As you fly along the chain of is
lands you can trace a continuous ser-
pentine passage in the network of
sounds, delta-divided river mouths,
and meandering creeks. It is the In-
side, or Florida, Passage, a portion of
that inside water route which extends
all the way from New York to the
Florida Keys.
As you swing te a course over the
ocean side of the islands, an interest.
ing feature of their formation Is re-
vealed to advantage. Heavily wooded
areas appear in long bands, stretch-
ing in a north-and-south direction, and
are separated by slender marshes and
ponds, in some cases even expanding
into narrow lakes,
Through the passing centuries the
tides and winds have piled the sand
and river-debouched sediment into a
series of parallel dunes interspersed
with the swamps—~hammocks and
sloughs, they are termed In Georgian
parlance. Enormous live oaks, pines,
cedars, and other trees luxuriate here,
On Sapelo island alone remain the
wide, open fields where colonial plan.
tations flourished.
Here and there age tiny islands, with
little more than a fringe of sindy
beach to Inclose a small area of
marshland,
Where De Aviles Landed,
One cannot visit St. Catherines with.
out recalling that April day In 1506
when Menendez de Aviles, one of
Spain's ablest ploneers, and his party
of 50 men dropped anchor and came
ashofe on this island. He had estab-
lished St. Augustine, in Florida, only
the year before, and was already out
to destroy the remaining traces of any
settlements the French may have
founded,
One writer pointed cut that nowhere
else had he seen such a delightful ses
ting for a great house as that on
Sapelo island. In the midst of a
cathedral-like bower of live oaks, with
hoary beards of Spanish moss depend-
ing from thelr
stands a majestic colonial home,
jecting from the porticoed entrance Is
a cruciform formal pool which catches
and tosses back the reflection of mossy
oaks and vast white walls,
outstretched limbs, |
fdential parties have been guests at
the mansion. One day, while one of
First Ladies was admiring the nearby
rock garden, her clcerone was heard
stone for this rock garden.”
The big house of the South End
plantation was first bulit by Thomas
tation fafming on Sapelo.
As noted a farmer as he was a bulld-
er, Spalding cleared more than a thou.
sand acres on his island kingdom, and
raised Indigo, sea-Island cotton, sugar
He it was, In fact, who Introduced
cane cultivation and sugar manufac |
turing Into Georgia. The live oaks |
which he cut while clearing the for- |
ests to make bigger fields serve to fill
United States navy. He also supplied
the navy and merchant marine with |
beef and hogs.
As a slave owner, however, Spald-
Ing came ultimately to suffer, even
though he treated his “helpers” with |
such kindness that the planters In the |
South dubbed Sapelo “Nigger Heaven.” |
Then came the Confederacy, against
every protest of this aged man. Sher. |
man's march to the sea lald waste the
big house and the plantation develop
ments. Fortunately, Spalding did mot
ive to see that day of ruin,
Vines and bramble claimed the fire
smoked tabby walls of the mansion un-
til the present owner cleared them and
rebuilt again in 1025.
}
i
i
Modern Improvements.
Today, too, the old canals have been
redredged and new ones have been cut
in many places to supplement the
drainage of the island. An adequate
supply of fresh water is provided by
36 gushing artesian wells. More than
a thousand beef cattle now graze on
the luxuriant carpet grass, Japanese |
clover, and Bermuda grass that have
been sown in the one-time cotton and
indigo fields,
Delightful trails and motor roads
lace the island retreat. In many places
they wind beneath bewhiskered oid |
oaks; elsewhere they skirt the broad
savannas and cross between marshy
ponds that teem with ducks, teal, and
other waterfowl,
On the west shore, commanding the
‘approach to the Florida Passage, stand
the tabby ruins of the octagonal fort
bulit by the Spaniards in 1080. With-
in its concentric walls troeps were sta-
tioned to protect the friars of the
Mission of San Jose de Zapala. Thom-
as Spalding bullt a sugar mill on the
mission foundations, and within recent
years the “long tabby” has been con-
verted Into a guesthouse, a portion of
which Is now used as a schoolroom for
the nine white children on the Island.
A short ride farther north brings
one to the ruins of Le Chatelet.
This old site recalls the colonial efforts
of five Frenchmen who bought the is-
land and settled at several places In
their little haven. The agreement
which they made in 8t. Male, France,
before the beginning of thelr venture,
is one 4f the treasures of the Sapelo
library.
Soon to disagree, four of them
moved to Jekyl island. Later Le
Chatelet passed Into the hands of Mar
quis de Montalet, a French nobleman
who had fled from Santo Domingo,
where his whole family had been
massacred in a slave uprising.
Many of the descendants of Spald-
ing’s slaves still live on tiny farms on
the island. Of the three settlements
Raccoon Bluff, Hog Hammock, and
Shell Hammock--the former ls the
largest,
At IMampton Point and Retreat on
8t, Simon island the first sea-island
cotton was grown from seeds intro.
duced from the island of Anguilla, In
the West Indies. This remarkable long-
fiber cotton created much comment
among cotton buyers when the first
crop, shipped from Hampton Point,
reached Liverpool.
—— z
iH 3
The Man I Love
By WALDO THAYER
©, by McClure Newspaper Syndicate
WNU Bervice.
OU'RE gathered around to hear |
this last will and testament—gath- |
ered, I shall presume, as I Instructed |
Mr. Attorney Willetts to have you. |
Beatrice on his left, Dick across from
her, and Fred at the far end of the
table. As I write I have a nlce ple- |
ture of you waiting eagerly for the |
important part of this.
Well, you sha'nt be kept in suspense |
long, my dears: though perhaps what's
coming won't quite fulfill your expec- |
tations. You see, I'm putting this down
Just as I feel it, without any “I, Nancy
Gregg, being of sound mind” rigama- |
role, That's principally so there can't |
be any misunderstanding of what I |
have to say to you.
You three have been close to me |
during these last nine years—at least,
80 you think. In all that time, not one |
of you has missed spending some |
hours with me each day. My wants |
have been cared for by you jointly— |
using my money, of course. Each of :
you has possessed the same motive: |
desire to be the one or among the
ones called to heas the reading of |
this document. And so It is,
To you I shall speak first, Beatrice,
for you were the first to figure In this |
new life of mine—this bitter, bedrid- |
den mock of an existence. You it was |
It really wasn't until after the first |
For nine straight years you've been,
in ever-mounting degree, a llar and a
cheat. On four occasions that I'm cer-
taln of you've plotted to polson me
Does that make
you know how thoroughly I've been
To
you I make one bequest, Beatrice— |
the bed in which I have lain for this
eternity shall be yours—if you keep
And now, Fred, All 1 have sald al-
feel no hatred, for you have been only
weak and silly, Those you always
were, I remember clearly your
absurd, vain little mannerisms as we
100,
fell.
And ever since, day after weary
day, you have come mincing in to see
me with great sorrowful cow eyes and
second-grade roses, Could you think
stayed hours after your brief visits
often overnight?! That
your chief mission in life was consol.
ing Beatrice for her “privations” and
“sacrificea™ so that you might attain
a firm grip upon my estate? You fool-
ish, transparent little chariatan! 1
As for your part, Dick, It Is too
shoddily shameful to dwell on long.
To you I was engaged when it hap-
pened. Staunchly you reaffirmed
votion and your desire to marry. Only
the strange new sanity of vision 1
had somehow acquired saved me from
being fool enough to accept. Of course
you were eager! I had a million and
a half, you nothing: and an invalid
wife In those circumstances would be
ideal. And, since six months after my
refusal, I have been aware that you
were living on sums from my account,
extorted through blackmall threats
from Beatrice. To you, my gallant
cavalier, 1 tender as a last gift the
love letters you wrote me when we
were young. May they bring you
pleasure.
And so to the ending. One person
there is, there has been, in all this
wilderness of melancholy and disilin-
sion who means anything of worth, of
Joy, to me. He is the man whose ten-
der, yet wholly professional, minkstra-
tions have made this sluggish hell of
inch-by-inch dying bearable. Kind and
wise and wonderful, he has entered
into my heart, become the sole object
of such full and genuine emotions as |
I may still know, It Is my single hap- |
piness now at last to bequeath without
reservation, save as heretofore enu-
merated, all I own to Dr. John Renny.
One final word: Perhaps you who
hear this wonder why he is not pres. |
ent, It Is because I wish to spare him |
the unpleasantness of coming again
into this house until all of you have |
left it forever, Therefore he has been |
notified privately of this will's terms,
The rest of you will now please go, |
that the man I love may come home, |
for thus I like to think of it, :
. - . . * *
For a moment after the lawyer's
droning voice ceased, there was no
sound. Then savagely a chalr scraped |
back and the large gray-haired man
on his right arose,
“Well, of all the wild, monomani- |
acal messes 1 ever heard” he stated
with vehemence, “that certainly is the
limit! Why, It would be child's play
to have It set aside—though of course
I shan't dream of doing any such
1 dare say our fine friend, the
#0 clever doctor, has been notified
snd is walting in high glee to take
possession?"
Attorney Willetts slowly ralsed his
head to meet the other's eyes. His
tone's tempo matched that of the mo-
ment,
“No,” he sald, “not exactly. I my-
self went this morning to tell Doctor
Renny. His office door was open. He
wns in his chair, dead from a dose of
eyanide. A framed photograph of
Nancy Gregg lay face down on his
desk. Under it I found a note which
said simply: Tm coming, dearest.’®
de
Forty Billion Germs to
the Pound of Farm Soil
Instead of being inert and dead, or-
Cultivated soils have anywhere from
a few million to five million bacteria
in a pound of topsoil; under certain
favorable conditions the germ popula
tion per pound may run as high as
forty billions, says Literary Digest,
So we are told by the service di-
vision of the American Agricultural
Chemical company. To quote a press
bulletin issued by the Mandeville Press
bureau (New York):
“These organisms are very small,
consisting of single cells only one
twenty-five-thousandth of an inch in
diameter. They are the lowest form
of plant life, and contain no chloro.
phyl, the matter which enables ordl
nary plants to produce substances suit
able for the support of life,
“Most persons think that all bacteria
are harmful, but actually, the reverse
is frequently true. Without the bac.
teria in the soll, plant and animal life
would probably soon disappear from
the world. Only a comparatively few
bacteria are harmful to mankind. One
the land 1s to promote the growth of
beneficial soll bacteria,
“Farmers may increase the useful
ness of bacteria !n the soll by adopt
of cultivation and soll
treatment which favor thelr develop-
ment. Plowing under of organic mat-
ter so that the bacteria can make hu-
mus, rotation of crops to include le
gumes on which nitrifying bacteria
thrive, draining of wet lands, the add-
ing of limestone to acld solls, and the
use of fertilizers are recommended”
“The Little Brown Church”
" “The Little Brown Church” poem
and music, were both written by an
old member of the Congregational
church in Bedford, lowa, a small vil
lage about two miles from Nashua,
fowa. Doctor Pitts, the author of the
song, was Inspired to write it when
coming down the hill toward the little
old Bradford church after an absence.
The church, in a practicaily abandoned
has dwindled to only a few
members.
village,
resident
Branding Runaways
The Statute of Laborers, passed in
the reign of Edward VI, ordered & run
away servant to be branded on the
breast with the letter “V" for vaga
bond, and judged him to be the slave
of any purchaser for two years. His
owner, we are told, was to give him
“bread, water and small drink and
refuse meat and cause him to work
by beating, chaining or otherwise” If
the man absented himself for 14 days
during his two years of servitude he
was to be branded on the forehead
with the letter 8" Montreal Herald,
Island of St. Helena Is
Reduced in Population
The island of St. Helena is located
1,200 miles from the west coast of Af-
rien, and contains an area of about 47
square miles. It was discovered In
1501 by Juan de Nova Castella, a Por-
tuguese navigator, who gave it its
name because he first saw it on the
day consecrated to St. Helena. In the
following century the Dutch took pos
session and retained it until 1673 when
it was seized by England, notes a writ-
er in the Cleveland Plain Dealer,
When Napoleon was first banished
to the island and held there as a po-
litical prisoner under British surveil.
lance, the population wis about BOO,
the soldiers numbering 200 and the
slaves about 300. Subsequently, the
population increased until it exceeded
6.000, Emigration has since reduced
it.
One of the factors which lessened
the importance of the island was the
opening of the Suez canal, and the con
sequent rerouting of the Indian trade.
It has still a great value, however,
us a naval station, and Is one of the
strong keys to English power in the
south Atlantic.
amn———————————
“Make Money”
Among the many definitions of make
is “to attain as the result of effort;
procure; gain; earn” Io this sense,
the expression “to make money” car-
ries no suggestion of any nefarious
method. In fact, the expression, in
the sense of “to earn or procure
money” is very old. It was common
long before the time of Shake
speare, who used It repeatedly.’ In
Othello (written In 1004) lago, in the
first act, says: “Make all
thou canst . . . Thou art sure of me,
Go make money.”"—Literary Digest,
he
Negro Hair Cuts Itself
How often it happens that in search
ing for one another thing is
found. The Wool Industries Research
association set itself to solve the prob
lem of the too easy breaking of the
wavy wool of the merino sheep, and
in the process discovered why the ne
gro has close frizzy hair, It seems
that frizzy hair and wavy wool have
a circular way of growth before they
appear above the skin level, and this
continues during external growth.
Both hair and wool are found to be
thinner at the bends than In the rest
of the curls, and at these thin places
both break easily. Thus, when a ne
gro in civilization brushes his hair, or
in the jungles of Africa rubs It with
his hands, it breaks off, and saves him
the trouble of having it cut. As far as
merino wool is concerned a corrective
is In sight, and perhaps the negro will
use the same taking the
kink out of his wool !--Tit-Bits Maga-
tine,
thing
device for
Famous for Keen Scent
Belf-reliance in abundance bristles
from the short erect ears to the tight
ly curled tall of the Norweglan elk-
hound, Without this characteristic,
observes an authority in the Los An-
geles Times, he could never hope to
perform the monstrous task of hunting
Norweglan elk, the moose of northern
Europe.
In this assignment he is not re
quired to chase the game, but rather
to stealthlly locate and hold the angry
animal at bay. Great runuing speed
is not required, and his body must not
present the “racy” tucked-up appear-
ance of the greyhound or whippet,
jut he must be possessed of great en
durance and agility; be capable of
dodging, with spring trigger precision,
the kicks of quick hoofs and jabbing
swings of sweeping horus.
For scenting powers he Is one of the
most remarkable of all hunting dogs,
able under favorable conditions to
scent an elk or bear at three miles’
distance,
His origin is anclent, dating back to
the time of the vikings. Many, upon
irst sight, are Impressed with his like
ness to a possible cross between the
German shepherd and the chow-chow.
Like both of these breeds, he is a
member of the important, wolfy-look-
ing spitz family of northern dogs. It
Is not unlikely that the entire family
may have evolved from the Norweglan
elkhound.
Birds
Birds from
That
the down sare
very imitative. The ostrich where he
lives alone, is silent, but in a country
where the lions abound he roars. The
reason for this is, are reminded,
that admiring the lions roar, he grad-
ually learns to roar himself. As for
small birds, buntings imitate pippets,
and green finches mits eljow ham.
mers. They seek their food in winter
together and they gradually steal each
other's call. The jay is an insatiable
{maitator. Some jays will include in
the repertory only the cries or
songs of other birds, but also the bleat
of the lambs and the neigh of a horse.
Even the nightingale imitates. In a
nightingaie's song it is sometimes quite
easy to detect phrases he has borrowed
rom other birds,
Reason for the Cin
The reason for the curfew was that
in the early days all the houses were
made of wood and thatched straw,
says the Montreal Herald, There were
no chimneys, and the smoke had to
escape through a& hole in the center
of the roof, and thus fires often oc-
curred. To prevent this happening at
night the rule of putting out all fires
was strictly enforced. They were us-
usually extinguished by placing over
them a large copper hood
Mimic
ostrich
we
not
nosy
AND UP. List price of Ssandord
Sia Sport Roadster at Flisa, Michigan,
$455. Wich bumpers, spare tire and
tirelock, theliet prior is § 18 eddiviond.
Prices sudyect to change without notice.
i
AS MUCH AS
¥
public favor.
Value
CENTRE HALL, PA.