The Chariton Leader, Chariton, Iowa Thursday, July 5, 1906 MOUNT ETNA IN THE VALE ------------ On the Nodaway River Where Life is Ever a Waking Dream. ------------------------------- Some twenty years ago the writer spent a happy youthful summer at Mt. Etna, in Adams County. This is a picturesque old inland town and was quite a mart long before the metropolis of Corning existed even in the minds of the promotors of the age. Once a local poet wrote of it: "Mt. Etna, fair gem, 'mid the clustering hills Green in their foliage of native wildwood-- Often I turn and my memory thrills As I revel again in my childhood. I see the old mill by the river-side; The spires of the churches I see; Again I float on the eddying tide Each day nearer to eternity, etc." In those days it was the talk that the old town would be placed in communication with the outside world and that a modern railway would course the valley and connect with the old established Burlington at Villisca, but the prophecy has never been fulfilled, so the place remains much as it appeared the day we descended upon it from the highlands to the east by the circuitous roadway crossing the wooden bridge and into town. At that time the Hon. Horatio F. Dale, who later became prominent in the democratic politics of the state and has the distinction of being one of the compilers of the present Iowa code of laws, maintained a law office there, and a precarious livelihood practicing his profession before the township court. The famed Judge Spurrier, now of Des Moines, had just made his first evolution toward higher things and opened a law office in Corning, coming back frequently to help Horatio prosecute or defend (as called for by the retainers) the Bells who had a habit ! at times of violating the liquor laws of the state. Spurrier had served an apprenticeship on the farm of Uncle Dan Thomas, the inn keeper, thus combining, agriculture, the law and green back politics. * * * * * After this absence of twenty years a message was received a few days since, urging a visit of the Leader editor to the old scenes and to deliver an address on patriotism to the assembled citizens of the town and country-side, on July 4th, a pressure which the writer could not resist. * * * * * As a guarantee of good behavior he was accompanied by his wife and arrived at Corning, the former home of the celebrated political corruptionist Ed Hunter, on Tuesday at 2:00 p.m. Here we were smitten with considerable fear and trepidation but was assured that Ed hadn't lived there for years and had no bank account anyway, besides democrats were unpurchasable. This made it plain that an untrammeled stream of patriotic eloquence would flow over in the Nodaway hills on the morrow. * * * * * The next thing was a carriage ride of ten or a dozen miles to the north through the fields and farms of the rugged but fertile district. A short distance from Corning the old DARRAH farm, with its great groves and protruding gables, is passed. Here was the boyhood home of "Our JOHN," who early abandoned the farm and went over to town to "clerk." The citizens there feel proud that Lucas, the best county in the state, has called a native of old Adams to represent it in the halls of legislation. The neighbor all say, "Well, JOHN was a good lad and has done first rate." * * * * * As you journey north the country grows more rugged, but none the less fertile, until you suddenly drop down into the Nodaway valley. This valley is a veritable garden of agriculture -- nothing richer in the world. At some points it is several furlongs in width. At other places it narrows until only a farm or two is spread out between the river and the adjacent hills and uplands. Vegetation is wonderfully luxurient and no spot on earth offers a more pleasing landscape. As far as the eye can reach the outline of hills stands prominent and farms are at varying elevations. The hill country of Adams differs from Lucas in this particular. Here we have only hollows, there they have real hills -- the distinction being that the surface here is level while there hills are erected on top of other hills. To all who can't afford a trip to the Yosemite our advice would be to visit north Adams. * * * * * Ere the twilight had set in our procession of carriages had crossed the stream and the parting rays of the sun were painting the shadows of the spires and steeples against the eastern cliffs. This was Mt. Etna. How like the picture beheld of yore! And how royal was the welcome on this democratic occasion! * * * * * W.D. Simpson and family reside here. They have a cozy home, surrounded by every comfort and delight in the ease of the situation where neighbors are appreciated and common friendship abounds. Mr. Simpson conducts a big department store here, on his own account, and supplies the country round about with practically everything from collar buttons to steam threshing outfits and does a big volume of business. * * * * * The glorious fourth was ushered in with salutations and the first breezes floated the colors on the ether waves. Bands discoursed the Nation's chorus and the cheering multitudes gathered under the queenly elms to hear the story of America's greatness. The speech itself must have been a masterly effort, hailed at first with applause, tears and joy and then a season of spell-bound astonishment, broken only by wild enthusiasm a full thirty minutes after its close and for another half hour it was heard echoing and re-echoing from hill to hill to a listening audience for at least ten miles about. It is a well known fact that there is a popular prejudice abounding against the ordinary "4th of July oration" and several times the speaker caught the glitter of an eye squinting up a gun barrel from a clump of sumach, but after the speech the owner came up and surrendered, laid down his arms, shook hands and said all was forgiven. One man flattered the speaker by remarking that the! address was so scholarly that he failed to catch the drift and wanted a key to unravel it at leisure times. Still another -- a lady of rare culture and pet parrot at home, no doubt -- said she would like to have the original manuscript for her scrap book and to bury with some other treasure she had. The above are only a very small part of the encomiums received in person, besides the many others by inference. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Copied by Nancee(McMurtrey)Seifert October 22, 2004 [email protected] *I assume (as Frank Myers told me) that this was written by Henry Gittinger -- and very well done, I might add.