Show OP OF SW HOL HOLE A TOM SAWYERS CAVE The Old Hole Oh te the old hole wha the ho crick so still ad and deep Looked Ike like a a baby river that wa was lay laying ng hat half Ad And te the gurgle ot of te the round te the drift jest below Sounded like the laugh ot of something we te to kow know Before we could remember anything but butto to the eves Of the angels looking out a as we left leU Paradise But the merry day of youth Is beyond our control Ad And Its hard to part with te the theold old hole Ob Oh the old hol Ii In t the happy happ days das ot of yore When en I to lea lean above it on the old Oh It showed me a face in it its warm sunny tide Ude That tied gazed bac back at me so gay ad and glorI I It made me love myself a as I leaped to caress My up at me wit with such tenderness But them days Is pat past ad and gone ad and old Times tuck hs his tol toll Prom the old man come back to the old ala hole I Ob Oh the old hoe hole i in te the Iong lon la lazy das days Wen When the humdrum ot of school made so many runaways How pleasant wa was te the journey dow down the theold theold old dusty lane are the track tracks of our bare fee feet was wasal al all printed so plan plain You could tel tell by te the dent of the heel heeland ad and th the sole They was lot lots o fun on hand at the old hole But lost joys Is pat past let your tears In sorow sorrow rol roll Like the rain tat that to dapple up the theold theold old hole Tare Thare the bulrushes ad and the cat cattails tails so tall tallAnd Ad And the sunshine ad and fel fell over It al alAd all allAnd Ad And it mottled te the worter with amber ad and gold Tnt Till the glad hUes rocked in Ih te the ripples that rolled Ad And fluttered the snake by feeders feeders tour four gauzy wings Like the ghost of a day daisy dropped out ot of the sk sky Or a a wounded apple blossom In te the breezes control A As it came across some orchard towards the old hole te Oh the old hole hole when I la saw te the place The scenes wa was aU all changed like the change change In my face The brIdge of the railroad now crosses the spot are the old divin log lay lays sunk and forgot Ad And I stray down the baks banks whore te the trees to be But never me meAd agai again will their shade sheler shelter Ad And I wish in my sorrow Borrow I could sp strip to tho soul And dive oft off in my grave like te the old hole Tom Sawyers Cave to Be Destroyed Harpers The Tho disheartening news comes from Hannibal Mo that soon Huckleberry Finns and Toni Tom Saw Sawyers Sawyers cave wl will be no more C Corn merce ha has marked the spot for de de destruction ad and before IonS long the his historic historic cave where Tom Sawyer ad and little Bek Becky Thatcher were lost to to together gether and the pangs of hunger hung ad and the terrors of darkness Were Where the murderous halfbreed In Injun jun jn Joe met his tragic death Where Tom and Huck foud found the treasure wi will have disappeared Into the c ca capacious jaws o of a a stone crusher to b be converted into I Ian an cement Soon al all that wl will b be left ot of cave wha where Mark Tn who everybody kows knows was the original of Toni Tom Sawyer playe played a as a boy wl will be a pile pUe of macadam or building stone stones or best of modern concrete The destruction of this old cave is T an anat I at act of vandalism paralleled only by the reent recent pasIng passing of the old swim ming ining hole endeared to thousands of boys since It wa was fir first pictured by James Whitcomb Riley which ws was destroyed by the growth ot of the ambitious but prOsaic little viage village f on the tho bak banks ot of the Brandywine Indianapolis News They are going to commercialize the Brandywine to market the ripples of The Old Hole at atso so much a ripple or In other words make make the stream earn is Its board and keep II In Instead stead of a happy little wonderland wan wanderer wanderer derer It Is to be Imprisoned and dese desecrated desecrated crated with the name of ditch I It was James Whitcomb Riley that gave the world a heart interest in the Bra The Joet poet of Loc Lockerbie erbIe street spent mary many days of happy boy boyhood boyhood hood on it Its banks The Brandywine Is only a creek a wild crooked creek I It be begins gns gins Its journey toward the sea sea some somewhere somewhere where above the little town of Max Maxwel Maxwell wel well this county and winds around to toward toward ward Greenfeld passes here on the eastern side o of town and squirms and twists until Blue rIver claims I it some twenty miles below here Is Its bed Is of mosses swamp gasses grasses and a muck more somber tha than any child of Aric Africa But the crysta goblets ot of the gods could not be clearer than the waters of the Brandywine I It is one of natures mirrors Te The shadows of the sap water gasses grasses wave to and fro at the wi will ot of the varying currents and and the whole family of woodland creatures seems to be constanty constantly at picnic on the Brandywine The creek has changed little in char character character acter since Riley wa was a boy alt although there are those who say that the or er erratic stream has changed course just enough to leave Te The Old Hole of Rileys day fory forty feet ashore However it Is still the Brandywine the trees sti still shade is its waters a as of yore and altogether it is about the same as when they caled called him Jim Jimmy Jimmy my But the old ran rail fences are gone Instead there are long strands of barbed wire and along the Brandy Brandywine Brandywine wine they seem as one of the curses cUres of progress Somehow it strike a a sentimentalists heart right to have to dIsentangle himself from a lot of un unholy unholy holy barns barbs when he be Is for a aspot aspot spot celebrated In verse How much cheerier It would be to totra tra rade dle a rail raU fence and drop down on th other side The heart must have been filled with a when he wrote Te The Old Hole Hola for tor ndE d he wrote as a prophet In the thelast thelast last lne of the first And i Its h hard r to part forever wih with the ot hole Soon and is Its oM ol boys hov are to Rrt wih with the Bra Brandy Brandywine ni v wine Fk Pk thre In P of Jam Tam y th knew ht him just n pv r other boy hov h Nl or Is to creek 0 or 1111 of his beauty A AmAn mAn 0 h r t jq Tot not W worth Tt who has nt not to tn have a mp TVA 1 suti for his old hole hote Tint you Your like the to OUT heart eart inn fn fe oe It t no now r It t wid hut but I it was kd nn nfl warm summer days youre py out of te the house the back ge gate and oVer ovel the fommon where here the gang yc you ere you been beon 1 Ce came i In chorus from the rp t of the cowd crowd Oh h I had t lt W tzi wood you feeling that the tho word bumped yuu u hr hard because you had flail to tB nil d a bl tt the ruSt St OL 01 OLour our But th they y lU LOU lau nau days llen men up shot l ut two fd y to es s go o 5 ii and you ou Were oft down tu tu dusty highway id id across aros t to Br or some other cheek tui fUl the day plunges lLo its cowing depths Y 1 8 es th lt were those among you who wet went in in vie vio laton lation ot 01 a promise made to mome mother tha YOU go near the water aLer YO You feared to dive because get your har hair wet and motherly wis in the shade t too to protect your bak back and arms ims tom from sunburn to Mother other Sh Sherlock cock Holmes from getting wise Yet YOL e just the same and ay any accusation from mother 8 a few hours afterward p t With Witha a hearty but secretly tory denial denial Rileys Old Hole was about a quarter quarter of a a mile mUe back of Kit brna barna landmark in reen eld d something ething like Uke a mie mile east of te the county courthouse I It was marked by an old that sto stood but 10 tOO yards yards below what is S now the Park avenue ford In Rileys day I it wa was simply the ford a tr treacherous ch erous spot on the where mor more tan than one venturesome youth has beth torrent In at attempting been cat cast into a a swirling tempting to drive across the tho steam wh when n It wa out of humor The Old Hole had only a local reputation prIor to June 17 18 On that date Riley RUey writing under the homely nom de plume of Benja Benjamin mitt min F Johnson of Boone gave to the tho theold old Indianapolis Journal the poem that brought the Brandywine to fame Te The poem printe printed on that day is d wih with the following editorial note Benj Benjamin ln F Johnon Johnson of Boone coun county county ty who considers the Journal a very newspaper writes to us an original poem desiring tat that we kindly accept it for publication as many neighbors and frien friends s Is astin hi him to have the same struck of off r Johnson thoughtfully informs us that he Is no man but that he has from childhood up tel old to vote allus aHus wrote more er less poetry a as may many of an album in the cn can testify Again he says that he writes from the hart out and there Is a a touch ot of genuine pathos In the avowal Thae Thare is ties times when I wie write te the tears rolls down my cheek cheeks In al all sincerity Mr Johnsn Johnson we are glad to publish the poem you send ad adjust and just as aa you have written I it Tat That is its greatest cham charm Is Its very defects compose is its excellence You need no better education than the one from which emanates Te The ol Old Hole I It i Is real poetry and al all the more tender and lovable for the unquestionable Uon able evIdence i It beas bears of having been written iton from the hart out Te The poem won its way into thousands of American hearts and today holds sweet communion wih with ever every memory of boyhood Te The Old Hole of Rileys day may have have moved a a few feet ashore bt but the is its old home remains remains Bt But son soon It too must g go The e Brand Brandywine i Ia domed doomed to lose It its rustic beauty Before a an another other year ba has gone a stem steam drege dredge wI will plow It its highway and transform the baby river that Is lying half asleep Into a dich ditch |