20 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER, 



January 



A BROWN LTIAF. 



tb the woods today a leaf fluttered down ; 

 It was wrinkled and old and bent and brown, 

 feut it met the wind and bepan to p]u,y, 

 And I watched it until it whirled away. 



And I could but wonder, when time and grief 

 Bhould have made me old and bent as the leaf, 

 Would my heart be as young and full of glee 

 As the brown leaf playing in front of me? 

 •—Frank H. Sweet in Ladies' Home Journal. 



A GEORGIA COLONEL. 



Colonel Joseph George ■Washington 

 IlilJs is the king of Red Clay, one of the 

 mountain kingdoms that lie a-straddle 

 of the state line which divides Georgia 

 and Tennessee, and is one of the most 

 noted characters of that mountain re- 

 gion. 



In the seventies Colonel Mills was a 

 Republican, residing in Atlanta, and 

 ran for congress on the Republican tick- 

 et about the time of the political up- 

 heaval that brought on such radical 

 changes in the state government. He 

 was a victim of existing circumstances, 

 and without waiting until the ballots 

 ■were counted he gave up the fight in 

 disgust. 



Not long afterward he removed to the 

 remote corner of the commonwealth 

 ■where he now resides and possessed him- 

 self of the historic town of Red Clay, 

 including the ancient council house 

 where Andrew Jackson and the chiefs 

 of the Cherokees met for the last time 

 preparatory to the removal of the tribes 

 to their new territory in the west. He 

 is full of anecdotes, and his stories car- 

 ry one back to the days of the old Geor- 

 gia militia, of which he was one of the 

 commanding officers. 



"I shall never forget, " said he one 

 day, "my first experience as a drillmas- 

 ter. I was elected captain of a company 

 down in Cobb county, the muster roll of 

 which included the warlike denizens of 

 the forest depths in the neighborhood of 

 Lost mountain. Hunters, traders, trap- 

 pers, squatters and crackers of low de- 

 gree were included in this organiza- 

 tion. I knew the character of the men 

 that I had to deal with, and as my fa- 

 ther was Major General Enoch R. Mills, 

 then commanding the justly celebrated 

 Georgia militia, I felt that I must keep 



tip tlie dignity of my office by arraying 

 myself not only in authority, but in all 

 the gorgeous habiliments of a high offi- 

 cial in the Georgia militia. 



"I called to mind an old friend of my 

 father's, Captain Howell, who lived 

 over in Gwinnett county and who had 

 recently resigned the command of his 

 company. He possessed a gorgeous uni- 

 form, with the most fetching epaulets 

 that I ever beheld, and I made up my 

 mind that I would apply to him for the 

 loan of his paraphernalia to wear at my 

 first drill, which was to occur on the 

 following Friday. It was in the heat of 

 the summer, after crops were laid by, so 

 I mounted my gray pony and rode to 

 the home of Captain Howell, who ex- 

 tended to me an exceedingly warm re- 

 ception. 'Lend you my coat and epau- 

 lets:' said he when I told my mission, 

 'Of course I will. I will do anything for 

 the son of General Mills, who is my 

 warm personal friend, sir, I am proud 

 to say. Try on the coat and let us see 

 how it fits. Aha, it is the very thing. 

 Take it, with my compliments, sir, epau- 

 lets and all, and may you wear it with 

 the same distinguished honor with 

 which your esteemed father has won the 

 uniform of a major general of the Geor- 

 gia militia, sir. Here is my sash, also, 

 sir. ' And he handed me a silken sash as 

 long as a fence rail, with a gold fringe 

 on it like an old fashioned window cur- 

 tain. After bidding him an affectionate 

 adieu, I mounted the gray pony and 

 started back home. 



'* 'Hold on there,' shouted Captain 

 Howell after I had ridden a few paces. 

 'Here is something else that you will 

 need. Captain Mills.' And he overtook 

 me and handed me a copy of Scott's tac- 

 tics. I present you with this, sir, as the 

 highest authority in the land. It has 

 been carefully compiled by General 

 Winfield Scott after the most approved 

 methods and usages of the greatest com- 

 manders of the age, sir. It is above and 

 beyond all statutory law and is second 

 and subservient only to the constitution 

 of the United States, sir. Only follow 

 its instructions and carry out its regu- 

 lations and your future is assured, Cap- 

 tain Mills. ' 



"With the uniform and sash carefully 

 packed in my saddlebags and that copy 

 of Scott's tactics in my left hand I rode 



