We had another great treat while at Thomasville, in a drive out to a Southern plantation of the old-time type. How sad and silent, though, it all seemed! It was like a charmed castle, waiting for the arrival of some one whose footsteps should quicken all to life again. There it stood, all ready for an awakened hospitality, at a moment's notice. We wandered through the great parlors, the spacious bedrooms, and out on the shaded balconies and verandas, peopling all, in imagination, with the home happiness for which it seemed so well prepared. The ample portico, with its great pillars; the luxuriant trees; the stately, silent house, and the tangle of roses and creeping plants made a picture long to be remembered. It did not seem quite right to romp and frolic in such a place, but such is the limit of our nature that one always loves and longs for contrasts; that is the reason, doubtless, why we awoke the echoes with many peals of ringing laughter and good fun. The ever-present kodak had its own share in our comedy, and brought away a shadow of our sport in the picture of "Rebekah at the Well." The time came all too quickly for our departure from Thomasville. Even in our short stay we were charmed by the visits of many friends, among them some old acquaintances of other places and other times. We met, too, the genial editor of the "Daily Times-Enterprise," and found our departure duly mentioned in the issue of Saturday evening, April 16, 1898. It contained also the stupendous announcement of the certain opening of the war with Spain, which appeared in these startling head lines: UNITED STATES ARMY ORDERED TO COAST FIFTY THOUSAND VOLUNTEERS TO BE ORDERED OUT NEXT SENATE STILL IN CONTINUOUS SESSION But They Are Warming Up.--Money Calls Wellington a Liar.--The Queen Regent Contributes $200,000 to Equip Army and Navy.--Official Denial that European Powers Will Interfere.--Spain Says She Will Never Evacuate Cuba.--Uncle Sam Buying More War Ships. Separated from the above, with the telegraphic detail following, was another head line which read: "THEY LEAVE TO-DAY." Any one would, on a hasty glance, suppose that these words referred to the movements of the United States army, but they did not; they were spoken of _our departure_, on that afternoon, for New Orleans and the Pacific Coast. Here is what followed the startling line, and as it introduces our party in full and by name, we give it _in extenso_: "THEY LEAVE TO-DAY." "Dr. Frederick Humphreys and his party will leave to-day for an extended tour on the Pacific Coast.