"Ti
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VOL. HI., NO. 12.
PINEHURST, N. C, JAN. 19, 1900.
PRICE THREE CENTS
rii eours i 11
KORTH CAROLINA WINTER RESORTS.
A Yisitor Writes of the Pretty Villages Grow
ing Up in the Pine Forests.
It is about this time of year (in early
December) that many a good New Eng
land family begins to receive letters bear
lug a Southern postmark. They come
from towns with all sorts of names, but
not a few have the word "Pine" worked
into the title somewhere. When you
come to think of it this little word has
an attractive sound. It falls pleasantly
on the ear. It makes one think of the
pine trees, with their health and rest
giving properties the tall, straight
giants of the forest, from whose
gracefully waving branches comes an
element that rests the tired brain,
checks the cough of the consumptive and
brings to the invalid in general perma
nent relief.
Away back in the past, the grandfather
will tell you how he took some compound
of the pine tree for the complaints so
prevalent during the long New England
winter (for the medicinal products of this
wonderful species are innumerable ; but
down in the Southern forests nature has
formed a great sanitarium where relief
comes to the sufferer in the most attrac
tive form. Here and there throughout
the South are scattered resorts where
one can get the benefit of the piney
woods and be supplied with all the com
fort and luxury desired. Yearly the tide
of tourist travel includes these places,
and this fact accounts for the many let
ters postmarked as we have described.
Two of the most popular, Southern
Hues and IMnehurst, N. C, are espec
ially interesting to New p;nglanders for
the reason that they were founded by
the hardy descendants of Puritans and
sires of llvmouth Rock, and the good
old customs of the "mother country'
are carefully preserved here in the midst
f the sunny Southland.
Southern Pines-, the oldest settlement,
has been in existence only about ten
years, yet in that time it has drawn a
population which includes people from
every state east of the Hudson river, as
wll as New York and Pennsylvania,
l'lnehurst owes ita existence to the enter
prise, public spirit and broad philan
tlllPyofone man Mr. James V Tufts
;f Huston. We might tell the story of
"a origin light here. Mr. Tufts, who
,s a millionaire, while traveling in
the South a few years ago, stopped at
Southern Pines. He saw what his coun
trymen had accomplished to make this a
"'odel community socially and morallv,
d how the climate, character of the
soil and other conditions formed a happv
combination for the cure of pulmonary
;"id nervous diseases. Mr. Tufts became
Crested. He walked over the vine-y;l'-ds
and orchards. He studied the
"H'thods of Hfe. He figured the expense
of living here. Then he rode around the
country and picked out a spot for a new
town.
After he had returned to his Boston
home came the announcement that Mr.
Tufts had bought several thousand acres
of land in the big pine forest, and would
have a settlement of his own.
Suppose you decided to make a trip to
these communities in Dixie land. You
can reach them from Boston in twenty
four hours over a through route that is
direct, with its Northern connections.
A journey to the South is usually
thought of with discomfort, as it is gen
erally supposed one must spend at least
two or three days to reach a place which
is ''frost-proof; but this is an error.
Located in central North Carolina about
seventy miles west of Raleigh, South
ern Pines and Pinehurstare real Iv among
one could sleep on them all night with
out any apparent injury.
Such is the first impression; but you
quickly note the changes which have
been made by the hand of man. Row
after row of houses stretch back from
the depot. Some are larger, some are
smaller, but all well built and attractive
in appearance. Hack on the summit of
a hill stands the Piney Woods Inn, an
imposing looking hotel recently com
pleted. There are four or five other
hotels, besides other boarding houses.
The majority of the dwellings are sur
rounded by ample grounds, which are
beautified with trees, shrubs and flowers,
a portion of the rear yard being usually
reserved for a vegetable garden or small
orchard. The houses front on broad,
straight streets, which are laid out so as
to insure the best sanitary conditions.
4
r., ""SI"-.;'' - J w
as if a new life were being infused
throughout your system, and as long as
you remain beneath those pine trees the
feeling increases. Medical authorities
say it is due to the pine forests, to the
altitude of the range of hills on which
these pines are located, to the dryness of
the atmosphere, caused by the perfect
drainage, to the absence of any malarial
elements and to the continuation of clear
weather, the sky seldom being clouded in
the winter. While a fair amount of rain
falls in this section of the South during
the year, it is immediately absorbed by
the sandy soil which is several feet deep,
keeping the air as dry as in Colorado,
but not having the injurious effect due to
the very high elevation of Colorado.
If you desire to take a stroll over the
gently sloping hills, you will soon come
to miles and miles of grape vineyards
and orchards stretching away in all
directions. Most of them were planted
by the thrifty New Englanders, who
have found by actual demonstration
that this earth will produce abundant
ly some of the choicest varieties of
grapes, berries, peaches, pears and
other fruit. It ripens very early in
the season, so far ahead of the North
ern products that the fruit growers
can sell it in Northern cities profit
ably. It is odd to see a man on a
December or January day at work
or directing the work of a colored
hand in his orchard, while his New
England cousin has snow over his
farm, perhaps up to the fencetops.
Yet this is just what is to be seen by
the visitor to the piney woods of
North Carolina at this season of the
w 'I ' - i-.
PINEIIURST COW PASTURE.
t . v,?i33Sfcqi4,3
year
the most Northern winter resorts in the
country, being twelve hours or a
whole half day's .ride neaier Boston
than Florida and the Gulf states. 1 he
ill-rail route, too, is interesting and his
toric, the train passing through Washing
ton and Richmond, as well as Baltimore,
Philadelphia and New York. At Wel-
don, near the border of North Carolina
nd Virginia, the train starts for its des
tination direct, hauled by a massive loco-
notive at the rate of forty to fifty miles
in hour; quite in contrast to the "slow-
going" Southern methods, as they are so
often miscalled in the North. After
what seems a very short ride the train
tops and you are at Southern Pines.
It is a strange and picturesque scene.
As far as the eye can reach are tne tail
trees which give the name to the place.
They stand like sentinels over what
ippears to be a never ending stretch ol
sand as white and as clean as that you
play with on the seashore. Here and
there are fallen trunks of trees, and a
closer examination shows many carpets
of pine needles, so fragrant and dry that
In the centre of the town is the public
square, which answers to the famous
Boston "Common. From it rises a pole
surmounted by the "Old Fl.ig." Every
morning are the stars and stripes flung
to the breeze, and lowered at sunset as
regularly as if Southern Pines was one
of Uncle Sam's garrisons.
Perhaps it was snowing when you left
New England, but there is no snow here.
Though the mercury may have been close
to the zero point in Boston, you see men
walking around without their overcoats,
or wearing pos.-ibly a light garment,
while the ladies have doffed their wraps.
It seems strange to see a game of croquet
played in January anywhere north of
Florida; yet this is one of the winter
amusements at the Pines, as well as lawn
tennis and other outdoor sports. On the
porches sit invalids taking in the bright
sunshine, imbibing health and strength
with the air they breathe. In fact, you
notice a dryness and ozone in the air as
soon as you arrive. Perhaps you cannot
explain the difference, but you know
there is a difference. Somehow vou feel
While the great majority of the
people came here on account of
their health and had no idea of
engaging in horticulture, they found
it pleasant exercise and profitable
diversion while taking nature's medi
cine. It is a fact that not a few of the
ruddy faced, hearty looking Yankees one
sees at Southern Pines came to the place
but a few years ago thin and enfeebled
from disease, and in some cases given up
as beyond cure by the doctors. When
they saw what benefit they were gaining
here, they purchased land, sent for their
families and decided to make their home
in these Carolina pine lands. Every year
others follow their example, and thus is
this section steadily increasing in popu
lation, in addition to being the Mecca of
hundreds who come every winter to
escape the cold blasts of the Northern
season.
Even the trolley car is not lacking.
Get on board near the Seaboard Air Line
station and you go whizzing through the
woods seven miles to Pinehurst. Then
you see what Mr. Tufts has accom
plished. It is a model town, laid out by
an engineer and adorned by an eminent
landscape architect with trees, shrubs,
vines, etc. Several rows of artistic cot
tages, finished and furnished with every