m
VOL.
IV., NO. 5. PINEHURST, N. C, DEC. 7, 1900. PlilCE THUEE
CENTS
lie PpBtoMISiitinok
AN INTERESTING LETTER
On North Carolina and Pinehurst, by
Mr. Jobn Albee.
Being of New England birth and
ancestry I have always had the strongest
local attachments. No matter how des
titute of natural beauty or historical inter
est, the places where I have lived possess
a strange charm for me and I feel a silent
resentment when asked for the grounds
of my attachments. Sentimental attach
ments my friends call them and laugh at
me and they accuse me of idealizing
everything and indiscriminate optimism.
Well, I confess realities are not to my
taste; in truth I find none so profoundly
real as the things which the imagina
tion can construct out of the commonest
and most insignificant material.
This fondness for the loved and limited
rather than universal geography fol
lowed me to l'inehurst and I had not
been here three days before I felt my
usual desire to know everything about it
and the region round about this neigh
borhood. I began to localize, so to
speak ; and though I have come a thou
sand miles away from home and all I
count most dear, yet I suddenly felt old
attachments and interests obscured by
the new and strange surroundings. I am
eager to know and to learn all that this
part of our beloved country contains of
interest; its nature, trees, flowers, its
geology, its civil histoiy, its customs,
folk-lore and superstitions, and more
than all what its men and women, both
black and white think about. I have a
secret fancy that this will be as condu
cive to health as the climate. Half the
invalids of my acquaintance are sick
because they have nothing else to do.
And I have known several cures wrought
by no other medicine than an interest in
something outside themselves. So I am
here in central Carolina to add a chapter
to my knowledge of my native land.
There are summer schools for every
thing. I have set up for myself a winter
school in Pinehurst and hope to learn a
page a day. It is too early to communicate
all I expect to learn, and there are prob
ably many persons in Pinehurst who do
not need such information as I have in
view, having themselves acquired it in
former seasons. Hut it may be worth
while to entertain the readers of The
Outlook with some notes made during
a winter residence in Western North
Carolina.
Western North Carolina is a very dis
tinct portion of the State, not only in its
geography, but in the character of its
inhabitants. North Carolina has three
natural land divisions; first the coast
region, three hundred miles in extent
and extending inland for a hundred
miles; next conies the so-called Pied
mont region which is an elevated plateau
extending westward to the foothills of
the mountains where it ends abruptly
and then lofty peaks of "sky land" began
to loom up like a wall against the rest of
the State. For two hundred miles from
northeast to southwest there are nothing
but mountains, mountain valleys and
swift rivers. I cannot say any single
mountain is remarkably impressive,
although it boasts one with the highest
summit this side the Pocky Mountains,
Mitchell's Peak, 6,G88 feet. But seen
together from some high point they are
impressive. One reason of this is that
you are, as soon as you are fairly in
Western North Carolina, already at such
an elevation that you are disappointed at
their height ; another reason is the regu
larity of outline in all the' summits.
When I had my first good view of them
which was from Battery Park, Ashe
ville, I seemed to be looking down upon
a vast field of giant haystacks, all
rounded, raked down and tucked in to
shed the rain. There was as far as I
could see, no characteristic feature or
difference in any seen height. I do not
know the names of many of the peaks
and I wondered how they could be
fittingly named among those rugged
and irregular features which distin
guish most of the White Mountains. Yet
they have a certain beauty and sublimity
of their own a softened, composed
beauty and' a grandeur which does not
astonish and terrify like the Alps and
Andes. In short they are more friendly
and comfortable to live amongst than
most mountains of this or the eastern
continent. The air is softer and the
climate milder than any part of Italy
except in the vicinity of Naples. Here
grows the famous bright tobacco, small
leaved, fine in texture and retaining
when cured the same bright color as
when growing. In Western Carolina is
said to be the original home of the Ca
tawba, Isabella and Scuppernong grape.
Nineteen out of twenty kinds of oak grow
there; all the eight kinds of pine; all
the live maples; most of the hickories;
three out of the five birches. There are
one hundred and twelve kinds of trees in
that region and the largest chestnut and
poplars, called by natives linn. It has
the most extensive flora in the coun
try and several flowers and shrubs found
nowhere else. One can hardly speak of
its minerals without exclamation points.
I will only name some of them, but must
admit in doing so that they must at
present be considered as specimens
rather than mines or indications of
undeveloped resources. When I remarked
one day to a companion that nearly every
one seemed to have specimens of minerals
in his vest pocket, he remarked, yes, and
that is generally the whole of the mine.
There is a great desire to sell land by the
farmers not for what can be seen on the
surface but the supposed wealth beneath
and there is hardly an acre that has not
a hole in it made by the owner or some
prospector. But I will name the min
erals and gems which I either heard of
or saw specimens : nickel, chrome iron,
chalcedony, talc, kaolin, mica, corundum,
marbles, diamonds, rubies, sapphire,
emerald, beryl, amethyst and hid
denite, a new gem not yet found an) -where
else.
Now having said something of what is
upon and under the surface of this part
of the State, it is time to speak of the
inhabitants. I found them during a win
ter's sojourn not in Asheville nor any
other place of popular resort, but in the
very heart of the mountains, a very
peculiar people. In the race for pros
perity and improvement they have been
left behind, necessarily left behind, as
their mountains forbid railroads and con
sequently manufactures, mining and
lumbering can be carried on, but at great
disadvantage. It is a hundred years ago
with the population. In consequence
one finds many old-fashioned virtues as
well as customs. I have never met any
where a people more simple hearted,
natural and hospitable. There are few
villages and almost no inns. In travel
ing therefore you are obliged to stop for
your meals or a night's lodging wherever
hunger or rest require it. And this is
expected by the inhabitants along the
mountain roads. You are welcomed cor
dially; the best they have is set before
you and you will sleep in the best bed.
To offer to pay for your accommodation
would be considered on affront. All
their warmth and their means of cook
ing, and often of lighting is by the opn
fire. One or two iron vessels and a coffee
pot comprise their cooking utensils.
Trout and bacon, sweet potatoes and
pone are the solid articles of their diet;
but wild small fruits are abundant, as
are apples, wanting flavor, grapes and
peaches. If you happen to stay at a vil
lage hotel as I did for several weeks at a
time you would probably lose your appe
tite. In six weeks I had to give up eat
ing. There was the same bill of fare for
breakfast, dinner and supper. The
rooster that awoke you in the morning
was served for your dinner and it was
perfectly plain he had had no breakfast
nor any other recent meal. The animal
most in evidence is Mr. Pig. He has the
freedom of the country and avails himself
of it. Fences are no obstacle to him ; he
climbs them like a goat if there be any
thing on the other side which takes his
fancy. He also is served up in the same
manner as the chicken; you will hear
his death squeal before you are out of
bed and will generally find him on the
plates at noon. While in the full vigor
of life, Mr. Pig's antics and mischief
amused me in my idle hours.
I cannot speak too warmly of the good
hearts of these my countrymen who
have had few of the educational and
social advantages of other sections of the
United States. They have read little
except the Bible. Books they know
nothing of and newspapers are not com
mon enough to keep them in touch with
what is going on in the world. I heard
that in general the women were virtuous
and married young. I heard one good
saying about marriage which was new to
me: they say when a woman has mar
ried a shiftless, neer-do-well man that
"she has shaken hands with dry bread."
To a woman, young or old, they are
snuff dippers. Whether from this or
some other cause they are universally of
sallow complexion. I saw no pretty
women or handsome men ; on the other
hand the boys and girls were very good
looking, bright eyed and plenty of color
in their cheeks. Two customs struck
me; one that there were no old inaids
nor bachelors ; another that it was the
custom for both sexes to join the church
as soon as old enough. The people are
outwardly religious not in our sense
perhaps but after their own ideas of
what constitutes religion. It is the
stamping ground of all sorts of religious
fanatics aiid cranks. They think it is a
dull year in which they do not listen to
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