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VOL. II., NO. 3.
PINEHURST, N. C, NOV. 11, 1898.
PRICE THREE CENTS.
IN PURSUIT OF WEALTH.
One of the Experiences of Mr.
Alexander Mann
When Seeking His Fortune in the Old
North State.
Trip to tbe Dry, Healthy Region of Sand Hills
and Pine Trees in Moore County.
Once upon a time there was a man
who thought he would go to North Caro
lina ana make ms iortune. lie was a
large-minded man, and so it seemed to
him more necessary to consider the gen
cral subject of going than such small de
tails as what he should do after he got
there. Looking at the map lie discovered
that North Carolina is a very large state,
it must therefore have great opportuni
ties in it for large-minded men. Reading
a railroad handbook he discovered what
some of these opportunities were. He
learned that there was a great deal of
gold packed away in the state and would
have been more if it had not been
crowded out by immense deposits of
coal, marble and valuable building stone
of every sort. It was the same story
with all the other productions. Big as
the Old North State was, it could hardly
contain all its natural wealth. The rich,
arable lands were elbowed and jostled by
forests of costly woods. Along the
coast a tremendous abundance of fish
and oysters threatened to overwhelm the
prolific truck-farms. Never was there a
section so plethoric with unused re
sources. The smiling earth needed only
to feel the tickling finger of the plough
to laugh outright in rich crops. Trees
were moaning with disappointment at
not being cut down and converted to the
use of man. liivers were roaring with
rage at having no manufactories upon
which to exert the tremendous energy of
their water-power. It was only neces
sary for a man to go down there ; when
he was on the spot he could decide by
which one of many avenues he would
pursue wealth, and then start at once to
pursue it.
But the man's wife said "No, it will be
better to talk over some of the ways and
means of making this fortune before we
go."
"All right," replied the man cheer
fully, for he was always ready to discuss
anything under the sun, "suppose we go
down there and raise silk-worms."
"Or poultry and grapes," suggested
his wife.
"Or mushrooms," added the man.
"Mushrooms?" said his wife with a
puzzled air, "1 didn't know people culti-1
vated those horrid things, I thought they
grew in the woods, and that sometimes
they were toad stools and then you got
poisoned. But surely you don't mean"
"Yes, I do,-' the man replied, "Just
see here," and he flourished a thin book
in sage-green covers. "This is an Eng
lish book that tells all about it. Listen
now, while I read you a few extracts :
"'Mr. Thickley Boggs of Uphill
Downdale, Surrey, cleared, last season,
off of one-half acre of mushrooms the
pleasing sum of nine hundred and three
pounds, eight shillings and tuppence-ha'penny."
"There, that will do," laughed the
wife, whom we will call Mrs. Mann, for
short.
"But, my dear child," said Mr. Mann,
"does your infant mind succeed in fully
grasping the fact which is here stated?
Do you realize that this means in round
numbers, forty-live hundred dollars? Do
you realize ? "
"Ves, yes, I'm sure I realize all we are
ever likely to from mushroom culture."
Naturally Mr. Mann was disappointed
when he found there was not room
enough in his wife's mind for a half-acre
of mushrooms. But he listened to her
persuasions and gave up for the time be
ing his pursuit of fortune along this par
ticular avenue. And so Mr. and Mrs.
Mann decided to give their whole
strength to silk-worms, poultry and
grapes.
In those remote days people who
wanted to go to North Carolina always
wrote to the secretary of information,
telling him what sort of business they
wished to engage in, and he invariably
replied that there were large opportuni
ties in that particular line then waiting,
and enclosed an order for railroad fare
at a reduced rate.
"Don't for pity's sake say anj thing
about mushrooms," said Mrs. Mann to
her husband as he set about writing.
Mr. Mann nodded in a manner calcu
lated to convey the impression that he
scorned the imputation of such folly,
but did not look up, and when his wife
had left the room, tore up the sheet upon
which he was engaged and began
another.
A' week later he was in Kaleigh on a
prospecting tour. While there he learned
that the place he ought to go to was
somewhere down in Moore county. It
was a high, dry. healthy region of sand
hills and pine trees. There was plenty
of pure water and wholesome air. Land
was cheap and easily cleared, and silk
worms, grapes and chickens would thrive
there most amazingly. He decided to go
down there at once and look about for a
location.
The train left Raleigh a little after six
in the evening and had a run of about
seventy miles to make in reaching Mr.
Mann's destination. Trains had not at
tained to a high rate of speed in that
section in those ancient days, so that it
was pretty nearly midnight when our
traveler found himself drawing near to
his journey's end. The place he wanted
to reach was not yet a regular station of
the railroad, but was a mile and a half
distant from the nearest stop. In his
Northern ignorance he accepted the situ
ation and got off the train at the ap
pointed place, unaware of the fact that
he had only to ask the pleasant-faced
"captain" to let him get oil" a mile and a
half further down the track and it would
be done.
A man and a woman and a little col
ored girl got off the cars at the same
time that he did, and they four jogged
along together on their midnight walk,
lie found hi3 companions very agreeable.
Their voices were soft, yet kindly and
sincere, and that of the woman had a
genuine Northerly tone in it that gave
the exile from home great comfort.
It was a night such as Mann had never
experienced. The air was as soft" and
sweet as the breath of a little child. Near
at hand, among the long dry grasses on
each side of the track there was a gentle
susurrus as from some great creature
asleep. Far oft' a dog bayed and seemed
to wake a dozen others, whose voices
joined in deepening chorus. The train
they had left a little while before could
be heard whistling into the next station
below. But in and through, under and
over all these sounds was another, unfa
miliar to his ears, a dull continuous roar
ing, like the voice of falling water.
"What's that?" asked Mann, stopping
so suddenly in the middle of the track
that the little negro girl behind him
screeched "Oh Lawd!"and tumbled in
a heap on the bundles she was carrying.
"What's ailin' you Julia? Come, come,
quit that foolishness, stop your squallin'
and git often my bandbox." The woman
turned to Mr. Mann and said apologetic
ally, "These niggahs are so triflin', it
takes right smart of patience to git along
with em."
"Sorry I caused such a commotion,"
said Mann contritely. "I merely meant
to inquire the cause of that strange roar
ing I hear all the time. Is there a full
of water near by?"
"That? " said the woman stopping to
listen, as if she had not heard the sound
all her life. "Oh, that's the pines. They
always sound that-a-way. Kind of fear
some at night, I think," and she quick
ened her pace a little.
Silhouetted against the moonlit sky
were rank upon rank of great trees.
Some were entirely bare of foliage, others
nodded heavy heads of green. Many
stood up tall and soldierly, but there
were many others bent and twisted out
of any tree-likeness known to our trav
eller. Long, slender needles, silvery in
this light spread out from the ends of
the branches and twigs, like quivering
figures ; they thrust upward, downward ;
they clashed together and then flung
apart, and all the time their moaning
never ceased.
The air was full of the pungent breath
of these trees, and many spring-time
odors that Maun did not fail to note.
After a little time, though he civilly
kept one ear open for such talk as his
companions might pour into it, he gave
the other, as well as both eyes and his
whole heart to the sweet sensuous night.
He could make out but little of the
nature of the country he was traversing.
It seemed to be covered with low shrubs
or dwarf trees, except where the pines
towered upward sixty, seventy, eighty
feet. Through its scanty covering of
fallen leaves the sand gleamed snowy
white, an odd, cool contrast to the warm
and languorous air. Here and there the
outline of an isolated oak, whose leafless
boughs made delicate tracing of shadow
pattern upon the moon lighted ground,
or a gigantic blackened stump, uncan
nily human in shape, challenged the
wayfarers as they passed.
At length they came to where the
track ran through a shallow cut, one
side of which had been shovelled away,
making a broad road through ankle-deep
sand up to a three story white-washed
structure in the front part of which a
light was burning.
"There," said the woman, "I reckon
they'll keep you in this house tonight.
If they can't you jes come on down the
track to the nex' house, and we'll get up
a bed for you somehow. Good night,
sir."
"Good night madam, and to you sir.
I thank you very much fcr your kind
ness," said Mann heartily, touched by
the cordial good will in the tones of
these strangers.
concluded in next issue.
Tlie Duke of Cambridge.
The venerable and cheerful Duke of
Cambridge has come home looking hear
ty and has been to Newmarket to see the
St. Leger run. He is a funny old gentle
man, but not nearly so funny as his fa
ther was. Did you ever hear the story of
the latter's habit of making loud remarks
in church, or, rather, responses out of
his own head? The royal chaplains got
quite used to his ways at last, and did
not even smile. When the clergyman
said "Let us pray," the duke would say,
"By all means," witli an air of devout
approval. On one occasion, when the
prayer for rain was started, the old gen
tleman cried, "No good at all while the
wind stays in the east." On another day
the words occurred in the lesson, "Zac
cheus stood forth, and said, Behold,
Lord, the half of my goods I give to the
poor." The duke fidgeted, looked alarm
ed, and at last exclaimed : "No, no, that's
too much. Gad, I don't mind subscrib
ing; but I can't stand that." The com
mandments used to elicit very odd com
ments, such as, "Quite right, quite right,
but very difficult sometimes," or "No,
no, it was my brother Ernest did that."
Exchanye.
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