Weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1858-1865, 1860-08-01

For The Standard.
WHITE SULPHUR SpRlNas,

~. WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS, ! :
Green Brier Co, Va, July 25, 1901 -.
". w. HOLDEN, ESQ. 1T is my design to give
to your readers in series Of brief epistles some
observations upon recent journey from my north
ern home to these celebrated Springs and some sta
tistics bearing upon this vast establishment
Without foreshadowing at full length my plan of
correspondence, allow ME- in this predatory number,
to offer few thoughts upon the scenery Of Nature.
lmprmis must admit that there was time
IN my te previous to ten consecutive voyages along
the Pacific boundary of our Continent, where
passed IN view of the grand Mexican mountain
ranges off Acapulco, Manzinillo and Mazatlan, and
those towering peaks in Lower California, mantled
IN the SHOWS of ages, when it seemed to my mind
there could be no such scenery of mountains as
among my own Granite Hills especially in the re-
gons of the Coos, where loom up in lofty grandeur
INTO those northern skies, the hoary and sublime
peaks of the White Nountdins First in sublimi-
ity, and grandeur of form and figure, and in impos.
ing awe-inspiring dignity of mien and presence
like the great and God-like Virginian, whose name
crowns with an immortal halo its grand and conse-
Grated summit stands MOUNT WASHINGTON! Next
IN colossal array around their imperial chie-typi
cal OF that steady, strong, united and answering
support accorded to the great Commander and Hero
IN the Hall of Independence and on battle fields by
those noble statesmen and warriors, are seen
Adams, Jefferson, Monroe and Lafayette. The
last, the traculent, high-tempered, and sometimes
wrong-headcd, but honest bold, unf1inching ard
powerful patriot and statesman of the old Bay State.
Ihenext two, ilustrious sons Of the Old Domin-
lon prolific parent of patriots, statesmen, Presi-
dents whose historic annals from the earliest colon
lal times to the present epoch illustrate her devotion
to liberty and law and her loyalty to the Constitu-
ton and the Union.
These names constitute bright and glorious tri-
une, and with the noble and revered foreigner,
chri,nr
they form a renowned and cherished galaxy kept in
familiar and halowed remembrance by their transfer
to those stately granite peaks
But the transit of the lsthmus of Darien by rail
car, near the stupendOus mountain. whence De Bal
Boa IN the sixteenth century, made the discovery
of the measureless Pacific sea-and varied and i'm
posing views of the Central American and Mexican
mountain heights, have weakened the pride of
my conceit"
For, in the presence of those vast, infinite noun
tains those giant members of the North American
Andes our little White and Green tiers shrink into
mOlehs; and seen in the distance are but ripples
and undulatons upon the carths surface
And when, few weeks ago, my eyes beheld di-
versied and shifting views of the great Blue Ridge,
whose peaks Of Otto have, by actual measurement
wrcsted the sceptre of altitude from our Northern
hills; between whose long line of frowning ram
parts and the grand Allegheny range lies folded in
Virginia" l confess to feeling that there was
still something for me to see outside my native
mountains.
And as the laboring ascending trains compass
with unwearyng wheels mile after mile of the heavy
grades, leaving mountain after mountain behind,
and opening up amid the recedng SUBMITS, and
others still in the van views of those gigantic
peaks, the scenes most powerful and impressive.
Those Northern CorGcras referred to in a pre-
vious paragraph are higher and vaster mountains
than any east of the Father of Waters, but their
rugged sleeps inaccessible to the foot of man,
broken into deep ravines ard gorges, and covered
with the consuming lava or stunted, sicky growth
of scrubbv trees. Then distant peaks look tower
ing and grand in their vast, sublime solitude. And
l have tanced when borne past them, 200 miles
away at sea, or looking up towards their cloud
crowned tops from near the Shore that one might
if standing their bleak and lonely SUBMITS al
most hear, amid the awful, hushed stiffness, the
great globe itself turn upon its axis
But prefer to look upon those glorious peaks Of
the Blue Ridge whose sides are clothed in vast and
beautiful forests, whence hewn the great masts
for ships, and the helve for the woodlands axe,
whose friendly forms shield and protect from north
ern blasts the dwellers in those noble vallcs and
plains; and when all else fails, will prove barrier
to the swelling tide of fanaticsfn and bigotry that
has long surged against, and now threatens, to
submergc this fair and sunny land
VELANO