Semi-weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1853-18??, 1860-08-01
For The Standard.
WHITE SUIPHuR SPRiNGs.

Green Brier Co.;,Va, July 20, 1860
w. w. HOLDEN, ESQ lit is my design to give
TO your readers, in series of brief epistles some
observations upon a recent journey from my north
ern home 70 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
lmprimis. | must admit that there was time
IN my life previous to ten consecutive voyages along
the Pacific boundary Of our Continent where 1
passed IN view of the grand Mexican mountain
ranges off Acapulco, Manzinio 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-
glons OF the Coos, where loom up in lofty grandeur
into those northern skies, the hoary and sublime
peaks of the White Mountains First in sublimi-
ity, and grandeur of form and figure and in impos
ing awe-inspiiing 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 WAsHINGToNI Next
in colossal array around their imperial chief-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 ever
Adams Jefferson, Monroe and Lafayette. The
fast the truculent, high-tempered, and sometimes
wrong-headed, but honest bold unhinching ard
powerful patriot and statesman of the old Bay State.
The next two illustrious sons of the Old Domin-
ion, prolific parent Of patriots, statesmen, Presi-
dents whose historic annals from the earliest colon
al 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,
whose memory is enshrned IN every American heart,
they form renowned and cherished galaxy, kept in
familiar and hallowed 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
molehils; and seen in the distance are but rpples
and fluctuations upon the earth's surface.
And when, a few weeks ago, my eyes behed d.
versied and shifting views of the great Blue Ridge
whose peaks OF Otto have, by actual measurement
wrested the sceptre Of altitude from our Northern
hills; between whose long line of frowning ram
parts and the grand Allegheny range lies folded in
strong. secure embrace, the beautiful "valley Of
Virginia" | confess to feeling that there was
still something for me to outside my native
mountains,
And as the laborlng, ascending trains compass
with unwearying wheels mile after mile of the heavy
grades, leaving mountain after mountain behind,
and opening up amid the receding submits, and
others still in the van, views of those gigantic
peaks the scenes are most powerful and impressive.
Those Northern Cordilleras referred to in a pre-
vious paragraph are higher and vaster mountains
than any east of the Father of Waters but their
rugged sleeps are inaccessible to the foot of man,
broken into deep rAvines ard gorges, and covered
with the consuming lava a stunted sickly growth
of scrubbv trees. Then distant peaks look tower
ing and grand in their vast, sublime solitude And
| have fancied 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 on 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 clothed in vast and
beautiful forests, whence hewn the great masts
for our ships and the helve for the woodlands axe
whose friendly forms shield and protect from north
blasts the jewellers in those noble vallies and
plains; and when all else fails, will prove barrier
to the swelling tide of fanaticiSm and bgotry that
has so long surged against, and now threatens to
submerge this fair and sunny land.
VELANO