Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1867-05-10


tifuI scenery and Landscape Views-Thc
Mountaincer-The sPoor WhItes''-Their
Habits and Cs.stoms-The Military Bill
Rebellion Dead i'm the South, dc.
Boston, Halifax Co., Va, April 10.
Shut in by mountains on all sides, and
traversed by spurs of the ranges which form
it's boundaries, without u railway or easy
road of any kind, that part of North Caro-
lima passed through in going from the Ten
nessee line to Morganton, in Berke county,
is with difficulty accessible, and, conse-
quently, little visited Its magnificent
scenery is looked upon only by the hardy
mountaineer, though it would we'll repay
an effort to see it on the part of an artist
and lover of the beautiful. The road that
lies through Madison, Buncombe, Mellow
ell and Berke counties can boast of charm
ing scenes, whatever else it may have to
offer in the way of hard fare and hard tray
cling. Can anything be more labor repay
ing than journey along the banks of the
French Broad river, from Painted Noun
tain to Asheville? It wants the pencil OF
the master of his art to delineate the vari'
ETY. of landscape that is presented as ma
lures panorama passes in review. The
river silvery stream, is quite shallow and
it's surface is often broken by the rough
ness of it's bed into miniature cascades; Of
ten it's course is interrupted by fragments
of rock and outcropping banks. Occasion
ally an island, covered with pines, sits like
an emerald on its bosom. It's banks for
miles are the very mountain sides, descend
ing sheer from lofty crest to rivers brink
Now they recede and leave a level spot of
verdure and fertility; now they part and
show a charming valley Nesting at their
feet, and its murmuring stream IL haste to
10 of ofnr tot StpT
Here the mountains range themselves in
form of an amphitheatre, and look down
protectingly on green hills that seem to
be gathered there to be shielded from the
harm that threatens them without. And
there, far away, high above all the rest are
peaks looking purple and violet In the dis
lance. Clouds roll up their SUBMITS and
cast deep and ever changing shadows along
their sides, while through the riffs the sun
sends down a shower of gold. Now we see
the crest of a long mountain range. Peak
follows peak like the pillows of the ocean.
Seemingly they swell and sink away, as
they did in those primeval days before the
hills were fixed and when the unstable
earth surged like the sea. And now the
scene is wild and fearful as of the traces of
nature in agony. A terrible CONFUSION has
been here. The mountain has been cleft
asunder; the jagged wound remains. Vast
crags have been hurled in dire confusion,
and now hang threatening, to all appear
ance insecure and ready to thunder down
the precipice, bringing swift destruction on
our devoted heads
But I leave further description to the
pencil of the artist It remains for me
merely to map out the country. At the
Tennessee line the elevation Of land is
about 1860 feet above tide. From this
oval fan.
| Swananoa Gap in the Blue Ridge, dis
lance of sixty four miles. From this last
point, $3.50 feet high. the descent is alb
rupt, and in ten miles we come to an eleva-
ton of ,430 feet. From here to Morgan
ton is u gradual slope, broken now and
again bv hills, with mountains in the dis
lance. Throughout it are many fine fer
tile spots. It is lovely country for pleas
ure seats and landscape gardening ; but it
is entirely destitute of either. Indeed, if
we except charmed circle around Ashe
vile and MOrganton, within which the
amenities of life are possible, there are not
more than half a dozen habitable houses
between the Tennessee boundary and the
last named place. A grand and beautiful
country, well-watered country, a sutfi-
GENTLY fertile country, it has no one to en-
| JOY it that can appreciate its advantages.
The rude mOuntaineer is not alive to its
beauties nor even capable of making the
most of its material resources. Possessed
Of fair national capacity, a good physique,
and q sagacity and shrewdness that have
been impaired to him by his mode of life,
he lacks almost everything that education
can supply. He is without artificial ap-
pliances of any kind but of the rudest He
has no continuance. A piece of mechanism
of the simplest description puzzles his wits
completely. It is doubtful whether any of
the countries of Europe can show a speci-
men of humanity, representing a rural pop
ulation, more abandoned to the mere re-
sources of nature-more completely shut
out from every kind of artificial instruction.
Rude and primitive TO the last degree, you
find him, even when he is supposed to be
III easy circumstances, enjoying nothing
that would be called comfort away from his
native hills. Hospitable he is, and ready
to share with the stranger who knocks at
his door but the fare, though abundant,
is not tempting, and the kindly offered shell
ter IS not much between you and the cano-
ply of heaven. It harbors the wind and the
stranger alike, and the rain knows the way
to the ingle side. To cultivate his little
corner of land and be proprietor of hog
or two running wild in the woods, that in
due time he may have his store of salt pork
and hominy, is the mountaineers chief and
almost only care. His house is good enough
for him as it is, and he let's good enough
alone. And why not, when the richest
farmer in the county can boast of no bet
ter? The farmer may have host of SER
wants doing nothing and abeggarly account
of log huts trying to do duty as offices,
scattered about his implanted and half
ruined mansion, but once inside the house
nobody would know the difference. There
is the same bare appearance, the same dis
comfort, the same inhuman fare.
Surely the mountaineer's condition is
pretty slim !; but there is Simmer. The
wretched class known as the ''poor whites
abound in the mountains, and are met by
the way side at every turn. Their case is
hard indeed. They rove from place to
place, and never seem to have a. settled hab-
itation. In this respect they are like Gyp-
sizes, but unlike them in every other. They
have not the Gypsies' force of character
They are simply miserable, and are miser-
able because they hate to work-a hatred
that is tradition among them. Perhaps
originally their fathers despised labor, a, an
occupation too mean for the gentle race of
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