Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1873-08-20
Fourth Letter from cur Special Gem
missioner = The Road from
Huntsville to Steven
SON, Ala.
The Bridges, CulVerts and Roadway All
in the Best Of Order, and Speak
E ing Well for the Secur. (
ity Company.
The Hotels BY the Way-Old Times Re-
ViTed by Mr.. Pitser Miller-The
Appeal in Alabama
Etc., Etc.

grandly interesting, the scenic fascina-
ton continues alongthe remaining sixty
miles TO Stevenson. Immediately after
leaving the former city the alignment OF
the Memphis and Charleston railroad
meets the impedimenta which the lofty
and sinuous spurs of the Cumberland
intervene, and hence has to accommO-
date itself to the curved or angular ir-
regularities of these mountain ranges. In
doing SO the road brings the traveller to
a feast Of valley and mountain seen cry,
varying at every turn in tint and out
line, but always boldly picturesque or
beautifully soft and romantic. In this
season of cotton blooms and
tasseled corn, the wales, or
coves, "Or pockets" along which the
railroad seeks a passage through the
mountains, have their native beauty
heightened, by the wavy, blossoming
verdure of well-cultivated farms, the
sheltered cottage,
The never-failing brook,
the sleek kline, grazing at leisure
on broad slopes of meadow-land,
where the summer days sun seems to
linger longest, and where the grass
seems ever green and succulent, these
contrast well with the solemn grandeur
of the forest-crowned mountains,
"Where mortal foot hath ne'er or ever been.''
But there is nothing awe-inspiring in
the scenery of the Cumberland noun
tains. There is too much of grace and
beauty in their outlines, too much of
soft repose on their sweeping slopes, to
inspire one with aught else than pleased
admiration. 1t is the beauty of the
ocean, in the language of the gifted and
lamented George D. Prentice,
"Where the winds kiss the waves
And the waves kiss the beech"
rather than the fearful beauty of the
ocean when the spirit of the storm
| Takes the rufian bfIlows by the top
And dashes them with deafening clamor
Against the slippery Clouds"
The road runs south seven miles after
leaving Huntsville, but the average di-
rection is five degrees north Of due east.
Four miles out we pass through Fearn's
Gap, q pretty heavy cut through solid
rock. the maximum grade being fifty
two feet to the mile. We find the road
in fine order and make good time to
Flint river, eleven miles from Hunts
vile. We cross the stream on one Of
Fink's triangular-trus bridges, splen-
did piece of work, which hardly vibrates
with the passage of a train of cars run
ming twenty-five miles an hour. The
cost Of its construction was eighteen
thousand dollars exclusive of masonry.
There are two spans of one hundred and
forty eight feet each, resting on three
piers of solid cut-stone masonry. On
the capitol of one of these piers or col
umns the following legend is cut into
the stone: an. ]. Wicks, president;
Niles Meriwether, engineer; T. S. Fos-
sick & Co., builders" Major Meriwether
may well be proud of this magnificent
structure, and of others like it to be
found on this road, which owe their ex-
istence to his engineeringskill and talent.
Flint river is tributary to the Tennes-
see, and has its source in the mountains
abo: Winchester. 1t has the clearness
and GOODNESS of the mountain spring.
We tarry awhile, few miles farther on,
at Brownsboro, where we find every
thing in good order, and then dash away
to Gurley's, sixteen miles from Hunts
vile. Here we find another of those
well-sppointed water-tanks, resting on
substratum of solid stone-masonry,
the cedar tanks enclosed and housed
with tin-roofing neatly painted. This
tank is sbundsntly supplied with water
passing through fountain conduit pipes
leading to mountain spring mile dis
tant. By the way, nature has given this
company many such aids as this at Cur
ley's. These springs abound in the
Cumberland mountain, and many of
them are freestone water Of delicious
taste and GOODNESS. 1t being midday,
and the keen mountain air having whet-
ted our appetite, the indefatigable pur-
chasing-agent of the road, Mr.. Gala
way, spread out before our appreeiative
eyes tender chicken, ham, biscuit, etc.,
etc, and then proceeded to uncork many
bottles of claret; and not content with
that, cut the wires from the confined
corks of sundry bottles of Piper Held
sick, and so, as the train dashed round
the jutting spurs of the mountains, and
the whistle of the locomotive echoed
along the deep valleys, the success
of the Memphis and Charleston
railroad, and of the APPEAL,
was pledged and drank with right
good will. At this point our venerable
friend Mr.. Pitser Miller, than whom
no clearer head fits the shoulders of
Tennessean, remarked sententiously,
that fifty-three years ago he travelled
up the very valley we were then pur-
suing, leading an Indian pony, which
he had purchased of Cherokee To-
dian for thirty dollars at Triana,
twelve or thirteen miles south
west Of Huntsville, an old shipping
point for the country about Madison sta |
ton, on the Tennessee river. That he
had Ted that pony sixty miles over the
mountain before be could find a saddle |
to buy or borrow. That he was then, |
as President Lincoln had often been |
afterward on another river, on his way |
home from a fatbOating excursion, |
starting from Surquineville, an old |
State road, seventy-fve miles north
east Of Knoxville on Holston river, hav- |
ing sold his fiatboat at Triana. Three |
years more than half century is q |
long time, and Mr. Miller should write |
out his experience of life in the Tennes-
see valley in the days when our grand |
fathers yet wore the antique Gus, and
ladies were not yet ashamed to wear
homespun. Twenty-eight miles from /
Huntsville we cross Paint Rock creek. |
Here another splendid Fink triangular
truss bridge of two spans of one hun
dred and fifty-four feet each. exeites
our attention and admiration. This
creek falling into the TENNESSEE |
at a point near prominent |
rocky elevation on the banks Of that
river, which rocky and precipitous ele-
walton Ia parti-colored by the exudatj, n |
of mineral oxides, and is therefore ytIl. /
carly called "Paint Rock,U from which |
this creek derives its
name. This bridge cost fifteen thousand
dollars exclusive OF masonry, which cost
some eight thousand dollars more. Be
tween Paint Rock ana Scottsboro there
are some heavy rock-cuttlDg. These
were expensive cutting, costing thecom-