Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1881-07-08
81 would not have my pen pursue
The beaten track'-a slave forever I;
MOI roam as thou were wont 10 do
In nttthnrIan1 hv ro1k or riuaru


MOI roam as thou were wont TO do
In author-land, by rock or river"
We have always loved the mountain re-
gions with their wild and rugged beauty,
the untutorcd melody of their dashing
streams, the tender beauty of the wild
flowers that fasten themselves in the crevices
of the rocks, where the suns rays come and
linger like memories DER an old mans heart,
where the mellow orange light climbs along
the horizon at early morn and eve with a
with solemn and tender meaning and where
everything on which the eye rests seems to
indicate that they afford the best and most
settled summer resort, instead of the dis
comforts, the jam, the excitement, the
dissipation and unrest of the fashionable
watering places or the sea shore. We love
10 visit the mountains because of their calm
secluson, their pure air, their natural cheer
fulness, their towering beauty, their brilliant
mornings, their glorious sensets, their quiet
repose, We visit them too, because when
among them we can take off the armor
which one is compelled TO wear, and remove
the watch which one must set over himself,
in the crowded thoroughlares Of life, in short
where we can go back TO the days OF old,
and think, and act and feel like "a boy
again" The air Of the mountain region in
the summer is Of the purest, loaded always
with the freshness and the pleasant odOrs
Of the forest. IL gives strength 10 the sys-
tenn weakened by labor or reduced by the
corrupted and facilitating atmosphere Of the
cities. It gives elasticity and buoyancy 10
the mind depressed by continued toll or the
cares and anxieties Of business, and makes
the blood course through the veins with re-
newed yigor and vitality. In going to the
mountains there is no packing Of trunks
OF taking leave Of friends. You take your
satchel or travelling bag, kiss your little wife
in hurry at the the door and jump aboard
the train, where on the two iron bars,
the noblest couplet in the great epic Of the
time, you glide az lightly and noiselessly as
brace Of snnbeams flung from mirror
swinging In the wanton wind. In few
moments the suburbs are behind you, the
fields are flying 10 the rear, you dash through
the woods and see the trees lodging and
leaping behind each other, performing the
dance Of the witches sin most admired con
fusion" On we plunge, village has been
born, christened and grown within the past
month--a church, graveyard and "A block
Of stores have gone up at another point, but
we arc hurried on, the church moves grayely
away, as churches sometimes do. The grave.
yard, with its sleeping tenantry Is lost in
the dim distance the row Of brick stores
have stepped 10 the rear, "and distance and
motion are in the secret"
IN the course Of three hours you are
among ranges Of mountains, whose casteI-
lated peaks stand out in sharp and bold re-,
lief, on whose tops the beams Of the morn.
ing and evening sun rest like a mantle of
silver and gold, and here and there pic.
turcsque valleys winding away among the
hills, along which the mountain streams
come bounding down rapids or moving in
sluggish but pure currents toward their
ocean home, all Of which form some of the
fascinating and bewldering pictures which
nature has hung All along the region Of
country through which the Baltimore and
Ohio railroad, ihis popular and famed high.
way, leads.
Controlled by desire ~ visit such a scc.
ton Of country ~ We have but slightly de-.
scribed, twelve months since we visited the
historic and romantic valley Of the Shenan-
doah, and Immediately upon our return we