The Donaldsonville chief. [volume] (Donaldsonville, La.) 1871-current, 1881-08-20
Notes from Myra's Portfolio.

The Little Town with n long street and q
big Name-An Exhilarating Ride :
Among the N1ountaineers-House at
Horse Cove.
LAURELDENE, HORSE Cove, N. c., !
August, 1881.
DEAR AUNT CHAT:
We have been enjoying this encllant-
ing sport for more than week, but l
believe your imagination last pictured
us at Wallialla, the unique village with
its solitary street three miles in length
Those German colonists who planted
their standard in that peaceful valley,
dignifying it by the pretentious title
which in the old Scandinavian mythol-
ogy is Talhalla, or Hall of the Gods,
must surely have expected more rapid
growth and advaccment. Titles, even
the most higl-sounding ones, too often
suggest mere empty llonors, and so Wal
halla, in spite of the historic associa-
tiOns embedded in its name, continues
to this day an obscure and rather com
monplace little community-cnjoying
the distinction, however, of possessing
the one long street. 1t is summer re-
sort on a small scale, as well, and tho
proprietor of the excessively clean and
Dutcl,-like hotel, who evidently did not
relish the idea of our spending only one
night under his roof, and thinking to
dissuade us from pursuing our journey
further on the morrow, strove to con-
vince us that it was no cooler at Horse
Cove, and that his hotel offered greater
advantages. How utterly lie was mis-
taken you will soon learn.
Leaving Walhalla at o'clock A. NJ,
we jonrneyed along through and up
mountain roads till about P. NJ, when
we arrived at our destination-four
wonderfully bright travellers, consider
ing the twenty-five mile slow carriage
ride. Tho beauties and wonders of that
drive more than compensated for the
little roughness that characterized it.
Indeed, we were disposed to make a
frolic Of the whole affair, and enjoy
even the jolting, unto the most reasona-
ble limits, for were we not native Louis
ianians, and have we not scores of times
experienced the delight of "roughing
it" i'll Louisiana cane carts'
1t was like a revelation to some men,
bers of our party, accustomed as they
wele to the swamps and luwlands of the
far South, to gaze upon this beautiful
rolling country, and ride, now through
lovely glens and glades, past gurgling
brooks and meandering rivulets, beneath,
the limpid waters Of which sparkled
bright little pebbles aud stones, then up
lofty elninences, from whose heights we
shndtlcringly looked down upon rocky
prccipices to the yawning abyss below
Of course VIC stopped at the most pictur-
esque places on the way to rest and re-
gale ourselves with luncheon and
qnencI our thirst by water from the
gushing rocks, and once We tarried at
ut the home of q well-to-do farmer
where tho horses were fed and unlar-
messed. The buxom housewife, typical
mountain woman, received US with
kindly hospitality and entertained us
with incidents Of the place and people
attesting her love for her native heath
by an extremely ealogistic manner oi
speech. In the first place, there was
such i. wealth of land here that it had
to be stocked up, hence the mountains
Then it was so wonderfully healthful
people rarely ever died, but dried u1
finally and blew away, etc. Whether
she succeeded in duping us to a yer,
great extent is an open question. WI
finally requested to know by whom thi.
portion of the country was settled, ant
received the prompt response: "BA
Americans, na'am." F" But where did til.
grandfathers and great grandfather!
come from' Were they Germans, En-
glish, Irish or Scotch'" "They were al
Americans" she insisted, there hav,
never been any but Americans here.
We abstaincd from informing her, be
cause she would have been Mortified t.
hear it, that according to her own state
ment, the Indians who were the aborg
ines Of America, were her forefathers
l have since cleaned the information
that the early settlers were German col
onists.
These mountaincers are a queer folk
certainly. They DO possess some Of tn
characteristics Of the red men, who for
merly inhabited these forests. They hay
a fashion Of walking always in singl
| file, like the Indiams-the men invariabl
marching on ahead, leaving the womel
to follow at respectful distance, am
like the Indian, too, they have very hig
cheekboues. A still closer point of re
semblance lies in the fact of the thrift
character of the women, who SOW cor
and gather the harvest, While the me
spend their time chiefly in hunting an
resting. Tho children have the riddles
compilations, with almost perfectly whit
hair, and though they run bareheade.l j
the sun all the time, are surprisingl
untannel.
Laurcldene, or Horse Cove, so calle
because Of the habit of horses in the va
leys below to seek this tableland sd tia
when a horse straycd away their owner
invariably imagined that they wer
grazing in tue Coye, is Il most charmin
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