St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1884-12-04
MediIafiOns on the Mountain
top.

One of the most pleasing signs of the
cordial relations existing between the
North and SOuth-which were recent
ly testing each others muscle and en-
durance lis the frank and even for
ward admission by the former that
Mount Mitchell, the highest peak in the
Black Mountains of North Carolina, is
higher 10y several thousand feet than
Mount Washington, in New Hamp-
shire, and the modest manner in which
the South admits this glory, as if re-
luctant to wound Northern sensibili-
ties. 1t may he a regret on both sides
that the highest point of land east of
the Rocky Mountains does not bear
the name of Washington. The peak
iii New Hampshire was allotted to him
in good faith that it was the highest,
and his shade must be coutent with
good intention. Even the Father of
his Country cannot be permitted to
sprawl all over the continent to the
exclusion of all other aspirations for
high honor and we must be satisfied
with giving him (in the Washington
Monument) the tallest pile Of stone
built by anybody since the Tower of
DdOCl, ann lCJ IOis III
peace on this mountain in the lonesOm
est if not the highest placed grave in
the republic. On the summit of that
wooden peak, GIL feet above the At
lantic, and almost that height above
Mount Vernon, Mitchell lies amid the
clouds and thunder-storms and serial
battles of the Black Mountains. This
individual eminence is a stroke Of
fortune. Washington did what he
could for his personal elevation; lie
cut his initials as high up on the but
tress of the Natural Bridge as be could
climb in his stocking feet, and III other
ways he deserved we'll of his country
but professor of chemistry, by q luck Y
| chance of first measuring this peak
and announcing his discovery. and by
the equally lucky chance tfor his I'M
mortality of losing his life in attempt
! ing to establish the assertion that this
was the peak he had first measured,
and not u neighboring one, as Senator
! Clingman insisted, has secured an en-
! inence which all the character and cor
! rectness of life possessed by George
! Washington could noa give him.
North Carolina, of course, has Il jus
titiable pride in this mountain-al-
though she has probably twenty peaks
about us high as Mount Washington
and before the war this may have been
AN arrogant pride but now this is one
of the old North States contributions
to the glory of the republic. Befor,
the war the Northern states might
have been ready to fight for the supe-
riority of the New Hampshire hills, ol
ut least to have insisted that an admis
sion of its inferiority should be consid
cred as one of the compromises: of tn,
! Consultation but now they take a.
much national pride in the bigness o
Mitchell as if it were situated on Bos
| ton common. Ii is one of the amiali,
traits of human nature that peOpt,
should take sort Of credit To them
selves for such eXerescences on th'
i surface Of the earth ia the places they
inhabit. The imitation of Western peo
I pie about their eminenees is as harm
less as it is pleasing, aud We dweller
7 in lower regions feel that their impor
u taDce III the world is increased by th'