The state chronicle. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1883-1893, 1884-05-03
HERBARIUM.
NORTH CAROLINA HERBS CURE
THE ILLS OF THE WORLD,
And Furnish Profitable Employment to
Those Who Gather Them, and Make
Gigantic Industry for us.

i
Gigantic Industry for us.
Special Cbrrespondence Of the Chronicle.
STATEsvILLE, April 3O.-One of the
most extensive, and surely the most novel
enterprise in North Carolina, is the botan-
ical traffic engaged in by Messrs. Wallace
Bros, at Statesville. Fifteen years ago |
they began in a small way, gathering and
to different markets various speci-
mems of medical roots and herbs. The |
business at once took shape, and they have |
now the largest herbarium in the world. |
Their collection comprises all the medical |
roots and herbs that are found on either |
slope Of the Blue Ridge, and their ship |
ments are made to every part of the globe. |
Wherever medicines are made to cure the |
ills Of the people the herbs that carpet Or
spring from North Cardinals mountains !
are sent to be used.
This branch of the Messrs. Wallaces' bus
mess is very completely arranged. Every
foot of room in an immense four story
building is utilized, and the entire busi
ness is under the immediate supervision
of Prof. Hyams, a trained and professional
bOtanist who knows, and can tell you
the name, the nature and the origin of
every plant that grows in this part of the
botanical vineyard. He has made it a
lifetime study and he dwells, and delights
to dwell, only where plants and flowers
grow. His botanical exhibit at the Cen
tennial in Philadelphia in 1876 won the
admiration of all who saw it, and a hand
some silver medal was awarded 1t. He
won even more admiration and finer
medal for his exhibit at the Worlds Fair,
in Paris. Prof Hyams has private bo
tanical museum. His collection comprises
over five thousand varieties of plants,
herbs and flowers, to which he has added
specimens of everything in bugology, ser
pentology, Indian and other relics, from
artistically formed, lace-looking, rose
tinted moss that grows on the cliffs Of
Southern California to the savage-lOOking
rattle snake that coils on the mountain.
And it is no less interesting than instruc-
tive to walk through his museum, look at
his collection, and to hear him tell of their
nature and origin He takes great de-
light in, and is peculiarly fitted for this
kind Of business; and to the energy and
interest he has manifested is due in a
great measure the wonderful success which
has attended this novel enterprise Of
Messrs. Wallace Bros.
Connected with this Messrs. Wallace
Bros. conduct possibly the largest mercan
tile business in the State. They carry a
stock of goods ranging from one to two
hundred thousand dollars-every line of
goods, arranged in separate departments.
They do exclusively a jObbing trade, sell
ing no goods at retail They have three
travelling statesmen, who are furnished
each with an elegant team and driver,
and who go in person to see and to sell to
every merchant in Western North Caro-
lima. And nine-tenths of their collections
are made in roots and herbs Indeed so
extensive and so general has this herb bus
mess become that sassafras pith, jensing,
and the like, are almost known as legal
tender. Men, women, boys and girls are
constantly employed collecting them for
market
The prices range from two cents to So 90
per pound, jensing being the highest. Of
this commodity Messrs. Wallace Bros.
recently bought from one man 1900
pounds, paying him So, 400 for the lot.
l saw in their herbarium not less than
one hundred bushels of sassafras pith,
and an endless variety Of every species of
medical plants, whose varied scents give
the entire surroundings peculiar and
pleasant flavor. Their stock of these pro
ducts generally range from forty to fifty
thousand dollars worth
They ship directly to the laboratories,
all over this and in foreign countries.
What an opportunity is offered here
for a manufacture of medicines where
the products are grown, saving the
freights on the raw material to North
ern cities, and keeping at home the profits
of the manufacture as well as the gath
| erer. Surely North Carolina laboratory
| on large scale, is one of the enterprises
| that we may reasonably anticipate.
CHR. Q. NICLE.
So Our Masses DON'T Condemn Sena-
torial Profanity.
| Washington Correspondence Of the augusta (Ga.)
|
! Senator Vance has received some gentle
reprimands from his preacher friends,
| anent his most excusable profanity in re-
tort to John Wise's insolence, which was
rapidly apologized for. l think that while
the North Carolina clergymen feel bound
to make mild expostulation they do not
| find forgiveness an easy task. AS for the
masses in North Carolina they do not con-
denim the grand old Governor" who is
filled to overfowing with the milk of hu-
man kindness, and is only "a bad man to
project with when provoked beyond or
dinary endurance. Senator Colquitt told
| Vance that if the church session sum-
| mOned him to answer ''fOr words spoken
in debate he (Colquitt, who is Metho-
dist preacher) would go down to North
Carolina and volunteer in his defence.
Who Can Hinder Such a Town?
| Glen Alpine Correspondent Of the Hickory Press
Perhaps no time in her history has the
sun of prosperity cast such an illumi-
mating light on the booming town of Glen
Alpine as that which now lights up oul
horizon. Born amid disasters, and sur
rounded by adverse circumstances, hel
struggle has been one of the brave, but
with her gigantic efforts she sallies forth
to claim her station among the aggressive
He who rms NAV read her DESTINY W.
chronicle much improvement during the
past week.
s.ChivalrOus'' Act.
From the Scotland Neck Commonwealth.
We stated last week that the object O.
draping the town in black on the previous
thor