Morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven [Conn.]) 1848-1894, 1885-04-29
DOWN I'm DIXIE,

DOWN I'm DAAAEs
New Haven GentIeman,s Tour In
The South-What He Thinks of the
Wonders of the Luray Caverns-A
Ride Through East Tennessee and
North Carolina-The People, the
Mountains, Manufacturing Inter
ests, Etc.
A New Haven gentleman who is making a
tour of the South writes from Columbia,
South Carolina, as follows:
4 ride from Washington, D. G., by either
route to the South Is full of interest. Having
been over all the writer can give experiences
of his own favor:te. The Shenandoah will
give one an opportunity to visit the famous
route via the Luray Caverns. We enter the
Caverns by an easy descent of $50 feet under
the earth's surface and this brings you into
what is termed the ball room. Overhead is
surface 100 feet square, supported by you
know not what. The ceiling is say so feet
in height. Here and there are thousands of
tons of rocks. 1t requires three hours to
make examination of the immense aperturss,
by-ways, highways and all ways that meet
the view in these caverns. Here you see
stalactites changing from the rocks above) |
weighing tons and the scientists tell us that |
to form single cubic inch of any one of
them took 100 years. They are so to go feet |
in length and from few inches to six feet
N diameter. Then you see the stalagmites,
some meeting, others approximating to |
the stalactites; some so thin as
to be transparent, others hanging like large
hides of leather in tannery; some graded
SO that the guide will make good music upon
them in imitation of the banjo or organ.
One of the natural formations well represents |
an angels wing; another sleeping infant; |
others almost every imaginable formation.
Ali show splendidly under the bright electric |
lights You wind up and down, here and
there, and see here cavern, there crevice, |
now dark, gaping ravine fifty and sixty |
feet Deep and SO on. In one place is what |
appears to be the trunk of tree five feet in |
diameter broken off square. The guide en-
lightens you, informing you that it is one of |
the stalagmites which has fallen by its own
weight and said by scientists Judging by the |
formations of the drippings upon it, to have
been in its present position 4, 600 years. All |
these formations, the guide assures you and /
there is plenty of evidence of the fact, were by
drippings from the dissolution of the lime |
stone rocks. The query is, how old are the |
rockss
No extra clothing, or change of clothing is |
needed for a visit to the caverns; |
for ladies overshoes are desirable The |
temperature is always the same-56. The inn /
near the depot is good place for one days
stay. Then take a ride to the Natural /
Bridge of Virginia. The three or four hours l
ride will well repay you for night or |
morning longer. As the bridge has been |
hi
delivered nearly fifty years ago in New Ha- |
ven, and by innumerable other descriptions |
of it, no remarks here are necessary.
Good accommodations are found at the |
bridge by riding two and one-half miles from i
the depot. Telegraph your coming in order /
to be met by the Forest Inn carriage.
Lynchburg can be taken in and is we'll |
worth visit; from the observatory can be |
counted over forty high mountain peaks /
Roanoke, ON the Tennessee route, is a grow
ing place, being built up by its being rail
road center The accommodations at the
Roanoke Hotel perfectly satisfactory.
If you prefer the Danville route, take it;
you will be satisfied
Our present trip has been on the Tennessee
route to Morristown, passing in plain sight /
of the tomb of President Andrew johnson at /
Greenvi1ls, and the tailor shop where he
worked at his trade.
Morristown being reached, our route Is
changed because of promised interests in the
mountains of North Carolina. In eastern
Tennessee and North Carolina, ono hun
dred miles 90 from Marion, the 2,7OO
feet above the sea is reached. Surrounded
all the way by mountains 1000 feet higher
yet, we ride through crooked ravines seven
ty-five miles in length by the side of ''The
French Broad River" ascending all the way. |
Water power sufficient to carry the ma |
chinery of the world is there. We pass vari-
GUS small villages and dine at Newport and |
Marshall, where appearances indicate that
nothing could grow. But you are informed
that one million pounds of the best tobacco
in the world was shipped from Marshall
last year. You also are informed
that some farms on the route are valued at
above 500, 900 and are surprised at the thrift |
which you behold. Although some places
and people excite your pity there are not as
many poor whites was expected.
At Asherville 1890 feet above the level of
the sea, you will find five or six thousand
people, forty boarding houses, three large
hotels and some smaller hotels. The Swan
nanod and Eagle each accommodate $50
guests. Asherville is the great sanitarium of
the South, only twelve hours ride from
Charleston, S. G. Before the year is
finished another route is. expected to be
opened, which will cut off two hundred miles |
distance from the more direct southern
cities and Florida It is now finished with
the exception of twenty miles from Asher
vile to Hendersonville. We preferred to go
stage twenty on the way for Colum bia, the
Capital of South Carolina.
Columbia is beautifully laid out The
streets are from one to two hundred feet in
width. The Capitol building looks as it did
Just after the war.
An enterprise of the State is also being
carried cut, viz, the turning of the Congaree
river by making canal to conduct the
water through the lower part of the city Tor
manufacturing purposes, plan which it is
expected will pay well by renting ten thou
sand horse power of water privileges. This |
work is being done by State prison convicts,
who like the Richmond convicts doing the |
public works. They can be seen at work by
people riding in the vicinity.
To return to the North Carolina noun |
tains; leaving Asherville and passing Marion, |
the lofty mountain tops all around you,
soon you near ''Reund Knot" entering the
valley by circuitous route of nine miles
descending 100 feet to the mile; riding nine
miles to accomplish a distance of less than |
three, you are your own railroad track in four |
places at once seeing at distance of less than |
a mile, over the worked pathway, the famous
Round Knot squirting fountain 260 feet in |
height and 4 inches in diameter. 1t is
fed from the mountain top above. You are
yet perhaps five miles away on the track and
can see the hotel and spring less than mile
away, and before you are aware of it you are
ut the hotel ready for dinner, for which the
ride has given you an appetite. Salisbury, |
North Carolina, fails to give an idea of any |
improvement for twenty years. Charlotte
gives an idea of thriving New England
city, and to quote our coachman's opinion of
Columbia on the Improvements "They |
have been made by Northerners
who have settled here" The col
lege in Columbia is prettilY situated |
and is very attractive, reminding one some
what of Yale, sixty years ago. young Ia
dies boarding school is also prominent in
at Columbia The palmetto tree |
stands where I saw it years ago, in front of
the State Capitol building, a monument of
the Mexican war; also monument of beauti-
full design commemorating the death of the
S. @. soldiers from 1851 to 1866, erected by
the ladies. Many of the parts of the burned
city are rebuilt, but there good remind
ers of the late war sufficient to excite sympa-
thy.
FAIR HAVEN.