The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1890-10-27
CAROLINA'S CHEROKEES.
ALICE MACGoWAN INTERVIEWS
THE NATIVES.

the Cider Mill-His Dictum on Phoeoe
some Indian Names and Their En-
! ghsh Equivalents - The Handsome
Chief
MURPHY, N. c., Oct 10.-Asheville is a
very pretty place, though can hardly un-
dersiand its enormous popularity as a
resort, both winter and summer. Altitude.
pure, bracing mountain air, and fine
mountain scenery, it shares with many
other places in this Western North Carolina
section.
Being more place of residence than one
OF business, 1t has an uncommonly large
proportion Of fine places, surrounded by
beautiful grounds. Buncombe county. of
which 1t is the comfy site, reverses tie
usual order of things, and compels all stock
to be securely fenced, leaving corn, wheat
aud other fields, meadows, orchards and
city lots almost universally uninclosed.
The result Is pleasant in the country, and
to me quite odd. As Phoebe and passed
along between tall corn and tempting rows
of apple trees, we agreed between ourselves
that such behavior was premium on crime.
and re moved all moral responsibility from
| tired and hungry wayfarers; but nobody, |
think, can assert that she took an ear of
corn or a mouthfuI of oats here aud an
apple there, and certainly neither of US will
| tell.
In Asheville tself the effect is still more
| pleasing in contrast with most places of its
size in this country, where one sees cattle
ana pigs IN greater or less profusion in the
| streets, and every green thing that is get
atable is gnawed to the ground. Here the
lawns aud terraces slope down. green and
beautiful, lit up by clumps of scarlet sage
and beds of varicolored foliage plants, to
| the sidewalks, with no sort of Enclosure. or
if there is a bit of wall, one foot or eight
teen inches in hight, or light tracery of
| iron fence, IL is garlanded ana half-covered
| with creeping and blooming vines, myrtles,
nasturtiums and other graceful trailers,
| hanging their prodigal wealth of crimson
| and orange blossoms unmolested into the
| street.
Out of Asheville rode upon a very pleas
ant, cool, gray morning and reached
| WaVnesville, a distance of some thir, y-five
miles, by the dirt road, before tea time.
Irested over one day and started out on the
| following morning for the Cherokee country
My route out of Waynesville lay across
the Balsam Mountains through Soco Gap.
| very beautiful ride, and q comparatively
| gentle one for this mountain country.
though very remote and solitary.
Here found great wealth and variety of
scenery. For some way rode among tall,
fine trees. l came upon a little sawmill,
| silent and deserted, with its quantities of
logs, and its piles of lumber ranged about
| Further on the road climbed along a gentle
grade toward the gap, between the densest
walls of laurel [ have ever seen, and yet
higher up, indeed quite on the top, and
within the gap, it came out upon an open
grassy space where sat little cabin, empty
of human inhabitants, and only occupied
| by some corn fodder. But bright eyes
| peered at me from the tiny window and half
open door, and bushy tails fitted briskly in
and out. II had been miles since l passed
an inhabited house, and would be miles
more Def re / should come to another;
was absolutely alone under the great trees,
between ths closely envroning walls OF
thick laurels or in the open grassy spaces,
with the squirrels, the birds, the stirring air
and shifting shadows
As 1 began to descend, the 5000, an invis-
ible thing, a voice, mystery, ran along be-
side me, sometimes gently, but more often
with loud outcry and confused protesta-
tons. There would be the tinkle. tlnkle of
the light soprano notes, and the next mo-
ment full murmur of rich contralto or
bass voices would reply; then all would dis.
pute together, laughing. angry, with such
absolute mimicry Of human voices that
paused more than once. startled and listen
ing.
Great storms had evidently swept and
devasted this western slope Of the range in
years past, for big trees lay scattered about
like playthings, their masses of roots leav.
ing great caverns where they had been torn
up, or piled in fantastic confusion across
gigantic rocks.
AS rode along down through this peopled
solitude amid this articulaue silence, with
the talking water beside me, thought of
that other Alice who crept down the abbit
burrow, and Of her strange adventures and
| experiences in the strange land and among
the strange creatures she thus encountered.
Here, was az distinctly the only being Of
| my class as she Found herself to be in Won
derland.
Once, back on the eastern side OF the
! mountain, / had lost my way and gone off
on a wrong road. which soon ran narrow
and precarious, along ledge high above a
| frothy torrent: and, quite as in a fairy
story, an old, old man with staff appeared,
walking slowly toward me under the tall
tree and SET me right.
AS l went on down the mou ntan west
ward the hidden stream beside me suddenly
burst into view in a sheer fall of about
thirty or forty feet, silvery at top and
fleecy, foaming white below. just by it was
a tall slender maple which seemed like the
darling of autumn, TO have received her
entire largess of glowing color, for it stood
beside the veil of moonbeam tinted mis-, all
in purest red of graded tones, from the low
est whey branch to the topmost plume of
fiery scarlet.
When l emerged into the cultivated lands
l was in the Cherokee country. There was
not white face to be seen, nor a word of
English to be heard. The surroundings
looked no different from those amid which
had been riding for weeks; the cabins, the
cattle and horses, the crops, the stacks of
hay, fodder and oats, the drying fruit, the
primitive hoseholc and farming imple-
ments the only difference was that
the men | saw at work in tho
fields, and the women around the
houses, were Indians; and the babies
that squatted about or were carried in their
mothers arms, were little pappooses, with
the bright eyes and inscruUable expression
of Japa nese dolls, What a situation would
be in, thought, if l missed the road. here
where English appeared to be as unknown
an accomplishment as roller skating. So
kept pressing ahead till nearly 4 o'clock,
when the pangs of famine overcsme me-
Phoe was 10 & since speechless with indig-
nation. | came upon little place where
there were several women. They were
quite pleasant faced, and nodded smilingly
to rue. | would try, | thought, to make
them understand that wanted q cup of
milk So began by looking very hungry
(which was no effort, then reached