The Mt. Sterling advocate. (Mt. Sterling, Ky.) 1890-current, 1892-08-30

never set eyes on Middlesborough, and
knows nothing of her latent greatness,
adjudges it ''bursted bubble" nigh
akin to "swindle," a put-up job" OF
SPECTATORS, that prudent men will do
well to avoid it as pestilence of temp
rational "dodgery."
A legend in Florida runs: '1f you
get Florida land in your shoes you
will come back to live there" =
The witchery other Southern skies
and languid air will be upon you and
you cannot help yourselves-you re-
turn as though some "love-stone"
drew you thither.
There is something in Middles-
boroagh that bewitches also. l am
under the spell as 1 write. have
lost my head-even while a spectator
of the paralysis of her present condi-
ton, with grass growing in the streets
and on the sidewalks, as much as did
those breathless buyers who bid $500
a front foot for lots on Cumberland
Avenue and tremblcd lest they should
not be Knocked down at thatl
Let me briefly describe the ! lace
and then tell you what mystic power
has enthralled my judgment, so that
it can only go one way.
Imagine a valley almost circular
fiat in part dotted with clumps of
hills in symmetrical proportions in
others; an ideal spot to build great
city upon, to begin with.
Around this shapely valley-with
its wealth of building sites, on ter
raced "benches," hillocks and lovely
heights-stand the great mountains
of the Cumberland range with their
gracefully outlined SUBMITS, wooded
heavily to the very top. They make
complete circuit of the Yellow
Creek Valley. l never see them in
glorious beauty but that verse of
of Scripture comes to me: GAS the
mountains are round about Jerusalem,
so the Lord is round about them that
fear linn"
Near the centre of this scene of
grandeur lies the Middlesborough of
the present, pointing, not doubtfully,
to the Middlesborough of the future.
/ don't like the name. 1t is abomi-
nably plebian and ugly. I wonder
that those who displayed such COL
summate taste in planning her ave-
nues and streets and buildings should
have so Numbered on the central
name. But it is so. "To err is hu-
man"
The central thoroughfare is Cum.
berland avenue.
The pavement of artificial stone is
twenty feet wide and runs for the six
blocks on which the business houses
are erected in its generous amplitude,
not only an invitation to the weary
foot to walk and be satisfied and
rested, but an advertisement of what
Cumberland Avenue" is destined
and intended to be, one of the superb
est thoroughfares on the continent.
The buildings are worthy of any
city. Not a trace of meanness or plea
yunish economy about them, but an
evident purpose to build right up to
a lofty standard at the outset.
Some of the private residences are
of beauty and convenience.
The city limits are measured by the
distance to the engirdling mountains,
and belted by railway of twenty
three miles in circumstance. That
represents an average diameter of six
miles from east to west, and about
four miles north and south. ..
Well, imagine from this the "great
expectations of these ambitious Mid
lleSborOughians. They are "immense,'
tell you.
l wish you could see the Middles-
borough Hotel by moonlight, or cleo
trio sheen, Perched on splendid ter
race overlooking the broad avenue, it
Is palace of beauty that fills the eye
to perfect satisfaction.
Its beautiful mate, the "Bellevue"
on "Arthur Heights" still more eleva-
ted and just behind it, is a model of
elegance; but now closed, and wait
ing the revivifcation, that is as GER
tain to come, in the near future, as
effect to follow cause. Now for the
cause of those confident predictions.
/. Unlimited coking Goals, iron ore
and limestone, literally examining the
around, already surface