The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1893-09-08

shrewdness been shown than in the
purchase and improvement of his
mountain estate in the south. Better
still, he has shown in it that in him
there is love of the artistic, the poet
ic, the romantic if you will, that has
been singularly lacking in other mem
bers of his family.
AS has been before stated. George
Vanderbilt is a many-sided man, and
this mountain estate Of his furnishes
the best of proof that this is so. There
is no home in this country that can
equal it in natural beauty. Austin
Corbin. the railroad magnate, has a
magnificent deer park in Vermont.
DIR. Seward Webb, Vanderbilt by
marriage, has in the Adirondacks a
farm and game preserve that is the
wonder of all who see it. But Mr..
Vanderbilt's place down on the bor-
ders of the Tennessee mountains sur
passes these. There are old castles on
the Rhine impressive in their wild and
half ruined condition. There are white
chateaus that hang on the sides of the
Alps that one dreams of after seeing
them. There are stately domains in
England with their avenues of oaks
and waving elms that have about them
that glamour that always surrounds the
memory of very great men and OF real
ly great deeds.
1t has been the good fortune of Mr.
Vanderbilt to have seen these old
world architectural curios and to be
capable of approaching them. And in
the building of his magnificent home
In the south he has used the knowl-
edge that he has gained not servilely,
but with good results.
The spot where his fve-thousand-
acre farm is situated is as beautiful as
one may hope to see. On a broad pla-
teau that extends from the Blue Ridge
to the Allegheny mountains, the gen.
eral level of which is near to three
thousand feet above the sea and sur
rounded by mountain peaks more lofty
than any east of the Rockies, the place
naturally is sort Of paradise. Most
of those peaks are clothed to their tops
in trees many of which are of the same
family that may be found in the Al
pine region. The wild cherry tree
here grows to height of eighty feet,
and the broad valley of the Ashe is
simply fringed with splendid white
pines intcrspersed with the cucumber
tree. The beech, the poplar, the To-
Gust. the lime tree. all flourish on the
mountain sides. and there are oaks as
noble as those TO be Seen in England.
That abomiuable machine that has
done so much to ruin the beauty of
this country. the sawmill, has not vet
mastered and destroyed the beautiful
forest scenery.
From his library window Mr.. Van
derbilt can see the Blue Ridge, the Al
leghenies and their tributary mountain
ranges rising and stretching away in
the distance. He can see Mount Pisgah
raising its pine-clad head more than
six thousand feet above the plateau.
Black dome, Clingman's dome. Mitch
ellis peak and score or more of giants
are near by. Between these, like sill
yer threads. run the French Broad, the
Hiawassee and near half dozen other
rivers. He may see if he wishes the
spots over in the Tennessee mountains
that have been made IN a way famous
By the charming stories of Charles Egg
bert Craddock. And here and there he
may see the cabins of the mountain
GERS, who think straight and shoot the
same way, and are in no manner to be
regarded as being like the Georgia
cracker or the poor white of the low
lands
The mansion that is the central f--