The news & observer., 1895-08-25
A THRILLING ROMANCE
HOW A RALEIGH SCHOOLMA'M
AND TAR HEEL GENTLEMAN
MADE LOVE.
SHEPHERD DUGGER'S NEW BOOK


SHEPHERD DUGGER'S NEW BOOK
The Accomplished Author Of''the Bal
sam Groves of the Grandfather Noun
tain" Tells ia Charming Language
How Fair Lidie Meaks Was Won by
the Gallant MIR. Ciippersteel The
Love for ST. Mary's School Mistress.
Mr.. Shepherd NJ. Dugger's new com
bination summer novel and guide book
to western North Carolina is dedicated
by its author ''to the lovers of the
Sublime and the Beautiful, and espe-
cially those who have grasped my noun
tain palm" We have never grasped
Mr.. Dugger's mountain palm, but we
love the Sublime and the Beautiful, and
we have right therefore to say how
much We admire the genius and the en-
terprise which have produced ''The Bal
sam Groves Of the Grandfather Noun
tain, Tale of Western North Carolina
Mountains; Together with Information
Relating to the Section and Its Hotels;
also Table Showing the Height of I'm
portant Mountains" etc.
Mr.. Dugger's general idea was antici
pated in part by Madame De Stall when
she wrote "Corinne"; but Madame De
Stel grasped only imperfeetly the possi-
bilities of the method. Shepherd NJ.
Dugger has produced a romantic guide
book, such as Madame De Stall, Feni-
more Cooper, g. r. 2. James, Karl
Baedeker, and the General Passenger
Agent of the Richmond and Danville
Railroad, might have essayed in vain,
had they united their various talents in
a common effort. With accurate indi-
cations of the merits of hotels and
boarding houses, hours Of train and
stage departures, and tina ether practi-
cal information which the tourist Graves,
he bas.deftly blended a tale of North
Carolina love which is intended to arouse
in the travellers mind sentimental en-
thusiasm for the region described. If
we now pay more attention to the love
story than to Mr.. Dugger's recommen-
dations OF tayerns and hack drivers, or
his measurements of mountain heights,
it is simply because love is eternally more
interesting than tables of altitude or
even the square meals" which Mrs.
Patsey H. WItmore or Landlord Skiles
furnishes at one dollar or two dollars a
day. One specimen will serve to dis
close the literary skill which Digger Law
ishes on detail which Baedeker dis
poses Of with single Unconditional as
terisk.
"This splendid building has hot and
cold baths, smoking and reception
rooms, broad stairways of easy ascent,
carpeted rooms and Railways, marble
topped Office counters, extensive piaZzas
for promenades, and a beautiful dining
room, whose sumptuary in gatherings
are guaranteed by the proprietor to be
equal, if not superior, to those of any
other house in the mountains of North
Carolina Such is the variety and fla
vor of the food that when you place
YOUR foot on the threshold of the masti
eating departme your nasal proboscis
is greeted with the aroma of roast nut
ton or beef. and the Authoritative pupils
of your orbicular instruments are fixed
upon large slabs of comb honey, consist
ing of the gathered sweets from noun
tain Towers, and riyalling in delicacy
the nectar of the gods.
But Eros claims us. The heroine oil
the tale which runs through these pages
of description and practical information
is Miss Lidie Meaks, lone of the faculty
of st. Mary's School in Raleigh. y Miss
Meaks is supposed to be travelling
through the mountains on horseback, &C
companied by a good old minister named
Skiles, and one Leathershine, very bad
young man, who had been expelled
from an institution of learning in the
eastern part of the State" and who is
sketched by Mr. Digger with one mas
terly stroke of the pen as IAN infamous
dude" Leathershine is wickedly in love
with the Raleigh schoolma'am, whose
personal charms are thus portrayed by
Mr.. Dugger;
''She was medium sized elegant fig
ure, wearing neatly fitted travelling
dress of black all lpaca. Her raven black
hair, copious both in length and volume.
and figured like deep river rippled by
the wind, was parted in the centre and
combed smoothly down, ornamentine
her pink temples with a flowing tracery
that passed round to its modillion wind
ings on a graceful crown, Her mouth
was set with pearls adorned with elastic
rubies and tuned with minstrel lays
while her nose gracefully concealed iti
own umbrage, and her eyes impaired &
radiant glow to the azure Of the sky
Jewels of plain gold were about her ears
and her tapering strawberry hands, and
golden chain, attached to timekeepel
of the same material, sparkled on an ele
gantly rounded bosom that was destined
to be pushed forward by signs, as tn,
reader will in due time observe. Mod
est, benevolent, and mild in manners