The Houma courier. (Houma, La.) 1878-1939, 1896-11-21
ABLUE RIDGE PARADISE.
What May Be Seen and Heard In
Quiet Hepsidam.
a Spot Where Every Prospect Pisases
and Not Even Man Is yus-Na-
lures Cure for DisOrdered
Digestion.
[speoiai washington Letter.1

Especial Washington letter.
In the Blue Ridge mountains, where
all sorts of mineral springs abound,
there is a summer resort which Fred
Mussey called the mountain Of Hepsi-
dam. just about a generation ago there
was a celebrated elocutionist who de-
livered a humorous mock sermon about
the mountains of Hepsidam, and that
is the genesis of the name of this noun
tain resort. 1t is also called Comfort Re
treat, but by neither name can you dis
eern it on the map.
1t is not far from Harper's Ferry and
is about 1000 feet above the level Of the
sea. Hepsidam is different from the
city in n important particular, and
that is that up in the mountains the
hens lay fresh eggs. Then, again, iudg-
ing from the cream standing upon the
pans and jars, it is safe to say that the
COWS give fresh milk up in.the noun
tains, while all of our city COWS give
skinned milk, with chalk and water
In it.
Col. Perry Heath, who is managing
the newspaper work for the republican
national committee, used to be a Wash
ington correspondent, and he lived at a
prominent hotel. He spilled some of
the hotel cream on his black trousers
and was somewhat excited over the ac-
cident, when the colored waiter said:
"Nevah mind, Mistah Heat. Wait twel
de cream dries On yo' pants, an den I'll
jest bresh de chalk off, an de pants
won't show nothin'."
There is another difference between
Hepsidam and the city and that is that
the air in the mountains is different
from the air which is cooked on the as
phaltum streets of the city. 1t is easier
to breathe it, and it is easier to keep
awake even on warm days, when breath
ing pure air. 1t gets warm but never
hot at Hepsidam, and at night blankets
are required even in August, when the
sun works hard twice eight hours a day,
and never complains of being tired.
There is a comforting calm in the at
mosphere at Hepsidam. 1t is quiet and
free from the petty noises which rasp
fine nerves in cities.
The garbage man, the ash man, the
huckster and the. dog catcher are un-
known at H~epsidam; and the people do
not gossip about their neighbors ex-
cept in a friendly way. heard it said
that Mrs. Ashby wore a poke bonnet at
church, and that it was becoming, but
nobody criticised ever the preacher.
They seem to love each other up in the
mountains of Hepsidam. 1 heard the
landlady of the little country boarding
house tell a passing neighbor who was
driving to town that Mrs. Bliss, over on
the south ridge, had twins on Sunday
gave Iascrd-tbat the brindle COW was
/ guess from the subJecUsv W s4l-~
~versation, and their willingness to be
quiet and let a stranger rest, that the
people of Hepsidam are not given to
overexertion of the brain. After sun
down, when the crickets begin to chirp
and the frogs start their basso profundo
solos and choruses, it seems as though
the world, the busy, wicked city world,
was far, far away; so far away that it
could never come back, or we go back to
1t, and we are glad of it. The cables
may be singing and whizzing their cars
| along the heated streets i'll the world
CT cities, but there is no sound of that
sort of life in Hepsidam. None but the
sounds of nature fall upon the ear, and
only the singing of birds, accompanied
by the aeolian harps of the trees, come
waiting through the little ancient win
dow with the yellow glinting of the ris-
ing sun. And when the cows come up