The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1897-11-02
LETTER FROM BRO. ]. P. sossA'
MAN.
OAK HILL, NEAR
CHARLOTTE, n. @,
October %, 1897.

ask a little space in your valuable pa
per to tell the inhabitants OF the Onl5eo
States las your paper is read all over
h Uniop) the route we went, why we
went. what we saw and heard and
what we think Of the country we
were in and it's people.
About the 18Th Of this month we
read the following short editorial III a
paper published in North Carolina,
east of the B.ue Ridge, headed thus:
THAT WAVE OF PROSPERITY"
and which read as follows:
1T is generally admitted now that
the wave of prosperity that was soon
to arrive, and which was declared to
be a shadoWless myth by the doubling
Thomas, will arrive on time. It will
open up a bona fde, happy and vel.
cyme condition, the advance swell of
which is already here.
when n considers the adverse in
fuences that have interviewed to arrest
its movements the wonder is that there
was life enough in it to quicken its
pulses, let alone bringing it to the front.
In the first place the free duty business
that has clogged its wheels for a speci-
fed time had to be removed and pro,
lection principles substituted. In do
ing this it was found that mans cupid
ity was in the way and had to be over
come"
There was about as much more of
the article, but the above was all we
could stand. In our imagination we
could see the wave about to enter Chero-
kee county. We threw down the pa
per, gathered up our gripsack, stuffed
it with a striped shirt and two potato
sandwiches and hit the $40 p. m.
train at the Southern depot, bound for
the eastern part of the State to meet
the aforesaid ave
We stopped for the night at Concord
and told the people what we had heard.
Next morning we pulled into Salisbury
and spent the day telling the people
the good news. We spent the night
with our friend, John Beard. On the
morning of the 14sh, we boarded a
western train bound for Asheville.
We passed the thriving towns of States
vile, Hickory, Morganton and Marion,
arriving at Round Knob hotel about
1 O'Clock, the hotel that is now being
made famous by getting more free ad.
vertisement than all the hotels in the
State combined. 1t is managed by
Mrs. NJ. J. Wilson, mother of Hon. 8.
Ohio Wilson, one of the ex-R9ilroad
Commissioners for North Carolina. At
this j%uncture, Notwithstanding we are
pushing on to meet the wave of pros.
perity, we will take time to say the
hotel deserves all the advertising it is
getting, for there ia no better kept
house in the State than Round Knob.
First. It is a commodious building.
It is kept neat and clean. The table il
supplied with the very best the coun
try affords, well cooked, plenty OF ser
wants and attentive ones, too; and we
say to the travelling public, don't fail
to dinner at the Round Knob Hotel
when travelling on the Western road
to and from Asheville.
Dinner over, we hurried on board
the train and reached Aeheville about
$50. We stepped from the platform
and looked about us. New buildings
and booths were going up like magic
on ali the vacant lots about the depot.
With hat in hand and coat tail flying
like a fourth of July streamer, we
struck out to meet the ''wave." The
first man we met we asked him if ii
had come. He said vi had been 'hoo
dooed." 1t was nothing but NJ. B. Wal.
lace's great shoW-three rings under
n tent, n ticket admitting you to
all-children and servants at half
price-red lemonade at regulation
prices and would be found at the
booths now being erected. No post,
ponement-shoW rain or shine. Each
actor wears a medal a medal presented
by @ leen Victoria.
Finding ourself disappointed, we
stepped back on the train and decided
to run down the French Broad River
about twenty. five miles. We stopped
for the night in that historic town
Marshall, the county seat Of Madison.
The river runs between two ranges of
mountains, and the railroad runs just
anywhere except up a mountain slope.
At some points it is on the sun, rise
side Of the rive; at others it is on the
sun set side. Now and then it is in the
river.
The town is built edge ways and is a
narrow gauge, as there is not room or