The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-12-12
APPALACHIAN PARK
NEW PLEASURE GROUND LIKE.
 LY IN THE SOUTH.
Gun in the High Wilderness-Moun- tains of East Tennessee Where Scenery and Wealth Are at
 Command of All

If the fates-that preside at Washing tcn-are propitious, we shall soon nase new pleasure ground, place wneIv rIv we can go and be happy from early spring until late fall. writes Margaret F. Morley in The Boston Transcript. A place of delight for trampers, but not TOT shall have automatic rnountain-ciimoing ana riyer-fording attachmentsnvery probable, no doubt. place where pug lovers will rejoice to go and h oird-iovers osrrv hammers with which to smite the rocks for fossils, and those who preler tneir fish of recent" formation, recent enough to spring at fly. A place where .ne An,alac chian Club can revel in new noun tains and name as many as It pieases, where 1t can add the artistic crossings of river lords on perilous Ioot.logs .o other accomplishments, learn how to .spack a poke of rations up nign mountain that is innocent or Irail. ana how to meet up' with the deadly moon sinner or the beguiling rattiesnaKe "i'n equal serenity
 A national park in the Southern noun tains is something we have long peen needing-and now there is reasonapIe certainty that we are to have IL Ere jiminary surveys and reports have been made, and there is a strong hope that the Appalachian Park will come Into ex- istence at this session or congress ',,cb has so generously supported the park, making measures for the west, snoulo now have its turn, and not only possess a glorious playground but nave savsu s, for future use and enjoyment the nnest forests in the eastern half Of the country.
 In East Tennessee.
 The long ridge of mountain which ex, tends from Canada to Georgla, anu follows in a general way the outline oi in Western North Carolina and Eastern Tennessee where are found not~only the highest summits but the largest masses, and here the new national park iS 10 pc fined but its two millions Of acres VIII doubtless contain the whole Black Noun tain range, consisting of eighteen peaks them heinz higher than Mt. Washington; inc great Smoky Mountains, familiar to us through the gifted pen Of CharIes Egbert Craddock; the high saisams' sanntrS and 1t may be the noble Roan and part of the fine Grandfather Mountain; Ins would be a pleasure grouna inoeeu' ~ cessible. noted for its healthfuiness' rien @ failing supply of pure cold spring water: The park once estahllshed, 1s,S rSans would quickly follow and the trfumphant wheelman might ascend gently graded heights without needing to resort Io au- tomatic climbing attachments. Be.,er Setter than wheeling. however m ,d hattsr sts than that is walking. One who does not at all enjoy walking at sea level, in the brac- ing air of this beautiful land often pc. comes inspired to perform unwonteo feats of pedestrianism. To his own as- tonishment he finds himself walking his ten or fifteen miles day not only wltn ease but with keen pleasure. Ihere IS something in the air that makes, one want to walk: and there IS sofnethihg in the mountains that draws one to. them. One longs to climb them all, to know them personally they are suen dh tsienShy ,pdiy viduality, No two are alike any more than two people are alike And the fact that there are six thousand square mlie5 of them in North Carolina alone does not lessen ones desire for personal contact with every mountain in the six thousand square miles. The more one has of them park will occupy the very heart of this charming region: it will be a gem In a setting of vast wildernesses of enchant- ing mountain country: It will contain the and some of the finest forests. The mountains here are wooded to their very summits with deciduous and evergreen trees. or else the tops are bald. beau clilmps of the rhododendron Catawbiense. whose rose-red flowers clusters cover the bushes in the early summer. converting the balds into enormous and gorgeous flower gardens.
 Unequaled Flower Garden.
 Fortunate is he who can spend the month of June in the new park or in the surrounding country. ascending the mountains with the flowers as they open wealth of bloom as can be kound nowhefe else, for not only is here the meeting place of the flora of. the North. South, plants from preglacial times. Fortunate he who in June and July can accompany the azaleas and the rhododendrons through their Towering cycle. The new nnr rtK ho fnFs ifu flo. raj possibilities alone, as anyone who has lived through an azalea season within its limits will gladly affirm. It Is there such a flower garden as those accustom- ed to the meagre outbursts of our North ern mountains can scarcely imagine We of the North have the mountain laurel with us in certain favored localities. the Southern mountains besides their mar vicious wealth of flame -colored azaleas are literally covered with thickets of lau- rel and rhododendron, maximum bushes thrilling.
 And besides the natural beauties of the regicn there are the mountaineers. There are no mountaineers in our Northern mountains, for they are too cold and too unproductive to be inhabited the people stay down below and look up at them or at most spend few weeks in tip-tor tains are full of homes. The log cabins of the mountaineers are tucked away in cosy hooks all over them. And these dTt d race, OL very great interest to the stranger. race that will soon pass when civilization Peuetrates into the fastnesses where they, shut off from contact with the outer world. have undergone a slow and undfsturbed evolution of their own dur ing the centuries that have passed since America was peopled by a white race. They are still very primitive Tn com parison with their transmontane neigh bors, preferring corn pone baked in the open fire of their big stone fireplaces to any known luxury of modern inven- tion. They still believe their "jeans'' and ''linsev cloth" woven in their clumsy hand-hewn looms to be superior. to any factory-made cloth. and they still make those charming blue-and-wh coverlids that last a life time. and that outsiders are so fond of collecting They still talk a dialect bristling with elsewhere obso- lete words and phrases, and to an in terestinG extent they have moulded the English language into new forms, the result of isolation and the natural evo- luton of a tongue that always accom- panies it.
 Picturesque Mountaineers
 The mountaineers cannot fail to charm