The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1901-10-17
,xceed 1000 and approximate 5000 are

lnnumeTaDIe.
From Observation Point on Overlook
Park on the cutter rim of Asheville, CSC
feet above the town level, one can look
across the intermediate valley and see
the delectable mountains twenty miles
away extending in an illimitable range
to the right hand, and the left halfway
round the circumference OF the horizon
and we'll may the kindled imagination
draw fantastic pictures of an categorical
heaven beyond, so soft are the tints and
SO delightfully."- splendid are the hues OF
pearl and blue and gray. 1t is hard to find
it's counterpart. Mr.. r. S. Rowland, of
Providence, Rhode Island, who has
made this transcendent view more
readily available by trolley
line from 1.-The Square in Asheville.
has done the park, as we'll as the public,
a notable service, and one which very
liberal patronage shows is greatly appre-
ciated This view is no baseless fabric
of a dream, no transitory vision. but an
established fact 1t has not to be Great
ed. 1t already exists. 1t only has to
be enacted. The fiat has only to go forth
from the national capitol. Let Congress
sneak as the sense of the people dictates
Then all of it's forested areas. it's catch
basins, water falls and timber belts will
be reserved and preserved secure from
vandalism, and where the axe is laid at
the root of the tree, it will be for the
service of men and. the good of the timber
which is yet to stand. During July and
the first two weeks of August there were
twenty five days when rain fell on the
mountains. and some of these showers
were torrents, which washed the bottoms
out of the country roads in a jiffy. Had
there been no forest blanket to retain the
downpour, the damage that would have
resulted would have been immense, while
the quantities of soil and detritus washed
down from the denuded rocks would have
gone to fill the harbors and river chan
nels of the lowlands which all the dredg-
ing in the world and continuous appro-
priations from Congress can never keep
from filling with the land wash so long
as the uplands are disregarded Let the
headwaters be protected and the national
reserve will be not only beauty and q
ioy forever, but will save the country
from droughts and freshets, and bestow
upon a grateful land plenitude of fruit
ion Then all 1.-The hills will sing together
for joy and clap their hands"
Exempt from torrid heat and in per-
feet bodily comfort, / passed the summer
months within it's winsome precincts I
have enjoyed its cooling shades, it's beds
of roses and its rare exemption from
mosquitoes, gnats and noXious insects.
have drunk its iimpid waters, caught it's
speckled trout in mountain lakes and
dashing stream, and heard its owls boot
at night. Snakes there are, and wild
cats galore. but they are seldom seen
unless hunted Foxes bears and coons
are very numerous, but those who have no
GOODS or cornfields need not apprehend
them Turkeys and ruffed grouse are fair
ly abundant on the mountain sides. and
deer in the coves and valleys; quail are
all over the fields and household prem
Uses. Squirrels are seldom seen.
DR.. C. P. Amber, Secretary of the APP
palachian National Park Association, a
native of Ohio, and one of the Buckeye
contingent set apart like the Levites to
serve the people. seems to be the main
spring. pulse and motor-iu fact, the
whole circulatory system, in these parts,
of this important enterprise. He has al
ready prepared and distributed over 200,-
O00 circulars in propaganda work, and Sc
cured favorable mention in hundreds or
newspapers, and hopes to secure favorable
legislation at the next session of Con-
gress A man so earnest and indefatig
able ought to see success, and the project
ought to crystalize, and Congress ought
to have sense enough to see that it does
succeed. Both the Doctor and his wife
are accomplished hunters of big game,
and their beautiful home on the edge of
Asheville is filled with superb mountain
Of elk hear AL
ligators, wolverines, badgers, foxes, wild
cats, wolves, and panthers from Wyom-
ing, Florida, New Brunswick and remote
wilderness regions in the Shoshone and
Blackfoot countries. Both are superior
riders, and it is but few months since
they made a tour Of $50 miles on horse
back together through the precincts of the
Appalachian Park in the course of a six
weeks outing.
Another staunch friend and promoter OF
the Appalachian Park scheme, of even
greater renown, is Capt. William Miles
Hazard, of Georgetown, s. c., who has a
summer residence called Beaumont on the
apex of one of the nearby knobs of Ashe-
Vile. His house is filled with trophies of
the chase, chiefly of deer killed in South
Carolina, perhaps fifty specimens in all,
of which a large proportion comprise
horns, which exhibit strange deformities,
and one most interesting pair of locked
horns, the combatants being found alive,
but greatly emaciated Capt. Hazard had
the honr of taking President Cleveland
during his administration on no less than
five ducking trips, under the auspices OF
the Annandale Club of South Carolina, Of
which he is a member, and doubt not the
incidents he relates of the Presidents out
ings would have been nuts for the report
ers could they have been obtained at the
time of their occurrence.