The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-07-14

den mountain heights and only to be
reached by the worst of roads, home s
that boast private water works, steam
heating apparatus, the best of dairy and
kitchen arrangements, and every otht r
comfort that could be brought into them
without the use of great wealth. In such
homes the farmer lives in rare comfort
In the valley of the east fork of the
Pigeon, all of which lies in Haywood
county, North Carolina, there is a GER
tain country home that tourists without
fail declare to be situated in the most
beautiful spot Of all Western North
Carolina. 1t is in the part Of the valley
known as Springdale. The house itself
stands on slight rise at the north end
Of the valley, the view from the front
piazza covering a distance of nearly
mile, In which there are well drained
fields of corn, wheat, and grass. Behind
the house, a little to the left, Rocky
face mountain rises precipitately until
its craggy top, capped by scant trees,
seems to pierce upward into the clouds.
To the right, beyond a series of small
peaks, Cold mountain rises more than
G,Oo0 feet in height, and few are the
hours Of day or night when it's summit
is not partly or wholly wrapped from
view in the clouds. To the south, across
the valley Of the corn and grain fields,
is to be seen a. many-peaked spur of the
ridge called the Great Divide which lies
between the valleys of the Pigeon and
French Broad rivers. The nearest peak
of the spur stands out clear against the
sky, so close that you can see the out
lines of it's foliage plainly, but beyond
it the others grow more indistinct as
the distance increases, until the furthest
of them looks like dim punches of blue
vapor, so faint that you can hardly tell
where peak ends and sky begins.
1t is not with all these mountain
heights, however, that the stranger is
chiefly interested on his first visit to
Springdale, for toward the east there
rises a single pointed summit that far
eclipses all the rest. 1t is Mount Pisga1h-
renowned as the most beautiful peak of
the Balsams, one of the grandest of the
Alleghanies and without exception the
one that affords the best view from it's
pinnacle of all the high points in West
ern North Carolina. On account of its
beauty and easy access bility, Pisgah
has been made the center of the Van
derbilt hunting preserves. Near the
summit the owner of the property has
built his lodge, a masterpiece of rustic
architecture, and from it as headquar-
ters many gamekeepers guard the
enormous tract, which includes the
famous pink Beds" near the head
waters Of the French Broad.
On the whole, the educated, prosper
Gus agriculturist of the mountains of
Western North Carolina, with his Gull
tured home and his modern farm build
ings, is the man one likes to meet
Doubtless no countryman anywhere in
the world is more congenial to the visit
or from town, who enjoys, without fully
realizing it, a companion who knows as
much as he does about the world in gen
eral and a great dead more about that
part which is not contained in municipal
limits; whose home, though surrounded
by the widest mountains, is as COM
Portable as though its only view were
one of brick and mortar; whose per
sonality is strong enough, despite I'M
civilized environments, to laugh at the
influences of a wildness which makes
the less tutored natives little better than
barbarians. r. H. Graves.