The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-12-12

| the stranger, they are so picturesque. so
 kindly so simple in their ,n ives s.s ana Sn0y nOy- half pathetic, when one knows how piti- fully little they have to give. They do not know whether they want tne new 1t. They think it will swallow up their farms--and them-in some mysterious way. and interfere with their time-hon- ored custom of clearing the land by gird- ing the trees and allowing them to stand until they rot, forming what they very aptly term 'deadening. On these deadenngs they plant their perpendicu- lar corn fields. for the most fertile noun tain sides by some joke of nature, are also the steepest, and when the natural fertility of the soil is exhausted, after a few years of uninterrupted corn-bearing. they make another deadening. Their barnyard manure they throw away 1t Is so much easier to make new deaden- ing than to use 1t. In course. of time repeated deadenings will wear away even apparently limitless forests, and since these mountains are the sources of many Il Cuff of Mexico and the Atlantic ocean. I the destruction of the forests upon them is a serious matter. Until lately there was little fear-the country was so large and the population so small, but time and large families have settled certain portions of the mountains-not densely. 1t is true-but thickly enough to make the further denudation of the slopes at the present rate very dangerous. Inter- ference for the preservation of the for ests has now become a real necessity. as the terrible floods of the past few wears have given ample warning. Hence the new park. And it will come in time. If it comes now, to save some or the l finest primeval forests of the Southern mountains.
 | For Summer Homes.
 Perhaps more interesting even than the park itself will be the country round about it to those who through the park make the acquaintance of this new world.
 of walking and horseback riding. these | mountains create a lively desire in the
 visitor to own one of them for himself whereon he can make his summer home. l There are all shapes and sizes of moun- tains, and he can buy little one; or, II l his purse is long enough, he can buy part of a large one, where range deer e and kind black bears, partridges, qnails. turkeys and squirrels. and whose streams 3 abound in delicious brook trout. One can 7 choose his own altitude, and his own up if he wants to- and bid defiance alike 7 to heat, malaria, mosquitoes and black
 flies, though at that height he may have ) to spend little too much of his time in the clouds. Or he can go four thou sand feet up and laugh at malaria, black flies and heat. though one cannot war rant against a stray mosquito now. and
 then. However. those four thousand feet mosquitoes are a feeble race. or else kindly one. They do not bite much or
 venomously.
 gl scenery IOr Iue OuOOSluS' + One can go high, or he can go low-and high or low, he can choose his scenery
 to suit himself. Does he wish an eXpanse of blue ocean before his door? He can have it. or at least a semblance of it.
 whitecap breakers and all--if he perches his lodge on a mountain side commanding ' an extensive and distant view-for one
 of the peculiarities of the region Is the wonderful blue in which all distances seem to be immersed. Looking over an
 expanse of distant mountains is often so like looking over the sea as to startle one-the ocean seems to be breaking at
 ones very feet. It Is this pecuiarity that named the Blue Ridge and Smoky Noun .tatns. Does he prefer to look upon the
 wonderful foliage and deep 'coves" of
 near mountains? He can, do that, toO by selecting another site for his lodge,
 very likely on the same mountain. Does
 he wish to be surrounded by gentle scenes
 of swelling hills and verdant fields? He ! can select still a third site for his lodge , with all mountains shut securely out: but l to be seen in five minutes walk from } the sheltered nook. He can have an en- 2 chanting mountain stream rippling past
 his door, cold and sparkling spring. 3 with gourd dipper hanging to a messy : rock few feet from his dinner table 5 and such wealth of rhododendrons and I flame-colored azaleas growing wild all ? about him as would make the owner of 7 an English estate die with envy. Indeed , he can burn rhododendron wood in his kitchen stove with a clear conscience. so , limitless is the supoly. When one first comes to the mountains it is with shock
 one learns that rhododendron wood Is
 sold by the cord and largely used for
 cooking purposes. because it gives next to coke the hottest and most lasting fire. The trunks are so large that they are
 split twice. into four sticks of wood. Think of cutting down 2 rhododendron tree of that size for firewood, rhodo-
 dendron that every summer bears flow CTS that put to shame anything one can produce with the utmost care in the city
 parks. It seems wicked at first but when one has seen the hundreds of miles of impenetrable rhododendron thickets that
 cover the mountains. one in time becomes reconcied
 Yes, one can have it all cottage. views land and rhododendron firewood-for less than the cost of one season at fashion able seaside resort.
 Mineral Wealth.
 There are forms of amusement here not
 found in all mountains. Perhaps the most satisfactory is discovering precious
 stones or valuable mineral deposits in the mountain one has bought for fun The mountaineers sometimes own untold
 wealth in their vertical cornteds or rough cliffs. and their utter indifference
 to the possibilities in the rocks in their
 possession is truly delicious. One man
 after the late freshets picked a small r hut very beautiful colorless diamond from
 a blue clay and gravel bank that had . washed down not twenty feet from his front door. He keeps it to look at; and f for two others that he picked up several years ago in the same place, one is lost
 and the other he lent to friend who forgot to return it. He points with pride
 to the blue clay bank and says. There's diamonds in there, plenty of them" but
 1t never occurs to him to dig them out: r he continues raising precarous corn on
 vertical mountain sides for subsistence , Another man produced a tube of talcum : pure white and firm enough for pencils,
 which he had cut from the bed of it he had found He said there was a whole
 mountain of it, and was quite ready to
 show the wonder to anybody who cared
 to see it. This Same man had found a . mountain of white monumental marble
 so he said-and the specimens he showed
 might make some eyes glisten. He was
 also ready to reveal the whprea bouts of this find to anybody who possessed cu-
 riosity enough to go to see 1t.
 Corundum crops out everywhere in some localities and one woman sold her farm , on which was a valuable corundum mine to a company of spectators for the priv ilege of staying in her log house and
 using all the apples she wanted as long
 as she lived and receiving a small an
 nual allowance. enough to keep her in
 ''grits." hog meat and soda biscuit When remonstrated with for making 80