The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1902-12-30
A MODERN M~UNCHAUSEN.

| and grotesque people. There are ali
| sorts of folks everywhere-good, bad, in
different, educated and illiteTate. Lat
| terly there has sprung UP a class of
romance writers, who taking an eXcep-
tional and grotesQue mountain figure,
! have written works Of fiction which they
send forth as real stories OF the noun
tains of North Carolina and the mountain
people.
In a late issue Of the Pilgrim Mr.
knight wrote a story about The Women
| of the Mica Country which, as a work
Of imagination might rank with Mum
chausen's stories, but unfortunately for
him he palmed it Off as a true descT1p-
ton of North Carolina women. Already
his glazing wrong to a worthy people,
pointed out by the patriotic and pam
spoken editor OF Charity and Children,
has been printed in these columns. At
| the request of Col. Isaac H.. Bailey, form
! er State Senator from Mitchell county,
We copy the following written by a prom
iacnt citizen of Eakersville:
Rakersville, N. c., Dec. i.
Editor of the Gazette:
Will you kindly give space il your
valuable paper for the following snort
reply to a ~sIanderous and false article,
Illustrated and published II the Deem
ler nun3her O. The Pilgrim a maya
zine published at Battle Creek Mich,
and signed by Landon Knight, on The
! Women OF the Mica Country The au-
thor OF his uncallcd for SANDER and as
sault upon the people CT this county III
! general, II more especially the women,
must surely have inbibed too freely OF
: mountain dew" or else had been haunt
ed by unquiet spirits appearing to MIN
in the dim shadows OF earthly form, with
shrtckings and Wailings, WrinSing OF
hands, knockings, internal cursinSs and
blasphemies!
Surely no sane man or woman would
. attempt to manufacture such glarlng
falsehoods regarding a people and coun-
try so universally known as is Mitchell
Z county, bordering, you might say, on
9TH Land of the Sky Mr.. Knights
next forthcoming article, he says, will
be dealing with The Moss CATERERS OF
Evangeline's Country" We say God pity
| the Door MOSS SdluSleIo Vi Iht loAiA
eEvangeline,'" if this knight of the
Golden Circle of the Brotherhood Of
Liars" shall pull wide open the valve
of his great automatic lying machine.
Three thousand ~slandered women and
men Of this county are ready and anxious
to place their hands upon the Holy Bible
and swear before Almighty God that not
one single word or illustration in his
article on The Women of the Mica
Country is true, as regards the scenes
and people of this country.
Il cannot attempt to notice the whole
of this high handed assault, as space
is too precious, but will notice a lew
ridiculous assertions. Among many other
things, he says: Houses of the poorest
kind became somewhat more frequent.
came upon one of them upon a bald knoE
in the midst of a clearing!' Who ever
heard Of hair on the bald spot Of the
head?
Drunk men and lunatics do not know
what "bald knobs are, nor would they
know a scale of mica from a chunk o.
dolomite, a toad frog from a red bird, OF
a mica mill from an old~-fashioned homin4
mill. Why then talk about Ignorance,
and Barren Purposes?'
But the browning falsehood Of all cane
! there are many, which alone should cal
down upon his unhallowed head a similal
Judgment to that visited upon tWf
notable personages in the Bible
sBakersville has no store, no postoffice
no hotcl!" A town with a court house
modern constructed Jail, l.: stores, thre'
hotels, besides several boarding house
kent by the best families, a railway sta
ton, roller mill lumber mill, etc, an
no postoffcei Monstrous falsehood
BalzersvilIe can we'll boast of as com
Portable and we'll equipped postofice a
any except salaried offices. But vha
does this Judas care, SO he gets his =
pieces Of silver?
ON his way to Bakcrsville he halts a
two miserable nuts, at a Mr.. Jordan
and Mr.. Williams. Proofs undoubte'
l can be produced that within all the Dor
ders of his county no such men live
l move, or have their being. The goo
people of the county authorize me t
/ say to Mr.. Knight that if he will pa,
: them another visit and point out to the1
: a Mr.. Jordan or a Mr.. Williams Who1
he visited while en- route to BakcrsVlll'
> or show them a mica mill within seve
miles Of said town, and convince thel
I Of the absence of a pOstofflce, asStofe Q
o a hotel or that a Mrs. Murphy lives i
s this town, or if he Will successfully con
r pete with t6-year-old boys and girls
II Bakersville high school for a teacher
= certificate, then l will give him $l,00
$ with the express understanding, ho7
y ever, that in the event he should fail, Il
X aides of Rakersville shall have the e.
e uuisite pleasure on his departure OF COZ
: Quoting the gentleman CD to the raj
), way station, with such music and var
e Gus other ceremonies as are common
ot the heather lands; mounted upon
e vehicle roughly heWn, such as Mr.. Ii
y coin used to make, With steamers al
gorgeous colors flying to the breeze, wi
al the very appropriate inscription: He
n goes the greatest liar of the age.'
a. AS with malice, aforethouSht q
lie without the fear of God before !
id eyes, he goes for the Eoathon a
le illiterate. Had he been portraying t
ID darkest regions of Zululand, in Afrlt
he he could not have given more eloquen
or ard displayed more zeal. In no boastf
spirit DO | say that our county ranks w
in education With other counties OF t