Goldsboro weekly argus. [volume] (Goldsboro, N.C.) 1885-1909, 1902-06-26

Scenes of Rural Reauty and Nat
ural Sublimity That Need
Only Home Touches to
MakeT hem Id cal.
EDITOR ARGUS:

ural scenery North Carolina is I'M
excelled, if equaled, by any other
State in the union. DIR. Rondthaler,
Bishop of the Moravian Church, one
of the most profoundly learned and
cultured of men, and one who has
travelled extensively in Europe, says
that he has seer nothing in the far
famed Alps of Switzerland that
equals our Gland of the sky"
Eastern North Carolina has long
been famous for her extensive cotton
fields and magnificent farm prospects
and her broad and groves of
fine old trees leading to and sur
rounding splendid country resi-
dences, now too frequently falling
into decay, that were once very just
ly the pride of their owners whose
unbounded hospitality rendered this
section of our beloved State some
thing more than famous.
To the North Carolinian who has
travelled the length and breadth of
his native State and has gone abroad
far enough to see sufficient of other
States and lands to be able to make
intelligent comparisons as he goes
hither and thither over and around
our mountains, up and down our
[ xJaIIouc an6 o0r0Sc orr hr.Oo6 and
fertile plains, there come moments
of ecstacy when he rejoices to be able
to say, 81 was born here;" and when
he contemplates the wealth of her
natural beauty, the modesty and vir-
tue of her womanhood, the chivalric
spirit of her sons, and the vast
wealth hidden in her soil and her
mines, it is only reasonable that he
should give some freedom of rein to
the imagination, and hope that from
the towers of the Eternal City he
may be permitted to look back, as
the years of eternity roll, upon the
splendid future these things prophesy
for North Carolina.
1t was with feelings of this sort
that the writer recently came upon a
scene of al beauty in Sampson
county. To the one who knows
Sampson county only from the repu-
tation she has for "big blues" and
"children wearing bells" in the
bncLIaborrxy cuvoponc onI uyho nv
poses that county is only a land of
boys filled with croaking frogs and
writing water mOccasins, there re-
mains something yet to be revealed.
In the southern part of the county,
in Franklin township, OF the "Nig-
ger-head Road" zone of a number
| of roads in the State cut by Lord
CORVALLIS while at the head of the
English army, seeking to subdue the
Colonies,D leading from Clinton to
| Wilmington, there is a place combin-
ing in a remarkable manner both
lowland and hill country elements,
a spot of peculiar beauty. The road
running parallel with Black River,
and a half or three quarters of a mile
from that stream, crosses Wild Cat
Greek, a small stream whose ripling
waters look very much like an up
country water course. To the stran-
ger travelling that way from Clinton
toward Wilmington the sudden
change of scenery is none the less
surprising than remarkable. On the
north side for miles the road runs
through typical pine forests and
sand, such as have made famous our
"tar, pitch and terpentine' products.
This appearance continues to within
a few yards Of the creek, where sud-
denly there is a complete change OF
scenery and, in the place of deep
sand and turpentine woods prospect
and the usual Doggy adjuncts of an
eastern stream, there is the rushing
ripling of waters in the hills. Fol
more than a mile along the southern
bank the land rises abruptly and
ravines are mingled the greatest va
riety Of woods, each beaaing its owr
clearly marked characteristics, to be
found growing together anywhere
There are dogwoods, sourwoods
lhickories and white oaks, and ma.
ipIes, just snch as grow on the pied
mont streams, side by side of thu
Rowland poplars and birches, gums
land long-leaf pines; on all, ane
Throwing an appearance of enchant
ment in and out and up and dow1
the dells, is a profuse growth o
moss, hanging from the limbs of GAL