Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1902-12-03
wALHALLA. SOUTH CAROLINA. DEC. 8. 1909.
IN SHADOW OF THE BLUE RIDGE.
WaIhaIIa Is Nestled at the Very Fee. OF
Natures Everlasting Monuments.

Nature's Everlasting Monuments.
IL. I. E., in Charleston Sunday News. !
A little time may be proftably
spent by every man in "lookine
backward" and recalling the joyous
days of youth, and to the traveller
or wander if you please, there is
nothing more conducive to serious
thought, nothing more wholesome
and inspiring, than to return to the
home of childhood and look with the
es,of matnrer age upon the scenes
which have long since become but q
recollection.
After an absence of some fifteen
years from the now prosperous and
bustling little town of Walhalla, it is
my privilege and good fortune to re-
turn for a briet visit and note the
changes that have taken place in the
last decade and a half. note
changes everywhere, and it is with a
feeling of satisfaction and sense of
pride that / find these changes
are all in the direction of progress.
A long stroll this afternoon gave me
ample opportunity to observe some
of the changes time has been work.
lng-changes in people, manners,
customs, buildings, and even in the
country itself--everything different
from what it was when, as boy, l
''lived, moved, and had my being" in
this section, blessed and favored to
an unusual degree by the Creator.
Yes, changes everywhere--except in
the grand scenery presented by these
deep-blue and everlasting hills, in
whose inviting shadows l spent an
hour communing with nature, recall
ing the past and tasting the bitter
sweets of varied reminiscence.
l remember the old town of fifteen
years ago-busy in it's way-but still
little more than a sleepy village.
With it's one long, straight street,
running almost directly east and
west, it's buildings scattered and
built Of wood, it did not present an
appearance inviting to the capitalist
or to the laborer. Time and fire
have made great changes in this re-
spect. The growth of the village to
town of 1,400 inhabitants has
caused spreading out for three or
four blocks north and south of Main
street, giving a good proportion to
the town. Then, too, brick and NOR
tar have taken the place of wood in
the construction of business houses,
and where, in my boyhood days, the
business of the place was conducted
in an Indifferent manner and in
rather shaky frame houses, to-day it
is carried on in handsome and sub.
stantial brick structures by practical
business men, who nse approved aud
advanced methods 10 every depart
ment. There are, l believe, twenty
nine brick stores and buildings in the
town, with good prospect for Others
in the near futuro.
The citizens of fifteen years ago
were just as good-doubtless better
in some rcspects--as those of to-day;
they were. of that sturdy German
mould, Industrious, hard working
and economic, but not progressive.
In their descendants are apparent to
a marked degree these same quail
ties, and added TO them is a spirit of
progressiveness that promises we'll
for the future of the place.
MODERN HOTEL NEEDED.
The old Biemann Hotel building,
known all over the United States, is
among few of the old landmarks
that have served their day and seve-
raj generations and ought to have
their epitaphs written. Mr.. Beard,
the manager of the house, now well
known az the Walhalla Hotel, runs
an excellent hostelry; the rooms are
neat and clean, the table abuudantly
supplied with the best of everything !;
the host, his family and guests are
congenial, but he is hampered by an
antiquated building that ought to be
replaced by modern hotel.
The citiz ms, judge from remarks
made by some, are becoming alive to
the great advantages to accrue to
the town from a new and modern
hotel manaued aa we'll aa the prasonf