The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1902-12-28
A MODERN MUNCHAUsEN.


as everywhere else in the world, peculiar
and grotesque people. There are all
sorts of folks everywhere-good, bad, in
different, educated and illiterate. Lat
terly there has sprung up a class of
romance writer's, 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 MIR.
knight wrote story about 1.-THE Women
of the Mica Country" which, as work
of imagination might rank with Mum
chausen's stories, but unfortunately for
him he palmed it off as a true descrfp-
ton of North Carolina women. Already
his glazing wrong to worthy people,
pointed out by the patriotic and plain
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 prom
inent citizen of Bakersville:
Bakersville, N. c., Dec. II.
Editor of the Gazette:
Will you kindly give space in your
valuable paper for the following short
reply to a slanderous and false article,
illustrated and published in the Decem-
Der number of THE Pilgrim maya
zine published at Battle Creek, Mich,
and signed by Landon Knight, on THE
Women of the Mica Country" The au-
thor of this uncalled for Islander and as
| sault upon the people of this county in
general, and more especially the women,
must surely have inbibed too freely of
| mountain dew" or else had been haunt
| ed by unquiet spirits appearing to him
| in the dim shadows OF earthly form, with
shrickings and wailings, wringing of
| hands, knockings, internal cursings and
| blasphemies!
Surely no sane man or woman would
| attempt to manufacture such glaring
| falsehoods regarding a people and coun-
| try so universally known as is Mitchell
| county, bordering, you might say, on
''The Land of the Sky" Mr.. knight s
next Forthcoming article, he says will
| be dealing with THE Moss CATERERS of
| Evangelines Country We say God pity
| the poor ''moss gatherers of the land
| 'Evangeline,' 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 1.-The Women of the Mica
Country is true, as regards the scenes
and people of this country.
II cannot attempt to notice the whole
of this high handed assault, as space
| is too precious, but will notice few
| ridiculous assertions. Among many other
things, he says: Houses of the poorest
kind became somewhat more frequent.
came upon one of them upon bald knob
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 scale of mica from a chunk of
|
mica mill from an old-fashioned hominy
| mill Why then talk about Ignorance
and Barren Purposes"
But the GROWING falsehood of all (and
/ there are many, which alone should call
down upon his unhallowed head similar
| Judgment to that visited upon two
| notable personages in the Bible:
| "Bakersville has no store, no postofhce,
| no hotel" A town with a court house,
modern constructed Jail, II stores, three
hotels, besides several boarding houses
| kept by the best families, railway sta
| ton, roller mill, lumber mill, etc, and
| no postoffice! Monstrous falsehood
Bakersville can well boast of as COM
Portable and we'll equipped postoffice as
any except salaried offices. But what
does this Judas care, so he gets his 80
pieces of silver?
On his way to Bakersville he halts at
two miserable huts, at Mr.. Jordan
and Mr. Williams. Proofs undoubted
can be produced that within all the bor-
ders of this county no such men live,
move, or have their being. The good
people of the county authorize me to
say to Mr. Knight that if he will pay
them another visit and point out to them
| a Mr. Jordan or Mr.. Williams whom
| he visited while en- route to Bakersville
or show them mica mill within seven
| miles of said town, and convince them
| of the absence of postoffice, a store or
| hotel or that a Mrs. Murphy lives in
this town, or if he will successfully COM
pete with 16-year-old boys and girls OF
Bakersville high school for teacher
certificate, then / will give him $1,000
| with the express understanding, how
| ever, that in the event he should fail, the
| ladies of Bakersville shall have the ex-
| quisite pleasure on his departure of con-
Quoting the gentleman CD to the rail-
| way station, with such music and vari-
Gus other ceremonies as are common IN
the heather lands; mounted upon a
| vehicle roughly hewn, such as Mr.. Lin
coin used to make, with streamers and
| gorgeous colors flying to the breeze, with
the very appropriate inscription: Here
| goes the greatest liar of the age!"
AS with malice, aforethought and
without the fear of God before his
| eyes" he goes for the heather and
illiterate. Had he been portraying the
| darkest rapions Of ZulllIand in Africa