Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1903-01-14
wALHALLA, 9. c.
"WEDNESDAY, JAN. IA. nsOs.
THE A APPALACHIAN PARK.
Our correspondent Points Out the Benefits to
be Derived from II.

Keowee Courier: see the Appala-
chian Park. bill is gaining ground in
the House of Congress, and I for one,
trust it will pass this session, for it
means much to the people of Oconee
and the entire State. Not one in
one thousand stops to think of the
benefit it will be to our people in
many ways, so let me tell you of a
few of them as they have been told
to me by those who think for us.
First. 1t will open market for
thousands of acres of land owned by
people who have paid tax on it for
many years and have never realized
one cent from it.
Second. 1t will perpetuate and
keep intact this wild mountain region
as it was when our fathers took it
from the Indians, and in a hundred
years it will be looked on as a grand
show by the people then living as we
are to-day.
Third. 1t will give employment to
hundreds of our citizens at good
wages, and it will open a market Cat
honey for many things produced by
the natives that they cannot now
find sale for, without dragging many
miles over bad roads to markat.
Fourth. 1t will cause to be opened
many miles of good roads where now
only pig trails exist
Fifth. 1t will import hundreds of
citizens who won't do the mountains
any harm. In the different States
the park will embrace and infuse new
life and new methods in doing many
things and perpetuate this forest
region in its present state and keep
the mountains and hills covered with
their wild growth, and protect the
ltnd from the sun and will keep the
soil moist so it will hold the rain that
iatie anu uiolIioulc IL OuI 10 tne
many thousands of small streams
that feed the rivers that run our mills
and factories down the country, and
in this way it now keeps up steady
flow of water and does not dump its
showers down upon us all at one
time and deluge our low lands, but
you remove this timber in any great
quantity and expose the land to sun
and rain and it will not only wash
it down into the ponds, lakes and
streams and changes their course and
fill them up, but will create chills and
fever, caused by the sun baking on
these mud banks, formed along the
courses, left by the torrents that
sweep down from the hills when left
barren of timber and soil and prove
80 destructive to life and property in
its wake. These are facts that can't
be denied. In another one hundred
years this protection alone will
doubly repay us for all it costs us
now. The government will eventu-
ally build lumber mills superior to
any we can now find in the South,
to cut and prepare her bardwoods
for her own use and to sell as well.
and will establish experimental sta
tions, observatories, fish hatcberies,
and God only knows the rest to
come that can't do us any harm and
will not take any money out of the
land. The streams will be stocked
with many kinds of fish now unknown
to US, and it all means the expendi-
ture of money by Uncle Sam and
Oconee will surely get her part as
the van passes on "pay days" | see
the President favors the bill. This
is one good act of his, be it said of
him. Yet ! notice by the papers,
and have seen in person, that the
common people have to foot the bill
of these o-called Presidential recep.
tions every year, come last in line
and only get the glad hand and are
mustered in like sheep at the tail
end of the line, next the cur dogs,
cooks, ETC., and seldom get 20 see
the President never did march in
one of these fool parades, and am
now glad of the fact.
1t is told of Lincoln, when he was
President, that at one of these an
nual nothings, while some spike.
tailed Willie was trying to present
some little, o.called English Lord,
he noticed an old fellow in the
crowd from his old home in the
West, when he brushed the Willies
aside with the remark, "Excuse me,
gentlemen" and going up to the
backwoodsman, who had come to see
the town, and trusting he might get
glimpse of his old neighbor, he
said, extending bis hand: "Wby,
hello, Dave; / haven't seen you
since we use to split rails together
ont in Illinois. You must come
round tomorrow and take dinner
with me-" But the Lincolns are all