The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1904-08-04
HAPPYDARECOUNTY
A LAND OF SPRING
ssslF
Nature Guards 1t as a
Precious Gem.
LIFE ON ITS COAST
A Land Where Work and Rest are
Both in Plenty. and the Inhabitants
Grow Up Large, Peaceful aud In
dependent in the Breath of
the Open Sea. Oceans
Lights And Shadows.

Governor Aycock, who has recently
returned from Dare county, where he
went with Superintendent J. Y. JOY
ner, speaks in enthusiastic terms of his
trip, the country, the people and the
entertainment furnished the party.
1t has already been printed how the
people flocked to hear the speakers
listing in the county and the detail
of the speaking tour made by the
two leaders of the States educational
movement.
There remains only to tell somewhat
of Dare county and it's people-a coun-
ty and a people that in physical con-
formity and unique life have perhaps
not a parallel on the earth. The one,
partly juttiE~ points of the mainland
left by some NO, tn of their foundations
in the advance line of the battle with
the waves, and partly a string of
sandy banks chat are even more isolat-
ed by the inroads of the sea, both
constantly changing and shifting by
degrees, almost barren of vegetation
and as inhospitable a land in appear
ance as could well be imagined: the
other-a great, hardy, bronzed and
Weather-beaten race of men and pla
cid, contented women and children
who, looking the sea In the face from
infancy, become mature in adolescence
all happy, prosperous and not too
busy to grow old with the laughter of
life following them even to the grave.
In a way, that is the county of Dare
and the people of the banks-a county
and a people that we of the up-lands
with summer time glimpses of the in
dlSent beach cOmberS of the resorts
are some times in the habit of con-
sidering with a certain patronizing
pity, for the cure of which there need
be only brought the picture of the
contrast, say, between the 'one-hoss'
crapper of the clay and the CORE
spending man with a cat-boat and a
boy to pull the sheet.
The men who get their living with
the work of the hands from nature
form the backbone and the sinew of
peoples the world over, whether they
dig the soil or search the sea; and 1t
is their courage and their thought
that has in the end made the nations
and writ their laws. Yet the hills do
not deal as kindly, do not give the
same advantages to the poor man as
does the ocean. In the one case, pow
erty is too apt to be d curse; in tha
other it is but a trivial incident of
life
The one, laboring ever under the
burden of debt, haply illiterate,
bowed to the plough and bent to the
cotton patch, sometimes presents the
pitlable picture of the tread mill of UNI
progressive wOrk-a labor that has in
1T but the binding threads of an ex-
istence that is worth but little more
than the common pittance of life it,
self
The other, straining with tense mus
cles against the winds and the buffets
OF the waves, standing erect with
strong self confidence amid the au-
tumn storms, breathing health and
strength in each lung full of cold
thick air in the short and tasteful Ia
Dor of the fishing season and drifting
idly along the placid, dawn-lit sounds
in the spring, but still alert for the
infinite variety of emergencies that
come to those who follow the sea.
The one content if at the end of a
wear of work he may "pay OUT and
get the credit necessary for another
year or labor; the other, often clear
! ing with his one boat, $500 in six
weeks work and then away in that
same boat on cruises to the towns
and cities of the coast to see the sigh is
and get the experiences that broad
en- instead of discomfort the sturdy in
dependence that comes from the bat
ties with the elements of nature. and
then back again to happy home and