The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1905-10-15

school tax. / pay ninety-eight cents a
wear. I'm wilin TO pay it. / never
went to school q day, but I want to
aginst payn' the school tax DR..
McIver or Governor Aycock could con-
vince that man that to treble his
school tax would be TO increase the
value of his property ten fold and the
value of his children an hundred fold.
There are eight public schools in
the county employing two teachers.
Here and there one finds a neat, new
school house in place of the old cabin
from which have gone the present and
former generations. But there is a
building which should be the countyS
pride. 1t is the Sandy Flat school
mouse within two miles of the village
Of Blowing Rock in a triangle between
the Shull's Mill road and the Linvlle
turnpike 1t is a pleasure to the eye
and neart of a teacher. Within are
TWO recitation rooms which can by
sliding doors be thrown into one hall
with seating capacity of five hundred
and is designed for a lecture hall to
which will be invited men and women
who have message TO the people.
Furnished with patent desks and
seats; Well lighted and heated; taste
fully painted inside and out; in n grove
which is private TO the school, it is
an ideal spot for the fostering of
bodies, minds, and souls of the child
rem. The cost is $1.800 and except
$500 it is the gift of Mr.. Moses H.
Cone. Money cannot buy his land
here. but in one of the fairest spots on
his fine estate he gives these acres to
the children. Mr. Cone works on the
principle that men and women most
appreciate what they help to make,
ana he encourages the parents to con-
tribute to the support of the school
which he keeps open nine months
each year He not only employs the
teacher wholly for five months, but
supplements the salary paid by the
District for four months The child
rem of his laborers constitute the
school.
This is but a part of his work in the
county. Two years ago he gave $3.50
to the school in this village and in all
he has given over $500 TO the Appa
lachian Training School at Boone.
As a teacher of citizenship Mr.. Cone
has no superior. He knows that the
gift without the giver is bare and he
gives not only his money, but his time
and influence. He is an enthusiastic
school committeeman and gets as
much pleasure out of building and
| furnishing the new school house as
some other financiers do in manipulate
| ing stocks and bonds.
Another great school which he sup
ports is his magnificent estate of sew
| erai thousand acres. Flat-top Manor.
| His lands are interlaced with twenty
| five miles Of roads which are revela-
| tons alike to the farmer and the sum-
mer tourist. Perfect grades. solid
! beds, massive stone walls on the cliff
sides. exquisite vista here and there
now skirting slvery lakes which he
| has made; then throughout his apple
| orchard of $4,000 trees; now from the
| crest of mountain overlooking the
| whole range of Blue Ridge giants:
| then dipping into a dark woodland
along the dancing waters of trout
stream, on by a deer park whose fleet
| folk look, wonder at us and are out of
sight i'm the green depths; everywhere
in tropical luxurience are the Rhode
dendron, kalmia. azalea; the birch
poplar. elm. chestnut, oak, walnut.
white pine. maple. all of which clothe
| our mountains to the summit Under
meath is the greenast and tlickest OF
turf scintilating with the low growing
| bits of clover from the dress of the
| tiny babes of the wood, smiling up al
/ us. : Aboxe..thes,bl ueSt~@ofe hlsee. skies,
and about, the mountain air so sweet
SO exhilerating that one may be par
doned for believing IF there is an
| ElySium on earth, it is this it is
this" Mr.. Cone protects his forests
most jealousy and he is teaching the
people the worth of tree, lesson
more needed each year in our noun
tain country and for the sake of the
fertile fields below us.
The. most Important factor in the
educational work here is the Appala-
chan Training School ut Boone, es-
tablished within the past four years.
An appropriation of $4,000 was made
by the Legislature of 1903. This was
increased to $4,000 during the last
session of that body This sum is to
Dc available when the trustees of the
school shall IA use the same. amount.
nf this $500 has been secured and
he earnest, hard working principals.
the Messrs Dougherty. are hopeful of
final success.
During the session lately finished
there was an attendance of one hun
dred and sixty men and women repre-
senting ten mountain counties. These
i gre almost wholly self-supporting
Il many bring their provisions from
home and do their own work. Others
| board in the neighborhoCd where all
expenses are covered by six or seven
| q liars per month.
The trustees are building q 0rmi~
aOry for girls to accommodate one
hundred to be ready for occupancy in
January, 1906. They are also tryin g
- finish the main school building It
is a hard, brave fight which these
men are making. Their hands ought
TO he held up. The men and women
OF North Carolina who have more
than they need should see to it that
the boys and girls of these mountain
counties have the opportunity to pre-
pare for the rapidly coming day when
the illiterate man will be pushed 20
the wall. when he can no longer live
che wild, free, ignorant life of the