Virginia citizen. (Irvington, Va.) 1891-1921, 1905-07-21

-lemen that launched out from Ir,
'ington on Saturday, July 1st, wa'
fully repaid by the courtesies ex
Tended by General Passenger Agent
Murdoch and Captain Long and hi,
official staff of the steamer Potomac
The mild, blue waters of the Chesa.
reake, however, seemed to be envi
pms of the good treatment, and 90
'riled." Before Old Point was
reached every blessed femme wa,
'hors"-as local wit is wont to at.
breviate the French expression for
knocked out" Some of the part,
did not abandon their sea-legs unit
after the roll of the vestibule trair
had landed them at AsheVilIe, n. c.,
thirty hours later, aud then for
about two days they called for ten.
der sollc;tude-seltzer and lemon
in abundance.
Norfolk was reached by ) p. m.
and after supper for that portion OF
the contingent that was not groggy
the smart little passenger tug of the
Southern Railway conveyed us to
PInner's Point, the wonderful
Phenix that has arisen out of
West Points sackcloth and ashes,
where we were soon comfortably
monopolizing two sections of the
Asheville sleeper and whirling away
TO the south and west. But for a
halfway concession of the Pullman
Palace Car Company we might have
been spared the necessity of writing a
few of the lines above. Under normal
a section in the Norfolk
Asheville sleeper calls for about all
the wallet a newspaper fellow can
gather up, and other incidentals
would 60 lacking. But the Pullman
people "met us halfway" on the deal.
A night on sleeper is without incl
dent unless one happens to be flank
ed by colicky babies or some old fell
low begins saving his next winters
wood. Fortunately no such occu-
pants happened on the good car
'Otranto," and, after curiosity had
been satiated in watching the dex-
terity with which the lord of the
Pullman (the porter transformed
the magnificent overhead panel
work into close but comfortable
beds, the Irvingtonians "rolled in"
and forthwith began to travel to
the Land of Nod as fast as the
iron horse was plowing
through the moonlit fields of pea
nuts, tobacco and cotton.
Danville is too big a city to pass
through without knowing it even in
The night time, for there must needs
be some "backing and filling" of
he big train and maybe change
IF locomotives.
OF agin, on agin,
Gone agin, Finnigin-
about sizes up how these railroad
machines keep busy until you leave
North Carolina. His lord
ship, the porter, had called all
hands about z a. m., just before
reaching Salisbury, with the infor-
nation that we had time enough to
step out and get breakfast, or we
could wait until the buffet car was
hitched on at Salisbury. Salisbury
struck us as hustling town, and
when We got back to that place a
week later We saw it under the lime
light and knew it was quite alive
kind of liveliness, nevertheless, not
altogether to be admired. Hordes
,f star heels" and sons of Ham
we're traversing the electric-lighted
streets and the beer signs told us
hat the carcass was there. We
we're informed that Salisbury was the
'nly city, town or country site of
all that region which had licensed
'aloons.
From Salisbury, which is nearly
central in the long, narrow old
North State, We rolled due west
that is, in general direction, for
we "boxed the compass
On this picturesque mountain journey
before Asheville, in the far and
high west, is reached. And this is
The beanteous portion of North Caro-
Ina If not OF all eastern America.
We might pick out circumscribed
spot In the White Mountains of New
hampshire, or the attitudes of Penn
'ylvania in the Kinzua region, or the
nomentary panorama upon entering
DR. coming out of the Blue Ridge
tunnel at Alton, that for a single
view could equal the landscape of the
Southern Railways route Between
and Asheville, but for a
seven hours ride it is agreed there is
nothing east of the Mississippi river
that can in any way compare with it.
Gradually the cotton and tobacco
lelds and the red clay lands of
Piedmont disappear in the retreating
distance and you begin to surmount,
Dr. are in turn hemmed in by the
rugged hills. A gaze ahead discerns
what at first appear to be clouds on
'he western horizon, with rugged
and abrupt points and edges; but
-hese to the initiated are known TO
be mountains, and before another
hour has passed they have loomed
lp as towering blue and black sem
.inels that seem to defy further
progress.
The industries of western North
Jarolina, aside from the culture of
.rain as the staple land product, are
iiverse. Lumber and wood manu-
actures largely predominant; schools,
ummer resorts and huge distilleries
Inc the thoroughfares, and cattle
'pon a thousand hills tell of thrift
uch as the old North State never
NEW until the last years of the
nineteenth century.
Cities are passed, after an occasional
top, and town and villages without
lumber roll by unnoticed; and now
ur speed begins perceptibly to
lacken. The snoring, screaming
locomotive has been ioined with