The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1907-05-03
VIRGINIA.
The SUNNY South,

possibilities at this season than leisure
| " trip to our southland.
The writer recently with a combina ton
of recreation and business in view found
himself at eventide on one of our Bay line
steamers, whose reputation for comfort
and cuisine have long since become
the standard of perfection in travel, and
after a delightful night awoke in Norfolk
harbor at A. NJ. Taking the Atlantic
Coast Line railroad. by easy stages he
worked his way as far south as Whining
ton, making detours from various points
along the way.
1t would not be correct to describe the
Atlantic Coastal plain as attractive to
the eye; its swamps, its jungles, its sandy
surface, its excessive poverty of soil in
many parts combine with its horde of idle
people and their neglected huts to make it
airy thing but paradise to the eve; but
a study of its past history, an analysis
of it's undevtloped resources and the
hospitality of its leading people reveal
possibilities for this land second only to
the valley of the ancient Nile.
The traditional mansion of the planter
is conspicuous by it's absence; the popula-
ton today consists of the thrifty upper
class who live in the towns and the poor
whites and the negro tenants living in
the humblest style in country huts.
These towns of from two to ten thous-
and inhabitants are numerous, many of
the homes are handsome, the manu-
facturer's thrift is apparent and the
social hospitality exceeds description.
North Carolina is now manufacturing
more cotton than she grows, while on
all sides the saw mill is putting on to
the market the products of the lumber
mans camp.
Lumber companies gradually radiate
from their original home as a center until
they frequently carryl logs over their own
roads for distance of thirty miles and
have grown to be corporations of enor-
nous proportions.
Comparatively little virgin forest is
now left in this section, but when 1t is
seen in all of its splendor as in some of the
holdings of our friend David G. Clement,
of Dublin, the trees present mammoth
proportions. In number of cases we
measured with his aid pines having cir
conference of fifteen feet and showing
height of at least eighty feet before the
short limbs appear at the top. Such
tree, according to Scribner's log book,
contains over six thousand feet of mar
ketable timber and can be manufactured
at a minimum cost
Cypress trees covered with southern
moss frequently abound in the swamps
and are much more valuable than the
pine. Through this vast forest, scattered
over his holding of nearly four thousand
acres, run the Coharie and the Little Co.
harie rivers, sheets of water with a uni
form width of fifty and thirty feet respec-
lively, and a depth of from eight to
twenty feet.
The scene is indeScribably beautiful as
these streams of water, darkened by the
roots of the Juni per, reflect the simmer
ing sunlight as it steals through the
overhanging forest, and needs only an
Antony and Cleopatra gliding on the
river, bosom to reproduce the poetic Wis
ions of the mythical past.
With such surroundings during the
busy hours of the day, and his capacious
quarters in an ancient planters mansion
at night, where the whip-poor-w
soothes him to sleep in the weary hours
and a score of songsters led by the Eng
lish knocking bird wake him in the early
dawn, we cease to wonder why the
manager of the Coharie Lumber Com
pany dreams of his ducats and thinks he
has discovered Paradise regained.
From a commercial standpoint the
streams are invaluable on which to trans
port log RATS from the upper country.
These RATS men float wninwinter, guild
ing their craft with an oar fifty feet long at
the stern. They tie up at night, sleep on
the damp ground, breakfast on corn
meal cruel, topped with a drink of
something stimulating" and sell their
product for about its value in the woods.
1t is not strange that the natives are
not industrious; the pine tree furnishes
him an easy livelihood by tapping it for
turpentine and rosin for twenty years.
It's lumber is then as good sever for the
market, while the stump remaining in
the ground is still rich in tar.
Frequently but little soil is titled; the
rest of the land belongs to the public at
large, and is dedicated to cattle which
are never housed. and the razor back
! hog, which makes a precarious living on
snakes, grubs found at the foot of the
| long-leafed pine. and on the scanty vege-
tation until late in the fall The owner
then corrals them into SMALL lot planted
in chubas pronounced by the natives
"toofers") a species of the artichoke, and
| finishes them off with little corn, when
| the gods. These strollers swim the river
and go everywhere. A few days since,
one jumped upon the platform, entered
the freight house at Parkersburg, cap
tured and pierced a can of corn, and for
hours afterwards amused the onlookers
because she was unable to shake off her
toothsome Wand. Cattle frequently
starve or die in the swamps, but as no
| H. =, g
lost. Last week the Coharie lumbermen
pulled out two cows almost completely
submerged and saved them for their
| owner.
As strange as it sounds, laboris scarcer
than in Hartford; hundreds gaze idly at
every passing train. yet the Atlantic
Coast Line is today paying 81 70 day
for prison gangs to do its grading and
track laying. These gangs live in large
tents stationed here and there along the
road and under the inspiring influence of
a guard with loaded musket, do vast
quantities of heavy work.
Where properly developed. much of the
land is wonderfully productive for truck.
ing purposes and commands prices higher
than in Hartford. The section about Will
mington frequently sends out whole train
IOetuS VI slleh" IL Jul liilS bSil liiGIu
of their green fruit froze on the vines dur
ing early April. Cotton and tobacco
predominant, although last year, because
of excessive rains, these crops resulted in
complete failure and left the planters in
distressing poverty. With new blood in.
fused in this section, with the present
colored population educated industrially
and with diversity of occupations for
which this region is so admirably adapt
ed, the south has before her future
which we may all envy.
There is more catarrh in this section of the
country than all other diseases put together
and until the last few years supposed tc
he inCurable. For great many years doc
tors prom ounced it n local disease and pre-
scribed local remedies, and by constant,
failing to cure with local treatment, pro
nouuced it incurable. Science has proven ca
tarrh to be a constitutional disease, ant
! therefore requires constitutional treatment
Halls Catarrh Cure, manufactured by +. ]
Cheney & Co., Toledo, Ohio, Is the only con
stitutional cure on the market. 1t is take
: internally in doses from 10 drops to tea
spoonful. 1t acts directly on the blood an,
mucous surfaces of the system. They otfe
one hundred dollars for any case it fails t.
cure. Send for circulars and estimonials.
| Address F. ]. CHENEY & Co, Toledo, Ohio
Sold by Druggists, rs cents.
Take H all's Family Pills for constipation.
A Guarantee Cure for Piles.
Itching, Blind, Bleeding or Protruding Piles
Druggists refund m oney If PAZO ONT NJ EN-
fails to cure any case, no matter of how lon
, standing, in to IA days. First applicatio