Times-promoter. (Hernando, DeSoto County, Miss.) 1898-1970, 1909-08-12
NORTH CAROLINA LETTER
Mai. Dockery Writes One Of His Usual
Entertaining Articles.

Ssasss
Editor Times-P Promoter:
| ! have been here q week, sitting by
a good fire and sleeping under blan-
kets and quilts, while my friends at
home are sweltering with heat and
the mercury around 90.
1 / left Memphis ait 5 p. m. on the
oath Of July went to bed and slept
soundly, as always do under the
! rocking motion OF the sleeper, and
awoke at sunrise in Chattanooga, and
lookout Mountain in my eye.
had timed my trip 50 as to 60
through the most interesting part Of
lit ii the daylight, and while I had
seen it before, the mountain scenery,
with its ever varying hill and gorge,
is always charming to me. The good
farming, the fine corn and hay fields,
the herds Of fat cattle, sheep and
hogs, the number Of mule colts, the
neat, clean villages and towns of east
Tennessee, show thrift and prosperity
and interests me.
/ stopped In Ashville, that lovely
turn in the sky, two days and while
had been under the weather Gas they
say in Arkansas) the cool invigora-
ting breezes made me feel first class
and forget my ailments, and I have
taken the advice I give friends suffer-
ing with toothache don't think Of it,
Ashville Is made up Of good and
pretty homes, nestled in the side Or
on top Of the high hills, surrounded by
pretty groves, green grass and innum-
cradle boarding houses and hotels.
The Battery Park, situated in q fine
park and surrounded BY flowers, walks
and drives, is the swell hotel and is
on one OF the highest hills. From it's
veranda we have views Of the noun
tains, peak rising above peak as far
as the vision extends. The Alps in
Switzerland are higher. but ! doubt |
whether the scenery Is prettier orsI
grander than our ON Bine Ridge.
Biltmore, Vanderbilt's million dollar
home, is in full view two miles away
and looks like pictures / have seen or
old castles, clinging to the mountain
side on the Rhine.
] left Ashville ut s d. m. and was
about half day among the everlast-
ing hills, which have looked down on
toe epochs and changes of this old
world since the high waters of Noah's
day disturbed its topography. The
railroad goes over, around, under and
through these hills. TO get up one hill
the road zigzags and goes entirely
around 1t. Hooked out the window
and saw the head OF our train coming |
back, like it was going TO run into us,
but it SHE'D off and We had no collis-
ion. In going through the various
tunnels, was reminded Of the couple |
who went into tunnel, the girl hay-
ing piece of court plaster on her
lips, and when they came out the TEL.
low had 1t sticking toShis moustache.
Ireek0tl man nature has been the same
always, for boys do that way now.
We gradually went down into the
rolling lands and into the corn, wheat
and tobacco fields and occasionally q
cotton patch.
The people OF western North Carolina
are Of Dutch or Moravian ancestry
and are like their ancestors, industri-
ons, painstaking and frugal; have kept
their lands fertile and live comforta-
bly,, raising their bread and meat at
home.
All parts Of the Old North state Is
and progressive. The
county in which 7 was raised was
sneered at as too poor to sprout peas :
sixty years ago. Now the old worn ,
out red hills, cultivated more than q
hundred years ago, are expected to
bring bale Of cotton to the acre,
and often 18 Or 20 Of them to the mulet
md yet the county don't raise half
enough for the factories III it. This
. result Of good preparation, good
and threelor four dollars
worth OF fertilizer and rotation Of
peas. There are object lessons, too,
n the county and state that stimulate
% enterprise and experiment.. al
ude to competitive corn clubs. EacA
member pays In d dollar and the one
Who makes the most corn takes the
,ot. know one planter who offers
good premium to the tenant who