The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1910-02-17
4 SOUTHERN LETTER
Something About the Piled up Gram
deur of the Scenery of West Virginia

in Turkey, end We were admlrlng
the rugged scenery that lines the
Bosphorus between the Black Sea
and the Sea of Marmora.
1T suggests to me little the
Kanawha River in West Virginia
l said to him.
II have never been in West
Virginia" he replied.
That's funny" 1 remarked,
for West Virginia is on the Dor
der of your state"
Eyes, but it never seemed to me
there was much over that way to
be interesting.
I looked at the mountains that
hedged US IN and called to mind
again the magnificent mountains
of the Virginia country l had re-
ferred to and wondered at the man.
Southern Europe and Eastern Asia
are rich in attractive scenery, and
l went on further to the eastward
than my companion did, pentrating
the Caucasus, that ancient cradle
Of the human family, and drifting
into those other famous mountain
ranges of the continent. Yet l
found no mountain settings to sur
pass those of our land.
1t seemed singular that a man
would pay hundreds of dollars to
travel thousands of miles away
from home to applaud the grandeur
that is in no way Of more charm
than that which he could find at
the expense of a few hours travel
and FIVE dollar bill. But that is
human nature.
1t is also nature. l put my old
COWS into field that has some
thing fit to eat in it, and after
browsing around a bit they try to
get over the fence into the dead
cotton stubble.
1t is a mystery to me. sometimes
why people take the trouble to
travel at all. They pay their
money, take a night train, doze
the hours away in a badly venti-
lated sleeping car, and are happy.
Not long ago new railroad was
opened from middle North Caro-
lima into West Virginia. 1t ira
verses some Of the grandest seen
cry on the two continents and is
a we'll built line. 1t is doubtful
if it will ever become a popular
line of travel, for it will carry its
passengers, as one of them remark
ed, through the most broken and
unsettled part OF the United States.
Yet the man who thinks about
it as he stands on the top of one
of the high ranges of North Caro-
lima mountains and looks out
across the face of creation can
almost imagine that he sees Jeho-
yah on one of the peaks, bringing
to Moses the law which has gov
erned men since the day when in
telligence became amenable to
law.
Now West Virginia is planning
another railroad that comes down
this way through the mountains,
and l am of the opinion that the
road, which will run from the Po-
tomac above Cumberland, thread
ing the valleys between the Allie
gheny and the Shenandoah ranges,
crossing the summit from the Pc
tomac to the headWaters of the
James River, will open a noun
tain country worth travelling miles
to see and penetrate
The mountains begin in Penn
sylvania. They continue through
the Nirginias and Carolinas to
Georgia, by way of Tennessee and
Kentucky. West Virginia is all
mountains. l never saw any
place of the size that has so much
of its land piled up in such enor-
nous heaps. Other States have
some low lands, some prairies,
some coast land, or something to
break the continuous skyline of
range and inclosed valley, but
West Virginia is all mountains.
1t is one OF the most magnificent