The French Broad hustler. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1896-1912, 1911-08-24

the county. About a dozen passenger
trains empty and fill up with passen-
gers each day and there is much
changing of cars for trains to and
from Toxaway and Brevard Each
train is met by at least 80 or 40 horse
drawn and motor omnibuses, car
r1ages and private automobiles. The
one-story wooden station building has
| a waiting room for white with seats
for 30-I counted them-and through
ticket window one may peep into a
little room where are a telegraph
! operator and bland man of some
what Taft-like facial model This
latter is placid, quiet and serene but
one can not but be suspicious OF him
He is the ticket seller and station
| agent and, in spite of his deliberate
| movements and smile of resignation,
the thought that comes is that he
must have done something reprehen-
sible in another world and is con-
demned to expiate his offenses in this
| Why is SO seemingly good and pious
man left alone by the Southern rail-
/ way to be- badgered, bedevilled, ha-
rasSed and prosecuted II or IA hours
day, with no assistant to afford a
| moment relief, while hundreds of i'm
patient, nervous, agitated and peev-
| ish people, besides freshened up
| school-marms, throng to buy tickets,
/ have mileage pulled" and ask bout
schedules, "Is the train on time?"
| When does the Brevard train come?''
| DE we connect with Col. Tom Will
sons short dog at Alcolu?' 'How
! soCn can l get train to Montreat?"
and "Can you give me reservations
for five lower berths from Hender-
sonville to Lewiedale % An ancient
and cracked Cracker from "Fler-
} iddy" is dying to know if he can con
| meet" at BTanchville for Kisseewan-
! ippee and is scared to inquire; a dear
! old lady from Puddin' Swamp has
stood rocking on her heels and toes
"a minutes trying to muster pluck to
| interrogate concerning whether or
/ not a baby's perambulator can be
checked through to the city of Swans
! Flight, while 9-year-old boy would
like to learn if 4-months-old hou0d
pup may not ride in the Pullman car
/ to Macon if mama takes the draw
ing room?" Such is the scene from.
@early morn to dewy eve and for six,
| hours 1t is warm even in Henderson
| vile. Can the condemnation of a
single human creature to reply to all
these questions and do little Jobs of
| thousand kinds at the same moment
be. explained on any other hypothesis
than this world is for him the purga-
tory following a life i'll spent in a
| former wCsrld?" To carry on the
! business of the Hendersonville pas
senger station satisfactorily to the
public and without making madmen
| n io1r
three lively men of Christian feeling
are needed during the months of July
| August and September
Not a "Rush' Day, Either.
The other morning 1 strolled up
to the depot 20 minutes before the
train was due to arrive and depart.
The ticket window being open,
| went to it to have my mileage cou-
pens exchanged for a ticket There
! stood and waited nine minutes by
the clock in the Office, until a by
stander told me the train was late
Nobody from within gave the least
| attention to my eXasperated presence
turned away to observe that each
Of the 80 seats in the rooom was oc-
copied. On the platform outside
could be counted exactly so women
standing, sitting en- trunks, leaning
against posts or walking to and fro
Six of them sat on a trunk truck
and the whole party so spent an
hour. Later l went back to the tic
ket window and again waited for
eight minutes by the clock, before
the agent could stop writing long
enough to pull my coupons. A wo-
man whom l had left there 20 min
II1&a hof @hoI
agent-whC was doing his level
best to attend to the business of the
people. $3.50.
This is not news story-this lack
of passenger accommodations and
service at the Hendersonville sta
toni have myself ventured to
write of it before, but perhaps it will
be remedied when the summer crowd
of $4,000 in Henderson county ex-
pands to 100000. as it promises to
do in four or five years
Three thousand people arrived
from Civilization on August 16 On ex-
cursion trains and they have found
place to sleep, they are eating fried
chicken and drinking buttermilk
Accommodations are contrived for
everybody In Hendersonville a hun
dred new cottages. boarding houses
and hotels are built each winter and
next. summer they are all full, but
one must go travelling in the coun-
try to get a correct notion CT the
swarming up from the low country
to the cooling hills. Drive to Bat
Cave and thence down the Hickory
Nut Gap (over satanic road for the
last six miles,, see a magnifcently
rough and rocky gorge between the |
mountains with our own Broad river
dashing over the stones by the side |
of the highway and in the 19 miles
you will pass dozen hotels or inns
Not one of them have vacant rooms
during these two weeks and all the
farm houses have boarders, too. |
Eight years agoI1 rode horseback
over this same road and when |