Western Carolina Democrat and French Broad hustler. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1913-1915, 1914-12-10
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TrankfuIness Tor Our Land of the
Skies.
Editor Democrat:
Many of us may not know it, but
we, of the Blue Ridge mountains are
surrounded with blessing which are
denied to almost all other parts of the
world. A little poem written by Chap
man, and changed so as to fit our
high-up region ought to make us all
appreciate what God has given us and
where He has placed us. If our
mountain country is not what this
poetry describes, then we are not what
we should be until we square ourselves
with every line. Read it carefully,
Up where the hand clasps little
stronger,
Up where a smile dwells a little
longer
There's where Skyland begins:
Up where the sun is little brighter,
Up where the SHOWS trife whittier,
Up where bonds Of home are wee bit
tighter
There's where Skyland begins.
Up where the skies are always bluer,
Up where friendship is a little truer-
There's where Skyland begins:
Up where a fresher breeze is blowing,
Up where is laughter in every stream
let flowing,
Up where is more of reaping than
sowing
There's where Skyland begins.
Up where the world is in making,
Up where fewer hearts despair with
aching
There's where Skyland begins:
Up where is more of singing and less
of signing.
Up where is more of giving and less
of buying,
Up where you make friends without
half trying
There's where Skyland begins.
Read these lines and see if you do
lot feel like vowing that you will for
ever be an optomist? See if you do
not feel and believe that day by day,
month by month and year by year., at
least this blue-skied part of our earth
is rolling onward and upward into the
light of liberty, equality and fratern1-
ty?Are we mountaineers not the big
brothers. of the world, hating no
other part of our country and no part
Of it hating, but rather loving US?
Are we not thankful, 5 that we have
the purest air to breathe, the cleanest
water to drink, the sweetest MOWERS,
the greenest grass, the most tender
foliage, the sublimest sunshine, the
ever twinkling stars, the most pleas
ing mountain scenery, known ;on
earth? These are the blessings from
theahan of OUR Creator, are We ap-
Ereciative of them and shall we be
satisfied with the good we have from
our maker, nothing doing, on our part,
or shall we feel called on to press on
to what is better?
Is there a single mOuntaineer to be
found, who is not thankful he lives in
the land of the Skies rather than in
Europe? That he was born in the
twentieth century rather than in the
tenth, or the second, or in the days of
Job, or Moses, or Abraham, or even
Adam himself?
These words are written reverently;
examine and see which period or pace
you would choose? Our teachers both
OF schools and churches must now
reckon, that we now do things, be-
cause they ought to be done, rather
than because, through gone-by despot-
ism and dogmatism they had to be
DONE, to keep us from the stakes and
stocks. We are no. longer bondmen
but free-men. The day Of Great
Rul6rS mas VdulSu0u, Willie Will O01
ell men and all women rule them
Belves-let us do so wisely, gently,
prudently, soberly, righteously, look
ing for what is better, not millen-
ium, nor a utopian dream, but a field
wherein we labor for that which is
good for all nations.
In this mountain country we are al
most, if not entirely free from doni-
nant ecclessiasticism, and being so,
let us strive for higher and more
real religian and Christianity, one in.
which men and women as never be-
fore, will strive to be more just, more
humble, more loyal, and with hearts
more completely filled with love and
sympathy than has ever yet been
known. To citizen of such
a country as we have, call on every
soul of whatever rank or standing, to
live up to the high calling and noae
of us should be satisfied with less than
doing our full part in bringing it