Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1915-12-17
NORTON WRITER RECALLS
DAYS OF CHEAP CATTLE
Approaching Holiday Season Puts
Correspondent IN Reminiscent
Mocd-"Loose Your Boat
An Come on Home"


Christmas tide steals gently upon us;
we who have passed the meridian cf
our day drift naturally toward the
scenes of the years that are gone
With the passing OF the old and the
coming of the new it places us in fun
view of the re,rospection and pros
pcction, time for recalling the as
sociations of those with whom we
enjoyed the holiday seasons of other
years-a time of sweet, sad memo
sies, yet, with renwed hope, and aspi-
rntions we turn 10 the new with car
nest endeavor for Improvement. Nhen
Jacob was before Pharaoh in Egyot.
Pharoah asted him how old he was
The cd patriarch answered: Ih,
days of the years of my pilgrimage
is an hundred and thirty years. Few
and evil have been the days Of my
pilgrimage" Thus it is with the most
OF us. do the lest we can.
While casting about for a surres-
tion for the future the thought of II
great big celebration of the one hum
drcdth anniversary of Tazewcl coun-
ty came up. Some of the old towns of
the south are making preparation for
such an important event. How old is
TaZewcil? One hundred, maybe more
we cannot quite remember. Anyway.
an Industrial and social affair of the
~lnd could be gotten up and carried
through by the Tazewell people with
great "cclat," whatever that mems
One thing is certain, no county in the
entire south has gone forward with
such splendid leaps as has Tazcwcll.
Look mt the vast Improvement of her
s!oping hills and fertile valleys and
rich mountain sides, all covered with
The finest bluegrass produced in the
entire world. These lands are worth
today from $50 to 5000 per acre.
rhirty or forty years ago, the writer
can recall n number OF sales 1T sos to
$50 per acre. Then great drovcs of
two-ycar old cattle were driven out
OF our county every fall. They We're
perhaps, half and half, "good blood"
and "scrub." They brought $50, $50
and perhaps $40 per head Cattle i'm
those days were bought up by Thomas
Jefferson Higginbothnm, of Liberty
I'M, who was type Of the stately
old Virginia gentleman" Hans
barger was another buyer, also Dob
bins, of Pulaski county. Their COM
ing each autumn was looked to MS n
sort OF salvation. financially speak
ing" The old time steer, rather
"lanky," could do some things that
would make big, fat lazy, "export
CT" look like thirty cents. Could out
run an East Virginia "pinc- brush"
razor back hog when thoroughly
"skcered" up, and from the hllsides
and mountain tops with his silver
bugle throat could below "Bonnie
Eloise" to finish. Yes, sir, he would
make an export steer feel like getting
out of the way and let somebody bel
low what could below.
1t was once said that the meat pnck
ers used every particle of the animal
for something, except the bawl of the
steer and the squeal of the pig, but
since the introduction of the graph
ophone they have made it clean
sweep and now entertain great au-
diences with the music of Glowing
herds" and squealing pigs.
All, Mr.. GRAPHIC man, you don't
what you have missed. If you could
only get the buglc notes of the old
time Tazcwel steer as they echoed
and re-echoed far down the valley
against tn hills you'd dream dreams
Of avarice you never dreamed before.
| sometimes think if there is a "cow
heaven" where the cattle roam a
thousand hills eternal, / would like
to have the celestial herds assemble
all the old time Tazewell steers and
turn 'em loose on Bonne Eloise or a
moo-el-o-isc march, that would be
heaven for me for while anyway.
The Good book tells us that i'm that
land our youth shall be renewed. Such
music, think, would help renew mine.
1t would make me "barc-foot boy
again" back on the bluegrass hills of
dear old native Tazewell.
But am drifting far a-iieid, even
in the "Empyrcan" fields, pictured 50
eloquently by brother J. A. ii. Shu!er.
Getting back to "terra firma" the
show, the big show, would be great
for Tazeweli. Hope you editor will
think about it. The progress of educa-
ton and Sunday Schools would show
up wonderfully in the demonstration.
Taking advancement along all lines.
Tazewell county cannot be exceIIed in
the State.
1t would be a homecoming time
right" AS uncle Rome" the old
time darkey said,
"Tm gwine home,
Sweet voices callin'
Seem ringin' in my ears;
An, swearin' sorter siciable,
or masters voice hears"
DE way nc used to call his boat
Across de river Rome,
You damn OF niger come an bring
Dat Boat an row me homew
Hes passed dc river now, an soon