Greenbrier independent. [volume] (Lewisburg, Va. [W. Va.]) 1859-1980, 1916-07-21

! ty, ana because nc was from FOCo'
hoItas and bore an honored Pocahon-
tas name, he was extended a credit
so far beyond his deserts that certain
rich men are still wondering how ii
happened.
It was a great road that joined the
two counties. Within a mile after
leaving the railroad, the returning
wanderers topped the hill that
brought him to the Big Levels and
far away to the north, could be seen
the bold headland of Droop noun
tain, and the long top that marked
the confines of Focahontas county,
I'd mile after mile this great noun
tain remained in sight, gNadually
coming closer ard closer. The way
lay through country of magnificent
farms and by palatial homes, but the
Pocahontas man regarded them with
the greatest complaisance for he
knew that a better land lay beyond
the mountain.
l have often thought that it must
have been a great sight and an un-
expected one to a stranger travelling
the old road when he came in sight
of the levels of Pocahontas from the
Battlefield on the northern brow of
"oop mountain. For miles he had
left the broad and fertile fields of
Greenbr;er behind him, and travelled
through a narrow valley, and over a
wooded mountain. Then without a
moments warning the levels of Poca-
hortas broke upon his view. There
is no finer country on the face of the
great earth, and it has been properly
staged. ,
'Then felt like some watcher of the
skies
When a new planet swims into his
ken;
Or like stout Cortez when, with eagle
eyes,
He stared at the Pacifc-and all his
men
Looked at each other with a wild
surmise-
Silent, upon a peak in Darien."
1 think that it was the conscious
ness of our rich county that enabled
us to bear up against the pomp and
of the great county OF
in the days when we
were shut in. We felt that we could
take those people up into high
and show them things that
they had never dreamed of.
In those days when Pocahontas
county was about right and we didn't
know it, but were reaching out for
railroads and such activities, that it
was the custom of the country to pass
teh time of day with friend and,
stranger alike. In fa9t, it was con-
sidered a courtesy to stop perfect
stranger in the road and engage him
in conversation and take a friendly
interest in him and his affairs, and
there was no estate in the county,
where a stranger could not ride to,
and dismont and spend the highland
ever after that stranger and the fami-
" that he had visited were firm and
lifelong friends. He had eaten their
bread and salt, and he was strange
10 longer. l remember, one time, in
tbs bayfield, where we were eating a
lunch, the talk drifted around to the
subject of the custom of saluting
each man that you met, and one
mans mind went wide and he spoke
of places where men passed each
other unseeing and without speaking.
He said that in Lewisburg a man
might go along the streets there from
one end of the town to the other and
meet any number of men and none
of them would speak. Then an old
Solomon, grey headed and wise,
spoke up and said: 81 have been in
Lewisburg and there the big men
speak to you but the little men do
not" 1 have thought about that
thing a thousand times since, and 1
believe that that is about the way of
it.
The people of the Greenbrier
Valley are in measure isolated from
the other portions of the Virginias.
That is made evident when the
action of the first convention was
held looking to the formation of a
new state on the Western Waters. 1t
was provided that Greanbrier and
Pocahontas should be allowed to
come into Che new state If they
chose. There has recently been a
I.