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


changed and the people have changed.
Pocahontas is no longer the quiet,
inaccessible, restful spot it used to
be. The great industrial army which
has remade our entire country, has
invaded the seclusion of old Pcca-
hcntas and wrought his transforma-
ton. Railroads have been construct
ed a,cng her beautiful valleys, and
have even scaled her lofty hills.
Towns and factories now abound
where not many years ago we pitched
our fishing and hunting camps in the
heart of the wood 1t is like diff
ferent country, and almost like
strange land to those of Us who have
seen absent for generation.
If space would permit / might
write at length of these industrial
developments, and might give some
inside history of some OF the things
that have transpred, for it has not
been my fortune to have had more
or less to do with what has happened.
All these things are however of such
recent occurrence that they require
little more than passing comment,
Whether these changes have all
been for the better it is hard to say.
ann not sufficiently familiar with
present conditions in my native coun-
ty. to venture an opinion. UnfoEtu-
nateIy for me the opportunities to go
back to the old home have not been
frequent. in recent years, and / am
thereby the loser. I want to say in
all seriousness there Is no place in
all the world so dear to me today as
the place of my birth, and no friends
for whom l have quite the same affec-
Tomato regard as the friends Of my
youth. There is not hill nor
valley along the Greenbrier river or
any of its tributaries that / do not
love; not a man, woman or child
born within the limits of the County
of Pocahontas for whom 1 do. not
have some sort of a feeling Of kin
ship.
Fortune has led me into many
parts of our great country and have
formed in these many years of wan
dering a wide acquaintance; but TAX
| ing them all in all, measured by the
( true qualities of citizenship, I have
never known a better people than
the neighbors of my boyhood days.
They knew less of the world perhaps
than some others, but they knew as
much of life and it's true intent.
They had less opportunity to perfect
themselves in the so-called accom-
plishments of life, but in the uninter-
rupted repose of their simpler exist
ence they had more time for serious
meditation and more time for the
development of conviction and char
aeter. They were not able to aston
ish the world by the magntfcence OF
their public benefactions, but they
| were unexcelled in their generous
hospitality. They were less preten-
lions and prehaps less tutored in the
formal civiliIies of superficial life
than some, but the unselfishness and
virtue Of their women, the integrity
and courageous energy OF their men,
and the human sympathies Of all
were equal to the best. The world
would be infinitely better IL there
were more people in it like the peo-
pie used to know in Pocahontas.
The feeling I have for the dear
old County itself may best be ex-
pressed by slightly raraphrasing a
few lines from Robert w. Seryise,
who in descriptive reference to the
wonderful country IL the Yukon.
says:
There's the land! Have you seen It?
It's the blessedest land that I
know,
From the big, dizzy mountains that
screen 1t
To the deep, death-like valleys
below.
Some say God was tired when he
made it;
+ Some say IT'S good land to shun:
May be; but there's some that would
trade 1t
For no land on earth, and I'm
one."