Evening capital and Maryland gazette. (Annapolis, Md.) 1910-1922, 1917-09-06
BEAUTIES OF THE
blue RIDGE MOUNTAINS
Their Traditions And People--In-
teresting Objects.
VERY FEW iIDLERS THERE
Echoes From The Mountain Businesses
Fountain Dale and Its
Tradition,

| SENSATION People, as everywhere,
are the most interesting of objects
here. The golden sunsets, the roar
| ing storm of the mountains, the
broad sweeps of endless forest, the
long meadows of luxuriant grass. the
commodious homes of the farmers,
the farms, the magnificent and
bursting barns Of the tillers of the
| soil, and the endless charm of the
| eternal hills are constant and re-
/ curing delights to mind and eye;
but the people who inhabit this
fiourishing section-the neighborhood
of Fountain Dale, half score miles
south of Pen Mar-give, when in con-
tact with them, the pleasure intensi-
| fed that comes from turning over
the pages of some virgin book of
/ fascinating delights
Few are the idlers here. There is
/ an intensity of earnestness about
daily duties and farm and domestic
occupations that accounts well for
the prosperity OF the neighborhood
Men rise at the dawn, perform
| heroic work before their first meal
of the day, and after it walk miles to
work. climb the mountains, labor in
| the quarry and return home appar-
emily as fresh as the lark, and after
| the evening repast finish up their
home chores before turning in their
early beds for the sleep of the just.
About two and half miles from
Fountain Dale is a mill where stone
taken from the quarry near at hand
is ground into powder and mixed
with asbestos and is made into roof
ing material Men walk or ride to it
daily, and thence home.
To the lowlander, used to the level
plain, a morning climb to the mill
would be a days work. With these
mountaineers it is only the getting
ready for the hours of labor. The
( bicycle and the motorcycle are in use
as well as the feet for men to go to
and from the mill. Yet there is left
out of the busy hands at the mill, the
storekeepers of the village, the
farmers, the school mistress, the
mail carrier of the route, the garage
keeper and the hunter.
A companion and ! invaded the
Businesses of the mountain and made
call upon one of the trappers of
the section We were received with
sincere hospitality. His face glowed
with enthusiasm as he talked of the
pleasures of the hunt, the capture
of the coon and the taking of fox.
OF this he had a most charming
specimen alive. He said, 1.-THE dogs
barked in | did not want to try to
dig him out, but he barked in right
near me- removed few rocks and
| there / saw the fox. ! got a stick and
pushed him to where / wanted him,
and then grabbed him." We were
| taken out to see reynard He was
quite young and of the silver grey
| specie. He was a most active, alert
and beautiful creature.
The hunter talked "coon talk" In
| his narration of the chase and the
habits of the raccoon, he said that
when the mother coon was freed
| with her young with her she would
leave them in the tree where they
would remain still, and would herself
/ descend and circle and circle around
the tree, take all the danger to her
self in the endeayor to make the dogs
get on her trail, and thus save her
brood. Here arose the issue-"Did
not the mother have some means of
communicating to her young?" For
on other occasions the young coons
would have cried after her.
The description of the capture Of
the skunk was graphically depicted.
when the dogs tree pole cat they
will never come near to it. The skunk
watches the dog and do not mind me.
/ watch and then go UP and seize the
pole cat by his long, bushy tail and
shove him in bag"
Echoes From The Mountains.
Rambles amongst the hills bring
more to the explorer than beautiful
scenery The flora and the fauna are
interesting and instructive and, some
times, the dumb rocks speak. In one
of these outings my companion and
| | found in the fastness of the eternal
hills a fine, commodious new house.
| The only tillable soil about it was a
garden. We concluded that it might
| be. or would be, fit only for recluse
or the summer resident 1t was in
habited. On the lowlands the enigma
was solved The builder of this neat
home in the hills was, when he erect
ed his catsle that gave the broad
! arena of hill, and vale, and mountain
to the eye of the spectator. was the
one-armed keeper of the tunnel of the
railroad a few hundred yards above
his home. He had been injured in
railroad explosion and had lost an
arm. He was given a position that
he could fill, and it seemed life-job,
that at the end of his stated term Of
service, would allow him to retire
on his well-earned railroad pension.
He built his home 1t was convenient
| to his work. In his zeal and enter
prise he walled up splendidly fine
mountain spring above his house,
piped it to his home, and had water
| on tap at his call Then came the
blow deadly. The owner of the house
| was nearing the time when he could
retire on his railroad pension and
enoy the rest of cid age. He was
suddenly discharged from the employ
ment of the railroad. 1t is a COM
mon belief amongst his neighbors
| that the corporation did it to get rid
of paying the approaching pension,