Watauga Democrat. [volume] (Boone, Watauga County, N.C.) 1888-current, 1928-10-11
Many Local Citizens
Hear Hoover Speak

conceivable means Oh conveyance
last Saturday to hear the speech
there of Herbert Hoover.
Boone and Blowing Rock probably
had the biggest representation OF
Tar Heels there, for people from this
county started on the roads early
Saturday morning, and both of the
special trains, one of them with
fourteen cars, were loaded to ca
pacity. One hundred and seventy
six boarded the train at Boone for
the Tennessee city and others were
picked up at intervening points. Ac-
cording to the registers at the ho-
tells in Elizabethton, North Caro-
lima had the largest delegation of all
states except Tennessee
On their arrival at the Lynwood
hotel, headquarters of the celebra-
ton, each Tar Heel was given a
badge, and soon these badges were
to be seen throughout the great
throng of $4,000 or more people
who crowded the town for the
speaking and for the industrial cele-
bration.
The North Carolina delegation
was given place of honor both at the
reception to Mr.. Hoover at Lynwood
hotel and at the speaking later in
the afternoon. Also, large number
from this state, under the leadership
Of Mrs kennan, national commit
teewoman, attended the Republican
reception in johnson City Saturday
night. DR.. B. B. Dougherty, presi-
dent of the Appalachian State Nor
NAL, was an invited guest at the
banquet given in Mr.. Hoover's hon
or at the John Sewer hotel, John
son City.
Large delegations attended from
Watauga, Ashe, Wilkes, Avery,
Mitchell and Caldwell counties. as
well as many individual parties from
Charlotte, Winston-Salem, Green's
boro and many other towns of the
Piedmont and eastern sections Of the
state.
Threatening weather and occa-
sional showers failed to thin the
crowd that was packed around the
headquarters as Mr. Hoover was eX-
pected. All the whistles in the town
broke loose when word was passed
that the candidate had arrived, and
soon more definite announcement
Of his presence was heralded in the
form of rousing cheers that followed
the course of his automobile like a
wave of water until he entered the
hotel
Never was a college football game
more picturesque than the scene at
the national amphitheater where the
candidate spoke. AS Uncle ALI Tay-
lor rose to introduce the candidate,
cheers rose from every corner Of
the great field on which the 50,-
600 were gathered from the noun
tainside covered with mass Of peo-
pie like football stadium.
As Uncle Alf finished and yield
ed the stage to Mr.. Hoover, a demon
stration that lasted full five min
utes before Mr.. Hoover could make
himself heard broke from the enor-
nous crowd, while colorful Hoover
pennants, Hoover hats, Hoover
streamers and Hoover hatbands
waved in the air, while some enthu-
siasts threw their hats and other
raiment into the air and had diff
Guilty in retrieving them.
Throughout the speaking, while a
half dozen cinema machines clicked,
while the telegraph instruments in
stalled by the news services ratified
incesantly, Mr.. Hoover was repeat
edly cheered as his booming voice
was carried to the farthest corner
of the field by the elaborate system
of amplifiers above his head.
The enormous crowd and its en-
thusiasm attested to the political
strategy of Hoover's managers in
selecting this place, the center of
the south's most consistently Repub-
lican district as the scene for Mr.,
Hoover's speech. Nowhere else in
the south could the candidate have
been assured of such a large and
jealous gathering.