The Wilmington morning star., 1940-05-26
Editorial Comments
From Other Anq|es
JENNY LIND IN NORTH CAROLINA
By c. G.ROSENBERG, 1851
From Files of Raleigh News and Observer

From Files of Raleigh News and Observer
On the noon of Saturday, Mademoiselle Lind
quilted this city on her route to Charleston. She
could not, however, leave it without stamping
herself upon its memory somewhat more tan
gibly than is usually done by a concert-singer,
and scarcely had she departed when it became
known that she had in the morning deposited
$1,000 in the Farmers Bank, at richmond to the
credit of three of its principal charitable insti.
buttons.
The railway to Wilmington bears the reputa-
tion,-at least as I now heard, it did so-of be-
ing one of the very worst, if not the worse, in
the United States. 1t had, however, recently
been newly laid, and, save for a short distance
on which the old timbers of the road were plain
ly enough to be felt, struck me as being remark
ably easy. l am nevertheless unable to say as
much for the cars, which were certainly more
like remnants stolen from the last century than
the cars which are used in the more northern
part of the States. AS far as Weldon, however,
we had a new car provided for our party, which
approximated considerably more to the style
OF conveyance in vogue among the more highly
civilized. Here also a hint was administered to
us at the supper table which must have gone
for to convince us of the possible troubles of
our after-journey to Charleston. The room ar
ranged for this meal was not large, and there
were about a hundred travellers, more or less,
who entered it. Scarcely were these seated than
a horde of strangers-well-dressed ladies, with
or without their onnets-gentleme in every
description of habiliment, and even boys and
girls crowded into the room, and pressed down
the paths between the tables to the end of that
one where Jenny was sitting. One Pertinacious
and ill-bred, and slightly colored, with a bush
be it observed,) but remarkably pretty woman,
dressed in mourning, raised her eye glass to her
brow, and standing at about three feet distance,
and exactly opposite the place where the fair
Swede was sitting, contemplated every mouth
full which was eaten by her. What could have
been the purpose Of her examination, it would
of course be useless to attempt OWNING. Let it
be sufficient that Mademoiselle Lind possessed
considerably more modesty, or suffered more
from bashfulness, than her pertinacious ad-
mirer, and disappeared in a few minutes, so un-
comfortable had she been rendered by this un-
ceasing examination. The hall Immediately clear
ed after her. The Star had set, and it was as if
an eclipse had fallen over the half of heaven,
during which the variety of feeding animals, in
Guiding musicians, treasurers, secretaries, ticket
sellers, and outsiders, went to work and term
mated their supper, alone and unassisted by the
usual attendants, who, forgetting our necessi-
ties, had followed on the heels of the marvel Of
the hour.
After again repairing to the train we were
slowed away in a species Of caravanserai. This
was a huge and comfortless box with shelves
for bedsteads, something like the cabin of a
Dutch sloop, and considerably more resembling
a gigantic clothespress, between which two re-
semblances, I, retiring, leave it to settle its own
battle.
During the remainder of the night and the
early morning, we swept through dense sections
of forest, broken by the hut of an occasional
squatter or a wood-cutter's temporary dwelling
place. Nothing could well have been more mono
tonous than these long rows of trees, divided
by the direct and unvarying rail, and many of
them scarcely stripped of their leaves by the
winter, as we ratified h~urrieGly past them, trac-
ing as we did so, the light Of the broad round
moon through the half-bare branches, or catch
ing the glimmering flash of a fire, burning in a
cleared spot of earth, before the dwelling place
of one of the tenants of the woods. Once the
train stopped-this must have been about two
o'clock, A. M; it suffered two passengers to
alight. Not a shanty of the commonest kind
was to be seen, nor in the moonlight clear and
brilliant as that was, was I able to discern a
path, The first who had descended from the train
was a stout, good-humored, rough looking fell
low. Save that he stood some six foot three
without his shoes, carried a rifle, and had a
fine hound with him, he might have safe to o.
tade as one of that painters Jovial Dutchmen.
The other was an old, but prodigious specimen
of we'll preserved strength. His shoulders might
well nigh have rivalled the proportions of the
Farnese Hercules, and as for his leg, judging it
through it's wrappings of deer-hide. 1 must own
that T should have relished anything rather than
a. kick from such a magnificent package of bone
and muscle. They had a parcel with them, but
let not any Of my readers suppose from the
mere word, that this was an ordinary parcel.
On the contrary it was a good-sized sack, and
seemed heavy. The first of the two swung ii
over his shoulders in spite Of it's weight, which
appeared at the moment as if it were nothing.
Then with a good night or good morning."
for I forget which it was, they strobe rapidly
away into the woods, in the direction where 1t
is to be presumed their dwelling might have
been found.