Newspaper Page Text
The Henry County Weekly
VOL. XXXV
A JOURNEY TO THE MOUN
TAINS OF NORTH GEORGIA.
Three Bicyclists Have a De
lightful Trip.
To The Henry County Weekly.
While the wheels of The Weekly
press were still turning, we left
home at 2:55 o’clock Thursday
afternoon, the Ist of July.
There were three of us, namely:
Messrs. Will Atkinson, Fred Var
ner, and I, and our destination
was Nacoochee Valley, among the
North Georgia mountains, where
we expected our trusty bicycles to
carry us by Saturday night.
Lithonia was the first town we
reached, a distance of twenty
miles. When we had rested a
few minutes, it was six o’clock
and we decided to ride on toward
Lawrenceville until night should
overtake us, and then spend the
night at some farm house.
We adopted the precaution,
however, of obtaining a supply of
eatables before leaving Lithonia.
* On such a journey as this a per
son encounters very much human
nature; especially is he impressed
with the truth of the saying, “to
err is human,” when he begins to
inquire the way.
We had ridden about eight miles
when dark was almost upon us.
We halted at a house and inquired
the road to Lawrenceville and in
timated that we were desirous of
resting our wearied limbs for the
night.
The gentleman of the house
gave us the wrong road (as we
afterwards learned), and received
our overtures as to spending the
night so roughly that we deter
mined on the to ask no more
for a place to spend the night, but
to ride on to Lawrenceville in the
night.
At the next well we halted,
lighted a bicycle lamp and ate our
“frugal” supper by its light.
It was a long ride —and walk,
up the hills—back into the right
road and then on through Center
ville to Lawrenceville.
With the light, I led the way,
until the light failed and then Will
would relieve me for a time.
A large foot log over a swift
stream was crossed without acci
dent, thanks to the lamp’s bright
rays.
Moonlight almost like daylight
aided us, but it seemed that bark
ing dogs by the hundreds were
constantly at our heels.
A few r minutes past twelve
found us at the Lawrenceville
hotel, where we soon slept soundly.
We enjoyed an early and excel
lent breakfast at Lawrenceville,
but lost an hour having a very
deliberate workman place a new
inner tube in one of Fred’s tires.
It w r as 9:15 o’clock ere we wheeled
away for Gainesville.
The day was very hot, the road
was white and very sandy. In
consequence our stops for rest,
water, etc., averaged one every
mile for the thirty miles to Gaines
ville, where we dismounted at
three o’clock Friday afternoon.
At Gainesville we spent two
hours, dining at a restaurant, re
pairing some leaks in Fred’s other
tire, and reading the newspapers.
At 5 o’clock we started for
Clarkesville, thirty-five miles dis
tant.
McDonough, Georgia, Friday august 5 1910.
Mr. and Mrs. Ray Brown Go To
South Georgia.
McDonough regretfully loses
Mr. and Mrs. 0. R. Brown, who
left the latter part of this week
for Willacoochee.
Both these young people are
well liked by numerous friends
among whom they have lived for
many years: and their going away
is quite a loss to our city, but the
good wishes of all their friends go
with them into the regions of sand
and prosperity and hope that they
may reap plenty of the latter.
Mr. Browm, who for many years
has been a highly valued and
faithful salesman for the Copeland
Turner Mercantile Company, will
forsake the counter in this remov
al and try his hand at warehous
ing.
The first four miles out of
Gainesville, after the limits of the
town are passed, is all down hill
and we had a delightful ride, hav
ing nothing to do but to use our
brakes.
At the foot of this long descent
we crossed the Chattahoochee for
the first time on this journey.
Then we had two or three miles
up hill, then very fin roads for
some ten miles.
We covered fourteen miles in
two hours and then all three felt
that we had ridden enough for the
day.
By making an inquiry or two,
we learned of a Mr. Miller, w r ho
lived directly on our n ad and was
in the habit of “taking people in.”
We were fortunate in lodging
at Mr. Miller’s. A pleasant sur
prise was ours to find that here,
fourteen miles from a railroad,
were electric lights and water
works in the home.
Mr. Miller generates his elec
tricity with a gasolene engine and
dynamo.
In this community, called Con
cord, there are many beautiful
country homes. As they have
hardly any negroes at all, it is a
most excellent section in which to
live. They have a school building
large enough for three or four
hundred students and good roads,
and lands sell, when they can be
bought at all, at froVn $120.00 to
$150.00 per acre.
*The young men et the commu
nity have a cornet band of thir
teen pieces; so that the people do
not have to go to town for their
amusements.
Our host of the night is a man
of many enterprises. He manu
factures fertilizers on-his farm for
tho community and is now install
ing another plant at Lula. He
owns business property in Gaines
ville and is Vice President of the
wholesale hardware company
there.
And, in all the work about the
barn, with many cows, horses,
etc., and in and about the house,
we did not see a single servant.
The family did all the work.
The next morning, as we made
an early start after an early break
fast, and rode along in the midst
of sweet odors of the dewy corn
and cotton, we thought that Con
cord was indeed the proper name
for such a community of peace
and plenty.
We pedaled the twenty miles to
Clarkesville by eleven o’clock and
dined at a hotel there. Riding
the remining twelve miles, we
Meeting et Philadelphia.
At Philadelphia Methodist
church Saturday morning August
the sixth, the annual protracted
meeting will begin conducted by
the pastor, Rev. W. D. Debnrdle
be.n assisted by Rev. J. S. Strick
land of Atlanta, Ga. The song
service, a feature of the meeting,
will be conducted by Mr. Emmett
Daniel. Everybody cordially invi
ted.
wheeled into beautiful Nacoochee
Valley at five o’clock Saturday
afternoon.
The cyclometer showed that we
had ridden and pushed our wheels
one hundred and nineteen miles
since leaving McDonough, and it
was a very satisfactory trip,
though we were very tired and
sore.
And this vale of, beauty and
loveliness into which we came —
what can I say of it! It is not to
be described in words. Only let
me say that, entering here again,
we feel that again is to be realized
the long-sought feeling dt i est, as
it can be felt nowhere else, bv a
sympathetic poet of many years
ago so sweetly sung:
“Child of the Chattahoochee!
Hid in the hills afar!
Beautiful Nacoochee,
Vale of the Evening Star.
Hushed in the Mountain shadows,
With the May dew on her breast;
Her breath is the breath of mead
ows,
And her very name sighs ‘rest!’
The voice of a loved one calling
The feet that have wandered far;
Come, for the night is falling!
Rest! with the Evening Star.”
Nacoochee is the name given
by the Indians to this charming
valley, and it means Evening Star;
and the Chattahoochee river,which
waters the hills and valleys, lights
the homes and quenches the thirst
and drives the cars in the cities,
here threads its golden way
through the seven miles of the
valley, after it leaps from its moun
tain birth place.
Our hotel occupies the 'most
prominent and delightful situation
in the whole region. It crowns a
high hill overlooking the junction
of Nacoochee and Sautee Val
leys, the latter being watered by
the creek of the same name.
0
All around us tower the moun
tains of every height. To the
east, across Sautee Valley, rises
Lynch Mountain, requiring but a
half day’s trip to climb it and re
turn. Surmounting its top is a
sixty foot observatory.
Southward, lie Salle and Yonah;
the former yielding asbestos from
its sides at several mines, and the
latter crowned with romantic love
legends of the departed Indians.
Northward, some eighteen miles
away, looms old Tray, the highest
peak in Georgia.
Many beautiful streams dash
foom these mountains, often at a
single leap; and so falls of many
feet abound and add to the beauty
of the region.
Parties from the Valley visit all
these places.
But time and space forbid my
speaking further of the beauties
of this far-famed country.
All who once come here, long
each summer to return and “rest
with the Evening Star.”
Yours very truly,
Frank Reagan.
A MODEL FARMER.
The model farmer is the one
who makes his farm selfsustain
ing, or as nearly so as climatic and
local conditions will allow.
That Henry county has many of
this class I have small room for
doubt, as their farms present a
general appearance of thrift.
Among the best of all classes of
farmers one is prone to stand out
prominently above his fellows,
and such an one serves the best
purpose for illustration of excel
lent qualities. While it is my
purpose to use a young man as
an exemplar for raising the stand
ard of bucolic endeavor, I trust
that in making a few enconiums
on his worthy endeavors this will
not cause him embarrassment or
blnshes.
Young man, did I designate
him? Right you are. He has
neither wife nor children. Evil
report flees his reputation as the
bats and owds retire before the
crepuscular shadows. He has no
hankering for sacerdotal robes,
yer the sons of Levi from him
might learn many salutary les
sons both in morals and an up
right walk before God and men.
Do yo recognize the picture?
No? It resembles the original as
one catbird does another. But
for fear that you mistake my
model for one of the many other
godfearing, snake-killing young
saints who adorn society and are
veritable caryatids of the church,
gentle reader, shake hands with
my friend, Mr. John B. Lowe, “a
native to the manor born.”
Twenty-five years ago he pur
chased some rock-crested hills,
gashed with fine specimens of
Georgia gullies, a mile, or so from
McDonough: This tract embraces
something like two hundred acres
of land, generously watered by a
number of spring branches.
Under the magic touch of this
true disciple of old Cincinatus,
the farm is now a metamorphosis
of its former wild, wooly self.
The rocky crests have disap
peared, gullies filled, and in their
stead the symetrical lines of ter
races adorn and preserve these
beautiful, undulating hills.
In the old days, under a differ
ent regime, these lands produced
500 pounds of seed cotton per
acre, 10 bushels of corn and 9
barrels of maypops per acre were
considered a bully yield. Wheat,
oats, and sorghum were consid
ered a difficult proposition, hence
but little effort was made to pro
duce them.
Under the new dispensation
we find many changes. It is now
a dairy farm. • A hundred head of
fine, graded cattle graze upon, the
luxuriant bermuda pastures. Fif
ty fine milch cows are milked,
and the products fetch S4O a day.
Fine strains of fowls and hogs
are kept for market purposes and
are sold on the local markets for
fine prices.
A beautiful artificial lake snug
gles amid the hills, surrounded
by large, umbrageous oaks. The
The water is stocked with the
best varieties of fishes. The
grove and lake make a fine pleas
ure resort for Mr. Lowe and his
many friends who frequently re
pair to this sylvan retreat to en
joy a quiet picnic occasion.
In a foregoing paragraph I un
dertook to show the poor quality
PAGES
Mr. Shields Moves to Atlanta.
Monday morning Mr. C. M.
Shields, proprietor of the McDon
ough Hotel, moved with his fam
ily ta Atlanta, where he will con
tinue in the hotel business.
Mr. Shields has been here for a
number of years and was quite
successful in his work and has
many friends in the town and
among the traveling men who
pass this way who wall miss him
and his excellent family.
Mr. and Mrs. Charlie Moseley
will welcome the men and women
who seek a temporary home at
the McDonough Hotel in the fu
ture.
of crops growm on the farm be
fore Mr. Low began operating it,
and, as might have been expected,
I would rndeavor to demonstrate
the difference of yield under his
management, but I omitted this to
first demonstrate how it was pos
sible that he could make good
crops by the use of hundreds of
tons of barn yard manure de
rived from dairy cattle.
The manure from his herd is
carefully housed, and subsequent
ly spread upon the land. He has
twenty-five or thirty acres of corn
that will make 75 bushels per
acre. It gives an erroneous idea
to say it will make 75 bushels per
acre —it is made. It would make
the corn raisers of the north west
open their eyes to see waat Geor
gia land can do under favorable
conditions. This clearly demon
strates the folly of buying corn
when it can be made at home
cheaper than it can be bought
from western producers.
Cotton, why, man alive! he
makes from a bale to a bale and a
half per acre without spitting on
his hands. He has acres upon
acres of the royal weed that is
fed upon barn yard manure that
promises today (August Ist) a
bale and a half per acre.
Mr. Lowe paid $lO per acre for
this land, and today $75 per acre
could not purchase it.
Remember, Mr. Farmer, there
is more in the man than there is
in the land.
CHAS. M. SPEER.
List of Letters.
Rcnuiining Undelivered Fora i'he Post
Office at McDonough, Ga , For the
Period Ending Aug. 1, 1910.
S. E. Dailey, P. M.
Misses: Bertha Ethel Walker,
Mesdames Belle Stephens, Messrs.
Thomas Clark, J. C. Day, J. W.
Shurley.
Hen. 0. H. B. Bloodworth's Ap
pointments.
Hon. 0. H, B. Bloodworth, Can
didate for Congress, will speak at
the following places at the time
indicated;
At Hampton, Monday night, Au
gust 8, at 7.30.
At Stockbridge, Wednesday
morning, August 10, at 10 o’clock.
WANTED —One male teacher
for Progress Literary School.
Salary will be made satisfactory,
over and above county, if re
quired. Apply to
J. W. Foster, Trustee,
Rt. 3, Stockbridge, Ga.
FOR SALE —In Locust Grove,
8 room house and lot, splendid lo
cation. Terms reasonable.
Lock Box 109,
8-26 Locust Grove, Ga.
,$i A Year.