Evening Republican, Volume 59, Number 115, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 June 1917 — In the Southern Highlands [ARTICLE]

In the Southern Highlands

By HARRY BARNET

(From Dixie Highway.) The most unique and weird rambling ground for automobile tourists on the continent is outlined by ' proceeding north on the east leg of the Dixie highway from Chattanooga to the vicinity of Lexington Ky thence over a sunset course to the west leg’ and’ south along the latter route to the point of beginning* These boundaries Inclose an irregular area as large as a minor European principality. Dropping deep into the heart of this region th* tourist comes upon a curious wonderland. The scenery Is as beautiful as any in the worid. It ts made up of a mass of mountains, in places covered with dense and virgin forests, carpeted with an astonishing flora, through which meander new country roads, and fantastic by-ways in the course of feverish construction. There are cliffs beside which a family of skyscrapers would appear as ambitious bowlders, and fields of mutoirocks, lying helter-skelter as would the discarded blocks of some prehistoric giant child grown tired at play. Over them Mother Nature has splashed her most brilliant colors. Here and there are the homes of the mountain folk. Some are mere cabins; others more pretentious structures; but all are constructed of native materials which grow gracefully picturesque with '“ 8 These highlanders are the people of a more or less truthful fiction. Going about their every-day affairs they present the pleasing spectacle of livmcnagesfrom the books. backgrounded by the supremein nature They are a kindly set, with outcrops of qawmfnon beliefs. Among th^J u* oTfiryoung - jnsTMa men and women. who boast of eighty; and ninety “ears as their age. yet appear to be just cleverly started upon their journey into that realm beyond Se half-century mark. These old people not only attest the healthfulness of their environment but are human documents of an order to be found notourist finds more that is new and Inspiring in tois region than in any other section to which he might turn. There comes the thrill which the .Storer feels when he views scenes that are sSnee to ordinary human eyes. The spell of the SXJ everywhere, tor the heart of this lr- • w>on,n ' " h 0 microUms ™ Into

pled for a while, then passed from this section. There are what looks like traces of Roman legions and of the Jews, or tho Roman conquerors of the Jews. What they did history does not tell us. There are to be found occasional hollow-tree-trunk caskets inclosing mummied remains wrapped about in mattings of, strange weave. Once in a while a cave gives up Its dead. In one, three mummied bodies were found. They were seated in Individual pyramidal baskets, placed far back in the cave, which was paved with brick fashioned by ancient workmen. The mummied carcass of a dog was found in another cave not far away. In life the animal resembled somewhat our present shepherd dog, except that a heavy mane grew from base to tip on the underside of Its tall. There pass before the eyes of the tourist a panorama of civilization. Along the railroad Is the civilization we view from the train windows. Farther back In succession the tourist passes into that of the seventeenth century and beyond, while in few instances primitive people live in caves and beneath overhanging ledges of cliffs. The latter are remarkably rare. But in whatever state one finds human beings in this region written history is scanty. History of our own times is being made and recorded in unusual manner. This whole section is one of the richest spots the nation has in actual and potential resources. They are being rapidly developed. —For instance, the to wnofSt earns, Ky., -Is one of the most curious communities In the United States It is a mining and timber town. All towns elsewhera en^»Tn 'tb^’^hfeTmlWries parently laid out after the same general unattractive pattern. 1 Stearns Is about fifteen years olid. In atmosphere it offers a bit of the Latin Quarter. In that It Isi the resort of artists of national prominence. They make their headquarters In Stearns while painting the mountain types and scenery. Ugliness and work are separated In this remarkable town. Service Is there, but it Is made less crude by preservation of the beauty spots. The homes are not arranged in disorderly rows, but are scattered about in the forest, and painted to blend with the varying natural tints surrounding them. There are no social distinctions so long as men and women conduct themselves somewhere

near the standards imposed by society for Its own preservation. Stearns is, perhaps, the only town in the United States founded and maintained upon the thirtieth chapter of Genests. When the town was founded the labor of the mountains was primitive and inefficient. Native independence prevented any application of the doctrine/of “Do” and “Don’t." Suggestion remained as the only course in the training of efficient labor for the mines and woods, and the laws of suggestion have been followed until they have made of the town a center of social scientific experimentation. Near Jamestown, Tenn., the tourist can trail, 11 he'likes, the ghost of “Old Squire Hawkins” returned, we can Imagine, and wandering happily among the very things he predicted would come to pass upon his “75.000 acres,” as detailed by Mark Twain in the opening chapter of “The Gilded Age." The most striking about such a ramble is the contrast between reputation and character. The scene of that first chapter of “The Gilded Age” is laid In the “Tennessee Lands,” which he- _ longed to the father of Mark Twain. Of them he ■ said they “had a reputation like Nazareth, as-far ns Turning out anything—good was concerned.”" These lands are turning out many a good thing, apples, for one, superior to those of any other section of the United States. In* any part of this region making up the heart of the irregular Inclosure, the tourist Is bound to come across the folklore of the hills, decidedly parallel to that or the old Scottish highlands, and find that all romance Is not canned in the movie dramas.. .. It offers unusual sport to the fisherman; a rare field to the photographer; and for the delight of the material minded, flocks of gnats and their families are clearing the undergrowth for the com- 1 Ing of cattle. The goats are a welcome sight They mean the saving to this country of something like $"5,000,000 annually- sent abroad tor gnat skins, besides the help the flesh of the goats affords In relieving a rather tense meat shortage. Road building is going on with that intensity which follows a long period of inactivity. Until recently the mountaineers have been content to follow mere trails, and mule paths at times, but -the wave of development which has come among them from tpe outside has stimulated them to build roads that compare with any. _ ,L -