58 SUNSHINE AND SPORT IN 



from alternate windows the invariable breathless 

 fascination of mountain gradients, with the train 

 doublinof on its tracks and revealino; at once the 

 hindmost car swinging after the rest and the 

 puffing locomotive rounding a new curve in front. 

 The winding Alpine track was visible at half a 

 dozen points above and below, and the train panted 

 bravely towards the clouds, plunging every few 

 minutes into the blackness of tunnels, only to 

 emerge on a yet more beautiful scene than that 

 so abruptly hidden a moment earlier. Such effects 

 I had known in three other continents — in white 

 memories of Switzerland, in Australia's Blue 

 Mountains, in the highlands of Java, but nowhere, 

 I think, to surpass the pictures on either side as 

 the train went groaning under its brakes back to 

 the drainage area of the bubbling Swannanoa 

 where it runs past Asheville. 



That comely health resort which, perched two 

 thousand feet nearer heaven than New York, 

 recalls at once Buxton, Bournemouth and Torquay, 

 has a deserved reputation for patients in the 

 earlier stages of consumption. Spending a day 

 at Asheville, I walked through part of Mr 

 Vanderbilt's Biltmore estate, which is run on a 

 system at once feudal and benevolent, and a 

 little out of drawing, perhaps, on the Republican 

 canvas of his fatherland, and I admired less his 

 palatial residence than the blaze of rhododendrons 

 and other flowers which ran riot over his broad 

 acres. I was told of a curious little enclave, 

 held by a negro cab-driver with no very clear 

 title to his property- — another relic of Abolition. 

 I also visited the horse show, held in a meadow 



