9o 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
FEB 8 
for my head which was in frequent danger 
of being torn off by the limbs of trees, and 
only by dextrous dodging and “ducking” 
did I escape the fate of Absalom. 
But when we had reached the top, what a 
sight lay outspread below and around us, 
for the low growth of vegetation on the 
top presented no obstacles to the view. It 
was panoramic, possibly 150 miles in every 
direction, everywhere mountain tops, blue, 
blue, and more faintly blue until, on the 
far horizon, only a faint outline could be 
discerned. There were valleys below in the 
nearer foreground in which the roads 
looked like slender ribbons and moving 
vehicles like ants. Showers were falling 
between ranges, and the sunlight and 
clouds were dancing over their neighbors. 
Our guide pointed out the Great Smokies 
in Tennessee, the Nautehalahs, the Bal¬ 
sams, the Fish Hawks. Whitesides, the 
Great Chimney Top. Rabun’s B id Moun¬ 
tains and towns in Georgia and South Cai'- 
olina : it seemed as if all creation layout- 
spread and we were on the top of the world ! 
I saw several “noted views” after that; but 
none of them ever impressed me as did that 
first view from Satulali. 
When next the laddie and I went up this 
mountain a shower overtook us when half¬ 
way up—and in this region it is impossible 
to forecast the weather as to showers. We 
sought shelter under an overhanging tree, 
and my horse, until the rain was over, 
stood as still as a statue. When we reached 
the top it was wholly enveloped in a cloud, 
and we could see only the trail and a little 
way about us. But ^as we tarried, every 
now and then the cloud would part, and we 
would look through into sunshine lighting 
the peaks of the mountains which rose 
above the clouds like islands out of a sea. 
It was a weird and wonderful scene while it 
lasted, for the clouds about us would gather 
close again, to open on another side, re¬ 
vealing a similar view in another quarter. 
It was very curious to see the clouds form¬ 
ing themselves into masses, and then driv¬ 
ing across the mountain tops below us. 
The sight must have been similar to that 
from a balloon 5,000 feet up in the air. 
At that time the yellow-fringed orchis 
was in bloom, and the laddie would at in¬ 
tervals disappear into cloud land and 
emerge with handfuls of the salmon-yellow 
spikes of gorgeous blossoms, for they grow 
in profusion on the mountain. But to thus 
have him Lost to me from view in the clouds, 
and to feel myself lost to myself in vapor, 
at length produced a most lonely and un¬ 
canny sensation despite its immense inter¬ 
est. But we had descended but a little 
way when we were quite out of the clouds, 
and the bright sunshine was riftiDgthrough 
the trees. Truly, “ by him who climbs t) e 
mountain summits alone, will be seen the 
glory of God.”. When next I went up, I 
walked to the top^ an achievement that I 
had looked forward to as indicating an ac¬ 
cumulation of bodily vigor to be proud of, 
and as an index of the curative power of the 
Highlands’ air. 
It was more of an undertaking to climb 
to the top of Whitesides, which was five 
miles distant and still higher. It took us 
all day, for the road was exceedingly diffi¬ 
cult and a horse could walk only at a slow 
gait. On such slow going expeditions the 
laddie preferred to walk, hanging to the 
pommel of my saddle his tools for cutting 
specimens of wood, his geology hammer 
and his bag for holding woods, plants and 
stones. He had before walked to this 
mountain with a party of young people, 
and on this occasion was my guide, and, as 
it turned out, we had the mountain quite 
to ourselves, barring the bears, wolves, 
wild cats, etc., that iufegted one of its trib¬ 
utary jungles. The most curious things we 
saw were blue-tailed lizards. 
Most of the way led through an unbroken 
forest, and for a space grew a fine colony of 
yellow birches of very pictuiesque appear¬ 
ance, the roots in particular rising out of 
the ground as if eager to uplift the trees to 
greater hight. But everywhere in these 
mountains I was struck with the pictur¬ 
esque beauty of all the trees—the curious 
and freakish quirks and turns in the 
branches, and even the boles, the moss, 
lichens and hanging moss that lived upon 
them recalling the deciduous trees of Puget 
Sound. The moment we left the haunts of 
men and penetrated the sjlvan solitudes, 
the beauty was supreme — the clearest 
streams, in which speckled trout darted; 
bubbling springs, banks of moss and ferns, 
shining galax, the Shell flowered Parnassia, 
the rich green of the laurel, the infinite 
shades of green and gloom and sunlight in 
the forest, the dashing waterfalls, the lich¬ 
en-grown rocks, the fresh, baltny, perfect 
air. While I never thought the mountains 
the^, selves good subject for mo MVtisVf) 
brush, the trees, waterfalls, sky scenery 
and bits of landscape of ravishing beauty, 
were endless. 
Whitesides is a peculiar mountain, in be¬ 
ing accessible only on one side, the ascent 
almost to the top being a gradual up-slope; 
but the other sides break off into perpen¬ 
dicular cliffs, from 1,000 to 1,500 feet deep. 
To look down from the topmost crag into 
the cove (valley) below, is one of the sensa¬ 
tions of the place. In these cliffs there are 
caves to be reached only by means of ropes 
or ladders. The Indians made ladders by 
cutting notches in the boles of tall trees 
and in that way managed to reach them 
from below. There is a story in the region 
that a mountaineer who was drafted to serve 
in the Confederate army, escaped and con¬ 
cealed himself in one of these caves, having 
food meantime secretly conveyed to him 
by his family. We found aspring near the 
mountain top where we ate our luncheon, 
and tethered the pony for a noonday nibble 
of grass. In climbing on foot to the very 
top we had to scramble through a narrow 
passage-way, between huge perpendicular 
rocks, which goes by the name of “ Fat 
Man’s Misery.” The way in which rocks— 
granite—are piled on each other on the 
cliff side of this mountain, forms a curious 
study for speculation. Transverse bands 
of white in the rocky sides give it its name. 
RURAL SPECIAL REPORTS. 
Kentucky. 
Lynden, Jefferson County, January 22.— 
Living, as I do, in one of the garden spots 
of the world and in the finest part of the 
State, in what is locally known as the Blue 
Grass Valley of the Ohio, I find the 
farmers here are like those in many other 
places—rather behind the times, and what 
they need is some Yankee pluck and en¬ 
ergy. Crops were very good the past year, 
but prices have been very low. The potato 
crop was one of our largest, several parties 
having planted as much as 100 acres, and 
while the yield was very good, prices were 
so low that some did not dig them at all. 
Potatoes on the first of December brought 
only 35 cents per barrel— 2% bushels of po¬ 
tatoes for 35 cents ! How can a man make 
a living at that ? Corn is now selling at 35 
cents per bushel. The yield was very good. 
A large acreage of wheat was planted the 
past fall which is looking very fine owing 
to the remarkably fine weather we have 
had this winter. The Japonica, periwin¬ 
kles, violets and other hardy flowers are in 
full bloom, and yesterday was the first 
cold day we have had this winter. I agree 
with the R. N.-Y. in the opinion that there 
will be no peaches this year, neither do I 
think that there will be much fruit of any 
other kind, for nearly all fruits are so far 
advanced that they are likely to be killed 
if we have much cold weather. . Fruit¬ 
growing and gardening are getting to be 
great industries here; in the summer the 
market wagons cover many miles of streets 
in the neighboring city of Louisville: while 
a great deal of the fruit is shipped direct to 
the North. As one instance, at a depot 
near my place, about 15 car-loads of grapes 
are shipped per week during the season, 
mostly to Chicago. 
What we want in this vicinity is a large 
canning factory to consume some of the 
fruit that goes to waste, for there is a large 
amount that goes that way every year, be¬ 
cause there is no demand for it. That cut 
borrowed from the Cornell Station teaches a 
mighty good lesson, for how can a man 
with common sense help seeing that here 
is where one of his greatest losses occurs. 
He might as well fill his pockets with small 
pieces of hard-earned money and then cut 
holes in them and let it slowly dribble out, 
as to throw away the manure in that way ; 
but with all the preaching and teaching 
there are some who are so blind and so in¬ 
dolent that the leakage will go on just the 
same on their places and they will grow 
poorer. Some time ago Brother Terry in 
telling of his small fruits, said that if 
farmers knew how easy it is to grow fruit 
and how soon it producer, more of them 
would have it. Now here is where I think 
he missed it: he should have said some¬ 
thing like this: if farmers were not too 
stingy or too lazy, they would have more 
fruit. The farmer who hasn’t enough is 
either one or the other. There are some 
who are so stingy that they actually be¬ 
grudge a little money to buy a few vines 
so that their families may have some fruit 
to eat, and others are so eternally lazy that 
if one were to give them the vines, they 
would not take the trouble to set them out. 
I don’t expect many will agree with me, 
hut the case is ueyerthel^ tjfl, jj, \y. 
Pennsylvania. 
Elizabethtown, Lancaster County, 
January 23.—Farmers throughout this 
neighborhood are becoming disgusted ' at 
the prevailing prices of grain, as well as 
with the raising of tobacco and the fatten¬ 
ing of cattle. Tobacco is raised to a con¬ 
siderable extent here, but during the past 
few years it lias not been a paying crop. 
Last year’s product is in a bad state. Ow¬ 
ing to the unfavorable weather at the time 
it was curing, much of it is shed-burnt and 
molded, making it unfit for sale. n. u. c. 
West Virginia. 
Bedington, Berkeley County, January 
25. —Good weather still continues : we have 
had only about one inch of ice thus far. 
A great deal of plowing has been done by 
the farmers who have sod ground to plow 
for corn. Much uneasiness is felt by those 
who are in need of ice through the summer 
season, and especially by those who depend 
on it for their dairies. I happen to be in 
this class. I have from six to eight cowsand 
sometimes 10 of the Holstein stock. Some 
are thoroughbreds ; the rest grades. Some 
of my neighbors have Jerseys and claim 
great results; but I get the milk and make 
a good deal of butter too. I have my ice¬ 
house over my dairy with a sloping floor, 
emptying into a Y-shaped trough to carry 
off the drip from the melting of the ice. 
An inch pipe leads down from it into a Reid 
Creamery and a pipe leads from the cream¬ 
ery underground into the orchard, so I can 
handle Holstein milk for all there is in it. 
I have read with much interest the views 
of the different writers on the food for 
cows, and I have adopted corn-fodder well 
cured for rough feed, supplemented with 
crushed corn, oats and bran in equal quan¬ 
tities. My corn I crush at home to a 
medium coarse grade. The oats I grind 
fine. My cows are doing well on this feed, 
I haven’t settled on a silo yet. Several of 
my neighbors have silos, and their cows 
don’t winter as well as mine, and I find 
that in severely cold weather theirs tuck up 
much worse. I use about two four-hor-e 
wagon loads of fodder for the cows, giving 
one large bundle night and morning to 
two cows, which is as much as they will 
eat up clean. I sometimes run my fodder 
through an old thrashing machinecylinder, 
which leaves it “just grand ” for cows, and 
horses too. The present outloQk for the 
farmer is not very consoling: wheat 75 
cents ; corn. 35 cents ; oats, 30 cents ; hay, 
£0 to $8 per ton ; potatoes. 00 cents ; apples, 
75 cents ; butter, 20 and 25 cents; eggs, 12 
cents. . j. h. L. 
Airmail’s Work. 
CONDUCTED BY EMILY LOUISE TAPLIN. 
CHAT BY THE WAY. 
S OMETIMES we are compelled to think 
that a family medicine-chest, well 
equipped, though a convenience in an 
isolated neighborhood, is too great a temp¬ 
tation to the housekeeper. It is apt to 
lead to indiscriminate dosing, and really, 
the fewer drugs one swallows the better. 
We have seen households where some 
medical book was consulted as soon as 
any one in the home circle owned to an ache 
or pain, to be followed by a prescription of 
some sort from the medicine closet, and 
very often these domestic practitioners in¬ 
dulge in stronger potions than any phy¬ 
sician would advise. For ordinary lionse- 
ho'd use we would far rather use such 
simples as our grandmothers believed in, 
as being less dangerous in unskilled hands 
than ordinary drugs. 
Quinine is a drug greatly misused; it is, 
as we know, the most valuable medicine 
known in malarial and other fevers, but it 
is too powerful to be abused. Yet many 
people take it constantly, whenever they 
feel dull or languid; they get into a habit 
of pill-taking which is likely to result in 
serious harm. The use of sedatives too is 
much too frequent; when the medicine 
chest contains bromide of potassium or the 
like, it is too often taken for irritated or 
overstrung nerves, when a little rest or 
change of occupation would be far more 
beneficial. Another danger in domestic 
physic is the use of strong purgatives for 
irregularities which would often be rem¬ 
edied by more judicious diet. 
* * 
* 
Keeps medicine chest if you v ill. but let 
itsdrugs be of the simplest, and then learn 
the best way to use them. The thipgs one 
should ^specially keep in a handy t >uy, 
those articles likely to be needed in case of 
accident. Always have a supply of soft 
old linen and sticking-plaster for cuts, and 
try to keep pieces of stuff for bandages. 
Lonsdale muslin, new, torn off in strips 
three inches wide, with raw edges, and 
from one to three yards long, will be the 
best. They will be very useful in an emer¬ 
gency, when these need to form a bandage 
around the body or limbs. It is a very 
good plan to practice wrapping these 
bandages neatly and quickly. They must 
be brought round and round, crossing and 
recrossing, always on the bias, so that the 
last fold really holds the others in place. 
At the last, the end of the bandage is split 
down a little way, and while the folds are 
held firmly in place one of the split ends is 
reversed around the limb, while the other 
is brought tightly forward ; the two ends 
are then tied, and the bandage is firmly 
fastened. It sometimes proves a very valu¬ 
able accomplishment to roll a surgeon’s 
bandage quickly and well. Next to the 
bandages come such things as arnica and 
camphorated oil for bruises and stiffness, 
ammonia for insect bites, and sweet oil for 
burns. We all have our favorite liniments, 
but whatever they are thev should always 
be on hand, for they are often needed, • s- 
pecially by men doing rough work. 
* * 
* 
If any poisons are kept, be sure vou 
know the proper antidote, and have it at 
hand. Accidents sometimes occur, even 
with the most careful. Properly, the 
simplest antidote for a poision ought al¬ 
ways to be printed or written on the label 
pasted on the bottle containing the deadly 
drug. There are really very few poisons 
that it is necessary to keep in the house, or 
that should be administered without the 
advice of a physician, the less they are 
used the better. 
The use of a wet bandage is a simp'e 
form of treatment often found serviceable 
both for children and adults, and it is well 
to have the materials at hand. For the 
body, a width of linen crash four yards 
long is desirable. At one end the corners 
should be lapped over, so as to narrow it, 
and two long tapes sewn on. After it is 
wrapped around the body, the end next the 
skin being wetted, these tapes are used to 
fasten it, like the end of the surgeon’s 
bandage. For the throat, have a flannel 
bandage to put outside, with wet linen next 
the skin This simple “ wet pack ” is 
ready the best cure for an ordinary sore 
throat. 
MORE ABOUT VOICES. 
BAND ANUS. 
B EING able to sing sweetly and with 
expression is secondary only to being 
able to talk well ; and how few persons, ex¬ 
cept the fortunate ones who have had good 
training under competent teachers, possess 
this faculty. By this I do not mean the 
ability to talk well on many subjects, or 
in any grade of society.—we all know, 
without any argument how desirable that 
is; what I wish now to speak of is the 
voice itself. 
One often hears quoted those words of 
Shakespeare, “ A low sweet voice, an ex 
cellent thing in woman ; ” but alas ! they 
are more often quoted than practiced. A 
gentle voice is one of the most striking 
marks of good breeding. Of course, one 
person may have the advantage over an¬ 
other by having a sweeter or clearer voice 
naturally; but even if you have not a good 
voice naturally, you can greatly improve 
it by practice. 
First of all, as in singing, so in talking, 
do not talk too loud. 
If you observe, you will find that people 
are much more apt to listen to a man who 
has thorough control over his voice thau 
to one who shouts out his opinions with a 
great deal of bluster. And have you not 
all been annoyed by that plague of modern 
society, the village gcssip. who almost in¬ 
variably possesses a shrill, loud voice ? 
After this trouble comes one almost as 
common,—that is, speaking indistinctly, 
and running your words into one another. 
Do not try to talk faster than you are able. 
Pi.srcUancou.s Advertising. 
When Baby wan sick, we gave her Castorla, 
When she was a Child, she cried for Castorla. 
When she became Miss, she clung to Castorih. 
»t|e hf\<( Clpjdretqshe gave them Castorm 
