think of making their homes
amid such wild scenes. . . . Beyond these counties stretches the chain
of the Unaka, running along the line of Tennessee, with the Roan
Mountain--famous for its extensive view over seven states--immediately
in our front. Through the passes and rugged chasms of this range, we
look across the entire valley of East Tennessee to where the blue
outlines of the Cumberland Mountains trend toward Kentucky, and we see
distinctly a marked depression which Eric says is Cumberland Gap.
Turning our gaze due westward, the view is, if possible, still more
grand. There the colossal masses of the Great Smoky stand, draped in a
mantle of clouds, while through Haywood and Transylvania, to the
borders of South Carolina, rise the peaks of the Balsam Mountains,
behind which are the Cullowhee and the Nantahala, with the Blue Ridge
making a majestic curve toward the point where Georgia touches the
Carolinas. . . . .

It is enough to sit and watch the inexpressible beauty of the vast
prospect us afternoon slowly wanes into evening. There is a sense of
isolation, of solemnity and majesty, in the scene which none of us are
likely to forget. So high are we elevated above the world that the
pure vault of ether over our heads seems nearer to us than the blue
rolling earth, with its wooded hills and smiling valleys below. No
sound comes up to us, no voice of water or note of bird breaks the
stillness. We are in the region of that eternal silence which wraps
the summits of the "everlasting hills." A repose that is full of awe
broods over this lofty peak, which still retains the last rays of the
sinking sun, while over the lower world twilight has fallen.

FOOTNOTE:

[44] By permission of the author, and publishers, D. Appleton & Co.,
N. Y.

HENRY WOODFEN GRADY.

~1851=1889.~

HENRY WOODFEN GRADY was born at Athens, Georgia, and educated at the
State University. He became an editor, and in 1880 purchased an
interest in the Atlanta "Constitution" on whose staff he remained till
his death. His articles, addresses, and editorials made his name well
known throughout the country, and contributed no little to the
development of Southern industries after the war. A monument has been
erected to him in Atlanta.

WORKS.

The New South, [a series of articles].
Editorials, addresses, &c.

THE SOUTH BEFORE THE WAR.

(_From The New South, 1889._[45])

[Illustration: ~Grady Monument, Atlanta, Ga.~]