September 28, 1935
THE STATE
Page Seven
Carolina Zoos, And Things
*
>IIC. >1 011 I JIOl Si; is one of the stuff *
writers of llic* IN'ew York Sun. It*s
always interesting to learn liow we
look to others, anil the article on
this page gives some good points
alon“ this li 114*. It was written while*
>lr. >lorehouse was in \she\ ille.
THE zoo business i*
booming in the Cn ro¬
ll
пае.
I menu road¬
side ZOOS. Give :i fellow
down this way a combina¬
tion pa* station and sand¬
wich shop and he immedi¬
ately brand ie» out with n
menagerie on the side. E11
route from Raleigh to Ashe*
villc I ran acros* half a dozen of these
rural zoos, some of them pretentious
and others rather shabbily stocked.
Hip or little, however, the wild aninial-
deviee i.- an exeel lent business stunt.
Tourists pull over into the gravel,
eliml* out. buy peanut." and soda pop
and forget their map troubles as they
feed the hip brown bear and the rae-
eoons and the *«|uirivls and the owls.
Yes. the road-ide merchant* with these
strange annexe» -ell the most gas. to
say nothing of soft drinks.
It doesn’t take so many animals to
start one of the«e Carolina zoo*. Only
one. in fact. It’s l>est to begin with
a ldp brown bear. Chain him to a
stanchion nt the side of the road, teach
him to walk in cindes. to drink soda
pop ns he stands on bis haiimdii - and
to nibble at crackers and chocolate Kars
without bitinp off bands and arms.
The more experimental and during
of the roadstnnd folk, however, are not
satisfiisl with just a bear. They shoo
their favorite trappers out into the hill-
to gather other Specimens of wild life
and in this way they're aide to stock a
respectable zoo. They also make bar-
pains with itinerant circuses that come
this way.
For instance: the most priz.-d of all
the animals in captivity in this section
is a female lion owned by the zoo keep¬
er at Vnldese. N. C. It wu- a tired
lion, weary of circus life, when he
bonpht it. It's .till tired. and rather
old. but pacing its big cage it attracts
many a customer. Not a» good hu¬
mored a«, say. the brown boar, and un-
willinp to hold out a paw for soda pop.
but still a wild l«east that attracts the
biggest crowd and that also helps in
selling the most pus.
The South, which I visit at «-very
given opportunity, doesn't seem to
change at all. Young girls still skip
along with arms about, each other's
waists,
пт
I their hair tied in hows.
All the rusty model T Fords that you
thought were in the junk yard still
ни
w.aiki) mohiiioim:
cling along the highways. Sunflow¬
ers are furiously in bloom, and the
beautiful weeping willows line the
highways and drop to the sandy
banks of the winding, shallow rivers.
And as for the rivers, they seem t”
prow muddier as the years go by.
And as for the good ladies who sit
on the verandah, they still come out
as early ns they always did— along
about eight A. M. — and rock and fan
themselves all the day long.
Venerable Mules Parade
There's u restaurant in Raleigh
that features fried butterflsh, but that
never seems to have it. They still
stop you along Southern roadways for
that Japanese beetle inspection. You
can pass unmolested unless you’re
carrying plants shrubs, cut flowers
or vegetables. The worn out Fords
are here and so are the venerable
mules; they're hitched to everything
imaginable and they bear the old and
the young, the feeble and the healthy.
Put down the Grove Park Inn as
one of the wonder spots of creation
a magnillcient hotel, the pride of
Asheville and as beautiful and as
restful a spot as you could find this
side of the Bosphorus. I hereby add
it to the spots I'd like to see again,
and these include the Broadmoor in
Colorado Springs and the Biltmorc in
Santa Barbara. Then there's a hotel
in southwestern Virginia— the Hotel
Roanoke — thnl belong" with the br*t.
an old Euglidi inn. this structure, with
the best Virginia bam to be found
south of the Potomac.
Highway being Repaired
North Carolina suggests Switzer¬
land in countless spots. It also sug¬
gests the Province of Quebec, pnrticu
larly so when the spire of a crossroads
church — they're always white here —
looms ahead as von near a
village. If it’s complete
isolation you want, 1 sug¬
gest the sleepy valley
through which von drive
from Asheville to the town
of Erwin, Tenn., and
through which wriggles the
shallow. rocky stream
called the Cane River.
The I.ee Highway, which brings
you from Bristol to Roanoke, is being
repaired, and it needs it. North Car¬
olina is tops for magnfieont ribbon
highways. The roadside stand» of the
Southern State» supply everything
edible — chicken, ham, crabs’ fish,
cider, milk— and go in extensively for
pottery, hooked rugs and mountain
handicraft. You can buy dogs or
wild animals. A bear is obtainable
for $100 and the mail with the lion
asked $1.10. Raccoons, silver foxes
and prairie wolves are also to be had.
Musical Show Troupes
The South— I'm talking at the
moment of the Carolines, Virginia,
and Tennessee — has become accus¬
tomed to infrequent visits of musical
show troupes that seem to come from
nowhere and that appear to be going
nowhere in partieular. Bootlegging
still flourishes and in dry localities
the hotel liellmai: will always oblige.
In Virginia you get your bottled
poods from State-operated .stores.
Tennessee, theoretically, is dry. And
North Carolina Ims but eighteen
counties that are legally wet. On
general business in the South, you get
such answers as these: They could
be better. Business is pretty good.
Things couldn’t he worse. Business
is picking up.
Roadside legend" near the home
town of Sherwood Anderson (Marion,
Ya.) : Hams front Happy Hogs, Store
front near Apex. N. C-: Eggs laid
while you wait. Bee farms are to be
found hereabout, road detours are
irritatingly frequent and watermelons
knight from
л
mule-drawn cart bring
from five cents to twenty cents. Drive
through the South and see the sights
the smiling Lucky Strike girl, Shell
gasoline, the face of Katharine Hep-
bum and monuments to the glory of
the Confederacy.