Do you think dipping
is nice?"
The traveler was compelled to say that he did not, though he had seen
a good deal of it wherever he had been.
"All the girls dips round here. But me and my sisters rather smoke
than get in a habit of dipping."
To the observation that Union seemed to be a dull place:
"Well, there's gay times here in the winter - dancing. Like to dance?
Well, I should say! Last winter I went over to Blountsville to a
dance in the court-house; there was a trial between Union and
Blountsville for the best dancing. You bet I brought back the cake
and the blue ribbon."
The country was becoming too sophisticated, and the travelers
hastened to the end of their journey. The next morning Bristol, at
first over a hilly country with magnificent oak-trees, - happily not
girdled, as these stately monarchs were often seen along the roads in
North Carolina, - and then up Beaver Creek, a turbid stream, turning
some mills. When a closed woolen factory was pointed out to the
Professor (who was still traveling for Reform), as the result of the
agitation in Congress, he said, Yes, the effect of agitation was
evident in all the decayed dams and ancient abandoned mills we had
seen in the past month.
Bristol is mainly one long street, with some good stores, but
generally shabby, and on this hot morning sleepy.
