AZURE-LURE - Cover - page 50

Azure-Lure

A Romance Of The Mountains.

Azure-Lure

A Romance of the Mountains

Copyright 1924

Photo by Plateau Studios, Courtesy Mount Mitchell Motor Road.

Azure-Lure
A Romance of the MOuntains
Souvenir of
Asheville and Western North Carolina
Resort for all the Year
The Perfect Place to Play

Land of the Sky
Edited by
Idyl Dial Gray

for the

Carolina Souvenir Booklet Association

Library Edition

Advocate Publishing Co., Asheville, N.C.

BY

HARVEY HOLLEMAN.

The Lure of the Land of the Azure Sky, punctuated by the loftiest mountain peaks in Eastern America, silently emphasizing the urge of adoration and love, inspired the author while here to write "Azure-Lure" a "Romance of the Mountains."

The scene is laid in alluring Western North Carolina, the land of perpetual vacation, where strength and recre­ation are borne in the life-giving fragrance of the balsam and the pine, the clear dry atmosphere, rippling waterfalls, gorgeous mountain scenery and glorious sunsets.

Here in the "Land of the Sky" romance, adventure, and love fan into flames the day dreams of home, honor, and happiness, in Earth's Paradise, by Indian folklore termed the "Garden of Eden." The array of floral loveliness, dog­wood and evergreen, the pines and firs, form a natural pic­ture land overpowering and irresistible in the protecting slopes of the ever-welcoming mountains. It nestles in the very bosom of the Appalachian range, the peaks casting wonderful shadows in the sunlight and moonlight, creating an entrancing sensation to be obtained nowhere else. The silvery, rippling rivers, Swannanoa, French Broad and Rocky Broad, add to the sorcery of the scenery, while their whispering crystal waters and murmuring falls vary the allurement.

In the land where azure sky and brilliant horizon seem to meet sheer granite cliffs rising tier on tier to fascinating heights. Where nature's artistry taxes ones credulity, so lavish are her endowments. Where scintillating waterfalls trail over treacherous cliffsides, polishing spectacular rocks with the colors of a thousand flowers. Where exist riotous gorges, fantastic figures hewn in stone, surrounded by precipices and chasms above the clouds. Where singing rivers flow into limpid lakes and bottomless pools in ro-

-mantic cloud-banked, mountain rimmed valleys below foaming cascades, and glistening mountain peaks climbing to the bluest of the skies.

Truly a wanderland thru wonderland. Under the charm of an opalescent azure sky, forming a bowl shaped canopy over the mountains of Western North Carolina, is born a romance entrancingly woven, but diverting from the usual form of fiction in material facts by using authentic names of places, locations and oftentimes those of actual persons. The story forms a reflex of the home, social, educational, in­dustrial and religious life of the section. The pictures are from photographs of actual scenes in the bounds of this romance, and form a new method of issuing an artistic and interesting souvenir of this great vacation land within twenty-four hours ride of half the population of the United States.

Publisher's Note: "Azure-Lure," the title selected for this book, was submitted by Mr. Holleman in a contest con­ducted for the Publisher by the Asheville Daily Citizen. As winner of the reward offered for the most appropriate name submitted it became his duty to write the introductory. Mr. Holleman. formerly an editor of the New York Daily Commercial, is now Public Relations Director for E. W. Grove Investments, Director of the Asheville Music Festival Association and an honorary member of the Asheville-Western North Carolina Hotel Association.

The cover for "Azure-Lure" was designed by Rose Cox of Asheville.

The Carolina Souvenir Booklet Association, the editor and the compiler of this book are deeply indebted to Mr. Thomas P. Marron, whose sincere co-operation made possible its publication.

High in the fabled mountains,
Deep in the laurel hills
Sprayed by life-giving fountains,
Found by the robins' trills.
Dawn --and the sun around thee
Gilding thy gables broad,
Dusk--and the stars surround thee
Night--and the arms of God.

Poem By Eva Olamondon Boyd.