Sandhills sketches

“Sandhills Sketches” by Williams Haynes is a collection of regional sketches written in the early 20th century. Drawn from a winter spent in North Carolina’s Sandhills, it blends travel writing, local color, and sporting pieces with portraits of country folk and their work. Expect vivid scenes of longleaf-pine country, quail hunting and trap shooting, tar burning, small-town superstition, and a canoe descent of the Lumbee into the old plantation belt. It will appeal to readers who enjoy Southern landscapes, field sports, and character-rich vignettes. The opening of the collection sets the scene by praising the Sandhills as an ideal refuge from Northern winter, sketching its dry, rolling pine country and the people met while bird hunting (including a wary backwoodsman who may be guarding a still). It then profiles “them Huggins boys,” notorious poor neighbors first met in a comic, testy exchange over eggs and a stolen pipe, before widening into a snapshot of “poor old Moore County” and the region’s shift from turpentine and tar to resorts, dairies, and modern farming—leaving families like the Hugginses behind. A rainy Christmas day brings Aunt Sally and Uncle Willis, a lively lesson in “conjurin’,” and a railroad man’s prank that exploits those fears. “Tar Burnin’” gives a step‑by‑step, boots-on-the-ground account of building and firing a pine tar kiln with Uncle Willis, marred by rain, barrel shortages, a flare‑up that burns away profits, and his rueful talk of bad luck. The hunting sketches introduce distinct dog personalities—plodding “Joe,” high‑strung “Queen,” Capt’n Evans’s team, and the celebrated setter “Prince”—and reflect on the partnership and discipline that make great bird dogs. A fireside debate leads into “The Clay Birds,” defending the skill and clean appeal of trap shooting and tracing its rapid rise. Finally, a canoe voyage down the Lumbee unfurls a twisting, little‑known river through pine woods, wildlife, and cypress jungle to the eerie Buzzard Flats and, at last, glimpses of old plantations—where the narrative breaks off mid-journey.