The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1880-02-07 00:00:00

PROSPEROUS AUGUSTA.

Under the above heading, the Daily Telegraph publishes a
letter from its Special Correspondent in America, from which
we extract the following :

It is with Augusta, in the State of Georgia, that I
have at present to deal. Let it be premised that
Augusta is the third city in the State, and that its
population exceeds thirty thousand; that it is at the
head of the navigation of the beautiful Savannah
river; that it is a very busy and prosperous place, en-
riched by divers important manufactories using the
fine waterpower afforded by the Augusta Canal,
nine miles long, which brings the upper waters of
Savannah to the city at an elevation of 60ft.
It is almost unnecessary to state that Augusta like-
wise possesses a handsome Masonic Temple, a com-
modious theatre, two spacious and well-provided
markets, and a beautifully laid-out cemetery. Those
institutions are to be found in every town in the
United States, even to the youngest Stay; I should
add a number of admirably. conducted free schools,
an orphan asylum, half a dozen banks, and as many
fairly comfortable hotels. I am at the Planters',
the general aspect of which, bears out its
name, for gentlemen kr broad-brimmed, low-
crowned hats, almost rivalling the Mexican som-
brero in amplitude of circumference, abound in
the hotel; and their conversation is mainly connected
with cotton. Of course I have visited the principal
cotton mills; and have been, physically, in a state of
fluff and flue ever since my arrival. At least half-a-
dozen times a day, returning from 'expeditions in
quest of cotton, I have been fain to deliver myself up
to the tender mercies of the attendant who through
out the Union goes by the name of the "brush fiend."
He is the American cousin of the ragged red jacket
who on English racecourses hastens, when you alight
from your carriages to brush you down, which feat he
accomplishes with an ordinary implement made of
bristles, indulging himself meanwhile with a
cheerful hissing noise as though he were rubbing
down a horse. The Transatlantic "brush fiend"
does not brush you "down," He brushes you "off ;"
and while he urticates you he utters a low crooning
murmur very-much akin to that Of the mosquito sing-
ing his song of triumph as he drinks your blood. The
fiend uses, not a brush proper, but a kind of whisk or
short broom made of some dried grass or another,
He not only urticates, he hurts. He touches up the
nape of your neck and the palms of your hands. The
more you tell him to heave off the more furiously does
he continue his virgel assaults; and it is only when you
assume a decided attitude and, looking the brush.
fiend fixedly between the eyes, tell him that you will
strangle him if he does not hold his hand, that the
unsworn tormentor desists. This demon haunts the
entrance halls of hotels and restaurants, and especially
bAber's shops
Augusta is some four hundred and seventy 'miles
further south than Richmond, but I made the journey
from the old Confederate capital to the Cotton City
putposely without "laying over " or stopping on the
way, Under certain circumstances of travel it is more
desirable that your career should resemble that of the
plummet than the pendulum. I remained nearly a
fortnight in Richmond, and there I was treated with
so much kindness, and I made so many friends, that I
feel confident that I could have passed at least six
of the very pleasantest of months in the State of
Virginia alone. Please to remember that the Old
Dominion is no " °De-horse " State. Its divisions
of Tidewater, Middle, Piedmont, Blue Ridge Valley,
and Appalachia comprise an area of 40,000 square
miles. Its acreage is about twenty-seven million'',
and the population so far back as 1870 was nearly a
million and a quarter. It possesses all the requisites
of a healthy region—an equable temperature, a rolling,
well-drained, splendidly rivered country, abounding
in natural products. Even the stories of the unhealthi-
ness of the Great Dismal Swamp must be taken as
mythic, since seagoing ships prefer to take in their
water from Lake Drummond, which is in the very
middle of the swamp libellously bight "Dismal.
The Virginians are hardy,- robust, ruddy, and
long-lived. They are mighty sportsmen and
foxounters. The soil yields gold, silver,
copper, lead, zinc, granite, limestone, marl, plumbag)c
manganese, brick and fire clays, wheat, oats, ITlers
:
wheat, Indian corn in:profneioe, fruits and „ge.n.
Live
in plenty, and it is the native home of tobaece•
stock of every kind is reared. The taxes on real an_d,
personal property are not one-eighth of the amount
levied in and about New York City, and n°t
,above
half the amount levied in newly-settled Nebraara, and
farineieedestreps of purchasing homesteads in Virginia
lesWtere at a cheaper rate than they can
I Purchaeo it out Woot, and, wateadQ buy PrairiN Can

procure improved farms, with all the necessaries and
comforts of life close at hand. This ancient
State, to sum up, offers the fairest possible in-
ducements to immigration to the people of the
Old World seeking new homes, and to the
people of Northern and Middle States seeking a
milder climate and a richer soil, than they can find in
their own parts. Writing more than two hundred
and fifty years ago Captain John Smith said of Virginia
that heaven and earth never agreed better to frame a
place for man's habitation. Why not abide six
months in a country so enthusiastically lauded by the
protégé of Pocahontas? I had a score of invitations
to visit different districts in the State. I was
promieed fishing, duck shooting, fox and deer hunting—
all kinds of rural delights. I Was " wanted " at Peters-
burgh, at Staunton, Norfolk, and Farmville. The
Richmond clubs vied with each other in showing me
graceful and genial hospitality. So I thought that
under these circumstances the best thing that I could
do was to quit the State of Virginia altogether, and to
drop, plummet-wise, right through North and South
Carolina into Georgia. Thus behold me in Augusta,
Not lightly do -I
call her prosperous. The city is
bustling, well-built, and well-organised Its stores are
amply stocked with the material comforts and luxuries
of existence. It escaped direct occupation and devm-
tation during the Civil War, and was neither raided,
requisitioned, nor "burnt up." it is a great cotton
mart. The railroads place it in direct communication
with the adjoining South Carolina, and with the
whole of Middle Gorgia, and the cotton collected from
these districts is transported by rail to Savannah for
shipment. It is, moreover, an agricultural centre,
like our good and handsome old town of Maidstone in
Sent, and the farmers from all the country round ride
or drive into Augusta to dispose of their produce, and
to take back groceries and clothing from the well.
stocked stores of the thriving place. . . .

In another letter the same Correspondent says :

One more eight to be seen in Augusta the Pros-
perous, ere, plummet-like, I drop down another six or
seven hundred miles South. In the very centre of
Broad-street stands the recently-erected Monument to
the Confederate Dead. It is a columniated obelisk,
of pure white marble, eighty feet in height, sur-
mounted by the statue of the Confederate soldier,
and with four portrait effigies, including those of
Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson, at the
angles of the pedestal. The simple and touching in-
scription recites that this monument was erected by
the ladies of the Memorial Association, to those who
fell for the Honour of Georgia, for the Rights of the
States, for the Liberty of the People, and for the
Principles of the Union, as handed down to his
children by the Father of a Common Country. Is
there not a monument on our Drummossie Moor to
the gallant Jaoobites who fell at Culloden ?