Phenix gazette. [volume] (Alexandria [D.C.]) 1825-1833, 1832-02-03

the monarch's initial was not IA.
Gauief equo A Virsinian loves his horse and
ia at home on the race course; the horses are eX-
celent, and, to find better, you must 60 to the ne
sert. A Virginlan will stake mucn Oh ,aso''l
ami NAL. and, if he lose, will pay cheerfully, and
willing paver is generally as hard. to be found
as !, :. cheerful giver.'' The generosity or pro-
fuseness of planter. however, sometimes, redu.
ces him to borrow before his crops are sold, aud
note.tonsors thrive in Virginia as we'll as else.
where. Avarce hourishes most by the side OF
prodigality, and miser is never SO we'll placed
as when among spendthrifts. As they deal much
together in their lives. so, after death according
to Dante) they are not divided. The poet de-
scribes them as laboring eternally in rolling huge
stones from opposite sides and back. and uPbrald-
inc each other when they meet in the middle
space the one party with, "why dost thou grasp?''
and the other with .'why dost thou scatter:'
However, though in Virginia the usurers
grow rich. the planters do not become poor; 1t Is
but at one season they borrow. and these are not
half of the whole, nor DO they borrow much
A person in Virginia who would plead usnry to
defeat contract in which he had been muicteu
fifty per cent would be pelted even from negro
house; he would have to flee the land, for honor
there is as strong as law.
The people of Virginia are not generally SO de-
vout, tina, it might not be lawful, in some parts
of the Commonw ealth, to apply funds tor the con-
| version Of the heather. The churches are ''lew
and far between The people 60 to the church
es when any are near, that is, within dozen
miles, for here notions of space are liberal; but
they are much inclined, when assembled, to get
into groups aud talk loudly upon worldly mat
tiers, such as politics and horses. Under the CO.
lonial government, when the church was con-
junct with the state, every parish was bound to
| support minister, who had his slebe and salary
| paid in tobacco. In our Isle OF Shoals. at this
day, the clergyman is paid in dried goldfish. out
at so low a rate, that he is himself obliged to toll
low the apostolic employment. These islands
were once called by '.Captaine Smith" alter his
own name; but names are but transitory things.
Tobacco, you know, was once legal tender In
Virginia, as clam-shells are in rimbuctoo; and to-
bacco notes or receipts from the inspector circu-
late to this day. Perhaps you remember that
! the coloniy churches in the lower parts OF Viz
ginia,-whicb, unlike the edifces in the State
generally are built in style approaching to neat
ness,-were constructed of imported bricks
But they have all gone to decay; shrubs grow
within the walls, aud birds and bats build in the
arches.
Sunday is day wherein no Virginian will
dine alone if he can have his neighbor; and truly
there is good dinner. Ham, (smack your lips.
man, 'tis the Virginia ham, is every day upon
the table, supported by cabbage, or dish of
greens. There is no dinner on any day without
these. After dinner, few people here are avcrse
to the hiarity that comes from a glass of good
wine. for the grape is honored even in the region
of mint juleps and antifogmatics N"body, how
ever, dies Of apopexy; for men and boys are al
ways mounted-they are half century, and often
| ride twenty miles to dine.
f. ,,pfr tCoc in MO
why? the people are so hospitable, that there are
small gleanings for publicans. A stranger finds
| a welcome at every planters house, though in
the German districts he would not grow fat upon
hospitality, nor would he be pressed to prolong
| his residence at taverns, after he had expended
the last of his coin.
The lowest class in Virginia is that Of the
g. poor white man," or as the negro calls him.
the spoor buckra." He is an object of pity and
dersion even to the negro himself. These men
are gipseys in all but wandering life, having
not only no possessions, but no very definite no
tons of property, scarcely making any distlnc-
ton between meun and tuum-Brought up in
ignorance, they live in idleness, and their lives
are practical homilies on the Importance of COM
mon schools, aud laws to c@mpel attendance
thereon.
The {" old field Schools" if spendidly endow
ed, are well conducted. They will make lew
Patrick Henries. The planters have private tu-
tors, and sometimes several unite TO bear the ex-
pense of private school. The schoolhouse is a
log cabin, to which the elements have entrance.
The girls come on horseback or IN carriages, at
tended by servants who bring the dinner. The
boys walk, and are attended BY all the dogs of
the plantations. so that the ours are to the boys
about as seven to one, and at night there is joy
Gus bark and shout when the school is dismissed,
and the dogs and boys return together.
Many of the plantations are Of five thousand
acres, and Jefferson, though not very great plan
ter, had about three hundred and fifty acres of
corn, as many of clover, and the same number of
potatoes, beans and peas. This is on larger
scale than the agriculture of Cncinnatus.
Now would that could paint the cheerful. IN
described, and indescrible negro. whose laugh is
so ready aud is such an explosion of joy, that it
is pity, when it is SO easy to make him laugh,
that he should ever cry. In still evening, you
may hear, more than two miles. his long and loud
| n IL 4. .x.L