The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1859-10-06
DILAPIDATED CONDITION OF THE
OLD DOMINION.

Oldschool," the Conservative Washington
correspondent of the Philadelphia Inquirer,
furnishes the following gloomy picture of what
should be the most beautiful and prosperous
portion of Virginia, and the very centre Of
American civilization, viz: the Potomac coun-
try. He says:
But if you desire to be entertained, you
should hear my neighbor, who is a Northern
man, describe the country, the farms, build
ings, crops, cattle, hogs, horses, and the roads
OF the country through which he passed. Ac-
cording to him, some parts Of Cafraria are a
paradise to it. AS to the farming and crops
imagine fields of sickly, stinted corn, that looks
as if they were suffering from the fever and
ague, as well as starvation, and which will
probably yield FIVE bushels of pig corn to the
acre; houses of the most primitive construc-
ton, and through which the winds and rains Of
heaven find easy passage; barns, none; hog
pens, none; fences, none, or but little better
than none; men and boys, women and girls,
in unison with everything else, gathered in
little groups or leaning against fence, whether
to keep the fence or themselves from falling
was a matter of doubt. The woods he repre-
sented as Astounding with wild turkeys and wild
hogs, the latter of the long-legged, sharp-nosed
species, that could jump a fverail fence like a
deer.
" As to the roads, or what they call such, he
says he never saw the like anywhere full OF
washed gullies, up and down hill at an angle
of 450, with no signs of having been mended
within the present century, and not bridge
the whole way, though he had to cross many
streams, some of them rivers, and the road is
a stage road. And this within from ten to fifty
miles of the capital of the United States, and
in the neighborhood of Washington's home
" The schOolmaster must have been abroad,
my friend thinks, for surely he could not have
been in this part of the Old Dominion at any
time these fifty years. To sum up the whole,
my neighbor declared with great emphasis that
he would not be hired to live ten years in this
part of the country, to remain in its present de-
plorable condition, for the fee simple of the
whole of it.
"Dumfries is an old, forsaken, dilapidated
town. 1t was originally settled by the Scotch,
who were thrifty, industrious people. 1t was,
seventy-hye years ago, aplace of great business,
having fine harbor of ten feet water, large
warehouses, stores, &C., whence a large amount
Of tobacco was annually shipped to Europe.
There was also large stone. mill, the walls of
which are now standing, having been built of
hewn stone, and In the most substantial man.
more and maple trees. The walls are the best
monument of the early settlers, and their fin
iShed and durable character tells how far supe-
rior to their degenerate posterity were these
hardy and industrious pioneers. An old ships
hulk lies in the river above Dumfries, showing
how far up the stream was once navigable. At
present the mouth of the river is some miles
below the old town, and log canoe cannot be
navigated up to the old hulk
" You will do the Old Dominion favor by
turning the steam of European immigration
upon this section of the country for while.
1t needs entire renovation.
. We have a few of the same sort in the
vicinity of Washington, who own large tracts of
land, but cannot see what people want roads
for. They are in the way-cum5erers of the
ground and if they do not get out of the way,
the wheels of civilization will crush them out.
"OLDsCHoOI"