Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1860-08-01

SKETCHES OF SUMMER TRAvEL.-
Editorial Correspondence Of The Star

lsoLdeu from the otner, that form so ked Tea
lures Of the scenery for thirty miles above Cum
berland. The higher the train ascends towards
the immediate base Of the Alleganies, the more
varied and picturesque does this charming scenery
become; set off with Understandable effect by the
highly cultivated level plains interpreted ali
sides around The Potomac, ever and anon In
sight, has become a mere rivulet, apparently, no
more important than what "was Goose creek
once'' though "Tiber now" In Pennsylvania
avenue, as, gradually, the surrounding mountains
become higher and more precipitous The effect
Of this lively scenery Is evident I'm the eyes Of all
in our car, who can naturally hnd time for nought
but stretching necks out of the windows Alta
point some thirty miles west of Cumberland we
reach Piedmont, the chief starting out place of
the coal trains; point that would doubtless have
become town Of much importance had it been To-
Gated six miles further east the road leaves the
(there) spacious and smiling valley ofthe Potomac
1t Is at the foot Of the famous grade ascending the
Alleganies to their very top in some twenty-five
or thirty miles. A short delay there exhibited 1t
to US as very busy industrial hive, large num-
Der Of mining and mechanical laboIers ma king II
their home or headquarters. Soon of again, we
now ascend the mountain in earnest, winding
among its crags and cliffs on the Virginia side of
the now Potomac-rivulet rolling merrily down
hill hundreds Of feet below us Most signs of
cultivation soon cease and little meets the eve
save wild mountain and deep gorge views.
Nevertheless, the restless enterprise and indom-
liable energy Of our race soon becomes visible not
only In the magnificent and greatest work Of in
ternal improvement in the world on which we
now journey, but smiling fields on the noun
tain wherever not too rocky or precpitous, and
dams and sawmills with laborers' cottages in
abundance upon the Potomac headwaters far be-
low the level of the rail track, now attest mans
supremacy over the disabilities of nature The
character Of the growth of timber has greatly
changed, and the graceful spruce pine tree of the
North rears its head in all direction on the noun
tain side, perhaps hundred feet above its firmly
embedded roots. We are nigh al the top of the
Alleganies, with the waters Of our own noble Po-
tomac lat honey still by our side by no means as
formidable, however, as Mayor Berret's gutter at
the Intersection of Pennsylvania avenue and
Seventh street after half an hours "right smart
chance" Of rain.
BY the courtesy Of the conductor, am now
riding upon the iron horse itself, the better to
catch views OF the scenery My steed weighs thirty
tuns, yet Is far more obedient to the will of the
driver than half the living steeds at home. In
nothing Is the triumph Of American mechanical
the description Of locomotive used by the Balti-
more and Ohio Railroad COMPANY ON this nortion
OF their vast enterprise. 1t is of the immense
weight Of thirty tuns necessarily to enable II to
drag after itself the immensely heavy trains IL
conducts so swiftly, yet SO safely, I'D the heavy
grades and around the multitude of curves npon
which the rails wind up the ridge and leap from
one craggy mountain top To the next one as Il
were, yet no two-horse carriage in an avenue of
Washington Is more obedi ent to the will of its
driver, than the mountain locomotive and its
train, to the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Com
pany's well-trained engine-driver. How well
trained they must be before being entrusted with
such responsibility as that Of the civil and oblip
ing, smoke-begrimmed Individual who stands
patiently beside me as ] occupy his handy stool
portfolio on knee and pencil in hand, the remark
able exemption Of the Baltimore and Ohio Rail-
road from accidents resulting in injury to life or
limb, tells. We are now at Altamont the high
est point Of the Alleganies traversed-2, 700 feet
above the level Of tide water a dreary, cloud
capped region indeed, though, through the front
windows Of the engine-driver's car, an omen
country on both sides Of the track is yisible-the
glades, upon which we have now entered They
are comparatively level and broad mountain tops
long cultivated, more or less and before the rail-
road brought their advantages into very general
knowledge, famous principal as summer ranges
fer stock, owned and driven to that end from far
below. Our way for many miles lies upon these
gades apparently less interesting than the ascent
to our present elevation.
We reached Oakland, the supper house, shortly
after p. m, and by the light Of bright moon
saw multitude of city people upon the porticoes
OF Its spacious summer hotel and the railroad
platform. brief halt there for hasty meal rem
dered II clear that they were for the most part a
usual watering place crowd clever people in
their way, doubtless, but, nevertheless all well.
nigh dying with curiosity to see who desip ned
adding themselves to the list of the company of
the house: single ladies Of "uncertain age. ),
g. certainly aged;'' younger maidens, bent on
catching beauI; criticizng mamas, whose
tongues are, every one Of them, scaIpel: rompinp
girls from six to ten years old, and children OF
both sexes apparently trained to get in every-
body's way as often possible; to say nothing of
the few OF the other sex visible Fellows Of sixty
weighing from two to three hundred. and suffer
Ing, even at their present altitude, with the mem
DRY Of the heat below from which they ran AWAY.
after the locomotive; and very interesting very
young gentlemen, bent on catching belles-fair
matches In temporary uselessness of their devoted
companions Of the other sex Asa started out To
get away for few days from all city associa
tlons-from the crowds Of such folks one n a city
is surfeited with well nigh from years end to
years end-I journeyed on through the glades,
ten miles further, to Portland to remain over for
a day, among the natives the rough mountaineers
indigenous to this latitude, and, further to catch
brook trout the mean while, II my luck shall not
fail me. WD w
DECISION IN A PATENT CAsK.-Judge Dunlop.
Chief Judge of the Circuit Court, has decided
on an appeal from the Patent once, that Akin.
and Felthouse were the first inventors of the
wheei-feed In sewing machines, ordering a re
issuing Of their patent to James g Wilson, their
assignee. This reissue was opposed by +. Al
Singer Co claiming to have made the inyep-
ton in 1850, while the judge decided that Messr,