The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1865-12-14


-. - - 81 :.
IT sussIr does seem + little strsngs, that Of
ali the energy now being displayed In the Re.
building Of this city, 20 little should b direct
ed toward the establishment and re-establish-
ment of manufactures. Banks, Insurance
companies, transportation companies and
merchants Of all kinds are at work at recon-
struction with zeal, Of which Richmond may
well feel proud. Commerce has far outstripped
the mechanic arts. seH ~
There were before the fire many foundries,
iron works, saw mills, grist mills, paper mills,
&C., extending from the arsenal all along the
canal and adjacent streets down beyond the
limits Of the tire. OF these very few are being
rebuilt. III
This, as before said, seems strange, because
II ever city seemed marked out especially
for great manufacturing centre, this Is that
city. Its numerous advantages make it SUI
perior to any city in America for that pur-
pose-a fine healthy site, with fertile and
productive back country, well able to sustain
a teeming population-water power abso-
lutely without limit. Five railroads meeting
here, in addition to 4 canal and the river, Of
fer cheap and rapid transportation both of
the raw material and the finished product. In
points, very near the city, and communicate
with it two by railroads and one by the canal.
The iron mines of Virginia inferior to none)
finding their natural market here. And, in adj
dition to all this, it has the whole South to
supply, as there Is now no manufacturing
point south of this. If all these advantages
were to exist in any one village in the North,
| in ten years that village would be great city,
with it's thousands of busy hands at work and
it's ponderous machinery steaming and thump-
ing and roaring ont the hymns OF labor from a
hundred iron throats. '.st-
There are fine sites for great workshops all
through the lower part Of the town. There is
room for many a noble one between Tredegar
and the pump house-aye, and above that, too.
Belle Isle, that might be covered with them,
has only one, a very Robinson Crusoe Of a
| nail factory, working on the island all alone.
To be a manufacturing city at last must be
the destiny of Richmond. It should now be
its aim. Some of us will yet live to see the
time when its whole waterside will ring with
the sound of it's anvils and the whirr of
it's countless wheels. But no,o we are
doing nothing; and no,o is the vital time. Old
James river, night and day, calls to us with
the voice of his mighty waters, and bids us
come and harness him, and let his giant
strength be spent in labor for the wealth and
power of Virginia. Hang the heaviest wheels
upon him. He will turn them. But now he
is only wearing away his rocks.
THE VOLUNTEER MILITIA.-Governor Peir
point, we understand, has commissioned CO.
lionel Thomas p. August as adjutant, with the
rank of first lieutenant, and this officer will
| at once proceed to organize a company of vo-
! 49,. NNa<l -,
" Richmond Light Infantry Blues" No one
will be allowed to join who has not taken the
GA tn of allegiance to the Constitution of the
United States and the restored Government of
Virginia. The name selected is suspicious, and
will secure its speedy success. accompany in
the South dated its organization SO far back,
or numbered in its ranks so many prominen,
men, or enjoyed so wide q popularity, as the
old Richmond Blues The company yo-
| lunteered in the late war at the outbreak OF
| hOstilities, and of the one hundred and four
men carried into the service, only seventeen
| escaped the sad misfortunes of the bloody con.
| fict. Captain o. Jennings Wise was killed al
Roanoke Island, and Captain Fred. Carter in
one of the battles with the Army of the Poto
mac. Captain Charles p. Bigger received q
severe wound in the left shoulder, and was il
command of the company at the close of thu
war The organization Of this old company re
vived will doubtless take place at an early day
! ORDINARY LICENsEs-It may save som,
trouble to persons making application befor,
the Hastings Court for licenses to keep ordi
naries to know that they are required to show
that they have accommodations for travellers
rooms and beds in which they can sleep, ant
stable room for horses. The State law upon thu
subject requires that the Court shall not Ii
cense any person to keep an ordinary who