Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1868-01-08
Letter from Loudioun co., Va.

Correspondence of the Alexandria Gazette
IS LEEsRURG, VA !, January 6, 1861 have
made some inquiry about wages, and report as
follows: Womens town 81 per month
and board, for ordinarily coed ones. e
T Good farm hands $3.50 per annum; where
they can be depended or to take care of team
on the road, as on the farm, $3.50, and in some
cases 5000 have been bargained for, but tor
these positions white men are preferred. .z=
II some portions of the county laborers will
only work by the day, and then their wages are
rs cents the year round, except that harvest
wages are given during harvest. !. A gentleman
who has hired in this way says that his outlay
per hand is about $780, The laborer loses all
the time he does not work and his lost time
about compensates for the board he fails to get
while not at work, leaving the annoyance OF oc-
casionally being without labor to be compensa-
ted by the lessons of patience which it inculcates
l note that part of the Shumaker tract,
situated in what may be called the disputed
territory" and containing Isl acres, was sold
| to Mr. Shater, for $3.50. There were 20
buildings on it. call it the disputed terri
tory" because it lies between the A., L. y Il.
R. r., at Wheatland Depot, and the b. q y.
r. e., at Berlin. >FJ
You will remember that 'Wheatland depot is
about 46 miles from Alexandra, and Berlin
about II from Baltimore by railroad, and 81
| from Georgetown by canal, and all the produce
raised between the two points will 60 to the one
or the other according to the prices given.
believe Leesburg alexandria is generally
a better corn market than Berlin, Baltimore
and Georgetown), while Berlin is usually the
| better wheat market
Let your merchants look sharp, make the
personal acquaintance OF these people, and not
depend altogether upon advertisements, though
| they too are very important, and should never
be neglected by those WHO want to increase
trade
A tract of 100 acres, in the Valley, between
the Ketoctin Mountain and the river, without
buildings: sold on Saturday last, for $40 per
acre, G. w. Payson purchaser; and small
wood lot on the mountain for $44-James M.
Walker, purchaser.
All the purchasers are Loudoun men, and
this goes to prove that money matters, IN some
parts of our county, are easy. AL1QUIs
| The FREEDMEN. However frequent the
declarations of interested parties may be, there
has never existed in Virginia, at least, any dis
position to harrass, Cypress, or injure the tor
mer slaves IF left to themselves, both races
would have retained, to a great degree, their
hereditary feelings and affection for each other,
and all civil and political rights which they
could intelligibIy exercise would, by State &C.
tion have been accorded them. But such
settlement did not accord with the views OF
those who had secured political power through
the agitation of the slavery question, and who
saw 10 the future the necessary disintegration
OF their party, unless the negro could still be
retained as it's 'shibboleth. Hence the mo-
tive of Congressional as cOntradstlngulshed
from Presidential reconstruction, and hence the
evils and mischiefs which have for nearly three
years afflicted this unhappy country.
1t will be borne in mind that when Virginia
and other Southern States, with an accurate
knowledge of negro character, passed ''vagrant
laws" copied 10 many instances verbatim from
the statutes of Northern States, the military
authorities were successfully invoked to annul
or repeal them Had these, or similar laws
been enforced, we would not to-day be called
on to chronicle the dep!oraole and disastrous
condition of al our industrial interests nor
would the .''Major General Commanding have
found it necessary to promulg gate General Or.
ders, No. 49, o#~t#
W e believe that Virginia has less cause to
apprehend financial ruin and domestic violence
than any other Southern State, yet, even here,
the demoraziog effects of Radical legislation
are plainly visible, and must greatly retard our
progress towards prosperity. When so large
portion of the population of any country is
withdrawn from the class of producers and ad
ded to the consumers, that country has reason
to dread pecuniary ruin amongst her proprie-
tors, and suffering and violence amongst her
people, Lynch. Neaos.
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