The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1869-11-13


who has a fine farm at Port Herman, IN
this county, went down in the same boat
that we did, and returned by the next boat
to Baltimore, purchased a tract of 800
acres. in Middlesex county, near Urbanna,
which he affirms is the finest farm he ever
saw. Tho place, like most Virginia farms,
is of course run down, and will require
proper cultivation and improvement to put
it in the order that all farms should be-
He purchased at his own offer, $1,000 for
the tract. which contains about $50 acres
of cleared land, well fenced and ready for
the pillow, with brick house, built by the
first settlers more than hundred years
ago, who were English several families OF
that people having selected lands at this
point on the Rappahannock, and cleared
and improved the property. There is
fine oyster creek on Mr.. Fears new pur-
cease.
Urbanna, a village of about 300 inhabit-
ants, was the only place we met with in our
rambles in the State, which presented life
like appearance. Here some improvements
were being made, and shingles, in place of
clap-boards, covered the buildings.
All this country possesses excellent water
facilities for getting wood and other pro-
ducts to the Baltimore market, and any
man, who has a few thousand dollars which
he wishes to invest in a farm, and who is
willing to dispense with many conveniences
and comforts, which he can enjoy further
North, could invest in a farm in Eastern
Virginia, which, with judiciously applied
labor would in few years yield him abun-
dance.
The country being thinly populated, and
without villages where trade and popula-
ton centre in more thickly peopled States,
every person appears to be acquainted with
every other person within scope of terri
tory ten or fifteen miles round. Owing to 4
lack of newspapers and business to engross
the minds of the population, a social inter
course is kept up among them, more close
and intimate than in bustling communities
where work, work, work, hurries head long
and claims every thought of the pushing
crowd.
Numerous jokes are INDUCED in by the
whites. at the expense of the colored men,
whose first steps in their new field of citi-
zenship, were in some instances as amusing
as infanile essays in the nursery. Among
several, the following struck us as infinitely
amusing. Aside from the plantation appel
lation of Jake, Jim, or Pompey. the names
of many of the negroes are quite apocry-
phal. But as every man in christian
land is supposed to have at least two names,
the new citizen was constrained to ascer-
tain the appellation he was to answer to on
the registers list and poll-book. One col
ored individual, who answered to Daniel
johnson, Jr., just before the election, was
settling with his employer for some work
done. The clerk, turning to his alphabet
ical list, in order to find Daniels account
on the ledger, when he came to the name,
calculated, "Daniel johnson, Jr., page
no." Mr.. johnson, supposing that by
become lost to him, and that the recovered
treasure had happily again turned up in
..page no. determined to appropriate it
in future. So when he appeared at the
polls with his ballot, and was asked by the
Judge to give his name, lie sung out, Dan
iel johnson, Jr., page no. Jokes similar
to the above are INDUCED in by the chiv
airy, at the expense of the "babes, as
Joe Bigler terms the newly made citizens.
The black men whom we met, seemed to
possess fair share of intelligence, and
some are much better posted i'll knowl-
edgs of politics than is reasonable to ex-
pect from the opportunities they have had.
The casting Of their first vote, was an era
in their lives, likely to be remembered and
handed down to their posterity. Many of
them were at the polls by midnight, pre-
ceding election day, where they waited i'm
patiently for the dawn, and the exercise of
the new power, without which freedom
must prove as unsubstantial as the base
less fabric of a dream. The colored popu-
lation are respectful and decorous to the
whites, evincing no disposition to vaun'
their newly-acquired privileges, but eX-
press a quiet and settled determination to
preserve their rights as freemen.
The provision for education of both white
and colored could not be more meagre.-
We saw several school houses which remind
ed u.s. in their structure and general appear
ance. of the old-time country blacksmith
shops, when logs entered largely into the
construction of walls for buildings. These
cabin schcol-houses had, in place of win
dows, an opening cut through the logs on
the side opposite the door, which was
closed by falling shutter; a precise mod
del of the old style of blacksmith shop
We observed that these primitive school
houses were closed, none that we met with
seeming at the present time to be in use
At Farnham there is neat frame school
house, made attractive and pleasant by
paint and proper surroundings, which was
by far the best specimen of the kind we
met with in this part of the State. There
is a school taught here, but it lays claim to
something higher than common school
a kind of seminary or classical school. We
wore informed it was in a rather languish-
ing condition, the bread question at present
taking precedence of all others in the State.
Eastern Virginia is 4 fine country for
the farmer, the mechanic, the stock-raiser,
and the trader, in soil, climate and water
facilities. but it has been run down to the
last stage of exhaustion, and requires new
population, with modern ideas, some sur
plus capital, and a practical knowledge to
direct and utalize the labor which is at pres
ent there, but wofully unproductive for the
want of proper directing minds. These,
with an additional supply of muscle that
would not shrink from the pillow and the
axe, are the great want which must be sup
piled to this skinned country. The present
inhabitants are social, genial and hospita-
BILE to the utmost of their ability, but they
lack the power to wrought the change
which will make this country blossom as