The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1871-03-16

run. I he sum of 300 900, at 6per cent
and it would be worth more when 10 unre-
strained circulation--would be !$106,OOO-
Adding the interest on the 100000 to the
principal, without compromising and it would
give us, at the end of the 20 years, two mil
lions, one hundred and twenty thousand dol
lars CO, 120. o0o) saved by the simple benefit
IN freiehts. Suppose the county subscribes
the 5000 600, the bonds running 20 years,
with interest at 6 per cent, payable annually,
The whole amount. principal and interest,
would only be s440 ,000-or an actual saving
to the county, in that period of time, Of
ST $50, 900; and that, too, upon the hypoth-
esis that the stock Of the company would be
worth nothing
We might enlarge the basis of this calcu-
lation, by including the new created wealth
incident to the construction Of the Valley
, Road, and thus augment the benefits, meas
urcd III dollars aud cents, to an almost unlim-
| tied amount But we will not consume more
space in an effort to prove proposition that
two moments thought, on the part of any
man whos knows his multiplication table, ought
to satisfactorily demonstrate.
If the arguments we have presented have
any force, in favor of the Valley Railroad,
they are, then, equally applicable to the Shen-
andoah Valley Road. The benefits will be
equally as multifarious and enlarged, and we
have designed that both should be included,
although we have not especially directed at
teation to the latter enterprise. If the prem
ises we have taken, as to he one, are correct,
then they apply with equal force to the other.
This is the last editorial article we expect
to write on this immediate subject, for it is
the last time the people of the county will be
called upon to act upon the question of sub
scription to the enterprise in question If
they decide against it, they will have deter
mined to throw the Valley of Virginia back
in material progress at least ten years. They
will have placed their veto on the construc-
ton of tho Valley Road and cut themselves
loose from the sympathy and cooperation
CT their sister counties Of the Valley for all
tine to come They will have spurned the
advances of the city Of Baltimore and the
Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company to as
sist IN laying great national throug hfare
through our section. They will have laid it
down as rule Of their action, that while
they are willing our sister counties shall be
taxed to support institutions which, in Pc
cunlary sense, only benefit us, they are not
willing to join with them in an enterprise
which is mutually beneficial and desirable
They will have endorsed the principle of sell
fshness and narrow-mindsdnes in painful
contrast with the conclusions Of an enlight
ened public sentiment, and which may, in
time to come, return to sorely plague them.
We leave the subject, conscious Of having
honestly discharged our duty as a journalist,
in an effort to promote the general good of
the county, advance her prosperity, and place
her upon the highway to material develop
ment and wealth. We have followed our
convictions Of right, after mature reflection,
not considering whether they were in harmo-
ny with the wishes of this or that man. or
whether they were popular or unpopular
We do not seek public favor, when it has to
be gained by subordinating what we believe
to be duty to the public interest, nor have we
any great respect for that public sentiment
which has not, as one of its controlling elc-
ments, an intelligent appreciation of the
spirit Of the age and the benefits of commu-
nifty. Before we would follo,c what might be
thought to be popular, or seek to ring ia with
the current, for fear Of offending an in
famed prevailing notion, we would hire a
dray and dump this printing Office into Lewis
creek, and commence the honest but humble
employment of breaking rock on the turn
pike for a living.
THE NATHAN MURDERER.-The Boston
Traveller says that letter from Nantucket,
of the 18th, states that the people there are
very much exercised over what many regard
as the discovery of the Nathan murderer. A
strange man, answering to the published de-
scripton of Forester, has been on the island
a week or more, endeavoring to hire house
for himself He makes no secret, however,
of his movements. The people proposed to
secure him on Saturday.
The Lexington Gazette has this fgurative
way of charging somebody with stealing the
substance of its editorials:
TO mould mans ammunition over to
suit your gun, without giving him credit for
owning the lead, is mighty rough"
The custom is becoming most too common,
especially in Virginia, of drcaping up some
body else's ideas in different verbiaee, and
passing them off as original. 1t would look
better to give the proper credit.
President Grant, in his annual message to
Congress last December, set forth as part of
the policy Of his Administration reduction
Of taxation, economy in the disbursement of
Il r. ~