The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1871-11-24
Pen Picture Of a Southern Town.

Blue Ridge country, Va, gives tile ioi-
lowing graphic description OF Virginia
county town:
Twenty-Five years ago young man,
accompanied by his wife, commenced
bookkeeping here. The man is now
dead. but his wife, with two grown-up
boys, still keeps the hotel. The turnl-
ture, with exceptions of " amendments
and mendings' occasioned by the war,
now to be found in the rooms, was
bought by the husband a quarter OF a
century since, and it satisfies those who
use it now as it satisfied those who used
it then. The sign board has been re-
painted once in that time. There were
never any carpets In 1t to be renewed,
except in the private rooms OF the
family; there they have been renewed
by patching and darning, until the
patches and darns have overcome the
original, and nothing but patches and
darns remain. There are broken-nosed
pitchers and cracked wash-bowls in the
bedrooms. The curtains at the win
dows have hung doubtless since the
surrender, and now the smoke of pipes
and the dust of the turnpike begrims
them until the original color is lost.
The bed-clothing is better and more
comfortable than the surroundings
would lead one to anticipate, and is oc-
casionally clean, but the mattresses are
stained, darned and sunken. The dim
ing tables are covered with oil-cloth.
The tableware and cutlery is composed
Of the remnants of dozen or more
purchases or "sets." There is bell
on the roof which sounds the call for
meals. There are two regular boarders.
There are one hundred or more tran
sient guests at dinner on "court' or
other public days" The food is
mainly corn-bread, butter, chicl<ory
coffee, milk, fried chicken, bacon, and
occasionally ham, with fresh beef on
the average twice, and fresh mutton,
once month. As the guests of this
hotel live, SO do the people of the town
generally, except that in some OF the
private houses, whose inmates are eX-
ceptionally intelligent, "things' are
cleaner. There are three stores, in
none OF which can you find greater
luxury in the eating line than box of
French sardines-in truth, Potomac
smelt. There is one blacksmith-shop,
one tailoring establishment, one shoe
maker, one carpenter, one wheelwrlght,
and a .jack-at-all trades. The bar-keeper
at the hotel asks his customers to wait
for thei drains on Sunday morning
while he builds the fire and sweeps out
the church. The undertaken who is
the carpenter and joiner, is also the
county TAILOR. The mail carrier is the
general business agent for everybody at
the railway station, twenty-four miles
away. The postmaster is tailor, and
keeps candy-shop. One Of the two
physicians, an excellent one, by the
way, is the only druggist in section oil
country twenty-five miles square. There
is no local preacher, although in town
OF the same size in Pennsylvania Oh
New York, there would be three OF
four There is no livery-stable. The
merchants keep groceries, calicoes, DC.
&c, such as are to be found in country
stores generally; but when your wife
wants a spool Of floss you must send tC
s. the city" for it. The mails are served
three times a week, and it takes four
and sometimes eight days to write &c
and get an answer from distance o
one hundred miles. Ten or dozen o
the male citizens pretend, with more ol
less success, to cleanliness in thcil
dress, and half dozen OF them have
their boots BACKED every day. Nearly
everybody, large and small, owns a sad
die horse. A few own carriages. There
is only one spring wagon in the towr
You can hear the hum of spinning
wheels in the street. All the men
make and chew homemade or "coun
try twist" tobacco. Many OF the ole
women do the same. The younger wo
men dress with comparative good taste
particularly in the matter of shoes
Everybody calls everybody else captain
colonel, or doctor, on venture, or b,
habit, unless their Christian names ar,
known. There is no newspaper printed
or published in the county. There j
no bank, no money-order office, NJ
telegraph, no market, except for hom
consumption, but few common schools
with fewer teachers, no mending o
roads, no public lecturers or efforts a
public amusement and instruction, n
social gatherings except those Of rela
tives, no associations for the relief O
the poor, no benevolent associations o
any kind, no public libraries, and, il
short, no energy except arrogant prid
in the belief that this county contain
more eminent and able than all Of tn
North com biped