The Daily state journal. [volume] (Alexandria, Va.) 1868-1874, 1871-09-14
Grenina State ypnrnal.
Letter from philadelphia.
Correspondence of the State Journal]

..s sa-r PHILADELPHIA, Sept. IL, 1871.
Entering this city by the Philadelphia and
Wilmington railroad, one is surprised at the
amount of building that is going on. Fac
tories and dwellings, are going up by the
block, while great many cheap tenement
houses for the laboring population are be-
ing erected. They cost less than thou
sand dollars each, and yet contain most of
the modern onveniences--water, gas, and
closets; others, on a smaller scale, cost
less than six hundred dollars, and yet they
are neat and convenient, and are rented
low, and still pay better income ON the
capital invested than most other enterprises.
Such houses are much needed in your own
hill city, where the old rookeries pay their
cost in one to three years. Factories, shops
and public buildings are being enlarged and
erected on all sides; in fact, there is more
building going ON than in any previous year.
The machine shops are full of work,
much of it to 60 South, great field that
should be supplied by the works of our
own city. l clip from the Railroad and
Mining Journal, containing the report of
the Mobile and Montgomery railroad, G.
Gordon, engineer and superintendent, in
which he says:
We have added 80 platform and so box cars to
our stock, by purchase. The ''Tredesar Com
pany," of Richmond, Va, furnished us 30 plat
form and 10 box cars, and am pleased to make
special mention of them as being much the best
cars of the kind ever saw.
Nav the time soon come when as much
can be said of many other articles chat
might be made in Richmond. have OBJ
served in different parts of the city foun-
tains erected by the ''Philadelphia Foun-
tain Society, instituted in 1862" They
are generally made of granite, the base con-
taining a trough, for watering horses, about
thirty inches long and twenty wide. On
the walle-side is small one for dogs.
Above the base is short column, in which
is waser-cock. Cups are attached by
chains. The column is surmounted by a
large cast-iron flower vase or lamp, and
sometimes by both. The column bears
suitable inscriptions, such as the name of
the donor-"John Wanamaker" gave one
ga Lady" another. One is inscribed
"Give me drink that | do not perish !"
another, "Give me water that do hot
thirst" What countless thousands there
are, to live and drink at these fountains, who
will bless the donors, and what satisfaction
it must be for the giver to know the good
and pleasure he is doing his fellow-man, and
the brute, and when he lies down to die he
can say that the world is better for his liv-
ing. Have we no such citizens in our good
city? | now have my minds eye on some
who are grasping the last farthing, as
though it was to be taken with them 70 the
world to come, and when they go hence
there will be joy for what they have lett
behind. fi
The street lamps at the corners are pro-
vided with iron open letter street signs, a
great convenience, as they can be readily
read by night or day. AS everybody, citl-
zens and strangers, are supposed to know
the names of the streets in Richmond, no
such signs are required. ~
The almost fiat road-bed of the streets
are noticeable feature the centre of the
street is not fridge ioad,o bordered by
two canals, called cutters in Richmond.
Who could believe, alter viewing the inn
mense piles of coal on the opposite side OF
the river, that less than sixty years ago all
of the coal used in this city came from Che
miues in Chesterfield, Virginia. Such is
the fact, strange as it may appear. At a
somewhat earlier date hammered bar iron,
a as well as pig, was exported to the North
ern country in considerable quantities. The
Dean Moahe,cs' ''privy council held meet
ing and prohibited the farther manufacture
of hammered or forged iron in the colonies.
This was practical protection to home man.
ufacture, such as the home government re-
sorted to till such times as their manufacto-
ries were so firmly established that they de.
fed the world. Should we not as nation
practice what has made them great ? II
seems so to TRAVELLER.