Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1872-01-19
Correspondence of the Courier-Journal.j
CHRISTMAS In VIRGINIA.

Correspondence OF the CORRESPONDENT
CHRISTMAS IN VIRGINIA.
THE HORN FRENzY-A copIAcoRNU IN RICH
MoND-EGG-NoGs, APPLE-ToDDIEs, &C., sc.
A Merry Letter.
RICHMOND, Jan. +, 1872
The public must have been amazed at the
tone ofthe Richmond journals during Christ
mas week. They were furious their edi-
tors were raving mad-and all about par
Gel Of children's Irons. Now I like horns
all sorts of horns-and the blowing of
horns is my delight. Of course I was de-
lighted on Christmas day, when ten thou
sand times ten thousand horns were being
blown at.the same time. How it has come to
pass nobody knows, but within the past three
years Christmas horn blowing has become a
Richmond institution Everybody under
forty buys horn and blows it as long as he
can fetch breath Then he stops, and then
he begins again. The effect is very fine
To add to it, the church bells, fire bells,
dinner bells, auction bells, and COW bells.
and all the steam whistles ought to b, set
going, and then, I think, the Richm INC
people, including myself, would be perfectly
happy. Let the editors go to the devil
What have they got to do with it? Any
how, we had last Christmas Day such anoth-
er footing, hootiug, and trar-traring as
would have done your heart good.
Kline, the toy-dealer told me he sold six
dozen of speckled horns between breakfas.
and dinner. How many other sorts OF horns
ne sold, heaven knows went t. Mr.. Pc
terkiu's church. About twenty boys collect
ed on the church steps md footed and trar-
trared ill they drowned the minister's voice
and vestryman had to come out and drive
them away. On my return home I met
friend who seemed plunged into the deepest
melancholy. said. to cheer him. sThis is
Christmas in a horn" He stared at me
stonlly, and answered never word Poor
man! He was an editor. Next year we intend
to have bigger and better horns and heap
more of them. If the Richmond boys hal
been inside Of Jericho on certain occasion,
they would have outblown those fellows
with rams horns SO far that they would new.
er have been heard from. They would I'M
doubtedly have blown the Jews clear out of
Canaan, clear back into Egypt. SAL
RICHMOND THE TERMINUS -
Why the amiable and sanguine editor of
the Dispatch should have been frantic over
few horns when his hearts desire had been
accomplished, it is hard to tell 1t may be
that, being boy now, he never was boy
when he ought to have been boy Yes,
Richmond is to be the terminus Of the Ches-
apeake and Ohio railroad, and the Dispatch
is in ecstasies- barring the horns. Mr..
Huntington says that the atmosphere at
Yorktown and Newport News is too humid
for wheat, tobacco, silks. ETC., aud malari-
GUS for human beings, and SO he has bought
for hundred thousand dollars one hundred
and fifteen acres Of Franklin StearLs' land,
just below Rockets, and thereon he will
build his great shops, depots, warehouses,
elevators, &C., &c By singular coinci
dence, the tunnel throug Church Hill is to
cost the city hundred thousand dollars
more that the contractors originally offered
to build it for. Nevertheless the city has
made good bargain, and it will be Rich
msnd's own fault if she does not become the
SlooSoeI lop"cco duu "uedO naIhet vi tue
Atlantic coast,
THE FUNDING BILL.
When. in my last letter, said that it was
doubt er the funding bill would be
MAJ ma .aaIoI l1anged, I was very far out of
members took the city NJ Is, the country
islature completely by surprise, and carried
things by storm.
Apropos Of the Funding Bill and bribery,
hard bit at the Legislature of last winter
is quietly running the rounds. It appears
that party, who had his own reasons for
making the inquiry, approached Pennsyl-
vania railroad man in Philadel phia, % and
asked him fatty whether his company intend
ed to spend any more money in Richmond
this winter
"No, sir; no emphatically no." was the
excited reply.
"Why not p
"I'll tell you why, sir The members Of
the Pennsylvania Legislature are gentlemen.
sir-perfect gentlemen. You don't have to
bribe them bat once, but" (bringing bis fist
in virtuous indignation down upon the ia.
ble) ''those id scoundrels in Virginia
have no more conscience than hog and
you neuer know when you are done buying
them"
The Penpsylvanians spent money freely
last winter and may attempt it again, but if
they do, their success is questionable, so
wholly different is the complexion of the
present Legislature from that Of its prede-
cessor.
Christmas was the holiday of the horn
blowers. but on New Years Day the old
gentry had their revenge. In spite of mud
and muck and mist and mire and rain, the
hacks rolled, the umbrellas we're lifted on
high, and there was general turn out Of
lawyers, doctors, brokers, merchants and, in
| fact. everybody but preachers. Gentlemen
of seventy and upward we're seen long after
dark hobbling about from house to house,
and it is the unanimous opinion that, if the
day had been bright, the toyp would have
gone mad. Quite so much eggsnog, APPLE
toddy, sherry, coffee, chicken salad, picked
oysters, pretty wemen and fine clothes / new
er saw in one day, and bad day at that.
Next morning there was general inter
change of experience. "Well, Ned, old
fellow, how do you feel p
Rocky, very rocky. Made seventy-two
calls. by actual count; drank two glasses Of
sherry at each house. and got tight as bazes
How did you come out 2
Illustrate Stood my ground like man
till about 9 o'clock, when ] found myself at