Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1872-04-02

Carson, Whole-SOuleu 1rISnnan VINO now
owns the place, soon made his appearance and
invited me into the paror. This room is adorn-
ed with handsome portrait of Madison, paint
e,i few years ago in Philadelphia, some land
>capes, piauo, marble centre-table, etc. | was
not left long to inspect the parlor, tor Mr..
Carson was all enthusiasm to show me new
force. pump aud to display its power Accnr-
dinghy, he hurried ME to the door opening
upon the front portico, aud there, to my
amazemeut, burst upon US a panorama which
for beauty and extent is scarcely surpassed In all
Virginia The front lawn, extending some
Two hundred yards to large gate and hedge,
disclosed beyond the hedge ample fields thick
set in clover and inclosed in a semicircle Ut dark
green woods beyond which, at distance of ten
miles or more, stretched the mighty wall of
the Blue Ridge Mountains literally athwart
,be whole horizon. Grand and expansive as
the scene was it was chiefly remarkable for the
a..seucc of human habitatious. The forest ap
peared 10 be unbruken to the very base OF the
mountains. CIearings and dwellings there
doubtlesswere III that vast expaHse, but they Were
hidden by the golden haze. Montpelier look
ed forth upon this wide area Of natural beauty
solitary and alone, as might some castle OF me-
,iiaeval times upon barou S broad domaIus.
4
Mr. Carson forced me away from this
splendid spectacle to witness the work
ing Of his new pump Theu | must
see the gigantic chestnut trees, one oi
which was thirty, and another forty,
feet in diameter aud not far away
he led me to a hill overlooking little
deli carpeted with tenderest grass and shaded
by nearly hundred beautiful walnut trees
a'lovely de indeed, where fairies might dance
and reyel. Then to the garden, where we
teasted on grapes, pears aud hgs, and then
back to see the sun 90 down in glory behind
the purple battlements OF the Ridge, the sky
all amber and orange, aud the landscape fading
melting, glooming down through all the tintS
of the spectrum.
The picture OF Montpelier House iu Howe )
Historical Collections is. as have said before
simply execrable. The facade though it does
two hundred and forty feet on the James River.
nor tower alott like the casteated homes OF
the Bruces in Halifax county, is nevertheless
sufficiently imposing for the residence OF a
President, and fits we'll into the magnificent
landscape which it commands The view from
Monticello is no doubt more extensive and
picturesque, but the soft beauty OF the scenery
around Montpelier can hardly be excelled -
The contrast between the rear and front lawns
is most extraordinary, and enhances the
beauty of both. Behind the house you are
secluded from the world 10 hooks aud levels OF
greepery 10 front the world burst upon you
in startling grandeur, but is still the world OF
Nature for the works Of mems hands are
scarcely visible. know nothing like it, uoth-
ing quite equal to it. The house is built to
last for ages There are seventy-two acres IN
the lawns, What i place for a student What
- md of
What summer resort it would make tor
there is no healthier region probably IN the
world. What site for female college or a
select school for boys !''-Lippincott Nugo-
zine
NECESSITY OF SLEEP. Henry Ward Beecher
says: There are thousands Of busy people who
die every year for want Of sleep. Sleeplessness
becomes disease, and is the precursor Of in,
sanity. We speak of sleep as the image OF
death and our waking hours as the image OF
life Sleep is not like death, for it is the pc
riod in which the waste of the system ceases,
or is reduced to it's minimum. Sleep repairs
the waste which waking hours have made. 1t
rebuilds the system The night is the repair
shop of the body. Every part of the system is
silently overbauled, and all the organs, tissues,
and substances are replenished. Waking con-
sumes and exhausts, sleep replaces and repairs.
A man who would be good worker must be a
good sleeper A man has as much force
in him as he had provided for in sleep. The
quality of mental activity depends upon
the quality of sleep. Men need, on an
average. eight hours of sleep day. A
lymphatic temperament may require nine; a
nervous temperament six OF seven. lymphat-
ic man is sluggish, moves and sleeps slowly
But a nervous man acts quickly IN everything.
He does more in an hour than sluggish man
in two hours; and so in his sleep Every mau
must sleep according to his temperament-bu
eight hours is the average. Whoever by work,
pleasure. sorrow, or by any other cause !s regu-
larly diminishing his sleep, is destroying his
life. A man may hold out for time, but the
crash will come, aud he will die. There is a
great deal of intempcrance besides that OF TO.
bacco opium or brandy. Men are dissipated
who overtax their system all day, and under
sleep every night. A man who dies of delirium
tremens is 90 more drunkard and a suicide
than the minister the lawyer the merchant
the editor, or the printer, that works exces
sively all day and sleeps but little all night.
Use OF EELocIPEDEs -Admirers of the We
locpede will be glad to learn that practica
use has at last been found for it. The attempt
formerly made in France to adapt it to the ser
vice of the e,ter-carriers has, We believe, beer
abandoned. But now Spain, where progress
in this way was hardly to be looked for, has
developed resources in the byccle which We
are sure its inventors never contemplated. In
a recent bull fight at Bilbao, vcloclpede wa'
substituted for horse by one of the -picador
with the most triumphant results. Not once
we are gleefully told, was this enterprlslng per
former forced to dismount and both steed anc
rider came out of the combat quite unscathed
Certainly, its practicability thus manifested
the advantages of the velocipede for this spe
cies of amusement cannot be gainsaid. Ii l.
not liable to be frightened or to be unpleasant
ly mangled. and if only similar satisfactory sub
engaged in them, bull fights would become
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