The Daily state journal. [volume] (Alexandria, Va.) 1868-1874, 1872-01-02

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proud as we are of our national cognomen.
But no portion of our country, unless it be
General Blair's own Missouri, with her
boundlcss stores of varied mineral wealth,
would be so blessed by setting all its poor
at work upon the growth of its own lands
as Virginia. A discriminating writer, who
in August last traversed large portion of
the gold region of the State, in company
with three eminent mineralogists, in the
course of an article in the December NUM-
Der of Ha,per's Aagasine, says: ,asl
To give any adequate description of the mine
raj wealth which Virginia contains, would be
not only to infinitely describe every rod of her
entire length, embracing hundreds of miles, but
TO enumerate almost every mineral of value
hitherto known among mankind. 1t is not in
gold alone that she labounds-but, scattered in
profusion over almost her entire surface are TO
be found iron, "copper" silver, TIM tellurium, lead,
platinum, cinnabar, plumbago, manganese, as
bestos lSaolin, slate, clay, COAL roofing slate. of
the greatest durability. marbles of the rarest
beauty, soap stone, sulphur, TOMBSTONE, equal to
to the best Turkey, gypsum, lime, copperas, blue
stone, grind. stone, cobalt, emery, and q variety
of other materials that we have hitherto been
compelled to import or to do without. Indeed, it
may be said, without exaggeration, that in the
single State of Virginia, in the most singular jux
opposition of what might be considered geologi-
cally incongruous materials, is to be found an al
most exhaustless fund of God-given treasures
more than enough to pay Off our whole national
debt, and only awaiting the magic touch of CAPT
tai and enterprise to drag them to light for the
benefit of man.
The Republicans of, New England and
the Middle States would make all her peo-
pie comfortable, happy, and intelligent, in
the homes of their fathers. We of Penn
sylvania will welcome them to generous
rivalry in every branch of industry to
which we have devoted ourselves. In this
age of iron, fire is force, and Virginia is I'M
derlaid by the purest fuel. If she wishes
to leave her rich gold and silver mines in
all their wealth to posterity, let her rival
us in contributing to the needed supply Of
iron and steel for the exhausted South.
Her kaolin is equal to any in England, and
why will she not lessen our dependence on
that country by building up an American
Staffordshire, and embodying in porcelain
the conceptions of American art? And as
the product of the quarres of New Jersey
and northeastern Pennsylvania have driven
British roofing and school states from our
northern market, why will she not send
hers to erory market in the South?e The
country would be none the less powerful
or respectable if every child in that section,
however black, were expert in the usesof
the slate and pencil, or if their now squalid
homes We're embellished, as are those of
many of the working people of the North
by ornate brackets, shelves, nantes, pier
slabs, and table, bureau, and washstand
tops of what everybody but The eonnois-
seur and expert mistakes for porcelain,
mosaic, or Spanish, Egyptian, rcd and green
Pyreneese, .verd-antique, Sicnnese, por-
iphyry, brocatol, or other marbles, but
which are produced at little cost from the
slate Of Lchigh county. g