Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1872-08-10
a TRAVELLING TENNEssEEAN.
Caudle Letters and lectures.

a TRAVELLING TENNESsEEAN.
Candle Letters and Lectures.
Tothe Editor of the Union and American:
The writer was forced to deliver a sort of
| "caudle lecture" to the single, in various
parts of Tennessee and Virginia, a few
weeks ago for the benefit of foreign mis-
sion. lie has thought that few "jottings
by the way" giving impressions of old Vir.
ginia, visited by one of her sons after an alb
sence of ten years, might be interesting to
some of your readers. Going to sleep in
the suburbs of Nashville and awaking next
morning in Chattanooga, is a mode of tray
cling SO little adapted to give a knowledge
If the country that that portion of the jour
ney may be passed over. The visitor to
Chattanooga cannot but be struck with the
rapid growth of the place. | remember
passing night here in SO with large par
ty-an event by the way, long to be remem-
bered by our host, because the cars leaving
with unexpected haste, we did not attend to
the usual solemnity of paying our bills. l
regret to say that the bad impression then
made seems to be lasting, as barber in this
year Of grace ~, positively declines to trust
me ont of his sight until be is paid his little
bill, but follows me over the city while am
getting a note changed. But with
somewhat less vividness than the above
transactions, / think saw but
two, or at most three houses on the site at
that early date. Now it is actually city,
society cultivated, handsome private resi-
dences, splendid stores, regular, streets,
large population, and every prospect of be-
ing an important centre of trade. The
| trains seem to be coming and going every
hour of the day and night. The work
shops are in full blast. Bedlam broken
loose and permanent performance of the
anvil chorus, to the music Of the railroad
whistle will give faint idea of the fuss.
The ladies complain that they havo no COM
| fort, scolding their husbands and families
because they can edge in only few words
between the shrieks Of the cars and the So
luton of continuity Of the lingual flow so
mars the effect that both help and husband
fail to receive discipline. At least if this is
not 50, a crusty Old bachelor has his suspi-
cions that in such din, it might be. a
small but very select and cultivated audi
ence came out, and this with the delightful
hospitalities of Judge Hook will make me
remember Chattanooga with pleasure.
OFF at A. NJ, why do the railroads so
| regularly interfere with morning maps. The
country at first poor, improves as the hours
pass, until forty or fifty miles from Knox
vile it expands into valley to all appear
ance as rich and Eighly cultivated as Mid
die Tennessee.
Knoxville is at first disappointing as a
| city. With almost fourteen thousand in-
| habitants and some of the most splendid
| stores perhaps in America, there are fewer
handsome residences than there are at Co
| lumbia or Pulaski. On the other hand
there seems but little poverty. Like Wash
ington, it is a city Of magnificent distances.
! The extensive interstices between The
houses are judicioUsly improved to the cul-
| tivation Of cabbage and other ecsuleIces.
| In fact after the first slight disappoint-
| ment is over, it strikes US as the most SELL
sible town l have ever seen. Living is
comfortable, everybody gets along, business
/ is brisk and increasing, and the society
makes up in real worth and cultivation for
what it happily lacks in tinsel show. The
! College is in a fiOurishing state, and num-
bers more than three hundred students. A
visit to the Deaf and Dumb Asylum well
repays the stranger. | found the place in
the refux Of the excitement originating in
| the silver wedding Ofthe Presbyterian pastor,
Mr.. Parke. A number of beautiful presents
were exhibited, which testified alike to the
generosity of the people and worthiness of
| the recipients. l am unable to see why
we who belong to the goodly craft of the
single should not have our celebrations as
well. The useful metals of copper and
| iron will well symbolic our worth to a
vain and wicked world. 1t is respectfully
suggested that true judges of merit might
see far more to admire in copper bachelor
of fifty and cast-iron Old maids of three
score and ten than in a silver groom or
golden old bride.
Up at 2 O'Clock for Bristol. If this coun-
try along the railroad was seriously dam
aged by the war, its recuperation seems
perfect. Handsome villages are growing
around the depots, and the agriculture ap-
| pears to be OF the best. happen to sit
near lady between whom and myself an
| acquaintance is formed. Her resigned, suf-
| fering face is itself an Introduction. When
l hear her history become convinced that
We cannot properly appreciate the vast
ness of the misery caused by tue ruthless
wretches who wasted Georgia and South
Carolina unless to some extent we indivi-
| dualize the suil5rings. She belonged TO one
| of the wealthy families of South Carolina.
| Her only child joined the army. Sick or
wounded nearly unto death he was lying in
| a hospital among hundreds in Columbia,
Tenn. A gentleman passed through the
long wards and saw him, and knowing
nothing Of him except what his face told,
took him to his own country home and
saved his life by the unwearied attention Of
himself and his family. She asked me if
had ever heard Of that gentleman, Gen.
Lucius Polk Of Maury county. Her heart
sang still for joy as she wondered why he
had selected her boy stranger from so
many. Years later Shsrman's raid was
made, her plate, handed down in the FAM
ly for generations and worth thousands of
dollars, were stolen, her valuable property
burned, the war closed leaving her with one
OF two thousand dollars. She
devoted this TO finishing the education
Of her son. Ills profession forced
him to live in a region of country
too unhealthy for her. Alone in the world,
she refused the offers Of friends who would
have provided an asylum for her old age,
but supports herself by teaching the accom-
plishments acquired in earlier days. Such
cases, alas, are so common that, as Holmes
says, for one to describe itself is as if
grain of corn, shelIed, ground, bolted, sifted,
would try to indivIdualize itself by sepa
AdtC littLI hLIJu' II leS'iIu5 Vi WIeboA du1 pLUJ
comes over me as l remember that all this
was done, not to shorten the war, but to
make Sherman popular at the North.
1t is getting now towards midday. look
out upon the smiling landscape, and see
from the improvements we are nearing
town. The prolonged below of the engine
confirms the tale. There is a rush, q pause,
and the door opens with the cry OF Bristol.
try in vain to recall the lines of Scott so
appropriate to the occasion; but remember
they are somewhat thus:
Olives there the man with soul so dead,
Who never TO himself hath said,
As home his footsteps he hath turned
From wandering in a foreign strand,
''This here is Old Yirginny."
had some money when left (Confed)
OF which Pm now beTeft, and in the fruit
less search for mora, have become both
Old and poor. have been such a ninny.