The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1873-01-28

dreams that ghis vacuun,-pafis consume
thousand pounds OF beef muscle o. day, thaf
his customers are found throughout tne
United States, and that he Is destined soon 70
be, if he Il not already, the largest cattle
dealer in the city, and has as anxious an eye
rs any of them for the quotations Of Tue cat
tie markets in Texas and Kansas. Or take
the Presbyterian Committee Of Publication,
on Main street opposite the post-ofhce. NO
body, not even the next-door neignDors;;
have any idea that this house has punished
since The war 100 different volumes, that u
issues monthly over $4,000 copies OF O serial
and weekly, more than 10000 copies OF ah-
other. that it prints paper in the portuguese
language for distribution in south America,
giving employment to hundreds OF men and
girls, ond that all this has grown UP from the
ashes of 1865. These are but samples OF
what is being quietly done in this one city.
COAL IN VIRGINIA.
Within month or six weeks past quite a
number of Enslishmen have appeared in
Richmond looking up Virginia coal-lands.
They say that the late panic in Great Britain
| about coal exhaustion was nothing more than
CORNER" gotten up by mine-owners and
dealers 10 Goa, hut their anxiety to lind new
sources of supply cannot be concealed.
Without exception they all inquire for
| Rogers's geological survey Of Virginia; and
behold characteristic idiotism of our Legs
latrlre in times past There is no survey to
be had. After expanding $780, 900 in having
the survey made by the most faithful aud
competent geologist in the country-this was
twenty years or more ago--our Legislature
of that day refused to pay Rogers decent
compensation for his complete report. and to
this hour the manuscript remains in his
hands, and well-founded grudse against us
in bis heart. Now. when the State is too
Door to buy naii-paring. that report would
be of inestimble value, is eagerly sought
for, but is non est. Isn't this Virginia all
over!
LITERARY.
Professor james =. Ilolcombe, formerly Of
the University of Virginia, now principal OF
the Belle Fue School. in Bedford county,
has in press a work on Medieval History,
covering the periods embraced in Hallain,
but more popularity and cntertainiugly treat
ed. Intended for schools and colleges. it is
nevertheless adapted TO the general reader.
| What a pity it is that Professor Holcombe's
duties rs d teacher are SO ardu0us rs to pre-
vent him from devotiDg his powers to the
composition of n history of the war Glom
worthy of'the name. We have no such his
tory. Pollard, who recently died in Lynch
burg, could hardly he called an ann'list, so
hastily and imperiectiy put together was hi>
work. No one who has heard Professor
Holcombe's Grafton on Lee, or who has read
his Literature in Letters, can doubt disability
to write the history in question. who else
can?
ART MATTERS.
Elder has just completed a cabinet picture
called "Contentment." 1t represents an old
negro man seated in front OF his cabin, with
pigs and fowls around hiul. 1t tells with
minute fidelity the story Of the happy slave
life that will return no more. The warln
coloring, the tranquil face OF the old man,
ignorant Of care, the pig lazily scratching
himself against Il post, oil repeat the con-
tented lot OF former days, which has already
become legend. Sheppard is busy in lin
ishiDg up the sketches made last summer for
Appletons' Picturesque america. Myers Is
illustrating novels for some OF the great
northern publishers.