The Democratic advocate., 1874-05-02
Our 0lio,
LYNCHBURs, VIRGINIA.

Lynchburg lies. At midday strolled out
to survey the town. The September sun
poured terrible heat upon the broad james
River, which, opposite the network of
tracks at the depot, flowed placidly at the
base Of an immense cliff, from whose stony
sides quarrymen were blasting and chisel-
ing blocks for building purposes. A few
RATS and fat-boa,s, steered by bare-armed
and bare-hcaded negroes, drifted lazily on
the stream. Along covered bridge spanned
the water, and glance through its little
windows showed quaint mills and houses
upon the banks, high bluffs, crowned with
humble cabins, were rendered accessible
by precipitous paths and flights of stone
steps and, in the distance, were blue out
lines Of mountains, with tiny cloud -wreaths
around them.
Returning from the bridge toward the
town | came to a wide street, stretching
straight up the hill. On either side were
stone pavements, crowded with negroes
colored children gamboled on the flags
colored mammas smoked pipes in the door
ways Of shops, where colored fathers sold
apples, beer and whisky colored damsels,
with baskets Of clean linen in their stout
arms, joked with colored boatmcn from
the canal colored draymen cursed and
pounded their mules as they hurried down
the hills and colored laborers on the streets
developed one in cloud of suiIoeating dust
us he fastened by. Towmds the water
sloped other streets filed with roomy TO-
bacco warehouses, and with rows of un-
painted dwellings half way up the hill
broad and well-built business avenue cross
cd at right angles, and there, at last one
saw white people, and the ordinary sights
of a city. The plaintive sound of horn
was heard above the hustle Of traffic ; it was
in the hands of negro, summoning to-
bacco buyers to an auction. Entering the
warehouse, one saw hogsheads of the pop
ular herb opened and inspected, and heard
the familiar jargon of the auctioneer.
Turning once more towards the ascent
of the hill, came into an open-air market,
which, for picturesqueness, wed with any
in Italy or Spain. On the curbing of the
sidewalk, aud even on the stones in the
middle Of the square, dozens Of negro
women were seated before baskets con-
tanning vegetables, or various goods Of
trivial description. One venerable matron,
weighing, perhaps, two hundred pounds,
had her profuse chignon overtopped by a
dilapidated beaver, and was smoking a clay
pipe. Many young women were cleanly
and nicely dressed, and had folded back
the huge flaps OF their siarched un-bon-
nets, so that they seemed to initiate the
head-dresses of the Italian maidens at
Sorrento; and hosts of colored buyers,
market-baskets in hand, hovered from one
seller to another, talking in high-pitched
voices, and in dialect which Northern
ears found difficult to understand. Leay.
ing the market, and yet ascending, / came
to another broad street, lined with comfor-
table dwellings, and, looking, saw, still far
above me, the Courthouse perched on
the topmost point
Lynchburg lies ''among the mountains,
on the south bank of the James River,
nearly in the center of the Piedmont dis
trict of Virginia, and not far from the base
of the Blue Ridge. The yirginiaus of all
sections speak affectionately of it as "Old
Lynchburg," once the wealthiest city in
the United States in proportion to its
population, and one Of the most remarka.
BILE tobacco marts in the world Colossal
fortunes were amassed and enjoyed there,
in the days when internal revenue was not,
and slave labor titled the fields; when the
products Of tho Virginian and North Car
Gilman plantations filed its warehouses and
manufactures to bursting, and all Europe
came to buy. An Irish emigrant gave his
name, in 1856, to the town; and the ia
nous term "Lynch law" now so universal,
sprang from the summary manner in which
this hot-headed Hibernian,--a colonel in
the Revolutionary army,--treated such
tories as were caught by him. During the
late war the town did not fall into Federal
hands. The tide Of war flowed all around
it, but never mounted to the summit ofth
reddish hills on which it had safely perched.
Its great natural advantages of situation
will, in few years, increase il from city
of twelve thousand population to huge
over.erowded railway center. Itpossesses
superb and abundant water-power. Coal
is to be had in the immediate neighbor
hood cheaper than in most of the other
cities in the Atlantic States. Two impor-
tant railway lines intcrsect in Lynchburg,
the Atlantic, Mississippi and Ohio, now
connecting Norfolk on the Atlantic with
Memphis on the Mississippi, and destined
also to connect Norfolk and Louisville on
the Ohio; aud the Washington City, vir-
ginia Midland and Great Southern road
which connects from Alexandria, in north
eastern Virginia, with Danville. in the
southern part Of the State, and forms
link in the Great Air Line between the
cities on the Gulf and New York. The
latter road opens to Lynchburg the whole |
Piedmont district, so rich in grains, grasses, |
fruits, tobacco, minerals and timber: The
James River and Kanawha Canal now er.
tends from tide-water at Richmond, about
two hundred miles through the center Of
the State, to point near the base of the