Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1875-09-21
Virginia.
A correspondent of the WASHINGTON Cbroni-

Gle writing from Potomac City says:
After twenty years absence, l find myself
traveller on my native heath, and am strongly
moved to feel like old Rip, thst "can it be when
we are gone, we are so soon forgotten H' In
olden times our State WAS the great source from
which young slaves were drawn to fill up the
working force in the great cotton belt. where
hard labor and disease SO decimated the ranks
yearly, IS to keep up the price, thus stimulating
productions of the great staple of that State. In
those days, not to own slaves, was bar to all
good society. Here and there q young man
would rise even without the niger, but he was
the exception and not the rule
Another feature of the olden times I miss is
horses, champing for the fray the eager sleek
hounds, waiting to be let loose; oftentlmes the
scene enhanced by the sudden appearance of
beautiful ladies, nounted on superb horses sit
ting queenly as ladies of no other cline could
do, sll eager to witness the chase
might go on for hours just recting these
scenes and customs pertaiLing to the good old
days, when Cotton was King and Virginia de.
| voted her energies to produce strong laborers
for the cotton fields. Reared as your CORES
pondent was under such institutions, no wonder
the present looks strange Then it WAS q dis
grace for white man to work; now disgrace
TO be idle. Then white lady was expected to
live in genteel Incidence; now the most genteel
try to see who can make the best bread Then
the farms were left to overseers whose best rec
ommendation was their ability to get the most
| work, without killing the laborer; now the la
| borer is his own master Then tobacco was the
| principal production Of the earth; now, wheat,
| corn, oats and other cereals, and mixed hus-
bandry generally prevails; then u very few fruit
| trees, ever kept near the house. so as to keep
| negroes from stealing tho fruit now thousands
of acres OF the fncsG varieties of fruits are found
everywhere
| In fact, the whole system has changed In the
change many farms have gone into forests !;
| many families broken up-homes desolated by
the rsvages OF war; many Promising young
men lost to the country in the tratricidsl slaugh-
ter over the slave question; but may we not
hope the future may prove that in the end the
nation will be the gamer.
| was strangely impressed with this change as
we glided down the Potomac At Mt. Vernon,
Quaker, of Chester county, Pennsylvania,
owns almost to the very door of the old mansion,
SO sacred to all true Americans, directly oppo-
site whore Chief Justice Marshall used TO enter
tam so sumptuousjy at Marshall Hail. now own
| ed by Pitts burg men, and the farm great
peach orchard. Just below on the Virginia
side, on the old Fairfax estate, where the young
he issued from as Colonel Of the militia of the
Northern Neck, is now owned by u German,
and The Old castle has now gone into decay.
just across The beautiful bay, where old Gov
ernor Mason and Fairfax used to exchange WIS.,
its. and where Mason built Gunston HALT too
is in Northern hands-we were attracted by q
beautiful vineyard. On entering it, l found it
had been made on gravelly point supposed to
be worthless, and yet the finest grapes I have
seen for years, growing in grand profusion, the
property Of Northern man. Just below him,
an Italian villa peeps through the forest.
| found it to be the luxurious home of Wiscon.
sin man, DR.. Lewis, who has q place good
enough Tor q prince. But to cap the climax,
Colonel Daniels, formerly State Geologist of
Wisconsin, actually invaded the old Mason
mansion. and lives in il in true Virginia style,
(of the improved pattern) Here he is in the
midst OF great profusion Of fruits, the fields,
once given up to tobacco, now great fruit Or
chsrds, numbering many thousands-and the
ancient home, loo years DID, still well preserved,
is now one OF comfort, elegance, culture, refine
ment-such q change is wonderful.
A little lower down, on the opposite of the
river, was fashionable resort for the elite of
Washington; here i'll the palmy days of slavery
the young bloods took their sweethesrts for q
| glorious moonlight party-now owned by Chi.
cago men, and will be changed as the men of
that FAST city do things, 80 that its former owner
| would soon not know it.
| little lower down is Potomac City; here q
| lot of Mich ganders had the impudence to sp-
propriate the head Of navigation in winter, and
build commercial city, on sacred SOIL having
| as they claimed 81 feet water to the ocean They
propose to make it a great coal wharf, for the
Atlantic coast. Here they expect the cannell
| coal OF Kentucky, by Way of Abingdon, to
reach market and they mean business.