Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1877-12-29
Altfau0ria 6ax&tte
SATURDAY EVENING, deer. %.
as q Field for LabOrers.

Virginia as a Field for Laborer".
EIibu Burrtt, the learned blacksmith, has
written letter to the New York Tribune, from
which the annexed extract is taken:
There is no State in the Unlon that so much
needs industrial population as Virginia. Ihers
is none so near this surplus unemployed Ia6or
that has such great sections CT Wild or wooded
land which should be brought into cultivation.
There is mono with such a variety OF climates,
soils, and natural resources tor every kind q
occupation. A thousand aborers, once on the
Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, could walk to
section fitted for such a settlement IN single
day..
Here, theu, is noble field Of patriotic and
economic enterprise for Vlrglnlans OF means and
elevated motives, who believs all this of their
native State. They can lose nothing by trying
one experiment in the movement. The pro.
cess is cheap, expeditions and simple. Lot
dozen men who would give it a lair trial torn
a home, land and labor company. and pur.
chase, if practicable, 1000 acres OF wooded
| land, and divide it into thirty acre allot
| ments. Then let them advertise IN the sec.
| tons so throDged with unemployed labor
| for fifty or one hundred wood cutters, at
| fair wages, to clear six acres OF each
of these allotments Let them Include two or
three carpenters and joiner5 to direct aud assist
at the construction Of comfortable log house
for each homestead, and central building OF
suitable size for chapel and schoolhouse. Give
these hired laborers who have thus prepared
the allotments for occupation the trst chance
and right to OCCUPY and own them, and partly
or wholly to provision them for six months
with their own wages. Attach 4 fair value to
each homestead thus made ready for its occu
pant, and to all the tools and provisions ad'
vanced to him, and charge fair and paying
rentage and interest upon the amount. Let 1t
be rigidly business transaction, paying ss falr
rate of profit on the capital as apy or Alderman
Waterlow's tenement houses 10 London. Ap
point a resident or visiting agent to supervise
the colony, collect rentage, advise and assist 10
settling any differences. and 10 act 10 aoy re
quisite way for the corporation.
How easy and cheap it would DO to try an
experiment of this small extent. 1t 1t succeeded
others on larger scale would follow. Virginia
could take 10 ono hundred thousand OF these
unemployed laborers and provide such home,
stead for every one Of them, and they would
be wealth to her,
WEBsTER's CoURTsHIP.-The following has
been related as the manner 10 which MI; Weo,,
ster became engaged to his loving and deVotea
wife. He saw her first when he was young
lawyer at Portsmouth, and she was MISS draoo
Fletcher. At one OF his visits be had, proDA'
! bly, with view of utility and enjoyment oceu
holding skeins of silk thread for her, when sud
denly he stopped, sayiog:-
"Grace, we have been engaged in untylog
knots; let Us see if We can tie knot, Whlch
will not unite for lifetime"
He then took piece of tape. and alter Oe'
ginning a knot of a peculiar kind, gave 1t to
her to complete. This was the ceremony and
ratification of their engagement. And 10 tho
| little box marked by him with the words Pre-
cious Documents" containing the letters OF bis
early courtship, this unique memorial Was
found-the knot never united.
To the memory of the lady who won his car
| liest affection, who shared tho trials and the
| triumphs of his early manhood. Mr.. Weoster
retained to the end Of life an unfalterlng devo'
ton. He could never speak of his first Wlia
without visible emotion. Grace Fletcher WeD-
ster was person of very delicate organization,
both physically and intellectually; yet sno was
energetic, and when occasion required she eX
bibited o rare forttude 10 her husbands Vel
fare she was entirely devoted; she presided ovor
his household With peculiar grace and dignity
and really seemed to live for him. When he
was at home che sought his comfort and pleas
ure; when he was absent her thoughts. as her
beautiful letters testify, were OF him day anu
pight. She wrote to him almost daily.
DIRTY EATING HOUSES IN LoNDoN.-El 1.
mund Yates writes :-"Will somebody tell n>c
whv the fish restaurants of London are th'
I6lthiest eating places in the world? l shudder
at the sight OF an oyster ever since looked oc
hind the bar of an oyster shop, and saw the oirty
water in which the bivalves are kept, and IN
which they are dipped again to clean them
4 Jo lpoup m fhnrn
is ANYBODY left 10 the world who likes supper;
but know do for change. Supper sug,,
gests fish, and it is impossible to have a good
6sh supper except in ones own house. Ii IS
IimpossibIe even at club, unless ordered be-
fore hand. Woe to the wretch who ls weak
enough to 20 into the taverns devoted to shell
| fish Dirt and discomfort everywhere, and the
| onnression Of the most poisonous gas that 10
two minutes produces furious headache, You
have to sit on narrow ledge of wood, called a
henob: before you narrow board, called ta
| ble. And, oh, the dirty table cloth, the sticky
knives, the disabled cruets, the Jumps CT putty
which they call bread, the salad which has 6eeh
I dug out of the dust hole, and the lobster "nich
/ has been cut open with 6shy knlte used 'or
Iskinning soes
THE CoLoRED RAcE.-Io letter to the
Cncippati Commercial H. Y. ked6eld refers to
the decrease Of the colored race in the South.
He says: ,,u,
I lit is doomed race in America, but the
doom is long way off. Of one thing you may
be sure, the increase under the slave system
amounting to 25 per cent. every ten years WI,
never be seen agao. The census of 1881 VII
learn Us a number of things as to this problem
the main one, in my judgment. beng that INT
own. own as compared with the last census, but tb
increase @ will be very small, if any. We have
striking evidence of what to expect even IN tn
csnsus of 1870, embracing some four years
slavery and six of freedom. From 1850 to lo6
the Increase among the blacks was 25 per cent
From 1860 to 1870 it was only 10 pei. cent les