Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1877-06-20

country than all means yet employed tt
that end. We saw young men IN this
trip who learned something. There
were scores Of impressive lessons in thu
incidents along the route and at tht
public places in Washington. For {
few dollars. 900 people saw at Harper'i
Ferry what Thomas Jefferson, the thirt
in rank Of men, thought worth q triI
across the ocean in the days Of slow
sailing and p~erilous navigation. Then
there were the trains, the canal boats
and Potomac steamers running anG
plying up and down in such rapid sue.
cession that one could not fail to notice
how instructive every thing was to tbs
large number who had never before beer
out Of the world Of their own town
o. county. I tell you MI. HERALD,
take i man from home to Washington
and he vii be able to realize in his
mind that there is a New York. a
London, a Paris. and such like. that
excel Woodstock more than two OF
three times in population and improve
ments. Ifthey never get any further
than the excursion limits. the world will
be a hundred times larger to them and
their views of men and things cores
pondingly liberalized. Hence we say
encourage excursions. Hush up the
talk and gush about the money they
drag out Of the county )" for even as an
antidote for such a silly idea as this the
excursion will be efficacions. Some
thing may be learned of production and
consumptlon.-that the volume Of
currency is larger by several times than
some rich fellow among US has in hand,
that money must and will circulate,
and that the measure Of a dollars value
is exactly what it will buy. Indeed it
is about this peculiar agent, Money,
that most men know the least, and they
cannot be educated in respect to it
without the usual outlay of cash. Did
it ever occur to you, Mr.. HERALD, that
If every mar understood the functions
Of this thing called money, that every
man would be a statesman; and that so
far as government can bestoW blessings
the happy ea,thly millennium would be
with us? 1t is a fact, sir. q fact, that
when we know money, we know govern
ment, and we can never become init
mately acquainted with the one nor
understand the science of the other till
we learn to spend the dollar iudiclously.
There is a wisdom which the Gold Of
Ophir nor Topaz of Ethiopia cannot
buy. but there are many chance times in
the ordinary life when a man may
purchase fifteen shillings worth Of sense
ifhe will put the money down on the
right number. There are really no
blanks among the tickets in the great
lottery Of lite i holders will only do as
the boy when the mule kicked him
three times, viz learn something every
time.
But, Mr.. Editor, leaving this line Of
elevated and sublime thought superin-
duced by the excursion and It's con
comitants, principally the latter. there
are many smaller things which may be
picked up along the line. We saw
some fellows who learned that the old
plan ofcourting in public by hugging
your sweetheart and sleeping on hel
shoulder, Rough by far the best yet
devised, is entirely out Of vogue. We
saw a Young man at the Washington
House learn as quick as lightning that
Chow-Chow is not to be taken in large
doses. We saw six or eight young men
passing a glass Of ice tea around then
table, tasting it, and they all voted il
good, wondered why the fellow left it,
and said they would all take ice, tea. We
saw 103 Of our good shenandoah people
at n hotel, with nearly all Of them tc
breakfast at the same hour. and fully
half bowling like so many wolves
because the yictuals were not all on tbs
table. Some swore they wouldn't wait
another minute. while others had heard
before that, that hotel just put dowI
the prices to catch them and stuff then
with napkins and dishes. Most o
those fellows understand now that tc
get a warm breakfast it must be cooked
after the order is given, and that tht
interval can be more proftably en-
ployed in reading a paper, than bolster
ously advertising among the guests th(
number of cocktails taken before
breakfast, Or how little they knew be.
fore they got the cocktails. We think
sir, that those of our excursionsts who
got no further than this breakfas
came home with a pretty square five
dollars worth Of knowledge, to say
nothing Of the requirements of thost
two young men who learned at tn
Office that they must pay two dollars
a day, Notwithstanding they thought t.
get off at half price by sleeping in on
bed and dividing their meals between
the hotel and a peanut stand.
But, Mr.. Editor, we all saw tn
capital building, its congressional halls
its numberless rooms and magnificen
internal and external beauty. We say
all the Department buildings. Smith
scnian Institute, Botanical Gardens