The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1878-02-14

may still be seen the works thrown mp by
Juhal Early for the Yankees who came not,
were clustered the. buildings on the FAN
Ground, and near by, in a large oak grove,
the Miller Orphan Asylum. ! Miller's will
was for years the business OF the courts. and
a goodly share Of the money went 70 the
lawyers, but it is to be hoped that the object
! OF his benevolence will yet get share and
that at least it will be needed warning to
capitalists i. ~ ST. ss5 ifl +.
ITO give
Money to colleges while you live
To the eastward, the hills sloped off grad
ually to the plane, while. to the westward
were Tobacco Row and the Blue Ridge,
with their charming tints illumined by the
rising sun, and the twin Peaks of Otter tow
ering up into the clouds thirty miles away.
Coming down the hill along the streets
cut through the decomposed rock, we passed
numerous tobacco factories where in sum-
mer may be heard the quaint Groom OF eccen-
trio hymns sung by the cheerful negroes over
their toll. Lynchburg has about forty OF
these factories which send out annually some
seven or eight million pounds of tobacco. and
from which come much OF the city's wealth.
Tobacco made Lynchburg the richest city
per capita before the war, and has since re-
built many fortunes and created new or es.
The brands OF Carroll Lone Jack and ARM
staid's Occidental bright leaf smoking to-
baccos are famous throughout the world.
This leaf, which, says King, ''has ensaved
30 many thousands, and promoted such a
sublime disregard for the prophecies. in the
matter Of expectoration, constitutes the
great staple of trade and conversation and
employs great share of the $4,000 inhabi-
tants of which Lynchburg boasts. From
fifteea to twenty millions pounds are brought
in by rail, canal and country wagons (often
with various animals in the team, harnessed
sometimes with rope ends and grape vines)
and annually Inspected in the huge ware
houses which are daily thronged by buyers
from all parts Of the Union for the firm,
silky, bright leaf Of Virginia is in great de-
mand and commands & higher price than
| the staples ofany other State. One of Lynch
burg's characteristic sights and sounds is
the old aproned negro and the mellow notes
of long tin horn by which the tobacco sales
are announced.
We passed too, a neat. even handsome
public school house, which did not escape the
| notice OF my observant companion and
prompted more inquiries about educational
| matters than was competent to reply to-.
1 could tell bin but little more than that the
free schools OF Iynchbnrg had flourished un-
der such excellent superintendence as to win
| high commentator from Dl. Ruttner and
| that ample educational facilities had been
accorded to the colored children until the
past year or so, when had understood they
had fallen into neglect, due possibly,to some
extent at least, to the misappropriation OF
| nearly half a million OF the State school fund,
which had shortened the session throughout
the State and otherwise crippled the system.
The quaint, picturesque old market on
Bridge street, near the Post Office, SO hap
1 PLY pictured in e.Scribnet's Magazine by the
iacile pencil Of Sheppard, had become thing
/ o. the past and IN its stead we found down
main street on the bluff overlooking the riv-
I er a neat, fresh looking, we'll drained and
4 well ordered brick edifice that we thought
spoke well for the municipal administration
Still descending the hill which seemed to
1 incline at al angle OF forty-hye degrees, we
came at its base to long lines of boats stran
| ded in the canal, crossed the network OF
II railroads bordered by machine shops, depots,
and offices, and soon stood on the river bank
where Blackwater creek, one part mud and
the other two parts water, mingles with the
James. pointed ont the extensive furni-
ture and other factories below and the erisi
and saw mills, rolling mills and other man.
ufacturies above, to my companion, who in
| quired
s'How deep is the river -
eft averages about four feet or a little
OVER replied.
ssAnd about 600 feet wide" he continued
4 'sWhat is the fall ~
4 SIN the 145 miles to Richmond it falls IL;
feet, s. replied, sand in the 80 miles between
here and the Blue Ridge, 1913 feet, at Gov
I ington. on the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad
it is l24G feet above tide"
.sHotchkiss UNDERSTANDS the facts ther
when he says that 100000 horse power o
water runs to waste in the James river,
4 said the New Yorker. tit is pity that tn
canal was constructed so near the river lev
Tel. They evidently did not know the yalu
Of water then. Do you know that waite
: power at Lowell, Mass, rents for dollar
day per horse power? Why, one mill ther
} pays 1000 annually water rent, and ha
4 to keep a steam engine to supplement th
\ water when it gets low. Virginia is rich i
i. water power, but Lynchburg is PARTICULAR
happy in the accident of its situation. Here
:, as far as can see is power enough to NEE
the necessities OF century. The canalIful
: nishes cheap water transportation. The wv
railroads connect the city with the seaboare
# the Northern markets, the South, and til
n West. can see car loads and piles Ut cOtto
5 at the depot. L read from Hotchkiss an
, ;Bramhall that all this surro unding countr
is .traversed by veins OF hermatite, limonit'
specular. magnetic and other iron ore
: fully as rich as those worked in Pcnnsylva
III MA, anu Uudt LIE COdt HcteS VI ASWHuiVsi'
i Farmyille, Dan river, Southwest Virgin
J, and the Valley lie near at hand on three sid
;. of her, while timber is in great abundanc
. Labor is evidently plentiful :and cheap, an
/ suppose as good as the average. If Lync
: burg is not great manufacturing and trat
e centre with three fold her present veal
n and population within ten years it will
:. on account of the most stupendois folly al
y mismanagement. There would seem to |
IL enough capital, intelligence and actiyi
t. here to find as much wealth in these waite
IL as if they flowed from the quartz gulcles
=, California s
y My companion would have extended o
yamble farther. but | had already taxi
y more exercise than was accustomed to
III fond of before breakfast, and our watch
in admonished, to return. So we toiled
:. Bridge street, which, except for an occasG
~ al large brick warehouse of recent erectio
T. was list as Edward King described it 10
I'd wears ago. son either side were $40
pave ments, crowded with negroes, color
IN children gamboled on the flags; color
- mamas smoked their pipes in the doorws
Ut Of shops, where colored fathers sold appl
It. beer aud whisky; colored damsels. W
H. baskets of clean linen in their stout arr
az ioked with colored boatmen from the can
10 colored draymsn cursed and pounded til
1nt,o in, Ia