The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1878-08-08

six feet high, We climb the hill over
loose stones, and through occasional
streaks of wet mud, caused by the trick.
ling of some tiny stream. Oh top Of the
hill we find broad street grown over
with grass, with cattle grazing in it,
through which runs another narrow
path, just wide enough for one man to
walk in. AS we went on, noticed the
houses-generally stone--on either side.
Many of them had windows broken and
gaping, and all showed sac need Of re-.
pairs. Nearly every yard, like the stseet,
was grown up in rank vegetation. On
every side was the very
ABoMINATIoN OF DEsoLATIoN.
We did not meet soul in the streets,
Then We went to breakfast with dark
forebodings of the character of the Cohh-
try. At this breakfast / repeated that
novel experience Of sitting at the table
with colored folks. It struck fe as Gu
rious that in country whose vegetation
is SD e4uberaht that it is impossible to
keep 1t oGt of the streets, THAT being the
reason assigned in answer TO my iEqui-
ries as to the existence of the previously
mentioned condition of "no thorough
fare,") that everything composing the
first meal l saw there should be import
ed. So it was, however. A piece of
fresh fish, and the coffee were the only
Liberian products Oh the table. The
meat, the oysters and the vegetables were
all canned goods from England. More
of this too, hereafter. After breakfast,
through the same paths, through the
same streets and by the same dilapidated
houses, we visited the American Consul.
The position is held here by Mr.. M. A..
Aenmy, Hollander, who fulils its du-
ties pending the appointment of sue
cessor to j. Milton Turner, colofed, the
former consul, who has resigned and
gone home. Our next expedition was to
the customhouse, the entrance to which
is on the main street. This
"No THoRouGHFARE"
could be made very handsome one by
the expenditure of little time, labor
and money. 1t is broad and straight,
and runs through the town to the Light
house on the Cape. Monrovia, in fact,
seems to have been quite we'll laid of
originally. The streets are all broad and
appear to intersect each other at the
proper angles and distances. The origi-
nal settlers seem to have had care for
that decency which Addison tells us is
so nearly akin to virtue, for nearly all of
the old houses are two story ones, we'll
built of stone or brick, and arranged with
an eye to architectural beauty, and about
most of them were once neat stone fences
surrounding large yards and gardens.
These buildings are, however, fast going
to rack and ruin, and the more modern,
though hardly less dilapidated, edifces
are of wood, and look what l would
imagine to be an artistic architects
nightmare. The present condition OF
the streets I have already told you.
Monrovia has between 1000 and 5000
inhabitants, and straggles over about a
mile from the head of the Cape inland,
extending about half way across about
half q mile) on the side opposite to
which we landed. The town stops down
lin the woods somewhere. 1 walked
|across once, and found the dense growth
lof banana, cocuanut, mango, cotton and
Iother trees, and undergrowth, which is
termed here "the bush," terminating
abruptly at the ragged back fences of the
ueighborhood.
lin THE CUsToMHoUsE
!. ,1Sas originally intended to be quite a
|. h.ndsome building, being Of brick, with
aaeep porch, having high pillars sup
[p@ting an upper portico, and being
4 Inatly divided off into the various Offices.
!. Nature here has done her best to conceal
tie original ugliness, and the neglect
fahered increase thereof, of mans handi-
! wrk, and at a distance this structure
!, fl6ks very we'll. Going from the main
steet through an opening in low stone
will, which surrounds park about the
site OF a block in one of our American
| cites, the visitor approaches the Custom
, h5use Oh what was long, narrow brick
vail, but is now mere succession OF
shmbling-blocks and pitfalls. On his
right, at the corner of the park stands
!, ItM Courthouse, square brick building,
a%ut twenty by twenty, with number
+ les panes out of its windows, weather.
!, staned and generally INDECENT looking,
| asif the firm formerly doing business
thHe under the name and style OF Law
&Equity had gone into bankruptcy and
, let the property in the hands of a neg
letful assignee. The visitor ambles
) ovr the "walk" aforesaid, ("stumble"
| woald be more appropriate name for
Iit,hnd has time to cast a moralizing eye
, onshe weeds and grass on either side of
, hin. Some handsome trees branch over
J his head, and drip cold drops of rain
! wahr down the back of his shirt collar
| Pasing another opening he crosses an
, op4 space and reaches the Customhouse.
, Ashe has already learned to suspect,
} he Iinds the brick floors of the portico
suIt ten or projecting, the plastering fall
ingand the glass broken. The business
is I'll transacted in one room, and is
quickly gotten through with, the officers
belg of average intelligence, and appa,,
renly disposed to be accommodating and
buaness-like, which is wonder, con-
, sidring how little business there is to
5 do.I Then the official business disposed
OF, We stumbled back down hill to the
waAr side, there being neither rcstau-
rant nor hotel in Monroyia. | forgot to
chrdnicle that half way up the stumble
whish leads through the park there is :
plain neat marble slab to the memory oi
some Liberian hero, which stands in just
, sucsa position that the unwary wayfarei
may bark his shins and smash his fea.
) tara there against. l beg leave to apol'
ogise to the readers of the Ne.os and Cou
rierfor omitting to wind up this descrip'
tionof N1onrovia with quotation from
! "thsdeserted village" The fact is, how
ever, that there are no books of familiar
quotations" or copies Of Goldsmith acces
I siblshere. Besides that it is impossible
! to imagine Monrovia as having ever beer
the loveliest village of the PLANES
peciily as it is built on hill. APropo
of this absence of Goldsmith, would re
marx here lamentable fact. In none
) of the many houses that visited in Ii
IBERIA did 1 see Il book worthy of the
| name except the Bible. 1t is LITERAL!
Al & tl,nt M