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

six feat high, We climb the hill over
lpose, stones, and through occasional
streaks of wet mud, caused by the trick.
ing of some tiny btream. On 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--gcmeraily etcHo=oi; ei,heF Side.
Many of them had windows broken and
gaping, and all showed sad need Of re-
pairs. Nearly every yard, like the street
was grown up in rank vegetation. On
every side was the very
DOMINATION OF DEsoLATIos.
We did not meet O soul In the Streets
Then We went To breakfast with dark
iorebodings Of the character of the coun.
try, at this breakfast repeated that
novel experience of sitting at the table
with colOred folks. It struck fhe as Gu
rious that in a country Whose vegetation
is SO eAuberaht that it is impossible to
keep II out of the streets, THAT being the
reason assigned in answer to my inaui-
ries as to the existence of the previously
mentioned condition of "no thorough
fare,") that everything composing the
first meal saw there should be import
ed. SO it was, however. A piece OF
fresh fish, and the coffee were the only
Liberian products on 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.. Nj. A.
Aenmy, a Hollander, who fulfls it's du-
ties pending, the appointment of sue
cessor to j. Milton Turner, rolofed, 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 THoRoUGMFARE"
could he made very handsome one by
the expenditure of little time, labor
and money. 1t is broad and straight,
and runs through the t)wn to the Light
house on the Cape. Mcnroyia, in fact,
seems to have been quite we'll laid off
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 dilapiaated, edifices
are of wood, and look what l would
Imagine to be an artistic architects
nightmare. The present condition of
the streets l have already told you.
Monrovia has between 1000 and 5000
inhabitants, and stragges over about q
mile from the head Of the Cape inland,
extending about half way across labout
half q mile) on the side opposite to
which we landed. The town stops down
il the woods somewhere. walked
across once, and found the dense growth
of banana, cocoanut, mango, cotton and
other trees, and underground, which is
termed here 'the bush," terminating
abruptly at the ragged back fences of the
neighhorhcod.
THE CUsTOMHOUsE
was originally intended to be quite a
handsome building, being of brick, with
a deep porch, having high pillars sup
porting an upper portico, and being
neatly divided off into the various offices.
Nature here has done her best to conceal
the original ugliness, and the neglect
fathered increase thereof, of mans handi-
work, and at distance this structure
looks very we'll. Going froLl the main
street through au opening in low stoae
| wall, which su, POUNDS park about the
size of block i'll one of our America,
cities, the visitor approaches the Custom
| house on what was long, narrow bsick
wall, but is now mere succession of
stumbling blocks and pitfalls. On his
right, at the corner of the park stands
the Courthouse, square brick building,
about twenty by twenty, with number
less panes out of its windows, weather
stained and generally indigent looking,
as If the firm formerly doing business
there under the name and style of Law
q Equity had gone into bankruptcy and
left the property in the hands Of neg
over the walk" aforesaid, tsistumble"
would be moro appropriate name for
it, and has time to cast q moraliZing eve
on the weeds and grass on either side of
him. Some handsome trees branch over
his head, and drip cold drops of rain
water down the back of his shirt collar.
Passing another opening he crosses an
open space and reaches the Customhouse.
AS he has already learned to suspect,
he finds the brick floors of the portico
sunken or projecting, the plastering fall
ing and the glass broken. The business
is all transacted in one room, id is
quickly gotten through with, the officers
being of average intelligence, and appa-
fently disposed to be accommodating and
business-like, which is q wonder. COZ.
sidering how little business there is TO
do. Then the official business disposed
| of, we stumbled back down hill to the
water side, there being neither restau-
rant nor hotel in Monrovia. l forgot to
chronicle that half way up the stumble
which leads through the park there is
plain neat marble slab to the memory of
some Liberian hero, which stands in lust
such position that the unwary wayfarer
| may park mis- shIns ana smasn mis- fea.
lures there against. l beg leave to apol-
ogise to the readers of the Nei0s und C5a-
rier for omitting TO wind up this descrip-
ton of Monrovia 18th e quotation from
"the deserted village" The fact is, how
ever, that there are no books OF familiar
quotations" or copies of Goldsmith acces-
sible here. Besides that it is impossible
to imagine Monrovia as having ever been
the loveliest village of the plain-es-
pecially as it is built on q hill Apropos
of this absence of Goldsmith, would re-
/ mark here lamentable fact. In none
of the many houses that visited in Lii
berin did l.see u book worthy OF the
name except the Bible. 1t is literally
A,arw< . i. Al Al y.