Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1878-02-01
teen we're of the Confederate States army.

The ground, thus set aside for the
Nations dead" has been most artist
cally arranged; the graves have been
richly sodded and gently cared for, whilst
at the, head of each grave stands a
small white stone, each telling its own
sad story. And as we walked on that
beautiful autumn evening along its quiet
and graveled avenues, here passing
through clusters of evergreen or paus-
ing beneath some stately oak, the rust
ling of falling leaves, the whispering of
the breeze and the sad and touching sur
roundings, told US too plainly that we
were with the dead. Here with them
was the last of earth, here the reward Of
earthly ambition, earthly struggles
"dust to dust. and ashes to ashes" and
"Can STORED urn, or animated bust
Back to its mansion call the feetng breath?
Can Honor's voice provoke the silent dust,
Or Flattery soolhe the dull cold ear Of Death 2"
With them the connections of life, the
strife and warning with human destiny is
over; the past with its trials, its trans
gressions. its accumulated responsible
ties, had rendered its final account;
"The breezy call ofincense- breathing Morn.
The swallow twitt'ring from the straw-ouilt
shed,
The cock 81 hrill clarion, or the echoing horn,
No more shall rouse them from their lowly
bed"
With the exception of the two hun
dred and fifty acres mentioned, which
have been enclosed with handsome and
durable stone fence, the material having
been purchased of the Seneca Stone
Company of Montgomery county, Mary
land, Arlington presents now dreary,
rugged and broken waste. The beauti-
full and stately groves Of forrest trees
which once adorned its heights and linel
its rich and fertile meadows, standing
like giant knights, have been hewn down,
and in their place may be seen rows Of
dirty. tattered and dilapidated huts,
built of various materials, the sides and
roofs composed of plank and board, the
dark stains and paint showing them to be
fragments of some worn-out dwellings.
The inmates Of these miserable abodes
are no less dirty and ragged; they doze
in the summer time beneath the hot sur
and shiver around few embers in win
ter. The little streams which came
laughing down the hillside, bearing
upon their blossoms the image of thu
modest little flowers which once grew
along their margin, seem to murmur 0
the happy long ago. The fields, whicl
we're formerly luxuriant with vegetation
present throughout the year the sam
dull, lifeless and worn-out aspect. TIL
old mansion, once the seat of eleganc
and refinement, hallowed by love an
entwined with cherished memories, sit
like some aged mourner, broken in spiri
and tired of life. Its halls, throug
which the music of love, the merry gle
of childhood and the joyous prattle .
babes rcsounded, now echoes to the lone
ly footsteps of some grim visaged off
cial. Standing under its portico, and a
memory, like fower-gathercr, retracc
the shining track of the past, it bring
up those beautiful lines of Moore:
81 feel like one
Who treads alone
Some banquet hall deserted,
Whose lights are fed,
Whose garlands dead,
And all but he departed"
ALEXANDRIA, Va. Dec. 80, 1877.