Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1881-05-09
EDITORIAL Correspondence OF 1HTz11loENc1R.
UP THE VALLEY.

VAA~eAS>S~
BY cUMBEKLAND 4 sHENANpOAH
VALLEY RAILROADS. |
ATrip 20 Luray Cave and Return.
Harrisburg is nota very romantic place
at anytime, least of all at five o'clock in tho
morning, and with no place open except
ham and eggs restaurant. 1t takes the
Cumberland valley an hour or two after
sunrise to kick off the bed clothes of mist,
and reveal its picturesque attractions, but
when the veil is lifted the tourist sees a
landscape of beauty and high cultivation,
bounded on either side by the mountains
and thickly set with flOurishing towns.
The limestone comes nearer to the sur
face than in Lancaster coanty. But from
Harrisburg to the state line the farm lands
look good deal like our own.
The invitation of the Cumberland VAL
ley and Shenandoah Valley railroad COM
panies, and the good management of Alf.
Sanderson, president, and Alfred H.
Addams, secretary, of the Cumberland VAL
ley editorial association, gathered together
| on Saturday an excursion party of nearly
two hundred persons, representatives of
the press, their wives, daughters and
| sweethearts, whose destination was the
| famous Luray cave of Virginia. From
Lebanon, Lancaster, Columbia, Harris
burg, New Bloomfield, Newport, York,
Reading, Middletown, Philadelphia and
Hanover the tourists congregated at Har-
risburg, and the train that carried them
off from there was not crowded; but at
Mechanicsburg, Carlisle, MELVILLE, Ship
! pensburg, Greencastle and Hagerstown
they were joined in large numbers until
by the time they had been transferred
from the Cumberland Valley to the cour-
tesies of the Shenandoah Valley railroad
there were one hundred and ninety three
on board all told, and nearly all stran-
gers to the beautiful country into which
they were about to enter. From Lancaster
county were Associated Press Agent D. H.
Potts and Miss K. Zimmerman, Mr.. and
Mrs. J. B. Warfel of the Neso Era, r. B.
Risk of the Examiner, and w. U. Henscl
of the INTELL1GENcER, this city, and J.
p. Angney and A. NJ. Rambo. of Columbia.
The trip up the valley was made without
marked incident and with fair speed, and
it was between 8 and 9o'clock when
Hagerstown was reached.
The Shenandoah Valley railroad runs
from Hagerstown to Waynesborough,
whence there is link to Staun-
ton. 1t will be extended be-
yond that and when connected
with the southern line of railroads con-
trolled by the same general management
will be an important link in a new, short
and expeditions route from New York to
New Orleans. 1t traverses rich region,
of mineral wealth and agricultural re-
sources, with a number of towns Oh
it that only need some such awakening
to arouse them to manufacturing
and commercial importance. AS yet,
however, the traveller takes the ride with
the eye Of the tourist, and your excursion.
list could not fail to notice first of all on
Saturday the excellence Of the road bed
and the superior character of the cars
which the Shenandoah Valley management
has put on for the regular passenger bust
ness of the road. They arc new and of
the modern Eastlake pattern, with large
windows, easy seats and beautiful hard
! wood finishing.
Around Hagerstown, it is wheat-srow
ing country, Washington county being the
best agricultural district in the state, and
rivaled only by Frederick. Within sight
of the station is Gov. Hamilton's hospita-
ble looking home, with its porches and
pillars, where, on Friday night, an enter
tainment was given to a number of New
York, Baltimore and Philadelphia capital.
lists who had been sightseeing on the S.
", and to representative business and pro-
fesAonal men of Hagerstown.
From Hagerstown the Cumberland
Valley road runs southwestward to Mar
tinsburg, while the new Shenandoah VAL
ley line diverges to the almost due south,
crossing the Potomac between Sharpsburg,
Nd, and Shepherdstown-an uninviting
rocky region, and the outskirts of these
towns look as if they had seen war more
recently than any other part of the coun-
try Travelled through. The railroad crosses
the Potomac on very high bridge and
just above bend in the river the view of
a long stretch of it around a curve
is beautiful beyond description.
"All quiet " along that stream to-day,
which SO lately ran red with the blood Of
brothers. This valley, so lately ploughed
with the hoof of the battle charger and
whose hills echoed with the roar of martial
strife, is now furrowed only with the
plough or cut with tho wheels of the
reaper, and the sounds which dis
turb the repose of these mountain
sides now, the whistle of the locomotive,
tell of the advance of progress and of links
of steel binding North and South together
| in bonds of common interest. Grazing
sheep now occupy these hills where tented
hosts late lay in bloody expectation Of
battle, and the boys in blue and the boys
in gray have beaten their spears into
pruning hooks.
Below Hagerstown, to the left, you are
pointed out the battlefield of Antietam
and the hill where Mcclellan stationed his
point of oversight of the battle and on one
- L.