The Indianapolis leader. (Indianapolis, Ind.) 1879-1890, 1881-08-06

be he tramp or patrician, to rest him
self in the cooling shades. The stat
ues of Washington and StOnewall
jackson adorn the grounds. Few
States have more beautiful and pic
turesque Capitol grounds.
A short distance to the east of the
Capitol grounds we brought up at the
old Jeff Davis mansion, the residence
of the rebel chief during the rebel
lion. 1t is an elegant building of the
Grecian style of architecture, and is
now used as a public school for
white children. One square east of
the mansion ofthe chief Of the rebel
lion, whose main object was to es-
tablish a government with Negro
slavery as its corner stone, stands al
elegant brick building dedicated to
the intellectual advancement of the
once enslaved race-the colored Nor
NAL school. Right here | may re-
late an incident illustrative of the ad-
vancement Virginia is making. Some
time ago the Board of Education an
nounced that gold medal
would be awarded to the pupil who
should draw the best map of Virginia.
Every pupil in the public schools
was permitted tocompete, irrespective
of color or sex. After due examina-
ton of all the maps presented, the
prize was awarded to a colored boy,
John Mitchell Jr, and the medal was
presenented by the Mayor of the
city, in behalf of the Board of educa-
tion True this is but straw, but
it shows that public sentiment in
Virginia is drifting rapidly in the
right direction.
We passed on our way the famous
'Lumpkins Alley,' Or the bottoms as
sometimes called, where stand the
massive old brick buildings, erected
and used as slave pens" before the
war, but now converted into tobacco
factories. As 1 looked at those grim
walls | could but think of the thou
sands of wretched, broken hearted
people they had made still more
wretched and forlorn. Here it was
the slaves by thousands were
quartered preparatory to shipment
to the cotton fields and cane breaks
of the dreaded South Here the
holiest bonds and hopes affection
could make were broken and blasted
with strange, savage delight. Here
the thousands of broken hearted
fathers had looked for the last time
into the sad, wan faces of the dear
wives, who had loved them and borne
their children. Mothers innumerable
surrendered their babes to brutal
hands, their daughters to lives of
shame. Young lovers, with anguish
inexpressible, looked for the last time
into the fearful eyes of loving sweet
hearts, condemned to the beastly lust
of the dealer in human flesh. Fami-
ly ties ruthlessly severed; every am
bitiOn crushed-what atonement
can ever be made for the crime of
| slavery? But we must not broo d
gloomily over the past. The present
and the future have duties too press
ing for us to waste time in idle brood
ing. Let us believe, as indeed is
true, that time has softened the
hearts of many who engaged in this
terrible work; and that in many cases
they are making noble efforts to
atone for the past.
Turning from this scene, sugges-
tive of such sad musings, we drove
to the Old African Church First
Baptist), founded over one hundred
years ago, and which has member
ship of from four to FIVE thousand.
There we found five hundred happy
children engaged in the lessons of the
Sabbath School. How changed and
suggestive the scene. The sight is
well worth a trip to Richmond. The
superintendent, Mr.. w. Il. White
very kindly showed us through the
school, and gave US much interesting
information. The pastor, Rev. J
IL. Holmes, a very e-egant gentle
man, gave us many points of inter-
est in the history of this famous
church, which we have not space to
give at present. The old structure
has been replaced by a magnificent
brick, which, when completed, will
be one OF the largest and finest church
buildings in Richmond.
Passing out to the extreme south
east part of the city, we reached an
eminence from which / could survey
for some distance the old route by
which we entered Richmond on the
morning of the evacuation. We then
drove down the hill to the river and
back to the city over the selfsame
route to the old market, from one
corner of which we stretched the old
flag across the narrow street
Meantime, however, we passed ole
Libby Prison, now used as fertil
izing establishment We got out
and walked around it, and
were shown the point
where Gen. Streights famous tunne
was made across the street. Driving
up the river to the west end of the
city, we reached another eminence-
Richmond by the way, like Rome, il
called the city Of seven hills-from
which We had fine view of Manches
ter, across the river, and Belle Island
another famous prison during thu
war. The penitentiary, and many
other places of interest, were visited
which, in this letter, am unable t.
describe particularly. Richmond i
| | indoad o. e