Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1881-07-22

Client but Live T0yVn-UnIOld Wine
raj WeaIth--The Norfolk and West
ern Hallway.
WYTHEvTLLE, VA, July IL Editor
Morning Neios: A stay Of week or two in
this breezy mountain region. since the heated
term is gone, gives one high appreciation OF
its beauty, heathfulness and fine summer cli-
mate. more admirably located spot one
seldom finds. 1t is town of twenty-five hun
dred people. situate in a mountain valley,
itself 1880 feet above the sea-level, threaded
with ridges, whose tops and slopes are lined
with well laid out streets, and dotted with well
built brick houses Hemming in the town. but
not too close to limit the view, or to obstruct
the breezes, a chain of rounded hills with in
terveniug peaks gives a superb background to
panorama ever beautiful and picturesque.
An atmosphere, bright AMI invigorating, its
normal heat in July not over IS degrees,
the nineties. the twilight lasting
far in the evening" Il have not
as yet measured that Of the morning)
so that one can read in the open air at half
past eight O'Clock; rides on horseback or in
vehicles over fine macadamized roads, with
charming views at every step; fruits almost
new TO me, for have not seen them growing
in forty years, cherries, raspberries, currantS
and gooseberries; good old Virginia living
with its varied food, well cooked AID well
served, at moderate rates of board; social
life, free and generous with its own refined
and Intelligent people and with numerous
visitors, chiefly from louisiana and the South
west; good schools and churches, numerous
and varied enough in persuasion" to suit
more the extreme American taste. What
more can Southerner, from Georgia or the
Gulf coast. desire in a resort for holiday OF
month or two?
Thirtv-six hours of travel will bring one
L. Ansa
change the burning heats of home for the
breezy air of Wythevillc. True, our party
seemed to have brought Savannah weather
with us, and that, having been reinforced by
the furnace heat of Petersburg -undoubtedly
the hottest place in tho United States-(where
we were detained twenty four hours) and find
ing an abnormal state of things here unknown
Tor twenty-five years. we began 70 despair OF
ever getting comfortable. On being assured
that this hot spell Wss unprecedented, con-
cluded 70 stay few days and see what Wythe-
vile was capable of in its cooler moments. It
has justified its friends assurance, and to-day
with morning notation of 20 and not reaching
50 degrees at midday, we have forgotten the
heats Of last week.
wish my Savannah friends could sit with
me on the shady hillside of my hosts home, in
the edge of Wytheville. enjoying the beautiful
panorama of hill and vale, of mountain peak
and wooded slope. of the bright and pictur-
esque village, all shimmeriDg ia the sunshine,
or dimmed by the chasing shadows; a land
scape changing with each hour, yet always
beautiful, the air buoyant and invigorating. the
breezes careering along, and the senses lulled
by the quiet repose of the scene.
Wytheville is seventy miles east of Bristol in
the northeast corner of Tennessee Bristol
stands ON the line of Tennessee and Virginia
and its main street separates the two States,
the northern half of the town, the part in Vir-
ginia, being usually called Goodson. OF the
dozen or more counties comprising this south
west corner of Virginia ten of them closely
grouped together, are named after as many of
Virgfnia's great sons, Washington. Lee, Wythe,
Bland. Giles, Tazewell, Grayson, Scott, Wise
aud Floyd. Wythe county and its county seat,
Wythevile (prounced tUith, the tn as in their,
commemorate one of the greatest lawyers and
statesmen of the last century, George WYthe,
of Williamsburg, signer of Independence,
and the instructor and model of Thomas JEFF
ferSon. / have not time to review his history
and character. but simply to lament that a
man of his learning and wisdom should be I'M
known. even to the average Virginian OF to-
day, within seventy-five years of his death.
Little wonder is it, though, when even the
name OF TaZeweli. greater Virginian than
Wythe, who died but twenty years ago. needs
to be preserved among otherwise inteligen
people from oblivion
This section of country is not newly settled
like Cherokee Georgia, for instance as one
might suppose from its interior position Much
more than a century ago the people of North
Virginia in the Shenandoah valley, found the
valley stretching southwark, and following it
down as far as the great bend at Salem they
highway, to the borders of Tennessee and
Kentucky. This long but easy trail trans-
ported most of the settlers who filed up Ten
nessee kentucky and Missouri. 1t needed
only an artificial stone road for convenient
transportation, which was long ago made; and
now the main. east and west street of Wythe-
vile is q part OF the great mac adamized high
way, which begins near the Potomac, and fol-
Tennessee. Wytheville dates back beyond the
revolutionary war,
This whole region Is too elevated, and it's
soil roo thin for abundant grain crops; but it
is clothed with the finest grass. and hay is its
chief agricultural product IL Is the blue
grass territory of Virginia, scarce inferior TO
that of Kentucky. and has many famous herd
rms. from which thousands of fat cattle are
annually sent eastward and shipped to Europe.
But it is the mineral resources of Wythe and
the contiguous counties that are to give
wealth to the people hereafter. Though known
TO exist by the settlers here from the begin
ming, yet the want of capital and
the distance from market have left the
mines almost undeveloped. Not wholly so,
however, for The first efforts IN lead and iron
mining were coeval with the first settlements
of the country; and it is an interesting fact
about these mines that the bullets used by the
patriots at the battle of Kings Mountain, in
South Carolina, in January, 17Sl were made
here. and carried to the troops, all the inter
vening distances through the mountains, on
horseback These lead mines are twelve miles
from Wytheville, and were first opened in 1856.
Inc ores are very ElCu anu Inc from
three to five tons of pure lead daily. Eastward,
in Pulaski county. are rich deposits of zinc,
and. westward, in Smythe county, are mex
haustible salt beds the reSiduum of an ancient
salt sea. These three localities l hope to visit
in the next fortnight, and shall try TO describe
them to your readers. More than a dozen iron
furnaces are at work in this county, making
annually 5000 to 10 600 tons Of pig iron the best
in America for making car wheels.
A large public spirit actustes the people
here. Col. E. J. Boyd. the President of the
town trustees, and the owner Of the fine hotel
at the railroad depot, q lifelong friend and
benefactor OF Wytheville, has diffuSed his
energy among his fellow townsmen. and marks
thereof are seen in the welllaid out and i'm
proved streets, in the supply Of good water
from a soring a mile or two distant through
pipes delivering the water TO the houses of
citizens by hydrants, and in the free delivery
at the street corners OF an alum .ohaly beate
water. which. besides being an Alternative and
tonic, is an infalliole Epecific for dyspepsia.
A hundred feet or more below the town, and
through its suburbs. runs the Norfolk and
Western Railway, connecting Bristol and Nor
folk, having just changed its name from the
Atlantic, Mississippi and Ohio Railroad. This
road opens the valley at both ends to travellers,
and for the western half of its length forms
part of the great thorous hfare from New Or
leans to New York Two trains each way
daily carry passengers from city to city, in less
than sixty hours. This road is an amalgama-
ton of three once distinct roads, the East Ten
nessee and Virginia. from Bristolto Lynchburg;
the South SIDE, ron Iync11urK TO Peters
burg, and the Norfolk and Petersburg, con-
Meeting those two cities. They were repaired,
rebuilt and consolidated by Gen. Malone, who
show ed himself in this railroad work and in
his war career, a much better engineer and
soldier than he has q politician or statesman.
It's running schedule is sixteen hours for its
four hundred miles. Ia stable structure, in
ample and complete equipment in well built
station houses and comfortable cars, and in
safe and agreeable travelling through beauu
full country, this road is excelled by none in
Virginia nor in the South
shall find, trust, something further of in
terest about this town and its surroundings. to
make up another letter next week. 1t is lit
tie matter. perhaps, but it is nevertheless
vexati0us to lose. as / did the moment came
here the cardinal points, and not yet to have
recovered them. rectify my mistake every
hour bv horizon view, but still east will be
west and south viii be north in spite Of reason
ing and proof.
In concluding this letter, perhaps it is too
early TO venture the statement, but know no
better summer resort In the mountains than
Wytheville; and but for the fact that the
Southwest has filed up its boarding. houses, 1
would advise Savannahians to come hither
Next year those who take my advice must
come early, and supplement the other sdxan-
tages Of Wytheville by securing a home in the
pleasant and comfortable household Of our ex-
cellent hostess Mrs. Mamie Stuart, OF Stuart's
Hill W. s. B.
D.u-oaA RnRaa- The RWonan ard