New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1881-05-02
WEST VIRGINIA ECHOES.



IN THE WAR.
,.o. AZ ooc ASTON AL CORRESPONDENT oF InN THhtN-l
,IlyGrANY, Va. April lZ.-iN q lI'aN :" '"'
torrist's mind | came East in this snowy weather
over the new and sill unfinished Chesapeake an"
Ohio Roilroad At this high point. resting n no
,nent | begin 70 put down some few notes "n
country known 10 CIV Americans OUTSIDE "i ~. III
preyious wanderings have >..l the parts d" "'s'
Virginia tributary 10 the Potomac ana M"n"h-
Rivers aud now. having come th' """'' ''',-''
Che Kanayvba and to the hradvataI- of She Green
brier. | hrgiu % rralhe the "'.d an" S'' ''''7
Commonwealth wr.stcd Us by the taSalran opera,
ton from the Old Dominion proper IL ~ 'S
some C,rcas,ia or swift lrriand making the cone "I
oot,ncrt had been shaved on for monument To
freedom and war
West Virginia. perhaps badly uamod. i' the "niy
topographical proof of rebellion Els""h'r" h the
world such wars have changed the general poIItl'ai
boundaries Here. as If the dr'ugc had hoat'H
single ark of freedom 10 the summit 81 sone Nriia'
the small kingdom Of the southern nlon'-i remains
n permanent State. II was to have been c'lI'u
Kanawha: it should have been called Aice"i| :
lint local patriotism iu spite of hlon~hrd prevailed
70 keep the name. at least of Nwrni' and prom
ably the Government thought t. influence Older
Virginia somewhat by dividing her ua.ue with her
ralmcnt
The rupture. however. is complete tn" debt oi
the old state remaining behind, and tn additional
Senatorial and State patronage ar1ung io th' ne"
State settle the division finally a. iiii "i 10
land or bohemia. OF the separation OF the Swiss
Cantons from Austria The new state mi>Hi nave
taken of parts of Kentucky also. but for t" quasi
Union game PLAYED 10y the latter, and might have
ascooped in East Tennessee. too where there was
n desire 10 create another Union state and call IL
eNickajack." Had Maryland possessed saracity
,l. ber
slavery. it is possible that she might have pre-
vailed with Congress To widen the weazcn boun-
DIARIES Virginia had pnched her 10. and. absorbing
West Virginia have obtained the same front on the
Ohio Valley that Pennsylvania and former Virginia
had; vet private and political necessity concurrd
10 separate wholly Maryland's chief railroad Iuris-
diction from Virginia proper. The Baltimore aud
Ohio Railroad does not have one foot, one pause
on the soil of Virginia now. but steps from Mary
land al HarpeIs Ferry into West Nirginia-Wh ich
State at that corner is shaped like the Of an ex
ecutioncr with the blade forty miles long, and on
the deadly edge thereof CharlestOwn the block Of
execution of John Brown. HarIrrs Ferry. Martins
burg Shcpherdstown. CharlestoWu. the whole of the
CacapOn and the lower part of the Shenandoah
Rivers are all in West Virginia. The blow of John
Brown made clean fracture; il cracked the min
eral resources from political Virgna-took the iron
from the blood. the fuel from the fireplace. The
old folks and she SIT back in the fireplace
and say: We are bankrupt without the help Of
West Virginia" but blood is not "a strong as water
in this case and the new Commonwealth on the
Ohio replies ave owe you nothing. fOu drove MS
away in the criminal frenzy Of your rebellion.
None of your railways had been extended to our
territory YOu sawed off the limb on which You
sat expecting to injure the tree where we adj
bered" How bitterly. meaDly, must those mon
feel who pushed unwilling Virginia over the brink
of high treason--the Rutfins, Pryors, Mas"ns and
Letchers-who now the stable consequences OF
secession in a seeded Virginia. and successful soces
sion only there. The delegates from this part of
the State were warned that the consequences %
STAYING in the Convention and defeating the traitors
would be assassination. Stay ont of the Conven-
ton" they exclaimed in ID" deadly intensity of the
bundozer and I'm Klux, ~or he stabbed. hanged. or
shot Let us accomplish this ruin of ourselves and
YOU or YOU shall die IN your tracks" How horri-
bic, how vivid how fatal does II seem now. There
stands the man OF the Broken. the spectre Of
West Virginia, defined against the fogs IF war.
"What do you there :" exclaims the Virginia Of
the tidewater. "What are y0n. mon~trou- genius.
with the matricidal knife directed against usf
9Alas :" exclaims the phantom, ava yourselves
am SECESSION
GEOGRAPHICAL VAGAHiTS.
Let me now show you some symmetry III the new
State. which bears the proud motto. Monuta.uecrs
Ever Free" and for her shield only the date Of her
admission to the Union carved on a rock June
60 1863"
Dissect away from Virginia almost everything
that flows toward the Ohio. whether through the
Monongahela OF the Kanawha. and leave her no
waters that do not seek the Atlantic except the
sources of the Tennessee River; give her the James
River 10 It's mountain springs aud the upper Sbcn-
andoah and an elusive bit of the New River which
o fv...
soil emigrant. too; and draw Nrgiua's boundary
la general along the highest Allcghanys backbone.
with three reentering angles one where Maryland
enters like a pike. another where Pennsylvania
drops like a brick and third where kentucky
slopes on on the Cumberland Mountain tops. lcav-
ing cone and YOU have State without model
and in shape resembling feather-bed carried Oh a
ragged draw of a wagon. the said dray-wagon being
Virginia with its tongue AT Hampton Roads. In
another freak of the fancy. West Virginia /, like a
mans abdomen. loins aud back. with the legs and
breast missing seated in a rocing-chair and facing
west. Its only drainage toward the Atlantic is
through the Potomac Its great artery is the Kama
wha which is uavigahlc perhaps fifty miles; the
Cheat River and Grcenbrirr are IFS chief torrents.
the Big Sandy and Potomac North Branch execute
Its diagonal boundaries.
HISTORY AND CHARACTER or THE sTAfE.
The population of much of West Virginia Is very
poor white of little present availability for gen
ersI purposes; many good families live in the better
agricultural regions. and the large towns like
Wheeling are full of manufacturing life. The STATE
Is an intensihcation of Western Pennsylvania. with
fewer good valleys hHt probably more mineral
wealth. and altogether better timber. The Che,a-
peake and Ohio Railroad. opened IN 1872, Glove a
harrow beam of light through this state and now
several north and south roads being prepared to
cross between the Mononeahela and the Kanawha.
10 get out the timber mine th coal and iron and tie