National Republican., 1882-07-01
MOUNTAIN ECHOES
rRoM THE WEST VIRGINIA oLENs.
ATwo.Hundred.Eilc Trip from hinsion-Deer
Park aud 0hklaad-Aurora--Dcli ightful
es-Polities-Taxation-w
Stories-Summer Notes.
speclni Correspondence orTHr RrPupticAN.

ypeoihl Correspondence orTHR REPunLicAS.
AURORA, PRESTON COUNTY, w. VA, June 27.-
The uip up here may be called well variegated
two hundred miles At the Temple drug store in
washington the thermometer hung at Sc degrees
at in the morning, and the late June sun APP
peared to be doing its best to fry the asphalte
streets about the Il. & o. depot, as our Saturday
trnin hauled out, and the goddess of liberty on
top ofthe Capitol had sort OF SUI. struck appear
nnce tgoddesses do get son struck you know.
The ride to Cumberland especially, was about as
hot and dusty, stuffy and sitting as sultry sun
phine, coal smoke and dirt could make It, It's q
comfort to soiled and travel stained wayfarer to
reflect that there's no place in modern fashion.
able theology so hot as Cumberland. II is too old
fcgy to plant shade trees along the streets about
The railroad tracks and depots, and stands up
hatless and bald headed and takes the blazing
sun, and the sun flashes dance about It like so
many snyages about q roasting prisoner bound 10
astake. The wheat in the valley from Harper's
Ferry to Martinsburg looked pretty WELL though
that is rapidly ripening i for the harvest. From
Piedmont our train, with its tandem team OF iron
horses roared and suorted up the mountains md
the the, waters OF the wayside stream went dgsning
are never allowed to sleep in those deeply
WOODED AND VINE. ESTANGLED GoRGEs.
The hotel accommodations at Deer Park have
nlmost been doubled, two supplementary build
original hotel. A number of new cottages also
rear their new shingles Gnd paint amoIg tho
soul there yet" lOunger at the station told us.
lot of building and Improving has also been
done In Oakland since last season, and n "com-
pany" is building string Of cottages, OF unique
and gingerbread architecture amid the scrub
oaks on the undulutions midway along between
1.-THE Park" AND OAKLAND.
And now the hotels are open for the season and
the cottages are ready for rent, and people are
shortly expected up here in nocks to swallow Yak
% n M Hfrb nj n nd nfl Gat
urday it was $50 and stickey in Oakland. owing
60 the bacRwardness of the season they haven't
bar-room OF the Oakland Hotel, but the season is
not without its sensations. An Irish earl, who
almost lost the heir of his estates this morning.
The sprig of shamrock nobility drove n (spiritedO
livery horse into The stream that cleaves the noun;
swim, the whole rig had to be fshed out and hung
mp to dry.
DELIGHTFUL DRIVE
in twilight and moonshine, over a fine road
through grand scenery and in the delicious
mountain breeze brought us to this pleasant
mountain hamlet, of limestone springs, cl1ver
fields, laurel banks, trout streams and waterfalls.
Three weeks ago, the trees were. bare headed,
outline, of valley and farm, is wilderness of
green and bloom, and everything seems almost as
thousand feet down towards the sea. This
county, Preston, is the banner Republican county
e 81 the hTa Wst dV V whsh Ike
Democratic. OF the ten counties that compose
the district that stretches 10 Berkeley, Preston
gives round
THOUSAND REPUBLICAN MAJORITY,
Monongahela gives 500, and Grant 700. But this
fine Republican section is swallowed up on ac-
count of having seven densely Bourbon counties
put in with it, SO that the Democratic majority is
$500. Hoge, of Martinsburg will doubtless be re-
d agd to eomp9e one of the
like the Old Dominion, is afflicted, and has been
for years, with Bourbonism, and the people here
have grown restless under It's rascalities as they
have i'll the mother commonwealth. In the years
before the Shareholders rebellion, and when
this was part of Virginia under Virginia law.
negro property was not taxed. An old Virginia
gentleman might own hundred head OF breeding
negroes, worth 100000, and not pay a cent taxes
on them, while the "poor white trash " who
owned few head of sheep or calves, had TO pay
the taxes. few years before the war the part Of
the State now composing West Virginia, where
there never were many negroes ' held" protested
against
THIS GROSS INEQUALITY IN TAXATION,
and got the law so changed that only such slaves
as were under IL years of age were non taxable.
This was on the principle, suppose of the Mexi-
slaveholders rebellion came on this part of the
State, not having any slaves TO rebel for, refused
TO be dragged into war against the Union. They
to assume so much of the State debt contracted ior
in proportion to the benefits they had received
from the expenditure of this improvement tax.
through her commissioners sent to the mother
State; During the war this regions fortunes were
largely identified with the Union cause, aud Nc
Clelan's career, so brilliantly started rose among
Its mountains. And this part of the State was
great Union nucleus. Our landlord had TO take
his little treasure Of money and valuable papers
and, leaving his little family, hide out in the
from being carried prisoner to Richmond lii
these days Of piping peace lie
SHOWS LADY GUESTS
"the spot" as one of the interesting points in the
romantic landscape. Since the war the old Slsse
has gone to work and adding the debt she ..edrred
in the cause Of rebellion to herjn,provenentd debt of
ante; war years, tTie4i saddle proportion of the
Thole, s,Iual TO West Virginia's territory, on the
new State, and then claims great credit for agree
ing TO pay the remainder. West Virginia tells the
Old Dominion that she can whistle" tor her part
OF any such adjustment As i have said, West
Virginia is suffering from Bourbonism. In the
Republcan days alter the war, when Governor
Pierpont was in the ascendent, the State provided
for system Of free schools, constituting an in
violate school fund by taxation from fines and
Democracy have attained power in the State dis
regarding the State constitution and the provis-
ions OF the law, they have diverted" Sl26,000 of
the States school fund OF si3O,0O0to current state
expenses and various appropriations,
DERIVING THE SCHOOLS
OF their support, and crippling the system of in
struction. Aad now when the Republicans have
forced an acknowledgement of the misappropria-
tieu-litte short of thef-from the State auditor
back the sl2G 900 and the thousands Of dollars Of
interest due on it to the school fund.- IL $4,000
tseked on to The measure " But this % is Of pece
with their action few years ago, when, under
the
PLEA OF " DEMOCRATIC ECONOMY"
they pretended to reduce taxes per cent, and at
the same time raised the assessment ~ per cent.
Characteristic Democratic economy tnis-of the
sort exhibited by the late Democratic Congresses
that saved at the spiggot and lost at the bung-
hole in cutting down legitimate annual appr0-
priations, running the executive and judicial de-
partments of the government short, and then
leaving legacy of big deficiency bills to the Re-
publican Congress. Boniface Shaffer, of the Au-
rora House, has built an addition to his hotel and
o.her improvements appear all about the village
of West Unon," as it used to be called. Several
washington people, among them Major Din-
wlddie, have invested IN this elevated and airy
mering. all things considered, that is to be found
In reach Of the Capital. The village hotel and
private houses will shortly be full of Washington
sojourners for the heated term, few families
bong already here. Thermometer seldom above
S0o; is this noon 700. T. L. W.
Annie LouiHe Cary and Her sister.