The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1883-11-08

curlew and the heron, fish scale and ALI
gator jewelry, is an interesting feature,
and the cotton, cane, corn, beans, and
mammoth potatoes, prove that Floridians
are no longer compelled to live off fish in
the summer and sick Yankees in the
winter.
ARKANSAS.
has one of the finest displays in the build
ing, and we people who were firmly settled
in the belief that the State raised very lit
| tie except shaking ague have been shaken
out of our convictions by indisputable
facts. In minerals the State not only pre-
sents q fine variety but of high grade !;
gold, silver, coal, copper, galena, iron and
magnetic ores marble zinc and many more.
The brilliants from the Hot Springs may
not be kin to diamonds, but they are so
beautiful they frequently deceive those
who consider themselves excellent judges.
| OF native woods there is a fine display,
and no State shows sucha large variety of
small fruits and such very fine ones. They
are all preserved in alcohol. Vegetables
of many kinds, grains, grasses. cotton,
wool, silk cocoons from the State Blind
Asylum, willow chairs made from native
willow. sugar cane. sorghum, ropes from
the mandatory, and many other things
Of interest make up very interesting col
lection.
A petrifed shoe. found about twelve
feet below the surface at Helena. Ark.
after the sand slide and cyclone last April,
attracts general attention. 1t must have
parted company with its owner long years
ago. though it retains every wrinkle which
developed as it changed from a shapely to
all easy old shoe. It now has the appear
ance of being made of iron, and is the
| first petrifed leather | eyer saw. Crystal
rock, from Crystal mountain, is as beauti-
full us linelyicutp risms artistically fastened
| together
The mott over the booth is Arkansas
Can Blow Her Own Horn, ? and she surely
has blown it to some purpose here and will
be rewarded.
e TENNESSEE,
| like each of the other States mentioned,
has its booth tastefully decorated
The roof of the Pagoda is supported
by pillars of native woods highly pol
ished-one each of black walnut, lau-
rel, ash. cherry, sugar maple, oak and
red gum, which with the blocks and
boards, give an excellent idea of the
variety of fine woods found in the forests
of the State. The display of marbles is
the finest made and could not be excelled
by any State. Some Of the specimens are
wonderfully beautiful, thedelicate yeining
looking like the work of an artist. One
piece, enclosed in a frame 8xl0 inches, Is
very lovely and very rare. In the State
House of Georgia, at Atlanta, is sone al
most exactly like it accredited to Vermont.
How twins became SO widely separated is
a marvel.
The ores are feebly represented, and
when Tennessee brings out her minerals
she can show something worth looking
twice at. | could not help thinking that
the great. shining pieces of coal and the
masses Of iron which have lain hidden for
so many ages in the mountains, some way
understand that the time has come for
them to take part in the worlds work.
May be they can't think,-I hope they
can't. They get SO many kicks from boots
and shoes of vlsitors-but they look Won
derfully bright
The products of the soil are we'll repre-
sented, one county alone, Haygood, making
a display which, spread out, would suffice
for a country fair, with the horse trot left
out. Nuts, grains. grasses, sorghum, cot
ton, millet, vegetables, fruits and wool,
are shown. There are no dogs; but there
should be as they are always as near the
sheep rs they can get and are the de-
struction of the woolgrowing interest in
the State.
Tennessee thinks she is too poor to pay
her State debt, but she has apoor shield to
crawl behind when her wealth crops out
at every turn of the furrow; her forests
are filled with valuable timber her soil
productive her minerals inexhaustible,
and, in the eastern part of the State, mar
BILE so abundant that the roads are macad-
amized with it and the man who has a
farm to sell cheerfully offers to throw in
the raw material for grave stones without
extra charge. L.D.C.