The Dickinson press., 1884-05-10
AN ANCIENT CAPITAL.
The Cradle of the Southern Race.

This old peninsula between the
James and the York Rivers is the cradle
of the Southern races. 1 have been at
Williamsburg, the capital of Virginia,
from the abandonment of jamestown to
the Legislative occupation of Richmond,
an interval of about eighty years. Vir-
ginia had about 40, OO0inhabitants when
Williamsburg became the capital, Of
whom nearly 1000 were negro slaves
and 5000 white slaves, OF people serv-
ing their time. When the capital was
removed to Richmond in 1879, Virginia
contained perhaps 100000 people, as
her population is put eleven years later
at nearly $50, 600. Here at Williams
burg occurred most of the events
which led to the adoption Of the
cause Of New Englandby the most pow
erful state to the south Of her, and the
biography of Virginia was almost all
nodded at Williamsburg. Washington
may be said to have been created in
this poor little town, which now has
hardly l,4O0 people, including the pop
ulation of the lunatic asylum now To-
Gated here, which contains several hun
dred.
The Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad
runs right to the town, and any person
from the west curious on historical
matters can stop over between trains,
and will receive hospitable treatment.
The people are singularly courteous and
supplemented, and their knowledge of
their own history is so absurd that ]
advise anybody who comes to have him.
self posted in his own library, that he
may draw his own differences. You leave
the railroad station and take o path that
carries you across a sort of common and
down through a kind of dry ravine
or gully, and in a few minutes you come
out upon a very broad street, perhaps
three-quarters of a mile long, and sandy,
and it appears to have lost from old age
a good many Of it's buildings, because
you see a house here and one yonder,
and then old getaways between them.
and then goose pastures, and, perhaps,
in the background, and if they had with
drawn from so much noise and fashion,
there are old houses, with lanes ard
lawns a quarter of a mile long.
Almost every house has green moss on
the roof. Most of them have big CHM
neys at the ends, which hold up the de-
crepit structures between. Some ol
these houses are made of bricks with an
imported look, as if they were brought
back on the tobacco vessels for ballast
More of these houses are built o.
frame and I should say that in
all Williamsburg there are about
thirty or forty quite old and
digniied looking mansions, and the big.
gest of these is said to have been the
house of George Wythe, who introduced
Jefferson, and was a singular character,
and is said to have taught n of his
slaves Greek. At one end Of the town
is the old William and Mary College,
consisting of a central prick building.
several times repaired and burnt out.
and of two ancient-looking side build.
ings, one of which is occupied by Mr..
Ewell, a brother of the rebel general,
who has I am told, not one single pupil
at the present time, the institution ex-
isting in the body, but not in the spirit.
Mr.. Elwell has a farm some miles back,
and comes in almost every day, and
waits for pupils who no longer appear
-"Gath, in Cincinnati Enquirer.