Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1884-05-16
THE 2sTH NEW YORK AND
5TH VIRGINIA., NEXT
WEEK.

pie next week, SuOulu anu VIII attid1o
more active interest than any of the po-
litical events with which the air is now
thick. Born politicians as VirginiaEs
are, there is one issue that can always
crowd politics to the wall, and that is hos
pitality. That in the general, but this
coming event in particular. The visitors
who come here next Thursday, both vet
Grams, and citizens who are not soldiers,
come as no ordinary callers, but to make
a visit of the deepest meaning. While
than this, it is the handclasp of a whole
| people, who were once at war. At war
| How strange it sounds twenty years after
| the last gun has fredl And yet in this
valley, with its quiet hills and luxuriant
| fields, next week will be good date
| for an open declaration of new war.
War upon all old and hateful pref
udices of locality and section war upon all
bitter membranes of the past; war up
on every idea that is hostile to the exis-
lance of this happy. peaceful and content
ed nation. Good provocation for such
war was given at Niagara Falls last year.
All the circumstances attending that pro-
vocation are unparalleled in history. A
band of gallant men who in the chances
of war had been defeated and lost their
colors to an opposing regiment, years af-
ter the close of the conflict made the re-
| turn of those colors the occasion of an
ovation to the captors which was marked
by unbounded hospitality, tempered by a
delicacy and refinement of feeling which
went hand in hand with its genuine hear
tiness. Such men should not be per-
mitted to throw down the gauntlet for
the war Of which we write without its
being easily lifted. If we hold that we
are the equals of these countrymen of
ours in that highest of all qualities of the
heart, forgetfulness of strife, we must
show it. We must show that il
they can forget bloody reverse,
SO can we; that if they can forget war
which cost them their bravest and best,
SO can we; if they, standing at the grave
of those they loved, can stretch out the
hand of friendship to former enemies. so
can we; If with their cypress they can
weave the orange blossom of the new be-
| trothaI, so can we. And how can we do
| otherwise How can we look the younger
generation Of to-day in the face if we
say to them we measured the equals OF
these men in all but one thing, and that
one thing the highest quality of the human
mind. 1t would be humiliatlng confess
sion. and we thank God that for many
years past there has been no danger that
Virginians would have to make 1t. The
people of Virginia are to-day as truly an
integral part of the American nation as
the people of New York, and fully as
proud of the fact. We have our political
spasms periodically. but States rights is
no longer one of them. We still carry
the weight of some of our pre-Adamite
ideas, but lying prone on the earth while
all the other States ara Fastening forward
in the march Of progress is not one OF
them. We have quietly made over orr
rights in the territories" to whoever may
have been so unfortunate as to pick them
up. and have addressed ourselves to ques-
| lions of to-day and tomorrow ard not of
Yesterday. Those of our new friends who
want to talk about the political questions
of the day will find plenty of Virginia Re-
publicans and Democrats who will dis
euss them. If they want to talk about
the war they will find any number of old
soldiers who have pretty nearly talked
each other dumb on the subject in the
last twenty years and would be glad of a
new victim. If they want to talk about
the land and the country they will find
that nine-tenths of the old sta veterans
are farmers and will tell them all they
want to know. In short they can just
make themselves at home on any subject
they want thoroughly aired. Next to a
New Englander, a Virginian is as persis-
tent and voluminus a talker as any one
who seeks for information or wants to
spend an idle hour, could desire to get
hold Of.
AS for our own people we hope they
will make the visit of the New York vet
Grams something to be remembered both
at their homes and our own. While there
will be no lack of official and organized
hospitality. we should be glad to see that
outdone by private hospitality. 1t is, after
all, the little graces of life that are longest
remembered, and make the stranger feel
most at home. Individual attention is the
dessert of the banquet, however royal
that banquet may be. 1t IS the truest and
most certain evidence of genuine well
come. Let our city and our county peo-
| Pile see that this grac3 is not neglected.
There are thousand little ways in which
we may evidence our hospitality that far
| outweigh the more formal and ceremo-
NOUS programme of reception. A well
| delivered individual expression of kindly
| feeling will give better point to even the
most eloquent of reception speeches. We
| trust that all will make this a matter
of practical consideration and essay to
think up whatever little attention we may
show our visito rs, outside of the official
reception.
Harper's Magazine for June, beginning
the sixty-ninth volume, promises a fore
taste of summer in two papers-the one
OF European and the other of American
travel. Mrs. Lille will write of the IA
nous French watering place, Biarritz,
with illustrations from Mr.. Remnants