Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1885-04-10
Virginia al the New Orleans Exposition.

IN the NEW OTledDS ItCUyUHC vi
February 2S, 1885, appeared the
following account of the display
made in the Virginia department
of the great Worlds Exposition
If ancient and honorable tradi-
tiOnS and historic fame were mark
etable commodities the Ylrginians
would be among the richest people
on the continent. They possess all
these and they treasure them with
an honest and excusable pride, but
fortunately they do not have to
rely alone on their eyentful, ma.
iestic and tragic past for the de-
mands of everyday life. They in
habit country Of almost bound
less natural resources and they
possess an energy, persistence aud
courage that have stood by them
in many a dark day and time of
need. They have successfully pass
ed through the very worst periods
that destructive war and almost
general poverty could inflict, and
today these people are moving
steadily on the upword path OF
progress.
The viewless but majestic ghosts
of the Old Dominion's best days
look down upon the Virginians of
the present generation engaged in
building out of the ruins of the
past a grand fabric of modern in
dustry.
Even from the walls of the Nir-
GINA State section in Government
building, portraits of the men and
women of the olden time who made
the ancient G Commonwealth glorious
look down upon the efforts Of the
Virginians of to-day to rebuild the
Old Dominion on the basis Of mod.
ern progress and scientific indus
try. These portraits are OF more
than passing interest. They com
mence with Good Queen Bess,' Sir
Walter Raleigh, the original John
Smith, Pocahontas, Jane Rolf, the
daughter of the Indian Princess
Anne Butler, wife Of Alexander
Spotswood Peyton Randolph, first
speaker of the Continental Con.
gress, and Anne, his daughter; Rev.
Miles Selden, rector of the Rich.
mond Episcopal parish in 1873 /;
Johh Randolph, of Roanoke, at the
age of thirty.two, a handsome pic
ture by Gilbert Stuart the Lee
family, from the father of Light
Horse Harry, down to the son of
Gen. r. Il. Lee old George
Sandys, Treasurer of Virginia in
1921, and translator of the works
Of the Latin poets, Virgil and Ovid;
Chief Justice John Marshall, aud
ali the governors, from Lord de la
War;, in 1911; Lord Culpeper, in
1850; Lord Howard, in 1888 Al
exander Spotswood, in ITO; II.
Dinwiddie, in 1870, and Thomas
Nelson, in 1881; down to the pres
ent Chief Magistrate, William Il.
Cameron.
All the Virginia presidents are
there, from, Washington, Jefferson
Madison, Monroe to Tyler.
The collection would not be com.
plete without q portrait of the Vir-
glnia Dem0sthenes, Patrick Henry,
and he is there with Henry Clay,
the eloquent advocate of peace and
compromise, as Henry was a fire
bell, in the night, startling them
out of their fancied security and
melting them to action. Henry A.
Wise, is there, too, with hosts OF
orators, statesmen and soldiers.
What galaxy of greatness. 1t
seems impossible that they can
ever be reproduced.
Virginia takes rank both as an
agricultural and q mining state.
Embracing an area of over 10000
square miles in about the same
latitude as the southern half OF
SPAIN Sicily, Greece and Turkey,
and it possesses every characters
tic of territory, of sea coast, plain,
valley, hill and mountain. 1t
abounds in the best varieties OF
granite and marble I; 1t has abound
ance of coal and iron, lead, copper,
salt, gypsum, slate, and some gold.
Much of the country is heavily
timbered and every stream OF rum !
ming water is a magazine of power.