Morning journal and courier., 1885-01-14

y, Work.
 D. HAMPTON, Va, Jan. 8. Id 1 To the Editor of the JOURNAL AND COURIER: IS "Hev kerridge, sah2" It had been rain
 ing almost necessarily for thirty-six hours
 and as belated train had landed me in thi
 historical town after eight o'clock of dense | ly dark night was quite prepared to wei
 come the shelter of 'skerridge." Instinc
 lively dived in the direction of the voice ', and by good fortune landed in what seemed U to be the mouth of a pocket Bestowin, myself among the cushions that lined thi " pocket, l soon became cognizant that : , couple of horses attached in front wer
 fioundering backwards with me through , ,. succession of pools of liquid mud that wer, D by courtesy called street.
 From Lake Erie I had proceeded to tho , national capital by way of the Pennsylvania railroad-which is to my mind, the best
 built and best managed railroad on earth
 taking everything into consideration. dc 1 not write this in the interest of the road, o1 1n the spirit of many people who are so care
 less of what they say that everything is the
 best or the worst, the oldest or the newest the
 largest or the smallest. Even such men as
 Joaquin Miller are guilty of this wild method of writing. I make the statement after hay ing inspected the best work of the English,
 those modern road-makers of the world who
 have carried either their wagon-roads or their
 railroads or both to Japan, the Isles of the East, Australia, Burmah, India, Asia Minor
 and many of the most remote countries on
 the globe. These English railwaysare far su- I per1or to the average run of roads in Ameri- | Ca. all nTarn of hniJ1
 constructed over illimitable plains. Doubt l less at some day the West Shore line will
 prove itself the peer of the Pennsylva-
 nia.
 At Washington did some commonplace 1 things, such as watch the pages compare
 cuff buttons in the two houses of Congress
 while the members yawned and read and
 wrote and chatted together. didn't see
 anybody asleep except the Senate. The
 House of Representatives Is too noisy place
 for real snug sleep.
 1 want to record one thing in connection 1 with Uncle Sams establishment, which many l correspondents have not had the facilities
 of learning The greatest government on the ] face of the earth is at the time the ! most liberal and hospitabIe. Nearly all the petty, ehete empires of Europe, and most of l those in the Orient, surround their capitals 1 with so much red tape and so many demands | for lucre that it isn't worth the while to go 1 the rounds of them. I did not encounter a l SlnSie OOnpOuS 1uncIlOnafv lii " aSh1HgtOn, 1 or experience a single FebuH. No one paid 1 any attention to me. One can only under 1 stand how refreshing this seemed when he | has himself struggled with soldiers and ser 1 wants innumerable in some of the European 1 capitals, all decked from top to tee with feathers, gilt stripes, brass buttons, swords, gloves, top boots, etc., etc. These epauletted hunkeys of the old world are tireadfuly ex- asperating. 1 should except Austria so far as fees are concerned, for although there is plenty of formality there, Franz Joseph is rather inclined to be democratic and has abolished the gratu1ty business in connection with visiting his court. France is becoming ceremonial year by year under the Republic. It is the genius of,American institutions to be free, or pernaps more nearly free, from red tape and from the fleeing nuisance.
 From Washington to Richmond and from Richmond here was journey of eight hours, through swampy but picturesque coun- try.
 But by this time my dusky Jehu had land 1 ed me at the comfortable hotel. Alas, owing to the lateness of the train, supper was ali cleared away. Undismayed at this discovery, l swarmed under an umbrella, and started 1 out in search of food and diversion Wander | ing down the principal street of the village l (which has a population of perhaps 5000 1 souls, with, should judge, one-third of that | number whites) espied before long win | dow filled with tempting-looking pies and | doughnuts. As there table decently set inside, I entered and accosted the tur- baned female within-''Hast thou food for the furnishing, daughter of Ethiopia!' And she replied 'sYea." Then she flew around | and set before me divers articles of food, including ''b1tter in lordly dish" It was the dish, not the butter that was lordly. | When I had dispatched the hoe-cakes and other novelties which she quickly prepared for me, she asked what kind of pie prefer. I asked her what kind she had on hand whereGpon she made answer, Apple and potato' FPotato-pie?' I ejaculated, pro- nouncing the first word with an intelroga tive accent, but winding up with enpha sis which imparted the color of selection to my remark. So she brought on the potato pie. It proved to be what 1 had mistaken in the window for pumpkin pie; and when l had applied the gastronomical test to it, 1t further proved to be sweet potato pie. Now I have weakness for sweet potatoes in any form, and that pie rather took my fancy. When had finished the generous piece at first bestowed, I called for another. I dis patched that, and then wiped my mouth upon my napkin, and called for sweet potato pie. 1 wound mp my repast with several more segments of the same appetizing dish, and then sallied forth in quest of the second esideratum-diversion. This I found in barber-shop. If had an enemy I should not be so heartless as to wish that he might such shave as fell to my lot then and there. There are tonsorial artists and
  that shaved me was 8 butcher. Perhaps he had worked in tine Chicago slaughter houses part of his life, and WAS at that moment liv- l ing over in memory the incidents of the past 1 In corroboration of this theory may say that l noticed far away, pensive expression in his eye he gaZed vacantly at picture On l the opposite wall, and occasionally whittled away at my bleeding chin. Anon he stop l ped to sop up the blood with Nassau sponge, l or to thrust his knee deeper into the pit of my stomach in order to get Q better hold. For the time being my benevolent disposi- | ton toward the ''man and brother was ma terially modified, and when I left that dis secting establishment felt too weak to look | further for diversion. l retired at once, taking note of the improved aspect of the weather as I entered the hotel.
 In the morning I started out in search of new adventures. The lowering aspect of the l weather had vanished before a glorious sun, l and the anomalous experiences of the previ- ous evening gave plnce to experiences of a more broadening and deafening character. passed across a bridge spanning a wide es- tuary of Hampton Roads, and found myself surrounded by the forty buildings of . the Hampton Normal and Agricultural Insti- ; ute.
 In this tour of our own former slave-hold- ing States, I have it mapped out before to visit every prominent educational institution, 50 as to get an intelligent idea of what the colored people are capable intellectually. Oc- I shall give your readers the bene- it of impressions received during such vis- ts. Right at the door of the South I have :ound and inspected this mighty institution of Hampton, where the work that has been lone in the brief fourteen years of the schools history approaches the fabled achievements of the Arabian Nights. It is well thus to zee Hampton itself at the very portal of the South, for I expect to keep running across Hampton constantly during my subsequent l ravels, in the shape of teaching graduates ] md daughter institutions.
 In writing of the modern Hampton, I hall give only brief introductory para graph or two in the way of statistical de- cription, preferring to convey my impress $ ions by means of incidents and pen sketch ': $. The school has about eight hundred E lcres of land in all, improved so as to repre- $ ent an aggregate valuation of $40O, ,000, free rom debt. The buildings look over upon Hampton Roads, pleasant sheet of water; 2 md their site has an added significance when < t is remembered that here slaves were first !, anded, here the shackles of bondage were h broken and here the first school for freed nen was opened. The attendance averages bout six hundred students, four-ffths of a xhom are negroes, while the remaining one