The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1886-08-05
For the vIRGINIAN.l
Virginia, Past, Present and Future,

For tho VIRGINIAN.1
Virginia, Past, Present and Future.
(Conclusion.)
Virginians do not appreciate the new
era. They have not yet realized that the
ancient order of things has passed away.
They are buried in apathy and live in
the past, for the past. They have chung
on to the world old ways until they are
so far behind that it is almost hopelessly
dlscouraging to them who have walked up
to the situation. 1t seems impossible for
them to learn and comprehend that the
prosperity and independence of their
fathers cannot at this day be attained BY
the old ways and means. They are obliy-
ious of the fact that progress is now pro-
PEELED by steam power and electricity, en-
gineered and steered by practical and un.
bridled genius, and moves on with gigan-
tic strides.
One would think from the talk of her
people and the tone of her papers that she
has no natural advantages that she has
no present to guard and no future for
which to provide; true, it is not forbid
den for any Virginian to remember the
past, its pleasures. virtues and glories.
No other State has so much to be
proud OF In her past history. Her sterling
independence, illustrious statesmen. great
generals, brave sons and fair daughters.
1.-THE glamour of the graces. Inequalities,
| generoslties and sweet courtesies of life''
are celebrated the world over, commem-
GRATED in song and embalmed in history.
Virginians should profit by past expert
ence and act in the present for the mag
niicent future that should raise upon the
ruins of what was. 1t has wonderful pos
sibilities. 1t is true that as purely an
agricultural community she cannot COM
pete with the fertile plains of the great
West, but her facilities for horticulture,
dairying, fruit growing. mining, manu-
featuring and commerce, her scenery, her
climate, her health giving waters. give to
her many-sided and powerful advantages
over every other State in the Union.
She is banded with iron and scanned with
coal, and richly stored with gold and cop
per and lead and tin. She has great beds
of slate and granite, of limestone and mar
BILE, OF mica and asbestos Her mountains
and hills are glass clad and bubbllng with
cold. lympid fountains. She is lined with
bold. rapid streams, widening and deep
ening into great rivers to drive the wheels
OF industry and to ride the ships of COM
merce
Besides her balmy and: genial climate
her rich mineral waters, her landscape
scenery that vies with the regions about
the Alps. and her subteranean caverns,
whose magnihcehce and beauty can
neither be painted nor told.
But with all this what is Virginia to-
day? How stands she in the column of
wealth and independence. Her people
seem not to KNOW of her immense natural
wealth. and her facilities for many
sided development. Her whole energy is
expended In the old fashioned way Oh the
farm. Her products must then be shipped
abroad to find a market and all the man
ufacturei goods, implements and machin-
cry that She uses is brought acrass the
ONO aud Potomac. Imports greatly ex-
coed her exports. She il pouring her
money out in streams that will never
return by the natural round of currency.
Her lands are mortgaged and subjected to
liens and Judgments and her entire annual
productions can be purchased by the apple
and potato crop of one of the States that
she las given lothe Union.
In the present o.ier of things there is
no hope for he future. Virginians. to
become rich prosperous, and great, must
adopt the Northern AMI Western policy.
and thoroughly show mp her advantages to
the world, and ner facilities for limitless
development. Just as Il private enter.
prise or business at this day is never sue
cessful to any marked extent unless par
ticular pains is taken to make known its
advantages, so it is precisely With State
or country. This is the secret of success
of Northern and Western States.
TO to the North or West and Won never
hear any OF the disadvantages of the
country mentioned. In the Northwest
businn ss Is the universal shout. Every
advantage and resource of the country is
advertised with proportonate expense,
and with ~ much particularly as the
shreWdest mtrch mt lakes in advert ising
his stock of goods
by spirited and enterprising Yankees
and Western men, the fertile soil, rich
mines, plenty OF money, high wages,
social, moral, educational and govern
mental advantages Of the great North and
boundless West are sounded throughout
every civilized nation OH earth.
In the west you never hear of dronghs,
of grasshoppt rs. OF chills and feyers and of
hurricanes and tOrnadoes, and the Yam
KEGS never complain OF their cold, cheer
less climate. and of the bleak and rugged
scenery, and sterile soil. But in Virginia
or out of it you never hear of her advan-
tages. but her disadvantages are heard and
seen everywhere. She makes specially
OF advertising her plaques. Her ancestry
and her plaques are the topics of CONVEX
sation among her people and fill nearly all
her papers.
AHC uioltiOOt Va Ou Has DG-
come decrepit, and is now in it's ,lotage
what might have been excnsa be in its
childhood is now disgusting and repulsive.s
But let Virginia adopt the shrewd
Yankee and Western policy, and invite
and encourage capital and enterprise to
come into her limits and it will not be
long until streams Of wealth and numbers
of spirited men will be pouring in from all
quarters. Her entire business system will
be reyolutiouized for the hett er, and
period of growth and universal prosperity
inangurated. Factories aud FORCES, and
furnaces. and Industries of every descrip-
ton and character will y ring M, all over
her territory. and cities and towns and
villages resollnding with the hum OF indus.
try and enterprise will grow up as if by
enclantmpnt. The trucker, the farmer
and the grazier will he afforded ready
home market and every manufactured arti-
Gle OF utility. comfort or ornament will DO
manufactured within her tern iLnry.
None of her wealth will t- shipped, and