Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1886-03-31

Jimmy! Come homer' the old man muir
INJURED, in a dazed, scared way. 81 amt
out of my head. I'm awake. know what
You are going ter do with me; you're going
TO take me to the poorhouse.'
''Take you to the poorhouse, father !?
What are you talking about? You are 60
ing to live in style. No poorhouse about
that Amt you glad to see me? Say, Name,
come in here and see your poor old dadr'
There was moments silence Slowly,
very slowly, the old man understood; slowly
he raised himself in bed, and holding up
his trembling hand, said, solemnly:
"'He bringeth glad tidings of great joy,
good will to men,"
[For the SPECTATOR
A Historic Region.
| Mr.. Editor:-
Within week, we have, for the first
time in our life, travelled from Louisa c. H.
| in private conveyance, Uia Cuckoo, Apple
Grove. and Thomson's Crossroads to ''the
old mill, two miles beyond, which, in 1889,
the property of the Rev. John Todd, of the
Presbyterian Church, furnished flour to the
army of the Revolution. We commence
our comments in that immediate region,
and note what is of interest as we return
A few miles East of this mill, on the South
Anna, is ''Providence" Church, that in Mr..
Todd's day he served, and his congregation
embraced many names of distinction. The
church is on the 'Three- -notched Road"
which many of your readers remember well
when they wagoned and drove their cattle
over it to Richmond. 1t stands yet, in good
preservation, near "Gum Spring." and the
famous hostelry of that well-known land
lord, 'the but-cut of Democracy, as Mike
Parrish vas dubbed 45 years ago by wag
of the Richmond bar. The writer met his
surviving child, Mrs. Simms, whose hus-
band is running the ''rodd MILL" The
Thomson Cross roads" received its name
from brother of England's poet ''of the
seasons" who lived there in the latter part
of 1900 or early in 1900. Col. Charles Dab
ney, father of DIR. R L. Dabney, was an
Elder in Providence Church, and the Doc
tor and his sister, Mrs. Payne, own the
homestead, and she owns the Todd mill
Launcelot Minor father of Prof. Minor, of
the University of Virginia, and a son of his
name, in Amherst, was also an Elder
South Anna Baptist Church, on its North
bank mile West of the Crossroads, when
DR.. Dabney visits his native place, and it is
known in time, is cheerfully rendered, and
is crowded to it's utmost capacity.
A short distance North of the Cross roads
an old frame building is pointed out as the
headquarters Of Gen. Lafayette in the Rev
olution, and moustrous oak in the centre
of the road, near South Anna Church, is
said to have had the arms of his soldiers
stacked around it. We measured it and
found it % feet in circumference.
Germane to the mention of Gen: Lafay-
cite, we will furnish you, the first time it
will be in print, this interesting scrap Of
history
Seated with friend in the hall between
the Senate and House of Delegates cham
bers, Judge Flournoy called for moment.
In looking upon the Houdon Statue, he
said that our venerable friend, Col. Sher-
win McCrae, who, in very TRUTH is a walk
ing library, remarked to him recently
that the late Col. VIM. II. Richardson, SO
we'll remembered as model Virginian, said
he was by the side of Gen. Lafayette. when
visiting Richmond in 1926, who looked up
on this statue, and said, with much feeling,
''That is the best embodiment and life-like
representation of my old commander in the
world" What a handsome tribute, at the
same time, to his eminent countryman.
Two miles South of Apple Grove, stretch
ed along the North side of South Anna, is
the magnificent farm of an old friend We
have not seen since the war, Marshall Am
bier.
At Philadelphia, a week or two age, the
grave closed over Edwin G Booth, the sur
vivor of the House Committee of Revision
of the Code at Warrenton Springs in 40
Amber is the survivor, for quite a number
of wears, of the Senate Committee, and all
who are left of !. body that numbered Mon
- &C.
among it's members can be counted on ones
fingers Amber held thousands of acres
and owned hundreds of slaves
This incident in passing down Main street
in Richmond few days ago, caused the re-
Elections we indulge in, as touching the
slaves of Amber and other large holders:-
A fruiterer was tossing into the street
ouantity of rotten apples, that mashed as
thew fell, A hearty-looking colored woman
of 40 gathered them eagerly into her apron,
when we asked negro man who was along
side as we walked, if she was saving them
for her pig. He laughed derisively and re-
piled: s'She's taking them home to eat"
How many thousands there are, Mr.. Editor,
all over the South, who, like her, sigh after
ssthe flesh-pots of Egypt" With the rap
idly. filling iails, penitentiaries, lunatic asy-
lums. and graveyards, who is it that can
say with truth their condition is bettered?
That their masters are better off, we have
only to summon the leaders of the Republi-
can party OF the North to the stand, who,
in the persons of their capitalists, their cot
| ton and iron manufacturers, see ''the hand
writing on the wall,'' and ''the sceptre de-
parted from Judah,' and "their chickens
coming home to roost.
But that there is life in the old land yet,
could YOU see the two villages of Apple
Grove and Cuckoo, brand span new, hand
some, well-built, tasty residences, would
astound you. At Cuckoo, two papers are
published, the Poultry Journal and atlantic
| Missionagv, and with elegantly titted-up of.
fees took us by surprise.
Presently We passed the County Poor
house.. a small affair compared with ours,
and to the credit of Louisa there is not a
white inmate. 'Broadus Poindexter'' runs
it, put in by the Malone Administration.
He has proved so efficient that he has life