The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1886-07-31
Correspondence Baltimore County Union.
LETTER FROM SARATOGA.
Vivid Picture of the Battle of Gettys-
burg-The Delaware Water Gap and
its Beauties-What is Seen In 1.-The
Smartest Town in America"


Editors Union This place was reached by me
two days ago by rather roundabout route
Leaving home on the 22d, at a. M, l reached
Philadelphia at noon, and having an hour to walt
for my train and desiring to call on my old friends,
Drs. Mordecai and Joseph Price, was about TO
direct my steps towards their office when friend
suggested that there was picture OF the battle OF
Gettysburg on exhibition two or three squares
away and that it was very fine. thought
Uvuid see the picture and my friends too. en-
tered what 1 supposed was picture gallery, paid
so cents and assembled d stairway. When reach
ed the top of it I overwhelmed with the
genius of the painter that thought was at Get
tysburg and not at Philadelphia, and was not
quite certain of my own identity. The picture is
a cyclorama of the battle of Gettysburg, painted
by Paul Philippoteaux, French artist. Having
been twice on the battle ground and somewhat
familiar with the points where the most interest
ing portions of the great battle occurred, have
o better appreciation of the picture than those
who have not enjoyed this advantage. You pass
from the street along dark hall and Stairway
You emerge at the top where the whole battle field
and nothing else greets your vision. AS picture
it is perfect and should immortaze its author.
The canvas is 400 feet long and so feet high and
you see nothing else. The point of time selected
is during Pickett's charge, about 2 o'clock p. m.
on the third days fight. The position in which
YOU stand is on the left centre where Hancock was
posted. The picture bewilders and overwhems
you with its awful grandeur. The grass, the
rocks, the trees, the roads, the wheat field which
drank rivers of gore, the cannon, the muskes, the
men, Hancock, Meade and Pickett and their re-
spective stats, as large as life and recognizable,
the smoke, the blaze, the balls flying from the
lannon's mouth are all perfect reality itself.
The air is full of flying and bursting Shells
Frightened cattle are frantic with fear. Ammu-
milton wagons and batteries of artillery are flying
to the 'front.' The wheat, the ground, the rocks,
the fences are drenchedin blood In the language
of Washington Irving applied to the coliseum by
moonlight, "there is nothing like it, There is
but one thing needed to convince the spectator
that he is witnessing the battle in progress instead
of viewing it's picture and that is the sound of the
guns. You stand on eminence surrounded by
a railing. Outside the railing are natural earth,
grass real wheat, broken guns and carriage wheels
and other fragments. The picture is so well exc
cuted that the eye cannot tell where the reality
ceases and the picture begins. The author spent
several months on the ground, examined the war
maps at the War Department and consulted the
leading generals who participated before making
his picture The picture deprived me of my visit
to my friends, the Prices
Leaving Philadelphia at l p. m. my train
arrived at Delaware Water Gap at 40 p. m.-
The scenery along the Delaware is good, the farm
ing excellent and many herds of fine cattle are to
be seen. The Delaware Water Gap is full of
the Delaware, after two seeming struggles with
the mountain barrier, makes its way through the
Blue Ridge range of the Alleganies, called there
the Kittatinny mountains. The river, where
waters here of dark mahogany COLOR though
clear when closely inspected. makes three winding
bends in its passage through the mountains, ana
at the lower gorge the mountains rise about l.3O0
feet on each side almost perPendicular!y. The
view from the summit is passing grand. You
have before you vast area of retreating noun
tain range in the background in Pennsylvania
bold bluff opposite you and a vast plain to the
southeast of wood field, farm houses, villages and
towns that seem large enough to embrace all New
Jersey, while the graceful Delaware melnders like
silver ribbon on a green carpet among the farms
and woodland until it is lost in the distance.
small steamboat that can carry 40 passengers plies
through the Gap on the river. There are seven or
eight hotels. The Kittatnny and the Gap House
accommodate several hundred each. They are
we'll located and command fine views. The jour
ney to the top of the mountain is about two miles
and is quite rough towards the top. The road to
the summit winds along the edge of the mountain
that overhangs the river and most of the distance
commands view both up and down the river and
improves as you progress. The Gap below IS
wide and gradually narrows until the river is not
over three hundred feet wide where the mountains
rise perpendcularly each side. Folks are
camping in the woods to some extent but most OF
the visitors prefer the hotels.
From here the Delaware, Lackawanna and
Western railroad runs up the valley of Broad
heads creek, crosses the POcono mountain and at
the end of So miles lands you on the other side OF
the mountan-which is barren nearly the whole
distance, the wood being all cut of-in the busy
city of Scranton, which in the vernacuar of its
people is called "the smartest town in America"
They are very proud of its enterprise and push.
It lies in a valley between mountains, on Lacka'
wana creek nine miles from its junction with the
Susquehanna, and contains about 10000 inhab-
tiersman lad not made The first clearing 1t was
then an unbroken wilderness. Now five trunk
lines of railway besides numerous smaller ones
centre here. 1t boasts of 81 coal mines, II blast
furnaces, steel rail mills, 2 silk factories and
numerous other enterprises that are noteworthy.
The Scranton Coal and Iron Company makes 300
tons of steel rails per day and employs 5000 work.
men. Piles of pig iron and rails, banks of coal,
huge piles of coal dirt, acres of rail tracks and
cars greet you on almost every hand. Everybody
is busy and one-half the inhabitants seem to be
coal miners or iron workers. A. Is. Stevens d. Co.
run one coal mine that covers LOO acres under the
city. 1t works 800 hands and 50 mules. Through
the courtesy of the managers L was taken down in
the mine 800 feet under ground, saw the operation
going on, the railways, the cars, the mules, the
miner and his laborer at work. The passage
ways are about 16 feet wide and run in every d.
recton from the shaft. Fresh air is supplied to
the miners by engine that sends in $4,000 cubic
inches of air per minute. If this were to stop 30
minutes the choke damp would blow that portion
of the town in midair. The miner gets 81 cents
per ton for mining has to get out tons per day,
has to pay his laborer who loads his cars Sl.9O
and furnish his own powder for blasting and keep
his tools in repair. He averages about 81 per
day clear: The owners of the soil on the surface
are paid royalty of % cents per ton for the
privilege of mining. Coal sells here at retail in
the market for Sl.90 per ton. Why, oh why do
we have to pay 1925 for it in Towsontown?
S. P. B.