Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1886-11-13
"LEoNEs" WESTERN LETTER.
CINCINNATI. Nov. 9th. 1886.

TO a fineman MD I'D ne tnleket; nor
likewise to a woman who is g pain
fully ignorant Of politics. and about
500 miles out of reach; tho I must
say that such conditions would be
favorable to saying things r"with-
out fear or favor" as politicians are
fond of quoting, when all the time
they're full of BOTH. When ! heard
the result of the campaigns in gen.
eral and Berkeley's in particular, /
gave gentle shout of Viye la Re-
publicanism.
The general tone of events here
on election day and since, has been
quiet. Everybody says that it's be-
cause the Republicans won. If it
had been the Democrats, there would
have been that hail Mellow well-met
sort of a time that associates itself
with bourbonism of several kinds.
j always set my own individual Dem
ocratic friends apart, when 1 talk of
Democrats in this way.
Mat. Mccormick gave me all the
news from Martinsburg, when he re-
turned to Cincinnati. But Pm not
gong to say anything about it Just
now. You are all safe until l go
home,-rest in peace.
Do l like Cincinnati!
Well yes, but l feel toward it as
sensitive natures feel toward some
persons when they say they " don't
know how to take them.n It's a
town hing as full of versatility as a
show rack is of goods, and it's con-
tinually revolving itself around to
different places, and it all depends
on the way you look at it.
There is an abandon and freshness
and point about everything that is
striking to down-easter; none of
them seem to have any time to lose.
This is noticeable in every phase of
their life, and nowhere more so than
in their religious devotions and
church services. They make it a
matter of business and go at it in a
business-like way; whether or not
they make their business matter
of religion, is quite another qnes-
ton. There is very little lettering
on the wayside and less of that
come-day go-day, the-Lord send Sun
day sort Of hanging around that one
finds in smaller cities where the sun
shines hot and lotus eaters haven't
anything else to do than stand
around and chew their cud of con-
tentment and tobacco. The most
disagreeable feature of the city is its
coal smoke and dirt. We never see
such coal as they use here down in
Virginia. 1t is soft, greasy mari
coal, and its odor in smoke is nau-
seating, until you get hardened to it.
The smoke from it is filled with SCOT
that comes down like black suow
storms. My hands are never clean
anymore, aud | cannot have a win.
dow open for the sticky black flakes
stick closer than brother, and come
in like an army with banners.
used to wonder what made the PEG
pie, and especially the women, have
such habit of shutting one eye and
casting the other one obliquely down
toward their noses,-I don't wonder
anymore. | do 1t myself. I can see
the black specks and rub them off
more successfully. If any of you
have hahit,of breathing thro' your
mouth, come to Cincinnati and you'll
soon be cured of it.
l went out to Walnut Hills the
other day, and through the Zoolog-
ical Gardens, though they never
think of giving it all that name, on
the same plan of their hurried alb.
breviation for everything; it's the
"Zoo" and nothing more. They say
they have the finest 300" in the
Q. s. 1t is undoubtedly fine; the
collection of animals embraces al.
most everything from a buffalo
down to tiny prairie dogs. The
grounds cover 80 or 40 acres. From
Walnut Hills l looked down over
the city. and all | could see of it was
steeple here and there peeping out
from a sea of smoke, literally buried
In it. The descent from these hills
proper is made by cable cars on an
inclined plane, and sleeper than
steep. / asked the conductor to let
me ride outside; 1 wanted some ex-
perience; l got it, and also some
cinders where they done the least
good. | didn't see as much as
might have. The conductor very
kindly explained the whole cable
process of mechanism, but | never
could understand machinery very
well, and l boiled it down to the
principle that one cable runs down
while the other runs up, and each
one acts as a check on the other,-a
sort of reversionary interest, to keep
the car at an even pace. None of
them have ever yet broken. We said
there was always danger of the car
running off the track, in which case
the consequences had better not be
spoken of. And when | looked way
down at the Jagged house tops and
chlinneyS, L didn't speak OF them.
| pass the Enquirer" office every
day on my way to the College. It's
smaller than The HERALD Office.
and yet their circulation is some.
what larger. 1t takes a whole tram
to take the Weekly Euqnirer out of
Cincinnati,-not only a car, but a
train exclusively for that purpose,
and yet there are editors who COM
plain of there being nothing in the
newspaper business. 1t must have
been Clara Belle and the Personals
that done it.
What have l been doing individ-
ually! Working and studying rath-
er lively. / have lots of incentive to
keep up. There are about 300 pu-
pills in the College, ladies and gen.
tlemen, and some of them are brainy