The Daily times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1886-1889, 1888-09-29
YHg MOST HISTORICAL AND IMPORTANT
or THE STATES.

-Four years of war had stripped her; b.
labor was metemorphased into an incubu:
her institutions were overhrown; her deb
and burdens were increased; her propert
and taxable values were annihiated; he
energes were paralyzed; her very existenc
e was suspended.
= This was twenty-three years ago. Durin
, large part of this period the problem Q
= existence, the paramount question of simpl
! being engrossed all her powers. Misunder
stood and Stunned by all without, threat
ened and burdened by many within she ha'
/ | to devote all her facilities to the imperative
demand of the hour, the preservation of he
being as a State and a people.
At last she stands upright again in thu
yigor of renewed strength, in the joy of re
stored health, in the full power of a sovereign
State and the pride Of hale and prosperous
people
! As such her Capital City, her beautiful
Richmond on the James now sets hei
house IN order, prepares her feasts, sets out
her wares and stretching out her hands unto
4
her sister cities. rays to them
| GONE AND SEE Me-"
Richmond the Capital of Virginia. is the
Queen ofthe South enthroned upon her tree
clad hills, and crowned with the diadem OF
beauty and health.
Situated on the elevated plateau at the
Fails ofJames River once the Powhatan, she
stands at the gateway between the uplands
Of the Piedmond and the lowlands Of the
Tidewater. The breath Of the mountain
fans her brow, the tides Of the Ocean wash
her feet.
Old William Byrd of Westover whose
historic mansion not many miles below is
one Of the landmarks Of the continent. and
one Of the heirlooms Of American history,
gentleman of Virginia member Of the Kings
Council, Representative Of the Colony Bur
CESS of bis County. was entrusted to run the
much questioned line between Virginia and
her sister North Carolina. Thus occupied
living awake one night in the Juniper recesses
Of the Dismal Swamp, came to him thoughts
of his home, and with them one Of those in
spirations which may be the whisper OF
passing angel, and may be the emanation OF
genius. He would found city, nay ,he
would found two; one should be on the APP
pomattox, but the other should be on yet
fairer spot On a queenlier liver bis own
majestic James.
He knew The spot for it. There Nature
herself had laid the site--a more skillful en-
gineer than he had drawn the plaza OWNER |
architect had laid the foundations.
1t was already city and wanted but the
buildings and the people. These must in
eyitably come in time. Indeed that most
rash but most brilliant and farseeiHg young
man who had been once his fathers neigh
Dor, had chosen the spot with his rare Wis
dom and had there plantation or quarter
and when the Indians had come down and
killed his overseer and cattle, had he not
,lamored for revenge until he had started a
evolution which came deuced near up citing
His Majestys Government, and played the
leyil generally. 1t would be the chief city
n Virginia, the largest in the Southern
colonies if not on the continent, if the peo-
DE would but recognize its advantages and
,uild it up. Whata spot it was
An elevated plateau right at the falls Of
he river. above malaria and ague, with A.,
he fresh air Of the mountains, keeping 1t
DOL in summer, and incompatible climate
nd purest water from unpopulated :
prings; view Of the foaming :
waters, CHANGING and dashing over
immense boulders for nearly two miles, !
made landscape whose beauty was UNI \
ivaled as place ofresidence fora beauty-loy- !
ng people, this side of the oak clad reaches of
heThames. The river front was easily ac- '
essble, and evenly distributed and at the =,
anne time 50 immense that it would grind .
he grain of a continent, and run the factor
Is of a nation. Behind it was the rich Pied
lont running up to the Blue Ridge and yet
lrther back behind the azure mountains an y
nexplored region which stretches to the II
rench territory, Louisiana Before it was !.
be
HEAD OF DEEP WATER NAVIGATION u
18th its diurnal tides which could float any 1t
essel that His Majesty's marine could send a
cross the seas. =
How could it be otherwise than a city,
Thus must have thought Colonel VIM. u
yrd lying under the stars reading the future t
18th prophetic vision, for on the completion
his mission, he laid out the streets and q
luares of a city, on the fair spot at the Falls OF
the james, and the head Of deep water u
hich had haunted his dreams in that then =.
II distant shore Of the Dismal Swamp, and =,
there was no place this side the sea whose a.
eauty was comparable, he named it after ii
lat Incompatible spot upon the loved and
hiding Thames, N
RICHMOND. II
This was in 1877 and from that day TO the u
resent, Richmond has been the Gem City Of b,
Ie South. =,
For beauty, for salubrity, for convenience, W
all the charms and advantages which can +
axe home delightful. or a place of bust Ia
sss desirable Richmond stands supreme. IL