Smyrna times., 1890-09-03
" I7tL IWIVI
Tne New South.

CORDELE, GA, Sept. l, 1890.
We left Wilmington, Del, on the S.15
A. NJ. Baltimore and Washington ex-
press, on the 25th ult., for Washington
and the South. To do this it was
necessary to take the midnight train
on the Delaware railroad which, by the
way, is not due at Clayton until BOG
A. NJ. The superb equipment of the
Pennsylvania railroad system, how
ever, made travelling easy as the train
sped along until Washington was
reached, at lO.45 A. NJ. The approach
to Washington is not near texcepting
the majestic outlines of the Capitol
dome) so imposing as the environs of
Baltimore, and neither of them can
equal the magnificent natural location
OF Richmond, Va, embellished as it is
with wide, neatly kept streets, and
hanked on either side with handsome
residences.
Alexandria, however, notwithstand.
ing its aged and dilapidated appear
ance, is in going South by the Coast
Line sure, not alone from its being so
closely connected with the personal
history of Washington, to attract at
tentiOn because of this. Before leav-
ing Washington ones eye is forced to
wander to the unmeaning, pointed cap
stone of the sky-reaching pile of stone
erected on the north bank of the Po-
mac.
After Aqua creek was passed the
country assumed a dense underground
of scrub timber, giving way to an
occasional clearing planted in corn,
oats or tobacco. The main feature of
this portion of Virginia has not under
gone any material change for the bet
ter since the "Heel of War" stamped
fat these plains. In little while the
train nears the Potomac, which now
sweeps along in power and dignity
iAseparably to the historic river AS
far as the eye can reach, the vast area
of waters seeking an outlet to the sea
are unrufIied except by the tiny sails
of fisher boats or the more pretentiOus
sight of a three.masted sch OOner, pick
ing way along from the South. AT
QuanticO we reached the end of the
first division in the Coast Line system,
and at the next station, (MilfOrd) !,
were allowed four minutes to take
lunch in-four minutes exactly. Here
we began to notice the peculiarly
built houses of the lOwly; the far
famed "cabin" of the South. Nearly
all the better class of houses aspire to
but one story in height, but the cabins
are even more circumscribed, since for
want of indoor room the chimneys are
built wholly on the outside, and mostly
formed of cross pieces of wood, the
intersection being filled in with clay
and then smoke and the weather com.
bine to give sombre, variegated ap.
pearance to the whole.
In choosing the Coast Line to go
South this feature Of the landscape con-
stantly presented itself from the time
Washington was left behind antil for a
atretOh Of nearly twelve hundred miles
appeared the vast illimitable pines sen =
tineling the track excepting when a bit
of cleared space gave place to the small
strip of cultivated ground and It's at.
tendants cabin, and then again the
dance Of the pines would be taken up
for miles upon miles Of Wilderness.
Soon the train sped over the Kappa.
hammock and into fredericksburg.
Encamped upon the heights back Of
the town Gen Lee, after Che Slaughter
OF the Uni0n forces in Attempting to
carry the Confederate works on
Mayre's heights, and the hlunder of
Gen. Burnside at Chancellorsville