Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1890-05-10

| ABOUT nIty washington correspondence iuciuo-
ing . representative Of The EVENING star,
reached Alexandra and stopped there few
minutes, Q man, who looked - II he might
have lived there when the town site was sur
veysd, hailed one Of 'the boys" on the plat
form.
"say, mister" he inquired, nodding signin-
cantly toward the special Pullmans, "whats
goin' on?"
Ga" was the polite reply.
"Oh, is that alp thought most likely,
| jedgin' from the sounds hit was . Congress-
mans funeral gittin' home from some'rs."
| From which it may be inferred that the air
OF gloom which pervaded the two special cars
containing the party must have been heavy
| enough to have gone by freight.
Permit that inference to remain.
| About n mile and half beyond this first ad-
| venture some one arose and inquired:
"Is Mr.. William Eleroy Curtis, the Pan
| American, on board2"
charge Of S the passenger list "whas do you
Nothing. only wanted to know whe Their
We were y. going to be called back. before we
Then the train went on hurriedly, with now
and then glass blinking in the soft, sweet air
OF May and the poker chip dropping melodi-
| ously into the pot to relieve the monotonous
whirr Of the wheels.
MORE OF THE sAMI SORT.
1t was q glorious moment And 1t wasn't
costing anybody q cent-e1cept the railroad
people and the fellows who were dropping
| chips.
But nobody cared for that. for what were
| they there for?
And so we rustled along through the o Id
Dominion, with joke for Bull Run, a cheer
for Culpeper, peal OF applause for Orange
Court House, an appetite for the Char lottesville
dinner. an anthem of praise for Lynchburg and
| a rush for dinner at Danville, which fell an
easy prey to the ruthless invaders.
After supper everybody went TO bed-that il
| from Elk to ten hours after.
About IN. l heard plaintive voice in the
aisle in front Of my berth. 1t was the voice of
| married man.
Matilda" it walled, "MatiIdar'
But no answer came, for every Matilda had
been left at home and only men were Of the
party.
Matilda" it called again; "oh, Matilda,
throw me out the night key; want to come in.
Then the porter came and heard only q warn
Ing '.Sh-sh-sh" and a few whispers, which
shortly died away into the silence Of the night
THE SANDS OF TIME.
When morning came we were in Columbia,
&C., or in that neighborhood, and it was dis
covered that there had been rise in South
Carolina real estate. Not BOOM perhaps, but
just plain rise; enough, you know to get up
OF OF the ground and come in at the top of the
car and into the windows and doors and such
other openings as might be presented to an en-
terprising jag Of real estate. In other words,
it was disagreeably dusty and no busters in
| sight.
From Columbia, Augustaward, there is q
stretch OF cinnamon seed and sandy bottom"
as long as a sermon in August and twice as dry,
and as We pulled through it a dusty journalist
gszed thoughttully and for long time on the
Tying scenery close to the ground.
Il know now" he said why South Carolina
hung on so long during the war"
"Why?" asked the man next to him.
because she's got SO much sand"
All along the road the northern men Of the
| party, who were for the first time seeing the
south, were greatly interested in the peculiar
landscapes, the ever-aboundlng .'darkey," the
dilapidated shanty, with a dozen laughing,
! yelling, dancing pickaninnies around it, the
ramshackly old wagon with the mule accom-
paniment the cotton and tobacco fields lying
In the summer sun pregnant with the coming
crops, the little southern town for all the world
| like SLOUGH hat hung up on the ground, and
at every point the handy kodak snapped up
| the views and laid them away in the window
full tomb of its sensitized plates to await the
resurrection OF the sunlight.
WELCOME TO AUGUSTA
| Just out of Augusta at 1890 a reception COM
mittee, composed Of the manly beauty, brains
and Doodle of the city, met the visitors, and its
members, after the formalities, were treated to
| song by the choir Of the excursion, the names
| of whose members will not for the sake of their
| families be mentioned here.
After the committee had heard the music it
| extended a vote of thanks to the choir with the
| assurance that as Augustus guest it would not
be called upon to do anything but rest its voice
| and enjoy itself and let others do likewise.
| Have you ever been in Augusta?
| No!
| Then 90 in.
To quote from large and elegant poet who
has sawed wood in his day:
| "Resplendent on her throne Of green,
| Augusta sits, the fairest queen
| Her arms outstretched to meet the tide
| UnceasIng as her forces grow
And magnifss the Empire state
Her regal robe cotton gown,
Her 8 pow the water water whence she gains
An Empress and Queen s viii iii be-"
| This poem may sound like Q real estate
advertisement, but l know the author did
not get cent or town lot for it, though he
| got about quarter section OF real estate in
! his hair and clothes, while driving around the
wide and wonderfully shaded streets Of the
subject Of the lines.
| PLAIN HISTORY.
| Now for some plain history.
| Augusta was founded by gentleman from
England named Oglethorpe in 1735, and from
having only one shirt to its back at that time,
it now has 49, 900, with cotton mills enough
| going in its limits to turn out sufficient mate
rial to make $50, 900 week allowing three yards
| to the shirt
This may be little "up'ards," but not much
| The town is at the head of steam navigation
| on the Savannah river, 231 miles from Savan-
nah, and has q line Of steamboats,, which are
| used principally to maintain the interstate
commerce regulations on the railroads.
| What Augustans banker for and what they
should have by all means is dental operation
| on the river by Uncle Sam at a cost of $500, 900
| to remove the snags and give commerce an un-
| trammeled and triumphant course to the sea-
Congressman Allen of Tupelo, Miss, and
Congressman Cummings of New York, who
were with the party, pledged themselves in sew
eral speeches over food and drink to secure
this amount for Augusta if they had to get it
out of the Treasury with q jimmy, or words to
that effect
| GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT.
In the matter of growth and development
Augusta is sister to the ''boom towns" Of the
south, and town lots can be found for sale
clean back into the tall timber but they are
not for sale near the town, where land year
ago, which was bought for SlO0 per acre. is
now worth 81 ,00e, and some lots are sold at
prices equal to - 500 per acre. Nor are these
fever figures. They are actual value, now,
and Will be under actual value year hence.
Augusta has had q newspaper, the Chronicle,
for los years, and Col. Pat Walsh has been its
cd md tAtr -.