The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1890-12-18
from Staunton through 100 miles to tn,

iOM OIduHUOu lLFOuSu 1uU ulllcS 10 Cne
'oai fields of Webster county, w. Va,
md to the railway system of the central
part of that State
By these railroads all the raw materi
Ills mentioned are or will be easily
reached from Stanton The entire
South is a market for commodities man
lfactured in Virginia,-by reason of the
present lack of manufacturing in the
South, of its nearness to Virginia, and
of the readiness of southern people to
buy goods made in Virginia or other
southern states. The capacity of the
southern market is increasing with the
growth of population and the adoption
of new and improved conditions of liy-
ing. There is now rapidly growing
demand in the South for many articles
of home decoration or comfort that few
years ago were seldom seen south of
LGbor.-Good labor is cheaper in the
Valley than in perhaps any
other section of the country. Honest.
intelligent and industrious native-born
white people, confined heretofore to the
low wages and irregular work of agricul
ture, will gladly accept and faithfully
follow employment in factories, at wages
much lower than those paid in the
North. Low wages are satisfactory at
Staunton because of the cheapness of
living 1t is safe to assert that the costs
of living are less in the Shenandoah Val
ley than in any other section of the
United States. This is true because the
Shenandoah Valley yields the greatest
variety of food products, has no long
and expensive winter, and by reason of
clothing and general manufactured arti-
cles at prices practically as low as those
charged in Philadelphia and Baltimore
Water Poaoer-Middle River. flowing
for 90 miles around Staunton at an aver
age distance of about 6 miles from the
city, affords large water power at many
places. The four good>sized creeks that
unite at Staunton afford considerable
water power, and Christians Creek, 4
miles east of the city, should also be
mentioned in this connection.
ADVANTAGES FOR RESIDENCE.
An adequate description of these
should have at least two columns of space
if it were allowable to make this article
much longer. For general desirableness
as place of residence, Staunton is now
unequalled south of the Potomac and
Ohio rivers, and after the improvements
of the next two or three years it will be
unsurpassed in America or the world.
Pleasant and Healthful ClimGte.-From
residence as well as a business stand
point, the Shenandoah Valley and the
mountains adjoining form the choicest
portion of the southern uplands, not only
because the portion is nearest to the
northern centres of civilization and COM
merce, and nearest to the seaboard and
the mountain pleasure resorts, but also
because it has the best of all climates,
the happy medium between the extreme
cold of the North and the extreme heat
of the South. At Staunton autumn and
winter are bracing and delightful, ac-
eompanied by plenty of frost, usually by
several days or a week of sleighing, and
generally by ice enough for summer
supply. Springtime is mild and fragrant,
true to the poetical description; and
summer differs but slightly from the
in, Dnnncylxray ME an1 Ohio.
having less than a dozen very hot days,
fewer hot nights, and none of the chilly,
damp, disagreeable weather so common
in the northern summer. The altitude
of Staunton, 1887 feet above the level
of the sea, with its medium latitude
about 50 degrees, produces the admir-
able climate described. At Staunton
there is no waste of strength in overs
intense cold or intense heat. The
maximum of strength can be devoted to
business. England and Belgium, in which
the greatest development of the world
has been achieved, have a climate SINH
lar in temperature to that of the Valley
of Virginia The healthfulness of the
latter is remarkable on account of it's
mild but bracing atmosphere. its bright
sunshine, its perfect drainage, and it's
of pure spring water,-mala-
ria is unknown, consumption is uncom
mon, and a high average of longevity is
the rule Dr. Felix L. Oswald, the emf
nent scientist. must have had the Shen-
andoah Valley in mind when he PLACED
the southern nnlands first in his scale of
general healthfulness.
Desirable Glass of Peopze.-The Val
ley of Virginia was settled IN the etgh>
teenth century by the Scotch irish
famous for their patriotism, courage,
of character, loyalty to convic>
ton and success in undertakings and
by the Pennsylvania Germans-=noted for
their honesty, industry and thrift. The
present population consists chiefly of
descendants of the original settlers de-
and their characteristics still
prevail. There is no rabble in Virginia,
like the class of people, mostly foreign'
that curse the large cities and manufac-
turing towns of the North. Virginia's
people are native horn, conservative and
with no burning hankering at
ter the license that is mis- named liberty.
The colored people, who compose one
third of Staunton's population and
much smaller proportion of the popula-
ton of the entire Shenandoah Valley,
are useful and reliable as laborers, and
their presence keeps out laborers of the
rabhle class referred to. BY instinct the
colored people are peaceful. and not un~
desirable as laboring class.
Educational advantages. = Staunton
has public schools, as well supported and
conducted as those in northern cities of
size. 1t has also four female
= Presbyterian, Methodist
Episcopal and Lntheran-attepded by
nearly 1000 pupils, mostly from other
states; a Catholic parochial school,
business college, and two male academies
that have not less than 100 boarding
pupils. Staunton has long been regard
ed SIS one of the first educational centres
in The South. Forty miles away, at
Charlottesville, is the University of Vir-
ginia, an institution Of the first rank for
At Lexington, about the
same distance from Stanton, are Wash