Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1890-08-20
The Work of the People.

The Work of the People.
An intelligent, earnest, and commend
able effort by the people in their primary
assemblages, as well as through more en-
larged methods, to improve their oppor-
tunities for accomplishing desirable ends,
never fails to awaken interest and to Sc
cure assistance. An illustration of that
truth is now manifesting itself quite favor
ably In the organizations of many COM
munities along the western side of Rock
bridge and Augusta and perhaps other
counties in the Valley who are considering
the grave matter to the interest of all their
people involved in improved transporta-
ton facilities. The movement among the
people through the entire length of the
two counties along their western borders-
seventy-fve miles or more-presents the
most satisfactory evidence of commend
able effort for the achievement of great
public good which has ever come under
our observation. Four weeks of time only
have passed by since the Middlebrook
meeting set the ball in motion, and eight
other large assemblages have been con-
vened and enthusiastically endorsed the
movement and adopted uniform methods
for advancing it. Two of these meetings
were practically county meetiugs-one at
Staupton, the 26th of July, and the other
at Lexington the 4th instant-Court-days
respectively of the two counties. The
proceedings of all these meetings have
been published with the names of many of
the citizens of the two counties who par
ticipated in them. If any evidence were
needed of the unanimity and the cordial
cooperative effort of all the people of the
country named, as well as that of many
other leading citizens without the line, the
spirit of the resolutions adopted and the
sympathy manifested at all the assem-
blages furnish it.
There are three railroads passing through
Augusta and Rockbridge counties, but it
is estimated that more than half the farms
of equal productiveness and like number
of the people, as well as many of the in
dustries and the best of resources for
profitable development, are practically al
most without the means of railroad trans
portation, except at great Inconvenience,
expense, and delay in reaching them. 1t
is practically so in marketing farm and
other products of the soil, and the situation
is a barrier to any valuable mineral, forest,
and other development which, without
&rap orfo not ,ornsip id1a
ard unproductive. The situation, there
fore, is Just this-that whilst the communi-
ties in possession Of the best means Of
transportation are charging in develop
ment, those deprived of them are not, and
instead of advancing are retrograd!ng.-
Farm products in these times will not bear
long transportation by primitive methods
The whole scene becomes irksome and
disoouragipg in every view which may be
taken of it.
Prosperity cannot bestow its benefactions
properly if it fails to reach alike all com
munities that are necessarily associated in
local and general pursuits and that are
united in social advancement. The OPP.
portunities to obtain equal blessings, il
there be such possibilities, should be as
open and deserving the general sympathy,
and, if need be, cooperative effort to the
wide, beautiful, and fruitful country
around Parnassus, Mt. Scion and other
points as elsewhere, that the people there
may enjoy them in the same manner in
which the communities of Crimora and
Cave stations now do. The country around
Greenville has the very best transportation
facilities, whilst Middlebrook, the upper
Middle River Valley, and Shemeriah and
Walkers Creek are practically denied,
as they were a century age, proper
facilities for reaching market with their
products. These comparisons carry with
them much more than the evident disad-
vantages in the matter Of wagoning long
distances to market as well as the tedious
or near railroad, can, if he avails himself
of the advantage, make more money with
more ease than his brother and friend even
with better farm and perhaps more in
ductllOuc, Wv SuUJOOIou w AObE ohd ohC-
some journeys to reach shipping point
TIE latter has to maintain more horse
power and employ more labor and charge
his mind with more anxiety, and strain his
nerves to greater tension to obtain equal
success with the one at or near a railroad
station.
Two Augusta or Rockbridge farm ore
meet en- Court day. They may be brothers,
and being countymen they are inspired
alike with all the highest purposes of
county pride and equally anxious for the
social and public prosperity. They talk of
matters and things in general, and as
marketing hay has commenced, the con-
versation turns naturally to that interest,"
One resides on the eastern side of the
county, the other on the western side. Both
alike have good crops of hay, and both have
baled their hay for market.
Whilst conversing, the produce dealers
of Staunton, Greenville, Stuarts Draft,
Spottswood, Waynesboro', Lyndhurst, Lex
ington, and other points are on the Court
Green ready to buy-receiving the hay at
any railroad station convenient to the pro-
Queer. They report the market good now
in West Va, in Eastern Va, in the Caro-
linas, Georgia, and Alabama, and early
shipments will realize it. The farmer Oh
the eastern side of either county can load
one car, and sometimes more in day, and
his returns come quickly. But how about
the brother on the western side, except
near Swoope, in Augusta? He has to haul
from eight to twenty miles. If fifteen
only, be is, indeed, almost debarred from
marketing hay at all. He can, at best,
only load one car week. Rains, bad
roads, and other drawbacks delay him, but
they do not the eastern brother. He knows