The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1891-12-10
Norfolk Worlds Fair Convention.

The Roanoke Herald publishes hrie
synopsis OF the speech delivered by Fla.
Jed Hotchkiss, of Staunton, at Norfoll
on the 25th. giving facts and reason
why Virginia should be well represented
at the Chicago Worlds Fair:
With a rude map representing th
seven grand divisions of the State, H.
Illustrated his glowing descriptions Q
Z the resources of each of those great oil
visions, rising in successive stairway
from the ocean to the western boundary
each of which should, he said, have
grand commander to supervise its ex
hibit at Chicago.
He spokn + the wealth of air and ses
and land wliich had been lavished upor
the Old Dominion About Norfolk VIZ
saw the vegetation of the tropics. an6
there was no range of habitable land II
all the Union which Virginia did MOI
possess.
The wealth of the sea was hers, as was
evidenced by a score of magnificent har
bors, among them Norfolk, Newport
News, West Point, Hampton Roads
where the navies of the world might
hide, and others which would yet be
utilized.
The fowl of every wing and fish of ev
cry scale and shell, with which these
waters teemed rendered them more yalu
able acre for acre than our richest lands
and although Tidewater people thought
the mountaineers knew nothing of oys-
ter cultivation, he wanted to see every
foot of the great Virginia sea sold fol
oyster propagation.
He said if the ideas of Virginia's great
est civil engineer (enunciated when there
was not more than fifty miles of railway
in the Union) had been carried out and
a great railway built from the mountains
to the sea instead of squandering mil'
lions in the "Big Ditch,n New York
would have been planted at the end OF
the piers of Norfolk instead OF at the
mouth of the Hudson.
He spoke of the wealth of the land
which needed only to be s'tickled with
the hoe to laugh with the harvest"
On the line of the Norfolk and West
ern alone you could see more staple
crops than could be counted on both
hands, embracing cotton, tobacco, pea
nuts, Irish and sweet potatoes, corn,
wheat, rye, barley, and buckwheat. We
had timber of every kind in infinite pro-
fusion and variety, and unsurpassed in
size and quality by any, fact which he
emphasized by describing cherry plank
from Floyd county, six feet wide by fifty
in length
He ridiculed the idea of deforesting a
country of perennial rains, and said Vir-
ginia was being affOrested instead OF de-
forested.
In Culpeper county, where for space
of many miles Grants vast armies not
only cut down the trees. but dug up the
roots, the people were building houses
from planks sawed from the trees which
had grown up on the ravaged land.
To recite our mineral wealth was to
call the roll of the minerals of the world,
and the answer, Here Herel Here -
Commonwealth to the other. We had
every geological formation known to
America
California had not as much gold-bear-
ing quartz as Virginia, and no richer,
but it would have to be worked up on
the spot and in some way.
This country was importing millions
of dollars worth of sulphuric acid, but
Virginia had belt 800 miles long of iron
pyrites which would make better acid
than the imported.
We had mountains of the finest gran
ite in the world, and it shamed him
when our slate was equal to the finest
Welsh product and would shed water
like ducks back, to see our product
figure in last years census at 100000,
while Pennsylvania showed $2,000,000.
The Blue Ridge was rich beyond COM
pare in mineral resources. A great
stratum of iron ore traversed its entire
length, and there was silver and copper
and tin also. The tin was there. 1t had
II nd +nctad nd yx-a had lima
stone purer than any known; lead, barry
ties, zinc and mountains of mineral
wealth of every variety waiting to be
developed.
The great Appalachian coal field could
fire all the engines of the world for cen>
turies. In 1851 he filled his note book
with observations on the Flat Top field.
In 1881 f. J. Kimball wanted coal. He
wanted it quick; he was the quickening
spirit of Virginia, and he correspondent
with the speaker, and in an Incredibly
short time the engineers of the Norfolk
and Western were at work on the Poca
hontas extension.
Now Pocahontas coal went to all parts
of the world, and the ocean racers when
they wished to beat their own records,
filed their bunkers with POcahontas
coal
Here a gentleman from one of the
boxes interrupted with ''Why not call it
Virginia coal ~ "Umph p was tbs reply,
'sMr.Kimball believes there was Po>
and there is a Pocahontas.
One of the blessings of our great civil
war, said the speaker, was that it
brought the rich and poor together in
the ranks, taught them to understand
each others worth, to esteem each other
and to call one another comrades.
He spoke of General Lee, land the
house Numbered with the mention of
that beloved and honored name] who
after the close of the war refused magnl-
ficent foreign offers, saying that ''he
loved the mountains of Virginia better
than anything else on earth," and said
that the General induced him to remove
to Lexington to assist in devising some
plan for the development of our mineral
treasures and at the time of his death
the grand old patriot was comforting
with prominent men on the subject
which lay SO near his heart.
Major Hotchkiss dwelt strongly upon
the necessity of exhibiting our resources
at Chicago. We've got to go! We can't
stay away" he exclaimed. Chicago was
once part of Virginia; portion OF the
imperial county of Augusta, in whose
washington was ueGeIuuIuOO
in the last emergency to continue the
war for American Independence, and
which extended to the Northern lakes.
We had got the attention of the world:
we must keep it. The power we had
attained must be retained. We must
take our products to Chicago, put them
beside others, and say: Here we are;
match us if you can"
He spoke of the utter insufficiency OF
100000 for such an exhibition and
urged a liberal State appropriation
backed up by every county and town in
Virginia. Other States were sending
out tons of advertising matter to all
parts of Europe, and Virginia must ad-
vertise herself in like manner If she
wished to attract immigration and capi>
tai to her borders.
The Swift Powder and Cartridge Co.
has been incorporated with capital
stock of 100000. They intend manu-
featuring guns, cannons, powder, ETC.,
at Covingron, KY.
While walking through the st. Louis
morgue, few days ago, Mr.. L. Julian
of Washington, Ind, came unexpected
ly upon the dead body of a brother