The Newtown bee., 1892-07-08

es ocit AA6 iH1aHb clty dlreauy DOaStS E daily newspaper, while weekly pape q also manages to find support.
 T For change, one can leave the boa t here and take the train for Richmond, T distance of 80 or 90 miles. The ride is : decidedly tedious one. The railroad SCI ], vice is first class, the coaches bein equal to any on the best roads of tn North. The road runs through rather lat, uninteresting country grown u . With pine trees to d considerable degree :. The only houses to any extent are tn . nuts of the negroes, who are gradual, getting hold of little plots of land. Her.
 Tn New England, the shanties occupie, , by Virginia negroes would hardly b.
 thought fit for cattle. They are bull
 nearly all alike, a small story-and-a-hal log hut with mud chimney at one end
 Of course, exceptions to this rule ar, seen, some of the negroes having quit,
 respectable cottages. The only place o1
 any size between Newport News an6
 Richmond is the historic old town of Will
 iiamsburg, originally the capital of tho
 State.
 The city of Richmond is one of the
 most interesting places have ever visit.
 ed. It reminds one somewhat of a New
 England city-Providence for instance l-and now shows no signs of the great drawback it received at the time of the
 civil war. The city is built on the high
 hills on the north bank of the James riv-
 CT, l27 miles from the ocean as a vessel
 sails. Perhaps it could be no better de-
 scribed than in the words of William
 Wirt, who wrote concerning it: s'The
 town dispersed over hills of various
 shapes; the river descending from west to east and obstructed by multitude of small islands, clumps of trees and myri- ads of rocks-the same river, at the low CT end of the town, bending at right an- | gles to the south and winding many miles in that direction, it's polished sur- face caught here and there by the eye, but more frequently covered from the view by trees, among which white sails exhibit curious and interesting specta- cle; then, again, on the opposite side,
 
 ing quickly to the river, opens the whole town to view, interspersed with flourish ing popIars and surrounded to great distance by green plains and stately woods,- ,-all these objects falling at once under the eye constitute by far the most finely varied and most animated land scape I have ever seen." Or more terse- ly put by Joaquin Miller: IA wide built city of brick on seven hills, lowering above the plunging James river, with many little islands-brisk streets, very clean, wide and orderly and so densely wooded as almost to conceal the three story houses. A busy commercial and manufacturing city; beyond the river, with several bridges, rolling, English down looking country of vast reach and fertility; factories on the intervening is- lands and river banks. roaring with pro- gress, sending up a smoke that hovers over the tawny, rushing river like the smoke of a mighty battle" In the inn mediate vicinity of Richmond, there | must be a population of 105, 1000, an in- SISdSC HI tAIC ldsU uCCduc ol dDOuG
 The other way to reach Richmond by | this route is to remain on the steamer at Newport News, which makes the trip up the river in the evening, arriving at Rich mond at 7 or 8 o'clock the next morning. The sail up the river is decidedly inter- esting, as it abounds in historic locali- ties and one gets a good view of the country. Fifteen miles below Powha- tan, the seat of the Indian king, is War wick-now marked by solitary chim- ney-a town burned by Benedict Arnold during the Revolution; piles where the had their pontoon bridges; Drewry's Bluff, or Fort Darling, where the Union fleet was repulsed in May, 1862 and near which a desperate battle was fought two years later and Fort Har- rison, carried by assault of the Union troops in 1864. The Dutch Gap canal, begun by Gen Butler in 1864, was finish ed by the United States government and he city of Richmond. This canal is 800 feet long and 200 wide and shortens the distance from Richmond to the sea over seven miles. On the island or cutoff is he site of Henricopolis, city laid off md fortified 250 years ago, but soon abandoned. Two miles below the Gap is Varina, in the early days of Virginia he residence of Pocahontas and her English husband Rolfe and, during the ecent war, the neutral ground for ex- ;hange of prisoners. About five miles Lbove Richmond, the James river begins very rapid descent and falls about 116 eet, which, with the canals paralleling he stream, affords an immense water L. bower. Vessels drawing 16 or l7 feet of water touch at the wharves at Richmond nd Congress is pledged to plan of im- ,rovement which will give at high tide D feet to the sea. { Richmond is d great distributing point, { he center of the wholesale business for III Virginia and neighboring States. There are great tobacco warehouse s lere, flour mills and large manufactur ng interests. The city gets it's drinking water from the river, which is dirty and muddy looking. People, however, speak highly of it for drinking water and say hey would not have anything else.
 It is one thing to live in Massachu- etts ,r Connecticut, with the negroes form 1 ng Ho comparable element in the popu- | ation and another to live in State like I Virginia, where the population is about ,qually divided between the two races md, in some sections, comprising about our-fifths. Taking the negroes as whole, they are said to be an improvi- lent set and, from week spent among hem should think that it was so. Of {, ourse there are many exceptions to this