Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1892-11-14

cash right across here for the yankee
camp.
at was so sudden the yankees had
no show. Some of them tried to make
q stand and got killed, but the best
they could do was to Jump their horses
and take up the road, which was cor
duroy then.n Ut is corduroy now.)
you never saw such race as that
was, with the yankees just more than
climbing, and Mosby's men tight to
their heels, yelling like devils, / was
q small boy, and lived in that house in
that clump of trees and my brother
went down after the fight. The yam
KEGS had got away so quickly they
nearly went without their hats. There
were forty or fifty hats lying around.
They were black felt with the brim
turned up on one side, with q brass
eagle and black feather"
81 suppose you helped yourself?"
"Well, yes; we picked up five or six
Of them. You see that block away up
on the side of that tree? Well, that's
where the army telegraph wire ran.
That's the only one left now"
Fairfax Courthouse is like q pretty
extract from ancient history. 1t is de
lightful in the odor of memory and
"reminiscences. Modern ideas and i'm
provements have passed it by, as it has
all old Virginia towns that fourished
under an imperial and aristocratic reg
ime.
The Fairfax Herald occupies, with its
hand-press and single case, a little one
story, two-room building. The rather
demolished picket gate in front swings
open half way across the footpath be-
side the red clay roadway of the "main
street." and the beaten track around 1t
shows that it has hung in that position
for many years.
Across the road are the public
grounds and public buildings, just as
they appeared in theiIdays of Queen
Anne and King George. In the cupola
of the quaint old courthouse still hangs
the bell brought over from England
more than 100 years ago, and it still
calls the 800 or 400 people of Fairfax
Courthouse to court, to church, to law
and religion.
Along one side Of the grounds, be-
tween the courthouse and double-gal-
leried old hotel, now closed, runs the
pike, along which streamed the dis
organized and panic-stricken hordes of
Federal troops after the first Bull Run
battle. The pike was fairly made i'm
passable for miles by abandoned ac
outrements-cannon, caissons, ammu-
milton wagons, muskets, knapsacks,
blankets, and so on, all mixed in mex
tricable confusion, and among it all the
carriages of politicians and others who
had come out from Washington to wit
ness the destruction of the Confederate
army. That event finally came of, but
owing to certain obstinate circumstan-
ces it was delayed for several years,
and there was a good deal of unpleas-
antness meanwhile.
Close to the road along which occur
red this wild flight now stands an i'm
posing granite monument, inscribed to
the memory of the "heroic dead of the
Confederacy."
The northern correspondents view
this monument with complacency, COM
ment upon its correct proportions, its
incorrect spelling of "Zachariah," and,
upon the whole, warmly approve of it.
| The uuartette then invaded the funny
little one-story, one-room building,
which is the Office Of the clerk Of the
county. This little room, with its rude
deal tables and rusty old fireplace
and andirons, is rich in treasures for the
historian AS am not writing ancient
history, l will touch briefly upon them.
The clerk opened an old-fashioned
iron safe and pulled out the original
will of George Washington. 1t is in the
careful and painstaking handwriting of
the father of his country, and little
slips in regulation orthography are
plainly in evidence. This will, at the
opening of the war, was sent to Rich
mond for safe keeping, and in the burn
ing of that city at the time of the evac-
uation it was rescued from destruction
by accident, citizen of Fairfax recog
nizing it in a pile Of rubbish. Urgent
application has been made for the ex
hibition of this document at the Worlds
Fair, but the laws of the State, passed
for its protection, are of such charac-
ter as to render this movement doubt
ful, if not impossible.
At the same time, any ordinary bur-
glar could get possession of it in half
an hour and hold it for q big ransom.
Or a spark from the fireplace would
clean out the whole room III less than
half that time.
We read the wonderful will of Geo.
Mason, the author of the Bill of Rights,
upon which the national and nearly all
the State constitutions are based, in
which he disposes of his vast estates,
his hundreds of slaves, and my man
sion house and seat of Gunston Hail."
These old records, dating back to
1716, are marvels in perfection of bind
ing, heavincss ofpaper and penmanship,
which is as perfect as copperplate.
There were great penmen in those days,
but then there were no stenographers
and typewriters, and penmanship was a
recognized and appreciated art. TWAS
in line with the formalities and conven-
tionalities of the times. Nobody cares
for penmanship now. The ideas are
what we are hustling after.
From the "minute-bookn of 1751 |
copied this entry "Ordered that there
be erected in the town of Alexandria a
whipping post and stocks also duck
ing stool for the punishment of offend
ers." The ducking stool was intended
especially for women who talked too
much
Here is another minute in the elab-
crate penmanship of the clerk in 1852 I:
"Martha Brown came into court for