Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1893-11-25
First Glinnscs Of Dixie.

Assuming that he was not in Pull
man, the traveller has discovered that
he is in a new region, or more accurate,
ly, q new environment, from the time
he crossed the Potomac. The low. soft,
slow speech, with its languid long
vowels and neglected iiaal endings, has
caught his ear, and he listens TO its
music without trying to follow the
words. There is a difference. too, not
very marked at first, but still percept-
ib!e. in the dress The people all
seem to know each other, and they
talk with easy familiarity of personal
concerns as members of one family.
The conversation is more personal for
that reason, the tones less depressed.
The women will appear less expensive
ly dressed. a man will probably no.
lice this; for they will be generally
prettier than those he left the other side
of the bridge, and they will have some
thing about them-an air, manner, a
something-which will be more attrac-
tive. Among the olderp persons, men and
women, he will note gentler air than
ne has seen the other side. They will in
Il way be more individual, too: there
will be individualitics of dress. He vi |
see more men offer seats TO ladies. He
will be surprised TO see how many get
off at Alexandria for the little station
at which the train stops and the poor
streets through which the train passes
will give him an idea Of meanness in
the place Should he, however, stop
there, and he so fortunate as to know
some of his fellow-travellers who have
got Oft, he will discover that the view
of the town which he has had from the
car window gives but an indifferent
idea of the place itself. lie will find it
old, it is true, and bearing unmistala-
bic marks of narrowness OF means; but
the want of money is not poverty, and
the old aye is rot decrepitude. The
streets are paved in the oldiashioned
way with cobbleStones, which look
strange 10 one who has been rolling
through the asphalt avenues of Wash
ington the houses are often antiquat-
ed, and sometimes out OF repair, but
there is something impressive in
it all There are no marble palaces
on the street corners, but the old
square houses with their classic polti-
COS, on the streets or set back in the
yard amid the old trees, are homes,
not mere monuments OF wealth and
pride; the stain on them is that of time
and of the elements, not a chemists
concoction; and they have sheltered
through generations pure, kindly,
ard home-lovipg people. The splen-
did marble SHAFT that towers to the
memory of Washington is on the other
side of the river in the city which bears
his name, and which is even more
splendid monument 10 the great Nir-
gnian: but the old church where he
met his ncighbors and worshipped God
is in Alexandria. 1t was on this side
of the river that he learned the sub
lime lessons which made him the
foremost American and the greate,t
c tizan that the world has known
Down the broaG river only a short dis
tance is the home where he lived as
Virginia gentleman. and the simplicity
OF which he adorned with the elegance
of a noble life.
As soon as we reach the old town we
are on historical! ground. The house
where Braddock rested when the young
Eirginian who was to be known as the
father OF his country was his volunteer
aide is still shown, and the road that
leads away towards the west is still
called ''BraGdock s Road" after the
brave but ill-fated British general.
Here, too. British troops landed to ray
age when the city across the river was
but village; and here in the late war
came the first army which invaded
Virginia to march on Richmond and
end the war during summer holiday.
Away to the westward, ouly a little
distance, is Bull Run, where the sum
mer-encampment idea was terribly de-
stroyed, and here the shattered army
returned to prepare for war in earnest.
From here to Petersburg lies the way
that the armies took, in campaign after
campaign, and this explains in part the
appearance of the country. This re-
gion was "sweot by the besom of war,
to use the old phrase, and the bosom of
war sweeps clean.-From The Old
Dominion" by Thomas Nelson Page,
in Hnper'S Magazine for December.
TyARM WAGONS, car load of FARM
4 WAGONS i'll store and for sale by