The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1894-03-16
FIRST eLlMPsEs OF DIXIE,
Impressions Of Northern Tourist In /" ThA
Old Dominion"

FIRST GLlMPSES OF DIXIE.
Impressions of Northern Tourist In " ThA
Old Dominion"
Assuming that he was not in a Pul1R
man, the traveller has discovered that
he Is in a new region, or, more accu.
,rately, a new environment, from tha
time he crossed the Potomac. The low,
soft, slow speech, with its langnid long
'vowels and neglected final endings, has
caught his ear, ana he listens to it as
music without trying to follow the
words. There is difference, too, not
very marked at first, but still percepti-
BILE, in the dress. The people all seem
to know each other, and they talk
with easy familiarity of personal con-
Germs as members of one family. The
conversation is more personal for that
reason, the tones less repressed. The
women will appear less extensively
dressed. A man will probably not mo-
!tice this; for they will be generally
prettier than those he left the other
side of the bridge, and they will have
something about them-an air, man.
;ner, something-which will be more
attractive. Among the older persons,
men and women, he will note gem
tier air than he has seen on the other
side. They will in way be more indi|
!vidual, too; there will be individual.
ties of dress. He will see more men
offer seats to ladies, and more as q
matter of course. 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
Iplace. Should he, however, stop
there, and be so fortunate as to
know some of his fellow-travelers who
have got off. he will discover that the
view of the town which he has had
from the car window gives but an in
different idea of the place itself. He
will find it old, it is true, and bearing
unmistakable marks of narrowness OF
means; but the want of money is not
poverty, and the old age is not decrepi-
tude. The streets are paved in the
old-fashioned way with cobble-stones,
which look strange to one who has
been rolling through the asphalt ave-
nues of Washington; the houses are
often Anticipated, and sometimes out
of repair, but there is something i'm
pressive in it all. There are no marble
palaces on the street corners, but the
old square houses with their classic
porticos, on the streets or set back in
the yards 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 and home-loving people. The
splendid 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 a
more splendid monument to the great
,Virginian; but the old church where
he met his neighbors and worshiped
| God is in Alexandria. 1t was on this
side of the river that he learned the
sublime lessons which have made him
the foremost American and the greatest
citizen that the world has known.
Down the river only short distance
lis the home where he lived as a Vir-
ginia 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
,Virginian who was to be known as the
father of his country was his volunteer
aide is still shown, and the road that
leads away toward the west is still
called "Braddock's road" after the
brave but Inflated British general.
Here, too, British troops landed to raw
age when the city across the river was
but village; and here in the late war
came the first army which invaded Vir-
ginia to march on Richmond and end
the war during a summer holiday.
Away to the westward, only little
distance, is Bull Run, where the sum-
mer encampment idea was SO terribly
destroyed, 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 region
was Swept by the bosom of war; to
use the old phrase, and the bosom of
war sweeps clean.-Thomas Nelson
Page, in Harper's Magazine.