Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1896-08-01

in the town there would not have been any
place for us to go to-.
AT frs. this not clear. but as soon as
1t dawncd on me what a wild and wooly
time man from the country could and
did have in the town about once twice
a year, / understood fully why townlessness
was to he desired as a steady thing.
Wharves were plenty along shore and
there was no mOnotony OF travel. though
there isn't much history connected with
the Rappahannock. except that the first
white men who went into the river went
there nearly. if not quite, three hundred
years ago. In the last war all the lower
RappaEannoCk was quiet and the only
thing Ike war that occurred there was one
day when a Yankee gunboat bombarded
a Johnnie battery at Wares wharf. and
fired seven shells through the Ware home
stead. The house Is there yet in its pretty
grove occupied ny a younger genera ton of
Wares, while the shore for miles along
there Is taken up by Ware farms. which
have been in the family since the old colo
NAL times.
Old Colonial Homes.
At Sharp's wharf a Scandinavian colony
from Chicago settled some years ago. but
the funds of the projectors giving out. the
colony lapsed and the plan failed. Here Is
one of the old houses with its surrounding
lands. bearing the name Of Melden Hall
from time immemorial. Then, not far away
We find Shandy Hall and Stanley Hall and
Sabine Hall and Islngton and Gotham
Park, and lot more with names older
than the United States of America. On
some are the old colonial houses with their
high chimneyS their dormer windows, their
hipped roofs, their broad porticoes their
dignified air of by-gone glory. Some of the
old houses have tumbled to decay through
neglect but the most of them remain as
monuments to the ideas of their builders
that when house was put up it was put
up conscientiously and with the purpose
of having it remain on earth until the end
of time.
At Bowlers rock and from that point
down the Rappahannock Is great for fish
and oysters, and farmers along the river
make more money out of the water than
out of the land. In fact, farming Is not a
success in this section. AS one farmer
put it: I'VE can raise millions of stuff and
nobody has richer soil than ours, but the
more we raise the more we lose. for there
isn't any sale for farm products"
A Fertile Country.
There Is no question about the remark
able fertility of this soil. One farmer told
| me he had raised two crops year on his
place. one Of corn and one of peas. the corn
producing between forty and fifty bushels
| to the acre and the peas one hundred and
| eighty bushels. The profits that year,
| which was good one, exceeded $175 to the
acre. He also raised 400 bushels Of toma-
| toes to the acre. which he sold at 20 cents
bushel. Peaches. watermelons. sweet po-
| tatoes and all manner Of garden truck and
small fruits grow in tropical luxuriance.
and with water freight to Washington and
! Baltimore. 1t seems as II the farmers of
! the Rappahannock country ought to be
| rich as cream a foot thick. But they are
not. Still they are not unhappy. On the
| contrary, they live on the fat Of the LAM
and wouldn't move out of their country
| for any other country on earth. Land that
was assessed at $50 an acre before the war
| Is now assessed at 81. but no farmer is SELL
| ing at that figure neither will he sell.
MY boys" laughed one as we were sing
| ing the glories Of the Rappahannock from
| the deck Of the Westmoreland ''can make
| $3.50 day each In the oyster season. and
| as 1t costs less than that to live q week.
| they have six days in which to enjoy them
| selves"
That part Of Virginia between the Poto-
mao and the Rappahannock ana including
| the counties of Northumberland Richmond.
Lancaster, Westmoreland and King George
| is known as the Northern Neck, and the
Northern Neck News, published 1t Warsaw
by W. Y. Morgan. Is the arohimedsan lever
| that moves everything down that way az
cept crops. Brer. Morgan came aboard the
boat at . way wharf. returning from q
democratic convention At Charles City and
was panied to learn that he was not
going to vote for Mckinley and sound
money. However; I presume q country edi-
tor Il not responsible for his financial
views when the currency he sees most OF
10 oordwood, coonsktns and IN occasional