The Red Cloud chief., 1897-06-11

~ ing In their old
fashioned grand
eur that II seems almost a sacrilege To
tear away the curtain OF contented ST.
lence which time has hung there and
TO gaze with modern eyes half blinded
by the dust OF u%nccasing whirl at the
bright. stately days of patch and pow
der. says a correspondent of the New
York Tribune. Nearly every house has
Is bit of history, is comedy of dances
and assemblies, or its darker tragedy
If misfortune, death and even murder
Among the places crowded with hls-
.urical myths and shadows the old
! Carlyle house stands pre-emtnent, Tor
II has played It's part Ia all the war
are Of the country and has had no less
| share in the heyday Of A~leXandr!a's
glory. Built OF stone and Holland
1ricxs by the early settlers, supposed
ly in 164D, 1t was used during the
French and Indian wa< as a fort; n
n the old kitchen that Is now falling
.nto decay there is a well that has
supplied the place with water through
Ill the varied phases Of its Ions exist
snce. 1t was in the house that rose
above the fort, which. by the way,
/ made a most convenient foundation.
1ot to mention stables and dungeons.
hat Braddcck, in consultation with
he governors of five colonies. planned
his ill-fsted campaign; here young
George Washington received his first
commission; the war of 1872 saw 1t
In use as a powder magazine n a
prison, while in the civil war 1t was
used as a hospital. Around the colo
NAL period. however, when Alexan-
iria's glory was brightest, most OF the
interest centers; for, though the old
house Is now comparatively unknown
and obscure, being hidden by the SUR
rounding wings of the Braddock
house, in those days its p%illared porti-
CO looked down upon long terraces,
~bordered with slender Lombardy pop
lars. The wide hall Is fianked on eth
er side by quaint little rooms, the most
famous of which Ia the blue parlor.'
unchanged since the days OF Wash
ington, where the white cornice Is
carved in queer little roses and thistles
to remind them. perhaps, of the old
English days of merry Carlyle IL
was to this room that little Sallle Fair
fax tripped down the mahogany stairs
to dance at her first ball with Gen.
Washington and in the tiny antecham-
Der in front Gen. Braddock slept. Up
stairs the rooms are small and the
modern housewife would look In dis
may at the c%upboards, for they are
scarcely more than two feet square.
The windows which front the river or
iginally opened upon a balcony that
overhung a most entic!ng garden, but
the balcony has gone and the old gar
den, with Its circular path OF brick,
It's great box-trees and wlstaria vines.
Is fast becoming a dream OF the past.
On the third floor the rooms are small
or and SO still that but for the spotless
whitewash they might easily be peo-
pied with ghosts. At n end OF the
passage that runs between the rooms
there is a door leading into n corridor
of the old hotel and down its length
of blackness II Is said that the waillng
OF a baby, long since dead, often
breaks through the stiffness OF the
night. So much for the ghosts. who,
unfortunately, do not walk in broad
daylight, but the old vaults, far down
below. are surely spooky enough, even
where the sunlight pours its warm
flood through the doorless archway.
In one Of the partitions above the
vaults stands an old cupboard, made
by the Indians, with traces OF beading
thickly covering the doors. The beads,
however, have all disappeared. Down
the stone stairs again, to the left, there
is supposed to be an underground way
that led to the river, which in those
days was nearer by several hundred
feet than 1t is now. but the vault has
long been walled In, and its secrets
are still unsolved. The Braddock
house, which surrounds this relic Of
a bygone ~stateliness. Is of a much lat
err date. but a quaint. rambling enough
old place 1t is. The front was original
ly built for q bank, and the rest OF the
house was added afterward. 1t, too,
has seen many changes and much de-
generation. and Its wings seems fairly
to shake with holy horror at the buzz-
ing OF the telegraph wires that have
their home In Its staid and proper
walls. Straight down the street from
the Braddock house is the old Clagett
tavern (they were all taverns In those
days). whose lower floor has been de-
generated into something that Is more
like a junk shop than anything else.
but upstairs are the assembly rooms,
which. 1t Is said, George Washington
often honored with his presence. There
Is a queer little musicians gallery
looking into 1t that was accessible only
from the lower hall by mean OF a lad
der. as the tiny door leading into II
is high up in the wall. When the
musicians had assembled the ladder
,.,ao tofrap auay .aayipu tb,aa up3nr-