The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-08-29
DOWN In OLD VIRGINIA
CHANGES NOTED IN AUGUSTA COUN-
TY AFTER TWENTY YEARS.
They Have Come Slowly Into a Con-
servative Society, but the Old
Southern Element Is Passing.

After an absence of nearly twenty years 1
am once more in Augusta county, going
about from one old homestead to another
and noting with jealous eyes each change
that time has brought to break the spell of
enchantment which their quaint atmos-
phere woye about me long ago. Every
separate room in these old mansions re-
mains intact in my memory as / first saw
it, and any innovation is disturbing. 1t is
with q sense of bitter and irreparabe loss
that one enters q room long set apart as a
picture in the panorama of his memory and
finds its character destroyed by concessions
to a modern style of furnishing. If an old
chest of drawers is replaced by a smart
new chiffionier or an antique four-post bed
stead by a newer style of the Stat and spring
variety, l resent it personally. 1t is like
putting new wine into old bottles to place
new furniture in these old houses, so long
left to the classic simplicity of a bygone
time. In spite of many of these disturbing
incongruities I still find here and there a
house that is practically unchanged, except,
perhaps, by the absence of some wrinkled
old face, beloved in days of yOre. No State
in the Union has preserved its individuality
longer than the Old Dominion. Other States
have had their special characteristics by
which they were distinguished, but no one
State, except, perhaps, California, has been
in history and romance at once so unique
and charming and 50 single in its distinct
i've qualities. Virginia has been a country
rather than a State. Having crossed her
boundaries one could not but feel that he
was in some favored spot and among peo-
T11G
leans. The pilgrim returning after & lapse
of years to the shrine of his earlier devo-
ton is fain to shut his eyes and ears to
every evidence of the change which is
steadily creeping into the society of Vir-
ginia, but for all the passionate clinging
to the traditions of their forefathers which
marks the lives of the generation about
to recede into the past the fact remains
that a coming generation which knows not
Joseph is about to arise. 1t is not alone
into the old houses, but into the lives and
purposes of the people that change is creep
ing. Virginia, to the naked eye, is still the
same beautiful blossomng spot The val
ley lies dreaming III the sunshine and the
mountains keep watch and ward with the
same eternal serenity. The old homesteads
still nestle in the hills, the picturesque
country churches, with their eloquent mar
bles in adjacent churchyards. still mark
the spot where religion pure and undefiled
holds sway The waysides are as rich in
blossoms and the fields as sweet with daisy
borders as ever in the old time, and the
beautiful clear springs and gurgling
streams burst forth as joyously as ever
with their pure fountains of healing water
Here and there a little hamlet like the pic
turesque village of Greenvile remains in
classic isolation from the relentless de-
stroyer progress, and, by some feliciyious
mistake, unscathed by the fatal BOOM
which devastated the country several years
ago. After the first casual glance, however,
one begins TO note how rare is growing
the evidence of that indescribable some
thing which gave color to Thomas Nelson
Pages romances and Amelia Rives's ex-
travaganza. While Augusta county was
never the scene of an aristocratic regime
such as characterized some of the counties
in eastern Virginia, her people were in
their own peculiar way quite as proud, as
unyielding and as imperious. They were
people of gentle blood and they knew it
and were, perhaps, prouder of their Scotch
Irish descent than the scions of royalty.
Perhaps it is well for the general good
that the race is dying out, but it is pain
full to one who looks with an eye for the
purely picturesque to note the decadence
into society more commonplace, if also,
perhaps, more purely American.
BELONG TO THE PAST.
Occasionally one meets in this locality
with a gentleman of the old style, and here
and there one finds in some old ruinous
dwelling, a lady, fine and dainty
as faded rose leaf, striving with indefatig-
able patience to preserve a semblance of
the old life amid the distractions of scanty
resources, poor and uncertain help and the
general trend of society toward a more
commonplace life, scarcely differing from
the plain farm life of our Western States.
While 1t is true that visiting is much more
general here than in the North and West
and ''gallivanting' among the young peo-
pie is still INDUCED in in a greater degree
there is still a lamentable lack OF that hos
pitality and chivalry that was once a char
acteristic of this beautiful State. This par
ticular section Of the country suffered as
little from the war as any in the South
Besides the loss of their slaves and the
general impoverishment of the country Au-
gusta county suffered comparatively little.
A majority Of the people retained their
property, many of the family servants re-
manned, and, in spite Of the new experience
of hard work and necessary economy this
portion of the State soon regained com
parative prosperity. Augusta county is a
fertile spot wooded and watered bounte-
ously and particularly adapted to that
generous living for which it has always
been celebrated. In spite of this, however.
there is much in a new system of labor to
try the mettle of a man. Aside from the
necessary changes made in the society of
this county by the abolition of slavery the
changing conditions of the country in gem
eral not favorable to the style of liy-
ing that characterized rural life in Vir-
ginia before the war. The old families who
still live upon estates which have remained
under the same name since before the rev.
olution, find themselves confronted by the
serious problem of coping with a rapidly in
creasing element which cares little enough
for the social graces of the old regime. and
is not disturbed by the problem Of raising
money to send the boy to college or give
the girls the advantages of education and
society deemed necessary to their statfon
in life. 1t is the opinion of many that the
Crly people VINO are really making money
here are the descendants OF that sturdy
element of our society known as the Penn
sylyania Dutch These are a people who
know a closer, more selfish, less social mode
of life. They have characteristics better
adapted 10 the thrift that is necessary in
these days. Many an old home which once
rasounded with he music and