Kansas agitator. [volume] (Garnett, Kan.) 1890-1905, 1898-08-19

CAMP ALGER, Falls Church, Va
There are two things that struck the
visitor to Camp Alger so forcibly, and
one of them so literally, that ever after
his thoughts must necessarily be COL
cred and tinged by them. The literal
thing was the dust, and the other'
which was too emphatic to be only fig-
arative, the pandemonium that greeted
aim at Falls Church en- route Inc
starting point at Brooklyn Bridge our
Ing rush hours isn't patch on the
howling maelstrom in Virginias sunny
lime when the electric car from wash
ington comes in. But any one VINO mas
ever been through that has had gentle
preparation for this vortex and isn't
as liable to go through what the gentle
Tennesseean did who had never before
left his own quiet vine and fig tree
until he started up here to see his son.
He dropped dead as he left the car.
The blow (of sound) quite killed ia
ther, so they say, and there was mourn
ing in the camp of Tennessee.
The popular way Of coming out from
Washington is on trolley which ends
at Falls Church, and from that centre
(?) the visitor reaches camp, three
miles away, by means OF carriages
(heaven save the markD and pays
twenty-five cents to have the most I'M
comfortable drive the mind OF man
could conceive. If the roads ever were
good the incessant hauling over them
has reduced them to trails for all the
world like the dry bed Of mountain
stream, and the despised corduroy
roads of the far South would be as an
asphalt pavement by comparison.
Great stones lie thick along the trail,
exposed by the road having been worn
out about them, and against these
times innumerable the wagons come In
sudden and violent contact with one
wheel, while the startled visitor
clutches the back of the front seat as
the body Of tho wagon forms a COM
pound curve and blesses Providence for
every extra pound Of fleshly padding
with which nature has provided him.
1t was favorite joke of the boys that
the drive out was conducive to diges-
ton, but there are others who speak
from the depths of bitter and sor-
rowful experience, who feelingly
warned the newcomer against under
taking 1t after comfortable and filling
repast. The result may too closely re-
Bemble ssasickness.
1t is an exploded theory that the sons
OF Virginia are not hustling money
makers. A Connecticut Yankee couldn't
eclipse them, and any "befo' the wah"
Esprit of Indifference which pervad-
led the sunny South has given way to
an "after" that can keep as keen an eye
sout for the main chance as can any
sthniNy Son Of New England The in
es.abitants hereabouts used to be farm
ers-literally. They have proved them
selves totally lacking in any slang ac-
ceptance of the word. They owned one
broken down nag and contentedly titled
the soil, harvested a single crop suf-
lcient unto their winter needs and sold
a little to pay few dollars on the In
evitable mortgage. Such was their ex-
istence far from the madding crowd
before the days of Camp Algcr. Then
In a flash they found themselves
snatched into an atmosphere of de-
mand. Making Camp Alger press the
button; the farmers did the rest.
There isn't farmer now in this sec
ton of Virginia who farms. Mostly he
has turned Johu and is taking in the
shekels in a manner that made his
eyes bulge at first and then created the