The Globe-republican., 1898-08-18
farmers 6toppcd Planting
10 Tote Folk 10 Camp Ai0cr.
Virginia Road So Vnou to Make Corduroy Appear AsphatA Dust
Diet for Her Who Would Visit Her Soldier Man.

CAMP ALGER. Falls Church. Va
There are two things that struck the
visitor 70 Camp Alger so forcibly, and
one of them so literally, that ever aIter
his thoughts must necessarily De COL
ored and tinged by them. The Hterai
thing was the dust. and the otner'
which was too emphatic to be only ns-
urative, the pandemOn!um that greeted
him at Falls Church en- route. Inc
starting point at Brooklyn Bridge our
ing rush hours isn't a patch on the
bowling Maelstrom in Virginia's sunny
cline when the electric car from wash
ington comes in. But any one VINO mas
ever beer through that has had gentle
preparation for this vortex and Ism
as liable 20 go through what the gentie
Tennesseean did who had never BEFORE
left his own quiet vine and ng 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
Their, 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
CD the visitor reaches camp, three
miles away, by means of carriages
(heaven save the mark!) and pays
twenty-five cents to have the most un-
comfortable drive the mind OF man
could conceive. II the roads ever were
good the incessant hauling over them
has reduced them to trails for all the
world like the dry bed OF a 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, ana 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 the wagon forms COM
pound curve and blesses Providence for
every extra pound Of f1eshly 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 a bitter and sor-
rowful experience, who feelingly
warned the newcomer against under
taking it after comfortable and filling
repast. The result may too closely re-
semble seasickness.
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"
spirit Of Indifference which pervad
ed the sunny South has given way to
an after" that can keep as keen an eye
out for the main chance as can any
thrifty son of New England. The in
habitants 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 single crop suf-
ficient 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 Alger. Then
IN a fash they found themselves
snatched into an atmosphere of de-
mand. Making Camp Alger press the
button; the farmers did the rest.
There isn't a farmer now in this Sec
ton Of Virginia who farms. Mostly he
has turned Jehu and is taking in the
shekels in a manner that made his
eyes bulge at first and then created tho