Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1899-06-04
ON HISTORIC GROUND.
THE IDLER AT YORKTOWN AND
y CARRIERS GROVE.
|" THROUGH COLONIAL DOORWAYS."
He sees Many Ancient Homestcnds
ana Priceless ReIics-The Place
where CORVALLIS surrendered-A
Beautiful Monument.

| In the last two or three weeks have
travelled so much that it will take
month 10 get the dust out of my Sunday
! clothes, and at least sixty days. for me
to forget all the historical information
which has been rammed into my mead
At times 1 have been as much as hfty-
nine miles from my home, and In THESE
peregrinations / have seen all the flora
and fauna of Virginia. / have seen rab-
bits. and chipmunks, and mud-turtles,
and hound-dogs, and guineas, and tur-
keys, and partridges, and ducks, and
hy-up-the-creeks, and colored people, ana
goodness knows what all. If sufficiently
provoked, 1 might sit down and write a
history of the State, but such is not my
present intention.
If there is a mud-hole or a hog-path IN
the counties of York and James City
which has escaped my personal obserya-
ton, / would thank some one to send me
all the data about II, so that L may IN
clude its mention in the imperisDaDle
monuments | am erecting to myself by
writing these letters. And yet one does
not have to devote himself TO mud-holes
and porcine-haunts when he visits this
section. for almost every foot OF the
ground is known to history, and has con
tributed its mud to the shoe soles or
famous men. When you wander around
i'm this neighborhood you have the proud
consolation of knowing that you breathe
the same air which jefferson. and Wash
ington. and Nelson, and CORVALLIS, and
Lafayette inhaled, and that the ticks and
neas which bite you are undoubtedly the
lineal descendants of those insects which
over a century ago gnawed the distin-
guished personalities Of the gents men-
toned above
As I traversed this country, my prac-
tlced agricultural eye told me at a glance
that farming wasn't what IL should be in
this section. The land has been worked
for so many centuries that it has been
sucked dry by capillary attraction, and
no longer responds kindly 10 the plough
and the harrow, and the Niger and the
mule. | do not mention this in an UNI
complimentary way, but with just the
opposite motives. The present conditions
give the farmers something 10 kick about,
and that is all they ask. The mere fact
that the land has become more or less
exhausted will attract thousands OF
grangers, for when they learn that TINS
locality affords an opportunity to kick
and complain of hard times, they Will
rush here in hordes. And then, too, one
doesn't have to monkey with the sod in
= section where the waters are teemng
with fish. and crabs. and oysters, and
cells and turtles, and sea-serpents, ana
hippopotami, and leviathans, and whales,
and other animaculae. Add to this the
stiff salt breeZes which blow from the
York and James rivers, and the not-dis-
tant bay. and you have a land which
will ever be attractive and sweet.
The town of Yorktown, unlike the city
of williamsburg. has always come In for
her share Of newspaper notorlety, ana
we never hear of the place without re-
calling the public-school histories ana
their vivid pictures of the scenes en-
acted there. Without wishing to hurt
anybody's feelings, 4 am constrained TO
saw that Yorktown is not so large town
as Iondon. England, but what it lacks in
size il makes up in other good qualities.
II sits on an eminence Historically ana
economically, and gazes placldly our
ON = beautiful sheet of blue water which
could easily trot in the same class with
inc Swiss lakes. On sunny days. the
shadows do all sorts of tricks on the
water. and Nature eXults and KICKS up
her heels from very joy at her environ
nents When you cllmp lhe mn ~ ""
the town. YOU see many quaint little
houses and are Immediately Impressed
with the fact that Yorktown would scorn
\ land-boom. Almost the first thihs
which attracts you Is the old custom
house of brick-the first in America
and next your enraptured gaze ialls upon
the Colonial residence of Governor Mel
SON. When you see this magnificent ola
homestead rising high above its surround
ings YOU forthwith realize that we peo-
ME are not the only ones who have en-
loved high living. The front yard Is over
grown with tan lockwood shrubbery, which
forms a perfect labyrinth and guarantees
nicturesoueness. When you penetrate
this verdure and enter the magnificent oid
house. YOU are amazed at its immensely
and awel by its grandeur.
In those days builders didn't Try 10
squeeze a sixteen-rOom house on lot OF
10 ~ feet frontage. nor did they econo-
mize by making the walls half brick
thick. You could dance the german III
the hallway-that Is. If you knew how 10
waltz and had two legs. and did not Ieel
due reverence for your surroundings. Inc
high-pitched rooms, with their beautllui ,
panelling and wooden ornaments, are
relics of a day that is gone though thelr