The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-03-16

still as it did when Cornwallis, prohted
 not at all by the devastation wrought by Arnold in our own New London,
 gave up his sword to Washington's rep resentative and brought to close tenn
 porarily our difference with Mother England.
 Winter may seem strange season to
 visit woods. But have we not all read
 in our readers or heard read or spoken
 from them, delightful poem on l Woods in Wnter?" And does not q
 writer in recent number of the Inde-
 pendent call our attention to the cir-
 cumstance that 1t is only in winter that we can estimate trees at their true worth, because stripped of superficial
 leafage, so to speak, as an argument without the frills of verbiage? Then only he Cor she) says, do we notice the
 grace of the limbs of the elm, or how
 the apple as distinguished from the maple has limbs made for supporting heavy loads of fruit
 Besides, here in Richmond we don't
 have any winter; here it is the first of March, with hardly sight of frost on
 the windoW-panes, while up north feet VI ShOW elG lOuHu GNGly NIlelG Oll G level, with ice to match such as last
 year never thought of seeing. Reports come to us from New England that the ice men don't know what to do with all
 they get while here, surely the wood chuck, if he meant that his seeing his
 shadow signified that we were to have
 six weeks more of icy blasts after Can
 dlemas day, proved himself no peer of
 the late lamented Andrew Marshall.
 THE TYPICAL GUIDE.
 Thre is a Confederate soldier on the grounds, who claims to have been en- ployed for quarter of century by the
 United States government as guide to visitors, and thus to be familiarity &C., quainted with every square foot of earth. He contends that there were six or seven battles fought here, count ing May and June 1882 and June and October, 1S64-one of these latter being particularly interesting as being par ticipated in by dismounted cavalry which cut such a figure as has the mounted infantry in the late South Af- rican war.
 Perhaps the most famous shot is that occupied by the battery of Captain (now GeneraD Daniel Sickles of New York. That is called the Battery, and | sign-boards are up directing to that alone. Some say the ruts cut by the wheels in recoling can still be seen, if | one knows just where to poke away the | earth and leaves. The ] same is said to be true of the trees, | which must have been riddled with bull lets(for, as we all know, large per centage of the ammunition goes to waste). Around the Battery, however, everything is grown up with young trees, it being nearly forty years since the first battle. Of course, in this skep- tfcal age we don't believe everything guide says; the worm holes of a tree, or recent blazings of 1t. look very much I ike battle scars. We would also like to have the rattle of the musketry and he booming of the cannon brought back 10 us by the sight of trench where horses and men for scores of rods were piled in as fast as they fell, and grave mounds standing as when first heaped ip;' but the knowledge that ants make hills and farmers furrows made us swallow these tales with grain of salt. The personal appearance of the guide 1 ind some suspicious looking bottles in lis restaurant together with report . hat 'as usual thing he is found hors le combat when persons visit this bat { lefeld and want to have the horses ,raveA pointed out, lead us to remind f urselves that it is better not to know ( o many hings than to know so many l ings that aren't so.''
 This same guide is also the proprietor f a veritable old curiosity shop, where [ re collected the usual relics-canteens, ( aps, cartridges, etc. as we'll as musty l ireulars and modern canes cut from he saplings of the woods Bristllng g ayonets guard the entrance. The loss s were heavy in men and munitions 'erhaps that explains why the shop al- V 'ays looks the same; there Is plenty to | eplace all that is sold. It was here q hat General Howard lost his arm. g ome wit set out from the university Il