Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1907-12-03
AN AUTUMNAL PILGRIMAGE.
To Points of Scenic Interest and His
toric Importance Along the
Atlantic Seaboard.

DEAR MR EDITOR
On warm, sunny morning in early
October our party of sixteen, all from
Hoopeston and the Universalist church
departed for jamestown and a circuit
of eastern places. 1t was jolly crowd
and your readers may be excited to
hear about the things we saw and the
good times we enjoyed.
The first day passed uneventfully
but on the morning of the second, we
were whirled through the passes OF the
Blue Ridge mountains, past 'hoies IN
the ground" encircled by miners
squalid cabins and which led to dig
gings" of coal and iron. We looked
down upon little farms that had to be
set up edgewise to make them room
where native tells patheticalIy that he
had calf, but it fell off and was killed
The resources of this region, at least on
the surface. seemed mostly scenery
1t is related that a farmer came over
from the meadow where he had been
tinkering mower, to where the chauf.
fer was struggling with a recalcitrant
auto, and leaning his elbows on the
fence, inquired: Say, stranger. what
dye call thet air critter ?" "Oh, that's
an automobile was the reply, "Wall,
I've got an automograss, but it won't
At Gordonsville we were delayed.
That is dilapidated, poky town of
1,500, half of the inhabitants being
ebony hued. Black aunties brought
fried chicken and varieties of pie to the
doors of the Pulmans. Souvenir postals
by the peck went into mail boxes.
Many were on promenade while others
pillowed their heads in uncomfortable
places to- catch a bit of beauty sleep.
Mild attacks CT tlme-tablitis add to our
discomforture, but at last we have the
mountains, where the first faint tinges
of color soon will deepen to more
gorgeous glory
Our first stop-over was in Richmond.
The proud Confederate capital sur
rendered an easy prey to our friendly
advances and we found the city quaint
ly attractive. The pavements are of
brick, laid in cement. The streets are
lighted with rows of 40 incandescent
bulbs stretched clear across and alter
mating with arc lights. There are
10000 inhabitants and important
manufactures. Still, it looked odd TO
see the two wheeled dump-carts pulled
by dilapidated mules and driven by
ragged darkies, in use everywhere
peddling vegetables, hauling earth,
conveying refuse. Many statues add
charm to the drives, the most note
worthy to southern Major Generals
Stewart, Pickett and Lee and President
Davis, having been but recently erected,
as until now the "Old Dominion" has
been too poor to afford even this ex-
travagance. The original statue to
President Washington, erected duffAg
his life, is in capitol square. The cele-
brated Richmond college and the Con-
federate soldiers home were passed.
Aging veterans in grey, the SHOWS of
winter on their locks, their conflicts
ended, wait for the sands in the hour
glass to vanish. Commonly they agree
with the Georgia comrade who said,
Everybody is glad now the north
licked, except some of the women why
the Yanks and we Johnnles used to swap
sugar and coffee for tobacco, on picket
line, we never had any grudge as be-
tween man and man, and old England
mothered us all but with the women it
is different"
The cemetery is place for reveries.
1t is densely populated. We drove be-
meath sweet gum, cypress and umbrella
trees, and picked magnolia berries.
We alighted to stand uncovered beside
the extremely modest headstone of
President Tyler and the nearby mauso-
leum of President Monroe. Jefferson
Davis, with wife and daughter, are not
far away, and close by is mound all
covered with geraniums, but yet with
out stone, where Fitzhugh Lee lies
buried. A broad sarcophagus has on it
the legend, John Randolph of
Roanoke" The chocolate drivers were
comically important but uninformed
coons. When We inquired who were
the distinguished in that city of the
dead, one vouchsafed the following
alarming reply; wall, boss, Use amt
jest certain bout EN- all, but dar's JEFF
ferson and Davis, denis de same, and
Fritzhugh Lee and Theodore Roosevelt,
dem Pse sure about" Investigation
disclosed to our relief that it was the
far-sighted author and not the strenuous
defender of the Monroe doctorine,
whose mortal remains lay wrapped in
silence there.
We inspected the Davis mansion
which is now a museum of the Con-
federacy, and the home of Chief Justice
John Marshall We climbed to the
rotunda of the capitol building and
looked down on the governors mansion,
state library, spenitentiary, sites of
Libby (now used as an ice plant, Castle
Thunder and Belle Isle prisons, the
church where Davis was in attendance
when word came that Lee had sur
rendered, the church where Patrick
Henry made the speech in which oc-
cured the famous sentence, "Give me
liberty or give me death. and the place
of rescue by Pocahontas of Captain
John Smith We journeyed by trolly
to Seven Pines, fought in go, and
where Fajr Oaks was also fought. The
trees bear evidence of leaden sleet that
thickly SCARED them and some were
barked by cannon shot that passed on
towards Richmond. But the same
scent was in the wild wood where holly
and suniach riot, as one breathes in
northern forests old glory is Haunted
to the sun kissed breeze, and patriotism
is as vitality sincere in the reconstructed
"a IT a