Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-08-15

| two feet or more. Any autoist who can
successfully pilot a car over the Tele-
graph road from Alexandria to Freder
/ icksburg. without mishap will find descent
| on the steps at the east front of the
! United States Capitol in an automobile
! to be mere child's play. 1t is suggested
this trip should Immediately start prac
ticing this stunt Several times on
| the trip the machine threatened to turn
| turtle. but by alighting from the car
| to escape disaster. In places where the
corduroy was missing the holes were
filled with muddy water, which resulted
in mud bath every time the machine
sank into one of them.
Continuing over the rough corduroy
road few miles, and after descending
rocky stretch, the little town of Deco
guam, nesting among the hills on the
| south bank of the Occoquan river. came
into view. The road winds around and
crosses a steel bridge, turning to the left
before reaching the town. Passing
through the center of Occoquan the as
cent of mile is made over a continue
ton of'the corduroy road, which was only
| separated by the river The hill Is unu-
sually steep and required wide-open
throttle until the top was reached The
scenery in the vicinity Of Occoquan was
delightful and the view superb from the
high elevation.
hill the little burg of Agnewville is en-
tered. on the left. and after passing the
general merchandise store the first road
at the left was taken, following the line
Of telegraph poles. About four miles
down the road a right turn is made
across a small bridge. The next town
is Dumfries. which is noted for its many
historic dwellings. many having been built
over hundred years ago. Passing through
the town the narrow gauge railroad is
crossed and the stream forded, and after
crossing small bridge. turn to the
right was made. The other road. it was
disclosed. leads TO a swamp. which is inn
passable. The country is rolling and the
sand deep i'm many places.
On the road is a small village called
Joplin five miles from Du,nfries. A left
turn was made at a blacksmith's shop
and a half mile down the pike was fol-
lowed the left fork. The right fork
road was taken two miles distant. from
which point the progress was slow by
reason of the steep and rocky ravine.
Some more bad stretches of road are
found here which greatly retarded the
progress of the car and made riding de-
cidedly uncomfortable.
Ten miles from Joplin the right fork
road was followed. and after motoring
short distance we arrived at Stafford
Court House. Here we were received by
d committee of citizens who recited
brief history of the place. The town con-
siSts of the courthouse, built in 1888, the
last year of the revolutionary war. and
paid for in tobacco: the Jail, built in 1867.
and the clerks Office erected in 1864; two
stores and a farm house In the court
house are records dating back to 1864.
After a brief stop the trip was re-
nod mill n artr1yc G,.rr =.
iective point. About five miles from Stat
ford. while proceeding slowly over the
road the left side of the machine sud
denly lurched and sank in the quicksand,
mouth, one mile from Fredericksburg,
was without incident and after crossing
the Rappahannock river, where a toll
charge of % cents was collected. we dis
appeared over the hills to Fredericksburg
This historic town is pleasantly situated
in a fertile valley the right bank of
| the Rappahannock river. which. besides
supplying good water, Is valuable for its
j motive power. available at the falls just
above. A canal extending to q point
about forty miles above affords means of
transportation for the products of a rich
farming country. December Ii, 1862, the
battle OF Fredericksburg was fought. be-
tween the Union forces under Gen. Burn
side and the Confederates under Gen
Lee. In proportion to the numbers en-
gagged the losses in this battle were unu-
sually large. OF Gen. Burnside's 100000
men who crossed the river, only about
$1,000 were fairly brought into action: of
the Confederate army of $4,000, only 25.-
600 were engaged.
After securing additional supplies and
| partaking of a good dinner the trip was
| continued in an easterly direction to
| King George, the next most important
| point before reaching our destination.
| The roads after leaving Fredericksburg
were in fairly good condition. and
| much better time was made in the after
| noon than in the morning. The numer-
Gus mudholeS however, acted as speed
traps and prevented fast goins. King
| George is about seventeen miles from
Fredericksburg and Is distinguished as
King George Court House. The town is
| situated three miles beyond on the same
| road. One mile from the courthouse the
| right fork road was taken. this after
| spinning over good stretch of dirt road.
which soon gave way to deep sand. Two
miles further on doomed UP the small
burg of Edge Hill, while four miles
| farther is ..Nindes Store" where all the
| inhabitants were on hand to extend
welcome A slight detour was made at
| this point, owing to the repairs being
made to the roads After blowing through
miles Of sand and fording many streams
Colonial Beach was reached at 8 O'Clock
| the same evening. The roads in the
rear of the beach were in a fair condi-
| ton. while the sandy spots were COM
| pletely covered with water for several
miles At the beach another reception
was held and the resorters turned out
| in large numbers to greet US. The ma
chine was stored for the night, while
| the tourists did justice to a salt water
supper
A.