Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1915-08-29

~ LOSE to the railroad tracks at
NJ the station at Harpers Ferry
~ stands a monument that is IA
~ miliar to thousands of WASH
ingtonians, though many Of them may
have only a general knowledge of the
historic and tragic episode which that
monument in part commentaries. The
monument bears the simple inscrip-
ton, John Browns Fort The ground
on which the memorial stands has been
raised considerably above the grade
of the adjacent streets to form sta
ton plaza or grade with the railroad
tracks. and the white pile rests above
the site of the fire engine house which
stood within the Enclosure of the United
States arsenal The stories of Harpers
Ferry and of John Brown are inter-
woven and intimately associated in the
public mind, but the story of Harpers
Ferry would be an interesting one il
John Browns raid" had never taken
place.
Close by the monument are five big
iron tablets set in line and lettered in
white, and the inscription on them gives
an outline sketch of the chief events in
the civil war history of Harpers Ferry.
The Rambler has watched numbers of
people stand and read from end to end
the story which the tablets tell.
4 X
1t is at Harpers Ferry that the Po-
tomac river. Joined by the Shenandoah.
broke its way through the Blue Ridge,
and the scenery has charmed. enthused
or awed millions of men. The earliest
description of Harpers Ferry which the
Rambler has found is that contained In
Thomas Jefferson's Notes on Fir-
ginia," written in 1871. AS that old
book Is one of great interest. this is
good point in the story to tell some
thing about it that may be done best
ment," or as 1t would be phrased today,
his preface" That advertisement
says:
written in 1881. and corrected and
enlarged in 1882 in answer to queries
proposed to the author by a foreigner
of distinction then residing among us.
The subjects are all treated super
ficially: some scarcely touched on. To
apologize for this by developing the
circumstances of the time and place of
their composition would be to open
wounds which have already bled
enough. To these circumstances some
of their imperfections may with truth
be ascribed: the great mass to the want
of information and want of talents In
the writer. He had few copies printed
which he gave among his friends. and
a translation of them has been lately
published in France. but with such al
terations as the laws of the press in
that country rendered necessary. They
are now offered to the public in their
original form and language. February
~, 1887"
And here follows Thomas Jefferson's
description of Harpers Ferry:
The passage of the Potomac through
. t. oF he
most stupendous scenes in nature. You
stand on a very high point of land. On
your right comes up the Shenandoah,
having ranged along the foot of the
mountain hundred miles to seek
vent. On your left approaches the Po-
tomac in quest of passage also In
the moment of their junction they rush
against the mountain, rend 1t asunder
and pass Off to the sea
THE first glance at this scene hurries
our senses into the opinion that this
earth has been created in time; that
the mountains were formed first: that
that in this place particularly they
have been damned up by the Blue
Ridge of mountains and have formed
an ocean which filled the whole valley:
that continuing to rise they have at
length broken over at this spot and
have torn the mountain down from its
summit to its base.
The piles of rock on each hand, but
particularly on the Shenandoah, the
evident marks of their disrupture and
evulsion from their beds by the most
powerful agents of nature. corroborate
the impression. But the distant f1n-
ishing which nature has given to the
picture is of very different character.
1t is true contrast to the foreground
1t is as placid and delightful that is
wild and tremendous. For, the noun
tain being cloven asunder. she pre-
sents to your eye through the cleft
small patch of smooth blue horizon at
an infinite distance in the plain coun-
try, inviting you. as it were, from the