Year: 1871

DEAR SPECTATOR: You and I once lived
in the same pace-Staunton, the alma Mater
of female Colleges, the Queen of the Valley,
the City of the Hills two of which hills, Bet
sey Bell and Mary Gray, have a legendary
fame which has been embalmed and perpet-
uated by the hand of poesy and prose.


For six eventiul years | was your neighbor,
and weekly traced the lineaments of your ia
miliar, yet pleasant and honest face OCCASION
ally imprinting thereon an imperfect image of
my own mind and heart During four of these
years, Except when, by Vandol hands, you
was seized, beaten, bruised and broken you
mirrored forth, with commendable zeal and
fidelity. the varied fortunes and reverses of an
internecine war; You then had my warmest
sympathy aud respect.


Since then, with unexpected and unmerited
liberality for your successive years, you have
travelled weekly ninetystwo miles down the Val
lev to another City, (thc rival Of yours in some
things, but not in activity, enterprise and
thrift, where you have entered our home
circle and bestowed upon me and mine your
smiles and favors. Nor has this long acquain-
tance and familiar intercourse with you abated,
in the least my fond esteem and love for you
Indeed YOU have steadily risen in my estima-
ton, both with respect to beauty and merit.
Your merit is seen in the principles which
YOU have adopted, and the fidelity and consis-
feucu which YOU have shown in their advocacy
And even if there has been no change In these
resnects. from YOUR natal hour until the pres
ent: if your principles and practice are pre-
cisejy the same n0W that they were then yet
uniform continuance In the maintenance of
right, of religion, OF good morals, enhances
merit upon the admitted principle, that fifty
gears of faithful service are OF more intrinsic
value. and of greater relative Importance, than
is one vears service equally faithful, May
YOU ever stand firmly upon the lmpregnable
ramparts of religious as we'll as political truth
and virtue and there, with sleepless vigilance
and unyielding courage, approve and defend
the right. and condemn and oppose the wrong,
until called from duty to reward:


Your beautv is chiefly discernible in the cor
rectness of YOUR principles. This is Intrinsic
beauty. in the absence of which, there can be
I no other beauty TO clad vice In the external
earb of virtue is to render him more hideous
and dangerous. Nevertheless, truth and vir-
tue, in their Intercourse with men, are not IN
different as to their outward dress and appear
ance s'The fine linen, clean and white, is the
righteousness of the saints.


| I am pleased Mr.. Spectator, with your eX-
| ternal dress 1t is neat, clean and white,
where white ought to be. In this respect YOU
have greatly embellished and beautifed your
self 7 remember that, during the great con-
Aict you sometimes looked as though you had
lust come out of the dust and smoke of ter
rible battle, and from under the rays of a
scorching sun. Your face looked smutty and
sunburnt your dress, coarse, scant and soiled,
and your whole physical conformation some
what irregular aud distorted.


But noo your complexion is unusually fair
the texture of your skin is smooth, soft and
delicate: your features symmetrical; and your
dress, neat, clean, ornamental; SO that scarce
ly know whether to call you Mss or Miste,
Spectator have ventured, however, to call
you Mister, expressing thereby more the quail
tiles Of your mind and muscle, than those Of
YOUR dress and ornaments.


I wish you long, useful, prosperous and
happy life and while you continue to visit
me at nv new home, in this land of beauty
fertility and intelligence, | will treat you with
marked attention and respect, and will, also, il
agreeable to your taste and constitution, send
YOU occasionally dish of bacon and cabbage
and, if possible, few condiments and delica-
cies to give relish thereto.


Afectionately,