Weekly News, The (Newspaper) - October 23, 1884, Frederick, Maryland t- THE WEEKLY VOL. 46. OCTOBER PEN AND INK SKETCHES BY A REPORTER In tbe Historic Border When some enthusiastic geologist picks up on the summit of a lofty mountain and the casts of worms that crawled on the spot in the days that found it the shore of a mighty he ences just such a wholesome belittling of his pride as falls to the lot of the visitor to Harper's Ferry in the ent For the Ferry is a of the time that tried men's time but twenty years is happily dead and gene so far as its hates and its and are A mighty change impends over the Virginia The stithy in the musket was fashioned before John Brown baptised its site i with his blood shall never again to the echoes of and the that shall be built on the ined foundations of the Arsenal shall no more have for its mission the swift shedding of human The of the Potomac may ere long drive mills for grinding or the turn out piles of or the bestow utility on the of the South but it has fabricated its last PRICE PER YEAR Harper died in 1782 and was on his own His ered grave is to be seen in the tic graveyard that overlooks the old THE GRAVEYARD ON THE Tombs are the columns of the ple of From this peopled thickly by the silent and where the turf heaves in many a moldering every object on which the eye rests has its Close and to the is the son the favored haunt of on which he composed his exquisite description of the meeting of the waters of the Potomac ana Further on in the same is the ford on the doah where Jackson caused Ewell's guns to be transported across the stream on the night of September 14, 1862, which measure enabled him to take in reverse the Union ment on Bolivar Heights and so secure the surrender of the town and son on the following Within a stone's throw of the high up on the is the partially re- stored fabric of the Protestant copal hich was desecrated and turned into a stable during the Its exposed position rendered it a prominent object of attention with the gunners of the contending and today the marks of shot and shell may be traced on every square foot of its from roof to A year ago it was a ling with the wind whistling through its in- but any force coul take it and an army could not hold i IN THE The pigs of Harper's Ferry hav been noted for many The roam through the streets at their ow sweet They are monarchs of al they their right there is non to No one seems to own them and they have every privilege of free except the franchise wh il the thought flashes across the mine if this were granted thei would make the very best class of re As with the so wit the go with the so wit the The latter have long re turned to the ferae naturae condition and may be seen leaping among th crags on Maryland Heights at al hours of the The o Harper's Ferry take a Neapolitan view of the objects of take no heed of time but from its loss It is not difficult to understand tha a region which experienced with exceptional and crushing severity desolating influences of a and internecine should have been stunned by the blow and slow to re- cover from it The number of eligible but unmated ladies in the Shenandoah Valley tells its own OF THE WHAT'S is A NAME Harper's Ferry derives its name from Robert a native of in He was born about 0ie year 1703, at the age of 20, emigrated to where he prosecuted the business of ture and In 1747 he was engaged by some members of the Society of Friends to erect a church for that denomination on the near the present town of While on his way through the almost unbroken he lodged pae night with a German in a lonely on the site of the present city of Md. This whose was informed him that his best route was by tbe of the where he would see some wonderful Harper adopted the arrived at the fell in Jove with the found nan living there by the name of Peter bought out Stevens with British guineas an J settled e realty was vested in Lord and by perseverance he obtained m that nobleman a deed or Harper settled down there and a hence the name the ceased and loomed up into perpetual in the dawning of a better and a brighter anew congregation treads its humble Down in this Shenandoah Valley nearly every house is a The few structures which war the great flood of 1877 swept Scores of houses have been erected since the but the builders have gone to work on the Bolivar leaving the valley to its fate of But it may be that Harper's like Rome and has a future as well as a Towering over the Shenandoah are the Loudon from which the Confederates twice bombarded the Opposite these on the the Maryland Heights present their steep rocky crowned with a small in good This fort was captured by of Jackson's on the 14th of 1862, and this event alone sealed the fate of the The Union entrenchment on Bolivar in the rear of the are still traceable for some but it becomes immediately apparent to any person possessed of a military eye that Harper's Ferry is a mere trap for any force stationed in it ia the gate of JOHN BEOWN S We live in a utilitarian which takes little account of national and Thus far the engine house of the which a caprice of Destiny caused to become the of negro has been preserved It would be a happy and delicate ment on the part of the colored ple of America to purchase and pre- serve this historic to them Glancing into the in- through the battered and noting the grim solitary cannon which remains all the incidents of that terrible day of 1859 rush upon the and twenty-five years of time vanish in a The walls of the chamber are pitted with bullet holes and the marks of a desperate This is the door which Col. R. E. of the United States caused to be battered in by his in order that brave John Brown might ba consigned to a And ah then we think of the time very few years when hymns were sung to the hallowed memory of John the while a unified nation angrily de- manded the impeachment of the great soldier and misguided hero whose star set forever at As a but by the mercy of and in pursuance of the decree of His inscrutable to become in the few remaining yean of his life a noble pattern of noble life to the young men of the and to die on the soil of the State for which he had hopelessly sacrificed his dent military honored by many a tear in the homes of his est The Harper's Perry Special to THE News HARPER'S Oct. Government water power and erty at Harper's Ferry was sold today to Thomas H. of for Savery is a car and engine Builder and it is said his firm will erect extensive works on the THE BIGGEST LIGHT IN THE Hell Gate Illuminated by A Novel and Brilliant The lighthouse which towers above He Gate was illuminated with electricity fo the first time on Wednesday Th light was furnished by the Electric Light atod nine lamps each of six thousand candle wen The experiment proved a strik ing success in every The tower o this is henceforth t up the waters of Hell Gate with th brilliancy of and thus enable th navigator to pass with safety through th dangers of the famous o four corner placed so as to form a pyr The posts are fifty-four feet apart a the and five feet apart at the extrem Each side is divided into ten panels which taper towards the The column are composed of two united by sys terns of Each column is anchoret by bolts to a block of concrete fee square at tbe base and ten feet The gallery of the where the lamps are is 260 feet above the It is eleven feet the ing part being supported by braces resting against the There is a marine railing three feet four inches high running around the and from this railing thi lamps are suspended in a Above gallery are supporting the eleva tor by means of which the top of the tower is The news of the illuminating of the light house by electricity had spread throughout the and crowds gathered at various points along the river to witness the effect Their trouble was well rewarded by the sight When the power was turned on the spectators first perceived a dull glow high up the darkness of the an instant there gushed forth such a flood of light as threw into brightest prominence the dark surroundings of Hell Brighter and and this luminous It rolled back the darkness before until at last every object for miles around was bathed in silvery far away in every direction stretched the broad waves of bringing into bold relief the spires and turrets and housetops of the the shipping in the and the great public buildings on and Blackwell's To the north they fell upon the slanting roofs oi 3arlern, to the u est they showed with dis- the white walls of pretty and to the south they showed the outlines of the big bridge like some huge from shore to The bright hafts of light fell upon the waters of the East which reflected them back in myriad The electrician of he Electric Light Company himself as highly satisfied with he The power for the light supplied by a twenty-three horse power The light is the most powerful one n use in any lighthouse in the The Corn Crop in Tha October report of the ment of in speaking of condition of the corn crop in Maryland this con- of the long-continued drouth which has lasted from the first of August over two-thirds of the orn has suffered and its condition has been reduced at east 25 per during that condition of the crop by counties s as late corn almost a far below an shortened by damaged by Jueen materially shortened greatly damaged crop ned by Worcester was very promising until the which in- ured early planted and cut short the good damaged by The same re- port says that the yield and quantity f wheat In Worcester county has seen seriously affected by excessive Mid continued rains during ut that the wheat in Caroline county was harvested in good As the corn crop in the re- says that the quantity has been shortened by the ut that the quality is much better ban was Owing to the it is not expected that the Virginia tobacco crop will be near up the while in rom the same it ia estimated t about half a The potato crop as also been shortened considerably y the WHOOPING COUGH BELVA IN THE WHITE A Cabinet Meeting of the Period When Women Shall Steer the Ship of From the Washington A servant said the President would be down as soon as she finished ing on her The Attorney eral took out her knitting and I might as well be No telling Jow long we'll have to Eager attention on the part of Cabinet interrupted by the the President of the United morning Mrs. in what a lovely said the thought I would just wear it down and vou all see it. It is isn t it Just look at the hang of the perfectly said the Secretary of fine lags of crepe de chine give it such a lovely But isn't it just a little short in of said the with some have them all made that way so as not to have to change when I ride the tri- hope it's all said the At- torney sticking her needle through her back while she rubbed a piece of the dress be- tween her thumb and you save me a piece for my crazy quilt answered the now let's set to I haven't much time this I have to sit for my picture at 1 most important business I mow said the Secretary of to decide on a Minister to of St. You know ill has asked to be I forgot about said the we send it had only been said he Assistant Secretary of the would have gone but the season is over by this and then I get so horribly will be hard to anyone to observed the Secretary of am told the climate is so damp hat your hair never stays in curl at that asked the President we must end some And the dent went Germany to what's the use of sending to Mrs. President asked the Secretary of don't you said the of Herr Most nd pork and Lasker and Bismarck nd all those things to talk know there was a color called some years said the of the as she sorted her t there's a new red brown this said the Postmaster just perfectly lovely or a dark though I think myself nothing wears as well as Id seal of seal said the Assistant Secretary of the bout the commissioner who was sent Alaska to provide us all with kin It's getting pretty the frost touched my tuberoses ast Hon. Richard B. the minent judge and f Queen Anne's died at his near I A. yesterday Daring lie war he was an ardent advocate of state Rights and was imprisoned for asserting them in Fort Fort and Fort He was 77 years of age at the time of bis
