hands. The tide of war flowed all around it, but never mounted to the summit of the reddish hills on which it had safely perched. Its great natural advantages of situation will, in a few years, increase it from a city of twelve thousand population to a huge over-crowded railway center. It possesses superb and abundant water-power. Coal is to be had in the immediate neighborhood cheaper than in most of the other cities in the Atlantic States. Two important railway lines intersect at Lynchburg, the Atlantic, Mississippi and Ohio, now connecting Norfolk on the Atlantic with Memphis on the Mississippi, and destined also to connect Norfolk with Louisville on the Ohio; and the Washington City, Virginia Midland and Great Southern road which connects from Alexandria, in northeastern Virginia, with Danville, in the southern part of the State, and forms a link in the Great Air Line between the cities on the Gulf and New York. The latter road opens to Lynchburg the whole Piedmont district, so rich in grains, grasses, fruits, tobacco, minerals and timber. The James River and Kanawha Canal now extends from tide-water at Richmond, about two hundred miles through the center of the State, to a point near the base of the Alleghanies, but if carried to the Ohio, by means of liberal improvements in the Kanawha river, would revolutionize American internal commerce. This canal winds in pleasant curves between green banks through the mountains and at the bases of the Lynchburg hills; and the horn of the boatman is heard, making cheery melody at sunset. It was a grand mistake to locate the canal on the river level. People have grown somewhat wiser since 1841, when the route was opened to navigation, and now regret that they did not locate it high enough to secure the water-power. The Chesapeake and Ohio route runs a little to the north of Lynchburg. Finding the old town standing so "amid the fertile lands," with such excellent chances for growth, the new-comer feels at first like reproaching its inhabitants, despite the shock which they received in the war, for not manifesting more zeal. But a careful examination shows that Lynchburg boasts a considerable activity. There are is the same cheery, capricious being that one finds him in the cotton or sugar-cane fields; he sings quaintly over his toil, and seems entirely devoid of the sullen ambition which our Northern factory laborers exhibit. The men and women, working together around the long tables in the base period 10,774,611 pounds, on which the taxation amounted to $2,154,922.20. The total weight of tobacco, in hogsheads, in boxes, and loose," inspected at Lynchburg from October 1, 1870, to October 1, 1871, was 17,425,439 pounds, of which 11,629,239 pounds were brought in loose or unpacked; and for the same period in 1871-2 the total weight was 14,323.708 pounds, more than ten million pounds of which quantity was brought in unpacked. Campbell, Bedford, Pittsylvania, Halifax, Charlotte, Appomattox, Amherst, Nelson, Rockbridge, Botetourt, Roanoke, Franklin, Montgomery, Giles, Washington, Floyd, and Mercer counties furnish most of the tobacco received at Lynchburg. ments of the Lynchburg tobacco establishments, croon eccentric hymns in concert all day long; and their little children, laboring before they are hardly large enough to go alone, join in the refrains. Tobacco is the main article of Lynchburg trade. Down the break-neck hills come the country wagons, (often with a bull, a mule, and an old mare harnessed together as the team,) loaded with the dark-yellow sheaves; and the knots of men standing about the parks and public places are almost certain to be discussing tobacco. Buyers from all parts of the Union crowd the streets; the warehouses are daily visited by throngs. Other manufactures are slowly creeping in, and the venerable town will probably yet do its share in developing the iron so profusely scattered through south-western Virginia. Lynchburg stands in the center of a region richly supplied with educational institutions. Within a radius of sixty miles Roanoke and Hampden Sidney Colleges, the Virginia Military Institute, the University of Virginia, and the Washington-Lee University, are all situated. Its own public and private schools are numerous and of excellent character. The Virginian and the other Lynchburg newspapers hold high rank among the journals of the State. The annual fairs of the Agricultural and Mechanical Society bring together hun-l dreds of farmers from all parts of the commonwealth.ob Something of the old Scotch and English manners is still perceptible among the people in this part of Virginia; and THE SUMMONS TO A TOBACCO SALE. there are bits of dialect and phrase which show how little the communities have been affected dur- | which have so transformed the populaing the last century by the influences EVENING ON THE JAMES. tions of other sections of America. While England has gone on from change to change, and has even been capable of complete revolution in certain matters, Virginia has altered but little. Until now immigration has had no inducements to come and unlock the treasure-house of the grand mountains of the South-west, and so the people have lived under pretty much the same laws and customs that prevailed in England nearly two centuries ago. Yet the absence of the rushing, turbulent current of immigration has had its compensating advantages in allowing the growth of families in which hereditary love of culture and refinement, and the strictest attention to those graces and courtesies which always distinguish a pure and dignified society, are preeminently conspicuous. South-western Virginia is a region which will in time be overrun by tourists and land speculators. The massive ramparts of the Alleghanies are pierced here and there by cuts through which crawls the line of the Atlantic, Mississippi and Ohio Railroad; and towns are springing up with almost Western rapidity. Stores of coal and iron are daily brought to light; and the farmer of the old régime stares with wonder, not wholly unmixed with jealousy, at the smart new-comers who are agitating the subject of branch railroads and searching into the very entrails of the hills. The sea-board link of the Atlantic, Mississippi and Ohio railroad was originally known as the Norfolk and Petersburg road, and was completed in 1858, under the direction of William Mahone, an engineer of decided talent. It was well and solidly built, and won for its constructors great praise. At the close of the war this line, the Southside, running from Petersburg to Lynchburg, and the Virginia and Tennessee road, extending from Lynchburg to Bristol, were in a lamentable condition, having been completely worn down by the heavy traffic and constant wear and tear during the great civil struggle. Owing to the superior manner of its construction it was capable of being placed in order easily, and at comparatively smallcost. A measure for the consolidation of these roads, and their rebuilding and thorough equipment as a grand inter-State highway, was brought before the Virginia Legislature, and became the subject of much discussion. The engineer, Mahone, had been for many years prominent in the railway affairs of the commonwealth, and was now the foremost advocate of the unification measure. He had He had also been a brilliant fighter on the Confederate side, had gone through the struggle to the bitter end, and stood by Lee at Appomattox, and, as in the battle years he had been impetuous, persistent, and unsparing of self, so now, in the pursuit of this great scheme for a route from Norfolk to the Ohio and the Mississippi rivers, he was characterized by the same qualities. Ever since George Washington plainly pointed out the advantages of a route between the Atlantic coast and the Ohio river, the attention of Virginian statesmanship has been directed to the subject; but it remained for Gen. Mahone, with his clear logic and irresistible array of facts, to exercise the influence which finally brought about the needed legislation, and COMING TO MARKET. on the 12th of November, 1870, resulted in the organization of the present line, merging together the Norfolk and Petersburg, the "Southside," the Virginia and Tennessee, and the Virginia and Kentucky railroads. It is claimed that by the consolidation measure, there were placed under one management 500 miles of railroad lying upon the best and shortest location afforded by the continent between the centers of Western trade, and the finest harbors on the Atlantic sea-board, and that forming a continuous line, running east and west between the extreme western border of the State and the sea-board, it will bestow its trade within, and confer its benefits upon, towns and cities in the limits of Virginia; and, by building up large centers, will gradually reduce the rate of taxation levied upon the agricultural population. In its completed form, it will be, in the words of a distinguished Virginian, "a line which spans one-half the continent at its narrowest breadth, which begins at that point of the very seaboard nearest the western trade center, and reaches out, not only to the proper west in its middle, but also to the northwest and the south-west"-a line, in fact, which will make the Atlantic via Norfolk 351 miles nearer Louisville, 260 miles nearer Cincinnati, and 400 miles nearer Cairo, than via New York city. Traversing the most prosperous and fertile portion of Virginia, it diverges at Bristol, to penetrate, by means of its present and future connections, the entire south and south-west, and, via Cum berland Gap, the State of Kentucky and the huge north-west. The three railroads now composing this main line were placed under the management of Gen. Mahone, as early as 1869, (he having been successsively chosen President of each one,) but they continued for some time afterwards to act under their separate charters.* It was in the brilliant early autumn when I visited South-western Virginia. The foliage was at its completest still; the gay loungers at the pretty little fashion-resorts, scattered through the mountains, were giving their sprightliest balls before retiring to the solitude and routine of their plantations. The tobacco fields were yet resplendent with green. The farmers were fallowing the lands on the rich hill-sides for winter wheat. Every day the sun shone with inspiring splendor on the blue lines of monarch mountains, which, clothed in their beautiful forests, reared their high crests against the unclouded sky. I did In 1866-7, before the three lines above-mentioned were placed under one general management, the number of tons transported upon them was 145,000. During the year ending September 30, 1872, the amount transported by the consoli dated line was 305,000 tons. In 1866-7, the average charge per ton per mile, was five and a-quarter cents, in 1871-2 it was two and three-fourths cents. This great reduction of rate was followed by an increase of revenue from $1,000,000 in 1866-7, to $1,969,000 in 1871-2, and for 1872-3, to over two millions. The Norfolk and Petersburg road was in active operation as an independent road in 1860. Its entire revenue for that fiscal year was $96,621.74. That same division of the consolidated road earned for the year ending September 30, 1872, $376,531. The cotton transported over this route all goes to Norfolk, except that taken by the Petersburg and Richmond Mills, which is yearly increasing. The number of bales carried in 1871-2 was 130,000; in 1872-3, 177,000, coming mainly from Memphis, Selma, Nashville, Huntsville and Dalton. Some of the other, and no less important fruits of the consolidation measure, are seen in the following statistics: In 1866-7 the quantity of minerals trans ported was but 13,000 tons; in 1871-2 it was 31,000 tons. In 1866-7, the weight of live stock moved was three thousand tons; in 1871-2 it was fifteen thousand. The contrast in the amount of wheat is still more striking: it has increased from seventeen thousand bushels in 1866-7, to two hundred and sixty-three thousand bushels in 1871-2. In this same latter year there were delivered to Virginia cities, eighty-eight thousand tons of agricultural and mineral products, and fortyseven thousand tons were sent North. A SIDE STREET IN LYNCHBURG. not wander along the winding canal in the recesses of the hills as far as the "Natural Bridge." It is a massive limestone arch covered with alluvial and clayey earth, that more than two hundred feet high sweeps across the ravine through which the beautiful Cedar Creek runs, forty miles from Lynchburg. But I promised myself a visit in the future, and made all speed for the other wonder of the surrounding country-the keen, sublime, and haughty "Peaks of Otter." Talks with the farmers and business men along the road to "Liberty," whence one starts to visit the twin mountains, were full of information encouraging to would-be immigrants. Titles to land are usually good, because the estates rarely changed owners before the war, but descended from father to son, and one can more readily trace the title in Virginia on that account than in most of the other Southern States. The prices of land in the south-western section of the State, although somewhat influenced by local causes, and, therefore, a little perplexing to the stranger, are reasonably cheap. Land of the best quality can be had at from $40 to $80 per acre, and the ridges of the mountains for almost nothing. The present prices there are generally, on the whole, an advance on the old ones. In Rockbridge, Botetourt, and Roanoke |