rfolk born people, and the people from the neighboring counties,
formed the base--a pretty broad base, but only a base. Everybody was
busy. Wirt, writing a year or two later to a friend, likened the borough
to a hive in which their was no drone. The outward appearance of things
was bad enough. The houses on the wharves and in the business streets
were all of wood, and have since been swept away by successive fires.
There was not a paved street within the bills of mortality. Immense
pools of mud and water were seen everywhere; and it was a favorite
amusement of the boys to watch the attempt of a loaded dray to pass
through those beds of muck. There were three merchants at farthest,
whose wealth, on a most liberal estimate, might possibly average
$100,000, though they thought themselves worth a good deal more. There
was but one brick church, and that was the present St. Paul's, not, as
we now see it, with its tasteful interior, but a rude brickkiln with an
enormous cocked hat stuck upon it. The people heard preaching in the
upper rooms of warehouses, in the court-house, or in some rickety
concern knocked up for the nonce. The clergy fared badly. The rector of
a large brick church, then rising, with a wealthy congregation, received
for his services one hundred pounds, Virginia currency, which equal
three hundred and thirty-three dollars and thirty-three cents of our
money, and both pastor and people seemed to be satisfied with the
bargain. Small houses, some of which may still be seen, straggled out
along Church street, to what is now called Fort Barbour, though not so
called till twelve years later. There was hardly an elegant private
residence in the city. The bricks, of which the best houses were built,
were rough and roughly laid. The houses had no conveniences, except here
and there a closet. They were, however, substantially built, and were
neatly finished within. They invariably had one thing which is fast
passing away. There was the smoke-house in which every housekeeper cured
his meat; and there was the dairy; but how they could put the dairy to
its proper use I could never find out. The people had cows, and the cows
gave milk; but there was no running water, and there was no ice. Long
years passed before ice was introduced. The gentlemen of the bar were
awake, and made out very well--much better than the clergy. The very
youngest of the profession fed freely and voluptuously on the black eyes
and cracked crowns of