ry
vicissitudes memorable, extreme, picturesque, and fatal. Here is an
instance:

'There is no town in the United States which exhibits more
deplorably the ravages of war than Harper's Ferry. More than half
the buildings are in ruins, and those now inhabited are occupied by
small dealers and peddlers, who follow troops, and sell at
exorbitant prices, tarts and tinware, cakes and crockery, pipes and
poultry, shoes and shirts, soap and sardines. The location is one
of peculiar beauty. The Potomac receives the Shenandoah at this
point; each stream flowing through its own deep, wild, winding
valley, until it washes the base of the promontory, on the sides
and summit of which are scattered the houses and ruins of the town.
The rapids of the rivers prevent navigation, and make the fords
hazardous. The piers of an iron bridge and a single section still
remaining, indicate a once beautiful structure; and a pontoon
substitute shows the presence of troops. An occasional canal boat
suggests a still continued effort at traffic, and transport
railcars prove action in the quartermaster's department. The
mountains are 'high and hard to climb.' The jagged sides of slate
rock rise vertically, in many places to lofty heights, inducing the
sensation of fear lest they should fall, while riding along the
road which winds under the threatening cliffs. The mountains are
crowned with batteries, 'like diadems across the brow,' and the
Hottentoty-Sibley tents dot the ridges like miniature anthills.'

But within and around the capital of Virginia cluster the extreme
associations of her history: these memories and memorials of patriotism
hallow the soil whereon the chief traitors inaugurated their infamous
rule; the trial of Burr and the burning of the theatre are social
traditions which make Richmond a name fraught with tragic and political
interest; her social and forensic annals are illustrious; and,
hereafter, among the many anomalies of the nation's history, few will
more impress the thoughtful reminiscent than that a city eminent for
social refinement and long the honored resort of the most eminent
American statesmen and jurists, the seat of elegant hospitality and the
shrine of national fame, was, for years, desecrated by the foulest
prisons, filled with brave American citizens, who were subjected to
insults and privations such as