were in the habit of sharing the contents of his
well-bucket. Such was the beginning of the Eleuthere Powder-works. M. Du
Pont, who died some forty years ago, was much beloved for his
benevolence and probity. In 1825, La Fayette, during his celebrated
visit of reminiscence, was the guest of the brave old Frenchman for
several days, during which he examined the battle-ground of Brandywine.
He here received the ball with which he got his wound in that battle,
from the hands of Bell McClosky, a kind of camp-follower and nurse, who
had extracted the bullet with her scissors and preserved it. The
general wrote in the album of Mademoiselle Du Pont the following
graceful sentiment:

"After having seen, nearly half a century ago, the bank of the
Brandywine a scene of bloody fighting, I am happy now to find
it the seat of industry, beauty and mutual friendship.

"LA FAYETTE.

"JULY 25, 1825."

While on a Revolutionary topic we may mention that among a great many
relics of '76 preserved in the town is the sword of General Wayne--"Mad
Anthony"--a straight, light blade in leather scabbard, possessed by Mr.
W. H. Naff.

[Illustration: JESSUP & MOORE'S PAPER-MILLS.]

The citizens of this pleasant town have ever been orderly and pious,
just as they have ever been loyal. Their religious institutions have
grown and flourished. Godfearing and unspeculative, they have attached
themselves to such creeds as appealed most powerfully to the heart with
the least possible admixture of form. "The words _Fear God_" says
Joubert, "have made many men pious: proofs of the existence of God have
made many men atheists." Since the day when Whitefield poured out his
eloquence among the Brandywine valleys and touched the hearts of the
French exiles, Methodism, with its almost entire absence of dogma, has
had great success in the community. This success is now indicated by a
rich congregation, and a church-building that would be called noble in
any city. Grace Church, on Ninth and West streets, is a large Gothic
temple, seating nearly eight hundred persons--warmed, frescoed and
heavily carpeted inside, and walled externally with brownstone mixed
with the delicate pea-green serpentine of Chadd's Ford. The architect
was a native Wilmingtonian--Thomas Dixon--now of Baltimore. The windows,
including a very brilliant oriel, are finely stained: the font is a
delicate piece of carving, the organ is grand, and the accommodations
fo