Rensselaer Union, Volume 9, Number 39, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 June 1877 — Traveler's Gossip. [ARTICLE]

Traveler's Gossip.

Washington, D. C., Jane 6, 1877.—The person who leaves Reneaelaer to visit the Capital of the United States finds that bis route lays through a oountry of diversified scenery; meets people of varied characteristics; and sees objects of carious, practical and ephemeral interest. The country and thee people may be olassed as flat and insipid, beautiful and agreeable, romantic and interesting, rugged and uncouth, grand and great. But the largest part of the country and the greatest number of people are quite Common place. Different temperaments view the 6ame objects with different emotions. What is attractive to one man maybe wholly uninteresting to another, and conversation which in one kindles the liveliest emotions of pleasure may provoke positive disgust in another. As it is seldom that any two pfenple look alike so it is not often that any two persons are alike or think alike.

From Rensselaer to Bellitir, on the Ohio river, “the lay of the land,” as Hoosiers sometimes say, is much the same. The level prairies of Jasper county differ hat little in contour’from the wooded plains further east. The one is a smooth shaven face, the other a bearded one. To be sure along rivers and smaller water courses there are hills and intervening ravines and valleys, but these would not be marked features in a bird’s eye view. Fields and crops present much the same appearance so far as their relation to the season is concerned. Wheat looks finely throughout Indiana and Ohio and the husbandman who has a field of growing grain is very much encouraged by bis prospect for a good cfop. In spots corn looks well, ip other places they are not yet don* planting. 1 mean by this that they werd not done on the3oth and 31st days of May. Nowhere in either of these two states through which the Pittsburg, Cincinnati and St Louis and the Baltimore anil Ohio railroads run will there be » large crop of apples or peaches, though some of both are scsttefed nearly everywhere. StnaUfer fruits are more plentiful, aind with a season favorable for them front now forward until they ripen there will be an abundance of raspberries and blackberries, cherries and goosberries.

In Ohio political affuirß begin to be warmly discussed. The campaign is not fairly opened yet, but scheming men have already commenced to lay their wires. The train which took me to Colutabus was filled with a sprinkling of gentlemen who were on their way to attend a meeting of the demooruio central committee of that state. They were ohattering like & cage of monkeys in a museum, and spoke boastingly of their ability to carry the state next tall. But of this I apprehend they arje not sanguiue, for the undercurrent whispered mysteriously of the necessity of concentrating all efforts upon the election of * legislature which would secure a democratic successor to the seat now occupied by Ron. Stanley Mathews. They were evidently uncertain what the influence of President Hayes’ southern and civil service policies will be. They may be bold enough to announce a two-faced silver resolution in their platform, but it is very doubtful if they dare to antagonize the administration anywhere. Their candidates for the gubernatorial nomination are many. Among the gentleman of national reputation whose names were canvassed in this connection in my hearing may be mentioned Hon. Thomas Ewing, Hon. Durbin Ward, Hon. Mr. Payne and nearly a dozen others whom I do not now call to recollection. Counter to the democratic hopes are the positive assurances of intelligent republicans that there would be unity of action

in their ranks. I was told that very little if any defection nlated among them. They know that nothing can possibly be gained by a division, and as they conscientiously prefer the triumph of republicanism to the success of democracy, they will vote for the republican tioket and take special care of all nominations to the legislature. As the Ohio river is approached the, country becomes more broken and rugged. But few cultivated fields are seen and these are confined to the narrow valley* through whioh flow small streams. Moat of the hillside* were cleared of timber, are seeded dowu to grass arid converted into sheep pasture*. Sheep raising both for wool and for mutton is at least an important branch of husbandry. What ia done with the table lands that lie on top of the.hills can not be seen from the car window*. At many places along the hill* coal is mixed, and in some localities they find iron ore in quantities that pay for working.

Several thriving cities and lowns are seen between. Columbus and the Ohio river. One among the most important is Zanesville, on the Muskingum river, which latter is,at this place, a broad stream across whose channel, thrown a substantial dam for the purpose of making slack water navigation. Zanesville is the li vest appearing city ou the Hue of the Baltimore and Oiiio railroad between Columbus and Washington. At Bellair where the Ohio river is crossed the cars move on a trestle work above the topa of two story houses. It was just at sunset when the train reached this oily, After a Btop of perhaps ten minutes it slow)/ moved over the high bridge to Ben wood on the West Viigiuia side where supper was taken in one oF the Baltimore and Ohio railroad company’s hotels. This company keeps up hotels at convenient distances along its Hue where the traveler may set down! to a well kept table and eat a fiplendid meal for the uniform price of seventy-five cents. The cooking is excellent, the waiters are attentive, the cloth and dishes are clean, and ample time is given for the taking of meals. No hotels in America present a better or more varied cuirine. At Grafton, three hours further along, on the Tygarts river, at the foot of the Chest range of mountains, iu a wild, dirty and picturesque region the writer stepped off from the train and put up at the railroad company’s hotel for the night, desiring to pass over the wild and historical region that intervenes between that smoky town and Waahihgton in daylight. The room assigned him was plainly furnished but neatly kept, the bed was comfortable and the linen clean and a good night’s rest was generously yielded by them. „ An excellent bre&kfxst was ready between seven aud eight o’clock next morning* and a, little after nine o’clock the fast express trains cante thundering up from Parkersbnrg aud Bellsire—the former one bringing passengers from Cincinnati, and the latter from Columbus aud intervening points. These two traine were here united and op the narrow gorge following the sinuons windings of a little mountain stream the locomotives started at a speed of thirty-five or forty miles an hour. The locomotives in nee on thie division of the B. A O. road are ponderous machines driven by six and eight drive wheels instead of four as are those in use on the level grades further west. The drive wheels of these mountain locomo* tivea are not more than four feet iu diameter and the tracks on which the tender rests are owly two feet in diameter. They are constructed with special reference to polling immense loads over very steep grades and around short curves, and they *l*o run with great speed. The f’nel used is the smuttiest of smutty coal, so that

in half an hour after sitting is a< coach behind them clothing and faces are begriramed with the blackest of soot. Passengers Who eome aboard of a train at one station looking as neat aa a dry goods salesman, with complexions as fair as pearl powder* will make them, are vary apt to have complexions and garment! resembling coal miners and blacksmiths by the time the train stops at the next station. It i* simply impossible to keep tidy while traveling on the Baltimore and Ohio railroad overand through the mountains of West Virginia and Maryland, and he who has experience will wear his old clothe* when he steps aboard of a train aud keep hi* clean garments well wrapped up in hi* trunk and valise. So insinuating and rapid is the accumulation of cinders and dirt in the ears on this line that the company employ women to go through them with broom and duster whenever the traina stop for meals, which is coirimonly every Bix hours; yet notwithstanding all this care the cushions and upholstery of the seats are so regarded that to touch them is to defile the hands and soil the clothing as though one had handled coal. Neat people whom dirt annoys much will not not enjoy traveling on these trains though the scenery which is constantly passing is ever varying, is always rouiautjc and frequentlygi and, thrilling, sublime.

H. E. J.