Rensselaer Union, Volume 9, Number 41, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 June 1877 — A Traveler's Gossip. [ARTICLE]

A Traveler's Gossip.

Gcti. Fred fvnefler has b«en commiitfiior.ed pensionafpretitat Indianapolis, aaecerding Gen*! Terrell. A vietim of Pivtoofith, Nebraska, wants information concerning the present habitation of the notorious Amos Mahoney, who skipped ont from them like a grasshopper and left desolation in his track. There are people who begin to suspect that Amos is a bad set. The Monticello Herald observes that “Horace R. James of the “Rensselaer Union is [has been] “writing interesting letters to his “paper from Washington;” which remark proves conclusively that the aforesaid Herald possesses most excellent discrimination. Two hundred and forty citizens of Indianapolis are spending the season by the lakeside near Michigan City. They amuse themselves by working for lion. J. H. Winterbotham and other benevolent gentlemen for forty to fifty cents a day, and are entertained by Warden Mayne of the northern penitentiary. In the infantile days of the re. public John Adams wrote- of the celebration of the Fourth of July as follows; l believe this day will be celebrated by all succeeding genoati&is as a great aniversarv festival. It ought to be solemnised with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, lionfiree aud illuminations from ■oneend of the coutiuent to the other, from this time forward forever. And this is they way it has been resolved to celebrate it at Rensselaer this year of grace and perfect peace. A negro for secretary of state? No, not by any means; nor foT any other office. We have had enough of that kind already. A white man’s county* governed by white officers, is our luotto. The field is the place for the negro, and there let him stay. If lie Ts not content without holding office] let him go to Ban Domingo or some otheb such congenial dime.—Magnolia Miss., Herald, If the negro has the right to vote he also has the right to hold office, the former guaranteeing the latter as cause produces effect. The true qualifications for office are capacity, honesty, morality, courtesy nnd pa-’tieaoe-—race or color or station or property are accidental conditions that ought to have no weight. It 'is possibly foe a negro to possess a higher degree of intelligence, a better education, more polished manners and a keener senseot hon•or than some white men, and, to the shame of the latter, ill stances of this kind are not rare at this day; whenever representatives of these classes of society k< e competitors for an office the public service will surely be promoted by the selection of the negro.

(.Treat indignation is felt and expressed throughout the country at Judge Hilton's order to exclude J««w as guests from hie hotel at Saratoga. Discriminations against race,religion, or political belief, is repugnant to the spirit of Ameri■cauism, and it is therefore natural for the mass of people to manifeat mrprise and disgust over Judge Hilton's extraordinary exhibition of intolerance. As a class the Jews stand high among the intelligent, energetic, enterprising, patriotic and well-behaVed citizens of the United Stales. To treat them illy is to outrage decency 3iid justice. Oppression, in whatever lortn, is always wrong; caste discrimination always meat:; and intolerance, religious, social, or political, ie. the neverfailing sign of a narrow mind and a pusillanimous soul. People may select par (|i«nJac friends and associates, and i* i« well enough tor tbeut to do so, bat none uiay justly deny another tbe tigM to enjoy faciliVes provided lor public accommodation, fit* railroads, the oumibusses, the t’WlftiKUU, tb* hotel#, the theatres and tfaa churches are for the accomaaodbtiou yf *U indisoiniin ately-srioen and votueu, Jews aud (ieutiles, democrats and rcpabli(tana. g,d infidels, white and black. If there be any who from pride of parse or of ancestry dislike this kind of democracy- they *»*# provide with their wealth aud tnfacnCri an excluaivenesathat may be {9 poor silly nc-

From Cumberland, Maryland, down th« Potomac rivar, whatever the scenery loses in vigor and grandeur is more than Compensated In beauty and charity. The moantains disappear and in their atead are the rounded outlines of the prettiest grass carpeted knolls in America. Purling brooks play at hide and seek down through the shadiest dells nnd loveliest meadows imaginable. Handsome farm houses, located in romantic situations, surrounded by thrifty, fruitladen orchards, in the midst of smiling fields, give an air of civil* ixedi'onmfort to the peaceful landsefpo that is a welcome change Irotn the >roughness, wildness, and. sublimity that has just been left behind. The inonntains were grand and awe-inspiring; the valley is romantic and lulls the spirit to quiet adiuiratiou, and a feeling akin to tlint sweet repose .which succeeds hours ol labor steals gently over the iniml.

All the . afternoon since leaving Cumberland the train has.- kept down the right bank of the river, which thus far. is but little if any larger than our own Iroquois and may be safely forded at any point. But unlike tl.a streams of northwestern Indiana, these we are passing have well marked banks and flow over beds of rock where pebbles aiid boulders are thickly strewn. Some places the railroad track is laid close to ihe river's brink, at others it is a mile away wooing the gentle hills. On the opposite (left band) side of the river like a little child clinging to the skirts of its mother, is the Chesapeake and Potoniae(?) canal, bearing upon its placid waters innumerable craft drawn horses and mules at a speed of three or four miles an hour. llow painfully plodding is their pace compared with the bounding of the locomotive that draws our train! The boats, like Bunis' sivowfliike in a river, are u moment white then lost forever.

As Harper’s Ferry is approached the boulders, iu the river- bed become larger and more numerous, the valley narrows, the hills present sharper angles and finally tower, like gigantic frowning battlements, far up in to .the heavens. . The sunlight hat! shone brightly all day long, hut now its slanting rays are intercepted by the rocky heights on the right, and half the narrow valley lies in mclancholly slia.le v The train stops on a tius tiework abreast the gloomy town. While the engine was resting a few minutes before crossing the river. snd resuming its course to the Capital, passengers alighted from the dirty cars to stretch their legs and glance at a locality over which thrilling events have woven a web of imperishable notoriety. Immediately before us as we face the right, and scarcely more than a stone’s throw distant, i« a low, dingy, little brick building on the walls of which is painted in bold Homan capital letters the legend “John Brown’s Fort.” What scenes these words recall! What thoughts they inspire! How profoundly stirred was this mighty republic by the heroism and devotion of old John Brown to the principles that were taught by the framers of that instrument which declared ours an .independent nation! Old John Brown, the Scipio Afrioanns who transferred the struggle of freedom and slavery for supremacy from the plains of the west and the highways of the north to the soil whicKTiad been dedicated and declared sacred to the perpetuation of an accursed institution! Old John Brown, the Leonidas who with a handful of kindred spirits stood, the undaunted champion of a noble priiKiiple,-: iu this modern Pass of Tberiuopalse, until overborne by numbers aud beaten down by ungovernable, brutish rage! Old John Brown, the John the Baptist whose voice wAs heard in the wilderness calling upou a nation to repeal and make straight the paths of freedom—the forerunner of a great reform and a new dittpvuaatioa, whose head was offered *0 and accepted as a ‘ lovt* gift by a lustful Herodia? of cruelly! John Brown, whose blood was sited that a downtrodden and despised people might enjoy the

rights with which they had been endowed by nature’s God I The sovereign state of Virginia hung John Brows vs a moans through which atonement was to be made to the law he had violated and the aystem ho had insulted. They hung him but his aoul went marching on. The shock which separated John Brown’a soul nnd body brought darkness upou the land, and when the clouds were lifted Virginia was rent in twain. The valleys at the confluence of which John Brown was executed became Golgothns where afterwards were strewn the bones of thousands slain —a Gehenna from which ascended the smoke of cannon and musketry, the glare of burning bouses, the din of conflict; and the cries of the dying. The, scars,left by the war are not yet obliterated. To this day may be seen the remains of fortification* along l he hilltops; blackened foundations and crumbling chimneys over which clamber brambles ar.d wild vines, are dotted here and there through the valleys, funereal monuments marking the spots where happy homes departed in smoke and flame; and occasionally great patches of unenclosed land, serrated 'with ridges turned up by the plow years ago, producing noxious plants, scattered .stems of grass, and scrubby young pines, proclaim a desolate and abandoned plantation . whose proprietor was ground to ruin between contending armies. We cross to the left bank of the Potomac river over a fine new bridge and swiftly resume our journey to Washington seventy miles away. Only one stop is made on the road between these points, and less than two hours are consumed

iu making tlie run.

H. E. J.