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PUBLISHED 1 ttat TT
TWICE A MONTH.; VOL. 11.
ATLANTA, GA., DECEMBER 15, 1882.
■WV. A JONK DOLLAR
JN O. 4. | A TEA It.
Written specially for the Southern World,
LEXINGTON, VA.
BY W. P. WOOLLEY.
There is no town of its size in the South in
■ which there is centered more culture than
Lexington. The town of the Lees and Jack,
sons, with two eminent and prosperous in-
stitutions of learning, it certainly affords a
point of interest to the tourist. It is a thriv-
N ,t v Jng to'.v.i situated in the most beautiful por
tion of this romantic State, belted by the
Blue Ridge, and laved by a branch of the
James.
The Washington and Lee University un
der the able management of Gen. Geo. W.
Custis Lee, is now in a most flourishing
condition. Through the kindness of Hr.
Wm. C. Preston, a grandson of the distin
guished poetess, I was shown through the
University buildings, which contain numer
ous relics and curiosities. An elegant two
story brick library and art building erected
to the memory of Mr. Warren Nowcorae, of
New York, by his wife, has just been com
pleted and it will soon be filled with 20,000
books and a valuable art collection. The
museum is doubtless the most complete of
any Southern college. It comprises four
distinct cabinets: 1. The Zoological, con
taining stuffed specimens and mounted skel-
^ „ etons. reprc ' ative of all the animal king
dom. 2. TGo^Jlineralogical, presenting an
extensive collections of minerals. 3. The
Geological, with a large collection of fossil
animals and plants. 4. Botanical, embrac
ing an herbarium of 5,000 specimens mount
ed in walnut cases. This valuable museum
costing $25,000 is a gift of Mr. Lewis Brooks,
of Rochester, N. Y. The University also
possesses elegant apparatus in the depart
ments of Natural Philosophy, Chemistry and
Applied Mathematics. Gen. Custis Lee
like his honored father is a gentleman of the
highest culture, force, and executive ability,
It is to him, assisted by one of the ablest
faculties in any college, that the University
owes its great success.
I went into the private office of Gen. Robt.
E. Lee, which remains in the same condition
as it was the day of his death, not even
paper being moved.' The room is in the
basement of the Chapel building. The fur
niture consists of a round centre table, an
arm chair, several other chairs, a sofa,
desk and book case. On the table are his
papers just as he left them. The last thing
he wrote is laying there. It is written upon
a sheet of legal cap, and is as follows; “List
of names to whom catalogues of 18G9-70 were
sent," Among these names was that of Gen.
Jno. B. Gordon. To the left of this sheet is
a volume—“Religious Reading a Means of
Grace ;—by Rev. Thos. Barron.” Gen. Lee
svas a devout Christian, and this little inci
dent shows the channel in which his
thoughts were running.
In a vault in the basement of the chapel
are the remains of Gen. Lee. By his side lies
the body of his wife. A mausoleum has just
been added to this building, containing
twenty-seven sepulchres, and the General’s
remains and also those of his immediate fam
ily will be there interred. In the upper
portion of this addition to the chapel will be
placed his statue, a work executed by the
distinguished sculptor Edward Valentine, of
Richmond, Va. The statue represents the
General in military attire and in a reclining
position one hand over the breast, and a
sheet partly covering the body. Mr. Valen
tine says the highest compliment that has
been paid him was by an old countrywo
man when he had this statue on exhibition
in Richmond, for he knew it was genuine.
A guard was stationed at each end of the fig
ure, and the old lady after looking on in
tently asked permission to remove the sheet
froip the statue. Fifteen thousand dollars
was paid for this piece of Southern art. The
addition to the chapel will cost $17,000.
Next June 28th, the statue will be unveiled.
I visited also the grave of General Stone
wall Jackson. It is a plain mound, covered
with green sward, a scroll of marble at its
head bearing the simple inscription: “Thos.
J. Jackson.” As Mrs. Preston has beauti
fully written:
"A simple,sodded mound ot earth,
Without a Hue above It;
With only dally votive flowers
To prove that any love It.”
But this is sufficient, for bis deeds are in
delibly engraved on the hearts of his people.
A monument to his memory is shortly to be
erected near his grave.
At a distance any one would take it for a
work in marble, the statue of Gen. Washing
ton on the tower of the University. But it
is merely painted wood, most creditably ex
ecuted. This ingenious piece of work many
years ago was hewn from a solid block of
wood with a broad-axe by an old German of
this place.
I took tea last evening with Mrs. Margaret
J. Preston and some of her literary friends.
Will have more to say of her in another let
ter.
I leave here for Luray to visit the wonder
ful caves, thence to Millwood to see John
Eaten Cooke.
THE MUNICH ELECTRICAL EXHIBI
TION.
The progress of electric science is now so
rapid that exhibitions of late improvements
have ariton d' etre that no other industry can
lay claim to. The Paris and London exhi
bitions have been followed by that of Mu.
nich,which,although anythingbut complete,
still afforded an opportunity to judge of
some of the more recent advances in electro
technology.
On the occasion of its opening, Prof. Von
Beetz delivered an address, which was, essen
tially, a rapid survey of the successive dis
coveries in the science, until now “the mo
tive power furnished by water, by steam
engines and gas machines will be used by
dynamo-electric machines, and electricity
can be put in action at will, and at a given
moment. A circuit, traversed by a current,
is heated to a glow, and the hundreds of car
bon filaments of incandescent lamps, and
the powerful foci of arc lights furnish us
with the very light of day itself.”
The exhibition was held in the “Glass
Palace” of Munich, and a magical sea of
light surrounded the trees and statues of
the garden. The reports in the German pa
pers state that the incandescent lamps of
Riedingerand Siemens are not very satis
factory, neither are the differential lamps of
the latter. In the former lamp the light is
intermittent and insufficient.
The most interesting part of the Exhibi
tion, for electricians, was that containing
the dynamo-electric machines for illumina
ting and motive power—of which no fewer
than 56 were exhibited—representing four
teen different systems. One of the machines
was located at Hirschau—a distance of five
kilometres. It makes 800 revolutions, and
using twelve horse-power delivers a current
of 660 volts tension, and 8 ampere force.
The loss in force is estimated at 60 per cent,
but the machine is a very fine example of
the transmission of power with the simulta
neous use of the current for various pur
poses.
Deprez has also a transmission for long
distances; he uses two Gramme machines,
which are enveloped with very thin wires.
One of the machines was at Miesbach—a dis
tance of 75 kilometres. Two ordinary tele
graph wires were used for the transmission.
It made 2,200 revolutions, required 2'/i
horse-power, and gave a current of 2,300
volts tension. The employment of such a
high degree of tension has been character-*
ized as dangerous, as no insulation could per
manently withstand it.
The Edison lamps, exhibited by the “Paris
Edison Co.,” were found to work satisfactori
ly, and the illumination of the Arcis Strasse,
from the Glass Palace, to the Brienner
Strass, by the Edison lamps, the German
papers state, was satisfactory, but the effect
was, on the whole, that of a good steady gas
lighting.
The illumination by the Brush system
was defective, but the Brush Company has
promptly disavowed the Vienna firm which
undertook the installation.
So far as inventions and improvements in
the telegraph and telephone are concerned,
it is seen that the State system has a most
paralyzing effect, by the difficulty with
which any innovation can be brought to the
notice of Government officials. The Pater
son instrument is the one most in favor, and
is very satisfactory in dry weather, but oth
erwise, when insulation is made imperfect
through humidity.
The Munich Clinical Institution has paid
great attention to the use of electricity for
therapeautic purposes,under the supervision
of the celebrated Prof. Ziemssen. These ex
periments are mostly designed for the better
inspection of the internal organs, and will,
no doubt, have a great influence on the bet
ter diagnosis of disease, and knowledge of
the animal functions. —Electrician.
Facts About Old Violins.
To begin with the wood. At Brescia,
makers used to use pear, lemon and ash; at
Cremona, maple, sycamore, and of course,
pine. The wood came into the markets of
Mantua, Brescia, Cremona, Venice, Milan,
from the Swiss Southern Tyrol, unlimited in
supply, often, mighty timbers of great age-
plentiful then, scarcer now. The makers had
their pick; they tested it for intensity and
quality. Cut strips of wood and strike them,
you will see how they vary in musical sound.
When a good acoustic beam was found the
maker kept it for his best work. In Joseph
Guarneriu8 and Stradiuarius the same pine
tree crops up at intervals of years. A good
maker will patch and join and inlay to re
tain every particle of tried timber. Old
wood is oddly vocal. As I sat in my room,
surrounded by these instruments, I could
not cough or move without ghostly voices
answering me from the 16th, 17th, and 18th
centuries; and even the old seasoned backs
and bellies of unstrung violins are full of
echoes. The violin is made of 68 or 70 pieces.
It is a miracle of construction. It is as light
as a feather and as strong as a horse. Wood
about as thick as a half-crown, by exquisite
adjustment, resists for centuries a pressure
of several hundred weight. The belly of
soft deal, and back of hard sycamore, sup
ported by twelve blocks with linings. The
sound-bar running obliquely under the left
foot of the bridge is the nervous system of
the violin; the sound-post supporting the
bridge is the soul, through it pass all the
heart-throbs or vibrations generated between
the back and the belly; on its position de
pends mellowness, tightness, or intensity of
sound. The prodigious strain of the strings
is resisted first by the arch of the belly, then
by the ribs, strengthened with the uptight
blocks, the pressure among which is evenly
distributed by the linings which unite them,
and lastly by tho supporting sound-bar and
sound-post and back.”
The Cremona varnish, a heterogeneous
varnish, first of oil with gum in solution
then of coloi evaporated in spirit.
and yellow gum appear to have been used
and combined. Although it was said that
the secret was now lost, Dod, as late as 1830,
who employed the Fendts and Lott, and al
ways varnished himself, had the receipt for'
something very like the Cremona varnish;
and, lately, Mr. Perkins has not only anal
yzed the varnish of Joseph Guarnerius, and
found amber in it, but has himself produced
varnish of an extraordinary quality. The
supreme interest of the violin is not far to
seek. It lies not only in its simplicity,
beauty, strength, subtlety and indestructi
bility, which fit it for the cabinet of the col
lector, but it is the king of instruments in
the hands of the player. It combines accent
with modification of sustained tone. The
organ has sustained tone without accent;
the pianno, accent without sustained tone;
the violin, accent and sustained tone modi
fied at will. Within its limits it is scientif
ically perfect; it has all the sensibility and
more than the compass, execution and va
riety of the human voice. Tbe violin is not
an invention, it is a growth; it has come to
gether; it is the survival of the fittest On
the screens you see its rough elements,
which had to be collected from the rebek,
crowth and the rotta or guitar tribe. About
the eleventh centuyy an instrument of the
viol tribe emergtfj with frevj. but 150 yeg£
were required to get rid of tn
before even a step towards the true viol
could be made. Before the end of the four
teenth centiiry viols were made in great pro
fusion, of every size and shape—the knee
viol, the bass viol de Gamba, of which cer
tain South Kensington specimens are before
you. But the rise of the true violin tribe
begins with the rise of modern music.
About the time when Carrissima and Monte-
verde—1585-1672—discovered the true oc
tave and perfect cadence, part-singing re
ceived a new impulse; the human voice was
discovered to fall naturally into soprano,
contralto, tenor and bass, and viol instru
ments—deing adapted to these four divis
ions, the violin, tenor, bass, and lateY con-
trobasso before me—gradually separated
themselves from the confused nebula of viola
behind me, and shone out clearly as the true
planetary system of the musical firmament.”
—II. It. llaweie.
How many sins are committed in the name
of Christianity. In vain do wise men talk
of the dignity of labor, if fashionable Chris
tianity frowns upon it As an illustration of
this (and it is no exception to the rule) the
congregation of a church in New York is
energetically discussing the question of
"ought we to visit her?” a large majority of
the members, it is reported, inclining to the
negative. The her in this case is the pas
tor’s mother, of irreproachable moral char
acter and unobtrusive manners. Although
no fault can bo found with her manners or
her morals she has in the past been guilty of
that which determines society or Christians
to withhold from her the ordinary courte
sies of social life. Her offence is that, in
former days, in order to support herself and
a family of children, she pursued the call
ing of a washerwoman, and a people which
worships a son of a carpenter refuses to ex
tend social recognition to a worthy woman,
who, by the faithful performance of lowly
duties, has aided her son to attain his pres
ent honorable position.
Leading Journals are advocating the right
of women to whistle, and urging them to
practice it as an inspiratorand chest-expan
der. The planting of persimmon trees will
have a boom.
, An English firm makes strawberry jam
“A red | from mashed turnips and extract of coal tar.