I. THE VIRGINIA SPRINGS. "You know the way across the Jersey ferry?" "Yes." "Good-exceedingly good. A traveler, rightly started, is already half way to the end of his journey." "And for the rest?" "Do not fear. I will lay you down such directions, that, by following them, together with his own nose, every man shall arrive safely at the White Sulphur." 66 In the first place, when the doors of the railway-station-house are opened. to admit the waiting crowd, let a man beware that he do not accidentally get into what is vulgarly called a tight place." For there will be a push for the best seats in the "cars." "Forward" is the word on all sides, while the officials, within the door, with more or less force, resist the advance, and shout aloud, "Show your tickets! please, sir, your ticket!" If you If you are the last person to pass through, there will be nobody behind to pick your pockets; and, besides, you will not have your ribs fractured, in a squeeze between a dozen men, women, and children, with canes, parasols, and sticks of candy-all struggling for precedence. Of course, the fastest men and women get places in the hindmost carriages. You will be lucky to find a seat left in the forward one. Perhaps, however, fortune may favor you, as she often does the well-behaved, and may reserve for you an entire sofa in the very centre of a carriage. But no sooner do you succeed in getting well settled, and commence reading the evening journal, when some individual, a band-box in one hand, and his better half led by the other, comes up, and in the most quiet way in the world says: "Sir, if you would be so good as to accommodate a lady?" You turn round to look at the stranger, and, in doing so, your eye rests, by chance, upon a sofa entirely vacant, a yard or two in the rear. This, to save yourself the unnecessary trouble of changing quarters, you politely point out to the unfortunate traveler, who has interrupted your enjoyment of the evening's "leader.” What, now, does the man do? Does he accept the proffered place with thanks? Not at all. He elevates his voice a full degree, and exclaims, "That is over the wheel, sir; my wife can't sit over the wheel!" This happened to me in the Jerseys. And the fellow actually looked amazed that I did not get up, and go and sit over the wheel. He evidently thought me no gentleman-a man destitute of all the chivalrous sentiments-a bachelor who showed no sort of respect for the rights of married men, traveling with their honest wives and band-boxes. For shame-a single man who wouldn't go and sit over a wheel to please a lady! 66 Why didn't you go and sit over the wheel?" said I to myself, after the paterfamilias had left the carriage in indignation. "It would have been all the same to you, you know. Over the wheel, or astride the engine, you could have made yourself sufficiently comfortable; whereas this poor woman, who probably takes her hyson strong, could not sit still over the wheel a quarter of an hour, to save her life." "But," I replied, "if the fellow had not been so very confident in the tone of his demand, which seemed to say, 'Do you, good sir, just get up, and go sit yonder over the wheel. My wife and I-we can't sit there; but this place suits us exactly.'” Still, this special pleading did not answer the purpose. Nor could I, for the next quarter of an hour, get any relief from reading the newspaper. Indeed, I would then have gone after the lady, if it would have done any goodfelt that I had failed in doing all that doth become a cavalier to do for the sex -and, finally, got no peace of mind until I had solemnly promised myself to make amends for this lack of gallantry by tendering proposals to the first unmarried lady I should meet with who "couldn't sit over a wheel." If there is any choice of seats-I forgot to say-avoid taking one with the man who wears his hat cocked on one side. He sports a heavy beard on cheeks and chin, beside dressing his locks with soap-pommade de savon. The seal ring on his little finger is as large as a German's; the brilliant (?) in his shirt-bosom would outweigh a Jew's; and yet, both together are not more conspicuous than is the ponderous anchorchain which hangs from his fob. His cravat, too, is gay; and his waistcoat is a large check in warm colors; but his coat, beside being a little soiled, came originally from a haberdasher's. The patent leather of his boots is getting to be past shining; there is a well-marked circle of gray beginning to show itself around the crown of his black silk hat; and the color of his gloves will never be improved till they are put into the dyeing pot. Is he a wealthy dealer in groceries at wholesale? Probably. entire sofa will not be too much for this man; for he will need a good deal of elbow-room, and will roll badly in his sleep. Beside, he chews tobacco. And should he, unluckily, have a "through ticket," as most likely he has, his pool will be apt to overflow that portion of the floor properly belonging to him, and will drown out your boot-heels, even if it do not flood your upper leather. An On reaching Alexandria, the next morning after leaving New York, I learned that I should have gone by the way of Richmond, as the railway from the former place to the mountains was not yet completed. This, however, was on my first visit to the Springs, two summers ago, when I was deceived by a mendacious "Railway Guide," which represented the whole state of Virginia to be a complete net of rails already laid down, and which proved a dear purchase at two shillings. In order, then, to get upon the Virginia Central Railway, extending from Richmond to the foot of the mountains, at Staunton, I had to go by the Orange and Alexandria road as far as it was finished, and then travel some forty miles by stage-coach. Moreover, the iron horse having cast a shoe on the road, short as it was, and detained the train several hours, it was dark when I took my seat in the coach-a mishap of no little consequence, inasmuch as it prevented my fairly making out the features of the young lady directly op. posite me This was provoking, for I had not a doubt but that she was pretty. Her voice was a pure contralto-which is the best speaking voice-full and yet soft, the round sounds falling from the lips like drops from the honey-comb, and melting in the listener's ear like flute notes heard on the water. Why is it that one oftenest hears the most musical voices in the sunny souththose voices which attach you to the speaker as by the power of a charmso mellow, with the ring of metal, and, like bird-notes, liquid? Why must we in the north so frequently squeak and whine through the nose? Let the schoolmaster see if he cannot do something to make boys and girls use the proper organs of speech; for it is partly his business. Our conversation finally crossed the ocean, and ran on the pleasant themes of the European world. When discussing the topic of Nice, on our way into Italy, the fair unknown said to me: "Didn't you, a couple of seasons ago, cross by steamer from Marseilles to Nice?" The next moment we were in each other's arms! The coach had gone straight over a Virginia rail-fence, as it seemed, or it might have been a stump in the road. Whatever it was, there were any number of similar obstacles on that cross-road, so that the jolting was as great as if there had never been such a man as Macadam in the world. Certainly he had never been in this part of Virginia. There were times when, for minutes together, the coach rolled like a ship in a heavy sea, with fearful inclinations to right and left, threatening certain break-down and overturn. course, we at once changed the theme of conversation from Nice to others less ticklish, and, at the same time, braced ourselves firmly in our places, holding on to straps and posts as best we could Of I, for one, feeling all the while that another such embrace would prove fatal. But the lady was to stop on the road. Her uncle was to meet her at a roadside inn, and conduct her to his home near by. And, sure enough, there he was, the punctual old fellow, standing in the door-way as we drove up, and disconcerting all my hopes of having a chance of playing the gallant knight and protector of fair travelers. There he was, stick in hand, waiting for the arrival of his niece. But before he could hobble down the long flight of steps, the young lady had sprung from the coach at a bound, giving me her hand as she did so! The slight pressure of the fingers, I had not the vanity to suppose, was anything more than could not have well been helped in vaulting to the ground; nor would she probably have been in such a hurry to make the leap, but for her anxiety to impress a kiss on the cheek of the dear old uncle. If the thing could have been done without harm to others, I would have bribed the driver to overturn us all at the very first corner; just for the sake of having a broken leg set and nursed under the roof of such a kind, hospitable-looking old gentleman as was the uncle. But fortune did not favor me, and we drove down the lane, and round the corner, in safety. What a place, thought I, in which to set down so charming a lady-a blonde -with ringlets so soft and light, a zephyr could not pass without stopping to toy with and toss them on its wings -with a complexion many shades lighter, indeed, but harmonizing with the fair brown hair, almost more by resemblance than by contrast. And all this delicacy of beauty, this refinement of manners, this perfection of character, to be set down on a cross-road in the woods! It was almost as inexplicable as a cosa de España. But herein, I afterwards observed, was one of the characteristics of Virginia travel, that let the coach stop at an inn, ever so humble in appearance, or the train be arrested at a stationhouse, scarcely better than a shed, you shall see beautiful ladies, and well-dressed gentlemen, waiting to take passage. The traveler from the North at first wonders how so much gentility can come out of the by-ways. But, on reflection, he remembers that here, as in England, the gentry, so to speak, live on their estates in the country, giving up the town to trades-people and mechanics. And why, forsooth, should a man who can appropriate to his own use a thousand acres of land, who, sitting on his piazza, shaded by ancient elms, can look down a lawn on which feed sheep and cattle, or can take his morning ride through growing fields of grain, and meadows in which the mower is swinging his scythe, who can bring up his sons and daughters in the midst of nature, every fair feature of which will afterwards be associated with the enjoyments of their early life-why should he cabin, crib, and confine himself in a brick house in town, with a twenty-feet front, and a prospect out of his windows of nothing but paving stones? II. CUSTOPOL. I left the rail a few miles beyond Staunton; and in eight and thirty hours after my having crossed the Jersey ferry, a smart crack of the whip, under the belly of the off-leader, brought the coach handsomely round to the front door of the Warm Springs hotel. As I alighted, no sooner had my feet touched the ground than I was recognized by one of the black boys, who had waited on me two summers before at the White Sulphur, and was at once claimed by him as "his gentle'um.” The fellow was, indeed, in a perfect ecstacy over the arrival of "his gentle'um from York;" while I, seeing no difference in his wool from that of a dozen other negroes standing by, had not the slightest recollection of ever having enjoyed the pleasure of his acquaintance, and looked upon him simply as a "darkey" suddenly gone mad. Bery glad to see massa once more in de mount'ns," said he, rubbing his hands briskly, and grinning from ear to ear. "Do massa no remember Custopol ob de White Sulphur, two summers gone back?" 66 I looked again, and saw that it was, indeed, Custy! Could any other black boy in Virginia be so black as he? His nose was scarcely less flat than the pancakes he used to bring me at breakfast. His mouth was full half an inch in advance of it, and so large, that when he kissed any of the yellow girls, in going through the reel, the report was like that of a big pop-gun. Moreover, it was red; and I have always observed that, to make fun for white folks, there is none that can compare with your red-lipped nigger. Custopol's teeth were grinders all round; and with his jaw-bone, a bold man could cut down as large a host of enemies as he could with that of an ass. But when it came to comparing foreheads, Custy was lacking there. In his brows there was no presence. The wool grew down over them; and cut ever so close, it would have sufficed to throw them into the shade, were they not already blacker than any shadow. Custy's phrenological developments were to be sought for elsewhere even to his heels. Moreover, though his shoulders were broad, his back was hollow, and his waist a mere finger-bowl. So that when, on a Sunday, Custy drew his bands tight, and cocked his hat a little on one side of his headin his bright yellow waistcoat, tall red cravat, and a gentleman's cast-off blue coat, set off with brass buttons, and cut with a broad roll in the collar-he was as jaunty a gallant as ever "picked" a banjo. Indeed, Custopol was my admiration for one whole summer, but, by the end of that time, his capacity for making me laugh was pretty well exhausted; and I must confess that I was not sorry when the servant afterwards assigned me by the landlord, turned out not to be my White Sulphur hero. One tires of the same black boy through two sea But when Custopol laughed, I made it a rule to stop the conversation. His grinning was all very fine, and brought out his ivory and the white of his eyes to admiration; but when it came to laughing, I was always afraid lest he might so far forget himself as to blow his steam-whistle, which would certainly bring down the whole house about my ears. Venison steaks twice a day, and my black boy perpetually on the grin to see me eat them! Indeed, he would have been delighted to have served them as many times more; while his cakes, morning and evening, were as hot as the hearth from which they came. Bread, alone, answers a poor purpose; but on corn cakes, venison, and mountain air-with a drop of the dew now and then-a man, whose conscience is easy, will as surely thrive as cows on clover. From the very first day of this regimen, his ribs feel heavier; while on the piazza stand the scales, for the purpose of enabling him daily to note the happy progress he is making toward one hundred stone. The thin dyspeptic, on arriving in these mountains, no longer weighs his food, but himself, and, after every meal, kicks the beam one notch higher. If, then, at night, he will also give a boy a quarter to "pick" the banjo under his window, and sing "Going Over Jordan," and "Jim Crack Corn," he will end his day with perfect stomachic satisfaction, falling sound asleep in the very act of ha-ha-ing, and dreaming of nothing short of the Moor's paradise, and a heaven carved in ebony. By the way, this fondness for being weighed is universal at these springs; at each one of which there is a pair of balances standing not far from the front door of the hotel, and offering their convenience to the guests. Accordingly, every man and woman wishes to know how many pounds he or she has gained in the last twenty-four hours. Nine persons out of ten, here, can tell you their exact weight. Especially is it pleasing to see the eagerness of young mothers to know how fast their babies are growing; but I scarcely ever saw one who was strictly impartial at the trial. They were always disposed to give the little fellow credit for a half pound or so more than he was entitled to: would daily crowd up the beam; and sometimes make such announce ments that, let the baby be ever so fat, one could not refrain from believing he had, besides, a brick in his cap. Some infants would make no impression whatever upon the scales, and would have to be taken out until they were a week older, or, at least, had eaten their dinner. The mothers of others again were ashamed to have it known what they weighed. One thin, nervous gentleman, also, with a touch of the dyspepsia, could not be induced, by any amount of persuasion, to get into the scales, being apparently afraid to know how light he was. Ladies of a certain age, too, were rather shy of them. Once I saw a matron turned of forty, who, in a heedless moment, had ventured to take her seat under the beam, jump out of it, on the announcement of the number one hundred and ninety-nine, as if she had been shot. But some old gents, on the other hand, who used to sit about in easy, wide-bottomed chairs, were evidently well pleased at showing off the effect of their threescore years of good living- generally taking the opportunity of giving the name of the county in which they had been "raised," and mentioning the weight of their fathers before them. Still-to return to my muttons-it must be confessed that, since the arrival of the French cook in these hills, there is a notable falling off in the pleasures of the table. Sambo was a better spitturner. An outcast from the Palais Royal, where he served dinners at two francs per head, the artiste, who arrives in the central regions of Virginia, brings with him only the knowledge of a few tricks for cheapening dishes. His grand invention is to put all meats into the pot. His roast beef is first boiled, and then toasted. So is his roast mutton. A thorough-going socialist at heart, he has even gone so far, at some of the springs, as to boil all his meats together in one cauldron; thereby reducing them all to an equality. The saddle of venison lies-alas! to think of itcheek by jowl with ham, and a side of bacon. Beef must fraternize with veal, and exchange juices with it. Even the pig-little innocent-is put into water, and parboiled. Shade of Charles Lamb! that he should no more be roasted! But it has come to this in the progress of civilization, and the greedy water is allowed to suck out half the juices which made the Chinaman's fingers so savory when, by that happy accident, he pulled out the roasted pig from the burning house by the tail, and invented a dish, the memory of which, one would suppose, the latest posterity would not willingly let die. I know the merits of the well-educated professor of the French kitchen; but the vagabond, who has found his way into the valleys of the Blue Ridge, has nothing of the professor about him, save his paper cap. He is homesickrégrettant la patrie-into the bargain: and, I have not a doubt, qualifies his soups with his tears. Let no man taste them. Certainly, he has either forgotten his French, or never knew it; for his daily bills of fare are printed after a fashion that would break the heart of a proof-reader, if there were any. The other day the landlord. proud of the outlandish look of his list of dishes, and thinking, perhaps, to pay me a compliment, in intimating that I was acquainted with the French language, said: "You can read this, I suppose, sir?" "No," I was obliged to reply. "Really-I am unable to do it." IV. SULLY. The landlord having shown me up to room No. 14, the appearance of which was satisfactory, said he would send a boy to wait on me. Straightway the fellow made his appearance, being about forty-five years of age, though still a boy in Southern parlance, and destined to remain such to the day of his death. He came with the official brush in hand, and, bowing, asked: 64 Will Massa have his coat brushed?" "You are to be my boy, then !" I inquired in return. Yes. And will Massa have his coat brushed?" "What is your name?" "Sully!" I exclaimed, taken suddenly with a fit of abstraction at hearing a name which had not saluted my ears since the days when, a sophomore, I was drilled in history by the college professor. "Sully! you then were once a prime minister of state! You were a duke! You were the favorite of one of the most heroic and the most amiable kings of modern times! You were his ambassador at the English court, in the days of the great Queen Bess And |