| Show FAMINE As J as c az dashington jAS HINGTON in wash B ington there is a little or of men who call themselves the sur livors of the jamestown famine this little so ety has no incorporation papers and it has no ie gal existence its mem bers being bound together simply by the ties of friendship eted close as a result of a pleasure excursion made four years ago to the site of the old city of jamestown in the james river a few miles back from the coast the society was the out growth of a pleasure trip of which william mckenley of illinois was the leader and host the survivors include an even doz en of congressmen and another even dozen of newspaper men from the time that they took their trip south eastward from the capital they have met together occasionally to eat and drini of the good things of earth and to live over in memory their terrible experiences during the famine now itose who hive dug into history know that the old jamestown colony suf there is a church tower on the site f the old settlement that Is sturdy its very decay and no poor bonu jent to the of the early sev century sitting in tl e addow of this tower you can call up shades of the past to make an in esting company some of the shades must come from a distance but here in the body they lived and did those things that made their tae mories a people s inheritance close to the place where the church ruin rises capt john smith gathered the settlers about him and told them the story of the saving of his life by the indian princess hontas captain john had been in the kingdom of powhatan to beg or borrow rood for his hungry fellows he had more tales than one to tell but the pocahontas story was the days prime recital john tas a touchy man on points of honor and no doubt his story was received straight faced by his listen ers but one would like to have been present when the captain was safely retired to the fireside the first ro mantle pocahontas episode is put aside to day by those who make a of destroying things in his tory that the sentimental world holds dt arest but it is just as well to il w w lr i a u i j r v from hunger and that many of the colonists died of starvation the members of contreas con greas and the newspaper men who went to james town were so well provided with the good things of life that they feasted most of the time while on the r jour beying so it was with a touch of irony and of humor fiat the edcur 01 ista on their return concluded to call themselves the S of the jamestown famine the S irv ivors meet several times during the contina ance of each congressional session and they invite high officials to their feasts and the high officials with plates and glasses well filled before them hear the pathetic story of the terrible experience that the r hosts inder want while making the round trip to jamestown in a year gone by it is just a bit of fui but it serves its p impose of keeping companionable together and of giving the excuse for two or three moderate feasting ns during the time that congress is wrestling with legislative problems the survivors have visited jamestown and the places near it which are laden with historical interest number of times since the r first journeying forth they know today more about the old virginia coast cities than it falls to the lot of most men who live at a distance to know some of the information stored away in the breasts of the survivors is unburdened on the guests ho as at each successive feasting it is real infozina in forina alon and perhaps it is not without its interest the old city of jamestown was situated 40 miles up the broad tames river there is no village today at jamestown Jimes town nor even a hamlet but the visitor to the region who fails to make a pilgrimage to the site of the place that once was fails in a duty to himself an 1 to the spirit of things ancient the old city of jamestown has been turned over to the tender mercies of the government and to the mercies of the association for the preservation Pie of vir feinga antiquities ind the mercies in evidence are man fold the government has built a breakwater to save the island from the ravages of the river and the antiqua tics society is hard at work saving the that remain laih the birthplace of english chiv atlon in america nere mat no visitor valuing his corn fort of mind and body should cast a stone of doubt at the literal truth of the john smith tale the virginians of to day are as e about their early history as the doughty captain was about his honor daughter was baptized according to the faith of the english church within a few rods of the crumbling kovei she had been captured by one capt argall who probably took little stock in ehg other cap bains story that the indian maiden had hazarded the beating out of her own brains to save his at any rate the jamestown people held pocahontas as prisoner and hostage and converted her to their faith she was bap sized in a church of which to day there is small vestige lt a d afterward she was married to john in the same sanctuary if you desire to bring back the shade of pocahontas is bl e looked in life as a child read capt smith s de of her as he saw her the day he said she saved his life here it ia A child of 10 years old which tor feature countenance and proportion much exceed eth any of the rest of people excavations haap been made recently at jamestown and the vaitor will find much that was hidden from the visitor of the past some of the old gravestones have been resurrected and restored and one may read the names of a few of those who died in the famine time or i who met death in the early and almost constant war are with the indians the god s acre that outlier the church tower is in a fair state of preservation and ids an interest in no way second to the interest hing to the old graveyard at plymouth mass even h for reasons not thoroughly understood the rock has overshadowed the island of the james gb all the years of american history originally rigi nally jamestown island was a peninsula but the has carried many acres of the land down to the cutting a channel through and isolating the site f the settlement material for the repair of history I 1 s w ached away to the sea but much remains by means of which the past may be re patched the first rep as in america met at jamestown before the p 1 grim fathers landed at ply mouth it Is but a step from the old church tower to the site ol 01 the first church chich the colonists built and in which the house of bur gesses met later a s t at ehouse was construct ed and re bently during e atio the dounda 3 7 of the building were turned up near the site of the assembly 1 ouse the visitor to day can trace the outlines of the governor s mansion by means of the basic vail which once upheld its superstructure the settlers powder magazine their mainstay of defense has been preserved in part though the restless river is trying dally to claim it as it has claimed much before the church whose tower still stands was built in 1620 the doorway which is open to visitors the colonists led to the marriage altar the respectable maidens sent over the seas to become the wives ot the forlorn settlers who up to this date had struggled on without helpmates as best they could and who now for the payment of pounds of tobacco might pick and choose a wife on that day in jamestown rev kob ert hunt or his successor for history is not clear on the point held a veritable marriage feast and fat were the fees paid to him in the coin of the time the long leaved virginia tobacco A recent visitor thought of that marriage procession as he stood under be tower and he wondered how many of the descendants of the settlers and of the respectable maidens have jour keyed here to look on the place of their ancestors mar crying jamestown was deserted early as years go but its memories never will desert the visitor asked if there were no tangible memorials of pocahontas in ex ard was told that the baptismal font used at her baptism is preserved in bruton church williams b arg wl ich becan e the virginia capital when james town was abandoned abando red the pocahontas font has served to hold the baptismal waters of generations of virgin lans and the bruton church wardens lay great store by it b it wl en the old jamestown church is restored there will be ample justification for stealing the sacred ves sel to put it back where it belongs there are three stories of the jamestown church to ver in the arst story are doorways arched windows are in one part of the second story and loopholes are in tl e third tory and to these last the greatest interest attaches the loopholes appear on all sides of the tower and they were used as embrasures for protruding cannon in times of indian attack figures are dry things at best but it is worth noting that this tower remnant of an early wilderness edifice is 18 feet square nd af baet hish the san ati re is crumbling at the top but the work of the preservation society will make it all secure it is only three miles across country and a bit of V water from jamestown island to williamsburg burg james town is largely memory while williamsburg is both memory and reality the past and the present meet in its streets and there is a subtle blending of the two into a atmosphere happily the virginians have held to the love of the old things it is worth something to know that the main street still is known see the corner signs as the duke of gloucester street it Is a noble thoroughfare whatever may be said of the one for whom it was named and on it stands a courthouse derigi ed by sir christopher wren there are things w orth while in V williamsburg illiams burg at the site of jamestown the visitor is told that the baptismal font that held the water that washed hontas heathenism out of her had been taken to wil liams burg there it is in the old bruton church and it still holds its age and water well bruton church by the way is also on the duke of gloucester street and it is an appealing structure who ever the architect was ho las the spirit which makes beauty tl e building is clad with the ivy of eng land which grows and thrives in this latitude the churchyard as quiet as that of the elegy 1 es along its walls it is supposed that the church was named by one of the earl er secretaries of the colony who was born in bruton england in the church yard is a tomb with this inscription under this marble lieth the body of thomas ludwell esar secretary of vir ginia who was born at bruton in the county of somerset in the kingdom of eng land and depart ed this life in the year 1678 close to the north door of the church are the graves of two children of mrs martha custis who aher widowed became the wife of george washington it is not the intention to make a necrology of this writing but it is barely pos sible that these two s which appear on tab lets ins de the bruton church extolling the virtues of the dead may have a living interest here is one of them near this marble lies ye danel baeke of ye county of essex who was one of his masters and sometime secretary of the collany of virga he dyed ye ath of march anno 1679 his other felecia fele cit es were crowned by his happy marndo with rebecka the daughter of george evelyn of the county of surry esar she dyed ye 2nd of january anno 1672 at long ditton in ye county of and left behind her a most hopeful progeny the other tablet bears this inscribed to the memory of doctor wll ham cocke an english physician born of reputable par ants at sidbury in suffolk and educated at queen s college cambridge he was learned and po lite of undisputed skill in his profession and unbounded generosity in his practice which multitudes yet alive can testify he was many years of the council and secretary of state for this colony in the reign of queen anne and of king george he died suddenly sitting a judge upon the bench of the general court in the cap itol his hon friend alear spottswood esar then govar with the principal gentlemen of the country attended his funeral and weeping saw the corpse interred at the west end of the alter in this church almost in the shadow of bruton church stands the wythe house for some time the headquarters of george washington during the siege of yorktown which with its historic memories lies only a few miles away the seeds of history were sown thick hereabouts just back of the church and at a point easily reached from the duke of gloucester street stands the old pow der horn built by governor spottswood in 1714 this magazine put up by a british governor was used after ward by washington to store powder which suase was rammed into cannon to hurl shot at corn wallis behind the breastworks of yorktown the vir ginia society tor the preservation of antiquities has restored ue powder horn and it is now a museum for relics of the past it is haid work to get away from williamsburg burg for there is something hold ng interest at every turn of the streets ard the lanes with the ancient and high sound ing nes resident of the town 1 I d that five dents had w in tl e bruton ch ach and the vis aitor dian didn t w ant to get away until he had seen where they all sat so fast had the spirit of the old place laid its hand on him it a loyal lends his sightseeing aid you will not be allowed to leave the oldest incorporated city in america until you have visited the college of william and mary which stands at the head of the duke of gloucester street you can t leave this thorough fare in the lurch it you try and which is the oldest col lege in america barring only harvard the little guide book 0 the place tells that among the alumni of this ancient and honorable college may be numbered three presidents of the united states 12 cabinet officers 19 members of the continental congress among them its first president peyton randolph tour justices of the supreme court of the united states including chief jus tice marshall together with a long list of senators united stites envoys and ministers governors military and na al officers and five signers of the declaration of independence the thought on reading the graduate list was that the last ought to have come first the halt been told of this old virginia town the blunt truth is that when you get into one of these are lost in wonder that so history teeming places you many things worth remembering by posterity could have happened and that so many men could have had a hand in their happening they made history fast in virginia and they made plenty of it bisot long ago an officer of one of the staff depart ments of the united states army was made a brigadier general of the line A younger officer sneered at the promotion and said that the president was recognizing hard d ity done in the cracker and cheese department while the fellows who fought were overlooked some of the officers of the staff departments of the ervice on stricken fields as much irmy have seen as of the line col thomas hap many of their fellows in the quartermaster s department duty cr ise la doing shovels than he does of account of and he takes more swords b it it would be a bold man of the line who would sneer at the career of col cruse the colonel saw all kinds of service before he made the transfer to the staff and one of his exploits is told united to dav in sibley tents and in barracks wherever states troops are camped or quartered the sixth cavalry officer in cruse was for years an they say to day when he picks up a sample shovel in he bandies it as though s department the quartermaster carbine in the early summer of the year 1882 it were a of the second aleut cruse was serving in troop sixth down in one of the hottest parts of hot arizona that was a time when the people in arizona had no hankering after statehood there of them as there were not as many are to day and as an irishman might had their hands full put it they dodging apache arrows and bullets in arizona called there is a place the big dry wash a curious name |
