USA > Virginia > City of Richmond > City of Richmond > Virginia, especially Richmond, in by-gone days; with a glance at the present: being reminiscences and last words of an old citizen > Part 19
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The pageant was all that its actors could devise and execute. The only alloy to their gratification was the fatigue it imposed on its beloved object. The arm of the old soldier was almost shaken from its socket, and his hand was bruised and benumbed by the grasp, not always gentle, of the thousands . that sought to press it. Every window of the streets through which the long procession passed, was filled with the smiling faces of mothers and daughters. Handkerchiefs waved like the leaves of a forest in a gale, and shouts of welcome arose, drowning the music of the martial instruments.
No apartment in the city was sufficiently capa- cious for the ball which was to be given, where the ladies might have the privilege of saluting La- fayette hand to hand, if not lip to lip. The entire area embraced in the quadrangle formed by the surrounding buildings and galleries of the
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Eagle Hotel, a space of about eight thousand square feet, was floored over and covered with awnings and flags, to form a ball-room, and large as was the space it was well filled.
Lafayette's memory was sufficiently tenacious to enable him to recognize many of those whom he had known during the war, from brother officers down to the faithful black servant James, who was again ready to wait on him after a lapse of forty- five years.
The honors shown to Lafayette did honor to the country, inspired as they were by gratitude for his services and admiration of his character. How different from the incense offered to party leaders, who are ready generally to lead whichever party can furnish the most numerous troop of followers ; or how different from that which follows in the train of a successful candidate, whose office confers patronage, and is apt to confer it on those who have been the most ready tools for his promotion, not on those whose integrity and capacity would ensure a faithful performance of their duties.
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THE WASHINGTON MONUMENT.
CHAPTER XXXVI.
THE WASHINGTON MONUMENT.
IN February, 1816, the Legislature of Virginia applied to Bushrod Washington for permission to remove to Richmond the remains of his illustrious relative, over which they desired to erect a suita- ble monument. Judge Washington was constrained by the will of his uncle to decline the request.
On the 22d February, 1817, the Legislature authorized the opening of subscriptions throughout the State, to raise a fund for the erection of a monument to WASHINGTON, limiting the sum of each individual subscription to twenty dollars.
The enthusiasm in Richmond was such, that several gentlemen evaded the limitation by in- scribing the names of their wives and children with twenty dollars affixed to each.
Official agents were appointed in each county to obtain subscriptions. Some did not take the trouble to act, and perhaps some found it more convenient to retain than to report the sums collected, and due accountability was not enforced. So it was, however, that out of $13,063 collected,
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about four-fifths were obtained in Richmond, if my memory serves.
It is mortifying to record such apathy on such a subject. Can it be fairly ascribed to the absence of party stimulants ? Would apathy have prevailed had the glorification of some hero of the day, who could reward his followers, been the object, instead of a token of gratitude to the man and the hero, not of the day, but of all time ?
This paltry sum (considering that Virginia was the donor) was deposited in the Treasury, and there it remained idle, or was supposed to remain ; but when other moneys were missing, it was re- ported that the monument fund was gone. The State, however, very properly assumed the re- sponsibility ; but the fund lay dormant until the 22d February, 1828, when a resolution was adopted, ordering it to be placed at interest. Thus it remained until 1848, when it had accu- mulated to $41,833, with the aid of a new gene- ral subscription, which did not prove large.
On the 22d February, 1849, the Historical Society of Virginia, or influential members of it,* stimulated the Legislature to enact that a monu- ment should be erected on the Capitol Square in Richmond, and to appropriate such sum as should be required, in addition to the funds col- lected, to make an aggregate of $100,000.
* Conway Robinson, Esq., was one of the most active.
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THE WASHINGTON MONUMENT.
On the 22d February, 1850, (action always appropriately recurring on that day) the corner stone of the monument was laid in the Capitol Square, in the presence of General Zachary Tay- lor, President of the United States, of a throng of the civil and military, of associations of all descriptions, of officials, of mothers and their children, such as never before assembled in Rich- mond, and foremost of all, the surviving soldiers of the Revolution, few in number, but attracting general attention.
The premium for the best model was judiciously awarded to Crawford, the sculptor, who, after giving instructions for the granite work, proceeded to Rome to model the statuary, and thence to Munich to have it cast in bronze. Thus far he has succeeded most admirably, and the work bids fair to establish his fame on a higher pinnacle than it had previously attained.
Not so fortunate was the first appointment of a superintendent of the granite work, and of the disbursements pertaining to the erection of base- ment, columns and pedestals. The person who, by some means, obtained the appointment, proved unworthy of confidence.
This trust-which it was almost sacrilege to abuse-was thus victimized to misfeasance and malfeasance in its inception, in its progress, and in a portion of its execution. It is to be hoped
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that it will arrive at completion without further defilement.
Much anxiety existed for some time lest an ignoble party feeling might exclude from either of the six pedestals which surround the elevated one occupied by WASHINGTON, a statue of his friend and biographer, MARSHALL-a noble im- personation of the Judiciary ; but a Wise decision has done justice to the memory of the man who holds a place second only to Washington in public love and estimation. The constellation surround- ing the central luminary will be formed by Jef- ferson, Henry, Marshall, Gov. Nelson, George Mason and Andrew Lewis-a glorious assemblage of patriots, each one conspicuous for his peculiar attribute, as well as his other talents.
P. S .- The equestrian statue of WASHINGTON arrived in Richmond from Amsterdam at the close of 1857, but the sculptor did not survive to see it erected, nor to complete those which are to surround it. Crawford died in the zenith of his fame, and his works will perpetuate it. The in- auguration of his statue of Washington was cele- brated on the 22d February, 1858, attended by an immense assemblage, undeterred by a snow storm which prevailed until the statue was unco- vered, when the sun saluted it with a bright beam. The figures of both horse and rider are considered unsurpassed. The height from the plinth to the
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THE WASHINGTON MONUMENT.
the crown of Washington's hat is 20 feet, and total height from the ground 60 feet. Washing- ton is represented as in command and checking his horse in full career, while he points to some distant object, which seems to excite his horse also into intense animation.
The statues of Henry and Jefferson were placed on their pedestals soon after that of Washington, for which they had been waiting, and the statue of George Mason was erected soon after its arrival in February, 1860. It is a personification of firmness and decision. These statues are nine feet in height.
The selection of these characters was peculiarly appropriate. Lewis was the frontier warrior who drove the Indians beyond the Ohio in 1774, and served most gallantly during the Revolution ; Henry set the ball in motion; Mason was the author of the Bill of Rights; Jefferson of the Declaration ; Nelson was the Financier, and Mar- shall personifies the Judiciary.
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CHAPTER XXXVII.
THE MUSEUM.
SYDNEY SMITH, not the hero, but the man of wisdom and of wit, tells us how the dynasty of the Neapolitan throne was changed by the antic capers of Mr. Isaac Hawkins Brown at a Court Ball: and the second effort to introduce in Richmond an establishment connected with the fine arts, was caused by the fracture of a dancing-master's leg. The sufferer by this disaster was a votary of the Graces and of the Muses. The aid of music was required to inspire and to regulate the movements of the dance. The former obeyed the action of his hands and the latter of his feet, simultaneously, and by their congenial operations he sought to con- fer grace on his pupils, and to inspire them with " the poetry of motion;" and moreover by these means to provide bread for his family.
The fracture of the leg spoiled his dancing, but nothing daunted by being compelled to relinquish the service of Terpsichore, he sought, instead of dancing, the favor of a sister art, that of painting, and to substitute the brush for the fiddle-stick. His success in the newly adopted vocation was remark- able, considering the disadvantages under which it
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was attained; but as the emolument derived from it was small, he determined to invoke the aid of all the arts and sciences at once, by establishing a museum.
The Legislature granted him permission to erect a building for the purpose, on the Capitol Square ; but a location was unfortunately assigned for it, which obstructed the entrance to the Square from Franklin street on the east, and worse still, after the Museum was removed, the obstruction was rendered permanent by the erection of the State Courthouse on the same spot.
The effort to erect a Museum, which at any other time would have been hopeless, was made in the Flush times of Richmond, and succeeded. The funds were raised by subscription and a building quite capacious was erected. As the fantastic order of architecture prevailed at that time, the Museum partook of that character, but it was quite commodious in its arrangements. One apartment was appropriated to paintings, another to statuary, and as the specimens of the latter consisted chiefly in plaster casts of ancient master-pieces, many of them in a nude state, that apartment was con- sidered by the fastidiously modest, as forbidden ground, unless it could be visited privately and without the risk of encountering bolder spectators.
Other apartments contained the usual assortment of stuffed birds, beasts and reptiles, a fair display
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of butterflies, spiders and other insects ; also speci- mens of minerals, &c., &c .; but the department of conchology was the most complete, and on the whole the collection was very creditable, consider- ing the limited means of its founder.
The only living specimen was a rattlesnake, and he came to his death in a remarkable manner. A mouse was introduced into the cage for his break- fast, on which he did not make an immediate assault, either because the weather was cool, or his appetite not keen. The mouse watched his mo- tions, and as soon as he began to coil, leaped on his head and nibbled away so industriously as to cause his death. The valor of the mouse was recorded in the papers of the day.
After the novelty of the sights in the Museum wore off, the visitors to it became "small by degrees and beautifully less," for children consti- tuted the far greater number. The gods, god- desses and heroes began to show the dust of an- tiquity as if they belonged to it, and here and there the loss of a limb might be observed, to which the statue was fairly entitled according to the original.
In this decline of the fine arts, when even the door-keeper neglected his duty, or found his office a sinecure, unlike most sinecures without pay, a party of playful girls having provided themselves with some cast-off toggery, waited on the goddesses
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in the quality of hand-maidens, and arrayed them in trim to receive the most fastidious visitor. Imagine Venus in a checked apron and necker- chief, Ceres in a straw hat and jacket, and Diana in a fur tippet and petticoat; Apollo wearing a cocked hat, like the Indian chief who made a visit to one of our officers in that full dress.
The heathens retained their unclassical raiment for some short time before the masquerade was known, so few visited their shrines; but when it was rumored abroad, a perfect rush was made to see the celestials in their new or rather old attire, appareled as mortals. It was their last appear- ance-degraded in the eyes of those whose heathen progenitors had worshipped them, they would no longer expose themselves to ridicule. Instead of an apotheosis, they are probably resolved into their original elements. The dust of Ceres scattered on the fields and turned to grass, may have been con- verted into a cow, and have fattened on the fields her remains had fertilized.
Venus reduced to her original element, may have nourished myrtles and fed her doves on the berries all unconscious of their celestial food ; or perhaps some love-sick swain may have eloped with her in her entirety, (as Kossuth would say,) to nourish his passion and to worship her as the image of his lady-love.
One of the mortals who was a companion of the
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heathen deities in this terrestrial Olympus, suffered the fate of mortality, and his clay being mortal can be traced. A resurrectionist conveyed Lao- coon's body to the medical college, whether as a subject for the professor's knife, or as a study for anatomy and extraordinary development of the muscles, this deponent saith not.
CHAPTER XXXVIII.
GAS AND WATER. -
RICHMOND may claim the honor of being among the first, if not the very first city lighted with gas. An adventurer, or a philosopher named Henfrey, in the infancy of the present century visited Rich- mond, and induced some of its citizens, scientific or curious, to witness his process of pouring flame, instead of steam or water, from the spout of a tea- kettle. His experiments with a better apparatus were also successful. Money was raised by sub- scription and a light-house (an octagonal tower of brick) was erected on the then highest point easily accessible on Main street ; which was in front of where the American Hotel now stands at the inter-
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section of Main and 11th streets. A large lantern with many jets surmounted the tower at the height of some forty feet. The gas was generated in a kind of still in the basement and conducted by a pipe to the burners. The experiment on the first night and for several subsequent ones, was more successful than we would now think possible, com- paring the simple apparatus then used, with the complex one and the large and numerous structures now required. Like a recent and not more suc- cessful projector in Washington, (whose light on the summit of the dome of the capitol was to enlighten the wide extent of space around it con- stituting the city,) Mr. Henfrey's light was to shine along the extent of Main street, and to send its superfluous rays to the Capitol and the Basin.
The novelty expired and so did the light; but the tower long remained-a monument of enter- prise, if not of science and wisdom, and we may now boast that although our gas did not burn well, we were the first to light it. Sic transit gloria, &c.
Some years later the line of Main street was lighted according to the system of those benighted times, but this also was done by private subscrip- tion, and diligent ones were wanting to keep the lamps trimmed, mischievous boys broke them and the lights ceased to shine.
Thus also by private subscription, water was
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conducted from the Basin in wooden pipes as far as the Market bridge, with hydrants at several cor- ners, always flowing and very convenient for many purposes. Myriads of minute eels would ascend the moist wall of the Market bridge and wriggle their way to the very spouts of the hydrants. By similar pipes, water was conveyed from the Bloody Run Spring (not then a sanguinary stream) as far as the Bell Tavern. Some of these yet serve as conduits for a short distance from their source. In excavating the streets, the pipes are found free from decay, after fifty years interment of those laid from the Basin to Main street.
About twenty-five years after the wooden pipes had been laid, and when the increased population of the city had rendered many of the wells unfit for use, the river was put in requisition to pump a portion of its own water to an elevation higher than the city, and from its reservoir there, to circu- late by subterranean channels to each domicile, though not always in a transparent state, and these water works have from time to time been increased to keep pace with the increase of the city.
About half a century after Henfrey's light went out, a new and more permanent one was kindled, and this had been burning only a few years, when the cry of " give us more light" caused the erec- tion of new and more extensive Gas Works on the outskirts of the city near Rocketts, which will
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probably suffice for two or three generations, as would its predecessor have done for the present one.
A FISH STORY.
The mention of young eels losing their way in the Main street in ascending to their summer quarters to seek their natural though not native homes, re- minds me of a similar mistake made by a brood of young shad in descending James River, from above the falls, in the course of their migration to the ocean, or to their winter quarters. On one occasion, and one only that I have known, a vast shoal of these fish, which had attained to the size of a large minnow, missed their way down the river, and en- tered the canal at Westham. They followed its course down to the basin, and there their progress was arrested. There were no locks through which they could descend and no mills through which they might take the chance of being ground in passing over the water-wheel. They appeared to be in great distress. The surface of the basin exhibited myriads of them, leaping out of the water and sparkling in the sun ; a beautiful but painful sight. This continued for a number of days, but the young navigators who had thus lost their reck- oning, soon after lost their lives. Although not fish out of water, they were out of their proper course, and died in immense numbers ; the shores
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of the basin were covered with them, and were rendered offensive to the olfactory organs.
It seems remarkable that this mistake of the young brood should have occurred but once, as if nature had cautioned them not to repeat it, for none survived to tell the tale.
Whether there were any operations going on above the locks at Westham, whether the water was very low in the river and a larger portion than usual was diverted to the canal, I am unable to say ; but can ascribe the wandering of the lost tribe only to some such cause.
CHAPTER XXXIX.
THE COLORED ARISTOCRACY.
THE servants belonging to the old families in Virginia and especially those pertaining to domes- tic households, were as proud of their position as if the establishment was their own. I do not speak of the New Negroes, as the imported Africans were called, but of their descendants.
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The house servants acquired something of the polite and respectful demeanor which prevailed among the gentility, and in their intercourse with each other they aped it in the ludicrous style of " High life below stairs,"-Mister Jupiter would inquire of Mistress Venus how Master Cupid was, -but in addressing those servants who were some years their seniors, Uncle and Aunt were the respectful terms used, and these were adopted by the white children of the family ; for they would have been thought disrespectful and ill-bred to speak to old servants without giving the appellation of Uncle Adam or Aunt Eve.
The coachman in an old family felt as proud of his position on the box as he could have felt had he been inside, and he would issue his orders to the footman and the stable boys in as authoritative a tone as if he occupied the cushioned back seat.
Besides the pride of station, there was a strong attachment generally on the part of servants to their masters and mistresses, and this descended to the next generation and was mutual. The changes which have been brought about in the breaking up of families, by death, misfortune, remote intermar- riages, &c., have greatly diminished the number of these ancient and respectable domestic establish- ments ; but many yet exist on the tide-waters of Virginia ; some have been transplanted to the upper
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country, and it is to be hoped that this beautiful patriarchal system will, in spite of the mischievous and wicked interference of abolitionists, extend, instead of being further contracted.
The most prominent member of the black aris- tocracy of my early years was Sy. Gilliat, (proba- bly Simon, or Cyrus,) the leading violinist (fiddler was then the word,) at the balls and dancing parties. He traced his claim to position to the days of vice-royalty, having held office under Lord Botetourt when govenror, but whether behind his chair or his coach, is in the mist of obscurity.
Sy. Gilliat flourished in Richmond in the first decade of this century, and I know not how many of the last. He was tall, and even in his old age, (if he ever grew old,) erect and dignified. When he appeared officially in the orchestra, his dress was an embroidered silk coat and vest of faded lilac, small clothes, (he would not say breeches,) and silk stockings, which rather betrayed the African prominence of the shin-bone, terminating in shoes fastened or decorated with large buckles. This court-dress was coeval with the reign of Lord Botetourt, and probably part of the fifty suits which, (according to the inventory he left) consti- tuted his wardrobe; to complete this court costume, Sy. wore a brown wig with side curls and a long queue appended. His manners were as courtly as
THE COLORED ARISTOCRACY. - 353
his dress, and he elbowed himself and his fiddle- stick through the world with great propriety and harmony.
Belonging to the vice-regal family, Sy. belonged of course to the Church of England; this was one qualification for the office of sexton, (not grave- digger,) and his residence being very near the church in Richmond, was an inducement for the wardens to confer on him the appointment ; although strict constructionists might have con- sidered, like Ephraim Smooth, that he was "a man of sin, rubbing the hair of the horse against the bowels of the cat;" he filled the office for some time, but was impelled to resign it in a fit of un- righteous indignation, excited by hearing that he was suspected of partaking of the wine without the other ceremonies of the sacrament. His declara- tion, that he had drunk Lord Botetourt's best wine long before his accusers knew the difference be- tween Malaga and Malmsey, whilst it vindicated Sy.'s connoisseurship, did not obtain for him abso- lution from the charge, and he left the service of the church highly indignant.
Sy. could not have many associates without com- promising his dignity, for there were few of the old aristocracy remaining ; but in addition to those few, he permitted the intimacy of some of the leading stewards, coachmen, and head cooks of the best families.
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His cotemporary, Bob Cooley, had also served the nobility at Williamsburg, and when that city lost it pre-eminence, Bob was fain to follow a re- publican governor to Richmond, where for many years he was intrusted with the keys of the capitol, and flourished his besom over its floor and furni- ture. His court-dress was a time-honored suit of black velvet, ample in skirts and flaps.
If Sy. was the Chesterfield, Bob might be called the Burleigh of his day. Sy. acquired his courtly and elegant demeanor by frequenting balls and parties, and Bob his solemn deportment by attend- ing in council chambers and courts of justice. By dusting the judge's cushion he seemed to have acquired the solemn aspect of the dignitary who sat on it. Bob did not, however, attach a handle to his name, to indicate the dignity of office-but one was assumed by his successor, who appended the initials K. K. C., indicating keeper of the keys of the capitol.
Nick Scott, another member of the colored aris- tocracy, kept his coach for many years, without pride or insolence or imposition, and he took his seat on the box, thus setting an example of humil- ity to his children.
Before the female province of pastry was usurped by the countrymen of Napoleon, there flourished in Richmond a lady of the dark aristocracy, Mrs. Nancy Byrd, a name that carries its own passport
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to distinction. No dinner nor supper party could be complete unless Nancy had a finger in the pie. She held undisputed sway over the dessert, with the rolling-pin for her sceptre, and considered her- self as pertaining to the under-crust of gentility.
While I write these closing pages in the winter of 1855-56,* the severest, in the long duration of extreme cold, that I can remember; the river closed for eight weeks in almost its entire length, and the earth covered with a coating of snow of nearly equal duration ; the black servants and slaves are provided with food, fuel and clothing, while our poor-houses and other receptacles for the destitute or dissipated whites, are crowded to over- flowing, chiefly with foreign paupers ; contributions are raised in every mode that can be devised for the relief of destitute whites, for many of whom we are indebted to our philanthropic brethren of the North, who seek to entice our slaves to the same destitute condition there-perhaps, on the principle of reciprocity. Whether similar charity would be extended to them there, if destitute, as to the whites here, is a doubtful question.
A fair friend furnishes this anecdote of what came under her own observation :
An old negro, who was considered so entirely "one of the family," as to be in the habit of
* Thus in the first edition, which may be repeated in the second, as applicable to the winter of 1856-7.
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calling one of his young mistresses cousin, when addressing her, was asked by the lady, "Why he did not, as formerly, attend the meeting-house of his brethren on Sunday ?" His reply was, "that when he could sit by Mr. Wickham's Bob and Judge Marshall's Jack, he liked to join siety, but now he never knew who he sot by, and he stayed at home."
This same individual, during this degenerate time, being invited to a party, was induced to attend, and furnished with a pass till eleven o'clock that night. Arriving at the house where the festival was held, he was exceedingly disgusted by finding himself surrounded altogether by par- venus, and being under the impression that he must not return home till the hour designated in his pass, he retired to an adjacent room, locked the door, remained there till the hour of eleven arrived, and then returned to his domicil, mourn- ing over the great lights which had been extin- guished ere his own had gone out.
Like their betters, the negroes of the present day have their mock-gentility, and like them, they sustain it chiefly in dress and pretension. In the streets on Sundays, plainness of attire is now-a- days rather an indication of gentility. Dashing satin bonnets now cover woolly false curls, a hand- some veil conceals a sooty face, which is protected from being sun-burnt by a stylish parasol. A silk
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dress of gaudy colors sweeps the ground, conceal- ing a splay foot with receding heel. The beau who struts beside this chamber-maid, is attired in a talma or shawl, pants whose checks or stripes exceed the circumference of his leg, and a vest in which every color vies for brilliancy. He twirls his watch-chain and his cane, and might almost put a Broadway dandy to the blush. These gentry leave their visiting cards at each other's kitchens, and on occasion of a wedding, Miss Dinah Drip- pings and Mr. Cuffie Coleman have their cards con- nected by a silken tie, emblematic of that which is to connect themselves, and a third card announces, " At home from ten to one," where those who call will find cake, fruits, and other refreshments. And this is not an exaggerated picture of the hardships and miseries which the domestic blacks suffer, and from which their abolition enemies seek to relieve them.
VALEDICTORY.
And now kind readers, that have travelled with me to the end of this journey, I again bid you FAREWELL. We shall not meet again, and a year ago I little anticipated this meeting. If you did not skip occasionally along the path, you must have plodded over some very dry and barren places, where perhaps you took a nap, but on the whole, I hope you have found your journey a pleasant one, as I have found mine, tho' toilsome.
One parting word to the subject of these pages-the lovely city of Richmond ! In infancy beautiful by nature, and the abode of talent and refinement, of elegance without ostentation, of hospitality without extravagance. Some alloy to these precious qualities may have been introduced in later years ; but the beautiful has been retained and enhanced in the progress to maturity. On this bright May morning, when the trees that shade and the flowers that embellish every homestead display their richest hues; when the vista which terminates almost every street gives a glimpse of the country, its forest and its farms; when the river glistens through the foliage of wooded islands, and as it rushes amid the islets and rocks, makes
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music even with its roar, whoever is conscious of the charms of nature, must exclaim, this is beautiful !
Not only the beauties of nature excite our admi- ration at the present time, but the improvements of art, which are now manifested in the erection of a greater number of substantial and elegant edifices than at any former period, and in the preparation for others yet more imposing.
Should one of the boys of the present day un- dertake, fifty years hence, the task I now close, he will have a vastly wider field for the exercise of his pen, (if pens shall then be used,) and if these pages shall then be extant, he may amuse his readers by the contrasts to be drawn between now and then.
This is my farewell tribute to the home of my boyhood and of my old age, and of many friends, some of whom remain, but many have departed, and I shall soon follow them.
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