CHAPTER VII.

MANY CHANGES HAVE TAKEN PLACE.

It is pleasant to me that I can take a retrospective view of the past and note the many changes that have taken place within my recollection. Many sad changes have taken place within the past fifty years. Dynasties have arisen, lived and have had their day; they have fallen, and are known as things that were. But four of the companions of my school-boy days are living, and it is only now and then that we meet with one. The Rev. R. H. Jones, of Norfolk, is the only one that we have seen or known away from Suffolk. The honored landmarks of the town are few, and soon must be less. Benjamin Riddick, the present mayor of the town, is perhaps the oldest citizen in it. Judge P. B. Prentice, the polished gentleman--his manly form can be seen on our streets, as he, with intrepid steps, passes along; he is the oldest native citizen and possesses a mind as active and vigorous as when young. John Hoffman, Esq., is another of the landmarks of the town. He has lived nearly his four-score years. Whitmill Jones, Esq., is another of our old friends. His steps are feeble and trembling. The last of the old pioneers of Suffolk whom we shall notice is James B. Norfleet, Esq. He is perhaps more generally known than any man who has ever lived in the place. He conducted for many years a very extensive mercantile and lumber business, but fell a victim to his generous impulses. The cypress that was known as the "apple tree," which stood in the Lake a short distance to the left of the "Lock," has been blown down or washed up with its roots, and in a short time nothing will be seen of it. The house which stood not very far from the western shore of the Lake and occupied by a family known as Draper, has been washed away and nothing left to show that a human habitation ever had any existence there. Before the late war a pleasure boat was kept by the company for the accommodation of parties that wished to visit the Lake, and it was customary for several parties to go in early Spring, commencing about the first of May, that being the most pleasant time and nature about to put on her coat of green. But few parties now venture in, owing to the inconvenience that attend, and when they do go they have to get in the best way they can. The pleasure boat and other boats in the canal were cut up by order of General Peck, commanding the United States forces at Suffolk, Va., and carried to the Black water river to be used as pontoons across that stream. But I doubt if they were ever used for that purpose. After the surrender so great was the demand for boats by strangers that wished to visit the Lake of the Dismal Swamp that Capt. Busby, an energetic citizen of Nansemond county, Virginia, had erected near the Lake a hotel known as the Lake Drummond Hotel, and to invite visitors he had built a beautiful gondola, which was run daily to the Lake during the season. That old trojan, Capt. Jack Robinson, being in charge of the hotel, caused it to be well filled. It was very frequently the case that parties would come from Norfolk to go on from Suffolk, they having heard that the gondola left her wharf every day for the Lake. I recollect a party of three young gentlemen that came from Norfolk who wished to visit Lake Drummond. They stopped at the Exchange Hotel and made known the fact. The polite manager, Eddie S. Riddick, Esq., soon saw Capt. Busby, and his gondola was chartered to carry the party to the Lake. Mr. Riddick made every preparation necessary for them, but one of the parties heard that an alligator was on exhibition near the hotel, and thinking that it was brought from the Lake, at once provided himself with a rifle and a large quantity of fixed ammunition. All were then ready and they left for the canal, where they would take the gondola. She was then at her wharf, and everything being placed in, Capt. Busby took his stand at the wheel and gave orders to the first mate to have the gondola cast loose, which was at once obeyed, and, like a swan, she was gliding on in the canal at the fearful rate of about two miles an hour. To prevent any confusion if attacked, one of the most daring young men of the party, being one of the three from Norfolk, Va., placed himself in the bow of the gondola with rifle in hand and a box of ammunition conveniently nigh, awaiting an attack from any quarter. When passing what is known as "Paradise Old Field," one of the party cried alligator! The young man at the bow at once opened fire, and it was not until he had shot away a whole box of ammunition that he discovered the supposed alligator to be nothing more dangerous than a floating log. Quiet having been restored the captain struck two bells, and the gondola was on her way again, but unfortunately had not proceeded many miles when a snake fell in off an overhanging limb of a tree, and so near one of the young men that it caused him to jump over into the canal. The mate ordered one of the deck hands to throw the snake out, whilst others were fishing out the young man who had jumped overboard. Captain Busby, fearing that some other accident might happen before reaching the hotel, thought it best that passengers should occupy their state-rooms until a landing was made at the hotel. He said with so much confusion it would be impossible for him to land his gondola safely. Captain Jack, of the hotel, was watching the movements of Captain Busby, and complimented him for his dexterity. He walked down from the hotel and escorted the guests up who had just arrived. The hotel is of the Irish style of architecture, with parlor, kitchen, dining and bedroom all in the same room, the whole being heated by a hot air furnace. I have not been to the Lake for some time, but hear that great improvements have been made, and it is the object of the proprietor of the hotel to turn the attention of Northern visitors to Florida every Winter in that direction, believing that it is the healthiest place in the United States. It is very accessible--the Norfolk and Western railroad passing through its northern boundary, and the Suffolk and Carolina Short Line or Grand Trunk railroad on its western, which by running a railroad from Skinnerville, on the Grand Trunk, would bring the Lake Hotel within a few minutes' ride from Suffolk, and with little or no inconvenience to invalids coming from the rigid climate of the North. I am told that all snakes remain in a torpid state during the winter, and no danger might be expected from them, and as the floors of the hotel would be kept tight no vermin could crawl through. There can be no doubt that the Lake of the Dismal Swamp must become the great centre of health-seekers, and that at an early day. Its location and advantages, the known healthliness of the place, to say nothing of its beauty and former renown, is sufficient to attract the attention of persons that seek the Sunny South from the cold and rigorous climate of the extreme Northern States of the Union. It is true that some writers pronounce the warm and genial climate of the Sunny South to be a fraud, practiced to allure the unsuspecting. That cannot be so. It is universally known that the Dismal Swamp is the healthiest place in the known world. Where can you find a location in which a death has not occurred in a hundred years? It cannot be named.