News of Fifty Years Ago
(From the Richmond Dispatch, May 10, 1867.)
Two stables and the large implement house of Ahram Warwick, on his farm, "Brookfield," five miles from Richmond, were burned night before last, the buildings being entirely consumed and sixteen horses and a number of pigs perishing in the flames. There is yet no clue to the origin of the fire.
The grand jury of the United States Court was busy all of yesterday investigating the distillers of Richmond and surrounding sections of Henrico and Chesterfield. No action has yet been taken.
The hardware merchants of Richmond, without a single exception, have agreed to close their stores at 11 A.M. during the entire summer. The large tobacco factory of J.H. Smith & Co., in Manchester, has been completed, and the work of manufacturing the weed into chewing plug and twist will be started next week.
The world of fashion and of invalids will read with pleasure the announcements in this paper that the health-giving fountains of waters which abound in our mountains are prepared for visitors. The Virginia springs are now open.
General Rurton, commandant at Fortress Monroe, has been summoned to Washington to appear before the Judiciary Committee of the United States Senate to give testimony as to the custody, conduct, conversations, etc., of Mr. Davis while he was a prisoner in General Rurton's charge.
George Rancroft, of New York, has been appointed successor to Governor Wright as minister to Prussia.
H. Rives Pollard failed to show up in Lynchburg to deliver his much-talked-of lecture, "The Chivalry of the  South," and offered no explanation. So says the Lynchburg Republican. 