National Reports

...In his Development of Southern Sectionalism, historian Charles S. Sydnor points out that, because of the South's intense consciousness of being a minority within the nation, champions of the Old South derided the turmoil caused in the North by democratic reform movements and "claimed that theirs was the ideal social order and the only permanently founded democracy, all because it had, with God's blessing, slavery...

...Atop Mt...

...In recent years, Virginia City has become a great tourist attraction...

...The romantic legend of the South was built on this false foundation...

...You can even play faro at tables or try ancient slot machines that were used by the gaudy mining millionaires...

...They cannot conceive of the Supreme Court outlawing segregation??at least not in their lifetimes...

...Even the most dilapidated, like famous Piper's Opera House and the International Hotel (once the most renowned hostelry between Denver and San Francisco), exude romance...

...He has done more in recent years to bring tourists to Virginia City than anybody else...

...Surely Southerners had come a long way from Jefferson and a long way out of reality...

...Much of the Old Dominion's complacency on this issue is induced by the refusal of many white Virginians to face twentieth-century reality...

...It must be admitted, however, that Virginia has handled the explosive school-segregation issue in its customary genteel manner...

...Since Negro living sections in most parts of the state follow well-defined demarcation lines, it has been suggested that school boards follow these lines in determining the schools assigned to pupils...

...Here and there, one can find authentic remains of the historical West...

...In the Bucket of Blood saloon, you can drink at the mahogany bar from the very glasses that the "silver kings"??Mackay, Flood, Fair and O'Brian??used for their frequent nips...

...Thus, Virginia City is a charming throwback to America's exciting 1860-90 era with authentic Western architecture that includes false fronts and brick-and-frame buildings??some quite ornate??with verandas, pillars and moldering frescoes...

...Complacency in the Old Dominion By Lawrence T King Richmond An increasing number of cities and counties in Virginia are holding up work on much-needed school construction??apparently with the white citizenry's tacit approval??until the Supreme Court renders its decisions on the segregation cases now before it...

...Although much of the setting for the state's lusty nineteenth-century history is gone, a great deal is preserved...

...The building sags on its haunches, and a good breeze might blow it down...

...So far, Virginia City has found but one sentimental, small-scale restorer, Lucius Beebe...

...The system, of course, was designed to support slavery, but it is still defended even though the raison d'etre has long since disappeared...

...Two or three streets are still substantially intact...

...On C Street, its "Broadway," there is only one modern structure??oddly enough, a bar...

...In the Mother Lode country of California, there are vestiges, such as the village of Columbia??best preserved of the old mining towns??which the state has designated a historical monument...

...Erstwhile dramatic critic of the New York Herald Tribune, boulevardier, wit and man of wealth, Beebe has purchased the building which once housed the Territorial Enterprise (on which Mark Twain got his start in journalism), refurbished it, painted its exterior a lurid saffron, and even revived the paper itself...

...In conjunction with this proposal, it has been suggested that the state repeal or cease to enforce compulsory-attendance laws, and also that it withdraw from the field of pupil transportation...

...When the matter of similar legislation was broached in the Virginia State Legislature, the Attorney General assured legislators that the state could act expeditiously when the opportune time arrived...

...It is, moreover, not a museum but a living city, although the permanent population has dwindled from 40,000 at its zenith to a few hundred...

...Ironically, too, many localities that could not afford to build schools a few years ago now have the necessary funds...

...the handsome carriages drawn by teams of smart horses, carrying the nabobs to their homes...

...A hundred years later, we are finding out that legends die hard??especially legends that are kept alive in segregated classrooms through the medium of state-controlled public education...

...Louis: William Wyant Jr...

...Richmond: Lawrence King, St...

...Although it is freely conceded that such steps would penalize whites as well as Negroes, it is argued that at least the state would not be compelling white parents to send their children to non-segregated schools...

...Standing on C Street, which lies on the brow of Mt...

...Nevada is more fortunate...

...But it is still open to visitors, and nearly everybody who comes to Virginia City pays his quarter to see it??and takes his life in his hands...

...Perhaps some millionaire with a yen for immortality will restore and refurbish this town, as the Rockefellers did Williamsburg...

...San Francisco: Frank Mankiewicz...

...Gone are the saloons, gambling dives, jails, brothels and other landmarks of the romantic era...

...Once-colorful cities like Independence, Missouri (start of the Oregon Trail), Abilene, Kansas (once the wildest cow town in the West), Tombstone, Arizona (the wickedest city of its era), or Placerville, California (of 49er fame) are today as staid and featureless as hundreds of other American towns...

...It is easy to imagine yourself back in the Comstock Lode's heyday...

...You can visualize the grimy miners trudging up and down the narrow streets carved out of the cliffsides, the hustle and bustle of men and women (gamblers, prostitutes, etc...

...If nobody will come forth to do a complete restoration job, surely there is a philanthropic millionaire??perhaps in Hollywood??who will save Piper's Opera House, the most interesting theatrical relic west of Chicago...

...The old towns have been completely transformed, and little of their nineteenth-century trappings remain...

...Davidson, 6,500 feet above sea level, you can see the town as it was 75 years ago, when thousands of miners worked in the maze of tunnels beneath the city...

...Capital of the Comstock Lode, its earth yielded S500 million in silver and $600 million in gold between 1860 and 1900...

...Ideally, the State of Nevada should undertake the job, but its government, dominated by the gambling tycoons, concentrates on exploiting the present, not the past...

...On summer weekends, as many as 4,000 people a day drive up to the hilltop town...

...Other more subtle proposals have been advanced by various individuals, but they have not received official sanction...

...Here you can see the old brick buildings where the miners lived, the Wells-Fargo office with its iron balcony, the assayer's office, the theater, etc...

...Despite islands of enlightenment here and there, the average white Virginian??and, for that matter, the average white Southerner??looks upon the peculiar institution of white supremacy as the cornerstone of Southern tradition...

...The setting is largely intact, but half the buildings are boarded up and, on many of those still used, bricks and masonry are cracked, paint is gone, and repairs are badly needed...

...Many of the original saloons and a few small hotels, with all their Victorian furnishings, are open and in a pleasant state of decay...

...He might also have pointed out that polite Virginians do not consider segregation a proper subject for public discussion...

...Little sentiment has been registered for the so-called South Carolina plan, which would substitute "private" schools for state-controlled public schools...

...Preserving the Wild West By Anthony Netboy The spirit of the uncivilized West has a lasting appeal for Americans, but what remains of this glorious area in 1954...

...You can admire the gaudy gas chandeliers (now converted to electricity), the immense collection of old whiskey bottles, and the faded paintings on the walls...

...So-called private groups would operate these schools with funds that otherwise would be used by the state for public schools...

...Fighting to defend their way of life, they had taken refuge in a dream world, and insisted that others accept their castle in the sky as an accurate description of conditions in the South...

...Theatrical history was made on Piper's stage when beautiful Adah Menken played Mazeppa to howling audiences, Edwin Booth declaimed in his bombastic style, the exquisite Melba sang her thrilling arias, and later David Belasco got his start as stage manager...

...In the Old Dominion, it is something to be accepted as part of the Southern heritage??not something to be bandied about by headline-seeking legislators...

...The town fathers did not think enough of their heritage to save the old buildings, and sometimes not even a signpost commemorates the spectacular personalities who once walked their streets...

...Davidson, 23 miles from the roaring divorce mill of Reno, are the most complete remains of a romantic Western town??Virginia City...

...hardly any buildings have been added since the town began to fade away...

...Other states to the south have frantically pushed legislation that would abolish public-school systems in favor of pseudo-private systems if the Court outlaws segregation...

...For the most part, however, the colorful mining towns of California have been obliterated...

...The question, of course, remains: How would Virginia react today to a Supreme Court decision declaring segregation per se unconstitutional...