December 25, 1877

WYTHE, Virginia

Education

This unique note composed for Christmas Day 1877 by the carrier of the small Whytheville dispatch gives us a revealing look at small-town life in the last quarter of the 19th century. The sense of unity in the town, as well as the Dispatch's monopoly over news, is quite evident from the sing-songy lyrics as the poem reads “To it all readers turn, and they can look; pleased on a paper who abhor...