Fredericksburg is a healthy town--a true Virginia city--almost free from the fevers and diseases that visit other cities of the coast or even of tidewater. It is beautifully situated on the west bank of the Rappahannock river, at the head of tidewater, where its inhabitants escape the malaria of the lowlands and the fevers peculiar to the mountains. Therefore, when we compare the death rate of Fredericksburg, which is made every month by Dr. J. N. Barney, our health officer, with that of other neighboring cities, we find it quite favorable to our town. PURE WATER SUPPLY. Our main source of water supply, the Rappahannock river, has no city or town of any size above us, and for that reason the water is almost free from foreign substances, and as pure as are the mountain springs from which it flows. The analysis of this water, which has often been made in the years gone by, and repeatedly in the past few years, shows ninety-eight per cent., which probably more nearly approaches absolute purity than any other stream of its size in the country. Besides this aid to health, the sanitary condition of the town is carefully looked after by the Board of Health, and everything that threatens the introduction of disease is at once removed or reduced to a healthy condition. In addition to this, as a convenience for the citizens, and an aid to health conditions, the main part of the city has been sewered within the past four years, and laterals are in course of construction to reach those portions of the town not now sewered. With these aids to health and our lynx-eyed Board of Health, who are always on the alert, we may hope for and confidently expect, as we now have, an unusually healthy city. FINANCIAL CONDITION OF THE CITY.