Messrs. Matthew Quinn and J. M. Decaulne--both now long deceased--Daniel Ames, who died recently, and James Conway erected four fine houses after the war--the last named after the government sale. The lower floors of these buildings are occupied as store rooms and the upper as dwellings. Mr. Murtha Walsh, who, too, is now dead, erected a similar house on the site of the old and well known Doran store and, later, a fine dwelling and store adjoining Mr. Conway's house. A frame building put up about the close of the war, adjoining the old Doran property, supplied for many years the place of Fouke's hotel, destroyed by federal troops in 1862. The building last mentioned was pulled down a few years ago to make way for a railway depot not, however, before the erection of a new hotel near the opposite corner by Mr. George W. Greene, who soon after sold out to the Conner Brothers, from whom it now takes its name of "Hotel Conner." Mr. Theodore Conner now conducts it. Messrs. Thomas N. Beal, James McGraw, John Fitzpatrick, George Breedy, Edward Colgate, William Luke and many others have built new houses or renovated old ones. The author of these pages, too, has contrived to scrape together enough to invest in a new cottage, and he will say for his house that, if it has no other merit, it commands a view unsurpassed anywhere for beauty or sublimity. Tourists who admire its situation have christened it "Sunset Cottage" on account of the magnificent spectacle to be seen from it, when the Day God descends to rest, but the owner, while fully appreciating the poetic name which enthusiastic travelers have given to his modest home, prefers in the interest of truth, as well as of poetry, to name it "Moonshine Cottage," and the reasons are as follows: Heretofore, he has recommended to his readers who may be desirous to get the best view of Harper's Ferry, to choose a moonlight night and the cemetery, for the time and place to enjoy the sight. Like Melrose Abbey, it does better in "the pale moonbeams" than in the garish light of day, and, next to the cemetery, the author's new cottage is the best standpoint from which to survey the moonlit scenery of the place. Again, the house itself, though substantial enough, may be said, in one sense at least, to be composed of moonshine, when the methods whereby the owner acquired the means to erect it are considered. His youth and early manhood were spent in hard toil, much to the benefit of his fellow men, but not a bit to his own. At the age of nearly half a century he found himself as poor as when he began life, although, as before said, his labors had helped materially to enrich others. At length he made the discovery, which he ought to have made thirty years before, that mankind love nothing so well as being humbugged, and the happy thought struck him that a history of Harper's Ferry would tickle the fancy of the traveling public and, sure enough, the idea proved to be an inspiration.