New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1846-04-18
Letters from The Old Man of the Mountain.
NUMBER THREE

the mans | heard tell OF who was above life s
weakness and its comforts too I am up above
Life it.elf-hieh above all human habitaiion and
existence. The only companions I have are the
drifting clouds, unless l may reckon as my esso-
ciates the of the sky and the tops of the
tains aboat me. Poor company these FOX social
natured man. They never speak from one age 10
another only sort Of music OF the spheres hear
hunming over among the stars. and the old peaks
reply to the thunder that breaks their bare heads
I get smile now and then from Great Hays,ack, as
the Sun touches its gray summit after ne has set
Ny 10; is hard cast 70, naturally socable and
it must always be so for aught see. never can be
among folks-no mortal ever can get TO me. There
is guide board they tell me. set up down IN the
Notch pointing 10 where am. But it is guide
only TO the eye not to the foot, of the traveller It
DOES nj poin. level, Mr.. Tribune, like the guide
boards you have up on the Broadway Road. II is
poised like the tube of the star-gazer. when ne lifts
it, some night 10 look at the stars or at The midnight
Moon 10 descry Gods and mountains in her spoily
globe" piece of rough board, they tell me, fixed
up on the body of young moose-wood-and on II
writ. odd Man Of the Mountain A high way in
deed j, must be, when they lay one oat TO my
abode-one the very eagles could not travel, much
less mortal foot.
1t was long long time, before any Of your race go.
sight of me, Mr.. Tribune; and longer before any of
them spoke with me. / We good mind 10 tell you
who it was first changed word with, Of mortal
men don't know as you will care abou; t. friend
Tribune living there in thick settled place as you
do, about my old Notch crones here-The Old
Though they tell me folks are folks with You, let
them be who they will. They are with me, and
especially such folks as Uncle Cutler and The
Teamstcr Uncle Quer carried the first Mail
that was ever carried through the Notch. It was
before there any road. His real name was
Aquila Davis And the first that ever drove
through was The Teamster. He used TO drive
pung through here long before there was any road.
He loaded down from The Iron Works up back
here. with hardware, po,ashk kettles and
and up, with cider When the snow lay over six
foot deep, which generally did from along last of
November till into middle of May, the old fellow
had 10 carry his potash kettles on his head, and fill
his pockets with light ware, stoves, and so on. He
was master stout mantle Teamster. I've seen
him, before now, take hogshead Of cider up of of
the pung, and drink al the bung hole.
had seen men 60 through here before these two
but they were not men l cared about speaking to-
they were the Red Men. They see me, but never
spoke TO me, nor l to them. I've seen them pause
in the woods and look at me. | reckoned they
thought l was the Great Spirit, and that they
stopped as they did, 10 worship. They were
glorious shaped men, Mr.. Tribune-those Red Men.
Ii was sight TO me to see them, going through the
woods. ar d TO sec them stand. saw one, time,
standing alone little point that ran out into The
pond He had bow and arrow in his hand. 1t
He bent il ana sen s0 ~ 81 more aefns
moose that STOPPING 10 drink on the other side
Ii was Il sight, just to see him. as he bent his bow
and shot his arrow, and TO him stand after he
shot better shaped people they were than The
Teamser and Uncle Cutler, but sociable-
looking. It'snow over hundred years since l
have seen one of these Red Men going through the
Notch. got acquainted with the Old Teamsier,
frat sight. He did nj seem TO know any thing
about these Great Spirits that troubled. the Red
Men There tras spirits he YVES familiar with, and
1hev made him act. sometimes, as II they were
{. familiar spirits He bad been having TO do with
them the frs, time he spoke TO me, and thought
made him SO familiar and free with me as he was
Though, aside from drinking, The Tcamser was
tie drtest man 've ever heard speak Uncle
Cutler was dry man, but it was farther down IN
his mouth said he carried the first Mail ever car
ried through the great Franconia Notch, and he
literally carried ton his back-and drove his old
white mare before him through the woods. l seem
TO see him now ,rudeing along, with bis head
hnFn hiY1,
would get CLEANS of her, now and then. through
the openings in the woods. Uncle Quier must
have took her along for company, as she would be
the only civilized creature he d be likely 10 meet,
through stretch of thirteen miles OF woods. There
wasn't house, even post Office all that way.
I,s thicker settled, Mr.. Tribune, on the Broadway
Road if We any right idea Of The place, and it is
thicker settled here now.
The old man halted to bait one day down where
the euide.board now stands, and took some oats out
of one end OF his raaiijcs for the old mare, and
some .sausages Mr. Tribune for himself and set
down on a green knoll, as green as leek, with
the dark Notch moss Hulloi" says I. spoke
little sharper than I meant TO- for il rung like
thunder through the Notch, and after while
heard j, half up Great Haysack, soaring up echoes
there that had slept ever since the morning stars
sang together Uncle 'Quiler looked rs If thun-
der had struck him, and the old mare snorted as
,housh she smelt catamount hulloed again
not quite so sharp-and put in The direction, and The
old man looked right straight up at me, and when
he see me he set up laugh that you might
have heard from one end OF the Notch 10 the other
and showed me Sc, of teeth you could see 10 so
through the woods by, the darkest night never
saw Sc. of teeth equal TO Uncle ouiier's After
that, always-as long as ne carried the Mail-he
neve, failed 10 stop there and bait; and many and
many S The cha, had with him and toe news he
told rne-for Uncle Cutler was man that knew
every body and every thing for fve-and thirty mile
below the Notch. and he never knew thing ou.
vbs, be told of il, and be never told lie.
But he is gone now, and The Teamster. They
have long disappeared rom the Notch, and the old
puag and the old white mare. The State has made
a great road through here, and the maii's'ase
,rh,als opj horses raftta