New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1846-06-23
THE TRIBUNE.
Letters from The Old Man of the Mountain.

NUMBER SEVEN.
DEAR FRIEND TRIBUNE: call you dear, though
have mt ever seen you, nor got word OF answer
10 any of my letters TO you but they tell me you
print en- whchis all sending me letters back,
and seems kind of sociabe and friendly. l feel
awkward writing letters every week so, but then II
il but lately got chance or found out that could
write letters, and We considerable want to say
friend Tribune we not been without my thoughts
these ages We beenup here alone orwlthout an eye
out on what has been going on the centuries went
by here in The woods. Why, friend Tribune, We
seen Changes that il takes more ages 10 happen In
than all your books tell of And your antiquities
don 90 back with my freshest recolIections In.
deed can remember things that took place ever 80
many thousand years ago, better than | can what
took place no longer ago than hundred don't
know as it is because l am growing old. / don't
know as am growing old-older than l always
was | wasaways old, "as old the hills, as they
say among you, though you don't know how old
the hills are amt so old as | tired; don't
take the notice did l don't seem to take the same
notice | did no longer ago than live and-twenty
or thirty hundred years. But, friend Tribune, We
"seen strange mutations There 6 been changes
going on that you men and nations have had no
hand in The Teamster us'd 10 say over about the
seas doing things that man had nj hand In
Ais control" the Teamster would say il. stops
with the shore. Upon the watery plain the wrecks
are all thy deed. And so There was good
deal more of il the Teamster usd 10 have over as
he was driving through alone And ii was the plan
down here in The Notch, say them sort OF verses
over And the old Teamster would walk high
when he said them over. The old sea did things
that men had n any hand in. And SO have the old
woods friend Tribune, and the desert land. Why,
l can remember when the dry land between me and
the great ocean ycnder was all blue sea can re-
member farther back than that. may not tell you,
friend Tribune, all can remember, or how things
here were at first. But the mountains and the
woods have done great things here, "when there
was no man. And, most likely. things that never
See and that were done before | was here. l was
born OF the Earth They tell me the old mother
quaked when l was born. But l II come down and
speak of things more easy to understand. II speak
OF things OF late, as you say. hardly know what
you call long time ago, or short time. There has
been what call long time since there were signs
OF The man kind here in my precinct was gong
10 say it was but short time since there were red
men here but l take that back. There was al
ways red men about as long as | have been here,
I'll very lately. They were here along with the
Catamouut and the Moose. They hunted them out
the red men did-as your whitsh people have
crowded out the red men. After you hunted them
L. boo
turbed about the bases of the mountains The great
gray Moose. 1t would do you good, friend Tribune
TO see them trot up the mountain sides, and along
The hollows of the Notch What you call fences
would MT break their uot. The red men hunted
them out but after they disappeared the Moose as
said returned and were here hundred years, I'LL
your Yankees settled in among the New Hampshire
hills The Moose are gone now and the Deer are
scarce and by and by there II be hardly SGble or
afsher There won't be a tree, friend Tribune
They re hunting down The very woods, and if they
go on God save the mountains, say.
The Pines and the great Spruces are going like
The snow before the sun. The timber hunters are
In among them Norcross and his Down-Easters
are slaughtering them hip and thigh. Their red
shirts shine like FIRE" through The openings they
are making in the woods. There isn't Pine in the
remotest recesses-away in beyond the farihermost
Grant and up back Of the backmost " Location
that Is safe from their axes Il won't be ten years
Al the rate they've gone on this two years past be-
lore The woods will all be gone, and the streams Will
sone1t They II dry up when the woods are hack
ed down and the hot sun let in. And what will be-
CONC Of the Pemigewassett and the Merimsck,
when their sources are dried upl And the noun
'ains will go next, Strip them Of the woods and
'oe great rains will wash them all down bat the
rocks and there Il be slides that will carry them
Gown, as they are split up from time 10 time by the
thunder, and all will follow that can be moved This
Norc'oss and his red shirts had better stay their
nand and clear out. | II scare EN-, friend Tribune,
aud you may tell them so in your paper, II hear
Inc sound of their axes again in these mountains
They linear ofi,if you pu, i, your paper. They
are not my shade trees they are cutting down, out
men they shade the streams and the mountain sides
Ahey are the protectors of the streams. They are
The glory Of my wide landscape. They preserve
'he sides OF the mountains from caring away and
sliding INTO the Wales My prospect is everything
with me- |, is wilderness mostly, TO be sure
rgh, around me. But wilderness OF woods is
beauty compared TO the bare earth, or will
aerness OF people. There was some pleasure to
me- " In these pathess woods, "a rapture on" these
lonely hills, Society here where none in
t7uded as the Teamster usd TO say. They are
breaking ii up will scare them friend Tribune,
IL they repeat il, and l do wish you d give them
warning.
! told you, now think ont, in my las, letter,
where Doctor Whipple lived, and that would tell
you more abou, him. You must let me tell you of
,nings, friend Tribune, when they come across ME.
DID you know Doctor Wbipple 7 Thomas Whip
PIC Jun? He was doctor, in the little village of
wentworth. out here under Moosehillock Noun
@in' But ne was lawyer, too, and what they call