Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1857-07-11

ties out of it upon the counter offering advice
wherever il is and il isn't needed, and submit
ting highly original comments upon matters aud
things in general faster than anybody can pre-
tend TO keep up in their digestions
Look in on the store in country town at any
time of the day or evening, unless perhaps it is
just at planting or hayng time, and you will
find character, incidents, and amusing details
enough to please you as long as your recollec-
tion consents TO give back the scene to yOu.-
They lounge and loaf, boys and men, making
serious business Of it. They perch on the
smooth, worn counters swinging off their feet
They occupy the heads Of kegs and the narrow
beds of soap and candle boxes. They stand
around the stove-pipe if it is winter, and touch
it on this side and that with their hands. They
lean back in rows in the dark corners of the
store exchanging their dull-colored yarns with
one another, and ripping out their usual snck-
ers at what precious bits of scandal happen to
fall in their way. They handy coarse and heavy
jokes with the boys, giving them thorough les
sons in their own peculiar art gratis They
read over all the posters and handbills for the
thousand,h time, and laugh at exactly the same
places they did three weary years ago.
On winter nights, the iron box stove is filled
"cram full' with solid wood, aud the draueht
roars like young lion in the desert. Its raging
sound browns out the howl of the January
winds without. The men and boys huddle
close, hold up their hands before their toasted
faces, laugh harder at their stale jokes than ev
er, and fall to again over the regulations their
friends and neighbors in pleasantly scandalous
way. When the old-mail driver comes in from
his coach on these evenings, and they all begin
to address him by his Christian name /; and ask
him minutely about the weather, and make their
calculations how much longer he will be likely
TO be on the road, then there is new whirl in
the social scene, and new characteristics are de-
veloped to the eye ofthe observer at every turn.
The village store wihal is a very useful
place, and therefore worthy of a number all
by itself, in the list Of our institutions. There
the farmers go to buy their new spring seeds and
their agricultural implements. There the boys
go to perform their errands for mothers, sisters,
and themselves. There the farmers wives
arrive early in the summer times, and barter
away their eggs and cheese for cotton cloth or
calico, or new shoes. There the girls resort,
with burning bushes on their faces, TO learn if
they have any letters for themselves in the Of
fee, or to exchange few sly remarks with
the spruce young clerk whose hair hangs so
heavy with oils and perfumery, or perhaps to
study the very latest styles in prints, bareges,
and muslin de lanes. You can see caravan
of old family nags, bob-taled and long-tailed, +,
standing drowsily before the door, almost any
hour through the day. You can see old wo-
men climbing into and out of their high wagons,
having made or being about to make the pur-
chases they have dreamed of, and talked about,
and made all sorts Of calculations on, for at
least a week or a month beforehand. They
will present you, too, many study if YOU will
but be patient and listen their ready resour-
ces, their shrewdness in getting 4 bargain,
their bold way Of telling the storekeeper how
much they know themselves about what he is
trying to talk into them, and their triumphant
expression when they discover that they have
finally carried their original points exactly as
they desired-all these things catch the eye of
quick and appreciative observer, and furnish
him with plenty of food for consideration after
ward.
They can talk politics pretty well at the
public meetings in the large cities, where they
have distinguished speaker from abroad" to
wake up their ideas but they don't begin to
know how TO do it as thoroughly as they go
through with 1t in country store. There a
man corners a man. He gets him right where
he can't get away. And as soon as Esq. Riggs
opens the talk, or Deacon Blodget makes a
sally, or Capt. Mugs starts a new train they
are all in for it, every one. They are the
very people for whom political newspapers are
printed, and no others. For them were origin
ally published the debates in Congress, +"
which they are as ready TO quote as any eager
Deacon ever was to hurl texts from the Scrip
lures at the head of his opponent or question
er. The Hon. Mr.. Buzfuz does not suffer in
their hands at all or else he does suffer i'm
mensely, though not so badly as to be damaged
beyond recovery. What the ex-member Of
Congress for their district said in his speech
before the Young Mems Club on the Friday
evening before they had satisfied TO talk about
from one end of the evening to the other. All
the candidates claims 10 favor are fully discus
sed. All the prospects of his final election arc
freely remarked upon in one corner of the
store and another. The ministers hints on
political topics don't suit some, while Others
profess to like him, only the harder on that ac-
count. 1t is not little caucus there in the
country store; it is little CONGRESS-, and each
man member. The assembled wit and wis.
dom of the town discuss all the great affairs o
the nation, settle the claims Of the church and
the ministers, and dispose of the regulations
of all, the great and little men, in an evening
Wars and rnmors of wars, they take by the
horns with both hands. Elections are their
particular hobby. They really believe they
make and unmake the fortunes of our public
men, and the belief is source of nordinate
satisfaction to them.
In the autumn time it is good to run youl
eyes over the crook-neck squashes, and yellow
round pumpkins and the nice white beans and
the blood-red beets that garnsh the walls anc
ceiling. Here is the museum of agriculture
Here the farmers hold their shows. Here they
flock, of afternoons as well as evenings, and
tell over the finished work of the season just
drawing to a close. They make up their esti
mates of their own corn and their potatoes.
They begin to calculate how many cows they