Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1858-10-14
1T is I%Inuossible

" Ii is impossible !" said some, when Peter
the Great determined on a voyage of discov-
cry; and the cold and uninhabited region over
which he reigned furnished nothing but some
larch-trees to construct his vessel. But
though the iron, the cordage, the sails, and
all that was necessary, except the provisions
for victualing them were to be carried through
the immense desert Of Siberia, down rivers
of difficult navigation, and along roads al
most impossible, the thing was done for the
command of the sovereign, and persever-
ance Of the people, surmounted every obsta-
Gle.
F." 1t is impossible !" said some, as soon as
they heard the scheme of OberIin's to rescue
his parishioDers from a half starved state,
he determined to open a communication with
the high road to Strasburg, so that the pro-
ductions of the Ben de la Roche might find
a market. Having assembled the people,
he proposed that they should blast the rocks
and convey a sufficient quantity of enormous
masses to construct a wall from a road about
a mile and u half in length, along the bank
Of the river Bruche, and build Il bridge
across it.
The peasants were astonished at this prop.
%osition, and pronounced it impracticable anC
every one excused himself on the ground o
private business. He, however, reasoned
with them and added the offer of his own ex
ample. No sooner had he pronounced thes'
words, than with a ~pix-axe on his shoulder
he proceeded to the spot, while the astonish
ed peasants, animated by his example, forge
their excuses, and fastened with one consen
to fetch their tools to follow him. At length
every obstacle was surmounted walls wer
erected to support the earth, which appeared
ready to give way mountain torrents, which
had hitherto inundated the meadows, wer
divided into courses, or received, and TIL
thing was done. The bridge still bears thu
name of the " Bridge Of Charity"
1t Is impossible !" said some, as they
looked at the impenetrable forest which GOV
cred the rugged tanks and deep gorges o
Mount Pilatus in Switzerland, and hcarken
ed to the darling plan of IA man named Rapp
to convey the pines from the top Of the
mountain to the Lake of Lucerne, a distance
of nearly nine miles. Without being dis
couraged by their exclamations, he formed
"a slide, or trough of twenty four Thousand
pine trees, six feet broad, and from three tc
six feet deep, and the slide, which was com
pleted in 1912, and called the Slide of Alp
mach, was kept moist. Its length was forty
four THOUSAND English feet. 1t had to be
conducted over rocks, or along their sides, OIL
under ground or over deep places, where il
was sustained by scaffoldings and yet skill
and perseverance overcame every obstacle
and this aoaS done. The trees slid dowr
from the mountain into the lake with won
derfnl rapidity. The large pines, whicl
were about a hundred feet long ran through
the space of eight miles and n third in about
sixteen minutes. A gentleman who saw THU
great work, says that " such was the speet
with which a tree of the largest size passet
any given point, that he could only hit it once
with a stick, as it rushed by, however quick
ly he attempted to repeat the blow"
Say not hastily, then, " 1t is impossible.
1t may be so to do a thing in an hour, or
day, or a week, by thoughtlessness and in
dolence but to act with wisdom, energy ant
perseverance, is to insure success. "Time an,
patience" says a Spanish author, " make tn
mulberry leaf satin !" and another remarks
that scare and industry do everything"