Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1859-01-06


EDITOR FREEMAN II have recently taken
lecturing tour in Windsor and Windham Coun-
ties. And few things have come to my notice
that may not be wholly without interest to
your readers. was very favorably struck with
the agricultural resources of Windsor County,
and especially with its numerous manufactures
of cotton, aannel, and heavy woolens. They
are situated at East Bethel, Gaysyille. Ludlow,
Proctorsyille, Duttonsville, Bridgewater, Wood
stock, Quoechee, Hartland, PerkinsvIlle. Ches-
ter and Springfield. They employ thousands
of operatives, and add greatly to the wealth and
industrial enterprises of the County.
The little town of Plymouth is becoming
quite noted for its curiosities and attractions.
The most celebrated gold deposits in the State
are found there which promise to be the scene of
excitement, and of lively operations another
year. Three men have taken out from ten to
thirty dollars per day, of the purest gold, the
past autumn. Various new claims have been
entered, and another year will witness such
rage for gold as was never before known in Yer
mont. In that town is situated Woodwards
celebrated reservoir, by which his wooden mill
at Woodstock is fed during the dry seasons. 1t
is formed by raising dam of some twenty-five
feet in height, across a deep ravine, and enclo-
sing u small stream, tributary to the Queeche
River, on which the mill is located The res
ervor is nearly mile In length, and about
qurater of a mile across its widest point. AT one
end the waten can be raised abouA twenty five
feet. At the other fourteen feet. The expense
ofraising the water was limited as the dam is but
a few rods long But to the proprietor is of great
value from the immense amount of water twill
contain Itisallowed to fill during the rainy sea-
sons of fall and spring and then used as is necess
ry. Is cost the owner some twenty-five hundred
dollars to secure the privilege. There are in this
town the most extensive, and the purest lime
stone deposits that ever saw. Some resembles
the whitest marble, and makes the very best
lime. They are source of wealth to the town.
At Windsor my attention was attracted by
the home of the criminal | entered it with
| curiosity to see its arrangements, and to look
upon its inmates. Seventy convicts were there
to pay the penalty of Il violated law. was
surprised at their youthful appearance, large
e majority were young men. Some less than
t twenty years of age. They were required to
labor arduously and diligently from six in the
morning till six in the evening, abating recess
for their noon meal, to which they are conduct
$ ed by an overseer, in single file. They receive it
on Il metallic plate, through diamond hole from
the cook room. They are then conducted to
their cells, locked il, and there eat in solitude.
e and at the appointed time are conducted back
again to their work, and kept under the watch
full eye of an oyerseer until their task is finish
= ed, then returned to their cells, and the iron
= doors locked until the next morning. The next
day witnesses the same ceremony again. The
eonvicts arc not allowed to speak to each other
s on any account, whatever. Their fare is plain
G but wholesome. A voluntary visit to the prison
II of only a few moments, is enough to cause II
: dread of lorcible confinement there, to say
, nothing Of the goadings of guilty conscience.
~ saw one man with whom | had been ae-
quainted before the commission of his crime
e He caught my eye, and turned quickly away,
II but as quickly returned an anxious wistful look
II He longed, no doubt, to take me by the hand i.
y and accompany me where free air could be in
y hailed.
l. Hooked over that class Of wretched men, and
Is in applying the rule already established in such
cases. | came to the conclusion that more than
three-iourths or them had been brought there
t by intemperance. Sacred homes it had invaded
% the hopes Of many father had been blasted
!" and their gray hairs were going to the grave
~ with sorrow brothers had taken sad farewell
sisters had taken long, fearful look, as their
= brothers passed out of their sight, with mana
i ced limbs mothers, who watched their infan,
VI years only as mother can, were lifting ardent
lie prayers to the God of heaven, that their way.
ward sons might yet be saved. 0 cursed rum
tie | thought, thou fendish monster, thou destroy
u er of human happiness, when will thy rayagei
, come to an end. went away more deeply i'm
it pressed with the Importance of the temperate,
to enterprise, and more fully determined to use my
IL best cndeavors to advance the cause, and pre-
to vent the ruin of my fellow men.
TT And now, Mr.. Editor, one question Who
I'd was the most to blame, those miserable conycts
u or the man who furnished, for paltry sum, tn
"a fire water, which enraged the passions, brutal
n lied the mind, beguiled the reason, and urged
on their victims to the commission of crimes
n for which they were suffering severe penalty
t. Every intelligent cause must be responsible fol
ne the effect that cause produces If man wan.
I'd tony abuses his neighbor, destroying his reason
q and his manhood, and hurries him on to deed
Il, of crime and infamy, he should be treated a
We the procuring cause of his destruction, and Of
rs the results that follow.
to Yours truly A. j. COPELAND
IS, Dec. 22d, 1858.