Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1859-05-19
0Qortestrr Daily Spp.
WRITTEN FOR THE MASSACHUSETTS SPY.
10. OF NIX0N'S.


patron Dr. Samuel Fitch, laying down the
parchment upon which the "Prqses ct .Socii''
OF old Yale had prefxed, to my patronnymie,
the long coveted DR.. ;-"all right, but now
comes the trial-the "forty days temptation
In the wilderness" which no man escapes
least Of all a young physician p
There was no question about the fasting
knew, for my means were easily counted, but
thought one so widely travelled as Satan
would find little inducement to locate among
the rocks and swamps of K, and 1 said as
much to my old friend.
That's mistake, Nick, the march of civ
lllzatlon and progress of which you pirate so
much, has done a good deal grant toward
making Satan respectable, but he has still a
Zee simple i'll the Thebaid--and in your own
heart There will be the strugge-durng
the long hours OF seemingly frutless waiting.
and the hopelessness and atheism toward God
and man that they engender. Any one can
iabor-few men can ,cait, but do this patiently
and the victory is yours, for che went on
closing with his tavorite proverb, "the Devil
is always an Ass, when you look him in the
face 7!
The old mans words often required to mo
turing the nrst year OF my professional life
Perhaps there was something in the location
had chosen peculiarly fitted to keep them in
remembrance, for it was a part of that ancient
district of Mochemoodus, so famous among the
Indians, according to Trumbull, for pow,cows
and the worship ofevil spirits.
Here in the little growing hamlet in the
northern part of old X met the trial the
lack ofconfdence incident to my position as
young untried, unmarried man, the vain imao-
nations of an idle mind the whisperings Of
the Tempter thatthe peoples evil was nv good
the cowardly yielding to his guidance when he
led me, not to the pinnacle of the temple, but
to the top of Hungry Hill, which overlooked |
the broad acres of Esquire Hoadley and said |
"All these might be mine would l forget the
dream OF my youth, and WOO his flaxen.haired |
daughter, Sarah, for wife" But there is no |
need OF diagnosis of my case--every Young |
professional man without friends or fortune |
knows what it is, and that there are moods when
these wretched "blue devils" cannot Be exor
clsed by prayer and fasting At such times I
dropped my dignity and fled to the wood, and
| least expected it, both hope and OCCUPATION.
for my peregrinatons in the woods broughtme
acquainted with set Of men of whom, hither-
TO, had taken little account, the choppers and
charcoal burners whose shantes or burrows
were hidden often miles within the forest.
Most OF the people within my circuit were
farmers, wringing from the hard, stony soil
Their daily bread, and rearing large families of
chudren, usually to far better advantages.
Har crAl,o ,f AZ H.
they themselves had enjoyed, but h0o, to my
city-bred eyes, was a mystery. | could only
see that God ways were not my ways MANY
s Tere G the histories r Qpt her season.
in the Connecticut, while the Winter was de-
voted to ''chopping," the heavy timber being
sent down to Essex to be used IN the construc-
ton of the fine vessels for which the old town
is famous, while the refuse, burned into char
coal, found a ready market in Middletown,
New Haven, and the small manufacturing vii
lagos.
As the business involves large amount of
hard labor by night as well as day, there had
been drawn in quite a large number OF labor
ers from distance-not always men of the
most desirable character, but, in general,
rude, rough, hardy set, knowing little and car
ing still less about the wants and usages of
Connecticut life, but having certain laws
and customs of their own, not much hampered
with legal forms and technicalities, but inform
ed with a kind Of rude justice, and enforced
with prompttude which might shame our
more formal courts of law.
The pit-tenders lived in low, oblong bur-
roughs or what seemed to me such for they
were rarely over six feet in length and
four in hight sodded over with turt-either
cooking their food themselves, or receiving it,
when within convenient distance, from their
employers table; or, if family men, some
times they put up rude shanties, especially if |
they had contracted for any given time, and !
set up housekeeping with bare modicum of
household necessaries but any quantity OF
children and dogs, among which the over
worked, and too often coarse-tongued mother,
fretted and labored late and early.
Solitary as these dwellings appeared, they |
were not so in reality, for they were often the
scenes Of gatherings and carousals in which
these dwelers beyond the pale made amends,
as they said, for their long night watches, and
which often ended in brawl or accident which |
made my attendance not only necessary, but
welcome.
But among them there was one man whose
habits made him marked exception. lie was
known all about the place as ''Joe of Nixon's"
--"Nixon's Ledge" being the local name OF the
place where he had put up his shanty.
He was reserved and unsocial, "cluS as a
steel trap" the people sad and, of course, not
very popular; and there were various stories
afloat concerning his former history and that
of his wife, or ''poman," as she was somewhat
obviously termed. She was said to be q for
eigner-''a Papist"-and the wife of the poor
EST pit tender looked askance at her and her
outlandish ways
His hut stood on the summit OF ledge OF
rocks. more than mile distant from any habit
alton wild, bleak, almost inaccessible loca-
ton. but commanding glimpses of the magnii-
cent Connecticut, and wide extent Of country,
its rough features sottened and toned down by
distance and the magic touch OF sunlight and
shadow
This mans manner piqued my curiosity, but
all my efforts to make his acquaintance proved
fruitless. Once ! seemed ON the point OF gam
inr my object. One of those terrible accldents
which sometimes result from the carelessness or
ignorance of those engaged in tending pits, oc-
Cured. and sent a thrill of horror over the
country side The nights were chill from ear
ly frost and two young men, in attempting to
warm their hut with lighted charcoal, were
found in the last stages of asphyxia. The ac-
cident occurred in the vicinity OF Joe's held OF
labor, and he was one of the first to reach the
spot / found him, on my arrival, cool and
collected, the only one among the crowd ca
pable of understanding my orders or rendering
efficient aid i was convinced by his manner
and the few words be uttered that he had been
familiar with life under quite other aspects than
this Mochemoodas wood-chopping and pit
tending and fancicd that the fact that we had
worked together for hours in the vain attempt
TO bring back animation to those lifeless forms
and straiten those stalwart young limbs for