Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1868-05-13

shade trees, and vou will say that 20 fairer
village glistens in the sunlight, or nestles
under arching elms 1t is !, wonder that
Norwood was ever allowed to venture SO near
to the low grounds of the Connecticut
for it was early settled, not far from thirty
years after the Pilgrims landing. How the
temptation to build upon the top of the
highest hill was resisted we know not.
4 Did the New England settler alight upon
hill-tops, like a sentinel, or hawk upUn the
topmost bough, to spy danger at its first ar-
pearing? Or had he come unconscious sense
of the poetic beauty Of the scriptural city
set upon hill-some Jerusalem, lifted up.
and seen from a'ar, in all its beauty Or
was he willing to face the sturdy winds OF
New-England hill-tops, rather than to take
the risk OF malaria in the softer air ui her
Valleys Whatever the rcason, the chosen
spot IN early days seems to have been high
and broad backed hill, where the summer
came last, and departed earliest; where.
while it fingered. il was purest and sweetest :;
whers winter was most austerc, and IT, winds
roarc1 among the trees, and shool. the framed
houses with such awful grandeur, that chill
dren needed nothing more to awaken in their
Imagination the great Coming Judgment
and the final consuming storms, when the
earth should he shaken nnd should pass
away
Norwood a town of five thousand inhabi-
tants, like hundreds of other New England
towns. had in a general and indstinct way
an upper, middle and lower class. whole
some jealousy of their rights, and suspicion
among the poor that wealth ana strength
always breed danger 10 the weak, made the
upper class-who Were ranked 50 by their
wealth, bv their superior culture, and by
the antiquity OF their families in town
politically weaker than any other.
The middle class comprised the great body
of the people, all dependent upon their skill
and activity for living, and ell striving to
amass property enough to leave their families
their death in independent circumstances
The lower class of New England village
is chiefly composed of the hangers-on-th
who are ignorant and imbecile, and especial
ly those who, for want Of moral health, have
sunk, like sediment, to the bottom. Perhaps
nowhere in the world can be found more
unlovely wickedness-a malignant, bitter,
tenacious hatred of good-tLan in New
England. The good are very good, and the
bad are very bad The high moral tone of
public sentiment, in many New England
towns, and its penetrating and almost in
quisitorial character, either powerfully de-
termines men to do good, or chafes and
embitters them. This is especially true
thoroughly intent upon public morality that
the private individual has scarcely any
choice left. Under such a pressure some
men act in open wickedness out Of spite, and
some secretly and the bottom of society
wages c!andestine war with the top.
But, fortunately for Norwood the public
sentiment, though strong and high in moral
tone, had been by peculiar influences so
tempered with kindness, that, far less than
!. alo- q
fierce castaways at the bottom.
The main street Of Norwood was irregular,
steadily seeking higher ground to its extreme
western limit 1t would have had no claims
to beauty had it not been rich in the peculiar
glory of New England-its Elm trees No
town can fail Of beauty, though Its walks
were cutters, and it's houses novels, if ven
cradle trees make magnificent colonnades
along it's streets. OF all trees, other
un;tes. in the same degree, majesty and
beauty, grace and grandeur, as the America
Elm Known from north to south, through
a range of twelve hundred miles, and from
the Atlantic to the head waters of the rivers
which flow into the weste n side of the Mis-
sssippi vet, in New England, the elm is
found in it's greatest size and beauty, fully
1ustifying Michauxs commendation of it t.
European cultIeators, as - the most magniti-
cent vegetable OF the Temperate Zone
Though lover Of moisture and richness, the
elm does not flourish so well upon pure vege-
table soils as on intervale lands, ronger in
mineral ingrt di, nts than river meadows.
Single spots, finer than any in New Eng
land. there may be in other lands but such
a series of villages over such a breadth OF
country, amidst SO much beauty Of scenery,
enriched though with charming and mex
pensive simplicity, with 50 much beauty Of
garden, yard, and dwelling, cannot elsewhere
/ he found upon the globe. No man has seen
America. who has not become familiar with
the villages of New England and the farms
of the Northwestern States Yet every ore
will confess that large part of this scenic
beauty of New England is contributed by
trees, and particularly by the elm. The
Elms of New England They are much a
part of her beauty as the columns OF the
! Parthenon were the glory of its architecture.
I Their towering trunks, whose massiyeness
well symbolizes Puritan intlcxibility; their
{ over-archng tops. taclle, wInd-b rne and
elae tie, hint the endless Elasticity and adapt
ableness of this people and both united.
+ form a type Of all true manhood, broad at
the root firm in the trunk. and yielding at
the top, vet returning again, after every i'm
pulse, into position and symmetry. What
/ if they were shared away from village and
/ farm house? Who would know the land ?
/ Farm houses that now stop the tourist and
the artist. would stand forth bare and home
Iy; and villages that coquette with beauty
through green leaves, would shine white and
ghastly as sepulchres. Let any one imagine
7 Conway or Lancaster without elms Or
Hadley. Hatfield Northampton, or Spring
field New Haven without elms would be
like Jupiter without a beard, or lion
shaved of his name
And so, reader, one loves to approach a
mansion through an avenue Of Gins, we have
led you through short discourse Of trees, TO
our homely story
Wea indebted fora copy Of . Norwood =
TO Messrs. Nichols and Hall, booksellers and
statIoners, Boston. The book is for sale here
by WILDER
4 Game of Chess.