Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1868-07-30
The Progress of Civilization.

When the apple trees of our thrifty FORE
fathers were bursting into blossom on the
banks OF the Merrimack, and the land was
furrowed for the corn and the pumpkins,
and the pleasant river itself was running
swift and full, then the great river salmon,
fresh from the salt water, would leap and
tumble as they drove up stream, bound for
the cold brooks of the Pemigewasset, or
away beyond it to those of Franconia
Notch, With them came great battalions
of shad; and hosts of homely alewives that
forced themselves through every little rivu-
let, as they crowded to their breeding
ponds. The shad held soberly to the main
stream till they came to the Winni nipiseogee
river, where they said an reuoir to the
salmon, and turned their heads toward the
lake. That lake knows them no more, vet
there is fish therein that still is called the
shad-aoGiter, who, perhaps, regards his
friends as a sort of '.Malbrook,n - and who
yearly repeats to himself, ..'Il reuiendra an
Paque on u la Trinite." Yesl the two In
dians of the wood-cut have gone, and their
salmon have gone. We don't want the In
Gians back again, but we should like the
salmon; we should like to stand on the
Dracut shore and hook a twenty pound
fish, without the risk of having our seal %
nailed to the gates OF the Massachusetts
Cotton Mills. ot Ia l.-oa.-- --. ..,.- =
When we asked Mr.. Mad der Spinney
why there were no longer fish in the river.
that enterprising mill-owner replied that
it was towing to the progress of civliza-
tiOn;" whereupon we were led to wonder
aohether, if we should cut all the betting in
his mill, MIR. Spinney would say the ma
chinery stopped by reason of the progress
of civilization. Spinney junior is getting
his education at Harvard, and there he will
probably learn enough to understand that
the fish were not taken care of, and there
fore disappeared. If compelled to write
forensic on the subject, he might get enough
information to tell the following sad tale of
the destruction of the Autochthonoi.
Less than centuary ago people were
seized with beaver-like desire to build
dams. They called themselves slack-water
companies, which referred, perhaps, to their
finances. - These dams bothered the fish, for
no way was given to help them over, not
withstauding the old crown law, and not
withstanding learned decisions, as in
StoughtOn VS.. Baker; for the beavers cared
not for crown law, aud took no kind of in
terest in Mr.. Stoughton or Mr.. Baker. So
the salmon and shad were diminished, yet
not destroyed. Now, ingenious gentlemen
used to 60 up to Chelmsford and Dracut,
and gaze at the river. Perhaps they con-
sidered how slack the water was. At any
rate they soon began to resolve great things.
IT, thought they, mill-pond will turn a
wheel to grind corn, why not also a wheel
to spin cotton? and why not thus spin
great deal ofcotton? So they began while
the merchants looked on with horror at
this prospect of several thousand yards of
cloth to be cast, in one vast flood, upon the
market.
Next year the sober shad, making their
usual rush at the sloping face of the Paw
tucket Falls dam, had a tough thing of it.
Some got over, and some had to fall back,
all out of breath, and take another run
Never had their dignity been so tried. The
fact is, the dam had been raised. 1t is true
the salmon made nothing of it. The lazy
ones went up the sloping part, while the
more lively jumped the sleeper portions
and one active fellow, melted by his lady
love, who was peeking over the crest of the
fall at him, made such frantic bound at
the "corner," that he threw himself ten
feet out of water, and came down, slosh, in
the mill-pond above, to the delight of the
females, though his own sex said anybody
could do it who chose to try. The fisher
men looked with apprehension on these in
creasing difficulties, and threatened to pull
the dam down; but the gentlemen, from
being ingenious, as aforesaid, now became
defiant, and expressed themselves to this
effect, namely, that they should like to see
the fishermen do it. This was sarcasm,
and, though Whately says sarcasm should
be used sparingly, in this instance the ef-
feet was good, and the dam remained
AZ.