The Portland daily press., 1871-08-21

principal public buildings are located. Three
or four streets upon it run parallel to the river
boraered with numerous shade trees. Upon
these streets, with the cross avenues, are to be
seen as many neat, commodious and even ele-
CANT houses, with gardens about them shrub
berry and flowers, as in any place of the size
anywhere. The writer has never seen the
equal of this village in uniform tidiness and
beauty of the home surroundings of the aver
age citizen, unless it be at Belfast, Me. The
Fairbanks Scale Company own some fifty or
more tenant houses, rented to their employees
for the trivial amount Of $55 per year. But it
isimpofsible to pick these out from amongst
the dwellings of the other citizens. There is
no tenant-house squalor or pig-stye narrow
ness of accommodation visible. MIR. Thaddeus
Fairbanks, the surviving partner of the origi-
nal house of E. & I. Fairbanks, now occupies
his old age and his ample fortune in building
houses, in part for the employees of the scale
works. Some half dozen have recently been
finished. They are very pretty. though not
costly houses. They have pleasant location.
Each house has ample room about it. Mr.. f.
has already erected twenty or more, and the
work is going on. This excellent home condl-
ton of the great body of the workmen here is
even more gratifying to the observer, than the
sight Of the many elegant mansions, with
their great grounds and gardens, which wealth
and taste have established in this place. Mr..
Horace Fairbanks, the Oldest surviving son Of
the late Gov. Erastus Fairbanks, and now the
Senior active member of the firm of E. & T..
Fairbanks & Co., has fifteen acres elegantly
laid out in gardens, lawns, clusters of woods,
Conservatives, graperies, fish-ponds, with a
wilderness Of beautiful flowers and rare plants
interspersed with fountains and water-jets,
with glimpses here and there of the wooded
high hills about the town, making scene Of
marvellous beauty. Col. Franklin Fairbanks,
younger son of the Governor, has likewise an
elegant establishment; but being "cramped for
room" as he thinks, is now erecting magnif-
cent house on most Economically picturesque
estate Just in the rear of the village, contain
ing some twenty-six acres, with forests all
grown upon it, diversified with hill, valley and
glen, and commanding lovely prospects in ev-
cry direction. The Col "hardly knows what
he is building such bigh house for, i" but says
at least twenty men, or so, get good year s
work out of it." There are many other very
fine establishments in the town, was not at
all prepared to find such display of liberality
and taste back here in the country"
PUBLIC STRUCTURES, ETC.
The visitor will hardly have entered the vii
lage, when his attention will be attracted to
the Soldiers Monument erected by the town.
This stands in the yard of the County Build
m ifoo1f ..I-
structure. The location is fine,-on the main
street, or rather at the junction of streets, with
great trees scattered about the ground. The
monument consists of a statue of the goddess
OF Liberty, of heroic size, her left hand upon q
sword hilt, her right bearing wreath, which,
advanced upon her left foot, she is about to be-
stow in horror of the fallen brave. 1t is maies-
tic and beautiful in expression, solemn and sad
indeed as becomes the occasion. In all the
details, in the drapery, in what is ex-
pressed and what conceded, fine ar
tistic propriety is observed. The statue
is done in Italian marble, by Mead, the
well-known sculptor, and rests upon massive
base of deliberately wrought granite. Upon
the faces of the stone the names of the dead
soldiers are engraved. The granite is excel
lent in quality and is found in exhaustless
quantities in Danville, a few miles above, on
the line of the Portland and Ogdensburg rail-
road. The memorial is a noble and becoming
one. and is an honor to the liberality of the
town. 1t cost $4,000.
Across the way from the monument, is the
Public Library" Three years ago Mr.. Hor-
ace Fairbanks began to build at his own ex-
pense, structure for public library, lecture
room, and reading room. 1t is now finished,
of brick with Mansard roof and mastic trim
mings. dimensions 80 by 40 feet, with tower
in front, and an ample ground about it. In its
general proportions and in all its details it
completely fills and satisfies the eye Of the OBJ
server. Inside, it is all that the most exacting
taste and sound judgment could make it, 1t
is finished in brown ash and walnut, with al
coves, galleries, costly gas fixtures, with the
hoor laid in parti colored woods, and, with ev-
cry appliance desirable. When opened to the
public it will contain 1900 volumes. Eight
thousand are now upon the shelves. The Sc
lection of the books was left in part by Mr..
Fairbanks to Mr.. Poole, formerly of the Bos-
ton Atheneum. 1t is the best library of the
size 1 ever saw, and the most valuable for use.
Each department has its due proportion, nat
ural science being particularly rich. The
books in each department. are graded to the
warts of the reader. Thus in astronomy no.
tced at one end of the shelf child's book, at
the other Herschell's mastery treatise SO in
geology, an elementary work at one end, at
the other, Lyell, Dana and the other great
masters. The Metropolitan, Britannica, Ap-
pletons, Chambers, and several other great
with the great gazetteers, huge
and costly volumes; dictionaries of ten or
more different languages, and all the best
English lexicons; dictionaries Of art,
and science, etc., make IN
a rich collection of reference books, such as
Is rarely rarely found except in some of the
leading metropOliton lIbaries. History, bellies
etters literature, the best novels are represent
I'd adequately. The books are the best editions,
7ery many of them imported, and the larger
part bound in the most durable manner, for the
express purposes of this library. The books
ire being arranged and catalogued by skilful
librarian, for sometime employed in the Boston
Atheneum. When complete, with maps.
.lObes, with all the leading reviews and period
calls in the reading room, with its beautiful |
ecture room in the second story ready for SER |
ice, with several works of sculpture and |
ainting, the whole thing will be presented to
ublic by Mr.. Fairbanks, in such man |
er as to secure to them its free use forever
% praise either the munificence or the excel
ent judgment of such an offering, the gift, be |
observed of one citizen, would be an imper-
nence. do not see how less than 1915, 900 can
omplete the work.
A little way beyond, is the new boarding
ouse, erected for that ancient and honorable
sat of learning, the ST. Johnsbury Academy,
t the sole expense Of the venerable Thaddeus
and by him placed at the free ser
ice of the trustees. In short, it is $4,000 gift
ON an old man, whose only child was long
90 educated, to the young of this and all COM
,g generations. 1t is a massive and handsome
.ructure, and will accommodate we'll on to.
'ard hundred occupants. 1t is intended es-
ecially for the use of poor students, such in
articular as may desire to board themselves,
nd arrangements are made to this effect. 1t
built of brick, is finished in brown ash, with
alter closets and other modern convenences
St. Johnsbury has been supplied with water
orks for ten years. An aqueduct company
as chartered, and as nobody else wanted to
Ike stock. the Fairbanks Co. took the whole,
instructed the works, and now operate them
r the public benefit, their own, of course, in
nded Scorer of nrattv fountains are playing |