Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1872-08-23
THE MULDooN LETTERS.
Acc.

HEADQUARTERS HEAvYARTILLERY,}
Aston House.
To the Editor of The World
SIR, l always liked. Vermont and when
that. fact comes to be known the average
Vermonte: am sure will pull his hair with
frantic iov.
l first met Vermont-the Vermont Brig
ade-during the recent chickering's in Vir-
ginia. '
That brigade, under Badly" Smith
and old "TrusCy Nuggy" Brooks, was
lively aggregation of patriots, l assure
you.
No pig, chicken, or any other kind of
eatable had any sort of a hold Oh life when
the Vermonters were about.
Aud when they came to shotgun argu-
ments with the fellows on the other side
whew
Couldn't they start more funerals til All
was pleasant to contemplate?
In point of steal they had no equals.
l Qpce saw an infantry man enter a
mans door-yard and sharpen his knife on
a disloyal grindstOne, which was fighting
it out OH that line, a la Grant, solitary and
alone.
And then, though he carried his musket
and forty rounds of ammunition, his KNAPP
sack, aud three days ratiOns i'll his haver-
sack, That 1arcenious dufftr actually took
and carried away that grindstOne, weigh
ing at least forty pounds.
And when | inquired as to this little
military eccentricity he replied, g Wall,
they say Grant is trying to wear out Lees
army by attrition, and 1 want t. see how
it works on glindstones."
And as fghters-well. Had they not
been Americans fighting Americans l
would fight some of their battles over again
on paper.
And just as Vermont excelled in war, so
in these habeas corpus suspension days Of
peace she leads the way, and shows how
fields of grass and grain are won.
Vermont has more green grass, more
mountains, more trout brooks, more mich
COWS, more dairy-maids, more grave stones
to the square acre, than can be found i'll
any State in this republic.
And as for landscapes, there are scenes
there in which unmitigated nature actually
surpasses the artists touch.
just before you reach Burlington from
the south, there is a landscape scene which
bring tears into eyes wholly unaccustomed
to that sort of bathing, and makes the
stoutest heart quail and partridge with
wrath.
In the background-the rear, as it were,
of natures stage-you see the Green Noun
tainS that is to say, saw them, and the
President might have seen them if he had
passed that way before things got mixed
and cloudy.
Until / saw those mountains l had never
lOnged to be poet. Then l said, ooh,
that my parents had arranged for me to be
the Miller of these Green Sierras."
But they did not; the governor had a
bias against poets.
And can't describe them fur her than
this, that they were rather more inspiring
| than Blue Lick water, and rather less than
dark Hennessy brandy.
But they are fiISt-claSs mountains.
On the left rear Of the stage there was a
lakes silven sheen seen through the trees.
1t is a remarkable fact that all the Yer
| mont lakes have silver sheens visible to the
naked eye, and in order to keep up the
proper relation of water to other liquids
and make the average all right, all the sill
yer sheens vote for Grant.
This was tirSt-claSs silver sheen.
On the right rear there was a farmers
house, nesting in the bosom of a stately
. tOrest-the house seemed to be flirting
with the woods.
1t is also true that your Vermont farm
house nestles in wood on the slightest
provocation.
| don't know whether or not this house
had mortgage on it, bnt1 do know that
it had much red paint on it, which gave it
an Alpine chalet look
All Alpine chalets are red, or ought to
be-
This was first-class farmhouse.
Down nearer the fOOtlights there were
graceful elms and lowing herds.
The herds did not low while we were
there, but | was credibly informed that
they do low when torn from their progeny
by the ruthless rustic
These were first class plmC and bar6C
Nearer still two babuling brooks.
These were none of your Irish lecturers
like Charles w. Brooke, but real first-cIass
babblcrs.
Yon can't get up an Irish lecture on cold
wat IF.
And over all this first-class scene, which
by reason OF the bias of my paterllal an
cestOr L aln unable to describe POLITICALLY,
there fell a flood will bet a suit of clothes
twas a tlood-of golden sunlight OF the
setting sun. which mingled with the silver
sheen, the British red, and natures wear
ing of the green, SO that you began to
wish you were a boy and girl again, until
high up OH rock your tear-distilling eye
takes in this talismanic word, which has
killed nine-tenths of the landscapes in this
country-BUCHU.
IIclmbold l hear is in France.
Helmbold, have pity!
BE merciful!
France survived Mollkp. She has out
lived the Commune.
But, Helmbold, if you ever go for her
with your pant-brush, that's the last OF
Fla c..
Compared with your deVastatiOns the
army worm and lOcustS would be consider
ed llXuries, and when you have painted
France it won't bring four dollars a square
mile.
Uclmbold, forbear!
The principal agricultural product of
VermO 1t is marble.
Marble is Vermont's strongest hold.
When all else fails; when this Union, in
acity, which is so far below Grants, shall
have dissolved into vale of tears; when
the republic gets to be bankrupt, as it will
| be soon, unless We can shift the Dents off
! to some other public treasury, then Yer
mont will fall back on her marble, and go
| it alone.
There is hardly a farmer in Vermont
but raises a few acres of marble, and this
| year some Of the more thrifty expect to
make two crops.
In fact marble is so plenty in the Green
Mountain State that every third man you
meet is a graveStOne.
The air is full of marbles.
The birds build their nests of marble,
the streets are paved with marble, wood
chucks burrow in marble, the VermOnter
eats from it and sleeps on it, and he would
lave in marble baths if he were not OPP
posed to bathing on general principles.
The VermOnter never says, eff be asks
for meat will you give him a stone ?'' but
if he has anything &c say in that line, he