The Van Buren press., 1873-05-13
MISCELLANY. Y
The Wonderful Dream

Yes, yes, Sartm Yes, yes-l be
lieve in dreams, said old Silas Tatton.
He took another whiF at his pipe, and
then added "Ohe Of the greatest spec
ulations | ever went into came Of dream
"a wonderful dream. III tell you about
it
You remember, some ofyou. about ths
great land speculation here in Main thirty
years ago Poor men-a very few OF
them-were made suddenly rich, and
rich men were made suddenly poor
was living then in Grey One day old
Sam Whitney of Oxford stopped at our
place and showed US map Of n new
town which had been laid out in Sapada
hoe On the map it Looked beautiful
There were brooks, and lakes, and broad
plains Of pine and oak, and streets all
| laid out, and spots for churches and
school houses marked out in proper ar
ray had a cousin living down that
way, and | concluded to 60 down and
take a look. found the town Of Ellen
VILE. which old Whitney had shown me
on his may, to be wild, worthless tract,
all rocks and swamp, but on the edge Of
this tract in another township my cousin
owned piece Of good land, and bought
a hundred and fifty acres of it, and made
me an excellent farm and for that pur
chase | was never sorry
Meantime Ellenvile was nearly all sold
in hundred acre lots The excitement
was at fever heat, and people bought
without once coming to look at the land
they were purchasing But by and by
the new owners began to look up their
property, and you can rest assured that
they were blue SGT, when they were re
assembled on that territory. Within all
the limits of the mapped-out township
there was not an acre that could bs cul-
tivated On the side that bordered my
farm it was a craggy ledge Of rocks and
beyoud that to the eastward, the land set
tied under the mud and water Of a sunk.
en- slough Some of these lots had been
sold as high as one pound an acre, and a
few OF them even higher than that One
poor fellow, named John Twist, from
Vermont. had paid enc pound an acre fer
lot that bordered on my farm On the
map it had been set down as magnif
cent pine forest. with a river upon its
border, upon which was superb wator-
power John Twist bought it and paid
for it, and when he came to look at it he
found it to be n mass Of barren rocks,
with here and there clump ofshrub oak
and a few Norway pines, and for river
he found . water course which tumbled
melted snow over the crags in the Spring
and which was dry most Of the year. /
did not see the poor fellow when he came
to survey his property. but can imagine
how he felt
After awhile, however, he excitcm ent
passed off, and the sufferers of lilcnville
turned their backs upon the graves of
their speculative 'hopcs Ga my farm !
prospered. NV land was the very bost
quality; my wife was true helpmate /,
my crops were abundant; my stock
thrived, and found myself with a good.
ly pile Of money tied up in my stocking
One evening in the early autumn, after
our crops had been garnered a man rid
ing q sorry looking nag, pulled up before
our door. He was a weil-looking man,
with a scdate and solemn face, and dress
ell in black 1t was safe enough to con
slude that the man was a minister. and
so he announced himself He said he
WAS tho Rev. Paul Meekmore; he was a
missionary, ON hons circuit, and asked
shelter for himselfand boast for the night
or course we welcomed him cheerlully
and were pleased with him. He had
travelled extensively, and his converse
ton was entertaining and instructive. BE
fore he went to bed he read chapter in
the Bible and made a prayer; and Betsey
said to me after he had retired that she
had never heard such beautiful prayer
in her life