Bellows Falls times. [volume] (Bellows Falls, Vt.) 1856-1965, 1874-10-16
From the Boston Herald. Oct. 10,
Gossip From Vermont Viiiage-A Notable
Curiosity Novel Method of shingle-keep-

From the Boston neraiu. ooN Nv
Gossip From Vermont vilIage-A Notable
Curiosity Novel Method of shingie-keep-
ing.
A correspondent, writing from Sax
tons River, says This place boasts of a
great many things that are surely not
found in cry other locality. We have
here, among other notable curiosities, a
man who has arrived at and passed his
filtieth birthday, who never yet saw a
railroad or locomotive, and yet the
whistle is heard at almost any hour, for
we are only four miles from Bellows
Falls. This man for many years voted
the straight Democratic ticket, and al
though today his name stands among
those of the unterrified, he refuses to
cast his vote for the reason that the
town, few years since, changed the
place of voting to Bellows Falls, where
it is next to impossible to avoid coming
in contact with modern improvements
and labor saving inventions. The de-
feats of Don Carlos, the Schleswig. Hol-
stein difficulty, the abdications of kings
and the usurption of power by unprinci-
pied adventures, do not disturb the
equanimty of his mind. He is still a
3" locofoco one of the few who points
to the past with pride.
Among the other curiosities of this
little village is the premier assol,tta of
latter day book-keepers. For fifty years
Rams as be is Familiarity known, has
been ready to undertake any job, how.
ever difficult, and it is not known to the
oldest inhabitant that Rams" ever at
tempted to accomplish anything in his
line in which he was not only successful,
but added to the jingling material of his
breeches pocket. Rams runs cider
mill, saw mill, and various other enter.
prises in the little village where he was
born, and life which has been devoted
to hard work in the main has not been
devoid of the little kindnesses which
make the occupants of the humble dwell
ling happier that Rams" has lived
He has for great many years kept his
books in primitive way. AS manu-
facturer of shingles it was necessary that
a considerable stock should be kept on
hand to supply the demands of the rus
tic community. The shingles, either
sawed or shaved, that he manufactured
stood higher in the estimation of tht
people hereabouts than those manusac
tured by any other person. The shaved
shingles afforded him good substitut,
for books, and, when any Green Noun.
tain customer had procured what wai
desired, down went the charge on q
shaved single, and was then stuck nj
alongside the single upon which wa
his last sale and charge. Four or iv,
years ago it was my privilege to gaze up
on the books of this well-to-do bushes
man. Along an entire side of his ston,
saw mill stood the butt of cedar single
upon each of which there was writer
something interesting to nearly every in
habitant of this thriving community
Z" Rams" mill was strongly built. 1t ha
stood the brunt of many gale, and the TOT
rent from the mountain sides have pour
ed into the thunder stream at the bias
their utmost volume, and yet the mil
stood firm and fast.
But few years ago there came rair
Rams thought it kind of a drizzI,
but the rain kept falling, and the strear
began to rise, and the rain came taste
and faster, until the little, sputterin
: Saxton's river began to challenge tn
Connecticut as to the volume which eac1
could produce. While a hundred eve
we're vainly endeavoring to discover
diminution of the rain fall, huge wav
was seen coming down the river, risin
as it came, when, with heavy an
laundering crash, it struck the ston
{ saw mill, and in a twinkling the mil
/ and its equipments, with all ofthe book
/ upon which there WAS 80 much of inter
est to the towns-people were swept ava
and like the great city of the hills, n
, stone was left to mark the spot upo
) which it stood. Rams saw the d,
} struction, but no word of sorrow passe
| his lips. He knew that he was compe
8 tent for the emergency, and that hi
! stone saw-mill would put to blush a
: thu outlandsh stories and whimsical nc
tiOns which had, from time to tim,
} through many generations made us loo
r with some sort of veneration on the or
/ ginal Phoenix. II he had no ashes. h
: congratulated himself on the fact tina
Y there was more stone and more entel
!. prise left. The main trouble in startin
). the business afresh arose from the fac
!, that his books and papers had all beeI
8 swept away. But here again he wa
!, | master of the situation 0RansD Lno,