Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1875-02-17

| llul CIluON lIcllJS VI 5IlICNtuHtSS iilu
penetration, they had attained months
and even years before. Thee, Tor
instance, was Judge Dodd--an eX.
ceeding "wise" man who, some years
ago had retired with marked honors
from the bench (when our present
most excellent Vice President Wilson
had become one OF the central figures
Of distinction in the L. S. Senate,)
and who, disdaining longer to eXpend
his abilities in that inferior position,
determined to practice his brilliant
powers OF clocution in the sundry
loahng places which the town afford
ed, save at such times as he should
find good boss job,-The Judge al,
50 had q remarkable prociivity for
"bos8ing, iii anticipation Of receiy-
ing call, at day not remote in the
future, from his discerning fellow citi-
zens, to a higher field Of usQrjlIness-
who was much given to buUonholing
his supcriers in rank, and making q
| lively use OF his mouth while he would
set forth the peculiar "yirtues' ofsuch
of his ncighbOrs as may have been so
unfortunate as to have offended his
exceeding pride of whom, Ivy the
way, the supply was at all times sufii-
cicnt. The Judge also possessed a
very lively imagination which led him
often to assert things which had no
existence in fact, 1t was not unnat,
ural, therefore, that the Judge, who
knew everybody and eyerybodies
business--Savc his OWL should air
his eloquent wisdom in the NJ lyltedale
scandal ; and when he proceeded
with great gusto and extreme Sulg-
E'oiG to set forth how he Lad heard it
related years before, by person who
had been school-lnatc of Florence
Brown, that she ''wAs always tough
character. and that it was for that
reason that she had prevailed on her
husband to establish their home in
Nyrtlodolc, which as 81 icuivte nom
the scene of her earlier associates that
she had here hoped to escape from her
just reputation
And there, too, was DR.. Gooseber-
ry, who--though he had graduated
from no medical institution, and had
therefore received no tlattering diplo-
ma with which to fight his way through
the multitudes Of competitors who
thronged the highways and byways Of
the world, Gin fact the Doctors educa-
ton was very defective so far as book
learning was concerned, he being
barely ableto dccipher the alphabet, yet
he found consolation in the conviction
that Nature had done infinitely more for
him in having endowed him with rare
common sense and Il sound practical
judgement, than she had for those dis
tinguished NJ d. s. whose IDEAS were
inseparably confned to books,)-from
a veterinary surgeon, or in other
words, a ''horse doctor" had Gradual
ed to the practice Of medicine, he be-
ING root and "yarb" doctor Being
an unequal, or rather an unsuccessful
competitor in the race with DR., Brown
he of course had found ample reason
for lending his aid in fixing up the
scandal TO the detrmeNt of DR.. B's
wife And there, again, were Molly
Brewster and Sally Johnson and sum
dry Others of their associates, who,
having received some real or fancied
slight on some occasions from Mrs.
Brown determined now to pay" the
latter well, that they had the oppor-
tunity. And 50, with such characters
as these-embraclng the ignorant ;,"l
vain and vindictive and malicious, and
all the shades between those of that
type and those of Il more enlightened
and humane type who were passive to
aid in setting the scandal in motion
and to give it increased volume and
gravity until it should have accumu,
lated sufficient force and momentum
to roll of its own volition, the town
soon become as has already been in
timated-involved in Il blaze Of ex
element, and nearly all its inhabi-
tants were, sooner or later dealers i'll
that delectable article Of commerce,
the character Of one of their neigh
bors. And while the stories were at
every moment assuming more alarm-
ing proportions, and from which the
assumption that Florence was keeping
up Il clandestine correspondence with
lover, with the evident intent of
eloping with him at the earliest favor