Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1877-07-13

ic Improvements, which isnOt without VIII
nesses in many departments, there is one
conspicuous monument which has very
nearly escaped the uplifting contagion.
Though frequented by human footsteps
daily, II lacks every element and pretense
of beauty. AS It began fifty years ago, so
1t remains-a bald, desert-looking spot as
destitute of attraction and adornment as if
it were the gateway to a wilderness, in
stead of being, as it is, Il living nerve.cen-
trO In our complex system Of civilization.
We submit the proposition, with strong
faith in our opinion, that 1t might be, and
ought to be, made more cozy and cheerful.
Certainly there is no place where the aver
age American ctizcn is more often COM
pulsorily placed than at a railway-station I;
and none where little Difference to his
sense of the artistic aud comfortable would
be more welcome. If he is ever aimless or
idle, or ready to be amused and edited; If
he wishes pivot TO hang his thoughts up
on, it is during that irksome confinement
in which he is held before he can take the
cars, or continue the journey for the COM
pletOn of which he has just left them. In
stead of entertainment, however, or genial
comfort even, he finds nothing but blank
weariuess. There is not a thing his eye
can light upon to divert him from his nat
ural impalience at the necessary delay /;
but, on the contrary, there is preconceiv-
cd conspiracy in the situation and its sur
roundinss to aggravate aud deepen ii.
With the single exception that the pas
senger. building is weak parody and dilu
ton of Gothic art--now dreariy and oilen-
sively commou-there is at the average sta
ton no hint whatever to be found of an
aesthetic purpose. Tue grounds are bare
aud gravelly in all directions; there is no
relief of near shrubbery and trees; grass
is not only trampled out, but the bereaved
spaces seem ready TO aver that it has never
been there; and a few telegraph poles,
standing upright under the stretched wires,
smooth and barbless, are the nearest ap-
prOach to picturesque that you can discov-
er. It is spot for cold, forlorn nhospital.
| ity.
The building in which you must rest If
| you can is bleak and dreary enough. There
are, perhaps, two or three wooden seltees;
a vllainous stove which, when there is a
fire in it, is hotter than you can endure
though, sometimes, when you would like
fire, it has just gone out and no seat
which invites you can be found. The walls
are bare, except where a few advertise
ments break the mOnotony; and, for
| quenchiug thirst, you may likely enough
find painted water-p pail containing water
aud tin cup-the water having been dip
| mol nm a day nj n n VpnE nrpyiOns
your arrival there.
When the station is in the heart Of a
large village or town, one eau, at least, get
away from it, or amuse himself for an hour
outside its limits, when he is detained so
long but in country places, the hundreds
| of railroad stations must either offer some
thing congenial in themselves, or leave the
passengers without resource. Are the rail-
road companies really afraid that, it they
make these places tasteful and attractive,
the passengers will linger TOO long in them
and at last forget 10 buy their tickets and
take the cars? If this is tho true solution
of their Indifference in the matter-or, let
us say, their willingness TO make the sta
ton look inhosp,able and forbidding-
they are certainly doing all that human
wit can devise to avoid the danger. For
surely, if Ulysses and his companions had
been compelled TO take the cars at an
American railroad station, neither sirens
nor sorcerers would have detained them
from their journey.
We do not need to dip far into our pri
vale experience to suitably emphasize this
subject. Who that travels does not remem-
Der being stranded for hours on some ont
occasion, if not more than one, at desc
late country railway-slalion 1t is a tria
never to be forgotten. 1t will linger in the
memory until that particular spot becomes
a legacy burned in and borne down TO you
as if it had descended from antecedent ages
of afIliction. There is even a thrifty coun
try village not hundred miles from the
present writer's pen, which is not despica
bic as country village, but which, from
its being a catchall for the passengers from
several inlersecting roads, and because j
detains them for an hour or more Of resi-
dence without the slightest comfort or chez
at its joint stations, is marked and monu
mental in The travellers hatred. We know
what DR.. Chaplin will always think of an
other where he was provokinGly compelled
to stay whole day aud eat crackers ant
cheese, and lose, by the detention, an i'm
perative and desirable appointment. Hor
ace Greeley wrote one OF the chapters in hi
"Recollections ef a Busy Life" at a Massa
chusetts way-station, because he couldn'
afford 10 waste a single hour and the wri
ter Of this has used pen and paper in edi
torial work under similar detention, no
so much for economy Of time as to forge
his surroundings. But all travellers do no
have so easy and accommodating a craft
and for the great multitude, in all profes
sions, cheerful resting-pl at the station
is a desideratum.
We remember once being LEFT by the car
for couple of hours in the open fields il
June, and we thanked our good forum
that the locality was not one of the regula
stations. On either hand were grass,
meadows, and tall, outrageous elms AM
} under "a neighboring bank wound along il
serpentiDe beauty crystal stream, whicl
chartered its music amid the chorus of bob
olinks and robins. 1t set us wondering
why station itself might not have iey
hints of lawn and shrubbery-an adjacen
park, say a fountain, and plenty OF trees
The lawn on which we reclined suggested
that a depot-settee even might be mad
soft, and that some part of the prodigalit.
which Nature prOlfers might not be lost o
worthless If it were bestowed on all stop
ping places which the railroad-trains regu
larly make.-JoEL BENTON in APptet0n'
Journal for July.
Mt. VERNoN.--Within Wsshington's oil
| IL. "a