Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1877-05-02


teachers went Maying May Day, and
the Woodstock Cornet Band surprised
them by meeting them outside of the
village on their return and escorting
them through the principal streets.
-Succotash groups of fishermen
line the Quechee on pleasant days
and sit patiently on a rock or stump
for hours and angle for suckers. The
loafer gets deceived into doing more
hard work for less pay in this way
than any other that we know OF.
"A worthy fellow citizen and one
Of our village fathers, lost his reckon.
ing and sailed in vigorously planting
his "garden sass" last Sunday morn
ing, and would have continued had
not his attention been called to the
mistake by hcighbor, who asked
him, "Ain't you going to church to-
day p and he walked up to the fact
that he was trespassing on the Lords
day.
The following from the Urbana
Patron will apply nearly everywhere:
Talk up your town. Yes, talk it up.
iii has good schools, good churches,
good newspapers, clean streets, orna
mented with beautiful trees, talk it up.
Don't grumble if anything and every
thing is not up to your ideas especial
ly if you do nothing to help make the
place. Don't tell strangers 1t is the
worst place you know, that il is worse
than other places of the same popula-
tipn. Give encouragement to every
useful and credi!able enterprise IN
your midst, for as sure as effect fol
lows cause, so sure will enterprise Of
merit repay every citizen. We can
not live to ourselves, and we can not
discourage any movement in behalf OF
place without inAicting upon our
selves personal injury. Fyou see
needed improvement. demand it and
talk it up vigorously until the whole
community is impregnated with the
idea-until storm Of public sent-
ment completes the work. But if
you can't get anything that is needed,
remember that in that respect it is
just like thousands Of other place in
the land Keep on talking, cncourag,
ing, but not grumbling. Don't stop
because some poor mummy, out OF
whom has withered all public spirit
and love of advan cement, means out
in his "sepulchral whine, 'it won't
pay. Show to Your live fellows that
it will pay, and leave to the mummy
his embalmed and swaddled dust and
stupidity, and by and by you will see
the result of your courage and talk in
universal improvement, increased facil
tiles for business, cultivated society,
and broad, liboral, generous spirit
that pervades and WHITES and makes
pleasant and beautiful every place
where it enters"
About these days Piscator is pull
ling over his rods and lines, working
his reels and joints. and studying in
tcntly the brilliant pages Of his fly
book, with his weather.eye all the
while open, and his thoughts conjur-
lug up afresh the rural pictures which
are woven out of swelling alder buds,
pussy-willow catkins, aud the swaying
tassels of the birch, with the slant
showers of the season blubbering the
face OF the stream so prettily. He
knows best why his heart opens its
door now and lets all the new inhuen-
ces in. You shall see him shortly
creeping in and out the thickets, and
leaping across the complaining brook,
with his limp hat we'll down over his
eyes and an eager flush on bis cheeks,
laboring for his scanty Mess as no
striker or member Of any brotherhood
would consent to work for more mon
ey than our friend Of the rod and creel
would bother himself to think about.
And if we were TO follow him at all
unintrusive and allowable distance, he
would take US through reaches OF val
ley and meadow, and in and out belts
of crowding timber, to surprises of
scenery that will stay longer fixed in
the memory than any Of the landscapes
that live on canvas only. For the
next two months the follower of the
brooks aud tramper for trout enjoys q
world that the rest of US know little
enough about. lie has been looking
forward to it throcgh the dreary reign
of winter, and his patience and faith