Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1879-07-09
Alter Twenty Years.

n man VINO always stays ABOUT nome no
only avoids much and gains much, but h
also loses much. In his quiet unchangius
way of life he is not aware Of the grea
and frequent changes transporting around
him. Abiding in one place a man CANNOT
know much of the world. Never going
FAR or staying long from home, he fails Il
experience one of the great sensations o
a life-time-lhat which comes TO a mar
returning to old haunts after many year.
of absence.
The changes that daily occur and are
daily observed are seldom marked, but the
accumulated changes of twenty years arc
very impressive.
The town is larger. Many new streets
have been opened and built up. And the
old streets are changed. One by one
h Iuses and stores and shops have been re-
placed by larger and finer edifices. Only
few stand where they were twenty years
ago, and these few look old and small.
Signs and men have changed. Hardly
y name remains on the principal streets
The merchants of every sort have sold OF
been sold out, and have retired from bust
ness and taken down their names. II
perchance one in twenty of the traders Of
twenty years ago holds on, how old and
white headed he looks! Alas! How short
oti lifa l., .1lauoI T,ua 10,
years! More fall short of this brief peri.
cd than exceed it,.
The old school house where we taught
some twenty years ago is still lhere-and
the street is as full of children. But
where we once knew every child we now
know not one. These may be Charles
ind George and Frank, and Mary and
Hattie and Jennie, but they are not our
scholars. They stare at us with no look
of recognition. Strangers we are where
once we knew everybody! What q SEN
sation! What a shock it gives u.s. We
think our eyes are good, our step firm
md our hearts as young as ever, but it
may be that we are growing old and have
not known it!
We went 10 the church where we loved
to worship some twenty years ago. The
old house was no more, the vestry could
not be found and the old singers were all
gone, and not a familiar voice was heard
in prayer. Two or three faces were recog.
nzed, but how changed! Not ten in all
the congregation where once we knew all
And in the Sunday school hundreds and
every one a stranger.
Passing along the streets we look in
vain for one of the old people we used to
meet in our walks at eve or morn or mid
day. But old men and women are here
as erst, and inquiry discovers them to be
survivors of the strong and active leaders
and burden bearers in church and business
and society II score of years ago. At the
head of business establishments are some
of the boys-the little boys-of our day.
Ask for the foremost lawyer and ply ST.
clan and merchant and banker and you
get familiar names-the boys that were
are the men now.
Inquiring for the families of wealth and
influence of twenty years ago and not II
few of them are reported 10 be in reduced
circumstances. They have "stepped
Own and out" The palatial residences
AMI princely equipages changed owners
and occupants years ago. The servant
girl presides in the mansion and the son
of toll and economy is the merchant
prince to-day. In the long, hard pull OF
twenty years character and hard work
have come to the front, and idleness and
dissipation have come to their invariable
fa es.
There are men in asylums and poor
houses who were magnates of this town
twenty years ago. Some who resided on
Fashion Hill can be found on Water street
now. The worthy poor are always
climbing, the unworthy rich are sure to
fall.
Twenty years. The old graveyards
have been made larger and new Gem eter-
les are laid out. Half of the thous ,nds
who resided here and walked these streets
when we first joined the throng have
already been carried out to burial. OF the
many we knew then will any remain
another twenty years?
Nobody need be lonesome when alone !;
many are lonesome when in great throngs
and no familiar face to be seen; but it
must be lonesomest of all to be a stranger
W here all were once acquaintance.