Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1879-06-06

tCol +. W. HiPginson in the Contributors Club,
Atlantic Monthly for June.l
l often ask myself whether the New Eng
land village life which it is Just now the fash
ion to describe as so forlorn and dismal can
be the same life with which l have been so
long acquainted, and in which l have always
found so much of amusement and variety. In
looking over some old papers, l came the
other day, upon small note of invitation,
bidding me to ball to be held in the little
New England village where happened to be
spending winter vacation, some thirty years
ago. The time of assembling was to be five
p. H., and those who had most leisure among
the beaux were expected to meet at the hotel
and drive about the streets to ''pick up" the
young ladies, gathering them by installments
into a large double sleigh. Very likely it
showed while we were making our rounds
if 80, it was all the merrier. can still hear
the jingle of the bells, still see the blithe
young faces, rosy with the clear cold air and
gay with many-colored wraps. 1t took per-
haps an hour for this preliminary service, but
that hour afforded as much fun as any part
of the festival Then remember the disem
barking at the lighted hall the disappear
ance aud the reappearance of the girls, deck
ed in modest fnery the assembling of the
squeaking fddlers at the end of the room
the announcement of the country Dances
Money Musk, Sir Roger de Coverly, Twin
Sisters, Portland Fancy, and the rest inter
sperstd with frequent quadriles and the
wholly novel waltz We kept it up till one
or two i'll the morning, on common occasions;
while at the great epochs, such as Washing
tons birthday, the etiquette was to finish out
the twelve hours, from five to five. Really,
don't know how exacting may be the social
standard of your contributors, but can truly
say that, although not wholly unfamiliar with
the Beacon street Of those days, in Boston,
never enjoyed myself with such hearty zest
as in that village society. Yet there were 9TH
er villages on the Connecticut which were
trnditonaly regarded as far gayer than TINT
of which / speak and indeed it was not un-
common for people to drive twenty miles for
a ball, from town to town.
Shall We say that people do not now enjoy
themselves in such places MS they once did +?
What, then, becomes of the theory that the
alleged gloom is the bequest of puritanism
for it is clear that the time describe was
thirty years nearer to puritanism than is the
present time. But as a matter of fact there
is much more social festivity now than then.
consider for instance the great spread of
private theatricals, except in a few farming
villages where population has nominally di-
miushed, simply because the new generation
has transplanted itself to the West For one,
l utterly deny that the rural society of New
England, taken as whole, is in grim, stern
or eXtravagantly repressed condition. l do
not know much of Connecticut, but l know
good deal of the rural parts of Massachusetts,
Vermont and Rhode Island, and am not ig-
norant of Maine and New Hampshire. 1t
would be interesting to learn how much your
lamenting contributors personally know of
the country life of those States Did they
ever go deer-hunting or moose-hunting ever
take part in a squirrel-hunt, or even ''tur-
key-shoot'? Did they ever see n militia mus
ter; ever observe with wonder that old-time
miracle of armed display, "a CORVALLIS"
even Lowells Hosea Bigelow is obliged to
own that there is fun to a CORVALLIS. ~
Did they ever 60 to husking- party, or q
hop-picking, or ''sugaring-off;" :" or attend
lumberman's ball, at the close of the season
("The things they don't say and do at one
o'them balls" said Maine stage-driver once
to me, "ain't worth thinkin of!") Did they
ever join party going down the Merrimack
to the salt t-marshes for hay, in "gundalow :"
or Salisbury Beach ''camping-out; :" or q
party to explore the glen" by torchlight at
Stockbridge, or to go through 'purgatory" in
the same way, at Sutton Did they ever Wis
t those innumerable picnic grounds now
distributed over all New England for summer
pleasuring, and SO well equipped for inno-
cent amusement; or observe how the world
Of merry makers has gradually overhowed the
camp-meeting grounds at Martha's Vineyards
or spend a summers day at the thronged wa
tering- places of Naragansett Bay,-Rocky
Point in particular, where from one to five
thousand chance visitors go to dine daily, and
may be seen whirling in the dance, hour after
hour, as busily as if they were born Germans?
Do not these critics know that half New Eng
land lies within easy reach of the Atlantic
Shore and that from every part of that shore
gay sailing parties are putting forth or return.
ing at almost every hour of day or night, all
summer long? Do they not know that all
the interior of New England lis threaded by
the Connecticut river, and that score of the
inland villages have been for many years the
traditional centres of cultivated and agreeable
society? If you wish to see what Lennox and
Stockbridge are and We're, read the life and |
letters of Miss Sedgwick; or, for Northamp- |
ton, read the charming memoirs of Mrs. Ly- |
man. Was Greenfield morose and dull under |
the long sway of that monarch of wit and |
song, George Davis Town after town comes |
up to the memory of any man of large social |
experience, any one of which refutes this dis |
NAL theory OF course, no power can ever |
transmute Anglo-SaXon blood into the blood |
of the Latin races nor is it desirable that it |
should. Froissart wrote long before puritan |
ism, and even he described the English peo-
pie as enjoying themselves sadly according |
to their custom but doubt if there is any |
rural region where people of unmixed Eng |
lish blood now find life more cheerful, on the |
whole, than in the country towns of New |
England. One of your correspondents puts
in good word for Maryandi but l myself |
know something of the country life of Vir-
ginia before the war, and am sure that one
misses, especially in winter the zest and va
riety offered in a more northern zone.
SO far as the statistics of mere amusement
60, we may well rely on that veracious chron-
icler,-the very Court journal of New Eng
land village fe,-the Springfield Republican.
Each daily Issue of that lively sheet has a
page of locals" from every town in the west
ern counties of Massachusetts. We learn from
the latest number at hand that in Holyoke
''the Taft reception party is engossing the
town talk" and that Barney Macauley is
sure of crowded house" at the theatre in
Chicopee there is a "social !" in Longmeadow
dramatic reading at Williamsburg Meth
odist oyster supper; in Westheld freman's
ball and a musical entertainment; in Green
field two rival balls and an amateur play by
congregational women :" in West Deerteld
a 'sociablei" in South Deerfield a public