St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1880-08-27

when, at home, he accepts an Invitation
out to spend the day. He can visit,
well enough acquainted in the compa
ny. But few men find sufficient exer
else in that to digest handsomely tn,
good dinner which tempts them wheth
er by its intrinsic excellence or bv it
{ want of competition as an occupation
Public speaking is toll, and promote.
digestion, like walking, or pulling al
oar. But private speaking is too mucl
like reading, furnishing too little slim
illus to the muscles, and, if exciting
too much to the nerves. Few men are
getting what they went for if, when il
rains, they can but choose between ex.
posing themselves to the weather and
lounging, and they will properly gel
discontinued, if not dispeptic. So ev-
cry such place ought to furnish some
thing of a gymnasium, at least bow
ling alley.
Less for such reasons than because
we had no more than those five days
to spare, on Monday we bid adieu to
our pleasant company and drove to
Wilmington, about twenty three miles
southeastward, aimed for the Whining
ton Pass. Showers and fogs spoiled
our mountain views. Beyond Frank
lin Falls our road led over the northern
flank of Whiteface, by a road which
ought not to be attempted except by
OK teams-a fact which no one suggest
ed of those who answered our ques-
tions, needless in a region of guide
boards. 1t was stony beyond the out
most limit of the civilized. Passing the
summit of the route, long wooden
troughs or slides appeared lying against
the face of the heights above, down
which wood is run to feed immense
furnaces by the roadside which convert
it into charcoal. Descending, a mag
nificent view at length opens before us.
The windings of the West Branch of
the Ausable sparkle below, its cultiva-
ted valley stretching eastward and
nOrthward till the rampant of the east
ern Adirondacks separates them from
the sky. But the tops of all the high
er ones, and Whiteface, that we know
Overhangs US on the right, 1855 feet
above the sea, are in fog.
The blows of trip-hammer resound-
ing through the little village of Will
mington, led me out at nine o'clock to
see further processes in the iron manu-
facture. The huge torches of three
blazing chimneys lighted my way. A
certain weight of the graduated ore,
mixed with proper proportion of
charcoal, had been for three hours
melting in each of the furnaces, and
filtering into receptacle at the base
little above the floor. The fire being
slackened, it was suffered to cool
slightly and solidify. By prying with
crowbars and pulling with huge tongs
a mass of pure iron was now drawn out,
in shape like the bed OF the furnace,
gumdrop of glowing white iron, large
as bushel basket, on an iron truck,
which stood under to receive it, it was
trundled to the forge. By giant for
ceps, suspended near their pivot from
the roof, it was lifted and turned over,
upon the anvil. The trip hammer was
allowed to come down upon it in slow,
ponderous blows, causing molten met
al to OoZe and drip meanwhile from
the mass as it grew into the desired
shape. When it had become Il square
bar perhaps five inches in diameter, it
was grooved across the middle by the
hammer, a die held under which
stamped each part with the manufact-
urer's mark w w (Western, Whining
tony, and then a chisel which cut the
bar into two blooms. These were still
red hot when they were dragged out to
the pile, the completed product of the
mill, ready for shipment.
Tuesday morning, with the weather
still lowery and the mountain tops
(among them Whiteface, which we
were now so near and impatient to see)
hidden by mist, we resumed cur Jour
ney. In southwesterly direction, fol-
lowing up the West Branch, the first
few miles lay through its lovely cult
waited valley, after which we entered
the pass. 1t was wild and grand, all
that we had expected to find it. Big
Falls is an especially romantic and in
teresting spot, where a rift in the bush
es discloses the stream considerably
larger than Sleeper's river) pouring
through caverns of rock far below the
roadway, and falling plunge after
plunge to lower depths. Farther on,
the precipices were sheer and tower
ing on either hand, and set the imagi-
nation at painting the scene of their
disruption, which however the hoary
forest had done it's best to make forgot
ten. But these features of the pass
were only seen in glimpses. The char
servation. 1t consisted of powders
and the lightest of loan. The late
rains had so softened what dirt there
was that wheels had scooped the bot
toms of the puddles like gouges. Be-
tween the ruts and the stones not an
instant could be spared from steering
Collisions on the Sound, or running on
the rocks in Hellgate would soon cease