The Portland daily press., 1880-10-09
THE PRESS.
[For the Press.l
Chased by a Mountain.
The Peculiar Experience of Mr.. Flynn.

The Peculiar Experience of Mr. Flynn.
Nonsense, you say? WHAT'S nonsense,
for Mr.. Flynn or any other man to be chased
by mountain? How do you know? Wait
till you hear about it. There's no harm In
listening to the yarn, is there? And if Pm
going to tell it, just you bear in mind, 1
shall tell it in my own way and time. TO
begin with, you'll want to know who this
Flynn was, anyhow, that was chased. Well,
I'll tell you that first. He was tourist,
Summer tourist. He wasn't very tall, nor
yet very short. He wore a linen buster and
whitish cloth hat bout an inch thick,
like wash basin upset. Then he had side
whiskers, and carried an eyegass over his
little peaked stubby nose. His satchel was
slung over his shoulder by strap, and had
a double-barreled telescope in it, and pipe,
bottle-he thought he might 60 trout fish
ing, you see, and want some ontment-and
other traps. His pockets were cram full of
papers, Under his arm he had cane and
<su dilu III lilo manu- !" 'esAASS'
With his left hand he held onto "Guide to
the White Mountains" That's where he
was going when first caught sight of him
a. the depot buying his ticket for ''Craw
ford's."
Oh, you can always tell 'em, these tour
lists. They look SO kind of curious al
green like. They don't seem to know
thing bout the country. Now there's Bald
win, where the farm is, and they had the
shooting matches-he diin't know bout
that, he didn't! amt nothing but con-
ductor, but guess know where Baldwin
is.
How did happen to know him? Well, it
amt according to my way of telling the
story, but I'll explain that right here.
He come out into the baggage car at Bald
win and said as how he thought maybe I'd
tell him where the points of interest were :;
and wanted to know if there was any water
in that car, as he said he'd like to put some
in his bottle-the ointment, you know. 1t
appeared to me it took him some time to fix
it when he found the water, and besides
d
car.
Well, showed him some of the places,
and we got quite confidential like, only he
seemed to be afeard his ointmen want
right, and had to go and put water in it
pretty often. He seemed to think a heap of
the country, like as though he'd always
lived In it. Said it was ''rura" and ''lovely,"
and that natur was very beautiful in Maine.
"Why," said he, "some of the people have
a very natural look-in fact look like
naturals." He had return ticket, you see,
and wanted to stay over Sunday on it-asked
me if it would make any difference except
that I'd get dollar! told him I thought
1t would. When we got to North Conway
he thought that was Mt. Washington! At
Fryeburg he wanted to know all about the
park. but when we changed to the open
cars at Bartlett, and he got into corner
behi ID the glass, out of the way of the Gin
ders, 'peared as tho he'd 60 crazy. Said it
was grand and wonderful. Well, so it is,
so it is. Then told him about the build
ing of the road, and showed him the trellis
work and the old Wiley house way down in
the valley, and Mt. Washington in the dis
lance, and when we got to Crawford's he
had concluded to go up Mt. Willard, and
wanted me to come down the next morning
THAT was Sunday and 60 up with him!
told him I would. You see I've
never been up on top of that noun
tain, and 1 thought I'd like to
knows what's the fun of going. But I
couldn't get round to 60 with him, and he
told me when we got to Crawford's that he
should 60 anyhow. Says he ''What time shall
you come down on the Monday morning
train conductor? Say I, swell leave
Crawford's about six thatmorning." Says he
Swell, shall get up early, and see the sun
on your train" Says /, II shall be glad to
see you, sir, but mind, everybody who goes
up there in the morning wants big coat 1
reckon, and a mouthful of spirit (if he can
get III to rub the cold out" Says he, "Con-
ductor, I'll take 'em BOTH and seemed to
me he looked kind of tender like at his sat
chell. Then / went about my business,
and didn't think no more of him till the
next Monday. We got down to Crawford's
bit ahead of time that morning. You know
hos sort of quiet and cool and still Craw-
ford's is earl in the morning; the air don't
seem to have walked up quite, the smoke
goes straight up from the engine in white
column. The sides of the mountain COW
cred with the pines have small rolls of white
mist on 'em, just as if they'd been left by
some big white cloud who'd spent the night
there. Then tie pond below what they call
Idlewild, is all still like looking grass, and
up in the air you can see the yellow streaks
of sunlight shooting up from t0ther side
the notch. Down through the notch it
seems as tho Everything was covered in fog,
and the band amt playing, and the hotel is
all quiet. Well, as was saying, we were
little ahead of time, but there on the sta
ton was this Flynn Ia driver from the hotel
told me his name, that's how know it,
SLOUGH black hat and big ulster. He come
right aboard, and says he,-"How are yer
conductor! Splen-mornv' Says 'sFine sir,
fine" "Ben up old Willard, CONDUCTOR"
"aave yer?" says what dyer see sir"
"Well," says he, 'Tll tell yer all about it.
Got up middle tn night. got in wagon
splen' wagon, good horses too-two of 'um.
Got n'ulster you see !Splen' road! Winds all
round like corkscrew 'zactly. Through
trees, lots of 'em. Got up N bout N hour.
Got out wagon. Looked all ronnd. Splend'
view, conductor, Splen'id Wizards is all
stone and brush. Side ahead of you goes
down-well, s'pose ten thousand feet, right
down, straight to valley-off on rights big
gorge tween Willard and mother one. Mist
comes down through that bout ninety
miles N hour, lots of it-big sea of it, stills
church, comes down through there rush
in'-no sound, though-comes like ghost,
goes like one. On left Notten GEORGETOWN
toward Notch. Mist comes through there
too. Splendid, Acres of it,-all still-rolls
through; ma'nifoent; 'stonishing! Down
in front is valley. Some our trains came
Al