Litchfield enquirer. [volume] (Litchfield, Conn.) 1829-current, 1880-09-09
NEW ENGLAND Byte BACKDO0R,
As Looked Into by Southerner
Correspondence of the Baltimore Sum-
, C ooReN.Ws ALL PLAIN CT, August Q.


..r ,.CoRNwALL PLAIN. CT, August 2. III
2 Weary with long travel, the waves plashed
up against the sea wall ofthe Bridgepo rt Park,
falling in collapse upon the rocks, as a tired
ira celer falls into low bed Long Island bay
stretched upon the horizon twenty milesaway.
A few sails, touched by the level beams of the
sun, loitcred along the beautiful water of the
sound. still now as any lake. The carriage
had been stopped TO let the ladies admire the
gorgeous sunset The banker closed his eyes
as if to mediate, not upon the scene, but upon
the question had addressed him. At length
he spoke: Cornwall is the place for you.
You will find looms and spinning wheels
there. ~ 5'fe ,'ii'' +ih. ~. e .'.'i
) THAT may be-" replied his fair haired wife;
"hut it yougexpect to find place in New Eng
land where civilization has not penetrated, you
will be lnistak en-. g.de e's s.ts.3. ~ =
Both told the truth; nevertheless / am at
Cornwall, and Cornwall is the place for me.
Hand looms aud spinning wheels have not
seen, but that scoopet-seat, stick-back cliai:in
tie front porch is hundred years old at least,
and firm as it was the day it was made. Origi-
n,.lly painted green, it is now bright red, and
this very morning | saw its fellow ip house
three miles off, near West Cornwall. It also
was red. The double frame house across the
street-But am anticipating. -,
Southern merchants who GO all the way to
Bangor, Maine, to buy shoes made out of hides
from Texas or Brazil, which have passed their
very doors. are familiar with the New York
and New Haven road, but of the Housatonic
road they know neutrality-suspicious. never heard
of it. Tourists who seek the air OF the Berk-
shire Hills know all about it; no, not all, for
am told that there are many lovely spots along
the road, Cornwall among them, which have
not yet attracted the attention they deserve
at the hands of the writer and the artist Leav-
ing Bridgeport, the road quickly mounts into
the hill country, crosses the Housatonic at
GAINESVILLE, follows its windlngs among the
romantic conical mountains, enters Massa-
chusetts at Canaan, passes the famous resorts,
Great Bennington, Stockbridge and Lenox, and
reaches its terminus at Pittsfeld. There is
scarcely spot along the whole road which has
not its attraction, especially for the Southern
traveller, who is unaccustomed to the peculiar
features of New England scenery. Much as he
has read about it, the fascination of novelty
remains. No words ofmine can tell the limpid
purity of the Housatonic, or convey to the in
experienced reader the impression produced
by an endless succession of small farms in
closed by stone fences. ''It is world of
grave-yards,' say, as | look out of the car
window 'graveyards in which rocks, not
men are sepuchered Of course these people
live on clans. There is nothing but clans for
them to live on-clanis and hog Why, yes,
there are orchards, though not large ones; and,
by Jove see, look, if that is not tobacco may
l be hanged |" rOne hears much about the seed
leaf grown in the Valley of the Connecticut
river, but who ever expected to and it up here
in these rocky hills certainly did not. And
so well grown, too; fully as much advanced
as in Virginia In fact more forward that most
that have lately seen. 1885," !" .'','''4 T.
The hottest Sautherner that ever, breathed
secession through one nostril and war to the
knife through the other, even Gen. Jubal A.
Early himself (though he was never seces-
sionist), could but be pleased with the smoking
car on the Housatonic road In the first place
it is not crowded; in the next place the smok-
ers are reading democratic papers; thirdly,
there are no less than four card tables; fourth
ly, a boy brings lce-water to you every fifteen
or twenty minutes, and filthy, there are no
negroes" To man who has traveledin the
mountains of West Virginia, where the smokr
ing car on every train is crowded with very
"unsavory people, often under the influence
of liquor, this last item in the list of Housa-
tonic comforts is the most important Of all. ~,
At midday we reach Cornwall Bridge not
the most prepossessing station in the,v world.
Indeed, many of the stations we have passed
would be the better of little paint, and bet
ter still If built over again. A comfortable
stage which runs to Litchfeld, 16 miles off, is
in waiting at the depot Our stopping point
Cornwall Plain, is 81 mieseast of the railroad
A clean shaver young man, b. occupying: the
back seat, tells me that he is a fireman on the
Naugatuck road, and when asked why he
did not choose the place of brakeman, replies
that 'too many of them were killed, and that
nrlx he Syin nni, al,o
better class Of young men much preferring to
be firemen at $45 q a month";" We go up a
gorge not unlike that which you ascend in
going from Roncoverto to Lewishurg in West
Virginia, but there is this difference-the
stream which here descends to the river is dam.
med at every available point, and made to do
work of man kinds while that at Roncoverto
is of no use except to inundate and clean,out
the town in time of freshet. We come to
little furnace that turns out from eight to ten
tons of charcoal pig per day.-~Made into car
wheels this iron stands so high that3even now
it commands, as I am told, $65 ton At
one time it reached 1926 the ton. The ore is
brought from banks q few miles above Cat
Salisbury, believe), which havebeen worked
ever since the. Revolution To my surprise
there is deal of untouched sunac all the way
along. When tell the driver, young fellow
with long nose and cast in--his eye that
sumac is one of the chief sources of venue in
mys country, and that it is usedn tanning
leather, he opens his eyes aud says: aNd Il
II want ter know Is that SO ?pGe .lollQr,l~
This formula he often repeats varying Il
sometimes by throwing the accent on that
els that 80 2" Il want to know" an excIama-
ton of surprise or wonder, equivalent to our
'You don't tell me !" is generally pronounced
quickly, and sometimes elision is carried solar
that you hear only Swan t'know !'''''7T"71 ba
lodging in Cornwall Plain, the place being
beautiful billy site, far above the fogs that lie
on Cornwall Plain in the morning; but the
hreman, my fellaw- passenger, tells, me not to
despair Near the village we come to house
with Grecian portice, bright and clean as a
new pin commodions enough, and abundant
ly shaded. Perhaps that gentleman will
take YOU says the driver. The gentleman
was arrayed in checked shirt and a broken
brim hat. t5...., .-..oe s{f..+.?7f,.se 20
- sis he the owner of this beautiful house ?" 1.
inquire yes"
Sure enough, the large, handsome boarding
house was full to repletion with women and
babies, the wives and children principally of
New York and Brooklyn merchants. So was
Mrs. B. s; but Mrs. ! suggested that Mrs. S..
might accommodate me. We drove thither
without delay And now occurred an Incl,
dent worth relating: < - .,
ann" = t-77- t'a'} - S'ss@91N' E'F5 = |
The lady smiled an affirmative 90 y t' ~,
81 am alone no one but myself, 1os !
II have three connecting rooms, and am ex !;