Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1880-10-13
An English View Of New England,

OF section of what she styles the d" New
England hill country" which, from he
incidental description, we infer is locate,
IN New Hampshire on the border of Maine
Tier structures on the poverty of social if
OF New England country communities are
somewhtt severe, and perhaps may be &C
cepted for some remote localities as liter
ally true; hut ut the last she feels bounl
to admit the existence of sterling qualities
in the New England farming character
which challenge her admiration.
She speaks of the poor quality of the
newspapers read in rural districts; of the
extreme paucity of means of social enter
tainment and recreation; of the close. fist
edness which begrudges and refuses all ex
penditure; of the foolish habit of aping
town and city life and of various other
things which should be mended and might
as well as not She speaks of the lf-suf.
ficiency of men narrowly brought up; of
the inveterate habit of dogmatisi ng on the
part of those who hive never left their ma
tive village; of the little regard paid to
the manners or thinking of city like Bos.
ton; of the combined slowness and diffuse-
ness of speech, together with the startling
forms of expression; and of the prevailing
profanity of speech, in which single item
she finds there is no difference between
the country and the city. Shopping, she
says, is but an exercise of patenc
The food of country life she declares to
be gossip, and in this the men are greater
profcients than the women. After that
comes the habit of drinking. Finally she
declares Utiitarianism to be one of the
Juggernauts of rural New England. There
is no love of life in itself, she says; every
thing is subordinate to work health,
rs we'll as pleasure, is sacrificed, chiefly the
/ health of the women. The food, she finds,
to be generally of a nature to disagree with
any constitution, even if bred to its use
through the inherited tendencies of several
generations; but the men have the anti
dote of fresh air, while the women have
not. The latter sometimes do not set
foot out-of. f.doors for three or four months
together. The long winters are in part to
blame for it, but the incessant march of
work far more. City women do much moro
walking than country women.
Among amusements in the back country
districts the writer classes excitements,
which in fact have to do duty for them.
These are set down as church meetings,
and funerals and sewing circles. New ideas
she declares to be unwelcome. The dwell
ings, and in fact the buildings generally
come in for their share of criticism. In
the town in which she lives, she says there
are not more than dozen houses or barns
which are properly fortified against cold;
while in England, with prevailing eli
mate of New England April and October
at the worst, buildings are tight, dry and
warm. Therefore the exaggerated stove
heat of New England houses is nothing
strange. Poverts is not alleged to be the
reason of such inadequate building ar
rangements, but combined Indifference
to the weather and power of resistance to
Its effects.
observer, is less developed in new than in
old lands; nature appears rather in the
disguise of an enemy to be subdued than a
mother to be loved; and her OBSTACLES to
the outward signs of civilization make
men impatient of her beauties. Forests
and precipices have no attraction for the
man whose chief thought is now he can
grow corn and pasture cattle to feed his
family. The love of the mountaineer for
his mountains, said to be common in Eu-
rope, is not the rule among New England
mountaineers. They have hardly any pride
in their scenery, and often long for a
smooth, fertile plain, where agriculture
would be easier and the conditions of life
softer" But deep below this crust of un-
attractiveness she finds sterling qualities
-" honesty, justice, immence persever-
ance, patience and endurance, evenness of
temper and faithfnlness of friendship, al
most invariably a high standard of do
mestic virtue, and Il serious acceptance Of
lifes responsibilities.
Home love does not include surround |
ings even of the loveliest scenery, but it is |
intense within a narrow circle of persons. |
Roughly speaking, pursues the writer. if
you go back to the ancestry OF any man Of
note, you find a farmer at the head of it.
" Farmers" she asserts, " are the majority |
of New England population, and the real
backbone of the country. Such as they |
are now, with all their shortcomings |
and disadvantages, they are collectively, |
and always have been, the state" She |
adds, that by comparison with the average |
west and south, the most primitive New
England life is one of luxury and refine
ment; by comparison with the average !
European agriculturist, the most antiquat-
ed New Engander is Il learned and pro-
gressive man. 1t is not custom alone that
makes she farmer contented, but the con-
sciousness of independence and .he power
of supporting his family.
AS for country life itself, here, our writ
er thinks that its naturalness, as it COM
monty comes under the observation OF
stranger. has fascination irresistible to
the moral philosopher equally with the ex
perienced man of the world There is a
relief from ceremony, as she looks at it,
sense of manly freedom, which to some
Europeans at least, is an overwhelming at
traction. And she remarks, that this SIM
plicity should not always appeal to the
imagination of the young farmer, to whom