Morning journal and courier., 1881-05-10
aournal ailo Gourifr.
,uesday Morning, May 10. 1881.
Local News.
tFor other Local News see Second Page
COMMUNICATIONS.


 COMMUNICATIONS. :. A Drive to Fair Haven-The View from
 Fair Haven Heights. % To the Editor of the JOURNAL AND COURIER
 It was such beautiful day that I ordered my carriage to be at the lower corner of Chapel and State streets at o'clock precise ly My coachman is always ready on time, and make it point not to keep him wait ing. Is it because my horses are not so valuable, nor my livery so elegant as to engage. the attentive admiration of my neighbors while I dress? Oh, mol It is simply that am, like so many of them, un- der the strictly enforced; commands of my coachman. and footman so stepped into my carriage immediately it drew up and ordered myself driven by way of State and Greene streets to Fair Haven. Not fashionable road, but most entertaining Several times in the course of my drive picked up foot sore and weary pedestrians, who looked long, ingly, and indeed waited for me at corners, and I thought of my childish jingle
 '.some in rags and some in jags,"
 (What are jags p "and some in velvet gowns"
 My footman reaped the benefit of my charity, however, for I caught him actually demanding small ''pour foire" of even the raggiest.
 
 fancy good stoIes and saloons, innumerable, and os it was Saturday afternoon, out of every one of these latter, came forth groups of boon companions, more or less Saturday afternoon affected, followed to the door by the smiling proprie- tor, equally jovial, but for better reasons Here two of my lady guests signifed de- sire to dismount and my footman rang lit tie bell of warning for the coachman, who was so obEging as to pull up, some three or four doors below the corner Upon rising they (the ladies) discovered that 1t was the next street which they wished to take, and one of them said in stage whisper, probably intended as an apology to mes "Bedad, it's twrceed I've done that same if yell belave me!'' On the pavement, over the pavement, up the side streets and out into our street rolled the children, taking last dirt6 scram- ble before the weekly scrub for Sunday. The youthful population increased eastward, and became fairly dense up to the railroad crossing, when it suddenly ceased Whether the waterman is 8 dreadful ogre who devours as no well educated ogre can decently re- fuse to do-young and tender, not to say dirty babes, or whether he is himself the proud father of a large and fiourishing batch of the same, whether the iron rails forever divide the sexes as well as the s}reet all remains mystery. Certain it is that from that point fancy goods, gin shops butchers and bakers disappear, and with them all tokens of redundant posterity Perhaps ii is constitutional repu gnance to | water, both outside and in, which causes the | first bridge to be an uncrossabIe barrier, \ having ourselves tras ersed which we are | suddenly in the country. light breeze penetrates the still judiciously closed win | dows, Gas does also fine coating of white ! dust, and one has glimpse and 8 smell of | old salt" It is more pleasant looking ! north. for there we have first view of East 1. a1. l-- Il. | green marsh as 8 foreground. Southward the view and the charm are both broken by that bane of our driving public's existence, | ''Tomlinson's bridge.'' There are two bridges in our midst, so to speak, which are eyesores, and when I am forced to take strangers near either of them, I endeavor to pleasantly engage their attention in other directions till the danger is passed. One of these is 'Tominson's," the other No. 1, at Whitneyville. There it is almost ! impossible to prevent recognition. Howev- CT, as the offending expanse is so very con- spicuous, may I ask just here whose place it is to put up decent structure at that point?
 My carriage proceeded slowly up hill, and we dragged past few factories and the last store for quite decent mile, the decayed gentility of large place on our left turning our thoughts toward the inevitable, and sev- eral more of my friends asked to be dropped ' them to their very doors, for I know how sensitive is gratitude, so I merely gazed ab- stractedly and politely in another direction as they descended. My pair of thorough breds beginning to show signs of weariness immediately ordered them taken out o1 harness and led to the nearest stables. where with the utmost celerity fresh pail was most kindly loaned me, and with scarcely any delay we were once more on the road By this time my friends, with one exception a poor woman evidently suffering under some mental trouble, had all left me and we were approaching the second bridge, wher my companion became so visibly worse -(sht was in widows weeds and had a sweet, worr face) that I hastily offered my vinaigrettt and let down a window. She inhaled bott the imprisoned and fresh salt with eagerness I requested that could even waive ceremo ny and accompany her home. She was however, kind enough to keep my little val ueless toy, and as 1 assisted her to alight ( very small boy to have been out of girls clothes appeared to be waiting for her, as saw tender greeting and they walked away 1 hand in hand.
 We had passed the church; now school house, on which, in it's clerical days, the very tall steeple had so often caught fire iron heaven" and the reappearance of "store' clothes and market, livery stable and { postofice betokened the actual town again but with far different atmosphere. Ex treme cleanliness, no person in the stree without hat or bonnet; the few children apparently just washed and dressed for Sun day, and the proprietor with his coat on. peculiar rumbling the sudden glare of tht sun on the water, the fine aroma of the brac ing salt air and we were on the long bridge I called to my coachman to have the carriage stopped at the hill It being such a lovely day wished to walk up. Accordingly we drew up very shortly, and ordering that the | 1<,.r !, h. with my thanks, and my own pair brought tc take me home, started up the hill to spend the time in enjoying the prospect. It wal certainly worth while, and each step revealed a new charm. Arrived at the topI climbed { fence, Care we never satisfed), and seated or it's precarious top bar I reveled in the exten sive panorama spread out below me-from the time-honored Sleeping Giant" tha 1 weird embodiment of all my cl1ildhood't fairy tales, all along the horizon of the far away Woodbridge hills down to the West Haven shore, and out as far ai the eye could reach over the glitterine harbor, closing in again with tht over the Branford heights and Meriden hilll almost one great circle. Then between | the rolling country, West Rock, dwarfed bN its surroundings, few large country houses on the high lands the city, half shroudet in a mist of it's own making, out of whicl countless steeples caught the full afternoon sun; the scattered dwellings, more country the winding river and little white village a our feet, and we turn slowly south ward the gleaming of many cos. cottage roof on the other shore way down to the very edge; whil on our side, the white, curved roads and ieal ously kept shut houses, the fields in thei first glow of real sunshine the occasions fresh yellow of the willow and intense greer where little spring has started brings us tt almost to our point of vantage. An!
 sighed, life in the country is the only real