Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1881-05-27
Agricultural.
A Metropolitan view Of Vermont in
Sugar Time.

view of vermont in Sugar Time" The
writer had evidently no serious intention of
being humorous, or, as Artemus Ward would
say, "amoosing" but in that respect has
builded better than he knew. Vermont, he
premises, is thought of like Labrador or
Alaska-''as something within the boundaries
OF the continent, but aloof from the attributes
and intimacy of the commonwealth" By
diligent study of geographical science it is
found, after ALL to be one Of the United
States, and not so far from New York city as
to preclude the hazard of q journey thence
for the purpose Of enlightening the readers
of Harpers in the mysteries of maple sugar
making. The expedition was not undertaken
without domestic remonstrance. But the
writer not only had the temerity to disregard
the family concern for his safety, but the
courage to brave, for a few days, the rigors
of the Vermont climate in the month Of March.
He acquiesced, however, in preparatory ar
rangements in way of clothing, ETC., as If about
to go out in search of the last Arctic expedi-
ton. Travelling northward, afterward pass
ing Troy, he at length became satisfied, not
by any of the ordinary means of information
by which traveller is supposed to know his
whereabouts, that he was in Vermont. The
source of his knowledge, If less direct than
that by which ordinary people discover their
locality, was more reconcile. 1t displayed n
knowledge of philology. He was convinced
that he was in Vermont by the dialect which
he heard in the car. We give his own lam
guage, as he tells it much better than we
should dare to;
1--WE have passed Troy, and still bearing
northward, we look out of the car windows
on a landscape with a communicative chilli
ness of color and feeling. The skies are over
cast by heavy clouds, and the air has a moist
penetrativeness the depots are small and I'M
comfortable the soil is scrubby and fHllow
the homesteads are seriously unbeautiful
and we detect a dialect in the murmured con-
versation of the car which convinces us that
we are in Vermont"
1t was the dialect which finally convinced
him that he was in Vermont. The "chilliness
of COLOR" the small uncomfortable depots, the
''scrubby and fallow soil, " the seriously I'M
beautiful homesteads" alone, might not have
converted him to the belief that he was act
ually within the borders of this inhospital
and almost unknown state but the dialect
dspelled whatever lingering doubts might
have remained as to his geographical situa-
ton. He was convinced. He was in Vermont
Our own conviction Of Just what is repre-
scented by the first page illustration is not so
clear The artist, no doubt, intended to have
us believe the large tree in front to be a SUI
gar maple. 1t looks like an overgrown APP
pie tree bearing dead branches. 1t is tapped,
however, and the bucket and sap spout are
conclusive evidence that we are expected to
believe the tree to be a sugar maple. The
sap is represented as running small stream
from the spout. We might charitably be-
lieve that what appears to be the small stream
about half the diameter of the spout-was
meant for an icicle but the language of the
writer, who actually saw the phenomenon Of
frozen sap, is opposed to this theory, and in.
dicates belief that the sap was projected
from the spont with sufficient force to form 9
curved line, which, at the time his observa
tions were taken, had CONCEALED without
abatement of curvature. Thus
''But not drop of sap was flowing, ant
when the buckets contained any it was con
cealed under ice and frozen snow, which also
formed a solid 60lo from the mouth of thu
spout"
If the artist will come up again in the fall
when the apple trees are tapped for cider, i
the bucket stands to one of them it will b.
all right The block for the frontispiece will
need but little change. Stopping at farm
house with q rather unpromising exterior, TO
the purpose of finding character or Obi
of old furniture" or something picturesqu
though neither clean nor comfortable" hi
breath was fairly taken away by the tidy ap
pearance of the farmers daughter who me
him at the door. The artist has representa-
this scene with far greater success than h
has attained with the sugar naples. Recov
ering himself he was shown into a ROOF
where his establishment was further increase
by observing piano and copies of Tennysor
Pope, etc. Cumulative surprises awaite
him. The copies of Tennyson, Pope, etc
exhibited signs OF having been used. Th
sugar makers daughters mother was dign
fed and intelligent. Her pronunciation VIZ
Bostonian. This was not the dialect, whic
he had heard in the car, that convinced hi
that he was in the state of Vermont. In Al
other part of the article an attempt is mao
to represent the Vermont dialect by sue
words as, ''liefer," haouse," "kneow
"daouwn," etc. His orthoepic ears are ev
IDENTIFY at variance with good authorities wi
say that nowhere in the country is there lie
of that kind of pronunciation that is suppose
to be peculiar to New England than in Ne
England itself.
After a few days sport in the town
Shrewsbury, where the subjects of his illustr
tons appear to have been taken, be discove
less primitive state of society. At the hou
of a large sugar maker ''there were mo
books in the capacious window seats, al
though it seemed as far from the top of tn
hill to the city as from the top of Sier
Nevada, the world and its immediate doin
We're scarcely less familiar up here than
Roxbury or Harlem"
lone can venture among these mountai
into spots which the whistle of the LOGON
tive has never pierced, and where the mail
left in very small quantities by dilapidat
coach, without finding much that is genuine
primitive. The unenlightened but shrev
settlers of earlier days, who knew more of I
ture than of cities, are in their hast genel
ton, and the children have lost the simplic
and individuality of their progenitors. 1t
said that elementary education is more g
eral in Vermont than in any other state, a
with the little learning the irreVerent spirit
the age has crept in. Those whose faith,
wore homespun and were vigorously distil
in character, ape the ways of the town, a
are drifting into cockneyism.
--
The change in the Agricultural DEPARTING
which puts ex-COngressman Loring of Ma
aehusetts in place of Mr.. lie Due will be g
orally approved 1t is acurrent opinion Il
this branch of the Government has never h,