New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1882-07-31
THE TOP OF INDIAN RIDGE

ID. N.
- hotweep Indian Ridge and the higher Cats
lin Maintains. is a struggling sort Of village !;
call buiId,nes of homogeneous architecture strung
oIng a sinple street with no more accurate limits
than belong to the ordinary macadamized country
turnpike IL has no evident reason for existence
and seems to have grown with as little purpose as
design. There is mill nor mandatory; no
stream of traffic of any excuse for being
town. 1t is he stopping place OF line OF stages
from Catskill, and from IT leading westward tnere
are several divergDg lines upon when smaller
stage-coaches are run as feeders to the main me
There Is a hotel with a very extensive bar and
could discern only the purpose TO support the stage
line, the hotel and the bar. as influencing the IN
habitants TO settle down at this point. The botel
like all others this season. is half empty the stages
are enthusiastically full and the regular attend
ants at the bar constantly but the chei man OF
enterprise in the town, beer-bottler named
jacobs never permits the bar itself to be otherwise
than full There is enough of New-England intel
ligeuce and Yankee enterprise in small way 10
leaven the whole but as a rule the inhabitants are
as angular and queer as the architecture OF the
sleepy old place. Literally, sleepy place, lot
when | suggested to the obliging clerk OF inc
hotel-a youth who appears to grow greatly
fatigned in dividing his time between GRIM ana
yawning-that / wanted an early breakfast III
order to make a ive-mle tramp before the sun ne
came too hot he replied that O'Clock was the
earliest hour at which he could provide me warm
repast AS by that time the sun would he TWO
hours HIGH ! compromised on cold breakfast AT
half past ., and got away at quarter OF t. the
hour at which had thought 10 finish my tramp.
The great events of the day in Cairo are the
arrival and departure of the stages aud the OPEN
ing of the mails Each is equally public exhibit
ton. The whole male population OF the town
gathers OH the portlco of the Hotel de Walters at
which the stages change horses, or, more literally
speaking at which the passengers change stages,
and eagerly inspect every part OF the process Oh
transfer Each man and boy has daily, for years
past the contents of the boot OF the venerable
stage displayed and removed bv Old Garry, the
co.ch-6riyer. but they still form tho same group
each day and each man and boy has "A word OF adj
vice to give as TO the disposition of this parcel o.
the tightening of that strap. always couched IN
such terms as 10 show the speakers familiarity WITH
the driver But If the departure of the Stage Is an
exhi tlon for men only" the women-folS nave
their privilege, though not exclusively, at the
opening of the mails. There is not postmaster ID
the country who has more assistants or more WILL
ing ones than the p. NJ of Cairo. The Office
Jointly with that of the Western Union Telegraph
Company, is the rear quarter OF a grocery store
where every variety of article from drygoods by
the yard 10 ten-penny nails ly the pound is sold
and both telegraph and post-oili;e are Tree TO the
multitude. The pOpulace gathers when the mall
pouch is empted of its contents on the floor, and
each one Joins in the work of selection. 1t is a
regular picnic: sort OF scramble for the largest
pacAage Each letter is discussed as it is handed
from hand to hand until it finally reaches It's owner
Nv own experience shows that the telegraph
L. dttefa d at nj
the post.ol1ice. | had occasion to send telegram
on legal business which had to he carefully worded,
To conceal its meaning to all but the person to
whom it was addressed. The clerk of the grocery
and Observation-Disclosures who received 1t IN the
trmporary absence of the fair opeIator,-fair aud
forty | might have said,-careiully went over III
aloud partly for his own edifcaton and possibly
for the edication of the lOungers III the front STORE
He finally laid it on the operators desk, out Hld
no sooner done so than one of the hot-l lounsers
from across the road came in. accompanl ny "a
man to whom the dispatch mysterously alluded,
and walking straight to the desk he took mp tue
dispatch and read it! | found later on that IL
was the topic of some talk about the place and still
later learned that 1t reached Its destination dated
not from Cairo bnt Cat>Klll, ten miles away 1t has
been established as clearly as the heroic measures
of Byron and the opera boulle dOggerel of Dir.
Gilbert can make 1t appear, that British tars and
mouutaneers are born free. As far as the Catskill
monntainrers are concerned, | prepared to
swear that they are decidedly Free and easy, too
indeed, too free and easy.
"Old Garry" Becker the Cairo stage driver,
whom many visitors to the Catskill valley farm
hous,,s and towns will remember, is a curious sort
of chap in his peculiar way. very profitable and
amusing two hours may be spent alongside OF him
on the box Of his coach; the profit coming from
his very clear descriptions OF the topography OF the
valley and his familiarity with the names OF the
various distinct peaks OF the Catskill Mountains.
which range stretches out before one going west;
and the amusement being derived from his quaint
remarks philosophical, drawn from long though
apparently uneventful experience, and tinged with
something of the bitterness which long and un-
profitable intercourse win mankind is apt TO bring.
But ain afraid that Garrys literary education has
been somewhat neglected. though the discovery
which revealed the fact also developed that his
patriotism was still alive and easily famed into
fire of glowing enthusiasm or burning Indignation.
He had pointed out an old house on the road which
he said bore the date of 1905 that Of its erection,
AMI he had added that 1t was supposed to have
been originally old fort for defence against the
Indians wretch aboard the stage who had no
reverence whatever for old and sacred things or
other humbugs," as he calls all relics, made the
remark: Then l suppose it was at one time
Washington's Headquarters" long look of
scorn which dwindled into one of contempt was
the only reply of the old driver who evidently felt
lrresistlby disposed 10 resent any remark which
implied doubt either of the antiquity of the build
ing or the validity of the many claims for old build
ings that they we're once the headquarters OF the
somewhat ubiquitous army of the immortal q. W.
Later on the same wretch said to /" Old Garry:
I rel n
Wrinkle in Catski ~
Contemptuous silence prevailed for a minute.
(Which one of the hotels on Main-st. was the old
inn ,rhere Bin loved to lnaf and MhicE had KIM