Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1882-01-20


riages Ono is recorded in which the woman
left her room in the night, naked, by the win
dow, standing on the top round of high
ladder while she put on new Clothes and came
down feeling satisfied that she had left all old
obligations in the house and come out scot
free. / think remember in "Notes and Que
ries" an account Of the surprise Of clergy
man in an English church, when a bride APP
peared for an appointed marriage wrapped
only in white Sheet and this within a very
recent period. The old error, it seems, pre-
vailed in Vermont so late as 1889, and Major
Joy took what he thought the safe way Of
avoiding the responsibilities Of the departed
and now not lamented-Mr. Ward.
There was another old error which also lin
gered in Vermont, according to the Newfane
historian. Inasmuch as a writ was directed
in words commanding the sheriff to take the
body Of the debtor, common notion was held
that the writ ran against that body living or
dead. AT funeral in Dummerston, the ad-
joining town (no date given), the officers ar
rested the body on its way to the grave. The
procession stopped, the bearers gave bail for
the appearance Of the debtor buried him,
and paid the debt. In 1920 one Lee, in pris-
on on bail bond, died. The sheriff would
not deliver his body to his family, fearing II
would amount to an escape and himself be-
come liable. The consent of the creditors
was obtained, and the sheriff, thus relieved
from his apprehended responsibility released
his prisoner
In the same volume is q story which
speaks sadly for the people of seventy years
ago. The writer says he remembers the
public whipping of a woman in 1907. She
was convicted Of passing counterfeit money,
aud sentenced to receive thirty nine lashes
on the bare back. The whipping post had
transverse beam to which her bare arms were
bound, she being stripped to the waist The
high sheriff and seven deputy sheriffs divided
tho blows among them, taking turns. There
was no lenity. Her back was cut in pieces,
and she suffered greatly and screamed terri
bly,. There was a large assembly, and the
windows of the academy and meeting house
facing the scene were filed with women
looking on. The whipping post was abol-
ished that fall, and perhaps this was the last
instance of its use in Vermont. 1t seems al
most incredible that in the up country popu-
lation women could be found to fill the win
dows at such a spectacle.
The drive from Williamsville to Whining
ton is one to be remembered. A good road
with slight upward grade for four miles,
then up a hill through a small village on for
mile; cross a bridge; up a steep hill !;
through Rock River village; still up hill
through forest the forests now quite golden,
and the October sunshine clear, the air pure
and life giving, up hill, up hill, long steady
pull to a church on a hill which is Dover Cen
tire, and now behind us to the eastward there
is no limit to our vision in the clear atmos-
phere which lies over New Hampshire. The
blue horizon line away yonder must be al
most where the sky and ocean meet As we
60 on higher the view seems to stretch yet
further into distance east and northeast, and
north, while close below us farms and valleys,
hiliu onH ravipaa lie A hale
mile beyond the church we cross the summit
and the western view Of the Green Noun
tains bursts on us and now we descend into
charming valley, and following meadow
brook which grows to be a river, and is the
east branch of the Deerfeld River, we reach
Wilmington at noon. 1t is pretty village
with first class country inn. Hence it is
twenty miles TO all sorts of places, twenty to
Brattleboro, twenty to Bennington, the same
to Hoosac tunnel and to Coleraine.
We drove but seven miles. lazily, that
bright afternoon, and spent the night at
Jacksonville, village in deep hollow,
where we found good inn and q cider mill
| The cider mill was close to the inn; but it
| had an attachment quite new to me. As the
| jules ran fresh from the apples, before it
| could begin to ferment, it was conducted in a
| pipe to large open eyaporating pan over q
rude brick furnace. The cider flowed steadi-
| ly IN stream into one end OF the pan, which
was some ten or twelve feet long, meandered
through the compartments, boiled as it pro-
gressed, and foamed up at the further end
where it was drawn of and poured into clean
new wooden tubs and pals Cmade on the
| spoD and became a clear, solid, claret-col
ored jelly, without addition Of sugar or any
thing else. 1t is a method of utilizing cider,
reducing it to form which well repays long
transportation to market, and adds to the
city table luxury fully equal to expensive
jellies at a very low price. The jelly is sold
at the factory for about dollar a gallon in
the packages. This is a simpler, cheaper
aud more remuneratiye, as well as more use
full product of apples than cider brandy and
l marvel now at the vast orchards loaded
with fruit, which saw two years ago and
this year in New Hampshire and Vermont
rOttine, ungathered because it would not pay
to pick them. They told me at this cider
mill that they were paying eight to twelve
cents bushel for applesdelvered at the mill.
The most accessible railway station is eigh-
teen miles distant at Shelburne Falls in
Massachusetts. recommend apple Jelly
made without sugar or gelatine as a capital
| addition to good mutton. W.
October, 1881
|