Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1883-11-09
''City BOarders'---A Victim of Fancy
Work.


Mr.. Bartlett of Carroll county, n. H., is
disguised with 'city boarders." He gives
his opinion of them in style which no one
can misunderstood in the New England Far
mer. Doubtless many other farmers have
had a similar experience with city idlers
But there are all kinds of people among those
who board out in the country; in our neigh
borhood majority of them have been re-
spectacle in character, and not inclined to
trospass on the farms but we cannot expect
much from that portion whose principal bust
ness is to kill time and spend money earned
by others.
In the columns of Religious and Family
Journal which comes regularly every week
to my house l noticed week or two ago, a
short article under the heading, 'What Can
be Made of Birch Bark, and beginning with
the statement that 'In almost every girls
trunk after mountain trip is large or small
bundle of the birch bark, sometimes procured
with definite idea of its being utilized, and
in many cases merely because almost every
one had some to take home" The article
then goes on to describe on the authority of
New York fashion magazine, how various
articles of doubtful utility-and of undoubt-
ed ugliness unless made with more taste than
is usually the case with the fancy work" of
idle women who have nothing better to do
can be fabricated out of this material stolen
from somebody's wood lot
Now, l am one of the sufferers from this
aesthetic vandalism of city loafers, who, hav-
ing more money than brains, and more time
on their hands than they could usefuly en-
ploy, have been idling away the past summer
in our village, patronizing us rustics with
airg and buf AZ ba
evidently fully possessed of the conviction
that we had no rights that they were bound to
respect even in our own fields and woods
fine lot of birches, which had been rather
proud Of as well as another lot belonging to
one OF my neighbours, were hacked and skin
ned by these artistic depredators, who want
ed to carry away "a large or small bundle of
the birch bark, and never stopped to think
that they had no more right to ruin my trees
than to set fire to my house. Two or three lit
tie hickory trees that had planted and looked
after very carefully, intending to leave them
IN their natural position in the woods until l
should be ready to transplant them to a spot
already selected near my house, were cut
down and trimmed into canes by couple of
those metropolitan pests, whom found few
days afterward in possession of the stolen
property, and who were evidently struck
with genuine surprise that should have any
objection to their helping themselves from
my wood lot without going through the form
of asking leave.
l do not think that am churish or inhos-
pitable, or that can be considered unreason-
able in thus Obiecting to the depredations of
these thoughtless visitors. The absolute cash
value of my skinned birohes or my destroyed
hickories was but triAe l would willingly
have given the marauders five times their
value in money, if they would have let them
alone and kept away from my premises Nor
is it so much that the particular trees destroy
ed were particular pets of my own, aud SO
possessed sentimental value" that annoys
ne. The exasperating part of it is the wan
ton disregard of my rights, and the unruffled