The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1885-06-24

democratic party of Vermont has been
snubbed? This seems to be the public i'm
preston. Chiefs Atkins and Smaley, If the
Washington dispatches are to be credited,
have been in Washington seeking the scalp
of Collector Wells of Burlington. The col
lector is armed so strong in honesty" that
the charges of offensive partisanship or of
any kind of misdoing, constructive or real
pass by him " like the idle wind" So the
president, with a wholesome respect for
republican senate, or with higher regard
for his own pledges, refuses to remove
General Wells to make room for Boss
Smalley. No wonder that gloom deeper
than that which Nasty says is felt at " the
corners " pervades the democratic breast in
Vermont, and that Bascom, who sees his
hopes of postoffice disappearing like dis
solving views, thinks, as he expressed it the
other evening, that "civil service reform is
all dashed humbugw
l.. NJ. HUTCHINSON sends us the following
concerning the Vermont colony in Dakota,
dated at Loyalton, June 14th: 1--WE arrived
at Loyalton May 3lst with nothing but
shelter tents to protect us from the storm.
Some Of the younger portion of the colony
thought it little rough, but the old sol
diers could put up with it and smile. The
weather was rather against us, for it was
very rainy and wet nearly all of the week
but, notwithstanding the weather, the boys
took hold with will and began erecting
homes on their claims and breaking the
vast prairie. The most of them have broken
up two or three acres of land and put in
some potatoes and vegetables for winter
use. You will see by the heading of my
letter that the town is named Loyalton
which, | think, is very appropriate, the
colony being composed mostly of old SOL
diers. The members of the colony are well
pleased with the location. A very few have
returned to Vermont as might be expected
from the number that came out, the colony
numbering seventy-seven. We have started
a town.-have one store built, twenty-five
by thirty-two feet, and another is ready to
put up. Two other buildings have been put
up, one being a stable, and several more
dwellings will be erected this summer 1t
! begins to look like business here, and can
not see why the colony will not be a sue
cess. Crops are looking finely in the terri
tory. Rain has been abundant and every
| thing seems promising. Our town is twenty
miles from Ipswich, the terminus of one
branch of the Milwaukee & st. Paul rail.
road, eleven miles from Roscoe, with rail.
way survey right through town and good
surrounding country to back it up. The
climate is very healthy, the atmosphere be
ing bracing All of the members of the
colony are well. We held religious services
to-day there being some thirty-seven out tC
church We now hold our meetings in {
store, but the sturdy Vermonters will soor
erect churches and school-houses."
THE Free Press of Monday contained al
editorial article on the new state library
building which displayed an unpardonabl,
confusion of ideas and things and an mex
cusable failure to distinguish between &
community and its pestiferous malcontents
:" 1t is not easy to see," the Free Press de
clares, "what the Montpelier papers expec
to gain by insisting that the legislature in
tended that separate building should b'
erected for the state library" We are no
aware that the "papers " of Montpelier hav,
been insisting" A paper published il
Montpelier has been characteristically effu
sive in its deliverances on the subject of tn
new building, but the Free Press experience
should teach it not to fasten upon any com
munity anything that paper may say
knows, or might have known, that the Ar
gus racket is the combined product of Henr,
Oviatt and Thomas L. Wood. Mr.. Wood
who is assistant state librarian, favored
separate building. He had some pet notion
about library, and is all unreconciled t.
an annex. He is the victim OF mild typ
of lunacy on this subject and employs hi
time, we are credibly informed, in studyin
up points " for the Argus writer to deveo
and publish. The Free Press labors to shoy
that the Legislature intended to provide fo
an annex, not separate building. Whethe
it did or not is immaterial now. Certain
is that a separate building on land easterl
from the state-house and in line with it wa
the scheme discussed in the legislature an
outside of that body. The public got tn
impression that this was the proposition
The act authorizing the erection of tn
= building bears the plain language of sue
an impression and that locality was the on
earliest under consideration by the con
mission. The letter and spirit of the ac
however, equally favor the annex finall
adopted by the commission, and very likel
such plan was talked of by some of tn
friends of a building for the library durin
the discussions of the measure last fall TIL
Free Press article conveys the impressio
that Montpelier is full of fdisgruntlement, bo
/, derng on rebellion against the decision of til
commissioners, and concludes "The poir
+, has been decided and ground broken for til
library wing-and the Montpelier peopl
who are not satisfied may as well acquiesC
in the decision first as last" The FIR,
; Press has no sufficient foundation for tn
boorish remark. Montpelier people " az
citizens of Vermont. They have paid the
full share of the taxes and have contribute
, no small sums to the erection of the publ
buildings for the state. They have I'll
same right to an opinion and to preferenC
:, in public matters that the people of an
other municipality of the state have. The
may have exercised that right in referenC
: to the library building just as the people
n the state at large have. Opinions diff,
u elsewhere in the state, and Montpeli,
n people are not all of one mind. Some
n the most ontspoken criticisms upon the d
e cision of the commission come from pc
Il.