The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1885-07-11
A TRIP.
~ LrAs, 1ANk, sALLow rrLlow.

fCorrespondence Of the Democratic Advocate.
MEssRs. EDfToRs We feel greatly reliev-
ed by your permission to commit ourself
further TO print, for we have the cdeoethes
scTibendiin viruIent form, and as we must put
our thoughts on paper, we are gratified that
you permit an intelligent and admiring public
TO be benefited by our affection.
Our gentle companion and ourseli, feeling
happy, rambIed about the grounds and watch
ed the departing visitors and students. We
noticed only three persons from w. and VI
cinity-one, mot entirely disconnected with
the drug business, very amiable and estlma-
BILE gentleman-the others, young friend OF
ours student of the Western Maryland, and
his sister.
We had intended to devote but one day to our
trip, but we were prevailed upon by our col
lege friend to remain over for the st. Joseph's
commencement to be held next day. he hav-
ing made provision for our stay. So, when
the hurly burly Of departing visitors was over,
we were given a guide to our resting place for
the night, about a fourth of a mile away.
We passed through the kitchen garden of
the college. and were told that Archbishop
Hughes, of N. Y, worked there as gardner
before or during the prosecution of his studies
for the priesthood. This set us a thinking
We endeavored to estimate the distance be-
tween a kitchen garden and an Archbishopric,
and then our mind wandered back to the long
ago when. in Ohio, we were initiated into our
first manual labor, not in garden, but IN a
hog-pen! We compared our advance IN the
great and good to his, and in sadness we
| found how weak we were, how very weak, IN
! deed
We whiled away the afternoon upon the.
Rnt here. again. we are in a middle We
don't know whether it was porch, stoop,
or a veranda. 1t may have been all three.
| Quien sa6e, as the Mexicans have it. Who
! knows? In the evening our college friend
| Joined us, and we took a stroll along the side
! of the mountain. We found a chapel and
grotto belonging to the college, and small
/ brick school house belonging to the county.
| Resting on our elbows on fence by the road
| side we had a charming view eastward, from
away up toward the north to well around 10
the south. A resident of the vicinity joined
us and entered into conversation. be pointed
out to us the location of Westminster over
twenty miles away in the S. E. He said that
on a clear day he could plainly see its church
spires rising up from between the hills. Ia
| nevtown Law in plain view, little to the south
| of east, about ten miles away as the crow flies.
| This gentleman was q former resident OF
| Westminster tabout thirteen years agol, and
rather surprised us by saying that our stand
inc point was but few feet higher than the
| hills behind Westminster. His authority for
the statement was the ADVOCATE, to which he
wrote some years since for data on the sub
iect. Certainly the ridge which bounded our
view to the S. E. was marked feature OF tne
Landscape. Later on we had very pleasant
talk with our host for the night. be had been
IN California, came back and bought the farm
! of two hundred acres upon which he now re-
sides. sympathy grew up between us when
he learned that we too had been on the other
side of the Rockies We were thinking of
| going to bed when he rather astonished us by
asking if we ''would have something Have
! something 1t struck upon oCr ear as the
echo of a sound familiar though long departed.
/ of course one-half our friends express their
/ belief that we refused, and of course the other
half are ready to testify that we accepted.
4 Gentlemen. IRE on the fence. We desire
to be on good terms with you all, and hence,
we'll keep our secret.
We learned that our host lets his farm on
shares. and turn his share into whisky, OF
which he manufactures two or three thousand
gallons year. He pays, we think, ninety
cents per gallon duty, and sells it at two dol
lars and fifty cents per gallon. You can get
! all YOU wish al this price, and when you 40
get it please let us know, mot, to use well
known newspaper phrase, necessarily ior
publication. but as an evidence OF good faith
and friendship. We may then get off the
/ fence.
Next morning we found a conveyance
awaiting us for St. Joseph's, which we reached
in time for the opening exercises at 8 CLOCK.
Here we renewed a friendly acquaintance with
Sisters of Charity we had known in the West,
and whom we had not seen for more than
twenty years. We were not long seated IN
the commencement hall when Archbishop
Gibbons and other ecclesiastics entered. and
L.. cd Or
front of the lay visitors. As the young ladies,
dressed in white, with blue sashes, filed in to
the music of the entrance march, in two lines,
and passed before and saluted the Archbishop,
we thought we never before saw anything halt
so charming. The harps and the pianos, and
the singing and the crownings, and the med
ale and ali the other honors, who can write
about them? We were delighted. But when
of a lot of little mites, with light blue stock
ings and laughing, bright eyes, each recogmz,,
| ed by name, and rewarded for occasional
effort to comply with the rules OF the acad,
emy,r our enthusiasm was well nigh beyond
our control. We were unaeeustomed to such
iustice. as never, in the whole course OF our
life. as well as we can recollect, have our good
intentions been recognized. Dear little girls
YOU deserved your reward
At the close of the exhibition our young
lady friend was carried off by good sister
and given her dinner, while we were taken In
charge by our college friend (who seemed to
nossess some influence here alsol, for the
1 same purpose, but we resolutely declined.
4 Our habits, as we'll known i'll our family, are
rather vagrant, and we preferred to stroll as
far as would be permitted without escort,
through the buildings and grounds, munchlng
our crackers and cheese, with which we had
the good sense to provide ourselt to meet an
emergency.
Bearing in mind that we have occupied
more space in the ADVOCATE than a generous
courtesy would entitle us to, we pass over
many things we noted in our ramble. How
ever. we will state that all vestiges of the late
fire have disappeared and a new building
much larger than the former, is growing up
over the old site; the walls were well up above
the ground, and the frames OF the lower WIN
dows were in position.
We closed our investigations as 1t drew near
To train time for our return homeward. We
took leave of our dear friend, who had in view
a sea voyage to Halifax Ito make him sick,
he said) and thence to Minnesota, and again
mt ourself under the protection OF our falr
young companion We took the cars at ST.
Joseph's Ca great convenience to US, by the
byl. our tickets having been procured at En-
| mitsburg and brought down on the train by
our other good friend, the druggist we
| would write that last Wofd WIN capltai y
in fact we would make all the letters capitals,
onlv we know that you would ignore in print
all our efforts to publish the estimation in
which we hold that gentleman.
Two cars instead of one this time on the
diminishing branch-both well filled, and one
of them a Through car; but owing to our
usual luck, we took the other. However, in
dine time, we established ourself comfortably
on the main line, settled our glasses on our
nose, noted several fair faces familiar in
Westminster, and gave ourself up for the re
mainder of our journey to the contemplation
of the crops, the scenery and our own selfsat-
isfaction.
We arrived home without accident, having
| left behind US, for time at least, our bilious
ness and the "sweet recollection of our
debts, even augmented as they were by the
| eynenses of our trip. TRIPTHoLEMUs.
The New York Daily Commercial Bulletin