The new North-west. [volume] (Deer Lodge, Mont.) 1869-1897, 1886-11-05
1886. WHOLE NO. 9O4.
JAY GoULDS WALL.
A PHILOSOPHER WHO TELLS MEMS
CHARACTER FROM THEIR FENCES.

GF1Ht1AS FfhNTU ECiNSESs
The Enclosures of Prominent Den, and
How They Tell What tho Owners are
Liiso 80 A New Method of Character
Reading.
A week ago was as oil unconscious Of tho
social value of fences as the fercest person
who searches this column ct fence lore. A
little visit to en- artist friend who makes his
home on tho crest Of the hill that reaches
lown to the Hudson, back of Irvington, first
opened my eyes The hundreds of millions Of
iollars that live along this hill have made
wen the fences significant. Tho wooden or
ron or stone barriers that border the road
MI tell of the characters of tho owners as
plainly as if the rich men had come out and
written them in the dust. At least, that is
what my philosopher friend said as we
1roye past the beautiful villas, and he ought
TO know.
Take Mr. Jay Gould's fence, for instance.
Knowing the man as you do, what would you
expect to find! A finlsy structure that would
let half the COWS of the neighborhood stray
into the grounds, or give wandering tramps
an opportunity to drop in and call on the
little great man. Well, hardly. You know
that of all the fences that shut in those acres
of smiling lawn and shaded woodland that
stretch in country homes for miles and miles
along the Hudson there is no stronger fence
than his There is no need to tell you that.
You know it already, even though you have
never seen his country place.
TO SHUT IN MILLIONS.
The fence is built as if to shut in millions.
It's broad stone sections, closely cemented,
show not the smallest crevice through which
any of the outside world can penetrate The
stone coping that crowns the whole sheds the
rain just as its owner shakes off the envy of
those ebout him, and the thick masonry,
strong as prison wall, seems to keep out
everything of sympathy and of affection. 1t
is too hard climbing for these gentler virtues
to get over the fence. And then, as if to
crown the whole, a thick hedge rises behind
the wall and selfishly shuts out from free
view the beautiful grounds and the river
below But not all selfshly. In one place a
great tree has grown just in the line of the
wall, and so that the tree may not be harmed
the solid fence takes a sudden dip around it,
making charitable V, with the tree in the
middle and then continuing in the same
straight line.
Massive square gate posts guard the two
entrances, ard the gates are of severely plain
timbers, heavy enough to do duty as batter
Ing rams There are two lodges, too one at
each gate Past one of these the public is
usually allowed to drive, to see the grounds.
The other is the private entrance, and is
always jealousy closed. The public can go
just SO far and no further. That is what Mr..
Gould's fence is like. Couldn't you have
guessed it!
Only few doors from Mr.. Gould's place
Mr.. Jatfray the dry goods man, has built up
fence to stand between himself and the out
side world. 1t is just such good, sub
ytantial, Presbyterian sort of fence as you
would expect from self-reliant business
man. No show there, no pretense, nothing
Of the kind. A low, smoothly finished stone
wall, just to let people know where the lawn
ends and the road begins. There isn't much
collage i'll the way, ana from the road one
can see far back, after the manner of places
that have nothing to hide. On the side he
has left an old-fashioned wooden paling
standing, a fifty-year-old fence, such as we
all used to climb and swing ON years and
years ago when she was with us still-She
with her young eyes that somehow have
never since been matched. But that was
long ago. and really hasn't very much to do
with Mr.. Jaffray's character shown in his
fences. Only very successful man could
afford to let such an cid fence stand as the
one at the side of the house. but with his in
dependent principles he doesn't mlnd.
THE MOST ARTISTIC FENCE
Tiffany, who runs his fingers through heaps
of diamonds as carelessly as another dips water
In his hands, and whose eyes have learned to
oil
this to the veriest passer-by who cares to look
at his fence. Next door to the stone church,
and only short distance from Jaffray's
home, anybody can tell that those broad
gates lead up to the home of one who is at
heart an artist There is no striving after
effect, no straining to make an impression,
and yet the entrance is perhaps the most
artistic of any that tempt one along the road.
Double gates Of real rustic work-not the
factory made stuff-invite you in, and over
head a kind of canopy reaches from post to
post and forms graceful arch. A paneled
rustic fence, with each panel different from
the other, tells of character not afraid of in
novations, and suggested carelessness about
The place makes it look homelike, as If he
really lived there and did not keep it for show
alone.
Driving slowly homeward while the shad-
ows were purpling on the hills across the
river the substantial wall that shuts in the
Harper place seemed all in sympathy with
the quiet of the hour The lawn comes clear
down to the edge of the bank of masonry,
and here and there creepS over it as if they
were the best of friends. Daisies are not
afraid to grow there, and between the crew
ices they peep out boldly as if they knew they
would not be disturbed Conservative and
English as the careful head of the great pub
fishing house, the wall with the banked-up
earth reaching to its very top, solid as the
rampant of fort, has yet something of
friendliness about it, and really believe it is
the only place for fifteen miles about where a
tramp would dare enter and ask fer food.
And now having learned so much fence
lore, let me give just one more picture and
you shall guess at the character yourself. A
fence built of big, round powders. SO large
that two of them reach above your waist,
with mass of greenery growing over all,
making it look more rustic than it really is.
An artificial rustic gate, made in the shops,
o gate of boughs and twisted roots, turned
by machinery and not by nature. Over this
queer wooden gate, that tries 50 hard to be
natural sand has been sifted until it gl;stens
In the sunlight as if it were of iron. So you
can take your choice and call it iron or wood,
or anything you please, and yet be right. The
strip of turf that runs down to the roadway
is kept sclupulously neat, and the bravest
daisy that ever lifted its head to the sunlight
wouldn't dare show itself in such painfully
out-of- -the-way place That is Mr.. Fields
eence.-T. A. Duneka in New York World.