Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1886-10-16
CooPERsrowN.

COOPERsTOwN.
The Picturesque village Where the Great
Novelist Wrote.
The early start Of the Tally ho coaches
for this trip is one of the chief sensations
of the quiet village Of Richfield Springs.
The hustle to collect the laggards, the
importance of the conductors and drivers,
the scramble up the ladders, the rush to
get congenial seat neighbors, the fine
spirits Of everybody evoked by the fresh
morning air, and the elevation on top of
the coaches give the start an air OF jolly
adventure. Away they go, the big red
and yellow arks swinging over the hills
and along the well watered valleys, past
the twin lakes to Otsego, over which
hangs the romance of CLoper's tales,
where steamer waits. This is one of
the most charming of the little lakes that
dot the interior of New York; without
bold shores or anything sensational ia
its scenery, it is poetic ecape. There
are few fishing lodges and summer cot
tages on its banks Zone of them distin-
gnished as Sinners Rest" and hotel
or two for famous dinners; but the trav-
eler would be repaid if there were moth
ing except the lovely village of Coopers-
town embowered in naples at the foot.
The town rises gently from the lake, and
is very picturesque with its church spires
and trees and handsome mansions; and
nothing could be prettier than the fore
ground, the gardens, the alleys of will
lowe, the long boat wharves with hun
dreds Of row-boats and il-boats, and
the exit of the Susquehanna river, which
here swirls away under dropping foil
age, and begins its long journey to the
sea. The whole village has an air of
leisure and refinement. For our tourists
the place was pervaded by the spirit of the
necromancer who has woven about it the
spell of the romance; but to the ordinary
inhabitants the long residence of the
novelist here was not halt SO important
as that of the very distinguished citizen
who had made great fortune out OF
some patent, built here fine house, and
adorned his native town. It is not &C
very many years since Cooper died, and
yet the boatmen and loungers about the
lake had only the faintest impression Of
the man-there was a writer by that
name, one of them said, and some of his
family lived near the house Of the grea
man already referred to.
The magician who created Coopers
town sleeps in the old English-looking
churchyard of the Episcopal church, in
the midst Of the graves of his relations,
and there is well-worn path to his
headstone. Whatever the common peo-
pie of the town may think, it is that
grave that draws most pilgrims to the
village. Where the hillside cemetery
now is, on the bank of the lake, was his
farm, which he visited always once and
sometimes twice a day. He commonly
wrote only from 10 to IL in the morn
ing, giving the rest of the time to his
farm and the society of his family. Dur
ing the period of his libel suits, when
the newspapers represented him as mo-
rose and sullen in his retirement, he was
on the contrary 10 the highest spirits
and the most genial mood. "Deer.
slayer" was written while this contest
was at its height. Driving one day from
his farm with his daughter he stopped
and looked long over bis favorite pros
pect on the lake and said: II must write
one more story, dear, about our little
lake." At that moment the Deerslayer
was born. He was silent the rest of. the
way home and went Immediately to his
library and began the story.
The party returned in a moralizing
vein. How vague already in the village
which his genius has made known over
the civilized world is the fame of Cooper!
To our tourists the place was saturated
with his presence, but the new genera
ticn cares more for it's smart prosperity
than for all his romance. Many Of the
passengers on the boat had stopped at a
lakeside tavern to dine, preferring a
good dinner to the associations which
drew out sentimentalists to the spots that
were hallowed by the necromancer's i'm
agination. And why not? One can not
live in the past forever. The people on
the boat who dwelt il Cooperstown were
not talking about Cooper, perhaps had
not thought of him for year. The
ladies, seated in the bow of the boat,
were comparing notes about their rheu-
matism and the measles of their children
one of them had been to the funeral OF
a young gial who was to have been mar
ried in the autumn, poor thing, and she
told her COMPANIONS who were at the
funeral and how they we're dressed and
how little feeling Nancy seemed to show,
and how shiftless it was not to have
more flowers, and how the bridegroom
bore up-well. perhaps it's an escape
she was 30 weakly.
A Word to Mothers.
Philadelphia Star.
just word to mothers. Have yor
daughters? If you have, does not every
days experience, as recorded in the daily
papers. in regard to the foundations an