The Republican journal., 1886-11-25
Our George at Hartland.

HE ATTENDS TIE OPENING OF THE SEBASTI-
COOK AND MOOSEHEAD RAILROAD.
have seen most every thing opened, from a
clam to a bottle of wine, and concluded to take
i'll the opening of the railroad at Hartland,
which operation am happy to say was accom-
plshed last Wednesday with much enthusiasm
and great rejoicing.
Belfast is much interested in this road, as
well she may be. With the Megantic road
completed to Greenville, at the foot Of Moose
head Lake, and the gaps filled in from there to
Hartland, we cannot help deriving great deal
OF benefit from the enterprise, no matter where
the outlet of the Megantic road may be. That
all this will be accomplished, no one who was
at IIartland at the opening of their road has
any doubts. The coming winter, 1900 men
will be put at work between Greenville and
the State line, on the Megantc road. Eight
miles of road are now completed from Pitts
field, from the Maine Central to Hartland.
Without doubt. all the necessary arrangements
have been made, or soon will be, for the extern
sion of the road nine miles further, from Hart
land to Harmony. When left Hartland, only
a matter of $4,000 stood in the way of its fulfill
ing the parties interested in the matter, there
is not possibility of failure, when all are so
anxious for the success of the road. From
Harmony, the road is to pass through the town
of Wellington to Abbott, where il will cross
the Pscataquis road. From Abbott to Monson
there is already a narrow guage road. which is
to be widened to standard width. Here is the
CON of bn Slata mel of no
contemplated road is very easy to build, the
last stretch, from Monson to Greenville, being
the hardest part of the whole distance. Now
if you will look on big map of the State,
don't take a little railroad map, for the rail-
road that issues it always makes its line almost
>traight,) you will see that the proposed line as
have given it, is almost direct from Belfast to
the Lake, while from Pittsfield to Bangor and
thence over the Piscataquis road to the Lake. is
a, gentleman from Monsoon expressed it, "like
starting at the top of horses head, following
down his face, up under his nose to his jowls,
when you could cut right across his neck as
the road as projected would make it." After
hearing his illustration, have not troubled N.Y.
self TO find a better one. A Monson gentleman
interested in slate said to me, "Why sir, we
put our slate on the cars and run it into BAN
COR. and pay freight on it, and then we are
farther from Boston than we were at Monson."
The Belfast delegation consisted of Hon. 5.
l.. Milken. Collector Boardman, Postmaster
Bean and Asst. Postmaster Davis. A. A.
lloweS. f. i. Carrie, Chas. Swift, l.. T. Shales.
Clas. Bickford. Samuel Ellis. DR.. Beecher, J.
y. Stewart, Chas. CHM, Chas. Brown and the
Journals representative. At Pittsteld we had
an opportunity to see that thriving town be-
fore the arrival of the Hartland train. After
short stay there we heard the whistle of the
locomotive "IIartland,' and the train. under
the command of the Supt., James Mitchell,
pulled up TO the platform, and we Were soon
on our way to Hartland.
About the first person saw on entering the
car was Mayo, of the Fairfield journal. His
face was wreathed in four dollar smile. and
when he took hold of my hand thought had
GOT it into stone crusher. When Mayo is
glad to see any one he is awful glad. If
| could have had my pick of newspaper man
to meet on this occasion. should have selected
Mayo, for he knows everybody in Hartand
(and guess everywhere else.l There was ).
l.. Boardman. of the Home Farm, and Skin
ner. of the Eastern State on the train. and at
liartland we met McNutt. of the Fredericton
y. b. Farmer. Hart, of the Monsoon Slate. and
| Haskell. of the Pittsfeld Advertiser The
country through which the road passes from
Pitt>tield to Hartand, is as flat as minstrel
Joke. Al no place is the land over thirtv-.ive
| teet above the Maine Central track. There is
no cut nor fill more than three or four feet
deep, and no bridges on the whole eight miles.
The road was built i'll exactly 80 DAYS. and re-
| fleets great credit on it, builder Mr.. Mitchell,
who has pushed the thing with all his energy.
and that is saving good deal. There will be
a station for Palmyra, which will be the only
one Oh the road. This will be at Iron Bridge
crossing. said there Were no bridges, but as
| this is only "a little one for a cent | hardly
call it a bridge. At IIartland is a pretty little
depot and freight house. As the train pulled
in we saw big crowd gathered at the depot.
and heard the strains of the Norridgewock
| band. The streets We're full of people and
everything betokened gala day. Business
was suspended and every one seemed bent on
having a holiday. Under the guidance of
| Mayo. we proceeded to the Park House, but
| we had hardly arrived before Mr. C. j. Shaw
| drove up with a pair of steppers hitched to a
line carriage, and put it at the disposal of
Mayo and his friends. | looked at the horses
| and then at Mayo. and had a feeling that | was
tempting Providence to trust myself to his
driving, but l later discovered that he can
| drive pair of horses full as well as he can a
| quill, and as James Russell Lowell wolld say.
'he is no SLOUGH at that
| We found Ilartand brisk, enterprising
town, but the journal has recently had a
| full description of it. l will not duplicate it,.
| We visited the stables of Mr.. Shaw, who is a
great lover and also owner of good horses.
The stables are neat and clean, and while not
eNtravasantly finished or furnished, yet every
reasonable modern convenience can be found
| in them. We made a call on the celebrated stall
hon "Genl. Withers," and found him comfort
ably eating his dinner in big box stall, stand
| ING i'll straw up to his knees and apparently
| not caring snap anything about the rejoicing
down town. Mr.. Shaw has a fine residence
| and handsome grounds and evidently enjoys
life.
We had the pleasure of meeting Mr.. Linn.
the shawl manufacturer, who kindly showed
us over his mill, although it was not running
on taat day, and then invited us to his house,
where beside a cheerful open fire. we enioved
one of his cigars, and had pleasant chat with
him. Mr.. Lynn is about 81 years of age, al
though he does not look it. He was born in
Scotland he told us, and in answer to an enquiry
where, he said with twinkle of his eve,
"Neel, sometimes mon will tell me that he
was born in London, and | say London is a
big City, but the place where | was born was
| Bigger"
During the day Mr.. Mitchell was running his
train of three cars from Hartland to PittsfeId
and back, giving all who cared to 60 a free
ride, and the cars were crowded each time. 1t
took little over half an hour to make the
round trip. The President of the road, Thomas
Temple NJ. p. from Fredericton n. B. and one
of the directors from the same place, Mr..
Nanwart were present, and participated in the
ceremonies i'll the evening. Quite number of
| distinguished men from different parts of the