New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1890-11-23
AFOOT IN NEW-ENGLAND.
,,uRIJNG NOTES OF A WEEKS WALK UP
THE CONNECTICUT RIVER VALLEY.
VII,


nod special reasons for wishing to get to Bra,ue-
, ,'an that doy. and besides / wanted ride in
s,ome inst for the sake of riding in one. But
:. como points my ride in the stage was less
aareo.ble than walking would have been, hrst
- which was that the stage started at the Wholly
unnatural hour of 5 o'clock in the morning
7 was staying that night at farmhouse owned
hv n friend whom l had discovered, and, WIN
thc CHASTITY vision of that unearthy O'CLOCK
start in my mind | went to bed eariy-at ha'i-
mast Q. | had been in bed about ten minutes
when my friend raped on the door and told me
that H. was o'clock. / came to the surface Oh
| the feather-bed got up and with the ald Oh
| match consulted the clock and found that nc
was right. | dressed and went down. ate 1e"
| nieces of pie and took a front seat with inc
| driver in the stage. 1t spoke well for the good
| sense of the community that there were no other
passengers shrunk inside OF the big fur over
| coat which had borrowed and envied the African
| exporer lie never had to get up at O'CLOCK III
| the morning. To be sure, was forced to ADMIT
he might meet roaring lions, but roaring lions
were nothing to coming out of q feather-bed at
| o'clock in the morning.
| II was beginning to get light and cultivated
the driver. He was q man who never disputed
! n statement made to him, nor, on the other hah"
| ever believed one. Much driving Of stage had
| made him wise in this regard. lie SAID thac he
| had driven for forty years. He swore but NUE.
| and IL seemed to me, with great dlscrlniihatioh
| His stage had four wheels two seats and top
| and IL was drawn by two horses. The on
horse moved with swinging gait like brlndled
cow, never looking to the right nor the lett, ano
though he seemed hopelessly to mix up his legs, ne
| never made misstep The other horse attempted
| more style, but you couldn't depend on him. lie
| .1-a1n n
scenery good deal, but he was no such horse for
a stage as the other The day before he had de-
veloped the bad habit of occasionally striking
one of his hind feet against the opposite ankle
"xorkinc himself" the driver called il, by which
| I suppose he meant that he hurt himself with
| one of the sharp points or calks on his shoe. On
| these occasions he would hold up his injured
| foot for some little distance and travel on three
| legs His carriage at these times was striking,
| but not digniied; still he seemed to get along
lust as we'll and / suggested to the driver that he
| keep one or two of his legs tied up in Sing all
| the time, and let them down when the others were
| tired, something the principle OF Baron Mum
chausens dog, and he replied that there might
be something in it, though L could see that he
never intended to try it. He said that he had
leather gaiter which he would put on the horses
leg and stop bis foolishness.
ponds and rivers of fog in the valleys. Some
times we would go down through of these
valleys full of fog and drive half mile or so
in it and then come out and look back and I'M
| agine we were in a balloon above the clouds-at
least did, and the driver didn't definitely state
that he did not imagine it. We had gone some
three or four miles, and 1t was much lighter
| though not yet sunrise, when O man came out
of a house and gave the driver letter to mail
and also quart BOTTLE saying, as he did 80, that
! he wanted the same The driver sagaciOusy
smelled of the cork and said all right, and we
drove on. The reader may remember that the
State of Vermont enjoys the benefits of an I'M
compromising prohibition of the liquor traffic.
talked with the driver and found that he did
much toward aaying the thirst along his line.
He merely acted as agent and common carrier
between the thirsty one and the State agent for
the sale of liquors for medical purposes at the
end of his route He remarked as he tipped
his whipash at thistle by the side Of the road,
that State agents were human thereby, ] suspect,
stating q great truth. Personally the driver got
his stmulant from Boston. what / like, he
said to me, and what we use in our family ex-
clusvely, is this ere rock n rye. You see, they
take good rye whiskey and dissolve rock candy
in it, an that gives it body an flavor an makes
o. very smooth drink. get it from Boston, freight
paid, in four gallon 1t is smooth stuff, and
slips down my throat like butter through tin
horn" We plunged through the fog-filled val
lcys and toed up the cold clammy hills for
several miles when the sun arose and after some
little time struggled through the clouds and lighted
up the rivers of fog and they looked as if the
soft feecy cloud-banks of summer afternoon
had down into the valleys to visit the
streams of sparkling water which leaped over the
| at
winding road far up on the side of high hill
and two valleys united almost at our feet and
then stretched away ten miles to the southeast
as One-half-filled with visiting cloud winding
away snow-white and feecy far the eye
could reach, all lighted by the morning peep
ing above a sullen-looking black cloud knew that
it was dangerous, but could not refrain from
speaking of the beauty of the scene spread ont
before The driver took light cut with the
whip at the nigh horse on general principles. and
without looking at the scene, replied Yes fine
country-darn good corn land"
Every two three miles il seemed TO me we
stopped at little country postofice. Sometimes
there a crossroads village at which places
the postoflice was usually in the store; at other
places there was no attempt at n town. and it was
in an isolated farmhouse. The driver would
carry in the mailbag and the postmaster would
unlock il, and together they would look over the
: contents and sort out what intended for that
: Office. In perhaps the majority of cases women
, were either the postmasters, at least deputies
At Yucatan we waited for the pOstmistress Il
, finish washing her dishes but at Honduras thu
8 lady in charge was waiting for us, and can't
out and got the sack and brought it back. giving
the driver chance to refill his pipe. The driver
8 was given number of packages to deliver her,
and there, and was intrusted with numberlesi
- errands, ranging from the conveying of wore
= from the postmaster at Eagle Grove to the Hon
Moses Spencer that he 1.-THE postmaster would
support him the Hon. Moses for county treasurer
to the selecting of two yards of pink calico for
= woman near Websterville At last we reached
d Blue Pond, which was half way. and where ",