The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1891-11-19
DOWN in MAINE.
VIM. A. Smith, of Spencer Brook,
Revisits the Scenes OF His
BOyhOod.
The Hills in Maine are Bigger
and the Fields are Smaller
Than Formerly.

Gus is a Firm Believer in Reel
procity With a Straw
in Tt.
NEW SHARON, Maine, Nov g., 1891.
FRIEND ROBERT: According to
promise I will drop you a few lines in
reference to our trip and other points
that may be of interest to you. In com
pany with two brothers left Minneap-
oils, Oct. oath, taking the 500 line to
Sault Ste Marie, then the Canadian
Pacific to Montreal, thence to Boston.
The 500, running through northern
Wisconsin and Michigan, traverses a
vast swampy country of cedar, tama.
rack and spruce for six hundred miles
without scarcely a garden patch all the
way, and in sight of the great lakes,
crossing into Canada at Sault Ste Marie.
From there the soil is poor, and very
little farming land in sight until we
| reach Ottawa, where the government
buildings loom up in the distance. The
| city lies on the south side of the Ottawa
river. From there to Montreal the
land is better adapted to agricultural
pursuits.
Montreal is the most pleasant city on
the route and has population OF
275,0O0. The city lies at the base of a
mountain, which we climbed and
viewed the city in all it's grandeur, and
saw the tubular iron railroad bridge,
two miles long, that spans the beautiful
St. Lawrence. On our. way to Boston
we passed through portions of Vermont
and New Hampshire, and the hills and
rocks were so thick there was no room
for a jack rabbit to get a living. I
fully made up my mind to apply for a
from woman born in New
Hampshire. But when we got down to
the State of Maine I concluded to let
the divorce alone and call bygones
bygones. We arrived in Boston after
being on the train three nights and two
days. ,..
From Boston we went to Lawrence,
one of the manufacturing towns, with
it's wooden and cotton mills employing
thousands Of men and women; besides
the boot and shoe business is carried on
quite extensively. We visited the
pumping station and the immense
Reservoir that supplies the city with
water, also the cemeteries that cover
acres of land. Then we visited Haver-
hill, the principal business there is the
manufacture of boots and shoes. In
one of the public parks stands a monu-
ment erected to the memory of Hannah
Dustin, who with her nurse and boy
was captured by Indians in the early
history of Massachusetts, and escaped
by dispatching ten out of twelve of her
captors, the most heroic deed ever &C
complished by a woman. Outside the
city, in passing a pool of water by the
way-side, the following words were
conspicuously printed on a board:
"Suicide Pond, Miss Hannah Chase
drowned June 10, 1872 A little fur
Their on we came to a high hill and saw
Inscribed on a board in large letters,
js'Peters Ridge" named after the slave,
ssBlack Peter" Yet a little further
on we came to the birth place of the
Quaker poet, John G. Whittier, a rude
farm house Nesting in the hillside.
Arriving at my native town, New
Sharon, Maine, after an absence OF
thirty-fve years, hardly anything
looked natural. Playmates of my youth
had nearly all passed away, and those
that were left could not recognize, as
the bloom Of youth has been supplanted
by the ravages of time. The farms are
smaller and the rocks and hills larger,
and the country seems shrunken to one
half it's orr inal area. It is generally
acknowledged that the State has been
on the retrograde for the past twenty
years, and that rea! estate has depre-
ciated in value fifty per cent. The
fruit, numbering interests and water
powers for manufacturing is what sup
ports the people. AS for farming, they
are not lin it, as nearly all the flour
and feed comes from the west, and the
land produces merely nothing but hay
and pasturage. The hay has to be fed
and tons of super-phosp pilates have to be
put onto the improved land. Most
young men, after attaining their ma.
jority, leave for the west, conseq uently
there is a scarcity Of help and large
tracts OF land are being turned into
pastures for sheep. In 1860 gold was
discovered in the Sandy river at New
Sharon, and has been prospected more
IL = -.