The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1891-01-22

EtLrI-lgEfltNaNT @fl
Il have plenty to read up here. and
can't say that ! get lonesome ct all;
though / have no neighhors. said
Mrs. Charles Brink the other day in
her cottage on the summit of Overlook
mountain In the Cntskills. Since the
winter signal service station was aban-
doned a year ago on the top Of Mount
Washington Mr.. Brink and his little
family live at q higher altitude during
the cold months than any one near the
Atlantic seaboard. MI. Brink is in
charge Of the property of the company
which owns the highest mountain
house in the Catskills, and during the
~severest winter weather. when gales
are particularly lively round the sum
NIT of the fine old hill, he and his fam
lily are there alone in their snug little
cottage, 5000 feet above the level of
| the sea.
About five years ago Mr.. Drinks
physician told him that if he continued
living at West Hurley he would die of
consumption. He was told he must
make a change of climate, and so
Brink made the change. Instead.
however, of going several hundred
miles away. he changed climates in a
perpendicular direction, and by max
ing his home over 5000 feet above the
sea he found the dryness of atmos-
phere that was essential to his recov-
cry. Now a more vigorous and hardy
mar could scarcely be found in the
state. Mountain air has done won
ders for MI. Brink, and he is just
about to spend his fifth winter on the
summit of Mount Overlook.
Mountaineers get so used to running
up and down hill, that Mr.. Drinks
hired man thinks nothing of travelling
nearly three miles every day far down
the mountain side for the little milk
the family consumes; and, though no
n else lives on top Of the mountain.
the Brink family is not deprived of
social pleasures during the winter, for
now.and then sleigh loads of people
climb the steep ascent from Woodstock
and have a jolly party and lots of
dancing on top of the mountain. The
snow-clad country below is plainly in
view on every clear morning from
near Albany to the Highlands on the
Hudson. Parts of several states are
seen, and the view is as fine in the
clear air of winter, when everything is
snow-clad, as during the season of
verdure. Mr.. Brink generally makes
n or two trips a week down the
mountain to the post-ofice and stores
at Woodstock. During the great biz
card. however, lie was cut off from in
%tercourse with the rest of the world
for about two weeks by the impossible
nature of the roads.
His wife is very fond of reading. and
though her little daughter is away
from her at school she finds plenty to
occupy her attention with an ample
supply of reading matter and her
household duties. One of Mr.. Drinks
occupations during the winter is fill
ing the ice-house for summer use at
the hotel. He cuts the ice from a res
ervoir of water that is kept on the
mountain top, and last winter, when
the whole eastern country feared that
it would not be able to harvest any ice
at all. he succeeded in getting his
usual supply without much trouble,
which shows that the top of Overlook
mountain, besides being a solitary
place of winter residence, is also not
a little colder than the surrounding
country.