Morning journal and courier., 1891-10-05
CORRESPONDENCE.

| tween Lttchheld and Rldgeheld. The | queen village on its sovereign hill has not despised her sister on her little ridges but | has regarded her with pleased, if neces- | sariiy patronizing, benevolence; while the
 little sister has returned that obsequious
 deference and humble praise which con-
 stitute so fragrant an incense to be burn | ed beneath the nose of superior. Litch- | fields arched nostrils have not sniffed | nign languor, musing: "How we'll it l would be if all other towns knew so well their place."
 The tradition that Ridgefeld was settled
 by Litchfeld colonists during the Eocene
 period lacks proof. Peter Farley, Ridge
 fields most prominent historian, does not directly claim the honor. Still Litchfield has never denied the claim, but rather en- | couraged it that Ridgefeld's may profit | thereby.
 The two towns have several things in
 common. Ridgefeld, also, has aborigines.
 The Hawleys, the Lounsberies and the Egglestons are as well-known within Ridgefeld limits as the Woodruffs, the Seymours and the Demings are within | terrestial limits. They both have good old | English syllablio endings "6eld;" and each
 name permits the addingof the aristocratio Fer" to designate a citizen. Moreover in
 each compound the accent falls naturally | and easily upon the penult. Where the l accent falls upon the antipenult, as in New Havener for instance, the full aristocratic flavor is lost. Towns which do not admit | the terminal Ger" at all are of low and commercial origin. Hartford for instance | There is no such thing as Hardforder, or Bridgeporter The terminal 'ian" is of | lesser social import. One occasionally hears of Bostonians and Philadelphians. Even | this terminal is denied to Hartford and Lenox. In New England social and ethnologicsl questions the compounds of | names are quite as important as the names | themselves.
 There has lately come to Litchfeld del | egation of Ridgefelders to confer with the
 Litchfeld house of burgesses. This is not | the first time the two towns have consult ed together. Often before in times of | town crises have bodies of Ridgefelders l been seen toiling up the Shepaug valley. | This time the Ridgsfelders were received with the usual ceremonies. Full town honors greeted their arrival at the station and accompanied them to the hall of bur gesses. There the chief burgess received | them, escorted them within and shut to the I door. When the conference was over the | same ceremony was repeated from the hall | to the station, and the Ridgefelders de- l parted amid the solemn silence befitting l the important acts of a free people. Only | those within will ever know what trans pired in the hall of burgesses. The con | clusions reached will disclose themselves l in acts. With that the world must be con- | tent. Litchfield waits with becoming faith | and patience. The gravity of the question | is manifest in the increased gravity of the | faces of the burgesses.
 A stay in Litchfeld would not be lost | If entirely devoted to a study of Litchfield burgesses. A Litchfeld burgess in his l character of burgess is the most solemn and digniied of men. He knows the supreme importance of his office and he lives up to his knowledge. He deals with principles the magistrates of modern cities deals with cash; and he recognizes | the greater responsibility of his position. | He would no sooner talk to an outsider about his duty or his acts as a burgess than | he would allow an outsider to speak to him | on these subjects. As burgess he neither | smiles nor jokes. You would more easily | catch the sphynx playing puss-in-the cor | ner or pillows-and-keys than a Litchfield | burgess misdemeaning himself as bur gess. The highest ambition of every
 Litchfelder is to reach that point in his | spiritual, intellectual, moral, physical and social development when, in the estima- | tion of his fellow townsmen he is worthy
 to be elected to the offlce of burgess. Put before any Litchfelder the office of burgess of Litchfeld and the office of president of 1 the United States; or of Yale college, and | there would be no moment of hesitance | in his selection. A Litchfield burgess must be tall, of commanding presence and l of sufficient girth to show that he is well-to-do. He must be married and have
 children to show that he is part and parcel of the town. He must be pious and wise;
 learned and lettered; experienced and ex-
 pert. Above everything else he must have perfect command of his jaw and know how to keep it shut under all cir cumstances, amid all temptations. If all l towns of English extraction had preserved | with equal care the dignity of their town | offices how impossible the miseries and corruptions which flood the landi No | more mai estic sight than Litchfield bur gess on his way to church with his wife and children than perhaps the same
 burgess with the same wife and children
 emerging from the same church; for then
 
 l we'll performed and the gracious smile
 which always accompanies a party on his | way to dinner.
 Though knowledge there be none, the
 air is filled with spectulations as to the ob-
 ject of the Ridgefelders' visit. From
 Ridgefeld itself comes news which seems
 to make the matter clear. Ridgefeld is be-
 ing invaded by New York millionaires and
 knows not what to do about it. The con- | of al aft fn a
 matter which sooner or later will affect
 every village in New England. New York
 millionaires are beginning to find out that
 the hill-tops of Litchfeld and Fairfield
 counties, Conn.,, are quite as beautiful as
 the hill-tops of Berkshire county, Mass.
 and that the accessories are far more at
 tractive While Litchfeld is overfiowing
 with butter and honey, Lenox is sterile
 with oleomargarine and glucose. Whilt
 the hens of Ridgefeld are as plump a.
 partridges, sthe hens of Lenox are ss
 scrawney as crows. No one can blame the millionaires; but what are the towns to do about itl How is the flood of corrup : ton to be withstoodi What is to be done with the millionaires who insist on pur chasing property within town limits, building palatial abodes thereon and in
 troducing the unwholesome ways ana
 manners of the metropolisi
 l AS described in @ former letter, tn,
 original Lenox, with its sborigines has beer millionaired out of existence. A simila, !, danger overhangs Ridge6eld. Many o 1 its aborigines have already been exter , minated Those who are left are, there fore, most wise in appealing to Litchfeld
 where millionaires have no foothold, ,wher, they are perfectly understood, where n, 3 humbuggery on the subject is possible t where pristine virtues flourish in archai a purity, and where there is moral force t,
 subdue even billionaires should they dar to assault it's acropolis.
 l Ridgefeld is, moreover, just now exposet 8 to particular and peculiar danger whicl !, calls for immediate and drastic action a Some of it's aborigines emigratsd to Ney
 York years ago. They are now returning not as aborigines. but as New York mil
 lionaires, with pranks and fourishes
 thousand times more offensive than thos l. of the Simon pure New Yorker. Sue n treason fills the pure mind with horror IT The Ltchfeld burgesses are sghast, bu are not to be fabbergas.ed. This is ne' !. thing in their consciousness. Nothing C 6 the kind was ever heard of in the histor ,e of Litchheld. Nothing of the kind coul