The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1892-12-15
Especial Correspondence of the Press


NORTH CONWAY, Dec. -, 1892.
Nowhere else is the change of seasons
so delightful as in mountain region.
Even in winter, that most unattractive
of all times in our New England climate,
it is charming in North Conway. The
great icy mountains that surround the
village seem like giant warriors in gilt
tering steely armor watching over the
land below. The winter sunsets are ra-
diant beyond compare, and looking at
the western mountains at shutdown one
fancies again what he believed in child
hood: that if he could get away he might
soon reach the Celestial City yonder,
whose pavements are of shining gold.
and of which the glowing clouds are it's
battlements and turrets, and where the
light comes from about the great
Throne.
Butas yet winter has not come down
from Mt. Washington. There has been
Long Continued Indian Summer.
Never was there more beautiful Oc-
tober than the last, when the trees were
brilliant as the summer clouds, the air
clear and sparkling as Iystal and de-
licious and exhilarating as wine, and the
mountains were like groups of barbaric
kings clad in gorgeous crimson and gold,
guarding the enchanted Saco intervales,
and the whole landscape blazed in rain
bow-colored splendor.
But Natures carnival came to an end,
and the woods and mountains put off
their glory, and then came the mellow
Indian summer, that fingers yet. The
days are wild, and the sky glows at dawn
and after sunset with pale, pure, opal
like tints that all through November
and this first part of December have
presaged, according to the oldest inhabi-
tants "a long spell O. pleasant weather"
the roseate flush that suffused Moat
mountain from wooded base to rocky
summit in the very early mornings, be-
fore most of the world is awake. Driv-
ing or walking over the hard frozen
roads is delightful now. Through leaf
less boughs there are enchanting pictures
that at times when we oftenest look in
their direction are screened by thick TO-
liage. 1t is a time one observes the
characteristics, the Municipalities of
trees, when, as Ruskin teaches, the
architecture of forests and of the whole
| landscape may be studied. The two or
three furries Of snow have soon melted
| away, and only for the
Glittering Ice-Cascades
that day by day grow larger on the
dusky granite sides of the White Horse
and Humphrey Lodges, and the rapidly
shortening twilights, one might easily
fancy it were the very early spring in
stead of the beginning of winter.
But save that there is certain stimu-
lus in beautiful landscape always be-
| fore ones eyes all the year round, life at
summer resort is depressing and not
entirely morally wholesome. All sum-
mer there is whirl of gaiety and rush
| of business and work. The cookbook
ing, well-dressed world is here on its
holiday, and with prodigal generosity
makes it lively for everybody; there is
not dull hour in the day-hardly in the
tive nty-four hours.-when one morning
the work. a-day world gets up and finds
| its fine, diverting and, worse than all,
| profitable, world has been whisked away
| as suddenly as Aladdin's palace was
transported to Africa, and the poor,
drudging world has neither the genie OF
the ring nor of the lamp to transport it
back before twelvemonth has elapsed.
And so months of pure loafng are in
evitable, and though ''to loaf and invite
ones SOUP may be at times commend
| able. to loaf and hate ones self, and in
wardly curse ones self, is quite another
matter. However, winter life here is
| less lifeless than it once was. There are
more people, for one thing. The increas-
| ing business of the two railroads and the
several quarries have brought many new
people into the town. The project of an