The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1892-10-08
THE COUNTRY NEWSPAPER.

THE COUNTRY NEWSPAPER.
The Companion lately printed an
article calling attention to the trivial
nature of much Of the local news in
country papers. The items were,
indeed, very trivial. But what il
they are read with the greatest
interest?
The reporter is often an aged
man who knows everybody. Many
OF the items have quaint literary
favor which makes them interesting
to those who do not know the
persons and places referred to.
They have the interest of old asso.
Citations to many others.
For instance, | give the weekly
budget from Spruceland, together
with the mental comment, as he
reads it OF one who used to live
there:
SPRUCELAND. !
Aaron Putnam has caught 100
skunks, 27 woodchucks, 10 foxes
and 3 bears SO tar this fall
What. old trapper, at it still?
You gave me my first lesson in
woodland lore. | we'll remember
the time when the bear came down
the mountain in the night and stole
the fresh meat from the open pantry
window. You took me with you
in pursuit, and was thoroughly
frightened when the bear turned and
faced us, until you put bullet in
brain.
Abner Baldwin has moved of
from the old Benz Gutterson
place.
So, then, another "old place. is
broken up, and must be counted
among the abandoned farms! Grass
will grow in the old road, the farm
yard will be filled with a tangled
crop of smartweed, the lilac trees
will 60 untrimmed, and the cinna-
MON rosebushes will choke the path
way to the weather beaten door.
May Martin teaches in the King
dom and Slab Hollow district this
fall.
[Riverdale Academy girl, no
doubt, teaching her first term of dis
trict school, with about eight pupils.
Taught my first term there in the
winter of 1873. Can it be as
long ago as that 'Slab Hollow"
indeed! Very hollow. Sun rose at
half past ten and set before three
Deacon Isaac Pettengill has gone
down below to spend the winter
with his son Charles, who mas fine
position shipping potatoes West.
The old gentleman is quite feeble.
l suppose the old Vermont people
will speak Of Massachusetts, and
Connecticut as "below" as long as
they live. No doubt the deacon
will stay "below" until he finds the
heavenly ladder that he used to sing
about:
II Jacobs ladder could find,
| And be allowed to climb,
I'd leave all earthly things behind
And bid farewell to time.l
Mrs. Henry Maynard passed away
last Sunday at the age of thirty-six.
She Was lat will De a deal
missed among us.
| Nelly dead! In the old days
you we're laeder in our happy
band. Your hair rippled down in
brown waves, as the girl wore it
then; your eyes were full of twink
ling light, your smile was the bright
est, and your sweet voice was always
humming the song we loved to hear.
And so shall you always be in mem.
ory,]
Willie Randall spent the biggest
part of last week with his folks under
the mountain.
| "Willie" Randall! Well, no
doubt he still seems a boy to the
older people. But l know that in
i the wide kitchen of the farmhouse
"under the mountain" there hangs
a great Thanksgiving proclamation
framed and signed, "By the Gov
enor, William Randall, Secretary of
Civic and Military Afairs."l
And so the country newspaper
goes about as messenger of home,
awakening memories, pleasant and
sad. When it comes it is eagerly
opened; and l am sure there is
more to be said in its favor than for
the society news OF the metropolitan
paper.