Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1892-06-03
IN THE LOCAL FIELD.
A HUGE JOKE.
The London Spectators Pen Picture Of
New England Life. with Especial Ref
crence to Vermont and Brnttlcboro.

The London Spectators Pen Picture of
New England Life, with Especial Ref
crence to vermont and BrnttIcboro.
No account OF the villagers of North
America however long-drawn. ever wearies
men who care for their kind, if only it be
truthful for i'm every such account they
catch glmpses of the future which is i'm
store for European demOCracleS. says the
London Spectator of Kipling' account of
Vermont village. The great experiment
of democracy rooted i'm the soil has been
tried I'm New England under the most Ia
vorable circumstances, such as may be re-
produced elsewhere, but can hardly be
exceeded. The race which has been its
subject is the English one, the most hope
full upon the whole that the world has
produced and it has lived under the con-
diton which best develops its virtues. the
training of a century and half in Puri-
tan opinions. The people throughout that
period have been cultivated as well as 1t IS
at all probable that modern democracy ever
will be: they have been as free and as self
governed as il is possible for institutions
to make them; and though their soil is not
kindly, they have enjoyed more Opportuni-
tv of comfort than the mass of the popu-
on the ground, can ever hope to obtain.
There may be many more gracious climates,
but it is simply impossible for the agrcult-
ural population of Europe, as a huge cor
poration, to be better off, more intelligent.
or better trained in the manler virtues than
the population of New England; and what
is the total RESULT BY the consent of a
hundred observers. many of them like
Bayarl TAYLOR. possessed of rare powers OF
sympathy. and others. like Miss wilkins,
with microscopic eyes, il is slngularlN
disappointing one The New England
freebooter Is described by all with one CON
sent As "a man with some strong beliefs and
some sterling virtues, full of industry, pa
thence and endurance, thrifty as Scotch
man. self-hclptul as any OF Mr. Smiles 5
subjects. and with a deep, unshakable re
gard for wife and child and home and all
the domeSticities And yet withal he is a
mean man, full of harnesses immersed
in sordd cares. iuquisitve to a positive
vice, ceusorous to degree. narrow beyond
conception. and as a rule non-receptive. So
far as quickueSs is concerned. and unintel-
ligent. He is, moreover, on the whole, I'M
happy. Worn with care To degree nm
known IN Europe, where his rival is often
below care. being too little conSciou,
OF MS position, ana Ill most curious
point, which we have never seen explained
but which is never omitted i'm any careful
description of nina victim to those de
pressing forms of i'll health, an ncurablt
dyspepsia being the most prominent OF
them, which on this side of the water W,
associate with over-rehnement in living
His women are better, because more intel
lectual, and gentlcr in the way of compass
sion and sympathy for suffering: but even
more inquisitive, even more censorious
and overloaded with still heavier cares. anC
with work so unceaSing and So heavy tina
the constitution breaks under it. and tn
happy girl of 10 is at - thin acidulated
bent and in all hut years an aged womal
whose very religion is to her a tribuiatiOn
and her virtues burdens to be borne be
cause they are acceptable to God That i
the universal and most melancholy pctur
penetrating a whole literature, and We II
greet TO find that Mr.. Rudyard kipling,
new observer who has seen the miseries Q
so many and such various people and r.
tanned his own Cheerfulness through all
confirms the accuracy of the portrait. Tn
families OF rural Vermont, most New Eng
fish of all states, dwell in little woode
houses, painted white. whence they emery
to perform never-endng tasks. and to lin
their sole interest in ncessant watching
their neirlbOrS