The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1894-04-03
AROOSTOOK IN WINTER.
Twelve Degrees Below at Pressure Isle
The Wonderful Dances of This Region
An Experience on Skees.
Especial to the Press.]

1t was twelve degrees below zero here
early this morning, the coolest for the
month. March did indeed come in like
allamb and go out like lion, up here,
and yet the large open fire of yellow
birch logs in the hotel Office seemed to
heat the whole house. Certainly it was
too hot for comfort within a distance
of ten feet. Yellow birch takes the place
of coal up here, and it is almost as good
and in some ways better. 1t costs but
$3..a cord and coal, at retail, SO ton. By
the carload one might get it for 81. But
that will all be changed when the B.
& A. gets through next fall. But the
yellow birchi There is plenty of it in
this region. The trees are as large and
quite similar in shape to the elm. Every
house has an enormous woodpile of yellow
birch logs or. slabs, two feet wide, two feet
long and from two inches to a foot thick,
split from the log by two men working
together, one. axe keeping the crack
open while the other increases it until
the log rends asunder. And it burns
like so much camel coal. Imagine
three of these great blocks piled on a
pair of dogs, foot from the hearth and
wreathed in sheets of glorious flame,
that roarD merrily, without cessation,
until the log is an ash. Whether it is
due to the dry atmosphere, or whether
like all good things up here it is due to
the wonderful soil we do not know but
are prepared to state or even asseverate,
that yellow birch doesn't burn like that
outside of Aroostook.
With this wonderful fire in the roomy
Office, it's electric lights, telephon
and other modern conveniences and a
cuisine that is dainty and delicious as
we'll as whole some and substantial the
Presque Isle House is as attractive, as
far as creature comforts are concerned,
as any hotel in the State. The proprie-,
tor, Col. j. 3. Gates, has so cords of that
yellow birch and everything else in
proportion. The travelling men stop
here over Sunday if they can, and the
townspeople like the Sunday dinner.
On recent Sunday there were go guests
to dinner, which would be very good for
Boston hotel. And this suggests anew
that the people here spend money AS we'll
as earn it. They like to buy good things
with the profits of their good soil. TIE
farm houses have pianos and furnaces
and Conservatives and much more of
luxury as we'll as comfort. The barns
are ornaments to the landscape, they
are so large and SO well built and taste
fully painted. The roof is always
double, so to speak: that is, there are
two slopes from the ridgepole to the
caves, the former being halfway be-
tween French roof and the ordinary
slant. This gives much more room to
build up the masses of hay and grain,
affords a better brace against the strong
winds that prevail here and prevents
the accumulation of a dangerous weight
of snow. Add to all this brick Chin
ney and smoke coming out of it, and
these great barns are cheerful things
to look at. A Presque Isle retail store
sold three tons of sugar in one day last
week, and most of it was retailed, too
And this comes from no less trustworthy
lips than those Of Judge Robinson. who
was for nine years Judge of the Aroostook
Superior Court, and to whom the words
Aroostook, in general, and Presque Isle
in particular, are always signals for
eloquence.
Imagine this scene in Presque Isle
clothing store, and then try to imagine it
in any other county or State either A
| farmer has sold his potatoes. He buys
| five fur overcoats il that store. One
costs $50 and is for dress occasions; an
The three others are for his three sons.
| He spends over 5000 in that store. And
| this is the simple fact.
The writer attended jolly dance Thurs
day night, arranged on the spur of the
moment after a church sociable in the
| hall, (another evidence of Aroostook
enterprise. )They waltzed and schottisched
etc., like anyone else (only tri6e bet
ter, OF course), but they wound up
differently. A grand march was called
| for the closing dance. After a short
march came the order to form one great
circle around the hall, then "grand right
and left,n then, without any warning,
| the hitherto aecorous young people be-
came shilariously rampant. Instead of
| Joining hands in the "grand right and
| ieft,n each young man seized the girls as
they came and swung them around by
the waist in the liveliest back-country
manner, aud the more they swung the
faster they swung until-well, until all
was a blurr in the eyes Of the stranger
from. "outside," as they say in Aroos-
took. He had kept mp fairly well hither-
to. and rashly attempted to continue
till the end. But talk about a wind