Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1895-09-19
THE RUINED GLEN HOUSE.
Famous Resort I'm the Whit,
\ MOuntafna Going to Decay.

- E4MOuS ItckOTt Ia tne "nlte
Mountains Going to Decay.
TO those who knew the White
Mountain Glen house in the days of it's
fame and prosperity, the desolation
and abandonment Of the plateu that it
are pathetic enough. One
may still journey thither from Gorham
and Jefferson Highlands, from Jack
son and North Conway, and the many
visitors to the neighboring water
scenery along the Ellis river are still
driven to the site of the house, to
catch a glimpse of the superb prospect
1t affords and to gain from tehir driv-
er hint Of its story, as one might
hear the tale of a deserted village.
Naught Of the house remains except
the base Of brick chimney, the
empty cellar, and-a bit queerly-a
wooden landing platform upon one
side Of the embankment upon which
the hotel stood. In contrast, the big
stables and cottage for servants
We're spared by the fire, and stand,
nearly empty, but intact. while in
sharper contrast still, the little arbors
and rustic pavilions in sight of the
house, vet far enough removed to es-
~NpS SAC AuAACS, Scclll, as luc WHY IAACA
approaches, to betoken the existence
OF hidden hotel, with it's usual conl-
pany of guests. They somehow, in
spite Of winter storms, have hung to-
gether. with few signs of impending
dilapidation; but elsewhere, at a great
er distance from the whilom house,
the eager underground is filling the
carefully-cut paths that lead to the
water scenery and to favorite points
of view in the neighborhood; plank
walks and wooden steps are rotting,
and guideboards are oftener found on
the ground than fastened to their
posts.
In particular, the steps that descend
the cliff to the foot of Glen Ellis Falls,
are menace to limb If not to life it.
self. Perhaps this sheer descent of
the Ellis river under the bold. steep
side of Mount Wildcat, in the chart of
forest that has thus far escaped the
lumberman's ak, is the most Impress
I've bit of water scenery in the whole
White Mountain country. Certainly
there is no fall to compare in swift
ness and free, exuberant strength with
this sharp leap Of the young river,
struggling against its narrow, rock
bound bed, sheer down cliff fully
seventy feet high, to pound the lodges
underneath with the force of it's wa
tiers, and veil them in its spray. 1t is
one OF the chief show places on the
southeasterly side of the mountains.
In the long summer hundreds Of trav-
elers 60 thither from North Conway
and Jackson, and tens from the little
hotels of Jefferson Highlands and Ran
dolph. while the hotelkeepers profit at
least by their carriage hire.
None the less, since the burning of
the Glen house, the long, steep fight
of steps down the cliff has been left to
rot away. In some places the boards
have fallen away altogether, leaving
long gaps in the descent; in others
they are loose and treacherous. Near
~ everywhere the railing will now
break if one leaned heavily upon it.
AS the steps are at present. it is near
" impossible for woman, unless she
has some aptitude for climbing. to de-
scend without much difficulty and
some risk to the foot of the falls, and
there are men who prefer to harvard
the slippery rock to the tottering
stairs. BY another summer, at the
present pace of decay, there may he
no practicable steps at all, and then,
perchance, the laggard hotelkeepers
will bestir themselves to rebuild them.
But what is everybody's business is
nobody's-until some accident befalls.
Fortunately, the carriage road from
the Glen to the summit of Mount
Washington is in the control of cor
poration that still keeps it open and
carefully mended; but with no hotel
at it's foot even the small prestige that
the vulgar little railway in the Fay
yam side had left it declining. One
may walk now the whole eight miles
from base to summit on a clear day
and encounter only the solitary man
who takes toll at the Halfway House
and his three comrades and the two
big bay horses that work upon the
road, and then descend again with on
~ blackboard and two passengers
for company. Meanwhile, on the 9th
er side of the mountain the queer
crowd that finds its way to the sum-
NIT, in part because it is the correct
thing to do, is filling the little cars,
and the noisy engines go hustling
up their stupid way along the prosaic
western slope.
But the dusty wayfarer who works
his passage, so to say. up the endless
ascent of the Zig-zags of the disdained
carriage road knows. as he smokes his
pipe at the lodges. or Cape Horn" OF
the seventh mile post. that he and not
the engine is climbing Mount Wash
ington. The crowd in the cars has
only paltry submits and relatively
smooth slopes for companions, while
over against the occupant are Adams
and Jefferson and Madison-the three
highest and boldest and most massive
peaks of the range, with only the
broad, deep and sweeping ravine of
the great gulf to separate him from
them. Or when, again. at the fifth
mile post, he looks out upon the crags
ut the head of Huntingtons ravine,
perhaps the most commanding and the
strongest most scanned and storm-torll
cliff in Eastern America. he may re-
joice that the carriage road shares not,
at least in accessibility. the decay of
all things else about the whilom Glen
House.-Boston Transcript.