News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1896-09-10
MODERN STOWE.

Cit IGdIuISS Vi IuG lnIGIGS ll1S
early history of this grand old
mountain town. The past al
least is secure. What are the
present advantages and attrac-
tions of the town? What of the
future? We have attempted to
outline the wonderful attractions
of the mountain scenery. The
past five years has seen almost a
revolution in the public taste re-
gard1ng summer resorts. Not
long since it was only the fami-
lies of the wealthy that enjoyed
the privileges of a summer vaca-
ton, and to them the great at
traction was the whirl of fashion
able dissipation at some great
watering place.
The vacation habit has now
become extended throughout the
great middle classes Of society,
and now the smallmerchant, the
clerk on a small salary, and in
fact, representatives from all of
the walks of life are able to spend
week or two in the country,
where they seek for change, rest
and recreation, and not social
dissipation in new surroundings.
To this large and constantly
increasing class Of limited means,
the hospitable home of the farm
er, where they may secure plain,
wholesome, well cooked food,
fresh eggs, milk, butter, vegeta-
bles, beet and maple honey,
where they may lay aside the
conventionalities of city life, eat,
drink, and be merry, fish, hunt,
row, walk, ride, or play croquet
or tennis-this is their summer
paradise. Given the daily mail,
the telephone call, the public Ii
brary, the magazine, hospita-
bic, intelligent and obhging local
population-this combined with
the unparalleled beauties of the
scenery of Stowe, and you have
all the conditions requisite for
a successful summer resort.
No, not all! The electric car,
the browning wonder in an age
of wonders, should thrill this
wonderful mountain town with
the heart throbs of the great
outside world. Given time
enough, and to me there is no
other conveyance that will COM
pare in animation with a perch
aloft on a coach drawn by spirit
ed horses, but this is not fast
enough for young America.
Stowe has superb natural re-
sources as an agricultural town.
The general average of natural
fertility is unusually high. The
best farmers in town are in
touch with the improved meth
DDS of up-to-date practice, and a
large majority are working in
that direction. The town is I'M
usually self-centered and indie
pendent. 1t has its own manu-
features, trade and agriculture.
Few towns are as well favored
by a good and reliable home
market for perishable farm truck.
The hundreds of employees en-
gagged in the transportation and
manufacture of the forest pro-
ducts, and regularly paid, are the
best possible customers for the
surplus products of the farm.
The lack of railroad facilities is
not an unmixed evil to the pro-
Queer, for it stimulates home
production to supply the home
market. In her maple groves is
the key TIC a prosperity only half
developed. In her production of
maple honey and sugar, Stowe
probably leads the world, though
her claims will be hotly disputed
by Cambridge. The sugar makers
of Vermont are just beginning to
use that tremendous lever which
is the real support of all modern
movements-the power of or
ganization. Their goods have
been undersold and misrepresent-
ed by a class of tricksters, who
have palmed off spurious and
adulterated compounds upon a
credulous and uneducated public
in the west and in the cities,
while the genuine article was de-
nounced as too light colored to
be pure maple. An experienced
| buyer informs me that a very
large proportion of the maple
product made in this town is a
strictly frst-class article, and
this statement largely applies to
the county. The step from the
sap trough and cauldron kettle
hung on a pole to the painted
and covered bucket and evapo-
rator is a long one, in fact the
journey of century Organiza-
ton and a resolute and continu-
Gus campaign among the con-
sumerS. will in time omen a re.