The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-08-16
NORTH WOODS EXPERIMENT

Away up in the Adirondack wilderness
lies in the county of Hamilton. Greater I'm
area than the State Of Delaware. less in
population than the State of Nevada. it
Is a community peculiar In the eastern
United States. With three thousand
square miles and four thousand inhabi-
tants. 1t has not a sank a lawyer. nor a
railroad. Two considerable settlements are
found in the southern part OF the county,
at Wells and Indian Lake. but the bulk of
the population Is scattered in farms and
logging camps through the wilderness.
The chief. indeed almost the only. perma-
nent industries are numbering. farming.
guiding and the vending of intoxicating
liquors at retail.
AS Hamilton county is to-day. so it has
been for nearly a hundred years. Long be-
fore the days when Andrew Jackson was
President this mountain community was
I'm numbers. character and occupation what
it now is. and going further back we find
its settlements as early as almost any in
the history OF New York. The pleasure
seeker among its lakes and mountains is
hourly reminded that here Iroquois and
Algonquin. and after them patriot and
Tory. fought for these miles of rugged for
ests and blooming meadow.
Here II was that young Sam Butler, with
a party Of Tories and Canadian Indians.
came in the early summer 1177, crossing
the wilderness with soldiers and artillery
by incredible effort, to strike the Tryon
county patriots in the flank. while ST.
Leger took them in the front, hoping TO
break down that rear guard of the Revoiu-
tion which at Oriskany foiied the British
plan and made possible the crowninS VIC
tory of Saratoga 1t was on the shore OF
Lake Piseco that Sam Butler and the
British Major Sinclair, a few hours march
ahead Of their men. were met by indian
canoe-men, who told them OF tough old
Herkimer's stout fight at Oriskany, and so
alarmed their followers both white and
red, that the whole troop fed precipitately
to Canada. saving only one, and that the
highest, OF the eighteen brass cannon
which were to have garrisoned the pro-
iected Tory fort on the Mohawk; that one
gun. taken two years before by the Brit
fish from the Massachusetts men at Bun
ker Hill. was saved at all cost. perhaps as
a trophy, perhaps because the lightest in
weight, and now stands in the citadel at
Quebec. Its seventeen companions rusted
in the damps of the forests for nearly a
hundred years. and then discharged their
volley upon the peaceful ~Sacandaga set
Elements in less force but perhaps as dam
gerous a guise as Butler had planned in
the days of King George.
Once upon a time. lit was a pleasant
spring afternoon and in the shadows Of the
great forest) Davy Dunlap was picking up
logs with a chain. a large iron hook and
a pair of horses. The hook caught on
something solid, heavy, well sunk into the
ground. brought up the team with a jerk.
and broke loose again. The yellow CLEAN
where it had struck caugns Davy's eye.
In an instant he was down on his knees
prodding away with his peevy. until he
had brought to light a long, round object
which. through its coating of rust and dirt,
showed the bright yellow color wherever
struck by the metal All the mountain
stories OF buried treasure and fabulous
gold mines came to Davy's recollection.
He sprang to his feet and ran for his
father, who was busy at the skidway not
far of.
In response to Davy's somewhat inco-
hercnt narrative, Andy Dunlap came slow
Iy, looked at the mysterious find. and then
peered around him through the dim aisies
OF the forest. With a crowbar he sounded
one object and another half hidden under
moss and rotting logs. and found here a
brass cannon. and there the form OF a gone
wheel or wood-sled. Something queer had
happened there. and something queer Was
on the ground. but wasn't gold.
Ii the news of Davy's find as it spread
through the woods had rome to an anti
quarian, he would have secured the guns
for the museum at Albany. If it had come
TO the small boys of a large town. just be-
fore the Fourth of July, the guns would
soon have shouted for the independence of
the rebels that they had marched from
Cono1o "a ,,hirrCafa. hnf baforo airhar anti
guardian or celebrating boys had heard the
story. Davy's find came to the knowledge
of a political economist-to the knowledge
of Jimmy Tryon, the boy orator of Pump
kin Hollow.
Pumpkin Hollow lies in a small clearing
by the beautiful wooded bend of the Sa-
candaga river in the town of Hope, and
there Jimmy had grown up. watching the
wagons come up the road and the logs go
down the river. until he was sixteen. Then
he had wandered down to Gloversville, in
Fulton county. where there were a rail-
road and a bank. Jimmy learned that no
one could ride on a railroad without pay
ing his fare. and no one could get money
out of a bank unless he had put some in.
and he became a Populist and wandered on
TO Albany. But Jimmy soon learned that
there were greater curiosities to be seen
IMAM TIE <AlDdil OHeS ana wandered Iurtn-
er until he came to a city with a big white
obelisk at one end and a big white dome
at the other In this city there were a
great man men. each of whom could
talk more than any of the rest. and what
they did not talk they printed in the Rec
ord.
From these men Jimmy learned a great
many things which he had not learned in
the red schoolhouse. He learned that the
number OF cows tails required to reach TO
the moon did not at all depend on the
length OF the tails. He learned that Shak-
speare was wrong in saying that 1.-THE thing
we call a rose by any other name wonid
smell as sweet" but that Mr.. Ignatius
Donneliy had proved that the bard of
Avon ought to have said: Call ANYTHING
a rose: when marked with such a name
twill smell as sweet" He learned that in
measuring things IL was better to have
two or three yardsticks of different lengths.
and that the best material for making
yardsticks was india rubber. He learned
mat twice two does not only make four.
Out also nve, six or seven. and that Con-
Sress might enforce this principle by an
proprfate legislation. And Jimmy learned
a great many other things tnat are not so
and. with them buzzing in his brain. went
back TO Pumpkin Hollow. watching until
the opportunity should come when he might
invent a way for everybody to get rich
without working. just as the wise men ar
washington had devised.
When the supervisors of the county met
at Lake Pleasant on the first Of September.
everybody had heard and talked more or
less about the old cannon that had been