Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1897-11-12
IDEA.
\ BROOKLYNlTE TELLS WHAT HE
DOESN'T KNOW ABOUT VERMONT.


Farms All Sold to Canadian Peasants and
Gone to Rack and Ruin-People Resemble
Italians-Must Look to Gotham and Bean
Town as our Only Hope of Enlightenment
Before "the war a stranger in Yer
mont expressing himself other than In
he regular native vernacular, was as
preat a curiosity as an Esquimo would
be at Honolulu. Although time and the
cousin from the city have since softened
he Yankee tongue, and worn OIL a
few of the edges and angularites of his
nature, he still remains pretty much the
same Old Jonathan that James Russell
= DWELL characterizes in "Bigelow Pa
- pers." The old, conservative state has
been singularly slow to put her best
foot forward and advertise her numerous
resources like her more wideawake and
hustling nelghbors. Hence emigration
has been comparatively small, and man
nerisms and customs of the native stock
have undergone little change.
When Nebraska and the Dakotas were
khrown open to immigration, and thou
sands of farmers sons left for the new
ri Dorado, the French Canadian came
over the line to offer his services. The
stranger proved himself a quick and
Willing worker and his labor was much
n demand. At the end of the haying
or winter seasons, he always returned
with his wages in his pocket to the num-
BILE parish home at st. Francis or Quebec.
In the meantime the farmer was growing
older, and finding it impossible to retain
the bows, and being unequal to the ar
duous task of managing his farms, he
4 migrated to the nearby village, selling his
stock and household effects at auction,
and the farm to his former employee.
Thus was commenced the change OF race
and religion in Vermont.
The former owner of the soil was an
excellent farmer. On a 200 acre farm he
often maintained a dairy of fifty cows,
usually flock of fifty sheep and was
never without one or more spans of those
strong, steady, little Morgan horses.
The old homestead was adorned by a
fine old apple orchard, and the grove of
1000 to 1900 naples, commonly yielded
several tons of sugar. Less remunera-
tive was the crop of stones brought TO
the surface after each years cultivation.
The new neghbor usually invests his
surplus earnings in COW, pig and few
hens. These and a pair of dilapidated
horses comprise the live stock posses
sions, hardly calculated to improve a
farm on which care and fertilizers nave
been lavished for several generations.
He is longheaded enough to take posses
sion in the spring, thus securing the
+ abundant crop of hay. which is sold in
stead of being fed out on the farm.
Hard wood readily commands good
figure, and instead of reserving the sugar
.orchard for future years of profit, the
fine old naples are cut down, converted
into lSinch firewood, and sold for cash
in the village market.
The Sabbath is a day of festivity, all
the Canadian neighbors assemble. the
barrel of old cider is brought out from
the cellar, stories are told, songs sung,
and the old parish days at st. Francis
recalled.
These people, in stature, appearance
and general characteristics resemble the
Italians from Naples and Sicily. Their
descent traces directly back to the peas
antry from the old-time provinces OF
Languedoc, Provence and Dauphiny
Many of the children have black eyes,
clear color, and are remarkably pretty
specimens of brunette type, but theiI
cOmpleXions are soon destroyed by dvs
Depsia, the mortal foe of the race. The
habit prevails, as among the poor whites
in the south, of frying ngeverything. TheiI
U
pork, fried potatoes and onions. They
are also inVeterate smokers and coffee
drinkers. Two rooms of the house usu
ally suffice as living apartments for the
family, which generally consists of {
wife and eight or ten children, and thu
nostrils of the visitor who enters on thC
premises are Immediately accosted by {
combination odor of swillpail, tobacco
and onions.
In the wake of the Canadian the keen
3ustling German or Polish Jew is put
ting in an appearance. He is supplant
ing the native as the village merchant.
A most desirable emgrant is the New
Yorker or BOstonian, who has lately be
come aware of the natural advantage
and the beautiful features of the state
and is swapping up opportunities for in
estment.-Brooklyn Standard Union