The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1897-09-04
Mountain Lake Park.

-NCM Ioih; 10 PSiAe'p' iNf' P"H7i'iN 90 e-N
fact that the people of Maryland have so
little appreciated their own Mountain
Chautauqua, at Mountain Lake Park, on
the summit of the Alleghanies. Mountain
Lake Park is beautiful tract of 500 acres,
situated on the north side of the Baltimore
and Ohio Railroad, about four miles west
of Deer Park, and two miles east of Oak
land The park is owned and controlled
by a joint stock company which was organ
lied about Is years ago. The entire tract
was at that time bowling wilderness.
Now there are beautiful glades, ample,
shady groves, and town of over two hun
dred cottages, besides three large hotels
and number of less pretentious boarding
houses where the most comfortable living
can be enjoyed for little more than it costs
one to live at home.
About the center of this widely extend
ed, electric lighted, shady town, are the
Office of the Park Association, the Audi
torium and the Assembly Hall for the use
of the Chautauqua About two blocks to
the east of these are the Hall of Philosophy
and the cottage of the superintendent of
the summer school, Rev. w. L. Davidson,
D. D. Chautauqua Park is large grove
surrounding the Auditorium and Assembly
Hall There is shade everywhere, white
oak abounding to the exclusion of all other
varieties In the neighborhood pines and
hemlocks abound Especially is this true
of the vicinity of Boiling Spring, about
seven miles away Approaching this
spring through a narrow avenue hewn out
of almost impenetrable underground and
thick branching pines one inyoluntarily re
verts to Longfellows description of Acadia,
and one feels that this, too, is the forest
primeval. 1.-The murmuring pines and the
hemlocks, 4; \ x stand like Druids of old,
with voices sad and prophetic. -
Boiling Spring, by the way, does not
boil, either literally or fguratiyely, but it
does send out such volume of water as to
require pipe four inches in diameter TO
conduct it to Deer Park where it supplies
all the water required by the town, though
the difference in level is not sufficient to
avoid the necessity of pumping the water
into immense tanks situated on the hill top
just back of the hotel
While we are at Boiling Spring we may
as well continue our journey about three
miles further up the longest, steepest hill
to be found on public road in Maryland,
till we reach the elevated plateau, on the
eastern edge of which stands Eagle Roci;
From this lofty perch one gets view which
recalls Pen Mar. OF course there is no
Cumberland Valley here, but there is the
most magnificent succession of mountain
and vale away to the west, while eastward
and southwark the rugged landscape IS
bounded by an unbroken lofty ridge stretch
ing away into the dim distance till vanishes
in the clouds There is perfectly unob
structed view in all directions 1t is as if
one stood on a pinnacle at the center of
vast panorama, and from that vantage one
may face in any direction and still be gazing
upon a scene which surpasses the best view
to be had from Pen Mar To the west
no less than eight separate mountain ridges
rise one above the other till the last appears
to blend with the clouds which stoop to
meet it, and the eye can penetrate no
farther
Besides trains, there are frequent stages
from the Park to Oakland and Deer Park.
An order left sat the drug store brings
the stage to your cottage door, and in a
few minutes and for the merest pittance you
are landed at any house you may designate
in either place
A most satisfactory express service takes
care of your baggage at the usual rates
while you are on your way up from the
station, so that you have onl y to walk into
your room and begin to live. And this
living, by the way, is more than mere ex
istence, even in the hottest weather. The
thermometer will rarely reach eighty in the
shade, even when the mercury fingers high
up in the nineties, both east and west of the
mountains. In the evening light wrap
is necessary if You sit on the porch, while
at night one sleeps comfortably under two
or three blankets.
Naturally the mountain thunder storm is
not stranger here. The lightning CLEANS
wildly in the rarefied atmosphere Of an
altitude of three thousand feet above the
sea, while the thunder cracks sharp, like
the report of dynamite, causing one to start
in spite of himself. Your correspondent
not only witnessed a severe storm in the
Park but also had from Eagle Rock a fine
view of one in the distance. Nature has
been styled niggardly in some of her dis
pensations, but the wonders even of an
Edison electrical banquet dwindle to insig
nifcance in comparison with the brilliant
and startling effects which nature produces
with her mighty, though simple, apparatus.
As one gazes upon such displays Of power
he can not but realize how trifing are the
great things of earth and how infinite is
God
DIR. Davidson, the able and accomplished
Chautauquan, who has charge of the Noun
tain Chautauqua held at the Park
every summer, is the superintendent Of no
less than six different summer schools in as
many different states of the Union, from
Florida to Massachusetts. He estimates
that there were not less than twenty five
hundred people living in the Park during
the Chautauqua. The receipts will net
over five thousand dollars for the school
alone. Eleven hundred dollars was the
sum taken in the first year Dir. Davidson
was in charge.
Some of the ablest lecturers of the coun-
try are to be heard at Mountain Lake.
Days on which such men as Talmage and
Thomas Dixon, Jr, appear are made ex-
cursion days by the railroad company, and
crowds of people for miles around the Park,
throng the shady groves and pack the au-
ditorium.
The Park is filled with quiet, refined
people, making it the student 5 paradise
A more delightful spot for spending few
of the hottest weeks of the summer could
scarcely be imagined.
GEO. WAsHINGToN.
A Reunion of Marylanders.