The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1898-02-03

BY CHARLES ADAMS.

CUSTOM Ior many years W print III
pamphlet, called the Town Report, a
list of the delinquent taxpayers. Each
name is usually followed by some brief
remark by the selectmen, explaining
why the tax cannot be collected. The
following are typical entries:
james Jones, poor and sick"
civilian Smith, whereabouts I'M
known"
'Richard Smith, cannot be found"
Luke Clay, absconded."
"Abram Lord, i'll and a town charge"
It is not a list in which anybody with
spark of personal pride would like to
see his name. Indeed, it must be fatal
TO self-respect so to be held up year
after year to public disapprobation.
And the wrath may be imagined with
which the kinsfolk of the delinquent
citizen read their decent name in the
black list!
Among the names which appear there
regularly is that of Burnside Berry, and
It is usually followed by the con-
temptuous words: "Loafer and worth
less"
Burnside Berry's tax record possesses
more interest for me perhaps than for
others; for when | was boy he was my
neighbor and schoolmate. "Burny," as
we called him, was an impetuous, warm
hearted fellow who was always invent
ing or trying to invent something or
other. Studious and dreamy, he had.
think, in large measure the true invent
i've temperament but he lacked persis-
tence.
OF all his contrivances I remember
with good reason his windmill boat
especially well.
Burnside and and boy named Her
man Day had begun to attend the Nor
well academy, with the haIf-formed
purpose of fitting for college. We were
all extremely poor, and had to resort to
various eXpedients for earning money
while at the academy.
One of these was to prepare stove
wood, which could be taken down the
lake into Norwell village in boat and
sold for enough to pay our weekly ex-
penses.
Our homes were in the northern part
of the town, seven miles from the
academy. The lake, a long, narrow sheet
of water, extends nearly the entire
length of the town. At the foot of the
lake is large manufacturing village.
Fifteen or twenty years ago, when we
were at the academy. the people of the
village had not begun to use coal as
fuel, but depended on wood drawn from
the northern part of the town. A cord
of seasoned dry wood sold usually for
four dollars or four dollars and a half.
but if sawed and split into stove-wood
1t was worth from five to six dollars
As the years passed, most of the wood
fit for fuel, within five or six miles of the
village, was used. In fact, only one
large wood-lot remained on the shore of
the lake 1t was at the extreme north
ern end, and was so surrounded by
deep ravines that to reach twith teams
was almost impossible. An effort had
been made one winter to draw the wood
TO the village on the ice of the lake, but
''spring heads" and other treacherous
places in the ice, made the attempt a
failure
In fact, the difficulty of getting the
wood to market from the Squire Frost
lot" as it was called, was so great that
the owner was forced to offer the wood
for sale at 35 cents, stumpage, cord.
Such was the condition of the wood
business in Norwen when, on one
cloudy day in August, Burnside Her
man Day and l came along the shore
of the lake, fishing for pickerel. Stop
ping to look at the old wood-boat, we
discussed methods of getting the wood
to market. If we could only run that
boat back and forth to NorweIl village,
we could easily prepare stovewood and
sell it at large enough profit to pay our
tuition and other expenses.
II was then that Burnside conceived
the idea of a windmill erected amid
ships of the old woodboat and con-
nected with cross shaft and two pad
dle-wheels. The windmill could be
made to work equally well whichever
way the wind blew, he argued; and the
paddle-wheels would drive the boat up
or down the lake, as we pleased 1t
could be steered just like a steamboat,
he thought, and whenever the wind
blew we could navigate the craft to or
from the village.
Neither Herman nor l fully under
stood the scheme, or quite trusted it;
but it was plausible, as Burnside stated
it, and We hoped it would prove success
full.
Burnside himself was quite carried
away with the idea; and for two or
three weeks he worked as only an ambi-
tious young inventor can work. He
erected a tripod frame on the boat,
made a windmill 10 feet in diameter.
and connected it by means of a crank
rod with a shaft and two rude paddle
wheels.
Herman and I, meantime. made a
bargain with Squire Frost for wood on
the stump, and while Burnside was at
work on his invention, cut and sawed
three cords of stove wood, ready for
transportation.
Neither of us had said much to the
neighbors concerning the windmill
boat: but Burnside had been obliged to
beg or borrow so many things needed