Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1899-02-03
A VERMONT SWITZERLAND.
A Trip Through the Green Mountains
In Midwinter.


A Trip Through the Green Mountains
In Midwinter.
In these first days of 1899, while the
public mind Is filled with visions of
American expansion and the political
atmosphere is tremulous with the heat
of 'imperial" cheap talk, 1t Is a relief to
turn aside for time from the everyday
scenes. With that object In view, we
started one day last week on trip to
Hancock and Rochester. Leaving the
pretty town of Middlebury we drove
over a splendid road to East Middlebury,
a pretty hamlet destined to become be.
fore many years the scene Of consider
able Industrial activity.
We are about to enter a great lumber.
ing district, and as we ascend the fine
mountain road through the town of Rip
loads of logs, sawed lumber and wood.
Much of the way the road is cut through
the solid rock on one side, on the other
looking down through the tree tops to
the brawling stream tearing along over
the Jagged rocks. Enough energy, it
would seem, is wasted along this mount
ain stream to turn half the mill wheels
in Vermont. Another generation will
summon the electric spark and the en-
gineer's skill, and the youth of 1899, as
he steps Into the twentieth century, may
look for mighty changes in the near fu-
ture among these rugged wids.
Bread Loaf mountain with the beauti-
full Inn and its extensive grounds, parks,
grottoes and trout streams, is delight
to the eye in the stern days of winter,
a paradise in summer. The view from
the top of Ripton mountain is grand.
Westward looms the dome of Mount
Moriah in York state with onetime
busy Port Henry slumbering in IN
wonted repose at its feet. Far and beyond
other peaks and domes of the mighty
Adirono acks form an unendng back
ground. North, south and east the view
is shut in by the mountain forests of the
Green Mountains, through which winds
the narrow road.
The road over Hancock mountain sur
passes in grandeur, if possible, that
through Ripton. Thousands of acres of
these mountain forests have remained
unwounded by the woodman's axe and
many of the forest giants that re.echoed
the report of the hunters rifle in the
days of brave Ethan Allen look down on
scenes not unlike those of a century ago.
The early Vermonters were hardy
race. On these mountain sides you will
meet the same men and women, the
same red-cheeked girls and boys, only of
a later generation.
The lumber industry in Hancock fur
nishes the chief winter employment in
addition to the regular farm work, and
if you inquire whose names are most
prominent in the public eye, the inevita-
BILE reply will he, perkins & Ford" the
enterprising young men who run the
saw mill near the village. They run the
mill all the year around and often night
as well as day, turning out dimension
timber, clapboards, shingles, ETC., and
shipping them TO Boston, Lowell and
other New England points. Every one
in Hancock has more or less deal with
the concern and it stands to the people
much in the relation of a bank. All
along the road may be seen great piles
of logs ready to haul to the mill.
These mountain farms are very pro-
ductive, bat the distance from market
has retarded their development.
Only four miles below Hancock, on
the White River, is the village of
Rochester. Modern, progressive-we
look for great things from this town.
HnupCply il q rouuh dion,onJ. iJooboe+o-
is the finished jewel.
Twenty -four miles from the Rutland
railroad on the west and twenty miles
from the Central Vermont railroad on
the east, it is the center for number of
mountain towns In "Greater Vermont"
The route has been surveyed for an
electric road from the village to the Cen
trail Vermont railway at Bethel. The
ties are ready and will be laid down in
May. A 40 horse power dynamo has
been placed in the new power house a
short distance down the stream and the
town Is we'll supplied with electric
lights. There are three handsome
churches, large graded school, fine
hotel, several well-kept stores, "a little
gem of park" with its neatly painted
band stand and the soldiers monument,
two or three mills, about which we hear
rumOrs of a great increase in business,
one long street and several short ones
lined with handsome homes, and not a
shabby building in the whole village.
While we are penning these lines plans
are being made in many a city home TO
pass the coming summer in this village
or on the nearby farms, and many i'm
provements are being made here for the
comfort and entertainment of the great
number of summer visitors who only
know Rochester as a haven Of rest and
her people as generous hosts. L.
Imperialism and Militarism.
[ From John Morley's speech to the Scotch
Liberals.
You may call it Ingoism, you may call
1t imperialism, cali it what you like
II II. IL IL