The Philipsburg mail., 1899-05-19

| military spirit which pervaded the air,
| fought sham battles, he always in
sisted upon personating "Old Zack," "
assigning the part of Santa Anna TO
some one else, an apportionment OF
| characters sometimes resulting in q
mutiny.
One night one of the younger set,
then a "6-year-old," and not allowed to
go with the big boys, recalls the fasci-
nation which his society had for him,
and the hair-erecting stories of the
yelloW-back variety with which he
sometimes regaled him. On a certain
memorable evening the smaller boy,
stealing away from home at dusk.
joined young Dewey and two Of his
associates and accompanied them up Il
deep ravine to an Oldfashioned saw
MILL which they set in notion the
double object thus accomplished being
the seeing of "the old thing shake
itself to pieces and the securing of a
days holiday for their friend, the mil
ler's son, by the suspension Of opera
tions consequent upon draining the
pond.
The immense amount of snow which
falls in the mountains and valleys of
New England and the large deposits of
ice which form it's rivers make the
breaking up of winter in that far
| northern climate a period to which
every boy endowed with a spirit of
adventure looks eagerly forward.
Two small rivers, the Winooski and
| the Onion, come together in Montpelier
in such a way as to form the letter L,
and around this letter the town is
are swollen by the melting SHOWS and
pieces of ice are hurried along by the
current, the boy who gets upon the
smallest cake" which will bear his
Notwithstanding often in water foul
| or five inches deep-and succeeds in
effecting a landing upon the mass OF
pulverized ice, interspersed with huge
endwise and criss-cross blocks, which
lodges six miles below, becomes the
hero of the hour.
| >
in his element, leading the way in
every daring enterprise and acquiring
| that hardihood and utter disregard OF
danger of which the victory at Manila
was the glorious outcome. 1t was
while guiding his ice raft past bridges
and piers, over cross-currents formed
by the influx of lesser tributaries and
around quick bends in the river, thai
he learned his first lessons in the
science of navigation.
What man has done, man can do,
was the motto which formed the pro
pelling power of his young life, carry
ing him through every boyish under
taking Who knows but that it may
have inspired his later achievements
as we'll?
| Of his experience at the Washington
County grammar school in Montpelier
| the first educational institution which
he attended, much has already beer
written. It's pupils. taught by frs
one teacher and then another, had ac
| quired the reputation of being rather
difficult subjects, and Dewey is said tC
have taken an active part in the inl
tiatory hazing to which each new prin
cipal was subjected and to have beer
the ring-leader in the revolts which
marked the remainder of his connec
ton with the school.
| When the Hon. Zebina X. Pangborn
ex-mayor of Jersey City, and now the
editor and proprietor of the Jersey City
Evening Journal, consented to take
charge of these refractory young peo
pie at salary of s6.25 a week, it wa!
with the determination to establish
system of discipline among them t
which they were strangers. Dewey
being the first to rebel, was made al
example of after the manner already
described.
1t is said that, meeting Maj Pang
born in Washington two years ago, The
admiral told him that all that was
worthy of consideration in his char
acter had its beginning on that day.