The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1900-10-18

stepping stones are mossgrown, the
thresholds decayed, the doors falling
from rusted hinges. Squirrels leap in
at the broken panes and scamper
through the empty chambers. Only
ghostly revisitants now gather round
the crumbling fireplace. All this is sad,
indeed, and so it is, maybe, to visit the
once splendid mansions Of New York s
Bleecker street, now abandoned" to
uses of traffic and storage.
The distinction between abandoned
houses and abandoned farms may not
be noted by superficial observer. The
farms are not, strictly speaking, aban-
doned in one instance in a hundred;
many farmhouses are. While house and
farm buildings are left uncared for,
some tokens may usually be discovered,
showing that the farm Is not entirely
neglected, Somebody's COWS find pas
ture on it, Perhaps somebody still cuts
a little hay here and there and takes it
away to his home farm. Sometimes
/ persistent trees in the old orchard con-
| tinue to yield, and there are always
hands to gather the fruit If 1t is worth
gathering. When little else seemingly
remains, and the farm reverts to for
est, somebody stands ready to CLEAN the
ultimate harvest of lumber, wood and
charcoal
1t is in some sort a fashion of the
time to regard the abandoned farm
houses as tokens Of failure and misfor-
tune to individuals, and collectively, of
calamity to the state. The matter may
be regarded In another light. The first
road builders, or pathfinders, of Con-
necticut had very peculiar notions.
Take, as an instance, the ancient turn
pike road from Hartford to Boston, al
though that was not the first road built,
by any means. Like others, it was laid
out In a straight line, up, over and down
the hills. The early settlers are said to
have built on the SUBMITS of hills, to be
better able to note the approach OF hos
tile Indians. Their descendants follow
ed the custom without having the same
reason for it. Thus it happens that very
many of the oldest houses in the farm
ing sections of eastern Connecticut
stand on the tops Of hills. These house
house locations were exposed and bleak,
work on the hill farms was hard and
done at disadvantage, but worse than
aught else was their isolation. This |
was not so much regarded in the olden |
times But as cities grew and villages |
increased in size and number the lone !
illness of these out of the way houses
was emphasized. Farmers could make
a living on the back hill farms, but they
became ambitious to do more, and in
order to accomplish this they must get
nearer the markets Their wives and
pinned for the social advan-
tages to be enjoyed nearer the cities and
The western emigration fever swept
over New England and carried away
many farmers from their ancestral
homes Among the back hill and long
distance farmers of eastern Connectt-
cut discontent increased, and many re-
moved to other farms in more favored
localities within the state. Some sold
their farms, some leased the, and 9TH
srs, unable to do either. left them in
charge of neighbors. In time these
neighbors often became their owners.
Thus these farms, although neglected
md uncultivated, were never utterly
abandoned, and are not at the present
lime.
These changes, brought about natur-
lily and reasonably, offered no founda-
ion for the charge of decadence, upon
which the changes are so persistently
ung. Farmers did not leave their
arms on account of sterility They
ire not exhausted, as has been proved
~ many who have reoccupied them.
wealthy people who buy them to live
mon in summer do not find them UNI
Grille. With electric cars, telephones
md other agencies Of modern progress,
he former objection to living upon
hese out of the way farms is fast be-
ne done away with and in good time
hey will all be epeopled.-Country
Gentleman