The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1901-11-13
WILL CARLETON

the current number of Everywhere, "
of which he is editor:
Again in this handsome little toy |
capital-which always somehow re- |
minds me Of a village playing Wash |
inRton, ID. G. Ii is, when couchant, |
one Of the most delicious of baili-
wickS, and the quintcssence of Yankee |
thrift and repose combined. | want |
to see it sometime when it is rampant, !
with farmers, country and lawyers, |
village storekecpers all gathered from |
the neighbOring hills and passing |
aud proposing all sorts of bills aud
lcgislatiug for the common veal and |
woe.
First time / ever saw New England,
some two years ago, | dropped out of
a sleeping car that had been coming
all night from the west into Mont
pelicr. ] was just of the gigantic
prairie checker boards of Illinois and
Iowa-where l had been wandering
up and down for many weeks trying
to make the lecture field blossom,
financially, as the rose; and the beau
tiful hills were like sweet dreams of
morning slumber, after the half
wakefulness of the wide. monotonous
prairies.
The change was almost disastrously
restful it seemed to me as if | leaned
my soul up against the mountains
and could not get it away. / wanted
to live in Montpelier the remainder
of my life. Even folks on the streets
had friendliness of manner toward
the stranger in their midst that was
wholesomely fascinating. An old man
had found something in paper that
L.
held me up to get me to laugh with
him about it. A schoolboy told where
the best book store was, went with
me all the way and impaired informa-
ton concerning his studies as we
walked along Even one of the hotel
clerks smiled.
The book store was full of Vermont
John G. SAKE had his own shelf.
Charles c. Eastman's poems were i'll
evidence, and Judge Thompson smiled
out of Locke Amsden' aud 1.-The
Green Mountain Boys The book
seller was a boOk-reader, and had the
literature of the whole State at his
tongues end. The capitol looked like
a beautiful playhouse amid the levia-
than architecture of the hills, and
teemed with pictures of Vermonters,
and the things they had done and
possessed.
When ten. years ago went to Mont
pelier again the little city was rejoic-
ing that one of its mountaineer boys
had made himself a hero of the ocean.
Dewey was being more than lionized
OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES There
was nothing he could not have had
that day as he stood on the reviewing
stand, and carefully lifted his gold
laced admiral's hat to various sections
of the long procession as it passed
slowly by. Politicians were hanging
around by the score, slyly beseeching
him to become presidential POSSIBLE
ity. His very birth house was being
sold piecemeal by thrifty Yankee,
at fifteen cents per shaving. The only
place where he was ever thrashed-
the school house-was visited by thou
sands The governor of the common
wealth, whom fate had had no diff
Guilty heretofore in concealing by
naming him Smith, ostentatiously
pinned a medal or something among
his other decorations. A glee club
sang its best coon song. A bonfire of
unprecedented stature, made by adult
boys, blazed at night on the nearest
adjacent hill. Pyrotechnics good
enough for Christmas eve at St. Pc
ter's concluded the ceremonies-and
Dewey was allowed to go on-in his
own hired private car-having first
given promise to return in a month
or two.
But he has never come-and it is
not known when he will Since the
most disastrous putting property
out of hands on record he has shun-
ned his native town as if it contained
pestilence, instead of the best air
that can be made. Even when death
beckoned him to come and help mould
the new made tomb of a brother-he
still stayed away, His sometime
neighbors asked him to join them in
the exercises of "Old Home Week"
and Capt. Clark of the Oregon, also a
Montpelieran tried to get him here;
but even if he would have come of
his own accord, the project was We
toed in his own household.
This is too bad for the people of
Dewey's native town are still proud of
his grand success at Manila, although
the glamour has vanished from him as
If he had been rubbed against a ledge
of granite and then sandpapered. 1t
is only that the people have found out
that they raised a very brave and clev-
Mortified Seminary, a few miles
south of his own school, / saw him
two years ago lay the corner stone of
Dewey Hall" - which it was ex-
pected might spring up as if by magic
with the money that would pour in.
Only the foundations have been con-
structed up to this time, and the cor
nerstone has been moved to another
part of the site. Even there they told
me yesterday that Dewey stock was
''away below par" The only trophy
seems to be cannon-not from Ma
Mia, but Santiago, one of the guns of
the demolished Viscaya. But the
admiral's brave deeds will be remem-
bered long after his silly ones are for
gotten He will some day be known
only as the hero of Manila, and have
the statue he coveted in the portico
of the State House, beside that of
Ethan Allen. Nobody thinks any less
now of Wellington because mobs ston-
ed his house while he was still in it,
FAST RPOOK EIEI n