Republican news item. [volume] (Laport, Pa.) 1896-19??, 1902-06-19
Eagles Mere, Past, Present
and Prospective.

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EDITOR NEws:- Responding to your
request for an occasional contribution
from the locality in Sullivan county
most widely known / venture the
opinion that it's real points of inter-
est are but little understood by our
own people, even some of us who
live here.
The summer visitor would never
guess it's age and would probably
look at you very obviously if you
were to say that there are planted
trees in the vicinity that are at least
a hundred years old. Legends are
not so numerous as they should be.
Its early days have never been WOW
en- into story and yet it has not beeu
for lack of material but rather be-
cause no one has become sufficiently
interested to gather up the threads
of past years before they are lost.
Rev. DIR. Winters started at it some
years ago just because Of the love for
the place that SC thoroughly enthus-
ed him and his artist wife, who has
left among us some gems of Eagles
Mere scenery as it was before the
days of the kodak, when the slow
process of the brush was the only
means of perpetuation.
Probably among the literary treas
ures of the late VIM. Meylert, more
ofthe story of years gone by could
be found than almost anywhere else.
1t is intensely interestine to listen
to the lovers of the place who can
talk about the experiences of twenty
forty, and sixty years ago, when it
was real undertaking to get here.
Mr.. Harry G. Clay claims to have
been summer resident for more
years than any one now found
around the Lake. His devotion
dates far back of stage lines, and
tells of the long rough ride in pri-
vate conveyances from Muncy sta
ton on the Pennsylvania r. II. and
probably earlier than that as we
have heard Mr.. Emil Geyelin tell of
his travelling to Muncy by canal
packets before any railroad was built
along the Susquehanna. Some
times the trip was made by way of
Pottsville, Danville and so over the
mountains. Then it took several
days between Philadelphia and the
Lake. Now we grudge the hours of
the quickest train.
Modern improvements have fair
ly set their stamp on Eagles Mere,
but more than one of its old time
friends would turn the hands back
if they could and climb the noun
tain as they did years ago when the
Tourney was by no means the small
est part of the summers experiences
that were lived over around the stove
on the return to the city and in the
winter evenings.
Mr.. Fernley's family will tell you
that the present cannot compare
with those days. Mr.. Louis Smith
of Muncy will readily take the in
listener back to forty years ago and
Mr.. j. S. Kirk will talk of twenty
five or thirty years since when he
made his first visit in search of
health for which he now thanks the
mountain top. 1t makes one feel
that Historical Society should per-
petuate these pleasant memories of
the past while it is possible to do so.
The writer can distinctly recall
the prophetic enthusiasm of Mr..
: Michael Meylert, AS far back as 1866.
| 1t looked wild and visionary then,
but more than he anticipated has al
, ready come to pass and the end is by
no means here yet if wise counsel
only prevails in the administration
, of the affairs of the place and its sur
!. roundings.
While many Of us have sorely
chafed under the ultra-conservative
+. policy of the Land Co. it is a serious
question whether we may not need
good deal more conservatism in
some directions than seems now to
prevail. More than five thousand
different persons are supposed to Wis
it us each year, and it is likely
. that among them more than ten
thousand different opinions are held
as to matters involving the present
and future of the place, SO that sug-
5 gestions are more than plentiful but
it will need IL steady mind to keep
i from making mistakes and steady