The Savannah morning news., 1902-08-31
PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT TO
LIVE ON A POOR FARM.
Queer Thompsons Point in Vermont. Where His
Secretary of the Treasury is to Entertain Him
During Part of the New England Visit.

goes fishing, he is accompanied by
the best woman in the world" The
best woman in the world recently sat
on the rustic porch of the little cot
tage, and, full of pride in her husband
and love for him, she told how once
long before Iowa elected him to the
chair of governor-he sent her a letter
while he was away from home. He
did not address it to her by name.
The address on the envelope was sim
ply:
THE Best Woman in the World,
Des Moines, Iowa"
And, said the happy woman, with
laughter in which delight and senti-
ment were prettily mingled, the letter
was delivered to her without question.
The postofice folk knew Mr.. Shaw's
handwriting, and even the official mind
knew that to him there was only one
woman like that.
Mr.. Shaw has installed an official
looking desk in the small room called
a library, more for convenience in re-
ferring to it than for any attributes
that deserve the name. The desk is
the only piece of furniture In the place
that suggests business. The antique
tidy holds the fort there, and from
carpet to print curtains everything is
redolent of '"way back in Vermont"
The dining room is even simpler than
the libary. The table is covered with
red and white checked cloth, and
the decorations are of the land. 1t
looks like room in a nice country
boarding house.
Justice Brewer lives in his own
house-at least as much of it as his
grandchildren will let him own. Mostly
they climb over the porch and the
trees and the justice with generous i'm
no ta1
do not issue there, and if they did, they
wouldn't 60"
The justice is a satisfying sight
when he sallies forth to the tavern.
He does not go there for the purposes
that one might suspect from
the bald statement. He goes
there for his mail, the tavern
being the hotel, general store Sunday
meeting place and postoffice combined.
The postmistress is the wife of Mar
tin Williams, the tavernkeeper. She
thinks that there is nobody like the
justice. He wears a fine aged cap
with flap. Under it his white hair
sticks out in true Green Mountain style.
hallowed since the days of the Green
Mountain Boys of '76. He sticks to
the frock coat, but wears it as frock
coats are worn in the country stores
and not as they are worn in Wash
ington.
In common with the rest of the pop
ulace, the justice INDUCES twice a day
in the excitement of seeing the steam
boat Chateaguay arrive from Burling-
ton. The Chateaguay always brings
some stirring surprise. from a piece
of real news of the outside world to a
barrel of potatoes.
While Secretary Shaw is an old Yer
monter. having attended school in
Stowe and having been in business in
Burlington, the justice is not a., whit
behind in patriotic fervor. Although
he is Kansas man, he signs himself
'Son-in-Law of Vermont" because
he is married to Vermont woman.
Both of them are full of the lore of
the lake and the mountains. They
know all about the ancient Narrows,
the beautiful inlet between Thomp-
sons Point and the famous Split
Rock, which once was the boundary
: of the Algonquins and the Iroquois,
it's crossing by either tribe being con-
sidered as invasion and meaning war
The Indian Hero and Leander.
Secretary Shaw probably will tell the
President the Indian version of the
story of Hero and Leander that is WOW
en- around this spot.
There was an Indian hero. She was
an Iroquois. There was an Indian
Leander. He was a Mohawk The
Mohawk Leander used to swim this
Vermont Hellespont to WOO his Hero
One dark and stormy night the black
waters that lie deep and cold at the
base of the cleft held him in their wet
embrace, and the Iroquois Hero wait
ed in vain until the yellow dawn
came over the hills She found him
on the rocks. and the Indian story
says that her mouth never smiled and
her eyes never looked love again.
They named the Cleft Rock after
him-Re gloch-ne; the point opposite
they named for her-Re-gi o-cine.
Southeast of the point is a large
bay which was called the bay of
Vessels" The fleets mustered during
the French and Indian wars met
there. Strange fleets they were-great
war canoes full of painted, silent men
-dugouts with the straightest and
keenest and bravest men of Europe
crafts of Adventures, and zealots and
marauders and civilizers all bent to-
gcther on the one errand of war
Did the eye of any dreamer among
them see a vision of the nation whose
peaceful government is so simply rep
resented there this year?
In those days the land was full of
deer and the lake was full of fish The
big wall-eyed pike or pike perch still
are plentiful and specimens measur-
ing more than two feet have been
taken frequently. There are no deer
nowadays, but that ancient man,
Squire Atkins, knows of times when
there were lots of them, and he stands
prepared to tell Theodore Roosevelt
the full and plain facts concerning
them
inces In the last few years the prices