The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1902-08-13
THE CITY RESERVOIR.
A Place of rlany Rural Charms.
Trees, Flowers and Dashing
Waters. The Old Mills.
Duty to the Veteran
Superintendent.

Unquestionably the most interest
ing place within easy driving distance
of the city is the reservoir-that is,
in summer time and on bright sum
mer day. The spot is one of rural
charms i'll which is present that sine
qua non of rural scenery-water, still
or running. The reservoir is not very |
large but it is beautiful sheet of |
water, extending between green banks |
quite a distance in the picturesque |
| landscape that from the outlet opens |
on the view, terminating in the dis
| tant hills about the pond whence come
| the waters. Below the stout restrain
| ing rampant, receiving the cascade
from the reservoirs spill way, is the
series of abrupt rocky descents down
| which the water plunges, between
high walls and under the interlacing
| branches of the trees which line the
little torrents course. The murmur-
ing waters, the sunlight streaming
through the foliage and flecking the
rocks and foam with light, the rust
ling leaves and notes of birds make
| up a sym postum of sound and scene
| supremely pleasing and soothing to
every sense.
The saplings about the little lake,
which the venerable superintendent,
| Mr.. Foster, saved from destruction
when the place was set apart for the
city's use, have manifested their graf
itude by growing and thriving, and
arriving in comely shape to the estate
of young treehood, nursed and encour-
aged year by year by their kindly
guardian. The rocky ridges have be-
come something of an arboretum or
museum to which new specimens of
tree and shrub have yearly been added,
till about everything that grows and
blooms III this land of short summers
and eternal winters is represented on
the grounds round about-and parti-
cularly the "old fashioned" things of
the long ago. In the hollows where
the vegetable mold has collected Eu-
ropean larches are thriving with ma
= tives of the soil of many species--
naples, birches, poplars, elms but
ternuts, ETC., etc. Here 1.-The lily and
the laylock' are blooming in their
time, the shadbush III its season. the
, cowslip in the wet places, the live
, forever in the crevices of the rocks,
a root of "loveage'' here and some
odd specimen of vegetation there,
to the completion of the species of the
! kingdom.
Around the grounds, fiourishing in
the vegetable mold in manner that
would be the despair of the city gar
t den, are beds of flowers, the old fash
/ toned posies and the new-pansies,
f hollyhocks, sweet peas, bachelor but
e tons, nasturtiums, etc. and there are
vegetables growing and disporting
! | themselves III the same wanton way.
o Among the products of a year ago
y were two squashes weighing fifty-four
n and sixty-seven pounds each, one OF
/, which served for weeks in the window
: of Field restaurant as an invitation
to come in and be fed. In a corner
=, by itself is the medicinal garden in
IS which are growing plants and herbs
of old-tlme vlrtues-sage, tansy, hops,
etc
Across the pond George NJ. Serb
ner has pitched his tent and is raising
: flowers galore. Every posy that
L blooms is represented. Gala lilies
IS ais, and there are kinds and varieties
d to enumerate which would fill {
d small book. Mr.. Scribner's f1owe,
= beds are effectively laid out, and Will
$ the masses of bloom make an ex
l. tremely attractive array. An hydrau
lie ram, below the outlet of the reser
voir, supplies the water for irrigation
and the keepers fancy stock is furthe
eked out by several members of til,
= species described as nocturnally pre-
" dacious," confined in a cage from
IS which sometimes comes a faint per
l. fume not entirely suggestive of thu
flower garden, These kittens feeC
! from their keepers hand, and in othe
: ways observe some of the amenitie
of animal civilization. The chic
n
- camp is the view of the valley of tn
south branch of the Winooski and TIL
il hills which stretch away, ridge be
$ You'd ridge, to the horizon.
lie The location suggests the change
: that time makes in his courses
g Along the falls are remnants of tn
Sc foundations of the mills which provid
lie ed the early settlers with lumber 70
+. their buildings, meal for their fam
y lilies and their animals, and whicl
~ ''fulled' the cloth they wove 70
a their apparelling. In 1894 the sawmil
tn was built, in 1896 the grist Million
of the grinding stones is still visible
p in the bed of the stream-and the full
al ing mill in 1900 on the site of tn
IL dam of the reservoir. The lines o
~ the old roads which led to the local
D titles of these Infant industries ar
"a stlll cledrly ulsllHgulsIlaDle. LII Cours
ie of time, about the year 1928, new
l. mills were built at the outlet of Der
n lin pond and the structures at the fall
l. yielded to these rivals.
r To the man who is the first superin
~ tendent of Montpelier's water system
Mt who by day and by night, in tn
ut heat of summer, in the dead of white
and its bitter cold, has faithfully an,
e. zealously performed the duties oil
ty which the health and convenience O
st the city and its defense against fir
is depend, who has made and preserve,
- the locality of the reservoir place o
,S rural beauty-amid these scenes to TIN
is old superintendent some enduring
~ memorial ought to be raised