Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1902-07-22
UNDER kINEo's BLUFF.
EXCURSION OF THE MAINE PRESS
ASSOCIATION TO THIS BEAUTIFUL SPOT.

EXCURSION OF THE MAINE PRESS
ASSOCIATION TO THIS BEAUTIFUL SPOT.
(Concluded.)
!; The diversions of life at Kineo can per-
haps not be better shown than by fol-
lowing our party in its movements for
, the several days we were there. This
. will not include any description of the
time spent at the highly fashionable
. game of golf, for two reasons. First,
there were no golfiacs in our party, or If
there were, they had it in very mild
form; second, it was so early in the sea-
son that the links were not in use. The
hay on the place was being cut during
the week of our stay, and the hay field
and the golf links are in most respects
identical. There is a nine hole course,
and the putting greens have been kept
moved and are in excellent condition.
As quite a portion of the course is in the
steep slope back of the house, it can
hardly be said to fulfill the conditions of
those players who want dead level,
but it must furnish excellent opportuni-
ties for great skill in play, and little
later the links will undoubtedly be lively
during all reasonable weather.
One of our number classified the party
into three divisions; first, fishermen;
second, house-cats, or those who liked
to 'sit around on verandas and in the
Office nobody ever sits in the parlor I'M
less something is going on there); third,
jill-pokes. This last word is guess as
it can not be found in any book OF
reference which the sanctum possesses.
1t is lumberman's term, applied to logs
left along the banks of streams, and as
used in this connection, meant those
who amused themselves by wandering
along the shore, through the woods, and
up the mountain.
Such classification has a considerable
base of correctness, though of course the
division is not exact, as many combine
some of the characteristics of all three.
There were in our party few who did
some occasional fishing, but only two
! who came properly and exclusively
under the first division, as fishermen.
These were Mr.. Sanborn of Norway and
Mr.. Loring of Portland. They are true
sportsmen. They made their start as
soon as breakfast was disposed OF, and
got in with their catch in time for late
supper, and they broke the rule only
twice during our stay; once on the
Glorious Fouth, when they stayed with
the crowd, and the other time when
Sanborn was called at daylight, and tried
the fish before breakfast. They had
good success as rule, and the rest OF us
shared in the fruits of their labor and
helped eat their fish with great
equanimity and relish.
AS for the "house-cats," they are I'M
sparingly despised by certain writer's
who think that life should be nothing
but strenuousness, and that we should
take our recreation as hard as we work.
Thanks to the religious incubation OF
that idea, we as a nation don't know how
to rest, for more than few brief
minutes at time. Certainly if any one
is capable of learning the gentle art OF
resting, Kineo ought to be good place
for the school. The tired man who can
not sit on the wide veranda at Kineo,
and with pipe and book in hand, and a
glorious expanse of sunlit water and
green hills and cloud-fecked sky before
him, rest and dream, needs some other
course of treatment. The pipe may need
occasional relighting, and conversation
will flag, and the book will get only an |
intermittent reading; for the simmer,
ing water, and the mountains far and
near, and the blue vault above, will draw |
the thoughts away to things unseen.
Howsomever this is not disquisition,
but a more or less true story OF week
The morning after our arrival things
had a very familiar look and sound, with |
the rain pattering on the roofs and the
lake resembling stormy sea; but after
a little the rain let up, and party OF us
walked over to Pebble Beach. The road
runs through the beautiful wooded part
of the peninsula. We encountered a
frog pond, so full of the animals that we
wondered at not finding frogs legs on
the menu at the house, and went through |
cloud of mosquitoes fully as plenty as
the frogs, and only little smaller. AT
the beach we are separated by only a |
short stretch of water from the over
hanging cliff of Mount Kineo, which
here shows it's most impressive majesty.
After dinner few of us decided to
make the ascent of the mountain, and at
once started off. Another party, fearing |
the wetness of the ground and other
evils. hesitated while and were-but
that will be told later. A well-defined
path runs to the top of the mountain
and the ascent is made possible for any
one of good vigor by hundred or more
steps built of plank and provided with a |
hand-rail, up the precipitious side OF the
cliff. / know of nothing which resembles
Kineo so much as the south slope OF
Speckled Mountain, in what used to be /
franklin Plantation, and if there was a
hotel at the foot of that slope, the guests
would have mountain climbing rugged
enough to suit the most exacting.
After reaching the top of the cliff, the
path runs through the woods and across
ravine which has a spring OF nice
water, to the east end, the most precip-
itous part of the mountain. Standing
ON shelf here, one looks directly down
into the waters of North Bay, and it is
impossible not to think that a child could
toss a stone into the water. No one has
ever done it, and it can not be done, but
every one who stands there for the nrst
time has to prove the impossioility OF
the feat by actual test. We tried 1t ana
were satisfied.
The view from this point is magniti-
cent. Greenville at the foot of the lake,
and Northeast Carry and Northwest
Carry, at the head of it, each approx.
mately twenty miles distant, are well
within the range of vision. A portion OF
Mount Katahdin is in sight, but the top
is hidden behind the Spencer Mountains,
two huge conical peaks which rise at
seemingly short distance across the lake.
A few farms make openings in the woods
along the lake shore, but aside from
these and the village at Greenville,
twenty miles away, the eye sees only
lake, mountain and forest, and the be-
holder realizes something of what is
meant by the "Maine woods"
A mountain top like this has peculiar
attraction for me, and finding nook
sheltered from the wind little below
the crest, had settled down for an hour
of comfort, when there came a call from
above, "Come, aren't you going down?
It's laundering" followed by the re-.
treating footsteps of my companions.
looked hastily up, and seeing a cloud