Cameron County press. [volume] (Emporium, Cameron County, Pa.) 1866-1922, 1905-12-21
interesting Letter.

region along the Black river made
famous in the eighteenth century bv
the settlement of many French HUI
guenot families, ofnoble birth. ofwhom
wish to write at another time. On
this occasion will bring to the readers
notice the manner in which was i'm.
pressed with the town of Deferiet and
Its industry. The name Deferiet was
given the town in honor ofthe memory
Of Madame Deferiet, an influential
member Of one of the principal Hu-
guenot families that found exile in the
state of New York after the massacre
OF st. Bartholomew The town of De-
ferit is prettiy located in the valley of
the Black river. It's population mum.
bers about one thousand souls, and the
sole industry which gives these people
employment is the great paper works
of the place.
The Black river is stream of some
magnitude, its dark waters flowing
from the Adirondack mountains. At
Deferiet the river makes a great bend.
ana the paper company, to utilize the
waters enormous power, have cut a ca
nal at an immense cost, from the two
points of the river where its serpentiue
like form are brought closest together
| Over one million Of dollars were spent
Ill this one feature OF the plant alone
La addition to ali the vast power ex.
erted by water, the steam engine in use
! represents some thousands of horse
! power also, meaning the consumption
OF great quantity ofcoal for fuel. The
institution all throughout is one of the
most modern known. It's capacity,
whilst not the greatest, represents a
| daily output of one hundred and forty
tons of finished paper It's consump-
ton OF wood means the destruction Of
three thousand, five hundred acres of
spruce forest yearly.
And having seen the working of the
great plant, / asked the gentleman
who had so kindly shown and ex-
planned it all to me, as to where mar
ket was found for their enormous pro.
duct, and was told that certain New
Yok journal consumed sixty-four tons
of this paper every day of the year, and
that the same concern published two
other papers which know to be of the
same lamentable order, in two other
cities of the state, all three consuming
an amount of paper equal to the plants
entire production.
After learning this information /
passed into a deep reverie, and my
thoughts ran something like this:
"What crime, what infamy, all this
COLOSSAL and stupendous waste of ma
lures resources. The loss to the world
of thousands of acres of magnificent
young forests every year, the invest
ment of millions of capital, and the en-
plcyment Of hundreds of hands, all to
create a species of publications which
are evil, tending only to degrade the
mind and the morals of those who read
them, class of literature SO baneful as
to make the acquisition of knowledge
it's influence comes blight upon the
human mind" Coming out of this
reVerie | am still wondering whether,
from the beginning of time, there has
been any form of criminal, or other
waste, that has in any degree been
comparable with our destruction of the
country's rapidly waning forests for no
better purpose than to deluge millions
of people daily and hourly with printed
matter of the shocking and deplorable
character of what the daily press is so
largely constituted.
People boast of their love of country
and their patriotism, and yet subscribe
to thing that destroys the objects of
education and all desire for intellectual
advancement; a thing that saps the
brain just as certain species of insects
dwarf the growth and sometimes saps
the life of the living plant, or creature,
upon which they exist
Philanthropists have constituted mil
/ lions upon millions of money for the
/ purpose ofcroating Libraries, hoping to
I disseminate knowledge and to- make
their fellow men better and wiser but
in the path of their good intentions
comes the cyclone Of journalistic crazy
madness feeding the poor brain with
class Of garbage that renders both brain
and good intentions uugatory.
ALFRED TRUMAN.
Hollins, Ala, Dee /, 1905.
Fire at Huntley.
The tenement house oUnsd a., I...f