Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1907-09-13

and clean from the heart out She was
born with a chip on her shoulder, and
she has it there yet. She hasn't made
extraordinary gains in population;
her present total is about one-half that
of st. Louis, or one-third that of Great
err Boston-say $780, 600 But it's popu-
lation of as high grade as any in Amer
lea. The sturdy yeomanry" of colonial
days is still doing business in Vermont
She had not the aristocrauc traditions
OF her sister state, New Hampshire; she
was never ruled by Hall and Kirk Her
rulers were her farmers, her mechanics,
and her hunters, plain producers and
fighting men, aware of their rights and
able at every turn in tho road to main
tain them. Today there is the greatest
possible contrast between the temper
and spirit of the people of the two neigh
boring commonwealths-New Hamp-
shires, coldly Indifferent or shrewdly
suspicious of the stranger within the
gates; Vermonts, cordially receptive and
hospitable in delightful blending of the
Western and the Southern manners.
Your man, or social group, that lives
aloOf from the common life is sure to
become insular and provincial. On the
other hand, your man or social group that
lives along the highway of war, where
hospitality is a plain necessity and cour-
tesy frequently develops hostilities, is
pretty sure to develop just those admir-
able qualities that endear Vermont to
lllC NkolNbls NGlllOul' moreover, lies De
tween New York and New Hampshire
social groups of different origins and
characteristics-and she has taken from
both something of their best, while sur
rendering little or none of her own es-
peCial quality of sturdy self-reliance
Vermont in a word. is the Iowa of the
East. Out West, in my boyhood, they
used to say that Iowa was the Vermont
of the West You can play that eQua-
ton either way, and it will work out
Vermont, like Texas set up in business
as a free and Independent republic The
difference was that Texas was recognized
formally by the United States, and cleo
ted chief administrators who were Off
cially known as presidents. Vermont for
dozen years had the substance of indie
pOndence treated as a free state with
both the United States and the mother
government of Great Britain al the
same time, on equal terms and finally
(l19D, as she had all the time intended
to do, she won her way into the Amer
lean federation of sovereign states as an
equal, despite the jealous opposition of
New Hampshire and New York. Few
schoolboys in the West and South know
1t, but Ethan Aliens brother Ira was as
clever with the pen, and with his states
mans brain behind the pen, as Ethan
was with gun and sword. They were a
great team, and it would be hard to say
which of the two men is the most hon
ored in Vermont today. Ethan has the
monuments but students of the states
history pay highest tributes to his quieter
brothers diplomacy and unhagging pa
trotism.
How Vermont Suggests Kentucky.
think that Vermont reminds me more
of Observation-Disclosures of any
other state. Her founders were COON
skin-cap men, handy with the rifle and
the axe, keen in barter, and able in de-
bate where their vital .
were concerned. Like Kentucky, Yer
mont has always been a border" state,
across which flowed in turn the tides of
. war and trade Like kentucky, Vermont
is best known to the world at large for
her pretty girls and her fine horses. Like
Kentucky again, Vermont sent many
thousands of her hard riding, straight
shooting, deep drinking, ardently amor
Gus sons westward to populate the new
commemorative carved out of the Mis-
sissippi valley. Nermonters in Iowa and
Kentuckians in Missouri are next door
neighbors to this day. And they're right
good people, the same their fathers
before them. The Vermonters in Iowa
are still voting for Abe Lincoln, and the
Kentuckians in Missouri are still voting
for jeff Davis-stubborn tribes, both of
them; good friends now because they
knew how to be square enemies when
they had vital differences of opinion that
could be settled only on the field of honor.
Nermonts Morgans have given a har-
der strain to Kentucky's thoroughbreds,
and the thOroughbreds of Kentucky,
through long cross breeding, have lent a
sprighther grace and a glossier coat to
the shaggy, thicklimb Morgan horses
of Vermont.
Some Things Vermont Has Given Us.
The melancholy political conditions of
Maine and New Hampshire had made me
pessimistic concerning New England. If
Vermont is as bad" l thought, Il don't
want to know it. The state that gave
us the Morgan horse, Ethan Allen, maple
sugar, George Dewey, Clark of the Ore
gon, and the Green Mountain Boys; the
state that first abolished human slavery;
the state that sent to my little home
town in Iowa the noblest public school
teacher that l nave ever known;-that
state may have fallen upon evil days,
but if so, I'd rather not find it out"
l soon learned better.
Vermont has a large legislature-3O
senators and 244 representatives Sem
ators are chosen on the basis of popula-
ton. Each city and town has one repre-
sentative The executive department is
like that of the Western states-uaere
are elective heads of the several state
departments, but there is no governors
council. Vermont had a council in her
early days, but it was recognized to be
fifth wheel, and was soon removed.
The genius of Vermont like the genius
of Japan, is the genius of common sense,
and the shortest path to the desired
result most commends itself to the Yer
mont mind. There is an inequality in
the fact of the city of Burlington, with
10000 inhabitants, having no more vot-
ing strength in the state assembly than
the smallest township; but such is the
degree of intelligent general interest in
public affairs in the state that this in
equality has not worked out evil results,
as in Rhode Island. There is no polit-
ical boss in Vermont. The Green Noun
tain state may have the semblance of
political ring rule-I was told it had
but it rests lightly upon her people, and
their habit of tossing it aside in case of
need proves that they still enjoy what
they fought for in the states infancy
the substance of political freedom.
That Is one of the ways in which Yer
mont differs from its neighbor.
Where Vermont Leads all the States.
At the session of the legislature in the
fall of 1906, under the leadership of Gov.
Proctor, Vermont, first of all the states,
followed the lead of the federal govern
ment in railway and pure food legisla-
tior. The railroads sent up big lobbies
equipped with the usual arguments and
inducements, and, to quote the phrases
of a native, they tried their darnedest
to beat the governors bills, but got
licked at every point"