Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1908-04-18

subtle influence eXCenuS 10 JHlnRS
material. | once knew an estimable,
lady, resident of Worcester, Mass,
who assured me the oysters she ate
when visiting in Brattleboro were
superior to those she got at home,
and Worcester is several miles near
er salt water. Doubtless, had the
Puritans possessed a better know
ledge of geography, Brattleboro
would have been settled before Bos-
ton. Knowing all these facts, one
understands why Fanny Fern"
wrote: ut is wonder everybody
does not live in Brattleboro.
AS for the state at large, it offers
advantages as great as are to be
found elsewhere in the Union. l
will not enlarge on. the scenery al
though it is well known that the late
Prof. Smith Of the University of
Vermont pronounced the view from
the graveyard at Charlotte equal to
any in Switzerland; that the late DR..
Prentiss made similar remark con-
corning the country about Dorset,
and that the late William M. Evarts,
when approaching Windsor on his
summer vacation, felt thrill as the
steeple of the Congregational church
loomed into view such as he never
experienced infront of the Doge's
Palace in Venice. Consider the
comforts enjoyed if you are a resi-
dent of the Green Mountain State.
You build your house with lumber
from Burlington, you weigh your
farm produce on scales made in st.
Johnsbury, you put your valuables
in safe invented by Silas Herring,
Vermonter; in your hours of lei
sure you lure the trout with flies
! made in Manchester; chores done,
your daughter diverts you by per-
forming on an organ made IN Brattle-
boro; if you choose to leave the
shadow of Cancels Hump or Killing
ton Peak and visit strange cities,
you are taken to your hotel room in
an Otis elevator, the product of YER
mont brains; you die consoled by
the fact that even without your vote
the State will 60 Republican at the
next election; the monument placed
over you will be white marble mon
olith from Proctorsville.
Vermonters are sometimes twitted
with being slow, "a woman has been
known to wait twenty-five years be-
fore applying for divorce from a
man who had deserted her, and it is
true that if load of wood is prom
ised for tomorrow you will be lucky
if you get it week from date, but
this indisposition to hurry has its
advantages, and has always prevented
the state from going to extremes.
The progressiveness of the people is
is shown in many ways. Yachting
caps are no lonSer worn at milking
time, though they are said~to be in
Connecticut and Rhode Island, and
the sturdy plowmen of Athens and
Avery's Gore sport the latest style
of automobile cap. In politics it is
the same. Take the town of st.
George, with three Republican tick
cts in the field and less than fifty
voters. l have been told that at a
State election once most of the can
didates we're members of the same
family. Surely no one can accuse
of slowness Capt. Clark Of the Ore
gon, who made that notable trip from
the Pacific to the Atlantic at the
time of the Spanish war.
The State has almost forgotten
that it produced Brigham Young,
Heber @. Kimball, and John Hum
phrey Noyes, it has been so busy
giving birth to public men like
Stephen A. Douglass, Matthew Hale
Carpenter, Alphonso Taft, Chester
A. Arthur, Levi P. Morton, George
F. Edmunds, Lucius E. Chittenden,
John G. Kasson, Ethan Allen Hitch
cock, William F. Villas, Redfeld
Proctor and Henry Clay Ide; such
scholars as Asahel G. Kendrick,
Thomas ]. Conant and George P.
Marsh; such photographers as Hen
ny and B. Franklin Stevens. AS for
heroes, what's the matter with George
Dewey? 1t may be objected that
some of these men attained eminence
after leaving the State; nevertheless,
the hand that rocked the cradle had
great deal to do with it. William
HI. Taft and Charles w. Fairbanks,
who are examining the Presidential
chair with interest at present, are
sons of Vermonters. You may not
have observed that when a Chief
Justice is needed in any State a
Green Mountain boy is chosen, as
rule.
Not long ago four great railroads
went into the hands of receivers, all
of whom were Vermonters. Jacob
M. Howard, who drew up the, first
Republican platform, was born in
Salisbury.
Nor are the women behind the
men. Myra Colby Bradwell Of Man
chester was the first woman in the
United States to apply for admission
to the bar; Caroline Burnllam of
the first woman to grad
uate at the medical department of
the University of Pennsylvania.
The first woman to receive a Phi. d.
at the University of Michigan was
put through college by Lucinda
Stone, "she that was" a Hinsdale of
Hinesburg. When Mrs. Humphrey
Ward wanted an American heroine
she did not go to Virginia or Cali