The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1908-02-27

W btL tutm OOWn as u SttfHuluS 10
the remembrance of others who look
back upon early days in q small town,
In the first part of the Journey
thither, repeated efforts failed to
conjure up anything like a full and
definite picture of the place. But,
suddenly, as SO often happens, the
mists OF memory cleared, and II
seemed as though l had never been
away. This almost theatrical change
causing me to look about with sur
prise, l became quickly aware that
the train had swung into the be-
ginning of what we used to call "The
Happy Valley" With sigh of con-
tent, I sank back into comfort of old
adjustments, with sense of their
completeness that could come only
from a knowledge of later malad-
justments to compare them with.
This valley, perhaps a hundred
miles long and from a dozen to a
score Of miles wide, is walled in by
blue mountain ridges of from twelve
hundred to two thousand feet in
height, their bases sweeping nearer
or further and their sky lines high
er or lower in series OF almost SYM
metrical curves. The same restrained
variety characterizes the surface of
the valley, which billows and rolls
throughout like a solidified section
of midocean. The mountains, foot
hills and small patches of the valley
are still covered with oak and chest
nut, pine and cedar timber which
makes spring time delightful and the
autumn splendid. Elsewhere all is
fertile farm land, squarely fenced or
marked with low walls of ever avail
able limestone, which also provides
firm, smooth roads stretching away
in every direction over hill and mead
ow. Many farm houses and barns
are built of'this stone, softened with
the mellowness of years. Later
structures of local brick with slate
roofs seem scarcely less sturdy.
This same pleasant variety of sur
face and solidity of building char
acterizes the town itself. Cheerful
two-and-one-half-story houses, of red
brick, with green shutters still pre-
vail, although about the central
square and along the business blocks
the height is usually greater. l well
remember the builder of the first
three-story house in town. The first
four-story structure was reared in
my boyhood. Its completion was
celebrated with, fireworks and the
first electric lights seen in the town.
Now there are even cut stone bank
fronts, and they are building an
apartment house and five-story de-
partment store. Near the edges of
the town, where the dwellings stand
back from the streets with lawns and
flowers and trees, the march of inn
provement Is particularly noticeable
-as indeed 1t we'll might be, for the
place has doubled in size since l left.
These dwellings indicated to me
that local prosperity had caused the
tide of physical well-being to rise to
the second, or shelter, stage. For
merly, ideas of luxury centered chief
ly in food, which was consumed In a
variety and abundance that would
have made dietian shudder. The
land is still one of plenty of good
cheer, and progress through the
town would delight the monarch who
said, Let me have men about me
who are fat" but other creature
comforts have come to be considered
also. The stage of personal adorn-
ment has yet to be reached the men
seldom have their hair trimmed or
their trousers pressed, and the cos
tune of the women is simple. The
local attention to such matters
seemed interestingly different from
the metropolitan order of clothing
shelter, food.
The Old Town Hall.
But 1t was not progress that l had
chiefly come to see. l found myself
returning repeatedly to the old town
hall, which once sheltered the Oldest
bank and is still surmounted by q
tower OF strange local architecture
bearing an equally erratic clock. All
this, like everything else in the
place, seemed by no means so large
or so imposing as l had remembered
IT, and the banks disappearance pre-
vented the repetition of our one loca
authors jest concerning "the bank
where the wild thyme grows" But
when l once more climbed the tower
ana picked out, one by one, the ole
landmarks. felt all of my earl,
londness for the place return. Nc
one, believe, can be without q GER
tain proprietary affection for a plae,
upon which he has often looked dowI
from a tower.
There, above the town, my memor,
OF many of its personages became
FlVld. First, always, we admired the
ola Governor-we never called hin
ex," although he had been that fol
many years A fine. burly figure
even In old age, he was usually seer
driving to or from his model farms
IN vehicle which must have ante
uated the one-hoss shay. And h,
seldom passed without some one re-
iating how, when misguided ram
not being in position to be awed b,
MS countenance, made the conven
tional attack. he expanded to his full
est height and, with his favorito ex
pietiye, thundered: "Continenta
dam, sheep! What do you mean?'
me Senator. who logically came
next, was by no means so impressive
ior, being regarded chiefly as pro
WIDER OF political places, he wal
iorceu, when he walked abroad. Il
0BBumo an ahof.o.ts~~