Maryland independent. [volume] (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1874-current, 1908-02-28
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NSAf ANftaASu tuuFlS ldlleu 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 Il
seemed as though l had never been
away. This almost theatrical change
causing me to look about with sur
prise, 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, sank back into comfort of old
adjustments, with a sense of their
completeness that could come only
from a knowledge of later malad-
iustments to compare them with.
This valley, perhaps 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 a series Of almost SYM
metrical curves. The same restrained
variety characterizes the surface of
the valley, which billows and rolls
throughout like a solidifed section
of midoeean. The mountains, foot
hills and small patches of the valley
are still covered with oak and chest
nut, pine and cedar timber. whith
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 SIR
face and solidity of building char
acterizes the town itself. Cheerful
two-and-one-half-story houses. Of red
brick, with green shutters sill pre-
vail although about the central
square and along the business blocks
the height is usually greater. 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 a fve-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 i'm
provement is particularly noticeable
-as indeed it well might be. for the
place has doubled in size since | 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 conferred chief
ly in food, which was consumed in a
variety and abundance that would
have made a dletian shudderk The
land is still one of plenty ofA goot
cheer, and a progress through Ih,
town would delight the monarch ~
said, LET me have men about M.
who are fat" but other creatut.
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 it was not progress that I 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 a
tower of strange local architecture,
bearing an equally erratic clock. All
this. like every thing else in the
place, seemed by no means so large
or so imposing o. / had remembered
1t, and the ban'ls disappearance pre-
vented the repetition of our one local
authors Jest concerning the bank
where the wild thyme grows" But
when l once more climbed the tower
and picked out, one by one, the old
landmarks, felt all of my early
fondness for the place return. No
one, | believe. can be without a GER
tain proprietary affection for a place
upon which he has often looked down
from a tower.
There, above the town, my memory
of many of its personages became
vivid. First. always, we admired the
old Goyernor--we never called him
lex, although he had been that for
many years, A fine. burly figure.
even in old age, he was usually seen
driving to or from his model farms
in a vehicle which must have ante
dated the one-hoss shay. And he
seldom passed without some one re-
lating how. when a misguided ram,
not being in position to be awed by
his countenance, made the conven-
tional attack, he expanded to his full
est height and. with his favorite ex-
pletive. thundered: Continental
dam, sheep! What do you mean?"
The Senator. who logically came
next, was by no means so impressive;
for, being regarded chiefly as a pro-
wider of political places. he was
forced, when he walked abroad. to
assume an abstraction profound
enough to make him oblivious of
the hungry eyes of his constituents.
fear that his was not a happy life,
at least when he was at home, which
grew more and more seldom.
The General, however, loved to
parade his tall. proud figure. 1t was
currently reported that he wore stays.
Certainly he carried his shoulders al
ways ready for epaulettes and his
head poised for ehapeau. For