The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1909-06-04
Marshall J. HapgoOd Master
Sperit Of Mountain Hamlet
UNEQUALLEO HEALTH RESORT
Writer in Springfield Republican
Paints Descriptive Word Picture
of Peru and Its Inca

mouhtains-I.ay, it is iJsell that heart
and climbs from the valley of the
West river to tne very top of one of
the most interesting series Of peaks
in that vast and forest clad region
SAYS a writer in the Springfield Repub-
lican.
Those who once venture to Peru
are captivated by its charms, and viii
and autumn. One reaches Peru from the
autumn. One reaches Peru from the
southwark in one or two ways. Either
by the railroad through Bennington to
Manchester, whence a stage runs
daily across the state. Peru village
being the highest point; or up the
Connecticut river by the Boston and
Maine to Brattleboro, where change
is made to the branch road that winds
up the West river valley to South
Londonderry. And to take this route
one has to notify the landlord OF tne
Bromley house and be met at the sta
ton. or to hire a team to conyey him
the six miles uphill This is the
charming route, through lovely seen
cry, and when one arrives there one
finds town spread around on wide
plateau, bordered on all sides by hills,
from 5000 to $500 feet high, while the
plateau itself averages 1000 feet from
Winhall on the south to Mount Ia
Dor on the north. 1t is like the coun-
try prefigured by Lsaiah,-"a far
stretching land From this large
and fertile territory descend a multi
tude of glens and brooks that have
formed there to the valley of the West
river, which takes tneir waters to the
Connecticut and Brattleboro, and
thence to the sea. 1t gives an ample
sweep of farm and Woodland sense
of freedom, largeness, sunny comfort
and maple groves.--of all the air there
is to breathe and all the majesty of
brooding woodland to the top of Brom-
ley mountain. and other mountains
north, south and east besides One
looks from its high points southwark
to the noble peak of StrattOn noun
tain. a symmetrical cone that lords it
over Stratton and Winhall East
ward across the West river vale street
ches the impressive mass of Glebe
mountain. Between lie the farms Of
Peru and nesting at the foot of
Bromley is the village of Peru.
It is a perfect specimen of the old
New England. When one sees this
hamlet, he realizes what New Eng
land means to the elder Yankees
what Vermont still largely is in these
sequestered neignborhoods,-a region
of quiet and orderly life, and though
not so populous or prosperous as in
the days of the fathers, yet thrifty
and CHEEKY and unspoiled and in some
respects better than it ever was. AT
least this is the case in Peru. There
is the meeting house,-there is but
one in the town, though there used to
be others; it stands close to the vii
lage street on the road from Manches-
ter to Chester on the Connecticut, the
four horns of the altar" browning its
four-square plain building. There is
a little green triangle of grass with
naples on the borders, and beyond
this to the nortnward stands the
Bromley House. an ancient hosiery
rejuyenated, with all modern conven.
fences, and admirably kept But OF
this later. Round about the village
center, with its neat store and post
Office, where stages from northeast
and southeast leave and receive the
mail daily, are pretty houses, without
pretence; and every new house that
is built in Peru partakes of the pleas
ant simplicity of the best days of New
England,-they are homes.
The name of the Green" mountain.
is here appreciated at its value. Ii
great degree the sugar naples contri
butte to this effect, and in the fall the,
glorify the hills with their splendor.
of color,-deeper, richer, more empha
tic than In our western Massacnusett,
combinations of the same mountain
system, with its geological formation,
and its lower attitudes. But there ar,
also great groupings of spruces anC
hemlock, but not so many white pines
and there are wonderful groves o
beech, such as were once known OF
the Berkshire and Hampshire hills
but have mostly been made into char
coal or turned into bowls or wove,
INTO baskets as time has gone on an,
farmers nave needed money. S;no,,