Evening star., 1914-10-04

sides are closely wooded and matted and
tangled with nearly all the shrubs and
vines that grow. 1t runs southerly through
Montgomery county, Prince Georges coun-
ty and to the northeastward of the capi-
tai
Paint branch is on the map, and is a
stream which. of course. is Well known
to persons living in the region through
which it pursues its way. yet it is a safe
reflection that relatively few of the people
Of Washington have ever heard of it and
that few have ever left their footprints
IN the deep woods and dense thickets
bordering this romantic stream. Paint
branch is a name the origin Of Or reason
for which the Rambler cannot at this
moment explain, but he believes that some
person will write to him telling why
Paint branch is so called.
Paint branch rises in the high and COM
parativeIy level country crossed by the
Sandy Spring road, which runs eastward
ly from point about one mile south of
Eduor. by way of Spencerville toward
Burtonsville. The Sandy Spring road
crosses watershed, down which in
northerly direction a large number of
branches HOW llltO tllt dtuNeNt IlNSI.
From this watershed many little streams
flow in a southerly course, one group to
form Paint branch and another group to
form Little Paint branch Paint branch
and Little Paint branch join their waters
in a Hat. wide valley two and half miles
southwest of Beitsville, half mile west
OF the Washington and Baltimore road
and a mile and a half west of the Wash
ington branch of the Baltimore and Ohio
railroad.
II is an extremely rough country which
Paint branch drains, in the angle between
the ColeSville pike and the Columbia pike.
The Paint branch country between the
Columbia pike and the Montgomery
Prince Georges county line, is deep
washed with steep ravines. but as the
branch flows enthusiastically to the con-
fluence of Little Paint branch. and still
farther along TO the junction with Indian
Greek, the region becomes one of gentle
slopes.
Itwas to visit the site Of ancient
powder mill and the remains of old
woolen mills along this branch that
the Rambler set out. For, in the days
of yore and of millwheels this was an
industrial and Industrious branch. Its
waters did not then go to waste, as
they do now. 1t was busy little
branch. and it worked for the country
through which it ran. And it was bet
ter thought of while it worked than it
is now. when it simply roars and rip
pies and idles its waters away. But
if you could understand what the
branch is saying as its waters whirl
and froth and gurgle over and around
great gray powders it might be say
ing that its idlenesS is enforced, that
men in the-age of steam and electricity
have come to despise its power" and
that it would happily resume the work
of turning mill wheels if anybody
would but give it a job in that line.
Perhaps the old brancn is saying:
deserve better of the nation that I did
all in my power to create. l made some
of the gunpowder with which patriots
Won the independence of this republic
and which later patriots fought to pre-
serve. The gunpowder that l made
doomed on many tragic and historic
fields, and the grape and canister and
hail of lead. about which SO much has
been sung and written. would have been
futile without my gunpoWder. Nicto-
Ties have been won with the gunpow-
der I made, and when now and then de-
feat came to US it was through no
fault of the powder turned out by me.
Then, would have you remember, I
made blankets and woolens which kept
warm and healthy the old people who
set this republic going and gave it a
good start in life. The country through
which l run was not hundred years
ago such a dismal, shadowy, woodsy
tangle as it is now. Fruitful fields lay