Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1915-11-23
The Pound and Other Things
Being a Very Little History,
Some "Reminiscences, and
More Divagation.

ihdl HOuIuu leIi III you asked meas
a small boy it was my lot to travel occs-
sionally over the road between Paris
Hill and what is still the "Forbes Dis
trict IN Paris. Not borne by the mod
ern steed which feeds on gasoline and
miles, but behind Flooding old Dobbin,
who generally used a considerable frac
ton over a half hour in covering the So
called three miles which was really
almost four. Along this somewhat lei
surely way variety of matters attracted
the attention OF my young eyes, possessed
OF that magnifying power which the Gre
atOr puts in the Orbs of the child, and
fixed themselves firmly in my memory.
For instance, the Hathaway swamp"
a half-mile of road little north of the
place now owned by Frank Bennett,
which during a good part of the season
we began TO dread as soon as we started
from home; and we always felt a sense
% relief when we had completed the
process Of dropping first one wheel and
then another into a succession of pot
holes which swallowed said wheels al
most to the Eek" Merely by the way,
the town in recent years has underdrained
this stretch, and made the foundation of
what may be kept good piece of road
in place of the former quagmire, if the
superstructure is OF neglected in the
time-dishonored way.
However, have wandered into branch
ing by-paths, for did not start to speak
Of the road problem, but of something
else which was also an Inheritance from
the fathers, and which remained with us
long after it had fallen into disuse. do
not mean-alas!-the meeting house
horse-shed, once q familiar object in the
country towns, now in almost every in
stance rotted and torn down-not even
replaced by garage, for automobiles are
used very little TO 60 to churches, but
mainly TO 90 past them. Time was when
men thought no more of hitchiug up and
taking the family three or four miles TO
church than they do now of driving a
seventy mile circuit on Sunday, and
every church had to have accommoda-
tons for large number of teams. ]
thought once of writing 'piece for the
paper" on "The Decadence of the Meet
iug-hOuse Horse-shed," but the more
thought about it the more fully / real
lied what deep water | was getting into,
and how little really knew about the
subject, and / refrained.
Again / have wandered-far from nv
subject if not from that high road of
sights and scenes. Beside this road, near
the bridge over what is known as Coles
brook, though il has some other more or
less historic names, was a structure on
which my eyes rested with some curioS-
ity. This was an enclosure, two or three
rods square, surrounded by stone wall
which was triumph of the wall-build-
er's art. Even in my juvenile inexperi-
ence knew that the man who laid up
that wall from common field stone was
an expert at the business. The wall was
considerably higher than the ordinary
farm wall, and was surmOunted, as | re-
call it, by hewed timber, while par
row gate at one front corner afforded en-
trance to the enclosure.
This / was told was the town pound,
wherein were confined such cattle and
other beasts as had been taken up in
places where they should not be, until
they should be redeemed by their own
ers and the proper fees paid, accepted
the statement, and this enclosure be-
came TO me one of the most interesting
points along the road. Time after time,
as We approached il, | would direct my
gaze, in the expectation, or perhaps l
should say the hope, of seeing there
some cows placidly chewing their cuds,
or else with some degree of frenzy max
ing the air resonant while they stretched
their necks above the high wall, and
travelled back and forth seeking release.
To this purpose | applied myself with
as much zeal as | later displayed in
searching each newly arrived next-year's
almanac in the hope of finding in the list
of the years ecipseS, Total eclipse of
the sun, June steenth; visible in New
England"
But my search for the impOunded cows
and the total eclipse had just the same
reward, and Tor the same reason-that
there "wan'tn such animal" | did not
then understand, as did later, that con-
ditions had changed, and that the pound
was even then rather relic than live
institution. Some years afterward got
hold of book treating of the beginnings
of our civil governmental think il was
by John Fiske, though it is significant of
the fame of authorship that can not now
recall with certainty either the title or
the author. Two things were revealed
very clearly by this book. One, how
many of our governmental institutions
have their roots far back in the history
OF our English progenitors; and the
other, how our New England conServa-
tism cliugs 10 an institution and pre-
serves it's existence, even after changed
conditions have made il of no use.
IL was so even then with the pound.
At the time first made its acquaintance,
and for more than thirty years there
after, the pound bad gradually deteri-
Grating physical existence, and legal
status which strictly had not changed.
Doubtless cattle were then astray at
times, tIespassipg upon others than their
owners and legally subject TO be i'm
pounded, yet they never were. As /
said, | never saw cattle or other animals
there, and have had to look up a man
thirty years older than / TO find any one
who ever did.
One man, s. p. Stearns Of South Paris,
now about eighty -four years young, has
told me that he remembers as a small
boy seeing Henry Davis feed and water
some cattle which were in the pound.
This must have been in the vicinity of
seventy five wears ago. Henry Davis was
the blacksmith who built the house on
the bill above the pound now owned by
w. A. Barrows, and be was pOundkeep-
er. Indeed, for long time the owner
ship Of that place seems to have carried
with il the honor-witbout emoluments
of being annually elected poundkeeper
Silas Maxim, the oldest man in town, can
not recollect ever seeing any animals
confined in the pound.
Whether Paris had pound when 1t
was a Massachusetts, town do not know,
but it Is altogether likely. In the laws
enacted by the first legislature after
Maine became state is a chapter of
some length relating to pounds and the
impouuding of beasts. 1t requires each
town to keep and maintain pound, and
provides for the choice of a poundkeeper
and three or more field drivers, whose
special business ii was to impound beasts
running at large contrary to the provis-
ions Of the law.
These provisions Of the law have a
rather peculiar sound now. They forbid
the going at large at any time, on the
commons or highways in any town, OF
horses, asses or mules. OF one year old or
upwards, or swine; similarly forbid the
going at large between April LIST and
November 18th, of goats or sheep; but