Weekly Caledonian. (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1919-1920, 1919-02-26

Up here in the center of Vernon
in valley enclosed by the virilc sum
mits of the Green Mountains, is ,ht
little lJcw England town Of Paris.
1t is a neighborly statc--a neigh
borly little town. 1t is lovingly known
as "back cast" to large numbers OF
Yankee folk who in their young man
hood or womanhood have mistakingiy
left it to pursue tickle fortune in state.
afar. 1t is called ''up north" by
those southerners who know us only
from our prominence in the weather
reports or think of Vermont as open
for travel a couple of months only in
the summer time. City folks believe
it virgin breeding ground for the tribe
whose name is legion, of which it is
popularity said there is zone born
every minute" and it is half-scriously
believed that when we travel beyond
the skyline we saw "Wal, swan"
have haysccd in our hair, dandruff on
our collar, a jug of applcjack under
one arm and hold up the traffic gap
ing ut the four story buildings. As
for the country at large, it thinks OF
us as a quiet little state, smelling
mostly of ncw-mown hay and cow
barn, chiefly valuable to the union as
a producer of turkeys for its Thanks
giving dinners, maple sugar for its
breakfast pancakes or pretty school
ma ANS for its western rOmanccS.
Strange are the conceptions of Il
place acquired from hcarsay. For
Vermont is merely d lively, hustling
up-todatc little commonwealth, TOO
occupied with minding her own bust
ness to pay much attention to other
pcople's;a pastoral dream in the sum
MGR and Il coal-man'5 dream in the
wintcr-rcprcscnta Yankee land,
dotted with progressive little COM
munities which have more miles Of
paved streets per capita than New
York, more shade trees than our
street department can care for and
more industries than can find en-
ployccs.
Once upon time our town con5is
ted merely of a few houses, two gen
cral stores, a printing office, Il post
office, and Il blacksmith shop, barn
aclcd about Il country crossroads.
Today Main Street is thorough
fare two miles long with a mile Of
modern business blocks at one end
and an equal distance filled with pre-
tentious residences at the other. Side
streets have been laid out by enter
prising real estate men; Main, Maple
and Walnut streets have been paved
with material on whicn our appropri-
ate quota of Ford automobiles skid
badly in wet weather. New structure,
have arisen where twenty years ago
fat, sociable New England home
stcads stood behind white rail fences,
banked with hollyhocks and cinnamon !
roses.
On the main street of Paris, be- !
tween the Oddfellows hall and Ed |
wards Brothers Cigar Store, dating
back to the early days of the COM
munity, is dngy brown building that
has always housed a printing office.
In this building during the past !
thirty-seven years, two men have
been publishing small-town even
ing newspaper. One of them is a
kindly, grizzled philosopher by the
name of Samuel p. Hold The other
is his partncr-thc humble scribe
who sits before this battered old OK
change table recording this narrative.
1t is a town landmark-this news
paper Office of ours. Our sign
The Paris Daily Telegraph
is weathcr-beatcn and the letters are
wcll-nigh indlstinguishablc. Our prim
New England housewives caustically
remark that our office windows are
two blotS on the cScutchcon of the
town, while the big green curtains
behind them, pulled up only on Sun Z
lays or holidays, have become cam
vas mortuarics for most of the UNI
lucky flies and moths that have found
heir way into our Office in Il decade. !
Inside these humble premise, the )
furniture is parked and battered. Be-
lcath the old pine counter lies the !
lust of years An antiIuatcd green Il
,ox safe by the side window is piled !
nigh with wasted government money t
n the shape of Congressional Re- "
lords and files of old correspondence :
which VIC do not know why we save i
yet which we cannot bring ourselves Il
% throw away. The pigcon-holcs Of |
he walnut desks too arc stuffed with
memoranda and impcdimcnta, col '
cctcd there through many years that !
We are always going to clean out II
'omc day when VIC can find the time. Q
Yet on those rainy days or those h
holidays when We do have the tim
~" start at the cpocha
ht get far into tn
on we are Sittin
clippings droppc
NV If bygonc years
perhaps lcre Il Oncc-uS'
md then press hotogral
If some I ace, disappear
hesc man wv held in our f,
,ctful fin our gaze is
way; tF dull ache in
hearts; we ring ourselves
he sacriie rbing(these m
testimonial cruel flight
.