The Manchester journal. [volume] (Manchester, Vt.) 1861-current, 1921-01-20

agent lNE LNt American bANlt oAC4tAf
MERIT Harmon Of Rupert graduated
in 1925 and took his great coat" OF
missionary service 70 Michigan
whence he later pushed west TO Iowa
william p. Atwater. Of Castleton, wa
a member Of the Class of 1924, bat
the $40 surtout must have spoiled him
since he did not graduate The fifty.
cent mittens Of Lyman Gilbert, Of
Brandon and the Glass Of 1924, failed
20 win him TO missionary service, for
he spent his life in the luxuries Of a
Congregational pastorate in Newton
Mass
My interest in this old schedule is
in the location Of the towns from
which these young men came, and the
geographical portion of the name Of
the society Of which they were benefc-
iaries: Hollis, ~ H., and the Vermont
towns of Cornwall, Brookfield, Rut-
land, Rupert, Castleton, and Brandon.
And the organization was the North
western Education Society" organized
lad promoted to assist young mel Of
the Northwest to an education. Other
documents in the old trunk prove con-
clusively that the object Of this society
the pioneer Of American Education
Societies-was not to send men to the
Northwest, but to help Northwestern
young men. Vermont was then-or at
the time when the Society took its
name-the Northwest There was
time when Vermont was the western
frontier All through the years Of its
foundation and settlement it was re-
garded as the far, forbidding West.
Fifty years after the beginning Of
rapid growth of the State, the desig-
nation Northwest was not incongruous
in the name Of one Of its benevolent
The feel Of the West-consciousness
Of possession of immense spaces, Of
marvellous fertility, of unexampled
economic opportunity-came over the
carly settlers Of Vermont. Writing in
1894, DR.. Samuel Williams said
"This is the youngest Of the States,
an inland country, and now rapidly
changing from a vast tract of unculti-
waited wilderness, to numerous and ex-
tensive settlements. In this stage Of
society, industry and economy seem to /
produce the greatest effects, in the
shortest periods of time" (History Of
Vermont, 1894, p. viii). The impress
sion Of tremendous size and Of won
dcrful new wealth of nature is thus
ecorded by DR.. Williams in another
passage:-'U 'Uncultivated by the hand
of man, it (Vermont) presents to our
view a vast tract Of woods, abounding
With trees, plants, and flowers, almost
infinite in number, and of the most
various species and kinds" (ibid, p.
j6) Again he says:-"The land in
,luded within these limits is of very
'ertile nature, fitted fors all the pur
poses and productions of agriculture.
The soil is deep, end Of dark colour;
'ich, moist, warm, and loamy. 1t
,cars corn and other kinds Of grain, in
r rye quantities, as soon as it is clear
d Of the wood, without any ploughing
II preparation; and after the first
rops, naturally turns to rich pasture
7 m wing" The familiar Western ,
ing is heard in DR.. Williams COM I
1ents on "the power with which
ature acts in the productions Of veg !
table life in this part Of America" '
enoting, he says, "an energy, power !
4 the vegetable life, witch nature las /
ever exceeded in the same climate, in "
ny other part of the globe" tib.d. /
. SOY. s
Visitors to Palestine, observing the +
overty-stricken appearance Of the r
puntry, have often marvelled at the a
iblical descriptions of it, as a land h
owing with milk and honey, "a land v
wheat and barley, and vines and fig n
res and pomegraHites; a land OF oil Il
lives and hsney." With all allowance n
,r tie bleeding taxation Of the Turk, h
does not seem possible that those c
.ony hillsides could ever have been Il
ascribed as "a land wherein thou 4
lalt eat bread without scarceness, v
,cu shalt not lack anything in H." e
he explanation IS that the visitot p s
.oachrs Palestine from the well-tiii- Il
fields # Europe and America willie q
q people who found i a land flowing +
it.l mix and horey approached it r
en- the desert T. contrast with TIE r,
epDes of Moab ard The sands n &
rabia. the holy lrnd was q paradise \
fertility and wealth To realize Tie Il
inI q uy people as they settle
w country, ore must consider i- ~.
rtlaEt with The region from which r-
- crme, not its queiftie relation
territory whieh las since been