The Caledonian-record. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1920-current, 1921-12-07

! siderao bly, at that minute.
One rough pasture in Danville
was curiousiy and grotesquely
1 moulded by the air blast of the
wind into hillocks, hummocks
l'deep scooped holfows and long,
cu1ving slopes lying true against
the fences and Joining the blunt
ed outlines of the posts and rails
with the more sweeping lines of
the drifts ridges.
"Did you drive over? asked
several weH-meanino people who
ought to know better, and the
answer is that we did not. At
that, noticed big white car la
boring through the drifts at Joe's
Pond. | wouldn't go so far how
ever. as to say the folks were en-
! joying themselves, and the merry
| jingle of the sleigh bells made a
much more appropriate accom-
panment to wintry outlook than
arv number of touring cars.
st. Johnsbury gets on runners
early and usually stays there,
4 though, of course, there are a
good many people who drive theil
cars all winter.
Thursday was one of the pref
test days l ever saw in winter
after we ran out of that little Dan
vile snow fiulry-and Scaletown
looked its winter-best.
We-Arthur Stone and did
the sights: first the Athenacum.
so years old the other day, and its
reading room filled with a class
from the academy doing some
| special work.
Since receiving some extremely
| valuable accessions from private
collections, the art gallery is pro
badly the feature of the institu-
ton, although it's reading
book-racks and reference stacks
show signs of consistent use and
practical value.
AS Frank Greene used to say,
art fails to get a single thrill out
of me, but the big landscape which
takes up the alcove, a couple of
marines, a Venetian scene and a
couple of Tom Woods character
groups get over all right.
I'm also frank to confess that
copies of sacred art find me pro-
fame. | might get a Joe Chapple
heart throb from the original; 9th
erwise Pm a Philistine. Also from
that state where they print "Show
me" in the corners of their visit
ing cards.
A pump flowing with maple
.syrup. governors mansion turn
ed into candy shop, the vacation
experiments of two domestic
science girls expanded into
business employing SO or 60 girls
and women in the busy season, a
colonial drawing room devoted to
afternoon tea and other more sub
stantial purposes, a librarv Of de-
vout and erudite authors used for
waiting-room for would-be-
roomers-these. are a few of the
things that appeal to one who Wis
its the Maple Grove plant in what
used to be the residence of His
Excellency Horace Fairbanks.
As a candy plant, it's speciality
is maple confections, made while
you wait, as it were. They don't
keep any amount of maple-sugar
candy on hand, because it loses a
part of it's unique and perfect
flavor if kept too long.
So far as / know, these maple
products are UNIQUE with this OF
ganization of women-they origi-
mated the idea, developed the var
ieties. built up the business, own
the stock of the corporation and
do all the work.
Even their chocolate and other
candies are a little different, and
they claim they have developed a
line of soft centers for their cho-
colates that is ahead of anything
else.
Any way, they're making lot
of candy and shipping it most ev-
erywhere-India and Turkey de-
veloped customers the other day
and are coming to the end of their
first year in the big house, which
will soon show whether they will
do as we'll as a big plant as they
did for two years as small plant.
Special classes from the schools
is the outstanding feature of the
Fairbanks museum of natural
science as it is operated today.
1t would take page f type to
tell half the wonders of that mus
cum. but the taxidermv of the late
William Everard Balch of Lunen-
burg is not only ingenious and
lifelike, but some Of the groups,
with productions of soils, water,
frosted vegetation trees and habi-
tats of the fauna mounted and dis
played, touch on real art, and
Balch was not only a true nature
lover and taxidermist but some
thing of an artist as well.
The huge moose, the tremend-
Gus buffalo, the musk-rat group,
the remarkable famingoes and lie
case of birds of paradise (the
latter said to be the finest in North
America) are typical of the type
of work done by Balch, but the
gem of the collection is pair of
sand-pipers, with the actual nest
and eggs surrounding herbage so
carefully removed and reproduced