Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1921-11-20
FEW hundred yards beyond
Beltsville, the track of the
electric railway to Laure!
Dassds onA Of those little

~ Beltsville, the track of the
~ electric railway to Laure!
passes one Of those little
open front piano boxes which we call
stations and crosses a road which
does very little business in COMPARE
son with that done by its powerful
and influential neighbors, the Powder
Mill road and the -Balti-
more boulevard. Westward. this lit
tie road leads up hill on which
stands the home of Judge Fillmore
BeaIl, the front entrance to which
is from the Powder Mill road which
leads west from Beltsville to the old
Powder Mil, which. in the days of
the American revolution, stood on
Paint branch at the point where Ben
ny Gallant lives now. The Powder
Mill road today connects with many
roads which lead throughout that
wide region called the Paint Branch
country.
From the open-face, piano box sta
ton the road passes eastward over
fiat country which Is the floor of the
upper valley of the Eastern branch,
across Indian creek, which Is
feeder Of the Eastern branch. through
a swampy tract along the borders of
the creek and up a steep hill to the
five-house village Of VAUDEVILLE. 1t
is the strange little hamlet to which
the Rambler guided you two Sundays
ago and the main house of which is
one that was built and dwelt in many
years ago by a DR.. Belt, and which
at later time came to be known
throughout the neighborhood as the
home of Gen. Jacob Ammen. On the
trip two Sundays ago we followed the
old Baltimore and Washington post
road, which was the original Wash
ington Baltimore pike: north from
Beltsville. On this trip we will fol-
station and will enter the Washing
ton Baltimore road at the top of the
hill of which Evansville is the ancient
and more or less picturesque crown.
given over last summer to pota-
toes, cabbage and tomatoes, and some
| Of it has not been under cultivation
| within the memory Of man. Out in
| that country they are growing subur-
ban subdivisions rather than market
gardens and raising building lots in
| stead of vegetables. 1t Is one of those
parts Of the country in which it is
not easy to find country people. You
meet young woman on the road and
perhaps she has the latest edition Of
| a fashion journal in her arms. and she
| Is not bit interested in setting hens
or knitting quilts You sit on rail
fence with a man and he is apt to ask
you how the market opened or closed
whether Skinnem Oil passed the divi-
dend 1t earned by selling stock.
whether Stuckum and Stretcham Rub
Der went up on the report that its
stock was no good. or whether 1nstan-
taneous got around the track at
Havre de Grace on the same day she
started. The valley Of the Eastern
branch, with Baltimore boulevard.
other good roads, the Baltimore and
Ohio railroad and an electric railroad
running through 1t, is building up
way. where farmers live. where plows
turn the land in burrows and the
threshing machine sings, has been
forced back beyond the tall and beau
tiful ridges which bound the valley
on the east and west.
But there is quite a rural aspect to
the strip of country through which
leads the old road over which you
are now passing. You cross the gray
and grease-black boulevard over
which thousands Of our Washington
people and our Baltimore neighbors
pass and repass daily without seeing
anything Of the country on either
side. Then you cross the tracks of
the Baltimore and Ohio railroad. one
Of the historic ways of the world. and
which was the first line of railroad
track to reach into Washington city.
Then you cross a field that is gray
and black with winter blighted weeds.
Fuzzy, ashen plumes stand high. Once
they were the bright blooms Of gol-
den rod. There are black, dead stalks
which were once merry with the yell
low flowers of mullen. There are