The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1922-08-17
ON SECOND THOUGHT
BY JAY Z. HOUSE.
(From Philadeipnia Public Ledger.J I
Where Kindly Faced Cows Stand in
the Stream.

Windsor, VT, Aug. 10.
II it is to be left to me, and despite
the fact that I try to shirk the re-
sponsibility, pretty nearly everything
is left to me, rural Vermont is the
only motoring paradise left 1t 10 the
one spot l know anything about NOT
yet appreciabiy infected by the cake
eater who shoots high-powered car
along the motor highway at rate
of fifty or sixty miles-An hour. 1t Is
the only one which is not messed up
by those who tie tent and bedroll
alon gside an automobile and descend
upon the country.
In a ride of nearly two hundred
miles in Vermont 1 haven't seen an
empty salmon tin nor the palltd re-
mains of yesterdays roadside lunch
con- And it is as little infested with
Henry cars as it is possible for any
community in this broad land to be.
I don't think we have seen q dozen
Henrys in the day and a half we have
ionable and no placerto put on a show,
Vermont is not patronized to any
great extent by the road hound and
his lady. Some day, of course. YER
mont viii be discoVered--and spoiled.
When one speaks of rural Vermont,
he. means Vermont. It is all bucolic.
There is little untracked wilderness
and no great cities Where mountains
do not interfere with husbandry, il is
a marcelled countryside. Where the
mountains obtrude there is lovely
greenery and great beauty. The YER
mont farmer has an all-the-year-
round business and takes care of it,
He doesn't cater much to the tourist
trade. Except for an occasional tea
room, there is no deliberate and cal
culated effort to take it off the tourist.
The Vermont farmer has a going
concern of his own. In spring he
makes and SA1IG MI ct1e- Tn
mer. he is busy with his hay and oats
ana dairy herd. Around Christmas
time he supplies the country with
Christmas trees. Later IN the winter
he looks over the woodlot and makes
up his mind to release a little mer-
chandise lumber. We broke into the
state west OF st. Adams and drove
across 1t to ut. Johnsbury, on the east
ern border, turning southwark along
the Connecticut river, which we shall
follow into Massachusetts. We have
been on only one detour, and no really
bad road. Vermont has no hard roads
shale highways. well kept up, trans
figure the state. They are a bit
choppy in places, but one can get over
them at good rate or speed if he
heavy truck suddenly will thrust its
nose from side road appears re-
mote. We haven't sean a truck all
day. My passion for computation is
well known. Figure that heavy
trucks popping suddenly out of side
roads raise more gooseflesh on the
American people than all of the other
agencies of gooseflesh combined.
We slept last night in Jeffersonville,
village of 500 population between St.
Adams and st. Johnsbury. I mention
Jeffersonville because the knowledge
that such towns still exist is worth
disseminating. So far as could learn,
no name in that Village carries a
string of Tnassed consonaRts, no throat
is capable of utterfng cultural
sound. I did not hear a double mega
tive nor note split infinitive. Pro-
babiy there are few scattered
around, but didn't hear them. And
a billboard or motion-picture
theater. Shortly before dinner 1 went
uptown to submit myself to the kindly
ministrations of a barber. I was told 1
would find a shop in a certain grocery
store. I found the store and a shop
in an inside room. But there was no
barber. Questioned the grocer as to
the existence of such facial artisan.
He was here awhile this afternoon"
said the grocer, hut he took his car
and drove away; 1 don't suppose he'll
be back"
In the rear of the hotel as the
shades of eyentide fell I came upon a
man milking a Jersey cow. We fell
mented in a favorable way upon the
pulchritude of the bovine lady. I,
know something of cows and am able
to discuss them intelligently. 1 found
that in complimenting the COW I had
touched the secret spring that guard
ed the owners confidence. He told
me the cows name was Molly and
that she was the fourth in her line.
He had owned her mother, her grand
mother and her great-grandmother
He owned her offspring. The name
had descended. He had called them
all MOLLY" and would continue to do
so as long as the line was perpetuated.
That was his pride and joy.
The incident in itself is insignifi-