Year: 1873

The Maintop OF New England from the


Top of n Stage Coach-Thc Notch OF


the Hunter Given Up to the Railroad


What Guide Books, Poets and Penny


a-Lincrs Rave About-Through q De-


file and Across Mountain Streams 60


North Conway, N. H.


NORTH CONWAY, N. H., Sept. a. 1873.


1t is really surprising what difference there is
between the guide book and the actual experience
of New Yorker wandering among the mountains.
There is in the imagination q romantic feeling of
vistas Of panoramic beauty at every turn OF the
road an exhilaratng Whit of bracing air
every moment, while the six mettled
steeds, over which jolly communicative
driver cracks his elongated lash, dash forward
making pulse and brain tingle with excitement;
an incessant call for ecstacy and welcome hearty
and true, at every wayside hostelrie But how far
different is the reality The traveller sits beside
lean, sallow-complexioned dyspeptic Jehu, who
replies to every question monosyllabically, and
who only wakes up to a respectable state of ex-
ctement when the opportunity arises to swindle
the stranger out Of an extra dollar or two. After


vain effort to break the armor of ice or stupidity
in which the driver OF the stage Mount Washington
was encased, tired to draw out some OF the pas
sengers who sat on the outside OF the stage. The
experiment was only successful in one instance
pleasant, sociable Canadian, who hailed from
Montreal. The representatives OF New England
who sat behind US, evidently regarded friendly ap-
proaches in the light of an interested AFFAIR an
unwarrantabe intrusion, something of the high
wayman order No camp meeting could be more
solemn than our "outsdesr in going up the GOO
feet ascent from the Fayan House to the depot of
the Mount Washington Railway Speaking OF this
house. 1t will be interesting to know that the
feuds between the Colonna and 0rsni, the Guelphs
and Ghb0ennes, or any other medieval raga-
muffins cannot be compared In point of malignity
and dire iierceness with the enmitv that prevails
among hotelkeepers In these mountains. From
Bethlehem 10 North Conway 1t is the same story.
The building OF monster hotel over the Giants
Grave has produced among the older houses q
feeling worse than that which actuates COrsican
vendetta and century ago, under such crcum-
stances, one would naturally look for a Falyan re-
tainer being sent to the other side OF Jordan by
fusilade from some hired braves OF opposition
houses.


THE DESCENT or MOUNT WASHINGTON ON THE


EASTERN SLOPE.


Looking down rom the summit House on the
eastern slope one sees diminutive building, look
ing like child's toy house. This is the celebrated
Glen House, which has antiquity as well as propn-
guilty to the maintop OF Yankeedom to recommend
It, x-horse stage brought us to It, distance of
eight miles, In an hour and half There are gulfs
inconvenently near the road. and the attention is
more directed toward the capabty OF the team to
make a safe descent than toward any particular
charm in the scenery. Guide books poets and
this road to an unwarrantable extent
There is more to he seen In one day
In the old overland stage route across the Rocky
Mountains or the Sierra Nevada than one can find
in an entire summer among the White Mountains
OF New Hampshire. The bride paths up Mount
Washington are seldom resorted TO nowadays, be-
cause they are steep, uncertain and full Of ruts
Bergh when his unfortunate nag pants, stumbles
and groans. Masses OF snow were piled up in
some OF the rayines, and the air was cutting and