^\)t iTarmer's illontl)Ii) Visitor. 



107 



mill Ogdeiisldii!; route would seriously iifTcct llie 

 (r:iiis|iort over the New York ennuis and railways 

 running to the west? The new railway by the 

 time of its completion will make an entire busi- 

 ness of itself, so that the business of the old 

 routes will not be perceptibly lessened. 



We have come to the conclusion that every 

 where in the settled parts of New England any 

 new railroad takinfr the same long direction of 

 another railroad situated at the distance of twen- 

 ty miles will contribute to the benefit rather than 

 the injiny of its seeming rival. The local |6i(si- 

 ness created hy Ihefanlities of transport afforded by 

 raUroads is the most important Hem of benefits. In 

 Massuchusetia it is becoming common to extend 

 from the main routes branches to every consid- 

 erable village and place of business: all these 

 bninohes contribute to swell intercourse and busi- 

 ness not to the stem alone, but to all other roads 

 in all other directions. As with railroads so with 

 cities and villages — whatever conduces to the 

 growth and prosperity of one conduces to the 

 giowth and prosperity of all. Business creates 

 busit\ess; and no belter sptir to business can be 

 found than thai heattlfid competition which brings 

 down all valuations to their proper level. 



Winter Birds ; 



A writer in the Brooklyn Star, in a very inter- 

 esting article, states : 



"I have, as (lady visitors, a I'ttle flock of sixteen 

 woodland birds, among which are two ground 

 sparrows. These little serial songsters are very 

 liarmonious, and their example is a lesson to ibeir 

 connnon enemy, in.in. This litile flock of birds 

 were regnhir in their visits to my place last win- 

 ter, but at that time there were no ground spar- 

 rows in the flock." 



And Summer Birds. 



{U* As nobody shoots the birds near our prem- 

 ises, much have they nrMltiplied this year, espe- 

 cially upon the magnificent elms over the way- 

 There are three or four mischievous cats about 

 us, including one of our own, w liicli have all done 

 good service in annihilating the more iriiscliiev- 

 OU8 rats that come into the cellars and about our 

 granaries ; there are three or four mischievous 

 cats of the Malta breed, furious as catamounts 

 upon their prey, who make sail havoc with our 

 young birds at that precise time when they come 

 oflT their nests. All day Suuiluy last while we 

 were out of church, the parent robins were scold- 

 ing like termagants at the cats watching the young 

 brood that but then had left the nest upon yon- 

 der old dead apple-tree. Out of breath, we pur- 

 sued to a neighbor's one of these cats with a 

 screeching young robin in her mouth. How cru- 

 el it seems that the strong prey upon the weak — 

 that innocent, useful birds must suffer with the 

 guilty, thieving mice and rats! Vet as it is with 

 man in this life, so it is with birds and I)easts — 

 the more crafty and subtile subsist upon the un- 

 wary and the inofl^ensive. Man siuilies the arts 

 for enirappiug others of his own species: it is 

 not conmif.n for birds and beasts to prey upon 

 their own kind. — Upon a syringa flower tree wiili- 

 in reach of the ariTi while standing at om- own 

 door sill, a camions bird of the beautiful kind 

 known niul admired in our eai ly youth and call- 

 ed the " York yellow bird" constructed thissuju' 

 mer its nest which yet remains — more curious 

 and elegant than conhl be ma<le with human 

 hands. Jn this nest were depsiled three liny eggs 

 — we Ueg:;cd all about our house to touch neither 

 the nest or the eggs j but nothing could induce 

 the sitting bird to give so much of her faith to 

 the belief of hiunanity in either man or woman 

 as to remain while a human being was standing 



upon the door sill. We almost despaired of her 

 hatching her young : one naked chick from the 

 three eggs at length appeared — it was like a small 

 pulp of tender raw meat, showing as it was look- 

 ed on scarce the signs of life. For the first week 

 it seemed to alter little : taught by instinct or its 

 mother, until the starting pin-feathers ciiunged 

 the flesh-color of the skin, the young tenant of 

 the nest remained compact and lifeless when 

 stood over by any looker-on. Too early as we 

 feared for safety from its own wings, the inchin 

 bird crept from the nest of a hot day in July and 

 tiislened itself upon an adjoining limb. We had 

 hoped the same instinct or teaching of its moth- 

 er would prompt it to return to its nest at night. 

 It never went back — but only removed without 

 flying upon the syringa hush to another limb be- 

 yond the fangs of the cat upon the second ilay. 

 This was the last we saw of either the yoimg 

 bird or its parent. From the ulter disappear- 

 ance of both we entertain a hope that sure in- 

 stinct carried the fledgling to a place of greater 

 safety. 



Fifteen Days Abroad in New Hampshire, Ver- 

 mont and the Canada Townships. 



The readers ol the Visitor will give the editor 

 due credit for abstinence in the gratification of 

 curiosity when he tells them that he had sufl\;red 

 full six months to transpire since the Northern 

 railroad commenced operations forlluMrst twen- 

 ty miles before he had taken time to pass over 

 that road ; and they may charge a now habitual 

 invalid with temerity for undertaking on that hot- 

 test aiul in this region the dryest and most dusty 

 day of the [iresent sutmiier, Wednesday the 7th 

 day of July, not only to travel over this ron<l, but 

 to take stage beyond for the pm-pose of taking 

 part, at the request of the trustees, in the com- 

 mencement exercises of Norwich University on 

 the ilay following. 



We had previously nearly exhausted our liiile 

 strength in hasty journeys on vexatious business 

 at the cities of New York and Boston, escapini; 

 by mere accident the alarm and distress on board 

 the Oregon upon the Sound, having chosen from 

 its novelty the route of the noble Bay State steam- 

 er because she braved the weather in the longer 

 distance around Point Judiib on that hmricane 

 night of the ujoulh of June which had miracu- 

 lously saved a repetition of the sad fate of the 

 Atlantic last winter, superadded to the cares and 

 concerns of oiu- farming business at home, and 

 the confusion attending I he ingress and cress 

 of the President of the United Slates and others 

 of our fioble personal frien<ls who aiteuded him 

 on his late visit to New Hampshire. Much as all 



of them were attached to the Stale ami to us. 



much as the people enjoyed the presence and 

 smiles of Polk, and B(u;banan, of the brave and 

 excellent old Commodore Stewart dislingnished 

 as a hero in seventeen naval bailies, and of the 

 brave f'a|itain Slein vviih "oimds bleeding aliesh 

 from the ensanguined field of Buena Vista — of 

 that perfect specimen of a gentleman in the Cre- 

 ole French race of Louisiana recently united to 

 our Uiiion, Governor Moutoii— not omitling lo 

 mention the three men, natives of our own State 

 distinguished as of higher oftice at Washington, 

 Woodliury, Clift'ord and Binke, the ex-governors 

 Toncy of Conneclicul, Fairfield and Arjderson 

 of Maine, besides soirje (oin- or five es -governors 

 of our own New Hampshire— (by the way it may 

 be saiil that our ex-governors, with smaller sala- 

 ries and shorter terms than the governors of al- 

 most any other State, are the longest lived race 

 of men living who have hehl (lublic office within 



I our knowledge) — and other men distinguished in 

 the good opinion of their fellow citizens; — much 

 as ought 10 be pi ized the visit of more distinguish- 

 ed men than ever came to us from abroad at any 

 one lime — it is worthy of remark that not a man 

 o( them lodged over night within the limits of our 

 State. 



So jaded out was the editor by promptly ac- 

 cepting the favor of a personal invitalion to be 

 as one of their guests by the Mayor and Corpor- 

 ation of Lowell, who covered their city with hon- 

 or in their splendid reception of the President of 

 the United Slates, that when called early in the 

 morning of the day of the President's visit to 

 Concord to visit the factories by the junior Law- 

 rence of the Massachusetts millionaires, he could 

 not have ascended the stairs of a single factory 

 to save liisble. IL- had spent in bed one of those 

 miserable nights of spasmodic asthmatic attack 

 of which he has encountered hundreds all but as 

 bad as death within the last five years. Yet with 

 efibrts of exertion so long as life lasts, the editor 

 was present most of the day wherever attention 

 required him to be civil to highly welcome guests 

 within his own town. In all but the inleresling 

 scene before the State constiluled aiilhorilies at 

 the Stale House, we took part. On special invi- 

 tation with the rest, we made the shew of a well 

 man at Gass's unsurpassed dinner to the Presi- 

 dent and his guests; and the last act of ours on 

 that day, the second day of July, so near Ihe joy- 

 ous anniversary of our Independence — a day 

 which will be reirjembered in future years wilh 

 pleasure by thousands of the sons and daughters 

 of New Hampshire — was the introduction to the 

 President and to Mr. Secretary Buchanan and 

 the old Commodore of the daughter and sole rep- 

 resentative of Count Riimford, who inheriting in 

 the right of her mother a beautiful place at 

 the lower end of our village upon the west bank 

 of the Merrimack, is spending the pleasant days 

 of a green old age in the town of her nativity. 

 This lady was never more at home than she seem- 

 ed along-side of old Ironsides, whose wife before 

 marriage, " then very handsome," daughter of the 

 late Judge Tudor of Boston, was her intimate 

 friend and acquaintance. The jokes of this sin- 

 gle-woman or spinster in which all the titles de- 

 rived from her dislinguished falher nmst be njerg- 

 ed in this country, passed upon the Conmiodore 

 were received and rilurned in good part: the la- 

 dy seemed to be not less delighted in her inter- 

 view with our public servants than she might 

 have been in her best young days when she 

 charmed the nobiliiy in the public soirees as the 

 daughter of the second man — first in every thing 

 but the titles of the monarch — in the court of ilie 

 King of Bavaria. Having performed this acl on 

 the. invitation of the Countess, who we are quite 

 sure bus remained the happy single woman fiotn 

 choice and not IVom necessity, we could do no 

 Uiore on that day, and before seven o'clock retir- 

 ed home, leaving "wife, children and friends" to 

 do our part of the honors due on all hands to 

 the first Magistrate of the Republic, which we 

 was glad to do as to a personal friend of near- 

 ly twenty years' ac ]iniinance. 



What with such fatigue and ill health as ne 

 had encountered dm lug the spring and summer 

 monlhs up to the fourlli of July, it might well he 

 supposed that strength and resolution u ould fail 

 us to perform an engagement requiring both men- 

 tal and physical effort, of delivering an address 

 worthy to be heard as among learned men on 

 the anniversary of Norwich University. Previous 

 to Monday the 5lh, we had made little prepara- 



