6 



&i)C .farmer's illcmiljhj visitor 



business. I nil) lintetl of my neighbor on the 

 way, because I have broken up two of bis estab- 

 lishments far in the woods, where the dies were 

 made and the bills printed. Some informed 

 against him — his goods were seized, and he was 

 obliged to move Ins establishment farther into 

 the woods. I have pursued the Cogni trade in 

 old times, hut I have done nothing at it for years. 

 Running goods is a fair business; and in that I 

 have no seciels. Do you know I was watching 

 that custom-house officer at Compton ? he went 

 home before we left the tavern. We will meet 

 the load of goods very likely before I get home. 

 'Tis on the way; and I went up to see that the 

 coast was clear." As the darkness of the eve- 

 ning shut in, the romance of our conductor's 

 story increased in interest, lie had moved out 

 of Compton thirteen years before to a lot of three 

 hundred acres of land upon the highest point of 

 Barford. It was heavy wooded, excellent land ; 

 but he obtained a better living by driving his 

 worn-out horse over the road with goods in the 

 night than by improving his land. He had a 

 good and kind wife, born in New Hampshire, 

 the mother of ten children : the three eldest, a 

 son and two daughters, were all in New Hamp- 

 shire, the son at work for the corporation, and 

 the daughters engaged in the factory at Manches- 

 ter. In a strange country, upon the territory of 

 a foreign queen to whom we owed no allegiance, 

 for the moment we were reconciled to the idea 

 of laying down in the woods of a Saturday night, 

 in a legion of smugglers ami counterfeiters, as 

 best we might. Our breathing had been grow- 

 ing shorter from the return of the spasmodic 

 asthma, which at times had made us almost en- 

 tirely helpless; it might become still shorter, 

 should we fall into bands who could feel an in- 

 terest in disposing for their own benefit that re- 

 maining breath which would benefit lis little, 

 and might render them material assistance. Ar- 

 riving at the rude log-house, on the floor of 

 which a trap-door was suddenly raised to put 

 away the milk brought in from the only cow, 

 ami a ladder was raised to a story above for 

 steps to bring down some tea to be steeped for 

 supper, we will confess it was with some reluct- 

 ance that, on inquiry for the lime, we pulled out 

 the gold repealer, tor which, as an extravagance 

 we never allowed ourselves, our better half liar- 

 gained and paid for us about twenty years ago, 

 one hundred and twenty dollars. 



It was dark and rained after our entrance. 

 Our conductor was busy in disposing of the 

 horse, after taking in his arms and kissing the 

 youngest darling child, who called upon the pa- 

 rent for the expected cake or plums. The 

 mother, expecting as a matter of course our 

 cognizance and coufidance, at once opened to 

 !ier husband that the Irishman informer from 

 Hereford had passed there an hour or two be- 

 fore, and had turned over to the other road 

 where a. brother Irishman, deputy to the collector 

 at Compton lived, with the sure intention, as she 

 believed, of procuring the arrest and seizure of 

 lite load of goods then passing over the road. 

 Well, I knuw, says the husband, that Looney 



will gain nothing by that; lor if Mr. does 



not skin biui alive after such a piece of work, 

 he will never be suffered to live a week on this 

 road. While this conversation was going on, as 

 we sat by the low opening for a window to- 

 wards the pathway on the outside, resting the 

 arm upon the excoriated piece of timber serving 

 for a window seat, a huge mastitV or bull dog 

 laid his head and jowls directly oyer our ami ; 

 MB 



and, looking out of doors, darkened by the shin- 

 ing of a burning tallow candle within, we saw 

 the team of two horses heavily laden with boxes 

 and rolls of leather, with its driver under an um- 

 brella, listening in the rain to suggestions with 

 persons upon the outside with whom he was 

 consulting. 



He drove away: supper, flour cakes hastily 

 mixed and raised with saleratus, some fried pork, 

 and tea without sugar, was in due time served 

 up. To show our perfect confidence, the old 

 travelling leather trunk, unlocked, was left for 

 the night with the key in, and our customary 

 medicine abstracted; while the lady conducted 

 us to another part of the house, over beyond the 

 outside entrance, being a sort of an apology for 

 a room, from a parting of open rough boards. 

 Here in a warm night of July we laid down with 

 the children not far off, under the sound of mos- 

 quitoes in a continued buzz, and the biting of 

 that and other vermin of higher flavor, if less 

 pointed sting, until day-light enabled us to retreat 

 from a reclining to a more rectangular position. 



Sabbath morning dawned upon us in her Ma- 

 jesty Victoria's dominions. Breakfast was pre- 

 pared of the same material as the supper of the 

 previous night. The children came around; 

 and the elder boys who had not yet left home, 

 dressed and appeared as if preparing to return 

 to that civilization within the States from which 

 the parents had emerged. Old spavin was 

 again put in harness, and the twelve miles of 

 remaining woods made up for the travel for that 

 Sabbath day's journey. Very little opening was 

 there in all the long wooded way. No road 

 leading to any settlement turned off. Our forest 

 conductor told us of lakes abounding in fish, not 

 many miles off on either hand: the trout and 

 muskalunge were taken from these in abund- 

 ance; but there was no carriage road to bring 

 oft" more fruits of the fisherman's sport than be 

 could carry off upon his back. Judging from 

 the great size and beauty of the growing wood 

 and timber, as well as from the black richness 

 of the soil over which the track of the road 

 passed, the country of these yet uncleared town- 

 ships is as fine as could be imagined. Where a 

 clearing was opened the grass appeared in iis 

 most luxuriant foliage: the white honeysuckle, 

 springing up spontaneously, matted the ground. 

 The wilderness extends at least half a hundred 

 miles down south into Vermont— tw ice and 

 thrice that distance northerly towards Quebec, 

 and still farther along down the north line of 

 New Hampshire and Maine, more towards the 

 east. The Maine and northern New Hamp- 

 shire railroads are destined to open to the 

 Atlantic .market a country of heavy, valuable 

 timber, a soil luxuriant in agricultural products, 

 about as near as western Massachusetts to her 

 seaboard, whose value lew men have ever yet 

 appreciated. 



The view of such a country paid us well for 

 the labor and latigue of the journey. But the 

 Saturday night's incidents had not closed all the 

 interest of this Canada expedition. Our con- 

 ductor had a neighbor in the woods whose fami- 

 ly of higher polish looked down upon him, and 

 whose trade being somewhat the same could not 

 continue both ill agreement. Although there 

 seemed to be no longer an object in pursuing 

 the calling since the duties were too light to 

 compensate for the risque of their seizure, yet 

 the confirmed and inveterate habit of smuggling 

 is still kept up. The old horse that had travelled 

 so ofteu over the road with goods, must travel till 



he dies : the woodman who has backed broad- 

 cloths over the deep snow on rackets might pine 

 away if obliged to give up his accustomed oc- 

 cupation. 



Trade is here stimulated by the Cogniac man- 

 ufacture in the woods: a great portion of the 

 counterfeit paper and metal currency that has at 

 times been rife in New England has been made 

 in Canada. Since international arrangement has 

 provided for the arrest of criminals, the counter- 

 feiting business has sought concealment in the 

 density of the forest. Our informant declared, 

 that he had discovered and broken up more than 

 one establishment, and that he still knew of 

 others as existing where engraving, printing and 

 imitation singatures were executed. Handicraft 

 workmen came there and tarried days and weeks 

 in the woods beyond the ken and observation of 

 the world. The traffic in the spurious bills was a 

 more open business. Men conversant in this 

 trade brought the goods there and exchanged 

 them upon the road, cheating the government of 

 the duties, for the simulated paper, at ten and 

 twenty cents to the dollar. In various parts of 

 New England has the trade been carried on : 

 men of good reputation have sometimes been 

 detected and punished in this traffic as their first 

 criminal act passing off the Cogniac Canada 

 counterfeits. 



The road along which this work has been done 

 and trade carried on, has long existed nearly un 

 known to all but a few of the country who have 

 participated in the traffic. Passing the thick woods 

 and coming to a turn in the road, three or four 

 large dogs suddenly made their appearance 

 on Sunday morning. Where could these come 

 from ? was our natural question. O they belong 



to Mr. : the boys are near by. In another 



minute four stout young men bolted into the 

 road from the thick woods at the north. ■• What 

 luck a fishing yesterday ? you lay in the woods 

 last uight ?" The boys bad guns, with shot 

 pouch and powder horns swung over the shoul- 

 ders; but the empty bags showed that if they 

 had toiled all night, they bad caught few fish. 

 We were half inclined to believe that the yqillig 

 men had been into the forest with the day's food 

 for the workmen at the Cogni trade, and were at 

 this time returning. 



Travelling on that Sunday morning the con- 

 versation was kept up. We asked fur no disclo- 

 sure of secrets — of course we are guilty of un 

 breach of confidence if this article should ever 

 come to the knowledge of any of the parties in- 

 terested. All the information coming to us, was 

 brought without our leading off in the inquiry. 

 Our greatest apprehension was that our presence 

 there might induce the supposition that we were 

 one of the craft. 



You must know, said our conductor, growing 

 more familiar, that no man ever could long live 

 in this region who was in the habit of betraying 

 his neighbors to the custom-house officers. The 

 first officer within the lines is twenty-five miles 

 off: when worse comes to worst, the load of 

 goods may be saved by entering them and pav- 

 ing the duties. Our mode is to lead the officer 

 in another direction by false appearances; and 

 when he is out of the way every body considers 

 it a duty lo lend a hand in assisting his neighbor 

 to keep his property out of the clutches of lite 

 law. We have one man who has made his hun- 

 dred thousand dollars by smuggling : that man 

 is generous, and would spend any sum to pyniali 

 an informer. 



From all the information we have gained 



