Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 8.djvu/64

 5*^ The Middlesex Canal,

cheer, and boatmen contrived to be foreground of blurred landscape, van- overtaken by night in their vicinity, ishing, ghostlike, ere its features Sometimes fifteen or twenty boats could be fairly distinguished, soft would be detained at one of these bits of characteristic New England favorite resorts, and a jolly crowd scenery, clear cut as cameos, lingered fraternized in the primitive bar-room, caressingly on his vision ; green mead- The temperance sentiment had not ows, fields riotous with blossomed yet taken a firm hold in New England, clover, fragrant orchards, and quaint of those days; but "black-strap," a low hills wooded to their summits, compound of rum and molasses, sold Passing under bridges, over rivers, at three cents a glass, was the partic- between high embankments, and ular "vanity" of the boatmen. In through deep cuttings, floated up hill the smaller taverns, a barrel of old by a series of locks, he marvelled at Medford, surmounted by a pitcher this triumph of engineering, and, if he of molasses, scorning the flimsy sub- were a director, pictured the manu- terfuges of modern times, boldly factories that were to spring up along invited its patrons to draw and mix this great thoroughfare, swelling its at their own sweet will. " Plenty of revenues for all time, drunkenness. Uncle Joe, in those The tow-path of the canal was a days?" we queried of an ancient famous promenade. Upon Sunday boatman who was dilating upon the afternoons, especially, numerous pe- good old times. " Bless your heart, destrians from the dusty city strolled no ! " was the answer. " Mr. Eddy along the canal for a breath of fresh didn't put up with no drunkards on air and a glimpse of the open country, the canal. They could drink all through the Royal estate in Medford, night, sir, and be steady as an eight- past thfe substantial old-fashioned day clock in the morning." mansion-house of Peter C. Brooks, When the feverish haste born of as far, perhaps, as the Baldwin estate, the locomotive and telegraph had not and the birthplace of Count Rumford, yet infected society, a trip over the in Woburn. "I love that old tow- canal in the passenger-packet, the path," said Uncle Joe. "'Twastherel "Governor Sullivan," must have courted my wife ; and every time the been an enjoyable experience. Pro- boat went by she came tripping out tected by iron rules from the dangers to walk a piece with me ! Bless you, of collision ; undaunted by squalls sir the horses knew her step, and it of wind, realizing, should the craft be wan't so heavy, nuther." capsized, that he had nothing to Meanwhile, under the direction of do but walk ashore, the traveller, Caleb Eddy, who assumed the agency speeding along at the leisurely pace of the corporation in 1S25, bringing of four miles per hour, had ample great business ability and unquench- time for observation and reflection, able zeal to his task, the perishable Seated, in summer, under a capa- wooden locks were gradually replaced cious awning, he traversed the valley with stone, a new stone dam was of the Mystic skirting the picturesque built at Billerica, and the service shores of Mystic pond. Instead of a brought to a high state of efficiency.
 * 'Flip " was the high-toned beverage old farmhouses, with a background of

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