eae = = ati if 2: ~~ Solis epee stb ee oy ee Geer woe See She “ ERATE L ee ON ARIAS POE ee a eae oe Vee (07 ot ‘ 5 - ey 2 } 4, ty “ at . . io i es * ‘ va i ‘ I ‘ te uy] Pennsylvania Beautiful (EASTERN) States Beautiful Series Uniform in size and general treatment with this volume VERMONT BEAUTIFUL MASSACHUSETTS BEAUTIFUL CONNECTICUT BEAUTIFUL NEW HAMPSHIRE BEAUTIFUL MAINE BEAUTIFUL PENNSYLVANIA BEAUTIFUL (Eastern) Bound in full cloth, gold stamping on recto and shelf back, with Cameo Art print jacket. 304 tllustrations. 304 pages. Each volume $4.00 post paid. IN PREPARATION FLORIDA BEAUTIFUL NEW YORK BEAUTIFUL (Eastern) Material for other states has been gathered, but no definite announcement of dates 1s made. BOOKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR FURNITURE OF THE PiLGrim CENTURY, Revised and Enlarged Edition, 716 pages, Cameo paper, 8 X II in. About 2000 objects are pictured AMERICAN WINDsoRS, 208 pages, 5% X 7 in. New Edition, with 22 added pictures THE Crock Book, 304 pages, 6% X 10 in. Uniform in Style and Size with the Siates Beautiful Series About 250 clocks are pictured OLD AMERICA COMPANY, Publishers FRAMINGHAM, MASS. Pennsylvania Beautiful (EASTERN) BY WALLACE NUTTING Author of the States Beautiful Series, etc. ILLUSTRATED BY THE AUTHOR WITH MANY EXAMPLES OF LANDSCAPES AND OLD HOUSES IN ALL THE COUNTIES HEREIN DESCRIBED FRAMINGHAM - MASSACHUSETTS OLD AMERICA COMPANY PUBLISHERS _ CopyriGHT 1924 By Watiace NuTTING All rights reserved THE PLIMPTON PRESS NORWOOD:MASS-U-S:A “é aj 3 ms oe a4 :> xy” Ai oF, *4 ‘ EXPLANATORY DO not promise the reader anything more than about three hun- dred pictures, mostly selected for their supposed beauty, of eastern Pennsylvania. We do not promise that they shall be evenly distributed over that section of the state. We reserve the right to show more in one section than in another, if time or mood or weather or the greater number of points of interest conduce to this arrangement. Nor do we promise that these pictures shall be arranged in any particular order, such as the reader may expect. We make these disavowals that no one may be disappointed. We believe that we shall be endorsed in saying that many of the pictures are well worth while. Sometimes it seems to be a disappointment that our books do not pro- vide a picture to a township, or something of that sort. There are many practical reasons why such a method has been found impossible; but a sufficient reason is that the book, if so composed, would not be as interest- ing. The author has spent more time in the preparation of this than in any of his previous books of the Srares BEauTiFuL Series. This arises from the fact that while nearly all parts of Pennsylvania are beautiful, except those given over wholly to mining, many of the most beautiful parts are not especially pictorial. The very perfection of cultivation in many of the valleys is such that there is nothing of peculiar interest to record. The line of demarcation which we have arbitrarily chosen to separate eastern from western Pennsylvania is roughly about on the longitude of Lebanon. There may be an occasional instance in which we go west of that line, and there may be occasional regions east of that line, that are not very fully represented. We have, however, faithfully inspected most of the part of Pennsylvania which we here designate “east.” We cover 4 EXPLANATORY less than half of the state, because it is the older half and the more populous. Nor is this volume at all history or a story of eastern Pennsylvania. It is a book of pictures primarily and principally. Any observations re- garding these pictures are made as there may seem to be a necessity for them, or as the incidents of travel urge them. Let no one look, in the following pages, for all the famous features of eastern Pennsylvania, worthy to be included in the volume. That inclusion would require an encyclopaedia. We are giving as many illustrations as we could, con- sistently with the design of the series. We have the satisfaction of know- ing that we have discovered a great many hitherto unrecorded pictures. The illustrations at least have the merit, with the exception of four or five drawings, which will be credited in their place, of being original. All but a half dozen of the pictures were made in the years 1923 and. 1924, and few of them have been seen in any other form than that in which they now appear. It has been the delight and eager purpose of the writer to get to- gether as many illustrations as possible of that old life in America, which is rapidly passing away. If, however, the reader is a resident in a neigh- borhood which he does not find represented in these pages, he is quite likely to resent the omission. Many write us expressing surprise at such omissions. What can we do? The inclusion of anything else would simply mean the exclusion of something we show. If, in process of time, this edition is exhausted, any further treatment of this portion of the state will be marked by the inclusion of new neighborhoods. This edition will be the only one of its kind, as in all our Srares BEAUTIFUL SERIES. WALLACE NUTTING Framingham, Massachusetts To J. STOGDELL STOKES WHOSE LOVE OF THE BEAUTIFUL ENTITLES HIM TO GENERAL REGARD Pennsyloania Beautiful PENNSYLVANIA T has been thought that the charm of European life consisted in the peculiarities of custom, costume and speech to be found within the limits of a single nation, as in France. It has been counted a merit and a peculiar distinction that America is homogeneous. While we are willing to see the advantage of one speech, we believe the divergence in costumes and habits in various parts of America adds very much to the interest of the traveler. We have known more than one notable clergyman who seemed to derive advantage from his Scotch or Irish brogue. The Pennsyl- vanian born is quick to remark on the nasal Yankee speech and certain odd pronunciations, which latter, however, are in the best use in England. Pennsylvania has a distinct charm owing to settlements by the Swedes, Dutch, and Germans who have retained many delightful characteristics now being brought out, too late, in our literature. The peculiar branches of the Christian church found in Pennsylvania, as the Moravians or Men- nonites, also give a flavor very grateful in the ordinary tameness of American life. The architectural features of the country life of Pennsylvania, as re- tained from old world customs, set it apart from all other American ex- periences. Their wonderful barns with stone ends and overhang on one side; stone houses so often dated; post and rail fences so neatly lining their roads to this day and renewed, contrary to all economic laws; their 7 8 PENNSYLVANIA BEAUTIFUL characteristic vehicles, furniture and household decorations, —all contribute to the fascination of eastern Pennsylvania. The fertile, rolling lands of this part of the state are a perfect setting for an ideal country life. We regard with highest respect the persistent holding in one family for many generations of a home place, kept in the pink of condition. Unquestionably this section of our country is the best ordered part of America. True, no extensive region is without its shift- less farmers, yet there is less of neglect and a more general pride apparent in keeping the premises shipshape in Pennsylvania than we see elsewhere. When we turn our attention to the great suburban district around Philadelphia, a district which reaches out its fingers for very many miles in some directions, we are vastly impressed by the number, the size, the solidity, the taste, and the richness of the dwellings. Although Long Island has developed of late years a very rich and extensive suburban neighborhood, this is marked, sometimes, by a certain splurge, a certain | tasteless and loud type of structures, which disturb the eye and distress the thought still more, when we consider what this means. In Pennsylvania there has been a more careful attention to the harmo- nizing of dwelling with country landscape. There is a quieter tone and a better taste generally manifest in this suburban district than we find in others. Furthermore, the stability and obvious intention of per- manence conveyed by the Pennsylvania homesteads is most satisfying. Anything which makes for peace in a country landscape is of the highest importance, for that is what American life needs most. Anything that makes for permanence appeals to that sense of the eternal which is so little exemplified by modern civilization. The Pennsylvanian has been very adroit in his study of country life. He understands how to give the impression of a great farm as a going in- stitution which has always been in being, although perhaps the entire es- tablishment is comparatively recent. He seeks to avoid the impression that he is merely a city man importing his notions into the country districts. He has successfully studied the methods and the farmsteads of the men che es as y, wee Lf Sook 3 y N e's “\) ce Ty. “ely NV ate te _ sal a Pe tie we He ae bs > ae Uy ii May BIA esl fu ‘ i a ae 3 ;, i wet Sy i =p aww Vv , an ae NWOT wall) t sttutive 24 mato “gr Nite 9 Saag a aes ih a Wy, Ly ie: fue 3 a Sunil yw ee iden eS 2 HY er > Layee 2 Ea hs ah XN si il "| il a ————— SS SS AN | Fie 4 A ‘. oO (4 =4 < i if ory uk lance aes _ RR. WE Oe AS i See ; va Bad? ae ert hoes eg ee haiae r " Ee essed roa a va A DECORATED BARN, LEHIGH COUNTY The bridges of Pennsylvania give an air of age and stability to a countryside. They are generally of stone, and so are inclined to follow long, sweeping curves quite like the bridges in Spain. We never tire of their fascination. The bridge over the Delaware at Washington’s Crossing is unhappily not of this sort but, as he was obliged to use boats, the matter is not so important. We noticed a bridge somewhat northeast of Lebanon, in which the central stone containing the names of the builders and their date was pre- cisely the shape of an arch topped tombstone, as if it had been set in the wall to make it more permanent. We understand this stone is shortly to be destroyed by the widening of the bridge. Modern silos of stone are an added feature of architectural permanence. The community of Ephrata is one of those features of Pennsylvania life which has attracted a great deal of attention, perhaps owing to its unusualness. The quaint old buildings, a sketch of which we show on page 125, and the interesting community which existed at Ephrata and which has for the most part passed away, are set forth in a little book on [Text continued on page 52.| THE BRANDYWINE BATTLE SITE Written for picture on page 45 by Mitprep Hosss Soft clouds of leaning April willows shine Like silver gauze upon the mirrored stream; The springtime breezes play their happy theme Through budding trees along the Brandywine; And on the river's ragged banks recline Contented cattle sent to browse and dream Among the violets; and grasses gleam Like points of fuckering fire upon a shrine. Fair trees, deep-rooted in a bloodied sod, New life absorbed from sacrifice divine, And pleasant pastures of historic fame, Long may your beauty breathe the peace of God! O blood-red waters of the Brandywine, How crimson are your pools of sunset-flame! 42 RcS 5 TM bese Con Ni O.C TO BE R WoOOUF OWNASGNOULS V HOVNUNA WVHUNG YVAN BRANDYWINE BATTLE SITE MeHeh ss BN. D Ons Ur LU MN ISON EAR PHILADELPHIA A PERKIOMEN NOOK nog SM A CURVING LANE—NEAR VALLEY FORGE NOLSVGA AVAN—SANVA AUAVMVTAA ZO0UOT AAZTIVA UVAN—AVW NI AAAAO AHL PR A A BROOK-——MONTGOMERY COUNTY A PERKIOMEN ARCH-—COLLEGEVILLE PHILADELPHIA SPRING VALE eet ae : a f * ‘ ms ia Fi y DREAM LANE Written for picture on page 47 by Mitprep Hoszs Little bird-enchanted lane Leading down to Valley Forge, Tell us of the long ago! | Did he pass along your way, The father of our country, Pausing here beneath the blossoms hanging low To pray . To the God of nature’s peace and love and beauty? As he lingered here and listened To the brooklet running gold Over singing stones that glistened In the sun Was he told That his battles would be won? Little lane, bird-enchanted, In a winding such as this Where the trees and meadows bloom and waters gleam Did he dream Of a glorious republic? How he suffered with his patriots Through bitterness of winter, Waiting long, And patiently holding to his heart the vision Of a@ nation free and strong! Valley Forge where men and boys Bleeding, starving and exhausted, bravely fell — And not in vain! But the tragedy and pain — Little lane, If you could only tell! 5t 52 PENNSYLVANIA BEAUTIFUL The Ephrata Cloister. The edifices make no pretention to architectural merit. They are peculiar only in that they include within them all the appurtenances for an independent existence. The people of this commu- nity made practically everything that they possessed. Their culinary and textile utensils and apparatus are of very great interest. A great many of the utensils have been sold but now a stop has been put to such sales, and the things that remain are well worth seeing. The simple faith and pure life of these people is a pleasant memory. The fact that in Penn- sylvania they were welcome to develop according to their special tenets speaks well for the largeness of spirit already accorded by the government of that state from the first. The life of the community in its cloister resembled the monastic. While marriage was not impossible it was not thought to be conducive to the highest spiritual state, and only that portion of the community that remained single were residents in the brothers’ or in the sisters’ edifice. This Seventh Day Baptist organization continued the use of the German tongue, published theological and other works, and has left a strong im- press on the life of the state. On page 289 we show the tombstone of Bruder Philemon, one of the oldest in the cemetery. The idea of a Protestant cloister, carried out in the lives of these people resembles, in some particulars at least, the communities of Shakers in Maine, New Hampshire, and New York. It is an interesting phase of American colonial life which gives a strong flavor to the rural districts of Pennsylvania. We would not give the impression that the activities of the Seventh Day Baptists have ceased in Pennsylvania. In Waynes- borough there is a flourishing church. There is another at Salemville. At Nunnery in Franklin County there is an interesting old graveyard, now used for general interments. It contains the grave of Peter Lehman, the supposed founder of the Snow Hill Institute. The date of this society’s activities in America is early. The religious institution of Ephrata was founded about 1730. Ephrata is a pilgrimage point for tourists. We regard with great re- PENNSYLVANIA BARNS 53 uid : Fe ee ghia Neuf too teh a8” eG tees, A FINE OLD CHESTER DWELLING spect the conscientious devotion of the founders of its peculiar organiza- tion, and enjoy the strong relish of the quaint customs and simple living handed down through them. For instance, to mention only one point, the cloister dwellers slept with wooden pillows on bare boards, to mortify the body. They objected to the intrusion of civil government and were sustained in their religious position by Washington. An interesting epi- sode was the visit of Peter Miller, one of the early worthies of this or- ganization, to Washington, in behalf of a Tory spy who was condemned under the laws of war. Washington informed Miller that nothing could be done for the spy. ‘“ Friend,” exclaimed Miller, “he is the worst enemy I have.” ‘ Then,” said Washington, “how can you ask for his pardon? ” Whereupon Miller, with tears in his eyes, replied, “ My Savior did as much for me.” ‘The spy was pardoned because of Miller’s 54 PENNSYLVANIA BEAUTIFUL meek, forgiving spirit, and the episode was commemorated in a poem. In the history of religions we find, here and there, men of the utmost devo- tion who are, perhaps, more or less handicapped by peculiar customs which have no necessary connection with character. A RURAL PARADISE W* think this name fairly applicable to Wayne County. With its h undred lakes, its mountains and deep valleys, its numerous streams and falls, its farms like eyries, overlooking valleys of peace, it has a de- light in store for all those who love to roam in the real country. In populous Pennsylvania Wayne County’s largest town, Honesdale, has only two or three thousand people, though the solidity of its dwellings, the beauty of its square and the Hollandlike aspect of its river flowing through the town give the impression of a large and beautiful centre. As the old terminus of a great canal, it probably looked forward to greater commer- cial development, which happily did not come, or has gone. As one stands on its bridge and faces the great cliff overlooking the town, he derives an impression that he stands in a secluded valley of beauty, a kind of miniature American Vale of Cashmere. Here in a hostelry covered with ivy and looking out on churches of stone, one feels apart from those raw roadside taverns so characteristic of most of the state. The dear little river all up and down the valley poses for its picture at every turn. The fine green slopes call one to the wide, free visions to be had from their summits. The elm tree, which does not show at its best in the more southern sections of Pennsylvania, gives a real New England aspect to Wayne and Susquehanna counties. Indeed, the height, the contour and the vegetation of Wayne County very strongly suggest Vermont. If we pause to remember that the hills of both regions are a part of the same Appalachian system, we shall understand better the similarity. The paucity of lakes in some parts of Pennsylvania seems to be fully a eT Ee : i a 4 NEAR EASTON CAN ASL + DELAWARE Abe ON BELOW THE WATER GAP Sme@r nie bh Ke P Pen AD bP LA COBB? VALLEY FORGE MAY ON THE WISSAHICKON A RURAL PARADISE 59 atoned for in this county. The attraction of these lakes is the greater, that they are not yet surrounded with the tawdry dwellings so character- istic of American watering places. In fact, most of them are hidden away in the hills and are entirely unappropriated. There is a charm in such landscapes which could not, by old methods of conveyance, be fully appreciated. In the old days, when it was neces- sary for a weary horse to drag one toilsomely to the higher slopes, hill homes were handicapped in their enjoyment, but now the new methods of locomotion make nothing of these grades, and one swiftly arrives at a vantage point from which the delights of the long, deep valley with its silver stream are opened to us. This region is the perfection of location for fruits. The peculiar appeal to us just now is this: we have here the last available eastern county of Pennsylvania to be possessed by the lovers of landscape beauty. It isa little too far from great cities to be the dwell- ing of those who must every day go to town. Here, therefore, for a very modest sum, one who loves the country may become possessed of a site as perfect as one could wish, for health, for outlook, for land available to produce the wealth of the hills. For here, even in Pennsylvania, we see quite occasionally an abandoned farm. It is seldom that one observes in this country the great solid substantial homesteads seen in more southern regions of the state. It has in the past been too difficult to go to and re- turn from market. There is many a wonderful, strategic location decorated by the beauty of trees, backed by mighty hills, descending by far winding roads to the distant towns and altogether alluring and satisfactory. Con- sider that here is a county with more than twenty towns —and fewer than thirty thousand people. We are far from every annoyance, on many of these roads, of poles, wires, noise, dust, and the multitudinous horrors of a crowded civilization. We have never felt any temptation to become the lords of domains in the broad, fertile lowlands. But here is a little kingdom on every hillside which rouses every old hankering after the land, that remains in the old Adam. Our fingers itch and our brains tingle to get at work upon one of these tempting hill farms. For be it known, 60 PENNSYLVANIA BEAUTIFUL this is not a kingdom of rough, rocky land. There are fine, fertile fields or areas which may be made so, on every farm. There are materials at hand for permanent dwellings which may embody every modern comfort and every ancient charm. We do not know how long it will be before the farseeing will carry out the almost universal love for a country home, at once protected and sightly, such as is to be found in this wonderful county. It can be only a question of a short generation before the merits now overlooked will be sought and cherished and developed. Once let the tide of improvement begin, and this county may easily become the first in the state for ideal development. Susquehanna County is, in part, on the main track of north and south travel. It shares with Wayne County some of the merits which we have been describing, of which elsewhere. Wayne is evidently a poets’ and theologians’ county. These names, scarcely believable, are actually villages marked on the map: in the north, Autumn Leaves, Starlight, and Hiawatha; and in the south, Angels. The Moosic range in this county rises to the dignified height of twenty-five hundred feet, so that the reader may see that our ecstasy in regard to these sharp rising hills is borne out by the statistical elevations. That the settlers really thought themselves in a land of milk and honey is seen in | such names as Galilee, Bethany and Damascus. THE SUSQUEHANNA O long ago that we do not care to reckon it, an old steel engraving hung on the walls of our boyhood home “ Hunting on the Susque- hanna.” It has been one of our ambitions to follow this stream in its upper reaches. In general it may be said that the nearer we approach its © mouth, the less interesting does it become. We may have occasion, in another volume, to record some of its aspects in its wide western sweep. Se Pee 0 a a ee THE SUSQUEHANNA 61 Tit en a i J na a | yi) HN | | | | | } i Ml till il | | od NAL Ve ow = Po = ie ie ; = - «~ a “x bg *« QUADRUPLE BARN DOORS Following it upward in its eastern and northern branches, through the counties of Luzerne, Lackawanna, Bradford and Susquehanna, we have learned to love it more and more as we reach its narrower windings. We overlook the dereliction of the stream in slying away out of the state: to _ flirt with New York. After all, it is faithful, for the most part, to Penn- sylvania. From its first meanderings between Wayne and Susquehanna Counties, we have shown it in this volume at Starruca, Susquehanna, Hickory Grove, Hallstead, Tunkhannock, Wilkes-Barre, Shickshinny and other points. There are, indeed, sections where mining has rendered it no longer beautiful. A companion, seeing ducks swimming in water laden with fine black coal dust, suddenly remarked that he saw now where the egg coal came from! We are obliged to have coal, and we would not be found among those constantly twitting on the unloveliness which inevi- tably accompanies the mining of this element, which is really the great national boon of Pennsylvania to the world. We are bound to state, also, that when we consider the vast quantities of coal mined, we are gratified to 62 PENNSYLVANIA BEAUTIFUL find, very near the centres of this enterprise, rural beauties of the highest merit, such as may be found in the ride from Nanticoke, a little below Wilkes-Barre, to Tunkhannock, and various regions northeast, north, and northwest of that place. Sometimes one has merely to go over one rise of land from a blackened coal centre, to find oneself in a countryside as quiet, sweet and perfect as could be found in a state where no coal exists. Some confusion arises from the various names given to the con- tributary streams of the Susquehanna. Thus we have the East Branch, the North Branch, etc., the main streams coming together at Sunbury, whence southerly the river is so large and broad as to become majestic. To our thought a subordinate stream such as appears in “ A Perfect Day,” page 294, or in “The Young Susquehanna,” page 274, is more pleasurable to view, or at least to picture, than the broader effects such as are seen at Nanticoke, page 282. Susquehanna County contains much fine scenery, as on the Great Bend, page 274, and as on the Susquehanna river, page 293, which passing on the great trunk line to Binghamton and the north, one sees at the right. The village of Montrose, and in fact various towns in this northeast corner of the state, present a park-like effect since their dwellings stand well back from the highway, and are beautifully ornamented with trees. New Milford has become a considerable center for guests. In parts it is very attractive. No doubt in time, Wayne County, which is not far away, will derive similar benefits from the discoveries that will be made there in the next decade. WYOMING AND LACKAWANNA COUNTIES T is difficult to comprehend that these counties alone contain perhaps greater mineral wealth than the entire kingdom of Italy. Pennsyl- vania, in fact, is the finest example the world holds of a region rich in all the essentials of a modern civilization. The magnificent farmlands WYOMING AND LACKAWANNA COUNTIES 63 A LEHIGH COUNTY HOMESTEAD come to the bases of the mountains, which contain the sinews of peace and war. Considered broadly, as compared with many American states, and many foreign countries, Pennsylvania alone is not only an empire, but a mother of empires. It is scarcely given to any other region on earth to be endowed with lands rich like the prairie states, hills of iron and coal, streams of wonderful beauty, and sweet, remote uplands of pastoral sim- plicity, decorated with the finer trees of the temperate zone. Wilkes-Barre and Scranton are beautiful modern cities, and though they live on coal, they are utilizing their immediate environment by parking river-banks and up- lands. Going out from these cities to the southeast, one comes into the famous Pocono resorts, and to the northwest, the stream- and lake- and mountain-regions and remote farms are still as unspoiled as they were a hun- dred years ago. A stream coming down from the north into Nanticoke forms what in the west we should call a cafion. It has in places very bold and picturesque crags rising by the side of the road, which in turn follows the creek. We should, by the way, be very careful to say creek, as the word “brook” is unfamiliar in this state, and indeed anywhere in America beyond New England, although we love the word and it is common in England. Anything in this region smaller than a river is a creek, and there seems to be no synonym for the word except “ stream,” or “ branch.” 64 PENNSYLVANIA BEAUTIFUL The outstanding attraction in this region is, however, Kitchen Creek. Under the wise control of a hunting and fishing club, it has been protected from unpleasing exploitation. There is an utter absence of objectionable features on the highway where one begins the journey on foot to the falls, and throughout the entire ramble. There is a long series of cascades or waterfalls, some of pretentious elevation, and others of that minor descent fitted to please the heart of the boy which remains in every man, and remind him of the miniature dams and water-wheels that were his delight. The conformation of the rock a little below the highway reminds one almost of the honey-comb. The cliff at the falls themselves is broken away or worn in those uncouth anomalous shapes which have always had a fascination not only for this age, but for remote and uncivilized man. Here the inevitable visionary who can point out faces in the rock may find his paradise. Probably all of our presidents, together with numberless other great man of the past, have their noses or eyes or some portion of their facial anatomy still carved in the rock. We have not, in all our ramblings, seen a deep forest dell surpassing in natural beauty the various windings of Kitchen Creek. We have only to refer the reader to “ An Untamed Wood,” page 271, and to the pictures on pages 272, 273, 2'79 and 282, to bear out our statement that here is a variety of beautiful forms of the highest merit. Where would one dis- cover a2 more oddly charming combination than appears in “ A Squirrel Bridge,” page 269, or in “A Pennsylvania Dell,” page 268? In places, the valley of the brook spreads to present a spacious forest canopy. Again it narrows, and the rushing waters leap down their enmossed crags. Dainty shoots arise on the shelves of the rocks. At the very brink of the stream majestic boles of the black birch have taken their stand. One is much astonished to find these great trees, some of them two feet and a half in diameter, and rising like Egyptian pillars into the dim temple heights above. ‘This tree is what is sometimes called the mahogany birch. Al- ternating with it one finds beautiful beeches and evergreens. A feature of very striking interest is the flagstone path which extends WYOMING AND LACKAWANNA COUNTIES 65 THE OLD BROWN HOUSE, LANCASTER COUNTY wherever needed for a great distance along the borders of the stream. Apparently most of these natural flags were picked from the bed of the stream itself. In places, they are piled across a little gorge to a consider- able height. Again, as at one of the more beautiful falls (on the left, page 259) they are built into a stair of stone, which in its curving line and its finely chosen setting, matches the most cunning art of the landscape gardener. Yet all is free and natural and wild. The number of the falls, little and big, is so great that we lost count, since there are numerous drops of a foot or two over old logs or ledges. These we passed between the more marked and striking cataracts, some of which must have been ap- propriate abodes for the gods of the waters worshiped by the aborigines. It would be entirely possible to record this region, which is about two miles in extent, and without overdoing it, by one or two hundred pictures. 66 PENNSYLVANIA BEAUTIFUL While the falls themselves are perhaps not more beautiful than those at Winona, Buck Hill, Bushkill, and their compeers, the paths that lead along Kitchen Creek present superior charms, because they are so extensive and various. While to the eye some of the cascades which were more abrupt might have surpassed it, we think that pictorially speaking “A Forest Stair,” page 279, is perhaps as beautiful in effect as any. It would be difficult to overemphasize the pleasure which we felt in finding all this beauty unmarred by man. We might revise the poet’s line in regard to this dreamy vale so as to run, “ Where every prospect pleases, and man’s himself worth while.” We were greeted at the parking space by a caretaker who asked us where we learned of this secluded spot. He seemed to express some sur- prise that a traveler from a distance should know anything of it. It is ap- parently not the purpose of those who control the approaches to blaze abroad these secret beauties. Possibly these gentlemen will not thank us for this so public expatiation on the subject. But we shall certainly do all American citizens a good turn by saying that if they start on this tramp some hours before a refection is required, since there is nothing to eat hereabouts, and if they are interested in what nature has prepared to show us with the least possible assistance from man, they will find it here, and find it in paths so still, except for the rustling of the leaves and the babbling of the stream, that they might easily be in the original wilds. MONROE AND PIKE COUNTIES IKE COUNTY lies fair upon the Delaware. It is really a nose thrust in between New Jersey and New York, Port Jervis being a corner town for three states. The beauties of the upper Delaware, in Wayne and Pike Counties, show here bold cliffs and sharp ascents, and there broad lowlands and splendid bordering meadows. Bushkill Creek is on the [Text continued on page 72.| a : EN ee Se A PERKIOMEN BRIDGE HOME BLOSSOMS -—N EARP A 1 LA Di Daria THE PERKIOMEN STREAM LINES BUCK COUNTY THE HARVEST FIELD AN ANCIENT KITCHEN=-CHESTER IN AUTUMN Written for picture on page 69 by Mitprep Hosss Have you ever wandered through a brown field of stubble Sending out the pungent odor of the early fall, Scattered with the glory of the heaped-up pumpkins, Each one gleaming like a great golden ball? Have you ever listened there when the light breezes Touched the tassels bending from the tall stacks of corn Spreading out their ragged ribbon-robes among the harvest, Clear against the cool sky of an autwmnn morn — Whispering together as the wind ran through them, Rustling the drying husks and the dead vines Of the golden pumpkins and the green and yellow squashes Piled into pyramids in long shining lines? Have you felt the rhythm and the harmony of autumn— Birches and maples in a crimson-orange blaze, Trees bending low with their red and russet apples, And the skies filling with a soft smoky haze? Bronze leaves, scarlet leaves whirling in a circle, Purple-clustered grapes, and a leaping brush fire, Birds wheeling southward, a lone cricket chirping! OA, has it filled you with a maddening desire To hold it, to keep it from the cold clutch of winter, The pomp and the glory and the beauty of it all? Like a rich robe for the last long dreaming Ts the gorgeous raiment of the earth in the fall! 7k 72 PENNSYLVANIA BEAUTIFUL bounds between Pike and Monroe counties. To the north and east of it are numerous hidden lakes, narrow serpentine streams, and several water- falls, like Dingman’s, which is perhaps the best known. Pike County is another of the rural portions of Pennsylvania which is doubtless destined to very much larger development as the seat of country estates. THE. POCONO REGION ONROE COUNTY, in its upper section, is practically synonymous with the Pocono region. At first it is disappointing in that the general contour is that of a table land. We are at the greatest elevations, without having a sense of the fact, and there is a certain bareness here and there, arising no doubt from the windswept nature of the location. As soon, however, as one goes a little apart into the nooks and valleys, one discovers a large number of streams, which surprise one at every turn by their varying moods. Here they follow luxuriant evergreens; there they skirt along by the poplars, whose little hands are eternally beckoning us. At the next turn we may come upon majestic buttonwoods, with their great leaves suggesting the tropics, and their brown and green and gray trunks, which indicate that whatever the style and color, they mean always to be the fashionable tree of the wood. ‘The walnut or the shagbark, which is here the more common variety, is found by the roadsides and lanes and by the ledges of the pastures. There is frequently observed, as on the way to Paradise Falls, a long, sloping ledge of rock, over which a sheet of water glides silently but rapidly. We think it unnecessary to refer spe- cifically to all the illustrations of these features. The reader will find them set forth in many examples. The Poconos are the nearest very high land to Philadelphia, and they are the natural resort for those whose time is limited. Furthermore, there have been built up here several institutions of a distinctive character, which socially or morally or otherwise have gained prestige, and are maintaining THE POCONO REGION a3 wn lear ama X oT ae et a Mi Wl Sal Ne wa i | | | {\ G t ave ‘i aoe ll | pe ir oe me Davi aes Se aul bd mil th QU uf | lhe P OTA a : Tre, > —= ne Shptinssles ¥ a im ect. OK he-ne \. y K ce ee EN nee bags Wee Ae e ce * We Ber BES Aig a hi ee [ | | —_—— een | | eu Eat A LEHIGH COUNTY BARN the region as a strong magnet to those who are drawn by such considera- tions, and who is not? The principal charm of the Poconos consists of the water features. There are numerous falls delightful to explore. The Buck Hill falls, consisting of a series of successive leaps, are so situated as to be easily ac- cessible. The quite different character of the upper and lower falls renders each more attractive by contrast. The beautiful bowl into which the lower falls drop provides a little water amphitheater decorated with moss and lichen. It is such a spot as Horace or Ovid would have loved, and concerning which they would have given us some of their charming odes. We have shown the lower fall in various aspects, and are especially happy to show one of the upper cascades. The dell below the falls is deep, shady, and massed with foliage so as to afford a cool retreat in the hottest days of summer. 74, PENNSYLVANIA BEAUTIFUL Above the falls also the stream is delightful with rapids and pools, and a wise use has been made of the waters and the banks by the bridges and paths. Perhaps the most beautiful fall in Pennsylvania, at least in its appeal to us, is the Indian Ladder. While its beauty may be seen from afar on the banks of the cafion-like cavity into which it drops, its appearance from that point is insignificant in comparison with the view close at hand. Its openness to the light of day is one of its merits. Some minds shrink from the dark and deep misty crevasses into which falls like the Bushkill cast themselves. Here, at the Indian Ladder, there is sunshine, and no sense of being shut away. The three principal steps of the fall, turning like the wind of a stair, the fine outlines of the cliffs, the dainty arrangement of the foliage, and the unsophisticated air of the entire valley, are felt as an accumulated and supremely beautiful general impression. We have thought so highly of this scene that we have used it on the jacket of this volume. The fall is to be visited only on foot, for the last half mile or so, but there is nothing difficult in the journey, which is thoroughly pleasurable, especially if undertaken with a congenial companion. There are aspects of beauty, each most appealing, as one approaches the fall from the rapids below. The writer had the misfortune to slip on a mossy rock in the midst of the stream, smashing some of the bones of his instrument, if not his own, and he is therefore particularly gratified that even after what promised to be a serious disaster, he still brought away these images of beauty. The fall is very happily named, and it is to be hoped that its freedom from ex- ploitation may continue. The Winona falls, though situated at some distance from the Indian Ladder, can scarcely be passed by by one who loves mountain waters. There is a succession of these falling torrents — seven, we believe, each differing sufficiently from its companions to add to our interest. Indeed, comparison gives beauty most of its charm. Some of these falls are in locations surrounded by massive and bold cliffs, and miniature suspension leOPRisl IIE 127i b ae AN UPPER WINONA FALL A WILKES BARRE BROOK UPPER BUCK HILL HOVAUAL ONODOd V qdidVu& ONOOOd V LrAUNI GAGS uy E RaGC OU Nid v A WEE BROOK STTVA VNONIM—WVOdA AO SdAXLS TIVA TVALNAO VNONIM POCONO MOUNTAINS POPLAR RAPIDS STIVA SIAdT SNOILVYAOOAd CWHALSVONVI THE POCONO REGION 83 bridges, and heavily banked foliage. They are, it is true, commercialized, but no objectionable features have intruded upon the waters themselves. The stroll to the uppermost fall is not difficult although there is not a little climbing of stairs. It is a peculiar delight to find such a succession of beauties hidden here among the hills, and we are led to wonder why such natural attractions are so infrequent. We know nothing of the kind among the White Mountains. We must attribute these pleasing phenomena to the peculiar geologic formation and to the abundance of rain on these slopes. The Bushkill fall is altogether the most impressive, from its solemn and awful depths, its seclusion and its dense mists, from the steep ap- proaches and the roar with which it dashes itself to the mystic pool below. The principal leap is impressively high, and in the springtime, when the waters are abundant, one feels, standing below, a sense of awe, and just that sufficient thrill of danger which we humans love. Below the main falls are subordinate cascades in this sheer abyss between the hills. While we recommend a visit in the spring, if one desires to get an impression of mystery and grandeur, and would even recommend a stormy day for en- hancing these impressions, we cheerfully record the gentler and sweeter impressions imparted by the thinner veil of water on a brilliant day in midsummer. The greens here are superb, the conifers seeming to pre- dominate. To see this fall, however, in all its moods, one should not miss an autumn visit, on a day of blue skies and rolling white clouds. With such an upper background, with the gorgeousness of the reds and browns and yellows against the blue, with the superb rock colorings and contours, and the music of the waters, we are in the presence of nature when she fairly overcomes us by her beauty and variety. At such times we are easily able to understand how the ancients, without other revela- tions, were led to worship. But even so, oriental peoples, like the Chinese, make the love of a landscape an act of worship, and find an inspiration in it which is only an occasional mood with us occidentals. We go to places like the Buck Hill falls, look, leave, and forget. The Chinese, at 84. PENNSYLVANIA BEAUTIFUL least among their men of education, spend an hour almost daily, in a really ecstatic state, in watching the sky’s splendors suspended above their gardens, where evergreens and waters are taught to simulate the grander features of wild regions. Whether or not Americans in numbers will ever come to lose them- selves for long in the intriguing beauty of such views as this before us, we do not know. But we could easily imagine a life surrounded by such inspirations, led on to fine achievements of the mind. Strangely, it is said that most great literary productions have originated in attics, which were cold or hot or wretchedly furnished. It is probably true that most works of genius, as we name them, have been forced, or at least induced, by hunger or cold. Might there not be a far finer florescence of genius, were creative minds to place themselves at strategic points among the hills, where the beckonings of sky fingers and the celestial combinations of cliff and foliage and meadow and stream formed the foreground? The Paradise falls afford another and quite different appeal. The swift glide of the stream over the ledges for a long distance before the final leap; the breaking up of the waters below, that leap among the boulders; the turn of the stream at this point; and the secondary cascade; the great beauty of the surrounding trees, of many varieties of leaf and stem; altogether afford a fascinating experience well worth two journeys, each to fill a day. The delight of our minds in the play of waters is happily not con- fined to the more notable streams and falls. Little mountain becks and burns unnamed, often unseen, and mostly unappreciated, appeal to an- other side of our nature. We begin to feel the lure of personal posses- sion in a small cascade. We wish to decorate its banks and to clear it of broken branches, and to provide a little Forest of Arden, each one for ourselves. In appropriating a small cascade, such as that on page 161, to our own peculiar love and communion, we have no sense of selfishness, since the very solitariness of the spot indicates that others have passed it by, uncaring. This felicity, arising out of the charming water play even THE POCONO REGION Mags t be Me ag Me! Mifew! Nig He ay € a bp ley ath 4, he. in We li . take a a iH re: 1 ea page gas 0) a f any i Ge %, yy RE. ‘a. 2 qs H “pM The 4 area @.¢ Ay .y wi, pies ny Ze CU. Le Mon tae nm 60> : Wg = ig i jb Sata it Be ay 4Z Z ul Dave) WU de: Fea) A 7, 2 4 heh at Sa es 7 j W/W ae rit ' aoe Bark >. ot a ay re ae om SOF es ta ae Jz = > 2] s@ a a mule eid i, Ae AN Rey Baers a ans hatin x Caan €. Lory ON THE BORDER OF BUCKS COUNTY of a small brook, is too much overlooked by Americans. There are prob- ably thousands of little dells in America which, in Japan, China, or India would form nuclei of famous country estates. Those past masters of landscape gardening, those minds, fellowshiping, apparently by nature, with the world of beauty, would create miniature Gardens of Eden where now the human foot seldom treads. Paradise Valley, which comes down on one side of the Poconos, and opens at length a little north of Stroudsburg, has as its center a stream with so many moods of beauty that we hardly know where to find its like. While there are no great surging leaps of the waters, there are so many rapids and eddies, there are so many deep banks over which the dainty evergreens of spring, with their parti-colored fingers, reach, there are so many noble buttonwoods laving their water, seeking roots in the banks, 86 PENNSYLVANIA BEAUTIFUL that we may find here solace for days. Many small bridges afford van- tage points for viewing the stream. We do not know whether fishermen find much here to their liking, but in the soft bordering meadows and in small orchards and cottages, and in the freshly opening aspects of beauty that meet one as he passes around the angles of the hills, there is an en- riching of the heart and a sufficient appeal to the emotions. One is often saddened by observing the sort of events that are re- quired to arouse interest in some minds. It would appear that certain persons require a great shock to become interested. Certain others will travel across the country for the welter of pleasure that they derive from seeing two men fight. No small proportion of men and women have been observed to sit for days at a time within a stone’s throw of natural beauties of the highest type, without any apparent interest in life beyond a game. A novel may be interesting, sometimes, we think, in proportion to its hor- rible, its repulsive, or its unnatural features. Yet we believe that there is, deep in the heart of man, an approval of and a delight in perfection of form. We believe that in the end the finer attractions may make their appeal. Just now a person of fine taste and intelligence who stands at the delivery desk of a public library and notices the titles that go out, spreading their turgid, malodorous stream through our commonwealths, must feel a shudder of fear at the sort of appeal required to interest mankind. In all our journeys amongst the beauty spots of Pennsylvania, we were almost always alone. At the Buck Hill falls, by the side of a great concourse of guests, we did naturally find persons scanning the loveliness which nature had unveiled. But at other points in Pennsylvania, in spring, summer, or autumn, on mountain or in meadow, by fall or stream, we have almost never encountered an individual looking at a landscape. The same, with the exception of those natural features everywhere talked about, and in the height of the season, is true in other states. The only spot in Maine where we have seen anyone looking at a landscape was at Mount Kineo. In New Hampshire we found a few persons at the Flume, not, by the nn Z < H vA +) 1) = je) Z ie) oO ie) Ay A FESTOONED LANE GFOOIE “eli BEYOND THE STREAM—NEAR PHIL 202 eee THE ROBERT FULTON BIRTHPLACE=—LANCASTERDCOU NT INDIAN UADDER FALLS A HAPPY CHOICE-—-N EAR PHT EAD EU erie. POCONO MOUNTAINS A BRIDAL JUNE THE POCONO REGION 91 way, one of the most interesting points in that state, and on Mount Wash- ington. For the rest, nobody was looking at anything. We would not be misunderstood. We know that millions of persons at times do enjoy the natural world. We take to ourselves no special merit for quality of mind and heart that is better than that possessed by the multitude, but we are stating the fact, that in our roamings at all seasons, we have as a rule been left in solitary enjoyment of the most entrancing objects which our search of years could discover. We would say that those who visit the Poconos would do best to fol- low up Paradise Valley to reach the summit. This region and the little neighborhood of Canadensis, and the side roads and valleys, are very rich in blossom time. | The Levis fall is quite accessible. It requires so brief a time to visit any of these cascades that we think it is a mistake to omit them, although we found very few of the habitués of the Poconos who had seen them all (page 82). 7 At about the point of junction of Bear Creek and the Todyhanna at Stoddardsville, in the edge of Luzerne County but fairly in the Pocono district, the Lehigh river falls over a most picturesque series of steps. This fall, in the spring of the present year, was carrying a great volume of water, and without qualification shows greater variety and mass than any other of the falls in the entire district. It is happily directly on the roadside. We show two aspects of it, the principal one being on page 171. This fine cascade may be viewed from various angles, and in this particular is different from most of the falls in the Pocono. It lies in the open, in a most charming locality. A little below it there is the wreck of an old mill of stone. The light coming through the windows, and the configura- tion of the ruin in general, suggests a castle. We have seen no spot so well fitted for development as a private estate, with a water feature close at hand, The ride, indeed, from Wilkes-Barre to the Poconos through this point instead of by way of Scranton, brings into view many pleasing land- [Text continued on page 93.| INDIAN LADDER FALLS Written by Mitprep Hosss for picture on page 89 Where rapid waters foam and glide Over the Pocono mountain-side, Falling, plunging, beating their way Among the rocks smooth-worn with spray, One sees fleet-footed warriors leap The boulders of the craggy steep With graceful birchen barks and packs Borne swiftly on their supple backs. Against the silver of the stream Their brilliant painted feathers gleam, And in the music of the falls One hears the echo of their calls. Beautiful Indian Ladder, white With fountains in a foamy flight! Great glistening steps whose crystal lights Lure on to hidden mountain heights, Your waters sing the days of old When Red-skins wandered free and bold Over America’s hills and streams— How glad, how sad is your song of dreams! Q2 —— a ee. THE WATER GAP 93 ase ea an aa So an Verne We Fe 5 2) Ee ~ DAVID RITTENHOUSE BIRTHPLACE, MONTGOMERY CO. scapes, several of which we have recorded. ‘‘ A Shadowed Ribbon Road,” page 100, shows a little side way of much charm. Somewhat beyond this picture we see “ The Shadow Dell,” page 111. é THE WATER GAP HE Delaware, winding between the hills, perhaps we should say mountains, and dividing New Jersey from Pennsylvania, has at length cut its way down to such a level that, its work being done, it may glide along leisurely and reflect the crests which it has conquered. The Water Gap is famous everywhere, and deservedly, though we think that the Susquehanna below Wilkes-Barre is almost as good. It would be danger- ous, lest we arouse the hostility of local partisans, to compare the Water Gap with the Highlands of the Hudson. In one particular, New York is now ahead of Pennsylvania in the carrying out of its scenic mountain high- ways. We found it almost impossible, owing to fringes of trees, to obtain satisfactory outlooks upon the Water Gap. We confess ourselves astounded when informed that the mountains of the Gap rise above two thousand feet. There is no adequate measure of dimensions, so that one is much deceived. Stroudsburg is a natural point of meeting and departure, per- 94. PENNSYLVANIA BEAUTIFUL haps the most notable in eastern Pennsylvania north of Philadelphia. One goes from here into those parts of the Pocono Mountains whose chief at- traction is their quiet evergreen forests, and their dignified, retired sum- mer homes. One goes also up the Paradise Valley and along the upper Delaware toward Port Jervis, a drive which, for long, rolling sweeps and broad meadows with distant hills, is of a very high order. One goes also by way of the river around the Kittatinny Range, to Bangor, Easton, and the South. Another route, leaving out the Water Gap but by way of the Wind Gap, through Saylorsburg to the south, is a very satisfactory drive. A journey undertaken to follow the Delaware wherever available by steam, or otherwise by canoe, from its far upland waters to the vicinity of Easton, is one to be undertaken by persons who have that happy faculty of carrying through the investigation of a particular region. A series of pictures of the Delaware alone, in all its moods, and from youth to maturity, should be an achievement and an occupation sufficiently en- grossing while it was being attained. Such projects carried through leave one afterwards with a various stock of valuable experiences and memories, together with the records which recall all these. With it all there may go an increased springiness of the gait, an enlargement of the chest meas- ure, an enriching of the heart, and a general sanity and poise. Indeed, we know nothing comparable with undertaking to explore a certain dis- trict of a state, noting by pen and otherwise its striking or pleasing fea- tures. That strength in statement and accuracy of estimate which forms a well-developed character is in no way better secured than by an inde- pendent investigation out of doors of something that has not been well done as yet. It is ever, or should be, a delight to be recommended, to discover something not hitherto observed. Our own occupations have for- bidden leisurely and thorough work of such a nature, but for youth or age of either sex, we can think of nothing more conducive to the good of the country investigated, and to the good of the investigator, than the devotion of oneself to some such object. What we may call a geographic sense, lacking any better term, which THE WATER GAP 95 has been so nobly encouraged to develop, through the Geographical Maga- zine, that monumental and superb accomplishment, adds immensely to the joy of living. To be able to place oneself, in one’s thought, in the world, all the time; that is, to feel one’s situation in regard to the mountains and valleys and cities, to see, as we rest before we sleep, the panoramas of counties opening before us, to leap in our thought from crest to crest, and to note the sources of wealth and the decorations of a state, and to be con- scious always of one’s position in a landscape, even as a bird that flies, — all this is something not difficult of attainment, but immensely satisfactory. Doubtless it is to be assisted by aviation. One would say, however, that in that mode of movement, there should be greater interest and instruction in circling back and forth over a single valley until one learned it, than in shooting across states and acquiring only transitory impressions. We have to confess our envy of the aviator. He is able to secure those panoramas impossible to one on the ground. He absorbs at one glance the salient features of a county. To him a river is an instant and com- plete magnificence. The lakes are scattered like mirrors of the gods. Scarcely do the mountains frame his picture. He moves from one water- shed to another while we are thinking of it. He has in our generation suddenly attained to many of the attributes which we had counted as be- longing exclusively to superhuman intelligence. He is said to have con- quered the air, but the victory is over the earth. Whether we shall ever live to achieve a volume of airplane visions we do not know. We do feel, however, that we should make more of the superlative opportunity which the airplane affords, of recording the grandeur of the world. When we have looked entranced at some of those records made of cloud and serried summit as the airplane passed over them, we have felt that here, indeed, is a new avenue by which the appeals of nature may reach man. Vast, enthralling, awful, ecstatic in color and form, these natural glories unfold, heaven above heaven, until the beholder’s mind is drenched in a succession of inspirations. The reaction is one which causes us to marvel at the ca- pacities of our human nature for taking in the wonders of beauty. For- 96 PENNSYLVANIA BEAUTIFUL merly we saw the stars. Now we see the earth, the more beautiful and the more enticing vision. But we would not forget the stars. Having both these revelations, we have all. Culture is a word fought over. It means to the reader whatever he takes in of impression, and whatever he creates out of it by contemplation. Certainly it is one of the grander hopes of our age that beauty and power may be so unrolled on human vision, and so correlated by human thought that the life of the twentieth-century man may mean much more than that of life in any other century. We seem to see a poet, a patriot, or an historian gliding with an enlightened imagination over the more splendid natural beauties. From Mount Desert to Moosehead Lake and the Appa- lachian chain; from Champlain to the Hudson, over the savannahs of New York and Pennsylvania, surveying the Water Gap and the sweeps of the Susquehanna, turning to the great architectural creations of our cities, to the banding railroads and the craft plying on the waters; and finally to the millions of dear and sweet abodes in suburb and country, —we may conceive of a large and noble intelligence suffused by these visions, made able to give us of human nature’s best in poetry and art and patriotism. We love to dwell upon the reaction of man to the infinite phases of the world about him. The knowledge of chemistry, which is rising, —a miraculous body of facts gathered from liquid and gas and stone, from the mine and the air, is perhaps the most splendid exhibit of modern human achievement. Such a body of knowledge constantly grow- ing, constantly wedded by and brooded over by the imagination, con- stantly applied and adapted to the uses and delights of man, suggests a very much larger human existence. This experience should make each individual life eventually mean a thousandfold as much as it does now. We will say that a stolid laborer drives his spade full depth into mel- low loam, and lifts it to gaze at it for a moment. What does it mean to him? Even to him it means much. But what does it mean to the chemist, what to the economist, what to the poet? In that spadeful is the beauty of all lilies and all roses. There are hid the hydrangea, the hyacinth, the THE WATER GAP 97 N SH: SSS A ne Ss Ns Py a b abe 14! ich eS pas Bes FORMS I Rasy eine TATA on a “J fj Pa FOL } al | we Re’ We | il Hla yo vay ae Eas, Ne 5 anaes nS OF BE ee nh Nee baat Mien Me tim rn rec Ry Pai tye. Se eee Se vega Re Sei ea am Se = 4 SEC Ss = Mote ia ales = ie ams ON a i te PTR 5 a 2 Nay «tf sane oe er - vi th AN ee i oe ow ee { IN ‘ LDS ANOR Ce ace * \ a en Me ae ms we \ on . 3 ws : ‘ ~ ¥ mrt Seto AL: ~e hi) ee be Sena AW. hl GC Fath O.O/F BARN iris. There are latent all the old-fashioned flowers. There are the grains that nourish all men, with their simple, quiet, steady, gray white, innocu- ous but delicious contents. There, also, are the secrets of geologic history. The aeons are contained in every grain of earth. The flood has washed it. or the volcano has hurled it out. The sun has worked upon it its mystic alchemy. It has transformed poisons. It has been the food of worms. It is the source of the vegetable, the vegetable is the source of the animal, the animal is the home or the companion or the cause of reaction, as we choose to put it, of the spiritual. In that clod is history and science and art and religion. We love a spadeful of soft, brown, fine earth. To sift it in our fingers, to press it about a transplanted shoot, to smell its fragrant power, to own it as a necessity, and to be given possession of it, to manipu- late it, is, if we put our thought into it and derive its secrets from it, among the best experiences of life. If there is so much in a spadeful, what is there in a worldful? One sweet, broad valley of Pennsylvania, prepared by nature and man, is sufhi- 98 PENNSYLVANIA BEAUTIFUL cient, under ideal conditions, under ideal stimulus of the mind and the heart, under proper adaptation of the economic and political sense, to pro- vide a newer and a better Athens, a more permanently beautiful and in- spiring Galilee, a steadier, a mightier and a more beneficent Rome. It is not without a hint of the fine reaction upon the soul of nature that we find in Pennsylvania the names of Galilee and Ephrata the Fruitful, of Bethlehem and Bethany, of Hebron, Jordan, and Sharon. All these names are indubitable evidence that the heart of man moves upon the heart of nature. They prove that man, beginning again in a new world, dares to believe that it is worth while to raise up new ideals from the ruins of old ones. They show a beautiful and undying faith that the work of a thoughtful and diligent man on the soil of the earth, and that man’s sweet and sane relations with his neighbors, are elements which may soon, and sometime must, evolve a satisfactory society. When we have wandered over such counties as Lancaster and Lebanon, Montgomery and Bucks, and have seen what man has done, how smoothly he has combed his fields, how neatly he has made his bounds, how carefully he has erected his habitations, we have been conscious of a kind of flood of gratitude, that men have achieved so much, and have spread themselves in a manner so wise and sane, over a tract of God’s country. We cannot, however, resist the impression that this achievement is not enough, and that the men who labor here are not, or ought not to be, satisfied with what they have done. As yet their Bethlehem and Bethany lack particularly, we should say, most of all, that spirit which pushes on to acquire the crowning features of manhood. We hope for every farmer to feel the poetry that is in the sod. We hope for him to see the tawdriness in our churches under the so perfect sky. We feel as certain as we are of the sunrise that he will take as a recipe something of the soil, something of the rock, some- thing of the cloud and the blue, something from the dreaming river, and _ by the alchemy of love and study and imagination and experience even- tually produce works in literature and other lines of human achievement, for which the world is half famished. To us a landscape is not so much BUCK HILL FALL A RIVER IN HAST E==]WEN OWA Ah eee A SHADOWED RIBBON ROAD—POCONO MOUNTAINS POCONO BLOOMS DOWN BY THE BARN-POCONO MOUNTAINS ABANDONED PPACRSAS DSi Hear ries IN THE CORN-—BUCKS COUNTY A beac ree aS LANCASTER COUNTY 103 an achievement as a prophecy. The brooks tell of something that is com- ing, for which the past has been a long preparing foundation. Two hundred years ago England was said to be over-populated when it had a small fraction of its present people in numbers. We heard the fatuity of Matthew Arnold state that England was finished. Well, it was nearly finished by the late war. It has been nearly finished by the disease and the blindness and the selfishness in it. It was nearly finished in the view of Goldsmith, when he wrote “ The Deserted Village.” Eng- Jand is an old country. Our known history is but a chapter to its over- flowing volume. But who, noting the struggle upward in England at the present time, can doubt that the centuries have something vastly better for her than she has seen? Even from the standpoint of the physical, the useless lands of England are in time to be transformed. How much in the way of putting flowers in its alleys and sweet air where smoke reigns, how much in enriching the lives of the uneducated and improving for the multitude the possible harmonies that may be established between men as well as between men and nature, is yet to be done in England. If that is true in the Old World, what can we say of a fair region like Penn- sylvania? LANCASTER COUNTY ARRYING forward a résumé of the attractions in this state, we find in this county a leadership claimed over all others in the Union. It is stated that the products of the soil in one year here have amounted to more than a hundred million dollars. We might traverse many prairie lands and search abroad in vain for fields as fair, as uniformly good, as well stocked, as well provided with storehouses and dwellings, as well fenced, as well kept. Nature was most fair and most rich. Man has been most diligent and intelligent in fostering and working with and on the earth. What an achievement to point out to the people of Russia! How long will it be before a similar area in Russia will exhibit a similar 104 PENNSYLVANIA BEAUTIFUL sanity, diligence, and wealth? Here is, perhaps, the banner district in the world of a similar area. It can teach the East and the West very much. To our southern compatriots, it may give a lesson well worth their conning, a lesson which it may require generations for them to learn and use. Lancaster itself is of course a great market town, in the best old Eng- lish sense, in many respects. It is also a teeming manufacturing center. It has its noble churches, the dean of which we presume is admitted to be St. Peter’s (page 33), sketched for us by Mr. Carl W. Drepperd. In every direction from this well built city one goes inevitably to a premier agricultural district. If one wants to see what farming is, let him go to this county. The billowing grain in sea green, summer green, and August gold, rolls over the hills. The corn fields rustle and hide their full, silken ears, the finest aspect of any crop that grows. The orchards hang lus- ciously with all that succession of fruit which most aptly typifies the close of the year. Whether we see the close-set shocks of grain, or the abun- dant delicacies thriving in the garden, or the great, open doors of the barns that house all, there is driven in upon us that here is land doing its best, and men doing their best for it, and each enriched and made better by the result. Yet, as we have said, all this is only a preparation. Talk with any farmer or merchant and you find him to be full of informa- tion on certain subjects. He knows them about as well as they can be known. He has handled them, experimented with them, and called in sun, rain, and chemicals to win success by them. He knows his work and rests in quiet assurance regarding it. Touch him on those aspects of his life to which he has principally given his attention, and you derive a full and satisfactory reaction. But there are lines of thought, profitable for him to follow, upon which neither he nor we have gone very far. There is an unrealized world for every man. Neither need he go to heaven to find it. It is above the mines and below the stars. His feet stand upon it, and his hands have to do with it. But let no farmer, let no me- chanic, think that he has done more than touch the surface of things. LANCASTER COUNTY 105 i i set vi f p Ot HL ge Ty (STR yt dp ota be pa Dd LR OR) tethinducs ¥ Net h a hee NF o b ees te I) yy . Ui Bare BO Sah : (rd pull hd sa Nats ae a. Fale ams W ay t ; Qos 4 Be ety ? & or aA IN 4 ¢ | WN hm ae fy is « Nye ~ ye ; e if “s ‘my i. ee * 3 the 2 5 Vf A BARN NEAR ALLENTOWN As a man with a small vocabulary wrestles with the expression of a few crude thoughts, and regards with dull astonishment the plethoric torrent of Shakespeare’s ideas, so any mechanic or farmer, or scholar, when he thinks, knows full well that he is working around the edges or upon cer- tain facets of his subject. What a broader education and the light of imagination, and the careful setting to work of chemical discovery, can make of men and their surroundings, is an unsolved, a fascinating prob- lem. What an intelligent Pennsylvania farmer is in comparison with an Egyptian laborer is the distance of centuries of experience, a zone of cli- mate, the prayers, the struggles, the genius of ages. What the Pennsyl- vania farmer is to the man who will work upon the same soil a thousand years from now, we do not at all know. But we feel compelled, by the forces of an undiscouraged evolution around us eternally at work, to con- clude that some time, on this soil, there will break forth a finer quality of civilization than America now possesses. The initial and perhaps fatal historic mistake of human thought is that it has arbitrarily divided itself into categories, and has gratuitously 106 PENNSYLVANIA BEAUTIFUL assumed a lack of unity between the component parts of creation. Just as if the sod could be separated from the stars, just as if argon and hy- drogen were not as divine in their intended uses as hymns. Who, in these days, is big enough or wise enough or bold enough to separate the agencies in nature from what we have been accustomed to call spirit? Who in the re-arrangement of knowledge would be so fatuous as to keep chemistry out of religion, or religion out of chemistry? Who knows that there is not as much moral purpose in a sunbeam as in a commandment? A little south of Lancaster the Conestoga river and the Little Cones- toga form beautiful dells, and one of the loveliest river bank strolls that we have found in the state. There is literally a picture at every turn, by which we mean a really artistic composition. Pequa Creek, a little south of the Conestoga, is another pictorial stream. We came hereabouts, near Quarryville, upon a row of fruit trees in blossom and overhanging a little field canal. It is one of the finest instances of the fact that intimate subjects in the immediate foreground afford the greatest satisfaction (page 79). Anent the Conestoga, the name is freighted with romance, since it was from this locality that the Conestoga wagon took its name. This remark- able craft, if one may use the term as we are tempted to do by the boat shape of the body, is the finest symbolical embodiment of western emigra- tion. The vehicle was wide and high and long, equipped with axe, bucket, and every possible appliance for restoring the ravages of fire and freshet, to make a mountain road passable again. The shape of the bottom of the vehicle was adopted in order to prevent the shifting of the load on steep hills. This vehicle was of the type regularly in use for the great emigration and great freight movement that followed it into the states of Ohio, Kentucky, and beyond. The ordinary prairie schooner was a poor country cousin of the Conestoga wagon. One of these vehicles ought to be kept in the museum of every great city in the regions settled through their use, that the generations may see how their fathers crossed the moun- tain and the flood. WATER BOWS-——POCONO MOUNTAINS Ai B.O'C ONO =HIO Mir D Reaver NEAR STROUDSBURG AP Piss COTA Gr A WEST CHESTER BORDER BRIDE’S WAY—POCONO MOUNTAINS LANCASTER COUNTY OLD TIME PENNSY LEVANTA LUZERNE COUNTY LH EVD LG Heal SP Aw: LUZERNE COUNTY SHADOW DELL A POCONO POOL WVHULS NOLNVUOS V WAACUAOG VINVATASNNGAd V Ame OCG ye a Are POCO SPOT ONEOVU NY ALTN:S Ee A LINCOLN ROADSIDE—-WES TD CH ESR EE ReC OUENeiey BERKS COUNTY II5 We reserve for future treatment the Susquehanna border of Lancaster County, as well as of those counties that lie to the northwest of it and on the east of the great river. BERKS COUNTY HE city of Reading, the centre of this teeming county, is thoroughly well built, but for the most part lies outside the scope of our work. Its Trinity Lutheran church-spire (page 33) is one of the most beautiful in Pennsylvania, being quite different in type from those of New England, yet with special merits of its own. One of these is that it was constructed of permanent materials, as those in New England for the most part are not. It presides over the centre of the city in a very comforting manner. As one enters the town, an edifice with much the appearance of a Euro- pean castle or a great armory, we are told, is the jail. Before it, a great pear tree was in beautiful blosscm (page 152). Four or five miles east of Reading the stream which meanders through the golf course calls out our admiration (page 15). Another stream to the south of the road beneath the elms and the buttonwoods, and called the Monocacy, offers the best pictorial opportunities which we discovered in the county (page 12). We love best these streams with gently sloping banks, but with just enough good nature to turn the wheels of the little old mills. Berks County has extensive highlands to the east and north of Reading, and somewhat high land to the south. These hills are detached from the main chain of the Appalachians, and enjoy an individuality and beauty of their own. Moving easterly, near Boyertown, we find ourselves in a rich agricultural valley settled by the Germans, and with many quaint architectural features. The ancient customs are largely handed down, with little change. The entire drive from Reading through Boyertown and thence northeast to Allentown, or bearing still more east through Quaker- town and toward Bethlehem, is less marked by open plains than we find PEO ae PENNSYLVANIA BEAUTIFUL to be the rule in Lancaster County. But the gentle hills and the numerous turns give the country an older, cosier, more pleasing effect pictorially. MONTGOMERY COUNTY ORRISTOWN,, itself rather notable for early homes and collections of earlier furniture, is also a convenient region for exploring Mont- gomery County. The streams of this county excel, for our purposes, any others we have seen in the state. The Perkiomen river, having its sources in Berks, Lehigh, and Bucks, meanders through the county in many a de- lightful curve. It has furnished us (pages 25, 26, 36, 46, 50, 67, 68) with numerous records of its beauties. There are stately arches seeming to exist purely to tempt the wanderer to make a sylvan camp on the banks. There is many an old flour mill, some of them still active. One could pass an entire week with delight canoeing on this stream. The Skippack, quite near to Norristown, is only second in attraction to the Perkiomen. ‘This stream invites us to be children again, and to wade in its sands and play with its pebbles. A lunch on its grassy banks, beneath the broad leaves of the buttonwoods, is an experience that may sweeten several stormy winter days, as we recall, by our firesides, the shimmering reaches of the Skippack. At Collegeville, the main western highway, about seven miles from Norristown, crosses a bridge said to have been built about 1800. Its fine ramps and the little bastions over the piers, — an ideal spot for the fisher- man, the artist, the poet, or the lover, — the quiet waters beneath, their banks lined with noble trees, may continue to hold us in longing admira- tion. There is an ancient tavern at one end of the bridge, and the town, with its educational flavor, spreads fair beyond on the higher slopes. Northeast from Ambler, which in contiguous to Norristown, one drives through a semi-urban neighborhood. The place names add not a little to the flavor of such a tour. One passes, for instance, through Plymouth MONTGOMERY COUNTY 117 Wi att yp Ale an At ee opus —— EIN See < es See NI , Se =6 5: me, ‘i hie aan ii 1p ihe i anh ioe ie eee ae EA Ye Te Uih§eDHea ae) Z Ey au “naltiatalial ANAT ii ial bn are fe kl fal ‘i lL Greco — we os ee rs — — -_" —_— = — . => THE MORAVIAN CHURCH-—-BETHLEHEM Meeting. On the other side of the Schuylkill is the village called “ King of Prussia.” When names are so easy of access, we never fail to wish that these romantic terms are not more in use. Norristown is the natural point from which Valley Forge is reached, though if one comes from Philadelphia and keeps to the south of the Schuylkill he follows another interesting route, on which we found “ The Curving Lane” (page 47), that fed our feeling for a gently sloping countryside. It was on this journey, also, near Phoenixville, that we found the farm whose dwelling is shown (page 23) in “ A Pennsylvania Cottage.” The apple tree at the back door is the one thing we should always insist 118 PENNSYLVANIA BEAUTIFUL on. There ought to be a law that no detached dwelling should be with- out an apple tree. Is it not a law of sentiment, of convenience, and of social harmony and unity? Will it not keep the children at home and bring them back after they are grown? The dear lady who is housewife in this dwelling came out and picked us flowers, and rejoiced in our joy over her home. Persons owning dwellings like these are more outside of them than inside. From a distance, on the opposite side, this place is seen again (page 48) in the picture entitled “The Creek in May.” Multitudes of white flowers grew in front of the dwelling on the bank of the stream. This spot was a haven of peace and kindly comfort and homely joys. | Valley Forge has now happily been redeemed to form a shrine of the American people. We secured a composition which connects the stream with the headquarters in our picture on page 57. The house in which Washington lived here is small. It is opened widely to the public, and supplies a kind of educational centre in patriotism, and gives a glimpse of the old manner of living. Particularly interesting is the kitchen end. In Pennsylvania the log kitchen is not so very rare, though we have never seen one retained in the east and north. A peculiar feature of many stone farm houses is the placing of the chimney at the outside angle of the ell, so that it comes up from a corner, a fashion we have not seen elsewhere in America. Within, this corner was occupied by a vast platform for doing all the baking and boiling of the household, together with the larger operations, such as the autumn killing. Beneath this great platform the flues ran from more than one direction toward the chimney. The floor was flagged. The room was large, and hung about with great ladles, skillets, broilers, and griddles. It would require indeed a page to catalog all the characteristic utensils ranged around the two interior walls. A room like this, while not especially pictorial, engages one’s absorbed at- tention. It was for a considerable part of the day the home of the house- wife, though originally we understand its use was confined mostly to the warmer season of the year. A PENNSYLVANIA COTTAGE—NEAR POTTSVILLE SONOOOd AHL NI—HALIVAM NIVENA OW TIVH FDAONAACNAdGCAANI LUZERNE WATERS DELAWARE CANAL AT EASTON ABP AE i RE Ea Wey MONTGOMERY COUNTY 52 A Pennsylvania farmer’s wife is the most efficient person imaginable. She is not thin and nervous, as New England women sometimes were. She is the image of large contentment. Her heart is in her work. It is not a means with her, but an end. She seems sorry that her baking should ever be done, but if by any chance she can think of nothing more to do in the outer kitchen, she turns to the embroidery of linen, toweling, or to the making of some design in a bedspread. From age to age every house- wife desires to add a little touch of originality to the conventions of the days that were. Her chests of drawers, of fine old walnut, groan with their burden of counterpanes and linen sheets. Her samplers adorn the walls and her rugs cover the floors. There is no form of farm labor that belongs to woman which this woman cannot do in perfection, and which she does not love. The cheese and the butter-making, the sauerkraut and the apple-butter. put up in vast quantities in the autumn, the preserves and dried fruit and vegetables, would fill no mean storehouse for a garrison. These people labor largely, and a Pennsylvania farmer’s appetite is in proportion to his size and his efforts. Dyspepsia is not a chronic ailment. The corned beef and the mincemeat, the ham and the bacon, and the host of other substantial or more dainty stores, fill the great cellars. Any farmer seek- ing a wife should haunt the rural districts of Pennsylvania, where women were born to be farmers?’ wives, and where they continually thank God for the fact! They justly believe there is no higher estate. Ample in dimensions physically, serene of mind, endowed with broad common sense, loving her home and her acres, the Pennsylvania farmer’s wife is a true helpmeet for her husband. The spirit so common in other parts of our country where the farm is thought the plaything for rich retired persons, or a half-despised way station for those who aspire to a trade or profession, is happily wanting on the typical Pennsylvania farm. While we would not say that every man ought to be content where he is and with what he is doing, we can 124 PENNSYLVANIA BEAUTIFUL but feel that there must be for the permanence of our institutions a great many such persons as are found in rural Pennsylvania. Those who meander through our picture pages will find other ex- amples belonging to this county. CHESTER COUNTY ET us say at once, to avoid the wrath of our numerous friends in West Chester, that all the pictures in this volume which are both titled and placed as in Chester, refer to Chester County, and not to Old Chester, with the exception of those that are specially so designated. Old Chester, from its location near the river Delaware, and from its proximity to large manufacturing enterprises and its more level contours, has not supplied us with so much pictorial material as has Chester County. Indeed, Chester is in Delaware County. West Chester believes itself to be the finest type of a suburban town, and there is very much in it and about it to justify the belief. It has attractive public buildings and ancient inns, with a prestige and a romance worthy of the pen of Dickens or Thackeray. Its private residences possess much dignity and charm, particularly that which is derived from eight- eenth-century architecture and decorations. Old trees, old shrubs, old walks, old cornices, old fireplaces and furniture, old customs and old friendships are other names for West Chester. Large schools here add an agreeable scholastic flavor. The region round about is sought out by those who, having attained a competence and a knowledge of the world, desire to plant themselves for generations, for they think of their children as reincarnations. When we asked about a certain resident, we were informed that he was not known very well, be- cause he had been there only forty years! People who write and think, and other people who perhaps just sit, as they say in the South, have flocked to the districts bordering West Chester. All this is very alluring CHESTER COUNTY 125 THE CLOISTERS, EPHRATA to one with the writer’s cast of mind, who can think of no region more agreeable to live in or to die in. It is thoroughly adapted either for thinking or for sitting. But let not the frivolous imagine that West ‘Chester does not know itself, or that it is narrow. Let anybody come along who is worth while and is also a gentleman, and he will be adopted into the families of West Chester with as much cordiality as if he had been there longer. We have found the environment of West Chester just what we love. The first immediate object of delight is the Brandywine at Chad’s Ford, that wonderful old bridge which, with its neighborhood, shows in differ- ent aspects on pages 45 and 67. The picture of cows shows them inter- ested but contented in the buttonwood meadows below the bridge. The site is that of the Battle of Brandywine, and Lafayette’s Headquarters ap- pear on page 119. The Brandywine and its tributaries are hereabouts all that we can ask in the way of beauty. ‘A West Chester Border,” page 119, gives us an orchard enclosed by a zigzag rail fence. “A Lincoln Roadside ” is close to the college, some miles west of West Ches- ter. The region is rich in little valley nooks, like “ A Dogwood Bank ” and “ Blossom Valley ” on page 145. “ The Bride’s Shower,” page 151, where, in spite of the innumerable petals on the ground, there seem to 126 PENNSYLVANIA BEAUTIFUL be innumerable others above, is found in the same region, as are the pic- tures on page 153, one on page 163, and “The Guarded Home” on page 165. The clouds favored us in “ A Chester Valley,” page 117, and bridge and stream and road and tree in “ A Mill and a Dell,” page 183. ‘ Penn’s Woods,” page 184, “A Petaled Cart Path,” page 203, and particularly “A Blossoming Arch,” page 215, delighted us. The proximity of West Chester to Philadelphia has made it feasible for many to take advantage of its loveliness. The neighborhood appears more thoroughly English than any other section of America with which we are familiar. We have mentioned the inns of West Chester. We should further say that not only in the town, but on many roads leading from it we have the characteristic stone-built, old-fashioned inns, where it is still possible to obtain a substantial meal. Everything is placed on the table. We counted thirteen kinds of vegetables and sauces on the occasion of finding ourselves at such an inn. The walls were thick and the windows were splayed in the English stone farm house fashion, so that even on the in- terior these old dwellings give the feeling of security and permanence. We do not expect the walls of inns to be adorned with works of art. A curious cupboard of walnut is all that we can ask. Nor do we ask in vain. The Pennsylvania inn seems to be able to continue in a fashion under the eighteenth amendment. Perhaps the milder beverages are not so satis- factory to the old customer, but they will answer for us boys. Some of the old inns have gathered curious old implements or furniture, which they have attached to the ceiling or otherwise disposed about the rooms, so as to prove an attraction to the mind. If prohibition has done this, we thank it. It is a higher appeal, and in the end may prove just as expensive to the customer and as profitable to the inn-keeper! It is hard for us to tear ourselves away from West Chester, and we find our feet, or should we say our steering-gear, inclined to turn that way. For beauty, for physical improvements, for architectural dignity, for quiet and good society, for an educational atmosphere, and for con- venience to great centres, we have loved the town. Pi vy a TN cae + Arey by ME ihe me av 1 ali if! i hs AER ae 6 4 ; as nt h f 7 4 (ae Y SS HI ne Z f s | MV nen ni MW if “4 | GT 4 *y. a ¥ © at AAY / 1\ 34 of 4 RS nt Ni \\ 4) ; _—— . Wa) I i=) Ss (aaa ‘ NY)" = A AX WSS SS \ 3 aes : Pa —=<$ == NY SORES Yasn SREP ih HUY UF =| OF ni : / f \ OLD CHESTER COURT HOUSE 128 PENNSYLVANIA BEAUTIFUL THE WASHINGTON CHURCH AT VALLEY FORGE T has required an unique combination of talents to erect a church of a memorial nature like that at Valley Forge. The result is monumental, and the labor required is no less than colossal. The devoted man who here exercises his functions as a clergyman has given many years with his artis- tic advisers to the production of an edifice, in every stone and timber of which there is the feeling of ancient memories. ‘The windows are com- memorative of notable events and persons of the Revolution. Even the carvings in the choir stalls and other features of the edifice are especially designed to the same end. For a unified work it speaks at once of rever- ence, knowledge, patience, and good taste. There is scarcely anything in America that is comparable with this edifice and its contents. Our pic- ture, page 229, shows it in the spring, when only its outlines are visible through the limbs of the trees. An open cloister is well begun, each sec- tion of which is being undertaken by different parts of the Union. Long may the noble and sincere soul who has done this service to his country continue, so that if possible in his lifetime he may see a certain degree of completion. In the basement, perhaps we should say crypt, he has gath- ered also an immense number of articles in use during the ancient time, and characteristic mostly of Pennsylvania. They include not only such things as are usually found in museums, but many of a peculiarly valu- able character connected with the personalities or the spirit of patriotism of the past. ; Of course, in process of time it is the purpose to erect a separate mu- seum for the important collection. The spirit of pure unselfishness which has been manifested in this labor should certainly stimulate us all to assist in its purpose. BUCKS COUNTY 129 wv v on ete ee et, ae ne 4 Med rn sede a FEA ‘ over bee eats Lin Is Pca : A MONTGOMERY COUNTY HOMESTEAD BUCKS COUNTY S old, as finished, as pleasing as any of the counties in the state, Bucks, just north of Philadelphia, and on the route of all those who go to the Water Gap, to the Poconos, or to the north, demands a good deal of the traveler’s attention if he would get the spirit of Pennsylvania. At Doylestown, Dr. Mercer, the author of The Bible in Iron, has erected a monumentally solid fireproof museum to show the connection between the development of household arts and the invention of tools and implements. Dr. Mercer has given most generously of his years and otherwise to this great, and in many respects unique institution. It is his right, and perhaps his purpose, to deal with his collections in a scientific and literary manner, in order that the public may everywhere enjoy the fruits of his labors and studies. There are other collections in the neigh- borhood which, however, are not open to public use. In this neighbor- 130 PENNSYLVANIA BEAUTIFUL hood a careful study is being made by various persons, under the inspira- tion of Dr. Mercer, of the earliest Pennsylvania institutions, such as its forges, foundries, and ancient industries. Also the peculiar styles of architecture in this state are being carefully studied, and various persons have erected or restored dwellings in the best early taste. In fact, all about Philadelphia there has been a rather successful effort to idealize country life. The thoughts of the founders have been carried out as they would like to have carried them out had they possessed the leisure or the means. In an effort of this sort there has been too often, in other parts of the country, a grafting on of modern or individual notions to such an extent as to ruin the unity of development. About Philadelphia we find a more careful attention to bring things back as they were, or as the fathers meant to make them. Even when, as very often occurs, wealth, and a desire to entertain largely induces the erection of a dwelling larger than a farm house, the work is often as if it were an extension of such a farm house. To our thought this is the only proper course. Mixing the old and the new spoils each. The more rigorous, the more thoroughly correct we are, the greater the charm, and the more meritorious will be the result. In the dwelling itself, therefore, the spirit of the Pennsylvania home should first be conserved in the solidness of the stone wall, and in the use of flagging or brick in such rooms as the kitchen, the den, or any large home room where such construction would be historically proper. The heavy window frames should be insisted upon, and the deep embrasures of the splayed windows. Large fireplaces, open to their full extent and to some degree in use, must certainly form a part of the scheme. We were told recently of the purchase of a so-called colonial house which had no fireplaces whatever. Of course the house was either very much after the colonial time, or its fireplaces had been completely built up and hid- den, the more likely alternative. No bricks should ever be used where stone ever was used, or could be used. [Text continued on page 136.| Sika. 2 PPC kee bMS A FRIENDLY BROOK SHADOWS OF BUTTONWOODS—-WESB CHESTER ACCOMMODATING CURVES——-WEST CHESTER A-TUMULT OF WATERS—PARADISE VALLEY THE OLD DRIVE Written by Mitprep Hosss for picture on page 133 Into a wonder-road the old drive led, A road that beckoned youth to follow far, So bright the vision, and the goal so great. But when the race was won and time had sped The road led homeward to the open gate. And now to be returning After the years of yearning! The singing wheels, the sharp familiar turn, Leaving behind the road of dreams-afar, The boughs caressing as they did of yore, The quickened pulse, the unshed tears that burn At sight of Mother waiting at the door Where lilacs stoop to kiss her silvering hair And wave to us across the scented air. And so the long procession of the years — The litile children swinging on the gate, The sweethearts strolling on the moonlit grass Beneath the trees who shed their petal-tears For phantom friends as up and down they pass With dreams of restless roaming Or songs of homing. A long procession up and down the drive — The relatives and neighbors congregate For wedding feasts and times of death and birth, And dear-loved faces of the past arrive, The old drive, silent, sad, or loud with mirth. Oh, what a wealth of memories endears These petal-covered curves, deep-scarred with years! 135 136 PENNSYLVANIA BEAUTIFUL The ceilings of the type found in the middle Atlantic states in the early period are beautifully appropriate. They were in the form of thin, but deep floor timbers, which were smoothly dressed by plane, as well as the floors that were laid above them. The open ceiling of a New Eng- land house was of necessity somewhat crude, as the summer beam was often the only smooth portion. If the smaller floor timbers were smooth, the floor above never was. In the Brown house, already referred to, a perfectly clean ceiling is obtained. Sometimes the work seems to have been done in walnut, and sometimes in poplar or whitewood. We pre- sume pine was used on occasion, though it seems to have been rather rare. Ceilings of this sort are seen in old-world houses, though we have never seen here the corbels which are found abroad at the end of the floor timbers. The nearest approach to these corbels is the enlarged, splayed post familiar in seventeenth-century New England houses. We refer to a corbel some- what like the bracket previously mentioned as sustaining the door head on the Black Horse Tavern. preg The construction with long deep timbers, entirely spanning a room, was stronger than the summer beam type, and was less likely to sag in the middle. The habit of building in long cupboards in wood, in Pennsylvania, was a very practical device. We find it some times in long hallways. The cupboard thus formed a finish of the wall on the side of the room where it was located, for it extended the entire width and obviated an unpleasant break. We notice that the fireplaces in Pennsylvania were often open to a greater height than those found farther north. This also is a more faith- ful following of the tradition of the Old World. Some of the trammels which we possess could not have been used except in a very high fire- place, since they must have hung at least nine feet above the floor. One should remember that at first there was no crane. The treatment of the wall ought also, of course, to be in wood for partitions, and where feasible, even for the outer walls of stone a cover- QVAaLSHWOH VIHdAITAACVIIHd V 138 PENNSYLVANIA BEAUTIFUL ing of the simplest panel work could be provided. The styles of molding about the doors and on the doors themselves could be followed, except where, as in the quainter examples, solid doors were used. The stairway in Pennsylvania was not made as much of as commonly in New England, but wherever the genius of the locality will permit, it should be emphasized in its quainter or more beautiful aspects. Externally the water tables should be used, as in “ The Ancient Abandoned Farm House,” page 102. In a large dwelling this water table can be repeated between the first and second stories, as in examples already mentioned. As to the roof, we may be told that it was necessary to use shingles to keep the old feel- ing. But in a country so full of slate that even the fence posts are often of that material, it is obvious that a heavy slate, with roughly chipped edges, like the English Horsham slate, may be used, and thus make for fire protection. No dwelling of this sort is completely happy without flags at the back door and flag paths elsewhere, wherever the extent of the grounds or the means of the builder will permit. We have long felt the appropriateness of the name “flag” for these flat stones, which in England were often laid across marshes where the flags grew, or were placed upon the floor and were covered over with flags from the marshes. We have sought in vain, however, to find some connection between the name of the stone and the growing flag. ! It often happens that an old house is restored or a new one built in the old style without taking account of some of the best features of the old time. Thus the sentiment and the connection are lost, and a great part of the effort is in vain. The furniture, for instance, should agree quite perfectly with the type and the period of the house. Let no one think to toss this matter lightly aside by stating that there is no effort to have | the furniture in period. That is generally obvious enough, in fact too much so, without making such a statement. But it is not enough to deny an intention where an intention ought to have existed; nor is it enough to answer that people may follow their own tastes. ‘That also is too obvious, but it does not establish their social or aesthetic right to do so. When it SPRoEN G tUrR BULLE EN CE——P'OCONO POCONO PINE FALLS A SCRANTON CASCADE WATER PLAY—POCONO mrs | OF OF TWE-Y bAR=~MONRBOE oa ERE ¥ SPRING BROOK ROAD POCONO AN UNNAMED CASCADE SeeROLN-G Dita ——C MES TER Ase OME TNS? RENG DT MoE LAN CASTER Vary St ee ct E \ FENC BY THE 0 LIGHTS OF THE RIVER DOGWOOD, BAN KS——~CHES TER dVO UaLVM AAVMVITIAGC—AoOOWA dAGMOUS V ONOODOOd—NUOE NIVINOOW BUCKS COUNTY 147 is a fad to take up early architecture and decoration, those who are merely following fads always make the mistake of lacking thoroughness. The result is somewhat like that obtained in Japan and China, by the adoption of occidental costumes, on the part of women, who then dress the hair in the oriental style. Many an American lady, who would be shocked if every portion of her costume was not in perfect accord, in style and color, with every other portion, does not hesitate to throw together a tasteless jumble in her residence. It is like the nabobs of India bringing in a few occidental pieces of furniture. Particularly in the decorative arts, one should do all or none. A thing of this sort, half done, has an effect far worse than an original condition, however bad. It is true that there is no modern furniture, in the sense that any style has established itself, or is likely to do so. We have had neither the time nor the segregation, nor the art impulse, nor anything else, perhaps, re- quired to originate a harmonious and sensible style of household decora- tion. So many good men have preceded us, and have thought of so much that is good, that we are handicapped. We are also hindered by the lack of that seclusion which an artist requires in order to specialize. Perhaps we are naturally inartistic. Whatever the cause for present conditions, it is far safer to copy than to originate. It is less necessary, perhaps, to say these things in a book on Pennsylvania than it would be to say them in a book on the West. Yet these principles would not come amiss anywhere, and cannot be too often reiterated. It will be time enough to stop enunciating them when they begin to be heeded. There is a very powerful sentimental impulse to keep what our mothers had. But if those mothers, or their mothers, did not feel that impulse in sufficient strength - to keep what ¢heir mothers had, then we would do best to hark back to the great grandmothers, where at last we shall arrive at some dignity and har- mony and sense in style. | It is a good place here to point out some of the features in furnish- ings which were distinctive in the middle Atlantic states, and which usually go by the name “ Pennsylvanian.” 148 PENNSYLVANIA BEAUTIFUL The settle, with a paneled back and often with a hooded top, and with a fine ramp on the arm, is more frequently found in Pennsylvania than elsewhere. We have observed there also several instances of settle beds, two of them being in beautifully finished walnut. The seat swings outward and downward. Near the bottom thus disclosed there are bed rails which are made a part of the piece of furniture, and sustain a corded bed close to the floor. The rails are cut in two at the ends in order to fold with the seat. This is a very curious and important article in furni- ture. It is one more evidence that the devices which we call modern were useful in an early day, and in a form perhaps superior to our own. The cupboards found in Pennsylvania are interesting in their scalloped cornices, the scallop being under the molding and forming the upper part of the opening to the top shelf. The scrolled edge comes forward rapidly at the bottom of the side member which sustains the shelves, and forms a sort of foot to hold the upper section of the cupboard on the dresser. In the good specimens, the molding is of the eighteenth-century type. There is often a light rail between the shelves to prevent the dishes from falling forward. There is generally a series of slots on one shelf for a row of spoons. For illustrations, the reader is referred to the author’s Furniture of the Pilgrim Century. A variation of these cupboards was a smaller form suspended on the wall, with similar scrolls. It often ac- companied a cupboard of similar width, placed on the floor below, and with the top arranged for a wash-stand or a mixing bowl. The corner cupboards, with handsomely paneled doors, existed in great numbers. In fact, a good Pennsylvania house was supplied with such a great number and variety of cupboards as to make them an impressive feature. No doubt this peculiarity arose from the heavy stone construction of the house walls. A northern house would have had its cupboard built in, with doors matching the other doors of the dwelling, and with lath and plaster. We feel that the Pennsylvanian type was far superior. The cradles in use in Pennsylvania were often attractively scrolled, and with the hand hold in the shape of a heart or a shield at either end, and WVHONIMONG SASNOH ONILAIAW OAINaAIadad ene ee Sf — as) oS x d 3) G74 ohare) oi 150 PENNSYLVANIA BEAUTIFUL with a series of knobs on the outside, near the top, to which was buttoned the coverlet. The distinctive chair of Pennsylvania is the arched slat back, rising in the better instances to six, and, in rare examples, to seven slats. The chair is one of the most striking and attractive ever made. Furthermore, it is very comfortable. It was, in the original state, made with enlarged balls upon the front feet, though these have for the most part been sawed off. The tables sometimes belong to the library and at other times to the kitchen, with a large one piece top, and something like two by four feet in dimensions, often had an attractively scalloped frame, and were of heavy turning with stretchers. The knobs were always very large on the drawers, of which there were generally two or three of unequal length. The chests of Pennsylvania (page 287) were in the finest examples of walnut. We find them also in pine and poplar, but never, so far as we have observed, in oak. The feet ordinarily were in the form of brackets, and the better examples were paneled and often had inlaid initials. Some very handsome designs, together with others less handsome, were painted on chests. The tulip design predominates, the motive being either Dutch or derived from the Dutch by the Germans. So persistent has style and custom been in Pennsylvania that these chests, found as early as 1700, are also observed in nearly the same style as late as the Civil War. The walnut highboys of a plain kind are also characteristic of this state. The more ornate pieces of Savery and in the style of Savery are very much enriched by carving, and have bonnet tops with a cartouche and flames. These pieces, of course, belong to the richer houses, and the mahogany period, though walnut was used to a very late date on fine furniture in Pennsylvania. The wall decorations, aside from the conventional paintings, such as would be purchased by persons of wealth and taste, were samplers or old prints. We have not observed in the Pennsylvania Museum that much atten- B- M3, EN fot »>s SHOWER Q (a 4 ise < Tivf x£LNNOD V—TIIVM AHL AG UVAd AHL VIHdTHaAVIIHd UVAN—ANV1I AHL tire BROOK ROW-——CHESTER CHES TER CREST BLOSSOMS CH ES sie rak A BRANDYWINE CROSSING BAR READ UNG N AAS Eee Ee OeIViG is aS oder Wcokeas ba oe BUCKS COUNTY 155 tion has yet has been paid to the characteristic pieces of Pennsylvania, es- pecially the chests. No doubt this will be remedied in time. ~ It will be understood from the previous review that there was more harmony between the furniture and the wall in Pennsylvania than in north- ern dwellings. The color of the furniture and the wall blended happily. Out of doors, the shingles or the slate were almost harmonious with the stone in many cases, or were in agreeable shadings suggesting the same color scheme. The glassware made so famous by Stiegel and other makers is now sought after with the greatest avidity, so that little pieces which were prob- ably sold for a few cents are now held at many hundreds of dollars. Of course a Pennsylvania home which retains, or can retrieve a few of these pieces, feels itself especially fortunate, and glass of course puts the last touches to the decorations of a home. The slip ware, so common in Pennsylvania generations go, and so generally used, is quite ordinary pottery except for the strong local flavor imparted by the decorations. These are of the quaintest character, es- pecially the inscriptions. Shiny limousines may be seen here and there on the remote hill roads. Their owners are engaged in a thrilling, though often futile, effort at bargaining for some of the old slip ware. In the hill homes, however, where the traditions of family and the pride of architecture do not so often exist, it is often possible to effect an exchange satisfactory to both parties. The slip ware is now counterfeited. It occurs to us that several utensils used in Pennsylvania may, with interest, be mentioned. One is the large splayed bread tray with four splayed legs, a sharply localized institution. It indicated a large family and a wholesale baking. The water bench is another strictly local affair. It was a low shelf, often with cupboards below, and a board running up at each side in a scroll form, with a shelf above, and a drawer, the front of which, in some instances, is made on a curve corresponding with the scroll. These benches were long enough for two farm hands to lave themselves side by 156 PENNSYLVANIA BEAUTIFUL side. The drawer could be used for towels, one shelf for the basins and one shelf for the pails. The Windsor chair, which also seems to have originated in Pennsyl- vania, so far as America is concerned, and to have remained there in its quainter and heavier forms, is now becoming rare and an object of worth and desire. The utensils of iron within and without a Pennsylvania home were legion. In “An Ancient Kitchen,” page 70, is shown a West Chester fire- place, though unfortunately a small one. The more interesting features are the small portable charcoal stove, the trivets, the toasters, the sus- pended griddle, and the pewter. The bellows are seen hanging at the left, together with an adjustable ceiling light. Of course the firearms were always kept over the fireplace to keep the power dry. The fat lamp, called in New England a Betty lamp, immediately over the gun stock, was very much used in Pennsylvania. In the better forms it was made double, as here, so that the lower portion might catch the drip. This picture shows, on the left, one of the six-back chairs so attractively arched, to which we have already referred. We show in the later pages of this volume the end of a loom-stool (page 285) owned by Mr. William B. Montague of Norristown. It is attractively painted in a tulip design, and there is a stanza in German below the slits. The loom-stool was not found in New England so far as we know, but only a board which must be held between the knees or tied to a chair. In the loom-stool, so called, one end held the board here shown, and near the other end was a small windlass reel. These looms were used for weaving narrow goods, like tape and garters, and were sometimes called garter looms. They should not be confused with the huge affairs on which yard-wide goods were woven. An oddity peculiar to this region is also the buttonhole ‘cutter (page 24.5), a four-rayed example of which we show. The points of different widths were used to cut buttonholes of the sizes desired, by striking a hammer on the tool applied to the goods laid on a cutting board. The ate ae ee a aie, oo Be N- Ye WH ss Cie Or, a ra) We) © Ses Cathe AG Me gt = S by. aa “ rr \ id UN, NSARRN Beh: Ww sh \\ {oS ¥% Nee Nay = WEIN ed my ‘ R 4. oye & ta 5 OY Th. il WW AN ARTIST’S NOOK, NEAR NEW HOPE 158 PENNSYLVANIA BEAUTIFUL pointed ray or spoke was used for making eyelets for embroidery. The hammers also formed part of the buttonhole set, and were often wrought in quaint forms and used as gift pieces to sweethearts. This example is unique so far as we know, with the various spokes, each twisted. Another peculiarity was the double ended utensil with a fork and a cake turner (page 244). Our example shows the open heart in the shovel end. Sets of four or five pieces consisting of fork, flapjack turner, ladle and skimmer, were common. They were all hand-hammered, of soft gray iron. Occasionally, however, the bowl is in hammered copper. In the handle, in rare examples, as Mr. William B. Montague’s set, initials were inlaid in brass. The rolling pin, of the better type, had a double roll and a handle above, and was of walnut, decorated. It would stand alone. The long wooden ladle for the apple-butter was another picturesque utensil. In another volume we have shown at length the various applied hardware of a Pennsylvania dwelling. We take this occasion to refer to some of the quaint iron work used out of doors. The pump spout was sometimes supported by twisted and scrolled iron brackets. The immensely long and picturesque sickles for the grain were used up to a recent time. The goose and pig and calf yokes are most homelike in their appeal. Quaint hay cutters, pig catchers and short scythes help to form the complement of the farm tools. The wagon work in Pennsylvania was as characteristic and substantial as the other domestic manufactures. The sides of the wagons were often paneled. In the northern part of the state the wagon seat now used as a small settle was somewhat in evidence, though this quaint affair is com- moner in New York state. It is erroneously called a love seat, though no doubt many a young man and maid have found it, as they journeyed to town, a kind of courting seat. The time was marked, in the ancient day, by sun dials and sand glasses, though the stomach was often a sufficiently sure indicator of the noon hour, so much so, indeed, that one farmer used to say that he could tell BUCKS COUNTY 159 Of t e, “Wn te ia. : aD, U a. nee THE RIVER BANK, HONESDALE the time by his stomach within five minutes of correctness. So much for the regular habits of the Pennsylvanian! We show one or two examples of the remarkably good combination locks and latches of iron, which we have found in Pennsylvania (page 277 and page 193). The more elaborate of these somewhat resembles the still finer sort found in the Old World, especially German examples, from the region whence the Pennsylvania settlers came. The oddest feature about these latches is that the exterior handle was in the nature of a some- what cumbrous scroll, and was attached by a very short screw thread. When the family went to market or retired for the night, this was un- screwed and it was a notice to the public that privacy was desired. It an- swered the same purpose as the pulling in of the latch string in the cruder 160 PENNSYLVANIA BEAUTIFUL and earlier day. The appliance would be awkward in a modern pocket, but in the old days the larger this screw handle was, the less likely was it to be lost. Perhaps after the Saturday’s visitation to the inn, it was convenient to have a key that would jump up into one’s hand! We cannot leave this subject without noting a feature of decoration which has long delighted the writer, namely the carved or painted spoon rack, on which were displayed, in two of three rows, a dozen pewter spoons brilliant with polishing, while at the base of the contrivance there was often a drawer in which the knives and forks were stored (pages 257 and 265). All these racks seem to show a Dutch influence, and indeed we are able to trace the style to a particular province in Holland — Fries- land. They are therefore more common in New Jersey than in Pennsyl- vania, but one or two of these examples were found in the latter state. No more pleasing wall ornament could be devised for a living room. That always desirable feature, the combination of decoration and use in one article is found in the spoon rack. There are instances in Pennsylvania where the entire wall is decorated with stencils or scrolls on the plaster. LOOKING GLASSES HE Pennsylvania Museum, in a recent bulletin, has shown a score or so of interesting labels found on the backs of looking glasses made by John Elliott. He was born at Bolton, England, in 1713, emigrated to America in 1753, and died in 1791. His name and that of his son of the same name, and those of his grandsons John and Daniel, are affixed on the backs of many Pennsylvania looking glasses. Most of the advertise- ments show a bell and a looking glass, below which there is descriptive text. The advertisements cover the years 1758-1759, in the article re- ferred to. One in the Pennsylvania Journal, March 23, 1758, is as follows: z GX ~ yy, 4 Y), Ves AUN VW L, ai ie Uy oy AW) esp f; f Ss. NAG OK ¥ id is SN Bi pre SS EN So