The Gentleman from Indiana - Page 2/212

Only one street attained to the dignity of a name--Main Street, which

formed the north side of the Square. In Carlow County, descriptive

location is usually accomplished by designating the adjacent, as, "Up at

Bardlocks'," "Down by Schofields'," "Right where Hibbards live," "Acrost

from Sol. Tibbs's," or, "Other side of Jones's field." In winter, Main

Street was a series of frozen gorges land hummocks; in fall and spring, a

river of mud; in summer, a continuing dust heap; it was the best street in

Plattville.

The people lived happily; and, while the world whirled on outside, they

were content with their own. It would have moved their surprise as much as

their indignation to hear themselves spoken of as a "secluded community";

for they sat up all night to hear the vote of New York, every campaign.

Once when the President visited Rouen, seventy miles away, there were only

few bankrupts (and not a baby amongst them) left in the deserted homes of

Carlow County. Everybody had adventures; almost everybody saw the great

man; and everybody was glad to get back home again. It was the longest

journey some of them ever set upon, and these, elated as they were over

their travels, determined to think twice ere they went that far from home

another time.

On Saturdays, the farmers enlivened the commercial atmosphere of

Plattville; and Miss Tibbs, the postmaster's sister and clerk, used to

make a point of walking up and down Main Street as often as possible, to

get a thrill in the realization of some poetical expressions that haunted

her pleasingly; phrases she had employed frequently in her poems for the

"Carlow County Herald." When thirty or forty country people were scattered

along the sidewalks in front of the stores on Main Street, she would walk

at nicely calculated angles to the different groups so as to leave as few

gaps as possible between the figures, making them appear as near a solid

phalanx as she could. Then she would murmur to herself, with the accent of

soulful revel, "The thronged city streets," and, "Within the thronged

city," or, "Where the thronging crowds were swarming and the great

cathedral rose." Although she had never been beyond Carlow and the

bordering counties in her life, all her poems were of city streets and

bustling multitudes. She was one of those who had been unable to join the

excursion to Rouen when the President was there; but she had listened

avidly to her friends' descriptions of the crowds. Before that time her

muse had been sylvan, speaking of "Flow'rs of May," and hinting at

thoughts that overcame her when she roved the woodlands thro'; but now the

inspiration was become decidedly municipal and urban, evidently reluctant

to depart beyond the retail portions of a metropolis. Her verses

beginning, "O, my native city, bride of Hibbard's winding stream,"--

Hibbard's Creek runs west of Plattville, except in time of drought--"When

thy myriad lights are shining, and thy faces, like a dream, Go flitting

down thy sidewalks when their daily toil is done," were pronounced, at the

time of their publication, the best poem that had ever appeared in the

"Herald."