Canada -- Description and travel; United States -- Description and travel
enough food crops to feed them, so that food had to be bought, and the
capital was thus seriously drawn upon. In 1845 they had a prospect of
a generous yield at the harvest, when suddenly, on July 4th, a deadly
frost killed all their crops; and this ended the experimental colony.
In two days everybody had left the place, and Greeley was almost
heartbroken at the failure of his cherished plans. A mortgage on the
farm was foreclosed and the land sold to strangers. A Monroe County
farmer, who had invested $1800 in the enterprise and lost it, became
so angry at the collapse that he went to New York, as he said, "to
give Horace Greeley a Monroe County Democrat's opinion of him." He
found the great editor at work in the _Tribune_ office, and began
berating him. Greeley, as soon as a chance was given, asked his
visitor how much he had lost by the failure. He replied, "Eighteen
hundred dollars;" when, without further parley, Greeley drew a check
for the amount and handed it to him. The farmer was so astonished and
impressed by this most unexpected action that he immediately became,
as he afterwards stated, "a Greeley Whig," and remained one all his
life.
ASCENDING THE LACKAWAXEN.
At Glen Eyre, the Blooming Grove Creek flows merrily into the
Lackawaxen, coming out from Blooming Grove Township to the southward,
an elevated wooded plateau in the interior of Pike, which is the
common heading ground for numerous streams radiating in every
direction, and containing a score of attractive lakes. This region is
a wilderness where deer, bears and other wild animals roam, while the
streams are noted angling resorts. In it are the two famous "Knobs,"
the highest elevations of the whole Pocono range, the southern or
"High Knob" rising two thousand and ten feet, out-topping the
Kittatinny "High Point." This "Knob" stands like a pyramid, at least
five hundred feet above all the surrounding country, excepting its
neighbor, the "North Knob," which is only one hundred feet lower.
These are the northeastern outposts of the Pocono range. Upon the top
of the "High Knob" is a large boulder of white conglomerate, dropped
by the ice in the glacial period, and this summit gives the most
extensive view in Pennsylvania, over dark, fir-covered ridges in every
direction, interspersed with lakelets glistening in the sunlight.
There is not a house to be seen, and scarcely a clearing, but all
around is one vast wilderness. The greater part of this region is the
estate of the "Blooming Grove Park Association," covering thirteen
thousand acres, surrounded by a high fence, and stocked with game and
fish, there being over $300,000 invested in the enterprise. Here elk
and deer are bred, there are abundant hares and rabbits, and also
woodcock, grouse and snipe shooting. The spacious club-house is
elevated high above the rocky shores of Lake Giles, a most beautiful
circular sheet of clear spring water, fourteen hundred feet above
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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