HOLYOKE AND THE HADLEY FALLS. 129 now was mainly the product of the late war, when it ran day and night during four years, and at times employed over three thousand men. It made nearly eight hundred thousand rifles for the Union armies. The arsenal, a large building on the western side of the quadrangle, has been thus described by Longfellow : "This is the arsenal. From floor to ceiling, Like a huge organ, rise the burnished arms; "Ah! what a sound will rise-how wild and dreary !— What loud lament and dismal Miserere Will mingle with their awful symphonies!" From the arsenal tower a fine view is had over the busy town, with the smoke from its factory chimneys and the roar of its many moving railway-trains, and far away the rich farms of its bordering meadows and the hills enclosing them studded with villas and hamlets. HOLYOKE AND THE HADLEY FALLS. At Springfield and Holyoke, not far away, are made three-fourths of the fine papers manufactured in the United States. The valley of the Connecticut north of Springfield is another hive of industry, repeated in town after town, whose mills are located amid some of the finest scenery in New England. Winding among the hills in wayward fashion, the river receives its tributaries, and all the water-courses teem with factories. From the eastern hills the Chicopee flows in, the falls making an admirable water-power that turns many wheels, giving employment to a population of thirteen thousand, chiefly workers in cotton and wool, brass and bronze. Just above, in the Connecticut River, are the Hadley Falls, the greatest water-power of New England and the creator of the town of Holyoke. In a distance of little over a mile the river descends in falls and rapids for sixty feet, and by a system of canals the water is led for three miles along the banks, serving paper-mills and other factories. There are twentysix paper-mills, employing more than four thousand people, and these, producing the finest qualities, are at the same time the most extensive paper-makers in the world. There are also other factories. A better situation could not have been devised for this industrious town of over thirty thousand people, whose manufacturing abilities are multiplied by the advantage of having the river wind around them on three sides. Yet they use even more power than the water gives, judging by the belching smoke from the tall chimney-stacks. Thus for miles along this picturesque valley are the beauties of Nature combined with the strongest practical demonstration of human industry. Approaching Holyoke, the railway on which we are travelling crosses the river directly into the centre of the hive, and then, one after another, spans the network of canals leading the water to the mill-wheels, and at frequent intervals displaying their foaming outfalls. The great descent that is available enables the water to be used over and over again. The main fall in the river has a descent of thirty feet, and to prevent erosion is covered with an inclined apron of stout timbers sheathed with boiler iron and spiked securely to the rock-ledges beneath. Down this smooth surface the surplus waters gracefully glide. The stratified layers of rock protrude in great masses below the fall, while above the character of the scene is quickly changed by a huge boom set across the river for catching logs, of which millions are thrown into the upper waters of the Connecticut. THE LAND OF NONOTUCK. We advance above Holyoke into scenery growing ever more charming. The hills have come nearer the river and THE LAND OF NONOTUCK. 131 abruptly rise into the dignity of mountains. The river winds about their bases, and after flowing to the westward along the foot of a ridge it abruptly turns, and, passing between the great peaks, winds about the ridge to the eastward. The first is the Mount Tom range, and the other Mount Holyoke, having between them the Connecticut, which passes out through the notch from the extensive valley above. Within the gorge the stratified rocks thrust up their long thin edges in diagonal dip where the water has worn them away, and the scarred faces of the bordering cliff show that the passage had been rent in some remote age by a mighty convulsion of nature. Above this gorge a vast alluvial plain stretches across the broad valley, and far away to the northward ridge after ridge crosses the country as the distant hills gradually rise into higher elevations beyond Massachusetts. This is the fertile land of Nonotuck, which was bought from its Indian owners in 1653 for "one hundred fathoms of wampum and ten coats." Here is built Northampton, one of the most beautiful villages of the Connecticut Valley. The fairest fields surround it, with thrifty farmers cultivating their rich bottomlands, and the splendid outlook these people have in front of their doors is the glorious panorama of the noble heights. of Holyoke and Nonotuck in the Mount Tom range, with the river flowing away between them. Solomon Stoddart was the sturdy Puritan pastor who ruled the flock at Nonotuck for fifty-six years, the village being surrounded for protection by a palisade and wall. The little church in which he preached measured eighteen by twenty-six feet, and was built in 1655 at a cost of seventy dollars, the congregation being called to meeting armed and by the blasts of a trumpet: "Each man equipped on Sunday morn This renowned pastor was a man of majestic appearance, and as good a fighter as he was preacher. He never hesitated to lead his people in their Indian wars, and once he rode into an ambush, but the awestruck savages, impressed by his noble bearing, hesitated to shoot him, saying to their French allies, "That is the Englishmen's god." The present stone church is the fifth that has been built on the original site. During nearly a quarter century the noted Jonathan Edwards the greatest preacher and metaphysician of his time-was the Northampton pastor, but he was dismissed in 1750 because, owing to the growing laxity of the Church, he insisted upon "a higher and purer standard of admission to the communion-table." Even in lovely Northampton factories appear, as in the other towns along the romantic Connecticut. The level land of Nonotuck, stretching to the northward, raises much tobacco, for among the strange mutations of advancing time is that which makes the descendants of the framers of the savage "blue laws" against tobacco now get their livelihood by its cultivation. It is here a profitable crop usually, but the growers say its development is risky and uncertain, the sale being subject to the whim of the market, which, whenever there comes a good yield of Connecticut tobacco (a light leaf), is generally made by the dealers to prefer a dark leaf. The Connecticut River winds in wide, circular sweeps among the fields and meadows of this prolific valley, but seems to make little progress as it goes around great curves of miles in circuit. Upon an isthmus thus formed, with the huge loop of the river stretching far to the westward, stands "Old Hadley." The Connecticut has made a five-mile circuit to accomplish barely one mile of distance, and across the level isthmus from the river above to the river below, stretching through the village, is the noted "Hadley Street," the handsomest highway of New England in natural adornments. Over three hundred feet wide, this street is lined by two double MOUNT HOLYOKE. 133 rows of noble elms, with a broad expanse of greenest lawn between, and nearly a thousand ancient trees arching their graceful branches above it. This quiet street has a perfection of greensward, for it is almost untravelled. Its inhabitants grow tobacco and make brooms. Hadley was the final home and burying-place of Goffe and Whalley, the regicides, who fled here from New Haven. When their house was pulled down, it is said the bones of Whalley were found entombed just outside the cellar-wall. It was the house of the pastor, and they were concealed in it fifteen years, their presence being known to only three persons. It is said that once during their hiding Indians attacked the town, and after a sharp fight the people gave way, when there suddenly appeared" an ancient man, with hoary locks, of a most venerable and dignified aspect," who rallied them to a fresh onslaught and scattered the Indians in all directions. He then disappeared, and the inhabitants attributed their deliverance to "a militant angel." This was Goffe, and the tale is "Old Hadley's" chief legend. "Fighting Joe Hooker" was a native of Hadley, and he probably had his first day-dreams of war and battle under the magnificent elms of Old Hadley's famous street. XIX. MOUNT HOLYOKE. THE famous "Mount Holyoke Seminary" is the most noted institution of Central Massachusetts. This female collegiate school is at South Hadley, almost under the shadow of the mountain amid magnificent scenery, and has been in existence more than half a century. It has educated many missionary women for their labors in distant lands, and continues its successful career with a fame |