The Great Bore
A Souvenir Of The Hoosac Tunnel

40 as if it lay in the hollow of a large hand. It is amus- ing to see all the distributed property of the aristoc- racy and commonalty, the various and conflicting interests of the town, the lovesand hates, compressed into a space which the eye takes in as completely as the arrangement of a tea-table. The hills about the village appear very high and steep sometimes, when the shadows of the clouds are thrown blackly upon them, while there is sunshine elsewhere. These hills, surrounding the town on all sides, give it a snug and isolated air; and, viewed from certain points, it would be difficult to tell how to get out, without climbing the mountain ridges.” North Adams has changed since the great roman- cer walked its streets, climbed its mountains and exchanged cordial greetings with its pioneers. Its grand scenery is the same, but the struggling little town of 1838 stretches out now beyond the level of the valleys upon the hill-sides; the mountains no longer even appear as a barrier to those who wish to come and go, and its various interests are so com- plete in themselves, so delicately adjusted with ref- erence to each other, that the friction of hate has given way to the smoothly running machinery of general good-will. It was a century before Hawthorne visited the village that the first earnest endeavor was made to