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."