"If i had 4 fust rate dogs i would name the hest ov them 'Douhtfull,' and all the other 3 'Useless.'"
"Don't keep but one dog; no one but a pauper kan afford to keep three."
"There is no man so poor but what he kan afford to keep 1 dog, —and i hav seen them so poor that they could afford to keep 3."
Certain it is, at all events, that on a motion of the representative from Lanesborongh, the Massachusetts Legislature enacted that the proceeds of the dog tax should be used for the support of public libraries. The Berkshire town reaped so large a harvest from this measure that it is now said to possess a public library larger in proportion to its size than Boston itself.
Among the influential men sent out from Lanesborough were sturdy old Governor Briggs and Henry Shaw, the father of the humorist, whose high character and mental powers won him the election to Congress a few months before he had reached the required age. At Washington his influence was greatly felt, and Daniel Webster counted him among his warmest friends. Descendants of William Bradford also made their home in Lanesborough, and on the old Bradford farm near Lake Quota, still an object of interest, Josh Billings found his bride. Mrs. Shaw, the widow of the humorist, is the seventh in direct descent from the great Plymouth governor.
With the coming of the railroads to the surrounding towns which were more conveniently located for railroad purposes, Lanesborough lost its prestige. It is now little more than a farming community, with its two or three little brick churches, its tiny post office and town hall, and its simple homes clustered about the long main road which leads to Pittsfield. Its trading life is centred in the single country store, which further serves in the evening as a rendezvous for the discussion of weighty village matters. A few summer visitors are attracted to the place by its picturesque scenery and rustic quiet, or come to look curiously at the huge white boulders left by the glaciers ages ago, one of which is a remarkable freak of nature. An immense rock of many tons' weight is balanced on the point of another rock so nicely that once the touch of a hand might sway it. This delicate balance was destroyed some years ago by a party of experimenters, who made wanton use of dynamite; but the rock is still one of the famous sights of the region.
No one can spend a day in Lanesborough without learning something
Pontoosuc Lake.