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diff --git a/13680-0.txt b/13680-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9eaaebd --- /dev/null +++ b/13680-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3329 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13680 *** + +[Illustration: G.H. Perkins] + + + + +THE BAY STATE MONTHLY + +_A MASSACHUSETTS MAGAZINE_. + +VOL. I. + +APRIL, 1884. + +NO. IV. + +Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1884, by John N. +McClintock and Company, in the office of the Librarian of Congress, at +Washington. + + * * * * * + +CAPTAIN GEORGE HAMILTON PERKINS, U.S.N. + +By CAPTAIN GEORGE E. BELKNAP, U.S.N. + + +In passing up the Concord and Claremont Railroad from Concord, the +observant traveler has doubtless noticed the substantial and +comfortable-looking homestead with large and trim front yard, shaded by +thickly planted and generous topped maples, on the right-hand side of +the road after crossing the bridge that spans + + "Contoocook's bright and brimming river," + +at the pleasant-looking village of Contoocookville in the northern part +of Hopkinton. + +There, under that inviting roof, the subject of this sketch, GEORGE +HAMILTON PERKINS, the eldest son in a family of eight children, was +born, October 20, 1836. + +His father, the Honorable Hamilton Eliot Perkins, inherited all the land +in that part of the town, and, in early life, in addition to +professional work as a counsellor-at-law and member of the Merrimack +County bar, built the mills at Contoocookville, and was, in fact, the +founder of the thriving settlement at that point. + +His paternal grandfather, Roger Eliot Perkins, came to Hopkinton from +the vicinity of Salem, Massachusetts, when a young man, and by his +energy, enterprise, and public spirit, soon impressed his individuality +upon the community, and became one of the leading citizens of the town. + +His mother was Miss Clara Bartlett George, daughter of the late John +George, Esquire, of Concord, whose ancestors were among the early +settlers of Watertown, Massachusetts. He is said to have been a man of +active temperament, prompt in business, stout in heart, bluff of speech, +honest in purpose, and never failing in any way those who had dealings +with him. + +As "the child is father of the man," so the boyhood and youth of Captain +Perkins gave earnest of those qualities which in his young manhood the +rude tests of the sea and the grim crises of war developed to the full. +"No matter" was his first plainly spoken phrase, a hint of childish +obstinacy that foreshadowed the persistence of maturer years. Among +other feats of his boyish daring, it is told that when a mere child, +hardly into his first trousers, he went one day to catch a colt in one +of his father's fields bordering on the Contoocook. The colt declined to +be caught and after a sharp scamper took to the river and swam across. +Nothing daunted, the plucky little urchin threw off his jacket, plunged +into the swift current, and safely breasting it, was soon in hot pursuit +on the other side; and after a long chase and hard tussle made out to +catch the spirited animal and bring him home in triumph. Always +passionately fond of animals and prematurely expert in all out-door +sports, he thus early began to master that noblest of beasts, the horse. + +When eight years old, his father removed with his family to Boston, and, +investing his means in shipping, engaged for a time in trade with the +west coast of Africa. The son was apt to run about the wharves with his +father, and the sight of the ships and contact with "Jack" doubtless +awoke the taste for the sea, that was to be gratified later on. + +Returning to the old homestead on the Contoocook after the lapse of two +years or more, the old, quiet, yet for young boyhood, frolicsome +out-door life was resumed, and the lad grew apace amid the rural scenes +and ample belongings of that generous home; not over studious, perhaps, +and chafing, as boys will, at the restraint imposed by the study of +daily lessons and their recital to his mother. + +At twelve years of age, he was sent to the Hopkinton Academy, and +afterwards to the academy at Gilmanton. While at Gilmanton, General +Charles H. Peaslee, then member of Congress from the Concord +congressional district, offered him the appointment of acting midshipman +to fill a vacancy at the Naval Academy, Annapolis, Maryland, which, +after some hesitation, his parents permitted him to accept, and he was +withdrawn from Gilmanton and sent to Concord to prepare for entrance at +Annapolis, under a private tutor. He remained under such pupilage until +the age of fifteen, when the beginning of the academic year, October, +1851, saw him installed in "Middy's" uniform at that institution, and +the business of life for him had begun in earnest. + +To a young and restless lad, used to being afield at all times and hours +with horse, dog, and gun, and fresh from a country home where the "pomp +and circumstance" of military life had had no other illustration than +occasional glimpses of the old "training and muster days" so dear to New +Hampshire boys forty years ago, the change to the restraint and +discipline; the inflexible routine and stern command; the bright +uniforms and novel ways; the sight of the ships and the use of a +vocabulary that ever smacks of the sea; the call by drum and trumpet to +every act of the day, from bed-rising, prayers, and breakfast, through +study, recitation, drill, and recreation hours, to tattoo and taps, when +every student is expected to be in bed,--was a transformation wonderful +indeed; but the flow of discipline and routine are so regular and +imperative that their currents are imperceptibly impressed upon the +youthful mind and soon become a part of his nature, as it were, +unawares. So we may conclude that our young aspirant for naval honors +proved no exception to the rule, and soon settled into these new grooves +of life as quietly as his ardent temperament would permit. + +The discipline at the Academy, in those days, was harsher and more +exacting, and the officers of the institution of a sterner and more +experienced sea-school, than now; and the three months' practice cruises +across the Atlantic, which the different classes made on alternate +summers, when the "young gentlemen" were trained to do all the work of +seamen, both alow and aloft, and lived on the old navy ration of salt +junk, pork and beans, and hardtack, with no extras, were anything but a +joke. The Academy, too, was in a transition state from the system in +vogue, up to 1850 inclusive, prior to which period the midshipmen went +to sea immediately after appointment, pretty much after the fashion of +Peter Simple and Jack Easy, and after a lapse of five years came to the +school for a year's cramming and coaching before graduating as passed +midshipmen. The last of such appointees was graduated in 1856, and the +sometime hinted contaminating influence of the "oldsters" upon the +"youngsters" was a thing to be known no more forever, albeit the hint of +contamination always seemed, to the writer, questionable, as, in his +experience, the habit and propensity of the youngsters for mischief +appeared to require neither promotion nor encouragement. Indeed, their +methods and ingenuity in evading rules and regulations and defying +discipline were as original as they were persevering, and could the +third-story room of the building occupied by the subject of this sketch +be given tongue, it would tell a tale of frolic and drollery that would +only find parallel in the inimitable pages of Marryatt. Convenient +apparatus for the stewing or roasting of oysters, poaching of eggs, or +the mixing of refreshing drinks, could be readily stowed away from the +inspecting officer, or a roast goose or turkey be smuggled by a trusty +darkey from some restaurant outside; and it was but the work of a moment +after taps to tack a blanket over the window, light the gas, and bring +out a dilapidated pack of cards for a game of California Jack or +draw-poker; or to convert the prim pine table into a billiard-table, +with marbles for balls, with which the ownership of many a collar, +neckerchief, shirt, and other articles of none too plentiful wardrobes, +were decided in a twinkling, while the air of the crowded room grew +thick and stifling from the smoke of the forbidden tobacco. One of the +company would keep a sharp lookout for the possible advent of the +sometimes rubber-shod passed midshipman doing police duty, and, if +necessary, danger signals would be made from the basement story, by +tapping on the steam-pipes, which signal would be repeated from room to +room, and from floor to floor, generally in ample time for the young +bacchanalians to disperse in safety. If, perchance, the revelers got +caught, they would stand up at the next evening's parade and hear the +offence and demerits accorded, read out in presence of the battalion, +with an easy _sang-froid_ that piqued the sea-worn experience of the +oldsters while they marveled. Let no one judge these lads too harshly, +for the day came, all too soon, when they were to stand up in face of +the enemy, and, with equally nonchalant but sterner courage, go into +battle in defence of the flag they were being trained to defend, many +winning undying honor and fame, some meeting untimely but heroic graves, +in "the war that kept the Union whole." + +Our midshipmite soon became a favorite with all, from the gruff old +superintendent down to the littlest new-comer at the school. His +bright, cheery, and genial disposition, and frank, hearty ways, were +very winning, and if, in his studies, he did not take leading rank, nor +become enraptured over analytics, calculus, and binomials, he was +esteemed a spirited, heartsome lad of good stock and promise, bred to +honorable purpose and aspiration, with seemingly marked aptitude for the +noble profession, which, more than any other, calls for a heroism that +never hesitates, a courage that never falters; for, aside from its +special work of upholding and defending the flag, and all it symbolizes, +on the high seas to the uttermost parts of the globe, "they that go down +to sea in ships" come closer to the manifestations of the unspeakable +might and majesty of Almighty Power than any other. The seaman, with but +a plank separating him from eternity, never knows at what moment he may +be called upon to put forth all the skill and resource, the unflinching +effort and sacrifice, that his calling ever, in emergency, unstintedly +requires. + + "Where'er the surge may sweep, the tempest's breath prevail, + He searches all its stormy deep, its dangers all unveil." + +Of medium height, slight and trim of figure, clear complexion and +piercing gray eyes of peculiar brilliancy, softened by a merry twinkle +betokening latent mischief, young Perkins was a youth fair and +interesting to look upon. He walked with quick, elastic step, carried +his head a little on one side, and had a habit, when anything struck his +fancy pleasantly, of shrugging his shoulders and rubbing his hands +together in a vigorous way, that seemed to declare in unmistakable terms +that he was glad all over! + +During one of the wonted summer cruises, he made himself somewhat famous +at great-gun practice, the details of which are given in one of his home +letters, as follows:-- + +"We had target practice one day, and it came my turn to shoot. There was +quite a swell on, which made it very difficult to get any kind of a +shot, but when I fired I hit the target, which was a barrel with a small +flag on it, set up about three quarters of a mile distant. Such a thing +as hitting a small target at sea, with the ship in motion, and a swell +on, is considered almost out of the question, so they all said it was +'luck.' But another target was put out, and I fired again and stove it +all to pieces. Then the crew all cheered, and made quite a hero of me. +Still some said it must be luck, and another target was put out in +exactly the same manner. This one I did not quite hit, but the shot fell +so near, that all gave it up it was _not_ luck, and that I was a +first-rate shot with broadside guns." + +After such demonstration, it is not strange that he was looked upon as +having a very correct eye for distances, and was ever afterward called +upon to fire whenever experiments were wanted. Naval gunnery, be it +remarked in passing, is quite a different matter from army practice: in +the former, with its platform never at rest, it is like shooting a bird +on the wing, when distance and motion must be accurately gauged and +allowed for; in the latter, from its gun on a fixed platform, it is but +a question of measurement from the object, by means of instruments if +need be, and of good pointing. The seaman stands immediately in rear of +the gun, with eye along the sight directing its train, now right, now +left, now well, and with taut lock-string in hand in readiness to pull +the moment the object is on, and on the alert to jump clear of the +recoil. The soldier handles his piece with greater deliberation, sights +it leisurely on its immovable platform, and, if mounted _en barbette_, +retires behind a traverse before firing. + +Graduating in June, 1856, the now full-fledged Midshipman Perkins could +look back upon his five years' probationary experience with many +pleasant recollections, though doubtless thanking his stars that his +pupilage was over. + +During his time there had been two superintendents at the academy. The +first was Captain C.K. Stribling, a fine seaman of the old school, of +rigid Presbyterian stock, stern, grim, and precise, with curt manners, +sharp and incisive voice that seemed to know no softening, and whose +methods of duty and conception of discipline smacked of the "true blue" +ideal of the Covenanters of old in their enforcement of obedience and +conservation of morals. The second was Captain L.M. Goldsborough, a man +of stalwart height and proportions and a presence that ennobled command; +learned and accomplished, yet gruff and overwhelming in speech and +brusque and impatient in manner, but possessing, withal, a kindly +nature, and a keen sense of humor that took in a joke enjoyably, however +practical; and a sympathetic discrimination that often led him to +condone moral offences at which some of the straight-laced professors +stood aghast. His responses at church-service resounded like the growl +of a bear, and when reprimanding the assembled midshipmen, drawn up in +battalion, for some grave breach of discipline, he would stride up and +down the line with the tread of an elephant, and expound the Articles of +War in stentorian tones that equaled the roar of a bull! But if, +perchance, in the awesome precincts of his office, he afterwards got +hold of a piece of doggerel some witty midshipman had written +descriptive of such a scene, none would enjoy it more than he! + +After an enjoyment of a three months' leave of absence at home. +Midshipman Perkins was ordered to join the sloop-of-war Cyane, Captain +Robb. That ship was one of the home squadron, and in November, 1856, +sailed for Aspinwall, to give protection to our citizens, mails, and +freight, in the transit across the Isthmus of Panama to California, back +and forth. At that period safe and rapid transit in that region of riots +and revolution was much more important than now,--the Pacific Railroad +existing only in the brains of a few sagacious men,--and the maintenance +of the thoroughfare across the pestilential isthmus was a national +necessity. For years our naval force on either side had had frequent +occasion to land expeditions to protect the life and property of our +citizens, and a frightful massacre of passengers had but lately occurred +at the hands of a mongrel mob at Panama. The situation was critical, and +for a time it looked as though the United States would be obliged to +seize and hold that part of Colombian territory. But time wore on +without outbreak on the part of the fiery freemen of that so-called +republic, the continued presence of ships, both at Panama and Aspinwall, +doubtless convincing them of the folly of further attempts to molest the +hated Yankees. + +Meanwhile the notorious Walker had been making a filibustering raid in +Central America, which ended in failure, and the Cyane went over to +Greytown to bring the sick and wounded of his deluded followers to +Aspinwall for passage to New York. Some hundred and twenty officers and +men found in the hands of the Costa Ricans were taken on board, most of +them in a deplorable condition. Some died before weighing anchor for +Aspinwall, and as midshipmen have no definable duties except to obey +orders, whatever they may be, Midshipman Perkins was sent in a boat one +day to take a chaplain's part in the burial of one of the victims. "When +we got out to sea," he wrote, "I read some prayers over him, and then he +was thrown over the side, the sailors saying 'God bless you!' as the +body sunk." This sad duty made him feel solemn and reflective, but more +than likely as not he was called upon immediately on arrival on board, +as "master's mate of the spirit-room," to attend the serving out of grog +to the ship's company! Extremes meet on board a man-of-war, and the +times for moralizing are short and scant. + +So time sped, Midshipman Perkins performing his multifarious duties with +alacrity and approval, and having some perilous adventures by flood and +field in pursuit of wild game, until July, 1857, when the monotony of +the cruise was broken by a trip to the banks of Newfoundland for the +protection of our fishing interests, and including visits at Boston, St. +John's, and Halifax. + +The people of the Provinces were very hospitable, and the contrast +between the dusky damsels of the isthmus and the ruddy-cheeked belles of +St. John's and Halifax was brightening in the extreme; and young +Perkins, ever gallant in his intercourse with the sex, and a good +dancer, found much favor with the Provincial beauties, and doubtless +made up for past deprivations, in the alluring contact with their +charms. + +Returning southward in the fall, the ship cruised among the West Indies, +visiting, among other ports, Cape Haytien, the old capital of the island +of Hayti, to inquire into the imprisonment of an American merchant +captain. This place, before the French Revolution, had been a city of +great magnificence and beauty--the Paris of the Isles; and the old +French nobility, possessing enormous landed estates and large numbers of +slaves, lived in a state of almost fabled grandeur and luxury; but negro +rule, the removal of the seat of government to Port-au-Prince, and the +great earthquake of 1842, have destroyed all but a semblance of its +former glory and importance. + +Among other sights visited by the officers was the old home of Count +Cristoff, a castle of great size and strength, built on one of the +highest hills, some twelve miles back of the town. It was told of the +old Count that he used every year to bury large sums of money from his +revenues, and then shoot the slave who did the work, that the secret of +the spot might be known only to himself. + +In January, 1858, Midshipman Perkins was detached from the Cyane, and he +bade adieu forever to her dark, cramped-up, tallow-candle lighted +steerage, baggy hammock, and hard fare, where the occasional dessert to +a salt dinner had been dried apples, mixed with bread and flavored with +whiskey! There were no eleven-o'clock breakfasts for midshipmen in those +days, and canned meats, condensed milk, preserved fruits, and other +luxuries now common on shipboard, were almost unknown. + +A few brief days at home and orders came to join the storeship Release, +which vessel after a three months' cruise in the Mediterranean returned +to New York to fill up with stores and provisions for the Paraguay +expedition. That expedition had for its object the chastisement of the +Dictator Lopez for certain dastardly acts committed against our flag on +the River Parana. + +Owing to the paucity of officers, so many being absent on other foreign +service, Midshipman Perkins was appointed acting sailing-master, a very +responsible position for so young an officer, which, with the added +comforts of a stateroom and well-ordered table in the wardroom, was +almost royal in its contrast with the duty, the darksome steerage, and +hard fare on board the Cyane. It would be difficult to make a landsman +take in the scope of the change implied, but let him in imagination +start across the continent in an old-fashioned, cramped-up stage-coach, +full of passengers, with such coarse fare as could be picked up from day +to day, and return in a Pullman car with well-stocked larder and +restaurant attached, and he will get a glimmering as to the difference +between steerage and wardroom life on board a man-of-war. + +The Release was somewhat of a tub, and what with light and contrary +winds and calms took sixty-two days to reach the rendezvous, Montevideo, +arriving there in January, 1858. She found the whole fleet at anchor +there, and officers and men soon forgot the weariness of the long +passage in the receipt of letters from home, and in the joyous meetings +with old friends. All admired the fine climate, and, as that part of +South America is the greatest country in the world for horses, the young +sailing-master rejoiced in the opportunity offered to indulge in his +favorite pastime of riding. He also showed his prowess as a devotee of +the chase in the fine sport afforded on the pampas that enabled him to +run down and shoot a South American tiger. + +Meanwhile Commodore Shubrick, in command of the expedition, had +completed his preparations for ascending the Parana, and the fleet soon +moved up to a convenient point, the Commodore himself continuing on up +the river in a small vessel to Corrientes to meet Lopez and convey to +him the ultimatum of the United States. After some "backing and +filling," as an old salt would characterize diplomacy, Lopez concluded +"discretion to be the better part of valor," and making a satisfactory +_amende_, the Paraguayan war came to a bloodless end, and the hopes of +expectant heroes with visions of promotion dissolved like summer clouds. + +Young Perkins was now, August, 1858, transferred to the frigate Sabine +for passage home to his examination for the grade of passed midshipman. +Passing that ordeal satisfactorily, aided by handsome commendatory +letters from his commanding officers, he spent three happy months at +home, and then received orders for duty on board the steamer Sumter, as +acting master, the destination of that vessel being the west coast of +Africa, where, in accordance with the provisions of Article 8 of the +Webster-Ashburton treaty (1842), the United States maintained a +squadron, carrying not less than eighty guns, in co-operation with the +British government, for the suppression of the slave trade. That article +continued in active observance nineteen years, when the United States, +having a little question of slavery to settle at home, gave the +stipulated preliminary notice and recalled the ships. + +The Sumter arrived on the coast in October, 1859, making her first +anchorage in the lovely harbor on the west side of Prince's Island. That +island, in about 1° 30' north latitude, covered with all the luxuriance +of tropical growth and verdure, and broken into every conceivable shape +of pinnacle, castellated rock and chasm, and frowning precipice, +streaked with silvery threads of leaping streams in their dash to the +sea, is indeed one of the most enchanting spots the eye ever rested on. +The chief inhabitant of the lovely isle was Madame Ferrara, a woman of +French extraction, who lived alone in a big, rambling house, surrounded +by slaves, who cultivated her plantations and prepared the cocoa, palm +oil, yams, and cocoanuts, for the trade that sought her doors. + +Filling up with water, the Sumter proceeded to the island of Fernando +Po, a Spanish possession close in to the mainland, in the Bight of +Biafra, where she met several English and French men-of-war, and +received orders for her future movements. + +The first thing to do, in accordance with the custom of the squadron, +was the enlisting of fifteen or twenty negroes, known as Kroomen, whose +home is in the Kroo country in upper Guinea, just south of Liberia. They +did all the heavy boat-work of the ship, thus lightening the work of the +crew, and saving them as much as possible from exposure to the effects +of the deadly climate. Great, strapping, muscular fellows, many of them, +with forms that an Apollo might envy, they were trained from infancy to +be as much at home in the water as upon the land, and could swim a dozen +leagues at sea or pull at the oar all day long without seeming fatigue. +Wonderfully expert in their handling of boats, especially in the heavy +surf that rolls in upon the coast with ceaseless volume and resistless +power, its perilous line almost unbroken by a good harbor, from the Cape +of Good Hope to the Straits of Gibraltar, their services in +communicating with the shore were simply invaluable. The head Kroomen +exercised despotic power over their respective gangs, and the men were +given fanciful names, and so entered on the purser's books. +Bottle-o'-Beer, Jack Frying-Pan, Tom Bobstay, Upside Down, and the like, +were favorite names; and our fun-loving young sailing-master hints, in +his letters of the time, that the archives of the fourth auditor's +office at Washington may possibly embalm the names of certain Annapolis +belles that had been borne by some of these sable folk! + +The cruising ground embraced the coasts of Upper and Lower Guinea, and +the coast of Biafra, with occasional visits of recruit and recreation to +Cape Town and St. Helena. The work was arduous, monotonous, and +exhausting, especially during the rainy season, when the decks were +continually deluged with water, and dry clothing was the exception, not +the rule. The weather was always hot, often damp and sultry, and the +atmosphere on shore so pestilential, that no one was permitted to remain +there after sundown. But that rule was no deprivation, as the dangers of +the passage through the relentless breakers, alive with sharks, were so +great, that few cared to visit the shore except when absolutely +necessary. The vessels cruised mostly in sight of the coast to watch the +movements of the merchantmen, all more or less under suspicion as +slavers, watching their chances to get off with a cargo. On one hand +was the rounded horizon dipping into the broad Atlantic; on the other, +the angry line of rollers with their thunderous roar, backed by white +beach and dense forest, with occasional glimpses of blue hills in the +distant interior. This and nothing more, from day to day, save when a +small village of thatched huts came into view, adding a scant feature to +the landscape; or a solitary canoe outside the line of breakers; or +strange sail to seaward; or school of porpoises, leaping and blowing, +windward bound; or hungry shark prowling round the ship, lent momentary +interest to the watery solitude. It was a privilege to fall in with +another cruiser, whether of our own or of the English flag. On such +occasions, down would go the boats for the exchange of visits, the +comparison of notes, and sometimes the discussion of a dinner. The +English officers had numerous captures and handsome sums of prize-money +to tell of, while our people, as a rule, could only talk of hopes and +possibilities. Our laws regulating captures were as inflexible as the +Westminster Catechism, and a captain could not detain a vessel without +great risk of civil damages, unless slaves were actually on board. +Suspected ships might have all the fittings and infamous equipage for +the slave traffic on board, but if their masters produced correct papers +the vessels could not be touched; and our officers not infrequently had +the mortification of learning that ships they had overhauled, and +believed to be slavers, but could not seize under their instructions, +got off the coast eventually with large cargoes of ebon humanity on +board. + +Not so with the English commanders, whose instructions enabled them to +take and send to their prize-courts all vessels, except those under the +American flag, under the slightest showing of nefarious character; and +their hauls of prize-money were rich and frequent. + +The intercourse with the English officers, notes Master Perkins, at +first cordial and agreeable, became, after a few months, cold and +indifferent. Her Majesty's officers no longer cared to show politeness +or friendly feeling. The first premonitions of the Rebellion in the John +Brown raid, the break-up of the democracy at Charleston, and the +violence of the Southern press concerning the probable results of the +pending presidential election, convincing them that the long-predicted +and wished-for day--the breaking up of the Republic--was nigh at hand, +and their real feelings as Englishmen cropped out but too plainly; but +of this, more anon. + +Despite the perils of the surf, the dangers of the inhospitable climate, +and the unfriendly character of some of the savage tribes to be met +with, the adventurous spirit and dauntless courage of Master Perkins was +not to be balked. Volunteering for every duty, no matter how dangerous, +hardly a boat ever left the ship that he was not in it. The life of the +mess through his unfailing good humor and exuberant flow of spirits, he +was the soul of every expedition, whether of service or pleasure; and +before the cruise of some twenty-two months was up, he came to know +almost every prominent tribe, chief, and king on the coast. Now dining +with a king off the strangest of viands; now holding "palaver" with +another; now spending a day with a chief and his numerous wives; now +visiting a French barracoon, where, under a fiction of law, the victims +were collected to be shipped as unwilling apprentices, not slaves, to be +returned to their native wilds, _if they lived long enough_; now +ascending a river dangerous for boats, where, if the boat had capsized, +himself and crew would but have served a morning's meal to the hungry +sharks held as fetich by the natives along the stream, who yearly +sacrifice young girls reared for the purpose to their propitiation; now +scouring the bush in pursuit of the gorilla or shooting hippopotami by +the half-dozen, and other adventures and exploits wherein duty, +excitement, and gratified curiosity were intermingled with danger and +hairbreadth escape that few would care to tempt. + +On one occasion, he volunteered to go with a boat's crew and find the +mouth of the Settee River, not dreaming of landing through the unusually +heavy surf. "But," said he, "in pulling along about half a mile from +shore, a roller struck the boat and capsized it. Of course we were +obliged to swim for shore; in fact, we had little to do with it, for the +moment the boat was upset we were driven into the surf, and not one of +us thought we should ever reach the shore, for if we were not lost in +the surf, the sharks would eat us up. As I rose on the top of a wave I +could look ahead and see the stretch of wild, tossing surf, which it +seemed impossible for any one to live in; but when I looked back I could +count all my men striking out, which was very encouraging, as I feared +one or two might be under the boat. I thought for a moment of you all at +home, and wondered if mother would not feel a little frightened if she +knew how strong the chances were against her son's receiving any more +letters from home. Just then a roller struck me and carried me down so +deep I was caught by the undertow and carried toward the sea, instead of +the land. When I came to the surface I tried to look out for the next +roller, but it was no use; the first one half-drowned me, and the next +kept me down so long that when I rose I was in the wildest of the surf, +which tumbled and rolled me about in a way I did not like at all. My +eyes, nose, and mouth were full of sand, and, in fact, I thought my time +had come. Just then I looked on shore, and saw two of my men dragging +some one from the water, and at that sight I struck out with one +despairing kick, and managed to get near enough for two of the men to +reach me; but that was all I knew of the affair until a little after +sunset, when I became conscious of the fact that I was being well +shaken, and I heard one of the men say, 'Cheer up, Mr. Perkins! Your +boat and all the men are on shore.' This was such good news that I did +not much mind the uncomfortable position in which I found myself. I was +covered with sand and stretched across a log about two feet high, my +head on one side and my feet on the other. The men had worked a long +while to bring me to. Three of the men were half-drowned and one +injured. We managed to get the boat in the river, but suffered awfully +from thirst. The next morning we lost our way, and, after pulling around +till mid-afternoon, we stumbled on some natives fishing. We followed +them home, but found them such a miserable, bad-looking lot of negroes +that we expected trouble. Knowing that the native villages in the +daytime are left in charge of the old men and women, and not knowing +what might happen when the men came back, we killed some chickens, and, +with some sweet potatoes, made quite a meal. The strongest of us, myself +and three others, got ready for a fight, while the rest manned the boat +ready for our retreat. Shortly after this the chief came back, and about +a hundred men with him. I told the chief I had come to pay him a visit, +and we had a great palaver; but he would not give us anything to eat, +and we made up our minds that it was a dangerous neighborhood; so we +moved down on a sand-spit in sight of the ship, and there we stayed +three days and nights. We built a tent and fortification, traded off +most of our clothes for something to eat, and slept unpleasantly near +several hundred yelling savages. All this while the ship could render no +assistance; but on the third day the Kroomen came on shore with some +oars, and, after trying all one day, we managed, just at night, to get +through the surf and back to the ship. It was a happy time for us, and I +may say for all on board, as they had been very anxious about us. Not +far north of this, if you happen to get cast ashore, they kill and eat +you at once, for cannibalism is by no means extinct among the negroes." + +The sequel of this perilous experience was that all of them were +stricken down with the dread African fever which, if it does not at all +times kill, but too often shatters the constitution beyond remedy; and +the fact that five officers, including one commanding officer, and a +proportionate number of men, had been invalided home, and another +commanding officer had died, all due to climatic causes, attests the +general unhealthfulness of the coast. Other interesting incidents and +narrow escapes, in which Master Perkins had part, might be told, did not +lack of space forbid; but enough has been shown to impress the fact that +African cruising, even in a well-found man-of-war, is not altogether the +work and pleasure of a holiday; yet, in looking over young Perkins's +letters, we cannot forbear this description of the expertness of the +Kroomen in landing through the surf. + +"When the boat shoves off from the ship, the Kroomen, entirely naked +with exception of breech-clout, strike up a song, and pulling grandly to +its rhythmic time, soon reach the edge of the surf, and lie on their +oars. All eyes are now cast seaward, looking for a big roller, on the +top of which we shall be carried on shore, and there is a general +feeling of excitement. In a short time, the looked-for roller comes; the +Kroomen spring to their oars with a shout, the natives on shore yell +with all their might, the boat shoots forward on top of the wave at +incredible speed, the surf thunders like the roar of a battery, and +altogether it seems as if the world had come to an end and all those +fellows in the infernal regions were let loose. Now we must trust to +luck wholly; there is no retreat and no help, for the boat is beyond the +power of any human management, and go on shore you must, either in the +boat or under it. The moment the boat strikes the beach, the Kroomen +jump overboard, and you spring on the back of one of them, and he runs +with you up on the beach out of the way of the next roller, which +immediately follows, breaking over the boat, often upsetting it and +always wetting everything inside. If you have escaped without a good +soaking, you may consider yourself a lucky fellow." + +In the midst of this work came the startling news of the portentous +events at home. The infrequent mails began to bring the angry +mutterings, the fateful tidings, that preluded the Rebellion. Every +fresh arrival but added to the excitement and increased the bewilderment +that had so unexpectedly come upon the squadron; for, far removed from +the scene, and not daily witnesses of the overt acts of the maddened +South, they had mostly believed that the threatened conflict would be +tided over, and the government be enabled to continue on in its wonted +peaceful course. Now a wall, as of fire, rose up between the officers; +every mess in every ship was divided against itself; brothers-in-arms of +yesterday were enemies of to-day; and no one spoke of the outlook at +home except in bated breath and measured speech, from fear that the +bitter cup would overflow then and there, and water turn to blood. Many +Southern officers sent in their resignations at once, and all, both from +North and South, were anxious to get home to do their part on one side +or the other. + +"For some time past," wrote Master Perkins, "the foreigners here have +shown us but little respect, and seem to regard us as a broken power; +and this has been very provoking, for in my opinion it will be a long +time before any power can afford to despise the United States." And he +notes the fact that no more money could be had,--that the credit of the +government was gone! Ah! how happy the day to loyal but wearied hearts +on that inhospitable shore, when the news came of the President's call +for seventy-five thousand men, giving assurance that we still had a +government, and meant to preserve it through the valor, the blood, the +treasure of the nation, if need be! + +After unaccountable and vexatious delay, the Sumter received orders, +July, 1861, to proceed to New York; meanwhile she had captured the slave +brig Falmouth, a welcome finale to the cruise, and what with the +officers transferred to her and the resignations that had taken place, +Mr. Perkins now became executive officer, a fine position at that day +for one of his years. + +Making the homeward run in thirty-six days, the officers and men +dispersed to their homes for a brief respite before entering upon the +stern duties that awaited them, and Mr. Perkins had the satisfaction of +receiving his commission as master. + +Recruiting his shattered health for a short time at his welcoming home, +he was ordered as executive officer of the Cayuga, one of the so-called +ninety-day gunboats, carrying a battery of one eleven-inch Dahlgren gun, +a twenty pounder Parrott rifle, and two twenty-four pounder howitzers, +and commanded by Lieutenant-Commanding N.B. Harrison, a loyal Virginian, +who had wavered never a moment as to his duty when his State threw down +the gauntlet of rebellion. + +The exigencies of the war had soon exhausted the lists of regular +officers and the few thousand seamen that had been trained in the +service, and large drafts of officers and men were made upon the +merchant marine as well as big hauls of green landsmen who had never +dreamt of salt water; and First Lieutenant Perkins, as the only regular +officer on board except the captain, soon found himself an exceeding +busy man in organizing, disciplining, drilling, and shaping into place +and routine, some ninety officers and men, all equally new to man-of-war +life and methods, and requiring the necessary time and instruction to +fit them for their new duties. A fair soldier may be made in three +months--a good seaman not in three years. + +The vessel was ordered to join Farragut's fleet in the Gulf, but, with +the usual delays incident to new ships, did not get off from New York +until the first week in March, arriving at Ship Island on the +thirty-first, by way of Key West, and having made a prize on the way. As +the young executive had been promoted to a lieutenancy on the eve of +departure from New York his visions of prize-money were doubtless +proportionately enhanced by the capture! + +[Illustration: THE CAYUGA.] + +The next day she sailed for the mouth of the Mississippi, where, and at +the head of the passes, the rest of the fleet was assembled, and +Flag-Officer Farragut busily engaged in completing the preparations for +the attack on New Orleans. + +The fleet consisted of four heavy sloops-of-war of the Hartford class; +three corvettes of the Iroquois class; nine gunboats of the Cayuga +class, and the large side-wheel steamer Mississippi, carrying in the +aggregate one hundred and fifty-four guns, principally of nine-inch and +eleven-inch calibre; but as the large ships carried their batteries +mostly in broadside, the actual number that could be brought to bear, +under the most favorable conditions, on every given point, would be cut +down to the neighborhood of ninety guns. + +Supporting this force as auxiliary to it, for the bombardment of Forts +Jackson and St. Philip, was Porter's mortar fleet of twenty schooners, +each mounting a thirteen-inch mortar, and a flotilla of five side-wheel +steamers, and the gunboat Owasco, carrying, in all, thirty guns. + +[Illustration: Map of the Mississippi River Showing Forts Jackson and +St. Philip + +From the U.S. Coast Survey. Surveyed in 1870 by John N. McClintock.] + +The forts in question, forming the principal defences of New Orleans, +were heavy casemated works with traverses on top for barbette guns, some +ninety miles below the city at a point where the river makes a sharp +bend to the southeast. Fort St. Philip, on the left bank, mounted +forty-two guns, and Fort Jackson, including its water battery, had +sixty-seven guns in position, all of calibre from the long twenty-four +pounder to the heavy ten-inch Columbiad, and including several six-inch +and seven-inch rifles. + +Stretching across the river from bank to bank to bar the channel, nearly +opposite Fort Jackson and exposed to the perpendicular fire of St. +Philip, were heavy ship's chains, supported and buoyed by hulks, rafts, +and logs, and half a dozen large schooners. The rebels had also +established some works on the banks of the river about four miles from +town, known as the McGehee and Chalmette batteries, the latter being +located at the point ever memorable in American history as the scene of +General Jackson's overwhelming defeat of the British in 1815. + +Their reliance afloat was in the Louisiana, an ironclad, carrying nine +rifles and seven smooth bores of heavy calibre; the ram Manassas, one +gun; the McRae, seven guns; the Moore and Quitman with two guns each; +six river steamers with their stems shod with iron to act as rams, and +several iron-protected tugs. + +Assembling the fleet at the head of the passes, after much difficulty in +getting the heavy ships over the bar, Farragut ordered the ships to +strip like athletes for battle. Down came mast and spar till nothing was +left standing but lower masts,--and even those were taken out of some of +the gunboats,--and soon everything best out of reach of shot was landed, +leaving clear decks, and no top hamper to be cut away by the enemy's +projectiles, and come tumbling down about the heads of guns' crews. + +About this time the English and French men-of-war that had lain before +New Orleans, giving aid and comfort to the enemy and making merry in +singing rebel songs on board, especially on board the English vessels, +left the river, their officers declaring it an impossibility for the +fleet to pass the forts and obstructions. + +In this connection, it may be mentioned that the cruisers of John Bull +prowled along the coast during the entire war, with sometimes permission +to enter the blockaded ports, conveying information and lending +encouragement to the enemy, and rejoicing at every disaster that befell +the Union arms, which, together with the tacit connivance of the British +government in letting out the Alabama, and other hostile acts, ought to +be treasured against Great Britain so long as the Republic endures. + +On the sixteenth of April, Farragut moved up to a point just below the +forts, and on the eighteenth, having established the vessels of the +mortar fleet at distances ranging from twenty-nine hundred and fifty +yards to four thousand yards, from Jackson, and partially hidden by +trees on one side the river, and disguised with bushes on the other, +opened the bombardment, which was kept up with little interruption for +six days and nights; the corvettes and gunboats taking part by turns in +running up, delivering their fire, and dropping down with the current +out of range again. The forts replied vigorously, and every night the +enemy sent down fire-rafts, but to little purpose. + +Meanwhile, under cover of the night and the fire of the fleet, +Fleet-Captain Bell, and Lieutenants-Commanding Crosby and Caldwell of +the gunboats Pinola and Itasca, had succeeded in forcing a channel +through the obstructions, a piece of duty that had required the most +robust and dauntless courage, and in which Caldwell--a son of +Massachusetts--shone pre-eminent by the coolness of his methods and +thoroughness of his work. And now, on the night of the twenty-third, +after a last examination by Caldwell in a twelve-oared boat, all was +pronounced clear, and the fleet was to weigh at two o'clock in the +morning. + +The fleet was formed in three divisions, the first comprising the +Hartford, flagship, the Brooklyn, and Richmond; the second composed of +eight vessels with the divisional flag of Captain Bailey on board the +Cayuga; and the third of six vessels, with Fleet-Captain Bell's flag +flying from the Sciota; but was ordered to pass through the obstructions +in one column or single line ahead, the Cayuga leading. Farragut had +intended to lead himself, but at Bailey's urgent request yielded that +honor to him. + +The letters of Lieutenant Perkins, ever glowing with ardor for the good +cause, were, at this time, full of patriotic fervor and aspiration, and +when he said: "I hope the Cayuga will go down before she ever gives up, +and 'I guess' she will," he certainly meant it! And the supreme moment +had now come for him to inform this hope by valorous deeds, and all +unfalteringly did he walk in the blazing light of heroism that none but +the brave may dare to tread. + +The signal to weigh was promptly made at two o'clock, A.M., but work at +night is always behind, and it was half-past three o'clock before the +little Cayuga, leading the line, pressed gallantly through the +obstructions at full speed, eager for the fray, closely followed by the +heavy Pensacola, and ship after ship in the order assigned; but lack of +space forbids a general description of the battle, and we propose to do +hardly more than to follow the fortunes of the Cayuga. + +Lieutenant-Commanding Harrison had paid his executive the high +compliment of allowing him to pilot the vessel, and Perkins took +position in the eyes of her, on the topgallant forecastle, while +Lieutenant-Commanding Harrison and Captain Bailey stood aft, near the +wheel, and all the men except the helmsmen were made to lie flat on the +deck until the time came for them to serve the battery. Prone on the +deck at Perkins's feet, and with his head close down over the bow, was +the captain of the forecastle, to watch the channel and give timely +warning of anything barring the way that might escape the wider-ranging +eye of the intrepid young pilot; and as the Cayuga pressed on, receiving +the first shock of the outburst from the forts, what finer subject for +the painter, than that lithe young figure standing up in bold and +unflinching relief, at the extreme bow of the ship, peering ahead in the +morning starlight to pilot her safely on her way, amid the blinding +flame and screaming bolts, the hurtle of shot and crash of shell, the +explosion and deafening roar of a hundred shotted guns, as the vessel +steamed into the jaws of death, leading the fleet into one of the most +momentous and memorable conflicts in naval annals. Nor should cool and +phlegmatic Harrison nor grand old Bailey be overlooked, as the constant +flashes of the thick exploding shells revealed them standing, calm and +grim, at their posts, in readiness to direct the movements of vessel and +column, and engage the foe, ashore and afloat; nor the impatient +officers and crew, who eagerly waited the order to spring to their guns +and make reply to the withering fire pouring in upon them as yet +unavenged. + +"Noticing," said Perkins, "that the enemy's guns were all aimed for +midstream, I steered right close under the walls of St. Philip, and +although our masts and rigging were badly shot through, the hull was +hardly damaged. After passing the last battery, I looked back for some +of our vessels, and my heart jumped into my mouth, when I found I could +not see a single one. I thought they must all have been sunk by the +forts. Looking ahead, I saw eleven of the enemy's gunboats coming down, +upon us, and I supposed we were _gone_. Three made a dash to board us, +but a charge from our eleven-inch settled one, the Governor Moore. The +ram Manassas just missed us astern, and we soon disposed of the other. +Just then, some of our gunboats came to the assistance of the Cayuga, +and all sorts of things happened; it was the wildest excitement all +round. The Varuna fired a broadside into us instead of the enemy. +Another attacked one of our prizes; three had struck to us before any of +our ships came up, but when they did come up we all pitched in and sunk +eleven vessels in about twenty minutes." + +The brief encounter with the Moore had been very exciting. The vessels +were alongside each other, and both were reloading,--the guns muzzle to +muzzle, and but a few feet apart. The gun that could fire first would +decide the fate of one or the other. Perkins sprang down, and, taking +personal charge of the smoking eleven-inch, put fresh vigor into its +loading, and firing the instant the rammer was withdrawn, swept the +Moore's gun from its carriage, and killed or disabled thirteen of its +crew. + +The Cayuga still leading the way up the river came upon a regiment at +daylight encamped close to the bank, and Perkins, as the mouthpiece of +the captain, hailed them and ordered them to come on board and deliver +up their arms or he would "blow them to pieces." + +It proved to be the Chalmette regiment, and, surrendering, the officers +and men were paroled and the former allowed to retain their side-arms, +"except," said Perkins, "one captain, whom I discovered was from New +Hampshire. I took his sword away from him and have kept it!" + +Now Farragut came up in the Hartford and signalled the fleet to anchor. +This was near Quarantine, some five miles above the forts. All the +vessels had succeeded in running the gauntlet of their fire except three +gunboats, and New Orleans was now practically at the mercy of the fleet; +but the Varuna had been rammed and sunk in the hot fight with the +enemy's flotilla just above St. Philip. + +The Cayuga had received forty-two hits in mast and hull, and six men had +been wounded. + +The hurricane of projectiles had passed mostly too high to do mortal +harm to her crew, due in part to the skilful manner in which Perkins had +sheered in toward the bank from midstream so early in the fight. + +Resting until the next morning to care for the dead and wounded, and the +repair of damages, the fleet again weighed, the Cayuga still in advance; +and when the spires of the city hove in sight from her deck, "three +rousing cheers and a tiger" went up from her gallant crew. But the +plucky little gunboat was getting ahead too fast, for arriving close +abreast the Chalmette battery, which seemed to be deserted, she suddenly +received a fire that compelled a halt. Over-matched five to one, and +having been struck fourteen times, with shot and shells dropping thick +and fast about her, she slowed and dropped back a little with the +current, until the Hartford and Brooklyn coming up quickly silenced the +enemy with their heavy broadsides, while the Pensacola cared for the +hostile works on the opposite bank in like manner. The fleet then kept +on without further obstruction, and arrived and anchored off the city +about noon; finding the levee along its entire length aflame with +burning cotton, coal, ships, steamboats, and other property the +infuriated enemy had devoted to destruction. + +The loss to the fleet in this daring and brilliant feat had been +thirty-seven killed and one hundred and thirty-seven wounded. + +It is needless to say that Lieutenant Perkins not only received high +commendation from Captain Bailey and Lieutenant-Commanding Harrison, but +won the praise and admiration of all on board and in the fleet, by the +coolness and intrepidity shown by him in every emergency of the fight +and passage up the river. + +The first tidings received in Washington foreshadowing the success of +the attack was through rebel telegrams announcing, "one of the enemy's +gunboats"--the Cayuga--"above the forts." Some question subsequently +arose between Bailey and Farragut as to the Cayuga's position in the +passage, which in the diagrams accompanying the official reports +contradicted the text, putting the Cayuga third instead of first in the +van. Farragut cheerfully made the correction. + +Soon after anchoring, Bailey was ordered to go on shore and demand the +unconditional surrender of the city, and he asked Lieutenant Perkins to +accompany him. This duty was almost as dangerous and conspicuous as the +passage of the forts had been, for an infuriated and insolent mob +followed them from the landing to the mayor's office, and while there +with the mayor and General Lovell, besieged the doors, demanding the +"Yankee officers" to be given up to them to be hung. The demonstration +at last became so threatening, that the mayor drew off the attention of +the mob by a speech to them in front of the building, while the Union +officers took a close carriage in its rear and driving rapidly down to +their boat, reached the ship in safety. + +Bailey had managed to hoist the flag over the mint, which a party of +rebels tore down the next day, but the authorities refused to surrender +the city or to haul down the insignia of rebellion. Then ensued a +correspondence which, to read at this day, makes the blood boil at rebel +insolence, and the wonder grow at Farragut's forbearance; but on the +twenty-ninth of April, he sent Fleet-Captain Bell on shore with two +howitzers manned by sailors and a battalion of two hundred and fifty +marines and took possession of the city. Meanwhile the forts had +surrendered to Porter of the mortar fleet, and General Butler, arriving +on the first of May, relieved Farragut of further responsibility as to +the city. + +[Illustration: GOING ASHORE TO DEMAND THE SURRENDER OF NEW ORLEANS.] + +The Cayuga had been so badly cut up by shot and shell that she was +selected to take Captain Bailey north as bearer of dispatches, and +landing him at Fortress Monroe, proceeded on to New York to be +refitted. This enabled Lieutenant Perkins to make a short visit to +Concord, where his father, now become judge of probate of Merrimack +County, had removed, and both himself and the family received many +congratulations, personal and written, at the brilliant record he had +made in the recent memorable operations on the Mississippi. + +Modest and unassuming, with a genial frankness of manner that told +pleasantly alike on quarter-deck or street, in family-circle or +drawing-room, he wore his honors in the quietest way possible, never +speaking of his own part in the brave deeds of the time, except when +pressed to do so, and then with a reticence all too provoking, from the +well-grounded suspicion that he kept back the pith of the real story of +personal participation he might tell without tinge of exaggeration or +boastfulness. + +Returning to the Cayuga he found a new commanding officer, +Lieutenant-Commanding D. McN. Fairfax, another loyal Virginian, who not +only stood faithful to the flag under all circumstances, but had, as the +officer from the San Jacinto, boarded the Trent and taken from her the +arch-conspirators, Mason and Slidell, suffering the contumely of rebel +womanhood in the reception accorded him by Mr. Commissioner Slidell's +daughter. + +Fairfax and Perkins had known each other on the coast of Africa, and it +was the meeting of old friends made doubly pleasant by the senior's +hearty appreciation of the laurels so gallantly won by the junior, and +self-congratulation in the promised comfort of retaining an executive of +so much energy, ability, and reputation. + +Rejoining Farragut's squadron, Perkins saw other gallant and varied +service in the Cayuga until November, 1862, when he was transferred to +the Pensacola, and the following month commissioned +lieutenant-commander, a new grade created by Congress to correspond with +that of major in the army. + +In June, 1863, General Banks, then besieging Port Hudson, sent word to +the now Rear-Admiral Farragut, that he must have more powder or give up +the siege, wherefore the Admiral ordered the gunboat New London on the +important service of powder transportation and convoy, and assigning +Perkins to the command until the officer ordered from the North by the +department should arrive. The enemy had possession at that time of some +three hundred miles of the river below Port Hudson, with batteries +established at various points and sharpshooters distributed along the +banks. + +Five times Perkins ran the fiery gauntlet successfully, but on the sixth +his vessel was disabled in a sharp fight at Whitehall's Point. One shot +from the enemy exploded the New London's boiler, and another disabled +her steam chest. In that critical condition, directly under the guns of +the hostile battery, and exposed to the fire of sharpshooters on the +bank, and deserted by his consort, the Winona, his position seemed +desperate almost beyond remedy; but fertile in expedients and daring to +rashness in their execution, he finally succeeded, after almost +incredible exertion and perilous personal adventure, in communicating +with the fleet below, and the vessel was saved. + +Now the commanding officer from the North having arrived, Perkins was +transferred to the command of the ninety-day gunboat Sciota, the best +command at that time, in the squadron, for an officer of his years, and +assigned to duty on the blockade off the coast of Texas. To one of his +social disposition and active temperament, the blockade, ever harassing +and monotonous, was, as he wrote, a "living death," adding that "we are +all talked out, and sometimes a week passes and I hardly speak more than +a necessary word." Venturing ashore several times on hunting excursions, +he at last came near being captured by the enemy, and held after that, +that "cabin'd confinement was preferable to a rebel prison," and so kept +on board. Once during that weary nine months, the tedium was broken by +the capture of a fat prize--a schooner loaded with cotton. Let us hope +that the prize-court and its attendant officials did not absorb too big +a share of the proceeds! + +[Illustration: THE CHICKASAW.] + +Relieved from that command late in May, 1864, with leave to proceed +home, he arrived at New Orleans in June, to find active preparations for +the Mobile fight going on, and though he had not been at home for two +years, he could not stand it to let slip so glorious an opportunity for +stirring service, and so volunteered to remain. Farragut, delighted at +such determination, quite different from the experience he had had with +some officers, assigned to Perkins a command above his rank--the +Chickasaw,--a double-turretted monitor, carrying four eleven-inch guns +and a crew of one hundred and forty-five men and twenty-five officers. +She had been built, together with the Winnebago, a sister vessel, at St. +Louis, by Mr. Joseph B. Eads, the eminent engineer, on plans of his own. +Of light draught and frame, and peculiar construction, some officers +distrusted her strength and sea-going qualities. The Chickasaw, too, +was not yet completed, the mechanics being still at work on her +machinery and fittings, and her crew, with exception of a half-dozen +men-of-war's-men, were river-men and landsmen, knowing nothing of +salt-water sailing or of naval discipline. But time pressed: every +moment was of priceless value; and Perkins, declining all social +invitations, set about with characteristic energy to prepare his ship +for the coming conflict. Nor did his work of preparation and drill +cease, either in the river or outside, until well into the night +preceding the eventful day in Mobile Bay that was to add another +brilliant page to the annals of the navy. + +On the twenty-eighth of July, he left New Orleans to join the fleet off +Mobile, and on the way down the river an episode occurred that came nigh +settling the fate of the Chickasaw without risk or chance of battle; for +on nearing the bar, Perkins left the pilot-house a moment to look after +some matters requiring attention outside. He had hardly reached the spot +he sought, when, turning round, he saw that the pilot had changed the +ship's course and was heading directly for a wreck close aboard, which +to strike would end the career of the Chickasaw then and there. +Springing back into the pilot-house, he seized the wheel and brought the +ship back on her course, then snatching a pistol from his belt, said to +the traitorous fellow: "You are here to take this ship over the bar, and +if she touches ground or anything else, I'll blow your d----d brains +out!" Pale with suppressed rage, and trembling with fear, the pilot +expostulated that "the bottom was lumpy, and the best pilot in the river +could not help touching at times." + +"No matter," rejoined Perkins, "if you love the Confederacy better than +your life, take your choice; but if you touch a single lump, I'll shoot +you!" Needless to say, no lumps were found, nor that the pilot made +haste to get out of such company the moment he was permitted to do so; +neither may we doubt that the recording angel traced, with lightest +hand, the strong language used by the nearly betrayed captain! + +The Chickasaw arrived off Mobile bar August 1, where all was expectancy +and preparation for the coming fight, a fight which perhaps had more in +it of dramatic interest than any other naval battle of the war. The +wooden ships pushing into the bay through the torpedo-strewn channel and +under the fierce storm of shot and shell from Fort Morgan, lashed +together in pairs for mutual support in case of disaster; the sudden and +tragic sinking of the Tecumseh by torpedo stroke, with the loss of the +heroic Craven and most of his brave officers and men; the halt of the +Brooklyn in mid-channel in face of that dire disaster, which, with the +threatened huddling of the ships together by the inward sweep of the +tide, portended swift discomfiture and possible defeat; the intuitive +perception and quick decision that literally enabled Farragut to take +the flood that led to fortune, in the instant ordering of the Hartford +to push ahead with his flag and assume the lead he had relinquished only +at the urgent request of the Brooklyn's commander; the restored order +and prompt following of the fleet, regardless of torpedoes, on the new +course blazed out by the eagle eye and emphatic tongue of the fearless +old admiral as he grappled with the emergency from the futtock-shrouds +of the flagship; the little boat putting off from the Metacomet, +suddenly lighted up by its saucy ensign, in the midst of the fiery chaos +and thunderous roar of battle, to save the few souls struggling in the +water from the ill-fated Tecumseh, calling forth admiration, alike from +friend and foe, at the intrepidity of its mission; the dash of the +enemy's powerful ram Tennessee, clad in heaviest armor, down the Union +line, endeavoring to strike each vessel in turn; the separation of the +coupled ships when beyond the reach of Morgan's guns, and the dash of +the gunboats led by Jouett, of the Metacomet, like hounds released from +the leash, at the enemy's flotilla; the reappearance of leviathan +Tennessee and the fierce tournament that ensued, with turtle-backed +Chickasaw following close under her stern with bulldog grip that knew no +release; the intrepid skill and desperate valor never surpassed, with +which the ram manoeuvred and withstood the hammering and ramming of the +wooden ships, the pounding and shattering of the ironclads, before she +yielded to the inevitable fate that awaited her,--all conspired to form +a scene of grand and dramatic circumstance almost without parallel in +naval warfare. + +The youngest officer in command on that day,--the fifth of August,--so +fateful to the fading fortunes of the Confederacy, so glorious to the +reascendant star of Union, no one contributed more to its glories and +success than Perkins of the Chickasaw; and in any other service under +the sun he would have received immediate promotion for what he did on +that day. Had he been an Englishman, the honors of knighthood would have +been conferred on him, as well as promotion, but as an American he still +waits adequate recognition for deeds as brave as they were conspicuous +and telling. + +Said Mr. Eads, the builder, when he heard the results of the battle and +the surpassing part of the Chickasaw in it: "I would walk fifty miles to +shake hands with the young man who commanded her!" And remembering the +disparagement that had been put on the vessel and her sister ship, the +Winnebago, his enthusiasm knew no bounds, and he took pains to gather +all the details of the Chickasaw's brilliant work. + +With the loss of the Tecumseh, the ironclad portion of the fleet was +reduced to the Manhattan, armed with two fifteen-inch guns, and the +Chickasaw and Winnebago of two eleven-inch guns each; but one of the +Manhattan's guns became disabled early in the action, by a bit of iron +lodging in the vent, and the Winnebago's turrets would not turn, so that +her guns could be pointed only by manoeuvring the vessel. But the +Chickasaw, owing to Perkins's foresight and hard work, was in perfect +condition, as illustrated in all her service on that eventful day, as +well as on all subsequent occasions, until the capitulation of Mobile +ended the drama of rebellion on the Southern seaboard. + +The wooden ships, stripped as at New Orleans for the stern work in hand, +numbered fourteen, and the number of guns carried by the fleet was one +hundred and fifty-five, throwing, by added facility of pivot and turret, +ninety-two hundred and eight pounds of metal in broadside, from which +thirteen hundred and twenty must be deducted through the early loss of +the Tecumseh and the disabled gun of the Manhattan. + +The enemy's defences consisted of Fort Morgan, commanding the channel +at Mobile Point, mounting seventy guns; Fort Gaines, on the eastern +point of Dauphin Island, some three miles northwest of Fort Morgan, +armed with thirty guns, and Fort Powell, about four miles from Gaines +northwest, at Grant's Pass, with four guns. + +Across the channel, which runs close to Morgan, several lines of +torpedoes were planted, and just beyond them to the northward of the +fort, in line abreast waiting their opportunity, was the rebel squadron, +comprising the Tennessee, flagship of Admiral Buchanan, and the gunboats +Morgan, Gaines, and Selma, carrying in the aggregate twenty-two +guns--eight rifles and fourteen smooth-bores. The Tennessee, the most +powerful ship that ever flew the Confederate flag, was two hundred and +nine feet in length, and forty-eight feet in width, with a heavy iron +spur projecting from the bow some two feet under water. Her sides +"tumbled home" at an angle of forty-five degrees and were clad in armor +of five and six inches thickness, over a structure of oak and pine of +twenty-five inches. Her guns, six heavy Brooke's rifles, were arranged, +by port and pivot, for an effective all-round fire, and her speed was +six knots. + +[Illustration: THE TENNESSEE.] + +All was ready for the attack on the evening of the fourth of August, and +at half-past five the next morning the signal was thrown out to weigh, +and fall into the order prescribed; the wooden ships in couples, and the +ironclads in line by themselves; the Tecumseh in the van and the +Chickasaw in rear, according to the rank of their commanding officers. + +At half-past six the fleet was across the bar and in order of battle. No +starlight or favoring clouds now, to partially mask its movements as at +the passage of Forts Jackson and St. Philip, but the joyous sunshine, +flooding land and sea with its brightness, and mirroring its revealing +gleams upon fort and ship and pennon, serving friend and foe alike +impartially. Alas! for the brave souls to whom that gracious morning +light was the last of earth, but we may hope they awoke in a light of +still more radiance and glory, and amid paeans of a joyous host, +choiring "Well done, thou good and faithful servants, that didst give +thy lives to God and country!" + +The soft south wind of that fair morn came like a benediction to the +fleet now sweeping on with the flood tide, and stillness like a sentient +presence, only disturbed by the sound of screw or paddle-wheel as they +turned ahead, hung over the ships till broken by the belching roar of +the Tecumseh's monster guns, as she threw two fifteen-inch shells into +Morgan--her first and last! And now, at seven, "by the chime," the +action became general, and the Tecumseh, having loaded with heaviest +charge and solid steel shot, steamed on ahead of the Brooklyn to attack +the Tennessee; but Craven, thinking he saw a movement on the part of the +ram to get out of the way, together with the seemingly too narrow space +between the fatal buoy and the shore for manoeuvre in case of need, gave +the order to starboard the helm, and head directly for the watchful +Tennessee, waiting with lock-strings in hand to salute the monitor as +she closed--gallant foeman worthy of her steel! So near and yet so far, +for hardly had the Tecumseh gone a length to the westward of the +sentinel buoy, than the fate, already outlined, overwhelmed her, and her +iron walls became coffin, shroud, and winding-sheet to Craven and most +of the brave souls with him, and all so suddenly that those who had seen +the disaster could hardly realize what had taken place. + +Ours is not the purpose to follow further the details of the fight, but +to go with Perkins in the Chickasaw and see things as he saw them on +that stirring day, as gathered from his letters and as fortified from +other sources. Of tireless energy and restless activity, and sternly +intent upon making the Chickasaw second to none in the grand work +demanded of the fleet, he imparted nerve and enthusiasm throughout the +vessel; now in the pilot-house, looking after the helmsman; then in the +forward turret, personally sighting the guns; anon on top of the turret, +taking in the surroundings. + +His fine spirit and high moral courage had characteristic illustration +when, the night before the fight, calling his officers into the cabin, +he thus addressed them: "Gentlemen, by this time to-morrow, the fate of +this fleet and of Mobile will be sealed. We have all a duty to perform +and a victory to win. I have sent for you to say, that not a drop of +wine, liquor, or beer, is to be drunk on board of this vessel from this +hour until the battle is over, and the victory won, or death has come to +us. It is my wish that every officer and man shall go into battle with a +clear head and strong nerves. I rely upon you to comply with this +requirement, confident that the Chickasaw and her crew can thus best +perform their whole duty." + +An officer, who held high position on board the flagship, writes: +"Perkins went into the fight in his shirt-sleeves and a straw hat, and +as he passed the Hartford, he was on top of the turret waving his hat +and dancing around with delight and excitement."--"The ironclads," said +Perkins, "were ordered to follow inside the fleet, between fleet and +fort. I had orders to be reserve force and remain with wooden vessels +after passing obstructions. Our course was between a certain buoy and +the shore. This passage was known to be free from torpedoes, and was +left for the blockade runners. All the vessels had orders to keep +between that buoy and the shore, but in other respects the ironclads had +separate orders from the wooden vessels. In the confusion resulting from +the destruction of the Tecumseh and the movements of the Brooklyn, the +monitors received _no_ orders and followed in the line of the other +vessels." Be it said in passing, that Perkins had no pilot, and at sight +of the Tecumseh's doom, one of the men in the pilot-house fainted, +leaving only Perkins and one man to steer the vessel until the vigorous +methods applied brought the man to, and freshened his pluck! The +pilot-house was abaft the forward turret, not on top, as in the case of +the Tecumseh class, and was entered through a trap-door which was kept +open during the fight, for the vessel being unfinished, there was no way +of opening it from inside when closed. + +"I pushed forward as rapidly as possible, but my ship anyway was +stationed last of the ironclads, as I was youngest in command. We fired +at the fort to keep down its fire till the wooden ships had passed. When +the Tennessee passed, it was on my port side; she then steamed toward +Fort Morgan. Some of our vessels anchored, others kept under weigh, and +when the Tennessee approached the fleet again, she was at once attacked +by the wooden vessels, but they made no impression upon her. An order +was now brought to the ironclads by Fleet-Surgeon Palmer for them to +attack the ram, but as they stood for her, she seemed again to move as +if retiring toward the fort, but the Chickasaw overtook her, and after a +short engagement, succeeded in forcing her to surrender, having shot +away her smoke-stack, destroyed her steering gear, and jammed her +afterparts so that her stern guns were rendered useless. As she could +not steer she drifted down the bay, head on, and I followed her close, +firing as fast as I could, my guns and turrets, in spite of the strain +upon them, continuing in perfect order. When Johnston came on the roof +of the Tennessee and showed the white flag as signal of surrender, no +vessel of the fleet was as near as a quarter of a mile, but the Ossipee +was approaching, and her captain was much older than myself. I was wet +with perspiration, begrimed with powder, and exhausted by long-continued +exertion. I drew back and allowed Captain Le Roy to receive the +surrender, though my first lieutenant, Hamilton, said to me at the time: +'Captain, you are making a mistake.'" + +Knowing full well that the Chickasaw's eleven-inch shot would not +penetrate the stout side-armor of the Tennessee, Perkins made for the +weakest part of the vessel--her stern, and hung there close aboard, +pouring solid shot of iron and steel into that vital part with the +accuracy of pistol-shooting, until the ram surrendered; then taking her +in tow, carried her near the flagship. He had fired fifty-two shots, +and, says the officer of the Hartford already quoted: "The guns of the +Chickasaw jammed the steering gear of the ram, also the port stopper of +the after port disabling the after gun, and a shot from the Chickasaw +broke Admiral Buchanan's leg." + +But said Commander Nicholson of the Manhattan, in his official report: +"Of the six fifteen-inch projectiles fired from this vessel at the rebel +ironclad Tennessee, I claim four as having struck, doing most of the +real injuries that she has sustained"; then enumerating the injuries +inflicted, which included most of those claimed for the Chickasaw. Upon +which claim put forth by the Manhattan, the writer ventures the opinion: +First, that four hits out of six shots was poor shooting for a monitor +at a target like the Tennessee, and suggestive of considerable distance +between the vessels; second, that eye-witnesses have affirmed that only +one of the Manhattan's shot took effect, a solid shot that struck the +ram on the port beam, crushing her armor and splintering the backing, +but not entering the casemate, though leaving a clean hole through; +third, that the effect of that one shot showed what the Manhattan might +have accomplished had she taken as favorable a position as that chosen +by the Chickasaw; fourth, that it is believed the report of a board of +survey confirmed the opinion as to that one shot; fifth, that, as +between the great difference of sound in the firing of the fifteen-inch +gun and an eleven-inch, and the greater destructive effect of the larger +projectiles which could not but be felt by those receiving it, the enemy +would best be likely to know from what source they sustained the most +vital damage; sixth, that the concurrent opinions of the day, as given +by press correspondents, eye-witnesses to the conflict, magazine +summaries, official reports, the praise of Perkins on every lip, the +talk of his promotion by distinguished officers, and the testimony of +the enemy themselves, including Admiral Buchanan and Captain Johnston, +all go to show that the surrender of the Tennessee was due more to the +dogged and unrelenting effort and skilful management of Perkins of the +Chickasaw than from any other cause. + +Asked the Tennessee's pilot of "Metacomet" Jouett: "Who commanded the +monitor that got under our stern?" adding, "D----n him! he stuck to us +like a leech; we could not get away from him. It was he who cut away the +steering gear, jammed the stern port shutters, and wounded Admiral +Buchanan." + +Said Captain Johnston, in the same vein: "If it had not been for that +d----d black hulk hanging on our stern we would have got along well +enough; she did us more damage than all the rest of the Federal fleet." + +"The praise of Commander Perkins," wrote a son of Concord, himself an +active participant in the fight, "on the superb management of his +command, and the most admirable and efficient working of his ship, was +upon the lips of all." + +Pages of similar commendation might be quoted, but what need multiply +testimony so direct and conclusive as to Perkins's gallantry and +achievement, questioned only in quarters where the discretion of silence +and suggestion of modesty had best been observed! + +It only remains to add, in this connection, that so long as the +Tennessee continued to flaunt her flag in face of the fleet, so long the +work of that glorious day was of naught; that her capture, due in +greatest part to the efforts of the Chickasaw, completed the work and +ensured, without embarrassment, the continued operations against Fort +Morgan and other defences in the bay. + +Perkins, not content with laurels already won, got under weigh after +dinner, and steamed up to Fort Powell, taking that work in rear. The +shots from the Chickasaw destroyed the water-tanks, and Captain Anderson +reported that, believing it to be impossible to drive the ironclad from +its position, and fearing that a shell from the Chickasaw would explode +the magazine, he decided to save his command and blow up the fort, which +was done that night at 10.30. In the afternoon, the Chickasaw had seized +a barge loaded with stores, from under the guns of Fort Powell, and +towed it to the fleet. + +The next afternoon, the ever-ready and alert Chickasaw, under her +indefatigable commander, went down to Fort Gaines and shelled that work +until dusk with such telling effect, that, coupled with the fact that +the landforce under General Granger, investing its rear, was now ready +to open fire in conjunction with the fleet, the rebel commander +capitulated the next morning. + +Morgan was now the only remaining work of the outer line of Mobile's +defences to be "possessed and occupied," and General Granger, after +throwing a sufficient garrison into Gaines, transferred his army and +siege-train to the other side of the bay, and landing at Navy Cove, some +four miles from Morgan, began its investment. + +While this was going on, the Chickasaw was not idle, but continually +using her guns at one point and another, with occasional exchanges of +shotted compliments with the rams and batteries across the obstructions +in Dog River, forming the inner line of defence of the city, some four +miles distant. + +On the twenty-second of August, the approaches having been completed, +the land and naval forces opened a terrific fire on devoted Morgan, and +continued it throughout the day with such effect that General Page, +commanding the garrison, struck his colors and surrendered the next day. + +The Chickasaw was as conspicuous in the bombardment as she had been in +all her work since entering the bay. It was not in Perkins's temperament +to be otherwise, and said an eye-witness at the time: "It was a glorious +sight to see the gallant Perkins in the Chickasaw, nearly all the +morning almost touching the wharf, and pouring in his terrible missiles, +two at a time, making bricks and mortar fly in all directions, then +moving ahead or astern a little to get a fresh place. He stayed there +till nearly noon, when he hauled off to cool his guns and give his men +some refreshment. In the afternoon, he took his ship in again, and +turret after turret was emptied at the poor fort." + +Perkins sent home the flag that had flown over the fort during the +bombardment he obtained it in this wise: "The sailors from this ship," +said he, "hauled down the flag, and one of them seized it and hid it in +his bosom; there was not much left of it; it was riddled and torn. He +brought it to me, declaring that no one had a right to it but the +captain of the Chickasaw. I hardly knew what to do about it, but the man +seemed so earnest I could not refuse to take it from him." + +The bay was now sealed to blockade runners, and Mobile, measured as to +its commercial importance to the Confederacy, might as well have been +located among the mountains of northern Alabama as on the Gulf; and +owing to strategic reasons, operations for its immediate reduction came +to a halt. But on the twenty-seventh of March, 1865, the land and naval +forces began a joint movement against the defences surrounding the city, +and on the twelfth of April the Union forces were in full possession. In +these last operations, which cost the loss of two light draught +ironclads, a gunboat, and several other smaller vessels by torpedoes, we +may know that the Chickasaw was never in the background. + +In July, Perkins was relieved from the command and ordered home. He had +volunteered for the Mobile fight but had been detained on board the +Chickasaw nearly thirteen months. + +On his arrival home, he was overwhelmed with congratulations upon his +gallantry and achievements in Mobile Bay; but his friends felt indignant +that no promotion had followed them, believing that at least the thirty +numbers authorized by statute, "for eminent and conspicuous conduct in +battle," could not be reasonably denied him. But he would not work +personally toward that end, nor pull political wires to attain it. With +him, the promotion must come unasked or not at all. It never came, and +others disputed, with unblushing effrontery, the laurels he had won. Not +only that, but he has seen, as well as others, those who did the least +service during the war, given recognition and place over those who "bore +the heat and burden of the day," during those four years so momentous in +the annals of the Republic. + +The following winter he was stationed at New Orleans, in charge of +ironclads, and in May, 1866, was ordered as executive officer of the +Lackawanna, for a cruise of three years in the North Pacific. The +"piping times of peace" had come, and officers who had had important +commands, now had to take a step back to the regular duties of their +grade. Returning from the Pacific in the early spring of 1869, he was +ordered to the Boston Navy Yard on ordnance duty, and in March, 1871, +received his commission as commander. Two months later, he was selected +to command the storeship Relief, to carry provisions to the suffering +French of the Franco-German war. On his return, after a lapse of six +months, he resumed his duties at the Boston yard, until appointed +lighthouse inspector of the Boston district, which position he held +until January, 1876. + +Meanwhile he had taken to himself a wife, having, in 1870, married Miss +Anna Minot Weld, daughter of Mr. William F. Weld, of Boston. The issue +of the marriage has been one child, a daughter, born in 1877. + +From March, 1877, until May, 1879, he was in command of the United +States steamer Ashuelot on the Asiatic station, making a most +interesting cruise, and having, for a time, the pleasure of General +Grant's company on board, as a guest. + +Since his return from that cruise he has been on "waiting orders," +varied by occasional duty as member of courts-martial, boards of +examination, and the like. + +In March, 1882, he was promoted to a post-captaincy, as the grade of +captain in the navy was styled in the olden time, which grade +corresponds with that of colonel in the army. + +Captain Perkins has a house in Boston, where he makes his home in +winter, but nothing has ever weakened his affection for the old Granite +State, and nothing delights him more, when possible to do so, than to +put behind him the whirl and distraction of the city for the quiet +enjoyment of the fresh, exhilarating air, unpretentious, wholesome life, +and substantial ways that await him among his dear native hills. + +In glancing over the "Portraits for Posterity," the writer notes the +conspicuous absence of naval representation among the "counterfeit +presentments" that adorn the walls of the Capitol at Concord and the +halls of Dartmouth, and ventures to suggest to Governor Prescott, the +distinguished and indefatigable collector of most of the pictures, that +portraits of Thornton of the Kearsarge, and Perkins of the Cayuga and +Chickasaw, might fittingly be given place among those who, in the varied +walks of life, have lent distinction and added lustre to the Province +and State of New Hampshire from Colonial times to this. Let not the men +of the sea be forgotten! + + * * * * * + +FROM THE WHITE HORSE TO LITTLE RHODY. + +BY CHARLES M. BARROWS. + + +Were other means lacking, the progress of the human race might be pretty +accurately gauged by its modes of locomotion. On such a basis of +classification there might be a pedestrian period, a pilgrim period, a +saddle period, a road-wain period, a stage-coach period, and a railway +period. + +Relatively considered, each mode of travel thus indicated would be an +index of the necessities and activity of the times. The nomadic peoples +dwelt in a leisurely world, and were content to go a-foot; their wants +were simple, their aspirations temperate; subsistence for themselves and +their flocks was their great care, and only when the grass withered and +the stream dried up did they set forth in quest of fresh pasturage. At +length, however, the dull-thoughted tribular chieftain became curious to +know what lay beyond the narrow horizon of his wilderness, and men bound +on the sandal, girded up their loins, grasped staff, and beat paths up +and down the valleys, trudging behind an ass or a pack-horse that +carried their impedimenta. Another advance, and the man who drove his +beast before him found that the creature was able to carry both his pack +and himself; and training soon enabled the animal to mend his pace and +transport his master rapidly across long stretches of waste country. +Another period elapsed, and ambitious man discovered that, by clearing a +passage for wheels, the load could be shifted from the back of the beast +to a wagon drawn behind him; thus carriages came into use, and the race +went bowling along the great highway of progress at a wonderful rate. +Then vehicles began to be improved, and the restless brain of the +inventor contrived a stage-coach for the convenience of those who had no +private carriages or did not care to use them; though rude at first, it +soon came to be luxurious, with thorough braces, upholstery, and glass +windows. But even this noisy vehicle, that abridged distance and brought +far cities near together, outgrew its usefulness and gave way to its +rival, the steam-car, which could hurry men through the land as on the +wings of a tornado. And now the same race, which in the morning of the +world was content to wander four or five miles between sun and sun, and +had no wish to go faster, can scarcely abide the slowness of a +palace-car sliding over a mile of steel rail each minute, and General +Meigs is importuning the Legislature for leave to construct a railway on +which trains shall run at three times that speed. + +It would be too much to ask this hurrying, restless, nineteenth-century +world to retrace its way by rail and turnpike, saddle and sandal, back +to the slow patriarch, who kept his youth a hundred years, and in all +that time might not have traveled as far as a suburban gentleman of +to-day does in going once from his home to his place of business in +Boston. It might halt long enough, however, to enjoy a view of the +stage-coach in which its grandfathers got on so rapidly, rumbling before +a cloud of dust over the straight pike that used to connect the +metropolis with some lesser city. + +Such a highway was the Norfolk and Bristol Turnpike, the grand avenue of +public travel between Boston and Providence, and one link of the +continuous thoroughfare connecting New England with New York and +Washington. It was opened during the years of intense activity that +marked the infancy of the nation, and it had a distinct corporate +existence and history, like the railroad that ruined it, and was owned +and operated by a stock company. Though the entire road was not fifty +miles in length, the original enterprise contemplated only a section +thereof, which, in accordance with an act of incorporation passed by the +State Legislature in 1802, was built from the court-house in Dedham, the +shire town of Norfolk County, to the north precinct meeting-house in +Attleborough, then a small border town of Bristol County. + +The members of the original corporation that held the franchise of the +road were Fisher Ames, James Richardson, and Timothy Gay, Jr., of +Dedham; Timothy Whitney and John Whiting, of Roxbury; Eliphalet Slack, +Samuel S. Blackinton, William Blackinton, Israel Hatch, Elijah Daggett, +and Joseph Holmes, of Attleborough; Ephraim Starkweather, Oliver +Wilkinson, and Ozias Wilkinson, of Pawtucket, Rhode Island. They were +all enterprising business men in their day, well known throughout +Eastern Massachusetts, and the undertaking for which they combined +seemed as vast to the rural denizens of the towns through which it +passed as did the Pacific Railroad enterprise to capitalists twenty +years ago. To the surprise of the honest farmers, who considered the +crooked county roads good enough for them, it made almost a straight +line from one terminus to the other, and was laid out four rods in +width--a reckless waste of land--as a preventive against snow blockades +in winter Instead of following the windings of valley and stream as +other roads did, this pike mounted directly over all interposing hills, +in accordance with the most approved theories of civil engineers of that +day; and where sections of those old thoroughfares still remain intact, +it is amusing to observe at what steep, straight grades they were made +to climb the most abrupt ascent, curving neither to the right nor to the +left in merciful consideration for the horses. + +But it must not be supposed that public stage-coach travel on the route +here indicated began with the opening of the Norfolk and Bristol +Turnpike. The first conveyance of the kind started on its devious way +over the poor county roads from Boston to Providence in 1767; and the +quaint Jedediah Morse records that twelve years later the "intercourse +of the country barely required two stages and twelve horses on this +line"; but the same authority states that in 1797 twenty stages and one +hundred horses were employed, and that the number of different stages +leaving Boston during the week was twenty. + +The first stage-coach that passed over this new turnpike was driven by +William Hodges, familiarly called "Bill," a famous Jehu, whose exploits +with rein and whip, being really of a high order of merit, were +graphically set forth to any passenger who shared the box with him, +after Bill's spirits had been raised and his tongue limbered with the +requisite number of "nippers"; and the increased comfort and rapidity of +the journey were so clearly apparent, that the line was soon after +extended to connect the capitals of the Bay State and Little Rhody. + +In those days there was but one way to drive out of Boston, and that a +narrow one known as the "Neck," beyond which was Roxbury. Across this +isthmus all northward, westward, and southward-bound vehicles must pass, +in leaving or entering the city. The narrowest place was at the present +intersection of Dover Street with Washington, or, as it was then called, +Orange, Street. In _ante-bellum_ times this was the southern limit of +the city, and here a gate stood, which opened on to a causeway that +crossed the "salt marish," which at high tide was covered by the water. +To this gateway, then, the turnpike was extended from Dedham +court-house; and when the work was finished a coach, starting from the +White Horse Tavern in Boston, which stood near the site of the Adams +House, just opened by Messrs. Hall and Whipple, bowled along "a smooth +and easy highway" to the bank of the Providence River, making the long +journey within the incredibly short space of six consecutive hours, when +the wheeling was good. + +This great work, which was talked about years before it was undertaken, +and then required years to finish, was a triumph of road-building, in +which both owners and contractors took a pardonable pride; and to those +familiar with the region through which it passed, the course will be +sufficiently indicated by noting here and there a way-mark. On leaving +Boston Neck it followed the already well-graded road through the +Highlands, to a point near the present station of the Boston and +Providence Railroad corporation in Roxbury, thence through West Roxbury +to Dedham, and on through Norwood to East Walpole; it left the central +village of Walpole a mile or so to the west, keeping near the Sharon +line, struck into the westerly edge of Foxborough to a point called the +Four Corners, then through Shepardville in Wrentham to North +Attleborough, Attleborough "City," Pawtucket, and Providence. A large +portion of the road is still kept in repair, so that one might take a +carriage and trace the route through its entire length. + +To support such an expensive turnpike it was necessary to levy a tax on +those who made use of it, and to that end several toll-gates were +established, at which passengers were compelled to halt and pay their +lawful reckoning. These gates were located at Roxbury, Dedham, East +Walpole, Foxborough Four Corners, North Attleborough, and Pawtucket; and +so great was the patronage of the road, that the annual income derived +from these sources afforded the stockholders a handsome net dividend. + +With the disuse of stage-coaches has perished that public convenience, +the country tavern, an institution with which the modern hotel has +little in common. It was suited to the needs and tastes of a former +generation, and to a time, it may be, + + "When men lived in a grander way, + With ampler hospitality." + +But no hotel of the present day, with its showy furnishings and glitter, +its gongs and bell-calls, its multitude of obsequious waiters, gauging +their attention by your clothes, will bear comparison with the old-time +tavern for homelike comfort and hearty good service. The guest, on his +arrival, tired and hungry, was not put off with the cold recognition of +a clerk who simply wrote after his name the number of his room, and then +with averted face said: "Waiter, show this gentleman to number +ninety-seven." On climbing out of the stage-coach, he was sure to see +mine host, a fat, jolly man, who greeted him, whether friend or +stranger, with a bow of genuine welcome, relieved him of his +hand-luggage, ushered him in before the open fire of the bar-room, and +actually asked what he would have for supper. Nor did this personal +interest cease as soon as the guest had been comfortably bestowed; for +the landlord was sure to have some pleasant words with him in the course +of the evening, and to make him feel, ere he went to rest, that, by +coming at that particular time, he had conferred on the host or some +other guest a special favor, so that he retired in the best of humor +with himself. + +Such inns of entertainment were to be found in every considerable New +England town a hundred years ago, and each bore some special reputation +for general hospitality, the cordiality of its landlord, or the +excellence of its table or liquors. Each one of these ancient hostelries +might also be aptly described as + + "A kind of old Hobgoblin Hall, + Now somewhat fallen to decay, + With weather-stains upon the wall, + And creaking and uneven floors, + And chimneys huge, and tiled and tall." + +Wherever a stage line was established, a good country tavern, every few +miles along the route, became a necessity. It nourished on the patronage +that the coach brought to its door; its kitchen and barns afforded a +ready market for the produce of the farmers, and it was a grand centre +for news and the idlers of the village. + +The Norfolk and Bristol Turnpike was fortunate in its taverns, which +were accounted among the best in the State, from the White Horse, whence +every stage-coach took its departure, to the last one met with on the +very borders of the land of Roger Williams. There was the Billings +Tavern in Roxbury, where it was considered quite the proper thing for +outward-bound passengers to alight and get something to fortify them +against the fatigues of the journey, especially if the weather were +extremely cold or extremely warm. + +The next tavern on the line was widely known as Bride's, and later as +Gay's, in Dedham, a place where all who took the early coach out of the +city delighted to stop and breakfast. Here was to be found one of the +best tables on the line, and tradition has it that Bill Hodges, who, by +the way, must have been a competent judge, pronounced Bride's old +Medford rum the finest he had ever tasted. In the palmy days of +stage-coach travel, it was no uncommon thing for a hundred persons to +breakfast at this inn before resuming their journey to Providence. It +was here that President John Adams usually took the coach when he set +out for Washington, being first driven to that point from Quincy in his +own private carriage. + +There was a small public house at South Dedham, now Norwood, which was +but little patronized, and the next tavern of note was Polley's, at East +Walpole, which had the name of furnishing the best board to be found +between Boston and New York, and there all the travel on the road +stopped to dinner. It was also a convenient point for taking up +passengers from many adjacent towns, whence mail-carriages converged +toward the common centre, and scores of private teams were driven with +small parcels or other commissions for the stage; for it must be borne +in mind that the driver exercised the functions of an expressman, or +common carrier, and was entrusted with a variety of messages and +valuables to deliver along the route, the fees for such service being +usually regarded as his rightful perquisites. + +Shepard's Tavern in Foxborough was a customary stopping-place; but the +next grand halt, after leaving Polley's, was made at Hatch's, in North +Attleborough. Here the approach of each stage was announced by the +winding of a horn, and the driver was wont to swing his long lash with a +flourish around the sweaty flanks of his leaders in a way to assure them +that he meant business, then give his wheel horses an encouraging cut, +and dash up before the famous hostelry at a breakneck speed that said to +the small boys, Get out of the way! and caused the stock loafers, who +always assembled on the piazza at the first blast of the horn, to envy +the skill that could thus handle a whip, and guide, with apparent ease, +the most mettlesome four-in-hand. + +Historically considered, no other tavern on the line possessed so much +of antiquarian interest as Hatch's. It occupied the site of an old +garrison built and occupied by John Woodcock, the famous Indian fighter, +as a stronghold against the attacks of his red foes. He went thither +from the Providence Plantation about the middle of the seventeenth +century, when the town was an unbroken wilderness in the northern part +of the Rehoboth North Purchase, so called, took up his abode and reared +his family in lonely solitude within the close stockades he planted +around his home. The first house that went by the name of Hatch's Tavern +was built upon this old garrison, which, indeed, formed a part of its +very walls, and not until the proprietor found it necessary to erect a +new and larger house, when the turnpike was opened, did the last +vestiges of the Woodcock stronghold disappear. + +The landlord of this inn, Colonel Israel Hatch, was also a man of +importance in his time, who enjoyed an enviable reputation for military +achievements, and was very prominent in public affairs. At no point on +the line was the traveler surer of a larger hospitality or a heartier +welcome than was extended by Colonel Hatch, though its best room, which +was reserved for visitors of note, might not have contained the +veritable inscription ascribed to Major Molineaux:-- + + "What do you think? + Here is good drink. + Perhaps you may not know it; + If not in haste, do stop and taste; + You merry folks will show it." + +On leaving North Attlebourogh, the remaining twelve miles to Providence +were conveniently relieved by short halts at Bishop's and at Barrow's +Taverns in Attleborough "City" and West Attleborough, and at one or two +places in Pawtucket, so that no passenger was compelled to go hungry or +dry for many miles. + +By far the most noted passenger ever conveyed over the Norfolk and +Bristol road, and there were many worthy of mention, is reputed to have +been President James Monroe, who shortly after his inauguration in +March, 1817, made a tour through the New England States, similar to that +made by President Hayes in 1877. The occasion was a great one, for +Monroe and his party left Providence in the morning, halted at Hatch's +for lunch, dined at Polley's, and were met on their arrival at Dedham by +a delegation from Boston who escorted them to the "Hub of the Universe." +Great was the curiosity of the country-folk to behold a president, and +the streets through which his barouche was to pass were thronged with an +eager, expectant multitude, who greeted him with cheers, and were +rewarded with a gracious bow. And one little boy, now a venerable and +honored member of the Bristol County bar, was standing with his father +in an open farm wagon, when the President alighted at North +Attleborough, and exclaimed with evident disappointment: "Why, father, +he's no bigger than any other man!" + + * * * * * + +DUNGEON ROCK, LYNN. + +BY FRANK P. HARRIMAN. + + +All over the land there are localities to which, in some way or other, +have become attached names that indicate something of the supernatural, +or such as are intended to excite apprehension. What stout heart does +not stand dismayed before a real dungeon? A prison under ground is +something awful to contemplate. Whose hair does not stand on end at the +thought of possible confinement in a dark, damp, cold stone +prison-house, with rusty-hinged or even sealed doors, where no window +opens to the light of day; where no friendly voice is ever heard; where +liberation is impossible, and where, cursed with the remainder of life, +one is doomed to a miserable existence till the mortal and the immortal +separate? Deliver us from such terrors as these! + +In visiting Dungeon Rock, however, like most places of a similar +character, we find there is no especial reason for fear, notwithstanding +the indicative name, and the many blood-curdling traditions connected +therewith. + +It was a fine autumn day, when, together with some friends, we mustered +courage to pay our respects to this now famous spot. We found our way +thither from the city of Lynn by horse-cars, a part of the way by a +barge and on foot. The driver of the barge, like most drivers of such +vehicles, displayed no small amount of scientific driving. Why it is +that almost all scientific driving generally results in some mishap, we +are unable to determine. But we conclude that the particular science to +which we refer is usually engendered by the driver having his elbow +crooked at some bar before the journey commences. On all such occasions +stops are quite common; branches of trees are not avoided, and they +threaten to destroy our best suits, or brush us altogether from our +seats; the brakes do not work; the traces get unhitched; an immense whip +is flourished and cracked; the horses become unmanageable; frightened +women in a high key scream "Mercy!" and the ride becomes not only +dangerous but unendurable. + +After a ride up hill and down over a winding road skirted by forest +trees on either hand, we were left in the woods at the foot of a steep +hill. The remainder of our way was by a path of the most primitive +nature, something, we should judge, like that of the native Pawtuckets, +with the exception of the rapid ascent, for the natives were wiser than +we in laying out their highways, for they avoided both hills and swamps. +Shortly we found ourselves in the immediate vicinity of Dungeon Rock, +which is situated on the summit of a granite-capped eminence overlooking +the surrounding country. Quite a concourse of people had assembled on +this occasion, apparently to spend the day and have a "good time" +generally. We should have said before that this is considered a kind of +Mecca for those who hold to the Spiritual faith. There are several +buildings which seem to have been dropped down without much order, and a +large platform furnished with plank seats. An entertainment had been +furnished, though for what purpose or by whom we knew not. There was +some fine singing, in solos, duets, and quartettes, and a slender little +girl showed a good lip, large lungs, and nimble fingers on a silver +cornet, out of which she fired repeated volleys of sputtering jigs at +the overelated spectators. + +Lynn's first historian, who dealt somewhat in tradition, among other +things, says, in substance, "early in 1658, on a pleasant evening, a +little after sunset, a small vessel was seen to anchor near the mouth of +the Saugus River. A boat was presently lowered from her side, into which +four men descended and moved up the river a considerable distance, when +they landed and proceeded directly into the woods. They had been noticed +by only a few individuals; but in those early times, when the people +were surrounded by danger and easily susceptible of alarm, such an +incident was well calculated to awaken suspicion, and in the course of +the evening the intelligence was conveyed to many houses. In the morning +the vessel was gone, and no trace of her or her crew could be found." He +further states that on going into the foundry connected with the then +existing iron-works, a quantity of shackles, handcuffs, hatchets, and +other articles of iron, were ordered to be made and left at a certain +place, for which a return in silver would be found. "This was done" (so +says the historian), and the mysterious contractors fulfilled their part +of the obligation, but were undiscovered. Some months afterward the four +men returned and made their abode in what has, to this day, been called +Pirates' Glen, where they built a hut and dug a well. It is supposed +that they buried money in this vicinity, but our opinion is that most of +the money then, as now, was kept above ground. Their retreat being +discovered, one of the king's cruisers appeared on the coast, and three +of them were arrested and carried to England and probably executed. The +other, whose name was Thomas Veal, escaped to a rock in the woods, in +which was a spacious cavern, where the pirates had previously deposited +some of their plunder. There the fugitive practised the trade of +shoemaking. He continued his residence here till the great earthquake of +1658, when the top of the rock was unloosed and crashed down into the +mouth of the cavern, enclosing the unfortunate man in what has been +called to this day Pirates' Dungeon or Dungeon Rock. We cannot vouch for +the complete truthfulness of this historian's statements. + +In 1852, one Hiram Marble purchased from the city of Lynn a lot of +woodland in which Dungeon Rock is situated. He came, as was claimed, +influenced by Spiritualistic revelations. + +Directed by the spirit of the departed pirate Tom Veal, Mr. Marble +commenced to excavate from this very hard porphyry rock in search of a +subterranean vault, into which had been poured, as was supposed, the +ill-gotten gain of all the pirates, from Captain Kidd down to the last +outlaw of the ocean. Twenty-seven years the sound of the hammer and the +drill and the thud of blasting-powder echoed through the leafy forests, +and then all was hushed. + +Hiram Marble died in his lonely residence at Dungeon Rock, November 10, +1868, aged sixty-five. He was widely known for his perseverence in the +work in which he was engaged. Sixteen years he labored without a +realization of his ardent hopes. He remained a Spiritualist to the last, +and those of a like faith were invited to the funeral services which +took place on the day following his death. + +"His faith has not been without works, nor his courage barren of +results, and centuries hence, if his name and identity should be lost, +the strange labor may be referred to some recluse Cyclops who had +strayed hither from mystic lands." + +"Edwin Marble, who succeeded his father in the strange search for +treasure, died January 16, 1880, aged forty-eight years. He was buried +near the foot of the rock on the southwestern slope, it having been his +express desire to be interred near the scene of his hopeful, though +fruitless, labors." + +The broken rock, which they removed solely with their own hands, makes +quite a mountain of itself. + +We decided to enter the place where so many years of fruitless toil had +been spent. A wooden gate on rusty hinges opened and we passed in, and +the gate closed behind us. + +The excavation is high enough and broad enough for two tall men to walk +abreast, and on its winding way, screw fashion, doubling upon itself, it +leads down one hundred and fifty feet into the bowels of the earth, all +the way through solid rock that had remained undisturbed for centuries +on centuries, until the work of this ill-directed Marble commenced. +Down, down we went, out of the warm sunlight into this cold, damp +subterranean passage, winding hither and thither, till we reached an +ice-cold pool of water which is constantly being supplied from some +hidden fountain, and, were it not removed by pumps, would fill the +place to the brim. + +This rock-hewn passage is lighted with lanterns hung at the various +turns, so that the descent and ascent, notwithstanding the way is rough, +can be made with safety. Though the day was warm outside, we were in a +very short time chilled through and glad to make our escape. How these +men could have endured many long years of labor in this vast +refrigerator, and retain any degree of health, is a problem. Faith and +zeal doubtless kept the blood moving through their veins. It is said +that a knife, or dirk, and a pair of scissors of very ancient origin, +which we were shown, were found by Mr. Marble in a fissure of this solid +rock. That they were left there by pirates, years on years ago, no sane +man can for a moment believe. The probabilities are that some one +deceived Mr. Marble. + +When this misguided adventurer commenced this work, he was possessed of +about fifteen hundred dollars, which he expended long before his death, +after which, he depended upon the charities of those who sympathized +with him in his undertaking. + +In one of the buildings named above, there are several portraits of +pirates and their wives, drawn, it is said, by some one under the +influence of the spirits, in a marvelously short space of time. Several +wives of Captain Kidd are among them. + +Captain Kidd must have been a remarkable man, to want more than one such +character for a companion, provided the likenesses are true to nature; +at any rate we are not at all surprised that he was a pirate, under the +circumstances. + +To illustrate how Mr. Marble professed to have been directed, we give +the following correspondence with the spirits:-- + +Mr. Marble wrote: "I wish Veal or Harris would tell what move to make +next." + +This query was covered by fifteen thicknesses of paper and then the +medium was called in, and, merely feeling of the exterior of the paper, +wrote what the spirit of Veal revealed through him. Captain Harris, +named in the communication, is supposed to have been the leader of the +piratical band. + +Response of Veal: "_My Dear Charge_,--You solicit me or Captain Harris +to advise you as to what to next do. Well, as Harris says he has always +had the heft of the load on his shoulders, I will try and respond myself +and let Harris rest. Ha! ha! Well, Marble, we must joke a bit; did we +not, we should have the blues, as do you some of those rainy days when +you see no living person at the rock, save your own dear ones. Not a +sound do you hear, save the woodpecker and that little gray bird [Mr. +Marble's pet canary], that sings all day long, more especially wet days, +tittry, tittry, tittry. But, Marble, as Long [a deceased friend of +Marble] says, 'Don't be discouraged.' We are doing as fast as we can. As +to the course, you are in the right direction at present. You have one +more curve to make before you take the course that leads to the cave. We +have a reason for keeping you from entering the cave at once. Moses was +by the Lord kept forty years in his circuitous route, ere he had sight +of that land that flowed with milk and honey. God had his purpose in so +doing, notwithstanding he might have led Moses into the promise, in a +very few days from the start. But no; God wanted to develop a truth, +and no faster than the minds of the people were prepared to receive it. +Cheer up, Marble, we are with you and doing all we can. + +"Your guide, + +"TOM VEAL." + +Another communication, from C.B. Long, contains the following: "The +names of Hiram and Edwin Marble will live when millions of years shall, +from this time, have passed, and when even kings and statesmen shall +have been forgotten." + +And so the man and, after him, his son worked on till, so far as they +were concerned, death closed the scene. Whether any person in the years +to come will follow these misguided laborers, and take up the work where +they left it, is a question. + +The legendary lore of Dungeon Rock is eclipsed by the dominant impulse +of lives absorbed in an idea, based upon supernatural agency. While it +is an evidence of a misguided zeal, unequaled by anything the whole +world has heretofore probably known, in and of itself it is no mystery. + +The mystery is that there ever lived human beings to undertake such an +unpromising work, where such hardship and perseverance were required, +and where the folly of any hope of success must have been apparent to an +intelligent person every day, from the commencement to the close of the +twenty-seven years of servile toil. + + * * * * * + +LANCASTER IN ACADIE AND THE ACADIENS IN LANCASTER. + +BY HENRY S. NOURSE. + + +It is almost one hundred and thirty years + + " ... since the burning of Grand-Pre, + When on the falling tide the freighted vessels departed, + Bearing a nation, with all its household gods, into exile; + Exile without an end, and without an example in story." + +Of the numerous readers of Evangeline in Lancaster, few now suspect how +nearly the sad tale of wantonly-ravaged Acadie touched their own town +history. From the archives of Nova Scotia all details of that deed of +merciless treachery were left out, for very shame; but upon the crown +officials then in authority over the Province, history and poetry have +indelibly branded the stigma of an unnecessary edict of expulsion, which +devastated one of the fairest regions of America, and tore seven +thousand guileless and peaceful people from a scene of rural felicity +rarely equaled on earth, to scatter them in the misery of abject +poverty, among strangers speaking a strange tongue and hating their +religion. The agents who faithfully executed the cruel decree were +Massachusetts men, reluctantly obedient to "his Majesty's orders," given +them specifically in writing by Charles Lawrence, Governor of Nova +Scotia. + +On the twentieth of May, 1755, Lieutenant-Colonel John Winslow embarked +at Boston with a force of about two thousand men, organized in two +battalions. They were enlisted for the term of one year, unless sooner +discharged, for the special service of dislodging the French from their +newly fortified positions along the north side of the Bay of Fundy, and +on the isthmus connecting New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. Among the +vessels of the fleet was the sloop Victory, and to this was assigned a +company belonging to the second, or Lieutenant-Colonel Scott's, +battalion, largely composed of, and officered by, Lancaster men, a list +of whose names is subjoined:-- + + Captain Abijah Willard. + First Lieutenant "Haskal." [Henry Haskell ?] + Second Lieutenant Willard. [Levi ?] + Ensign Willard. [Aaron ?] + + SERGEANTS. + + Thomas Beman, husbandman, aged 25 + James Houghton, " " 25 + + CORPORALS. + + Jacob Willard, husbandman aged 31 + Thomas Willard, " " 23 + + DRUMMERS. + + Joseph Farnsworth, husbandman aged 20 + Joseph Phelps, " " 21 + + PRIVATES, + + Benjamin Atherton, laborer aged 20 + Phineas Atherton, " " 16 + Daniel Atherton, " " 21 + Jonathan Brown, " " 17 + Joseph Bailey, " " 30 + Phineas Divoll, " " 22 + Abel Farnsworth, husbandman " 22 + John Farnsworth, laborer " 30 + Jeremiah Field, " " 18 + Ephraim Goss, " " 22 + Thomas Henderson, " " 40 + Daniel Harper, " " 21 + Elias Haskell, cooper " 19 + William Hutson, cordwainer " 22 + John Johnson, laborer " 22 + Samuel Kilham " " 20 + Matthias Larkin," " 30 + Joseph Metcalf, cooper " 21 + Joseph Pratt, laborer " 30 + Joseph Priest, " " 45 + Daniel Sanders, " " 19 + Isaac Sollendine, laborer " 21 + Jacob Stiles, housewright " 19 + Lemuel Turner, laborer " 18 + Nathaniel Turner, " " 18 + William Turner, " " 18 + Aaron Wilder, " " 30 + William Warner, " " 20 + David Wilson, " " 18 + Levi Woods, laborer aged 20 + Silas Willard, " " 19 + Uziah Wyman, apothecary " 21 + John Warner, laborer " 20 + James Willard, " " 18 + John Wilson, " " 20 + +Besides the above forty-five, there were, in other companies, three +natives of Lancaster:-- + + Nathaniel Johnson, yeoman aged 25 + Jonas Moor, " " 32 + John Rugg, husbandman " 31 + +What special part these men took in the investment and capture of the +formidable fort of Beau Sejour, or in the assaults upon the minor forts, +neither record nor tradition tell, and we are equally uninformed +respecting their participation in the pitiable scenes enacted along the +shores of Minas and Chignecto Bays. The Massachusetts Archives contain +no pay-rolls of this expedition, and no papers of Captain Abijah Willard +are known to exist throwing any light upon its history. That the service +was not only inglorious in part, and ungrateful to the truly brave, but +attended with much hardship, is attested by the following documents +copied from Massachusetts Archives, lv, 62 and 63. They are there in the +handwriting of Secretary Josiah Willard:-- + +"_Sir_: I have received your Letter giving me an acct. of the Hardships +your poor Soldiers are exposed to. I sincerely Compassionate their +unhappy case & I pray God to find out some Way for their Relief. The +Governor is not expected here till the month of December. When he +arrives I shall endeavour to mention the affair to him. In the mean +time, I have written a Letter to Major General Winslow which I have left +open, Leaving it with you to deliver it or not as you shall judge best, +First sealing it before you deliver it The Council being informed that I +had a Letter from you upon the subject of these Hardships of the +Soldiers desired me to communicate it to them, which I did. What they +will do upon it I know not. + +"Octob'r 31, 1755. + +To ABIJAH WILLARD." + + + "BOSTON, Oct. 31, 1755 + + "_Sir_: I have lately received a Letter from my Kinsman Cpt. Abijah + Willard expressing his tender concern for his soldiers who are + exposed to ly in Tents in this cold season now coming on and their + cloath now worn out. I would fain use any Interest I could make + that may contribute to the Relief of these and other the Provincial + soldiers in Nova Scotia in the like circumstances, but I am a + perfect stranger both to Governor Lawrence & Coll. Monkton. But the + acquaintance I have of you & my knowledge of your compassionate + spirit, especially towards the soldiers under your command in like + circumstances, urges me to write to you on this occasion (not from + any Distrust I have of your care in these matters, but possibly as + your Distance from the Place where this Company is quartered may + keep you in some Ignorance of the Difficulties these poor men + labour under) to desire you would interpose your best offices for + their Relief. It seems that these men can be of little service in + act of Duty required of them while they are so destitute of the + necessary. Comforts & Refreshments of Life. You will excuse this + Freedom. With my earnest desires of the gracious Presence of God + with you & particularly to prosper your enterprises for the Good of + your nation & Countrey I am, Sir, Your very humble serv't, + + "JOSIAH WILLARD." + +This was not Captain Willard's first experience of Nova Scotia, nor was +it to be his last. Ten years before he enlisted in the expedition +against Louisburg, being first lieutenant of Captain Joshua Pierce's +company, in the Fourth Massachusetts Regiment, of which his father, +Samuel Willard, was colonel. He was there promoted to a captaincy, July +31, 1745, three days after his twenty-first birthday. Little more than +twenty years had passed from the time when he had assisted in forcing +the broken-hearted Acadien farmers into exile, and again he sailed for +Nova Scotia, himself a fugitive, proscribed as a Tory, his ample estate +confiscated, and his name a reproach among his life-long neighbors. As +thousands of French Neutrals from Georgia to Massachusetts Bay sighed +away their lives with grieving for their lost Acadie, so we know Abijah +Willard, so long as he lived, looked westward with yearning heart toward +that elm-shaded home so familiar to all Lancastrians. On the coast of +the Bay of Fundy, not far west of St. John, is a locality yet called +_Lancaster_. Colonel Abijah Willard gave it the name. It was his retreat +in exile, and there he died in 1789. + +Of the thousand Acadiens apportioned to the Province of Massachusetts, +the committee appointed by General Court for the duty of distributing +them among the several towns, sent three families, consisting of twenty +persons, to Lancaster. These were Benoni Melanson, his wife Mary, and +children, Mary, Joseph, Simeon, John, Bezaleel, "Carre," and another +daughter not named; Geoffroy Benway, Abigail, his wife, and children, +John, Peter, Joseph, and Mary; Theal Forre, his wife Abigail, and +children, Mary, Abigail, Margaret. The Forre family were soon +transferred to Harvard. They arrived in February, 1756, and the +accounts of the town's selectmen for their support were regularly +rendered until February, 1761. They were destitute, sickly, and +apparently utterly unable to support themselves, and were billeted now +here, now there, among the farmers, at a fixed price of two shillings +and eight-pence each per week for their board. Sometimes a house was +hired for them, and, in addition to rent paid, we find in the +selectmen's charges such items as these:-- + + _£ s d gr_ + + To cash pd for an Interpreter and + paper, 3 4 + To what Nessecareys we found them, 1 0 8 0 + To 472 weight of Befe cost, 3 3 2 1 + To Corn that they have had & + yoused, with Sauss, 10 8 + To one Bushel of Salt & Salting the + Befe, 5 6 + to one washing tub, 2 earthen pots + & pail, 4 0 + to wood for the winter season for the + year 1757, 1 6 8 + +Direct evidence to the helpless condition of the two families of French +Neutrals in Lancaster is given in a letter from the selectmen, dated +January 24, 1757, found in Massachusetts Archives, xxiii, 330:-- + +"and here Foloweth an account of the curcumstances, age and sexes of +those people, thare Is two famles Consisting of fifteen In Number, the +whole to witt. Benoni Melanso with his wife of about fourty four or five +years of age, and they have seven children thre Boyes and four Girlls, +the Eldest Girl about 17 years old, the boye Next about 15 years old, +Sickly. Can Do Nothing. ye Next Boy 12 years old. ye Next boy 10 years +old, and ye four Girles all under them Down to two years old, and the +woman almost a Criple.... + +The Name of the others Is Jefray--& his wife, he almost an Idot and +aboute 46 years old, ... they have four children 3 Boyes & one Girll. ye +Eldest Boye 10 yeares old & ye Rest Down to two years old. + +"WM. RICHARDSON } +"JOHN CARTER } Selectmen of Lancaster." +"JOSHUA FAIRBANK} + +Shortly after the date of the above, these unhappy people suddenly +disappeared from their habitation. Reckless with homesickness, they had +stolen away, and made a bold push for the sea, in the vain hope that on +it they might float back to the Basin of Minas. This was in the depth of +winter, February, 1757. They came to the coast at Weymouth. There they +soon encountered the questioning of local authority, and to excuse their +intrusion Melanson made complaint against his Lancaster guardians, the +history of which is in Massachusetts Archives, xxiii, 356. + +"The Committee to whom was referred the Petition of Benoni Melanzan in +behalf of himself and sundrie other French People, Having met and heard +the Petition and one of the Selectmen of Lancaster, relating to the +several matters therein Complained of and also have heard the +Representative of Weymouth where the French People mentioned in s d +Petition at present reside: Beg leave to report as follows. Viz: That it +doth not appear that ye Petitioner had any Grounds to complain of the +selectmen of Lancaster or either of them relating the matter complained +of, and therefore Beg leave further Report that the Committee are of +oppinion that the said French People be ordered forthwith to Return to +Lancaster from whence they in a disorderly manner withdrew themselves, +all which is Humbly submited. + +"pr order of the Comitte + +"SILVANUS BOURN." + + +"In Council, February 24, 1757. + +"Read and ordered that this Report be so far accepted as relates to the +Petitioners Complaint of his Treatment at Lancaster being without +Grounds, but inasmuch as the Petitioner offers to undertake for the +support of himself and the other French removed from Lancaster except in +the article of Firing and House Room, and is likewise willing that two +of his sons be placed out in Families and inasmuch as the Petitioner is +by employment a Fisherman, which cannot be exercised at Lancaster, +therefore, Ordered that he have liberty to reside in the Town of +Weymouth until this Court shall otherwise order, and the Selectmen of +said Town are impowered to place two of his sons in English families for +a reasonable term and to provide House Room for the Rest, & the liberty +of cutting as much Firewood as is necessary in as convenient a Lot as +can be procured. The account of the Charge of House Rent and Firewood to +be allowed out of the Province Treasury. + +"Sent down for concurrence. + +"THOS. CLARKE, Dpty. Secy. + +"Feb. 25, 1757." + +"In the House of Representatives. Read and unanimously non concurred, +and ordered that Report of the Com'tee be accepted & ye the said +French Neutrals so called be directed to return forthwith to ye Town of +Lancaster accordingly. + +"Sent up for Concurrence. + +"T. HUBBARD, Spk'r." + + +"In Council, Feb. 25, 1757. + +"Read & Concurred. A. OLIVER, Secy. + +"Consented to S. PHIPS." + +They were soon again in the quarters whence they fled. In June, 1760, +the Melanson family were divided between Lunenburg, Leominister, and +Hardwick, while the Benways remained. Among the petitioners for leave to +go to "Old France," a little later, appear "Benoni Melanson and Marie, +with family of seven," and from that date the waifs from Acadie appear +no more in the annals of Lancaster. + + * * * * * + +GIFTS TO COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES. + +BY CHARLES F. THWING. + + +The generosity of the American people, in the making of gifts to their +institutions of learning, is munificent. The generosity is keeping pace +with the increase of wealth. In 1847, Abbott Lawrence gave fifty +thousand dollars to Harvard University, to found the school of science +which now bears his name. This gift is declared to be "the largest +amount ever given at one time, during the lifetime of the donor, to any +public institution in this country." But since the year 1847, it is +probable that not less than fifty millions of dollars have been donated +by individuals to educational institutions. In several instances, gifts, +each approaching, or even exceeding, a million of dollars, have been +bestowed. The Baltimore merchant, Johns Hopkins, gave not less than +three millions of dollars to a great university, which, like Harvard, +bears the name of its founder. Henry W. Sage and Ezra Cornell +contributed more than a million to the endowment of Cornell University. +The gifts of Amasa Stone to the Adelbert University at Cleveland +aggregate more than half a million. Since 1864, Ario Pardee has given to +Lafayette College more than five hundred thousand dollars; and the +donations of John C. Green to Princeton aggregate toward a million of +dollars. Alexander Agassiz, worthy son of a worthy father, has donated +more than a quarter of a million of dollars to the equipment of the +Museum of Comparative Zoology and Anatomy which his father founded. +Joseph E. Sheffield endowed the scientific school at New Haven which +bears his name. The late Nathaniel Thayer, of Boston, contributed about +two hundred and fifty thousand dollars to Harvard. Among various +institutions in the West, South, and North, Mrs. Valeria G. Stone, of +Maiden, Massachusetts, has, within the last five years, distributed more +than a million of dollars. George Peabody's benevolences amount to eight +millions of dollars, about one fourth of which forms the Southern +Educational Fund, and about one eighth endowed the Peabody Institute at +Baltimore. John F. Slater gave a million of dollars to the cause of +Southern education. The amounts contributed to college and university +education in the last ten years may be thus summarized:[A] + + 1872 $6,282,461 + 1873 8,238,141 + 1874 1,845,354 + 1875 2,703,650 + 1876 2,743,348 + 1877 1,273,991 + 1878 1,389,633 + 1879 3,878,648 + 1880 2,666,571 + 1881 4,601,069 + +[Footnote A: Compiled from various Reports of the United States +Commissioner of Education.] + +In the nineteen years since the close of the war, many institutions have +been founded with munificent endowments, as Johns Hopkins, Smith at +Northampton, Wellesley; and many more institutions have vastly increased +their resources. Harvard's property has perhaps tripled in amount; +Princeton's income, under the presidency of Dr. McCosh, has greatly +enlarged; Yale's revenue has also received large additions. Colleges in +every State have been the recipients of munificent gifts. +Notwithstanding, however, these benevolences, most colleges are in a +constant state of poverty. Indeed, it may be said that every college +ought to be poor; that is, it ought to have needs far outrunning its +immediate means of supplying them. Harvard is frequently making +applications for funds, which appear to be needed quite as much in +Cambridge, as in the new college of a new town of a new State. At the +present time, colleges stand in peculiar need of gifts for general +purposes of administration. Funds are frequently given for a special +object, as the foundation of a professorship. But the amount may be +inadequate. It is not expedient to decline the gift. Properly to endow +the new chair, therefore, revenue must be drawn from the general funds, +which thus suffer diminution. Donations are of the greatest advantage to +a college, which are free from conditions relative to their use. + +The demand of institutions of learning for endowment receives special +emphasis at the present by the decreasing rate of interest. It is +difficult, every college treasurer knows well, so to invest funds with +safety as to cause them to return more than five per cent, interest. +Ten years ago in the East it was as easy to secure seven, as it is now +to secure five, per cent. In one year one college saw its income +decrease many thousand dollars by reason of this decrease in the rate of +interest. Bowdoin College is distinguished for the success with which +its funds are administered. At the present these funds are said to pay +about six per cent, interest, but it is a rate higher than many colleges +are able to gain. By this decrease the salaries of professors, the +income of scholarships, and the entire revenue, suffer. + +Many reasons might be urged in behalf of benevolence to institutions of +learning. Funds thus given are as a rule administered with extraordinary +financial skill. Their permanence is greater than the permanence of +funds in trust companies and savings banks. Harvard, the oldest college, +Yale, the next to the oldest (with the exception of William and Mary), +have funds still unimpaired, still applied to the designs of those who +gave them in the first years of their incorporation. + +Gifts to a college are, moreover, an application of the right principle +of benevolence of helping those who help themselves. The trustees, the +professors, are, in proportion to their income, the most generous. Not +seldom do they pledge a year's salary for the benefit of the +institutions which they officially serve. The first nineteen donors to +Tabor College, Iowa, several of whom were its officers, gave no less +than _sixty per cent._ of the assessed value of their property. The +efficient president of Colorado College has been engaged in making money +for his college in legitimate business, in preference to making his own +fortune. The students, as well as the officers, of colleges endeavor to +help themselves to an education in all fitting ways. The keeping of +school, the doing of chores, the running of errands, the tutoring of +fellow-students, suggest the various ways in which they endeavor to work +their way through college. + +Those who thus donate their money, in amounts either large or small, +foster the highest interests of the nation. From institutions of +learning flow the best forces of the national life. Literature, the fine +arts, patriotism, philanthrophy, and religion, thus receive their +strongest motives. The higher education in the United States is most +intimately related to the master-minds of American literature. +Longfellow, Hawthorne, Lowell, Holmes, were in part created by Bowdoin +and Harvard. Among the most efficient officers of the late war were the +graduates of the colleges. Without the college the ministry would become +a "sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal" indeed, and without a learned +ministry the church would languish. In the early years of the century, +Mr. John Norris, of Salem, proposed to give a large sum of money to the +cause of foreign missions. He was persuaded, however, to transfer the +gift to the foundation of the Andover Theological Seminary, assured that +thus he was really giving it to the missionary cause. So the event +proved. For the first American missionaries were trained at Andover. +Thus, he who gives his money to the college, gives it to the fostering +of the highest and best forces in American thought and character. + + + * * * * * + +SONG OF THE WINDS. + +BY HENRY B. CARRINGTON. + + + I. + + Thin as the viewless air, + Swifter than dreams can be, + Above, around, and everywhere, + We speed with pinions free. + No barrier bounds our path, + But, ever, to and fro, + Angels of mercy and of wrath. + Onward, in haste we go. + + + II. + + Our birth, mid Chaos rude, + Ere Earth had formed its shell; + And nursed we were, in solitude, + Where hoary night did dwell. + We tossed her raven hair, + Ere sun began to glow, + And whirled the atoms through the air, + To form the moon, I trow. + + + III. + + We heard the Eternal Voice + Pronounce, "Let there be Light!" + And, shrieking, fled, beneath the wings + Of the escaping Night. + We saw the earth arise, + Childlike, from Nature's womb, + And flew to it, with joyous cries,-- + We knew it was our home. + + + IV. + + How brilliant, then, its dyes, + O'er past we could not grieve;-- + We rocked the trees of Paradise, + And whisked the locks of Eve. + Mid things so gay and calm, + With wings, as those of doves, + We floated o'er those fields of balm, + As lightest zephyr roves. + + + V. + + All changed from peace to wrath + When stern Archangel came + And drove that pair from garden path, + With sword of lambent flame. + Our wings grew strong and broad, + Our anger burst on high, + We tore huge trees,--we dashed along, + Our shadows gloomed the sky. + + + VI. + + Our home, the boundless air + Or Ocean's surging breast,-- + We meet the lightnings' lurid glare, + Or hang on rainbow's crest; + At touch, the forests bow, + The lake uplifts its voice, + The long grass hums its anthem low, + And ocean waves rejoice. + + + VII. + + Our flocks, the drifting clouds + That sweep across the plain, + Like vessels seen, with netted shrouds, + At rest upon the main. + We laugh to see them spread + With darkened fleece, afar,-- + While thunders mutter, overhead, + Like trumpet notes of war. + + + VIII. + + We scorn the pride of man, + With us he dare not cope, + Build vessel strong as e'er he can, + We shiver mast and rope. + Too long we tarry now-- + Away,--with speed, away, + More than a thousand miles we go, + To sink a ship to-day. + + * * * * * + +BRITISH LOSSES IN THE REVOLUTION. + +FROM APRIL 19, 1775, TO THE SURRENDER OF GENERAL BURGOYNE, + +OCTOBER 17, 1777 + +[The following account of the losses of the British in the Revolution, +for the first thirty months of the war, is taken from The London +Magazine of February, 1778, and is interesting in that it differs from +all the statements that appear in our United States Histories of that +portion of the war.--ED.] + + +In March, 1776, the Parliament of Great Britain Voted 42,390 Men for the +Service of America; These troops Landed Accordingly, And have Lost +agreeable to their Returns as Followeth:-- + +______________________________|___________|_____________|_____________ +Places Where | Killed. | Wounded. | Prisoners. +______________________________|___________|_____________|____________ +At Lexington and Concord | 43 | 70 | +Bunker Hill | 746 | 1,150 | +Ticonderoga and Quebec | 81 | 110 | 350 +On the Lake, by General Arnold| 93 | 64 | +Sullivan's Island | 191 | 264 | +Ceder | 40 | 70 | +Norfolk, in Virginia | 129 | 175 | 40 +Different Actions on Long | 840 | 660 | 60 + Island | | | +Harlem and Hell's Gate | 236 | 773 | 43 +New York, in time of landing | 57 | 100 | +White Plains, General McDougal| 450 | 490 | 270 +Fort Washington | 900 | 1,500 | +Fort Lee | 20 | 30 | +Trenton Hessians | 35 | 60 | 948 +Princetown | 74 | 100 | 210 +Boston Road, by Admiral Hardy | 52 | 90 | 750 +Transports taken | | | 390 +Danbury | 260 | 350 | 40 +Iron Hill, near Elk | 59 | 80 | 20 +Brandy Wine | 800 | 1,170 | +Reden Road, by General Maxwell| 40 | 60 | +Staten Island, by General | 94 | 150 | 278 + Sullivan | | | +Bennington | 200 | 1,100 | 1,100 +Fort Montgomery | 580 | 700 | +Fort Mifflin and Red Bank | 328 | 53 | 84 +General Burgoyne's Army | 2,100 | 1,126 | 5,572 +Deserted | 1,100 | | +______________________________|___________|_____________|___________ + | 8,448 | 10,495 | 10,155 +-------------------------------------------------------------------- + + * * * * * + +THE BOSTON YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION. + +BY RUSSELL STURGIS, JR. + + +In the year of our Lord 1844, a young clerk, named George Williams, +consulted with a few others and determined that something should be done +to save the young men, who came by thousands to London, from the +terrible temptations and snares to which they were exposed. The old +times had passed when the young man came to the city recommended to some +friend who would feel a personal interest in him, either take him into +his own house or find some good home for him; who felt responsible for +him and bound to know where he went and with whom he associated; who +often had him at his own board, if not regularly there, and who expected +to see him in his family pew on Sunday. + +[Illustration: Old Building.[A]] + +[Footnote A: NOTE.--The illustrations are furnished by the architects of +the new building, Messrs. Sturgis and Brigham.] + +Perhaps this state of things had, from necessity, ceased to be; perhaps +the introduction of machinery and the employment of large numbers of +young men in the cities made this personal relation no longer possible. +Whether possible or no, the fact remains that this close relation +between employer and employed ceased. There are, even now, some noble +exceptions to this, as in the case of Mr. Williams himself, and the firm +of Samuel Morlay and Company. + +The young man to-day comes fresh from the pure air and clear lavish +sunshine of his country home, where summer's flower-decked green is a +continuous feast, and winter's glories a delight no less. Whether upon +the snow in sleigh, or hillside coasting, or the swift skate on the +frozen river, or at evening's cozy fireside before the blazing logs, all +rejoice in simple pleasures, and prayer closes the day. Dear country +home, where every sound is ministry; the morning cock and cackling hen, +the birds' hopeful morning song, the twittering swallow, noon's rest and +healthy appetite, the lowing cattle, the birds' thankful evening note, +the village bell--old curfew's echo, the pattering on the pane, the wind +in the treetops, the watchdog's distant bark for lullaby, and quiet +restful sleep; his greatest sports--those of the evening +village-green--the apple bee, the husking, and the weekly +singing-school. + +He stands at evening gazing at the splendors of the blacksmith's glowing +forge, and in the morning says "good-by" to all, and starts upon his +journey to the city. + +Arrived, and having found employment, he works from a fixed hour in the +morning till evening, then he goes _home_--where? 'T is all the home he +has--all he can afford: a room, or perhaps a part of a room, on the +upper floor of a tall house, in a narrow street--houses all about--the +view all brick and slate,--the sunshine never penetrates to him--the air +is close and heavy; not one attraction is there for him here. But on his +way from work he must perforce pass many a front, where the electric +light casts its brilliant beams quite across the street. Yes, this +proprietor can well afford the costly allurement--it pays--a very +wrecker's light to lure to destruction. Its baneful brightness makes day +of that dark narrow street. Within is warmth, companionship, music, +wine, play,--all that appeals to a young man's nature. What wonder that +he turns in here rather than go on to his cold, dreary room. + +Once in, he is welcomed; hearty good fellows they seem. True, they are +very different from his _old_ friends in appearance, manner, and +language, and he at first shrinks from them, but the wine-cup soon +obliterates distinctions, and he feels that he has never met such choice +spirits before. Laughing at their jokes and coarse stories, he forgets +all in the wild excitement of the moment. His voice is now the loudest. +He sings, shouts, and, at length, losing consciousness, only wakes sick +and utterly miserable. He determines it shall be the last. Never will he +be seen there again. But he has entered upon a path of easy descent, and +lower and lower he falls. He is hurrying to death. + +His employer cares only that he is at his place in the morning and +remains there at work till the evening. He cannot follow him, and should +the young man's habits become such that it "no longer pays" to employ +him, he is dismissed and another is quickly found to take his place. +Vast numbers of young men were going down to death in the cities, when +George Williams and his friend determined to do something to keep them +from destruction, and thus they formed the first Young Men's Christian +Association in the world, on the sixth day of June, 1844. + +In the autumn of 1851, a correspondent of the Watchman and Reflector, a +religious paper published in Boston, wrote an account of his visit to +the London rooms. Captain Sullivan saw the article, and having himself +visited the London Association, he spoke to others, and the result was a +meeting in the vestry of the Central Church, on December 15, 1851, of +thirty-two men, representing twenty congregations of the different +denominations. + +This meeting was adjourned to December 22, at the Old South Chapel, in +Spring Lane. A constitution was adopted on December 29. Officers were +chosen January 5 and 10, and the work began in earnest. + +Mr. Francis O. Watts, of St. Paul's Episcopal Church, was the first +president of this, the _first_ Young Men's Christian Association of the +United States. It is a strange coincidence, easily understood by the +Christian, that on the twenty-fifth of November, one month previous, +without any knowledge on the part of Boston, the first Young Men's +Christian Association of America had been organized at Montreal, in +Canada. + +The constitution adopted was based upon that of the parent Association, +and provided that, while any young man could be a member and enjoy all +other privileges of the Association, only members of evangelical +churches could hold office or vote. The reason for this was clear and +right. Those who originated the parent Association, and those who +formed this, believed in the doctrines of the Universal Church of +Christ--in the loss of the soul and its redemption only by the blood of +the Lord Jesus Christ; nor could they be satisfied with any work for +young men which did not at least aim at conversion. + +The chairman of the international committee thus speaks, in February +last: "When any Association sinks the religious element and the +religious object which it professes to hold high beneath secular +agencies and powers, it ceases to deserve the name of Young Men's +Christian Association. It belongs then to a class of societies of which +we have many, and in which, as Christian young men looking to the +conversion of our fellows as the supreme object, we have no special or +peculiar interest." The tenth annual report thus speaks upon this point: +"The tie which binds us together is a common faith. We hold this faith +most dearly, and believe it to be essential, and therefore worthy to be +protected by every means. We cannot be expected, surely, to do so +suicidal a thing as to admit to the right of equal voice in the +government of our society those who are directly opposed to the very +essence of our being." + +[Illustration: NEW BUILDING.] + +The _benefits_ of the Association are for all--its _management_ alone is +restricted. + +There are now nearly twenty-five hundred Associations in the world, all +upon what is called the evangelical basis, and in the United States and +British Provinces only Associations upon this basis have membership or +representation in the International Organization, formulated in Paris, +in 1855, thus:-- + +"The Young Men's Christian Associations seek to unite those young men +who, regarding Jesus Christ as their God and Saviour according to the +Holy Scriptures, desire to be his disciples in their doctrine and in +their life, and to associate their efforts for the extension of his +kingdom among young men." + +It is a fact that whenever the attempt has been made, and it often has, +in any Association, to give an equal right in the management to those +who are not of our faith, that Association has either soon adopted our +basis or ceased to exist. + +The spiritual benefit of its members having thus always been its +ultimate end, the London Association, during its early years, did no +other work; and no sooner was the Boston Association formed than it, +too, took it up. For a while, it carried on a Bible-class and a weekly +prayer-meeting; but in May, 1857, a daily prayer-meeting was +established, and has been continued almost without intermission to the +present time. The visitation of sick members, the distribution of +tracts, and the conduct of general religious meetings, have been the +regular work of special committees. These last have been held when and +where they seemed to be called for: on the Common, at the wharves, on +board the ships in the harbor, and, especially during our Civil War, on +board the receiving-ship Ohio; in the theatres, at Tremont Temple, and +at the Meionaon, where, at various times, for weeks, a noon meeting has +been held for business men. + +The Association has also been the rallying-point and chief +instrumentality in great revival movements, under the direction of the +churches, and especially in that under Mr. Moody in the great +Tabernacle. The Boston Association has never forgotten the chief object +of its existence, nor, though not without some fluctuation, has it +intermitted its religious work. + +We have said that in London the work was at first wholly religious. In +this country, however, the social and intellectual element in young men +was immediately recognized and measures taken to satisfy them. Therefore +pleasant rooms were at once secured, carpeted, furnished, hung with +pictures, and supplied with papers, magazines, and books; and, as the +work enlarged and additional and more commodious rooms were obtained, +the literary class and the occasional lecture in the room at the Tremont +Temple building, expanded, in its first own building at the corner of +Tremont and Elliot Streets, into evening classes, social gatherings, +readings, and concerts; and here first we were able to give to our +members who wished them the advantages of the gymnasium and bathrooms. +And when, through the munificence of the business men, the Association +was enabled to take possession of its present building, certainly +excelled by no other in the world, either in beauty of exterior or +accommodation, every appliance for physical, social, intellectual and +spiritual work has been made possible. + +[Illustration] + +Visit the building with us. There it stands, at the corner of two broad +streets, and in the midst of the finest public and private buildings in +the city. Unique in architecture, simple in design, warm in color, and +beautiful in its proportions, it is a building of which Boston may well +be proud, while every Christian man must rejoice in the thought that it +is built for His glory whose blessed emblem crowns its top-most gable. +By its broad stone staircase, under the motto of Associations, "Teneo et +teneor," and through its vestibule, we enter the great reception-room. +Immediately on the left, a white marble fountain supplies ice-cold water +to all who wish it; beyond, richly carpeted and well furnished, the +walls hung with good paintings, are the two parlors. Here the members +have withdrawing-rooms equal to those even in this favored neighborhood. +The few whom we find here certainly appreciate their comfort. The +pleasant room adjoining is that of the general secretary, where he is +usually to be found, and where each member is cordially welcomed for +converse or advice. Beyond, again, is the office, where three men find +it no sinecure to attend to the continuous stream of comers for +welcome, membership, or information. The library is a large, handsome, +sunnyroom, well furnished with shelves, _but not these so well with +books_; and yet, from twenty to fifty men are here quietly reading. The +next room is for general reading. Around the walls on every side are +papers from almost everywhere, and on the tables all the periodicals of +this country, and many from abroad. All about the room sit or stand the +readers, many, for the time, at home again as they gather the local news +of their own town or village. The room beyond is called the "game-room." +At each little table sit the chess or draught-players, while many +interested are looking on. + +Here is the lavatory, complete in all its appointments, except, perhaps, +that the long towel on the roller has been already this evening used by +too many hands. The smell of blacking, too, indicates the wearer's +pleasure in his cleaned and polished boots. In that little hall, which +seats about three hundred, a lecture is being given to young men, on the +care of the body, by Dr.----. This is one of six which are given +gratuitously by Boston physicians. + +We mount the stairs to the next story. These two rooms are rented to a +commercial college. This door opposite admits you to the hall, which has +seats for nine hundred persons. It is extremely simple, but the tints of +the walls and ceiling are delightful, and you have only to listen to +those members of the ---- Club, who have leased it for their concerts, +to realize that its acoustic properties are perfect. + +Still higher, we find the room of the board, where, once at least in +each month, the directors sup at their own expense, and manage the +affairs of the Association. Here, too, its various committees meet. In +the room adjoining, a French lesson is going on; in that, German; in +this, penmanship. Still higher up we find the "Tech" Glee Club +practising, and this large room adjoining is filled with those who are +learning vocal music. The building seems a very hive--something going on +everywhere. + +Let us now descend to the basement. The gymnasium is here in full blast. +Men in every kind of costume and in every possible and, to many persons, +impossible position, while the superintendent is intently watching each +to see that he is properly _developing_; every kind of bath and many of +them are right at hand, and dressing-rooms with boxes for eight hundred +persons. + +And this great building and all these appliances are the gift of the +citizens of Boston to the young men from the country. Many of the donors +remember the time when they came lonely to the city, and determined, if +they could prevent it, that no young man, to-day, in the same position, +should be without a place where all of which they so greatly felt the +need is supplied. + +These needs are thus supplied. Early in the history of the Association, +a circular was sent to every evangelical pastor in New England, asking +him to give information of each young man coming to the city, that he +might be met at the station or received at the rooms. + +Let us sketch a case: We have received word that John ---- is to arrive +from G---- by such a train. During the journey, thoughts of the dear +ones he has left crowd upon him. He is already sick for home, as he +looks about him and sees no familiar face. He has left harbor for the +first time. All before him is uncertain: all about him strange. He +reaches the city; friends are there at the station to welcome this and +that one of his fellow-travelers. He knows no one. No one cares for his +coming. No one? Yes, there is a young man scanning closely the faces +which pass. Suddenly his eye encounters our traveler, and at once the +question: "Are you John ----? 'Tis well. I am from the Association. We +are expecting you." Together they go to the building, and, even before +reaching it, our stranger is not quite a stranger. One man at least is +interested in him. "This is the building." "What, this fine place ready +to welcome me? Why, this is grand!" Here, too, is the electric light, +but not baneful this, no wrecker's false gleam, but like the light upon +the pier, showing safe entrance and anchorage. "This is our secretary. +Mr. D., this is John ----." "Glad to see you. Had you a pleasant journey? +What can we do for you? You want a boarding-place! Well, here is the +book. What can you pay? Very well, Mrs. B. has a vacancy and it is just +the place you want. I will send some one with you there. Your +recommendation was such that we have found a situation for you, and they +will be ready to see you to-morrow. We have an entertainment this +evening, and I shall be glad to introduce you to several young men." +Imagine, if you can, what such an introduction to city life is to a +young man, and what is his coming to the city without it. He is no +stranger now. He has found comfort, companionship, sympathy, occupation. +His heart goes home indeed, but it is in thankfulness that he writes and +describes his surroundings, and glad is he at the close of the evening +to join with others in, prayer and thanksgiving to his mother's God, for +the blessings of the Association; and later, in the quiet of his own +room, he renews his thanks, sleeps peacefully, and, full of hope, takes +hold of work in the morning. He is directed to the church of his choice +and is introduced to the pastor. Thus, at the very first, he is +surrounded by good influences in a city where thousands are on the watch +with every allurement to tempt just such strangers to destruction of +both soul and body. Should John ---- be ready, in his turn, to help +others, work enough can be found for him in one of the several +departments of social or spiritual life. + +Should he fall sick, a committee of the Association visit and care for +him, and, if necessary, watch with him. There have been many cases where +young men have been carefully tended during a long illness, and a few +where even the funeral expenses have been borne by the Association, and +even burial given to the body in the Association lot at Forest Hills +Cemetery. This is no fancy sketch. Many, many actual Johns are here +pictured, and many souls will, by-and-by, be found thanking God that he +put it into the hearts of his servants to establish the Young Men's +Christian Association. + +But whence this well-appointed building? Within the first year of its +life, a building fund was projected, and, as far as we know, this was +absolutely the first step in this direction taken by any Association, +either in this country or elsewhere. A library fund was also started at +the same time. + + A few subscriptions towards + a building were obtained, + which, in 1858, amounted to $1,200 + + In 1859-60 were added 1,644 + + In 1873 (for altering and + furnishing), 5,700 + + In 1873-74, 4,400 + + In 1874-75, 7,800 + + In 1882, the estate of Daniel + P. Stone gave 25,000 + + Inspired by this, a meeting + of citizens was held at the + Brunswick, where committees + on finance were appointed, + and the result was a subscription + of 175,000 $220,744 + + _By will have been bequeathed_: + By Charles H. Cook, 300 + " Miss Nabby Joy, 5,000 + " J. Sullivan Warren, 13,059 + " Dr. George E. Hatton, 5,000 23,359 + + _And by subscriptions in connection with, Fairs_: + + 1859--Chinese Fair, 4,787 + 1873--Bazaar of Nations, 12,246 17,033 + -------- + $261,136 + +We have mentioned "Fairs." These have been three in number; each being +held in the Music Hall, and owed their success, not only to the energy +of the young men, but to the hearty sympathy and untiring exertions of +the ladies of the Boston churches. + + The first was held in 1858, and netted $9,650 + The second was called the Chinese + Fair, all the decorations being Chinese,--a + pagoda reaching fifty-six + feet to the very height of the hall, + which netted 33,000 + + The third was the most elaborate--the + Bazaar of the Nations; the Music + Hall being made to represent a street + of foreign houses, where, by persons + in costume, the goods of the different + nations were sold. It came in + the spring and immediately after the + fire, but netted 28,673 + -------- + $71,323 + +It is certainly to the credit of the Association that up to 1882, when +the large subscription of $200,000 was secured, the amount raised +through the exertions of the young men and the ladies exceeded by more +than $10,000 all moneys subscribed. + +[Illustration: IN THE GYM] + +The influence of the Boston Association has not been merely local. +Through Mr. L.P. Rowland, long its general secretary, and now the +veteran secretary of the United States, in his capacity of corresponding +secretary of the international committee, the first State work was done +and Associations formed in all parts of Massachusetts. The present +Boston building is now the headquarters of the Massachusetts committee, +where the State secretary may always be reached. The secretary of the +Association is a member of the State committee, a present member of the +board, and an ex-president is now chairman of the same. In national +matters, also, the Boston Association has responded to every call. In +the early days of the war a drill-club was organized by one of its +board, and he, as well as a large number of his men, went into service. +And at the call of Mr. Stuart, of Philadelphia, the committee of the +Christian Commission was represented by an ex-president and an army +committee formed in the Association, which sent the large sum in money +of $333,237.49, and immense stores of all kinds to the field. + +The same committee acted as almoners at the time of Chicago's great +fire, and also when the Western woods fires caused such suffering. + +Without boasting, for much more might have been done, the Boston +Association has no cause to be ashamed of its history. Beginning with +all ready to criticize, and many disapproving, the Association has +worked itself into the confidence of the community; and the Reverend +Joseph Cook, who was introduced as a lecturer to Boston under its +auspices, thus speaks of the Association at the close of its +quarter-century. He says:-- + +"First, That there is a vast amount of work which should be done for +young men in cities, and that, as the proportion of the American +population living in cities had increased since the opening of this +century from one twenty-fifth to one fifth, the importance is great and +growing. + +"Second, That neither individual churches taken separately, nor +individual denominations taken separately, can do this work easily or +adequately. + +"Third, That all the evangelical denominations united in a city can do +this work easily by the organization of a Young Men's Christian +Association as their representative." + +A short time ago a committee of conference, made up of eight leading +city clergymen and as many laymen, two of each denomination, unanimously +passed the following resolutions:-- + +"_Resolved_, That the great and peculiar dangers to which young men are +exposed in this, as in other cities, clearly calls, for the work of the +Young Men's Christian Association. + +"_Resolved_, That the Association represents the Church working through +its young men for the redemption of young men, and, therefore, it is +entitled to the continued confidence, support, and co-operation of the +churches." + +After long years of patient and steady work, the Boston Young Men's +Christian Association has secured the confidence of the Christian +community to the extent of more than $300,000, in the palpable form of +stone and brick, which beautifies one of the finest sites in our city. +It stands also as a monument of the liberality of Christian Boston and +her appreciation of this great work for young men in the Master's name. + + * * * * * + +THE OHIO FLOODS. + +BY THE HON. GEORGE E. JENKS. + + +Several causes are assigned for the excessive rise of water in the Ohio +valley. This water-shed is accredited with an area of two hundred +thousand square miles, and it lies upon the border-line of hot and cold +temperatures. It is subject to heavy storms, and sometimes, in winter, +to large accumulations of snow. It is presumable also, the rainfall is +greater than the average of the country. When, following great deposits +of snow, warm, heavy, and prolonged rains occur, excessive floods must +be the result. Add to these coincidents the fact that forests, once +existing, are now so nearly annihilated that little protection is +offered against a rapid dissolution of the snow, and the sudden freezing +of the earth in an interval of the late storm preventing absorption of +rain falling thereafter. The waters thus produced fall into the main +streams without hindrance, like rain from roofs of buildings. An +aggregation of waters in this valley, rising from fifty to seventy-one +feet, is of annual occurrence, intensified according to excesses and +completeness of coincidents. + +The damage arising from the Ohio flood of 1882 has been estimated at +twelve millions of dollars; that of 1883 at thirty-five to forty +millions of dollars. If these estimates are approximately correct, what +must have been the damage from the flood of 1884! + +There are other causes for the floods in the Ohio valley, and in all +Southern streams, that have been but little considered, which exercise +undoubted and immense influence in solving the peculiarities of the +question under consideration, and afford striking contrasts in different +sections of this country. + +There are two water systems presented in North America. North of about +the forty-first degree of latitude probably the southern limit of the +once glacial region--a _reservoir system_ prevails toward the headwaters +of all the streams. It includes New England, New York, Michigan, +Wisconsin, Minnesota, Dakota, and to the Rocky Mountains divide, and all +of the British Provinces to the Arctic Circle. It also somewhat occurs +on the western slope of the Rockies. This region is notable for the +great lake system, and the immense number of smaller lakes and +ponds--natural inland reservoirs, supposed to be largely of glacial +formation to hold back considerable portions of the cumulative waters +upon any given water-shed, and serving to restrain the outflow, even +after they are filled. These basins exercise a happy and protective +influence in many ways. + +South of the forty-first parallel, the rivers have no _reservoirs_ to +hold any part of the flow from their water-shed. Within this vast area +few lakes or ponds exist. The superabundance of water has no restraint, +but at once takes to the bottom lands. To this southern system the Ohio +River notably belongs, with all its tributaries. Within its two hundred +thousand square miles of area, scarcely a natural reservoir is to be +found. No other part of the country is so devoid of basins. Its feeders +drain the western slopes of the Alleghany and Cumberland +Mountains--Western Pennsylvania and West Virginia, representing sixty +thousand square miles, the southern portions of Ohio, Indiana, and +Illinois, and most of Kentucky and Tennessee. These States are without +lakes or ponds. Nothing intervenes to hold back any portion of the vast +flow from these coincidents of nature before spoken of, and therefore +the excessive floods of last year and this. Such results must continue +to follow. + +During the summer droughts the other extreme prevails. For lack of a +reservoir system to withhold and control the flow of water, the river +falls from flood-tide--seventy-one feet--to points so low as to +seriously impede or prevent navigation. Sometimes even the smallest +steamers and barges fail to pass between Pittsburgh and Cincinnati, and +coal famines have not been unfrequent, resulting from difficult +navigation. An equable flow of this stream is impossible. It will always +be subject to these extremes. Nothing but an extensive method of filling +or diking is likely to prevent the inundation of cities and villages +that are not seventy feet above low-water mark, with attending suffering +and destruction of life and property. All Southern rivers are liable to +like extremes. + +In contrast, it may be noted that the St. Lawrence River but slightly +varies its flow, above Montreal, because of the restraining power of the +Great Lakes, its feeders. The upper Mississippi rises not to excess +because of the thousands of lakes and lakelets in Wisconsin, Minnesota, +and Dakota, its sources. The floods occur in its southern portion, +chiefly below St. Louis. But for this reservoir system its navigation in +the upper portion would be seriously impeded in summer seasons. + +Disastrous floods can scarcely occur on the St. John's, St. Croix, +Penobscot, Kennebec, Androscoggin, Saco, Piscataqua, Merrimack, +Connecticut, or Hudson Rivers, except from damming of the ice in winter +or springtime (and that cause is of rare occurrence), such is the +elaborate system of reservoirs about the headwaters of these streams. +This northern country is greatly benefited by these excavations +occurring from geological causes. + +The Merrimack River has a water-shed of about four thousand square miles +miles--one fiftieth part of that of the Ohio. It has the Winnipiseogee, +Squam, and Newfound Lakes, and hundreds of ponds to fill, that store a +large amount of water, before any considerable rise can take place in +the river, and then they restrain the flow. No excess of water comes +through the Winnipiseogee River, though it is the outlet of a water-shed +nearly as great as of the Pemigewasset. The freshets of the Merrimack +come chiefly from the last-named stream and minor tributaries. Without +these reservoirs, the manufacturing establishments at Lawrence, Lowell, +and Manchester, would cease to be operated by water-power during the +summer droughts. The highest flow of water in the Merrimack known in +forty-six years, as measured at the Lowell dam, was thirteen and +seven-twelfths feet. This occurred in 1852. Only a few times have +freshets exceeded ten feet rise over that dam. + +The greatest fall of water and rise of the freshet, in this valley, +known at Concord, New Hampshire, occurred in August, 1826. This storm +notably caused the land-slide in the Saco valley, which buried the +Willey family. The next was in early October, 1869, which caused the +slide of seventy-five acres of land on the western side of Tri-Pyramid +Mountain into Mad River, in Waterville. + +Messrs. Rand, McNally, and Company, of Chicago, in their Atlas of the +World, give data to illustrate the two river systems of the country +spoken of. Names of sixty-seven lakes are given in Maine, and beside +these are ponds almost innumerable. By census statistics given, her +reservoir and land areas are as 1 to 13. New Hampshire is accredited +with three hundred and sixty-two lakes and ponds, being as 1 acre to 41 +of land. Vermont has forty-one lakes and ponds, including Lake +Champlain, being as 1 acre to 24 of land. Massachusetts, forty-seven +lakes and ponds; Rhode Island, forty-seven; Connecticut, eighteen; New +York, two hundred and sixty, beside her great lakes; New Jersey, ten; +Pennsylvania (chiefly northeastern portion), fifty-eight; Michigan, +ninety-eight lakes, and ponds in great number; Wisconsin, seventy-two +lakes, and a large number of ponds; Minnesota, one hundred and forty-two +lakes, and ponds innumerable; Dakota, fifteen lakes, and a great number +of ponds; and Iowa, forty-eight lakes. + +In contrast, Virginia has only Lake Drummond--really a part of the +Dismal Swamp; West Virginia, Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee, none; +Indiana, eleven lakes, and Illinois, eight,--all on northern water-shed. +The Carolinas, Georgia, and Alabama have no reservoirs. Lagoons exist in +the States bordering the Mississippi River and the Gulf, which are +filled by the overflow of the rivers. + +A consultation of any good atlas of our country will confirm these +statements. + +The two sections are thus contrasted. The Northern States have reason to +be very thankful for their more equable system, for the motive power its +reservoirs furnish, and for exemption from disastrous floods, as well as +from cyclones and tornadoes. + + * * * * * + +THE BOSTON TEA-PARTY. + +[This account of the Boston Tea-Party is taken, _verbatim_, from "The +Boston Evening Post, Monday, December 20, 1773. Thomas and John Fleet, +at the Heart and Crown, in Cornhill, Messi'rs Printers." It adds another +link in the chain of evidence to prove that the patriots were disguised +as Indians.--ED.] + + +Having accidentally arrived at Boston upon a visit to a Friend the +evening before the meeting of the Body of the People on the 29th of +November, curiosity, and the pressing invitations of my most kind host, +induced me to attend the Meeting. I must confess that I was most +agreeably, and I hope that I shall be forgiven by the People if I say so +unexpectedly, entertained and instructed by the regular, reasonable and +sensible conduct and expression of the People there collected, that I +should rather have entertained an idea of being transported to the +British senate than to an adventurous and promiscuous assembly of People +of a remote Colony, were I not convinced by the genuine and uncorrupted +integrity and manly hardihood of the Rhetoricians of that assembly that +they were not yet corrupted by venality or debauched by luxury. + +The conduct of that wise and considerate body, in their several +transactions, evidently tended to preserve the property of the East +India Company. I must confess I was very disagreeably affected with the +conduct of Mr. Hutchinson, their pensioned Governor, on the succeeding +day, who very unseasonably, and, as I am informed, very arbitrarily (not +having the sanction of law), framed and executed a mandate to disperse +the People, which, in my oppinion, with a people less prudent and +temperate would have cost him his head. The Force of that body was +directed to effect the return of the Teas to Great Briton; much argument +was expended. Much entreaty was made use of to effect this desirable +purpose. Mr. Rotch behaved, in my estimation, very unexceptionably; his +disposition was seemingly to comport with the desires of the People to +convey the Teas to the original proprietors. The Consignees have behaved +like Scoundrels in refusing to take the consignment, or indemnify the +owner of the ship which conveyed this detestable commodity to this port. +Every possible step was taken to preserve this property. The People +being exasperated with the conduct of the administration in this affair, +great pains were taken and much policy exerted to procure a stated watch +for this purpose.[A] + +[Footnote A: This watch consisted of 24 to 34 Men, who served as +volunteers 19 Days and 23 Hours.] + +The body of the People determined the Tea should not be landed; the +determination was deliberate, was judicious; the sacrifice of their +Rights, of the Union of all the Colonies, would have been the effect had +they conducted with less resolution: On the Committee of Correspondence +they devolved the care of seeing their resolutions seasonably executed; +that body, as I have been informed by one of their members, had taken +every step prudence and patriotism could suggest, to effect the +desirable purpose, but were defeated. The Body once more assembled, I +was again present; such a collection of the people was to me a novelty; +near seven thousand persons from several towns, Gentlemen, Merchants, +Yeomen, and others, respectable for their rank and abilities, and +venerable for their age and character, constituted the assembly; they +decently, unanimously and firmly adhered to their former resolution, +that the baleful commodity which was to rivet and establish the duty +should never be landed; to prevent the mischief they repeated the +desires of the Committee of the Towns, that the owner of the ship should +apply for a clearance; it appeared that Mr. Rotch had been managed and +was still under the influence of the opposite party; he resisted the +request of the people to apply for a clearance for his ship with an +obstinacy which, in my opinion, bordered on stubbornness--subdued at +length by the peremptory demand of the Body, he consented to apply, a +committee of ten respectable gentlemen were appointed to attend him to +the collector; the Body meeting the same morning by adjournment, Mr. +Rotch was directed to protest in form, and then apply to the Governor +for a Pass by the Castle; Mr. Rotch executed his commission with +fidelity, but a pass could not be obtained, his Excellency excusing +himself in his refusal that he should not make the precedent of granting +a pass till a clearance was obtained, which was indeed a fallacy, as it +had been usual with him in ordinary cases,--Mr. Rotch returning in the +evening reported as above; the Body then voted his conduct to be +satisfactory, and recommending order and regularity to the People, +dissolved. Previous to the dissolution, a number of Persons, supposed to +be the Aboriginal Natives from their complection, approaching near the +door of the assembly, gave the War Whoop, which was answered by a few in +the galleries of the house where the assembly was convened; silence was +commanded, and prudent and peaceable deportment again enjoined. The +Savages repaired to the ships which entertained the pestilential Teas, +and had began their ravage previous to the dissolution of the +meeting--they apply themselves to the destruction of the commodity in +earnest, and in the space of about two hours broke up 342 chests and +discharged their contents into the sea. A watch, as I am informed, was +stationed to prevent embezzlement and not a single ounce of Teas was +suffered to be purloined by the populace. One or two persons being +detected in endeavouring to pocket a small quantity were stripped of +their acquisitions and very roughly handled. It is worthy remark that, +although a considerable quantity of goods of different kinds were still +remaining on board the vessels, no injury was sustained; such attention +to private property was observed that a small padlock belonging to the +Captain of one of the ships being broke another was procured and sent to +him. I cannot but express my admiration of the conduct of this People. +Uninfluenced by party or any other attachment, I presume I shall not be +suspected of misrepresentation. The East India Company must console +themselves with this reflection, that if they have suffered, the +prejudice they sustaine does not arise from enmity to them. A fatal +necessity has rendered this catstrophe inevitable--the landing the tea +would have been fatal, as it would have saddled the colonies with a duty +imposed without their consent, and which no power on earth can effect. +Their strength and numbers, spirit and illumination, render the +experiment dangerous, the defeat certain: The Consignees must attribute +to themselves the loss of the property of the East India Company: had +they seasonably quieted the minds of the people by a resignation, all +had been well; the customhouse, and the man who disgraces Majesty by +representing him, acting in confederacy with the inveterate enemies of +America, stupidly opposed every measure concerted to return the +Teas.--That Americans may defeat every attempt to enslave them, is the +warmest wish of my heart. I shall return home doubly fortified in my +resolution to prevent that deprecrated calamity, the landing the teas in +Rhode Island, and console myself with the happiest assurance that my +brethren have not less virtue, less resolution, than their neighbours. + +AN IMPARTIAL OBSERVER. + + * * * * * + +PUBLISHERS' DEPARTMENT. + + +We give with this number of the Bay State a fac-simile reproduction, +from a rare copy in our possession, of "An Oration, pronounced at +Hanover, New Hampshire, the Fourth Day of July, 1800," by Daniel +Webster. This oration was delivered when the future statesman was in his +eighteenth year. It cannot fail to interest every reader of the +Magazine, and will be a treat to every collector of Americana. + +Our Lowell article in the March number of The Bay State Monthly has been +severely criticized--especially the cuts. To the older residents of that +city each picture was of interest from association. We should have given +credit to the excellent History of Lowell, written by Charles Cowley, +LL.D., and to the Year Book, published by the Mail. + +A System of Rhetoric is the title of a book by C.W. Bardeen, published +in 1884 by A.S. Barnes and Company, of New York. + +The subject is divided into sentence-making, conversation, +letter-writing, the essay, oratory, and poetry. The book under +consideration is an able and exhaustive treatise and must become highly +prized as a textbook. + +A Brief History of Ancient, Mediaeval, and Modern Peoples, with some +account of their monuments, institutions, arts; manners, and customs, is +the title of a book of six hundred pages, with two hundred and forty +illustrations, issued by the same publishers. + +There is a large amount of information crowded within its covers, made +available by a thorough index. + +[Illustration: ORNAMENTAL FIREPLACE. (Magee Fine-Art Castings.)][A] + +[Footnote A: Note.--By the delay of the artist, this page, designed for +the Chelsea article in the February number of The Bay State Monthly, was +not ready in season.--Ed.] + +The unique designs, massive beauty, and artistic grace of Magee's +fine-art castings place them in competition with the finest work in +brass and bronze. From the antique suit of armor, platinum plated, to +the light and graceful leaf, for holding the quill and pencil, their +designs include a great variety of ornamental articles: tiles, shields, +panels, sconces, brackets, plaques, arms, trays, fireplaces, and +jewelry-boxes. + +Their reproduction of the strange and fantastic hand-made studies of +Chinese and Japanese artists would puzzle the Celestials, especially in +the coloring and finish. Professional critics are often deceived as to +the materials employed, so fine a finish will iron receive. + +This class of work is in its infancy--its possibilities are very +numerous. + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Bay State Monthly - Volume 1, +Issue 4 - April, 1884, by Various + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13680 *** |