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+Project Gutenberg's The Bay State Monthly, Vol. 1, Issue 1., by Various
+
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+Title: The Bay State Monthly, Vol. 1, Issue 1.
+       A Massachusetts Magazine of Literature, History,
+       Biography, And State Progress
+
+Author: Various
+
+Release Date: October, 2005 [EBook #9174]
+[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
+[This file was first posted on September 11, 2003]
+
+Edition: 10
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BAY STATE MONTHLY, V 1, ISSUE 1 ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Joshua Hutchinson, David Garcia and Distributed Proofreaders
+
+
+
+
+THE BAY STATE MONTHLY
+
+A Massachusetts Magazine
+
+of
+
+LITERATURE, HISTORY, BIOGRAPHY, AND STATE PROGRESS
+
+
+
+VOLUME I.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS OF VOLUME I.
+
+    (This table of contents alos contains listings
+     for articles in the other issues.)
+
+
+Abbott, Josiah Gardner _John Hatch George_
+
+An Incident of Sixteen Hundred and Eighty-Six _Mellen Chamberlain_
+
+Ansart, Louis _Clara Clayton_
+
+Arthur, Chester Alan _Ben: Perley Poore_
+
+Beacon Hill Before the Houses _David M. Balfour_
+
+Boston Tea-Party, The
+
+Boston, The First Schoolmaster of _Elizabeth Porter Gould_
+
+Boston, The Siege of, Developed _Henry B. Carrington, U.S.A.,
+LL.D._
+
+Boston Young Men's Christian Association, The _Russell Sturgis,
+Jr._
+
+Boundary Lines of Old Groton, The _Samuel Abbott Green, M.D._
+
+British Force and the Leading Losses in the Revolution
+
+British Losses in the Revolution
+
+Bunker Hill _Henry B. Carrington, U.S.A., LL.D._
+
+Butler, Benjamin Franklin
+
+Chelsea _William E. McClintock, C.E._
+
+Defence of New York, 1776, The _Henry B. Carrington, U.S.A., LL.D._
+
+Dungeon Rock, Lynn _Frank P. Harriman_
+
+Early Harvard _Josiah Layfayette Seward, A.M._
+
+Esoteric Buddhism.--A Review _Lucius H. Buckingham, Ph.D._
+
+Fac-Simile Reprint of Daniel Webster's Fourth-of-July Oration, Delivered
+in 1800.
+
+Family Immigration to New England, The _Thomas W. Bicknell, LL.D._
+
+First Baptist Church in Massachusetts, The _Thomas W. Bicknell,
+LL.D._
+
+First Schoolmaster of Boston, The _Elizabeth Porter Gould_
+
+From the White Horse to Little Rhody _Charles M. Barrows_
+
+Fuller, George _Sidney Dickinson_
+
+Gifts to Colleges and Universities _Charles F. Thwing_
+
+Groton, The Boundary Lines of Old _Samuel Abbott Green, M.D._
+
+Groton, The Old Stores and the Post-Offices of _Samuel Abbott Green,
+M.D._
+
+Groton, The Old Taverns and Stage-Coaches of _Samuel Abbott Green,
+M.D._
+
+Harvard, Early _Josiah Lafayette Seward, A.M._
+
+Historical Notes
+
+Historic Trees: The Washington Elm; The Eliot Oak _L.L. Dame_
+
+Lancaster in Acadie and the Acadiens in Lancaster _Henry S. Nourse_
+
+Lovewell's War _John N. McClintock, A.M._
+
+Lowell
+
+Loyalists of Lancaster, The _Henry S. Nourse_
+
+Massachusetts, The First Baptist Church in _Thomas W. Bicknell,
+LL.D._
+
+Massachusetts, Young Men's Christian Associations of _Russell Sturgis,
+Jr._
+
+New England, The Family Immigration to _Thomas W. Bicknell, LL.D._
+
+New England Town-House, The _J.B. Sewall_
+
+New York, 1776, The Defence of _Henry B. Carrington, U.S.A., LL.D._
+
+Ohio Floods, The _George E. Fencks_
+
+Old Stores and the Post-Office of Groton, The _Samuel Abbott Green,
+M.D._
+
+Old Taverns and Stage-Coaches of Groton, The _Samuel Abbott Green,
+M.D._
+
+One Summer.--A Reminiscence _Annie Wentworth Baer_
+
+Perkins, Captain George Hamilton _George E. Belknap, U.S.N._
+
+Poet of the Bells, The _E.H. Goss_
+
+Railway Mail Service, The _Thomas P. Cheney_
+
+Reuben Tracy's Vacation Trips _Elizabeth Porter Gould_
+
+Revolution, British Force and Leading Losses in the
+
+Revolution, British Losses in the
+
+Rice, Alexander Hamilton _Daniel B. Hagar, Ph.D._
+
+Siege of Boston Developed, The _Henry B. Carrington, U.S.A., LL.D._
+
+Town and City Histories _Robert Luce_
+
+Webster, Colonel Fletcher _Charles Cowley, LL.D._
+
+Webster, Daniel, Fourth-of-July Oration of
+
+Wilder, Marshall P. _John Ward Dean, A.M._
+
+Young Men's Christian Associations _Russell Sturgis, Jr._
+
+Young Men's Christian Associations of Massachusetts _Russell Sturgis,
+Jr._
+
+
+POETRY.
+
+Bells of Bethlehem, The _James T. Fields_
+
+His Greatest Triumph _Henrietta E. Page_
+
+Rent Veil, The _Henry B. Carrington_
+
+Song of the Winds _Henry B. Carrington_
+
+Tuberoses _Laura Garland Carr_
+
+Yesterday _Kate L. Brown_
+
+
+
+[Illustration: Marshall P. Wilder]
+
+
+
+THE BAY STATE MONTHLY.
+
+
+_A Massachusetts Magazine_
+
+
+VOL. I. JANUARY, 1884. No. 1.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Hon. MARSHALL P. WILDER, Ph.D.
+
+BY JOHN WARD DEAN, A.M.
+
+[Librarian of the New England Historic Genealogical Society.]
+
+
+The editors of THE BAY STATE MONTHLY, having decided to begin in its
+pages a series of articles devoted to the material advancement and
+prosperity of Massachusetts, and the record of her past greatness, have
+selected the Honorable Marshall Pinckney Wilder as a representative man,
+and have decided that his memoir shall be the initial article in the
+series, and also in this periodical. He has as a merchant won for
+himself a high position, and by his enterprise has essentially advanced
+the business of the city and the State. He has also been active in
+developing our manufacturing industries, while his name is first on all
+lips when those who have increased the products of the soil are named.
+His life affords a striking example of what can be achieved by
+concentration of power and unconquerable perseverance. The bare
+enumeration of the important positions he has held and still holds, and
+the self-sacrificing labors he has performed, is abundant evidence of
+the extraordinary talent and ability, and the personal power and
+influence, which have enabled him to take a front rank as a benefactor
+to mankind.
+
+MARSHALL PINCKNEY WILDER, whose Christian names were given in honor of
+Chief-Justice Marshall and General Pinckney, eminent statesmen at the
+time he was born, was the eldest son of Samuel Locke Wilder, Esq., of
+Rindge, New Hampshire, and was born in that town, September 22, 1798.
+His father, a nephew of the Reverend Samuel Locke, D.D., president of
+Harvard College, for whom he was named, was thirteen years a
+representative in the New Hampshire legislature, a member of the
+Congregational church in Rindge, and held important town offices there.
+His mother, Anna, daughter of Jonathan and Mary (Crombie) Sherwin
+(married May 2, 1797), a lady of great moral worth, was, as her son is,
+a warm admirer of the beauties of nature.
+
+The Wilders are an ancient English family, which The Book of the
+Wilders, published a few years ago, traces to Nicholas Wilder, a
+military chieftain in the army of the Earl of Richmond at the battle of
+Bosworth, 1485. There is strong presumptive evidence that the American
+family is an offshoot from this. President Chadbourne, the author of The
+Book of the Wilders, in his life of Colonel Wilder gives reasons for
+this opinion. The paternal ancestors of Colonel Wilder in this country
+performed meritorious services in the Indian wars, in the American
+Revolution, and in Shays' Rebellion. His grandfather was one of the
+seven delegates from the county of Worcester, in the Massachusetts
+convention of 1788, for ratifying the Constitution of the United States,
+who voted in favor of it. Isaac Goodwin, Esq., in The Worcester
+Magazine, vol. ii, page 45, bears this testimony: "Of all the ancient
+Lancaster families, there is no one that has sustained so many important
+offices as that of Wilder,"
+
+At the age of four, Marshall was sent to school, and at twelve he
+entered New Ipswich Academy, his father desiring to give him a
+collegiate education, with reference to a profession. When he reached
+the age of sixteen, his father gave him the choice, either to qualify
+himself for a farmer, or for a merchant, or to fit for college. He chose
+to be a farmer; and to this choice may we attribute in no small degree
+the mental and physical energy which has distinguished so many years of
+his life. But the business of his father increased so much that he was
+taken into the the store. He there acquired such habits of industry that
+at the age of twenty-one he became a partner, and was appointed
+postmaster of Rindge.
+
+In 1825, he sought a wider field of action and removed to Boston. Here
+be began business under the firm-name of Wilder and Payson, in Union
+Street; then as Wilder and Smith, in North Market Street; and next in
+his own name at No. 3 Central Wharf. In 1837, he became a partner in the
+commission house of Parker, Blanchard, and Wilder, Water Street; next
+Parker, Wilder, and Parker, Pearl Street; and since Parker, Wilder, and
+Company, Winthrop Square, having continued until this time in the same
+house for forty-seven years. Mr. Wilder has lived to be the oldest
+commission merchant in domestic fabrics in active business in Boston. He
+has passed through various crises of commercial embarrassments, and yet
+he has never failed to meet his obligations. He was an original director
+in the Hamilton (now Hamilton National) Bank and in the National
+Insurance Company. The former trust he has held for fifty-two years, and
+the latter for forty years. He has been a director in the New England
+Mutual Life Insurance Company for nearly forty years, and also a
+director in other similar institutions.
+
+But trade and the acquisition of wealth have not been the all-engrossing
+pursuits of his life. His inherent love of rural pursuits led him, in
+1832, to purchase his present estate in Dorchester, originally that of
+Governor Increase Sumner, where, after devoting a proper time to
+business, he has given his leisure to horticulture and agriculture He
+has spared no expense, he has rested from no efforts, to instil into the
+public mind a love of an employment so honorable and useful. He has
+cultivated his own grounds, imported seeds, plants, and trees, and
+endeavored by his example to encourage labor and elevate the rank of the
+husbandman. His garden, greenhouses, and a forest of fruit-trees have
+occupied the time he could spare from business, and here he has
+prosecuted his favorite investigations, year after year, for half a
+century, to the present day.
+
+Soon after the Massachusetts Horticultural Society was formed, Mr.
+Wilder was associated with the late General Henry A.S. Dearborn, its
+first president, and from that time till now has been one of its most
+efficient members, constantly attending its meetings, taking part in its
+business and discussions, and contributing largely to its exhibitions.
+Four years since, he delivered the oration on the occasion of its
+semi-centennial. One of the most important acts of this society was the
+purchase of Mount Auburn for a cemetery and an ornamental garden. On the
+separation of the cemetery from the society, in 1835, through Mr.
+Wilder's influence committees were appointed by the two corporations,
+Judge Story being chairman of the cemetery committee, and Mr. Wilder of
+the society committee. The situation was fraught with great
+difficulties; but Mr. Wilder's conservative course, everywhere
+acknowledged, overcame them all and enabled the society to erect an
+elegant hall in School Street, and afterward the splendid building it
+now occupies in Tremont Street, the most magnificent horticultural hall
+in the world. It has a library which is everywhere acknowledged to be
+the best horticultural library anywhere. In 1840, he was chosen
+president, and held the office for eight successive years. During his
+presidency the hall in School Street was erected, and two triennial
+festivals were held in Faneuil Hall, which are particularly worthy of
+notice. The first was opened September 11, 1845, and the second on the
+fiftieth anniversary of his birth, September 22, 1848, when he retired
+from the office of president, and the society voted him a silver pitcher
+valued at one hundred and fifty dollars, and caused his portrait to be
+placed in its hall. As president of this association he headed a
+circular for a convention of fruit-growers, which was held in New York,
+October 10. 1848, when the American Pomological Society was formed. He
+was chosen its first president, and he still holds that office, being in
+his thirty-third year of service. Its biennial meetings have been held
+in New York, Philadelphia, Cincinnati, Boston, Rochester, St. Louis,
+Richmond, Chicago, and Baltimore; and it will hold its next meeting in
+Detroit. On these occasions President Wilder has made appropriate
+addresses. The last meeting was held, September, 1883, in Philadelphia,
+when his last address was delivered. In this address, with his usual
+foresight, he proposed a grand reform in the nomenclature of fruits for
+our country, and asked the co-operation of other nations in this reform.
+
+In February, 1849, the Norfolk Agricultural Society was formed. Mr.
+Wilder was chosen president, and the Honorable Charles Francis Adams,
+vice-president. Before this society his first address on agricultural
+education was delivered. This was a memorable occasion. There were then
+present, George N. Briggs, the governor, and John Reed, the
+lieutenant-governor, of the State, Daniel Webster, Edward Everett,
+Horace Mann, Levi Lincoln, Josiah Quincy, president of Harvard
+University, General Henry A.S. Dearborn, Governor Isaac Hill, of New
+Hampshire, the Reverend John Pierpont, Josiah Quincy, Jr., Charles
+Francis Adams, and Robert C. Winthrop,--of which galaxy of eminent men,
+the last two only are now living. It was the first general effort in
+that cause in this country. He was president twenty years, and on his
+retirement he was constituted honorary president, and a resolution was
+passed recognizing his eminent ability and usefulness in promoting the
+arts of horticulture and agriculture, and his personal excellence in
+every department of life. He next directed his efforts to establishing
+the Massachusetts board of agriculture, organized as the Massachusetts
+Central Board of Agriculture, at a meeting of delegates of agricultural
+societies in the State, held at the State House, September, 1851, in
+response to a circular issued by him as president of the Norfolk
+Agricultural Society. He was elected president, and held the office till
+1852, when it became a department of the State, and he is now the senior
+member of that board. In 1858, the Massachusetts School of Agriculture
+was incorporated, and he was chosen president; but before the school was
+opened Congress granted land to the several States for agricultural
+colleges, and in 1865 the Legislature incorporated the Massachusetts
+Agricultural College. He was named the first trustee. In 1871, the first
+class was graduated, and in 1878 he had the honor of conferring the
+degree of Bachelor of Science on twenty young gentlemen graduates. He
+delivered addresses on both occasions. In 1852, he issued a circular in
+behalf of several States for a national meeting at Washington, which was
+fully attended, and where the United States Agricultural Society was
+organized. Daniel Webster and a host of distinguished men assisted in
+its formation. This society, of which he was president for the first six
+years, exercised a beneficial influence till the breaking out of the
+late Civil War. On Mr. Wilder's retirement he received the gold medal of
+honor and a service of silver plate. He is a member of many other
+horticultural and agricultural societies in this and foreign lands.
+
+Colonel Wilder, at an early age, took an interest in military affairs.
+At sixteen he was enrolled in the New Hampshire militia, and at
+twenty-one he was commissioned adjutant. He organized and equipped the
+Rindge Light Infantry, and was chosen its captain. At twenty-five five
+he was elected lieutenant-colonel, and at twenty-six was commissioned as
+colonel of the Twelfth Regiment.
+
+Soon after his removal to Boston he joined the Ancient and Honorable
+Artillery Company. In 1856, he was chosen commander of the corps, being
+the one hundred and fifty-fifth in command. He had four times previously
+declined nominations. He entered into correspondence with Prince Albert,
+commander of the Royal Artillery Company of London, founded in 1537, of
+which this corps, chartered in 1638, is the only offspring. This
+correspondence established a friendly intercourse between the two
+companies. In June, 1857, Prince Albert was chosen a special honorary
+member of our company, and twenty-one years later, in 1878, Colonel
+Wilder, who then celebrated the fiftieth or golden anniversary of his
+own membership, nominated the Prince of Wales, the present commander of
+the London company, as an honorary member. Both were commanders of the
+Honorable Artillery Company of London when chosen. The late elegantly
+illustrated history of the London company contains a portrait of Colonel
+Wilder as he appeared in full uniform on that occasion.
+
+In 1839, he was induced to serve for a single term in the Massachusetts
+Legislature, as a representative for the town of Dorchester. In 1849, he
+was elected a member of Governor Briggs's Council, and the year
+following a member of the senate and its president, and he is the the
+oldest ex-president of the senate living. In 1860, he was the member for
+New England of the national committee of the "Constitutional Union
+Party," and attended, as chairman of the Massachusetts delegation, the
+national convention in Baltimore, where John Bell and Edward Everett
+were nominated for President and Vice-President of the United States.
+
+He was initiated in Charity Lodge, No. 18, in Troy, New Hampshire, at
+the age of twenty-five, exalted to the Royal Arch Chapter, Cheshire No.
+4, and knighted in the Boston Encampment. He was deputy grand master of
+the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts, and was one of the six thousand Masons
+who signed, December 31, 1831, the celebrated "Declaration of the
+Freemasons of Boston and Vicinity"; and at the fiftieth anniversary of
+that event, which was celebrated in Boston two years ago, Mr. Wilder
+responded for the survivors, six of the signers being present. He has
+received all the Masonic degrees, including the 33d, or highest and last
+honor of the fraternity. At the World's Masonic Convention, in 1867, at
+Paris, he was the only delegate from the United States who spoke at the
+banquet.
+
+On the seventh of November, 1849, a festival of the Sons of New
+Hampshire was celebrated in Boston. The Honorable Daniel Webster
+presided, and Mr. Wilder was the first vice-president. Fifteen hundred
+sons of the Granite State were present. The association again met on the
+twenty-ninth of October, 1852, to participate in the obsequies of Mr.
+Webster at Faneuil Hall. On this occasion the legislature, and other
+citizens, of New Hampshire were received at the Lowell railway-station,
+and were addressed by Mr. Wilder in behalf of sons of that State
+resident in Boston.
+
+The Sons celebrated their second festival, November 2, 1853, at which
+Mr. Wilder occupied the chair as president, and delivered one of his
+most eloquent speeches. They assembled again, on June 20, 1861, to
+receive and welcome a New Hampshire regiment of volunteers, and escort
+them to the Music Hall, where Mr. Wilder addressed them in a patriotic
+speech on their departure for the field of battle.
+
+The two hundred and twenty-fifth anniversary of the settlement of
+Dorchester was celebrated on the Fourth of July, 1855. The oration was
+by Edward Everett; Mr. Wilder presided, and delivered an able address.
+On the central tablet of the great pavilion was this inscription:
+"Marshall P. Wilder, president of the day. Blessed is he that turneth
+the waste places into a garden, and maketh the wilderness to blossom as
+a rose."
+
+In January, 1868, he was solicited to take the office of president of
+the New England Historic Genealogical Society, vacated by the death of
+Governor Andrew. He was unanimously elected, and is now serving the
+seventeenth year of his presidency. At every annual meeting he has
+delivered an appropriate address. In his first address he urged the
+importance of procuring a suitable building for the society. In 1870, he
+said: "The time has now arrived when absolute necessity, public
+sentiment, and personal obligations, demand that this work be done, and
+done quickly." Feeling himself pledged by this address, he, as chairman
+of the committee then appointed, devoted three months entirely to the
+object of soliciting funds, during which time more than forty thousand
+dollars was generously contributed by friends of the association; and
+thus the handsome edifice at No. 18 Somerset Street was procured. This
+building was dedicated to the use of the society, March 18, 1871. He has
+since obtained donations, amounting to upward of twelve thousand
+dollars, as a fund for paying the salary of the librarian.
+
+In 1859, he presided at the first public meeting called in Boston, in
+regard to the collocation of institutions on the Back Bay lands, where
+the splendid edifices of the Boston Society of Natural History and the
+Massachusetts Institute of Technology now stand. Of the latter
+institution he has been a vice-president, and the chairman of its
+Society of Arts, and a director from the beginning. General Francis A.
+Walker, the present president of the Institute, bore this testimony to
+his efforts in its behalf at the in banquet to Mr. Wilder on his
+eighty-fifth anniversary: "Through all the early efforts to attract the
+attention of the legislature and the people to the importance of
+industrial and art education, and through the severe struggles which so
+painfully tried the courage and the faith even of those who most
+strongly and ardently believed in the mission of the Institute, as well
+as through the happier years of fruition, while the efforts put forth in
+the days of darkness and despondency were bearing their harvest of
+success and fame, Colonel Wilder was through all one of the most
+constant of the members of the government in his attendance; one of the
+most hopeful in his views of the future of the school; ever a wise
+counsellor and a steadfast ally."
+
+He was one of the twelve representative men appointed to receive the
+Prince of Wales in 1860, at the banquet given him in Boston, Edward
+Everett being chairman of the committee; also one of the commissioners
+in behalf of the Universal Exposition in Paris, 1867, when he was placed
+at the head of the committee on horticulture and the cultivation and
+products of the vine, the report of which was published by act of
+Congress.
+
+In 1869, he made a trip to the South, for the purpose of examining its
+resources; and in 1870, with a large party, he visited California. The
+result of Mr. Wilder's observations has been given to the public in a
+lecture before the Massachusetts State Board of Agriculture, which was
+repeated before the Boston Mercantile Library Association, Amherst
+College, the Massachusetts Agricultural College, Dartmouth College, the
+Horticultural Society, the merchants of Philadelphia, and bodies in
+other places.
+
+His published speeches and writings now amount to nearly one hundred in
+number. A list to the year 1873 is printed in the Cyclopaedia of
+American Literature. Dartmouth College, as a testimonial to his services
+in science and literature, conferred upon him, in the year 1877, the
+degree of Doctor of Philosophy.
+
+The Honorable Paul A. Chadbourne, LL.D., late president of Williams
+College in a recent Memoir of Mr. Wilder remarks: "The interest which
+Colonel Wilder has always manifested in the progress of education, as
+well as the value and felicitous style of his numerous writings, would
+lead one to infer at once that his varied knowledge and culture are the
+results of college education. But he is only another illustrious example
+of the men who, with only small indebtedness to schools, have proved to
+the world that real men can make themselves known as such without the
+aid of the college, as we have abundantly learned that the college can
+never make a man of one who has not in him the elements of noble manhood
+before he enters its halls."
+
+In 1820, Mr. Wilder married Miss Tryphosa Jewett, daughter of Dr.
+Stephen Jewett, of Rindge, a lady of great personal attractions. She
+died on a visit to that town, July 21, 1831, leaving four children. On
+the twenty-ninth of August, 1833, Mr. Wilder was united to Miss Abigail,
+daughter of Captain David Baker of Franklin, Massachusetts, a lady of
+education, accomplishments, and piety, who died of consumption, April 4,
+1854, leaving five children. He was married a third time on the eighth
+of September, 1855, to her sister, Miss Julia Baker, who was admirably
+qualified to console him and make his dwelling cheerful, and who has two
+sons, both living. No man has been more blessed in domestic life. We
+know not where there would be a more pleasing picture of peace and
+contentment exhibited than is found in this happy family. In all his
+pursuits and avocations, Mr. Wilder seems to have realized and practised
+that grand principle, which has such a bearing and influence on the
+whole course of life--the philosophy of habit, a power almost omnipotent
+for good or evil. His leisure hours he devotes to his pen, which already
+has filled several large volumes with descriptions and delineations of
+fruits and flowers, proved under his own inspection, and other matters
+pertaining to his various relations in life.
+
+Colonel Wilder has shown us by his life what an individual may
+accomplish by industry, perseverance, and the concentration of the
+intellectual powers on grand objects. Without these, no talent, no mere
+good fortune could have placed him in the high position he has attained
+as a public benefactor. He has been pre-eminent in the establishment and
+development of institutions. Few gentlemen have been called upon so
+often, and upon such various occasions, to take the chair at public
+meetings or preside over constituted societies. Few have acquitted
+themselves so happily, whether dignity of presence, amenity of address,
+fluency of speech, or dispatch of business, be taken into consideration.
+As a presiding officer he seems "to the manner born." His personal
+influence has been able to magnetize a half-dying body into new and
+active life. This strong personal characteristic is especially remarked
+among his friends. No one can approach him in doubt, in despondency, or
+in embarrassment, and leave him without a higher hope, a stronger
+courage, and a manlier faith in himself. The energy which has impelled
+him to labor still exists.
+
+Mr. Wilder is now president of the New England Historic Genealogical and
+Society, the American Pomological Society, and the Massachusetts
+Agricultural Club. He is senior trustee of the Massachusetts
+Agricultural College, and senior member of the State Board of
+Agriculture, and of the executive committee of the Massachusetts
+Horticultural Society. He is senior director in the Massachusetts
+Institute of Technology, the Hamilton National Bank, the New England
+Mutual Life Insurance Company, and the Home Savings Bank. He is an
+honorary member of the Royal Historical Society of Great Britain; a
+corresponding member of the Royal Horticultural Society of London, and
+the Societe Centrale d' Horticulture of France; and a fellow of the
+Reale Accademia Araldica Italiana of Pisa.
+
+Well did Governor Bullock on a public occasion speak of Mr. Wilder as
+"one who has applied the results of his well-earned commercial earnings
+so liberally that in every household and at every fireside in America,
+when the golden fruits of summer and autumn gladden the sideboard and
+the hearthstone, his name, his generosity, and his labors are known and
+honored." He is also known and honored abroad. The London Gardener's
+Chronicle, the leading agricultural paper in Europe, in April, 1872,
+gave his portrait and a sketch of his life, in which is introduced the
+following merited compliment:--
+
+"We are glad to have the opportunity of laying before our readers the
+portrait of one of the most distinguished of transatlantic
+horticulturists, and one who, by his zeal, industry, and determination,
+has not only conferred lasting benefits on his native country, but has
+by his careful experiments in hybridization and fruit-culture laid the
+horticulturists of all nations under heavy obligations to him. The name
+and reputation of Marshall P. Wilder is as highly esteemed in Great
+Britain as they are in America."
+
+In closing this sketch, we may remark that complimentary banquets were
+given him on the eightieth and the eighty-fifth anniversaries of his
+birth. On the former occasion, September 22, 1878, the Reverend James H.
+Means, D.D., his pastor for nearly thirty years, the Honorable Charles
+L. Flint, secretary of the Board of Agriculture, the Honorable John
+Phelps Putnam, judge of the Massachusetts Superior Court, and others,
+paid tributes to the high moral character, the benevolent disposition,
+and the eminent services, of the honored guest of the evening.
+
+The last banquet, September 22, 1883, on his completing the ripe age of
+eighty-five, was a much more important occasion. The banquet was held,
+as the former was, at the Parker House, in Boston, and over one hundred
+gentlemen participated, among whom were some of the most distinguished
+persons in this and other States. Charles H.B. Breck, Esq.,
+vice-president of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society presided, and
+the venerable Reverend Dr. George W. Blagden invoked a blessing. Mr.
+Breck addressed Mr. Wilder, who responded. Addresses were then made by a
+number of Mr. Wilder's friends, among them the Honorable Alexander H.
+Rice and the Honorable Nathaniel P. Banks, ex-governors of
+Massachusetts, his Honor Oliver Ames, lieutenant-governor of the State,
+his Honor Albert Palmer, mayor of Boston, General Joshua L. Chamberlain,
+ex-governor of Maine, the Honorable Frederick Smyth, ex-governor of New
+Hampshire, Professor J.C. Greenough, president of the Massachusetts
+Agricultural College, General Francis A. Walker, president of the
+Institute of Technology, the Honorable Francis B. Hayes, president of
+the Horticultural Society, the Reverend Edmund F. Slafter, corresponding
+secretary of the New England Historic Genealogical Society, John E.
+Russell, secretary of the State Board of Agriculture, and Major Ben:
+Perley Poore, secretary of the United States Agricultural Society, and
+ex-commander of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company. Other
+societies with which Mr. Wilder is connected were also represented, as
+the Massachusetts Society for the Promotion of Agriculture, the New
+England Agricultural Society, the New England Life Insurance Company,
+the Hamilton Bank, the Home Savings Bank, the Grand Lodge of Masons, and
+the Second Church of Dorchester. Letters were received from the
+Honorable Robert C. Winthrop, president of the Massachusetts Historical
+Society, his Excellency Benjamin F. Butler, governor, and the Honorables
+John D. Long, William Claflin, and Thomas Talbot, ex-governors of the
+State, Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, the Honorable Dr. George B. Loring,
+United States Commissioner of Agriculture, and the Honorable Francis W.
+Bird, president of the Bird Club, The addresses and letters are to be
+printed in full. A few extracts follow:
+
+Dr. Holmes referred to Mr. Wilder as: "The venerable and venerated
+friend who has outlived the fruits of fourscore seasons, and is still
+ripening as if his life were all summer."
+
+Mr. Winthrop wrote: "No other man has done so much for our fields and
+gardens and orchards. He has distinguished himself in many other lines
+of life, and his relations to the Legislature of Massachusetts and to
+the Historic Genealogical Society will not soon be forgotten. But his
+name will have its most enduring and most enviable association with the
+flowers and fruits for whose culture he was foremost in striving, both
+by precept and example. He deserves a grateful remembrance as long as a
+fine pear is relished or a brilliant bouquet admired."
+
+Governor Rice said: "There is hardly a public enterprise of the last
+three generations, scarcely a pursuit in life, or an institution of
+patriotism, discipline, or charity, that does not bear the signet of his
+touch and feel the vigor of his co-operation. Why, sir, it may be said,
+almost with literal truth, that the trees which this great arborist has
+planted and cultivated and loved are not more numerous than the
+evidences of his handiwork in all the useful and beneficent departments
+of life; and all the flowers that shall grow to the end of time ought to
+bear fragrance to his memory."
+
+Mayor Palmer said: "Time would fail me to recount his great and
+honorable services to society and the State. It must suffice to say that
+no name of this century is written more imperishably in the affection
+and esteem of Boston and Massachusetts than the name of him, our honored
+guest."
+
+Dr. Loring wrote: "It is with pride and satisfaction that the business
+associations of the city of Boston can point to him as a representative
+of that mercantile integrity which gives that city its distinguished
+position among the great commercial centres of the world."
+
+Governor Banks said: "I can scarcely enumerate, much less analyze, the
+numerous and important social and national enterprises which make the
+character and career of our distinguished guest illustrious."
+
+Governor Chamberlain said: "We rejoice in this honored old age,--this
+youth, rounded, beautified, and sweetened into supreme manhood; and we
+rejoice also that it shall remain for after times an example and
+inspiration for all who would live true lives, and win the honor that
+comes here and hereafter to noble character."
+
+President Greenough thus spoke:--"The line of buildings which to-day at
+Amherst graces one of the fairest landscapes in New England, and the
+sound and practical education which they were built to secure, are to be
+a lasting monument to his foresight, his patriotism, and his eloquent
+persuasion."
+
+Mr. Russell said: "To him the agriculture of the Commonwealth owes a
+debt that can never be paid; the records of our board are a monument of
+his good works more enduring than brass. And, sir, in view of his
+venerable years, so lightly borne, his interest in all the active
+affairs of men, and his continued powers of social enjoyment, I may well
+repeat the wish of the poet Horace, expressed in one of his invocations
+to the Emperor Augustus: 'Serus in coelum redeas.'"
+
+Major Poore said: "Mr. President, I am confident that the distinguished
+gentlemen around these tables will long remember to-night, and recall
+with pleasure its varied homages to Colonel Wilder, thankful that we
+have so pure a shrine, so bright an oracle, as the common property of
+all who reverence virtue, admire manhood, or aspire to noble deeds.
+Succeeding years will not dim the freshness of Colonel Wilder's fame;
+and the more frequently we drink at this fountain, the sweeter we shall
+find its waters.
+
+  'You may break, you may shatter the vase, if you will,
+  But the scent of the roses will hang round it still.'"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+THE OLD TAVERNS AND STAGE-COACHES OF GROTON.
+
+BY THE HON. SAMUEL ABBOTT GREEN, M.D.
+
+
+It has been said that there is nothing contrived by man which has
+produced so much happiness as a good tavern. Without granting or denying
+the statement, all will agree that many good times have been passed
+around the cheerful hearth of the old-fashioned inn.
+
+The earliest tavern in Groton, of which there is any record or
+tradition, was kept by Samuel Bowers, Jr., in the house lately and for a
+long time occupied by the Champney family. Mr. Bowers was born in Groton
+on December 21, 1711, and, according to his tombstone, died on "the
+Sixteenth Day of December Anno Domini 1768. Half a hour after Three of
+the Clock in ye Afternoon, and in the Fifty Eight year of his age." He
+kept the house during many years, and was known in the neighborhood as
+"land'urd Bowers,"--the innkeeper of that period being generally
+addressed by the title of landlord. I do not know who succeeded him in
+his useful and important functions.
+
+The next tavern of which I have any knowledge was the one kept by
+Captain Jonathan Keep, during the latter part of the Revolution. In The
+Independent Chronicle (Boston), February 15, 1781, the Committee of the
+General Court for the sale of confiscated property in Middlesex County,
+advertise the estate of Dr. Joseph Adams, of Townsend, to be sold "at
+Mr. Keep's, innholder in Groton." This tavern has now been kept as an
+inn during more than a century. It was originally built for a
+dwelling-house, and, before the Revolution, occupied by the Reverend
+Samuel Dana; though since that time it has been lengthened in front and
+otherwise considerably enlarged. Captain Keep was followed by the
+brothers Isaiah and Joseph Hall, who were the landlords as early as the
+year 1798. They were succeeded in 1825 by Joseph Hoar, who had just sold
+the Emerson tavern, at the other end of the village street. He kept it
+for nearly twenty years,--excepting the year 1836, when Moses Gill and
+his brother-in-law, Henry Lewis Lawrence, were the landlords,--and sold
+out about 1842 to Thomas Treadwell Farnsworth. It was then conducted as
+a temperance house, at that time considered a great innovation on former
+customs. After a short period it was sold to Daniel Hunt, who kept it
+until 1852, and he was followed by James M. Colburn, who had it for two
+years. It then came into the possession of J. Nelson Hoar, a son of the
+former landlord, who took it in 1854, and in whose family it has since
+remained. Latterly it has been managed by three of his daughters, and
+now is known as the Central House. It is the only tavern in the village,
+and for neatness and comfort can not easily be surpassed.
+
+In the list of innholders, near the end of Isaiah Thomas's Almanack, for
+1785, appears the name of Richardson, whose tavern stood on the present
+site of the Baptist church. It was originally the house owned and
+occupied by the Reverend Gershom Hobart, which had been considerably
+enlarged by additions on the north and east sides, in order to make it
+more suitable for its new purposes. Mine host was Captain Jephthah
+Richardson, who died on October 9, 1806. His father was Converse
+Richardson, who had previously kept a small inn, on the present Elm
+Street, near the corner of Pleasant. It was in this Elm Street house
+that Timothy Bigelow, the rising young lawyer, lived, when he first came
+to Groton. Within a few years this building has been moved away. Soon
+after the death of Captain Jephthah Richardson, the tavern was sold to
+Timothy Spaulding, who carried on the business until his death, which
+occurred on February 19, 1808. Spaulding's widow subsequently married
+John Spalter, who was the landlord for a short time. About 1812 the
+house was rented to Dearborn Emerson, who had been possession of it for
+a few years.
+
+During the War of 1812 it was an inn of local renown; and a Lieutenant
+Chase had his headquarters here for a while, when recruiting for the
+army. He raised a company in the neighborhood, which was ordered to
+Sackett's Harbor, near the foot of Lake Ontario. The men were put into
+uniforms as they enlisted, and drilled daily. They were in the habit of
+marching through the village streets to the music of the spirit-stirring
+drum and the ear-piercing fife; and occasionally they were invited into
+the yard of some hospitable citizen, who would treat them to "the cups
+that cheer but not inebriate," when taken in moderation. William Kemp
+was the drummer, and Wilder Shepley the fifer, both noted musicians in
+their day. Sometimes his brother, Moses Kemp, would act as fifer.
+William is still alive, at the advanced age of nearly ninety-five years,
+and gives many reminiscences of that period. He was born at Groton on
+May 8, 1789, and began to drum in early boyhood. His first appearance in
+the public service was during the year 1805, as drummer of the South
+Company of Groton, commanded by Luther Lawrence, afterward the mayor of
+Lowell. He has been the father of nine children, and has had thirty
+grandchildren, thirty-three great-grandchildren, and one
+great-great-grandchild. Mr. Kemp can even now handle the drumsticks with
+a dexterity rarely equaled; and within a short time I have seen him give
+an exhibition of his skill which would reflect credit on a much younger
+person. Among the men enlisted here during that campaign were Marquis D.
+Farnsworth, Aaron Lewis, William Shepley, and John Woodward, of this
+town; and James Adams, and his son, James, Jr., of Pepperell.
+
+It was about the year 1815 that and Dearborn Emerson left the Richardson
+tavern, and moved down the street, perhaps thirty rods, where he opened
+another public house on the present site of Milo H. Shattuck's store.
+The old tavern, in the meantime, passed into the hands of Daniel
+Shattuck, who kept it until his death, which occurred on April 8, 1831.
+The business was then carried on during a short time by Clark Tenny, who
+was followed by Lemuel Lakin, and afterward by Francis Shattuck, a son
+of Daniel, for another brief period. About the year 1833 it was given up
+entirely as a public house, and thus passed away an old landmark widely
+known in those times. It stood well out on the present road, the front
+door facing down what is now Main Street, the upper end of which then
+had no existence. In approaching the tavern from the south, the road
+went up Hollis Street and turned to the left somewhere south of the
+Burying-Ground. The house afterward was cut up and moved off, just
+before the Baptist meeting-house was built. My earliest recollections
+carry me back faintly to the time when it was last used as a tavern,
+though I remember distinctly the building as it looked before it was
+taken away.
+
+Dearborn Emerson married a sister of Daniel Brooks, a large owner in the
+line of stage-coaches running through Groton from Boston to the
+northward; and this family connection was of great service to him. Jonas
+Parker, commonly known as "Tecumseh" Parker, was now associated with
+Emerson in keeping the new hotel. The stage business was taken away from
+the Richardson tavern, and transferred to this one. The house was
+enlarged, spacious barns and stables were erected, and better
+accommodations given to man and beast,--on too large a scale for profit,
+it seems, as Parker and Emerson failed shortly afterward, This was in
+the spring of 1818, during which year the tavern was purchased by Joseph
+Hoar, who kept it a little more than six years, when he sold it to Amos
+Alexander. This landlord, after a long time, was succeeded in turn by
+Isaac J. Fox, Horace Brown, William Childs, Artemas Brown, John
+McGilson, Abijah Wright, and Moses Gill. It was given up as a hotel in
+1856, and made into a shoe factory; and finally it was burned. Mr. Gill
+had the house for eight years, and was the last landlord. He then opened
+a public house directly opposite to the Orthodox church, and called it
+The Globe, which he kept for two years. He was succeeded by Stephen
+Woods, who remained only one year, after which time this also was given
+up as a public house.
+
+Another hostelry was the Ridge Hill tavern, situated at the Ridges,
+three miles from the village, on the Great Road to Boston. This was
+built about the year 1805, and much frequented by travelers and
+teamsters. At this point the roads diverge and come together again in
+Lexington, making two routes to Boston. It was claimed by interested
+persons that one was considerably shorter than the other,--though the
+actual difference was less than a mile. In the year 1824 a guide-board
+was set up at the crotch of the roads, proclaiming the fact that the
+distance to Lexington through Concord was two miles longer than through
+Carlisle. Straightway the storekeepers and innholders along the Concord
+road published a counter-statement, that it had been measured by sworn
+surveyors, and the distance found to be only two hundred and thirty-six
+rods further than by the other way.
+
+The first landlord of the Ridge Hill tavern was Levi Parker, noted for
+his hospitality. He was afterward deputy-sheriff of Middlesex County,
+and lived in Westford. He was followed, for a short time, by John
+Stevens, and then by John H. Loring, who conducted the house during many
+years, and was succeeded by his son Jefferson. After him came Henry L.
+Lawrence, who kept it during one year; he was followed by his
+brother-in-law, Moses Gill, who took the tavern in April, 1837, and kept
+it just five years. When Mr. Gill gave up the house, he was followed by
+one Langdon for a short time, and he in turn by Kimball Farr as the
+landlord, who had bought it the year previously, and who remained in
+charge until 1868. During a part of the time when the place was managed
+by Mr. Farr; his son Augustus was associated with him. Mr. Farr sold the
+tavern to John Fuzzard, who kept it for a while, and is still the owner
+of the property. He was followed by Newell M. Jewett; the present
+landlord is Stephen Perkins, a native of York, Maine, who took it in
+1880. The house had been vacant for some years before this time. A fair
+is held here regularly on the first Tuesday of every month, for the sale
+of horses, and buyers are attracted from a long distance. At one time
+this property was owned by Judge Samuel Dana, who sold it to John H.
+Loring.
+
+As early as the year 1798 there was a tavern about a mile from the
+Ridges, toward Groton. It was kept by Stephen Farrar, in the house now
+standing near where the brook crosses the Great Road. Afterward one
+Green was the landlord. The house known as the Levi Tufts place in this
+neighborhood was an inn during the early part of this century, conducted
+by Tilly Buttrick. Also about this time, or previously, the house
+situated south of Indian Hill, and occupied by Charles Prescott,--when
+the map in Mr. Butler's History was made,--was an inn. There was a
+tavern kept from the year 1812 to 1818 by a Mr. Page, in Mr. Gerrish's
+house, near the Unitarian church in the village. There was also a
+tavern, near the present paper-mills of Tileston and Hollingsworth, kept
+for many years (1825-55) by Aaron Lewis, and after him for a short time
+by one Veazie. It was originally the house of John Capell, who owned the
+sawmill and gristmill in the immediate neighborhood. Amos Adams had an
+inn near Squannacook, a hundred years ago, in a house now owned by James
+Kemp.
+
+Just before and during the Revolution a tavern was kept by George
+Peirce, in the south part of the town, within the present limits of
+Ayer. This landlord was probably the inn-holder of Littleton, whose name
+appears in The Massachusetts Gazette, of August 8, 1765. The house was
+the one formerly owned by the late Calvin Fletcher, and burned March 25,
+1880. It was advertised for sale, as appears from the following
+advertisement in The Boston Gazette, September 27, 1773:--
+
+    To be Sold at PUBLIC VENDUE, to the highest Bidder, on
+    Wednesday the 3d Day of November next, at four o'Clock in the
+    Afternoon (if not Sold before at Private Sale) by me the
+    Subscriber, A valuable FARM in Groton, in the County of
+    Middlesex, pleasantly situated on the great County Road,
+    leading from Crown Point and No. 4 to Boston: Said Farm
+    contains 172 Acres of Upland and Meadow, with the bigger Part
+    under improvement, with a large Dwelling House and Barn, and
+    Out Houses, together with a good Grist Mill and Saw Mill, the
+    latter new last Year, both in good Repair, and on a good
+    Stream, and within a few Rods of the House. Said Farm would
+    make two good Livings, and would sell it in two Divisions, or
+    together, as it would best suit the Purchaser. Said House is
+    situated very conveniently for a Tavern, and has been improved
+    as such for Ten Years past, with a Number of other
+    Conveniences, too many to enumerate. And the Purchaser may
+    depend upon having a good warrantee Deed of the same, and the
+    bigger Part of the Pay made very easy, on good Security. The
+    whole of the Farming Tools, and Part of the Stock, will be sold
+    as above-mentioned, at the Subscriber's House on said Farm.
+
+    GEORGE PEIRCE.
+
+    Groton, Aug. 30, 1773.
+
+
+The gristmill and sawmill, mentioned in the advertisement, were on
+Nonacoicus Brook. In the Gazette, of November 15, 1773, another notice
+appears, which shows that the tavern was not sold at the time originally
+appointed. It is as follows:--
+
+    The Publick are hereby Notified that the Sale of the FARM in
+    Groton, which was to have been sold the 3d Instant on the
+    Premisses, at the House of Mr. George Peirce, is adjourn'd to
+    the house of Mr. Joseph Moulton, Innholder in Boston, where it
+    will certainly be Sold to the highest Bidder, on Wednesday the
+    1st Day of December next, at 4 o'Clock, P.M.
+
+
+The following advertisement appears in The Independent Chronicle
+(Boston), September 19, 1808; the site of the farm was near that of
+Peirce's inn, just mentioned. Stone's tavern was afterward kept by one
+Day, and subsequently burned.
+
+    A FARM--for Sale,
+
+    Containing 140 acres of Land, situated in the South part of
+    _Groton, (Mass.)_ with a new and well-finished House, Barn, &
+    Out-houses, and Aqueduct, pleasantly situated, where a Tavern
+    has been kept for the last seven years;--a part of the whole
+    will be sold, as best suits the purchaser. For further
+    particulars, inquire of THO's B. RAND, of _Charlestown_, or the
+    Subscriber, living on the Premises.
+
+    Sept. 12. JESSE STONE.
+
+
+About a generation ago an attempt was made to organize a company for the
+purpose of carrying on a hotel in the village, and a charter was
+obtained from the Legislature. The stock, however, was not fully taken
+up, and the project fell through. Of the corporators, Mr. Potter and Mr.
+Smith still survive. Below is a copy of the act:--
+
+    An Act to incorporate the Groton Hotel Company.
+
+    _Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives,
+    in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same,
+    as follows:--_
+
+    SECT. 1. Luther F. Potter, Nathaniel P. Smith, Simeon Ames,
+    their associates and successors, are hereby made a corporation,
+    by the name of the Groton Hotel Company, for the purpose of
+    erecting, in the town of Groton, buildings necessary and
+    convenient for a public house, with all the powers and
+    privileges, and subject to all the liabilities, duties, and
+    restrictions, set forth in the forty-fourth chapter of the
+    Revised Statutes.
+
+    SECT. 2. Said corporation may hold such real and personal
+    property, as may be necessary and convenient for the purposes
+    aforesaid, not exceeding in amount twenty thousand dollars:
+    _provided_, that no shares in the capital stock of said
+    corporation shall be issued for a less sum or amount, to be
+    actually paid in on each, than the par value of the shared
+    which shall be first issued. And if any ardent spirits, or
+    intoxicating drinks of any kind whatever, shall be sold by said
+    company, or by their agents, lessees, or persons in their
+    employ, contrary to law, in any of said buildings, then this
+    act shall be void. [_Approved by the Governor, May 2, 1850._]
+
+
+In the spring of 1852, a charter was given to Benjamin Webb, Daniel D.R.
+Bowker, and their associates, for the purpose of forming a corporation
+to carry on a hotel at the Massapoag Springs, in the eastern part of
+this town, but the project fell through. It was to be called the
+Massapoag Spring Hotel, and its capital stock was limited to $30,000.
+The act was approved by the Governor, May 18, 1852, and it contained
+similar conditions to those mentioned above in regard to the sale of
+liquors. These enterprises are now nearly forgotten, though the mention
+of them may revive the recollections of elderly people.
+
+During the first half of the present century Groton had one
+characteristic mark, closely connected with the old taverns, which it no
+longer possesses. It was a radiating centre for different lines of
+stage-coaches, until this mode of travel was superseded by the swifter
+one of the railroad. During many years the stage-coaches were a
+distinctive feature of the place; and their coming and going was watched
+with great interest, and created the excitement of the day. In early
+times the drivers, as they approached the village, would blow a bugle in
+order to give notice of their arrival; and this blast was the signal at
+the taverns to put the food on the table. More than a generation has now
+passed away since these coaches were wont to be seen in the village
+streets. They were drawn usually by four horses, and in bad going by
+six. Here a change of coaches, horses, and drivers was made.
+
+The stage-driver of former times belonged to a class of men that has
+entirely disappeared from this community. His position was one of
+considerable responsibility. This important personage was well known
+along his route, and his opinions were always quoted with respect. I can
+easily recall the familiar face of Aaron Corey, who drove the
+accommodation stage to Boston for so many years. He was a careful and
+skilful driver, and a man of most obliging disposition. He would go out
+of his way to bear a message or leave a newspaper; but his specialty was
+to look after women and children committed to his charge. He carried,
+also, packages and parcels, and largely what is to-day entrusted to the
+express. I recall, too, with pleasure, Horace George, another driver,
+popular with all the boys, because in sleighing-time he would let us
+ride on the rack behind, and even slacken the speed of his horses so as
+to allow us to catch hold of the straps.
+
+Some people now remember the scenes of life and activity that used to be
+witnessed in the town on the arrival and departure of the stages. Some
+remember, too, the loud snap of the whip which gave increased speed to
+the horses, as they dashed up in approved style to the stopping-place,
+where the loungers were collected to see the travelers and listen to the
+gossip which fell from their lips. There were no telegraphs then, and
+but few railroads in the country. The papers did not gather the news so
+eagerly, nor spread it abroad so promptly, as they do now, and items of
+intelligence were carried largely by word of mouth.
+
+The earliest line of stage-coaches between Boston and Groton was the one
+mentioned in The Columbian Centinel, April 6, 1793. The advertisement is
+headed "New Line of Stages," and gives notice that--
+
+    A Stage-Carriage drives from _Robbins'_ Tavern, at Charles-River
+    Bridge, on Monday and Friday, in each week, and passing through
+    Concord and Groton, arrives at _Wyman's_ tavern in _Ashley_
+    [Ashby?] in the evening of the same days; and after exchanging
+    passengers there, with the Stage-Carriage from _Walpole_, it
+    returns on Tuesdays and Saturdays, by the same route to _Robbins's_.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+    The _Charlestown_ Carriage drives also from _Robbins'_ on
+    Wednesday in each week, and passing through _Concord_, arrives
+    at _Richardson's_ tavern, in _Groton_, on the evening of the
+    same day, and from thence returns on Thursday to _Robbins'_.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Another Carriage drives from _Richardson's_ tavern in
+_Groton_, on Monday in each week, at six o'clock in the morning,
+and passing by _Richardson's_ tavern in _Concord_ at ten o'clock
+in the forenoon, arrives at _Charlestown_ at three o'clock in the
+afternoon. From _Charlestown_ it drives on Tuesday and Thursday in
+each week, at three o'clock in the afternoon, and returns back as far as
+_Richardson's_ tavern in _Concord_--and from that place it starts
+at 8 o'clock in the mornings, of Wednesday and Friday, and runs again to
+_Charlestown_. From there it moves at six o'clock on Saturday morning,
+and returns to _Richardson's_ tavern in _Groton_, in the evening
+of the same day.
+
+It was probably one of these "Carriages" to which allusion is made in
+Mr. Winthrop's Memoir of the Honorable Nathan Appleton,[Footnote:
+Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society, v, 249, 250.] as
+follows:--
+
+    At early dusk on some October or November evening, in the year
+    1794, a fresh, vigorous, bright-eyed lad, just turned of
+    fifteen, might have been seen alighting from a stage-coach near
+    Quaker Lane,[Footnote: Now Congress Street.] as it was then
+    called, in the old town of Boston. He had been two days on the
+    road from his home in the town of New Ipswich, in the State of
+    New Hampshire. On the last of the two days, the stage-coach had
+    brought him all the way from Groton in Massachusetts; starting
+    for that purpose early in the morning, stopping at Concord for
+    the passengers to dine, trundling them through Charlestown
+    about the time the evening lamps were lighted, and finishing
+    the whole distance of rather more than thirty miles in season
+    for supper. For his first day's journey, there had been no such
+    eligible and expeditious conveyance. The Boston stage-coach, in
+    those days, went no farther than Groton in that direction. His
+    father's farm-horse, or perhaps that of one of the neighbors,
+    had served his turn for the first six or seven miles; his
+    little brother of ten years old having followed him as far as
+    Townsend, to ride the horse home again. But from there he had
+    trudged along to Groton on foot, with a bundle-handkerchief in
+    his hand, which contained all the wearing apparel he had,
+    except what was on his back.
+
+It has been said that the first public conveyance between Boston and
+Groton was a covered wagon, hung on chains for thoroughbraces: perhaps
+it was the "Charlestown Carriage," mentioned in the advertisement. It
+was owned and driven by Lemuel Lakin, but after a few years the owner
+sold out to Dearborn Emerson.
+
+The following advertisement from The Columbian Centinel, June 25, 1800,
+will give a notion of what an undertaking a trip to Boston was, at the
+beginning of the century:--
+
+    GROTON STAGE.
+
+    The subscriber respectfully informs the public that he drives
+    the Stage from _Boston_ to _Groton_, running through
+    _Lexington, Concord_, and _Littleton_, to _Groton_: Starts from
+    _Boston_ every _Wednesday_ morning, at 5 o'clock, and arrives
+    at _Groton_ the same day; Starts from _Groton_ every _Monday_
+    morning, at 7 o'clock, and arrives at _Boston_ the same day at
+    4 o'clock. Passage through, 2 dols. per mile, 4_d_.
+
+    DANBORN EMERSON.
+
+    Seats taken at Mr. SILAS DUTTON'S in _Royal Exchange Lane_.
+    Newspapers supplied on the road, and every attention paid to
+    conveyances.
+
+The given name of Emerson was Dearborn, and not "Danborn," which is a
+misprint. Two years later he was running a stage-coach from Groton to
+New Ipswich, New Hampshire, and on the first return trip he brought
+three passengers,--according to the History of New Ipswich (page 129).
+Emerson was a noted driver in his day; and he is mentioned, with
+pleasant recollections, by the Honorable Abbott Lawrence, in an
+after-dinner speech at the jubilee of Lawrence Academy, on July 12,
+1854. Subsequently he was the landlord of one of the local taverns.
+
+It is advertised in The Massachusetts Register, for the year 1802, that
+the
+
+    GROTON Stage sets off from J. and S. Wheelock's [Indian Queen
+    Inn], No. 37 Marlboro-Street [now a part of Washington Street,
+    Boston], every Wednesday at 4 o'clock in the morning, and
+    arrives at Groton at 3 o'clock in the afternoon, same day;
+    leaves Groton every Monday at 4 o'clock in the morning, and
+    arrives in Boston at 6 o'clock in the afternoon, same day.
+    (Pages 19, 20.)
+
+It seems from this notice that it took three hours longer to make the
+trip down to Boston than up to Groton,--of which the explanation is not
+clear. In the Register for 1803 a semi-weekly line is advertised, and
+the same length of time is given for making the trip each way.
+
+About the year 1807 there was a tri-weekly line of coaches to Boston,
+and as early as 1820 a daily line, which connected at Groton with others
+extending into New Hampshire and Vermont. Soon after this time there
+were two lines to Boston, running in opposition to each other,--one
+known as the Union and Accommodation Line, and the other as the
+Telegraph and Despatch.
+
+One of the drivers for the Telegraph and Despatch line was Phineas
+Harrington, known along the road as "Phin" Harrington. He had orders to
+take but eight passengers in his coach, and the trip was made with
+remarkable speed for that period. "Phin" was a man of small size, and
+the story used to be told of him that, on cold and stormy nights, he
+would get inside of one of the lamps fixed to his box in order to warm
+his feet by the lighted wick! He passed almost his whole life as a
+stage-man, and it is said that he drove for nearly forty years, He could
+handle the reins of six horses with more skill than any other driver in
+town.
+
+William Shephard and Company advertise in The Groton Herald, April 10,
+1830, their accommodation stage. "Good Teams and Coaches, with careful
+and obliging drivers, will be provided by the subscribers." Books were
+kept in Boston at A.M. Brigham's, No. 42 Hanover Street, and in Groton
+at the taverns of Amos Alexander and Joseph Hoar. The fare was one
+dollar, and the coach went three times a week.
+
+About this time George Flint had a line to Nashua, and John Holt another
+to Fitchburg. They advertise together in the Herald, May 1, 1830, that
+"no pains shall be spared to accommodate those who shall favor them with
+their custom, and all business intrusted to their care will be
+faithfully attended to." The first stage-coach from this town to Lowell
+began to run about the year 1829, and John Austin was the driver. An
+opposition line was established soon afterward, and kept up during a
+short time, until a compromise was made between them, Later, John Russ
+was the owner and driver of the line to Lowell, and still later, John M.
+Maynard the owner. Near this period there was a coach running to
+Worcester, and previously one to Amherst, New Hampshire.
+
+The following is a list of some of the old drivers, who were well known
+along their respective routes. It is arranged in no particular order and
+by no means complete; and the dates against a few of the names are only
+approximations to the time when each one sat on the box:--
+
+Lemuel Lakin was among the earliest; and he was followed by Dearborn
+Emerson. Daniel Brooks drove to Boston during the period of the last war
+with England, and probably later.
+
+Aaron Corey drove the accommodation stage to Boston, through Carlisle,
+Bedford, and Lexington, for a long time, and he had previously driven
+the mail-coach. He was succeeded by his son, Calvin, the driver for a
+few years, until the line was given up in 1850. Mr. Corey, the father,
+was one of the veterans, having held the reins during thirty-two years;
+he died March 15, 1857, at the age of seventy-three.
+
+Isaac Bullard, 1817-30; William Smart, 1825-30; George Hunt, Jonathan
+Buttrick, Thomas A. Staples, Obediah Kendall, Albert Hayden, Charles
+Briggs, Levi Robbins, James Lord, Frank Brown, Silas Burgess, Augustus
+Adams, William Dana, Horace Brown, Levi Wheeler, Timothy Underwood, ----
+Bacon, Horace George, 1838-45; Lyman W. Gushing, 1842-45, and Joseph
+Stewart. These drove to Boston. After the stages were taken off, "Joe"
+Stewart drove the passenger-coach from the village to the station on the
+Fitchburg Railroad, which ran to connect with the three daily trains for
+Boston. The station was three miles away, and now within the limits of
+Ayer.
+
+Among the drivers to Keene, New Hampshire, were Kimball Danforth,
+1817-40; Ira Brown, Oliver Scales, Amos Nicholas, Otis Bardwell, Abel
+Marshall, the brothers Ira and Hiram Hodgkins, George Brown, Houghton
+Lawrence, Palmer Thomas, Ira Green, Barney Pike, William Johnson, Walter
+Carleton, and John Carleton. There were two stage routes to Keene, both
+going as far as West Townsend in common, and then separating, one
+passing through Ashby, Rindge, and Fitzwilliam, while the other went
+through New Ipswich and Jaffrey.
+
+Anson Johnson and Beriah Curtis drove to Worcester; Addison Parker,
+Henry L. Lawrence, Stephen Corbin, John Webber, and his son, Ward, drove
+to Lowell; the brothers Abiel and Nathan Fawcett, Wilder Proctor, and
+Abel H. Fuller, to Nashua; Micah Ball, who came from Leominster about
+the year 1824, drove to Amherst, New Hampshire, and after him Benjamin
+Lewis, who continued to drive as long as he lived, and at his death the
+line was given up. The route to Amherst lay through Pepperell, Hollis,
+and Milford.
+
+Other drivers were John Chase, Joel Shattuck, William Shattuck, Moses
+Titus, Frank Shattuck, David Coburn, ---- Chickering, Thomas Emory, and
+William Kemp, Jr.
+
+The sad recollection of an accident at Littleton, resulting in the death
+of Silas Bullard, is occasionally revived by some of the older people.
+It occurred about the year 1825, and was caused by the upsetting of the
+Groton coach, driven by Samuel Stone, and at the time just descending
+the hill between Littleton Common and Nagog Pond, then known as
+Kimball's Hill. Mr. Bullard was one of the owners of the line, and a
+brother of Isaac, the veteran driver.
+
+Besides the stage-coaches the carrier wagons added to the business of
+Groton, and helped largely to support the taverns. The town was situated
+on one of the main thoroughfares leading from Boston to the northern
+country, comprising an important part of New Hampshire and Vermont, and
+extending into Canada. This road was traversed by a great number of
+wagons, drawn by four or six horses, carrying to the city the various
+products of the country, such as grain, pork, butter, cheese, eggs,
+venison, hides; and returning with goods found in the city, such as
+molasses, sugar, New-England rum, coffee, tea, nails, iron, cloths, and
+the innumerable articles found in the country stores, to be distributed
+among the towns above here. In some seasons, it was no uncommon sight to
+see forty such wagons passing through the village in one day.
+
+In addition to these were many smaller vehicles, drawn by one or two
+horses, to say nothing of the private carriages of individuals who were
+traveling for business or pleasure.
+
+For many of the facts mentioned in this paper I am indebted to Mr. Moses
+Gill, an octogenarian of Groton, whose mind is clear and body active for
+a man of his years. Mr. Gill is a grandson of Lieutenant-Governor Moses
+Gill, and was born at Princeton, on March 6, 1800. He has kept several
+public houses in Groton, already mentioned, besides the old brick tavern
+situated on the Lowell road, near Long-sought-for Pond, and formerly
+known as the Half-way. House. This hotel came within the limits of
+Westford, and was kept by Mr. Gill from the year 1842 to 1847. In his
+day he has known personally seventy-five landlords doing business
+between Davenport's (opposite to the celebrated Porter's tavern in
+Cambridge) and Keene, New Hampshire; and of this number, only seven are
+thought to be living at the present time.
+
+
+
+
+THE FAMILY IMMIGRATION TO NEW ENGLAND.
+
+BY THOMAS W. BICKNELL, LL.D.
+
+
+The unit of society is the individual. The unit of civilization is the
+family. Prior to December 20, 1620, New-England life had never seen a
+civilized family or felt its influences. It is true that the Icelandic
+Chronicles tell us that Lief, the son of Eric the Red, 1001, sailed with
+a crew of thirty-five men, in a Norwegian vessel, and driven southward
+in a storm, from Greenland along the coasts of Labrador, wintered in
+Vineland on the shores of Mount Hope Bay. Longfellow's Skeleton in Armor
+has revealed their temporary settlement. Thither sailed Eric's son,
+Thorstein, with his young and beautiful wife, Gudrida, and their
+twenty-five companions, the following year. His death occurred, and put
+an end to the expedition, which Thorfinn took up with his marriage to
+the young widow, Gudrida; with his bride and one hundred and sixty-five
+persons (five of them young married women), they spent three years on
+the shores of the Narragansett Bay, where Snorre, the _first_ white
+child, was born,--the progenitor of the great Danish sculptor,
+Thorwaldsen. But this is tradition, not history. Later still, came other
+adventurers to seek fortunes in the New World, but they came as
+individuals,--young, adventurous men, with all to gain and nothing to
+lose, and, if successful, to return with gold or fame, as the reward of
+their sacrifice and daring.
+
+Six hundred years pass, and a colony of one hundred and five men, not a
+woman in the company, sailed from England for America, and landed at
+Jamestown, Virginia. Within six months half of the immigrants had
+perished, and only for the courage and bravery of John Smith, the whole
+would have met a sad fate. The first European woman seen on the banks of
+the James was the wife of one of the seventy Virginia colonists who came
+later, and her maid, Anne Burroughs, who helped to give permanency and
+character to a fugitive settlement in a colony, which waited two hundred
+and fifty years to learn the value of a New-England home, and to
+appreciate the civilization which sprang up in a New-England town,
+through the agency of a New-England family.
+
+An experience similar to that of the Virginia settlers--disappointment,
+hardship, death--attended the immigrants who, under George Popham,
+Raleigh, and Gilbert, attempted to make a permanent home on the coast of
+Maine, but their house was a log camp, with not a solitary woman to
+light its gloom or cheer its occupants. Failure, defeat, and death were
+the inevitable consequences. There was no family, and there could be no
+permanency of civilization.
+
+The planting of Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay Colonies was of another
+sort. Whole families embarked on board the Mayflower, the Fortune, the
+Ann, the Mary and John, and other ships that brought their precious
+freight in safety to a New World. Of the one hundred and one persons who
+came in the Mayflower, in 1620, twenty-eight were females, and eighteen
+were wives and mothers. They did not leave their homes, in the truest
+sense,--they brought them with them. Their household goods and
+hearthstone gods were all snugly stowed beneath the decks of the
+historic ship, and the multitude of Mayflower relics, now held in
+precious regard in public and private collections, but testify to the
+immense inventory of that one little ship of almost fabulous carrying
+capacity. To the compact signed in Plymouth harbor, in 1620, John Carver
+signs eight persons, whom he represents; Edward Winslow, five; William
+Brewster, six; William Mullins, five; William White, five; Stephen
+Hopkins, Edward Fuller, and John Turner, each, eight; John Chilton,
+three,--one of whom, his daughter Mary, was the first woman, as
+tradition says, to jump from the boat upon Plymouth Rock. In the
+Weymouth Company, under the leadership of the Reverend Joseph Hull, who
+set sail from Old Weymouth, England, on the twentieth of March, 1635,
+and landed at Wessaguscus,--now Weymouth, Massachusetts,--there were one
+hundred and five persons, divided into twenty-one families. Among these
+were John Whitmarsh, his wife Alice, and four children; Robert Lovell,
+husbandman, with his good wife Elizabeth and children, two of whom,
+Ellen and James, were year-old twins; Edward Poole and family; Henry
+Kingman, Thomas Holbrook, Richard Porter, and not least of all, Zachary
+Bicknell, his wife Agnes, their son John, and servant John Kitchen.
+
+Families these,--all on board,--households, treasures, all worldly
+estates, and best of all the rich sympathies and supports of united,
+trusting hearts, daring to face the perils of an ocean-passage of
+forty-six days' duration, and the new, strange life in the wilds of
+America, that they might prove their faith in each other, in their
+principles, and in God. "He setteth the solitary in families," says the
+Psalmist; and the truth was never better illustrated than in the
+isolated and weary life of our ancestry, two and a half centuries ago.
+
+To the Pilgrim and the Puritan, wife, children, house, home, family,
+church, were the most precious possessions. Nothing human could divorce
+ties which nature had so strongly woven. And whenever we think of our
+honored ancestry, it is not as individual adventurers; but we see the
+good-man, the good-wife, and their children, as the representatives of
+the great body of those, who with them planted homes, families, society,
+civilization, in the Western World. They came together, or if alone, to
+pioneer the way for wife and children or sweetheart by the next ship,
+and they came to stay, as witness the names of the old families of
+Plymouth, Weymouth, Salem, Boston, Dorchester, in the leading circles of
+wealth and social position in all of these old towns. "Behold," says Dr.
+Bushnell, "the Mayflower, rounding now the southern cape of England,
+filled with husbands and wives and children; families of righteous men,
+under covenant with God and each other to lay some good foundation for
+religion, engaged both to make and keep their own laws, expecting to
+supply their own wants and bear their own burdens, assisted by none but
+the God in whom they trust! Here are the hands of industry! the germs of
+liberty! the dear pledges of order! and the sacred beginnings of a
+home!" Of such, only, could Mrs. Hemans's inspired hymn have been
+written:--
+
+  "There were men with hoary hair
+    Amidst that pilgrim band;
+  Why had they come to wither there,
+    Away from their childhood's land?
+
+  "There was woman's fearless eye,
+    Lit by her deep love's truth;
+  There was manhood's brow, serenely high,
+    And the fiery heart of youth."
+
+
+REASONS FOR FAMILY REMOVALS.
+
+To understand the reasons why thirty-five thousand loyal and respectable
+subjects of Charles I should leave Old England for the New, in family
+relations, between 1620 and 1625, let us look, if we can, through a
+chink in the wall, into the state of affairs, civil, social, and
+religious, as they existed in the best land, and under the best
+government, the sun then shone upon.
+
+Charles I succeeded his father, James I of Scotland, in 1624. The great,
+good act of James was the translation of our English Bible, known as
+King James's Version, a work which, for the exercise of learning,
+scholarship, and a zealous religious faith, has not been surpassed in
+any age. Take him all in all, James was a bigot, a tyrant, a conceited
+fool. He professed to be the most ardent devotee of piety, and at the
+same time issued a proclamation that all lawful recreations, such as
+dancing, archery, leaping, May-games, etc., might be used after divine
+service, on Sundays. An advocate of religious freedom, he attempted to
+enforce the most abject conformity in his own Scottish home, against the
+well-known independence of that section of his realm, and drove the
+Puritans to seek an asylum in Holland, where they might find liberty to
+worship God.
+
+In the county of Somerset, the old king consented to an act of tyranny
+which would grace the age of Henry VIII. One Reverend Edmund Peacham, a
+clergyman in Somersetshire, had his study broken open, and a manuscript
+sermon being there found in which there was strong censure of the
+extravagance of the king and the oppression of his officers, the
+preacher was put to the rack and interrogated, "before torture, in
+torture, between torture, and after torture," in order to draw from him
+evidence of treason; but this horrible severity could wring no
+confession from him. His sermon was not found treasonable by the judges
+of the King's Bench and by Lord Coke; but the unhappy man was tried and
+condemned, dying in jail before the time set for his execution. Just
+about this time was the State murder of Overbury, and the execution of
+Sir Walter Raleigh, one of England's noblest sons, brave and chivalric,
+who, at the executioner's block, took the axe in his hand, kissed the
+blade, and said to the sheriff: "'Tis a sharp medicine, but a sound cure
+for all diseases." These and kindred acts serve to illustrate the
+history of a king whose personal and selfish interests overruled all
+sentiments of honor and regard for his subjects, and who publicly
+declared that "he would govern according to the good of the commonweal,
+but not according to the common will." With such a king as James on the
+throne, is it a wonder that the more intelligent and conscientious of
+his subjects--like the Pilgrims and Puritans--sought a home on this side
+the Atlantic, where wild beasts and savage men were their only
+persecutors?
+
+We are told that "the face of the Court was much changed in the change
+of the king" from James to Charles I; "that the grossness of the Court
+of James grew out of fashion," but the people were slow to learn the
+difference. Of the two evils, James was to be preferred. Charles ascends
+the throne with flattering promises, attends prayers and listens to
+sermons, pays his father's debts and promises to reform the Court. Let
+us see what he does. The brilliant but profligate Buckingham is retained
+as prime minister. Charles marries the beautiful Henrietta Maria, the
+Roman Catholic princess of France. He fits out fleets against Spain and
+other quarters, and demands heavy taxes to meet his heavy expenses.
+Parliament is on its dignity, and demands its proper recognition. He
+dissolves it, and calls another. That is more rebellious, and that he
+summarily dissolves. Men of high and low degree go to prison at the
+king's behest, and the disobedient were threatened with severer
+penalties.
+
+The people of England are aroused, as the king of the earth sets himself
+against their claims in behalf of the royal prerogative. The king and
+the people are at war. Which will come off conquerer? There is only one
+answer to that question, for the battle is one between the pigmy and the
+giant. The contest grows sharper as the months go on, and the people are
+in constant alarm. Murders are common, and even Buckingham, the favorite
+minister, dies at the point of the assassin's knife, and the murderer
+goes to the Tower and the scaffold accompanied by the tumultuous cheers
+of London. Soon comes the Parliament of 1629, in which the popular
+leaders make their great remonstrance against the regal tyranny. In that
+House sat a plain young man, with ordinary cloth apparel, as if made by
+an old-country tailor, "his countenance swollen and reddish, his voice
+sharp and untonable," with "an eloquence full of fervor." That young man
+is yet to be heard from. His name is Cromwell, known in history as
+Oliver Cromwell. His briefly-reported speech of six lines is destined to
+be weightier than the edicts of a king. The session was brief. Popery
+and Arminianism, unjust taxation and voluntary payment of taxes not
+ordered by Parliament, were declared treasonable and hostile principles
+in Church and State,--so said Parliament. "You are a Parliament of
+vipers,"--so said the king; and, on the tenth of March, Parliament was
+dissolved, not to meet again in the old historic hall for eleven long
+years; until, in 1640, the majesty of an outraged people rises superior
+to the majesty of an outraging ruler. Now follow the attempted riveting
+of the chains of a despotic and unscrupulous power, which does not
+understand the temper of the common people, nor the methods of
+counteracting a great popular upheaval in society.
+
+It is not easy to resist the iron pressure of a tyrant; but, to our
+ancestors, it was far better than to accept the peace and profit which
+might follow abject submission. To borrow the words of De Tocqueville:
+"They cling to freedom for its native charms independent of its
+gifts,--the pleasure of speaking, acting, and breathing without
+restraint, under no master but God and the Law." The Englishmen of the
+first half of the seventeenth century were the fathers of the men who
+fired shots at Lexington and Concord, "heard round the world."
+
+But how do the royal prerogatives affect our ancestors in England? Our
+fathers were of common mould, and feel the unjust demand of the
+tax-gatherer and the insolent demeanor of the Crown officers, who
+threaten fines and imprisonment for a refusal to obey. The people are
+aroused and are united; some are hopeless, some hopeful. The Crown seems
+to have its sway, but the far-sighted see the people on the coming
+throne of righteous judgement. What troubles our ancestors most is the
+interference with their religious life. Archbishop Laud is now supreme,
+and the Pope never had a more willing vassal. Ministers are examined as
+to their loyalty to the government, their sermons are read to private
+judges of their orthodoxy, the confessional is established, and the
+alter-service is restored. It is a time when earnest men and women
+cannot be trifled with on soul concerns. Their property may perish or be
+confiscated, but the right to unmolested worship is older than Magna
+Charta, and as inalienable as life itself. What is to be done?
+Resistance or emigration--which? Resist and die, say Cromwell and
+Wentworth, Eliot and Hampden. Emigrate and live, say the men and women
+who came by thousands from all parts of England during the reign of this
+monarch, and made possible the permanent establishment of a new society,
+on the basis of social order and family life.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+AN INCIDENT OF SIXTEEN HUNDRED AND EIGHTY-SIX.
+
+BY THE HON. MELLEN CHAMBERLAIN.
+
+
+On the afternoon of the twenty-sixth of May, 1686, two horsemen were
+riding from Boston to Cambridge. By which route they left the town is
+now known; but most probably over the Roxbury Neck, following the path
+taken by Lord Percy when he went to the relief of Lieutenant-Colonel
+Smith's ill-starred expedition to seize the military stores at Concord,
+on the nineteenth of April, 1775. Of the nature of their errand--whether
+peaceful or hostile,--of the subject of their conversation, as they rode
+along the King's highway, neither history nor tradition has left any
+account. But when they had reached Muddy River, now the beautiful suburb
+of Brookline, about two miles from Cambridge, they were met by a young
+man riding in the opposite direction, who, as he came against them,
+abruptly and without other salutation, said: "God save King James the
+Second!" and then rode on. But soon turning his horse towards the
+travelers he most inconsequentially completed his sentence by adding,
+"But I say, God curse King James!" and this malediction he repeated so
+many times and with such vehemence, that the two horsemen at last turned
+their horses and riding up to him, told him plainly that he was a rogue.
+This expression of their opinion produced, however, only a slight
+modification of the young man's sentiments, to this form: "God curse
+King James and God bless Duke James!" But a few strokes of their whips
+effected his complete conversion, and then, as a loyal subject, he
+exclaimed: "God curse Duke James, and God bless King James!"
+
+Such is the unadorned statement of facts as sworn to the next day in the
+Council by these riders, and their oath was attested by Edward Randolph,
+the "evil genius of New England." I present it in its legal baldness of
+detail. The two horsemen are no reminiscence of Mr. James's celebrated
+opening, but two substantial citizens of Boston, Captain Peter Bowden
+and Dr. Thomas Clarke; and the young man with somewhat original
+objurgatory tendencies was one Wiswell, as they called him--presumably
+not a son of the excellent Duxbury parson of the same name; and for the
+same reason, even less probably, a student of Cambridge University, as
+it was at that early day sometimes called.
+
+The original paper in which the foregoing facts are recorded has long
+been in my possession; and as often as my eye has rested on it, I have
+wondered what made that young man swear so; and by what nicety of moral
+discrimination he found his justification in blessing the Duke and
+cursing the King--"unus et idem"--in the same breath. Who and what was
+he? and of what nature were his grievances? Was there any political
+significance in that strange mingling of curses and blessings? That his
+temper was not of martyr firmness was evident enough from the sudden
+change in the current of his thoughts brought about by the tingling of
+the horsewhip. All else was mystery. But the commonest knowledge of the
+English and colonial history of those days was sufficient to stimulate
+conjecture on these points. At the date of the incident recorded James
+II had been on the throne more than a year, and for a long time both as
+duke and king had been hated and feared on both sides of the ocean. The
+Duke of Monmouth's ill-fated adventure for the Crown had failed at
+Sedgemoor, and his young life ended on the block, denied expected mercy
+by his uncle, the king: ended on the block: but not so believed the
+common people of England. They believed him to be still living, and the
+legitimate heir to the British crown, and that his unnatural uncle was
+only Duke James of England. In those days English affairs were more
+closely followed by the colonists than at present, and for obvious
+reasons; and it is quite open to conjecture at least that the feelings
+of English yeomen and artisans were known to, and shared by, their
+cousins in Massachusetts Bay, and that Master Wiswell only gave
+expression to a sentiment common to people of his class on both sides
+the water.
+
+This, however, is mere conjecture. But there are important facts. On the
+preceding day, in the Town House, which stood at the head of State
+Street, where the old State House now stands, events culminated, in
+comparison with which the causes which led to the war of the Revolution
+sink into utter insignificance. On the twenty-third of October, 1684, in
+the High Court of Chancery of England, judgment was entered on the writ
+of _scire facias_, by which the charter of Massachusetts Bay was
+vacated; and as a consequence, the title to the soil, with all
+improvements, reverted to the Crown, to the ruin of those who had
+wrested it from the wilderness, and guarded it from the savage foe. The
+old government, so endeared to the people, and defended against kingly
+assault with the truest courage, was swept away by arbitrary power, and
+in its place a new one established, under the presidency of Joseph
+Dudley, and he a recreant son of the colony. It was the inauguration of
+this government which had taken place on the day before Captain Bowden
+and Dr. Clarke encountered John Wiswell, Jr., on their ride to
+Cambridge. There ceremonies of the inauguration were not without
+circumstances of pomp, and are set forth in the Council records at the
+State House, from which I transcribe the following incidents: When the
+new government, the president, and Council were assembled, the
+exemplification of the judgment against the charter of the late governor
+and company of the Massachusetts Bay, in New England, publicly (in the
+court where were present divers of the eminent ministers, gentlemen, and
+inhabitants of the town and country) was read with an audible voice. The
+commission was read and the oaths administered, and the new president
+made his speech, after which, proclamation was openly read in court, and
+commanded to be published by beat of drum and trumpet, which was
+accordingly done.
+
+The people in the Forum heard these drum and trumpets--young Wiswell,
+doubtless, with the rest--and knew what they signified: the confiscation
+of houses and lands; the abrogation of existing laws; taxes exacted
+without consent or legislation; the enforced support of a religion not
+of the people's choice; and navigation laws ruinous to their foreign
+commerce, then beginning to assume importance; and from these
+consequences they were saved only by the revolution, which two years
+later drove James II from his throne. It is difficult to credit these
+sober facts of history, and still more to fully realize their
+destructive import; but they should always be borne in mind; for if any
+one reflecting on the causes assigned by the leaders of the great
+Revolution, as justifying the violent partition of an empire, is led for
+a moment to question their sufficiency, let him then consider that they
+were assigned by a people full of the traditions of the long struggle
+against kingly injustice, in the days of the second Charles and the
+second James.
+
+A few words--the result of later investigation--as to the actors in the
+events of this ride to Cambridge. When Bowden and Clarke had attested
+their loyalty by horsewhipping young Wiswell, they took him in charge to
+Cambridge, and vainly tried to persuade Nathaniel Hancock, the
+constable, to carry him before a magistrate. This refusal brought
+_him_ into difficulty with Council; but his humble submission was
+finally accepted and he was discharged on payment of costs, on the plea
+that upon the change of the government there was no magistrate
+authorized to commit him to prison. Not quite so fortunate was John
+Wiswell, Jr., for on the third of August the grand jury found a true
+bill against him for uttering "these devilish, unnatural, and wicked
+words following, namely, _God curse King James_." That he was
+brought to trial on this complaint I cannot find. And so the actors in
+these scenes pass away. Of Bowden and Clarke I know nothing more; and
+the little which appears of John Wiswell's subsequent life is not wholly
+to his credit, I am sorry to say, and the more so, as I have recently
+discovered that he was once a townsman of mine, and doubtless a playmate
+of my kindred at Rumney Marsh.
+
+These actors have all gone, and so has gone the old Town House; not so,
+as yet, let us heartily thank God, has gone the old State House which
+stands where that stood; on the one spot--if there is but one--which
+ought to be dear to the heart of every Bostonian, and sacred from his
+violating hand. For here, on the spot of that eastern balcony, looking
+down into the old Puritan Forum, what epochs in our history have been
+announced: the abrogation of the First Charter--the deposition of
+Andros--the inauguration of the Second Charter--the death and accession
+of English sovereigns--the Declaration of Independence, and the adoption
+of the Constitution of the United States; and here still stands the
+grandest historic edifice in America, and within it?--why add to the
+hallowing words of old John Adams?--"Within its walls Liberty was born!"
+
+      *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+ONE SUMMER. A REMINISCENCE.
+
+BY ANNIE WENTWORTH BAER.
+
+
+It was a beautiful morning in June. The sun was just peeping through the
+pines fringing the eastern horizon; fleecy mists were rising, like
+"ghosts of the valley," from every brook and low place in field and
+pasture, betokening a warm, fair day. As I opened the heavy front door
+of Mr. Wetherell's old gambrel-roofed house, and stepped out onto the
+large flat stone at the door-sill, every blade of grass was glistening
+with dew-drops; such a sweetness pervaded the air as one only realizes
+when the dew is on the grass and bushes. At my right, close to the
+door-stone, a large bush of southern-wood, or man's-first-love, was
+growing; just beyond it and under the "middle-room" windows two large,
+white-rose bushes were bending beneath the weight of a multitude of
+roses and buds. A large yellow-rose bush claimed the left, and spread
+itself over the ground. Single red roses were standing guard at the
+corner of the house. A rod or more below the front door the garden fence
+stood and looked as if it had been standing for many a year. It was made
+of palings, pointed; I should think it was five feet high. The posts had
+begun to lean into the garden and the palings were covered with a short
+green moss, which seemed soft and growing in the dew. The old gate swung
+itself to after me with a bang, and I noticed that a string with a brick
+fastened to it and tied to the gate at one end, and twisted around a
+stake driven into the ground a few feet from the gate, was the cause of
+its closing so quickly. Red-cherry trees loaded with small green
+cherries were growing on one side of the garden; purple-plum trees
+skirted the other side; and I knew full well how two months later those
+creased, mouldy-looking plums would be found hiding in the short, green
+grass beneath the trees.
+
+Peach-trees were leaning over the fence in the southeast corner; a long
+row of red-currant bushes ran through the middle of the garden; English
+gooseberry bushes threw out their prickly branches laden with round,
+woolly fruit at the north end. Rows of hyssop, rue, saffron, and sage,
+and beds of lettuce, pepper-grass, and cives, all had their place in
+this old-fashioned garden. In the southwest corner an immense
+black-currant bush was growing on both sides of the fence. Out in the
+field below the garden two Bell-pear trees, as large as elms, were
+bending their branches, loaded with fruit, a luscious promise for the
+autumn-time. A button-pear tree, just beyond, was making up in quantity
+what its fruit lacked in quality.
+
+While I was exploring this well-cultivated spot, Mrs. Wetherell called
+me to breakfast. The kitchen was a large room, running across one end of
+the house; it had four windows in it, two east and two west. All this
+space was filled with the fragrance of coffee and cornmeal bannocks.
+
+Mrs. Wetherell said: "I don't know as you will like your coffee
+sweetened in the pot, but I always make ours so."
+
+I assured her I should.
+
+During breakfast Mr. Wetherell passed me some cheese, and I asked Mrs.
+Wetherell if she made cheese.
+
+"Not this month," she replied, "in July and August I shall. I am packing
+butter now."
+
+"Do you think you are going to be contented back here?--you won't see as
+much going on as you do at home," Mr. Wetherell asked me.
+
+"O, yes," I answered; "I expect to enjoy myself very much."
+
+Samanthy, the daughter, now well advanced in life, seemed very solemn
+and said very little. I wondered if she were sick, or unhappy. A little
+later in the day, while I was watching Mrs. Wetherell salt a churning of
+butter in the back porch, she said to me: "You mustn't mind Samanthy,
+she isn't quite right in her head: a good many years ago she had a sad
+blow." She hesitated; I disliked to ask her what it was, so I said "Poor
+woman!" "Yes," said her mother, "she is a poor soul. She was expecting
+to be married to Eben Johnson, a young man who worked on our new barn.
+She got acquainted with him then, and after a year or so they were
+promised. Eben was a good fellow, a j'iner by trade. He lived in the
+village. In the fall before they would have been married, in the spring,
+he had typhoid fever, and they sent for Samanthy. She went and took care
+of him three weeks, and then he died. She came home, and seemed like one
+in a maze. After a little while she was took with the fever, and liked
+to died, and my two girls, Margaret and Frances, both had it and died
+with it. Samanthy has never been the same since she got well. Her health
+has been good, but her mind is weak." I had noticed that Mrs. Wetherell
+seemed very much broken in health and spirits, and after hearing this
+story I did not wonder that the blows of Providence had weakened her
+hold on life.
+
+Samanthy was very shy of me at first, but after a few days she would
+talk in her disjointed way with me.
+
+One morning I was out in the well-house. The well was very deep, and by
+leaning over the curb, and by putting one's arms around one's head, one
+could see the stars mirrored in the bottom of the dark old well.
+Samanthy came out for some water, while I was star-gazing in this way.
+She said: "What you lost?"
+
+"O, nothing. I am only looking at the stars."
+
+Samanthy looked as if she thought I might be more profitably engaged. I
+took hold of the handle of the windlass, swung off the great oaken
+bucket, and watched it descend its often-traveled course, bumping
+against the wet, slippery rocks with which the well was stoned.
+
+Samanthy said: "You can't pull that up; it's heavy."
+
+"Let me try," I said. "I never drew water with a windlass."
+
+I had a much harder task than I supposed, but succeeded in swinging the
+bucket onto the platform of the curb, and turned the water into
+Samanthy's pail. I never asked permission to draw another bucketful.
+
+I noticed below the well a large mound, grass-grown, with an apple-tree
+growing on its very top. I wondered how it came there, and one day asked
+Mr. Wetherell.
+
+He said: "That's where we threw the rocks and gravel out of the well
+fifty years ago; we never moved it. It grassed over, and the apple-tree
+came up there; it bears a striped apple, crisp and sour."
+
+I thought, What a freak of Nature! and I wished that many more piles of
+rubbish might be transformed into such a pretty spot as this.
+
+Below the mound stood the old hollow tree; its trunk was low and very
+large, one side had rotted away, leaving it nearly hollow. Still there
+was trunk enough left for the sap to run up; and every year it was
+loaded with fruit.
+
+Close by the path across the field to the road stood the Pang
+apple-tree. This tree was named Pang because a dog by that name was
+sleeping his last sleep beneath the tree. He was much beloved by the
+family. I thought, What a pretty place to be buried in! and a living
+monument to mark his grave. From the stories I heard of Pang, I know he
+must have been a fine dog, and I should have liked to have known him.
+
+Just back of the house stood the cider-house. At this season of the year
+the wood for summer use was stored there, but in autumn all the
+neighbors brought their apples, and ground them into cider. Samanthy
+told me how she used to clean the cider nuts with a shingle; this was
+when she was small.
+
+She said: "A cousin of mine, living at Beech Ridge, got his arm caught
+while cleaning the pummy out, and ground it all up. After that father
+was afraid for we children to do it."
+
+Back of the building I saw thousands of little apple-trees, growing from
+the pomace which was shoveled out there year after year.
+
+The loft, over the part where the cider-mill was, was the corn-house. I
+went up over the wide plank stairs and looked around.
+
+Traces of snapping-corn and of white-pudding corn were hanging over a
+pole at one end. A large chest, filled with different kinds of beans,
+stood at one side. On the plates which supported the rafters, marks made
+in this wise--[Symbol: Tally mark of 5]--told of the bushels of corn
+carried up there and spread on the clean, white floor.
+
+These marks had been made by many hands, and I wondered where they were
+now. Some undoubtedly were sleeping the
+
+  "Sleep that knows not breaking:
+  Morn of toil, nor night of waking."
+
+
+Others, perhaps, were making their mark somewhere else.
+
+"Independence Day," as Mr. Wetherell called it, was observed in a very
+liberal manner on the farm. A lamb was slaughtered, green peas were
+picked, and a plum-pudding made.
+
+Lemonade, made of sparkling spring water, was a common drink. Mr.
+Wetherell told me how his father always kept the day. He brought out the
+large blue punchbowl and square cut-glass decanters, which his father
+used on such occasions.
+
+The next morning after the Fourth, I started out through the field for
+the pasture. The grass was tall, and it waved gently in the morning
+breeze. The whiteweed and clover sent forth an agreeable perfume. In the
+low ground buttercups were shining like gold dollars, sprinkled through
+the tall herdsgrass. Yellow-weed, the farmer's scourge, held up its
+brown and yellow head in defiance.
+
+On a knoll, a little before I reached the graveyard, I passed over a
+piece of ground where the winter had killed the grass roots. Here I
+found sorrel, cinque-foil, and a few bunches of blue-eyed grass growing.
+Nature seemed to try to conceal the barrenness of the spot with beauty.
+It was a grave, decorated.
+
+Off to my right, in a piece of rank grass, where branches of dock had
+sprung up, bobolinks were swinging the pale, green sprays, filling the
+air with melody. "Bobolink, bobolink, spirk, spank, spink, chee, chee,
+chee!"
+
+I knew that "Mrs. Robert of Lincoln" was sitting contentedly on her
+little round nest, under a tuft of grass, very near the sweet singer. I
+paused at the graveyard, and looked over the wall. I read: "Margaret and
+Frances Wetherell, daughters of John and Hannah Wetherell, aged 18 and
+20 years." I knew these were the girls who had died of the fever; a twin
+gravestone had been put up to their graves. Another stone told of a
+little girl, two and a half years old--Catherine. I reckoned up the
+date, and had she been living, she would have been over forty years old.
+Many other stones stood there, but I left them without reading the
+inscriptions, and hastened on to the pines.
+
+I stepped over the low wall between the field and pasture and walked
+down by the brook until I came to the Stony Bridge. This I crossed and
+followed up on the broad wheelpath. The pines smelled so sweet: the
+grass was short and green: everything seemed calm and cool. I sat down
+by a large Norway pine and watched the birds. Right below me I saw a
+fox-hole, with the entrance so barricaded with sticks and stones, that I
+felt very sure poor Reynard must have been captured unless he dug out
+somewhere else. I began to walk around. Six or seven feet to the south
+of the besieged door, I discovered another entrance. I don't know
+whether some animal was still living in the old house, or no: but this
+hole looked as if it were used. A little pine grew in front, a juniper
+made its roof and spread its fine branches over the door, squaw vines
+and checkerberry leaves grew on either side.
+
+I walked on in the wheelpath. On the north side many tall Norway pines
+were growing, with white pines scattered here and there. Crimson
+polygalas were carpeting the ground in open spaces; pale anemones and
+delicate star-flowers were still blooming under the protection of small
+pines; wild strawberries were blossoming in cold places; and I wondered
+when they would fruit.
+
+Finally I came to an open field, or what looked like land that had been
+cultivated. Hosts of bluets and plots of mouse-ear everlasting, had
+taken possession of the land. Small pines were scattered here and there,
+like settlers in a new country. Junipers were creeping stealthily in, as
+if expecting the axe. There were traces of where a fence had run along.
+I concluded that this was years ago a field, but now the cows roamed
+over it at will.
+
+Going around in the edge of the woods I came to four pines growing from
+one root; two grew on each side close together, and left a fine seat
+between the pairs. I sat down there, and felt thankful that I was
+living, and that my abiding-place was among the granite hills of New
+England.
+
+Soon I saw something move a few rods beyond me in the woods. I looked
+again and saw the finest woodchuck I ever saw. He stood in a listening
+attitude. I suppose he had heard me, but had not seen me. His fur was
+yellow and brown mixed; his nose and feet were black; his countenance
+was expressive of lively concern. He disappeared and I left my sylvan
+seat, and walked up where the woodchuck had been standing. I found his
+home and numerous little tracks around the door. I hastened off, because
+I feared my presence would worry him.
+
+I knew it must be near noontime, so I began to retrace my way. I walked
+up through the pasture and passed the "Great Ledge." This ledge was on
+the side of a steep hill. One side of it was perpendicular thirty feet.
+It was covered with crisp, gray moss. In the chinks and crannies on the
+top, short grass was growing in little bunches.
+
+As I followed down in the lane which led from the pasture to the
+cow-yard, striped squirrels were playfully skipping through the
+dilapidated wall, coming out, and disappearing; sitting down and putting
+their forefeet up to their faces as if they were convulsed with laughter
+to think how the old black-and-white cat had gone to sleep lying on the
+wall in the sun, only a few rods below them.
+
+Dinner was ready, as I expected. I told Mrs. Wetherell of my walk over
+the Stony Bridge.
+
+"Yes," she said. "Years ago, when I kept geese, one night I went out to
+feed them and I found that they hadn't come. I knew something must be
+the matter. I started for the brook. When I got out on the hill by the
+graveyard, I heard the gander making an awful noise. I hurried on, and,
+when I got to the corner of the field, I found a fox jumping at the old
+gander as he was walking back and forth in front of the geese and
+goslings. I screeched and the fox run. The geese came right up to me. I
+was pretty pleased to save them. I had two geese and thirteen goslings
+beside the gander."
+
+I said: "Is that a ledge out in the field where sumachs and birches are
+growing?"
+
+Mrs. Wetherell said: "Yes; and that piece of ground is where Father
+Wetherell raised the last piece of flax. I don't suppose you ever saw
+any growing?"
+
+"No," I said. "Only in gardens. A field must be very handsome."
+
+"Yes, the flower is a bluish purple, with a little yellow dot in the
+middle."
+
+I asked her when they cut it.
+
+"O, they never cut it; they pulled it after the seeds got ripe; then
+they would beat the seeds out of the pods. These pods look like little
+varnished balls. When the seed was out, the flax was laid in a wet place
+in the field for weeks; occasionally the men would turn it over. When it
+was well rotted they dried it and put it up in the barn until March.
+Then Father Wetherell would take it down and brake it in the brake.
+After that he would swingle it over a swingling-board, with a long
+knife; then he made it into hands of flax. The women used to take it
+next and comb it through a flax-comb; this got out all the shives and
+tow. There was a tow which came out when it was swingled, called swingle
+tow. Mother Wetherell said that, years before, when she was young she
+used to use this to make meal-bags and under-bedticks of. But I never
+used any of it."
+
+I asked her how they used the flax after it was combed.
+
+"Then it was wound onto the distaff."
+
+"What was that?" Mrs. Wetherell smiled at my ignorance, but proceeded
+kindly to explain.
+
+"A distaff was made of a small pine top. They peeled off the bark, and
+when it was dry, tied down the ends, and put the other end onto the
+standard of the wheel. Then they would commence and wind on the flax. A
+hand of flax would fill it. I used to be a pretty good hand to spin tow
+on a big wheel, but I never could spin linen very even. Old Aunt Joanna
+used to spin linen thread; and Mother Wetherell used to buy great skeins
+of her. She said it was cheaper to buy than to spend so much time
+spinning."
+
+Mrs. Wetherell told me that I should go up in the garret and see the
+wheels and all the old machinery used so long ago.
+
+That evening I asked Mr. Wetherell: "Has there ever been a field beyond
+the pines?"
+
+"Yes," he said: "Father cleared that piece nigh onto eighty year ago. We
+always called it 'the field back of the pines.' When father got old, and
+I kinder took the lead, I said we better turn that field out into the
+paster. He felt bad about it at first, but when I told him how much work
+it was to haul the manure over there, and the crops back, he gave in.
+Them Norrerway pines are marster old; I s'pose they'd stood there a
+hundred and fifty year."
+
+I felt a thrill of pity for the old man, now at rest. He must have been
+nearly at the base of life's western slope, when he rescued those few
+acres from the forest. The little field was his pride, I think it ought
+to have been left, while he lived.
+
+One morning when Lucy, as Mrs. Wetherell called her, was washing at the
+farm, she said to me: "Did you ever have your fortin told?" I answered,
+"No."
+
+"Well," she said, "I dunno as I b'lieve all they say, but some can tell
+pretty well. Did you ever try any projects?"
+
+"No. How is that done?" I asked.
+
+"O! there's ever so many! One is, you pick two of them big thistles
+'fore they are bloomed out, then you name 'em and put 'em under your
+piller; the one that blooms out fust will be the one you will marry.
+'Nuther one is to walk down cellar at twelve o'clock at night,
+backwards, with a looking-glass in your hand. You will see your man's
+face in the glass. But there! I don't know as its best to act so. You
+know how Foster got sarved?"
+
+"No. How was it?"
+
+"Why! Didn't you never hear? Well, Foster told the Devil if he would let
+him do and have all he wanted for so many year, when the time was out,
+he would give himself, soul and body, to the Devil. He signed the
+writing with his blood; Foster carried on a putty high hand, folks was
+afear'd of him. When the time was up, the Devil came: I guess they had a
+tough battle. Folks said they never heard such screams, and in the
+morning his legs and arms was found scattered all over the cowyard."
+
+I recognized in this tragic story, Marlowe's Faustus. I was much amused
+at Lucy's rendering.
+
+A few weeks afterwards she told me how the house where she lived was
+haunted. I asked her, "Who haunts it?"
+
+"Why!" she said, "it's a woman. She walks up and down them old stairs,
+dressed in white, looking so sorrowfullike, I know there must have been
+foul play. And then such noises as we hear overhead! My man says that
+it's rats. Rats! I know better!"
+
+I thought that Lucy wanted to believe in ghosts, so I didn't try to
+reason with her,--
+
+  "For a man convinced against his will
+   Is of the same opinion still."
+
+
+Lucy was quite an old woman; and I used to think that washing was too
+hard work for her; but she seemed very happy. All the while she was
+rubbing the clothes over the wooden washboard, or wringing them out with
+her hands, she would be singing old-fashioned songs, such as Jimmy and
+Nancy, Auld Robin Gray, and another one beginning "In Springfield
+mountain there did dwell." It was very sad!
+
+These songs were chanted, all in one tune. If the words had not been
+quaint, and suggestive of a century or more ago, I think the
+entertainment would have been monotonous,
+
+Lucy brought the news of the neighborhood. One morning she came in, and
+said: "John King's folks thinks an awful sight of themselves, sence
+Calline has been off. She has sot herself up marsterly. They have gone
+to work now and painted all the trays and paint-kags they can find red,
+and filled them with one thing another, and set them round the house. No
+good will come of that! When you see every thing painted red, look out
+for war; it's a sure sign."
+
+One evening late in summer, when I came in from a walk through the
+fields, I found in the back porch all the implements for cheese-making.
+Mrs. Wetherell said: "It's too warm to make butter, now dog-days have
+come in, so I am going to make cheese."
+
+That night all the milk was strained into the large tub. The next
+morning this milk was stirred and the morning's milk strained into it.
+Then Mrs. Wetherell warmed a kettleful and poured into the tub, and
+tried it with her finger to see if it was warm enough. She said: "My
+rennet is rather weak, so I have to use considerable."
+
+After she had turned the rennet in, she laid the cheese-tongs across the
+tub, and spread a homespun tablecloth over it, and looking up to me, she
+said: "In an hour or so that will come."
+
+I made it my business, when the hour was out, to be back in the porch.
+Mrs. Wetherell was stirring up the thick white curd, and dipping out the
+pale green whey, with a little wooden dish. After she had "weighed it,"
+she mixed in salt thoroughly. She asked me to hand her her cheese-hoop
+and cloth, which were lying on the table behind me. She put one end of
+the cloth into the hoop and commenced filling it with curd, pressing it
+down with her hand. When it was nearly full she slipped up the hoop a
+little: "to give it a chance to press," she said. After this, she put
+the cheese between two cheese-boards, in the press, and began to turn
+the windlass-like machine, to bring the weights down.
+
+"Now," said she, "I shall let this stay in press all day, then I shall
+put it in pickle for twenty-four hours. The next night I shall rub it
+dry with a towel, and put it up in the cheese-room. Now comes the
+tug-o'-war! I have to watch them close to keep the flies out."
+
+The forerunners of autumn had already touched the hillsides, and my
+thoughts were turning homeward, when one Saturday morning Mr. Wetherell
+came in and said: "Miss Douglass, don't you want to ride up to the
+paster? I'm going up to salt the steers."
+
+Mrs. Wetherell hastened to add: "Yes, you go; you hain't had a ride
+since you been here. Old Darby ain't fast, but he's good."
+
+Eagerly I accepted the invitation, and in a few minutes we set off.
+
+Darby was a great strong white horse, with minute brown spots all over
+him. Mr. Wetherell told me stories of all the people, as Darby shuffled
+by their houses, raising a big cloud of dust.
+
+When we came to a sandy stretch of road, Mr. Wetherell said: "This is
+what we call the Plains. Here is where we used to have May trainings,
+years and years ago. Once they had a sham-fight, and I thought I should
+have died a-laughing. I was nothing but a boy. We always thought so much
+of the gingerbread we got at training; I used to save my money to spend
+on that day. Once, when I was about thirteen year old, a _passel_
+of us boys got together to talk over training. Jim Barrows said that old
+Miss Hammet (she lived over behind the hill there) had got a cake baked,
+with plums in it, for training, and was going to have five cents a slice
+for it. He said: 'Now, if the rest of you will go into the house and
+talk with her, I will climb into the foreroom window, and hook the cake
+out of the three-cornered cupboard.' We all agreed. I went in, and
+commenced to talk with the old woman; some of the boys leaned up against
+the door that opened into the foreroom. After a little while we went out
+and met Jim, down by the spring, and we ate the cake. Some way a-nother
+it didn't taste so good as we expected. There was an awful outscreech
+when she found it out. Jim was a mighty smart fellar. He married a girl
+from Cranberry Medder, and they went down East. I have heard that they
+were doing fust-rate."
+
+After riding for some time through low, woody places, where the grass
+grew on each side of the horse's track, we came to the main traveled
+road. Thistles were blooming and going to seed, all on one stock.
+Flax-birds were flying among them filling the air with their sweet
+notes. Soon we turned into a lane, and came to the pasture-bars, Mr.
+Wetherell said: "You stay here with Darby, and I will drive the steers
+up to the bars, and salt them."
+
+I got out of the wagon, and unchecked Darby's head, and led him up to a
+plot of white clover, to get a lunch. Nature seemed to have made an
+uneven distribution of foretop and fetlock in Darby's case, his foretop
+was so scanty and his fetlocks so heavy. A fringe of long hairs stood
+out on his forelegs from his body to his feet, giving him quite a savage
+look. As I looked down at his large flat feet, I felt glad that he
+didn't have to travel over macadamized roads.
+
+I sat down on some logs which were lying at one side, and listened to
+the worms sawing away, under the bark.
+
+Soon Mr. Wetherell came back with the steers, and dropped the salt down
+in spots. We watched them lick it up.
+
+I asked Mr. Wetherell why those logs were left there.
+
+"O, Bascom is a poor, shiftless kind of a critter. I s'pose the snow
+went off before he got ready to haul them to the mill; but if he had
+peeled them in June or July, they would have been all right; but now
+they will be about sp'iled by the worms."
+
+Mr. Wetherell got Darby turned around after much backing and getting up,
+for the lane was narrow, and we started homeward.
+
+As we rode slowly along, Mr. Wetherell asked me: "Have you ever been to
+the beach?"
+
+I told him, "Yes, and I enjoyed it."
+
+He said: "I always liked to go, but Mis' Wetherell has a dread of the
+water, ever since her brother Judson was drowned."
+
+"Was he a sailor?" I asked.
+
+"Yes, he was a sea-capt'n. He married a Philadelphy woman, and they
+sailed in the brig Florilla. She was wrecked on the coast of Ireland.
+She run on a rock, and broke her in two amidships. Her cargo was cotton,
+the bales floated in ashore, and formed a bridge for a second or so. The
+first mate and one of the sailors ran in on this bridge, but the next
+wave took them out and scattered them, and there was no way to save the
+rest. Judson and his wife, and all the crew, except the mate and one
+sailor, were all drowned. The mate stayed there for some time, and
+buried the bodies which washed ashore. He found Judson's body first, and
+had most given up finding his wife's, when one day she washed into a
+little cove, and he buried them side by side. He came here to our house,
+and told us all about it. It was awful. It completely upsot Mis'
+Wetherell. Her health has been poor for a good many year. She has bad
+neuralgy spells."
+
+"Come, Darby, get up! you are slower than a growth of white oaks."
+
+After several vigorous jerks, Darby started off at a long, swinging
+gait, and we soon reached home.
+
+Only once more did I watch the sun go down behind the western hills,
+lighting them up with a flood of crimson light; while a tender, subdued
+gleam rested for a moment on the eastern summits, like the gentle kiss a
+mother gives her babe, when she slips him off her arm to have his nap.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+THE BELLS OF BETHLEHEM.
+
+[On hearing them in the hill country of New Hampshire, September, 1880.]
+
+  "The far-off sound of holy bells."
+
+  How the sweet chimes this Sunday morn,
+      'Mid autumn's requiem,
+  Across the mountain valleys borne,--
+      The bells of Bethlehem!
+  "Come join with us," they seem to say,
+  "And celebrate this hallowed day!"
+
+  Our hearts leap up with glad accord--
+      Judea's Bethlehem strain,
+  That once ascended to the Lord,
+      Floats back to earth again,
+  As round _our_ hills the echoes swell
+  To "God with us, Emanuel!"
+
+  O Power Divine, that led the star
+      To Mary's sinless Child!
+  O ray from heaven that beamed afar
+      And o'er his cradle smiled!
+  Help us to worship now with them
+  Who hailed the Christ at Bethlehem!
+
+_James T. Fields, in The Granite Monthly._
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+[Illustration: Boston and Vicinity. _Compiled and Drawn by
+Col. Carrington_]
+
+
+THE SIEGE OF BOSTON DEVELOPED.
+
+BY HENRY B. CARRINGTON, U.S.A., LL.D.
+
+[Author of The Battles of the American Revolution, etc.]
+
+
+By order of the President of the United States, a national salute was
+fired, at meridian, on the twenty-fourth day of December, 1883, as a
+memorial recognition of the one hundreth anniversary of the surrender by
+George Washington, on the twenty-third day of December, 1783, at
+Annapolis, of his commission as commander-in-chief of the patriotic
+forces of America. This official order declares "the fitness of
+observing that memorable act, which not only signalized the termination
+of the heroic struggle of seven years for independence, but also
+manifested Washington's devotion to the great principle, that ours is a
+civil government, of and by the people."
+
+The closing sentence of Washington's order, dated April 18, 1783, may
+well be associated with this latest centennial observance. As he
+directed a cessation of hostilities, his joyous faith, jubilant and
+prophetic, thus forecast the future: "Happy, thrice happy! shall they be
+pronounced, hereafter, who have contributed anything, who have performed
+the meanest office, in erecting this stupendous fabric of freedom and
+empire, on the broad basis of independence,--who have assisted in
+protecting the rights of human nature, and establishing an asylum for
+the poor and oppressed of all nations and religions."
+
+The two acts of Washington, thus associated, were but the fruition of
+deliberate plans which were formulated in the trenches about Boston. The
+"centennial week of years," which has so signally brought into bold
+relief the details of single battles and has imparted fresh interest to
+many localities which retain no visible trace of the scenes which endear
+them to the American heart, has inclined the careless observer to regard
+the battles of the War for Independence as largely accidental, and the
+result of happy, or even of Providential, circumstances, rather than as
+the fruit of well-considered plans which were shaped with full
+confidence in success.
+
+Battles and campaigns have been separated from their true relation to
+the war, as a systematic conflict, in which the strategic issue was
+sharply defined; and too little notice has been taken of the fact that
+Washington took the aggressive from his first assumption of command. The
+title "Fabius of America" was freely conferred upon him after his
+success at Trenton; but there was a subtle sentiment embodied in that
+very tribute, which credited him with the political sagacity of the
+patriot and statesman, more than with the genius of a great soldier. All
+contemporaries admitted that he was judicious in the use of the
+resources placed at his command, that he was keen to use raw troops to
+the best possible disposal, and took quick advantage of every
+opportunity which afforded relief to his poorly-fed and poorly-equipped
+troops, in meeting the British and Hessian regulars; but there were few
+who penetrated his real character and rightly estimated the scope of his
+strategy and the sublime grandeur of his faith.
+
+The battles of that war (each is its place) have had their immediate
+results well defined. To see, as clearly their exact place in relation
+to the entire struggle, and that they were the legitimate sequence of
+antecedent preparation, requires that the preparation itself shall be
+understood.
+
+The camps, redoubts, and trenches, which engirdled Boston during its
+siege, were so many appliances in the practical training-school of war,
+which Washington promptly seized, appropriated, and developed. The
+capture of Boston was not the chief aim of Washington, when, on the
+third day of July, 1775, he established his headquarters at Cambridge.
+Boston was, indeed, the immediate objective point of active operations,
+and the issue, at arms, had been boldly made at Lexington and Concord.
+Bunker Hill had practically emancipated the American yeomanry from the
+dread of British arms, and foreshadowed the finality of National
+Independence. However the American Congress might temporize, there was
+not alternative with Washington, but a steady purpose to achieve
+complete freedom. From his arrival at Cambridge, until his departure for
+New York, he worked with a clear and serene confidence in the final
+result of the struggle. A mass of earnest men had come together, with
+the stern resolve to drive the British out of Boston; but the patriotism
+and zeal of those who first begirt the city were not directed to a
+protracted and universal colonial resistance. To the people of
+Massachusetts there came an instant demand, imperative as the question
+of life or death, to fight out the issue, even if alone and
+single-handed, against the oppressor. Without waiting for reports from
+distant colonies as to the effect of the skirmish at Lexington and the
+more instructive and stimulating experience at Breed's Hill, the penned
+the British in Boston and determined to drive them from the land. Dr.
+Dwight said of Lexington: "The expedition became the preface to the
+history of a nation, the beginning of an empire, and a theme of
+disquisition and astonishment to the civilized world."
+
+The battle of Bunker Hill equalized the opposing forces. The issue
+changed from that of a struggle of legitimate authority to suppress
+rebellion, and became a context, between Englishmen, for the
+suppression, or the perpetuation, of the rights of Magna Charta.
+
+The siege of Boston assumed a new character as soon as it became a part
+of the national undertaking to emancipate the Colonies, on and all, and
+thereby establish one great Republic.
+
+From the third of July, 1775, until the seventeenth of March, 1776,
+there was gradually developed a military policy with an army system,
+which shaped the whole war.
+
+Many battles have been styled "decisive." many slow tortures of the
+oppressed have prepared the way for heroic defiance of the oppressor.
+Many elaborate preparations have been made for war, when at last some
+sudden outrage or event has precipitated and unlooked-for conflict, and
+all preparations, however wisely adjusted, have been made in vain. "I
+strike to-night!" was the laconic declaration of Napoleon III, as he
+informed his proud and beautiful empress, that "the battalions of France
+were moving on the Rhine." The march of Lord Percy to Concord was
+designed to clip off, short, the seriously impending resistance of the
+people to British authority. With full recognition of all that had been
+done, before the arrival of Washington to assume command of the
+besieging militia, _as the "Continental Army" of America_, there
+are facts which mark the months of that siege, as months of that wise
+preparation which ensured the success of the war. Washington at once
+took the offensive. He was eminently aggressive; but neither hasty nor
+rash. Baron Jomini said that "Napoleon discounted time." So did
+Washington. Baron Jomini said, also, that "Napoleon was his own best
+chief-of-staff." So, pre-eminently, was Washington.
+
+The outlook at Cambridge, on the third of July, 1775, revealed the
+presence of a host of hastily-gathered and rudely-armed, earnest men,
+well panoplied, indeed, in the invulnerable armor of loyalty to country
+and to God; fearless, self-sacrificing, daring death to secure liberty;
+but lacking that discipline, cohesion, and organized assignment to place
+and duty, which convert a mass of men into an army of soldiers.
+Washington stated the case, fairly, in the terse expression: "They have
+been accustomed, officers and men alike, to have their own way too long
+already."
+
+The rapidly succeeding methods through which that mass of fiery patriots
+became a well-ordered army, obedient to authority, and accepting the
+delays and disappointments of war with cheerful submission, will stand
+as the permanent record of a policy which cleared the way for an assured
+liberty.
+
+As early as 1775, Lord Dartmouth had asserted, with vigor, that Boston
+was worthless as a base, if the authority of the Crown was to be
+seriously defied by the colonies, acting in concert. He advocated the
+evacuation of Boston, and the consolidation of the royal forces at New
+York. Washington, early after his arrival at Cambridge, saw that the
+British commander had made a mistake. His letters to Congress are full
+of suggestions which citizens could only slightly value, so long as they
+saw Boston still under British control. It is difficult to see how the
+war could have been a success, if New York had been occupied, in force,
+by Lord Howe in 1775, and the rashness of Gates had not precipitated the
+skirmish at Lexington and the battle of Bunker Hill. It is no less hard
+to see where and how Washington could have found time, place, and
+suitable conditions for that practical campaign experience which the
+siege of Boston afforded.
+
+The mention of some of these incidents will suggest others, and
+illustrate that experience.
+
+A practical siege was undertaken, under the most favorable
+circumstances. The whole country, near by, was in sympathy with the
+army. The adjacent islands, inlets, and bays swarmed with scouting
+parties, which cut off supplies from the city. The army had its redoubts
+and trenches, and the heights of Bunker Hill were in sight as a pledge
+of full ability to resist assault. As a fact, no successful sortie was
+made out of Boston during the siege; but constant activity and
+watchfulness were vital to each day's security. Provisions were abundant
+and the numerical strength was sufficient. System and discipline alone
+were to be added.
+
+The details of camp life in the immediate presence of skilled enemies
+compelled officers and men, alike, to learn the minutest details of
+field engineering. Gabions, fasces, abattis, and other appliances for
+assault or defence were quickly made, and all this practical schooling
+in the work of war went on, under the watchful cooperation of the very
+officers who afterward became conspicuous in the field, from Long Island
+to Yorktown. THE CAMP ABOUT BOSTON MADE OFFICERS, Its discipline
+dissipated many colonial jealousies; and there was developed that
+confidence in their commander, which, in after years, became the source
+of untold strength and solace to him in the darkest hours of the war.
+
+The details of the personal work of the commander-in-chief read more
+like some magician's tale. Every staff department was organized under
+his personal care, so that he was able to retain even until the end of
+the war his chief assistants. Powder, arms, provisions, clothing,
+firewood, medicines, horses, carts, tools, and all supplies, however
+incidental, depended upon minute instructions of Washington himself.
+
+A few orders are cited, as an illustration of the system which marked
+his life in camp, and indicate the value of those months, as preparatory
+to the ordeal through which he had yet to pass.
+
+To withhold commissions, until some proof was given of individual
+fitness, involved grave responsibility. He did it. To punish swearing,
+gambling, theft, and lewdness, evinced a high sense of the solemnity of
+the hour. He did it. To rebuke Protestants for mocking Catholics was to
+recognize the dependence of all alike upon the God of battles. He did
+it. To repress gossip in camp, because the reputation of the humblest
+was sacred; to brand with his displeasure all conflicts between those in
+authority, as fatal to discipline and unity of action, and to forbid the
+settlement of private wrongs except through established legal methods,
+showed a clear conception of the conditions which would make an army
+obedient, united, and invincible. These, and corresponding acts in the
+line of military police regulations, and touching every social, moral,
+and physical habit which assails or enfeebles a soldier's life and
+imperils a campaign, run through his papers.
+
+It is in the light of such omnipresent pressure and constraint that we
+begin to form some just estimate of the relations which the siege of
+Boston sustained to the subsequent operations of the war, and to the
+work of Lee, Putnam, Sullivan, Greene, Mifflin, Knox, and others, who
+were thus fitted for immediate service at Long Island and elsewhere, as
+soon as Boston was evacuated.
+
+It is also through these orders that the careful student can pass that
+veil of formal propriety, reticence, and dignity which so often obscured
+the inner, the tentative, elements of Washington's military character.
+
+While the slow progress of the siege afforded opportunity to study the
+contingencies of other possible fields of conflict, a double campaign
+was made into Canada: namely, by Arnold through Maine, and by Montgomery
+toward Montreal. This was based upon the idea that the conquest of
+Canada would not only protect New England on the north, but compel the
+British commanders to draw all supplies from England. The fact is noted,
+as evidence of the constant regard which the American commander had for
+every exposed position of the enemy which could be threatened, without
+neglecting the demands of the siege itself. Frequent attempts were made
+to force the siege to an early conclusion. The purpose was to expel or
+capture the garrison before Great Britain could send another army, and
+open active operations in other colonies, and not, merely in the
+indolence of the mere watchdog, to starve the enemy into terms. "Give me
+powder or ice, and I will take Boston," was the form in which Washington
+demanded the means of bombardment or assault, and gave the assurance
+that, if the river would freeze, he would force a decisive issue with
+the means already at command.
+
+Meanwhile, he sent forth privateers to scour the coast and search for
+vessels conveying powder to the garrison; and soon no British transport
+or supply-vessel was secure, unless under convoy of a ship-of-war.
+
+At last, Congress increased the army to twenty-four thousand men and
+ordered a navy to be built. Washington redoubled his efforts, confident
+that Boston was substantially at his mercy; but seeing as clearly that
+the capture or the evacuation of the city would introduce a more general
+and desperate struggle, and one that would try his army to the most.
+
+At this juncture, General Howe was strongly reinforced. When he
+succeeded Gates, on the tenth of October, 1775, he "assumed command of
+all his Britannic Majesty's forces, from Nova Scotia to Florida," and
+thus indicated his appreciation of the possible extent of the American
+resistance. It was a fair response to the claim of Washington to
+represent "_The Colonies, in arms_." Howe's reinforcements had
+reported for duty by the thirty-first of December. During the preceding
+months, and, in fact, from his arrival at Cambridge, Washington had
+freely conferred with General Greene. That young officer had studied
+Caesar's Commentaries, Marshal Turenne's Works, Sharp's Military Guide,
+and many legal and standard works upon government and history, while
+drilling a militia company, the Kentish Guards, and following the humble
+labor of a blacksmith's apprentice. He fully appreciated the value of
+the hours spent before Boston. Together with General Sullivan, who, as
+well as himself, commanded a brigade in Lee's division, he looked beyond
+the lines of the camp rear-guard, and spent extra hours in discipline
+and drill, to bring his own command up to the highest state of
+proficiency.
+
+The following is the theory which he entertained, in common with
+Washington, as to the proper method for prosecution of the war; and he
+so expressed himself, when he first encamped before Boston and united
+his destinies with those of America.
+
+His words are worthy of double recognition by the citizens of the United
+States, because they not only furnish a key to the embarrassments which
+attended the uncertain policy of Congress during the Revolution, but
+they illustrate some of the embarrassments which attended the
+prosecution of the war of 1861-65.
+
+First. "One general-in-chief."
+
+Second. "Enlistments for the war."
+
+Third. "Bounties for families of soldiers in the field."
+
+Fourth. "Service: to be general, regardless of place of enlistment."
+
+Fifth. "Money loans to be effected equal to the demands of the war."
+
+Sixth. "A Declaration of INDEPENDENCE, with the pledge of all the
+resources of each Colony to its support."
+
+Such was the spirit with which the American army hastened its operations
+before Boston. Every week of delay was increasing the probability that
+Great Britain would occupy New York, in force. The struggle for that
+city would be the practical beginning of the war anew, and upon a
+scientific basis.
+
+Lord Dartmouth alone had the military sagacity to give sound advice to
+the British cabinet. He maintained that by the occupation of New York,
+and the presence of a strong naval force at Newport, Rhode Island
+(within striking distance of Boston), and the control of the Hudson
+River, the New England Colonies would be so isolated, as neither to be
+able to protect themselves, nor to furnish aid to the central Colonies
+beyond the Hudson River.
+
+For the same reason, an adequate garrison at New York might detach
+troops to seize the region lying on the waters of the Delaware and
+Chesapeake, and thereby separate the South from the centre. When General
+Howe, in 1775, formally urged the evacuation of Boston and the
+occupation of New York and Newport, he also advised the seizure of "some
+respectable seaport at the southward, from which to attack seacoast
+towns, in the winter."
+
+Washington never lost sight of the fact, that, while an important issue
+had been joined at Boston, its solution must be so worked out as to
+conserve the general interests of the Colonies as a Nation, and that the
+delay which was incident to scarcity of powder, and the resulting
+inability to assault the city, was to be employed, to the utmost, in
+preparing the troops for an ultimate march to New York, there to face
+the British in the field.
+
+The reinforcement of General Howe, at midwinter, when an attack upon the
+American lines would be without hope of success, quickened Washington's
+preparations for crowding the siege, while constantly on the watch for
+some manifestation of British activity in other directions.
+
+Within a week after the garrison of the city had been thus strengthened,
+Washington learned that Clinton had been detached, to make some
+expedition by sea. General Lee, then in Connecticut on recruiting
+service, was ordered to New York to put the city in a condition for
+defence, and arrived on the very day that Clinton anchored at Sandy
+Hook. Clinton, however, neglected his opportunity, and sailed southward
+to attack Charleston. Lee also went South, to co-operate with Governor
+Rutledge, in the defense of that city. The repulse of that expedition at
+Fort Sullivan (afterwards called Fort Moultrie) could not be known to
+Washington; but the knowledge that the British had enlarged their
+theatre of active war was a new stimulus to exertion.
+
+The strain upon the American Commander-in-Chief, in view of this rapid
+development of hostilities beyond the reach of his army, was intense.
+Clinton had been authorized to burn all cities that refused submission.
+In a letter to Congress, Washington wrote: "There has been one single
+freeze, and some pretty good ice," but a council of war opposed an
+assault. At last he conceived an alternative plan, in the event that he
+would not have sufficient powder to risk a direct assault, and the two
+plans were balanced and matured in his own mind with the determination
+to act promptly, and solely, at his own independent will.
+
+Few facts testify more significantly of the value to the army and the
+American cause of that long course of training, in the presence of the
+enemy, than the preparations thus made by Washington, without the
+knowledge of most of the officers of his command. He collected
+forty-five batteaux, each capable of transporting eighty men, and built
+two floating batteries of great strength and light draught of water.
+Fascines, gabions, carts, bales of hay, intrenching-tools, and two
+thousand bandages, with all other contingent supplies, were gathered,
+and placed under a guard of picked men.
+
+Three nights of _mock bombardment_ kept the garrison on the alert,
+awaiting an assault. "On the night of the fourth of March, and through
+all its hours, from candle-lighting time to the clear light of another
+day, the same incessant thunder rolled along over camps and city; the
+same quick flashes showed that fire was all along the line, and still,
+both camps and city dragged through the night, waiting for the daylight
+to test the work of the night, as daylight had done before."
+
+When daylight came,--
+
+  "Two strong redoubts capped Dorchester Heights."
+
+
+By the tenth of March, the Americans had fortified Nook's Hill, and this
+drove the British from Boston Neck. Eight hundred shot and shell were
+thrown into the city during that night. On the morning of March 17, the
+British embarked for Halifax.
+
+Five thousand American troops entered the city, under General Ward (the
+venerable predecessor of Washington) as the last boats left.
+
+On the eighteenth of March, and before the main army had entered Boston,
+General Heath was ordered to New York with five regiments of infantry
+and a part of the field artillery.
+
+On the twenty-seventh, the whole army, excepting a garrison of five
+regiments, was ordered forward, General Sullivan leading the column.
+
+On the evening of April fourteenth, after the last brigade marched,
+Washington started for his new field of duty.
+
+The siege of Boston is indeed memorable for that patient, persistent
+pressure by which the Colonists grasped, and held fast, all approaches
+to the city, until a sufficient force could be organized for a
+systematic siege; but, as the eye rests upon an outline map of the
+principal works of the besieging force, and we try to associate Ploughed
+Hill, Winter Hill, Prospect Hill, and other memorable strongholds, with
+the surroundings of to-day, we are glad to find an abounding source of
+comfort in the assurance, that the whole struggle for our National
+Independence is indelibly associated with the names, the vigils, and the
+experiences which belong to those long months of education in the art
+and appliances of war.
+
+Swiftly as that well-instructed army moved to New York, they had only
+time to gain position, before they realized the value of their training
+in the trenches and redoubts around Boston; and no battle or siege,
+including the capture of Yorktown, is without its tribute to the
+far-reaching influence which that training assured.
+
+The echoes of the national salute which have so recently commemorated
+the one hundredth anniversary of the close of the official career of
+Washington as commander-in-chief of the army of the Revolution, may well
+be associated with those midnight salvos of artillery which crowned his
+first campaign with an enduring success, and, once for all, rescued the
+soil of the Bay State from the tread of a hostile foot.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+THE RAILWAY MAIL SERVICE.
+
+[Footnote: Illustrated by pen and ink sketches furnished by the author.]
+
+BY COLONEL THOMAS P. CHENEY.
+
+[Superintendent New England Division United States Railway Mail
+Service.]
+
+[Illustration: YE FASTE MAILE OF YE OLDEN TYME.]
+
+It is not the purpose of this paper to give a history of the growth of
+this important branch of the government service, so much as to impart,
+perhaps to an indifferent degree, the methods of its intricate workings,
+and the care and study employed to expedite the vast correspondence of
+the country. A system as colossal as the Railway Mail Service of this
+country is, could not be organized but through a process of development
+meeting needs as they arise. This development is best shown by a
+comparative illustration from an early date to the present time.
+
+In 1811, there were 2,403 post-offices, and during the year the mail was
+carried 46,380 miles in stages, and 61,171 miles in sulkies and on
+horseback. In Postmaster-General Barry's report for the fiscal year
+ending November 1, 1834, it is said, that, "The multiplication of
+railroads in different parts of the country promises within a few years
+to give great rapidity to the movements of travelers, and it is a
+subject worthy of inquiry whether measures may now be taken to secure
+the transportation of the mail upon them. Already have the railroads
+between Frenchtown in Maryland and New Castle in Delaware, and between
+Camden and South Amboy in New Jersey, afforded great and important
+facilities to the transmission of the great Eastern mail." The lines of
+railway at that time, 1834, amounted to seventy-eight miles.
+
+In 1838, the Railway Mail Service began with 1,913 miles of railroad
+throughout the country. In 1846, mails were carried over 4,092 miles of
+railway, which increased in 1882 to 100,563 miles.
+
+The miles of annual transportation of mail by railroad in 1852 amounted
+to 11,082,768, which increased to 113,995,318 in 1882, with an increase
+in the number of Railway Mail Service employees from 43 in 1846 to 3,072
+in 1882. This wonderful expansion was but proportional with the
+development of the country at large. At the close of the war of the
+Rebellion, business was at its height. Industry and intelligence were
+seeking together new channels for their diffusion. The Pacific Railway
+was the grand conception that met this demand, and by its means were
+united the borders of the continent, and communication thus made more
+frequent and rapid between our interior, the West, and Europe: the most
+ancient civilization of the world in the Orient greeted the youngest in
+the Occident, and completed the girdle about the earth.
+
+The lumbering stage and caravan laboring across the plains, and the
+swift mustang flying from post to post, frequently intercepted by the
+wily savage, were but things of yesterday, though fast becoming
+legendary. When those slower methods by which correspondence was
+conveyed at a great expense and delay, and current literature was to a
+great extent debarred, were supplanted by a continuous line of stages,
+it was considered a revolution in the wheel of progress, and the
+consummation. The possible accomplishments of the present day, if
+entertained at all at that time, were in general considered Munchausen,
+and not difficulties to be surmounted by practical engineering and
+undaunted perseverance. The civilization of the world has kept pace with
+its channels of communication and has accordingly rendered invaluable
+aid to it. In our country the field in this direction is exceedingly
+broad.
+
+There is no branch of the government service that reaches so near and
+supplies the wants of the people as the Post-Office Department, and
+whose ramification may not be inaptly compared to the human system with
+its arteries filled with the life-current coursing through the veins and
+diffusing health and vigor to the various parts; in the same manner the
+people in the different sections of the country interchange their
+information. The centres of art and literature, conveying to the vast
+producing region in the West the products of their refined taste,
+scientific research, and mechanical achievements, keep alive and
+propagate the spirit of inquiry, making remote parts of the nation
+homogeneous in tastes, knowledge, and a common interest in all matters
+of national advancement.
+
+If a map of the United States with every railway that crosses and
+recrosses its broad surface were laid before us, it would appear that a
+regulated system for an expeditious transmission of the mails in such an
+intricate confusion of lines, apparently going nowhere yet everywhere,
+would be an impossibility; but by study and untiring energy this has
+been accomplished.
+
+The machinery of the Post-Office Department is a system of cog-fitting
+wheels, in all its component parts; and were it not so, in the
+necessarily limited period and space allotted, the work in postal-cars
+could not be successfully accomplished.
+
+The interior dimensions of postal-cars vary, from whole cars sixty feet
+in length, to apartments five feet five inches in length by two feet six
+inches in width. The most comprehensive conception of the practical
+working of the postal-car system, can be formed in a railway post-office
+from forty to sixty feet in length; with this in view, we will make a
+trip in one. A permit to ride in the car, signed by the superintendent
+of the division of the service, is necessary to allow us the privilege;
+and it is also required of clerks belonging to other lines. This rule is
+necessary, in order that the clerks may perform their work
+uninterruptedly and correctly; and also to exclude unauthorized persons
+from mail apartments. After a hasty exchange of salutations with the
+four clerks, the "clerk in charge" notes our names on his "trip report,"
+and we are assigned a spot in the contracted space, where, we are
+assured, we will be undisturbed, at least for a while. The trip report
+mentioned is used in noting connections missed, and other irregularities
+that may occur. The interior of the car is fitted up with a
+carefully-studied economy of space, upon plans made under the
+supervision of the superintendent of the division, or chief clerk of the
+line. Occupying one end of the car are cases of pigeon-holes, or boxes,
+numbering from six hundred to one thousand, arranged in the shape of a
+horse-shoe, for the distribution of letters. These boxes are labeled
+with the names of the post-offices on the line of road, connecting
+lines, States, and prominent cities and towns throughout the country. A
+long, narrow aisle passes through the centre of the car, on both sides
+of which are racks for open sacks and pouches, into which packages of
+letters and pieces of other mail matter are thrown; on the sides above
+are rows of suspended pouches, with their hungry mouths open. By this
+plan, in this contracted space, upwards of two hundred different pouches
+and sacks can be distributed into between the termini. On one side of
+the aisle is a narrow counter, upon which the mail matter is emptied
+from the pouches and sacks; this is hinged to the pouch-rack, and can be
+swung back, to enable the clerks to get at the pouches more easily. The
+space beyond, divided by stanchions, is for the stowage of mails, and
+for their separation into piles.
+
+[Illustration: INTERIOR OF A RAILWAY POST-OFFICE.]
+
+In order that a minute may not be lost, when passing through tunnels or
+standing in dark railway-stations, the lamps are kept burning from the
+start to the finish. The last wagon, gorgeously suggestive of a circus,
+has arrived with its load of mail, and the busy work receives at once a
+new impetus. Several loads, however, have already arrived, and have been
+disposed of as much as possible; for the work begins, in some cases,
+several hours before the starting of the train. Transfer clerks and
+porters deliver the pouches and sacks into the car, the label of each
+being scanned and checked by the clerks, to detect if all connections
+due are received, and that no mail may be delayed by being carried out
+on the road with the other mail and returned. The last pouch is scarcely
+received, when a sudden, but not violent, shock announces that the
+locomotive is attached to the train, and the start about to be made. The
+sound of the gong, seconded by the electrifying and resonant "Aboard!"
+of the conductor, and the post-office on wheels is under way. Now, all
+is a scene of bustle, but not confusion. The two clerks, to whom are
+assigned the duty of distributing direct packages of letters and
+newspaper mail, including merchandise, deftly empty the pouches, out of
+which pour packages of letters and circulars, to be distributed unbroken
+into pouches, and others labeled to this route and different States,
+which are in turn to be separated into packages by routes, States, and
+large towns, at the letter-case. To the clerk in charge is assigned the
+sorting of such letters as are destined to distant routes or terminal
+connecting lines; and his associate, or second clerk, is busy
+distributing letter mail for local delivery, and into separations for
+intermediate connections.
+
+In addition to sorting letters, the clerk in charge has charge of the
+registered mail, which requires special care in its reception and
+delivery, booking and receipting therefor. Large pouches of registered
+mail are also placed in his charge, _en transit_ between large
+cities, and represent great value. The peculiar tooting of the whistle,
+or a peculiar movement of the train around a curve, warns the fourth
+clerk, who is on the alert, of a "catch" station; the letter mail for
+that post-office is quickly deposited by the local clerk in the pouch,
+the lock is snapped, and he is standing at the door not a minute too
+soon or too late; the pouch is thrown out at a designated spot and one
+deftly caught an instant after without a slackening of the speed of the
+train. The pouch thus caught is taken to the counter, opened and emptied
+by the fourth clerk, and the letters immediately placed in the hands of
+the second clerk, who assorts the local mail; the through letters, or
+those destined to go over distant lines beyond the terminus, are sorted
+by the clerk in charge; the local, or second, clerk distributes his mail
+as rapidly as possible, with a watchful eye for letters, etc., to be put
+into the pouch to be delivered at the next station; the pouch is locked
+and everything is ready for the next delivery and "catch." When the
+stations at which pouches are caught are within a mile or two of each
+other, the greatest activity is needed to assort the mail between
+stations, to avoid carrying mail by destination and subjecting it to
+considerable delay before its delivery by a railway post-office on the
+train to be met at a point perhaps many miles ahead.
+
+[Illustration: "CATCHING" AT FULL SPEED.]
+
+The manner of taking or "catching" the mail from the trackside by some
+invisible power on a railroad train plunging through space has seemed to
+many a feat of almost legerdemanic skill, when all that is required is a
+simple mechanical apparatus and a quick, firm movement of the arm in
+using it at the right moment. A crane similar in appearance to the
+oldtime gibbet is erected near the track, and may have served as a
+warning by its suggestive appearance to some would-be train-wrecker. Its
+base is a platform two feet and a half square, with two short steps on
+top to assist the person hanging the pouch; a post ten feet in height
+passes up through this platform near the edge; a stout joist about five
+feet in length is fixed across the top of the post and so balanced that
+when relieved of the weight of the pouch it flies up perpendicularly
+against the post. The pouch used for this purpose is made of canvas and
+is somewhat narrower than the ordinary leathern pouch. It is lightly
+suspended by a slender iron rod projecting from the horizontal joist,
+passed through a ring at the top and lightly held at the bottom in the
+same manner as at the top.
+
+[Illustration: POUCH HUNG ON "CRANE."]
+
+When the pouch is snatched from the crane, the top piece flies up as
+described, and a parallel short joist at the bottom of the pouch drops.
+The pouch is strapped small in the middle, resembling an hour-glass,
+where the catcher-iron on the car is to strike it. This "catcher"
+consists of a round iron bar across the door of the car, and placed in a
+socket on each side about shoulder high; a strong handle, similar to a
+chisel-handle, projects perpendicularly from this bar; on the under side
+of the bar projects, at an angle of about forty-five degrees, a slender
+and strong iron rod, slightly turned at the end to prevent its tearing
+the pouch, of about three feet in length. As the train approaches the
+crane, the operating clerk with a quick, steady throw delivers the mail
+at a given point, usually near the crane; he then grasps the handle with
+his right hand, swinging the handle over inward; the arm when thrown
+outward, the horizontal bar turning in the sockets, comes in contact
+with the pouch, striking that part of it narrowed by the strap and
+striking the arm near the vertex of the angle into which it is driven by
+the momentum of the train; the greater the speed the more securely it is
+held there; but the clerk is on the _qui vive_, and as soon as it
+strikes the catcher-iron, grasps the pouch to make sure of getting it,
+as sometimes if the pouch is not hung properly, the arm will strike it
+at such a part as to require the most agile movement on the part of the
+clerk to secure it and to prevent its falling to the ground or under the
+wheels of the train and being torn to pieces; these cases, however, are
+rare, but pouches have lodged on the trucks and have been carried many
+miles.
+
+To return to the clerks and their work. In the meantime, the "through"
+work continues, when the distance between stations and junctions will
+allow of it; letters in packages are distributed into boxes with a
+celerity and economy of motion which could be acquired only by continued
+practice and training of the eye to decipher an ever-varying
+chirography, and of mental activity to almost instantly locate a
+post-office on its proper route, its earliest point of supply, or
+connecting line.
+
+The emptying of pouches continues; package after package of letters roll
+out on the counter as though they were potatoes rather than the dumb
+expression of every human emotion, or the innocent touchspring of their
+awakening. The pouches are labeled to indicate those requiring the
+earliest attention, as are also the packages of letters they contain;
+this plan prevents, to a great extent, the carrying of mail past its
+destination.
+
+The packages of letters to be distributed by routes, post-offices, and
+States, are taken to the letter-case; those not to be so separated, that
+is, unbroken packages, _en transit_, are placed at once into their
+proper pouches.
+
+The emptying of sacks of paper mail follows that of the pouches; the
+papers and packages of merchandise are faced in a manner to be readily
+picked up, their addresses read, and deftly thrown into the mouths of
+the pouches and sacks in the racks; this is very skilfully done, as the
+want of space requires that they shall be crowded closely together.
+
+The swaying of the train around a curve makes little difference, as the
+clerks in a short time learn to follow every motion of the train. A
+quick decision, ready eye, and economy of movement as a superstructure
+to a good knowledge of his duties, are the invaluable qualities of a
+successful railway postal-clerk; and one so equipped soon outstrips his
+lagging seniors and associates in grade. As the train approaches a
+junction, preparations are made to "close out" that part of the mail to
+be delivered at that point, the sacks are tied, the tags or labels
+having been attached before starting. The clerks at the letter-case are
+rapidly taking the letters from the boxes tying them into packages, and
+separating them into piles, which are dropped into their proper pouches
+and locked, and so on until all is ready. Let us examine these packages
+of letters and at the same time describe the slip system. On the outside
+of each package for redistribution, and also inside each direct package,
+that is, containing mail for a single post-office, is placed a brown
+paper slip, or label, about the size of an ordinary envelope, bearing
+its address or destination, which may be that of a post-office, a group
+of post-offices supplied therefrom, and labelled "dis." (the
+abbreviation of distribution), or for a railway post-office; this slip
+also bears the imprint of the name of the clerk who sorted into the
+package and is responsible for its correctness, the postmark with date,
+and a letter, as "N." for north, or "W." for west, indicating the
+direction the train is moving at the time. A similar slip is also placed
+loose in each pouch and sack.
+
+The errors discovered in the packages of letters, or among the loose
+pieces in the pouches and sacks, are endorsed on the proper slip, signed
+and postmarked by the clerk in the railway post-office receiving it.
+These errors may be the result of carelessness, ignorance, or
+misinformation; in the latter case, had the clerk been properly
+informed, perhaps a delay of half an hour or less might have been
+avoided if sent by some other route. These error-slips are sent each day
+enclosed in a trip report to the division superintendent; if approved,
+the record is made, and the clerk in receiving the error-slip at the end
+of the month is informed of his mistake, and it is needless to add that
+the error, if one of ignorance or misinformation, will not be repeated.
+This forms a part of the record of the clerk upon which to a degree his
+future advancement depends. The beneficial effect of this system as an
+incentive to study, care in distribution, and a commendable rivalry, is
+indisputable.
+
+The postmarks on the letters in the package in our hands show that they
+joined the current at a junction but a few miles past, and if the
+location of one of them is sought on the map, it is found to be an
+obscure hamlet on a remote stage route, by which it reaches the
+railroad, over which a single clerk in an office seven feet square, or
+less, performs local service, and which line makes connection with the
+through mail-train on the main road. The letters described are tied in a
+package with others, and a label slip placed thereon addressed to some
+railway post-office, perhaps hundreds of miles distant, which is reached
+unbroken through a many-linked chain of connections; with this package
+are others for large cities which will be passed along intact to
+destination, and also letters labeled to railway post-office lines
+making connections in their turn. The pouches and sacks into which the
+packages of letters and papers are deposited will be received at the
+next junction into a railway post-office car, sorted and forwarded in
+the manner described. In many cases a mail is sent across by a stage
+route to connect a parallel line, and thereby feeding a new section.
+
+Mail matter is frequently received, through error, for post-offices on
+the line of road but just passed, or for post-offices supplied only by
+one railway post-office train moving in the opposite direction; to
+provide for such mail a pouch is left at the meeting-point of this
+train; and so the train plunges on with its busy workers, its
+pleasure-seekers, and its composite humanity, The clerks have long since
+become grim with the smut of the train, paling all others but the
+fireman, and the long-nursed illusion that all government positions are
+sinecures is rudely dispelled by their appearance, and an insight into
+their arduous duties. As the train lazily rolls into the terminal
+station, pouches and sacks are ready for delivery and the clerks make
+ready to leave the car.
+
+The instant the train stops, a portion of the mail, large or small as
+the case may be, is delivered into a wagon for rapid transfer to a
+railway post-office train about to start from another station. If the
+incoming train is late, it may be necessary to exact the utmost speed to
+reach the outgoing train, and in many cases it is always necessary to
+effect it rapidly. After the transfer mail is disposed of, the labels of
+the remaining pouches and sacks are examined, and as the mail is passed
+out of the car we are surprised at its quantity, filling a number of
+large wagons; this, however, does not constitute the entire mail
+distributed _en route_, as the quantities delivered at junctions
+and stations aggregate, in many cases, more by far than that delivered
+at the terminal station, There are many details of work that our space
+forbids us to describe, that are technical and of little interest to the
+reader, but are of relative importance. These we must leave, and prepare
+for the return journey on the night-train, feeling grateful that our
+busy fellow-travelers are to have an opportunity to refresh themselves.
+
+The work performed in a railway post-office on a night-train differs
+somewhat from that on a day-train, yet maintaining the same general
+principle of distribution. The methods differ, governed by the
+connections, and a clerk suddenly transferred from a day-train to a
+night-train on the same route, unless thoroughly informed of the train
+schedules, of close and remote connections, the time of the dispatch of
+direct closed pouches from many post-offices, stage route schedules,
+etc.,--which knowledge, even approximating correctness, would be
+extraordinary,--would be almost as much at a loss as if transferred to
+another route, excepting his knowledge of the location of the
+post-offices on his own line. In all cases if a delay occurs, causing a
+connection to be missed, it is the duty of the clerk to know at once the
+next most expeditious route by which the mail can be forwarded.
+
+The hardship incurred by a night-clerk is greater in many respects than
+that of the day-clerk; while in the latter case a continual active
+strain is required in the performance of local work and its multiplicity
+of detail, yet this is more than offset by the handling of bulky and
+heavy through mail and the unnatural necessity of sleeping in the
+daytime, which at most affords but a partial rest. On many night-lines
+the clerks commence work in mid-afternoon, accomplishing considerable
+before the train starts, and as the train plunges through darkness into
+the gray dawn and early morning, they sturdily empty pouches and sacks,
+and the incessant flow of letters and papers is only interrupted when
+approaching some important junction where mail is delivered and received
+from connecting lines or post-offices. Everything presents a weird
+aspect in a railway-station at midnight,--men flit about in a dazed way
+with satchels, the bright light bursting through the doorway of the car
+gives a ghastly look to the face of the man who throws in the pouches
+and sacks, and all appear like ghosts that will vanish with the approach
+of dawn; but we realize the substance of our surroundings when we again
+turn our attention to the busy scene in the car. The city distribution
+of letters--a feature of the service on night-trains which has greatly
+facilitated the early delivery of mails in a few of the larger
+cities--has been extended to other cities, and others are still to
+receive its benefit. For instance, clerks from the Boston post-office
+detailed to do this duty enter the mail-car at the Boston and Albany
+Railway at Springfield, Massachusetts, and sort the city letters by
+carriers' routes, post-office box sections, banks, insurance offices,
+etc. The corresponding train moving in the opposite direction is boarded
+by New York post-office clerks making similar separations.
+
+The packages of letters thus made up go direct to their respective
+divisions in the post-office, thereby avoiding the delay that would be
+caused in passing through other preliminary distributing departments.
+This work has been taken up recently by the Railway Mail Service, the
+plan enlarged and extended, and added to the other duties of the clerks.
+Additional clerks, however, have been employed to perform this work, yet
+the others are required to know it, and on lines where additional clerks
+were not appointed, to make it their regular duty.
+
+A glance has been given at one of the many links in the continuous
+chains of connections that cross and recross the face of the country. A
+comparison of the oldtime method and of the railway post-office service
+will show the superior advantage of the latter. At some remote hamlet in
+Nova Scotia, a letter is started for San Francisco, California. It
+crosses the boundary line into the United States and enters at once the
+swelling current at Vanceborough, Maine. Leaving that place at 1.35
+A.M., Monday, without delay it reaches Boston at 5.10 P.M., is
+transferred across the city, leaves at 6.00 P.M., connecting with the
+fast mail train from New York City at Albany, through Syracuse,
+Rochester, and Buffalo, reaches Cleveland at 6.00 P.M., Tuesday, and
+Chicago at 6.00 A.M., Wednesday, where an intermission of six hours
+makes the longest delay in the line of connection. The next morning,
+Thursday, at 11. A.M., Omaha is reached; Friday, at 6.00 P.M., Laramie,
+Wyoming; Saturday, at 6.00 P.M., Ogden, Utah; Sunday, Humboldt, Nevada;
+and Monday, at 11.00 A.M., San Francisco. This illustration has been
+made to show the far-reaching continuity of connecting lines across the
+country, passing through many of the principal cities but not entering a
+post-office for distribution, rather than a complexity of connections
+almost innumerable in a thickly-settled country, and over which study
+and patient inquiry to simplify are ever at work.
+
+Lyons, Wayne County, New York, is located on the New York Central
+Railway; a letter is started from that place for Leeds, Franklin County,
+Massachusetts; it is received into the New York and Chicago railway
+post-office at 8.17 A.M., then it is given to the Boston and Albany
+railway post-office at Albany, the latter line connecting at Westfield,
+Massachusetts, with the Williamsburgh and New Haven railway post-office,
+arriving at destination at 9.37 that night.
+
+Again at 6.08 P.M., from Lyons, another New York and Chicago railway
+post-office train passes, but, owing to different connections, disposes
+of it differently: from this railway post-office a pouch containing a
+similarly addressed letter, with other mail, is delivered at Albany for
+the Boston and Albany railway post-office, due to leave Springfield,
+Massachusetts, at 7.15 A.M.; this pouch is conveyed from Albany in the
+baggage-car attached to an express-train, which train, passing
+Westfield, connects at Springfield with the 7.15 A.M. railway
+post-office train East. At Palmer a short distance east of Springfield a
+return mail is left for the railway post-office that left Boston at five
+o'clock that morning; into this mail the letter for Leeds is placed, as
+the clerks in the latter-named railway post-office deliver at Westfield
+a pouch for Leeds, which place is reached 10.07 that morning, on train
+in charge of baggage-master. This illustration is comparatively a simple
+one. Many instances could be given where a detour of many miles is made
+to gain a few minutes in time. By the old system the letter would, in
+all probability, have gone to Albany post-office for distribution,
+thence either to New Haven, Connecticut, or Westfield, Massachusetts,
+for the same purpose, losing trains at each place waiting to be
+distributed, and consuming fully, or more, than sixty-four instead of
+sixteen hours. By the old method delays became almost interminable as
+the connections became intricate, more so than on a continuous line. The
+advantage of the "catcher" system described elsewhere, which enabled
+towns to communicate with one another in a few minutes, instead of by
+the direct closed pouch system through a distributing office miles away,
+consuming hours, is not inconsiderable.
+
+The gain by the present method is incomparable. Intersecting at Albany,
+New York, with the line from Vanceborough, Maine, to San Francisco, just
+described, or perhaps what may be called the vertebral column of the
+system, is the New York and Chicago railway post-office line, known also
+as the "Fast Mail" or the "White Mail," as the mail-cars on this line
+were originally painted white. A mail-train consisting of four mail-cars
+and express-cars leaves New York City at 8.50 P.M., making the through
+connection to Chicago. There are two similar trains, leaving New York at
+4.35 A.M., and at 10.30 A.M., with a less number of cars; and three
+moving in the opposite direction. There are twenty mail-cars on this
+line, each interior is sixty feet in length, and the exterior, as
+already mentioned, painted white, and bearing the coat-of-arms of some
+State and the name of its past or present governor. Each car is devoted
+to a special purpose: the distribution of letters and local, or "way,"
+work; the distribution of paper mail; and others for storage. The
+distributing cars are built upon a different plan from the one
+hereinbefore described; the packages, etc., are distributed into large
+compartments or boxes slightly pitching back one over the other in a
+large case, and the clerk wishing to empty one of them passes into the
+narrow aisle to the rear of the case; the pouch or sack is hooked to the
+case under the door of the box, and the mail drops into it. Pouches and
+sacks are also hung in racks to be distributed into. These cars are
+post-offices of no mean pretensions when the amount of work performed is
+considered. When it is considered how densely populated the country is
+through which this line passes many times each day, and its numerous and
+swelling tributaries, the volume of mail conveyed is enormous, yet not
+disproportionate.
+
+The average amount conveyed during thirty days, in the sixty days in
+January and February of 1881, that the weights of mails were taken
+between New York City and Buffalo, a distance of four hundred and
+forty-two miles, amounted to 4,416,451 lbs.; between Buffalo and
+Chicago, a distance of five hundred and forty-two miles, 2,874,918 lbs.
+Over the first section 73,607 lbs. per day, the second section 47,848
+per day; while either of these amounts does not equal those carried
+during the same period between New York and West Philadelphia, on the
+route to Washington, a distance of ninety miles, amounting to 6,202,370
+lbs. for the thirty days, and 103,372 lbs. per day, the great
+discrepancy in miles must be borne in mind and the fact that government
+supplies and public documents to the East and North contribute no small
+proportion of the amount. The mail between New York and Chicago is
+altogether a working mail. It requires more than two hundred and sixty
+clerks to handle this mail, who travel annually 2,030,687 miles.
+
+The clerks on the westerly bound trains are assigned the distributing of
+mails by route, for all Middle, Western, Southwestern, and Northwestern
+States, and on the easterly bound trains for the Middle and Eastern
+States.
+
+When such States as New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Illinois, with
+respectively 3,070, 3,681, 2,603, and 2,568 post-offices, are taken into
+consideration, some idea may be formed of the work required in preparing
+a system of distribution, the vigilance required to keep pace with the
+frequently changing schedules, and the study of the clerks to properly
+carry its requirements into effect. Beyond Chicago, in the new country,
+the work of distribution grows less intricate, but the powers of
+endurance of the clerks are severely tested. On the line between Kansas
+City, Missouri, and Deming, New Mexico, a distance of 1,147 miles, the
+clerks ship for a long voyage--five days on the outward trip and the
+same on the inward, sleeping and eating on the train.
+
+There are a number of lines in the far West, on which the clerks do not
+leave the train for a number of days. Throughout the country the total
+number of pieces of ordinary mail handled by 3,855 railway postal clerks
+on the lines, during the year ending June 30, 1883, amounted to
+3,981,516,280; the number of errors made in their distribution was
+958,478 pieces, or a per centage of correct distribution of 99.97. This
+minutia of detail is applied to the distribution of a vast bulk of mail.
+It is estimated that in Boston, Massachusetts, between eighty and one
+hundred tons of mail matter are daily dispatched, and between forty and
+sixty tons are daily received; while at New York City this quantity is
+more than doubled. Even figures become interesting when they represent
+the standard of intelligence and progress, as shown by an increased
+correspondence and literature. In no branch of the government service,
+it can be safely said, have the tenets advanced by the advocates of the
+civil-service reform been so nearly realized as in this bureau of the
+Post-Office Department even at that period when the initiatory steps now
+being applied to other departmental machinery were considered all but
+Utopian,--a system consisting of a probationary period preceding
+appointment, and promotion from grade to grade, based upon a practical
+and thorough system of examination, had long since been developed up
+through an experimental stage to a well-grounded success. The complexity
+of the postal system, continually varying in detail, demanded a uniform
+system of giving information, and a corresponding test of its operation.
+The system of distribution for each State is compiled in tabulated form
+in a book or sheet, known as a "scheme," for ready reference when on
+duty, or study when off the road. In thickly-settled States, where
+numerous railroads cross and re-cross each other in the same county, it
+is necessary to have the names of the post-offices arranged
+alphabetically; opposite the name of each office is given all its
+methods of supply and also the hour the mail reaches that office. In
+more sparsely-settled States the schemes are arranged by counties; this
+is done where the majority of the offices in a county are supplied by
+one or two lines, and the exceptions, which are only specified in detail
+in the scheme, by other lines or a number of post-offices. In this case
+the clerk memorizes the supply of the excepted post-offices
+particularly, the disposition of the remaining post-offices in the
+county being the same; it is of the first importance to be properly
+informed in which county an office is located, and the line supplying
+the principal part of that county. A name prefixed with "north" in one
+county may have the prefix of "south" in another, or a similar name in a
+remote county. These schemes are compiled at division headquarters, and
+the general orders are revised almost daily, informing the clerks of
+changes affecting the distribution, and also instructions as to other
+duties. From the schemes mentioned, lists of distribution are made and
+time computed applicable to each line or train of the States for which
+mail is selected.
+
+To return from this preliminary digression to the examinations. These
+examinations are of the most practical character and serve to develop
+the mental abilities and intelligent understanding of the clerks. To
+clearly understand the method, the clerk should be followed step by step
+from the time of his probationary appointment into the service, through
+the probationary period and his examinations as a full-fledged clerk.
+After a month's service on a line, the clerk is assigned a day and hour
+for his examination; here is laid the foundation for future usefulness,
+the intelligent understanding of a service, acquired by continual study
+and inquiry, that gives to all occupations that peculiar zest when
+understandingly rather than mechanically followed. A single State, with
+the least number of offices, that in the course of duty he will be
+required to assort, is selected at the first; it is not expected that it
+will be memorized understandingly, or the location of each office fully
+known at once, but it forms the basis of inquiry, and develops either
+future excellence or mediocrity, or total incapacity. The room in which
+these examinations are usually conducted (excepting when a clerk on a
+route in a remote part of the division is the subject, in which case he
+is visited by the examining clerk) is kept quiet, and nothing that will
+distract the attention allowed. He is placed before a case containing
+one hundred pigeon-holes, or more, each the width of an ordinary
+visiting-card, and sufficiently high to contain a large pack of them.
+Cards are then produced, upon each one of which is printed the name of a
+post-office, comprising a whole State. The cards are distributed into
+the case by the clerk being examined and the number of separations made
+as required when on actual duty in the railway post-office. The number
+of separations varies according to the connections due to be made; when
+the line is through a thickly-settled country, the separations are made
+in fine detail. In the State of Massachusetts there are seven hundred
+and seventy-two post-offices; and the number of separations made by one
+line is upwards of eighty. On the train it is necessary to make many
+(what are known as) direct packages that the examination does not call
+for. Account is taken of the time consumed in "sticking" the cards, and
+questions asked to test the knowledge of connections. A large number of
+questions are asked relating to the Postal Laws and Regulations, as
+affecting the Railway Mail Service; these latter questions vary in
+number from fifty to one hundred. When practicable, during the
+probationary period of six months, one examination is held each month,
+taking a different State each time.
+
+The results of these examinations are placed on record, and at the
+expiration of the probationary term, this record, together with the list
+of errors in sending mail, are forwarded to the Honorable William B.
+Thompson, General Superintendent of the Railway Mail Service, in
+Washington, District of Columbia, with a recommendation that the clerk
+be permanently appointed or dropped out of the service. These
+examinations are held at intervals among all the clerks to test their
+efficiency, and as an incentive to study, to keep fresh in their minds
+the proper disposition of the important mails passing through their
+hands. In these examinations a good-natured rivalry exists, and a
+vigilant eye is kept by the clerks that their line shall make as high an
+average per centage, or, if possible, higher than any other. The per
+centage of correctness rarely falls below seventy-five; an average is
+generally made of ninety-five per cent. The list of errors made is
+closely scanned by better-informed clerks, and no stone left unturned by
+them to clear their record, and to satisfactorily settle disputed
+points. These discussions and inquiries are invited, not only that all
+may feel satisfied with the result, but also that much valuable
+information is frequently elicited from the clerks, who in many cases
+are situated advantageously to see where practical benefits may be
+attained.
+
+During the fiscal year which ended June 30, 1882, there were 2,898
+examinations of permanent clerks held, and 3,140,630 cards handled; of
+this number 208,736 were incorrect, 512,460 not known, making a correct
+average per centage of 77.05. This record does not include that of
+probationary clerks. This constant watchfulness, it can readily be seen,
+redounds to the benefit of the public and results in the most
+expeditious methods of forwarding the mails attainable. In some cases a
+test of reading addresses of irregular or difficult legibility as
+rapidly as possible is given, but this idea has not been generally
+adopted. The query naturally arises, Is there no incentive to study
+other than to make a good record? There is; for upon this basis,
+together with a knowledge of a ready working capacity and
+application--both great considerations--are the promotions and
+reductions made. Those in charge of lines are fully cognizant of the
+status of the men, bearing on all points. The clerks in the service are
+classified, those on the small or less important routes according to the
+distance. Our attention, however, is drawn particularly to the trunk
+lines. The probationary appointee is of class 1, receiving pay at the
+rate of eight hundred dollars per annum; but at the expiration of his
+six months' probation, if he is retained, he is paid nine hundred
+dollars per annum, and placed in class 2. The number of men in a crew on
+a trunk line making through connections is governed by the quantity of
+work performed, and generally consists of four men, excepting the fast
+lines, New York to Chicago and Pittsburgh, where more than one mail-car
+on a train is required. With four men in a crew the clerk in charge is
+classed 5, and others successively 4, 3, and 2, and paid at the rate of
+thirteen hundred dollars, eleven hundred and fifty dollars, one thousand
+dollars, and nine hundred dollars per annum. In the event of a vacancy
+in class 5, the records of examinations and errors made in the
+performance of work are scanned, the relative working capacity of the
+eligible men in class 4 considered, and a copy of the records, with
+recommendations, forwarded to the General Superintendent. The gap caused
+by the retirement of one of class 5, and filled by one of class 4,
+necessitates promotions from classes 2 and 3, and also a new appointment
+into class 1, probationary, and after that period is passed into class
+2, thus preserving a uniform organization.
+
+The selections for promotion are made from the clerks on the entire
+line. Thus it will be seen that a graduated system of promotion exists,
+based upon merit and competitive examination, and which to the fullest
+extent is practical and theoretically satisfactory to the most exacting
+civil-service reform doctrinaire. The general supervision of the Railway
+Mail Service is under a General Superintendent, the Honorable William B.
+Thompson, located in Washington, District of Columbia. It is divided
+into nine sections, with offices in Boston, New York City, Washington,
+Atlanta, Cincinnati, Chicago, St. Louis, San Francisco, and Cleveland,
+and is respectively under the superintendence Messrs. Thomas P. Cheney,
+R.C. Jackson, C.W. Vickery, L.M. Terrell, C.J. French, J.E. White, E.W.
+Warfield, H.J. McKusick, and W.G. Lovell,--men who have risen from
+humble positions in the service, step by step, to their present
+positions of responsibility.
+
+It is an erroneous impression that prevails in certain quarters that the
+forwarding of mails over the various railroads is arranged by
+postmasters; the especial charge and control of the reception and
+dispatch of mails is under the Superintendents of the Railway Mail
+Service, who, in their turn, are responsible to the General
+Superintendent, who, in his turn is responsible to the Honorable Second
+Assistant Postmaster-General.
+
+It will readily be seen by the foregoing sketch that a clerkship in the
+Railway Mail Service is far from being a sinecure, either mentally or
+physically. As the country increases in population and the system
+becomes more complex, it is found to be important to the public that the
+clerks should be insured against removal except for the following
+reasons: "Intemperance, inattention to or neglect of duty, incapacity
+for the duties of the office, disobedience of official instructions,
+intentional disrespect to officers of this or other departments of the
+government, indecency in speech, intentional rudeness of language or
+behavior towards persons having official business with them or towards
+associates, and conduct unbecoming a gentleman." In several annual
+reports the General Superintendent has urged upon Congress that some
+provision be made for pensioning disabled clerks. This would seem to be
+only fitting justice to the clerks, who hourly incur a risk of either
+limb or life.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+REUBEN TRACY'S VACATION TRIPS.
+
+By Elizabeth Porter Gould.
+
+
+"Mamma, where is the old Witch House? I met on the street this morning
+Johnnie Evans and his mother, who came way down from Boston just to see
+that, and Witch Hill, and some other places here in Salem that they had
+been reading about together this vacation. Why, I haven't seen these
+things, and I have lived here all my life. And they said, too, that they
+were going to find the house where Hawthorne was born. Who was he,
+mamma? I think Johnnie said that the house was on Union Street. Can't I
+go there, too? I am tired of playing out in the street all the time. I
+want to go somewhere and see something."
+
+So said Reuben Tracy to his mother, as he came into the house from his
+play one day about the middle of his long summer vacation. His little
+eyes had just been opened to the fact that there was something in old
+Salem which made her an object of interest to outsiders; and, if so, he
+wanted to see it. As his mother listened to him, her eyes were opened,
+too, to her want of interest, through which her boy should have been
+obliged to ask this of her, rather than that she should have guided him
+into this pleasant path to historic knowledge. But she determined that
+this should not happen again. The vacation was only half through, and
+there was yet time to do much in this direction. Her boy should not
+spend so much time in idle play in the streets. She would begin that
+very afternoon and read to him some stories of local history, and
+impress upon his little mind, as Mrs. Evans was doing with her boy, by
+visiting with him all that she could of the places mentioned. She
+herself had not seen Hawthorne's birthplace; she would learn more about
+him and his work, so as to tell Reuben, and then they would visit the
+place together; after which they would take a trip to Concord and see
+where he was buried, and also the places where he had lived, which, she
+had heard, were so charming. She could then tell her boy of Emerson and
+Thoreau; and, through a sight of the place where the first battle of the
+Revolution was fought, she could lead him willingly into the study of
+history.
+
+Thus Mrs. Tracy planned with herself. She had suddenly become converted
+to a knowledge of her larger duty in the training of her child--her only
+child now; for, nearly two years before, death had claimed, in one week,
+her two other children, one older and one younger than Reuben; and since
+then she had fallen into a sad, listless state of mind which she found
+hard to get out of. She was an unusually good mother in the ordinary
+sense of the word, since she was careful to have her boy well-fed,
+well-clothed, and well-behaved; but now she saw more than that was
+required of her.
+
+The good resolution of Mrs. Tracy became so fruitful, that another
+week's time found Reuben and herself acquainted with the points of
+interest which Johnnie Evans had mentioned, and several more beside.
+Mrs. Tracy had accompanied these visits with much interesting
+information, which Reuben had enjoyed greatly. Such success led her to
+provide something new for the following week. Now, she herself had never
+seen the old town of Marblehead,--only four miles from Salem,--although
+of late she had been to Marblehead Neck to see a sister who was boarding
+there for the summer. So with an eye to visiting the old town, she spent
+an hour each day, for several days, reading and talking with Reuben on
+the history and legends of Marblehead; and, through the guidance of
+Drake's New England Coast, learning what now remained there as mementos
+of the past. Then, after having invited two of Reuben's little
+playfellows to accompany them, they started, one bright morning, to
+drive over by themselves. As they passed up Washington Street in the old
+town, Reuben's eyes were looking for the Lee mansion, which he said was
+now used for a bank, and which, with its furniture, cost its builder,
+Colonel Lee, fifty thousand dollars. They found it, with its date of
+1768 over the door, and soon were in the main hall, where was hanging
+the same panel paper which was put on when the house was built. They
+noticed the curious carving of the balusters, as well as of a front
+room, which was wainscoted from floor to ceiling; they wished that it
+had never been used for a bank, but that it was still the old mansion as
+it used to be; for then they could see, among other things, the
+paintings hanging on the walls, of Colonel Lee and his wife, which
+Reuben said were eight feet long and five feet wide, and painted by a
+man named Copley. His mother smiled when she heard him add, with all the
+spirit of Young America: "And he painted them both for one hundred and
+twenty-five dollars. Why, just my head alone cost my papa one hundred
+dollars; and just think of those two big ones for only one hundred and
+twenty-five dollars!"
+
+As all three of the boys sat in the large recessed window-seat, Reuben
+declared that he did not see how the window-panes could have been the
+wonder of the town, for they were not near as large as his Uncle
+Edward's, and nobody wondered at them!
+
+They then imagined, walking in the same room where they then were,
+General Washington, as he came there in 1789 to be entertained by the
+Lees; and also Monroe, Jackson, and even Lafayette, who had been there,
+too. When one of the boys asked if the street in which he lived, in
+Salem, was named for that Lafayette, Mrs. Tracy noted the question as a
+good sign.
+
+Soon they were in search of the old St. Michael's Episcopal Church, near
+there, which they had learned was the third oldest in Massachusetts, and
+the fourth in New England, those in Boston, Newbury, and Newport being
+the three older. As Mrs. Tracy approached it, she became indignant that
+the outer frame had ever been put over the original church with its
+seven gables and its towers; she wondered if it could not now be taken
+off and leave the old church, as it was meant to be, pretty and unique.
+When from the inside she saw the peculiar ceiling, she thought more than
+ever that it ought to be and could be done. While she was thus
+speculating, the boys were observing the quaint old brass chandelier,
+with its candles, a gift from England, also the pillars of the church,
+stained to imitate marble. Then they all examined the Decalogue over the
+altar, written in the ancient letters, and done in England in 1714. Mrs.
+Tracy wished that the old high pulpit and sounding-board had never been
+replaced by the desk which she now saw there. The sexton showed them the
+old English Bible, which he said had been in use there about one hundred
+and twenty-five years. They noticed the little organ, which was very
+old, and also sent over from England. As they came out of the church,
+they saw, by its side, a graveyard containing some old inscriptions, and
+then went on to see the old Town House in the square, which Reuben said
+was in its prime in the days of George III. He told the boys to wait
+until they should study history, and then they would know more about
+this king. That was what he was going to do. Mrs. Tracy noted this
+remark as another good sign.
+
+She treated them to some soda-water in Goodwin's apothecary-store,
+nearly opposite, so that they could the more easily remember the house,
+of which this was the parlor, where Chief-Justice Story was born.
+
+They were still driving up Washington Street, through one of the oldest
+parts of the town, when, all of a sudden, Reuben asked his mother to
+stop and let him and his friends get out and run up some stone steps,
+which he said he knew would lead them up through backyards into another
+street. So out they jumped, and soon were up in High Street, following
+its winding way over the rocky soil, and amidst old houses, until they
+came out to Washington Street again, where Mrs. Tracy had driven on to
+meet them. They then drove along Front Street, where they had a fine
+view of the ocean, and also of the Neck, so prettily decked with its
+unique jewels. Reuben was anxious to go in Lee and State Streets because
+they were old and quaint, which they soon found. The boys, much to their
+delight, spied some more steps leading to another street, and also
+noticed, on much of the way, the want of sidewalks. They touched upon
+other streets which they were inclined to call lanes.
+
+So they spent a day in this old town, with its Fort Sewall; its Powder
+House, built in 1755; its Ireson's house on Oakum Bay, where Mrs. Tracy
+reread to them Whittier's poem on Ireson; its cemeteries, where in one
+they found a gravestone bearing the date of 1690. They visited the new
+Abbott Hall, which Mrs. Tracy told them to consider as a historical
+connecting link between the old and the new. She now felt that they had
+seen enough for one day: so, with a promise to drive over again, some
+time, to visit more especially the newer part of the town, and also to
+drive around the Neck, they left for home. The next day, indeed for
+several days, the boys were in high spirits talking over their trip. All
+of the boys in the neighborhood were interested to hear of it, and
+doubtless some mother was stimulated to do as much for her children. As
+for Mrs. Tracy, her sorrow was still keen, but her interest in her
+living child's growth was becoming the means of softening its sharpest
+edge. She had discovered an elixir which should renew her life to larger
+ends.
+
+By another week's time Marblehead was pretty well talked over, and Mrs.
+Tracy was interested to find another subject for the rest of the
+vacation, A few days before, Reuben had asked her what an island was.
+She felt then, as she answered him, that a visit to such a place would
+give him a much better idea of its capabilities than any description
+which she could give. So, now, in thinking over an interesting island
+within easy distance, for a day's trip, she recalled the pleasure which,
+some years before, she had found in a short stay upon Star Island, among
+the Isles of Shoals. When she had decided that this should be the place,
+she talked the matter over with Reuben, telling him that he might invite
+his cousin Frank, a boy of fifteen years, to come from a neighboring
+town and spend the rest of the vacation with him; for he would enjoy
+studying with them about the Isles of Shoals before they should all go
+to see them. Reuben was delighted with the proposition; he secretly
+wondered what had made his mother so _extra_ good lately; he
+determined that he would love her more and more, and do all that he
+could for her; he did wish that his brother Albert was alive to go with
+them, but he was so glad to have his cousin Frank, who was certainly
+coming to him the next day.
+
+The following morning brought him, after which the days flew quickly by.
+Reuben not only showed to him the antiquities of Salem, but told him
+much of Marblehead town. They played together their vacation plays, and
+had, each day, their hour's talk and reading with Mrs. Tracy on the
+geography and history of the Isles of Shoals. At last they were ready to
+go, and the day was set. Mrs. Tracy had invited Reuben's school-teacher,
+Miss De Severn, a lovely young lady, whom sad reverses had sent to hard
+work, and denied much pleasure in travel, to join her in their trip.
+Reuben teased his papa to go with them, but business engagements
+prevented his so doing. But he encouraged his son in his pleasure, and
+told him that whenever he could tell all that he wanted to see in Europe
+he should go there on a tour, but not before. Frank, particularly,
+caught his uncle's idea, and determined then to read all the good books
+of travel that he could find.
+
+On the pleasant morning of the appointed time they were all on hand in
+the Salem station to take the train for Portsmouth; they arrived there
+in time to take the steamer Appledore, as it started at eleven o'clock,
+for its ten-mile trip to the Shoals. The boys were delighted with the
+novelty of sailing between New Hampshire on one side and Maine on the
+other. As they passed on the right the quaint old town of Newcastle,
+Miss De Severn told them of the old Wentworth house, built in 1750,
+which was still standing there, and which still contained the old
+portraits of Dorothy Quincy and others. She promised to read to them, on
+their return home, the story of Dorothy Quincy, as told by Dr. Holmes,
+and also the story of Martha Hilton, the Lady Wentworth of the Hall, as
+told by Longfellow. While she was telling them of the old Fort
+Constitution, which they soon passed, and other tales of Great Island,
+or Newcastle, Mrs. Tracy was enjoying the Kittery side, which also had
+its suggestive history. They soon passed the twin lighthouses of Whale's
+Back. Reuben was still wondering why that name was given to it, when his
+quick ear heard the ringing of a bell afar off in the distance. What
+could that be? Then Mrs. Tracy told the boys of the valuable bell-buoys,
+of which they had never heard. The sea was just rough enough to cause
+the bell stationed there to ring most of the time; and as they passed
+it, they declared that they never heard anything more dismal. Frank said
+that he should always think of that in a stormy night ringing out to
+warn the sailors. After a sail of an hour and a half, they landed at
+Appledore Island, the largest of the seven which comprise the Isles of
+Shoals, and which altogether make a little over six hundred acres.
+Reuben said that they were now in Maine, for Appledore, Smutty Nose,
+Duck, and Cedar belonged to Maine; while Star, White, and Londoner
+belonged to New Hampshire. His mother was pleased to hear him apply his
+geographical knowledge of the place so soon. She was sure now that he
+never would forget that fact. They spent a short time in looking around
+the island, with its attractive hotel, so finely situated, and its half
+dozen pretty cottages. One of them Mrs. Tracy pointed out as the home of
+Celia Thaster, who, she told them, was a poetess who had written so
+feelingly of the sea, and who had told, in a pretty poem, how in the
+years gone by she had often lighted with her own hands the light in the
+lighthouse which they could see on White Island, a short distance from
+them. The boys wished to go there, as they had never been near a
+lighthouse; but as Mrs. Tracy felt that in their limited time Star
+Island would, on the whole, afford them more pleasure and profit, they
+took the little miniature steamer Pinafore, which constantly plied
+between the two islands, and in a few minutes' time were landed on its
+historic ground.
+
+After they had dined at the Oceanic, a hotel kept by the same
+proprietors as the Appledore House, on the island which they had just
+left, they found that they had an hour and a half in which to look
+around before the steamer should return to Portsmouth. As they sauntered
+along over the rocks back of the hotel, they came near enough to the
+little meeting-house, which was standing there, to read on its side the
+following inscription:--
+
+  GOSPORT CHURCH.
+
+  ORIGINALLY CONSTRUCTED OF THE TIMBERS
+  FROM THE WRECK OF A SPANISH SHIP, A.D.
+  1685; WAS REBUILT IN 1720, AND BURNED BY
+  THE ISLANDERS IN 1790. THIS BUILDING OF
+  STONE WAS ERECTED A.D. 1800.
+
+
+Through the kindness of a gentleman who had brought the key to gain
+entrance into the interior, they all went in through the little side
+door to see a comparatively small room, with about twenty-five pews, and
+a quaint desk with a large chair each side of it. Mrs. Tracy said that
+when this church was built, in 1800, that island had only fifteen
+families and ninety-two persons, while Smutty Nose had three families
+and twenty persons, and Appledore had not an inhabitant upon it. Reuben
+said that there was a time, more than a hundred years before the
+Revolutionary War, when the town of Gosport, which included all the
+islands, contained from three hundred to six hundred inhabitants. Miss
+De Severn wished that they had time to read some old preserved records
+of that place, which were now to be seen at the hotel.
+
+As they came out of the church, Reuben spied the weather-vane, in the
+form of a fish, which crowned the little wooden tower, in which was the
+bell, still used, although rather dismal in sound.
+
+As they wandered on, Mrs. Tracy noticed that the march of improvement
+had torn down most of the old fishing-houses, as well as the little old
+school-house, which she knew had once been there. They soon came upon
+the old burial-ground among the rocks, where they found inscribed on two
+horizontal slabs the only two inscriptions which were there. On one they
+saw this tribute:--
+
+  IN MEMORY OF
+  THE REV. JOSIAH STEPHENS,
+  A FAITHFUL INSTRUCTOR OF YOUTH, AND PIOUS
+  MINISTER OF JESUS CHRIST,
+  SUPPORTED ON THIS ISLAND BY THE SOCIETY
+  FOR PROPAGATING THE GOSPEL,
+  WHO DIED JULY 2, 1804. AGED 64 YEARS.
+  -----------
+  LIKEWISE OF
+  MRS. SUSANNAH STEPHENS,
+  HIS BELOVED WIFE,
+  WHO DIED DEC. 7, 1810.  AGED 64 YEARS.
+
+
+and, on the other, this high eulogy:--
+
+  UNDERNEATH ARE THE REMAINS OF
+  THE REV. JOHN TUCKE, A.M.,
+  HE GRADUATED AT HARVARD COLLEGE, A.D. 1723; WAS
+  ORDAINED HERE JULY 26, 1732.
+  AND DIED AUG. 12, 1773.  AET 72.
+
+  HE WAS AFFABLE AND POLITE IN HIS MANNER,
+  AMIABLE IN HIS DISPOSITION,
+  OF GREAT PIETY AND INTEGRITY, GIVEN TO HOSPITALITY,
+  DILIGENT AND FAITHFUL IN HIS PASTORAL OFFICE,
+  WELL LEARNED IN HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY, AS WELL
+  AS GENERAL SCIENCE,
+  AND A CAREFUL PHYSICIAN BOTH TO THE BODIES AND
+  THE SOULS OF HIS PEOPLE.
+  ERECTED 1800. IN MEMORY OF THE JUST.
+
+
+Miss De Severn bowed reverently in honor of such lives having been lived
+in the midst of the ignorance and corruption which she knew to have then
+pervaded the islands.
+
+From this rocky burial-ground they wended their way to the three-sided
+monument, enclosed within a railing, which was on one of the highest
+rocks on the island. Frank remembered that it was erected in 1864, in
+honor of Captain John Smith, one of the first explorers of the islands;
+but as he was ignorant of the meaning of the Turk's head on its top--the
+one left of the three which were once there--Mrs. Tracy told him and
+Reuben about Smith's successful encounter with the three Turks, as well
+as some other tales pertaining to his brave exploits, after which they
+read on the sides of the monument the words inscribed in his honor.
+
+As they stopped to gaze around them for a moment, they saw, a little
+more than half a mile off, Haley's (or Smutty Nose) Island, with its few
+black houses, prominent among which was the one stained by an awful
+tragedy. Mrs. Tracy hoped that it would soon be taken down, for it was
+too suggestive of terror and wickedness to be always in sight of those
+seeking rest and peace on the islands. Reuben said that Smutty Nose was
+the most verdant of all the islands, and the one the earliest settled;
+while Duck Island, three miles away, was noted for its game. He also
+remembered, much to his mother's surprise, that Cedar Island was only
+three eighths of a mile distant, and Londoner not a quarter of a mile
+away. When Frank added that Appledore was seven eighths of a mile off,
+and White Island nearly two miles distant, Reuben, not to be outdone by
+him, said that Star Island was three quarters of a mile long, and half a
+mile wide, while Appledore was a mile long. They would have gone on till
+all their knowledge had been told, if Mrs. Tracy had not suggested that
+they continue their walk over the rocks which gave Star Island its
+natural grandeur. They would have liked to have remained there all of
+the afternoon, to have enjoyed the waves as they dashed up over the
+rocks; but they only stopped long enough to find Miss Underhill's Chair,
+the name of a large rock, on which Frank read aloud an inscription
+stating the fact, that, in 1848, on that spot, Miss Underhill, a loved
+missionary teacher, was sitting, when a great wave came and washed her
+away. Miss De Severn said that her body was found a week later at York
+Beach, where the tide had left it.
+
+On their way back to the hotel they noticed some willows and wild roses,
+enclosed in a wooden fence, wherein Mrs. Tracy said would be found the
+graves of three little children of a missionary who once lived upon the
+island; whereupon the boys searched until they found the three following
+inscriptions: "Jessie," two years, "Millie," four years, and "Mittie,"
+seven years old. Under the name of Mittie they said was inscribed:
+"I don't want to die, but I'll do just as Jesus wants me to."
+
+Mrs. Tracy found herself looking back tenderly to this sacred spot, as
+she followed the boys to the other side of the Oceanic to see the ruins
+of the old Fort, which Reuben said had been useful before the
+Revolutionary War.
+
+On their way to the steamer, which was to leave in a few minutes, they
+stepped into a small graveyard of dark stones, of which Mrs. Tracy said
+all but one were inscribed with the name of Caswell.
+
+Soon they were on the steamer, bound for Portsmouth, then on the cars
+for Salem, where they arrived home in time for supper. They had seen
+what they went to see, and Reuben now very well knew what an island was.
+Hereafter, geography and history would be more real to him. On the
+following Monday, Frank was telling in his home all that he had seen,
+thus inspiring a larger circle with a desire to see and to know, and
+Rueben was in his schoolroom ready to begin another year's school work.
+His teacher was glad to see that he certainly would be a more
+interesting pupil for his intelligent vacation rambles, and silently
+wished that more mothers would do what his mother has done.
+
+As for Mrs. Tracy, she not only decided to interest herself in the
+studies of her boy more than she had done in the past, but she
+determined to prepare the way for some little historic excursion for
+every vacation which her son should have. Another summer should bring
+Concord, surely, and perhaps Plymouth too.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+[Illustration: Alex H. Rice.]
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Bay State Monthly, Vol. 1, Issue 1., by Various
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BAY STATE MONTHLY, V 1, ISSUE 1 ***
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