The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1851-01-02
POPE NIGHT.
"Lay up the fsgots neat and trim
Pile 'em up higher,
Set 'em q fire

The recent attempt of the Romish Church to
reestabsh its hierarchy in Great Britain, with the
new Cardinal, Dr. Wiseman, at its head, seems
to have revived an old popular custom, grim
piece of Protestant sport, which, since the days
of Sir George Gordon and the "No Popery" mob,
had very generally fallen into disuse. On the
5th of the It'll month of this present year, all
England was trayersed By professions, and light.
ed up with bonfres in commemoration of the de-
lection of the gunpowder plot" of Guy Fawkes
and the Papists, in 1905. Popes, Bishops, and
Cardinals, in straw and pastebosrd, were paraded
through the streets, and burned amid the shouts
of the populace great portion Of whom would
have doubtless been quite as ready to do the same
pleasant little Office for Henry Of Exeter, or his
Grace of Canterbury, if they could have carted
about and burned in efhgy Protestant hierarchy
as safely as Catholic one.
In this country--where every sect takes its own
way, undisturbed by legal restrictions-each &C.
cessstical tub balancing ITSELF as it best may, on
its own bottom-and where Bishops Catholic, and
Bishops Episcopal, and Bishops Methodist and
Bishops Mormon, jostle each other in our
thoroughfares, it is not to be expected that we
should trouble ourselves with the matter at issue
between the rival hierarchies on the other sideof
the water. 1t is very pretty quarrel, however,
and good mus. eosae azs Of & e;' -
attract popular attention to the shalowness of the
spiritual pretensions of both parties, and lead to
the conclusion that hierarchy Of any sort has
very little in common with the fishermen and
tent makers of the New Testament.
Pope Night--the anniversary of the discovery
of the Papal incendiary, Guy Fawkes, booted and
spurred, ready to touch fire to his powder train
under the Parlisment House-was celebrated by
the early settlers Of New England, and doubtless
afforded good deal Of relief to the younger
plants of grace in the Puritan vineyard In those
solemn old days, the recurrence of the Powder
Plot anniversary, with its professions, hideous
images of the Pope and Guy Fawkes, its liberal
potations of strong waters and its blazing bon
fires reddening the wild November hills, must
have been looked forward to with no slight degree
of pleasure For one night at least the cramped
and smothered fun and mischief Of the younger
generation were permitted to revel in the wild
extrayacance of a Roman Saturnalia, or the
Christmas holydays Of a slave-plsntation. Big
otry-frowning upon the May Pole, with it's flow
er-wreaths and sportive jewellers, and counting
the steps of the dancers as so many steps towards
perdition- in the grim face Of Guy
Fawkes's anniversary something Of its own Inca
ments, smiled 0omplacently upon the riotous
Young actors and opened its close purse to fur
nish tar barrels to roast the Pope and strong
water TO moistea the threats Of his noisy judges
and executioners.
Up to the time of the Revolution, the Powder
Plot was duly commemorated throughout New
England At that period, the celebration Of it was
discountenanced, and in many places prohibited,
on the ground that it was insulting to our Catho-
lie allies from France. In Coffin's History of
Newbury, it is stated that, in l774, the town au-
thorities of Newburyport ordered, " that no eff
ges be carried about or exhibited only in the day
,imen The last public celebration in that town
was in the following year. Long before the close
of the last century, the exhibitions Of Pope Night
had entirely ceased throughout the country, with,
as far as we can learn, solitary exception. The
stranger who CHANGED to be travelling on the
road between Newburyport and Haverhill, on the
night of the 9Th of November, Of this present
year, might have fancied that an invasion was
threatened from the sea, or that an insurrection
was going on inland. For, from all the high hills
in Salisbury and Amesbury, tall fires were blsz-
ing redly against the dull dark autumnal sky,
surrounded by groups of young men and boys,
busily engaged in urging them with fresh fuel
into intenser activity To feed these bon6res,
everything combustible which could be begged or
stolen from the neighboring villages, farm-houses,
and fences, had been put in requsiton. Old tar
tubs. purloined from the shipbulders Of the river
side. and -four and lard barrels from the village
traders, had been stored away for days, and per-
haps weeks, in the woods or in the raingullies Of
the hills in preparation for Pope Night. From
the earliest settlement of the two towns the night
of the Powder Plot has been thus celebrated, with
unbroken regularity, down to the present time
The event which it once concentrated is proba-
b,v now unknown to most of the Juvenile actors
The symbol lives on from generation to genera
tion after the significance is lost and we have
seen the children of our Catholic neighbors as
busy as their Protestant playmates in collecting
by hook or by crook" the materials for Pope
Night bonires We remember, on one occasion
walking out with gifted and learned Catholic
friend to witness the fine effect Of the illumina-
ton on the hills, and his hearty appreciation OF
its picturesque ard wild beauty-the busy groups
in the strong relief Of the fires, and the plsy and
corruscaiou of the changeful lights on the bare,
brown hills, naked trees, and autumn clouds.
| In addition to the bonfres on the hills, there
was formerly procession in the streets, bearing
grotesque images Of the Pope, his Cardinals, and
friars; and behind them Satan himself, monster
| with huge ox.horns on his head, and long tail
brandishing his pichfOrk, and goading them on
ward. The Pope was generally furnished with
a movable head, which could be turned round
thrown back, or made to bow, like that of China
ware mandarin. An aged inhabitant Of the neigh.
borhood has furnished us with some fragments OF
the songs sung on such occasions, probably the
same which our British ancestors troled forth
around their bohi fires two centuries ago;
1.-THE fifth of November,
| As you we'll remember,
| Was gpnpowdrr treason and plot;
| And where is the reason
| That gunpowder Treason
Should ever be forgotln
"when James he First the scertre swsyed,
This hsllish powder plot was laid
They placed the powder down below,
All for old Englsnds overthrow;
Lucky the man. and happy the day,
That caught Guy Fawkes In the Middle Of his playw
Hank! our bell goes Jink, jinh, jnk;