The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1853-10-09
THE MANCHESTER FAIR.


Hampshire, the facts Of which We have before given
MI Everett, in the presence Of large crowd In the
open air on the Fair grounds, delivered the follow
am greatly indebted to you Mr. President and fellow
citizens for this very Kind reception Though personally
known to few of will not allow TO regard
fortune before TO do anything than pass through
Manchester with railway speed your cordial welcome has
made me- myself at once at home With this simple &C.
knowiedgment of your kindness Mr. President feel N II
ought to stop This is the husbandmans festival ceie-
DRAFTED under the auspcies of the New Hampshire Agr
cultural Society. Your Executive Committee good
enough early in the season, invite to pronounce
the usual annual address this occasion felt greatly
honored by the request which, however more than one
prevailing compelled me to decne ano accep-
taby has the duty been performed by the gentleman
who has preceded me- SO much has he instructed and
interested in his very appropriate DISCOURSE that
cannot but congratulate and myself that it devoved
upon him and not upon me. feel it somewhat pre-
intruSe myself at ali before an audience like
this and in the presence of those much better able
to occupy your time to advantage. My best apology
will be- not to occupy much of it, and not to presume
to dwell upon matters which must be SO much better
under stood by others. Mr. President though has not
been my good fortune be personally much acquainted
with this part of your State have early associations Of
the most kindly and agreeable nature with another part of
New Hampshire. In the spring me-no of the year, but
of my lfe-I sent into it in pursuit of species of
culture which you will allow to be not of inferior import
to that of the soil the culture of the mind
was sent for short time when quite lad to the aeade-
collection of ii Is that did not longer enjoy the advan
tages of that excellent institution and the paternal Of
its beloved and venerated principal Dr. Abbott Yes sir
if will pardon this Renaissance of boyhood
remember but yesterdny-f0r it the first time
ever left the parental roo-beng called at about o'clock
in the morning in the month Of February to get ready
for what then thought hard days work-the jour
ney from Boston to Exeter. When boy between twelve
and thirteen starts alone before in the winter
from home to boarding school, the distances do not
seem particularly short. They seemed the longer
rived from the stage-driver This person who had
driven long time on the road well known to the
academy boys and had got rather weary of answering
their perpetual inquiries how many miles it was from
one place to another along the route His name was
Prime which we saucy youngsters converted into
(Which he took in very good part,) about the
seige of Troy. He took his revenge by mystifyng
about the distances Wherever we were the was
always same whether asked the question Haver-
hill at Atkinson Plastow Kingston how far it
now TO Exeter it was always about three miles,
have said fellow citizens that had the misfortune to be
stranger at Manchester; in those days you all
strangers at Manchester too Manchester did not exist 1t
of those cities which has sprung like exhaaton
from the soil al the bidding of capital enterprise and
SKILL avaling themselves of the creative forces of nature
In those days, sir, that is.but will not tell you how
Falls and by the everlasting advertisements which filled
the newspapers relative to the construction of canal
around them But it was famous spot, sir even in
state Of nature The children of the forest had selected
it chosen seat before the foot of civilized
had press these shores 1t the fayorte
abodes of Passaconoway, as you reminded me hour
agothe great Sachem Of the Pennacooks the powerful
tribe which occupied the banks Of the Merrmac and the
that not two hundred have passed since these fair
regions occupied by of fellow beings that
are d a s ne
inasmuch he could produce a green leaf
from the ashes OF dry one live serpent from the
skin of. dead one-could make water burn and
trees dance. Well Mr.. President without laying claim
to witchcra the modern arts competent to the per
Torrance Of Of these wonders am not aware in
deed that produce living serpent from the skin
of dead one; it is not breed that there is any great
motive to propagate, and very few experiments l sup
hnan
think this Agricultural Society has labored to very little
advantage if it has not shown how green leaf can be
produced from the ashes of dry one. | am the
chemists at the mills resolve water into
bustble gases and for dancing trees it almost took
away my breath to witness the rapdy of their motion
down this morning by the express train There
is no wchcraft necromancy like the mechanic arts
By what simple continuance Of Indian uggery poor Passa
conway performed his ickey wonders do not know
In those days the white well as the red,
bic for what he did not perform in the of tn
arts, than for what he did; for told that afte
corn and wheat had been imported into New Hampshire
from yirgnian the earliest days Of the settlement
they obliged to send it from this part of the world to
being the only mill in this part of the country. This
sounds strangely enough at spot where hear the
rush Of the Merrimac yonder mighty water wheels
of every description from the times of Gorges
and Mason-and their high. sounding grants Of Mari
ana and "Lacona y = the primitive settlement
Of Strawberry Bank'-the advent of Mr.. wheelwrght
the resolute founder of Exeter-who Cromwells
fellow student at Cambridge, and his most formidable
customed to trip the future Protectors heels, down
through the pleasant and prosperous days of the union
with and then the bloody series of the
Indian 1t is almost beyond belief sir, that hun
dred have not passed away since that pathetic ira
ged, in domestic life acted within the limits Of New
and her chi dren. believe the first time my blood
ever stirred by any tale, was when read that
narrative in the American Preceptor: g As Messrs.
Caleb Howe, Helkiah Grout and Benjamin Garfield,
who had been hoeing corn I'M meadow west of the
river, returning home little before sunset to
place called BridQnaQ fort they fired by
twelve Indians who had ambushed their path the 9th
Of July 157 That is the way the story begins there is
nothing in the Waverey novels that surpasses in interest
the subsequent adventures Of Mrs Howe in the captivity
Of herself and children among the Indians and Canadian
French, less than century ago. AT that time sir the
greater part of the extensive domain beautifully repre-
sented at this exhibition by all the products of agricn
ture animate and Illuminate, still lay in state Of nature
1t impossible that settlement should penetrate far to
the West and North along such exposed frontier The
interior condition Of New Hampshire, of most of the
other colonies dependant at that time the struggles
Of the great rches Of Europe The downfall of the
French power in Canada removed the terror Of Indian
fare-the establishment of independence called
and commerce and the fisheries your coast agriculture
and manufactures in the interior with the aid of labor
saving machinery the railroad and the locomotive have
done the rest They have converted the "howling
wilderness" into gardens and corn fields and thriving
towns and cities and have brought your State to the
dition high prosperity in which behold it. and
in which-as il seems to me-you have no occasion to
envy your sister States On your western boundary
have the noble Connecticut queen of the rivers of
your norhernmost limit TO Long Island Sound giving you
broad belt of fertile land its banks and direct
communication with the great commercial metropolis of
the Union The railroads which traverse the centre of the
State and that which is just opened from Portland to
Montreal through your northeastern territory place you
in immediate communication with the st. Lawrence and
Canada At the mouth Of the Piscataqua you have
of the best ports and harbors in the United States and
where in the world for length is there stream which
excels this admirable Merrmac whether consider
the beautiful lake in which takes its origin the fertile
meadows that watered with its upper tributaries
s1a fndn NIT
ted at its falls Hooksett Manchester Lowell Lawrence,
the four great fights Of stairs by which the genius Of
your prosperity goes down from bis mountain throne to
the sea, scattering blessings he descends Why sir
there is not sreamlet which leaps from the rocks and
nges its waters with the silver surface of your match
less lake no. not drop Of dew condensed in the dark
forests that surround it, that find its way to the
till II has contributed it's share to move, one after
another fifty water Wheels and by the products Of their
motion to clohe hundreds OF thousands Of ia remote
communities and give impulse to the commerce Of the
world And then, sir, for natural beauty have been
something Of a traveller in country-though
far less than / could wish-and in Europe have
that Ia attractive from Hivhlands