Nashville patriot. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1858-1860, 1858-10-14
Written for The Nashville Patriot
AMERICAN CITIEs-NO. 2.
BOSTON.


to sketch it after sort; and once having
done that, there is no kind of duty within
his knowledge which can compel him to do
more.
Boston is the capital and chief city of the
Bay State.-so called, not because the inhab-
itants of this confederacy distinguish their
State the stOck-growers do their horses
by their cOlOr;-which is sometimes also called
Massachusetts. either for green's or short, it is
not fully known which, as the motives of the
Yankee, ike his recipe for the manufacture
of wooden-nutmegs, is inscrutable. Boston
is known abroad as the ''City of Notions" 1t
is thus named because each of its inhabitants
is impressed with a particular notion of his
own, which is. that Boston is the greatest city
on earth, and that he is the greatest man in
Boston.
Boston derives its name from a celebrated
race-horse, which once run ten miles in one
minute, or one mile in ten minutes, it is not
clearly established which. The founders of
the place are supposed to have been immi-
grants from somewhere else; and the SUPPOSE
ton is doubtless correct, as we have neither
written nor legendary authority for believing
that they were from airy other quarter, or
were anybody else. The site of the town,
when the discoveries first got sight of it,
was an island; but its islandic character was
destroyed some years afterward by the squat
tiers, who built a sort of causeway to the
mainland, fOr which they had, by the way,
good cause.) and called it the Neck; which is
now emblematic of one of their peculiar fall
lacies-the belief that Boston is the wise the
reverend head of the American Union, that
they constitute the brain of the Republic, and
that the people of the rest of the States are
simply the ''inards." Admitting this to be
true, it is not less true that the venerable in
dividual, known as Uncle Sam, might lose his
head without being any the worse for the de-
capitatiOn.
At the time Boston was in its swaddling
clothes, the Indians We're pretty thicklv scat
tered through the huckleberry bushes on the
adjacent hills, and had an ugly habit of at
tempting to take care of themselves, and
when one of their warriors fell beneath the
innocent blundcrbuss of the amiable Boston
ians, while pursuing the reindeer, the buffalo,
or the white bear, through his native forests,
for the sake of animals hide and tallow.
which was a common occurrence, they, the
Indians, were iInmpudent enough to remon-
stratc against the pious act. Consequently,
the BostOnians, to save themselves further
annoyance of the kind. determined to kill off
the red rascals, which they accordingly did.
But they soon came to regret their rashncss,
for they found that they had unthoughtedly
destroyed their chief source of amusement,
and had forced themselves TO the expense of
importing combustible witches from neigh
boring town to keep up healthy state of ex-
citcmcnt in the burg. and it was demonstrated
by actual experiment that the taggots alone
that were necessary 10 get up the least anus
ing confagration of an old woman. cost quite
as much as the buckshot required to bring
down an Indian. If these things didn't hap
pen Immediately in Boston. it was for no want
of an inclination to such sport on the part OF
the inhabitants.
1t is one OF the chief boasts OF the City of
Notions, that the first American tea-party on
record assembled in that place. Tea-parties
of that particular sort being regarded at that
time as unlawful assemblies by the statutes,
it was gotten up on the masquerade order.
the brave and gallant Bostonians going into
the thing in the guise and garb OF Indians, so
that in case of an unpleasant afterclap the
Indians might be made to bear the shock.
Having bought the souchong for the occasion
as the boy did the boots-when the shop
keeper was out. considerable row was the
consequence. The owners of the tea very
naturally felt indignant at a transaction in
volving their interests, in which they were
permitted to take no part, more especially as
the other party. instead of drinking the bev-
erage, turned the affair into a regular bust
broke the crockery, and spilled things gen.
orally. The owner of the tea sent over q
number of his employees to demand indem-
nifty for the breakage, and, in case of an at
tempt to dodge the corn. to fan out the entire
town. But having put their foot (Which was
recognized despite the moccasin) in it, the
| Bostonians determined to go the entire swine
and accordingly, they swore they would neither
come down with the damages nor consent t.
apologize. [For further particulars see any
body Fourth of July Oration.l
For many years the inhabitants of Boston
were engaged in catching CLANS and Goldfish
but becoming tired of that sort of diet they
abandoned their fishing tackle and turnet
their attention to the manufacture of woodcl
hams which, when properly cooked and sea
soned with nutmegs from the same manutac
turcrs. were said to make Il rather desirabl
dish for those whose taste ran in that way
But the market becoming stocked with baco
of a different style, which the dealers coul
afford to put at lower figures than the Bosto
article. owing to the growing scarcity of hal
timber in the neighborhood of the city, III
Bostonians quit the business and engaged
the accumulation of money enough to pa
their passage to every corner of the glob,
and so successfully have they prosecuted tn
branch of enterprise that it may truthfully
said
Go where you please, or when you Will
Eternal Boston haunts you still"
Such of the inhabitants as are unable
leave home on account Of pecuniery or d.
nestle ,ies, are engaged in occurring to OF
another ON transcendentalism and the abol
, ton of slavery aud in listening to the bras
} hand on the Common, and in worshipping Il
Almighty by steam.
In 1850 Boston had % banks, with an Al
{ gregate capital Of s2l 400, 900 (Which WI
I certainly capital aggregated; but in ls5
/, the money market took the lock jaw, aud a
r the banks ia Boston bursted up and quit; an
; for some time, the only bank there that wa
not suspended. was Nathaniel F., and