Litchfield enquirer., 1862-09-11

reached our destDatlon, ana could not see dlS- tinctly toward the rear; yet think did see something coming after the Mackerel Brigade.
 What wasit3
 It was the Southern Confederacy, my boy the Southern Confederacy!
 Yours, excitedly,
 ORPHEUS C.. KERR.
 From the New Fork Independent.
 A SABBATH IN NEW ENGLAND.
 BY HENRY. WARD BEEcHER.
 Here am upon the round hilltop of Wash. ington, Connecticut. It is primitive town. It is a genuine old-tashioned New England village The people in the whole region round about are agriculturists; few factories of any kind have brought in strange population, and no railroads have introduced new-fangled notions. It is true that some old men mourn that Washington is not what it used to be; that children are not brought up as strictly; that girls are not taught to work as once they were; that there is more extravagance of table and dress that Saturday night IS not kept, and especially that Sunday is not so vigorously kept as formerly. How this may De, We shall not attempt to say. But a Sunday on this green and tranquil hilltop seem- ed to us exceedingly like those hich we remem- Der forty years ago in old Litchfeld, that lies about ten miles east
 The old church stands in the midst of the Green.' Within ball-knock, in every dir ton but enc, the ground plunges of down hill. There are but about twenty-five dwelling houses on or near the Green. These are for the most part venerable. The windows contain glass six by eight inches in size, the ceilings are low. the frame timbers show through the plaster, and are cased and painted. Huge stacks of stone chim- neys use up much space in the center. The stairs are crooked, hard to ascend, but too easy oi getting dewn, if you don't take care These old two-story, square dwellings have an impos- ing look from without, especially with the grand old elms half covering them with their pendu- ious branches, or with naples grown so old as to have lost that snug and dandy look that makes young naples so spruce and overnice Although upon hilltop, Washington is surrounded on ev- cry side with yet higher hills. On every side you see line farms covering round hills, that seem to grow richer the higher up they go.
 On Sunday morning we walked and wondered where we were. Recalling our place, we lis- tened for some sound. No voice was heard. no footfall out of doors. The stiffness of New England Sabbath rested on this lovely hill. As we stood in the air, fainty from below the hill on the west came up the sound of water, falling over the dam of a grist-mill. One little vireo sang out Of tree. Besides, we heard no sound. No ono was walking. The smoke that soon melted away showed that families were moving. But every thing was still.
 ms very silence becomes moral power. It works upon the imagination. It enfranchises the memory. It stirs the dormant feelings The tod scenes, give way to the higher faculties, and bet ter feelings begin to supplant the restless world ly passions. Thus Nature does what Orpans are set in churches to do, if only organsts dream of their vocation. For when the house of God IS entered by the throng, come from city homes. along busy streets, they are met at the portal by the sounds of solemn music. Their taste is ad. l dressed. their imagination touched By strong impression upon these, the current of thought IS stayed, and feelings change. Then, as the Minister of the Organ, himself inspired with growing rapture, rolls the solemn harmonies forth, deeper feelings are unveiled; and, when the Pastor assumes his office, his audience have been led away from cares and common feelings, and are prepared easily to move toward the deeper and truer religious sentiments and emo tions: This is what the organ may do, and should do. It is this that the Sabbath morning does at least for many, when it siences all sounds suppresses ali common ayocations, and lets in upon the soul noble aspirations and heavenly yearnings.
 The first bell began to ring. Its sound rolled through the air as if it were the sole occupant. IheseGills are full of villages, four or five miles apart Each one has it's bell. So, far up in the air, their circles of sound meet and cut each other. The upper air has choirs of bells on ev- cry Sabbath day.
 The first bell says to all mothers Get the children ready, and to all housekeepers, 'Set your affairs in order, the sermon is comingv
 In one hour comes the second bell It is the great day of the Church bell! All the week long it dreamed in silence up in the belfry. For funerals It tolls; but they are not frequent Tn these hill countries. On rare national days it rings. Besides these, it does no work ali the week. It reverses functions with men. TheS work all the week and rest on Sundays. The village bell is mute all the week, and wake, up to great officiousness on Sunday. And vet neither first nor second bell is rung with world. ly swing. On Independence Day the bell swings necessarily back and forth, and turns over with double strokes, and whirls back again, and seems to say to young people, " You see am not al ways formal and solemn can be merry when a proper time comes." But on the Sabbath that bell knows what is proper as we'll as the man on the other end of its rope. You will nev. CT hear any secular ringing from it. It opens with one or two slow strokes, as if sounding the pitch it goes steadily on for ten or twelve notes. and then, as if it had sung out verse and was taking breath, it pauses. Then come two strokes more and rest, and, for variety, two quickly upon them, and pause. Once in great while the church bell has been known to turn ever whsn ringing for church service But the best make mistakes. Deacons have been known to laugh under sudden temptation on the Sabbath. Bells, though lifted up above ordinary inauen. ces, are yet mortal, and liable to an accidental freak of levity. It is rare. Commonly it rolls down the valleys and over the hills it's message. echoing on this side, and flowing out in deep base warbles far over forest and meadow, Come Aither Come worship!' Come home! How sweet 1t sounds no man knows who was not brought up in New England. Nor even her sons, until they have been exiles, and return af. ter years of half Sundays, to the full peace and brightness and simple earnestness of a Sabbath among the New England hills.
 But the people are gathering. Up comes one horse wagon; another waits behind it; two more are coming round the corner. They empty their load, and drive off Others take their places. Now two-horse team and open wagon, now a covered plain carriage, barouche, a buggy,any kind of vehicle-but none on horseback, no man and his wife on billion behind him as it used to be. Mounting blocks are done away with. A venerable father yet lives across the Green, who remembers the first four-wheeled wagon that ever drove up to church. The innevator was talked to by the deacons for violating the peace of the Sabbath by riding in such noisy vehicle.
 The door is thronged. Little children in red