Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1872-02-22
Letter from Boston.
Indoor Life-COnversatiOnsO of the PEE
FiOd-Mr. Perkins ART Lectures.
IFRoM OUR REGULAR CORRESPONDENT

sorts, and will simply listen to the conversation
of the different persons whom one sees; this
thoughtfulness, this desire for reform, this ha-
btual dealing with large subjects, becomes no.
ticeable and interesting. Both mem and women
here think and talk, and il is curious to note the
topics and plans that one hears discussed by
people who have not the remotest selfish inter-
est in them. Education, of course, interests
everybody, and it sometimes seems as if nothing
was ever said in public half so good as the thor
ough discussion hear in private of industrial
schools, the education of girls, the defects in
our present system of teaching, and the i'm
provements that ought to be made. Then the APP
parently dry question of city improvements be-
comes fascinating, when lis not in the hands. or
mouths rather, of spectators. One person has
made study of prevailing winds, and the di-
rection in which open avenues and water parks
should lie, in order that these winds may sweep
without obstruction through the city, and keep
it fresh, sweet and healthlul. He knows won
derful tales of other cities in Europe and the
cast, where Presidential districts have been thor
oughly purified, by merely opening a pathway
for the winds; and month after month, year
after year, he labors with city officials and legis-
lures to see that a similar good work is done
here Meantime the back bay, the south bay,
and Charles river are being filled up without re.
gard 10 health or proper open spaces, and parks
of both land and water are becoming more costly
and more difficult to obtain.
lie Is followed by another Bostonian, an en-.
IRE stranger to him, who has made a magnif-
cent plan Tor the Boston of the future, with
wide avenues and series of parks; a plan that
unltes health, beauty and convenience, and
saves the Dorchester and RoXbury hill tops for
puore grounds and lovely prospects. Both these
men are enthusiastic, and both are eager that
people who can't keep horses and carriages
should nave accessible parks, twhere they can
find space and air, and where their children can
play in safety The next conner has made a hob
by of street railroads, and is brm full of facis
about steam and horse cars, about the demands
OF the public, and the capacity or rather the in
capacity OF narrow streets aud knows the argu-
ments for and against every conceivable project
Tor more rapid and comfortable communication
between Boston and the suburbs, pretty wo-
man, eXquisitely dressed, is perhaps the next
conner. She is anxious about the supply of pure
mllk-to be sure she boards, and the milk at the
boarding house is abundant, and of excellent
quality, but then other people don't have pure
mlIk' ana she wecps with those who weep, and
mas an ardent interest in the talk of the milk
ASSOCIATION, winch is, believe, the very latest
reIorm mere woman Suffrage has hardly its
snare OIL time; lew ladies' seem interested enough
III inc SUBJECT TO tax about it; but
tiClOlld W OOuuulIS lectures and MIS-. Wood
nun hersen were the text for eager criticism
"',u NY .ApieSSion Vi oPilon' vi three ladles'
an i"teh!9eht' accomplished and good, one
thou9ut MIS- "oodhull should Oe prevented by
Inc city authorities from speaking in public;
while the other two went to hear her; one of
them found her personally attractive and in no
way shocking, though illogical and somewhat
Wild in her views; the other listened with dis
gust and pain, not so mnch at the inherent
Vlclousness oil the teaching, as at the fact that it
WAS offered as the highest morality an advance
upon the present customs Of society. She pro-
tested in private against Mrs. WOodhulls plac-
Ing selhshness, brutality and licence on a higher
plane than sell-sacrifce, refinement and recogni-
ton of law. And so opinions varied, and occu.
pied the mind Tor a few days, and then Mrs
Woodhull was forgotten in some new phase of
thought or work; for Bostonians are by no
means given over to the practical. An en-
couraging account of city missions, and the
doings at a charitable fair may be quite
driven from the mind by the rerort
of lecture onevodtion, on the god of science,
or on positive philosophy. One friend works
with all her might in temperance organizations;
another in Indian missions; still another, a
charming woman, full of tenderness ond atTec-
ton, just the mother to be adored by children
and grandchildren, has found time, amidst all
her cares, to make study of art, especially one
branch of it; she has rare collection of en-