The Republican journal., 1876-11-30
Homo from tho Centennial.
Correspondence Of the Journal.
ROSTON. Nov. ODD. 1875

thought l. Ilu ltll lllt SeItcIlllill DcHllQ lle |
when we sped away from Philadelphia, but the |
persistent little dispenser of peanuts and bana-
mas, having exhausted his attractions in that
line, came audaciouslv forward with those
everlasting, many folded books of Centennial
veWs The next dav, while fascinated with !
the flashing beauty of the Sound, another
bunch of Centennial views" was thrust under |
my nose; and here in this blessed old Hub no
auctioneer doing any respectable business con-
slders his advertisement complete without the
announcement of goods from the Centennial!'
More than year has gone since New Eng
land scenes have met my gaze, and my ride
from Gotham Was constant delight. No.
where else does one see exactly such villages,
buzzing with their Overlooking vitality, or
such dear old sleepy towns, drowsily brooding
over a past whose memories are to them much
more important than the rapidly succeeding
events OF the present. The houses whose
huge proportions sheltered families we'll worth
the name are still standing. Those vast CHM
neys suggest great roaring tires, in whose ashes
chestnuts We're roasted, while rosy cheeks grew
roster watching the process, and Young voices
shouted with @ee when some Vicious nut went
pop across the room. What Il paradise tor
Young ones were the carpetless kitchens and
chairs whose homemade cushions might easily
be tossed aside! remember one such farm
house i'll Berkshire, which WAS 10 me "a bower
OF perfect happiness when from our city par
sonage my mother took me for Il visit. What
royal games we played in the evening, banish
ing the grown up folks to proprietY i'll the best
room; and how used to marvel at the spin
llng wheel which kept up its mllscid hum
through many an hour. There We're two
young girls then in that household familiar
With all household mysteries. one Of them
went with me to the New England Kitchen
on the Centennial grounds A woman quaint
Iy dressed was spinning at the great wheel, en-
loving the curiosity her work excited. Ny
friend watched her minute, mutterei TO me
that the yarn she spun wa, horribly uneven,
then drawing OH her own gloves and showing
white hands glittering with diamonds, she
begged permission to try" herself 1T was
twenty years since l. Il child, had watched her
spinning and thought then how fair she was,
but that day she seemed far more beautiful
than in youth. as She stood in her elegant at
tire, holding her gray head more proudly than
the brown one had even been borne, and amaZ
ing the amateur spinner by deftly drawing out
great lengths of yarn rs perfect as any the ma
chimes III the factories can make. MI this came
back to me while we made our swift way
| through the old Connecticut towns till Hart
| ford WAS reached. Hartford and insurance
must always be thought of together. Her
| church spires are scarcely more numerous
| than the turrets of her insurance buildings,
| and | rather think the average citizen Of that
beautiful city shows his appreciation of its
chief business interest by paving up his nSur-
/ ance premiums much more regularly than he
| does his pew rent
| The new State House of white marble crowns
| IA lovely hill which used to be classic ground
when the colleges stood there, and Hartford is
very proud Of the handsome structure. The
trains all pass close beside it, strangers carry
away the vision of It's lovcliness, as they whrl
onward through Windsor, and up where the
ThompsonviIle carpet mills are filling all the all
with their deafenng clalter; then on and on
through Wide meadows till we Shot into that
horribly dismal and dirty Old depot Of the Al
bany road at Springfield. In that vicinity the
lunch counter still relgns supreme. Not one OF
| its original abomnaion~ is omitted. You fine
| sandwiches as dry is a mathematical PROPOSE
ton; doughnllts is greasy rs the lard can make
them; pies which give one the dyspepsia even
to see, and ii you meeklv ask tor the milk pitch
er the dirty young woman who presides ovel
the scene passes it to YOU by the nose, leaving
thereon the impress of her dirty thumb, so YOU
conclude TO take your tea without milk. Bah
ont at Cheyenne or Grand Island, in the heart
is passengers with far more sayory food served
IN much neater fashion,
AT Boston the depot is equally forlorn and
inconvenient, alfording a direct contrast to the
splendid building of the Providence road. There
| the Waiting-rooms are al one could ask; the
cafe Is we'll kept; The newsstand amply sup-
| piled, and every possible arrangement made tol
the travellers comfort thinl. the Boston and
Albany depot tr inferior to any other in the
city; bat that road is the main artery of the
state, and people must use it, whether comfort
able or not; 30 little the stockholders care.
The pretty towns lying all about the Hub are
simply lodging places ior the throngs whose
| days are passed i'll the offices ana ware houses
| ol these dear old dngy streets. | like to sit md
| listen TO the chat all round me i'll one of the
| crowded morning trains. Saturday two young
girls havne: note book ~otcrly DISCUSSED their
written abstracts OF the lat lecture from their
professor. They >at behind ne. Before me
three bright faced young gentlemen were talk :
| inS OF Colerii@e and Southey and Wordsworth,
While across the aisle IL gentleman fresh from a
&.iI It Pick wi * L.,
| ample quotations from that most delicious book,
IN the confused murnlur from the rest Of the
crowd ! caught the constant recurrence Of the
names Of our Presidential candidates, bat if
you think I'm going to say anything about poll
ties You are Mistaken. In common with the
journalistic corps everywhere I'm waiting to see
which way the cat will jump betere define my
own position; but | can't help repeating one
'unny little Wittlcism heard to-day. Some one
was speaking of Buffers reelection and the re-
mark was made that now Sunset Cox would
doubtless find the advice Of the elder Weller
specially appropriate. Saniyel, beware Of
the tiHlerS,"
MIR. COOKS LECTURES.
Rev. Joseph Cooke, Il clergyman OF wide cul-
tlre and marvellous logical power, has been for
long while delivering lectures on Monday
noon at fremont Temple. lie takes up topics
most deeply interesting the popular thought.
presents them plainly and forcibly and sends
his hearers away with the delightful conscious
ness which the possession of new ideas always
coners Clereymen and business men 90 in
crowds His last subject Does Death end all:'
was treated with such magnificent skill that [
am sure no listener left that hall without the
conviction that the vital principles of human
life j. something ndestructibe; something
grander and diviner far than tie elements which
now clog and restrain its free5t action
At the Boston University Miss Elizabeth
Stuart Phelps is delivering a course of lectures
Or readings to the students. None of you have
forgotten her Gates Al jar" whose publication
made such an excitement few Years since;
and her graceful pen is constantly busy writ
lng stories, poems, and essays with equal faciI-