Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1879-06-17
NO. 146.
Miseellansuus.
THE CHEER OF NEW ENGLAND LIFE.

Shall we say that people do not now en-
JOY themselves in such places as they once
did What, then, becomes of the theory
that the alleged gloom is the bequest of
purtanism for it is clear that the time
describe was thirty years nearer puritan
ism than is the present time. But as
matter of fact there is much more social
testivity now than then, n,-consider for in
stance the great spread of private theatri-
Gals. except in few farming villages where
population has nomnally diminished. sim
ply because the new generation has trans
planted itself to the West. For one. ut
terly deny that the rural life of New Eng
land, taken as a whole. is in grim, stern,
or eXtravagantly repressed condition. | do
not know much of Connecticut, but | know
good deal of the rural parts of Massachu-
sets, Vermont and Rhode Island, and am
notignorant of Maine and New Hampshire.
Ii would be interesting to learn how much
your lamentng contributors personally
know of the life of those States. Did they
ever 90 deer-hunting or moose-hunting;
ever take part in squirrel-hunt, or even
''turkey-shoo t?' Did they ever see
militia MUSTER ever observe with wonder
that oldtime miracle of armed display, ga
Cornwallis ?n Gwen Lowells Hosea Big
Glow is obliged to own that there is fun
to a Cornwallis.') Did they ever go to a
husking-party or a hop-picking, or ''su-
garing-otf,n - or attend lumberman's ball,
at the close of the season? ("The things
they don't do and say at one o them balls"
said Maine stage-driver once to me.
"ain't worth thinkin' of!'') Did they ever
join party going down the Merrimack to
the saltmarshes for hay. in a "gundalow =
or Il Salisbury Beach ''camping-out :" or a
party to explore the ''9len" by torchlighf,
at Stockbridge, or to go through 'purga-
tory in the same way at Sutton? Did
they ever visit those innumerable picnic
grounds now distributed over all New
England for summer pleasuring and so
well equipped for innocent amuse-
ment or observe how the world of
merry-makers has gradually overaOwed
the camp-meeting ground at Martha's
Vineyard; or spend a day at the thronged
watering-places of Narraganset Bay
Rocky Point in particular, where from one
to five thousand chance visitors go to dine
daily, and may be seen whirling in the
dance. hour after hour as busiy rs if they
were born Germans? DO not these critics
know that half New England lies within
reach of the Atlantic shore, and that from
every part of that shore gay sailing parties
are putting forth or returning at almost
every hour of day or night all summer
long? DO they not know that all the inte-
rior of New England is threaded by the
Connecticut river, and that score of the
inland villages have been for many years
the traditional centres of cultivated and
agreeable society? If you wish to see
what Lenox and Stockbridge are and
were, read the Life and Letters of Miss
Sedgwick or, for Northampton read the
charming memoirs of Mrs. Lyman. Was
Greenfield morose and dull under the long
sway of that monarch of wit and song.
George Davisp Town after town comes
up to the memory of any man of large So
cal experience, any one of which refutes
this dismal theory. OF course no power
can ever transmute Anglo-Saxon blood
into the blood of the Latin races nor is it
desirable that it should Froissart wrote
long before puritanism, and even he de-
scribed the English people as enjoying
themselves sadly according to their Gus
tom; but doubt if there is any rural re-
gion where people CT unmixed English
blood now find life more cheerful on the
whole, than in the country towns of New
England. One of your correspondents
puts in a word for Maryland but N.Y.
self know something of the country life of
Virginia before the war, and am sure
that one missed, especially in winter, the
zest and variety offered in more North
ern ne.-Contri6utor' Ctub June Atlaa-