The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1882-10-25
EcnefslloN Waysids Inn

N14<44C1asCtt1 Ate.s SASSAfsJ - $40. -
more remote origin or more varied his
tory than the Howe farm-the Wayside
inn of LongfeIlow. This ancient hos
telry nestled in the hills of Sudbury,
lust half way between the towns, then
as now the largest in the colony-Bos
ton and Worcester. No one knows just
how old it is, and there are no records
preserved from where the date can be
ascertained, but such as there are tell
of the past for go years, and at the
time when the sign of the Red Horse
swung in the breezes Of 100 years ago.
For several generations the Howes min
istered to the wants of the weary way
farer, and old Squire Lyman
fGrave in his aspect and attire.
Nigh on" for forty years smoked his
pipe and read the Worcester Spy under
the old elms near the doorway. But
those days are past, and the tavern, as
though lamenting the quicker ways and
the degeneracy of the nineteenth cen
fury. now withholds its tempting viands,
and has laid the mixing bowl and stick
upon the wooden shelf, to become the
home of spiders and ants that little
dream of the uses of these strange I'M
plements.
The house is now rented, and the oc-
cupants ''for a small compensation
guide visitors over it. Very recently
the writer was so fortunate as TO be able
to see this inn from cellar to attic. At
ter crossing
"The meadows bare and brown"
And drinking at the old well, he entered
through the low doorway. The hall
runs straight through the house, and
with door open at each end is cooled
through the hot days of summer. The
door to the right opens into the ba'
room. Over in the further corner is tt e
bar with fence-like barrier raised and
lowered at will. The fire place and the
crane ere by its side, and the hummin g
of the teakettle, we may fancy, sounds
now above the fire as in the days OF
wore. As we sit in the old backed
chairs, and look upon these walls which
have witnessed the entrance and heard
the footsteps of the militiamen Of the
Revolution as we peer behind the bar
and imagine the glasses and decanlers,
with the loud laugh and uproar of the
merry guests, we do not doubt at the
attractiveness of the. good old times,
and we wish we were back in this old
bar-room as it was So long ago.
Across the hall is the parlor of the
inn, and here is pane Of glass on which
is written,
"Tie ioviaI rhymes that .tilI rem lin
Writ near a century ago
BY the great Major M0lineaux
Whom Hawthorne has immoral made
He was one of the com panions of
Lafayette, and at the same time with
the great general crossed the Atlantic
to our aid. The merry ma or does not
seem to have been born poet, for these
are the verses;
"What do you think
Here is good drink
Perhais you may not know II
1t not in haste
Do stop and TASTE
Yon merry folk will slow it,
The lines were written without any
punctuation, and the exuberance of the
light-hearted Frenchman expressed it.
self in long scroll beneath them. This
room heard the poets tales, but the
fireplace at a very early date was brick
ed up to arrange for Franklin stove.
Let us ascend the creaky stairs. Pass
ing round the corner one finds suite
of two rooms, one quite large. In this
grand guest-chamber Lafayette once
passed the night. The floor was Curl
0usly painted to resemble carpet, with |
figures in blue and yellow.
Now the former color is scarcely visible
except in untrodden corners, while the
yellow is traced with considerably less
The old paper adorns the
walls put on after the old style-in
quares of about a foot. In many of
he rooms there are three layers, and
lere and there, the upper one being
orn off, there appear the green flowers
f an older and prettier paper.
The old tavern stood just as it was
uilt until 1920, when an l. was added
n the west end. Nothing else has been
hanged and since tits SO far remote
/ the country, away from town and
ity, although on what was once the
ighway between the shire towns Of
ufolk and Worcester, we can trust
nat for many year yet it will stand
"a silent reminder of the past. -Bos-
IN Transcript.