Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1883-07-20
LEAF FnO7I THE PAsr.
The Burlington orThirty-seven Years
Ago.


The Burlington orThirty seven Years
Ago
| There Is no more interesting volume, for
one who /, at all Interested in the past, than
an old Ale Of the local newspaper. We were
reminded afresh Of the fact In looking over
an old volume Of the Free PRRss--the first
under the late Dewitt Z. Clsrke's manage
ment-containing an account Of the Bolton
war;" which took place 10 July. 1916. The
account of that years Commencement of the
University of Vermont sparticularly interest
| ing. The Alumni orator was that same Hon.
James Forsyth OF Troy who delivered the
Anmnl address Mt the last Commencement
and the address before the literary societies
was delivered byJ. r. Headly, the historian.
Some OF the Commencement theses are wor-
| thy Of note Thus G.. G. Spadng, who
years afterward was the famous police court
reporter of the Boston Herald, had an ora
ton, curlously enough, on "The deleterious
influence Of current literature upon the Ma
tional mind :" Hon. Thomas L. Nelson now
United States district judge in Massachu-
sets, spoke upon The relation Of Nature TO
poetry !" Hon. Henry o. Houghton, tue
| famous printer and publisher (who is gra-
duatc not only of the U. V. NJ, but of the
FREE PRESS office, discussed ''The necessi-
ty and true method of a system Of State edu-
cation = and Hon. John A. Jameson, the
distinguished iurist and author, spoke OF
The importance of just conception of
law The literary style of those days was
more ornate than in this critical, unitarian
age. Nowadays VIC say of the Commence
mcnt lcvee that the hospitality was cordial
and graceful and that large and brilliant
company was present. But here is the high
flown way in which Maj Clarke dished up
the event:
go whose beautifully grounds
where the startled foliage trembled in the
melIowcd light to the sound of fallioy wa
tiers, might have reminded US OF the
Groves of the Academy, but that grave ORA
TORS, POETS and PRoPgssoRs were seen bow
ing TO the magic supremacy Of that embodied
LONELINESS which B us the print Of the
scholars book and makes him careless for
the hidden wisdom of the classic ORACLE by
revealing to him the presence of the DIVINITY
herself"
Surely here is fine writing, which hardly
needs the emphasis of the old time small
capitals
Politics formed, however, the great news
paper staple of those days, and the annual
Commencement YVES the only local event to
which any great amount of space was given
in the course Of the whole year. Even in
the reports of that august occasion, there
are some things which Seem queer enough to
the modern reader-such for Instance as the
dismissal of the sermon before the Society
for Religious Inquiry with the remark that
the editor was not fortunate enough
to listen to it, but heard
it highly spoken of Such was newspaper
reporting, thirty-seven years ago. But n
politics the FEE Press was, to use a mod
ernsm, right on deck The Wing candidates
for Governor, Lieutenant Governor and 1'rea-
surer were Horace Eaton, Leonard Sergeant
aud Z. z. Jewett. The opposing candidates
were John Smith and Lawrence Bra,nerd for
Governor, Truman b. Ransom and Jacob
Scott for MISUNDERSTANDING, and Daniel
Baldwin and Z.nas Wood for Treasurer. Tue
Wing candidates were ultimately successful,
being elected by the Legislature. For Con-
gressmcn the Wing (and successfully candi-
dates were George l.. Marsh, Jacob Cola
mer William Henry and George b. CDand-
Ter. 1t is surprising to learn from the
old files not what nice men the Wing candi-
dates were, but what bad lot their oppon-
en,s were. Thus nowadays people are
agreed that the venerable Paul Dillingham;
is man worthy OF the highest
respect and honor but We eau as
sure our readers that the theu editor
Of the FREE PRESS looked at him in an en-
trely different light, and one would natural.
ly lufer, from the statements in the old files,
Wv. JilluEluln Wtulu surely come 10
some dreadful end. On President Polk, how
ever, the walls of Maj. Clark's wrath were
principally poured out. Among other things.
Pres dent Polk vetoed river and harbor bill
| history repeats itself, you know-and the
FEE Press warmed him up therefor in u
most tropical manner. The bill approprat-
cd only 81 1884, iJO-an amount now cjnsid.
cred Insignificant ; and of this amount Yer
mon. was to have, as the paper expressed it,
'UIrty-ninc thousand dollars to awaken the
hum OF labor aud repay its toll Ia our midst
which sounds WELL but really We shouldn't
want labor hummins AMI tolins in cur
midst.
To turn to local Affairs, the liquor question
was present then as now, though a license
law was then in force. The grand, jury report
ed that they have witnessed during the past
year disposition among many of our cit-
lcns 10 disregard the provisions of the license
act of October 2lst, 1874, and that an un-
usual quantity of spirituous liquor, in open
and public violation of the law, has been
sold, to The great injury of our community,
whereby the public morals have been cor
rupted and the criminal calendar of our
county enlarged" Hon. Milo l.. Bennett
and Hon. W. W. Peck had just started u
law school which appears TO have been
fiourishing institution. Turning to the ad-
veItlsing columns of the p per We find an
| nounccmenis of Peck & Spear and George
Z. Harrington. druggists; l. skinner, auc-
tloneer; Strongs II Co., AMI Hagar s Ar
thur, hardware; Fole,t & Bradley, F. Kill.
Doolitt,e, George Peterson, Isaac Warner,
f. Butertield, Pierce & Sweet, aud
others, general merchants, Jehiel Muuson,
music dealer; j. V. Randall and l.. Fireman.,
| jewellers, and many Others the names of whom
are now unfamiliar. Ii. \. Cole wa. then
landlord OF the Pearl Street House, and au-
nounced that all the stages leaving Buring-
ton called there for passengers. Tnen US
now the industrious newspaper proprietor de-
| lived much OF his princely inc me from the
patent medicine people. There was no Kid
ney wort in those days, but we fluid, adver-
Used on an equally large scale, "Dr Emanu-
els baisamic lung aud cough jelly" "Dr.
Cpham's Electuary" and the "Grsefenburg
pills.
These pills aud things long ago terminal
| ed their dreadful voyage through the aliuen-
| tary canal and are known no more save by
the searcher OF dusty volumes. Like most
| things mortal, they were transilory. or
all the works of man only one is
| endowed with immortality, and that is u
joke. The joke dieth not. The eternal
years of God are its. Mans physical works,
Ills pyramids and obellsks, his love and
hate, all pass away, but his little joke en-
durelh for ever This great fact was brought
anew to our mind by the discovery in the
FREE PRESS OF 1916 OF an an,cdote to the ef-
| feet that Col. Thomas ii. Benton was in.
Produced by colored chairman of IA colored
meeting as man whose face was white,
but, bless the Lord. his heart was black.
Every year since, this little anecdote has
been reprinted and has gone the rounds OF
the press with merely chInge Of name
the Boston papers this Summer made Gov.
IN thp hrr # In. OF. L.. =.