Morning journal and courier., 1883-12-15
MasODtc Elections.

The election of officers in Wooster lodge occurs on Wednesday evening, December 26, and the installation with annual banquet takes place on the second of January next.
 The installation of officers in Hiram lodge, E. & A. M., will occur on Thursday evening, January g. and grand banquet will follow the installation. The installation of officers in Adelphi lodge, F. & A. M., of Fair Haven, will take place on next Thursday evening,
 The election of officers in Trumbull lodge, F. & A. M., occurs on Tuesday evening, De- cember 9, and the installation on the second Tuesday in January.
 The election of officers in Franklin chap. ter, R. A. M, will take place next Tuesday evening.
 Harmony council, R. and S. M, will elect their officers on next Monday evening.
 Connecticut Rock lodge will hold their an- nual communication on the fourth Monday in December for the election of officers, and will install their officers two weeks later.
 Next Monday evening Connecticut Rock lodge will confer the third degree on noted German and banquet will follow in Ger mania Hall.
 The annual of New Haven commandery 1 takes place on the first regular meeting pre- vious to Good Friday, and the regular con- clave is the third Friday in each month. Entertainments. HAZEL K1RKE.
 1 At Calll's Opera House next Friday and | Saturday evenings the original Madison | Square Theater company will present the 1 great play Hazel Kirke.
 LAWRENCE BARRETT. | The play Francesca Da Rimini will be given Monday evening at Carll's Opera House l by MT. Barrett and his fine company. Re- served seats are for sale at Loomis'. ROBERT COLLIER. This eminent divine will lecture at High l School hall Monday evening, taking for his 1 subject, From the Anvil to the Pulpit" The lecture is for the benefit of the free kinder garten.
 AMERICAN THEATER. l The attractions at this amusement resort | this week are unusually bright. Duncan, 1 Shaw, Fenton, the Duncan sisters and many other clever performers make a strong bill. The matinee this afternoon is at 2:3O. VACATION OR HARVARD vs. YALE.
 The Palmer and Daly Comedy com pany made its first appearance at the l New Haven Opera House last evening before an audience of fair size. The play is cor rectly named an absurdity. It is very ab- surd, and was constructed solely to give sev- eral of the performers chance to use their ''specialties It has no plot and no con- sistency, The performance was very lively one, and its livelinesS was largely due to the efforts of MT. Thomas A. Daly, who worked hard to make it ''go." His companions on the stage did their best to assist him, but the company is not very talented one. Never theless the audience was amused, and not infrequently moved to applause. The per formance will be repeated this afternoon and evening.
 An English View of the Decadence of Boston.
 From the London Athen8um.1 Americans are telling US that Boston no i longer maintains her literary pre-eminence. | The authors who made her famous have near ly all died out, and she has none of equal note to take their place. The great publish CTS are now to be found in New York or Phil adelphia In short, Boston is losing her dis tinctive character-is learning to care for new wealth and Paris fashions, and will soon, in all probability, look back with wonder, half regretful but half contemptuous, on the time when she was known as the Athens of l America.
 But certainly for some fifty years or more the position of Boston was remarkable enough. Other cities might boast of an aris- | tocracy of birth, or fortune, or political pow 1 CT, but hers was to be the aristocracy of in tellect. There were many old families at Bos- | ton, and much wealth; but the thing of which to be proud was intellect. Cambridge Uni versity was close by, and there was a constant mingling of merchant princes and lllustrious professors. Culture in it's noblest sense was the most important pursuit of life, and the best society was that which had been refined by culture and snnobled by love of letters. Those were the years when Prescott and, later on, Motely wrote their Spanish histories, and George Ticknor his great work on Span ish literature. Longfellow, Lowell and Holmes, and other less known poets were showing us that America could produce song of varied power and beauty. At Concord 
 Emerson promulgating his my stic philosophy. Agassiz had come over from Switzerland, and, with an order scarcely surpassed by Darwin, was exploring the secrets of the world of ns- ture. Webster and Everett and Charles Sum- ner were stirring the hearts of their hearers by their casual speeches or their set "ora- tions." Dr. Charming was exerting an infu- ence over religious thought which his admir- CTS fondly believed would extend far beyond the limits of Boston, and Norton and other divines of the same school were justifying the new theology on the ground of of its scrip tural basis. Lastly, Theodore Parker was breaking loose from his early teaching, and resting belief on the somewhat shifting die- tates of mans conscience. And these were only the leaders of the remarkable society.
 But an aristocracy of intellect is after all, not more perfect than any other aristocracy. There was tendency to exclusiVeness and the spirit of clique. And an aristocracy is sure ID De 1OlIOWeu Dy DOurSoOlS10 GnhG 4u- itates it; and the intellectual bourgeoisie of Boston was 8 little apt to be absurd. It was easy to catch up phrases, to parody culture, and to assume literary virtues which were not really possessed. Each respectable citi- zen of the modern Athens had to justify his citizenship, and the results provoked the scorn of the rival cities of the Eastern coast and the undisguised astonishment of the Eng fish tourist. There were innumerable anec- dotes of the droll things said under the guise of culture. An Englishman received letter from Boston lady, inviting him ito meet a few minds at tea;'' the story goes on to say that he was equal to the occasion, and re- piled that he preferred meeting few soles at dinner.''
 The Rufde Company.
 The New Haven Ruff1e company, 194, 196 and 19S Chapel street, up stairs, wish to an