The new North-west. [volume] (Deer Lodge, Mont.) 1869-1897, 1886-10-01
PLYMOUTH AND THE PILGRIMS.
A Silent Village Disturbed by Tourists
and q Base Ball Nine.

A Silent Village Disturbed by Tourists
and Base Ball Nine.
The Pilgrims have made SO much noise
in the world, and SO powerfully affected
the continent, that our tourists were sur
prised to find they had landed in such
quiet place, and that the spirit they have
left behind them is one of such tram
quillity. The village has charm all its
own. The houses are old-fashioned and
square, with colonial doors and porches,
irregularly aligned ON the main street,
which is arched by ancient and stately
elms. In the spacious dooryards the
hndens have had room and time to ex-
pand, and in the beds of bloom the
flowers, if not the very ones that our
grandmothers planted, are the sorts that
they loved. Showing that the town has
grown in sympathy with human needs /
and eccentricities, and is not the work OF
a surveyor, the streets are ire gular,
forming picturesque angles and open
spaces. Nothing could be imagined in
greater contrast to a western town, and
a good part of the satisfaction our tour
lists experienced was in the absence of
anything western or Queen Anne" in
the architecture.
In the Pilgrim h;tll--a stone structure
with an meongruous wooden-pillared
front--they came into the very presence
of the early worthless, saw their portraits
on the walls, sat in their chairs, ad-
mired the solidity of their shoes, and inn
bued themselves with the spirit of the
relics of their heroic, uncomfortable
lives. In the town there was nothing to
disturb the serenety of mind acquired by
this communion. The Puritan interdict
of unseemly excitement still prevailed,
and the streets were silent; the artist,
who could compare it with the placidity
of Holland towns, declared that he never
walked in village SO silent; there was
DO loud talking, and even the chill
dren played without noise, like little
Pilgrims. God bless such children, and
increase their numbers! 1t might have
been the approach Of Sunday-if Sunday
is still regarded in eastern Massachusetts
that caused this hush, for it was now
toward sunset on Saturday, and the in
habtants were washing the windows
and the fronts of the houses with the
hose, showing how cleanliness is next tc
silence. ..-... ....-....
Possessed with the spirit of peace, ou1
tourists, whose souls had been ve3ae
with the passions Of many watering
places, walked down Leyden street lthe
first that was laid OUT, saw the site 81
the first house, turned round Carver
street, walking lingeringly, SO as not te
break the spell, out upon the hill-Cole's
hill-where the dead during the first
fearful winter We're buried. This has
been converted into beautiful esplanade,
grassed and graveled and furnished with
seats, and overlooks the old wharyes.
some coal schooners, and shabby build
ings, on one of which is a sign informing
the reckless that they can obtain there
clam-chowder and ice-cream, and the
ugly, heavy granite canopy erected over
the Rock"
No reverent person can see this rock
for the first time without a thrill of ex.
citement 1t has the date of 1920 cut
in it. and it is good deal cracked and
patched up, as if it had been much
landed on, but there it is, and there il
will remain witness to a great historic
event, unless somebody takes a notion
to cart it off uptown again It is said
to rest on another rock, of which ii
formed part before its unfortunate
Journey, and that lower rock, as every
body knows, rests upon the ilnmutable
principle of self government. The stone
lies too far from the water to enable
ANYBODY to land on it now, and it is pro-
tected from vandalism by an iron graf
ing. The sentiment of the hour was
disturbed by the advent OF the menl-
bers of base ball nine. who wondered
why the Pilgrims did not land on the
wharf, and, while thrusting their feet
through the grating in a commendable
desire to touch the sacred rock. ex-
pressed a doubt whether the feet of the
Pilgrims were small enough to slip
through the grating and land ON the
stone. 1t seems that there Is nothing
safe from the irreverence of American
youth.-ClElrles Dudley Warner, in Har-
per's Magazine.