, 1886-07-30
PLYMOUTH AND THE PILGRIMS.
A silent Village Disturbed by Tourists
and a Base Ban Nine.

A Silent Village Disturbed by Tourists
and a Base Ball Nine.
The Pilgrims ave made 80 much noise
in the world, and 30 powerfully affected
the continent, that our tourists were sur
prised to find they had landed in such a
quiet place, and that the spirit they have
left behind them is one of such tran
quillity. The village has a 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
lindens 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 irrt gular,
forming picturesque angles and open
spaces. Nothing could be imagined in
greater contrast to a western town, and
n 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 hall--a stone structure
with an homogeneous wooden-pillared
front-they came into the very presence
of the early worthless, saw their portraits
on the walls, sat in their chairs, adj
mired the solidity of their shoes, and i'm
bued themselves with the spirit of the
relics of their heroic, uncomfortable
EuaQ In tha fnuvu thara uvau NOTHING fn
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 a village so silent; there was
no loud talking, and even the chill
dren played without noise, like little
Pilgrims. God bless such children, and
increase their numbersl 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
habitants were washing the windows
and tho fronts of the houses with the
hose, showing how cleanliness is next to
silence.
Possessed with the spirit of peace, our
tourists, whose souls had been vexed
with the passions of many watering
places, walked down Leyden street (the
first that was laid out, saw the site of
the first house, turned round CT yer
street, walking lingeringly, so as not to
break the spell, out upon the hill-Cole's
hill-where the dead during the first
fearful winter were buried. This has
been converted into a beautiful ~esplanade,
erased and greveled and furnished with
seats, and overlooks the old wharves,
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 i~ce-cream. and the
ugly, heavy granite canopy erected over
the Rock"
No reverent person a see this rock
for the first time without a thrill of ex-
element. 1t has the date of 1920 cut
in it, and it is a good deal cracked and
patched up, as if it had been much
landed on, but there it is, and there it
will remain a witness to a great historic
event, unless somebody takes a notion
to cart it off uptown again. 1t is said
to rest on another rock, of which it
formed a part before its unfortunate
journey, and that lower rock, as every
body knows, rests upon the immutable
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 MEM
bers of a base ball nine, who wondered
why the Pilgrims did not and 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 reverence of American
youth.-Charles Dudley Warner, in Har-
per's Magazine.