The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1886-08-19
Plymouth and the Pilgrims.

The Pilgrims have made so much
noise in the world. and 50 powerfully
affected the continent. that our tourists
were surprised to find they had landed
in sucn quiet place, and that the spir-l
it they have left behind them is one of
such tranquility. The village has a..
charm all its own. The houses are old
fashioned and square, with colonial
doors and porches, irreguiarly aligned
on the main street. which is archeG by
ancient and stately elms. In the spa-s
cious door-yards the lindens have had
room and time to expand, and in the
beds of bloom the flowers, if not the
very ones that our grandmothers plant
ed, are the sorts that they loved. Show
ing that the town has grown in sympa-
thy with human needs and eccentrici-
ties, and not the work of a surveyor,
the streets are irregular. forming pict-
uresque angles and open spaces. Moth
ing could be imagined in greater con-
trast to "A Western town, and good
part of the satisfaction our tourists ex-
perienced was in the absence of any
thing Western or Queen Anne" in the,
architecture.
In the Pilgrim Hall-a stone struct-
ure with an ineongruous wooden-pillar-
ed front-they came into the very press
ence of the early worthless, saw their
portraits on the walls, sat in their
chairs, admired the solidity of their
shoes, and imbued themselves with the
spirit of the relics of their heroic, un-
comfortable lives. In the town there
was nothing to disturb the serenity of
mind acquired by this communion. The
Puritan interdict of unseemly excite
ment still prevailed. and the streets
were silent; the artist, who could COM
pare it with the placidity of Holland
towns, declared that he never walked
into village so silent; there was no
loud talking; and even the children
played without noise, like little Pill
grims. God bless such children, and
increase their numbersi 1t might have
been the approach of Sundav-if Sum
day is still regarded in eastern Massa-
chuSetts-that caused this hush, for it
was now toward sunset on SATURDAY..
and the inhabitants were washing the
windows and the 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 Levden Street (the
first that was laid out), saw the site of
the first house. and turned round Car
yer Street, walking Iingeringly, so as
not to break the spell. out upon the hill
Coles Hill-where the dead during
the first fearful winter were buried
This has been converted into n beautiful
esplanade, grassed and gravelled and
furnished with seats, and overlOOks the
old wharves, some coal schooners, and
shabby buildings, OH 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 thrill of excite
ment. 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 it
will remain witness to a great historic
event, unless somebody takes a notion
| to cart it off up town 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
principal of self-gOvcrnment The stone
lies too far from the water to enable
anybody to land on it now, and it is
| protected from vandalism by an iron
| grating. The sentiment of the hour was
disturbed by the advent of the members
of baseball 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, expressed
doubt whether the feet of the Pilgrims
We're small enough to slip through the
grating and land on the stone. 1t seems
that there is nothing safe from the irrev-
erence of American youth.-FrOnl
"Iheir Pilgrimage" by Charles Dudley
Warner, in Harper's Magazine.