The Eaton Democrat. (Eaton, Ohio) 1875-1903, 1886-07-29
PLYMOUTH ROCK.

ingly Quiet Inhabitants.
The Pilgrims have made SO much
noise in the world, and SO powerfully
affected the continent, that our tourists
were surprised to find they had landed
in such a quiet place, and that the spirit
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, irregularly aligned
on the main street, which is arched by
ancient and stately elms. In the
spacious 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 grandmothers plant
ed, are the sorts that they loved,
showing that the town has grown in
sympathy with human needs and eccen-
tricities, and is not the work of a sur
veyor, the streets are irregular, 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 tourists ex-
perienced vas in the absence of any
thing Western or ssQueen Anne in the
architecture.
In the Pilgrim Hall-a stone structure
with an incongruous wooden-pillared
front-they came into the very pres
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, uncomfortable
lives. In the town there was nothing
to disturb the serenity of mind acquired
by this communion. The Puritan inter-
dict of unseemly excitement still pre-
vailed, and the streets were silent; the
artist, who could compare it with the
placidity of Holland towns, declared he
never walked in a village SO silent;
there was no loud talking; and even the
children played without noise, like little
Pilgrims. God bless such children, and
increase their numbers! 1t might have
been the approach of Sunday-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 cleanli-
ness 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, and turned round Car
yer street, walking lingeringly, SO as
not to break the spell, out upon the Hill
where the dead during the first fear
full winter were buried. This has been
converted into a beautiful esplanade,
erased and graveled and furnished
with seats, and overlooks the old
wharves, some coal schooners and
shabby buildings, 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 excitement.
1t las 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
protected from vandalism by an iron
grating. The sentiment of the hour
was disturbed by the advent of the men,
bers of a 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, ex-
pressed the doubt whether the feet of
the Pilgrims were small enough to slip
through the grating and land OF the
stone. 1t seems that there is nothing
safe from the irreverence of American
youth.-Charles Dudley Warner, in Har-
per's MAGAZINE.