The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1888-08-03
THE CONCORD OF TO-DAY.
A VISIT TO THE SCENE OF THE
MINUTE MEMS VICTORY.
and Fired the Shot Heard Round the
world-The Present Aspect Of the Place
Boston Gossip.

World-The Present Aspect Of the Place
Boston Gossip.
from Our Special Correspondent
Boston, Aug. I.
One of the most interesting of New Eng
lands holy places is SO rarely visited that
there are only two or three of the unchristian
''No Trespassing" or keep off the Grass
first American volunteers proved themselves
superior to the battle-tried veterans in Eng
lands pay.
religion, is thronged all summer with visitors,
Concord, the birthplace of the nation, re-
poses in comparatively unruffied peace An
occasional stranger wanders through the
historic streets and graveyards guide
book in hand, but the serenity Of
the inhabitants is unbroken It is an
aristocratic Sleepy Hollow, with all the rich
humanity of Irving's village, but, added
thereto, the lofty spirit of ''plain living and
high thinking"
**x
It is easy to scoff at the ''school of philoso-
ply" and the ungainly and inconvenient
shanty in which it is housed, but the great,
richly-clad fields and grass grown river, the
shady hills and comfortable homesteads, the
self-sufficient, non-inquisitive villagers, all
make a setting in which it is not
hard to imagine Ralph Waldo EN-
srson trundling baby carriage along
the street, while in fancy hitching
his wagon to a star; Hawthorne Watching
the clouds from a window of the Old Manse;
Thoreau lying under pine on a breezy hill
top, in fellowship with the birds and flowers,
or Alcott, serene ''as god knowing good and
evil" conversing in monologue with whoever
would listen to his wisdom. What a group
Of immortals for one small village!
***
"Village" seems little inapt as a name for
the place, for one encounters none of that vex-
ing curiosity which is associated with villages
The people impress a visitor as contented
with themselves and their fortunes They do
not stare at strangers, nor do they appear
conscious that strangers may stare at them.
may appear to generalize too boldly in this
statement, but l assert myself an expert in
the detection of starers, from long and disa-
greeable experience with the gawkies who in
fest Boston. To be able to observe without
offensive gazing is one of the surest signs of
intellectual culture, and the people of Con-
cord have it.
The oldest inhabitant doesn't comprehend
how Emerson, whom he often met about
town, can be great man, but he doesn't say
SO to strangers That's where he shows his
presence of mind, the next best thing to cul-
ture.
***
The main point of historical interest is not
In Lexington but in Concord. The former
place is oftener visited because it. is easier
reached by rail and because it is seven miles
nearer Boston, but one who wants to see the
very bit of ground where Yankee valor won
its first glory in rs must go to Concord.
True, the first show of organized resistance
to the British army was made on the village
green of Lexington, but it was a useless and
almost aimless sacrifice of the gallant militia.
About ten minutes walk northward
from the Concord common one comes upon
the Concord river, a sluggish stream from
forty to ninety feet wide and
eight or ten feet deep, flowing toward the
Merrimac. Most everybody in Concord has
a boat and uses it. The river is beautiful be-
yond comparison, because everywhere the
banks are grassy or covered with underbrush,
and the shadows are overgrown with lush
water grasses 1t is pretended that the Indian
name for Concord, "Musket-a-quid," means
''grass-grown river" but that ''aquid" is sus-
piciously like the Latin word for water, and,
though 'Mesquite" is Mexican Indian for a
kind of grass, it is to be feared that this
translation is no more worthy of acceptance
than that which sees in the name reference
TO the guns and tobacco which figured largely
in colonial trade.
1t was at narrow arched bridge over this
stream that the ever memorable skirmish oc-
Cured on the 10Th of April in rs. It is
worth while to relate the tale briefly, for the
histories popularity read do not give it the
prominent Importance in the days events
which is it's due.
The Yankee militia and minute men, at
first not bold or strong enough to meet the
enemy in the village, gathered on the hillside
at the north of the river, above the bridge,
while a few companies of King Georges hired
men were stationed at the south end of the
bridge to prevent the farmers marching over
It and interfering with the destruction of the
supplies in the center of the town. But the
veomen on the hillside were stirred |
0y the sight of clouds of smoke |
Using in the direction of their homes Cautious |
,ounsels were discarded, and at about 10 |
/ M, the Yankees advanced upon the bridge.
It was place easily defended, for the river
,ould not be forded and the bridge was mar
'ow and open. But the Yankees were good
and the Britishers were not stay
RS, as they quit after few minutes of firing
md the loss of ten men. They didn't stop in
heir wild career till they were half way to
he common. Then began that disastrous re-
reat with which, up to date, every public
chool boy is familiar.
*+*
The old bridge is gone, but a pretty fair
'opy of it is now being put in place. On the
lortherly side of it, about where Davis and
dosmer fell when the British fired the first
,olley, is statue of the minute man which
will repay study. At the southerly end of
he bridge, on either hand, are two big,
marty and cripped trees which extended
heir branches over the redcoats that morn
ng. Across narrow field is the Old Manse
whence Rev. William Emerson issued to in
pire the minute men by words and actions;
where nearly all the old New England minis
ers were entertained at times, and where
Hawthorne imagined ghosts and Ralph
Waldo Emerson wrote Mature" and many of