Morning journal and courier., 1889-12-24
poREpArHERs, DAA.

| \ Large Meeting Of tho Congregational club at Dwight Place Church-Sup- per served by she Ladles-Intereseang Papers by A. M. masthsvvson, Hev. pr. John E. Todd and others.
 Forefathers' day was most happily cele- brated by the Congregational club in the parlors of Dwight Place church last evening. Supper was served to the large number of guests at half-past o'clock by the ladies Of the club. An hour afterwards the hsppy gathering assembled in the church parlors, which were prettily adorned with evergreens. From the center hung huge green bell.
 Attorney Henry G. Newton presided, and | after the Hymn of the Pilgrims had been | sung short paper upon Interesting Early | Statutes of Connecticut was read by Albert Mcclellan Matthewson. The paper gave many "reminiscences of the curious statutes, characteristic charters and crude customs of the old Pilgrim forefathers. After MT. Natthewson had finished, an ex- quisite solo, "Snow Flakes" by Corven, was sung by Miss May Mansfield, accompanied by Prof. E. A. Parsons.
 The leading paper of the evening was read by Rev. J. E. Todd of the Church of the Rsdeemer. After speaking of the times of tuo IllkKiLu Anbuokbt uO 6oio shVy ho0 hooA both lauded to the skies and criticised with undue severity. The Puritans were men of decided and strongly marked characteristics, said he. 0eniuses do not find 1t worth their while to draw caricatures of them. Their characters and deeds are discussed in way that shows them of vigorous and sturdy lives. Thay exiled themselves to forget for- eign lands. They built for themselves homes upon barren and hostile shores. They on. | kn-I kotlo vSotro Thau AvIvnuad and rooted out what they considered evils with indomnitable severity. They es. tablished government which was stern and powerful. They established themselves upon no compromises. They had no eye for anything but the true objects of their own convictions. The same thing is- apparent, also, in what they accomplished. They pros dueed free, industrious and great sfsst,.'. | In England they assisted materially to estab- fish the strongest, and in some respects the best, government 1t ever possessed. Some people declare that whatever liberty England enjoys she owes to the Puritans. They, in- deed, builded. better than they knew. They strove for liberty of ideas. They had no objection to human slavery, and in time some of them became shareholders. They had no conception of real democracy. Even to day New England, with her customs and ideas, is very far from being what may be called democratic. Those who ridicule and condemn the Puritans for oddity of costumes and customs, and ignore their strength and sturdiness, see but little below the surface. | It would be well to explain the Puritan character by tracing the line through which they received it. The Puritans were nobility, but from the sturdy yeomsnry, from the heroes of e thousand battle fields. They now belong to the great middle class of England. Few of them were really poor. Many of them were possessed of property. The age of production and revolution and the age of perfection and criticism and attention to nice pleasures are widely different. May 1t not be that one difference between the sixteenth and nineteenth century is that then good men arose from the rank, unculti- vated soil while nice ninnies prune out their elegancies which spoil almost before they ars e night old.
 Some people think that the Puritans were all ministers, preaching and dealing out their hard philosophy. The truth is, the minis- but were entirely under the influence of their congregations. The Puritans chose their ministers to preach to them truths which they had recognized long before. Yet woe to the man who transgressed the beliefs. He was chastized by church and State. They came to this country perhaps principally upon question of morality. If they detested the church of Rome 1t was because they had witnessed the abomination of it.. If they like their Puritanism was emphatically pro test against the licenciousness and debauchery of the time. They tested all the hardships of Q perseouted life. Their costumes were mocked and their be. liefs became the laugh of every drunkard's song. Colonization Is sure to at tract rovers and adventurers. A thing to be n txx l.f. s.s sl.. pearance of times and circumstances. We of the nineteenth century may not look we'll to those of the twenty-hrst century. We condemn them for whipping and imprisoning Baptists, a if this was not the custom in those days. The same may be said of the treatment by the Puritans of witchcraft. It is spot upon the page of their history, but they were not alone in their delusion. It is a fact that the time when tho dslusion ragged with least violence was the time whom the Puritans were in power.
 We are disposed to blame the Puritans for their aversion to innocent enjoyment. We do not see that 1t was then associated with the vilest deboucheries. They found that under the cover of Maypole dances, not only liquor, but firearms were being sold to the Indians. Take them all in | all, tho Puritans were not the worst kind of people. My own experience is. that men who have most of the Puritan ideas and l hearted if not the greatest that I meet. In the innocent pleasures of their simple lives, the Puritans found numberless enjoyments which are lost to our worldier lives. Their whole life speaks of the enjoyment of home and tho tranquility of grsnder and better country. Undoubtedly there Is much in their character which we would not like re- produced. Yet their devotion to principle and character can be recommended to the men, especially the young men of this gen. eration. It is under Providence our bes, protection against the evils of the time and the ills of society. The Puritsns have gone Their shadows only flicker for Q moment upon the curtain. But in the memory of time and our larger lives they are living yet Tqeir spirit walks abroad.
 Dr. Todd's paper was greeted with ap plause. Mrs. M. A. Griggs, contralto. finely M rendered one of Harry Rowe Shelley's songs
 Mir. Linsley of North Haven, Major Rue P. Cowles, Rev. Dr. MoLane of the College street church, and others followed with re marks. During the evening several enter taining songs were sung by members of th' Dwight Place church choir, with Professor Parsons as accompanist.