The Press., 1890-01-23
(Hartford Courant.) Ay ENFIELD MINIS LETTER.

Htu uOb aS Old 6S you Cipiu Glo OouIdAb is, but l am old enough to remember r crossing Connecticut River on a ferry boat before the. first, bridge was built, visiting the room where the Courant was printed and seeing three or four men print one side of that paper on hand press in about one minute for each impression. Now l am told that two hundred and forty copies of l Ayers Almanack are printed on one press on both sides i'll that time and folded ready for stitching, using several tons of paper daily. Great progress in that line since l learned to read. have read the Courant 1.-the greater part of the time since, and now khave full copies of it for the years 1900 and 1901 stitched together in one volume, ln- cluding single copy of the American Mercury published by Elisha Babcock, which wish somebody wanted more than I do, for my eyes are not so good as they were forty years ago and with the old form of letters 1t puts too much of strain upon them for me to read with satisfaction. l yet read the Daily Courant regularly, and much other printed matter in papers and magazines. As am too jptirm to labor, thus pass the time, preventing despond- ency.
 remember hearing of the murder of Marcus Lyon and his body thrown into the Chicopee river by Halligan and Daley, two freshly imported Irishmen, who were ex- ecuted for that crime at Northampton ID 1902.
 am a native of Holland county, aud well remember seeing two African slaves there named "Jack and Cora" very old, but no one knowing their age, from age and infrmity incapable of doing any active I-labor. They were carefully aud kindly provided for till they died in 1906 or 1897. They were originally the slaves of man living near Plymouth, where the "May- flower" landed the first permanent Enellsh settlers of New England A relative of cur family married daughter of their owner, and upon his death "Jack aud Cora fell to her share of his estate and became her slaves. They afterward moved to and set- tied in Holland county where l saw them Then African slavery was allowed in the United States and in most of the civilized nations in Europe now after one of the most bloody and wicked wars known Tn history that foulest of blots is wiped cff. Here is progress in it's highest degree.
 At the time of my first recollec ction of receiving the Courant we received it by the post.rider who carried the mails in large saddle bags on horseback except let
 ters which he carried in small pouch on | his breast fastened by a string around his neck, and if he saw no one near the house
 where he was to deliver his mail matter he
 blew his tin horn which he carried for that purpose to inform the occupants of his ar rival and require their. appearance. At ! that time there was one post office in To- ] Hand county, at Hebron. After the estab. { lishment of the mail route through Holland
 and Stafford to Boston in four horse stage
 coaches, post-offices were established all ] along the line and over this route. La ! fayette passed from Boston to Hartford in 1 private coaches in the fall of 1924 and l
 had the honor of being one of his escort from Massachusetts state l1ne to Stafford Springs. Hartford also sent committee
 of three with coaches to meet him on that line, H. l.. Ellsworth Mr. Wadsworth and
 third name not recollected, I think it was
 Goodwin or Goodrich.
 remember when the rush for settle
 ment at the west terminated in the western
 part of New York from about Saratoga tc Buffalo or at the farthest..to 'tNew Connec necticut," as the northern part of Ohio was
 then called, it having been gwen to the
 state of Connecticut as compensation for
 part of Pennsylvania, which was included
 in her original patent, and afterwards
 granted to William Penn, and the Ohio
 lands were sold by the state and the sum
 paid made the nucleus of our school fund
 Then the emigrants made their journey by
 horse or OK teams, and sometimes were si2
 months on the way, and such roads, if any
 were hard to travel. Now the rush ends
 only at the Pacific ocean and the railroads
 carry them there in ten or twelve days Progress here.
 l have lived within the lifetime of al ] the presidents, of the United States. arG have some recollection of all the wars ws have been concerned in since the revolu
 tion, and we'll remember many revolution 2 ary soldiers, especially Lem King of Yer
 non with his lame leg made by charge
 of British dragons while he was a drum
 mer boy in an American regiment of in , fantry. He afterwards kept noted tav ern in Vernon, where all travellers from tht
 eastern part of Holland county stopped tt rest their horses and perhaps get little taste of old Jamaica or Santa Cruz, hi, house being about halfway from theil homes to Hartford and the roads exceed
 ingly hard and rough. I remember many
 other things and have forgotten vastly
 more, as my memory has failed me very much, but I distinctly recall one thing of 7 much more recent. date.
 In 1853 or 1854, at any rate while he
 was secretary of war, Jefferson Davis wis - tied Enfield for the purchase of gun pow der for the use of the government, anG
 spent night with Mir. A. G. Hazard, 3 manufacturer of that article, on Enfield
 street, aud Mir. Hazard invited few O.
 his friendssto spend the evening there witt
 Mir. Secretary Davis, among whom I wa:
 one. In the course of the evening tn, = subject of negro. slavery came up ano \ among other things said I thought th.
 northern free states would not interfert
 with the system, where it was then lawfully
 established, but that any attempt spread 1t over territory then free would be resisted J and trouble would follow. That the north \ ern states had tried slavery and found i wrohg as well as expensive, and had abol
 ished it of their own free will and rt c m mended to the southern slave ho, de-s tt A follow our example.
 In reply you can scarcely conceive tn. N contempt that he exhibited in both man JUST ARRIVED!
 iC ANOTHER LARGE CARGO OF