Connecticut western news., 1892-10-13
THE PROGRESS OF HALF 4 CENTURY.

Some Extracts from the Paper read by
 Rev y. c. Goddard, of Salisbury, as
 the 18th Annual Meesing of the Ltsch-
 field Norfhwess Conference held at
 North Canaan, Sept. 2ssh, 1s92.
 That portion of Connecticut, which is here presented. comprises the eight towns and twelve Congregational par ishes of the Litchfield Northwest Con- ference, namely, Norfolk, North Canaan, Canaan, Cornwall, Kent, Warren, Shar- on and Salisbury. These are the hill towns, whose inhabitant is called Hay seed, and his land Way back. We are out in the cold, having no city near us, WiEsted in the town of Winchester be- ing our metropolis, and "Winchester's twenty miles away" It IS & country of highpess. of farms on top of hills and mortgages on top of farms; land whose stones are iron and out of whose hills thou mayest dig charcoal pits; land of mountains and lakes. so that our corner has been called 1.-The Scot land of America. /" .--.. ..s...
 The changes in population herein du- ring the last fifty years are. according to the census. exactly 49 We number ed in 1840 12 S62, and in 1890 12.91l. This result is reached by count of heads; counting what is iaa the heads we reach another result The first noticea- ble change in the personnel of our pop ulation is the arrival of the foreigner. Jebusites from Germany, Hivites from Canada, Hittites from England and Hit himaginites from Erin. There is also less farming population than formerly and an increase in village life. The average thrift of the soil-tiller is less than it was in the age, of home-spun. When the Connecticut farmer expends fifty cents in labor for the bushel of corn that an lllinoisian can place on the station plat form for thirty-fve, not so iocund does he drive his team a-field. Some farms are abandoned or at least given up to pasturage and timber. Then there is an increase in the shiftless element who live in these abandoned dwellings or in cabins Here are the citizens who go fishing Sundays and break the other commandments the rest of the week; the men who voted for Tippecanoe and Tyler too, and have been drinking hard cider on the strength of it ever since; the ones who have no time to go to church. but can hold down 8 nail-keg
 
 further change is in the loss of our young men. The drain of gold from this country is as nothing com pared with the drain of our best blood. At one time the church of Salisbury had an active band of Christian young men. called the Order of St. Paul, but within year they were all out of reach but one. There is also an over proportion of elderly people. The street live on is blessed with twenty mine widows, and at least one married man grew nervous and moved away. The rest of us have been insured. Along with these chang es there is also an increase of people living upon incomes from invested se- curities. I think 1t could be shown that there is rather more money in cir culation than before the war. There are 4600 depositors in our four savings banks, averaging S320 each; besides these are three other banks in our terri tory. These seven banks have assets exceeding two millions and all accumu- lated within fifty years.
 Concurrent with these changes in population and partly dependant on them are the changes in church life. The meeting house is no longer the one social magnet of the town. Formerly certain people came to church for the same reason men gathered on Mars Hill, to hear and to tell some new thing. The galleries were then patronized by the class that now hangs about the depot. The sermon took the place now largely occupied by the newspaper, the msga- zine and the post office. That day is over. The Parson Is no longer "The Person" of the village, he is an item in the census. His very pulpit has been lowered from point near heaven to & point nearer the congregation. Withal there is notable change in the short ness of his pastorate; the longest on the field among us has been but eight years in office. and the focks of to-day have adopted a maxim from the farm, GA change of Pastors makes fat calves. '" The churches, as 8 rule, are now too large for their congregations. built, as they were, for the days when all the world went to church. The church. going constituency itself is more divided than fifty years ago. Three congrega- tions have been made into six. There 1 are new Methodist, Episcopalisn, Cath ollie and Upion organizations to further subdivide it, and the old time comforta- ble feeling of we'll filled sanctuary Is gone. To my knowledge the only | church fairly filled in our territory to- | day Is the Roman Catholic at Lakeville. I have been thus explicit in setting forth the darker side of this picture, in | order to state with greater emphasis the | contrasting fact, that nevertheless, these twelve Congregational churches are | probably on as high a spiritual level as | ever they were. Speaking of altering | conditions of religious work, one of th" | first alterations desired is a change of key, from lack-a daisical complaint O! our low estate to cheerful appreciation | of our present blessedness. In particu- lar object to that uncomplimentarY as. sertion, "The former times were bet eI than these" Ever since we entered up
 on life, we of this generation have been
 put on the defensive for being born sc
 late. It is said to us, You ought tC
 have lived in the days of Dr Certain
 Trumpet. There were giants in those
 days" Why ought we? A living dog
 is better than dead lion. At Yale Col
 lege it is said, 70 but you ought to have
 seen the burial of Euclid and the Wood
 en Spoon." In the South they say or
 moonlight nights, "Yes, but you ough
 to have seen that moon before the war
 It is not surprising if that spectre ha'
 haunted my Salisbury pastorate. Th'
 old people are fond of telling how man,
 wagons used to drive in over the nortl
 road; how the pews were all sold out il
 one day; how the boys used to erowC
 the pulpit stairs; and how Psrson Lath
 rop declared that he had counted on tn,
 church steps enough men of brains t.
 form presidential cabinet. Concedin,
 all these glories, and they are grea
 ones, we have yet no need of feelint
 apologetic I wish to offer to the Anakin
 of fifty years agone the same toast tha