The daily morning journal and courier., 1895-01-01
10 BE A VETERAN BOY
THE NEW HAVEN OF SIXTY YEARS s AGO AS 4 VETERAN RECALLS IT.


 New Haven's Old CanaI--It Was a Boon to
 the Boys of That Generation in Skating
 Times-Then There Was the Place Where
 the Lamprey Eels Were Caught-The
 Canal and New Haven AthIetios-The
 Lowell School Boys-The old Powder
 House--R eminiscences by an Old News
 paper Man Now Out of the Harness.
 Very likely it is good thing on some account to be veteran. I do not mean a veteran of the late war, or veteran fireman or veteran Odd Fellow, but just veteran boy! He can re- member a number of things around New Haven which boys not yet vet erans know nothing about, and of course have no recollection of. And it is an equally good thing that about sixty years ago New Haven enjoyed the embodiments and privileges of canal. Fortunate too, was it, that the tran quil and alluring water of the old canal flowed within a few feet of the Lancasterian school. Pleasant was it also that there was canal basin up Whitney avenue way and another canal basin not far from the foot of Union street. How the veterans did take de- light in swimming in it in summer and skating on it in winter. I mean the whole canal generally, including the two basins. And when Thanksgiving and Christmas had come and gone and H1QnS the air, what pleasure it was to wade in after fresh water clans. But have not begun at the beginning in this at tempt to tell little something Of the reason why it is a. good thing to be veteran boy and to be able to re- member the canal Take it, if you please, in winter and say, on Thanks giving day. If the ice was gilt 1t seems as if almost all the boys in town who had a sled or pair of skates gathered on the level above the lock at Wall street for grand excursion toward the north, never stopping or returning until after the contemplated battle with the Hamden boys and perhaps ram- ble of discovery over the hills of Cheshire Take it later on, when the levels were lowered in consequence ot Approaching spring or because the fire engines had used some of the water and the canal was covered with pig cakes of floating ice, what supreme doy it was for the bravest of MT Ioyell's boys to risk their lives ln running benders! There was no braveI boy at running benders, think, than Timothy Potter, although Coot Hay ward was pretty good at it, except flor being somewhat reckless and no' using Judgment, g. matter in any un- dertaking which is bay for boys and veterans alike. What the ancient river Nile was to the swarthy boys of Egypt, the canal was to the boys now belonging to the veteran class To be sure the New Haven boys were never carried off by crocodiles ano never scampered out of the reach o1 l any hippopotamuses, but they nae adventures and often came near losing fheir lives in other ways. For instance 1n walking on the narrow edge or tht gates which shut up the lock- Yes and in trying to navigate the water on a stray cellar door and in plunglnf over ears into the canal when chased in anger by MT. Sylvester --
 In the early part of each year, wher the Alling brothers (whose OK teams .uawere as we'll known as some ot the speedier turnouts of the present time naade ready to mend the bridges, stand Ndng for the purpose up to their neck' { Yin the coldest sort of water, and th' leyels were entirely drawn off, no pleas as 1Ire could be greater for boy of spirl and stogy boots we'll fixed with Ritter'' waterproof, or plastered over with Rile! Nott's best black-ball, than to boldi! march down to the very center of thu