The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1895-02-06
THE SACRED GOLDFISH.
The Proposal to Take 1t Out OF the State
house In Boston Creates . Sensation.
Over r.. A. TiIlinghast Co.

The Proposal to Take 1t Out OF tho State
house In Boston Creates . Sensation.
The Worcester Gazette says:
Charles Francis Adams recounts "The
Story of tho Cod" in the Springfield Re-
publican. In 1852 John Adams secured
from Great Britain an eminent diplo-
matte victory after wearisome contest
tho right of fisbery-and on March
IL. 1884, John Rowe, Boston member,
asked and received permission to hang
tho historic Goldfish on the wall of the
chamber of representatives in the state
house. Thirty years later another war
with Great Britain occurred. John
Quincy Adams was called on this time
as q diplomat, and he, too, saved the
Goldfish once more from British encroach-
ments The statehouse cod, which the
sacrilegious are now threatening to store
in the garret, is emblematic of COM
merce, war and diplomacy and tells of
Massachusetts victories in all three
fields. After the peace Of 1888 John
Adams quartered the Goldfish in his coat
of arms, and it is there now. This must
have been the origin of the phrase "cod-
fish aristocracy," once in common use.
It was commonly spoken in derision,
but tho pride of the Adamses in the cod
fish would seem entirely worthy.
On this subject the New York Sun re-
marks:
There Is proud and beautiful build
ing in Boston. Bulfnch did it, 1t is q
Parthenon surmounted by gilded gas
house, and to those who love it it is the
supreme architectural achievement OF
the world. Even the limited or preju-
diced persons who deny its charm can
not forget the joy of its associations.
To 90 to Boston, to view that dome
with an eager eye and to perspire with
the pulohritude Of it and the deeper
thought that one doesn't have to live in
Boston is not the least of pleasures in
world that persons of fair digestion
regard with certain amount of attach
ment. As matter of fact, the dome is
hollow fraud. Mr.. Bulfinch, who has
had the distinction of having an emf
nently parochial street named after him,
was not lucky enough to have his de-
signs carried out, and the statehouso,
with its feeling Dutch name, is not all
that it might have been. But it has
merits. There is or was in it the sacred
Goldfish, palladium that fell from heav-
en- plash into the Frog pond in tho
days when Boston was an eminent sea-
port. This Goldfish was almost human
and quito superhuman. 1t could wink
1t had learned TO say cultyur and liter
aturo and leftenant, besides the other
things that arc said in Boston There
was silver bathtub In which IL used to
tipple when tho Boston nine got
game. IL usod to leap into the air when
ever Governor Greenhalge appeared
with blue knit thinking cap on. twas
sprinkled with champagne whenever tho
Ancient and Honorable Artillery COM
pany had feast. All tho thinkers in
tho Legislature revered it, IL would
wag its tail at n good thing and drop
dead whenever bore was up
They have been fixing up" tho state
house. Evidently some idiot is in
charge. The sacred Goldfish is not 20 be
included among the treasures of the re-
stored statohouso. The Law and Order
people say It drinks too much. The A.
p. A. says is has Hibcrnian counte-
nance. All the same, it was tho best in
the state It was the most venerable in.
sutton thore, except Harvard college
and George Marden OF Lowell. Ii is
gone. IL has been torn down. IL is nil.
So falls the Goldfish aristocracy. So fades
"a glory unmistskabla