St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1895-07-19
BOSTON LETTER.
Icorrespondeuce Of THE cALEpoNIAN]

hand, by the people OF this city. The
entire week OF the gathering has been
prolific OF surprises, but perhaps the
greatest has been the way in which
the visitors and the BOstonians have
surprised each other. Over and over
again have the delegates told me,
when | have spoken OF the matter,
and very many times have they men
toned it Of their own accord, that it
was absolutely impossible for them
to express their appreciation Of the
warmth of the reception which has
been given them. From Maine to
California and from Texas to Data
rio has come the same report, and it
is all the more CRAFTY because those
who are willing to talk freely have
generally added that while they had
expected to be treated well, they had
not looked forward to having any
such greeting as this as they had al
ways heard OF Boston as rather stiff
and cold. "Why," as two young
lady delegates from Florida, who
had never been north before, said,
1--WE had always thought that the
south was the home of hospitality,
but we shall go back to tell our
friends that this is not So"
On the other hand the people Of
Boston have been just as agreeably
surprised in the appearance and
character of their visitors. think
the general idea among people here,
especially among those who knew
nothing practically of the c. E.
movement. was that the delegates
would be a lot OF Eighty young peo-
pie, or if not Eighty, at least unin-
teresting. Instead of this they have
proved to be a company of 50 bright,
keenly intelligent people that it has
been a pleasure to have anything to
do with them even if they have at
times, as has often been the case, driven
the native residents into embarrassing
corners by their questions about
some of the various objects Of histor-
ical interest here about which many
OF the Bostonians really do not know
nearly as much about as they ought
to. AS one woman from the west
was heard to say, Really, now,
they don't know as much about
Boston as we do ourselves"
And in some cases ] presume this
was true, for found many of the west
ern delegates whom | had occa sion
to meet on the trains coming into
the city, although few of them had
ever been here before, remark ably
well posted on the history OF New
England, and with pretty we'll defn-
ed ideas of what they wanted to see
and of where the most important
historical monuments were. The
fact is, the distant societies sent here
as delegates their very best people.
| took occasion to ask, once, of an
official from Illinois if they had sent
their most religious members as dele
gates, or what the standard of quail
itication was. mo indeed" was the
reply. 1--WE aimed to send those who
would be best able to bring back the
most intelligent report to those at
home who could not come"
And they are going TO do that.
Not only of the convention, but of
the city and all New England, too.
One way in which they are to do
this is by the help OF the omnipres-
ent camera, which has sprung into
such prominence during the last few
years. A great many of the dele
gates have brought them, and you
see them everywhere, with Fortunate
~ no restriction on their use, as
there was at the Worlds Fair. One
day in Tent Endeavor | saw three
large ones within a space OF twenty
feet. The owner of one of them, to
whom lspoke, proved to be the pastor
OF a Presbyterian church in Ohio. He
was collecting views tor a series Of
illustrated lectures which he would
give for his parish to reproduce the
convention Tor them. Later, in the
old Cops Hill Burying Ground, near
the old North Church, ran across
another clergyman, this time from
Illinois, who had set his camera
down beside him while he spread his
guide book on top of an old toni
to look up some locality, Heprovel
TO be the grandson OF a Massachu
sets man, but had never before beer
east, and was taking this opportu
nifty to visit some OF the places which