The daily morning journal and courier., 1896-09-01
MAYFLowER DESCENDANTS.
An Interesting Article Upon the Socie-
 ty Organized in New London.

ly oIStulZGQ III 1SGW IlouuOH. ! The following Is from the July issue of "The Spirit of '76,' an historical review published in the interest of the societies | devoted to the perpetuation of Amer ican history:
 l There is a distinguished student of history at one of our New England col | leges who never fails to draw very sharp distinction between the occasion and the cause which have given rise to crises in the worlds history. If we were to apply the distinction to our l late war. he would probably say that 1 the occasion of the outbreak of hostili- ties was the firing upon Sumter" but that the cause was to be found not in any one aggressive act, but in series of circumstances and events which had their beginning in the admission of Kansas and ended with the secession of South Carolina.
 We believe that the New England So- ciety of Mayf1ower Descendants. which has been lately organized in New Lon don, Conn.,. can offer no better quo warranto" for its existence thap by the use of such 8 distinction. Its occasion, it's inception at the present time, is due I no doubt to the great interest which is being evinced in all which relates to the early settlers, and possibly in some slight measure to the suggestion offer ed by the founding of a similar society in New York state. But the real cause 1 for the organization in New England of a society whose object shall be to per- 1 petuate the memory of the Mayflower l Pilgrims is not to be found in any mere suggestion of contemporary events, but rather in a long series of circumstances I which make New England the appro- l priate home and proprietor of such society. Here the Pilgrims struggled and triumphed. The country bears the | impress of their handiwork A walk through our New England graveyards reveals alike their piety and rude mo- tions; they have left those great houses with long sloping roofs, whose huge 1 timbers are veritable monuments to their muscular strength, and we still can gather their ponderous oak furni- ture about us. It matters not in what 1 state on in what section of our country may be found that forty thousand progeny which have sprung from the l Pilgrims--they have been taught well lllC otoI OL liiOutIl ILOCh, dflQ to them New England will be most inti- mately associated with the early Pill grim, as New York is with the early Dutch and Pennsylvania with the Qua l ker
 But as New England was the harbor l of the early Pilgrim, so it is of the ma I jority of his descendants. The early l fathers reared their first cabins in Plymouth, but in less than a dozen years they began their settlements in Connecticut and were driving their cat tie in various directions through the forests to other homes. These seemed remote from the parent settlement, and we'll they might, for they were separat- ed by miles of trackless wilderness But what settlement so remote as not to be embraced in the present confines of New England? How many years be- fore the first Pilgrim pioneer crossed the Hudson? Many settled in Connec- ticut, and thus it happens that, with the exception of Plymouth and Suffolk counties in Massachusetts, where the Pilgrim club does honor to the dust of its hardy ancestors, ther is, probably no part of the country where more can trace their ancestry back to 8 Bradford or a Brewster or an Alden, or some oth- CT of the passengers of the Mayflower, than in the county in Connecticut in which the new society has been formed.
 The organization of the society has now been completed, and, inasmuch as considerable interest has already been manifested by Mayflower descendants who have removed from New England to distant parts of the country we are pleased to give the following extracts from the rules governing the reception of applications:
 Purpose of Society.
 The purpose for which it is consti- tuted is to perpetuate the memory of the band of Pilgrims, passengers on the MayfioWer who landed at Plymouth Rock, Mass, December 21, 1920, and to preserve their records, their history and the memory of ali facts relating to them, their ancestors and their posteri- ty. The Compact, that memorable con- stitution of self-government, their con- stancy of purpose under severe trials and their fortitude under privations, entitle the Pilgrims of Plymouth to the veneration of mankind, and form an ex- ample worthy of emulation for all time
 Eligibility-Requirem
 Every lineal descendant over eigh-
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