The Newtown bee., 1898-05-06

TON, CONN.,, IS97-lS9S ''The evil that men do lives after them. The good is oft inferred with their bones." Thus saith the immortal Bill Shakes" by the mouth of M trc Antony. It is to be hoped that this may not prove true of our club; for while we have done little or no evil perhaps, yet the amount of good we have done IS problematiC; save, perhaps, some little good to ourselves. In that event, we should not get buried at all, but hang for all the ages, like Mahomet's coffin, suspended between heaven and earth.
 This club of ours, am inclined to be- lieVe, is unique. It would be no slL to worship iC; for it is like nothing in the heavens above, in the earth beneath, or the waters under the earth. We are the most unconventional body in existence. We have no name, no constitution, no by-laws, no officials; unless you may count the present writer an official on sufferance. It has been said by some one, wise, or otherwise, that if three average Americans should meet upon desert island, they would immediately organize, by the election of president and secre- tary, and thea proceed to pass resolu- tiOns. But we have falsified all that; for we have never elected an officer, nor passed single resolution; and the only formal vote we have ever taken, so lar as my memory serves me, was the one by which you laid upon the subscriber the task of writing this history. You will probably be so sick of the result of that one vote that you will never take another. However, it is time to begin the History.
 Conceived in the mighty brains of the AnnollN and assisted in it's prenatal development by the two Brinsmades (John c. and Will | liam G.), and Arthur Cotton, the club came to the birth early in January, 1897. 1 have forgotten the date. The first articulate sound, giving evidence of cor scious life, was uttered by Rev Robert Carter, who, at the first meeting held at l the rectOrY, read a very able review Of | LlOyd's book, entitled ''We8lth vs. Com monwealth." The writer entered upon 1 his wOTK con amOre, and for the most part agreed with the conclusions of the author; which were averse to the aCcum- ulation of wealth in the hands of the | few. In the discussion that followed, monopolies in general, and the ''Standard l Oil Company" in particular received 8 very thorough ventilation. I ct after all was said and done, 1 couldn't help the | feeling that some slight accumulation ot wealth in the hands of one that modesty forbids me to mention, might be very convenient to have in the house.
 At the second meeting, held at the parsonage, Arthur Cotton gave very interesting talk on the "Origin anG growth of an English literary style, illustrated by sketches of some two ol three dozen authors who have mC S largely contributed to make English Lii SA fSAEN quite general, and Mr Colton had an op portunity to answer 8 good many ques tions. This evening was as purely literary, as the first was purely ecoDomi' and led one to suspect the club of some versatility of talent. The third paper by Rev MT Ange!l, was review of An drew D. Whites book on "The Warfare Between Science and TheOlOgY;" il which the writer took the ground tha the warfare, as stated, was very largely in the mind of the author. This pape
 was received by the club with profound respect, emphasized by deep and en thusiastic silence; on the principle,
 suppose, that the less said about it th
 better. There was very animated dis cussion later on; but iC was all abou something else; and the paper fell int oblivion with what the reporter would call 6 dull thud. Number four was J c. Brinsmade, with talk on "Municipa Government in England" MT Brinsmad
 was very full of his subject, and told tn club a great deal about the gOvernmen of cities like Birmingham and numbe of others, showing where they differed from our own municipal system, or wan of system and comparing the two mucl to the disadvantage of our own. How was with the rest of the club, l do DO know but for myself, am free to ss y that I learned many things that 1 did no know before; and am only sorry tha memory has not been able to retain ther all. In the discussion of the talk, ou
 whole municipal system was rearrange
 to the entire satisfaction of the club.
 The next to entertain the club wa
 William A. Watts, who read a well digest ed paper on the subject of 'Equitabl Taxation ;'' 8 subject about which tn present writer knows nothing at all; bu MT WaCts showed very cOnclusiVely frOI , his standpoint, that our system of taxa tion is at present anything but equitable This paper brought out vast amount 0 talk. don't know how it is; but tn club has seemed to like talking abOu taxation better than anything else; fo every time that subject has come befor us, everybody has had something to say ) except the member aforementioned and he did not talk, for the reason af0re ' mentioned. I only know that taxatio , Is one of the two things said to be absc lutely certain in this world. Now come very decided change of subject, an , Will Hickox invited us to take an iul
 aginarY trip with him to the Northwes . and study "The Traffic of the Grea
 Lakes." had been accustomed to regar
 the Merchant Marine of the United State
 as rather small affair; but after havin
 MT Hickox tell the story of the Grea
 Lakes, came to the conclusion that,
 our ocean traffic were one-half as large
 we might hold our own with the rest 0
 the world fairly well. This paper natul
 ally brought out more questions tha
 discussion, as every one wanted to kpOy little more; and it is 8 great pIeasur
 to hear one Whn has been there tell tn
 story as he saw it and learned it for him
 self. Maj s. c. Kingman placed the clul under obligation to him for 8 very car, fully prepared paper on ''Firearms ant Sewing Machines :" tracing the evolution of each from very small beginnings to
 very wonderful result. The number Q different machines that have been invent ed was somewhat startling to one wh
 had given the subject but little thought and raised the question: "Where in tn
 world could the writer find all his infor mation?" The paper was made all tn
 more interesting by visible illustration