Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1898-01-14

NOTES FROM THE HUB.
SPECIAL CORRESPONDENTS. I

''l'iT4 iltuIN Lee oi bN0l'u hLA
the banking firm OF Lee. Higginson
~ Co. who l. 50 wears old, has e Ired
With the new year from active partici-
patton IN the affairs of that houSe.
Alr. Lee belongs TO that fine old type
ui the solid men of Boston, so often
celebrated in the past. He bears
strong personal resemblance to Glad
stone. There are the same high fore
head and prominent nose. the snow
white locks and side whiskers. the
look of mingled wisdom and beuigulty
which are such well-known character
istics Of Colonel Lee. In fact, his APP
pearance generally Is at once suggeS-
tive Of the long time premier In height
and physique, too. there is more than
passing resemblance. | do not he
lieve there i quarter of an inch diff
ference i'll height between the English
man and the eminent Bostoniau, but
Colonel Lee Is stouter somewhat more
robust and more erect than Gladstone.
His walk is perhaps a little more brisk
than that Of the eX-premier, but this
is doubtless attributable to the fact
that he is about eight years Glad
stones junior. Taking him all in all.
however, if We have a''grand old man
in Boston, We would unhesitatingly
say it is Colonel Henry Lee Though
Colonel Lee gives MP active work IN
the firm with which he has been long
associated, he will nominally retain
his position as manager of the Union
safe deposit vaults, which will not
take much Of his time, and will give
him more leisure to follow his bent
toward literature. He has been
factor in the local literary world for a
long time, and some Of his reminis-
cent writings about old Boston are
delightful He speaks thus in re-
cent article, about the city as he re-
members it when he was a boy:
Every summer morning We children
were taken to the common before
school to pick buttercups and
dandelions. to race down the
hill upon which now stands
the Soldiers monument, where was
then redoubt thrown up by the
British during the siege of Boston
and destroyed by some municipal lover
OF insipiditv. One OF our great priv
ileges was to visit the state house.
where the lank old sergeant-at-arms
in antique garb would sometimes scold
us for our noise in playing hide and
seek among the piers OF Doric hall
and in the corridors; and at other
times he would indulge lis with an
ascent to the cupola, or visit to the
representatives hall and the senate
chamber, the latter of which was hung
with trophies from Bennington, which
struck our childish eyes, the drum,
the greuadier's cap and the mushet.
At that time the state house was I'M
painted, its real bricks contrasting with
its white trimmings Instead of being
wedged in among blocks of houses, it
stood back upon its terraces, tanked
upon the east at a respectful distance
by the Rogers, the Bowdoin. the Brom-
field aud the Sears mansions, four
stately old houses standing upon their
own terraces, on a level and line with
the state house and reaching from
there TO Somerset street; while on the
west the sunny-faced Hancock house.
with its outbuildings, reached down
to Joy street All the splendor and
show of the Back Bay does not rival
the beauty of those semi rural homes.
/ On fremont street. reaching from
Beacon street around to Hanover.
were five more Of those splendid old
provincial relics, the John Amory es-
tate, the Peter Faneuil, the Sir Harry
Vane the Gardner Greene and the
Lloyd estate. A mere enumeration
of the old historic buildings then eX-
isting should awake regret for our
bereavements and admonish us to
, preserve the few existing relics of
our past. At that time Governor
Winthrop's house was gone, thanks to
the British garrison, but that of his
rival, Sir Harry Vane, and of John
| Cotton. had survived; the Province
, house still stood in naughty gran
deur, screened from the public gaze,
the home of the British governors
from Shute to Howe. The house of
the knighted treasurefnder, Sir Viii
liam Phips, furnished an asylum for
homeless boys: Sir Harry Frankland' S
and Gov. Hutchinson's houses rested
: quietly side by side in prettily-named
Garden Court street, as if their court
| ly proprietors had never been dis
turbed by raging mobs or Lisbon
earthquakes. The splendid mansion
,P I,l,rrn1
with its broad balustraded terraces,
4 gay with tulips, smiled upon the old
burial place in fremont street. The
= town was a town of antique and gar
den houses and open spaces, over which
the chimes Of Christ church were waited
with sounds most musical, most mel
= ancholy SO there was naturally 8
| blending of the cares and interests OF
, the present with the romance and his
tory of the past" Gov. Lee was on
the staff of Gov. Andrew, Massa
4 chusetts' famous war governor, ano
a recently wrote of him: ''Gov. An
! drew was an ingrained New Eng
I lander. He had grown up in small
= New England town, and he understood
the New England people. Andrew
7 died as much in the cause OF his
t country as if he had fallen on the tielG
of battle; before he undertook this
task his physician told him that any
i excitement might carry him off at any
d time. Yet he never spared himself
e All the world wept when what was
left of Abraham Lincoln was shattered
by the bullet of maniac. Was no
Andrew another sacrifice? Devoted
in heart to the interests of peace, pain
fully alive to the calamities and sor