The Newtown bee. (Newtown, Conn.) 1877-current, 1898-07-01

courtesy of the Benefcent Boss of the
Brookfleld ungalow-( beneficentl Ia used
in its philosophical sense, formed from
the Latin adverb bene, well, and the
infnitive verb facere, ''to do, to act and
to perform as Shakespeare has it in
the graVe-digger's scene in Hamlet)-
this ground was then included within
the territorial limits Of Newtown and ex"
tended about half q mile further in q
northwesterly direction to the line divid-
ing the counties of Fairfield and Litch-
field, Brookfield being formed out of the
three towns Of Newtown, New Milford
and DSnbury.
But nearly half century before its
Incorporation and settlement, or more
exactly As years, this house was built
and occupied as a dwelling all through
the Revolutionary war for our independ-
ence, through the war of l2-1815, when
our Capitol at Washington was burned
by the British, and 1.-THE Star-spangled
banner, in the morn's early light" could
be seen floating on the bombarded battle
VI DaAblLAO4SS d45O lux bDC
Mexican war, and numerous wars with
the Indians In various parts Of our great
country, and the naval war with the
pirates of the Barbary states on the Med
iterranean Sea; and that greatest and
most important of all the wars of modern
times, If not Of all time-the war of the
Rebellion, which lasted four long years,
sacrificing 100000 lives, and $4,000, 000,-
600 of money-but it transformed our
Government from a mere Confederacy of
so-called States, into real sovereign Ma
ton, emancipated s, 100000 black slaves
and 100000 900 white slaves bound to-
gether by the same chain, at either end,
which chain of slavery was shattered by
that War; and now, thank God! after q
single generation only has passed away,
we have no North, no South, no East,
no West, nor sectional strife, nor division
in our reunited Country, the last remain
Ing vestige of the slate unpleasantness''
having been removed last week by act
of Congress expunging all political dis
abilities from the States. And now we
60 marching on together shoulder to
shoulder, hand in hand, heart to heart,
step by step to the music of the Union,
with Fitz Hugh Lee of old Virginia a
Maj General in the American army,
Lieutenant Hobson of Alabama with his
seven companions and heroes of the
American navy, now Imprisoned in the
castle at Santiago de Cuba, as you all
knOw-not forgetting our Green Noun
tain Vermonter, Admiral Dewey, who is
experimenting now with Manila cords
on the other side of our planet, in our
contest with naughty Spain, so poor and
yet 80 proud, while we are here enjoying
this delightful spring morning at the
Bungalow.
1t has been publicly announced that
am to give you on this occasion, the his
tory and use Of the Sun Dial-which is
said to be, IL we except Noah's Ark,
which was constructed by the Divine
command before the flood, In antedilu-
Wan days-one of the Oldest of human
inventions, but its origin can neither be
traced nor localized. The earliest histor-
ical mention of it Ia in the Old Testament
Scriptures where we are told of the mir
acle wrought with the dial Of Ahaz, king
of Judah, at the instance of the great
prophet Isaiah, for a sign to king Heza-
kiah at the time Of the threatened inva-
sion and destruction Of Jerusalem by the
great army of Sennaeherib, king of
Assyria, nearly eight centuries before
the Christian era, when 1856, 900 of his
armed hosts were destroyed in a single
night by the invisible and irresistible
power Of God, whom he had impiousIv
defled before the walls of the Holy City.
"And Isaiah the prophet cried unto
the Lord and He brought the shadow ten
steps backward by which it had gone
down on the dial Of Ahaz,' Kings 20 III.
The prophet isaiah fourished about $50
years before Heroditus, s'the father of
was born. The instrument
used by the Chaldean historian Berosus,
early in the third century before Christ,
Ia the most ancient Of whose form we
have any precise account. It was hol-
low hemisphere with It's convexity turn
ed towards the center Of the earth, and
4 button or small globule held in the
spherical center, which by casting a
shadow In the concavity marked the sue
ceeding hours from one rim to the oppo-
lite. It gave place to dials which re-
Iuired more mathematical knowledge
or their construction, but hemisphere
properly adjusted win answer the pur-