Worcester morning daily spy., 1898-02-27
THE OLD BOSTON LECTURES
Rev. Or. Hale Finishes His interesting
Course in Salisbury Hal.

About all the people that Salisbury
Hall could seat listened to the last of
Edward Everett Hale's lectures on old
Boston, Saturday afternoon. The
churches and the schools were his
subjects, and, as usual, he made ex-
tremely interesting what might seem to
promise only dryness. AS me remarked,
DR. Hale was not trying to teach his
tory, but to tell of things which should
make ones casual walks in Boston in
teresting. He gave the dates of the
founding of the first churches, and
noted the erection of the first Friends
meeting mouse, not so very many years
after the hanging of the Quakers on
Boston common. He discredited the
notion that the colony was ruled by a
hierarchy composed of few ministers,
and spoke highly of the clergy as a
class
The banishment of Anne Hutchinson
and of Wheelwright, ne thought, might
not have taken place had it not been for
the superciliousness and arrogance Of
these newcomers, who assumed too
freely to criticse the work of the old
comers, who had borne the brunt of
the toll and suffering of the preceding
years. just as in our own day, criticism
of Engish-speaking strangers is the
most irritating, so was it in the colony;
and the prejudice aroused by their be-
havior facilitated the movement for
banishment. This was urged largely by
the clergy from outside the city, who
had become very Jealous of the Boston
preachers since John Cotton arrived.
The hanging of the Quakers was clear
ly an outburst Of frenzied bigotry but
the reaction was healthy for the colony
DR.. Hale told some very amusing
stories Of the early preachers. One re-
lated to pastor who astonished his con-
gregation by saying in his sermon that
they all knew they deserved to be
hanged, but that, owing to the clemency
of the executive, some is of them would
be sentenced to Imprisonment for life
at hard labor and the others would be
hanged as they deserved. The fact
was, the preacher had opened barrel
of his fathers sermons, selected one
without reading it. and found himself
delivering discourse his father had
prepared to make to condemned pirates
as was the custom of the earlier years.
Another was pastor of the old Brat
Tie Street Church, who stopped behind
the pulpit TO wipe the perspration from
his forehead and replace the conVen-
tional wig The pastors pet monkey
ttaken as a marriage fee from a sailor)
got into the church, snatched the wig
from him and climbed up to the sound
ing board, while the congregation was
singing hymn. Still another concerned
the predecessor of the present aristo-
cratic Arlington Street Church Orgi-
nally this church belonged to very hum
BILE people, SO that when Eliot, the pas
tor Of one of the foremost churches in
the city, entered on Sunday, the pastor,
fearing that IN might not be as hos
pitably welcomed as he deserved, took
a hand in the welcoming himself. The
pastor was praying for the royal family
He was asking a blessing for "his ma
jesty the king, her majesty the queen.
His Royal Highness the Prince Of Wales
come up into the pulpit, Dr. Eliot, and
all the rest of the royal family"
DR.. Hale spoke of the Boston Latin
school as the oldest public school in con-
tinuous existence in the country. and
related much else of interest. The views
shown were mostly of old buildings now
standing that are noteworthy chiefly for
their antiquity and qualntness, and also
some historic structures that have been
demolished; among the last named was
a representation Of the first town house
and state house, which stood on the site
of the present "old" state house.