The Newtown bee., 1898-05-06

in the shape of pistols, cartridges, parts of sewing machines, and even one small l machine complete. It made one almost | wish that he had devoted his life to l mechanics,
 The one purely scientific paper of the | first year was read by A. s. Gregg Clark | on ''Some New Facts in Chemistry" more especially the new element found to exist in atmospheric air,-but have for gotten it's name. This paper excited great deal of interest, but very little dis cussion, owing, probably, to the vast amount of know ledge that wasn't in evidence among the other members. The next paper gave the club something to talk about. I allude 10 the one hv Judge Hickox on 'sChanges in Land Values in Connecticut, and especially in Litchfield County, during the past 50 years" The judge brought great amount of know ledge, and a good deal of research to the treatment of his sutjPct; hence it gave great deal of valuable information, aT d brought out a goOdlY amount Of talk. The last paper for the first year was by
 Will Brinsmade, per Arthur Colton, sub stitute. Subject, "A Review of B9swell'a Life of Johnson.' This, like all MT Col
 toms work, was thC roughly well done. anu buG HE516G was bIbuE hO 1dGC GO AdSC
 with the bearish old Doctor, with Boe-
 we'll, the toady, and the brilliant Coterie
 who revolved about Johnson. like the
 planets about the sun. This finished the
 work of the first year; and the club re-
 lapged into innocuOus desuetude, and go
 remained until the chill November blasts
 began to blow, when we girded up our
 loins anew and began again.
 THE SECOND YEAR.
 On the first Monday in November, if
 my memory is not at fault, the club met
 at the parsonage, fer the first meeting of
 the second year. Arthur ColtOn was the
 essaYist, and presented 8 review of very
 old book entitled ''De Nugls Curialium,' Latin work by Walter Map, writer of the time of Henry II. In this work is detailed the gossip of that m0Barch's court. The essayist sketched briefly
 and graphically the history of the times, and gave pen-pictures of some of the
 actors in those scenes of the long ago;
 and told the club many quaint and cuyi- ous things about the manners and cus- toms of the people of that age; in short, he breathed new life into the dry bones of an almost forgotten past, and made
 us walk and talk with the people of that day, as though they were our next door neighbors.
 At the second meeting of the club year was introduced an innovation, if such 8 | thing could be in body that is absolute l ly law unto itself. This new thing consisted in a debate upon the following 1 resolution: "Resolved, that Annexation
 is the true policy of the United States
 with regard to both Hawaii and Cuba" " I The leading disputants were, Rev Robe r5 | Carter in the affirmative and John C. l Brinsmade in the negative. MT Carter opened for his side of the question and made very strong plea for annexation i;
 but when MT Brinsmade had his innings, 1 there were some breaks noticeable in Mir l Carter's line of battle. But it was in the general debate that the fun waxed fast and furious; for all hands turned upon 1 the doughty champion of annexation and l tried to dust the floor with bim. One was reminded of football rush: only, l instead of eleven on side, it was eleven 1 to one; and the devoted one was pulled 1 this way, Jostled that, and pushed the
 other; until it seemed as though he must I be done for; but after each tussle, he
 came up smiling and ready for another. 1 It was great fun; but it wasn't fair and in any other club under the sun, the strong hand of parliamentary law would have been laid upon the upr0ari0us ma l j0rity more than once. If the defender of the affirmative had not thrown him. self wide open to attack so many times,
 he would have bad the weight of argu- ! ment against the field; and, at the very
 worst, 1t seemed to the writer very much l like drawn game. The next meeting
 was held at pr Browns and Ehe club
 took trip to the Maine woods, under
 the guidance of A. s. Gregg Clarke. The
 excursion was very enjoyable one; 8s Mir Clarke knows more about the subject than any other man in Washington. He 1 told the story in such a graphic way, l that the scenes described stood out before l the eye, like a painting from the brush l of Bierstadt or some other master of de- lineatien. There was no chance for dis
 cussion, but the speaker had to answer 8
 host of questions.
 The next paper was by Will Hickax, on Independence in Politics." He made out very good case for that phase of
 the subject, but the general discussion showed very decided leaning toward party management. At the next meet ing Rev Mir Carter appeared in the char aeter of satirist; presenting an answer 1 to the question, tIs 8 PopoeraG necessa- rily fool?'' The essa twist took the affirm- ative of the proposition, and gave long list of evidences of popccratic folly; but he drove the nail so terribly hard, that the nearer 0lQ not EnlnK lb necessary G0 take him too seriously. Rev Mr Angel
 took for his paper this year, 2 review of Nansen's book, "Farthest North. z
 This seemed more attractive subject to
 the club than Theology; as the silence
 was not nearly go impressive as last year
 when the same writer reviewed Andrew
 D. Whites book. In fact, the reading
 was followed by plenty of talk suffi
 cieDtly, at least, to assure the esRayist that he had not wasted his labor. Mum
 Der seven. of this year, was 8 very inter
 esting paper on the subject of Foot ball, presented by A. M. Wilson of the
 Gunnery. MT Wilsan is new member, having cast in his l ,t with us for tha first time the present year. His paper proved cenelusively that he is q decided acquisition to the club. The writer evi- dently knew what he was writing about, and those members who were ignorant of the subject acquired much valuable information; and those who knew 1t all before had chance to polish
 up their knowledge and make it brighter.
 Judge Hickox gave us something that
 the club seems especially to erjoy; viz ,,
 an evening on the subject Of ssTaxation.s
 This paper was defense Of the atiirma- ATxgn n9F8G ANax #nEfmxwEyaev r9aFs1ssksnvs