The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-12-29

|. QUIT and About
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is situated In Worcester. Its superb
collection of rare and ancient books
ranks among the first in the country
and is open to the public, any RESPONSE
BILE person being at liberty to use them
as much and as long as he likes. One
who Is tracing his family genealogy,
| finds there a wealth of biographical
and genealogical matter, while the stu
dent of early American history Is i'm
pressed with the resources of the col
| lection.
There is no more fascinating quest
| in the Intellectual realm than looking
up ones genealogy. No one essays 1t
without coming under it's spell, and
! the magic of it sometimes lasts a life
time. You may spend months and
years in the pursuit without finding
| your missing link, lacking which the
| line Is broken, but failure seems only
| to sharpen the zest and you become
discouraged only to pluck up heart and
| try some other source Of information.
| One of the charming things about the
| business is it's leisureliness. You cannot
| take 1t down at one swallow, you must
! in the nature of things be long about
| 1t. How many golden hours are alb
| sorbed perhaps in establishing beyond
a doubt that the name of one of your
maternal great-grandmothers was Sa-
| ran and not,as has been believed, Susan
nah. All told many months will prob
| ably go to complete your knowledge of
merely the names that form the links
| in the chain and letters and visits will
| be added to supplement the meagre
| facts obtainable from books.
You may have to call in the services
of an expert, but do not do this if you
| can avoid it, for he will probably
| charge like the mischief and in the end
| you will find that you could have man
| aged without him if you had only per-
| severed. What at one time appears
absolutely opaque and dead at another
may be most transparent and suggest
| i've. After baking for months at some
| innocent little sentence in a musty old
Vbook, all Of a sudden in the twinkling
1 of an eye the obstacle disappears,
melts into fine air and there, by the
| simple process of putting two and two
| together, you have your name or your
date or your fact. That is a victory
worth working for.
| OF course, the patriotic society fad
has quickened this interest in genealogy
and strengthened it immensely. A great
many people are urged on to it's study
| by the desire to become a Daughter or
a Colonial Dame. With probably ga
lineal ancestors in this country to select
from, they think it will be hard luck
Indeed if some one of them did not fight
in the revolution, and they carry on
| their researches with the view of es-
| tablishing the fact that some one did
! If they find that none fought they are
disappointed and drop their study then
and there; they feel themselves cheat
ed, Gefrauded
The true genealogist will not give up
his pursuit because he can not mani
pulate the facts to confer membership
in this or the other society. 1t is nat
ural to wish to know who your an
| cestors were, and as much as possible
about them; but whether they were
presidents of colleges or revolutionary
heroes or only coopers or farmers they
must in any case possess a real and
unique interest for us. 1t is gratifying
to discover that we are descended from
g. distinguished line-it fiatters our
vanity, 1t feels our amour propre: but
it is clear that there must have been
| a great many more plain people even
in those days than there were great
folk, and somebody has to be the des-
cendants of these plain people.
|
Respect, reverence, pious affection
| these we owe in any event to our for
bears. The study of their memorials
| pegets great usefulness to rehabili-
| tate them out of the dust and a keen
pricking Of the curiosity to know what
manner of men and women they really
| were. But tender gratitude is GER
| tainly their due, whoever and whatever
| they were, if for no other reason than
| because they have handed down to us
the mysterious, joyous torch of life.
|
The Sunday school of Central
| church held its annual Christmas cele-
bration yesterday afternoon, beginning
at o'clock, when about $50 children
gathered and played games. Then came
| a treat of ice cream and cake, followed
| by an entertainment in the Sunday
school room. There were several carols.
| Rev. e. M. Chapman made a brief ad-
dress, and fourteen children spelled
| the greeting, Merry Christmas" as
| follows: Warren Pike, Dwight Daniels,
Ruth Clark, Rachel Clark, Estelle Bar
akean, Roger Brooks, Lyndon San
ford, Lillian Peterson, Jennie Nyberg,
Edith Halstrom, Raymond Russell,
| Susie Upham, Hilda Ericsson and Okla
| Silurin. Then that entertaining scene
| from 1.-THE Birds Christmas Carol" by
Kate Douglas Wiggin, in which Mrs.
| Ruggles tries to teach her children
company manners, was prettily acted
| by Lillian Fuller, Howard Davis, Alice
Logan, Ruth Logan, Cora Chase, Ed
| ward Vance, Carrie Vance, Roger
| Brownell and Clark BrownelI.
| Sidney Dayre's poem, Calling Grand
mother" was presented in three tab
| leaux, Miss Florence Prouty imperson-
| ating Grandmother, Madeline Thayer
the little girl with Miss Nellie Paul as
1 the reader.
The appearance of Santa Claus &c.
| 1T
\ candy and oranges from the tree con-
cluded the festivities Miss Alice Pike
had charge of the entertainment. Miss
Lila Upton Of the candy and oranges,
and Mrs. D. II. Smith of the refresh
ments. Mrs. U. Waldo Cutler and
Mrs. George Brownell were in charge
of the whole.
And row the doctors are saying that
you must not try to sleep or you will
remain awake. Hear this, from the
| London Spectator:
Let airy readers when next they pass
| a sleepless night notice carefully what
| happens. 1t will probably be somewhat
| as follows: Suppose, for instance that
| they are in the habit of being called at
| 7.30; they Will hear the clock strike
| 5, 6, and 7, and then, when the knock at
| the door comes they will either be fast
| asleep or else they Will drop asleep i'm
mediately afterward, and In either case
possibly they will, to their intense dis
gust, oversleep themselves. What is
| the explanation Of this? Simply that by
1 far the commonest cause of prolonged
| sleeplessness is the worrying about il.
the anxious effort to obtain sleep. And
| so they lie awake hour after hour wear
| lily striving for it, until at last, when 7
| strikes, the effort is given up as use
less; at once, the strain being taken
off, the worn-out brain takes its rest