The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1900-10-11
THE REF. HENRY ROBINSON.



THE RET. HENRY ROBINSON.
Continued from Tenth Page)
Jocob Allen, Tillotson, Tallman, Hazen
and burly Father Whitmore convened
and sat over a round-of-beef or leg-of-
mutton always put US youngsters in
great glee.
Rtce's laugh from rich bass voice
was fit for opera bouffe; and the Rev
Mr.. .Shipman, father OF Judge Nathah-
iel Shlpman, could keep listening Ia
BILE for hours in laughing disorder; nor
shall | forget an evening OF dellghuul
entertainment with "reminiscences ana
story, passed many years later at his
house in Jewett City.
Five hundred dollars was the coun-
try parsons dependence for nYelhooo
in those days of much simpler life ana
more general home labor But the
clergy were good "exchequer' and
budget makers, and they made spec
ial prices for themselves, which they
taught to every merchant. This con-
cession, usually made by all merchants,
perhaps rather eked out than raised IN
any princely degree their well-earned
salaries.
But further, the minister's family
might be complaining or down sick ana
even "bed-fast," yet the good doctor
charged no fees-at least payment was
voluntary The doctor looked upon
tha parson as q brother physician, car
ing for the etherialized spirits of people,
while his forte was to keep IN repair
their more troublesome fleshly bodies.
Doctors drove tough, trotting YER
mont horses and carried their little
trunks, or saddle-bags, containing mai
odorous powders and nippers to pull out
aching teeth, and they dosed us with
cafomel, saving our lives but destroying
our means of mastication, and this
practice gave rise to modern dentistry.
Father once took in from poor
scholar who wished to get married, a
COPY Of Robinson's Greek Lexicon as
the wedding fee. His highest single
record for wedding money was 500.
Gifts often dropped pell-mell into the
family laps from a generous people.
have seen more than one barrel OF so-
gar come all the way from New Or
leans. where 1t grew, and roll In Tree
I1n0n the MOOT Oh lIlt ilblllpit t'''A NS4'S'so0
at Plainfleld
The parson would keep cow ana II
he wished to be thrifty, a pig Ihis
would be cut up In the early winter ana
nut away for cold storage in the cell
lars; Qnot much craving for Ice in those
times, with but one ice-house in town.;
then came days for smoking hams over
chips smoldering in the great open
chimney, and we loved to sniff the odor
of them like young foxes.
Our father and Deacon Elisha Lofd
Fuller had a scheme of geetlng up
casks of salt mackerel from Norwich
which they divided and ate. A very
sanitary neighbor told our mother
''nackerel was not fit to go into any
human stomach" but in it went, cask
after cask, and the deacon lived till
past eighty. The cod was a more real
preserver of life at Plainfield, and l
feel grateful to that fish. If it cannot
be ranked as a member of the families
there, 1t should be classed as one OF
their domestic animals,
Mr., Robinson was much attached to
the sturdy soil of Guilford, which he
had spent the years of his early life try
Ing to improve and mellow; and from
before 1900 when he was used to Visit
little Falcon island to catch blackt1sh
and hunt gulls' eggs, he knew for al
most a century the older Guilford fam
lilies. with their contemporaneous histo-
nv and the flavor Of Gullford oysters.
In this. his native town, he was quite
as active as a retired clergyman, some
times a suspected character, had better
he officiating not too often, in clerical
WAYS, as at family reunions, weddings
and funerals, and steadily at the week
" meetings of the church; also supply
ing vacant pulpits and reading Virgil
with classes in times of overflow or pu-
nils at Guilford Institute. AS ! look
hack llpon it, there was kind considera-
ton and just appreciation and gene
rous devotion even shown by the peo-
pie of Guilford to the reverend Harry
Robinson, whose first and last years
were spent among them. Throughout
life a frail man, he yet kept a quick
step down to his last days, although
growing visibly enfeebled as time rolled
more heavily on.
At last, his faithful enemy, influenza,
/ attacking him not alone, but with the
help of congestive fever, struck him
| down after a short struggle of two
| weeks, September IA, 1878. My sister
| and I were then absent in Europe Oul
, last remembrance Of Oul father briaSS
before us q, gray-hared old gentleman
standing beside our mother in the door
way raising his almost trembling
hands to give us his last blessing and
wave us God-speed on our journey
The boy who sang counter, and the
father who tuned the bass-viol in the
village choir lie side by side in the beau
| tiful sacred ground that almost over
hangs the west-side tiding river il
Guilford, and our mother lies with then
| there.