The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1901-01-06
Colonial Tnycrns.


by this author. and to those who have
read her previous works the announce
ment of any new thing from her pen is
cause for pleasure 1t is, as one may sup
pose, packed with descriptions, stories,
and anecdotes of travel as it was in CO.
lonial times. and the illustrations, which
are numerous, are worthy Of the text.
The book deals mainly with the roads and
villages of New England. but the Middle
and Southern States are not by any means
neglected.
The Puritan fathers were evidently not
inclined to tolerate any loose behavior in
their inns and taverns, perhaps remem-
boring that the old English inn was one
of the strongholds of joviality and anti
Puritanical sentiment, and sometimes of
things good deal worse They therefore
hedged the inn-keeper sternly about with
restrictions against harboring 'rogues
vagabonds, thieves, sturdy beggars, mas
terless men or women" The tithing-
man, moreover. was likely to poke his
head in at any time, and give to the cen
stable the names of idle drinkers and
gamers. Tobacco was frowned upon rs
much almost as liquor, and it is said that
there were men living in 1856 who had
had the experience of being hailed to
Boston police court for smoking in the
streets of that city.
1t strikes the modern reader as curious,
therefore, that licenses to keep houses of
entertainment were often granted with
the condition that the tavern must be
near the meeting house. One reason fer
this was perhaps that SO the frequenters
of the tavern could be under somebody's
watchful eye; but another and most po-
the old-time house of worship, and the
two long sessions morning and afternoon.
There had TO be some place near enough
for the congregation to go, in the inter-
mission, and warm its half-froZen hands
and feet, and get a drink of something
hot. There was not in those days much
prejudice against liquor in itself; the OBJ
lection was to social drinking, and over
indulgence. The total abstainer was a
later invention. The Sunday customs of
the seventeenth century are thus describ-
ed by Mrs. Earle:
Through autumn rains. and winter frosts and
snows, and fierce northwesters, the poorly built
meeting house stood unheated, growing
damp, more icy, more deadly, with each succeed
Ing week. Women covered, shiverng half
frozen, over the feeble heat Of a metal foot
. stoye as the long sermon dragged and the few
Goals became ashes. Men stamped their feet and
swung their arms in the vain attempt to warm
the blood. Gladly and eagerly did all troop
from the gloomy meeting house to the cheerful
tavern thaw out before the afternoon service,
and to warm up before the ride walk home
in the late afternoon. 1t was scandal in many
4 town that the cody church members partook
too freely Of tavern cheer at the incoming The
only wonder is that the entire congregation did
not succuTnb in a body TO the potent flip and
toddy Of the tsvern&eeper.
In midsummer the hot sun beat down on the
meeting house roof, and the burning rays poured
IN the unshaded windows. The taproom Of the
fered pleasant shade to tired churchgoers,
and its well-sweep afforded a grateful drink to
those who turned not to the taproom.
There are ever backsiders in the church
nunities; many walked into the ordinary door in
stead Of up the church ALLEY" The chimney
seat Of the inn was more comfortable :han the
Massachusetts, passed a law requiring all inn
keepers within a mile Of any meeting house to
clear their houses during the hours Of the exer-
cise.' Thus Mr. Field SAYS, Witty, ''the
townsrnen were frozen out Of the tavern TO be
frozen in the meeting house"
The Puritan of the early days did not
believe in establishing taverns in out-of-
the-way corners of the town. and there
Is a letter from Nathaniel Saltonstall, of
Haverhill, Mass, protesting against the
granting OF a license to one Robert Hast
ings, who had a tavern about three miles
from town. There is no cant in the let,
ter, but rather a sturdy conviction that
In making his protest he is doing what he
ought to do as citizen. The writer was
appointed one of the judges in the Salem
witchcraft trials, but refused to serve.
In Judge Sewalls diary there is the
quaint record of an argument which he
had with Boston landlord about al
lowing man ito shew Tricks" in a room
in his house. 1t appears that Judge Sewall
read part OF a sermon to show that such
practices we're unlawful" and then he
and some companions sang the ninetieth
Psalm TO the landlord as a means of fur
Their influencing his mind. He agreed to
do as they demanded.
OF the New York taverns OF the eight
zenith century the most famous was the
Black Horse, kept by Robert Todd, near
the Old Dutch Church. In 1712 there was
built, at the junction of Fifty-frst and
Fifty-second Streets with the post road,
Cato's Road House. Cato was a negro
slave from South Carolina, who had
bought his freedom, and he kept this inn
for forty-eight years. It is said that
those who tasted his okra soup, terrapin
fried chicken, curried oysters. roast duck.
brandy punch, eggnogg, or milk punch
wondered how his master could have
been prevailed upon to let him go. He
built ballroom large enough for thirty
couples to dance in, and on Christmas il
was the fashionable thing to drive out
there to q dance. The Fountain Inn at
Nedford, Mass, had platforms built in the
great, low-spreading trees about it, with
stairs and little bridges connecting them
with each other and the ground. But per-
haps the most charming of all the stories
OF old inns is that of the Red Rose, in
the Moravian settlement ct Bethlehem.
Pa. Mrs. Earle says:
1t was substantial building "quartered,
brick-nogged, and snugly wcather-boarded, with
yard looking north and a garden looking
south" In 1874, under the regency Of its first
ruler, one Schaub, the cooper, and Divert Mary,
his faithful wife, II bore sign-board charged
with full blown rose and ever after known
as the Rose. This was not because the walls
were coated with Spanish red; this rose bloomed
with life derived from sentiment and history,
for it was built land released by William Penn
on an annual payment as rental Of one red ross
There is something most restful and beautiful
In the story OF this old inn. Perhaps part Of the
hidden charm comes from the Biblical names Of
the towns. For without direct conscious
pes, there is ever something impressive in
Biblical association; there is magical power in
Biblical comparison, G tenderness In the use OF
Biblical words and terms which feel without
actively noting. So this Red Rose of Nazareth
seems built on the road to Paradise. An in
ventory was made Of the houely contents Of the
Rose In l765, when a landlord entered
therein. and they smack Of the world the flesh
and the devil. Ample store there OF rum,
both Of New England and the West Indies, OF
Lisbon wine OF cider and madlgolum, which
may have been metheglin. Punch bowls. tumb-
lers, decanters, tunnels. black bottles, and nut
meg graters and nutmegs also. Feather beds and
and coverets, much pewter and little china,
ample kitchen supplies OF all sorts. In and
peace its record was OF interest, and its solid
walls stood still colored deep red till our