The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1901-12-10
Congregational Club Meets for
the First Time Since June and
DevoteS the Evening to. Honor
ing Puritan Fathers
DR.. PARKER OF HARTFORD
PRINCIPAL SPEAKER
He Showed That Puritan Love
Was Bright and Cheerful and
Not Harsh and Forbidding AS
Some DecIare-Rev. Dr.. Lewis
Elected President

Some DeCIare-ReV. DR.. Lewis
Elected President
Forefathers' night at the Congrega-
tionaI Club brought out the largest
gathering of it's members since the
June meeting.
The meeting was held in Association
Hail. and Of the 300 plates laid at the
banquet tables, not one lacked a diner.
"Our Foremothers" was the especial
theme of the evening and the address
was given by Rev. DR.. Edwin P. Parker
of Hartford, CT, who, in most appro-
pirate and delightful manner, showed
that Puritan life fas not harsh and
forbidding, as some would make it out
to be, but bright and cheerful in many
ways, particularly in the ennobling
and refined influence exerted by the
women of the time.
An especially pleasant feature of the
occasion was the singing of songs, old
and new, by chorus of 81 voices,
trained by Seth Richards, who for
nearly a generation has instilled the
principles of music into the youth of
the city.
The election Of president for the en-
suing year came before the meeting
and the choice of the nominating com
mittee in presenting the name of Rev.
Alexander Lewis was unanimously
ratified.
Before dinner the members gathered
in the parlors Of the Y. M. c. A. for
an informal reception. Dinner was
served at $50, by Rebboli. President
DR.. John c. Berry called the meeting
to order for the post-prandial ex-
ercises Secretary George W. Mackin-
tire read the minutes of the preceding
meeting and they were approved.
In the absence of Rev DR.. A. q. Con-
rad, Henry H. Merriam reported for
the committee to nominate a president
for the ensuing year. He presented
the name Of Rev. DR.. Alexander Lewis
of Pilgrim Church. The report was
unanimously adopted and the secretary
was instructed TO cast one ballot fol-
Dr. Lewis
Ghe same committee on nominations
with the addition of DR.. Lewis, was
continued, to bring in a list of Other
officers to be voted for at the mex
meeting.
DR.. julius Garst reported for the
committee on new members that there
were no Vacancies anu ~ iidlllCO Oli liz
waiting list.
These new members were elected:
Samuel r. Truesdale of Northbridge
and Albert Gray of Worcester.
President Berry, after paying trib-
utes to, the influence of women in the
home, introduced DIR. Parker as one
who by birth and education was par
ticularly fitted to speak of the life and
influence of the Puritan women.
DR.. Parker spoke in part as follows:
at is often assumed by those who are
willing to praise the sterner virtues
of the Puritans that there was no
sweetness or light in their lives, moth
ing of tenderness or grace in their
characters. The purpose Of this paper
is to present some evidence to the
contrary. Amid the hard circumstances
and narrow limitations of Puritan life
there is a visible light of these gentler
virtues, which invest individual lives
with loveliness, make happy homes,
and render social intercourse pleasant
and wholesome.
THE SUMMER side Of Puritan life and
character is the inside of it; the pri-
vate rather than the public, the do
nestle and social, rather than the
political and ecclesiastical. But this in
terror aspect is imperfectly disclosed
to us. The annals of the time are al
most exclusively occupied with politi-
cal, theological and ecclesiastical af-
fairs. To get at the real life of home
and society one must search YEARLY
through heaps Of diaries and correspon-
dence."
Dr. Parker quoted freely from vari-
Gus sources Of this kind and presented
many views Of the interior life of our
forefathers. Continuing, he said: "By
dino tho accounts which fbaU have
left us Of their daily lives we see that
the Puritans We're a people whose
characters and habits bore a resem-
blance to us greater and more import
ant than any of their differences.
John Adams seems quite different
to us after we read in one of his wife's
letters that he used to be driven about
the house by a small child armed with
a willow wand. So of our thought Of
George Washington when we learn Of
the children whom he handled on his
knee, telling them the story of the old
men and women who lived in a vine
gar bottle. We discover that the Puri-
tans did not live as old, old men, and
old. old women in vinegar bottles to-
gether but in no little freedom of So
cial pleasure"
He especially noted the elder and the
younger winthrop, and Margaret Win
throp. wife of the Massachusetts gov
ernor calling her Puritan saint.
Throughout the whole Winthrop cor
respondence he found disclosures Of
lust those qualities which the Puritan
character is sometimes said to lack.
Concerning Margaret Winthrop he
said of singular beauty in all the
graces of character was Margaret
Winthrop. Her letters to her husband
are full of chaste affection without a
trace of affectatiOn or weakness.
Through them all breathes a spirit of
purity, dignity eloquence and grace.
Reading them after lapse Of centuries
we may smile at the quaintness of ex-
preston but we must thrill with the
faith and love they manifest"
DIR. Parker showed the same spirit in
the Higginson letters, written to Rev
John Higginson of Salem by his sons.
He noted Lady Fenwick, Thomas
Sharpe's daughter, Lady Arbella John
son and Gov. Dudley's wife, as illus
trating the noble simplicity and gentle
ness Of the Puritan women.
DR.. Parker then sketched the amuse-
ments and recreations Of Puritan life.
He said that the various orders of the
courts of lifetime showed the exhuber-
ance Of life. They point out the fact
that the women, somehow managed to
have their own way in respect to gay
clothing and the lads and lassies got
the better of their elders in respect to
sports.
DR.. Parker gave a lively picture Of
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