The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-11-27
CHAPTER Nv.
Three Bay Men.


their perpendicular life he plunged with
music and dancing. Between their SOM
s Der lines he scrubbed with porcuplne'5
quill. Accordingly, though he lived thirty
miles away by Indian trail, they ser,-
him 5000 miles by ship as soon as they
could. Morton of Clifford's inn, gent.
as he subscribed himself, was left
over sample of the independent fortune
hunters, who now and then made their
way to these shores He was an instance
OF the survival of the strongest in Capt.
WallaSton's little company, which came
to Massachusetts bay in 1925. He gather
ed disconnected fellows and Indians about
him, trading with the last In the danger-
GUS currency of muskets, powder ana
ball. He also set up maypole. around
which he held greenwood revelry COM
posing "a sog to be sung with chorus,
every man bearing his part 1t is one
Of the freaks of literary history that the
first effusion Of the poetic muse in staid
New England should run as follows:
Make green garlands, bring bottles out
And fill sweet nectar freely about;
Uncover thy head, and fear no harm,
For here's good liquor to keep it warm.
with other stanzas and chorus to cor
respond
Barring their bacchanalian spirit, they
are far superior in execution to the bay
psalmistry, which the theologic muse
travelled to produce in all that century
As for their berry flavor, the pilgrlma
themselves had not yet taken the tenn
perance pledge, though the trade in New
England rum had not yet begun and
good ale was still the loadstone by
which Englishmen steered their course"
Morton's New English Canaan is like
many of the descriptions of the country
which Immigrants were continually MAXI
ing, partly in the spirit of discovery in
a strange land and partly as an induce
nent for friends to follow. The most of
it was written during one of his COM
pulSory visits in England, but as he re-
turned to end his days on the coast Of
Maine, it may be regarded no less Amer
lean than some of John Smiths MARIA
tives. He proves, IS many writer's since
have proved. that New England is the
principal part of all America" discourses
Of the natives, their origin, their costumes
of the country, it's beasts, birds and
fishes, its trees, minerals and waters, of
battles, pow-Wows and revels, and finally
of the Mine Worthless of New Canaan"
who put him in durance vile, and how he
"played Jonas after he got out of the
whales belly with many other things
which Capt. Shrimp miles Standish)
and his company did not relish when
doings to this Robin Hood, an outlaw in
the new forest of Massachusetts bay
If they had possessed the least sense of
humor-a scarce article in that first dec
ade-they would have laughed in their
sleeves over his description of their posi-
ton 'betwixt Hawk and Buzzard;" of
laymen exercising their gifts by way
of prophecy, SO they do not make use of
any notes to help their memory" of the
L.
boWes and burned his house; of the
preacher who traded for a beaver coat
after sermon against Sunday barter,
and Of his own exile upon an island for
SayageS to Succor.
Of all this and more the forefathers
could not see the amusing side as cheer
fully depicted by an interloper who had
not deserted the Church of England and
had brought with him love for English
sports and principles of free trade deemed
subversive of the commonwealth. With
all this bad form, however-and some
of it cropped out in his composition-he
introduced into the dreary diarizing OF
the time spicy features which will save
his chronicle from the fate of better, but
less interesting books. Those who wish
to read this view of New England will
find it in the third volume of Forces
Tracts" and in the Adams annotated
edition of the Prince society, Boston, 1888
Both Hawthorne and Motley have made
Merry Mount and it's lord of misrule the
subject of story.
John Winthrop was leader of the Puri-
tan migration to the Bay of Boston ten
years after the pilgrims landed at Ply
mouth. These 500 later colonists were
generally men Of means, education and
position. strongly attached to their ma
tive land and it's church, as distinct from
rites and government. Settled here, their |
leader became their governor and histo- |
rian, who began his diurnal record on the |
day they sailed from the Isle of Wight |
and continued it for forty years in the |
wilderness. 1t Is faithful reflection of !
himself and Of the life which the COM
munity led day after day The con-
seriousness of planting an empire Is al |
ways present. therefore the record Is al |
ways grave, and sometimes solemn, with |
more than present Importance. In this |
early morning of American civilization |
the shadows cast by everything were long
and the primitive chronicler did not see |
how short some of them would grow as |
the day wore on. Little events were |
mixed with greater ones In the necessity |
Of recording something every day. The |
journalizer is positive that small occur
rences in the beginning of a nation have I
an importance that Will grow with its
growth
Therefore he writes down with equal |
fidelity the drowning of his son Henry
and the killing of six calves by wolves
The execution of Ellington for murder
and the burning of the minister's hay 1
stack are events of corresponding value
So are a conference Of elders and the |
explosion of an overloaded musket also
a burning chimney and the calling of |
John Eliot as teacher of the church at |
Roxbury. The straying of a calf and
the wandering of the governor at night
in the forest divide his attention about
equally in making history. But histor-
ians of the United States today find no
permanent value in the statement that |
Dalkin's dog drew good wife Dalkin out
of the flood to her excited but cautious
husband standing on the bank; or that
a great light was seen lowering over
Muddy river and strange voices were
heard over the bay. Not even the trial
of the governor for exceeding his au-
thority has the interest of his famous
definition of liberty in his defense OF
himself: Liberty to do that only which
is good, just and honest-rnaint aimed /
and exercised In way of subsection to
authority, instead Of doing what is good
in your own eyes"
It is in this speech that he rises out
of and above the petty concerns of his
to something Ike states
So also his clear mindedness
may be discerned in many decisions Of |
the general court over which he presid- |
ed and in whose documents his hand
is visible. These, however, are er1tan-
gled in a great multitude of grave OBJ
servations about special providences for
the elect and dire judgments upon the
profane, about signs and wonders, mon |
strosities and superstitions, divisions and |
disorders in the church and common
wealth, with scandals and crimes in the |
community. And yet these somber iot-
tings have the creepy fascination that /
belongs To a ghost story with the sad |