The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-10-29
SAVING "OLD SOUTH"
The Debt Which the United states
 Owes to Mrs. Hemenway. J. L, Harbour's The Children's Hours

The DeBN WHICH tue O1ktEu st0tG% Owes to Mrs. Hemenway.
 J. L. Harbour's The Children's Hours in the old South Meeting House" November St. Nicholas
 The ground on which the Old South stands was the dwelling place of Gov ernor winthrop. Benjamin Franklin was batiszed in the meeting house. The voices of Adams and Hancock and Warren and Washington have been heard within its walls. You will see, back of the pulpit platform and below the quaint old soundlng-board, the very high window through which Gem eral Joseph Warren came to deliver his famous oration on the anniversary of the Boston massacre because the crowd in and around the church was so great he could not enter by the door.
 In this church were held some of the great meetings leading up to the famous Boston "Tea Party" Indeed, it was from this Sanctuary of Free dom," as it has been called, that the band of men disguised as Indians started for the wharf to board the ships and throw overheard the taxed tea that had created such a turmoil in Boston. If you should follow the exact route taken by that bank of "Mohawks" on that eventful December day in the year 1773, you would finally reach a modern building on the site of Griffin's wharf at which lay moored on December 16, 1773, the three British ships with cargoes of tea. This house bears a tablet commemorating the famous Boston Tea Party" which threw the cargoes into the sea,
 Did you ever hear the story of how the Old South was ''saved?' Reverence for historic landmarks did not run so high thirty or forty years ago as it does today, and in our centennial year Of 1876 it was proposed to sell the Old South simply for the value of its bricks and timbers. and tear 1t down. that a modern business block might be built on Its site. Indeed. it was sold "knocked down" at auction to a bid der for the meager sum of $1,315.
 Suddenly wave of patriotic feel ing swept over the city of Boston. The papers and some of the people began to protest against the tearing down of the old Sanctuary of Free dofn," and a movement was set on foot to raise funds to buy the church ground on which it stood This good plan might never have succeeded had if not been for one noble and loyal wo- man in Boston. Mrs. Mary Hemen- way. of hallowed memory When the difficulty of securing funds for the purchase of the old meeting house be- came known to her she came forward with a gift of s100,000. and thus the old meeting house was saNed-to stand as an object lesson to the children of future generations
 Having given such large sum to help save the old South Meeting House, Mrs Hemenway felt that 1t should be something more than d mere silent monument She determined that 1t should be real. living force in our country, and particularly to the chill dren of Boston. She determined it should renew and increase its fame as a temple of freedom, and that it's sacred walls should again echo and re-echo to the sound of patriotic ut terances. and that some of these utter ances should come from the lips of the , hovs and girls of Boston; and thus the 1 old South Lecture Course and the old 1 South prizes were established. Each 1 year a prize of S4O and another of $25 1 are given to the graduates of the Bos- | ion High Schools who write the best | essays on historic or patriotic topics. | The committee having this work in | charge announces tine subjects Tn June, 1 inst before the schools close, and the | cnn,petitnrs must submit their essays | thc following January. Then on Wash
 ineton's birthday there Is ptriotic e,rherin gof the school children of Bos- son h the old meeting house. and the names Of the prize winners are an nounCed.