The Newtown bee., 1907-03-22

To the Editor of The Churchman: I cannot but think that the Rev MT Mckenzie must have been very erron- eously reported in the account which you give of his remarks in your paper of January 4, but if not so much the worse for MT Mckenzie.
 The pilgrims" of Plymouth were much more moderate people than the "Puritans'' of the Bay Colony. Capt Miles Standish was one of the most trusted and respected of the pilgrims, but was never "member or the Church.'' In "the Bay" he could not have held any place whatever for that reason.
 Our ancestors of the Bay Colony were a very noble people, but, like most others, they had great weakness es. What they did for the cause of the men of any one generation, and that renown will not be increased, but has been rather dimmed, by such ab- surb claims as that they were "the most liberal people of modern times. /" or that they preserved Christmas. In | liberality practised among earnest religionistS who had power to control l matters as they pleased. and as to i Christmas the record is as follows: Under the date of May II, 1859 c'Records of the Colony of Massachu-
  Part l., p. 366,) the following law was enacted: "For preventing disorders arising in several places within this jurisdiction, by reason of some still observing such festivals as were super st1tiously kept in other countries, to the great dishonor of God and offence of others, it is therefore ordered by this court and the authority thereof, that whOSOever shall be found ObServ- ing any such day as Christmas CT the like, either by forbearing of labor, feasting, or any other way, upon any person so offending shall pay for every such offence five shillings, as fine to the country"
 It is quite probable that this law may have been especially aimed at MT Samuel Maverick, who kept hospit- able house at Noodles Island and cele- brated Christmas boisterously, perhaps with the firing of cannon as well as bounteous cheer; but this law was 1 passed in the later years of the prOtec- torate, when the law of the colony was certainly not in opposition to the
 The very next year, however, was l that of the Restoration, and Charles the Second was king. In 1865 Samuel Maverick was in America as one of almost unlimited authority to super | wise the colonial governments, and on the 24t tn of May, 1865, these com mmis- sioners,in a letter to the general court of Massachusetts.ga gave memorandum of twenty-SfX changes which they pro- posed, in his majesty's name, to be made in Book of General Laws and Liberties concerning the inhabitants ot the Massachusetts, among which was the following:
 '15. That, page the same 1881, the penalty for keeping Christmas, being i directly against the law of England, may be repealed. Vol. W, Part II, page 212).
 This and other demands of the com miSsioners were afterwards renewed and Plantation, MT Solicitor and MT Attorney General" but it was not un- til sixteen years after the first demand that hesitating and reluctant sub- mission was made by the order of the general court, May 27, 1881, by their Christmas to be left out," Vol. V, 1 page 322). Even then they would not repeal it in terms.
 THOMAS J. PARKER. 1 Boston, January 3, 1879.
 Samples of alcohol made from saw
 dust have been sent to the Departmen
 of Agriculture from one of the big
 sawmills where the work is being dont
 on mmercial scale; that is to say 4 ulSUlll1uR piduU HdS Uecu luSUduel
 which is turning out several barrels o1
 alcohol daily, though no figures ar , available as to the actual cost o manufacture compared with woo( alcohol or that from grain. The in
 teresting point about the sawdust al
 cohol is that it is not wood alcohol
 having none of the properties of tha fluid, but is an ethyl alcohol that can
 not be told from that made from grain
 The difference is that the sawdus alcohol is made after the sawdust ha been treated with an acid, transform = ing it into -dextrose, and is then dis titled Tn the regular way. If the wor 7 can be done at profit, and the indi l cations from the work of the compan point to this being a fact, it will no only make valuable by-product out c U the sawdust that has heretofore bee
 an intolerable nuisance to the sawmills
 but it wilIOpen up away to make alec s hol profitably from straw, cane, corn v stalks and almost any other vegetabl refuse.
 s Candy Easter eggs and rabbits, Ea. , ter egg dyes and Easter postcards. q large and choice line to select from a S s. B. Sanford & Co.'S.