The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-07-10
AMERICA HAS SOME
 HISTORIC TAVERNS Tavern Keepers Were Very Im-
 portant PersonageS NEW YORK STILL HAS RELICS Masons Preserve a Bunch of Clay Grapes Which Was a Sign On
 Building When the Lodge
 Was Organized.
NEW YORK STILL HAS RELICS
BY FREDERIC J. HAskIN.

j men have come to test the steel of their intellects against the clever men of their time. Here kings. princes and presidents have come "to eat and lle' and pass on next day to give place to others of a like or lower degree. The landlord of tho pre-railway inn was a source of in- formation next to none in his community, and because of this was held In high es- teem by his neighbors. His way of se- | curing his knowledge was to catechise all newcomers. Benjamin Franklin all ways had in readiness a little speech which he offered the landlord the min ute he descended from the stage and entered the tap-room of the inn. My name Is Benjamin Franklin" he would l say. "I was born in Boston. I am a printer by profession, am travelling to Philadelphia. shall have to return at such 1 a time and have no news. Now what can you give me for dinner?
 Sometimes when the sale of liquor was forbidden, the keeping of an inn did not pay and history records how the town of Newbury, Massachusetts, was once | fined because no one there could be per- suaded to keep an ordinary for travellers, ! possibly because by order of the general court the price of a meal was set at six i pence. The Ipswich tavern, however, founded in I77l. was kept by a great granddaughter of Governor Endicott, and John Adams especially commends the service of his journal Romance clust- cred richly around the older New Eng | ,faff fax ' Marbehead, the great rendezvous for | pirates in olden days, pretty Agnes Sur riage, scrub woman, was wooded and won by an English baronet and rose to | high estate in London.
 Elizabeth Crafts, a young and energetic tavern-keeper of Manchester-by-the-Se dreamed one night that she married a sailor from a foreign port. At the same time a young Scotchman dreamed that 1 he met a pretty girl in white with a rose | in Yer hair and married her Later these two met, recognized each other from the dream. and like the good old fairy tales married and lived happy ever after ward" It was this energetic Elizabeth who was always knitting, even when on tho canal boats going to the city for her supplies, and 1t Is solemnly declared that once she fell overheard and before they had flshed her up from the water she had knit seven stitches.
 The oddities in inn-keeprs may not have been moro pronounced than In oth- CT people, but because they were more In the public eye they received more comment The keeper of a tavern at Sewbery, Massachusetts, named his sons respect lively 'Tearing'' and Adding" because the one happened to be born while part of the inn was being demolished and the other while new wing was being add ed Poking the fire seems to have been ! great ceremony, and one performed only by permission of the august land
 ord At Smithfleld, Pennsylvania, Boss" Rush won renown for keeping his poker lnder lock and key, and allowing no One to touch the sacred fire which he guarded with the zeal of vestal Virgin. Jesse Brown, keeper of the fa-
 nous "Tndian Queen" tavern of Wash
 ngton, which once stood where the Met
 opolitan hotel now stands, was noted for
 ifs quichness In reading faces and his
 ubsequent classification of his guests.
 )n this first impression depended the
 ut of meat the guest was to receive. AS
 e himself did the carving the more
 lelicate tid-bits went to the favored
 uests and the men of lower social scale
 nust be content with anything they could
 ;et. On holidays Brown made his egg
 log in barrel. His clerk, who was also
 lis barkeeper, was the official directory
 If Washington. not only remembering
 where everybody of importance lived but llso stating the hours they might be seen.
 Inn-keepers were invested in early times with a certain amount of personal dignity that would admit of no degradation This Charles Dickens found out to his sorrow when making his memorable tour through the United States In 1S42. He put up at the celebrated Galt house in Louisville, and when Major Throckmorton, the pro prietor, went personally to inquire after the comfort of his distinguished guest he was coldly informed ''all right, sir; all right; if I want anything l will ring for you" Dickens had never before learned that there is a vast distinction between the English and the American hotel keeper, and so hurriedly and ab- jectly apologized to the irate Throck- morton who was about to throw hlm through the window.
 Taverns sometimes arose to the dignity of skate houses by reason of the politi- cal uses to which they were put. After Bacon's men had burned the old church at Jamestown where assemblies had been held, the House of BurgeSSeS met Tn the little tavern near by. Later when Virginias capital was moved to Williams burg the Burgesses convened in the old Raleigh tavern At Zanesville, Ohio, The Sign of the Orange Tree" was the headquarters of the state lesisla- ture in 1S10-12.
 The Free and Accepted Masons of America have carefully preserved in the lodge rooms in Boston a bunch of clay grapes of no particular artistic value but, of considerable historic importance. They 1 are part of a sign made from English clay that once hung over the celebrated | tavern, 'The Bunch of Grapes" which ? stood according to old records, on the 1 corner of King street and the westerly | side of Mackerel Lane." It was here, in | 1733. that Henry Price, a Boston tailor, l armed with authority from England, ! founded the first grand lodge of Masons | in America. Other important meetings 1 have been held there, and Presidents of l the United States and governors have more than once made it their headquar 1 ters. The meeting of the men who fourd- | ed Trinity church, Boston, was held there. | General Stark put up at the Bunch of | Grapes after the battle of Bennington the | Boston Humane society was founded there in 17S5, also the first meeting of the Ohio | company, called by Menasseh Cutler to | colonze the Western Reserve.
 | Washington, like Queen Elizabeth, | seems to have spent much of his time | going to private houses and inns to make | them sacred shrines for later generations.