The Newtown bee., 1908-09-18

hih iNEthNHNH wv NtfN Nftfy 'aAtAftHg those sturdy, godly, fearless. thrifty and industrious men and women. Along with a beautiful country and many charming old homes. they bequeathed to their descendants traits that are truly admirable. Almost on every face kindness and goodness are nm. printed, The majority of women ad. here to the old fashioned piety of their ancestors, and the men would find it easier to sacrifice a limb than commit dishonorable act. The New Englander. heaven bless him, is never demonstrative, and in small and great things strives to conceal all sentiment and all his charitable and merciful deeds. He slaves and saves for his womankind and generally passes away first, leaving his widow in afiluent circumstances. Brooktield Center has been called a village of widows, most of them comfortably we'll off (Euro- pean noblemen please take notice.)
 Some of the sights" of Main street beginning at the southern end. going north, are: The Opera House, the Homestead, the Congregational Church, the public schoolhouse, the Town Hall, the residence of the late Judge Benjamin Gri fen, the country store, the Congregational parsonage, the Episcopal Church, the Curtis School for Boys, "The Bungalow" |" Masdame ziegler's house, and St Paul's rectory.
 The Opera House, which is more spacious than it looks, is the building where MT Greene, members of his fac ulty and musicians from abroad de- liver their lectures. Two lectures are given Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays of each week; Wednes- days and Saturdays the students are obliged to attend but one lecture. The Opera house seats sixty comfortably and 100 can be accommodated in case of emergency. The concerts and recitals take place in the Town Hall, which has seating capacity of 200.
 "The Bungalow" owned by Edward A. Houseman, a real estate man from Danbury, is a unique house, filled with curios from all parts of the world. MT Houseman. as we'll as his father and grandfather, were collectors. The most interesting things on the walls are the framed letters from all the Presidents from the United States, from George Washington to Theodore Roosevelt.
 One side-the west--of the main street, has tar pavement, due to the enterprise of the women of Brookfeld Center. Other touches here and there show the alert mind and ready hand of the danes, who take a pride in the village. At church Fifth avenue fash ions abound, and that explains what one Brookfeld woman said: "We live in the country, but we are not coun- trifed."
 Madame Ziegler came to Brookfeld Center two years ago, and was so cap- tivated by the place that she was in- duced to invest in an old Colonial house. Last year the house was remod- eled, and this year the mistress had more improvements added. It is rath- CT an odd coincidence that the main street of Brookfeld Center should be bounded on the north by the house of New York vocal teacher-Anna E. Ziegler-and on the south stands the school directed by another New York vocal teacher-Herbert Wilber Greene.
 As Brookfield Center has neither gas nor electric lights, the homes, churches and Town Hall burn oil lamps, some of them as crude as those our grand parents used fifty years ago. Mr Greene is thinking of having his own electric plant for the music school.
 The country store of Brookfeld Gen. ter, which also includes the postoffice. is the rostrum where men of all creeds and social ranks meet and discuss ey- cry topic, from politics to the manu- facture of maple sugar. There seems to be but two other places in the world where men meet on such terms of per- feet equality, and those places are the race track and the cemetery.
 Brookfeld Center is "up hill" all