Norwich bulletin., 1909-07-03

' LlDDsu LouHudIOnS or the Rose Of New } England for the purpose of erecting a
 ski block and what a revelation
 to the eye of the geologist is the trun- cated surface of this old ledge with
 the stones and boulders interspersed in the eight or ten feet of earth overly- ing 1t. The men are assailing the
 ledge with dynamite, and will soon
 make 1t yield to tape line and drills
 and dynamite and levels. am the foundation of the earth, it says, I am
 the living rock-the life which Jpreced-
 ed all other life on this globe. over
 me seas have rolled for unnumbered
 ages and the corroding elements of time
 have worn my face and buried me in
 the silt and sand, and other life has
 clothed the earth above me in beauty.
 l thought that was from everlasting
 to everlasting as is my Creator, but
 His sons have learned how to rend
 me and to make me serve them in
 many ways. Man is not master
 builder like the architect of the uni
 verse. but obedience to the spirit has
 taught him how to master and how to
 build.
 When Norwich was founded this was 1 red mans country and a metropolis | or wild animals and native birds. There
 were a score of settlements in New
 England many miles apart and the land | | were moose and elk and deer and bear
 and wolves and game birds and song
 oirds Of many varieties and small
 animals in abundance. The flying
 squirrel was as common hereabouts as
 English sparrows are today; the wild 1 pigeons were numerous as we'll as | cartridges and quail The Marouis de Chastellux tells of flock of partridees
 which he approached and came very close to, but they did not fly until he | threw cane at them. The waters
 were full of fish and the salmon used
 to run up the Shetucket and Quinebaug
 to Windham and Putnam Bass and
 snad and salmon were plenty; and fiat fish and frostfish and cells were abl1n dant. Eels used to be caught by the barrel of nights at the sluiceway of the Greeneville dam and some of them
 welgned seven pounds apiece and shad
 were taken by the boatload. The build
 ing of dams and the pollution of the
 rivers with sizing and dyestuffs has
 made an end of all this and edible fish
 are scarcer than game birds.
 Quite number of years auo Deacon
 A. w. Parks presented The Man Who
 Talks with Chastellux Travels from the library of the Rev. MT. Spicer.
 wnicn he had in his hands for sale:
 and l found that they were "Joshus Lathrop's books bought at Hartford
 Feb. Is, 17SS," as written by his own
 hand. Now Deacon Parks was not
 deacon, but wore the title as some of our generals and colonels wear theirs. without ever having any real concep- tlon or the duties 1t stood for. His comrades gave him this soubriquet be- cause they thought perhaps, that he was good enough to be deacon. and ne wore the title with pride when he was only good auctioneer and a jolly good fellow. I do not know but he | could talk like deacon when he got 1 excited; l never happened to be near when his smile was off As tokens of | Deacon Parks generosity I prize these | books, as well as for their rarity and l original associations.
 In the days of the foundinq of Nor Wich all men were important their in- | terests were common and they stood | together in the land for mutual pro- lection; but as the popu!atfon fn- creased and the land holdings varied and occupations varied the most im- | portart and those of least account be- came contrasted and classified. The leader and the minister were the ones looked up to in the earliest times. and | It was many years before the triumvi- rate of the village got to be the minis ter, the doctor and the judge of pro bate; or the old popular divisions of the do-wells and ne'er-do-wells. the cultured and the uncultured, the sec- tarian and non n-Sectarian, the rich and the poor. the deserving and undeserv- Ing were classed off As the people increased and the interests multiplied and the perils decreased, the people be- came separated into classes. and now we have hundreds of them with the elite on top and the degenerates at the bottom. and the good people sand wiched in between The pioneers were rich in everything which made for and honor-for industry and progress. and their descendants have lost much that they had and gained material wealth and social distinction, but we cannot see that they are any better.
 The fact that Lafayette visited Nor wich several times Is a matter of fais- 1 tory, and 1t is a proud incident in the history of this dear old town. but if is 3 little trying to find that Norwich was | not important enough 120 years after t was founded to be entitled to a { place on the map in The Travels of he Marquis de ChastellIx, while New I London and Lebanon and PlainfieId md Windham, and even Colchester. were. And Stonington and old Point ( Jude were there, too, and this omission l i gives us very poor opinion of the a accuracy of MT. Dezotrex, the engineer s If the French army who made the I nap. De Chastellux stayed at Lebanon t md he may have just rode down to $ he Rose of New England with Gov. [ rrumbull He was escorted from New t ,ort by a Rhode Island regiment "the ! Teatest part of whom were negroes | { r mulattoes-strong, robust men who a raade a very good appearance" That S lis readers may not think Lebanon is [ city. he says: Tt is one of the most o considerable towns in the country and l, onsists of at least 100 houses. much 2 catered and distant from each ot51- | e T more than 400 or 500 paces." e
 When Napoleon said to his soldiers t, n Egypt as they canped near the s yramids, Twenty centuries look own upon you," he uttered a senti Ii aent which is ringing through the n ges, and which has prompted thou n ands to traverse the globe to witness ir he works of man. We go to great ex- O. ense and travel a long ways to see A he works of antiquity. and are some W that awed by the wonderful antioui- lc les of the effete east, while the mar m elous works of God at our own doors a. mich are a million times, perhaps. rt iore antique, do not awaken h 1ought. Why the Meeting House 0 .ocks at Norwich Town have been s He'd up there more years than the D Iiagara Falls and gorge were in the V, laxing. They may have been there A