The Mena weekly star., 1909-01-14
OF THINGS COLONIAL.
Mrs. Mary B. Wigstrand Writes Of an Hour With Ancestry in New
 London, Conn.


 Mrs. Fred Wigstrand, who left Mena for Groton, Conn, last No vember, writes as follows to her friends in Mena, through The Star:
 The new year IS just twenty four hours old and l am thinking of Mena friends and we, Fred and l, would like to have them know low our hearts go out in love and good wishes 10 them, and as The Star is always willing to shed rays oi "peace and good will, will ask that 1t carry our message 10 Mena aud Polk county friends.
 There are many things up here in old New England that please me very much. New Years aft ernoon I pleasantly spent view ing old Revolutionary relics in an old Revolutionary mansion that was bought by the Hlstori- cal Society of New London, and in which on each New Years day reception is held. 1 was this year fortunate in being invited because l am Mrs. Sarah Mitch ellis niece (not because am Mrs. Fred).
 The house is large and spacious and as we entered the first thing that greeted our eyes was statue of Connectlcut's first executive. Governor Winthrop, dressed in the garb of the Pilgrims of the May flower. Above him were two life-sized portraits, one of George Washington and the oth- CT of Bishop Seabury, painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds. Bishop Seabury was born in the little town of Groton, but was buried iu New London, and was the first Episcopal bishop in the United States.
 We were ushered into the lit- rary and drank tea brewed in an urn that performed the same ser vice for Washington and Lafay- cite; then on to the bed room which was occupied by Washing ton when he was guest of the Shaws, who owned the home and whose portraits in powdered wigs adorn the walls today. Stately colonial danes live again in the gallery, their silken gowns fall. ing so primly and regularly, and they simper sweetly as they hold many of them a most impossi- ble looking rose to their lips. They seemed in their poses to run to roses or Bibles, as everyone here runs to ancestry.
 was talking to a very inter esting woman. She asked me to come over and look at two DOT traits, both ancestors of hers. One was "a Revolutionary officer, the son of Sir So and So. Oi course you have heard of him?' with a rising infection on the .of coarse." 1 had not. but saw in the "twinkling of an eye eternal social ostracism would be my portion did 1 dare confess the truth, that all the Revolutionary business" was entirely out of my latitude. But did 1 imply any. thing like that? Not muchl just smiled namely and looked Gas much as possible) appr ecia- tive, and, passed.
 But l really can't say that the afternoon was one of uualloyed pleasure. Everywhere 1 turned, History was thrown in my face. Finally l sat down in a chair, that George Washington had sat iu, and devoutly wished l had his little hatchet to ward those women off. But seriously l was little inclined al first to have a quiet smile all my own over what l was pleased to call wardly) "hero worship" But as l watch ed bevy of fair young girls looking at the various portraits and reading of brave deeds with note of pride iu their voices, and heard one girl who seemed to be the leader say: "Girls, if these especial women were not our ancestors, they are American women, and as such their memo. ry and their brave deeds iu those trying times belong 10 us." I looked again at the faces long since laid in old Mother Earth's bosom, and at the sweet faces of the girls standing near, and the atmosphere of the sweet long ago seemed to peryade the place: the memory of Washington, Lafayette and others with their lives so bravely offered as sacrifice, if need be, to their country, seemed to come out of the past and throb with life anew, and as turned to leave l felt that it would be very easy