Norwich bulletin., 1910-10-24
Quaint New ENGLAND Towns.

New England has a grievance. 1t
mas been miscalled quiet and quaint
anu. most insufferably, by Newbury
port of all places, where quietness and
quaitness conspicuously rule. The
New Bedford Standard says:
we have to thank score more or
less OF contemporaries which have
thought they were saying something
nice when they put in that adjective
quaint AS. per example. one which
says that she has been classed among
the quaint municipalities that were
llVlng upon the memory of past glories
and former prosperity But we wish
they would stop it, The adjective does
not apply now, and we are not GER
tain that it ever did. Here and there
may be building or a nook fairly
entitled to the word, but the city. as a
whole is not quaint, nor anything like
quaint, and it is high time to stop"
Yet what objection can there be to
quaintness in a town? If a community
has sacrificed everything else to an
Ole world charm, that is of course I'M
fortunate. But if it is for the most
part alert and modern, it ought to re-
joice in being quaint also, aRd strenu-
ously preserve it's quaintness from
generation to generation.
The word quaint has come to have a
special meaning. Formerly it signified
skill. prudence and wisdom. The die
tionary still defines it as character
lied By ingenuity or art; finely fash
Toned or formed, as a person, work,
plan or the like; skilfully wrought;
elegant, graceful Its contemporary
significance, however. is summed up
in the phrase, old ia shioned attrac-
tiveness." Is New Bedford sensitive
on such a point that? Does it OBJ
ject to being what the artists call
1af fol- No. 10, n sd
with checkerboard streets. barn1il<e
business buildings, bare and dreary
factories? Boston is, in many of its
aspects, quaint, and the true Boston
ian is T<oud of the fact. Portsmouth
reishes its quaintness and would not
willingly part with it. The quaintness
>of colonial Newport is an added at
traction to that fashionable and mod
ern summer resort. Providence. ~ a
rapidly growing manufacturing town,
the second city in New England. re-
joices in such dignified memorials of
its earlier days as Vet remain-the
long brick row OF South Water street
the alleys and gangways that speak of
vanished commercial era, the fine old
mansions of the East Side with their
carved dOorWayS and graceful pillars
1t is to the credit of New Bedford
that it has shaken off its old-time
slumber and become a busy place. Its
gam OF go DtT cent III DODuid l1OH III
the last ten years is highly gratifying.
showing as ii does that the old whal-
ing town does not rely upon it's an
Gent memories for recognition and
distinction. But numerical growth is
only one element in the development
of a city. Is New Bedford increa sing
commensurately in beauty. in healthful
conditions of living, in all those ways
that make for the betterment- of a
community? There is no intrinsic rea-
son for satisfaction in the indefinite
multiplication of sordid streets, dis
tressCul tenements and pale and peak
ed citizens.
Any town that is quaint should con-
graduate itself upon the fact. But,
says New Bedford, no modern town
wishes TO be called quiet. Not in the
sense intended. But one of the great
banes OF city existence today is ! it's
notes.-the clang of vehicles, the
crash of "a myriad of ambitious and
enterprising interests. New York is a
twentieth century Babel: the metro
politan car is assailed with ever in
creasing force b. the insistent blow
and ring and metal. Night and day
the rush and roar continue. Perhaps
some ingenious generation in the flu
ture will devise means by which pros
perty and quiet may go hand in hand.
Until that time arrives. the imputation
Of quietness may serve to irritate
busy town. But the opposite picture.
lr fruitful noise and hustle is not
wholly alluring--Provfdence Journal.