Evening star., 1911-08-12
At OLD PLYMOUTH
Ancient City Is Typical New
England Village.
LEGENDS ON EVERY SIDE
Romances Attached to Houses and
Even to Trees.
BELL CAST BY PAUL REVERE
Hangs in Oldest Congregational
Church in World-Laws of
the Pilgrims.
LEGENDS ON EVERY SIDE
BELL CAST BY PAUL REVERE
BY WILLIAM r. CURTIS.
| Special Correspondence of The Star and the
Chicago Record Herald.

BY WILLIAM f. CURTIS.
Special Correspondence of The Star and the
Chicago Record Herald.
PLYMOUTH, Mass, July 81, 1911.
The sacred city of Plymouth has about
two thousand inhabitants. and is the Gen.
ter OF a township Of eight thousand. The
houses are SO evenly scattered. and the
township is SO densely populated that it
is impossible for a stranger to identify
the boundaries. He is never out OF sight
OF home and little factories spring up
In most unexpected places. Formerly the
entire population was engaged in fishing,
but when that industry languished they
took to manufacturing. and now have at
Plymouth the largest rope walk in the
world-employing several hundred hands
two woolen and two duck mills. tack
and rivet factory, a stove foundry, boot
and shoe factories and small concerns of
various sorts. The place Is a summer
resort for sober minded and substantial
people. and If there were better hotels it
would be more popular. Large numbers
Of tourists come every summer. and every
American citizen should do so for the
same reason that Mussulmans got to
Mecca.
New England village. with wide shaded
streets and old-fash oned houses, COM
Portable and roomy. surrounded by gar
dcns and often by groves. and the trees
The rows of mighty lindens on both sides
OF North street. 1t Is said, were brought
from England in q raisin box by Col.
George Watson, and Penelope Winslow
set out those which shelter the Winslow
mansion. when she was a girl. There Is
a romance attached to every old house
and to almost every tree. One OF the
largest and finest oaks Is said to have
once been q switch with which an indig-
nant damsel chastised an unwelcome sui
the stick In the ground, where 1t took
root and grew and now stands a monu-
ment to unreduited love.
Fine Example Of Architecture.
The Winslow mansion to which / have
alluded, Is one of the finest examples OF
colonial architecture in New England. Its
frame was made in old England in 1745
and set up there before 1t was shipped.
Every stick in it was brought across the
Atlantic except the shingles. In the love-
ly old drawing room Ralph Waldo Emer-
son was married to his second wife, and,
after the wedding breakfast, 'set forth
In the chaise again, and brought his
bride before sunset to their new home In
Concord, a journey of more than sixty
miles"
The landscape is really beautiful. like
that which surrounds old Plymouth, from
which its name is taken. because. as
everybody knows, that was the last port
at which the Mayflower touched on leav-
Ing the old country. Much OF the charm
attached to modern Plymouth is, due to
the fact that natural conditions have been
allowed to remain unchanged from the
day when the fathers found these shores.
The ancient woods that stretch away for
miles are substantially the same that
stood here at the beginning of the seven
teenth century and from which the PHI
grims cut the logs that went into their
houses. Many of the primeval trees re-
main, and in the center of the village is
the spring which caused them to locate
here. 1t Is now protected by masonry,
and over 1t is an inscription:
Drink here and quench your thirst.
From this spring they drank first
Elder Brewster Spring.
1t is called the Elder Brewster spring.
because 1t was on land allotted to him.
However. the choice Of the site of the
colony was due rather to pressing neces-
stiles than to preference. You must re-
member that the Pilgrims arrived at the
beginning of winter and after spending
six weeks trying to choose location,
they found their provisions failing. and
the captain OF the Mayf1ower. who had
swindled them, was making himself very
disagreeable Hence, they came ashore
and took up their abode beside the spring
whose waters we're SO grateful to them.
The landing was made on the 21st of De-
cember. 1920: nineteen homesteads were
staked out along what Is now Leyden
street. although it did not receive its
name for a hundred years. reservation
was made for common house" near
the center. and cabins were built of logs
cut in the surrounding forest and thatch-
ed with reeds from the surrounding
marshes.
The sites Of several of the cabins have
been identified. including that of the first
meeting house. Its successor. the present
Church Of the Pilgrims. is beautiful
structure. and is the fifth to stand upon
the same site. The first was replaced in
1888 by one that was sufi1cient to accom-
modate the congregation for one hundred
in 1892. and the present was completed in
1897. At the entrance Is tablet bear
ing the following inscription:
1.-The Church Of scroohy Lcyden and the
Mayhower
And Maintained Continuous nM Ministry. :.
In reverent Memory @ eoHsnR Of Its Pilgrim Founders.
This Fifth Meeting House erected 1897
In the steeple nanSS Dell tnat was
cast by Paul Revere.
This is the oldest Protestant Church in
America. 1t Is the oldest Congregational
Church in the world, and its records
have been piously preserved without in
terruption from the days when the wor-
shippers met for worship. in the drawing
room of Elder Brewster's home at
Scrooby Manor. England. Religion and
education were the principal things. and
Harvard College was established less
than six years after the landing OF the
Pilgrims.
Held Guns on Laps.
Attending divine worship was a good