Norwich bulletin. [volume] (Norwich, Conn.) 1895-2011, 1915-04-08
HOW OTHERS VIEW
DIVISION OF NORWICH
To Arms!

TO Arms!
(F'rom the New London Telegraph)
Let it be hoped that the better peo-
pie of Norwich will get out their
scythes and fowling pieces and fight
to the last drop rather than submit
to the enactment of such calami-
tous proposal as that the old town
should be divided!
A household would be no more per-
picked and embarrassed by a sudden
determination of it's several apart
ments to seal their doors against all
intercommunication, to exist hence
forth as if they were Independent
dwellings, in complete denial Of COM
mon roofs and walls, rather than
would the community of Norwich by
where the existence of any has hith-
erto been endured simply from the
force of habit and the sentimental
solace of a common name. If the
town of Norwich had been called Boz
rah it would have been incorporated
within and merged under the city of
Norwich long, long years ago.
Norwich, in Connecticut's conscious
ness, and in the life Of it's own people,
does not consist of a cluster of build
fngs, a group of lots and social set
tlement around or atop of picturesque
Jail Hill. 1t is a mutually dependent,
closely inter-knit ganglia Of neighbor-
hoods that together form a natural
municipal u1l1I, WHICH, IN It's employ
ment of business, social, religious, in
dustrial and philanthropieal enterpris-
es stretches out in all directions about
the head of navigation on the Thames,
far beyond the CONSTRUCTED political
boundaries set in time far back
| ton "Sloopville" was literal then. To-
day the ideal clings only as tradition
that sentimentality has as yet had
hardly the heart to obliterate.
Think, good people, How long
would common sense or self-respect
be content to tolerate that the Back
US hospital, the johnson Home, the
Rock Nook home, and the Sheltering
Arms, for example all distinctively
and vitality Norwich institutions and
all dependent for preservation upon
the skill and readiness Of Norwichs
fire department, should be located in
one town, while the ownership and
responsibility is in another? How
| long would the half of Norwich that
paid for and maintains the city reser-
VolFs and the costly apparatus at
| tendant upon water supply-how long
would that half submit that the other
half should enjoy the exclusive priv
| ilege Of taxing the product of the
formers thrift and foresight?
| Divide the town of Norwich this
year by legislative act, and the next
| assembly will in justice be bound to
| re-assert the indisputable sovereign
| ty of Norwich the city, the people and
| the vital interest, if need be, even to
| the furthest hill in Baltic.
| What have you Bean-hillers and
/ Taftvilleites to gain by standing out
before he world as Bean Hill and Po-
| nemah mills?
Certainly the world beyond you Of
fers no congratulation upon the pros
| pect. We see you no richer than be-
fore in any earthly respect, and I'M
questfonably you will be poorer in
| the heavenly.
| Have respect for yourselves, you
| people of Norwich! Have love for
your children and honor for your for
| bears! Convince Connecticut patriot
| ism that you are worthy it's sympathy
| and support!
| If one community in Connecticut
| can be split and baked by the short
| sighted, selfish and ungrateful inter-
est of a single lesser part, what hope
/ is there for the future of any? 1t
can only be SO split by the connivance
of venality in our legislature.