Tensas gazette., 1915-07-30

Brown Co.
We were three-a visiting Englishmen, the
Artist, and Antiquary. says Mr.. Bacon. The Artist
and Antiquary were the gossping guides; the
Englishment the guided. The Englishman would
do" Old Boston exclusively. He had done" the
blend Of the Old and New. and now would bark
back to the Old and review 1t in lesurely strolls
among its landmarks. He had asked the Artist
and Antiquary to pilot him companonably and
they would meet his wishes. and gladly. for the
personal conducting of q stranger SO saturated
with Old Boston lore as he appeared to be
could not be other than agreeable.
Beyond the few measured historic memorials.
the landmarks he especially would seek were
many Of them long ago annihilated in those
speated marches Of progress or of improvement
common to all growing cities. or effaced in the
manifold markings over of the topography of the
Old Town. than which none other in Christendom
has undergone more. Still. If not the identical
things, the sites Of select number of them could
be identified for him, and their story or legend
Tehearsed. while the Artists pencil would repro
duce yet remaining bits Of the Old jumbled with
the New.
Properly our initial ramble was within the mar
row bounds Of the beginnings of the Puritan cap
ital, the metropolis of the Wilderness" hanging
on the harbor's edge of the little "pear-shaped,"
behilled peninsula. for which the founders those
"well-educated. polite persons of good estate"
took Old Boston in England for its name and
London for its model The Lincolnshire borough
ON the Fitham was to be its prototype only in
name. The founders would have their capital
town be to New England in its humble way what
London was to Old England. So Boston was
.builded. likeness in miniature to London.
This London look and Old England aspect, we
temarked remained to and through the Revolu-
.tion: and in q shadowy way remains today, as our
guest would see. 1t was indeed a natural family
likeness. for, as the record shows. Boston from
thoroughly English community in the New World.
There was no infusion of foreign element of
consequence until the end Of the colony period
and the close Of the seventeenth century. Then
sthe French Huguenots had begun to appear and
mingle with the native Puritans But while early
IN the province period this element became sufi-
.cient In nunIuugs to set up a church Of its own
and to- bring about some softening of the old
ausferities of the Puritan town life. it did not
iulpair the English stamp. These French Hugue-
snots easily assimilated In the community which
8 welcomed them, and in time these competent
artisans and merchants. the Bowdoins. the
Faneuils, Chardons. Sigourneys. Reveres. Moli-
neuxes Greenleafs. became almost as English or
American English. the rest. Nor was the
stamp impaired by the infusion Of Scotch and
Irish into the colony in increasing numbers dur
ing the latter half Of the seventeenth and the
early eighteenth centuries; nor by the floating
population Of various nationalities naturally
drawn to a port of consequence. as Boston was,
the chief in the colonies from the outset. These
noaters coming and going merely lent variety
and picturesqueness-or brought temporary trOu-
ble-to the sober streets Up to the Revolution
the population remained homogeneous, with the
dominating influences distinctivey of English
lineage. When with the Revolution the English
yoke was thrown of and the "Bostoneers' tore
; down every emblem of royalty and every sign of
Tory and burned them in huge bonfire In
front of the old statehouse and afterward re-
named King street State" and Queen street
y s'Court" they could not blot out its English mark
And well into the nineteenth century, when In
1922 Boston emerged from town to city, the
g population was still "singularly homogeneous"
A came to cityhood slowly and somewhat re-
luctantly after repeated attempts. the first early
I'm the colony period. Edmund Quincy in his
Fascinating life OF his distinguished father Josiah
e Quincy. writing Of the municipality in 1923 dur
st1ne Josiah Quincys first administration rs mayor
The was the city second mayor-observes: THE
4 rreat Irish and German emigration had not then
( oet In The city was eminently English in its
i character and appearance and probably no town
a. its size in England had a population of such
I unmixed English descent the Boston OF that
<Sdayr II was Anglis ipsis Anglior-more English
>&han the English themselves. The inhabitants OF
Z, New England at that time we're descended, with
xeearcey any admixture of foreign blood. from the
e kpnrifan emigration OF the seventeenth century
& A the founders and settlers brought with them
<4S3 their beloved old home characteristics and
Sld transplant them, as was possible, in their
kv home so we find their earliest crooked
= ~ streets' with old London names. So the
81 or1ier seeisl'life grim though it was with its
ur3fakt1l tinge Is seen to have been old English
80 enn1lsr and narrower way.