Indiana daily times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1914-1922, 1920-10-25
TOOK PUBLICITY
MAN TO MAKE
p. REVERE HERO
And That Press Agent Was
Henry Wadsworth
LongfellOw.
RIDE ONE OF DUTIES
Bv FREDERIC J. HAsKIN.

city ever Odu uONe Satisfactorily HCtN'
The prime requisite for fame is a good
press agent. Revere was fortunate in
having Longfellow.
Before Longfellow wrote up the mid
night ride in beautiful verse, Paul Revere
was no more a popular hero than Dawes
or Prescott, the two men who accom-
panied him on the now famous adventure
During his lifetime, Revere had made
name as a prosperous merchant and
mechanic and a trustworthy patriot.
He had the nicknar1es of "Bold Revere"
and sthe Mercury Of the Revolution" and
be was a well known character around
Boston. But when he died nobody
4 thought he would ever figure as a statue
in a public square, or that people would
nav to see the room where he worked and
the continuance with which he stirred his
toddy.
Revere had been dead ferty years when
Longfellow happened on an account OF
the ride By which a man named PAU Re
we're warned the patriots around Boston
that the British we're marching on Con
cord, April Is, 1T75.
II was only one of the many messages
which Revere carried, and it was not
more important than some OF his other
Government missions, but the details at
tracted the poet and by touching them
m bit he produced narrative that
was to nut Paul Revere's name and pic
ture in every American history.
In the main, Longfellow's story stands
unchallenged.
A few liberties with fact have been
proved. such as that Revere had the sig
nal lanterns hung in the North Church
for the benefit of certain other colonisfs
In case he was captured. and did not
- liant = m
the other side Of the river TO catch the
signal before starting his ride
POEM, CORNER STONE
OF FAME.
LongfelIow's poem proved the corner
stone TO Reveres fame.
His career and souvenirs of his exist
enee eagerly were unearthed.
Once he was discovered. be caught the
popular fancy.
Now everywhere you turn in Boston
and thereabouts you ind that the intre
Did Paul has been there first and made
the spot famous.
The house where he lived from ITO
1sc3 still stands as a historic landmark
IN the old North Square.
1t is the oldest house in Boston, #
not in the State Of Massachusetts,.
It was more than 100 years old when
Revere bought it.
Then 1t was regarded a mansion, and
a good example Of the colonial country
house modified to fit a city lot.
Now it is jostled by tenement struc-
lures and looks out on q swarm Of Ital-
fans, Russians and Slavs.
The contrast Of the old. diguihed
wooden house and the little Italians who
jabber school-hook history at you IN
chorus and then hold up their hands
for g nickel Is sufficiently picturesque
to brighten the eye of the. most faded
traveller.
It was from this residence that Revere
went out to his ride.
The spots where he got on his horse,
was captured by the British and in other
ways made history, have been located
carefully and labeled with nice, perma
aent tablets.
A town within committing distance Of
Boston has been named for him.
The so-called Coney Island of New Eng
land has long been Revere Beach, though
now for some obscure reason 1t is re-
ferred to as Crescent Beach
II this change Of title ever comes to
the Official notice of Revere's most fer
vent admirers there probably will be a
controversy and editorials about 1t, and
all possible tones OF patriotic invective
until his name is again on the electric
lights and the hotel stationery.
Revere is memoriaIized in Boston by a
statue representing him as he draws rein
to arouse some coionist to the danger Of
the approaching British.
- large mural painting in the State
house on Beacon Hill shows him in full
gallep, shouting his message to a couple
In a doorway.
You get a different glimpse Of his va
ried career when you see the old frigate
Constitution-Old Ironsides-anchored in
Charlestown Navy Yard, for Revere had
the Governments contract for the brass
and copper work when she was begun
IN 1894
HIS NAME
IS EVERYWHERE.
Besides all these reminders of Revere's
fame there are a host Of shops, fac
tories and buildings that have taken
his name, and a society has been or
ganized to keep his memory always
green and to maintain his home as a
place Of historic interest.
The average American, outside of
Massachusetts,, knows Paul Revere as
3 man who rode to warn somebody In
an American war
The people around here, brought up on
Paul Revere, know him as one OF Bos-
toms most ardent patriots during the
Revolution, one of the ring leaders in
the Boston tea party, a copper plate
engrayer, dentist, gold and silver smith,
fnancier, soldier. versemaker, and the
father Of seventeen children.
In all these fields, save that of poet,
Revere's ability was regarded with re-
spect.
His teapots and tankards are much
sought By connoisseurs, not only for
their historic value, but because OF really
Beautiful workmanship.
His career as the first dentist In
Boston is a surprise to many people.
A copy of the Boston Gazette for Sept.
70. 1865, contains this advertisement of
his dental work:
Whereas many persons are so unfor-
tunate as to lose their foreteeth by acct
dent and otherways, to their great dEAl-
ment, not only in looks, but in speak
ing, both In public and private; this il
to inform all such that they may have
them replaced with artificial ones, that
look as well as, the natural and answer
the end Of Speaking TO all intents, by
Paul Revere, goldsmith. near the head
Of DR.. Clarke's wharf Boston"
Fitting artificial teeth was one of Re-
vere's side lines, by which he kept the
crowd of young Reveres comfortably fed
and clothed.
One interesting instance Of his dental
work has come down to us.
Gen. Joseph Warren, who died and
was buried at the Battle of Bunker Hifi.
was later ding I'M IN he borfad o1sa