Norwich bulletin., 1920-01-21
OLDEST LIVING NATIVE OF NORWICH

to the then new asylum at Middle
 town. He seemed to exercise a pecu-
 liar power over the mentally de-
 ranged. He told with great gusto an
 incident in this connection. He was
 taking an insane sailor to Providence
 and was riding in the smoker. The
 sailor was quiet enough for while,
 but finally deciding to start some
 thing he took an enormous clasp knife from his pocket and began to
 sharpen it on the sole of his shoe.
 The other passenger made an exit
 that was more nasty than dignifed.
 MT. Brown was reading that days
 Bulletin and he called the mans at
 tention to an article in it. Whend tile man reached for the paper he laid
 the knife vn the arm of the seat and
 Mir. Brown took it. When the train
 crew arrived, armed with clubs and
 ready to battle with the mad man they found the sailor calmly reading
 The Bulletin and MT. Brown calmly smoking.
 Tn spite of his advanced years Mir.
 Browns mind is remarkably clear He offered to multiply in his head any two numbers The Bulletin represen-
 tative chose to give him while the representative did it on paper. This looked pretty good to said represen- tative, but Mir. Brown presented him with the answer almost before he had time to write the numbers down. This fact is the more remarkable
 considering the little schooling that
 Mir. Brown received. He attended grammar school in Lebanon, walking four miles each way to get to the
 school. He had one year of high school work in the high school which was the forerpnner of the Academy. It was located Ion School street and at the time when MT. Brown attended
 had sixty pupils. all boys. George W. Standish was principal of the school at that time.
 As a boy MT. Brown wanted to go to sea but his father changed his mind fer him l:oi &1ch at that tima was l naEeli r@o:e of q se 2 port than It ,,rts- ent and one of the whaling vessels which hailed from there offered MT. Brown a full seaman's share tone seventy fourtE) of the catch, if he would go on the voyage and do the ! mathematical cAicalltions incident 10 navigation. He did not go lat ater got a chance to gsatify his desire for exercise of his kno'v acSe If sca1a;sn- ship when the capca'n Of the scEoon- 1 CT taking a Fourth of .TuIy excursion from Norwich to Block Islard allow 1 ed him to take charge of the boat Ex- cursions of this sort were quite the thing in those days, party being { made up for an all day trip. A band
 was usually included and dancing was
 enjoyed on board during the trip. MT. Browns memories of persons and places in Norwich of a half cen
 tury ago are very interesting. He re-
 members seeing while a boy the grandfather of Grover Cleveland who
 kept saversmith's shop in Norwich
 Town and his mother had a set of sil- yer spoons which had been made by him. He distinctly remembers Donald G. Mitchell (Ike Marve1) and William
 A. Slater. To his mind Norwich has
 not changed greatly from what it was in his boynood
 Mir TrowEs health is as good as can be exrected fDr man of his age. I'll ss.s',t N skwiv failing him. n; otnerWlse he Is healthy. He says that he has an excellent appetite. He Is a venerable looking man, partly bald with snow-white hair and beard
 lie seemed very much interested in the happenings in Norwich during the l past few years.