Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-05-30
THE LIBRARY TABLE

degeneration? What Is Puritanism?
Were our Colonial forefathers any more
Puritanical than we are today? Arthur
Train, author, sitting in New York
apartment, 80 stories above the trafic,
watched the night mail for Chicago
"droning west" 1900 feet ebove his
head. He turned on the radio and heard
voice from Washington say: Beyond
question the world has made greater
progress in the last rs years than dur
ing the entire span Of human life be-
fore the Civil War. Imagine how
surprised one OF the old Puritans would
be il he ." His friend shut of the
radio, not being interested in the men,
tai reactions of the old Puritans. But
Arthur Train called: Hold on!
I'd have liked to hear what that chap
was going to say. I'm not sure, when
you come right down to 1t, whether all
these things are SO conclusive as to
progress" A line Of questioning was
started. The next day, Sunday, he
motored to birmingham, Mass, to flnd
the white, wooden, 'Wrenn' meeting
house with narrow green blinds and
tall thin spire, set in the grove Of
NAPLES, where his grandfather had
preached more than a century ago."
This visit was the beginning Of Arthur
Trains book, "Puritan's Progress" He
did not find the old meeting house too
easily. There were too many garages,
gas stations, lunch counters and movie
palaces for him to be able to identify
any of the old landmarks The black
smith shop, the tavern, the few high
stopped stores, the brick bank and the
green common of his childhood had all
disappeared. The traffic cop did not
know where the old Baptist meeting
house was. But finally he found It,
lonely on its tree-covered knoll. with
the ancient horse sheds still standing in
the background. In his early chapters
Mr.. Train reconstructs the environ
ments Of his eat-grandfather,
his great grandfather and his grand
father. all Massachusetts men. The
great-grandfather, Samuel Train, jr.,
was a Minute man" in IT'S. Though
obviously proud of his ancestor. Mr..
Train wonders about his real life and
thoughts. Il wonder how much my
great-grandfather Samuel, when he
marched 10 Lexington, knew, what it
was all about. How far he thought of
himself as striking blow for liberty
rather than as grabbing the chance to
at a red coat. l wonder if his con-
science smote him when from behind
the security of stone wall he plugged
one of the retreating Britishers in the
back. I wonder If he had a conscience
I wonder If he really knew or cared
anything about taxation without repre-
sei-tation, or merely took things as they
came and asked the squire or the min
lster how he should vote" Samuel
Train, ST., the great-great-g grandfather,
was a politician and perpetual Office
holder in the town of Weston. IL miles
from Boston. LAS an officeholder
Samuel Train, ST., seems to have been
a sort of hardy perennial. for he was in
turn surveyor, fence viewer, 'wardin,
constable and selectman, and as soon
as one term ended he started in on an
other His favorite Office was that of
constable, but although his salary as
such amounted to only 20 shillings per
annurn. he made fairly good thing out
Of his perquisites and fees for warning
town meetings at 4 Shillings each
making rates CASUALLY spelled 'rats)
and carrying paupers out of town. ~
He held three salaried Offices at once
and managed to make the taxpayers
pay for private path leading from the
highway to his house in the woods. In
other words, he was rather a modern
man, Puritan though he technically was
Mr. Trains grandfather, Charles Train,
was born in 1893. When he was three
days old he was taken out of bed,
bundled up and carried half a mile to
the unheated meeting house, where,
after the Rev. Kendall had cracked the
ice in the font, he was duly baptized u
Mr.. Train does not attempt to dispute
NJ fr1 14 1f It'll
1888, but comments that ANY baby
who escaped the dangers of sepsiS at
birth from the dirty fingers of the sage
femme, or of pneumonia at the hands
Of the clergyman the Sunday after, had
fair chance to survive the epidemics
that inevitably followed" The infant
Charles Train survived all of these, be-
came the Baptist minister whose church
stood among the naples and elms of
birmingham. and lived to the age of SO.
He became temporarily unpopular with
his constituency Che was also a member
OF the State Legislature) because of two
vehement temperance sermons which
he preached. Mr.. Train wonders what
his attitude toward prohibition would
be were he still alive
Conclusions, especially if they have
any quality of soundnesS, are more
difficult to achieve than a series of in
teresting comparative pictures of man.
ners and customs. Throughout "Puri-
tan's Progress" Mr. Train is alert for
comparisons between the lives led by his
ancestors of three generations and the
life of himself and his children today.
He is continually asking the questions
Are we so different from them?" lis
our life in essentials so different from
theirs?" Were the Puritans really very
Puritanical?" Are we not Just as
Puritanical as they were?" "Is it not
possible to match all the shocking
things in preSent-day life with things
equally shocking in the periods Of my
three ancestors?" And finally, Has
there been progress in essentials-that
is, has the sum total of human happi-
ness been increased?" or, on the other
hand. Has there been retrogression %
Mr.. Trains opinion seems decidedly to
be that there has been progress. that
he would himself prefer to live in the
world of today rather than in the world
of any one of his three ancestors. He
says. "At the risk of the charge of
light mindedness I give 1t as my opin-
ion that the features of early Puritan
life and character most detrimental to
human happiness were the conscious
ness of sin. absence of divorce, impris-
onment for debt, and indigestion. .
The irritation of the Puritan eastro-in-
testinal tract by unwholesor11e, poorly
cooked, insufficient and inadeouateIy
masticated food might account for
many things. such as lack of tenderness
toward children, hershneSs toward evil
doors, and an acid outlook on life
Especially would it tend to accentuate
an individual sense of sin" Mr.. Trains
concluding sentence is, Say not thou
What is the cause that the former days
were better than these? For thou cost
not inquire wisely concerning this"
y X X
The Soviet government has decided tr
tell its own story of the five-year plan
perhaps because the story as told BY
many visitors to Russia and many non.
visiting economists is never twice alike
New Russia's Primer" put out as COM