Evening star., 1936-02-09

j Greenfield Village, which in
its quiet, restful and alto
gether charming aspect and in the
unhurried calm Of its daily activities
is almost the complete antithesis Of
all that is commonly associated with
great modern industries and the noisy
traffic of great modern cities.
To be sure Greenfield Village has
its industries, but they are typical Of
the industries of early American COM
munities-an old-fashioned mill in
which fine flour is ground by old
fashioned machines, carding mill,
lumber mills, silk mill, foundries, ma
chine shops, glass-making plant,
coopers shop, smithy, shoemakers'
shops and other modest structures in
which the trades and crafts of the
American pioneers still are practiced
and in the way the pioneers prac-
ticed them a century or more ago
And Greenfield Village has its busy
vehicular traffic, but 1t Is not OF the
sort that involves control by blinking
traffic lights and unblinktng traffic
policemen. Horse-drawn carriages (or
in season. sleighs) Of many types anc
periods, with red-faced coachmen in
the authentic motley Of their ancient
calling, pre-empt the pleasant, tree
bordered carriage roads. No motor
care are permitted in Greenfield Viii
lage. A stream-lined motor car in
Christie street." with its lampposts
of the type comic artists once de-
lighted to depict in the fond embraces
of silk-hatted jewellers, would be as
incongruous as a Greenfield Village
hanson cab in a line of limousines
carrying silk hated diplomatists to a
White House reception.
THREE HUNDRED AND FIFTY
THOUSAND persons visited the
village during 1935-and rode in its
horse-drawn conveyances. This wDs
a hundred thousand more than the
year before-three times as many as
in 1888, when Henry Ford first opened
its gates to the public.
They found much beside the quaint
carriages and the little industries to
interest, instruct, entertain ard de-
light them. The century-old Clinton
Inn, with its old-fashioned parlors,
Spring flooded ball room, generous
kitchen and tap room; the Chapel OF
Martha Mary, typical Colonial mon
sectarian) church; the Town Hall; the
Scotch Settlement one-room school
houses; the Waterford country store,
with its curious stock in-trade of a
bygone era; the tin type gallery; the
l33-year-old combination post Office
and pharmacy; the ancient hand fire
engine house; the old stone mill; the
pioneer Michigan log cabin and vari-
GUS other dwelling places typical of
their periods.
Besides being busy American vii
lage transplanted from an earlier time
to our own, it might be called, though
the term is slightly misleading, me-
mortal park to hallow the names of
many great Americans
In this memorial park" few per-
petual fires actually burn; one lighted
by Thomas A. Edison during the cele-
bration in the Village of Lights Col
den Jubilee; another, lighted by the
then President Hoover in memory Of
Abraham Lincoln; a tilird, lighted by
a descendant of Stephen Foster when
the memorial cottage to Americas s
greatest bard was dedicated last Sum-
mer. But its monuments are not in
the form of tombs and statues and
marble shafts. They are houses and
shops, laboratories and workrooms in
which the men they honor lived and
labored, and they are as nearly in theil
original state, both as to appearance
and contents, as infinite study, labor,
care, patience and money could make
them.
Most important of the memorial
groups is "Menlo Fark,' a precise
reproduction of the buildings used by
Thomas Edison at Menlo Park, N. j.,
during the most fruitful decade Of his