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^arbarb CoUege Itbrarp 



FROM 



Ml88..Penelfip.ft...Noy.9.9. 




Shepard MemoiUI Chuich, 



CAMBRIDGE SKETCHES 



BY 



CAMBRIDGE AUTHORS, 



EDITED BY 



EsTELLE M. H. Merrill, 

"JEAN KINCAID," 
With preface by Dr. Alexander McKenzie. 



* 



^ 



. ,v .. •*. * 



* * » 



PUDUSHBD BY THB 

Cambridge Young Women's Christian Association. 








Copyright 1896, 

Cambridge Young Women's 

Chrisi'ian Association. 




S 1 -ieJs'/ 

The Pinkham Press 

BOSTON 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



Some Thyngbs of Ye Olden Tyme, 

Dr, Alexander McKenuie 3 

Newtowne (jtf/fn^/) . . . Sara Hammond Palfrey 10 

The Oldest Road in Cambridge, 

Rev, Theodore F, IVhgAt 13 

Tory Row Adeline A, Douglass 25 

Waifs (verse) . Mrs, Mary Thacher Higginson 40 

Historic Churches and Homes of Cambridge, 

Constance Grosvenor Alexander 45 

Maples in Autumn (verse) ^ 

Susan Louisa Higginson 62. 

Some Cambridge Schools of the Olden Time, 

Miss S. S. Jacobs 6$' 

Recollections of My Childhood, 

Mrs, Joanna Houghton Clark yj 

A Guide to Harvard College . . A/ice M. Jose 87 

Some Cambridge Landmarks, Henrietta S, Leavitt 

The Peabody Museum 117 

The Agassiz Museum 125 

Harvard Observatory . ^ 133. 

The Botanic Garden 143. 

Clark^s Observatory 149 

The Cragie House (z/^j^) . Charlotte Fiske Bates 156 

Sweet Auburn and Mount Auburn, 

Mrs, Caroline F, Orne 159* 

Idlesse (verse) Mrs, Caroline F, Orne 164 

The River Charles, Mrs, Emma Endicott Marean 167 

vit 






vill TABLE OF CONTENTS, 

Morning in Venice (verse), 

Afrs, Jafie Newell Moore 174 

Six 0*Clock in Harvard Square, 

Eleanor Parker Fiske 177 

The Fairy Coursers {verse), 

Thomas IVeutworth Higginson 180 

A Chapter op Radcliffe College, 

Arthur Gilnian, Regent of Radcliffe College 183 

Life at Radcliffe . . , Martha Trimble Bennett 199 

Student Life at Radcliffe . . . Sarah Yerxa 205 

The Home op Radcliffe Collicge, 

Ada Ruth Kinsman 213 

The Public Library (t/^j/) . Charlotte Fiske Bates 218 

The Line of Light (verse) . Almira L, Hayward 218 

Town and Gown .... Edmund A, Whitman 221 

Choice {verse) . . Mrs, Efnma Endicott Marean 226 

Cambridge as a No-License City, Frank Foxxroft 229 

The Charities of Cambridge, 

Elizabeth H, Houghton 237 

The Thing most Needed in Cambridge, 

Mrs, Susan A, Gilman 251 

The Sisterhood of Women {verse), 

Mrs, Estelle M. H, Merrill {Jean Kincaid) 256 

The Cantabrigia Club Grace S, Rice 259 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



Shepard Memorial Church Frontispiece. 

Cragie House (from "The Boston Picture Book"), 29 

Elmwood (from "The Boston Picture Book") . . 35 

The First Church 44 

The Old Parsonage of First Church .... 49 

Kev. Dr. Holmes' House 53 

The Harvard Gate (from "Souvenir of the Hub"), 86 

Harvard College Views: John the Orangeman, 
College Buildings, Etc. (from " The Boston 

. Picture Book " ) 90 

Gore Hall (Harvard Library) 94 

Appleton Chapel 97 

Memorial Hall (from " Souvenir of the Hub") . loi 

Interior op Memorial Hall 105 

Dining Room, Memorial Hall . 109 

Th^ Grave of Agassiz (from the Cambridge Tribune)^ 124 

Harvard Observatory 132 

Fay House, Home of Radcliffe Cqllege . . . 212 

The Washington Elm (from "The Boston Picture 

Book'-) 215 



ix 



PREFACE. 

This is not a guide book in the ordinary sense of that 
term. But it does take the reader into the life of Cambridge 
and makes known to him something of the past and the 
present of the town. Any one should feel more at home here 
after reading these pages, and he can readily find where his 
life might be joined to the common life and be enriched by it 
while he imparts to it of his own force. 

The extension of the town has been steady and rapid. 
The hamjet which held so large a place in the colonial life 
has constantly advanced to the city whose influence is felt 
through the land. To those who have watched this growth, 
and shared in it, it has been of great interest to mark the 
appearance of new institutions, of new forms of work, of new 
endeavors for the general advantage. The city must have 
been poorer than she knew before the Library and Hospital 
were built, and the societies formed which are now so 
prominent and so efficient for good. 

It is right that here a prominent place should be given to 
the organization under whose direction this book has been 
prepared, and is now given to the world. The Cambridge 
Young Women^s Christian Association deserves the place 
which it holds in the confidence and esteem of all who know 
its work, which would be more widely known and admired 
but for the modesty of those who are doing it. The number 
of workers is not very large, their rooms are not conspicu- 
ous, there is no parade of methods or results, there are few 
appeals for money, so that the Association is less before the 
eyes and in the minds of the people than it ought to be. It 
has all the quietness which marks everything that is done in 
Cambridge, and this is naturally enhanced by the womanly 
reserve which is content to abide in stillness and work with- 
out observation. This is admirable and no one would change 
it. But the Association should be better known, which is 

xi 



xii PREFACE. 

another way of saying it should have more honor among 
men, and should be enabled to enlarge and perfect its work. 

It would be difficult to overestimate the importance of the 
associations for young men. When these had proved their 
efficiency, it was certain that similar organizations for young 
women would be formed. The spirit and wisdom which 
created the earlier form of service were sure to advance to this 
which was equally needed and equally promising. The influ- 
ence of the association for young women is manifold and in 
every way It is helpful. The young woman who comes to 
the city and is a stranger here, can find one place which be- 
longs to her. There she will meet others who can direct her 
to a home and assist her in beginning her new life. She can 
visit the rooms which have been opened for her when she 
will, and find there a quiet seat, with books and papers and 
friends. She can learn under good teachers that which will 
be useful to her. She can study books if she will. She can 
learn to sing. "^She will be taught to cut a dress, to trim a 
hat, to make a loaf of bread. She can study the Bible and 
receive wise religious counsel. She can find amusement for 
a leisure hour. To the many these things are proffered — to 
those who have homes and to strangers within the gates. 

Younger girb can learn the simple processes of domestic- 
life for the benefit of their households, and for their furnish- 
ing as they go out into the larger world. Indeed, so far as 
may be, the Association offers a home with its security, its 
refinement, its friendship, its instruction, its mutual assis- 
tance. With a liberal constitution, broad enough for all 
who call themselves Christians, the women of many churches 
of many names join in these labors of love and joy. 

I am left free to say what I will in this introduction. But 
lam glad to commend this Association to the active and gen- 
erous confidence of all who have time which they can use 
in its work, or money which they can give for its enlarge- 
ment. 

The Association should have a house of its own. It 
should be a building large enough and good enough for the 
admirable work which is to be done. It should have ample 



PREFACE. xiil 

rooms and all the appliances which it can use. Happy is that 
person who can thus endow an institution of immediate and 
increasing beneficence. 

While the reader wanders along these waiting pages will 
he kindly think upon these things ? 

Alexander McKenzie. 

8th October, 1895. 



The Book Committee of the Cambridge Young Women^s 
Christian Association wishes to thank most cordially the 
writers who have contributed to this volume, often at great 
personal inconvenience to themselves; the publishers of 
"The Boston Picture Book," "Souvenir of the Hub," 
and the Tribune for cuts loaned ; the Cambridge newspapers 
for notices so freely given ; the advertisers, and all others 
who have aided in the endeavor to make a literary and finan- 
cial success of ** Cambridge Sketches." 



SOME THYNGES OF YE OLDEN 

a 

TYME. 



. I 



Some Thynges of ye Olden 

Tyme. 



By Dr. ALEXANDER McKBNZIE. 



THE ancient records of the First Church in Cam- 
bridge are very interesting but are not a com- 
plete account of all that was done here in the 
early days. The church was founded in 1636 and 
the oldest record is very near that date. There are 
some items of interest which not only tell us what 
was done, but give us a glimpse of some of the meth- 
ods of that period. 

In 1638 Roger Harlakenden died. The record 
spells the name Harlakingdon — they were not very 
particular about their spelling in those days. He 
left a legacy of £20 to the church. This appears to 
have been paid in 1640 by Herbert Pelham, who 
married the widow Harlakenden, in a young cow. 
For three summers the milk was given to different 
persons — ^brother Towne, brother John French, sis- 
ter Manning; and in 1643 ^^^ ^^^ ^^ " yeelded to 
Elder Frost for his owne," but her value had shrunk 
to £5. 

This is only one sign of the care which the church 
had for the poor, and it illustrates, also, the sim- 
plicity of the times. 

Here are a few records of disbursements : — 

Given to our brother Hall toward the rearing of £ s. d. 

hi^ house that was blown down . .100 

For the refreshing of brother Sill in time of faynt- 

nes sent him 4 pints of sack .024 

8 



4 CAMBRIDGE SKETCHES. 

Paid to my brother Cane forgoinge to Salem with £ s. d. 
a message to Mr. Philips when he was about to 

come to us 500 

Payd my brother Towne for paynes taken more 
than ordinary in making defne the meetinge 
house in the time of its repayringe . . o 12 o 
Payd for 9 times going to call tiHe church together 

at 8d. a time 060 

Given to our sister Grissell in a hard time . .050 
Sent our'Sister Manning a leg of mutton .011 

Payd Mr. Palsgrave for physic for our sister Albone 026 
Payd for a goat for goody Albone to goodman 

Prentiss .0110 

Payd to John Shepheard for a fower gallon bot- 

tell to bring sack for the sacrament .030 

Payd to Mrs. Danforth in her husband^s absence, 
in silver, the sume of 25 shillinn for wine, 
sugar and spice at the bunall of Nlrs. Chauncy 
who deseaced the 24 of the 11.67 • • .150 

In 1668 the second minister of the church, the 
"matchless Mitchel" died. He had succeeded to the 
church and the parsonage and had married the 
widow of his predecessor. He died in "an extreme 
hot season" and there is the record of the payment 
"to goodman Orton of Charlestown for making a 
carpaluing to wrap Mr. Mitchell and for doing some- 
thing to his -coiling that way 4s." This wrapping 
was of cloth covered with tar. When the grave was 
opened a few years ^go some remains of the shroud 
were found, and a qtiantity of tansy which had been 
used as a disinfectant. Thus the work of goodman 
Orton again saw the light. 

One of the delicate matters in those days was the 
arranging of people and their names in the proper 
order. Not until 1773 were the names in the Har- 
vard Catalogue placed in alphabetical order. The 
rank of the family to which the sttident belonged 
determined his place in the list. The first class starts 
in this way: — 

"Benjamin Woodbridge, A. M. Oxford 1648; 
S. T. D. Oxford. 



SOME THYNOES OF YE OLDEN TYME. 6 

"George Downing, Knight 1660, Baronet 1663; 
Ambass. to Netherlands from Cromwell to Charles 
II; M. P." 

Here we have the honors acquired by the sons 
added to those which thev had inherited. 

In the meeting house, when the town was estab- 
lished in an orderly way, a proper regard was had 
to the position of the families and individuals. 
Often the house was finished by degrees. At first 
benches would be put in. Then some one who 
wished a place of his own would procure the deed 
of a space on the floor, some six feet square, and 
on this he would erect a pit or pew. He was re- 
quired to keep this in repair and also "all the glass 
against it." 

When there was no such private arrangement a 
committee assigned the seats after their own discre- 
tion and according to the rank of the familvi or their 
age or property. This was called "dignifying" the 
house. There is the record in 1658, "That the 
elders, deacons and selectmen for the time being 
shall be a constant and settled power for regelating 
the sitting of persons in the meeting hous^ from 
time to time as need shall require." In 1662 we 
come upon the work of the committee in such direc- 
tions as these: — 

"Bro. Ri. Jackson's wife to sit there where sister 
Kempster was wont to sit. 

"Mrs. Upham with her mother, Ester Sparhawke, 
in the place where Mrs. Upham is removed from. 

"Joanna Winship in the place where Ester Spar- 
hawke was wont to sit'' — ^and sd on. 

The people had great respect for the meeting 
house and its services, and gave to these their best 
thought. The first buildings were rude, but so were 
the houses of the people; Though the buildirigfs 



OAMBRIDQE 8KBTCHBS. 

were rude, the preachers were scholars of dignity 
and learning. The first meeting house in Boston 
had mud walls and a thatched roof, but there John 
Cotton preached who had come from St. Botolph's 
in old Boston, one of the most stately churches in 
England and large enough to hold five thousand 
people. There was a difference in the two houses, 
but it was the same minister, only he was larger 
grown by coming into' this wilderness. 

Probably the first meeting house here in New- 
towne — for that was the original and appropriate 
name, — ^was built of logs. There was an order that 
no man should build his chimney of wood nor cover 
his house with thatch. This was for protection 
against fire. Afterwards there was an order that the 
meeting house should be repaired "with a four 
square roofe, and covered with shingle.'^ 

Tlie name "meeting" house was appropriate, for 
the house was used for the general gathering of the 
people. An early writer who visited the Colony 
says, "The public worship is in as fair a meeting 
house as they can provide, wherein, in most places, 
they have been at great charges.'^ 

If we should go into the first meeting house here 
we should find rather a rough room, divided by a 
central passage and furnished with benches. The 
men would be on one side and the women on the 
other. Perhaps we should notice that some of the 
men had muskets, and that they sat at the end of the 
bench — a custom which has been kept up though 
the carnal weapons have disappeared. A plain 
desk, a stand, within a railing, was the pulpit. After- 
wards, when the ptople were able to arrange things 
as they wished, the pulpit was a high, elaborate 
structure, with a sounding board. 

The ruling elders sat below the pulpit, and the 



SOME THTN0B8 OF TB OLDEN TTME. 7 

deacons a little lower still, fadng' the congrega- 
tion. Tht boys had a place by themselves in 
the gallery, with a tithing man with a long pole to 
keep them in order. In 1668 Thomas Fox was 
"ordered to look to the youth in time of public wor- 
ship.'*,' ..,*.,. 

The meeting house which was built here in 1632 
had a bell, but there is a town record in 1646 of 
"fifty shillings paid unto Thomas Langhome for his 
service to the town in beating the drum these two 
years past." Perhaps the sound of the bell did not 
reach far enough, and the drummer was » sent 
through the settlement to summon the people. The 
congregation Came together as early as hine o'clock 
on' Sunday mornings and about two in the afternoon. 
They came on iOot or on horseback, for the most 
part. The 'town provided' "a convenient horse- 
block at the meetitig-house, and causeway to the 
door." 

The Service in the church consisted of prayer, 
singing, reading and the expounding of the Scrip- 
tures. It was generally thought improper to read 
the Scriptures without an exposition; th^y called it 
"dumb reading."' Thete \<ras also a sefmon by the 
pastor or teacher. « .A ministci^si authority did not 
extend beyond his own congregation, so that when 
one was in an6ther matiV pulpit it was common for 
the ruling elders to say to him, "If this present 
brother hath any word of exhortation for the people 
at'this time, in the name of God let him say on." 
This "saying on" was called "prophesying." It 
was thought that an hour was the proper length for 
the sermon, and an hour-glass stood on the pulpit 
to make sure of good measure; but sometimes the 
preacher would turn this at the end of his hour. 
They facetiously called this "taking another glass.** 



8 CAMBBIDOB SKXTCHES. 

Every Sabbath afternoon there was a contribution. 
One of the deacons stood in his place before the 
people and said, "Brethren of the congregation, 
now there is time left for contribution; wherefore, 
as God hath prospered you, so freely offer." Then 
the people passed up to the deacons' seat with their 
offerings. "The magistrates and chief gentlemen 
went first, then the elders, then all the congregation 
of men, and most of them that are not of the church, 
all single persons, widows, and women in absence 
of their husbands." Sometimes they brought money 
and sometimes other things. 

The singing was without accompaniment They 
adhered to the words of the prophet, "I will not hear 
the melody of thy viols," and they rejected the idola- 
trous performance with comet and dulcimer which 
Nebuchadnezzar delighted in. In the first century 
there were seldom more than five tunes, and the 
hymn was read line by line and sung in instalments. 
In 1640 the Bay Psalm Book was printed. One 
verse will show the character of the poetry: — 

•* The Lord to mec a Shepbeard is, 

Want therefore shall not I, 
Hee in the folds of tender-grasse, 

Doth cause mee down to lie ; 
To waters calme me ffently leads 

Restore my soule ooth nee ; 
He doth in paths of riehteousnes 

For his name^s sake lead mee.** 

Als we look back to those times it seems as if life 
must have been dull and hard. It would be so to us 
if we were placed in it, but if we had been bom into 
it it would not have been so. Those who had come 
from England felt the difference between the old 
world and the new ; but they did not look for much 
comfort in the wildemess, and whatever they lacked, 
they had themselves and their books and their own 



SOME TIIYNGKfi OF YE OLDEN TTME. 

courage and faith. They had good books. 
Shakespeare died in 1616 and Bacon in 1626; their 
works were new and fresh, and there were other 
writers of great interest and worth. The Puritans 
did not spend much money on sports, but they spent 
money on schools, and they built a college. We 
commonly see their faces in repose and they look 
stern; but they had their glad hours when men 
smiled and children played. Home, love, marriage, 
and the joys which these terms suggest were here. 
The woods and streams gave the best of recreation 
to the boys when their tasks were finished. The 
girls had their own ways of amusing themselves, 
as ingenious as they are now. 

It was not a time of devotion to small . things. 
The men and women who left the land of their birth 
to make a new country had a very high intent, with 
nuich wisdom and devotion. They did the work 
they came to do, and it has lasted. We smile some- 
times at their ways, as at other antiquities. But we 
should be able to discern their bravery and patience 
and discretion, and to be grateful to them for their 
labors into which we have entered. It will be well 
for us and for the country if we do our work as 
wisely and faithfully as they did theirs. 



NEWTOWNE 



Nb\vto\vne ! The fathers, centuries agone, 

Thus called our Cambridge ; and His new to-day 
In blossoms, buds and birds, and ah, has grown 

To us, the aged, in another way 
More sadly new ! " The old £imiliar faces ^ 

Of poet and philosopher and saint. 
We see no more in their accustomed places,— ' ' 

But memories now,' with years to wax more £iint.-v- 
Yet, though they go to God, still at our side 

Their ways are unforsaken. Up and down. 
Of fresh young manhood, surges through a tide 

To carry op the honours of the town. 
To you we lobk, to keep it ever new 
In hmt of noblest deeds that men can do. 

Sara Hammond Palfrey. 
May 22, 1895. 



10 



THE OLDEST ROAD IN CAMBRIDGE. 



The Oldest Road in Cambridge. 



By Rev. THEODORB F. WRIGHT. 



WHEN a visitor to the classic shades stands in 
front of the Henienway Gymnasium and looks 
down Kirkland street, bordered with its elms, quiet, 
retired, homelike, he little realizes that he is looking 
upon the oldest street in Cambridge and upon one 
of warlike associations. The spacious houses with 
their well shaded lawns, and the extreme beauty of 
Divinity avenue, do not suggest this, but it is even 
so. The quietest street in Cambridge has longest 
felt the movement of busy and even of hurrying feet. 
The "Path from Charlestown to Watertown" was 
the first name of this road, and that was in its very 
earliest days before Cambridge w£is foiinded. 
Charlestown was settled in 1628 and Watertown 
soon after; thus the connecting path antedates the 
planting of Cambridge in 1630, as the date is given 
on the city seal, but the first houses seem to have 
been built in 1631 in whdt was then Newetowne. 
This Charlestown path came over Washington 
street in Somerville and through Union Square, 
followed the line of Kirkland street to where the 
Common now is, crossed to the line of Brattle street, 
and then went on to Watertown in the course of the 
present Mount Auburn street. Of course this whole 
way was of equal age, biit, as only d part of what is 
now Brattle street belonged to it, there is reason for 
calling Kirkland street the oldest way in Cambridge, 
because its whole length lies on the Charlestown 
path. 

13 



14 CAMBRIDGE SKETCHES. 

The original Cambridge lay to the south of Kirk- 
land street. When the little hamlet began at the 
river and extended northwards to the point now 
known as Harvard Square, the districts east, north 
and west were wildernesses. The tracts nearest to the 
river were known as "marshes"— "Windmill Marsh, 
Ox Marsh, Ship Marsh, Common Marsh, and Long 
Marsh," as they were named in order, as we go.from 
a point near the hospital eastward to the Brookline 
bridge. All the lower Port was then known as the 
"Great Marsh." The higher ground outside the 
"pales" or palisades, with which the settlement was at 
first surrounded, was used as pasture-ground, that 
to the northwest being known as the "Cow Com- 
mon," and that to the northeast being called the "Ox- 
Pasture." At first this was south of the Charles- 
town Path, but later a tract was added to the north 
of it. The "pales" ran along a little north of where 
Gore Hall stands, and the ground outside of them 
we may think of as covered with forest consisting of 
oaks, pines and walnuts, as Dr. Holmes says, witli 
a narrow wood-road finding its way among them. 

This road was first called "The Charlestown 
Path," and was variously designated in deeds as "The 
Highway from Watertown to Charlestown," "The 
Road that leads from Cambridge to Charlestown," 
"The Charlestown Road" and "The Great County 
Road"; and it lacked a personal name until the 
selectmen, about 1830, gave it that of "Kirkland," 
after the president of the University from 1810 to 
1828. Certainly the street was worthy of that noble 
name, if the good old "Charlestown Road" must be 
given up. 

It may be deemed significant that all attempts to 
make the old street conform to modern habits have 
failed, for the tracks laid down for street-cars be- 



THE OLDEST ROAD IN CAMBRIDGE. 15 

came useless after a few years' trial and their removal 
has now been ordered by the city government, so 
that the avenue may return to its dignified quiet, 
reminding us of the remark of Dr. Abie! Holmes, 
"It is generally conceded that this town eminently 
combines the tranquillity of philosophic solitude 
with the choicest pleasures and advantages of 
refined society." 

This quotation reminds one of the valuable sketch 
of Cambridge by his son, Mr. John Holmes, in the 
History of Middlesex County. With flashes of wit 
which strongly remind his readers of his brother, the 
poet, Mr. Holmes gives his own recollections of 
Cambridge in the past. He says that the houses on 
Kirkland street were erected about 1821, and that 
east of the Delta, now occupied by Memorial Hall, 
was a swamp extending to the higher ground and 
there terminating in the forest. He says that he 
himself has seen Indian corn growing where the 
Scientific School now stands, and that, in his early 
recollections, but one house stood on Kirkland 
street, "a dilapidated, untenantable Foxcroft house," 
of which more presently. 

The fact must not be omitted that the troops 
destined to participate in the Battle of Bunker Hill 
took their way over the Charlestown Road, which had 
no part in the route of the troops in April. One Brit- 
ish detachment then passed north of it by what was 
called Milk Row, now Beacon street, Somerville; 
the second detachment left Boston by way of the 
Neck, came over the Brighton Bridge and went on 
through North avenue. Returning, the harassed 
redcoats came down that avenue and again went by 
Milk Row homeward. But, before Bunker Hill, 
the Committee of Safetv held a session iti the house 
at the head of Kirkland street, then the headquarters 



10 CAMBRIDGE SKETCHES, 

of General Ward and later the home of the Holmes 
family, and thence issued the order for the troops to 
march over that road on the night of June i6, 1775, 
to fortify the hill at Charlestown. It was down this 
road that General Warren hurried to the battle. 
Back over it came the troops after the battle; and by 
this road were brought the wounded to the hospitals, 
chief among these being Colonel Thomas Gardner 
of Cambridge, commanding the first Middlesex 
regiment, who died July 3. Thus the old road has 
been glorious in war. 

A plan of Cambridge in 1635 shows the allotments 
of ground extending from the river as far north as 
"Cow- Yard Lane" which ran east and west about 
in the line of Dane Hall ; nothing appears north of 
that lane, probably because the Charlestown Path 
was outside of the "pallysadoes" and had no inhabi- 
tants. 

A plan of Cambridge "about 1750" shows some 
extension of the settlement, and here we find "The 
Way to Charlestown" set down, with the "Coledge" 
on the south side of it and a single house on the 
north side marked "Mr. Foxcroft's house." 

Francis Foxcroft belonged to an old English 
family whose seat was at Leeds, in Yorkshire, near 
Kirkstall Abbey, whose magnificent ruins many 
Americans have visited. His father, Daniel, was 
mayor of Leeds in 1665. The son came to Boston 
in 1679. ^^f therefore, cannot be reckoned among 
the first settlers, but his education, abilities and 
wealth seem to have made him an important char- 
acter from the first. In 1682 he married Elizabeth, 
daughter of Deputy Governor Thomas Danforth, 
and so connected himself with a truly great name. 
Mr. Danforth during his long life (born in England 
1622, died 1699) was Selectman of Cambridge 



THE OLDEST ROAD IN CAMBRIDGE. 17 

twenty-seven years, Town Clerk twenty-four years, 
Assistant (or Councillor) to Governor twenty years, 
and Deputy Governor ten years ; he was also Treas- 
urer of Harvard College nineteen years; and held 
other important offices, all of which he discharged 
with the utmost fidelity. In 1643 '^^ had married 
Mary Withington of Dorchester, and in 1652 he had 
sold his house which had l>een his father's and was 
on ''Back Lane," and had built a house at a point 
on the Charlestown road a little way east of Oxford 
street. He had here about one hundred and twenty 
acres of land on both sides of Kirkland street, 
extending from the Somerville line to Gore Hall 
and including the Delta and lands east of it. 

Mr. Danforth had a large family, but nearly all 
died before him, some of them from consumption, 
so that his real estate in Cambridge went to his 
daughter, Mrs. Foxcroft. In his description of his 
estate we have a realistic picture of the district in 
1699: "My new dwelling house in Cambridge, with 
all the offices and buildings belonging thereto, to- 
gether with my two orchards lying near to the same 
and all other my lands, swamps, medpws, pastures, 
corn lands, adjoining thereto, the whole being by 
estimation about one hundred acres more or less, 
and is all fenced round about.'' 

Judge Foxcroft thus became a resident of Cam- 
bridge about 1700. At that time no bridges directly 
connected it with Boston and the place retained its 
colonial character. Besides the group of buildings 
near the river, it is said that there was only one at 
East Cambridge, only four in Cambridgeport, and 
some seven west of Harvard Square, all these being 
large estates with fine mansions and the appoint- 
ments of wealth. 

The Danforth or Foxcroft estate was the only one 



18 CAMBRIDGE SKETCHES. 

in the vicinity of the Delta. It included the Norton 
estate^ the site of the Museums and Divinity Hall, 
the grounds of the New-Church Theological School, 
and of course 'Trofesspr's Row." Some of the old 
trees at Professor Norton's and the oaks seen near 
the upper end of Cambridge street and Broadway 
no doubt belong to that day of Foxcroft grandeur. 
Would that we might still see the famous pear tree 
which apparently was the northwesterly bound of 
the estate and thus probably stood near the corner 
of Quincy and Kirkland Streets! In a deed of 
Nov. 27, 1764, we read of the "Warden pear tree" 
(a hard winter pear, called Warden because it would 
keep a long time) from which the line ran eastward 
and so around to "the forementioned pear tree." 
The estate was nearly equally divided by the 
Charlestown road. Foxcroft street was laid out in 
the southerly part, but its name was changed to 
Cambridge street, at a later day. 

The first Francis Foxcroft was Judge of Common 
Pleas from 1707 to 17 19, and Judge of Probate 1708 
-1725. Tutor Flint in an obituary discourse said of 
him that "he was a gentleman by birth, was bred 
a merchant, was expert and skilful as well as just and 
upright. His natural powers were extraordinary, 
his acquire4 knowledge of various kinds was so 
too. His temper indeed was sudden, but this was 
his burden and lamentation. He was a person of 
grave and austere countenance and conversation, 
mixed with much of the gentleman and the Chris- 
tian." He died at seventy. It should be recited in 
his honor that he was wholly opposed to the witch- 
craft trials and boldly so declared himself; but in 
vain, as popular clamor demanded them. 

His two sons were Francis, born 1695, graduated 
at Harvard 1712, died 1768; and Thomas, born 



THE OLDEST ROAD IN CAMBRIDGE. 19 

1697, graduated 1714, died 1769. Thomas became 
pastor of the First Church in Boston in 17 17 and was 
an excellent minister. 

Francis, after the English plan, succeeded his 
father. He occupied the ancestral estate, and spent 
the most of his life in the public service. He was 
Register of Probate for Middlesex from 1709 to 
1 73 1, so that for many years the father was Judge 
and the son Register. He was Register of Deeds 
forty-five years, a member of the Council twenty- 
six years, and a Justice for twenty-seven years, un- 
til his resignation from reasons of age in 1764. He 
died in the family mansion to which he was brought 
as an infant. His wife was Mehitable Coney, and, 
as his brother married Anna Coney, the brothers may 
have married sisters, perhaps the daughters of John 
Coney of Boston. Francis and Mehitable had fif- 
teen children, most of whom died young, making 
the parents' Hves full of sorrow, we read. 

There are many mentions of the second Foxcroft 
in Paige's invaluable History of Cambridge. For in- 
stance, when the "Meeting-house** was built in 1756, 
the Foxcroft subscription was a handsome one. 
In 1744 the second Francis was named first on a 
committee of five appointed by the town a School 
Committee, "to inspect the Grammer School and 
inquire (at such times as they shall think meet) 
what proficiency the youth and children make in 
their learning." 

As to the house first erected by Danforth and so 
long used by the Foxcrof ts that it was known as the 
Foxcroft house, there is a seeming disagreement 
between the Rev. Lucius R. Paige and Mr. John 
Holmes. The former says that the house was 
burned in 1777, the latter that it was standing in his 
youth, "dilapidated and untenantable." Mr. 



20 CAMBRIDQE SKBTCUEa. 

Holmes would mean about the year 1820. Both 
are probably correct There were undoubtedly sev- 
eral buildings connected with so large an estate. A 
portion may have been burned, leaving another 
portion of the buildings remaining, and this is 
probably what Mr. Holmes remembers. 

Judge Foxcroft the second had strongly re- 
quested his heirs to retain the estate entire, and 
this was apparently done for a time from respect for 
his wishes, although they did not renew and main- 
tain the mansion house. It may be well to follow 
the family a little further. 

John, son of Francis second, seemed likely to fol- 
low the line exactly, for he became Register of 
Deeds and Justice of the Peace; but he lost office 
through his Royalist tendencies, had American 
troops quartered upon him, and became a man of lei- 
sure. He gained the whole estate by purchase of 
the rights of the other heirs, occupied the mansion 
until it was burned, and then moved to Dunster 
street. The present family seems to have descended 
from Francis, a brother of John and third of that 
name, who was a physician in Brookfield and had a 
large family. It was this removal of the family 
which caused the breaking up of the estate. For- 
tunately the preservation of the Norton Woods 
permits us to see a bit of it unchanged, and the taking 
of that ground for a park will ensure the preserva- 
tion of the grove. 

The second Foxcroft, after giving up his public 
duties, seems to have revived his eariier associa- 
tions by compiling a catalogue of the Harvard 
graduates down to 1763. The kindness of Mr. 
Frank Foxcroft, now residing in Cambridge, fur- 
nishes several details regarding this useful work, 
of which the compiler said, in presenting it to the 



TUB OLDEST nOAD IN CAMBRIDGE. 21 

Overseers, — "I have taken as fair a copy of it as my 
poor state of health and hands would admit of; and 
the same is, with the utmost respect, presented to 
you for your acceptance, by your, once, for many 
years, brother; but now hearty well wisher and 
most humble servant, Fra: Foxcroft." 

This touch of his style may lead some readers to 
desire to see the preamble of his Will, which he 
signed Oct. 29, 1765, two years and a half before 
his death: — "I, Francis Foxcroft, of Cambridge in 
the County of Middlesex, within the Province of 
Massachusetts Bay in New England, Esquire, being 
mindful of my Mortallity and sensible of the frailty 
and weakness of my Body, however, Thanks be to 
God for it, of sound and disposing mind and mem- 
ory, do make and ordain what follows to be my last 
Will and Testament. I heartily wish well to all 
Mankind; and for that end that Christianity in the 
purity and perfection of it may be advanced and 
flourish among them; that the Potentates of the 
earth may exhibit the brightest examples of piety 
to their people and glory in nothing more than be- 
ing the obedient subjects of the Majesty of Heaven, 
and in the applause of their people for the happy 
fruits and effects of their care and good govern- 
ment; and that our Sovereign and all under his 
Dominion may be mutual Blessings to each other. 
I desire the Blessing of God for all my friends, his 
I'ardon for my Enemies, and an ample Reward 
for all my Benefactors. I desire thankfully to ac- 
knowledge all God's favors, heartily to repent of all 
my Sins and implore His tender Mercy in the for- 
giveness of them for Christ's sake; and humbly 
intreat that by the continued Influences of the 
Divine Spirit I may be wrought up to a fitness for 
the Society of Heaven and finally Translated to it 



22 CAMBRIDGE SKETCHES. 

through the Merits of my Prevalent Intercessor. 
I gratefully return back my Body to my Mother 
Earth, therein to be decently buried, but free from 
any pageantry or show, nothing doubting of its 
Resurrection at the last day, and would devoutly 
resign my Spirit to God who gave it. As for that 
worldly estate which God has been pleased to 
bestow upon me (whereof that I have made no 
better improvement, I humbly beg pardon both for 
myself and for such as have been employed by me), 
I do hereby declare my mind and intent to be," etc. 

After this preamble he provided for his wife and 
children and added, "Inasmuch as I am extremely 
desirous, if it be the will of God, that the estate I am 
in possession of should be continued in the poster- 
ity of that ancient and honored gentleman Thomas 
Danforth, Esquire, my grandfather and an excellent 
Patriot of this Country (of whom that there is so 
little said by those who have writ the history of it I 
am heartily sorry), from whom the bulk of it 
descended, I now do will and ordain that, in case 
either of my said sons should be inclined or neces- 
sitated to dispose of the whole or any part of what 
estate is so granted and set off to him, he shall 
tender the same to his brother or some of my family 
for refusal/' 

Perhaps if the worthy man could look now upon 
the happy homes and useful institutions which lie 
upon his estate, he might say with Plautus, "I 
know that many good things have happened to 
many when least expected," and witli Virgil, "Time 
and the varying movements of changing years have 
bettered many things" — 

Multa Dies variusque labor mutabilis sevi 
RetuUt in melius. 



TORY ROW. 



Tory Row. 



By ADELINE A. D0UQLA5S. 



AT the beginning of the Revolution the larger 
proportion of the inhabitants of Cambridge 
were true to their own country in its struggle 
for liberty; but there were a few, office holders 
or those belonging to the aristocratic class, who 
maintained their allegiance to the King of England. 
It was to this class that the owners of almost everv 
estate on the present Brattle street belonged; and 
because of this fact it was popularly designated 
as Torv Row. It was also known as Church 
l^ow, and another name was the romantic title, 
the King's Highway. 

There were seven in all of these manor houses, sur- 
rounded by their farms and gardens. The occu- 
])ants were largely related to one another, and 
they formed a very select circle. Few indeed 
outside of their own number were permitted to 
join in their festivities. Upon the breaking out 
of hostilities, the most of those with Tory proclivi- 
ties were obliged to leave their homes, and in some 
cases to flee from their country. Their estates were 
confiscated and leased by the Committee of Cor- 
respondence. 

Taking the houses in the order in which they 
are located, commencing at the east end of the 
street, we come first to the house on the left 
hand side of Brattle street next to the University 
Press, now. occupied by the Social Union. It wfi? 

35 



26 CAMBRIDGE SKETCHES. 

built about 1740 by Brigadier-General William 
Brattle of His Majesty's army. When General 
Brattle was obliged to leave his house, it was used 
by Col. Thomas Mifflin, quartermaster of the Amer- 
ican army. The mansion was situated about in 
the centre of the extensive grounds which stretched 
from the present Brattle square to the Vassall 
estate. Tliey were so beautifully laid out that 
they were said to be the finest in New England, 
with their shaded walks and lawns reaching to 
the banks of the Charles. Here were held a num- 
ber of receptions while the army was in Cambridge. 
One was given in honor of Mrs. John Adams, 
and at another Mr. Adams was present. Another 
interesting association for Cambridge people lies 
in the fact that this house was once occupied by 
Margaret Fuller. The parlor and the room above 
are practically unchanged still, the former showing 
some handsome panelled wainscoting and, about 
the fireplace, probably the first Italian marble 
brought to America. 

The next house in Tory Row was that at the 
comer of Hawthorn street, known as the old 
Batchelder or Vassall place. This is one of the 
oldest houses in Cambridge, as it was mentioned 
in the early records as being already built in 1642. 
In 17 17 the estate came by inheritance to Jonathan 
Belcher, afterwards royal governor of the province, 
and into the possession of tlic Vassall family in 
1736, having been purchased by Colonel John 
Vassall. Five years later it was sold by him to 
his brother. Colonel Henry Vassall. It was he, 
probably, who built the ancient brick wall forming 
the boundary line of the estate at the comer of 
Brattle and Ash streets (then known as Windmill 
Lane), which has been a landmark in Cambridge 



TORY ROW. 27 

for so many years. In 1775 it was in the hands 
of Penelope Vassall, widow of Colonel Henry 
Vassal], who fled to Antigua with her only daughter 
upon the breaking out of hostilities. This house 
was not confiscated as so many were at the time. 
It became, however, the headquarters for the medi- 
cal department of the army under Dr. Church, and 
many of the wounded from Bunker Hill were 
taken here. It was in this mansion that Dr. 
Church was confined after his arrest for treason- 
able correspondence with the enemy, and his 
name is still to be seen carved on one of the old 
doors. In the sitting-room over the fireplace was a 
panel which opened outwards, revealing a space 
sufficient to conceal a man. The kitchen chimney 
was eight feet square. For a long time there was 
a popular belief that there was a subterranean 
passage connecting this house with the Longfellow 
mansion, made in order that the two Vassall 
families could have ready communication with each 
other; but search has been made among the low 
arches of the cellar for some trace of its existence 
without success. Tradition says that the Vassalls 
treated their slaves with cruelty, and blood stains 
have been shown in one of the rooms where it 
is said a slave was killed by a member of this 
family; but there is no evidence of the truth of 
the legend. On the contrary it is on record that 
Madame Vassall paid twenty pounds to free the 
child of their slave Tony. After the war this es- 
tate was purchased by Nathaniel Tracy of New- 
bury port, and later, in 1792, it was bought by 
Andrew Cragie who also owned the Longfellow 
house. About fifty years afterwards it came into 
the possession of Samuel Batchelder, the father of 
the present proprietors. 



28 CAMBBIDOB SKETCHBa. 

The Longfellow or Cragie house, the third of 
these notable places, stands nearly opposite the 
Batchelder estate. It was built in 1759 by Colonel 
John Vassall, a brother of Colonel Henry Vassall 
whose home we have just been considering. After 
he was obliged to vacate these premises, a regiment 
from Marblehead commanded by Colonel Glover 
occupied the mansion. This is perhaps the most 
interesting of the houses in Tory Row, as with it 
are associated the names of those who are so 
prominent, either historically or in the world of let- 
ters. As the headquarters of General Washington 
it will always hold a foremost place among the 
points of interest in Cambridge. 

After Washington was appointed commander-in- 
chief of the American army he left Philadelphia 
on the twenty-first of June, 1775, ^^ J^'" ^^^ troops 
whose headquarters were then at Cambridge. He 
accomplished the whole of the journey on horse- 
back, accompanied from place to place by mounted 
escorts. He made all possible speed, arriving the 
second of July at Watertown, where the Provin- 
cial Congress of Massachttsetts was in session, by 
which body he was warmly greeted. He then 
proceeded to the quarters assigned to him in Cam- 
bridge. As he approached the camp of the army 
which occupied about the site of the present com- 
mon, he was greeted with shouts and the firing of 
artillery. Congress ordered that all the rooms but 
one in the house of the president of Harvard Col- 
lege, now standing on Massachusetts avenue be- 
tween Dane and Boylston Halls and known as the 
Wadsworth house, should be prei)ared for the use 
of General Washington and of General Lee who 
accompanied him. On the morning of the next 
(lay. July 3, the army being drawn up on the com- 



TOBY BO}V. SI 

mon, Washington formally took command under 
the wide-spreading branches of the venerable tree 
which will always be associated with this event. 
In a very short time Washington left the president's 
house, probably because he considered it too near 
Boston for safety, as a shell had burst near it shortly 
before. When he first entered Cambridge he was 
attracted by the appearance of the house on Tory 
Row then known as the Vassall place. Upon his 
indicating his preference for this estate as his 
residence, the Committee of Safety immediately 
ordered it put in readiness for his occupation; and 
about the middle of July — the exact date is uncer- 
tain — he removed to the new headquarters which 
became his home until he left Cambridge about 
nine months later. 

How many troubled hours Washington spent 
under this roof! Prominent among his causes for 
anxiety was the fact that the army was short of 
ammunition, and it was of the greatest importance 
that the knowledge of this be kept from the in- 
vaders. 

Mrs. Washington arrived in Cambridge from her 
home in Virginia, Dec. ii, 1775, accompanied by 
her son and his wife, Mr. and Mrs. Custis. They 
travelled with a "chariot and four, with black post- 
ilions in scarlet and white liveries,'' a Virginian style 
of that period and one well befitting the rank of the 
wife of the commander-in-chief. After her arrival, 
many were the entertainments furnished in the din- 
ing-room of the old Vassall house, to the most 
notable people of the time. The rooms most closely 
connected with their occupancy are the southeast 
room on the first floor, which General Washington 
used as his study; the room over this, which was 
the general's chamber; the northeast room, where 



32 CAMBRIDOM SKETCHES. 

he held councils of war with his subordinate officers; 
and the room on the left as one enters (the south- 
west), in which Mrs. Washington received her 
friends. This is now called the Lady Washington 
room, and the wood-work is the same as in 1775. 

(jeneral Washington's apiiearance was very 
stately in his blue and buff uniform, rich epaulettes, 
elegant small sword, and silver-mounted pistols. 
He left his Cambridge home April 4, 1776, for 
New York. Thirteen years later when on a visit 
to Boston he passed through Cambridge and spent 
about an hour at his old headquarters. 

In 1792 the Vassall estate was purchased by 
Andrew Cragie, by whose name it was known for 
so many years. It was said that he accumulated 
a fortune when apothecary-general to the Conti- 
nental army. Tlie northeast room on the first floor 
was enlarged and the wooden columns and much 
of the fine woo<l car\'ing was added by Cragie. He 
was greatly interested in the development of East 
Cambridge, the bridge there still being known 
t)y his name. He became involved financially 
through his speculations, and during the last years 
of his life he was virtually a prisoner in his own 
house. He was liable to arrest for debt if he was 
seen outside his home on week days, though on 
Sundays he cotdd go out with no fear of molestation. 
After his death his widow continued to reside here, 
helping out her income by letting rooms to students ; 
and Edward Everett, Jared Sparks, Joseph E. 
Worcester and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 
among others occupied rooms in the venerable 
mansion at this time. 

Soon after Mrs. Cragie's death in 1843, ^'^^ estate 
was purchased by Mr. Longfellow. Since then 
the interest in the house on account of its con- 



Toiiv now, 83 

hection with Washington is overshadowed by tlie 
associations with our tnucli loved and greatly 
lionored poet. He first occupied the southeast 
chamber, and it was in this room that all of his 
poems from 1837 to 1845 were written. Later the 
room below this on the first floor was used by him 
as a study, and it remains to-day precisely as the 
poet left it in 1882. 

The grounds of the Cragie estate extended to the 
house on the right-hand side of Brattle street, 
formerly at the west corner of Sparks street, occu- 
pied by John Brewster, which was removed about 
1887 or 1888 to the corner of Riedesel avenue. 
This was the residence of Judge Richard Lechmere, 
and later in 1771 the home of Judge Jonathan 
Sewall. He was attorney-general, and fled on the 
breaking out of hostilities in 1775. It was in this 
house that Baron Riedesel and his wife were 
quartered after his capture with Burgoyne's army, 
and from which the baroness wrote the letters 
which are now of so much historical interest. The 
house has been greatly altered and is now de- 
cidedly modern in appearance. 

We next come to the old Lee house, on the 
right hand side of Brattle street just above Apple- 
ton street, now known as the Nichols house. By 
some this is considered the oldest building in Cam- 
bridge. The frame of this edifice was brought from 
England, as the Reverend Daniel Waldo who built 
it feared there were no workmen in this country 
capable of erecting a house of this description. His 
name was written with a diamond on one of the 
window panes. The house was built in the most 
substantial manner, the partitions between the 
room^ being a foot thick, and the depth of the outer 
walls is shown by the wide window seats. The walls 



34 CAMBBIDGE SKETCHEa. 

of some of the rooms were covered with landscape 
paper. It was afterwards owned by Judge Joseph 
Lee. On the occupation of Cambridge by the 
troops he removed to Boston where he remained 
during the siege of that town, but after the siege 
was raised he returned to Cambridge and was 
allowed to live in his residence on condition that he 
would not interfere with politics, although he was 
obliged to give up his position as councillor. He 
remained here until his death, in 1802. 

Next in order is the Fayerweather house also 
on the right-hand side of the street, between 
the Nichols house and Fayerweather street, long 
the residence of William Wells who kept there a 
well-known school for boys. This structure, built 
between 1740 and 1750, was first occupied by George 
Ruggles, who after the trouble with the mother 
country began, sold the estate in 1774 to Thomas 
Fayerweather. This house was used as a hospital 
for the wounded soldiers. In one of the old records 
we read: "August 21, 1775, a sergeant, corporal, 
and nine men to mount guard to-morrow morning 
at Mr. Fayerweather's house lately converted into 
a hospital.'' 

The house is now owned by Mr. Newell and is 
in most excellent preservation, a fine, stately and 
hospitable mansion as of yore. 

As famous as Cragie house, and for a similar 
reason, is "Elmwood," the entrance to which is on 
Elmwood avenue, between Brattle and Mount 
Auburn streets. This house was built between 1763 
and 1767 by Thomas Oliver, the last of the lieu- 
tenant-governors under the crown. He was so 
much disliked by the people that a large number 
surrounded the house and demanded his resignation. 
He refused until he feared for his own safety and that 



TORY now, 37 

of his family, when he wrote on the paper con- 
taining his resignation, — "My house at Cambridge 
being surrounded by four thousand people, in 
compliance with their commands, I sign my name, 
Thomas Oliver." He left Cambridge immediately 
and never returned. He died in exile at Bristol, 
iuigland, in 1815. On his departure the house was 
taken possession of Ijy tlie Committee of Corre- 
spondence. It was next used as a hospital for 
the men who were wounded in the battle of Bunker 
Hill, and in the field opposite this and the Fayer- 
weather house those who died in these mansions, 
temporarily converted into hospitals, were buried. 
Ii!lmwood then became for three weeks the head- 
quarters for Benedict Arnold and his company of 
forty men from New Haven. 

In 1779 it was sold to Andrew Cabot, who eight 
years later resold the residence to Elbridge Gerry 
of Marblehead, a well-known patriot and one of 
the signers of the Declaration of Independence. He 
afterwards served as governor of Massachusetts, 
and later still as vice-president of the United States. 

In 1818 the estate was purchased of Mr. Gerry's 
widow by Rev. Charles Lowell, who was pastor of 
the West Church in Cambridge for over forty 
years. A year later his youngest and most distin- 
guished son, James Russell Lowell, was born 
there. During the life of Rev. Mr. Lowell both 
sides of Elmwood avenue were bordered by hedges 
of lilac and other shrubs which grew in great 
luxuriance. He wished it to be kept in this state 
of nature, as it was a reminder to him of the lanes 
in England. All who have read the letters of 
James Russell Lowell, edited by Charles ^liot 
Norton, will recall the love which the poet felt for 
thi3 niBn^ion, his birthplace, and its be^^vtiful 



38 CAMBRIDGE SKETCHES, 

grounds, where doubtless he received many of his 
poetic inspirations; and will feel, for the sake of 
the author whose personality will ever hallow this 
spot, an added interest in this, the last of the 
houses which constituted our historic Tory Row. 



WAIFS. 

AH thixM^h the golden haze 
Leaves were oriftiDg and £dling. 

All through the mellow days 
Boogbs were bending and calling 

To their little castaways. 

Throogh branches almost bare 
A squirrel came fnsking and springing. 

No restless birds were there ; 
Yet he was bounding and swinging 

As if bom of the sky and air. 

But in the winter cold 
Who will be loving and caring 

For the leaves, then withered and old ; 
Or the sprite with his tilting and daring. 

And no tender arm to enfold ? 

All throuf h the changeful year 
Nature is finding and keeping 

A home for her children dear ; 
And the waifs may go fluttering or leaping 

With never a shade of fear. 

Mary Thacher Hkksinson. 



40 



I 



HISTORIC CHURCHES AND HOMES 

OF CAMBRIDGE. 



Historic Churches and Homes 

of Cambridge. 



By CONSTANCE QR05VEN0R ALEXANDER. 

IN a sketch necessarily so brief as this must be, 
much can be merely touched on, much must be 
omitted that would be of interest to all who visit 
our beautiful, historic town. All that the writer can 
hope to do is to make these brief comments of 
sufficient interest to serve as guides to the tourist, 
or as finger-posts to storehouses of knowledge 
from which the curious may extract the hoards to be 
had there for the asking. 

Cambridge has been called the ''first capital of our 
infant republic, the cradle of our nascent liberties, 
the hearth of our kindling patriotism.'' Intimately 
associated as indeed it is with the stirring times of 
the Revolution, its two oldest churches, Christ 
Church, Episcopal, and Shepard Congregational, 
have their history most intimately woven with that 
of the patriots. First let us take Shepard Church 
the first church in Cambridge, because it is the oldest 
society, though its present building is comparatively 
modern. 

When Cambridge was established and called 
Newtowne, it was designed to be the metropolis, 
but later this plan was given up in favor of Boston. 
Still, many people stayed here, reinforced in 1632 by 
the Braintree Company under Mr. Hooker. The 
latter, a graduate of Emanuel College, Cambridge, 

46 



46 CAMBBIDQB SKETCHES. 

England, had taught in England, having among his 
converts John Eliot, apostle to the Indians. Mr. 
Hooker's friends built a meeting-house here and 
sent for him to be pastor. The church then was on 
Water street, now Dunster, south of Spring street, 
now Mt. Auburn. Hooker soon removed, with 
most of his congregation, to Hartford.- At his 
departure, the remaining members of his flock 
founded a new church. The first regular church 
edifice was built near Governor Dudley's house, and 
Mr. Thomas Shepard was ordained pastor, 1636. 
At about the same time was established here the 
colony's first school, later developed into Harvard 
College. 

The first members of Mr. Shepard's church were 
men prominent in the state, among them Henry 
Dunster, first president of the college. As there 
was, for nearly one hundred years, no other place 
of worship here, many Church-of-England men 
held pews in Mr. Shepard's Church, and kept them 
down to the time when Christ Church was founded. 
There are many records of this time, preserved 
partly in Mr. Shepard's own handwriting, in a book 
possessed by Dr. McKenzie. 

In Shepard's time came the troubles over Mrs. 
Anne Hutchinson and her heresies, settled by a 
synod held in this church. 

In 1636 Harvard College was established in Cam- 
bridge; for two reasons was it placed here: because 
the town was conveniently situated and because it 
was here "under the orthodox and soul-flourishing 
ministry of Mr. Tho. Shepheard." Twelve impor- 
tant men of the colony were chosen to take orders 
for the college, and of these were Shepard, Cotton, 
Wilson, Harlakenden, Stoughton, Dudley and 
Winthrop. Thus from the first, college interests 



HISTORIC CHURCHES AND HOMES, 47 

were closely linked to those of the First Church. 
Church and State were one in those days; Christa 
et Ecclesiac was the college motto. 

In 1638 Newtowne became Cambridge, and the 
same year the college was called Harvard. Its 
first leader, Nathaniel Eaton, for maltreating 
his pupils was dismissed, and for a time Samuel 
Shepard administered the college affairs. In 1664, 
however, Henry Dunster became president. He 
was a member of Shepard Church, as was also 
Elijah Corlet, master of the "Faire Grammar 
Schpol," on the site of which the Washington 
Grammar School now stands. In 1642 the first 
college commencement was held in the First 
Church. 

In 1649 ^ ^^^ church was erected on nearly 
the present site of Dane Hall at Harvard Square. 
In this same year, before the church was completed, 
Mr. Shepard died. We have the record of him as 
"the lioly, heavenly, sweet-affecting, soul-ravishing 
preacher." 

Next to Shepard came Mitchel, almost equally 
celebrated for piety and eloquence. Cotton 
Mather and Richard Baxter praise him highly, 
and President Increase Mather said to his stu- 
dents, "Say, each of you, Mitchel shall be the 
example whom I will imitate." During this pastor- 
ate, Dunster was convicted of Anabaptist views and 
was compelled to resign in 1654. 

In 1671 Uriah Oakes came over from England 
to be pastor. After the enforced resignation of 
President Hoar of Harvard, Oakes was appointed 
superintendent and later president (1679). 

In 1717 came to the church Rev. Nathaniel Ap- 
pleton, interesting as one who "fell on stirring times." 
At his installation Cotton and Increase Mather 



48 CAMUmhOK SKETCHES. 

took part. His degree of D. D., was the second 
granted by Harvard, the first being that given to 
Increase Mather. Dr. Appleton's pastorate lasted 
sixty years. Under him General Washington often 
worshipped. In his church met the delegates from 
the towns of the state to frame the constitution of 
the commonwealth. In his church, too, on Octo- 
ber 17, the First Provincial Congress, presided 
over by John Hancock, met, and it continued to 
meet here until its dissolution, December 10. Here 
the Committee of Safety held its first meeting, 
November 2, and here, on Febmary i, 1775, the 
Second Provincial Congress met, adjourning to 
Concord on the i6th. Appleton's portrait, by 
Copley, hangs in Memorial Hall. In 1756 the 
Fourth Church of the Society was built. In it, for 
over seventy years, were held the public commence- 
ments of the college, and in it, too, was g^ven the 
address of welcome to Lafayette, 1824. In Apple- 
ton's time Christ Church was built. Then, of 
course, he lost his Church-of-England parishioners. 
In 1792 Abiel Holmes began his long pastorate. 
During his time, in 1814, the college first held sep- 
arate religious services. It was in Dr. Holmes' 
pastorate that the important separation came, 
from which sprung the First Parish (Unitarian) 
Church. Unitarianism had begun, practically, in 
King's Chapel, Boston, under the teaching of 
Clark. The people there had given up the Eng- 
lish liturgy and taken one arranged by their own 
minister, denying belief in the Trinity. For a 
time this congregation held within itself the seeds 
of the schism, but presently these were cast abroad 
on the four winds and took root far and near. As 
the new beliefs became manifest. Dr. Holmes 
showed his disapproval and was at last compelled 



HISTORIC CHUHCHE8 AND HOMES. 61 

by his parish to resign. With the majority of his 
church he withdrew from his place and formed the 
"Shepard Congregational Society." This society 
built, in 1832, a new meeting-house on its present 
site, and though compelled, by decision' of the 
Supreme Court, to yield up its funds, records, 
communion silver, and some other valuables to 
its one time fellow-members, whom it had now left, it 
yet preserved in itself unbroken the succession from 
the first church of 1636. 

Those through whose objection the division had 
come, stayed behind and formed the First Parish 
Unitarian Church. They used the old meeting 
house until 1833, when the present one, on the 
corner of Massachusetts avenue and Church street, 
was built 

The remaining history of Shepard Church is 
briefly told. Dr. Holmes died in 1837. After 
him came Nehemiah Adams, and in 1835, Rev. 
John Albro, who remained thirty years.. After 
his death came Dr. Alexander McKenzie, who has 
ably led the people and kept close the ancient con- 
nection between the church and the college. 

We turn now to Christ Church, the second 
oldest in the city, and one even more full of 
association, since its building has always remained 
substantially the same. On April 5, 1759, a letter 
was sent to the Society for the Propagation of the 
Gospel in Foreign Parts, asking aid to build an 
Episcopal Church in Cambridge. It was desired 
by five or six gentlemen, "each of whose incomes,'' 
says an authority, ''was judged to be adequate to 
the maintainance of a domestic chaplain.'' The 
letter, signed by Henry Vassall, John Vassall, Tho. 
Oliver, Robt. Temple, Joseph Lee, Ralph Inman, 
David Phipps and James Apthorp, was drawn up 



52 CAMBRIDGE SKETCHES. 

by Dr. Caner, rector of King's Cliapel, Boston. 
Theaid granted, these gentlemen proceededjn 1761, 
to the erection of a church, over which Rev. East 
Apthorp was made rector. The architect of the 
church was Mr. Peter Harrison, Newport, R. I., 
who also designed King's Chapel (ten years earlier), 
and the Redwood Library and City Hall in Newport. 
The land was bought, the near half from James 
Reed, the rest from the owners of the common. 
Some say the pillars were turned on the common, 
but certain it is that the frame was not brought 
from England. 

Expense was not spared in furnishing the church. 
A fine organ, made John Snetzler of London, 
a bell weighing over fifteen hundred pounds, a sil- 
ver christening basin from the rector's mother, a 
folio Bible from Mrs. Faneuil, and two folio prayer- 
books from Mr. Lechmere, were the chief gifts. Of 
these all but the organ and bell are now preserved 
and can be seen. The organ was broken, its pipes 
scattered, by vandal hands in 1778; the bell was 
recast in 1831, and again recast in the chime (with 
its old inscription) in 1859. Near the door were 
put two small pews for the wardens, whose wands 
of office stood in the corners, and these pews still 
remain. 

In 1 761 the church was opened, although, owing 
to the absence of any bishop, it could have no true 
consecration. At this service, a prayer for George 
HI. was, of course, said. All but one or two of these 
first members were Tories later, and their houses, 
on Brattle street, were known as Tory Row or 
Church Row. Besides these Tory Row people, 
Richard Lechmere, Benjamin Faneuil (brother of 
Peter), James and Thomas Apthorp (brothers of 
East), Madame Temple and her son Robert, Brig- 



HISTORIC CHURCHES AND HOMES. 56 

adier-General Isaac Royal, the Skiltons and 
Sweethens of Woburn, and Robert Nichells of 
Billerica, all went to Christ Church. 

At lo Linden street was the old rectory. It had 
hand-painted wall paper and Delft tiles, and was 
so grand it was called the "Bishop's Palace." In- 
deed, so did the Puritan people in the town dread 
lest Dr. Apthori> aspire to be bishop that they 
fairly drove him, by opposition, back to England 
in 1764. 

The next important period of the church's his- 
tory was the Revolution time during which Christ 
Church was beaten upon by the waves of a wild 
tide of patriotism. The rector was forced to fly 
and had but a troubled life of it thereafter. In the 
sunmier of 1774 the last regular services before the 
Revolution were held in the church. The only 
member left was Judge Lee, who was unmolested 
because his principles were mild. 

Now for a space the church ministered to the 
soldiers' bodily rather than to their spiritual needs. 
After Lexington, the company of Captain John 
Chester from Wethersfield, Conn., was quartered 
in the church. There is still a bullet mark in the 
porch as a reminder of this period. The sole mem- 
ber who took the colonial side, John Pidgeon, was 
appointed commissary-general to the forces. The 
rest, Tories, fled to General Gage in Boston. 

General Washington, a good churchman, though 
for reasons of expediency he often worshipped with 
his men at the Congregational meeting house (then 
under Dr. Appleton), when Mrs. Washington 
came, Dec. 31, 1775, had Christ Church re-opened 
for a service which he attended. One is still shown 
the place where his hat was laid, near the threshold. 

''General and Mrs. Washington probably occupied 



66 CAMBBIDGE SKETCHES. 

Robert Temple's pew, third from the front, on 
the left wall, now the slip opposite the sixth pillar 
from the door/' says Mr. Batchelder. A queer 
little uncomfortable wooden pew is shown you, if 
you climb to the belfry, and is said to be the very 
one in which the general sat. That day Col. 
William Palfrey read service, and gave a form 
of prayer which he had written in place of the one 
for the king. 

In June, 1777, when British and Hessian troops 
were quartered here, after Burgoyne's capitulation, 
Lieut. Richard Brown of the Seventy-first English 
regiment was shot by a sentry. He was buried 
under Christ Church, probably in the Vassall tomb, 
and it was on this day that the church was most 
defaced by vandals. 

After this the church was a mere ruin, the people 
were scattered, their very estates sold. In 1790 
it was re-opened, and on this occasion for the first 
time a prayer was made for the president of thc 
United States. 

With intervals between there followed a long 
period when lay readers chiefly conducted the 
church services. In 1800, on February 22, there 
was a service in commemoration of the death of 
Washington. In 1824 full repairs were made, the 
box pews were changed to square, and other 
alterations were made. In 1826, the church was 
regularly re-opened. 

On October 15, 1861, the one hundredth anni- 
versary was observed, and then was first heard 
the Harvard chime. Soon after the old wine- 
glass pulpit was removed. 

The present rector came to the Church in 1892, 
and ministers to a prosperous and peaceful 
parish. 



HI8TOBIC CHURCHES AND HOMES. 57 

The interesting relics to be seen in the church 
are the communion service, bearing arms of 
William and Mary, and forming part of a larger 
set given (1694) to the rector of King's Chapel, 
Boston, by these sovereigns. These pieces were 
used there up to 1772, when Thomas Hutchinson 
became governor. He was given the crown com- 
munion plate and the pulpit furniture to distribute. 
The new set of plate went to King's Chapel, and the 
old was divided between a church at Newburyport 
and Christ Church here. There are three pieces 
here, flagon, chalice and paten. On the under 
side of each is written, "The gift of K William and 
Q Mary to ye Rev'd Sam'l Myles for ye use of their 
Maj'ities Chapell in N. England — 1694." Mr. 
Batchelder, who gives these facts about the service, 
adds also that it is used only on especial occasions. 
There is another silver service and one of gold (the 
Foote memorial). The silver basin given by Mrs. 
Grizzel Apthorp is used as the chief alms basin. A 
silver service given in 1791 by Mrs. Bethune, 
daughter of Benjamin Faneuil, is used for com- 
munion-alms. The original parchment parish- 
register dating back to 1759 ^s preserved by the 
church. 

Between Christ Church and the First Parish 
Church lies the old peaceful graveyard, ablaze in 
autumn with golden-rod. The yard is fully two 
hundred and sixty-four years old, and had been 
used about one hundred and thirty years before 
Christ Church was built. Here lie Stephen Day, 
first printer of this continent north of Mexico; 
Elijah Corlet, first master of the Faire Grammar 
School; Thomas Shepard, first pastor in Cam- 
bridge; also Jonathan Mitchell, Nathaniel Gookin, 
William Brattle, Thomas Hilliard, and Mr. Appte- 



58 CAUBRIDQB 8KSTCHX8. 

ton; and of the Harvard presidents, Dtinster, 
Chauncy (on whose tomb is a Latin inscription), 
Oakes, Leverett, Wadsworth, Holyoke, Willard and 
Webber. Here are also Governor Belcher, Judge 
Remington, Mrs. Brattle; and under Christ 
Church is the old Vassall tomb, containing ten 
coffins — those of the family and also one of the 
black servants of the family, and one probably of 
Lieutenant Brown, the English officer who was 
&hot by a sentry. In the yard stands a monument 
erected to the memory of Mr. Hicks, Moses Rich- 
ardson and William Marcy,who fell April 19, at Lex- 
ington. An interesting bit of the graveyard's his- 
tory is that here, in July, 1775, the tombs were reft 
of their metal coats-of-arms, from which bullets 
were made. 

It is natural to turn from Christ Church to a 
brief mention of the dwelling^ of its first parish- 
ioners. 

The old Watertown Road once ran up what are 
now Masoli and Brattle streets. On Brattle 
street were the stately residences occupied by men 
to whose staunch loyalty to England was due the 
name of Tory Row bestowed on their dwellings. 
As these families were also, as has been said, Christ 
Church parishioners, the second name was given 
their abodes' of. Church Row. Between these peo- 
ple and those of the college and of the Congrega- 
tional Church little love was lost. 

When the Revolution broke out, the denizens 
of this peaceful row grew unpopular to such a 
degree that they fled for refuge to General Gage in 
Boston, and their property was, in most cases, con- 
fiscated. The houses of Major Henry Vassall, 
Lieutenant-Governor Oliver and Mrs. George 
Ruggles were used as hospitals for those wounded 



llISTOmC imVHCBBS AND HOMES. 60 

at Bunker Hill. Those whose houses were saved 
for them were chiefly those whose Toryism, 
like that of Judge Lee, was of an inoffensively mild 
type. 

Never again could the old brilliant congregation 
be gathered in Clirist Church. For years the ser- 
vices languished, and the places of the aristocratic 
first members remained obviously empty. The 
life of luxurious leisure, of dignified living, had been 
too rudelv broken to be soon mended. 

Beside this particular group of houses, there are 
others whose history is also interesting. Of these 
one is the old Waterhouse mansion, on Waterhouse 
street. It was owned and occupied before the 
Revolution by William Vassall. Here are pre- 
served relics of the famous Dr. Waterhouse, who 
was one of the first to introduce vaccination into 
America. In token of this fact, the family preserve 
a clock, surmounted by a golden cow. Another 
relic is an old clock presented in 1790 to Dr. Water- 
house by Peter Oliver, chief Justice of the province. 
It is wound at Christmas and on the fourth of 
July. 

Another interesting house is the old Hicks 
House, at the corner of Dunster and Winthrop 
streets. It is chiefly interesting as the home of the 
patriot, John Hicks, who aided in the Boston tea- 
party, December 16, 1773. He was killed in the 
Concord fight, and his is one of the six names on the 
monument in the old burying-ground. The glass 
door is still shown through which he rushed to his 
death. Washington used the northeast room of 
this house as a commissary office. 

Of all the historic houses here, the most inter- 
esting to me, aside from Cragie House and Elm- 
wood, is the so-called "Bishop's Palace." It is 



60 CAMBRIDGE 8KBTCHBB. 

on Linden street, between Mt. Auburn and Massa- 
chusetts avenue, and stands well back, with its side 
to the street. A path leads up to it, between old 
borders of fragrant box. This house was built 
about 1761 by the Rev. East Apthorp, first rector 
of Christ Church. When the Puritans feared Mr. 
Apthorp was aspiring to a bishopric in this coun- 
try, he was forced by popular feeling to return to 
England. The house was next occupied by John 
Borland, a merchant, who lived there ' until the 
Revolution. Then General Putnam took it for the 
headquarters of the Connecticut troops, and it was 
so used until the Battle of Bunker Hill. Next 
General Burgoyne was placed there for safe keep- 
ing. It is now owned by the daughters of Doctor 
Plympton, in whose family it has been for over one 
hundred years. The house is exquisitely pre- 
served. In the stately drawing-room, to the left of 
the front door, there are, about the fireplace, quaint 
blue Dutch tiles, and a fireback representing Bri- 
tannia. The balusters of the staircase are beauti- 
fully carved by hand. In the second story chamber 
once occupied by General Burgoyne, the walls are 
panelled and covered with landscape paper. On 
the front door are a huge brass knocker and lock, 
while the iron key is sufficiently ponderous to lock 
a Bastile against intruders. The house is built with 
exceeding care; the clapboards and shingles are 
split instead of planed, air-spaces are left between 
the middle brick wall and the two outer wooden 
ones, and indeed every pains has been taken to ren- 
der the house a complete and beautiful whole. 

It is hard to turn from my subject and lay down 
my pen, for somehow in Cambridge there lurks a 
subtle charm potent over the hearts of all, even 
of those who sojourn here but for a time. This 



HISTORW CHURCHES AND HOMES. 01 

charm is, I think, most strongly exhaled, like 
a flower's perfume, in summer. Then, as one lin- 
gers at evening on the silent brown paths, looking 
up at the cool, shadowy green boughs, that render 
more infinitely vast the starry sky-depths beyond, 
one feels the spell most powerfully. Thoughts of 
which dreams are made throng the mind, and 
stories of the past with which the Cambridge air is 
filled dominate the imagination. Then the college 
life, with, its present hopes and enthusiasms and 
its joyous modernity has ebbed away for a tidal- 
hour, leaving bare the quiet shore of the past, 
seamed and lined with the traces of two centuries* 
tides. In some such a sumnier I have written this 
brief account and now send it forth, ''with all its 
imperfections thick upon it," trusting it will lead 
someone else to seek out the history and grow to 
love stories of Cambridge as do I, to whom "its 
dust is dear." 



For assistance in preparing the facts contained 
in this article I am indebted to the courtesy of the 
Rev. William B. King and Dr. McKenzie. I have 
also learned much from the following authorities: 
History of Shepard Church, Dr. McKenzie; The 
Cambridge of 1776, by Mr. Arthur Gilman; Har- 
vard and its Surroundings, Mr. Moses King; Christ 
Church, Cambridge, Mr. S. F. Batchelder, and from 
other works of a like nature. 



MAPLES IN AUTUMN.* 



/ 



How £iiri]r sbovt yoa distant maple, shedding 

Its blood-red leaves upon the forest gnmnd. 
Those very leaves that not lonr since were wedding 

The jroong Mpdag breeze wiu modest rustling sound ! 
Its vorljr trUMte done. *twill be left standing 

TO wrestle naked with the winter breeze. 
And, by such change deciduous, grow commanding 

And flourish lofty *mid its sbter trees. 
Mueht we too shed, in patient courage hopeful 

Our brilliant dreams, soft fiUling one by one. 
While with God's love, like sap, our veins still flow full. 

We shall not need the wild wind's benison. 
But though most desolate our fortune seemeth 
Mu(y yet bud greener than the wanderer dreameth. 

Susan Louisa Higgdison 
{Uvedim Cambn4gi^ 1820-1842). 



SOME CAMBRIDGE SCHOdLS IN 
THE OLDEN TIME. 



Some Cambridge Schools in the 

Olden Time. 



By Miss S. S. JACOBS. 



'T'HE old town records tell us that our ancestors 
^ had a school where grammar, that is, Latin, 
and English were taught, as wxU as writing and 
ciphering. Mr. Elijah Corlet was its master be- 
Iween forty and fifty years, and "is praised in that 
he hath very well approved himself for his abilities, 
dexterity and painfulness in teaching." 

That word "painfulness" is a good one. 

Our present Corlett school in the Belmont district 
is so named in honor of this prophetic Elijah, the 
forerunner of the many who since his day have ap- 
proved themselves for their abilities, dexterity and 
painfulness. 

The old schoolhouse stood on the westerly 
side of Holyoke street about half way between 
Harvard and Mount Auburn streets, on a lot owned 
by President Dunster of the college. It was used 
for school purposes till 1796, then for a printing 
office. 

A second, later schoolhouse was on the southerly 
side of Garden street, about one hundred feet from 
Appian Way and a little west of the Episcopal 
church. This building was twenty feet in width 
by twenty-six in length, and was erected many years 
after Mr. Corlet had laid aside his grammar and 

6S 



66 CAMBRIDGE 8KXTCHE8. 

Ills ferule. It is noticeable that many schools now 
cluster not far from this spot — the Washington 
School, the) Cambridge School, one in Mason street 
and one or more in Appian Way. 

The stated fees being quite insufficient for Mr. 
Corlet's support, special grants were made him. 
One of ten pounds was ordered in 1680. The 
record reads: "It was agreed at a meeting of the 
whole town, that there should be land sold of the 
common for the gratifying of Mr. Corlet for his 
pains in keeping of a school in the town; the 
sum of ten pounds if it can be attained, provided 
it shall not prejudice the common." The "common" 
probably means any undivided lands held in 
common by the proprietors of the town. The 
land actually sold under authority of this order 
was on the south side of Charles River. 

As Mr. Corlet, in addition to his other duties, 
prepared Indians for college, this "gratifying" 
does not seem excessive. 

Cambridge is then, in 1680, provided with a school- 
house and a schoolmaster. Now as to pupils. In 
that year there were nine, perhaps a fair proportion 
as compared with that college class which, as we 
know on high poetical authority, consisted of 
"the nephew of the President, and the Professor's 
.son." 

To complete the proper school equipment, 
we find an order, "to see to the educating of 
children as follows: it is ordered, that John Bridge 
shall take care of all the families of that side the 
highway his own house stands on; Sergeant Win- 
shepe is to see to the families on the other side and 
all the families in the lane going from the meeting- 
house down to the river and so Watertown-ward; 
George Cooke to take care of all the families be- 



SOME OLD CAMBRIDQJS SCHOOLS. 67 

tween the way appointed for Russell to see to 
[Russell's directions are worn off from the record 
and cannot be read] and the highway going from 
the meeting house into the neck." AH Dana Hill 
was part of the Neck, and the meeting hotise was 
about where Dane Hall now is. The record con- 
tinues — "My brother Oakes all on the other side 
the river." Is not this a rudimentary school com- 
mittee? They cannot be mere truant officers. 

In after years we have regular annual appoint- 
ments of reverends and honorables, with bills 
from the Anchor Tavern or other inn for the din- 
ner with which their labors were invariably allevi- 
ated. At these dinners, liquors of different kinds 
were served, according to the custom of the 
times. 

Having thus established our school system on 
a permanent basis, before leaping over a period 
of a century and a half to aHght upon personal 
reminiscences, let us pause for a moment to 
think of .the incredulous distaste' with which 
Madame Dunster and other ladies of her day 
would have regarded any true prophecy of the 
present age of bicyles, electric cars, and collegiate 
education of women. It is not quite a hundred 
years since it was ordered that a grammar school 
should be maintained all the year round, and a 
school for girls for four months in a year. 

It was near the beginning of the century 
that the first public school was established in Cam- 
bridge Port, on School street near Winsor. A 
second, dating from 1809, was on Franklin street 
about midway between Magazine and Pearl streets. 

There was another school, spoken of seventy 
years ago as the C. P. P. G., which, being inter- 
preted, is the Cambridge Port Private Grammar, 



68 CAMJiBIDOB SKETCHES. 

and this has no slight claim to remembrance. 
James Freeman Clarke was at one time its princi- 
pal, and Dr. Holmes has touched it with his lum- 
inous pencilin one of his papers in the Atlantic. 
Besides the Poet-Autocrat it reckoned among its 
pupils Richard H. Dana, who was by and by to 
write his "Two Years before the Mast," and later 
to become eminent in many directions; and Mar- 
garet Fuller, the most remarkable woman that 
Cambridge has produced. It is doubtful if any or 
all of our existing grammar schools have "names 
to conjure with" like these of Holmes, Dana and 
Margaret Fuller. Yet the C P. P. G. did not count 
hundreds: we were but thirty. Those of us who 
rank among the undistinguished were of course 
mighty and most honorable, howbeit as is said in 
the Book of Samuel, we "attained not unto the first 
three." 

Our schoolhouse stood on the south side of 
Austin street, about midway between Temple and 
Prospect streets. Nearly opposite were the houses 
of Dr. Chaplin and Judge Fay with gardens on each 
side extending from Prospect street to Inman 
and back almost to Harvard street. Dr. Chaplin 
was a then celebrated physician. Several cottages 
in the garden were occupied by his insane patients 
whom the boys and girls in the school opposite 
used to see walking about the grounds, or riding 
forth, a melancholy troop of six or eight. They 
were always mounted on white horses, sometimes 
with the stately doctor at their head, oftener 
with an attendant. This man was an early and 
zealous abolitionist, and as for some reason now 
forgotten the school had taken a dislike to him, 
among its lessons were laid up the resolutions not 
" to go crazy," even for the sake of riding on white 



SOME OLD CAMBRIDGE SCHOOLS, 60 

horses; and on no account to be abolitionists. 
But this was seventy years ago. 

As a specimen of this man's zeal, it is related 
that taking advantage one Sunday of the absence 
of his minister, Dr. Stearns, who afterwards went 
to Amherst College as president, he attempted 
to introduce the abhorred doctrine into the pulpit. 

Now it was in those times the custom for the 
members of the congregation who were afflicted in 
mind, body or estate, to send written requests to 
the minister officiating, that prayer might be 
offered on their behalf. The phraseology might be 
"Mr. Bimelech Stone desires the prayers of the 
church, the same being very weak and low"; or 
"Mrs. Tremor desires prayers for the sudden death 
of her husband, that it may be sanctified to her 
everlasting good." On the way home, it would 
not be remarked by one hearer to another, that 
Mr. Stone was very ill, or Mrs. Tremor bereaved, 
but that they "had a note up." 

Sometimes the paper contained a suggestion 
to be acted upon without being read aloud. The 
note Dr. C. sent was meant to be of this kind. 
These were the words: "There is a slaveholder in 
my pew ; please to cut him up in the last prayer." 

But to turn from this digression to the public 
school which, to use Mrs. Burnett's phrase, is "the 
one I knew the best of all," viz., that founded in 
1809, of which I became a member somewhere 
in the twenties. Though the schoolhouse was a 
building of two stories, only the lower one was 
occupied by the school. The outer door opened 
into a little vestibule where, were nails for hanging 
coats and hats; here too was another door to a 
stairway with which we had nothing to do. The 
schoolroom itself — there was but one (a fine con- 



70 CAMBHIDOE 8KICTCUE8. 

trast to the spacious halls and classrooms of to- 
day) was furnished with clumsy desks or tables 
having a narrow shelf beneath and long benches. 
It accommodated perhaps sixty children. In the 
middle of the room was a huge stove for burning 
wood; also a long crack useful for keeping a class 
in line. 

The floor above our room belonged to a lodge 
of Freemasons. We never soared so high, but 
continued gfroundlings, as the phrase was in Ad- 
dison's day. 

What sums we ciphered ! For it pleased the fates 
To bind us close to slate pencils and slates, 
Adams* Arithmetic before our eyes. 
(He made it after he left Paradise. 
We cannot fsiincv that in scenes Elysian 
Adam and Eve knew ever Lone Division.) 
Oft-times we stood in rows with aspect solemn, 
Convulsive adding up some figured column. 
Sad fl;rew one heart I knew, and ever sadder. 
To find on every side a swifter adder. 

And when sometimes a sultry south wind blew. 
Our Baker found too hot his oven grew. 
Sent out his living things by two and two. 
As Noah from his ark was glad to do. 
There sat the boys and ciphered in the shade, 
And the soft air about their temples played. 
Bus^ and happy ones ; all smoothly went. 
While with their tasks legitimate content, 
But from the narrow way the least deflection 
Is pretty sure of no remote detection. 

The square is drawn ; its characters you know. 

Nine minor squares to fill with X or O, 

And he savs, ** Tit, tat, too,** who ^ets a row. 

** Tit, tat," says Tames, and marks it down, but hark ! 

** Too,** shouts the master, and he makes his mark. 

And looking backward, was it yesterday. 
Or was it rather scores of years away, 
When, standing up the vowel sounds to say. 



SOME OLD CAMBMIDOE SCHOOLS. 71 

** Long A in tater — gravy /^ one began, 

And smothered laughter through the circle ran. 

At close of day the roguish Thurston found 

That he could give aright one vowel sound ; 

Long O comes natural to the quivering lips. 

When the long A in fate meets with short / in whips. 

The principal of the school — ^in white flannel 
dressing gown not free from ink-spots caused by 
frequent wipings of his pen, with cowhide in hand, 
running with noiseless slippers along the tops of 
the desks to reach that boy in the far corner, 
unaware of his approach and now at work on the 
core of an apple — ^would no doubt give the 
scholars of to-day reason to suppose that the master 
had suddenly become crazy. 

Other punishments besides the cowhide are now 
also obsolete. No boy, for. example, is now made 
to stand on a bench with a bag of unbleached 
cotton tied over his head, and no girl has to wear 
a split stick shaped like a clothes-pin on her nose. 
We are told that cleanliness is next to godliness, 
but it hardly follows that wearing a sort of imitation 
clothes-pin on one's nose is conducive to virtue. 
But however new or odd or multiplied were our 
pains and penalties, they were looked upon as 
incidents in our daily life, to be avoided if possible, 
or to be borne with becoming fortitude. Children 
do accept their belongings as part of the essential 
structure of the universe. 

Much of a teacher's time was taken up with 
pen making and mending, for writing was well 
taught, and steel pens were still in the future. 

Beneath the desk, ye small offenders, quick. 
Where bits of quill and stings of conscience prick. 
But there stands solitary on the floor. 
One known among us as the monitor. 
Caught whispering he was, soon after dinner, 



72 CAMBRIDGE SKETCHES. 

And now he watches for another sinner ; 
Shortly he has one, and the two change places. 
William is idle, Harriet makes faces, 
Peter is laughing, Anne lets fall her m^ips ; 
So it goes on — an hour or two perhaps. 
But seldom longer ; sharp as Andrew looks, 
He finds no eye raised from the proper books. 
In vain he sudden whirls, east, west, north, south ; 
Sits a wise gravity on every mouth. 
Back seats nor front, nor boys nor girls once vary 
From studious diligence most exemplary ; 
Each pays great heed to his peculiar labors. 
And no one sayeth aught unto his neighbors. 
A model school : why surely at this rate 
All soon will know enough to graduate. 
This lasu till five o^clock. Alas! to tell 
The hit of him, unhappy sentinel. 

Listen a tale Chinese : Where Yang-tse-kiang flows 

There is a sort of folk, the story goes. 

Who live on boats or rafts and keep a stock 

Of ducks, tame ducks, for profit. This, their flock 

Daily goes out to eat what it can catch. 

But nome it comes to sleep and lay and hatch. 

The summons is the ringing of a oell ; 

Each drake and duck and duckline knows it well, 

And when they hear afar its nightly tinkling. 

Whatever may tempt, obey it in a twinkling. 

They crowd, they push, fly o^er each other*s backs. 

And the whole river is alive with quacks. 

The secret of this haste, this fluttering, skipping. 

Is plain to see : the last duck gets a vmipping. 

School done, without a moment wasting. 
Our flock poured out glad, careless, hasting, 
But our last duck had a most thorough basting ! 

O happy days and wise ! I need not tell 

How hard we worked when ** choosing sides ** to spell. 

Now wins the enemy, now our ranks swell ; 

*T is almost night, yet still the conflict rages, 

And heavy batteries fire from Walker^s pages ; 

Now here, now there, the favorite champion crosses. 

Sometimes our gains are ereat, sometimes our losses. 

But say, to them who, in life's earnest fight 

For victory strive, brings any triumph quite 

The overflowing, unalloyed aelight. 

The joy, as when our side spelled *' phthisic '^ right? 



SOME OLD CAMnRTDGE SCHOOLS, 73 

My sketch were faulty, with entire omission 

Of our great crowning glory. Exhibition. 

Though scarce could you expect one of my age 

All that was spoke in public on the sta^e 

To recollect, yet Shylock^s knife, Lochiel, 

And Young Pretenders haunt the memory still ; . 

And one named Norval of his Grampians vaunting, 

And grinding organs — nor the monkev wanting. 

One beau worth having I remember well ; 

Shall I confess? — the bow of William Tell. 

Nor is it soon forgot how once a quarter 

Sore trembled everv mother^s son and daughter. 

The vain, the timid, all felt perturbation 

Upon the morning of Examination. 

For there would come that day strange visitors. 

Part conscript fathers, part inquisitors. 

Not men susceptible of mirth or pity. 

Not friends and ministers — but the Committee. 

How truly awful was the warning hum. 

And the announcement, " Here they are, they come ! ** 

The bovs look bold and saucy, and each girl 

Gives the last finish to her favorite curl. 

They enter and bestow on either hand 

A glance meant to be dignified and blaiid. 

Now are our lessons weighed in the just steelyard — 

And oft found wanting too — of Mr. Hilliard ; 

Now are the copies of each urchin wayward 

^Neath the clear, searching eyes of Mr. Hayward. 

There was a class that Whelpley^s Compend used. 
Whose talk historic our small brains confused. 
Egyptian, Grecian, Roman facts we knew. 
And Carthaginian ; and we mixed them, too. 
Like Seidlitz-powder papers, white and blue. 
To the Committee then poured out the essence. 
Which made a very pretty effervescence. 
One of this class it was my hap to be. 
To say the world^s seven wonders came to me. 
That I was not the eighth, Hwas plain to see. 
Well I remember falterine on my tongue. 
The hanging gardens of old Babel hung. 
Failure was imminent. Just then I heard 
Soft whispered in my ear, the important word. 
No classmate breathed it, but more kind than just 
*T was gentle Whipple raised me from the dust ; 



74 CAMBRIDGE 8KBTCHE8, 

My prisoned memory felt dad release, 

And I went bravely on ana ** said my piece. *^ 

Our trials o*er, *' the chair ** made an oration, 
Found some improvement in our ** pronounsation ^ ; 
We heard the words ** deportment,** *' approbation,** 
Took a long breath, and a whole week's vacation. 

Note, — ^The foregoing sketch gives the names 
of the three gentlemen composing the School 
Committee, as recalled by the present writer. 
Could the wildest visionary dream there would 
come a time when a woman would be appointed 
"school committee man"? 



RECOLLECTIONS OF MY 
CHILDHOOD. 



Recollections of My Childhood. 



By Mrs. JOANNA HOUGHTON CLARK. 



HAVING been requested to write a few lines for 
this book, I "lend a hand'' and cheerfully jot 
down a few memories which may refresh those of 
others among my earliest friends. 

In all my childish recollections, from 1836 on 
toward the forties, nothing seems to linger more 
persistently than the frequent journeys down 
Main street to Ma'am Rand's store. This was 
kept by a sunny-faced, pleasant-voiced woman, 
who always addressed me as "Dear life, dear soul," 
from whose hand in exchange for my copper cents, 
I received many a sugar heart, either white or red 
as I preferred. There were jumping-jacks, too, 
of brilliant colors; open-work pewter baskets with 
covers, for fourpence ha'penny ; pewter frying-pans 
with a green and a blue fish in each (always the 
two, side by side); jews-harps of various sizes; lit- 
tle churns, in which I many a time made about a 
teaspoonful of butter for my dolls' table, and which 
in imagination I can still taste, it being strongly 
and horribly flavored with the pine churn; molasses 
gibralters and tiny peppermints dropped on paper; 
jointed dolls with smooth black painted heads, and 
high yellow combs, all the way from two cents to 
a ninepence in price. The children of to-day would 
be puzzled to give the value in those old times 
of a fourpence and a ninepence, representing then 
six and a quarter and twelve and a half cents. 



1 1 



78 CAMBRIDGE SKETCHES. 

What would they think to be told when purchas- 
ing goods that the price was ''two and thrippence/' 
•'three and ninepence" or "four and sixpence"? 
We older children remember the prices as thirty- 
seven and a half, sixty-two and a half and seventy- 
five cents. 

I think with actual pity of the childreil of the 
present generation who have no remembrance 
of such a store, with a bell which jingled lAerrily 
as the door opened, to call one of the two sisters 
from a back room. It is next to being without a 
remembrance of a grandmother's home in the coun- 
try, where the hollyhocks stood near the open win- 
dows, and the bees flew in and out, and the white 
floors were sanded, and the rows of shining tins 
full of milk looked so inviting, and the fruit cake 
smelt so sweet in the high cupboards, with a big 
wooden "button," as it was called, to fasten the 
doors instead of a lock. 

The two sisters who kept the store where I loved 
to linger, were regular attendants at the old Or- 
thodox Church on Norfolk street, where Rev. 
William A. Stearns preached faithfully for many 
years. My father used to assist in "taking up the 
collection," and always said if everyone should give 
as generously in proportion as these women, the 
results would be astonishing. 

Miss Abigail usually wore in the house a buff 
muslin turban, but for church the bonnets were 
something to attract attention, being made of black 
satin lined with yellow. Immense bows of broad 
gauze ribbon were placed between the crown 
which resembled a tin quart measure, and the front 
which was like a large tunnel. These bonnets were 
worn long after the fashion had passed away and 
given place to the small "cottage bonnet" or other 



RECOLLECTIONS OF MY CHILDHOOD. 79 

forms. What a bonanza one of them would be 
now! Also a fourpence ha'penny or a ninepencel 

School memories crowd upon me too: first a 
private one kept by Miss Caroline Pratt, then the 
public school, taught by Miss Ford; and another 
by Miss Almira Seymour, who one May Day, 
formed a procession of her scholars, and marched 
through several streets, preceding them as the 
"Queen of the May," with a long green barege veil 
hanging down at her back, and a wreath of flowers 
on her head. 

Perhaps that dusty march was responsible for 
my change of schools, as I was sent then to a pri- 
vate school kept by Miss Nancy Gibson in the rear 
part of a chapel on Austin street. In a small 
room adjoining was a trundle-bed where two or 
three of the very little children took a daily nap. 
Every desk had a lid, upon the inside of which was 
pasted this couplet: — 

Gsif V never yet did anything ; 
Try has done wonders. 

Then came Miss Mansfield's school, and Mr. 
Magoun's. Who does not look back with pleas- 
ure to Mr. Magoun's reign? I loved him, even 
though he inflicted many an indignity upon me, 
by causing me to follow him while he slowly moved 
through the seats on the boys' side, mending their 
quill-pens or filling their inkstands, thereby morti- 
fying greatly my sweet elder sister who never 
did anything wrong; and all — for what? Whisper- 
ing, Mr. Magoun called it, but in my opinion, it 
was "friends taking sweet counsel together." 

My copy of the old American First Class 
Book, the reader used then, is among my 
choicest possessions. It has my name written by 
Mr. Magoun, on the fly-leaf, dated 1844. 



80 VAMimWOB SKBTVUKS. 

We had singing lessons once a week given by 
Mr. Joseph Bird from Watertown, who drove down 
in a covered wagon, and sometimes brought pails of 
brilliant gold and silver-fish, for those who had 
paid good attention to his teaching. 

There are also indistinct remembrances of the 
election of William Henry Harrison, when our 
school children wore straw-colored badges, and in 
a few weeks' time, those were replaced by crape, 
which we all wore for one month. 

I remember a great red, white and blue ball 
covered with mottoes being carried through Cam- 
bridge streets; and through the kindness of Mr. 
John Liverniore I am able to state that "this 
ball was used in the political campaign of 1840 and 
was planned by J. Vincent Brown, a merchant of 
Boston. It' was made in Salem, Mass., and was 
about nine feet high. It was loaned to the Cam- 
bridge people for a general convention held at 
Concord, on the Fourth of July, and was carried 
on a team nearly to Lexington, and from there 
rolled the remaining distance, with ropes held by 
twenty men on either side." 

These are some of the many memories that are 
constantly recurring, and perhaps they will not be 
considered too personal by others who lived in the 
thirties of the century so near its close. 



A GUIDE TO HARVARD COLLEGE. 



A Guide to Harvard College. 

By MUs ALICE H. JOSE. 



T^lIE aim of the following sketch is to i>rescnt to 
^ the stranger, visiting Harvard for the first time, 
an intelligible and may we hope a faithful guide 
to its chief points of interest. The location of the 
University in Cambridge makes it easily accessible 
by all the electric routes from Boston which pass 
through Harvard Square. 

We have chosen to enter the beautiful grounds 
of the college campus at the West gate, the gift of 
Mr. Samuel Johnston of Chicago. This is an 
ornamental structure of brick with trimmings of 
freestone and wrought-iron. A tablet on the left 
informs us that — 

By the General Court of Massachusetts Bay 

28 October 1636 agreed to give 400 / 
Towards a schoale or colledge whereof 200 £ 

To bee paid the next veare & 200 £ 
When the worke is finisned & the next court 

To appoint wheare & wt building 
15 November 1637 the colledg Is ordered 

To bee at Newetowne 
2 May 1638 It is ordered that Newetowne 

Shall henceforward be called Cambridge 
13 March 1638-9 It is ordered that the colledge 

Agreed upon formerly to bee built at Cambridg 
Shal be called Harvard Colledge 

l*>om the tablet on the opposite side we learn 
that- 
After God had carried us safe to New England 
And wee had builded our houses 
Provided necessaries for our livelihood 
Reard convenient places for Gods worship 
And setled the civill government 



88 CAJUmtlDOK SKKTCIIRS. 

One of the next things we longed for 
And looked after was to advance learning 
And perpetuate it to posterity 
Dreading to leave an illiterate ministry 
To the churches when our present ministers* 
Shall lie in the dust 

New Englands First Fruits 

Passing into the college yard, two very ancient 
brick buildings greet our sight. Built in the early 
years of the last century, they have witnessed many 
stirring scenes. During the first year of the Revo- 
lution the Provincial Congress took possession 
of them as barracks for the American soldiers. 
That on the right is Massachusetts Hall, built in 
1 71 8, the oldest in the yard, and used for a dormi- 
tory with rooms for lectures and examinations. 

The building on our left is Harvard Hall. The 
province bore the expense of its erection in 1765. 
Its uses were manifold in the early days, and we find 
it mentioned as chapel, library and recitation hall. 
In the year 1775 while the American soldiers oc- 
cupied the building, the students went to Concord, 
where studies were resumed. On that year no 
public commencement was held, degrees being 
conferred by a general diploma. One noticeable 
feature of this building is its belfry, where hangs 
the college bell, which summons the students to 
lectures. In former times attendance at morning 
prayers was compulsory, and this same bell also 
called the students to these early devotional exer- 
cises. Many devices were tried to prevent the 
bell ringing at the early morning hour, and many 
stories of adventures at midnight are told. One 
Thanksgiving the students were anxious to present 
a turkey to the bell-ringer, and thoughtfully hung 
it to the tongue of the bell, whence it was finally 
taken by its delighted recipient. 



A GUIDE TO HABVABD COLLEGE. 91 

Passing beyond these buildings we come into 
the quadrangle. Stately buildings form its sur- 
rounding walls, and within are the grand old elms 
which grow to such perfection in the college yard. 
This enclosure rises to especial importance on 
Class Day evening. Then hundreds of colored 
lanterns hang in festoons from tree to tree, the 
brilliant fires of different hues brighten the sombre 
buildings, and the whole scene becomes a fairy 
land, through which Fair Harvard's guests wander 
on their way to spreads and dancing. Music in the 
open air by the various organizations connected 
with the college is another feature of the occasion. 

As we stand in the quadrangle facing the point of 
entry, we see another ancient brick building next to 
Harvard. This is HoUis Hall, built in 1763 and 
named for the family of Thomas Hollis, a London 
merchant who left a legacy to the college. Many 
noted names are associated with rooms in this build- 
ing, among others being Ralph Waldo Emerson 
(5-15-20), Henry D. Thoreau (23-20-32-31) and 
Wendell Phillips (18-16-11). 

Back of Hollis is Holden Chapel which was built 
in 1744 by Benjamin Coleman and named for an- 
other London family who befriended Harvard. 
For twenty-two years prayers were held here, but 
now for many years the building has been used for 
examinations and for a few recitations. The 
Holden coat-of-arms may still be seen on the west- 
ern front, and a noteworthy fact about the building 
is that it stands to-day ajmost exactly as it was built 
.so many years ago. 

In the space enclosed by Holden, Hollis and 
Harvard stands the Class Day Tree, a fine old elm 
which has witnessed the scrambles of many a 
graduating class. At four o'clock, the loveliest 



«2 CAMliJUDGE SKETCHES. 



hour of the June afternoon, daintily gowned maids 
and matrons, forming a very enthusiastic and ex- 
pectant audience, gather about the tree, which is 
encircled with a wreath of flowers at a distance of 
about eight feet from the ground. The air resounds 
with the class cheers of the undergraduates and 
alumni who form groups on the greensward. At 
five o'clock the senior class assemble in the quad- 
rangle, presenting a very odd appearance in their 
motley garments, with coats reversed and costumes 
generally of ill-mated parts. With lusty cheers 
for the college buildings the strange procession 
marches to the tree. After everyone has cheered 
himself hoarse, after honor has been shown to the 
favorite professors, athletes, the college, the classes, 
the ladies, and the alumni, the rush for the flowers 
begins. Frantic are the struggles to get a trophy 
from the garland just out of reach. Individual 
efforts are not ai^t to be successful, for just when 
one is about to touch the wreath, dozens of hands 
are ready to drag him back. Then some concerted 
action is planned ; a wedge, perhaps, is formed, with 
some agile champion raised on the shoulders of 
his classmates. Now he reaches the tree and, 
amidst the cheers of his supporters, tears away the 
flowers by handfuls, stuffing them into every 
available place about his clothing, and then, present- 
ing a very humpy appearance, he is borne away to a 
l>lace of safety where the treasured flowers may be 
distributed as precious souvenirs to fair admirers. 

Next to Hollis is Stoughton, a brick dormitory, 
built in 1805. Many clubs formerly had quarters 
here, and here, also, were the student homes of 
such men as Edward Everett (23), Oliver Wendell 
Holmes (31), Charles Sumner (12) and Edward 
Everett Hale. 



A aUJDK TO HARVARD COLLEGE. 95 

At the northern end of the quadrangle stands 
Holworthy, a dormitory built in 1812, in part with 
money raised by a lottery. For many years this 
hall was devoted to the senior class, and it is along 
the front of Holworthy now, that, on Class Day 
evening, the year of the graduating class shines 
out in figures of light. One of the claims to dis- 
tinction which Holworthy enjoys is that during 
his American tour some years ago, the Prince of 
Wales visited the hall, and left his picture as a 
memento of his visit. 

On the eastern side of the quadrangle next to 
Holworthy is Thayer Hall, the largest dormitory 
in the yard, built in 1870 by Nathaniel Thayer of 
Boston. 

The most prominent of the college buildings, 
because of its close connection with student life, 
comes next. University it is called, constructed of 
granite and completed in 181 5, being the first stone 
liuilding erected in the yard. The central portion 
was at one time used as a chapel, but now the 
building is devoted to lectures, and to the offices of 
the President, Dean, Secretary and Registrar. 
In the office of the President stands the ancient 
chair which was always used by him at commence- 
ment. Official notices are posted on the bulletin 
boards at the entrance and in the corridors. 

South of University is Weld Hall, a dormitory of 
brick with freestone trimmings, a gift of William F. 
Weld, in memory of his brother. 

The southern end of the quadrangle is formed 
by Gray's Hall, a dormitory built by the corporation 
and named for three generous friends of the Uni- 
versity. It is built of brick with three graiiite tab- 
lets inscribed respectively with the dates 1636 and 
1863, also the college seal. 



00 CAMimWGE aKKTCIIES, 

Directly back of this dormitory, facing Harvard 
Square, is Wadsworth House, a wooden structure 
built in 1726 in colonial style, and for many years 
the home of the college presidents. Many cele- 
brated persons have been entertained here, and 
it was at this house that General Washington had 
his headquarters before going to Cragie House. 
At present the building is used as a dormitory, while 
the brick addition in the rear contains the offices 
of the bursar and college printer. 

Facing Weld on the opposite side of the quad- 
rangle is Matthews, built in 1872 by Nathan 
Matthews of Boston. 

Southwest of Matthews and facing the square 
stands Dane Hall, a gift in 1832 from Nathan Dane 
of Beverly, Mass. Until Austin Hall was built, 
this was devoted to the uses of the Law School. At 
present it is occupied by the Cooperative Society, 
headquarters for books and student's supplies, and 
contains one lecture room. 

Passing from the quadrangle between Weld and 
Gray's we observe on the right a large granite 
building. This is Boylston Hall, the chemical lab- 
oratory, and was built in 1857. On the wall facing 
the street is a tablet which informs the reader that — 

Here was the Homestead 
of Thomas Hooker 1633-36 ■ 
First Pastor at Newtown 

Thomas Shepard 1636-49 John Leverett 1696-1724 
Jonathan Mitchell 1650-68 President of Harvard Collrfte 
First & Second Ministers uf Edward Wi^glesworth 1726-68 
the First Church of Cambridge First Hollis Professor of Divinity & 

Edward Wigglesworth 1765-94 
Second Hollis Professor of Divinity 

As we proceed on our walk Gore Hall, the Li- 
brary, comes into view. This imposing granite 
structure was completed in 1841, a gift from 



A GUIDE TO HARVARD COLLEGE. 00 

Christopher Gore. The original plan of the build- 
ing was that of a Latin cross, having octagonal 
towers at the corners of the principal part. In 1876 
an addition to the east was made for the book- 
stacks, and now further alterations are contem- 
plated. The library here numbers 323,000 volumes, 
with as many pamphlets. This number does not 
include the volumes in the special libraries belong- 
ing to the various departments of the college. The 
entrance to the hall is on the south side, where one 
may see a small gilt cross, a trophy brought by 
the Massachusetts troops from the siege of Louis- 
burg in 1745. In the original part of the building is 
the Art Room, containing many precious curiosi- 
ties. In a glass case one may see the only book re- 
maining from John Harvard's library, John Eliot's 
Indian Bible, Burns' "Scots wha hae" in the hand- 
writing of the author, the autographs of many 
famous men, besides a death-mask of Oliver Crom- 
well, and a large collection of Roman coins. The 
great privilege of using this library is extended to 
those not connected with the University, and its 
doors are open every week day, except legal holi- 
days, from 9 A. M. to 5 P. M. (2 P. M. during vaca- 
tions). 

As we leave the library, we may see the Presi- 
dent's house on the elevated ground to the east. 
This building is of brick and was a gift to the college 
from Mr. Peter C. Brooks of Boston. The old 
mansion house in the corner, next to the one just 
mentioned, is known as the Dana homestead. In 
1823 the family of Chief Justice Dana lived there, 
and after the cupola was added to it, astronomical 
observations were made here until the present Ob- 
servatory was completed. The next family to 6c- 
cupy the house was that of Dr. A. P. Peabody 



100 CAMBBIDQJS BKBTCJiJSS. 

from which fact it is sometimes referred to as the 
Peabody House. At present it is the home of Pro- 
fessor Palmer and his. charming wife, Mrs. Alice 
Freeman Palmer, formerly President of Wellesley 
College. 

Facing Quincy Square which lies to the south of 
the Dana House, stands two dormitories, outside the 
college yard and owned by private individuals. 
The more noticeable of the two is Beck Hall, named 
for the Latin Professor Charles Beck, and for many 
years considered the finest in its appointments as 
it surely was the most expensive of the dormitories. 
The broad front is rendered very attractive with 
bright window gardens, while the eastern side, 
overlooking the lawn, used for tennis and for Class 
Day spreads, is in its season richly decorated with 
the luxuriant Ampelopsis veitchii. 

The other dormitory, Quincy Hall, named for 
this noted Massachusetts family, has been recently 
built, thus embodying all the improvements which 
have been made in buildings of this nature. 

Within a short distance of Beck Hall, on Harvard 
street, stands Ware Hall, considered a model 
in its appointments for a dormitory. It is owned 
by private individuals. 

Let us now continue our walk around the eastern 
extension of Gore Hall. We shall first come to 
Sever Hall, a magnificent lecture hall of brick with 
ornamental work in sandstone, a gift to Harvard 
from Mrs. Anne E. P. Sever. This is considered 
one of the finest buildings of its kind in the country. 
Heretofore the Fine Arts department of Harvard 
has been in Sever, where has been kept a collection 
of 2,500 photographs illustrative of what is best 
and most instructive in art. These will doubtless 
be removed to the new Art Museum, upon its com- 
pletion. 



A aUIDK TO lIAIiVAnD COLhEUB. 108 

Appleton Chapel, to the west of Sev.er, will be 
easily recognized by its spire. The sandstone of 
which it is built was brottght from Nova Scotia, 
and the chiapel was completed in 1858. Here are 
held the religious services of the University, con- 
sisting of morning prayers, attendanc^e not com- 
pulsory, vesper service on Thursday afternoons 
from November until May, and Sunjday evening 
services. As the University is non-sectarian, 
preacher-s of all denominations officiate at these ex- 
ercises. The chapel was formerly used for notable 
wedding and funeral ceremonies, the obsequies of 
Professor Louis Agassiz, the eminent geologist and 
teacher, having been performed here. 

Next to the chapel is located the "William 
Hayes Fogg Art Museum of Harvard University," 
the latest addition to the buildings in the college 
yard. It is of stone, facing Cambridge street, and 
consists of two parts, the front portion with two 
stories for exhibition rooms, the rear part forming 
a semi-circular lecture hall. The purpose which 
this museum is to fulfil, as stated by the donor, is 
to furnish a place for the study and advancement 
of what is best in art. The exhibition space is 
necessarily limited, but, supplemented as it is by the 
resources of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, 
will amply justify the hopes of its founder. 

Leaving the college yard by the North gateway, 
a gift from Mr. George von L. Meyer of Boston, 
in 1891, our attention is immediately attracted by 
the grand outlines of Memorial Hall, glimpses 
of which have been had many times during our 
previous walk. At the entrance let us pause a 
moment and glance at the curious, old, octagonal 
building of brick in the triangular plot of land op- 
posite. This is the old gymnasium, built in i860, 



104 CAMBBIDOE SKETCHES. 

but long since outgrown for its original purpose, 
and now used for the engineering department of the 
Scientific School. 

Now turning our attention to the imposing struc- 
ture of brick and sandstone before us, with its 
graceful tower, one of the landmarks of Cambridge, 
and its beautiful windows of stained glass, we learn 
that it was built in 1874-6, through the generosity 
of the Harvard alumni. As a tablet on the right 
hand wall of this central or memorial portion in- 
forms us 

This hall 

Cprnmemorates the patriotism 

Of the Graduates and Students of this University 

Who served in the army and navy of the United States 

During the war for the preservation of the Union 

And upon these tablets 
Are inscribed the names of those among them 
Who died in that service 

Upon the walls of this main hall are the names 
of the honored dead, classed according to the de- 
partments in the college to which they belonged. 
Small crossed flags placed by the G. A. R. decorate 
each tablet, while various Latin selections, in praise 
of patriotism and valor, adorn the walls. The 
northern portion of the building is occupied by the 
dining hall, with accommodations for nearly one 
thousand persons, modelled after the English 
university halls. Light is admitted and softened 
by eighteen rich, stained glass windows, while the 
end wall is pierced by a handsome window of the 
same beautiful material, showing the seals of the 
University, the State and the United States. Every 
year the Commencement dinners take place here. 
In that part of the hall to the east we find Sanders' 
Theatre, named in honor of a college benefactor, 
Charles Sanders. The theatre is classical in plan, 



A (WIDE TO 11 A RV A HI} COLLRGK, 107 

having an elevated stage, a semi-circular orchestra 
with aisles raying out from it, cutting the tiers of 
seats into wedge-shaped portions. Over the stage 
is a Latin inscription, of which we quote the 
following translation: — 

Here in the wilderness • 

Did English exiles 

In the year after the birth of Christ 

The 1636th 

And the 6th after the foundation of the colony 

Believing that wisdom 

Should first of all things be cultivated 

By public enactment, found a school 

And dedicate it to Christ and the Church. 

increased by the munificence of John Harvard, 

Again and again assisted 

By the friends of good learning 

Not only here but abroad 

And nnally entrusted 

To the care of its own children, 

Brought safely through 

From small TO{;innings to larger estate 

By the care, and judgment, and forethought 

Of Presidents, Fellows, Overseers and Faculty 

All liberal arts 

And public and private virtues 

It has cultivated, it cultivates still 

But they that be wise 

Shall shine as the brightness of the firmament 

And they that turn many to righteousness 

As the stars for ever and ever 

Several notable plays have been given here by the 
college men, such as the Greek tragedy "CEdipus 
Tyrannus^' of Sophocles, the Latin comedy "Phor- 
mio," by Terence, and Ben Jonson's old English 
drama, "Epicoene; or the Silent Woman.'' In each 
case as faithfitl a reproduction of these ancient per- 
formances as modern conditions would allow, was 
presented to the audience. Every year many lec- 
tures of great educational value are given here, and 



]08 CAMBRIDGE SKETCHEa. 

in Sever Hall as well, by the professors of the 
University and other acknowledged leaders in their 
subjects. Concerts, too, by the various college 
musical clubs and by the Boston Symphony 
( )rchestra, take place here. Memorial Hall is open 
to visitors at all times during the year. 

As we leave the northeastern entrance to the 
liall, we find ourselves on Kirkland street, or "The 
Road to Charlestown," as it was known in Revo- 
lutionary times, the oldest highway in Cambridge. 
Turning to the west and following this street, we 
will look for a moment at the bronze statue of 
John Harvard. Through the generosity of General 
Samuel J. Bridge, we have here from the hands of the 
sculptor D. C, French, the face and figure of an 
English Puritan minister such as we may suppose 
the founder of the college to have possessed. Few 
facts concerning the life of John Harvard have come 
down to us. We know that he was a graduate 
from the English Cambridge University, for which 
reason the name of Newtowne was changed to 
Cambridge. After leaving England John Harvard 
settled in Chariest own, and at his death in 1638 left 
to the **colledge at Newetowne" his library and 
iSOO in money. This noble act on his part deter- 
mined forever the name and future of our Univer- 
sity. The statue was unveiled October 15, 1884. 

Continuing our walk and crossing Kirkland 
street, another group of college buildings comes 
into view. The first which we pass, a brick build- 
ing, is the Lawrence Scientific School, the gift of 
Abbott Lawrence of Boston in 1848. Innnediately 
back of this stands the Jefferson Physical Labora- 
tory, built in 1884. This building is completely 
equipped with all the apparatus necessary for mak- 
ing the most delicate and accurate experiments in 
physics. 



A (iUIDK TO HARVARD COLLKGJC. Ill 

The large brick structure with sandstone trim- 
mings at the west of these two buildings is Hemen- 
way Gymnasium where are to be found all the 
equipments connected with athletic exercise. The 
main hall is used for dancing on Class Day evening, 
and during vacation is open to visitors. 

At the left of the gymnasium, mof^ remote from 
the street, stands Austin Hall, better known as the 
Law School. A most impressive building it is, 
constructed of sandstone, with its arched entrance, 
sliowing the architect Richardson's work at its 
best. It was a most noble gift to Harvard from 
Edwin Austin. The library is at the left of the 
cMitrance, the rest of the building beiiig devoted to 
lecture rooms. Forming a frieze on the front wall 
of the building we find these words, "And Thou 
Shalt Teach Them Ordinances and Laws and Shalt 
Shew Them The Way Wherein They Must Walk 
and The Work That They Must Do." 

Northwest of Austin Hall may be seen a portion 
of Hastings Hall, a very fine dormitory recently 
built, which commands a view of Cambridge Com- 
mon on the west, and at the east overlooks Holmes 
Field, one of Harvard's playgrounds. Here the 
great inter-collegiate games take place, and the 
stands have accommodations for 5,000 spectators. 

Jarvis Field, another name associated with 
athletic sports at the University, although now 
wholly used for tennis, lies not far distant to the 
northwest. Through the generosity of Henry 
L. Higginson, Esquire, a third lot of land for athle- 
tic uses has been added to the college. Soldiers' 
Field, as it is called, lying on the other side of the 
Charles River, is yet easily accessible from the 
college. 

Two dormitories in the vicinity in which we 



112 



CAMBRIDGE SKJBTCIfES. 



find ourselves, still remain for mention. Built 
within the past year, they embody all that is best 
in buildings of this sort. The first, Perkins Hall, 
cornering upon Oxford street and Jarvis Field, 
is a gift from Mrs. Catharine P. Perkins, to com- 
memorate three generations of Harvard graduates 
in her husband's family. The other, called Conant 
Hall, stands at the corner of Oxford and Everett 
streets and was given to the University by Edwin 
Conant. 



SOME CAMBRIDGE LANDMARKS. 



TIIK PKABODY MUSEUM. 
THE AGASSIZ MUSEUM. 

HARVARD OBSERVATORY. 
THE BOTANIC GARDEN. 

CLARK'S OBSERVATORY. 



By Miss HENRIETTA S. LEAVITT. 



The Peabody Museum. 



IN one of the quietest comers of quiet Old Cam- 
bridge, on shady Divinity avenue, stand the two 
wings of what some day will be the great Harvard 
University museum. The Peabody Museum, and, 
farther up the street the Agassiz Museum, popularly 
so called, have now been standing for many years. 
At the rear of each, additions are occasionally built 
on, until now any passerby can see that the ultimate 
design is to unite the two museums in one great 
building. 

The Peabody Museum may be called the labora- 
tory of a new science. There is a sense in which 
all our modern science is new, yet most of the sci- 
ences have been pursued with some success since 
the Middle Ages. The study of anthropology in 
its different branches, however, was scarcely 
thought of until this century. History was a record 
of wars and kings and public events. We are but 
just beginning to realize that there is no study so 
interesting as that of man, especially in his social 
development. 

Early in this century, some interest was mani- 
fested in discoveries of prehistoric human remains 
in Europe. In our own country, stone arrow heads 
turned up by the farmer's plough, and the pottery 
and other contents of the mysterious mounds in 
the Mississippi valleys awakened some curiosity. 
Collections were made; yet there was so little 

117 



118 CAMBRIDOE SKETCHES. 

general and intelligent interest in these remains, 
that in 1840 an excellent collection of articles made 
by the Mound-builders was suffered to pass into 
English hands. 

Then a change took place. These relics became 
matter not only for curiosity-seekers, but for 
serious study. People began to recognize that a 
forgotten past might be partly restored through 
these fragments. We cannot know who were the 
kings of these people or what the results of their 
battles. We cannot know of their statesmen and 
political triumphs, — if so be that there were states- 
men and politics among them. In short their his- 
tory, in the old-fashioned sense, is sealed to us. 
What can we learn? 

For one thing, we may learn something of the 
antiquity of man. If the geologist tells us that the 
gravel from which certain stone tools are dug was 
deposited a certain number of thousands of years 
ago, the man who made them must be of similar 
antiquity. Of course the geologist may be mis- 
taken, and so our estimates of the age of man must 
be open to revision. 

Again, we may find out something about the 
habits and skill of the people of these remote ages. 
We may watch the development of man from age 
to age, seeing how he gradually improves in manual 
skill and intellectual forethought. We may at 
some time be able to trace a race history through 
these broken relics of past ages. 

Again, we may preserve the skeletons that are ex- 
humed. These, especially the skulls, are valuable 
race indices. Perhaps we may be able to establish 
the continuity of some of these people with some 
modern races. 

Wise men early in the century began to recognize 



i 



THE PEAHODV MUSEUM. lift 

the value of the information hidden in what were 
fi^enerally regarded merely as curious relics. Col- 
lections were begun, but collectors were feeling 
their way, and hardly knew how to arrange or study 
their material. 

In 1866, just at the most favorable time for begin- 
ning a thorough scientific work, George Peabody 
gave $150,000 for the establishment of a museum 
and professorship of American Archaeology and 
Ethnology, in connection with Harvard University. 
Harvard was thus enabled to have a leading part 
in the new work. Of Mr. Peabody's gift. $60,000 
was to be used for a building fund, and the rest 
was to be divided equally between a professorship 
and a museum fund. 

In the early days of the Museum, articles were 
stored and exhibited in Boylston Hall. The first 
section of the present structure w-as built in 1875. 
(ienerous as was Mr. Peabody's gift, it was not 
nearly sufficient to have permitted the accomplish- 
ment of all that has been done. The building alone 
has cost more than twice the amount of the original 
building fund. Other generous gifts have been 
made, and volunteer assistants in the field have 
contributed valuable articles. Although the origi- 
nal building has twice been added to. great quanti- 
ties of material are packed away out of sight. This 
is available for use by special students, but there 
is not room for it to be permanently exhibited. 

One of the most interesting rooms in the Museum 
is the large lecture hall on the first floor, for stu- 
dents in archaeology. On the walls hang many 
portraits in oil of Indian chiefs. In the cases 
around the edge is a somewhat diversified exhibi- 
tion — masks from New Guinea, wax models of dif- 
ferent tribes of Indians and Esquimaux, skeletons 



120 CAMBRIDOE SKETCHES. 

of different races, iniplcmcnts of war and peace, 
articles used in religions ceremonies. These are 
mostly modern. There are photographs, toa, of 
the places whence some of these came. Photo- 
graphs, indeed, are a feature of this Museum. On 
every floor, in almost every room, are photographs 
of the regions represented. In the lecture hall, 
also, is a model of the serpent mound of Hamilton 
County, Ohio, which belongs to the Peabody 
Museum. It was purchased with a special gift of 
$8,000, and is kept as a park, while explorations 
are carried on in the vicinity. 

The entrance to the lecture hall is guarded by , 

two carved and weather-beaten stone idols from 
Yucatan. Just inside the door is a cast of an 
Assyrian relief dating back to the ninth century 
n. C. This latter properly belongs in the room 
overhead, where the Semitic department of the 
University has a fine collection of Assyrian and 
other Eastern casts and remains. By courtesy, 
this collection is given a place in the Peabody 
Museum, until a place of its own can be provided. 

It is for the study of American archaeology and 
Ethnology that the Peabody Museum is maintained. 
Especial attention is given to North American 
tribes, although articles from Central and South 
America are welcomed. For the study of the race 
history of our own continent, it is desirable, even 
necessary, to have articles for comparison from 
other parts of the world. Antiquities from any 
.source are welcome if only they are properly veri- 
fied. Articles illustrating modern life among the - 
uncivilized and partly civilized peoples of the East 
are also received. 

It would not be desirable here to catalogue the 
curious, interesting and instructive exhibitions 



77/ K VEAH (> l> r M US E UM, 1 2 1 

which have been so skilfully displayed in the differ- 
ent rooms. Rather let us notice here the princi- 
ples upon which the exhibits are arranged. 

Objects are placed in the cases in strict geo- 
graphical order and the modern is separated from 
the ancient. The labels give account of the date 
and circumstances of finding the different articles, 
and photographs of the regions to which they 
belong are near at hand. Anyone can go and study 
for himself in these carefully arranged rooms. If 
the articles on exhibition are not numerous enough, 
the reserve stores, also carefully arranged and 
labelled, may be examined by the student. The 
study of these relics has only begun. What we have 
is incompletely understood, and many gaps remain 
to be filled by future discoveries. 

Go from room to room and from floor to floor, 
and see for yourself the suggestions as to mode of 
living and religion given by the long buried arti- 
cles now opened to the light. Study the mound- 
builders and the cliff-dwellers and other early in- 
habitants of our land, through their handiwork 
now revealed. Examine their tools, their weapons, 
their pottery. Then look at the illustrations of 
modern Indian life — ^the clothing, tools, religious 
articles, domestic utensils. How do the tribes 
differ from one another? What points of resem- 
blance can be discovered between modern and 
ancient? Are there any indications of continuity 
of race? Can signs be found of their connection 
with any other tribes in other parts of the world? 

Examine the foreign collections, ancient and 
modern, and draw your own conclusions. They 
may be crude; in many instances, probably, they 
will be incorrect, for you have been making a 
hasty survey where long and patient study is re- 



122 CAMBETDGK SKETCHES. 

(Itiired for the attainment of any somul results. Rut 
as you try to form some conclusions for youself, 
you will realize what an amount of interesting ma- 
terial is already owned and systematized by the 
Museum. 

You may despair, after a short trial, of finding 
correct answers for your scientific problems. At 
least you can enjoy standing by the broken, but 
bright-colored and graceful, often fantastic, shapes 
of Mexican and Peruvian pottery. It will recall 
strongly what you have read of the magnificence 
of those old empires. You may wonder at the 
perseverance and ingenuity of palaeolithic man, as 
you look at his stone weapons and tools, or exam- 
ine the millstones which ground maize perhaps 
thousands of years before America was "discov- 
ered.'* 

You will leave the Museum richer and wiser. 
You will have a new respect for those ancient 
lieoples who differed from ourselves, not so much 
in native ability as in that endowment of knowledge 
and experience which has accumulated for us during 
thousands of generations. You will be prepared 
to follow with new interest the researches of the 
men and women who are giving their lives to this 
study. It is a difficult and complicated subject, 
hut the material now being gathered and preserved 
will inevitably lead to a great expansion of our 
present knowledge. 




The Grive of Agaisii, 



The Agassiz Museum. 



MANY pilgrims go out to Mount Auburn, "the 
Westminster Abbey of America/' and few of 
them fait to stop and pay their tribute of respect 
before the tomb of Agassiz. There is a nobler 
monument to the great scientist, however, than 
even that noble tomb. His name ^and life work 
are perpetuated in the great museum which he 
established at Harvard University. Daily his name 
is on the lips of scores of people as they speak of 
the. "Agassiz Museum," and they can scarcely 
pronounce it without a sort of reverence. The legal 
name of the institution is "The Museum of Com- 
parative Zoology.*' In his modesty the great sci- 
entist did not wish to have it called by his name, 
but the people cannot be controlled by this wish 
of his, and probably they will always call it the 
Agassiz Museum. 

During Agassiz' long Cambridge life of early 
poverty and tardy success, the people were watching 
him with ever increasing affection. They mar- 
velled at the fossils and other specimens which 
overran his house when he scarcely possessed the 
ordinary comforts of life. After these specimens 
had been removed to an old boat-house down by 
the river, they took note of the hours he spent there, 
arranging them. Then, too, the public heard his 
marvellous lectures at the Lowell Institute. He 
brought home the deep facts of science to their 

12S 



I2tf CAMBHiDGK SKKTIJIIKA. 

untrained understandings. They recognized his 
enthusiasm and his genius, and loved him accord- 
ingly. 

Professor Agassiz's interest in his collection for 
its own sake, and especially for its educational 
value, was absorbing. While it was in the boat- 
house, and later when it filled a large old wooden 
building near the college, he could hardly rest for 
fear of fire or other accident which might so easily 
destroy it. Most of his time was devoted to it. 
Nearly all his money was expended upon it. In 
"Louis Agassiz: His Life and Correspondence," his 
wife quotes him as exclaiming during an illness: — 

''O my Museum! my Museum! always upper- 
most by (lay and by night, in health and in sickness, 
always — ^always !" 

It must be remembered that by his own efforts 
he had gathered a great collection; with his own 
money he was caring for it, and such care is costly. 
His private life was a constant struggle with the 
poverty thus voluntarily incurred. 

But better days were to dawn. Financial bur- 
dens were lightened by the very successful school 
for girls opened by his wife. In this school he him- 
self took delight in giving the young women their 
instruction in science. 

At last, in 1858, he knew the relief of having 
his burden shared. Mr. Francis C. Gray left $50,- 
000 for a "Museum of Comparative Zoology," to 
be established at Harvard. Land was at once 
given by the University, aid was granted by legis- 
lature and over $70,000 was subscribed by citizens. 
Now a suitable building could be erected and there 
were pecuniary resources sufficient to care for his 
beloved specimens. 

Although Agassiz was permitted to see only the 



THK AOASSIZ MUHRUM. 127 

beginning of the new institution, it has probably 
developed nearly as it would have done had he lived 
to direct it himself. He had gathered and trained 
his own assistants and they were thoroughly com- 
petent to carry out his instructions. Most fortun- 
ately his son was well acquainted with his designs 
and interested to carry them to completion. He 
has been curator of the Museum since his father's 
death and by his oversight and generosity has 
done much to bring it to its present rank among 
the foremost of the great museums. 

The first room one enters in the Museum is the 
realization of a favorite plan of Agassiz. He 
wanted a **Synoptic Room" set apart for a general 
view of the field of zoology. Here is shown the 
transition from the earliest fossil life, through 
vertebrates, to man. Only a few representative 
forms are displayed, and so one can see almost at 
a glance the relations of different orders of beings. 
It is a brief history of the animal kingdom from its 
first appearance. This room is apart from all other 
exhibits, and is, for the popular taste perhaps, the 
most instructive portion of the Museum. 

The bulk of the vast collection is arranged in 
many connecting rooms, to illustrate, according to 
the plan of Agassiz, "succession in time and distri- 
bution in space" of the forms of life. In one direc- 
tion, several rooms contain the more primitive forms 
of life — the earliest known species and their hum- 
!)le cousins of the present day. In the other direc- 
tion one finds the higher animals. Here are casts 
of extinct antediluvian forms with unpronounce- 
able names, spreading out their huge skeletons. 
From the ceiling hang the bones of whales and 
sharks. Elephants and rhinoceri, ^game oxen and 
bisons, almost startle one by their powerful, life- 



128 CAMBRIDGE 8KKTCIIB8, 

like appearance behind their glass cages. Small 
animals are not forgotten, and there are rooms full 
of birds, reptiles and insects. Every part of the 
animal kingdom is richly illustrated. 

In one room is an interesting collection of bones 
of different parts of the body compared in different 
species. In the same room are casts of the brain 
and other organs of man and the higher animals. 
On the walls of this room, and of other rooms, are 
pictures, mostly photographs of regions geologi- 
cally interesting. In rooms closed to the public 
are laboratories, with abundance of specimens to 
be studied and if necessary destroyed. Agassiz 
took especial pains to have duplicates, as many 
as possible, in order to permit the destruction of 
specimens for purposes of research. 

After going from room to room and from gallery 
to gallery, and seeing the crowded cases, one begins 
to appreciate in a degree the labor which has been 
expended upon the Museum, and learns to honor 
the memory of Agassiz more even than by the tomb 
in sacred Mount Auburn. 

From the Agassiz Museum proper, one passes 
into the Botanical and Mineralogical Museums. 
These occupy sections of the University Museum 
building adjoining die Zoological Museum. The 
mineralogical exhibition is extensive and interest- 
ing. The Botanical Museum consists mainly of 
the Blatscha glass flowers. These are imitations 
of flowers so exact that in most cases it is almost 
impossible to believe that they are not real. The 
glass is made to imitate the minutest variations of 
texture and color in different flowers. Along with 
each flower, mounted on the same card, are magni- 
fied models of the different parts. The study of 
botany is thus made easy. The method of manu- 



THE AaASSIZ MUSEUM. 120 

facture was a secret with Rudolph and Leopold 
Blatscha, father and son, the makers — or artists, as 
they may well be called. They must be scientists 
as well, and be accurate in the slightest details. 
The father died recently, but fortunately the son can 
carry on the work. 

The Botanical Museum also contains an inter- 
esting exhibit of the industrial uses of many plants. 
Sugar and other food products, hemp — natural 
and manufactured — vegetable ivory, different kinds 
of woods for cabinet making and many more useful 
products are illustrated. Of course all this is only 
a part of what Harvard has to offer botanical stu- 
dents. The extensive Herbarium and Botanical 
Gardens have a place of their own and are de- 
scribed elsewhere. 

With the nn'neralogical collection, a little farther 
on, the end of the building is reached. Probably 
the time is not far distant when that other wing, 
the Pcabody Museum, will be met and joined by 
further building. Then one can travel under one 
roof over the vast space and many departments 
of the Universitv Museum. 



Harvard Observatory. 



M O department of Harvard University is more 
^ ^ worthy of its pride than the Astronomical Ob- 
servatory. Founded only fifty-five years ago, it 
has from the beginning been one of the foremost 
contributors to the marvellous growth of astronomi- 
cal science during the latter half of this century. 

Its beginning was humble. The fine old house 
on the corner of Harvard and Quincy streets, lately 
the home of Dr. A. P. Peabody and now occupied 
by Professor Palmer, was its first headquarters. 
The round cupola on top is a relic of this period, for 
it was built to support an astronomical dome to 
shelter the small telescope then used. The first 
recorded observation was on the evening of Decem- 
ber 31, 1839. 1'^^c first director. Professor W. C. 
Bond, was appointed the following February. 

Professor Bond and his assistants worked en- 
thusiastically with such resources as they could 
command. The Observatory might have struggled 
long with its inferior equipment, for it had aroused 
no popular interest, such as is necessary in order 
to secure funds for any costly enterprise. But 
when the great comet of 1843 appeared and fright- 
ened the ignorant, it proved a harbinger of good 
for the industrious little observatory. Everybody's 
curiosity was aroused. People regretted that at 
Cambridge there was no instrument of sufficient 
power to study it and other heavenly bodies to ad- 



134 CAMBRWGK SKETCHES. 

vantage. Accordingly a meeting of prominent 
men was called in Boston, with the result that suffi- 
cient money was raised to purchase a telescope of 
the largest size. In August of that very year work 
was begun on the foundations of the great stone 
pier on which such a telescope nuist be supported ; 
and from that day to this, the Observatory has not 
lacked the best of modern equipments. 

It was an exciting day when the completed tele- 
scope was mounted on Observatory Hill. It was 
the largest refracting telescope in the world save one. 
That other one was of the same aperture (fifteen 
inches) and had been ordered at the same time with 
ours for the observatory at Pulkowa. In these days 
telescopes of twenty-five inches and over are not 
uncommon. Our fifteen inch instrument would 
look like a pigmy by the side of the forty inch 
Yerkes telescope. Yet even at the present day 
the Harvard instrument is remarkably fine. Its 
clearness and defining power are unusual, and for 
delicate work requiring great accuracy it is un- 
surpassed. 

Let us, in imagination, make a visit to the Obser- 
vatory. We can go past its back door on the 
electric cars, for this locality, once so retired, has 
been invaded by the trolley, and only the thick hedge 
of evergreen trees prevents serious embarrassment 
from the electric lights. Our pleasanter way will 
be to leave the car at Garden street and walk up 
the hill under the grateful shade of magnificent 
old trees. We have the grounds on our left for 
some time before we reach the entrance. Inside, 
we find it like a park. Still walking up hill we ap- 
proach the Observatory, in front of which is the 
pleasant home of Professor Pickering, the director. 

Above and behind towers the great dome. Near 



IIARVAIW OliSERVATOnr, i:]f> 

by is a smaller dome. Off to the right is a substan- 
tial brick building evidently belonging to the ob- 
servatory; and on reaching the top of the hill we 
see that behind, in the back yard so to speak, is a 
little cluster of domes, each surmounting a tiny 
building of its own. 

Of course our first desire is to see the large tele- 
scope, around whose pier the building was originally 
raised as a shelter. After climbing a few stairs, 
we find ourselves in a large circular room. Walls 
and ceiling are joined in one great curve, — ^in fact, 
they form the dome. This dome can be revolved 
on its "ball-bearings," spheres of bronze which run 
in a circular track around the edge of the room. 
We do not notice this at once, however, for in 
front of us rises the magic instrument. It is a 
ponderous mass, and we question whether so great 
a weight can be controlled conveniently; but we 
find that it moves at a touch. 

There arc certain difficulties in the use of so large 
a telescope, even if it is thus easily handled. In 
a large telescope, the apparent motion of the stars 
is so magnified that those at any distance from the 
pole seem fairly to rush across the field of view. 
Add to this the fact that the field of a large tele- 
scope is very small, and Professor Simon Newcomb 
may be understood when he says that with a tele- 
scope and nothing else one might spend a whole 
winter evening looking for Sirius, and on finding 
him, lose him at once and irrevocably. This dif- 
ficulty of finding and keeping stars is obviated by 
the "equatorial" mounting, as well as by the 
"finders," telescopes of low power and large field 
attached to the tttbc. When a star is found, the 
instrument can be clamped so that it can be moved 
only in one direction — that of the star's apparent 



l:)« CAMliUlhGE SKKTVUKS, 

motion. As fast as tlic star leaves the fiekl, tlicrc- 
forc, a touch of the instniment will bring it into 
view again. 

Obviously, however, if the star's apparent mo- 
tion were very great, it would take most of the 
observer's attention to keep it in the field. Any 
refined observation would thus be rendered impossi- 
l>lc. To remedy this difficulty, clock work is at- 
tached to the instniment. This is so arranged that 
the motion of the telescope is exactly equal and 
opposite to that of the earth in rotation. The ob- 
server is thus enabled to study and measure at his 
leisure, without a thought but that instnnnent and 
star are alike stationary. 

When equipped with the best of mounting and 
the most perfect of clock work, with stable founda- 
tions and adequate protection from the weather, 
the telescope might seem complete. But it is 
poised thirteen feet above the floor. The eye piece 
has a sweep of ninety degrees and is far out of 
reach most of the time. Without some means of 
getting to it, the instrument would be practically 
useless. It was for Professor Bond to meet this 
difficulty, and he devised the observing chair which 
is still in use. In appearance it is rather a formida- 
ble looking piece of machinery, but it is simple in 
use. By its means the observer can convey himself 
easily and rapidly to any desired part of the dome. 

It may be well for us to remind ourselves that an 
astronomer would consider it a waste of time simply 
to sit and look through the tube of the telescope. 
Unless he wants a half hour's amusement, he will 
attach to it one of the little instruments which are 
shown us, for measuring minute distances and an- 
gles, or for measuring or analyzing light. 

The Harvard telescope is much used for measur- 



JIA U VA UI) OliSER VA TOlf V. 137 

ing the comparative light of stars, or other heavenly 
bodies. Photometry, as it is called, is a specialty 
at the Harvard Observatory. Many photometers 
have been devised here, each adapted to some 
particular kind of work. A large variety of these 
is used with the large telescope. If none of the 
photometers in use seems to be exactly what is 
wanted for a particular piece of work. Professor 
Pickering or one of the staff invents a new one. 
The first one made was called A, and for a long 
time each new one received the succeeding letter, 
until the alphabet was exhausted. Now there is 
no special designation. 

There is another instrument much used with the 
great telescope and that is the micrometer. This 
is a device for measuring very small distances and 
is much used in the study of double stars. 

Before leaving the dome, we must read the list of 
donors printed on the walls. We ought also to 
step out on the balconies from which we have a fine 
view of Cambridge and surrounding towns by day, 
and by night an unobstructed view of the heavens. 

Down stairs is another instrument of the very 
greatest importance, — the meridian circle. This 
is a telescope of fair size, large we should say if we 
had not just come from the fifteen ii)ch equatorial. 
Its peculiarity is in the mounting. It turns on a 
rod pointing east and west, the ends of which 
are supported on heavy stone piers. It can there- 
fore revolve freely in the plane of the meridian. 
Any star may be observed just as it crosses the meri- 
dian, but at no other time. Attached to the instru- 
ment is a large circle, very delicately graduated. 
The exact angle at which the telescope is turned 
to observe any star, is shown on this circle. Thus 
the star's height above the horizon is obtained, and 



138 CAMBBIDOE SKETCHES. 

from this is obtained directly the declination, or 
distance from the celestial equator. The time of 
a star's transit is signalled, by means of an electric 
transmitter in the operator's hand, to a chronograph 
which records the beats of the astronomical clock 
in the basement. This chronograph was invented 
by Professor ]3ond and was very quickly adopted 
in other observatories. The time observed gives 
tlie star's right ascension which corresponds to 
terrestrial longitude, as declination does to terres- 
trial latitude. 

The meridian circle is the most accurate means 
of obtaining the exact position of stars. These 
positions are recorded in the star catalogue. It 
is also the most accurate means of obtaining true 
time. Until very recently Boston obtained its tme 
noon from this observatory. Now, however, the 
time is telegraphed daily from the observatory at 
Washington, and the Harvard time service has 
been discontinued. 

A beautiful little brass instrument in the same 
room, not more than three feet high, is a transit in- 
strument made in Russia. It can be used, like the 
meridian circle, for obtaining the time of meridian 
transit of stars, but not for declinations, as there is 
no circle attached to it. 

The astronomical clock is in tlte*basement, and 
is interesting to look at with its three dials, one 
for each of the three hands. It is regulated to 
sidereal time; that is, it makes its round of twenty- 
four hours between two successive passages of the 
same star over the meridian, thus gaining about 
four minutes a day over solar time. This clock is, 
perhaps, the most important instrument in the ob- 
servatory, for it is essential to the proper use of 
nearly all the other instruments. A fine new clock 



HARVARD OBSERVATORY, 189 

has been presented to the Observatory recently 
which will undoubtedly make some of the work 
easier, possibly even more accurate. 

On our way out of this building we must step into 
the library for a moment. Here are between seven 
and eight thousand bound volumes and nearly ten 
thousand pamphlets. A considerable proportion of 
these books and pamphlets contain records of ob- 
servations made at different times all over the world. 
The Harvard Annals alone fill a long row of thick 
quarto volumes. Those dry looking pages of 
statistics contain many interesting secrets for future 
discovery. 

Now let us see what are the other buildings. A 
good sized wooden house at a little distance, serves 
as a shop, and there are a number of small buildings 
scattered about, most of them domed. Most of 
these contain photographic instruments. Off to 
the right, a little way down the slope, is a brick 
building used for the storage and examination of 
photographic plates. 

Within a few years, photography of the heavens 
has come to have a leading place as a means of 
astronomical reseach. At Harvard, several tele- 
scopes are kept busy with photographic work. The 
advantages of this method are obvious. Unlike 
the human eye, so soon wearied, the photographic 
plate sees the more, the longer it is exposed. There 
is reason to believe that if a telescooe could be 
kept pointed night and day, with perfect accuracy, 
upon any source of light anywhere in the universe, 
it would finally record it on the sensitive plate. 

Nearly all kinds of astronomical work usually 
accomplished by visual observations can be done 
more or less admirably, or can be assisted greatly, 
by the photographic telescope. For instance, the 



140 CAMlinihQE SKKTCIIKS, 

comparative light of stars can be studied from 
photographic plates. The meridian photometer 
is an ingenious device for doing this in the most 
convenient manner, and the results are surpris- 
ingly accurate. 

Again, photography is an easy means of obtain- 
ing excellent charts of the heavens. These photo- 
graphic telescopes bring into view stars that cannot 
be seen by the eye, even with the most powerful 
telescopes. Thus we have a record of every star 
in the heavens, down to the faintest of which we 
can be made aware. The positions of the stars can- 
not be so accurately determined by these charts as 
by the meridian circle. But they are accurate 
enough for some purposes and, what is most im- 
portant, they give us a record of thousands of stars 
that never could have been observed singly. The 
plates of the same region taken with the same tele- 
scope at different times may be compared and any 
changes noted. The new star in Auriga, which 
drew so much attention two years ago, was found 
to have printed itself upon one of the Harvard plates 
weeks before its discovery. 

One of the most important uses of photography 
is in spectrum analysis. It is by means of the 
spectroscope that the most important advances in 
modern astronomy have been made. The rain- 
bow-colored band, crossed by its tale-telling black 
or bright lines, has let us into the physical secrets 
of other worlds to a marvellous extent. Here at 
Harvard the spectra are photographed by placing 
a prism in front of the object glass of a photographic 
telescope. Of course tlie prismatic hues are not 
reproduced on the plate, but the lines are very dis- 
tinctlv marked, and can be studied at leisure. 

The most interesting of all the photographic tele- 



JIAJIVAUD OliSEUVATOliY. 141 

scopes is the new Bruce telescope. This has an 
aperture of twenty-four inches, and is the largest 
pjiotographic telescope yet made. The glass is 
by Alvan Clark of our city. This telescope has 
been in use now for more than a year, and it reveals 
stars that never have been seen by the eye, even in 
the largest telescopes. 

It is designed to send the Bruce telescope, event- 
ually, to the station at Arequipa, Peru. This sta- 
tion is an integral part of Harvard Observatory. 
Situated high in the Andes, it possesses unrivalled 
meteorological advantages. The air is wonder- 
fully clear and pure. Add to these natural advan- 
tages the fact that it is almost the only observatory 
in the southern hemisphere, and its iinportance will 
be appreciated. The Bruce telescope will be an 
important addition to its facilities. 

The photographs are stored in a commodious 
building where a gifted woman, Mrs. Fleming, with 
her assistants examines the plates. She is in charge 
of this branch of the work at the Observatory, and 
publishes frequent articles in the astronomical 
journals. 

We have not seen everything there is at the 
Observatory, but we have seen what is most inter- 
esting and important in the equipment. If it is 
one of the long summer afternoons and we have 
made an early start, there will still be time to go 
over to the Botanic Gardens, which lie just across 
the street, almost under the shadow of the great 
dome. 



The Botanic Garden. 



I NSTEAD of being hidden from curious eyes by 
* a thick hedge of trees within the fence, like the 
Observatory, the Botanic Garden lies open for 
everybody to look in upon as they pass; and on the 
gate at the top of the hill, the stranger finds 
printed an invitation to enter. 

The Garden has, seemingly, a more intimate con- 
nection than has the Observatory with Harvard Col- 
lege. The professors at the Observatory rarely 
give courses at the college. The work is too ex- 
acting to leave the professors much time to teach. 
Those few fine instruments have too great value 
for pure scientific work to allow them to be much 
used as mediums of instruction or amusement. At 
the Botanical Garden, however, the college students 
are to be seen frequently, and the professors give 
courses at the college. 

Primarily, of course, the Garden exists for scien- 
tific research. It was begun in 1801 by Professor 
Peck, and has been under careful management ever 
since. Now it is an excellent collection of plants 
from all over the world, systematically arranged, 
and carefully labelled. Many rare plants are in- 
cluded in the collection. Rare and beautiful trees, 
too, are scattered here and there. A considerable 
tract of land has been set aside recently for an Amer- 
ican Garden. Here are arranged American wild 
plants. This is not by any means completed, but 

143 



144 CAMlUUnOK ShJCTCtiKS. 

it is hoped eventually to have a tolerably complete 
collection of the native plants of America. 

In the hothouses are gathered a profusion of 
rare tropical plants. Strange blooms meet the eye 
everywhere, and there is a wealth of color. Here 
are orchids in beautiful or fantastic shapes; and 
cacti, their dainty, rich-colored, fragile blos- 
soms contrasting strangely with the prickly, for- 
bidding foliage. Here are beautiful palms, reaching 
to the top of the high arched ceiling, and graceful 
ferns, rivalling the palms for size and beauty. New 
plants and trees are frequently received. Sometimes 
it is a matter of difficulty to keep them alive. A new 
tree fern has arrived recently from Australia, ab- 
solutely bare of foliage; yet it is hoped to make it 
live and flourish in its new surroundings. 

Harvard has other resources for the study of 
botany. Important and valuable as is the Botanical 
Garden, the Herbarium, in the hands of a skilful 
botanist, who alone is competent to use it, is much 
more valuable, because more complete. A good 
library, too, is an essential for thorough work in 
botany. Harvard is fortunate in having perhaps 
the best herbarium in existence, together with one 
of the finest botanical libraries in the country. 
Both library and Herbarium are a legacy from Dr. 
Asa Gray. 

Dr. Gray began his herbarium in early life. Dur- 
ing his service at Harvard he occupied the large 
house within the Garden at the top of the hill, still 
the home of Mrs. Gray. Roomy though the house 
was, it became overrun with pressed flowers. 
Closets and drawers were full. Even in the dining 
room stood cabinets fllled with the precious sheets. 

It was to meet the need of a better storage place 
that in 1861 Mr. Thayer of Lancaster, Massa- 



THE BOTANIC GARDEN, 146 

chusetts, gave the present convenient herbarium 
building. It is a substantial structure of brick, and 
fills the space between the hothouses and Mrs. 
Gray's residence. Within is ample room for the 
herbarium, and also for the library. 

On entering the herbarium building, one comes 
first to the large room where, in cabinets all about 
the walls, the specimens are arranged in' their 
proper order. Here assistants are working all the 
time, for the herbarium is a busy place. Specimens 
are continually being received, with requests for 
identification. These must be examined, and if 
new must be pressed, mounted, named and given 
their proper place in the collection. There may 
be also an advanced student or two working here 
within easy reach of herbarium and library. There 
may be botanists from distant parts of the country 
wJio are here for days and perhaps weeks, working 
in these favorable surroundings. 

The room adjoining the herbarium holds the 
library. Here are collected many rare books and 
pamphlets, some almost unique. It was originally 
Dr. Gray's private library, and he started it so early 
that he was able to secure many publications now 
exceedingly rare. A Flora of Greece like one in 
this library sold recently for eight hundred dollars, 
and this work is no more rare or valuable than sev- 
eral others to be found here. 

Some of the books are artistic treasures. One 
in particular, Flora Danica, is beautiful enough for 
a modern art book. This is in eighteen folio volumes, 
descriptive or ratJier illustrative, of the flora of 
northern Europe. The difficulty of the task accom- 
plished in it is indicated by the fact that it was one 
hundred years in being published. Every page 
contains a perfect reproduction in color of every 



146 CAMURIDGE SKETCHES. 

part of some plant — flower, leafage, roots. The 
work is so natural that one seems to be looking at 
the real flower. Each picture is accompanied by 
the botanical description. Indeed this book is 
a sort of more beautiful and less perishable her- 
barium of the region it covers. 

One of the treasured books of the library is a 
botanical treatise by Goethe, with the great writer's 
name on the fly leaf. Mrs. Gray is arranging a 
large collection of autographs, which when finished 
will be paced, probably, in the library. One auto- 
graph is that of Linnseus. Another is an autograph 
letter written with regard to the purchase of land 
when the Botanical Garden was started, in 1801. 

At one end of the library room is a collection 
of interesting relics. Here is an inkstand which 
was used constantly by Professor Gray. He had 
asked Sir Joseph Hooker, the English botanist, 
for something that had belonged to George Ben- 
tham, and Hooker gave him this inkstand, whicli 
had been long used by Bentham. Near this are 
Dr. Gray's dissecting microscopes, and the trowel 
he used in his field work. This was given him by 
his tutor, Dr. Torrey, who had himself used it. 
Close by is a seal made by Dr. Peck, the founder 
of the Garden, and intended for official use. Some 
quaint little portraits of botanists hang near. 

There is a remarkable collection of portraits at 
the Herbarium. This, too, was Dr. Gray's private 
collection. There are portraits of nearly all of the 
older generation of botanists, including one of 
Jussieu, and two of Linnseus. One of the latter 
is an oil painting, done expressly for Dr. Gray 
by an artist who knew Linnaeus. Dr. Gray himself 
is represented by portrait and bust. 



Clark's Observatory. 



r\OWN near the Charles River, a person about 
'^ to cross the old Brookline bridge spies through 
the trees what looks like an astronomical dome. 
Old citizens of Cambridge regard it with pride, and 
speak of it as "Clark's Observatory." It marks 
the site of the world-renowned telescope factory of 
Alvan Clark and Sons. 

The story of its beginning is romantic. Mr. Al- 
van Clark was known in early life as a successful 
miniature painter. His son, George B. Clark, be- 
came a student at Phillips Academy, Andover. 
The dinner bell broke, and the boy obtained the 
fragments. Taking them home, he melted down 
the metal over the kitchen fire, with the avowed 
intention of making a telescope. His father found 
out what he was doing, and was glad to give him 
a helping hand. The two succeeded in making a 
good reflecting telescope. They became so much 
interested in the work, that they made other re- 
flectors together, and attained considerable skill. 

Then it occurred to them to try to make lenses 
for a refracting telescope. There was no firm, in 
this country or in England, which undertook to 
grind astronomical lenses. The twin fifteen-inch 
telescopes at Harvard and Pulkowa Observatories, 
then the largest in the world, had been made in 
Germany, and it was hardly expected that they 
would be surpassed. The grinding even of small 

140 



150 CAMBRiDOE SKETCtfES, 

ol)ject glasses is a difficult art which, at that time^ 
had been lost iij England, and had never been at- 
tempted in America. Notwithstanding the inherent 
difficulty of the task, increased many fold by the lack 
of teachers, the father and son worked away un- 
daunted. At last they produced a four-inch tele- 
scope so good that Mr. Clark asked permission to 
exhibit it to Professor Bond at Harvard Observa- 
tory. The exhibition was a failure, not from any 
defect in the glass, but because it was not suitably 
mounted. Mr. Clark found means of correcting the 
difficulty, but his merit remained unrecognized for 
many years. American observatories ordered their 
instruments from Germany, not dreaming that their 
wants could have been supplied by a master here 
at home. 

It was an English amateur astronomer. Rev. W. 
R. Dawes, who first appreciated the skill of the 
Clarks and brought them into notice. He found 
their glasses to be of remarkably fine quality, and 
began to give them orders. They made several 
telescopes for him, and as he was known to be an 
unusually good judge of telescopes, this attracted 
attention, and Mr. Clark obtained a tardy recog- 
nition in his own comitrv. 

His first large order was for an eighteen and 
one-half inch glass for the University of Mississippi. 
This was three and one-half in^hesi greater than the 
lens of the Harvard telescope, which had remained 
unsurpassed for twenty 3'ears. In spite of the 
skill of Mr. Clark, the order could not have been 
filled, but for his good fortune in obtaining glass 
discs of the requisite size and purity. The casting 
of optical glass is a delicate and difficult art, and 
there are but one or two firms in the world capa- 
ble of producing discs of large size. After a long 



CLARK'S OB8ERVATOBY. 161 

wait for the glass, the telescope was begun and 
successfully completed. Before it left the workshop 
of the Clarks it made them famous by their discov- 
ery, through it, of the companion star of Sirius. 
For this, as the most interesting discovery of the 
year, the French Academy of Sciences . awarded 
Mr. Clark the Lalande medal. The telescope was 
finished in 1863, but did not go to Mississippi on 
account of the breaking out of the Civil War. In- 
stead, it was sold to a private association in Chicago. 

From that time the size of the aperture of tele- 
scopes has steadily increased. The Clarks have 
several times been privileged to have in their work- 
shop glasses larger than any before made. One 
of the best known of these is the twenty-six inch 
glass now at the National Observatory in Washing- 
ton. This, with its twin, made at the same time 
and sold into private hands, long held the place of 
the largest telescope in the world. It was com- 
pleted in 1873. Again and again, however, this 
aperture was exceeded imtil the famous Lick tele- 
scope aroused the extraordinary popular interest 
of a few years ago. The Lick telescope is of thirty- 
six inches aperture, and promised to hold the 
first place for many years. But the new Chicago 
University wants to be first in everything, and so 
of course wishes to own the largest telescope in the 
world. The man has been found to make the 
princely gift, and now (1895) the object glasses for 
the forty-inch Yerkes telescope are lying nearly 
finislied in Mr. Clark's workshop. Cambridge 
people have come to feel that if a telescope of ex- 
traordinary proportions is to be made, of course it 
must have its lenses ground at Clark's. 

A visit to the modest shop where all this work 
has been done, is full of interest. Everything is 



I 

162 CAMBBIDOE 8KETCUE8. 

I 

for use, not for show, and there is no attempt to 
make any tool finer than it need be to meet its pur- 
pose. But everything is exactly adapted to its 
purpose. Almost every stage of telescope making 
may be seen here usually, from the rough discs to 
the finished instrument; though at any particular 
time, some stages of progress may not be exem- 
plified, for telescopes are not turned off by thous- 
ands, like boots and shoes. 

The discs for the lenses come from the manufac- 
turers in flat, square plates of such thickness and 
diameter as may be needed for telescopes of given 
sizes. The surface is not polished, save at two 
places on the edges, through which one can look 
into the glass and out across its greatest diameter. 
So perfect is the clearness, that a thickness of sev- 
eral inches does not seem to obstruct the sight any 
more than so much air. Mr. Clark, however, does 
not accept it as perfect because of this apparent 
clearness. Every disc of optical glass is subjected 
to numerous tests before being pronounced suita- 
ble for use. Flaws that could not be discovered 
by the eye are searched for with ingenious instni- 
ments. Very large discs are not sent in this rough, 
square form, but are rounded and polished over the 
whole surface. These come very carefully packed, 
as well they may, for the discs atone, before they 
have been touched by Mr. Clark, are, when large, 
worth thousands of dollars. 

After testing the purity of the glass, the first 
process is the grinding. This is begun with very 
coarse stone and sand until an approximately cor- 
rect shape is reached. Then emery of finer and 
finer quality is used, until the shape is as perfect as 
it can be made by computation. Then the polish- 
ing is quickly done, and the lens is apparently 



CLARK'S OBSERVATORY. 168 

finished. But it is only begun. The larger part 
of the work is yet to be done. A perfect object 
glass cannot be made by theory; it must be tested 
over and over again. The first tests show the prin- 
cipal defects, which are remedied as they are dis- 
covered. Then the process becomes increasingly 
delicate. Every part of the lens is tested by in- 
genious devices, and minute corrections are made. 
After months of this sort of work, the glass may be 
tried out of doors in a temporary frame. Then 
more corrections follow. As long as Mr. Clark has 
a telescope in the shop he feels he can do something 
to improve it. At this writing, the object glasses 
for the Yerkes telescope have been practically done 
for more than a year, yet Mr. Clark expects to keep 
them for several months still, making final minute 
corrections. Of course a small lens can be made 
in a much shorter time. 

The nervous strain of making a large object glass 
is severe. Mr. Clark is not sure that he would 
undertake to exceed the forty-inch glass, if he 
should be asked. He certainlv would refuse unless 
allowed a voice in the selection of the place where 
it should be mounted. The finest of glasses would 
be of little use, unless suitably mounted. Indeed, 
the larger and finer the glass, the more imperative is 
a good mounting. So the manufacture of mount- 
ings is a very important part of Mr. Clark's busi- 
ness. A large space is given up to this, and one 
soon discovers that in its wav the work is as delicate 
as the grinding of the lenses. No ordinary ma- 
chinery or labor can be employed. Microscopical 
accuracy must be observed in every part. 

After looking at the different processes in the 
manufacture of a telescope, the visitor may be for- 
tunate enough to see a complete telescope mounted 



164 CAMHlillXiE SKETCHES. 

before sending to the purchaser. Its value and 
beauty are likely to be appreciated as would hardly 
have been possible before understanding something 
of the long, and delicate, and complicated processes 
of its manufacture. Soon it will be taken apart, 
packed carefully, and shipped to a place perhaps 
thousands of miles distant. Other telescopes are 
in process of manufacture, and will in turn be sent 
to places near and remote. So the unpretentious 
work-shop supplements the great Observatory, in 
making Cambridge one of the scientific centres of 
the world. 



THE CRAGIE HOUSE. 

Washingion^s Headquarters and Longfellow'* s Hotne.* 

BY CHARLOTTE PISKE BATES. 



Behold ! a double glory resteth here. 
Wherein was housed in Revolution's time 
A man who while a king refused a throne. 
Save in his country's grateful heart alone ; 
And who bv singleness of soul sublime 
Has made nis name to every people dear. 

And he who wore the poet's anadem 

Kept the old relics in their primal place, 

Reviving yet the age of Washington : 

Poet and statesman — how their fate is one 

In greatness, goodness, and a world's embrace. 

Though time and genius widely parted them. 

A reverent love has kept the olden pile 
Almost untouched by innovating hands ; 
Nor has Art stinted Nature, — here she lies 
In ancient ampleness to bless the eyes. 
Beyond are spread the open meadow-lands 
That stretch away to catch the river's smile. 

From massive clumps of lofty lilac trees 
Pours forth the searching fragrance of the spring. 
Greeting the sense, while vet unseen the source ; 
And when the summer*s glow hath spent its force. 
And birds no more in elms and lindens sing. 
Millions of winy leaves inflame the breeze. 

And winter holds here an unwonted sway ; 
The towering trees with honors long since dead. 
And charged with snows, still leave the fancy warm 
To feel that Time's or Nature's chilling storm 
By Fame eternal shall be buffeted. 
Nor vital greatness suffer cold decay. 

But let the pi]fi;rim come what time he will. 
Here is evolcea Thought's majesty of mood ; 
Here she moves on with slow, imperial gait, 
Since two such Presences upon her wait. 
Lo ! Past and Present mix, — a mighty flood 
Beside whose stately flow the lips grow still. 

* Revised slightly from its original, in " Risk and Other Poems," 1B79. 

168 



SWEET AUBURN AND MOUNT 

AUBURN. 



Sweet Auburn and Mount 

Auburn. 



By Mrs. CAROLINE F. ORNE. 



UNDER these two names — Sweet Auburn and 
Mount Auburn — have the beautiful grounds, 
now endeared to countless hearts, been known 
and loved for more than a century. 

m 

In 1635, Simon Stone, an English gentleman, 
came to New England with his family and settled 
on the banks of the Charles River; and his broad 
lands, after having passed from father to son in un- 
broken line of descent, for over two hundred years, 
form now portions of the Cambridge Cemetery 
and of Mount Auburn. In the former a small tab- 
let, marked Simon Stone, denotes the spot where 
still lives and bears fruit one of the ancient pear trees 
planted by the pilgrim's hand, and looked on with 
reverential interest by his descendants to the 
eleventh generation. Stone's Mount, on which the 
Tower in Mount Auburn stands, formed a part 
also of the many acres of Simon Stone and his 
descendants. 

These beautiful grounds possessed every variety 
of charm that nature could bestow. The hills were 
covered with a great variety of trees, among which 
the oak, the chestnut, the pine and the walnut were 
prominent, forming a delightful shade and a win- 
some retreat from o'er burdening care. The 
ground was carpeted with wild flowers from the 

169 



1(J0 CAMBRIDGE SKETCHES. 

earliest spring to the latest fall. The foliage was 
ever beautiful, from the first tender greens of the 
leaves dancing on their light stems against the pure 
and delicate blue of the overarching sky, to the 
gorgeous gold and crimson and purple of the royal 
robes of autumn. There were deep hollows, and 
shady dells, and long tree-clothed ridges, on either 
side of which were deep ponds, whose tranquil 
waters shimmered under the shadowing canopy of 
leaves, stretched over them by the long arms of the 
lofty trees. There were grassy slopes, and steep 
descents, and winding ways that lured the straying 
feet to explore the mystery that might lie beyond; 
and stretches of level greensward, and swampy 
lands where the most daring foot must be wary, 
and whoever would secure the sweet swamp honey- 
suckle, or the early cowslip, or the bright blue iris, 
must have a quick eye and springy limbs. Here 
the boys and girls that went a-niaying gathered the 
hepaticas and houstonias, and danced round the 
May-pole; here the botanist found store of treasures 
for scientific lore; here the good housewife gathered 
her stock of fragrant roots and herbs for household 
use; and the children shouted with delight over the 
checkerberries, bunchberries, partridge berries and 
wild strawberries in their season. 

Under the leafy coverts the quail hid her brood, 
and piped her warning cry — "More wet, more wet I'* 
From the hollow stumps and fallen trunks the 
partridge drummed. In its den hid the red fox; 
lithe squirrels sprang from limb to limb, chattering 
and scolding at intniders; many birds sang and 
built among the branches; the spotted turtles crept 
down to the water-side; little green snakes glided 
through the undergrowth and nobody feared them, 
black snakes and adders fled from the step of man ; 



8}VJEET AUBURN. 161 

the hoot of the owl startled the belated lover of 
nature who lingered too long in the solitudes. 

Here in the moonlight nights gathered youths 
and maidens, and listened to the soft tones of the 
flute and flageolet, and sang sweet songs, and sat 
under the scattered trees on an open knoll near the 
Stone mansion, hard bv the river. 

Far and wide was Sweet Auburn known, and 
dear to many hearts, being full of sweet memories. 

From its highest hill, Stone's Mount, the pros- 
pect stretched wide and beautiful on every hand. 
A grand old oak stood on the summit; in the 
boughs of this a seat was constructed to which 
access was gained by a ladder of easy ascent. This 
was the favorite seat of the last owner of the ances- 
tral acres. From this mount of vision could be 
descried by the aid of a spy-glass, Boston and its 
harbor and islands, Charlestown, the young towns 
beyond, Lynn and Salem far away and faintly lined, 
Watertown and West Cambridge (now Arlington) 
near by, Fresh Pond sparkling almost under his 
feet, tlie hills of Newton across the river, Brighton 
nearer still, the marshes, the winding river, classic 
Cambridge, historical Dorchester, and Roxbury — 
an unequalled panorama of town, village, hill, for- 
est and many waters, orchards and gardens, mead- 
ows and fields of waving grain. No wonder the 
old oak furnished so great an attraction for its 
numerous visitors. 

To the poet Sweet Auburn was a spot of romantic 
interest. It was the theme of many a lay, and dear 
to many a heart. 

But the time came when it was to be yet dearer 
and more widely sacred, when as Mount Auburn 
it was to have a national reputation. Probably 
no place in the world was ever more naturally beau- 



162 CAMBRIDGE SKETCHES. 

tiful and appropriate for the city of the dead, or 
more attuned to the sacred sorrow and upward- 
looking hope of the living who mourned their de- 
parted. 

Thou who art weary of the world^s wild strife. 
Leave for a time the busy scenes of life. 
Come to these shades ; in meditation calm 
For thy chafed spirit shall be found a balm. 

Thought, in this lovely place, more holy grows, 

Feeling^s deep current here more tranquil flows, 

A calm, a soothing influence o^er the heart 

These scenes so £&ir, so beautiful impart. 

Blest, O Mount Auburn, be thy leafy shades ! 

Blest be thy hills, thy streams, thy cool, green glades! 

The solemn service of the dedication of the lovely 
grounds as the holy resting-place sacred to the 
dead was held in Mount Auburn, September 24, 
1831. 

Calm was the morning of that lovely day. 

The autumnal sun in eolden splendor lay 

On the smooth turf, the broad enamelled plain, 

The waving harvest field of ripened srain. 

And shed its glory o>r the forest wide. 

In rich and glowing colors deeply dyed. 

Upon the earth the cloudless heavens smiled, 

The soft southwest breathed perfume faint and mild. 

Such kindly influence from above was shed 

Upon that day which gave thee to the dead. 

Where the green hills, rising abrupt and steep, 
Guard that calm dell where peaceful waters sleep. 
An earnest multitude assembled there. 
Listened with reverence to the solemn prayer. 
That, rising through the dim aisles of the wood. 
Went from full hearts up to the living God. 

There, in beautiful Consecration Dell, seated on 
the green hillsides, under the shadowing trees, 
in all their glory of brilliant autumnal foliage, that 
great congregation of thousands lent themselves 



SWEET AUBURN. 163 

with reverent silence and profound delight to the 
enjoyment of the eloquent address of Judge Story, 
the accomplished scholar and eminent jurist, the 
man justly honored and beloved of all. There was 
a burst of solemn music bv the band, and a thousand 
voices united in a grand melody as the hymn of 
praise ascended on high. It was a scene and a time 
never to be forgotten by those so fortunate as to 
be present. 

Since that perfect autunmal day, an innumerable 
multitude have been laid in their last silent sleep 
to dreamless rest under the embowering trees. 

Now all the winding ways, the secluded path, 
the hillsides, the hollows, the long ridges, the 
mount, are marked as the resting-places of the 
statemen, the warriors, the scholars, the philan* 
thropists, the heroes, the sages, the poets, the 
scientists, the Christian teachers, the beloved and 
honored women, to whose memories all the world 
comes to do reverence in this city of the departed, 
this still and silent land. Yet not still, yet not si- 
lent; for all the sweet voices of nature, the song of 
birds, the dropping of waters, the wind's soft sighing 
that stirs the trembling leaves, the tremor that 
thrills along the grass, the faint rustle of the wav- 
ing ferns, the hum of bees, the shrill call of insects, 
— are they not all meet for the requiem service of 
the silent sleepers? 



IDLESSE. 

BY MRS. CAROLINE P. ORNE. 



Out upon the swelling wave 

Sweeping onward toward the shore. 
Lies and swin|;s a tiny boat 

But with neither sail nor oar. 
If I were in that little boat 
I would not He and rock and float 
Up and down, from side to side, 
Rolling with the rolling tide. 

Far away the glimmering light 
Underneath the horizon line 
With its faint mysterious shine, 

And its wavering, dark and bright, 
Luring from the quiet shore 

Would draw me, draw me ever thither, 
Till I learned the mystery 

Of the white-winged snips and whither 
O^er the wide, far-reaching sea, 
Their bold pinions bear them free ; 

Till those strange, rich lands I found. 
Whence the mariners brown and old 

Brin^ the treasures of the East, 
Bring the spices, pearls and gold, 

From tne earth's remotest bound. 

Up and down, from side to side. 
Rolling with the rolling tide. 
Lies and rocks the little boat 
And I watch it rock and float, 

As I lie and idly dream 
Of a world beyond the sea, 
And a voyage that cannot be ; 

Till half unto myself I seem 
That I am but a freightless boat 
On a tossing sea afloat. 
Without a sail, without an oar. 
To bear me from the fruitless shore. 



IM 



THE RIVER CHARLES. 



The River Charles. 



By Mrs. EMMA ENDICOTT MAREAN. 



TO-DAY we have our first spring walk. It is a 
short one, hardly more than down to the river, 
but it is pleasant to note the deepening green of the 
grass, and still more pleasant to watch for a moment 
the gentle river itself, rippling here and there, but 
seeming unconscious of the broadening bay and the 
ocean not far distant. A single white-shirted, bare- 
armed rower glides past us in his slender boat, while 
the red-tipped oars drop vivid beads of color into 
the water. As we look down from the street above 
a wave of indignation and shame takes away the 
momentary delight. Why has our river been so 
neglected? Why is it not to-day what surely it 
must become in the future, a chief ornament of our 
city? To-day it is at its height and the waves glim- 
mer and glance in the afternoon sunlight, as if 
trying to promise beauty and refreshing to an unde- 
serving city, if only the chance be given. 

Nothing is more eternal than a river. Wilder- 
nesses vanish, meadows and fields change their as- 
pect or give way to city walls and brick pavements, 
but a river flows on, either indiflferent to the changes 
upon its banks or ready to adapt itself to them with 
lovely hospitality. Our Cambridge river slipped 
and curved its way through these marshes in some- 
tliing the same fasliion long before its shores knew 
the sound of the white man's axe, and when its In- 
dian name, Quincboquin, meaning circular or 
crooked, was in common use among those who 

167 



168 CAMBRIDGE SKETCHES. 

alone knew its windings. It has known less peace- 
ful days than these. Who can fancy the terriiile 
scenes that may well have happened here, when its 
chief use was to mark the boundary line between 
two hostile tribes, each quick to resist encroach- 
ments on their territory? 

It is not quite easy to imagine just how it fitted 
into its surroundings two hundred and eighty-one 
years ago, when it was first christened with its Eng- 
lish, name. The days of his dignified and unhappy 
Majesty, King Qiarles the -First, seem sometimes 
far away, but it brings them a little nearer to remem- 
ber that he was only a prince, '*Baby Charles" as 
they used to call him, at the time when Captain 
John Smith gave his name to the just-discovered 
and disappointing river. No Hudson was this be- 
guiling stream, which promised much in its wide 
welcome to the eager adventurers, but soon be- 
trayed its secret of dependence on the ebb and flow 
of the tides, confessing its narrow banks and its 
country manners. Little did sturdy Captain Smith 
imagine that these same banks would one day give 
peace and protection to the judges of his unfortu- 
nate niler. The regicides, Gof¥e and Whalley, came 
in the same ship that brought the news of the 
Restoration. They must have been dignified and 
self-respecting refugees, received courteously by the 
Governor, as they were, and visited by the principal 
persons of the town. The magistrates of Cam- 
bridge "entertained and feasted them with great 
solemnity" say the old records, and the river rippled 
on, unashamed of its name. 

The name and nothing more was the bequest of 
Captain Smith to the stream. The first event of its 
witnessing that nearly concerns us was the "semi- 
military picnic," as Colonel Higginson aptly calls 



THE RIVER CHARLES. 100 

it, two hundred and sixty-five years ago, when an 
exploring party came hither, seeking a place for a 
fortified town which should be the seat of govern- 
ment. Deputy-Ciovernor Dudley was the ruling 
spirit in the choice of this place, and Johnson de- 
scribes the plan in such quaint words as these: "At 
this time, those who were in place of civil govern- 
ment, having some additional pillars to underprop 
the building, began to think of a place of more 
safety in the eyes of man than the two frontier towns 
of Boston and Charlestown were, for the habitation 
of such as the Lord had prepared to govern this 
pilgrim people. Wherefore they rather made 
choice to enter further among the Indians thaii 
hazard the h\ry of malignant adversaries who in a 
rage might pursue them, and therefore chose a place 
situate on Charles River, between Charles Towne 
and Water Towne, where they erected a town called 
New Towne, now named Cambridge." Governor 
Winthrop and Dudley had a "sharp controversy" 
over this, and Winthrop seems to have had no 
notion of coming here to live; but we can have no 
quarrel with him on that score to-day, as we look 
across to the gilded dome and reflect that it is in its 
right place. 

There was a ferry at the foot of Dunster Street 
which served the colonists for twenty years before 
the Great Bridge was built. From tlie ferry a road 
led through Brookline and Roxbury into Boston, 
and whoever wished to take another route must 
make his way through Charlestown and across a 
ferry at Copp's Hill. That bridge cost a deal of 
money, and various expedients were adopted to aid 
Cambridge in her bearing of what was justly con- 
sidered a heavy burden for the poor little town. 
Brighton, Newton, Lexington and Middlesex 



170 CAMBRIDGE SKETCriE8. 

County itself helped to keej) the bridge in repair, 
and even the General Court occasionally granted 
money on its account. It would take too long to 
review in detail all tlie important events that have 
happened here, such as the brilliant scene in 1716 
when Colonel Shute, the newly made governor of 
Massachusetts and New Hampshire, was met at the 
bridge by Spencer Phips, Esq., with his "Troop of 
Horse, the Sheriff of Middlesex and other gentle- 
ment of the County," and conducted by them to Har- 
vard College, where he was entertained with a long 
oration, all in Latin. 

It was nearly sixty years after that gala day, that 
the planks of the Great Bridge were hastily torn up 
and piled along the Cambridge side in order to im- 
pede the march of Lord Percy's advancing reen- 
forcements, on the nineteenth of April, 1775. Then 
what days and weeks followed. Many a time has 
Washington gazed on these tiny waves, or lifted his 
eyes to the misty hills, softly outlined against the 
sky, as he pondered over the fortunes of the ven- 
turesome colonies. Sweet Dorothy Dudley, whose 
journal we read so recently, has paused here to note 
the changing green of the marshes as she carried her 
lint and bandages to the improvised hospitals. We 
can fancy her forgetting the absorbing subject of 
the war for a minute and knitting her pretty brows 
in perplexity over the aberrations of President 
Dunster and thinking what a dreadful thing it is 
when the Evil One originates peculiar "views on 
baptism" to confound college professors. The 
afternoon is too short for us to pass in review the 
many who have felt their puzzles and bothers some- 
what soothed by thy even flow, O River Charles! 

No less dear are the recent associations with the 
river. What venturesome scribbler would dare 



J^E RIVER CHARLES. 171 

follow after the poets who have lavished their 
wealth of fancy and richness of words, most undying 
of all the materials mortals may build with, on de- 
scriptions of its charm? Lowell talks of people who 
must go over to the Alps to learn of the divine si- 
lence of the snow, or to Italy before they can recog- 
nize the daily miracle of the sunset; but he himself 
has done nmch to teach us better by such descrip- 
tion as this, where he catches the shades of the 
marshes : 

"The Charles slipped smoothly through green and 
purple salt meadows, darkened here and there as 
with a stranded cloud shadow. Over these marshes, 
level as water, but without its glare, and with softer 
and more soothing gradations of perspective, the 
eve is carried to a horizon of softlv rounded hills." 

More familiar still are the well known passages 
from "Under the Willows": 

**The sliding Charles, 
Blue towards the west, and bluer and more blue, 
Living and lustrous, as a woman^s eyes 
Look once and look no more, with southward curve 
Ran crinkling sunniness, like Helenas hair 
Glimpsed in Elysium, insubstantial gold.^^ 

In how many of Longfellow's poems do we trace 
this love for the river, which flows ever on past the 
windows from which he used to exult in its ever- 
changing, never-wearying beauty! "The broad 
meadows and the steel-blue river remind me of the 
meadows of Unterseen and the river Aar; and be- 
yond them rise magnificenet snow-white clouds, 
piled up like Alps. Thus the shades of George 
Washington and William Tell seem to walk together 
on these Elysian fields." 

Dearer was the river to the poet for the name, 
which reminded him of "three friends, all true and 



172 CAMBRIDGE SKETCHEa. 

tried," and how tender is the later good-night to one 
of these, "a friend, who bore thy name," sleeping in 
sweet Auburn, around which the river still steals 
"with such silent pace." 

Others have written too of our river, ours and the 
world's, but the cool wind blows more freshly, re- 
minding us that this is still March. We look across 
to the Brighton meadows, look once more where 
"the Charles writes the last letter of his name," and 
then turn homeward. 



MORNING IN VENICE. 

BY MRS. JANE NEW£LL MOORE. 



The Adriatic*8 chillv breath has ceased 
The dawn^s resistless coming to delay. 
And turns, in honor of the conquering day, 

To golden clouds of incense in the east. 

But still about the City of the Sea 
Clings, like a maiden^s veil, a tender mist ; 
She looks again the radiant bride he kissed 

In her first flush of youthful majesty. 

The rosy marble of her palace seems 
A western sunrise, and the sun^s own glow 
In the warm colors of the sails below. 

While hi^h upon her soarine; tower gleams 
The shming angel which her saint has given 
To lead his cit/s thoughts from earth to heaven. 



174 



SIX O'CLOCK IN HARVARD SQUARE. 



Six O'clock in Harvard Square 



By ELEANOR PARKER FISKB. 



T^HE whistles have all blown for six o'clock, and 
^ now the city timepieces begin to strike, com- 
mencing with a deep boom and running up to a 
high treble till the air is filled with the clashing of 
iron tongues. 

The dark comes down early these fall days. All 
lingering traces of red and gold have died out of 
the evening sky, and the great, bare elm branches 
cast strange shadows, almost weird in their dis- 
tinctness, on the brilliantly lighted pavements. 

Bustle and confusion are everywhere ; the incom- 
ing cars are loaded to the steps, and the turmoil 
increases as each empties its burden in front of the 
crowded station. Now and then a trolley slips from 
the wire, causing a chonis of sparks to fly out for 
a moment, and calling to mind the witch of the 
"broomstick train." 

Little groups of students coming from the side 
streets hasten across the vard, bound for Memorial 
Hall, and in spite of the general din, fragments of 
their gay talk come clearly to the passersby. 

A broad band of light streams from the baker's 
window, and the buyers of bread and rolls for the 
family supper keep tlic door constantly in motion 
in their hurry to be served and get away home again. 
A warm fragrance rises from the gratings, making 
the hungry newsboy on the corner sniff wistfully 
till recalled to his work by the cries of his com- 

177 



178 CAMBRIDGE SKETCHES. 

panions — "Herald, Globe, Journal, sir? All about 
the murder." 

Through the windows of the neighboring candy 
store, one sees a tall young man wrapped to the ears 
in his fur-trimmed coat, buying a dainty box of 
choice chocolates, and carefully instructing the 
salesman to "put in lots of almonds, please, and 
those small ones with the cream filling — but no 
brandy drops." 

Four youths in white sweaters, with their hair 
much tumbled, are standing in a doorway. One of 
the lads, in excited tones and with much gesticula- 
ting, is showing the others just how some fellow 
made "such a fine run round the end, not downed 
till he reached the five-yard line." A good-sized 
knot of people gathers to hear him, thus obstruct- 
ing the path of the two old goodies, who have come 
down from their work in the rooms above, and are 
grumbling contemptuously about "thim byes gone 
daft over that neck-breaking football." 

John the Orangeman and his donkey clatter 
by homeward bound. John waves his whip at the 
students in the doorway, and they shout a hearty 
good-night after his retreating cart. 

The peanut man's stand has a delightfully mys- 
terious look. The yawning red mouth of the black 
monster shoots and spits tiny spirals of blue flame 
out into the white, frosty air. The peanut-man, 
himself, is very good-natured, for the demand for 
his wares has been brisk all this cold November 
day. 

Just now a strolling street band plays the 
"Tabasco March" in front of Sever, while a block 
away an asthmatic hand organ tries to keep pace, 
with "Daisy Bell.'' Two notes in this last piece are 
missing, and several more are injured, so the ear is 



81X O'CLOCK IN HARVARD SQUARE. 170 

tortured by a most unhappy combination of 
sounds. 

Belated grocers' wagons, laden with to-morrow's 
dinners, rattle by, charging the crowds around the 
cars, who skurry out of harm's way, protected by 
a burly policeman, whose colossal calmness in all 
the confusion is little short of miraculous. 

A great black dog, bouncing along the sidewalk 
after his master, runs into a small child anxiously 
carrying a pitcher of oysters. The child, frightened, 
drops the pitcher, and sits down on the curbing to 
wail bitterly over the disaster, till comfort in the 
likeness of a pretty girl with a bag of books on her 
arm consoles the httle Niobe. 

Meanwhile, above all this noise and worry, arches 
the calm sky in which a thousand star points of light 
have sprung into being since the whistles first blew, 
and over the tall buildings peeps a tiny crescent 
moon. 

It is time to shut the ledger and put it up, to slip 
into one's great coat, lock the office door, and catch 
a foothold on the next outward bound car, with 
thoughts of a warm supper and the hearth fire to 
compensate for the pushing crowd and the steadily 
rising, raw east wind. 



THE FAIRY COURSERS. 

BY THOMAS WENTWORTH HIGGINSON. 



Floating a£:ur upon the lakers calm bosom, 
Whirled in blissful myriads, dart the dragon-flies ; 

Mingled in their mazes with bird and bee and blossom 
They sink with the raindouds or on the breezes rise. 

Little blue phantom around my dory flitting 
Or poised in peaceful silence on the loom of my oar. 

Heaven has marked out for thee a labor that is fitting 
Though eyes dim and human may miss thy secret Tore ! 

Fairies that have fled from the grasp of earthly forces, 
Shielded from the view of us mortals dimly-eyed. 

These are their chariots, these their win^^ norses. 
Safe on these coursers the vanished fairies ride. 



180 



A CHAPTER OF RADCLIFFE 

COLLEGE. 



A Chapter of Radcliffe College. 



By ARTHUR QILMAN, 

Regent of Radcliffe College. 



ABOUT seventeen years ago there were vague 
reports abroad to the effect that Harvard Col- 
lege was about to admit women to its classes with 
men. These reports were, of course, based upon 
unwarranted rumor. For a long time there had 
been talk on the subject in the papers and in many 
private circles previous to the centennial year, but 
no plan had been formed, either on the part of 
Harvard College, or of anybody else, by which such 
an end might be attained. There were two very 
positive "parties" engaged in the talk. One wished 
for the admission of women at once, as a right, and 
the other looked with distaste or even with horror 
upon such a thing. It may be stated, indeed, as a 
fact, that it was at the time impossible for a woman 
to gain admission to one of the college classes. 

I was not involved in this discussion, but it be- 
came a personal matter with me on account of the 
interest that my wife and I took in a certain young 
lady at the moment attending one of the schools for 
girls in Cambridge, who seemed to have reached 
the limit of the advantages that it offered. While 
we were considering the wants of this young woman 
we became more and more thoroughly convinced 
that it was desirable for her to get instruction from 
the professors of Harvard College, and we were no 

183 



184 CAMBBIDGE SKETCHES, 

less thoroughly convinced that she could not get this 
in the classes of the college, even if it were desirable 
for a single girl to enter classes comprising many 
young men. We saw that in whatever way she 
were taught, she could only get the advantage she 
needed by some joining of forces with other young 
women in the same stage of educational progress. 

After considerable thought I conceived the plan 
of providing a course of instruction for women by 
the professors of Harvard College, but outside of 
the college and without responsibility to it. Such a 
course would not lead to a degree, but it would 
give the women who were fitted for it all the training 
that the degree certified to, and of which it is the 
seal. While I was sure that such a scheme was 
practicable, and that it might lead to great results, 
because I was confident that a large body of women 
longed for the grade of instruction that Harvard 
College gives, I was not certain that a proposition 
to begin the work would be favorably received by 
the professors. Some considerations made me feel 
that their favor might be obtained, but my fears, 
which were greater than my hopes, restrained me 
from making a public expression of my desires for 
a long time. While I was thus delaying, I discussed 
the subject with my wife as we walked through the 
streets of Cambridge and looked at this house and 
that which we thought might some day serve as the 
home for the institution that we had in mind. Many 
months passed, and I still found myself in the posi- 
tion of seeking the proper moment to approach 
some member of the faculty. 

During the summer vacation of 1878, Mrs. Gil- 
man urged with unusual persistency that I should 
make the move on our return to the city. When 
we reached home I concluded that the time had 



A CHAPTER OF RADCLIFFE COLLEGE. 185 

arrived, for we heard rumors that a young lady had 
sought instruction from three different professors, 
and that she was enjoying in some degree the privi- 
leges that wc desired for others. The young woman 
was Miss Abby Leach, who had come to Cambridge 
that autumn to be instructed by Professors Good- 
win, Child and Greenough. Others had done the 
same thing before, and it is true that Miss Leach 
had not made any plan for such systematic courses 
as I had in mind, but her success in interesting three 
professors served to increase my hope that a sys- 
tematic course would not only be received with 
favor, but would be successful. I therefore deter- 
mined to bring the matter to the attention of the 
professors. Our nearest neighbor among those 
who occurred to us was Professor Greenough, and 
on the evening of the twenty-fifth of November I 
called at his house, intending to tell him that I had 
a plan to arrange for women a course of instruction 
exactly the same as that which Harvard College 
offered to men, and to ask the professors to give the 
necessary instruction. I had arranged a list of the 
professors who seemed to me desirable to interest, 
based upon the elective pamphlet of that year, and 
with many misgivings I pulled the door-bell at 
Professor Greenough's home on Appian Way. It 
was evident, as soon as the door opened, that the 
house was filled with company and that the opportu- 
nity was not a good one for the serious business 
that I had in mind. I confess to a sense of relief 
when I saw a postponement in prospect, and I 
merely asked Professor Greenough if he would not 
call at my house on Phillips Place the following 
evening, with Mrs. Greenough, because I had a 
very important subject that I wished to discuss. 
The professor was true to his promise, and the 



186 CAMBRIDGE SKETCHES, 

little library looking out towards the home of Libra- 
rian Sibley was the scene of an exceedingly agreea- 
ble call. The whole evening was spent in pleasant 
conversation. We very likely discussed our Cam- 
bridge neighbors, perhaps even the weather, but 
certainly there was not tlie smallest reference to the 
subject that had been so long agitating me. The 
callers seemed in no hurry to leave us, but at last, 
when Mr. Greenough had his hand upon the knob 
of the door, he said, "But you have not mentioned 
the important subject' that you proposed to dis- 
cuss." Then, of course, the time for delay had 
passed and I was obliged to lay out the plan in full, 
and I did it. Mr. Greenough received it with his 
natural enthusiasm, and both he and Mrs. Gree- 
nough promised their heartiest cooperation. Theirs 
were no formal expressions. Mrs. Greenough was 
an active member of the governing body from the 
first until her death, and her husband has never 
ceased, not only to perform the duties of an instruc- 
tor, but also to serve as a member of the Academic 
Board, of which for a time he was Chairman> and 
to sacrifice himself and his personal convenience to 
the interests of the students and the institution. 

The beginning was favorable beyond our hopes* 
The next step was to find out whether the other pro- 
fessors would look at the matter in the same way 
that Professor Greenough did, and whether, if they 
should, the University would permit them to give 
this systematic instruction. Professor Greenough 
and I occupied ourselves for a while in confidential 
conference about the plan with various professors, 
and it was evident that their approval would be 
almost unanimous.. In order to find out the posi- 
tion of the Corporation of Harvard College, I wrote 
the following letter and sent it to President Eliot: 



A CHAPTER OF RADCLIFFE COLLEGE. 187 

5 Phillips Place, 
Cambridge, Dec. 23, 1878. 
Dear Sir: — 

1 am engaged in perfecting a plan which shall 
afford to women opportunities for carrying their 
studies systematically forward further than it is pos- 
sible for them now to do it in this country, except, 
possibly, at Smith College. 

My plan obliges me to obtain the services of cer- 
tain of the professors, and I address you before ap- 
proaching them in order to assure myself tliat I am 
correct in supposing that their relations to the Uni- 
versity are such as to permit of their giving instruc- 
tion to those who are not connected with it 

I propose to bring here such women as are able to 
pass an examination not less rigid than that now 
established for the admission of young men and to 
offer them a course of instruction which shall be a 
counterpart of that pursued by the men. 

It is probable that a very small number of women 
will be found at first, but it will grow. 

I am aware that some of the professors now give 
instruction to private pupils and teach elsewhere. 
If my plan prove a success it will relieve them from 
such irregular labor and give them a regular addi- 
tion to their incomes. 

It is, however, needless that I enlarge, or trouble 
you at any greater length. 

I desire only to be assured that if I make 
approaches to any of the Faculty I shall be asking 
them for services that they can render or not, with- 
out in any way interfering with their first obligations 
to the University. 

I am very truly yours, 

ARTHUR OILMAN. 
President Eliot. 



188 CAMBRIDOE SKETCHES. 

On the day before Christmas, in 1878, as I was 
seated in my library, I had a call from President 
Eliot, who came in person to answer my letter and 
to discuss the subject in some of its bearings. ' He 
assured me that there was no objection on the part 
of the College, that the professors were quite at 
liberty to accept an offer to teach in the way pro- 
posed, and that the only suggestion that came to 
him was that some provision would have to be 
made for taking care of the young women who 
would come to study in Cambridge. This, T as- 
sured him, had been considered, and that a body of 
ladies would be asked to act in the capacity of direc- 
tors of the movement. 

A few weeks were now spent in private conversa- 
tion with the professors whom it was desired to 
interest, and in the formation of the governing 
board of ladies. This has always been a woman's 
movement, and at first the directors were all women, 
though I acted as their Secretary and attended to 
the correspondence and general management. The 
first ladies had already been chosen. They were 
Mrs. Greenough and Mrs. Gilman. Our choice fell 
next upon Miss Longfellow and Miss Horsford. 
Our first meeting with these occurred on the twenty- 
fourth of January, 1879, when with their help we 
chose Mrs. Josiah P. Cooke, wife of the distin- 
guished Professor of Chemistry. The public 
announcement of the scheme was all the time under 
discussion, and by the opening of the month of 
February those who had already become members 
of the body met and discussed a circular which had 
been prepared in outline. At a meeting held on the 
fourth of February, it was voted to ask Mrs. Louis 
Agassiz to join the body. Two days later Mrs. 
Agassiz accepted the offer. On the eleventh of 



A CHAPTER OF RADCLIFFE COLLEGE. 189 

February the number was for the time being com- 
pleted by the election of Mrs. E. W. Gumey, wife of 
the Professor of History. 

Many professors had expressed their adherence 
to the plan, but it was desirable to have formal 
acceptance of an offer to teach. I therefore, as 
Secretary, sent out a circular letter to a considerable 
number. In a few days I had received written 
responses from more than fift>' who had thus been 
a<ldressed, almost all of which were favorable. 
Some, indeed, offered to give instruction without 
charge, rather than permit the scheme to be aban- 
doned. I mention this fact to show the spirit in 
which the professors of Harvard College received 
the plan. It is the same spirit in which they have 
continued to give their services. Formal bargains 
have not been made. The professors have accepted 
for their services the sums, small enough in many 
instances, which the institution has felt it possible 
to pay. This is the spirit in which the movement 
was received by the President and by the University. 
Notably is this true regarding the use of the Library, 
without which the effort would have been of little 
value. By agreement with President Eliot and the 
Librarian, Mr. Justin Winsor, we have always been 
permitted the use of the great collection of books, 
and at last, without any request on our part, the 
privileges of the Library were given to the officers 
and students by a formal vote of the Corporation — 
after they had been enjoyed under the original oral 
agreement for a number of years! 

The first half-dozen who responded to the circular 
letter were, in their order, Professors William E. 
Byerly, Benjamin Peirce, Frederick H. Hedge, Wil- 
liam W. Goodwin and William Tames. Professors 
Norton, Peabody, Hill, Palmer, Gumey, Shaler, 



100 CAMBUIDOS SKETCHES. 

Briggs, Goodale, Emcrton, White, Paine and others 
followed. When these acceptances had been 
received, it was thought safe to issue an announce- 
ment, and the first pubHc intimation of the scheme 
was made in a circular headed "Private Collegiate 
Instruction for Women," issued on Washington's 
Birthday, 1879. It announced in rather vague 
terms that some of the professors of Harvard Col- 
lege had consented to give instruction to properly 
prepared women of a grade not below that which 
they gave to men, that certificates would be awarded 
to women who pursued the courses and passed the 
examinations satisfactorily, that the fees for tuition 
would not be over four hundred dollars and might 
be as low as two hundred and fifty, that seven ladies 
whose names were signed to the circular would 
assist the students with advice and other friendly 
offices and see that they secured suitable lodgings, 
and finally that applications might be made to the 
Secretary. 

^ Just previous to the publication of this announce- 
ment there had been a general meeting of the seven 
ladies with the professors at my house, the venerable 
Dr. Hedge presiding, when the whole subject was 
discussed. It was evident that more discussion was 
necessar>' and the meeting adjourned for a week. 
Professor Shaler presided over the second meeting 
and stated that he was probably the only member 
of the faculty who had already taught women in his 
regular college classes. He explained that in mak- 
ing grants of money to the "Agassiz Museum" the 
legislature of Massachusetts had stipulated that stu- 
dents in theNormals Schools of the State should be 
permitted to take the courses of instruction there, 
and that some women had availed themselves of the 
opportunity. Tliese two meetings showed that a 



A CHAPTER OF RADCLIFE COLLEGE. 191 

smaller body would be more advantageous than a 
large one, and on behalf of the ladies and after pre- 
vious consultation, I nominated at the second gath- 
ering an advisory board which was to have authority 
in all matters pertaining to instruction. This body, 
consisting of Professors Goodwin, Gumey, J. M. 
Peirce, Greenough and Goodale, representing dif- 
ferent departments of instruction, was unanimously 
elected, and from that time to the present this board, 
now called the Academic Board, has been the real 
representative faculty of the instruction. Its per- 
sonnel has changed but little. Shortly after the 
beginning of the work Professor Byerly became a 
member and he has occupied the position of Chair- 
man throughout almost all the years of the history 
of the movement, performing the arduous duties 
without remuneration. Upon him have devolved 
most of those duties that are performed by the presi- 
dent of a college, outside of those that are purely 
administrative. 

We have been fortunate in the interest that the 
professors have taken in every part of the work from 
the first Professor Goodwin acted for a year, dur- 
ing the absence of Professor Byerly, as Chairman 
of the Academic Board. Professor Greenough 
was also very efficient in the same position at the 
beginning, and it has been said that there was 
probably no other professor in the college at the 
time who could have made up the course of study 
that was prepared for the opening year. The labor 
involved in this is great every year, but for the first 
one it was far greater than it could be after the way 
had been marked out and the various instructors 
had to some extent become familiar with the situa- 
tion. It is to the professors who have made the 
reputation of Harvard College that Radcliffe Col- 



102 CAMBBIDQE SKETCHES. 

lege is indebted for whatever it has accomplished. 
It is one of the strong points of the plan that the col- 
lege for women, having no faculty of its own, is able 
to obtain the advantages which come from the 
endowments and long traditions of the college for 
men. No endowment-fund could compensate for 
the loss of this. There can never be question of the 
character of scholarship of the professors at Rad- 
cliflFe, because they are the professors of Harvard 
whom no enticements of high salary or great oppor- 
tunity can tempt away. Women have them 
assured at RadcUffe. 

Another advantage which the students of Rad- 
cliffe have enjoyed always is found in the fact that 
the seven ladies who interested themselves in the 
work when it began, have continued to use their 
influence for the students, and have done for them 
not only what was promised in the original circular, 
but a great deal more. They have been the friends 
of the young women, their counsellors and guides, 
have assisted them upon their social occasions of 
all sorts, and have surrounded them with an atmos- 
phere of refinement and cultivation which could not 
have come to them through the agency of any sala- 
ried officials. Their gracious examples have 
favored the building up of the finest womanly char- 
acter, and it is perhaps largely on this account that 
Radcliffe College develops an educated woman at 
home in the most advanced work of an intellectual 
kind, but devoid of all suspicion of mannishness. 
These ladies have exercised a warm hospitality to 
the students, opening their houses to them at various 
times with great freedom, have entertained them on 
the occasions of their commencements, and in many 
cases have made them familiar with a social atmos- 
phere that they never lose the benefits of. How 



A CHAPTER OF RADCLIFFE COLLEGE. 108 

great is this ad vantage noonecan fullyappreciatewho 
has not seen the young woman coming from some 
remote locality blessed with few social opportunities 
and passing through four years, at an impressiona- 
ble age, while she grows in intellectual vigor and in 
personal graces at once. 

When Mrs. Louis Agassiz became a member of 
the governing body she entered upon the work with 
strong sympathy and deep desire to ensure its suc- 
cess, and her influence upon the college has been 
marked. The enterprise, it may be said, has had 
three stages. The seven ladies and their Secretary 
formed at first a body that was governed by no 
written laws, but was controlled by the living inter- 
est which each of them felt in the work. They had 
been brought together by but a single purpose. 
They were exponents of no "cause," and were 
known only as persons interested in the best instruc- 
tion of women. No party was able to call one of 
them its own. This was their strength as they 
appealed to the community. Those who wished to 
have women at once admitted to the classes with 
men favored this movement, because they saw in it 
possibilities in that direction. Those who held the 
opposite view favored the new enterprise because 
it did not attempt to push women into the classes of 
men. The ladies themselves made no announce- 
ment on these points. 

When it became necessary to establish the insti- 
tution in a home of its own, to obtain real estate, 
and larger funds, a more formal organization was 
effected, and the voluntary association became a 
corporation under the general laws of Massachusetts 
with the name "The Society for the Collegiate In- 
struction for Women." This was in August, 1882, 
and several new members were added at the time 



104 CAMBRIDGE 8KETCJIE8. 

who greatly increased the strength of the body. 
These were Professor Charles Eliot Norton, Pro- 
fessor Goodwin, Professor Smith, at the time Dean 
of Harvard College, Professor Child, Professor 
Byerly, Professor James Mills Peirce, Miss Mason 
and Henry Lee Higginson, Esq., of Boston, and 
Joseph B. Warner, Esq., of Cambridge, who had 
previously acted as Treasurer. Tliere have been 
five other additions to the corporation since 1882. 
Mrs. Henry Whitman was chosen in 1886, Miss 
Agnes Irwin in 1894, Professor John Chipman 
Gray, Miss Annie Leland Barber and Miss Mary 
Goes in 1895. The two members last mentioned 
were graduates and had been nominated by the 
alumnae. Miss Goes had been assistant to the Sec- 
retary for a number of years. She is now Secretary. 
At the time of the incorporation, in 1882, Mrs. 
Agassiz was chosen President and she began to take 
a more active part in the work and life of the stu- 
dents. She gave up one afternoon in the week to a 
social meeting with them at Fay House, the build- 
ing which was bought in 1885 as the permanent 
home, and she assisted them in their own social 
gatherings as the other ladies also did. This is, of 
course, but a small part of the work of Mrs. Agassiz 
in behalf of the students. 

The third stage in the history of the movement 
dates from the incorporation of Kadcliffe College 
by a special act of the Legislature of Massachussets 
which received the signature of the Governor on the 
twenty-third of March, 1894, having been passed a 
few days previous almost without a dissenting vote. 
Though there was no opposition on the part of the 
members of the legislature to the plan that made 
**The Society for the Collegiate Instniction of 
Women" Radcliife College, there was found to be 
not a little among some others who feared that the 



A CHAPTER OF RADCLIFFE COLLEGE. 195 

arrangement with Harvard College might at some 
time be dissolved, and that it would not allow a de- 
velopment of the highest education of woman to 
the utmost. These fears were settled in two ways. 
Firstly, at a hearing before the committee on Edu- 
cation of the Legislature, President Eliot said in posi- 
tive terms that though Harvard College had in the 
course of its long history begun many new lines of 
educational work, it had never been known to 
retreat from any such enterprise after it had been 
begun. Secondly, when the new list of courses of 
study was issued it was found that the scope of the 
work had been enlarged far beyond the promises 
that had been made before the passage of the act 
The Legislature was most liberal in the permissions 
given in the act, for its provisions ensure to Radcliffc 
College the power and the authority to accomplish 
all that can be attained for the highest education of 
woman. It grants this power and these privileges 
to the younger institution in conjunction with Har- 
vard University, thus allowing the new college to 
enter upon the heritage of the traditions and oppor- 
tunities which it has been the good fortune of the 
elder institution to attain through its life of more 
than two and a half centuries. 

At the time that RadcliflFe College was brought 
into being by the Legislature of Massachusetts, an 
important step was taken by the creation of a new 
officer, that of Dean, and filling it by the election of 
Miss Agnes Irwin. Miss Irwin had been connected 
with the direction of educational movements in Phil- 
adelphia for many years and was especially inter- 
ested in the education and training of girls, having 
been at the head of an important school which num- 
bered among its students many of the women of 
Philadelphia prominent in social life. When Miss 
Irwin was chosen Dean of Radcliffe College several 



196 CAMBBIDOE 8KETCUE8. 

hundred of these former pupils united to found The 
Agnes Irwin Scholarship, in recognition of her long 
devotion to the good of others and of the value that 
they placed upon her influence. A list of the con- 
tributors to the scholarship fund was sent to Miss 
Irwin elegantly engrossed on parchment and 
enclosed in a silver chest which was adorned with 
costly carving in high relief. Miss Irwin has now 
occupied her oiHce one year. She has performed, 
in addition to her other duties, those kindly ser- 
vices that had in the previpus years been a pleasure 
to Mrs. Agassiz, Mrs. Gilman and the other ladies 
of the corporation.* 

The record that has thus been hastily sketched 
shows that Radcliffe College is a growth, that its 
progress has been natural and not forced, that it 
tends to bring to Cambridge the most advanced 
students among the women of the country, that it 
offers to them the services of a faculty which cannot 
be excelled for learning and teaching ability by any 
other similar body in the country. It has succeeded, 
to mention but one among many reasons, because 
it has not demanded too much, but has been con- 
tent to make progress steadily, well knowing that 
such a growth is more firm and strong than any 
spasmodic development could be. It was Swift, 
was it not? who said that a blessing ought to be pro- 
nounced upon the man who should make two 
blades of grass grow where but one had grown. 
Certainly there should be a blessing for that scheme 
ivhich makes two colleges grow and spread their 
ennobling influence where but a single Faculty 
exists. 

* It is not without interef t to me that I first met Miss Irwin, in 
Cambridge, after her election, in the room in which I had ex- 
plained my plan to Professor and Mrs. Greenough, and afterwards 
to President Eliot. Miss Irwin was guest of Professor Thayer, 
who had bought the house that I formerly occupied. 



LIFE AT RADCLIFFE. 



Life at Radcliffe. 



By MARTHA TRIMBLE BENNETT. 



T IFE at Radcliffe does not lend itself easily to 
^ description. There are few picturesque de- 
tails which can be seized upon, — no "float day*' as 
at Wellesley, no ivy and tree planting, none of the 
gay dormitory life which is so distinctive a feature 
at most women's colleges. A large number of the 
students live at home, and those who come from a 
distance find boarding-places in private families 
where only a limited number of girls can be re- 
ceived. It seems probably however, that a few 
years will see the establishment of small dormitories 
accommodating from twelve to twenty students, 
for as the college grows, the need of such dormi- 
tories is felt. At present, however, the girls are 
scattered over Cambridge in twos and threes, and 
life at Radcliffe is so largely a matter of the indi- 
vidual that it is difficult to hit upon any description 
which shall be at all representative. The girls who 
live in or near Cambridge, going home at night, 
and having their own circle of friends outside the 
college, can have but little idea of what life at Rad- 
cliffe means to the student who comes from a dis- 
tance and who knows no one except the friends 
whom she may chance to make among her fellow- 
students. 

Again, to girls from New England the atmos- 
phere of thought and study which invests Radcliffe 
is too familiar to be worth comment, whereas to 
the Southern or Western girls it is one of the 

100 



200 CAMBRIDGE SKETCHES. 

most novel features of the life, and one of the most 
attractive even though it may be a bit discouraging 
at first. 

"Everything is intellectual here," said a Western 
girl last year in anything but a cheerful tone ; "even 
inanimate objects seem to possess intelligence. 
Yesterday the maid came in to fill my lamp, and 
as she filled it, the can whistled. All at once the 
whistle ceased, and the maid, without looking to see 
if the lamp were full, screwed down the top and 
prepared to go. 

"Now I may not be philosophic but I am curious, 
so I said, 'Mary, what made the can whistle?' " 

"What do you suppose she answered? *Sure, 
miss, it's the intilligint oil can, it tells when the 
lamp's full.' " 

It is this "inteUigent-oil-can" atmosphere which 
the stranger at Radcliffe finds in her college life, 
and it is at once depressing and stimulating. She 
is expected to be alive, not only to her own work, 
but to the work of others, to have a respectable fund 
of general information, and to know something of 
what is going on in the world around her. 

To be alive even to her own work is not at all 
times an easy task, for each student is expected 
to carry the regulation four full courses, and many 
of the students do more than this amount. Woe 
to the girl, though, who tries to take work beyond 
her strength, or who makes up her four full courses 
by taking seven or eight half courses. If she has 
not had careful preparation and is not very level- 
headed, her work will soon drive her into becoming 
what is popularly denominated a "Radcliffe grind." 

It is a curious fact, by the way, that no girl is 
proud of being called a "grind." No matter how 
long and steadily she works, apply this term to her 



LIFE AT RADCLIFFE. 201 

and she will indignantly deny her claim to it and 
point out someone else to whom the name is more 
applicable. Out of three hundred students I knew 
but three or four acknowledged grinds, and even 
these did not think that all the characteristic features 
of the typical grind were represented in themselves. 
These few students who unblushingly accepted 
the name given them were not half bad at heart, and 
were human enough to dance, play tennis, attend 
concerts, operas and theatres, and to be present 
at almost every Radcliifc festivity during the year. 
As may be guessed from this, a life at Radcliffe 
does not mean all work and no play for even 
the hardest workers. It is a significant fact that 
the first club in the College was the "Idler" which 
has for its object amusement pure and simple. Few 
persons except Radcliffe students realize the large 
part which this club plays in the social life of the 
college. Its "tea" in the opening week of the college 
year forms a pleasant welcome to the new students 
and a jolly reunion for the old. Then, upon alter- 
nate Fridays throughout the year it brings the stu- 
dents together for an hour's cordial informality, 
and there are few girls too busy to look in at the 
"Idler" meeting for a laugh and chat. Usually 
some entertainment is provided by the committee, 
— a concert, tableaux, or a play which occasionally 
may be said to be literally of the students, by the 
students, and for the students, for several original 
plays have been given by members of the club for 
the exclusive benefit of the students, no outsiders 
being admitted. Twice during the year, however, 
the club is at home to all its friends to the number 
of a thousand or more, and Fay House upon these 
occasions presents an appearance of gayety only 
equalled at the Senior Reception upon Class Day. 



202 CAMBRIDGE SKETCHES. 

Membership in the ''Idler" is unlimited, and any 
student may join. This is true also of the ''Emman- 
uel Club/' which has for its object the discussion 
of social and philanthropic problems. It is worth 
while to say that election to the presidency of either 
of these clubs is an honor of which any g^rl may be 
proud. The only other club which is open to all 
comers is the Tennis Club, and increased interest 
in this is likely to be felt this year as another ex- 
cellent court has just been secured. 

In all the other college clubs the membership is 
Umited and election depends upon the applicant's 
proficiency in the special department which the 
club represents. The nature of these clubs is per- 
haps suiHciently indicated by the names, — ^as the 
English, French, German, Classical, Philosophical, 
Historical, Music, Glee and Banjo. All of these 
exist primarily for work, but a goodly social ele- 
ment is not lacking, and each club keeps open 
house at least once a year, when it has for its 
honored guest some man or woman well known in 
the world of scholars who speaks to the club on 
some interesting topic. 

Beside all of these clubs, the social element is 
represented by the Graduate Club, one of the most 
hospitable of Radcliife organizations, and also by 
the "teas" which Mrs. Agassiz gives to the students 
on Wednesday afternoons during the year. In 
addition the four classes and the special students 
have their separate organizations, in which pleasure 
and business seem to have about equal importance. 

One of the most delightful features of life at 
RadclifTe is the opportunity afforded the students 
for meeting or hearing so many prominent men 
and women, and that this privilege is theirs is largely 
due to the courtesy of Harvard. Certainly it is 



LIFE AT JtADCLIFFE. 208 

a privilege to be appreciated when it means hearing 
such widely different men as General Booth of the 
Salvation Army, Mr. Humphrey Ward, M. Du 
Chaillu the African explorer, and Prof. Charles 
Eliot Norton. 

Beside these occasional lectures, Radcliffe stu- 
dents have always the privilege of personal inter- 
course with the best and wisest of the Harvard, 
professors. Surely the Radcliffe girl need not envy 
girls from other colleges. Other colleges may have 
broader grounds and wider halls, none has broader 
culture and wider opportunities for development. 
If ebullitions of "college spirit" seem somewhat 
lacking among the girls, there is, nevertheless, a 
deep and loving respect for the altna mater, and 
a constantly growing feeling that they will be better 
and wiser women for their four years' life at Rad- 
cliffe. 



student Life at Radcliffe. 



By SARAH YERXA. 



WHEN we pause, for a moment, as now, to con- 
sider life at Radcliffe, we cannot but ask our- 
selves how it differs from life at other colleges whose 
purpose is the same, to give young women oppor- 
tunity to fit themselves for larger and richer spheres 
of usefulness than they otherwise could fill ade- 
quately. 

To me, Radcliffe life seems to have had as its 
essential quality, freedom. This freedom is given 
in both work and play. The wealth of material 
presented in the Radcliffe catalogue is spread before 
her and the student may choose what she will. In 
recreation all that Cambridge and Boston offer is 
at her disposal, inasmuch as, after her choice of a 
home approved by college authorities, the absence 
of the dormitory system leaves the student free to 
plan her days as she pleases. Whether young 
women may be given such freedom, whether such 
freedom develops within them the qualities that are 
desirable, those who have watched the progress of 
Radcliffe students through four years of college life 
are best able to judge. 

Since, at the present time, we have no dormitories 
at Radcliffe, the distinctively college life of the 
Radcliffe students centres around old Fay House, 
rich for many with associations of days long 
gone, and rich for an ever increasing band of stu- 
dents with memories of most serious and most 
joyous hours. 

206 



200 CAMBRIDGE SKETCHES. 

To men and women of Cambridge our old Fay 
House is well known. Many a time, bound, per- 
haps, on social pleasure, accepting the invitation 
of an "Annex maid" to an Idler tea, they have en- 
tered the wide doorway, walked through the broad 
hall to the drawing-room, where hangs the portrait 
of Mrs. Agassiz, our president, and where, I am 
glad to say, during the past winter, Radcliffe stu- 
dents have been able to find, many hours during the 
day. Miss Agnes Irwin, our dean. 

From the drawing-room these guests have doubt- 
less gone through our little conversation room 
with its magazines and papers, its well worn copies 
of Life; and from here, where groups of girls may 
usually be found discussing any topic under the 
sun, from the latest fashion to the automaton theory, 
our friends probably passed on to the auditorium. 
Yet who at an Idler tea can imagine the pleasures 
which have been in that auditorium. Before the 
guest appears a crowd of youths and maidens. 
Tables are spread, music sounds. But all this re- 
veals not at all the scene of many a Friday afternoon 
when the Idler Club meets and the little stage of 
the auditorium, with its walls of soft green and 
pillars of cream white, becomes the stage for a 
play. And only with vivid imagination, brought into 
most active service, can our guests picture to them- 
selves the auditorium when Professor Norton, 
Professor Goodwin,. Mrs. Laura Ormiston Chant, 
Major Brewer of the Salvation Army, or Miss 
Helena Dudley, of Denison House, the Boston 
college settlement, have stood before the Radcliffe 
students and spoken on some subject which inter- 
ested all. 

Though Fay House at an Idler tea has proved a 
pleasant place to many, did I wish to made Fay 
House dear to a friend, I should lead her blindfold 



STUDENT LIFE AT RADCLIFFE, 207 

over the wide stairways to the library above, late on 
some sunny afternoon. I should draw one of the 
great chairs close to a certain window that looks 
out towards the common. The hour chosen should 
be that when the sun's rays have just left the tree- 
tops, when the light and the haze gradually die 
away, while the chimes from Christ Church should 
come to us in tones closely bound in thought to 
words dear to many human hearts, — 

•• Softly now the light of day 
Fades upon our sight away ; 
Free from care, from sorrow free. 
Lord, we would commune with thee.^* 

Were my friend, however, a student who cared 
for activity, rather than the hour I have planned 
for the lover of restful quiet, I might wish to show 
her, at once, the contrasts of Radcliffe life, contrasts 
such as those of a certain February day of '93. On 
that day we had listened attentively to one of a 
course of lectures which treated the various rem- 
edies suggested for the present social difficulties. 
Our special topic for the day was anarchism and 
Bakunin. A few minutes later we sat in the 
drawing-room, — for it was a Wednesday afternoon 
— ^tea and cakes before us, discussing a topic sug- 
gested by our instructor who had quite refused to 
consider a learned subject introduced by one of 
ourselves. And the topic we were discussing was, 
— ^whether or no crinolines would be worn the 
coming season! 

At Radcliffe, though many are sceptical in re- 
gard to our social life, even now, we are able to do 
everything together save eating and sleeping. 
Save eating, I have said! But I must not forget 
the glories of luncheon conversations carried on in 
the overcrowded little lunch room. And some 
day many of us hope to have small dormitories. 



208 CAMBRIDGE SKETCHES. 

Always Fay House is filled with groups of busy 
talkers. Before and after lectures students are 
gathered through the halls awaiting the coming 
lecturers. Companies of good companions sit 
under the trees, while tennis and the gymna- 
sium are not deserted. At half past four, when 
lectures are over, special bands, united in some 
common interest, come together. The French 
Qub, the German Club, the English Club» 
the History Club, the Glee Club, the Music Club, 
the Classical Club, the Graduate Club, have their 
meetings. 

Had my readers been with me on some Tuesday 
afternoon last winter they might have found the 
EngUsh Club, whose members care especially for 
the study of English and have been able to do suc- 
cessful work, gathered in the drawing-room for 
a pleasant hour. They might have heard one of the 
members reading a paper on Du Maurier. One 
spring day they might have found Dean Briggs 
reading to an eager company from the works of 
John Donne. Best of all, had they had the good 
fortune, on a day now gone, to be the guests of the 
English Club, they might have seen Oliver Wen- 
dell Holmes reading "Dorothy Q." 

On Wednesdays our president or our dean, and 
ofttimes some of the associates of Radcliffe, are "at 
home,'' and groups of students are made most wel- 
come with friendly greeting and homelike fire. 

On every other Friday comes the Idler, a club 
which all students are most cordially invited to join. 
The Idler, as its well-known name announces, is 
purely social in its purpose, yet to the Idler, I am 
sure, RadcliiTe owes a certain characteristic of 
unity which the large rival societies of some of the 
colleges make impossible. 

Once a month the Emmanuel Society holds its 



STUDENT LIFE AT HADCLIFFE. 200 

meetings. This club eagerly seeks all students and 
endeavors to present speakers on subjects, varied to 
be sure, including an address from Professor Royce 
on "Paracelsus/' and an address on college settle- 
ments, but aiming always at the more serious side 
of life. 

The last club to be especially mentioned, but not 
the least in the hearts of its faithful members, is 
the Philosophy Club. The Philosophy Club, vary- 
ing from the custom of other clubs, meets at the 
homes of its members and friends, and spends 
much time in discussing all things knowable and 
unknowable. Usually discussion is begun by one 
member addressing the club. We have had, how- 
ever, the good fortune of addresses from Professor 
Royce, Dr. Santayana and Mr. Parker. Open 
meetings, too, the Philosophy Club has held at 
Fay House. One season Professor Ladd spoke 
to us and ^fiss Thompson has given the club 
and its friends a paper on Fichte. That the Phil- 
osophy Club may have a long and prosperous life, 
that the members may soon solve the problem of 
the universe, is the wish of all who know its real 
helpfulness as well as its charm. 

Besides all these discussions, the out-doors of 
Cambridge lies, an open book before the stu- 
dents, longing perhaps for fresh air and the presence 
of a congenial companion. At half past four comes 
a time for wanderings as well as for clubs. In 
Cambridge, even, there are beautiful places 
for wanderings; and on a sunny afternoon the 
student passes out into a realm of broader land 
and sky. just as, when the four years are over, she 
goes forth into a larger world and findj 



** A life to live,— And such a life! A world 
To learn, one^s lifetime in, and such a world!** 




1 



The Home of Radcliffe College. 



By ADA RUTH KINSMAN. 



WITHIN the shadow of the historic Shepard 
church and the Washington Elm on Garden 
street, stands Fay House, the home of Radcliffe Col- 
lege. Although the original dwelling has several 
times been enlarged, its rounding, antique front has 
been preserved and it forms one of the noticeable 
features of the present stately and dignified building. 

The entrance, approached by a broad driveway^ 
is on the south side, and a glance back from the 
portico shows us the tennis courts and the smaller 
buildings of the college which contain the chemical 
and physical laboratories and a gymnasium. The 
door opens into a passage leading to the main hall, 
and just within, on the right, we notice a picture of 
the late Professor Josiah.P. Cooke, a gift from Mrs. 
Cooke who, with her husband, has always been 
deeply interested in the growth and progress of 
Radcliffe. 

The offices are found at either side of the main 
entrance, and the regent and secretary are accom- 
modated in rooms well adapted to their uses, with 
their fire-proof safes, and commodious shelves for 
the keeping of the many valuable records of the 
college. The good light and ventilation so marked 
in these rooms are noticeable throughout the build- 
ing. 

Entering the main hall we open the last door on 
the right and find ourselves in the Dean's room, 

213 



214 CAMBRIDGE SKETCHES. 

face to face with a fine portrait of the honored 
president of the college, Mrs. Louis Agassiz. This 
room was once the parlor and as such it will always 
be remembered by the older students, for here they 
gathered about the open fire, chatting merrily, at 
Mrs. Agassiz's social afternoon teas. 

Crossing the hall we enter the conversation 
room, once used for recitations. Here on the 
tables are the latest magazines, the daily papers, 
and, as a matter of course, all the publications of our 
brother university, Harvard. Back of this room 
is another leading to the auditorium which is used 
for the entertainments of the different clubs, and 
until the present year, for Commencement. The 
stage is the amazement and envy of the former 
graduates when they remember the makeshifts they 
used in days past — but those were happy days. In 
the rear is the housekeeper's suite, but this we will 
not invade; sufficient to say that it is commodious 
and comfortable and that nuich of it is freely 
opened to the girls whenever needed. 

The broad stairwav in the main hall divides at 
the first landing into twc^ parts and here, facing 
one another, hang the portraits of Charles First of 
England and his wife. The second floor is wholly 
given up to recitation rooms which, with their 
cherr}' desks, comfortable chairs, and picture-hung 
walls are pleasant working rooms for the students. 
The one at the front on the left contains a treasure, 
the picture of Dr. Samuel Gilman and the original 
manuscript of "Fair Harvard," which was com- 
posed and written in this room for the two hun- 
dredth anniversary of Harvard College. 

Another broad staircase leads to the third story, 
and here we find more recitation rooms. At the 
head of the stairs hangs a lifelike portrait of Prof. 



THE HOME OF RADCLIFFB COLLEGE. 217 

Louis Agassiz which was made for the Columbian 
Fair. At the left is the botanical laboratory, a 
bright and cheery room containing collections in- 
teresting even to the uninitiated. 

Let us draw aside the portiere and pass between 
these stately Corinthian columns. Here we are 
in the midst of Radcliffe's pride and glory — the 
library. The light coming not only from windows 
at the side but from above as well, the softly-tinted 
walls, the well-filled shelves and the girls always 
to be found about the tables or in the comfortable 
window seats, give the crowning touch to this 
unique college building. Adjoining rooms con- 
tain reserved books and the librarian's office. A 
busy woman is the librarian, caring for the nearly 
eight thousand volumes already here and adding 
almost daily new and valuable books to the cata- 
logue. By the way, have you noticed this steep 
and narrow staircase? It leads to a platform on 
the roof where the girls who are inclined toward 
astronomy may make their observations. 

As we pass out we realize that we have seen nothing 
of the real life of Radcliffe, but if environment counts 
for anything the student here must be uplifted daily 
and refined by her surroundings. Radcliffe is fast 
outgrowing its present home. When the new one 
appears may it be as cheery and homelike as this, 
so dear to tlie hearts of its many students, past and 
present. 



THE PUBLIC LIBRARY. 

Rtmtmbering A, L, H, 

BY CHARLOTTE FISKE BATES. 



A SPLENDID Structure ! Let therein be set 
Some tribute to its dead librarian : 
A marble honor, from which she shall look. 
Who — Fate and Duty having strangely met — 
Fell from Time's shelf, a shattered human book, 
To find her immortality begun. 



THE LINE OF LIGHT. 

BY MISS ALMIRA L. HAYWARD. 
(Taken from her JoumftL) 



We smoothly sailed o*er a steel-blue sea 

One silent summer night. 
And saw on the far horizon^s bound 

A silver line of light. 

Behind the clouds the moon had hid 
But there was shining still ; 

Said one, " Behold a lesson taught 
For him to read who will." 

When clouds of grief or doubt have shut 
The face of God from sight. 

Remember He is constant still — 
Look for His line of light. 

-Mid-Atlantic, Friday night, June 22, 1888. 



218 



TOWN AND GOWN. 



Town and Gown. 



By EDMUND A. WHITMAN. 



READERS of "Tom Brown at Oxford" or of 
"Verdant Green" will find this title a familiar one. 
To them it will recall encounters between students 
and townsmen ending, not infrequently, with broken 
heads. A party of students, after some merrymak- 
ing perhaps, commits an unprovoked assault on 
some passing townsman; he at once raises a cry 
of "Town! Town!" and a rescuing party joins in 
the fray only to meet a larger body of students 
summoned by the cry of "Gown!" The fight grows 
hotter until the approach of the town watch or of 
college proctors causes the contending parties to 
slip away, to continue battle on some more favor- 
able occasion. These contests probably owed their 
origin to the attempts, in earlier times, of the college 
authorities to extend a civil control over the towns- 
people of Oxford and to impose taxes upon them. 

In our own Cambridge, however, the college 
has alwavs been deferential to the town authorities. 
As early as 1659 the corporation of Harvard College 
authorized the town watch to exercise their 
powers in the college yard, "any law, usage, or cus- 
tom to the contrary notwithstanding." Through- 
out the history of the college, there seems to have 
been a cordial understanding between the author- 
ities of the college and of the town. The students, 
too, have preserved friendly relations with the 
townspeople, except possibly in some momentary 
annoyance of a worthy citizen on finding his front 

221 



222 CAMBRIDGE SKETCHES. 

gate in the next yard, or his neighbor's wash care- 
fully hung upon his clothes-line. The term 'Town 
and Gown" brings to mind here none of the ani- 
mated scenes of the streets of Oxford. 

Yet although Paige's History of Cambridge and 
Quincy's History of the college contain no accounts 
of students with broken heads in personal encounter 
with townspeople with battered faces, there are evi- 
dences therein of more peaceful encounters. Young 
men of many generations have treasured warm 
recollections of the graceful hospitality of Cam- 
bridge hosts. The young student may be at the 
time a little critical. John Quincy Adams writes in 
his diary while a student, — "I went to take tea at 
Mr. Pearson's. I got seated between Miss E. and 
Miss H. but could not enjoy the pleasures of con- 
versation because the music was introduced. 
Music is a great enemy to sociability and however 
agreeable it may be, sometimes there are occasions 
when I should wish it might be dispensed with.'* 
Doubtless, the Cambridge girl of to-day will recog- 
nize the conceit of the student of the present time 
in another passage from the same diary: 'The 
young ladies at Mr. Wiggles worth's dined at Judge 
Dana's. I went down there with Bridge to tea, 
and passed the tim'e very sociably. The conversa- 
tion turned upon divers topics, and among the rest 
upon love, which is almost always the case when 
there are ladies present." 

This was in 1786, but earlier the overseers of the 
college had recognized the hospitality of the towns- 
people by forbidding the students in 1760, "from 
dining or supping in any house in town, except on 
an invitation to dine or sup gratis.^' It may be 
that Cambridge tables were too sumptuously pro- 
vided, for three years before this the overseers had 



TOWN AND GOWN. 228 

voted "that it would very much contribute to the 
health (of students), facilitate their studies and 
prevent extravagance if the scholars were restrained 
from dieting in private families"; and to compen- 
sate them for this deprivation, they also voted that 
"there should be pudding three times a week" at the 
college commons. 

On the other hand, however, the College officially 
recognized a return of courtesies by the students, 
as in 1759 the overseers declared that "it shall be 
no offence if any scholar at comttiencemefii make, 
and entertain guests at his chamber with punch," 
although it may be doubted if "the young ladies at 
Mr. Wigglesworth's" accepted such an invitation. 
The overseers evidently did not look upon punch 
with such disfavor as their successors in the present 
board, as two years later, they again voted that 
"it should be no offence if the scholars in a sober 
manner entertain one another and strangers with 
punch, which as it is now usually made is no intoxi- 
cating liquor." 

Commencement day in the olden time was an 
occasion which Town and Gown celebrated to- 
gether. The day was a holiday throughout the 
province when the shops of Boston were generally 
closed and their proprietors repaired to the Cam- 
bridge common which was completely taken 
possession of by drinking stands, dancing booths, 
mountebank shows and gambling tables. 

The religious interests of Town and Gown were 
intimately associated in the last century. The col- 
lege paid a portion of the cost of the erection of the 
new meeting house of the First Parish in 1756, and 
in return was given the use of the front gallery for 
the students. They were regarded as part of the 
congregation and were expected to contribute to 



224 CAMBRIDGE 8KETCUE8, 

the support of the clergyman. This expectation 
was not, however, realized and the corporation fin- 
ally voted ''that the box should not be offered on the 
Lord's day to the scholar's gallery" but that in- 
stead the students shotild be taxed ''in each of their 
quarterly bills, ninepence lawful money.'' Cam- 
bridge ministers no longer reckon on these "nine- 
pences" for their support, although they find many 
attentive listeners among the students, and the work 
of the Prospect Union and of the Social Union 
shows the interest of the students in the moral and 
educational welfare of the "Town." 

The relations of "Gown" to "Town" have not been 
confined to the students. The professors have 
been citizens of Cambridge as well as professors 
in the college and many of them have taken leading 
parts in civic affairs. The second mayor of the 
city was Sidney Willard, professor of "Hebrew and 
other Oriental Languages" in the Divinity School, 
and the author of a Hebrew grammar. His studi- 
ous habits secured him the nickname among his 
students of Vav from a letter of the Hebrew alpha- 
bet. Yet this quiet scholar was. three times mayor 
of Cambridge, for two years a member of the Gov- 
ernor's council, and represented his city in the two 
branches of the legislature for seven years. 

Another professor of Hebrew, John G. Palfrey, 
was elected a member of Congress and was post- 
master of the city of Boston for six years. 

Other professors who have not served the city 
in an official capacity have been warmly interested 
in the affairs of the community. It was mainly due 
to Professor Story that Cambridge secured the 
right to enclose the common, in spite of the stren- 
uous opposition of neighboring towns claiming a 
prescriptive right to drive across it herds of cattle 



TOWN AND GOWN. 225 

destined for Brighton. Judge Story was a model 
citizen of Cambridge and took an active part in 
all important municipal affairs. Says Dr. Peabody 
of him, "There was no public meeting for a needed 
charity or educational interest, in behalf of art or 
letters, or for the advancement of a conservatively 
liberal theology in which his advocacy was not an 
essential part of the programme." 

The poor of Cambridge remember Samuel San- 
ders who removed from Saleni to Cambridge to 
become the steward of the college and on his death 
left a large part of his property to Cambridge 
charities. 

Professor Charles Beck enlisted in the civil war 
but was at once discharged by the medical officers 
as unfit for service on account of his age, but 
Cambridge still honors his zeal and contributions in 
behalf of the wounded in the hospitals. 

These few instances must suffice, but anyone 
acquainted with the civic history of Cambridge will 
recall manv cases of the helpfulness of "Gown" and 
"Town." 

The confining character of academic duties, and 
a community of tastes and interests, has tended to 
make the professors a society unto themselves, but 
the formation of the Colonial Club has done much 
to restore the ancient social relations of Town and 
Gown, and a winter's evening finds professor and 
townsman in the bowling alley together on the 
easy social footing given by shirt sleeves and sport. 
It is to be hoped that in spite of the fact that the 
college has become a imiversity and the town has 
grown into a city, the early simple relations of mu- 
tual helpfulness will be carefully maintained by both 
sides; and that the relations of Town and Gown 
may form a new chapter in the history of "the 
Cambridge idea." 



CHOICE. 

BY MRS. EMMA ENDICOTT MAREAN. 



The string o'cntretched breaks, and the music flies; 
The strins o'erslack is dumb, and music dies; 
Tune us tne sttar neither low nor high. 

''-'Edwin ArupM. 

Nor low nor high ! My heart learned once that prayer. 
That humble prayer, that asks the steady glow 
Of moderation only ; seeks to know 

The strength of slow successes ; fears to share 

Ambitions sweet, tempting to heights more fair. 
A simple life, attuned nor high nor low. 
May gain a heaven, escape from bitter woe. 

Nor need to greatly suffer, greatly dare. 

Take back Thy gift of peace ! I claim the smart 

And ache of passion for a vision fiigh ! 

Make me Thme instrument, and justify 
This longing once Thy message to impart ! 
Awake one song to stir a heroes heart. 

Then let the tense strings break, the music die ! 



228 



CAMBRIDGE AS A NO-LICENSE CITY. 



Cambridge as a No-License City. 



By FRANK FOXCROFT. 



THAT a city of more than eighty thousand inhab- 
itants should for ten years in succession vote 
against the licensing of saloons implies the existence 
of conditions sufficiently novel and interesting to 
repay study. No caprice, either of enthusiasm or of 
indignation, can account for such action. It is to 
be explained only by a deliberate purpose, grounded 
in sound reason at the beginning, and sustained and 
justified by results. Cambridge voted in favor of 
license for five years after the local-option law be- 
came operative ; the possibilities of that system were 
fully tested, and the first majority against license, 
at the election in December, 1886, expressed the 
protest of public sentiment against saloon arro- 
gance, lawlessness and corruption. Those days are 
now, happily, so far in the past that few, perhaps, 
outside of the number of those who were directly 
concerned in city administration, recall vividly how 
exacting were the demands of the saloon interests, 
and to what an extent their evil influence was felt 
in city politics and government. A striking illus- 
tration of this influence was given in the act of the 
Board of Aldermen of 1886 in granting a license to 
the Dewire saloon on Kirkland Street, in spite of 
the remonstrances of the residents in that vicinity, 
and in accordance with the declaration of the Chair- 
man of the Committee on Licenses, that moral in- 
terests were entitled to no consideration in such 
matters. At about the same time, two saloon mur- 

229 



280 CAMBRIDGE 8KJETCUJE8, 

ders, one of them the act of a saloon-keeper, directed 
public attention to the moral fruits of the Uquor 
trafHc, as the Dewire incident had done to its politi- 
cal influence. These occurrences were prominent 
factors in the election of 1886, in which a majority 
of 530 in favor of license the preceding year was 
changed into a majority of 566 against it. 

The history of the no-license movement in Cam- 
bridge usually is traced no further than the appoint- 
ment of the Citizen's No-license Committee in 
1886, and the cooperating work of the ministers and 
churches. But there were two earlier organizations 
which contributed to the result. One of tliese was 
the Home Protection League, which conducted the 
no-license campaigns in the first five years, and in 
the first election of the series came within six votes 
of carrying the city against the saloons. The other 
was the Law and Order League, composed of about 
two hundred conservative citizens, and organized 
in 1883 for the purpose of assisting in the enforce- 
ment of the liquor laws. The League adopted the 
policy of beginning at the top, and it spread dismay 
among the saloon-keepers when, at its first swoop, 
it corralled and convicted six of the most conspicu- 
ous and influential of their number who, prior to 
that time, had secured immunity by a social or 
political "pull." The work of the League was at- 
tended by the difficulties incident to such under- 
takings, but it was continued three years, until 
changed conditions made reorganization desirable, 
and its influence on the public mind was educational. 

The Citizens' No-license Committee was ap- 
pointed in 1886 at a public meeting of citizens op- 
posed to the granting of licenses in Cambridge. It 
was composed of twenty-five members, five from 
each ward, and has been recommissioned for the 
work of conducting the campaigns in each succeed- 



A N0-LICEN8E CITY. 281 

ing year. It began at once the publication of a 
campaign paper, called the Frozen Truth, which 
was sent by mail to all names on the voting list. It 
undertook a house-to-house canvass of the city; dis- 
tributed circulars and appeals; held public meetings; 
and provided checkers, distributors and carriages 
for the polls. The committee of ministers, repre- 
senting all of the Protestant and several of the Cath- 
olic churches, has cooperated with the Citizens' 
Committee in each campaign, by organizing union 
meetings and in other ways. The energy and ef- 
fectiveness with which this work has been done 
deserve all praise. Meanwhile the Citizens' No- 
license Committee has attended to what may be 
called, in a broad sense, the political phases of the 
work, and has prosecuted its campaigns with a close 
attention to registration, canvassing and rallying of 
voters which has commanded the admiration of 
experienced campaigners. It has been generously 
supported by public subscriptions, which have been 
prudently expended and rigorously accounted for. 

The principles tacitly adopted by the Committee 
and steadily adhered to may be briefly indicated. 
The question at issue has been limited to that of sa- 
loons for Cambridge. General theories of legisla- 
tion have not been discussed. No inquisition has 
been made as to individual beliefs or habits. The 
platform has been kept broad enough to hold any 
man who, for any reason, does not want the licensed 
saloon in Cambridge. There has been no denuncia- 
tion of men holding a different view, but a patient 
and, in many instances, a successful attempt to con- 
vince them by demonstrated results. The appeal 
has been made every year to iTunlerate men, at first 
as an experiment, then in the interest of fair play, 
and later to sustain a system whose benefits had be- 
come obvious to most fair-minded men. The Com- 



282 CAMIUilDOE SKETCHES. 

niittee never has recognized any social, political or 
religious differences. It has included in its mem- 
bership Republicans, Democrats, Prohibitionists 
and Independents, but never has found time to dis- 
cuss politics. Catholics and all denominations of 
Protestants have worked together in its membership 
with mutual respect and goodwill. It has never 
taken sides with any municipal party or candidates. 
It has had but one thing in view, the use of every 
honorable means to bring out the largest possible 
no-license vote. 

As to results: The 122 saloons which used to exist 
in Cambridge with the sanction of the law have 
been closed. Most of them have been occupied for 
other business purposes or have been remodelled as 
dwellings. There are, of course, some places where 
liquor is illegally sold, but they are not numerous, 
and there is no trace anywhere of an open liquor 
traffic. The enforcement of the law is almost uni- 
formly thorough, honest and impartial, and it is 
sustained by a strong public sentiment. After the 
first no-license victory, a Citizens' Law Enforcement 
Association was formed, for the purpose, not of con- 
ducting prosecutions, hut of assisting the authori- 
ties and of keeping the public informed. Its mem- 
bership was not limited to no-license men, but in- 
cluded voters who had voted for license, but whose 
respect for the dignity of law was stronger than 
their individual opinions on the license question. 
It was useful for a time, but its activities have not 
been needed of recent years. 

That Cambridge has prospered under no-license 
cannot be disputed. The rate of increase in valua- 
tion has been nearly double that of the preceding 
license years, and the growth of population also has 
been nearly twice as rapid as under license. Dur- 
ing five license years, 193 new houses, on the aver- 



A NO'LWENSE CITV, 



238 



age, were built each year.^ In 1894, in spite of the 
hard times, there were 494 new houses built. In 
1894, also, the deposits in Cambridge savings banks 
were larger, by more than $600,000, than in the last 
year of license. The Chief of Police and each of the 
three police captains have given public testimony, 
to the improved condition of the streets and the fall- 
ing-oflf in drunken violence which have resulted 
from closing the saloons ; and physicians, large em- 
ployers of labor, school teachers and Protestant and 
Catholic clergymen have testified to improvement 
in the condition of the people. As to the effect of 
no-license upon local business, 266 business men in 
all departments of trade signed a public statement 
in December, 1894, declaring their conviction that 
no-liccnsc had promoted the material interests of 
the city and expressing the hope that the policy 
would be continued. 

Following is a record of the vote each year. It 
will be seen that the no-license majority since 1886 
hasranged between 486 and 1503, but never has been 
large enough to justify a relaxation of eflfort: 





Yes. 


No. 


Yes No 
Majority. Majority 


I88I . 


2614 


2608 


6 


1 


1882 . . 


2772 


2379 


393 


\ . . 


1883 . 


3I16 


2522 


S9A 


^ . . 


1884 . . 


3659 


2522 


"37 




1885 . 


. 2764 


2234 


53c 


i 


1886 . 


. 2344 


2910 




566 


1887 . 


• 3727 


4293 
4483 




566 


1888 . 


■ 38'9 




664 


1889 . 


. 3300 


3793 




493 


1890 . 


. 361 1 


4180 




569 


I89I . 


• 3565 


4051 




486 


1892 . 


. 4763 


5606 




843 


1893 . 


' 4539 


5329 




790 


1894 .• 


. 4500 


5099 




599 


1895 . 


. 4160 


5663 




1503 



THE CHARITIES OF CAMBRIDGE. 



The Charities of Cambridge. 



By ELIZABETH H. HOUGHTON. 



THE term "charities,'* or philanthropies if the 
Greek form is chosen as a trifle more sonorous, 
has been so loosely used and so often abused by 
the present and passing generations — like that other 
noble and long-suffering word, temperance — ^that 
it needs to be strictly defined by the writer who 
would use it specifically without appearing offen- 
sively patronizing to certain classes of the commu- 
nity and effusively sentimental to others. The 
derivation of the phrase Charities of Can^ridge 
ought to show to every one that by it is meant 
those organizations and activities in our midst 
whose motive power is love rather than greed of 
gain; that this meaning is obscured, overlaid in 
fact, by a certain stigma which attaches to the 
technical use of the word, is not the fault of the 
dignified Latin trisyllable or of the idea back of 
it, but is caused by the difficulty of apprehending 
and applying its simple beauty on the part of donors 
and recipients alike. 

Under this heading I am to consider the insti- 
tutions, not systematically connected with the vari- 
ous churches or with the university, which form a 
part of the life of Cambridge and are carried on 
wholly or in part by funds contributed without hope 
of return other than the consciousness of promot- 
ing the common good. 

The simplest method of arrangement, for once 

237 



238 CAMBRIDGE 8KETCUES. 

perhaps, is to begin at the climax, to tell of the 
synthesis, the culmination of all charitable effort 
as we know it to-day, and afterwards to mention 
the organic parts, the helpful accessories, histori- 
cally precedent though many of them are to the 
comprehensive scheme which now embraces them 
and shows them the way to a fuller, more scientific 
efficiency. 

The Associated Charities came into existence in 
Cambridge in the spring of 1881 (incorporated 
January, 1883), two years after its establishment 
in Boston, four years after Buffalo introduced the 
system into America, and twelve years after the 
idea of a Charity Organization society was put in 
practice in London. Its aim, the annihilation of 
pauperism by studious mastery of its causes, its 
motto, "Not alms but a friend" — neither of these 
needs elaboration or elucidation in this sketch. If 
any reader of this book and citizen of Cambridge 
is ignorant of the working and ideals, the difficulties 
and successes of this organization, full information 
is not far to seek, and it is a simple duty rather than 
a privilege of citizenship to acquire it. If anyone 
is dissatisfied with the results of its efforts let him 
look to it that he does his part towards making 
them better. This is not a scheme to lighten the 
responsibility of any individual for his needy neigh- 
bor, but to direct it, and to make it as far as possible 
helpful instead of mischievous in its effect by means 
of conference, the exchange of experience and ad- 
vice. 

Since the time when the study of medicine re- 
plied the seeking for charms and incantations, 
no reform has promised such amelioration of the 
physical condition of the human race as that which 
is substituting for the old heedless, harmful alms- 



CUAEITIE8 OF CAMBRIDGE, 289 

giving the brave, accurate, sympathetic study of the 
most alarming distressing characteristics of our 
civilization. 

To object to the methods of the Associated 
Charities as involving too much red tape and the 
exposure of sacred details is as childish as it would 
be to object to a physician who informs himself 
about his patient's symptoms and writes a prescrip- 
tion instead of impulsively administering a dose of 
medicine at haphazard. To hold aloof on the as- 
sumption that the old-time patronage and dole- 
giving has only taken another form is to under- 
estimate the calibre of the mental and moral force 
which is everywhere at work on this idea. 

There are, at this writing, four centres for con- 
ference, known by the districts in which they meet 
respectively as the Old Cambridge, the North Cam- 
bridge, the Cambridgeport and the East Cambridge 
conference. The central office is in the Central 
Square Building in Cambridgeport. At one or 
another of these points it is the duty of every in- 
dividual, as well as of every organization, religious 
or secular, which aims to relieve suffering caused 
by poverty, to give and seek information about every 
applicant for aid. When this is heartily and thor- 
oughly done the work of the Association will be 
relieved of its most irksome impediment to success, 
and the money which is now worse than wasted 
in ill-considered attempts to alleviate poverty will 
go far towards supporting schools for higher educa- 
tion in this important branch of learning. 

Two kinds of sufferers appeal preeminently and 
eternally to our sympathies — the sick, and the 
children deprived of natural protectors. Cam- 
bridge has made good provision for meeting both 
the needs here suggested. 



240 CAMBRIDGE SKETCHES. 

The Cambridge Hospital, with which the name 
of Miss Emily E. Parsons, its first instigator, must 
always be honorably associated, was opened for 
patients in April, 1886. It is unusually comfort- 
able and cheerful in aspect even for a hospital. 
The sun seems to shed its most genial glow over 
it in winter, and the breeze which sweeps through 
it in summer always strikes one as fresher than that 
obtainable in any other spot in the city. How 
much of this is due to the effect of that spirit of mu- 
tual forbearance and cheerful resignation, which 
reigns supreme here as in hospital wards every- 
where, and how much to the wisdom of the original 
plan and the efficiency of the management, need not 
be determined. That a city of the size of Cam- 
bridge could wait so long before equipping itself 
with the means of caring for its sick poor may be 
a matter of surprise to those who have not reflected 
that in this, and other respects, we are inevitably 
suburban, however independent of Boston we are 
in civic matters. 

The Holy Ghost Hospital opened the doors of 
a small frame house — its temporary home — only 
in January of 1895, to admit incurable patients of 
all kinds from all accessible points, though no 
doubt the preference always will be given to Cam- 
bridge sufferers. Though the fund hitherto secured 
has come through a Roman Catholic parish in Cam- 
bridge it is hoped that the future support as well as 
the usefulness of the hospital will be unsectarian 
and perfectly general. 

The Middlesex Dispensary was established in 
July, 1892, under a staff of physicians who give each 
three hours a week to the work. Over fourteen 
thousand patients have had the benefit of free con- 
sultation and medicine at cost during the three years 
of its existence. 



CHARITIES OF CAMBRIDGE. 241 

A District Nurse was secured from the Boston 
Instructive District Nursing Association two years 
ago, and now visits, under the superintendence of 
two of its directors, the homes of those sick people 
who for any reason cannot go to the hospital for the 
professional care they need. 

The Avon Place Home became a corporation 
in 1874, thanks chiefly to the liberality of Mr. 
James Huntington who was the first efficient friend, 
if by no means the only one, whom the homeless 
children of Cambridge have had. This institution 
has been known as the Avon Home since it took 
possession, in December, 1891, of the commodious 
house which was built for it on Mt. Auburn street 
and which now offers as wholesome a substitute 
for a paternal home as any child could have who 
has been deprived by sickness, death or crime of 
the genuine kind. The home was founded for 
"children found destitute within the limits of Cam- 
bridge," and has always shown a generous spirit in 
its efforts to meet the demands put upon it by the 
absence from its constitution and by-laws of closely 
drawn restrictions of class, age, race or sex. About 
forty children are sheltered here. They attend 
the public schools and church services and in other 
ways get training — somewhat exceptional in 
"Homes" — which is calculated to make independ- 
ent, self-respecting citizens of them. 

The Home of the ^tassachusetts Society for the 
Prevention of Crueltv to Children is located in Cam- 
bridge, though the city, as the name of the society 
indicates, is in no way responsible for its support. 
The inmates are children who come into the custody 
of the society through the courts of the state and 
are supposed to be only temporarily lodged there 
as a matter of convenience pending permanent set- 
tlement of their careers. 



242 CAMltRIUOE SKETCHES. 

The Kindergartens and Day Nurseries, on Hol- 
yoke and Moore streets, on the other hand, while sup- 
ported by individual benevolence from Boston, are 
a valuable, almost indispensable, help to Cambridge 
children and their over^vorked mothers. We owe 
as much to the intelligence as to the purse of Mrs. 
Quincy Shaw in this charity. 

Next to the children the old people, those who 
have passed the time for self-support and have no 
relatives to care for them, need a helping hand. 

The Cambridge Homes for Aged People is a 
corporation founded in November, 1887, for the pur- 
pose of providing for ''respectable, aged and indi- 
gent men and women." The only part of this 
scheme in operation as yet is a Home for Aged 
Women, made possible by the legacy of the late 
Caroline A. Wood and other gifts, which shelters 
at present eleven inmates. It was opened in No- 
vember, 1891. A Home for Aged Men and a 
Home for Aged Couples will be added to the work 
of the corporation as soon as adequate funds are 
provided by public-spirited Cantabrigians. 

The Baptist Home for Old People and the 
Rescue Home — the latter a branch of the Boston 
Citizens* "Rescue League, not especially intended 
to help Cambridge — deserve such description as 
their titles may give, though it is beyond the scope 
of this article to treat of them more fully. 

There are a number of societies for giving tem- 
porary material relief, of which it would be difficult 
and unnecessary to give a complete list here. Such 
are the Male Humane and the Female Humane 
Societies, the Howard Benevolent, the North Cam- 
bridge Charitable Association, the Society of Saint 
Vincent de Paul, and the benefit associations con- 
nected with business houses or with corporations 
of various kinds. 



('HAIUTJES OF CAMIilUDOK. 248 

Most of tliese cooperate with the Associated 
Charities and resemble one another in plan and 
scope, having been called into being at different 
times to meet the needs of certain districts or cer- 
tain classes of dwellers in our citv. The Female 
Humane Society differs from the others in giving 
relief ostensibly in payment for work done. 
Women who can sew are allowed to carrv to Uieir 
homes basted garments which, when they are com- 
pleted, are disposed of at a sale which is conducted 
once a year by the society. 

The Cambridgeport Union Flower Mission is not 
connected with any church, as are so many similar 
missions. It brings relief of a very real and beau- 
tiful kind to many homes in which the graces of 
life are almost as important, and as hard to get, 
as the necessities. 

Another class of Cambridge institutions must be 
mentioned here because there is no other division 
of this book under which they could more naturally 
be treated ; but they are not "charities" in the sense 
in which the above-named undertakings are chari- 
ties, for the recipients of their benefits are by no 
means "objects of charity," but are simply, in most 
cases, ambitious, energetic young people for whom 
it is a pleasure to provide advantages which they 
could not afford to pay for at the market rates. The 
only reason for designating them as charities is that 
it would be impossible to carry them on efficiently 
without large gifts of money and time from people 
who look for no return in kind. 

First in this class of beneficences I may mention 
— for convenience simply, without any intention 
of grading the value of the work done in associa- 
tions, clubs or unions — the branches of the Chris- 
tian Association for Young Men and for Young 



244 CAMBRIDOB SKETCHES. 

Women, which have their rooms in Central 
Square, Cambridgeport. This work has certain 
well-known characteristics in every city of the world 
in which it is established, so that it is superfluous 
to dwell on it here. The branch for young men 
was started in the year 1883, that for young women 
in July, 1891. 

The East End Christian Union and the Triangle 
Qub, founded respectively in 1889 and in 1890, 
are working on similar educational and social lines 
in the same general section of the town — ^the lower 
Port. The Union is open to both sexes and aims 
to create a religious as well as a moral influence 
— it is in fact a development from a mission Sunday 
school. Its building is three years old. 

The Triangle Club was originally intended as a 
means of utilizing the energies of young people 
of the First Parish Church, but has lately been 
reorganized on an entirely unsectarian and less 
localized basis. 

The Prospect Union, also in Cambridgeport, is 
strictly educational in its efforts and is frequented 
by men who have less leisure for self-cultivation than 
they have will and ability to secure it. To this 
institution belongs the honor of establishing, in 
1891, the University Extension idea in our midst, 
bringing the enlightenment which centres at Harvard 
within reach of the factory and shop "hands," who 
have only 4heir evenings to devote to classes, by 
the systematic using of student-teachers as con- 
ductors. The same system has been working 
equally well in connection with the Social Union 
in Brattle Square for two years past. In some 
cases one enthusiastic young instructor holds 
classes in both sections of the town; more often 
duplicate courses are held under different Har- 



CJfARJTIES OF CAMBRIDGE. 246 

vard students; for it is not difficult in these days of 
altruistic zeal to secure the services of whatever men 
are needed for such work, as is abundantly proved 
by the very name of the Harvard Volunteer Com- 
mittee, organized a year ago to systematize and 
distribute to the best advantage the beneficent 
activity of the college. 

^ If Old Cambridge seems less amply provided 
than Cambridgeport. judging from the number of 
sites occupied with institutions of the class we are 
now considering, it is because the one just men- 
tioned, the Cambridge Social Union, occupies a 
larger field than the others and occupied it earlier. 
P'rom the year 1871, when it was founded through 
the efforts of Mr. William M. Vaughan, its free 
reading-room, its library and its weekly entertain- 
ment as well as its classes, have offered ample and 
rational resource to all in this district of the town 
whose evenings are not apt to be spent at home or 
in houses of friends. Ever since in December, 
1889, '^ rnoved into the building which it at present 
occupies, the famous old Brattle House, the Girls' 
Club— a branch of the national association of work- 
ing Girls' Clubs, then a year old in Cambridge — 
has been a tenant under its roof. 

The Cambridge Roys' Club, also for years hardly 
more than a privileged tenant, now an organic 
part of the Social Union, deserves mention here 
because of its age which is venerable for such an 
organization. When it was started a quarter of a 
century ago by Miss Anne Abbott, as an offshoot 
from the Social Union, clubs of that sort were far 
less common than they are to-day and ought to 
be for many a day to come. 

The Woman's Christian Temperance Union has 
established branches in Cambridge, North Cam- 



240 CAMBRIDGE SKETCHES. 

bridge, East Cambridge and Cambridgeport. This 
organization, as is well known, works for the 
purification of society by the annihilation of the 
liquor traffic and the suppression of vice. Its 
methods are mainly educational, pursued through 
the dissemination of temperance literature and 
scientific instruction regarding the effects of alcohol 
and the use of tobacco and other narcotics. It car-^ 
ries on many lines of work, among them that in 
the Loyal Temperance Legion, temperance instruc- 
tion in Sunday schools and in mother's meetings. 
Religious meetings are regularly held with the pris- 
oners of the Middlesex county jail where helpful 
literature is distributed. 

The Cambridge Branch of the Massachusetts 
Indian Association was established in 1886, and 
a good deal of the philanthropic energy of our 
community has been expended upon it ever since. 
Interest in this organization being coextensive, 
with the city limits, its fairs draw workers from 
every parish or district, and its entertainments and 
meetings for arousing public sentiment have re- 
ceived alike general support. The money secured 
in such ways and by membership fees is used by 
vote of the executive committee — under such lim- 
itations, of course, as the state committee may im- 
pose — for the benefit of those schools, missions and 
settlements among the Indians which in its judg- 
ment best repay fostering care. 

This society is not without its claim to be con- 
sidered a Cambridge charity in the stricter sense of 
having Cambridge beneficiaries. It is known that 
at least one full-blooded young Indian was assisted 
to come to Cambridge and to obtain a chance to 
ply the trade which he had learned at school, in one 
of our printing establishments. He maintained 



CHARITIES OF CAMBRIDGE. 247 

himself here for several years, aided by the friendly 
counsels of some of the ladies connected with the 
association. He is now, however, pursuing his 
career elsewhere having probably found some 
opening which he thought preferable to his posi- 
tion here. 

This paper does not claim to present a complete 
list of Cambridge philanthropies. It is a self- 
evident fact that it treats none of them exhaustively. 
Moreover, the best of the work done in the name 
and under the potent spell of charity must forever 
escape the recorder's pen — unless he be the record- 
ing angel — just as the most endearing qualities in 
our friends always defy analysis. It is enough if 
the fact has been thus emphasized that in the life 
history of Cambridge the heart has its part as well as 
the brain and the brawn and the spirit; and that it 
is a part, judged by the standards of common hu- 
manity as displayed in cities everywhere, of which 
we have no cause to be ashamed. 

But there is the danger in this, as in other fields 
of activity, that we shall lose sight of our ideals, 
shall forget that we are far enough still from their 
attainment. 

It is because so many "priests and Levites" still 
pass by on the other side that the good Samaritan 
of the present day is overwhelmed by the magni- 
tude of his task in caring for the many who have 
fallen among thieves; and must make use of all 
sorts of time-and-labor-saving mechanical devices 
if he is to keep up with it at all. These are seldom 
beautiful judged by ideal standards and ought not 
to satisfy us. 

I am inclined to wish for this book a more per- 
manent life than that of any relief-giving machinery, 
however well it may fit the present need, herein 



248 cambhidoe sketches. 

mentioned. For the day must come when every 
man's abundance of money, intelligence or leisure 
shall be wisely and simply at the service of his 
neighbor who has need of these things, and he shall 
enrich himself in turn out of that neighbor's store, 
even if it consist only of patience under adversity 
and that poverty of spirit which is so often a com- 
pensation for poverty in worldly possessions and 
is suggestive of wealth in the kingdom of heaven. 
In that day there will be no need of dealing with 
want in the '. aggregate. Help will be given so 
quietly, so unconsciously, that the giver may well 
ask, in literal surprise that he has accomplished 
anything — "I-X)rd, when saw we thee a hungered, 
and fed thee? or thirsty and gave thee drink? When 
saw we thee a stranger and took thee in? or naked, 
and clothed thee? Or when saw we thee sick or 
in prison, and came unto thee?" 



THE THING MOST NEEDED IN 

CAMBRIDGE. 



The Thing Most Needed in 

Cambridge. 



By nrs. SUSAN A. QILHAN. 



\1/E need the Metropolitan Park System com- 
^ ^ pleted. Then Cambridge will have one of the 
most superb driveways in America, bordering the 
Charles, with the handsome fronts of stately resi- 
dences facing the water. 

We need a fine fountain on the common. 

We need — alas! that it should be so! — an Art 
Museum that will be a joy to the eyes. As has 
been suggested, it should stretch its beautiful 
colonnades and graceful arches of stone and brick — 
harmonizing with old "Massachusetts" in line and 
color — along the great green terrace, between the 
President's house and Gore Hall. With its stately 
beauty, what an impressive approach to the Uni- 
versity, as we came up Massachusetts avenue! 

We need a large, commodious hall for lectures 
and concerts. 

We need a small, but perfectly kept, hotel. 

Many other things for use and for beauty we 
need; but most of all, we need in our city of rapidly 
increasing population, good homes for our working- 
people — model tenements. 

In a few years the park system will render "The 
Marsh" too valuable for its present occupants. Its 
shabby, dirty tenements, with slimy pools surround- 
ing them after a rain, must then be swept away to 

251 



262 CAMIUilDOE SKETCHES, 

make room for fine houses along the river — ^ river 
no longer defiled by sewage as now, but pure and 
clear to its very depths! What, with this change 
in Mt Auburn street, will then become of its poor 
tenants? There will be a pressing, a crying need 
of good tenement houses. Even now it is a most 
difficult thing for a working-man to house his fam- 
ily in decent quarters within his means, and not too 
far from his work. When model tenements are 
built, let them be placed as near as possible to other 
tenement-house districts, since the fact that the 
laboring classes have chosen them shows their 
adaptability to their wants. 

It is a safe thing to do financially, to lease an old 
tenement house. Shovel out the accumulated dirt 
and rubbish, cut windows in dark bedrooms, let 
light upon dark stairways, scrape the layers of 
dingy papers from the walls. Then whitewash, 
scour, paint, repair, have windows that will open 
and doors that will shut. Put good sinks with 
good faucets, and other conveniences into each 
entry. Have the cellar clean and wholesome, ven- 
tilated and whitewashed, with coal bins and proper 
receptacles for ashes and garbage. Put railings 
and posts for clothes lines on the roof, and pulleys, 
for the tenants of the first floor only, on the fences 
and walls of* the yard. Since it is hard to carry 
coal and other necessaries of life up more than three 
flights of stairs, it is not best to have your model 
tenement more than four stories high. 

Have strict rules as to decency, cleanliness and 
prompt payment of rent — always in advance — ^and 
enforce them. Let your tenants know that they 
will be protected from vice and drunkenness; that 
no amount of money can keep a vile person within 
your walls; that this house is one where a sober 



TUE THING MOST NEEDED. 268 

working man may strive to bring up his children 
in purity and wholesome living, and his landlord 
will cooperate with him. 

If one manages the thing rightly, on business 
principles, the experiment will succeed. But one 
must not forget that a model tenement is not a 
charitable institution, but rather an educational 
one, for the very class which most needs to learn 
the duties and obligations of life, and the inevitable 
consequences if these are shirked. The house will 
fill with tenants, and it will pay five or six per cent 
net, or more, if one is his own rent collector. 
One has beside, the joy of knowing that one little 
spot on God's earth is through this instrumentaUty 
kept sweet and pure against "that day," when He 
will bring every work into judgment. 

These things mentioned are indispensable to the 
model tenement, but there is something beyond, 
that may be added, if one would give "good measure 
pressed down and running over," and hope to "re- 
ceive the same again into your bosom." 

In a tenement-block of five houses, such as I 
have described, at the South End in Boston, there 
were formerly five little backyards filled with sheds 
and ash and garbage barrels, and divided by high 
fences, shutting out light and air. It is obvious 
why fences are high, in one of the worst districts 
in Boston. The yards were surrounded by the 
unsightly backs of the old tenements adjoining, 
and their still more dilapidated fences, reaching to 
the second story. Even a kitten would not have 
played in one of these dreary, sunless pens! 

Last spring the generous, philanthropic owner 
of the block removed all the dividing fences and the 
sheds, made places for ashes and garbage in the 
well-ventilated cellars, and threw the whole space 



254 CAMBRIDGE SKETCHES. 

into a large, central court. At each end there is a 
beautiful flower-bed, and there are grass borders 
round the sides, and vines, which by and by will 
cover the fences and walls with their waving green. 
The centre is bricked and so is the broad walk which 
runs around the court. It is kept in perfect order, 
not an unsightly thing allowed, nor even a dirty 
scrap of paper on the walks. Hardly a Aozk^cr Ims 
been ruthlessly broken, or a vine injured this wliole 
seasofi. The tenants feel that it is their garden, 
and take such pride in it that any one attempting 
to molest it would receive sharp rebukes — not to 
say even worse things — especially from the mothers. 
Even on the hottest days it is cool and shady here 
in the afternoon, and the women of the block, in 
clean aprons, come down with their babies to sit 
about on the settees; some bring their sewing from 
their stifling rooms; while the children, who last 
summer had only the narrow doorsteps or the dirty 
sidewalks for playgrounds, ntn and play games 
on the broad walk. After supper the men come to 
smoke their pipes, and to watch the watering of the 
flowers with the hose, cooling the air like a fountain. 

People talk of the ingratitude of the poor! I 
can only say that in this block everything done for 
the comfort and health of the tenants has been 
appreciated, while the joy and satisfaction they have 
expressed in the garden has been a constant surprise 
and pleasure to its projectors. 

On Decoration Day, the owner celebrated the 
completion of the garden by giving a party there to 
all her tenants. There were eighty people, repre- 
senting seven nationalities. There was a pretty 
table of refreshments beside one of the flower beds, 
and two Italians with harp and violin played the 
gayest music. Never did people have a better time. 



\ 



THE THING MOST NEEDED, 255 

There was dancing and singing; with fathers and 
mothers, grandmothers and toddlers, and lonely 
single women, all enjoying themselves together, 
while the hostess was everywhere with a smile and 
outstretched hand, the animating spirit . of the 
whole. 

The behavior was perfect, and one secretly 
blushed to think how rudeness had been feared and 
a policeman suggested, even, to keep order! 

But "that is another story/' 

I would only say in conclusion that in doing 
something like this — so greatly needed in Cam- 
bridge — you will have a work which will interest 
you more and more — ^an investment not wholly 
of the earth, earthy, while you live. And when at 
last you are called to a "house not made with 
hands," the blessings and prayers that will hover 
around you from homes you have uplifted, and 
children you have saved from crime and misery, 
will be like wings of angels beneath your fainting, 
sinking spirit. 



THE SISTERHOOD OF WOMEN. 

The nineteenth century ia woman's century. — Victor Hugo. 
ESTELLE II. H. MERRILL {J^MH KtUCoid). 



The century plant, through many a silent hour. 
Within itself holds the potential power, 
The possibility of its rare, perfect flower. 

So as this ** woman*s century '^ its closing nears, 
From slow and silent growth of byngone years 
The sisterhood of women, perfect nower, appears. 

** My sister 1 ^ cries the rich unto the poor to-day ; 

And sinless Mary unto Magdalena may 

** My sister still thou art," in yearning accents say. 

After the flower comes fruitage ; and what test 
Can measure the good wrought, when love*s behest 
Compels the gift of each to other of her best ! 



266 



THE CANTABRIGIA CLUB. 



The Cantabrigia Club. 



By QRACB S. RICB, Secretary. 



THE Cantabrigia Club entered the domain of 
clubs in March, 1892, its natal hour being 
auspiciously struck at the home of Mrs. Estelle M. 
H. Merrill, in the presence of a group of interested 
women who for the previous winter had been 
members of classes in current events under the 
leadership of their hostess. 

Its origin was altruistic and its reason for being 
was a quickened impulse of charity and love for 
suffering. In discussing the evils of the sweating- 
system which was then being considered in a bill 
before Congress, and conuncnting on the sad social 
conditions revealed by official investigations, Mrs. 
Merrill spoke feelingly of the good a live woman's 
club might do in helping to create and hold a 
righteous public opinion that would wipe out these 
ills. The instant response was, "Let us have such 
a club," and it was done. 

The kindly thought, generous sympathy and a 
desire to "lend a hand" were therefore the motives 
that sent the club forth among many kindred or- 
ganizations, and made for its career not only a 
promising augury, but a noble birthright as well. 
It made, indeed, a responsibility, too; for the club 
which is brought together by an inspiration, has 
a standard to live up to that others may not claim, 
and to which it niav not be recreant save at its own 
loss. 



250 



260 CAMBRIDGE SKETCHES. 

The object of the Cantabrigia Chib as set forth 
in the constitution, is threefold "social, literary 
and humanitarian. In its work it shall endeavor, 
not only among its members, but in the community, 
to promote good-fellowship and the highest form of 
social life ; to encourage mental and moral develop- 
ment, and to aid by its organized effort such worthy 
causes as may secure its sympathy." 

Three years have passed since the "christening- 
party," with its delightful ceremonies and free 
masonry of good wishes started the infant club 
on its way. On this occasion, which was one long 
to be remembered, friends from far and near were 
present, with gifts of sympathetic words and kindly 
wishes for the future of the new organization. 
Wise women stood as its godmothers and offered 
counsel and congratulation, and, as it had no preju- 
dice in the matter of sex, fairy godfathers were 
present as well, so that like the princess in the 
olden tale, its christening was full of happiest omens 
for the future. . 

Its work during the three years has been along 
various lines, each of its eight departments being 
presided over by a chairman and two assistants, 
who provide the programs for the open meetings 
as well as plan for class work or lectures. 

In literature, classes in Dante were continued 
through two seasons, and the Divine Comedy was 
completed. Current literature classes, too, were 
made very profitable, and books about which 
everyone was talking, were reviewed by different 
members. The history, art and literature of France 
were the topics for the last season's work in this 
department, with the happiest results. 

In art, the Italian Renaissance, that blossoming 
time in the garden of art, has been the theme for 



THE CANTABRiaiA CLUIl. 201 

enthusiastic research for two seasons past, and the 
leader of this department, herself an artist and 
fresh from study abroad, directed by text and 
photographs the study of famous masters and their 
works. From these photographs it was interesting 
to trace the change and progress of church doctrine, 
to become acquainted with l6cal life in different 
cities, and to read the prevailing estimate of men 
and things as seen through the eye and brush of 
the artist. But more than all, the aim of the leader 
was to point out that which goes to make up the true 
pictures of the world, both past and present, where 
shines from the canvas and the frescoed wall, the 
spark of genius and the light of beauty, whether 
of thought or interpretation. 

In the department of science, lectures by teachers 
of botany were successfully given, the climax of 
which was one by the artist-botanist William Ham- 
ilton Gibson, whose eloquent lecture and artistic 
charts illustrating his topic, delighted his audience. 
A series of lectures on psychology was listened to 
with great interest. These were attended by many 
of the teachers of Cambridge schools. The im- 
portance of this subject to-day, to those who have 
the training of youth in charge, is recognized as 
never before, and prepares for more fitting service 
those engaged in this high calling, whether as 
mother or teacher. 

The section of music has from the outset achieved 
marked results, a large choral class being organized 
at once and later on, a quartette, both of which have 
sung often before the club, and on public occasions. 
Classes for practice rehearse weekly, during the 
club year. The open meetings have provided en- 
tertainments of high order and contributed pleasure 
to large audiences outside club limits. 



262 CAMBRIDGE SKETCHES, 

The department of civics has studied the city 
charter and city ordinances, and furnished classes 
in the study of parliamentary law with instruction 
by Mrs. Harriette R. Shattuck. The aim of the 
leader has been to interest women in the science of 
government and good citizenship, and to raise the 
standard of public opinion for the coming generation. 
The benefit of parliamentary law is to make better 
club women of its members and fit them for greater 
participation in discussion and the giving of 
counsel. 

In the home department the club achieved a well- 
earned and wide renown by its notable domestic 
science exhibit, given in the second year. The 
week which was taken up by this educative exhibit 
was fully occupied in interesting talks by experts 
on household topics, and the display of high-class 
food products, improved methods of work and the 
latest appliances in domestic utensils. The interest 
which was created by this exhibition and the influ- 
ences set in motion by it will be widening for profit 
continually. 

The Current Events section of the Club has been 
one of the most popular. Led the first two seasons 
by the club's beloved president, Mrs. Merrill, the 
success and interest developed were noteworthy. 
The inspiration imparted by such a leader, 
thoroughly conversant with current topics, anxious 
to make of her class intelligent and thoughtful 
readers, and animated by a never-failing enthusiasm 
in the work, cannot be estimated, and as a result 
the model class was very nearly attained. A class 
for mutual study conducted this department wfth 
good results, during the third season, and profited 
greatly by the zeal and interest developed among 
themselves. 



THE CANTABRIGIA CLUB. 268 

The Philanthropy section was the helping hand 
for several noble causes. The Cantabrigia Free 
Bed in the Cambridge Hospital, gifts to the Avon 
Home, the Relief Fund for Unemployed Women, 
and the East End Mission were among the bene- 
factions of the club. Individual members also 
arranged pleasant outings for the children and 
mothers connected with the college settlement in 
Boston, and many another similar work has had 
its origin in the Cantabrigia Club. 

In the three years the membership of the club 
has steadily increased, and at the close of its third 
year it numbers more than six hundred. Its ac- 
tivities have not only concerned themselves with 
class work and open meetings, but have provided 
also delightful social occasions at which friends 
have been invited to share its hospitalities. "Over 
the teacups," or the lemonade glasses, its members 
become acquainted, and the outer circumference of 
the social circle comes to know its sisters near the 
centre, while the latter realize how helpful for both 
is the interchange of varied ideas and experiences. 

Though the large and increasing membership .of 
the club has its disadvantages, making it difficult to 
have that sociability possible among smaller num- 
bers, it is hoped that this may be remedied soon 
by better clubhouse accommodations, and that a 
freer intermingling of those who only need to know 
in order to esteem one another may make of even 
large numbers a compact social unit. Certainly no 
other means has ever succeeded in bringing closely 
together so many of our Cambridge women and 
in breaking down the imaginary and yet very real 
barriers of locality and convention which had before 
separated them. Already its influence is felt in 
the community, and it is safe to predict that for the 



264 CAMBRIDGE SKETCHES. 

future the Cantabrigia Qub is a force to be reckoned 
with in our city. 

Its members should recall often the consecration 
which was laid upon them in the words of Dr. Pea- 
body at the christening ceremonies in which he said, 
"To christen is to make Christian; but in all the. 
plans outlined of what the club proposes to do it 
seems to me that it has enrolled itself already as 
preeminently Christian." 

May the Cantabrigia never prove recreant to the 
benediction words of the loved pastor, whose voice 
was so soon after to be hushed in death. 




HISTORICAL SKETCH 



THE business house known 
10 Ihree generations as 
that of J. A. Holmes & 
Co., was established by Ed- 
mund T. Hastings In the year 
iSto. In the year 1834, Mr. 
Joseph A. Holmes became a 
partner and the firm took the 
now familiar name. A few 
facts and dates will show how 
fully the business, and the gen- 
tlemen conducting it, have 
l>een identitied with the history 
and the growth of the city of 
Cambridge. 

Edmund Trowbridge Hast- 
ings was born in the year 1789. 
He was a descendant in a direct 
line from John Hastings, who 
came in 1654 to Cambridge, 
where his family resided for six 
eenerations. His father was a 
Major in the Revolutionary 
army, while his mother was a 
sister of Chief Justice Francis 
Dana. The Hastings home- 
stead was the one on Holmes 
Place, known to this genera- 
tion as the birthplace of Oliver 
Wendell Holmes. The openin? of the "Great Bridge" to Boston in 
1793, and the Act of Congress in 1805 making Cambridge a " Port of 
Entry" brought iulo existence a buaine&s settlement alone the "Great 
Roao," and promised abundant rewards for energetic ancT enterprising 
men. Stores were built and a thriving business was done, not only with 
residents, but with farmers and traders Dringing produce from other states. 
In one of these stores in the "Port" we find young Hastings as a clerk in 
1808. Two years later, having become " of age," he started in business 
for himself, and, in 1815, in company with Mr. Winthrop Ward, purchased 
a lot of land in the "Northeast corner of the Locust Field," at "the junc- 
tion of the Great Road and the Brighton Road," and erected a building 
for the sale of " West India " goods and country produce. This building 
still stands on the original site, hut has been remodelled and is now oc- 
cupied by the Cambridge Y. M. C. A. 



JOSEPH A. HOLMES. 



In the year 1830, Joseph A. Holmes, a boy of seventeen, came to 
'* work in the store,^* and in 1834 entered the firm as partner. The busi- 
ness now took the style of T. A. Holmes & Co., as Mr. Hastings had by 
this time other business in Boston. Mr. Holmes was a Cambridge boy, 
born in a house still standing on Appian Way. Hb £&ther, a carpenter 
by trade, came from Plymouth in 1798, while his mother, a descendant of 
Abraham Watson who lived in Cambridge as fiir back as 1650, was born 
in the old homestead on ** Menotomy Road,^* near the present Arlington 
line. 

In 1837 Mr. Hastings retired from the business and Mr. W. W. Mun- 
roe became a partner, and continued till 1842, when Mr. Holmes purchased 
the **01d Green Store'* across the Square (erected in 1799) with the 
land about it, and started business once more, without a partner, but re- 
taining the old firm name. In 1850 his brother, Isaac C. Holmes, who 
had been brought up in the store, became a partner, and so continued till 
he retired in 187^. His oldest son, Mr. Joseph Hastings Holmes, for 
many years an active and faithful clerk, now became a partner and so con- 
tinued till his sudden and deeply lamented death in 1879. 

Mr. Holmes, the father, continued the business alone till hisf decease 
in 1893 at the age of 81, active and energetic to the last. This is not the 
place for an eulogv nor for the recital of the many places of public and 
private trust heldoy him from the time that he became a member of the 
first city government of Cambridge. He was revered by all. After he 
had passed the age of threescore and ten, he replaced the old store with 
the present fine brick block of five stores, keeping for himself the largest 
and principal one. 

So much for the past. The present owner, Francis M. Holmes, the 
second son of Mr. Joseph A. Holmes, was born in Cambridge on Main 
Street in 1840, within a stone's throw of the store building, and has never 
lived outside of the present limits of Ward Four. He has great regard for 
the traditions of the past, but also believes in the Cambridge of the pres- 
ent and in the Cambridge of the future. The course of the business will 
be shaped as in the past to exemplify the true *' Cambridge Idea** of con- 
servative progress. The old stand in Central Square is retained, and also 
the now time-honored firm name of J. A. Holmes & Co. 



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Books of Permanent Interest. 

A Victorian Anthology. 

SelectioDt illustratiog the Editor't criticml review of British poetry in the 
reign of Victorim (*• Victorian Poett"). Selected and edited by Bdmnnd 
Cliranoa Stedman. With brief biographies of the authors quoted, a fine 
frontispiece portrait of Qaeen Victoria, and a vignette of the Poets* Corner in 
Westminster Abbey. Large crown 8vo, bound in attractive library style, $2.50; 
full gilt, I3.00; half calf, I4.50; full levant, |6.oo. Large Paper Edihon, 
admirable for extension, limited to 250 copies, printed on paper of the best 
quality. 2 vols., 8vo, |io ntt 

'* Noblest Dotioeable ihaa the fine critical taale displayed by Mr. Stedman in making hi» 
•elections is the conscieniiousness which has gone into every <leiail of his work. It would 
be difficult to imagine a better made antholo^, or one more likely to take a permanent place 
among standard works of reference." — The Dial, Chicago. 

The Works of John Burroughs. - 

A beautiful edition of Mr. Burroughs's writings in nine duodecimo volumes. 
Printed on cream-tinted laid paper, and bound in a simple, but artistic style. 
With several portraits of Mr. Burroughs and engraved title-pages. Limited to 
1,000 sets. Price, cloth, gilt top, 1 13. 50 net, per set; cloth, paper label, un- 
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Cambridge Editions. 

Comprising in at tract ive form the Complete Poetical Works of H. W. 
Zioogfallow, J. O. Whlttiar, Olivar Wandall Holmes. Each volume 
has a fine portrait of the author, with a view of his home, a biographical sketch, 
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The Cambridge Browning. 

The Complete Poetic and Dramatic Works of Robert Browning, Cambrit^f 
Edition, In one convenient volume, printed on clear type, opaque paper, and 
attractively bound. With a biographical sketch, notes, indexes, a fine new 
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Mrs. Jameson's Works on Art. 

fiUiorad and LegeDdary Art, 2 vols. Legends of the Monastic 
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Each volume contains nearly 100 illustrations, selected from the works of great 
masters. I3.00 each. The set 1 15. 00; half calf, gilt top, I25. 00. 



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