Public Conveyances. 255 



argue that Cohasset people do not themselves make chowder. They look 

 as if they did. 



The President of the road, Mr. Alfred C. Hersey, opened the speech- 

 making very handsomely in a brief address, and Mr. Johnson read the 

 first toast to the Old Colony Road, which called forth Mr. Derby, its 

 President. He complimented very justly the ladies of Cohasset for the 

 fine appearance of the Hall, and the bountiful supply of the tables, and 

 ended with a toast for Boston, which was responded to by three cheers 

 for Ex-Mayor Quincy. 



A toast to the good old Commonweath of Massachusetts was responded 

 to by Mr. Amasa Walker, who is truly as much the embodiment of Massa- 

 chusetts spirit as any man. He gave in few words a striking view of 

 what Massachusetts has done for railroads, and what they have done for 

 her. 



Mr. Degrand, of Boston, in his inimitable manner, demonstrated that the 

 South-Shore Railroad had cost $100,000 less than nothing. It had raised 

 the value of land for a mile on each side of it on an average $50 an acre. 

 Sic vos non vobis, the stockholders might say, but Mr. Degrand did not 

 mind that. He went on to advocate a road to San Francisco, and to prove 

 in the same way that it would cost less than nothing. 



When the City Government was toasted, our friends Kimball and Wood- 

 man did the honors, with an unction which showed how well they deserve 

 their seats in that honorable body. Moses related how a certain roaring 

 " Bull of Bashan " opposed the mortgaging of the State for the Worces- 

 ter Railroad, and how another common but dangerous bull of Worcester 

 County opposed to his cost the progress of the first locomotive which trav- 

 ersed that county. And then he drew a parallel, which brought down the 

 house, between the one bull and the other ; at last letting the ignorant know 

 that the Bull of Bashan was B. F. Hallett. 



The Press being toasted, unfortunately the only thing in the shape of 

 an editor was the Ishmaelite of the Chronotype, who, alluding to the re- 

 markable fact that though Hull belonged exclusively to the Courier he 

 had some interest in Cohasset, having partly educated one of its Parsons, 

 and gave for a toast : " The People of Cohasset. From the liberty with 

 which they have used their ladles to-day, they deserve to dwell on the brim 

 of the great chowder-pot of the world." 



Time would fail us even to name all the good things that were said and 

 toasted. At the hour of four the immense throng piled themselves into 

 the cars, and returned to Hingham, where, in one of the most beautiful 

 station buildings in the country, they were invited to another " light repast." 

 It was light in regard to the illumination, but quite substantial as to the 

 amount of sponge cake and coffee, — nothing stronger. Indeed the whole 

 jollification was on temperance principles, and the very wittiest men used 

 nothing but cold water. At seven o'clock, the whole party having enjoyed 

 the best possible time of it, — a brand new edition of toasts, jokes, and 

 compliments being got out at Hingham, — returned to Boston by eight. 



It was a capital sentiment offered by Mr. David Kimball, brother of the 

 Museum man : " The improvement of travelling and collations, — the former 

 with steam and the latter without." Such grand railroad doings without 

 liquor speak well for Massachusetts. God bless her ! 



The Duxbury and Cohasset Railroad, chartered in 1867, and an 

 extension of the South Shore, running from Cohasset through 



