XI 



OLD SALEM TOWN 

 A Scarlet Letter Day in the Witch City 



Over all the hum of business activity that rises 

 from Salem town sleeps the glamour of old-time 

 memories. Factories drone, traffic roars or clat- 

 ters, and the multiple message of modern civiliza- 

 tion goes forth to eye and ear, but among all these 

 sits the ancient city dreaming long dreams and 

 careless of the children of to-day. 



Along Charter Street and down Derby the once 

 stately mansions of the great merchants of an- 

 other century droop in senile decay, knee deep in 

 the dust and debris that immigrant, alien races 

 scatter, and note it and them no more than they 

 do the rats in the wainscoting. The thoughts of 

 the old houses are busy still with ships in the 

 China Sea, battling round the Cape of Good Hope 

 with the Flying Dutchman, or running down the 

 trades from Senegambia, Surinam or Ceylon, 



