192 FACTS RELATING TO GROTON, MASSACHUSETTS. 



brance of his virtues will afford a great and lasting consolation to all, 

 who believe that sincere and unremitted exertions for the attainment 

 of excellence are of any avail. Surely his generous, blameless spirit 

 can have no ill to fear, through whatever untried change of being he 

 may be called to pass. This thought shall hush our grief at being 

 torn from him whose memory is blended with a thousand endearing 

 recollections of the past. May it, as it ought, for the future, encour- 

 age us to follow his bright example, and so to incline our hearts to 

 wisdom, that we may hope, " the dread path once trod," to be reunited 

 to him in a better and happier world, to part no more forever. S. 



" Boston Daily Advertiser & Patriot," January 15, 1835. 



SIGNOR BLITZ. 



SiGNOR Antonio Blitz is most pleasantly associated with 

 my early recollections, and in after-life was numbered among 

 my friends. Nearly a half-century ago I first saw him give 

 one of his inimitable exhibitions, so amusing to small chil- 

 dren and so wonderful to those of a larger growth ; and 

 the impressions then left on my mind have never been ef- 

 faced. In later years' he passed his summers at Groton, 

 where he made as many friends among the townspeople as 

 he had by his public performances at an early period among 

 the young folks, throughout the country. I remember, one 

 afternoon, his telling me that he had on that day put the 

 finishing touches to his book, which has since been published 

 and widely circulated under the title of "Fifty Years in the 

 Magic Circle" (Hartford, 1871). 



On July 23, 1863, Signor Blitz was married, secondly, to 

 Helen Eliza, daughter of Jonas and Eliza (Adams) Eaton, 

 who was born at Groton, on September 17, 1827, and died 

 at Westfield, New Jersey, on October 23, 1904. The cere- 

 mony was performed at her father's house by the Reverend 

 Henry Martyn Dexter, D.D., at that time the pastor of the 

 Berkeley Street Congregational Church, »Boston. In the 

 town-records the entry of the marriage describes the groom 



