32 THE RETROSPECT OF THE YEAR. 



poster of 1797, with an engraving of an elephant, which 

 was imported into this conntry in 1796, by a Salem vessel 

 — the first elephant ever landed in America. Mr. J. D. 

 H. Gauss exhibited a large Spanish poster, announcing a 

 recent bull-fight. 



Monday, March 25, 1895. — Hon. Geo. S. Hale, of 

 Boston, lectured this evening in Plutnmer Hall, on "Why- 

 all citizens should vote." The speaker said that "unless 

 a man is going to vote as he ought to, it is not his duty 

 to vote at all." There is, he said, a growing tendency 

 to hold the individual voters responsible, personally, for 

 the faults and sins of mismanaged governments, but 

 the voters throw the responsibility upon the party with 

 which the}' are identified. Mr. Hale said that the evil of 

 the day is the absurdity of submitting to the party in 

 matters where the individual judgment should be ex- 

 ercised. A coterie of politicians, of either party, get 

 together in some little room and pick out the "rascal" 

 whom they think most likely to be elected, hold a " cut 

 and dried" caucus to get him nominated, and the appeal 

 is, to stand by the party. Until every voter is made to 

 realize that he is to be held morally responsible, person- 

 ally, for the well-being of his town, city, state or nation, 

 in so far as he is able to express his choice of men and 

 measures, politics will be as they are now, in a deplorable 

 state. Men should vote independently, the lecturer said, 

 without regard to party. 



Monday, April 1, 1895. — Regular meeting this even- 

 ing in the Library room. Hon. R. S. Rantoul read a 

 very valuable and entertaining paper on the old Assembly 

 House in Cambridge street, giving from deeds, documents, 

 etc., a description of the building, of its size and general 



