520 



HISTORY OF C OH ASSET. 



farming. They could not appreciate the culture of mind 

 that comes from following the dramas of life which a 

 novelist may depict for brains not so active as his own. 



The discussion of the value or harm of novel reading 

 was rife for many years, and the Social Debating Society 

 had the question up for ventilation. 



This debating society, by the way, was a feature of 

 town life for at least ten or twelve years. It was made up 

 of about twenty-five active participants, though from its 

 beginning in 1828 it had at one time and another as many 

 as one hundred and five members.* 



Their debates covered themes of religion, natural 

 science, politics, literature, matrimony, and town affairs. 

 In fact, nothing was too sacred or too difficult for them. 

 Another debating society was thriving in Beechwood and 

 two or more in Scituate during those days of Daniel 

 Webster oratory. 



The debating society in Beechwood was formed in Janu- 

 ary, 1840, under the inspiration of William Mayo, a public 

 school teacher, with about forty f members from the men 

 and boys of that neighborhood. They called themselves 

 the Beechwood Album Society and debated such questions 

 as the following: — 



* The first twenty-six names signed to the constitution are as follows, between 



eighteen and forty-five years of age : — 



Henry J. Turner. George Beal. Edward Tower. 



Samuel Pratt, Jr. Dawes Studley. Zealous Bates. 



Caleb Nichols. Josiah O. Lawrence. James Pratt. 



Martin Lincoln. D. T. Lothrop. Warren Willcutt. 



Nichols Pratt. Lewis Willcutt. Micajah Malbon. 



Caleb Lothrop. Horace Hancock. Sylvanus Brown. 



George A. Lawrence. James Stoddard, Jr. George W. Collier. 



Job Tower. David B. Tower. Jonathan B. Bates. 



Joseph Lincoln. Alfred Whittington. 



tThe first ten names on the list of thirty-eight are as follows ; — 

 William Mayo. Thomas Whitcomb. Minot Pratt. 



Alvah Richardson. Timothy W. Brown. Warren Bates. 



E. C. Upton. Lot W. Pratt. John Pratt, 2d. 



Osborne Wood. 



