66 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Fss. 



SONG OP THE SPARTAN MOTHER. 



Away with all sighing ! away with all tears ! 



My boy shal behold, not my grief, but my pride ; 

 Can I faint his young manhc d with womanish fears, 



When the flag of his country is scorned and defied f 

 1 will arm hira, and bless him, and send him away, 



Though my heart breaks with grief when he goes from my 

 sight ; 

 I will bid him not falter or blanch in the fray, 



But fight to the death for the Truth and the Right. 

 I must teach my brave lad what it is to be true 

 To the Red and the White and the stars in the Blue, 



'Tis to love the mild rule of the land of his birth, 



To succor the weak in the thrall of the strong, 

 To honor all manhood, to cherish all worth. 



To further the right and to baffle the wrong. 

 As the nations throng onward tiward Liberty's light. 



From the gloom of misrule — 'tis to march in the van, 

 With God as the leader, with Justice and Right 



Perfecting his purpose — ennobling the man. 

 'Tis a sign and symbol — it is well to be true 

 To a cause which is beleagued with the Red, White and Blue. 



'Tis a Text and a Faith, on the land and the sea, 



A Gospel in Peace — Inspiration in War ; 

 A nation's Evangel — a Creed to the Free ; 



The Scripture of Liberty, Order and Law, 

 Shall apostates revile what our sires adored. 



And the steel of hot vengeance die reddened in dust? 

 Shall apostles of bondape, of handcuffs and sword. 



Trail the pride of the faithful, disheartened in dust ? 

 No, never, while mothers teach sons to be true 

 To the banner of banners, the Red, White and Blue. 



He's my all ! he's my treasure ! but take him, dear land. 



And add him a jewel to Liberty's crown — 

 One hero the more for your patriot band — 



The widow's last mite to the nation's renown. 

 For I'll arm him, and bless him, and bid him go forth, 



To take his proud stand in front of the wars, 

 And add his own blade to the swords of the North ; 



Unsheathed for the triumph of Truth and the Laws, 

 For his brave heart has learned what it means to be true 

 To the Stripes and the Stars in the union of Blue. 



N. r. Evening Post. 



For the. New England Farmer, 

 A SKETCH OF FRANKLIN. 



"The thunders of a mighty age 



May drown the voices of the past, 

 But thoa — the printer and the sage — 



Thy name shall live time shall last." 



The town of Franklin, Mass., was undoubfedly 

 the first town of the name, as it was set off from 

 Wrentham in the time of the Revolutionary war, 

 and when its illustrious namesake was in France. 

 This fact of the appreciation of the Doctor's great- 

 ness in its early youth is an honor to the men who 

 named it, and he, in acknowledgement of the com- 

 pliment, presented the town with a library of 

 books instead of a church hell, as some one had 

 suggested, supposing, as he expressed it, that 

 "the people of Franklin were more fond of sense 

 than sound." Every year as we come around our 

 altars at our annual thanksgivings, we are express- 

 ly called upon to pray God to save our respective 

 Commonwealths ; and as we pray for them, and 

 as history — that "reverend chronicler of the grave" 

 — treasures up the distinguished acts performed 

 within the limits of larger and more populous re- 

 gions, may not it be well to conmiunicate to the 

 world the most distinguishing characteristics of 

 our smaller towns ? 



The town of Franklin is situated about twen- 

 ty-six miles southwest of Boston. The Norfolk 

 Co. Railroad intersects it, the principal depot be- 

 ing situated in the most thriving part of the cen- 

 tral village. The soil of Franklin is mostly light, 

 although some of it is excellent for cultivation. 

 It is something like a cross of the hilly, rocky, 

 springy lands of Worcester and Berkshire Coun- 

 ties, so excellent for grass and orcharding, and 

 the light soil of the shore towns of Plymouth Co. 



Still, there is considerable done at farming here, 

 and like our enterprising friends of the Cape, we 

 are developing the resources of our meadows by 

 the culture of cranberries, which seem to be the 

 most profitable crop ever raised this side of cot- 

 tondom. The most important of these meadows 

 is that of Erastus Miller, M. D., of Providence, R. 

 I., a native of Franklin, from which he obtained 

 about 1200 barrels this year. It is supposed to 

 be the finest fresh water cranberry meadow in the 

 world. The Doctor is extending his cranberry 

 grounds ; if all our Drs. would emulate the exam- 

 ple of Dr. Miller, by investing their surplus cap- 

 ital in the productions of fruit, they would make 

 money by the operation, notwithstanding the fact 

 that it would be the means of promoting the health 

 of their patients more than all their drugging. 



The principal manufacturing business done 

 here, is that of straw goods. We have six straw 

 factories, all of which are expected to manufac- 

 ture this winter. The proprietors of three of these 

 shops have wholesale stores on Broadway, New 

 York, which are wholly supplied from these shops. 

 This would seem to be a rather singular fact, con- 

 sidering that the population of the town is but 

 little more than 2000. There is also something 

 done in manufacturing boots. We have one man- 

 ufactory, Mr. J. M. Freeman's, while many others 

 make for firms in Medway and Milford. Besides 

 these, the Messrs. Ray, of Unionville, three enter- 

 prising brothers, carry on a large business mak- 

 ing shoddy. By this means, the appearance of 

 the above named village has more than trebled 

 in importance, and we may suppose its business 

 has met with at least equal success. 



I forgot to state that the Dr. Franklin library 

 is still partly in existence. Unfortunately, some 

 of the volumes are lost, but the remainder form 

 the basis of a fine new library, containing from 

 1200 to loOO volumes of the choicest standard 

 historical and literary works of the age, which is 

 placed at the disposal of every man in town, for a 

 trifling annual compensation ; a privilege by the 

 way, which few towns small as this enjoy. Several 

 of these works were written by our worthy towns- 

 man, the Rev. William M. Thayer, the talented 

 author of the "Bobbin Boy," the "Printer Boy," 

 (Franklin) the "Pioneer Boy" (Pres't Lincoln,) 

 &.C., iiic, all of them highly entertaining and in- 

 structive books. 



It is often the case that a town like this, though 

 small in territory and population, wields a far 

 greater power through its children, over the des- 

 tinies of the nation, or even of the interests of hu- 

 man civilization, than its unpretending appearance 

 would seem to indicate. Washington, Webster, 

 Clay, President Lincoln and many other of our 

 greatest men were born in thinly settled places. 

 The late Hon. Horace Mann, whose intellectual 

 combiit with Daniel Webster is acknowledged by 

 all to have resulted in the triumph of the former, 

 and who received the encomiums of Senators 

 Sumner and Seward, and other distinguished men, 

 as the able champion of education, temperance and 

 freedom, was a native of this town, as was also 

 Judge Theron Metcalf, of Boston. 



While education, liberty and Union, the prin- 

 cipal elements of American civilization, shall con- 

 tinue to make the Yankee what he now is — the 

 most energetic, patriotic, intelligent, enterprising 

 and successful inhabitant of the earth — may our 



