14 
THE MANCHESTER OF 
THIRTY-FIVE YEARS AGO 
Correspondent sends in Communication Printed 
in Boston Paper—also Copy of Famous 
“Blue Laws” of Connecticut for Perusal of 
Breeze Readers. 
MANCHESTER, Jan. 8, 1906. 
Dear Mr. Lodge: It has been a 
habit of mine to cut out and save arti- 
cles that appeal to or in an especial 
way interest me. Occasionally I in- 
dulge in a pastime that usually occurs 
a little later with the ladies ; they call 
it cleaning up. With me it is more 
like cleaning out, as most of my col- 
lection finds its appropriate place in 
the waste basket. I have just had an 
attack of this kind, perhaps not as 
violent as sometimes, and have saved 
two articles which I thought might 
interest your readers— one a letter 
written 35 years ago, and appearing 
in one of the Boston papers. Most of 
the people referred to and the in- 
cidents related will come to the mind 
by way of remembrance, as the older 
citizens of the town read the letter 
which I enclose. 
I also send youa copy of the famous 
Connecticut “Blue Laws,’’-—not that 
I would advocate in our day and gen- 
eration anything quite as stringent. 
I have a feeling, however, there is a 
path somewhere, between the lax 
moral sentiment and weak enforce- 
ment of law as we see it today, and 
those old ‘“‘Blue Laws”’ that we as a 
people should speedily find, and hav- 
ing found—walk in it. 
Yours truly, 
O. T. Rozerts. 
MANCHESTER, Mass., Aug. 2, 1870. 
This seaboard town, dear 7vaveller, 
makes no great figure on the map; is 
hardly ever named among the water- 
ing places, yet it has, in my opinion, 
beauty and variety enough for five- 
and-twenty of them. Broken into 
hill and valley, woodland and meadow, 
ravine and glade, it presents at almost 
every point some fresh and charming 
prospect ; some picturesque and pecu- 
liar view which the beholder wishes 
ever to remember. The town, or vil- 
lage itself, is in a rich green valley, 
walled in from the ocean by a bold 
and craggy line of primitive rock. 
It is almost entirely surrounded by 
wooded eminences, and is intersected 
by a pretty little streamlet, which 
after turning ‘a busy mill,” spreads 
out into a beautiful bay communicat- 
ing, by a channel flanked upon the 
right and left by precipitous buttresses 
of granite, with the ocean. This 
brook from which the speckled trout 
is sometimes taken, is denominated 
“Jeffrey's Creek,” and thus perpetu- 
ates the name of the original settler of 
NORTH SHORE BREEZE 
the town. On one of the rocky em- 
inences rising from the right bank of 
this stream, stands out in fine relief 
the old revolutionary powder-house, 
now empty as a drum, yet still en- 
hancing in no small degree the pic- 
turesqueness of the landscape. 
THE PEOPLE OF MANCHESTER 
The people of this unique and 
granite-guarded town are wide awake, 
progressive, temperate, frugal, hos- 
pitable and above-board. They make 
the very best cabinet furniture in the 
world, and raise the very fairest— 
please not spell this sourest—straw- 
berries. In political discussion and in 
vocal music they have few superiors— 
and will sing for you “Jerusalem, my 
happy home,” or unfold the plans of 
Napoleon III. with equal skill and 
cleverness. The postmaster is a 
Frenchman, who for gallant service 
in the war, was called to run this in- 
stitution. He is earnest, affable, 
patriotic, rononce, and well deserving 
a good slice of ‘Uncle Samuel’s 
bread.”’ 
The hotel is of the old vegzme; but 
mine host is genial, sensible and oblig- 
ing; and if you fancy comfort more 
than long bills, or senseless ceremony, 
why then stop here. 
ABOUT MANCHESTER 
Manchester has but two churches, 
Congregational and Baptist, now re- 
pectively and effectively directed by 
the Rev. Mr. Gleason and the Rev. 
Mr. Miller. The educational interests 
of the town are safely in the hands of 
Mr. Sargent; and the sanitary, in 
those of the modest yet skilful Dr. 
Priest: 
The “stern and rockbound coast” 
of Mrs. Hemans applies to Manches- 
ter more pertinently than to any other 
of our seaboard towns—a wall of 
granite rock, rifted and jagged, with 
here and there a seam of slate, and 
rising up from ten to fifty feet, some- 
times jutting out into the wildest and 
boldest promontories of naked rock, 
as “‘Eagle Head” ; sometimes falling 
back a little from the sea to make 
room for a sandy beach, runs along to 
form the southeastern barrier of the 
town ; and upon the headlands and 
the slopes between, or plateaus in the 
rear, the summer residents have 
erected mansions varying as to size 
and architectural style according to 
the taste and means of the proprietors. 
From the sea, these residences, 
crowning the heights or nestled in 
among the groves which in some places 
seem to meet the ocean wave, appear 
to very great advantage, and with the 
wooded hills in the interior, form a 
panorama which is without a parallel 
on our coast. Among these mansions, 
those of the Messrs. Curtis, that of 
Mr. R. H. Dana, Mr. Towne, Tappan, 
Sturgis, of the actors, J. B. Booth and 
Conway, make a very fine appearance. 
The mansion of the latter gentleman 
rises up prominently from a kind of 
central eminence, torms a striking 
picture in the landscape, and _ seen 
either from the bay, or distant hills, it 
awakens admiration and reflects much 
honor on the genius of the builder. 
The owner had a narrow escape 
from the performance of ‘a tragic 
part” on Saturday, but “All is well 
that ends well.’ He was in a dory 
with his son and servant off some dis- 
tance from the shore, when suddenly 
the boat upset and over they went 
into the ‘‘vasty deep.” A boat came 
up, but Mr. C., immense in weight, 
was floundering about—as I had the 
story—-like a whale harpooned and 
hampered ‘“swilled with wild and 
wasteful ocean.” He “blew” at last 
—the actor was the father here—and 
out of the engulphing brine the gurg- 
ling cry came up as from the cave of 
fEolus : ‘Save the boys, the boys; 
I'll shift it for myself!” The boat 
took up the boys—the father would 
have swamped it in an instant—and 
he had the presence of mind to see it. 
So resting his right hand lightly on 
the bow, he was towed, still flounder- 
ing through the water like a captured 
whale, or huge leviathan, in safety to 
theshore, and amid the acclamations of 
the audience the curtain fell. Mr. C. 
is, by the by, very much of a gentle- 
man, and highly respected by the citi- 
zens of Manchester. The house of 
Mr. Booth, though less imposing, is 
still unique and beautiful. The Stars 
and Stripes are floating over it and a 
JBOOR 
Sob Printing 
OF ALL KINDS 
Done with Greatest Despatch and at 
LOWEST PRICES 
AVE 
NORTH SHORE BRELZE 
J. ALEX, LODGE, Mer. 
Pulsifer’s Block, MANCHESTER 
Let us figure on your printing of 
whatever nature it may be 
P.S. Wemake a specialty of Book 
and Pamphlet Work. 
