40 ome NORTH 
SHO = hase 
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of their autos in conveying members 
to and from the grounds. 
Mr. Allen congratulated the gath- 
ering on the fine day, the pleasant 
surroundings and the very enjoy- 
able occasion. He had prepared a 
list of Manchester’s sea captains, 51 
in all, 47 being natives of Manches- 
ter. Nearly all of these he had 
known personally. They were: 
Richard Allen, Thomas Allen, Will- 
iam Allen, John W. Allen, Samuel 
Allen, James Allen, John Allen, 
Benj. L. Allen, James G. Allen, Jo- 
seph Allen, J ohn Allen, Nathan Car- 
ter, John Carter, James Carter, John 
W. Carter, Henry Cheever, Samuel 
Crowell, Ariel P. Crowell, "Ambrose 
Crowell, David Crafts, David Good- 
ridge, ‘Israel Goodridge, Samuel 
Goodridge, Jack  Girdler, 
Hooper, Amos Hilton, Amos Hill, 
Jonathan Hassam, John Driver, Jo- 
siah Dow, Benj. Leach, Benj. Leach, 
2d, Daniel Leach, Charlés Leach, 
David Leach, 2d, Ezekiel Leach, 
Thomas Leach, John Lee, Wm. Lull, 
Andrew Marsters, Richard Trask, 
James Knight, Wm. Tuck, Jacob 
Holmes, Wm. Babcock, Wm. Pert. 
Besides these old ship masters Man- 
chester had a long list of skippers 
of fishing craft. The president read 
letters of regret from several who 
were unable to come, including Sam- 
uel Carr, Gen. Chas. H. Taylor, 
Chas. F. Story, Gen. Francis Apple- 
ton, Hon. David JI. Robinson and 
Rey. D. F. Lamson. 
Geo. E. Willmonton, Esq., though 
not yet eligible to membership in the 
association, was present and was the 
first called upon by the president 
for remarks. Mr. Willmonton, al- 
ways brimming over with stories, 
gave a few unwritten incidents in 
Manchester’ s history, and coming to 
the more serious, he suggested some 
things that ought to be done by way 
of improvements. He said among 
other things: 
“Tt has been said that the largest 
room in the world is the room for 
improvement, and Manchester is no 
exception to this. There are many 
things we can do. There are some 
things that we are doing and some 
that we hope to do soon that will 
make Manchester, as good as she is, 
much better. One improvement is 
dredging. We need it and we are 
getting some of it and we are going 
to have more. We want to take 
Smith’s Point; and in fact all of our 
beautiful town, up out of the mud. 
I hope to live long enough to see 
the sea wall carried from the town 
wharf to the railroad. The inner 
harbor could be dredged and the 
mud dumped over the wall and get 
rid of the flats and make a nice park 
Wm. - 
at the same time, and the cost 
would not be much more than the 
, price of the dredging. Why not 
make it Manchester-by-the-Sea in 
fact as well as in name? There is 
plenty of salt water that will come 
in and stay with us if we will but 
make a place for it. 
‘“We don’t want these people who 
come from the west to think that 
our supply of salt water is limited. 
One man got that impression a few 
seasons ago. The Doctor had or- 
dered him to take salt water baths 
and he came to Manchester and 
stopped at the hotel. As soon as 
he got settled he procured a bucket 
and proceeded down to the end of 
the town wharf to get the water. 
The tide was high and our intrepid 
navigator, Joe Gates, was sitting in 
his boat skinning cunners. The 
man asked Joe how much he asked 
a pail for his salt water. Joe was 
a little surprised but recovered him- 
self in season to answer, ‘ten cents.’ 
A trade was quickly made and the 
man went back to the hotel to take 
his bath and no doubt felt better, 
as early in the afternoon he again 
went to the wharf with his bucket 
for more water. The tide was away 
out and nothing but flats were visi- 
ble. I am told that he congratulated 
Joe on the business he had done 
since he left him in the morning. 
‘“We hope if we keep on dredging 
that in a few more years our supply 
of salt water will be equal to the 
demand. 
‘‘One other improvement that I 
would like to suggest—the beautify- 
ing of our forty thousand dollar cow 
pasture at Little Crow Island. 
A very little money would put it 
in shape so that it could be used by 
our eitizens for picnic parties, ete. 
Little Crow Island is near a most 
excellent bathing beach; it has a 
magnificent view in every direction 
and is easy of access. None of these 
things are appreciated by the poor 
farm cows and I know that many of 
our citizens would enjoy the place, 
as they once did White Beach Pas- 
ture, if it was available.’’ 
Mr. Willmonton closed his re- 
marks with a few verses from that 
most appropriate poem by Oliver 
Wendall Holmes, ‘‘City and Coun- 
try.”’ 
Rev. DeWitt S. Clark, D.D., of 
Salem, was next called upon. He 
said he had been coming to these 
gatherings so long he almost felt he 
was one of the Elder Brethren. He 
said that some people are apt to be- 
come melancholy as they realize they 
are getting old, but we have a man 
(D. L. Bingham), with us today who 
is 97 and still cheerful, and I can 
oe 
ago. 
speech by declaring: 
hardly believe it. I like to believe 
that the life ahead of us is full of 
brightness, and hope and cheer and 
I know a great many happy. old 
men. I wish there was an institution 
like this in my town and in every 
town, that all might work together 
for high and noble ends. 
Prof. N. B. Sargent of Haverhill, 
formerly principal of the high school 
here, spoke in his usually happy 
vein. He said the theme of his dis- 
course would be brevity. ‘‘I need 
not say,’’ he said, ‘‘that I am glad 
to be here. I am not going to talk 
of the beauties of Manchester, for 
here she is; you can see her for 
yourselves. I am not going to talk 
flatteringly of you and your good 
looks; here you are, you can speak 
for yourselves. But I can’t help 
drawing comparisons between Man- 
chester and some other places I 
know which are less fortunately sit- 
uated. There is one place not far 
from here, that is bankrupt. They 
say they have no money to carry on 
their schools and public works. One 
good thing about it is, about a dozen 
of the men who have helped make 
it so are in prison and about a 
dozen more should be there. Man- 
chester is just as temperate, just as 
clean and just as prosperous and 
happy as she was 25, 35 or 45 years 
I don’t know what you have 
in your closets or cellars—perhaps 
not every man is a total abstainer, 
‘perhaps not every man is a Daniel 
or a Joseph and perhaps not every 
woman a Magdelena. A’ very in- 
temperate man was once asked to 
make a speech on temperance. It 
was thought quite a joke but the 
man spoke very vehemently on the 
curse of strong drink and closed his 
“But with all 
thy faults I love thee still,’’? and so 
I say with all thy faults I love thee 
still, and I believe you love me still 
and so I will be still.”’ 
Rev. L. H. Ruge said he had onee 
been privileged to look into.a great 
treasury vault but was not allowed 
to touch or take away any of the 
treasure, but today he was privi- 
leged to visit a treasury vault and 
should carry away some of the 
treasure, enriched by the wit and 
wisdom of this company. 
William Hooper referred to a 
joke at his own expense when it 
came out last winter that some 
young people had decided at the 
talk he gave at the chapel that he 
was about 67, and about the’ same 
idea seemed to prevail here, but the 
fact was he was nearer 47 than 67. 
Francis M. Stanwood said he had 
been coming to Manchester for 33 
years and even before that as an — 
