NORTH SHO 
RE BREEZE 
MANCHESTER, MASS., FRIDAY, OCTOBER 16, 1908. 
RANDOM THOUGHTS. 
BY D. F. LAMSON. 
No. XXVIII. 
We are now hearing a good deal 
about Esperanto, as we did a few years 
ago about Volapuk. It seems to be for- 
gotten that languages are not made, but 
grow; grow out of the needs and daily 
experiences and thoughts of men; grow 
as trees grow out of the soil; grow natu- 
rally and imperceptibly; grow with a 
people’s growth in stature and fulness, 
in strength and refinement; this is some- 
thing that takes time, as it takes time to 
grow atree. A tree or a language made 
to order and by rule will have a short 
life. Who now hears anything of Vola- 
puk? 
When Emerson in his young man- 
hood bade adieu to Boston and _ schools, 
and went to live in Concord, he wrote 
in his most mellifluous manner: 
**O, when I am safe in my sylvan home, 
I tread on the pride of Greece and Rome; 
And when I am stretched beneath the pines, 
Where the evening star so holy shines, 
I laugh at the love and pride of man, 
At the sophist schools and the learned clan; 
For what are they all, in their high conceit, 
When man in the bush with God may meet?’’ 
this will do very well, it has a grand 
sound to it; but some of us who cannot 
think our own thoughts to such purpose 
as Emerson could, must fain think the 
thoughts of others somewhat; there 
seems no help for it, we cannot rise to 
the height of his disdain. But some 
one at my elbow asks if there were not 
a bit of egotism in the Concord sage; 
this, however, must be repeated with 
bated breath; we must be careful not to 
speak lightly of New England’s diy- 
inities. 
The excellence of such minds as 
Emerson is not that their thoughts are al- 
Ways true or valuable, but that they stir 
others to think; even Thoreau had _ this 
to recommend hiny to us, and such 
writers and thinkers have a perennial 
worth; they live in the thoughts of other 
men, they sow the seeds of harvests 
that are to be. 
A new method of collecting money 
for charitable purposes, seems too near 
akin to black-mail; people are made _ to 
give against their judgment sometimes, 
rather than attract notice as the ‘‘un- 
tagged’’ ; the public will sooner or later 
fesent the imposition,.as it did the 
chain’”’ letters a few years ago; and 
the worst of it is, that many will be 
hardened against giving to all good 
causes. Unless we adopt the thoroughly 
Continued to Page 12 
MANCHESTER'S ONLY SURVIVING MANUFACTORY. 
Manchester’s fame and name.asa cab- 
inet-making place, which it came so 
rightly by in the flourishing days of her 
manufacturing business over half a cen- 
tury ago, has not altogether forsaken her, 
Another order about ready to be ship- 
ped was a handsome set of dining room 
furniture, mahogany, all of unique de- 
sign, including a beautiful six foot side- 
board, a handsome five-foot dining table 
THE C. Dopce Furniture Co. SHop. 
(Cut used by courtesy Manchester Cricket.) 
for there yet remains one of those shops 
where the business is still carried on, — 
and on a scale, may we suggest, which 
very few people in the town realize. 
On invitation of one of the firm we 
paid a visit to the C. Dodge Furniture 
Co.’s plant a few days ago and we were 
surprised at the business and thrift which 
we found exercised there. Ten men 
were busily engaged at various branches 
of work in the making of furniture. 
The furniture manufactured here is all 
made to order, so to speak. None of 
the products are sold through stores or 
agencies, but direct to customers. All 
over the country,---New York, Chicago, 
St. Louis, and as far as the Pacific coast, 
furniture from Dodge’s mill has gone. 
Our attention was called to one piece 
in particular,---a handsome library table, 
shipped away, by the way, the first of 
this week, to a private school in the cen- 
tral part of this state. It was one of those 
massive solid mahogany tables, such as 
we see in executive offices. It was 8 by 
4 feet, with sixteen drawers and two 
shelves, four of the former being blind 
drawers. It was a handsome piece of 
furniture, and was presented by a son of 
one of our summer residents to the prin- 
cipal of a private school from which he 
recently was graduated. 
(open 12 ft.), eight chairs and a serving 
table. This goes into a well known 
Brookline residence. 
While this concern is practically the 
cs ee ’ 
only ~‘relic’’ of Manchester’s once 
famous cabinet and furniture making in- 
dustry, it is highly favored in that it 
doesn’t have to market its products, dis- 
tribute its goods all over the land in or- 
der to find purchasers, but a condition 
of affairs such as. very few concerns in 
the country can have is provided for 
them,---the purchasers comes to. Man- 
chester. From all overthe country come 
the wealth of the land to spend the warm 
months of summer and therein lies the 
secret of the business and thrift to be 
found on a visit to the mill. The sales 
are very nearly all made to members of 
our summer colony and friends, many of 
whom find it a great convenince in being 
able to thus procure such excellent goods 
at first hand. 
Many handsome pieces, such as chairs 
of all sizes, shapes and designs, both 
modern and historical, tables, sofas, side 
boards, and the like are always kept on 
hand from which to order, and then 
again if one wants something entirely 
original, or copied from some old piece 
the concern is always ready and willing 
to carry out the order. 
