OLD CONCORD. 
Rev. Benj. R. Bulkeley of Beverly 
Addresses the Manchester 
Woman’s Club. 
_ At the meeting of the Manchester 
— Woman’s club, Tuesday afternoon, 
the first disappointment of the sea- 
‘son occurred, when the scheduled 
speaker of the afternoon was un- 
_ able to be present. The disappoint- 
ment, however, was short lived, for 
Rey. Mr. Bulkeley of Beverly was 
“procured and he gave a very inter- 
esting talk on ‘‘Old Concord.’’ He 
_ said in part: 
“‘T have the humble place of fill- 
ing in, today. I have talked a great 
deal about Old Coneord and you will 
_be fortunate if you have never heard 
me before. I lived in Concord for 
‘di years, I have been back several 
__ times and visited the Emerson house. 
| Some of you have been there. The 
founder of Concord was Rey. Peter 
| Bulkeley of England. They came 
|} there to seek freedom to worship 
God. They founded good old Con- 
cord. Many famous men have rus- 
 ticated there, among them, James 
Russell Lowell, Senator Hoar and 
} Senator Everett. And when I think 
of the town and think of how my 
) lines were fallen in pleasant places, 
| it seemed like fate that led me to 
_ that place. 
| ““When I was in my senior year 
_ at college, my predecessor asked me 
|} how I would like to preach in the 
|} chureh of my ancestor’s founding. 
was delighted to go and also to 
_ find that I was to be entertained by 
| Dr. Emerson. 
“YT want you to think of points 
about Concord that you have never 
heard of before. Two weeks before 
the 125th anniversary of the town 
the old church burned down. Parts 
| from it are now kept in the new 
| ¢ehureh, including a desk in the Sun- 
| day school room made of wood from 
_ the old church. At the old church, 
| in 1712, Goy. Bradford used to go 
| and speak. That was before the 
| battle of Concord. The first body 
of newly chosen delegates from the 
| colonies came here to separate from 
| England. Ever since the _ battle 
_ there has been fighting between Lex- 
— ington and Concord as to the honor 
} of being the place at which it oc- 
| curred, but there is glory enough 
to go around. 
_ “Near the battle ground is one 
of the most famous houses in the 
| country, ‘The Old Manse.’ One 
_ hundred and fifty years ago William 
_ Emerson, ancestor of Ralph Waldo 
Emerson, built this house. Haw- 
_thorne wrote ‘Mosses from the old 
NORTH SHORE BREEZE 
Manse,’ from inspiration given by 
this house. The ‘Old Manse, stands 
today just as it was built. Emerson 
lived there at one time. 
‘“The first house on the Lexington 
side of the town, of importance, is 
that of Mr. Bull, who invented the 
Concord grape. How often we heard 
Mr. Bull say in the Social Circle that 
he wished to invent a grape that 
was hardy, and the Concord grape 
is the result. The parent vine is 
still to be found there. 
‘‘Next to Mr. Bull’s house is the 
Hawthorne house, ‘The Wayside.’ 
It was afterward sold to the writer 
of the Pepper books, who also re- 
sided in Concord. I once ealled 
there while making my parish calls. 
‘“‘Now we come to tke Emerson 
house, where I spent my first night 
in Concord. Matthew Arnold, the 
English essayist, and Herbert Spen- 
cer visited there, while I lived there, 
and wished to see the place where 
Emerson lived.”’ 
Mr. Bulkeley here recited the 
‘* Apology,’’ written by Ralph Wal- 
do Emerson, who reached great 
heights in poetry. Emerson said: 
‘‘Give me health and a day and I 
will make the pomp of emperors 
ridiculous.’’ If we have command 
of ourselves, of our reason, and 
health and time to spend, the out- 
side show of an emperor is not worth 
the comparison in his ideas. Such 
was Emerson. 
‘“‘Now we come to the centre of 
the town and you will find the old 
cemetery hard by the church and 
there you will find two stones which 
I will comment upon. The first 
white stone in the cemetery cele- 
brates the character of a woman and 
reads thus: ‘This stone is designed 
by its durability to perpetrate the 
moral character of Abigail Dudley.’ 
The other slab is at the grave of 
a negro. 
‘‘In the library there is a Con- 
cord alcove where there are books 
that are written by Concord people, 
on Concord and its people. Where 
is the town that can make such a 
showing as this? 
‘‘First, Peter Bulkeley came here 
and settled for religious reasons, for 
freedm to worship God; second, 
patriotic interests came at the time 
of the battle of Concord, and third, 
was the literary interest. Emerson 
was an optimist.’’ Mr. Bulkeley 
closed by reciting the poem on ‘‘Op- 
timism,’’ written by Emerson. 
Mrs. Fred K. Swett was the host- 
ess of the afternoon. 
Breeze Subscription $2.00 a year 
13 
Abstract of the American Telephone 
and Telegraph Company’s 
Annual Report. 
President Theodore N. Vail has 
sent to the 385,000 stockholders of 
the American Telephone and Tele- 
graph company the annual report of 
the directors, showing that 1909 was 
a year of remarkable activity, prog- 
ress and prosperity. 
The important activities include 
the purchase of a substantial inter- 
est in the Western Union Telegraph 
company, the conversion of over a 
hundred million dollars of bonds in- 
to stock, the increase in the number 
of shareholders by over 9000 during 
the year, and the rearrangement of 
territories of some of the associated 
companies in accordance with state 
or geographical boundaries. The | 
number of telephone stations in the 
Bell system was increased to over 
5,000,000, including one and one-half 
millions operated by connecting 
companies; the wire mileage of the 
Bell companies has been increased 
to over 10,000,000 miles, the traffic 
has increased to nearly 20,000,- 
000 connections a day, amount- 
ing to six and a half billion connec- 
tions a year; the plant additions 
were over $28,000,000, with nearly 
$45,000,000 applied out of revenue 
to maintenance and reconstruction 
purposes, with the result that the 
plant has steadily become more per- 
manent. 
The gross revenue collected from 
the public for telephone service by 
the Bell system, not including the 
connected independent companies, 
was $150,000,000, an increase of near- 
ly $12,000,000, and $45,000,000 or 
nearly one-third of the whole was 
appropriated for current repairs, 
maintenance and depreciation. The 
surplus available for charges and 
so forth was $48,500,000 of which 
$24,000,000 were paid in dividends. 
The next obligations in the hands 
of the public were $524,000,000, 
while the companies’ property 
amounted to $612,600,000—an ex- 
cess of $88,600,000, or 17 per cent. 
of property above labilities, without 
any account being taken of fran- 
chises, contracts, patents, rights of 
way of great value, and which 
would now be difficult to obtain at 
any price. 
Let us figure on your next order of 
PRINTING 
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