GLEANINGS FROM NEWSPAPER LITERATURE.

If we turn our glance backward in the endeavor to take a keen survey of the fields in which our forefathers have trod, and to note the steady progress which has marked the history of even one small corner of this Commonwealth, it at once becomes evident that in imagination we are attracted, not to the past of one hundred years ago, to that time when the parents or grandparents of those now living, first saw the light, but to that more remote past, the colonial period, which in its picturesque outlines is familiar to every school boy or girl. The first settlers in their rude homes, and with their persistent struggle for the bare necessaries of life, have an interest for us which their descendants of one hundred and fifty years later scarcely possess.

At the dawn of the nineteenth century the American Revolution, after a successful termination, was a thing of the past, and a new nation had taken its place among the countries of the world; the old Continental Congress had passed quietly out of existence, and a new government under a new Constitution of the United States had survived three presidential elections. To this new republic the attention of thoughtful and ambitious reformers in France, Germany and England was attracted. Here was a new country, almost paralyzed by war, venturing upon an experiment which older and richer nations. dared not attempt. The French Revolution had closed with its aims and objects unaccomplished, but with the ultimate result of a widespread awakening for universal liberty thoughout Europe and a gain to the cause of individual freedom in the following twenty-five years which might have satisfied the most ardent radicals.

What the Americans were thinking about in politics and in religion can be easily learned from the innumerable pamphlets and sermons of the times, but of their every-day, hum-drum commonplace life, even its newspapers are silent, and the novelist was yet to be. We know that they were not the restless, rushing and nervously exhausted race that is seen today in their descendants. The dweller in Norfolk County in the year 1800 had no kerosene with which to fill his lamps or kindle his fires; his marketing was not ordered by tele

phone or his breakfast cooked over a gas or oil stove. At his breakfast table he was not furnished with an eight-page daily newspaper, published the same morning some dozen of miles away in Boston, and containing news brought from nearly every part of the known world. by electric telegraph. Our great-grandfather's house had no furnace. or steam heat, and water taxes and gas bills were unknown. If a journey to Boston were to be taken our great-grandfather did not rush to the station to catch a train, or ride in a steam heated car drawn by a locomotive, but proceeded in a more dignified and leisurely manner in his own chaise or by stage coach. The wonders of steam and electricity were unknown to him.

The celebrated statesman did not find in his morning paper his entire conversation of the preceding evening published to the world as an interview. The ubiquitous reporter did not intrude upon the house of mourning before the honored departed had found a last resting place, to find out the items of his life and death, and the contents of his last will and testament, for publication. The editor of a newspaper in the year 1800, with an amount of foresight for which he deserves hearty praise, thought that solid columns of the transaction of the government and of European news, with a letter or two of sound moral doctrine, were of more value to a community than the fact that Hezekiah Fairbanks had built a new barn, or that Abigail Fisher from Franklin had spent the afternoon in Dedham. However, when one reads a notice like the following, he naturally feels a touch of sympathy for the editor and concludes that some of life's trials are perpetual.

WANTED, A MAID

(if such an one there is!) to do the work in a small family.

Apply to H. MANN. June 20. [1803]

Another advertisement reminds us that we are yet heirs to the forgetfulness of our fathers.

LEFT on Friday last, through forgetfulness, on the wall, by the side of the cross road leading from Whiting and Newell's store to D.Baker's, a large English, double cased SILVER WATCH with three hands, one carrying the day of the month, a black silk chain, a steel seal and

brass key.
Printer hereof shall be generously rewarded.

Whoever has found; and will return said Watch to the

Dedham, July 12, 1803.

Among the notices which mark an era of the past is the following:

WILLOW Bonnets.

The subscriber offers for Sale, a large assortment of willow bonnets from 4.6 to 10. 6.

Dedham Apr. 9. 1819.

JESSE CLAPP.

Who remembers the article described as a willow bonnet, and were they a product of home industry?

In the issue of the Gazette for Tuesday, Sept. 27, 1803, is this record of the apprentice system :

Ran away from the subscriber, living in Franklin, on the night of the 4th Sept. inst. an indented Apprentice, (bound by the selectmen of Milford) named Elihu Albee, in the 18th year of his age, of middling stature, dark complexion, his walk rolling; carried off a number of articles of wearing apparrel not his property. Whoever will take up and return said Apprentice to the subscriber, shall receive one dollar reward, and all necessary charges paid. All persons are hereby forbid harboring or trusting said Boy, as they would avoid the penalty of the law. Masters of vessels are particularly cautioned. JONATHAN WALES.

Franklin Sept. 5, 1803.

The editor, conscious, perhaps, of the cravings of his fellow mortals for the abnormal or the marvellous, occasionally furnished his readers with a slight taste of such gossip, but in a different form from that to which later readers are accustomed. For instance, under the headings, "Deaths" and "Marriages," appear records not merely of local events, but of deaths or marriages at a distance and of parties. unknown, but about whom some sensational incidents are recorded.

H. T. B.

DEDHAM IN THE REBELLION.

BY JOSEPH HENRY LATHROP.

The shots fired on Fort Sumter on the 12th of April, 1861, aroused the country to a sense of its danger, and to the fact that grim war was upon us. The proclamation of President Lincoln, on the 15th of April, calling out seventy-five thousand militia, was succeeded by intense excitement. In the uprising of the loyal North which followed the call to arms, the old town of Dedham was not behind its neighbors. On the morning of the 19th of April, 1775, on receiving news of the battle of Lexington, Dedham sent its entire force of four companies of militia, besides the minute men, to the succor of their countrymen, and the town was left on that day almost literally without a male inhabitant below the age of seventy and above that of sixteen. True to the same patriotic impulses eighty-six years later, the young men of Dedham set to work to recruit a company for the war, which was felt to be inevitable. The dream of peace was over. The sword had been drawn, and the country must abide the issue of arms. Though no militia company had existed in the town for nearly twenty years, there were members living in Dedham of organizations belonging to other towns. These promptly reported to their companies for duty.

In compliance with a call issued on the morning of Friday, April 19th, 1861, the evening of that day found Temperance Hall filled to overflowing with the citizens of the town to discuss the duty of the hour. The meeting was organized by the choice of Mr. John Cox, Jr., one of the selectmen of the town, as chairman, and Messrs. Charles W. Carroll and Edward M. Onion as secretaries. Patriotic speeches were made by Col. Eliphalet Stone, Capt. A. B. Galucia, George Alden and others. The Rev. William C. Patterson of East Dedham, in a fervent speech, declared his intention to go into the service, either as a chaplain or as a soldier in the ranks. Mr. Patterson received his commission as chaplain in the First Massachusetts Cavalry, Dec. 30, 1861, and resigned during the following year.

In the early part of the evening the bringing of the American flag into the hall by Capt. A. B. Galucia, was the occasion of an outburst of enthusiasm never before witnessed in the town, and it was some time before the audience could be brought to order. A roll was opened for volunteers, and forty-seven names were signed in a very short time, the name of Warren B. Galucia being the first on the roll, and Henry G. Gerritzen, second.

A committee of twelve, consisting of Messrs. C. C. Churchill, J. W. Clark, William Whiting, Eliphalet Stone, E. F. Gay, George Everett, Ira Russell, L. H. Kingsbury, J. D. Howe, Waldo Colburn, M. D. Ellis and E. C. Daniell, was chosen "to take into consideration the measures necessary to be taken by the inhabitants of Dedham in the present crisis of the country." This committee, at a subsequent meeting, organized by the choice of E. C. Daniell as chairman, and E. F. Gay, secretary, after which they voted to issue a call to the Selectmen for a town meeting to be held forthwith, and also instructed the chairman of the Board of Selectmen to provide a suitable place for the drilling of any company that might be raised in the town. This was the first "war meeting" held in Dedham. The enthusiasm spread to the pulpits, and on Sunday morning, April 21, the Rev. B. H. Bailey of the First Church, delivered an admirable sermon upon the Crisis of the Country, which gave great satisfaction to his large audience.

In the meantime, the ladies of the town were not idle, for, in accordance with a notice given in the churches the preceding day, a very large gathering of the ladies took place at the Vestry of the Unitarian Church on Monday afternoon, April 22, 1861, for the purpose of preparing clothing and other necessary articles for the troops. The meeting was organized by the election of Mrs. Horatio Chickering, President, Mrs. William J. Adams, Secretary, Mrs. Joseph W. Clark, Treasurer, and a large number of Directors. The energetic projectors of the meeting had already collected a large amount of material, work was at once commenced, and so earnest were their efforts that before twelve o'clock the next day nearly one hundred flannel shirts had been made up, sixty of which were at once sent to Gov. Andrew, with the following note.

GOVERNOR ANDREW :

DEDHAM, April 23, 1861.

Dear Sir, The ladies of Dedham have the satisfaction of sending you sixty flannel shirts for the troops who are about going South in the defence of our country and the support of the government.

We send these garments with our blessing and our prayers; with a tender sympathy and an earnest God-speed to the true-hearted patriots who are ready to sacrifice so much in a noble cause.

May the dark clouds now gathering around us ere long be dispersed, and our beloved country become again the abode of pros

perity and peace."

(To be continued.)