LIBRARY UNIVERSVtY OH CAUFgmu/ SAN DitGO EX LIBRIS XTbe Ibarvarb Crimson CvVo. fT THE OLD FARMER AND HIS ALMANACK v? <3j v55 w5J v?5 v? v5> ^ v3J *<5J v5J v<5i s5J v5 v5J v? ^f *o ^J ^S *^5 ^S ^ v^J v^J *3J <3S s5J "^^> nptJ"c *7^^ JL JT1 J_ / ^OLD FARMER t *? A N D H I S ALMANACK Being some. OBSERVATIONS on Life and Manners O in New England a Hundred Tears Ago Suggested by Reading the Earlier Numbers of MR. ROBERT B. THOMAS'S FARMER'S ALMANACK So Together with Extracts Curious, Instructive, and En- tertaining^ as well as a Variety of Miscellaneous Matter BY GEORGE LYMAN .KITTREDGE $+ <+ EMBELLISHED W^ITH ENGRAVINGS Boston WILLIAM WARE AND COMPANY <*$ T 9 o 4 ^ U! fervt for anjf of tbt aJJoiri*g Stattt. Containing, besides the large number of Aftrcmomical Calculations, and Farmer's CaHendar for every month ID the year, as great a-warietjr as any other Almanack, of New, Ufeful, and Entertaining Matter. By ROBERT B. THOMAS. "Hail, Nature ' fountain iuexftauftnile 5 Thy fing iuid decaying fceoes: as Ivtavc o With hand unerring, turns Che fllenc fphte Anclin rotation bring? the, feafons- round. 4l EH1NTF, r^ IN flO $7 ON, FOR JOSEPH BELKNAP. No.8 tnd THOMAS H ALL r m State-Slreer. Sold by them, by the Author and M. Smith, Stefliug, and by the EookfeUcra ( 2rici yv>. a Grace, Q*. a, Daxe THE OLD FARMER AND HIS COR- RESPONDENTS MR. THOMAS is never more entertaining than in his replies to his numerous correspondents. His Almanac became popular so rapidly that, al- most from the outset, he received all sorts of material from interested readers^ poems, anecdotes, and puzzles, ob- servations on agriculture, jests, riddles, mathematical problems. Agricultural observations were particularly welcome. In the preface to the second number (1794), the author, in stately, old-fashioned phrase, invites contri- butions of this kind : My precepts and observations on agriculture, I have the vanity to believe, have been approved of by farmers in general. Agri- culture affords an ample field in this country for the ingenious to expaciate upon, in which improvements are making every day ; and as my greatest ambition is to make myself useful to the com- munity in this way, 'tis my sincere wish that men of experience and observation in agriculture, would be kind enough to forward me such hints towards improvement, as are capable of being ren- dered serviceable and of general utility to the public. And again, in 1795 : Experiments in Agriculture ever afford me the greatest degree of pleasure and satisfaction ; wherefore, I earnestly repeat my solicitations, that gentlemen farmers, who have leisure and genius for making experiments in husbandry, would be kind enough to communicate their improvements which may be made useful to 26 THE OLD FARMER'S ALMANACK the husbandman ; in doing which, they will not only receive the grateful acknowledgements, but, confer the greatest favours on the Author of the following sheets. In 1796 Mr. Thomas met with a disagreeable experience, as may be seen from a passage in his preface for the next year: " It is with much regret, that the Author is under the necessity to apologize for the admission of some pieces of entertainment in his .last year's Almanack, which was owing to his indulging the printer in that peculiar province, who took the liberty to retrench several useful matters to make room for a ' Sermon in favour of thieving,' and sev- eral ludicrous anecdotes, which were highly disgusting to many of the friends of the Farmer's Almanack, and for which he humbly asks forgiveness, acquainting them at the same time, that those pieces were unknown to him. In future, he is determined to make all the arrangements himself." From this time he scrutinized the lighter pages of his annual with the same care which he bestowed on the astronomical computations. In 1 80 1 begins the series of" acknowledgments to cor- respondents," which continued without a break for many years. The author is brief and pointed, sometimes his frankness must have been rather startling ; but men were much in the habit of speaking their minds in those days, and Mr. Thomas had a touch of humor which deprived his sharp speech of much of its wounding potentiality. The closing words of the preface for 1801 embody in a sum- mary form much that was to come in detail, addressed to various persons in subsequent years : " Several favours re- ceived are deferred, for want of room ; some, it is necessary to say, for want of merit." In 1807 there is a very outspoken remark: " J. P. is thanked for his good-will, but his Anecdote is too obscene for admission." In 1808 " S. D. is thanked for his kind THE OLD FARMER AND HIS CORRESPONDENTS 2/ intentions ; but his riddle is not sufficiently enigmatical : besides, it has been often published." Another correspond- ent in the same year appears to have been too enigmatical : " Margaret Snufftaker's hints, are unintelligible and futile." Originality was ever a desideratum, and S. B., in 1809, seems therefore to have been treated with much considera- tion on the whole ; his " communications," he is told, " were very acceptable, though," adds Mr. Thomas, " we should have* been better pleased if they had not been quite so stale, have published the most interesting." T. K., who is noticed in 1813, must have been what we should now call a stimulating or suggestive writer; his " favours," we are told, " though crude, are always acceptable, as they are generally capable of producing much sagacity." This is assuredly high praise ! When contributors expostulated Mr. Thomas took high ground : " J. H. seems to think himself unfortunate we feel to commiserate him, but we must claim the right to judge the palm " (1822). He is not to be dictated to, even by the ladies : " Mrs. H. wishes us to give her com- munication ' at full length' we really think a miniature would be quite as creditable to her, and we are certain it would be to us" (1827). In 1830 " our friend A. B. is thanked for his contribution, but at this time we have a superabundance of this kind of ware." Very rarely the full names of correspondents are given, as in 1837, when there had been some discussion about the correct answer to a problem : " Our friend Jerh. Hallet of Yarmouth, contends that Mr. O. Norcross, of Belcher- town, is under a mistake respecting his question, as in our Almanack for 1835, and wishes us to insert his demonstra- tion. Not having room, we rather prefer the gentlemen would settle it between themselves." This shows how carefully the Almanac was read and how entertaining its patrons found it. The old numbers were preserved, and 28 THE OLD FARMER'S ALMANACK the correspondents, as in the present instance, kept run of each other from year to year. The whole history of the Hallet-Norcross imbroglio covers the period from 1835 to 1838, when the controversy is judicially summed up by Mr. Thomas : " Messrs. Norcross and Hallet's misunder- standing seems to be in Mr. N.'s misconception of the question." " G. H.," writes the editor in 1837, " may know how to manufacture salt but we perceive he is no astronomer, or he would know the moon is not the only agent that governs the tides." In 1843, " W.'s puzzle might be called a jumble we confess we see no propriety in calling it a puzzle." In the same number there are certain " Home Questions for the New Year," which, though not a part of the Answers to Correspondents, stand so near that department that they may come in here, especially as they are worth saving, not only for their common sense, but because they show the complete identity of spirit and method between this, the fifty-first number of the Almanac, and its earliest issues : Are your accounts all balanced up to Jan. i, 1843? "Short settlements make long friends." Are you insured against fire? Did you look to the cellar, the roofs of your house and barn, and the wood-pile, and to putting away your ploughs and other utensils before winter set in? Your children, of course, go to meeting and to school regularly ! Do you take a well-conducted news- paper? Have you made your will? settled all misunderstandings with neighbors? and do you avoid endorsing? The Scriptures, you know, say " Leave off contention before it be meddled with," and also, " He that hateth suretyship is sure ! " The volunteer poets gave Mr. Thomas a good deal of bother, and when to the offence of doggerel, anonymity was added, the long-suffering editor felt under no obliga- tion to be mealy-mouthed. Thus in 1810 he relieved his mind in the following epigram : " Lines on inebriety, have THE OLD FARMER AND HIS CORRESPONDENTS 29 not sufficient spirit to preserve them even one year, nor cor- rectness to entitle them to more than one perusal the author has credit for one thing only, they are without a name." Toward juvenile talent Mr. Thomas is more tender- hearted : "T. L.,"we learn in 1811, " displays some genius at poetry, but if we are not much mistaken, they are youth- ful effusions, which riper years might bring to maturity." Incorrectness and lack of polish are frequent subjects of complaint. Thus, in 1812, " A Riddle by J. D. wants many corrections ; the author might be better employed behind the counter, than making riddles,"- a critical snub which reminds one of Lockhart's sending Keats " back to the shop." In the same year we hear of one " C. C." appar- ently a local Dr. Johnson : " The Midnight Ghost, is too incorrect to appear in print. We advise the author to hand it to his townsman C. C. after which it will appear." Another rebuke to youthful bumptiousness is tempered with Olympian praise : " Our young friend, who conceives himself ' behind the curtain,' has given himself abundance of airs, which, in some instances, partake of impertinence and vanity however, as they are conceived to be the effusions of a juvenile fancy, they are easily pardoned. His poetry is far above mediocrity for one of his years his prose is wrote with care, and he displays no small de- gree of mathematical knowledge. We think, however, his riddle is not entirely original" (1813). One would like to see the packet which this Gifted Hopkins had sent to the philosopher of West Boylston. Anyhow he was not satisfied, and returned to the charge the next year; but Mr. Thomas is placid : " Our young correspondent X Y and Z seems to indulge a propensity for which he had our pardon last year. Does he think we shall put up with insolence without notice? We confess, there are instances where it is the greatest wisdom. We are ever desirous to encourage the efforts of youthful genius, as far as our limits 3O THE OLD FARMER'S ALMANACK will admit his poetry to head the Calendar pages is de- cent, and would have been inserted this year if we had not been under prior claims." It is good to know that the object of these strictures was not beyond repentance. In 1819 Mr. Thomas receives him into favor with frank cordiality : " We were much pleased at hearing again from our young friend X. Y. Z. and especially to experience his reformation of manners, if we may so express it he has our well wishes and hearty forgiveness With his other favours, we have to acknowledge the receipt of a Bank-bill, of which, sixty- two cents is placed to his credit in advance. His future Correspondence is respectfully solicited." It is impossible not to recognize the quiet humor of the last sentence. It is like the waggish variation on the editorial formula : " All communications must be accompanied by a five- dollar bill, not necessarily for publication, but as a guaranty of good faith." Sometimes, indeed, a wrong- headed or sensitive contributor got the notion that money would secure the admission of poems or riddles to the columns of the Almanac. One of these, a lady, is gently set right in 1835: "Our friend Adelaide is mistaken in supposing, ' a necessary accompaniment,' was a pecuniary requisition it had reference to a solution of a query, which is always requisite to secure an insertion. If any innovations, in her last, she will be pleased to point them out, we confess we have not discovered them." Mr. Seaman, the satirist, in addressing the present poet- laureate, remarks, speaking of a poem which Mr. Austin had recently published, The editor avers it is a sonnet : I wish to make a few remarks upon it. Similarly affected was Mr. Thomas by a corrrmunication which he acknowledges in 1815: " C. E. has favoured THE OLD FARMER AND HIS CORRESPONDENTS 31 us with some lines which he is pleased to call ' a Riddle,' we confess they are neat and pretty; but we think an. epitaph would be equally as appropriate." In 1817 Mr. Thomas's memory saved him from becom- ing the victim of a mortifying imposition. His rebuke to the plagiarist is gentle enough, when the circumstances are considered, particularly since the "Thomas' Almanack" to which reference is made was that of Isaiah Thomas, to which the Old Farmer had been for years a successful rival : " S. F's Riddle will not answer our purpose for several reasons, one is, its obviousness, others we forbear to give, as they might wound his feelings. We are sorry our friend should have such an itching for writing Riddles. We should be culpable in publishing many poetical communications, which could only be interesting to their writers ' Stanzas, to head the Calendar Pages,' he might have saved himself the trouble of transcribing, by referring us to Thomas' Almanack for 1789. The anecdote not original, nor even new." " Hydrometrynareari s Poetry, is too much allied to his name, to be useful to us," is a comment of 1818. Another, in the same year, is still more crushing, but it was appar- ently addressed to an anonymous offender: "We have received a large packet with Northfield post mark, pur- porting to be poetry, &c. The author may have it again by sending to the Editors." Praise and censure are judi- ciously commingled in 1821: " P. N. R's Picture, though of the doggerel species, is not a bad likeness. If he will take the trouble to point his lines and correct the orthog- raphy, and favour us with a copy, it shall embellish our next No." The poet was complaisant, and filed his verses. They appear, according to promise, in " our next No.," and here they are, for the edification of his grand- children : 32 THE OLD FARMER'S ALMANACK PICTURE OF A DRUNKARD. (Communicated.) His eyes are red, a confus'd head, And face of crimson die ; His coat in slits, and patch'd with writs, The execution nigh. His hat much worn, his jacket torn, And pantaloons the same; An empty purse, and what is worse, That rum is all his game. His limbs are lame, tottering with pain, His vital power decay, His body thin, immers'd in sin, While rum bears all the sway. His note alas, goes for the glass, And everything he 's got ; But the last cent, will soon be spent, And he a drunken sot. His house once good, tho' made with wood, Does now begin to go ; His barn all rack'd while boards it lacks, Amidst the drifting snow. His wife once bright, his heart's delight, Is faded and forlorn ; His farming lot, is quite forgot, And he a nuisance grown. P. N. R. N. H. Feb. 1821. Now and then Mr. Thomas suggests that verses of a certain length are best suited to the width of his columns, though he does not insist that the poet shall always do homage to the typographer. In 1831 " O. C. is sincerely thanked for his ingenious Enigma : we should have been better pleased if the lines had contained less syllables, THE OLD FARMER AND HIS CORRESPONDENTS 33 eight is the utmost we are able to get into a line have reserved it for our next." In 1837 S. H. C. is informed that his " Riddle appears rather lame in fact, it is any thing but poetry." A similar criticism is passed in 1838: " Mrs. S. B.'s Riddle is any thing but poetry abounding in unhappy metaphors. Hope she will excuse us though not possessed of youthful gallantry, we should be very sorry to be thought wanting in politeness to the ladies ! " To appreciate this, we must know that it appears on the same page with a woodcut of the author, then seventy-two years of age, with his hair tied in a queue, the same portrait that is repro- duced on page 16 of this book. No doubt Mrs. S. B. forgave him. A charmingly courteous remark, which must have grati- fied the person to whom it was addressed, unless he was fully acquainted with Mr. Thomas's humorous wrinkles, ap- pears in 1840: " J. W. D. is pleased to favor us with his poetical effusions, for which he is entitled to the editor's grateful acknowledgements." The recipients of donative volumes of minor poetry might do worse than to have these golden words engraved in facsimile of their handwriting; editors, too, might copy them, and give up the familiar " declined with thanks." For anything more delightfully restrained we must go to Artemus Ward, who, when a stranger remarked that it was a fine day, replied " Middling," not wishing to commit himself. Postage was always a sore point in the old days. It might be either prepaid or collected on delivery, and un- lucky recipients of long-winded epistles or other useless matter often had a substantial grievance. Mr. Thomas's first allusion to the subject (in 1806) is appended to a compliment which he pays to a highly respected Quaker correspondent: "Friend R. D. is tendered the Editor's best thanks, for his several valuable communications, at the 3 34 THE OLD FARMER'S ALMANACK same time, solicits a continuance of his correspondence. The postage the Editor will ever be happy in paying, though in some is a great looser." One of the losing cases appears in 1809: "A. R. Q. is thanked for his seasonable information. Though we would remind him that his com- munications came so coated np that we are obliged to pay double postage on them, we would advise him in future to leave off the wrapper or pay the postage'' Again, in 1810: " E. W. and others will be kind enough to pay postage on answers to Riddles in future, or they will not be noticed." In 181 1 : " G. S. our Boston querist have no objection to his asking questions everyday in the year, provided he pays the postage he will find an answer to his queries, without a fee, at No. 75, Cornhill," the book- shop of John West, who published the Almanac from 1797 to 1820. E. F., in 1812, appears as a sinner against several principles: his "anecdote is of the coarser kind, and not capable of being polished without injuring the pith. His Meteorological observations, if correctly taken, would be useful. He will do well to remember the postage in future." By 1814 the postage nuisance seems to have become intolerable. Not only is " J. H. jr." informed that " we conceive his Questions ,to be unimportant, and not worth the money we paid for them," but there is an em- phatic pronunciamento to the world at large: No notice will in future be taken of any answer to queries, unless post paid. Even this was ineffectual, for, in 1824, " B. B's Riddle we think is rather a dear one, containing only eight short lines, and to be taxed eighteen cents and a quarter - We will repeat what we have said once and again, that no question will be noticed unless accompanied with a com- plete answer, or demonstration, post paid'' Finally, in 1832, Mr. Thomas is able to reply to a contributor who " is THE OLD FARMER AND HIS CORRESPONDENTS 35 at a loss why his ' communications are not noticed ' " that " this is rather unaccountable, when we have given notice, not less than ten different times, ' that no notice will be taken of any Query, &c., unless a solution accompany it, Post Paid: " Nobody worries about postage to-day, and, though we all know that it cost more to send letters in old times, few of us have the details in mind. They were complicated and must have been pretty vexatious. The Almanac furnishes all necessary information on the subject. Thus in 1798 we have this table : Rate of POSTAGE of every single Letter by land. MILES. CENTS. 30 6 60 8 IOO IO 1 5 I2 i For every single letter j 200 15 250 17 350 20 ,450 22 For more than 450 25 No allowance is to be made for intermediate miles. Every double letter is to pay double the said rates ; every triple letter, triple ; every packet weighing one ounce, at the rate of four single letters for each ounce. In 1800 there is a different table, and the postage on short distances is increased : RATES OF LETTER POSTAGE. EVERY Letter composed of a piece of paper, conveyed not exceeding 40 miles, 8 cents. Over 40 miles, and not exceeding 90 10 Over 90 do 150 12^ Over 150 do 300 17 Over 300 do 500 20 Over 500 do 25 36 THE OLD FARMER'S ALMANACK Every Letter composed of two pieces of paper, double those rates. Every Letter composed of three pieces of paper, triple those rates. Every Letter composed of four pieces of paper, and weighing one ounce, quadruple those rates ; and at the rate of four single letters for each ounce any letter or packet may weigh. Until 1816, this table, with a few changes, is printed nearly every year; in 1816, however, the rates take a considerable jump : RATE OF POSTAGE OF EVERY SINGLE LETTER BY LAND. Miles. Cents. Miles. Cents. 40 12 300 25^ 90 15 500 30 150 i8| For more than 500 37^ No allowance is to be made for intermediate miles. Every double letter is to pay double the said rates ; every triple letter, triple ; every packet weighing one ounce, at the rate of four single letters for each ounce. Every ship letter originally received at an office for delivery 9 cents. Magazines and pamphlets, not over 50 miles i 1-2 ct. per sheet. Over 50 miles, and not exceeding 100 do. 2 14 cts. Over 100 do. 3 cts. In 1817 the minimum rate settles back to six cents for thirty miles, which continued till July I, 1845, when a new law went into effect, fixing the rate at five cents for three hundred miles, the weight not to exceed half an ounce. Single postage was added for each additional half ounce or fraction thereof. The other provisions of the new law need not detain us. An abstract was furnished by the Almanac for 1846. The three-cent rate was adopted in 1851 for any distance under three thousand miles, for more than that distance six cents was charged. In 1863 three cents became the rate without regard to distance, and in 1883 two cents. The maximum weight for a single THE OLD FARMER AND HIS CORRESPONDENTS 37 postage was increased to one ounce in 1885. The history of American postage from 1793 may be followed in the successive issues of the Almanac. Here, as well as anywhere, may be appended a table which contains many novelties for the schoolboy of to- day, but which all New Englanders of forty will recognize as embodying much information once vitally necessary in making change. It is taken from the Almanac for 1797:- The Value of the several Pieces of Silver Coin now in Circulation in the United States, in Federal Currency. Cents. Mills. One fourth of a Pistareen or half Dime . 5 o Four pence halfpenny ....... 6 2\ Half Pistareen, or Dime 10 o Nine pence piece, or \ of a Dollar ... 12 5 Pistareen or two Dimes 20 o Quarter of a Dollar 25 o Half a Dollar 50 o Dollar 100 o Half a Crown, French 55 o Half a Crown, English 55 5 Crown, French no o Crown, English 1 1 1 o 10 MILLS are i CENT. 10 CENTS i DIME, or DISME. 10 DIMES i DOLLAR. 10 DOLLARS i EAGLE. Similar tables, and others more complicated, appear in the Almanac for many years. In particular there is the regular schedule of the values of the shilling in various parts of the country. Instead of reprinting it, we may quote a passage from the autobiography of Lieutenant John Harriott, an English half-pay officer, who knew America well : 38 THE OLD FARMER'S ALMANACK The various currencies of money, in the different states, are troublesome and harassing even to the natives of the United States, and still more so to strangers. A dollar, in sterling money, is four shillings and six pence ; but, in the New-England states, the currency is six shillings to a dollar ; in New- York, eight shil- lings ; in New-Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Maryland, seven shillings and six pence ; in Virginia, six shillings ; in North Carolina, eight shillings ; and, in South Carolina and Georgia, four shillings and eight pence. All agree that the evil is great and wants to be remedied ; but they say, such is the prejudice of the country- people in the different states in favour of the currency they have always been accustomed to, that it is feared, were an act of congress passed to enforce a general uniform currency, the country-people would consider it as bad as they formerly did the stamp-act. To this, I have frequently taken the liberty of observing, to several members of congress and others, that, if an act were passed for no book-debt, bond, note, bill, &c. to be admitted as evidence in their courts of law, except such as were kept or made in dollars and cents, (which all the public offices and banks already do,) the evil would soon be removed without other coercion than that of self-interest. 1 Most of us can remember when the shilling of i6| cents, the ninepence, two and thrippence, fo'pence ha'penny, and two shillings were terms constantly used in making small trades. To the rising generation these terms have merely an historical significance. 1 Struggles through Life, London, 1807, II, 29-30. ASTROLOGY FROM the outset Mr. Thomas kept his Almanac free from astrology. This was not so hard to do in 1793 as it would have been seventy-five years earlier, but it was nevertheless a sufficiently creditable feat. The false science of the stars is so nearly obsolete nowadays among intelligent people that one finds it hard to realize what a hold it had upon the popular mind in the eighteenth century and even later. But an example or two will con- duct us back to an age when the stars in their courses were regarded as potent in all human affairs, and we may well be surprised to see how short, both in time and in space, is the journey that we have to go. About the middle of the eighteenth century, it was customary, in some parts of New England, to employ an astrologer to cast a horoscope in order to determine the exact day and hour at which a vessel should weigh anchor for an important voyage. This seems to have been partic- ularly common in the case of slavers, perhaps on account of the great possibilities of profit and the peculiar risks which their traffic involved. Mr. George C. Mason, of New- port, whose extremely interesting account of the colonial slave-trade J gives a multitude of details drawn from origi- nal business papers, had " seen hundreds of these horo- scopes " and prints a facsimile of one dated August 22, 1752, and prepared for a voyage to the Guinea coast. 1 The African Slave Trade in Colonial Times, in The American Histori- cal Record, 1872, I, 311-19, 338-45. 40 THE OLD FARMER'S ALMANACK He appends an extract from an astrologer's letter to a Newport merchant referring to a more rigorous computa- tion of the moon's place than was to be found in the current almanacs, for which the cunning man professes a dignified contempt. A marginal note, doubtless from the hand of the shipmaster, on one of these horoscopes, re- marks that " 6 D. & h [i. e. the sixth day and hour] always wins the profits," which seems to point to some personal superstition on the captain's part, derived perhaps from his experience in lucky and unlucky seafaring. Sailors are proverbially superstitious (and no wonder), but without much evidence one would scarcely have believed that our hard-headed New England forefathers on the coast were at all addicted to the elaborate trifling which the practice of so abstruse a science as astrology involves. There is a casual reference to the same subject in the Diary of President Stiles, of Yale College, where, under date of June 13, 1773, he mentions, as lately dead, " Mr. Stafford of Tiverton," who " was wont to tell where lost things might be found, and what day, hour and minute was fortunate for vessels to sail." 1 Poor Robin's Almanack for 1690 contained a burlesque horoscope, which the author called " the ass-trological scheme." A comparison with that drawn up for the New- port shipmaster will show that it was not a bad parody. " By this Scheme," adds the jocose author, " a man may foretel things that never will be, as well as those that never were ; and is as proper for an Almanack as a Nose for a mans Face : for as a Face looks ill favouredly without a Nose, so doth an Almanack without a Scheme." Astrology turns up now and then in the theses discussed by candidates for the degree of Master of Arts at Harvard College, and that too at a comparatively late date. Thus in 1762 it was decided that "the heavenly bodies produce 1 Literary Diary of Ezra Stiles, ed. Dexter, I, 386. HOROSCOPE. FOR A GUINEA VOYAGE ASTROLOGY 4! changes in the bodies of animals." Perhaps this may not be regarded as genuine astrology, but no one can doubt the nature of the following question, which was negatived in 1728: "Do medicinal herbs operate by planetary power? " In 1694 it was decided that " divinations by the MOCK HOROSCOPE (From Poor Robin's Almanack for 1690) planets are not justifiable." Two questions must not be mistaken as astrological : " Will a comet be the cause of the world's final conflagration?" (settled affirmatively in 1759) and " Is a comet which only appears after many years more a foreshadowing of divine wrath than a planet which rises daily?" (negatived in I77O). 1 Proc. Mass. Hist. Soc., XVIII, 123 ff. 42 THE OLD FARMER'S ALMANACK An irrefutable proof that the whimsicalities of astrology, palmistry, and physiognomy were not unknown among the country people in New England at the beginning of the nineteenth century is found in the circulation of the so-called Book of Knowledge. This curious man- ual purported to be written by " Erra Pater, a Jew Doctor in Astronomy and Physic, born in Bethany, near Mount Olivet in Judea," and to have been "made Eng- lish" by W. Lilly, the famous astrologer. I have ex- amined an undated edition with the imprint " Worcester, Printed by Isaiah Thomas, Jun.," and another printed at Suffield by Edward Gray, in 1799. The title-page, after the old fashion, furnishes one with a pretty complete table of contents. The little book, which was meant to be hawked about the country by book-peddlers, is said to treat of " the Wisdom of the Ancients " in four parts. The first part shows " the various and wonderful Opperations of the Signs and Planets, and other celestial Constellations, on the Bodies of Men, &c." The second gives " Prognostications for ever necessary to keep the Body in Health ; with several choice Receipts in Physic and Surgery." The third is an " Abstract of the Art of Physiognomy and Palmistry, together with the Signification of Moles, and the Interpre- tation of Dreams, &c." The fourth is " The Farmer's Cal- endar, containing, 1st. Perpetual Prognostications for Weather. 2d. The whole Mystery of Husbandry. 3d. The complete and experienced Farrier and Cowleech, &c." Among the miscellaneous matter are a number of forms for bills, bonds, indentures, deeds, bills of exchange, and the like as in the " Every Man his own Lawyer " of our own day. All this in a little book of less than a hundred and twenty pages. Truly the buyer got a good deal for his shilling ! The astrology is of the simplest and most popular kind. The main definitions are given, and the familiar elementary ASTROLOGY 43 principles of nativities. Thus we learn that " the sun being in Virgo, makes the men [born at that time] fortunate and successful in household affairs, wise and fruitful, stout and ambitious : his wife shall die suddenly in his absence ; he shall have many things stolen from him, but shall be re- venged on his enemies. He shall be so much given to talk, that he cannot keep his own secrets. It also shews one fair-faced, of a genteel behaviour, a lover of women, and delightful to be in the courts of princes and noblemen," and so on. " If the native be a maiden, she will be witty, honest, and modest ; of a willing mind, diligent and circum- spect; and shall be married about the age of fifteen years." This last remark comes in with unconscious humor in close connection with the " willing mind " just referred to. The precepts of physiognomy are amusing, and some of them are still familiar in folk-lore or proverbial saying. "A large head shows a person stupid and of a dull apprehen- sion, also a very small head signifies the same." This re- minds one of the nursery rhyme : Great head, little wit ; Small head, not a bit. Outworn wisdom frequently takes refuge in the adages of the nursery. More startling are the remarks that " a fat face shews a man to be a liar, and foolish," " a long slender neck shews a man to be a coward," and " slender legs de- note ignorance." Almanacs were of course astrological from the beginning. They existed largely for the purpose of designating the days and hours upon which the particular influence of this or that planet would be operative. Let us take an instance from the "Monthly Observations," for March, 1700, in Partridge's almanac for that year. 1 1 Merlinus Liberatus, published by the Company of Stationers. 44 THE OLD FARMER'S ALMANACK i Last Quarter, the first day, at noon. 2 3 The General Affairs of Europe begin 4 to move and look with an angry face; 5 yet I do not think things are yet ripe 6 for Action, or fit for what they are 7 design'd. Yet a little while and you '11 8 see. 9 New ) 9 day, 3 ho. 53 min. afternoon. 10 If his Majesty of Poland was born, 11 as some say, Apr. 27. or, as others, May 12 the 2d. 1670; he is like to have a very 13 troublesome year of this, and that from 14 the lay Transit of Mars through Scor- 15 pio all this Summer, and some other 1 6 First Q. 16 day, 49 min. past n at night. 17 things. There is a Fire kindling in 1 8 those Northern parts, I hope to a good 19 purpose. 20 Mars hath lately been in Trine to 21 the Sun, and now running Retrograde 22 in a fixed Sign. The Souldiery of Na- 23 Full 23 day, 20 min. past 5 at night. 24 tions may sleep a while, but I think 25 not long, perhaps this Century may 26 end first; and perhaps not, if Nostra- 27 dame says true. 28 29 30 Last Q 31 day, 35 min. past 6 morning. 3i Partridge and Gadbury were the best known almanac- makers of their day. They were equally popular in their lifetime, but in posthumous reputation Partridge has distanced his rival. He owes his immortality not so much to his own performances as to the satire of Swift. The ASTROLOGY 45 affair is one of the most celebrated episodes in Queen Anne literature, but, familiar as it is, it can hardly be passed by without a word. In 1707 Swift published, under the name of Isaac Bickerstaff, Esq., " Predictions for the Year 1708, Wherein the Month and the Day of the Month are set down, the Persons named, and the great Actions and Events of next Year particularly related, as they will come to pass. Written to prevent the People of England from being further imposed on by vulgar Almanack Makers." The writer professed to be a scientific astrologer and ridiculed Partridge and his fellows as ignorant pretenders to the art. The first of his predictions is the most famous, and, indeed, it is the gist of the whole satire. With splendid audacity he actually specified the day and the hour when, as he foretold, Partridge was to die : My first Prediction is but a trifle ; yet I will mention it, to show how ignorant those sottish pretenders to Astrology are in their own concerns : it relates to PARTRIDGE the Almanack maker; I have consulted the star of his nativity by my own rules; and find he will infallibly die upon the 29th of March next, about eleven at night, of a raging fever ; therefore I advise him to consider of it, and settle his affairs in time. This prediction Swift followed up in a second paper, purporting to be a letter to a lord from a revenue officer and to describe the accomplishment of Bickerstaff 's pre- diction. Here an account was given of Partridge's last moments and of his repentance for the injuries he had done and the frauds he had perpetrated. " I am a poor ignorant fellow," he exclaims to the person who makes the report, " bred to a mean trade ; yet I have sense enough to know that all pretences of foretelling by Astrology are deceits." And he adds, sighing, " I wish I may not have done more mischief by my physic, than by astrology ! although I had some good receipts from 46 THE OLD FARMER'S ALMANACK my grandmother, and my own compositions were such as I thought could, at least, do no hurt." Partridge of course protested furiously in his almanac for 1709. But Swift took advantage of his anger to write still another paper, in which he proved that Partridge must undoubtedly be dead, as he had predicted. Literary historians have probably exaggerated the effect of Swift's satires. They may have had some influence with educated people, who were only too much given to relying on astrological predictions, but they did not change the character of the popular almanacs in England. Throughout the eighteenth century and well into the nineteenth these continued to go on in their old course, though, as we have seen, the principal almanac of New England contemned such fooleries. Partridge's and Gadbury's almanacs continued to be published, with no essential change in their character, long after the death of their founders. The Company of Stationers, who owned the copyrights, were unwilling to suppress them or to modify their contents, for the sales were enormous and the populace was wedded to its idols. In 1827 the Society for the Diffusion of Christian Knowl- edge took a hand in the matter by publishing the first number of the British Almanac (for 1828). This was a direct challenge to the Stationers. In a preface the editors attack the two most popular almanacs of the day, Moore's and Partridge's, for their charlatanry. The object of the new publication was to educate the public taste and intelligence. The British Almanac was successful at the very outset, and it is still issued. At first the price was two shillings and threepence, for there was a stamp duty of fifteen pence on every almanac a tax which brought in more than thirty thousand pounds a year. In 1835, when the duty had been abolished, the size of the book was increased and the price was put down ASTROLOGY 47 to a shilling. The effect of respectable competition was marked. The Stationers changed the character of their almanacs, and Moore's, which is still published, is no longer a monument to ancient delusions. With the issue of 1870 the British Almanac itself passed into the hands of the Stationers' Company. It must not be inferred that astrological almanacs no longer circulate in England. There are two rival publica- tions which are as absurd as anything that the dark ages could produce, Zadkiel's and Raphael's. Both Zadkiel and Raphael take pride, from year to year, in pointing out what they call the fulfilment of their predictions. Since these works are not much known in this country, the reader may be diverted by an extract from Zadkiel's Almanac for 1903, designated as the " seventy-third yearly edition." It will be observed that there is much vagueness in the predictions and consider- able license of interpretation in the fulfilment. FULFILLED PREDICTIONS. END OF THE WAR IN SOUTH AFRICA. Predictions. Fulfilment. "The SUN shines once again In the spring quarter of 1902, on Old England after the storms the negotiations for peace were and tempests of the last two begun in April, and the submis- years." sion of the Boers was made on "Q in T. We shall se- the3ist of May, when the Treaty cure peace by showing our ene- was signed by the five Boer mies that we are prepared for leaders at 10.30 p.m., at Pre- war." toria; just before Jupiter be- " Should peace be preserved, came stationary in Aquarius as it should be if only our Gov- 17 15' in the mid-heaven of ernment be resolute as well as the horoscope of London, clever in diplomacy, our foreign trade will increase." Alma- nac, 1902, pp. 5, n, 56. 4 8 THE OLD FARMER'S ALMANACK THE CORONATION. Predictions. "SUN enters Cancer, June 22nd. At London, Venus is culminating. The elevation of Venus is of happy omen for the Monarch, and promises a splendid Coronation attended with great martial pomp, and public rejoicing in earnest." Almanac, 190*2, p. 59. " The 23rd of June brings a crisis." Ibid., p. 21. " Mars in the ascendant of London, in opposition to Ura- nus. I trust that no serious accident will mar the public festivities at the opening of this month" (July). Ibid.^. 23. Fulfilment. The Coronation took place in the summer quarter, as fore- told, viz., on the 9th of August, having been postponed from the 2 6th of June, owing to the alarming illness of the King. In the Abbey the splendour of the scene was magnificent. The public rejoicing at His Majesty's recovery was indeed earnest and heartfelt. On the 23rd of June the King became seriously ill, and the operation was performed on the following day when it was announced that the Coronation was postponed, to the conster- nation of the people of the em- pire. This most unfortunate accident marred the brilliant festivities planned and begun for the end of June and the beginning of July. There was of course much ridicule of astrological and other prophecies. Thus Rabelais, in his Pantagrueline Prognostication : - No matter what these crazy astrologers of Louvain and Nurem- berg and Tubingen and Lyons tell you, do not believe that in this year there will be any other governor of the universe than God the creator. This year the blind will see only a very little ; the deaf will not hear very well ; the dumb will not have much to say ; the rich ASTROLOGY 49 will fare rather better than the poor and the well than the sick ; several sheep, oxen, pigs, birds, chickens, and geese will die. 1 In 1697, Poor Robin's Almanack, in deliberate burlesque and with an express reference to Rabelais, makes certain salutary suggestions for January: - This Month is the best of all the twelve (saith the ingenious Rabelais} to pick the lock of a Cup-board, to steal a bottle of wine out of it. But yet Reader, if thou hast money, let me ad- vise thee rather to go to the Tavern, call for a quart of Canary, and wish Poor Robin some part of it, to heat hi[m] within this cold Weather ; but above all, let Scholars have a great care of drink- ing the best Wine, for of good Wine they cannot make bad Latin. The Weather being so cold, hot broths in a morning are very com- fortable : Pope Alexander by the advice of a Jew his Physician did so, and lived till his dying day, in despight of all his enemies. In the same year Poor Robin characterizes December, with a hit at the decline of old-fashioned hospitality : - This Month will be more Employment for Cooks and Fiddlers, than for Reapers and Haymakers ; but how if there should be more Cooks than there will be Employment for 'em ; truly, as the Stars seem posited, it is a thing very much to be fear'd : And the Phisicians do assure us that very few poor Men this Chrismas will get Surfeits by over-eating 'emselves at rich Mens Tables, and the reason thereof is, because my Lady Pride hath turn'd good Houskeeping out of doors ; instead of a Cook, a Butler, a Groom, a Huntsman ; and a 2 or 3 brace of neat-handed serving-Men, maintaining a Butterfly Page, a stiff swearing Coach-man, and a tawdry Skip-kennel, pulling down the Larder, locking the Buttry door, and reducing the Kitchin to the bigness of a Cobler's Stall. A blessed Reformation. A middle ground is occupied by Woodward's almanac for 1690, which, though it cannot deny the influence of the 1 Chaps, i and 3. 4 50 THE OLD FARMER'S ALMANACK stars in their courses, is inclined to think that free-born Englishmen are less subjected to them than foreigners : SAPIENS DOMINABITUR ASTRIS. Altho the Stars have an Influence on all Persons and things sublunary, yet as we are Englishmen and Christians, let us live so after the Dictates of the Divine Will, that the Stars may have no Power over us, as to Evil ; for they only incline, not compel. Besides, we inhabit a Land that flows with Milk and Honey, are govern'd by a glorious Monarch and his Consort of our own Re- ligion, have the blessed Gospel florishing more than in any King- dom of Europe, just Laws to punish Offenders ; wherefore if we live not in Tranquillity or Union one with another, can we expect anything but the great Indignation of Heaven, by provoking God's severe Displeasure against us for our Treachery and back- sliding ? But Thanks be to God we have a prospect of so well-settled a Government, that Popish Contrivers shall not have Power to alter for the future. 1 Mr. Thomas, as we have seen, was no astrologer. But he was a humorist, and now and then he uses the formulas of the star-gazing prophets to good purpose, as in the fol- lowing note from the Calendar for October, 1803 : Now is an excellent time for old bachelors to visit old maids, as the sun is in Libra, which promises a balance of affection to the wedded pair. February, being a short month, afforded room for such jocose remarks at the foot of the column of days, par- ticularly when leap-year came round. Thus, in 1804, we read : It is hoped that old maids and bachelors will enjoy much satis- faction this year. 1 Daniel Woodward, Ephemeris Absoluta, London, 1690. ASTROLOGY 51 In 1808 the same hope is expressed, but with a good deal more confidence: It is expected that the hearts of bachelors and old maids will beat in unison this year. More satirical are the verses appended to the same month in 1809: - Thy changing weather like a modish wife, Thy winds and rains forever at a strife ; So Termagant, awhile her thunder tries, And when she can no longer scold she cries. In 1810 we are brought back to the domain of sentiment in a reminiscence of a pretty passage in Virgil's eclogue : - The bashful lover sues in vain The favours of the fair to gain ; She flies, yet flying hopes the swain Quickly her footsteps will detain. In 1 8 12, which is leap-year, we have another jest about those who have postponed marriage beyond their first youth: There will be this year many conjunctions and fewer oppositions than usual, between bachelors and old maids. This pleasant method of filling up the February column was followed for a good many years. A few more speci- mens may be given : Ye lasses be prudent and wise, Nor listen to Neddy's false voice ; A happiness pure if ye prize, Let merit alone claim your choice. (1821.) 52 THE OLD FARMER'S ALMANACK TO MARRIED LADIES. Whatever is your lot in life, Be still the good and loving wife ; Content with little, meek with riches, But let the Husband wear the breeches. (1823.) A SENTIMENT. " The married and single. Wives, as they are maids, as they would be bachelors, as they should be." (1828.) PREDICTIONS. He who marries this year will run a great risk that is, if he does it in a hurry of finding the angel of light to be one of darkness. (1832.) LEAP-YEAR. Tradition this year doth report, That maidens are allowed to court. (1836.) A PREDICTION. Much this year will be done That many will wish undone. (1840.) Bachelors and maids, don't despair, Time has brought about leap year. (1844.) This is truly a rough-hewn couplet and it comes near marking the close of an epoch, for in 1846 the practice in question was abandoned and the column was filled by lengthening the last few lines of the Farmer's Calendar. THE MAN OF THE SIGNS ONE of the notable things about the Farmer's Alma- nack is that, from the very beginning, it has ex- cluded from its pages the picturesque image known as the Man of the Signs, or the Moon's Man. The figure of a man, surrounded by the twelve Signs of the Zodiac, each referred to some part of his body by means of a connecting line or a pointing dagger, is still seen in some almanacs and was once regarded as indispen- sable. The Anatomy, as it was often called, was a graphic representation, intelligible alike to the educated and to those who could not read, of a vitally important principle in medicine and surgery. Each sign of the zodiac " gov- erned " an organ or part of the body, and, in selecting a day to treat any ailment, or to let blood, it was necessary to know whether the moon was or was not in that sign. In the language of the Kalender of Shepherdes, as pub- lished by Pynson in 1506, " a man ought not to make incysyon ne touche with yren y e membre gouerned of any sygne the day that the mone is in it for fere of to grete effu- syon of blode that myght happen, ne in lykewyse also when the sonne is in it, for the daunger & peryll that myght ensue." Pynson's Kalender of Shepherdes is some- thing more than its name implies. It is a rather large com- pendium, affording not only all manner of astronomical and astrological lore, but information on health, religion, physiognomy, and pastoral life. It was originally written in French, and the oldest known edition (though not, ap- parently, the first) appeared at Paris in 1493. It was im- 54 THE OLD FARMER'S ALMANACK mensely popular. There were no less than twenty other editions in French before 1600, not to speak of those printed in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. There were two distinct translations into English, and numerous editions. 1 The work, then, was authoritative, and we may accept its precepts without hesitation as giving a correct idea of what men believed. The Kalender of Shepherdes is not content with one illustration of the dominion of the planets. Besides that just mentioned there are two more, another body and a skeleton. The body is intended to exhibit the position of the veins, and is accompanied by directions for bleed- ing. The skeleton is encircled by the planets, each with a label and a line or ribbon attaching it to the central figure. Thus over the man's head is the Sun, with a label " Sol the heart" and a ribbon attaching the sun to that place in the skeleton where the heart would be. The sun, we are to understand, " hath myght and domynacyon " over the heart. Most almanacs, however, are satisfied with a single figure that of the man surrounded by the zodiacal beasts the Homo Signorum or "Man of the Signs." Who invented the figure is a question. The conjecture of Halliwell 2 that it originated with Petrus de Dacia, a Danish astronomer and mathematician who was Rector of the University of Paris in 1326, is apparently without founda- tion ; 3 Peter compiled tables for determining the moon's place, but there is no evidence that he was an artist. The Moon's Man is common in manuscript calendars of the fourteenth century, and may be considerably older. There 1 See the edition by H. Oskar Sommer, London, 1892, Critical Intro- duction. 2 Essay on Early Almanacs, in Companion to the British Almanac for 1839, p. 56. 3 See G. Enestrom, Swedish Academy, Stockholm, Ofversigt af Forhand- lingar, 1885, No. 3, pp. 15 ff., No. 8, pp. 65 ff; 1886, No. 5, pp. 57 ff. THE MAN OF THE SIGNS 55 is a succinct statement of the doctrine of which the Homo Signorum is merely a pictorial representation in the famous astronomical poem of Manilius, which dates from the be- ginning of the Christian era, and the Roman poet was of course merely borrowing from earlier Greek sources. Accipe divisas hominis per sidera partes, Singulaque in propriis parentia membra figuris, In quis praecipuas toto de corpore vires Exercent. Aries caput est ante omnia princeps Sortitus, censusque sui pulcherrima colla Taurus, et in Gemini's aequali brachia sorte Scribuntur connexa humeris, pectusque locatum Sub Cancro est, laterum regnum scapulaeque Leonis ; Virginis in propriam descendunt ilia sortem ; Libra regit clunes, et Scorpios inguine gaudet; Centauro femina accedunt, Capricornus utrisque Imperat et genibus, crurum fundentis Aquari Arbitrium est, Piscesque pedum sibi iura reposcunt. 1 These verses are translated in hexameters which have escaped the notice of all students of English metre, in " A New Almanacke and Prognostication, for the yeare of our Lord God 1628. By Daniel Browne, wilier 2 to the Mathe- matickes, and teacher of Arithmeticke, and Geometry: " fate Aries, nccfte anB tfyroate Taurus topfjolHetrj, 3To Gemini tl)' artnes, to Cancer brest stomadte anB lungess : &s Leo milts ttye backe anB fyeart, so Virgo Beligfjtctfj Cn guts anil bellg : retgncs anB lognts Libra. rctatnetlj. Scorpio tfyt secrets anB blaBBer efyallengett) : of nig Sagitarius th.e gouwnour is : Capricornus SHje ftnees as subtects Bat!} gttiB, but Aquarius Qlty legs : anB Pisces maintaine \ty feet to be tfyetr rigijt. Through Ptolemy, the Alexandrian astronomer of the second century after Christ, the doctrine came down to the middle ages and so to modern times. Thus we find 1 Marcus Manilius, Astronomica, ii, 453 ff. 2 Misprint for -well-wilier. 56 THE OLD FARMER'S ALMANACK it in Chaucer's treatise on the Astrolabe, which he wrote as an elementary text-book of astronomy for his little son Lowys (or Lewis) : " Everich of thise twelve signes hath respect to a certein parcelle of the body of a man, and hath it in governance ; as Aries hath thyn heved, and Taurus thy nekke and thy throte, Gemini thyn armholes and thyn armes, and so forth." l Chaucer says nothing of the Anatomy, the Man of the Signs, but it was well known in his day, and it is not unlikely that he would have described it fully if he had not left his book unfinished. As time went on, the theory of a close relation between man's body and the signs of the zodiac fell into disrepute, and the Anatomy became a laughing stock. In 1609 Thomas Dekker, the dramatist and pamphleteer, pub- lished a burlesque called The Ravens Almanacke, to which, according to custom, he prefixed the figure of the Homo Signorum, with the usual title " The Dominion of the Moone in Mans body." This is his humorous com- ment: "At the beginning of euerie Almanacke, it is the fashion to haue the body of a man drawne as you see, and not onely baited, but bitten and shot at by wilde beasts and monsters." The image, he says, is called " the Man of the Moone, or the Moones Man, or the Man to whom the Moone is mistris." 2 Dekker's jest, oddly enough, was revived by Josh Billings, who can hardly have been aware of its previous vogue, in his comic publication the Old Farmer's Allminax, which appeared for the first time in 1870: SIGHNS OV THE ZODIAK. The undersighned iz an Amerikan brave, in hiz grate tragick akt ov being attaked bi the twelve constellashuns. (May the best man win.) 1 Part i, 21 ; Skeat's Oxford Edition, III, 187. 2 The Non-Dramatic Works of Thomas Dekker, ed. Grosart, IV, 179-80. THE MAN OF THE SIGNS 57 Then follows the figure, with an indescribably droll par- ody on the regular directions for its use : KEY TEW THE ABUV PERFORMANCE. Tew kno exakly whare the sighn iz, multiply the day ov the month hi the sighn, then find a dividend that will go into a divider four times without enny remains, subtrakt this from the sighn, add the fust quoshunt tew the last divider, then multiply the whole ov the man's boddy bi all the sighns, and the result will be jist what yu are looking after. In 1657 Bishop Bramhall makes an ingenious applica- tion of the Anatomy in his controversy with Hobbes the philosopher. He is arguing for free will and objects to Hobbes's theory of necessity on the ground that it lowers the dignity of human nature: T. H. maketh him [man] to be in the disposition of the second causes : sometimes as a sword in a man's hand, a mere passive instrument ; sometimes like " a top, that is lashed " hither and thither "by boys " ; sometimes like " a football," which is kicked hither and thither by every one that comes nigh it. ... Surely this is not that man that was created by God after His own image, to be the governor of the world, and lord and master of the creatures. This is some man that he hath borrowed out of the beginning of an almanac, who is placed immovable in the midst of the twelve signs, as so many second causes. If he offer to stir, Aries is over his head ready to push him, and Taurus to gore him in the neck, and Leo to tear out his heart, and Sagittarius to shoot an arrow in his thighs. 1 The almanac-makers of the seventeenth century were sorely perplexed about the " misshaped anatomy," as the 1 Castigations of Mr. Ilobbes his last Animadversions, Works, Oxford, 1844, IV, 417. 58 THE OLD FARMER'S ALMANACK poet Cleveland called it. 1 None of them put any con- fidence in it, but all of them wanted to sell their books, and the people clamored for the time-honored monstrosity. Now and then we find a versified apology. Thus Edward Pond, in 1633, admitted that he had inserted the caricature for business purposes only : THE ANATOMIE. Should I but dare t' omit the Anatomie, Which long enough hath gul'd my country friend, He with contempt would straight refuse to buy This book, and 't is no Almanack contend. Ask him its use, he 'le say he cannot tell ; No more can I : yet since he loves 't so well, I 'le let it stand, because my Book should sell. 2 Poor Robin's Almanack for 1697 is equally frank and more humorous : - Here is presented to your Eye The Figure of th' Anatomy, For where that this Gue-Gaw doth lack, Some will not buy that Almanack : Then stand here that my Book may sell, Though for what Use we cannot tell. The same embarrassment was felt by astronomers in America. Samuel Clough, in the New England Almanack for 1703, expressed himself with more vigor than metrical correctness : - The Anatomy must still be in Else th' A hnanack 's not worth a pin : For Country-men regard the Sign As though 'T were Oracle Divine. But do not mind that altogether, Have some respect to Wind and Weather. 1 " All other forms seem in respect to thee The almanack's misshaped anatomy." (The Hetacomb, verses 89-90.) 2 See S. Briggs, The Essays, Humor and Poems of Nathaniel Ames, Cleveland, 1891, p. 61. THE MAN OF THE SIGNS 59 Here the reader is warned not to trust the oracle too much. So in Poor Will's Almanack for I797, 1 we have " The Anatomy of Man's Body, as said to be governed by the Twelve Constellations," with the conventional rule for its interpretation and use ; but there follows immediately a caveat in solemn prose against taking it too seriously. Dr. Nathaniel Ames, of Dedham, ignored the Anatomy in the first two numbers of his Almanac (1726-28), and this is the more noteworthy since he was, at the outset, avowedly astrologistic. In his first issue he speaks of an eclipse of the moon in terms that remind us of Edmund in King Lear: "This Eclipse of the Moon happens so near the Great Benevolent Jupiter, the Effects 't is hop'd will not be ill." And in that for 1728 he is still more outspoken : OF THE ECLIPSES THIS YEAR, 1728. The first of these Eclipses (moon) is Celebrated in 6 de- grees of Virgo, the second Sign of the earthy Triplicity, which (authors say) portends the Scarcity of Fruit and Corn. The second of these Eclipses, viz : That of the Sun on the 28th of February happens in 20 degrees of Pisces, the House of Jupiter, and Exaltation of Venus : learned Authors affirm, when Jupiter bears Rule, and is Lord of an Eclipse (as in this he is) he signifies Glory, Fertility, Tranquillity, Peace and Plenty ; and such as are signified by Jupiter, especially Ecclesias- tical Persons do flourish and live in great Estimation. The Laws are well Executed, and many Upright and Just Judges are very Active for the Publick Good ; new Customs or Privileges, new Corporations, new Honours, &c., are now most happily conferr'd upon People in general ; And these are the Natural Portends of Jupiter when he bears Rule in an Eclipse. Astrologer though he was, Ames hoped to avoid the absurdity of perpetuating the Homo Signorum. But in 1 Philadelphia : Printed for and Sold by Joseph Crukshank. 60 THE OLD FARMER'S ALMANACK 1729 he yielded, rather reluctantly, to the pressure of public opinion, and inserted the image. His reluctance his feeling that this was a superstitious ornament, un- worthy of the serious attention of a " student in physick and astronomy," is evinced by the roughhewn verses that accompany the picture : The Blackmoor may as eas'ly change his Skin, As Men forsake the ways they 'r brought up in ; Therefore I 've set the Old Anatomy, Hoping to please my Country men thereby, But where 's the Man that 's born & lives among, Can please a Fickle throng ? 1 Ames's figure is excessively ugly, but not original. He had it from his predecessor, the almanac " printed and sold by B. Green and J. Allen in Boston," appearing as Clough's New-England Almanack in 1703, afterwards edited by Thomas Robie, Daniel Travis, and others. The hithering and thithering of New England almanacs with regard to the Man of the Signs is excessively curious. In Isaiah Thomas's Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode- Island, New-Hampshire and Vermont Almanack for 1782, there is an elaborate Anatomy. Yet this is a somewhat rationalistic number after all. It contains a skeptical Es- say on Conjuration and Witchcraft, in which, after speak- ing of various wonders of the invisible world, the author remarks : " We are not to believe such reports, unless the evidence of the truth of the fact be equal to the strangeness of the thing." In 1783 the Anatomy appears again, but in 1784 it is omitted, with the note " The Anatomy of Man's body, &c. inserted last year." In 1785 we find the figure; but not in 1786 or 1788. In 1789, 1790, and 1791 it re- appears in much handsomer form. In 1792 it is omitted. And so on. After 1800 there seems to have been a reac- 1 See Briggs, as above, pp. 47, 57, 60. THE MAN OF THE SIGNS 6 1 tion in favor of the Anatomy. It appears, with only one break, from 1801 to 1807. About this time some almanacs actually gave the mystic figure a place of honor on the combined cover and title-page ; so Smith and Forman's New- York and New- Jersey Almanac for 1809 and 1810. No wonder the people were attached to the Anatomy. It was not merely a fetich, though there was a touch of fetichism in the reverence paid it. It was a graphic sum- ming up of the whole doctrine of astrological medicine. And medicine, for many centuries, had been permeated with astrology, both in theory and practice. Chaucer's physician in the Canterbury Tales always selected a "for- tunate ascendant" in treating his patients, that is, he observed the condition of the heavens, constructed a horoscope, and acted accordingly. Otherwise his ministra- tions might do more harm than good. Paracelsus declared, we are told, that no physician ought to write a prescription without consulting the stars. The science of one age becomes the superstition of the next, but what the Anatomy typified remained the doctrine of the learned for centu- ries, and when at last it sank to the position of a " vulgar error" it retained its hold with a tenacity proportionate not only to its antiquity but to the high authority which it had so long enjoyed. It is much to Mr. Thomas's credit that he steadfastly refused to countenance a prev- alent superstition by admitting this time-honored effigy into his Almanac. ARTISTIC EMBELLISHMENT IN an editorial greeting to the Old Farmer's Almanack for 1903, the New York Sun comments appreciatively on the pictures which typify the different months. " Each month," says the Sun, " has its lines of poetry and its lifelike portrait of a sign of the zodiac. The Crab looks good enough to eat, and the tail on the horse of the Archer has a sweep, range and boldness that must recommend it to all farriers, blacksmiths and hostlers." J The figures of the signs which are thus deservedly com- mended, as well as the portrait of Father Time, with his scythe and water-jar, which embellishes the title-page, go back to 1853. In the preface to the Almanac for 1852, the editor announces a change in the artistic adorn- ment of his venerable annual. " For about forty years past," he writes, " we have used, upon our Title-page and Calendar-pages, wood-cuts or engravings done when the art of engraving was not as advanced as now ; but as time, the press, and constant use have worn down the surface of the cuts, we intend, in our next number, to insert new and better engravings of the same subjects, which we hope will please all." And in 1853 the pledge is redeemed: " Agreeably to promise," says the editor, " we have some- what changed our appearance by the engravings, which we insert in this number, but though 'Father Time' may be burnished up, and improved in his outward adornings, his heart is in the right place, and we trust that we shall never forget the good old times of ' Lang Syne/ that we have had together ; and though the signs of the constellations may 1 New York Sun, Nov. i, 1902. No. XV Illy THE FARMER'S ALMANACK, CALCULATED ON A NEW AND IMPROVED PLAN, FOR 7 HE TEAR Of OUR LORD, Being the Second after BISSEXTILE or LEAP-YEAR, and Thir. ty-fourth of the INDSPBHD&NCZ of JJMSRICA. Fttttd it tbt Tow* of BOSTON, tut will fervt for any of tbt adjoining Statu. Containing, befides the lare number of, Aftronomical Cal- culations, and the Farmer's Calendar for every month in the year, a great a variety as any other Almanack, of Ufeful, and Entertaining Matter. BY ROBERT B. THOMAS] THOU great first cause, thy hand divine did raise This solid Earth, and spread the flowing seas ; Did make the Sun in central glory shine, And every planet round his orb incline ; .Printed for JOHN WEST & Co. Proprietors of the Copy-Right ; And for fale at their Bookftore, No. 75, Corr.bill, and by moft other Book- fellers in Boflon , Sakm, Nnoburyfort^ &c. by the AUTHOK in Weft Soyl* J?on, and by other Bookfellers and Traders in Nnv-E*glend. [Price 9 dollan per grofs, 87\ te*tt per dozen, and 12^ etnti fiagle-. 1 E. G. HOUSE, Printer, No. 5, Court Street. ARTISTIC EMBELLISHMENT 63 be a little more artistic, too, in their appearance, they are the same signs of pleasant months, and joyous hours, spent together in many a happy home, and by many a cheerful fireside." The new cuts are believed to be the work of Hammatt Billings, and were originally engraved by Nichols. They have indeed " pleased all," as the editor ventured to hope, and there seems to be no reason why they should ever be changed so long as the seasons continue the same and the zodiac remains in fashion with the astronomers. The set of figures that preceded the woodcuts ascribed to Billings began to appear in 1809, and were not materially altered until 1853, though they were occasionally rein- graved, as small variations, particularly in the length of Father Time's beard, make manifest. They were pretty grotesque, though not without life, as may be seen from the facsimiles. From 1800 to 1808 the artistic department of the Alma- nac was in a state of experimental ferment. Before 1800 there were no cuts at the heads of the calendar pages, each month being characterized in a short piece of verse. In 1793 there was no illustration on the title-page; but a figure of a man in knee-breeches ploughing, with a rural scene in the background, appeared the next year, and was retained until 1797 (see p. 25), when it was replaced by a woman seated, with emblems of agriculture at her feet and a ploughing scene in the distance. This continued to be the adornment of the title-page, though with some vari- ation in detail, until Father Time ousted it in 1809. Mean- time, in 1800, cuts had been introduced to reinforce the verses at the head of each month. These were, until 1804, not the Signs of the Zodiac, but little scenes illustrative of the changing seasons or of the occupations appropriate to the month in question. Thus. for January, we have two men, or a man and a boy, on the ice, one skating, the other whipping a top ; for February, cattle looking at the bleak 6 4 THE OLD FARMER'S ALMANACK landscape ; for March, two boys, in high hats (one of which has blown off), on their way to school ; for April, a sower ; for May, an angler ; for June, a shepherd in the shade ; for July, a load of hay ; for August, a foot-passenger, with a pack on his back and a dog at his heels, striding along to gain the timely inn; in September, a reaping scene; in October, two hunters, resting in the wood ; l in November, a man driving a herd of cattle ; in December, a man JANUARY, 1800 AUGUST, 1800 carrying home a great load of fagots. This method of representing the months belongs to a very old artistic tra- dition, as we shall see in a moment. Meantime we may complete our account of the cuts for the calendar by re- marking that from 1804 to 1808 there is, instead of the scenes just described, a series representing the signs of the zodiac in a rather peculiar way, not as independent sym- bols, but as realistic figures with an environment of land- 1 See also the facsimile of the Farmer's Calendar for October, 1800, p. 81, below. ARTISTIC EMBELLISHMENT 65 scape. Aquarius (for January) is an actual man pouring water into a stream; the Fishes (for February) have been caught and laid on the bank with their tails neatly tied to- gether; the Ram (for March) lies under a tree, with no suspicion that he is a zodiacal beast ; the Twins (for May) are taking a walk in a field, with an altar on one side and a small New England house on the other, and one of them has a star on his cap to indicate that they are Castor and Pollux ; the Archer (for November) is plainly at home in MAY, 1801-1803 DECEMBER, 1804-1808 the midst of rugged scenery and defending himself against an invisible enemy. The method of designating the several months by pictures, whether of the zodiacal signs or of the occupations or labors of the year, is a very ancient and curious matter, which will repay a little consideration. As for the signs of the zodiac, we need not linger over them. Their origin is lost in antiquity, and it is enough for us to trace them back to the Greeks and Romans. The reader will find on page 79 a picture of an Italian altar inscribed with a Farmer's Calendar in columns, each column headed by a figure of 5 66 THE OLD FARMER'S ALMANACK the sign. An Athenian sacred calendar has also been pre- served, in which the months are separated by similar figures. On the page opposite is a more complicated illustration, which includes both the signs and the labors of the months. It is taken from the Kalender of Shepherdes, as published in I503- 1 This figure is a compendious pictorial calendar. The cen- tral circle contains two figures, a woman with a nosegay, who represents warm weather, and a man sitting out-of- doors by a fire, who represents cold weather. In the second circle are the months, each typified by an appropriate scene : January, by a man slaughtering a boar ; February, by a man sitting at a table with a tankard before him ; March, by a woman warming her hands and feet at a fire ; April, by a pruner at work; May, by a lover and his lass out a-Maying; June, by a plowman; July, by a mower; August, by a reaper; September, by a man with a mat- tock; October, by a man driving a horse; November, by a vintager; December, by a shepherd. If these occupa- tions do not suit our climate, we must remember that they were not designed for it, but rather for the south of Europe, for we are dealing with a very old set of conventional figures. In the outermost circle are the signs of the zodiac, each divided between two months. Illuminated calendars dating from Anglo-Saxon times preserve an interesting series of the labors of the months which continued, with some variations, through the middle ages " and even appears in the printed calendars and alma- nacs of the sixteenth century in England, Germany, and the Low Countries." 2 The killing of swine, which is in the Kalender of Shepherdes, was a favorite subject for November or December. It is found, for instance, on an old Norman font at Brookland, in Kent, on the archivolt of 1 On this work see page 53, above. 2 Thomas Wright, Archaeological Album, London, 1845, P- 64. THE CIRCLE OF THE MONTHS (From the Kalender of Shepherdes, 1503) ARTISTIC EMBELLISHMENT 6/ the great west doorway of St Mark's Cathedral at Venice, at the side of the central doorway of the fagade of the cathedral at Lucca, on the tympanum of the doorway of the monastery of St. Ursin, in France, on a capital in the Doge's palace at Venice, in a mosaic pavement at Piacenza and again at Aosta, in the famous paintings by Giotto in the great hall at Padua. A very vigorous example occurs in a fourteenth-century medallion of painted glass in DeWs- JANUARY, 1809-1852 NOVEMBER, SINCE 1852 bury Church, Yorkshire, which may have been meant as a type of the whole season of winter. The edge of the axe is turned backward, and the boar is tied by the snout to the stump of a tree. 1 Such figurative representations of the months and seasons turn up everywhere, as the examples already given have doubtless suggested, from one end of Europe to the other. In introducing them into his Almanac Mr. Thomas was simply following the fashion of his time, 1 Archaeologia, XLIV, plate V, opposite p. 178. 68 THE OLD FARMER'S ALMANACK but he was unconsciously attaching his little annual to a very venerable tradition. We must refrain from pursuing the subject, attractive as it is. The reader who wishes to know more will be able to satisfy his curiosity by con- sulting a learned article by Mr. James Fowler in the forty-fourth volume of the Archaeologia, the official publi- cation of the London Society of Antiquaries. Except for symbolical illustrations such as we have just considered, Mr. Thomas did not yield to the temptation to embellish his Almanac with engravings, for the occa- sional diagrams to elucidate eclipses and other astronomi- cal matters and the map of New England are not for show but for use. The first departure from this rule was when, in 1835, he yielded to the solicitations of his publishers and consented to let his portrait appear. Some of the early New England astronomers had less self-restraint, and tricked out their books with all manner of eccentric novelties. Ames does so with peculiar zest in his issue for 1772, which is advertised on the cover as " containing, besides what is usual in Almanacks, a Description of the Dwarf that lately made her Appearance in this Town; as also a curious Method of taking Wax and Honey without destroying the Bees." The dwarf was Miss Emma Leach, born in Beverly, " about 20 Miles distant from this town," in 1719. The description is re- inforced by a very disagreeable cut on the cover. Besides this monstrosity, we have a large portrait of " J-n D-k-ns-n, Esq ; Barrister at Law," that is John Dickinson (1732- 1808) of the Continental Congress, who is described in the title as " The Patriotic American Farmer " and as one " who with Attic Eloquence, and Roman Spirit, hath asserted the Liberties of the British Colonies in America." Dickinson is resting his elbow on Magna Charta and holds in his hand a scroll inscribed " Farmer's Letters," his well-known book in defence of freedom. The same num- ARTISTIC EMBELLISHMENT 69 her also exhibits a ridiculous full-length portrait of " Mrs. Catharine M'Caulay," the admired authoress, who is standing in a constrained attitude, holding a little bird (probably a canary) on her extended hand. Bickerstaff's Boston Almanack was also a sinner in this direction. It showed a penchant for savages men and beasts. Thus in 1768 the cover exhibits a terrific picture of a family of Patagonian giants. Other numbers have figures of New Zealanders (1775), "the Orang Outang " (1769), and "an exact and elegant representa- tion of that Furious WILD BEAST " which ravaged the South of France in 1764 and I765- 1 The Wild Beast of the Gevaudan, as the creature was called from the district where its depredations were most extensive, appears to have been a hyena escaped from a travelling show. The contemporary accounts are obvi- ously exaggerated, for there was a veritable reign of terror in Languedoc. Still, if only half of what was reported is true, the- situation was bad enough. The most sensational narrative, but one of the best authenti- cated, comes from Montpellier, Feb. 8, 1765 : On the 1 2th ultimo the wild beast attacked seven children, five boys and two girls, none of whom exceeded eleven years of age. The beast flew at one of the boys ; but the three eldest of them by beating him with stakes, the ends of which were iron, obliged him to retire, after having bitten off a part of the boy's cheek, which he ate before them. He then seized another of the children; but they pursued him into a marsh which was close by, where he sunk in up to his belly. By continually beat- ing him, they rescued their companion; who, though he was under his paw for some time, received only a wound in his arm, and a scratch in the face. A man at last coming up, the creature was put to flight. He afterwards devoured a boy at Mazel, and, on the 2ist, flew on a girl, who, however, escaped 1 Bickerstaff for 1773. 70 THE OLD FARMER'S ALMANACK with some dangerous wounds. The next day he attacked a woman, and bit off her head. Captain Duhamel, of the dragoons, is in pursuit of him, and has caused several of his men to dress themselves in women's apparel, and to accompany the children that keep cattle. The bravery of the children was recognized by King Louis XV, who awarded four hundred livres to the eldest of the boys, who had particularly distinguished himself, and ordered three hundred to be distributed among his companions. The description of the beast printed in the St. James's Chronicle for June 6, 1765, along with a wood- cut, from which that in Bickerstaff 's Boston Almanack was doubtless taken, is disquieting enough: It is larger than a Calf of a year old, strongly made before, and turned like a Grayhound behind. His Nose is long and pointed, his Ears upright and smaller than a Wolf 's, his Mouth of a most enormous size, and always wide open ; a Streak of Black runs from his Shoulders to the Beginning of his Tail. His Paws are very large and strong ; the Hair on his Back and Mane thick, bristly, and erect ; his Tail long and terminating in a Bush, like that of a Lion ; his Eyes small, fierce, and fiery. From this description it appears that he is neither a Wolf, Tiger, nor Hyena, but probably a Mongrel, generated between the two last, and forming, as it were, a new Species. The animal was killed in September, 1765, but not, we are gravely assured, until it had destroyed more than seventy persons. 1 1 Mason Jackson, The Pictorial Press, its Origin and Progress, London, 1885, pp. 206-13. MURDER WILL OUT AN almanac as conceived by Mr. Thomas should be an annual compendium of human interests. Now nothing is more interesting than Murder. Murder is the material of great literature, the raw material, if you will, but is not raw material essential to production, as well in art as in manufactures? What distinguishes De Quincey's famous Postscript on certain memorable murders from the grewsome scareheaded " stories " of the purveyor for the daily press ? Surely not the matter ! The bare plot of the sublimest of Greek tragedies, the Agamemnon of ^Eschylus, finds its closest parallel in a horrible butchery in low life that occurred in New York a few years ago. Conventional phrases are always tiresome enough, but none is more so than that of " morbid curiosity " as applied to the desire to know the circumstances of a great crime. The phrase is like a proverb: it is only half true, though it masquer- ades as one of the eternal verities. Curiosity is natural ; without it a man is a mere block, incapable of intellectual advancement. And curiosity about crime and criminals is no less natural, no further morbid that is, diseased or abnormal than that which attaches to any other startling event or remarkable personage. Like all other forms of curiosity, it may become morbid, and perhaps it is well to restrain it, but that is not the question. On one point, at all events, all reasonable men will agree : The detection of murder is laudable and necessary. Nobody can be blamed for what everybody must feel, an interest in the thousand ways in which murders come 72 THE OLD FARMER'S ALMANACK to light. The old theory was that this crime was so abomi- nable in God's sight that he would not suffer it to be concealed. As Chaucer says, in a deservedly famous passage : O blisful God, that art so iust and trewe ! Lo how that thou biwreyest mordre alvvay ! Mordre ivol out ! that se we day by day. Mordre is so wlatsom x and abhominable To God, that is so iust and resonable, That he ne wol nat suffre it heled 2 be ; Though it abyde a yeer, or two, or three, Mordre wol out, this my conclusioun. God's Revenge against Murder was a famous seventeenth- century book. It was even held that the ordinary laws of nature were sometimes suspended or supplemented by miraculous intervention, if the guilty man could be re- vealed in no other way. With all this in view, we may fairly hold that Mr. Thomas would not have done his duty by his time if he had not given his readers a specimen of the countless anecdotes that illustrate our theme. Accordingly, it is with no small satisfaction that the philosophic observer of life and letters notes the following article in the Farmer's Almanack for 1796: MURDERS STRANGELY DISCOVERED. IN the second year of the reign of King James I, one Anne Waters settling an unlawful love, or rather lust, on a young man in the neighbourhood ; and finding their frequent meetings were interrupted by her husband, they agreed to strangle him : which being done, they buried him under a dunghill, in the cow-house. The man being missed by his neighbours, and the woman arti- ficially dissembling her grief, and admiring what was become of him, all were at liberty to make their own conjectures ; but none 1 That is, " loathsome." 2 That is, " hidden." MURDER WILL OUT 73 suspected the wife of contributing to his absence, but assisted her inquiries after him. In this time one of the inhabitants of the village dreamed, " That his neighbour Waters was strangled, and buried under a dunghill in the cow-house ; " and, telling his dream to others, it was resolved the place should be searched by a con- stable ; which being done, Waters's corps was found ; and some other concurring suspicions appearing, the wife was apprehended ; and, confessing the truth, was burnt, according to law in that case provided. PARTHENIUS, treasurer to Theodobert, King of France, hav- ing killed his dear friend, Ausanius, and his wife ; when no man ac- cused, much less suspected him guilty of such a crime, Providence so ordered the affair, that he discovered it himself after this strange manner. As he was taking his repose in bed, he suddenly cried out, "Help, help, or I am ruined to eternity; " and being demanded what made him in such a terrible fright, he, between sleeping and waking, answered, " That his friend Ausanius, and his wife, whom he had murdered long ago, summoned him to answer before the tri- bunal of God Almighty." Upon which words he was apprehended, and, upon conviction, stoned to death. A close parallel to the first of these stories is an item in the New England Journal for December i, 1729 i 1 Last week, one belonging to Ipswich came to Boston and re- lated, that, some time since, he was at Canso, in Nova Scotia ; and that on a certain day there appeared to him an apparition in blood and wounds, and told him, that at such a time and place, mention- ing both, he was murdered by one, who was at Rhode Island, and desired him to go to the said person, and charge him with the said murder, and prosecute him therefor, naming several circum- stances relating to the murder ; and that since his arrival from Canso to Ipswich, the said apparition had appeared to him again, 1 As quoted by J. B. Felt, History of Ipswich, Essex, and Hamilton, Cambridge, 1834, pp. 208-9. 74 THE OLD FARMER'S ALMANACK and urged him immediately to prosecute the said affair. The abovesaid person, having related the matter, was advised and en- couraged to go to Rhode Island, and engage therein, and he accordingly set out for that place on Thursday last. While we are on this subject, it will not be improper to instance an article of New England belief which, if not actually credited when the Farmer's Almanack began to appear, in 1792, was in full force, and apparently recog- nized in legal procedure, as late as 1769. This was the superstition that the corpse of the victim would bleed when touched by the murderer, or even, it might be, on his mere approach. The ordeal by touch was once practised, it is safe to say, in every nation of Europe, and our forefathers of course brought the custom with them when they came to New England. In 1769 the young wife of Jonathan Ames, in the West Parish of Boxford, Massachusetts, died suddenly. The circumstances were suspicious. The body was disinterred, and the physicians who examined it found abundant evi- dence of poison. The marriage had not been happy. Ames's mother, who lived with him, had shown violent enmity towards her daughter-in-law, and had predicted her death in terms which, when recollected, seemed darkly significant. Both Mrs. Ames and her son were bidden to touch the body, but, guilty or not, they refused to sub- mit to the ordeal. The examination, according to the record, " gave great occasion to conclude that they were concerned in the poisoning," and they were committed to jail at Salem. There was no conclusive proof, however, and both were acquitted. Shortly after, they left the vil- lage and were lost sight of. The mystery of the Ames Murder was never cleared up. 1 The antiquary who gives an account of this celebrated 1 Sidney Perley, The Essex Antiquarian, 1898, II, i ff. MURDER WILL OUT 75 case is of opinion that he is recording the only instance of the ordeal by touch in New England history. But he is mistaken. Two striking examples of the ordeal may be found in Winthrop's Journal. The first occurred in 1644, and is graphically narrated by the colonial governor. One Cornish, living at Agamenticus, " was taken up in the river, his head bruised, and a pole sticking in his side, and his canoe laden with clay found sunk. His wife (being a lewd woman, and suspected to have fellowship with one Footman) coming to her husband, he bled abundantly, and so did he also, when Footman was brought to him ; but no evidence could be found against him." 1 Footman was discharged, but the woman was convicted, though not, it seems, on the testimony of the ordeal of blood. In the second case, which came two years later, in 1646, confes- sion followed the ceremony, as must often have happened. A poor creature had killed her child, and " when she was brought before the jury, they caused her to touch the face of it, whereupon the blood came fresh into it," and she confessed the truth. 2 This remarkable providence could not escape the all-recording Cotton Mather. He narrates it in his Magnalia, deriving his information from Winthrop's Journal. Characteristically enough, he improves the nar- rative. According to him the blood actually flowed anew, and did not merely " come fresh into the face," as Winthrop declares. 3 Another instance from the same century is related by Cotton Mather in a passage which may serve as a speci- men of his best style : Several Indians were made horribly drunk by the drink which the English had sold unto them. Returning home over a little 1 Winthrop, ed. Savage, 1853, II, 258. 2 The same, II, 369. 3 T.ook vi, chap. 5, ed. 1853, II, 398. 76 THE OLD FARMER'S ALMANACK ferry, eight of them were drown'd (from December to March) one of their dead bodies came ashore very near the place where they had been supplied with their drink ; and lying on the shore, it bled so plentifully, as to discolour the water and sand about it. Upon which the considerate spectators thought of that scripture, " the stone shall cry out of the wall " against him that " gives his neighbour drink." They thought there was a loud cry of " Blood ! blood! " against some wicked English in this matter. 1 The murder of Sassamon, one of the most celebrated cases in the annals of Plymouth Colony, affords us another opportunity to observe the " ordeal of the bier." John Sassamon, who is said to have studied in the Indian School at Cambridge, was at one time King Philip's secretary. But he returned to his English allegiance and was appointed preacher to the Indians of Middleborough. In 1674, learn- ing of Philip's hostile preparations, Sassamon gave warning to the governor at Plymouth, though he was well aware that he did so at the risk of his life. Soon after his body was found in Assawomset Pond with the neck broken and other marks of violence upon it. Beyond question he had been put to death as a traitor by Philip's orders. Three Indians were convicted of the murder, and executed at Plymouth in June, 1675. The jury, according to custom, consisted of both white men and Indians, and there can be little doubt that the evidence was satisfactory. Increase Mather thinks it worth noting that when Tobias, who seems to have been the chief culprit, " came near the dead body, it fell a bleeding as fresh as if it had been newly slain, albeit it was buried a considerable time before that." 2 If we may believe Cotton Mather's account of the trial, the experiment was tried more than once, and always with the same result. 3 1 Magnalia, book vi, chap. 5, ed. 1853, II, 402. 2 A Relation of the Troubles which have hapned in New-England, by reason of the Indians there, Boston, 1677, p. 75; Drake's ed. p. 236. 3 Magnalia, book vii, chap. 6, 5. MURDER WILL OUT 77 There is a large collection of similar cases in Pitcairn's Criminal Trials in Scotland. 1 The most extraordinary is that of Johan Norkott in England (1628), as reported by an eminent lawyer. On this occasion the minister of the parish, "a very reverend person," testified (and his evi- dence was corroborated) that when the body was touched by the defendants thirty days after death, " the brow of the dead, which before was of a livid and carrion colour, begun to have a dew or gentle sweat arise on it, which increased by degrees, till the sweat ran down in drops on. the face. The brow turned to a lively and fresh colour, and the deceased opened one of her eyes and shut it again : -And this opening the eye was done three several times. She likewise thrust out the ring or marriage finger three times, and pulled it in again; and the finger dropped blood from it on the grass." 1 Edinburgh, 1833, III, 191 ff. WIT AND WISDOM OF THE FARMER'S CALENDAR FARMER'S Calendars are of respectable antiquity. A typical example from ancient Rome is preserved in the Naples Museum. It is inscribed on a block of marble about two feet and a half in height, and a foot and a half in length and breadth. Each face includes three months, and each month stands in a column by itself. The language is of course Latin, and the contents are very simple, as may be seen by the following translation of the calendar for May and September: Month Month May. September. Days, 31. Days, 30. Nones on the 7th. Nones on the 5th. Day, 14 hours. D a y 12 hours. Night, 9 hours. Night, 12 hours. Sun in Taurus. Equinox Under the protection 8th day before the Ka- of Apollo. lends of October. Crops are hoed ; Sun in Virgo. Sheep are sheared; Under the protection Wool is washed; of Vulcan. Bullocks are tamed ; Wine jars Vetch for fodder are sealed with pitch; is cut; Apples are gathered ; Crops Trees are purified by lustrations. are dug round. Sacrifices to Mercury Feast and to Flora. to Minerva. WIT AND WISDOM OF THE FARMER'S CALENDAR 79 Another copy, on a three-sided block, with four months on each face, was also found at Rome. 1 It will be noted that we have here a combination of an ordinary calendar with memoranda for farmers. There are a few simple astronomical facts of general importance, the appropriate occupations of the season are set forth, and the chief festival of the month closes the account. DlS FEBRAR, DIES XXVQD WON' MENSIS MART IV 5 DIES *XXI NOXliORHKf OR XII NOX.HORXK MENSlb I A.NVAR DIES xi(Xt NIONqVtwr DIESHORVIIIIS NO* HORYJDC- SOL CAfRlCORUO rVTELNEPTVNl Vttt KAL .P TVTELA 1VNON15 PA.LVS A.QVITVR SAUX KAfWNDO C\EDITVR ACRinCAN LVPEIVCALtA SAtP. M AMVJ SE&ETE5 SARIVKITVR. VI M E ARV Mf/tNftPtDAMfl SVPERfK Cff con- veniently before you (hake the :c. Harveft your Indian com ~D~ ApO.^/rf [NanuNewbp." ^ il . hou ? delay the bird, nd .C J. . ^ u /- ,., r jtqujiTeJs 1 am confident \vill. - 1 Potatof6 no| St-jDenois. Very ]ow tides. Clouds 12 E 1 1 8th Sun. -part Trin. up '3,2 More falling 151 4 '7*5 fou. ah. Cm. 16 5 jQjDfFr.behead. 1793. 1 7] 6 B-urgoyiie fur. I /| V* j 1>\J l ilL/jJiw *tit * J y y i -i ixiiiMrii * 1 81 7 St. Luke. eclip. invifi.| the 1 191 En 9th Sun. pafl. Trin. 2OJ t JHigh tides. Rain. zij 3 is.fc.Taun.C PPortl J Per dug th twill be regretted next. 1 Flax that was put a rotting jlafl month, look to of:en the heavy drws at thU feafon wil] frot if very faft. Indulge not your children ia jeatrng too mjuch fruit, and ef- J) H|pecially that which is hard and you would fave 5 Jfetsfth. lom. High winds. riles 9h. 3om. moderate, Let not Indian corn he long, in a heap before it be hulked. Cyder finifh making as foon as poflible ; to have it fine and , grind the apples the eve- nlng previous to laying it np, Plonjjh for fummer fallow E J2Oth Sun. paft Trin. iw'/A'ai every opponunity that lei- 2 l Q If [Sts. Sim. & Jude.ifure will admit 3 iS.J.C.Camb.C.P.Tift. w/ *""*' : " "" r. r A-r^A^ot imanured and hove tip in ridtres _ Pref. ADAMS born, l?35' for the next year', crop, 31.161 Warn WIT AND WISDOM OF THE FARMER'S CALENDAR 8 1 It is a calendar in the strictest sense, as may be seen in the facsimile on the opposite page. Only in the winter season, particularly in December, the farmer's holiday time, is a tendency visible toward longer and more general observa- tions, and even here these are pretty carefully kept within the limits of the calendar form. The farmer is bidden to square his accounts; he is encouraged to read aloud in the long evenings ; he is exhorted to remember the poor. Here, for instance, is the complete Farmer's Calendar for December, 1796. Very little can be done on a farm, this month to much profit. Lay in dry fuel, while the snow keeps off. Prepare and put in order, your sleds and sleighs as they will come in use very soon. Look well to your barns, and fatting heards. " Live temper- ately, and spend frugally." The cultivation of the earth, ought ever to be esteemed, as the most useful and necessary employment in life. The food, and raiment, by which all other orders of men are supported, are derived from the earth. Agriculture is of consequence ; the art which supports, supplies, and maintains all the rest. " Remember, ye wealthy and affluent, the sons and daughters of affliction and distress ! Think of those, into whose shattered dwellings poverty enters to increase the inclemency and the horrours of the present season. Distribute bread to the hungry, and clothes to the naked." Discharge all the debts you have contracted the last year, with mechanics, shopkeepers, labourers, &c. before a new year commences. The advice to square accounts in December is often repeated, and the author shows a good deal of ingenuity in varying the form of his precepts. In the first number of the Almanac (that for 1793), the admonition is short and sharp: "Adjust your accounts; see that your ex- penditures do not exceed your incomes." Next year there 6 82 THE OLD FARMER'S ALMANACK is a humane suggestion with respect to the distress that may result from neglecting to pay trifling debts : " Settle with, and pay off your mechanics, labourers, and servants; for, though the sum[s] due to them be but small, they may be of more consequence to them than you may imagine." But Mr. Thomas was never inclined to give impracticable advice. Before long he began to feel that he had perhaps been rather uncompromising. It is all very well to say " Pay your bills and collect your debts," but both of these things may be difficult to accomplish at a given time. Hence, in 1798, he somewhat modifies the rigor of his doctrine, but without abandoning the excellent principle which he wishes to enforce : Now to preserve a good understanding and continue in friend- ship with friends and neighbours, call upon all those you have had any dealing with the preceding year, and make a complete settlement ; pay them off, if convenient, if the balance be in their favour if in yours and they find it not convenient to pay, put it to the new account and pass receipts. By practising this method you will not only be able to ascertain your neat income, but prevent those disagreeable altercations and petty law-suits which take place too often between man and man from a delay of settlement. " Scoring charges up " comes in for a touch of good- natured satire in the Almanac for 1806 (December) : There is little to be done this month except to enjoy the fruit of your past labour ; but in the first place make a settlement of accounts with all. I trust you have continually kept an account book ; if not, obtain one immediately, and depend no longer on your memory, nor on promiscuous chalks, marks and scratches about the walls of your house. Before long Mr. Thomas discovered that by a rigid adherence to his first scheme in the arrangement of the WIT AND WISDOM OF THE FARMER'S CALENDAR 83 Farmer's Calendar, this column, which was one of the most original features of his annual, and which had much to do with its great and immediate popularity, would become intolerably monotonous. With his usual frank and humorous good-nature he at once took his readers into his confidence and explained his dilemma. Thus in January, 1 799, he began as follows : Ever desirous that the FARMER'S CALENDAR might be useful to those for whom it is designed, induces the Editor to be attentive in making experiments, and collecting observations from men eminent for improvements in Agriculture. Notwithstanding which, there will appear a sameness in pursuing each month, which is unavoidable while the seasons continue the same. Accordingly he soon ceased to limit himself to directions about what to plant and when, or to cataloguing the " works and days." Though such matters are not neg- lected, we find little moral and prudential observations interspersed. Here is one from the Calendar for May, 1811. The text of the brief sermon is a proverb which still has a certain appropriateness : Boston folks, they say, are full of notions and so are country folks. By this time perhaps you think that I am a silly, notional creature. No matter for that. Perhaps it is but a notion, but I think it will be for our interest to gratify these Boston people in their notions, by raising peas, beans, beets, carrots, cabbage, squashes, turnips and potatoes &c. for their market. If you would know how this is to be done, go and look in your old almanacks. The " notions " of Boston folks included, in 1817, a fine discrimination in cider, as appears from an item under September: 'There are a power of things,' said uncle Zachariah, 'to be attended to this month; and what is of much consequence, is 84 THE OLD FARMER'S ALMANACK our cider; my neighbour Dupy has got a nack of making his cider so good and nice, that he gets about double price for all of it. The Boston folks have got a taste of it, and they are full of notions, as the saying is, you know, and they love good things and will give a good price for them too. Now no sooner is my neighbour Dupy's cider ready for market, than they grab it as quick as a hound will a wood-chuck, and pay him his price down upon the nail. Zuckers, John, let 's try what we can do ! ' Here is Mr. Thomas's opinion of dogs, which is not favorable. Incidentally we get a rather drastic picture of low life in the country. The exclamation points are Mr. Thomas's own : Now I know of no use for a great lazy dog in a family, yet there are many poor people who keep them, and seem to be more fond of Jowler than of their children. It is not more than a year since I sent my black man on an errand into a neighbour- hood of people, who were generally all poor. When he returned, he said he had been treated with a good meal of boiled pork and potatoes, but he sat down with a large family of ragged hungry children and three large fat dogs, without either knife, fork or spoon upon the table. The woman pulled the pork apart with her fingers for her family, and Sip made use of his jacknife for himself! ! ! (May, 1813.) Frugality was so essential on the New England farm that it is not surprising that Mr. Thomas lays frequent emphasis on this virtue. But he was a liberal man himself, and he knew the difference between saving and scraping. He believed in a good table and thought it stupid for a farmer to neglect his opportunities. His catalogue of " garden sauce " is appetizing enough : Beans, peas, young potatoes, carrots, beets, squashes, cabbage, turnips, onions, green corn, apples, pears, plumbs, cucumbers, water and musk melons ; every variety of vegetables are to be WIT AND WISDOM OF THE FARMER'S CALENDAR 85 found in Boston market and they are all very nice, comfortable and convenient to the inhabitants ; but I never yet ate any of them there that so well suited my palate, as those taken immedi- ately from my own garden. Here we have the advantage of our friends in town. They have them not till after they have become more or less wilted, dead and tasteless ; but we use them fresh from the ground, which makes them much more palatable and wholesome. My neighbour, Oldfield, however never cares for these, if he can get a plenty of salt beef, turnip and stewed pumpkin. He is for no extravagances at his table ; though it has been reported that he once went so far as to suffer his wife to make a mince pye out of liver and turnip ; but it was on an important occasion, when the parson and his lady made them a visit. Economy is to be recommended, but I hate a niggard. (July, 1813.) Another reason for cultivating the kitchen garden is given in the Calendar for May, 1807, two reasons, indeed ; but how seriously the second of them was meant to be taken is problematical. At all events, Mr. Thomas was not a bigoted vegetarian. Plant garden seeds, such as beans, peas, squashes, melons, &c. Farmers in general too much neglect their gardens. The more sauce we eat, the less meat we want, and that the latter costs much more than the former, I need not tell you. Animal food has a tendency, it is said, to make man ferocious like dogs, wolves and tigers, whereas vegetables incline them to docility and kindness. Here is a paragraph relating to fretfulness, economy, and that old New England institution the " hired man," three subjects which the author shows some skill in bringing together under one head: You have now probably hired a man for a few months, to help along with your work If you have a good faithful one, then 86 THE OLD FARMER'S ALMANACK set store by him and treat him well, and, mind me now, don't you fret. Steady, boys, steady, is the song for a farmer If you get yourself into a habit of continually fretting, as some do, then it is ten to one if you can get good men to work for you. But some prefer a dull, lazy lubber, because he is cheap ! but these cheap fellows I never want on my farm. (May, 1815.) As time went on, and his literary courage developed, Mr. Thomas found a complete remedy for the sameness which at first seemed inseparable from his plan. He gradually fell more and more into the attitude of a general mentor, not confining himself to purely agricultural or even prudential counsels, and he gave freer play to his natural bonhomie and homely sense of humor. Popular proverbs were interspersed. Little character sketches, un- der whimsical names indicative of the person described, began to make their appearance in the Farmer's Calendar column, and these sometimes took shape in brief apologues or anecdotes which are still good reading and which must have been peculiarly welcome to his agricultural patrons. So clear cut are some of the little sketches that they were now and again given a personal application by the readers of the time, who took keen delight in recognizing various local celebrities, of good or evil repute, in the genre pictures so cleverly sketched by the philosopher of Sterling. Mr. Thomas even found it necessary to warn his readers that the portraits were typical, not individual, and that he was not ambitious to be regarded as a personal satirist : - " What a strange mass of nonsense this almanack-maker sends out every year," cried an old codger the other day. "And now I affairm, I believe our Suzy could write as nice as he does ; and, now you, I thought he was rather too tight upon Mr. Captain Bluster." I told the good old man that, in the Farmer's Calen- dar no particular person was ever meant to be satirized by any thing there written. He appeared to be satisfied and went off to WIT AND WISDOM OF THE FARMER'S CALENDAR 87 taking in his cabbages; housing his tools, and preparing for winter as all of us should now be doing. (November, 1810.) This caveat is itself a racy little bit of portraiture, and the ingenious transition to the duties of the season is delight- ful. The passage which the "old codger" thought a little too severe may be found under July of the year before (1809): Steady is the word with good farmers. You may begin to hoe your corn for the last time ; but 't is said that Captain Bluster in the heat of his passion to finish haying before any other in town, has forgotten to hoe his corn but once ! The proverb says, he who fixeth his soul on show, loseth reality. Keep your earliest cucumbers for seed. Mr. Thomas's disclaimer was undoubtedly sincere. Yet his characters are too lifelike to be regarded as mere typi- cal abstractions or composite photographs. He was a shrewd observer, with a keen eye for points, and he knew the country. Hence his sketches form a valuable, as well as an extremely diverting, series of documents for the stu- dent of manners and morals in New England. Their snatches of colloquial dialogue lend them also some signifi- cance as examples of the Yankee dialect. No apology is needed, then, for the reproduction, without further pre- amble, of several choice specimens of Mr. Thomas's humor- ous portraiture. [OLD HUNKS.] Hunks possesses a large interest, yet is afraid of coming to want. He has also a monstrous appetite for news ; wants to read all the newspapers, yet will take none himself. What an excellent member of society such a man makes ! How favoured is that town which can have the supreme honour of boasting of his citi- zenship ! In the society of such men, publick spirit would thrive like a clover field, and its sweet fragrance be scented from afar. (December, 1808.) 88 THE OLD FARMER'S ALMANACK [GOING TO MEETING.] Good morning, Squire Thimbleberry ! So then you are carry- ing out your whole family to meeting this morning to hear the new-year's sermon ? " O yes, Mr. Weatherwise, I always intend that my family shall attend meeting at all times of the year, and on every Sunday unless they have special reason for staying at home. There are a few fashionable bucks in the neighborhood who would persuade my boys to go to the tavern rather than the church ; but, by my troth, sir, may I see my sons borne to their graves sooner than follow the practices of these swelling, swearing, swaggering, smoking, soaking, fopish, fuddling fools ! Zounds, sir, I have no patience, when I think on the folly of the times." (January, 1815.) [HASTE MAKES WASTE.] Do not get in your hay half made, merely to get done haying before your neighbour. This kind of sport will do for boys but sober, rational and prudent farmers will be guilty of no such follies you might as well, for the sake of dispatch, tumble your beef half bred and without salt into your meat tub. ' I well re- member,' said neighbor Simpkins, ' when I was a boy, old capt. Swash declared he would be done haying one year before any body. So he hired Tom, Dick and Harry, and at it they all went half cut their grass and half made their hay, and to be sure got done about the time that others began. Next morning he put on his great coat and walked up and down the street, com- plaining of cold weather, &c. My father understood the intended joke, but only said, haste makes waste ; and this maxim was veri- fied in the foolish conduct of capt. Swash, for before spring his mow smoked like a dung heap, and his cattle could not eat his hay, which being scarce he had to pay a high price for, to keep his cattle alive.' (July, 1815.) WIT AND WISDOM OF THE FARMER'S CALENDAR 89 [THE FARMER'S CONCERT.] "Music, there, music !" Aye, boy, the music of the flail and cider-mill, you mean. Well, John, let 's put things in order, that we may give them the farmer's concert. Let the cider-mill scream the treble Caleb and Jo. shall slambang the tenor with their flails ; neighbour FlatstalPs bull will keep up the fundamental bass ; while Ben Bluster will hollow the counter, with Kid up, old Dob- bin ! Whoe, gee, Spark ! Come in there, Berry ! All together now, I say I (September, 1816.) [OLD BETTY BLAB.] " Rumour is a pipe blown by surmises, jealousies, conjectures ; and of so easy and so plain a stop, that the blunt monster with uncounted heads, the still discordant wavering multitude, can play upon it." Old Betty Blab is a dabster on this instrument ; she knows exactly how to time and to key her tune to give the proper effect ; she can perform in diatonic, cromatic, or enhar- monic with vast variety and astonishing modulation. Sometimes you will hear her whizzing and twittering aloft, like a swallow or curlew ; then in a moment she will drop into the croaking of a cormorant ; then, by a sort of tivisty-cum-quirk, she passes into the bob-a-lincorn, and here she excells all description. Next succeeds a touch of the affectuoso, and then this delightful solo ends in a sort of whisper, like the notes of an humble bee in a pumpkin blossom. It is impossible for me to do justice in de- scribing her powers. In all her compositions she is a master hand in thorough base. Your garden must be attended to ; a plenty of sauce greatly diminishes the butcher's bill. (April, 1817.) [PUTTING ON AIRS.] Now, if you want time to pass away, go, buy an old horse or watch, give your note for 60 days and you will be gratified. Where is the benefit in allowing young Ebenezer to swagger around with a paltry old watch in his pocket and a seal as big as 9O THE OLD FARMER'S ALMANACK a kitten's head, puffing his segar like a wind broken horse ? O, it is passing strange that we should let the wholesome habits of good old times pass away and be forgotten. Send your boys to school and see that they are also learnt something at home. The barn-floor, the linter the flail & the curry-comb are not to be neglected. To be sure it is well enough, and indeed it is very proper to have recreation ; but to have nothing else doing will ultimately bring ruin. Either the body or mind must be engaged in honest industry ; for idleness is like grog take nothing else and "you 're gone, man." (February, 1819.) [THE LOTTERY.] I wish you a happy new year, Mr. Reader, but I fear you will not find it. I have seen forty years, no one of which has been free from care and anxiety. To be sure I have often imagined that I had lit upon the path where happiness had passed along, and fancied I should very soon be saluted with the brightness of her countenance. Here here ! cried I to neighbor Simpkins, here is the way. See every guide board points in this direction. ' Ah, zuckins,' cries neighbor Simpkins, ' you will soon find yourself mistaken. Your path leads down to the gloomy pits of ruin. Your charming enticer is in reality a haggard hobgoblin look out, neighbor, look out.' I was putting my hand in my pocket book to take out a bill to purchase a ticket in the lottery, but my neighbor's caution prevented my throwing away my money in this manner. ' Here,' said I to my boy, ' here, Tom, take this five dollar bill to the widow lonesome ; tell her, it is at her disposal ; then hasten back to your school. I will to my team and my wood-lot.' (January, 1813.) [THE IDES OF MARCH.] " Pray, Uncle Jacob," cried old Goody Dowdy to one of my neighbours, who is said to know a great deal about the weather and the stars, and the planets, and all the signs and wonders in the heavens, "what do they mean by the Ides of March?" WIT AND WISDOM OF THE FARMER'S CALENDAR 91 " Tut," says Uncle Jacob, " easy enough answered why, madam, the Ides were eight old women, the Nones nine, and Calind another, making eighteen in the whole. Their breath was poison as the effluvia of asps. In the month of March, particularly when other folks kept in, by reason of bad going, these old hags were sure to be abroad, blurting and puffing their venom against every good reputation, to which they were mortal enemies. Old mother Calind took the lead, next went the Nones, and last the Ides fol- lowed as gleaners. To whatsoever was true, honest, just, pure, lovely, or of good report, their breath was as blasting and mildew. These monsters are now no more ; but they so leavened the world with their abominable practices that their influence will never be eradicated." (March, 1816.) [MARGARET AND THE MARE.] " My dear Margaret, heaven gave you not that sweet voice to be employed in scolding ; nor those delicate features to be disfigured with anger. Softly, my dear, softly. You see I am about to go, head and ears, right into the swamp to get muck for manure. The mare cannot go by any means, as we shall want her in the team. The ladies must put by their ride, otherwise I shall lose this opportunity of carting my compost ; and you must know, my dear, that mud is money to a farmer." " By jinks," retorts madam, "the mare shan't go? my word for't but she shall ! yes, here's a husband for a horse ! The mare shall go in spite of men, money, or mud." (November, 1816.) [TRADITION AND PARSNIPS.] " A happy new year to you, Mr. Comfortable ; will you lend me a mess of parsneps for dinner?" " Parsneps ! what, lend pars- neps? No, I will give you some; but have you raised none? " " Why, yes ; but I never dig mine till spring. I think they are a great deal better for it. This used to be my father's and grand- father's practice, and I approve of it as the best plan." " Poh, nonsense ! The best plan to keep yours in the ground, and so 92 THE OLD FARMER'S ALMANACK beg parsneps all winter, rather than vary from a superstitious and foolish notion of your grandmother ! " " Ichabod, my son," said goody Slipshod, " never dig your parsneps in the fall. Depend upon it, you '11 never prosper, Ichabod, if you vary from the good old rules of your grandfather, Catnip. You can borrow once in a while from Squire D. and so pay in the spring. That is the safest, my son." Fudge, fudge ! Let fools enjoy their folly, and we '11 enjoy our parsneps and pot luck. Dig them about the last of November. Keep them in a cool cellar or out house, covered with dry sand or sods. They will be sweet and excellent food for man or beast. They require a deep, rich, mellow, and rather a sandy soil to be sweetest. (January, 1830.) [TAXES ARE HIGH.] My old friends and worthy patrons, it is pleasant once more to come among you, and to salute you with the cordiality of long-established friendship. Toil and care, and occasional per- plexities, may wrinkle our brows and grizzle our locks, but our employment never tends to sour our tempers or cause any uncouth greetings. We drive our teams with merry hearts, and every thing pertaining to our occupation inculcates a spirit of gratitude and thanksgiving. In the sweat of the brow, to be sure, we toil for the pittance which Providence awards to industry ; but this labour and exercise also bring health of both body and mind. When winter, with its iron jaws, clinches upon the face of nature, shuts every pore, and arrests the process of vegetation, we are not without our innocent employments and rational enjoyments. We sit not in moping melancholy, growling and snarling, like angry mastiffs, at the prosperity of industrious neighbours ; neither do we churlishly retort to a goodnatured and gentle salute of " How fare ye, Mr. Ploughbeam ? " We indeed would use the whole passing world, as well as ourselves, without abuse ; knowing that in a little while we must depart. Why then should we not try to be happy? "Ah, well," says old Pinchback, "you preach curi- ously, but taxes are darn'd high." (January, 1832.) WIT AND WISDOM OF THE FARMER'S CALENDAR 93 [THE CATTLE SHOW.] This is the month for cattle shows, and other agricultural ex- hibitions Premiums are offered by various societies for the greatest crops ; the best stock, and the best domestic manufac- tures, and thousands are pulling away for the 'prize, with all their might. The great Bull of Farmer Lumpkins is a nosuch ! Peter Nibble has raised a monstrous field of white beans ! Jo Lucky's acre of corn has seven stout ears to the stalk ! Dolly Dilligence has outstript all in the bonnet line ! Tabitha Twistem's hearth rug is up to all Market-street ! The Linsey-Woolsey Manufacturing Company have made the finest piece of satinet that ever mortals set eyes on ! There is the widow Clacket's heifer, she is to be driven ! And, O, if you could only see 'Squire Trulliber's great boar ! They say it is as big as a full grown rhinoceros ! Huzza, huzza for the premiums ! Here 's to the girl that can best darn a stocking, and to the lad that shall raise the biggest pumpkin! (October, 1824.) [THE BAKER.] Hark ! 't is the jingle of the baker's bells. Hot bread, who buys? Have a care now, Mr. Sweetmouth, how you let this bill run up. Wheat loaves, gingerbread, hot buns and seed-cakes these are all very clever. But there is my aunt Sarah's brown bread, sweet, pleasant and wholesome ; don't give it up for a cartload of muffins and jumbles. There is no discount on my aunt Sarah's cooking ; she is the personification of neatness and nicety. Give me a plate of her nutcakes in preference to all the sweetmeats of the city. It has become somewhat fashionable to cast off old Rye-and- Indian for Genesee, Howard-street, &c. also to give up heating the oven. I imagine that this change is vastly convenient for the shoe-peggers. " Tell the baker he may leave us half a dozen of his three cent biscuit," said Mrs. Crispin. Now 94 THE OLD FARMER'S ALMANACK three times six are eighteen, and eighteen times 365 are $65.70 whew ! This will never do. In our haste to get rich, we must look at both ends of the railcut. Bread is denominated the staff of life, the main supporting food ; but this so important article may, as well as a whistle, come too dear. Let your good wife, then, have her own hands in the kneading trough, nor heed too much the morning music of the baker's boy. (May, 1837.) In 1813 the whole of the Farmer's Calendar for three months (October to December) is occupied by a continu- ous narrative sketch : My neighbor Freeport had a knack at telling a story, cracking a joke and singing a song, and these talents made him a favourite of his townsmen. Every town meeting and training was sure to gather round him a crowd of jovial fellows, and my neighbour pretty soon added to his other acquisitions that of handsomely swigging a glass of grog. The demands for stories, jokes and songs encreased with the reward he received for them ; and Freeport had not a heart to refuse either, till the tavern became his common resort. But while Freeport was so musical at the tavern his affairs got out of tune at home. His wife took a high pitch, and often gave him an unwelcome solo. Her stories had much of pith, and her sarcasms were of the keenest sort. She insisted that their affairs were going to rack and ruin. Some- times the neighbour's cattle had broken into the corn the rye had been ruined by laying out in the storm the hogs had broken in and rooted up the garden the hay was half lost for want of attention the fences were broken down, &c. &c. And then the children (October.) Alas ! the poor children were shoeless, coatless and heartless ; for they had become the scoff and sport of their little companions by reason of their father's neglect to provide them with decent and comfortable apparel. They were unable to read, for they had no books. The sheep here the poor woman sorely wept were sold by the collector to pay taxes. So there was no chance for any wool to knit the children's stockings. No flax WIT AND WISDOM OF THE FARMER'S CALENDAR 95 had been raised, and of course they could have no shirts. To hear all this and ten times more was not very welcome to the ears of Freeport, whose heart was naturally tender and humane, so to get rid of it, he used to return to the tavern like a sow to her wallowing. His shop bills run up fast, while his character was running down. In this way he went on about two years, till old Scrapewell and Screwpenny got his farm ; for all this time these usurers had been lending him money, and thus encouraging him to pursue this dreadful course. (November.) Old Capt. Gripe also came in for a share of poor Freeport's estate ; and there was Plunket, the cobler, he had lent him nine pence several times and now had cobbled it up to a court de- mand. Bob Raikins had swapped watches with him, and came in for the boot. The widow Nippet had lent him her mare twice to mill and once to a funeral, and had sold the boys an old tow jacket for a peck of whortleberries, and also given them a mess of turnips, and so she made out her account and got a writ. Tom Teazer, well known at the grog shops for a dabster at shoemaker loo, old Jeremiah Jenkins, the Jew, Stephen Staball, the butcher, and all the village moon-cursers came in for their portion of the wreck. So poor Freeport gave up vessel and cargo to these land pirates, sent his disconsolate wife again to her father with one of their babes, the rest were provided for by the town ; and as for himself, miserable wretch, he became an outcast, a vagabond, and died drunk in the highway ! (December.) There is undeniable merit in this unpretentious narrative. It is somewhat crude, to be sure, but any attempt at polish would have defeated the author's purpose. The tragedy is humble, and even sordid, but it is complete and unspar- ing ; it moves forward pitilessly to the bitter end with the steadiness of fate. Some of the details are hardly suscep- tible of improvement. The matter-of-fact brutality of poor Freeport's petty creditors is a fine piece of vigorous realism. What could be better in its way than the single brief sentence which pillories the village sharper : " Bob 96 THE OLD FARMER'S ALMANACK Raikins had swapped watches with him, and came in for the boot " ! It is a masterpiece of suggestive reticence. The secret of Mr. Thomas's success in this little story is easy to discover: he was not trying to be " literary "; he was writing of what he had seen and known. The contrast is striking between the Tragedy of Neighbor Freeport, hidden away in the Farmer's Calendar, and the attempts at formal story-writing familiar to the student of American letters in the columns of the literary journals of the time. One or two points in the sketch may require a word of comment. " Shoemaker loo" was a round game at cards. How it differed from ordinary loo does not appear. " Moon-curser" is not in the dictionaries, but it ought to be, for it is a highly picturesque and imaginative word. A moon-curser is a wrecker. Of that there is no doubt, for the term is still in use on Cape Cod, and probably elsewhere. Its origin is conjectural, but admits of little doubt. The old-time wrecker was not an angel of mercy. To him, as to the witches in Macbeth, fair was foul and foul was fair. Darkness and storm were his opportunities, and he cursed the moon, whose light deprived him of his chance for plunder. Another application of the term may be seen in Richard Head's Canting Academy, 1673 : The Moon Curser is generally taken for any Link-Boy ; but particularly he is one that waits at some Corner of Lincolns-Inn- Fields with a Link in his hand, who under the pretence of Light- ing you over the Fields, being late and few stiring, shall light you into a Pack of Rogues that wait for the comming of this Setter, and so they will all joyne in the Robbery. Some of these were found to be Labourers so called, such who wrought all day in the Ruins of the City and were paid by their Master Workmen, and at night found an easier way to pay them- selves by lying in the Ruins, and as they saw occasion would drag in people into Vaults and Cellars and there rob them. 1 1 P. 101. WIT AND WISDOM OF THE FARMER'S CALENDAR 97 One is tempted to go on indefinitely with the Old Farmer's sketches of life and manners, and the stock is by no means exhausted, but enough has been quoted to show not only their literary interest but their significance for the student of social conditions in New England. LAWYERS AND QUACKS " r AHE best houses in Connecticut are inhabited by lawyers," wrote Henry Wansey in I794- 1 Here was a great change from the state of things when Thomas Lechford found it so hard to practise his profession in Boston that he was constrained to warn the colonists not to " despise learning, nor the worthy lawyers of either gown (civil or ecclesiastical), lest you repent too late." 2 But there were corners of New England in which the old order long maintained itself, and one of these was West Boylston, the home of Mr. Thomas. When, in 1826, the local minister, the Rev. Mr. Crosby, wrote his brief history of the town for the Worcester Magazine, he remarked that there were three justices of the peace, one of them being Mr. Thomas himself, but that they had little to do and that there was no resident man of law. 3 It was natural, then, as well as sensible, for the Almanac to bid its readers beware of litigation. " I would not run to 'Squire Fraylove," says Mr. Thomas in the Farmer's Calendar for April, 1815, "at every petty dispute with a troublesome neighbour. You will be sure to be advised to a suit, and then comes business enough." And still earlier, in December, 1810, after a hearty commendation 1 Journal of an Excursion to the United States of North America in the Summer of 1794, Salisbury, 1796, p. 70. 2 Plaine Dealing, 1642, p. 28; ed. Trumbull, p. 68. 8 Worcester Magazine and Historical Journal, August, 1826, II, 201. West Boylston was set off from Sterling and Boylston in 1808 (cf. pp. 4-5, above). LAWYERS AND QUACKS 99 of married life, the farmer's counsellor has a sly fling at the legal profession : Now having been industrious in the summer, you will have the felicity of retiring from the turbulence of the storm to the bosom of your family. Here is divine employment. Surely if happiness can any where be found on earth, 't is in the sweet enjoyment of the fireside, surrounded by a domestic throng a lovely wife and prattling babes. Ye cold and barren fens of celibacy, behold the delightful regions of matrimony ! Leave your frigid abodes, and come and dwell in society, and taste the rational pleasures of a connubial state. Lawyers gowns are lined with the wilfulness of their clients. Then let us be accommodating and not run to the lawyer at every little offence. An honest and upright attorney is an advantage to a town ; but one that is ready to set his neigh- bors at variance to govern a few thereby is a pest to society. 'T is not likely that we have many of the last description in New England as we have so very small a number in the whole. The distinction between honest attorneys and petti- foggers is clearly made, but the closing sentence ingeni- ously takes back a large portion of the compliment that precedes it. Yet it is clear that Mr. Thomas made a sharp distinction between reputable men of law and pretenders. Of the latter there seem to have been a good many in the country districts. John Adams, in 1760, speaks of " the multiplicity of pettifoggers " in Braintree, which had become proverbial for litigation, and specifies one " Cap- tain H.," who, he says, " has given out that he is a sworn attorney till nine tenths of this town really believe it." 1 In December, 1818, Mr. Thomas varies his usual advice to settle up the year's accounts by introducing some reflections on going to law: Now prepare your papers and make it a business to go round and settle with all your neighbours with whom you have accounts 1 Works, ed. C. F. Adams, Boston, 1850, II, 90-91. IOO THE OLD FARMER'S ALMANACK open. Avoid wrangling and law fighting. It is never worth your while to go to law at the expense of $500 about nine pence ; but should you ever be forced into a law suit, take the advice of respectable counsel and then keep your tongue within your teeth. If you foolishly blab your case to your neighbours they will all, men, women and children, become prodigiously wise and know- ing. They will talk law at a great rate, and distress you with their wisdom. Five kinds of pestilence are associated in a single prayer for immunity in August, 1813 : From quack lawyers, quack doctors, quack preachers, mad dogs and yellow fever, good Lord, deliver us ! This is my sincere prayer, let others do and say as they will. A respectable attorney is an advantage to a town and ought to have the esteem of his fellow citizens ; but a meddlesome pettifogger deserves the treatment of any other sneaking puppy that runs his nose into your closet. As for strolling preachers, ' O ye generation of vipers ' ! I would hear any evil far better than the gabble of one of these intruding boobies. Yet how many forsake all business and pleasure that they may enjoy the ecstatic bliss of listening to their empty disgusting and blasphemous nonsense ! It is a serious misfortune to have a woman, a head of a family, yet be- witched by one of these fellows. Whenever this happens, farewell to all business, to all comfort ! No more dairy, no more spinning or weaving or knitting or sewing. Forenoon, afternoon and evening nothing but attending lectures to hear the charming, the pious, the godly Mr. Bitemslily totally regardless of that text of the sacred volume which says 'six days shalt thou labour and do all thy work.' For physicians and ministers, as well as for upright attorneys, Mr. Thomas had plenty of respect, but he could not abide a charlatan. Quack doctors come in elsewhere for some rather slashing satire. Thus in September, 1806, we read : " There are a great many asses without long ears. LAWYERS AND QUACKS IOI Quack, Quack, went the ducks, as doctor Motherwort rode by with his saddle-bags stuffed with maiden-hair, and golden-rod. Don't let your wife send Tommy to the academy six weeks, and make a novice of him." And in September, 1813, there is a drastic description of " the famous Dr. Dolt " : "A larnt man is the doctor. Once he was a simple knight of the lapstone and pegging awl ; but now he is blazoned in the first orders of quack heraldry. The mighty cures of the doctor are known far round. He is always sure to kill the disorder, although in effecting this he sometimes kills the patient." An agreeable and ingenuous letter addressed to Mr. Thomas in 1801, by an esteemed correspondent in Franklin, Massachusetts, called out a comparison not very flattering to the legal profession. The writer is worried by the ap- parent neglect to answer certain questions proposed in the Almanac five years before. He expostulates with the editor in a strain of dignified forbearance, and improves the occa- sion to commend the work highly. His letter was printed in the Almanac for 1802, with a full reply to each of the problems. The reader will remember that both millers and tailors had, in old times, a reputation for pilfering. MR. THOMAS, In looking over the Farmer's Almanack for the year 1796, I there found four Miscellaneous Questions, viz. ist. Whether the Sun goes round the earth and the earth stands still ?&c. 2dlv. Which is counted the most honest employment of the three fol- owing, viz. a Tailor, a Lawyer, or a Miller? 3dly. Whether the Shrub commonly called Fern, bears or produces any seed ? &c. 4thly. How long it is since smoking tobacco, and taking of snuff, has been in use in England ; the time when ? &c. Now, SIR, I have been a constant patron of your Almanack, and have waited in anxious expectations these four years last past, of seeing answers to the above questions, but have ever been disappointed ; I would not be misunderstood, SIR, that you 102 THE OLD FARMER'S ALMANACK intended to deceive your patrons, or to cast any reflections on your ability to answer them, for the precepts and observations you have given in your preceding numbers thoroughly demonstrate your knowledge of natural philosophy ; but rather to some acci- dent they have slipped your memory. I must say I have been highly pleased with your Almanack, and posterity anticipate your further usefulness as a man of read- ing and observation. I doubt not but that your Almanack will very soon exceed in circulation any other published in the United States, and I may venture 1 to say, without flattery, it now is equal to any in estimation. Therefore, SIR, I humbly hope, that in your next number (viz. X.) I shall see your answers to the above questions. I am, Sir, with sincere Esteem, Your must humble Servant, Franklin, March 10, 1801. S. H. ANSWERS. To the MISCELLANEOUS QUESTIONS in the FARMER'S ALMANACK for the Year 1796. Answer to Question ist. I AGREE with the best modern astronomers, that the Sun is an immoveable centre, round which the planets (of which the earth is one) move by different revolu- tions. But the figure, which the earth annually describes, is not circular, but elliptical or oval ; which is the reason why it does not continue equidistant from the Sun. But as once a year it travels round the Sun, so in the compass of 24 hours it moves round its own axis ; whence arises the alternate succession of day and night. zd. Fie! join a lawyer with such company; they hold no comparison with each other ! I know what you '11 say, that the miller's clacks, and the lawyer's clacks are in perpetual motion, with the like sound and sense ; and that as the first grinds down your corn, the other grinds down the land it grows upon. But then the lawyer is in a fair way to break the miller. You may urge too, that the tailor and lawyer equally ruin you with their LAWYERS AND QUACKS 1 03 long bills ; but then, consider, the tailor's bill is full of fustian- nonsense, scrolls, blots, and repetitions of the same things, differ- ently placed, and, by consequence, not worthy your understanding ; whilst your lawyer, in his cramp law terms, is as much above your understanding, and therefore preferable : and tho' you know not what you give your money for to either, yet, certainly, any would give more for a parcel of fine significant words, than for so many false spelt blunders. 'T is true, they both furnish you with suits ; but which is the best workman, the tailor, who must have matter to work upon, or the lawyer, who can make a long suit out of nothing? Your tailor's suit is gone in half a year, but the lawyer's will last often to your posterity; suppose he hurries you out of breath upon a wrong scent, yet then he will give you time by a writ of error or demurrer, to recover yourself, and keep in fast friendship to you whilst you have the strength of one fee left. And though he runs some out of their estates, he often gives to others other people's estates, which is yet some compensation. Say, he then manages the cause accordingly, which is something analogical to equity ; nay, put the worst, that you are quite ruined ; he tells you it comes from your own mis-informing of him, which, whether you apprehend or not, you ought to believe, as supposing he best understands what belongs to his own business. Now your miller and tailor are by no means capacitated for such fine qualifications as these. The replies to the third and fourth questions need not be reprinted, since they are less interesting nowadays than they were in 1802. We may close this brief chapter with a quotation from the diary of Dr. Nathaniel Ames the younger, himself a composer of almanacs, which belongs to this same year: A Lawyer in every man's mess here, nothing will go with Fools without a Lawyer, but from good company they are excluded ! or if they get in, they spoil it. 1 1 April 3, 1802, Dedham Historical Register, XI, 103. THE TOAD AND THE SPIDER H ERE is an item of natural history from Rhode Island. It is extracted from the Almanac for 1798: A TOAD was seen fighting with a spider in Rhode-Island ; and when the former was bit, it hopped to a plantain leaf, bit off a piece, and then engaged with the spider again. After this had been repeated sundry times, a spectator pulled up the plantain, and put it out of the way. The toad, on being bit again, jumped to where the plantain had stood ; and as it was not to be found, she hopped round several times, turned over on her back, swelled up, and died immediately. This is an evident demonstration that the juice of the plantain is an antidote against the bites of those venomous insects. 1 Nothing could be simpler or more straightforward than this anecdote. It bears every appearance of being a mere bit of local observation. Yet there is a good deal to be learned about the story, for it turns out, on examination, to be a variant of a widespread piece of legendary lore. Van Helmont, the great Flemish chemist and medical reformer, who died in 1644, may be summoned as the first witness. In his treatise on the Plague he tells almost exactly the same tale, on the authority of a noble lady of his acquaintance : - 1 Plantain, by the way, is said by Josselyn, in his New England's Rarities Discovered, 1672, to be one of the herbs that " have sprung up since the English planted and kept cattle in New England." The Indians, he tells us, call it " Englishman's foot , as though produced by their treading " (ed. Tuckerman, p. 217). THE TOAD AND THE SPIDER 105 And indeed the Lady of Rommerswal Toparchesse in Ecchove, a noble, affined, and honest Matron, related to me in candour of spirit, that she once beheld a duel between a Spider, and a Toad, for a whole afternoon : For this, when he felt himself to be stricken by the Spider descending from above, and that he was presently swollen in his head, he runs to an herb which he licked, and being most speedily cured, his swelling asswaged ; from whence he setting upon a repeated fight, was again also smitten in his head, and hastened unto the same herb ; And when as the thing had now the third time happened, the Spectatresse being tired, cut off the Plant with her knife (but it was the Plantain with a narrow leaf) and when as the Toad returned thither the fourth time, and found not the herb, he most speedily swelled all over, and being sore smitten with terrour, presently died : But he betook not himself unto the neighboring plants of the same Plantain, and those frequently growing (for the image of the conception of fear, and sorrow, produceth a speedy death, the hope of a most speedy remedy perisheth in a most furious disease) for when he found not his own Plantain, he who before encountred from a hope of presently recovering, forthwith despairing through fear and an idea of terrour, died. 1 Van Helmont explains the remissness of the toad in accordance with his peculiar system of medical philosophy, but his narrative coincides in almost every particular with the report from Rhode Island. From Flanders we may pass to England. There the duel between the Toad and the Spider received poetical treat- ment at the hands of Richard Lovelace, whose studies were not of a kind to acquaint him with Van Helmont's dissertation. The piece in question was first published in 1659, but was written some time before. 2 It begins with all the pomp and circumstance of an epic. 1 Tumulus Pestis, or the Plague-Grave, chap. 17, in Physick Refined, trans- lated by John Chandler, London, 1662, p. 1151. 2 Posthume Poems, 1659; see Lovelace's Poems, ed. Hazlitt, pp. 199 ff. io6 THE OLD FARMER'S ALMANACK Upon a day when the Dog-star Unto the world proclaim'd a war, And poyson bark'd from his black throat, And from his jaws infection shot, Under a deadly hen-bane shade With slime infernal mists are made, Met the two dreaded enemies, Having their weapons in their eyes. After some skirmishing the Toad is bitten by the Spider: And wounded now, apace crawls on To his next plantane surgeon ; With whose rich balm no sooner drest, But purged is his sick swoln breast ; And as a glorious combatant, That only rests awhile to pant, Then with repeated strength, and scars, That smarting, fire him to new wars, Deals blows that thick themselves prevent, As they would gain the time he spent : So the disdaining angry toad, That calls but a thin useless load His fatal feared self, comes back, With unknown venome fill'd to crack. Thus the combat is renewed. Bitten again, the Toad returns to seek his antidote. But his opponent has a divine ally, no less a personage than the goddess Pallas, whose interest in the struggle will not seem unnatural if we remember the myth of Arachne, charmingly told by Ovid in the sixth book of his Metamorphoses. The Lydian maiden Arachne, proud of her skill in weaving, had presumed to challenge Pallas herself to a match and had produced a web which even the goddess could not surpass. Pallas tore the fabric to pieces and smote her audacious rival on the forehead. Arachne hanged herself, but the goddess pitied her and forbade her dying. She transformed Arachne into a spider, and in that shape the THE TOAD AND THE SPIDER IO/ Lydian damsel still practises her art. No wonder, then, that Pallas intervened in this duel as she did on a memo- rable occasion in the Trojan War. She summoned the Spider's protecting genius, and sent him to the plantain : He learned was in Nature's laws, Of all her foliage knew the cause, And 'mongst the rest in his choice want Unplanted had this plantane plant. So the Toad died, " with a dismal horrid yell." From literature we may turn to science, and call in the evidence of an expert who had not only considered the question seriously, but had put its truth to a test that seems practically decisive. This investigator is Sir Thomas Browne, the learned physician of Norwich (1605-1682). In his Vulgar Errors, Sir Thomas devotes a whole chapter 1 to the Toad, discussing not only its venomous quality, but also the precious jewel which, according to Shakspere, it bears in its head. In another passage of the same work z he treats of the common belief in " the antipathy between a toad and a spider " and of the assertion " that they poison- ously destroy each other." He could be well content to know the facts about these duels, since such knowledge might provide us with valuable antidotes. " But," he adds regretfully, " what we have observed herein, we cannot in reason conceal ; who having in a glass included a toad with several spiders, we beheld the spiders, without resist- ance to sit upon his head and pass over all his body; which at last upon advantage he swallowed down, and that in few hours, unto the matter of seven." As we bid farewell to the famous Duel of the Toad and the Spider, we may pause to note another New England combat, less widely notorious, but perhaps more strictly historical. It is recorded as occurring in Massachusetts 1 Book iii, chap. 13. 2 Book iii, chap. 27, 6. io8 THE OLD FARMER'S ALMANACK in 1632, only two years after the settlement of Boston. As we read the account of it which Governor Winthrop gives in his Journal, we shall doubtless wonder what deep significance the divines of the early colonial period would have discovered in the Rhode Island marvel if it had happened in their time: At Watertown there was (in the view of divers witnesses) a great combat between a mouse and a snake ; and, after a long fight, the mouse prevailed and killed the snake. The pastor of Boston, Mr. Wilson, a very sincere, holy man, hearing of it, gave this interpretation : That the snake was the devil ; the mouse was a poor contemptible people, which God had brought hither, which should overcome Satan here, and dispossess him of his kingdom. 1 To appreciate the Rev. Mr. Wilson's interpretation one must remember that nobody doubted in the seventeenth century that the Indians worshipped the Devil. Cotton Mather, who in such matters was but the child of his time, held that the American continent was populated by the special exertions of the foul fiend. Satan, he con- tended, " seduced the first inhabitants into it" in order to keep them and their posterity " out of the sound of the silver trumpets of the Gospel." 2 And he quotes a con- verted sachem as declaring that he had " often employ'd his god, which appear'd to him in form of a snake, to kill, wound, and lame such whom he intended mischief to." 3 As late as 1773, so enlightened a thinker as President Stiles of Yale College had no doubt that " the Powaws of the American Indians are a Relict of [the] antient System of seeking to an evil invisible Power." " Something of it," he adds, " subsists among some Almanack Makers [Note that this was before the time of Mr. Thomas !] and Fortune 1 Winthrop's History, ed. Savage, 1853, I, 97. 2 Magnalia, book i, chap, i, 2, ed. 1853, I, 42. 8 Magnalia, book vi, chap, vi, 3, ed. 1853. THE TOAD AND THE SPIDER 109 Tellers . . . But in general the System is broken up, the Vessel of Sorcery shipwreckt, and only some shattered planks and pieces disjoyned floating and scattered on the Ocean of the human Activity and Bustle. When the Sys- tem was intire, it was a direct seeking to Satan." 1 There was nothing peculiar in the mental attitude of the New England divines toward the beliefs of the American Indians. It had always been the theory of the church that the heathen everywhere were devil-worshippers, and that sorcery and pagan sacrifices were but different varieties of Satanic ritual. Every reader will remember that the fallen angels are described by Milton as masquerading in the guise of the pagan divinities of old time, and in this idea the poet is in complete accord with the Greek and Latin fathers. It would be superfluous to multiply seventeenth-century evidence, but it may not be amiss to call in the testimony of the Jesuit missionaries in Canada. Father Lejeune, in 1635, after giving an account of a Huron medicine-woman, remarks : " Thus the devil beguiles this unfortunate people, substituting his impieties and superstitions for the con- formity that they ought to have with the providence of God and the worship that they ought to render him." 2 And again, the medicine-men " are, in my opinion, genuine wizards, having access to the devil." 3 Father Jouvency identified the Manitou of the Acadian aborigines " beyond a doubt with the enemy of the human race." 4 And Father Biard, writing from Port Royal, declares that " though they have a kind of slender knowledge of the one most high God, yet they are so depraved in sentiments and practice that they also worship the devil." 5 To Cotton Mather a Jesuit was scarcely less an object of 1 Diary, June 13, 1773, ed. Dexter, I, 385-6. 2 Jesuit Relations, ed. Thwaites, VIII, 126. 3 The same, VIII, 124. 4 The same, I, 286. 6 The same, II. 76. 1 10 THE OLD FARMERS ALMANACK horror than an Indian powwow, and Father Lejeune would doubtless have reciprocated this feeling fully. Yet on the point of belief in the Satanic character of the Indian worship neither the Boston minister nor the French priest could have found anything objectionable in the teachings of the other. It was this idea that the Indians were sorcerers and devil- worshippers that had no small part in the outbreak of super- stition known as the Salem Witchcraft Delusion, though the causes of this particular tragedy were complex enough. The Indian woman Tituba was one of the three persons first accused of the crime, and her admissions were of great importance to the prosecutors. By 1793, however, when Mr. Thomas published his first Almanac, a far more rational temper prevailed among the clergy. In 1789 Dr. Jeremy Belknap, of honored memory, who had been read- ing Mather's Magnalia, wrote to his friend Hazard in terms of humorous good sense : Were I to preach on the subject of witchcraft, I would have this for my text : " O foolish Galatians ! who hath bewitched you ? " I would first endeavour to show that people may be bewitched ; secondly, that they are great fools for being bewitched ; and, thirdly, that it concerns them to enquire who has bewitched them ; and my inference should be, if there were no fools, there would be no witchcraft ; or rather I would transpose the second and third heads. The same inference would come out better. 1 It should not be forgotten that, even in the eighteenth century, few persons were absolutely convinced that witch- craft was an impossible crime. Enlightened opinion hardly went farther, in general, than to ridicule the absurdity of most witchcraft stories, to emphasize the ignorance of those who held to the old popular creed in this regard, 1 Belknap Papers, Coll^Mass. Hist. Soc., 5th Series, III, 205. THE TOAD AND THE SPIDER III and to refuse belief to this or that specific case of diaboli- cal possession. An out-and-out denial of the theoretical possibility of witchcraft was quite a different matter. Most people were inclined to think that there had been witches " in old times," - at all events, " in Bible times " ; and no- body felt quite sure when compacts with the devil had become obsolete. Rationalism itself often turned pale at specific phenomena, as indeed it sometimes does to-day. Reckless denouncers of New England for the witchcraft delusion of the seventeenth century forget many things or never knew them. The wonder is, not that such an out- break should have taken place, but that it should have come to an end so soon. The attack was as short as it was sharp ; and its sharpness was by no means extraordi- nary when compared with the violence with which the disorder raged in other parts of the world. Few persons have the time or the inclination to explore the gloomy literature of demonology ; but it is not too much to ask of the historical student, or even of the general reader, that before he passes judgment on his ancestors in so weighty a matter, he should make an attempt to put himself in con- tact with the history of European thought and with the general state of opinion in the seventeenth and the early eighteenth century. One can at least read the witch stories in the supplement to the Antidote against Atheism of Dr. Henry More, the famous Cambridge Platonist, and in the Triumph over the Sadducees l of Dr. Joseph Glanvil, who was chaplain in ordinary to King Charles II, a Fellow of the Royal Society, and the author of a celebrated treatise on the Vanity of Dogmatizing. Glanvil's witch-book ap- peared in a fourth edition as late as 1726, and was thought to have demolished the arguments of the doubters. A little reading of this kind is a good corrective spice, 1 Sadducismus Triumphatus is the title, but the book is in English. It was first published in 1681. n2 THE OLD FARMER'S ALMANACK as Lord Bacon would have called it. Our whole difficulty in estimating the significance of the troubles at Salem comes from lack of perspective. They make a great noise in the annals of New England, and we find it hard not to think of them as something monstrous or abnormal. But they were neither. Deplorable as the witchcraft persecu- tion was, it should not be treated hysterically or as if it were an isolated phenomenon. Here were the New Eng- landers settled on the edge of the wilderness and in daily contact with a savage race whom all the world believed to be worshippers of Satan. They had brought from Eng- land the same beliefs in the intervention of the devil in human affairs that everybody held, and they had seen no occasion to modify them. Nor had their countrymen who remained at home in England suffered any change of heart. Is it reasonable to demand from the New Eng- landers, lay or clerical, exposed as they were to peculiar terrors in a wild country, a degree of calm rationality which was not found among their contemporaries in Eng- land " who sat at home at ease " ? There is nothing strange, then, in the outbreak of witch- craft persecution in Massachusetts. It was inconceivable that the Colony should pass through its first century with- out such a calamity. The wonderful thing is that it did not come sooner and last longer. From the first pranks of Mr, Parris's unhappy children (in February, 1692) to the col- lapse of the prosecution in January, 1693, was less than a year. During the interval twenty persons had suffered death, and two are known to have died in jail. 1 If to these we add a few sporadic cases, there is a total of be- tween twenty-five and thirty victims; but this is the whole reckoning, not merely for a year or two but for a com- plete century. The concentration of the troubles in Massa- 1 C. W. Upham, Salem Witchcraft, Boston, 1867, II, 351. THE TOAD AND THE SPIDER 113 chusetts within the limits of a single year has given a wrong turn to the thoughts of many writers. This concentration makes the case more conspicuous, but it does not make it worse. On the contrary, it makes it better. It is astonish- ing that there should have been less than half a dozen exe- cutions for witchcraft in Massachusetts before 1692, and equally astonishing that the delusion, when it became acute, should have raged for but a year, and that but twenty per- sons should have been executed. The facts are distinctly creditable to our ancestors, to their moderation and to the rapidity with which their good sense could reassert itself after a brief eclipse. No one has ever made an accurate count of the execu- tions for witchcraft in England in the seventeenth century, but they must have mounted into the hundreds. 1 Matthew Hopkins, the infamous " witch-finder general," is thought to have brought sixty persons to the gallows in Suffolk in 1645 and 1646; by his efforts fifteen were hanged in Essex in 1645 and sixteen at Yarmouth the year before. His confederate Stern puts the sum total of Hopkins's victims at two hundred. 2 In Scotland, where there was no Hop- kins, the number was much greater than in England. On the continent of Europe many thousands suffered death in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Nicholas Remy (Remigius) of Lorraine gathered the materials for his work on the " Worship of Demons," published in I59S, 3 from the trials of some nine hundred persons whom he had sen- tenced to death in the fifteen years preceding. The efforts of the Bishop of Bamberg from 1622 to 1633 resulted in six hundred executions, the Bishop of Wiirzburg, in about the same period, is said to have put nine hundred persons 1 See Hutchinson, Historical Essay concerning Witchcraft, 2d ed., Lon- don, 1720, pp. 45 ff. 2 Lives of Twelve Bad Men, edited by Thomas Seccombe, London, 1894, p. 64. 3 Dasmonolatreia, Lugduni, 1595. 8 ii4 THE OLD FARMER'S ALMANACK to death. 1 These figures, which might be multiplied almost indefinitely, 2 help us to regard the Salem Witchcraft in its true proportions, as a very small incident in the history of a terrible superstition. The last execution for witchcraft in Massachusetts took place in 1693, as we have seen; indeed, twenty of the total of about twenty-five cases fall within that and the preceding year. There were no witch trials in New England in the eighteenth century. The annals of Europe are not so clear. In England Jane Wenham was condemned to death for this imaginary crime in 1712, but she was pardoned. 3 The act against witchcraft was repealed in 1736, but in 1751 Ruth Osborne, a reputed witch, was killed by a mob in Hertford- shire. 4 The last execution for witchcraft in Germany took place in 1775. In Spain the last witch was burned to death in 1781. In Switzerland Anna Goldi was beheaded in 1782 for bewitching the child of her master, a physician. In Poland two women were burned as late as I793- 5 Just before the arrest of Jane Wenham, Addison, in the Spec- tator for July n, 1711, had expressed the creed of a well-bred and sensible man of the world : " I believe in general that there is, and has been such a thing as Witch- craft; but at the same time can give no Credit to any particular Instance of it." And with this significant utter- ance we may close our brief discussion of a subject that has been much misunderstood and return to our toads. The toad is a distinguished figure both in literature and in popular superstition or folk-lore, and he owes his fame 1 Soldan, Geschichte der Hexenprozesse, ed. Heppe, Stuttgart, 1880, II, 38 ff. 2 See the extraordinary enumeration in Roskoff, Geschichte des Teufels, Leipzig, 1869, II, 293 ff. 3 Thomas Wright, Narratives of Sorcery and Magic, London, 1851, II, 31 9 if. 4 The same, II, 326 ff. 5 Soldan, II, 314, 322, 327. THE TOAD AND THE SPIDER 115 to his supposed venomous qualities quite as much as to his ugliness. The Roman ladies, if we may believe Juvenal, poisoned their husbands with a preparation of the rnbeta, a small toad, 1 a more delicate instrument of murder, he suggests, than Clytemnestra's axe. " To give one frogs instead of fish " is an old proverbial variation of the Bibli- cal "If he ask for a fish, will he give him a serpent?" An ingredient of the witches' caldron in Macbeth was a Toad, that under cold stone Days and nights has thirty-one Swelter'd venom sleeping got, and one of the commentators who will not allow Shakspere to make a mistake refers to a learned disquisition in the "Transactions of the Royal Society for 1826," in which a certain Dr. Davy proves "that the toad is venomous, and moreover that ' swelter'd venom ' is peculiarly proper, the poison being diffused over the body immediately under the skin." According to Milton, when Satan wished to suggest wickedness to the sleeping Eve he " squat like a toad" at her ear and whispered temptation to her. Even in our own time it is impossible to convince people that to handle toads does not induce warts. The alleged venom of the toad has likewise made him a considerable figure in medical science. In the seventeenth century he was regarded as a protection against the plague. There is a good passage to this effect in one of the odd- est pieces of strange learning ever produced by mortal man, Sir Kenelm Digby's Discourse touching the Cure of Wounds by the Powder of Sympathy, originally delivered in 1657 before a learned assembly at Montpellier. Digby believed that he could heal a wound by treating, not the patient, but some article that was stained with the patient's blood, the knife, for instance, that had done the injury. 1 Satires, i, 70 ; vi, 659. ii6 THE OLD FARMER'S ALMANACK He had obtained the secret from a Carmelite friar, who had learned it in the East. He put it in practice on James Howell, whose .hand was badly cut in an affray and was in danger of gangrene. In this case it was Howell's garter, which had been used as a bandage, that Digby treated, with the happiest results, and to the delight and amaze- ment of King James I. There can be no doubt about the cure, though we should now be inclined to ascribe it, not to Digby's honest hocus-pocus, but to his advice to Howell to throw away the plasters and medicaments which the doctors had applied and to keep the wound clean. We are at present concerned, however, not so much with the facts as with the theory on which they were accounted for. This is set forth with much skill and eloquence in Digby's Dis- course. There is, he believes, a subtle relation, or sym- pathy, between anything that has at any time been a part of one, like a severed limb or shed blood, and the person himself, and this relation persists even at considerable dis- tances. It operates by a constant stream of emanations, so to speak, which are merely one form of a system of sym- pathies which bind like things together in the order of nature. The same theory underlies the belief (still more or less prevalent) that a man feels pain when an amputated leg or arm is maltreated or not comfortably disposed of. 1 The interest which Sir Kenelm Digby's sympathetic powder roused throughout the civilized world finds its reflection in the Harvard Theses for A. M. In 1693 these seem to assume complete belief in the reality of the cure, but evince some scruples as to its propriety : " Is the cure of wounds by sympathetic powder lawful?" The same question was debated in 1708. Of course, the doubt was whether sorcery entered into the method used by Sir 1 A case of this kind is described in a letter written by John Winthrop, F.R.S., to Cotton Mather in 1716 (Coll. Mass. Hist. Soc., 6th Series, V, 333-4)- THE TOAD AND THE SPIDER 117 Kenelm. The decision in both years favored the legality of sympathetic cures, and indeed it is difficult to see how their perfect innocence can have been doubted by anyone who had read the discourse in which Digby, rejecting all mystery, endeavored to explain in the most rigidly scientific fashion the whys and wherefores of what so many persons regarded as the greatest wonder of the age. The question " Is there a magnetic method of curing wounds?" was discussed in 1698 and settled affirmatively, and in 1703, 1708, 1710, " Is there a sympathetic powder?" was similarly answered. 1 Closely associated with sympathetic powder is the general doctrine of magnetic treatment, concerning which we have Digby's remarkable letter to John Winthrop the Younger, describing the curing of ague by hanging the parings of the patient's nails round the neck of an eel. 2 Digby illustrates his sympathetic philosophy by many curious examples, and thus he comes to speak of toads as an antidote to the pestilence: "In time of common Contagion," he says, " they use to carry about them the powder of a Toad, and sometimes a living Toad or Spider shut up in a box ; or else they carry Arsenick, or some other venomous substance, which draws unto it the con- tagious air, which otherwise would infect the party: and the same powder of a Toad draws unto it the poison of a Plague-soar. The Farcey is a venemous and contagious humour within the body of an Horse ; hang a Toad about the neck of the Horse in a little bag, and he will be cured infallibly; the Toad, which is the stronger poison, drawing to it the venom which was within the Horse." 3 Van Helmont also believed in the efficacy of the toad 1 Proc. Mass. Hist. Soc., XVIII, 132. 2 Coll. Mass. Hist. Soc., 3d Series, X, 17. 3 A Late Discourse, etc., rendered faithfully out of French into English by R. White, 4th ed., London, 1664, pp. 76-77. ii8 THE OLD FARMER'S ALMANACK as a remedy or prophylactic, though his theory of its operation was somewhat different from Digby's. A dis- ciple of Helmont's once put the prescription to the test, and has left an account of the result in a very rare book called The Pest Anatomized, which appeared in 1666. This was George Thomson, one of the leaders in the revolt against the Galenical or " regular" physicians which made so much noise in England in the seventeenth century, and, in spite of the vagaries of the innovators, accomplished a great reform in medical practice. In 1665, when the plague was raging in London, Thomson had the courage to dissect a " pestilential body " in the hope of making some discovery that might be of advantage to mankind. He took the infection, and since the two best physicians of his own school were suffering from the disease and he would trust no Galenist, he was obliged to treat himself. His principal effort was to support nature, instead of weakening it by the bleedings and heroic purges then most in favor, and to induce perspiration. But he also had recourse to the batrachian cure. He hung a large dried toad about his neck, and he assures us solemnly that the creature " became so tumefied, distended, (as it were blown up) " with the venom which it attracted from the patient's body into its own " that it was an object of wonder to those that beheld it." l Thomson adds a queer bit of experimental philosophy regarding the toad : " It is observed," he says, " that the Bnfo is a Creature so extreamly fearful, that if you take the advantage to look upon it with a firmly fixed intentive eye for a quarter of an hour, there being no avoidance of your countenance, it will shortly dye with very terrour, as I have tryed." 2 Thomson got well and lived to write his book. We need not suspect him of lying, but we shall do well to 1 AOIMOTOMIA: or the Pest Anatomized, London, 1666, p. 86. 2 The same, p. 170. THE TOAD AND THE SPIDER 119 remember that one effect of the plague, as he says himself, was to disorder the intellect of the sufferer for the time being. So much for the venom of the toad. As to spiders, it is well known that some of them are dangerous, and popular credulity is prone to generalize. The testimony of the Rev. John Beal, a friend of Boyle the physicist, will suffice. "I think," he writes in 1663, "this land and climate does not breed stronger or quicker poison in any vegetable, animal, serpent, or insectile, than in the spider, though I have heard of some men, that can eat and digest spiders ; and I have seen young turkeys eat them for an antidote, and particularly when strawberries, (either in kind, or in quantity, as causing a surfeit) was their poison, and had killed many, that had not eaten spiders." * Spiders, like toads, were hung about the patient's neck, as a remedy for divers diseases. Ashmole, the antiquary, when suffering from ague, resorted to this specific. In his diary we read, on May 1 1, 1681: " I took, early in the morn- ing, a good dose of elixir, and hung three spiders about my neck, and they drove my ague away. Deo Gratias! " 2 What Mr. Thomas thought of spiders we do not know; but he had enlightened views on the subject of toads and snakes. In his Farmer's Calendar for May, 1813, we find : "I never suffer any of my family to kill those little innocent animals called striped snakes, for they do me much service in destroying grasshoppers, and other troublesome insects. Toads are of essential service, es- pecially in a garden, to eat up cabbage-worms, catter- pillars, &c." The essential element in the story of the duel between the Toad and the Spider lies in the doctrine that animals know what is good for them, and in particular that they 1 Letter to Robert Boyle, Boyle's Works, ed. Birch, 1744, V, 455. 2 W. G. Black, Folk-Medicine, London, 1883, p. 60. I2O THE OLD FARMER'S ALMANACK instinctively seek curative herbs when they have suffered an injury. This doctrine is universal. It finds poetical expression in Alphonsus, a tragedy by Shakspere's un- fortunate contemporary Robert Greene: The silly serpent, found by country swain, And cut in pieces by his furious blows, Yet if his head do 'scape away untouch'd, As many write, it very strangely goes To fetch an herb, with which in little time Her batter'd corpse again she doth conjoin : But if by chance the ploughman's sturdy staff Do hap to hit upon the serpent's head, And bruise the same, though all the rest be sound, Yet doth the silly serpent lie for dead, Nor can the rest of all her body serve To find a salve which may her life preserve. 1 One of the most curious accounts of this instinctive recognition of remedies by the lower animals is that given by Giraldus Cambrensis in his Irish Topography. 2 Ac- cording to the not altogether trustworthy evidence of this imaginative twelfth-century writer, the weasels in Ireland, when their young have been killed by an injury, restore them to life by means of a certain yellow flower. Giraldus declares that he is following the testimony of eye-witnesses who have killed young weasels for the sake of experiment. The creature, we are told, first blows in the wound and in the mouth and nostrils of the dead animal, and then applies the flower in question, with the happiest effect. There is a similar incident in the Old French lay of Eliduc, written by Marie de France about 1180, in which a human being is brought to life by a friend who notices the actions of the weasels and applies his observation. Examples might be multiplied indefinitely, but perhaps we have had enough of Toads and Spiders. 1 Works, ed. Dyce, London, 1831, II, 14. 2 Topographia Hibernica, i, 27, Opera, ed. Dimock, V, 60-61. SUGAR AND SALT IN his generous enthusiasm for America and American products, the author of the Farmer's Almanack does not forget Maple Sugar. He regards it as prefer- able in every way to the sugar imported from the West Indies, and believes that every humane and patriotic citi- zen should use it exclusively. Here are some of his pre- cepts, all under March, the proper month for " sugaring off": 1 794. Attend to making maple sugar. 1798. Those who have trees will not neglect the making of maple sugar, which is not only the most wholesome and pleasant sweetening, but being the product of our own country, will ever have the preference by every true American. 1800. As soon as the frost begins to quit its hold of the sugar maple, be prepared to take its luxuriant juice, as the first taken is much the richest. 1 80 1. " A penny saved is as good as two-pence earned " that is, if you have maple trees, and have to buy sugar in the summer, you pay too dear for your rattle. 1804. ' He that has money," says cousin Simpkins, " may eat honey. And so my home-made maple sweetening, must answer my purpose. Yet," continues he, " it affords me much consola- tion to reflect that my poor maple stuff, as they call it, possesses no mingled tears of misery ; no desponding slave ever groaned over my cauldrons or fanned them with his sighs : No ; this little lump in my hand is the reward of my own labour on my own farm." 1805. Make your own sugar, and send not to the Indies for it. Feast not on the toil, pain and misery of the wretched. 122 THE OLD FARMERS ALMANACK 1807. Economy now calls your attention to your maple trees. Make all the sugar you can, for you know not what may happen to prevent its importation. Besides, there is a great satisfaction derived from living as much as possible upon the produce of one's own farm ; where no poor slave has toiled in sorrow and pain ; where no scoundrel has lorded over your fields ; but where honest industry walks peaceful amidst the smiling fruits of his labour. 1808. Pies, puddings, and pancakes are best with sweetening, and as sugar is as cheap and agreeable an article as we can find for this use, we had better be attending to our cauldrons. Heaven has been extremely propitious to our country, in causing the growth of this valuable tree ; the maple. He who lives well, sees afar off, 1 8 1 8. As for myself I have done using sugar, and feel much better for it. But those who will still use this luxury, as I shall call it, had better be attending to their maple trees. When Mr. Thomas began to issue his Almanac, in 1792, and for years thereafter, many inland families used no sugar but that which they made themselves from the sap of the maple. Every farmer in the districts where these trees flourish wished to have his " sugar orchard," and " sugaring off" was as much a part of the agricultural year as plowing or haymaking. On the coast, cane sugar imported from the West Indies was in use, but this was of course more expensive to the farmer than that which he could extract from his own trees. In 1784 President Stiles of Yale noted in his Diary: " Sixteen Thous d pounds of Maple Sugar made at Norfolk in one year about 1774. This year 1784 about one Third more. Sell at 6 d T Ib. or 5 J ^> 5^> 57> 95- 2 Sprague, p. 33. 150 THE OLD FARMER'S ALMANACK It should be remembered that the danger of fire, always sufficiently terrible, was peculiarly distressing at this time, because of the prevalence of frame buildings, and also be- cause of the lack of insurance companies. An attempt was made to found a fire insurance business in Boston, in 1728, but it was unsuccessful. There is no evidence that any building in Boston was insured against fire before 1795, when the Massachusetts Fire Insurance Company, after- wards the Massachusetts Fire and Marine Insurance Com- pany, was incorporated. In 1798 the Massachusetts Mutual Fire Insurance Company was formed. Rates, however, in the shape of premiums and deposits, were so high that insurance was far from popular. We learn that the Mutual Company issued " seven-year policies at fifty-five cents per hundred on single wooden buildings, and seventy cents per hundred on wooden buildings in blocks, while thirty- five and forty-five cents per hundred were charged respec- tively on single and double buildings of brick and stone covered with slate or tile, while in addition deposits of several times the amount charged were required." l It was customary to raise money by subscription for the partial relief of sufferers. A graphic picture of a fire in Boston not far from the time when Mr. Dearborn's Directions were published in the Almanac, is given in a letter written December 27, 1796, by William Priest, an English musician who was em- ployed in various theatres in Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Boston, from 1793 to 1797: There is no calamity the bostonians so much, and justly dread, as fire. Almost every part of the town exhibits melancholy proofs of the devastation of that destructive element. This you will not wonder at, when I inform you that three fourths of the houses are built with wood, and covered with shingles, thin peices of cedar, 1 Sprague, pp. 16-17. FIRE ! 151 nearly in the shape, and answering the end of tiles. We have no regular fire- men, or rather mercenaries, as every master of a family belongs to a fire-company : there are several in town, com- posed of every class of citizens, who have entered into a contract to turn out with two buckets at the first fire alarm, and assist to the utmost of their power in extinguishing the flames, without fee or reward. I awoke this morning about two o'clock by the cry of fire, and the jingling of all the church bells, which, with the rattling of the engines, call for water, and other et ccetera of a bostonian fire- alarm, form a concert truly horrible. As sleep was impossible under such circumstances, I immedi- ately rose, and found the town illuminated. When the alarm is given at night, the female part of the family immediately place candles in the windows. This is of great service in a town where there are few lamps. I found the fire had broken out in one of the narrow streets, and was spreading fast on all sides. I was much pleased with the regularity observed by these amateur fire-men. Each engine had a double row, extending to the nearest water ; one row passed the full, and the other the empty buckets. The citizens not em- ployed at the engines were pulling down the adjacent buildings, or endeavouring to save the furniture ; their behaviour was bold and intrepid. The wind blew fresh at N. W. ; and nothing but such uncommon exertions could possibly have saved the town, composed, as it is, of such combustible materials. You will natu- rally inquire, whether they have no other. Yes, brick and stone in great plenty ; but the cheapness of a frame, or wooden build- ing, is a great inducement for the continuance of this dangerous practice : but there is one still greater, viz. a strange idea, uni- versal in America, that wooden houses are more healthy, and less liable to generate or retain contagious infection than those of brick or stone. This notion has been ably controverted by one of their best writers, but with little effect ; and, like all other deep-rooted prejudices, will not easily be eradicated. 1 1 Travels in the United States of America, London, 1802, pp. 168-71. I$2 THE OLD FARMER'S ALMANACK The Directions make special mention of fire-engines. There were in 1799 thirteen of these machines, new and old, in Boston, the thirteenth going into commission on July 24th of that year. 1 They were, of course, hand- engines. Mr. Dearborn himself, being of an inventive turn of mind, was much interested in such things. In 1781 he communicated to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences a model of what he called a pump-engine, together with a full description, which was published in the Memoirs of the Academy in 178$? A plate accompanies Mr. Dearborn's article and enables us to get a clear notion of his curious contrivance. It consisted of a long vertical tube, which could be attached to the top of an ordinary pump, and at the upper end of which there was a swinging conductor, managed by means of a couple of ropes. " I have," writes Mr. Dearborn, " raised a tube of 30 feet on my pump, but the severity of the season pre- vents my compleating it; having so far executed it only, as for one person to work at the brake ; I can myself throw water on the top of a neighbouring building, the nearest part of which is 37 feet from the pump, and between 30 and 40 feet high." It was thought that this stationary machine might be of use in private families, something like a fire-extinguisher nowadays, but it does not seem to have been extensively adopted. In the next year Mr. Dearborn applied the same principles of construc- tion to a portable engine, which is figured in the same volume. The advantages which he claimed for his inven- tion were cheapness, ease of manufacture, and economy of labor in operation. Apparently, however, it never got beyond the model stage. Mr. Dearborn also devised a 1 A. W. Brayley, Complete History of the Boston Fire Department, Boston, 1889, p. 105 ; cf. Belknap's letter, Coll. Mass. Hist. Soc., ist Series, IV, 188. 2 1,520. FIRE! 153 " ladder and receiver " and a " leveller." The former was a primitive kind of fire-escape, consisting of a ladder " long enough to reach from the ground to the chamber windows " and of a sliding box attached to the ladder and operated by ropes. In the accompanying description he emphasizes " the expedition and security with which persons and articles may be transported to the ground from the chamber windows of a house on fire or in danger." The leveller was an implement for destroying buildings by tearing out the posts, sills, and beams. Models of both inventions were deposited with the Massa- chusetts Historical Society, but it does not appear that the contrivances were ever put to a practical use. 1 One of the most surprising of the anecdotes in Mr. Dearborn's Directions is that in the ninth section: "A house was once destroyed by a rat running away with a lighted candle for the sake of the tallow, and conveying it into a hole filled with rags, and inflammable matter." No one can fail to admire the address and agility of the rat and to wonder who was present to observe his feat. Mr. Joseph Willard refers with much pertinency to the peril of Judge Sewall's household, as set forth in his Diary for "Midweek," July 13, 1709, where a similar exploit is conjecturally ascribed to a mouse : Midweek, July, 13. 1709. N. B. Last night, between 2 or 3 hours after midnight, my wife complain'd of Smoak ; I presently went out of Bed, and saw and felt the Chamber very full of Smoak to my great Consternation. I slipt on my Cloaths except Stock- ings, and run out of one Room into another above, and below Stairs, and still found all well but my own Bed-chamber. I went into Garret and rouz'd up David, who fetch'd me a Candle. My wife fear'd the Brick side was a-fire, and the children endangered. She fled thither, and call'd all up there. While she was doing this, I felt the partition of my Bed-chamber Closet warm ; which 1 Sprague, pp. 45-46. 154 THE OLD FARMER'S ALMANACK made me with fear to unlock it, and going in I found the Deal- Box of Wafers all afire, burning livelily ; yet not blazing. I drew away the papers nearest to it, and call'd for a Bucket of Water. By that time it came, I had much adoe to recover the Closet agen : But I did, and threw my Water on it, and so more, and quench'd it thorowly. Thus with great Indulgence GOD saved our House and Substance, and the Company's l Paper. This night, as I lay down in my Bed, I said to my Wife, that the Goodness of God appeared, in that we had a Chamber, a Bed, and Company. If my Wife had not waked me, we might have been consumed. And it seems admirable, that the opening the Closet-Door did not cause the Fire to burst forth into an Un- quenchable Flame. The Box was 18 inches over, Closet full of loose papers, boxes, Cases, some Powder. The Window-Curtain was of Stubborn Woolen and refus'd to burn though the Iron-Bars were hot with the fire. Had that burnt it would have fired the pine- shelves and files of Papers and Flask and Bandaliers of powder. The Pine-Floor on which the Box stood, was burnt deep, but being well plaister'd between the Joysts, it was not burnt through. The Closet under it had Hundreds of Reams of the Company's Paper in it. The plaistered Wall is mark'd by the Fire so as to resemble a Chimney back. Although I forbad mine to cry Fire; yet quickly after I had quench'd it ; the Chamber was full of Neigh- bours and Water. The smell of Fire pass'd on me very much ; which lasted some days. We imagine a Mouse might take our lighted Candle out of the Candle-stick on the hearth and dragg it under my closet-door behind the Box of Wafers. The good Lord sanctify this Threatening ; and his Parental Pity in improv- ing our selves for the Discovery of the Fire, and Quenching it. The Lord teach me what I know not ; and wherein I have done amiss help me to doe so no more ! 2 Mr. Dearborn shared the prejudice of his age against " segars." He enquires whether " the greater frequency 1 Probably the Society for Propagating the Gospel. 2 Coll. Mass. Hist. Soc., 5th Series, VI, 257-9. FIRE! 155 of fires in the United States than in former years, may not be ascribed in part to the more general use of segars by careless servants and children?" and adds "There is eood o reason to believe a house was lately set on fire by a half- consumed segar, which a woman suddenly threw away to prevent being detected in the unhealthy and offensive practice of smoaking." It was no new thing for women to smoke. Mrs. Rowlandson's interview with King Philip, when he politely offered her a pipe, will be described in a later chapter, and we shall see that she declined his cour- tesy because she had overcome her former appetite for tobacco. 1 But the cigar, being still something of a novelty, was regarded with peculiar disapproval by the more staid and conservative members of the community. At almost the very moment when Mr. Dearborn was penning his cautionary Directions, the General Court of Massachusetts was busy with an Act to Secure the Town of Boston from Damage by Fire (i798). 2 This act forbade carrying fire through the streets, except in a covered vessel, as well as smoking, or having in one's possession " any lighted pipe or segar " in the streets or on the wharves. The penalty was fixed at two dollars, or, if the offense was committed in any ropewalk, at from five to one hundred dollars. These provisions were really but a modification of a much older law. In 1638 the General Court ordered " that no man shall take any Tobacco within twenty Poles of any House, or so near as may endanger the same." 3 To " fetch fire " from a neighbor's when one's own hearth was cold was a regular thing in the days of the troublesome flint and steel. It even passed into a proverb. One who made a hasty visit was said to be "in as great a hurry as if he had come to fetch fire." So in Chaucer, when Troilus 1 See p. 370, below. 2 Acts of 1798, chap. 27, sects. 6, 7. 8 Laws, edition of 1672, p. 146. 156 THE OLD FARMER'S ALMANACK proposes to cut short his visit to Sarpedon, Pandarus asks reproachfully " Be we comen hider To fecchen fyr and rennen hom ayeyn ? " x The danger of this custom is plain enough and was soon felt by the inhabitants of Boston. In 1658 an order was passed to restrain it : Whereas many careless persons carry fire from one house unto another in open fire pans or brands ends, by reason of which greatt damage may accrew to the towne ; It is therefore ordered that no person shall have liberty to carry fire from one house to another, without a safe vessell to secure itt from the wind, upon the pcenalty of ten shillings to bee paid by every party so fetching, and halfe so much by those that permitt them so to take fire. 2 To smoke in the streets was simply a special variety of " carrying fire." The peril of the lighted cigar has long ceased to agitate the fathers of the Commonwealth. The prohibition remained in the statutes till 1880, when it was repealed. 3 It had long been a dead letter, and the Fire Commissioners of Boston, who were consulted by the legis- lators before they decided to annul it, declared that they were quite willing to have it disappear. A racy portrait of a rural cigar-smoker, from the Farmer's Calendar for August, 1836, may serve as an epilogue. The compound noun with which it concludes is worthy of Aristophanes. See, what a puffing- pig Bob Linchpin has got to be ! It was about a year and a half ago, when he had not yet become 1 Troilus, book v, stanza 70. 2 Boston Town Records, in Second Report of Record Commissioners, ad ed., 1881, p. 147. 3 See Acts of 1818, chap. 171, sect. 10, and, for the repeal, Acts of 1880, chap. 38. FIRE ! 157 acquainted with the ton of the city, that Robert went there to market, and to see a cousin or two. He carried down butter and eggs, and a few other articles of the produce of his father's farm. Poor soul ! He will rue the day that he ever fell among dandies. But so it was, for his cousins were altogether for being bursters; and Bob was initiated into a clan of these mutton-faced non- essentials. So, our friend's name was changed from clever Robert to flashy Bob ; and, among other things of fashionable consequence, he learned to wield a real Spanish. Whif ! see the columns, as they roll away and bring to view his bumps of self- esteem ! Poor Bobby, how changed from a right-down, plain, honest plough-jogger to a tippy-dazzlem-fogo-combustibus ! " DROWNED ! DROWNED ! " SOMETIME in the Spring of 1787, or '88, a young gentleman at Georgetown, who could not swim, accompanied by one or more of his companions, went into the river to bathe ; he unfortunately stepped from a bank of sand, beyond his depth, and was drowned. Attempts were immediately made in various ways to obtain the body, by diving after it, searching with boat-hooks, poles, etc. and by a dragging seine ; but all of them proved inef- fectual. Similar exertions were made next day without success. A gentleman mentioned, that he had read of the bodies of drowned persons being discovered by means of quicksilver, placed in a quill, and attached to a loaf of warm bread. This appeared so chimerical a project, that the bystanders ridiculed the idea. He observed that the experiment might easily be made, and could do no injury. A quill was prepared, filled with quick- silver, and inserted in a loaf of warm bread. Some persons then got into a boat, and placed the bread on the water so as to be carried with the current in a direction towards the body; when it had floated 10 or 15 yards, it became stationary, and in a short time the body ascended and floated on the top of the water, to the great astonishment of the multitude of specta- tors. The body had laid under water about 16 or 18 hours. The experiment above recorded deserves a trial on similar occasions, and might even be the means of restoring life, by dis- covering drowned bodies soon after they have disappeared. May not this singular phenomenon be accounted for in this simple manner? The bread is carried down by the current till it comes within the sphere of attraction between the body and the quicksilver : it is then brought by the same attraction over the body ; and the specific gravity of the body being but little greater DROWNED! DROWNED! 159 than that of the water, by the attraction of the quicksilver, a sub- stance of very great specific gravity and proportionate attraction, the body rises to the surface of the water. The method of discovering the situation of a drowned man described in the article just quoted from the Almanac for 1796 seems to have been rather common in different countries, and, in one form or another, must be pretty old. In the Upper Palatinate the peasantry believe that if the person's name is written on a piece of bread, this will float to the place where the body lies and then remain station- ary. In Bohemia the name is omitted ; a consecrated candle is lighted and stuck into a hole in the bread, which, as in the Georgetown anecdote, must be fresh. 1 Here, as in the example from the Palatinate, the process is manifestly of an occult character. In the one case, the success of the experiment depends on the mysterious efficacy of the con- secration. In the other, we may discern the widespread belief in the sympathetic and essential connection between the name and the person who bears it. This is a belief which underlies an almost countless number of supersti- tions. The berserk Klaufi, in an Icelandic saga, is de- prived of his demonic strength when, in the course of a fierce struggle, some one calls him by name : " Klaufi ! Klaufi ! govern your rage ! " A werewolf is instantly re- stored to his proper human shape if his right name is mentioned in his hearing. The most powerful spirits are controllable by the magician who knows their names. The true name of Rome was said to be kept a secret, lest the enemy, learning it, might employ it in spells to call away the deities that protected the Eternal City. In the Almanac, it will be noted, an attempt is made to account for the phenomena on scientific principles, and perhaps, as in so many cases, there is in the customs de- 1 Wuttke, Der deutsche Volksaberglaube, 2d ed., Berlin, 1869, 371, p. 239. 160 THE OLD FARMER'S ALMANACK scribed a union of observation and experience with magical principles of long standing. In the Gentleman's Maga- zine for April, 1767, , l not very long before the date of the Almanac, is recorded an occurrence which closely resembles that which is said to have taken place at Georgetown. It is worth quoting for its picturesqueness, even if it slightly exceeds the limits of probability : An inquisition was taken at Newbery, Berks, on the body of a child near 2 years old, who fell into the river Kennet, and was drowned. The jury brought in their verdict Accidental Death. The body was discovered by a very singular experiment, which was as follows : After diligent search had been made in the river for the child, to no purpose, a two-penny loaf, with a quantity of quicksilver put into it, was set floating from the place where the child, it was supposed, had fallen in, which steered its course down the river upwards of half a mile, before a great number of spectators, when the body happening to lay on the contrary side of the river, the loaf suddenly tacked about, and swam across the river, and gradually sunk near the child, when both the child and loaf were immediately brought up, with grablers ready for that purpose. The Indians of Canada, according to Sir James Alex- ander, use a chip of cedar, which, they suppose, " will stop and turn round over the exact spot" where the body lies. Sir James adds that he has known of an instance in which this was tfied with complete success. Similarly a cricket bat, we are told, was thrown into the Thames near the place at which an Eton scholar had been seen to go down. " It floated to a spot where it turned round in an eddy, and from a deep hole underneath the body was quickly drawn." Here natural causes may well be appealed to, as is done by a sensible commentator in Notes and Queries: "As there 1 XXXVII, 189. This and other instances may be found in Choice Notes from Notes and Queries, London, 1859, pp. 40-42. DROWNED ! DROWNED ! l6l are in all running streams deep pools formed by eddies, in which drowned bodies would be likely to be caught and retained, any light substance thrown into the current would consequently be drawn to that part of the surface over the centre of the eddy hole." l In the fine old ballad of Young Hunting 2 the slain knight is cast into the deepest pot in Clyde Water, " with a green turf upon his breast, to hold that good lord down." The murderess is so confident in the efficacy of this weight upon his breast that she does not hesitate to express a fear that he is drowned in Clyde. The king sends for his " duckers," but they dive for the body in vain. At last a bonny bird that is flying above their heads speaks and discloses the secret : - " O he 's na drownd in Clyde Water, He is slain and put therein; The lady that lives in yon castil Slew him and put him in. " Leave aff your ducking on the day, And duck upon the night ; Whear ever that sakeless knight lys slain, The candels will shine bright." Thay left off their ducking o the day, And ducked upon the night, And where that sakeless knight lay slain, The candles shone full bright. The deepest pot intill it a' Thay got Young Hunting in ; A green turff upon his brest, To hold that good lord down. Here the candles may have been real candles inserted in loaves of bread and balanced with quicksilver, as already 1 See Choice Notes, p. 43. 2 Child, English and Scottish Popular Ballads, No. 68 A, II, 145. 11 162 described, or the reference may be to the " corpse lights " which were believed to hover over the resting place of the unquiet dead. The ballad is not explicit. In 1795 the Almanac prints certain recommendations of the Massachusetts Humane Society to be followed in cases of apparent death from drowning: - As accidents of drowning frequently occur, and as it is very necessary that every family should be acquainted with the best method of proceeding in such cases, we have inserted the follow- ing DIRECTIONS For recovering persons apparently dead from drowning : as recommended by the HUMANE SOCIETY. Convey the person to the nearest convenient house, with his head raised ; strip and dry him as quick as possible ; clean the mouth and nostrils from froth and mud ; if it is a child, let him be placed between two persons naked, in a hot bed ; but if an adult, lay him on a hot blanket or bed, and in cold weather near a fire in warm weather, the air should be freely admitted into the room. The body is next to be gently rubbed with warm woollen cloths sprinkled with spirits, if at hand, otherwise dry ; a heated warming pan may be lightly moved over the back properly covered with a blanket ; and the body, if of a child, to be gently shook every few minutes. Then follow directions for the injection of tobacco smoke. There is no suggestion of the means employed nowadays for producing artificial respiration. Bathe the breast with hot rum, and persist in the use of these means for several hours. If no signs of life should then appear, let the body be kept warm for several hours longer, with hot bricks, or vessels of hot water applied to the palms of the hands, and soles of the feet, and this for a longer or shorter time, as the circumstances of the case may dictate. DROWNED ! DROWNED ! 163 The Massachusetts Humane Society (like the Charitable Fire Society, whose recommendations were printed in the Almanac for 1799) 1 was one of the earliest charitable asso- ciations founded in this part of the world. It was instituted in 1785, definitely organized in the next year, at the Bunch of Grapes Tavern in State Street, and incorporated in 1791. Its prime object was, and is, to save life, especially in cases of shipwreck or drowning. It erected huts or shelters at exposed places on the coast, gave rewards for rescues, and encouraged the invention of lifeboats and life-saving appa- ratus. In 1792 it began an agitation for the building of a lighthouse at some point on Cape Cod. It is hard to real- ize that this dangerous coast was so little protected in those days. From the outset, however, the Society was particu- larly interested in the means of restoring suspended anima- tion. We shall not be far wrong if we ascribe its foundation to the intense interest felt toward the close of the eight- eenth century in the obscure question of the boundary between life and death. This matter had been much can- vassed by the English Humane Society, which was founded in 1774, and a large number of cases had been collected and printed in which drowned persons had been brought to life when all traces of animation had vanished. A simi- lar association at Amsterdam had done good work in the same direction, and the proceedings of this body had been published in an English translation by Dr. Thomas Cogan (1773). The period immediately following the Revolution was fertile in projects. It was an era of intellectual activity in America, and the foundation of the Humane Society was a gratifying testimony to the readiness of New England to act on the impulse of a good idea. The Directions for resuscitation published in the Alma- nac for 1795 remained for some time the code of the So- ciety. They will be seen to differ in essential points from 1 See pp. 146 ff., above. 1 64 THE OLD FARMER'S ALMANACK those now issued by the same organization. The use of tobacco smoke, strange as it seems to us, was regarded as of prime importance in the eighteenth century. It is dwelt on in the elaborate and highly interesing treatise on Drowning by Dr. Rowland Jackson (London, 1746),* and the Amsterdam Society endorsed it heartily. The opinion in its favor was confirmed by the testimony of Dr. Bulfinch, in a letter addressed to the Massachusetts Society in 1792, to the effect that the American Indians used it to re- vive the drowned. Gradually, however, doubts arose as to its efficacy. In 1794 the medical committee of the So- ciety reported in its favor, 2 but the very fact that the ques- tion had been referred to them indicates that scruples were making themselves felt. In 1805 tobacco smoke is dropped from the official recommendations, and two years later the Rev. William Emerson, in his address to the Society, de- nounces its employment as absurd and harmful. As early as 1801, the necessity of inducing respiration by artificial means is recognized, and the directions to this end gradually became more elaborate, until they reached the form in which they are now familiar to everyone. In the same year, 1801, electricity is recommended. In 1805 the Almanac contains a report of an interesting case of resuscitation : On res faring life to DROWNED PEOPLE by means of warm ashes, as related by Mr. Solomon Rockwell, of Winchester, in a letter to the Editors of the Connecticut Courant. On Monday, the gth day of July, 1804, a child of Mr. Caleb Munson, about fifteen months old, was taken out of the water ap- parently dead. From the place where it fell in it had floated down the stream about sixty feet in a swift current through a gate hole in the bottom of the mill trough, where the water falls six 1 Physical Dissertation upon Drowning, pp. 44-47. 2 Statement of Premiums, etc., 1829, pp. 48, 49. DROWNED ! DROWNED! 165 feet, and was found lodged in trash under water. It must have been in the water at least fifteen minutes, and it was the universal opinion of those present, that any attempt to restore it to life would be totally unavailing. I however determined to try the ex- periment of ashes ; accordingly I had its clothes taken off, spread some warm ashes taken from the fire-place, on flannel, and wrapped the child in the flannel, with the ashes next its skin ; ordered tobacco smoke to be injected into its body, and soon applied an addition of hot ashes directly to its bowels. After operating in this way about eight or ten minutes, together with blowing into its mouth, to the astonishment of all present, signs of life began to appear, and water in large quantities issued from his mouth. A potion of physic was given him in about two hours, and in about twenty-four hours he was able to walk, and is now entirely recov- ered : (four days after.) This successful experiment ought to operate as a caution to all who read the account not to abandon too hastily to their fate those who are so unfortunate as to be drowned ; but to make trial of the most approved means in cir- cumstances where there is the least possibility of success. The Physical Dissertation upon Drowning, by Dr. Row- land Jackson, deserves another word. Its collection of cases is vastly curious. Many are quite credible, but a number of them show that scientific investigation was still a desideratum in 1746. Dr. Jackson entertained extrava- gant notions of the length of time after which one might bring a drowned man to life. He tells of a fisherman who " by means of the ice " was kept under water for three days, and yet came to life. The man remembered that " a large Bladder had been form'd about his Head for his Preservation." This sounds like miracle. At all events the learned doctor does not try to account for the bladder. A similar formation protected the mouth of a Swedish gardener who had a like incredible adventure. Then there was a Swedish woman who lived to the age of seventy-four, though she had been "thrice drowned,"- remaining three 1 66 THE OLD FARMER'S ALMANACK days under water on the first occasion. But these examples fade into insignificance before the strange case of Laurence Jones, whose funeral sermon the learned Burmann had listened to. According to the preacher, Jones, when six- teen years old, fell into the water and remained there for seven weeks, but recovered, and lived to be seventy. Even Dr. Jackson is a little doubtful of the accuracy of these figures, though why, he asks, should the learned Burmann misrepresent the words of the preacher, and why should the preacher tell a lie? 1 It is easy to laugh at such stories, but after all their moral was a good one. The hasty inference that a man is dead because he has stopped breathing had cost the world a countless number of valuable lives, and needed drastic correction. A little hyperbole could do no harm. It may be added that for a long time the true cause of death by drowning was not understood. A venerable in- stance of this misapprehension occurs in the Anglo-Saxon epic of Beowulf. There the hero takes a long dive to the bottom of a haunted pool and enters a subaqueous hall, where he performs a very valorous exploit. As soon as he enters the hall, he is quite at his ease. The water, we are told, could not get in to injure him. Here is the gist of the whole matter. The theory was that a man was drowned because the water did him some harm rather than because he had nothing to breathe. Hence the efficacy of the " bladder " that formed before the mouth of the fisherman whom Dr. Jackson tells of. Even the eminent physicist Boyle was in doubt " whether an animal in an exhausted receiver dies for want of air, or because of the compression of the lungs" and in 1665 suggested an experiment to dis- cover the facts. 2 And the Royal Society entertained the idea that "a kind of new air" made by the "operation of 1 Jackson, pp. 7, 10, n, 15-16. 2 Birch, History of the Royal Society, II, 31. DROWNED ! DROWNED ! 1 67 distilled vinegar upon the powder of oister-shells " might be "convenient for respiration" and afford a means of breathing under water. 1 In 1794 the Massachusetts Magazine printed a letter, dated January, 1789, from a member of the Humane Society which suggested an extension of the method of resuscitation then practised to cases of apparent death by cold. The writer had found that apples might be pre- served by frost and had seen potatoes ploughed up in the spring " which had lain all winter in the ground, and were as sound and good, though frequently frozen, as those that were dug in the fall of the year." A snake too, he said, might " freeze so hard and stiff that it will break like a pipe-stern" and yet would come to life again. He like- wise appealed to the hibernation of swallows, which were believed to spend the winter at the bottom of ponds, either frozen or buried in the mud, and to emerge in the spring. 2 Some days before, the writer had seen the bodies of " eight or ten stout men, frozen hard as rocks," and the melan- choly spectacle set him thinking. He ventured to suggest that it might not be amiss to disinter one of the bodies and endeavor to resuscitate it. 3 His proposals came to nothing, but they remain as a record of the speculative activity of men's minds at the end of the eighteenth century, a disposition to which the world owes much. 1 Birch, History of the Royal Society, II, 25, 26. 2 See a paper on this phenomenon in the Memoirs of the American Academy, 1785, I, 494. 3 Massachusetts Magazine for January, 1794, VI, 23-25. HUSKINGS AND OTHER AMUSEMENTS ADMIRAL BARTHOLOMEW JAMES of the Royal Navy, during his excursion on the Kennebec River, in 1791, when he was a captain in the mer- chant service, had the good fortune to be present at a husking at Vassalborough, which he briefly but apprecia- tively describes in his entertaining journal : " During our stay at this place we saw and partook of the ceremony of husking corn, a kind of ' harvest home ' in England, with the additional amusement of kissing the girls whenever they met with a red corn-cob, and to which is added dancing, singing, and moderate drinking." J The admiral was fond of diversion and had a penchant for eccentric merrymaking. After he had retired from active service, and when he was enjoying his leisure as a country gentleman, he is said to have entertained the poor of the vicinity with a feast at which the chief dish was a sea-pie of Gargantuan proportions. Mr. Thomas, however, was a practical farmer. He was not averse to seasonable amusement, but he detested waste, and he was always suspicious of any combination of work and play. Here are some of the precepts in his Farmer's Calendar : Harvest your Indian corn, unless you intend it for the squirrels. If you make a husking, keep an old man between every two boys, else your husking will turn out a losing. (Oc- tober, 1805.) 1 Journal of Rear-Admiral Bartholomew James, Navy Records Society, 1896, p. 193. HUSKINGS AND OTHER AMUSEMENTS 169 Come, Dolly, my dear, spur up ; prepare something good and cheering, for we will have a husking to-night. (November, 1806.) In a husking there is some fun and frolick, but on the whole, it hardly pays the way ; for they will not husk clean, since many go more for the sport than to do any real good. (October, 1808.) Husking is now a business for us all. If you make what some call a Bee, it will be necessary to keep an eye on the boys, or you may have to husk over again the whole heap. (October, 1816.) Some years later, in 1828, when the brief agricultural maxims of the Farmer's Calendar had expanded into char- acter sketches and little didactic essays, we find a more elaborate confession of faith on the subject of the New England harvest-home : " Come, wife, let us make a husking," said Uncle Pettyworth. " No, no," replied the prudent woman, " you and the boys will be able to husk out our little heap without the trouble, the waste and expense of a husking frolick. The girls and I will lend a hand, and all together will make it but a short job." Now, had the foolish man took the advice of his provident wife, how much better would it have turned out for him? But the boys sat in, and the girls sat in, and his own inclinations sat in, and all be- setting him at once he was persuaded into the unnecessary measure, and a husking was determined upon. Then one of the boys was soon mounted upon the colt with a jug on each side, pacing off to 'Squire Hookem's store for four gallons of whiskey. The others were sent to give the invitations. The mother being obliged to yield, with her daughters went about preparing the supper. Great was the gathering at night round the little corn stack. Capt. Husky, old Busky, Tom Bluenose and about twenty good-for-nothing boys began the operations. Red ears and smutty, new rum and slack-jaw was the business of the evening. (October, 1828.) 1 70 THE OLD FARMERS ALMANACK " Red ears and smutty" are fully treated in Joel Barlow's Hasty Pudding, which was written in the winter of 1792-93 and contains the classic passage on husking parties : The days grow short ; but though the falling sun To the glad swain proclaims his day's work done, Night's pleasing shades his various tasks prolong, And yield new subjects to my various song. For now, the corn-house fill'd, the harvest home, The invited neighbors to the husking come ; A frolic scene, where work, and mirth, and play, Unite their charms, to chase the hours away. Where the huge heap lies centred in the hall, The lamp suspended from the cheerful wall, Brown corn-fed nymphs, and strong hard-handed beaux, Alternate ranged, extend in circling rows, Assume their seats, the solid mass attack ; The dry husks rustle, and the corn-cobs crack ; The song, the laugh, alternate notes resound, And the sweet cider trips in silence round. The laws of husking every wight can tell And sure no laws he ever keeps so well : For each red ear a general kiss he gains, With each smut ear he smuts the luckless swains ; But when to some sweet maid a prize is cast, Red as her lips, and taper as her waist, She walks the round, and culls one favored beau, Who leaps, the luscious tribute to bestow. Various the sport, as are the wits and brains Of well-pleased lasses and contending swains; Till the vast mound of corn is swept away, And he that gets the last ear wins the day. This is one of the few passages of eighteenth-century American verse still remembered. Barlow's ambitious and unreadable epic, the Columbiad, is as dead as Black- more's Prince Arthur or Southey's Madoc ; but the mock- heroic Hasty Pudding, which he must have regarded as merely an elegant trifle, " the perfume and suppliance of a minute," is often quoted and even finds a reader now and HUSKINGS AND OTHER AMUSEMENTS I/I then. The circumstances of the poem may account for its superiority to the author's more labored performances. Barlow had gone to Europe in 1788 as agent of the Scioto Company, which dealt speculatively in Western lands. After the failure of this enterprise he had remained in Europe, residing alternately in England and on the Conti- nent, and occupying himself with politics and literature. In the winter of 1792-93 he was at Chambery, immersed in French political business he expected to be returned as deputy to the National Convention from the Depart- ment of Savoy. His wife was in London, and they were both rather homesick, though Barlow's head was too full of projects to allow him much leisure for reminiscence. One night he was surprised to find on the supper table at the inn a dish which he instantly recognized as the hasty pudding of his native Connecticut: 1 Dear Hasty Pudding, what unpromised joy Expands my heart to meet thee in Savoy ! Doom'd o'er the world through devious paths to roam, Each clime my country, and each house my home, My soul is soothed, my cares have found an end, I greet my long lost, unforgotten friend. The origin of the pleasant custom attaching to the red ear is lost in obscurity. A curious passage from Colonel James Smith's narrative is here offered for what it may be worth. There is no doubt of Smith's good faith. He was a captive among the Caughnawaga Indians from 1755 to 1759, was adopted into their nation, and spoke three Indian languages, so that he had good opportunities to inform himself. He says : " Before I was taken by the Indians, I had often heard that in the ceremony of marriage, the man gave the woman a deer's leg, and she gave him a 1 See C. B. Todd, Life and Letters of Joel Barlow, N. Y., 1886, pp. 97-99- 172 THE OLD FARMER'S ALMANACK red ear of corn, signifying that she was to keep him in bread, and he was to keep her in meat. I inquired of them concerning the truth of this, and they said they knew nothing of it, further than that they had heard it was the ancient custom among some nations." 1 Barlow's husking scene limits the drinks to sweet cider; but this is certainly poetic license. We may compare a humorous passage in the Diary of Dr. Nathaniel Ames of Dedham, October 14, 1767: 2 Made an husking Entertainm't. Possibly this leafe may last a Century & fall into the hands of some inquisitive Person for whose Entertainm't I will inform him that now there is a Custom amongst us of making an Entertainment at husking of Indian Corn whereto all the neighboring Swains are invited and after the Corn is finished they like the Hottentots give three Cheers or huzza's but cannot carry in the husks without a Rhum bottle they feign great Exertion but da nothing till Rhum enlivens them, when all is done in a trice, then after a hearty Meal about 10 at Night they go to their pastimes. Mr. Thomas's satire on the husking was written when the agitation for total abstinence was at its height. It was not merely the waste that troubled him, but the new rum and the four gallons of whiskey; for, as we shall see on other occasions, the Old Farmer was an earnest and con- sistent advocate of moderation in all things. The serious- minded in New England had long been dismayed at the hilarity that sometimes attended the harvest festival. In 1713 Cotton Mather remarks that " the Riots that have too often accustomed our Huskings, have carried in them, fearful Ingratitude and Provocation unto the Glorious 1 Account of the Remarkable Occurrences in the Life and Travels of Col. James Smith, in Loudon's Selection of Indian Narratives, Carlisle, 1808, re- print of 1888, I, 240. 2 The Ames Diary, Dedham Historical Register, II, 98, quoted by C. F. Adams, Three Episodes in Massachusetts History, II, 791. HUSKINGS AND OTHER AMUSEMENTS 173 God." He has heard that these riots " are abated," and exclaims " May the Joy of Harvest no longer be prostituted unto vicious purposes. Husbandmen and Householders: Let the Night of your Pleasure be turned into Fear ; a Jealous Fear, Least your Children take their .Leave of God, and of Piety." 1 This outburst of Mather's is associated with a similar denunciation of " Christmas revels" and " Shroves-Tuesday vanities." Our forefathers are known to have been much averse to the celebration of Christmas. They regarded any kind of observance of that festival as papistical and idolatrous. So strong, indeed, was this feeling that many persons now living can remember when " the season wherein our Saviour's birth is celebrated " passed, in the country, without any notice at all, whereas Thanksgiving was honored with both religious and social rites. On Christmas day, 1621, Governor Bradford had an amusing encounter with some of his raw recruits, who had arrived on the ship Fortune the month before. There were thirty-five of these newcomers, and, to use the Governor's own words, " most of them were lusty yonge men, and many of them wild enough. . . The plantation was glad of this addition of strength, but could have wished that many of them had been of better condition, and all of them beter furnished with provisions ; but yV' he adds philosophically, " could not now be helpte." 2 Then comes the little clash of conscience : One y e day called Chrismas-day, y e Gov r caled them out to worke, (as was used,) but y e most of this new-company excused themselves and said it went against their consciances to work on y 1 day. So y e Gov r tould them that if they made it mater of conscience, he would spare them till they were better informed. 1 Advice from the Watch Tower, Boston, 1713, p. ^5. 2 History of Plimouth Plantation, ed. 1898, pp. 128-9, i/4 THE OLD FARMER'S ALMANACK So he led-away y e rest and left them ; but when they came home at noone from their worke, he found them in y e streete at play, openly ; some pitching y e barr, & some at stoole-ball, and shuch like sports. So he went to them, and tooke away their imple- ments, and tould them that was against his conscience, that they should play & others worke. If they made y e keeping of it mater of devotion, let them kepe their houses, but ther should be no gameing or revelling in y e streets. Since which time nothing hath been atempted that way, at least openly. 1 Mr. George William Curtis, who has written of the Pil- grim and Puritan Christmas with more toleration for the scruples of the Fathers than some of their descendants show nowadays, takes this bit of humor with undue seri- ousness. " It was against the Governor's conscience," he says, " that the ' lusty yonge men ' should follow their con- sciences, and the last sentence of the historian is as sig- nificant as Sebastiani's famous words, the modern echo of the Solitudinem faciunt of Tacitus ' Order reigns in Warsaw.' " 2 This is pretty grim, and hardly fair to the excellent Bradford, who might assuredly be suffered to have his little joke, all the more when logic was so clearly on his side. The young men may have had con- scientious scruples against working, but they were under no religious obligation to play stool-ball ! In 1659 the keeping of " any such day as Christmas or the like, either by forbearing of labour, feasting, or any other way " was forbidden by the General Court of Massa- chusetts, under a penalty of five shillings for each offense. Towards the end of the century, when the population of the towns had become less homogeneous, and the number of Church of England men had greatly increased, the law grew difficult to enforce, and in 1681 it was repealed. 3 1 History of Plimouth Plantation, pp. 134-5. 2 Harper's Magazine, for December, 1883. 8 Mass. Colony Records, IV, i, 366 ; V, 322. HUSKINGS AND OTHER AMUSEMENTS 175 From this time Christmas began to reassert itself. The discomfort of Samuel Sewall as he contemplated this cor- ruption of manners is pictured in several passages in his Diary, which have been well summed up by Mr. Curtis: Four years later Judge Sewall records, with satisfaction, that carts come to town on Christmas-day, and shops are open as usual. " Some, somehow, observe the day, but are vexed, I be- lieve, that the Body of the People profane it ; and, blessed be God! no Authority yet to compell them to keep it." The next year the shops and the carts give him great pleasure again, although Governor Andros does go to the Episcopal service with a redcoat on his right and a captain on his left. Eleven years later, in 1697, on the same day: "Joseph tells me that though most of the Boys went to the Church, yet he went not." In 1705 and 1 706, to the judge's continued comfort, the carts still came and the shops were open. But in 1714 Christmas fell on Satur- day, and because of its observance at the church the unbending judge goes to keep the Sabbath and sit down at the Lord's table with Mr. John Webb, that he may " put respect upon that af- fronted, despised Lord's day. For the Church of England had the Lord's supper yesterday, the last day of the week, but will not have it to-day, the day that the Lord has made." The passage in Cotton Mather to which reference has just been made gives a succinct statement of the grounds on which the Puritans objected to Christmas celebration in any form : Christmas- Revels begin to be taken up, among some vainer Young People here and there in some of our Towns. R\emark\. It were to be desired, That Christians abounding in Wisdom and Prudence, would Weigh in Equal Ballances, what is to be said, against their keeping any Stated Holidays, which our Glorious Lord himself has not instituted ; and what more is to be said, about assigning a Wrong-Day, to Commemorate a great Work of God, as thereon accomplished ; and most of all, 176 THE OLD FARMER'S ALMANACK how offensive it cannot but be unto the Holy Son of God, for Men to pretend his Honour in Committing Impieties, which the Conscience of every Man cannot but assure him, that they are Abominable Things, and hateful to the God, who has not pleasure in Wickedness. 1 Such arguments did not go unchallenged. Some ten years later there was a little tempest at Marblehead. Mr. John Barnard, the local minister, and one of the ablest of his generation, in a lecture held on Christmas day, 1729, set forth the Puritan view with a good deal of vigor. The Church of England minister, Mr. George Pigot, was much disturbed at this discourse, and at its results. Some of Mr. Barnard's admirers, writes Mr. Pigot, " did frequently and loudly upbraid the Members of my Church, even in the very Streets, with such Tauntings as these : What is become of your Christmas-Day now ; for Mr. B d has proved it to be Nothing else but an Heathenish Rioting ? Will you never have done with your Popish Ceremonies, that you must have Four or Five Days running, to observe, what Mr. B d has made out to be no such Thing as You pre- tend f These and other unseemly Scoffings made the Generality of my Hearers uneasy, and brought divers and hourly Complaints to my Ears." All this was of course extremely unpleasant, and called for reprisals. At length, in January, 1730, Mr. Pigot replied in a ser- mon which was afterwards published, " at the desire of the church-wardens and vestry," under the formidable title " A Vindication of the Practice of the Antient Christian, as well as the Church of England, and other Reformed Churches, in the Observation of Christmas-day; in answer to the Uncharitable Reflections of Thomas de Laune, Mr. Whiston, and Mr. John Barnard of Marblehead." There is no occasion to enter into a discussion as to the merits 1 Advice from the Watch Tower, pp. 34-35. HUSKINGS AND OTHER AMUSEMENTS 177 of this controversy. It has lost all interest except as an index to the temper of the times, which permitted Mr. Pigot to speak of Mr. Barnard's parishioners as " his credulous fishermen," and to include their pastor with others under the designation of " some sour spirits." It is almost a pity that Barnard did not allude to this passage at arms in his vastly entertaining Autobiography. He does, however, give us his opinion of his antagonist, in plain terms, as one who " had pretty good school learning, hav- ing been usher in his father's grammar school, but never educated at the Universities, nor knew anything of arts and sciences beyond the school ; and was a worthless man, with whom we had customary correspondence, but no intimacy." J We must at all events exonerate Mr. Barnard from any charge of bigoted opposition to the Church of England. He speaks with great respect of Mr. Pigot's successor, Mr. Malcolm, and he was one of the pall-bearers at the funeral of his successor, Mr. Bours. Indeed, he was consulted by the Episcopalians as to the best way to fill Mr. Bours's place, and his advice was followed. 2 And so we may leave this queer little chapter of ecclesiastical history. Mather's words about Shrovetide are too curious to omit, though it cannot be supposed that the ceremonies that he mentions ever became at all prevalent in this part of the world : It is to be hoped, The Shroves- Tuesday Vanities, of making Cakes to the Queen of Heaven, and Sacrificing of Cocks to the Pagan Idol Tuisco ; and other Superstitions Condemned in the Reformed Churches ; will find very few Abetters, in a Countrey declaring for our Degree of Reformation. Should such things become usual among us, the great God 1 Barnard's Autobiography, Coll. Mass. Hist. Soc., 3d Series, V, 234. 2 The same, p. 235. 1/8 THE OLD FARMER'S ALMANACK would soon say with Indignation, How art thou turned Unto the Degenerate Plant of a Strange Vine unto me ! x The last day before Lent is called Shrove Tuesday be- cause it was formerly the custom to go to confession to shrive oneself on that day. After shrift, all sorts of merriment began. Thus Shrovetide in England corre- sponded to the Italian carnival season. The Reformation of course put an end to the confessional, but the habit of festivity persisted. Mather is particularly vexed by the eating of cakes and the sacrifice of cocks. The first of these ceremonies he regards as a relic of Mariolatry; the second is, in his eyes, rank paganism. Cakes or dough- nuts were a regular English dish on Shrove Tuesday, which was therefore known also as Pancake Tuesday. The sacrifice to which Mather refers is the old sport of " throw- ing at the cock." The creature was tied to a stake and small cudgels were hurled at him by the contestants from a distance of about twenty-five yards. The winner got the bird. 2 The brutality of the custom should have been enough to condemn it, but Mather thinks less of that than of its impiety. Singularly enough he imagines that it is a sacrifice to " the idol Tuisco." This is a strange piece of learned fancy. Tuisco, or Tuisto, is known to us from a famous passage in the Germania of Tacitus, where we are told that the Germans sing of him as a god born from the earth, and of Mannus, that is " man," as his son. There is no evidence that they ever made images of him. Indeed, Tacitus says expressly that they think it wrong to repre- sent any of the deities under human form. Of course there is no connection whatever between the unfortunate cocks that were battered on Shrove Tuesday and the ancient Germanic divinity. But Mather supposed, it would seem, 1 Advice from the Watch Tower, p. 35. 2 Brand, Popular Antiquities, ed. Hazlitt, I, 41 ff. HUSKINGS AND OTHER AMUSEMENTS 179 that Tuisco was identical with Tiw, the deity after whom Tuesday (the Anglo-Saxon Tiwes-d&g) was named. This specious though mistaken etymology, and the writer's horror at idolatrous sacrifices to a pagan Germanic god, show at least the scope of curious learning in old New England and the complexity of the problem that con- fronts the student who wishes to comprehend the Puritan spirit in all its manifestations. The same regard for efficiency in labor which Mr. Thomas evinces in his distrust of huskings the persua- sion that work and play cannot be profitably combined, though amusement is well enough in its place comes out in a little sermon on the text " Many hands make light work " in the Farmer's Calendar for June, 1821 : - "Many hands make light work." Now, if you have a heavy job to do, call all hands and despatch it ; but stop ! too many cooks always spoil the broth. There are some who cannot bear to work alone. If they have a yard of cabbages to hoe, they must call in a neighbour to change work. Now this is very pleasant, but it tends to lounging and idleness, and neglect of business ; for we cannot always have our neighbours at work with us. We shall reluct at working alone, and if we can get no one to come to us, we shall be away, leaving our corn, potatoes, peas and beans to take care of themselves. " Bugs, bugs, bugs ! O, the bugs will eat up all the cucumbers ! " No, they will not, cousin Betty, if we attend to them. We must be up in the morning, aye in the morning, I say; and not lie in bed until nigh twelve, like Capt. Dashup's girls, who are thrumming and drumming and humming all night long with their penny-forts and jews-harps. I say we must be up -before the sun kisses the pine tops, and see to these bugs and pinch their necks for them. Several details are worthy of notice in this lively moral and economic lesson, apart from the instruction itself. The farmer's custom of " changing works " is humorously i8o THE OLD FARMER'S ALMANACK hit off; or, to speak more accurately, the abuses to which it may lead are pleasantly satirized. As for the custom itself, when properly regulated, it was a necessity; some kind of cooperation could not well be dispensed with in the days when small proprietors were many and professional hired laborers were scarce. Barn raisings, spinning bees, and huskings all come under the same category as " chang- ing works," and depend upon the same principle of barter, for labor was, in simple communities, often a more practicable medium of exchange than money, because there was more of it. " So vast is the Territory of North-America" wrote Ben- jamin Franklin in 1751, "that it will require many Ages to settle it fully; and till it is fully settled, Labour will never be cheap here, where no Man continues long a Labourer for others, but gets a Plantation of his own, no Man continues long a Journeyman to a Trade, but goes among those new Settlers, and sets up for himself, &c. Hence Labour is no cheaper now, in Pennsylvania, than it was 30 Years ago, tho' so many Thousand labouring People have been imported." x Yet wages were not high in those days according to the present standard of value. In 1800, Isaac Waldron of Newbury, Vermont, " hired out to Col. Frye Bayley for one year for eighty dollars." Eight dollars a month, with board, was the regular pay of a farm laborer, or " hired man," as late as the third decade of the last century. But there were few temptations to spend money, and ready cash was scarce, so that, even with these wages, the farm hand might easily become a pro- prietor if he was economical. 2 Mr. Thomas was of course not an opponent of the harm- 1 Observations concerning the Increase of Mankind, Peopling of Coun- tries, &c., p. 4, appended to W. Clarke's Observations on the Late and Present Conduct of the French, Boston, 1755. 2 F. P. Wells, History of Newbury, Vermont, St. Johnsbury, 1902, p. 153. HUSKINGS AND OTHER AMUSEMENTS l8l less, necessary custom of " changing works." It was only when serious application to the task in hand degenerated into frolic that our agricultural mentor felt called upon to protest and admonish. Another point in the extract just given from the Almanac is the plague of destructive insects bugs as they were, and still are, indiscriminately called in the country. The plan of breeding parasites to destroy these pestilent creatures had not yet been thought of, nor had the simpler method of applying Paris green made every potato patch a terror to people with weak nerves. In another place, however, will be found a suggestion that the bugs may be turned to good account as a substitute for Spanish flies in medicine. 1 The husking inevitably suggests the spinning bee, de- scriptions of which are plenty as blackberries. Here is one which coincides almost exactly in date with the first appear- ance of the Farmer's Almanac. It relates to a spinning party which took place at Falmouth (now Portland), Maine, on May Day, 1788, and comes from the local news- paper. The tone and temper of the item suggest that it was written by the reverend gentleman at whose house the assembly was held. On the ist instant, assembled at the house of the Rev. Samuel Deane, of this town, more than one hundred of the fair sex, married and single ladies, most of whom were skilled in the important art of spinning. An emulous industry was never more apparent than in this beautiful assembly. The majority of fair hands gave motion to not less than sixty wheels. Many were occupied in preparing the materials, besides those who attended to the entertainment of the rest provision for which was mostly presented by the guests themselves, or sent in by other generous promoters of the exhibition, as were also the materials for the 1 See p. 1 86, below. 1 82 THE OLD FARMER'S ALMANACK work. Near the close of the day, Mrs. Deane was presented by the company with two hundred and thirty-six seven knotted skeins of excellent cotton and linen yarn, the work of the day, excepting about a dozen skeins which some of the company brought in ready spun. Some had spun six, and many not less than five skeins apiece. She takes this opportunity of returning thanks to each, which the hurry of the day rendered impracticable at the time. To conclude, and crown the day, a numerous band of the best singers attended in the evening, and performed an agreeable variety of excellent pieces in psalmody. The price of a virtuous woman is far above rubies. . . . She layeth her hands to the spindle, and her hands hold the distaff. 1 Mr. Thomas usually takes spinning for granted, and does not feel that his readers need to be instructed about so obvious a duty, but now and then there is a bit of advice on the subject, as in February, 1811 : " You will see that your daughters do not want flax, &c. to keep them industrious. I fear the old fashion of spinning and weaving are going out of date. Remember to bring up your children in the way they should go, and then their good habits will accompany them through life." Most of his advice to women concerns the dairy, and shows an anxious care for neatness which seems prophetic of modern qualms. When the Old Farmer began his career as mentor of rural New England, it was an occasional practice for women to bear a hand in the outdoor work of the farm, especially in the haying season. This practice seemed objectionable to Mr. Thomas. He regarded it as one of those crudities of which a civilized community should be ashamed, and he inveighed against it with unusual warmth : 1 Cumberland Gazette, May 8, 1788, as quoted by William Willis, Journals of Smith and Deane, Portland, 1849, p. 362, note. HUSKINGS AND OTHER AMUSEMENTS 183 All things must give way to necessity ; yet what need is there for a woman to leave her domestic concerns, go into the field, and like an Amazon wield the pitchfork and the rake ? 'T is abominable ! Is this the duty of a wife ? Is such the tenderness of a husband? Remember she is the mistress of thy house ; treat her therefore with respect, that thy children may, also. Consider the tenderness of her sex, and the delicacy of her frame. (August, 1809.) SMALL ECONOMIES FEW miscellaneous scraps are more amusing to run over in an idle hour than those receipts for utilizing the useless or making something out of nothing in which thrifty people have always delighted. The older numbers of the Farmer's Almanack are not deficient in lore of this sort, derived from various sources the editor's experience, the gossiping pen of the " constant reader," or even the newspapers. A few of the choicest among them are here brought together, without any at- tempt at classification, and with little or no comment; since for the most part they speak for themselves. A number of them are manifestly of more or less value, but the present writer cannot attach his probatum est to any, and therefore prefers to make no attempt at discriminating. Persons who are fond of potatoes and afraid of coffee, may get comfort from the following extract from the Almanac for 1815. It is a little essay on POTATOE COFFEE. From a Philadelphia Paper. Frugality in domestic expenses, is a virtue, which ought to be practised by the manager of every family ; but more particularly, at a time when commerce stagnates in our ports, the mechanick is thrown out of employment, and the necessaries of life at so high a price as to be obtained only with the greatest difficulty, and when the poor are precluded altogether from many of them. Every discovery therefore, that has a tendency to ameliorate the condition of the poor and the labourer, and add to their comfort, is of great value, and ought to obtain public sanction. SMALL ECONOMIES 185 The article coffee, a few years back, was looked upon as un- necessary, but is now considered, from the great use made of it, as one of the necessaries of life. The price is now nearly double to what it was in the year 1811, and continues to rise ; a substi- tute for coffee would, therefore, be a great object to society in general many articles have been tried, but, not answering the purpose, have been relinquished. The potatoe is found to resemble coffee in taste, smell and colour, more than any substitute that has been tried ; few persons can distinguish one from the other; besides which, it possesses other properties and circumstances which ought to recommend it to general use. It is one of our cheapest and most plentiful vegetables ; besides its cheapness, it may be obtained in all places and in any quantity, nor are we dependent on foreign commerce for it This substitute for coffee sits light on the stomach, is nourishing and easy of digestion, and does not irritate the nerves of weak persons or cause watchfulness. The following is the mode of preparing. Wash raw potatoes clean, cut them into small square pieces, of about the size of an hazle nut ; put them into a broad dish or pan, set them in a temperate stove, or in an oven after the bread is taken out, stir them frequently, to prevent them from sticking together, in order that they may dry regularly ; when they are perfectly dry, put them into a dry bag or box secure, and they will keep for any length of time. When they are to be used, they must be roasted or burnt in the same manner as coffee, and ground in a mill or reduced to powder in a mortar. Small potatoes are as good as large ones the po- tatoes generally considered of the meaner kind are better than the mealy, and the skins and parings are best of all. It is hoped none will be so prejudiced against this recommendation as not to try it a trial will confirm what may appear to some to be doubtful. A laudable attempt to convert tribulations into blessings appears in a communication from Mr. Thomas's own town, which found a place in the Almanac for 1807 : 1 86 THE OLD FARMER'S ALMANACK To the EDITOR of the FARMERS ALMANACK. IMPORTANT DISCOVERY. IT has been discovered that the Flies, which, in this section of the state, have been very plenty on potatoe-vines, are a substitute for the Cantharides, (or Spanish Flies,) and are much more active for blistering, when properly prepared. The fly seems to have a near approach to the beetle kind, has four legs, two pointers at the fore part of the head, a hard case over the wings like the Spanish flies, and is of the size of the fire bug, or fly, which ap- pears here in April, and is of a light slate colour. The best method to take them is to put a small quantity of vinegar in a tin milk-pan and brush them from the tops of the potatoes with the hand, which immediately kills them ; afterwards they must be dried in the sun. These animals are the only thing which draw a real blister, except the Spanish flies. The fly, if not destroyed, eats all the leaves, but the fibrous part, and greatly injures the root ; but by beating them off once or twice, very little damage is sustained. If they should appear the ensuing year it is to be hoped that farmers will let their boys collect them. Two reasons will induce them to it. The first is to prevent the insect from destroying, in some measure, that very valuable and useful vegetable ; and in the next, to preserve a most useful article in medicine. For Can- tharides, our physicians have paid for several years past, from five to sixteen dollars per pound, as I have been informed. The po- tatoe fly, or bug, appears about the first of July, and continues until the middle of August but generally becomes scarce in about four weeks after its appearance. It has been found on some other vines, particularly on cucumbers. Sterling, September I, 1806. It is safe to assume that the " potato-flies " mentioned by this sanguine correspondent were not quadrupeds, as he asserts, but had six legs, like other insects. We may even identify them, without much risk, with the " native SMALL ECONOMIES l8/ cantharides or blister bugs " discussed by Dr. T. W. Harris, as quoted in the Almanac for 1834. These creatures, says the distinguished entomologist, " are successfully em- ployed in medicine instead of the Spanish flies, and were not the price of labor among us so high, might be pro- cured in sufficient quantity to supply the demand in the markets for this important medicinal agent." The letter from Sterling calls to mind the heroic counter-irritants of old-time medical practice. An insect " much more active for blistering " than the Spanish fly must have been almost as satisfactory an instrument of torture as the East Indian moxa described by Sir William Temple in his famous Essay upon the Cure of the Gout. Temple's informant was Monsieur Zulichem, a person who " never came into com- pany without saying something that was new." " He said it was a certain kind of moss that grew in the East Indies; that their way was, whenever any body fell into a fit of the gout, to take a small quantity of it, and form it into a figure broad at bottom as a twopence, and pointed at top, to set the bottom exactly upon the place where the violence of the pain was fixed ; then with a small round perfumed match (made likewise in the Indies) to give fire to the top of the moss; which burning down by degrees, came at length to the skin, and burnt it till the moss was consumed to ashes : that many times the first burning would remove the pain ; if not, it was to be renewed a second, third, and fourth time, till it went away, and till the person found he could set his foot boldly to the ground and walk." ] Here is a suggestion from 1801 which has proved to be of greater practical value than the receipt for Spanish flies: HOGS' BRISTLES. EVERY species of information that will be advantageous either to the land or purse of the FARMER, we esteem it our duty to 1 Works of Sir William Temple, 1757, III, 246-7. 1 88 THE OLD FARMER'S ALMANACK make public through the medium of the Farmer's Almanack. The Brush Manufactory is a late establishment in this part of the country, and is now carried on to a considerable extent, insomuch that large quantities of Bristles are imported from Europe. The price which they command we conceive must operate as an in- ducement to Farmers to be careful in saving their Bristles for market. The price of Hogs' Bristles, in many parts of the country, particularly in Boston and Medfield, is, we understand, 33 Cents, in cash, per pound. Bristles were sometimes regarded as the perquisites of the boys on the farm. The late Joseph T. Buckingham tells us that when he was fourteen years old he was allowed to sell to a brush-maker " the bristles that came from the swine as they were slaughtered." The first piece of silver that he ever possessed was a ninepence which he earned in this way. This was at Windham, Connecticut, in I/93- 1 Weeds may be utilized, it seems, as well as " bugs." So, at least, says the Almanac for 1803 : HORSES. MR. CARTWRIGHT has recently discovered, that the common groundsil, given plentifully to horses in the stable, will effectually cure greasy heels. It is always of importance to know the uses to which weeds may be applied. Soap and candles may go together, as they do in the Almanac for 1818: SOAP MADE OF SNOW. [From the Baltimore Federal Gazette] Soap made of snow in the following manner : Take and cut into very small pieces one pound of good hard soap ; dissolve it 1 Personal Memoirs and Recollections of Literary Life, Boston, 1852, I, 23-24. SMALL ECONOMIES 189 with a slow fire ; when dissolved, put six or eight pounds of clean snow with it ; and after having boiled them together well for three hours, (or until it shews a lather on its surface,) add a wine glass of fine salt, and let it get cold ; when it will be found the finest soap, and to weigh as much as the snow did originally. AN IMPROVEMENT IN CANDLES. A plan for improving mould Candles and the quantity of their light is introduced by a writer in Spofford's American Magazine, for October, 1815, viz : " Place a small straw of rye or oats in the centre of the wick, the ends of which may be stopped by being dipped in some bees wax or bayberry tallow, to prevent the cavity being filled with tallow in the mould or in dipping. Clipping the lower end opens the straw which is easily opened at the upper end by clipping off a little piece ; and on being lighted, the extra labour is not to be regretted." The following receipt is inserted at this point because it is too good to be lost, rather than because it comes strictly under the head of Small Economies. Yet "old shoes that are worn out" are so carefully specified that perhaps our classification is justified after all. It is found in the Almanac for 1804: To prevent Crows pulling up Indian Corn. A farmer has communicated to the Editor a sure method to pre- vent Crows visiting corn fields, which he has practised for some years, and has ever been attended with the desired effect. As those mischievous birds have been very troublesome for some years past to many farmers, the following method is thought worthy the public attention. Take three or four old shoes, that are worn out, and fill the toes of them with sulphur, or the roll of brimstone broken small, make a fire with chips, or any small dry wood in or near the middle of your corn field on a flat rock, or on the bare mould, (a 190 THE OLD FARMER'S ALMANACK rock being preferable) after planting your corn field, then lay the toes of the shoes on the fire and let them continue until the leather be burnt through, and the brimstone has taken fire ; then after sticking down poles of ten or twelve feet in length at each corner of your field, and inclining them towards the centre, make a string fast to the heal quarters of each shoe, and tie it fast to the top ends of the poles, letting the strings extend half way down, and when swinging, not to interfere with the poles ; and no crows will alight on your field that season. If anything will keep crows out of a cornfield, surely it must be this combination of brimstone, charred leather, and gibbeted shoes ! INDIAN SUMMER AND THE COMET T HE Farmer's Calendar for May, 1818, affords an exhilarating item : Planting time is close by and we begin to think of Indian dump- lings and puddings. Be not discouraged about raising corn. Uncle Jethro says that the good old Indian summers will return again. He is a great philosopher and astronomer, and ascribes our frosty seasons, which have been so troublesome of late, to the spots in the sun, which however he says, will soon be entirely obliterated. The tail of the comet is shortly to pass over the sun's disk, like a dusting brush, and they will be seen no more. Indian summer is as familiar a phrase as can well be imagined, and the thing itself is confidently expected by all of us when late autumn comes round. The history of the term, however, is obscure enough; but much light is thrown upon it by Mr. Albert Matthews in a learned paper published by the United States Weather Bureau. 1 The earliest example of the term which Mr. Matthews has discovered occurs in Major Ebenezer Denny's Journal under the date of October 13, 1794: "Pleasant weather. The Indian summer here. Frosty nights." 2 The diarist must surely have used a phrase that was perfectly familiar to him, and of course he adds no explanation, his entry being intended for his own eye alone. Four years later, in June, 1798, Dr. Mason F. Cogswell, describing the pre- 1 The Term Indian Summer, Monthly Weather Review for January and February, 1902. 2 Military Journal, Memoirs Hist. Soc. of Penn., VII, 402. 192 THE OLD FARMER'S ALMANACK ceding winter at Hartford, Connecticut, remarks : " About the beginning of January the weather softened considerably, and continued mild for several days. Most people sup- posed the Indian summer was approaching (a week or fort- night of warm weather, which generally takes place about the middle of January), but, instead of this, there succeeded to these pleasant days a delightful fall of snow, about a foot in depth, which was bound down by an incrustation of hail, and prevented from blowing in heaps by the winds which followed." 1 In 1803 the French traveller Volney, who visited America between 1795 and 1798, mentioned the Indian summer as occurring towards November and equated it with the " St. Martin's summer" of the French. 2 These are the only writers of the eighteenth century, so far as we know, who employ the term Indian summer at all. They are, however, quite independent of each other, and their testimony establishes one fact beyond peradventure : the phrase was common among the people in the last decade of that century. The presumption is that it had been in use a good while, and we are not surprised therefore to learn that in 1809 Dr. Shadrach Ricketson, of New York, wrote of the name as " long known in this country." 3 Five more examples have been discovered by Mr. Matthews before 1820, to which that from the Almanac for 1818 may now be added as a sixth. From this time the term be- comes frequent. Its picturesqueness and agreeable asso- ciations commended it to writers of every grade and it was soon established in literature on both sides of the Atlantic. It lent itself readily to figurative applications. As early as 1830 De Quincey wrote of the great Bentley : " An Indian summer crept stealthily over his closing days ; a summer 1 Medical Repository, II, 282. - Tableau du Climat et du Sol des fitats-Unis d'Amerique, Paris, 1803, I, 283. 3 Medical Repository, Second Hexade, VI, 187. JOHAKNIS HEVELII COMETOGRAPHIA. Hnrrr"! INDIAN SUMMER AND THE COMET 193 less gaudy than the mighty summer of the solstice, but sweet, golden, silent; happy, though sad; and to Bentley ... it was never known that this sweet mimicry of sum- mer a spiritual or fairy echo of a mighty music that has departed is as frail and transitory as it is solemn, quiet, and lovely." l So thoroughly has the term become a part of the English language, that the Poet Laureate, in address- ing Queen Victoria on her birthday in 1899, could find no more appropriate designation for her gracious old age than "the Indian Summer of your days." Few Americanisms have had so triumphant a progress. The origin of the term Indian summer is a mystery. There is no evidence that it was employed in the early days of American colonization or that it was derived by the white man from the aborigines. Nobody has left it on record, as we have seen, before 1794. Nor are there any comments on the phenomenon itself in older writers on America. Yet there were several English names for this charming and elusive season, and some or all of them our forefathers must have brought to this country with them. " All-hallown summer," i. e. the summer of All Hallows or All Saints, is one. It is jestingly applied to Falstaff by Prince Hal in the First Part of King Henry IV: " Fare- well, thou latter spring ! farewell, All-hallown summer ! " (act i, scene 2.) Both epithets characterize Falstaff as an old youth. Another English name, adapted from the French, is " St. Martin's summer," which occurs in the First Part of Henry VI (act i, scene 2) : This night the siege assuredly I '11 raise : Expect Saint Martin's summer, halcyon days, Since I have entered into these wars. All Hallows is November i and St. Martin's day is November 14, so that these designations agree well enough with the current expectation in America, where we look for i Works, Edinburgh, 1862-63, VI, 180. 13 194 THE OLD FARMER'S ALMANACK our Indian summer in the late fall and feel defrauded if we do not get it. " St. Luke's Summer" is also heard in Eng- land, but its antiquity is not certain. St. Luke's Day falls on October i8th. Whatever designations for this season the colonists may have brought with them died out and left no trace, and "Indian summer" has been substituted for them, not only in America, but, as we have seen, in England as well, where, however, some of the other names have survived in the dialects. Naturally enough there is, and always has been, con- siderable latitude in the date of Indian summer. Thoreau, in his Autumn, notes Indian summer weather, from 1851 to 1860, on September 2/th, October 7th, I3th, I4th, 3ist, November ist, 7th, 8th, I7th, 23d, 25th, December 7th, roth, and I3th, and there are other examples of similar laxity. But that does not really make against the prevail- ing tendency, which is strongly in favor of late autumn, and this appears to be the time of the German "Old women's summer" (Altweibersommer) or "After-summer" (Nachsommer) as well. It is rather idle to speculate as to the original significance of Indian in the phrase we are considering, since we are ignorant of the history of the expression before 1794. Many guesses have been made. Charles Brockden Brown, the first American novelist, thought that the season owed its name "to its being predicted by the natives to the first emigrants, who took the early frosts as the signal for winter." 1 This is altogether improbable. The first emi- grants needed no aboriginal prophet to make them look for fine warm days in late autumn, for they had noticed such weather at home, and must have had a name for it ; or else they were different from other Englishmen of their time, and, indeed, from Europeans in general. The most 1 Note in his translation of Volney, View of the Soil and Climate of the United States, Philadelphia, 1804, p. 210. INDIAN SUMMER AND THE COMET 195 popular explanation derives the term from the Indian cus- tom of burning over the woods in November to destroy the underbrush, a practice which was noted by the early settlers, who found the forests so open that they could ride through them without difficulty. This explanation also is of no value. Though haziness is often regarded as charac- teristic of the weather in the Indian summer, and though o this peculiar quality of the air was sometimes said to be due to the fires kindled by the natives, it is a long saltus to the conclusion that the name Indian summer has to do with the practice in question, nor are the logical steps easy to reconstruct. Far more reasonable is the conjecture that the name alludes to the proverbial deceitfulness and treach- ery of the natives. Increase Mather, in speaking of John Sassamon's report of King Philip's intended hostilities, re- marks that "his Information (because it had an Indian Original, and one can hardly believe them when they speak Truth) was not at first much regarded." 1 Or possibly we should think rather of their equally proverbial instability. Nothing is more fickle than the weather in Indian sum- mer; though this is a quality that might be predicated of our weather in general, for, as Dr. Benjamin Rush wrote in 1789, of the climate of Pennsylvania, "perhaps there is but one steady trait in [its] character . . . and that is, it is uniformly variable." 2 " Indian giving," we may remember, is making a present and taking it back again, after the manner of children when they repent of an impulse of generosity. Or, finally, if it is permissible to add another guess to the futilities of one's predecessors, it is conceivable that Indian summer was at first equivalent to "fool's sum- mer." If so, we seem to have a parallel to the " Old Women's Summer" of the Germans and it may be also to the " Go-summer " of the Scots, if this is a corruption of 1 Relation of the Troubles, etc., Boston, 1677, p. 74; ed. Drake, Early History of New England, 1864, p. 234. 2 American Museum, 1790, VII, 334. 196 THE OLD FARMER'S ALMANACK " Goose-summer," as scholars suppose. To call the Indians fools may at first appear inconsistent with what our ances- tors observed of their cunning and their strategic powers ; but there is no real difficulty. Nothing impressed the logi- cal and hard-headed settlers more than the folly of the red men in certain matters particularly in their religious beliefs. " Poor captivated men," " bondslaves to sin and Satan," "miserable heathen," "miserable salvages," "poor, naked, ignorant Indians," " forlorn and wretched heathen," " stupid and senseless," " these doleful creatures," " the ruins of mankind" 1 such are some of the epithets ap- plied to the Indians, now in scorn, now in pity, by New England writers of the seventeenth century ; and there are anecdotes enough in illustration of the simplicity of the aborigines. " They are treacherous, suspicious and jealous," writes Hugh Jones, " difficult to be persuaded or imposed upon, and very sharp, hard in Dealing, and ingenious in their Way, and in Things that they naturally know, or have been taught; though at first they are very obstinate, and unwilling to apprehend or learn Novelties, and seem stupid and silly to Strangers." 2 "Fool's summer," though not pretty, would be appropriate enough, and would range well with " fool's gold " for iron pyrites, " fool's parsley " for the poisonous lesser hemlock, and ignis fatuus or " fool's fire " for the will-o'-the-wisp. In Henry VI, it will be remembered, " halcyon days " is used as a synonym for "St. Martin's summer" in a figurative sense. The Greek myth told how Alcyone, when she saw the body of her shipwrecked husband Ceyx, threw herself into the sea, and how both were changed into kingfishers by the compassionate gods. For fourteen days (or, as Ovid says, for seven) in the winter season the 1 Eliot Tracts, Coll. Mass. Hist. Soc., 3rd Series, IV, 202, 266; Mather, Magnalia, ed. 1853, I, 556, 558, 561. 2 The Present State of Virginia, London, 1724, Sabin's reprint, pp. n, 12. INDIAN SUMMER AND THE COMET 197 mother bird sits brooding on the nest, which floats on the waves. During all this time the sea is calm and sailors may voyage in safety. 1 This, then, is the Indian summer of the Greeks. It would not be fair either to the Indians or to the reader to bring these observations to a close without mentioning the myth of the god Nanibozhu as narrated by the Rev. Peter Jones in 1861 in his History of the Ojebway Indians. " This Nanahbozhoo," writes Mr. Jones, " now sits at the North Pole, overlooking all the transac- tions and affairs of the people he has placed on the earth. The Northern tribes say that Nanahbozhoo always sleeps during the winter; but, previous to his falling asleep, fills his great pipe, and smokes for several days, and that it is the smoke arising from the mouth and pipe of Nanahbozhoo which produces what is called 'Indian summer.' " 2 The story of Nanibozhu is at least three centuries old, but unfortunately no allusion to his smoking has been found earlier than 1852, when the Rev. Peter Jacobs (Pahtahsega), a native Indian, writing of the region on the border of Lake Superior, told of a remarkable stone which was held in much veneration by the savages. " The stone looks as if some man had sat on the rock and made an impression on it, as one would on the snow in winter. This was not carved by any Indian, but it is very natural. The impression is very large, and is about six times as large as an impression made in the snow by a man. The Indians say that Nanahboshoo, a god, sat here long ago, and smoked, and that he left it for the west. Every time the Indians pass here, they leave tobacco at the stone, that Nanahboshoo might smoke in his kingdom in the west." 3 There is no evidence that Mr. Jones, himself an Indian, 1 Ovid, Metamorphoses, xi, 745 ff. 2 History of the Ojebway Indians, London, 1861, p. 35. * Journal, 2d ed., Boston, 1853, p. 16. 198 THE OLD FARMER'S ALMANACK copied from Mr. Jacobs, but there is much ground for the suspicion that the former's mention of Indian summer was a modern addition to the myth. The subject of this myth, however, is too complicated to admit of a dogmatic or summary decision, and so we may leave it wrapped in the haze of Nanibozhu's gigantic pipe. Uncle Jethro's prediction of a return of the good old- fashioned Indian summers is intended especially to en- courage the farmer to hope for a better crop of corn. In this connection we may note the words of the Rev. Manasseh Cutler, whose meteorological observations at Ipswich for 1781-83, were printed in the first volume of the Memoirs of the American Academy (1785). Under September, 1781, Mr. Cutler remarks: "Fine weather for ripening Indian corn, and making salt hay, of which there are good crops " ; and under November he adds : " Indian corn well ripened, and a good crop." The Farmer's Calendar for the beginning of October, 1799, remarks: " Indian harvest will now call your attention, which had better have it before the ears get down, and heavy rains come on." This term, " Indian harvest," occurs as early as 1642.* It means the " harvesting of Indian corn," and is opposed to " English harvest," which signifies the " harvesting of English grain," or wheat. There may be some connection between the phrases "Indian summer" and "Indian harvest," for, as Uncle Jethro suggests, a good Indian summer is conducive to a good crop of Indian corn; but it is difficult to see how either phrase can actually be derived from the other. Uncle Jethro's attitude of mind toward the sun spots and the comet is noteworthy. The spots in the sun have made the autumns cold so that there have been no Indian summers ; but the comet is to set everything right again, for it will sweep away the spots with a whisk of its tail. This is an unaccustomed r61e for a comet; for such " blaz- 1 Albert Matthews, The Nation, March 8, 1900, LXX, 183-4. INDIAN SUMMER AND THE COMET 199 ing stars," as they used to be called, were never held to be beneficent in their effects. But Uncle Jethro is an original, and his portrait is of course meant as a caricature of those belated souls who still believed, in 1818, that comets ruled the weather or were otherwise portentous. The wise men of New England had not always been so skeptical about blazing stars. In 1680 Increase Mather was inspired by the comet of that year to preach a terrify- ing sermon, which was printed under the title of Heaven's Alarm to the World. . . . wherein is shewed, that Fearful Sights and Signs in Heaven, are the Presages of Great Calamities at hand. Another, but less impressive, comet was visible at Boston two years later, and in 1683 Mather put forth his Discourse of Comets, in which he went into the whole subject with the learning and the superstition of his age. He writes : There are who think, that inasmuch as Comets may be sup- posed to proceed from natural causes, there is no speaking voice of Heaven in them, beyond what is to be said of all other works of God. But certain it is, that many things which may happen according to the course of nature, are portentous signs of divine anger, and prognosticks of great evils hastening upon the world. . . . Thunder, Lightning, Hail, and Rain, are from natural causes, yet are they sometimes signs of God's holy displeasure. . . . Earthquakes are from natural causes, yet there is many times a very speaking voice of God in them. 1 Accordingly Mather undertakes to write a history of comets from the beginning of the world to the year 1683, appending in each case an account of the direful effects that followed the prodigy. As to the comet of 1682, he expresses himself with becoming caution. Yet at the same time he displays a high degree of assurance when it comes 1 KOMHTOrPA*IA. Or a Discourse concerning Comets, Boston, 1683, pp. 18-19. 2OO THE OLD FARMER'S ALMANACK to interpreting mysterious passages in the Scriptures. He takes to task an anonymous astrologer in London who has made certain very definite predictions, a " prophe- taster," he calls him, who ventures to foretell the conver- sion of the Turks and the destruction of Rome by that people. Neither of these events, he declares, can possibly happen, for both are contrary to passages in Numbers, Daniel, and Revelation. He is, of course, convinced that the pope is Antichrist, and has no doubt that Rome is to be destroyed " by some of those horns which have given their power " to him, " which the Turks never did, Rev, 17, 1 6." It is likely, however, that the comet portends various atmospheric disturbances "a cold and tedious Winter, much Snow, and consequently great Floods ; Malignant and Epidemical Diseases; in especial the Plague." l Seventy-five years later Professor John Winthrop, who, as we shall presently see, received the first degree of LL. D. from Harvard College, 2 published his Lectures on Comets. 3 One might spend an hour with less profit than in comparing the philosophic calm of Winthrop with the frenzied eloquence of the former age. Yet the clergy had not altogether abandoned the older point of view. On another occasion Professor Winthrop found it necessary to join issue with a learned Boston divine in a matter of scientific and religious import. This was in 1755, when all New England was startled by an earthquake. There had been many earthquakes in this region, but this one was of unusual violence and caused much alarm. Professor Winthrop interrupted the regular course of his instruction in natural philosophy, and delivered a lecture in the College chapel, describing the earthquake and discussing the 1 Discourse, pp. 129-30. 2 See p. 235, below. 3 Two Lectures on Comets, Boston, 1759. & __ KOMHTOTPACplA. $ O R A~ ^ Difcourfe Concerning 1 COMETS; ace |j tobtni* tie N*t*rt of 3 LAZING STARS ^K i/ Enquired into: 2 With an Hiftorical Account of all the COMETS 5K which have appeared from the Beginning of the 1 World unto tbisprefent Year, M.DC.LXXXIH. The Place in the Heavens, where they were (een, & Their Motion, Forms, Duration 3 and the Re- K tnarkable Events which have followed in the World, fo far as th r ^. have been by learned MenObfcrved. At *lfo two SERMONS Occafi oned by the late BU*,it Stars. - By INCREASE MATHER Teacher of a Church at foy?0n in N'em-Enghnd. BOSTON JN NEw-ENGLJND ^ Printed by J. c. for S. S. And fold by ?. Sro^he ,fc At the corner of the PrifonLane next the Town- Houfe 168. Plal. 1 1 1. 2.. rfe Tpor^j of the Lord are great, fought out ff til them that bAvcyleifure therein. | P Amos 9. 6. ^e fiaiMrti Wf /?or w tk /fetven. INDIAN SUMMER AND THE COMET 2OI general subject, with particular reference to the cause of such disturbances. He follows a strictly scientific method, dwells on the undulatory character of the shock, and as- cribes the phenomena to the action of heat in the interior of the globe, insisting particularly on the connection between earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. His lecture was pub- lished " by the general desire " of the College. 1 At almost the same moment, the Rev. Thomas Prince, pastor of the South Church in Boston, was preparing a new edition of a sermon called Earthquakes the Works of God, and Tokens of His Just Displeasure, which he had published twenty-eight years before, just after the Earth- quake of 1/27. In the reprint 2 Mr. Prince inserted an " Appendix concerning the Operation of God in Earth- quakes by means of the Electrical Substance," and here he followed a line of argument which forced the Hollisian Professor to reply in a postscript to his published lec- ture. Mr. Prince, it appears, was opposed to the use of lightning rods, which had become very popular as the result of Franklin's experiments. He regarded all such attempts to escape the wrath of the Almighty as question- able devices, hardly to be distinguished, we may suppose, from Jonah's impious effort to evade the manifest will of God ; and the earthquake afforded him an opportunity to set forth his views. According to Mr. Prince's theory, earthquakes are caused by electric shocks in the earth and are strictly analagous to the phenomena of thunder and lightning. His warning against lightning rods is attached to a singular piece of reasoning: The more Points of Iron are erected round the Earth, to draw the Electrical Substance out of the Air ; the more the Earth must needs be charged with it. And therefore it seems worthy 1 A Lecture on Earthquakes, Boston, 1755. 2 Boston, 1755. 202 THE OLD FARMER'S ALMANACK of Consideration, Whether any Part of the Earth being fuller of this terrible Substance, may not be more exposed to more shock- ing Earthquakes. In Boston are more erected than any where else in New England ; and Boston seems to be more dreadfully shaken. O ! there is no getting out of the mighty Hand of GOD ! If we think to avoid it in the Air, we cannot in the Earth : Yea it may grow more fatal. It was easy for Professor Winthrop to expose the fallacies in this remarkable pronunciamento, and we cannot too much admire the dignity and the consideration for Mr. Prince's position with which he replies to the somewhat hysterical words of the preacher. After effectually dis- posing of Mr. Prince's theories in general, he adverts, with a certain stately humor, to the alleged severity of the earth- quake in Boston and to the supposed maleficent influence of the "iron points " : I know no reason to think [he writes] that ' Boston was more dreadfully shaken ' than other towns. Some of the effects of the earthquake may have been more considerable, for their number, there than elsewhere ; but the reason of this is, not that ' in Boston are more points of iron erected than any where else in New-England,' but that there are more brick houses erected there. For the effect of a shock is more considerable upon brick- work than upon wood-work. The reasons of this are obvious ; and that it is so in fact, plainly appeared by our chimnies being every where more shattered than any thing else : Though this was in part owing to their being the highest parts of buildings. His protest against the admonitory application in which Mr. Prince indulged could hardly be improved : I should think, though with the utmost deference to superior judgements, that the pathetic exclamation, which comes next, might well enough have been spared. " O ! there is no getting out of the mighty hand of GOD ! " For I cannot believe, that in INDIAN SUMMER AND THE COMET 203 the whole town of Boston, where so many iron points are erected, there is so much as one person, who is so weak, so ignorant, so foolish, or, to say all in one word, so atheistical, as ever to have entertained a single thought, that it is possible, by the help of a few yards of wire, to " get out of the mighty hand of GOD." 1 Winthrop was somewhat ahead of his time. Just twenty- five years later, in 1780, came the famous Dark Day of May i Qth. It found the people at large, and even many of the leaders among them, quite ready to yield to super- stitious terror. And, indeed, the phenomenon was dis- quieting enough. Whittier's description, in his Abraham Davenport, is amply substantiated by contemporary records : 'T was on a May-day of the far old year Seventeen hundred eighty, that there fell Over the bloom and sweet life of the Spring, Over the fresh earth and the heaven of noon, A horror of great darkness, like the night In day of which the Norland sagas tell, The Twilight of the Gods. The low-hung sky Was black with ominous clouds, save where its rim Was fringed with a dull glow, like that which climbs The crater's sides from the red hell below. Birds ceased to sing, and all the barn-yard fowls Roosted; the cattle at the pasture bars Lowed, and looked homeward ; bats on leathern wings Flitted abroad; the sounds of labor died ; Men prayed, and women wept ; all ears grew sharp To hear the doom-blast of the trumpet shatter The black sky, that the dreadful face of Christ Might look from the rent clouds, not as he looked A loving guest at Bethany, but stern As Justice and inexorable Law. There were innumerable conjectures as to the cause of the darkness, some ridiculous, others philosophical, 1 Lecture, p. 37. 204 THE LD FARMER'S ALMANACK but no document preserved to us affords a better idea of the confusion of men's minds than the following passage from a letter of Dr. Jeremy Belknap in Dover, New Hamp- shire, to his friend Ebenezer Hazard of New York, June 5, 1780: Shall I now entertain you with the whims and apprehensions of mankind upon this unusual appearance ? It is not surprising that the vulgar should turn it all into prodigy and miracle ; but what would you think of men of sense, and of a liberal education, if I should tell you that I heard one of my very good brethren in this neighbourhood gravely assert in company (and I have been told he did the same in his pulpif) that it was the fulfilling of Joel's prophecy of a " pillar of smoke " ; and that another wondered at me for not placing this phenomenon in the same rank with Josephus's signs of the destruction of Jerusalem? What would you think of one who supposed it to be the pouring out of the yth vial into the air ; and of another that called his congregation together during the darkness, and prayed that the sun might shine again, as if he had forgot the promise to Noah that " day and night should not cease " ? What would you think of one who supposed the earth to be passing through the tail of a comet ; and of another who thought the nucleus of one had inter- fered between us and the sun, so as to make an eclipse ? How many more extravagant conceptions have been formed by men, whose minds one would think had been enlarged by reason and philosophy, I know not. Doubtless you will hear enough on your return to make you stand amazed at the power which fear and superstition have over the minds of men. Should you collect any observations on your journey, I shall be greatly obliged by a communication of them. I want very much to know the exact limits of the obscuration and the degree of it in different places, for it was not everywhere alike. In some places the sun ap- peared in the afternoon, but here the whole afternoon was uniformly dark ; and the evening was as total darkness as can be conceived, with a strong smell of smoke, and between nine and INDIAN SUMMER AND THE COMET 2O$ ten it grew lighter, and afterwards continued until the moon appeared through the clouds. 1 If we compare the mental attitude of Dr. Belknap with that of Mr. Prince twenty-five years before, remembering that both were leaders of opinion in Boston, we shall get a good idea of the progress of rational thought in the second half of the eighteenth century. When another Dark Day came, on November 2d, 1819, it caused com- paratively little distress of mind, and the Yellow Day of our own recollection, September 6th, 1881, excited won- der and curious speculation, but no terror, except among the ignorant. Mr. Thomas was always an opponent of superstition. Two noteworthy passages in the Almanac give humorous expression to his general sentiments. The first is in the Farmer's Calendar for March, 1827 : Farmer Snug sits warm by his fire, And his ale and his nuts pass about. Old Betty and noisy Uriah Are steming the tempest without. Whew and whistle goes the wind and superstitious people seem to imagine that fairies and hobgoblins are continually upon the dance all about and about and about. " What a terrible frustration is here ! " cried Mrs. Flitterwinkle. " Why it seems as if the very heavens and earth were coming together ! They say our blue heifer has been blown clean across chickawicket pond ! Farmer Cleverly's cattle have all lost their tails, and just as old Mrs. Drizzle went to take up her dinner, there came a most terrifying gust, and swoop it carried porridge pot, pork, pud'n and mother Drizzle all up chimney and nothing has been heard of them since ! Ah, I knew this would happen ; for the goose bone burnt blue yesterday, and the kitten's tail pointed north all day ! Hark, what 's that ! Dear me how pale I feel ! I am afraid the moon is going to fall ! " i Coll. Mass. Hist. Soc., 5th Series, II, 54-55. 206 THE OLD FARMER'S ALMANACK Away with such superstitious nonsense, and let us be cutting scions for grafting ; or watching our fields, or cutting wood, or making maple sugar, and other matters. Three years later, in March, 1830, the Farmer's Calendar returns to the charge : Why do you conjure up a thousand frightful monsters to torment yourself, when there are enough of real evils? Some seem to think that there is a ghost in every gust of wind. Away with such vain illusions of the imagination. Strange it is that a courage, that never startles at real dangers, should shrink at even the thought of an empty chimera ! Signs and omens and prog- nostics continually fill the minds of some. "Ah, husband, I know our crops will be short next season," said a silly old woman, " for the brine has all leaked out of the pork barrel ! " She happened to get a first sight of the new moon over her left shoulder, and it made her sad and glum through the month. She once dreamed of a black cat, and this so bewitched the cream, that no butter could be made ! Farmer Bluejoint has nailed an Ass's shoe to his hogsty to keep the evil spirit from his herd of swine ; for, it is said that, old Splitfoot has always hated Asses since the affair of Balaam. The rats by thousands destroyed his grain. So, he got his daughter, Dolly, to write them a threaten- ing letter, which he. placed in his corn crib. The consequence was that every varment of them immediately evacuated the place ! What power has superstition ! The year 1830 seems rather recent for the prevalence of such notions as the Old Farmer is here scoffing at; but we are all more superstitious than we imagine, and it has not been difficult for students of folk-lore to collect a great quantity of whimsicalities from New England people, even in very recent years. Most of them, to be sure, are no longer believed, but they were articles of faith a few generations ago. Most persistent, probably, are the various notions about good and bad luck. Every reader, if he gives his INDIAN SUMMER AND THE COMET 2OJ mind to it, can think of a score that he has been brought up on, unless he is a very sophisticated person indeed. Horseshoes, and Friday, and walking under a ladder, and odd numbers, and picking up pins, will do for texts. Letters to rats are still written now and then, and have as much effects as they ever had. We have not altogether broken with the past! ARMY AND NAVY IN June, 1801, when Europe and America were both payers of tribute to the Barbary States, for exemp- tion from piratical attacks on their shipping, the Bey of Tunis met with a serious loss. A fire broke out in his palace and consumed fifty thousand stands of arms. He immediately sent for the American consul and remarked that he had " apportioned his loss among his friends," that the share of the United States was ten thousand stands, and that they must be furnished without delay. " It is im- possible," replied the consul, " to state this claim to my gov- ernment. We have no magazines of small arms. The organization of our national strength is different from that of every other nation on earth. Each citizen carries his own arms, always ready, for battle. When threatened with invasion, or actually invaded, detachments from the whole national body are sent by rotation to serve in the field : so that we have no need of standing armies nor de- positories of arms." * The most picturesque feature of the military system thus forcibly expounded to the sulky and incredulous Tunisian despot was May Training, which many New Englanders of the older generation remember as the favorite holiday of their boyhood. Besides the inspec- tions, mock fights, and miscellaneous evolutions, there were shooting matches, feats of strength, side shows, fakirs, and other accessories of the modern county fair. Boys saved their coppers for months and walked barefoot 1 Life of Gen. William Eaton, Brookfield, 1813, pp. 204-5. ARMY AND NAVY 2O9 for miles to enjoy the fun. When they were eighteen years old, they were themselves liable to military duty. Mr. Thomas was so good an American, and his annual represented the life of his time so well, that we should be surprised if he did not refer to the obligations of a citizen in military matters as well as in civil. We shall not find him lacking in proper spirit In the Farmer's Calendar for September, 1811, there is a suggestion to parents: - If your sons have no uniform for trainings, you ought imme- diately to see that they are supplied. Send them to training neat and clean, with good equipments, and inculcate in them the principles of subordination and decency of behaviour while under command. In 1816 the Almanac gives a table of fines which affords a certain amount of curious information. The " two spare flints, priming wire, and brush " recall forcibly the progress of gunmaking in the course of a century. Everybody has seen flints, but few of the younger genera- tion have ever snapped a flintlock, and " a flash in the pan " has become a mere figure of speech, as archaic in its flavor as " hoist with his own petard." As for " prim- ing wires and brushes," they are preserved as relics and curiosities, but most of us have very hazy ideas of their exact function. However, it is high time to give the table of penalties. MILITARY FINES, ACCORDING TO THE LATEST MILITIA LAW, PASSED IN 1810. dolls, cts. NON appearance ist Tuesday in May 3 oo Do do. at company training 2 oo Deficiency of gun, bayonet and belt, or ramrod i oo Do. of cartridge box, cartridges or knapsack o 30 Do. of two spare flints, priming wire, or brush o 20 14 2 JO THE OLD FARMER'S ALMANACK dolls, cts. Disorderly firing, not more than 20 dollars nor less than 5 oo Neglecting to warn for exercise, not more than twenty dollars nor less than 12 oo Neglect of regimental duty 4 oo Disorderly behaviour, not more than 20 dollars nor less than 5 oo Neglecting to meet to choose officers i oo Giving false information, or refusing to give names of persons liable to do military duty 20 oo Unmilitary conduct of musicians, not more than twenty dollars nor less than 10 oo Neglect of towns in providing ammunition, not more than five hundred dollars, nor less than 20 oo Neglect in wearing uniform 2 oo In case of detachment, and orders to march, for re- lease, if paid in twenty-four hours after, 50 oo The enrolled Militia consists of persons from eighteen to forty-five years of age. Annual inspection, first Tuesday in May, when the rules and articles are to be publickly read to the companies. Each captain must parade his company on three several days in addition to the annual inspection. All persons between the age of forty and forty-five are exempted from all military duty, by paying annually to the Town Treasurer the sum of two dollars, on or before the first Tuesday in May, and produce his receipt to the commanding officer before the first Tuesday in May, in each year. This table is repeated yearly until 1829, with a shift in the lower limit of exemption from forty to thirty-five, according to the law of 1822. After 1829 there are va- rious modifications, as the statutes changed. In 1831 we find this significant provision: "Treating with ardent spirits on days of military duty, and at elections of officers is prohibited; and Courts Martial may punish for all ARMY AND NAVY 211 offences by reprimand, removal from office and fines not exceeding $200. at their discretion." This was at the time of the great temperance movement in New England. One of the offences mentioned in the table of fines is " Neglecting to meet to choose officers," for which a pen- alty of one dollar is imposed. This reminds us of the most distinguished occasion of the kind, the Artillery Election of the Ancients and Honorables. A description of the ceremony, with a respectful tribute to the Ancients themselves, may be found in William Tudor's Letters on the Eastern States, published in 1820: Among the public institutions, there are two which deserve par- ticular notice. The first is a military company, which was incorpo- rated in the commencement of the colony, to form a school for officers ; but religious feelings were strongly united with mili- tary ones in its establishment. It now contains between one and two hundred members, who are, or have been, almost every one of them, officers, either in the regular service or in the militia , of course, among the privates, are generals, colonels, &c. The original intention was, that this should be a school for military discipline and instruction, and that they should keep in mind their duty to religion, so as to form a corps of Christian soldiers. For this purpose, their anniversary is publicly celebrated, the governor, and other persons in civil authority, attending it, and going in procession to a church, where an appropriate sermon is preached to them on the joint duties of the Christian and the soldier. After this annual sermon, they have a dinner in Faneuil Hall, to which a large number of guests are invited ; and in the afternoon, the company escort the governor to the Common, where he receives the insignia of the officers for the past year, and confers them on those who have been elected to their places. A short speech is made on giving and receiving these commissions. This company is now on a respectable footing, but perhaps more might be made of it. Their anniversary, however, affords one of the prettiest fetes we have. It is called the Artillery Election, 212 THE OLD FARMER'S ALMANACK and takes place in the month of June, and on this occasion, eight or ten thousand people are collected, to see the ceremonies in the Common. In this, as in many other cases, the spectators themselves afford the most pleasing spectacle. 1 In contrast with this pleasing spectacle may be cited the experiences of a militia captain as described in a humorous anecdote, credited to the New York Constellation, in the Almanac for 1833 : > A MILITIA CAPTAIN. A captain of militia, was in the habit of swearing ' by forty} He had, like many other officers who commanded ' slab ' com- panies, a troublesome set of fellows to deal with. One training day, when the soldiers behaved as usual, very dis- orderly, he drew his sword, and furiously brandishing it in the air, exclaimed ' Fellow sogers, I swear by forty, if you don't behave better I '11 put every d 1 of you under 'rest ! ' 'I wish you would give us a little rest] said half a dozen voices, ' for we 're e^en a-most tired to death.' 'Order! order! fellow sogers,' roared the captain, with another tremendous flourish of his sword. The word was no sooner spoken, than they all come to order, bringing down the breaches of their guns with all violence, each upon his neighbor's toes which threw the ranks into greater disorder than before. ' Dress ! dress ! ' bawled the captain. ' We are dressed, most of us,' replied a fellow, who was barefoot, and had on a rimless hat. ' Now by forty,' said the captain, ' that 's one tarnal lie ; you aint above half dressed, if that 's what you mean but I mean something else I mean you sould dress in the milintary sense of the word.' ' How 's that, cap- tain ? ' cried half a dozen voices. ' How 's that ! you fools you,' exclaimed the captain, ' by forty, have you been so long under my training, and don't know the meaning of dress ? Form a straight line ! I say form a straight line ! ' 1 New York, 1820, Letter XV, pp. 310-11 ; ad ed., Boston, 1821, pp. 368-9. ARMY AND NAVY 213 The soldiers made sundry ineffectual efforts to get into a straight line, and the captain begun to despair of ever straightening them, when his military genius, suddenly suggested to him the novel expedient of backing his men up against a fence, which fortu- nately happened to be straight. ' Tention ! fellow sogers,' said he in a stentorian voice, ' Ad- vance backwards ! Music, quick step ! ' The soldiers made a quick retrograde movement, and come with their backs plump against the fence. ' There ! by forty,' said the captain, ' now see if you can keep straight.' But he had scarcely performed this manoeuvre, and being about to resume the manual exercise, when the clouds began to threaten rain ; the soldiers squinting at the aspect, began to desert their ranks, and hasten towards a neigh- boring tavern. ' Halt ! halt ! ' roared the captain ' halt ! I say fellow sogers ; where the d 1 are you going to ? ' ' We 're going to get out of the rain.' ' Out of the rain ! you cowards ! Halt ! I say, or I '11 stick the first man I can catch.' ' I '11 take care you sha'nt catch me,' shouted each one, as he took to his heels. In less than a minute, the whole company had deserted ; and the captain had little chance of sticking them, for very good reason, he could not overtake them. ' By forty ! ' said he, after standing speechless for a minute or two, ' If this don't beat all, just as I had got them into a straight line by a new manoeuvre to desert me thus ! But there 's no use in keeping the field all alone ; I may as well go to the tavern too.' So saying, he sheathed his sword, and followed his soldiers. The following inventory of the United States Navy, pub- lished in the Almanac for 1814, was of vital interest then, in the thick of the War of 1812, and will not be read with indifference by any American to-day: NAVY OF THE UNITED STATES. JULY, 1813. Names Guns Names Guns Constitution 44 Isaac Hull 10 United States .... 44 Conquest 8 President 44 Hamilton 8 214 THE OLD FARMER'S ALMANACK Names Guns Macedonian 38 Constellation 36 Congress 36 New-York 36 Essex 32 Adams 32 Boston 32 General Pike 32 Madison 28 John Adams 20 Louisiana 20 Alert 18 Argus 1 8 Hornet 18 Oneida 18 Troupe 18 Revenge * 1 6 Syren 14 Nonsuch 14 Enterprize 14 Carolina 14 Comet* 14 Duke of Gloucester ...12 President 12 Petapsco * 12 Names Guns Raven 8 Scourge 8 Governor Tompkins . . 6 Scorpion 6 5 4 12 3 3 2 Growler Fair American . Viper .... Lady of the Lake Pert .... Julia .... Elizabeth 2 Ontario i Adeline Asp Analoston Despatch Ferret Neptune Perseverance .... -?Etna bomb Mary do. Spitfire do. Vengeance .... do. Vesuvius . do. Beside the above there are a number of Revenue Cutters, and about one hundred and seventy-eight Gun-Boats. Two sloops of war have lately been launched on Lake Erie. The vessels names which are in Italicks have been captured from the British since the commencement of the present war. Those marked thus (*) are hired by the United States. The brief remark that " two sloops of war have lately been launched on Lake Erie " reminds us that Perry's Victory was won about two months after the date of this list, on September loth, 1813. The vessels referred to are probably the brigs Lawrence and Niagara. The list is a little too early to include Perry's squadron ; but it gives ARMY AND NAVY 215 the names of some of the most famous vessels that ever belonged to our navy. The Essex and the Alert both appear, the latter as captured from the enemy. She was, in fact, the first British national vessel to be taken in the war, and the Essex, under Porter, was her captor. The name Hornet reminds us of the great fight between the Hornet and the Peacock (February 24, 1813), for which Lawrence received a medal from Congress. The United States, Decatur's ship, and her prize the Macedonian both appear in- the inventory. The frigate President, whose fight with the Little Belt, preceded the outbreak of the war, was soon to distinguish herself by a clever piece of blockade-running. The exploits of the Constitution are too well-known to need repetition. THE SCHOOLMASTER IN 1834 Miss Harriet Martineau came to America in search of mental refreshment and change of scene. She spent a couple of years in this country and has left a record of her experiences and impressions in two books which have won a respectable place in the great class of miscellaneous literature, Society in America, and Retrospect of Western Travel, besides the minute ac- count of her connection with the anti-slavery ^movement which she gives in her Autobiography. With the mass of these writings we have at this moment no particular concern, but one incident must not pass without notice. In an idle hour, or let us say rather in a moment of peculiar inspiration, Miss Martineau had recourse to a certain " old almanack," where she discovered something to point an excellent moral. Here is her account of the discovery : All young people in these [New England] villages are more or less instructed. Schooling is considered a necessary of life. I happened to be looking over an old almanack one day, when I found, among the directions relating to the preparations for winter on a farm, the following : " Secure your cellars from frost. Fasten loose clap-boards and shingles. Secure a good school-master." It seemed doubtful, at the first glance, whether some new farming utensil had not been thus whimsically named ; as the brass plate which hooks upon the fender, or upper bar of the grate, is called " the footman " ; but the context clearly showed that a man with learning in his head was the article required to be provided before the winter. 1 1 Society in America, London, 1837, I, 264. THE SCHOOLMASTER It must be admitted, even by Miss Martineau's warmest admirers, that she did not always comprehend the Ameri- can character. Indeed, she had the good sense not to suppose that she could comprehend it. Just before she sailed for the United States, James Mill asked her, quizzi- cally, whether she "expected to understand the Ameri- cans " in two years. " He was glad to find," writes Miss Martineau, " that I had no such idea, and told me that five-and-twenty years before, he had believed that he under- stood the Scotch : and that in another five-and-twenty, he should no doubt understand the English ; but that now he was quite certain that he understood neither the one nor the other." l It was hardly this warning that sent Miss Martineau to the old almanac, but rather her own sagacity, or perhaps a happy accident. At all events, she lighted upon a highly characteristic passage, and it is to her credit that she did not fail to perceive what it signifies, that to procure a schoolmaster is as much a matter of course to a Yankee farmer as any other provision for the winter season. To his mind there is nothing incongruous between attention to loose shingles and solicitude for primary education. It does not appear what almanac Miss Martineau con- sulted. Very possibly it was that of Mr. R. B. Thomas. The precise passage, to be sure, has not been discovered in the sayings of the Old Farmer; but she may have been quoting from memory, and the form and the sentiment both suggest the admonitions of the Farmer's Calendar. That column contains, along with its precepts of practical agriculture, much exhortation on the subject of schools and schoolmasters. Some of the entries are characteristic enough to deserve reproduction. Besides, they are not without value as bits of country life at the end of the eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteenth century. 1 Autobiography, Boston, 1877, I, 329. 218 THE OLD FARMER'S ALMANACK A passage which comes very near to Miss Martineau's quotation occurs in the Farmer's Calendar for November, 1 804 : Now let the noise of your flail awake your drowsy neighbours. Bank up your cellars. Now hire a good schoolmaster, and send your children to school as much as possible. In November, 1810, there is also a near approach to what Miss Martineau read : Bank your cellars unless your underpinning is such as renders it unneedful. Drive all your loose nails ; and if the boys have broken any glass during the summer in the windows, you find it more comfortable to have the hole stopped up, than to let it go over winter. Send your children to school. Every boy should have a chance to prepare himself to do common town business. In December, 1801, we have a good piece of proverbial philosophy: " A cheap school-master makes a dear school" says Common Sense. As this is the season for opening schools in the country, the above adage may be worthy of attention. Experience teaches, that the master, who will keep for 8 dollars per month, is not worth the keeping : yet some towns, to save 2 dollars, give away 10. Again, in December, 1803 and 1805 : - It is hoped that every town and village is now supplied with a wise and virtuous school-master ; not ten dollar men such pitiful pedants are too plenty. (1803.) Attend to your schools. Hire not what neighbor Simpkins calls a four dollar master to instruct your children ; it will be throwing away money. He who deprives his children of education, at once robs himself and society. (1805.) THE SCHOOLMASTER 219 But the liveliest passage of the kind is in the Calendar for November, 1820, where we have not only a full account of the acquirements of a five-dollar master, but also an eloquent speech from one of the advocates of ill-judged economy: This is the last month of Autumn, and it is now the business of the prudent man to be making his calculations about winter matters. I have often mentioned the importance of schooling to the rising generation. Few, if any countries, are blest like New- England, with public school establishments. No stinginess about the business. See that you have an able master, and pay him well. Here my neighbour Hugpurse and I can never agree ; for he says, " So much of this here larnin is altogether useless and expensive. There is Joe Simple is good enough for our school. He has cyphered through compound interest, and that 's fur enough for any man. He knows nothing about Jogrify and Grammar and such stuff; but he can write as good a hand as I can ; and as for reading, he is far better than Squire Puff. In spelling they say he is curious. I have often heard that when a boy he could spell Nebuchadnezzar quicker than any one in school. I move, Mr. cheersman, that we hire Joe Simple to keep our school this winter. Give him five dollars a month and board himself, which is all he axes." Mr. Thomas knew what he was talking about. He had been a country pedagogue himself; and, though he did not fall in love with the profession in fact, he tells that he grew heartily tired of it he had always been success- ful in his schoolmastering. 1 He felt a proper contempt for the shortsighted stinginess of ignorant committeemen, and cherished no illusions as to the quality of the cheap pretenders to learning whose services they secured for little or nothing. He must have known many Ichabod Cranes and Joe Simples in his day. But schoolmasters 1 See p. 6, above. 220 THE OLD FARMER'S ALMANACK like Joe Simple were not the only pretenders whom Mr. Thomas satirized. He was equally severe on those who aped the follies of fine gentlemen. Thus in December, 1815, we read: It is all important now that you send your children to school ; but take care that you have a good instructor for them. It is not everyone who apes the gentleman that is fit for this under- taking. To strut in white top boots, brandish a canee, drink brandy, and smoke segars, are not the most essential qualifications for a schoolmaster. It is a serious misfortune that in many parts our country schools are exceedingly neglected ; and it would seem that were it not for the law's obliging them to have at least the appearance of schools, there would be no provision at all for this purpose made for years ! What better estate can you give your offspring than a good education ? I would not urge you to send them to college neither to an academy; but see that you have the best of teachers in your town schools ; be not stingy about the price let not your children suffer for shoes and other clothing to make them comfortable and decent Town schools are of the first importance, for here and in the family at home is laid the foundation of the future man, whether he be great, or mean, an honest man, or a scoundrel. Top-boots and cigar-smoking seem to have gone to- gether. Robert SutclirT, the English Quaker, who travelled in America from 1804 to 1806, shared Mr. Thomas's suspicion of both articles. " I have remarked," he writes, " that some people in America have a great predilection for wearing boots, and for smoking segars. Even children of five or six years of age, are sometimes seen, in their boots smoking segars." l Most of Mr. Thomas's early readers, if they smoked at all, doubtless smoked pipes, for the cigar (or segar, as there was a tendency to spell the word about this time) was not only citified, but was re- 1 Travels in some Parts of North America, in the years 1804, 1805, and 1806, 2d ed., York, 1815, p. 103. THE SCHOOLMASTER 221 garded as indicative of riotous living. Perhaps, therefore the following entry, honestly meant as it certainly was, suggested no roguish thoughts to the contemporary agri- culturist. To the modern smoker it has a sinister sound. It occurs in the Farmer's Calendar for June 12, 1796: Set cabbages and tobacco. And, as if a word to the wise were not always sufficient in tricks of the trade, we have, a year later, in June, 1797, an additional injunction: - Set more cabbages and tobacco. The word more has some significance. It involves a pleasant suggestion of the " constant reader," the " old subscriber." In consulting the Calendar for June of one year, the farmer who is faithful to the admonitions of the Almanac will surely remember what he did, or shunned, the year before. " More cabbages and tobacco," then, must not be taken as the helpless reiteration of an almanac- writer at his wit's end. It implies, rather, that the author believes in himself and has reason to think that his public has confidence in him. " You planted cabbages and tobacco last year, no doubt, as I advised. Very well ! Plant some more now. You see my counsel was good." A lesson for parents, as apposite now as it ever was, may be found in the December Calendar for 1807. Here also Mr. Thomas was speaking from experience : - Let your children go to school as much as possible ; and do not interfere with the orders and regulations of the master. When your little darling Jemmy is whipt at school it is a miserable way to give him gingerbread, and call the master puppy, rascal, &c. &c. And again, in February, 1809: Keep the boys at school as much as possible, and take care not to rail against the master in their presence. Some people 222 are eternally complaining about the schoolmaster or mistress. Let the school be never so well kept, they will be dissatisfied. Another kind of admonition, in the Calendar for Decem- ber, 1 8 12, sounds strange to modern ears: Now you have an opportunity for schooling your children; and what can you give them to more profit? Riches and honors will fly away, but a good education, with habitual improvement, will abide by them, and be a source of pleasure and profit, when business and money, and friends fail them. But do not let them be prevented from going to school for want of shoes, &c. They should have been well shod before this time. This observation about staying at home for lack of shoes recalls the fact that going barefoot was far commoner a hundred (or even thirty) years ago than it is to-day. " Old enough to go to meeting barefooted " is a Yankee proverb not yet forgotten, though not, of course, to be taken seriously. An old New Englander who, in 1837, wrote reminiscences of his youth for the Old Colony Memorial, is very clear on this matter. He is speaking of ordinary attire in the country districts. " Old men," he says, " had a great coat and a pair of boots. The boots generally lasted for life . . . Shoes and stockings were not worn by the young men, and by but few men in farming business." As for the young women, he informs us that in the summer, when engaged in their ordinary work, they " did not wear stockings and shoes." 1 We may close our series of extracts with two eloquent utterances of a generally admonitory character: - Let your children go to school. No country in the world is so blest with schooling as New- England ; then neglect not to im- prove this excellent advantage. (December, 1806.) 1 Collections of the New-Hampshire Historical Society, 1837, V, 226-7. THE SCHOOLMASTER 223 It is a duty to educate our children in the ways of frugality and economy, as well as industry. In some it is owing to inattention, in others to parsimony that their children are kept from school. The heedless man who can just write his name and pick out a chapter or two in his bible and perhaps find the changes of the moon in his almanack, thinks that his children and his children's children are to go on in the same way with himself, and so is regardless of their education ; but the penurious man, if it cost a cent, will see them hanged before they shall be taught to spell Caleb. (March, 1813.) A generation ago there was a stock question which used to be asked of school children : " What is the chief glory of New England? " And the reply was a matter of clock- work : " The chief glory of New England is in her public schools." The children had their doubts, but they an- swered dutifully. This kind of catechising is out of fash- ion now, and the mere thought of it provokes a smile among educational theorists ; but it had its uses. In the case in hand, it called attention to the fact that schools do not spring up of themselves; and it may now and then have reminded the rising generation of certain items of indebtedness to the Puritan past. This whole subject of New England schooling is not easy to discuss without los- ing one's equilibrium. On the one hand, we are habituated to a good deal of undiscriminating eulogy of our ancestors, as if they never faltered in their zeal for education. On the other, there are the iconoclasts, who make much of the difficulty there was in enforcing the school laws. 1 There is evidence of such difficulty. A Massachusetts Act of 1701 declares that the previous statute " is shamefully neglected by divers Towns." In an Election Sermon for 1709 the 1 The Massachusetts laws which particularly concern us are those of 1647 (Mass. Colony Records, II, 203), 1692 (4 \Vm. and Mary, ch. xi), 1701 (13 Wm. Ill, ch. xx), 1789 (Acts, ch. xix), and 1824 (Acts, ch. cxi, amending the Act of 1789). 224 THE LD FARMER'S ALMANACK Rev. Grindal Rawson, of Mendon, exclaims : " How little care is there generally taken, especially in Country Towns, to promote the Liberal Education of Children? How much is it become the Practice of many Towns, to Study Tricks and Shifts whereby the Law of the Land obliging to the upholding and maintaining of Schools, may be wholly evaded and lose its Efficacy? And is not this Provoking to God, and disserviceable to the interest of Posterity?" 1 In 1713 Cotton Mather, in one of his innumerable jere- miads, called Advice from the Watch Tower, in a Testi- mony against Evil Customs, censures the evasion of this law: "To Elude the Law about Schools, is too Customary. It argues, that a due sense of that Grand Concern, the Education of Children, is too much laid aside among us. Tis Wonderful! Tis Wonderful! That a People of our Profession would seem so unconcerned, Lest the next Generation be miserably Uncultivated, and have hideous Barbarity grow upon it ! " All this, however, should not mislead us. The facts are clear enough, and the anxiety of the preachers is really a favorable symptom. The significant thing is not that the laws were not always obeyed, but that the colonial and pro- vincial authorities made an honest attempt to enforce them, and that the outcome of their efforts was, when time was ripe, a public school system which, though not perfect, is at all events a remarkable achievement. We should regard the general tendency and the final results. We have a good many diaries kept by soldiers in the Revolutionary War. Most of these *are rudely spelled and not very exact in point of grammar. They show that the rank and file were not highly educated, and they have often been cited as proof that the schools and schoolmasters of the eight- eenth century were poor things. What they really prove, 1 The Necessity of a Speedy and Thorough Reformation, Boston, 1709, p. 36. Advice from the Watch Tower. In a TESTIMONY againft EVIL CUSTOMES. A brief ESSAY To declare the Danger & Mifchief of zl\ Evil Cuftomes, in general j Arid Offer a more .particular CATA- LOGUE of EVIL CUSTOMES grow- ing upon us i With certain METHODS for the Pre- vention and Suppreffion of them. Hab. II. I. Imillflwd upon my Watch, and Cet me upon tk'e Totter, and will rpatch to fee what JJhall anfoer upon my Reproof, Luk. XXI. 13. It fljatt turn to you for a TESTIMONY, Vtwnt Confuetudinem, dura, tft fugna, Auguft, taU Cuty* Mi Z itt me , Rtem > ad Retfitudinem. tudinem, Boflat. Printed ty J. Alltn, tor N* Boone, at the Sign of the Bible in Cornhll. 1713. THE SCHOOLMASTER 225 however, is that almost every New Englander could read and write, and this, after all, is a pretty creditable showing. When John Adams was in England in 1786, he fell in with a Virginian, Major Langbourne, who had "taken the whim of walking all over Europe, after having walked over most of America." The Major lamented " the difference of character between Virginia and New England." " I offered," writes Adams, " to give him a receipt for mak- ing a New England in Virginia. He desired it; and I recommended to him town meetings, training days, town schools, and ministers, giving him a short explanation of each article. The meeting-house and school-house and training field are the scenes where New England men were formed. Colonel Trumbull, who was present, agreed that these are the ingredients. In all countries and in all com- panies, for several years, I have, in conversation and in writing, enumerated the towns, militia, schools, and churches, as the four causes of the growth and defence of New England. The virtues and talents of the people are there formed ; their temperance, patience, fortitude, prudence, and justice, as well as their sagacity, knowledge, judgment, taste, skill, ingenuity, dexterity, and industry." 1 Here is an uncommonly interesting bit of autobiography from the middle of the eighteenth century. The writer, Rufus Putnam, was an officer of distinction, whom Wash- ington pronounced the best engineer on the American side in the Revolution. No one can doubt that the New England spirit finds a truer expression in the boy's strug- gles to learn something than in the nonchalance of his guardians. In Sep 1 1747, I went to live with my Step Father, Capt John Sadler (at Upton) and continued with him untill his death (in September or October 1753) 1 Diary, July 21, 1786, Works, ed. C. F. Adams, III, 400. 226 THE OLD FARMER'S ALMANACK during the six year I lived with Cap 1 Sadler, I never Saw the inside of a School house, except about three weeks, he was very illiterate himself, and took no care for the education of his family; but this was not all I was made a ridecule of, and otherwise abused for my attention to books, and attempting to write, and learn Arethmatic, however, amidst all those dis- couragements I made Some advances in writeing and Arethmatic, that is I could make Letters that could be under stood, and had gon as far in Arethmatic as to work the rule of three (without any teacher but the book) Oh ! my Children beware you neglect not the education of any under your care as I was neglected. In March 1754 I was bound apprentice to Daniel Mathews of Brokfield, to the Millw[r]ights trade ; by him my education was as much neglected, as by Capt Sadler, except that he did not deny me the use of a Light for Study in the winter evenings I turned my attention chiefly to Arethmatic, Geography, and history ; had I ben as much engaged in Learning to write well, with Spelling, and Gramer, I might have ben much better quali- fied to fulfill the duties of the Succeeding Scenes of Life, which In providence I have ben called to pass through. I was zealous to obtain knowledge, but having no guide I knew not where to begin nor what course to pursue, hence neglecting Spelling and gramer when young I have Suffered much through life on that account. 1 The Constitution of Massachusetts, adopted in 1781, laid special emphasis on the duty of the Commonwealth with regard to education. In the same year the legislature passed an elaborate law providing for both elementary and grammar schools. 2 By grammar schools, we should remember, was always meant what we now call Latin or High schools. If we compare this act of 1789 with the original law of 1647, we shall find that it is less exacting. 1 Memoirs of Rufus Putnam, ed. by Miss Rowena Buell, Boston, 1903, pp. 9-1 1. 2 Acts of 1789, ch. xix. THE SCHOOLMASTER 22/ Instead of requiring a grammar school in every town of one hundred families, it raises the limit to two hundred. This change is estimated to have released one hundred and twenty towns from an obligation under which they had lain for many years. 1 Doubtless, however, it was as rigor- ous a rule as the country could bear. What had seemed possible in the compact and homogeneous Colony was no longer practicable in the growing State. This act of 1789 brings us down to the time of the Farmer's Almanack. It defines the conditions which Mr. Thomas had in mind in his constant exhortations. 2 In the lower schools the master was " to teach children to read and write, and to instruct them in the English language, as well as in arithmetic, orthography, and decent be- haviour." The higher schools were to be provided with " a grammar schoolmaster of good morals, well instructed in the Latin, Greek and English languages." An idea of the impression which the schools of New England made upon a highly cultivated and philosophical foreigner may be got from a passage in Rochefoucault's Travels in North America. The distinguished French- man, who belonged to the school of Arthur Young, is speaking of Connecticut in 1795: There is ... no instance of a town or parish, remaining, negligently, without a school. Many communities maintain their schools for a greater part of the year, than they are, by law, obliged to do. The select-men and the deputations from the communities manage the farms and other revenues of the schools. The teachers are commonly young men from the colleges, students of law or theology. Their salaries are at the pleasure of the different parishes, from two to three hundred dollars. Al- 1 G. H. Martin, The Evolution of the Massachusetts Public School System, New York, 1894, lecture iii. 2 There was no further law until 1824 : Acts of 1824, ch. cxi (amending the act of 1789). 228 THE OLD FARMER'S ALMANACK most all those who now act a distinguished part in the political business of New England, began their career as teachers in these schools ; a situation that is accounted exceedingly honourable. Sometimes, where the salary is small, women are chosen to be the teachers. Even these must, in this case, be well qualified to teach reading, writing, and arithmetic. Every county must have a school for Greek and Latin. A fine of three dollars is exacted from parents neglecting to send their children to school. The select-men have authority to levy it. 1 No account of our schools, however brief and inci- dental, can ignore the Academy, that peculiarly New England institution which has played so important a part in the social and educational life of America. The smaller towns had found it impossible to support classical schools ; but there was no actual falling-off in the zeal for educa- tion. Academies were founded, partly by bequests from public-spirited citizens, partly by voluntary contributions from subscribers. These multiplied exceedingly in the late eighteenth and the early nineteenth century, and many of them were subsidized by the States. Most of them have gone out of existence, becoming unnecessary as wealth increased and the towns were able once more to assume the duty of maintaining high schools. But the stronger institutions of the kind, which are also among the oldest, have survived and flourished. They are a dis- tinctive feature of the educational system of the whole United States. Their importance is no longer merely local ; it is national. Mr. Thomas makes an amusing remark about academies in the Farmer's Calendar for December, 1808: Now let your boys and girls attend school. Send them to the common town school, rather than to an academy. Fun, frolick, 1 Travels through the United States of North America, English transla- tion, London, 1799, I, 530. THE SCHOOLMASTER 229 and filigree are too much practised at the academies for the benefit of a farmer's boy. Let them have a solid and useful education. This should not be misunderstood. It is not an assault on the academy as an institution. It is merely a caution against sending a boy to an inappropriate school. Acade- mies, in Mr. Thomas's opinion, were not meant for those who were to spend their lives on the farm. He was no enemy to ambition, but he wished to see it intelligently guided. It will be noticed that Mr. Thomas mentions girls as well as boys in this last exhortation. The education of girls was neglected in the early days. In 1782 the Rev. John Eliot wrote from Boston to Jeremy Belknap, then minister at Dover, New Hampshire: We don't pretend to teach y e female part of y e town any- thing more than dancing, or a little music perhaps, (and these accomplishm'. must necessarily be confined to a very few,) except y e private schools for writing, which enables them to write a copy, sign their name, &c., which they might not be able to do without such a priviledge, & with it I will venture to say that a lady is a rarity among us who can write a page of commonplace sentiment, the words being well spelt, & y e style & language kept up with purity & elegance. 1 Two years later Caleb Bingham opened a private school for girls, commonly said to have been the first girls' school ever known in Boston. The letter just quoted shows that this idea is not strictly correct. Yet Bingham's establish- ment was so far in advance of the mere writing classes which Mr. Eliot mentions that it deserves its reputation. " He taught not only writing and arithmetic, but reading, spelling, and English grammar," thus meeting precisely 1 Feb. i, 1782. Coll. Mass. Hist. Soc., 6th Series, IV, 223. 230 THE OLD FARMERS ALMANACK the needs which Mr. Eliot refers to. Bingham's successful experiment soon led the town to make some provision for the education of girls. This was in 1789, and Bingham was employed in one of these new public schools. He was the author of several text-books which rivalled those of Noah Webster in popularity. His American Preceptor, published in 1794, had by 1832 sold to the number of nearly six hundred and fifty thousand copies, and his Columbian Orator, published in 1797, to the number of more than two hundred thousand. He also prepared, for his private school, a little English Grammar, The Young Lady's Accidence, of which a hundred thousand copies were sold by 1832. It was the first English grammar used in the schools of Boston. 1 Several other private schools for girls were established toward the end of the eighteenth century. In 1784 Dr. Jedediah Morse, the well-known geographer, opened such a school at New Haven, and in 1790 a Mr. Woodbridge, who gave himself the grandil- oquent title of " the Columbus of female education," followed his example. Three years before, the Moravian brethren had founded a " female seminary " at Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. The opposition to any kind of higher education for women is amusingly illustrated by the ex- perience of Miss Emma Willard, who opened a seminary for girls at Troy, New York, in 1821. She had previously conducted what she called a " female academy " at Water- ford, in the same state. A friendly minister, who felt it his duty to mention this institution in his public prayers, styled it a " seminary," not wishing to offend his hearers by speaking of it as an " academy " or a " college." Brad- ford Academy, in Massachusetts, which still flourishes, was founded in 1803.2 1 See G. E. Littlefield, Early Schools and School-Books of New England, 1904, pp. 156, 158, 229-30. 2 See a paper on The Early History of Schools and School-Books, by THE SCHOOLMASTER 23 I But chronology is dull work. Let us revert to anecdote, and, in so doing, to the old-fashioned grammar school. The Rev. John Barnard of Marblehead (who was born at Boston in 1681), after attending the instruction of a school- mistress in the town and another in the country, was sent to the Latin School in his eighth year, where he was under the tuition of " the aged, venerable, and justly famous Mr. Ezekiel Cheever," one of the most noted of New England preceptors. In his autobiography, written when he was eighty-five years old, Mr. Barnard tells a pretty little story of " an odd accident" which " drove him from the school after a few weeks " : " There was," he says, " an older lad entered the school the same week with me ; we strove who should outdo ; and he beat me by the help of a brother in the upper class, who stood behind master with the acci- dence open for him to read out off; by which means he could recite his [MS. illegible] three and four times in a forenoon, and the same in the afternoon ; but I who had no such help, and was obliged to commit all to memory, could not keep pace with him ; so that he would be always one lesson before me. My ambition could not bear to be out- done, and in such a fraudulent manner, and therefore I left the school." 1 But he soon returned and got on very well in his studies, notwithstanding he was, as he confesses, " a very naughty boy, much given to play." At length Mr. Cheever re- sorted to an ingenious device. " You Barnard," said he, " I know you can do well enough if you will ; but you are so full of play that you hinder your classmates from getting their lessons ; and therefore, if any of them cannot perform their duty, I shall correct you for it." " One unlucky day, one of my classmates did not look into his book, and there- R. N. Meriam, Collections of the Worcester Society of Antiquity, IX, no. 2 7, PP- 93 f - 1 Coll. Mass. Hist. Soc., 3d Series, V, 178. 232 THE OLD FARMER'S ALMANACK fore could not say his lesson, though I called upon him once and again to mind his book ; upon which our master beat me. I told master the reason why he could not say his lesson was, his declaring he would beat me if any of the class were wanting in their duty; since which this boy would not look into his book, though I called upon him to mind his book, as the class could witness. The boy was pleased with my being corrected, and persisted in his neglect', for which I was still corrected, and that for several days. I thought, in justice, I ought to correct the boy, and compel him to a better temper; and therefore, after school was done, I went up to him, and told him I had been beaten several times for his neglect; and since mas- ter would not correct him I would, and I should do so as often as I was corrected for him; and then drubbed him heartily. The boy never came to school any more, and so that unhappy affair ended." 1 The temptation to go on with Mr. Barnard's delightful anecdotes of his boyhood is great, but must be resisted. Still, we may indulge ourselves in one more extract, which is very brief, and gives a charming picture of the little boy and the veteran schoolmaster : I remember once, in making a piece of Latin, my master found fault with the syntax of one word, which was not so used by me heedlessly, but designedly, and therefore I told him there was a plain grammar rule for it. He angrily replied, there was no such rule. I took the grammar and showed the rule to him. Then he smilingly said, "Thou art a brave boy; I had forgot it." And no wonder ; for he was then above eighty years old. 2 Mr. Cheever was master of the Boston Latin School for nearly forty years. He died in 1 708, at the age of ninety- three, and was honored with a singular poetical tribute from 1 Coll. Mass. Hist. Soc., 3d Series, V, 179-80. 2 The same, p. 180. THE SCHOOLMASTER 233 the pen of Benjamin Tompson, " the renowned poet of New England." 1 It bore a title prophetic of Browning, " The Grammarians Funeral," and was printed as a broadside. 2 It begins : Eight Parts of Speech this Day wear Mourning Gowns Declin'd Verbs, Pronouns, Participles, Nouns. And not declined, Adverbs and Conjunctions, In Lillies Porch they stand to do their functions. With Preposition ; but the most affection Was still observed in the Interjection. This is quaint enough, but the oddest thing about the verses is that they are announced in the broadside as hav- ing been originally " composed upon the Death of Mr. John Woodmancy, formerly a School-Master in Boston : But now Published upon the Death of the Venerable Mr. Ezekiel Chevers." In other words, a second-hand elegy ! The chapter may close with a bit from the Almanac for 1807 (July), which will serve as a fitting epilogue to our pedagogical miscellany: / have more pork in my cellar, said neighbor Braggadocia, than all the Almanack makers in Christendom. Fie on your larnin, and all that stuff ; I wants none of your nonsense. No man shall teach me, faith. Now I forebore to dispute with this great man ; for the proverb says, you cannot make a silken purse of a sow's 1 See pp. 356 f., below. 2 Reproduced by Dr. Samuel A. Green in his Ten Fac-Simile Repro- ductions, Boston, 1902, No. III. T TITLES OF HONOR HE Almanac for 1794 contains " A complete list of the present CONGRESS of the UNITED STATES." At the head stand GEORGE WASHINGTON, LL. D., President of the United States, JOHN ADAMS, LL. D., Vice- President of the United States, and President of the Senate. The degree of Doctor of Laws attached to these names at once arrests the eye. Such things were more valued in those days than they are at present. No one would think of specifying a President's academic honors nowadays. We are reminded of the satirical words of John Adams himself in a letter addressed to Mrs. Mercy Warren, the historian, in 1807: There is not a country under heaven in which titles and prece- dency are more eagerly coveted than in this country. The title of Excellency, and Honor, and Worship, of Councillor, Senator, Speaker, Major-General, Brigadier-General, Colonel, Lieutenant- Colonel, Major, Captain, Lieutenant, Ensign, Sergeant, Corporal, and even Drummer and Fifer, is sought with as furious zeal as that of Earl, Marquis, or Duke in any other country ; and as many intrigues and as much corruption in many cases, are used to obtain them. 1 There is a curious little error afloat with regard to Washington's LL. D. It is often asserted, even by care- ful writers, that he was the first person to receive this 1 Coll. Mass. Hist. Soc., 5th Series, IV, 439. TITLES OF HONOR 235 honor from Harvard College. The mistake dates from 1840, when President Quincy's official History of Harvard University was published. There we read : After the evacuation of the town of Boston by the British troops, which took place on the iyth of March, 1776, con- gratulatory addresses from towns and legislatures were univer- sally presented to General Washington, for the signal success which had attended his measures. The Corporation and Over- seers, in accordance with the prevailing spirit and as an " ex- pression of the gratitude of this College for his eminent services in the cause of his country and to this society," conferred on him the degree of Doctor of Laws, by the unanimous vote of both boards. General Washington was the first individual on whom this degree was conferred by Harvard College. The diploma was signed by all the members of the Corporation except John Hancock, who was then in Philadelphia, and it was immediately published in the newspapers of the period, with an English translation. l In point of fact, the diploma to which President Quincy refers bears the signature of a man on whom the same degree had been conferred three years before, in 1773. This was the distinguished Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy, John Winthrop, the fourth in descent from Governor Winthrop, and he, not Washington, was the first person to receive an LL. D. from Harvard College. 2 Washington's diploma deserves to be reproduced, in the English translation which appeared in the Boston papers of the time. It is a good specimen of the academic eloquence of the eighteenth century : The CORPORATION of HARVARD COLLEGE in Cam- bridge, in New-England, to all the faithful in Christ, to whom these Presents shall come, GREETING. 1 II, 167. 2 H. H. Edes, Publications of the Colonial Society of Massachusetts, VII. 236 THE OLD FARMER'S ALMANACK WHEREAS Academical Degrees were originally instituted for this Purpose, That Men, eminent for Knowledge, Wisdom and Virtue, who have highly merited of the Republick of Letters and the Commonwealth, should be rewarded with the Honor of these Laurels ; there is the greatest Propriety in conferring such Honor on that very illustrious Gentleman, GEORGE WASHINGTON Esq ; the accomplished General of the confederated Colonies in America ; whose Knowledge and patriotic Ardor are manifest to all : Who, for his distinguished Virtues, both Civil and Military, in the first Place being elected by the Suffrages of the Virginians, one of their Delegates, exerted himself with Fidelity and singular Wisdom in the celebrated Congress of America, for the Defence of Liberty, when in the utmost Danger of being for ever lost, and for the Salvation of his Country ; and then, at the earnest Request of that Grand Council of Patriots, without Hesitation, left all the Pleasures of his delightful Seat in Virginia, and the Affairs of his own Estate, that through all the Fatigues and Dangers of a Camp, without accepting any Reward, he might deliver New-England from the unjust and cruel Arms of Britain, and defend the other Colonies ; and Who, by the most signal Smiles, of Divine Providence on his Military Operations, drove the Fleet and Troops of the Enemy with disgraceful Precipitation from the Town of Boston, which for eleven Months had been shut up, fortified, and defended by a Garrison of above seven Thousand Regulars; so that the Inhabitants, who suffered a great Variety of Hardships and Cruelties while under the Power of their Oppressors, now rejoice in their Deliverance, the neigh- bouring Towns are freed from the Tumults of Arms, and our University has the agreeable Prospect of being restored to its antient Seat. Know ye therefore, that We, the President and Fellows of Harvard-College in Cambridge, (with the Consent of the Honored and Reverend Overseers of our Academy) have constituted and created the aforesaid Gentleman, GEORGE WASHINGTON, who merits the highest Honor, DOCTOR of LAWS, the Law of Nature and Nations, and the Civil Law ; and have given and TITLES OF HONOR 237 granted him at the same Time all Rights, Privileges, and Honors to the said Degree pertaining. In Testimony whereof, We have affixed the Common Seal of our University to these Letters, and subscribed them with our Hand writing this Third Day of April in the Year of our Lord one Thousand seven Hundred Seventy-six. 1 The early numbers of the Almanac are not lacking in tributes of respect to " that very illustrious gentleman, George Washington, Esq.," as the translated diploma calls him. One of the most felicitous is incidental. It occurs in a kind of epigram addressed to those farmers who allow needless anxiety for state affairs to interfere with their more immediate concerns : ADVICE. To Country Politicians. Go weed your corn, and plow your land, And by Columbia's interest stand, Cast prejudice away ; To able heads leave state affairs, Give raling o'er, and say your prayers, For stores of corn and hay, With politics ne'er break your sleep But ring your hogs, and shear your sheep, And rear your lambs and calves ; And WASHINGTON will take due care That Briton never more shall dare Attempt to make you slaves. 2 There is a briefer exhortation to a similar effect in the Farmer's Calendar for June, 1807: "Cut your clover; and mind your business." In 1820 the English traveller Hodgson was told by an 1 Albert Matthews, ibid.; printed also from the New-England Chronicle in J. T. Buckingham's Specimens of Newspaper Literature, Boston, 1850, I, 223-4. 2 Almanac for 1796. 238 THE OLD FARMER'S ALMANACK acquaintance " that much as General Washington rode and walked through the streets, during a residence of several years in Philadelphia, he seldom passed a window, without the party in the room rising to look at him, although they might have been in his company the hour before." Hodg- son remarks that he had often heard the same thing from other Americans. 1 Yet there were local functionaries who were greater than Washington, as was shown by an adventure that befell him in Connecticut on a Sunday in 1789. "The President," according to the Columbian Centinel, " on his return to New-York from his late tour, through Connecticut, having missed his way on Saturday, was obliged to ride a few miles on Sunday morning, in order to gain the town, at which he had previously proposed to have attended divine service. Before he arrived, however, he was met by a Tythingman, who commanding him to stop, demanded the occasion of his riding; and it was not until the President had informed him of every circumstance, and promised to go no further than the town intended, that the Tythingman would permit him to proceed on his journey." 2 A similar adventure is said to have befallen General William Eaton in the same State some years later. Gen- eral Eaton, however, met the occasion with less repose. He had just returned from Africa after his famous march across the Desert of Barca and his capture of Derne in the war with Tripoli (1805), and was travelling in his carriage from Hartford to Boston. On his way through the parish of North Coventry, " as he neared the village church, his coachman was ordered to stop, with a threatened fine for journeying on the Sabbath. As soon as the old soldier 1 Adam Hodgson, Letters from North America, London, 1824, II, 18-19. 2 Columbian Centinel, December, 1789, as quoted by Henry M. Brooks, New-England Sunday, Boston, 1886, pp. 1-2. TITLES OF HONOR 239 learned the cause of his detention, he thrust his head from a carriage window, and with a pistol in hand he exclaimed : 'Where is the man who stops my carriage? I don't care to shoot him, but I think I will ! ' ' The tithingman is reported to have taken refuge in the church, and the general was allowed to proceed. 1 1 Jeptha R. Simms, The Frontiersmen of New York, Albany, 1882, I, o _ _ MUNCHAUSEN THE humor of hyperbole, as well as that of ironical understatement, is quite in accordance with the New England character. It would be strange, therefore, if our annual miscellany did not afford examples of the Munchausen style of anecdote. That which follows may be found in the Almanac for 1809 : AMUSING. MR. THOMAS, We have frequently heard of the wonderful feats and extraordi- nary stories of Simonds, old Kidder, and Sam Hyde ; but I be- lieve neither of them have exceeded the following, related by G. H 11, a mighty hunter, and known in that part of the country where he lived by the name of the VERMONT NIMROD. It may serve to divert some of your evening readers. A. Z. " I WAS once," said he, "passing down the banks of the Hud- son in search of game, and suddenly heard a crackling on the opposite bank. Looking across the river, I saw a stately buck, and instantly drew up and let fly at him. That very moment a huge sturgeon leaped from the river in the direction of my piece. The ball went through him, and passed on. I flung down my gun threw off my coat and hat, and swam for the floating fish, which, mounting, I towed to the bank and went to see what more my shot had done for me. I found the ball had passed through the heart of the deer, and struck into a hollow tree beyond ; where the honey was running out like a river ! I sprung round to find something to stop the hole with, and caught hold of a white rabbit It squeaked just like a stuck pig ; so I thrash'd it away from me in a passion at the disappointment, and it went MUNCHAUSEN 241 with such force that it killed three cock partridges and a wood cock." ! ! ! Simonds and old Kidder, who are mentioned by Mr. Thomas's facetious correspondent as the heroes of incred- ible adventures, have not been identified, and the name of " the Vermont Nimrod " is as puzzling a question as those propounded by Sir Thomas Browne, "What song the Sirens sang or what name Achilles assumed when he hid himself among women." Sam Hyde, however, is a more familiar personage. In 1820 Mr. Thomas remarks, in rejecting an anecdote offered by a correspondent, that it " smells too strong of the marvellous " and " is better calculated for Sam Hyde's Register." Sam has even be- come proverbial. " To lie like Sam Hyde " is still a New England saying, though, like so many old saws, it is going out of use as the population becomes more mixed. He is said to have been an Indian, and here is his biography as it stands in S. G. Drake's Book of the Indians. If it is not true, it is all the more appropriate in view of Sam's talent for mendacity. Sam Hide. There are few, we imagine, who have not heard of this personage ; but, notwithstanding his great notoriety, we might not be thought serious in the rest of our work, were we to enter seriously into his biography ; for the reason, that from his day to this, his name has been a by-word in all New England, and means as much as to say the greatest of liars. It is on account of the following anecdote that he is noticed. Sam Hide was a notorious cider-drinker as well as liar, and used to travel the country to and fro begging it from door to door. At one time he happened in a region of country where cider was very hard to be procured, either from its scarcity, or from Sam's frequent visits. However, cider he was determined to have, if lying, in any shape or color, would gain it. Being not far from the house of an acquaintance, who he knew had cider, but he 16 242 THE OLD FARMER'S ALMANACK knew, or was well satisfied, that, in the ordinary way of begging, he could not get it, he set his wits at work to lay a plan to insure it. This did not occupy him long. On arriving at the house of the gentleman, instead of asking for cider, he inquired for the man of the house, whom, on appearing, Sam requested to go aside with him, as he had something of importance to communicate to him. When they were by themselves, Sam told him he had that morning shot a fine deer, and that, if he would give him a crown, he would tell him where it was. The gentleman did not incline to do this, but offered half a crown. Finally, Sam said, as he had walked a great distance that morning, and was very dry, for a half a crown and a mug of cider he would tell him. This was agreed upon, and the price paid. Now Sam was required to point out the spot where the deer was to be found, which he did in this manner. He said to his friend, You know of such a meadow, describing it Yes You know a big ash tree, with a big top by the little brook Yes Well, under that tree lies the deer. This was satisfactory, and Sam departed. It is unnecessary to mention that the meadow was found, and the tree by the brook, but no deer. The duped man could hardly contain himself on consider- ing what he had been doing. To look after Sam for satisfaction would be worse than looking after the deer, so the farmer con- cluded to go home contented. Some years after, he happened to fall in with the Indian ; and he immediately began to rally him for deceiving him so ; and demanded back his money and pay for his cider and trouble. Why, said Sam, would you find fault if Indian told truth half the time 1 No Well, says Sam, you find him meadow ? Yes You find him tree ? Yes What for then you find fault Sam. H\de,w/ien he told you two truth to one lie ? The affair ended here. Sam heard no more from the farmer. This is but one of the numerous anecdotes of Sam Hide, which, could they be collected, would fill many pages. He died in Dedham, 5 January, 1732, at the great age of 105 years. He was a great jester, and passed for an uncommon wit. In all the wars against the Indians during his lifetime, he served the English MUNCHAUSEN 243 faithfully, and had the name of a brave soldier. He had himself killed 19 of the enemy, and tried hard to make up the soth, but was unable. 1 We must take this narrative for what it is worth. Drake cites no authority, and one regrets to find that the Ded- ham archives contain no record of Sam Hyde's death, whether in 1732 or in any other year. The deer story is told of " one Tom Hyde, an Indian famous for his cun- ning," in Freeman Hunt's anonymous book of American Anecdotes, which was published in 1830. Hunt dates it " some years anterior to the independence of the United States," and says that the white man whom Hyde tricked was an innkeeper at Brookfield, Massachusetts. 2 Drake's account of Sam's ambition to kill twenty of his foes seems to be adapted from a passage in Hubbard's Indian Wars. On July 3d, 1676, Major Talcott of Connecticut, who was pursuing King Philip in the Narragansett country, after surprising and defeating the enemy in a swamp, turned towards home, at the request of his Mohegan and Pequot allies. On the way his troops fell in with a party of sixty Indians, " all of whom they slew and took." One of the prisoners was " a young sprightly fellow," whom his cap- tors, the Mohegans, were allowed to put to death after their own savage fashion. " And indeed," writes Hubbard, " of all the Enemies that have been the Subjects of the precedent discourse; This Villain did most deserve to become an Object of Justice and Severity ; For he boldly told them, that he had with his Gun dispatched nineteen English, and that he had charged it for the twentieth ; but not meeting with any of ours, and unwilling to loose a. fair shot, he had let 1 S. G. Drake, The Book of the Indians, 8th edition, Boston, 1841, Book i, pp. 21-22. 2 American Anecdotes, Original and Select, by an American, Boston, 1830, No. cccxiv, II, 109-10. 244 THE OLD FARMER'S ALMANACK fly at a Mohegin, and kill'd him ; with which, having made up his number, he told them he was fully satisfied." l The marvellous force of the Vermont Nimrod's gun can be paralleled by an authentic accident that happened in December, 1775, and is chronicled in Aaron Wright's Revolutionary Journal : 2 John M'Murtry, in Capt. Chambers' company, killed John Penn, by his rifle going off, when, he says, he did not know it was loaded. He was cleaning the lock, and put it on and primed it to see how she would 'fier.' It shot through a double par- tition of inch boards, and through one board of a berth, and went in at Penn's breast, and out at his back, and left its mark on the chimney. M'Murtry's firelock must have resembled the Revolu- tionary relic described in the Almanac for 1844: AN OLD GUN. ZADOCK THOMPSON, Esq., of Halifax, Plymouth county, Mass., has now, or lately had, in his possession an old gun, which has descended to him from his ancestors, who came from Plymouth, in the third embarkation from England, in the month of May, 1622. The gun was brought to this country at that time. It is of the following description : The whole length of the stock and barrel, seven feet four and a half inches the length of the barrel, six feet one inch and a half the size of the calibre will carry twelve balls to the pound ; the length of the face of the lock, ten inches ; the whole weight of the gun, twenty pounds and twelve ounces. At the commencement of Philip's war, the Indians, became so morose, the people, in the month of June, 1 William Hubbard, Narrative of the Troubles with the Indians, Boston, 1677, Postscript, pp. 9-10. 2 Historical Magazine, July, 1862, VI, 211, cited by C. K. Bolton, The Private Soldier under Washington, New York, 1902, p. 113. MUNCHAUSEN 245 fled for safety to the fort, which was built near what was called the Four Corners, in Middleboro'. The Indians would daily ap- pear on the southeasterly side of the river, and ascend what is called the hand rock, because there was the impression of a man's hand indented on it. There they would be in fair sight of the fort. Here, according to an antiquarian author, the Indians would show themselves to the people in the fort, and make their insulting gestures. The people became tired of daily insults. Lieut. Thompson the commander in chief, ordered Isaac How- land, a distinguished marksman, to take his gun and shoot the Indian, while he was insulting them. This he did, and gave the Indian a mortal wound. Filled with revenge for their wounded companion, the Indians took to the woods running down the hill to the mill just below the fort, where the miller was at work ; he discovered them, and seized his coat and fled. Placing his coat and hat on the end of a stick, as he ran through the brush to the fort, and holding his coat over his head, the coat was per- forated by several balls. The Indians dragged their wounded companion two miles and three quarters, to the deserted house of Wm. Nelson, on the farm now occupied by Maj. Thomas Ben- nett. The Indian died that night and was buried with the ac- customed ceremonies, and the house was burnt. In the year 1821, nearly one hundred and fifty years after the Indian had been buried, Major Bennett, in ploughing the land, disinterred some of his bones, a pipe, a stone jug, and a knife, all much decayed by the slow but all destroying hand of time. Maj. B v a few years since, measured the distance from the fort to the rock where the Indian was, and made the astonishing distance of 155 rods nearly half a mile. Zadock Thompson's gun must have been as valuable as that with regard to which Israel Fearing, of Agawam, makes an elaborate entry in his account book about 1750: John Fearing bought a gun of Nehemia bese for 3 bushalls of corn and 3 bushalls of rye at six pounds twelve Shillings and If 246 THE OLD FARMER'S ALMANACK ye corn or rye fecheth more by the 18 day of Augest he is to give it and to pay for mending his gun If he Redeemeth her. 1 William Priest, an English theatrical musician, who was in this country on a professional tour from 1793 to 1797, did not fail to learn that the provincials were good shots. " I have heard," he writes, " a hundred improbable stories relative to what has been done with the rifle by famous marksmen in America, such as shooting an apple from a child's head, &c. ; to which I could not give credit: but, I have no reason to doubt the following feat; as it was actually performed before many hundred inhabitants of this borough [Philadelphia], and the adjacent country. Dur- ing the late war, in the year 1775, a company of riflemen, formed from the back woodsmen of Virginia, were quar- tered here for some time : two of them alternately held a board only nine inches square between his knees, while his comrade fired a ball through it from a distance of one hundred paces ! The board is still preserved ; and I am assured by several who were present, that it was performed without any manner of deception." 2 There is no occasion to be very skeptical about this an- ecdote ; but one cannot help being amused at the testi- mony of the board. It reminds us of the old Greek jest of the pedant who, having a house for sale, carried about a single brick to exhibit to prospective purchasers as a specimen. The marksmanship is equalled, if not excelled, in a story of certain Virginia mountaineers in 1775. Five hundred recruits were needed, but many more came for- ward, and the commanding officer determined on a shoot- ing match. " A board one foot square bearing a chalk outline of a nose was nailed to a tree at a distance of 150 1 W. R. Bliss, Colonial Times on Buzzard's Bay, Boston, 1888, p. 35. 2 Travels in the United States of America, London, 1802, p. 59. The same story is told by Isaac Weld, Jr., Travels, 1799, pp. 67-8. MUNCHAUSEN 247 yards. . . . Those who came nearest the mark with a single bullet were to be enlisted. The first forty or fifty men who shot cut the nose entirely out of the board." 1 But we must leave authentic history and return to the apocryphal Green Mountain saga which begins the chap- ter. It has a companion piece in an anecdote from Connect- icut, the hero of which is Prosper Leffingwell, a mighty hunter who lived at Killingly. It is given on the authority of Mr. Barber in his Connecticut Historical Collections : 2 It were useless to attempt to detail all the events which marked the career of this famous sportsman. He was the terror of the/o xes and rabbits for ten miles around. Many instances I might relate to illustrate the degree of skill to which he attained, but let one suffice. It is said that on one occasion, while returning home from hunting, he met three foxes advancing towards him " all in a row." As his gun was not loaded, he seized a stone, and directed it, as well as he was able, in a straight line towards their heads. Wonderful to tell, he brought them all down! He gazed a moment in astonishment. He found he had struck the first in the nose, the second in the hip, and the third in the forehead all with the same stone ! The first was not quite dead, the second was badly lamed, but the third showed no signs of life whatever. While chasing the second, the first recovered and scampered away. Had he sprung upon them the moment he saw them fall, he might have secured the three. Hunting and fishing proverbially offer temptations to the skilful liar. Here is another story which is equal to that of the Vermont Nimrod. It is from the Almanac for 1836: " Did you ever hear of the scrape that I and uncle Zekiel had duckin on 't on the Connecticut?" asked Jonathan Timbertoes, 1 C.K. Bolton, as above, p. 123 (from Harrower's Diary, in American Historical Review, October, 1900, p. 100). 2 P. 432. 248 THE OLD FARMER'S ALMANACK while amusing his old Dutch hostess, who had agreed to enter- tain him under the roof of her log cottage, for and in considera- tion of a bran new tin milk-pan. " No, I never did ; do tell it," said Aunt Pumkins. " Well you must know that I and uncle Zeke took it into our heads on Saturday's afternoon to go a gunning after ducks, in father's skiff; so in we got and sculled down the river ; a proper sight of ducks flew backwards and for- wards I tell ye and by'm-by a few on 'em lit down by the mash, and went to feeding. I catched up my powder-horn to prime, and it slipped right out of my hand and sunk to the bottom of the river. The water was amazingly clear, and I could see it on the bottom. Now I could n't swim a jot, so sez I to uncle Zeke, you 're a pretty clever fellow, just let me take your powder-horn to prime. And don't you think, the stingy critter wouldn't. Well, says I, you 're a pretty good diver, 'un if you '11 dive and get it, I '11 give you primin. I thought he 'd leave his powder- horn; but he didn't, but stuck it in his pocket, and down he went and there he staid" here the old lady opened her eyes with wonder and surprise, and a pause of some minutes ensued, when Jonathan added, "I looked down, and what do you think the critter was doin? " " Lord ! " exclaimed the old lady, " I 'm sure I don't know." "There he was," said our hero, " setting right on the bottom of the river, pouring the powder out of my horn into hizen." Washington's proverbial regard for the truth has sus- tained one severe attack, and that in connection with a subject which has become a regular resource for the comic " paragraphers " of our time, the Mosquito. The English traveller Weld was certainly not much given to jesting, and, even if he had been, the delicious solemnity of the following observation would exonerate him from any such charge on the present occasion: "General Washington told me, that he never was so much annoyed by musquitoes in any part of America as in Skenesborough, 1 1 In New York, on Lake Champlain. MUNCHAUSEN 249 for that they used to bite through the thickest boot." 1 Fortunately we are in a position to explain this astonish- ing observation. It could not escape the vigilance of President Dwight, who was a devotee of accuracy, and always zealous in supporting the credit of his country and its institutions : A gentleman of great respectability, [he avers,] who was pres- ent when 'Gen. Washington made the observation referred to, told me, that he said, when describing these musquitoes to Mr. Weld, that they " bit through his stockings, above his boots." Our musquitoes have certainly a sharp tooth, and are very adroit at their business : but they have not been sufficiently disciplined, hitherto, to bite through the thickest boot. 2 Probably Mr. Weld had had his own experiences with the American mosquito, and was ready to believe any- thing. For the benefit of other sufferers it may be worth while to reproduce a recipe from the Almanac for 1833, credited to the New York Evening Post: TO DESTROY MUSQUETOES. Take a few hot coals on a shovel or chafingdish, and burn some brown sugar in your bedrooms and parlors, and you effectu- ally destroy the musquetoe for the night. The experiment has been often tried by several of our citizens, and found to produce the desired effect. The Sea Serpent of Nahant has been responsible for much annual mendacity. A sober British traveller made inquiries about him in 1820 from " a gentleman who dined with us there," and got a beautiful answer. The gentleman replied " that he had had the misfortune to see it three 1 Isaac Weld, Jr., Travels through the States of North America, London, 1799, p. 164. 2 Travels in New-England and New-York, New Haven, 1822, IV, 229. 250 THE OLD FARMER'S ALMANACK days before ; that he really considered it a misfortune, as no one would believe him ; and he could not, in sincerity, deny having seen it." 1 One is reminded of John Dunton's voyage to New England in 1685 and 1686, when, having viewed with amazement a swordfish and a thrasher, he " had the curiosity " to ask the sailors " if any of 'em had e'er seen a Mermaid or a Merman." Thereupon, if we may believe Dunton, " one of the most ancient of 'em told [him], That he had formerly been us'd to Sail to the East Indies, and in those Voyages he had seen them frequently." 2 It will be appropriate to end this chapter with a couple of passages from the Almanac which may answer as a corrective to credulity : Read newspapers, but consider, before you believe ; for com- mon report is often a great liar. (December, 1802.) This is a fine season for the farmer to enjoy the company of his friends. In these long evenings he can now have leisure to peep into the newspaper ; but read both sides of the question before you judge. Believe not every story you hear. Pin your faith upon no man's sleeve. (December, 1804.) 1 Adam Hodgson, Letters from North America, London, 1824, II, 5. 2 John Dunton's Letters from New England, ed. Whitmore, Prince Society, 1867, p. 40. T THE GREAT MOON HOAX HE second number of the Farmer's Almanack, that for 1794, contained a paragraph of much interest : THE MOON. [From a London paper^\ Mr. Herschell is now said, by the aid of his powerful glasses, to have reduced to a certainty, the opinion that the moon is in- habited. He has discovered land and water, and is enabled to distinguish between the green and barren mountainous spots on the former, which, as with us, are subdivided by the sea. Within these few days he has distinguished a large edifice, apparently of greater magnitude than St. Paul's ; and he is confident of shortly being able to give an account of the inhabitants. This extraordinary item of news, for which the " London paper " quoted by Mr. Thomas certainly had no good authority, was doubtless based on rumors about the elder Herschel's observation of the eclipse of the sun on Septem- ber 5th, 1793. Everybody knew that William Herschel was interested in the moon, and that the eclipse of the sun would afford him an opportunity to use his great telescope in studying lunar topography. It is not strange, there- fore, that the journalists of the day, though far less enter- prising and imaginative than those of our own time, got exaggerated ideas of what he might have seen, and took their chances. In the following year Herschel printed some of his results in the Philosophical Transactions, but these make no mention of edifices comparable to St. Paul's Cathedral. As a matter of fact, he discovered nothing 252 THE OLD FARMER'S ALMANACK more sensational than mountains and table-lands, but he got nearer to our satellite than anybody had ever got be- fore. Besides, it was no secret that he believed the moon to be inhabited, and the sun also, by beings whose organs " were adapted to the peculiar circumstances of those luminaries," a doctrine which he taught publicly in 1795, in a paper on the nature and constitution of the sun and fixed stars. l Though it does not appear that he had given formal expression to this opinion as early as 1793, still his views may well enough have reached the ears of the professional purveyors of news. It is not difficult, therefore, to account for the item which Mr. Thomas printed in his Almanac for 1794. At all events, this bit of scientific gossip shows that the world was ready, toward the close of the eighteenth century, for something which, in fact, did not come until forty years later, the Great Moon Hoax. In August and September 1835, the New York Sun amazed its readers, both lay and scientific, by publishing an account of " Great Astronomical Discoveries lately made by Sir John Herschel at the Cape of Good Hope." The information purported to come from a supplement to the Edinburgh Journal of Science. Of course, these dis- closures were received with incredulity and derision in some quarters, but the general public was inclined to believe in them. The circulation of the Sun increased enormously, and a pamphlet edition of the " Great Dis- coveries" numbering sixty thousand copies was soon taken up. The work was immediately translated into French and two editions were published in Paris. The marvellous story is introduced with considerable skill. After a flourish of trumpets, which strikes us as a trifle journalistic, but which was not unnatural under the supposed circumstances, the editor specifies with much 1 Philosophical Transactions, LXXXV, 63-66. THE GREAT MOON HOAX 253 sobriety the source of his " early and almost exclusive information." It appears that one Dr. Andrew Grant was a friend of the Edinburgh editor. This learned Scot had been a pupil of Sir William Herschel, and was now entirely in the confidence of Sir John, whose assistant he had been for some years. With unparalleled liberality Sir John Herschel had given Dr. Grant permission to disclose the main results of his recent observations in advance of their appearance in the Transactions of the Royal Society, and Dr. Grant had selected the Edinburgh Journal of Science as the most appropriate medium of communication. It was, of course, natural that the Doctor should covet for Edin- burgh the honor of first announcing these novelties to an astonished world. Sir John Herschel, so ran the story, in a casual inter- view with Sir David Brewster, some three years before, had deplored the fact that with telescopes of high magnify- ing power the object became proportionately indistinct. To remedy this defect he had suggested to Sir David the possibility of transfusing artificial light through the focal object of vision, and, finding that Brewster was ready to entertain the idea, he ventured to propose the use of the oxy-hydrogen microscope to make the focal image dis- tinct and even to magnify it. Sir David, we are informed, " sprung from his chair in an ecstasy of conviction, and leaping half way to the ceiling, exclaimed 'Thou art the man ! ' ' After this everything was easy, though it took time. Dissatisfied with the size of his father's last tele- scope, which brought one within about forty miles of the moon, Herschel determined to construct a truly stupendous instrument, with an object glass twenty-four feet in diameter, "just six times the size of his venerable father's." The president of the Royal Society subscribed .10,000, and the king, on being informed that the new instrument would be advantageous to navigation, agreed to make up 254 THE LD FARMER'S ALMANACK the .70,000 required, or any other sum that might be needed. The author of the ingenious fiction which we are dis- cussing shows some skill in his account of the manufacture of " this prodigious lens." The contract was awarded, it appears, to the firm of Hartly and Grant of Dumbarton, the junior partner being a brother of that Dr. Grant who plays so important a part in the narrative. The first cast- ing was unsuccessful, for there was a bad flaw within eighteen inches of the centre. The second attempt pro-'" duced a lens that was practically perfect. There were, to be sure, slight flaws near the edge, but they were of no account, since they would be covered by the rim that was to enclose the glass. The weight of the whole mass was nearly fifteen thousand pounds, or to be accurate, as our hoaxer takes care to be, 14,826 pounds, and its magnifying power was estimated at forty-two thousand times. It was decided to set up an observatory at the Cape of Good Hope on a plateau about thirty-five miles northeast of Cape Town. Several months were occupied in the construction of the building and the installation of the mechanism, which is described with a good imitation of popular scientific exposition, and on the loth of January, 1835, the huge instrument was brought to bear upon the moon. The first view demonstrated the complete triumph of Herschel's experiment. Distinct formations of greenish brown basaltic rock, like those of Fingal's Cave at Staffa, were visible, and in a few moments the eyes of the ob- servers were greeted with a sight of " the first organic production of nature, in a foreign world, ever revealed to the eyes of men." This was a poppy field of great extent, the flowers of which Dr. Grant declared to be " precisely similar to the rose-poppy of our sublunary cornfields." THE GREAT MOON HOAX 255 The discovery was more exhilarating than it seemed, for it proved that the moon had an atmosphere so like our own that it would beyond question turnout to be inhabited. Our romancer, however, does not make the mistake of bringing in his main matter too early. He conducts the astronomers from one discovery to another in orderly succession. Now they see prodigious phenomena of lu- nar crystallization, amethysts of a diluted claret color, sixty to ninety feet in height; now a herd of buffaloes, similar to those of the earth, and having a remarkable " fleshy appendage over the eyes, crossing the whole breadth of the forehead and united to the ears." The acute mind of Dr. Herschel at once perceived that this appendage was meant to protect the eyes of the animal from the extremes of light and darkness to which all who live on our side of the moon are periodically subjected. Bearded unicorns crossed the field of vision ; then gray pelicans, engaged in fishing ; soon after, strange spherical creatures, which rolled down the beach into the water and were lost to view. This was enough for one night, when taken together with discoveries in topography and mineralogy which need not be particularized, and with admirable self-command the deviser of the Moon Hoax made the next two nights cloudy so that observations were impracticable. What followed, however, atoned for such enforced idleness. Many species of trees and plants were not merely observed but even classified, and the zoological discoveries were of the most startling kind. In describing the biped beaver, indeed, the author seems to take an impish delight in en- dangering the credibility of his whole narrative. This creature, he informs us, has no tail, and walks upon two feet, bearing its young in its arms, and moving with an easy gliding motion. " Its huts are constructed better and higher than those of many tribes of human savages, and 256 THE OLD FARMER'S ALMANACK from the appearance of smoke in nearly all of them, there is no doubt of its being acquainted with the use of fire." But this risky piece of romancing is cleverly counter- balanced by the mention of great flocks of genuine sheep " which would not have disgraced the farms of Leicester- shire, or the shambles of Leadenhall-market." " With the utmost scrutiny," continues Dr. Grant, " we could find no mark of distinction between these and those of our native soil. They had not even the appendage over the eyes, which I have described as common to lunar quadrupeds." Before long came the eagerly expected sight of human beings in the moon. The first group were not very prepos- sessing, and one might even doubt whether they were human beings at all, except for their gesticulations and the fact that they seemed to be talking with each other. These lunarians were only four feet high, they were covered with copper-colored hair, short and glossy, and had thin mem- branous wings, extending from the top of the shoulders to the calves of the legs. Their features were similar to those of the ourang-outang, but more intelligent, and in sym- metry of form they much surpassed their simian proto- types. A facetious member of the party, one Lieutenant Drummond, of the Royal Engineers, determined to make the best of the new race, declared that they " would look as well on a parade ground as some of the old cockney militia, that is, if it were not for their long wings. " After observing these specimens of the man-bat, as it was decided to call the winged man just described, and noting several particulars so surprising that it was thought prudent to summon the civil and military authorities and "several Episcopal, Wesleyan, and other ministers" to look through the telescope and certify to the truth of Dr. Herschel's report, our investigators saw nothing more of human beings in the moon for some time; but they were THE GREAT MOON HOAX 257 favored with a view of an enormous mountain ridge, which was one solid piece of crystallization, " brilliant as a piece of Derbyshire spar," extending for three hundred and forty miles. " We found," says Dr. Grant, " that wonder and astonishment, as excited by objects in this distant world, were but modes and attributes of ignorance, which should give place to elevated expectations, and to reverential con- fidence in the illimitable power of the Creator." Such reverent reflections were soon rewarded, and the rather disappointing impression left on the mind by the first sight of lunar inhabitants was effaced, by the discovery of a great equitriangular temple of polished sapphire. The roof was designed to represent a great sphere, round which rose a mass of violently agitated flames. This singular roof was flanked by cornices of a style of architecture with which neither Dr. Grant, Dr. Herschel, nor Lieut. Drum- mond was familiar. The temple was open on every side, but contained no seats or altars, or furniture of any kind. Human beings were never seen in the temples, and the Doctor does not venture to decide whether they were simple monuments or the deserted fanes of past ages. Not very far from the first of these temples more inhabit- ants were discovered, who were " in every respect an im- proved variety of the race." They were taller and not so dark, and they had better manners. When they came into view, and, indeed, for a considerable portion of the time during which they were under the lens, they were engaged in eating fruit; and it was with much satis- faction that Dr. Grant noticed symptoms of politeness in their conduct. Occasionally some member of a group would pick out a particularly fine specimen and throw it " archwise " to some friend who had already exhausted the supply that was near him. Carnivorous animals seemed to be unknown, and this, together with the " universal state of amity among all classes of lunar creatures" gave Dr. 17 258 THE OLD FARMER'S ALMANACK Grant and his companions what he delicately describes as the " most refined pleasure." The same night an unfortunate accident happened, which came near putting an end to all discoveries for the time being. The monstrous lens, which, it should be noticed, was not enclosed in a tube as in the case of most tele- scopes, had been unaccountably left in such a position that, while the astronomers were asleep, it focussed the sun's rays with terrific force. The fire thus kindled was so fierce as to vitrify the plaster of the observatory walls, but it was fortunately extinguished before any permanent damage had been done. By the time the necessary re- pairs had been effected, the moon was no longer visible, and for a month Dr. Herschel gave his attention to Saturn and the constellations of the Southern Hemisphere. One night in March, however, while Herschel was engrossed in cataloguing the new stars which he had discovered, Dr. Grant, with other members of the party, took another look at the moon. Apparently the imagination of the writer had been exhausted, for nothing strikingly new appeared. As a fitting climax, however, to the details which we have been tracing, a new species of the man-bat crossed the field of vision ; and with these the account printed in the New York Sun closes, for, as the editor ingenuously re- marks, " the forty pages of illustrative and mathematical notes " which followed in the Edinburgh Journal " would greatly enhance the price of the reprint," without com- mensurably adding to its general interest. The new species of the man-bat was infinitely more beautiful, though not taller, than the last specimens examined. " They ap- peared," says Dr. Grant, " scarcely less lovely than the general representations of angels by the more imagina- tive schools of painters." It seems also that they were far advanced in civilization, and that their works of art were incredibly skilful. But all this, he adds, must be left THE GREAT MOON HOAX 259 to be treated in " Dr. Herschel's authenticated natural history" of the Moon. The Moon Hoax was the work of Richard Adams Locke, an able but erratic reporter. In England, where the inventive powers of the American newspaper man were not properly appreciated, some persons fancied that the story was of French origin ; l but the evidence of Benja- min H. Day, the founder of the Sun, is conclusive. In 1883, when the Sun was fifty years old, Mr. Day was in- terviewed, and his recollections were printed in the anni- versary number (September 3d, 1883). Though advanced in years, he remembered the circumstances perfectly. He paid Locke between five and six hundred dollars for the article, and it appears that the hoaxer " made something in addition by selling lithographs of the scenery and ani- mals in the moon." The workmanship of the Moon Hoax is pretty skilful. Many of the scientific details are slurred over on the ground that they would not be of general in- terest, or because it would be improper for the writer to anticipate the report which Herschel intended to make to the Royal Society. It is only with regard to the construc- tion of the telescope by means of which these stupendous discoveries were made, that the author ventures to be at all explicit, and here, though his description is well calcu- lated to impress his lay readers, no astronomer or physi- cist could be for a moment deceived. Nevertheless, if it is permitted to correct this too hasty remark, some as- tronomers were deceived. Mr. Day remembered that a deputation from a certain college " came to the office and requested to see the original copy of the magazine article." " I pretended," he continues, " to be vastly indignant that they should doubt our word. ' I suppose the magazine is somewhere upstairs/ said I, ' but I consider it almost an 1 See R. A. Proctor, Myths and Marvels of Astronomy, London, 1878, pp. 241 ff. 260 THE OLD FARMER'S ALMANACK insult that you should ask to see it.' They went back . . . apparently perfectly satisfied." Doubtless such scientific men as allowed their enthusiasm to get the better of their judgment detected flaws in the reasoning, and errors in the form of statement, but supposed they might be due to haste or editorial misunderstanding. Outside of strictly scientific circles the Hoax made a profound impression. Miss Martineau, who was in America at the time, de- scribes the excitement that it caused, but cautions her English readers against drawing a wrong inference as to the average of common sense and enlightenment in this country. She writes : I happened to be going the round of several Massachusetts villages when the marvellous account of Sir John HerscheFs dis- coveries in the moon was sent abroad. The sensation it excited was wonderful. As it professed to be a republication from the Edinburgh Journal of Science, it was some time before many persons, except professors of natural philosophy, thought of doubting its truth. The lady of such a professor, on being ques- tioned by a company of ladies as to her husband's emotions at the prospect of such an enlargement of the field of science, ex- cited a strong feeling of displeasure against herself. She could not say that he believed it, and would gladly have said noth- ing about it : but her inquisitive companions first cross-examined her, and then were angry at her scepticism. A story is going, told by some friends of Sir John Herschel, (but whether in earnest or in the spirit of the moon story I cannot tell,) that the astronomer has received at the Cape, a letter from a large number of Baptist clergymen of the United States, congratula- ting him on his discovery, informing him that it had been the occasion of much edifying preaching and of prayer-meetings for the benefit of brethren in the newly explored regions ; and be- seeching him to inform his correspondents whether science affords any prospects of a method of conveying the Gospel to residents in the moon. However it may be with this story, my THE GREAT MOON HOAX 26 1 experience of the question with regard to the other, " Do you not believe it? " was very extensive. In the midst of our amusement at credulity like this, we must remember that the real discoveries of science are likely to be more faithfully and more extensively made known in the villages of the United States, than in any others in the world. The moon hoax, if advantageously put forth, would have been believed by a much larger proportion of any other nation than it was by the Americans ; and they are travelling far faster than any other people beyond the reach of such deception. Their com- mon and high schools, their Lyceums and cheap colleges, are exciting and feeding thousands of minds, which in England would never get beyond the loom or the plough-tail. If few are very learned in the villages of Massachusetts, still fewer are very ig- norant : and all have the power and the will to invite the learning of the towns among them, and to remunerate its administration of knowledge. 1 After seventy years, the Great Moon Hoax is still famous in the annals of popular delusions, though the details of the extraordinary story have long ago faded from general recollection. Now and then there is a feeble attempt at something similar. Thus in 1897 a few New Englanders were taken in by a newspaper report that the planet Venus " was an electric light attached to a balloon sent up from Syracuse, and hauled down slowly every night" about nine o'clock. 2 But this stroke of fancy, audacious as it was, can bear no comparison with Sir John Herschel's experiences at the Cape of Good Hope. 1 Retrospect of Western Travel, London, 1838, II, 22-24. 2 D. P. Todd, A New Astronomy, New York, [1897,] p. 316. ENTERTAINMENT FOR MAN AND BEAST IT is a prevalent misconception to think that our Puritan ancestors were addicted to making themselves uncom- fortable. No doubt they were 'zealous for decency and order, and more or less rigorous in their interpretation of conduct; but it never occurred to them that needless privation was a good thing. The body, to be sure, was more than meat; but nobody supposed that this principle involved the corollary of starving oneself. Thirst, too, they held should be satisfied, within reasonable bounds. An inn or ordinary, they believed, was as requisite to a well-organized community as a school, and that not merely for the accommodation of travellers, but also to serve the people of the neighborhood. Accordingly, the early records abound in licenses to draw beer, or beer and wine, and innholding was recognized as one of the most reputable of occupations. Neglect to provide an ordinary made a town liable to fine. Thus, in 1669, the town of Newbury, Massachusetts, was presented for such derelic- tion, and was enjoined to supply the deficiency before the next March court under penalty of five pounds. 1 When an inn had once been opened, the paternal government kept a sharp eye on abuses and visited every infraction of discipline with speedy punishment. After the Revolution, and at about the time when the Farmer's Almanack was winning its place as the New Englander's favorite manual of secular faith and practice, 1 J. J. Currier, Ould Newbury, Boston, 1896, p. 177. ENTERTAINMENT FOR MAN AND BEAST 263 this country was much resorted to by European travellers, who, like their successors nowadays, were prone to print their impressions in a book. Such visitors were astonished to learn that innkeepers often bore military titles and were leading men in the community. John Davis, the facetious pedagogue, 1 has some remarks on this point, apropos of a boarding-house in New York, " agreeably situated in Cherry-street " : Major Howe, after carrying arms through the revolutionary war, instead of reposing upon the laurels he had acquired, was com- pelled to open a boarding-house in New- York, for the mainte- nance of his wife and children. He was a member of the Cincinnati, and not a little proud of his Eagle. But I thought the motto to his badge of Omnia reliquit senxzre Rempublicam, was not very appropriate ; for it is notorious that few Americans had much to leave when they accepted commissions in the army. Victor ad aratrum redit would have been better. 2 We may pass over Davis's jibe, for it is not ill-natured ; he was a penniless itinerant himself. Smyth, who visited America soon after the Revolution, met with a host of even higher rank at the " ordinary, inn, or tavern " at Bute County Court-House, North Carolina, where he had an excellent dinner. This was no less a per- sonage than General Jethro Sumner, who had played a conspicuous part in the war. Smyth remarks : He is a man of a person lusty, and rather handsome, with an easy and genteel address : his marriage with a young woman of a good family, with whom he received a handsome fortune ; his being a captain of provincials last war ; but above all his violent principles, and keeping an inn at the court-house (which is scarcely thought a mean occupation here), singular as the latter 1 See p. 142, above. 2 Travels of Four Years and a Half in the United States, during 1798, 1799, 1800, 1801, and 1802, London, 1803, p. 22. 264 THE OLD FARMER'S ALMANACK circumstance may appear, contributed more to his appointment and promotion in the American army, than any other merit. For it is a fact, that more than one third of their general officers have been inn-keepers, and have been chiefly indebted to that circum- stance for such rank. Because by that public, but inferior station, their principles and persons became more generally known ; and by the mixture and variety of company they conversed with, in the way of their business, their ideas and their ambitious views were more excited and extended than the generality of the honest and respectable planters, who remained in peace at their homes. 1 In 1771 John Adams found that landlord Pease, of Enfield, Connecticut, " was the great man of the town ; their representative, &c. as well as tavern-keeper, and just returned from the General Assembly at Hartford." 2 Another tavern-keeper of position was Dr. Nathaniel Ames of Dedham, Massachusetts, equally celebrated for his drugs, his inn, and his almanac. The almanac was a good medium for the advertisement of the tavern. He announced the opening of his house of entertainment in his issue for 1751 : Advertisement. SE are to signify to all Persons thai travel the great Post-Road South- West from Boston, That I keep a House of Publick Entertainment Eleven Miles from Boston, at the Sign of the SUN. If they want Refreshment, and see Cause to be my Guests, they shall be well entertained at a reasonable Rate, N. Ames. For some reason the " Sign of the SUN " did not get into position promptly. Hence in 1752 Dr. Ames returned to the subject as follows : 1 J. F. D. Smyth, Tour in the United States, London, 1784, I, 114-15. 2 Diary, June 7, 1771, Works, ed. C. F. Adams, Boston, 1850, II, 271. Of the Ecliffes for 1751. THERE will be Four Eclipfes this Year, two of the Sun, and alfo as many of the Moon,, in the following Order, viz. I. The Firft will be of the StfN, May the ijth at Eight in the Evening, invifible. [J. The Second ia of the MOON* May the 2$lh, vifible, calcalated as followt, Beginning, 7 20 1 Middle, ... 9 4 v Evening, End, - - - 10 46 1 Durstlon, - - 3 26j Digits eclipfed, 10 2 III. The Third will be of the SUN, November the 3d, at Eight at Night, invifible. IV The Fourth and laft is of the MOON, the 2 eft Day of November > pertly vifible ; ai the Sxio's Setting the Moon will rife two Thirds eclipfed ; bat by that Time the Day-light is |one fo as to have a good Profpeft of the Moon, the Eclipfe will end. ? THESE an tofegnify to all Per font that tie greet Pop-Road Soutb'Wejf from Boston, That I keep a Hwfe of Publick Etterttimaent Eleven Miles from Bofion, at the Sign of tbe SUN. IftbeywantRefreJbmenti ana fee Caufe tofaiay GueJtS) tbeyjball be well etitertaineit^areafatable, Rate, N. Ames. ENTERTAINMENT FOR MAN AND BEAST 265 The Affairs of my House are of a Publick Nature, and therefore I hope may be mentioned here without offence to my Reader : The Sign I advertised last Year by Reason of some little Disap- pointments is not put up, but the Thing intended to be signified by it is to be had according to said Advertisement. And I beg Leave further to add, that if any with a View of Gain to them- selves, or Advantage to their Friends, have reported Things of my House in contradiction to the aforesaid Advertisement, I would only have those whom they would influence consider, that where the Narrator is not honest, is not an Eye or Ear- Witness, can't trace his Story to the original, has it only by Hear-say, a thou- sand such Witnesses are not sufficient to hang a Dog : & I hope no Gentleman that travels the Road will have his Mind bias'd against my House by such idle Reports. 1 It is pleasant to know that the doctor's vigorous defence was effectual and that the Sun Tavern enjoyed great and long-continued prosperity. The manners of the landlord were often a subject of comment. Foreigners were now and then shocked or offended at a lack of that subserviency which they had always associated with innkeepers in their own country, but the more sensible among them soon came to under- stand the reason and adapted themselves to the situation. Adam Hodgson, writing of Virginia in 1820, gives a good idea of the condition of things : Every ten or fifteen miles you come either to a little village, composed of a few frame houses, with an extensive substantial house, whose respectable appearance, rather than any sign, de- monstrates it to be a tavern, (as the inns are called,) or to a single house appropriated to that purpose, and standing alone in the woods. At these taverns you are accosted, often with an easy civility, sometimes with a repulsive frigidity, by a landlord who appears perfectly indifferent whether or not you take any- 1 These advertisements are quoted by Edward Field, The Colonial Tav- ern, Providence, 1897, pp. 103-5 ! tne >' are given here from the originals. 266 THE OLD FARMER'S ALMANACK thing for the good of the house. If, however, you intimate an intention to take some refreshment, a most plentiful repast is, in due time, set before you, consisting of beef-steaks, fowls, turkies, ham, partridges, eggs, and if near the coast, fish and oysters, with a great variety of hot bread, both of wheat flour and Indian- corn, the latter of which is prepared in many ways, and is very good. The landlord usually comes in to converse with you, and to make one of the party ; and as one cannot have a private room, I do not find his company disagreeable. He is, in general, well informed and well behaved, and the independence of manner which has often been remarked upon, I rather like than other- wise, when it is not assumed or obtrusive, but appears to arise naturally from easy circumstances, and a consciousness that, both with respect to situation and intelligence, he is at least on a level with the generality of his visitors. At first I was a little sur- prised, on enquiring where the stage stopped to breakfast, to be told, at Major Todd's ; to dine ? At Col. Brown's but I am now becoming familiar with these phenomena of civil and politi- cal equality, and wish to communicate my first impressions before they fade away. 1 It may be interesting to compare this passage with Fynes Morison's appreciative account of an English inn in the early seventeenth century : I haue heard some Germans complaine of the English Innes, by the high way, as well for dearenesse, as for that they had onely roasted meates : But these Germans landing at Grauesend, per- haps were iniured by those knaues, that flocke thither onely to deceiue strangers, and vse Englishmen no better, and after went from thence to London, and were there entertained by some ordinary Hosts of strangers, returning home little acquainted with English customes. But if these strangers had knowne the English tongue, or had had an honest guide in their iournies, and had knowne to Hue at Rome after the Roman fashion, (which they seldome doe, vsing rather Dutch Innes and companions), 1 Letters from North America, London, 1824, I, 20-22. ENTERTAINMENT FOR MAN AND BEAST 267 surely they should haue found, that the World affoords not such Innes as England hath, either for good and cheape entertaine- ment after the Guests owne pleasure, or for humble attendance on passengers, yea, euen in very poore Villages, where if Curcu- lio of Plautus, should see the thatched houses, he would fall into a fainting of his spirits, but if he should smell the variety of meates, his starueling looke would be much cheared : For assoone as a passenger comes to an Inne, the seruants run to him, and one takes his Horse and walkes him till he be cold, then rubs him, and giues him meate, yet I must say that they are not much to be trusted in this last point, without the eye of the Master or his Seruant, to ouersee them. Another seruant giues the passenger his priuate chamber, and kindles his fier, the third puls of his bootes, and makes them cleane. Then the Host or Hostesse visits him, and if he will eate with the Host, or at a common Table with others, his meale will cost him sixe pence, or in some places but foure pence, (yet this course is lesse honourable, and not vsed by Gentlemen) : but if he will eate in his chamber, he commands what meate he will according to his appetite, and as much as he thinkes fit for him and his company, yea, the kitchin is open to him, to command the meat to be dressed as he best likes; and when he sits at Table, the Host or Hostesse will accompany him, or if they haue many Guests, will at least visit him, taking it for curtesie to be bid sit downe : while he eates, if he haue company especially, he shall be offred musicke, which he may freely take or refuse, and if he be solitary, the Musitians will giue him the good day with musicke in the morning. It is the custome and no way disgracefull to set vp part of supper for his breakefast : In the euening or in the morning after breakefast, (for the common sort vse not to dine, but ride from breakefast to supper time, yet comming early to the Inne for better resting of their Horses) he shall haue a reckoning in writing, and if it seeme vnreasonable, the Host will satisfie him, either for the due price, or by abating part, especially if the seruant deceiue him any way, which one of experience will soone find. ... A Gentleman and his Man shall spend as much, as if he were accompanied with 268 THE OLD FARMER'S ALMANACK another Gentleman and his Man, and if Gentlemen will in such sort ioyne together, to eate at one Table, the expences will be much diminished. Lastly, a Man cannot more freely command at home in his owne House, then hee may doe in his Inne, and at parting if he giue some few pence to the Chamberlin & Ostler, they wish him a happy iourney. 1 Of course travellers had to submit to a good deal of questioning. The curiosity of Americans was a regular subject for comment among foreigners in the eighteenth and the first half of the nineteenth century. Indeed the inquisitive Yankee has become a stock figure in our own novels and plays. Patrick M'Robert, who visited New England in 1774, is mildly jocose. The people, he says, " have been great adventurers in trade, and generally suc- cessful; they are very inquisitive, want to know every cir- cumstance relating to any stranger that comes amongst them, so that a traveller lately in that country had been so pestered with their idle queries, that, as soon as he entered a tavern, he used to begin and tell them he was such a one, telling his name, travelling to Boston, born in North Britain, aged about thirty, unmarried, prayed them not to trouble him with more questions but get him something to eat : this generally had the desired effect." z This is an old story, which turns up again and again in slightly variant forms. Isaac Candler, who wrote some fifty years later, took the matter rather more seriously, in the spirit of a social investigator, and came to a very definite conclusion: Concerning one colloquial fault with which they have often been accused, namely, that of impertinent inquisitiveness, I have 1 An Itinerary written by Fynes Moryson, Gent, London, 1617, Part III, Chap. 3, p. 151. 2 Tour through Part of the North Provinces of America, Edinburgh, 1776, p. 25. ENTERTAINMENT FOR MAN AND BEAST 269 to remark, that it applies principally and almost entirely to the lower and middling classes in remote situations and small vil- lages. I met with only two persons of the upper class whose enquiries respecting myself were troublesome or offensive, and one of these was a person whom I judged to have mixed very little in society. I met him at a tavern at Schenectady ; and to show how much his inquisitiveness was disapproved by others, I must add, that as soon as he had left the room, another gentle- man . . . apologised for his rudeness, and hoped I should not judge of the citizens generally by him ; a remark elicited from my having stated that I had been a short time only in the country. 1 A piece of incidental evidence of a rather amusing cast is the following advertisement, which appeared in a Ver- mont newspaper, the Federal Galaxy of Brattleboro', July 15, 1799: FOUND. Six Bars of Iron, secreted beneath the surface of the ground, within the enclosures of the subscriber. The owner is requested to tell how it came there, to prove property, pay charges, and take it away. Joel W. Bliss. Brattleboro', July 13, 1799. Mr. Bliss, we notice, is not content with the usual " prov- ing property and paying for this advertisement." He wants to know how the iron bars came to be buried in his lot. After all, his curiosity is justifiable, for the circum- stances were undeniably peculiar. John Adams's picture of his landlord and landlady at Ipswich is deservedly celebrated : - Landlord and landlady are some of the grandest people alive ; landlady is the great-granddaughter of Governor Endicott and 1 A Summary View of America. By an Englishman. London, 1824, pp. 482-3. 2/0 THE OLD FARMER'S ALMANACK had all the great notions of high family that you find in Winslows, Hutchinsons, Quincys, Saltonstalls, Chandlers, Leonards, Otises, and as you might find with more propriety in the Winthrops. Yet she is cautious and modest about discovering it. ... As to land- lord, he is as happy and as big, as proud, as conceited, as any nobleman in England ; always calm and good-natured and lazy ; but the contemplation of his farm and his sons and his house and pasture and cows, his sound judgment, as he thinks, and his great holiness, as well as that of his wife, keep him as erect in his thoughts as a noble or a prince. Indeed, the more I consider of mankind, the more I see that every man seriously and in his conscience believes himself the wisest, brightest, best, happiest, &c. of all mankind. 1 At most inns in the country the domestic service was performed by the landlord's daughters, with or without the assistance of hired " help " from the neighborhood. Travellers often speak appreciatively of the simple cour- tesy and modest demeanor of their attendants. In 1789 Washington wrote as follows to the proprietor of Taft's inn, at Uxbridge, Massachusetts, where he had lodged on his return from his New England progress : Hartford, 8 November, 1789. Sir Being informed that you have given my name to one of your sons, and called another after Mrs. Washington's family, and being moreover very much pleased with the modest and in- nocent looks of your two daughters, Patty and Polly, I do for these reasons send each of these girls a piece of chintz ; and to Patty, who bears the name of Mrs. Washington, and who waited more upon us than Polly did, I send five guineas, with which she may buy herself any little ornaments she may want, or she may dispose of them in any other manner more agreeable to herself. As I do not give these things with a view to have it talked of, or even to its being known, the less there is said about 1 Diary, June 22, 1771, Works, ed. C. F. Adams, II, 282. ENTERTAINMENT FOR MAN AND BEAST 2/1 it the better you will please me ; but, that I may be sure the chintz and money have got safe to hand, let Patty, who I dare say is equal to it, write me a line informing me thereof, directed to " The President of the United States at New York." I wish you and your family well, and am your humble servant, GEO. WASHINGTON. 1 President Dwight, writing about 1820, avers that the inns of New England had deteriorated, and to prove his point he gives a most attractive description of a house of the old style, leaving his readers to contrast it with those with which they were themselves acquainted : The best old fashioned New-England inns were superior to any of the modern ones which I have seen. They were at less pains to furnish a great variety of food. Yet the variety was ample. The food was always of the best quality ; the beds were excellent ; the house and all its appendages were in the highest degree clean and neat ; the cookery was remarkably good ; and the stable was not less hospitable than the house. The family in the meantime were possessed of principle, and re- ceived you with the kindness and attention of friends. Your baggage was as safe as in your own house. If you were sick, you were nursed and befriended as in your own family. No tavern-haunters, gamblers or loungers were admitted, any more than in a well ordered private habitation ; and as little noise was allowed. There was less bustle, less parade, less appearance of doing much to gratify your wishes, than at the reputable modern inns ; but much more actually done, and much more comfort and enjoyment. In a word, you found in these inns the pleasures of an excellent private house. To finish the story, your bills were always equitable, calculated on what you ought to pay, and not upon the scheme of getting the most which extortion might think proper to demand. 2 1 Writings, ed. Sparks, Boston, 1836, X, 48, note. 2 Travels in New-England and New-York, 1822, IV, 26-12. 2/2 THE OLD FARMER'S ALMANACK The learned and discriminating college President, it will be noticed, declares that in the old days " tavern-haunting " was not tolerated, but he implies that times have changed for the worse. This was but too true. Idle resort to the public house was a prevalent vice in New England country towns in the early part of the nineteenth century. Every village had its tavern, or at least its store where rum could be bought as well as other " East and West India goods and groceries," and many had two or three. As a censor of manners and morals, Mr. Thomas felt bound to warn his fellow-citizens not to waste their time and money, and the Farmer's Calendar affords us many lively pictures of the shiftless husbandman who lets his farm go to waste while he is " turning the double corner." Thus in July, 1812: "There, there! run, John, the hogs are in the cornfield;" cried old lady Lookout, as she stood slipshod over the cheese- tub. " I told your father, John, that this would be the case ; but he had rather go day after day up to 'Squire Plunket's to drink grog and swap horses, than to be at a little pains to stop the gap in the wall, by which he might prevent the destruction of our beautiful cornfield ; and then, Jonny, you know if we have corn to sell we can afford to rig up a little and go and see your aunt Winnypucker's folks." " Aye, aye, mother, let us mind the main chance, as our minister told us the other day. You look to your cheese-tubs, I '11 see to the hogs, and with a little good luck, by jinks, mother, we may be able to hold up our heads yet." Old lady Lookout and her energetic son were no doubt able to keep things going despite the tippling propensities of the head of the house ; and so, let us hope, was the heroine of the following sketch, which may be found in the Farmer's Calendar for April, 1812: " Heigh-ho-hum ! Here John, take the jug and run down to 'Squire Plunket's and get a quart of new rum. Tell him to put ENTERTAINMENT FOR MAN AND BEAST 2/3 it down with the rest and I '11 pay him in rye, as I told him. Come, Eunice, hang on the tea-kettle and let us have some sling when John gets back. Wife, how long before breakfast?" " Alas, husband, where is this to end ? Our farm is mortgaged, you know ; the mare and colt both attached, last week the oxen were sold ; and yesterday the blue heifer was driven away ; next goes our grain and at last, I suppose, I must give up my wedding suit, and all for sling ! A plague on the shopkeepers I wish there was not a glass of rum in the universe ! Now, husband, if you will only spruce round a little, like other men, and attend to business, I have no doubt but we can get along. See Capt. Sprightly, he is up early and late, engaged in business. He lets no moment pass unimproved. See even now, while we are but just out of bed, he has been for this hour with his boys in the field ! Why can't we be as earnest, and as cheerful, and as prosperous as they? Come, come, hus, let 's make an effort." In April, 1805, there is a humorous picture of confusion on the farm, with a pretty plain moral annexed. Inci- dentally the nagging wife comes in for a bit of wholesome satire : "7 told you so" says Dorothy "/ told you so." "John, where's the plough? " " I ha'nt seen it since last fall." "Bill, what's become of our hoes?" "We left them in the field, father." " / told you so," says Dorothy ; " but you wou~ld be at the tavern, and let the boys go a fishing." At length the tools are found, carefully laid up in the cider-mill garret, where the wife had desired Mr. Simpkins' man to place them. Who would not choose to avoid the dangerous habit of tavern haunting, to stay at home and keep himself and family in business, rather than to be perpetually tormented with that mortifying cant, "/ told you sol" A more solemn, but not more effective admonition, oc- curs in the Calendar for February, 1816: 18 274 THE OLD FARMER'S ALMANACK Take care that you do not visit the grog-shop as an idler. If you have business there, do it and away. You may contract a habit of lounging, and next a habit of sipping, and then, my friend, you are gone. " Oh, that men should put an enemy in their mouths, to steal away their brains." " Every inordinate cup is unblest, and the ingredient is a devil." " Our good or bad fortune depends greatly on the choice we make of our friends." I never knew Sir Richard Rum's friend- ship worth preserving. He is warm and very cordial at first, but he is sure to lead you into difficulty in the end. Note the two passages from Shakspere, whom the Old Farmer was studying diligently " about this time." In 1817 he begins almost every column of the Farmer's Calendar with similar quotations, sometimes rather amusingly combined, as in the exordium to his January counsels : " Most potent, grave, and reverend Seigniors, my very noble and approved good masters." " Rude I am in speech ; and little of this great world can I speak ; yet grace and remembrance be unto you all." Economy, economy, neighbor Dash, is the main thing these hard times. Let it be your companion all about the house and in the barn. An agricultural application of the boatswain's orders in The Tempest is appropriately assigned to the Farmer's Calendar for March : " Hey, my hearts, cheerly, my hearts ; yare, yare ; take in the topsail ; bend to the master's whistle ! " Ay, to be sure, attend to the master's whistle, not only at sea, but ye ' land-lubbers ' also ; " yare, lower, lower and bring her to try with main course ! " Do you think, neighbour Mopus, that none but a sailor can be yare ? Ay, my friend, that won't do ; wide-a-wake is the word for us on shore, and let us have no milk-sops. Now the storm is over, see that all your rigging and tackle is adjusted. ENTERTAINMENT FOR MAN AND BEAST 275 As time went on, the Old Farmer's denunciations of tavern-haunting became more and more vigorous, for there can be no doubt that the drinking habit was in- creasing in New England. The conditions were approach- ing that made the temperance reform of the second and third decade of the last century so imperative. In July, 1821, we have an earnest, though highly humorous, expostulation : - " How we perspire ! " said the beef-steak to the gridiron. Yes, Capt. Blowzy, it 's rather warm ; but don't let us jump out of the frying-pan into the fire, by pouring down too much hot rum into our throats. I -went up to Esq. Snozzle's store the other day for a half bushel of salt. It was just at night, after I had cocked up what little hay I had out. " By my troth," said I, as I entered the shop door, "this is rather against the parish" For there sat Tom Toozle and Ben Boozle ; Bob Raikins and Jo Jakins, with 6 or 8 more, turning the double corner, as they call it ; or, to use a military term, firing off sling and punch from right to left ; and, could you believe it, 'tis true as life, I there saw two of my good, honest and most reputable fellow-towns- men snug among them ; old Capt. Cleverly and Mr. David Easyman ! I was touched to the very soul ; and looking in- dignantly at them, I cried, Come out from among them. Among the entertainments which country innkeepers provided to amuse their guests and stimulate transient custom, particularly from the neighborhood itself, the turkey-shooting must not be forgotten. Kendall, another tourist, was present at an affair of this kind in Vermont : On these occasions the taverner fastens one turkey after another to a post, and those who shoot at it, take aim at a given distance. The shooters pay four pence half-penny currency, or the sixteenth part of a dollar for each shot, and half a dollar, or the price of eight shots, is the ordinary price of a turkey. The bird 276 THE OLD FARMER'S ALMANACK sometimes falls at the first shot, but sometimes sustains no less than thirty-six; and, on the average, is hit one time in eight. When this happens, the taverner is but paid the ordinary price for his turkey ; but his expectation of profit is formed chiefly upon the sale of liquor. 1 Bowling on the turf was also a favorite diversion. It is certainly a harmless amusement in itself, but the Old Farmer saw peril in it when it was associated with tavern- haunting. In his Calendar for August, 1815, he has put himself on record, incidentally setting forth his general creed on the subject of sport of every kind : Bowling-greens have become of late mightily in fashion, to the ruin of many unfortunate young men. Scarcely a day passes without the rattle of the pins in front of landlord Toddy Stick's house. Every boy is distracted to get away from his work in order to take his game. At sun two hour's high, the day is finished, and away goes men and boys to the bowling alley. Haying, hoeing, ploughing, sewing, all must give way to sport and toddy. Now this is no way for a farmer. It will do for the city lads to sport and relax in this way, and so there are proper times and seasons for farmers to take pleasure of this sort ; for I agree that all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. Occasionally an innkeeper ventured into the domain of the showman. A couple of advertisements will give some idea of this kind of enterprise as manifested in Boston. 2 The first appeared in the Massachusetts Mercury of De- cember 9, 1800; the second, in the Columbian Centinel of April 28, 1810: - 1 E. A. Kendall, Travels through the Northern Parts of the United States in the Year 1807 and 1808, New York, 1809, III, 200-1. See also H. M. Brooks, The Olden Time Series, Boston, 1886, IV, 141-2. 2 H. M. Brooks, The Olden Time Series, Boston, 1886, IV, 123, 132-3. ENTERTAINMENT FOR MAN AND BEAST A Beautiful MOOSE. THE curious in Natural History are invited to Major KING'S Tavern, where is to be seen a fine young MOOSE of six- teen hands in height, and well proportioned. The properties of this fleet and tractable Animal are such as will give pleasure and satisfaction to every beholder. Price of admittance, Nine Pence. Dec. 9, 1800. Monstrous Sight ! TO be seen at A. POLLARD's Tavern, Elm Street A white Greenland Sea BEAR, which was taken at sea, weigh- ing 1000 wt. This animal lives either in the sea or on the land. They have been seen several leagues at sea, and sometimes float- ing on cakes of ice. This animal displays a great natural curiosity. Admittance 12 12 cts. . . children half price. The discomforts of inns make a large chapter in the tales of foreign travellers in America, English travel- lers especially, who cling tenaciously to their national pre- rogative of grumbling. There is, however, a charming passage in the narrative of the Duke de la Rochefoucault- Liancourt, referring to 1795. This distinguished nobleman, who had selected a particularly diminutive inn as a haven of rest, was disappointed in his hopes, but adapted him- self to the inevitable with true French good-humor, and made himself useful to his fellow-guests, who were of a a very humble order. This was at Maidenhead, near Princeton, New Jersey : I chose this petty inn, to avoid falling in with the stage-coaches, the passengers in which, naturally engross all the accommodation, at the inns at which they usually stop, in preference to any soli- tary rider. I desired to obtain some rest. In regard to the inconvenience from the stage-coaches, at any other inn, I was 278 THE OLD FARMER'S ALMANACK very indifferent : but as to my rest, I was not indifferent ; and in this small place I hoped to enjoy it. But the only bed-chamber in the house happened, when I alighted, to be occupied by a club of the labourers and other inhabitants of the neighbourhood, assembled from the distance of two miles round. These were joined by people drawn together on account of a horse-race, which was to be run at the distance of three miles from Maiden- head. These people had soon a glass of grog in their heads, and began to make a considerable bustle in the inn. I was neces- sarily obliged to retire with my table, into a small corner by the fire, to answer the questions which they put to me, and to give them the use of my pen, to scrawl out their accounts. They were the best folks in the world ; only, in respect to their writing, a little more of scholars than was quite agreeable to me. I must, however, do them the justice, to own, that they did not hinder me from smoking my segar. 1 The tavern was not merely a place of refreshment and diversion : it had other public and quasi-public functions of a widely miscellaneous character. Auctions were held there; probate courts sat there; it was the rendezvous of the ministers who assembled for councils or ordinations ; the town's business was largely transacted within its walls. When there were several inns in a single village, as was often the case, nice care was requisite on the part of the civic authorities to divide their favors impartially. The selectmen of Groton, for example, met in succession at each of the three taverns in that town, as appears from an advertisement in the" Groton Herald for March 13, 1830: Stated meetings of the Selectmen. The Selectmen of Groton will meet on the last Saturdays of each month the present municipal year, at 3 o'clock, p. M. viz : at Hoar's Tavern in March, April, May, and June ; at Alexan- 1 Travels through the United States of North America, London, 1799, I, 548-9. ENTERTAINMENT FOR MAN AND BEAST 279 der>s in July, August, September, and October ; and at ShattucKs in November, December, January, and February. CALEB BUTLER, Chairman^ Not infrequently the landlord was a local magistrate and his inn served as his office. A leading inn in a large seaport town presented a scene of great variety and animation. It combined the functions of the modern hotel, club, railway station, and exchange. It was a rendezvous for merchants and shipcaptains, as well as for politicians and officials of all kinds. Social meetings, dances, and entertainments took place in its assembly room. Stage passengers and their friends were continually coming and going. In 1801, as we learn from the Almanac, King's Tavern, in Market Square, Boston, was the " terminal " for the stages for Albany, New York, Portsmouth, Amherst, Providence, Plymouth, Salem, Taunton and New Bedford, Dorchester and Milton, Ded- ham, Groton, Quincy, and Canton. 2 Some of these ran daily (Sundays excepted), others three times a week, a few once a week. The bustle of arrival and departure must have been almost continuous. Nor should the numerous packets and the private conveyances be forgotten. The public rooms and the common table of such an establish- ment were picturesque and characteristic to a degree that our modern caravanseries cannot rival. As a description of a large city hotel, we may take an account of Tammany Hall as it impressed a Scottish visitor in 1818 : Dined with Mr. at Tammany Hall. On one occasion here we had roasted bear's flesh as one of the dishes at table ; it tasted very much like roasted goose, but heavier. Tammany 1 Quoted by Dr. Samuel Abbott Green, Groton Historical Series, VIII, 9. - See a complete Table of Stages, pp. 287 ff., below; and compare the List of Post Roads after p. 304. 280 THE OLD FARMER'S ALMANACK Hall is one of the public hotels, and noted for the public meet- ings of the democratic party, or Bucktails, as they are called. Like the other hotels it is the residence of a good many perma- nent boarders ; some of them merchants of considerable wealth, who sit down every day at the public table. The inn is with us proverbially the traveller's home, but here it is the home of a great many besides travellers. This feature in the American system I cannot admire ; nor can I imagine what comfort there can be amidst the bustle and noise of a public tavern, or in smok- ing segars and drinking spirits and water in the bar-room. The dinner hour at Tammany Hall is three o'clock, and covers are every day set for from thirty to eighty. The resident board- ers are generally found at the upper end of the table, and the travellers farther down. They take their seats at the sound of the dinner bell, and in a little more than a quarter of an hour most of them are ready to leave the table. During dinner rum and water is the usual beverage ; few take wine unless they are entertaining a friend. The dinner is always excellent, combining every variety of substantial cheer with a plentiful allowance of the delicacies of the season. After dinner three or four may occa- sionally linger singing songs and smoking segars over a bottle oi wine, but the practice is by no means general. Americans spend little time at table, retiring very soon either to their business, or the bar-room to read the newspapers. Boarding is moderate at Tammany Hall ; Mr. tells me that he pays eight dollars a week, while some of the more fashionable private boarding- houses charge ten or twelve, and the inmates are moreover by usage almost necessitated to drink wine during dinner. For economy of time and money, and freedom from temptation, the system of private lodgings, as in our native country, is decidedly preferable to either the one or the other. 1 Where there was no inn, it was customary for some re- spectable citizen to " accommodate travellers " at his own house. Such a host was often well-to-do, and had little 1 J. M. Duncan, Travels through Part of the United States and Canada in 1818 and 1819, Glasgow, 1823, II, 246-8. ENTERTAINMENT FOR MAN AND BEAST 28 1 concern for profit. An agreeable visit at a house of this kind is described by Admiral Bartholomew James, who, in the summer of 1791, while captain in the merchant service, visited Portland in his ship the Maria, and has recorded his impressions in a very good-humored journal, to which we have already had occasion to refer. 1 Captain James was delighted with the situation of the town and much impressed by the cheapness of provisions. " Meat of every sort was supplied the ship's company, and they every day had their choice, at the rate of twopence per pound ; . . . turkeys was from a shilling to eighteenpence each, geese a shilling, and fowls from tenpence to a shil- ling a couple; the best fat sheep I bought at nine shillings alive, and everything else of the kind was proportionally cheap." 2 On his way up the Kennebec River in the ship's long boat, on an excursion undertaken partly for amusement and partly for the sake of acquainting himself with the coast, Captain James had an experience which throws some light on the conditions of travel in New England at the end of the eighteenth century. Near the mouth of the river he was compelled by heavy weather to run aground on Parker's Flats. After wading over the flats and marsh for " at least a mile," guided by a Yankee pilot in his em- ploy, he called " at Captain Parker's hospitable mansion." The family " consisted of the good gentleman, who was a captain in the militia and about eighty years of age," his wife, who " might probably have reached her fiftieth year," a nephew, two nieces, " graceful, bewitching, an- gelic creatures," with " two domestic rustic girls and four rural artless clowns." Captain James's party, three in number, were entertained in a way that won his heart 1 See p. 168, above. 2 Journal of Rear-Admiral Bartholomew James, Navy Records Society, 1896, pp. 187 ff. 282 THE OLD FARMER'S ALMANACK completely. Their supper was " a delicious meal" of " tea and toast, lamb-steaks and eggs, and a moderate quantity of cider and grog." Then there were family prayers, and the strangers were made comfortable for the night. What happened next morning must be related in the Captain's own graphic, if slightly ungrammatical, style: So soon as the morning service was finished and we had taken a very comfortable breakfast, I directed preparations to be made for our departure, and consulted my pilot how I should repay the worthy family for their civility and kindness ; by whom I was in- formed I was to consider what expenses they had been at, and, agreeable to the custom of that part of the country, repay them for it. 1 further learned from him that, as we were three, and had a supper, beds, and breakfast, he thought the least I could offer them was three-and-sixpence British. I confessed my sur- prise at this proposition under several heads : first, how I could offer any money to a private independent family for their civility to me as a stranger ; and, secondly, how ridiculous such a sum as he proposed would appear for " all the benefits we had received in mind and body." To the first he assured me it was the con- stant custom, as there was few, if any, public-houses in that neighbourhood, and that as all people frequented private houses in their journeying through the country, it was usual to go in that way without the smallest hesitation, and that they would consider themselves much obliged to any friends who partook of their comforts whatever they happened to be ; and the sum he assured me to be equal to their expectations, and that he believed a larger one would be refused. Under those considerations I. ventured to take an opportunity of addressing the old lady when alone, and, after thanking her for her great kindness and civility, begged she would allow me to leave a couple of dollars for her servants. She expressed the greatest astonishment at the sum, and insisted on my taking one of the dollars back, which, on my declining, she said, " Well, you will come again to us in your way down the river, and then you must pay nothing." ENTERTAINMENT FOR MAN AND BEAST 283 On the return trip, Captain James and his party were again entertained at the same house, and Mrs. Parker was as good as her word, refusing to accept any more money and insisting that she had already been sufficiently paid. The whole incident is highly instructive ; for the Captain makes it plain that the Parkers did not keep an inn and had no wish to make a profit out of their guests, being a well-to-do family. They were simply following the custom of the country in accommodating travellers, since there was no public house in the neighborhood. On the same expedition Captain James spent a night at Rittle's tavern at Pownalborough, of which he has left an equally agreeable record : - This house was kept by a German and his wife, who had a family of two sons and four daughters. Two of the latter were extremely handsome, and the civility of the whole house in- duced me to take up my quarters there for the night. I there- fore directed a small supper to be provided, and at nine o'clock sat down to as comfortable a meal as I ever remember to have fed upon. The old man smoked his pipe, and related his peregrinations and the difficulties he laboured under in the American war ; the good old wife prepared the feast, while the daughters, clad in homely apparel, but with looks of native sweetness, virtue and truth, did us the kindness to attend the table. 1 John Davis, the whimsical humorist whom we have more than once quoted, does not fail to note the hospitable custom of entertaining strangers at private houses. Inci- dentally he laughs at his fellow-Britons for their habitual grumbling. He is speaking of Virginia, but the expe- riences of Admiral James prove that what he says was true of other parts of the country : 1 Journal, p. 192. 284 THE OLD FARMER'S ALMANACK I eat my dinner in a log-house on the road. It was kept by a small planter of the name of Homer. Such a tavern would have raised the thunder and lightning of anger in the page of my brother-travellers in America. But the lamented scarcity of American inns is easily accounted for. In a country where every private house is a temple dedicated to hospitality, and open alike to travellers of every description, ought it to excite surprize that so few good taverns are to be found ? l On the whole, it appears that the inns or taverns of New England were pretty comfortable places, and that some of them were rather distinguished. Tourists are pro- verbially hard to please, and it is natural that we should hear more of the unpleasant than of the agreeable inci- dents that accompanied travelling in a new country. But the good repute of our hotels nowadays is merely a con- tinuation of the character which they bore in old times. The administrative capacity for which the Yankee is fa- mous has applied itself successfully to the complicated business of innholding. Many noted landlords in other parts of the country have been New England men. Good cheer has become a cherished American institution. We can hardly venture to assert that its home is New England ; but one would find it hard to make out a better case for any other part of the continent. 1 Travels in the United States of America, London, 1803, p. 341. ON THE ROAD FROM the earliest times in New England to the latter half of the eighteenth century travellers usually rode on horseback, and for short distances this continued to be the custom until long after stage lines had become numerous and well-managed. Felt, in his History of Ipswich, published in 1834, tells us that " about thirty-five years ago, horse-wagons began to be employed. Gradu- ally increasing, they have almost altogether superseded riding on horse-back among our farmers. They are used to carry articles to market, which were formerly borne to town in wallets and panniers, thrown across a horse. They have prevented the method of going in a cart, as often practised before they were invented, by social parties, when wishing to make a visit of several miles." 1 Travelling on horseback is now so completely obsolete in New England, though riding for pleasure is happily on the increase, that certain directions for the management of horses on a journey, given in the Almanac for 1794, have merely an historical significance. No one would think of uttering such precepts to an audience of New England farmers nowadays. They would have little more to do with the needs of the community than a treatise on the care of camels in desert traffic. Yet when they were written they were quite to the point. The English traveller Bennett, in 1740, thus describes the usual methods of travel in New England : - 1 Joseph B. Felt, History of Ipswich, Essex, and Hamilton, Cambridge, 1834, p. 3 2 - 286 THE OLD FARMER'S ALMANACK There are several families in Boston that keep a coach, and pair of horses, and some few drive with four horses ; but for chaises and saddle-horses, considering the bulk of the place, they outdo London. They have some nimble, lively horses for the coach, but not any of that beautiful large black breed so common in London. Their saddle-horses all pace naturally, and are gen- erally counted sure-footed ; but they are not kept in that fine order as in England. The common draught-horses used in carts about the town are very small and poor, and seldom have their fill of anything but labor. The country carts and wagons are generally drawn by oxen, from two to six, according to the dis- tance of place, or burden they are laden with. When the ladies ride out to take the air, it is generally in a chaise or chair, and then but a single horse ; and they have a negro servant to drive them. The gentlemen ride out here as in England, some in chairs, and others on horseback, with their negroes to attend them. They travel in much the same manner on business as for pleasure, and are attended in both by their black equipages. Their roads, though they have no turnpikes, are exceeding good in summer ; and it is safe travelling night or day, for they have no highway robbers to interrupt them. It is pleasant riding through the woods ; and the country is pleasantly interspersed with farm-houses, cottages, and some few gentlemen's seats, between the towns. But the best of their inns, and houses of entertainment, are very short of the beauty and conveniences of ours in England. They have generally a little rum to drink, and some of them have a sorry sort of Madeira wine. And to eat they have Indian corn roasted, and bread made of Indian meal, and sometimes a fowl or fish dressed after a fashion, but pretty good butter, and very sad sort of cheese ; but those that are used to those things think them tolerable. 1 In the last two decades of the eighteenth century there was a great improvement in roads and a marked increase 1 Joseph Bennett, Manuscript History of New England, Proc. Mass. Hist. Soc., V, 124-5. ON THE ROAD 287 in the number of stage lines. Wansey, in 1794, remarked that " eight years ago the road from Boston to Nevvhaven a distance of one hundred and seventy miles, could scarcely maintain two stages and twelve horses ; now it maintains twenty stages weekly, with upwards of an hundred horses ; so much is travelling encreased in this district." l Such growth may partly account for the complaints which we often hear about this time as to the quality of the roadside inns. Hotels in the smaller towns found it hard to keep pace with the development of business and the advancing requirements of the public. In the first year of the nineteenth century the Almanac gives the following LIST , Bojlon, directed to R. B. Thomas, Sterling. From Bofton to Newport, Wellfleet Collins & Dedham Everet 2 over Seekhonk, thro ugh Lombard 9 Walpole Smith, Bil- Rehoboth. Miles Truro Knowles 7 lings & Smith 3 Roxbury Whiting 8 ditto Stevens i Wrentham Hatch 4 Dedham Ames & Gay 5 Provincetown Nick- ditto Bolcom 4 Ellis 3 erfon 7 Attleborough Hawes 5 Walpole Policy 7 ditto Newell 4 Wrentham Druce 6 117 ditto Barrows 2 Attleborough Holmes 5 Seekhonk Plain Sabins 2 Newell 4 To Martha's Vineyard. Patucket Slack i Rehoboth Carpenter 7 Sandwich Feffenden 60 Providence Holmes, Warren Cole 8 Falmouth Fifh 10 Hartfhorn & Barter 4 Briftol Bourn 4 Falmouthtown Hatch 8 Ferry- Houfe Pearfe 2 Wood's Hole Parker 4 45 Portfmouth Congden 7 Over the ferry to Vine- Newport 5 yard 9 To Charleftown, (New- Hampfhire) & Crown- 69 9i point. To Plymouth & Cape Cod. Road to Taunton, Som- Watertown WillingtonS Roxbury Kent 4 erfet, Warren, Briftol, Waltham Townfend 2 Milton Pierce 3 and Newport. Concord Parkman 10 Quincy Marfh 2 Milton Vofe 7 Acton Jones 5 ditto Salilbury 2 ditto Bradley 3 Harvard Parkhurft 8 Weymouth Arnold i Canton Bent 4 ditto Atherton 2 ditto Rice 3 ditto May i Fitchburgh Cowden n Hingham Waters 3 ditto Crane 2 ditto Upton 3 Scituate Collamore 4 Sharon Savage 2 Weftminfter Cooper i Hanover Wales 5 Eafton Wetherbery 5 Afhburnham Cufhing 2 Pembroke Baker 4 Taunton Porter, Bol- ditto Ruffell i Kingfton Little 6 cum & Hodges 12 Winchendon Hale 5 Plymouth Bartlett & Dighton Dean and ditto Kidder 4 Witherell 4 Brown 7 Fitzwilliam Stone 4 ditto Cornifh 6 Somerfet Davis 4 ditto Reed 5 ditto Ellis 5 Swanzey Chace 5 New Marlbro' Switcher Sandwich Newcomb Warren 5 ditto Roberts 8 & Feffenden 7 Briftol Keith 4 Keene Richardfon Barnftable Howland, Over the ferry to New- ditto Bullard Baxter & Chipman 8 port Townfend 13 ditto Edwards 6 ditto Loring & Walpole Moore 10 Crocker 4 74 ditto Bellows 2d 4 Yarmouth Baffet & ditto Bellows 3 Thatcher 5 Poft-Roadto Providence. Charleftown Stone 9 Harwich Silk 7 Roxbury Whiting 8 ditto Willard & ditto Clark & Snow i ditto Draper I Carpenter i Eaftham Knowles 6 ditto Knowles 3 Dedham Gay & Clap 2 ditto Ellis 3 Nott's ferry 5 Springfield Stevens 3 \VeathersfieldSpafford2 Montreal 6 Newent Burnham 8 Cavendifh Pain 6 Trois Rivieres 90 Norwich Lathrop 7 ditto Coffin 5 Quebec 80 Mohegan Houghton 7 Otter Creek Botton 20 New-London Douglas 7 Rutland Meed 6 489 Pittsford Waters 6 104 Shoreham Moore 20 To Charleftown, (New- Bridport Toinner 8 Crownpoint 2 Hampjhire.} Menotomy Ruffel 5 Upper Road to Exeter and Portland. ditto Whittemore i Lexington Brown 3 ditto Alunro i Medford Blanchard 5 Woburn Blackhorfe 3 196 To Montreal & Quebec. [From Walpole Bridge, a new route.~\ Walpole Bridge 103 (See the foregoing lift.) Over the Bridge Rockingham Webb 5 Chefter Kimball 7 Cavendifh Button 9 Ludlow Reed 3 Mountholly Green 5 ditto Bentt 2 Shrewfbury Roberfon 5 Clarendon Bowman 6 ditto Dudley & Merriam i ditto Benjamin 2 Lincoln Hartwell 4 Concord Richardfon 3 Afton White 5 Littleton Gilbert 5 Groton Richardfon 8 Shirley Sawtel 5 Lunenburgh Good- rich & Whitney 5 Fitchburgh Cowden 4 Afhburnham Cufhing 7 ditto Fowle 3 Wilmington Blanchard 4 Andover Abbot 8 Haverhill Charlton 9 Plaftow Sawyer 5 Kingfton Blake 6 Exeter Folfom 5 Stratham Folfom 5 Newmarket Folfom 5 Durham Gage 4 Dover Shannon 6 Berwick Butler 6 ditto Thomfon 2 Rutland Reed 5 r*7 ditto Hays 3 ditto Finton i Pittsford Ewings 6 57 Thence to Charleftown as in the beforemen- Wells Littlefield 7 Kennebunk Bernard ditto Antony 2 Brendon Gilbert ^ tioned lift. & Howard 9 Biddeford Hooper 10 Leicefter Woodard 7 Salifbury Heard 6 Middlebury Mattock 6 Vergennes Hollifler 12 Ferrifburg Burt 7 Charlotte Williams 4 Shelburn Pearfons 4 To Dartmouth College. Charleftown Willard 119 (See above.) Claremont Afhley 6 ditto Cook 4 Cornifh Chafe 5 Saco Bridge Spring Pepperelbo. Bradbury 4 Scarborough Milikin 2 ditto Marfh 4 ditto March 2 Stroudwater Broad 5 Portland Greele & Burlington Ames 7 Plainfield Safford 7 Motley 4 Milton Mansfield 14 Lebanon Hall 6 Acrofs the found to Hanover Brewfter 4 127 South Hero 6 The Gut between N. i 5 ' Poft-Road to Salem & S. Hero Gordon 12 ]th day of feb. 1722-3. Apenanucsuck being drunk was by y* Constable brought before me R. Bushnell, justice of y e peace to be dealt with so as the law directs. I do sentence y e s d Apenuchsuck for his transgression of y e Law, to pay a fine of ten shillings, or to be whipt ten Lashes on y e naked body, and 1 Eliot, A Late and Further Manifestation of the Progress of the Gospel, London, 1655, pp. 6-8. 352 THE OLD FARMER'S ALMANACK to pay the cost of his prosecution, and to continue in y e con- stable's custody till this sentence be performed. Cost allowed is 6s. and 6d. R. Bushnell, Justice of ye Peace. Apeanuchsuch having accused Samuel Bliss for selling y e s d Indian 2 pots of cider this afternoon. Mr. Samuel Bliss ap- peared before me y e subscriber, and acknowledged he let s d Indian have some cider, and do therefore sentence y e said Samuel Bliss to pay a fine of twenty shillings for the transgression of y e Law to be disposed of as y e Law directs. ffebe. y e yth day, 1722-3. R. Bushnell, Justice?- Indian justice of a less formal kind appears in a tradi- tional anecdote of Jacob Spalding, one of the early settlers of Killingly, in the same State. The incident is said to have occurred in 1720: Jacob one day purchased of an Indian a deer skin, for which he paid him a tenor bill. The latter, somewhat intoxicated, forgot soon after that he had received it, and asked for the money a second time. Jacob of course paid no attention to such an unwarrantable demand, and the Indian went away mut- tering revenge. The next day, while shingling a barn, Jacob saw him returning with two companions. He leaped from the roof, met them, and was again asked to pay the price of the deer skin. He refused to comply, till one of the company, who ap- peared to be the sachem of his tribe, said he had come to see "fair play," and avowed it to be honorable for two Indians to contend with one white man. Jacob, therefore, imagined he would have rather a difficult task to accomplish ; but plucking up courage, he exerted himself to the utmost, and on the very first encounter, laid them both upon the ground, and gave them a " sound drubbing." The other, who was looking on, was not at all disposed to assist his brethren, and gave them no other en- couragement than " Poor dogs, poor dogs ! me hope he kill 1 J. W. Barber, Connecticut Historical Collections, p. 299. INDIAN TALK 353 you both ! !" However, Jacob, after "pounding them " a short time, suffered them to escape. But the next day he saw them coming again, and the individual who imagined himself his cred- itor, bearing a rifle, which he was in the act of loading. But in thrusting his hand into his pocket to find the ball, he drew out the identical bill which he had received two days before ! Con- science-struck, he said to Jacob, who was coming to meet him, " Me believe, now, Jacob, you paid me de tenor bill ! " After this confession, Jacob addressed the person who had come to see "fair play." "You," said he, "that have come to see fair play, what do you advise us to do with him? " "Tie him to de tree and whip him," was the reply, which was done accordingly. And here a circumstance occurred, which shows to what extent the Indians carried their principle of honor. The individual in question, after this humiliating treatment, became so dejected that he fled from his tribe, and was never heard of afterwards. 1 The rude justice of the Indians may be further exem- plified by an anecdote reported by the Rev. John Hecke- welder. In 1785 an Indian who had been disowned by his tribe on account of his bad character killed a white man at Pittsburg. The chiefs of the Delawares were invited to be present at his trial, and, if they wished, to defend him. They sent the following pointed answer to the civil au- thorities: Brethren ! You inform us that N. N. who murdered one of your men at Pittsburg, is shortly to be tried by the laws of your country, at which trial you request that some of us may be present ! Brethren ! knowing N. N. to have been always a very bad man, we do not wish to see him ! We, therefore, advise you to try him by your laws, and to hang him, so he may never return to us again. 2 1 Barber, as above, p. 427. 2 Heckewelder, Account of the History, Manners, and Customs, of the Indian Nations, who once inhabited Pennsylvania and the Neighbouring States, Philadelphia, 1819, p. 97. 23 354 THE OLD FARMER'S ALMANACK Thus the so-called Indian warrant appears to be true to the spirit of aboriginal justice, as well as to retain some traces of local color in the names which it gives to the magistrate and the delinquent. It remains to determine whether its dialect is also true to the pronunciation and syntax of the English used by the aborigines. The in- quiry, which will also give results favorable to the verisi- militude of this facetious document, will enable us to pass in review a number of excessively curious pieces of history and tradition. Our first three specimens come from the contemporary annals of King Philip's War. They are preserved in " The Present State of New-England . . . faithfully composed by a Merchant of Boston, and communicated to his Friend in London," which was published in 1675 : About the \$th of August [writes our Boston merchant], Cap- tain Mosely with sixty Men, met with a company, judged about three hundred Indians, in a plain place where few Trees were, and on both sides preparations were making for a Battle ; all being ready on both sides to fight, Captain Moseley plucked off his Periwig, and put it into his Breeches, because it should not hinder him in fighting. As soon as the Indians saw that, they fell a Howling and Yelling most hideously, and said, Umh, umh me no stawmerre fight Engis nwn, Engis man get two hed, Engis won got two hed; if me cut off un hed, he got noder, a put on beder as dis; with such like words in broken English, and away they all fled and could not be overtaken, nor seen any more afterwards. 1 Some of the words in this queer outburst are unintelli- gible and probably misprinted. " Me no stawmerre fight Engis mon " is an oracle that defies interpretation. In gen- eral, however, the passage is plain enough, and it has un- common interest for the student of folk-lore. The Indians, 1 The Present State of New-England, London, 1675, P- I2> INDIAN TALK 355 it seems, were quite ready to admit the possibility of a man's removing his head at will, although they were well aware that they had no such strange powers themselves. In this belief they were in accord with a widespread article of popular superstition, which occurs in one form or an- other from India to Ireland. One of the best of the ancient Irish sagas, The Feast of Bricriu, which is con- tained in a manuscript of about iioo and must be two or three centuries older than that, tells of a giant who allowed himself to be decapitated on condition that he should have the right to treat his assailant in the same way, and who appeared the next evening with his head in its proper place to claim the fulfilment of the bargain. This story got into French in some way as early as the thirteenth century, and reappears in the fine old English romance of Gawain and the Green Knight, written by an anonymous poet who lived in the time of Chaucer. Another bit of Indian English is preserved by the same contemporary witness in his account of the execution of an Indian in 1675. After the culprit had been hanged, " then came an Indian, a Friend of his, and with his Knife made a hole in his Breast to his Heart, and sucked out his Heart-Blood : Being asked his reason therefore, his answer, Umh, umh nu, Me stronger as I was before, me be so strong as me and he too, he be ver strong Man fore he die." 1 Shocking as this story is to modern nerves, it is un- doubtedly true, although the author is anonymous and we have no other testimony to the occurrence. For it accords too exactly with what is known of savage psychology all over the world to be a fabrication. It is a well-known article of faith among many wild races that one may in- herit the strength or prowess of a slain man by tasting his blood or eating some part of his body, and many canni- 1 The same, p. 13. 356 THE OLD FARMER'S ALMANACK balistic practices are based rather on this belief than on an appetite for human flesh. A more agreeable anecdote, also containing a sample of Indian English, is given by the same writer. An English- man, being left for dead after one of the skirmishes, " was found by a Friend Indian, he took him up and said, Umh, umh poo Ingismon, mee save yow life, mee take yow to Cap- tain Mosee ; he carries him fifteen Miles the day after to Captain Moseley, and now this Man is well again and in good Health." 1 Canonchet, otherwise known as Nanuntenoo, chief sa- chem of the Narragansetts, one of King Philip's most for- midable allies, was surprised by a company of English and friendly Indians, and, despairing of an escape, surren- dered in April, 1676. A memorable passage in Hubbard describes his demeanor : One of the first English that came up with him, was Robert Stanton, a young man that scarce had reached the twenty second year of his Age, yet adventuring to ask him a question, or two, to whom this manly Sachem, looking with a little neglect upon his youthful face, replyed in broken English ; you much Child, no understand matters of War let your brother, or your chief come, him I will Answer ; and was as good as his word ; Acting herein, as if by a Pythagorean Metempsychosis, some old Roman Ghost had possessed the body of this Western Pagan ; And like Attilius Regulus, he would not accept of his own Life, when it was tendred him, upon that (in his account) low Condition of Complyance with the English, refusing to send an old Counsellour of his to make any motion that way, saying he knew the Indians would not yield. 2 An extremely curious piece of Indian English occurs in New-England's Crisis, a poem on King Philip's War writ- ten by Benjamin Tompson in 1676. Tompson, who was a 1 The Present State of New-England, London, 1675, P- X 4- 2 Hubbard's Narrative, Boston, 1677, Postscript, p. 8. INDIAN TALK 357 graduate of Harvard College, a physician, and an eminent schoolmaster, is described on his tombstone as " the renouned poet of New England." New-England's Crisis is his chief work. After a prologue in praise of simplicity - an ingenious adaptation to New-England of a famous passage in Boethius Tompson describes King Philip as holding an assembly of his " peers " and his " commons " and delivering an oration against the colonists. This speech is partly in good English, but it is variegated with imitations of the Indian pronunciation and syntax. There are even two native Indian words, wunnegin, which means "good," 1 and matchit, which means "bad," 2 both of which were of course perfectly familiar to the whites. Tompson passes for the earliest native American poet. At all events, he must be credited with the first piece of " dialect verse " ever written in this country. In the extract which follows, the punctuation has been regulated, but no other changes have been made : And here methinks I see this greazy Lout, With all his pagan slaves coil'd round about, Assuming all the majesty his throne Of rotten stump, or of the rugged stone, Could yield ; casting some bacon-rine-like looks, Enough to fright a Student from his books, Thus treat his peers, & next to them his Commons, Kennel'd together all without a summons : " My friends, our Fathers were not half so wise As we our selves, who see with younger eyes ; They sel our land to english man, who teach Our nation all so fast to pray and preach. Of all our countrey they enjoy the best, And quickly they intend to have the rest. This no wunnegin ; so big matchit law, Which our old fathers fathers never saw These english make, and we must keep them too, Which is too hard for us or them to doe. 1 See Trumbull, Natick Dictionary, 1903, p. 202. 2 See Trumbull, p. 50 (s. v. matche). 358 THE OLD FARMER'S ALMANACK We drink, we so big whipt ; but english they Go sneep, no more, or else a little pay. Me meddle Squaw, me hang'd ; our fathers kept What Squaws they would, whither they wakt or slept. Now, if you'le fight, He get you english coats, And wine to drink out of their Captains throats. The richest merchants houses shall be ours ; Wee'l ly no more on matts or dwell in bowers. Wee'l have their silken wives; take they our Squaws ! They shall be whipt by virtue of our laws. If ere we strike, tis now, before they swell To greater swarmes then we know how to quell. This my resolve, let neighbouring Sachems know, And every one that hath club, gun, or bow." This was assented to, and, for a close, He strokt his smutty beard and curst his foes. 1 Philip's comparison between penalties for Indians and penalties for English is very pithily expressed, and it is precisely here that the Indianisms are most marked : We drink, we so big whipt ; but English they Go sneep, no more, or else a little pay. That is, " If we Indians get drunk, we are severely whipped. But if the English get drunk, they merely go and sleep it off, or perhaps have to pay a slight fine." Tompson was a scholar, a student of the tongues. Possi- bly he was here reproducing an actual bit of " Indian talk." At all events, he must be pretty close to the lin- guistic facts. The use of sneep for sleep corresponds with what has often been observed, the Indian substitution of n for / in English words. Massasoit always called his friend Winslow " Winsnow." Tompson's sketch of King Philip is not flattering. It reminds one of the alleged portrait of the Indian potentate engraved by Paul Revere in I7/2. 2 This is so ugly as to 1 Tompson, New-England's Crisis, Club of Odd Volumes, 1894, pp. 10-11. 2 For the second edition of Church's History of King Philip's War (Boston, 1772) ; reproduced by S. G. Drake, Book of the Indians, 8th ed., Boston, 1841. INDIAN TALK 359 be almost repulsive. It has, of course, no claim to be regarded as a likeness, and is not without a suggestion of deliberate caricature. Our ancestors had no temptation to idealize their inveterate enemy. His memory was not only terrible but odious as well, and they expressed their feelings, whether with pen or graver, with the vigor of their day. We have, unfortunately, no good contemporary drawing of a New England Indian of King Philip's time. On the opposite page, however, may be seen a trustworthy repre- sentation of such an Indian. This is taken from a sketch made by Mr. C. C. Willoughby of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University, under the direction of Professor F. W. Putnam. It is the result of a very ingenious process of scientific reconstruction. The proper proportions of the figure were ascertained from a perfect skeleton of a Massachusetts Indian un- earthed at Winthrop by Professor Putnam in 1888. The rank of this warrior was indicated by various objects that were buried with him, and we even know the manner of his death ; for there was an arrow point sticking in the inside of a lumbar vertebra, which showed that he had been shot through the abdomen. The skull was carefully measured to get the shape of the head and the propor- tions of the face. A series of experiments undertaken by Dr. Thomas Dwight, of the Harvard Medical School, gave the thickness of the flesh for the different parts of the face. Details of facial expression were taken from a photograph of a member of a related tribe, the Winneba- goes, who may be presumed to resemble their Algonquin brethren of New England. The shirt, leggings, and moccasins were drawn from specimens in the Peabody Museum which accorded with descriptions of Massachusetts Indians in writings of the seventeenth century. The feathers in the hair were copied from photographs of Ojibways, 360 THE OLD FARMER'S ALMANACK but are equally good for New England, as the old au- thorities prove. The beads round the neck were from specimens actually found with the skeleton already men- tioned. The belt was taken from a bead-embroidered girdle, traditionally said to have belonged to King Philip himself. The bow is a copy of the only Massachusetts weapon of the kind known to be in existence. This has an authentic pedigree extending back to 1665, when it was taken from a Sudbury Indian who had been shot by a white man. Both belt and bow may still be seen in the Museum. The arrow was drawn from specimens in the same collection, and its length was carefully adjusted to the size of the bow. 1 Altogether, then, we have in this figure a representation of an old Massachusetts warrior which is quite as correct as if it had been sketched by a draughtsman of the old time ; and the learning and ingenuity of the reconstructive process add to the interest of the picture. It will be observed that our Indian holds the bow in his left hand and the arrow in his right, as he should. In this he follows actual custom and the dic- tates of practical utility, as well as the ancient seal of the Massachusetts Bay Company. 2 It is to be regretted that the Great Seal of the Commonwealth, even in its latest design, as adopted in iSQS, 3 perpetuates an error made, apparently, in 1780, and depicts an Indian who can only be described as left-handed. The mere transposition of two words in the Act of 1885,* which defines the seal, would bring the law into accordance with the facts. Let us hope that the General Court may see its way to this slight but significant reform. The following story is told by Captain Nathaniel Uring 1 These details are given on the basis of a communication from Pro- fessor Putnam to the writer. ' 2 On various forms of the seal see Massachusetts Documents, 1885, House, No. 345 ; E. H. Garrett, New England Magazine, 1901, XXIII, 623 ff. 3 Acts of 1898, ch. 519. 4 Acts of 1885, ch. 288. INDIAN TALK 361 in his account of his visit to Boston in 1709^ It does not appear whence he derived it, but the two stories im- mediately preceding were told him by Governor Joseph Dudley himself and by Paul Dudley, his son. A third Story is told of the Governour and an Indian, which may not be improper to shew the Subtilty of the Natives. Gov- ernour Dudly was a Man of very good Understanding, and was very industrious in improving his Plantation : He observing a lusty Indian almost naked, took Occasion one Day to ask him, why he did not work to purchase something to keep him from the Cold? The Fellow asked the Governour, why he did not work? Who told him, he worked with his Head, and had no Occasion to work with his Hands as he must. The Indian said, If any one would employ him, he would work. The Governour asked him to kill him a Calf, for which he would give him a Shilling. The Indian readily undertook it, and killed the Calf; but observing he did not go about to skin it, asked him, why he did not make haste to skin and dress it? the Indian an- swered, No, no, Coponoh ; that was not in my Bargain, I was to have a Shilling for killing it, he no dead Coponoh [?] The Governour seeing the Fellow witty upon him, bid him dress it, and he would give him another Shilling : The Indian having finished his Work, and being paid, went to an Alehouse, where they sold Rum, which was near the Governour's House, where he spent some of his Money in that Liquor, which they are all great Lovers of; and whether he had Brass Money of his own, or whether the House furnished him with it, is out of my Story ; but he went back to the Governour, and told him, he had given him bad Money, who seeing it Brass, readily gave him another ; and soon after the Fellow went back with a Second, which the Governour also changed, but knew the Fellow had put upon him ; and seeing him next Day, called to him and told him he must carry a Letter presently to Boston, which he wrote to the Keeper of Bridewell, in order to have the fellow well lashed ; but he 1 History of the Voyages and Travels of Capt. Nathaniel Uring, London, 1726, pp. 120-1. 362 THE OLD FARMER'S ALMANACK apprehending the Consequence, and seeing another Indian in the Road, he gave him the Letter, telling him, the Governour said he must carry that Letter presently to Boston. The poor Fellow took it innocently, and having delivered the Letter as directed, was whip'd very severely; the Governour soon after seeing the Indian again, asked him, if he had carried the Letter he sent him with? He answered, No, no, Coponoh, Head work, pointing to his Head : The Governour was so well pleased with the Fellow's Answer, he forgave him. An instructive piece of Indian social philosophy is given on the authority of the Rev. John Heckewelder, for a long time missionary among the Pennsylvania aborigines : An aged Indian, who for many years had spent much of his time among the white people both in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, one day about the year 1770 observed, that the Indians had not only a much easier way of getting a wife than the whites, but were also more certain of getting a good one ; " For," (said he in his broken English,) "White man court, court, may be one whole year ! may be two year before he marry ! well ! may be then got very good wife but may be not I may be very cross ! Well now, suppose cross ! scold so soon as get awake in the morning ! scold all day ! scold until sleep ! all one ; he must keep him ! White people have law forbidding throwing away wife, be he ever so cross ! must keep him always ! Well! how does Indian do? Indian when he see industrious Squaw, which he like, he go to him, place his two forefingers close aside each other, make two look like one look Squaw in the face see him smile which is all one he say, Yes / so he take him home no danger he be cross ! no ! no ! Squaw know too well what Indian do if he cross ! throw him away and take another ! Squaw love to eat meat ! no husband ! no meat ! Squaw do everything to please husband ! he do the same to please Squaw! live happy!" 1 1 Heckewelder, Account of the History, Manners, and Customs, of the Indian Nations, who once inhabited Pennsylvania and the Neighbouring States, 1819, pp. 151-2. INDIAN TALK 363 Local tradition in Natick, as reported in 1830, is respon- sible for two or three short samples of Indian English. A devout Indian of Natick, Deacon Ephraitn, described as " an ornament to the Christian society for many years," was asked why young Indians who were educated in English families, so often became drunken and disorderly when they grew up, although they had behaved well so long as they were under tutelage. " Ducks will be ducks," replied the old man, 4> varies slightly. 2 Drake, Book of the Indians, 8th ed., Boston, 1841, bk. iii, p. 14. MORE INDIAN TALK 369 know and we know your heart great sorrowful with crying for your lost many many hundred man and all your house and all your land and woman child and cattle as all your thing that you have lost and on your backside stand. SAM, Sachem, KUTQUEN, and QUANOHIT, Sagamores. Peter Jethro, scribe. Mr. Rowlandson, your wife and all your child is well but one dye. Your sister is well and her 3 child. John Kittell, your wife and all your child is all well, and all them prisoners taken at Nashua is all well. Mr. Rowlandson, se your loving sister his hand C Hanah. And old Kettel wif his hand. + Brother Rowlandson, pray send thre pound of Tobacco for me, if you can my loving husband pray send thre pound of tobacco for me. This writing by your enemies Samuel Uskattuhgun and Gunrashit, two Indian sagamores. 1 The confused postscript may need a word of explanation. It was intended to convince the Council that the prison- ers were alive and well. Mr. Rowlandson's sister-in-law, Hannah Divoll, signs with her mark. The tobacco which Mrs. Rowlandson asks her husband to send her was of course to be used in mollifying her captors. Subsequently, when Mr. John Hoar went to negotiate for the release of the captives, he carried Mrs. Rowlandson a pound of tobacco, which she immediately sold to the Indians for " nine shillings in mony." " For many of the Indians," she tells us, " for want of Tobacco, smoaked Hemlock, and Ground-Ivy." There follows the remark, somewhat start- ling to us nowadays : "It was a great mistake in any, 1 The same, bk. iii, p. 90, apparently from the MS., which cannot now be found. Most of the letter is given by Gookin, Historical Account, Coll. Am. Antiq. Soc., II, 508. 24 370 THE OLD FARMER'S ALMANACK who thought I sent for Tobacco: for through the favour of God, that desire was overcome." 1 We must remember, however, that the habit of smoking was by no means rare amongst women in the seventeenth and even in the eight- eenth century. Earlier in her narrative Mrs. Rowlandson confesses to the seductiveness of a couple of pipes : "Then I went to see King Philip, he bade me come in and sit down, and asked me whether I would smoke it (a usual Complement now adayes amongst Saints and Sinners) but this no way suited me. For though I had formerly used Tobacco, yet I had left it ever since I was first taken. It seems to be a Bait, the Devil layes to make men loose their precious time : I remember with shame, how formerly, when I had taken two or three pipes, I was pres- ently ready for another, such a bewitching thing it is : But I thank God, he has now given me power over it : surely there are many who may be better imployed than to ly sucking a stinking Tobacco-pipe." 2 Peter Jethro, who acted as scribe on this occasion, was the son of a Natick Indian called Jethro or Tantamous. Old Jethro had escaped when the friendly Indians were being conducted to Deer Island for safe keeping, and was now, like his son, in the ranks of the enemy. Later, it appears, Peter went back to the whites and was employed as a spy. It is to him that Mrs. Rowlandson refers when she says, " There was another Praying- Indian, who when he had done all the mischief that he could, betrayed his own Father into the English hands, thereby to purchase his own life." 3 His epitaph is an emphatic utterance of Increase Mather: "That abominable Indian Peter Jethro betrayed his own Father, and other Indians of his special acquaintance, unto Death." 4 1 Narrative, 1682, p. 56 (Nourse and Thayer's facsimile ). 2 The same, p. 24. 3 The same, p. 50. * An Historical Discourse concerning the Prevalency of Prayer 1677, p. 6, ed. Drake, Early History of New England, 1864, pp. 257-8. MORE INDIAN TALK Another Indian letter concerning the same negotiations, though unsigned, is thought to be the work of James Printer, a native who has an honorable name in the history of American typography. He had been apprenticed to Samuel Green of Cambridge in 1659, but had joined his countrymen when the war broke out. Soon after the date of this letter, he gave himself up, was pardoned, and returned to his trade. He was Eliot's mainstay in setting up and correcting the second edition of the Indian Bible (published in 1685), and in 1709 his name is joined with Green's in the imprint of an English and Indian Psalter. 1 James Printer's letter is preserved among the Hutchinson Papers. 2 It was written at Philip's headquarters at Wachu- sett, and runs as follows : For the Governor and the Council at Boston The Indians, Tom Nepennomp and Peter Tatatiqunea hath brought us letter from you about the English Captives, especially for Mrs Rolanson ; the answer is I am sorrow that I haue don much wrong to you and yet I say the falte is lay upon you, for when we began quarel at first with Plimouth men I did not think that you should haue so much truble as now is : therefore I am willing to hear your desire about the Captives. Therefore we desire you to sent Mr Rolanson and goodman Kettel : (for their wives) and these Indians Tom and Peter to redeem their wives, they shall come and goe very safely : Whereupon we ask Mrs Rolanson, how much your husband willing to giue for you she gaue an answer 20 pound in goodes but John Kittels wife could not till, and the rest captives may be spoken of hereafter. The descendants of James Printer did not follow in the steps of their ancestor so far as learning is concerned. In 1728, when the Indian proprietors of Hassanamisco 1 See Drake, Book of the Indians, 8th ed., bk. ii, pp. 50-51 ; Pilling, Bibliography of the Algonquian Languages, Washington, 1891, p. 348. 2 II, 282. Here from Nourse and Thayer's edition of Mrs. Rowlandson's Narrative, Lancaster, 1903, pp. 97-98. 3/2 THE OLD FARMER'S ALMANACK (Grafton) conveyed the town to the English, Ami Printer, Moses Printer, and Ami Printer, Jr., signed the deed, each as owner of a seventh of the land, and all made their marks. It must be admitted, however, that these marks appear in every case to be the initial of the signer's name. 1 The high standing of Waban is nowhere more conclu- sively shown than in three Indian letters in which he is actually addressed as "Mr. Waban," a proud title in colonial times. The first of these was written in July, 1676, and the others soon after. The fortunes of Philip had declined, and his allies were eager to make peace with the English. They are favorable specimens of aboriginal English. 2 Mr. John Leveret, my Lord, Mr. Waban, and all the chief men our Brethren, Praying to God : We beseech you all to help us ; my Wife she is but one, but there be more Prisoners, which we pray you keep well : Muitamuck his Wife, we entreat you for her, and not onely that man, but it is the Request of two Sachems, Sam Sachem of Weshakum, and the Pakashoag Sachem. And then that further you will consider about the making Peace : We have spoken to the People of Nashobak (viz. Tom Dubler and Peter,} that we would agree with you, and make a Covenant of Peace with you : We have been destroyed by your Souldiers, but still we Remember it now, to sit still ; do you con- sider it again ; we do earnestly entreat you, that it may be so, by Jesus Christ, O ! let it be so ! Amen, Amen. It was Signed Muttamuck, his Mark N. Uppanippaquem, his C. Sam Sachem, his Mark ^. Pakaskoag his Mark *. Simon Potto quam, Scribe. Superscribed, To all English-men and Indians, all of you, hear Mr. Waban, Mr. Eliott. 1 See F. C. Pierce, History of Grafton, p. 40. 2 Preserved in A True Account of the Most Considerable Occurrences, etc., London, 1676, pp. 6 ff. MORE INDIAN TALK 373 My Lord, Mr. Leveret at Boston, Mr. Waban, Mr. Eliott, Mr. Gooken, and Council, hear ye. I went to Connecticott about the Captives, that I might bring them into your hands, and when we were almost there, the English had destroy'd those Indians ; when I heard it, I return'd back again ; then when I came home, we were also destroyed ; after we were destroyed, then Philip and Quanipun went away into their own Countrey again ; and I know they were much afraid, because of our offer to joyn with the English, and therefore they went back into their own Countrey, and I know they will make no Warre ; therefore because when some English men came to us, Philip and Quanapun sent to kill them ; but I said, If any kill them, I '11 kill them. Sam Sachem. Written by Simon Boshokum Scribe. For Mr. Eliot, Mr. Gooken, and Mr. Waban. Consider of this I Intreat you, consider of this great businesse that is done ; and my wonder concerning Philip, but his Name is Wewesawanit, he engageth all the people that were none of his Subjects : Then when I was at Penakook, Numpho John, Alline, Sam Numpho, and others who were angry, and Numpho very much angry that Philip did engage so many people to him ; and Numpho said it were a very good deed that I should go and kill him that joyned so many to himself without cause : in like manner I said so too. Then had you formerly said be at peace, and if the Councill had sent word to Kill Philip we should have done it : then let us clearly speak, what you, and we shall do. O let it be so speedily, and answer us clearly. Pumkamun, Ponnakpukim, or, Jacob Muttamakoog. Sam Sachem, or Sagamore Sam, was a Nashaway chief, whose Indian name was Shoshanim. We have already had a sample of his diplomatic correspondence in the letter to the Council in the case of Mrs. Rowlandson 374 THE LD FARMER'S ALMANACK (April, I676). 1 That letter, however, was conceived in a very different spirit from the first of the present series, and is probably a better index to the Sachem's charac- ter. The second of the series seems to contain more of the sagamore and less of the Christian scribe. Sam's attempts to make peace were futile. He was taken and hanged. Judge Sewall's Diary, under date of Septem- ber 26, 1676, records with matter-of-fact conciseness the result of the rigorous proceedings that followed King Philip's War: " Sagamore Sam goes, and Daniel Goble is drawn in a Cart upon bed cloaths to Execution. . . . One ey'd John, Maliompe, Sagamore of Quapaug, Gen- eral at Lancaster, &c, Jethro, (the Father) walk to the Gallows." Four documents from the New Hampshire Provincial Papers may close the roll. 2 They are from the distinguished Penacook sachem, John Hogkins, often called Hawkins. The first two are the composition of Simon Betogkom, the same person who wrote the letters from Sam Sachem just quoted. The variation in the spelling of his name Betogkom or Boshokum is by no means unexampled. Hogkins and his associates, it will be seen, are anxious for peaceful relations with the white men. Their letters or petitions were all presented at about the time when Gov- ernor Cranfield left the Province. The last of the series mentions the Governor's departure: "He go away, so he say, at last night." It is addressed to Robert Mason, grandson and heir of Captain John, and claimant to the Proprietorship of New Hampshire. It is a satisfaction to know that a treaty of amity and reciprocal justice with the Indians was signed soon after. 3 1 See pp. 368-9, above. 2 New Hampshire Provincial Papers, I, 583-5. There are several signa- tures, besides that of Hogkins to the first two letters. 3 Sept. 8, 1685 (Provincial Papers, I, 588). MORE INDIAN TALK 375 May I5th, 1685. Honour Governor my friend, you my friend I desire your worship and your power Because I hope you can do som great matters this once I am poor and naked and I have no men at my place because I afraid allways mohogs [i. e., Mohawks] he will kill me every day and night if your worship when please pray help me you no let mohogs kill me at my place at Malamake [i. e. Merrimac] Revir called Panukkog and Natukkog I will submit your worship and your power and now I want powder and such allminishon shott and guns because I have forth at my horn and I plant theare. This all Indian hand but pray you do consider your humble Servant JORN HoGKINS . May 15 th , 1685. Honour mr Governor now this day I com your house I want se you and I Bring my hand at before you I want shake hand to you if your worship when please then you Receve my hand then shake your hand and my hand you my friend because I Remem- ber at old time when live my grant father and grant mother then Englishmen com this country then my grant father and English- men they make a good govenant they friend allwayes my grant father leving at place called malamake Rever other Name chef Natukkog and panukkog that one Rever great many names and I bring you this few skins at this first time I will give you my friend This all Indian hand John+hawkins Sagomor please your worship I will intreat your matther you my friend now this if my Indians he do you long [i. e., wrong] pray you no put your law because som my Indians fooll som men much love drunk then he no know what he do may be he do mischif when he drunk if so pray you must let me know what he done because I will ponis him what he have done you you my friend if you desire any business then sent me I will help you if I can Mr. John hogkins 376 THE OLD FARMER'S ALMANACK mr mason pray I want speake you a few words if your worship when please because I com parfas [purpose] I will speake this Governor but he go away so he say at last night and so far I understand this governor his power that your power now so he speake his own mouth pray if you take what I want pray com to me because I want go horn at this day. your humble servant, John hogkins, Indian Sogmon. May 1 6 th , 1685. The rapid disappearance of the various Indian languages in central and southern New England is noteworthy, though not astonishing. Now and then the philologist has the melancholy pleasure of being present at the last gasp of some aboriginal dialect. No longer ago than 1903 Mr. Frank G. Speck discovered a scanty remnant of the language of the Scaticook (Skaghticoke) Indians of Litch- field County, Connecticut, still lingering in the memory of one James Harris, "who claimed to be a full-blood." Harris had learned what he knew of the matter from his grand- mother, who was able to speak the language. He recollected but twenty-three words and three connected sentences, one of which meant, as he interpreted it, " Hurry up to the hotel and get a drink," or more probably, as Professor Prince has made out, " Come along, my friends, and we will have a drink." l Either reading is significant enough. It may be added, since neither Mr. Speck nor Professor Prince notices the circumstance, that the late Benson J. Lossing visited the Skaghticoke reservation about 1859 and held a long conversation with Eunice Mahwee, a granddaughter of the Gideon Mahwee who is said to have formed the settlement in 1728. Mr. Lossing contributed an account of his visit to Scribner's Monthly for October, 1 Prince and Speck, Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, XLII, 346 ff. MORE INDIAN TALK 377 1871, under the title "The Last of the Pequods." 1 His article is provided with a portrait of Eunice Mahwee, who, when he saw her, was " just one hundred years old," and who regarded herself as the only pure-blooded survivor of her tribe. In 1836 Eunice Mawehu contributed informa- tion about her people to J. W. Barber; but neither Barber nor Lossing says anything about her knowledge of the In- dian language. 2 Another Connecticut tribe, also studied by Mr. Speck, have remembered their native tongue better. In the village of Mohegan, near Norwich, live some fifty Pequots, and there are about fifty more in the adjacent towns who belong to the same group. Though all are American citizens, they still maintain the form of their old tribal government, and meet annually in the church at Mohegan, for they are sufficiently devout Congregation- alists, to celebrate the ancient Green-corn Feast. Their habitual language is English, but two of the women, a Mrs. Fielding and her sister, are able to speak Pequot, and the former can write it with some fluency. 3 In less than a generation, however, the old dialect will undoubtedly dis- appear, though certain words and phrases, and perhaps a sentence or two, may linger in the memory of individuals. The discoveries of Mr. Speck carry one's imagination back to the fate of the ancient Cornish tongue, which ceased to be a living language when Dolly Pentreath died in 1777. Our discussion has led us far away from High Howder's writ as reported by Mr. Thomas, 4 but it may be hoped 1 Reprinted by W. W. Beach, The Indian Miscellany, Albany, 1877, pp. 452 ff 2 Connecticut Historical Collections, pp. 200, note, 471 ; see also Samuel Orcutt, The Indians of the Housatonic and Naugatuck Valleys, Hartford, 1882, pp. 197 ff. 3 See Speck and Prince, American Anthropologist, 1903, New Series, v, 193 * See p. 333, above. 378 THE OLD FARMER'S ALMANACK that our scrutiny of the literary efforts of our aboriginal predecessors has not been altogether devoid of interest. At all events, it has served to illustrate the diversity of subjects which occupied the mind of the Old Farmer and which lend character to his venerable Almanack. INDEX ABDV, E. S., on New England stages, 2 93- Academies, in New England, 228 ff. ; Mr. Thomas on, 228 f . ; for women, 230. Acadia, Jesuits in, 109. Accounts, squaring, 81 f., 99 f., 316. Adams, C. F., 172. Adams, John, on pettifoggers, 99 ; on New England institutions, 225 ; on American fondness for titles, 234 ; description of innkeepers, 264, 269 f . Adams and Liberty, song, by R. T. Paine, 149. Addison on witchcraft, 114. Advertisements, 8 f., 137, 264 f., 269, 276 ff., 296 f., 3isff. ALschylus, 71. Agamemnon, murder of, 71 ; tragedy by ^Eschylus, 71. Agamenticus, Maine, murder at, 75. Agawam, Mass., 245. Agriculture, in the United States in 1 7&3> T 7 5 improvements in, 21 ; ob- servations on, desired by Mr. Thomas, 25 f. ; Roman calendar of, 78 f. ; Cato's precepts compared with Mr. Thomas's, 79 f. ; pre- cepts of the Farmer's Calendar, 80 If. ; kitchen gardens, 84 ff. ; hired men, 85 f. 180; haymaking, 88, 182 f. ; tradition in, 91 f. ; parsnips, 91 f . ; cattle shows, 93; books on, 128, 141 f., 309 f., 311 ff ; huskings, 1 68 ff. ; changing works, 179 ff. ; in- sect pests, 179, 181, 186 f . ; wages, iSo; women as laborers, 182 f . ; crows and corn, 189 f. ; Indian sum- mer and the crops, 191, 198; rail- roads and, 301 f . ; moon and, 305 ff. See also Farmer's Almanack ; Far- mer's Calendar ; Indian corn ; Wheat. Agricultural fairs, 93. Ague cured by sympathetic remedy, 117 ; spiders as remedy, 119. Air, theories about, 166 f. Air-pump, 307. Albany, N. Y., stage line from Boston to, 287 ; so-called Telegraph Line of stages, 296 ; railroad, 298 f. Alders, clearing land of, 312. Aldrich, T. B., on Sunday reading, 317. Alert, of U. S. Navy, 215. Alexander, Sir James, on Indians of Canada, 160. Algonquins, 359. Allen, J., gardener, 9. Allen, Dr. T., writing master, 5. Allen, William, D.D., on Waban and Indian warrant, 334 f. All-hallown summer, 193. Almanacs, astrology in, 39 ff., 43 ff., 53 ff., 108 ; stamp duty on, 46 f. ; burlesques on, 40, 44 ff ., 48 ff., 56 f. ; the Man of the Signs in, 53 ff. ; pictures in, 62 ff. ; miscellaneous contents of, 71 ; circulated by peddlers, i39ff. See also Calen- dar ; Farmer's Calendar. Almanacs: see Ames, Bickerstaff, Billings, British, Browne, Carleton, Clough, Dekker, Farmer's, Gad- bury, Kalender of Shepherdes, Partridge, Pond, Poor Robin, Poor Will. Rabelais, Raphael, Robie, Smith and Forman, Thomas, I., Thomas, R. B., Travis, Woodward, Zadkiel. Altweibersommer, 194. American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 134, 152, 167, 198. American Anthropologist, 377. American Antiquarian Society, 16, 337 rf. American Philosophical Society, 126, 376. INDEX Ames, Jonathan, and his mother, tried for murder, 74. Ames, Dr. Nathaniel, his almanac and his tavern, 59 f., 264 f., 304; as an astrologer, 59 f . ; his treatment of the Man of the Signs, 59 f. Ames, Dr. Nathaniel, Jr., on lawyers, 103; on huskings, 172. Amherst, Mass., stage from Boston to, 288. Amsterdam Society for Rescue of the Drowned, 163 f. Amusements : see Angling ; Bowling ; Cattle shows; Christmas; Horse- races ; Hunting ; Huskings ; Music ; Playing cards ; Shows ; Shrovetide ; Skating; Spinning bees; Stool- ball ; Theatres ; Training; Turkey- shooting. Anacreon in Heaven, tune, 149. Anatomy, or Man of the Signs, 53 ff., 312. Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company, 211 f. Andros, Sir Edmund, 345. Anecdotes: Madam Hayley and the Dutch envoy, n f. ; Beast of Gevau- dun, 69 f. ; Murders Strangely Dis- covered, 72 f. ; dogs at table, 84; Neighbor Freeport, 94 ff. ; Toad and Spider, 104 ff. ; Mouse and Snake, 108 ; resuscitation, 120 f . ; scene in Virginia, 142 f. ; fires, 147 f . ; rescue of John Wesley, 148 f. ; a fire in Boston, 150 f . ; Judge SewalPs escape, 153 f . ; recovery of drowned bodies, i <;8 ff. ; revival of the drowned, 164 ff. ; Gen. Eaton and the Bey, 208 ; Militia Captain, 212 i.; John Barnard and Master Cheever, 231 f . ; Sunday travelling, 238 f. ; the Vermont Nimrod, 240 f. ; Sam Hyde, 241 ff . ; an Indian in King Philip's War, 243 f. ; marks- manship, 245 ff. ; hunting stories, 240 f., 247 f. ; Washington and the mosquitoes, 248 f. ; English traveller and the Sea Serpent, 249 f. ; John Dunton and the mermaid, 250; Moon Hoaxes, 251 ff . ; inquisitive- ness, 268 f. ; Washington and the innkeeper, 270 f. ; Rochefoucault in New Jersey, 277 f. ; Admiral James and New England hospitality, 281 ff. ; the moon and the brain, 307 f. ; Dr. Deane and Balaam, 308 f; Dr. Deane and Capt. Mowatt, 309 ; Barberries and Wheat, 329 ff. ; Indian anecdotes, 241 ff., 333 ff. Angels, fallen, as pagan divinities, 109. Angling, 64 f. Anglo-Saxon calendars, 66. Animals exhibited at inns, 277. Annian, Straits of, discovered by Sir Francis Drake, 321. Antidote against Atheism, by Henry More, in. Antidotes, animals seek, 104 ff. Apenanucsuck, Indian, 351 f. Apollo Press, Boston, 322. Apparitions, revealing murder, 73 f. Apple trees, when to plant, 313. Apples, keeping through winter, 309 ; effect of the moon on, 309 f. ; mo- lasses from, 129. Apprentices, 144. Arabian Nights, sold by Mr. Thomas, 3!9- Arachne, myth of, 106 f. Army and navy, 208 ff. Army officers as innkeepers, 263 f., 266 ; Society of the Cincinnati, 263. Arsenic, use in plague, 117. Art in almanacs, etc., 62 ff . Artillery Election, 211 f. Ashes, warm, as means of resuscita- tion, 164. Ashmole, Elias, on spiders as ague cure, 119. Ass's shoe, to ward off evil spirits, 206. Astrology, 39 ff., 53 ff., 305 ff. ; in New England, 39 ff., 305 ff. ; dis- cussed in Harvard theses for A. M., 40 f. ; Man of the Signs, 53 ff. ; comets, 199 ff. ; in English and American almanacs, 43 ff., 53 ff., 305 ff ., burlesqued, 4of ., 45 ff ., 48 ff., 56 f.; ridiculed, 58 ff. Astronomy : see Astrology; Comets ; Eclipses ; Sun spots. Atherton, Humphrey, magistrate set over Indians, 340. Auctions at inns, 278. Austin, Alfred, poet laureate, 193. Autumn : see Indian summer. BACHELORS and maids, jocose predic- tions concerning, 50 ff. Bacon, Lord, 112. INDEX 381 Baker, E. J.,on Patrick Jeffrey, 13. Bakers, expense of patronizing, 93?. Ball playing, 174. Ballads, 144, 161. Bamherg, witchcraft in, 113. Barbary pirates, 208 ; war of United States with Barbary States, 238. Barber, J. W., Connecticut Histori- cal Collections, 247, 352, 377 ; on Connecticut Indians, 377. Barberry bushes, hard to destroy, 328 ff. ; thought to blast wheat and rye, 328 ff. Barclay, Andrew, Boston bookbinder, 7- Barefoot, habit of going, 222. Barlaam and Joasaph, legend of, 137 f. Barlow, Joel, his Hasty Pudding, 170 f.; his Columbiad, 170; on huskings, 170; agent of Scioto Company, 171 ; in French Revolu- tion, 171 ; at Chambery, 171. Barnard, Rev. John, his controversy with Pigot as to Christmas, 176 f. ; his Autobiography, 177, 231 ; his relations with the Church of Eng- land, 177 ; his school days, 231 f. Barnstable, Mass., salt-works at, 135 f. ; county courts at, 333. Barnstable County : see Cape Cod. Bayberry tallow, 189. Bayley, Col. Frye, 180. Beach, W. W., Indian Miscellany,377. Beal, Rev. John, on spiders, 119. Beaman, Hannah, 7. Bear, Polar, exhibited in Boston, 277. Beast of Ge vauclun, 69 ff. Beef, when to kill, 306. Beer, 262. Belknap, Jeremy, D. D., on witch- craft, no; letter on fire-engines, 152; on the Dark Day, 204 f. ; on maple sugar, 123, 229; his tour to Niagara, 294 f. ; his History of New Hampshire, 123, 315, 320; his American Biography, 320. Belknap, Joseph, Boston printer, 322. Beloe, William, his account of Madam Hayley, 9 ff. ; Southey's opinion of his style, 10. Belpre, on the Ohio, 129. Bennett, Joseph, on travel in New England, 285 f. Bentley, Richard, 192. Beowulf, Anglo-Saxon epic, 166. Berkle, van, Dutch ambassador, his call on Hancock, u f. Berserk rage, 159. Berwick, Maine, Dwight's journey to, 3 2 9- Bethlehem, Pa., Moravian female seminary at, 230. Betogkum (Boshokum, Pottoquam), Indian scribe, 372 f., 374 f. Beverly, Mass., salt-works at, 132. Bevis of Hampton, romance and chapbook, 137. Biard, Father, on Indians as devil- worshippers, 109. j Bible, Eliot's Indian, 371. | Bickerstaff, Isaac, pseudonym for Swift, 45. Bickerstaff's Boston Almanack, pic- tures in, 69. Bier : see Ordeal. Bigelow, Jacob, M. D., on Mysteries of Udolpho, 318 f. Biglow, William, on Thomas Waban and Indian warrant, 335 ; records of Natick, Mass., 346; Natick Indian anecdotes, 363. Billings, Hammatt, as illustrator of the Farmer's Almanack, 63. Billings, Josh (H. W. Shaw), Old Farmer's Allminax, 56 f. ; burles- que on the Man of the Signs, 56 f. Bingham, Caleb, master of girls' schools and author of school-books, 229 f. Birch, Thomas, D. D., 119, i66f., 308. Black, Rev. W. G., his Folk-Medi- cine, 119. Black staff, sign of constable's office, 342. Blackmore, Sir Richard, his Prince Arthur, 170. Blasting of wheat, 327 ff . ; thought to be effect of barberry bushes, 328 ff. Bleeding of corpse, 74 ff. Bliss, Joel W., advertisement, 269. Bliss, Samuel, 352. Bliss, W. W., 246. Blister bugs, 186 f. Blistering, 186 f. Blood, Indian superstition regarding, 355- Bloodletting and the signs of the zo- diac, 53. Blue Mountain, 304. Boarding-houses, 263, 280. 382 INDEX Boarding round, of schoolmasters, 6. Body, dominion of the moon in man's, 53 ff. Boer War, 47. Bogs, clearing, 311 ff. Bohemian folk-lore, 159. Bolton, C. K., 244, 247. Book of Knowledge, 42 f . Bookbinding, 7. Books for children, 137 ; chapbooks, 137 ff- Bookselling in New England, 7 f., 317 ff. ; country imprints, 317. Bordley, J. B., his Husbandry, 128; on watermelon sugar, 128. Bore, fitienne de, sugar planter, 128. Boshokum : see Betogkum. Boston, society in, 12; smallpox in, 14; population of, 20; notions, 83 f. ; market for provisions, 83 ff . ; Lechforcl in, 98 ; booksellers, 139; theatre at, 150 ; method of building houses, 150?.; fire in, A. D. 1796, described, 150! ; amateur firemen, 151; Fire Department, 152; fire- engines in, 152; United Fire So- ciety, opposite 152; carrying fire and smoking in the streets, 155 f. ; taverns in, 163, 287 ff. ; South Church in, 201 ; lightning rods in, 2ot ff . ; Artillery Election, 211 f. ; Latin School, 231 ff . ; inns in, 163, 276 f., 287 ff. ; stages, 288 ff. ; 292, 293 ; stage and post roads, 299, 303 ff. ; railroads from, 297 ff. See also Pemberton Hill ; Tremont St. ; Vassall estate. Boston Advertiser, 300. Boston and Albany Railroad, 298 ff. Boston and Lowell Railroad, 300 f. Boston and Providence Railroad, 300. Boston and Worcester Railroad, 300 f. Boston Neck, salt-works on, 133. Bours, Rev. Peter, of Marblehead, Mass., 177. Bow and arrow, method of carrying, 360. Bowling, Mr. Thomas on, 276. Boxford, Mass., Ames murder at, 74. Boyle, Robert, 119, on death for lack of air, 166 ; improver of air-pump, 307 ; on the moon and the brain, 307; his law of gases, 307. Boyle's Voyages, work of fiction, 323 f . Boylston, Mass., 4. Bradford, Gov. William, on salt manu- facture, 131 f. ; on Christmas, 173 f. Bradford Academy, 230. Brain, moon's effect on, 305, 307 ; the tides and the, 307. Braintree, Mass., lawyers in, 99. Bramhall, Bishop John, controversy with Hobbes, 57. Brand, John, on Shrovetide sports, 178. Brattleboro', Vermont, 269, 317. Brayley, A. W., on fire-engines, 152. Bread, baker's, 93 f. ; made of Indian meal, 286. Breathing under water, 167. Breck, Samuel, n ; account of Madam Hay ley, n ff. Brewster, Sir David, 253. Bricriu, Feast of, Irish saga, 355. Briggs, Samuel, Essays, etc., of Na- thaniel Ames, 58, 60. Brine, leaking, sign of short crops, 206. Bristles, for brush-making, 187 f. British Almanac, 46 f. Brooke, Henry, his Fool of Quality, 3 r 9- Brookfield, Mass., 226. Brookline, Mass., stage from Boston to, 290. Brooks, Henry M., 8, 238, 276. Brown, Charles Brockden, on Indian summer, 194. Browne, Daniel, hexameters on the signs, 55 ; his almanac, 55. Browne, Sir Thomas, on toads and spiders, 107. Browning, The Grammarian's Fu- neral, title anticipated by Tompson, 2 33- Brush-making, 188. Buckingham, Joseph T., on ballads and chapbooks, 144 ; on bristles, 188 ; reprints Washington's di- ploma, 237 ; on railroads, 298 f. Bucktails, nickname for Democrats, 280. Buddha, Joasaph identical with, 138. Buddhistic parables, 138. Bugs, 179, 181. Bulfinch, Dr. Thomas, on use of to- bacco smoke in resuscitation, 164. Bull, Frederick, tavern at Hartford, Conn., 123. Bunch of Grapes Tavern, Boston, 163. INDEX 383 Burlesque Almanacs : see Dekker, Poor Robin, Rabelais, Billings. Burlington, Vt., stage, 294. Burney, Miss, her novels sold by Mr. Thomas, 318. Burning over the woods, Indian cus- tom, 195. Burnt Cabins, the, on the Ohio Road, 34- Bushes, mowing, effect of the moon, 306, 310 ff. ; eradicating, 328 ff. Bushnell, R., 351 f. Busybodies, sketches of, 89, 90 f. Bute County, N. C., tavern, 263. Butter, cream bewitched, 206. Buttonwood bushes, 312. Buzzard's Bay, Mass., 246. Byron and Zeluco, 319. CAKES, Shrove Tuesday, 177 f. Calash, 349. Calendar, manuscript, 54; illustra- tions for, 62 ff. ; Roman farmer's, 65 f. 78 f. ; Anglo-Saxon, 66 ; Athenian liturgical, 66; illumin- ated, 66. See Farmer's Calendar. Cambridge, Eng., Christ's College, 3. Cambridge, Mass., Indian school at, 76 ; stage from Boston to, 290. See Harvard College. Canada, Jesuits in, 109; Indians of, 109, 124, 1 60. Candler, Isaac, on American inquisi- tiveness, 268 f. ; on inns, 269. Candles, 189. Cannibalism, 355 f. Canonchet, capture of, 356. Canso, N. S., 73. Canterbury Tales, 61, 72. Cantharides, 186 f. Canton, Mass., stage from Boston to, 290. Cape Ann, stage from Boston to, 289. Cape Cod, 96; Dwight's journey to, 129; salt manufacture on, 129 ff . ; Thoreau's, 135 ; lighthouse on, 163. Cape of Good Hope, observatory at, 254 ff. Captives taken by Indians, 171, 368 ff. Cards, playing, 95 f., 139. Carleton, Osgood, 8 f. ; his mathe- matical school, 8; his almanac, 8; his English accent, 8 f. ; invited to contribute to the Farmer's Almanack, 8. Carts, 285. Carver, Capt. John, his explorations, 320 f. ; his escape at the massacre of Fort William Henry, 321. Castine, Maine, trial of Susup at, 365 f- Cat, black, dreaming of, 206 ; cat's tail as weather sign, 205. Catalogue of books sold by R. B. Thomas, 318 ff. Cato on agriculture, compared with the Farmer's Calendar, 79 f. Cattle shows, 93. Caughnawaga Indians, 171. Ceyx and Alcyone, 196 f. Chabanakongkomun (Dudley, Mass.), 34.0 f . Chairs or chaises, 286. Changing works, 179 ff. Chapbooks, 42, 137 ff. Chapmen and their books, 137 ff. Character sketches in the Almanac, 86 ff. Charity inculcated, 81. Chaucer, 56, 61, 72, 155 f., 348, 355. Cheever, Ezekiel, anecdotes of, 231 ff. ; elegy on, 232 f. Chemical medicine, rise of, 118. Chesterfield, Lord, his Letters, 318. Child, Francis J., his Ballads, 161. Chimneys, sweeping, 146; glazing, 148. Christmas, objection to the celebra- tion of, 173 ff. ; date of, 175 ff. Church, Thomas, his King Philip's War, 358. Church of England, 174, 176 f. Church-going, 88. Cider, 83 f., 172, 282, 315; selling to Indians, fine for, 351 f. Cigars, 147, 154 f., 156 f., 220 f. Cincinnati, Society of, motto of, 263. Circle of the months, figure, 66. Clark, James, White Lion tavern, Boston, 288. Clayton, B., translator of Israel Hiibner, 314. Clearing land, 311 ff., 328 ff. Clergy, 100, 108 ff., 125, 172 f., 175 ff., 181 f., 197 f., 199 ff., 204 f., 223 f., 230, 260, 271, 336 ff. See Ministers. Cleveland, John, on the Man of the Signs, 58. 384 INDEX Climate, 191 ff. See also Weather. Clough, Samuel, his almanac, 58; on the Man of the Signs, 58. Clytemnestra, 115. Coaches, private, 286. See Stage- coaches. Cobbett, Wm., Treatise on Garden- ing, 141. Cock, throwing at the, 177 f. Coffee, consumption of, 184 f. ; po- tatoes as a substitute for, 184 f. Cogan, Dr. Thomas, on resuscitation, 163. Cogswell, Dr. M. F., on Indian sum- mer, 191 f. Coins, silver, value in 1797, 37. Colonial Society 'of Massachusetts, 2 35- Columbiacl, epic by Joel Barlow, 170. Columbian Centinel, 238, 276. Columbian Muse, 318. Comets, 41 ; effect on weather, 191, 198 ff . ; portentous, 198 ff . ; In- crease Mather on, 199 f. ; Professor Winthrop on, 200. Company of Stationers, publishers of almanacs, 46 f. Congress in 1794, 234. Connecticut, maple sugar in, 122 f . ; peddlers in, 144 f. ; schools in, 227 f. ; Sunday laws in, 238 f. ; Indians in, 124 ff.', 376 f. Connecticut Courant, 164. Constables, Indian, 333 ff., 338, 340 ff. Constitution, frigate, 215. Continental Congress encourages salt- making, 133. Conveyance, means of, 285 ff. Cooper, Judith (Sewall), 14. Corn, huskings, 168 ff. ; red ears, 1 68, 171 f. ; crows, 189 f. ; corn crop and Indian summer, 198; uses of, 191 ; the word, in England and America, 327 f. Cornish, murder of, 75. Cornish language, 377. Cornstalks, molasses from, 129. Corpse, bleeding of, 74 ff. Corpse lights, 162. Correspondents of the Almanac, 25 ff. Costume, 63 ff., 222 ; Indian, 359 f. Cotton, Rev. John, estate on Pem- berton (Cotton) Hill, 14. Cotton, John, 349. Cotton, Rev. Seaborn, 14. Counter-irritants, 186 f. County fairs, 93. Courts, held at taverns, 278; Indian, 337 Courts martial, 210 f. Coverly, N., Boston printer, 7. Cracow, salt mine at, 134. Cranfield, Gov. Edward, of New Hampshire, 374 ff. Cream bewitched, 206. Crosby, Rev. C. C. P., 5, 98. Crown Point, expedition to, in 1756, 4. Crows, means of preventing them from pulling up corn, 189 f. Cumberland Gazette, 182. Cure for greasy heels in horses, 188 ; wonderful cures, 1 1 5 ff. Curiosity of Americans, 268 f. Currency, 37 ; different standards, 38 ; tenor bill, 352 f. Currier, J. J., historian of Newbury, Mass., 262. Curtis, G. W., on the Pilgrim and Puritan Christmas, 174 f. Cutler, Rev. Manasseh, on the weather, 198. Cuts : see Illustrations. DACIA : see Petrus de Dacia. Dairy, cleanliness in, 182. Dark Day of 1780, 203 ff . ; of 1819, 205. Davenport, Abraham, poem by Whit- tier, 203. Davis, John, traveller and pedagogue, on ballad peddler, 142 f. ; on Fair- banks murder, 142 f. ; on inns and innkeepers, 263, 283 f. ; on motto of the Cincinnati, 263 ; on hospi- tality, 284. Davis, Judge John, edition of Mor- ton's Memorial, 327, 333 ; on wheat, 327 ; version of Indian warrant, 333 f. ; early life, 334. Davy, John, M. D., on the poison of the toad, 115. Day, Benjamin H., founder of New York Sun, 259; on the Moon Hoax, 259. Day, Thomas, his Sandford and Mer- ton, 319. Dead languages, Thomas Paine on, Deane, Samuel, D. D., his New Eng- land Farmer, or Georgical Diction- INDEX 385 ary, 142, 309 f. ; spinning bee at his house, 181 f. ; his character, 308 f. ; his humor, 308 f. ; on the moon's effect on apples, etc., 309 f. Dearborn, Benjamin, Directions for preventing Calamities by Fire, 146 ff. ; his inventions, 152 f. Death and moon, 308. Debt, precepts concerning, 95. Decatur, Stephen, 215. Dedham, Mass., Sun tavern, 264 f., 304 ; stage from Boston to, 290 ; Indian school at, 345. Dedham Historical Register, 103. Deer Island, Mass., Indians confined in, 343 f., 368. Defoe, Daniel, his Religious Court- ship, sold by Mr. Thomas, 319. Degrees, academic : LL. D., 234 ff. ; A. M., 40 f., 116 f. Dekker, Thomas, his Ravens Alma- nacke, 56 ; on the Man of the Signs, 56. Delaware Indians, 353. Democrats, headquarters at Tam- many Hall in iSiS, 280. Demonology : see Witchcraft. Dennis, Mass., salt manufacture at, Denny, Maj. Ebenezer, on Indian summer, 191. De Quincey, on Indian summer, 192. Derne, capture of, 238. Devil, worship of, 108 ff. Devoll, Capt. Jonathan, manufacturer of molasses from cornstalks, 129. De Witt, Benjamin, M. D., on Onon- daga salt-springs, 135. Dialect : see Language. Dickinson, John, his Farmer's Let- ters, 68 ; his portrait, 68. Dickman, Thomas, printer, 144. Digby, Sir Kenelm, his sympathetic powder, 115 ff.; on toads, 117; on the plague, 117 ; on magnetic treat- ment, 117. Diseases, lunar, 314. Dissection of a plague-stricken pa- tient, 1 18. Divoli, Hannah, captive among In- dians, 369. Divorce, Indian, 362. Dodd, William, D. D., his character and execution, 318; his Thoughts in Prison, 318. Dogs, Mr. Thomas on, 84. Domestic service, 84, 270 f., 281, 283, 286, 291. Dominion of the moon in man's body, 53 . Dorchester, Mass., stage from Bos- ton to, 289; opposition to railroad, 302. Drake, Sir Francis, his discoveries on the Pacific coast, 321. Drake, S. G., his Book of the Indians, 241 ff., 358, 368; his account of Sam Hyde, 241 ff. Draught horses, 286. Dreams, 73, 206. Drinking, 31 f., io8ff., 172, 272 ff., 315. Drowning : recovery of bodies, 158 ff. ; resuscitation, 162 ff . ; Dr. Rowland Jackson's treatise on, 164 ff. Drunkard, picture of a, verses, 31 f. Drunkenness, Indian, 335, 350 ff. Dublet (Dubler), Tom, Indian, 368, 372. Dudley, Gov. Joseph, and the In- dian, 361 f. Dudley, Paul, on maple sugar, 124; and Capt. Uring, 361. Dudley, Mass., Indian settlement, 340 f. Duncan, J. M., description of Tam- many Hall, 279 f. Dunton, John, his Letters from New England, 139, 250, 341 ; on mer- maids, 250. Durham, Conn., tavern fare, 124. Dwight, Elizabeth A., 319. Dwight, Nathaniel, his Geography, 3 1 7- Dwight, Thomas, M. D., 359. Dwight, Timothy, D. D., President of Yale College, tour to Cape Cod, 129; on salt manufacture, 129 f . ; on peddlers, 144 f.; on Washington and mosquitoes, 249; on inns, 271 f . ; on barberries, 329 f. EAGER, Lydia, 2 f. Earthquakes, Professor Winthrop and the Rev. Thomas Prince on, 200 ff. Eaton, Gen. William, and the Bey of Tunis, 208 ; encounter with tithing- man, 238 f. ; capture of Derne, 238. Eclipses portentous, 59. Economies, small, 184 ff. Economy, 85 ff., 184 ff , 223. 386 INDEX Edes, Henry H., on Washington's LL. D. and Professor Winthrop's, 235. Education, theories of, 319 f. See Schools. Edward VII, coronation, 48. Eels, use in magnetic treatment, 117. Election sermons, 224. Electric light, 261. Electricity and earthquakes, 201 ff. Elegies, 232 f. Elicluc, Lay of, 120. Eliot, Abigail, her brains, 307. Eliot, Rev. Jared, Essays on Field- Husbandry, 31 iff.; on the influ- ence of the moon on vegetation, 31 iff. Eliot, Rev. John, his mission to the Indians, 336 ff., 367; service in Waban's wigwam at Nonantum, 335 f., 345; his character of Wa- ban, 336 f.; his settlement of Natick, Mass., 336 f.; his Indian Bible, 371. Eliot, Rev. John, the Younger, on education of women, 229. Eliot tracts, the, The Day-Breaking, etc., 196, 336 ff., 345, 351. Emancipation, I27f. Emerson, Rev. Wm., on use of to- bacco smoke in resuscitation, 164. Enestrom, G., on Petrus de Dacia, 54. Enfield, Conn., inn at, 264. England, witchcraft in, 1 1 1 ff . ; inns in, 266 ff. English grain, 198. English harvest, 198. English language, spread of, pre- dicted, 17 ; as spoken by Indians, 333 ff . ; in America, see Language. Entertainment for man and beast, 262 ff. Ephraim, Deacon, Natick Indian, 363- Epsom salts, manufacture of, 134. Erra Pater, 42. Essex, of U. S. Navy, 215. Essex (Mass.) Agricultural Society, 129. Essex Antiquarian, 74. Evans's tavern, Boston, 289. Exaggeration, humor of, 240 ff. Exeter, N. H., books published at yj- Exploration, 321. FAIRBANKS, EBENEZER, 144. Fairbanks, Jason, executed for murder, 142 ff. Fairs, agricultural, 93. Fales, Betsy, murder of, 143. Falmouth, Maine, 181 ; burning of, in 1775, 309. Falstaff, 193. Farcey, how cured, 117. Fares on stage lines, 296 ; wagon fare, 296. Farm hands, 85 f. Farmer's Almanack, author and history of, i ff. ; character of the time when first issued, 17 ; pref- ace to the first number, 18 f. ; to the fiftieth number, 19 ff . ; to that for 1901, 23f. ; miscellaneous con- tributors to, 25 ff . ; correspond- ents, 25 ff. ; postage tables, 35 ff. ; table of money, 37 ; freedom from astrology, 39, 53; illustrations, 62 ff.; anecdotes, 72 f., 104, 158 f. ; Farmer's Calendar, 78 ff. ; charac- ter sketches, 87 ff. ; circulated by book peddlers, 139; directions for preventing calamities by fire, 146 ff. ; directions for recovering persons apparently dead from drowning, 162, 164 f.; on huskings, etc., 168 ff. ; on changing work, 179 ff.; on spinning, 182; on small economies, 184 ff. ; on crows and corn, 189 f. ; on Indian summer, 191 ; on superstition, 205 f. ; on trainings, 209; military fines in, 209 ff.; list of U. S. Navy in 1813, 213 f.; on schools, 217 ft.; list of Congress in 1794, 234 ; on Sir William Herschel's discoveries in the moon, 251 ; on tavern-haunting, etc., 272 ff. ; list of stages, 287 ff. ; railroads, 299, 301 ff. ; list of post roads, 303 ff. ; on the moon, 305 ff. ; on reading, 315 ff. ; books adver- tised in, 318 ff. ; on barberry bushes, 328 f. ; Indian warrant in, 333 ff. See also Agriculture; Amusements; Anecdotes ; Farmer's Calendar ; Poetry; Proverbs; Thomas, R. B. Farmer's Calendar, Wit and Wis- dom of, 78 ff. ; Roman, 65, 78 ff. ; Mr. Thomas and Cato, 79 f. Farmer's Castle, on the Ohio, 129. INDEX 387 Farmer's Letters, by John Dickinson, 68. Farming: see Agriculture. Fearing, Israel, his gun, 245. Feast of Bricriu, Irish saga, 355. Federal Galaxy, 269. Felt, J. B., historian of Ipswich, Mass., 73 ; on means of conveyance, 285. Ferguson, James, his Astronomy studied by Mr. Thomas, 6. Fetch fire, to, 155^ Fevers and moon, 308. Fiction in New England, 318 f., 322 f. Field, Edward, on taverns, 265, 296. Fielding, Mrs., Pequot, 377. Fielding's novels, sold by Mr. Thomas, 318. Fines, for carrying fire or smoking in streets, 155 f. ; for keeping Christmas, 174; for selling cider to Indians, 35 if.; military, 209 ff. Fire, precautions against, etc., 146 ff. ; carrying, iS5f. ; laws, i55f. Fire companies and engines, 151 f. Fire-escapes, 152 f. Fire insurance, 28, 150. Fire societies, 1461!. Fireplaces, 146. Firewood, when to cut, 306. Fitch, Rev. James, of Norwich, Conn., praying for rain, 363 f. Fitch, Maj. Thomas, 349. Flintlocks, 209. Flying Machine, coach, 296; Flying Mail, coach, 296. Flying stationers, 137 ff. Folk-lore : see Superstitions. Folk-medicine, 1 18 f. Food at inns, 279 f., 286. Fool's gold, fool's parsley, etc., 196. Footman, , 75. Forman : see Smith and Forman. Fortunatus, chapbook, 139. Fortune tellers, 108 f. Fowler, James, on the figures of the months, etc., 68. France, salt-making in, 133. Francis, Convers, D.D., biography of Judge John Davis, 334. Franklin, Benjamin, and Mr. Thomas, if.; on labor in America, iSo ; lightning rods, 201 ; Auto- biography, 316, 320. Free will, controversy between Hobbes and Bramhall, 57. Freezing, death by, 167. Freight, rates for, 296. French and Indian War, 321. Fresh Pond, Watertown, Mass., 9. Fruit trees, when to plant, 313. GADBURY, JOHN, and his almanac, 44, 46; poem on astrology, 314. Galenical medicine, controversy about, 118. Gambling, 95 f., 271. Garden sauce, 84 f. Gardening in Boston, 9. Garrett, Edmund H., on the Massa- chusetts seal, 360. Gawain and the Green Knight, romance of, 355. Gentleman's Magazine, 160, 308. Geography, works on, 315, 317, 320. German folk-lore, 159. Germans in America, 283. Gevaudun, Wild Beast of, 69 ff. Ghost stories, 73. Giotto, 67. Giraldus Cambrensis, on weasels, 120. Girdling trees, 311. Girls' schools, 229 f. Glade Road, Old, 304. Glanvil, Rev. Joseph, on witchcraft, i ii. Glauber's salts, manufacture of, i34f. Goble, Daniel, executed, 374. Godfrey of Bulloigne, chapbook, 139. God's Revenge against Murder, 72. Gods, Indian, 109. Goldi, Anna, alleged witch, 114. Goodale, Azubah, 4. Goodale, Joseph, 4. Gookin, Daniel, 337, 339 ff. ; as Indian magistrate, 340 ff. ; opinion of Waban, 337 ; Indian letter to, 373- Goose Lone as weather sign, 205. Goose-summer, 196. Goshen, Conn., 123. Gossip, characterized, 89, 90 f. Go-summer, 195. Gout, moxa as cure for, 187. Grafting and the moon, 313. Grafton, Mass., Indian ruler at, 342 ; Indian proprietors of, 371 f. Grain : see Corn ; English grain ; Wheat. Grammar schools, 226 f. Grammars, 230. 388 INDEX Grant, Dr. Andrew, 253 ff. Gray, Edward, publisher at Suffield, Conn., 42. Greasy heels, disease of horses, 188. Green, Samuel, printer, 371. Green, Dr. Samuel A., biography of Mr. Thomas, 15, 17 ; Facsimile Reproductions, 233 ; on history of Groton, Mass., 279, 345 ff. ; on Indian title to Groton, 345 ff. Green-corn feast, Indian, 377. Greene, Gardiner, his estate on Pem- berton Hill, Boston, 9 ff. Greene, Robert,tragedy of Alphonsus, 120. Greenfield (Mass.) Gazette, 144. Grog, 90, 94 f., 272 ff., 282. See Rum. Groton, Mass., meetings of selectmen, 278 f. ; stage from Boston to, 290 ; Indian title to, 345 ff. Groton Herald, 278. Ground ivy, smoked instead of to- bacco, 369. Groundsel, the herb, 188. Guinea voyage, horoscope for, 39. Gunrashit, Indian sagamore, 369. Guns, 209, 244 ff . Guy of Warwick, romance and chap- book, 137. HAIR, cutting, in increase of the moon, 305. Halcyon days, 193, 196. Hale, Nathan, on railroads, 300. Hall, Capt. Basil, on railroads, 298. Hallet, Jeremiah, 27 f. Hallivvell, J. O., on the Man of the Signs, 54. Hamilton, Alexander, 126. Hancock, John, anecdote, n f. Harriott, Lieut. John, on American currency, 38 ; on barberries and wheat, 331. Harris, James, Indian, 376. Harris, Thaddeus W., on native can- tharides, 187. Harrower, John, 247. Hartford, Conn., Bull's tavern, 123. Harvard College (and University), 5, 235 ff . ; commencement at, 9 ; theses for A. M., 40 f., 116 f. ; first degree of LL. D., 200, 234 ff. ; Pro- fessor Winthrop's lectures, 200 ff. ; Peabody Museum, 359 ff. ; Medical School, 359 ; Museum at, in eigh- teenth century, 308. Hassanamesitt, or Hassanamisco, (Grafton), Mass., 342, 371 f. Hasty Pudding, poem by Joel Barlow, 170 f. Hatch, Israel, his coffee house in Boston, 287, 290 ; his stage line from Boston to Providence, 296. Haverhill, Mass., stage from Boston to, 289. Hawkins, John, Indian, 375 f. Hayley, Alderman, 10. Hayley, Madam Mary, 9 ff . ; her gar- den on Pemberton Hill, 9. Hayley, William, the poet, 10. Haymaking, haste in, 88 ; women en- gaged in, 182 f. Hazard, Ebenezer, 204. Head, Richard, his Canting Academy, 96 f. Head, removable, belief in, 354 f. Heckewelder, Rev. John, anecdotes of Indians, 353, 362. Helmont, van, on Toad and Spider, 104 f. ; his system of medicine, H7f. Hemlock, smoked instead of tobacco, 369- Herbs, curative, planetary relations of, 41 ; sought by animals, 119 ff . ; plantain, 104 ff. ; groundsel, 188. Herschel, Sir John, and the Moon Hoax, 252 ff. Herschel, Sir William, on the habita- bility of the moon, etc., 251 f. Hexameters, English, on the dominion of the moon in man's body, 55. Hibernation of swallows, 167. High Howder : see Howder. High schools, 226 ff. Highwaymen unknown, 286. Hihoudi, alleged Indian warrant by, 334- Hildreth, S. P., 129, 135. Hill, B. T., on railroads, 301. Hill, D., Boston grocer, 9. Hired man, wages of, 85 f., 180. Historical Magazine, 244. Historical Society of Pennsylvania, 191. Hive, The, 318. Hoar, John, negotiates for release of Mrs. Rowlandson and others, 369. Hoaxes, astronomical, 251 ff. INDEX 389 Hobbes, Thomas, controversy with Bramhall on free will, 57. Hodgson, Adam, on respect for Wash- ington, 237 ; on the sea serpent, 250 ; on innkeepers, 265 f. Hogkins, John, New Hampshire Indian, letters from, 375 f. Hogs, bewitching of, 206 ; when to be killed, 66 f., 305 ff. Hogs' bristles, 187 f. Holden, Mass., 4. Holidays, Cotton Mather on, 175 f., 177 f. See also Christmas. Homer, Rev. Jonathan, on Waban and his descendants, 348. Homo Signorum, 53 ff. Hopkins, Matthew, witch-finder, 113. Hopkins, Rev. Samuel, on the Indian way of making maple sugar, I24f. Hopkinton, Mass., Indian conveyance of, 349- Hornet and Peacock, naval battle, 215. Horoscope for Guinea voyage, 39 f. ; mock horoscope, 41. Horse races, 278. Horses, cure for greasy heels, 188; swapping, 272 ; racing, 278; care of on a journey, 285. Hospitality, 280 ff. Hosts : see Inns ; Landlords. Hotels in America, 262 ff. Housatunnuk Indians, 124 ff., 377. How Doe Yee, Indian, 334, 350. How, Capt. Samuel, 4. Howder, Captain, or Hihoudi, alleged Indian warrant by him, 333 ff. Howe, Major, 263. Ho well, James, cured by Digby's powder, 116. Hubbard, Rev. William, anecdotes of Indians, 243 f., 356, 365. Hiibner, Israel, on astrology, 314. Hull, Hannah, 14. Hull, John, mintmaster, 14. Humane Society (English), 163. See also Massachusetts Humane Society. Humor, exaggeration, 240 ff. Humorous pieces in the Farmer's Almanack, 26, 50 ff., 78 ff., looff., 139 ff., 169, 179, 191, 212 ff., 219, 237, 240 f., 247 f., 274, 333. Hunt, Freeman, his Anecdotes, 243. Hunting stories, 240 ff. Huskings, 168 ff. ; Admiral James on, 168; Mr. Thomas on, 168 ff. ; Barlow on, 170; Ames on, 172; Mather on, 172 f. Hutchinson, Francis, D.D., Essay on Witchcraft, 113. Hutchinson, Gov. Thomas, History of Massachusetts, 316, 327 ; on wheat raising, 327 ; house at Mil- ton, Mass., 13. Hyde, Sam, Indian, a proverbial liar, 240 ff. Hyde, Tom, Indian, 243. Hymn books, 318. Hyperbole, humor of, 240 ff. IDES of March, 90 f. Idols, 177 f. Ignis fatuus, 196. Illuminated calendars, 66. Illustrations in almanacs, 62 ff. See also Man of the Signs. Importation of sugar, 127; of maple sugar into England, 124. Indian Bible, 371 ; Psalter, 371. Indian corn : see Corn. Indian deeds, 344 ff., 349, 371 f. Indian harvest, 198. Indian languages, disappearance of, 376 ff. ; remnants of, 376 f. Indian meal and bread, 286. Indian summer, 191 ff. Indians, liquor sold to, 75 f., 350 f. ; preachers, 76 ; jury of white men and, 76; schools for, 76, 345, 351, 367; name for plantain, 104; as devil-worshippers, 108 ff. ; pow- wows, 108 ff . ; connection with Salem witchcraft, no; method of making sugar, 124 ff . ; method of recovering drowned bodies, 160; Caughnawaga, 171 ; Housatunnuk, 1248.; custom as to red ears of corn, 171 f . ; relation to Indian summer, 193 ff. ; custom of burning over the woods, 195 ; fickleness, 195; deceitfulness, 196, 241 ff. ; stupidity, 196; mythology, 197 f.; anecdotes of, 241 ff. ; Capt. Carver on, 321 , English spoken and written by, 333 ff. ; self-government in Massachusetts, 337 ff. ; costume, weapons, etc., 359 f. See also Hyde, Sam ; Powwows ; Sassamon ; King Philip's War; Natick. 390 INDEX Inland communication, 285 ff. Innkeepers, social status of, 263 ff., 269 f. Inns in America, 262 ff., 286; on roads, 304 ff . Inoculation for smallpox, 14 f. Inquisitiveness of Americans, 268 f. Insect pests, 179, 181, 186 f. ; insects, useful, 186 f. Insurance companies, 28, 150. Ipswich, Mass., 73 ; meteorology of, 198; landlord at, 269 f.; convey- ances, 285. Ireland, weasels in, 120. Irish epic saga, 355. JACKSON, MASON, his Pictorial Press, 70. Jackson, Dr. Rowland, on Drowning, 164 ff. Jackson, William, lecture on railroads, 297 f. Jacobs, Rev. Peter, on Nanibozhu's smoking, 197 f. James, Admiral Bartholomew, on huskings, 168; on New England hospitality and inns, 281 ff. James, Black, Indian constable, 340 f. Jeffrey, Patrick, 12 ff. Jehoshaphat, History of, chapbook, 138. Jesuit Relations, 109. Jesuits on Indian witchcraft, 109 f. Jethro, Indian, 370, 374; executed, 374- Jethro, Peter, Indian, 369 f. Jockey Club, by Charles Pigot, 324 ff. John, Indian ruler, 342. John, One-eyed, Indian, executed, 374- Johnson, Dr. Samuel, his Rasselas sold by Mr. Thomas, 319. Jones, Rev. Hugh, on Indian char- acter, 196. Jones, Rev. Peter, on Nanibozhu and Indian summer, 197. Josiah, Captain, Indian, 340. Josselyn, John, on plantain in his New England's Rarities, 104. Jouvency, Father, on Indians as devil-worshippers, 109. Jury of white men and Indians, 76. Justice of the Peace, Indian, T.T.~I ff. i . ' J J -> Juvenal, 1 15. KALENDAR of Shepherdes, 53 f., 66. Kendall, E. A., on salt manufacture, 134 f.; on turkey-shooting at inns, 275 * Kennebec River, James's tour on, 281. Kidder, Old, 240 f. Killingly, Conn., 247, 352 f. King Philip : see Philip. King Philip's War, colonists warned by John Sassamon, 76, 195; by Waban, 337 ; Talcott's campaign, 243 ; anecdote of an Indian, 243 ; troubles at Middleborough, Mass., 244 f. ; praying Indians in, 343 f . ; incidents of, 354 ff. Kingfishers and halcyon days, 196 f. King's inn, Boston, 277, 279, 287 ff. Kitchen gardens, 84 f. Kittell, John, 369. Knight, William, killed by Susup, 365- Kutquen, Indian sagamore, 369. LABOR, changing works, 179 ff. ; dear in America, 180; wages, 180 ; women in the hayfield, 182 f. Labors of the months, etc., 63 ff. Lake Erie, Battle of, 214. Lake Superior, 197 ; exploration of, 321. Lambert, John, on stage-wagons, 294. Lancaster, Mass., taken by Indians, 374- Land, clearing, 311 ff., 328 ff . ; sale of, by Indians, 357, 367 f. Langbourne, Maj., of Virginia, 225. Language, English, in America, dialect words, etc., 8 f ., 83 ff ., 87 ff , 96, 140, 157, 179, igi ff., 206, 2tI2f., 219, 226, 247 f., 275, 293 f., 327 f.; Indian English, 333 ff. Languages, Thomas Paine on the study of, 320. See English. Latin schools, 226 ff. Lawrence, Capt. James, U. S. N., 215. Lawrence, brig, 214. Laws, fire, 155 f. ; school, 223 f., 226 ff. ; establishing Indian courts, 337 f- Lawyers, good and bad, 98 ff. Lay of Eliduc, 120. Leach, Emma, dwarf, 68. Leap-year, jests about, 50 ff. Leaves for bedding, 80. Lechford, Thomas, on lawyers, 98. INDEX 391 Lee, Col. Henry, Memoirs of the War in the Southern Department, sold by Mr. Thomas, 320. Leffingwell, Prosper, anecdote of his hunting prowess, 247. Lejeune, Father, on Indians as devil- worshippers, 109 f. Lendrum, John, History of the Ameri- can Revolution, 320. Leominster, Mass., stage line to, 288. Letters : see Postage ; Correspond- ents. Leverett, Gov. John, 372 f. Leverett, John, J'resident of Harvard College, 349. Licenses for inns, etc., 262. Lighthouses, 163. Lightning rods, 201 ff. Lilly, William, astrologer, 42. Linkboys, in London, 96. Liquor sold to Indians, 75 f., 350 f. See Rum. Litchfield County, Conn., Indians in, 376 f. Literature, 315 ff. Little Belt, of U. S. Navy, 215. Littlefield, George E., on schools and school-books, 230. Locke, Richard Adams, author of the Moon Hoax, 259. Locomotives, early, in New England, 300. Long Island, 329. Loo, game at cards, 95 f. Loring, Ensign, of Groton, Mass., 347. Lorraine, witchcraft in, 113 f. Lossing, Benson J., on the Scaticook Indians, 376 f. Lotteries, 90. Louisiana, sugar culture in, 128. Lovelace, Richard, poem on Toad and Spider, 105 ff. Lowell, Mass., railroad from Boston to, 300 f . Lunacy and moon, 305. Lying, humors of, 240 ff. MAA.NEXIT, 341. M'Caulay, Catherine, portrait of, 69. Macedonian, man-of-war, 215. M'Murtry, John, 244. M'Robert, Patrick, on American in- quisitiveness, 268 ; on sleighing, 297. Madeira wine, 286. Magistrates, innkeepers as, 279 ; In- dian, 337 ff. Magnalia, Cotton Mather's, 75 f., 108, no, 307. Magnetism in medicine, 117; dis- cussed in Harvard theses for A. M., 117. Magunkaquog (Hopkinton), Mass., sale of, by Indians, 349. Mahwee (Mawehu), Eunice, 376 f. ; Gideon, 376. Maidenhead, N. J., inn at, 277 f. Mail-stages, 287 ff. Maine, Indians in, 365 f. Malcolm (Malcom), Rev. Alexander, of Marblehead, Mass., 177. Maiden, Mass., 328. Maliompe, Indian, executed, 374. Man of the Signs, 53 ff. Man-bats in the moon, 256, 258. Manillas on the signs of the zodiac, Manitou of Indians, 109. Manners of landlords, 265 ff. Map of New England, 299 ; showing railroads, 302. Maple sugar, 121 ff. ; manufacture recommended by Mr. Thomas, 121 f . ; Stiles on, 122 f. ; Belknap on, 123; Rochefoucault on, 123; Wan- sey on, 123 f. ; manufactured by the Indians, 124 ff . ; Dr. Rush on, 126 f. Marblehead, Mass., controversy as to Christmas between Barnard and Pigot, 176 f . ; Church of England at, 176 f. ; stage from Boston to, 289. Marie de France, Eliduc, 120. Marksmanship, 245 ff. Marlborough, Mass., 329 f. Marriage, Indian ceremony of, 171 f. ; Indian idea of, 362. Martha's Vineyard, Mass., 333. Martin, G. H., on schools, 227. Martineau, Harriet, on New England schools, 216 f.; on the Moon Hoax and New England education, 260 f. ; on railroads, 301. Mary, the Virgin, honors paid to, 177. Mason, George C., on slave-trade, 39 f- Mason, Capt. John, Proprietor of New Hampshire, 374. Mason, Jonathan, 14. 392 INDEX Mason, Robert, claimant to the pro- prietorship of New Hampshire, 374, 376. Massachusetts, fire insurance in, 150; schools and school laws, 223 ff. ; charter, 339 ; Indian, picture of, 359 f. ; seal and coat of arms, 360. Massachusetts Agricultural Society, 332. Massachusetts Bay Colony, salt man- ufacture, 132 f . ; Indian warrant, 333 ff. ; management of Indians, 337 ff . ; seal of, 360. Massachusetts Bay Company, salt- making, 132; founders of, 338 f. ; charter of, 339 ; seal of, 360. Massachusetts Charitable Fire So- ciety, 146 ff. Massachusetts Charitable Mechanic Association, 297. Massachusetts Historical Society, models of Dearborn's inventions deposited with, 153; Proceedings and Collections, passim. Massachusetts Humane Society, 162 ff. Massachusetts Magazine, 167, 368. Massachusetts Mercury, 276. Massasoit, 358. Mather, Cotton, on bleeding of corpse, 75 f. ; on Indians as devil-worship- pers, 108 ff. ; letter from John Winthrop, F. R. S., to, 116; on huskings, 172 f . ; on Christmas, 173, 175 f . ; on Shrovetide festivi- ties, 173, 177 f. ; on Tuisco, 177 f. ; on neglect of schools, 224 ; on brain and the tides, 307 ; his Magnalia, 75 f., 108, no, 307 ; his Advice from the Watch Tower, 172 f., 175 ff., 224. Mather, Increase, on the ordeal of the bier, 76 ; on Indian untrust- worthiness, 195 ; on comets, 199 ff . ; on praying for rain, 364 ; on Peter Jethro, 370. Matthews, Albert, on Indian summer, 191 ff. ; on Washington's LL. D., 237- Matthews, Daniel, 226. Mattoonus, Indian constable, 342. Mawehu : see Mahwee. May training, 208 ff. Medford, Mass., stage from Boston to, 289. Medical Repository, 192. Medicine and astrology, 41, 61 ; and the signs of the zodiac, 53 ff. ; quackery, 100 f. ; sympathetic med- icine, 1 1 5 ff. Medicine men, Indian, 108 ff. See Powwows. Melish, John, on stagecoaches, 292, 296. Mendez, Antonio, manufacturer of sugar in Louisiana, 128. Meriam, R. N., on early schools, 231. Merlinus Liberatus, Partridge's al- manac, 43 f. Mermaids, 250. Merrimac River, 375. Meteorology, 191 ff., 198. See also Weather. Metropolitan Water Works, 16. Middleborough, Mass., 76. Military duty, 208 ff. ; fines, 209 ff. Militia, 208 ff. ; captain, humorous anecdote, 212 f. Mill, James, 216. Millers, dishonesty of, 101 f. Milton, John, 109, 115, 348. Milton, Mass., Hutchinson house at, 13 ; stage from Boston to, 289. Ministers, Indian, 340 ff. See also Sermons. Modern languages, study of, 319 f. Mohawks, 375. Mohegan, Conn., Indians there, 377. Mohegans, 243 f. Molasses, 123; from maple sap, 125; from apples, 129; from cornstalks, 129. Mommsen, Theodor, 79. Money, different kinds in circulation, 37 ; table of, 37 ; standards in differ- ent States, 38. Monopolies, 132. Months, figures for the, 62 ff. Moon and tides, 28 ; influence on man's body, 53 ff. ; new moon seen over left shoulder, 206; influence of moon on vegetation, etc., 305 ff. Moon Hoax, 251 ff. Moon-cursers, 95 ff. Moon's Man, 53 ff. Moore, Francis, his almanac, 46 f. Moore, Dr. John, father of Sir John, 319 ; his Zeluco, 319 ; Byron on, 319. Moose, exhibited in Boston, 277. Moravian brethren, female seminary of, at Bethlehem, Pa., 230. INDEX 393 More, Henry, D. D., on witchcraft, in. Morison, Fynes, on English inns, 266 ff. Morse, Jedediah, D. D., his school at New Haven, 230 ; his geographies, 315,317,320. Morse, Jonathan, town clerk of Groton, Mass., 347. Morse, Lucy (Eager), 3. Morton, Nathaniel, New England's Memorial, 327, 333 ; on wheat crop in seventeenth century, 327. Mosely, Capt. Samuel, in King Philip's War, 354. Mosquitoes, Washington on, 248 f. ; method of destroying, 249. Mountain Piper, chapbook, 137. Mouse and snake, fight between, 108. Mowatt, Capt. Henry, burns Port- land, Me., 309. Mowing bushes, time for, 306, 311 ff. Moxa, cure for gout, 187. Munchausen stories, 240 ff. Munson, Caleb, 164. Murder, in literature, 71 ; detection of, 71 ff. ; Chaucer on, 72; famous murders in New England, 72 ff. ; disclosed by apparition, 73 f. ; bleeding of corpse (the ordeal of the bier), 74 ff. Muscovado sugar, 123. Museo Borbonico, 78. Music, 179. Muskingum River, route to, 304. Muttamakoog, Jacob, Indian, 373. Muttamuck, Indian, 372. Myth of Arachne, 106 f. ; of Nani- bozhu, 197 f. NACHSOMMER, 194. Nahant, Mass., sea serpent, 249 f. Nails, parings of, in medicine, 117. Name, magic of the, 159. Nanibozhu, 197 f. Nanuntenoo (Canonchet), anecdote of, 356. Naples Museum, Latin farmer's cal- endar in, 78. Narragansetts, 243. Natick, Mass., founded by John Eliot, 336 ; early government of, 337 ff. ; records of, 346 f. Natick Indians, 335 ff. ; conversion of, 335 ff. ; town records, 346 ff. ; specimen of their language, 346 ; committee for sale of land, 349; on Deer Island, 368. Natick language, 346, 357. Navy, U. b., in War of 1812, 213 ff. Negro servants, 84, 286, 291. Nehemiah, Isaac, Indian, suicide of, 349 f- Nepanet, Indian, 368. Nepennomp, Tom, Indian, 371. Neptune, John, Indian, of Maine, 365 ; speech by, 366. New Bedford, Mass., stage from Boston to, 289 ; books published at, 317- Newbery, Berks, 160. Newbury, Mass., fined for not main- taining an ordinary, 262. Newburyport, Mass., stage from Bos- ton to, 289 ; books published at, 3'7- New England Almanack, 58, 60. New England Chronicle, 237. New England Journal, 73. New-England's Crisis, poem by Ben- jamin Tompson, 356 ff. New Hampshire Historical Society, 222. New Hampshire Indians, 374 ff. New Jersey, 277 f. New York, boarding house in, 263 ; Tammany Hall, a hotel, 279 f. ; stage lines from Boston to, 287 f. New York Constellation, 212. New York Evening Post, 249. New York Sun, 62 ; founded by B. H. Day, 259; fiftieth anniversary of, 259; the Moon Hoax, 252 ff. New Zealanders, picture of, in Bicker- staff's almanac, 69. Newspapers, 8 f., 62, 70, 73,87, 164, 212, 222, 235, 237, 238, 249 f., 252 ff., 276 f., 296 f., 300. Newton, Mass., 348 ; railroad from Boston to, 300 ; Eliot Terrace, 336- Niagara, journey from Boston to, in 1796, 294 f. Niagara, brig, 214. Nipmuck Indians, 341 f. Nonantum, Mass., Eliot's sermon to the Indians at, 335 f. Norcross, O., correspondent of the Almanac, 27 f. Norfolk, Conn., maple sugar in, 122. 394 INDEX Norkott, Johan, murder of, 77 ; bleed- ing of corpse, 77. Northampton, Mass., stagecoach, 293. Northwest Passage, 321. Norwich, Conn., 363 ff., 377. Notes and Queries, 160 f. Nursery rhymes, 43. OBSCOW (Obscho), Jonas, Indian, 347 f- Offscow, Jeremiah, Indian, 334 f. Ohio River, road from the Atlantic to, 304. Ojibways, 197, 359. Old Colony : see Plymouth Colony. Old Colony Memorial, 222. Old South Church, Boston, 201. Oldenburg, Henry, Secretary of the Royal Society, 132. Oldtown, Maine, Indians at, 365 f. Oliver, Daniel, 349. Oliver, Thomas, 349. Oneida Indians, mission to, 294. Onondaga, N. Y., salt springs, 135. Onset Bay, Mass., 334. Orang-outang, picture of, 69. Orcutt, Samuel, on Connecticut Indians, 377. Ordeal of the bier, 74 ff . Ordinary, required by law, 262. Osborne, Ruth, 114. Otis, Col. James, 334. Ovid, 106, 196, 318. PACIFIC coast, Drake on, 321 ; Carver's effort to reach, 321. Packets, 295 f. Page, John, 347. Pahtahsega, Indian, 197. Paine, Robert Treat, Jr., his odes, 149. Paine, Thomas, 149 ; his Age of Reason, 319 f. ; on the study of languages and science, 319 f. Pakachoog, 341. Pakaskoag, Indian, 372. Palatinate, folk-lore of the, 159. Pallas and Arachne, io6f. Palmistry, 42. Pancake Tuesday, 178. Panniers, 285. Pantagrueline Prognostication, Rabe- lais, 48. Panther, innkeeper, 304. Paracelsus, 61. Parish, John, 347. Parker, Capt., hospitality of, 281 ff. Parris, Rev. Samuel, of Salem, Mass., his children begin the witchcraft agitation, 112. Parsnips, when to gather, 91 f. Parthenius, murder committed by, 73- Partridge, John, and his almanac, 43 ff. ; Swift's satire on, 44 ff. Patagonian giants, picture of, 69. Path Valley, on the Ohio Road, 34- Patterson's tavern, Boston, 289. Peabody, Rev. Ebenezer, praying for rain, 363. Peabody Museum : see Harvard University. Peacock and Hornet, sea fight, 215. Peddlers, Dwight on, 144 f.; of books, 137 ff. Pemberton Hill and Pemberton Square, Boston, 9, 14. Pennahannit, Indian, 340. Pennsylvania, General Assembly, publishes essay on salt-making, J 33- Pennsylvania Evening Post, 297. Pennsylvania Magazine, 133. Pennsylvania Road, old, 304. Pentreath, Dolly, 377. Pequots, 243, 377. Perley, Sidney, on Ames murder and ordeal of the bier, 74. Perry, Michael, Boston bookseller, his inventory, 139. Perry, Commodore O. H., 214 ; Perry's Victory, 214. Perry's Spelling Book, 7. Petavit (Petuhanit), Indian ruler, 342- Petrus de Dacia, astronomer, 54. Pettifoggers, 98 ff. Phelps, Capt. John, 4. Philadelphia, projects for sugar- making, 128; stage line to Pitts- burg, 296. Philip, King, Indian sachem, 76, 337, 343 f., 373; Mrs. Rowlandson's in- terview with, 155, 370 ; speech of, 357 f. ; portrait of, 758 f. ; docu- ments of, 367 f. See King Philip's War. Philosophical Transactions : see Royal Society. INDEX 395 Physicians, quack, loof. See also Medicine. Physiognomy, 42. Pianofortes, 179. Pickering, Timothy, 6n sweet-apple molasses, 129. Picture of a Drunkard, verses, 32. Pigot, Charles, his Jockey Club, 324 ff. Pigot, Rev. George, controversy with Barnard as to Christmas, 176 f. Pigs, bewitching of, 206; when to be killed, 66 f . , 305 ff. Pipes, 370. Pippin, Little King, chapbook, 137. Pitcairn, John, Criminal Trials, 77. Plague, ii7ff. ; in London, n8f. ; dissection of a pestilential body, 118; toad as cure for, 118; por- tended by comet, 200. Plantain, curative, 104 ff.; virtues known to toad, 104 ff.; not native to America, 104 , Indian name, 104. Planting, time of moon for, 306, 309. Plants, astrological time to gather, 314; plantain, 104 ff.; groundsel, 1 88. Playing cards, 95 f., 139. Plymouth, Mass., trial of Indians for murder, 76 ; Christmas at, in 1621, i73f. ; stage from Boston to, 288 f. Plymouth Colony, salt manufacture, 131 f . ; tradition of Indian war- rant, 333 ff. , Indian constables in, 350 ; letter from King Philip to Gov. Prince, 367. Poetry, 32, 51 f., 55, 58, 60, 72, 140 f., 149, 161, i7of., 203, 205, 233, 237, 318; contributed to the Almanac, 28 ff. Poets, English, read in New Eng- land, 318. Poison : see Venom. Poisoning in Rome, 115. Poland, witchcraft in, 1 14. Polar bear, exhibited in Boston, 277. Politicians, country, advice to, 237. Pollard's Tavern, Boston, 277. Pond, Edward, his almanac, 58; on the Man of the Signs, 58. Ponnakpukun, Indian, 373. Poor Robin's Almanac, burlesque on astrology, 40, 49; mock horo- scope, 40 f. ; mock prophecies, 49 ; on the Man of the Signs, 58. Poor Will's Almanac, 59. Population of cities, 20. Pork, effect of the moon on, 305 ff. Porter, David, commander of the Essex in the War of 1812, 215. Portland, Me., spinning bee at, 181 f. ; price of provisions in 1791, 281 ; burning of, in 1775, 309. Portrait of R. B. Thomas, 16; of King Philip, 358 f. Portsmouth, N. H., stage line to, 288. Postage in America, rates of, at dif- ferent times, 33 ff. Potato coffee, 184 f. ; potato flies, i86f. Pottoquam (Botogkum, Boshokum), Simon, Indian scribe, 372 f., 374 f. Pownalborough, Me., tavern at, 283. Powwows or Indian wizards, 108 ff., 336, 341 , 363 f. Praying Indians, 336 ff. Preachers, canting, 100; preachers and schools, 223 f. ; Indian, 340 ff. See also Sermons. Predictions in Partridge's almanac, 43 f. ; Swift's, under the name of Bickerstaff, 45 ; Zadkiel's and Raphael's, with fulfilments, 47 f . ; burlesque, 48 f., 50 ff. ; Wood- ward's caution about, 49 f. Present State of New-England, 354 f. President, frigate, 215. Prices of almanacs, 46 ; of provisions, 281 f. See also Fares ; Inns ; Labor. Priest, William, description of a fire in Boston, 1796, 150; on American marksmen, 246. Priming wire, 209. Prince, Professor J. Dyneley, on New England Indian languages, 376 f. Prince, Gov. Thomas, letter from King Philip, 367. Prince, Rev. Thomas, on earthquakes and lightning rods, 201 f. Printer, Ami, 372 ; Ami, Jr., 372. Printer, James, Indian, 371; appren- ticed to Samuel Green, 371 ; joins the enemy, 371 ; assists Eliot in Indian Bible, 371 ; printer of In- dian Psalter, 371 ; writes a letter 396 INDEX for Indians, 371 ; his descendants, 37i f- Printer, Moses, 372. Printers, 7, 144, 317, 322, 371. Privateers, 3. Probate courts at taverns, 278. Proctor, R. A., on the Moon Hoax, 259- Progress in America, 17, 19 ff. Prophecies : see Predictions. Proverbs, 83, 87, 88, 99, 100, 121, 122, "55. !79. 1 9S> 222 > 241, 266, 275, 276. Providence, R. I., stage from Boston to, 287 f., 296; railroad, 300. Providences, special, 200 ff. Pruning, 313. Psalter, Indian, 371. Ptolemy, the astronomer, 55. Public business transacted at inns, 278 f. Pumkamun, Indian, 373. Pump-engine, Dearborn's, 152. Putnam, Professor F. W., reconstruc- tion of a Massachusetts Indian, 359 f- Putnam, Rufus, his early education, 225 f. Pynson, John, 53. QUACKS, 100 f. Quanohit, Indian sagamore, 369. Quarll, Philip, adventures of, 322 f. Quebec, road to, 304. Queen of Heaven, 177. Quincy, Josiah, on railroads, 302. Quincy, Mass., stage from Boston to, 290; railroad from quarry to tide- water, 297. RABELAIS, Pantagrueline Prognosti- cation, 48. Racing, 278. Radcliffe, Mrs. Ann, her books sold by Mr. Thomas, 318 f. Railroads in New England, 297 ff. ; early agitation for, 297 f. ; opposi- tion to, 298 f., 302 ; experiments, 297 f . ; establishment of, 300; map of, 302 ; table of, in 1844, 303 ; coaches and cars, 301. Rain, praying for, 363 ff. Ramsay, David, M. D., History of the American Revolution, 315. Raphael's almanac, astrological, 47. Rasselas, sold by Mr. Thomas, 319. Rats, letter to, 206. Ravens Almanacke, by Dekker, 56; Man of the Signs in, 56. Rawson, Rev. Grindal, on neglect of schools, 224. Reading, books recommended for, 3i5ff. ; books sold by R. B. Thomas, 3i8 fT. Receipts, 184 f., 188 f., 249. Red ears of corn, at huskings, 168 ; supposed Indian symbolism re- garding, 171 f. Religious Courtship, Defoe's, 319. Remedies: see Cures ; Gout; Greasy heels. Remy (Remigius), Nicholas, judge in witchcraft cases in Lorraine, 113; his Daemonolatreia, 113. Rendon, intendant of Louisiana, 128. Reprints, American, of standard liter- ature, etc., 317, 322. Respiration, artificial, 162 f . ; under water, 167. Revere, Paul, portrait of King Philip, 358 Revolutionary War, scarcity of im- ported articles during, 126 ; scarcity of salt during, 133 f. ; Rufus Put- nam in the, 225 ; Washington in the, 235 ff . ; foreign visitors after the, 202 f. ; officers in the, as inn- keepers, 263 f. ; the Cincinnati, 263 ; Ramsay's History of the, rec- ommended by Mr. Thomas, 315 ; Col. Lee's Memoirs, 320 ; Col. Tarleton, 325 f. Rhode Island, duel between toad and spider in, 104. Ricketson, Shadrach, M. D., on In- dian summer, 192. Riddles, 27 ff. Riding horseback, 285 f. Ring finger, 77. Rise, Columbia, song by R. T. Paine, 149. Rittel's tavern, Pownal borough, Maine, 283. River travel, 304. Roads, 285 ff. ; table of, 303 ff. Robbers unknown, 286. Robie, Thomas, his almanac, 60. Robin, Indian ruler, 342. Robinson Crusoe, 137, 319. Rochefoucault-Liancourt, due de la, INDEX 397 on maple sugar, 123 ; on Connecti- cut schools, 227 f. ; at an inn, 277 f. Rockwell, Solomon, on warm ashes in resuscitation of drowned, 164 f. Romances, 137, 318 f. Rome, farmer's calendar at, 78 f. ; secret name of, 159; destruction of, 200 ; Roman agriculture, So. Roskoff, Gustav, Geschichte des Teu- fels, 114. Rowlandson, Mrs. Mary, captivity among Indians, narrative, 368 ff . ; interview with King Philip, 155, 370 ; habit of smoking, 369 f. Roxbury, Mass., stage from Boston to, 290. Royal Society, 115, 124, 132, 166 f., 252, 37- Rubeta, poisonous toad, 115. Ruggles, Col. Timothy, commanding Worcester County Regiment in 1757, 4- Rulers, Indian, 337 ff. Rum, 125, 272 ff., 286, 315; made of maple sap, 125. See Grog. Rumor, characterized, 87, 90 f. Rush, Benjamin, M. D., on maple sugar, 126 ff. ; on slavery, 127; on the Pennsylvania climate, 195. Ryall Side, Beverly, Mass., salt-works at, 132. Rye, effect of barberry bushes on. SADDLE horses, 285 f. Saddlebags, 285. Sadducismus Triumphatus, by Glan- vil, in. Sadler, Capt. John, 225 f. Sailors' superstitions, 40. St. Aibans, Vt.. stage, 294. St. Anthony, Falls of, reached by- John Carver, 321. St. James's Chronicle, 70. St. Josaphat, 138. St. Luke's Summer, 194. St. Martin's summer, 192 f. Salem, Mass., witchcraft, no ff. ; stage from Boston to, 289 f . ; books published at, 317. Salt, manufacture of. 129 ff . ; scarc- ity of, in Revolution, 134; from Onondaga springs, 135; used to extinguish fire in chimneys, 148; in glazing chimneys, 148. Sam Sachem, 369, 372 ff. ; executed, 374- Sampson, Indian teacher, 341. Sampson, Indian, Philip's agent, 368. Sandford and Merton, by Thomas Day, 319. Sap: see Maple Sugar. Sassamon, John, King Philip's sec- retary, 195, 367; reports intended hostilities, 76, 195; murder of, 76; letter ascribed to, 367 f . Savannah, Ga., road to, 304. Scaticook or Skaghticoke Indians, 3/6 f- Schenectady, N. Y., 269. School-books, 230. Schools and schoolmasters, 6, 216 ff. , boarding round, 6 ; Indian, 76, 345, 35 1 - Science, study of, Thomas Paine on, 3!9f- Scions and the moon, 313. Scioto Company, 171. Scolding, 91. Scoring up charges, 82. Scotland, witchcraft in, 113. Scribner's Monthly, 376. Sea serpent, off Nahant, Mass., 249 f. Seal of Massachusetts, 360. Seals, mystery of, 314. Sears, Capt. John, salt-maker, 134. Sears, Richard, salt-maker, 134. Seasons, labors of the, etc., 63 ff. Seby, Sarah, 348. Seccombe, Thomas, 113. Sedgwick, Theodore, his Hints to my Countrymen, 142. Segars : see Cigars. Selectmen meet at taverns, 278 f. Sermons, 17, no, 172 f., 175 ff., 199, 201 ff., 204, 211, 222, 223 f., 319, 336; burlesque, in favor of thieves, 26. Service, domestic, 84, 270 f., 281, 283, 286, 291. Seven Sages, 138 f. Seven Wise Masters, 137 ff. Sewall, Hannah (Hull), 14. Sewall, Joseph, 175. Sewall, Judith, 14. Sewall, Samuel, his estate on Pem- berton Hill, 14 ; his salt-works at Boston Neck, 133; his house on fire, I53f.; his opinion of Christ- mas, 175; negotiations for purchase 398 INDEX of Hopkinton, Mass., 348 f. ; on suicide of an Indian, 349 f. ; on execution of Sagamore Sam, 374. Shakspere, 59, 107, 115, 143, 193, 274, SOS- Shaw, H. W. : see Billings, Josh. Shepard, Rev. Thomas, 337 f. Shingles, 150. Shoe, ass's, 206. Shoemaker loo, 95 f. Shoes, making, 93 ; old, used to scare crows. 189 f. ; going without, 222. Shoshanim : see Sam Sachem. Showmen, innkeepers as, 276 f. Shrewsbury, Mass., 4; Shrewsbury leg, 4 f. Shrove Tuesday cakes and sports, 177 ff.; Tuisco, 177 ff . ; pancakes, 177 f. ; throwing at the cock, 177 f. ; Mather on, 177 ff. Sign of tavern, 264 f. Signs of zodiac, 79 ; the Anatomy and, 53 ff. ; figures of, 62 ff. ; connec- tion with vegetation, 306, 311 ff. Simms, Jeptha R., anecdote of Gen. Eaton, 238 f. Simon ds, 240 f. Skating, 63 f. Skylark, The, songbook, 318. Slander, 89, 90 f. Slave-trade in New England, 39 ; as- trology in, 39 f. Slavery, 121 f., 127 f. Sleighs and sleigh-riding, 297. Smallpox in Boston, 1792, 14; inocu- lation for, 15. Smith, Charlotte, her novels, 319. Smith, Col. James, his captivity among the Indians, 171. Smith, C. C., on scarcity of salt in the Revolutionary War, 134. Smith and Forman's Almanac, 61. Smoking, 88, 90, 147, 154 ff., 220 f . ; by women and children, 147, 155, 369 f . ; in the streets, 155 f. ; of Nanibozhu, 197 f. ; Indian substi- tutes for tobacco, 369. Smollett's novels, 318. Smut in wheat, 306. Smutty ears of corn, at huskings, 169 f. Smyth, J. F. U., on Gen. Jethro Sum- ner and other innkeepers, 263 f. Snake and mouse, fight between, 108 ; cut in pieces, joins again, 120; striped, useful in gardens, 119; In- dian god in form of, 108; resuscita- tion of frozen, 167. Snow, soap made of, 188 f. ; clearing railway tracks of, 301. Soap made of snow, 188 f. Society for the Diffusion of Christian Knowledge, 46. Society for Propagating Christian Knowledge, 294. Society for Propagating the Gospel, 154- Soldan, W. G., Geschichte der Hex- enprozesse, 114. Solomon, Indian ruler, 342. Sommer, H. Oskar, 54. Songbooks, 318. Sorcery : see Witchcraft. South African War, 47. Southborough, Mass., 330. Southey, Robert, on Beloe, 10; his Madoc, 170. Sowing, significance of the moon for, 306. Spain, witchcraft in, 114. Spalding, Jacob, adventure with In- dians, 352 f. Spanish flies, substitute for, 186 f. Speck, Frank G., on New England Indian languages, 376 f. Speen, James, Indian minister, 342. Spencer, Mass., 5. Spicier, duel with toad, 104 ff. ; venom of, 104 ff., 119; remedy for ague, 119. Spinning, 181 f. ; bees, 181 f. Spofford's American Magazine, 189. Sports : see Amusements. Sprague, H. H., 149 f., 153. Sprague, P., on barberry bushes, 328 f. Squaring accounts, 316. Stafford, of Tiverton, a conjuror, 40. Stagecoaches, 279 ; stage lines, 285 ff. ; list of, 287 ff. ; coaches de- scribed, 291 ff. Stage routes, 285 ff. Stage-wagons, 293 f. Stamp duty on almanacs, 46. Stanhope, Philip, 318. Stanton, Robert, 356. Star Spangled Banner, 149. State House, Old, Boston, stages start from, 290. Stationers' Company, publishers of almanacs, 46 f. INDEX 399 Sterling, Mass., 4 ; books for sale at, 137 f., 318 ff. Stern, assistant of Hopkins the witch- finder. 113. Sterne, Laurence, his Sentimental Journey sold by Mr. Thomas, 318. Stiles, Ezra, D. D., President of Yale College, sermon on the U. S. in 1 7&3> 1 7 > opinion of English lan- guage, 17 ; on astrology, etc., in New England, 40 ; on Indian witch- craft, etc., 1 08 f. ; on maple sugar, 122 f. Stinginess, 87, 223. Stocks, as punishment, 351. Stool-ball, at Plymouth, 174. Street, smoking in the, 155 f. Stubbs, W. C., on history of sugar cane in Louisiana, 128. Sudbury, Mass., 360. Suffield, Conn., book published at, 42 , peddlers, 144 f. Sugar, use and importation of, and substitutes for, 121 ff. See Maple sugar. Suicide of an Indian, 349 f. Sumner, Gen. Jethro, described, 263 f. Sun, influence on man's body, 53 f. ; spots on the, 191, 198. Sun, New York, on the Almanac, 62 ; the Moon Hoax, 252 ff. Sun Tavern, at Dedham, Mass., 264 f. Sunday, travel forbidden on, 238 f. ; reading restricted on, 317. Superstitions and folk-lore, Mr. Thomas on, 205 ff. See also As- trology ; Blood ; Cat ; Comets ; Corpse ; Dark Day ; Dreams ; Drowning ; Earthquakes ; Eclipses ; Folk-medicine ; Fortune tellers ; Ghosts ; Head ; Hogs ; Magnetism ; Man of the Signs ; Moon ; Murder ; Pork ; Shrovetide ; Signs ; Spi- ders ; Sympathetic powder ; Toad ; Weather ; Witchcraft. Surgery and the signs of the zodiac, 53 ff. ; sympathetic cures, 116 f. Susup, Indian, trial of, 365 f. Sutcliff, Robert, on cigars and top- boots, 220. Swallows, hibernation of, 167. Swamp buttonwood, 312. Swamps, clearing, 311 ff. Swapping horses, 272. Sweeping chimneys, 146. Swift, Jonathan, his attack on Par- tridge, 44*ff . Swine, bewitching of, 206 ; when to be killed, 66 f ., 305 ff. Switzerland, witchcraft in, 1 14. Sympathetic powder, 115 ff . ; Digby on, 115 ff. ; discussed in Harvard theses for A. M., 116 f. Syracuse, N. Y., 261. TACITUS, on Tuisco or Tuisto, 178. Taft's inn, at Uxbridge, Mass., 270; Washington's letter to the land- lord, 270 f. Tailors, dishonesty of, 101 ff. Talcott, painter, 16. Talcott, Maj. John, services in King Philip's War, 243. Tammany Hall, N. Y. hotel, descrip- tion of, 279 f. Tantamous, Indian, 370. Tarleton, Col. Banastre, character of, by Charles Pigot, 325 f. Tarratine Indians, Maine, 365 f. Tatatiqunea, Peter, Indian, 371. Taunton, Mass., stage from Boston to, 289. Taverns, 262 ff. ; fare at, 123 f . ; stand- ing of landlords, 263 f., 269 f. ; man- ners of landlords, 265 f. ; in Boston, 163, 276 f., 287 ff . ; shows at, 276 f. ; public business transacted at, 278 f . ; tavern-haunting, 88, 94 f., 272 ff. Taxes, 92 ; stamp duty on almanacs, 46. Teele, A. K., 13. Telegraph Line of coaches, 296. Telescopes, 251 ff. Temperance reform, 211, 275. Temple, Sir William, on moxa, 187. Tenor bill, 352 f. Thacher, James, M. D., essay on salt- making, 134; his Orchardist, 141 f. Theatres, 150. Thieving, sermon in favor of, 26. Thomas, Aaron, 8. Thomas, Isaiah, his almanac, 31,60 f. ; Isaiah, Jr., 42. Thomas, John, Indian teacher, 343. Thomas, Odoardo, 2. Thomas, Robert Bailey, life and character, i ff. ; ancestors, 2 ff . ; education, 5 ff. ; as a schoolmaster, 6 ; plan of making an Almanac, 6 4OO INDEX ff. ; as bookbinder and bookseller, 7 f. ; studies with Osgood Carleton, 8 f. ; sojourn in Boston, 9, 14 ; por- trait, 16; publication of the Far- mer's Almanack, 17 ff. ; retrospect of fifty years, 19 ff. ; signature, 22 ; replies to patrons and correspond- ents, 25 ff. ; attitude towards as- trology, 39, 50 ff. ; omits the Man of the Signs, 53 ; refrains from mis- cellaneous illustrations, 68 ; his con- ception of an almanac, 71 ; his Farmer's Calendar, 78 ff. ; compari- son with Cato, 80; moral and pru- dential advice, 80 ff. ; opinion of dogs, 84 ; of kitchen gardens, 84 f. ; his sense of humor, 86 ; character sketches, 86 ff. ; narrative sketch, 94 f. ; his opinion of lawyers, 98 ff. ; of quack doctors and quack preach- ers, 100 f. ; enthusiasm for America and American products, 121 ff. ; recommends maple sugar, 121 ff . ; on slavery, 121 f . ; sells chapbooks, 137 ; portrait of an itinerant book- seller, 139 ff . ; on huskings, 168 f . ; on changing works, 179 ff. ; on spin- ning, 182; on the dairy, 182; on women in the hayfield, 182 f.; on Indian summer, 191 ; on supersti- tion, 205 f. ; on trainings, 209; on schools, 217 ff . ; on credulity and newspapers, 250; on tavern-haunt- ing, etc., 272 ff . ; on bowling, 276; on railroads, 299, 301 f. ; on the moon, 305 ff.; on books and read- ing, 31 5 ff . ; books for sale by, 318 ff. See also Farmer's Almanack. Thomas, Solomon, Indian, 349 f. Thomas, William, grandfather of R. 13., 2 ff. Thomas, William, father of R. B., 2 ff. Thompson, Benjamin : see Tompson. Thompson, F. M., on stages, 296. Thompson, Zadock, his gun, 244. Thomson, George, chemical physician, 118 f. ; book on the plague, 118; dissects a pestilential body, 118; use of toad as remedy, 1 18. Thoreau, Henry, on salt-works on Cape Cod, 135 ; on Indian summer, 194. Throwing at the cock, 177. Tides, 28 ; and brain, 307. Tileston, Mary Wilder, 319. Timber, sale of to English by Indians, 346 f. Time, Father, figures of, 62 ff., 378. Time-table of stages from Boston in 1801, 287 ff. Tithingman, stops travellers on Sun- day, 238 f. Titles of honor, 234 ff. ; fondness for, 234- Tituba, Indian woman, no. Tiverton, Conn., a cunning man of, 40. Tiw, Germanic god, and Tuesday, 179 ; identified by Cotton Mather with Tuisco, 179. Toad, duel with spider, 104 ff. ; jewel in head of, 107 ; in superstition and folk-lore, 114 ff. ; in literature, 115 ; use in the plague, etc., 117 ; service- able in gardens, 119. Toadstone, 107. Tobacco culture, 221 ; smoke used in resuscitation of drowned, 162 f. See Smoking. Tobias, Indian, murderer of Sassa- mon, 76. Todd, C. 13., Life of Barlow, 171. Todd, D. P., on astronomical hoax, 261. Tom Thumb, 137. Tompson, Benjamin, schoolmaster and poet, elegy on Woodmancy and Cheever, 233 ; his New-Eng- land's Crisis, 356 ff.; speech of King Philip, 357 f. Top boots, 220. Top spinning, 63 f. Tortugas, salt from, 133. Toteswamp, Indian ruler, 351. Touch, ordeal of: see Ordeal of the bier. Training, military, 94, 208 ff., 225. Travel, means of, 285 ff. ; works of, 321 ff.; fictitious, 322 ff. Travellers, entertainment for, 262 ff.; accommodated at private houses, 280 ff. Travellers in America : see Abdy ; Bennett; Candler; Carver; Davis; Duncan ; Dwight ; Hall ; Harriott Hodgson ; James ; Jones ; Kendall ; Lambert; M'Robert; Martineau ; Melish ; Priest; Rochefoucault; Smith ; Smyth ; Sutcliff ; Thoreau ; Twining; Volney ; Wansey; Weld. Travelling on Sunday, 238 f. INDEX 4OI Travis, Daniel, his almanac, 60. Treating, forbidden at trainings, 2iof. Trees, girdling, 311; pruning, 313; grafting, 313. Tremont St., Boston, 14. Trenck, Baron, Life of, recom- mended by Mr. Thomas, 316 f. Trumbull, Benjamin, D.D., his Cen- tury Sermon, 317 ; on geographies, 3 r 7- Trumbull, J. H., Natick Dictionary, 357- Tudor, William, on the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company, 211. Tuesday, origin of name, 179 ; Shrove Tuesday, 177 ff. Tuisco (Tuisto), Germanic deity, in Tacitus, 178 ; Cotton Mather on, 17.7 ff. Tunis, Bey of, demands arms of the United States, 208. Turkey-shooting, at taverns, 275 f. Turks, conversion of, 200. Tuscarora Mountains, 304. Twilight, Tim, book-peddler, 139 ff. Twining, Thomas, on stagecoaches, 291 f. UNDERBRUSH: see Bushes. United Fire Society, of Boston, opposite 152. United States, formation of, 17; future prosperity foretold, 17; Weather Bureau, 191 ; militia system, 208 ; navy, 2i3ff. United States, man-of-war, 215. Upham, C. W., Salem Witchcraft, 112. Uppanippaquem, Indian, 372. Upton, Mass., 225. Uring, Capt. Nathaniel, Indian anecdote, 360 ff. Uskattuhgun, Samuel, Indian saga- more, 369. Uxbridge, Mass., innkeeper at, 270. VAN BERKLE, Dutch envoy, u f. Van Helmont: see Helmont. Vane, Sir Henry, residence in Bos- ton, 14. Vassalborough, Maine, husking at, 1 68. Vassall estate, Boston, n, 14 ff. 26 Vassall, William, 14. Vegetables, 84 f. Venom of toad, spider, etc., 104 ff. ; antidotes, 104 ff. Venus, the planet, taken for an elec- tric light, 261. Vermont, Williams's History of, rec- ommended by Mr. Thomas, 316. Vermont Nimrod, the, 240 f. Verses contributed to the Almanac, 28 ff. See also Poetry. Victoria, Queen, 193. Virginia, Indians of, 196; marksmen of, 246 ; inns in, 265 f., 283 f. ; hos- pitality, 283 f. Volcanoes and earthquakes, 201. Volney, C. F. C., comte de, on In- dian summer, 192. Voyage, horoscope for, 39 f . WABAN, Indian ruler, warrant as- cribed to, 334 f. ; Eliot in his wig- wam, 335 f.; his character, 336 f . ; first convert, 336 ; made a Ruler of Fifty 337 J as a judge, 337 ; princi- pal ruler at Natick, 337 ; informs the English of King Philip's pro- jects, 337 ; nature of his authority, 337 f-> 344 ! confined at Deer Is- land, 343 f. ; speech on release, 343 f. ; death, 344 ; unable to write, 344 ; deeds signed by him, 344 ; offers his son to be educated, 345; letters addressed to, 372 f. Waban, Hannah, 347. Waban, Thomas, Indian warrant ascribed to, 335 ; anecdote of, 335 ; his English education, 345 f. ; signs deeds, 345 ; connection with the Indian title to Groton, Mass., 345 f. ; town clerk of Natick, Mass., 346 f. ; specimen of his records in Indian and English, 346 ; selectman of Natick, 347 ; ac- quainted with Judge Sewall, 348 f. ; title of Captain, 350. Waban, Thomas, Jr., 348. Wabquissit, 341. Wages, 1 80. Wagons, 285 ff. Waldron, Isaac, 180. Wansey, Henry, on Connecticut lawyers, 98 ; on taverns, 123 f. ; on maple sugar, I23f. ; on increase in travel, 287. 4O2 INDEX War of 1812, navy in, 213 ff. Warrant, Indian, 333 ff. Washington, George, 234 ff.; his opinion of Rufus Putnam, 225; his degree of LL.D., 234 ff. ; respect for, 238 ; encounter with a tithing- man, 238 ; opinion of mosquitoes, 248 f. ; tour in New England, 238, 270; letter to Landlord Taft, 270 f. ; Life of, 316. Watches, 89. Waterman, Peter, Indian, 334. Watermelons, sugar from, 128. Waters, Anne, murderess, 72. Waters, T. F., Life of John Win- throp the Younger, 132. Watertown, Mass., Fresh Pond, 9 ; battle between mouse and snake at, 108 ; stage from Boston to, 290 ; Indians near, 350. Wattasacompanum, Indian, 341 f. Watts, Isaac, D.D., his hymns sold by Mr. Thomas, 318. Watuchpoo, Indian, agent of Philip, 368. Weasels, resuscitation of, 120. Weather, Indian summer, 191 ff , ; comets, 191, 198 ff. ; sun spots, 191, 198 ; signs, 205 f. Webb, John, 175. Wedding in New England, 141 f. Weeden, W. B., on salt-making, 133. Weeds, when to pull, 306. Weld, Isaac, Jr., on marksmanship, 246; on mosquitoes, 248 f. Wells, F. P., on wages, 180. Wenham, Jane, alleged witch, 114. Werewolves, 159. Wesley, John, 148. West, John, publisher of the Farmer's Almanack from 1797 to 1820, 34. West Boylston, Mass., 98 ; formation of, 4 f . West Indies, sugar, 121 f., 125, 127f. ; salt, 133. Wharves, smoking on, forbidden, 155. What to read, 315 ff. Wheat, when to sow, ^506; smut in, 306; difficulty of raising in New England, 327 ff . ; blasting of, 327 ff. ; effect of barberry bushes on, 328 ff. Whipping, as punishment, 335, 350 ff. White, Mary Wilder, 318. White Lion tavern, Boston, 288. Whitmore, W. H., 139, 250, 341. Whitney, Rev. Peter, History of Wor- cester County, Mass., 320. Whittier on the Dark Day, 203. Wicket, Jeremy, Indian, 334. Wicket Island, Mass., 334. Wickett, Simon, Indian, 334. Wilder, Mary, 318. Wilkes, John, 10, 12, 13; his sister, Madam Hayley, 9 ff . Willard, Emma, founder of female seminaries, 230. Willard, Joseph, on Sewall's fire, 53- William Henry, Fort, march to, in I 7S7< 4 > massacre at, 321. Williams, Samuel, his Natural and Civil History of Vermont, recom- mended by Mr. Thomas, 316. Williamson, W. D., historian of Maine, on barberries and grain, 332 ; account of Tarratine Indians, 365 f. ; of trial of Susup, 365 f. Willis, William, 182, 309. Will-o'-the-wisp, 196. Willoughby, C. C., sketch of a Mas- sachusetts Indian, 359. Wilson, Rev. John, on battle between mouse and snake, 108; account of service in Waban's wigwam, 336 ; character of Waban, 336; on Thomas Waban, 345. Windmills, 135 f. Wine, 262. Winnebago Indians, 359. Winslow, Edward, 358. Winthrop, Gov. John, account of mur- ders, 75 ; on battle between mouse and snake, 108. Winthrop, John, the Younger, letter from Sir Kenelm Digby to, 117; as a salt-maker, 132 f. Winthrop, John, F. R. S., on sym- pathy in medicine, 116. Winthrop, Professor John, 200 ff. ; his degree of LL. D., 200, 235 ; on comets, 200; on earthquakes, 200 ff. ; on lightning rods, 201 f. Winthrop, Mass., Indian dug up at, 359- Witchcraft, essay on, in I. Thomas's Almanack for 1782, 60; general considerations on, 108 ff. ; among Indians, 108 ff., 336, 341 ; at Salem, noff. ; in New England and else- INDEX 403 where, no ff. ; Belknap on, no; Henry More and Glanvil on, 1 1 1 ; Addison on, 1 14. Wizards, Indian, ioSff.,336, 341, 363 f. Women, farm labor of, 182 f. ; educa- tion of, 229 f. Wood, when to cut, 306. Woodbridge, Rev. William, the " Co- lumbus of female education," 230. Woodmancy, John, elegy on, 233. Woods, Lydia, 3. Woodstock, Conn., 341. Woodward, Daniel, his almanac, 49 f. ; astrology in, 49 f. Worcester, Mass., hospital at, 15; American Antiquarian Society, 16, 337 ff. ; books printed at, 42 ; rail- road from Boston to, 300 f. ; Soci- ety of Antiquity, 23 1,301 ; Whitney's History of, 328 ; Indian court at, Worcester Magazine, 5, 98. Wreckers, 96. Wright, Aaron, his journal, 244. Wright, Thomas, Narratives of Sor- cery and Magic, 114. Writing schools, 5. Wiirzburg, witchcraft in, 113. Wuttke, Adolf, 159. YALE COLLEGE (and University), ic8, 122, 129, 140 f. Yankee dialect, 87 ff. See Language. Yankee Hero tavern, Boston, 289. Yarmouth, Mass., salt-works at, 129. Yellow Day of 1881, 205. Youghiegany River, 304. Young, Arthur, 123. Young Hunting, ballad, 161. ZADKIEL'S almanac, predictions, 47 f. Zodiac: see Signs. A 001 118 606 1