In this neighborhood too is a tablet marking the site of Griffin's Wharf, where the Boston Tea Party of the Revolution took place. We remember how the people of Boston refused to pay the tax on tea; how the shiploads of tea sent from England remained unloaded at the wharf; and how, finally, after an indignation meeting had been held at the Old South Meeting House, a band of men and boys, disguised as Indians, boarded the vessels, ripped open the chests, and emptied all the cargo into the harbor. It was rightly called the Boston Tea Party.
© Dadmun Co. Boston
BOSTON'S NEW CUSTOMHOUSE
OLD NORTH CHURCH
As we are so close to the North End, we may as well go there at once. The North End is the oldest section of Boston. It was here that Samuel Adams, John Hancock, Paul Revere, and other patriots had their headquarters during the troublous times before the Revolution. Paul Revere, of whose famous ride we have all read in Longfellow's poem, lived and carried on his business in this very district. If we wish, we can see his home as well as the famous Old North Church, where his friend hung the lanterns warning him of the movements of the British.
But to-day there is little else to remind us of the past. As we cross North Square and see the gesticulating, dark-skinned men, the stout, gayly kerchiefed women in the doorways, and the hordes of dark-eyed children on street and sidewalk, we wonder if by mistake we have not entered some city in southern Europe. To-day the North End of Boston is the great foreign section of the city. Here live the Jews, Italians, and Russians. They tell us that more than one third of the entire population of the city are foreigners.
But when a group of boys rushes toward us, each begging to be our guide to the Old North Church, to Paul Revere's house, or to the famous Copp's Hill Burying Ground,—all for a nickel,—we are sure we are in America and gladly follow our leader through the narrow, crooked streets.
From among the parents of these children come the fruit peddlers, the clothing makers, the street musicians, and the great army of laborers which helps to keep the city in repair.