Christmas-time—Won at a Turkey Raffle. (Sol Eytinge, Jun., Harper's Weekly, January 3d, 1874.)
"De breed am small, but de flavor am delicious."
"By the carelessness of a boy in 1811, a garden-gate in Rhode Island was left open; two pigs entered and destroyed a few plants. The day was hot, the pigs fat, and when attempts were made to drive them out, the characteristic obstinacy of the animals occasioned such violent exercise as to cause their death. A quarrel ensued between the owner of the pigs and the owner of the garden, which, spreading among their friends, resulted in the election of the opposition candidate—Howell—by one majority to the United States Senate, by whose vote the motion to postpone until the next session further consideration on the question of declaring war was defeated by one majority; and by the vote following it war was declared with Great Britain in 1812, although Howell was opposed to and voted against it."
"He cometh not, she said." (M. Woolf, in Harper's Bazar, July 31st, 1875.)
This story was illustrated by excellent wood-cuts. The account of the festival, given in the Boston Advertiser, is worth preserving as a narrative of the most costly, extensive, and elaborate joke ever performed in the United States. Since kings and emperors ceased to amuse their guests with similar burlesques, I know not if the world has witnessed "fooling" on so large a scale.
"On Saturday" (June 19th, 1875, two days after the Bunker Hill Centennial) "the invited guests repaired to the Albany Railroad Dépôt. The nine-o'clock train took out the Fifth Maryland Regiment, which had been invited, and the Marine Band of Washington, also a delegation of the Washington Light Infantry of Charleston, South Carolina.
"The next train took out their escort, the Charlestown Cadets, Company A, Fifth Massachusetts Regiment, Captain J. E. Phipps, the corps missing the train; a large number of invited guests, including Governor Gaston, his aid, Colonel Wyman, Colonels Kingsbury and Treadwell, and other representatives of the State House, General I. S. Burrell, First Brigade, and a great many officers of rank of the different military organizations of the State in uniform.
"Upon arriving at the dépôt in Wellesley, the carriage of Governor Eustis, in which Lafayette rode into Boston in 1824, with large iron-gray horses and rich gold-mounted harness, as old-fashioned as the vehicle, was placed at the service of the governor and his party. The line, consisting of some fifty vehicles, each capable of transporting twenty or thirty persons, headed by Edmands's Band, was then formed under the direction of Lieutenant Francis L. Hills, of the United States Artillery, who, by-the-way, was a most useful marshal.