The Cup That Cheers. To the Editor of the Journal: The first time that tea was brought to Barrington, Rhode Island, is not known to the writer of this article, but the second time it was brought by Matthew Watson something over a hundred and fifty years ago, before the famous Boston tea party.
Matthew Watson sold brick which he manufactured from the clay on his own property, which was extensive, even for those days, in Newport. On one of his trips there he bought the teapot, a sketch of which appears with this article, and six teacups.
As tea had never been used, of course there was no tea-kettle, and water to make this was boiled in a dinner pot hanging from a crane over the wood fire. The teapot now is in possession of one of Matthew Watson’s descendants, and is a quaint little affair of some ancient style of crockery. It stands on three legs, which adds to its unique appearance.
Once it was broken into eight pieces, but was so cleverly mended that it is almost impossible to detect this as it stands, with other heirlooms, looking down on the china and glass of later dates.
Fairleigh Cottage.
THE FIELD, SCOPE AND OPPORTUNITY OF THE AMERICAN-IRISH HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
BY DENNIS HARVEY SHEAHAN,[[56]] PROVIDENCE, R. I.
The history of a country is dear to the heart of the lover of that country. By the aid of historical study we learn of the origin, growth and development of a race of people; their customs, religions, laws, governments; their accomplishments and what they have contributed to the economy of the world.
The historian points out the past to the present and future. He puts aside the veil that has gathered about the dim past, opens up to the gaze of the bright present the panorama of human achievement, and blazes the way for his successor in the rosy future.
What the clergyman learns from the theological disputations of the past, the poring monk has gathered together; what the physician now acquires with comparative ease is furnished him by the knowledge garnered from the experience of his brethren from the time when man learned that pain and aches affected his being; what the lawyer gains from precedents is a guiding light which sheds its rays upon problems of jurisprudence that the legal lore of the past generations has taken from the leaves of experience; what formulæ the scientist is able to demonstrate, he owes to the observations of men who, through the ages, have chronicled the phenomena of nature; the statesman is able to meet the crisis of the present by being informed as to other crises in governmental affairs.