Breathe it less gently forth and veil thine eyes.
Endymion, recollect, when Luna tried
To cure his love—was cured of all beside—
His folly—pride—and passion—for he died.
E. A. P.
WHEN WASHINGTON CAME TO SPRINGFIELD
In April, 1905, after the adjournment of Congress, Theodore Roosevelt, President of the United States, started on a tour of the country. On Thursday, October 15, 1789, George Washington, President of the United States, Congress having adjourned, started on a tour of the New England States. The contrasts brought out by the two journeys are so striking that it may be of interest to recall the earlier tour, and some of the conditions under which it was made. President Roosevelt began his trip in the cab of a locomotive. President Washington started in his private coach, with much ceremony, attended by six servants. President Roosevelt travelled thousands of miles to Colorado and Texas, visiting territory, the existence of which was not even dreamed of in 1789. Washington went as far from New York as Portsmouth, N. H., and required a month in which to cover the distance between the two cities. But it is not so much the outward changes in conditions as the attitude of the people which is, after all, of the chief interest. The fiction of the “good old days” is so strongly intrenched in our minds that it is very difficult to break away from it, yet the absence of bitterness to-day in the spirit of the public toward the chief magistrate is no less marked a change than the revolution in physical conditions. President Roosevelt was followed on his journey by the good will of all the people. There might be a sly hit, now and then, at his strenuous bear-hunting, rough-riding proclivities, but the attitude of the people as a whole was respectful and sympathetic. How the different classes of the people felt toward Washington, together with some descriptive hints about his journey, I have endeavored to set forth in the following letters, all drawn from historic sources, which I suppose to have been written by the following imaginary personages:—
John Adams, a young Springfield lawyer, recently from Boston.
Dorothy Coolidge of Boston, a society girl, a friend and former playmate of John Adams.
Enoch Day, keeper of a general store in West Springfield.