The Bay State Monthly

A Massachusetts Magazine

Vol. II.

March, 1885.

No. 6.

Contents

William Lee (Signature)

Lee And Shepard.

By George L. Austin, M.D.

For a quarter of a century the firm-name of Lee and Shepard has been familiar to the public. During this interval of time it has been printed upon millions of volumes, which have gone forth on their two-fold mission of instruction and entertainment. Few publishing houses in America have achieved a more honorable record, or have more indelibly left their impress of good intentions and of deeds nobly done upon the minds of increasing generations. It is of the individual members of this firm, both of whom have grown gray in the business, that I purpose to speak in this article. First of the senior partner of the house.

Born at the "North End," in Boston, on the seventeenth of April, 1826; early put to school, and taken out of it at the age of eleven, at which time he was left fatherless, the eldest of six children; with a good mother to whisper words of encouragement in his ear, when everything in the world and the future before him looked dark,—such was the start of William Lee in life. Thousands before him, and since, have had the same infelicitous experience; but how few have had the courage to overcome the obstacles which he succeeded in overcoming? While other young men of his age, many of them his playmates, were planning to fit themselves, by a long course of study, for the duties of life, he was at once confronted with the duties and burdens of life, without such advantages as an education affords, and he met them with a manliness and a self-reliance which now seem truly marvelous. I have often heard him tell of these early days; but I will pass by the recollections for fear that the recital of them might discourage many who read these lines.

After leaving school young William was offered a situation in the bookstore of Samuel G. Drake, then located at No. 56 Cornhill. Mr. Drake was himself a famous "book-worm," was familiar with the authorities and the history of Boston, and, in after life, achieved a reputation as an author. He was what one would term now an "old-fashioned bookseller," but what he did not know of the book trade in his day was not worth knowing. William Lee entered his employ for two purposes—to learn the trade and, in a very small way, to help support the family which was, in a large sense, dependent upon him. During the three years of his apprenticeship he showed himself an apt scholar, a patient worker, and gifted with indomitable will and ambition.

The next two years were passed in the country. On returning to Boston he again entered a book store, and, when eighteen years of age, he became a clerk in the then prosperous publishing house of Phillips and Sampson, located on Winter street. His connection with this house afforded him increased advantages; he was no longer an apprentice filling a menial position, but was conscious of occupying a responsible station in the business, where his integrity and intelligence were appreciated at their real value. He enjoyed the fullest confidence of his employers, and was soon looked upon by them as their "best" clerk. Selling by auction, especially in the evenings, was at that time a leading feature of the trade, and William Lee soon became an expert in that way, as well as in the general character of salesman to the country trade. There was scarcely a detail in the book trade with which he did not make himself personally familiar; he sought to post himself upon the character and contents of every book that was kept in stock, in order that he might be able to speak intelligently of them to his customers. This habit of general familiarization is one which, in the lapse of subsequent years, has proved of incalculable service to him; it is one which cannot be too earnestly commended to the attention of all young men who are to-day "working" up in the trade.

At the age of twenty-one William Lee was allowed a share in the business, and three years later he accepted an equal partnership in the house. When it is remembered that at this time the house of Phillips and Sampson stood foremost as publishers in New England, the fact that, at the age of twenty-four, William Lee became an equal partner in this house is certainly striking. It bears but one explanation: William Lee owed his remarkable success to the talent which was born and bred in him, and to the consciousness of self-reliance, with which his employers, first and last, had inspired him. There is nothing in this life which will so readily develop the best qualities of manhood as a sense of responsibility, first to the individual himself and next to those whom he serves. Take away this sense of responsibility, every man becomes a machine; everything that he does is mechanical.

In the firm of Phillips, Sampson and Company Mr. Lee continued as a partner for seven years. To his energy and industry the prosperity of the house was henceforth largely indebted. For twelve, and sometimes fifteen hours a day, he remained faithfully at his round of duties.

In 1857 Mr. Lee's health gave way, and his physician ordered him to relinquish all cares of business. Acting in accordance with this advice, he sold his interest to his partners for sixty-five thousand dollars, taking the notes of the firm for that amount. After a few months of travel in his own country, he sailed for Europe in June, 1858, in company with Willard Small, with the intention of spending five years on the continent. He proved to be a good traveler; his keen observation encompassed everything; his generous heart and the geniality of his nature won to him many friends. Ere many months had elapsed he had traversed England, France, Germany, Belgium, and Spain.

While he was in Paris, an incident occured, the recollection of which has served to enliven many a social occasion. It was the exciting time succeeding the attempted assassination of Napoleon by Orsini. Mr. Lee always wore a long, sandy beard, and in his travels sported a soft, broad-brimmed hat. One day, while walking about the streets, he was arrested and taken to the Palais de Justice. Explanations and expostulations proved unavailing. The prisoner was declared to be a "red Republican," and, in those days, that was no joke. It was only after the production of a passport and the interference of the United States consul, that the authorities were induced to release their captive.

Mr. Lee was in Paris, and was on the point of making a second journey into Spain, when the United States mail brought him a letter, conveying the tidings of the death of both Mr. Phillips and Mr. Sampson, and the failure of the house.

The panic of 1857 had made sad havoc with the book trade generally, and those firms which weathered the storm were sorely pressed. Phillips and Sampson met with heavy losses, but struggled on in the hope of recovering lost ground. But, in 1859, the death of the senior members of the firm seemed to paralyze its prosperity, and the worst quickly followed.

Mr. Lee had received no warning of the impending calamity, and for the time was much overcome by the announcement. He foresaw what it implied, however, and at once returned to Boston, to find himself a heavy loser by the financial disaster.

Still undaunted, he gathered up what remained of his fortune and, in February, 1860, he became a member of the firm of Crosby, Nichols and Company, which had purchased many of the stereotype plates belonging to the late firm of Phillips, Sampson and Company, and which now took the name of Crosby, Nichols, Lee and Company. But the long stagnation of trade, succeeded by losses in the southern states, consequent upon the political troubles of those days, bore heavily upon the new firm; and, in the spring of 1861, Mr. Lee left the business and again trod the streets of Boston without a dollar that he could call his own! Thus, after twenty years of business activity, his fortune was gone, and nothing remained for him to do except to begin life over again.

During the next few months Mr. Lee surveyed the field about him, endeavoring to discern what could be accomplished with no other capital save brains. A decision was soon reached, and it resulted from one of those little incidents of life, which, although rare indeed, make life all the more worth living. I hope I betray no breach of trust in recalling it.

While walking down Washington street one day Mr. Lee encountered his friend of many years.

"What are you doing now, Charlie?" he asked.

"Nothing; and I'm as poor as a church mouse," was the reply.

"But, look here, Charlie, keep up your courage. I haven't got much myself; but I'll go halves with you. Come up to my room to-night, and we'll talk matters over."

The friends parted, to meet again within a few hours in the glow of the gas-light. Affairs were candidly and earnestly discussed, plans were laid, and then and there began the firm, whose reputation has extended wherever the English language is spoken,—the house of LEE AND SHEPARD.

It was February 1, 1862. The times were not propitious for a beginning at any trade, but the partners were veterans in experience, and no sooner had they shaped their plans than the public in many ways evinced its confidence in their undertaking. Better than a large capital was the encouragement they received from all with whom they had formerly had dealings; and they began under the most pleasing auspices.

The firm first occupied a very old, two-storied wooden building, known as "the old dye-house" on Washington Street, opposite the Old South "Church."[1]

Of course the store soon began to show its incapacity for the growing business, just as the "old corner" had done in the case of Ticknor and Fields, and as almost every ancient book-shop has done in the last quarter of a century. The proprietors of the establishment were not only their own employers, but their own employees as well. They attended to their own book-keeping, did their own selling and buying, tied up their bundles and packed all the cases. Early and late they shouldered their task, and started ahead. After three years thus spent the firm moved into the new store at 149 Washington Street, which still remains, and which the firm continued to occupy until 1873.

At this point it is convenient to go back a number of years and recount the principal events in the life of the junior partner of the house: Charles A.B. Shepard.

If the boy could have had his own way, when he started in life, the chances are that to-day he would be an American admiral. As it happened, his early passion and proclivities were not fostered; he became a bookseller whom all the world now knows as "Charley Shepard."

He was born in Salem, Massachusetts, October 18th, 1829, and received his education at the public school. He was one of the brightest scholars in his class, learned easily, was fond of books, never wearied of study, and never forgot what he acquired. At the start he was blest with a most marvelous and retentive memory, and a keen sense of the practical side of life. "It was thus," as one of his friends has remarked, "that his school days were profitable to him to a degree not common, and it was thus that his rapidly-growing literary attainments became the astonishment of strangers and the never failing delight and surprise of his friends."

Mr. Shepard's father was a sea-faring man, who, however, took good care to check every inclination towards that sort of life that existed in the mind of his son, at a very tender age. At his business start, therefore, the boy was forced into a channel that was not of his own choosing. At the age of fifteen, after having previously tried his skill as a boy of all work in the grocery business, he entered the store of John P. Jewett, a bookseller at Salem. He remained with Mr. Jewett eleven years, during which time he forgot all about the details of the West India trade and instead acquired a perfect knowledge of those of the making and selling of books. When, in 1846, Mr. Jewett removed to Boston and opened a store on Cornhill, Mr. Shepard accompanied him, and by his untiring energy, his close application to business and his intelligent way of conducting the affairs of the house in general, very largely contributed to the success which, in those days, was accounted so remarkable. He was even then looked upon as the "hardest worker" in the trade. He was the first to enter the store in the morning, and the last to leave at night. To many, it seemed as if his hours were only hours of toil; and yet, few young men of his age took life so easily as did he, or got more enjoyment out of it. It was during Mr. Shepard's connection with the house of John P. Jewett that "Uncle Tom's Cabin" first saw the light. The story of its publication has so often been told that it need not be repeated here. Mr. Shepard recalls all the incidents associated with it as vividly to-day as though they were but events of yesterday, and he is now the only living man that can tell them. As everybody knows, the book bounded into success, due as much to the shrewd advertising of the publisher as to the merits of the work itself. It redounds to the credit of Mr. Jewett that he never hesitated to acknowledge that whatever success he had as a Boston publisher was largely due to his sprightly clerk, who labored literally night and day, to master every detail of the business.

Charles A.B. Shepard (Signature)

In 1855 Mr. Shepard conceived the idea of starting in business for himself, and formed a co-partnership which was known to the trade as Shepard, Clark and Brown. It flourished until the panic of 1857 swept over the country. Reverses came, and the house was forced to give up.

In 1862, as I have said, the firm of Lee and Shepard was started in business, with no other capital save that of brain and muscle. The two partners had long and favorably known one another. While strangely dissimilar in tastes, they yet exhibited many points in common. At the start, both were financially poor men; they possessed no funds, but, by virtue of their well known integrity and ability to succeed, could readily command the little which they required to begin life anew. Mr. Shepard, as well as Mr. Lee, had made himself indispensable to every firm with which he had been connected. Each had a wide circle of friends, and each was trusted by his friends. Both men had been generous in prosperity, and their good deeds, though known only to their intimate friends and the objects of their benevolence, were not trumpeted for worldly admiration. Both enjoyed a wide acquaintanceship with authors, and with books, with dealers, and with the public, and both had strong likes and dislikes, which made them as radical in politics as they were in personal affairs. In the firm, each has always had his own duties to perform, on the wise plan of a fitting division of labor. Yet while each partner seems exclusively to occupy his own field, independent of and unrestricted by the other, it rarely happens that there are any cross-purposes between them. The wheels of progress move on with unswerving and unerring progress; the law of compensation which is dominant in the establishment is always working aright.

Strangers who are for the first time brought in contract with these men, whether socially or on matters of business, invariably detect the strong points of conservatism which each exhibits. Mr. Lee gives one the impression of being a well-read man, as, in fact, he is. The faculty which he possesses of curiously gleaning the salient bits of knowledge out of current thought and expression, is something remarkable. The by-paths of literature are peculiarly his stamping-ground; and yet, upon almost every subject of important character, he will chat for hours intelligently and interestingly.

Mr. Shepard shows many of the same qualities. His brain is exceedingly fertile of ideas, his memory perfectly marvelous, his language pointed, easy-flowing and abounding in wit and humor. He exhibits singular quickness at repartee; he is fond of a joke, and will give and take with the keenest sense of enjoyment. His familiarity with standard literature serves him many a good turn; he makes it a duty to read thoroughly or to "dip into" every new book that is talked about. He fortifies himself, whether for daily life or for social intercourse, with all the intellectual weapons, so to speak, that can ever be called into play. Still, he moves along the pathway of life thoroughly without affectation; a "liberal education" seems to have been his by inheritance, and he can make better use of it than most college men with whom he is brought in contact.

It is as impossible for Mr. Shepard not to quote poetry as it is for him to fly through the air and his facility in so doing would alone make him a marked man. His whole soul is full of poesy, ever restless and exuberant. I am not aware that he ever molded a rhyme, or sung a measure of song in all his life. And yet so tenacious is his memory, so wonderful his talent in applying the epigrammatic utterances of the leading writers, both old and new, that a person, on being made cognizant of the fact, finds himself puzzled. Poetry enters into even the driest details of Mr. Shepard's business life. The signature to a check is often audibly accompanied by some melodic couplet. Anywhere and everywhere, and for everything that happens or may happen, the poetic spice is rarely wanting. Mr. Shepard does not deliberately intend this to be so; the gift rallies into utterance before he is aware of it, and he can no more suppress it than he can turn back the roaring waters of Niagara.

Possessed of such qualities as these, Mr. Shepard very easily finds friends and is the centre of their attraction. Outspoken, sometimes even to bluntness, a bitter hater of duplicity and meanness, a keen detector of counterfeit character, on the one hand; on the other, warm in his affections, generous to a fault, faithful to those whom he admires,—such is the man of whom I write. No one is ever at a loss to discover whether Mr. Shepard is his friend or his enemy.

Mr. Shepard has been intimately connected with the politics of his time. He began as a thorough, out-and-out abolitionist; during the war he was a stanch Republican, and a firm admirer of Charles Sumner. When the great Senator forsook his party, Mr. Shepard chose the same course, and to-day finds him enrolled upon the Democratic side, although, for some years back, he has taken no active interest in any political movement of the day.

Such, in brief, is Charles A.B. Shepard, a man better known, perhaps, than any other among the book trade of this country, everywhere popular, and nowhere more truly so than among those who are brought daily in contact with him and who know him best.

The firm of Lee and Shepard removed from 149 Washington street, in 1873, to a new building, which, replacing the one which had been destroyed in the great Boston fire, now stands on the south-east corner of Franklin and Hawley street. In these commodious and sumptuously-fitted quarters the firm tarried until their removal, in January of the present year, to their new quarters at No. 10 Milk street, adjoining the "old South." Here they have evidently settled down to stay, perhaps for the remaining years of their joint business life.

When they started in the "old dye-house" it was simply as booksellers. They owned no stereotyped plates, and for some weeks had no thought of entering into any business relations with authors. One day Mr. Shepard chanced to make a social call upon Mr. Samuel C. Perkins, formerly associated with Phillips, Sampson and Company, who, after their failure, had become possessed of some stereotype plates. During the conversation Mr. Perkins recalled the fact, and asked Mr. Shepard to take them off his hands. The wherewithall to purchase was wanting; but Mr. Shepard, conscious of what he was doing, decided to buy them, giving the firm's notes in payment. These plates included those of Oliver Optic's "Boat Club Series," in six volumes, and those of the "Riverdale Stories" in twelve volumes. Mr. Lee approved the transaction, and the firm at once brought out a new edition of both series. They met with a quick sale; indeed, so wonderful was their success that the author, who was then a Boston school teacher, was summoned and commissioned to prepare a series of books for girls. From that time down to the present day, the pen of "Oliver Optic" has been busily employed in behalf of the American youth. He has produced, besides the series already named, the "Army and Navy stories," in six volumes; the "Great Western series," in six volumes; the "Lake Shore series," in six volumes; the "Onward and Upward series," in six volumes; the "Starry Flag series," in six volumes; the "Woodville Stories," and the "Yacht Club series," each in six volumes; and two series of six volumes each, entitled "Young America abroad." Hundreds of thousands of copies have been sold of these books, and the demand for them to-day is almost as large as it was ten or fifteen years ago. It is no exaggeration to say that there is scarcely a young man or woman now living who has not read and profitted by one or more of Oliver Optic's stories.

Among the other successful writers whom Lee and Shepard brought into notice was Miss Rebecca S. Clark, known the world over by her pseudonym of "Sophie May." Her first book was "Little Prudy," which achieved a reputation not surpassed by that of Miss Alcott's "Little Women." This first volume was rapidly succeeded by others by the same author, which in turn won favor, and are now grouped in the catalogue in series, namely: "Little Prudy Series," "Little Prudy's Flyaway Series," "Dotty Dimple Series," and "Flaxie Frizzle Stories," each comprising six volumes. All of these books grew into the people's hearts, and ere long the newspapers noticed them, the magazines devoted large space to reviewing them, and the stately and sober-minded "North American Review," in a characteristic article, from Colonel Higginson's pen was led to say of their merits:

"Genius comes in with 'Little Prudy.' Compared with her, all other book-children are cold creations of literature only; she alone is the real thing, all the quaintness of childhood, its originality, its tenderness and its teasing, its infinite unconscious drollery, the serious earnestness of its fun, the fun of its seriousness, the natural religion of its plays and the delicious oddity of its prayers—all these waited for dear Little Prudy to embody them."

Such a verdict, from so exalted authority, has had its effect. The demand for Sophie May's books has been almost unprecedented. Inspired by her success in this line the author has also written several volumes for older readers, and they, too, have proved successful.

Another author, who has held a prominent place in the firm's catalogue, is Mr. George M. Baker. Although he has done much for the entertainment of the young people in the line of story-telling, his greatest success has been found in his series of amateur dramatic books, which have long ago become standard. I would not undertake to mention how many "plays" he has written; but to simply read the "mail orders" for such literature or watch customers as they come and go from "headquarters," would incline everybody to believe that he had produced about all that are ever needed.

Lee and Shepard's catalogue embraces the names of a great many authors, to even enumerate which would require much space in this magazine. Among the more prominent I will call to mind the Rev. Asa Bullard, Professor James De Mille, Miss Amanda M. Douglass, who has written some of the best stories in American literature for older readers; the Rev. Elijah Kellogg, the author of many bright and wholesome stories for youth; Mr. J.T. Trowbridge, who is known everywhere; the "Rev. Petroleum V. Nasby," whom President Lincoln termed the third power in crushing the rebellion; Charles Sumner, the edition of whose works, published by this house, was thought worthy of award at the Philadelphia exhibition; Francis H. Underwood, who first suggested the "Atlantic Monthly" magazine, and is one of the most genial and scholarly of American writers; Colonel T.W. Higginson, who has produced a number of pleasant books, and is the author of the most popular school History of the United States ever written; B.P. Shillaber (Mrs. Partington), and a host of other names, which the lack of space forbids me to mention.

In the making of books Lee and Shepard have shown an originality, which has always been noticeable. In more ways than one, they have been pioneers, and have set examples, which other firms have closely imitated and followed. It was this house which first conceived the idea of publishing serially favorite songs and poems in elegantly illustrated form,—an idea which was at once taken up by nearly every other publishing house in the country. These were issued in cloth binding, and, two years ago, in the now famous "Golden Floral" style. In their new dress these books have proved to be the most popular of their kind ever sold on this continent.

The house has also produced other illustrated books, of artistic excellence. Among these Miss Jerome's "One Year's Sketch Book" has been declared to be without a rival, in its own field, while Miss Miner's "Orchids" must needs be seen to be appreciated.

But I have reached the limits placed upon this article. I have omitted to speak of many things of which I should like to say something. But the warp and woof of the story are here given, and the reader will easily discover therefrom that no secrets underly the firm of Lee and Shepard save,—industry at home, and integrity in all their dealings with the public.

Rodney Wallace (Signature)

Hon. Rodney Wallace

By Rev. S. Leroy Blake, D.D.

[Pastor of the Calvinistic Congregational Church, Fitchburg.]

This is not a biography, it is a sketch; possibly I might say it is an outline. At any rate the life of our subject can not be written till other chapters are added, and the end comes. May it be long delayed.

The intense culmination of forces in the busy period of a man's life renders it fruitful in material for a sketch. What a successful man, of marked force of character, has done, may be an incentive and an encouragement to others. Perhaps this was Longfellow's chief thought when he penned the "Psalm of Life:"

Lives of great men all remind us

We can make our lives sublime.

The lives of great men, and conspicuously that of the subject of this sketch, prove that, in this country, a boy need not be born with a silver spoon in his mouth, nor with a brilliant speech on his lips, to reach eminent success, and be held in high honor; but that the noblest results of a life of industry and frugality, and the highest honors any worthy ambition can crave, are within reach of the boy who has energy, courage, integrity of purpose, and purity of character. By their native energy some of the most conspicuous men of our time have made their way against obstacles which would have been too much for less sturdy wills. Whatever deficiencies there may have been in their early training were largely atoned for by native energy and force of character. Because this is all true of the subject of this paper, we tell the story in the hope that some other struggling boy may take courage from his example.

His Start In Life

Rodney Wallace was born in New Ipswich, New Hampshire, December 21, 1823, and is therefore in the full vigor of manhood. We may infer that his boyhood was not blessed with the advantages which usually crown the early life of so many lads, and strew their path with roses, from the fact that at the age of twelve he left home to work on a farm for wages, with agreement for limited opportunities for schooling. He is a son of David and Roxanna Wallace.

It seems likely that the family is of Scotch origin. David Wallace seemed to think so, since he dropped the spelling Wallis, and adopted the form in which the name is now written. In 1639, Robert Wallis was living in Ipswich, Massachusetts. Benoni Wallis, of this family, removed to Lunenburg and there married Rebecca Morse, of Lynn, July 2, 1755. She died in Lunenburg August 25, 1790, and he died March 15, 1792. David, son of Benoni and Rebecca Wallis, was born October 16, 1760. He married Susannah Lowe, and lived in Ashburnham where he died January 14, 1842. David, son of David and Susannah Wallis, was born at Ashburnham July 14, 1797. He married July 8, 1821, Roxanna Gower of New Ipswich, where he lived till he removed to Rindge, New Hampshire, in 1846. He died at Rindge, May 29, 1857; and his wife died at Fitchburg, February 27, 1876. He was the first of his family in this country to adopt the spelling Wallace, instead of Wallis. He had eight children, of whom the subject of this sketch was the second.

As we have said, at the age of twelve, when most lads are comfortably cared for at home, young Wallace started out in life for himself. He let himself to a farmer for forty dollars for the first year, with the privilege of attending school eight weeks in the winter. It turns out that the first forty dollars he earned were the beginning of a large fortune, without a dishonest dollar in it, and that the eight weeks of schooling of that winter on the farm, was the beginning of a knowledge, gleaned here and there as opportunity offered, which fits him for prominent positions of trust and responsibility.

At an early age, sixteen I think, he was charged with the responsibility of driving freight teams from Rindge to Boston, returning with loads of merchandise. In the discharge of this trust he displayed the energy, tact, and trustworthiness which were prophecies of the man. He was taking his first lessons in the school of business, and proved himself an apt scholar.

Dr. Stephen Jewett was a somewhat notable physician of Rindge. His fame in the cure of chronic and acute diseases was wide spread. He was frequently called upon to make professional visits in Boston and other New England cities and towns. His medicines attained a wide celebrity. Their manufacture and sale became a large and lucrative business, and was carried on after the death of Dr. Jewett, by his son, Stephen Jewett, Jr. The energy which young Wallace had already shown induced Mr. Jewett to put the whole business of selling these medicines into his hands. He entered into this employment in 1843, at the age of twenty, and continued in it till he came to Fitchburg in 1853. In selling these medicines he travelled over five of the New England States. He said to the writer that this was a good school in geography for him, for he became acquainted with the topography of these states, and the location of all their important places.

Such were the beginnings of a business career of great prosperity. It was in these ways that he got his start in life, and in these lesser employments he proved himself worthy of and equal to the greater tasks yet before him. Here he showed the same judgment and far-sighted wisdom, which have marked his career in the larger, more conspicuous circles of the business world, and won him a name which is everywhere repeated with respect, and a reputation for integrity and honest dealing which any man might covet.

His Business Life

In 1853 Mr. Wallace came to Fitchburg and entered upon that period which, for convenience, I have named his business life. He formed a co-partnership with Stephen Shepley, known as Shepley and Wallace. They were wholesale dealers in books, stationery, paper-stock, and cotton-waste. This firm continued under the name of Shepley and Wallace, and R. Wallace and Co. till July 1, 1865. On this day the firm dissolved, and the business was divided. Mr. Wallace took the department of paper-stock and cotton-waste, which he still carries on. To what proportions it has grown, under his management, may be judged from the fact that the business done amounts at least to $200,000 a year.

December 31, 1864, Stephen Shepley, Benjamin Snow, and Rodney Wallace bought the Lyon Paper Mill and the Kimball Scythe Shops at West Fitchburg, and began the manufacture of paper under the name of the Fitchburg Paper Company, Stephen E. Denton was taken into the firm as a partner soon after. He had charge of the business at the mill. In July, 1865, Rodney Wallace and Benjamin Snow bought the interest of Stephen Shepley; and the Fitchburg Paper Company was then Wallace, Snow, and Denton. Mr. Denton died in June,1868. January 7, 1869, Mr. Wallace bought the interest of Benjamin Snow. January 23 of the same year he bought the interest of Mr. Denton's estate of his widow, who was at that time residing in New York. From that date till the present the Fitchburg Paper Company is Rodney Wallace. He retains the old firm name.

Since becoming sole owner, he has added largely to the original property. A neat village of dwellings has grown up around his mills, which deserves a name of its own. Wallaceville would be an appropriate name. He has put in a substantial stone dam at great expense. In 1878 he erected a new brick mill, with all the modern improvements, doubling the capacity of the establishment. It is now capable of producing from 15,000 to 18,000 pounds of paper every twenty-four hours. Just across the Nashua River is the Fitchburg Railroad. He has a freight station of his own, where he receives all his freight and ships all his paper.

Mr. Wallace has conducted his business with rare sagacity, with unblemished integrity, and with an eye to the welfare of his employees, as well as to his own personal interests. If it were not like praising a man to his face, since he still lives, many instances might be cited to prove that it has not been his policy to get the most out of his employees for the least possible return. But it is enough to say that he has no difficulty in keeping men in his employ. Somehow he has hit upon a plan by which he has kept the irrepressible conflict between capital and labor at a distance.

Aside from his own business, which makes large drafts upon his time, strength, and thought, he has been closely identified with numerous other corporate and monetary interests. He has thus had a large share in contributing to the growth and prosperity of the enterprising city in which he lives. Its business interests, to a large degree, have enjoyed his wisdom, and profited by his sagacity. Since 1864 he has been President and Director of the Fitchburg Gas Company; a Director of Putnam Machine Company since the same year; a Director of the Fitchburg National Bank since 1866; a partner in the Fitchburg Woolen Mills since 1877; a Trustee of Smith College since 1878. He is a Director of the Fitchburg Mutual Fire Insurance Company; a Trustee of the Fitchburg Savings Bank; a Director of the Fitchburg Railroad; a partner of the Parkhill Manufacturing Company. Besides these, he has had the settlement of large and important estates, demanding time, good judgment, and unbending integrity. We would especially note the large estate of the late Ephraim Murdock, Jr., of Winchendon, and that of the late Hon. Wm. H. Vose of Fitchburg. These facts speak for themselves, and show the esteem in which Mr. Wallace is held by his fellow citizens, as a wise counsellor, and as a man of integrity and uprightness of character, as well as of rare good judgment in all matters pertaining to the transaction of business. Another says, "In whatever enterprise Mr. Wallace has been engaged, he has not only been fortunate in its pecuniary interests, but also in the speedy command of the confidence and respect of his associates. True moral principles have been united with unquestioned probity, business tact, and liberal, intelligent management." He has won a large fortune, without parting with his honesty in earning a single dollar. As his property has increased, his generous spirit has seen larger opportunities and at once embraced them. He has not been among those who withhold more than is meet and tend to poverty. Property in such hands is not a grinding monopoly, but a wide blessing. Such men can afford to be wealthy. They represent the true socialistic spirit, which is, that private capital should be held as a public good.

Largely through the influence of Mr. Wallace various improvements have been made in Fitchburg, which contribute to its attractiveness. The business of the city is in no small degree indebted to him for facilities with which communication can be had with the world outside. Prominent mention may be made of the beautiful Union Railway station at Fitchburg in securing whose erection, and in planning which, Mr. Wallace was largely instrumental.

Mr. Wallace In Politics

Mr. Wallace has had no ambitious longings for political life. And yet his fellow citizens would not be likely to let such a man remain wholly out of public life. So it is true to say that whatever office Mr. Wallace has held, has sought him. He was selectman of the town during the years 1864, 1865, and 1867. In 1873 he was representative to the Genral Court, to which office he was elected in the fall of 1872 by nearly every ballot cast. He was re-nominated the next year without dissent or opposition, but declined a re-election on account of ill health. While a member of the Legislature he was on the Committee on Manufactures, a position which his ability and experience fitted him to fill.

The most conspicuous political office he has held is that of Councillor. While holding that position he represented one of the largest and most important districts of the State. In it are included the thriving city of Worcester and the sister city of Fitchburg, which, with their varied industries, needed a man of large and ripe judgment to represent them. He served three terms, during the years 1880, 1881, and 1882, or throughout the entire administration of Governor Long. His election was so entirely unanimous that for the last two years he had no competitor in the field, Democrats as well as Republicans supporting him. While on the Council he was a member of the following important committees: on Pardons, on Harbors and Public Lands, on Military Affairs, and on Warrants.

At the close of Governor Long's administration he refused to allow furthur use of his name for the office he had so ably filled for three years. He celebrated his retirement from this position as a servant of the public by a brilliant reception tendered to Governor Long in the City Hall, Fitchburg, December 7, 1882. He thus gave his fellow citizens and constituents an opportunity to look Massachusett's popular Governor in the face and take him by the hand.

The following account of the reception, appeared in the Fitchburg Sentinel of Friday, December 8, which I quote:

"The reception tendered to Governor Long in City Hall, Thursday evening, by Councillor Rodney Wallace and wife, was the most enjoyable and brilliant entertainment ever given in this city, and will be long remembered with pleasure by all who participated. The reception was given by Mr. and Mrs. Wallace as a compliment to Governor Long, with whom Mr. Wallace has been associated as Councilor for three years, and to give their friends here an opportunity to spend an evening socially with His Excellency. Some 450 cards of invitation were sent out, including about 700 persons, and nearly 600 were present on Thursday evening. The storm and blizzard-like weather that reached this city early in the afternoon prevented the attendance of some of Mr. Wallace's business associates from abroad. The intention was to give all a pleasant, social evening, and the result was a full realization of the pleasure anticipated for some days.

* * * * *

Guests were received at the west entrance over which a canopy was erected. The steps, hall-ways and stairs were all carpeted. The Common Council room was used as a dressing room for the ladies, the Aldermen's room for the gentlemen, and the Mayor's office was reserved for Governor Long and Councilor Wallace. On entering the hall the guests were presented to Councilor Wallace, Mrs. Wallace and Governor Long, who stood in the centre on the east side—Messrs. Herbert I. Wallace, George R. Wallace, Charles E. Ware, Jr., Harris C. Hartwell, James Phillips, Jr., B.D. Dwinnell, Dr. E.P. Miller and M.L. Gate officiating as ushers. After the greetings the time was spent socially, listening to the excellent music furnished by Russell's Orchestra, fourteen pieces stationed on the stage, and many enjoyed dancing from 10.30 till about 1 o'clock.

* * * * *

Among the distinguished guests were the following from out of town: Councilor Joseph Davis and wife of Lynn, Councilor Matthew W. Cushing of Middleboro, Councilor Nathaniel Wales of Stoughton, Councilor Rufus D. Woods of Enfield, Congressman-elect William Whiting of Holyoke, Councilor-elect Eben A. Hall of the Greenfield Gazette and Courier, Secretary of State Henry B. Peirce of Abington, Rev. E.A. Horton of Boston (formerly of Leominster), Mr. and Mrs. Oscar Edwards and Prof. Henry M. Tyler and wife (formerly of this city) of Northampton, Dr. F.A. Harris, wife and Miss Gage, Mrs. Glover (Governor Long's mother-in-law), William B. Wood and wife, Superintendent John Adams (of the Fitchburg Railroad) and wife, Mr. and Mrs. Charles H. Shepley, all of Boston; N.D. White and Mr. and Mrs. Joseph M. White of Winchendon, John S. Baldwin of the Worcester Spy, J.B. Hall of the Worcester Gazette, Mr. and Mrs. Charles H. Merriam and daughter of Leominster.

An attempt to describe the hall as it appeared on this occasion cannot be otherwise than unsatisfactory. To appreciate the brilliant scene one must see not only the gay decorations and the beautiful flowers and plants, but also the happy people and the elegant and tasty dresses of the ladies, in the full light of the extra burners placed in the centre of the hall for this reception.

* * * * *

The entire floor was carpeted, and the hall was divided into two sections—reception room and dining room—by pink and white bunting. The walls of the entire hall were decorated with draperies, cottons, pink and white buntings, etc., and festooned with two thousand yards of laurel and hanging baskets of flowers, while a splendid collection of pot plants, orange and lemon trees, and growing grapes, from Mr. Wallace's private conservatory added much to the grand effect of the designs.

The most elaborate work was in the front of the stage, at the right of the stage and on the right and left centres of the hall. Above all, over the stage was a gilt carved eagle surmounting the State coat of arms. On either side flags were festooned and ornamented with sprays of holly. In the rear of the platform were palm trees, while in front dracinas, and laurel, with a beautiful orange tree in each corner, each bearing nearly twenty oranges. On the right wall of the hall, the draperies were surmounted by four medallions representing the elements—Air, Earth, Fire, and Water. In the right centre was the large painting representing Crete, above which was the motto "Amicus inter Amicos." In the foreground was a pedestal surmounted by a bust of Ariadne, flanked on each side by growing grapes, with two Roman altars burning incense through the entire evening.

On the left centre wall was a large painting representing Antium, the home of Nero and Temple of Fortuna, with the Appollo Belvidere on a pedestal in the foreground, flanked with two standing vases with burning incense. Above the painting was the motto "Gaudeamus Igitur," resting on a gilt lyre and torch. Medallions representing Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter surmounted the draperies on this side of the hall.

One of the most admired features of the decorations was the design on the floor at the right of the stage. A pedestal, some ten feet high, was surmounted by a beautiful specimen of the American eagle. On either side of the eagle was a perfect flag made of natural flowers—violets, carnations and tube roses—with a shield of similar flowers in the centre. The entire pedestal was banked by pots of growing plants—including palms, dracinas, ponisettas in full bloom, etc.

The dining room was also handsomely decorated with flags, draperies and flowers, while the table itself was elegantly laid with exquisitely decorated china and silver, and ornamented by beautiful bouquets, candelabra, and epergnes. Supper was served through the entire evening, guests entering at the right from the reception apartment and passing through to the west side of the hall."

The completeness of all these arrangements were largely due to the taste and energy of his son, Mr. Herbert I. Wallace, who had the whole matter in charge.

In 1884 Mr. Wallace was chosen delegate from this district to the Republican Convention held at Chicago in June, which resulted in the nomination of James G. Blaine and John A. Logan. Like most of the delegates from Massachusetts, Mr. Wallace was in favor of Senator Edmunds of Vermont. But when he saw that Mr. Blaine's nomination was inevitable, he joined in making it unanimous. He did not go with those who bolted the nomination, because it was not his first choice, but he supported it with his purse, his voice, and his vote, as appears from the following synopsis of a brief address which he made at a ratification meeting, held in the City Hall, Fitchburg, July 11, 1884, which I clip from the Fitchburg Sentinel of the next day:

"Ex-Mayor Merriam, Chairman of the committee, called the meeting to order, and said the audience had assembled to hear the report of the two delegates to the Republican national convention. The Chairman then introduced Rodney Wallace, who was most heartily applauded as he arose to speak.

Mr. Wallace, who was one of the delegates from this district to the Republican convention, said his first choice for President was the able statesman from Vermont, Senator Edmunds, and his second choice was President Arthur, who has given us such an excellent administration. The Massachusetts delegation, almost without exception, worked hard to secure the nomination for Mr. Edmunds, but it was impossible for that convention to nominate anybody but James G. Blaine. Nobody can describe the enthusiasm through the entire convention for Blaine. The California delegation bore a banner inscribed "From Maine to California, through Iowa, all for Blaine," and, in my opinion now, Mr. Elaine is the strongest man in the Republican party. When the motion was made to make the nomination unanimous, not a voice was raised against it. I believe he will be elected in November and will give us a strong and safe administration."

The writer does not know whether Mr. Wallace considers his political life ended. He certainly has no longing, desires, and ambitions in the direction of public office. It is equally certain that any office which he will consent to hold, and which the people who know him can give, he can have without opposition.

Mr. Wallace As A Citizen

I come now to a part of my story which it is exceedingly pleasant to relate and of which I am able to speak, to no little extent, from personal knowledge. It is, after all, what one is as a man among men, which speaks most for his honor, or his dishonor. What greater significance generous deeds have, when you know that behind them is no calculating, grasping spirit, which is figuring out how much it can get in return, but a noble, generous, self-forgetful manhood. We have a conviction that the conflict between labor and capital, which just now has reached a threatening pitch of violence, might have been avoided if employers had not in so many cases endeavored to reduce men to mere money-making machines. As a rule strikes do not occur where laboring men are treated with the consideration due them as free citizens. The freedom of Fitchburg from strikes is due to the intelligence of the workmen, and the fairness of the employers. Another says, "nothing does more to destroy the spirit of socialism and communism and to disipate envy than to see wealthy men devoting a part of their wealth to public uses."

This introduces us to the most conspicuous act by which the subject of our sketch has proved his public spirit and generosity of purpose as a citizen. I refer to his gift to the city of Fitchburg of a beautiful public library, which, by vote of the city government, is to be called by his name. This act of beneficence reaches farther than appears to a casual observer. It secures to the city, for all coming time, a "Peoples' College," where the child of the poorest, as well as of the richest, the toiler as well as the man of leisure, may get a very important education. This building is to be devoted to art as well as to literature, and we look to see it exert a refining and cultivating, as well as an educating influence over the rising generations of our city. Its very presence, in a most conspicuous position, in the very heart of the city, will be educational. It will prove itself a most valuable adjunct to the excellent course of instruction given in our public schools.

For some years it had been in Mr. Wallace's mind to do something of this sort. In 1881 he purchased what was known as the Ruggles property, opposite Monument Park. In the spring of 1884, when he left for his annual tour in the South, he placed in the hands of Judge Ware, Chairman of the Trustees of the Public Library, a genuine surprise to his fellow citizens. I clip from the Fitchburg Sentinel of March 26, 1884, the following account of the matter:

"Both branches of the City Council met on Tuesday evening and transacted the following business:

The principal business was

IN JOINT CONVENTION.

Major Davis presided and announced that Judge T.K. Ware, Chairman of the Trustees of the Public Library, had a communication to present to the City Council.

Judge Ware said that he appeared before the Council at the request of Honorable Rodney Wallace, who, previous to his departure for the South, left with him the following communication which gave him pleasure and gratification to be able to present to the City Council:

To His Honor, the Mayor and the City Council of the City of Fitchburg;

GENTLEMEN:—The subscriber has felt for a long time that a building with proper appurtenances for our Public Library here in Fitchburg was much needed, and makes the following proposition, viz:

I propose to convey by proper deed to the city of Fitchburg my lot of land situated at the corner of Main street and Newton place, and to expend, with the advice and approval of the Trustees of the Public Library, within the next two years, a sum not less than forty thousand dollars ($40,000) in erecting a building on said lot; said building to be under the care and management of the Board of Trustees of the Public Library for the time being, and to be used for a Free Public Library, Reading Rooms and Art Gallery, and for no other purpose.

And it is understood that the city government, accepting these donations for the above purposes, shall assume and bear the current expenses of said building, grounds and appurtenances, after the Library building shall have been completed and furnished.

If the above proposition is accepted I shall proceed to carry out the same as soon as it can conveniently be done.

RODNEY WALLACE.

FITCHBURG, March 17, 1884.

Mayor Davis said this act on the part of our esteemed fellow citizen calls forth the profound gratitude of all the inhabitants of our city. I cannot allow this opportunity to pass without expressing my thanks, as a citizen, for the munificent gift. May his life be long and his prosperity increasing.

The following order, introduced by Mayor Davis, was then unanimously adopted:

Ordered, That the City of Fitchburg accept the donation of Honorable Rodney Wallace to it of the lot of land on the corner of Main street and Newton place, and the Library building to be erected by him thereon, upon the conditions and in accordance with the terms and provisions contained in his written communication and proposal to the Mayor and City Council; and places on record its profound appreciation of the public spirit and munificence of the donor, and its recognition of the incalculable benefits which will result to his fellow citizens and their descendants and successors for all time from this noble gift.

Alderman Joel said the surprise was so great and so agreeable that words were not at his command to express the thanks he, in common with all other members, felt for the munificent gift presented by Mr. Wallace. He moved that a committee be appointed to prepare and forward a vote of thanks to Honorable Rodney Wallace for his gift. The motion was unanimously adopted, and Mayor Davis appointed Alderman Joel, Councilmen Flaherty and Parkhill as the committee."

From the Sentinel of April 10, 1884, I clip the following:

"The following resolutions have been presented to Honorable Rodney Wallace by the special committee appointed at the joint convention of the two branches of the City Council, March 25:

To HONORABLE RODNEY WALLACE: FITCHBURG, Mass.

Whereas, the Mayor and City Council of the city of Fitchburg have received and accepted a proposition tendered by Honorable Rodney Wallace of this city, by the terms of which a lot of land situated at the corner of Main street and Newton place is donated to the city of Fitchburg, and a sum not less than forty thousand dollars is to be expended by him, with the advice and approval of the Trustees of the Public Library, within the next two years in erecting a building on said lot, said building to be used for a Free Public Library, Reading Rooms, and an Art Gallery; therefore,

Resolved, That this body desires to voice and place on record the universal appreciation on the part of our citizens of the generosity and public spirit of the honored donor, of the timeliness of the gift, and not less, of the wisdom and foresight manifested in the particular mode by which the city is made the recipient of the munificent present.

Resolved, That we recognize the fact that a gift of this nature will result in incalculable benefits to the community so fortunate as to receive it, enlarging and intensifying, as it does, all the privileges of acquiring information and securing culture which a public library affords; providing in a most accessible and useful form the means by which our young people and those whose daily toil leaves them little leisure for study, may draw to themselves the results of all past experience; and rendering both attractive and easy to all classes of our people opportunities of turning their thoughts from the sterner features of their daily occupations to the amenities of life as presented by specimens of artistic and literary merit.

Resolved, That while sharing in the delight of our citizens in view of the valuable gift thus unexpectedly placed at their service, we congratulate them even more upon the presence among them of men whom Providence has blessed in three-fold measure—with hearts abounding in philanthropic instincts, with material resources ample for the gratification of such impulses, and with that rarer gift than either, the judgment requisite to secure for their donations the widest and most permanent range of influence.

Resolved, That we cannot resist the inclination to felicitate our honored benefactor upon the deep and abiding joy which must be the most adequate reward for this expression of his good will toward our city—the joy arising from the knowledge that every home within our corporate limits will enter into the enjoyment of his gift and that not a few of our youth will be allured from scenes of degrading and immoral pleasure by the presence in a most convenient location of a beautiful edifice within which are at their disposal the graces of art and the riches of literature.

Resolved, That the distinguished giver by this gift, the most valuable ever received by this community at one time from a single citizen, has "erected a monument more enduring than bronze and loftier than the regal structure of the pyramids" in the establishment of a lasting sense of gratitude within the hearts of his appreciative fellow citizens.

ALONZO DAVIS,

JOEL JOEL,

BERNARD H. FLAHERTY,

JOHN PARKHILL,

(Committee)

FITCHBURG, April 1, 1884."

Although $40,000 is the lowest limit named, it should be said that the cost of the noble pile will far exceed that sum. It was a generous and princely act for which he will be held in lasting and greatful memory. He will leave behind him a monument which will forever identify his name with the intellectual and moral culture of all classes of the citizens of Fitchburg.

On the seventh of April, the Trustees of the Public Library took appropriate action on the gift of Mr. Wallace. The following account appeared in the Sentinel of April 8:

"At a meeting of the Trustees of the Public Library, Monday evening, the board adopted the following resolution, offered by Henry A. Willis, and on motion of Rev. P.J. Garrigan it was voted to enter the same on their records, request the daily papers of the city to publish the same, and that Rev. P.J. Garrigan, Henry A. Willis and L.H. Bradford be appointed a committee to present the action of the board to Mr. Wallace:

Resolved, That we have heard with great satisfaction of the proposed gift by Honorable Rodney Wallace of land and a building for the use of the Public Library, thus providing for a want long felt by the Trustees, viz: facilities for making the Library fully available to the people of the city, which it never could be in its present confined quarters; that we will fully co-operate with the generous donor in any manner desired by him in carrying out the details of his proposed undertaking; and that we desire here to place upon our records our keen appreciation of the generous spirit which has moved him to tender this munificent gift."

The new library building fronts on Main street, and looks out upon Monument Park and the beautiful Court House of North Worcester County. It is of Greek classic style, and is built of Trenton pressed brick. It has sandstone trimmings. It has a frontage of seventy-four feet on Main street, and is sixty-five feet deep. The basement is ten feet in height. It is two stories above the basement. The library floor is sixteen feet high. The second story, which contains the picture gallery, is ten feet high on the outside, and thirty-two in the centre. The extreme height is therefore fifty-eight feet. The front of the building is especially imposing. It has a projection in the centre, twenty-five feet wide and six feet deep, which extends the whole height of the structure and terminates in a gable, which is surrounded by a decorated pediment. The main entrance is approached by massive steps of granite, twelve feet wide, flanked by heavy buttresses. At the top of the steps is the entrance porch, eleven feet wide, six feet deep, and arched overhead. Polished granite columns with carved capitals on either side support the archway above. In the belt of sandstone above this arch is cut the legend "Library and Art Building." Above this belt is a row of windows separated by columns of brick. Above these is a sandstone belt in which is cut the name of the donor, by vote of the City Government. The title of the structure is therefore "Wallace Library and Art Building." Above is a row of circular windows separated by sandstone columns with carved capitals. The hip roof of the building is crowned by a monitor top, which admits light into the art room below. Over the entrance is to be the city seal, in antique and Venetian glass. The whole structure is amply lighted by a large number of windows.

The basement provides for a store-room, a work-room, and reading-room, which opens off Newton lane. The public will have full access to this room. It will specially accommodate the workingmen. The late Honorable Wm. H. Vose left $1,000, the income of which is to be used in supplying suitable papers for this room. There are also in the basement a coal room, and the boiler which heats the whole building. On entering the building one stands in a large hall, on the right of which is a reading-room for magazines, and on the left is a large reference room, and a winding stairway by which the second story is reached. Across the whole rear of the building is the library room, which is high enough to admit of galleries. Ample provisions are thus made for all the possible future needs of the city. In the second story is the art gallery. Around it are five other rooms, which can be devoted to any of the uses such an institution may require. When completed the inside will be finished in hard woods, and according to modern ideas of taste and elegance. The art gallery will be a model of its kind.

With a collection of books and of works of art to match the thought of the donor expressed in the building the library will be a lasting blessing to our city. A gift so timely, and so well adapted to the needs of a city like Fitchburg, with its population of young people, could not fail to commend itself, and win the gratitude of every right-minded citizen. Therefore, any one who will stand in front of this building for an hour, and listen to the remarks made by those who look up to it as they pass, will readily learn how deep a hold on the esteem of all classes of the citizens of Fitchburg this generous act has given Mr. Wallace.

Lest my estimate of Mr. Wallace may seem extravagant to those who do not know him, I add the following from the pen of Professor H.M. Tyler of Smith College, Northampton, formerly Mr. Wallace's pastor. He writes:—

"It gives me great pleasure to send a few lines in answer to your note, though it would be easy for a critic to say that I have long since passed the point where I could give a cold-blooded opinion of Mr. Wallace. I can write only from the stand-point of warm friendship and cannot be cold in my respect and admiration for my friend. Mr. Wallace is pre-eminently a business man; to this the chief energy of his life has been directed. It seems an impertinence for me to pass judgment upon his career, but I have loved to study him in his business habits. By his affability, correctness, and fairness in all his work he has succeeded marvellously in attaching every one to himself. All instinctively gravitate toward him, and never wish to break off their association with him. I never knew a man so master of his own ways and yet so universally popular. People love to be influenced or even controlled by him. His office would be the centre of any community in which he should be placed. All men love to fasten to him their faith. He has everywhere learned to gather friends by showing himself friendly. His interest in the people of his own community has been shown not merely by his public benefactions. Every one in want of help has turned to him, and all have had a patient hearing and generous response.

He has been associated with people of every position and among all has been a favorite companion. Everyone has felt at home with him. It is rarely true that a man has gained success with so thorough a desire that his friends should enjoy what he has gathered with him. He is thus remarkable for his prosperity, for the use which he is making of his prosperity, for his delight in giving pleasure to others, and for the disposition and temper which finds its enjoyment in such rational and kindly ways.

It is not that one never disagrees with Mr. Wallace. He would scorn the flattery which yields convictions to attempt to please. Even when we differ he is none the less congenial. If I have ever had the feeling that in any respect I should like to make him over it has generally yielded to the conviction that on the whole I could not hope to do better than has been done. Among all the men with whom I have come in contact in places of business responsibility and honor I do not know another to whom I give more unqualified respect and esteem than I do to Mr. Wallace. Cordially,

HENRY M. TYLER."

Mr. Wallace, as has appeared, was for three years associated with Governor Long in the Government of Massachusetts. In response to a note from me Mr. Long writes as follows:

"I am glad to know that you are writing a sketch of Mr. Wallace for publication. If a good subject will make a good sketch your work will be a success. He is one of the men, however, who write their own lives, not in the pages of any autobiography, but in their conduct and character. I have served with him in public life, and sat with him as one of my Councilors in the Executive Chamber, and have found him always a fund of practical good sense, of excellent judgment, trained by great experience in affairs, and of thorough integrity. He is a representative Massachusetts man, the builder of his own fortune, equal to the enterprise of acquiring wealth and position, and magnanimous in their use and enjoyment. But I like best to recall, as I am sure do all who know him, his generous friendship, his great public spirit, and his good heart, of which I have witnessed many proofs. I trust that it may be many years before his life is taken in any other way than in such an appreciative and kindly sketch as you will write of him.

Very truly yours,

JOHN D. LONG."

WASHINGTON, D.C., February 7, 1885.

December 1, 1853, Mr. Wallace married Sophia Ingalls, daughter of Thomas Ingalls of Rindge, New Hampshire. She died June 20, 1871, leaving two sons, Herbert I. Wallace and George R. Wallace. Herbert is a graduate of Harvard in the class of 1877. George studied at the Institute of Technology in Boston. They are associated with their father in the management of his business. December 28, 1876 Mr. Wallace married Mrs. Sophia F. Bailey of Woodstock, Vermont. Mr. Bailey was a member of Congress from the district in which Fitchburg is included. Mrs. Wallace is one of the well-known Billings family of Woodstock. Mr. Wallace lives in a beautiful house on Prospect street, which is surrounded with beautiful lawns and green-houses which, gratify his taste. From his front door he can overlook the city and its varied industries in whose development he has borne so conspicuous a part.

We are near the end of a story which it has been a pleasure to tell. Vastly more could be told. A volume of incidents could be written. There are precious secrets of every generous and noble man's life which no pen may profane by giving them publicity. These are the choice treasures reserved only for those who know him best, and live nearest his heart. But the writer desires, as Mr. Wallace's pastor, to add the testimony of observation and personal knowledge to the rare purity and uprightness of character, to the generosity of spirit, to the thoughtful kindness, and to the deep and reverent regard for spiritual things, of his distinguished parishioner. As an example of untiring energy, of probity of character, of cleanness of soul, of uprightness of life, of sincerity of purpose, of firmness of moral principle, he may safely be held up as a model for young men.

Fitchburg.

By Mrs. Caroline A. Mason.[2]

Nested among her hills she lies,—

The city of our love!

Within her, pleasant homes arise;

And healthful airs and happy skies

Float peacefully above.

A sturdy few, 'mid hopes and fears,

Her fair foundations set:

And looking backward now, through years

Of steady gain, how small appears

Her old estate!—and yet,

She dons no autocratic airs,

In scorn of humbler days,

But shapes her fortunes and affairs,

To match the civic wreath she wears

And justify her bays.

Honor and Truth her old renown:

Conservative of both,

The virtues of the little town

She holds in legacy, to crown

The city's larger growth.

Nor ease nor sloth her strength despoil:

Her peaceful farmers till,

With patient thrift, th' outlying soil,

Her trained mechanics deftly toil,

Her merchants ply their skill;

Her ponderous engineries supply

A thousand waiting needs;

Her wheels revolve, her shuttles fly,—

And ever where the prize hangs high,

Her foot, unfaltering, leads.

Her sympathies are large and sweet:

And when, at Freedom's call,

The war flags waved, the war drums beat,

She sprang, responsive, to her feet,

And freely offered all!

Alert in War, she emulates

The Arts of Peace, as well:

Religion, Order, guard her gates;

Wealth, Culture, Thrift, like happy Fates,

Her destinies foretell.

So, through the round of years, she keeps

Advancing on her Past:

Her old-time vigor never sleeps,—

And even as she sows she reaps.

God bless her to the last!

Major General Lew Wallace At Shiloh

General U.S. Grant'S Vindication Of General Wallace.—The Wallace And Grant Letters And Documents With Introductory Note

By General Henry B. Carrington.

[Author of "Battles of the American Revolution.">[

It seems common to all great wars that the true version of leading actions is rarely assured by the immediate reports of commanders. Many causes secure to such reports substantial accuracy, but the development of details seldom fails to show that justice to subordinates cannot be done by the simple statement of general plans and general results. There are historians who still claim that Arnold had no part in the battle of Freeman's Farm, September 19, 1777; and many other battles of the Revolutionary war lacked clear definition until nearly a century had passed and the records were supplemented by careful examination of the battle-fields and a more thorough scrutiny of British, French, and Hessian archives, thereby to correct topographical data and harmonize conflicting statements.

The case of General Fitz John Porter forcibly illustrates the difficulty of changing public opinion, once formed, even when supplemental data enforce military recognition of their value. The Battle of Franklin, which secured to General Thomas the opportunity to fortify Nashville and ultimately defeat Hood, and the battles of Stone River, Gettysburg, Chicamauga and Monocacy, are among the actions of the late war in which differences of statement as to positions and movements have greatly qualified first estimates of the relations which various officers sustained to those actions.

The battle of Shiloh, or Pittsburg Landing, has been the latest under scrutiny. It is not the purpose to consider whether the action of the day was influenced by the arrival of Buel's army, or by the non-arrival of General Lew Wallace's division; nor whether General Wallace did, or did not, march by scientific methods, when he moved for the nearest firing. Among voluminous papers touching the civil war are the copies of original papers received from General Wallace himself, and of present interest. These papers received notice from the Western press at one time, but seem to demand a more formal record, as essential factors in the better understanding of the Battle of Shiloh.

The following outline is suggested by these documents:

1st. That the Federal line of battle, early in the morning, stretched out from Pittsburg Landing nearly to the Purdy Road, with General Sherman's division on the right, within about a mile of that road.

2nd. That General Wallace's division was at Crump's Landing, not more than five miles from Pittsburg Landing; it being then uncertain which of the two would be the objective of attack.

3d. That General Grant visited General Wallace at Crump's Landing and ordered him to hold his command subject to orders, and then steamed onward to Pittsburg Landing.

4th. That before 6 o'clock, A.M., the sound of firing had led General Wallace to put his command under arms; and he was prepared to move wherever active work should demand, even before he was ordered to be thus ready.

5th. That he concentrated his brigades, then in three camps, into one mass, at the forks of the Purdy Road and the road to Pittsburg Landing, so that he might take either road, as orders should decide.

6th. That he understood the original line of battle and the disposition of its divisions, and knew that General Sherman held the right.

7th. That the order received by him, before 12 o'clock, M., from Captain Baxter, staff officer of General Grant, was in writing; and while pronounced verbally, at first, the form it assumed, when reduced to writing and subsequently delivered to General Wallace, was a direct order to "unite with the right," and that involved the march on the Purdy Road.

If the verbal order of General Grant to Captain Baxter, to hasten General Wallace's Division to Pittsburg Landing, was reduced to writing by that officer, after he noticed the early success of the Union Line, he would have shaped the approach of the fresh division to the best possible advantage, to join the army, not the precise Landing, if the army was not there; since General Grant, still being on crutches from a sprained ankle when his horse fell under and upon him, on the fourth, was compelled to depend largely upon staff-officers for judicious action, in exigencies which fell under their eyes, and where his riding was greatly limited. There is full harmony of events, by giving full credit to all the data which seem, at first, to work conflict.

8th. That the Staff Officer who delivered the order assured General Wallace and his staff that the Federal line was successful and driving the enemy at every point.

9th. That a movement at that time, toward Pittsburg Landing, would have taken General Wallaces' Division out of possible contact with the enemy, instead of supporting, and perfecting victory.

10th. That when the Division of General Wallace moved, as it did, within ten minutes after receipt of the orders, "impatiently waited for," it could see the distant smoke and hear the roar of battle, and moved directly toward the point of danger by the shortest route, with the greatest celerity and in harmony with the order received.

11th. That the defeat of the main army, the enforced retirement of Sherman's Division, and, in fact, the withdrawal of the entire original line, were new conditions, to be considered, when other Staff Officers notified General Wallace of the same; and then, the addition of his division to the rallying army, at Pittsburg Landing, seemed to be an important element to the very safety of that army, except as it could lean upon the divisions of Buel, already within supporting distance.

12th. That the original advance of General Wallace's Division on the Purdy Road, while thoroughly suited to the original conditions as they existed when the order was delivered to him, was, of necessity, useless and dangerous, when he found himself alone and unsupported, and that the enemy had already swept over the position which he expected to occupy.

13th. That there was no alternative, then, but to pass around the left of the enemy, and rejoin the army, at such expense of time or labor as the new conditions imposed; and that this was done, at great pains and with great celerity, without straggling or loss.

14th. That the prominent idea of withdrawing General Wallace's Division from Crump's Landing, to support the main army in its advance, is to be kept in mind;—whereby, confusion ceases as to the hour of the day when the order to report at Pittsburg Landing was delivered or became operative;—thereby, also, reconciling memories with the incidents of the day, with no discredit to any.

15th. That every theory of supporting an advanced line, from reserves sent forward from the base, must so bend to facts, that it may be the best thing possible, to strengthen the right of a successful line, even to overlapping and turning the enemy; and that such a movement has the emphatic endorsement of standard critics, and marked experience; while a formal movement to the rear, in order to move to the front and the right, as if on parade, would, under conditions such as presented to General Wallace, have been, simply, to wear out his men in marching, with small chance for taking any part in the assumed pursuit of a defeated enemy.

16th. That it is an unsound way of dealing with the facts of history, to gauge the responsibilities of officers and men, of small experience, by the rules which apply to the same officers and men after their experience has matured; and that, when the battle of Shiloh took place, and citizen regiments took part, with very slight knowledge of arms, it was equally true, that the officers themselves, both regular and volunteer, were proportionately unfamiliar with battle action on a large scale, and that, as a matter of fact, the Generals and Colonels, for the most part, had never seen a batallion drill, unless at West Point, much less drilled more than a company; and their conduct and opinions, in 1861-2, are not to be measured by the ripened experience of the years succeeding and succeeding years of reflection.

And finally, that the orders, movements, and results of the sixth day of April, 1862, must be judged by their relations to the passing hours and issues of that day, as practical men would act under changing conditions, and not by any formal order, which, however appropriate at one time, would, at any other time, defeat the work in hand. The Rules of Evidence, recognized by Civil and Military Courts alike, are but expressions of sound judgment of past experience; and Military Science, so called, has no other basis than that which belongs to the wise use of means to ends in all applied science and in all human endeavor. Whenever, therefore, the conduct of a battle is consistent with the conditions, as at the time understood, it is not exactly just to measure it by the terms of any instructions inconsistent with those conditions;—so that while an order to march to Pittsburg Landing became necessary upon the retirement of the original line, it ought not to be technically applied back to a time when that line was supposed to be sweeping on to victory and only sought fresh strength to mature that victory.

That a general action was precipitated by the Confederate forces under General Albert Sidney Johnson and was in the nature of a successful surprise of the Union Army, is the fact which harmonizes the reports of officers of both armies with the incidents of the day, and fairly distributes responsibility, without reflecting the narrow escape of the Union Army from destruction upon any single officer or command; especially, where all did so well, and so much is to be credited to the fall of General Johnson and the interruption of his deliberate plan, first to surprise, and then sweep on to victory, at whatever cost.

The Documents are as follows:

1st. Letter of Major General Lew Wallace to General U.S. Grant, February 26, 1869.

2nd. Letter of Lieutenant Colonel Ross, A.D.C. to General Wallace, January 25, 1868.

3rd. Letter of General J.A. Strickland to General Wallace, January 24, 1868.

4th. Letter of General G.F. McGinnis to General Wallace, February 20, 1868.

5th. Letter of General Fred. Knefler to General Wallace, February 19, 1868.

6th. Letter of Captain Ad Ware, A.D.C., to General Wallace (without date).

7th. Letter of General John M. Thayer to General Wallace, March 4, 1868.

8th. Letter of General U.S. Grant to General Wallace, March 10, 1868, commenting upon the letters cited and suggesting their publication, in justice to General Wallace.

The map of the Compte de Paris has been utilized. 1, 2 and 3 give location of Wallace's Brigades in line, perpendicular to the river, with right at Adamsville (3), 2. Concentration of Division. 4. Crossing at Snake creek to take the right of General Sherman. 4-5. Countermarch to lower crossing after retirement of the right. 6. Lower crossing which had for several days previously been under water. Wallace's division, on the 7th, held the right of Sherman, as indicated for the 6th, when he moved to take part in the general action.

General Wallace to General Grant:

WASHINGTON CITY, Feb. 29, 1868.

GENERAL:

About a year after the battle of Pittsburg Landing, it came to my knowledge, that I was suffering, in your opinion, from erroneous information upon the subject of my conduct and movements as commander of the Third Division of your army during the first day of the battle named. To place myself right in your estimation and in that of the army generally, I asked a Court of Inquiry, by letter to the Secretary of War (Mr. Stanton) July 17, 1863. After several months, during which the application received no attention from the Secretary, I withdrew it, by advice of friends, General Sherman amongst others. The course I then resolved upon, that counselled by General Sherman, was to carry my explanation directly to you; and such continued my intention until the battle of Monocacy, after which your treatment of me became so uniformly kind and considerate that I was led to believe the disagreement, connected with Pittsburg Landing, forgotten; a result, to which I tacitly assented, notwithstanding the record of that battle as you had made it, in the form of an endorsement on my official report, was grievously against me.

A recent circumstance, however, has made it essential to my good name, which I cannot bring myself to believe you wish to see destroyed, to go back to my former purpose; in pursuance of which, the object of this letter is simply to introduce certain statements of gentlemen lately in the army, your friends as much as mine, in hopes that the explanations to be found therein will be sufficent to authorize you to give me a note of acquittal from blame, plainly enough, to allay the suspicions and charges to which I have been so painfully subjected. The statements are in the form of extracts pertinent to the subject from letters now in my possession, from General Fred Knefler, General George McGinnis, Colonel James R. Ross, General Daniel MacCaulay, Captain Ad Ware, General John A. Strickland, General John M. Thayer, now United States Senator from Nebraska—all, of my command, on the day in question, present with me, well known to you, and of unimpeachable honor. I could have obtained many others, of like import, but selected these because their authors had peculiar opportunities for information upon points considered of chief importance. It is possible that my explanations of the matter would be sufficient for the purpose in view. However that may be, it is my judgment now, that the charges against me have gone so far, and been put in such grave form, that public opinion may require an exoneration, though it come from your hand, to be based upon the testimony of others.

Permit me to say, further, that as to the order you started to me by Captain Baxter, I do not understand there is any question of veracity between us. You tell me, that from the battle-field you dispatched a verbal order by the officer named, to be delivered to me, at Crump's Landing, directing me to march my division to Pittsburg Landing by the road, parallel with the river; and, supposing, as you did, that the order would reach me by 11 o'clock, A.M., you reasonably concluded my command would be on the field by 1 o'clock, P.M.

Now in all candor, if you have been, as I am informed, of opinion that I received that order as it was given, and at the time stated (11 o'clock, A.M.), and that for any reason, such as personal feeling against you, or that I lost my way, or took the wrong road, or lingered on the march, making but five miles in seven hours, it must be admitted that you were justifiable in any, even the most extreme judgment against me; and I must confess that your moderation was greater than mine would likely have been, had our positions been reversed. I do not flinch from that conclusion, at all; but what I do say in my defence is that the opinion and the conclusion, which is its corollary, are both wrong, because the order admitted to have been dispatched was not delivered to me, in form or substance, as dispatched. On the contrary, the order I received from your messenger was in writing, unsigned, and contained substantially the following instructions:

"You will leave a force at Crump's Landing, sufficient to guard the public property there; then march the rest of your division, and effect a junction with the right of the army; after which you will form your line of battle at right angles with the river, and act as circumstances dictate."

This order was read by Colonel Ross, under circumstances well calculated to impress it upon his memory. It was also given to Colonel Knefler, then my Adjutant General, and by him read and unfortunately lost. Finally, its purport, as stated by me above, is vouched for by Captain Ware as the aide de camp. To refuse credit to my version of its contents will be very hard, indeed, corroborated as it is by so many gentlemen of unquestionable veracity, and such excellent opportunity for information on the point.

I think myself warranted now in asserting upon the credit of the three officers just named, as well as my own, that by the terms of the order, as it was delivered to me, the object of my march was not Pittsburg Landing, as you intended, but the right of the army, resting, when the battle opened in the morning, at a point quite three miles out from the landing, on the road to Purdy.

As a general principle it must be admitted that when you entrusted the order to a proper messenger for delivery to me, your responsibility ceased; but, I turn and ask you, appealing to your experience and justice, how am I held responsible for the execution of an order if it never reached me; or, if it reached me, conveying an idea radically different from that originally given? Of necessity, I was accountable for the execution of the order, only as it was received, and if it was not received in a form to convey your true design, but was promptly executed, neither of us are responsible for the result. It was not your mistake, nor was it mine.

Having established the purport, at least, of the order as it came to my hand, the next inquiry is: "Did I proceed to execute it, and how?"

On these heads all the letters on file are applicable. They show, as I think, that I took measures anticipatory to the order you gave me, personally, in your passage up the river to the battle-field, viz: to hold myself in readiness to march in any direction; that my brigades were ordered to concentrate at the place most proper and convenient for a prompt execution of the orders, whatever they might be, because it was at the junction of two roads, one leading to Pittsburg Landing, the other to the right of the army. To one of these points, it may be added, I was sure of being ultimately sent, if the exigencies of the battle required the presence of my command. They show, that after you parted from me, going up the river, I took measures to forward your messenger to me instantly upon his arrival (see Colonel Ross' letters), then rode to the place of concentration, and waited impatiently and anxiously the expected instructions; that they came to hand about 12 o'clock (my own remembrance is 11:30 A.M.), and that the officer who brought them, also brought the news that you were driving the enemy all along the line. (See letters of General Knefler and Colonel Ross.) Up to that time, therefore, I was certainly blameless.

But let me ask you to stop here, and consider the effect on my mind and subsequent movements, of the information, thus reliably obtained, that the battle was won. What inducement could I have had to march away from or linger on the road to a victory? Upon the hypothesis that the good news was true, how could I have imagined, (had there been so much as a doubt as to the intent of the order received,) a necessity for my command at Pittsburg Landing?

But, proceeding. The letters further establish, that, immediately upon receiving the order, I put my column en route, to execute it.

Now comes the questions. Did I take the right road to effect the junction with the right of the army, or one leading to Purdy, away from the battle? Pertinent to these inquiries, General Knefler says, that the road chosen for the movement had been patrolled and picketted by my cavalry. By their report, if by nothing else, I must have been posted as to its terminus. In corroboration of this assertion please notice that General Macaulay, General Strickland, General Thayer and General Knefler, all allude to the fact that the head of the column was approaching, not going away from the firing, when the countermarch took place. Consider, further, that the most imperative necessities of my situation, isolated as I had been from the main army, were, to know all the communications with that army, and to keep them clear, and in order for rapid movement. Not only did I know the road, but every step my division took from the initial point of the march up to the moment of the change of direction, was, as is well known to every soldier in the column, a step nearer to the firing and therefore a step nearer to the battle. While on this inquiry, let me add that the report of my being set right after marching upon the wrong road has in it this much truth, and no more. When about a mile from the position which had been occupied by the right of the army (General Sherman's division), Captain Rowley overtook me and told me that you had sent him to hurry me up, and that our lines had been carried by the enemy and the army driven back almost to the river, a very different story from the one brought me by Captain Baxter. Captain Rowley set me right as to the conditions of the battle, not as to the road I was following. Colonel McPherson and Major Rawlins, the other members of your staff, mentioned as having been sent to me, met me after the countermarch, when my command was on the river road moving to Pittsburg Landing.

Concerning the countermarch, I would remark that the condition of the battle, as reported by Captain Rowley, made it prudent, if not necessary. My column was only five thousand men, of all arms. Reflecting upon it now, I am still of the opinion that it did better service the next day in your new line of battle, than it could have done, operating alone and unsupported in the rear of the whole rebel army, where I was certainly taking it, when "set right" by the captain.

Instead of making the change of direction, when it was resolved on, by a countermarch, the result proved that it should have been effected by a general right about. The former manoeuvre was chosen, however, because I was confident of finding a cross road to the river road long before the head of the column doubled upon its foot. [See Colonel Ross' statement of the effort made to accomplish that idea.]

One of the results I confidently anticipated from a reading of the letter submitted, is, that you will be satisfied of the wrong done me (unintentional, I believe), by Colonel Badeau, when, in his book, he describes me as consuming seven hours in marching five miles in the direction of the battle. The march actually performed in that time was not less than fifteen miles, over an execrable dirt road.

Your opinion, as advanced in your letter to the War Office, July, 13, 1863, that General Morgan L. Smith, had he been put in command, could have had the division in the battle by 1 o'clock P.M., is in direct terms, based upon the condition that General Smith received your orders as you supposed them communicated to me. But, suppose he had not received the order as originally given; suppose, on the contrary, the order actually received by him had the effect to send him in another direction from Pittsburg Landing; and suppose that, on approaching his objective, he had found himself in the rear of the whole rebel army, and in his judgment compelled, by that circumstance, together with the bad fortune of our own army, to a further movement of quite ten miles—all of which were terrible realities in my case—I am sure you are too just a man to have held him accountable for the hours, however precious, thus necessarily lost.

With these remarks I place the letters of the officers named in your hands. They will satisfy you, I think, that the exoneration I seek will be a simple act of justice. The many misconceptions which have been attached to my movements on that bloody Sunday, have, it must be confessed, made me extremely sensitive upon the subject. You can imagine, therefore, with what anxiety your reply will be waited.

Very respectfully your friend,

LEW WALLACE.

To GENERAL U.S. GRANT, WASHINGTON CITY.

Colonel Ross to General Wallace:

CHICAGO, January, 25, 1868.

General: Having read the extract from "Badeau's Life of General Grant," as published in the Chicago Tribune, of the twenty-fifth of December, 1867, wherein he refers particularly to the battle of Shiloh, and seeing the gross injustice done you, and the false light in which you are placed before the country and the world, I deem it my duty to make a brief statement of what I know to be the facts in reference to your failure to reach the field of battle in time to take part in the action of Sunday, April 6, 1862.

I will first state the position of your command on that morning. The First Brigade, Colonel M.L. Smith commanding, at Crump's Landing; Second Brigade, Colonel John M. Thayer commanding, two and one-half miles out on the Adamsville road; Third Brigade, Colonel Charles R. Wood commanding, at Adamsville, five miles out from the river. The first intimation you or any of your staff had of the battle was between five and six o'clock, A.M., when my attention was called by one of the men on the boat on which were your headquarters, to the heavy and continued firing in the direction of the camp at Pittsburg Landing. You were at once notified of this, and being satisfied that there was a battle going on, directed me to go at once and order this division to get ready to move at a moment's warning, and to instruct Colonel Wood to move his baggage and camp equipage to the river with the least possible delay, and march his command to the camp of the Second Brigade, midway between his (then) camp and that of the First Brigade, at the river.

After executing your order, as above, I returned to the Landing. Soon after, you, together with your staff, went out to the camp of the second Brigade, when the division had been ordered to concentrate in order to be in position to take either one of two roads, intersecting the Adamsville road from Crump's Landing to Pittsburg Landing; one leading to Pittsburg Landing, the other to the Purdy road from Pittsburg Landing, intersecting it at a point not far from the right of our army under General Sherman, as it was encamped when the battle began.

Before starting for Colonel Thayer's camp, orders were given by you to Captain Lyman, A.Q.M., on your staff, for a horse to be saddled and kept in readiness, in case a messenger should come down the river with orders from General Grant to you.

Now for the order. Badeau says that a staff officer was dispatched to General Wallace with verbal orders for him to march by the nearest road parallel with the river. The order may have been given verbally by General Grant to his staff officer, but was not so delivered to you, nor did it direct you to march by the nearest road parallel with the river. At about 11 o'clock, A.M., while at the camp of Colonel Thayer, I was directed by you to go to Colonel M.L. Smith. I met Captain Baxter, A.Q.M., who stopped me and handed me a paper saying, "I wish you would take this to General Wallace." I took the paper, read it and returned it to him, saying, I could not do so, as I was on my way under orders from General Wallace. At the same time I turned in my saddle, and pointed out a group of horsemen, telling the Captain that you were among them. I went to Colonel Smith, delivered my orders, and returning, met the Captain again. I very distinctly remember that this order directed you to move forward and join General Sherman's right on the Purdy road and form your line of battle at right angles with the river; and then act as circumstances would dictate. Now the shortest possible route by which you could reach the point designated in the order was the one taken, viz: that one leading from Colonel Thayer's camp (on the Adamsville road from Crump's Landing), to the Purdy road (from Pittsburg Landing), a distance of about five miles; whereas the distance to the point to which you was to march as designated in the order, via Pittsburg Landing, would have been at least twelve miles. Perhaps I should here state that this order was not signed by any one, but coming as it did through one of the Staff Officers of the Commanding General, could not be questioned. I would also state in this connection, that when I met Captain Baxter first, I asked him how things were going. He replied that Grant was driving the enemy at all points. Had this been the case, the order as delivered by Captain Baxter would have been all right, as we could then have joined General Sherman as directed therein. Within ten minutes after the receipt of the order, the troops were on the road.

When we were about one mile from where we expected to join General Sherman, we were overtaken by a messenger from General Grant, Captain (since Colonel) Rowley, I believe, who informed you that our troops had been defeated all along the line, and driven back, till the right was within half a mile of the river, and that the road we were on, would, if followed up, lead us into the rear of the enemy. This being the case, it became necessary to find some other way to form a junction with the army. In order to do so, every mounted man attached to your Head-Quarters was dispatched to find, if possible, some way to get round the enemys' left without going back to the starting point, or to find some resident to guide us by the nearest possible route. Finally a man was found who was compelled to act as guide. Nevertheless the march was continued as rapidly as possible, until we joined the right of the army, just after dark, in the position in which it lay when the battle closed for the day. Badeau also says: "General Wallace was set right by Captain (afterwards Colonel) Rowley, and Colonel (afterwards Major General) McPherson, both at the time upon General Grant's staff; that they set him right at 1 o'clock, and it took him till seven to march five miles." It was near 1 o'clock when we were overtaken by Rowley, but instead of having but five miles to march, the distance could not have been less than eleven or twelve miles. The first seen of General McPherson was when we were met by him and General Rawlins, just as the head of the column had reached the river road (from Crump's Landing to Pittsburg Landing) who had come out to urge you to greater haste. We had to march over the worst road I ever remember to have seen. In many places it was almost impossible to get artillery through. In my judgment the entire distance marched by your command could not have been less than sixteen or seventeen miles.

The above, General, are the facts relative to the movements of your command on the day referred to, which fell under my personal observation. I am, General, very respectively, your obedient servant,

JAMES R. ROSS,

Late Brev. Lieut. Col. Major. A.D.C.

To MAJOR GENERAL LEW WALLACE

CRAWFORDSVILLE, Indiana.

General Strickland to General Wallace:

HEADQUARTERS FIFTIETH REGIMENT, O.V.I. }

BIG RUN TRESTLE, Ky., June 24, 1863. }

CAPTAIN J.R. Ross, for MAJOR GENERAL LEW WALLACE:

DEAR SIR: In answer to your question as to my recollection of the circumstances and time of the moving of Major General Lew Wallace's command to the battle of Shiloh on the sixth of April, 1862, I will submit the following statement:

I was Acting Adjutant General for Colonel John M. Thayer (now Brigadier General Thayer), he (Colonel Thayer) being in command of the Second Brigade, General Lew Wallace's Division. On the morning of the sixth of April (Sunday), 1862, the Brigade commanded by Colonel Thayer, stationed at "Stony Lonesome," was in readiness to march at daylight, or before. We were waiting for orders to move, when Major General Lew Wallace and staff rode to the headquarters of the brigade, I think between the hours of 8 and 9 o'clock; it may have been earlier. General Wallace ordered everything in readiness to move at a moment's notice. I received the orders directly from General Wallace. I assured him that the brigade, upon previous orders from himself and Colonel Thayer, was ready to move, but went again, in person, by order of Colonel Thayer, and notified Commanders of Regiments, Batteries, etc., to be ready at the call from Colonel Thayer's headquarters, to move. I heard General Wallace addressing himself to Lieutenant Colonel McCord, commanding the First Nebraska Regiment, to say, that he had received no orders to move and that he was waiting for orders frown General Grant's headquarters to move. I heard General Wallace request one of his staff to watch the road to Crump's Landing for a messenger with orders.

At half past 11 A.M. (it might have been fifteen minutes to 12) a person rode up to General Wallace with orders to move. I was standing by General Wallace at the time. The Brigade commanded by Colonel Thayer was in motion in just ten minutes after the order was received. I am particular about this, because Colonel Sanbourn, of the Twenty-first Indiana Regiment, and other officers of the Brigade, talked over the matter in the morning. After the order was received we moved off rapidly.

After we had marched some distance, and were getting nearer to the sound of musketry continually, we were met, I think, by Major Rawlins, Assistant Adjutant General of General Grant, and our direction changed. From my knowledge of the country, after the battle of Monday, I am satisfied that, if we had not changed our direction when we did, we would have gone in behind the left of the rebel army. After the direction of the column was changed, I was ordered by Colonel Thayer to go to the foot of the column, for what purpose I cannot now recollect. I think it was at the instance of General Wallace, to change direction on a shorter route of Wood's brigade, and when going from the foot of the column to the head, to report to my commanding officer, Colonel Thayer. I remember noticing all three of the Brigades in close column, marching rapidly forward. Just at dusk we arrived at the valley of a small stream, where the mud was very deep. We met an orderly, there, from the battle-field, who said we could reach General Grant's forces by making great haste, as Berdan's Sharp-shooters were holding the road by which we were to enter. The column was hurried forward as fast as it was possible for it to move. We arrived a little after dark, on the right of General Grant's forces, but a few yards in front of the enemy.

Not knowing for what particular purpose you wish this communication, I have been precise in details as to time, etc., as it will be remembered by most of the officers of the Second Brigade.

I am, sir, your obedient servant,

J.A. STRICKLAND,

Colonel Commanding Fiftieth Ohio Volunteer Infantry.

General McGinnis to General Wallace:

INDIANAPOLIS, Indiana, February 21, 1868.

GENERAL: In reply to your note of this date, I would say, that being in command of the Eleventh Indiana Infantry, I was attached to the First Brigade, Third Division, Army of the Tennessee, commanded by you, and encamped at Crump's Landing, on the morning of the first day of the battle of Pittsburg Landing.

At daylight of said day, our command was aroused by heavy and continuous firing from the direction of Pittsburg Landing, which led us to believe that a general battle was being fought. I do not think more than twenty minutes had elapsed from the time that the battle commenced until our whole brigade had received orders to hold ourselves in readiness, (with three days' rations) to march to any point required; and that point all understood from indications would be Pittsburg Landing.

For the purpose of concentrating the division, our Brigade marched to Winn's Farm, two and a half miles from Crump's Landing, where the Second Brigade of the Third Division was then encamped. The road taken by our division, after concentrating, intersected the Purdy road (from Pittsburg Landing) at a point near Snake Creek, and not far from the ground occupied by General Sherman's division on the morning of the battle, being the right of the army. This, in my opinion, was the shortest and most direct route to the point at which the right of the army was resting, when the battle began.

Orders were not received for the division to march to the field of battle, until about12 o'clock, A.M. and no time was lost during the march, as we moved with the utmost rapidity.

In the history of that battle, written by (Badeau) who was not there and who could not have had personal knowledge of the facts in relation thereto, serious and gross injustice has been done you.

Very respectfully,

G.F. McGinnis,

Late Brigadier General U.S.A.

[General Fred Knefler's letter to General Lew Wallace corroborating the statements made by the other members of the staff will be found on page 367—ED.]

Captain Ware to General Wallace:

GENERAL: I submit the following statement in regard to the movement of your division, on Sunday, April 6, 1862, as far as came under my observation.

The first intimation I had that an engagement was progressing was about 6 o'clock, A.M. I heard firing in the direction of the camps at Pittsburg Landing. Soon after I was ordered by you to proceed to Adamsville, where the Third Brigade, under Colonel Wood was encamped, with orders to have his tents, and baggage train sent immediately to the river, and his command to march back to the Second Brigade, which was then stationed two and a half miles from Crump's Landing. I also ordered the First Brigade, under Colonel Morgan L. Smith, to move out to the same point. The Second Brigade, under Colonel John M. Thayer, was also ordered to be ready to move at a moment's notice. I returned to your headquarters and with you proceeded to the above-mentioned point. At twenty minutes of 12 an order was to you delivered, by Captain Baxter, A.Q.M., directing "you to move your division up and join General Shermans' right," on the road leading from Pittsburg Landing to Purdy, that being the extreme right of General Grant's position.

Two Regiments of Infantry and one piece of artillery were left at the camp of the Second Brigade, to protect the camp equipage and baggage. I am, General, very respectfully,

Your obedient servant,

AD WARE, JR., A.D.C.

To MAJOR GENERAL LEW WALLACE.

General John M. Thayer to General Wallace:

UNITED STATES SENATE CHAMBER,

WASHINGTON. March 4. 1868.

At the time of the battle of Pittsburg Landing I was in command of the Second Brigade of the division commanded by General Lew Wallace, and, with the Brigade, was in camp two and a half miles out from Crump's Landing, at a place called Stony Lonesome. At dawn of the morning of April 6, 1862, I heard cannonading in the direction of Pittsburg Landing. At an early hour I received orders from General Wallace, through a Staff Officer, to "hold my command in readiness to march at a moment's notice." General Wallace came to my camp, soon afterwards, and informed me that he was awaiting orders from General Grant to move to the battle-field. I knew he was very impatient to receive such orders. The Division was kept in readiness to move without delay. At about half past 11 o'clock an officer rode up to General Wallace with the expected order from General Grant, and, in a few minutes, the command was on the march towards the field of action. As we advanced the cannonading became more distinct. As we were moving on I recollect a Staff Officer passing up the column seeking General Wallace. Very soon we countermarched, with the view, as I understood, of crossing to the river road leading to Pittsburg Landing, and there reaching the right of our army, which we reached about dark. According to my recollection there was no halting while on the march, except to close up the column.

While waiting in my camp for the order of General Grant to move to the scene of action General Wallace manifested great anxiety to move forward, and did move immediately on receipt of the order. Very respectfully,

JOHN M. THAYER,

Late Brig. Gen'l and B'v't Maj Gen'l of Vols.

General Grant to General Wallace:

HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF THE UNITED STATES.

WASHINGTON, D.C., MARCH, 10, 1868.

MY DEAR GENERAL:

Enclosed herewith, I return your letters from officers of the Army who served with you at the battle of Shiloh, Tennessee, giving their statement of your action on that occasion. I can only state that my orders to you were given verbally to a Staff Officer to communicate, and that they were substantially as given by General Badeau in his book. I always understood that the Staff Officer referred to, Captain Baxter, made a memorandum of the order he received and left it with you. That memorandum I never saw.

The statements which I now return seem to exonerate you from this great point of blame, your taking the wrong road, or different road from the one directed from Crump's Landing to Pittsburg Landing. All your subsequent military career showed you active and ready in the execution of every order you received. Your promptness in moving from Baltimore to Monocacy, Maryland, in 1864, and meeting the enemy in force far superior to your own, when Washington was threatened, is a case particularly in point, where you could scarcely have hoped for a victory; but you delayed the enemy, and enabled me to get troops from City Point, Virginia, in time to save the city. That act I regarded as most praiseworthy. I refer you to my report of 1865, touching your course there.

In view of the assaults made upon you now, I think it due to you, that you should publish what your own Staff and other subordinate officers have to say in exoneration of your course.

Yours Truly,

U.S. GRANT, GENERAL.

To MAJOR GENERAL L. WALLACE,

CRAWFORDSVILLE, Indiana.

Fitchburg In 1885

By Atherton P. Mason, M.D.

In the January number of this magazine appeared an excellent and comprehensive historical sketch of Fitchburg. It is proposed in this article to portray as briefly as possible, and by the aid of engravings, the present condition and resources of our city.

Old Rollstone and its opposite neighbor, Pearl Hill, have witnessed the transformation of a rude, inhospitable wilderness into a beautiful and busy city. We of the present day, proud of our heritage, are striving to improve it by all means within our power.

Fitchburg owes her growth and prosperity pre-eminently to those energetic and plucky men who founded and fostered the great industries which now constitute her life and soul. Alvah Crocker, Salmon W. Putnam, Eugene T. Miles, and Walter Heywood, have left behind them great and lasting proofs of their toil and perseverance. Of Rodney Wallace, who is now in the midst of a useful and benevolent life among us, another will speak more fully and fittingly in other pages of this magazine; nor would we neglect to give due credit to the energetic men who are now either carrying on business established by their predecessors, or founding new industries which enhance the resources and good name of Fitchburg.

Union Passenger Depot

The little river (the north branch of the Nashua) which runs through the township, and which is formed by the confluence of several large brooks in the westerly part of the town, first invited the manufacturer to locate on its banks. Its water-power is still used, but steam is now the chief motor that propels the machinery, looms and spindles that daily pour forth products which go to the markets, not of this country alone, but of the world.

Perhaps no place of its size can boast of a greater diversity of industries than Fitchburg. In such an article as this attention must necessarily be confined to the chief among them, and but few words devoted to the description of separate establishments.

Putnam Machine Company's Works.

Machinery takes the first rank among the manufactures of Fitchburg. The pioneers in this business here were two brothers, Salmon W. and John Putnam, who, in 1838, established the firm of J. & S.W. Putnam. In 1858 S.W. Putnam organized the Putnam Machine Company, which now has a wide and enviable reputation. Mr. Putnam was President and General Business Manager of the company until his death in 1872. Two of his surviving sons are now actively engaged in carrying on the business, Charles F. Putnam being President and Manager, and Henry O. Putnam Superintendent of the department in which special machinists' and railroad tools are made. There are six other departments devoted to special kinds of manufacture which are superintended by able men. Mr. Putnam's two other sons founded, in 1882, the Putnam Tool Company, located on Walnut street, of which Salmon W. Putnam is President, and George E. Putnam Treasurer, and is owned entirely by the Putnams. This company manufactures machinery, railroad and machine tools. The present location of the Putnam Machine Company, corner of Main and Putnam streets, comprising over twenty-six acres, was purchased in 1866, and the buildings were immediately erected at a cost of over $200,000. The works were built from plans designed by the late President, and are arranged with special reference to the variety of machines manufactured, consisting of railroad and machinists' tools, steam-engines, water-wheels, and shafting. They comprise machine shops, foundries and forges, and rank with the oldest and largest establishments of the kind in the United States.

The Putnams are descendants of Gen. Israel Putnam of Revolutionary fame.

Residence Of Mrs. Salmon W. Putnam, Walnut Street

The Fitchburg Machine Works occupy a large and convenient brick building on Main street, near its beginning, and manufacture machinists' tools principally. Opposite is the handsome brick building occupied by C.H. Brown and Company, manufacturers of the "Brown" automatic cut-off steam-engines, which have gained a wide reputation. A little further up on Main street is located the Simonds Manufacturing Company. This company was organized in 1868 with a capital of $150,000 and manufactures machine knives and the well-known "Simonds" Circular Saw.

On Water street are three machine shops to be noticed. The Union Machine Company makes paper machinery. The Rollstone Machine Company, manufactures the "Rollstone" Lathe and other wood-working machinery. The Fitchburg Steam Engine Company, whose business was established in 1871, manufactures steam-engines and boilers, making a specialty of the "Fitchburg" steam-engine, the great merits of which are everywhere acknowledged. The company, notwithstanding its comparatively recent organization, has a firm foothold in this country, and abroad also.

D.M. Dillon manufactures boilers and paper machinery. A.D. Waymouth and Company, and C.W. Wilder manufacture respectively the Waymouth wood-turning lathe and Wilder's patent lathe.

In 1866 Charles Burleigh of Fitchburg invented the Burleigh rock drill, and the next year the Burleigh Rock Drill Company was organized with a capital of $150,000, to make and sell this machine and the Burleigh Patent air-compressor. These drills have completely revolutionized the business of rock-tunneling. They were first used in the Hoosac Tunnel and, proved highly successful. Since then they have been employed at Hell Gate, in the Sutro Tunnel, and at various points in Europe.

Stiles Block, Main Street.

The Rollstone Iron Foundry, the Fitchburg Iron Foundry, and M.J. Perault, manufacture castings of all kinds. W.A. Hardy operates a brass Foundry on Water street. There is no space to indulge further in details regarding machinery. In addition to the above are numerous individuals and firms here engaged in the manufacture of mowing machines and agricultural implements, boiler makers' tools, electric machinery and apparatus, files, grist and flouring-mill machinery, hay, straw, and machine, knives, wood-working machinery, machinists' tools, water motors, watch tools, paper machinery and the like.

The paper manufacturing interest in Fitchburg is valuable and extensive. The credit of successfully establishing this industry here belongs to Alvah Crocker, who, in 1826, built a paper mill of his own. Paper had, however, been made here to some extent previous to that time. In 1850 the firm of Crocker, Burbank and Company was formed, of which Mr. Crocker was the head until his death in 1874. The present members of the firm are C.T. Crocker, S.E. Crocker, G.F. Fay, G. H. Crocker and Alvah Crocker. The firm now operates five large paper mills in West Fitchburg. A sixth, the Snow Mill, was recently destroyed by fire. About 32,000 pounds of news, book and card paper are produced by these mills every twenty-four hours.

In 1865 the Fitchburg Paper Company was organized. Rodney Wallace, having purchased the interests of the other three original members of the company, is now the sole proprietor. He operates two large and well-equipped mills in West Fitchburg, which produce from 15,000 to 18,000 pounds of card and hanging paper every twenty-four hours.

Crocker Block.

In 1864 George W. Wheelwright and Sons built a paper mill, and in 1880 the G.W. Wheelwright Paper Company was incorporated with a capital of $100,000. The mill is located on Fourth street and produces about 7,000 pounds of news paper per twenty-four hours.

In 1884 a number of capitalists purchased the building long known as Richardson's scythe shop, situated on Scythe-shop road, South Fitchburg, and converted it into a paper-mill. It is now operated by the National Paper Company and produces manilla and hanging paper.

The chair business is represented in Fitchburg by an establishment which is one of the largest and best arranged in the world. Walter Heywood really founded this industry here in 1844, though chairs were made in Fitchburg on a small scale some years previously. The Walter Heywood Chair Company was organized in 1851 and incorporated in 1869 with a capital of $240,000. In July, 1870, the company's buildings on Water street were completely destroyed by fire, and a lot on River street, comprising nine acres, was immediately purchased for the erection of new works. These buildings, each three hundred feet long, fifty feet wide and two stories high, besides store houses, offices and sheds, were soon ready for occupation. A private track connects the works with the Fitchburg Railroad. The Company has a very large trade, both foreign and domestic, and employs three hundred men. The chair stock is prepared at the company's mills in Barton, Vermont.

Factory Of The Fitchburg Woolen Mill Company.

The manufacture of cotton and woolen goods is extensively carried on in Fitchburg. The Fitchburg Cotton Mill is a fine brick building at the upper end of Main street; carpet warps, batting and twine are here manufactured. The Fitchburg Duck Mills in South Fitchburg produce cotton duck. The Parkhill Manufacturing Company (John Parkhill, President, and Arthur H. Lowe, Treasurer), occupies what was formerly Davis' chair shop, situated on Circle street, and manufactures gingham. The building has been greatly enlarged and additional buildings have been erected since the company was organized a few years ago. Excellent goods are manufactured and find a ready market.

The factory of the Fitchburg Woolen Mill Company, in Factory square, has been long established and its products are well known. The company was organized in 1843, but the factory itself has been in existence much longer, being one of the oldest brick buildings in town. It was originally used as a cotton mill, but in 1822 it was made into a woolen factory. Since that date it has been enlarged several times. William H. Vose, recently deceased, was Treasurer and Manager of this mill for about forty years. Only a few months ago Mr. Vose wrote a concise history of the factory since 1822, which is interesting and valuable. James Phillips, Jr., is a prominent woolen manufacturer and operates the three following concerns: a large woolen manufactory in West Fitchburg, producing suitings, etc.; the Star Worsted Company, and the Fitchburg Worsted Company, producing yarn and worsted. Mr. Phillips has met with marked success, and his goods take high rank in the best markets. There is a woolen mill in Rockville, a village in the westerly part of Fitchburg, operated by James McTaggart, Jr.

Residence Of Mrs. Wm.H. Vose, Prospect Street.

The firm of E.M. Dickinson & Company is the only one in the city engaged in the manufacture of shoes. This firm occupies a handsome brick factory, recently erected on Main street, next to the Simonds Manufacturing Company, and has a large trade both in New England and the West. In connection with E.M. Dickinson & Company, and located in the same building, is the Sole Leather Tip Company. The Fitchburg Furniture Company has a large manufactory on Newton Place. A number of concerns carry on an extensive lumber business and operate establishments where doors, sashes, blinds, and ornamental wood-work are made. J. Gushing & Company and Washburn & Woodward operate large grain elevators and flour mills. The first named firm occupies the "Stone Mill," one of the old land-marks of Fitchburg. In addition to the above there are numerous individuals and firms engaged in the manufacture of confectionery, crackers, tin-ware, toys, soap, wood pulp, carriages, harnesses, marble and granite monuments, bricks, beer, cigars and matches. In fine there are over one hundred concerns here engaged in manufacturing on a large scale, and considerably over one hundred establishments where occupations akin to manufacturing are carried on.

But Fitchburg is beautiful as well as busy. Handsome churches, business blocks, public buildings and private residences greet the eyes of strangers in our streets.

Residence Of Charles T. Crocker.

There are eleven churches in town. The First Parish (Unitarian) Church is the oldest. The present edifice is a plain and substantial brick structure at the head of the upper common, and was built in 1837. In 1883 the interior was entirely remodeled and stained windows put in, thus making a handsome auditorium. Rev. W.H. Pierson is pastor of this society.

The First Methodist Church is on Main street, opposite the lower end of the upper common, and was built in 1840. Rev. W.J. Pomfret is pastor.

The First Universalist Church stands on the corner of Main and Rollstone streets, and was built in 1847. Rev. F.O. Hall is pastor. This society proposes to erect a new church, further down town, before long.

On the opposite corner is the Calvinistic Congregational Church, built in 1844. Rev. S.L. Blake, D.D., is pastor. In connection with this Church is a handsome and commodious chapel.

Further down Main street, opposite the Post-office, is the First Baptist Church, a large and imposing structure, built in 1854. Rev. I.R. Wheelock is pastor.

A little further down, and on the opposite side of the street, is Christ Church (Episcopal). This is built of granite and has a very attractive appearance both within and without. The society has no settled rector at present.

Towards the lower end of Main street is situated the Rollstone Congregational Church, a fine brick and stone structure, built in 1869. In connection with it is a handsome chapel, the gift of the late Deacon David Boutelle and named after the donor. The Second Advent Chapel is on the corner of North and Cherry streets; no pastor is at present settled.

Mills Of The Fitchburg Paper Company.

The Wallace Library And Art Building.

The St. Bernard's Church (Catholic) is a costly and handsome brick and stone edifice on Water street. Rev. P.J. Garrigan is pastor, and Rev. D.F. Feehan is assistant pastor. In 1878 a fine Catholic Chapel (Church of the Sacred Heart) was built in West Fitchburg, and is now under the charge of Rev. J.T. Donohoe. There is also a very pretty Methodist Church in West Fitchburg, of which Rev. W. Wignall is pastor.

Whitney's Opera House Block.

The Fitchburg Savings Bank block, on Main street, up town, is the largest and finest in the city. It was erected in 1871, and is of brick with a handsome and costly front of fine, white-grained granite. The ground floor is divided into four stores, which are as commodious and well-appointed as any in Worcester County. On the second floor are the banking-rooms of the Fitchburg National and Fitchburg Savings Banks, the office of the Fitchburg Mutual Fire Insurance Company, and several law offices. The two stories above are mainly occupied by the Free Masons, whose rooms are among the finest in the State.

The "Snow Mill," Recently Burned.

The Safety Fund National Bank has rooms in Crocker Block, a handsome brick and stone structure further down on Main street. The Windsor Club (social) has attractive rooms in this block.

Residence Of Mrs. Eugene T. Miles, Blossom Street.

The Rollstone National Bank has rooms in the Rollstone Bank block, a large and fine brick and sandstone structure, on the south side of Main street, down town. The rooms of the Worcester North Savings Institution are also in this block, and the Odd Fellows and E.V. Sumner Encampment, Post 19, Grand Army of the Republic, have commodious apartments in the upper portion. The Wachusett National Bank has a brick banking house on the corner of Main and Day streets.

E.M. Dickinson & Co.'s Shoe Manufactory

Whitney's Opera House block contains the only theatre in town. The stage is of good size and well-appointed and the auditorium neat and attractive. Good companies appear here throughout the season, and are well patronized by citizens of Fitchburg and neighboring towns. Other blocks worthy of mention are Belding & Dickinson's, Coggshall & Carpenter's, Hatch's, Wixon's (not yet completed), and Stiles'—all on Main street, and Union and Goodrich on Day street.

There are eight hotels in the city, the Fitchburg Hotel and the American House being the two largest.

The City Hall, on Main street, nearly opposite the Savings Bank block, is a large brick building. The entire upper story is devoted to a large hall, called the City Hall. It is the largest in the city. There are about a dozen other halls of various sizes in different parts of the city. On the first floor of the City Hall are the various city offices, rooms of the Mayor, Aldermen and Common Council. The entire rear portion is occupied by the Public Library, containing over sixteen thousand volumes, which will soon be removed to the new and elegant "Wallace Library and Art Building," now in process of completion. Mr. Wallace's generous gift to the city is fully described in another article.

The L.J. Brown Block, Main Street.

Fitchburg Savings Bank Building.

The Post-Office occupies the lower floor of a neat and substantial brick edifice opposite the Baptist Church. The letter-carrier system was begun here November 1, 1884. In the upper portion of this building are rooms occupied by the Fitchburg Board of Trade and the Park Club (social). Just below the Post-Office is Monument Square, in the centre of which is a handsome soldiers' monument, designed by Martin Milmore, and costing about $25,000. It was dedicated June 26, 1874. Four brass cannon, procured through Alvah Crocker while a Member of Congress, stand in the enclosure. In the rear of the square is the Court House, a stone building of noble proportions, built in 1871.

Fitchburg is located on the Hoosac Tunnel route, and hence has extensive railroad facilities. The Fitchburg Railroad runs eleven passenger trains to Boston every week, day and five to Greenfield and North Adams. The Northern Division of the Old Colony Railroad terminates here and furnishes four trains daily to Boston, and also to the principal cities of southern Massachusetts. The Fitchburg and Worcester Division affords ample means of communication with our sister city. The Cheshire Railroad furnishes four trains daily to points in New Hampshire and Vermont. A route for the proposed Fitchburg and Manchester Railroad was surveyed last summer. The Union Passenger Depot, used by all these roads in common, is a commodious building and an ornament to the city. Not far from the depot is the "L.J. Brown" store, a large and handsome building with a brown stone front, which is certainly worthy of mention, both as a sample of the business blocks in town, and as a memorial of the late L.J. Brown.

Fitchburg is well provided with school houses. The High School on High street is a large and convenient building, and was erected in 1869. Mr. R.G. Huling has been the Principal since 1875. There are three large Grammar school buildings in the city proper, and one in West Fitchburg, besides a dozen or more buildings occupied by lower grades in various localities in town.

The "Stone Mill."

There are two newspapers published here. The Fitchburg Sentinel occupies the entire upper portion of one of the oldest brick buildings in town. The structure has been raised and enlarged since it was first built. The first number of the Sentinel appeared December 30, 1838, and on May 6, 1873, the Daily Sentinel began its existence. Both are still published and enjoy a large and increasing circulation. The Fitchburg Tribune is issued weekly. This paper has been established only a few years, but under the present proprietor is acquiring a goodly circulation.

Fitchburg Sentinel Office.

Our city is fortunate in possessing an abundant supply of excellent water derived from Scott, Shattuck and Falulah Brooks. Three reservoirs, Overlook, Scott and Marshall, were constructed at the time the water-works were first put in operation, a dozen years ago. These are located on the high land north-west of the city. In 1883 a fourth reservoir was constructed and named Falulah from the brook by which it is supplied. Overlook is the largest and most elevated, being four hundred feet above the railroad tracks. More than eighteen miles of service pipe are now in use, and there are over two hundred fire hydrants at various points. The city is equipped with a fire alarm telegraph, having thirty-one signal boxes, and maintains an efficient and well managed Fire Department. It is thus easy to understand why Fitchburg seldom has a fire that amounts to much.

The Wachusett Electric Light Company began to light the principal streets in the city proper in 1883, and still continues to furnish agreeable illumination.

The Fitchburg Gas Company, organized in 1852, has works a little below the Union Depot and is in prosperous condition.

The "Hanna Mill."

The Fitchburg Divison of the New England Telephone and Telegraph Company comprises this city, Leominster, Lunenburg and Westminster. There are nearly four hundred subscribers.

The Fitchburg Roller Skating Rink is an institution very attractive to the public and well patronized. There is also a skating rink in West Fitchburg.

The Massachusetts Mutual Aid Society, an organization for life insurance, was incorporated in 1875, and its members now number several thousands.

The Fitchburg Co-operative Savings Fund and Loan Association was incorporated in 1877. Monthly payments are made by share holders and money loaned on real-estate.

The Worcester North Agricultural Society was incorporated in 1852, and has extensive fair grounds and a trotting park in the easterly part of the township.

The city owns two cemeteries. Laurel Hill Cemetery is large and has been in use for at least seventy-five years. It occupies a hill overhanging the river, and is truly a city of the dead overlooking the city of the living. Forest Hill Cemetery is on the Mount Elam road, two miles south of the city, and is of more recent origin. St. Bernard's Cemetery, in the easterly part of the town, is owned by the Roman Catholics.

Fitchburg hospitality is well known, and Masonic or other organizations are always sure of royal entertainment and a grand good time when they visit their Fitchburg brethren.

Art, literature and music have always been cultivated here. Though there is no organized art club in town, there are not a few artists here of merit whose skill with crayon and brush is fully appreciated.

Laurel Hill. Residence Of Charles Mason, Rollstone Street.

The Fitchburg Literary Club was organized some fifteen years ago. Its membership has been large and its meetings interesting. Mr. R.G. Huling is now the President of the club. Several writers of prose and verse reside in town.

In proof of musical talent we refer with just pride to the Fitchburg Military Band, G.A. Patz, Director. The band, under the faithful and skillful management of the late Warren S. Russell, attained almost the highest rank among the musical organizations of New England. Mr. Russell was a most estimable man, of rare musical ability, and his death in March, 1884, was a sad blow to the members of the band, and to the citizens of Fitchburg as well. At his funeral, March 18, 1884, the floral tributes from many musical organizations in New England, the presence of Mr. D.W. Reeves, always a warm friend of Mr. Russell, with the American Band of Providence, Rhode Island, whose members voluntarily tendered their services for the occasion gratuitously; the great concourse of citizens and the general suspension of business throughout the city, showed better than any words the estimation in which he was held. In April, 1884, Mr. Patz became the leader of the band. That he is eminently qualified for the position is shown by the fact that the band still maintains its high rank and bids fair to surpass in the future the successes of the past. In the upper common is a very handsome band-stand, erected by means of the generosity of certain citizens, and down town in Railroad Park is another, not quite as ornamental. The band gives a concert at each place nearly every week during warm weather, and large audiences appreciate the music. Nor are we lacking in vocal talent. Several of our residents, some of whom have perfected themselves abroad, have acquired, or are acquiring, reputation as singers.

Residence Of Henry A. Goodrich, Highland Avenue.

There are many handsome residences and fine estates in and around the city, a few of which are represented in this sketch. It is to be regretted that the residence of Mr. George F. Fay, of Crocker, Burbank & Co., cannot be shown. It is in process of completion, and when finished will be the finest in the city.

Fitchburg is situated in a pleasant valley, extending nearly east and west, through the southern portion of which runs the little river. Main street is just north of this stream, and, in a measure, parallel to it. This is the principal business street in the city and from either side of it branch off streets most of which eventually climb up a hillside. The city tends to increase along the course of the valley mainly, though now the surrounding slopes are fast becoming covered with dwellings. The streets (with the exception of Main) are unpaved, but are carefully looked after by the city and always kept in good condition. Good sidewalks, plenty of shade trees, and the general appearance of thrift and neatness on the part of citizens, make a stroll through the streets of Fitchburg very agreeable. Such, at least, is the opinion of the writer who, as a native of the place, may be allowed to express pardonable pride in the general appearance of prosperity, neatness and intelligence in the community.

The "Lyon And Whitney" Mill.

This sketch would be incomplete without some slight allusion to the surrounding country. The most marked topographical feature in this region is Rollstone Hill, a rounded eminence, composed entirely of granite. It is just southwest of the city. Its top is bare rock, but the sides are covered with a thin layer of soil, which furnishes support for quite a forest. Several quarries are worked during warm weather, and an immense amount of granite has been taken out without any apparent diminution in the size of the hill. It may be of interest to state that the Fitchburg Railroad depot, in Boston, is built of granite taken from this hill; and there are several other large stone structures in the Hub built of the same material. On the very summit of Rollstone is perched "the Boulder," a round mass of rock, forty-five feet in circumference, and weighing at least one hundred tons. The rock of which it is composed is totally unlike any rock formation within a radius of thirty miles or more, and it is probable that this boulder was brought to its present position by ice. The view from the top of this hill is well worth the slight trouble taken in ascending it. At the feet of the observer lies the city, forming almost a semi-circle. Wooded hills arise on all sides. Wachusett, twelve miles distant, rears its imposing pile in the south, while Big Watatic overtops its brethren in the northwest. Almost opposite Rollstone is Pearl Hill, which is also well worth a visit.

The "Brick" Mill.

There are many pleasant drives around Fitchburg, which are thoroughly appreciated by the citizens. But we must not dwell longer upon Fitchburg or its environs. Let those who are strangers to our city come and see for themselves. They will be welcome.

The writer is aware that much has been omitted in this sketch which ought to have been spoken of; but in a magazine article, intended simply to give a general idea of the place, such must of necessity be the case. Much space might, for instance, be most justly devoted to the business men and merchants of Fitchburg, who, by hard work and fair dealing, have acquired honorable names in the community. It would be quite possible to fill several more pages with such matters, but it is probable that the readers of the "BAY STATE" will coincide with the opinion that it is about time to stop.

Fitchburg seal

The Past And Future Of Gold

By David M. Balfour.

Gold, from the earliest times to the present day, has been regarded as one of the most precious of metals. Next to osmium, iodium, and platinum, it is the heaviest of metals, being nineteen times heavier than water. Next to iron it is the most extensively diffused metal upon our planet. It occurs in granite, the oldest rock known to us, and in all the rocks derived from it. It is, however, much more common in alluvial grounds than among primitive and pyrogenous rocks. Nine-tenths of the gold which has been produced has been obtained from alluvial beds. Gold mines are generally situated at the extreme limits of civilization. Herodotus notes the fact and he is confirmed by Humbolt. It is first mentioned in Genesis ii: 11. It was found in the country of Havilah, where the rivers Euphrates and Tigris unite and discharge their waters into the Persian Gulf. Gold is never found in mass, in veins, or lodes; it is interspersed, in threads or flakes, throughout quartz or other rocks. It is the only metal of a yellow color; it is easily chrystallizable, and always assumes one or more of the symmetrical shapes,—such as the cube or octahedron. It affords a resplendent polish, and may be exposed, for any length of time, to the atmosphere without suffering change, and is remarkable for its beauty. Its malleability is such that a cubic inch will cover a surface of eighteen hundred square feet; and its ductility is such that a cube of four inches could be drawn into a wire which would extend around the earth.

Gold in its relative value to silver has varied greatly at different periods.

In the days of the patriarch Abraham, it was one to eight; B.C. 1000, it was one to twelve; B.C. 500, it was one to thirteen; at the commencement of the Christian era, it was one to nine; A.D. 500, it was one to eighteen; in 1100, it was one to eight; in 1400, it was one to eleven; in 1545, it was one to six; in 1551 it was one to two; in 1600, it was one to ten; in 1627, it was one to thirteen; in 1700, it was one to fifteen and one-half; it held the latter ratio, with but slight variation, until 1872, when it began to rise, and in 1876 it rose to one to twenty; it soon afterwards gradually declined, and now stands one to nineteen and one-half. The supply of silver beyond a legitimate demand for financial purposes, the decrease of the export of silver to the East, and the demonetization of silver by the principal countries of Europe, have induced a tendency in the ratio of the two metals to again advance. Gold was extremely abundant in ancient times. It was plenteously furnished by the rivers of Asia. The sands of Pactolus, the golden fleece conquered by the Argonauts, the gold of Ophir, the fable of King Midas, all tend to show the eastern origin of gold. It was abundant in Cabul and Little Thibet. It abounded in the empire of the Pharaohs, as is attested by the traces of mining operations, now exhausted, and by the multitude of objects of gold contained in their tombs. Dennis ("History of the Cities and Cemeteries of Etruria," vol. II, p. 50) states that "gold ornaments, whose beauty and richness are amazing, abound in the tombs of the Etruscans, who were undoubtedly one of the most remarkable nations of antiquity, and the great civilizers of Italy. In a single tomb in Cerveti, fragments of breastplates, earrings, and brooches, sufficient to fill more than one basket, were found crushed beneath a mass of fallen masonry. A gold chain, with a number of pendant scaraboei, was found in a tomb in Vulci, transcending anything before seen by him. Bieda, Chiusi, Canosa, Casuccini, Perugia, and Veii belong in the same category." Schlieman ("Ilios" p. 253, et. seq.) states that they had an abundance of gold, bordering, as they did, on Phrygia, and nearly touching the valley of the Pactolus, so famous for its auriferous sands. It was very pure and therefore easily worked. In a tomb a single vase was found containing eighty-seven hundred small objects of gold. Ornaments of gold are very abundant in the tombs of Mycenae. In remote antiquity the bulk of gold was brought by the Phenicians from Arabia, which had twenty-two gold mines. It was the ancient El Dorado, and proverbial for its wealth of gold in all antiquity, down to the Middle Ages. "Arabia sends us gold," said Thomas A. Becket. Sacred ornaments of gold abound in churches, temples, pagodas, and tombs, throughout the Eastern hemisphere. The Homeric poems call Mycenae a city rich in gold. Gold abounded in the Levant, and it was obtained in considerable quantity in the island of Siphnos, and also from Pangaeus. It was found in abundance in Turdeltania in Spain; it was brought down by the rivers Tagus and Duoro; and it was plenty in Dacia, Transylvania, and the Asturias. Caligula caused his guests to be helped with gold (which they carried away), instead of bread and meat. The dresses of Nero were stiff with embroidery and gold; he fished with hooks of gold, and his attendants wore necklaces, and bracelets of gold. The Egyptians obtained large quantities of gold from the upper Nile, and from Ethiopia. Among them it was estimated by weight, usually in the form of bulls or oxen. In the centre of the continent, upon which so much light has been recently thrown by Livingston, Stanley, and others, rocks are to be met with quartz veins containing gold, and thus auriferous alluvium has been formed. Western Africa was the first field which supplied gold to mediaeval Europe. Its whole seaboard from Morocco to the equator produces more or less gold. This small section of the continent poured a flood of gold into Europe, and until the mineral discoveries of California and Australia, it continued to be the principal supply to the civilized world. In eastern Akim gold is said to be as plentiful as potatoes in Ireland. The Fanti gold mines are far more valuable than Ashanti, and the Wassaw and the Nquampossoo have gold nuggets in profusion. The King of Gyaman became immensely rich by the product of his gold mines; his bed had steps of gold. The French claim that they imported gold from Elmina in 1382. The Portuguese discovered gold in 1442, upon the borders of Rio de Ouro. Mungo Park, in 1797, drew attention to the existence of gold in the provinces of Shronda, Kinkodi, Dindiko, Bambuk, and Barabarra. Caille, in 1827, reported an abundance of gold in the valley of the Niger. The gold mines of Boure were first visited by Winwood Reade in 1872. The inhabitants of Western Africa have worked their gold fields for centuries to very little purpose. Their want of pumps, of quartz-crushing machinery, and of scientific appliances, has limited their labors to scratching the top soil and nibbling at the reef-walls. A large proportion of the country is virtually virgin ground; and a rich harvest has been left for Occidental science, energy, and enterprise. It is fast becoming evident that Africa will one day equal half a dozen Californias. The annual product of gold in Africa has declined from $17,000,000 in 1471 to $3,000,000 in 1816. Since the latter date it has gradually declined to $2,000,000. The gold product since 1471 has amounted to $3,500,000,000.

Gold, after the discovery of America, was produced in large quantities, principally in the Antilles, and chiefly in Hispaniola, and the western coast of the Gulf of Mexico. America is pre-eminently the land of metals. Gold is found in greater or less abundance throughout its Pacific coast from Alaska to Patagonia. The New World furnishes nearly two-thirds of the precious metals annually produced. The export of gold from the United States since 1848 has amounted to $1,548,564,852. The gold mines of Peru were revealed to Europe by Pizarro in 1513. The gold mines of South America extend throughout its entire territory. Its richest mines are about Huylas and Turma, Most of the rivers of the Andes bring down auriferous sands. Before the arrival of the Spaniards the Indians had gathered from the river sands large quantities of gold in Peru, Chili, and along the whole western coast of South America. Brazil has yielded, from 1513 to the present time, $876,000,000 of gold. The annual product of gold, in South America, at the present time is $8,000,000. The total product, from 1513 to the present time, has amounted to $2,176,000,000. The gold mines of North America extend from Costa Rica to Alaska, between the parallels 8° and 71° of North latitude, and the parallels of 82° and 168° of West longitude, comprised between the Caribbean sea and the Arctic ocean, and the Rocky mountains and the Pacific ocean. The Mexican gold mines were discovered by Cortez in 1526. Their annual product has decreased from $3,000,000 in former times to $1,000,000 at the present time. Their total product to the present time has amounted to $652,000,000. Gold was discovered in California by William Marshall, on the ninth day of February, 1848, at Suter's mill on the American fork of the Sacramento river, and the mines extend from 34° to 40° of North latitude. Their annual product has decreased from $81,000,000 in 1853 to $14,000,000 at the present time. The annual product of the gold mines of Colorado, Dakota, Nevada, Montana, Idaho, Arizona, Oregon, and other parts of the United States, at the present time, is estimated to be $16,000,000. Their total product has amounted to $200,000,000. The annual product of the gold mines of British Columbia is estimated to be $2,000,000. Their total product has amounted to $52,000,000. In estimating the gold product of California Messrs. Hussey, Bond and Hale, of San Francisco, (Hunt's Mer. Mag., vol. XXVII, p. 43) state,—"that there should be added to the amount exhibited upon steamers' manifests fifteen to sixty per cent, for the amount carried in the valises and pockets of returning passengers, overland to Mexico, exported to Chili, and retained in California for purposes of currency." Fenton (Tasmania, p. 430) states,—"that the product of gold, $850,000, in Tasmania, in 1883, does not include the value of gold which left the colony by private hands, when it is considered that the alluvial auriferous deposits are worked by men who are constantly on the move and who sometimes take with them, to the other colonies, the product of their washings, without leaving behind them any record of the weight or value of the gold thus removed." This rule should be applied to Australia, Russia, New Zealand, and all countries which are producers of the precious metals. The annual product of the gold mines of North America is $32,000,000. Their total product from 1513 to the present time is estimated to be $2,764,000,000, of which $2,164,000,000 have been obtained since 1848. The annual product of gold in America is $40,000,000,—more than one-third of the entire annual product of the world. The total gold product of America, since the hills of Hispaniola were revealed to the eyes of Columbus, has amounted to $4,940,000,000—one-third of the product of the world since the earliest times.

Gold was discovered in Russia in 1743, near Nertschinsk, alluvial deposits having been observed in that year in the Ural mountains. The mines extend over that parallelogram of the earth's surface, comprised between the parallels of 50° and 60° of north latitude, between the Volga and Amoor rivers. They were not generally explored until 1810. In 1816 their product was but $80,000; at the close of 1823 there was a large development. In 1830 the annual product was $4,000,000. About that time the deposits of Siberia were discovered, and at the close of 1840 they yielded a greater production than those of the Ural. In 1843 the total annual product of both regions was $18,000,000. In 1853 it attained to $36,000,000, but since that date it has gradually declined to $22,000,000. The total product of the Russian goldmines has amounted to $805,000,000. The annual product of gold in Europe is $24,000,000. The total product of gold in Europe, from the earliest times to the present day, has amounted to $4,145,000,000.

Gold was discovered in Australia by Edward Hammand Hargreaves, on the twelfth day of February, 1851, in the Bathurst and Wellington districts, and the mines extend from 18° to 38° of South latitude. Their annual product has decreased from $75,000,000 in 1853 to $26,000,000 at the present time. Their total product has amounted to $1,453,000,000. The finest gold was obtained at Ballarat, and the largest nugget was dug up at Donolly, and weighed 2,448 ounces, valued at $46,000. The New Zealand gold mines were discovered by Messrs. Hartly and Reilly, on the twentieth of August, 1861, in the Otago district, on the Molineux river, on the 45° of South latitude. Their annual product has decreased from $10,000,000 in 1863 to $4,000,000 at the present time. Their total product has amounted to $176,000,000. The annual product of gold in Asia (including Australia, New Zealand and Oceanica) is $32.000,000. The total product of gold in Asia, from the earliest times to the present day, has amounted $2,065,000,000.

Gold was considered bullion in Palestine for a long time after silver was current as money. The first mention of gold as money, in the Bible, is in David's reign (B.C. 1056) when that king purchased the threshing-floor of Oman for six hundred shekels of gold by weight ($4,500.) The Lydians were the first people who coined money. The word "money" is derived from the temple of Jupiter Moneta, where the Roman mint was established. Croesus (B.C. 560) coined the golden stater, which contained one hundred and thirty-three grains of pure metal. Darius, son of Hystaspes, (B.C. 538) coined the daric, which contained one hundred and twenty-one grains of pure metal; it was preferred for its fineness, for several ages, throughout the East. It is supposed to be mentioned in the Old Testament under the name of dram. Very few specimens have come down to us. Their scarcity may be accounted for by the fact that they were melted down under the type of Alexander. Next were some coins of the tyrants of Sicily; of Gelo (B.C. 491), of Helo (B.C. 478), and of Dionysius (B.C. 404). Specimens of the former two are still preserved in modern cabinets. Gold coin was by no means plenty in Greece, until Philip of Macedon put the mines of Thrace into full operation, about B.C. 300. There are only about a dozen Greek coins in existence, three of which are in the British Museum; and of the latter, two are staters, of the weight of one hundred and twenty-nine grains each. About B.C. 207, a gold coin was struck off at Rome called "aureus," four specimens of which are in the institution before alluded to. Its weight was one hundred and twenty-four grains.

Gold coins were issued in France by Clovis, A.D. 489. About the same time, they were issued in Spain by Amalric, the Gothic king; in both countries they were called "trientes." The "mouton," worth about nine dollars, was issued in 1156. Gold coins were first issued in England in 1257, in the shape of a "penny," of the value of twenty pence; only two specimens have come down to us. "Florins" were next issued in 1334, of the value of six shillings. The "noble" followed next of the value of six shillings and eight pence; being stamped with a rose, it was called the "rose noble." "Angels" appeared in 1465, of the same value as the latter. The "royal" followed next in 1466, of the value of ten shillings. Then come for the first time the "sovereign," in 1489, of the value of twenty shillings. The "crown" followed in 1527, of the value of ten shillings. "Units" and "lions," were issued in 1603; the "laurel" 1633, and "exurgats," in 1642; all of the value of twenty shillings. The "guinea," of the value of twenty-one shillings, was issued in 1663, of Guinea gold. In 1773 all gold coins, except the guinea, were called in and forbidden to be circulated. The present sovereign was issued in 1817. The United States "half eagle" was issued in 1793.

Gold, to the amount of $2,171,000,000, was obtained from the surface and mines of the earth from the earliest times to the commencement of the Christian era; from the date of the latter event, to the discovery of America, $3,842,374,000 was obtained; from the date of the latter event to the close of 1847 an addition of $3,056,000,000 was obtained; the triple discovery of the California mines in 1848, the Australian in 1851, and the New Zealand in 1861, has added, to the close of 1884, $5,558,626,000; making a grand total of $14,628,000,000, of which $5,818,626,000 has been obtained since 1843. The average loss by abrasion of coin is estimated by Professor Bowen at one-twentieth of one per cent. per annum, and the loss by consumption in the arts, and by fire and shipwreck, at $4,000,000 per annum. A cubic inch of gold is worth, at 3£ 17s. 10 1-2d., or $18.96 per ounce., $193; a cubic foot, $333,504; and a cubic yard, $9,004,608.

Gold to the amount of $1,081,000,000, is estimated to have been in existence at the commencement of the Christian era. At the period of the discovery of America it had diminished to $135,000,000; after that event, it gradually increased, and in 1600 it attained to $154,000,000, in 1700 it reached $398,000,000, in 1800 it amounted to $1,156,000,000, in 1853 it attained to $3,332,000,000, and at the present time the amount of gold in existence is estimated to be $8,166,000,000; which, if melted into one mass, could be contained in the basement of Bunker Hill Monument, which is a cube of thirty feet. Of the amount of gold in existence $6,000,000,000 is estimated to be in coin and bullion, $1,000,000,000 in watches, and the remainder in plate, jewelry, and ornaments. Of the amount of gold in existence $2,374,000,000 is estimated to have been obtained from North America, $1,739,000,000 from South America; $1,858,000,000 from Asia (including Australia, New Zealand, and Oceanica), $945,000,000 from Europe, and $1,250,000,000 from Africa. The amount of the precious metals now in existence is estimated to be $13,670,000,000.

Gold, as compared with former periods, in regard to its annual product, has attained, within the last forty-two years, to enormous proportions. At the date of the discovery of America it was but $100,000; after the occurrence of that event it gradually increased, and in 1800 it was $17,000,000, and in 1853 it reached its acme, when it was $236,000,000; it soon afterwards gradually decreased, and now it is but $98,000,000.

Gold has changed places with silver as regards coinage. Since 1726 the gold coinage of the French mint has amounted to 11,400,000,000 francs, of which 8,200,000,000 francs have been issued since 1850. Since 1603 the gold coinage of the British mint has amounted to £409,000,000, of which £253,000,000 have been issued since 1850. Since 1792 the gold coinage of the United States mint has amounted to $1,357,000,000, of which $1,257,000,000 have been issued since 1850. Since 1664 the gold coinage of the Russian mint has amounted to 900,000,000 roubles, of which 630,000,000 have been issued since 1850. The twenty-five-franc piece of France contains 112 grains of pure metal; the sovereign of England, 113 grains; the new doubloon of Spain, and the half-eagle of the United States, 116 grains each; and the gold lion of the Netherlands, and double-ounce of Sicily, 117 grains each. It was proposed, a few years since, to adopt a uniform system of coinage throughout the world, so that the coins of one nation may circulate in any other without the expense of re-coinage, "a consummation devoutly to be wished." The gold coinage of the principal countries of the world has increased from $77,000,000 in 1848 to $300,000,000 in 1854; in 1876 it declined to $250,000,000, since which it has continued to decrease, and is now but $90,000,000. The gold coinage of the United States mint, since 1849, has amounted to $1,281,420,038. In proportion as the wealth of a country increases it requires a currency of higher value. Gold, owing to its greater supply, and more convenient portability, is steadily gaining in the channels of commercial exchange upon silver.

Gold, in view of the large amount which has been thrown into the monetary circulation of the world since 1843, and the little influence it has exercised upon the money market and prices generally, has falsified the predictions of financial writers, a generation ago, upon both sides of the Atlantic. The following statement will exhibit the wholesale cash prices in the New York market, on the first day of January, in the respective years, of six of the principal articals of commerce:

1860.1872.1885.
Beef, per barrel$10.75$10.00$11.75
Pork, " "16.2514.00 12.25
Flour, " " 5.254.12 2.55
Rice, " 100 lbs.3.87 8.445.62
Corn, " bushel .93.81 .48
Cotton, " pound.11 3-4.21 1-4.11 1-4

War is the great enhancer of prices. During the Civil War in the United States (1861-1865), the prices of the above articles were more than doubled.

Gold, in the midst of its sudden plethora, was a perplexing problem to the financial prophets of a third of a century ago. M. Michel Chevalier (Revue des Deux Mondes, November, 1857) predicted,—"that a decline would occur in the price of gold, equal to one-half of its former value; that a period of peril was impending, full of inquietude, instability and damage to a great variety of interests; that the value of gold would be diminished, and that consequently wages and prices would be doubled; that the duties on imports, and the interest on the debts of the principal nations of the world, must necessarilly follow the same course; that it would inevitably involve a re-coinage of all the existing gold coins of the world, from time to time, in order to conform to the price of the metal; that the value of the twenty-franc piece would be reduced to 19 1-2, 19, 18 francs, as the depreciation descended; and he, therefore, recommended a cessation of the gold coinage until the lowest point of depreciation is reached; that the new gold fields were likely to prove as productive as at first for several generations; in no direction could new outlets be seen sufficiently large to absorb the extra production in such a manner as to prevent a fall in its value. It might fall until nineteen francs would correspond only to the amount of well being which could then be obtained for five francs." Poor man! He lived to see the utter failure of all his predictions; to behold France become the largest coiner of gold in the world; an exporter of the precious metals to the amount of $43,000,000 annually during a decade; the rise of the standard of gold from 15 1-2 to 18, as compared with silver, and involving a decline from 62 3-4d. to 52d. per ounce; great fear of a gold famine come upon the Directors of the Bank of France, and also of the Bank of England; the annual product of gold to attain its acme, four years before his predictions; its gradual decline, until it had descended to one-half; a new gold-field opened in New Zealand; and silver demonetized by his own country, Germany, and the other principal countries of Europe. M. Emile de Lavelaye (Ninteenth Century Review, September, 1881), states, "that the present annual supply of gold is no more than sufficient to meet the requirements of the expanding commerce of the world. The scarcity of gold has induced so great a fall in prices that they are now lower than in 1850. It is estimated that North America has contributed £14,000,000 of the stock of gold in the world." We have already shown that the annual product of gold has increased, at one period, thirteen fold, and is now, notwithstanding its rapid decrease, five fold greater than at the commencement of the present century; that prices have not been in the least degree affected by the increased supply of gold; and that North America has contributed $2,374,000,000 of the stock of gold in the world.

Gold has faithfully performed for the last forty-two years, and, in view of its abundance and prospective increase, will continue to support its role of a fixed standard of value, and a firm basis for the bank-note circulation of the principal countries of the civilized world, which is evidently growing gradually metallic, as a comparative statement of the amount of bank-note circulation issued, and the amount of specie held by the Bank of England, the joint stock banks, and the private banks of Great Britain the Bank of France, the State banks, and the National banks of the United States, at different periods, will exhibit:

1840.
GREAT BRITAIN.FRANCE.UNITED STATES.
Circulation£34,976,524220,005,695 francs.$87,872,171
Specie 8,751,342225,406,807 "35,207,690
1850.
Circulation£34,948,765481,552,000 francs.$118,984,112
Specie19,843,026458,820,000 " 45,379,345
1862.
Circulation£39,574,862725,417,563 francs.$126,599,167
Specie22,917,846324,915,234 "102,507,559
1885.
Circulation£37,215,9682,912,386,475 francs.$112,027,858
Specie28,146,8932,065,937,158 "139,747,080

Gold has robbed silver of the prestige claimed for it two centuries ago by Locke,—"that it is the instrument and measure of commerce in all the civilized and trading parts of the world, and its normal currency." Gold has maintained its present price for one hundred and sixty years, while silver has declined twenty-two per cent. within thirteen. When, owing to scarcity, gold advances in price, then we may fear, that, what the late Mr. Bagehot use to call the "apprehension point," is close at our heels. The amount of gold in existence has increased from $1,975,000,000 in 1843 to $8,166,000,000 at the present time; while silver, owing to the great attrition of coin (estimated by Bowen at one per cent. per annum), has increased from $5,040,000,000 to but $5,504,000,000, during the same period. Of the two hundred and twelve millions of dollars of the precious metals annually produced, ninety-eight millions are furnished by gold.

My Mountain Home

By William C. Sturoc.

Down in the valleys, where the grasses grow,

And waves the gold-rod and the meadow queen;

Where peaceful streamlets, with a languid flow,

Are calmly shimmering in the noonday sheen—

There may be peace, and plenty too, I ween;

But on the mountain's elephantine height,

Where thunder-drums are beat on bassy key,

And lightning-flashes glisten through the night;

And forests groan with storm-chang'd melody,

There let my home, 'mid lofty nature be—

That, near the stars, and near the sun and moon,

My eyes may gaze upon the book of space,

And learn the lyrics that are sung in tune

As rolling orbs their constant journeys trace.

General Knefler to General Wallace:

INDIANAPOLIS, February 19, 1868.

GENERAL. Upon reading the "Life of Grant," by Colonel Badeau, I was much surprised to see his version of your conduct on the first day of the battle of Shiloh. As I was present with your command on that day, as Assistant Adjutant General of Division, I desire to make the following statement of facts, as I can remember them at this time:

The position of your division, on the morning of the sixth of April, 1862, was as follows: Headquarters of the division and camp of the First Brigade at Crump's Landing; Second Brigade, two and a half miles from Crump's Landing, on the Purdy road, at a place, if I remember right, called Stony Lonesome; Third Brigade, two and a half miles from the camp of the Second Brigade, at Adamsville, on the Purdy road, and five miles from Headquarters of division at Crump's Landing.

When the cannonading was first heard on Sunday morning 'you issued orders' at once, for the concentration of the division at camp of the Second Brigade, at Stony Lonesome. The baggage, camp and garrison equipage was ordered to Crump's Landing, and detachments were made for its protection. "These orders were given before you heard from Headquarters."

About 9 o'clock General Grant passed up on the Tigris and in passing the boat upon which were your Headquarters, had a conversation with you. I did not hear what was said, but you immediately mounted, and accompanied by your staff rode rapidly to the camp of the Second Brigade. It was, perhaps, two hours before any order arrived. I know you were anxiously looking for orders, and finally despatched one of your aids to ride to the landing to ascertain if any one had arrived with orders, and conduct him to you. Shortly after that,—it must have been 12 o'clock, M., Captain Baxter, A.Q.M., arrived with orders, and brought the very cheering intelligence that our army was successful. I cannot tell at this time what the particular language was. The order was placed in my hands as Assistant Adjutant General, but where it is now, or what became of it, I am unable to say; very likely, having been written on a scrap of paper, it was lost after coming into my hands; a matter which I much regret, as I feel confident that its production now would conclusively demonstrate that you obeyed the command contained in it. I remember, however, distinctly, that it was a written order to march and form a junction with the right of the army, which was understood to be the right of the army as it rested on the morning when the battle began. Suffice it to say, that the division marched at once, and took the road which had been previously ascertained as leading to the right of the army, in the position it occupied on the morning of the sixth, and previous to that time. The road was then patrolled and picketted by cavalry detachments of your command. By your permission, I was marching with the advance guard, comprised of several companies of the Twenty-fourth Indiana Volunteers, Lieutenant Colonel Berber, commanding. We marched very rapidly, and to judge from the sound of the battle, we were approaching it fast. The advanced guard had reached the crossing of Snake Creek, near a mill, or some large building, where a bridge had been constructed, and from that point we could see the smoke overhanging the battle-field and distinctly hear the musketry, when an order was received, to retrace our steps, and work our way to the head of the column. We marched back at once, almost to our starting place, where we found the column was marching through the woods where there was no road (not even a trail appeared) to save time and distance. The troops were marching very fast, and I did not come up with you for perhaps two hours after the advance guard received orders to countermarch.

When the column was put in motion on the river road, which must have been after 4 o'clock, we were met by some staff officers of General Grant, Major Rawlins and Colonel McPherson, and another officer whom I did not know. They had some conversation with you, and then, for the first time I learned that our troops had been repulsed, and that we were then marching to join the right of the army, in its new position, at Pittsburg Landing. After some hard marching over execrable roads we reached our position about dusk.

The road the division first marched on led directly to the right of the army in its position as stated above, and we would have joined it, had it not been repulsed, before 3 o'clock P.M.

Having conversed with many of the division who were present on that day, it is the general impression that we marched between fifteen and eighteen miles. Now, considering that we had troops not inured to hard marching, some of them on their first march, the condition of the roads, almost impassible, and part of that distance through woods, without any road, at all, it certainly ought not to be intimated that you did not do your whole duty in endeavoring to reach the field.

I am General, very respectfully, Your obedient servant,

FRED KNEFLER.

Late Colonel Seventy-ninth Regiment Indiana Volunteers.

Reuben Tracy's Vacation Trips

By Elizabeth Porter Gould.

II.

"O mamma, did'nt we have a good time at the Isles of Shoals last summer?" said Reuben Tracy to his mother one evening last July as they sat together on their piazza. "Did'nt the boys stare though when I told them all about it in our geography class. Ned Bolton said that I knew more about it than the geography did; and afterwards he asked me if I had ever seen a mountain. How I wish I could see one and climb to the very top of it. Oh my, would'nt I look!"

And the boy's eyes looked as though they would look to the satisfaction of the most devoted teacher.

"Well," my boy, replied Mrs. Tracy as she drew him nearer to her in loving admiration of such enthusiasm, "only yesterday I received a letter from your uncle in Northampton urging me to take you and come to make him a visit, and I thought then what a good opportunity it would be for you to see your first mountain. Now do you know what one I mean?"

"Oh yes," answered Reuben; "but you mean two, do'nt you? Mount Tom and Mount Holyoke. I learned that in my geography. I can see it now in my book where it says that Mount Tom is twelve hundred feet high, and Mount Holyoke one thousand feet high." But Bob Phelps said that there were lots of Rattlesnakes on Mount Tom, so I should not dare to go there—but then—"

"Visitors don't go on Mount Tom proper, as there is no accomodation for them," interrupted Mrs. Tracy, "but on Mount Holyoke there is the Prospect House, which your uncle said last summer was a very well-kept house. Why, it is thirty-five years ago that I was on top of that mountain, when, as a young girl, just a little older than you, I went with my father and mother. A Mr. French had just taken the house. I wonder if he is there now. He seemed determined then to do what he could for the place. I can hear him now telling my father that a spot which had been such a favorite one for over two hundred years must have some superior claim upon the people of his day. I really would love to go there again. It is one of those places which once seen is never forgotten, and then I could'nt choose a better spot for your introduction to a lovely mountain view. But, my child, it is getting late and time for you to go to bed. Run along and I will write to your uncle to-night and accept his cordial invitation."

"And tell him" added Reuben, "that I wish every boy in this world had such a boss mother as I have. Ned Bolton says so, too;" with which unique expression of love and gratitude he kissed his mother "Good night" and went off to bed to dream of, well, what do you think? Of rattle-snakes, of mountains, or even of geography? Oh, no! only nothing, for he was a healthy boy who said he couldn't spare the time to dream.

After he had gone Mrs. Tracy sat alone for a while, thinking over this early visit of hers, with all the precious memories which it suggested of her own father and mother, now dead and gone. Then she thought over the past year's intimate life which she had enjoyed with her boy, and became more and more thankful that she had been enabled thus to get up out of her selfish grief of the summer before—when death took her other children from her—and empty her own life into the larger channel of life around her. She was pleased to think of the good fruits that had arisen from her plans for her boy's vacation trips, not only upon him but upon other mothers who had been led to follow her example. She thought of the Christmas week she had spent with him in Boston, where they had enjoyed so many interesting historical sights. And in the few weeks of the vacation which was now passing, it pleased her to recall the delightful days which they had spent at Concord and at Plymouth. And now, in this evening reverie, she smiled as she thought of her boy's telling his geography class all about the Isles of Shoals. How she would loved to have heard him—her fair-haired, blue-eyed boy, talking with all the intensity of his nature of what he had seen. Ah! life had left much to her yet; and she determined anew that Reuben should never want for any of her sympathetic help, either in his sports or in his growing student life. With this renewed determination she went into the house to write her letter to her brother at Northampton.

She was just finishing it when her husband came in from his weekly meeting with the city fathers. She told him all her plan, which he heartily endorsed, and practically helped by taking out his purse and giving her a generous sum of money for the trip, saying, "I wish, my dear, that I could go too, but I cannot leave my business this season of the year. But I am only too glad that I can make money enough for you and Reuben to go. I know of no better way to invest it for the future of our boy, God bless him!

"Ah!" replied Mrs. Tracy, her face all aglow with the joy of having her own thought so fully met, "would that more fathers thought so! but while some think only of a bank account, and the great majority think nothing of any account at all, only the few know the need of a child's mind digesting money, so to speak, as it goes along."

In a few days the arrangements were completed and Mrs. Tracy and her son left their home in Salem for Northampton. Reuben quietly enjoyed the scenery all the way from Boston to Springfield. In the forty minutes' ride from Springfield to Northampton Mrs. Tracy had a delightful opportunity, which she well used, to show her boy the winding course of a river,—the beautiful Connecticut—as they followed it first on one side and then on the other. When Reuben spied the house on Mount Holyoke he realized then that he saw his first mountain. On making inquiries about the mountain with a house on it, on the other side of the river, the conductor told him that that was Mount Nonotuck, a peak of the Mount Tom range, which was nine hundred and fifty feet high. He also told him that Nonotuck was the old Indian name for Northampton, which was just then coming in sight.

On arriving at the station uncle Edward met them with his carriage to convey them to his home on Round Hill. On their way there they passed the fine building of Smith College, which particularly pleased Mrs. Tracy and caused her to say, partly to herself, "Happy, happy girls to have such privileges of college life." "What," said Reuben, "girls go to college like boys? how funny!" When, after a moment or two of seeming abstraction, he said: "That is what papa meant the other day when he said that girls were as good as boys and could learn just as well as they could, is'nt it?" But before Mrs. Tracy could answer him they had arrived at their destination.

The next day they took a drive around the town, or rather the city, since a short time before it had become such. Its wealth of trees was a source of joy to them.

When they were crossing Mill River, on the old covered bridge on South street, uncle Edward stopped and told them that this was the only bridge on the river which was saved from the awful catastrophe of the bursting of the reservoir at Williamsburg, ten miles from there. When they drove off the bridge he told Reuben to notice the river as it flowed so peacefully along, in apparent forgetfulness of its dreadful havoc of ten years ago when about one hundred and fifty lives were lost, and factories, houses, and churches were swept along, as so many leaves, by the rushing torrent. He told, among other facts, how a cousin of his was seated at the breakfast-table with his whole family—a wife, two sons, and a daughter—when they were swept up by the waters, house and all, and all drowned. And while he was telling these incidents, which were so much to him, he made them more effective by driving up some little distance through the district which had been devastated. Thus Reuben learned of a peculiar tragedy, in a manner which no reading in itself could so well have taught him.

They spent a day or two more in looking around the different public institutions, the Clarke Institute for the Deaf, on Round Hill, giving them the most interest. But in spite of these attractions, Mrs. Tracy's keen mother-eye noticed that Reuben was getting a little impatient to climb a mountain, that mountain "with the tunnel" as he expressed it. So she decided to go there the first pleasant day; and as it was now the time of full moon she proposed to remain upon the mountain all night, much to Reuben's delight.

The next day proved to be pleasant, so they in company with Uncle Edward and his wife started for Mount Holyoke, a distance of three miles. A short drive brought them to the Hokanum ferry where they were to cross the Connecticut. As they drove upon what seemed to Reuben a wharf, he, accustomed only to the Boston ferry-boats, remarked that the boat was not in yet. And it was not until a moment later when he found himself moving away from the land that he discovered that he was on the boat itself! The way in which they were being borne across the river by man's use of the pulley and wire was a great novelty to the boy and could only suggest to his mother the most primitive days.

It took them five minutes to cross—about eighty-five rods—after which a short drive through a pretty country took them to the foot of the mountain. Then following a good carriage-road they were soon at the half-way house where Reuben at last found the "tunnel" which had given him so much wonder.

After examining the stationary engine at the foot of the inclined plane, in this wooden enclosure which Reuben had called the tunnel, they seated themselves in the car and in two and a quarter minutes were landed at the top, 600 feet higher.

Mrs. Tracy on going up felt a little fear which was overcome when her brother informed her that Mr. French was always at the top with his watchful eye.

"Yes, that is so," said a voice as they stepped out of the car, and Mrs. Tracy was introduced to the same Mr. French who was so much in earnest years ago when she visited the place to make it a success.

They talked over the intervening years, Mr. French telling her of his improvements, how the first railroad was built in 1854, and the present track was laid in 1867, and how more than half a million people had been up over it.

He showed her a picture of the first house built there in 1821, then of the one rebuilt in 1851, which was gradually enlarged, until it became the present size in 1861, ten years later.

She was particularly interested to hear him tell of the famous people who had visited the place, so much so, that he brought out for inspection some of the autograph books which filled a long shelf. He said that there were names recorded as far back as 1824. As they looked them over they saw at the date of August 12, 1847, in bold handwriting, "Charles Summer," with the testimony that the view from Mount Holyoke was "surpassingly lovely."

At the sight of the clearly written name "Jenny Lind, Sweden," at the date of July 7, 1851, Reuben exclaimed—"Oh, she was that big singer; mamma showed me the house on Round Hill where she lived and was married."

That he should remember this fact pleased Mrs. Tracy while his boyish enthusiasm led Mr. French to tell a pleasant little reminiscence of her visit there which was heartily enjoyed by them all. And that others may have the pleasure of hearing it from him on his own premises I will not repeat it here.

After a little further talk on the history of the place, in which Reuben learned that it was named Holyoke in 1654 in honor of Captain Elizur Holyoke, they began to enjoy the lovely pictures all around them.

It was fortunate for them that a heavy wind of the night before had taken away the clouds which had for a time hidden the mountains farthest off. Hence they were now able to see distinctly the Green Mountains in Vermont, Wachusett and Greylock in Massachusetts, and Monadnock in New Hampshire.

As they spoke of the many little villages which gave the human interest to the scene, Mr. French said that they could see from there thirty-two towns in Massachusetts and eight in Connecticut.

He adjusted the telescope so that they could easily tell the time on the clock at Smith College. He adjusted it again and they saw the Amherst College buildings. Another adjustment revealed Mount Holyoke Seminary at South Hadley; and in this way they saw the Armory at Springfield, the Insane asylum at Northampton, and other well-known buildings.

A sight of the unique Front street in Old Hadley with its four rows of fine old shade trees led Uncle Edward to promise his guests a drive through it before they should return to Salem.

The fine combination of meadow, river, hills and towns, as pictured through a colored reflecting glass, was a delight indeed.

In one of the views, Reuben spied an island striped with cultivated fields which Mr. French said was called Ox Bow; he pointed out another called Shepard's island, which, with Ox Bow, added much to the scenery.

The winding river suggested to Mrs. Tracy how much nature loved a curve. While Uncle Edward, who had visited the chief mountains in this land and in Europe, said that he always came back to this mountain view as the loveliest and the most restful of them all, although it was not the grandest or the most awe inspiring.

So the day passed on Mount Holyoke, giving them at every moment living pictures which no painter could equal. When the sun went down the moon came up to give her light, and nature reveled in her beauty.

The only painful shadow for Mrs. Tracy was when she felt sad that more of earth's troubled ones did not or could not come to drink in such peace and rest.

But such days must come to an end. And what can follow more delightful than a refreshing sleep on such a height. This they all had and were ready the next morning to return to Northampton.

As Reuben was anxious to count the steps which, on ascending the day before, he had noticed on the side of the inclined plane; he went down that way, while the rest of the party availed themselves of the car. He, boy-like, did not mind the extra labor and longer time which that choice involved, so long as he found out that there were five hundred and twenty-two steps.

As they descended the mountain from the half-way house Reuben gathered for a souvenir some of the beautiful laurel which, in full-bloom, was then adorning its sides.

A few days later after the promised ride to Old Hadley, three miles distant, which was extended four miles to Amherst to give Reuben a sight of the college where his papa graduated, Mrs. Tracy and her son returned to Salem. Mr. Tracy was highly entertained with Reuben's account of what he had seen, and felt more than ever that his money had been well invested. The rest of the vacation soon passed, the boy's active mind being profitably engaged in the interim of active, healthful sports.

And it is highly probable that by this time the geography class, with Ned Bolton as spokesman, has discovered that "Reuben Tracy knows more about a mountain than the geography itself!"

Gems From The Easy Chair

Christmas. There is nothing in the deepest and best sense human which in the truest and highest sense is not also Christian. The characteristic feeling about Christmas, as it is revealed in literature and tradition and association, is the striking and beautiful tribute to the practicability of Christianity.

Sermons. It is doubtless very unjust to the clergy to suppose that they turn the barrel of sermons to save themselves the trouble of writing new ones. Nothing but the levity of the pews could be guilty of such a suspicion. The preacher knows that one squeezing does not take all the juice out of an orange; and how much jucier a fruit is a good sermon! Moreover, the pews are so pachydermatous, so rhinoceros-skinned, that nothing but an incessant pelting upon the same spot makes an impression.

America. Whoever has seen a self-possessed and sagacious orator handling a tumultuous meeting as Phoebus-Appollo handles his madly plunging steeds, has seen the symbol of popular government, and understands why the sole fact of numerical force and brute power does not explain it. He who watches the ocean rising into every bay and creek in obedience to celestial attraction, sees in outward nature the law that governs the associated life of men, and which gives the American people faith in their own government, whether they can give a reason, for their faith or not.

National Bank Failures

By George H. Wood.

Occasionally the attention of the daily press of the country is called to the provisions of the National Banking Law by the announcement of the failure of some national banking association, and immediately it teems with comments, and recommendations as to amendments which should be made to render the law effective. These recommendations and comments usually show the most lamentable ignorance, both as to the actual existing provisions of the law and its practical working, and as regards banking matters generally. In the case of the failure of the Middletown National Bank of New York, the advice which has been given in the columns of the press seems of itself to be sufficient, if it had been given sooner, to have prevented the disaster. The Directors have been blamed, very justly too, for they looked on while their President run them into all its difficulties, and as usual the Bank Examiners have been held responsible for the disaster. Some have even gone so far as to suggest that a provision be added to the National Banking Laws punishing Examiners who do not detect irregularities in the banks which they examine.

The provisions of the National Bank Act as they now stand are as perfect, theoretically, as they can be drawn, to protect both the depositors and the stockholders. The law provides for the publication of sworn reports, from time to time, of the condition of each national bank. These reports must be sworn to by the President, or Cashier, and their correctness must be attested by the signatures of at least three Directors. These reports are required five times a year and it is impossible to see how, if the Directors do their duty fully and honestly, any delinquency on the part of the officers of the bank can fail to be detected by them. Under the law, the stockholders elect the Directors, at least five in number. The officers of the bank are elected or appointed by the directors and are subject to them. Thus far the protection the Act provides is based upon what, so far as financial matters are concerned, is one of the great controlling influences of human nature, viz: self-interest. The stockholders, in order to protect themselves, are expected to elect Directors who will look out for the interests of all.

The sworn reports made to the Comptroller of the Currency are published in the newspapers where the banks are located, and a copy sent to that officer that he may know that the law in this respect has been complied with. The stockholders can inspect them at any time as they appear, and can note any changes which occur in them from time to time. The stockholders are also at perfect liberty to make any inquiries that they may deem fit, in any direction which their intelligence may suggest to them.

In addition to the protection which the law gives to the stockholders, and also to the depositors, by requiring the publication of reports of the condition of the national banks, Bank Examiners are provided in the law; these Bank Examiners are appointed by the Comptroller of the Currency, and make their examinations at any time that he may deem fit.

A Bank Examiner to afford perfect security for the real merit of his examination, has a disagreeable duty to perform. He enters a bank, which by all the world is supposed to be well conducted and solvent, and to be managed by honorable men, respected and looked up to by the whole community. His position, however, is that of a Censor, and it does not permit him to assume what the world supposes. On the contrary, to make a good examination, he must take nothing for granted, and quietly act on the ground that something is wrong. "Suspicions are the sinews of the mind" in this case, and an examiner without them cannot expect to detect mismanagement or defalcation. The position requires tact as well as technical skill—tact not to offend unnecessarily or disturb friendly relations, and skill to bring to light all that should be discovered—and undoubtedly requires a high class of mind in the one that fills it well. Bank examinations are not the only security provided in the law, and it is ridiculous to assert that the Directors, stockholders and depositors should throw aside or neglect to use all the other means which the law provides to enable them to protect themselves, and rely entirely upon the Government examinations, which in the nature of things must depend for success on the sagacity of one individual.

The framers of the National Bank Act, while they did all that they could to protect the depositors and stockholders of national banks, as has been seen, were still not perfectly sure but that failures might sometimes occur. This feeling doubtless arose from a knowledge on their part of the weakness of human nature, and of the imperfections of systems of Government. That they felt in this way, is indicated by the fact that they have provided, also, a method of protecting, as far as possible, the depositors of national banks that do fail. They have provided for the appointment of receivers and for a distribution, under Government control, of such assets as can be collected from the wrecks of the failed banks. The stockholders of such banks are subject to the penalty of being compelled to contribute, if the deficiency in the assets requires it, an amount not exceeding the par value of the shares of stock held by them in addition to the amount already invested in such shares, to the fund necessary to pay depositors. This of itself would seem sufficient to be careful and place a live Board of Directors in charge of a large fund, considering the manner the stockholders of the Pacific National Bank of Boston kicked and squirmed when this provision of the law was applied.

The experience of the past has been that bank officers have concealed all their operations from the proprietors, and when failures have occurred everybody has been astonished. As an additional safeguard to meet this secrecy an organization has just been perfected in New York which is a step farther in commercial agencies than has ever been attempted. From one of their printed circulars it is ascertained that they propose to keep in pay a corps of detectives and other agencies, "as a check upon defalcations and embezzlements by bank Presidents, and Cashiers and other officials." But it is not exactly clear who will watch the detectives.

Elizabeth

A Romance Of Colonial Days

By Frances C. Sparhawk, Author of "A Lazy Man's Work."

Chapter XI—Unwelcome News

June was doing its best to make the world content. Little clouds floated through the blue sky, like the light sighs of a mood that must find some expression, and the air for all its softness was invigorating, it was so full of life and purity. This day, like many another, needed only to bring as fair hopes to the lives of those who looked into it as it did to the nature it overbrooded to make the faces its light breezes fanned as bright as the skies were, with only shadows of expression to give the brightness new beauty. But no such light was on Elizabeth Royal's face as she sat at the open window of her room with a piece of delicate embroidery in her hands. Her future had not opened out into life; the winter had killed its buds of promise.

After all, Stephen Archdale had not gone to England. His father and Governor Wentworth had insisted that it was much wiser to send an older and a better business man. "Do you want to make the best of your case?" the Colonel had asked incisively when Stephen hesitated. And the young man had yielded, though reluctantly. It would have been so much easier for him to be away and to be doing something. But at present he must think only of doing the wisest thing.

Elizabeth had not seen him; he had written to her father once, and had promised to write again as soon as he had the slightest news. He had tried his best to be cheerful, and had sent her a message that endeavored to be hopeful; but she saw that courtesy struggled with despair. She knew that they need never meet; but if this thing were true—she could not believe it—but if it were true, then happiness was over. Life in a June day has such possibilities of happiness; and that morning her eyes grew so misty that she took a few wrong stitches in her work, and as footsteps drew near the room, perceived this and began to pick them out with nervous haste. She had not finished, however, when Mrs. Eveleigh came in. As Elizabeth had expected, her first remark was a comment.

"What! another mistake, my dear? You know you made one only yesterday, and you can work so beautifully when you give your mind to it. It is a bad plan to have such a dreamy way with one. For my part, I should think you would have had enough of doing things in dreams and never knowing what they will end in. You would better wake up for the rest of your life."

As Elizabeth had heard the same remark numberless times before, its effect was not startling. In silence she went on picking out her stitches.

"Why not say you think so, too? It would be more dutiful in you," continued Mrs. Eveleigh.

"You take care that I am waked up," returned Elizabeth. "You don't leave one many illusions."

"I hope not. What is the use of illusions?"

"Yes, what?"

"Well, Elizabeth, it is not I that have disturbed them this time; you must thank him for that."

"Him?"

"Yes, he has come. I have just been leaning over the banisters, and saw him come in." Elizabeth did not look dreamy now. "He did not come forward at all in the modest, charming way of the other one, which you know irresistably wins hearts," went on Mrs. Eveleigh; "he marched along straight into the parlor and asked to see you, just as if he owned the house and all that was in it. So he does own somebody in it, I am afraid, poor child."

The girl's face was white, her violet eyes looked black and shadowed by heavy lines.

"Is it—?" she began.

"Oh, yes, my dear, it is your husband. He has come to claim you, no doubt. If he cannot get the wife he wants, he will have somebody at the head of his table. And, then, my dear, you know you are an heiress, not a person of no account."

"Nonsense," returned the other; "the marriage is not proven. He may have come with news."

At this moment a servant brought up Archdale's card. On it he had written a line begging to see her. Elizabeth showed it to her companion.

"See," she said, "you are mistaken. Probably we are free, and he wants to tell me of it first,—first of anyone here, I mean. That is not arbitrary, nor as you said, at all."

"Very well, dear; only, don't crow till you are out of the woods. Would you like to have me receive him with you?"

Elizabeth hesitated.

"No. I thank you," she said. "You are very kind, but perhaps it would be better to go by myself."

"As you like." And Mrs. Eveleigh's pride laid a strong hand upon her swelling curiosity, so that with an indifference well acted she sat down to her work. But as she lost the sound of Elizabeth's step on the stairs she rose again and looked breathlessly over the banisters, trying to catch the greeting that went on in the room below. But either through accident, or because the girl knew the character of her companion, the door closed behind Elizabeth, and Mrs. Eveleigh heard nothing. If she had done so, the greeting was so simple that she would have gained from it no clue of what was to follow. Archdale came forward, bowed low, and held out his hand to her as simply as Katie's husband might have greeted Katie's friend, and possibly have brought her some message. Elizabeth felt this as she laid her hand in his for a moment, a smile of relief and anticipation came over her face; and in reply to his question she answered: "Yes, we are all well, thank you." It was after the first moment that the embarrassment began, when at her look of hope and questioning his eyes fell a moment, and when raised again gave no answer to it. Both realized then how hard fate had been to them. But even yet Elizabeth would not quite give up the cause. She steadied herself a little by her hand on the back of the chair before she sat down in it, asking with the smile still on her lips, but not spontaneous as before.

"You have brought good news?"

"No," he said. "I am afraid you will not call it good news." He looked away as he spoke, but after a moment turned toward her, and their eyes met. Each read the meaning in the other's face too plainly to make reserve as to the real state of things possible. "The cause of all this cruel delay is explained at last," he went on. "The Sea-Gull on her way back to England was wrecked. All Bolston's papers are lost. He had a fever brought on by cold and exposure, and after he had lain for weeks in an Irish inn, he waked into life with scarcely his sense of identity come back to him. He writes that he has begun to recover himself, however, and that by the time we send the papers again, new copies, he shall be able to attend to the business as well as ever. For our work, he might as well be at the bottom of the sea."

Elizabeth turned pale.

"When did you learn this?" she asked.

"A fortnight ago. I ought to have told you of it before, but I hated to pain you."

She looked at him firmly. Then smiled a little through her paleness.

"Yes, it does pain me," she said. "But I don't despair. We are not married, you and I, Mr. Archdale, and I wish Katie would throw aside her nonsensical scruples. What matter whether Mr. Harwin was a minister? Why will she not let it go that it was all fun, and marry you? I think she ought."

"I think so, too," he said. He did not add his suspicions that Katie was acting upon the covert suggestions of his father which had so disturbed her conscience that she declared she must be satisfied that the whole thing was a falsehood of Harwin's.

"I wish we could find him," said Elizabeth.

"So do I", answered Archdale under his breath. She looked at him quickly and away again, feeling that her last wish had not been a wise one. "Yet" pursued Archdale, "you see that if Harwin's story is false, the whole matter drops there, and that would make it simpler, to say the least of it. Katie does not like the idea of having the court obliged to decide about it. She says it seems like a divorce."

Elizabeth flushed.

"Do I like it?" she said. "But anything is better than this."

"Yes," he answered, then seemed as if he would like to take back his frank confession. She smiled at him.

"Don't try to soften it, Mr. Archdale. We both mean that. You speak honestly because you are honest and understand what I want, too; because you are wise enough to believe in the absurdity of this whole affair."

"You did not think it absurd at first," he answered.

"I was overwhelmed. I had no time to consider."

"No," he said, "only time to feel."

"Don't speak of that day," and she shuddered. "If I were to live a thousand years, there never could be another so horrible."

He had risen to go. He stood a moment silent. Then:

"You are so reassuring," he said. "Yet, how can either of us be assured? Perhaps you are my wife."

"Never," she said, and looked at him with a sudden coldness in her face.

"If a minister has married us," he answered, "nobody has yet unmarried us."

The gravity of her expression impressed him.

"God has not married us," she said. "I shall never admit that." There was a moment's silence. "Poor Katie!" she added.

"Yes, poor Katie,—and Mistress Royal."

Elizabeth smiled sadly.

"You remember that?" she asked. "It would not be strange if you forgot everybody but Katie, and yourself."

"It would be strange if I forgot you, since you are,—what you are."

"I foresee," she answered, "that we shall be good friends. By and by, when you and Katie are well established in your beautiful new house I shall visit you there; Katie invited me long ago, and you and I are going to be good friends."

Chapter XII—Perplexities

Although Elizabeth had been so brave before Archdale, yet as soon as he had gone she sank into her chair and covered her face with her hands, as if by this she could shut out the visions of him from her mind. She lived in the land of the Puritans, and Indiana had not been discovered. She knew that those words which ought to have been so sacred but which she had spoken so lightly were no longer light to her, but that in the depths of her heart they weighed like lead and gave her a sense of guilt that she could not throw off. Even if they proved nothing in law, they had already brought a terrible punishment, and if,—if—. With a low cry she started up. Life had grown black again. But she was not accustomed to give way to emotions, still less to forebodings. In a few moments she went back to her embroidery, and to Mrs. Eveleigh.

Archdale left Mr. Royal's house with a new comprehension of the woman he had married in jest. Somehow, he had always considered that Katie and he were really the only sufferers. Young, petted, rich, and handsome, it had not come forcibly home to him before, however much his courtesy might have assumed it, that this young woman whom, though he thought she did well enough, he had no high opinion of, could actually suffer in the idea of being his wife. But he saw it now through all her brave bearing, and his vanity received its death-wound that morning.

Three days afterwards he was at Katie's home; he tried to feel that he had the old right to visit her. "Your friend is so brave," he said, "she puts courage into me. Katie, why don't you feel so, too?"

"Ah!" said the girl looking at him tearfully, "how can you ask that? It is she who has the right to you, and I have not."

"She wants it as little as mortal can," he answered. "I think except as your betrothed she does not even like me very well, although she was so kind when I came away." And he repeated Elizabeth's parting prophesy.

"She and I are the two extremes," returned the girl. "If Mr. Harwin is a minister, it will seem to me, as I told you, just as if you and Elizabeth had been divorced."

"Nonsense, love, you cannot separate what has never been joined together." He kissed away the tears that brimmed over from Katie's eyes. Yet as he did so, he was not sure that he had the right to do it, for the shadow of another woman seemed to come between them. He had confessed his dread to Elizabeth, but to this girl it was impossible; to her he must be all confidence. How different were these two women toward whom he stood in such peculiar relations, betrothed to one, possibly married to the other. If this last were true which of them would suffer the more? A week ago his imagination would not have seized upon Elizabeth's feelings at all; now he was convinced that it would be no less hard for her than for Katie; hard through her friendship and her pride. But this one's tender little heart would break. After all, it was only of her that he could think. The waiting was growing unendurable. Yet he felt that his father was right when he said that the easiest way, the shortest in the end, was to prove if possible that Harwin's story of his vocation was fabricated. Indeed, there was no case for appeal to the Court unless that were established. Let that fall through, and the lovers were free to marry.

"Have you heard" he asked after a time, "that Sir Temple and Lady Dacre have written that they are coming to visit us,—us, Katie? You remember they had an invitation to our wedding,—they shall have another, dearest,—and could not come then, but they propose paying us a visit in our own home at Seascape where they suppose we are living now, you and I. I told you about my staying with them in England and asking them to visit me when I was married. I was thinking then of my chances of being engaged to you, Katie."

"Yes, you told me of them," she said, and after a pause added, "You will have to write them the truth."

"It is too late for that to do any good. They follow close on the heels of the letter; that is, by the next ship."

"Then I suppose Aunt Faith will take them, either at your father's, or at Seascape. Which will it be, Stephen?"

"That house! It can never be opened until you do it, Katie; you know that well enough."

The girl sighed. Yet with all the sadness of her lot it was delightful to be loved and mourned over in this way; mourned over, and yet perhaps not lost.

"I don't know about that being the best way," she returned slowly. "You know Stephen, Uncle Walter is peculiar, and you could not entertain your guests yourself; you would not have freedom. Really, it would not be quite as nice for you."

"Always thinking of me," he cried. "It seems now that the only freedom I care about is the freedom to make you my wife, Katie."

"Yes," she sighed again and was silent a moment. Then she said, "But Stephen, if Aunt Faith is there, you know it won't be like anybody else, and you can show them the house I am going to have. Do you believe that?" she broke out suddenly. "Do you really believe that? This uncertainty is killing me—don't imagine that I could not wait for years, I am not dying for you, Stephen; I should not do such a thing, of course. But not to know! I must know soon; life is unendurable under such a strain."

"Poor little girl, she was not made, surely, to bear suffering," thought Archdale. And he went away assured that she was most of all to be pitied, that she was least protected from the North wind which was blowing against them all three. As to the house, she should certainly have her way about it. He saw that she was sacrificing her own feelings for him. She did not understand that it was making matters a great deal harder, she thought that she was making it pleasanter for him. Well, she should have the satisfaction of believing she had done so. It did not occur to him that the girl had taken the most effectual way of awaking a sentimental interest in the persons who were imagining that they were to be her guests. Katie was one of those people who illustrate the use of the velvet glove, for in spite of her sprightliness, she was considered the gentlest little creature in the Colonies.

Chapter XIII—Over the Threshold

Florence, Lady Dacre, with her hand on Archdale's arm walked across the plank from ship to shore, her husband on the other side of her and her maid following with Sir Temple's valet, who was devotedly carrying all the bundles, and interspersing his useful attentions with auguries as to the "hignorance of the Hamerican Colonies." Lady Dacre walked on with a light step, and eyes that took note of every thing.

"So, this is Boston?" she said. "I have always wanted to see it. You will think me in fun, but really, do you know, it has an odd sort of aggressive look to me! We imagine a certain humility in Colonies, but your people are more English than Englishmen. That is your carriage, there on the pier? How kind in you to come for us. And that is your coachman? Now, even he has a look that, on the whole, he is as good as you."

"He does not feel so," returned Archdale, smiling.

"Oh, no, I suppose not; it must be the exhilirating air that gives people that appearance. Such a sky as there is to-day! Do you have beautiful weather like this all the time?"

"No, sometimes we have a thunder shower."

Sir Temple laughed.

"Good enough for you, Florence," he cried. "What are you so absurd for?"

"For fun. I suppose you know Governor Shirley?" she added after an instant.

"Slightly. But he is an intimate friend of Mr. Royal,—one of my father's friends."

"Ah! yes. Well, what is the difference?"

"Then, last year," said Sir Temple, "we met some people in London." He named several whom Archdale knew.

"And there are two others here now," cried Lady Dacre, "or perhaps I ought not to say two persons, but one and his shadow. People call him a reckless sort of a fellow—the man, not the shadow,—but I think him charming. It is Mr. Edmonson, the best whist player I ever saw."

"And Lord Bulchester?"

"Ah! you know them. Perhaps we are going to meet them at your house? That will be delightful."

"Lady Dacre has a perfect passion for whist," explained her husband.

"You will certainly meet them there if they will do me the honor to become my guests," returned Archdale. Then something that he had heard came back to him, and brought a sudden frown to his face, but it was too late to retract. So, after he had made his friends comfortable at an inn, for they were to dine before starting on their journey, he wrote his invitation and dispatched it by his servant with instructions to bring back an answer. "If the rumor I heard is true, he will not accept," he said to himself.

[TO BE CONTINUED.]

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Life and Public Services of James G. Blaine, published at Augusta, Maine, his home. By the renowned biographer and historian, Colonel Russell H. Conwell, whose Life of President Garfield outsold the twenty others by sixty thousand copies. Mr. Blaine, his friends and his relatives co-operated with the publishers in order that the volume might be most complete and correct in all particulars. The Augusta, Maine, edition is the standard Life of Blaine. The people of this locality will directly be called on by the agent of the book; it is having a tremendous sale.

A Standard Volume.—Col. Russell H. Conwell's admirable biography of James G. Blaine has just been issued from a large publishing house in Augusta, Maine, his home. It is accepted as THE STANDARD work, and is thorough and complete. Colonel Conwell is better fitted for writing such a book than any other man in America, and all his earnestness, knowledge, and ability, will be found in the volume. Mr. Blaine, his relatives, and friends, co-operated with the author, and kindly gave him access to the fullest data and information. It is a large, handsome, illustrated volume, and is sold at a remarkably low price. An agent is now taking orders among the people of this locality.

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The authentic Life and Public Services of James G. Blaine, by the well-known Col. Russell H. Conwell, is having a most remarkable and phenomenal sale. It is from the well-known publishing house of E.C. Allen & Co., of Augusta, Maine, the home of the distinguished candidate for President of the United States. The book is splendidly illustrated, and is thorough and complete. An agent for the volume will soon visit the people of this locality for their orders. Wait for the Augusta edition; subscribe for no other.

CLERMONT.

TO ALL WANTING WINTER HOMES AND FARMS.

The most delightful and salubrious climate in the United States is to be found in the HIGHLANDS OF FLORIDA, called by some the "APOPKA MOUNTAINS," in the beautiful clear water Lake Region.

CLERMONT is located on gently rolling land, between Lakes Minnehaha and Minneola, in Sumter County, Florida. Soil highly productive. Amongst the best in the State for the raising of Oranges, Limes, Lemons, Bananas, Pineapples, STRAWBERRIES, and all kinds of EARLY VEGETABLES.

PRICES OF LAND.—Farm Land, $20 per acre, and upwards; Lake Fronts, $50 per acre, and upwards; Town Lots, 50 x 150 feet, $100 and upwards, according to location, AND ON EASY TERMS.

THE SOIL

Is in great part a rich, sandy loam, and is suitable for raising fruits and vegetables. These lands are situated south of the so-called FROST LINE, and you can market your fruit and vegetables raised thereon as early as can be done from any other portion of Florida, and earlier than can be done from any other State in the Union.

HEALTH.

THE HEALTHIEST location in the State. Good health is an essential thing in the profitable cultivation of a farm or garden, and the richest soil in the world may yield very poorly if the settler is unable to expend upon it his labor on account of chills and fever or malaria. NO WINTER to delay your work.

PLANT YOUR VEGETABLES IN OCTOBER and November, and commence to send your produce to market in February. THREE CROPS CAN BE RAISED IN A YEAR from the same piece of ground.

THE CLIMATE

IS DELIGHTFUL: flowers bloom the year round in the open air. THE SUMMERS in this high land are NO WARMER than in the North. The thermometer rarely indicates higher than ninety degrees.

THE MILDNESS OF THE CLIMATE and its bracing influence marks its excellence for all PULMONARY AFFECTION, THROAT AILMENT, ASTHMA, RHEUMATISM, KIDNEY TROUBLES, etc. Chills and fever and malaria are unknown.

A living can be made by the cultivation of vegetables while the orange-groves are being brought into bearing. Our water protection is unsurpassed, which makes it the choicest locality in the State for the fruit-grower.

Building material is plenty and cheap. Fish and game in abundance. Good schools and churches will be established at once. Clermont is to be made an educational centre.

It is expected that the Florida Southern Railroad will be built very near, if not through, the town within the next few months. Come and see the place and its natural advantages. It will speak for itself. A first-class sawmill has already been erected, and is in operation.

A GOOD INVESTMENT,

And the safest thing in hard times, is to have an Orange-Grove. This can be acquired by buying, say ten acres of land, at a small cost, say $200. Clear it up and set out your orange-grove, and while your orange-trees are maturing, raise strawberries and early vegetables, and send to the Northern market; these always bring high prices in February and March; or work at your trade or engage in business. In a new country you can always find something to do. Start yourself a home. When you have a five-acre orange-grove in full bearing you can be independent, and need not care whether stocks go up or down. THE RISE IN THE VALUE OF YOUR LANDS will make your investment a PROFITABLE ONE. INVESTMENTS IN REAL ESTATE seem to be the important feature which generally decides a man's prosperity. Such investments are secure and permanent, and not liable to the fluctuations that personal property is subject to.

VISITORS will be shown over the land in a carriage free of expense. Those who come with a view to settle, should bring money to secure their purchases as locations are not held upon refusal.

Large numbers of people are purchasing and preparing Winter Homes, and those who desire the best locations should visit the place at once.

The Titles to these lands are indisputable; Warrantee Deeds given clear of all incumbrances.

Information given. Letters promptly answered. If persons before visiting the place will write, full information will be sent concerning the route and other particulars. Address,

THE CLERMONT IMPROVEMENT COMPANY,

Minneola, Sumter County, Florida, or

WILLIAM A. HOUSE, Vineland, N.J.

Reference, by permission, to ARTHUR P. DODGE, No. 31 Milk Street (Room 4b), Boston, where maps can be seen.

STEWART MANUFACTURING COMPANY,

MANUFACTURERS AND DEALERS IN

Household, Office, and Store Furniture

INCORPORATED AUGUST 20, 1884.

Capital Stock $250,000

Number of Shares 50,000

Par Value, $5.00 each.

FULL PAID AND UNASSESSABLE.

OFFICERS:

President and General Manager, R. McLEAN, Boston.

Treasurer, J.R. O'HARA, 31 State Street, Boston,

BENJ. RACKLIFF, Architect and Designer, Boston.

Factory and Principal Office, 43 Beverly Street, Boston.

GENERAL PURPOSES.

This Company has been incorporated for the purpose of manufacturing Household, Office, and Store Furniture with the view of making a specialty of certain grades of goods over which it will have entire control, thus avoiding the direct competition incident to the general trade. Yet it will to a limited extent handle a general line of goods common to this class of business.

Management.—The management of the Company will be in the hands of those well known and experienced in the business, as practical furniture makers and able financiers, whose standing will bear the closest investigation for high moral and business character.

Mirrors and Mantels.—This business now becomes one of the branches of the Company, by purchase on highly favorable terms, and which at once enables it to possess a business of profit and thoroughly established, and ensures an income which places the Company at once on a dividend-paying basis.

Display Racks.—In addition, the Company has secured in like manner the entire control of these, the most valuable articles of store furniture that have ever been put on the market, and which have already received substantial recognition of their value and demand among merchants and traders throughout New England. This business has likewise become already established, and only requires the usual attention of standard goods to ensure a large and profitable income.

Factory.—The Company will for the present retain its factory on Beverly Street, which is well supplied with every facility for a large business, and in due time will secure proper warerooms in some desirable locality near the centre of trade in Boston.

Business Outlook.—Considering the outlook of the manufacturing interests for the coming year, investors are all agreed that whichever party may triumph in the approaching presidential election, the incoming administration will practically stand committed to a vigorous policy of encouragement and support to our manufacturing interests. Hence our far-seeing capitalists are wisely counting on a remarkable activity in this branch of industrial development; and consequently are predicting such a boom in manufacturing stocks the coming year as characterized mining stocks during the years of '78, '79, and '80.

Our Stock as an Investment.—That the Stewart Manufacturing Company's Stock will commend itself to the careful consideration of the most conservative investors there can be no questions, for the reason that it starts off on a dividend-paying business, founded upon a line of specialties over which it has supreme control. Thus, being entirely free from those leading contingencies which invariably surround the career of by far the majority of those establishments which venture into the arena of mercantile contest, depending chiefly on their wits to successfully compete with their associates in trade, therefore our stock must surely meet the wishes of investors, as not only a profitable, but a SAFE investment.

Southern Trade.—The Company will, as soon as practicable, establish agencies in the South, where it feels confident an extensive demand for our goods awaits the advent of our agents.

Foreign Trade.—It is expected that, within a few days, contracts will he concluded with one of our largest exporting houses for the sale of the entire surplus product of the Company for shipment to various foreign ports, thus enabling the Company to shield itself from the embarrassments incident to overproduction and dull home trade.

We only ask, and earnestly invite, a careful and impartial investigation into the merits of our stock and business to ensure a confirmation of our claims.

For further information the public is referred to any of the officers of the Company.

It is a matter of congratulation that our Company has already received substantial tokens of confidence from the capitalists of New England, a goodly number of whom are now included in our list of stockholders, rendering our ability to compete for business equal to the best.

J.R. O'HARA, Treasurer,

31 Milk Street (Room 13), Boston.

The

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Most Desirable Location and Institution in the United States for Invalids of all kinds. Conducted by

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S.R. FOWLER, Proprietor.

TERMS:—$2.00 per Day, Transient; and $7.00 to $10.00 per Week, Permanent.

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THE BAY STATE MONTHLY.

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Leave BOSTON, from OLD COLONY DEPOT. Cor. South and Kneeland Sts., at 6.00 P.M., (Steamboat Express). Leave NEW YORK, from PIER 28, NORTH RIVER, foot of Murray St. at 5.30 P.M., in Summer: 4.30 P.M., in Winter. SUNDAY NIGHT LINE (Summer only), Leave BOSTON at 7.00 P.M. Leave NEW YORK at 5.30 P.M. ANNEX CONNECTION TO AND FROM BROOKLYN AND JERSEY CITY.

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J.R. KENDRICK, Gen. Manager, BOSTON.

CONCORD STEAM-HEATING COMPANY

MANUFACTURERS OF

Patent Low-Pressure, Self-Regulating,

STEAM-HEATING APPARATUS,

INCLUDING

SHEET IRON RADIATORS AND

RAPID CIRCULATING TUBE BOILERS.

Patented May 11, 1880.—R. Oct. 24, 1882.—V. Jan. 30, 1883.—R. Jan. 30, 1883.—B.

HOBBS, GORDON & CO., PROPRIETORS,

SOLE MANUFACTURERS OF

THE CONCORD SUSPENDED RADIAL DRILL,

FULL SWING.

Patent Portable Steam Boilers and Radiators for Heating Stores and Dwelling-Houses.

THE H.G. SAW-BENCH.

Send for Circulars. CONCORD, N.H.

Publisher's Department

THE ENTAILED HAT; or, Patty Cannon's Times. A romance by GEORGE ALFRED TOWNSEND, "Gath;" 16mo., cloth, $1.50. Harper & Brothers, New York.

This book has had a large sale and has attracted much attention. It is well worth the reading, not only for the plot, but for the study of customs and manners of the olden time.

HIMSELLUF, 12mo., paper, 15 cents. Charles H. Whiting, Boston.

An American poem of unusual merit and great interest.

THE STORY OF A COUNTRY TOWN. By E.W. HOWE; 12mo., cloth, $1.50. James R. Osgood & Co., Boston.

An American novel, whose scenes are located on the rolling prairies of the West. It is a strong and thrilling story, which bids fair to become a classic.

MISS LUDINGTON'S SISTER, a Romance of Immortality. By EDWARD BELLAMY, author of "Six to One; A Nantucket Idyl," etc.; 12mo., cloth, $1.50. James R. Osgood & Co., Boston.

THE ADVENTURES OF A WIDOW. A novel by EDGAR FAWCETT, author of "A Gentleman of Leisure," etc.; 12mo., cloth. James R. Osgood & Co., Boston.

LIFE AT PUGET SOUND, with sketches of travel in Washington Territory and British Columbia, 1865—1881. By CAROLINA C. LEIGHTON, [formerly of Newburyport]; 12mo., cloth, $1.50. Lee & Shepard, Boston.

A BOY'S WORKSHOP, with plans and designs for indoor and outdoor work, by a boy and his friends, with an introduction by HENRY R. WAITE. Illustrated; 12mo., cloth, 1.50. D. Lothrop & Co., Boston.

WIDE AWAKE, volume 18; [December 1883, May 1884.] D. Lothrop &Co.

This publication has won for itself a great fame among children all over the world; $5.00 will pay for the Bay State Monthly and Wide Awake for one year.

MANNERS AND SOCIAL USAGES, by MRS. JOHN SHERWOOD, author of "A Transplanted Rose;" 16mo., cloth, $1.00. Harper & Brothers, New York.

THE HEARTHSTONE, FARM AND NATION; $2.00 per year. W.H. Thompson & Co., 404 Arch Street, Philadelphia, Pa., publishers.

A monthly journal in the interests of domestic and rural economy, agriculture, horticulture, live stock, current events, education, etc. Its sixteen pages nicely edited, printed and illustrated, deserve a cordial welcome to the domestic fireside.

MEXICAN RESOURCES AND GUIDE TO MEXICO, by FREDERICK A. OBER. Boston: 1884, Estes & Lauriat; price 50 cents.

An elegantly printed and illustrated book in pamphlet form as a supplemental volume to "Travels in Mexico." The first part contains a map of Mexico and fifty-seven pages replete with valuable historical and statistical information, while the latter part (35 pages) is devoted to such information and description as makes a guide book invaluable. We are glad to see this book, and, for one reason, because so little comparatively is known of Mexico. To capitalists, miners and merchants, in fact to the general public we heartily commend this book.

A TOUCHING INCIDENT.

A YOUNG GIRL'S DEMENTIA—HOW IT WAS OCCASIONED—SOME NEW AND STARTLING TRUTHS.

The St. Louis express, on the New York Central road, was crowded one evening recently, when at one of the way stations, an elderly gentleman, accompanied by a young lady, entered the cars and finally secured a seat. As the conductor approached the pair, the young lady arose, and in a pleading voice said:

"Please, sir, don't let him carry me to the asylum. I am not crazy; I am a little tired, but not mad. Oh! no, indeed. Won't you please have papa take me back home?"

The conductor, accustomed though he was to all phases of humanity, looked with astonishment at the pair, as did the other passengers in their vicinity. A few words from the father, however, sufficed, and the conductor passed on while the young lady turned her face to the window. The writer chanced to be seated just behind the old gentleman, and could not forgo the desire to speak to him. With a sad face and a trembling voice the father said:

"My daughter has been attending the seminary in a distant town and was succeeding remarkably. Her natural qualities, together with a great ambition, placed her in the front ranks of the school, but she studied too closely, was not careful of her health, and her poor brain has been turned. I am taking her to a private asylum where we hope she will soon be better."