USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Cambridge > Cambridge fifty years a city, 1846-1896; an account of the celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the incorporation of the city of Cambridge, Massachusetts, June 2-3, 1896 > Part 9
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Now the laboratory method, the work method, is nature's own way of fixing ideas. You swim, you skate, you play base- ball, you dance, you ride bicycles, by laboratory methods. So far as the children in the schools handle specimens, perform experiments, make observations, sketch what they see, arrive at some results themselves, their methods are those of the labora- tory.
The best Massachusetts high schools to-day are far ahead of the colleges of fifty years ago, or even of thirty years ago, in their facilities for individual laboratory work. For myself, I never tried an experiment in a college class, or worked with a piece of apparatus there, or took a written examination therc, or did anything there beyond sitting on a plank bench and lis- tening to the professor, standing on my feet to be quizzed by him, and going to the blackboard to do examples for him.
Learning by doing has received its most extended develop- ment to-day in the high mannal training school. The manual training school of my boyhood was the family woodpile and sawhorse ; and as for the instruction, - that was characterized chiefly by a certain insatiable demand for kindling wood that I found it hard to keep up with.
Most of the ideas that we call modern, however, are modern only in the sense that modern schools are beginning to reduce them to practice. They were the hopes of the last generation and the dreams of earlier generations. The laboratory idea - that was advocated by the great Comenius nearly three centu- ries ago. Dr. Leonard Hoar, president of Harvard College, advocated it in 1672. It was only three days after his installa- tion that he wrote a letter to his friend Robert Boyle in which he bewailed the "ruins " - that was his word - into which the college had fallen. Among the measures to " resuscitate " the college, Dr. Hoar proposed " a large well-sheltered garden and orchard for students addicted to planting," -the germ, you see, of the modern agricultural college. Secondly, “ an ergaste- rium for mechanick fancies ; " the word is a rich one and worth spelling, - e-r-g-a-s-t-e-r-i-u-m, coming from the Greek through
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the Latin, and meaning a workshop, - the first New England hint, so far as I know, of the modern manual training school. And, thirdly, " a laboratory chemical for those philosophers that by their senses would cultivate their understandings, for," said the practical president, "readings or notions only arc husky provender," - the first New England suggestion of the modern scientific laboratory.
It was of no use. Dr. Hoar was two hundred years ahead of the college and his times. It has been left for the Harvard of to-day, the Harvard of the city of Cambridge and not of the town, to rise to this early conception of the laboratory idea. It is an idea that belongs to the lower schools as to the higher, -to all education, not to sections of it here and there. The schools of fifty years ago knew very little about the idea. Those that considered it at all doubtless regarded it as visionary and impracticable. How often it happens in this world when people shake their heads and say things cannot be done that they are speedily thereafter confronted by the things themselves actually and provokingly completed and in operation !
Of course, the laboratory idea is something more than a mere idea. It isn't simply bustling about with things. It needs good objective points and right guidance. Particularly does it need instructors who can see the great superstructure at whose foundations the student is working, - the glorious end from the humble beginning. And the transcendent merit of the method to him who uses it aright is that it gives him a real practical working grip of what otherwise is likely to be misty, uncertain, and next to profitless.
I was at the great electrical exhibit in New York city recently. I heard the roar of Niagara there as it was brought over the wires from the falls five hundred miles away. I was present at the sending of that famous dispatch by Chauncey M. Depew from the north gallery to the south gallery of the exhibi- tion hall, a distance of 28,600 miles ; the dispatch traveling to the Pacific coast, thence back across the continent, under the Atlantic to London, to Malta, to Bombay, to Shanghai, to To- kio in Japan, then returning by the same route ; the discharge of a cannon announcing its departure from the one gallery, a second discharge fifty minutes later its arrival at the other, and a huge map of the world, with red lines for the wires and incandescent lamps for the stations, showing the marvelous pathway to the audience.
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I saw no end there of ingenious uses of electricity. Talk of Aladdin's lamp, - it is a poor little candle in the presence of this brilliant force. To the uninitiated a great electrical exhibit is an uncanny maze of marvels, while Edison, Tesla, and the rest are veritable wizards whom the lightning's obey. And yet with a few elementary principles such as any Cambridge high school pupil can fix for himself in school laboratory practice one can unlock the mysteries of the New York exhibit, barring always the inner mystery of electricity itself, and get a new view of that unity in variety which marks the handiwork of man as well as the higher handiwork of nature.
No one can compare the schools of fifty years ago with those of to-day without noting the progress that has been made in dis- cipline. This is a subject that concerns you pretty closely, my young friends. The success or the failure of modern ideas of discipline turns on your response to those ideas. The rela- tions of teachers and pupils fifty years ago were more fre- quently strained relations than those of to-day, - more like those of warfare than those of peace. Disciplining a school then was reducing it to subjection and holding it there. It meant external authority, physical prowess, ability to handle the sturdiest rebel in school, the relentless use of the bircli.
As many as three hundred or four hundred schools a year used to be closed in this state fifty and sixty years ago because of the insubordination of the pupils or the incompetency of the teachers. All that has come to an end. I do not mean, teach- ers, that that millennial time has come in which the trials of governing have ceased, but only this, - that you are meeting these trials more sensibly and more successfully than they were met years ago in the town of Cambridge. There are frail women among you ruling great boys in a superb way by sheer force of personality and tact, - boys who under the harsh dis- cipline of the old-time masters would have turned half of them out of doors.
The aim of the schools of to-day, so far as discipline is con- cerned, is to train you, my young friends, to intelligent self-con- trol, and to an intelligent regard, as well, for the rights and welfare of others ; in time you must be intrusted to your own control. The safe transition from the one control to the other should be effected before your schooling is over. It is precisely the transfer that good citizenship requires.
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Whether, my young friends, you are better seholars than the boys and girls of Cambridgetown, or more self-reliant, or better- mannered, or more manly or womanly than they, I hardly dare to diseuss. If I say you are not, the surviving boys and girls of Cambridgetown will rush to the defense of their children and children's children. If I say you are, these same boys and girls of Cambridgetown will rise in defense of themselves. The ground, you see, craves wary walking. It might be prudent to postpone such queries until 1946.
Edward Everett asked one of these pertinent questions about ,
Cambridge schoolboys nearly fifty years ago. He was onee in company with Dr. Woods, president of Bowdoin College, and approaching a certain schoolhouse of the town. Suddenly they were greeted, not with bows, as would befit the coming of two of New England's most aecomplished gentlemen, but with a volley of snowballs. "Has the age of boy chivalry," inquired Everett, alluding to this ineident in his Cambridge High School address, - " has the age of boy chivalry passed away ?"
There was a boy chivalry once that thrilled all Europe, - that of the children's crusade seven eenturies ago. Think of fifty thousand boys setting out unarmed to reseue Palestine from the infidel, to plant the cross for the creseent on the battlements of Jerusalem ! It was a wild scheme, and it eame to a dreadful end. The boys would have been really better off snowballing college presidents. But it meant some precious things after all. There was the stirring of young hearts ; there was the power of young ideals; there was the spirit of young sacrifice. What a young chivalry for Cambridge to be proud of this fiftieth year - how it would delight the shades of Woods and Everett - if to the fervor, the aspiration, the sacrifice of young crusaders, the boys and girls of Cambridge should add the golden crown of wisdom !
I have a pretty strong convietion - I am going to express it, come what will - that you are a little better off in every way than the boys and girls of 1846, because of the improvements I have mentioned. If you are not, you have something to an- swer for. And I express this eonvietion in spite of the fact that your parents and teachers are very prone to hold up before you the superior examples of their own wonderful youth. I regret to say that this is an old illusion; it was shown up in Eeelesiastes away baek in Bible times, for even
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then the people were wont to claim that the former days were better than their own; and I suppose that fifty years hence you yourselves, as parents and teachers, will be innocently tell- ing the same deceptive story to the boys and girls of that time.
Let me express the wish, my young friends, that you will all happily meet here again in 1946. You will excuse me if I do not come too.
For a closing sentiment, let me give you " The Cambridge Idea." You will find it defined in the "Cambridge Book of 1896." It comes from the wisdom and heart of one 1 who has proved himself an ideal citizen and whom the citizens of Cam- bridge, without distinction of party or creed, assembled last evening to honor. Get hold of that idea, my young friends. Let it lift you to that higher citizenship which is the sole hope of our country. Remember this : there is not a civic virtue - I care not what it is - that may not have its noble and exact- ing counterpart in the schools.
Municipal progressiveness, integrity, purity, reverence for law, whatever else adorns municipal life, - what are all these but expressions in a wider field of the same virtues that under- lie respect for school authority and institutions, that are em- bodied in school integrity and honor, that blossom forth in a love for order, cleanliness, and beauty in all school conditions, that incite to the highest and best in school attainments ?
While our elders stand for the virtues and graces of citizen- ship in municipal life, let us stand for the virtues and graces of citizenship in the life of our beloved schools.
1 Rev. David N. Beach, D. D., recently called to the Plymouth Church, Minneapolis.
GEORGE HENRY HOWARD.1
CAMBRIDGE at first seems to have been designed merely as a fortified place, very small in extent. Charlestown, on the north- erly side of the Charles River, had already been settled, but no line of separation had been established. Cambridge was without doubt selected as a fine place for a fortified town, soon after the arrival of Winthrop, in 1630. Houses were erected in 1631, by Thomas Dudley, deputy-governor, and a few others. It was ordered in 1631-32 to levy on the several plantations towards the making of a palisade about the New Town.
No definite line of division between the New Town and Charlestown was made until March, 1632 or '33. It was called " Newtowne " until May 2, 1638, when the General Court ordered that the New Town should henceforward be called " Cambridge." This is the only act of incorporation to be found on record.
The line established March 6, 1632 or '33, dividing Charles- town from Cambridge, or Newtowne, was substantially the same as that which now divides Somerville from Cambridge. Newtowne extended eight miles into the country from the meeting-house. The territory embraced what is now Arlington, and the principal part of Lexington. On June 14, 1642, still another grant was made by the General Court, extending our boundaries to the Shawsheen River. Cambridge then included the present town of Billerica, parts of Bedford, Carlisle, and a part of Tewksbury. The township had now attained its full size, - in shape somewhat like an hour-glass, - about thirty- five miles in length, wide at each extremity, and not much more than one mile in width in the central part, where the original settlement was made. Brighton and Newton are wholly on the southerly side of Charles River. That portion of Dedham now known as Needham was also a part of Cambridge.
Cambridge lost a part of its length in 1655, when the Gen-
1 Abstract of an address delivered to the pupils of the Thorndike Gram- mar School, June 2.
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eral Court incorporated the town of Billerica. In 1688, New- ton was incorporated, and became a separate township. The northwesterly part of the territory remaining in Cambridge - for many years called " The Farms " - was made a separate town March 20, 1713, called Lexington. Nothing more was taken from Cambridge for nearly a century, but one addition was made from Watertown in 1754.
The whole territory south of the Charles River was incorpo- rated under the name of Brighton, February 24, 1837. West Cambridge and Arlington were also taken, and Cambridge was reduced substantially to the present limits. Attempts have been made several times since for a further division, but the incorporation as a city removed most of the difficulties, and it is hoped no more attempts will be made.
In 1807 and 1808, the General Court granted to Mr. Craigie, and others, the right to erect a bridge from Lechmere Point to Boston. The first deed of a house lot in East Cambridge, en- tered on the records, is dated August 20, 1810, and conveys to Samuel S. Green the lot on the corner of Cambridge and Sec- ond streets. West Boston Bridge was opened for travel, No- vember 23, 1793. January 30, 1858, both bridges became free public avenues forever. On that occasion the bells in the city were rung, a salute was fired, and there was a long procession escorted by the National Lancers.
On the eve of the memorable 19th of April, 1775, when the British troops landed at Lechmere Point, under cover of night, crossed the marshes to the Milk Row Road (now Milk Street, Somerville), and marched through Beach Street to Menotomy, and thence to Lexington and Concord, Captain Thatcher and his company of Cambridge men were among the foremost to rally. There is a tradition that a British soldier, becoming sick, was left at Lechmere Point, and that the occupant of the house gave the alarm, which, with Paul Revere's more thrilling warnings, aroused the Minute-Men, who, the next day, fired that " shot that was heard around the world."
HONORABLE CHESTER WARD KINGSLEY.1
YOUR committee on tree were in some doubt as to what was expected of them, but after conferring together concluded that if they could find a location and a tree, that had some historical associations connected with them in Cambridge, it might be of some use to preserve the associations, by setting out such a tree in such a place.
We found in the " History of Cambridge," by Abiel Holmes, published in the year 1801, that in the early days of "The Massachusetts Bay Colony " (see page 9) "that in some of the first years the annual election of the Governor and Magistrates were holden in this town " (then called Newtowne). "The people on these occasions assembled under an oak-tree, which long remained a venerable monument of the Freedom, Patriot- ism, and Purity of the ancestors of New England." We further found in Charles Francis Adams's " Three Episodes of Massa- chusetts History " (vol. i. pp. 451-454), " that on May 27th, 1637, one of these elections was held on a clear warm day, when at one o'clock the freemen of the Colony gathered in groups about a large oak-tree which stood on the north side of what is now Cambridge Common." On this spot the late Abiel Holmes (former pastor of the First Church) in 1835 planted an oak-tree which did not long survive. By the as- sistance of Mr. John Holmes, son of Abiel, one of our vener- able townsmen, we were enabled to identify the spot where the original tree was located.
We also learned that Mr. Beard of the Shady Hill Nurseries had an elm-tree that he knew was grown from a scion taken from the " Washington Elm," which he would present to the city. This seemed to us a good reason why we should accept this tree, as any doubt about its origin would not attach to it as it might to a seedling.
We therefore accepted the tree, and have had it set out on the
1 Address delivered at the planting of the Memorial Tree on Cambridge Common, June 3.
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common nearly opposite Holmes Place. We also provided a granite tablet setting forth briefly why it is there, which will now be unveiled, and this inscription will be seen : "On this spot in 1630 stood an ancient oak, under which were held Colo- nial Elections.1 This scion of the Washington Elm 2 was planted May, 1896."
It is very interesting to read of the strong political contests of that early day. The parties were largely divided on theolo- gical questions. At the time we refer to, the parties were divided between the adherents of Mrs. Anne Hutchinson with her followers, who were the supporters of Sir Harry Vane for governor, he being a candidate for reelection ; while opposed to him was ex-Governor John Winthrop, with Rev. John Wilson and his followers, who claimed to represent the estab- lished church and the pure doctrines of the Bible. There was great excitement. "There was a large gathering from all the regions thereabout: most of the notables of the Province, whether Magistrates or clergy, were among the large number present. In the midst of the tumult Rev. John Wilson, a large man, then about fifty years old, climbed up against the trunk of the Oak-Tree, and, clinging to one of the branches, with great power addressed the crowd; so great was the effect that an election was at once proceeded with, and Winthrop was again elected Governor, defeating Sir Harry Vane and the adherents of Anne Hutchinson." It is interesting to note the points of difference between these, in that day, great parties, - Anne Hutchinson holding that the Bible revealed to us a gospel of grace and works, while John Wilson held that it was a gospel of grace and faith.
How happy we should be, that in our day, it is agreed that faith and works should go hand in hand, and no such differences of opinion as then existed now enter into our politics.
In that day no one could vote unless he was a member of the established church. The legal connection between church and state was long ago abolished, leaving every one to worship God according to the dictates of his own conscience; and we, to-day, dedicate this tree as a monument of the great advance that has been made since colonial times, in both religious and political liberty.
1 See note, p. 22.
2 See note, p. 22.
HONORABLE CHARLES JOHN McINTIRE.,1
FIRST JUDGE OF PROBATE, MIDDLESEX COUNTY.
I AM proud to call Cambridge my birthplace ; and I am glad to have had my early training in her schools. Looking upon you here assembled to-day recalls memories of the High and Latin School, when I took part in similar scenes, under the same master, surrounded by companions who long since have entered into the ranks of manhood and womanhood. Many of these have passed from earth, some laying down their lives on fields of battle in sacrifice for their country. All were greatly influenced throughout their lives by the associations and instructions of the school. You are soon to go out and take your places in the community, - the boys to assist in its gov- ernment, and the girls, as sisters, wives, and mothers, to guide and advise their brothers, husbands, and sons.
Why are we called upon to lay down our tasks and gather at this time to celebrate the anniversary of our city ? Not because we have any cause to rejoice in emerging from the simple gov- ernment of a town, - for the town government of New England is acknowledged to be the best kind of government, the nearest to the people, and from which they only depart when the com- munity grows too large to use it. Nor does the period of fifty years impress us as a very long space of time in the life of a municipality : Sixteen years ago we celebrated the two hun- dred and fiftieth anniversary of the time when our ancestors came here and founded their fortified town.
We come together because the half-century mark makes a convenient place to pause and contemplate what has been accomplished ; to do honor to those who through trials and struggles have laid the foundations of our beautiful city; and to resolve to keep in the paths so well laid out for us. It is because it is necessary frequently to call our attention to the
1 Address delivered to the pupils of the English High and Latin schools and the higher grades of the Parochial schools, at Sanders Theatre, June 2.
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duty we owe to our city and country in order that we may per- petuate good government.
Only this morning, at the Putnam School in ward three, I was greatly impressed with the importance of such celebrations as a part of our necessary instruction. While there, looking at the pupils, and taking myself back over the intervening period of years to the time when I myself sat there under the eye of Master Cogswell, I was struck by the presence of a number of bright olive-skinned, black-eyed children, who seemed more eager to hear and to see all that was taking place than their fellows. These, I was told, are the children of Portuguese parents who have recently come to our city in large numbers to better their condition. I learned, moreover, that but few of such children get so far as the grammar grade, the necessities of their parents causing them to be put to work as soon as they reach the legal age.
I reflected, looking upon these, that they have come to stay. They are to be American citizens, and, when grown to manhood and womanhood, to have their influence for good or evil in our community. They are soon to take part in the government of the city, state. and nation. What advantages have they had? What are they having in order to understand how to become good citizens under a republican form of governinent ? Their parents never heard of the Pilgrim Fathers, of Leonard Cal- vert, of William Penn, of Roger Williams, or of any of the founders of the colonies. The names of Washington, Frank- lin. Jefferson, Adams, and the makers of our independence are unfamiliar to their ears. Lincoln, Sherman, Grant, Sheridan, and the saviours of our country mean nothing to them. These children converse with their parents in a foreign tongue and upon subjects connected with a foreign soil.
In the northern part of our city are many other children who have but recently come from the French-speaking prov- inces of Canada. In Boston, whole districts are overflowing with families from sunny Italy, and others with exiles from Russian Poland. All these intend to stay. They wish to be, and it is our duty to make of them, good citizens of our free republic. Frequent celebrations like this serve to awaken their interest, to make them inquire, to force them to see, and hear, and learn that which they could never get at home, nor from the study of books.
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CAMBRIDGE FIFTY YEARS A CITY.
In Cambridge we are blessed with an abundance of object- lessons which illustrate the history of our country and our municipality. Every ward has them ; and I believe there is not a schoolhouse in the city, but the pupils of which in pass- ing to or from school are in sight of one or more. In this ward, the older portion of our community, there are so many, and they are so familiar, that it is unnecessary to name them. Each year, hundreds of people from far and near come throng- ing to see them and to gain inspiration. But in the other sec- tions they are not so generally known or so often mentioned.
In the Cambridgeport wards is the spot where the gallant Put- nam and his boys encamped upon Inman and Austin streets ; Fort Washington, which guarded the river ; and the building wherein was enrolled the first company enlisted as volunteers for the saving of the Union. In North Cambridge is the road to Menotomy down which the British came fleeing from their victorious pursuers on that memorable 19th of April; and the hallowed spot where our own citizens fell; also the site of Camp Cameron, where so many of our soldiers encamped during the last war, before going to the front. And, last but not least, in East Cambridge is Fort Putnam, the site of which is marked by the handsomest school building in the ward ; and the place beyond, on the bank of the river, where Lieutenant- Colonel Smitlı and Major Pitcairn, with their forces, made land- ing in the night preceding their day of rout and distress, after embarking across the river, at Boston Common, from whence they proceeded on their march to Lexington and Concord.
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