USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > Some interesting Boston events > Part 8
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THE RACE.
In the teeth of an intensely cold. and bitter wind before which the snow few fast and furious across the road from right to left, The Bantam slightly led. But The Man responded to the challenge and soon breasted him. For the first three miles, each led by a yard or so alternately ; but the walking was very even. On four miles being called by The Gasper, the men were side by side ; and then ensued one of the best periods of the race, the same splitting pace being held by both, through a heavy snow-wreath and up a dragging hill. At this point it was anybody's game. a dollar on Rossius and two half-dollars on the member of the feathery tribe. When five miles were called, the men were still shoulder to shoulder. At about six miles, the Gasper put on a tremendous spirt to leave the men behind and establish himself as the turning-point at the entrance of the village. He afterwards declared that he received a mental knock-downer, on taking his station and facing about, to find Bright Chanticleer close in upon him, and Rossius steaming up like a Locomotive. . The Bantam rounded first : Rossius rounded wide: ~ and from that moment the Bantam steadily shot ahead. Though both were breathed at the turn, the Bantam quickly got his bellows into obedient condition, and blew away like an orderly Blacksmith in full work. The forcing-pumps of Rossius likewise proved themselves tough and true, and warranted first-rate, but he fell off in pace ; whereas the Bantam pegged away with his little drum-sticks, as if he saw his wives and a peck of barley waiting for him at the family perch. Continually gaining upon him of Ross, Chanticleer gradually drew ahead within a very few yards of half a mile, finally doing the whole distance in two hours and forty-eight minutes. Ross had ceased to compete. three miles short of the winning-post, but bravely walked it out, and came in seven minutes later.
REMARKS.
The difficulties under which this plucky match was walked can only be appreciated by those who were on the ground. To the excessive rigour of the icy blast, and the depth and state of the snow, must be added the constant scattering of the latter into the air and into the eyes of the men, while heads of hair, beards, cyelashes, and eye- brows, were frozen into icicles. To breathe at all, in such a rarefied and disturbed atmosphere, was not easy; but to breathe up to the required mark was genuine, slogging, ding-dong. hard labor. That both competitors were game to the backbone, doing what they did under such conditions, was evident to all ; but, to his gameness, the courageous Bantam added unexpected endurance, and (like the sailor's watch that did three hours to the cathedral clock's one) unexpected powers of going when wound up. The knowing eye could not fail to detect considerable disparity between the lads; Chanticleer being, as Mrs. Cratchit said of Tiny Tim. "very light to carry." and Rowsius promising fair to attain the rotundity of the Anonymous Cove in the epigram:
" And when he walks the streets the paviours cry. "God bless you, sir!' and lay their rammers by."
Articles of agreement drawn by Dickens for the International Walking Match, signed by Dolby, Osgood, Fields, and Dickens.
SOME INTERESTING BOSTON EVENTS
DICKENS' INTERNATIONAL WALKING MATCH
When Charles Dickens was in Boston on his second visit in 1868 he and three of his friends got up a walking match about which few people know. Dickens had not been sleeping well, and so George Dolby, an Englishman, who was planning Dickens' lecture tour, and James R. Osgood, who was his travelling companion while in America, deter- mined to amuse the distinguished writer by arranging this interna- tional contest. Dickens and James T. Fields were the umpires, and one of the conditions of the contest was that these two should start from the first tree on the Mill Dam Road and walk towards Newton Centre for an hour and a half, and later when the real match took place it was agreed that Dickens should stand at this point in the middle of the road and act as the turning mark for the two contest- ants. "Boz" paced the course at such a clip that Fields became exhausted and had to sit down on a doorstep in Newton Centre and eat oranges, which Dickens said was the only kind of refreshment except a bottle of blacking that could then be purchased in that village. Dickens drew up the articles of agreement, which were signed by Dolby, Osgood, Fields and himself. The match was for "two hats and the glory of their respective countries."
The "Sporting Narrative," also written by him, gives an account of the match and describes how Osgood, the Boston Bantam, won a decisive victory over Dolby, the Englishman, after walking over the thirteen mile course on a cold, snowy day in February. Dickens describes his countryman as "a thought and a half too fleshy and if he accidentally sat down upon his baby, would do it to the tune of four- teen stone." Dickens further added that "the Bantam showed unex- pected endurance and (like the sailor's watch that did three hours to the Cathedral clock's one) unexpected powers of going when wound up." Dolby attributed his defeat to the fact that Mrs. Fields followed his rival the last part of the way and "supplied him continuously with bread soaked in brandy." The time of the match was two hours and forty-eight minutes. Dickens gave a dinner that night at the Parker House, which was a very jolly occasion, and some of the guests were Mr. and Mrs. Charles Eliot Norton, Mr. and Mrs. James Russell Lowell, Dr. and Mrs. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Mr. and Mrs. Ticknor, Mr. and Mrs. Aldrich, "an obscure poet, named Longfellow," as Dickens expressed it, and others. Bostonians loved Charles Dickens, who in return always referred to Boston as "his American home."
During this visit he gave his readings in Tremont Temple. The sale of tickets took place at the store of Ticknor & Fields, 12 Tremont Street, and lasted eleven hours, some $2 admissions selling as high as $26. Throughout the night there was a line along Tremont Street for half a mile, some of the eager buyers bringing mattresses, food and drinks. In New York his readings were fully as popular. It was noticed that the people at the head of the ticket line wore caps and were quickly spotted as speculators. A rule was therefore passed at once that no tickets should be sold to any buyer with a cap. Hats were procured at large prices from onlookers, and the front row seat tickets all turned up as usual in the hands of speculators.
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Dickens' first visit to America was in 1842. At this time the Bos- tonian's idea of hospitality consisted of an invitation to occupy a place in the family pew at church, and Dickens said that he was offered as many sittings as would have accommodated many large families. There is even a story, not credited to Dickens, of a Bostonian who had been entertained very cordially in Europe; his former hostess came to Boston and received from her former guest an invitation to call at his house after tea and then go to church! Boston has long since lived down the reputation she used to have of being cold to strangers. Dickens came over in the Britannia on his first trip, and in the Cuba the last time.
The following bright verses were written and sung by Joseph M. Field at a dinner given to Dickens in Boston on February 1, 1842 :-
THE WERY LAST OBSERWATIONS OF WELLER, SENIOR
Remember wot I says, Boz, You're goin' to cross the Sea;
A blessed vay avays, JZ, To wild Amerikey;
A blessed set of savages, As books of travels tells;
No Guv'nor's eye to watch you, Boz, Nor even Samivel's.
They've 'stablish'd a steam line, Boz, A wi'lent innowation!
It's nothing but a trap, to 'tice Our floatin' population; A set of blessed cannibals- My warnin' I repeats :-
For ev'ry vun they catches, Boz, Without ado they eats!
They'll eat you, Boz, in Boston! and They'll eat you in New-York:
Wherever caught, they'll play a bles- -sed game of knife and fork! There's prayers in Boston, now, that Cu- -nard's biler may not burst; Because their savage hope it is, Dear Boz, to eat you first!
They lately caught a Prince, Boz, A livin' vun, from France; And all the blessed nation, Boz, Assembles for a dance! They spares him thro' the ev'nin', Boz, But with a hungry stare; Contrives a early supper, tho', And then they eats him there!
Lord how they gobbled "Pickwick"-fate Which "Oliver" befel: And watering mouths met "Nic," and "Smike," And watering eyes as well;
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Poor "Nell" was not too tender, Boz, Nor ugly "Quilp" too tough; And "Barnaby"-and blest if e'er I thinks they'll have enough!
I'll tell you wot you does, Boz, Since go it seems you vill; If you vould not expose, Boz, Yourself their maws to fill; Just "Marryatt," or "Trollope," Boz, Within your pockets hem;
For blow me if I ever thinks They'll ever swallow them!
FIRST TELEPHONE MESSAGE IN BOSTON
"Mr. Watson, please come here, I want you," were the first words sent over a telephone. Professor Alexander Graham Bell made this remark to Thomas A. Watson at No. 5 Exeter Place, Boston, on that memorable day, March 10, 1876. Had he realized that this sentence would be handed down to the world he would undoubtedly have thought out a message as fitting as were the first words that were sent over the Morse Telegraph, which were, "What has God wrought?"
The details leading up to this event are most interesting. Pro- fessor Bell was a teacher of deaf mutes at Boston University, and was special instructor of the deaf grandson of Mrs. George Sanders of Salem at whose house he resided for several years, during which time he did much experimenting. The house stood on the site of the present Y. M. C. A. building. At this time he was interested in the "harmonic telegraph," and he asked Thomas A. Watson to help him make certain parts of the mechanism. Mr. Watson was an elec- trician in Charles Williams' workshop at 109 Court Street, Boston, and received a splendid training under him. Watson said that most of the inventors had an "angel" whom they hypnotized into paying their bills. One of the experiments at this shop was with a new electric engine, and it was arranged that nitric acid was to be poured into the iron tanks to generate the electric current. The acid was poured in, and the inventor, "angel" and workman had a race to see who could get out of the shop first. Mr. Watson frankly admits that he won, as he was "first away."
The "harmonic telegraph" was not a success; had it been, the telephone might not have been invented for some years. It was while working on the telegraph that Professor Bell conceived the idea of the telephone, and he and Watson at once set to work on this invention. A wire connecting two rooms was set up in the upper story of Williams' office, which was still at 109 Court Street. While experimenting, Bell, who was at one end of the wire, suddenly shouted out to his fellow worker at the other end of the line, "Don't change anything." He had heard the first sound ever transmitted by tele- phone. This was on June 2, 1875. The faint sound that Bell had heard meant that the speaking telephone was at that moment born.
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Mr. Watson was present when the picture shown below was taken, and he very kindly explained where he and Professor Bell stood when the first sound was heard. These two inventors then ran a wire down two flights of stairs in their building, and this was "the first telephone line " ever put up. The building where these tests were made is still standing, the lower floor being occupied by a theatre. Then followed on March 10 of the following year the first sentence ever spoken over a telephone, which we have described. Bell's telephone was exhibited at the Philadelphia Exposition in 1876. Progress was rapid, and on October 9, 1876, Mr. Watson wrote that "we are ready to take the
Attic of Williams' workshop where the first sound was heard over a telephone. Professor Bell stood on one side of the post, and Professor Watson on the other side, each being in a small room at the time.
baby out doors for the first time." The private wire of the Walworth Manufacturing Company running between Boston and Cambridge was loaned for this test. Bell's voice came across the wire, "Ahoy, Ahoy!" and the first "long distance" connection began. The word "Ahoy" has now given place to "Hello." The whole conversation appeared in the Advertiser the next morning, and the report made a tremendous sensation. Bell and Watson danced a war dance at their rooms at 5 Exeter Place, and their landlady, who did not appreciate their new discovery, ordered them to leave if they ever again made such a noise. Watson's old teacher, Moses G. Farmer, called on them within a few days and declared he ought to have made the discovery, and added that "if Bell had known anything about electricity he would never have invented the telephone."
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SOME INTERESTING BOSTON EVENTS
The first permanent telephone line was installed between Mr. Williams' office on Court Street and his house in Somerville. The first newspaper report transmitted by telephone was sent by Henry M. Batchelder in Salem to the Boston Globe on February 12, 1877. Gardiner G. Hubbard, Professor Bell's father-in-law, and Thomas Sanders, Treasurer of the Company, were staunch backers of the
DIAMOND
03 BOSTI
=NEW
. .
NEW PALACZ
EW PALACE
DEST
NEW PALACE THEATRE
PHOTO-PLAYS
ALL TIMES
EVERY MON.ANO TUES. CHARLES CHAPLIN COMEDIES WED & THURS. TRI. AND SAT MASTER KEY Exploits of Elaine
AND OTHER FEATURES
ITALIAN ARTISTS
THE MAR KEY .
NEW
The first telephone message was heard in the upper story of this building, now occupied by the New Palace Theatre, 109 Court Street.
enterprise. Hubbard offered the Bell patents to the Western Union Telegraph Company. The offer was rejected, and two years later these same patents were worth $25,000,000. Professor Bell began to lect- ure in 1877, his first appearance being at the Essex Institute in Salem. Oliver Wendell Holmes and Henry W. Longfellow were among those who signed a request for lectures in Boston. Bell lectured while Watson on the other end of the wire talked, sang and shouted. Mr. Watson said that never before had such poor singing been received with such tremendous applause. On one occasion Watson at Middle-
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town, Conn., talked at the same time to New Haven and Hartford, but the songs didn't come in at the right time during the lecture. These demonstrations stirred up a great demand for telephones, and the public was ready for the telephone long before the inventors were ready for the public.
The automatic switch, the switchboard, and the Blake transmitter, invented by Francis Blake, did a great deal to perfect the telephone. Mr. Watson mentions his excitement when the company hired its first book-keeper, Robert W. Devonshire, then Thomas D. Lockwood as lawyer, and George W. Pierce as Watson's private clerk, who remained in the employ of the company until January 1, 1914, when he was retired. Mr. Devonshire is now Vice-President, and Mr. Lockwood Patent Attorney, of the Company. Mr. Watson writes that "David had hit Goliath squarely in the forehead with a rock labelled Patent No. 174,465," winning a decision over the Western Union Telegraph.
Mr. Theodore N. Vail, President of the American Telephone & Telegraph Company, in his 1914 report mentions that when Professor Bell and Mr. Watson talked between New York and San Francisco they could hear each other more clearly than when they held their first conversation in two rooms of the same building, the old telephone instruments being used for the later test. The Boston-San Francisco line of 3,505 miles was opened on January 25, 1915. The Bell System in the United States has 8,648,993 stations, a wire mileage of 17,475,594 miles, and an average of 27,848,000 calls per day. The gross revenue for 1914 was $226,000,000.
President Vail in his report says that "it is a long step from a hardly intelligible telephonic conversation between two rooms to a perfectly easy, low voiced conversation between the extremes of our land, East, West, North and South."
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Date Due
AUTHORITIES
AMONG the authorities consulted in the preparation of this brochure, and to whom the author desires to acknowledge his indebtedness, are the following:
GENERAL REFERENCES
The Memorial History of Boston, by Justin Winsor.
History of Boston, by Samuel G. Drake.
History of Boston, by Caleb H. Snow.
Romantic Days in the Early Republic, by Mary C. Crawford.
Old Boston in Colonial Days, by Mary C. Crawford.
Social Life in Old New England, by Mary C. Crawford.
Old Boston Days and Ways, by Mary C. Crawford.
Dealings with the Dead, by Lucius M. Sargent.
New England Legends and Folk Lore, by S. A. Drake.
Old Boston Boys, by James d'Wolf Lovett.
Old Landmarks and Historic Personages, by S. A. Drake.
Figures of the Past, by Josiah Quincy.
Boston, by M. A. DeWolfe Howe.
Historic Towns, by Henry Cabot Lodge.
Curiosities of History, by William W. Wheildon.
Boston Events, by Edward H. Savage.
Memoirs of a Hundred Years, Edward Everett Hale.
SPECIAL REFERENCES
The Makers of Maine, by Herbert Edgar Holmes.
Nooks and Corners of the New England Coast, by S. A. Drake.
William Blackstone, by Thomas C. Amory.
Merry Mount, by Motley.
Curious Punishments of Bygone Days, by Alice Morse Earle.
Strange and Curious Punishments, by Henry W. Brooks.
Ignominious Punishments and the Massachusetts Currency, by A. McFarland Davis.
Beacon Hill, The Beacon and the Monument, by W. W. Wheildon.
Sentry or Beacon Hill-The Beacon Monument, by W. W. Wheildon.
The State House, by Ellen Mudge Burrill.
Gov. Winthrop's Journal.
History of Harvard University, by Josiah Quincy.
The College in Early Days, by A. McFarland Davis.
The Laws of Harvard College, by Josephus Willard, 1795.
Boston Common, by Samuel Barker.
Early Days on Boston Common, by Mary Farwell Ayer.
A Brief History of the Old North Church.
Christ Church, by C. K. Bolton.
Historical Account of Christ Church, by Rev. Henry Burroughs.
Curiosities of the Lottery, by Henry M. Brooks.
Tales of Province House, by Hawthorne.
First and Second Banks of the United States, by National Monetary Commission. Money and Banking, by Horace White.
A Sketch of the Tour of General Lafayette, by John Foster.
Lafayette in America in 1824 and 1825, by A. Levasseur.
History of the Granite Railway Co., by Alfred Mudge and Son.
History of the Town of Quincy, by George Whitney.
The Garrison Mob, by Theodore Lyman, 3rd.
Trials of a Public Benefactor (Life of Dr. Morton), by Nathan P. Rice.
A Consideration of the Introduction of Surgical Anesthesia, by W. H. Welch. Voyage of the Jamestown, by R. B. Forbes.
The Monument to Robert Gould Shaw, Dedication Exercises, etc.
Charles Dickens as I knew him, by Dolby.
Birth and Babyhood of the Telephone, by Thomas A. Watson.
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DATE DUE
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999
HOV $ 1000
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APR | ฿ 1995
APR 16 1996
FEB 2, 1999
14 2000
HAY 2 1 2002
201-5503
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BOSTON COLLEGE 3 9031 01565711 7
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Some interesting Boston events .
Boston College Libraries Chestnut Hill, Mass. 02167
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