The memorial history of Boston : including Suffolk County, Massachusetts. 1630-1880, Vol. IV, Part 2

Author: Winsor, Justin, 1831-1897, ed; Jewett, C. F. (Clarence F.), publisher
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Boston : Osgood
Number of Pages: 760

USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > The memorial history of Boston : including Suffolk County, Massachusetts. 1630-1880, Vol. IV > Part 2

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Mayor of Boston. See an account of his mayor- alty in Mr. Bugbee's chapter in Vol. III. His eldest son is President Eliot, of Harvard Uni- versity; and his youngest daughter, the wife of Rev. Henry W. Foote. N. E. Hist. and Geneal. Reg., July, 1869, p. 339. - ED.]

1 [It was in the house (at the corner of Court and Tremont streets) of this Judge Phillips that Washington was received during his visit to Boston in 1789. When the General left, a piece of ribbon was tied upon the chair which he had occupied, and there remained till his death, when a band of crape was substituted. - ED.]

2 "The Town Treasurer presents his most respectful compliments to those citizens who have tax-bills unpaid, and requests the favor of them to pay the same to the collectors imme- diately, as he has large drafts from the Select- men and Overseers of the Poor in favor of mechanics, schoolmasters, and others, to whom, especially at the present season, money would be very acceptable." - Columbian Centinel, Dec. 16, 1795.

SOCIAL LIFE IN BOSTON.

while to quote a passage from Mr. Amory's interesting biography of Judge Sullivan, which gives a fair picture of former habits: -

" When one of his sons, still too young to realize very distinctly the difference be- tween right and wrong, exchanged a knife he had borrowed of a servant for cake an itinerant dealer had tempted him to purchase, his father, learning the circumstances on his return from his office, investigated the facts, and then bade the child follow him to the stable. Selecting as he went a knotted stick, he first impressed upon the mind of the child a full sense of the injustice and criminality of his conduct, and, that he might not forget the admonition, administered a severe chastisement."

. It is easy to condemn such heroic dealing with the faults of children, - easier, perhaps, than to show that those modern doctrines, which con- sider sin an infirmity of nerve element for which our ancestors and environ- ments are responsible, tend to lessen the power of that unpleasant factor in this earthly life.

Funerals were occasions of much ceremony, and all associations with the close of life were of a gloomy character. The doleful sound from the tombs, to which a favorite hymn challenged the attention, was audible in all the pauses of existence. The windows of the house which death had en- tered were closed for a long period, and the mourners nursed their grief as if to make strongest claim for the comfort promised in the beatitude. Those who lost parents wore mourning for three years, and widows never left it off. The dead were carried by bearers, and must be borne past the town house or through a portion of the main street. Nothing was omitted from the rites of sepulture which might add a pang to the pain of separa- tion. It is to the honor of Boston that here was initiated that system of garden cemeteries which has done so much to invest the close of life with soothing associations. The tender allusion to the gardens of Eden and Gethsemane in the poem of Charles Sprague, at the dedication of Mount Auburn, exhibits a feeling of which there is small trace in our earlier mor- tuary literature.1

As wealth increased, public amusements made their appearance. The evolution of the theatre through the " moral lecture " it is not within my province to notice.2 Shakespeare, in shreds and patches, preceded the ad- vent of the stage. A Dialogue on the Horrid Crime of Murder, by Mr. and Mrs. Smith, was the forerunner of the noble tragedy of Macbeth, which was played before the close of the century. For that large portion of the people who were unwilling to patronize dramatic entertainments other recreation was provided. Some of the shows of the day testify to the tastes of our ancestors, as well as to the resources of those who catered for their patron-

" His word we trust ! When life shall end, Here be our long, long slumber passed ; To the first garden's doom we bend, And bless the promise of the last."

2 [See the chapter by Colonel W. W. Clapp in Vol. IV .- ED.] VOL. 1V .- 2.

THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.

age. At the Columbian Museum might be seen " an elegant temple of fame," tenanted by the waxen image of John Adams, " on either side of him Liberty with staff and cap, and Justice with sword and balance." Con- fronting cach other in the same plastic material were "the New York Beauty" and " the Boston Beauty," - the latter, it is to be hoped, presenting a suit- able superiority in charms. "Sir Charles Grandison and the beautiful Miss Harriet Byron " were represented as characters well known to all acquainted with literature, - there being as yet no struggle for existence in an over- populated world of romance. Those who found that Sunday was not long enough to exhaust their interest in Scriptural personages might gaze on "David and Goliath as large as life; Goliath being twelve feet in height." Exhibition's of animals were occasionally brought to" Boston. A porcu- pine, a bear, a raccoon, and a rabbit were announced by their proprietor as " very great curiosities." There was an elephant which, in conformity with the habits of the day, drank " all kinds of spirituous liquors; " and the public were assured that "thirty bottles of porter, of which he draws the corks himself, is not an uncommon allowance." Neither would the pro- verbial " short life and a merry one " hold good in the case of this gigantic toper; spectators were informed that " he will probably live between two and three hundred years," - an announcement which shows that the effect of alcohol upon animal tissue was not then so well understood as it is thought to be at present. After witnessing these exhibitions our ancestors might refresh themselves at Vila's, the Shakespeare Coffee-house in Water Street, or the more aristocratic restaurant of Julien. If ladies were of the party, they may have visited a confectioner's shop on Newberry Strect, where ice-cream was to be had. It seems strange that this refreshing article was seldom or never seen at private parties during the period of which I have to treat. But there was no system for storing the abundant product of New-England winters, and the age of essences was yet to come : we find the dealer in ice-cream using the newspaper to remind his patrons that "the fruit-flavors of raspberry, strawberry, currant, and pineapple" could be fur- nished only in the seasons of those productions.

In writing of life in Boston during the closing decade of the last century, · it is impossible to omit some reference to the convulsion in France which so deeply affected the course of history in America, as well as throughout the civilized world. The opening acts of the French Revolution had excited general satisfaction, and it was confidently expected that our generous allies were to enjoy a system of liberty as rational as our own. If the cooler heads were sceptical upon the subject, they could not protest against the hopeful current of public opinion ; and, notwithstanding some untoward events, that current received little check until it culminated in the civic banquet of 1793. Two days after the execution of Louis XVI. a festival was held in Boston to celebrate the reign of righteousness which the revo- lutionists of France had inaugurated on earth. A New-England January

SOCIAL LIFE IN BOSTON.

is not the most favorable time for feasting in the open air; but the enthusi- asm was warm enough to disregard the thermometer. An ox of one thou- sand pounds' weight had been roasted whole. The horns of the animal having been gilt, it was lifted upon a car twenty feet high; and, posing as " a peace-offering to Liberty and Equality," was drawn by fifteen horses through the principal streets. Two hogsheads of punch, each drawn by six horses, and a cart bearing a generous quantity of bread, made up the procession. A table was laid in State Street1 from the Old State House to near Kilby Street, and about this board the friends of Gallic liberty were to express their feelings over the beef and punch. I copy the words of a cor- respondent of the Centinel, as giving such a picture of the proceedings as the newspapers of the day saw fit to publish : -

" While the streets, houses, yea, even the chimney-tops, were covered with male spectators, the balconies and middle stories exhibited bevies of our amiable and beautiful women, who by their smiles and approbation cast a pleasing lustre over the festive scene."

It is unpleasant to add anything to this gracious record of the occasion, but it is nevertheless ascertainable that the banquet terminated in an uproar; that pieces of the ox were thrown into the air, and were even directed towards those bevies of beautiful women whom the reporter had beheld so lavish of their smiles. While the multitude were feeding or riot- ing in State Street, a select minority of the friends of Equality, to the number of nearly four hundred, partook of a more elaborate dinner in Faneuil Hall. Here Citizen S. Adams acted as president, and Citizen Waters furnished the decorations. Among the devices of this latter gentleman appeared an obelisk bearing in front a figure of Liberty trampling upon crown, sceptre, mitre, and broken chains, a cherub holding wreaths and palms with appro- priate inscriptions, and above all " the benign eye of Providence " contem- plating with satisfaction the proceedings below. In the course of the commemoration a committee from Charlestown was introduced to announce that the citizens of that place would drink the health of the citizens of Boston at four o'clock, "whereupon it was voted that the citizens of Boston should return this compliment at a quarter past four, under a discharge of artillery." For why should not the heavens bruit again the rouse of demo- crats as well as that of royalty? The descendants of the Puritans seem to

1 [The upper view on the next page gives State Street very much as it must have looked at the time of the jubilation in honor of the French Republic, seven or eight years earlier. The pic- ture is in oils, and was painted by J. B. Marston about 1801; and it is now in the Historical Society's rooms, - Proceedings, Feb. 1878, p. 38. It is also interesting as one in a series of views of the Old State House, showing the changes in its appearance. The earliest seems to be the contemporary copper-plate of the Boston Massa- cre (east end), reproduced in Mr. Porter's chap-

ter on the "Beginning of the Revolution." Then there are the engraving given in this History, Vol. II., 507; the copper-plate (west end), also from the Mass. Mag., July, 1793, and reproduced on the next page and given in heliotype in the Evacuation Memorial ; that in Shaw's Descrit- tion of Boston, 1817, also in Hales's Survey of Boston, 1821, giving the east end; that in Snow's Boston, 1825, p. 280 (east end); and Salmon's view, 1832 (east end), with flames bursting from the building. The present French roof on the building is a recent modification .- ED.]

THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.

144

OLD STATE HOUSE, WEST END.

STATE STREET IN 1801.

SOCIAL LIFE IN BOSTON.

have borrowed the temperament of the French as well as their symbols. Cloudless was the outlook for humanity, as the flowing bumpers were drained on that auspicious day. A bad omen was not to be tolerated; the resources of exegesis must make it a good one. When a balloon refused to bear heavenward a scroll proclaiming Liberty and Equality, it was happily suggested that, as the denizens of the air needed not these precious watch- words, they had graciously remained to bless the inhabitants of the earth.1

But the time for reason and reaction must necessarily arrive. The news of the regicide was at length blown over the ocean; confusion had made its master-piece; and the conservative leaders of the town began to be heard from. They believed that a poison had been introduced into the body politic which threatened to paralyze its members. The ideal of human brotherhood, still incandescent before a portion of the community, seemed to those who had hitherto directed its opinion to have become a flimsy sentimentalism. It assailed those degrees and etiquettes of society which give it grace as well as stability. The Federal party which struck its roots so strongly in Boston comprised, with scarcely an exception, the men of wealth, learning, and influence. The example of France seemed to them to show that the rule of the people must end in that of the basest of demagogues. They could not accept, for better or for worse, the tide of democracy which was setting in.1 It has been said that next to the noblest type of innovator, and scarcely inferior to him in usefulness, comes his high-minded opponent. It is certainly true that, because so much good work was done by the Federalists, the ideal of the American demo- crat may ultimately be practicable. It concerns me here to repeat - since the fact colors the manners of the time -that, notwithstanding the fine feelings proclaimed at the festival, the ruling opinion of Boston did not cordially accept the freedom and equality of the industrial classes. It is not the printed matter of the day which furnishes the best evidence of this sentiment, though even here indications of its existence are to be found. One example will suffice. The Centinel, in its issue for July 25, 1798, pub- lished an oration by Master Reed, a pupil of the Latin School. The young gentleman's subject was true and false patriots, and after instancing Wash- ington and several classical personages as examples of the former, he dis- poses of the latter in such terms as these: "We meet them at every turn ; we read their productions in every democratic newspaper. False patriots are the street orators and Coffee-House politicians of every large town ; they are the Ciceros of the mob. They harangue the gaping Mechanic and the admiring Truckman; ... they are the vapors of putrefying democ- racy." Such expressions of course amount to nothing as the utterances of a boy ; but they become significant when they pass the watchful scrutiny of the master, and are delivered and printed with his approval. The con- temptuous slur upon mechanics and truckmen, whose poorly requited labor made possible the holiday audience which Master Reed addressed, suggests

1 [See Mr. H. C. Lodge's chapter. - ED).]

THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.

the reason why Jefferson, with all his faults, better expressed the collective will of the nation than did the true and honorable Federalists who laid its foundations.

With the opening of the present century a season of prosperity for Boston had fairly set in. Her industries received an impulse, and the enterprise of her merchants was laying the foundations of fortunes which were as gener- ously used as they were honorably won. French influence was modifying social forms. Jefferson was inaugurated, and the term " French airs " was applied in mockery to the scant skirts and coiffure à la liberté with which the ladies were replacing the hooped petticoats and towering head-dresses in which they had welcomed George Washington to the town. Monsieur Alexandre Lavigne arrived from Paris, and was ready to arrange feminine locks " in the Greek, Flora, or Virginia fashions," while he would cut the hair of the gentlemen "à la Brutus," or " à la Titus," as their tastes might dictate. Breeches and stockings were gradually giving place to pantaloons, fitted close to the leg and passing into the shoes. Boots with yellow tops were worn by men of advanced years, while the younger portion of society affected half-boots made of elastic leather. The toe was pointed or flat, according to the age of the wearer; and "old square-toes " furnished the slang epithet which will always be wanted to deride the conservatism of the decline of life in its objectionable manifestations.

A satirical communication upon "Beaux," which appeared in the Centinel for April 23, 1800, despite obvious exaggerations, preserves some curious traits of the fine gentlemen of the period. According to the writer "the Frenchified American beau," as he was to be met in the streets of Boston, wore shaggy hair upon his head and a spotted linen kerchief about his neck, while his green coat ended behind in a mathematical point. It was his habit to drink brandy in the morning, while his conversation, even upon the ex- change, ran upon Parisian opera dancers. "The dapper beau " appeared with close-cut hair, the remaining stumps being twisted into curls. " His hat is about the size of Aunt Tabby's snuff-box, and is stuck upon the very crown of his head. In his hand he commonly carries a stick of wood, which seems to weary him very much, especially in summer." The writer had met "the college beau " in the vicinity of the Old State House, and perceived that he exhibited that state of inanition which is not uncommon in young gentlemen who are fed by academic contractors. The cakes and ale, which an expression of Shakespeare has made typical of youthful indulgence, the visitor from Cambridge seems to have craved in the narrow letter. He is represented as devouring the former in the shape of gingerbread, while " he guggles down a glass of ale at the old woman's basket." His costume is not particularized, but his hair is "plastered " and " well whited over with Virginia flour." But democracy has entered upon the scene, and neither triflers of leisure nor students of learning shall claim monopoly in the mat- ter of social fascinations. The account of "the shopkeeper beau," who is characterized as " the politest man alive," is well worth quoting entire : -

SOCIAL LIFE IN BOSTON.

" He will spring at one leap over a counter four feet high to pick up a lady custo- mer's handkerchief ; he makes the most handsome bow, says the most civil things, and talks surprisingly fast and sensibly about the odor of a roll of pomatum, or the vul- garity of wearing our own hairs. In the day-time he is fully employed in displaying his drawers, boxes, bottles, needles, and pins ; but in the evening you may find him dancing a minuet with the lady whom he cheated of a half-penny a few hours before. ' Chaos has come again !' Among his ancestors he numbers many of the noble pro- fession of Vulcan, and his mother was a dealer in yarn ; but he has long since for- gotten his parentage."

Chaos has come again ! So it seemed to the respectable sentiment of the town. That unguarded exclamation measures the distance we have travelled since the author of those generalities of perennial glitter was seated in the presidential chair. Snobbishness, indeed, is likely long to be with us; but, like vice, it has been taught to seek a decorous concealment. It dares not write to the papers because shopkeepers, " fully employed " during the day, and descended from men and women who did the hard work of the world, refresh themselves with a dance in the evening, and assume no position of inferiority in respect to the customers they have served.

As wealth increased, the noted hospitality of the town received a fresh impulse. Gentlemen and ladies from the South, - there was then no West, - who took Boston on their return from the Springs, were welcomed with cordiality. Mr. Craigie, of Cambridge, sometimes entertained over a hun- dred guests at the brilliant Commencement festival, and a few families who had country seats in the vicinity gave dinners and receptions with great liberality. But visits to the country were by no means essential; for Boston, - a town of gardens with the privilege of the sea, - was in itself a watering- place. The boarding-houses were comfortable places of resort for travellers. Indeed, some of the finest mansions in the place, residences of the provincial magnates, had come to this use. "Boston continues to be thronged with strangers," says a letter bearing date Aug. 20, 1800; " Mrs. Carter rejects twenty or thirty a day, yet still keeps the moderate number of sixty in her family. After the warmth of the day is over, we form animated groups ; we had quite a romantic one last evening, sitting on the grass by moonlight, with the accompaniment of a guitar and singing." Fishing parties were con- stant during the warm season. "The gentlemen, sometimes by themselves, and sometimes in company with ladies," writes a visitor, "spend the day partly on the water and partly on some of the islands in this very delightful harbor. I have been at one of these parties, and assure you we had a high degree of social and friendly conviviality."

Under the influence of French thought and customs came occasional protests against the rigor of the Sunday laws, notwithstanding the fact that the Puritan observance of the sacred day had already suffered curtailment. In the assembly of 1782-83 the country members had been strenuous for a Sabbath of thirty-six hours; but those from the larger towns were mercifully disposed to limit it to eighteen, and the latter carried their point.

THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.

From midnight of Saturday till six o'clock the next day 1 it was unlawful for any hired carriage to leave or to enter Boston, while during service no vehicle could move faster than a walk. By a statute enacted ten years later, travel- ling and all secular employments, save those of necessity and mercy, were prohibited. It is doubtful whether these laws were fully enforced, though there is a story that Governor Hancock was once fined for taking a turn in the mall on his way home from church. In 1802 the selectmen proposed to enforce the edict against Sabbath-breakers upon certain persons who were in the habit of bathing at the foot of the Common, and other places where the sea could be reached. The practice may have been objectionable for secular reasons; but of these nothing is said, and the inference was not un- natural that the law was evoked to deprive those who were confined to labor during the week of a refreshment which persons more favorably situated need not lack. A rhyming protest which appeared in the Centinel is char- acteristic of the undercurrent of thought, as well as of its methods of ex- pression.2 After sunset the restraints of the sacred day were relaxed; the children might put away their testaments and catechisms, and their elders frequent social tea-tables to discuss the sermons and the news. The ministers were at home to their parishioners, and there were informal receptions at the houses of prominent men. Caucuses and political gatherings were held on Sunday evening, a time which seems to us inappropriate to these purposes. Let us never cease to respect the good Puritan sentiment of which the custom was a relic. Our forefathers held that their duty to the State was only one degree less solemn than their duty to the Church, and that when the house of prayer was not wanted for the worship of God, it could be put to no better use than to hold a town-meeting.

As money flowed into the town, lotteries put forth their attractions as methods for investment. They were duly authorized by the authorities, and held to be an unobjectionable way of increasing the funds of churches, colleges, and academies. If speculation in chances was in itself innocent, it was not thought necessary to prohibit it on account of demoralizing ten- dencies. And so it came to pass that when capital was to be caught, no means were spared to popularize the lotteries and display their allurements. At a time when pictorial illustrations in the newspapers were almost unheard of, the advertisement of a new lottery was made seductive by such art as could be commanded. A representation of Fortune blindfolded, and bal- ancing herself upon a wheel, caught the eye of the most hasty reader. One hand of the goddess held a cornucopia, from which a stream of coins was pouring into the hat of an improvident young person who was reduced to that single article of clothing; in the other, the fickle lady brandished a

1 [See Vol. II. pp. 7, 195, 215, 233, 467, 493. - ED.]

2 " In Superstition's days, 'tis said, Hens laid two eggs on Monday, Because a hen would lose her head That laid an egg on Sunday.

Now our wise rulers and the law

Say none shall wash on Sunday ; So Boston folks must dirty go,

And wash them twice on Monday."

SOCIAL LIFE IN BOSTON.

scroll bearing the inscription "$10,000." - Sometimes managers would avail themselves of that humorous exaggeration which has become character- istic of American fun; and a note will show that its capabilities, as applied to advertising, is no recent discovery.1

" The General Court teems with petitions for new turnpikes and toll- bridges; the spirit of improvement may be said not only to exist, but to rage." Such is the contemporary testimony to the impetus from prosper- ing finances. New inlets were opened to the town, and water-carts were demanded, " notwithstanding the great expense." Boston was surely rich and public-spirited enough to lay the dust in the principal streets. And now was revived the project of opening a canal through Cape Cod, which for a century past had been advocated as a practicable means for promot- ing the prosperity of the town. "The threefold cord of Humanity, Interest, and Patriotism," writes a promoter of the scheme in the florid rhetoric of the time, "strengthens our obligation to the utmost exertion, and power- fully draws us to employ every means in our power which may facilitate and hasten the accomplishment of so desirable an event." Alas! nothing but the unforeseen is certain to happen. We can picture the contemptuous incredulity of this enthusiast, could he have listened to a prophecy that capital would be forthcoming to bring the Pacific within a week's journey, and to furnish instant communication across the stormy leagues of the Atlantic, ere it would divide the sandy promontory in the interest of the commerce of Boston.

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The memorial history of Boston : including Suffolk County, Massachusetts. 1630-1880, Vol. IV, Part 2

Author: Winsor, Justin, 1831-1897, ed; Jewett, C. F. (Clarence F.), publisher Publication date: 1881 Publisher: Boston : Osgood Number of Pages: 760

Author: Winsor, Justin, 1831-1897, ed; Jewett, C. F. (Clarence F.), publisher
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Boston : Osgood
Number of Pages: 760