■j>^' ' \^'>'^ r^" ♦ Ho^ ., 5- 'bl . >^^ >^ •l*f- <>#'*. T^' aO- X^ - • . • - ^v °-„ ./.•S;:X ,c<^.:ra.'>.. ./,-^^%V •^ov* .• -. *^0« *°^^^ -.'^p^.* .*^°->. -. ^4< >V^'.X • .0*..- •> v^\.i:i; -OK . .^0. \, "^'"'j 'i..;-T^- .0-5 .^V.» 'OK , ^40^ *0^. Ai The Old South Work. B\- EDWIN D. MEAD. 'The extent of the obUgation of Boston and of America to Mary Hemenway for her devotion to the historical and politi- cal education of our young people during the closing period of our century is something which we only now begin to properly appreciate, when she has left us and we view her work as a whole. I do not think it is too much to say that she has done more than any other single individual in the same time to promote popular interest in American history and to promote intelligent patriotism. Mrs. Hemenway was a woman whose interests and sympa- thies were as broad as the world ; but she was a great patriot, and she was pre-eminently that. She was an enthasiastic lover of freedom and of democracy, and there was not a day of her life that she did not think of the great price with which our own heritage of freedom had been purchased. Her pa- triotism was loyalty. She bad a deep feeling of personal gratitude to the founders of New England and the fathers of the Republic. She had a reverent pride in our position of leadership in the history and movement of modern democracy ; and she had a consuming zeal to keep the nation strong and pure and worthy of its best traditions, and to kindle this zeal among the young people of the nation. With all her great enthusiasms, she was an amazingly practical and definite woman. She wasted no time nor strength in vague generali- ties, either of speech or action. Others might long for the time when the kingdom of God should cover the earth as the waters cover the sea, and she longed for it ; but, while others longed, she devoted herself to doing what she could to bring that corner of God's world in which she was set into con- formity with the laws of God, — and this by every means in her power, by teaching poor girls how to make better clothes and cook better dinners and make better homes, by teaching people to value health and respect and train their bodies, by inciting people to read better books and love better music and better pictures and be interested in more important things. Others might long for the parliament of man and the federa- tion of the world, and so did she ; but, while others longed, she devoted herself to doing what she could to make this na- tion, for which she was particularly responsible, fitter for the federation when it comes. The good patriot, to her thinking, was not the worse cosmopolite. The good State for which she worked was a good Massachusetts ; and her chief interest, while others talked municipal reform, was to make a better Boston, American history, people used to say, is not interesting ; and they read about Ivry and Marathon and Zama, about Pym and Pepin and Pericles, the ephors, the tribunes and the House of Lords. American history, said Mrs. Hemenway, is to us the most interesting and the most important history in the world, if we would only open our eyes to it and look at it in the right w^ay ; and I will help people to look at it in the right way. Our very archaeology, she said, is of the highest interest ; and through the researches of Mr. Gushing and Dr. Fewkes and others among the Zunis and the Moquis, sustained by her at the cost of thousands of dollars, she did an immense work to make interest in it general. Boston, the Puritan city, — how proud she was of its great line of heroic men, from VVinthrop and Cotton and Eliot and Harvard to Sumner and Garrison and Parker and Phillips ! How proud she was that Harry Vane once trod its soil and here felt himself at home ! How she loved Hancock and Otis and Warren and Revere and the great men of the Boston town meetings — above all, Samuel Adams, the very mention of whose name always thrilled her, and whose portrait was the only one save Wash- ington's which hung on the oaken walls of her great dining- room 1 The Boston historians, Prescott, Motley, Parkman ; the Boston poets, Longfellow, Lowell, Emerson, — each word of every one she treasured. She would have enjoyed and would have understood, as few others, that recent declaration of Charles Francis Adams's, that the founding of Boston was fraught with consequences to the world not less important than those of the founding of Rome. All other Boston men and women must see Boston as she saw it, — that was her high resolve. They must know and take to heart that they were citizens of no mean city ; they must be roused to the sacredness of their inheritance, that so they might be roused to the nobility of their citizenship and the greatness of their duty. It was with this aim and with this spirit, not with the spirit of the mere antiquarian, that Mrs Hemenway inaugurated the Old South Work. History with her was for use, — the history of Boston, the history of New England, the history of America. In the first place, she saved the Old South Meeting-house. She contributed $100,000 toward the fund necessary to prevent its destruction. It is hard for us to realize, so much deeper is the reverence for historic places which the great anniversaries of these late years have done so much to beget, that in our very centennial year, 1876, the Old South Meeting-house, the most sacred and historic structure in Boston or in the country, was in danger of destruction. The old Hancock house, for which, could it be restored, Boston would to-day pour out unlimited treasure, had gone, with but feeble protest, only a dozen years before; and but for Mrs. Hemenv/ay the Old South Meeting- house would have gone in 1876. She saved it; and, having saved it, she determined that it should not stand an idle monu- ment, the tomb of the great ghosts, but a living temple of pa- triotism. She knew the didactic power of great associations; and every one who in these twenty years has been in the habit of going to the lectures and celebrations at the Old South knows with what added force many a lesson has been taught within the walls which heard the tread of Washington and which still echo the words of Samuel Adams and James Otis and Joseph Warren. The Old South lectures have proved that our American his- tory can be presented to our young people in such a way as shall awaken their deepest interest and make them want to come again and again for more and more ; they have shown to those who have been concerned in the management how broad and rich and varied are the fields into which the young students may be led ; and they have made all serious people who have attended the lectures feel their important practical bearing, how close the relation of history to politics, and how potent an in- strumentality such lectures may be made for the promotion of good citizenship. Not every city has its Old South Meeting- house, with the wealth of association which, as already said, lends such re-enforcement to the impressiveness of meetings where the names of Winthrop and Franklin and Samuel Adams are upon the tongue ; not everywhere can broad subjects be rooted in local history and illustrated by local landmarks as in Massachusetts, and especially in Boston, with their great line of Colonial and Revolutionary traditions, — and the utility of such local interests, their stimulation to the imagination, their provocation to thought, cannot be valued too highly ; not every- where can such munificence be hoped for as that which has made possible the interesting experiment at the Old South Meeting-house. But there is no American city where boys and girls and parents and teachers cannot be gathered together in some place where the spirit of Winthrop and Adams and Wash- ington and Lincoln will be in their midst ; there is no Ameri- can city which is not a joint heir to our national history, nor whose local history is not ten times more interesting and didac- tic, ten times more closely connected with broad general move- ments, than those suppose who do not think about it ; and there is no city without citizens quite able to support, and teachers, ministers and lawyers quite able to prepare, series of lectures which shall do the work which it is the aim of the Old South lectures to do in Boston, of awakening in the young people, who are so quickly to control the nation, a true sense of their indebtedness to the present and the future, by awaken- ing in them a true sense of their indebtedness to the past. The machinery of the Old South Work has been the simplest. That is why any city, if it has public spirited people to sustain it, can easily carry on such work. That is why work like it, owing its parentage and impulse to it, has been undertaken in Providence and Brooklyn and Philadelphia, in Indianapolis and Madison and Chicago and elsewhere. That is why men and women all over the country, organized in societies or not, w^ho are really in earnest about good citizenship, can do much to promote similar work in the cities and towns in which they live. We have believed at the Old South Meeting-house in the powder of the spoken word and the printed page. We have had lect- ures, and we have circulated historical leaflets. What is an Old South lecture course like? That is what many teachers and many young people who are not conver- sant with the work will like to know. What kind of subjects do we think will attract and instruct bright young people of fifteen or sixteen, set them to reading in American history, make them more interested in their country, and make better citizens of them ? That question cannot, perhaps, be better answered than by giving one or two Old South lecture programs. We will take the course for the summer of 1894 and the course for 1899. The course for 1894, for instance, was devoted to " The Founders of New England " ; and the eight lectures were : — 5 " William Brewster, the Elder of Plymouth," by Rev. Edward Everett Hale; "WilHam Bradford, the Governor of Plymouth," by Rev. William Elliot Griffis; "John Winthrop, the Governor of Massachusetts," by Hon. Frederic T. Greenhalge; "John Harvard, and the Founding of Harvard College," by Mr. William R. Thayer; "John Eliot, the Apostle to the Indians," by Rev. James De Normandie; "John Cotton, the Minister of Boston," by Rev. John Cotton Brooks; "Roger Williams, the Founder of Rhode Island," by President E. Benjamin Andrews; "Thomas Hooker, the Founder of Connecticut," by Rev. Joseph H. Twichell. It will be noticed that the several subjects in this course were presented by representative men, men especially identified in one way or another with their special themes. Thus Edward Everett Hale, who spoke on Elder Brewster, is certainly our greatest New England " elder " to-day. Dr. Griffis, whose book on " Brave Little Holland " was being read at the time by so many of our young people, is an authority in Pilgrim history, having since prepared a work on " The Pilgrim Fathers in Eng- land, Holland, and America." It was singularly fortunate that the Governor of Massachusetts at the time could speak upon Governor Winthrop. Mr. Thayer is the editor of the Har7'ard Graduates^ Magazine and a special student of John Harvard's life and times. Mr. De Normandie is John Eliot's successor as minister of the old church in Roxbury. Rev. John Cotton Brooks is a lineal descendant of John Cotton, and has preached in his pulpit in St. Botolph's Church at old Boston in England. President Andrews of Brown University was cer- tainly the very best person to come from Rhode Island to tell of that little State's great founder. Mr. Twichell, the eminent Hartford minister, was the chosen orator at the celebration of the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the founding of Connecticut, in 1889. With such a hst of speakers as this, this course upon "The Founding of New England" could not help being a brilliant and valuable course ; and so it proved. The year 1899 was the centennial of the death of Washing- ton. The memory of Washington is always kept green at the Old South. Each Washington's Birthday celebration is made a means of emphasizing anew his services and character, and this celebration, when the Old South prizes are always awarded, is one of the most stirring events of the Old South year; but in this centennial year the entire summer course was devoted to " The Life and Influence of Washington," the sev- eral lectures being : — «' Washington in the Revolution," by Mr. John Fiske ; " Washington and the Constitution," by Rev. Edward Everett Hale ; "Washington as President of the United States," by Rev. Albert E. Winship; "Washington the True Expander of the RepubHc," by Mr. Edwin D. Mead; " Washington's In- terest in Education," by Hon. Alfred S. Roe; "The Men who worked with Washington," by Mrs. Alice Ereeman Palmer; "Washington's Farewell Address," by Rev. FrankUn Hamilton; and " What the World has Thought and Said of Washington," by Professor Edwin A. Grosvenor. How admirable a thing it would be if there could be given in every city and town in the country during this Washington cen- tennial time such lectures upon the life and influence of Wash- ington ! A hundred towns could do nothing better than adopt bodily this Old South program. Few places can plan to use these lecturers ; although Brooklyn for many years regularly, and other places occasionally, have arranged to have each sum- mer's course of Old South lectures repeated for their people by the Old South lecturers. Most places will use their own people — ministers, lawyers, editors, teachers — as their lecturers; and it is better that they should. But many should be glad to follow this Old South program, and in connection could be used many of the Old South leaflets relating to Washington. The Old South leaflets and lecture programs, good for us, are also, it is a pleasure to find, meeting needs like ours in a hun- dred places. It is not for a Boston public only that we work. The Old South lectures — thanks to Mrs. Hemenway's gen- erosity, still active by provision of her will — are entirely free to all young people. Tickets are distributed among the boys and girls of the public schools by their masters — the masters and superintendent of the Boston schools having always been the glad and efficient co-operators in the Old South work in all its branches. Tickets are also sent to all persons under twenty, applying in their own handwriting to the Directors of the Old South Work, at the Old South Meeting-house, and en- closing stamp. Older people can come if they wish to, and a great many do come ; but these pay for their tickets. It is understood that the lectures are designed for the young people. We tell our lecturers to aim at the bright boy and girl of fifteen, and forget that there is anybody else in the audience. If the lecturer hits them, he is sure to interest everybody; if he does not, he is a failure as an Old South lecturer. We tell them to be graphic and picturesque, — dullness, however learned, is the one thing which young people will not pardon ; we tell them to speak without notes, — if they do not always satisfy themselves quite so well, they please everybody else a great deal better ; and we tell them never to speak over an hour, — we pardon fifty-nine minutes, but we do not pardon sixty-one. Persons starting work like the Old South Work in other cities would do well to remember these simple rules. Any persons looking in upon the great audience of young people which, on the Wednes- day afternoons of summer, fills the Old South Meeting-house, will quickly satisfy themselves whether American history taught by such lectures is interesting. For the Old South lectures are summer lectures — vacation lectures — given at three o'clock on Wednesday afternoons. They begin when the graduation exercises and the Fourth of July are well behind, in the last or next to the last week in July. Our lectures are not meant for idlers. We do not aim to entertain a crowd of children for an hour in a desultory fashion. Our lecturers do not talk baby talk. The Old South Work is a serious educational work. Its programs are careful and se- quential, making demands upon the hearers. It assumes that the young people who come are students, or want to be ; and, by consistently assuming it, it makes them so. Dr. Hale, who has addressed these Old South audiences oftener, perhaps, than anybody else, remarked at the opening of a recent course upon the notable development in the character of the audiences in these years of the work. It is no longer safe, he said, to say 1603 at the Old South, when you ought to say 1602. The first regular course of Old South Lectures for Young People was in 1883 ; although there had of course been much Old South work of various kinds done before that. There have therefore been seventeen annual courses. The subjects of these courses are as follows : — " Early Massachusetts History," " The Makers of Boston," " The War for the Union," "The War for Independence," "The Birth of the Nation," "The Story of the Centuries," "America and France," " The American Indians," "The New Birth of the World," "The Discovery of America," "The Opening of the West," "The Founders of New England," "The Puritans in Old England," " The American Historians," " The Anti-slavery Struggle," " The Old World in the New," " The Life and Influence of Washington." The complete programs of all these courses, giving the sub- jects of the several lectures, together with the subjects of the leaflets printed in connection, have been published in a special circular, which can be obtained at the Old South. A thought 8 always with us in laying out our programs is, as has been said, the thought that the program which serves us well may also serve others well; and this makes them the more carefully considered. We work in the hope and expectation that our lectures may be repeated, if not by our lecturers, then by others taking the same subjects, in other places, and that with the lectures may go our leaflets also. The eight leaflets for 1899, accompanying the eight Washington lectures, were: — Washington's Account of the Army at Cambridge in 1775; Washing- ton's Letters on the Constitution ; Washington's Inaugurals ; Washing- ton's Letter to Benjamin Harrison in 1784; Washington's Words on a National University ; Letters of Washington and Lafayette ; Washington's Farewell Address ; Henry Lee's Funeral Oration on Washington. The eight leaflets accompanying similarly the lectures on *' The Founders of New England," noticed above, were : — Bradford's Memoir of Elder Brewster ; Governor Bradford's First Dia- logue; Winthrop's Conclusions for the Plantation in New England; New England's First Fruits, 1643 John Eliot's Indian Grammar Begun; John Cotton's " God's Promise to His Plantation " ; Letters of Roger Williams to Winthrop ; Hooker's Way of the Churches of New England. The Old South Leaflets are prepared primarily for circula- tion among the young people attending the Old South lectures. The subjects of the leaflets are usually immediately related to the subjects of the lectures. They are meant to supplement the lectures and stimulate reading and inquiry among the young people. They are made up, for the most part," from original papers of the periods treated in the lectures, in the hope to make the men and the life of those periods more clear and real. Careful historical notes and references to the best books on the subjects are added, the leaflets usually consisting of about twenty pages. A single instance more will sufiice to show the relation of the leaflets to the lectures. The year 1889, being the centennial both of the beginning of our own Federal government and of the French Revolution, the lectures for the year, under the general title of "America and France," were devoted entirely to subjects in which the history of America is related to that of France, as follows : — '* Champlain, the Founder of Quebec," " La Salle and the French in the Great West," "The Jesuit Missionaries in America," " Wolfe and Mont- calm : the Struggle of England and France for the Continent," " Franklin in France," " The Friendship of Washington and Lafayette," " Thomas Jefferson and the Louisiana Purchase," "The Year 1789." The corres- ponding leaflets were as follows : Verrazzano's Account of his Voyage to America; Marquette's Account of his Discovery of the Mississippi; Mr. Parkman's Histories ; The Capture of Quebec, from Parkman's " Conspi- racy of Pontiac " ; Selections from Franklin's Letters from France ; Let- ters of Washington and Lafayette; The Declaration of Independence; The French Declaration of the Rights of Man, 1789. The Old South Leaflets gradually began to attract the atten- tion of teachers of history outside of Boston ; and ten years ago the publication of a general series was begun, to meet the needs of schools and colleges and literary societies and classes. Every teacher of history from Maine to California now knows, we think, of the Old South Leaflets. They are sold at a price just covering the cost, five cents a copy, or four dollars for a hundred copies, the aim being to bring them within easy reach of everybody, especially of schools and of those wishing to circulate them in connection with lectures, as at the Old South. This series of Old South Leaflets now numbers a hundred. Many may like to see their subjects : — I. The Constitution of the United States. 2. The Articles of Con- federation. 3. The Declaration of Independence. 4. Washington's Fare- well Address. 5. Magna Charta. 6. Vane's " HeaUng Question." • 7. Charter of Massachusetts Bay, 1629. 8. Fundamental Orders of Con- necticut, 1638. 9. Franklin's Plan of Union, 1754. 10. Washington's Inaugurals. 11. Lincoln's Inaugurals and Emancipation Proclamation. 12. The Federalist, Nos. i and 2. 13. The Ordinance of 1787. 14. The Constitution of Ohio. 15. Washington's Circular Letter to the Governors of the States, 1783. 16. Washington's Letter to Benjamin Harrison; 1784. 17. Verrazzano's Voyage, 1524. 18. The Constitution of Switzerland. 19. The Bill of Rights, 1689. 20. Coronado's Letter to Mendoza, 1540. 21. Eliot's Brief Narrative of the Progress of the Gospel among the Ind- ians, 1670. 22. Wheelock's Narrative of the Rise of the Indian School at Lebanon, Conn., 1762. 23. The Petition of Rights, 1628. 24. The Grand Remonstrance. 25- The Scottish National Covenants. 26. The Agreement of the People. 27. The Instrument of Government. 28. Cromwell's First Speech to his Parliament. 29. The Discovery of America, from the " Life of Columbus," by his son, Ferdinand Columbus. 30. Strabo's Introduction to Geography. 31. The Voyages to Vinland, from the Saga of Eric the Red. 32. Marco Polo's Account of Japan and Java. ^;^. Columbus's Letter to Gabriel Sanchez, describing ihe First Voyage and Discovery. 34. Amerigo Vespucci's Account of his First Voyage. 35. Cortes's Account of the City of Mexico. 36. The Death of De Soto, from the "Narrative of a Gentleman of Elvas." 37. Early Notices of the Voyages of the Cabots. 38. Richard Henry Lee's Funeral Oration on Washington. 39. Extract from Cabeza De Vaca's Relation of his Journey across Texas and New Mexico in 1535. 40. Manasseh Cut- ler's Description of Ohio in 1787. 41. Extract from Washington's Journal lO of his Tour to the Ohio River in 1770. 42. General Garfield's Address on the Organization of the North-west Territory and the Settlement of the Western Reserve. 43. George Rogers Clark's Account of his Capture of Vincennes. 44. Jefferson's Life of Captain Meriwether Lewis. 45. Fre- mont's Account of the First Ascent of Fremont's Peak. 46. Marquette's Account of his Explorations. 47. Washington's Account of the Army at Cambridge, 1775. 48. Bradford's Memoir of Elder Brewster. 49. Brad- ford's First Dialogue. 50, Winthrop's " Conclusions for the Plantation in New England." 51. " New England's First Fruits," 1643. S^- John Eliot's " Indian Grammar l^egun." 53. John Cotton's " God's Promise to his Plantation." 54. Letters of Roger Williams to Winthrop. 55. Thomas Hooker's " Way of the Churches of New England." 56. The Monroe Doctrine : President Monroe's Message of 1823, 57. The English Bible, selections from the various versions. 58. Hooper's Letters to BuUinger. 59. Sir John Eliot's " Apology for Socrates." 60. Ship-money Papers. 61. Pym's Speech against Strafford. 62. Cromwell's Second Speech. 63. Milton's "A Free Commonwealth." 64. Sir Henry Vane's Defence. 65. Washington's Addresses to the Churches. 66. Winthrop's " Little Speech " on Liberty. 67. Cotton Mather's " Bostonian Ebenezer," from the " Magnalia." 68. Governor Hutchinson's Account of the Boston Tea Party. 69. Adrian Van der Donck's Description of New Nether- lands in 1655. 7°- The Debate in the Constitutional Convention on the Rules of Suffrage in Congress. 71. Columbus's Memorial to Ferdinand and Isabella, on his Second Voyage. 72. The Dutch Declaration of Inde- pendence in 1581. 73. Captain John Knox's Account of the Battle of Quebec. 74. Hamilton's Report on the Coinage. 75. William Penn's Plan for the Peace of Europe. 76. Washington's Words on a National University. 77. Cotton Mather's Lives of Bradford and Winthrop. 78. The First Number of T/ie Liberator. 79. Wendell Phillips's Eulogy of Garrison. 80, Theodore Parker's Address on the Dangers from Slavery. 81. Whittier's Account of the Anti-slavery Convention of 1833. 82. Mrs. Stowe's Story of " Uncle Tom's Cabin." 83. Sumner's Speech on the Crime against Kansas. 84. The Words of John Brown. 85. The First Lincoln and Douglas Debate. 86. Washington's Account of his Capture of Boston. 87. The Manners and Customs of the Indians, from Morton's " New English Canaan." 88. The Beginning of King Philip's War, from Hubbard's History of Philip's War, 1677. 89. Account of the Founding of St. Augustine, by Francisco Lopez de Mendoza Grajales. 90. Amerigo Vespucci's Account of his Third Voyage. 91. Champlain's Account of the Founding of Quebec. 92, Barlowe's Account of the First Voyage to Roanoke. 93. Parker's Account of the Settlement of Londonderry, N.H. 94. Juet's Account of the Discovery of the Hudson River. 95. Pastorius's Description of Pennsylvania, 1700. 96. Acrelius's Account of the Found- ing of New Sweden. 97. Lafayette in the American Revolution. 98. Letters of Washington and Lafayette. 99. Washington's Letters on the Constitution. 100. Robert Browne's " Reformation without Tarrving for Any." These leaflets are also furnished in bound volumes, each vol- ume containing twenty-five leaflets, the one hundred leaflets already published making four volumes. These volumes, sold for $1.50 each, are the means of carrying the leaflets to multitudes II of libraries all over the country. All persons wishing to pre- serve the leaflets for reference will find this form the best. Each annual series of eight leaflets, illustrating the lecture sub- jects of the year, is bound in a neat paper cover, and furnished for fifty cents ; and these little collections well serve clubs and classes studying these special subjects. The virtue of the Old South Leaflets is that they bring stu- dents into first-hand instead of second-hand touch with history. That, indeed, may describe the Old South Work altogether. It has been an effort to bring the young people of Boston and America into original relations with history; and it has been,, we think it may properly be said, the foremost popular effort of the kind in the country. This is why it has won the atten- tion and commendation, so gratifying to us, of the educators of rhe country. Our joy in the Old South Work has been the joy of being pioneers and the joy of knowing that we were pioneers in the right direction. We should have known this if others had not known it ; but we do not deny that the warm words of the historical scholars and teachers of the country have been very grateful and very helpful to us. The Old South Work is " in exactly the right direction," John Fiske has said. It is a pleasant thing to remember that it was at Mrs. Hemenway's instance and at her strong solicitation that Mr. Fiske first turned his efforts to the field of American history ; and almost everything that appeared in the earlier volumes of his magnifi- cent series of historical works was first given in the form of lectures at the Old South. " To Mary Hemenway, in recogni- tion of the rare foresight and public spirit which saved from destruction one of the noblest historical buildings in America,, and made it a centre for the teaching of American history and the principles of good citizenship," is the dedication of the volume upon " The American Revolution." In this connection, and for the sake of the information which it gives, may be quoted the following words from the preface to Professor James K. Hosmer's Life of Thomas Hutchinson: "This book, like the lives of Samuel Adams and young Sir Henry Vane and the ' Short History of Anglo-Saxon Freedom,' has been written for the late lamented Mrs. Mary Hemenway, — a carrying out of her Old South work. That noble woman's can- dor was as remarkable as her patriotic enthusiasm. While stimulating in every way she could interest in and love for our country and the men who brought it into being, she had a kind 12 thought for the foe who honestly stood against them, and she desired to have justice done the victim as well as to have praise rendered the victors." In Mr. Fiske's school his- tory of the United States, perhaps the most popular history in the schools, the Old South Leaflets are constantly commended for use in connection. " The publication of these leaflets," he says, " is sure to have a most happy effect in awakening gen- eral interest, on the part of young students, in original docu- ments." To the same effect writes Mr. Montgomery, whose text-books in history are so widely used in the schools. James MacAlister, the president of the Drexel Institute in Philadel- phia, writes, '' I regard the Old South Work as one of the most important educational movements of recent times." Mr. Her- bert Welsh, of Philadelphia, wrote a special tract about the Old South Work, and spread it broadcast in Philadelphia. He had been deeply impressed by the Old South Work when he came to lecture for us a little while before. " The secret of the success of the Old South plan," he said, " is that it teaches history from a living and most practical standpoint. It is the application of the best that our past has given to the brain and heart of the youth of the present." " Why should not this simple and effective plan be made use of in Philadelphia ? " he asked ; and the next year Old South Work was inaugurated in Philadelphia, the lectures to the young people being given in the Old State House, where the Declaration of Independence was signed and the Constitution framed. President Andrews of Brown University, Professor Herbert Adams of Johns Hop- kins, Professor Hart of Harvard, Professor Woodrow Wilson. Mr. Horace E. Scudder and others have written in the same warm way. Mr. Tetlow, the master of the Boston Girls' High School, and masters all over the country unite in welcoming the leaflets. "To teach history by the study of original documents," writes one, " has been the dream of the best instructors ; but this dream may now be reaUzed through the inexpensive form in which these originals are presented." " The educational world," wTites Miss Coman, the professor of history at Welles- ley College, " is coming to recognize the value of teaching his- tory, even to young people, from the original records rather than from accounts at second or third hand. I rejoice that these documents have been made accessible to the children of our public schools." " We may talk about such documents all we please," says Mr. Huling, the master of the Cambridge 13 High School, " and Uttle good will be done ; but, when the pupil reads one of these for himself, he is indeed a dull fellow if he does not carry away a definite impression of its place in his- tory." " I wish," writes Mr. Belfield, the principal of the Chi- cago Manual Training School, who has done more than anybody else to promote the Old South movement in the West, " that the series could be brought to the attention of every school superintendent, high school principal, and teacher of United States history in the country." "The Old South Leaflets," says Professor Folwell, the professor of history in the Univer- sity of Minnesota, " ought to be scattered by miUions of copies all over our country." It is a satisfaction to be able to quote such words from such persons, for they are a great re-enforcement of our commenda- tion of this missionary work in good citizenship to the atten- tion of the country. For that is what the Old South Work is, — a missionary work in good citizenship ; and, feeling it to be that, we " commend ourselves." We wish that societies of 3'oung men and women might be organized in a thousand places for historical and political studies, and that our Old South Leaflets might prove of as much service to these as they are proving to our Old South audiences and to the schools. The Old South summer lectures are chiefly for the older boys and girls in the schools, the children in the high schools and the upper grammar grades. For the younger children we have each spring and autumn a " Children's Hour " — a name de- scending from the earliest days of the Old South work, when such faithful service was rendered by Miss Alice Baker and Mrs. Kate Gannett Wells. The " Children's Hour " is filled by varied, simple and picturesque talks and by music. The autumn ^' Hour" in 1899, the Washington year, had three speeches on the three visits of Washington to Boston and several songs by a great chorus of the children, including the ode composed and sung on the occasion of Washington's visit in 1789. The Old South work aims to do more than serve the pupils of the Boston schools; it aims also to serve the teachers. There have been few years since the Old South Meeting-house was saved when some course of lectures has not been provided especially for the teachers. Mr. Fiske's courses in many suc- cessive years were chiefly for the teachers of the city. Dr. William T. Harris and others have similarly addressed the teachers. Rev. Edward G. Porter's lectures upon Old Boston, 14 first given at the North End in connection with a local work carried on by the directors of the Old South work for several seasons in that section of the city, were of peculiar interest. In the spring of 1899, Professor Albert B. Hart delivered a course on '' The Spaniard and the Anglo-Saxon in America." The Old South work is not simply a means of doing some- thing for the young people of Boston : it is also a means of getting something from them and setting them to work for themselves. Every year prizes are offered to the graduates of the Boston high schools, graduates of the current year and the preceding year, for the best essays on subjects in American history. Two subjects are proposed each year ; and two prizes are awarded for each subject, the first prizes being $40, and the second $25. The subjects are announced in June, just as the schools close ; and the essays must be submitted in the following January. The prizes are always announced at the Washington's Birthday celebration. The subjects proposed each year for the essays are always closely related to the gen- eral subject of the lectures for the year, our aim being to make the entire work for the year unified and articulate, each part of it helping the rest. Thus the subjects for the essays for the year when the lectures were devoted to " The Founders of New England" were : — I. "The Relations of the Founders of New England to the Univer- sities of Cambridge and Oxford"; 2. "The Fundamental Orders of Con- necticut, and their Place in the History of Written Constitutions." The subjects for 1899, the Washington year, were : — I. "The American Revolution under Washington and the English Rev- olution under Cromwell : Compare their Causes, Aims, and Results." 2. " Washington's Plan for a National University : The Argument for it a Hundred Years Ago and the Argument To-day." I think that many would be surprised at the thoroughness and general excellence of many of these essays, written by pupils just out of our high schools. The first-prize essay for 1 88 1, on "The Policy of the Early Colonists of Massachusetts toward Quakers and Others whom they regarded as Intru- ders," by Henry L. Southwick, and one of the first-prize essays for 1889, on "Washington's Interest in Education," by Miss Carolyn C. Stecher, have been printed, and can be procured at the Old South Meeting-house. Another of the prize essays 15 on "Washington's Interest in Education," by Miss Julia K. Ordway, was published in the N'ew Engla7id Magazine for May, 1890; one of the first-prize essays for 1890, on " Philip, Pontiac, and Tecumseh," by Miss Carolyn C. Stecher, ap- peared in the New England Magazme for September, 1891; ■one of the first-prize essays for 1891, on "Marco Polo's Ex- plorations in Asia and their Influence upon Columbus," Y*" Miss Helen P. Margesson, in the Neiv England Afagazine for August, 1892; one for 1893, on "The Part of Massachusetts Men in the Ordinance of 1787," by Miss Elizabeth H. Tetlow, in March, 1895; and one for 1898, on "The Struggle of France and England for North America," by Miss Caroline B. Shaw, in January, 1900. The New England Magazme^ w^hich is devoted pre-eminently to matters relating to American history and good citizenship, has from the time of its found- ing, ten years ago, made itself an organ of the Old South Work, publishing many of the Old South essays and lectures, and always noticing in its Editor's Table everything relating to the progress of the movement. The young people who have competed for these Old South prizes are naturally among the best students of history in their successive years in the Boston high schools. They now number nearly two hundred ; and several years ago they formed them- selves into an Old South Historical Society. Many of the Old South essayists have of course gone on into college, and many are now scattered over the country ; but more than half of their number, not a few of them teachers in the schools, are to-day within sound of the Old South bell ; and the monthly meetings of the society are most interesting. No young people's society in the country is doing better historical work. There are always some careful historical papers read by members at the meetings, and there is discussion. There are fre- quently fresh voices from the outside, some of the most emi- nent scholars of the country having been guests of the society. The present president, Mr. Joseph Parker Warren, is a Harvard instructor; and the secretary. Miss Margesson, is a Wellesley graduate. The society is rapidly becoming an efficient factor in the general Old South work. It has various active committees, — a Lecture Committee, an Essay Committee, an Outlook Com- mittee and others, — and its leading spirits are ambitious for ever larger service. The members of the Lecture Committee assist in the distribution of tickets to the schools and in enlisting the in- i6 terest of young people in the lectures. The members of the Essay- Committee similarly devote themselves to enlisting the interest of the high schools in the essays ; they also read the essays submitted each year, not for the sake of adjudging the award of prizes, — that is in other hands, — but that there may always be in the society scholarly members thoroughly cognizant of the character of the work being done and of the varying capacity of the new members entering the society. The office of the Outlook Committee is to keep itself informed and to keep the society informed of all important efforts at home and abroad for the historical and political education of young people. It watches the newspapers, it watches the magazines, it watches the schools. It reports anything it finds said about the Old South Work and about its extension anywhere. At the next meeting, I suppose, it wdll tell the society about any new school history and about any new text-books in civil government which have appeared. I hope it will tell how much better most of the series of historical readers published in England for the use of the schools are than the similar books which we have in America. It is sure to say something about the remarkable growth of work like its own among our young people ; and it is sure to report such utterances as those of President Clarke and other leaders of the Christian Endeavor movement upon the importance of rousing a more definite interest in politics and greater devotion to the duties of citizenship among the young people in that great organization. Especially has it noticed in this time the historical pilgrimage, that interesting educa- tional movement which suddenly appeared half a dozen years ago full grown, — a movement which would have enlisted so warmly the sympathies of Mrs. Hemenvv^ay, who felt, as almost nobody else ever felt, the immense educational power of his- torical associations. It has doubtless told the society what Mr. Stead has written about historical pilgrimages in England, and Mr. Powell and Dr. Shaw and others in America. The historical pilgrimage arranged and conducted by mem- bers of the University Extension Society of Philadelphia in the summer of 1894 commanded much attention from the news- papers and from the educational public. It was worthy of attention. For a large body of thoughtful men and women from twenty states to unite in a pilgrimage to our historic New England places was something to be noted as a pregnant and potential new educational factor ; and from that time the his- torical pilgrimage became a distinct instrument, and a most useful one, in our life. It was noteworthy, also, as an index of the development of interest in American history in twenty years ; for an enterprise like this would not have been dreamed of twenty years before. It was fitting that this first band of American historical pilgrims should be received and welcomed publicly in Boston at the Old South Meeting-house ; for no other place in these years has been the centre of such earnest and fruitful efforts for the development of this popular his- torical interest. In 1896 the Old South Historical Society took up the matter of historical pilgrimages practically for itself. It adopted the historical pilgrimage as a regular feature of its yearly pro- gram, and it has continued it with increasing and noteworthy success. The society may freely claim that no other historical pilgrimages in the country are so carefully prepared for and so well carried out, with such distinct educational results, as its own. There have now (1899) been four of these annual pilgrimages, — the first to old Rutland, Mass., " the Cradle of Ohio " ; the second to the homes of Whittier by the Merrimack ; the third to the King Philip Country, — Mount Hope, on Narragansett Bay ; and the fourth to Plymouth. A full day is given to the pilgrimage. The trip itself is always delightful ; a luncheon is served at mid-day ; and this is followed by half a dozen bright speeches. The expenses are kept very low. Invitation is given to all young people or others who wish to join ; and the later pilgrimages have been made by great parties of six hundred people. Careful circulars and pam- phlets are prepared well in advance, outlining the history con- nected with the places and discussing the best books ; and the historical pilgrimage becomes one of the most educative events of the Old South year, as well as one of the most joyful. In addition to the important annual pilgrimage, the members of the society themselves make occasional pilgrimages to inter- esting historical places near Boston. One of the latest of these was to Brook Farm, and there was much reading in con- nection about the interesting socialistic experiment identified with that famous place. An idea of the serious and scholarly work being done by these splendid young people can best be given by inserting the program of the present winter's work, 1899-1900. The general subject chosen for study is " Economic and Social Forces in Massachusetts to 1800," and the outline for the ten monthly meetings is as follows : — I. September 26. "The Country and the People." Papers: i. The Indian Tribes. 2. The Physical Geography of Massachusetts and its Effects upon the People. 3. The European Immigrants. II. October 10. "Productive Industries." Papers: i. The Fisheries. 2. Agriculture. 3. Manufactures. III. November 14. "Commerce and Communication." Papers: I. Transportation and Communication. 2. General Survey of Massachu- setts Commerce. 3. Trade with Africa and the Indies (including the Slave-trade). 4. The Navigation Acts and their Influence upon Massa- chusetts Commerce. IV. December 12. "The Currency of Early Massachusetts." Stere- opticon lecture by Mr. Andrew McFarland Davis. V. January 9. " Social Life." Mrs. Abby Morton Diaz will be the guest of the evening, speaking upon the home life of the early Massachusetts set- tlers. Papers: I. Homes and Home Life. 2. Sports and Amusements. 3. Social Intercourse. 4. The Influence of the Clergy and of the Govern- ment. VL " The Influence of Economic and Social Conditions upon Institu- tions.' February 13. "The Church." Papers: i. History of Congrega- tionalism. 2. Church and State. 3. Sectarian Controversies and Perse- cutions. 4. Religious Life of the People. March 13. "The Govern- ment." Mr. William B. Weeden will be the guest of the evening, speaking of the influence of social and economic forces upon the government in early New England. Papers : i. Town Government. 2. The General Court and the Colonial Magistrates. 3. The Royal Governor and the Influence of the Crown. VII. April 10. "Law and its Administration." Papers: i. The Common Law in America. 2. Colonial Judicature of Massachusetts. 3. Colonial Legislation of Massachusetts. VIII. May 8. "Intellectual Life." Papers: i. Schools and Col- leges. 2. Learned Professions. 3. Music and the Fine Arts. IX. June 12. " Literature." Mr. Edwin D. Mead will be the guest of the evening, speaking upon the intellectual life of Massachusetts during the first two centuries of her history. Papers: i. Descriptive and Histori- cal Writings. 2. Ecclesiastical Works. 3. The Literature of the Revolu- tion. 4. Newspapers and other Reading Matter. This program is followed in the society's circular by several pages of bibliography, most thoroughly and discriminatingly compiled. The outline altogether would do credit to any his- torical society in the land, and it is entirely the work of the young people themselves. The subject studied with similar thoroughness the year before was " The History of the Spanish Power in America ; " and preceding years had been devoted to "The Anti-slavery Struggle " and " The Heritage of Slavery." The young people are constantly lending a hand to other young ^9 people needing assistance in historical and political studies. The North End Union, the South End House and Denison House have all had their help ; and a dozen of them carried on classes for an entire season at the Marcella Street Home. Many societies of young people all over the country might well take up such historical studies as those in which the Old South Historical Society interests itself. They should also interest themselves in studies directly political and social. We have in Boston a Good Citizenship Society. This is not a part of the Old South Work ; but it is a society in whose efforts some of us who have the Old South Work at heart have been deeply interested, and its lectures were long given at the Old South Meeting-house. The lectures have dealt with such sub- jects as Qualifications for Citizenship, Municipal Reform, the Reform of the Newspaper, the Revival of Public Spirit in our Country Towns, and the Better Organization of the World. One season the lectures were upon "A More Beautiful Public Life," the several subjects being: "The Lessons of the W^hite City," "Boards of Beauty," "Municipal Art," "Art in the Public Schools," "Art Museums and the People," and "Boston, the City of God." These subjects, and such as these, young men and women might take up in their societies, with great benefit to themselves and to their communities. Our young people should train themselves also in the organization and procedure of our local and general government, as presented in the text- books on civil government now happily becoming so common in the schools. The young men in one of our colleges have a House of Commons : in another college — a young women's college — they have a House of Representative^. Our Old South Historical Society has talked of organizing a Town Meeting, for the discussion of public questions and for school- ing in legislative methods. Why should not such Town Meet- ings be common among our young people .'* Why, too, will not our young people everywhere, as a part of their service for good citizenship, engage in a crusade in behalf of better music .-^ Good music is a great educator. Bad music is debilitating and debasing. That was a wise man whom old Fletcher quotes as saying, " Let me make the songs of a people, and I care not who makes the laws." How many of the young men and women in the high schools have read what Plato says about strong, pure music in education, in his book on " The Laws " ? Indeed, it is to be feared that not all the 20 teachers have read it. I wish that a hundred clubs or classes of young people would read Plato's " Laws " next winter, and his " Republic" the next, and then Aristotle's " Politics." Do not think they are hard, dull books. They are fresh, fascinat- ing books, and seem almost as modern, in all their discussions of socialism, education and the rest, as the last magazine, — only they are ^o much better and more fruitful than the maga- zine ! They make us ashamed of ourselves, — these great Greek thinkers, — their preaching is so much better than our practice ; but it is a good thing to be made ashamed of ourselves some- times, and we need it very much here in America in the matter of music. We are suffering in our homes, in our schools, in our churches, our theatres, everywhere, from music of the trashiest and most vulgar character; and this is said w'ith no failure to recognize the great amount of splendid work that is being done. Let us go to school to Plato ; let us go to school to Germany and England. We aim to do something in behalf of this reform at the Old South. Our large choruses from the public schools at many of our celebrations have sung w^ell. At our last " Children's Hour," as already mentioned, two hundred girls from the Wells School, assisted by good soloists, rendered admirably the old Ode composed and sung when President Washington was received in Boston, in 1789. But we wish to do a real educational work, not only as touching patriotic music strictly, but as touching better music for the people generally. It was an " Old South boy," the winner of one of the early Old South prizes, who two or three years ago conceived and organized the magnificent series of public organ recitals in Boston, given under the auspices of the Twentieth Century Club, which attracted so much attention throughout the country, encouraging similar efforts in other cities, and giving impetus to the interest which has resulted in the Boston municipal concerts. One day we shall have an Old South Chorus. We hope some time to have a good organ at the Old South, as we hope to have the old meeting-house altogether in much better shape in a near future than in the last years. If in some future the ghosts of some of the great Greeks stroll into the Old South Meeting-house, we hope they may find it the centre of influences in behalf of pure and inspiring music which w^ill be as gratifying to them as the devotion to the State which is inculcated there would surely be. Old South Mcctiug-JwiisCy Boston, jSgg. 1 9"? 5 °^^^*/ ^/^-^Z %^^-/ \ ;♦. 0^' v^^V • V"\'''^ . o^^"'"^- -'^ '^ ♦.-..»* ^V^ ^> -v- »; ♦ August 1988