fond of music, some instruments were introduced, which was attended with 80 much excitement and opposition that, according to tradition, some persons left the meeting house rather than hear the profane sounds of "the fiddle and flute."

In the families of the original settlers, and also in those of their descendants of the second and third generation, religious order was maintained. The late aged Mrs. Hazeltine gave the writer the names of all the families that lived on Concord Main street when she was a little girl-about 1746-and says they all had family orders"—that is, attended family prayer. Having very few books, the Bible was daily read, and the Assembly's Shorter Catechism committed to memory and recited by the children, who were also trained to habits of strict submission and obedience to parental authority. Most of the heads of families also were members of the church, either on the "half way covenant," or in full communion, and their children were baptized. Commonly, each family had a nice white blanket, called the "baptism blanket," in which their children, in succession, were carried out to meeting for baptism. George Abbot, Esq., and his sister Betsey, wife of Amos Hoyt, have the white linen blanket, about a yard square, which was used as the baptism blanket for all of Dea. George Abbot's family, nine sons, and of his son Ezra's family, eleven in number. It has been used for the baptism of children to the sixth generation, beside being borrowed for the same purpose by neighbors. It is now more than one hundred years old, and not a brack in it!

The social manners and customs of the people in early times were simple, friendly and unceremonious. Visiting was common and frequent among neighbors, and often without formal invitation. When a company of neighbors was invited, the women went early and "spent the afternoon," taking their knitting, or other handy work, and their babies with them. Their husbands either accompanied them or went in season to take supper and return early in the evening. The suppers on these occasions consisted of plain, wholesome food-new bread, pies, doughnuts, sometimes roasted meat or turkey, with good cider for the men, and a cup of tea for the ladies.

In the social gatherings of young people, of both sexes, dancing was a favorite amusement. Old Mr. Herbert says, The young folks always danced, sometimes with a fiddle, and sometimes without; but when there was no fiddler, they sung, and danced to the tune; but he adds, "we always went home by nine o'clock. On particular occasions, such as ordinations, new year, and other times, there were evening dancing parties, in which not only the young, but elderly and married people participated. Although the parson, deacons, and other members of the church did not "join in the dance," yet they would “look on," and admit that there was no harm simply in dancing, though the time might be more profitably spent."

The amusements and recreations of young men were mostly of the athletic kind. Playing ball" was always practiced, as it still is, in the spring and fall. Wrestling was very common; but this took place at social and public gatherings, especially at raisings, when, after the labor of raising the building was over, stimulated by the good treat which all hands had received, they were disposed to show their strength in raising or prostrating one another. First, the sport would begin with youngsters trying their strength in the center of a circle formed by spectators. Then older and stronger ones would come into the ring. Wagers would be laid, and a little more stimulant taken in would give wonderful elasticity and strength to the parties. By and by defiant and angry words would be heard, and it was well if a fight did not end the sport. The most famous wrestler and fighter of old times was Ephraim Colby.* The last wrestling match that is re

Mr. McFarland, visited, and in praying with him, asked, "that when he should be called from this to the eternal world, he might sit down with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven." Mr. Evans, who was a great friend and ardent admirer of Washington, said, "and with Washington, too!" He could not bear the idea of being separated from Washington in the eternal world. An excellent portrait of him is still preserved. When Gen. LaFayette visited Concord, in 1825, he was shown this portrait, and, on seeing it, immediately exclaimed, "It is our worthy chaplain."

The name of Ephraim, or, as commonly called, Eph Colby, is noted in traditionary history as a wrestler and fighter. His parentage is not exactly known. He appears to have

membered to have taken place in the Main street, was at the raising of Capt. Joseph Walker's large barn, about 1831.

It should be added that it was customary at all large raisings, after the ridge pole was fairly in its place, for the master-workman to celebrate or dedicate the whole, by dashing upon it a bottle of rum, with three hearty cheers from the company. Atkinson Webster, Esq., says the last rum-ceremony of this kind that he remembers, was at the raising of the first Eagle coffee-house, in 1827.

But few among our orators and statesmen have so largely arrested the attention of their countrymen as Daniel Webster. He was born.

at Salisbury, N. H., about 16 miles north from Concord, on the 18th of January, 1782. He died at Marshfield, Mass., October 24, 1852, aged 70 years.

In 1830, he made what is generally regarded as the ablest of his parliamentary efforts, his second speech in reply to Col. Hayne, of South Carolina. This gentleman had commented with severity on the political course of the New England States, and had laid down. in rather an authoritative manner those views of the constitution usually known as the doctrines of 'nullification. Mr. Webster was accordingly called upon to vindicate New England, and to point out the fallacies of nullification. The records of modern eloquence contain nothing of superior force and beauty." It was in the course of this speech he said:

"Mr. President, shall enter on no encomium upon Massachusetts,-she needs none. There she is,-behold her and judge for yourselves. There is her history,-the world knows it by heart. The past, at least, is secure. There is Boston, and Concord, and Lexington, and Bunker Hill; and there they will remain forever. The bones of her sons, fallen in the great struggle for independence, now lie mingled with the soil of every state,

been an ensign in Capt. Abbot's company, 1774, in the war of the revolution, and spent most of his days in Concord. He was rather short, but a stout, broad-shouldered fellow, and was the "bully" of all the region, far and near. He served some time in town as a constable. He was sure to be present at all public gatherings, and gloried in such occasions as raisings and military musters. When a large building was to be raised, it was customary to send an invitation to the strong and stout men of neighboring towns-such as the Heads and Knoxes of Pembroke, the Chamberlains of Loudon, Lyfords and Cloughs of Canterbury, and Jackmans and Flanders of Boscawen. When the raising was completed, they had a wrestling match; and after all others who chose had entered the lists, and tried their strength, then Colby would step forward and defy them all. Being all well stimulated and warmed up with rum, that was free as water at such times, it was not uncommon to end the wrestling sport with a serious fight. Colby at such times was insolent and provoking. No one liked to engage him alone, and yet they could not well brook his insults. At the raising of Major Livermore's house, 1785, Colby got into a quarrel with the Elliots, from the Borough-Joseph and his two sons, Barnard and John. The two latter attacked him together. John sprung upon him like a cat, clasping him around the waist, while Barnard seized him behind. In the wrestle, they all fell together, when John Elliot bit Colby's nose half off. Pained and infuriated by the bite on his nose, Colby rose, shook John off and dashed him on the ground; then, seizing Barnard by his neck and bottom of his pants, tossed him head first into West's Brook; and turning, kicked the old man off the ground. Colby worked a number of years for the Walker family. He said that "Parson Walke: was the only man the Almighty ever made that he was afraid of."

from New England to Georgia; and there they will lie forever. And, sir, where American liberty raised its first voice, and where its youth was nurtured and sustained, there it still lives in the strength of its manhood, and full of its original spirit. If discord and disunion shall wound it, if party strife and blind ambition shall hawk at and tear it; if folly and madness, if uneasiness, under salutary and necessary restraint, shall succeed to separate it from that Union, by which alone its existence is made sure, it will stand in the end by the side of that cradle in which its infancy was rocked; it will stretch forth its arm with whatever of vigor it may still retain over the friends who gather round it: and it will fall at last, if fall it must, amidst the proudest monuments of its own glory, and on the very spot of its origin."

"It is said that a large number of New Englanders were sitting together in the hall, regarding their noble champion with intensest interest, and that as he closed the foregoing, with his glowing eye fixed upon them, 'they shed tears like girls.'

Meeting Hayne with most powerful arguments upon every issue embraced in the resolution, he finally came to his remarks upon disunion. Elevated to the highest pitch of moral grandeur, his chest heaving with the emotions of his soul, he delivered the following high sentiments,-sentiments which the world knows 'by heart.'

"I profess, sir, in my career hitherto to have kept steadily in view the prosperity and honor of the whole country, and the preservation of our federal union. It is to that union we owe our safety at home, and our consideration and dignity abroad.

It is to that union that we are chiefly indebted for whatever makes us most proud of our country. That union we reached only by the discipline of our virtues, in the severe school of adversity. It had its origin in the necessities of disordered finance, prostrate commerce, and ruined credit. Under its benign influences, these great interests immediately awoke, as from the dead, and sprang forth with newness of life. Every year of its duration has teemed with fresh proofs of its utility and its blessings; and although our territory has stretched out wider and wider, and our population spread further and further, they have not outrun its protection, or its benefits. It has been to us all a copious fountain of national, social, and personal happiness.

I have not allowed myself, sir, to look beyond the union, to see what might lie hidden in the dark recess behind. I have not coolly weighed the chances of preserving liberty, when the bonds that unite us together shall be broken asunder. I have not accustomed myself to hang over the precipice of disunion to see whether, with my short sight, I can fathom the depth of the abyss below; nor could I regard him as a safe counselor in the affairs of this government, whose thoughts should be mainly bent on considering, not how the union should be best preserved, but how tolerable might be the condition of the people when it shall be broken up and destroyed.

While the union lasts, we have high, exciting, gratifying prospects spread out before us, for us and our children. Beyond that I seek not to penetrate the veil. God grant that, in my day, at least, that curtain may not rise. God grant that on my vision never may be opened what lies behind. When my eyes shall be turned to behold, for the last time, the sun in heaven, may I not see him shining on the broken and dishonored fragments of a once glorious union; on states dissevered, discordant, belligerent; on a land rent with civil feuds, or drenched, it may be, in fraternal blood! Let their last feeble and lingering glance rather behold the gorgeous ensign of the republic, now known and honored throughout the earth, still full high advanced, its arms and trophies streaming in their original luster, not a stripe erased or polluted, nor a single star obscured,-bearing for its motto no such miserable interrogatory as, What is all this worth? Nor those other words of delusion and folly-Liberty first, and union afterward-but everywhere, spread all over in characters of living light, blazing on all its ample folds, as they float over the sea and over the land, and in every wind under the whole heavens, that other sentiment dear to every true AMERICAN heart— LIBERTY AND UNION NOW AND FOREVER, ONE AND INSEPARABLE!"

Such was the close of what is doubtless WEBSTER'S master-piece. Its delivery produced an effect upon his listeners never surpassed in the history of parliamentary debate. It is said, when "the speech was over, the tones of the orator still lingered upon the ear, and the audience, unconscious of the close, retained their positions. The agitated countenance, the heaving breast, the suffused eye, attested the continued influence of the spell upon them. Hands that in the excitement of the moment had sought each other, still remained closed in an unconscious grasp. Eye still turned to eye to receive

and repay mutual sympathy, and seemed forgetful of all but the orator's presence and words. The New Englanders, it is said, after adjournment, walked down Pennsylvania Avenue, with a firmer step and bolder air,-'pride in their port, defiance in their eye.' * * *Not one of them but felt he had gained a personal victory. Not one who was not ready to exclaim: 'Thank God, I too am a Yankee.""

Speaking of his feelings toward his antagonist during the delivery of this splendid oration, Webster himself said: "I felt as if everything I had ever seen, or read, or heard, was floating before me in one grand panorama, and I had little else to do than to reach up and cull a thunderbolt and hurl it at him." Being congratulated as the author of a speech that would live through all coming time, he said: "How I wish my poor brother (Ezekiel) had lived till after this speech, that I might know if he would have been gratified." He never lost his affection for that only brother, nor ceased to mourn his early decease.

[The engraving shows the appearance of some of the principal cotton mills as seen from the western bank of Merrimac River. The Stark Mills and the foundry appear on the left. Three of the five mills of the Amoskeag Mills are seen on the right. The city lies immediately in rear of the mills; the tower of the city hall appears back of one of the Stark Mills.]

MANCHESTER, one of the shire towns of Hillsborough county, is the largest city in New Hampshire, containing about 20,000 inhabitants. It is situated, principally, on the east side of Merrimac River, 17 miles from Concord, 18 from Nashua, 112 from Portland, 58 from Boston, and 218 from Albany, New York. This place, but a few years since a little better than a barren sand bank, is now converted into a well built city, presenting an array of splendid buildings seldom exceeded.

The Amoskeag Falls, between Manchester and Goffstown, are the largest on the Merrimac. At the ordinary stage of water, the fall to the foot of the locks is 47 fect, and the whole fall in the distance of a mile is 54 feet. A permanent stone dam is erected across the river, at the head of the falls, and on the east side, guard gates of the most

substantial kind are constructed, through which the water passes into a spacious basin, connected with the upper canal for the use of the mills, and, with the Amoskeag Canal, which was built in 1816, for the purposes of navigation. The fall from the upper into the lower canal is 20 feet, and from the latter into the river varies from 20 to 30 feet. The water power is estimated to be sufficient to drive 216,000 spindles, with all the machinery sufficient to manufacture cloth. The cloth is manufactured at the rate of 38,000 yards (22 miles) daily. Beside the above, numerous other establishments here, turn out a very great amount of various kinds of manufactures.

Manchester was originally taken from Londonderry, Chester, and a portion of a tract called Harrytown, and incorporated in 1751. by the name of Derryfield, which was changed to its present name in 1810. The city of Manchester was incorporated in June, 1846. It commenced its rise about the year 1839, at which period the locality, now occupied by the city, contained no more than 50 inhabitants. The city is on a plain about 90 feet above the river; the streets are on a large scale: Elm, the main street, running more than a mile north and south, is emphatically the "Broadway" of Manchester. Four large squares have been laid out in different parts of the city stocked with trees; in two of which are ponds, which add much to their beauty. There are some 12 or 15 religious societies, some of which have spacious and expensive houses. An atheneum was estab lished in 1844, and has about 6,000 volumes. The company's reservoir contains 11,000,000 gallons, situated 150 feet above the river, supplies the mills and boarding houses with water; it is located about one mile from the City Hall. The Manchester Gas Light Company commenced operations in 1852. Everything pertaining is of the most substantial kind, on a large scale, and in beauty of architecture, substantial finish, and skillful arrangements of machinery for the ends proposed, are superior to any other works in New England.

Londonderry, a farming town, is situated six miles south-east from Manchester. It formerly included the present town of Derry, and was settled in 1719, by a colony of Scotch Presbyterians, from the vicinity of Londonderry, in Ireland. These settlers, it is said, introduced the culture of potatoes-a vegetable until then unknown in New England; "and the farmer who laid by three bushels for his winter's stock, felt that he had an abundant supply. At the time of settlement (1719), sixteen families, accompanied by Rev. James McGregore, took possession of the tract, and on the day of their arrival, attended religious services under an oak on the east shore of Beaver Pond."

Rev. Matthew Clark, second minister of Londonderry, was a native of Ireland, who, in early life, had been an officer in the army, and distinguished himself in the defense of the city of Londonderry when besieged by the army of King James, in 1688-9. He afterward relinquished a military life for the clerical profession. He died in 1785, and was borne to the grave, at his particular request, by his former companions in arms, of whom there were a considerable number among the early settlers of this town; several of these had been made free from taxes throughout the British dominions, by King William, for their bravery during that memorable seige.

This town has furnished quite a number of distinguished men: among these are Maj. Gen. John Stark, and Col. George Reid, of revolutionary memory. Joseph M. Keen, DD. the first president of Bowdoin College; Arthur Livermore, Jonathan Steele, and Samuel Bell, judges of the superior court were born here. Among the descendants of the early settlers, are the Hon. Jeremiah Smith, Gens.