Norwalk After Two Hundred & Fifty Years

Norwalk is an "antiquated" but quite the opposite of a "reducedly" antiquated New England town. Its hills are commanding view points, its lesser heights splendid building eminences and its levels and valleys form charming home seats. Its market centres are feasibly located, its industry plants well placed and its residential quarters conveniently and delightfully sit- uated. The town is accessible, there being convenient water ways and rail communication with New York al- most every hour of the working day and with Boston several times every twenty-four hours. Tramway service is very perfect, gas and electricity are illuminating agents, the postal telegraphic and telephonic facilities are perhaps all that could be wished and the press is very in- telligently and energetically supervised. There is public water, and an efficient police, and excellent sewerage and a complete fire system, and good roads and fine scenery and 18 a pure atmosphere and a rich historv. Nature has dealt generously by the town and God has blest the ancient patrimony. Under the shadow of the Divine Wing two and one half centuries have now been passed and beneath the same hovering may every present and future son and (laughter of the fond old inheritance securelv and happily dwell until shall cease the flux of human years and the now of human generations. C. M S 19 FIRST DAY, SEPTEMBER EIGHTH [HE quarter-millenial celebration of the founding of the town, was officially opened at the meeting house of "ye Prime Ancient Society," on the Green, Sunday, September Eighth. This church, whose history is con- temporaneous with that of the town, was handsomely decorated for the occasion. The front was ga)^ with national flags and bunting and the streamers in the cen- ter reached far over the main entrance. Inside the tri- color with the stars adorned every pillor and extended from seats to gallery. Intermingled were rosettes of red, white and blue. The organ was also touched up with the tri-color. From far and near the people came as the hour of service approached. It was a union service in truth. In addition to the home people there were many faces present from the daughter towns of Westport, New Ca- naan and Wilton, and they vied with the mother resi- dents in rendering tribute to the anniversary. While the celebration was not officially commenced until the afternoon, yet it in reality opened at the morn- ing services in all the churches, where fitting references were made to the anniversary. Norwalk Chapter, D. A. R., were prominent in front pews, wearing the badges of the order. Seats were also reserved for members of the executive committee. Promptly at 3 o'clock Edward J. Sims appeared at the big organ and gave an excellent rendition of the Finale of the Fourth .Sonata by Guilmant. Then followed the chorus, "O God, Beneath Thy Guilding Hand," under the direction of Prof. Alexander S. Gibson, who had charge of the music of the day. Rev. George Drew Egbert, pastor of the church, then gave the invocation, which was followed by Buck's Festival Te Deum in E flat. Rev. Mr. Egbert then led in the responsive read mg from Psalm 107: "O give thanks unto the Lord, for He is good ; for His mercy endureth forever." This was followed by the Gloria Patri, by Greatorex, and then came Hymn 658, "Thou by heavenly hosts adored." 20 Rev. Mr. Egbert led in prayer, which was one of thankfulness. Reference was made in it to the shadow that had fallen upon the nation, and a supplication for President McKinley's recovery, as follows: Lift up your heads, Oh ye gates, and be ye lifted up ye everlasting doors, and the King of Glory shall come in. Who is this King of Glory? The Lord of Hosts, ! [e is the King of Glory. Oh, Lord God. Almighty, we adore Thee, before Whom angels veil their faces and archangels are silent. Thou art the God of battles, presiding in majesty over the destinies of nations that strive together for mastery. Thou art the God of Peace, bending in benediction over clasped hands and hearts that beat in harmony. Thou didst set the stars in motion around the central sun, find- ing high praise in the rythmic music of their circling. Thou didst look with iove, when in obedience to thy bid- ding, the flowers of the field first nodded to greet the sun- beam. Thy providence is mysterious in its distances, yet the smallest of thy creatures know Thy tender touch. Thine Almightiness alike "wings an angel and guides a sparrow.'' Because Thou art great we adore Thee. Because Thou art good we love Thee. We rehearse with ring- ing voices Thy kindness shown through the years, as they have lengthened into centuries; a kindness that has been told to Thy children in mighty forests for their building, splendid fields for their tilling, copious showers for their refreshment and glowing sunlight for their joy. Finer fruits have been ours than grapes of Eschol, finer landscapes than the glowing pictures unveiled from Pisgah. Thy kindness has been told, too. in large de- liverances from savagery, noble conquests for freedom, and the final culmination in a government of the people, by the people, and for the people. For the storied past we are grateful, for the pro- phecy of romance and revelation, we are grateful, and may we ;who stand midway between the past and the future, between sunrise and sunset, take our place in the hurrying line of those who find their highest inspiration in the love of the Nazarene and make their own the pas- sionate prayer, Thy Kingdom "Come. Remember us just now when a shadow has fallen across the flag we love ; may it be the passing cloud that hides the sun for but a little, and may the banner under which our forefathers clustered once more wave unsha- dowed. God spare our President if it be the Divine will ; God tenderly cherish the wife of his long devotion ; may this dire disaster but impress the influence of his noble manhood upon the multitudinous people of this great nation. In the name of the Great Redeemer, the Tried Friend, Jesus Christ. The festival anthem, composed especially for this occasion, by Prof. Gibson, was next on the program, and was excellently rendered. Mrs. Lillian Sherwood-New- kirk sang the soprano solo with much feeling and effect. Rev. Charles M. Selieck, Norwalk's able historian, then proceded with this memorial address: In the name of the everlasting God ; Amen. Behold this stone shall be la witness unto you — Joshua, Chapter XXIV., portion of verse 2.7. It has been remarked that as its brilliance increases as the planet approaches the sun so, at the close ot Joshua's career, when mortal life was soon to end in glorious immortaliay, his very words seemed intensity- invested. Now, because the text's syntax, the language, in part, of that hero's valedictory, is terse, and pertinent, we venure to borrow it as a base to our remarks believing that the occasion vindicates the venture. "Behold this stone shall be a witness unto you." This service, inaugurating as it does, the celebration of the attainment to a querter-millenial years' age of one of the patrimonies of the Western Continent, a patri- mony which prior to the imprint of an English foot-form in its soil was even then denominated Norwalke, this service and the observances to which it introduces wit- ness to the intelligence, intrepidity and integrity which, under God, contributed to the successful founding of this cherished settlement of our reverence and affection. In a formal greeting to his fatherland Lescarbot began thus. "Beautiful eye of the universe, ancient home of letters ; recourse of the afflicted ; firm support of re- ligion ; very dear mother." Lescarbot, who was not apostrophising Norwalk. although his words have Norwalk application, bore felt and fervent testimony in relation to his home hearth, and no less fervent ought our witness, sons and daugh- ters of this ancient plantation now to prove. We are commemorating the genesis of one of the most creditable organizations and ancestry cradles in the land, and nat- ive Norwalk deserves of her offspring, the Abbot, Bar- num, Betts, Benedict, Bouton, Campfield, Church, Corn- stock, Ely, Fitch, Ferris, Gregory, Hanford, Hayes, Holmes, Hoyt, Keeler, Kellogg, Lockwood, Marvin, Nash, Olmstead, Piatt, Raymond, Reed, Richards, Scribner, Seymour, St. John and Webb galaxy, deserves of her entire offspring that every eye should be animated and every heart and hand and home open. When we reflect upon the Ludlow "agreement" res- pectability ; when we ponder the pioneers' management discretion, dividing up labors so evenly and sharing minor performances so equally ; keeping the home cen- ter strong and enterprisingly sending out sturdy repre- sentatives east, west and north as far as the Oblong; when we remember cur Indian and French and Indian, and Revolutionary quota, and the loyalty of our men back as far as Saybrook days and later at Ticonderoga and Crown Point, when we summon up our Revolution- ary men, not to mention those of 1812 and of the Civil War, our witness, the witness at this time of all Nor- walkers should be a royal one, and the thought of the possibility of anything less, the thought that we who have been nourished -at such a breast and borne upon such a bosom and are possessed of such a story could pass such a history, at such a time, indifferently by, would, it seems to us, be a blow to a manly nature. Breathes — slightly changing the diction — Breathes there a Norwalk son. With soul so dead, Who never to himself hath said, This is my own, my native town? On the contrary, we would fain trust that our depth-feeling to-day is voiced in those two lines of Browning: Open my heart and you will see Graven inside of it — Italy. Utilitarianism may possibly look askance at this and deem it sentiment. Be it so. Sentiment is not al- ways ineffective ; it plays a part in this planet's diurnal relations. Aye, if Capt. Hezekiah Betts's tears, as he is said to have sat one uncelebrated Independence Eve long ago on his France street stoop and wept because unkindled bonfires and unbooming cannon and unreverberating