File:Boston illustrated; (1886) (14803199223).jpg

Identifier: bostonillustrate00st (find matches)
Title: Boston illustrated;
Year: 1886 (1880s)
Authors: (Stanwood, Edward), 1841-1923. (from old catalog)
Subjects:
Publisher: Boston, Houghton, Mifflin and company
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: Sloan Foundation

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e militia of the Colony to the number of a thousand able-bodied and well-armed men. There is authority for the statement that in 1674 there were aboutfifteen hundredfamilies in thetown, and thepopulation ofNew England wasthen reckoned atone hundred andtwenty thousand.The early his-tory of Boston hasbeen an almost m-exhaustible fieldfor the researchesof local antiqua-ries. Consideringthat almost threequarters of a cen-tiuy elapsed be-fore the firstnewspaper w a sprinted, the ma-terials for makinga complete ac-count of theevents that oc-curred, and forforming a correctestimate of thehabits and modeof life of the peo-ple, are remark-ably abundant.Tlie records havebeen searched togood purpose. Still it is to \asitors that we are indebted for some of the most quaint and in-teresting pictures of early New England life. An English traveller, namedEdward Ward, published in London in 1699 an accomit of liis trip to NewEngland, in which he describes the customs of Bostonians in a lively manner,
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BOSTON ILLUSTRATED. 8 though parts of the story are evidently exaggerated, Mr. Ward thought it agreat hardship that Kissing a Woman in Publick, tho offerd as a CourteousSalutation, should be visited with the heavy punishment of whipping for boththe offenders. There were even then stately Edifices, some of which havecost the owners two or three Thousand Pounds sterling, and this fact Mr.Ward rather illogically conceived to prove the truth of two old adages, Thata Fool and his Money is soon parted ; and, Set a Beggar on Horseback he 11ride to the Devil ; for ihe Fathers of these Men were Tinkers and Peddlers.Heseemed to have a very low opinion of the religious and moral character ofthe people. Mr. Daniel Neal, who wrote a book a few years later, found theconversation in this town as polite as in most of the cities and towns in Eng-land, and he describes the houses, furniture, tables, and dress as being quite assplendid and showy as those of the most considerable tradesmen in London. Har

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