The Bay State Monthly Volume 2, Issue 3, December, 1884 written by Various

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Mr. Lothrop is constantly broadening his field in many directions,
gathering the rich thought of many men of letters, science and
theology among his publications. Such writers as Professor James H.
Harrison, Arthur Gilman, and Rev. E.E. Hale are allies of the
house, constantly working with it to the development of pure
literature; the list of the authors and contributors being so long
as to include representatives of all the finest thinkers of the
day. Elegant art gift books of poem, classic and romance, have been
added with wise discrimination, until the list embraces sixteen
hundred books, out of which last year were printed and sold
1,500,000 volumes.

The great fire of 1872 brought loss to Mr. Lothrop among the many
who suffered. Much of the hard-won earnings of years of toil was
swept away in that terrible night. About two weeks later, a large
quantity of paper which had been destroyed during the great fire
had been replaced, and the printing of the same was in process at
the printing house of Rand, Avery & Co., when a fire broke out
there, destroying this second lot of paper, intended for the first
edition of sixteen volumes of the celebrated $1,000 prize books. A
third lot of paper was purchased for these books and sent to the
Riverside Press without delay. The books were at last printed, as
many thousand readers can testify, an enterprise that called out
from the Boston papers much commendation, adding, in one instance:
'Mr. Lothrop seems _warmed_ up to his work.'

When the time was ripe, another form of Mr. Lothrop's plans for the
creation of a great popular literature was inaugurated. We refer to
the projection of his now famous 'Wide Awake,' a magazine into
which he has thrown a large amount of money. Thrown it, expecting
to wait for results. And they have begun to come. 'Wide Awake' now
stands abreast with the finest periodicals in our country, or
abroad. In speaking of 'Wide Awake' the Boston Herald says: 'No
such marvel of excellence could be reached unless there were
something beyond the strict calculations of money-making to push
those engaged upon it to such magnificent results.' Nothing that
money can do is spared for its improvement. Withal, it is the most
carefully edited of all magazines; Mr. Lothrop's strict
determination to that effect, having placed wise hands at the helm
to co-operate with him. Our best people have found this out. The
finest writers in this country and in Europe are giving of their
best thought to filling its pages, the most celebrated artists are
glad to work for it. Scientific men, professors, clergymen, and all
heads of households give in their testimony of its merits as a
family magazine, while the young folks are delighted with it. The
fortune of 'Wide Awake' is sure. Next Mr. Lothrop proceeded to
supply the babies with their own especial magazine. Hence came
bright, winsome, sparkling 'Babyland.' The mothers caught at the
idea. 'Babyland' jumped into success in an incredibly short space
of time. The editors of 'Wide Awake,' Mr. and Mrs. Pratt, edit this
also, which ensures it as safe, wholesome and sweet to put into
baby's hands. The intervening spaces between 'Babyland' and 'Wide
Awake' Mr. Lothrop soon filled with 'Our Little Men and Women,' and
'The Pansy.' Urgent solicitations from parents and teachers who
need a magazine for those little folks, either at home or at
school, who were beginning to read and spell, brought out the
first, and Mrs. G.R. Alden (Pansy) taking charge of a weekly
pictorial paper of that name, was the reason for the beginning and
growth of the second. The 'Boston Book Bulletin,' a quarterly, is a
medium for acquaintance with the best literature, its prices, and
all news current pertaining to it.

[Illustration: Exterior View Of D. Lothrop & Co.'s Publishing
House.]

[Illustration: Interior View Of D. Lothrop & Co.'s Publishing
House]

'The Chatauqua Young Folk's Journal' is the latest addition to the
sparkling list. This periodical was a natural growth of the modern
liking for clubs, circles, societies, reading unions, home studies,
and reading courses. It is the official voice of the Chatauqua
Young Folks Reading Union, and furnishes each year a valuable and
vivacious course of readings on topics of interest to youth. It is
used largely in schools. Its contributors are among our leading
clergymen, lawyers, university professors, critics, historians and
scientists, but all its literature is of a popular character,
suited to the family circle rather than the study. Mr. Lothrop now
has the remarkable success of seeing six flourishing periodicals
going forth from his house.

In 1875, Mr. Lothrop, finding his Cornhill quarters inaquate [sic],
leased the elegant building corner Franklin and Hawley streets,
belonging to Harvard College, for a term of years. The building is
120 feet long by 40 broad, making the salesroom, which is on the
first floor, one of the most elegant in the country. On the second
floor are Mr. Lothrop's offices, also the editorial offices of
'Wide Awake,' etc. On the third floor are the composing rooms and
mailing rooms of the different periodicals, while the bindery fills
the fourth floor.

This building also was found small; it could accommodate only
one-fourth of the work done, and accordingly a warehouse on
Purchase street was leased for storing and manufacturing purposes.

In 1879 Mr. Lothrop called to his assistance a younger brother, Mr.
M.H. Lothrop, who had already made a brilliant business record in
Dover, N.H., to whom he gives an interest in the business. All who
care for the circulation of the best literature will be glad to
know that everything indicates the work to be steadily increasing
toward complete development of Mr. Lothrop's life-long purpose."[A]

[Footnote A: _The Paper World_.]

This man of large purposes and large measures has, of course, his sturdy
friends, his foes as sturdy. He has, without doubt, an iron will. He is,
without doubt, a good fighter--a wise counselor. Approached by fraud he
presents a front of granite; he cuts through intrigue with sudden,
forceful blows. It is true that the sharp bargainer, the overreaching
buyer he worsts and puts to confusion and loss without mercy. But, no
less, candor and honor meet with frankness and generous dealing. He is
as loyal to a friend as to a purpose. His interest in one befriended and
taken into trust is for life. It has been more than once said of this
immovable business man that he has the simple heart of a boy.

Mr. Lothrop's summer home is in Concord, Mass. His house, known to
literary pilgrims of both continents as "The Wayside," is a unique, many
gabled old mansion, situated near the road at the base of a pine-covered
hill, facing broad, level fields, and commanding a view of charming
rural scenery. Its dozen green acres are laid out in rustic paths; but
with the exception of the removal of unsightly underbrush, the landscape
is left in a wild and picturesque state. Immediately in the rear of the
house, however, A. Bronson Alcott, a former occupant, planned a series
of terraces, and thereon is a system of trees. The house was commenced
in the seventeenth century and has been added to at different periods,
and withal is quaint enough to satisfy the most exacting antiquarian. At
the back rise the more modern portions, and the tower, wherein was woven
the most delightful of American romances, and about which cluster tender
memories of the immortal Hawthorne. The boughs of the whispering pines
almost touch the lofty windows.

The interior of the dwelling is seemly. It corresponds with the various
eras of its construction. The ancient low-posted rooms with their large
open fire-places, in which the genial hickory crackles and glows as in
the olden time, have furnishings and appointments in harmony. The more
modern apartments are charming, the whole combination making a most
delightful country house.

Mr. Lothrop's enjoyment of art and his critical appreciation is
illustrated here as throughout his publications, his house being adorned
with many exquisite and valuable original paintings from the studios of
modern artists; and there is, too, a certain literary fitness that his
home should be in this most classic spot, and that the mistress of this
home should be a lady of distinguished rank in literature, and that the
fair baby daughter of the house should wear for her own the name her
mother has made beloved in thousands of American and English households.

[Illustration: "The Wayside."]

* * * * *

New England Conservatory of Music.

[Illustration: New England CONSERVATORY OF MUSIC Franklin Square Boston]

By MRS. M.J. DAVIS.

One of the most important questions now occupying the minds of the
world's deepest and best thinkers, is the intellectual, physical, moral,
and political position of woman.

Men are beginning to realize a fact that has been evident enough for
ages: that the current of civilization can never rise higher than the
springs of motherhood. Given the ignorant, debased mothers of the
Turkish harem, and the inevitable result is a nation destitute of truth,
honor or political position. All the power of the Roman legions, all the
wealth of the imperial empire, could not save the throne of the Cæsars
when the Roman matron was shorn of her honor, and womanhood became only
the slave or the toy of its citizens. Men have been slow to grasp the
fact that women are a "true constituent of the bone and sinew of
society," and as such should be trained to bear the part of "bone and
sinew." It has been finely said, "that as times have altered and
conditions varied, the respect has varied in which woman has been held.
At one time condemned to the field and counted with the cattle, at
another time condemned to the drawing-room and inventoried with marbles,
oils and water-colors; but only in instances comparatively rare,
acknowledged and recognized in the fullness of her moral and
intellectual possibilities, and in the beauteous completeness of her
personal dignity, prowess and obligation."

[Illustration: The Library Reading Room]

[Illustration: Art Department Painting]

Various and widely divergent as opinions are in regard to woman's place
in the political sphere, there is fast coming to be unanimity of thought
in regard to her intellectual development. Even in Turkey, fathers are
beginning to see that their daughters are better, not worse, for being
able to read and, write, and civilization is about ready to concede that
the intellectual, physical and moral possibilities of woman are to be
the only limits to her attainment. Vast strides in the direction of the
higher and broader education of women have been made in the quarter of a
century since John Vassar founded on the banks of the Hudson the noble
college for women that bears his name; and others have been found who
have lent willing hands to making broad the highway that leads to an
ideal womanhood. Wellesley and Smith, as well as Vassar find their
limits all too small for the throngs of eager girlhood that are pressing
toward them. The Boston University, honored in being first to open
professional courses to women, Michigan University, the New England
Conservatory, the North Western University of Illinois, the Wesleyan
Universities, both of Connecticut and Ohio, with others of the colleges
of the country, have opened their doors and welcomed women to an equal
share with men, in their advantages. And in the shadow of Oxford, on the
Thames, and of Harvard, on the Charles, womanly minds are growing,
womanly lives are shaping, and womanly patience is waiting until every
barrier shall be removed, and all the green fields of learning shall be
so free that whosoever will may enter.

[Illustration: Art Department Modeling]

[Illustration: Tuning Department]

Among the foremost of the great educational institutions of the day, the
New England Conservatory of Music takes rank, and its remarkable
development and wonderful growth tends to prove that the youth of the
land desire the highest advantages that can be offered them. More than
thirty years ago the germ of the idea that is now embodied in this great
institution, found lodgment in the brain of the man who has devoted his
life to its development. Believing that music had a positive influence
upon the elevation of the world hardly dreamed of as yet even by its
most devoted students, Eben Tourjee returned to America from years of
musical study in the great Conservatories of Europe. Knowing from
personal observation the difficulties that lie in the way of American
students, especially of young and inexperienced girls who seek to obtain
a musical education abroad, battling as they must, not only with foreign
customs and a foreign language, but exposed to dangers, temptations and
disappointments, he determined to found in America a music school that
should be unsurpassed in the world. Accepting the judgment of the great
masters, Mendelsshon, David, and Joachim, that the conservatory system
was the best possible system of musical instruction, doing for music
what a college of liberal arts does for education in general, Dr.
Tourjee in 1853, with what seems to have been large and earnest faith,
and most entire devotion, took the first public steps towards the
accomplishment of his purpose. During the long years his plan developed
step by step. In 1870 the institution was chartered under its present
name in Boston. In 1881 its founder deeded to it his entire personal
property, and by a deed of trust gave the institution into the hands of
a Board of Trustees to be perpetuated forever as a Christian Music
School.

[Illustration: The Dining Hall]

In the carrying out of his plan to establish and equip an institution
that should give the highest musical culture, Dr. Tourjee has been
compelled, in order that musicians educated here should not be narrow,
one-sided specialists only, but that they should be cultured men and
women, to add department after department, until to-day under the same
roof and management there are well equipped schools of Music, Art,
Elocution, Literature, Languages, Tuning, Physical Culture, and a home
with the safeguards of a Christian family life for young women students.

[Illustration: _The Cabinet_]

When, in 1882, the institution moved from Music Hall to its present
quarters in Franklin Square, in what was the St. James Hotel, it became
possessed of the largest and best equipped conservatory buildings in the
world. It has upon its staff of seventy-five teachers, masters from the
best schools of Europe. During the school year ending June 29, 1884,
students coming from forty-one states and territories of the Union, from
the British Provinces, from England and from the Sandwich Islands, have
received instruction there. The growth of this institution, due in such
large measure to the courage and faith of one man, has been remarkable,
and it stands to-day self-supporting, without one dollar of endowment,
carrying on alone its noble work, an institution of which Boston,
Massachusetts and America may well be proud. From the first its
invitation has been without limitation. It began with a firm belief that
"what it is in the nature of a man or woman to become, is a Providential
indication of what God wants it to become, by improvement and
development," and it offered to men and women alike the same advantages,
the same labor, and the same honor. It is working out for itself the
problem of co-education, and it has never had occasion to take one
backward step in the part it has chosen. Money by the millions has been
poured out upon the schools and colleges of the land, and not one dollar
too much has been given, for the money that educates is the money that
saves the nation.

Among those who have been made stewards of great wealth some liberal
benefactor should come forward in behalf of this great school, that, by
eighteen years of faithful living, has proved its right to live. Its
founder says of it: "The institution has not yet compassed my thought of
it." Certainly it has not reached its possibilities of doing good. It
needs a hall in which its concerts and lectures can be given, and in
which the great organ of Music Hall, may be placed. It needs that its
chapel, library, studios, gymnasium and recitation rooms should be
greatly enlarged to meet the actual demands now made upon them. It needs
what other institutions have needed and received, a liberal endowment,
to enable it, with them, to meet and solve the great question of the
day, the education of the people.

[Illustration: New England Conservatory of Music Boston]

* * * * *

SKETCH OF SAUGUS.

By E.P. ROBINSON.

Saugus lies about eight miles northeast of Boston. It was incorporated
as an independent town February 17, 1815, and was formerly a part of
Lynn, which once bore the name of Saugus, being an Indian name, and
signifies great or extended. It has a taxable area of 5,880 acres, and
its present population may be estimated at about 2,800, living in 535
houses. The former boundary between Lynn and Suffolk County ran through
the centre of the "Boardman House," in what is now Saugus, and standing
near the line between Melrose and Saugus, and is one of the oldest
houses in the town. It has forty miles of accepted streets and roads,
which are proverbial as being kept in the very best condition. Its
public buildings are a Town Hall, a wooden structure, of Gothic
architecture, with granite steps and underpining, and has a seating
capacity of seven hundred and eighty persons. It is considered to be the
handsomest wooden building in Essex County, and cost $48,000. The High
School is accommodated within its walls, and beside offices for the
various boards of town officers; on the lower floor it has a room for a
library. The upper flight has an auditorium with ante-rooms at the front
and rear, a balcony at the front, seats one hundred and eighty persons,
and a platform on the stage at the rear. It was built in 1874-5. The
building committee were E.P. Robinson, Gilbert Waldron, J.W. Thomas,
H.B. Newhall, Wilbur F. Newhall, Augustus B. Davis, George N. Miller,
George H. Hull, Louis P. Hawkes, William F. Hitchings, E.E. Wilson,
Warren P. Copp, David Knox, A. Brad. Edmunds and Henry Sprague. E.P.
Robinson was chosen chairman and David Knox secretary. The architects
were Lord & Fuller of Boston, and the work of building was put under
contract to J.H. Kibby & Son of Chelsea.

The town also owns seven commodious schoolhouses, in which are
maintained thirteen schools--one High, three Grammar, three
Intermediate, three Primaries, one sub-Primary and two mixed schools,
the town appropriating the sum of six thousand dollars therefor. There
are five Churches--Congregational, Universalist, and three Methodist,
besides two societies worshiping in halls (the St. John's Episcopal
Mission and the Union at North Saugus). After the schism in the old
Third Parish about 1809, the religious feud between the Trinitarians and
the Unitarians became so intense that a lawsuit was had to obtain the
fund, the Universalists retaining possession. The Trinitarians then
built the old stone Church, under the direction of Squire Joseph Eames,
which, as a piece of architecture, did not reflect much credit on
builder or architect. It is now used as a grocery and post office; their
present place of worship was built in 1852. The Church edifice of the
old Third was erected in 1738, and was occupied without change until
1859, when it was sold and moved off the spot, and the site is now
marked by a flag staff and band stand, known as Central Square. The old
Church was moved a short distance and converted into tenements, with a
store underneath. The Universalist society built their present Church
in 1860. The town farm consists of some 280 acres, and has a fine wood
lot of 240 acres, the remainder being valuable tillage, costing in 1823
$4,625.

The town is rich in local history and has either produced or been the
residence of a number of notable men and women.

[Illustration: M.E. CHURCH, CLIFTONDALE.]

Judge William Tudor, the father of the ice business, now so colossal in
its proportions, started the trade here, living on what is now the poor
farm. The Saugus Female Seminary once held quite a place in literary
circles, Cornelius C. Felton, afterward president of Harvard College,
being its "chore boy" (the remains of his parents lie in the cemetery
near by). Fanny Fern, the sister of N.P. Willis, the wife of James
Parton, the celebrated biographer, as well as two sisters of Dr.
Alexander Vinton, pursued their studies here, together with Miss Flint,
who married Honorable Daniel P. King, member of Congress for the Essex
District, and Miss Dustin, who became the wife of Eben Sutton, and who
has been so devoted and interested in the library of the Peabody
Institute. Mr. Emerson, the preceptor, was for a time the pastor of the
Third Parish of Lynn (now Saugus Universalist society), where Parson
Roby preached for a period of fifty-three years--more than half a
century, with a devotion and fidelity that greatly endeared him to his
people. In passing we give the items of his salary as voted him in 1747,
taken from the records of the Parish, being kindly furnished by the
Clerk, Mr. W.F. Hitchings: "A suitable house and barn, standing in a
suitable place; pasturing and sufficient warter meet for two Cows and
one horse--the winter meet put in his barn; the improvement of two acres
of land suitable to plant and to be kept well fenced; sixty pounds in
lawful silver money, at six shillings and eight pence per ounce; twenty
cords of wood at his Dore, and the Loose Contributions; and also the
following artikles, or so much money as will purchase them, viz: Sixty
Bushels Indian Corn, forty-one Bushels of Rye, Six hundred pounds wait
of Pork and Eight Hundred and Eighty Eight pounds wait of Beefe."

This would be considered a pretty liberal salary even now for a suburban
people to pay. From the records of his parish it would seem he always
enjoyed the love and confidence of his people, and was sincerely mourned
by them at his death, which occurred January 31, 1803, at the advanced
age of eighty years, and as stated above in the fifty-third year of his
ministry. Among other good works and mementoes which he left behind him
was the "Roby Elm," set out with his own hand, and which is now more
than one hundred and twenty-five years old. It is in an excellent state
of preservation, and with its perfectly conical shape at the top,
attracts marked attention from all lovers and observers of trees. Among
the names of worthy citizens who have impressed themselves upon the
memory of their survivors, either as business men of rare executive
ability, or as merchants of strict integrity, or scholars and men of
literary genius, lawyers, artists, writers, poets, and men of inventive
genius, we will first mention as eldest on the list "Landlord" Jacob
Newhall, who used to keep a tavern in the east part of the town and gave
"entertainment to man and beast" passing between Boston and Salem,
notably so to General Washington on his journey from Boston to Salem in
1797, and later to the Marquis De Lafayette in 1824, when making a
similar journey. We also mention Zaccheus Stocker, Jonathan Makepeace,
Charles Sweetser, Dr. Abijah Cheever, Benjamin F. Newhall and Benjamin
Hitchings. These last all held town office with great credit to
themselves and their constituents.

Benjamin F. Newhall was a man of versatile parts. Beside writing rhymes
he preached the Gospel, and was at one time County Commissioner for
Essex County.

To these may be added Salmon Snow, who held the office of Selectman for
several years, and also kept the poor of Saugus for many years with
great acceptance. He was a man of good judgment, strong in his likes and
dislikes, and bitter in his resentments. George Henry Sweetser was also
a Selectman for years, and was elected to the Legislature for both
branches, being Senator for two terms. Frederick Stocker, noted as a
manufacturer of brick, was also a man of sterling qualities, and shared
in the confidence and esteem of his fellow citizens. Joseph Stocker
Newhall, a manufacturer of roundings in sole leather, was a just man, of
positive views, and although interesting himself in the political issues
of the day would not take office. Eminently social he was at times
somewhat abrupt and laconic in denouncing what he conceived to be shams.
As a manufacturer his motto was, "the laborer is worthy of his hire." He
died in 1875, aged 67 years. George Pearson was Treasurer of the town
and one of the Selectmen, and also Treasurer and Deacon of the Orthodox
parish for twenty-five years, living to the advanced age of eighty-seven
years. He died in 1883.

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