he lights
in the little windows vanish. There is only one thing to prevent the
entire population from being in good time for church on Sunday
morning, and that is there is not any church for them to attend.

Then and now! We turn from our contemplation of Saturday night as we
have imagined it in 1764 to look at a modern Saturday night in St.
John. No greater contrast can well be imagined. Where once were dismal
shades of woods and swamps, there is a moving gaily-chattering crowd
that throngs the walks of Union, King and Charlotte streets. The
feeble glimmer of the tallow candle in the windows of the few houses
at Portland Point has given place to the blaze of hundreds of electric
lights that shine far out to sea, twinkling like bright stars in the
distance, and reflected from the heavens, serving to illuminate the
country for miles around. Our little knot of villagers in the olden
days used to gather in their one little store to discuss the day's
doing; small was the company, and narrow their field of observation;
and their feeble gossip is today replaced by the rapid click of the
telegraph instruments, the rolling of the steam-driven printing press
and the cry of the newsboy at every corner; the events of all the
continents are proclaimed in our streets almost as soon as they
occur.

And yet from all the luxury and ease, as well as from the anxiety and
cares of busy modern days, we like sometimes to escape and get a
little nearer to the heart of nature and to adopt a life of rural
simplicity not far removed from that which once prevailed at Portland
Point, content with some little cottage, remote from the hurry and din
of city life in which to spend the good old summer time."

CHAPTER XVIII.

ST. JOHN AND ITS BUSINESS ONE HUNDRED AND FORTY YEARS AGO.

The circumstances under which the trading company of Blodget, Simonds,
Hazen, Peaslie, White and Richard Simonds was organized in 1764 have
been already described. The original contract is yet in existence and
in a very excellent state of preservation. It is endorsed "Contract
for St. Johns & Passamaquodi."[70] A fac-simile of the signatures
appended to it is here given.

[70] The contract was drawn with much care and has been preserved in
the Collections of the N. B. Historical Society, Vol. I., p.
187.

[Illustration: Signatures]

A short account may be given of each member of the partnership.

Samuel Blodget was a Boston man, some