as, their voices are so far away
we cannot hear them. They will never speak the words which will settle
any of the oft-disputed points, and, unfortunately, they will leave us
forever to argue about the truth of the famous Plymouth Rock.

To present the well-worn story of Plymouth Rock from an angle calculated
to rouse even a semblance of fresh interest is comparable to offering a
well-fed man a piece of bread, and expecting him to be excited over it
as a novelty. Bread is the staff of life, to be sure, but it is also
accepted as matter of course in the average diet, and the story of
Plymouth Rock is part and parcel of every school-book and guide-book in
the country. The distinguished, if somewhat irreverent, visitor, who,
after being reduced to partial paralysis by the oft-repeated tale,
ejaculated fervently that he wished the rock had landed on the Pilgrims
instead of the Pilgrims on the rock, voiced the first original remark
about this historic relic which has refreshed our ears for many years.
However, as Americans we are thoroughly imbued with the theory on which
our advertising is based. Although it would seem that every housekeeper
in the land had been kept fully informed for forty years of the
advantages incident to the use of a certain soap, the manufacturers
still persist in reciting these benefits. And why? Because new
housekeepers come into existence with each new day. So, if there be any
man who comes to Plymouth who does not know the story of Plymouth Rock,
it is here set down for him, as accurately and briefly as possible.

This rock--which is an oval, glacial boulder of about seven tons--was
innocently rearing its massive, hoary head from the water one day in
December, 1620, as it had done for several thousand years previously in
unmolested oblivion. While engaged in this ponderous but harmless
occupation it was sighted by a boatful of men and women--the first who
had ever chosen to land on this particular part of the coast. The rock
presented a moderately dry footing, and they sailed up to it, and a
charming young woman, attired, according to our amiable painter, in the
cleanest and freshest of aprons and the most demure of caps, set a
daintily shod foot upon it and leaped lightly to shore. This was Mary
Chilton, and she was promptly followed by an equally trig young
man--John Alden. Thus commenced the founding of Plymouth Colony, and
thus was sown the seed of innumerable pictures, poems, stories, and
s