an walked around he called out, "Lanthorn, and a whole
candell-light. Hang out your lights." The watchman was called a
rattle-watch, and carried a long staff and a lantern and a large rattle
or klopper, which he struck to frighten away thieves. And all night long
he called out each hour, and told the weather. For instance, he called
out, "Past midnight, and all's well"; "One o'clock and fair winds," or
"Five o'clock and cloudy skies." Thus one could lie safe in bed and if
he chanced to waken could know that the friendly rattle-watch was near
at hand, and what was the weather and the time of night. In 1658 New
York had in all ten watchmen, who were like our modern police; to-day it
has many thousands.

In New England the constables and watch were all carefully appointed by
law. They carried black staves six feet long, tipped with brass, and
hence were called tipstaves. The night watch was called a bell-man. He
looked out for fire and thieves and other disorders, and called the time
of the night, and the weather. The pay was small, often but a shilling a
night, and occasionally a "coat of kersey." In large towns, as Boston
and Salem, thirteen "sober, honest men and householders" were the night
watch. The highest in the community, even the magistrates, took their
turn at the watch, and were ordered to walk two together, a young man
with "one of the soberer sort."

CHAPTER XV

SUNDAY IN THE COLONIES

The first building used as a church at the Plymouth colony was the fort,
and to it the Pilgrim fathers and mothers and children walked on Sunday
reverently and gravely, three in a row, the men fully armed with swords
and guns, till they built a meeting-house in 1648. In other New England
settlements, the first services were held in tents, under trees, or
under any shelter. The settler who had a roomy house often had also the
meeting. The first Boston meeting-house had mud walls, a thatched roof,
and earthen floor. It was used till 1640, and some very thrilling and
inspiring scenes were enacted within its humble walls. Usually the
earliest meeting-houses were log houses, with clay-filled chinks, and
roofs thatched with reeds and long grass, like the dwelling-houses. At
Salem is still preserved one of the early churches. The second and more
dignified form of New England meeting-house was usually a square wooden
building with a truncated pyramidal roof, surmounted often with a
belfry, which served as a lookout station