s of the same color," and the admiring
world, with its eyes on the venerable freshman, seemed to
me to be saying to itself, "Ecce caudam!" Behold the tail!

Most men are apt to exaggerate the merits of their birthplace.
But I think everybody who knew the town will agree with me
that there never was in the world a better example of a pure
and beautiful democracy, in the highest sense of the term,
than the town of Concord from 1826 to the close of the war.
If there were any aristocracy, it was an aristocracy of personal
worth. There was little wealth and little poverty. There
were no costly dwellings and no hovels. There was no pride
of wealth or of family. The richest man in town took an interest
in the affairs of the poorest as in those of a kinsman. It
never occurred to the poorest that he must, for that reason,
doff his hat to any man.

The population was permanent, I suppose, as could have been
found in any spot in Europe. Ninety-three of the inhabitants
of the town, in 1654, signed a paper pledging their persons
and estates to support the General Court in the contest with
King Charles II. for the preservation of the Charter. Fourteen
of their descendants, bearing the same names, were present
at the Centennial Celebration in 1885, dwelling on the land
which their ancestors occupied nearly 230 years before. There
were 23 others whose descendants of the same name were dwelling
at the time of the Centennial within the original limits of
the town. A good many others were represented by female descendants.
So that at least 50 of the 93 signers of the paper were represented
in the assembly. A list of the names of the principal inhabitants
of the town to-day would contain the names of a large number
of the principal inhabitants of any generation since its
foundation.

They were of good English stock. Many of them were of gentle
blood and entitled to bear coat armor at home. It is interesting
to observe how little the character of the gentleman and gentlewoman
in our New England people is affected by the pursuit, for
generations, of humble occupations, which in other countries
are deemed degrading. Our ancestors, during nearly two centuries
of poverty which followed the first settlement, turned their
hands to the humblest ways of getting a livelihood, became
shoemakers, or blacksmiths or tailors, or did the hardest
and most menial and rudest work of the farm, shoveled gravel
or chopped wood, without any o