THE MASSACHUSETTS NORTH SHORE. 209 one hundred and thirty-six dead of Harvard. Upon one side of this impressive vestibule is the Sanders Theatre, a half amphitheatre, used for commencements and other public services, and seating thirteen hundred persons. The statue of the venerable Josiah Quincy, once president of Harvard and mayor of Boston, adorns this theatre. Upon the other side of the vestibule is the great hall of the college, one hundred and sixty-four feet long and eighty feet high, with a splendid roof of open timber-work and magnificent windows. This is the refectory of the students, and here centre the most hallowed memories of the university, portraits and busts of the distinguished graduates and benefactors adorning it, and the great western window in the late afternoon, as we viewed it, throwing a flood of rich sunlight over the charming scene. Tables cover the floor when the dinner-hour approaches, and here the students are fed at a cost of about four dollars per week. Such is the noted Boston university, patterned after the original Cambridge, and thus adding much to the English style of most things seen about the great Massachusetts capital. It was here, when Sir Charles Dilke visited them a few years ago, that the people told him that they spoke "the English of Elizabeth," and at the same time congratulated him upon using what they said was "good English for an Englishman." XXIX. THE MASSACHUSETTS NORTH SHORE. THE northern coast of Massachusetts Bay is a rockribbed region of interspersed crags and sand-beaches, stretching far away from Boston toward the north-east to terminate in the massive granite buttress of Cape Ann. It is largely a region of modern sea-coast villas and of oldtime fishermen, of shoemakers and sailors, and in many portions is passing through the interesting stage of transition development caused by the recent inroads of fashionable life. The attractive formation of Boston harbor I have heretofore mentioned, with its numerous islands and the curiously-shaped peninsulas jutting from the mainland. These seem to be scattered about with an apparent irregularity that is very picturesque, yet more closely examined they manage to arrange themselves in three concentric rings. Of these, the inner circle appears to be made by Castle and Governor's Islands in alignment with the peninsulas of East Boston and South Boston. Another and larger circle is a short distance farther eastward. The Squantum peninsula, of which I have already written, juts out from the southern shore between Dorchester and Quincy Bays, and without much difficulty it might be prolonged through Moon and Long and Deer Islands to another of these curiously-formed peninsulas thrust out from the north shore and making the bluffs of Winthrop and a narrow projecting strip that terminates in the rounded headland known as Point Shirley. This is an attractive seaside resort, and was named in memory of Governor Shirley of the Massachusetts colonial province, who once commanded all the British forces in North America. Deer Island is almost connected with this point, and we are told was so called "because of the deare, who often swim thither from the maine when they are chased by the wolves." It has been many years, however, since deer or wolves (of this kind) have been seen around Boston. There is yet another and outer circle, which may be regarded as the eastern boundary of Boston harbor. On the north shore, in front of Lynn, there stretches out for several miles the curious formation of Nahant, and in line with it southward are the reefs known as the "Graves" and the group of islands whereon is Boston Light. To complete THE SHOEMAKERS OF LYNN. 211 the segment of this outer bounding circle, comes out northward from the south shore Nantasket Beach, acutely bending from the north around to the south-west to make the hook whereon is Hull, and leaving at the extremity of the peninsula Paddock's Island. All these odd formations help in making the Boston surroundings very picturesque. The modest village of Hull nestles under a hill near the extremity of this outer Nantasket peninsula-a construction that seems as if put just where it is by human hands to make a breakwater protecting Boston harbor from the Atlantic storms. The northern projection of this curious formation is Point Allerton, and the narrow Nantasket Beach connecting it with the mainland of the south shore is a ribbon of hard white sand four miles long, upon which the surf perpetually beats. This region is a popular summer resort, Hingham village being on the main land, while stretching farther east along the coast is the noted Jerusalem Road, lined by the splendid seaside villas of wealthy Bostonians that have their lawns spreading out to the edge of the sea. Hingham is a somewhat antiquated locality that is being modernized into a summer resort. Its pride is in the possession of the "oldest church in Yankeedom," a square house with a steep roof sloping up on all the four sides to a platform at the top, surrounded by a balustrade and surmounted by a little pointed belfry. THE SHOEMAKERS OF LYNN. But we must start from Boston for the north shore. Crossing over a ferry to East Boston in the early morning, we are met by the crowds pouring into the city to their daily labor. As the boat moves along, the harbor passes in review, with its grain-elevators and the extensive wharves of the European steamship lines, its tugs, steamers, and ferry-boats. The Bunker Hill Monument is elevated high behind the huge ship-houses of the Charlestown Navy-yard, seen off to the north-west up Charles River. To the eastward is Governor's Island, with Fort Winthrop upon it, and beyond are the network of peninsulas and the craggy islands enclosing the harbor, while farther off are the long, undulating rocky coasts and sandstrips making the southern shore, with the projecting hook of Nantasket that does so much to protect the place from ocean storms. We land in East Boston, and a swift railway-train is soon spinning along through the town and out upon the edge of the water, across flats and marshes and among the frame houses built upon the hill-slopes sharply rising inland, while on the seaside are successive sandbeaches. The vegetation is sparse, but shore-houses are numerous, and "chowder" and bathing establishments plenty, having cottages clustering around them. The remarkable formation of the Winthrop peninsula is thrust out broadly seaward, having its long, thin, and bulbous southern projection of Point Shirley and the outlying Deer Island with summer hotels upon it. We cross its neck and skirt along Revere Beach, and then there appears in front Lynn Bay, and across it, to the eastward, the narrow sandstrip that leads out to Nahant, one of the strangest formations on this curious coast. Upon the mainland ahead of us is the city of Lynn, stretching far along the shore with its mass of white and yellow wooden houses and broadly spreading up the background of hills. There are forty thousand people in Lynn, who chiefly devote their time to the manufacture of women's and children's shoes, a Welshman named Dagyr having started this important industry here in the middle of the last century. The whole place is redolent of the pungent odors of morocco and leather; the main streets are lined with the offices of shoe-merchants; there are two hundred or more shoe-factories, great and small, scattered through the place; the myriads of frame houses covering the plain near the sea and the adjacent hills are mainly the homes of thousands of shoemakers, men and women, who VILLA-CROWNED NAHANT. 213 work in the "teams" in the factories; and here are made more women's shoes than in any other place in the world, there sometimes being turned out in a single year fifteen million of pairs that are sent everywhere. As may naturally be expected, here flourishes in all its glory the powerful society of the "Knights of St. Crispin" which rules the shoe trade and largely controls the politics of the town, and its members have made Lynn a special citadel of American labor by successfully discriminating against most of the foreigners who are so numerous in other New England manufacturing centres. Much of the work on the shoes is done by machinery. It was from Lynn-Regis in England that the first flock of colonists were brought by their pastor in 1629 to Lynn, and hence its name. It is the chief town of Essex county, for we have crossed over the border from Suffolk, the county containing Boston. The attractive city hall of Lynn is seen from afar, being prominently built of brick and brownstone and fronting on the narrow common. The fish-sellers, who represent another Massachusetts industry as important as shoemaking, go about its streets announcing their vocation by lusty blasts on resonant horns, and there are many fishing-boats drawn up on the shores of the bay. A magnificent display of costly villas is made out in front of the eastern portion of Lynn, having the ocean in full view and Nahant seen across the bay. Here live the shoe-and-leather princes of the town and also many business-men from Boston. Having excellent roads embowered with trees, and the surf beating in upon the sloping shore in front, this is a lovely spot for a home; and when the busy people tire of their shoe-factories they need not go far to get the recreation given by a pleasant view across the deep blue sea. VILLA-CROWNED NAHANT. The long and narrow sand-strip that goes out to Nahant stretches seaward in front of Lynn. On either side the surf |