name off the map, but not to allow the farms of one or two of her residents to be merged with Amherst. Amherst, on the other hand, was willing to annex a few farms, but did not care to take with them six or eight square miles of sparsely settled country with all its charges for schools, roads, etc. As a Pelham man put it, "Amherst was willing to take the meat, provided not too much bone was thrown in, while Pelham did not care to see herself left with all bone!"

Opposition to the surrender of the charter grew as one climbed the hill and got nearer the church, the post-office, and the old meeting-house, which for more than 160 years has been the centre of the town's political life. During one of the movements in favor of the surrender of the charter, petitions were circulated for signatures in its favor. A young man of West Pelham was making the rounds with one of these, and called at a house near Pelham Centre. The man of the house was not at home; his wife listened with evident impatience to the statement of the caller's errand. When asked if she wished to sign, she snapped out: "I'd sign quick enough, if it was to keep things as they are! If the charter is given up, will there be any post-office here?" The reply was evasive, and, as the woman's spirit was evidently rising, her caller started to withdraw, with the conventional and pacificatory remark: "This is an unusually fine day for this season of the year!" "Yes!" was the rejoinder, "We do sometimes have fine days up here, as well as all in Amherst!" To the invitation to sign this same petition one of this woman's neighbors replied: "By! I guess I won't sign, but the old town's got to go to hell, anyhow!"

This gloomy prophecy has not been fulfilled, yet the conditions which prompted it were obvious. In the transformations which were coming over New England, Pelham's population had inevitably to dwindle. He who drives over her hills today sees almost as many fire-scarred chim

neys as houses; here and there an old garden rose or lilac, blossoming by the wayside, is the sole surviving trace of a vanished homestead. The varied industries which found here a favorable location in the early part of the 19th century have disappeared, and the little water-powers are for the most part unused. There is but one manufacturing enterprise in the town,-a fishing-rod factory, and this is near the Amherst line. The old Pelham family names figure now on the tomb-stones in her eleven cemeteries,— not on the voting list: there they have been replaced by those of new-comers,-men who are nomads in spirit, who virtually "camp" in Pelham, until some less unattractive opportunity for earning a scanty livelihood presents itself; then they "move on."

Yet indications are not lacking that Pelham's nadir is well passed. The process of readjustment has been painful and depressing; but Pelham is working out her own salvation, if with fear and trembling yet also with intelligence and with a lively hope. While contemptuous Amherst is deeply in debt, having almost reached the legal limit, frugal Pelham is not only out of debt, but has a surplus at interest. Only four schools are now kept open, in place of eight, but the school buildings are neatly painted, and in good repair. The State aids in paying a part of the salaries of experienced teachers of good grade, and high school opportunities are available in Amherst. Indeed, of the sum,-approximately $1,500,-annually expended for schools in Pelham, only about forty-five per cent. is raised by local taxation; the rest is furnished by the State. The churches and the ancient meeting-house look well cared for. Post-boxes for rural free delivery are scattered along the highway all up the weary climb to Pelham centre, linking her people more closely to the outer world. The State Highway Commission has put in a section of excellent gravel road. Finally, an electric railway, with all its civilizing and transforming powers, has invaded

Pelham's borders, has begun to climb her discouraging hill, and already aspires to work its way across Pelham and Prescott to the larger towns beyond. With the State's aid in education and with the replacing of isolation by ready accessibility through free delivery and rapid transit, Pelham finds life better worth living. It will be strange indeed if, in this day of awakening delight in the beauties of nature, the attractions of her wind-swept hills with their splendid views, of her picturesque valleys and clear streams remain undiscovered and unappreciated. Pelham is becoming adjusted and reconciled to the new life, and her persistent attempts to commit suicide have already become an almost forgotten episode.

CERTAIN GREAT MONUMENTS.

BY JAMES F. HUNNEWELL.

In the history of the most civilized portions of the world during the past twenty centuries, three growths and diffusions are especially noticeable-those of the Latin language with the institutions accompanying it, in times now ancient; those of the English language and institutions in recent times; and, midway between the two, the rise and spread of the Pointed style of architecture.

Mediæval, and a creation or a development in western Europe, with its greatest results there, it might, at first thought, seem that this style has nothing expressive of our country and people, and yet, if we look for something that is a monumental and enduring expression of the origin and growth of the present and coming American people-a blending of many races-we could hardly find another as distinctive and pre-eminent expression of thought and character shared by all, or nearly all, of these races, as is the Pointed style.1

Our country long ago ceased to be a group of British colonies, and then, numerically to a large extent, of their descendants, or of people having the same origin. There is scarcely a race of western Europe which is not now represented among us, and is not now, and in cases to a large extent, mingling with us. Of all these races the Pointed style was an expression in common. For that reason consideration

1 The style often called Gothic, as stated by Mr. Ferguson ("Handbook of Architecture," p. 660,) "the pointed architecture became the style of all Europe during the Middle Ages; and is, par excellence the Gothic style of Europe."

of it really belongs among early American subjects, and it includes, also, consideration of some of the greatest demonstrations of human genius and exaltation.

As is apt to be in regard to origins, there are differences of opinion about the origin of the style; these we need not attempt to consider here. We simply observe that in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries a great conception in art grew rapidly, so that within the next two hundred years it was shown by works such as the world had never before known, such as it never has surpassed, inspired by thought and feeling that spread through Christendom, works with features in common, but with expression varied by the varied races producing them.

At the period when this style was developed, all these European races, now represented among us, held one religious faith controlled by one central power. In this style produced by that faith and the wonderful genius at its service were some of the grandest, the most beautiful of human works-civil and ecclesiastical, but pre-eminent, the churches. In art, their conception, size, majesty, beauty, are amazing, and so also is their geographical diffusion. The creations of Greek art, and their remains, are widely spread, and often in places now remote and lonely, but yet they are within a comparatively limited area; the Roman, in classic styles, were far more widely spread, yet still within a hardly wider area than are the works in the Pointed style.

In the mother country of most of us, indeed, to a large extent, of our nation, the style, at home there, spread to every part. The churches had the general European features of orientation, cross-form with nave, transepts and choir-found in almost every place to which the style spread, but they had also treatment native in Britaingreat length, moderate internal height, long choirs, small western portals, and, unlike most churches on the Continent, they were, with scant exceptions, placed in beautiful