The Henson Journals

[13]

Tuesday, April 27th, 1909.

Another brilliant but cold day. Our hosts had arranged an expedition to Hartford, the capital of the State of Connecticut, which is 37 miles distant. On our arrival we first visited the First Centre Church of which Prof. Walker's father had been minister. It is a large & commodious building with windows filled with stained glass, erected in 1507. The apparatus in the pulpit designed to enable the deaf to hear the preaching was new to me. We walked to the river, which gives its name to the State, & admired the new stone bridge reputed to be the finest in a country where steel is the prevailing material. Then we visited the Athenaeum, & looked at a credible collection of pictures & books. Next to it was a large building in process of erection. This was being put up at the cost of Pierpont Morgan, who belongs to Hartford. We lunched at Henblein's Hotel: & then went to the State house, a fine building set in a pleasant little park decorated with statues & fountains. A session of a Committee of the Legislature was in progress. We listened for a while to [14] the hearing of a petition from the shop–keepers of Newhaven, who desire to be allowed to over–work their employees at certain seasons on condition that they do not increase the total number of hours exacted from them during the year. Among the witnesses for Mammon was an oily Israelite who claimed for himself & his swindling class that they were disinterested servants for the poor!! Then we went on board a motor & were driven round the town. We visited a baseball field & saw the end of a match between the Divinity students of Yale & Trinity College. We left our note of introduction on Bishop Brewster, who was absent: & had tea with a sprightly dame called Perkins, an old friend of our host. We drove through a new & promising park ̶ Elizabeth Park: & then went to the railway station, reaching home about 7 p.m. As we waited for a train, the sombre notes of a bell announced a fire. Almost immediately several fire–engines were galloping towards the scene of danger. It turned out, however, to be a false alarm. Mr Nash, the newly–appointed Principal of a Theological College or Seminary in California came to dinner. He is on his way to Europe to fetch home his wife & daughter.