Can you imagine a time when the Old South was not a historical monument?An alert boy of twelve or thirteen years, visiting Boston for the first time, was asked what historical building he would like to visit first, and he replied very promptly:
"The Old South Meeting-house. I like to see places in which there has been something doing in the past. They did things in the Old South Meeting-house, both before and during the Revolution, did n't they?"
Indeed they did! No building in America has been the scene of more thrilling events than has this ancient house of worship.
Had this boy, who was eager to see the Old South Meeting-house because of all that it stands for, been in Boston on the 29th day of last April, he might have gone into the time-honored old building in company with hundreds of other boys, and a great many girls, who came from all parts of the city to be present at the "Children's Hour" in the "Old South." This is a semi-yearly event in Boston. It is a part of what is called the "Old South Work"; which is a good work, having for its chief purpose the bringing of the young people of Boston and America into an intimate knowledge of early American history.
On this 29th day of April the Old South Meeting-house was packed with boys and girls from the public schools, to hear about William Blackstone, the first settler in the city of Boston. A large orchestra of boys and girls from one of the public schools played patriotic airs, and I remember that at one "Children's Hour" in the Old South two hundred school-girls sang the ode which was composed and sung when President George Washington visited Boston in 1789. You see that they still "do things" of a patriotic nature in this old meeting-house—hallowed, as it is, by memories of Washington and Adams and Otis and Hancock and all the good men and true who helped to give our country its most valued possession—independence.
The ground on which the Old South stands was the dwelling-place of Governor Winthrop. Benjamin Franklin was baptized in this meeting-house. The voices of Adams and Hancock and Warren and Washington have been heard within its walls. You will see, back of the pulpit platform and below the quaint old sounding-board, the very window through which General Joseph Warren came to deliver his famous oration on the anniversary of the Boston Massacre because the crowd in and around the church was so great he could not enter by the door.
In this church were held some of the great meetings leading up to the famous Boston "Tea-party." Indeed, it was from this "Sanctuary of Freedom," as it has been called, that the band of men disguised as Indians started for the wharf to board the ships and throw overboard the taxed tea that had created such a turmoil in Boston. If you should follow the exact route taken by that band of "Mohawks" on that eventful December day in the year 1773, you would finally reach a modern building on the site of Griffin's wharf, at which lay moored on December 16, 1773, the three British ships with cargoes of tea. This house bears a tablet commemorating the famous "Boston Tea-Party," which threw the cargoes into the sea.
Did you ever hear the story of how the Old South was "saved"? Reverence for historic landmarks did not run so high thirty or forty years ago as it does to-day, and in our centennial year of 1876 it was proposed to sell the Old South simply for the value of its bricks and timbers, and tear it down, that a modern business block might be built on its site. Indeed, it was sold—"knocked down" at auction to a bidder for the meager sum of thirteen hundred and fifteen dollars!
Suddenly a wave of patriotic feeling swept over the city of Boston. The papers and some of the people began to protest against the tearing down of the old "Sanctuary of Freedom," and a movement was set on foot to raise funds to buy the church from its purchaser, and to buy also the ground on which it stood. This good plan might never have succeeded had it not been for one noble and loyal woman in Boston, Mrs. Mary Hemenway, of hallowed memory. When the difficulty of securing funds for the purchase of the old meeting-house became known to her, she came forward with a gift of one hundred thousand dollars, and thus the old meeting-house was saved—to stand as an object-lesson to the children of future generations.
Having given such a large sum to help save the Old South Meeting-house, Mrs. Hemenway felt that it should be something more than a mere silent monument. She determined that it should be a real, living force in our country, and particularly to the children of Boston. She determined that it should renew and increase its fame as a temple of freedom, and that its sacred walls should again echo and reecho to the sound of patriotic utterances, and that some of these utterances should come from the lips of the boys and girls of Boston; and thus the Old South Lecture Course and the Old South Prizes were established. Each year a prize of forty dollars and another of twenty-five dollars are given to the graduates of the Boston high schools who write the best essays on historic or patriotic topics. The committee having this work in charge announce the subjects in June, just before the schools close, and the competitors must submit their essays the following January. Then on Washington's Birthday there is a patriotic gathering of the school-children of Boston in the old meeting-house, and the names of the prize-winners are announced.
The young graduates who win these prizes must do excellent work, for the standard set by the judges is very high. The two hundred and more young people who have competed for these prizes have formed themselves into an organization called the "Old South Historical Society." They hold monthly meetings, at which historical papers are read; and if you think that these meetings are in the least "dry," you are greatly mistaken. Its members go on "historical pilgrimages" to places like Plymouth and Andover and King Philip's Country. These pilgrimages are delightful excursions, lasting all day, and they occur in June after the schools have closed. The Society helps to make the "Children's Hour" in the old meeting-house a great success. If you should happen to speak of the Old South Church before a member of this society, he or she would probably say very courteously:
"I beg your pardon; but it is the Old South Meeting-house, and not Church."
In the old days the churches were always called "meeting-houses." It seems inappropriate to give the Old South any other name.
No one can estimate the power for good that has gone forth from this old meeting-house. No one can estimate the full extent of its influence for good upon the boys and girls of to-day.
Every summer a course of free lectures for the young folk of Boston is given from a fund left by Mrs. Hemenway. The old church is crowded at every one of these lectures, and the few grown-ups who are privileged to slip in go away grateful for the fact that there are so many boys and girls of to-day who are interested in their country's history, and are glad to hear about the men and women of other years who helped to create the great American republic.
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