This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1908. Excerpt: ... Boston, May A Seat in the Common. Little has happened to-day. I have slipped out and taken a turn on The Common once or twice. It"s as near as I can get to the Meadow, or to the Lyman Grounds, in Boston. A steam hammer--a rivet-hammer or something--like some gigantic woodpecker up in The Stearns building fills all The Common every few minutes.... Singular that in a civilized community with a Boston Symphony in it, a single coal wagon moving for five minutes down School Street will be allowed to make two thousand dollars" worth of noise; that is, I am sure that a collection to hush it up, if taken on the spot as I was going by this morning would have amounted to--if not two thousand dollars--at least a very substantial and presentable sum for a teamster, a sum that would have made it probably worth his while to go around by a more mum street. Perhaps people would have given more and perhaps they would have given less--just for one wagon like that, for one time. But a collection for not having that particular wagon ever come along again would have come nearly up to two thousand dollars I think. I can only speak for myself, but I will say that when that particular wagon struck Washington Street, the first few feet on the wood pavement were, to me at least, worth half a dollar. At a little committee meeting up in 6 Beacon Street where I was allowed to be present, yesterday, the windows were open. Nobody said anything that was very important or new, and yet every man there who said anything at all said it as if it had never been thought of before. And when you hear a cultivated and pleasant mild gentleman, four feet away from you, trying to convey the idea half way out Boston Harbor that two and two are four, you feel hurt. Why make such a fuss about two an...