Comic History of the United States | Page 9

were kept busy digging clams to sustain life in order to raise
Indian corn enough to give them sufficient strength to pull clams
enough the following winter to get them through till the next corn crop
should give them strength to dig for clams again. Thus a trip to London
and the Isle of Wight looked farther and farther away.
After four years they numbered only one hundred and eighty-four,
counting immigration and all. The colony only needed, however, more
people and Eastern capital.
It would be well to pause here and remember the annoyances connected
with life as a forefather. Possibly the reader has considered the matter
already. Imagine how nervous one may be waiting in the hall and
watching with a keen glance for the approach of the physician who is to
announce that one is a forefather. The amateur forefather of 1620 must
have felt proud yet anxious about the clam-yield also, as each new
mouth opened on the prospect.

Speaking of clams, it is said by some of the forefathers that the Cape
Cod menu did not go beyond codfish croquettes until the beginning of
the seventeenth century, when pie was added by act of legislature.
Clams are not so restless if eaten without the brisket, which is said to
lie hard on the stomach.[2]
Salem and Charlestown were started by Governor Endicott, and Boston
was founded in 1630. To these various towns the Puritans flocked, and
even now one may be seen in ghostly garments on Thanksgiving Eve
flitting here and there turning off the gas in the parlor while the family
are at tea, in order to cut down expenses.
[Illustration]
Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay Colonies were united in 1692.
Roger Williams, a bright young divine, was the first to interfere with
the belief that magistrates had the right to punish Sabbath-breakers,
blasphemers, etc. He also was the first to utter the idea that a man's own
conscience must be his own guide and not that of another.
[Illustration: SABBATH-BREAKER ARRESTER.]
Among the Puritans there were several who had enlarged consciences,
and who desired to take in extra work for others who had no
consciences and were busy in the fields. They were always ready to
give sixteen ounces to the pound, and were honest, but they got very
little rest on Sunday, because they had to watch the Sabbath-breaker all
the time.
[Illustration: PURITAN SNORE ARRESTER.]
The method of punishment for some offences is given here.
[Illustration: METHODS OF PUNISHMENT.]
Does the man look cheerful? No. No one looks cheerful. Even the little
boys look sad. It is said that the Puritans knocked what fun there was

out of the Indian. Did any one ever see an Indian smile since the
landing of the Pilgrims?
[Illustration: Cold!]
[Illustration: Hunger!!]
Roger Williams was too liberal to be kindly received by the clergy, and
so he was driven out of the settlement. Finding that the Indians were
less rigid and kept open on Sundays, he took refuge among them
(1636), and before spring had gained eighteen pounds and converted
Canonicus, one of the hardest cases in New England and the first man
to sit up till after ten o'clock at night. Canonicus gave Roger the tract of
land on which Providence now stands.
[Illustration: Injuns!!!]
Mrs. Anne Hutchinson gave the Pilgrims trouble also. Having claimed
some special revelations and attempted to make a few remarks
regarding them, she was banished.
Banishment, which meant a homeless life in a wild land, with no one
but the Indians to associate with, in those days, was especially
annoying to a good Christian woman, and yet it had its good points. It
offered a little religious freedom, which could not be had among those
who wanted it so much that they braved the billow and the wild beast,
the savage, the drouth, the flood, and the potato-bug, to obtain it before
anybody else got a chance at it. Freedom is a good thing.
[Illustration]
Twenty years later the Quakers shocked every one by thinking a few
religious thoughts on their own hooks. The colonists executed four of
them, and before that tortured them at a great rate.
During dull times and on rainy days it was a question among the
Puritans whether they would banish an old lady, bore holes with a
red-hot iron through a Quaker's tongue, or pitch horse-shoes.

In 1643 the "United Colonies of New England" was the name of a
league formed by the people for protection against the Indians.
King Philip's war followed.
Massasoit was during his lifetime a friend to the poor whites of
Plymouth, as Powhatan had been of those at Jamestown, but these two
great chiefs were succeeded by a low set of Indians, who showed as
little refinement as one could well imagine.