The
driver would sound his horn when he was eighty or one hundred rods
away, and it was my duty to be ready to take the mail when the coach
arrived at the door.
It was when so summoned that it was my fortune to see the shower of
falling stars in November, 1833. From the time I arose until after
daylight there was no part of the heavens that was not illuminated--not
with one meteor merely--but with many hundreds. Many of them left a
long train, extending through twenty, thirty, or even forty degrees. I
called at Bard's window and told him that the stars were falling, but
he refused to get up, thinking it a joke. The butcher of the town,
Abijah Whitney, came out to commence preparations for his morning
rounds, but conceiving that the day of judgment had come, he returned
into the house and gave up business for the day. In the year 1901, I
know of one other person only, Mrs. Mary A. Livermore, who witnessed
that exhibition, and it has not been repeated.
During my term with Mr. Heywood, and for many previous years, and for a
short period afterwards, the business of printing standard books,
Bibles, spelling-books and dictionaries had been carried on at
Lunenburg by Col. Edmund Cushing. The books were bound, and then sent
by teams to Boston. The printing was on hand-presses, and upon
stereotype plates.
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