Having stated all this on a list carefully written,
first in the English language and second in the
language of the Hebrews, Frederick called his fellow-lodgers together earlier than usual on the evening
before Thanksgiving Day. He explained to them, in the
patois which they used together, that it would be
indecent for them to carry this supply of food farther
than next Monday for their own purposes. He told them
that the occasion was one of exuberant thanksgiving to
the God of heaven. He showed them that they all had
great reason for thanksgiving. And, in short, he made
three heads of a discourse which might have been
expanded by the most eloquent preacher in Bos
ton
the next day, and would have well covered the twenty-five minutes which the regulation would have required
for a sermon. He then said that, as they had been
favored with much more than they could use for their own
appetites, they must look up those who were not so well
off as themselves.
He was well pleased by finding that he was
understood, and what he said was received with applause
in the various forms in which Southern Russia applauds on
such occasions. As for the two children, their eyes were
wide open, and their mouths, and they looked their
wonder.
Frederick then proposed that two of their number
should volunteer to open a rival establishment at the
polling-booth at the corner of Gates Street and Burgoyne
Street, and that the company should on the next day
invite guests enough to make another table of twelve. He
proposed that the same course should be taken at the
corner of Shapleigh and Bowditch Streets, and yet again
at the booth which is at the corner of Curtis Avenue and
Quincy Street. And he said that, as time would press
upon them, they had better arrange to carry a part at
least of the stores to these places that evening. To
this there was a general assent. The company sat down to
a hasty tea, administered much as the Israelites took
their last meal in Egypt; for every man had on his long
frieze coat and his heavy boots, and they were eager for
the active work of Thanksgiving. For each the
stewards packed two turkeys in a basket, filled in
as far as they could with other stores, and Frederick
headed his procession.
It was then that he was to learn, for the first time,
that he was not the only person in Boston.
It was then that he found out that the revelation
made to one man is frequently made to many.
He found out that he was as wise as the next fellow,
but was no wiser; was as good as the next fellow, but was
no better; and that, in short, he had no special patent
upon his own undertaking,
The little procession soon arrived at the corner of
Shapleigh and Bowditch Streets. Whoever had made the
locks on the doors of the houses had been content to use
the same pattern for all. It proved, therefore, that the
key of No. 237 answered for No. 238, and it was not
necessary to open the door with the "Jimmy" which Simeon
had under his ulster.
But on the other hand, to Frederick's amazement, as
he threw the door open, he found a lighted room and a
long table around which sat twelve men, guised or
disguised in much the same way as those whom he had
brought with him. A few moments showed that another
leader of the people had discovered this vacant home a
few weeks before, and had established there another
settlement of the un-homed. As it proved, this gentleman
was a Mashpee Indian. He was, in fact, the member of the
House of Representatives from the town of Mashpee for the
next winter. Arriving in
Boston to look for
lodgings, he, not unnaturally, met with a Mohawk, two
Dacotahs, and a Cherokee, who, for various errands, had
come north and east. A similarity of color, not to say
of racial relations, had established a warm friendship
among the five, and they had brought together gradually
twelve gentlemen of copper color, who had been residing
in this polling-booth since the second day after the
general election. Their fortune had not been unlike that
of Frederick and his friends, and at this moment they
were discussing the methods by which they might
distribute several brace of ducks which had been sent up
from Mashpee, a haunch of venison which had come down
from above Machias, and some wild turkeys which had
arrived by express from the St. Regis Indians of Northern
New York. At the moment of the arrival of our friends,
they were sending out two of their number to find how
they might best distribute thus their extra provender.
These two gladly joined in the little procession, and
all went together to the corner of Quincy Street and
Curtis Avenue. There a similar revelation was made, only
there was some difficulty at first in any real mutual
understanding. For here they met a dozen, more or less,
of French Canadians. These gentlemen had left their
wives and their children in the province of Quebec, and,
finding themselves in Boston, had taken possession of the
polling-booth, where they were living much more
comfortably than they would have lived at
home.
They too had been well provided for Thanksgiving, both by
their friends at home and by their employers, and had
been questioning as to the distribution which they could
make of their supplies. Reinforced by four of their
number, the delegation in search of hungry people was
increased to fourteen in number, and with a certain
curiosity, it must be confessed, they went together to
try their respective keys on No. 311.
Opening this without so much as knocking at the door
to know if here they might not provide the "annex" or
"tender" which they wished to establish, they found, it
must be confessed without any amazement or amusement, a
company of Italians under the charge of one Antonio Fero,
who had also worked out the problem of cheap lodgings,
and had established themselves for some weeks here.
These men also had been touched, either by some priest's
voice or other divine word, with a sense of the duties of
the occasion, and were just looking round to know where
they might spread their second table. Five of them
joined the fourteen, and the whole company, after a rapid
conversation, agreed that they would try No. 277 on the
other side of the Avenue. And here their fortunes
changed.
For here it proved that the "cops" on that beat,
finding nights growing somewhat cold, and that there was
no provision made by the police commissioners for a club-room for gentlemen of their profession, had themselves
arranged in the
polling-booth a convenient place for
the reading of the evening newspapers and for conference
on their mutual affairs. These "cops" were unmarried
men, and did not much know where was the home in which
the governor requested them to spend their Thanksgiving.
They had therefore determined to spread their own table
in their club-room, and this evening had been making
preparations for a picnic feast there at midnight on
Thanksgiving Day, when they should be relieved from their
more pressing duties. They also had found the liberality
of each member of the force had brought in more than
would be requisite, and were considering the same subject
which had oppressed the consciences of the leaders of the
other bands.
No one ever knew who made the great suggestion, but
it is probable that it was one of these officials, well
acquainted with the charter of the city of Boston and
with its constitution and by-laws, who offered the
proposal which was adopted. In the jealousy of the
fierce democracy of Boston in the year 1820, when the
present city charter was made, it reserved for itself
permission to open Faneuil Hall at any time for a public
meeting. It proves now that whenever fifty citizens
unite to ask for the use of the hall for such a meeting,
it must be given to them. At the time of which we are
reading the mayor had to preside at every such meeting.
At the "Cops'" club it was highly determined that the
names of fifty citizens should
at once be obtained,
and that the Cradle of Liberty should be secured for the
general Thanksgiving.
It was wisely resolved that no public notice should
be given of this in the journals. It was well known that
that many-eyed Argus called the press is very apt not to
interfere with that which is none of its business.
