the bridge, and who saw no way of going to the relief of their friends but by rushing through sheets of fire. If there be acute agony on earth, it is in witnessing calamities and pains which we have the wish, but not the power, to

relieve.

The deprivations and exposures consequent upon such a catastrophe can better be imagined than described. Every heart and hand in Medford was ready to administer relief; and all was done for the sufferers that an active sympathy could suggest. Before the first barn was consumed, couriers were sent to the neighboring towns; and the firemen in each one answered with promptitude, and arrived in season to arrest the devastation. The amount of insurance on the buildings was in many cases small, and losses fell on those who could very ill afford them. $1,335 were immediately raised by subscription in Medford, and distributed by a committee to the greatest sufferers among the poor. To the honor of the sufferers, be it said, they met the waste of their property, the derangement of their business, and the suspension of their comforts, with firmness and patience. Before the ruins had ceased to smoulder, the sounds of shovel, hammer, and trowel announced the work of reconstruction; and, before two years had passed, a new village, phoenix-like, had risen out of the ashes of the old.

The committee of investigation chosen to estimate the losses examined each case; and their report was $36,000, after all insurances were deducted. About half of the property was insured.

POUNDS.

In Medford, there were fewer "lands common " than in other towns. The making of fences was difficult at first, and the "pound" came early into use. It was placed so near a stream of water as to allow the cattle in it to drink. Where the first one in Medford was placed, we know not. The first record is as follows:

"Feb. 25, 1684: At a general meeting of the inhabitants, John Whitmore granted a piece of land for the use of the town, for the setting up of a pound; which land lies on the south-east of John Whitmore's land, lying near John Bradshaw's house, and is bounded south on John Bradshaw, and east upon the country road. At the same meeting, the inhabitants agreed to set up a pound on the land aforesaid.”

April 26, 1684: "Thomas Willis was chosen to keep the

town's pound; and said pound-keeper shall have, for pounding, twopence per head for horses and also neat cattle; one penny for each hog; and, for sheep, after the rate of sixpence per score."

This answered all purposes until May 15, 1758, when the town voted to "build a new pound with stone. This was built accordingly, and placed on the west side of the "Woburn road," six or eight rods north of Jonathan Brooks's house, in West Medford. The walls of this pound were very high and strong, and bad boys thought they had a right to throw stones at the cattle there confined.

March 6, 1809: Mr. Isaac Brooks and others petitioned the town to have the pound removed. This petition was granted thus: "Voted to have the pound removed to the town's land near Gravelly Bridge, so called; and said pound to be built of wood or stone, at the discretion of the committee." There the pound remained only for a short time, when it was removed to Cross Street.

There were other pounds in town, and some of them remained until a recent date, and were in use. One was located in Back Street, afterwards named Union Street; and still another, on the old Woburn road, on land of the late Jonathan Brooks. We have often seen cattle placed in pound for safe-keeping; and sometimes, as we more than suspected, to gratify a feeling not altogether neighborly.

There is now but one pound in town, and that is seldom used. As the population increased, more attention was given to the care of estates, and cattle were not allowed to run at large as in former times.

LOCAL DISEASES.

That our Medford ancestors should have subjected themselves to the attack of some new diseases, or rather of old diseases in modified forms, is most probable. An early historian says of this region, "Men and women keep their complexions, but lose their teeth. The falling-off of their hair is occasioned by the coldness of the climate." He enumerates the diseases prevalent here in 1688: "Colds, fever and ague, pleurisies, dropsy, palsy, sciatica, cancers, worms." Consumption is not mentioned. We apprehend that the health of our fathers was unusually good. There is scarcely mention of any epidemic. A new climate, poor

food, scanty clothing, necessary exposure, hard work, unskilful physicians, may, in some cases, have caused desolating disease to do its rapid work of death; but, as a general fact, health prevailed through the first fifty years.

1764: With reference to the prevalence of the smallpox in Medford, we find the following vote: "That a fence and gate be erected across the main country road, and a smokehouse also be erected near Medford great bridge, and another smokehouse at the West End, and guards be kept."

In 1755, a smokehouse was opened for the purification of those persons who had been exposed to the contagion of smallpox. It stood on the west side of Main Street, about forty rods south of Colonel Royal's house. Visitors from Charlestown were unceremoniously stopped and smoked.

1775 During this and some following years, there was fatal sickness in Medford from dysentery. Out of fifty-six deaths in 1775, twenty-three were children. In 1776, there were thirty-three deaths; in 1777, nineteen; in 1778, thirty-seven; and in 1779, thirteen. No reason is given for these differences in numbers. Out of the thirty-seven. deaths of 1778, eighteen were by dysentery, and twenty were children. Whooping-cough has, at certain times, been peculiarly destructive. Throat distemper, so called, is often named among prevalent causes of death. In 1795 ten children and three adults died of it between the 20th of August and the 1st of November. Apoplexy seems to have destroyed very few lives. During the first fifteen years of Dr. Osgood's ministry, only one case occurred.

Oct. 15, 1778: The town voted to procure a house for those patients who had the smallpox. No disease appeared to excite so quick and sharp an alarm as this. The early modes of treatment gave ample warrant for any fears. In 1792 the town voted that Mr. Josiah Symmes's house is the only one authorized as a hospital for inoculation.

The town has been visited by no epidemics of special severity since the time of these early records, and the statistics of mortality of the State show that Medford ranks as one of the healthiest towns of the Commonwealth. Under the supervision of our Board of Health, all cases of contagious disease are carefully isolated, and every precaution is taken to keep them within the narrowest limits.

CHAPTER XVI.

CRIMES AND PUNISHMENTS.

WE trust, that, for the honor of Medford, records under this head will not be found numerous. We must tell the whole truth, let honor or infamy be the consequence; and we regret to learn that our plantation was so soon the scene of a mortal strife. In the Colony records, we thus read, Sept. 28, 1630: “A jury of fifteen were impanelled, concerning the death of Austen Bratcher" (Bradshaw). "Austen Bratcher, dying lately at Mr. Cradock's plantation, was viewed before his burial by divers persons. The jury's verdict: We find that the strokes given by Walter Palmer were occasionally the means of the death of Austen Bratcher; and so to be manslaughter." Palmer was bound over to be tried at Boston for this death; and, on the 9th of November, the jury bring in a verdict of "Not guilty."

At a court held at Watertown, March 8, 1631, "Ordered that Thomas Fox, servant of Mr. Cradock, shall be whipped for uttering malicious and scandalous speeches, whereby he sought to traduce the court, as if they had taken some bribe in the business concerning Walter Palmer." Thomas Fox was fined four times, and seems to have been possessed by the very demon of mischief.

June 14, 1631: "At this court, one Philip Radcliff, a servant of Mr. Cradock, being convict, ore tenus, of most foul, scandalous invectives against our churches and government, was censured to be whipped, lose his ears, and be banished the plantation, which was presently executed." This sentence, so worthy of Draco, convinces us that some of the early judges in the Colony were men who had baptized their passions with the name of holiness, and then felt that they had a right to murder humanity in the name of God.

June 5, 1638: "John Smyth, of Meadford, for swearing, being penitent, was set in the bilboes."

Oct. 4, 1638: "Henry Collins is fined five shillings for not appearing when he was called to serve upon the grand jury."

Sept. 3, 1639: "Nicholas Davison (Mr. Cradock's agent), for swearing an oath, was ordered to pay one pound, which he consented unto."

Nov. 14, 1644: The General Court order that all Baptists shall be banished, if they defend their doctrine.

Nov. 4, 1646: The General Court decree that "the blasphemer shall be put to death."

May 26, 1647: Roman-Catholic priests and Jesuits are forbidden to enter this jurisdiction. They shall be banished on their first visit; and, on their second, they shall be put to death.

"Edward Gould, for his miscarriage, is fined one pound." There was a singular persecution of the Baptists in the early times among us. They were not sufficiently numerous to be formed into an organized society; and yet they were so skilful in defending their creed, and so blameless in their daily walk, that they became very irritating to the covenant Puritans; and some wished they should be cropped! In April, 1667, a great dispute was held at Boston between them and the Calvinists. Who were the champions in this gladiatorial encounter, we do not know, nor where victory perched; but we have proof of blind, unchristian persecution, which stands a blot on the page of history. At the "Ten Hills, in Mistick," lived a servant of John Winthrop, jun., who professed the Baptist faith. Mary Gould, his wife, who was with him in his creed, writes to John Winthrop, jun., March 23, 1669, concerning her husband's imprisonment in Boston on account of his peculiar faith. Whether what was done at "Ten Hills" was approved at Medford, we do not know; but these facts tell volumes concerning the ideas, principles, and practices of some of the Puritan Pilgrims of New England.

Indians convicted of crime, or taken prisoners in war, were sold by our fathers as slaves!

June 14, 1642: "If parents or masters neglect training up their children in learning, and labor, and other employments which may be profitable to the Commonwealth, they shall be sufficiently punished by fines for the neglect thereof."

Nov. 4, 1646: The General Court order :