experience of the question with regard to the other, " Do you not believe it?" was very extensive.

In the midst of our amusement at credulity like this, we must remember that the real discoveries of science are likely to be more faithfully and more extensively made known in the villages of the United States, than in any others in the world. The moon hoax, if advantageously put forth, would have been believed by a much larger proportion of any other nation than it was by the Americans; and they are travelling far faster than any other people beyond the reach of such deception. Their common and high schools, their Lyceums and cheap colleges, are exciting and feeding thousands of minds, which in England would never get beyond the loom or the plough-tail. If few are very learned in the villages of Massachusetts, still fewer are very ignorant and all have the power and the will to invite the learning of the towns among them, and to remunerate its administration of knowledge.1

After seventy years, the Great Moon Hoax is still famous in the annals of popular delusions, though the details of the extraordinary story have long ago faded from general recollection. Now and then there is a feeble attempt at something similar. Thus in 1897 a few New Englanders were taken in by a newspaper report that the planet Venus" was an electric light attached to a balloon sent up from Syracuse, and hauled down slowly every night" about nine o'clock.2 But this stroke of fancy, audacious as it was, can bear no comparison with Sir John Herschel's experiences at the Cape of Good Hope.

1 Retrospect of Western Travel, London, 1838, II, 22-24.
2 D. P. Todd, A New Astronomy, New York, [1897,] p. 316.

and snoer ant mr JS gas i ter interpretation of consum DE I Tee accurred 1 then that needless The body be sure, was

Dit modgy supposed that this principle 20% td the clay of saving onese Thirst, too, tory bald should be satsen vanir reasonable bounds

da se promay ny barved was as requisite to a ve organ sed commingy as a school and that not merely for the accommodation of travelers, but also to serve the people of the neighborhood Accordingly, the early records abound in Ecenses to draw beer, or beer and wine, and indholding was recognized as one of the most reputable of occupations Neglect to provide an ordinary made a town lable to foe Thas in 1669, the town of Newbury, Massachusetts, was presented for such dereliction, and was enjoined to supply the defciency before the next March court under penalty of five pounds1 When an inn had once been opened, the paternal government kept a sharp eye on abuses and visited every infraction of discipline with speedy punishment.

After the Revolution, and at about the time when the Farmer's Almanack was winning its place as the New Englander's favorite manual of secular faith and practice,

1 J. J. Currier, Ould Newbury, Boston, 1896, p. 177.

this country was much resorted to by European travellers, who, like their successors nowadays, were prone to print their impressions in a book. Such visitors were astonished to learn that innkeepers often bore military titles and were leading men in the community. John Davis, the facetious pedagogue,1 has some remarks on this point, apropos of a boarding-house in New York, "agreeably situated in Cherry-street":

Major Howe, after carrying arms through the revolutionary war, instead of reposing upon the laurels he had acquired, was compelled to open a boarding-house in New-York, for the maintenance of his wife and children. He was a member of the Cincinnati, and not a little proud of his Eagle. But I thought the motto to his badge of Omnia reliquit servare Rempublicam, was not very appropriate; for it is notorious that few Americans had much to leave when they accepted commissions in the army. Victor ad aratrum redit would have been better.2

We may pass over Davis's jibe, for it is not ill-natured; he was a penniless itinerant himself.

Smyth, who visited America soon after the Revolution, met with a host of even higher rank at the "ordinary, inn, or tavern" at Bute County Court-House, North Carolina, where he had an excellent dinner. This was no less a personage than General Jethro Sumner, who had played a conspicuous part in the war. Smyth remarks:

He is a man of a person lusty, and rather handsome, with an easy and genteel address: his marriage with a young woman of a good family, with whom he received a handsome fortune; his being a captain of provincials last war; but above all his violent principles, and keeping an inn at the court-house (which is scarcely thought a mean occupation here), singular as the latter 1 See p. 142, above.

2 Travels of Four Years and a Half in the United States, during 1798, 1799, 1800, 1801, and 1802, London, 1803, p. 22.

circumstance may appear, contributed more to his appointment and promotion in the American army, than any other merit.

For

it is a fact, that more than one third of their general officers have been inn-keepers, and have been chiefly indebted to that circumstance for such rank. Because by that public, but inferior station, their principles and persons became more generally known; and by the mixture and variety of company they conversed with, in the way of their business, their ideas and their ambitious views were more excited and extended than the generality of the honest and respectable planters, who remained in peace at their homes.1

In 1771 John Adams found that landlord Pease, of Enfield, Connecticut, "was the great man of the town; their representative, &c. as well as tavern-keeper, and just returned from the General Assembly at Hartford.” 2

Another tavern-keeper of position was Dr. Nathaniel Ames of Dedham, Massachusetts, equally celebrated for his drugs, his inn, and his almanac. The almanac was a good medium for the advertisement of the tavern. He announced the opening of his house of entertainment in his issue for 1751:

THES

Advertisement.

HESE are to signify to all Persons that travel the great Post-Road South-West from Boston, That I keep a House of Publick Entertainment Eleven Miles from Boston, at the Sign of the SUN. If they want Refreshment, and see Cause to be my Guests, they shall be well entertained at a reasonable Rate,

N. Ames.

For some reason the " Sign of the SUN" did not get into position promptly. Hence in 1752 Dr. Ames returned to the subject as follows:

1 J. F. D. Smyth, Tour in the United States, London, 1784, I, 114-15.

2 Diary, June 7, 1771, Works, ed. C. F. Adams, Boston, 1850, II, 271.

Of the Eclipfes for 1751.

TH

HERE will be Four Eclipfes this Year, two of the Sun, and alfo as many of the Moon, in the following Order, vig.

I. The Firft will be of the SUN, May the 13th at Eight in the Evening, invifible.

II. The Second is of the MOON, May the 28th, vifible, calculated as follows, vés.

b. m.

Durstlon,

Digits eclipfed, 10 25

III. The Third will be of the SUN, November the 3d, at Eight at Night, invifible.

IV The Fourth 2nd laft is of the Moon, the 21st Day of November, partly visible; at the Sun's Setting the Moon will rife two Thirds eclipfed; but by that Time the Day-light is gone fo as to have a good Profpect of the Moon, the Eclipfe will end.

T

Advertisement.

RESE are to fignify to all Perfons that trael the great Poft Road South-Wefs from Bolton, That I keep a Houfe of Publick Entertainment Eleven Miles from Boston, at the Sign of the SUN. If they want Refreshment, and fee Caufe to be my Guefs, they fhall be well entertained at a reasonable Rate, N. Ames.