Show W 4 0 ak sa s1 e ak 4 ri 4 7 r ZA N f arv V VAI A it aai v I 1 T 1 w TW y henry enry fondd iteration oration of f famous new enand land landmark t 0 4 HAT DAT historic structure the wayside inn built in 1080 and famous as the tha H getting selected by henry wads worth longfellow for his tales j has again changed hands bands henry tal ford la Is the buyer and lie has an wf bounced hla his intention Intent loB of maintain Y ing the old landmark located at f south sudbury Bud bury massachusetts as a museum open to the public henry ford generally considered to be one of the worlds ton ten most famous living 1102 men him a taste for old institutions find and a 4 conviction that nothing good over ever passes off the tha earth whether it to Is a quid quadrille rille or an engineering device sixty six years after the pilgrims lauded landed a family of some importance by the name of howe erected this ancient building as an a residence somo some years later inter they lost their fortune and were forced to turn their home into an tan inn for about years it remained the property of the family the last of the race squire lyman howe being the landlord of the tales george washington and lafayette it to Is recorded were nere guests at the inn inin to the continental tin troops daring the revolutionary war it was well known for being on the main highway to boton it was well situated for or its purpose longfellow was a frequent visitor at the inn and three of his close friends prof daniel treadwell the tha theologian and T W parsons trans iran later of dante the poet and luigi monti political exult professor in harvard and later united states consul in palermo nio the sicilian of the tales were in the habit of spending their summer bummer vacations there it Is not of record ho bow W ever that longfellow saw them there but I 1 in a letter dated october 30 1802 shortly after he had bad begun to write the poem he speaks of a visit there with his publisher jalaa T field thus with a picture of the wayside inn fresh la in his bis mind he be wrote As ancient Is this hostelry As any in the land may be built in the old colonial day when men ilien lived lu in a grander way with ampler hospitality now somewhat what fallen to decay with weather stains upon the wall and stairways worn and crazy doors and creaking and uneven floors and chimneys huge and tiled and tall ta L after the death of squire lyman howo howe the place passed into various hanu handa and finally was purchased by edward it 11 lemon who restored it und tied installed a line fine collection of antiques some of which originally were the property of the howes but had bad been scattered it was from mrs lemon his widow that mr ford bought it the swinging sign that forni formerly erly hung over the front door of the old inu inn recently was found in a wellesley hills mass hayloft and Is to be b presented to mr ford willliam Will liim diehl a farmer dug the relic out of a of 0 junk that had been collecting for ears about twenty years ears ago mr dielia says sas a party 0 It arvard students bent on a lark hired one vt of lilt lilg sleighs for a trip to sudbury when the sleigh was as returned to him the sign wits was in it and duail tossed it into the hayloft it shows it u pumicing chestnut horse on a gayly painted background and bears the title wayside Wa iside inn hin A painter who examined the work declared areil it must linne wc been done more than eighty years furs ago sudbury before long will hoe hane many historic buildings grouped about the lie site of tho the wayside inn to show isi tots recently mr ford par purchased the village smithy at Ux udbridge uxbridge bridge meas hafl perhaps even een more weil veil known to many than the tha inn itself for it inspired Long fellows immortal poem the one we learned in school under the prea dlug chestnut tree the village smithy stands Is the way it begins but how many of us know the name of the mighty smith japhet tatt taft was his name and it was he who in 1787 built the structure which the detroit manufacturer fac now plans to add to his hi collection of new england buildings and implements the blacksmith shop was purchased ly by W W taylor for mr ford from louis albec who has owned the property for several yeara longfellow was inspired tp write his famous poem by seeing japhet taft before the forge later mr taft fashioned parts of the original into a miniature forgo forge and sent it to the poet the building Is being dismantled and will trill be taken to sudbury in sections another building being added to the collection Is the last of the little red school hornef that 1 4 1 M L ai W aft asab once dotted the crossroads ot of almost every new england town arrangements have been completed for the purchase ot of the little district school building on the gardner winchendon road this building was erected in 1801 and is believed to be the oldest authentic little schoolhouse in new england besides being a little schoolhouse use it has the added authenticity of still being minted mated red no one knows when the last cout coat of p paint int was applied to its hand haind hewn clapboards bu but beyond a few shabby places on the weather a aldo de the outside of tho the building still Is in a fine state of preservation the inside of the school Is today just as it was when the last class marched arched in out in the years immediately following the war between the states tho the old fashioned pulpit like rostrum used by the country pedagogues gues still stands in one corner the old fashioned desks much carved with initials and cryptic insignia are there and a heavily drawn pencil mark in another corner comer indicates the bounds within which unruly pupils pupil s were confined the dances dun cea bench still stands firmly against the wall near the masters desk and it a nall nail in the wall still holds a bunch of frazzled witch hazel switches tied by a thong the spot has been the mecca of many picnic parties and reunions of former pupils though of recent years the numar of visitors has greatly decreased in line with mr fords enthusiasm for restoring and preserving these historic relics of a bygone day is his equally strong interest in the revival of the dances of our grandfathers not only Is in he practicing them himself but pupils of the dearborn mich high school also are given free instruction on the dance floor three times a week how many of you older readers remember the fis hermans hornpipe speed the plow st patricks day in the morning french four scotch reel hulls victory fir emens dance and the SI sicilian cIllan circle to mr ford the intricacies of these good old dances are no longer mysteries mas teries and lie he Is doing his bit toward popularizing them not with a view lew to exterminating the modern dance if 1 people like it but rather looking toward having young loung and old dance together thus making the dance more inore fun for all it Is not definitely known just what started mr ford off on this terpsichorean tangent possibly it was that verse erse in ecclesiastes for mr ford to Is a student of t the bible to everything there Is a season and a time to every ecy purpose the sun a time to weep end and a time to laugh a time to mourn and a time to darice some time ago go BO the story goes a dancing master in worcester mass one benjamin B lovett received a telephone call late in the evening this Is 18 mrs airs barker at wayside inn speaking mrs barker Is the principal hostess at the inn and took dancing lessons from lovett fifteen years ago mr henry ford she said wants to know if you will come up here tomorrow morning tor for a talk with him at ten the dancing teacher after he hans up the receiver began to 0 o think over the fie engagement he had made and wonder what it was all about livet had been teaching modern dancing ile he felt that ford had no interest in the ballroom concerts of the twentieth century and lovett was rather shaky he found when he came to think back on the old time maneuvers ue he went over what books he be had ironed out the wrinkles of memory and when he stepped out for wayside inn the next morning he felt capable for whatever examination might come mr and mrs mn ford were in the ballroom of the inn when the professor arrived and the manufacturers rs first shot left lovett gasping do you know the ripple T mr ford basked asked the he dancing professor and he was waa boit tween een the devil and the blue sea it if he said eald he k kaew ew it mr ford would want to be shown II if it hy said he the dancing master figured that b be would put him down as an ignoramus he decided on the truth nevertheless INO no I 1 dont he said ive heard of it somewhere e but icart I 1 cant recall where but ill know it tie te next neat time I 1 see you mr r ford laughed heartily why I 1 caught him the first time he said t turning ning to mrs ford early arly the next morning lovett got out his autom abile alle and went hunting that strange waxed floor bi barl 1 the ripple ile he rode out of massachusetts he etc went into new hampshire here there he made inquiry of fellow maestros none could help mm bim ile he crossed another state line he came to burlington vt the first woman he met a dancing mistress nodded when he asked if she know knew the ripple she said eald she had taught it ten years before have you the cainar calls asked lovett eagerly no I 1 she said out to my cottage and twenty miles away my car Is right here let me drive you out there suggested lovett too bad now said the woman the cottage Is on an island and the road Is torn tom up you get over it now except by walking the worcester maestro continued his hl unusual quest the next man visited offered the key to the problem sure I 1 know the ripple la Is what we call the newport down east lovett went back to ford all primed and full of ripples A few months later the dancing master sold out his bis five dancing halls and went to dearborn as mr fords private dancing teacher the old fashioned dances cannot be executed execute to the moan of the saxophone mr ford prefers old fashioned music believing that jazz lacks rhythm all dancing and all music must have rhythm lie he declared and the jazz music got rhythm recently he invited A mellie dunham the seventy one year old violinist and champion of the state of maine to play at a barn dance in detroit A ford dance book Is in course of preparation containing all the figures and also a history of dancing in this it will be pointed out that the ultra ultramodern modern dance begins and ends with a single couple end that the group spirit of fun is absent it Is further quoted as saying this characteristic of the modern commercial darce Is determined by commercial considerations the older form of requires room room in cities especially in cabarets Is expensive hence a form of dancing has been encouraged that enables the largest possible number of paying couples to dance together in the smallest possible space the result Is that in the modern method the movement of the dance Is mostly above the feet denunciation of the dance by the protectors of public morals has usually been occasioned by tho the importation of dances which are foreign to the express lonal needs of our people there have been imported into the united states of recent years dances that originated in the african kongo dances from th the gypsies of the south american pampas and dances from the hot blooded races races of southern tou thern europe the dearborn dance manual will make no clat claim m to the personal authorship of mr ford but it will give expression it Is understood to the manufacturers ana rs sentiments on the subject for it appears to be no secret in dearborn and wherever er mr ford has intimate frie friends rift that his hill latest motto Is on with the dance I 1 and that he ha lives up to it at every seasonable opportunity firmly convinced that dancing of a rational and racially american character Is capable of being abeln developed into an invaluable instrument for social righteousness |