Medford Historical Society Papers, Volume 10.

The question arose as to how fully these clippings represented the newspaper accounts of Brooks' work, and so it seemed well to examine a file of a cotemporary newspaper. The Hingham paper was selected, as that was the paper of his town, and the result showed that Brooks clipped and preserved in the scrap-book practically all the references to himself that appeared in the paper. Mr. Brooks relied on the press for much help during his active work, but the methods of that day were much different from those of ours. There was not the appeal to the interest of all classes and conditions of men; the reading public seems to have been limited in numbers. But there have been many changes in thought and life during the seventy years that have elapsed since Charles Brooks was doing his grand work of bringing to the common people of Massachusetts a remedy for their great needs, and these changes must be considered before taking up directly what Brooks did.

For instance, in the '30s an assemblage of the gentle sex was denominated a company of females. To this appellation some bright mind would venture a protest, but the custom was too firmly established to be set aside because some lone ‘female’ objected.

Again, suppose it were now printed on a notice that Harvard College sent to members of a committee, announcing that a meeting would be held, ‘Gentlemen will please to select their own method of conveyance and charge the expense to the University.’ Such a note Mr. Brooks received. When one sees it he wonders how many different methods there were for reaching Cambridge, which was the most used, and what was the expenditure of time and money.

Or again, what is there in the statement, ‘As is the teacher, so is the school,’ that endangers the established order, or that is revolutionary in its character? Any man who would now hesitate to subscribe to that statement, ‘As is the teacher, so is the school,’ would find