School Street (Page Hill Road)

New Ipswich Historical Society

Smithville circa 1916

View down the street from Schoolhouse #5 in Smithville. School Street is Page Hill Road.

On this day - December 24, 1897

William Jurian Kaula diary

24 Dec 1897

I am writing about art exhibitions too often to make this journal appear as though I saw or went anywhere else.  But the exhibition of Cormon's work at the galleries of the Cercle de L'Union Artistique on the Rue Boissy d'Anglas should be worthy of considerable attention.  The works consisted of wholly [sic] decorations for the hall of a museum.  The large finished works were hung together with all the sketches and the small studies and compositions which were made for the preparation.  This made it of unusual interest for students who are always anxious to see how a master succeeds in building up a large work.  The large panels dealt with subjects drawn from the earliest periods of man, or even earlier to the epochs of the mammoths.  Then came compositions on the epochs of the primitive man, the glacieral [sic] period, the ages of stone, pottery, bronze, and iron.  They were extremely interesting from a historical point of view as well as for their artistic value.  There was often too much of a suggestiveness that the figures were painted and drawn from models - the regular Parisian models and their tradgic [sic] poses.  But on the whole they were very successful.  Cormon's color leaves much to be desired but it is not disagreeable - only a little monotonous and bronze flesh tones.  He has managed the backgrounds in all the works with much more feeling for decorative composition than the more important figures in the center.  The large piece for the ceiling represents all the races of humanity in a floating procession in the clouds.  It is confused and more ordinary than the panels.  Cormon has succeeded somewhat in presenting the weird and primitive landscape of the early ages when the earth was more or less barren rock and ice and also of the more advanced periods where man has arrived to the time when he plants the fields with grain and constructs a building.

CHRISTMAS EVE - Why have I left this line blank?

I spent the Christmas eve at Miss Lufkin's.  Later we went to St. Sulpice to hear the midnight mass.  It was half-past eleven when we arrived but not early enough to be able to get a good position in which to hear the choir.  The church was crowded and large numbers were standing.  I secured two chairs from one of the side chapels and we sat on the outskirts of the multitude and so near the entrance that there was much noise of the coming and going of the people.  So many of the American students were present that I felt sure that almost everyone I knew was in the church.  There are a great many small chapels at the sides in St. Sulpice.  Many of them were blazing with candles and where worship was continually going on.  The constant ringing of bells was a disturbing element as it often drowned out the choir - which seemed miles away at any rate, as we were straining every nerve to hear.  And the jingle and clanging went on, like so many cows on the way from the pasture, and now and then, some deeper toned bell that sounded like the wharves in East Boston where the departure of the ferry is announced by a wholesale ringing of bells.  The organ music was alone well worth the visit.*  The choir was good - the best that I ever heard.  The music lasted from midnight to one o'clock.

*The organ is one of the best in Europe.

On this day - December 24, 1908

James Roger diary entry

24th (Thursday)

Frost fine day.  David logging at Jowder’s . I wrote letters and post cards to all and got letters, cards, letters &c.  Christmas tree at night in Town Hall .  A good turn out of the township. Exercise by the children and presentation of gifts Wm. Davis Santa Claus.  I got a book and box of cigars and David a pair of cuffs.