XLVII

“AMERICAN ANNIVERSARIES”

Mr. Phillip R. Dillon has compiled and published in his “American Anniversaries” a book for men who do things.  For every day in the year there is a record of something which has been accomplished in American history.  For instance, under Jan. 1 we find that the parcel-post system was inaugurated in the United States in 1913, while Jan. 2 is given as the anniversary of the battle of Murfreesboro (or Stone’s River, as you prefer).  The whole book is like that; just one surprise after another.

What, for instance, do you suppose that Saturday marked the completion of?...  Presuming that no one has answered correctly, I will disclose (after consulting Mr. Dillon’s book) that July 31 marked the completion of the 253d year since the signing of the Treaty of Breda.  But what, you may say—­and doubtless are saying at this very minute—­what has the Treaty of Breda (which everyone knows was signed in Holland by representatives of England, France, Holland and Denmark) got to do with American history?  And right there is where Mr. Dillon and I would have you.  In the Treaty of Breda, Acadia (or Nova Scotia) was given to France and New York and New Jersey were confirmed to England.  So, you see, inhabitants of New York and New Jersey (and, after all, who isn’t?) should have especial cause for celebrating July 31 as Breda Day, for if it hadn’t been for that treaty we might have belonged to Poland and been mixed up in all the mess that is now going on over there.

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I must confess that I turned to the date of the anniversary of my own birth with no little expectation.  Of course I am not so very well known except among the tradespeople in my town, but I should be willing to enter myself in a popularity contest with the Treaty of Breda.  But evidently there is a conspiracy of silence directed against me on the part of the makers of anniversary books and calendars.  While no mention was made of my having been born on Sept. 15, considerable space was given to recording the fact that on that date in 1840 a patent for a knitting machine was issued to the inventor, who was none other than Isaac Wixan Lamb of Salem, Mass.

Now I would be the last one to belittle the importance of knitting or the invention of a knitting machine.  I know some very nice people who knit a great deal.  But really, when it comes to anniversaries I don’t see where Isaac Wixon Lamb gets off to crash in ahead of me or a great many other people that I could name.  And it doesn’t help any, either, to find that James Fenimore Cooper and William Howard Taft are both mentioned as having been born on that day or that the chief basic patent for gasoline automobiles in America was issued in 1895 to George B. Selden.  It certainly was a big day for patents.  But one realizes more than ever after reading this section that you have to have a big name to get into an anniversary book.  The average citizen has no show at all.