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.

* * * * *

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.

* * * * *

In spite of these rather obvious omissions, Mr. Dillon's Book is both
valuable and readable. Especially in those events which occurred early
in the country's history is there material for comparison with the
happenings of the present day, events which will some day be
incorporated in a similar book compiled by some energetic successor of
Mr. Dillon.

For instance, under Oct. 27, 1659, we find that William Robinson and
Marmaduke Stevenson were banished from New Hampshire on the charge of
being Quakers and were later executed for returning to the colony.
Imagine!

And on Dec. 8, 1837, Wendell Phillips delivered his first abolition
speech at Boston in Faneuil Hall, as a result of which he got himself
known around Boston as an undesirable citizen, a dangero