(With
apologies to the late Eugene Field)
Out
yonder in the suburbs wherein Smith’s acre lies
When
day peeps o’er the State House dome the rooster gayly cries;
And
Jones, next door, inquires no more what kinds of seeds to get,
But
says to Smith: “Has your old hen hatched out her chickens yet?”
c.
April 3, ‘09
Eugene Field (1850–1895) was a popular humorist and newspaperman often called the "Poet of Childhood."
CONTENTMENT
by Eugene Field
Once on a time an old red hen
Went strutting 'round with pompous clucks,
For she had little babies ten,
A part of which were tiny ducks.
"'T is very rare that hens," said she,
"Have baby ducks as well as chicks--
But I possess, as you can see,
Of chickens four and ducklings six!"
A season later, this old hen
Appeared, still cackling of her luck,
For, though she boasted babies ten,
Not one among them was a duck!
"'T is well," she murmured, brooding o'er
The little chicks of fleecy down--
"My babies now will stay ashore,
And, consequently, cannot drown!"
The following spring the old red hen
Clucked just as proudly as of yore--
But lo! her babes were ducklings ten,
Instead of chickens, as before!
"'T is better," said the old red hen,
As she surveyed her waddling brood;
"A little water now and then
Will surely do my darlings good!"
But oh! alas, how very sad!
When gentle spring rolled round again
The eggs eventuated bad,
And childless was the old red hen!
Yet patiently she bore her woe,
And still she wore a cheerful air,
And said: "'T is best these things are so,
For babies are a dreadful care!"
I half suspect that many men,
And many, many women, too,
Could learn a lesson from the hen
With foliage of vermilion hue;
She ne'er presumed to take offence
At any fate that might befall,
But meekly bowed to Providence--
She was contented--that was all!
The planning and construction of the first phase of Woodbourne took place during a period of time when Boston changed from a bustling, chaotic, industrial 19th Century city and entered the 20th Century. It was a period when the strong mayor form of government and professional city planners came into being which would do so much to shape Boston after the Second World War. Seeds were sown for the modern City of Boston between 1909 and 1913 by a pioneering - if paternalistic - effort of a large group of Boston business leaders to transform the way Boston was governed, planned and developed.
Called the Boston 1915 Movement, it was largely the vision of Edward Filene, the moving force behind the Boston Dwelling House Company. Filene and five others formed an executive committee early in 1909 to address the needs of the new automobile age in Boston. These men were James Jackson Storrow, Louis D. Brandeis, Bernard Rothwell and George S. Smith. Filene, one of Boston's most important retail merchants, was concerned with housing for the working classes. Storrow was an attorney who specialized in corporate law and managed investment trusts (he later went on to save and restructure the General Motors Corporation); Brandeis was an attorney whom President Woodrow Wilson would nominate as the first Jewish judge on the Supreme Court; Rothwell was President of the Boston Chamber of Commerce; Smith was a wholesale clothing merchant and President of the Boston Merchants Association.
* * *
Soon after the founding dinner, the Directorate of Boston 1915 was expanded to include two members who would become trustees of the Boston Dwelling House Company, the banker Frank Day and the housing social worker Robert A. Woods. Three other trustees of BDHCo were among those invited to the founding dinner of Boston 1915, John Wells Farley, Charles H. Jones and James L. Richards. Richards, director of Boston Consolidated Gas Company, was one of the Filene Seven who organized the movement.
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