Essex County, Massachusetts - Chapter 1: Salem Introductory, 1888 (part 2 of 2)

But a new Salem is rising. The points of activity and interest are no longer on her shores, which, for the present, are abandoned to chance and fate until, with renewed life and a more abundant leisure, measures shall be taken to make them once more as beautiful and attractive as they were when " Lover's Lanes " and clean beaches were the resorts of the youth. The centres of life and business activity are now within the town, along that highway which, once a lane and then a street, took its curves from the line of the shores where the merchants lived and business was done. Two hundred years ago what is now Essex Street was a shady lane, where the goats and swine and cattle passed on their way to and from their pastures, and where, in the dewy freshness of a summer morning, the horns of the herdsmen summoned their flocks and herds, to be driven away to fields now inhabited by prosperous citizens. The shores are now deserted by commerce, and the shaded lanes of the old time are now the paved and lighted highways through which begins to move, with increasing energy, the business which is to repair and rebuild the fallen fortunes of the city. Home industries, domestic commerce, manufactures, science, literature, music, art and education are now restoring the vanishing wealth, renewing the ancient renown, and making the city a centre of enterprises which are already enriching the national life.

Since the nineteenth century began there have been three distinct periods in the progress of the city. First, there was the commercial and intellectual energy of the first thirty years. They were supposed to be without limit. But they were appropriated by the larger life of New England. Then came the slowly diminishing prosperity of the thirty years before the War of the Rebellion, in which, in spite of costly endeavors to prevent it, the city lost its ancient importance as a centre of business. The war ended the career of " Old Salem," and the new Salem began to be. The city lives no longer on its memories alone, and is not distinguished solely for its antiquity. Business activity and scientific enterprise are rapidly preparing the conditions for a new career of progress, on new lines. The history of Old Salem is closed ; but in the new city, which is rising on its ancient foundations, its memories will be cherished, its annals will be preserved with care and enriched with fresh discovery. The historic places where the good and evil passions of men were displayed in conflict, and where great virtues made the contest illustrious, will be visited, as the years pass, by an increasing number of pilgrims from all the newer parts of the country. The ideals of character which were the Puritan's finest contribution to the resources of modern civilization, honored and revered on the spot which gave them birth, will be constant sources of virtue and intelligence.

The people of Salem are proud of their ancestry and history, and a diligent band of local antiquarians is working out the story of the past, with results of more than local fame. But the city is entering upon a new career, and may become as notable for its achievements in the years to come as it was justly famous in the past.

The Athenaeum, the Essex Institute, the Peabody Academy of Science and the societies and individuals that are attending to music and art are yet to be heard from in a way not unworthy of Salem. The idea is being cultivated that wealth is not the sole foundation of good society, and that the money made in the old times was not the principal gain. That money is now flowing in other channels, but it has, in flowing away from the place where it was accumulated, made it only the more evident that it was one of the least of the treasures gained in the enterprising days of foreign commerce. Now attention is turned to the other things which are seen to be permanent and of staple value in good society. The new Salem will be rich, but its cultivation will be not incidental. It will be held to be of primary importance, and, with religion, good morals and wisdom, will enrich the national life far beyond any material contributions which it may make to the national prosperity.