Springfield 1636-1886, History of Town and City, by Mason A. Green ...

3C)G SPRINGFIELD, 1636-18S6.
added :
' ' The tendency of our practice in permitting every deviation
from established forms to pass unnoticed is to introduce uncertainty
and confusion into our judicial proceedings. It cannot fail to induce
a habit of carelessness and indifference, and eventually great ignorance
of correct practice."* .
Tlie demands of public and professional life, and a succession of
three wives, increased tlie austerities of family discipline. Bliss was
a thorough orthodox Congregationalist. Strong Master George of
the law was the stern Deacon Bliss of the First Church. George
Bliss, the son, in an unpublished account of his own life, draws the
following interesting picture of his early training : " I attended the
common district school kept by a female until eight years old (1801),
and then was transferred to the school kept by a man. Out of school
I wandered about the streets or engaged in play with every boy 1
could find. My father when at home was very rigid in his family
government and discipline, controlling me more by fear than by affec-
tion, as was the wont in those days. . . Afterward I was sent
to the district school, and my most ardent recollections there are of
the master's ferule or rod, with which I made close acquaintance
almost daily. I do not recollect that anybody at home inquired about
my proficiency at school or aided in my instruction, except occasion-
ally an examination into my ability to repeat the assembly's catechism,
which in those days Avas taught us by Rev. Bezaleel Howard." A
member of the family of the present day says that he has the impres-
sion from the family tradition that Master George was " cold, learned,
dry, just, hard, unlovable ; but even this is only an impression, and
may do him injustice." But it need not be to his prejudice, we may
remark, if one remembers the age in wliich he lived.
George Bliss lived at a time when his profession, and in fact society
at large, was undergoing a change. He saw and recognized its force,
but he still lived in perpetual protest to many innovations. He
grieved to see a favorite son of his join the Unitarian church, and he
looked with solicitude at the number of young men admitted to the
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