History of Lynn, Essex County, Massachusetts, including Lynnfield ...

234 Miscellaneous Notes.
the type-setting himself, and as might have been expected the
work did not proceed with remarkable vigor. However, it was
a new thing, and the subscribers, not knowing exactly what they
had a right to expect, did not manifest much impatience.
In the latter part of May the Directory made its appearance.
It was in the shape of a duodecimo of seventy-two pages, was in
paper covers, contained the variety of information
usually found
in works of the kind, was as accurate as it could well be made,
and on the whole was quite creditable. But in a pecuniary way
it was not much of a success, for Mr, Lummus afterwards told
the writer that he realized only enough to make scanty day wages
Such is a history of the first Directory of Lynn, copies of which
may yet occasionally be found in some of the older homes.
As the first printer of Lynn, and the compiler of her first Directory,
the name of Mr. Lummus will survive long after many who
were more successful in " heaping up riches " are forgotten.
Election Day. To some of our elder people the mention
of this now unnoticed anniversary will call up recollections of a
peculiar character. The ancient Colony Charter ordained " That
yearely, once in the yeare forever hereafter, namely, the last
Wednesday in Easter tearme yeareley, the Governo'', Deputy
Governo'', and Assistants of the said Company, and all other
officers of the said Company shalbe, in the Generall Court or
Assembly to be held for that day or tyme, newly chosen for the
yeare ensueing by such greater part of the said Company for the
tyme being then and there present."
Thus it was that the last Wednesday of May became the
famous Election Day, During many of its latter years the
period was more commonly called " 'lection time" for the last
four days of the week were embraced in the popular observance.
And it was not till 1831, that the day so long noted above almost
any other, was compelled, through a constitutional amendment,
to fall back into the ranks of unnoted days. The worthy old
legislators evidently considered this annually recurring election
of their chief officers, a matter of very grave importance, fearing,
no doubt, that their liberties might be endangered by such
abuses as they had seen arise from longer official terms, and
from modes of appointment in which the great body of the people