is Mr. Wallingford? What can we do to serve you?"

With a smile and a gracious manner, in which none could excel this somewhat exclusive lady when she wished to make herself agreeable, Mrs. Wallingford leisurely availed herself of the proffered chair and addressed the assessors.

"You know," she began, "the law gives us ladies the right to vote for members of the school board in this state and I have been thinking that we ought to avail ourselves of the rights that we have, instead of doing so much talking about getting more. Do you agree with me?"

The seven assessors, all attention from the beginning, nodded emphatically. Most of them were politicians of the old school and woman suffrage was not a favorite reform with them. There never was any contest, anyway, over the school board and that was just the place for the ladies to exercise the privilege of the ballot.

con

"Well, I have come to get my name enrolled on your check list, tinued the visitor, with another smile of goodfellowship, which alone would have accomplished a far more difficult task than she had before her. "Of course, I don't suppose there's any particular occasion for voting this year, as I understand the member from my ward has been an efficient one and is to be reëlected without opposition, but I have come to the conclusion that it is my duty to vote and there is no time to begin like the present."

"Certainly ma'am," spoke up the chairman. "We all highly respect your views and your public spirit. If there were more women like you, instead of so many of these air suffragettes, the country would be better off. We'll put your name on the list at once. And we thank you for your kindness and please give our best regards to Mr. Wallingford." (The latter was a power in the politics of the city and state.)

"I'm sure I'm greatly obliged,"

said the lady, as she arose to take her departure. And then at the door she turned, as if with an afterthought.

"By the way," said she, returning to the group still standing in the center of the room about the long table. "Perhaps it will be just as well if you don't say anything of this for a day or two. You know it isn't always pleasant for a lady to be talked about and I want to do my duty as quietly as possible, as becomes a lady. Besides if these advocates of full suffrage for women were to hear of it, they might think I had gone over to their side and make a great deal out of it. understand?”

You

Of course, they did. It would have been an obtuse man, indeed, who hadn't been illuminated by that gracious presence in the doorway, as she smilingly departed.

It is said of women and not of men that they cannot keep a secret, and perhaps it is to be doubted if even the weaker sex cannot keep the counsel of a man whom they admire, when it has been entrusted to them. At all events, these seven assessors proved that gallant males can safely be put in guard over the secret of a real lady, especially when their wives have no inkthat there is a secret to be pumped from the slaves of their choice. And so the registration of Mrs. Wallingford was safely, sanely and secretly accomplished.

The following day was the day of the voting and promptly at 10 o'clock in the morning a lady presented herself at the rail of the ward room of Ward Six and asked for a ballot. She was escorted thither by J. Black, Esq., the leading attorney of Norway, who stood by her side at the rail.

For a time, consternation reigned among the ward officials, as they listened to the courteous and smiling request and saw the suave but mighty man of the law prepared to back it up with action, if it were refused. A hasty consultation with the moderator and clerk was held, while the line of regular voters outside the rail grew

quickly in length and voting proceedings were suspended.

"I am very sorry, madam,' at length spoke up the moderator. "Undoubtedly, women do have the right to vote in school matters in this state but the names of voters have to be registered on the check lists before they can claim that right, either men or women."

"Certainly," said the gracious lady with the sunny countenance. "You are quite correct. And election officials cannot be too careful in the discharge of their duties. I have often heard my husband declare this and my own judgment confirms it. My name is Margaret Wallingford and I think, if you look carefully, you will discover it written in on the check list."

The clerk nearly fell over into the chair from which he had arisen, as he examined the list. And then being And then being appealed to by the others, he declared with the solemnity of a judge pronouncing a death sentence:

"The lady is correct. The name of Margaret Wallingford is on the list."

The moderator cleared his throat and drops of perspiration gleamed on his forehead. Like orators who want time to think what comes next in the line of their argument, he gained a moment by pouring out a glass of water and swallowing it.

"But, madam," said he, "It has been so many years since any woman has claimed the right to vote for members of the school board, that we have made no preparation for such a contingency. We have only the regular Australian ballot, containing the names of all the city officials to be voted for. Were a lady to be given this ballot and allowed to mark and cast it, how are we to know but what she votes for candidates for all the offices designated on the ballot? It might invalidate the election."

He looked around to observe the effect. The spectators without the rail were spell-bound at the unusual drama. Those inside presented the

appearance of primary school boys who had just been confronted with a problem in trigonometry. The moderator's eloquence and lucid argument had only acted like a thunder shower in August, which makes the heat and stifling atmosphere all the more oppressive.

The charming lady became a queen at this crisis. Gazing with scorn at the group of hopelessly befuddled men, she seemed to tower above them, as she said:

"Then, Mr. Moderator, I am to understand, am I, that you decline to allow me to vote for a member of the school board, a right which the sovereign law of this state gives me and which I now no longer request but demand? I place my case in the hands of my attorney. What do you say, Mr. Black?”

Thus appealed to, the lawyer pointed his finger at the moderator and quietly but impressively spoke: "I say, Mr. Moderator, that you refuse this lady the right to vote at your peril. That is all. Do you understand?"

Understanding anything was precisely what Mr. Moderator did not do at the minute.

"I wish the city solicitor were here to instruct us,' wiping his brow. "This is beyond me.

"It will beyond you in a few minutes more, to your everlasting sorrow, continued the lawyer. "This lady's time is valuable. She has already been unreasonably detained in her performance of her right and duty under the laws of New Hampshire. It is for you to decide, Mr. Moderator, and decide at once what you will do."

That settled it. A ballot was handed to Margaret Wallingford; her name was duly checked by the inspector; she passed into the voting booth, marked her ballot, deposited it in the hands of the moderator, heard her name again called by the clerk and went outside the rail and out of the ward-room, leaving behind her as

nonplussed a set of men as ever tried to puzzle out the intricacies of the great and wonderful law.

It chanced that there were three candidates for mayor at that election, the Republican party being divided. there as elsewhere throughout the country. There was the Taft Republican candidate, the Bull Moose candidate and the Democratic candidate. It was late that night before the votes were counted and then it was found that the Taft Republican had won by a plurality of just one vote.

On the following New Year's eve, the ladies of society in Norway were assembled around the table in the dining room of the beautiful Wallingford home. The coffee, crackers and cheese had just been finished and confections were being nibbled, as the hostess arose to make a few remarks.

"Ladies," she began. "This party has a significance beyond a mere casual entertainment. Some of you may recall a wager made between me and Mrs. McDonald, my friend, at the

Country Club one evening last September. The wager was that I would cast a regular ballot at the coming municipal election, voting for the entire ticket. I had thought to claim that wager from my friend, but upon maturer consideration, upon the advice of council and likewise of Mr. Wallingford, whose Wallingford, whose candidate for mayor, as you know won the election by a single vote, it has seemed best not to make the necessary declaration as to just what candidates for office I cast my ballot for on that occasion, but to say nothing and settle the wager. I have done the latter to the best of my ability. I thank you for your presence and trust you have had a pleasant evening We will now proceed to watch the Old Year out and the New Year in, and some of us will rejoice in the thought that a new year for women, when she will receive her full rights and be granted the privilege of having something to say about the way the money she pays in taxes is spent, is already dawning."

The most recent addition to the list (still all too small) of New Hampshire town histories, is a history of the town of Durham, the "Oyster River" of the early days, which figured so conspicuously in our early provincial annals.

This work is presented in two volumes, the first, of 436 octavo pages, being devoted to the historical narrative and biographies of leading citizens and the second, of 502 pages, to genealogy. The work is edited by Rev. Everett S. Stackpole of Bradford, Mass., and Col. Lucien Thompson of Durham who furnished most of the historical data, in the collection and arrangement of which he had spent much time and thought for many years being deeply interested

in historical matters generally and those pertaining to his own town particularly.

The material for the genealogical volume was mainly gathered by Deacon Winthrop S. Meserve, long a prominent citizen of the town, whose portrait appears as a frontispiece of the volume, as does that of Colonel Thompson in the first volume.

This history will naturally rank among the most important and interesting town histories thus far published in the state, not only on account of the character and qualifications of those engaged in its production, but because of the conspicuous position held by the town of Durham as a factor in the political and intellectual as well as the material life of

The family name of Eastman seems to have flourished continuously in the southern counties of England, more particularly in Wiltshire, since the latter part of the thirteenth century. Allowing for the common variants in spelling, such as Estman, Estmond and Eastmond, the earliest occurrence of the name in English court records, so far discovered, is found in Chancery Inquisitions for 5 Edw. I (1277), where a John Estmond of Wiltshire is mentioned with others in connection with the "lands and tenements of Philip Marmyon."

Radnor are the Ecclesiastical Commissioners' Court Rolls for the Manor of Downton, extending from the year 1475 to about the middle of the sixteenth century. These rolls are written in abbreviated Latin, not at all easy to decipher. They have recently been searched for Eastman entries by the well-known antiquary, Mr. C. A. Hoppin, acting in behalf of Mr. George Eastman of Rochester, N. Y. The following items have been transcribed by Mr. Hoppin from the original sources in question and rendered by him into English form. Two terms

During the next two hundred years the patronymic would seem to have become firmly established in the region about Salisbury, Wiltshire; and though we find mention of one "John Estmond, clericus," under date of 4 Henry VIII (1513),* and of "John, Nicholas and Richard Eastmond, gentlemen," who sold various property in Bulford and Hundrington in the fourteenth year of the reign of Charles I, yet for the most part, where the family name occurs in ancient records, it denotes men of humble station, yeomen or husbandmen.

that perhaps require explanation are "tourn" and "pannage. By the former is meant the turn or circuit formerly made by the sheriff twice every year for the purpose of holding in each hundred (that is, a subdivision of a county) the great courtlist of the county. Pannage is the mast of the oak and beech which swine feed on.

MEMBRANE 2. 1475

Dounton Manor. Tourn held there at Martinmas 28 October 14 Edw. IV. Charleton: The tithingman there presents John Estemonde for brewing