. Our Philadelphia. y or the deportment of my Grandfather and hiscontemporaries, at a period when Philadelphia suppliedmen like John Welsh for its country to send as represen-tatives abroad and there carry on the traditions of Frank-lin and John Adams and Jefferson. My Father—EdwardRobins—inherited more than his share of this old-fashionedPhiladelphia manner, making a ceremony of the morningwalk to his office and the Sunday walk to church. But ithas been lost by younger generations, mores the pity. Inmemory I would not have my Grandfather a shade lesssolemn, though at the time his solemnity pu
. Our Philadelphia. y or the deportment of my Grandfather and hiscontemporaries, at a period when Philadelphia suppliedmen like John Welsh for its country to send as represen-tatives abroad and there carry on the traditions of Frank-lin and John Adams and Jefferson. My Father—EdwardRobins—inherited more than his share of this old-fashionedPhiladelphia manner, making a ceremony of the morningwalk to his office and the Sunday walk to church. But ithas been lost by younger generations, mores the pity. Inmemory I would not have my Grandfather a shade lesssolemn, though at the time his solemnity put me on any-thing but easy terms with him. II The respectful bang of the front door upon my Grand-fathers dignified back after breakfast was the signal forthe family to relax. The cloth was at once cleared, myGrandmother and my Aunts—hke all Philadelphia , ^- i:\.f y ?- .if. -i-,\ - ? -^.- 7- .::^ji;-- S 1!?^^^ ^>^:^ V-: ••^- r -•> JT .-? %? •.^ k -*? ? •.*^. ** - . ^ * :^ •% -^^^. <;? ^^^ -^ -.»,?!?.•V:. INDEPENDENCE SQUARE AND THE STATE HOUSE A CHILD IN PHILADELPHIA 53 mothers and daughters—brought their work-baskets intothe dining-room and sat and gossiped there until it wastime for my Grandmother to go and see the butcher andthe provision dealer, or for my Aunts to make thoseformal calls for which the morning then was the un-pardonable hour. It seems to me, in looking back, as if my Grand-mother could never have gone out of the house except onan errand to the provision man, such an important partdid it play in her daily round of duties. She never wentto market. That was not the Philadelphia womans busi-ness, it was the Philadelphia mans. My Grandfather, atthe time of which I write, must have grown too old for thetask, which was no light one, for it meant getting up atunholy hours every Wednesday and every Saturday, leav-ing the rest of the family in their comfortable beds, andbeing back again in time for prayers and eight oclockbreakfast. I c
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