Celebrating Paine’s birthday

Events commemorating the 268th birthday of Thomas Paine are scheduled for Jan. 29 in Bordentown City.

By: William Wichert
   BORDENTOWN CITY — Mae Silver has an agenda: She wants to put people on the streets and customers in the stores as part of a citywide birthday party for Colonial author Thomas Paine.
   No RSVP is required for the party scheduled for Jan. 29 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., when the general public is invited to attend several events commemorating the 268th birthday of Paine, who lived in Bordentown City from 1777 to 1803.
   "The idea is to bring people to town with a celebration in a very dead month," said Ms. Silver, president of the Thomas Paine Society of Bordentown, which is sponsoring the festivities. "My intent is to spread these activities so that in 2007 we will have a (full) weekend celebration. I have a larger agenda than growing this society."
   The Thomas Paine Society seems to be moving toward that agenda, because next weekend’s events are more involved than the first celebration last year, Ms. Silver said. This year’s festivities will kick off in a place that should be deemed appropriate for the author of "Common Sense:" a bookstore.
   From 10 a.m. to noon, visitors can catch up on the life of Mr. Paine through free activities in three bookstores along Farnsworth Avenue.
   At By the Book at 150 Farnsworth Ave., there will be a photo exhibit based on Mr. Paine’s iron bridge over the Wear River in Sunderland, England. A video about his life will play continuously at the Bohemian Bookworm at 102 Farnsworth Ave., and Debbie Cramer will hold a lecture about different Bordentown families connected to Paine at the Old Book Shop at 200 Farnsworth Ave.
   In the Mount Moriah Masonic Lodge on Farnsworth Avenue from 1 to 3 p.m., James Turk will give a lecture on taverns and churches in Revolutionary War-era New Jersey. The admission for society members is $25, and $30 for nonmembers.
   A wreath will be placed at the statue of Paine on Prince Street during a 3:30 p.m. ceremony. The day’s events will end with a performance of "Madame Bonneville’s Musical Salon: An Operatic Tribute to Thomas Paine" at the First Baptist Church of Bordentown at Prince and Church Streets from 4 to 4:45 p.m.
   The suggested donation for the show is $5.
   In the salon, Bordentown resident Sophie Taillefer will sing some of the songs written by Madame Bonneville, who met Paine in Paris and lived with him for several years in Bordentown.
   "She didn’t like it (Bordentown)," Ms. Silver said. "She was a Parisian lady and he really didn’t have enough money to support her." The couple later moved to Greenwich Village in New York City, where Paine died in 1809, she said.
   Ms. Silver said she will don some men’s clothing during the salon for her portrayal of Yankee Doodle, an imaginary character that meets Paine and is forever changed by the author’s words.
   "This is a kind of miniversion of what Thomas Paine did for the 13 Colonies," she said.
   Yankee Doodle is meant to symbolize the original Colonists, who were moved to support the American Revolution and form a united nation after reading Paine’s "Common Sense," Ms. Silver said.
   "He (Yankee Doodle) emerges as a better man after he meets Thomas Paine. He was America’s first blockbuster writer," she said. "That writing ("Common Sense") was considered very helpful to developing a consensus among the 13 Colonies to go for the war."
   Ms. Silver said President John Adams also wrote a similar pamphlet calling for support of the Revolution, but his writing was too formal and failed to connect to the common folk like "Common Sense" did.
   "The guy’s (Paine) words were absolutely marvelous and razor sharp," she said. "Thank goodness he didn’t have all of that formal education."
   For more information on the Thomas Paine celebration, call the Old Book Shop of Bordentown at (609) 324-9909.