At night the canal is brilliantly lighted along its banks and the passage through of the big New York boat is a sight that attracts a great many people. The value of the canal to the system of national defense was demonstrated during the war and a bill is now before Congress for the purchase of it and for its operation by the war department. Probabilities point to much greater development under government ownership when it will probably be widened and deepened and there is a possibility that locks will be installed to regulate the rushing current that now more or less hampers navigation. The people of Bourne foresee advantages to their town through these contemplated developments and hope for the establishment of a landing place which will provide terminal facilities for steamers handling passengers and freight. [Illustration: SCENE FROM "PAGEANT OF CAPE COD" HELD AT BOURNE] Aside from its extensive summer business along the shores of Buzzards bay and its popular colony at Sagamore Beach on Cape Cod bay, Bourne has comparatively little commercial activity. One large manufacturing plant exists at Sagamore where the Keith Car and Manufacturing Company is located and gives employment to a large number of men. There freight cars are built and repaired under the management of Eben S.S. Keith, a former member of the Governor's council and one of the leading citizens of the Cape. Bourne enjoys the distinction of being a former summer capital of the country. When Grover Cleveland was president of the United States he established his summer home at Gray Gables, near Buzzards Bay village, and there was transacted the government's business during his stay there. Gray Gables is still owned by his widow although it is no longer occupied by her. Another distinguished resident of Bourne was the late Joseph Jefferson, the veteran actor, whose palatial residence "Crows' Nest" on Buttermilk bay was one of the show places of the section. In a little cemetery, just over the town line in Sandwich his body now reposes, marked with a huge bowlder which he picked out during his life time to mark his grave. Mr. Cleveland and Mr. Jefferson were close and intimate friends and companions upon fishing trips about Cape Cod territory. Bourne, not "that bourne from whence no traveller returns," but Bourne, the "Portal to Cape Cod," is a large and interesting town. Within its limits abide many summer residents, occupying large and small cottages and estates of refinement and beauty. It has many drives of sylvan beauty, through shaded roads, by emerald ponds, and over hills and through vales, commanding views of placid and glimmering Buzzards bay and the broad reaches of Cape Cod bay on its northerly side. Like other Cape Cod towns, it has a history of maritime adventure behind it and a glorious future as a summer resting place before it. The possibilities of its shores have scarcely begun to be developed.