Radio Script #134
Little Talks On Common Things
February 3, 1952
What a vast quantity and variety of those old a Imanacs must have been ci rculated by the patent medicine companies a hundred years ago. An almanac was then almost as common a medium of advertising as calendars were in my boyhood. I wonder if anyone in Central Maine has a collection of those old advertising almanacs, especi a Ily the patent medi ci ne ones. I f so, I shou Id like to hear about it. One Interesting copy that recently came to my attention was Wright’s Pictorial Fami Iy Almanac for the year 1854. This almanac was apparently the annual publication of Dr. Wi lIiam Wright of 169 Race Street, Phi ladelphla. The work was printed by Brown’s Steam Power Printing Office, Ledger Building, Phlladelphia. Through some sort of connections Dr. Wright had set up distribution offices at 165 Chambers Street, New York, and at 10 Tremont Street in Boston.
In his foreword Dr. Wright acknowledges the popularity of an almanac for advertising purposes. He says: “This being the most popular medium of advertising at the present time, I cordially acquiesce in the necessity which calls for it, and have taken some pains to meet it. I have endeavored to make the astronomical calculations entirely reliable and accurate, the medical matter useful, and the miscellaneous matter and the illustrations entertaining. It only remains to send it forth on its mission, and In so doing I ava! I myself of the opportunity of returning in proper person my most sincere thanks for the kind appreciation of my medicines which has brought them into almost universal use, and of giving assurance that no efforts of mine shal I be wanting to sustain the I r reputati on.”
Dr. Wright apparently didn’t much care how his almanac was distributed, provided it got around. His obvious, sole purpose was to give it the widest possible circulation In order to make his medicines better known and to increase their sales. On the back cover he published the following notice to dealers: “This almanac wi” be supplied to agents as usual, without any cost other than the expense of transportation fnom Phi ladelphla, to indemnify which they may, at’ the I r opti on, se II the a Imanac at the pri ce fixed upon the ti tie page.” <That price, by the way, was two cents.> ”Orders should always be sent considerably In advance of the time they wi II be wanted, so as to prevent disappointment. When agents are located off the regular rai I road and e<press routes from Ph i I ada I ph i a, arrangements sholill d be made to have the a I manacs :’ ,.packed with other goods to be forwarded from the Atlantic cities. others than agents wi Ilbe supplied with almanacs at the rate of 25 copies to the dozen boxes of pi lis o’f syrup purchased. Booksellers, periodical agents, postmasters, and peddlers, who buy none of the pills or syrup, will be supplied at the rate of one dollar per hundred.”
On one point Dr. Wright was very modern, far ahead of his time. The gulllblIity of people is amazing, and in spite of plenty of scientific evidence that no one cou I d p red I ct the weathe r more than a few days in advance, in th Is en- I I ghtened year of 1952, there are plenty of peep Ie who have fa I th I n what an almanac says about the coming year’s weather. Yet a hundred years ago Dr. Wright published on the inside back cover of his almanac these words: “Nothing is sa i d about the Weather th Is year I n our a Imanac. I t Is on I Y just to state to the public that they know about the weather for the coming year as we do. No mathematician or astronomer, however able, can possibly cypher out the weather. When such predictions are seen in almanacs, they should be regarded as mere guess work, entitled to no confidence, and as likely to fail as to be true.”
Dr. Wright claimed for his almanac the amazing circulation of half a mil- I i on cop ies. I nteresting to us is his fi gure for Ma ine — equa I to h Is comb lned c I rcu latlon in New Hampsh I re and Vermont. Wh I Ie he cl aimed 10,000 for each of those states, he said he circulated 20,000 in Maine. He claimed 150,000 for the two states of New York and Pennsyl~nia, but what Is more astounding, he said he circulated 10,000 copies in California, 5,000 in Texas, 5,000 in Iowa, 15,000 in Missouri, 2,000 in Arkansas, and even 5,000 In the West Indies.
One table in this almanac gives the population of some 60 American towns and cities for the two censuses of 1830 and 1850. Among the 60 places there are only two in Maine — Portland and Bangor. In those twenty years Portland had grown from 12,000 to 20,000; Bangor from 2,800 to 14,000. Boston had mone than 135,000 people as early as 1850; New York’s population had already passed half a million. Philadelphia, on the other hand, was then smaller than Boston, while Ba It i more was cons I derab Iyl arger. On Iy 40,000 peop Ie lived In the national capital, Washington, fewer than 30,000 lived in Chicago, and only 17,000 In Cleveland. The six largest cities in order of size In 1850 were New York, Baltimore, Boston, New Orleans and Cincinnati; and those were the only cities that had mone than a hundred thousand peop Ie. Ne I ther San Francisco nor any ather p lace in Ca II forn ia I s even manti oned. The sma I lest p lace listed among the sixty is Nashville, Tennessee, with its meager 10,000 people in 1850.
What did Dr. Wright’s almanac advertise? A whole page is devoted to Wright’s Indian Vegetable Pills of the North American College of Health. The ad says: “The hand of a benef I cent creator has planted every country with its own proper antidotes against effects of soi I and climate upon the human being. The aboriginal Indians, taking advantage of that fact, possessed a vigor of constitution unsurpassed by any other race. It is from such roots and plants as gave health to the Indians that Wright’s Indian Vegetable Pi lis are compounded’! Some of the diseases they were promised to cune or relieve were asthma, dropsy, dyspepsia, fits, ague, gout, jaundice, neuralgia, small pox and yellQlt fever. The other product was Wright’s Indian Vegetable Syrup, which contained the same ingredients as were in the pi lis. You could thus have the cure in solid Or liquid form; you paid your money and took your choice.
Dr. Wright graclflously allowed a little space to other advertisers though, as explained In his announcement of advertising rates, he strictly barred the ads of any other med ica I men. There is a ha I f page ad of the 00 II ar Newspaper of Phi ladelphia, proclaimed as the cheapest family paper in the U. S. The sub,.. scription rate was indeed only a dollar a year. For that small amount the !”-‘:-r’,~ reader was proml sed 52 issues of stories and nove lettes, articles on agricu Iture and news — a II pri nted on a par r of mammoth printing mach Ines costing $45,000 and capable of turning out 20,000 impressions an hour. Another ad was headed: “A sure way to get rich. Freedley’s Practical Treatise on Busi ness. The best book on money making ever pub Ifshed. Prlce, $1.00. Don’t fail TO get this book; It will pay you well.” Another ad told the readers that book agents were wanted. “Persons in every town and vi IIage of the U. S. may hear of safe, pleasant and profitable employment In the circulaTion of new and useful pictorial works.” Anthony SchmidT of 409 Main Street, Buffalo, advertised that he dealt In German and English books, mantle-piece clocks, fine pictures and picture frames, looking glasses, toys, wax candles and tapers.
We have often mentioned the Inconvell’lence caused by the different local ,. times a hundred years ago. Dr. Wright attempts to dispel some of the confusion with a statement addressed Simply, “To the Reader”. It says: “There are two kinds of time used In conmon almanacs for the sun’s rising and setting. One Is clock time, and the other Is apparent or sun time. Clock time Is always right, whi Ie sun time varies every day, and Is alternately too fast or too slow. According to apparent time, the sun will always rise or set at six o’clock when it is at the equinox, but this Is never the case according to clock or true time. If the sun was In the meridian, the noon mark, at 12 o’clock every day, apparent time would be true. Peep Ie ~enerally suppose it Is 12 o’clock when the sun is In mid-heaven. This Is a mistake. The sun is so Irregular that It does not come to the meridian oftener than four times in,a whole year. When the sun Is at the noon mark, It Is noon, but not 12 o’clock very often.-
”The var I att on of the s un makes a d I ffe rence between I t and a II true t I mepieces, and produces two ktnds of time. The sun cannot, therefore, be depended upon for correct time, without applying to it what Is termed the equation of time, or the difference between clock and sun. Add to apparent time when the sun Is slow, and subtract when It is fast. This almanac Is In clock time.”
As the 1952 presidential campaign gets under way, some amusing verse from the pen of Representative Ed Chase of Portland may weI} I claim our attention. Ed Chase being a staunch Republican, this is distinctly Republ ican verse, but I am sure whatever your poll tics, you wi II find I t rather pat.
“Ma I den-coy In his I vory tower,
Draftable maybe, Is Eisenhower.
Party pros we II versed In craft
Beat the sticks on behalf of Taft.
Six or eight of lesser size
Cherish the hope of compromise.
Watching rivals torn asunder,
Humb ler fol k are prone to wonder,
Finding quite hard to understand
Why supp Iy shou I d exceed demand.”
How we” do you know your own state of Ma ine? I want to te” you ton ight about some of Maine’s unusual place names, and I assure you that no longer ago than 1910 — a I ittle more than 40 years — every one of those p laces was the official name of a post office in our state. Old you ever hear of Letter C? That was a post office In an unorganized township in the Rangeley region. In 1910 It had a population of seven persons. Its settlement is now called Middle Dam.
Maine once had a place named for a fish. In the town of Kennebunkport There was a post office called Alewives. ~deration was once the official name of West Buxton. Ketchum is a settlement In RI ley Plantation north of Rumford. Down In Washington County In the town of Cooper is a place called Cedar, while Coal-Kiln Corner Is in the town of Scarborough. Eureka Is a place right near Wate rv I I Ie — one of the sett I emen ts I n the town of Sidney. Everyone knows that Maine is covered with place names taken from Europe, p I aces like Norway, Sweden, DEmma rk and Nap les, four of the tCMns that border my native Brldgtonjnames from Asia, like China and Canton; names from Africa, I ike Carthage; names fran South America, I ike Peru; and numerous names from the Bible, like Bethel, Canaan, GI lead, Hebron, Lebanon, Mars HIli and Shi loh. I wonder, however, If you know that in Maine there Is a Jerusalem, an Eqypt and a Corea. Jerusalem Is a settlement 30 mi les north of Farmington; Egypt is a p lace in the town of Franklin; and Corea (spe lied with a C, not a K) Is In the town of Gouldsborough.
In spite of the long boundary line between Maine and Canada, there is, so far as I know, just one p lace off Icl ally ca lied Boundary. I tis a sett lement in the town of Bridgewater. Lynchtown, an unorganized tCMnship embracing Parmachenee Lake, had eight peop Ie In 1910. It probab Iy got I ts name from some family named Lynch, not from a necktie party. Tim was once an offici.al post office In the town of Eustis; Pea Cove is a p lace in Old Town. But I think of all the Maine post offices listed In 1910, the prizes are taken by Mosquito and Sunshine. Yes, forty years ago, mall could actually be addressed to Mosquito, Maine in Forks Plantation, or to Sunshine, Maine on Deer Isle.
We have many names of British origin dotting the map of Maine. We expect them and take them for granted. But did you eve r not ice how many names we have of German origin, in spite ·of the fact that almost the only German settlement in early Maine was at Waldoboro? Yet, scattered over Maine, we have Bremen, Brunswick, Dresden, Frankfort, Lubec and Vienna. Lege:nd has It that the town of Pol and, where the Ri ckers dew loped the famous spring, owes its name neither to the European country nor to a fami Iy of that name, but to a famous Poland China boar, owned there In pioneer days, the sire of the best pigs In the region for many years.
I suppose there are even more picturesque names of Maine localities which never got into the records because they never had a post office. I wish you folks would help me make a collection of those old names. Off hand, as we close the program tonight, I think of two: Hungry Hollow and Monotony. Hungry Hollow, when I was a teacher at Hebron 35 years ago, was a well known, but decidedly run-down hamlet between South Paris and West Paris. Monotony was the fitting name for an i sol ated, dreary collecti on of ha I f a dozen houses on the southern edge of Fryeburg. Now who wi II add names to this collection?
Year: 1952