Radio Script #243
Little Talks On Common Things
December 5, 1954
More than once on this program we have called attention to the wide-spread ownership of the great American corporations. Most people think of the big concern off i cia I I Y known as E. I. duPont de Nemours and Company as be long i ng to the duPont family, and indeed that fami Iy started it, developed it, and obtained wealth from its sources. But who owns duPont today? On September 30, 1954 the company had 148,960 individual stockholders, distributed over everyone of the 48 states.
Did you know that there was once in Augusta a resident who is said to have lived to the remarkable age of 124? My information about the man comes from Henry Winters of Waterville, who once served on the jury with the venerable patriarch’s grandson. That grandson showed Mr. Winters a clipping from a very early issue of the Kennebec Journal which gave the amazing information that John Gilley, who had died in Augusta in 1813, was born in Castle Isle, twelve mi les from the city of Cork Island, in 1690. He had thus lived in three centuries, part of the 17th, all of the 18th, and part of the 19th. Gi Iley had come to Fort Western on the Kennebec soon after itserecti on in 1754. He app I ied to the commander, Captain Howard, for enlistment in the fort’s garrison, but Captain Howard considered Gi I ley too old, because he was at that time 64. How surprised the captain would have been to learn that Gi Iley was to live 60 years more. But before that time was to come, Captain Howard would be long in his grave. After the Revolution broke out, Gil ley was given a non-combatant position at the Fort.
Gilley was unmarried until he reached the age of 80. Then he took as his wife an Augusta woman, Dorcas Brann, and reared a family of twe I va ch I Idren, a II of whom married before the i r father died. A II her Ii fe hi s wi fe ca lied him Grandpa Gi Iley.
On election day in the year before he died Grandpa Gilley walked three mi les to the poll ing place and cast his vote. He was a man of very slender bui Id, being only 5 feet 7 inches tall and weighing only 125 pounds. He ate meat three times a day, was remarkably spry and active, and celebrated his hundredth birthday by jumping over a five-rai I fence. His great age caused so much interest that, after his death, an autopsy was performed. It showed that he suffered from no organic disease, but had simply died of old age.
Of course there were plenty of peop Ie to scoff at the clai m of 124 years for Gi Iley or any other man. So, under the leadership of Judge Cony, he and Three other noted Augusta cI ti zens made carefu I exami nations of the record.
Judge Cony’s three associates were Dr. Benjamin Vaughan, Chief JusTice Weston, and James North, the offidal historian-of Augusta. They concluded that Gi lIey had certainly been born in Ireland In 1690.
Th ink what a period of h I story Gilley’ 5 Ii fe spanned. Born when the stuarts were on the throne of England, he was 42 years old when George Washington was born. He lived through the days of Swift and Pope, of Addison and Johnson, had seen Augusta grown from a wi Iderness fort to a thriving town fast outgrOfling The older Hallowell. At a time when most men are ready to die, he had seen his country throw off the British yoke, and_when finally his days came to an end, The new nati on was at war wi th Eng I and aga In. It was a long tl me from the ru Ie of Wi II i am and Mary to the pres I dency of James Mad i son, but John Gi I ley had I I ved through I t a II •
A hundred years ago the quack doctors were numerous, and effective laws to curb their practice had not yet been passed. They advertised freely in the newspapers, and some of them dida lucrative business by rrai I without ever see~ ing the patient. I have seen many of their ads in the old newspapers, but not unti I recently di d I ever see an origi na I handwritten letter from the pen of one of those doctors. For a chance to see th is un i que letter I am indebted to Arthur Dutton of East Vassa I boro. Let me now read you the letter, word for word:
“Albany, New York, January 15, 1855. Dear Sir: In many cases one packa()e is not sufficient to produce the desired effect. If this is the case and you wi II send me three dollars and p ledge your honor to keep the secret, I wi II send you the Vernon’s Ether and warrant I t to produce the desi red effect, or I will refund the money. Yours tru I y, Dr. J. Tasant. — P.S. I f you wish to make rroney fast and easy, send for the Electro Condenser. You can make anything you wish with it and become a member of the mystic circle.”
ThaT Dr. Tasant was a man of little education is shown by his atrocious spelling, so different from the careful spellino found in the letters of reputable physicians of the time, like Waterv! I Ie’s Dr. Moses Appleton. Tasant spells desired “desiard’~; effect was “affect:!; pledge is Hpledg” and honor is “onor”; eTher is “eather”; warrant is “warrent” and mystic is f!misticklr. As for sentence structure, the body of the letter, which should be broken into three grammatical sentences is written all in one sentence.
By The way. di d anyone ever hear of a devi ce ca lied the Electro Condenser? Just whaT kind of gadget was Dr. Tasant trying to sell in that postscript? I shou I d like to know.
Mrs. Grace Garland Towle reminds me that not only the Ticonic Bridqe, but also the bridge over the Sebasticook at Winslow was once a toll bridge and that the tollhouse stood on the north side of the stream. Furthermore, she says the old maps show a cemetery on the south side of the river near the rai I road sta- tlon and the post off Ice. Does anyone know what happened to that cemetery?
Here’s an i nteresti ng ad from a paper pub I I shed in the Far West seventy years ago. In July, 1883 the West Shore, a paper published at Portland, Oregon contained the following advertisement: “New York Hotel, 17 N. Front Street, opposite Mail Steamship Landing, Portlan{j, Oregon. Board, per week $4, with lodging $5. Single meals 25¢. Baggage conveyed to and from the hotel free of charge. No Ch i namen emp I oyed.”
am sure some of you can remember when humorous take-off programs were common in our schools and col leges. The last survivor of this sort of thing is probably the mock trial, which has not entirely disappeared, even today. But a hundred years ago these programs were more varied and sometimes cuttingly satirical.
Preserved in my collection of old-time things is a printed program Ii sti ng the items of an eventfu I even i ng conducted by the students of Watervi lie College on October 18, 1854, almost exactly a hundred years ago. The paper is headed with the words ”The MI lien i um”; then proceeds to state: IlAfter the lapse of four years, the Supervisors of Watervi lie College take pleasure in announcing to the pub II c that they wi I I res ume the i r Autumna I Farce on October 18, 1854 and present the following order of exercises. The chapel choir wi II sing that joyfu I tune, rHark from the Tombs a Do lefu I Sound”. The Professor of Oratory wi II then introduce his choice collection of Spoopsies and animals of various grow Is:
1. Charles F. Weston on My Examination Flunk.
2. Hope-Fu I Wa lion Botany.
3. John Back-Wordman on The Phenomena of the Halo.
4. Rum-J ug Wh i te on Reta Ii ati on of Freshmen.
“The choir wi II then sing the Sf lver Street Melody, after which D. Fifield Crane will di scourse on the di fference between Someth i ng and Noth i ng, followed by Tristam McFadden on My Prospects for Fame. After Wi IIi Silly Heath sinqs his delightful solo, ‘Molly’s Gone out to Get Some Water’, there wi II be an intermission of ten minutes, for the recovery of the audience, during which time the three courageous avengers, Bradbury, Boothby and Shepherd, may be seen runnino semi -nude down College Street on thei r way to the river for a bath.
“The program will resume with a discourse by Charles Prescott on My Eminence.
Th I 5 ani ma I wi II be ha I tered and led upon the stage. A I though partl ally di 5- guised as a rnan, he will be easily recognized by the length of his ears and the tone of his bray. Then wi II come the eloquence of John W. Lamb on Casting My Pearls before Swine. Unless stopped by the sheriff, Wi lIiam lincoln wi II explain the Effect of Different Kinds of liquors. Wise Solomon Heath wi II take for his subject My Tendency to Combustion. This frothy prodigy wi II frisk forth with his head somewhat inflamed. He will i.mmediately kindle into a violent rage and exh I bit signs of hydrophob i a • The audi ence need not be a I armed, because he has always been found to be harmless. The valedictory wi II be delivered by James T. Bradbury, who attained this rank by great exertions in the Sabbath C I ass.
“The evening wi II close with music — a solo by the town bull, accompanied by a del icate symphony on the organ, during which the audience wi II disperse.”
Another such occasion was a mock commencement program issued in 1868. By that time the college had become Colby University. This scurri lous sheet .. printed in close imitation of a real commencement program of the time, notes the line-up of the commencement procession: “Tin horns, Prexy mounted on the janitor, Prof. Smith with fife, Hanlon mounted beside skeleton, Lyford playing possum, Foster on a Greek pony, and town Marshall slightly drunk”, The program bore close resemb lance to the farce program of 1854, but two items are worthy of mention now, 86 years afterward. One is an item of music, “All Hai I the Power of Champ lin’s Name”, whl ch may not have been funny at a’ ” for James T. Champ lin was a rea I Czar who ran the college Just as he thought best. The other memorable item Is this. Julian D. Taylor, whom many people now living remember as Colby’s dignified professor of Latin, is burlesqued in this mock program of his graduati ng year as speaki n9 on the subject of “My Greatness II and sayi ng, “I nf I ated wi th supreme i ntens I ty, I fee I three-quarters of immensity.
Should Phoebus come this way, no doubt but I could blow his candle out.!!
It has been more than a year since we have mentioned the old-time school reports. do reca II that I once commented on severa I such reports from the town of Albion, but I do not think any of them went so far back as the Civi I War. There has recently come to my hands a printed booklet which contains not on I y the schoo I report, but a I so the se I ectme n ‘s report for the tOol n of A I b I on for the fiscal year 1862-63.
The war had been waged little more than a year, but already the plight of soldiers’ ~ami lies was attracting the attention of both town and state. A~ mong the resources the se lectmen listed, “Due from the State for aid to soldiers I fami lies $309.50.” Like most Maine tOlins in that year, Albion was being pushed into debt by the Civi I War. That one little Kennebec town OoIed $2,800, which it had borrowed to pay bounty to volunteer soldiers. Except for that debt, the town books showed a credit balance of $283 for the year. Some of the expense i terns of the town seem strange to our soph i st’ cated qenerati on ninety years afterward. Five dollars for a coffin, $3.87 for all the town record books and stationery for the year, $9.15 for printing the town report, $5.75 paid to W. R. Skillin for enlisting volunteers, $3.00 for hire of horse and carriage to take a selectman out of town, $1.00 to Daniel Libby for auditing the town ac~counts.
A new pump for the poor house cost $6.00.
Like al I other Maine towns, Albion had a liquor agency in 1862-63. It did a bus I ness of $355 duri ng that Ci vi I War year. The agent got $25 a year, As for the schools, Albion had 14 school districts, presided over bya s upe r i nte nd i ng schoo I comm i ttee cons i s t i n9 0 f -George Wi I s.on, O. O. Crosby I and W. C. Crosby. As we have previ ous Iy observed in discuss i ng these a I d schoo I reports, the c.ommlttee sP.oke with frankness about both teachers and schoolhouses.
Here is what they said inA Ib i.on about one school In 1863: “Mr. H. has good ability as a teacher. Several of the scholars, he told us, had not whispered during the term, and nearly all were marked high for deportment. But if anyone should see the schoolhouse, we think they would wonder at such accomplishment. We think it is a disgrace to any civilized communlty.1I
That Albion committee was cautious about heresay evidence, however. Of District No. 13 they said, !!The winter term was taught by Miss F. She tried a II in her power to make the school i nteresti n9, and we are told she succeeded very well. We do not know for certain because we did not visit the school.”
Year: 1954