Radio Script #392

Little Talks on Common Things

November 2, 1958

This program has frequently called attention to the fact that one of the best ways to observe what life was like in Maine towns long ago is to read the ads in old Maine newspapers.

When I recently examined a file of that Belfast paper, the Waldo Patriot, for the year 1838, I turned up some interesting ads. Here is one inserted by John Barnes of the town of Prospect, up the bay from Belfast: “The subscriber informs the gentlemen and ladies of Prospect Village that he has commenced running his two-horse carriage to Belfast. It leaves the hotel at West Prospect on MWF at 8 A.M. and leaves the Belfast hotel at 11 on the same days, for Prospect and Bucksport. Errands and passengers will be promptly attended to.”

Here’s another ad of a kind one never sees today: “Beaman and Berry have for sale at their Belfast store 50 bushels of shoemaker pegs. They are also in the market to buy 10,000 bushels of wood ashes.”

Merchants went by boat to Boston once or twice a year and returned with fresh stocks for their stores. So George Pendleton, storekeeper of Camden, let his customers know about his recent trip to Boston by means of this ad in the Patriot: “The subscriber, having recently returned from Boston with a large assortment of staple and fancy goods, which were purchased at very low prices, respectfully invites his friends and the public to call and examine them. We have broadcloths, cashmeres, buckskins, mohair and pilot cloth for gentlemen’s wear; Alpines, Merinos, calicos and silks for the ladies. Gentlemen’s fur caps and hats from $1.50 to $10. A good lot of buffalo robes. Groceries for family use. Cook stoves and fire frames in all approved patterns. Forty kinds of paper hangings. The best of everything.”

In 1838 steam navigation at the Maine ports was just getting under way. According to the Patriot, the first American steamer to cross the Atlantic was the Savannah. which sailed from its home port by that name in Georgia to Liverpool, England in 1837. She was commanded by Capt. Moses Rogers of Groton, Connecticut. who gave this account of the ship’s reception in England: “Our ship was seen from the station at Cape Clear and, because of the smoke, was reported as a ship on fire. One of the King’s cutters was dispatched to our relief. Great was their amazement when, with all sails set and before a strong wind, they could not overtake us, although our masts were bare. After several shots were fired from the cutter, we stopped our engine and the British came aboard to inspect so strange a craft. Later, as we lay outside Liverpool bar with all colors flying, we were hailed by a British sloop of war.

“‘Why do you carry that pennant?’ we were asked, and we replied, ‘Because my country allows me to, sir’. The Briton then shouted, ‘My commander thinks it is done to insult him, and if you don’t take that flag down, he will send a force to do it.’ Then our captain called to our engineer, “‘Set the hot water engine ready’. Although there was no such machine aboard, his words had the desired effect, and John Bull paddled off at full speed. After remaining 25 days in Liverpool, during which she was visited by thousands of people of all ranks, our ship left for Copenhagen, thence to Stockholm, where she was visited by the Royal Family, and then on to St. Petersburg. Here our officers received valuable presents of plate. She sailed from St. Petersburg back to Copenhagen, and then to Arendel in Norway, and finally across the Atlantic back to Savannah.”

The captain’s account ended with these words: “My ship was the first steam vessel to cross the Atlantic, an enterprise highly creditable to American industry.”

By the spring of 1838 British steamers began arriving at American ports. In its issue of May 4, the Waldo Patriot said: “A new era in Atlantic navigation dates from April 23, when there arrived from England the British steam packets Sirius and Great Western, in the extraordinary passage time of 17 and 14 days respectively. Although a large vessel, the Sirius is but a pigmy compared with the great steamship, the British Queen, of 1,890 tons, belonging to the British and American Steam Navigation Company, which is due to arrive at New York some time in May.”

In this day of frequently stolen cars, we forget there was a time when stolen horses made news. Here are two ads from the old Belfast paper: “Stolen from the subscriber at Freedom Mills, on the night of May 17, a small, dark red mare with a star in the forehead. Also a saddle, nearly new, belonging to Richard Moore of Freedom. The mare and saddle were stolen by Josiah Bartlett, a blacksmith by trade, about 23 years old, 5 feet 10 inches tall. When last seen, he had on a brown surtout, striped pantaloons and a fur cap. $10 reward will be paid for the apprehension of the thief and recovery of the property.”

The other ad in the same issue of the paper says: “Strayed or stolen from Belfast village on May 14, a small, stone-gray horse with a short tail, square dock, large neck, and gray mane, a little lame in one leg. Also a large black mare with two white feet and a large bushy tail. Any person who will give information leading to the return of these horses will be suitably rewarded.”

Did you note the description of the thief’s clothes in that first ad: brown surtout and striped pantaloons?

The modern dictionary describes surtout as “a man’s outer coat worn during the Middle Ages”. The year 1838 was a thousand years later than the Middle Ages, but a long coat called a surtout was still being worn in Maine towns. As for the pantaloons, that was the name given to the long trousers which first came into style in the 1830’s and became popular in the 1840 ‘ s. When Maine was made a separate state in 1820, men still wore the knee breeches of colonial times, and for dress-up occasions, those breeches were adorned with big silver buckles at the knee. In every American town were a few men who stubbornly persisted to the old custom of dress. In Waterville such a man was Dr. Moses Appleton, the town’s most prominent physician, who stuck to knee breeches and long powdered hair well into the 1840’s.

By mid-summer of 1838 the Kennebec and Boston Steam Navigation Company was operating what they advertised as the superior steam packet New England, Nathaniel Kimball, master, between Gardiner and Boston. The boat left Gardiner each Monday and Friday at 3 P.M., touching at Bath at 6. On Wednesday and Saturday it left Lewis’ Wharf in Boston at 7 P.M. The ad said: “Carriages will be in readiness to take passengers to and from Hallowell, Augusta, Waterville and Bangor, on the arrival of the boat and on the days of her sailing. Hack fare from Augusta 37t¢, from Hallowell 25¢. fare from Gardiner to Boston $4.00 and found.”

As early as 1838, there was springing up a demand for some kind of special training for girls beyond the few years of the common school. Already an occasional girl was attending one of the academies, but most of those schools admitted only boys. So it was not unusual to see in a local paper such an ad as that which appeared in the Waldo Patriot on June 1, 1838: “Miss E. W. Merrill would hereby give notice that she proposes to open a school in the vestry of the new meeting house in Belfast, on Wednesday, June 5, for the instruction of young ladies in the branches taught in ladies high schools. Terms per quarter of 17 weeks, $2.50 for allover 10 years of age, and $2.00 for those under 10. $1.00 additional will be charged to those who may attend to Latin or French. Miss Merrill will give instruction in vocal music on Wed. and Sat. afternoons, if a number sufficient to render it pleasant wish to attend.”

Meanwhile Belfast Academy was preparing for a new term. As was common in the schools and colleges at that time, a summer term of ten weeks or more began almost immediately after the close of the spring term. In those days the long vacation was in the winter, not in the summer. So the announcement about Belfast Academy said: “The spring term closed on June 6. The summer term will commence on June 13, and with it Mr. Pike’s connection with the school will probably close. It is presumed that this last opportunity to enjoy the benefit of his valuable and superior skill as an instructor will be avidly seized by the youth of this village and vicinity.”

Everybody knows that singing schools were common in the old days. We don’t hear so much about the old dancing schools, but they too were well advertised. Down in Belfast in 1838, Horace Schaffer announced to the ladies and gentlemen of the village that the last quarter of his year’s dancing academy would open on June 20, at 5 P.M. for young ladies, and at 8 P.M. for gentlemen. Every Friday evening he would stage a public ball. That ad tells us something not generally known today — that when young people learned to dance in the old dancing academies, the two sexes received instruction separately.

In November, 1837, the celebrated native of Albion, Elijah Parish Lovejoy, had been killed by a mob, while defending his press at Alton, Illinois. The Belfast Bookstore announced in June, 1838, that it had for sale an interesting and valuable book called “The Life and Writings of a Martyr in the Cause of Human Freedom”, priced at one dollar. It was the first book written about Lovejoy. Back there, 130 years ago, people had a lot of trouble with paper money. Bank notes were of varying value, according to the reputation of the issuing bank. The notes of some of the Maine banks were not honored at all in Boston, especially just after the Panic of 1837.

As if that were not bad enough, floods of counterfeit notes appeared in the Maine towns. In the summer of 1838 the Waldo Patriot issued the following warning: “A piece of paper having the appearance of a $20 bill on the Belfast Bank was offered in this town a few days ago. On examination it turned out to be one of the lumber association plasters, dated at New York, signed by one Twist as president and payable at the Belfast Bank six months from date. They are doubtless intended to pass for money in Belfast, but bills of that denomination have never been issued by our bank. People should also beware of bills of the Oxford Bank of Oxford, ‘Maine, altered to read Oxford, Massachusetts. They are worthless.”

In that second quarter of the 19th century someone was always coming up with a new kind of soap. So let us close tonight with an account of what was called in 1838 “Patent Labor-Saving Soap” for washing clothes without rubbing or pounding. Listen to the directions for using it: “One pound of soap to two pails of water. Put in boiler or kettle. Have your clothes well soaked, drain or wring them well, then put them into the boiler or kettle. Boil them 30 to 40 minutes. Then take out the clothes and rinse them well, or they will not be white. Should any dirt be left in the creases, a slight rub will remove it. The suds will wash a second batch of clothes as clean as the first. It will then answer to wash stockings. For sale at 8¢ a pound by H. G. Washburn, Belfast.”

Year: 1958