Radio Script #1117

Little Talks On Common Things
March 13, 1977

[podcast]http://web.colby.edu/scimport/files/2011/05/LT1117.mp3[/podcast]

Older persons in Waterville who lived here half a century ‘ago remember fondly Chautauqua Week, the annual program both educational and entertaining, with events on six days of an exciting week. While the Chautauqua tent was, through the years, put up at different places in town, its common location in the 1920’s was the north side of·Monument Park along Park Street.

Chautauqua programs were presented by a professional company, the most prominent of which in New England was Redpath. But to bring Chautauqua to town necessitated the formation of a local sponsoring association to guarantee the Redpath firm against loss. Therefore, the selling of season tickets was engaged in by many people in the weeks preceding Chautauqua.

Since the programs were conducted in a tent, Chautauqua was always held in the summer, and the favorite time for it in Waterville was the last week of the vacation period just before Labor Day.

In 1921 Waterville Chautauqua came during a week later than usual, actually beginning on Labor Day, September 5 and closing on September 10. One feature of Chautauqua was a children’s program that extended through the week. Redpath provided a children’s director, usually a college girl employed for the summer. College men usually made up the maintenance crew, who put up and took down the tent, arranged the seats, and attended to numerous details.

The educational program for adults was presented in the form of lectures, and during the years the Chautauqua stage saw such prominent. national figures as William Jennings Bryan, Newell Dwight Hillis, and such popular spellbinders as Fred B. Smith and Opie Reed.

In the 1920’ s Chautauqua Week included both musica 1 comedy and grand opera. In 1923 the comedy was Victor Herbert’s “When Swe~t Sixteen” and and grand opera was Faust.

 Vocal groups were always well received. A favorite was the Lotus Hale Quartette, which for many years sang regularly in the Tremont Temple.Baptist Church in Boston. In 1923 Waterville heard the Denbar Male Quartette and. Bell Ringers on one evening, and had in 1921 listened to the negro group, the Tuskegee Singers, and on the following evening to the Great Lakes String Quartette.

The week always included at least one drama. In 1921 it was “The Han from Home”, in 1923 George M. Cohan’s “The Meanest Man in the World.” The lectures leaned heavily on the emotional and inspirational. Redpath took care that they were not too intellectual, keeping in mind the general nature of the audience. Some of the topics that stirred Waterville Chautauqua goers in the 1920’s were, “What is the Matter with Europe?”, “The World Outlook”, “Well Dressed on a Moderate Income”, “The measure ofa Man”, “Current Concerns of the Republic”, “What a Man Thinks about What he Thinks”, “The World and America”, and “The Man Who Can”.

In 1923 a memorable feature of Chautauqua Week was the appearance of the Brown University athlete, Charles Paddock, who a few years earlier had . broken the world’s amateur record ‘for the 100 and 220 yard dashes. He spoke to young people on “The Spirit of Sportmanship”, and Redpath advertised him as “the fastest runner that ever lived.”

The 1923 program that most delighted Waterville children was “Pamchasika’ s ~ets”, a collection of trained dogs, cats, parrots, macaws, doves, monkeys and a trick pony. For the whole week of Chautauqua the price of a season ticket was $2.25 and for that an adult could attend every afternoon and every evening of the six days. Children’s tickets were $1.00 for the lavish children’s program every morning. Single admission was 50 cents. The printed Chautauqua program in 1923 gave an account of the runner Paddock. It said, “He has just returned from the world collegiate races held in Paris where 32 nations participated. He won in 911 races in which he competed, He also visited Russia and in his opening remarks, described the turmoil there. In his lecture Paddock tells American youth that careful athletic training will instill in a boy the spirit that will win a place for him in later life. Paddock said nothing about girls. How long a way Women’s Lib has brought us since that long ago 1923!

Before the days of television and even of any extensive use of radio, Chautauqua was a big annual event in the larger Maine communities. It was one of a dozen old-time beriefi ts killed by electronics.

While we are talking about the year 1923, let us take a look at the Waterville City Report for that year, 54 years ago. It was an important year for me, because it was the year when I became a resident of Waterville, I had been here earlier as a college student between 1909 and 1913, but I  knew very little about the city and nothing about its political operation. But after I became a voter here in 1923 I began to take notice. Fortunately I came to know well the man who was Mayor on my arrival, Leon Tebbetts, who just a year earlier had presided at tne opening of Waterville’s first junior high school, now the Pleasant Street Elementary School. The alderman for Ward 3 also became a close friend and an associate in the affairs of the Public Library, George Hegarty of the Central Mairie Power Co. Drew Harthorn, the Coburn principal, was then a councilman from Ward 3. In 1923 our City Clerk was Arthur Holmes and the Treasurer was Harold Dubord, who Bter served several terms as mayor.

The popular Charles Atchley was judge of the Municipal Court, and William Patten was Superintendent of Schools. It is worth noting that as early as 1923 Waterville had a woman on the Board of Education. She was Ellen Kelliher of Ward 4.

In his report Mayor Tebbetts pointed out that, for the first time ‘in Waterville history, there had been regular collection of rubbish and ashes, 9t the taxpayer expense. He naturally looked with pride on the completion of the Junior H.S. at an expense of nearly $200,000. Tebbetts pointed especially to the electric clock and bell system that cost $1,700. The year also marked the opening of Lockwood Park, about which the Mayor said:

“Early in July I took up with Mr. Atwood of the Lockwood Company the matter of the unsightly approach to our city from Winslow. With his cooperation the old dwelling houses have beeri removed, the location of the electric car tracks have been changed, ornamental lights have be,en installed, and the company will beautify the location with plants and shrubs.”

The Mayor also pointed to the State Road development. He wrote:

“By much pressure upon the State, we were able to secure a decision to build this spring a state road over that portion of the county highway tha that extends from Highwood Street to the, Fairfield line. Without the assistance of the Chamber of Commerce, the Merchants Bureau and the Rotary Club this result could not have been attained.”

By 1923 all municipal property in Waterville was valued at $682,000. Think of it – every building owned by the city making a total of $682,000 when today, 53 years later, a new junior high school alone costs more than two million.

In 1923 Waterville had 10 school buildings in active use. The report did not include the junior high just built. That, of course, raised the value of school property considerably. In value the ten school buildings listed ranged from $3,260 for the Western Avenue school, to $125,000 for the high school on Gilman Street. The value of South Grammar at $62,000 was double that of North Grammar at $)1,000. The Public Lib~ry building was marked at $32,000 and the Pine Grove Cemetery at $27,000. An appended note said, “No valuation has been placed on the sewer system, paved and permanent streets, and parks. If the new JuniorH.S. were listed, it would raise the total by about $125,000.” The City Treasurer had taken in $984,000 and had expended $926,000, leaving a comfortable balance of $58,000. However, the city had a funded debt of $550,000.

In 1923 Waterville spent $64,000 on its streets and sidewalks,’ $25,000 for support of the poor, $138,000 for its schools, and appropriated $5,500 to the Public Library. On the poor account, $4,700 was for the poor house . on the County· Road, where the Supt. received the magnificent salary of $742 a year. The Supt. of Schools got $3,000 a year and tl:e high school .principal $2,400. One appropriation for 1923 was $250 for Drew’s Waterville Band •

Some of the money taken in at the office of the City Clerk included 12 licenses for pool rooms; eight for taxis, then described as ‘public auto licenses’; ten licenses to moving picture operators, five licenses for gasoline tank and service stations, 14 for boxing exhibitions, two for wrestling, six for fireworks, and one for a circus. The Board of Health reported that the year had seen in Waterville 267 cases of influenza, 52 of diphtheria, 36 of small pox, and 21 of pneumonia.

An important locpl office in 1923 was the Milk Inspector. At that time milk delivery was not in the hands of a few large companies, but included many small milk dealers selling from only their own farms. The Milk Inspector had the difficult job of enforcing the state laws about milk to prevent the spread of disease through contamination of that very necessary food :product. He must not only inspect cows to see that they are free from tuberculosis and other communicable diseases, but he must also see that milk rooms were clean, bottles and cans sterilized, that milk was not strained in the tie-up, that it was cooled immediately after milking and was stored at a temperature not exceeding 65 degrees. In 1923 pasteurization was not required • . Compared with today, the Public Library in 1923 was a very modest operation. It had only two employees, Minnie ·Smith, Librarian, and Mary Tobey, assistant. Both together got total salary of $1,750 a year. At $900 the janitor got . nearly half· as much as the whole paid to those two professional women. All books in the library shelves’totaled 16,000. But the circulation was a compliment to the library’s use, for it exceeded 53,000 in 1923.

Now in 1976 the Public Library is giving special attention to its FrancoAmerican readers, but this is not the first time. That old 1923 report said,

“Our department of French books is regularly being increased.. Most of the young people of the city prefer books in English, but there are many of our citizens who enjoy books in their native French. We try· to meet that need.”

In 1923. permanent paving was rare on Waterville street.s. The old paving blocks were still in place on Main Street from Castonguay Square to the railroad crossing; tar over the dirt surface was used on a few9ther streets, but most were left in summer to blowing dust. The Street Commissioner reported that No. 1 asphalt oil had been used on all streets· except College Ave., which had been treated with Tarmac. A few streets were treated with calcium chloride to keep down dust, but it had rained so much that most of that sprinkling was wasted. On Main Street the old-time city sprinkling cart was still in use.