Radio Script #125
Little Talks On Common Things
November 25, 1951
Again our distinctly American festival of Thanksgiving has come and gone. I wonder whaT folks of fifTy years ago would have said if they had been told ThaT In 1951 chicken and turkey would be cheaper than beef, pork and ham. They JusT wouldn’t have believed it. In my boyhood turkey was a Thanksgiving luxury. Only the town’s wealthy elite cou Id afford one; and when I say wea I thy I mean a fami Iy that had an an-· nual Income above a thousand dollars. At my father’s store we used to measure those faml lies by their purchase of eggs. When, about this time of year, the price of eggs rose to 36 cents a dozen, we used to say now only so and so can afford them. My faTher sold hundreds of chickens every Thanksgiving, but I do not recal I his ever having a turkey In the store in those years between 1900 and 1912, when I knew tbe p lace best. I do recall going home from college fn 1910 and eating turkey at my grandmother’s on Thanksgl ving Day, but that was a very special oc- . caslon, tor my aunt was being married, and the groom fumished the turkey.
Were Thanksgiving Days colder fifty years ago than they are now? Frankly don’t remember much snow at Thanksgiving, but I can remember good skating. The fancy, boarded, out-door rinks of our day were then unknown. So I am not talking about flooded back-yard areas. am talking about frozen pauls and streams. Of course we never had Thanksgl ving skating on HI gh I and Lake or on the main channe I of Stevens Brook. But we did skate, many a Thanksgiving aftemoon, on the pooled I n lets of The stream and on the big bog near The tannery.
J(.jst once I remember snow for Thanksgiving. I’ve told you about it before. It was the Terri flc storm when the steamer Portland went dOffn. was seven years 01 d, and I reca II the snow banks higher than my head where my uncle p I led the snow as he shoveled grandma’s paths. Whether in colder or wanner weather than half a century ago, Thanksgiving Is sti II the great American home gathering fest I va I. Long may it survl ve as the gracious annual symbol of the American home!
Congress adjourned about a month ago, not to resume its sessions unti I January. What d t d the first sess i on of that 82nd Congress acco~ II sh? It appropriated 89 billIon dollars, 61 bIll f on of them for defense. It authorized 7i billions of aid to foreign countries. l”t approved the building of 6 bl Ilion dollars’ worth of army, navy and air bases abroad. It approved expansIon of the Air Force from 95 groups to 140. It extended controls oVer prices, wages and materials. It uncovered scandals in RFC, the Bureau of Internal Revenue, and other agencies. It changed the Taft-Hartley Act to permIt union shops wlth- out plant elections.
The 82nd Congress has thus far fat led to do any”thlng about the national gamb I I ng menace; l”t has not gl van statehood to A I aska and Hawa I I; It has done nothing about the 5″t. Lawrence Waterway; It has taken no action on Federal AId to Education; It has not transferred to the states “the titles to tidelands; it has not yet abol ished the Reconstruction Finance Corporation; it has not tumed its hand on the preSSing question of civl I rights.
U. S. News and World Reports sums up the case as follows: “Congress adJourns wi th the Fa i r Dea I left on Ice, new wei fare plans she I vad. But by Its actions the .Unlted 5″tates will be made the world’s stroogest power., Mi I itary aid abroad wi II be immense. Business wi II continue “to live lI’lder controls, but with safeguards against abuse. Money will flow In a free and easy way, with 89 billions to spend.”
When I talked last week about the old directory which contained Mrs. Kloss’ cooking recipes. I told you I regretted that many pages had been tom out as we II as others pasted over. What was my de I ight when, two days after the broadcast. Mr. Lewis Whipple left at my door a complete unmarred copy of that same old directory. I shall refer to it again In a few weeks, but tonight I want to call your attention only to some of the advertisements In the back of the book. There are 80 pages of advertising. Many of them are full-page ads of Maine hotels. One was the Preble House, which I am sure our older listeners remember we II. I t stood on the northeast comer of Congress and Preb Ie Streets where now a large office bui Idlng rears Its head. This 1860 ad says of that famous hotel:
“Preb Ie House, Portland, Me I ne. Th Is new hote I is now camp le1ed and open for the accommodat Ion of trans i ent and pe rmanent boarders. I tis the largest hote I In the state, possessing all the modern Improvements and is fl rst class in every appointment. Charles M. Adams, proprietor.”
The picture of the Augusta House in I ts ad In th I s book looks much as that famous hotel looks today. It was then run by Harrison Baker, who announced that “porters are In attendance to convey passengers and baggage to the House from al I rail road and steamboat stations free of charge.” U. M. Thayer advertised another hotel In Augusta, the Kennebec House, on the corner of Water and Winthrop Streets. “This house”, he announced, “has been newly flttea up, enlarge(i, and elegantly furnished, and possesses all modem Improvements for the conven lence and comfort of I ts guests. A I arge I Ivery stab Ie Is connected with the house. Stages leave here from all towns in this viCinity.”
ARothe r hote I, whose picture looks Just as I used to know the p I ace forty years ago, is the Stoddard House at Farmington. In 1860 Its original proprietor, S. F. Stoddard, was·still alive. “This hotel”, says his ad, “situated on Broadway In the beautiful village of Farmington, the shire tom of Franklin County, and the terminus of the Androscoggin Rai I road, wi II be found a pleasant and at tracTive resort at all seasons of the year. Mr. Stoddard, with an experience of twe lve years as I and lord and proprietor, Is competent and ever ready to attend to The call, wants and comfort of company in the best possible manner. Guests taken to and from the depot free of charge.”
I ~gret to say that wh i Ie many of those hote I ads take a fu II page, that for The Elmwood in Waterville occupies only one inch of one column. IT says simply: “Elmwood Hotel, Waterville, Maine. J. L. Seavey, proprietor. Comer of Main and College Streets, near the depot.” One of the most lavish ads is that of the Bethel House, west side of the common, Bethe’, Ma I ne. W. J. LoveJoy, the prep rletor, announced that he had !lrecently remodeled this well-known house, and refurnished it throughout with new furn i ture. A carri age is inconstant attendance at the depot to convey passengers to the House. Mr. Lovejoy Is also agent for the British and American Express Co. He also runs a mall coach from Bethel to Errol, N. H. via Newry, GrafTon, Upton, Umbagog Lake, and Cambridge on Tuesday and Friday of each week.”
Another picture that looks very fami liar is the Thorndike H9tel in fbckland. Away back there in 1860 I t had an enTrance on the come r of Sea Street as we II as one on Main Street. Other hote Is advertised in the dl rectory, some of them remembered, some long forgotten, are the Columbian House at Bath, the Penobscot House at Hampden Corner, the York Hotel In Saco, the Eveleth House at WinterporT, the Waldo House at Frankfort, The Maine Hotel at Damariscotta, the Commercial House in Rockland, and the Mansion House at Morri II’s Corner.
As you might expect, I. M. Singer Co. of Broadway, New York, took a fuJ I page TO advertise their sewing machines, but even more space — two full pages was Taken to advertise Wi II lams and Orvis’s unequa led doub Ie-thread fami Iy sewing machines for $25, guaranteed to be the equal of the more expensive machines. “We have demonstrated”, says the ad, “that as good a machine, for all practical uses can be made for $25 as for $150.” This was a slap at the best of the Singe rs, which cost $150. Se I dom nowadays do we eve r see an adva rt i se r re fe r by nama to a compet I tor, but they pulled no punches back in 1860. Th is Wi II iams and Orvl'”§’: ”We have compelled other manufacturers of sewing machines to reduce their prices.
During the three years that we have been in business, the Grover and Baker Co., Wheeler, Wilson and Co., Singer and Co., and all other responsible manufacturers have reduced the price of their cheapest machines from $75 to $40. We produced so good a mach ine that our competl ~rs had to take the hint. But let the pub II c remember that our machines are stili the best and are $15 cheaper than the cheapest of any othe r manufacture r. ”
Do you knat that grand old Portland firm of Kendall and Whitney? Well, they were in business ninety years ago. They advertised as wholesale and retal I dealers In agrlcu-Itura I Imp lements, woodenware and seeds. I th ink I had never knatn the fl rst names of those partners unti I I saw them In th Is ad. They were Hosea Ken da II an d Anwn i Wh I tney •
A fu II page Is gi van to the ad of J. D. Cheney, manufacturer of ne lodeons and harmoniums at 135 Middle street, Portland. He advertised an Harmonium with two banks of keys, of 41 octaves each, four fu II sets of reeds and one and onehalf octaves in pedals. It had ten stops and included all the varieties of the thousand dollar pipe organ. Sanborn and Carter of Port land announced that they had for sa Ie the fu II series of Greenleaf’s mathematics books — not only the well-known arithmetic, but also the Treatise on Algebra and the Elements of Geometry and Trigonometry.
Di d you ever hear hat George C. Shaw started bus iness in Portland? When was a res I dent of that city In 1921 the re we re two I arge George C. Shaw ma rkets, one in Congress Square and one on Preb Ie Street Just around the comer from ~nument Square. But in 1860 the Shaw business was much more modest. His ad in the old directory reads: “China Tea Store. New Teas! New Teas! No. 135 Middle Street, Portland. Choice tea and pure coffee. A good assortment of sugars cheap. China Tea Co., George C. Shaw, proprietor.”
Predecessor of the famous fish firm of George C. Lord Company of Portland was the fl rm of Dana and Company. They wanted the pub II c to know, not on Iy that they had been in business for fifty years, but that they had plenty of stock for a I I cus tome rs • The i r 1860 ad says: “Our us ua I stock I s as fo I lows 300,000 Ibs. large cod, 100,000 Ibs. medium cod, 200,000 Ibs. pollock, 5,000 boxes herring, 1,000 bbls. mackerel, plenty of tongues and sounds, napes and fins, and 100 bbls. tanners’ oi I. Of salt we have 40,000 bushels of Turks Island, 40,000 bushels of Liverpool, and 2,000 bags of Ground Butter salt.” , was pleased also to see among these 1860 ads that old friend, Ayer’s Sarsapari Ila, “For the cure of scrofula, eruptions, ulcers, pimp les, blotches, tumors, salt rheum, deb) Ilty, dyspepsia and indigestion.”
On the inside back cover Is the sort of ad you never see today. Our papers are filled with real estate ads, to be sure, but none like that which the Ulinols Central Railroad Co. presented In this 1860 directory. It reads: “Rich, rolling, prai rie lands. Farms for one thousand dollars in the most ferti Ie state in the Union. Rich prairie land at the low price of $12 an acre. That we have sold over a thousand of these tracts a I ready th i s season is best proof of the ri chness and great va I ue of these I I , i no I s lands. The I I II nol s Centra I R. R. was finished in 1856, but It through a sparsely settled country. This season, after only four years, it takes to market over 13,000,000 bushels of grain, besides many cattle and hogs. The lands now offered for sa Ie are adjacent to the raj I,.. road. A tract of 80 acres will make a good, comfortab Ie honestead.”
As we come to the c lose of Thanksg I vi ng Week, I et me ca II your attention to the Thanksgiving proclamation issued by the Governor of Maine 121 years ago. Mrs. Wi liard Rockwood of Lawrence Street has shown me a framed copy of that proclama tion signed by Governor Jonathan Dunton at the Counci I Chamber of the State Capitol In Portland on October 26, 1830, proclaiming Thursday, December 2 as a day of thanksgiving and praise, and requesting the people of Maine on that day to assemb Ie at thei r usua I p I aces of pub Ii c worsh I p, to render thanks to the great gl ver of a II gl fts.
I did not realize that, in such proclamations in the early years of Maine’s statehood, the Governors paid attent.ion to events abroad, but listen to these words of Governor Dunton’s 1830 proclamation:
”Wi th i n less than a year we have seen the banner of the cross float trf umphantly over the regions of infidelity. We have seen the proud ottoman, whose mountain barriers have for ages defied the power of Invadi n9 armies, become a humb led pri nce, and Greece, in whose fate Chri sti an and ph i I anthrop ist have taken so lively an Interest, disenthralled from his power. In another part of the globe we have seen an infidel nation of pirates driven from their stronghold. Wherever we turn our eyes, we see the i ron rod of the oppressor and “the crimson spear of the conque ror broken be fore the breath of him who ru las the dest I ny of nat i ons. 11
So a hundred and twenty one years ago for the conquest of Christian arms and for the peace and liberty in our own United States, Governor Dunton asked the people of Maine to be duly thankful.
Year: 1951