Radio Script #565

Little Talks on Common Things

February 17, 1963

One of the longest-lived newspapers in Maine was the ?ortland Argus, which enjoyed 120 years of continuous existence. Started in 1803 in support of Jeffersonian Democrats in Maine, it continued to be a staunch Democratic paper until it was finally taken over by a group of Portland merchants and changed into the Portland Herald in 1923. Later the Herald and its rival, the Portland Press, were purchased by Guy Gannett and merged into the Press Herald. So, in a sense the present Press-Herald, instead of being only 100 years old in 1962, which was all it claimed in its splendid centennial edition last October, can actually claim to be 159 years old, as descending from the Argus through the Herald.

In northern Cumberland County, when I was a boy, Democrats were scarcer than hen’s teeth, and I remember that the local news dealer, who every day dispensed twenty to thirty copies of the Portland Press, had only one daily copy of the Argus, laid aside for the town’s stubbornest Democrat. So, because nearly everyone I knew referred to the paper as the “lying Argus”, I assumed it Was a worthless sheet representing the Democratic bad guys in vilification of the Republican good guys. It took me many years to learn that political ~uth is never wholly on one side, and I assure you the Argus upheld many a cause that the Republicans ought long before to have recognized.

In 1885, when the Argus had been in existence for 82 years, it was being published by John lVi. ;~dams as a daily paper under the name of the Daily Eastern Argus. It also published a weekly and a tri-weekly edition. The daily cost §8.00 a year, delivered in Portland by carrier, while the tri-weekly coming out on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday could be had for $3.00, and the weekly on Thursday for only $1.50. Because 1885 was not an election year, there was little political news in one issue I chanced recently to pick up. But a few months earlier it had done a lot of crowing when its candidate, Grover Cleveland, had beaten Maine’s James G. Blaine for the presidency.

As usual I find most interest in a careful inspection of the ads. What a difference they reveal about transportation in 1885 from the situation today. There were six steamboat lines. One was the Boston Line, with the two steamers John Brooks and Tremont plying daily between Portland and Boston. The Maine Steamship Company had a steamer leaving Portland every Wednesday and Saturday for New York. The International Steamship Company’s steamer left for Halifax every Monday and Thursday, stopping at E,,;stport and St. John. The Warren Line ran regular service between Portland and Liverpool. Captain Townsend’s steamer Haidee plied regularly between Portland and South Freeport, touching at some of the Casco Bay Islands. Finally there was the Orr’s 1sland boat that made daily trips, with stops at Great Chebeague and Harpswell.

So many ocean freighters came to Portland in the 1880’s that the Central Wharf Tovi Boat Company did a thriving business, and announced in the Argus a special stockholders’ meeting to consider expansion.

Then of course there were the railroads, doing an increasingly prosperous business. Over its two diVisions, the Eastern and the Western, the Boston and Maine announced an abundance of passenger trains. The Portland and Rochester took folks to many way stations between Portland and the New Hampshire city, and was a big factor in the industrial development of Sanford. The Grand Trunk’s official name in 1885 was the Grand Trunk Railway of Canada. It ran two trains a day between Portland and Montreal.

The Maine Central gave not only convenient service to Bangor and to Rockland, but also featured its connecting steamboat lines. Its ad said: “The steamer City of Richmond leaves Portland every Tuesday and Friday at 11 p.m. after arrival of the night train from Boston and makes stops at Rockland, Castine, Deer Isle, Sedgwick, Bar Harbor, Millbridge, Jonesport and Machiasport. Persons intending to go to anyone of the three last named places can take the train from Portland through to Mt. Desert ferry, use that crossing to Bar Harbor and there board the Machiasport boat.

The Rumford Falls and Buckfield R.R. and the Portland and Ogdensburg were two lines that in 1885 had not yet been merged into the Maine Central system. At that time the Oxford County line, intended eventually to reach Rumford, had been built only as far as Canton. It connected with the Grand Trunk at Mechanic Falls, so that the schedule called for service only between Mechanic Falls and Canton, with the principal stop at Buckfield.

The ad said: “There are stage connections at West Hinot for Hebron Academy; at Buckfield for West Sumner, Chase’s Mills and Turner; at Canton for Peru, Dixfield, Mexico and Rumford Falls.”

The Portland and Ogdensburg was the broad gauge railroad that I knew best as a boy, for it was at Bridgton Junction on that line that my little two-footer, the narrow gauge to Bridgton and Harrison, connected with the outside world. The Portland and Ogdensburg later became the Mountain Division of the Maine Central. Even that tiny narrow gauge Bridgton and Saco River R.R. had an announcement in the Argus in 1885. There were two trains a day in each direction that took an hour to make the 16 mile run between Bridgton Junction and Bridgton. As always, when we turn to the old-time ads, the low prices seem attractive because we forget the correspondingly low wages.

But, anyhow, it gives a nostalgic thrill to read about 12 pounds of sweet potatoes for a quarter; Buldwin apples for §1.50 a barrel; a whole living room set of sofa, two rockers and four straight chairs for §27; an anti-clinker parlor stove for §13; boys’ shoes for §1.10 a pair; men’s dress boots for §3; and crackers for six cents a pound.

In the 1880’s the patent medicine craze Was at its peak. The Argus carried extravagant ads for Hostetter’s Bitters, Wright’s Indian Vegetable Pills, Ely’s Catarrh Balm, Kean’s Kidney and Back Plaster, Downs’ Cough Elixir and Allen’s Oriental Balm. Epps’ Cocoa was advertised 3S much for its medicinal as for its nutritious value. The ad said: “By a thorough knowledge of natural laws which govern digestion, Hr. Epps has provided our breakfast tables with a delicately flavored beverage which may save many heavy doctors’ bills. Do not accept any cheap substitute. Get the cocoa made only by James Epps and Company,Homeopathic Chemists, London.”

Three years later, in 1888, a presidential election year, the Argus was filled with political comments. It was the year when Benjamin Harrison ousted Grover Cleveland from the Presidency, but when the Argus went t9 press on November 8, it had not given up hope that the Democrats had won. Three days had elapsed since the voting, but in national elections 75 years ago, the returns came in slowly. Editorially the Argus said: “New York is still in doubt. The assumption last evening of our neighbor, the Portland Advertiser, that Harrison had a plurality of 10,000 in New York is not borne out by the returns. We have reliable information that the state is doubtful. Connecticut and New Jersey are admittedly Democratic, and California too has gone for Cleveland. We see no reason yet for Democrats to abandon hope in this election.”

In another column headed “Sometimes it looks hopeful, and then it don’t”, the Argus commented: “This morning, though the result is still in doubt, it must be conceded that the Republican prospects are better than ours. New York is figured for Harrison, but is not yet conceded. The Democratic National Committee has not yet given up. There is still hope of carrying Ohio. Should we carry that state, which is almost too much to hope for, we could grant the Republicans New York and still re-elect Cleveland. This morning the outlook is not rosy enough to warrant the display of much poultry, but we would admonish the boys not to settle for suppers nor buy their Republican friends any silk hats just yet.”

In our time of big league sports, it is common for professional baseball players to hold winter employment with sporting goods firms, beverage dispensers, or other business organizations. Yet, somewhat unusual, is the way a Portland business was promoted by an employee’s baseball connection 75 years ago in 1888.

The ad said: “Mr. David Nahoney, recent manager of Portland’s baseball nine, and for many years with T. 1’1. McDonald and Company, has associated himself with us as general salesman and will be pleased to have his friends calIon him to demonstrate our latest stock of furniture, carpets and stoves. Respectfully, the Atkinson Furniture Co., corner Pearl and Middle Streets.”

On Plum Street in Portland in 1888 there was a place call the Mart. It was not a discount store for general merchandise, but was a place for the sale of carriages. It is interesting to note how much vehicles of various kinds cost 75 years ago. The Mart’s most expensive carriage was a closed-top Goddard at $185. The same model in open top cost §125. A standard top phaeton went for $135, and the same price was placed on an extension top surrey. A top buggy could be had for §125 and what was called a ladies’ phaeton for only $95.

What would today seem an unusual name for a company was the Portland Misfit Clothing Company, situated in U. S. Hotel in what is now Portland’s Monument Square. Their ad said: “We are now ready to show the finest line of misfit custom made overcoats, suits and pantaloons for fall and winter wear. This clothing was left on tailors’ hands because it did not fit the person for whom it was made. If a man offered you a legitimate $20 bill for ten dollars, you would eagerly grasp the opportunity. We are doing just that when we offer you this clothing at exactly one-half the original price.”

One item in that 1888 issue of the Argus reveals what was a thriving business in Maine at that time. The item said: “Thomas Riley of Boston, the great wool buyer, purchased 56,000 pounds of wool from Vernon Gilman of Madison last week. The amount paid was more than $14,000. He also purchased a large lot from Samuel Dinsmore of Skowhegan and from Mark Emery of Bingham. Before he returned to Boston, Riley had spent more than $40,000 for wool purchased in the Kennebec Valley.”

Maine people were persistent inventors in the 19th century and not a year elapsed without a number of Maine patents. In 1888 the Argus reported patents granted to Urner Thomas of North Haven for a lobster trap; to Daniel Pendegast of Kennebunk for a new type of wool card; to Gideon Haynes of Portland for a hand car for velocipedes; and to William Scales of Portland for an electric regulating and hand setting mechanism for clocks.

Such was one of Maine’s longest-lived newspapers, the Portland Argus, the old Lying Argus of my Republican boyhood, the glorious upholders of the ~uth for many a Maine Democrat. In those days there was no middle ground. The old Argus was either one or the other, according to a man’s political affiliation.

Year: 1963