Little Talks on Common Things
\nVolume 1
\nLittle Talks on Common Things
\nINTRODUCTION
\nDean Ernest C. Marriner of Colby College in Waterville, Maine researched, wrote
\nand delivered for 35 years his radio program entitled “Little Talks on Common Things”.
\nBroadcast on radio station WTVL in Waterville, sponsored through all those years
\nby Keyes Fibre Company, these essays on the social history of Central Maine attracted a
\nloyal following of listeners~ Dean Maniner conducted a voluminous correspondence with
\nsources for his programs, and traveled all over the State interviewing Mainers and
\nexamining old documents. Over time the listeners contributed more and more of the
\nmaterial used for the program – seventeenth century account books, old newspapers,
\nletters written by Civil War soldiers, entertainment programs, banquet menus, etc.
\nThere are 1,323 scripts in all. The program ran each Sunday evening for about 36
\nweeks per year, starting in 1948 and ending with Marriner’s death in 1983. In the early
\n1970′ s some of the programs were re-broadcast in July and August, but in most years the
\nprogram was “off the air” in the summer.
\nExcept for Broadcast #1,000, no recordings exist for the first 23 years of the
\nprogram, but Colby College has in its Special Collections in the Miller Library audio
\nversions (old fashioned reel-to-reel tapes) of the last few hundred programs, or at least
\nmost of them, commencing with the broadcast of June 11, 1972.
\nDean Marriner’s daughter, Ruth M. Szopa, prepared a superb index which
\ncomprises Volume 25 of this 2S-volume set of scripts. She also did the proof-reading of
\nall the scripts, discovering multiple mistakes which have now been corrected.
\nThe Dean’s son, Ernest C. Maniner, Jr., typed or re-typed many of the scripts.
\nHe also did some research to correct obvious errors, determine preferred spellings of
\nproper names, fill in blanks in the original manuscripts, and verify the identities of
\npersons named more than once by slightly different names or titles.
\nNo doubt there are other errors in the scripts which neither Ruth nor Ernest, Jr.
\nnoticed; but it is hoped that those remaining factual errors have been minimized.
\nIt was Dean Maniner’s habit to re-broadcast most of his Easter and Christmas
\nessays. Sometimes the re-broadcast was assigned a new number and sometimes it wasn’t.
\nAs a result the highest number (for the final script) is 1,338, whereas there are only
\n1,323 different scripts.
\nLITTr.:e: TALKS’ ON :.COMMON r;rB:mGS
\n1st Broadcast No”eJi\\ber ’14 ~ ‘1948
\nThe unconnnon and unusual excites and thrills us, but all our lives we .are
\nin touch with ordinary things that .are significant.and sometimes .even spectacu1ar.
\nAbraham Lincoln once said: “God must love the conunon peopl~, he made
\nso many of them.” So it is that we conunonpeople,both he who speaks and those
\nwho listen, are asked to think for a few minutes about life’s ‘connnon things.
\nThere is an old saying that begins “as inevitable as ……. ;. you know the
\nrest of it. Yes indeed, one of life’s conunonest things is taxes. A prelude to
\nthese programs therefore came lastSunday.evening when the Mayor of Waterville,
\nHon. Russell Squire, presented the sound, unanswerable case for a local taxation
\nsurvey. The mayor explained the .decision.of the city government to employ
\nprofessional valuation experts to survey all real estate holdings in Waterville
\nand establish new valuations for tax assessment \u2022. Every loyal citizen should approve.
\nTax valuation ought to be on an impartial ,scientific basis. Perhaps
\nsomeday we shall see that this is only a beginning and that all our municipal
\nservices should be operated by business methods under an impartial administrator,
\nresponsible to no political party . The taxpayer is interested not only in
\npaying a fair tax in comparison with his neighbor; he is interested also in
\ngetting maximum services for his tax dollars. In local democracies we make
\nhaste slowlYibut in the longrun’ .partisan interests cannot prevail .over the
\ncommon interests. Let us be grateful that we have a mayor and a city government
\nwilling to make a start in that direction.
\n*****
\nHow connnon, yet how mysterious, .is the miracle of birth. A future king of
\nEngland was born today, amid age-old ceremony, in Buckingham Palace. What sort
\n1-1
\nof an England will he rule? Is the old England dying, the old empire fading
\naway? The little prince in Buckingham Palace, now only a few hours old, may
\nsymbolize for Old England what Tennyson wrote at the end of his 1dylls of
\nthe King. The Round Table of the glorious knights had fallen apart; King
\nArthur was dead; the sword Excalibur had sunk into the sea. As old Sir Belvedere
\nwatched the flaming sword drop beneath the waves, “the sun rose,
\nbringing the new year.” For the little prince, may someday the sun rise
\nbringing England a new era.
\n*****
\nOne of life’s commonest things is hunger. How easily most of us satisfy
\nit in this American land of abundance. But how very hungry we city folks
\nwould get if it were not for the farmer. In our persistent cry for better
\nurban services, he is often forgotten. So I want to share with .you a bit of
\nwriting that recently came to my attention. I have a neighbor who occasionally
\npands me copies of a weekly newspaper published in his native Scotland.
\nIt is the Peebleshire News, put out in southern Scotland just north of the
\nEnglish border. In its issue of June 11, 1948 appeared an editorial that applies
\nequally well to the farmers of Maine. Here is part of it:
\n“Our rural people pay high taxes, sometimes in excess of the cities,
\nand yet they do not have the same services. People are moving away from the
\nfarms of Scotland. If this depopulation continues, rural Scotland may become
\na national park for which the industrial areas will have to pay. We see towns
\nand cities extended, eating up more and more agricultural land, and we take
\nit as a sign of progress. Gone is the day of praising healthy life on the
\nfarm. ”
\nThat was published in far-away Scotland. Perhaps it doesn’t apply to
\nMaine. Never having lived on a farm, I cannot claim to be sure about it. But
\n1-2
\nI do know that a shrewd observer of Maine life who was brought up on a
\nfarm, had a v.ery definite opinion. That observer was Arthur J. Roberts,
\nPresident of Colby College, who used to say: “In Maine farming isn’t an
\noccupation; it’s a misfortune.”
\nLet us who live in the City ever be mind~l of our dependence upon
\nthe farms. Let us support vigorously every effort to extend modern services
\nto the rural areas.
\n*****
\nIs devotion a cammon thing? Isn’t it unusual? Not at all. We see it
\nall around us. A mother lavishes sacrificial devotion on her child. A
\nfather goes without things himself that his family may have more. Not all
\nemployees are clock-watchers. Many are devoted to their work.
\nDevotion is a precious common thing, but it rarely hits the front
\npages of our newspapers. It is eventful, therefore, when a great metropolitan
\nnewspaper gives space to the devotion of a man who died 150 years
\nago. Last Monday, filling two columns of the first page and running over
\nto fill an entire inside page of the New York Times was the story of the
\nlong-lost Boswell Papers. In the 18th century James Boswell wrote what is
\nconsidered the greatest biography in the English language, his Life of
\nSamuel Johnson, writing it as an act of devotion to the man with whom he
\nspent day after day, recording the acts and. sayings of the man.
\nAfter Boswell’s death his precious notes and journals became scattered
\nand neglected. For more than a hundred years no one knew whether
\nthey .still existed or had been destroyed. Then began another story of
\ndevotion. Col. Ralph Isham, a young officer in the first World War, determined
\nto spend his time and fortune collecting every scrap of paper
\nconnected with Boswell. During the past 25 years he has gathered those
\npapers from dusty rooms in Scottish castles, from an old croquet box,
\n1-3
\nfrom barrels in mouldy cellars, from trunks in cob-webbed attics. The arrival
\nof the whole collection in the United States, on its way to Yale University,
\nwas the occasion of the New York Times story. Waterville is interested in this
\ndiscovery because at Yale the papers will be studied and eventually publiShed
\nby a Colby graduate, Dr. Frederick Pottle.
\nDr. Pottle will prepare for modern readers not only details of the association
\nof those two men, Boswell and Johnson, but the contents of hundreds
\nof letters addressed to Boswell by the great men of his time, such as JoShua
\nReynolds, the artist, Alexander Pope, the aged poet, and members of the
\nroyal court. The Whole story is a serial of devotion, of Boswell to Johnson,
\nof Col. Isham to the public cause of finding the missing Boswell papers.
\n*****
\nAnother common thing is hero-worship. Every boy has a time in his life
\nwhen he adores some man and wants to be like him. Many of us have felt the
\nstirring influence of some person Whom we had come to idolize. Yet, did you
\never stop to think how rarely it happens that we ever know personally and intimately
\nanyone who can truly be called great? Have you ever had a speaking
\nacquaintance with a truly great man? Perhaps you have, and do not know it,
\nbecause really great men seldom advertise their greatness.
\nSo, perhaps without being aware of it, many of us in Central Maine have
\nknown well a great man. For Rufus Jones was truly great — a great mystic,
\na great Quaker, a great teacher, a great humanitarian, a great soul. Shortly
\nbefore he died a friend said to Rufus Jones, “You must write one more book,
\na book that will help modern folks who have the scientific outlook to find
\ntheir way back to vital religion. Many people have stopped going to church
\nbecause what they hear there is at Sharp .variance with What they know. II
\nSo now, a few months after\u00b7Rufus Jones’ death, appears his last book,
\n1-4
\n“A Call to What is Vital”, a book which he says he wrote in sympathy with
\nfolks who say “I I d rather see where 11m going than remember where I I ve
\nbeen.”
\nIn this little book of 140 pages that great world citizen, a native
\nof Maine, interprets the dynamic force that activated his own wonderful
\nlife, a religion that accepts the facts of science, but clarifies those
\nfacts by revelation and by faith, by what the Quakers call the inner
\nlight. In simple, impressive prose this great son of Maine bids us heed
\nthe greatest story ever told and emulate the greatest life that ever
\nlived.
\n*****
\nAnd now, at the close of this first Little Talks we say as the old
\npreachers used to say. “Here endeth the first lesson.”
\n1-5
\nLITTLE TALKS ON COMMON THINGS
\n2nd Broadcast November 21, 1948
\nWe have been accused of having them arrange the big event in Buckingham
\nPalace last week to accommodate the first broadcast in this series, but perhaps
\nwe can more rightly be accused of dragging it in. By what logic could we herald
\nthe birth of a future king on a program devoted to common things? Didn’t Princess
\nElizabeth herself say, “Why all the fuss? Lots of women are having
\nbabies. ” As Octavus Roy Cohen’s fictional character, Florian Slappey, would
\nsay, “We ain’t got nothin’ else but.” And to the parents of any other baby,
\nthe royal Prince of Edinburgh, with all his crown prospects, takes second
\nplace. Indeed I know one grandfather right here in waterville, whose grandson
\nwas born less than twenty-four hours after the King’s grandson came into the
\nworld, and that waterville grandfather is quite willing to let his tiny descendant
\nforgo scepters and palaces for the chance of growing up in a free American
\nsociety, where by his own merits and by individual enterprise’ he can
\nbuild his own palaces and win his own crowns.
\nWhat’s in a name? Roses would smell as sweet, or wouldn’t they? Reference
\nto the little prince in Buckingham Palace reminds us of ~e plight of that
\nbaby I S father until a very few years ago. He lacked tlJ.e commonest possession
\nof us all — a family name. He was simply Philip not even Phil Jones or
\nPhil Smith — just Philip. Before he married Elizabeth Windsor he decided,
\nquite understandably, that it was time to make up for his family’s 200 years
\nof indifference to a name, and, taking the name of his distinguished uncle,
\nhe became Philip Mountbatten. And that was when the King made him Duke of
\nEdinburgh.
\n*****
\n1-6
\nWhat common things are books. Sometimes it seems as if we are drowning
\nin a sea of printers’ ink. But there are books and books. The mere art of
\ncollecting them is a joy to many people. Most of you have heard of the Edwin
\nArlington Robinson Treasure Room at Colby College, and of the rare
\nbooks and manuscripts assembled there — the fruit of more than twenty years
\nof devoted search and seizure by that inspired collector, gifted writer, and
\ningenious literary detective, Professor Carl J. Weber. Some of the recent
\nacquisitions to this collection of literary rareties Shows a unique connection
\nof three devoted men. First, Robinson himself, devoted to the calling
\nof the poet. Born at Head Tide, Maine in 1869, most of his early life was
\nspent at Gardiner, Whence his poems went out to be greeted with neglect by
\neditors and reviewers. But the time came when he was recognized as one of
\nAmerica’s few really great poets. It is especially fitting that Robinson’s
\npersonal library, as well as the rare editions of his books, together with
\nmany letters and other personal mementoes, should now be housed in a room
\nnamed for him in a college near the same Kennebec that he knew so well.
\nAmong the first to recognize the merit of Robinson’s poetry was a
\nyoung editor of the outlook, Harold Trowbridge Pulsifer, himself a recognized
\nwriter of poetry. He opened his magazine’s pages to Robinson’s verses
\nand was influential in gaining for the Gardiner man a national hearing. Retiring
\nfrom the OUtlook, Harold Pulsifer settled in Maine and gathered at
\nhis home in East Harpswell a marvelous collection of poetry in rare editions.
\nMr. Pulsifer died this year and at a meeting of the Colby Library Associates
\nlast Friday evening it was announced that Mrs. Pulsifer has given that unexcelled
\ncollection to Colby College, where it will, as soon as possible, be
\nhoused in the Pulsifer Poetry Room, an appropriate neighbor to the Edwin
\nArlington Robinson Treasure Room.
\n1-7
\nIn Robinson’s days at the MacDowell Colony in New Hampshire he made. the
\nacquaintance of Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Sargent Perry. While a student at Harvard,
\nRobinson had used as a textbook Perry’s History of English Literature in the
\n18th Century. The two men became close .friends, and Mrs. Perry , a niece of
\nJames Russell Lowell, a poet herself and a painter, did the familiar portrait
\nwhich was copied as a frontispiece in the volume of Robinson’s Collected
\nPoems. Lilla Cabot Perry’s original oil painting .of the poet now .hangs in
\nthe Robinson Room at Colby \u2022 Like Harold Pulsifer , Thomas Sargent Perry left
\na distinguished library upon his death.twodecades ago. Last Friday it was
\nalso announced by the Colby ~ibrary ~ssociates that the entire library of Mr.
\nPerry has been given to Colby College-~.the.gift of his daughter, .Miss Mar~
\nar-et Perry of Hancock, New HamJ;’shire.
\nWhen the Perry Room also is set up in the Colby Library, the names of
\nRobinson, Pulsifer and Perry will remind many generations that among the worthy
\ncauses of life’s devotions are those common things called books. And books, let
\nus remember, issue from the senses and emotions and brains of individual men
\nand women.
\n*****
\nWhat a lot of fun the newspapers and the radio commentators . are having
\nwith the wrong\u00b7guesses of the pollsters, the Gallup and the Ropers. One columnist
\nvoiced a common opinion when he .wrote: “We are gatheredtodayin-:these
\nrather neglected memorial acres, which for twelve years have held\u00b7but a single
\nheadstone.” He referred, of course, to the demise of the old Literary Digest,
\nwhose prediction of Landon’s. election in \u00b71936 was a major cause of its oblivion.
\nPerhaps Roper and Gallup will get tombstones in the sameplotiperhaps
\nnot. Time — the old fellow with the ,scythe, not the.magazine– Will render
\nthe decision-.
\n]-8
\nWe reserve judgment about these so-called scientific polls. One
\nswa~~ow does not make a sunnner, and they may be right more often than they’re
\nwrong. Let us wait and see. But we do have an opinion about another kind of
\npol~, the poll tax. Why we people of Maine do not get rid of that relic of
\nthe dark ages is difficult to understand. A poll tax is a head tax, something
\none pays just for carrying a head on his shoulders. Women don’t pay
\none in Maine,not because they don’t have heads, even worthy heads, but because
\nthe poll tax was long associated with voting. When women at last won
\nthe right to vote, the principle of the poll tax was already in such disrepute
\nthat Maine never got around to taxing women as polls.
\nThe poll tax fracas in the 80th Congress was not concerned with the tax
\nitself, but only with making its payment a requirement before one can vote.
\nThat is what it still is in several southern states. But not so in Maine.
\nNobody at a voting place ever asked you if you had paid your poll tax. What
\nabout payment of poll tax as a prelude to automobile license? Well, there
\nare some who think that may be of doubtful constitutionality. But they
\nhaven’t much of a case. Ownership of an automobile is not a universal privilege
\nof all persons above a certain age, but voting is. It takes money to
\nbuy and operate a car; it doesn’t cost you a penny to cast your vote.
\nThe poll tax is outmoded and inconsistent with modern methods of tax
\nrevenue and tax-supported services.. Many states long ago got rid of it.
\nWill Maine be the last?
\n*****
\nTerror reigned for a few minutes last Sunday at the zoo in Stoneham,
\nMassachusetts. In the midst of 150 persons, many of them children, a fullgrown,
\nmale tiger broke out of its cage. The people escaped injury because
\nthe tiger attacked a lion housed nearby. As the two animals fought through
\n1-9
\nthe bars, those 150 persons ran out through the doors at each end of the
\nanimal house. The tiger had to be shot.
\nIt is a rare experience for the average American to be faced with death
\nat the claws of a tiger. But a more common tiger is always with us, with
\nhis claws and fangs carrying a threat no less deadly. He is the tiger of
\nprejutttce. He shows his ugly head in politics, in religion, in race. The
\nbitterness of the Dixiecrat revolt in the recent election is remindful of
\nprejudices so deep-seated that they sometimes seem as powerful today as they
\nwere nearly a century ago. How powerful they were in 1860 is revealed in an
\nincident that has come to light only within the past year. In the summer of
\n1947, twenty-one years after the death of Robert Lincoln, the famous Lincoln
\npapers long in his possession were opened at the Library of Congress. AIthough
\nthey were found to contain nothing sensational and very little that is
\nnew about Abraham Lincoln, they do contain many interesting bits of incident
\nand anecdote. One of these, seeped in the prejudice of 1860, concerns a
\nman from Maine, the man who became Vice-President in Lincoln’s first administration,
\nHannibal Hamlin, lawyer of Ellsworth and Bangor, and distinguished
\ngraduate of Hebron Academy. In late November of 1860, while he was still in
\nSpringfield, Illinois, although he was now the President-elect, Abraham LincoIn
\nreceived a letter signed by three men of’ S. C. It\u00b7 read’ as followS;’
\nAbraham Lincoln, Esq.
\nspringfield, Illinois
\nDear Sir:
\n“Spartanburg, S. C.
\nNovember 27, 1860
\nWe understand you have a very likely and intelligent mulatto
\nboy you would dispose of on reasonable terms. Being engaged in
\nnegro trading, if you will let us know what you will take for the
\nboy Hannibal, known as Hannibal Hamlin, and your price is reasonable,
\n1-10 .
\nwe will purchase him, and are prepared to meet you with cash
\nat Richmond, Virginia on the 18th December.”
\nThis stinging, sarcastic letter is unfortunately not too different fram
\nthe kind of things many of us speak and write in unreasoning defense of our
\nprejudices.
\n*****
\nThis is Thanksgiving Week, a time when we are annually reminded of the
\nmany blessings for which we are thankful. We must not, we cannot forget the
\nmillions of men and women and innocent children allover this planet, suffering
\ntonight fram cold and hunger and haunting fear. As we think of the
\ntragic scenes of destitution and despair in Greece and Poland, in China and
\nKorea, in the far-flung regions of the earth, it is very easy for us to pray
\nas did the Pharisee, “God, I thank thee that I am not as other men are.” Let
\nus not do that. Let us rather be thankful for life’s little things, life’s
\ncommon things that need more common use. Let us be grateful for words of
\nkindness When we expect censure and rebuke, for understanding When we feel we
\nare so woefully misunderstood, for mercy and forgiveness when all we deserve
\nis justice. For the common things of life that make all the difference between
\nmere existence and true 1ivin<], let us .everyone be thankful.
\n*****
\nAre you interested in same of our old time expressions and their origin?
\nWell, I am. So much interested, indeed, that I urge you listeners to send me
\nany clue you may have to the origin\u00b7 of two of those expressions. They are
\n“not worth a Hannah Cook” and “leaning toward Sawyer’s”. When my grandmother
\nwanted to express the depths of worthlessness, she would say ” it ain’t
\nworth a Hannah Cook”, and everybOdy in my boyhood section of Maine spoke of .
\na tumble-down house or barn as “leaning toward Sawyer’s”. Who was Hannah Cook,
\n1-11
\nand why didn’t the old barn lean toward Robinson’s or Jones’s, instead of
\ntoward Sawyer’s? How did those two expressions ever get started? If you think
\nyou know the answer, please let us know. Just mail a card to Little Talks on
\nConnnon Things, Station WTV’L, Waterville.
\n1-12
\nLITTLE TALKS ON COMMON THINGS
\n3rd Broadcast November 28~ 1948
\nWho was it said “I’d rather be right than be President”? How do we know
\nwhen we are right? Perhaps that isn’t the main necessity. At least that is
\nwhat one recent visitor to Waterville thinks. Las~ month this city was honored
\nby a visit from the famous eighty-year old writer of sea stories, James
\nBrendan Connolly, who has been continuously publishing his tales of the heroic
\nG10ucester fishermen since 1902. All his life Jim Connolly has believed
\nand has voiced in his stories the importance of that old-fashioned thing we
\ncall conscience. To him it is the voice of God in human life. In his fine
\nstory liThe Trawler”, which won first prize of $2,500 in a contest conducted
\nby Co11iers magazine, Connolly has one of his characters say something that
\nis worthy of our attention in this day When we haven’t too high respect for
\nconscience. This is what Jiin Connolly wrote: “Even when you are wrong, you
\nare right, if you believe it with all your soul. Because, for a man to do
\nwhat he thinks is right, whether he be right. or wrong at the time, is to
\ncome to be surely right in the end. II
\n*****
\nNow let us look at some other common things. How very common are words.
\nFrom time to time, in this series, we hope to remind you of many conunon and
\nsome uncommon things about those sounds we utter to convey our thoughts,
\nthose symbols which we call words. Tonight let us think for a moment about
\nsimplicity in words. When I was a student in college and a member of Dr. Herbert
\nLibby’s first class in public speaking, we were one day visited by Senator
\nHerbert M. Heath. I shall never forget one thing he said to us. “Young
\nmen”, he said, “some of you think you want to be lawyers. Then watch your
\n1-13
\nlanguage. Don I t think you can sway any jury of Maine Yankees by saying to
\nthem ‘Last evening as the effulgent orb of day sank below the western horizon,
\nJohn Smith departed from his domicile. I You say to that jury ‘Last
\nnight about sunset John Smith left home. “.
\nThe language used in government publications has long been subject to
\njibes from befuddled readers. Someone has said “The writer of a government
\nbulletin uses words not to conununicate, but to excommunicate, thought.” An
\namusing book called “Federal Prose” ridicules that sort of writing as it
\ndeserves. “Haste makes waste”, written in government style, becomes “Precipitation
\nentails negation of economy.” “Jack fell down and broke his
\ncrown” would read “A youth, designated only as Jack, sustained, incident to
\na loss of equilibrium, a fracture of the cranium.” And that old gag “The
\nold gray mare ain’t what she used to be” reads thus: “The female equine
\nquadruped, described as senile and consequently grizzled, has suffered metamorphosis
\nusually attendant upon the consecutive passing of periods of
\ntime.”
\n*****
\nWhile we are on the topic of words, did you ever think about loaded
\nwords, words that in themselves have come to carry the stigma of prejudice?
\nThe poet C01eridge once said “There are three classes into which all women
\nover 70 can be divided, that elderly lady, that old woman, that old witch.”
\nA sign in a market window reads: “first quality sirloin roast”. Just change
\nthe words, but not the meaning: “first–class piece of dead cow … \u00b7Dci you see
\nwhat I mean? Words in themselves carry biased, emotional meanings that go
\nfar beyond their literal meanings. Coleridge’s three phrases could describe
\nthe same woman, according to the prejudice the speaker wanted to convey.
\nThe two signs in the window described the same piece of meat.
\n1-14
\nNow these emotional meanings of words change with the times, and we need
\never to be on our guard about these changes, which have very little to do
\nwith facts and very much to do with opinions. Today one of these loaded words
\nis the word CAPITAL. So fiercely has capitalism, the industrial system under
\nwhich we live, been attacked that there has come to be a prevailing suspicion
\nthat it is bad. This America of ours, suspicion says, this great giant Shylock
\nof the Western Hemisphere~ has become the most hated of nations, all because
\nof its capitalistic economy. They seem to overlook the inconsistency
\nthat life in the United States is so terrible that millions of people in
\nother lands will go to any extreme to get around our ~igration laws and
\ncome to this awful capitalistic America. Ours is such a mean, inhuman, moneygrabbing
\nland that the D. P. family which came to Portland last week cannot
\nyet understand the hospitality~ generosity and friendliness they have received.
\nOne essential quarrel we have with the communist position is that it assumes
\ninevitable class warfare~ worker against management, tenant against
\nlandlord, the have-nots against the haves. Now no sensible person contends
\nthat our present economic system is perfect. Of course there are evils to be
\ncorrected~ improvements to be made~ but it does not follow that the way to
\ndeal with them is other than the American, democratic way.
\nHere are a few facts about what the capitalistic system is in the United
\nStates. A survey of our 120 biggest manufacturing companies shows only four
\nin which any single person owns as much as 10% of the voting stock. In all, the
\n120 companies were found to be owned by more than six million stockholders,
\nmore than the total number of employees in all the 120 companies. Sixty-two of
\nthe companies reported that no one person held more than 1% of the stock. Five
\nout of every six stockholders owned less than 100 shares.
\nCapitalists, we are told, live on unearned money, called dividends and
\n1-15
\ninterest. By reaping where they do not sow, by neither toiling nor spinning
\nthese wealthy cutters of coupons run the country. But here is a fact. Seven
\nout of every ten dollars paid out in dividends and interest go to people
\nwith annual incomes under $5,000.
\nNow what do dividends and interest represent? They represent profit.
\nAnd, like capital, profit is today another loaded word, not in good repute.
\nIs profit disgraceful? If it is, then more than two-thirds of the disgrace
\nbelongs to people whose incomes are less than $5,000.
\nBefore we decide that we must have a new American way of life, that
\ncapital and private enterprise cannot be adjusted to the modern day, let us
\nat least be patient with the facts. Of course the facts are not all favorable
\nto the present economy; of course there are things to be remedied. But one
\ndoes not lightly sacrifice a limb to save a life. Or to change the figure,
\nas we strive to clean up the wrongs in our economic system, let us not
\nthrow out the baby with the bath.
\n*****
\nNow let us turn to something even more common. Mark Twain said everybody
\ntalks about it, but nobody does anything about it. He referred to the
\nweather. Did you ever see symbols of life’S deep meaning in such a common
\nthing as weather? Just a week ago people in the Midwest were struggling
\nthrough two feet of snow, cars were stalled on drifted highways, cattle
\nand sheep were freezing to death on the western ranges. In Nebraska drifts
\nrose sixteen feet high.
\nOn the same day the weather in New York was so clear and mild that
\npeople sat in the parks without overcoats. Skating was called off in the
\nsunken plaza of Rockefeller center because the ice melted so fast.
\nSo indeed is life filled with contrasts, with joy and sorrow, with
\n1-16
\nprofit and loss, with pleasure and pain. It is only by contrast that we make
\nany progress in work, in government, in pursuit of our ideals. How often we
\nsay of some savage tribe or some isolated community living under primitive
\nconditions: “I don It see how they stand it. How ~ they live that way?”
\nAnd the right answer often is: “They don I t know what they I re missing.” In other
\nwords, they have nothing with which to contrast their existence. The Russian
\ngovernment has apparently taken extraordinary precautions that their people
\nshall not find out what life is really like in the capitalistic United States.
\nThe contrast with their own existence might be embarrassing to the Polieouro.
\nIt might put ideas into the heads of Russian peasants.
\nI have an acquaintance who is probably one of the few survivors of the
\npre-war government of Estonia, that little Baltic republic which was swallowed
\nby its big Soviet neighbor. Most of the leaders of the old Estonian government
\nhave disappeared. How my friend managed to escape is his own secret.
\nBut here is my point. He has told me how, in the early days of seemingly
\nfriendly Soviet influence, Russian soldiers stationed in the Estonian capital
\nsaw goods in the shops that could not be bought at all in Russia, and other
\ngoods that were absurdly low-priced, compared to their experience at home.
\nFor instance, these soldiers could not comprehend that there was no restriction
\non the number of pairs of shoes they could buy if they had the price,
\nand the price was one-twentieth the price in Moscow. When these soldiers
\nwent home on leave, they told of the happy Estonians who had plenty to eat
\nand wear. So the Russians stopped granting home leave, but they couldn I t
\nstop desertions. One thing they could do ,and they had intended to do it
\na11 along. Th~y took over the country, lock, stock and barrel; they abolished
\nprivate enterprise, the free economy, and advertised to the world
\nthat they had freed those slaves of capitalism, their beloved Estonian
\nneighbors.
\n1-17
\nThose people of Estonia have not forgotten though their leaders are dead.
\nThey know, by contrast, what is good and what is bad for them. There on the
\nBaltic is one country where, some day,truth crushed to earth will rise again.
\n*****
\nAnother common thing is religion. Anthropologists, those scientists who
\nstudy all races of mankind in all places and all times, tell us that no
\npeople, however primitive, has ever been found to be without some sort of
\nreligion. Yet how jittery we are getting about mixing religion with education.
\nA statement made last week by the Roman Catholic Bishops of the United States
\nis worthy of attention by every serious person, be he Catholic, Protestant or
\nJew”,. The statement points out that the founders of our nation considered
\nreligious instruction of future citizens, impartially allowed without favoritism
\nto any sect or creed,. as a proper and practical function of good government.
\nThe school was the meeting place of these helpful, interacting influences,
\nchurch and state. By our Constitution their functions are separate.
\nWe will not tolerate a state church. But it does not follow that we should
\ndivorce our educational system from all religious influence. The recent de~
\ncision of the Supreme Court, declaring all religious instruction in the public
\nschools unconstitutional, may boomerang upon us some day as did the Dred
\nScott decision many years ago. Surely a way can be found — in fact, ways are
\nalready being found to teach in our schools those religious principles of
\nlife upon which all sects agree.
\n*****
\nIs leisure a common thing? Most of us think we have too little of it.
\nEveryone knows that, if you want something done, ask a busy man to do it.
\nDon’t ask a fellow who has plenty of leisure. He’ll tell you he doesn’t
\nhave time.
\n1-18
\nHow universal is leisure? The Social Committee of the united Nations
\nGeneral Assembly recently declared that rest and leisure are universal human
\nrights. Why did they say so? Because in much of the world those rights are
\nnot recognized. But the declaration would have no point unless somewhere
\nthey were recognized. Nowhere in the world does the average man enjoy so
\nmuch leisure in proporti.on to his working hours as in the united States. We
\nhave no concentration camps, no slave labor, no war prisoners languishing in
\nhopeless drudgery.
\nHow much do we really prize our American leisure? And what is vastly
\nmore important, what do we do with it? It was a Chinese visitor to New York
\nwho once asked a searchi.ng question. His host, taking him downtown by subway,
\nsaid: “We change to an express at .96th .Street, and we save six minutes.”
\n“So”, said the Chinese, “and what do you do with it?”
\n1-19
\nLITTLE TALKS ON COMMON THINGS
\n4th Broadcast December 5, 1948
\nWhat a good, common thing is laughter. Henry Beston, the modern author
\nwho does his writing and his herb collecting down on his Nobleboro farm, not
\nfar from Route l’ s heavy summer traffic between Bath and Rockland, recently
\ncommented on the difference between laughter in the country and in the city.
\nOnly in the rural regions, says Beston, do we still hear the genuine, fullbodied
\nlaughs that roll folks in the aisles. “On the farm we laugh”, he says,
\n“with gusto of human spirit, while city folks laugh, if they laugh at all,
\nfrom a tension of nerves. Heaven knows that the times have little to laugh at,
\nthough would they had, for laughter is a notable part of humanity, a thing
\nseemingly given to man alone in the whole realm of living things. When it
\nthins down into the trickle of a wise-crack and a sneer, all sense of proportion
\nis gone. The deviltry of this world is the work of people who are too
\nserious.”
\n*****
\nHow common, yet how little understood, is truth. Pont.ius Pilate, in
\njudgment over Jesus, was not the only person who ever asked the question,
\n“What is truth?” Through the ages the learned philosophers have quarreled
\nabout it. Indeed the word can be used in several senses. Most of us think
\nof it as the opposite of a lie; we think of it as fact in contrast with imagined
\nfiction. But, in its larger sense, the word truth contains the whole
\nmeaning of life: man’s eternal search for his place in the universe and his
\nrelationship to his fellow men.
\nThus, in concrete situations, as we strive to find the truth, are we
\nconscious of the things that stand in our way? If we llish to decide honestly
\n1-20
\nhow to vote on a particular political issue, whether or not we ought to
\ncontribute to a certain cause, which side we shall take on some burning
\nsocial question, I wonder if we are usually aware of the barriers that
\nstand between us and the truth. Do we realize how difficult it is to use
\nour reason instead of our emotions? Do we know how easily our prejudices
\nand our fears dominate our minds?
\nCarl Sandburg, poet and foremost biographer of Lincoln, has just reminded
\nus of these barriers to truth in his new novel REMEMBRANCE ROCK.
\nA1 though it is a long book — more than 1,000 pages it is well worth
\na leisurely, careful reading. For it is the story of America, from the
\ncoming of the Pilgrims to the end of the Second World War. Through all
\nthe years, at Plymouth and Salem and Boston, at Lexington and at Valley
\nForge, at Gettysburg and Shiloh, in the prairie schooners bound for the
\nWest, there were always men and women struggling against fear and prejudice
\nto find the truth. So Sandburg depicts some one character in each
\nof these periods in his novel as having possession of a metal plaque on
\nwhich were carved what old Roger Bacon had called the four stumbling
\nblocks to truth. Roger Bacon, philosopher and monk, had lived in England
\nmore than 300 years before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock and more
\nthan 600 years before our own time. These, said Friar Bacon, are the four
\nstumbling blocks to truth:
\n1. The influence of fragile and unworthy authority.
\nHow often have you believed and repeated something because someone
\ntold you it was true? What about the really important things you believe
\nto be true? Do you have them on sound or on fragile authority?
\n2. custom.
\n“It was good enough for grandfather;it is good enough for me.” Be
\ncareful of reasoning like that. Tradition has its values, but the mere
\n1-21
\nfact that we have done something for a long time is not a sound argument
\nfor our continuing to do it.
\n3. The imperfection of undisciplined senses.
\nNo one denies the tremendous power of the emotions, the response of
\nour senses to things about us. OUr problem is not to avoid emotion, but
\nto make our emotions more reasonable. At least we can try not to let fear
\nand prejudice and hate do our thinking for us. OUr senses can be disciplined,
\nand not to discipline them is to set up within ourselves a serious
\nbarrier to truth. That is what Roger Bacon meant by the imperfection of
\nundisciplined senses.
\n4. Concealment of ignorance by ostentation of wisdom.
\nWhen a politician promises, in return for your vote, a quick solution
\nto a difficult social problem, he is concealing ignorance under a pretense
\nof wisdom. When a teacher is contemptuous of pupils’ options, the contempt
\nmay be a show of dogmatic assurance to hide ignorance as well as tolerance.
\nIndeed it is a very human failing to make a show of a little knowledge, and
\nthe less certain the knowledge, the louder we are likely to voice our opinion.
\nStrange, isn’t it, that man has.learned so little in 600 years? The
\nmonk, Roger Bacon, died in 1294, two hundred years before Columbus opened
\nthe pathway to our new continent. Yet they remain with us today, these
\nfour stumbling blocks to truth: unworthy authority, tradition, emotional
\nprejudice, and ignorance covered by a show of wisdom.
\n**~**
\nNow for a word about common stories. Some of the best stories in the
\nworld are the oldest — Mother Goose, the fables of Aesop, the Bible narratives
\n— these stories never die. Among . such is a collection that made
\nnews in the daily papers a week ago. I refer to the stories we call the
\n1-22
\nArabian Nights. How wel.l. we remember Sinbad the Sailor, Al.i Baba and the
\nForty Thieves, Aladdin and his Wonderful Lamp. It was 250 years ago that
\nthe French scholar, Antoine Galland, introduced these fabul.ous tales to
\nthe Western World under the title of THE THOUSAND AND ONE NIGHTS. A few
\nmonths ago the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago discovered,
\namong a miscellaneous col.1ection of papyrus rolls in Egypt, a portion of
\nthe Arabian Nights at l.east 650 years older than any previously known manuscript
\nof the work. The oldest copy hitherto known was dated 1536, but
\nhere are portions dated as early as 800 AD. And they reveal. that the original.
\ntitle was A THOUSAND NIGHTS. The name was apparentl.y changed to A
\nTHOUSAND AND ONE NIGHTS, not because any story or any night was added, but
\nbecause during the time of the Crusades the Arabs developed a superstitution
\nagainst round numbers.
\nMany persons wrongl.y believe that the title, whether 1,000 or 1,001,
\ncomes from the number of stories. Not so. The title refers to the number
\nof nights that the heroine, Sheherazade, kept herself from being killed by
\nthe vengeful Sultan, through the clever expedient of stringing out the
\nstories night after night. Sometimes one would take a whole week, and always
\nwhen she ended one story, she began another on the same night. And one
\nstory led into the next with curiosity-whetting detail. She was a grand
\nstory teller, that slave girl, Sheherazade, and she deserved to live, pardoned
\nby the Sultan when the thousand nights came to an end.
\n*****
\nNow let us think. a bit about a common but troublesome thing suspicion.
\nSnake that it is, none of us want to do wholly without it. If one
\nthing hurts our pride more than anything else, it is.to be considered a
\nsucker, an easy mark for either the crooked gambler or the honest, highpressure
\nsal.esman. No one likes to be .made a gullible fool. Hence we build
\n1-23
\nup barriers of wariness and caution, and step by step we increase the barriers
\nuntil we become suspicious of everything and everybody. We always want to know
\nwhat the other fellow has up his sleeve, what axe he has to grind.
\nSo general is suspicion in disputes between labor and management that, if
\nnot curbed, it may some day wreck our industrial foundations. It is just as
\nbad on one side as on the other. Too often both sides feel that nothing can be
\nassured and no one can be trusted unless everything is written down with every
\nT crossed and every I dotted in a contract. Now anyone who has ever built a
\nhouse or even had a simple job done knows that it is impossible to for see in
\nadvance every contingency that will arise. Those unforseeable things must depend
\nupon what we call good will, the intention to deal honestly and fairly
\nwith each other.
\nIs it not barely possible that the good relations between labor and management
\nin Maine, in comparison with the constantly strained relations in other
\nparts of the country, exist because the leaders of both management and labor
\nhave learned that, important as are contracts, more important still is a trust
\nin each other’s spoken promises, a faith in each other’s honest intentions?
\nOf course controversies will continue; certainly the two viewpoints will conflict;
\nassuredly contracts must frequently be revised. Yet the surest way to
\npreserve industrial peace and continued production is by having as leaders of
\nboth management and labor the kind of men who can trust each other’s word.
\n*****
\nAnother common thing is the evidence of nature’s mighty forces. Long before
\nthis atomic age we have often been reminded of the tremendous power of
\nnature. Twice within the past decade southern New England has been visited by
\ndevastating hurricanes. That awful power of wind and tide leaves man defeated
\nand helpless. Man can erect his dikes and levees, lash down his buildings in
\ncement and steel, build his cyclone cellars. He can heroically battle the
\nelements, as do the Gloucester fisherman in Jim Connolly’s stories. But there
\n1-24
\n..
\nare times when discretion is indeed the better part of valor.
\nWe had recent reminder of such an occasion when the Portland Associates
\nheld their last meeting on the tip of Cape Cod, then disbanded forever. They
\nhad organized 40 years ago, just because ten years earlier a brave sea captain
\nhad shown that he had better courage than judgment in the face of nature’s
\nangry whim. On the afternoon of November 27, 1898, the steamer Portland had
\nleft her berth at India Wharf in Boston, loaded with Thanksgiving vacationers
\nreturning to Maine. Hit by the worst northeast hurricane the coast had seen
\nfor decades, she went down with all of her 176 passengers and crew. Many a
\nMaine home was a place of mourning on that Sunday after Thanksgiving.I was a
\nboy of seven at the time, and I remember the true thanksgiving at my grandmother’s
\nhome in a little Maine village because her youngest son,my uncle,
\nwho, unable to come home for Thanksgiving i had promised to come home by way of
\nthe steamer Portland,but at the last minute had taken the .train instead. And
\nI recall that, on that day after the .storm, the drifted snow in the dooryard
\nwas well above my seven year old head.
\nFor 47 years no one knew what happened to the Portland, although bits of
\nwhat seemed to be her furnishings were from time to time washed ashore on Cape
\nCod. Then, three years ago, the Portland Associates with the help of Boston’s
\nfamous harbor historian, Edward Snow, conducted diving operations on a wreck
\nnearly covered with sand 150 feet below the surface, four miles off the tip of
\nthe Cape. It proved to be without question the old Portland, blown fifty
\nmiles off her course clear across Massachusetts .Bay. The mystery now solved,
\nthe Associates, made up largely of relatives of those lost in the disaster, decided
\nto hold one last ceremony on the fiftieth anniversary of the storm. So a
\nweek ago they unveiled a memorial tablet at Higland Light, the nearest shore
\npoint to the spot where the Portland went down .–. a permanent reminder that man
\n1-25
\nis not master of all he surveys. He can only make truce with nature; he
\ncannot conquer her.
\n*****
\nNow to words again. Common expressions provide this topic. As the fine
\nold sayings of rural Maine become less and less common, we are in danger of
\nlosing them altogether. The American Dialect Society is doing its best to
\npreserve a record of those expressions, proverbs and sayings. Some of them
\nare expressive common comparisons: slower than cold molasses; homelier than
\na stump fence; thick as spatter; like a bump on a log; no more peace than a
\ntoad under a harrow. Some are phrases such as “took a hist” for had a fall;
\n“she looks kind of peaked” or “she’s feeling pretty slim” for sickly; “he’s
\nlost his gumption”, “he was all beat out, but yesterday he perked up some”.
\nThen there are hundreds of simple combinations like a good-living day, the
\nshank of the evening, the whole kit and caboodle, just a step and a straddle,
\na lick and a promise, a hind-end start.
\n1-26
\nLITTLE TALKS ON COMMON THINGS
\n5th Broadcast December 12, 1948
\nA common thing in the Maine autumn is fog, and the year around it is all
\ntoo conunon on the Maine coast. But I suppose we seldom see such fogs as enveloped
\nEngland a fortnight ago. The soupy mist was so thick that traffic,
\nnot only in London but in the inland cities, came to a standstill. One could
\nsee nothing two yards away. It clung to the earth with that impenetrable
\nthickness for five long days, and as lighter haze lasted much longer. The
\noldest inhabitants remembered nothing like it.
\nNow Carl Sandburg, whom we all res~ct as poet and biographer, thought he
\nknew something about fog, and he once write a poem which began: “The fog comes
\nin on little cat’s feet.” But I agree with our Maine poet, Bob Coffin, that
\nif Sandburg means that for accurate description, he never\u00b7 saw a Maine fog. It
\nmay describe the fuzzy little haze that sweeps in from Lake Michigan over
\nSandburg’s Chicago, but it doesn’t fit the fogs of Casco and Penobscot Bays.
\nMr. Coffin’s own poem, THE FOG, is more like it. Listen!
\n“He knew how Roman legions looked, for he
\nHad seen the Maine fogs march in from the sea
\nFor many years now, in the August days.
\nThey came in mighty columns up the bays,
\nTawny and gray and silver in the sun;
\nThey trampled out the seaports one by one,
\nThe islands and the woods, with their high hosts,
\nAnd pushed the world back inland from the coasts.
\n“This little house was lost, these hills and dells,
\n1-27
\nCows in pasture faded into bells,
\nThe world around a man closed in and in
\nTill nowhere was ten paces from his chin.
\nThis was the peril and the comfort too,
\nA man who lived in such a region knew;
\nOn any summer’s day, within an hour,
\nHe might be blind and naked to a power
\nSo vast, it might have come from stars unmade,
\nUndreamt of, even, making him afraid,
\nSo mightier than the night that he could guess
\nHow life was but a name for loneliness.”
\nSo much for the literal fog. Like every true poet, Mr. Coffin suggests
\nfigurative applications: the fog of loneliness, the fog of uncomprehending
\nfear. At best we live most of our lives surrounded by fog; there are so many
\nthings we see as through a glass darkly, or do not see at all. The fogs of
\nfear and hate, of vested interest and prejudice, of materialistic philosophy
\ndisguised as reality. How much we all need the light that penetrates the
\nfog, the light of religious faith — not the dogmatism of any creed or sect -but
\nthe staunch belief that we are not alone, fogbound in an all too hazy universe,
\nbut that we are children of a divine creator, and like Job of old we
\nknow our vindicator liveth. And we would also remember that 2,000 years ago
\nthere was one who said to men just as fog-bound as we: “I am the light of the
\nworld.”
\n*****
\nAmong common things shall we include the Little Red Schoolhouse? Certainly
\nwe hear enough about it. But let me ask you a frank question. When did you
\nlast, if ever, see one? One of the true elderly statesmen of our community, a
\n1-28
\nman whose memory goes well back into the nineteenth century, asked me that
\nquestion not long ago, and I confess it was not easy to give him an honest
\nanswer. Had I ever seen one? I can remember just two. In my boyhood days
\nthe litt1e one-room school at West Bridgton, Maine, was painted red. I never
\nattended it, but my father did, and he often spoke of it as “the red schoo1”,
\nin distinction from other schoolhouses in the town. The other red schoolhouse
\nwhich I remember was painted red, I suspect, because of the red schoolhouse
\ntradition, and not because red was its original color. It is the building
\nassociated with Mary and her little lamb — the schoolhouse which Henry Ford
\nmoved to a site on his historical development near the Wayside Inn at Sudbury,
\nMassachusetts.
\nWhi1e we are on the subject of old-time things now hard to find, including
\nlittle red schoolhouses, where in central Maine is there an old cattle pound?
\nI refer to the really old ones an enclosure, usually rectangular, built of
\nstone wa1ls high enough to keep cattle and horses from jumping out, with only
\none opening where once hung a wooden door. Somewhere, within fifty miles of
\nWatervil1e, there must be the remains of one of those old pounds, where the
\npoundkeeper put stray horses to await claim by their owners. I know an historical
\nworker who is anxious to locate one of those pounds. If any listener will
\nsend this information to WTVL, the historian will get it.
\n*****
\nWhat a precious, though conunon, thing is companionship. We think of it as
\napplying to two schoolboy chums, two men friends, two inseparable girls. We
\nscarcely give a thought to the conunonest of all companionship, that made by the
\nbond of marriage. Many a .man has seriously asked the question, “How has my wife
\nbeen ab1e to put up with the kind of person I am, living under the same roof,
\nfor all these years?” We men, .. knowing ourselves for what we really are and how
\n1-29
\nfar we fall short of being acceptable companions, ought to wonder that divorce
\nisn’t even more prevalent than it is, instead of venting our social wrath about
\nits deplorable increase.
\nPerhaps more than one man of us ought to take to heart the point of a
\nlittle story I heard recently. A tornado, one of those quick twisters, had
\nstruck a Nebraska farm in the middle of the night. It ripped the roof off the
\nfarmhouse, and lifted the bed, with the farmer and his wife in it, right out
\nthrough the opening, across the road, over the fences, and deposited bed and
\noccupants, entirely unharmed, in the middle of a distant field. When the man
\nrealized what had happened, he found his wife crying softly, but not hysterically,
\nand he said: “There, there, Mother, everything is all right. We aren’t
\nhurt at all, and the twister is over . Stop crying.” But the good lady kept
\nright on with her gentle sobs. So the man said, “Why don’t you stop crying?
\nWhat are you crying for anyway? Can’t I make you understand that we are perfectly
\nsafe?” Whereupon the woman replied, “Yes, Dad, I know we’re out of
\ndanger. That’s not why I’m crying. Don’t you realize this is the first time
\nwe’ve been out together in seventeen years?”
\n*****
\nWords, we have said, are common things we shall often mention on this
\nprogram. Just now let us think a bit about common expressions. All parts of
\nthe country have such phrases, some more picturesque than others. We who
\nthink Maine is peculiarly rich in them are anxious to get these fine old
\nsayings of Maine into the record now being compiled by the American Dialect
\nSociety. Some of these expre~sions are common comparisons like “slower than
\ncold molasses”,”homelier than a stump fence”,”thick as spatter”, “like a bump
\non a log”, “no more peace than a toad under a harrow”. Some are simple phrases,
\nsuch as “took a hist” for had a fall; “she looks kind of peaked” or “she’s
\n1-30
\nfeeling pretty slim” for sickly; “he’s lost his gumption; he was ali beat out,
\nbut yesterday he perked up some”. There are hundreds of simple combinations
\nlike a “good-living day”, “the shank of the evening”, the whole kit and caboodle”,
\n“just a step and a straddle”, “a lick and a promise”, “a hind-end
\nstart”. Do you have some favorite expression you would like to see recorded?
\nYour present speaker is a member of the American Dialect Society, and he will
\ngladly see that your favorite expression, unless it is already listed, is properly
\nrecorded and accredited, if you will send it to Little Talks on Cammon
\nThings, Station WTVL, Waterville.
\n*****
\nLet us turn now to the influence of a little man. Shakespeare has reminded
\nus that “the evil that men do lives after them; the good is oft interred with
\ntheir bones.” But that is fortunately only half the truth. The good which men
\ndo also has a way of.living after them. No generation inherits merely good or
\nmerely evil from its fathers. Hence a homely, shrunken, almost misshapen little
\nman, clothed in a loin cloth and persistently turning an old-fashioned spinning
\nWheel, has left such impression of good upon a people that one fruit of his tireless
\neffort has ripened before he has lain a year in his grave.
\nAll his life Mahatma Gandhi fought for the unrecognized rights of India’s
\n50 million untouchables. Those tragic human Qeings, totaling a full quarter of
\nIndia’s population,were untouchable because, not only their touch, but also the
\ntouch of anything they had touched was contamination to any other Hindu. They
\nwere outcasts, not because they belonged to the lowest caste, but to no caste at
\nall. Until the British Raj had brought slight betterment of their plight, they
\ncould not use the village wells, because even their shadows would contaminate
\nthe water. Because they could not enter the shops, they could buy no food and no
\ntools. They could get their food only by gleaning and scavenging. Millions of
\n1-31
\nthem literally lived on garbage.
\nMahatma Gandhi, though himself a Hindu of Caste, ate with these untouchables,
\nslept in the same room with them, declared again and again that Untouchability
\nmust go. He seemed to be making no more impression than had the
\nBritish Raj on a system that was 1,500 years old when Christ was born. But
\nlast week, only a few months after the assassin’s hand had ended Gandhi’s life,
\nthe Indian Constituent Assembly adopted the following provision in India’s new
\nConstitution: “Untouchability is abolished and its practice is forbidden in
\nany form. Enforcement of any disability arising out of Untouchability shall be
\na punishable offense in accordance with law.”
\nElation and theworld’s acclaim of this reform may be a bit premature.
\nCustoms embedded in a people for 3,500 years are not swept aside:,by_merely p.assing
\na law. The vested interests of the higher castes will be defended to the
\nbitter end. Enforcement will be slow and difficult. Lest we expect a sudden
\nmiracle in India, we had better remind ourselves of a bit of American history.
\nIn 1870 the States ratified the 15th Amendment to our Constitution. which reads:
\n“The right of the citizens of the United States to vote
\nshall not be denied or abridged-by the United States or
\nby any State on account of race, color, or previous condition
\nof servitude. The Congress shall have power to
\nenforce this article by appropriate legislation.”
\nFor more than 75 years, until a recent decision of the Supreme Court, men
\n(and later women) were persistently denied the right to vote because of their
\ncolor. Even now, by vicious poll tax legislation and by more vicious intimidation,
\ncolored people are .kept away from the ballot box. If we cannot completely
\nenforce our 15th Amendment after 75 years, in spite of the admitted power of
\nthe Federal Government, we can hardly expect the enforcement of the new law
\n1-32
\nagainst Untouchability in India. But, like our Emancipation Proclamation, and
\nour 13th and 15th Amendments to the Constitution, this new law in India is the
\nfirst great step in a long overdue social reform. And the credit for it belongs
\nlargely to the little man with the spinning wheel, the man of non-violence and
\npassive resistance, who not only brought a great empire to submission, but who
\nbrought the leaders of his own country to face with shame their treatment of
\nthe Untouchables. Shakespeare notwithstanding, the good that men do lives after
\nthem.
\nMahatma Gandhi was not a Christian. He died as he was born, a Hindu. But
\nhe himself has told us where he got his idea of the power of non-violence. He
\ngot it from the greatest life that was ever lived, as he pondered and absorbed
\nthe greatest story ever told.
\n1-33
\nLITTLE TALKS ON COMMON THINGS
\n6th Broadcast December 19, 1948
\nSuch common things are words that they will often be mentioned on this
\nprogram. In our eagerness to enlarge our vocabulary, to get a passing mark on
\nthe monthly word quiz in the Reader’s Digest, we may overlook a very important
\nfact. While the new words, the unusual words, sometimes the long words, enrich
\nour speech, it is the short words, the little words, the familiar words that
\nmake it possible for us to talk at all.
\nDr. George McKnight of Ohio State University, one of the foremost authorities
\non the English language, tells us one-fourth of the task of expression in
\nEnglish is accomplished by nine words. In short, if you make a record of any
\nordinary conversation, not of illiterate, but of educated, persons, you will
\nfind these nine words, repeated over and over again, accounting for one-fourth
\nof all the words used. Don’t misunderstand. McKnight does not mean that we use a
\ntotal of only 36 words. He means that we repeat the nine commonest words so many
\ntimes that if the total count of words in a conversation is one thousand, approximately
\n250 of those thousand words will be these nine repeated again and again.
\nHere they are: and, be (or a form of be such as is, are, was, were), have (or
\nsome form of have), it, of, the, to, will and you.
\nMcKnight goes even further. He insists that 43 words form a full half of
\nthe total words in any extended conversation of educated persons, and they, too,
\nare common, little words. With the exception of the word “about”, which is certainly
\ncommon enough, these forty-three words are all of one syllable. What is
\nperhaps even more interesting, although modern English is made up of words from
\nthe uttermost ends of the earth — from the old Germanic tongues, from their
\nScandinavian variants, from French and Italian and Spanish, from Latin and Greek,
\n1-34
\nfrom Arabic, Hebrew, persian, Chinese, Japanese, Polynesian and American Indian
\n— though Engli~h has borrowed from every language spoken by historic man, to
\nmake up our present composite vocabulary~ these forty-three little words are
\nall of Anglo-Saxon origin. They come to us from the oldest English speech of
\nwhich we have record. I shall not bore you with listing the 33 which I have not
\nnamed. But let us try to remember the commonest nine — those that account for
\none-fourth of our speech. Here they are again in alphabetical order: and, be,
\nhave, it, of, the, to, will, you.
\n*****
\nOUr inquiry about old cattle pounds brought immediate and hearty response.
\nBefore we had been an hour off the air no less than fifteen persons had telephoned
\ninformation about eight different pounds. One at South Orrington, between
\nBrewer and Bucksport, seems to be especially well known, because it was
\nreported by five persons. We have learned that there is an old pound between
\nEllsworth and Blue Hill, another in Jefferson, another in Chelsea on the road
\nfrom Gardiner to Togus, another at Hampden Lower Corners on much-traveled Route
\nOne, and still another in the town of Turner. What will most surprise some of
\nour listeners, there are the remains of two ancient pounds less than ten miles
\nfrom the Waterville Post Office. One, nearly in complete decay and scarcely
\nrecognizable for the animal enclosure it once was, is in the town of Winslow,
\nat the junction of the China Road and the Reynolds Hill Road. The other is in
\nthe town of Fairfield, a few miles out of Fairfield Center.
\nNow that we have located a few cattle pounds, we are encouraged to put out
\na search for something harder to find. We want to know the origin of two oldtime
\nsayings. One is “not worth a Hannah cook”. The other is “leaning toward
\nSawyer’s”. Now, who in the world was Hannah Cook, and how did she ever become
\nassociated with the depths of worthlessness? How did the old country folk in
\n1-35
\nparts of Maine come so regularly to say of a dilapidated, tumble-down building,
\n“It’s leaning toward Sawyer’s”? Why not toward Smith’s or Jones’s? Does any
\nlistener have a\u00b7 clue to the origin of either of these expressions? :t\u00b7f so, send
\nit in to WTVL.
\n*****
\nA very conunon thing in our generation is the machine. In fact~ unless we are
\na1ready moving into the atomic age, we are still living in what economists have
\ncalled the machine age. We sometimes curse the machine for the way it seems to
\nhave regimented and mechanized the lives of men. Probably, like every other instrument
\nof progress, the machine is a mixed blessing. In conunon with most things
\nthat are the handwork, either of nature or of man, the machine is neither good
\nnor bad of itself; it all depends on how it is used.
\nA hundred years ago the worker was economically muscle-bound. The volume of
\nhis output was limited by his muscular strength. The precision of his work was
\nlimited by his individual dexterity and skill. Since he produced little, he
\nearned little. There was little to buy, and little that he could afford to buy.
\nOnly 40 years ago, in 190.8, it took one man eight hours to shape the top
\nhalf of an automobile’s gas tank. Today one man, and one machine, does the job
\nin one minute. If a whole automobile were produced by the hand methods of 40
\nyears ago, and that automobile had the intricate parts of a modern car, it would
\ncost $50,000.
\nA hundred years ago machines did only six per cent of man’s work. Today
\nthey do .85 per cent of it, and do it better, cheaper and faster, while man gets
\nmore pay in an hour for running a.machine than he did in a day for exhausting
\nhis muscles.
\nNow it is true that every Jl1ajor advance in the development of machines has
\nnecessitated adjustments .of labor. Temporarily anew machine has thrown men out
\nof jobs. But in the longrun each such development creates more jobs. It turns
\n1-36
\nluxuries into necessities, multiplies the demand many fold, makes possible almost
\nunlimited diversity of products in astounding quantities. In 1890, when
\nrelatively few machines were in use in the United States, only 29 per cent of
\nthe total population was gainfully employed; the figure today is 43 per cent.
\nThe machine has made possible the standard of living which we Americans
\nenjoy. Things always look greener over in the other fellow’s pasture, but when
\nwe get there our own grass looks pretty good to us. In spite of our imperfect
\nsocial adjustments to the machine age, we Americans certainly have received our
\nshare of its benefits.
\nConsider the American Negro, for instance. His lot is not a happy one,
\neven in the northern states. Socially ostracized, if not actually subject to
\nJim Crow, he has small individual chance to achieve economic equality with a\u00b7
\nwhite individual. This is a situation that many of us view with abhorence and
\nshame. Yet American Negroes, with all of their economic and social inequalities,
\nown more automobiles than all the other Negroes in the world, plus all the inhabitants
\nof Russia.
\nMachines have indeed created wealth, as well as jobs, in every nation that
\nhas used them extensively.
\n*****
\nWhat a common, yet what a wonderful, thing is memOry. As we grow older,
\nalas, the boy’s definition of memory seems no longer funny. He said, “Memory is
\nthe thing I forget with.” Perhaps it is fortunate that we are good forgetters
\nas well as good rememberers. We may be saved a lot of grief by just forgetting.
\nAnd some of the most annoying, if not downright disagreeable, people in the
\nworld are those who are always saying, “I knew him when.”
\nYet there are many interesting things about memory, whether one studies it
\nthrough the \u00b7scientific channels of psychology or by the hit and miss
\n1-37
\nobservations of the ordinary man or woman. For instance, how far back does it go
\nin a person’s life? Recently I witnessed a very ~pressive church service, a
\ndedication service for infant children, brought to the church altar in their
\nparents’\u00b7armS. In the course of his remarks to those parents, the clergyman said,
\n“Your children will not remember this day. They will know of it only as you tell
\nthem about it.”
\nThe remark of that minister suggests an\u00b7 interesting question. What is the
\nearliest incident in your life that you really remember, that you can identify
\nsurely as having seen yourself, not having heard it told so many times that you
\nmerely thought you had seen it? Can anyone surely and distinctly remember something
\nthat happened before he or she was four years old? Well — what about it?
\n*****
\nEver since that evening when we referred to Rufus Jones, native and lifelong
\nresident of China, Maine, as a great man, we have frequently been asked a
\nrelated question. Whom do we consider the greatest living man in Maine? A
\nquestion like that depends much, but not entirely, on individual judgment. A
\nlot does indeed depend upon how one defines the word great. Yet we do not intend
\nto dodge the question. No poll, either “Galluped or Ropered” gets in our way.
\nThis is just what we think, unhampered.bystatistics.
\nThe .greatest living man in Maine is not a prominent statesman, not a learned
\nscholar, not a successful industrialist. He never went to college, although he
\nhas received honorary degrees from several institutions. Owning almost no land
\nhimself, he came to control one of the largest farms in Maine. Apparently destined
\nto be a preacher, a.professional clergyman, he won renown as a practical
\nworker of Christian deeds. Now past his ninetieth birthday, he lives, not merely
\nhonored and respected by all Who know him, but also dearly loved by hundreds of
\nme.n Whose lives he has touched and molded. The man is George W. Hinckley of the
\n1-38
\nGood Will Homes and School my choice for the greatest living man in Maine.
\nThis is the week when we are annually reminded of the angel voices over
\nBethlehem 2,000 years ago: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to
\nmen of good will”. In a double sense George Hinckley is a man of Good Will;
\nfirst, as founder and life-long head of the famous Good Will Homes for boys and
\ngirls who have no normal home; second, and more important, because the guiding
\nmotive of George Hinckley’s life has been Christian good will. To him faith
\nwithout works is dead; so he poured his time, his energy, his talents and his
\nmoney into living for others. Plenty of folks make sacrifices; lots of people
\ndo kindly deeds of helpfulness. But it is extremely rare to find a person who
\nmakes his whole life unselfish and, in the financial sense, unrewarded devotion
\nto the welfare of others. In short, George Hinckley is one of a very few persons
\namong our 140 million in America who has made a life-long occupation of good
\nwill.
\nAllover the world are men and women in a hundred different occupations who
\nare thinking of the Christmas story of the Child of Bethlehem in a peculiar sense
\nthis week, because they are men and women who, at some time within the past fifty
\nyears, came to the cottage homes at Hinckley, Maine, from broken homes, from
\nbereaved homes, from woefully underprivileged homes. And they remember how Mr.
\nHinckley used to read the old, old story of Bethlehem at Christmas time, but they
\nremember more how, unlike the parents in the story, they did find room at the inn.
\nOnly it was not an inn; it was a home such as they had never known before. And out
\nfrom it they went into the wide world to become teachers and preachers, physicians
\nand lawyers, statesmen and ambassadors, leaders of industry. And with one accord
\nthey will tell you that for the chance to be what they are, and for the ideals
\nthey cherish, they owe an unpayable debt t~ George Hinckley, the man of good will.
\n1-39
\nLITTLE TALKS ON COMMON THINGS
\n7th Broadcast December 26, 1948
\nAmong the season’ s common things are Christmas trees. How they brighten
\nthe home and add to the holiday spirit! Did you ever hear of the Nation’ s Christmas
\nTree? Thirteen years ago the citizens of the little town of Sanger, California
\nbegan what is now the annual custom of holding services at the foot of
\nthat particular tree.
\nYesterday morning, in the chill mountain air of the High Sierras, the
\npeople trudged through the soft snow into the midst of the great, majestic redwood
\ntrees. At the foot of the tallest of them all they stopped, sang the pld
\nfamiliar Christmas carols, and held the beautiful Christmas service.
\nWhy call it the Nation’s Christmas Tree? Because that giant redwood is
\nprobably the oldest living thing in the world. There, on the California mountainside,
\nit had been standing more than 2,000 years before the angels sang the first
\ncarol to the shepherds tending their flocks near Bethlehem. Today that tree
\ntowers 300 feet above the forest floor, and its base covers as much space as a
\nfive-room house. It is a living symbol — is that ancient tree — of enduring
\nstrength and beauty that while many things pass away, while man’s own life on
\nearth is of few years and full of sorrow, there are things that last a long I
\nlong time — and one of those things is the wonderful spirit of Christmas. The
\ngiant redwood in the High Sierras is indeed the Nation’s Christmas Tree.
\n*****
\nSome of our listeners have expressed an interest in words, so let us take
\njust a couple of minutes tonight on some unusual word origins. Did you know that
\nalimony can be called literally a “meal ticket”? The word comes from the Latin
\nalimonia, meaning nourishment or sustenance. The husband was expected to continue
\n1-40
\nfeeding the estranged wife, providing her with maintenance or alimonia. A bonfire
\nis not a good fire; it has nothing to do with the French word bon. In the
\nMiddle Ages funeral pyres for human bodies were a necessity in emergencies of
\nwar or pestilence. They were called bone fires. fires of bones. Later, when
\nit became the custom to burn heretics at the stake, the same name was applied.
\nIt was a bonefire that caused the death of Joan of Arc. In time, as the name
\nwas extended to many kinds of open air fires, it lost its old gruesome spelling,
\nso that few people today realize the horror it once implied.
\nWhen we say a person is not worth his salt, we mean not worth his pay.
\nThere was a time when salt was a very scarce necessity. Roman soldiers, for
\ninstance, drew a special allowance for the purchase of salt. This salarium, or
\nsalt money, gives us our word salary.
\n*****
\nThis is the Yuletide season, for centuries in England the season of the
\ngreat Yule log and its impressive ceremonies. Yuletide means a jolly time, for
\nyule and jolly are the same word. The original word is lost in the mists of
\ntime, but in its middle English formYol, from the older Anglo-Saxon geol, is
\nakin to the modern Icelandic word jol, the midwinter feast of Iceland, going
\nback to pre-Christian times on that ancient island. At any rate the word has
\nalways signified jolly or merry.
\nTime plays strange tricks with some of our words. What possible connection
\ncan there be between hearse and rehearse? In Norman England, the word for harrow
\nwas herse. The triangular frame bearing three candles, used in Holy Week, was
\ncalled a hearse, because it was shaped like a haz:row. Similar was the frame
\nbearing candles under Which the coffin was set during funeral ceremonies. It was
\nonly another step to apply the word to the conveyance carrying the body from
\nfuneral to grave.
\n1-41
\nAnother version has it that in rural England, the body was often carried
\nin funeral procession on a real wooden harrow, because it was just the right
\nshape to take the three sacred candles. At any rate in their origin hearse and
\nharrow are the same word. Oh , yes, we started, didn’t we, by asking what is the
\npossible relation between hearse and rehearse. It’s clear enough now, isn’t it?
\nRehearse, of course, is simply to harrow again.
\n*****
\nIn the midst of the Christmas season, with its abundance of gifts and its
\nmerry spirit, we don’t like to be reminded of unpleasant things. But food is a
\nvery common thing, one of life’s few absolute necessities. For several years
\ncareful students both of agriculture and of sociology have warned us that man
\nis rapidly using up the world’s food supplies. Erosion carries away the thin
\nlayer of soil that grows his seed; wasteful methods pull the richness from the
\nground; and he has found only ineffective means to combat drought and flood.
\nMeanwhile, in spite of war and pestilence, the world’s population keeps on increasing.
\nNow these warnings may be too alarming, and after a while we get used to
\nthe cry of “Wolf! Wolf! II But let us not forget the ending of the old fable. You
\nwill recall that finally the wolf did come and killed the flocks of the unheeding
\nshepherds.
\nSo we may give more than a casual ear to what the British Attorney General,
\nSir Hartley Shawcross, said last week. “The grim danger of starvation confronts
\nthe world today”, he said. “If the world starves, chaos and anarchy must follow.
\nThe countries of the world are so concerned with their national differences and
\nconflicts, so afraid of the prospect of war. so burdened with military expenses,
\nthat they are paying almost no attention to the calamitous danger that confronts
\nall the world — starvation. The most pressing problem in the world today is for
\na united, aggressive agricultural policy by all the nations.”
\n***** 1-42
\nBooks are .common things, and some of them are very important things. Tonight
\nI want to tell you about a book that I hope many of you will have a chance to
\nread. It can now be read only in a foreign language, not familiar to most people
\nin Central Maine, but it is so important that it ought soon to be translated into
\nEnglish. This book is the work of a man who is now a citizen of Waterville. He
\nis Dr. Ossip Flechtheim, assistant professor of history and governme~t at Colby
\nCollege, and a member of Justice Jackson’s staff at the famous Nuremburg trials.
\nDr. Flechtheim I s book is a history of the Communist Party in Germany during the
\nWeimar Republic. He traces clearly the development of the party during the First
\nWorld War, and especially after the Russian Revolution. shows how it continuously
\nundermined the work of Stresemann and the true believers in democracy, and how
\nfinally it too fell victim to the ruthless dictatorship of Hitler.
\nAs one reads this carefully documented record of communism at work in another
\nland, he cannot fail to be reminded of those trouble spots today where the hammer
\nand sickle cast their shadows — of Hungary and Czechoslovakia, of Eastern Germany
\nand France, especially of war-torn China. The same tactics of friendly infiltration,
\nthen espionage and terror, finally complete control. The last stage was
\nnot reached in Germany fifteen years ago
\nterror got in the way– the Nazi Gestapo.
\nbut only because another kind of
\nWe are slow to learn from history, we human beings, but it is not the fault
\nof patient research historians like Dr. Flechtheim. As another Waterville resident
\nof a quarter century ago, Dr. J. William Black, used to say: “History is
\nmore than a record of the past. It is given to us that the lessons of the past
\nmay be applied to our present and future good.” How much history must we have
\nbefore we can learn that the lesson of the Communist party in .every land, despite
\nits high sounding, Marxian idealism, is a lesson of the terror that flyeth
\nby night and the destruction that wastethat noon-day?
\n***** 1-43
\nHow easily, even at Christmas time, we travel the road from Bethlehem to
\nBedlam — from Bethlehem, the symbol of peace and quiet and good will, to Bedlam,
\nthe symbol for noise and confusion and insanity. Can it be that you have
\nnever heard the origin of the word Becllam? The word is itself a corruption of
\nBethlehem, an example of shortened pronunciation which is characteristically
\nBritish. As the British say “Maudlin” College for what we would call Magdalene
\nCollege, as they say Beecham for what we call Beauchamp, so in a special instance
\nthey came to call Bethlehem, Bedlam. In the 14th century, when the old
\npriory of St. Mary of Bethlehem was already two hundred years old, that ancient
\nLondon monastery came to be used as a hospital for the insane. Familiarly known
\nas Bethlehem, the name was corrupted by popular usage to Bethlemi then to Bedlam.
\nThe name came to be applied to all insane asylums in England, and those
\nasylums were terrible institutions, far worse than those described in that powerful
\nnovel THE SNAKE PIT. Modern psychiatry was unknown. Those unfortunate
\nfolk lived in filth and squalor, in scenes of uproar and confusion — in a
\nvery bedlam.
\nWell, we have been through a week reverberating with the name of Bethlehem.
\n“Little town of Bethlehem, how still we see thee lie.” And now we Ire at the
\nthreShold of a new year. Who will be master of 1949, the Prince of Bethlehem
\nor the Prince of Bedlam?
\n*****
\nTha.t great Quaker neighbor of ours, \u00b7Rufus Jones, once wrote a story that
\nhe called “The Shepherd Who Missed the Manger”. Eager to go with the other
\nshepherds who saw the star and heard the angel voices in the sky, bidding .them go
\nto the child in the manger, this Shepherd went instead to his sick child at home
\na child stricken with infantile paralysis. Years afterward, the shepherd
\ntook this son, now grown to be a man, but still hopelessly crippled, to a house
\nwhere a Galilean healer was speaking to the crowd. Unable to get anywhere near
\n1-44
\nthe preacher, the shepherd and his friends let the paralytic, on his mat,
\n. down through the skylight of the roof. They saw the stricken one rise at the
\nMaster’s bidding — rise and walk. But they saw more than that. They discovered
\nthat God is Father and Friend, forever seeking to bring men and women to
\nHimself, and they heard the Master tell them to cease their fears and worries.
\nHe assured them that, though confusion and bedlam were all about them, their
\nsouls could be at peace. The Kingdom of God, he said, will come as soon as
\nthe love and forgiveness, the unselfishness and the sacrifice that are the will
\nof God become the will of men.
\nThis was better than going with the other shepherds to the manger. That
\nnight, under the stars, the shepherd’s emotions had been stirred, but here was
\nsomething more. Now his mind had been enlightened, his will had been changed.
\nThough allover the earth there might still be anger and hate, vengeance and
\nwar, within the soul of the shepherd who had missed the manger there was peace,
\nfor he had become a man of good will. He lived not in bedlam, but in Bethlehem.
\n1-45
\nLITTLE TALKS ON COMMON THINGS
\n8th Broadcast January 2, 1949
\nA lot of people think they know the origin of “not worth a Hannah Cook”.
\nAll agree that it began as a seaman’s term, but there is much disagreement
\nabout just what the original words were. Miss Alta Smith of the Good will School,
\nherself the co-author of a charming book of Maine pictures and Maine legends,
\nthinks it was originally hand or cook, meaning that the skipper found something
\nso worthless that he wouldn’t spare a hand or a cook for it. Mrs. Harold Milton
\nof waterville says the expression comes down from the old whaling ship days,
\nand referred to a whale not worth going after — one for which the captain felt
\nit was not worth risking the life of a single hand (that is, a seaman), or even
\na cook. The Answer Man of a competing national network calls it a corruption of
\nhand and cook. These are all variants of the usually accepted origin, which
\nup to this time the American Dialect Society has been loathe to accept. It
\ndoesn’t quite ring true. The readers of Jim Connolly’s famous stories of the
\nGloucester fishermen know that a very important person on a fishing schooner is
\nthe cook, and he must have been equally important on the old whalers. To say
\nthat the expression means not worth a hand or even a cook, is to slander the
\ncook beyond all reason. To some of us who have made a comparative study of
\nsimilar expressions, and in spite of what the books say, isn’t it more likely
\nthat the expression first meant not worth a hand to cook? Of what earthly value
\nwould the average sailor be in place of the indispensable cook?
\nMrs. Milton offers what is to this observer a brand-new expression: “Up
\nto Sim Sozens”. However, it ought to be spelled, she says it always sounded
\nlike S 0 ZEN S with a short 0 as in of. Mrs. Mil ton says that when she was a
\ngirl and would ask where something was or where some .event happened, she would
\n1-46
\noften get the answer, “Up to Sim Sozens”. As she grew older she understood
\nthat this stock expression was not always the equivalent of “I don’t know”, but
\nthat it quite as frequently meant “I don’t intend to tell you”.
\nThis expression of Mrs. Milton’s strikes me as equally original and picturesque
\nas one from my own boyhood. A clerk in one of the village stores had
\nan ailing wife, one of those women who seem to enjoy poor health. When some
\nfriend would ask him, “How’s Sally this morning?”, he often replied, “Oh, she’s
\ngot another smudgeon”, meaning she’s complaining again.
\nDr. Hugh Robinson, a trustee of Colby College, is a man who has heard many
\nlanguages and all sorts of expressions in various parts of the world. He spent
\nmany years in China, and for more than two years he was a prisoner of the Japanese
\nat the Santo Tomas Internment Camp in Manila. Dr. Robinson says one of the
\nexpressions he remembers best was a kind of minced oath repeatedly uttered by his
\ncollege roommate, who came from Clinton, Maine. When anything went wrong the
\nroommate would exclaim, “Dod-rabbit-it”.
\nThen Dr. Robinson points out most interestingly that this expression is very
\nold English. It is found in the first great English novel, Fielding’s TOM JONES,
\npublished more than two hundred years ago.
\n*****
\nA common but very ugly thing is rumor. Ever since the story of the Garden
\nof Eden, when Eve was beguiled by the serpent, Dame Rumor had enjoyed a ready
\nmarket for her characteristic inside information about a particular event or
\nperson. Her unverified reports are more welcome than the truth, not merely because
\nthey are startling, but even more because they are gratifying. As choice morsels
\non the tongue, rumors serve to bolster man’s opinions and attitudes, and to fortify
\nhis baseless confidence.
\nSome rumors, founded in old-time ignorance and superstitution doubtless do
\n1-47
\nno harm, but their very persistence shows what a gripping hold upon us a rumor
\ncan have. Like the idea that Boston is the hub of the universe, you cannot, as
\nOliver Wendell Holmes said, pry that rumor out of the head of a Bostonian with
\nthe tire of all creation flattened out for a crow-bar.
\nAttendants at the Question House in the Bronx Zoo in New York say that the
\nquestion most often asked is whether an ostrich hides its head in the sand when
\nfrightened. For at least 2,000 years people have been passing on that silly
\ntale. Almost as long, naturalists and zoologists have tried to debunk the rumor.
\nBut it goes on and on. Without any basis whatever in fact, it will not die. As
\npeople believed it allover Europe in 50 B.C., so many people allover the socalled
\nenlightened united States believe it today.
\nPatiently the zoo attendants keep explaining that the hippopotamus does
\nnot sweat blood, that swamp rabbits don’t use their ears to swim with, that
\nelephants are not afraid of mice, that one cannot get warts from a toad, and
\nthat a porcupine does not throw its quills.
\nRumors of sea-serpents and other weird monsters of the deep will probably
\nnever die. Do you remember the Loch Ness monster of Scotland in the 1930’s?
\nThe newspapers spent thousands of dollars trying to verify its existence. Yet
\nnone of the correspondents ever saw the monster, and none of the photographers
\never got a picture of it. The rumor was subsiding a bit when suddenly, in
\nJanuary, 1934, a veterinary student insisted that early one morning, as he was
\nriding by the lake on his motorcycle, there before him, to his amazement, was
\nthe monster on dry land. He added one element to the traditional description:
\nthe animal’s tail was rounded off at the end, which is more than can be said
\nfor the tale about these sea and lake monsters. They refuse ever to round off,
\nor even to have an end.
\nMuch more serious are the rumors that spread alarm or fear or hate. Those
\n1-48
\nare the rumors that blast and kill. It was a muggy June Sunday in Detroit. The
\nheat had brought a hundred thousand people out into Belle Isle Park on the
\nDetroit River. It was 1943 and the nation was at war. The war industries had
\nbrought thousands of negroes into the Detroit area. For some time feeling had
\nrun high. On that particular Sunday an argument on the bridge between river
\nbank and park had led to a fist fight, in which friends of both parties engaged.
\nThe incident itself was soon over. Then Dame Rumor took command.
\nFirst, it was reported that a white woman had been attacked by a negro on
\nthe park bridge; then it was said she had been killed. Then the story was that
\nshe had a baby in her arms, which her assailant had tossed into the river.
\nWith each new telling the rumor took on bigger dimensions. As it grew more
\nand more lurid, it fanned higher and higher the flames of anger and hate. And
\nthe rumors were by no means confined to the white people. When the report
\nreached Paradise Valley, one of the city’s most crowded negro sections, it said
\nthat a bunch of white ruffians had killed a negro woman at Belle Isle Park.
\nFaster and faster the growing rumors circulated — from barber shops to bars,
\nfrom beauty parlors to church socials, from lobbies to restaurants, from telephone
\nto telephone. The subsided fist fight now broke out into a full-blown riot.
\nBy midnight the fighting and looting had spread to a dozen sections of the city.
\nBy Monday morning organized bands of whites roamed the streets, burning
\nall cars in sight that belonged to negroes. At nightfall four white boys, none
\nover 16 years of age, shot and killed a middle-aged negro who was just standing
\nin the doorway of his shop. When the orgy of hate was finally over, the death toll
\nwas 25 negroes and nine whites, and property damage exceeded a million dollars.
\nWere you one of those who believed the bumping rumor, spread so widely in
\n1944? It was told to you something like this, always by someone who had got it
\nstraight. A white schoolteacher in Boston.or New York .or Chicago or Cleveland —
\n1-49
\nor any northern city that fitted the convenience of the story teller — this
\nteacher asked one of her colored pupils to bring her mother to see the teacher
\non Thursday, to talk over the pupil’s progress in school. “MCi!ma can’ t come on
\nThursday”, said the little girl, “Thursday is her bumping day.” “What on earth
\nis bumping day?” asked the teacher. “Why that’s the day Mama goes to the department
\nstores and bumps white women.”
\nThese Bump Club rumors became so serious in some cities that the FBI was
\nfinally called to investigate. Everyone knows that Mr. Hoover’s G-Men do not
\ngo through a job skimpily or half-heartedly. In this instance their investigation
\nwas typicallY. thorough. It failed to produce a single shred of evidence
\nto prove the actual existence of any such club.
\nMost business is today conducted on a high level — most business, but
\nnot all. In the trade wars for competitive markets Dame Rumor sometimes wields
\na most vicious weapon. Do you recall those days back in 1934 when the whole
\nnation was buzzing with the whisper that a leper had been found working in a
\ncertain cigarette factory? Here was a reputable manufacturer confronted by a
\npersistent rumor designed to spread the fear that one might contract a terrible
\ndisease if he smoked this brand of cigarettes. The company offered rewards as
\nhigh as $50,000 for a clue that would lead to unearthing the rumor’s origin.
\nNo clue was ever found, and eventually it died down, because the cigarette
\nmakers had to face together the angry candy makers, who saw their business hit
\nby the folks who could be induced to reach for a smoke instead of a sweet.
\nThe power of rumors is enhanced by the fact that people who hear them
\nbelieve they come from unbiased sources. This gives opportunity for those who
\nwould harm a certain company to spread rumors about its product which it would
\nnever dare to put in print. Whispering campaigns against another concern’s products
\nor operations, are branded as illegal and subject to prosecution by the
\n1-50
\nFederal Trade Commission. The alertness of that commission keeps the practice
\ndown, but it does not stop it. A well known breakfast food was once driven off
\nthe market by an unfounded rumor that it contained morphine. Aluminum ware was
\nrumored to produce cancer. The first mechanical refrigerators were said to be
\npoisoning the food. A certain dental cream would cause pyorrhea.
\nThe telephones of northern headquarters of the Ford Motor Company were kept
\nbuzzing in the spring of 1947\u00b7 with inquiries whether it was true that a 1943
\ncopper penny would buy its possessor a brand new Ford. Though the source of the
\nrumor remains to this day a mystery, the headquarters manager received demands
\nfor verification and information from Ford dealers from coast to coast. Patiently
\nbut wearily he kept telling the callers, “There is no such thing as a
\n1943 copper penny.” The need for copper during the war was so critical that
\nsteel-zinc pennies were the only pennies coined in 1943. Furthermore the Ford
\nCompany was certainly not a party to any such hoax. It had never offered to
\nsell ‘a car for that or any other mythical coin.
\nPerhaps as amusing a rumor as ever went the rounds concerns t;he State of
\nWashington I s famous mountain. It had originally been named Mt. Rainier in 1792
\nby Captain Vancouver in honor of a famous British admiral. In 1883 a director
\nof the Northern Pacific Railroad, who also happened to be president of the
\nTacoma Land Company, announced that hereafter all guide books and other publications
\nof the railroad would use the name Mt. Tacoma. When, a few years ago,
\nthe controversy sprang up allover again, a new rumor went the rounds. Someone
\nclaimed to have unearthed what happened in Washington when a federal board
\ngave official name to the mountain. The brewers of Rainier beer, said this
\nrumor, had shipped a whole carload of their beverage to Washington to quench
\nthe board members I thirst. Those august men became so jolly and gay and so
\nnaturally grateful for the present, that they promptly named the mountain
\nRainier.
\n1-51
\nThe facts spoil that luscious s-tory. The bender never did take place, if
\nonly for the reason that Rainier beer had not come into existence until years
\nafter the federal decision had been made.
\nHow does class warfare the curse of our economic and social life —
\nusually begin? How do wars between nations get started? These catastrophes
\nstart because men, beguiled by their own anxieties and befogged by their own
\nrumors, pennit the gap of misunderstanding to grow wider and wider. Both sides
\nin a dispute thoroughly accept the lies about each other. When will the human
\nspecies learn that it is rumor that enslaves; it is only truth that makes men
\nfree?
\n1-52
\nLITTLE TALKS ON COMMON THINGS
\n9th Broadcast January 9, 1949
\nMy early experience in a country grocery store leads me to ask some odd
\nquestions tonight. How many of you listeners under thirty years of age ever
\nsaw a barrel of flour — flour in a wooden barrel? perhaps no one under thirty
\nlistens to this program. But ask some young neighbor the question. How long
\nhas it been since flour was regularly packed in wood? Perhaps an even odder
\nquestion is, “Who can remember a half-barrel of flour, also in wood?” I can
\njust barely remember those little barrels. The most usual commodity that came
\nin them was What is now called confectioner’s, but what we used to call powdered,
\nsugar. But occasionally, When the price of flour was very high, these halfbarrels
\ncontained 98 pounds of flour. Or didn’t you know that 196 pounds of
\nflour make a barrel?
\nWhat was the first ready-to-eat breakfast cereal? Do you remember some of
\nthe old-timers? “Force” with its ads about Sunny Jim. Then there was one called
\n“Elij ah ‘s Manah” and another called “Krinkles”. Good old oatmeal and corn meal
\nmust have made breakfasts for centuries. Samuel Johnson, that crusty old dictionary
\nmaker, defined oats as a grain used in England for horses and in Scotland
\nto support the people. But we are talking about cereal ready to go on the
\ntable, demanding no cooking. What was the first one? You can’t fool me about
\nthis. I know. Do you?
\nA listener takes me to task for calling the Nation’s Christmas Tree the
\noldest living thing on earth. Not those giant redwoods, he tells me, but certain
\ntrees in Mexico are the oldest living things. So be it. Perhaps it is just
\nas well for those bragging Californians not to have everything \u2022 OUr Mexican
\nfriends deserve something besides their wiShful manana.
\n*****
\n1-53
\nWe hear so much about thieving and graft and dishonesty that we sometimes
\nwonder whether there are any honest people left. We forget that it is the exception,
\nthe sensational, that makes news. Honesty is the rule, not the exception
\n— honest dealings, honest workmanship, honest service. The front page
\nspreads the news about one in 10,000 who goes wrong; we never hear about the
\n9,999 who go right — the clean, hard-working honest folks who carry on year
\nafter year.
\nPeople want to trust others. They invariably favor those who can be trusted.
\nperhaps, on his first day in the little settlement of New Salem, Abraham Lincoln
\nwas placed in charge of the polls because he was one of the few men there who
\ncould read the names, but certainly the honors that came to him rapidly thereafter
\ncame in no small part because of his reputation for honesty. A lot of
\npeople did not like Calvin Coolidge. They considered him cold and aloof. B’Qt
\nall trusted him because they knew he was completely honest. The leading citizen
\nof his time, trusted and honored through all his years, was a man who said,
\n“Honesty is the best policy.” He was Benjamin Franklin.
\n*****
\nAll too common in our lives is selfishness. No man or woman dares ask, “Am
\nI selfish?” We all know that we are. The question is, “How selfish are we? Are
\nthere limits to our selfishness?” We are all ashamed of it, but I wonder if we
\nrealize that selfishness does not pay_ Never was that truth expressed more
\nforcibly than in a short story that I ran across a few months ago. It is a
\nsequel to Frank R. Stockton I s famous story “The Lady or the Tiger”.
\nThere is something about the so-called dilemma story that intrigues us all
\nthe story that leaves us right in the air, that really has no ending, that insists
\nthat the reader supply his own. Such a story was “The Lady or the Tiger”_
\nIf you read it, you will never forget it: how a young man was made to enter the
\n1-54
\nRoman arena, how in the Emperor’s box was a .girl who loved him, and how behind
\none of the closed doors was a tiger and behind the other the girl whom the young
\nman loved. The girl in the box had made it very clear to the young man that she
\ncould learn the secret of the doors, those doors that stood side by side opening
\ntoward each other. And she told the young man that at the moment when he
\nmust decide which door to open she would give him a signal by motioning to right
\nor left. When the decisive moment came, the young man looked up to the box and
\nthe girl moved her hand to the right. Without an instant of hesitation the man
\nwent straight to the right-hand door and opened it.
\nThen Stockton closes the story with these words: “What was behind that door,
\nthe lady or the tiger?”There he leaves the reader. Did that girl in the box relinquish
\nhim to the other girl, or did she prefer to feed him to the tiger,
\nrather than see the other girl get him? What, dear reader, in her place, would
\nyou have done?
\nPeople have debated that story for half a centu:rY. Clumsy sequels, seeking
\na satisfactory ending have been written, but none so surprising and so completely
\nfitting as one written only last year, and one which appeared, of all places,
\nin the annual prize contest conducted by Ellery QUeen’s Mystery Magazine, and
\nto that magazine belongs full credit for the story.
\nThe writer presents himself as working on old papers in the Vatican Library
\nwhen he ran across a long letter written by a girl to her father. His daughter
\nhad been taken into the household of the Jewish tetrarch Herod as a handmaid
\nto Herod’s wife. There she had fallen in love with a young Greek, Jason, a
\nhandsome, ambitious man, already on his way to wealth by his artful manipulations
\nof trade and politics. Jason thought he loved the Greek girl, but his
\nreal love was for himself alone. Some day, he avowed, he would out-Herod Herod;
\nhe would rule all Judea; perhaps some day he would even be Emperor of Rome.
\n1-55
\nNow Herod’s daughter Salome she who had demanded the head of John the
\nBaptist brought to her on a tray wanted this Jason for herself, but he was
\nwary. She might for a time help his selfish schemes, but in the long run she
\nwould be a handicap. So he didn’t respond.
\nMeanwhile the Greek girl was troubled by Jason’s vaulting ambition, but
\nshe loved him dearly. She could forgive him much. Naturally he was making
\nenemies in the court circles, and with the help of these enemies Salome contrived
\na situation that caused his arrest. As we would say in modern slang,
\n“She framed him.” Herod passed sentence. Jason must enter the arena and submit
\nto the trial by ordeal. He shall choose which of two doors to open, behind
\none of which will be the Greek girl, behind the other a tiger.
\nSalome went to the girl and comforted her. “Trust me”, she said, “I shall
\nknow behind which door you will be, and I shall signal Jason to open that door.
\nYes, I wanted him, but he loves you and you love him. I will not keep you apart.”
\nSo the girl wrote to her father, the high priest in Jerusalem: “Tomorrow
\nis the .day of ordeal. Tomorrow Jason will open the door and I shall run to his
\narms.” There the letter ends.
\n“It was long afterward”, says the writer, “that I found another letter,
\nwritten by Pontius Pilate, Governor of Judea, to his emperor in Rome. ‘You ask’,
\nsaid the letter, ‘how we found it so easy to convict Jesus the Nazarene. It
\nwas because Caiphas, the high priest, had no will to oppose us. He was a broken
\nman. Has no one told you what happened? Jason, the Greek, was to open one of
\ntwo doors in the arena. Behind one was the high priest’s daughter, behind the
\nother a tiger. I know not whether it is true, but rumor has it that Salome,
\nHerod’s daughter, gave him a signal. At any rate, he marched straight to the
\ndoor on the right. But he didn’t boldly open it wide. He opened it just a crack,
\nand there behind the door was the tiger. Now what did this Jason do? Those two
\ndoors stood side by side, opening toward each other. He grabbed the other door
\n1-56
\nswung both doors open with himself shut safely between them and the wall.
\nAnd out of the second door came the girl to meet the tiger.’
\n“Pilate asks if the emperor is curious to know what happened to Jason.
\n‘Don’t give him a thought’, wrote Pilate. ‘We took care of him. That selfishness
\nof his had long been getting him into trouble. We felt sure he was
\ntaking bribes, and it didn’t take long to prove it. What did we do with him?
\nWhy, we crucified him along with another thief, up there on the hill beside
\nthe Nazarene.’ ”
\n*****
\nWe hear a lot today about schools and teachers. They certainly have been
\nneglected long enough; it is time the public gave them some attention. Both the
\nMaine Legislature and the National Congress are going to hear a lot more about
\nthem before these bodies, now in session, finally adjourn. This program is no
\nplace to go into the political issues that must be faced before we solve this
\nproblem of public education, before we admit that the man who trains the mind
\nis entitled to equal pay with the man who minds the train. But it is not out
\nof place here to state a few glaring facts.
\nMore than 4,000,000 children of school age in America are not enrolled in
\nany school, public or private. The shortage of teachers is still so great that
\n100,000 new elementary teachers — that is, teachers of grades one to eight -will
\nbe needed each year for the next ten years before the deficiency can be
\nmade up. Yet in 1948 the output of all the teacher training institutions in
\nthe country was scarcely 20,000. The number of children in the schools is expected
\nto increase by 9,000,000 in the next ten years.
\nNow few people want to see our national defense jeopardized. We want our
\ncountry kept strong. But education is itself the basic defense of democracy.
\nSomething is dead wrong when we are spending 15 billion dollars a year in
\n1-57
\npreparation for war and only 3 billion for the education of 25,000,000 children
\nin our public schools. We submit that the difference between these figures is
\ntoo great.
\n*****
\nIs reading in bed a common thing? If so, what kind of books do you read
\nin bed? If you are like me, you want bedside books that will not entertain you,
\nbut rather will put you to sleep. That is why I recently read with relish a bit
\nof writing that I want to share with you. As this writer puts it: “The publisher
\nwho produces a sleep-inducing shelf of books will make a fortune. It will not be
\na five-foot shelf, like President Eliot’s, but six inches of printed chloroform.
\nOf course we do not all drowse off to the same drug. A telephone directory or
\nthe Revised Statutes of Maine may not be enough to shunt your mind off that leak
\nin the car radiator.
\n“One of my surest bets is William Faulkner. His sentences start out like
\nAbraham, not knowing whither they go, and as you try to follow him, sleep knits
\nup the raveled sleeve of grammar. He will frequently run 65 adjectives to 64
\nnouns. His style is rambling, confused, hysterical. If you don’t go to sleep
\nbefore you have read forty pages, you’d better call your doctor.
\n“Then there is Hen:ty’ James. Counting his commas is better than counting sheep,
\nfor once in a while a sheep will knock down the top rail and jolt you awake
\nagain. But Henry flows smoothly, and his meaning eludes you.
\n“There is always the Congressional Record. \u00b7But you can It depend on it, for
\nonce in a while it becomes a most exciting .publication. So let the publishers
\ntake a hint. What we need are more dependable sleeping pills, nicely bound in
\ncloth, beside the bedside lamp.”
\n*****
\nWe .want to add our word to those who are demanding that the State of Maine
\nuse some of its liquor.profits to treat alcoholism \u2022. Every observant person knows
\n1-58
\nthat not only is the consumption of alcohol rapidly increasing, but its social
\nconsequences are getting steadily worse. We ought to lend every possible aid
\nto that splendid organization, Alcoholics Anonymous. Their well-supported
\ntheory is that only an experienced alcoholic can help another alcoholic. They
\ndo not claim one hundred per cent cures; they do no preaching; they do not look
\nupon the alcoholic as morally degraded, but as curably diseased. They know that
\nno one can cure him but himself.
\nNow as our old friend Ima Wanderer, in the Waterville Sentinel, so frequently
\nputs it, “You and I are in the rum business.” We citizens are the State, and the
\nState operates liquor stores. The least we can do is to insist that the State
\nuse part of its profits fram this questionable business in rehabilitating the
\nalcoholics.
\nWhy do people drink anyhow? Did you read the reasons given in Time magazine
\na short time ago?
\n“People think you are dead if you don I t drink.”
\n“I do it just to be sociable. I don’t like the stuff; I just choke it
\ndown.”
\n“When I drink I feel important.”
\n“Drinking takes me right on up.”
\nTime tells us that 38 per cent of people who drink do so for sociability,
\nand that women are more likely to be social drinkers than are men. The magazine
\nquotes the Rutgers sociologists, who have made a thorough study of the problem,
\nas saying: “Science does not yet know how to tell the difference between
\na potential alcoholic and a drinker who can take it or leave it alone.So we
\nadvise all hosts and hostesses: never insist on anyone’s taking a drink.”
\n*****
\nYes, most of you who responded to my question about the first ready-to-eat
\ncereal gave the right answer. It was indeed Shredded Wheat.
\n1-59
\nWell, we have talked enough common things for one evening. Perhaps you
\nlisteners are feeling like the fifth grade kids in an Oklahoma school, who
\nvoted 34 to one they would rather have a spanking than a friendly talk.
\n1-60
\nLITTLE TALKS ON COMMON THINGS
\n10th Broadcast January 16, 1949
\nLet us turn again tonight to that familiar subject of words. They are
\ntricky things, aren’t they? How wonderful it would be if the same word meant
\nthe same thing to all people. That is one of the barriers in the way of world
\npeace. There can be no peace without understanding, and there can be no understanding
\nwithout words.
\nI was talking a few days ago with a man who represented the United States
\nlast swmmer at the meetings of UNESCO (the United Nations Educational, Social
\nand CUltural Organization) held at The Hague in the Netherlands. He told some
\namusing incidents concerning the translation of the speeches into English. A
\nSpanish speaker had urged that the address be short. The translator put it:
\n“The length must be as brief as possible.” When a speaker from Czechoslovakia
\nspoke of university professors of long service, the translation read, “professors
\nin a state of advanced use”.
\nWhen the Americans read a translation from the Chinese, which the translator
\nhad rendered into English by “a need to vulgarize the material”, they
\nmight have been shocked had they not remembered the oldest meaning of the word
\nvulgar. It comes from the Latin vulgus, meaning the crowd, the common folks, and
\nonly in recent centuries did it come to have the meaning of cheap, nasty, in
\nbad taste. What the translator meant to say, of course, was “a need to popularize
\nthe material”.
\nNow these instances provided a laugh; they did no harm. But they serve to
\nshow how slippery a thing is language, and how easily it can lead to misunderstanding.
\nWe woefully need an international language, free from the national
\nprejudice of anyone tongue.
\n1-61
\nIt is a common thing for us to want other people to do things for us
\nrather than to do these things ourselves. We are not so foolish as to think
\nwe are going back to the old days of the self-reliant pioneers, those days when
\nthere was no WPA to help the hungry settlers at Plymouth. But it does no hann
\nto recall that solely by their own efforts those early colonies kept alive, grew
\nand prospered.
\nThe fundamental core of American democracy is the town meeting, and the
\nfarther we remove decision and action from local government, the less real democracy
\nwe have. Yet we know we are a big country, with vast inequalities of
\nwealth and opportunity in different parts. Because many a local community
\nsimply cannot afford to pay for the services demanded by modern civilization,
\nit has turned more and more to help from wealthier communities — help from the
\npooled resources of towns and cities that make a State, and then to the big pool
\nof all, Uncle Sam’s treasury in Washington. Now much of this is good, and a lot
\nof it is inevitable. But it has two great inherent dangers. It leads us to lean
\ntoo much on the other fellow’s help, and it undennines democracy by the creation
\nof a great bureaucracy in Washington.
\nRemember that the labor which keeps us alive is productive labor. Every
\nperson who works as I do, in services rather than goods, is not a productive
\nlaborer. For all of us who are teachers and doctors, lawyers alid insurance men,
\nmerchants and brokers, there must be many, many men and women, getting crops
\nfrom the soil, minerals from the mines, lumber from the forests, and many more
\nturning out the products of thousands of factories. In spite of improved machinery
\nand speeded assembly lines no nation can pennanently let its service workers
\nincrease at the expense of its productive workers, and we must wake up to the
\nfact that the alanning increase in these services or non-productive workers is
\nin the field of government. So many people are already working for local, state
\nor national government that it takes an enonnous amount of productive labor
\n1-62
\nmerely to pay their salaries.
\nWhat are the facts? More than two million men and women are employed in
\nthe executive branch of the federal government alone. The Army has 400,000
\ncivilian employees, the Navy 350,000. The post office has half a million, the
\nTreasury a hundred thousand, Interior 60,000, and Veterans Administration
\n200,000. Then there are the numerous independent agencies we never heard of a
\nfew years ago. The FSA employs 36,000, FWA 22,000, RFC 5,000, War Assets Administration
\n17,000, TVA 15,000. There seems to be no end. Like Topsy, these
\nthings just grow — or perhaps a better comparison would be Jack and his beanstalk.
\nWhen everybody works for the government, we won It have to worry about
\nwho will wash the dishes — for then there won I t be any food to get the dishes
\ndirty.
\n*****
\nLast Tuesday it was my privilege to attend a meeting of the Security
\nCouncil of the United Nations at Lake Success, New York. It was a thrilling experience
\nto see the representatives of 37 nations, to eat ina huge cafeteria
\nsurrounded by persons talking numerous languages, to see the system of instantaneous
\ntranslation at work, and most of all to observe the directness and
\nfrankness with which world problems are faced.
\nWe are inclined to underestimate and belittle the United Nations. The
\nworld is so far from peace, the horrors of a third World War seem so imminent,
\nthat we wonder whether the U. N. can ever be more than a debating society.
\nWhen the Charter was drawn at San Francisco, we probably expected too
\nmuch. That is human nature. When Congress or the Maine Legislature passes a
\nlaw, we too easily suppose the job is done. Living together peacefully is not so
\neasy as that. Even the city ordinances of Waterville are sometimes flaunted
\nand neglected. Most of us value doing as we please more than we value harmony
\nin the community. We will go a long way to protect our own rights, but we
\n1-63
\ndon’t intend to give up anything to let the other fellow have his rights.
\nIt is the same way with nations. Even for them to agree to sit around
\na council table and talk openly about complaints and grievances is some gain.
\nWhen world problems can no longer be settled by secret diplomacy, by the old
\nbi-1atera1 agreements between two nations, with the rest of the world in the
\ndark, when now the nations that disagree with a majority decision must Show
\ntheir hands, even if it is by the pernicious veto, the whole world at last has
\ninformation about what is going on. And in the long run an informed public
\nopinion is an acting public opinion.
\nWe know it works that way in the United States. A few days ago I attended
\na dinner at which Harold Stassen, former Governor of Minnesota, candidate for
\npresidential nomination, and now head of the University of Pennsylvania, made
\na thrilling speech. He gave a pointed instance of the power of public opinion
\nin America. He said that two weeks before Secretary Marshall made his memorable
\naddress at Harvard, every responsible official in the government believed we
\nhad reached the end of foreign aid spending, that with the Greek and Turkish loans
\nto help those countries stop the sweep of Communism, we had had enough. The American
\npeople would not stand for pouring any more money down the drain. Then
\nSecretary Marshall spoke, announcing the now-famous Marshall Plan. Allover
\nthe country press and radio took it up. It was talked about, not only in the
\nswanky clubs and at business luncheons, but also in barber shops and groceries,
\non busses and commuter trains, at the grange hall and the country store. Messages
\npoured in upon reluctant Congressmen. The nation had become convinced that
\nthe Marshall Plan was not merely a humanitarian and charitable way to help wartorn
\nEurope; it was enlightened self-interest, the surest way in the long run
\nto save ourselves.
\nSo, at those meetings at Lake Success, one gets his eyes open to rising
\n1-64
\npeaks of world opinion. On the day I attended the Security Council was discussing
\nthe Dutch-Indonesian dispute. Now I ask you, a dozen years ago what
\nwould any of us have cared about actions of the Dutch in the far-off islands
\nof Java and Sumatra? If we took notice at all, it would be either to say,
\n“This is a white man’s world; the Dutch had better teach these funny little
\nbrown men their place”, or to say “Those Indonesians want their freedom; more
\npower to them”. But, whichever side our emotions took, a dozen years ago we
\nwould have been very sure that it was none of our business. Today we are
\nequally sure that this trouble in far-away Southeast Asia is the whole world’s
\nbusiness.
\nSo, as an American, I was proud of the straight, unambiguous words with
\nwhich our delegate, Dr. Jessup, stated the American posibion. He accused the
\nDutch government of defying the cease-fire order passed by the Council and said,
\n“AI though Dutch armies have seized the capitol of the Indonesian Republic and
\nhave imprisoned its president and prime minister, we serve notice on the Netherlands
\ngovernment that the world cannot accept the result. It is still a
\nmatter of international concern.” Then he gave this powerful warning: “Instead
\nof establishing order in the islands, the Dutch government has let loose forces
\nof terror, chaos and sabotage. The united states Government cannot associate
\nitself with any aspect of the Dutch military action. In the opinion of the
\nGovernment of the United States, the Netherlands Government has violated the
\ncharter of the united Nations.”
\nNor did Dr. Jessup let the attitude of Russia go unquestioned, for the
\nRussians had not supported the Council’s cease-fire order, preferring to offer
\na resolution of their own. “The Soviet Union does not want an independent Indonesia”,
\nsaid Dr. Jessup. “It wants an Indonesia under the control of a communist
\nminori tytaking orders from Moscow. II Then he uttered these blasting words:
\n“Anywhere in the world when a communist government climbs in the window, independence
\nis kicked out of the door.”
\n1-65
\nWhile Dr. Jessup was talking I was watching faces — the expressionless
\npoker face of the Russian delegate, the occasional sly glances toward him of
\nhis Ukrainian satellite, the enthusiastic smiles of the Indian and Burmese
\nobservers, the scowling countenances and the sometimes hectic conferring in the
\nDutCh delegation, the nods of approval by the British delegate, and, most of
\nall, the deep concern of the small nations, Syria and Cuba, Belgium and Chile,
\nLiberia and Pakistan. For this aggression of the Dutch in the Indies was
\neverybody’s business. If one nation could do this, any nation could do it.
\nNo one anywhere in the world was safe.
\nIf you get a chance to visit Lake Success, make the most of it. It will
\ngive you new faith in the greatest venture of our time, faith that in spite of
\ntremendous obstacles, men of good will can yet make this a peaceful world.
\n1-66
\n: ..
\nLITTLE TALKS ON COMMON THINGS
\n11 th Broadcast January 23, 1949
\nWhat a rare thing is a sense of proportion — the ability to place situations
\nand events in right relationship. Too many adults lack the sense of relationship,
\nwhose lack is understandable and excusable in a little child. I
\nrecently heard about a little girl in Waterville who was deceived by this
\nvery lack of proportion. Her older brother told this little tot, “I ‘II help
\nMother with the dishes from Christmas to New Years if you will help her do
\nthem from New Years to Christmas.” Now the offer came just a little while
\nbefore Christmas. To be free from dish-wi~ing for a whole week after Christmas
\n— that would be wonderful. It just didn’t occur to her that from New
\nYears to Christmas would be 51 weeks, all the rest of a long, long year.
\nHow excited we get about little things that don’t matter, and how complacently
\nwe look at some of the big things which matter very much. The hard
\nworking men and women who make up the national Congress deserve our respect
\nand support. For the most part and during most of the time they are about
\nthe country’s business, concerned with important issues of our national welfare.
\nBut not always.
\nThose of us who regularly read the Congressional Record know very well
\nthat there are times when Congressmen, like the rest of us, sadly lack a sense
\nof proportion. Twenty-six columns in the Record of January 13th, at $200 a
\ncolumn, are filled with the bitterness of a personal quarrel between the alleged
\nlabor-hater, Clare Hoffman and the alleged management-hater, John Lesinski,
\nboth from the same state of Michigan. Mr. Hoffman accused Mr. Lesinski
\nof calling him a “pimp of Joe Stalin”. Mr. Lesinski denied he said it.
\nMr. Hoffman refused to accept the denial. Other Congressmen, especially Mr.
\n1-67
\nCox of Georgia, tried to pour oil on the troubled waters, but all to no avail.
\nMr. MCCormack of Massachusetts, the majority leader, entered the fray, and in
\nthe thinly veiled politeness demanded by the rules of the House of Representatives,
\nhe and Mr. Hoffman hurled sarcasm at each other. Outside the halls of
\nCongress two adults would usually settle such a controversy very quickly. They
\nwould either get together and resolve their differences, or they would go their
\nrespective ways. If it got so bad that one really slandered the other, the
\ncourts would always be open to the offended party.
\nUnfortunately a few Congressmen do not act as do ordinary citizens. So, in
\nthis instance, Mr. Hoffman talked on and on, indicating that, at a proper parliamentary
\ntime, he intended to offer a resolution for investigation and Congressional
\ncensuring of Mr. Lesinski. Finally Congressman Michener stood it as
\nlong as he could, and said: “Mr. Speaker, I know nothing about this occurrence.
\nBut the gentleman has now consumed the hour for which, under the rule, he was
\npermitted to talk. He has talked. Then he buttressed that talk, as I understand,
\nby a resolution. The rest of us would like to know just where the resolution
\nis and what is in it.”
\nThe Speaker of the House replied: “There is a paper lying on the desk of
\nthe Speaker. It starts by saying ‘Resolution’. The gentleman from Michigan
\nnever did offer the resolution. He said he was sending up to the Speaker’s desk,
\nand he intended to offer, a resolution, but he did not.” Quite reasonably Congressman
\nMichener asked, “Then the status is that the gentleman from Michigan,
\nMr. Hoffman, sent a paper up there, and there it lies. What will become of it?”
\nNow just consider, as an ordinary citizen, the Speaker’s reply, for this is
\nwhat he said: “There is nothing before the House at this time.”
\nOn a question of personal privilege Mr. Hoffman had talked for an hour, and
\nwhen he finished, no one really knew what.it was all about, for there was nothing
\n1-68
\nbefore the House at that time. And to get it into the Congressional Record,
\nthe taxpayers paid the printing bill of $200 a column for 26 columns.
\nHow splendid it would be if it could be said of us what Justice Wilson
\nsaid of that great Chief Justice of Maine, Leslie C. Cornish, on the occasion
\nof the latter’s funeral. “One sign of Judge Cornish’s greatness”, said Judge
\nWilson, “was that he knew a trifle when he saw one.”
\n*****
\nMark Twain once said, “Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody does
\nanything about it.” This is certainly a freak winter — balmy spring days in
\nMaine where we are supposed to have only two seasons, winter and the fourth of
\nJuly; and snow for the first time in recorded history in San Diego, California.
\nThe Christmas holidays saw not enough snow for skiing in the White Mountains,
\nbut paralyzing blizzards as far south as New Mexico.
\nSome people say the Gulf Stream is changing, others say we are in the midst
\nof a swing in the great weather cycle. The professional meteorologists tell us
\nthere is nothing in either explanation. Even they do not know enough about the
\ncauses of our weather. Much is still veiled in mystery . But they know much more
\nthan they did twenty. years ago. They tell us confidentially that the answer
\nlies in the movement of air 20,000 to 40 ,\u00b7000 feet above the earth. There the
\nair currents move at tremendous speed from west to east. The speed and the precise
\ndirection determine what goes on here. Early last fall bulges appeared in
\nthe smooth west to east flow of the upper air. That air took a wandering path,
\nfirst moving northeast, then swinging down to southeast, and back again to
\nnortheast in the pattern of a huge letter S.Such movement means extreme departures
\nfrom normal, and thus the northeast part of the united States got one
\nof the warmest and wettest autUmns on record.
\nBut just why .should this S movement cause such conditions? When the air
\ncurrents get into that wavy pattern, they draw off the cold Alaska-Yukon polar
\n1-69
\nair and leave it scattered allover the western part of the country_ As they
\ncurve through Texas and start northeastward, they drain a lot of moist, warm
\nair from over the Gulf of Mexico and deposit it over the East. Under the pattern
\nthe area which will be warm and wet is that most influenced by the south
\nto north swing of the huge air currents. Through the fall and thus far this
\nwinter that area has been the Northeast. The area which will be coldest and
\ndriest is the one most influenced by the north-to-south swing of the currents.
\nThat section has been the West.
\nWhy the currents take this wavy form in the first place, why the bulges
\nappear, the weathermen do not find it easy to explain. But at least it isn’t
\nquite fair to say that everybody talks about the weather and nobody does anything
\nabout it. The experts of the U. S. Weather Bureau are W01:lking constantly,
\nnot only with the old time method of reports from widely distributed stations,
\nbut also with the newer methods of radar-tracked balloons and complicated recording
\ndevices. Every year that goes by, these patient workers are adding to
\nman’s store of knowledge about that common but very important thing, weather.
\n*****
\nIn the important matter of properly staffing our schools and adequately
\npaying the teachers there is likely to be a lot of emotional argument. We have
\nalready mentioned the matter on this program, calling attention to a few pertinent
\nfacts. Tonight we are presenting no argument; we have no intent of
\npulling at your heart-strings in behalf of the teachers. We prefer rather that
\nyou look at a few more cold, hard facts. That our boys and girls have been the
\nvictims of too much incompetent and sub-standard teaching since 1942 is shown by
\nthe fact that in the fall of 1947, 122,000 persons were teaching on temporary
\ncertificates because they could not qualify for regular certification. This
\nfall the number had been reduced by only 15,000. There are still 107,000 unpre-
\n1-70
\npared, emergency teachers at work in the nation’s schools.
\nMaine’s place in this picture is far from enviable. A year ago our State
\nDepartment reported 500 of these sub-standard, emergency teachers. This year
\nthe Department reports exactly the same number. During the year we have made
\nno gain at all.
\nWe have made a gain in the average pay of teachers. In 1947-48.it was
\n$1,979. It is now $2,200. This places us 37th among the 48 states. We used to
\nsay Maine stands with the deep South in support of education. We can no longer
\nclaim even that. In Virginia, West Virginia, Louisiana, Florida and Texas the
\naverage pay of teachers is higher than it is in Maine. It is not only such
\nwealthy states as New York and California that pay teachers well. Utah, Nevada,
\nTexas and Arizona all pay a minimum salary more than twice the teachers’ minimum
\nin Maine. The maximum in Maine for classroom teachers, exclusive of principals
\nor other administrators, is $3,500. In Minnesota that maximum is $5,300;
\nin Montana it is $4,500; and in North Dakota it is $6,500.
\nEven now, before the increased birth rate of the war years has caught up
\nwith the schools, there is still a shortage .of teachers. The situation has recently
\ngrown better in the high schools, to which former teachers have returned
\nin rising numbers. Yet most of the country, including Maine, reports that even
\nin the high schools the shortage still exists. Only such high-salaried states
\nas Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Maryland and California report all high school
\npositions \u00b7filled with fully-trained, competent teachers.
\nIt is in the elementary schools, in the grades below high school, that the
\nsituation is really alarming. The wealthy state of New York reports a shortage
\nof 2,380 elementary teachers; pennsylvania lacks 3,000; Virginia needs 4,500;
\nSouth Carolina can use 6,000. And here in Maine, with less than a million
\npeople in our whole population, we have a shortage of 1,600 trained teachers for
\nour boys and girls in the grade schools.
\n1-71
\nI fear I have muddled your heads with figures, but I hope the main point
\nis clear. In our failure to give adequate financial support to education, we
\nare taking it out of our boys and girls. It is not we adults, it is the next
\ngeneration that suffers. If we want to turn our nation over to the foes of
\ndemocracy, the surest way to do it is to forget our schools.
\n*****
\nEach week we try to mention at least one of the old-time things. Do you
\ncity folks remember when they used to bank up the house for the winter? My listeners
\nin the country still do it. What do they use for banking? Various materials,
\nbut I am told that sawdust is still the most conunon. Now I want to
\nknow how many of you ever saw bark tan used in that way. That is what everyone
\nused in the Maine vi1lage where I spent my boyhood. One of the town’s principal
\nindustries was a tannery, to which the farmers annually hauled hundreds of cords
\nof hemlock bark. The bark was ground, its juices were used in the tanning process,
\nand the waste pulp, which everyone called “the tan”, was thrown out just as sawduct
\nis from a sawmi11. That tan made excellent banking for those furnace-less
\nhouses against the co1d blasts from the White Mountains. And what cool, soft
\nstuff it was to walk in barefoot through the tannery yard in mid-summer!
\n*****
\nHeroism often consists in simply doing one’s duty. The tragic stories of
\naircrash landings, lLke that of the Yale students in Seattle at New Year’s,
\nmakes such mournful reading that it is refreshing and inspiring to hear the
\nstory of Sgt. Robert Lee Hodgkiss of the 82d Airborne Division. That Division
\nof the Air Corps, with its famous paratroopers, had already won much renown. As
\nthe big “flying box-car”, the C-82, flew over North Carolina, something went
\nwrong. Sgt. Hodgkiss, who had jumped in combat in Sicily, Italy, and Normandy,
\nheard the jtnnp bell ring. There was no time to check harness or parachutes. He
\ncould only shout “Stand up, hook up, jump”. Then he calmly waited while 36 men
\n1-72
\nleft the doors of the plane at an altitude already dangerously low. It was
\nsimply the sergeant’s duty, as jump-master, to be the last man out of the plane.
\nBut at times like these, it is a splendid thing just to do one’s duty. When it
\ncame the sergeant’s turn to jump, it was too late. The plane was too near the
\nground. He could only sit down, brace himself for the worst, and say “This is
\nit. What of my wife and child?” unexpectedly this incident had a happy ending.
\nSgt. Hodgkiss did not die. He escaped unhurt, and every one of the 36 men in his
\ncharge landed safely. Was the sergeant a hero; was he a brave man? He did just
\nwhat was expected of him.
\n1-73
\nLITTLE TALKS ON COMMON THINGS
\n12th Broadcast January 30, 1949
\nHow many of you remember Maine’s narrow-guage railroads? How many of you
\never rode on them? The one nearest Waterville was still running only a few
\nyears ago. It started ambitiously as the Wiscasset and Quebec Railroad, then
\nbecame the Wiscasset, Waterville and Farmington. On paper it was the first of
\nthe old two-footers because it got its charter in 1854. It was forty years later,
\nhowever, that the narrow, little two-foot track was laid down.
\nIn my student days at Colby College the embankment on the Winslow side,
\nwhere the surveyors had intended to bridge the Kennebec on the way to Farmington
\nwas still standing, but the road itself then ran, as it did for twenty years
\nmore, from Wiscasset to Albion. Some local listener can tell me when that part
\nof the line which ran into Winslow was abandoned.
\nThat old narrow guage road started off with lofty ambitions. It was going
\nright through to the Province of Quebec, have deluxe trains with diners, sleepers
\nand parlor cars. Its promoters were going to take the million dollar annual
\ngrain traffic away from the Grand Trunk. Wiscasset had a fine harbor and is a
\nlittle nearer Liverpool than is Portland.
\nFrom its first days the little railroad ran into trouble. Its first stretch
\nwas planned to Burnham, 55 miles up state from Wiscasset. But the big Maine Central
\nwould not let the little fellow cross its Belfast branch. So it was decided
\nto swing west at Weeks Mills and send the line to Waterville and Farmington,
\nhoping to make some kind of deal to use the Sandy River rails from there to Rangeley,
\nthen go on to Quebec. But the Maine Central again boxed the little fellow’S
\nears. They couldn’t cross Maine Central tracks at Farmington to connect with the
\nSandy River. By this time folks had a new name for the Wiscasset, waterville and
\n1-74
\nFarmington. Its WWF now stood for Weak, Weary and Feeble.
\nNevertheless it was quite a road in its day, and for many years it served
\nwell the towns between Wiscasset and Albion. My last ride on it was in 1921,
\nWhen I was trying to interest the school superintendent at Weeks Mills in a
\nline of text books I was then selling.
\nIt was not the WWF, however, but another narrow guage road that was the
\npride of my own boyhood, because I was born and reared in a narrow guage town.
\nIt was the Bri’dgton and Saco River Road, originally only sixteen miles long,
\nconnecting the town of Bridgton, with its three big woolen mills, with the
\nMountain Division of the Maine central at Bridgton Junction in the town of Hiram.
\nLater the road was extended six miles up Long Lake to Harrison.
\nGeorge Ham, the engineer of the tiny little locomotive and Phil Marcou, the
\nconductor, were my boyhood heroes. The last ride I had in the little passenger
\ncar, with its single-passenger seats, was in 1916, but my first ride on it is
\nmore memorable. I was only fiv:e years old, and was making my first trip to
\nPortland with my parents. Even then, though the big, broad-guage Maine Central
\nwas more impressive, the tiny engine and cars of that two-foot road were more
\nintimate and more assuredly mine.
\nSomewhere around the house I have some snapshots taken of a wreck on that
\nold Bridgton and Saco, the only train wreck, I am thankful to say, in which I
\nwas ever involved. No one was hurt, but the passengers had to walk the track two
\nmiles into Bridgton Junction.
\nThe schedules all called for mixed trains; so the baggage and passenger
\ncars were always preceded by several freight cars. The first mile out of Bridgton
\nJunction was all up grade, and if the freight cars were many or carried unusually
\nheavy loads, the train frequently had to make several attempts to reach
\nthe summit. It would start nobly out of the Junction, puff more and more slowly
\nuntil it came to a stop with spinning wheels striking sparks from the rails.
\n1-75
\nThen it would back down to the Junction and try again. Believe it or not, Mr.
\nRipley, I remember one spring day when all of us passengers alighted on the
\ntrain’s firs~ unsuccessful try, walked up to the summit, and picked mayflowers
\nuntil the train made the grade. Then, with all cars over the crest and ready
\nfor the long, level run to North Sebago, the obliging conductor stopped and let
\nus on.
\nThere are said to have been ten of these old two-foot roads in Maine. I
\ncannot identify all of them; it will take some old-time railroad man to do that.
\nBut I have good reason to recall the Sandy River and Rangeley Lakes Road. In
\n1922 I spent seven hours stalled in one of its trains between Strong and Kingfield
\nin a howling blizzard. It was near the old Dead River Station, a few
\nmiles south of Rangeley that, on another occasion, I saw my first beaver cuttings.
\nOne of the experiences I missed was a ride in the Sandy River’s palatial
\nparlor car, which used to accomodate summer guests bound for the swanky Hotel
\nRangeley. My seat was always in the plebian coach with the other traveling
\nsalesmen.
\nHaving taken a crack at the WWF by referring to it as the Weak, Weary and
\nFeeble, I must tell you what they called my old road, the Bridgton and Saco
\nRiver. In its last days it was known as the Busted and Still Running. The
\nSandy River and Rangeley Lakes was the Shaky, Rough and Ready Loafer.
\nMany people remember the old slate road, the two-footer from Monson Junction
\nto the slate quarries at Monson. Then there was the Kennebec Central
\nfrom Gardiner to Togus. That makes five of the old narrow guage roads: the
\nWWF, the B & SR, the SR & RL, the Monson and the Kennebec Central. Where were
\nthe five others? Come on, you old railroaders, let us know.
\nIt is very gratifying to some of us that not only the rider of these old
\nroads, but some of their actual rolling stock is still operating today. Did you
\never hear of the Edaville Railroad, operated by Ellis D.Atwood through his
\n1-76
\ncranberry bogs on Cape Cod. Mr. Atwood’s Edaville in the town of Carver is the
\nbiggest privately owned cranberry business in the world. It produces over 10,000
\nbarrels of cranberries a year. Mt. Atwood decided he wanted a railroad. So he
\nbought same of the discarded rolling stock of the Bridgton and Saco River line.
\nFrom various sources he got parts for S! miles of track. One of his engines was
\nthe old B & SR No.7, behind which I had ridden many a bouncing mile. His deluxe
\ncoach is the once palatial parlor car of the old Rangeley line. B & SR’ s
\nbest known passenger coach, the pondicherry, now rides Mr. Atwood’s rails.
\nThus down on Cape Cod is a sort of reconstruction of several of the old
\nnarrow guage roads of Maine. If you go down on the Cape in the summer months
\nyou can ride the S! mile loop of Mr. Atwood’s road for a dime. Thousands of
\ntourists take the trip every summer, but the little road is no mere pleasure toy.
\nIt hauls the cranberries and their pickers, and it hauls the many tons of sand
\nwith which the bogs must be sprinkled every winter to combat weeds and bugs and
\nto radiate the heat that prevents the vines from freezing.
\nMr. Atwood’s road is about the size of the old Monson line, which they used
\nto call the Two by Six two feet wide and six miles long. It isn’ t so long
\nnor so important a road as myoId B & SR. But naturally any man of my age who
\nchanced to be born in Wiscasset or Rangeley, in Monson or Bridgton, gets a thrill
\nfrom seeing a modern railroad on Cape Cod using the same engines and cars that
\nstocked the trains we used to ride on many years ago.
\n*****
\nSame of the finest citizens of Central Maine claim Scotland as the land of
\ntheir birth, or at least the land of their parents. This week allover the world
\nScotsmen are singing Auld Lang Syne with exceptional vigor as they honor that
\nbest loved of Scotsmen, Robert Burns. It was more than thirty years ago that one
\nof waterville’s leading Scots called me to task for saying Bobbie Burns. No true
\nScot says that. It is Robbie Burns, or in better Scotch, Rabbie Burns.
\n1-77
\nMost of the Scotch people in America have been moderately well-to-do. Some
\nof them, like Andrew Carnegie, became very wealthy. But today, as in Burns’
\ntime, much of Scotland is a land of poor farmers. It was Burns, above all poets,
\nwho sang the “short and simple annals of the poor” \u2022 Readers who misunderstand
\nhim think he praised poverty as a virtue. Not so! He praised rather the poverty-
\nstricken people who lived such noble, honest lives with no hope of getting
\nout of their stricken condition.
\nBurns, in his love of liquor and his amours, was scarcely a model for living.
\nA fellow Scotsman, who perhaps understood Burns better than did his official biographer
\nLockhart, was Thomas Carlyle. In his masterly “Essay on Burns”, Carlyle
\nsays of the poet’s dissipated life and early death: “Had he been richer, never so
\nlittle richer, the whole might have issued otherwise.” It was hopeless, enervating
\npoverty that doomed Burns.
\nWe folk who do not have the advantage of being Scotch can hardly view their
\nnational poet through the loving eyes of those who knew at first hand the banks
\nand braes of Bonnie Doon. But we can appreciate the simple sincerity of good
\npoetry when we read it. And above all things else, Burns was utterly sincere.
\nSo on this broadcast, devoted to Common Things, we are glad to pay honor to the
\nman who wrote the best that has ever been written about the commonest things of
\nlife. Just consider some of his titles: “To a Mouse”, “To a Mountain Daisy”,
\n“To a Louse on a Lady’s Bonnet in Church”.
\nThe world of letters will always proclaim the virtues of “Tam 0′ Shanter”
\nand “The Cotter’s Saturday Night”, but we take sides with those Scotsmen -among
\nthem the great Carlyle — who say that Burns ought best to be remembered
\nfor his songs. “They do not need to be set to music”, said Carlyle. “In themselves
\nthey are music”.
\nOf course the best known of his songs is “Auld Lang Syne”. Almost as well
\n1-78
\nknown are “My Bonnie Mary”, “Green Grow the Rashes 0”, and “John Anderson, My
\nJo” \u2022 But\u00b7 what are to me the most purely musical verses that Burns ever wrote
\nI want to share with you tonight. He calls this song “The Banks of Devon’~.
\nListen!
\n“How pleasant the banks of the clear winding Devon,
\nWith green spreading bushes and flow’rs blooming fair.
\nBut the bonniest flow’ r on the banks of the Devon
\nWas once a sweet bud on the braes of the Ayr.
\nMild be the sun on this sweet bluShing flower,
\nIn the gay rosy morn, as it bathes in the dew;
\nAnd gentle the fall of the soft vernal Shower
\nThat steals on the evening each leaf to renew.
\no spare the dear blossom, ye orient breezes,
\nWith chill hoary wing as ye uSher the dawn;
\nAnd far be thou distant, thou reptile that seizes
\nThe verdure and pride of the garden or lawn.
\nLet Bourbon exult in his gay gilded lilies,
\nAnd England triumphant display her proud rose;
\nA fairer than either adorns the green valleys
\nWhere Devon, sweet Devon, meandering flows.”
\n*****
\nA few weeks ago we referred to some of that wierdly twisted language known
\nas Federal Prose — the language of government agencies in their tortuous directives
\nthat conceal rather than reveal the meaning. What do you make of this one?
\n“Undue multiplicity of personnel assigned either concurrently or consecutively
\nto a single function involves deterioration of quality in the resultant
\nproduct as compared with the product of the labor of an exact sufficiency of
\npersonnel.”
\n1-79
\nIt might take you a long time to figure out that what the writer of
\nFederal prose is trying to say is the old adage “Too many cooks spoil the broth”.
\n1-80
\nLITTLE TALKS ON COMMON THINGS
\n13th Broadcast February 6, 1949
\nFrom the earliest days of our government, every session of the Senate and
\nof the House of Representatives has been opened with prayer. Too often, during
\nthe hundred and sixty years of our nation’s history, those prayers have been
\nperfunctory and trite. No one paid any attention to them.
\nThen, a few years ago, the Reverend Peter Marshall became chaplain of the
\nSenate. Last week he died at the early age of 48, but in the few short years
\nduring Which he had opened .the Senate’s daily sessions with prayer, he had made
\nhis name known allover the land. For his prayers were most unusual. They were
\ncopied in daily newspapers, not only in the united States, but in Canada, in
\nBritain, in India, South Africa and Australia.
\nPeter Marshall’s prayers made even the politicians listen. Sen. Vandenberg
\nonce said he could never be sure whether Marshall was praying for him or at him.
\nThere was nothing trite or perfunctory about those prayers. Only a few weeks before
\nhis death, at a session of the present 81st Congress he had said: “Dear
\nLord, save us from useless worry lest ulcers of the stomach be the badge of our
\nlack of faith”. When the momentous question of European Relief first came before
\nthe Senate, Peter Marshall prayed: “Give us the wisdom to know where to stand
\nand the courage to stand there, lest failing to stand we fall for anything.”
\nOne of his earliest prayers woke up dozing senators with these words: “Help
\nus to see the middle path between much talk that ends in no action, and hasty
\naction without free discussion”. Again he said: “When we have nothing to say,
\ngive us the wisdom to say nothing”.
\nOne day, when the previous session had been stormy with insinuations and
\nbitterness, this chaplain prayed: “Keep our minds attuned to the eternal values
\n1-81
\nof faith and hope and human kindness, and let us not be submerged in the littleness
\nof prejudice and hate”.
\nIn the 80th Congress, when the closing time drew near and there was so much
\nhectic confusion, when several sessions lasted all day and all night, when bodies
\nhad been fatigued and nerves frayed, Peter Marshall one morning prayed before the
\nsenate in these words: “0 Lord, give us the wisdom to realize that there are only
\n24 hours in a day, that trying to crowd 30 hours activity into 24 hours makes us
\ncreatures of circumstance, not creatures of God. If
\nPerhaps the most quoted of Peter Marshall’s senatorial prayers is one uttered
\nin those days when Congress changed its political control in 1946, and men of both
\n\\
\nparties challenged each other’s motives. This is what the senate chaplain then
\nsaid: “Much as we need to live in harmony with others, much as we yearn for our
\nneighbor’s approval, help us, 0 Lord, to the greater task of living in harmony
\nwith ourselves, so that at night we can look in the mirror and say ‘I may have
\nbeen wrong today. I may have displeased my neighbor; but I can go to bed with my
\nconscience clear.’ ”
\nPeter Marshall will be greatly missed in the senate of the united States. In
\nits century and a half of existence the greatest deliberative body in the world
\nhas had no other chaplain who could reveal to men in high places, so simply, so
\ndirectly, so challengingly, the inner secrets of their own souls.
\n*****
\nNext week we shall have more to say about the narrow guage railroads. We
\nare grateful to those of our listeners who have called or written us during the
\nweek, and we shall acknowledge some of those conununications next Sunday. We shall
\ntell you also, at that time, who the person is that insists there were once ten
\nof those old two-foot roads in Maine. And he counts the Sandy River and Rangeley
\nLakes as only one road, though it was originally three. Last week I named five of
\n1-82
\nthose old railroads. So far I have heard of only one more — a narrow guage
\nroad that ran from Old Orchard to Ocean Park and Ferry Beach. There must have
\nbeen others. I want to know about them before next Sunday.
\n*****
\nAmong the old-time things we like to remember are the church suppers in
\nour small Maine villages at the turn of the century. Churches still hold public
\nsuppers today. They are frequent and they are good, right here in waterville in
\n1949. But they aren’t like the old timers. Circle suppers, they called them in
\nmy boyhood town, for they were put on in each church by the Ladies Aid Society,
\nlocally called the Ladies Circle.
\nIn my town the Universalist suppers were considered best and drew the biggest
\ncrowds, but that reputation may not have been due wholly to the food. For only the
\nUniversalists allowed after-supper dancing in their vestry. The Congregationalists
\npermitted a few sedate square dances, but the Methodists banned dancing in any
\nform.
\nThe principal dish at those suppers was baked beans, supported by brown
\nbread and rolls, pickles in lavish variety, and topped off with big pieces of pie
\nand cake, all washed down with gallons of steaming coffee. And the price I
\nnever knew it to change from 1900 to 1910 was ten cents. In 1912 I was a student
\nin college when my mother wrote me what a howl had gone up in town because
\nher circle .had raised their supper price to 15 cents.
\nOnce a year there was a special supper for which folks paid 20 cents without
\nprotest. It was known as the Men’s Supper, put on, like all the rest, for the
\npublic of both sexes, but with the work done by the men. It always came in February
\nand it was always oyster stew. ‘ And the dessert was just as uniform — not
\na variety of cakes and pies as at the ladies’ suppers — but only what we called
\n“Cream pie”, now better known as Washington Pie. We boys used to wangle for a
\npiece of one of those marvelous three-deckers, whipped cream between the layers
\n1-83
\nand a mountain of Whipped cream on top.
\nDoubtless some of those wonderful suppers are still served in country towns
\ntoday, but their price is no longer 10 or 20 cents.
\n*****
\nA few weeks ago we were talking about rumor, and we gave special attention
\nto the blasting, killing effect of evil rumor. We mentioned how rumors have
\nharmed the sale of certain products, have even driven some firms out of business.
\nDid you know that deliberate propaganda for good rumor also happens in the
\nbusiness world? The best men of business still believe that the way to long
\nterm success is to make a better mouse trap than your neighbor, to produce a
\nproduct which in quality and price will find a favorable market in open competition.
\nYet so powerful is modern advertising that everyone knows it can do a lot to
\nmake the public want to buy a particular product. What isn It so well known is
\nthat there are people who make a business of spreading favorable rumors from
\nmouth to ear. In his recent book “The Affairs of Dame Rumor”, David Jacobson,
\na well known public relations consultant in New York, tells us about professional
\nrumor services, organizations equipped to plant Whatever rumors a client felt
\nwould improve his chances to get the consumer I s dollar. Mr. Jacobson names the
\noldest of these rumor services, established in 1915, as W. Howard Downey and
\nAssociates, with offices in New York, Chicago, Atlanta and Toronto. “On a few
\nhours notice”, says Mr. Jacobson, “this firm told prospective clients it was
\nprepared to supply operatives for spreading rumors anywhere in the country. The
\nstandard contract provided two-man teams to circulate word-of-mouth propaganda
\nby conversation in subways, theaters, commuter trains, elevators, and all other
\nplaces of public assembly”.
\nHere is a sample of the professional rumor-making technique. On behalf of
\na tire manufacturer one of. these two-men teams worked a commuter’s train. When
\nthey boarded the train, one of them seemed to be a businessman and the other a
\nunifo:rmed chauffeur carrying a brand-new tire. “These XYZ tires”, exclaimed
\nthe chauffeur, “are the best I\u00b7ve ever put on the boss’ car.” “You don’t say.
\nJohn”, replied the businessman. “And how many thousand miles do you get out of
\nthem?” This was the signal for the chauffeur to launch into his spiel. The
\nmileage he claimed for these tires was phenomenal. The commuters were impressed,
\nthe talk lingered in their minds, and probably some of them bought ~Z tires.
\nOne of these professional rumor agencies was once hired to pump new life
\ninto a dying broadcasting chain. The two-man teams went to work. When a team was
\nsure it had plenty of listeners, one man would say, “Did you hear what this news
\nbroadcasting outfit is doing?” “You mean so-and-so?”, the other man would ask.
\n“Yes, so-and-so. They’re throwing money away like water. They’re out to get
\npeople for their programs and they’re paying money you wouldn’t believe.” That
\ncampaign was a huge success after three weeks.
\nThere is also the case of the Detroit department store that engaged a rumor
\nagency to boost its sales of women’s dresses. Two-women teams rode the elevators
\nin office buildings and rode the street cars during rush hours, while one woman
\nshouted to the other about the wonderful bargains in that particular store. The
\nteams worked for just one day. On the following day the store sold three thousand
\ndresses.
\nWell, what do you think? Was Barnum right? Is there indeed one born every
\nminute? Strangely enough, education seems to have little to do with it. Some
\nvery learned persons have been easily fooled by the affairs of Dame Runor.
\n*****
\nIn our talks about common things it would be shameful to neglect the heroes
\namong COImllon folk who go unheralded and unsung. Many of the older people of Waterville
\nknew and loved one of those unsung heroes. He was Clarence Richard Johnson,
\ninstructor in French at Colby College, just after the first World War. He was
\neven then a charming person, a maker and holder of friends, always helping the
\n1-85
\nother fellow. He had just returned from war service with the YMCA, first in
\nthe troubled Balkans, then on the western Front. During most of his stay in
\nWaterville, Clarence Johnson lived in the home of the late William Knauff. He
\nsoon decided to leave the teaching of languages and enter the field of sociology,
\nfor he had already conducted an important social survey of Constantinople.
\nSo he left Colby, became a sociologist, married, and was on his way to a
\nbrilliant academic career when he was stricken with tuberculosis. All the rest
\nof his life — more than twenty years — he spent in the rest centers at Saranac
\nLake, in Arizona, in Colorado. More than half the time he could not rise from
\nhis bed. Did he spend his days — those coughing, suffering days — in complaining
\nself-pity? Not Clarence Johnson. He spent every day planning and working for
\nothers. He collected little gems of cheerful thought, published them in tiny booklets,
\nand with the sale helped deserving boys and girls to attend college. He
\nkept up a prodigious correspondence. In his letters he was always asking about
\nsome former acquaintance who he had heard was ill. How was that friend getting
\nalong? He never mentioned his own fatal disease. When he died only a few years
\nago, few of his friends realized that he hadn’t been out of bed for four years.
\nA great heroic soul was this Clarence Richard Johnson.
\nThe truth is that there are men and women like this constantly near us,
\nand we see them not. I heard of one such only a few days ago, a man who would
\nfeel very much embarrassed and discomforted if I should mention his name. He does
\nnot live in Waterville, but his home is not far away. For many years that man
\nhas sutfered ill health, loss of money, loss of loved ones — in fact, the veritable
\nafflictions of Job. Yet he is the most patient, the most tolerant, the
\nmost sympathetic of men. He spends all of his time helping others. How foolish,
\nyou say, not to think more about himself! Maybe so, but perhaps he is forgetting
\nhimself into immortality.
\n1-86
\nLITTLE TALKS ON COMMON THINGS
\n14th Broadcast February 13, 1949
\nComment about the narrow guage railroads has stirred up a lot of interest.
\nWithin ten minutes of the close of the program two weeks ago, Basil Higgins of
\nthe Maine Central Railroad, who long ago worked on the S.andy River line, called
\nto tell me that he believed the Sandy River was once three different roads, and
\nthis week he called again to confirm the fact and name the roads.
\nMrs. Harriett Holmes of High Street, waterville was the first of several
\npersons to tell me about the old two-foot line from Old Orchard to Ocean Park
\nand Ferry Beach. Robert Gay of Silver Street thinks that road was broad guage,
\nbut David Howard of Nash Street supports Mrs. Holmes.
\nPerry Morse of Carter’s Flower Shop says there was once an old two-footer
\nat Searsport, connecting with the wharves. He thinks it might at one time have
\nbeen two or three miles long.
\nHarry Jones, who now lives in what was once the East Vassalboro Station of
\nthe Wiscasset, waterville and Farmington, tells me that the little road suspended
\noperation into winslow in 1908 or 1909, about the time when the electric road
\nwas built through from Augusta.
\nIn spite of his present place of residence, Mr. Jones says he is more familiar
\nwith the Sandy River and Rangeley Lakes line. He is one of half a dozen
\nlisteners, including Galen Eustis of Mayflower Hill Drive (a native of Strong),
\nwho support Basil Higgins’ statement that the Sandy River was once three separate
\nroads. The original one, called the Sandy River, ran from Farmington to
\nStrong. Then there was the Franklin and Megantic from Strong to Kingfield, with
\na later branch all the way to the foot of Mt. Bigelow. The third was called the
\nPhillips and Rangeley, with a link to the original road between Phillips and
\n1-87
\nStrong. Later a line was built from Dead River Station to Coflin, and Mr. Jones
\nsays that branch was called the Eustis Railroad.
\nMr. Jones adds an important historical touch when he assures me that the
\nroad bed and culverts on the Wiscasset, Waterville and Farmington Line were
\noriginally graded for standard guage, and that the decision to build the narrower
\ntrack was a reversal of early plans.
\nSpeaking of road beds, they last a long time after the line has been abandoned
\nand the rails taken up. Hunters in the Mt. Bigelow region tell me that the
\nold road bed of the narrow guage spur out of Bigelow Station still makes a convenient
\nand recognizable trail.
\nHow many of you are aware that the old road bed of the Maine Central, along
\nthe west bank of the Kennebec back of the old Colby campus, is easily recognized
\nto this day; yet I think no one now living remembers when trains ran on that road
\nbed instead of crossing College Avenue at the south end of the campus.
\nF. D. Wood of Clinton sends the information that the railroad from Burnham
\nJunction to Belfast was originally planned as narrow guage. Miss Littlefield of
\nthe Waterville High School faculty tells me that the little Monson road always
\nhad the local nickname of the peanut bender.
\nSeveral Franklin County residents say that the traveler from New Sharon to
\nFarmington can still see Where some of the work was done in preparation for the
\nintended, but never completed, line from Waterville to Farmington. The grading
\nof embankments for bridge-heads and culverts, and other signs of such preliminary
\nwork, are still visible.
\nWho is my authority for the\u00b7 statement that there were once ten of these
\nnarrow guage roads in Maine? He is Linwood W. Moody, author of a little book
\ncalled “The Edaville Railroad”, the story of Ellis Atwood\u00b7 s reconstruction of
\nthe narrow guage roads of Maine on his cranberry. bog on Cape Cod. I quote from
\npage 3 of Mr. Moody’s book: “The ten two-footers in Maine boasted 212 miles of
\n1-88
\nline. They were built and run like big railroads, and were iImnensely vital to
\nthe loves and lives of the neighborhood. Their smoky smells were just as alluring
\nand they could holler just as loud.”
\nIs Mr. Moody right? Were there once ten of those narrow guage roads in
\nMai.ne? Well, we know there were the Bridgton and Saco River, the S.andy River
\nand Rangeley Lakes (originally three separate roads), the Wiscasset, Waterville
\nand Farmington, the Kennebec Central, the Monson. That makes seven if we count
\nthe separate roads that made up the Sandy River. Now we know there was an eighth
\nat Old Orchard. What was its name, by the way? And if Perry Morse is right,
\nthere was a ninth at Searsport. Where was the tenth, or is Mr. Moody wrong in
\nhis arithmetic?
\n*****
\nWhen I attended the funeral last week of Somerset County’s leading woman
\ncitizen, Helen Louise Coburn, I was struck by the thought, what a long period of
\ntime only two generations can cover. The time from the birth of Miss Coburn’s
\nfather to her own death last week encompassed the .entire history of Colby College
\nto date. For Miss Coburn’s father was born in 1817, the year before classes were
\nfirst held at the Waterville College. There had been only eleven graduations
\nwhen he entered the college in 1835, and it was 72 years ago when Miss Coburn
\nherself received a Colby diploma. She was four years old when her:\u00b7 father served\u00b7
\nin the thirty-first Congress during the first administration of Abraham Lincoln.
\nOnly twice previously in my life have I been reminded of the long expanse
\nof time a few generations can sometimes cover. In my early teaching days at
\nHebron Academy I became a close friend of an aged lady, Miss Carrie Tripp. She
\nremembered well her grandfather, Elder John Tripp, who had come to Hebron from
\nMassachusetts in 1799, and who lived to be a very old man. Elder John Tripp had
\nonce shaken hands with George Washington. It may seem a very trivial thing to
\nyou, but it has always made an impression upon me that I knew well a person who
\n1-89
\nhad frequently talked with one who had shaken the hand of WaShington.
\nMy second incident of this sort occurred here in Central Maine. For many
\nyears I had known that fine old gentleman, Horatio Adams, who remembered as a boy
\nwatching his father make on the kitchen stove America’s first chewing gum. Surely
\nall the old timers have not forgotten Adams I Gum. After several years of cherished
\nacquaintance with Mr. Adams, I came to know his charming wife. One day she
\ntold me this incident. When She was a little girl of ten She was visiting in
\nthe home of her g:tTaridmother on Long Island, and the grandmother told her how,
\nwhen She herself was a child of six, Aaron Burr, hiding from public wrath after
\nthe duel with Hamil ton, took refuge in her parents’ home, the very house where
\ngrandmother was now telling the story to granddaughter. So here again\u00b7 I was
\ntalking with one who had talked with 9- person who had seen the men of prominence
\nin the founding of our nation.
\n*****
\nYesterday was the birthday of Abraham Lincoln, born 140 years ago, in a oneroom
\ncabin on the Sinking Spring Farm, four miles from what is now the village
\nof Hodgeville, Kentucky. It was a scorching July day in 1939 when I visited that
\nspot, now a great national memorial. High on a hill, which one mounts by a hundred
\ngranite steps, stands a beautiful marble edifice within which is enclosed
\nthe one-room cabin of the pioneer.
\nTo this cabin, on the day following Lincoln’s birth, came nine-year old
\nDennis Hanks with his aunt Betsy Sparrow. Telling of the incident years later
\nto Lincoln’s law partner, William Herndon, Dennis Hanks said: “Nancy let me hold
\nhim, and she said, ‘Be keerful of him, Dennis, fur you air the fust boy he’s ever
\nseen!’ I swang him back and forth and he begun to yell bloody murder. So I says
\nto Aunt Betsy, ‘You take him. He’ll never amount to much.’ It
\nEven to nine-year old Dennis Hanks a baby was a common thing. There were
\nlots of them in the cabin homes of the Kentucky frontier. But prophecy is
\n1-90
\nalways dangerous, and Dennis was far from the truth when he predicted that
\nlittle Abe wouldn’ t amount to much.
\nWe live at a time When environment counts for a lot, or at least is believed
\nto count for a lot. With the writer of the “Elegy in a Country Churchyard” we
\nlike to .believe that
\n“perhaps in this neglected spot is laid
\nSome heart once pregnant with celestial fire;
\nHands that the rod of empire might have swayed,
\nOr waked to ecstasy the living lyre.”
\nHow does the poet explain it? “Their lot forbade”, he says. The environment
\nkept these geniuses from having a chance.
\nAccording to that theory, if a child has a drunken father and a slovenly
\nmother, don I t expect the child to grow up to amount to anything. And we know,
\nalas, that there is much truth in the theory. If a child comes from a home of
\npoverty, in these days of plenty and social security, don’t expect anything to
\ncome of him.
\nNow the career of Abraham Lincoln is a constant rebuke to that theory. Environment
\nwould have made him anything except a great statesman and our most
\nloved President. He might easily have spent his life flat-boating on the Ohio
\nand Mississippi Rivers. He might perhaps ,have been just a wrestling, storytelling,
\nrail-splitting day laborer of the Sangamon Valley. But he didn’t spend
\nhis life that way. He became a reader of books, an eager listener to the talk of
\nmen of affairs, he became fired with ambition to rise above the level of the
\nCarey Grove gang, whose leader he had twice out-wrestled. Not in the environment
\naround him, but in the spirit within himself lies the explanation of Abraham
\nLincoln’s rise to fame. “Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?”, scoffed
\nthe scribes and the Pharisees. Men talked the same way in 1860. Could a President
\nof the united States come out of the uncultured prairies? Impossible! You can’t
\n1-91
\nget blood from a turnip.
\nBut Abraham Lincoln was elected President. The boy who never attended
\nschool so much as a whole year in his life-time, the boy whom the church influenced
\nscarcely at all, the boy who oo.uldn It find out the name of his own maternal
\ngrandfather, the boy who, growing to be a young man, found retail trade a road
\nto bankruptcy and his post office the brim of his own hat — that was the boy
\nwho led a nation through a great fratricidal war, the boy who was to say in 1865,
\n“With malice toward none, ‘with charity for all”.
\nOne of the most misunderstood and most wrongfully condemned of persons is
\nthe stepmother. Fiction likes to picture her as the cruel, ruthless persecutor
\nof her husband’s children. But that kind of fiction is often most untrue to fact.
\nSuch was the case with Abraham Lincoln. Perhaps the crucial turning point in his
\nlife was the day when Thomas Lincoln brought his new wife, Sarah Bush Johnson,
\ninto the boy’s third cabin home on the Indiana prairie.
\nA year had passed since that mournful day when he and Dennis Hanks had
\nshaped wooden pegs with which his father fastened together the rough planks that
\nmade the crude coffin in which they carried Nancy Hanks Lincoln to her grave.
\nFor a whole year Sister. Sarah, now only twelve years old, had cooked the meals
\nand done what housekeeping she could. Then came the stepmother — a woman of
\nsympathetic understanding, strong mind and good sense. Long afterward she told
\nHerndon: “Such a mess I never saw before. That cabin was filthy. I washed and
\ndressed up those children so they looked more human, and I kept after Tom until
\nhe made bedsteads, a proper table, better stools and two’ hickory chairs.” .
\nIt was this stepmother who encouraged Lincoln’s reading, who protected him
\nfrom his father’s taunts about his physical laziness, who saw that he came to
\nthe notice of men like James Gentry, the squire of Gentryville. Al though Lincoln
\nnever saw his father again, after he became a Springfield lawyer, he kept in close
\n1-92
\ntouch with his stepmother. He protected her small inheritance from the schemes
\nof her own son; he frequently sent her money; he often spoke of her with deep
\nappreciation. She lived to see h\u00b1m President and suffered the agonizing news
\nof his assassination. And at the last she said, “Abe was a good boy and a good
\nman. He seemed closer to me than my own children.”
\nYes, when we are inclined to speak ill of stepmothers, let us remember Sarah
\nBush Lincoln, the woman who did more than any other person to change a motherless,
\nShiftless boy, seemingly destined for an eventless life on the frontier, into a
\ngreat man, a great statesman, the savior of his nation.
\n1-93
\nLITTLE TALKS ON COMMON THINGS
\n15th Broadcast February 20, 1949
\nThis is National Security Week, and we want to put in a good word for the
\nReserve Officers Association. They are a group who take our national security
\nseriously, but not be1igerently. Some of them have been in combat in two world
\nwars, and they will bend every effort to see that we escape a third. Of Maine’s
\n3,000 reserve officers — those who accepted commissions on separation from service
\n— only about 700 belong to the Association. Many more ought to join.
\nEveryone of our country’s wars has been fought by citizen soldiers. OUr
\nReserve Officers are citizen soldiers who are enough interested in the nation’s
\nsecurity to be willing to give time to the military during peace years in order
\nto be qualified for active duty if emergency comes.
\nWe owe much to the R.O.A. for the speed with which we could prepare after
\nPearl Harbor. The Reserve Officers then gave us a substantial part of our military
\nleadership. Ranging in grade from lieutenant to lieutenant general, these
\nofficers held key positions in all combat units.
\nThe Reserve Officers are in no sense a substitute for the Regular Army or
\nfor the National Guard. They are an important and effective supplement to those
\nunits. The Reserve Officers would in no way disparage the Regular Army. They
\nhave no quarrel with the West Point men. They share completely the sentiment of
\nGeneral Eisenhower, who recently said: “The wartime army of the United States
\nwas a mass expression of America. No one questioned whether a man was a regular
\nor reserve or national guardsman or selectee or volunteer; whether an officer
\ncame from west Point or the Reserve or O.C.S. or directly from civilian life. All
\nof them together, rising above minor differences, built a magnificent unity.”
\n1-94
\nGood luck to the Reserve Officers Association in its efforts to build a
\nmore effective organization.
\n*****.
\nThis is definitely not one of those “view with alarm” programs. We neither
\nprophecy disaster nor rave about the terrible ways of modern life. But after all,
\nwe are human, and occasionally some condition that we consider bad does raise
\nour wrath. That is just what these miscalled comic books do to us. Either we
\nare getting older and more crotChety, or those comics are really getting worse
\nand worse. Horror, murder, torture and the lowest motives of life are their common
\nsubjects. Their so-called Characters are often utterly devoid of Character.
\nTheir ethics wouldn’t meet the approval even of gangsters. Yet they deluge the
\nnews stands in ever increasing numbers and then go into the hands of our boys
\nand girls.
\nI was interested when my friend, the famous sea writer, Jim Connolly, was
\nappointed a few weeks ago as chairman of a Boston commission to control those
\npublications and try to get the worst of them off the news stands. Then someone
\ndug up an old ordinance forbidding any municipal position to go to anyone over
\nseventy years old. That was all right with eighty year old Jim.
\nHe had never read a comic book in his life. But something vastly better
\ncould be said of him. In all his hundreds of thousands of words in his several
\nhundred stories, Jim Connolly had never written a line unfit for any man, woman
\nor child to read. The comic books would arouse his anger and disgust when he
\ndid take a look at them.
\nNow I do not defend the Boston method. That city’s record of ridiculous
\ncensorship is too well known. To censor a publication in anyone community is
\nonly to give it free advertising, at best only drive it under cover into a kind
\nof biack market. The better way is to show an aroused public opinion that makes
\nreputable newsdea1ers unwilling to sell these items and reputable homes unwilling
\n1-95
\nto have them in the house. But the best way of all is to encourage the picture
\ntechnique of the comics for worthwhile publishing. Picture stories just as interesting
\nand far more valuable are Ji.e.iilg pxodUced,Let us give those little books
\nour hearty support.
\nSuch, for instance, is a sixteen page paper book, made exactly like the comics
\nwith colored pictures and all of the text issuing from the mouths of the pictured
\ncharacters. This book is one of a series called “Adventures”, produced
\nfor the General Electric Company by General Comics, Inc. This particular one is
\ncalled “Adventures Inside the Atom”, and tells in this forceful, simple fashion
\nthe scientific facts about nuclear energy and the making of the atom bomb.
\nThe way to kill the comic books is to fight t;hem with their own weapon. Why
\ncan’t the churches do for religion and the schools themselves do for general education
\nwhat the General Electric Company is already doing for science?
\n*****
\nAs we celebrate this week the birthday of George Washington, we are reminded
\nhow his military career and his presidency had obscured the real Washington until
\nDouglas Freeman brought to light much of the forgotten past in the first two volumes
\nof what will, without question, be the great, definitive biography of the
\nFather of His Country. Those first two volumes deal only with the young Washington,
\nbefore he came to fame. They reveal, however, a central fact about the man
\nthat ought to give us pause in these days when so many Jeremiahs predict the
\nimminence of social revolution.
\nWe hear much today about human rights versus property rights. In some quarters
\nit seems as if to own property is to be called an economic royalist. Not
\nlong ago I listened to a man who talked as if one who had property rights had
\nthereby forfeited his human rights. I hope no one is so stupid as to deny the
\nsupremacy of human rights, but it does not follow that there is no such thing as
\n1-96
\nproperty rights.
\nSo I contend it is good for us to realize the central, controlling motif
\nin the life of George Washington. That motif was land — the ownership and control
\nof land. Washington inherited land, he surveyed and prospected land, he
\ncultivated land, he built on land, he bequeathed land — but he seldom sold
\nland.
\nWashington was anything but a selfish man; he gave years of his life to
\nthe public welfare. He never tried to amass a fortune by his land; he simply
\nloved it. For the soil of Virginia was to him the soul of America. He would
\nfight to protect that soil; he would resist its exploitation by an unsympathetic
\nking and parliament; he would leave his beloved acres to head a strong
\ncentral government in order that the security of those acres might be better
\npreserved. In these days when it is somewhat fashionable to belittle property
\nrights, let us not forget George Washington, the man of property.
\nRemarks about our two greatest presidents, whose birthdays fall in this
\nmonth, remind us of the log cabin myth. Because log cabins were common on the
\nKentucky frontier, from the days of Daniel Boone until long after Lincoln’s
\nboyhood, we have always associated the log cabin with American colonial life.
\nMost people think it is the way the first settlers built their homes at Jamestown
\nand Plymouth, at New Amsterdam and Salem. But such is not the fact.
\nThe Jamestown settlers lived in tents, caves and what were called “English
\nWigwams”, patterned after the huts of Welsh miners and somewhat resembling Indian
\nwigwams. Those structures were made of woodbine or grapevine, steamed and
\nbent to form a shape like the frametop of a covered wagon. The frame was then
\ncovered with thatch. The temporary dwellings during the first awful winter at
\nPlymouth were built much the same way.
\nBut within a year at both Plymouth and Jamestown better and more permanent
\nhouses had been built. And they were built like the only kind of houses these
\n1-97
\nEnglish settlers knew. They did not know the log cabin — they had never seen
\none — but they did know the English frame houses of timber, boards and clapboards.
\nWhy do so many people think the Pilgrims lived in log cabins? Because, as
\nso often happens, the error got into a widely read book. In 1840 Rev. Alexander
\nYoung published his “Chronicles of New England”. He quoted an old Plymouth
\ndiary as reporting that a great storm of February 4, 1621 “caused much daubing
\nof our houses to fall down”. Now in young I s time — the first half of the 19th
\ncentury — ~e space between logs of a cabin was chinked with moss and “daubed”
\nwith clay to keep it in place. That was what “daubing” meant to Young. But in
\nthe journal kept by the great pilgrims, Bradford and Winslow, the word daubing
\nhad the English Elizabethan meaning of the more modern word “plaster”. The
\ndaubing that fell down in the storm of 1621 was clay plastering, smeared over
\nthe clapboards or interior sheathing of the Plymouth houses.
\nThe log cabin first appeared in America in 1638, introduced when the Swedish
\nWest India Company sent settlers to Delaware. It was the kind of house the
\nSwedes knew at home and was just what was needed for rapid spread of settlements
\nin a land of no saw mills and few tools. Because it was so quickly built and so
\nstrong against the elements, the English settlers copied it as they moved westward
\nacross the Appalachians. Perhaps the Scotch-Irish, even more than the English,
\nwere responsible for the log cabin’s wide use for they quickly adopted it when
\nthey first came to Maine and Vermont. and they carried it with them to the Ohio
\nValley. There were log cabins in Gorham, Maine at the time of the French and
\nIndian Wars, built by Hugh McLellan and his fellow Scotsmen before the building
\nof the big McLellan House on Fort Hill, where the Gorham State Teachers College
\nnow stands.
\nIn 1840, twenty years before Abraham Lincoln was to become President and
\nwhen he was an unknown young lawyer in the Illinois Legislature, the log cabin
\n1-98
\nbecame a sacred symbol. It was the holy embodiment of the campaign that made
\nHarrison President of the united States. The symbol seems to have originated
\nas a boomerang launched by the opposition, for a Democratic newspaper said that
\nHarrison wOuld be out of place in the civilized White House, that he would be
\nmore at home in a log cabin with plenty of hard cider. The Whigs eagerly seized
\nupon this slur and turned it to their own advantage. Harrison became, the first
\nlog cabin candidate. “Tippecanoe and Tyler too” became a long-remembered campaign
\nslogan. To be born in a log cabin became such a mark of popularity for
\nany political candidate that Daniel Webster, speaking at Saratoga in August,
\n1840 apologized for not being born in one.
\nLet us not forget what American democracy really means. A nation that, by
\npopular acclaim, can elevate to its highest office both a Washington and a Lincoln,
\nproclaims that both the humble log cabin and the wealthy Virginia acres
\nbelong in American life.
\n*****
\nAny speaker is embarrassed when he makes a slip, when he “pulls a boner”. So
\nI wonder if it wouldn’t be smart to plan for one ahead of time. It is practically
\ncertain that some evening on this broadcast we Shall make a mistake, misquote
\na passage, ascribe a quotation to the wrong person, or perhaps misstate a
\nfact. If we do, we Shall try to make amends, but, we trust, without the formality
\nand pomposity that marks such corrections in the halls of Congress. Frankly, I
\ndon’t like to see the columns of the Congressional Record cluttered with stuff
\nlike this.
\nOn February 7 Senator Tobey of New Hampshire rose to speak on the pending
\nbill concerning the special connni ttee on small business. He said: “Mr. president,
\nI have listened to the remarks of my friend, the minority leader, the Senator
\nfrom Nebraska, with great interest. To me, after listening for some time, I think
\nthey form a perfect illustration of Shakespeare’s reference to ‘linked sweetness
\n1-99
\nlong drawn out.l. I think the Senator from Nebraska had his fingers crossed in
\nsome of the points he made, and I propose to uncross his fingers for a few
\nminutes”.
\nNow Senator Tobey had slipped up on his quotation, a very natural and pardonable
\nslip. Why not let it go? But, no, they don’t do things that way in
\nthe Senate of the united States. The next day, February 8, the Senate had
\nscarcely opened when Senator Tobey again arose and thus addressed the president
\nof the Senate:
\n“Mr. President, yesterday in speaking on the floor of the Senate I attributed
\na quotation in which I used ‘linked sweetness long drawn out’ to the immortal
\nbard of Avon. Mr. James Murphy, the Official Reporter of Debates, has
\ncalled my attention to the fact that credit Should have been given to John Milton.
\nTherefore, with apologies to William Shakespeare, I ask that the Record be corrected
\nand the name of Milton substituted for the name of Shakespeare in my remarks.”
\nWhereupon the genial Alben Barkley, president of the Senate, said: “The
\ncorrection will be made.”
\nJust why Senator Tobey apologized to Shakespeare rather than to Milton is
\nnot clear. Anyhow he set the record straight by use of the Congressional Record
\nwith the taxpayer’s money.
\n*****
\nWe all appreciate a sense of fair play. It is good to see it in a game, in
\npolitics, in business. There is an interesting symbol of it in old London. At
\none end of the famous Whitehall is a statue of Charles I, the king who lost his
\nhead at the executioner’s block, and at the other end of Whitehall is a statue
\nof Oliver Cromwell, the man who ordered the king’s execution. Nothing could
\nbetter express the sense of fairness of the British people than the proximity
\nof those two statues.
\n1-100
\nLITTLE TALKS ON COMMON THINGS
\n16th Broadcast February 27, 1949
\nHave you read anything today — a newspaper, a magazine, part of a book?
\nMost of us do read something every day. Did it ever occur to you that, when you
\nread, you are doing something difficult, something that seems like a kind of
\nmagic to those who cannot read? You had to be taught to do it, and perhaps
\nmany teachers struggled with you before you could read and understand what you
\nread. For the art of reading is the art of getting meaning from the printed page.
\nWe read not merely words made up of symbols called letters. The words must convey
\na meaning’ and not the words alone, but the way they are put together. We
\nhave to learn to read what is called the context — the whole meaning of a whole
\npassage.
\nThat we have learned to do this at all, poorly as some of us have mastered
\nthe art, we owe to our teachers. All around us, wherever we live, are other
\nteachers trying to teach this art to the children of today. Some of those teachers
\nare tired, discouraged people. Some of them will leave teaching this year,
\njust as others left it last year, to take jobs that are decently paid, that offer
\na better standing in the community and a more normal private life.
\nThe teachers from whom we learned to read gave us a priceless key to freedom.
\nWe have been hearing a lot about the four freedoms — freedom of religion, freedom
\nof speech and press, freedom from want, freedom from fear. But there is a
\nfifth freedom, more important because it is more fundainental. It is freedom from
\nignorance. The ignorant man is the easiest victim to want and fear. Freedom of
\nreligion means little to him and a free press means nothing at all. For the ignorant
\nman, even if technically he can read, cannot understand what he reads, and
\nfor that very reason he is a danger to himself and to his country. In a very real
\n1-101
\nsense our teachers mold the nation’s future. Give them your support.
\n*****
\nNext week I promise you a pleasant surprise. It will be a last word on
\nnarrow guage railroads, and it won’t be opinions of mine or my correspondents.
\nI think you will like it and will, as I do, regard it as a genuine surprise.
\nI wonlt even give you a hint tonight about what it is. Weill just save it
\nuntil next week.
\n*****
\nWe have let several weeks elapse without mentioning our favorite topic of
\nwords. We are brought back to it by a letter from Gertrude Taylor of North Vassalboro,
\nwho wants to know the origin of the expression “Black Republican”. The
\nphrase “Black Republican”, most often used in derision and contempt, referred
\nto the Republican Party I s defense and use of the negro. The term was occasionally
\nused before the Civil War — as, for instance, in the Lincoln-Douglas debates
\nof 1858 — and then referred simply to the Republicans I friendliness to-.
\nward the abolitionists, those who wanted to free the slaves by the quickest and
\nharshest means. But what gave the term its most uncomplimentary meaning was the
\npolicy of Republicans after the war, when the Republican-controlled government
\nwent beyond its commendable plan to free the negro slaves, and ‘launched upon a
\npernicious use of the freed negroes to control the South. In those days Black
\nRepublican referred at first to the ignorant, suddenly freed negroes who were
\nput into the state legislatures of the South by carpet-bagger influence. Later
\nthe name was plastered on all Republicans who upheld the Reconstruction policy.
\nThat period after the Civil War is one of the most shameful in our nation’s
\nhistory. Abraham Lincoln had died only a few short weeks after he had said, “With
\nmalice toward none, with charity for all, let us bind up the nation’s wounds.”
\nBut the new leaders of the party he had led so well were determined on vengeance,
\nand by their evil tactics they not only got the name Black Republicans, but they
\n1-102
\nmade it impossible for their party to make any political impression upon the
\nSouth even to this day.
\n*****
\nA neighbor, whom I have promised not to name, has just told me about one
\nof the best of the old expressions that has ever come to my attentiono I wonder
\nhow many of you ever heard it. Here it is: “I don It feel very bitish”. If you
\nnever heard it, you may have to think twice before you see what it means. Well,
\ntry it out the next time you lose your appetite and nothing tastes good to you.
\nJust say, “I don’t feel very bitish”.
\n*****
\nWw were speaking a few weeks ago about the old-time tanneries. Mrs. Josie
\nClaflin of Fairfield reminds me that there was once an old tannery near her girlhood
\nhome in China Village. It was located on the west shore near the head of
\nthe lake, not far from where the Baptist parsonage is now located. To show the
\nspot, Mrs. Claflin sends me an old picture card postmarked 1922. It shows, in a
\nclump of trees on the lake shore, J. A. Woodsum’s cottage, and in the upper left
\ncorner rises the spire of the Baptist Church. Mrs. Claflin says she learned to
\nskate on the shallow spots that froze over where water flowed into the tan vats,
\nwhen she was too young to be allowed out on the lake.
\nMrs. Claflin mentions another old time thing — how hornets made paper from
\ncedar fence rails. As the outer surface of the rails began to shred away, hornets
\nwould pullout the fibres, mix them with moisture from their own bodies,
\nand the chemical result was very much like paper. Does anyone else recall that
\nkind of insect activity?
\nMrso Claflin also refers to a cemetery in China called Sugar Loaf. Is that
\nname still used? By the way, perhaps we shall have to devote a few minutes some
\nevening to old cemeteries. Would anyone be interested?
\n*****
\n1-103
\nWe queer folk who play around with the study of words are intrigued by a
\nprocess which the scholars call folk-etymology. What does the term folk-etymology
\nmean? It is a popular, natural manner of speech by which we fit an unfamiliar
\nforeign word or expression into the mold of our common .native language.
\nIn my boyhood I had no idea there was such an expression as contre-dance, because
\nwe called it country dance. Long before I ever saw in print the word cutlass
\n— the buccaneer’s good weapon — I had heard it habitually pronounced
\n“cutlash”. In the First World War our American soldiers had a lot of fun with
\nFrench words. Quite naturally au revoir became olive oil, bon jour was barn door,
\ntres bien was trays beans, camouflage was camel flags, and the good British
\nmotor lorrie became motor Laura.
\nBut I have always thought the classic example was the American doughboy’s
\ndescription of the Hindenburg Line. You veterans of World War I will remember
\nthat those fortified German entrenchments stretched from Touls to Ypres. So the
\ndoughboys said, “The Hindenburg Line hangs from Towels to Wipers.”
\nThis process of folk-etymology causes many natural, but erroneous, associations
\nbetween words and things. For instance, the pantry is not the place where
\nthe pans are kept, but where pain (the French bread) is kept. The buttery is not
\nthe place for butter, but rather the boteillerie, the place of the bottles or
\nliquor. cutlet has nothing to do with cutting, but is the little rib. The woodchuck
\nhas no relation to wood; the titmouse is not a mouse; the primrose and the
\nrosemary are not roses. Mohair is not hair, and the hollyhock (a combination of
\nholly and oak) is neither holly nor oak. All of these names come from foreign
\nwords that our English ancestors could not pronounce so that they put them into
\nEnglish words that they could pronounce. They even did it with proper names. You
\nhave doubtless known families by the name of Darling. It is a well known name in
\nthe Blue Hill region of Maine. Where did it originate? How did any family come
\nto have a surname that people use as a term of endearment? The answer is that
\n1-104
\nwhen Englishmen encountered people from the French town of Orleans, made so
\nfamous by Joan of Arc that She was called the Maid of Orleans, they had difficulty
\ngetting the word Orleans around their tongues. A fellow might show up
\nin Dover or Bristol calling himself Raoul d’Orleans. That was too much of a
\nmouthful for a channel Englishman. The stranger very soon became known as
\nRalph Darling, and Darlings his descendents were ever after.
\nWaterville people have sometimes wondered why many of our fine citizens of
\nFrench-Canadian descent have the name Simpson, one of the oldest surnames in
\nold England and as stoutly British as roast beef. Dr. Julian Taylor, who taught
\n68 consecutive years at Colby College, once told me he felt sure that this phenomenon
\nwas the result of folk-etymology, that the name in French was Sans Souci.
\nBecause the English name that sounded most like it was Simpson, in an EngliSh
\nspeaking country Simpson it became.
\nI have also been told that half a century ago there were three French-Canadian
\nbrothers here in Waterville, full-blood brothers, with three different surnames.
\nWhether true or not, it makes a good story. The French name was apparently
\nRoi. One brother called himself Roy, which is what the name looked like
\nin English writing. Another was King, the translation of the name into EngliSh.
\nThe third was Ware, the English name nearest the sound of the French name. Three
\nbrothers all with different last names: Roy, King and Ware.
\nProbably we’ve talked too long already on this subject, but we cannot forego
\none final word. A lot of good Englishmen would like to believe that the word
\nsirloin originated because some ancient king of Britain once knighted a loin of
\nbeef, recognizing the national diSh by saying, “Rise, Sir Loin”. The student of
\nlanguage knows better. The sirloin is simply the under or lower loin and all
\nwe can say about it today is that deflation, disinflation, or What have you, it
\nstill costs too much.
\n1-105
\nLITTLE TALKS ON COMMON THINGS
\n17th Broadcast March 6, 1949
\nMost of us are guilty occasionally of that rhetorical fault known as the
\nmixed metaphor. We say things like this: “If the government holds the reins, it
\nwill play the tune”. But probably few of us ever confused two sports in the
\nsame metaphor the way that persistent voice from Michigan, Clare Hoffman, did
\na few days ago in Congress. He said: “As a candidate for the Presidency, Mr.
\nDewey has twice gone to bat. Perhaps the pitcher in the first contest was a
\nBob Feller or a Dizzy Dean, and hence the young man’s strike-out was excusable.
\nBut on this last occasion a soft, easy ball was tossed up to h~ and he just
\ndid not take his bat off his shoulder or start to swing until the catcher had
\nit in his mitt.”
\nUp to that point Representative Hoffman was going strong with his baseball
\nfigure of speech. But then he continued: “In all fairness Mr. Dewey should get
\nout of the batter’s box, cease trying to carry the ball, and if his “me-too”
\ninternational supporters cannot run interference or do some minor job on the
\nteam, they and he should go back and sit down on the bench.”
\nIt would be a big job for even Mr. Hodfman’s most pestiferous opponent, Mr.
\nMarcantonio of New York, to take in the full meaning of that picture. Mr. Dewey
\nin the batter’s box carrying the ball! Where? In his pocket or in his mouth?
\n*****
\nMore than once on this program we have had kind words for private industry,
\nfor individual enterprise, as true characteristics of the American way of life.
\nPertinent to that topic is a single paragraph that appeared in a long editorial
\nin the Omaha World Herald a few weeks ago. Listen to these words: “Here in America,
\nnot merely in other lands, the state is more and more taking control and
\n1-106
\nownership of the people. The power to tax is the power to destroy; that is why
\nthe taxing power must always be held in restraint by the people themselves. The
\npeople’s independence and self-reliance must not be destroyed. Free men must not
\nbecome vassals either of industry or of the state. Free men must not be rendered
\nincapable of self-support; they must not be forced to constant reliance upon the
\nbiased paternalism of a great white father. Some of us will fight this concentration
\nof powers in WaShington to the last ditch, for great power does corrupt,
\nand absolute power corrupts absolutely. II
\n*****
\nNow for the surprise which I promised you for tonight. There are lots of
\npeople in this vicinity who know something about the old narrow.guage railroads,
\nand some who know a great deal about them. I have talked with several men who
\nonce worked on one or more of those old, two-foot lines, and they have given me
\nvaluable information. But I had no idea that, right here in Waterville., I Should
\nfind an expert, a real encyclopedia of knowledge about the narrow \u00b7guage roads.
\nAnd that expert is not a railroad man; he is not an old man; he is not .even a
\nvoter. He is believe it or not — a sixteen year old boy \u2022.
\nHis name is Brian Alley and he lives at 20 Sherwin Street, Waterville. He
\nis now a senior at the Waterville Junior High School. You can’t stump him with
\nany questions about the old narrowguage lines. He never rodeon.one in his life,
\nbut he knows about every mile of track, every locomotive, every car. He is right
\nhere in the studio with me tonight and he has consented to answer some questions
\non this program.
\nM: Brian, how did you get interested in something that went out of .existence
\nbefore you were born — those old narrow guagerailroads?
\n~MY mother is a native of Franklin County .and I have relatives who still live
\nin Phillips, strong and Farmington. I wanted some kind of a hobby, \u00b7so a feW-years
\n1-107
\nago I began to collect everything I could find about little railroads like the
\nSandy River.
\nM: How have you gathered your information?
\nB: By talking and corresponding with persons who worked on the narrow guage roads,
\nby collecting items from the roads themselves when they were abandoned, and by
\nreading everything I could find in print on the subject.
\nM: Has anyone person helped you especially?
\nB: Yes, Eliot Steward of Norway, Maine. He was born in Phillips, and over the
\nyears he took a lot of pictures of the Sandy River Road. The tracks ran close by
\nhis house, and he had many rides on the engines. Mr. Steward has been a lot of
\nhelp to me, especially in my collection of pictures.
\nM: When Linwood Moody in his book on the Edaville Railroad writes that there were
\nten of these old two-footers in Maine, is he right or wrong? Were there exactly
\nten, not nine or eleven?
\nB: Mr. Moody is right. There were just ten of those two-foot railroads in Maine.
\nM: Do you know what they were?
\nB: Yes, I do. In the first place,ypu were wrong when you said the Sandy River
\nand Rangeley Lakes was made up of three original roads.
\nM: That is what an old-time railroad man told me. I thought he knew.
\nB: Well, the record at the State House proves him wrong. The roads that later
\nmade up the SR & RL were six roads, not three.
\nM: What? You mean there were actually twice as many as I thought there were?
\nB: That’s right. They were the original Sandy River, chartered in 1879; the
\nFranklin and Megantic, 1884; the Phillips and Rangeley, 1889; the Kingfield and
\nDead River, 1893; the Madrid and the Eustis, both chartered in 1903.
\nM: In speaking of ten roads, did Mr. Moody count those as six of the ten?
\nB: He had to, if his total was ten, because there were only four others: the
\nBridgton and Saco River, the Monson, the Kennebec Central, and the Wiscasset,
\n1-108
\nwaterville and Farmington (originally the Wiscasset and QUebec).
\nM: What about the road from Old Orchard to Camp Ellis, that I have mentioned
\ntwice on these programs?
\nB: That was a broad guage road. When the little engine they used on it would
\nbreak down, they would put a big engine on the train. They couldn It have done
\nthat if it hadn It been standard guage.
\nM: .And what about the narrow guage down at Searsport and the one at Lincoln?
\nB: They don’t count because they were not common carriers. There was a lot of
\nnarrow guage track laid down by lumber companies and other industries just for
\ntheir own work. The short lines at Searsport and Lincoln were only two of a
\ndozen or more. We I re talking about roads that carried public passengers and
\nfreight, aren’t we?
\nM: Yes, we are. Anyway, I accept your explanation. You certainly know more about
\nthe old roads than I do. Brian, I was very much interested in that wonderful
\nalbum you showed me. It is a real pictorial history of narrow guage railroads.
\nI think our radio audience would like to know about some of the things in it.
\n~ I have pictures of nearly all the old two-foot roads of Maine. I have tickets,
\nreport forms, freight bills, train orders and time tables.
\nM: Are there any items that you prize especially?
\nB: perhaps the item I prize most is a picture of the old Sandy River Engine No.
\n1, taken in 1880. Then I have a very interesting picture of a freight train,
\nshowing a Franklin and Megantic engine and a Sandy River caboose.
\nM: How do you account for that combination?
\nB: The picture was taken after the merger of the six roads had been made, but
\nbefore they had time to change the lettering on cars and engines.
\nM: I understand, Brian, that you have some items too big to put into an album.
\nTell us about some of them.
\n1-109
\nB: I have a car seal from the original Sandy River Road.
\nM: What do you mean by a car seal?
\nB: A seal used for closing box cars, to make sure they hadn’t been opened when
\nthey reached their destination. I also have hand-brake wheels from freight cars,
\nand odds and ends of little things from the cars and shops.
\nM: Brian, I used to hear a lot about stiff engines. What are they?
\nB: The familiar standard guage engine has a separate tender. The biggest narrow
\nguage engines, like the Perry type built for the SR & RL in its boom days, had
\nseparate tenders. But most of the narrow guage engines had the tender built as
\na part of the engine. The whole thing — engine and tender — was one stiff
\nunit.
\nM: Now, Brian, have you ever had any desire to build a piece of narrow guage
\ntrack and actually run a train on it?
\nB: Indeed I have. But first I want to build a miniature Sandy River unit on the
\nscale of one and 3\/4ths inches to a foot. I plan to make a miniature engine,
\nabout four feet long, with separate tender. It will be a coal burner and will run
\non a 3; inch guage.
\nM: You must get together some time with a Maine Central bus driver, who I understand
\nplans to build a little narrow guage road on his property at Belgrade Lakes.
\nIf he hears this program, he may get in touch with you. I am sure, Brian, that
\nour~ listeners,as well as I, appreciate very much your part in tonight’s program,
\nand we all wish you good luck in continuing your collection of information
\nabout the old narrow guage railroads.
\n*****
\nMrs. Roland Stinneford of the Cushman Road, Winslow, contributes some very
\npicturesque sayings that she heard many years ago from the lips of her boarding
\nmistress when Mrs. Stinneford was a teacher at Somerset Academy in Athens.
\nOne of the sayings is an unusual comparison. It is this: “I didn’t know
\n1-110
\nwho she was from a cord of bark.” Such an expression could only originate in
\na community where bark was sold by the cord, and few places used bark except
\nthe old tanneries. It is the type of saying we call an industrial proverb
\na proverbial expression associated with a particular kind of industry or
\nlivelihood.
\nAnother of Mrs. Stinneford’s contributions is this: “I would wann the wax
\nin his ears for him.” Evidently this means that the speaker would chastise
\nwith words, just as someone else might threaten to chastise physically by
\nsaying, “I’ll tan his hide for him”. Another expression of the same general
\nmeaning, which Mrs. Stinneford recalls, is: “I’ll put a split stick on her”.
\nI want to gather the most complete list possible of these old expressions
\nof rural Maine. Who will be the next listener to contribute?
\n1-111
\nLITTLE TALKS ON COMMON THINGS
\n18th Broadcast March 13, 1949
\nA little, but sometimes astounding, thing is silence. Those who read a few
\ndays ago in the newspapers of the gracious compliment paid to our Maine Senator,
\nMargaret Chase Smith, by the Republican floor leader, Senator Wherry, when he
\nappointed her acting floor leader in his absence for a few hours, may have imagined
\na picture quite different from the facts. They may have pictured Mrs. Smith
\nas making an impassioned speech, marshalling forces of Republican votes against
\nthe enemy ramparts, upholding the banner of her side in momentous debate.
\nNow Mrs. Smith’s appointment as acting floor leader of the minority was a
\nfine compliment to her popularity and her worth. She was the first woman ever to
\noccupy that position in the whole history of the Senate. That perhaps was honor
\nenough, but it was not without toil. For what was Mrs. Smith’s job as floor
\nleader last Tuesday? It was the job of an alert watch-dog, to sit in silence,
\nand give the alarm only if the enemy launched a surprise attack. For last Tuesday
\nin the Senate the southern filibuster was in full sway, although this time
\nit was not a southerner, but Senator Cain of Washington who held the floor for
\nseven straight hours. Ostensibly he was arguing against the confirmation of
\nPresident Truman’s nomination of Mon Wallgren to be chairman of the National
\nSecurity Resources Board. Part of the time Mrs. Smith and Senator Cain were the
\nonly senators in the senate chamber. Even genial Alben Barkley, president of the
\nsenate by virtue of his office as Vice-President of the United States, had fled
\nthe ordeal, turning the chair over to Huey Long’s son Russell, the new senator
\nfrom Louisiana.
\nThose who know Margaret Smith can be very sure she didn’t go to sleep. Even
\nif so many senators, both Republican and Democrat, had not taken pity on her
\n1-112
\nlonesome vigil, to drop into a neighboring seat for a friendly chat, while Senator
\nCain droned on and on, Mrs. Smith would have stuck to her post. No slick
\nparliamentary trick would be put over on her. The lady from Skowhegan can always
\nbe depended upon to do any job she agrees to undertake.
\n*****
\nWe persons over fifty years of age often remark how young people today take
\nfor granted many things that did not exist in our own childhood. What remarkable
\nchanges these young folks missed — these kids who never knew a day with no automobiles,
\nno airplanes, no radios, no electric refrigerators, no oil burners. Only
\nby a most lively imagination can they understand what we mean by the horse and
\nbuggy days.
\nBut it doesn’t so easily occur to us that we too take for granted many things
\nthat our grandfathers never knew. My father, who was born in 1861, and who from
\nthe age of 18 until his death at 84, was in the grocery business, could remember
\nwhen the first yellow bananas came to Maine. For some time the big red bananas
\nhad been known, but before the Civil War no resident of inland Maine had seen a
\nyellow one.
\nIn my grandmother’ s girlhood no one would eat those new fangled fruits -or
\nwere they vegetables .:.- called love apples. For love apple was the old name
\nfor the tomato. And don’t you fastidious folk call me to task for my pronunciation.
\nLook it up in Webster. The favored pronunciation today is to-may-to; the
\nsecondary pronunciation to-mah-to is an affectation.
\nOranges have been common in Maine for many years. My great grandfather used
\nto drive an ox-team, ~~hauling freight from West Gorham to Portland. That journey
\nwhich can easily be made in an hour now for the round trip used to take him two
\nwhole days — one day in and one day back. Great-grandmother, who lived until I
\nwas twelve years old, used to regale us children with wonderful stories of those
\nearly Gorham days. And one of the stories included the oranges that great-grand-
\n1-113
\nfather used to bring home from Portland once a year at Christmas time.
\nBut grapefruit is another story. I myself was well along in grammar school
\nbefore I saw the first of those eye-squirting missiles. In rural Maine at least
\ngrapefruit have not been known very long.
\nWell, enough of that subject for now. We’ll return to it again some day.
\nBut right here I want to tell of an old-time incident that happened in Waterville
\nabout seventy years ago. It concerns the national pastime, the American
\nsport of baseball. The Rev. William Abbott Smith, beloved pastor emeritus of
\nthe Congregational Church, was then a small town boy in the then comparatively
\nsmall town of Waterville. Like all the other small boys of the coxmnuni ty, he
\nwent up to the college one Saturday afternoon to see Colby and Bowdoin play baseball.
\nAs the game progressed one vigorous batter clouted a mighty wallop down beyond
\nthe north end of Shannon Observatory. The right fielder went to look for the
\nball; he was soon joined by the center fielder and the third baseman. Soon the
\nwhole team was hunting for that ball, but they could not find it.
\nNow at the game with one of his spirited horses hitched to a light buggy
\nwas Hod Nelson, owner of the famous trotter Nelson, a nationally known racer of
\nthat time. Hod jumped into his buggy, raced his horse down to Main Street, purchased
\na new ball, and raced back to the field. Meanwhile the game had just
\nstopped, to be resumed with cheers when Hod appeared with the new ball.
\nThat’s quite a story folks. A championship game between Colby and Bowdoin
\nbeing played with only one baseball.
\n*****
\nIn this Lenten season I want to call your attention to a book that many of
\nyou will be eager to read. It is by FUlton Oursler and bears the same title as
\nthe radio program that follows this one each Sunday evening: “The Greatest Story
\nEver Told”. When I first picked up the book I thought it was merely an account
\nof how that program was organized and conducted. But I found it to be much more
\n1-114
\nthan that. Mr. OUrsler has written a significant and memorable life of Christ.
\nIt does not pretend to be a scholarly book. It is not a discussion of Biblical
\ncriticism. It is a simple, straightforward story in the simplest language, written
\nfor the average, ordinary reader to appreciate and understand. And in one
\nrespect, to which we shall refer in a few minutes, it is the most extraordinary
\nlife of Jesus that has ever been written.
\nBut first, let me mention the book’s preface, which does recount most interestingly
\nhow the now famous radio program, The Greatest Story Ever Told, came
\nto its perfection and its popularity. Mr. OUrsler’s plan for the book preceded
\nany thought of a program on the air. Some years ago Rabbi Solomon Freehof of
\nPittsburgh had said to OUrsler: “The unspoken scandal of our times is tlie hidden
\nfact that Bible-reading has been largely given up in America.” Later, as Oursler
\ntraveled around the country, he talked to many different kinds of men and
\nwomen — fellow passengers in Pullman and day coach. To these people he made
\ncasual allusions to Biblical passages, and he soon discovered that references
\ntaken for granted in his boyhood had no meaning for these traveling companions.
\nWhen he would utter such expressions as “thirty pieces of silver”, “the angel
\nthat troubled the waters”, and “tribute unto Ceasar”, he would be greeted with
\nblank stares. Yet when he explained the meaning, interest was aroused. One sample
\nfrom the great life invariably aroused the appetite for more.
\nThis experience convinced Oursler to write the story, centering it around
\nincidents, so that each incident could be a little story in itself. His book
\noffers no argument, no explanations. It is, rather, an attempt to tell faithfully,
\nby record of incidents, just what the four gospels of Mathew, Mark, Luke and
\nJohn assert to have happened during’ the thirty-three years of Jesus’ life.
\nI must not spoil your own reading of OUrsler’s preface by telling you how
\nthe manuscript for the then unprinted book became the basis for the famous radio
\nprogram. Suffice it to say that, in spite of a host of skeptics who said that such
\n1-115
\na program could not be produced without offending one or more religious sects,
\nPaul Litchfield, head of the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company, decided to take
\na chance. So the first and best known of those broadcasts, “The Good Samaritan”,
\nwas made, followed by “The Unmerciful Servant”.
\nNow comes the unusual feature of OUrsler’s book, the feature which explains
\nthe universal success of the program. Not on a single page of the book and not in
\nanyone of the broadcasts has there been any incident or any remark that could
\ngive offense to any religious group: Protestant, Catholic or Jew. For the radio
\nprogram each script has been read, corrected, and approved by Monsignor Joseph
\nNelson of St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York, Dr. Samuel Shoemaker, rector of
\nCalvary Protestant Episcopal Church, Dr. Paul Wolfe, minister of Brick presbyterian
\nChurch in downtown Manhattan, and Mr. Otto Frankfurter, brother of Supreme
\nCourt Justice Felix Frankfurter.
\nYes, here is the astounding thing. Instead of meeting opposition from Jewish
\nclergy and citizens, Mr. OUrsler’s telling of the story has their praise and
\nsupport. Because Jesus was indeed a Jew. It was a Jew who lived the greatest
\nlife that was ever lived.
\nSo I want to show you how in his book Mr. Oursler tells the crucifixion
\nstory, because for 2,000 years fine, patriotic, high-minded Jewish citizens of
\nevery country have been persecuted and taunted because men have said the Jews
\nkilled Jesus. It was that great friend of the American colonies, Edmund Burke,
\nwho told the British Parliament in 1775, “There is no known method of drawing an
\nindictment against a whole people~ Yet that is what the whole Christian world
\ndid for centuries when they blamed all Jews for the crucifixion of Jesus.
\nSo, without going one inch beyond the record in the four gospels, Mr. Oursler
\nshows how an inner circle of Jewish priests, fearing the loss of their own power,
\nand dreading the results of a popular uprising behind this self-avowed Messiah,
\nplotted Jesus I arrest, conviction and execution. Led by Annas and Caiphas, they
\n1-116
\nhad Jesus brought before Pilate, placed Pilate in a position where, to save his
\nown neck, he had to hand Jesus over for crucifixion, and thought they were well
\nrid of this trouble maker. Then came the glorious happenings of Easter morning.
\nIn the last pages of Oursler’s book Caiphas has come to the older patriarch
\npriest Annas to say,”We must get rid of all Christians. I have come to you that
\nwe may agree on a strong policy.”
\nThese two had heard the reports of the risen Jesus’ appearance to his disciples
\nby the sea of Tiberias, and how he had appeared to others on a mountain
\nin Galilee. Now in the moist warmth of the torrid night these two Jewish priests
\nsat together in the dark, remembering much of this man whom they had ordered
\nkilled, yet who could still plague their peace of mind.
\n“I thought you had already started a strong policy”. said Annas. “We condemned
\none”, replied Caiphas. “And stoned him to death”, said Annas, “Stephen, the first
\nChristian martyr”. “He will not be the last”, stormed Caiphas. “But has it occured
\nto you”, asked Annas, “that this brave death contradicts all that you have
\nsaid earlier this evening. Would any man be willing to die — in heroic, glorious
\nmartyrdom like this — for some conjurer’s trick involving the stealing of a
\ncorpse from a sealed tomb? Let me make it plainer”, continued Annas. “On the
\nnight we killed him, you remember that two of his disciples followed him into
\nJerusalem, but one of them denied him three times, and both hid away. What happened
\nto the other nine? They couldn’t get away fast enough. They went back to
\nGalilee where they came from. Why? Because they were afraid. But now these same
\nmen are not run-away cowards, but fearless martyrs. Why? Because they know what
\nthey stand for, and what you stand for, Caiphas, and they know this world will
\nalways be a place of fear, of want, of war, of suffering, as long as those two
\nconflicting points of view exist. The world will be a better p,lace, Caiphas, only
\nwhen their side wins. And they will win. We can only kill them; but they can
\nconquer us.”
\n1-117
\n“Lord Annas”, said Caiphas, “the views taught by the followers of this man
\nare traitorous and subversive. I propose to stamp these people out, so that they
\nwill never be heard of again. There won I t be a Christian left in the world.”
\n“Very well”, said Annas with a sigh that showed it was no use to argue
\nlonger. “Do as you will do anyhow, Caiphas. But remember these roots are deep
\nand spreading. Before you get through — God only knows. I have a horrible feeling
\nthat we have blundered. History may blame us. Worse still, history may
\nblame our nation, all Israel, for the guilt that belongs so much to you and me
\nand our rich and powerful friends. It may be, Caiphas, that we have been afraid
\nof the truth.”
\n1-118
\nLITTLE TALKS ON COMMON THINGS
\n19th Broadcast March 20, 1949
\nMore than once we have referred to the enormous cost to the taxpayer of
\nthe hundreds of columns of nonsense, as well as the few columns of important
\ndebate, published in the Congressional Record. But the expense of the Record
\nis mere chicken feed compared to the cost of the numerous documents put out by
\nthe executive departments of our government. Not long ago Senator Styles
\nBridges of New Hampshire decided to find out just how numerous those documents
\nare. He learned that in the fiscal year ending June 30, 1948 more than 83,000
\ndifferent publications were issued. He learned further that in the ten years
\nfrom 1939 through 1948 there were sent out 133,600,000,000 copies. As Senator
\nBridges puts it, enough printed matter has been put out by the Government
\nprinting Office to cover and bury the 140,000,000 people in the united States.
\nSenator Bridges calls attention to the titles of some of these government
\npamphlets. If they did not cost the taxpayers so much money, they would be merely
\namusing. Perhaps they are worth a moment’s laugh anyhow; so here are a few of
\nthem. “How to Make a Cat Trap”, “Bat-proofing Buildings”, “Classification, Identification,
\nand Geographic Distribution of Fleas”, “Federal Duck Stamps”,
\n“Management of Farm Fish Ponds”, “Muskrat population by House Counts”, “Fish
\nfor Breakfast — and Why Not?”, “The Cuban Frog Leg Industry”, “Recipes for
\nCooking Muskrat Meat”, “Planning the Farm House Bathroom”, “Habits and Economic
\nStatus of the Band-Tailed pigeon”, “How to Tell the Sex of a Watermelon”.
\nWe realize that the government departments do produce many pamphlets of
\nvalue to farmers and manufacturers, to professional men and consumers; but in
\nthis flood of printers ink is much flotsam and jetsam that represents only the
\nwreckage of the taxpayer’s dollar.
\n*****
\n1-119
\nHow long is it since wolves were seen in Maine? I believe an occasional
\nwolf has been encountered in northern Maine since the Civil War, but in any part
\nof the state south of Moosehead Lake the creature’s last appearance came before
\nthat conflict. The last record of which I am aware appears in the diary of Charles
\nE. Hamlin, who was professor of Chemistry at Colby College from 1853 to 1873.
\nIn 1860 the college faced dire financial distress. In the long winter vacation,
\nwhen the students went out to teach a term of school, the professors
\nbeat the by-ways and hedges for meagre public subscriptions to keep the college
\ngoing. In January of 1860 Professor Hamlin was on such an expedition in Penobscot
\nCounty. In his diary he records that on January 18 he spent the night in
\nAmherst, a little village a few miles east of Bangor on what is now called the
\nairline road. “I got no rest”, writes the professor. “I was kept awake all night
\nby the howling of the wolves”.
\nPerhaps what Professor Hamlin heard were not wolves at all. Some professors,
\nso our friends say, do have lively imaginations. But another instance of
\nwolves, or rather of one wolf, is better authenticated. Did you know there is
\nin Maine a monument to a wolf? For this information I am indebted to W. R.
\nCollins of Belgrade. He tells me that there used to live on Chamberlain Hill,
\nabout six miles north of Bingham, a man named Hiram Smith, who lived to well
\nover 90 and who had lived most of his life on the same farm. This Hiram smith
\nonce told Mr. Collins that a century ago when the town of Moscow was first settled,
\nthere was an old up and down saw mill on Austin Stream at a place called
\nDead Water. On the west bank of the stream was a cleared field in which stood
\nthe log cabins where the families of the mill hands lived. One moonlight night
\none of these men was awakened by his dog fighting with some creature. He got
\nup, looked out the window, and by the bright moonlight saw that the creature
\nwas a wolf. QUickly getting his gun, he shot through the window and killed the
\n1-120
\nwolf. Deponent sayeth not how, in the confusion of such a fight,he shot the wolf
\ninstead of the dog. But we’ll admit there were some wonderful marksmen in those
\ndays.
\nOn that spot today is a stone, about five feet long and a foot and a half
\nhigh with a square side facing the west. On it is an jnscribed date, July 3,
\n1846, the name J. Dresser, and the outline of a wolf cut in the rock. old Hiram
\nSmith assured Mr. Collins that, to his positive knowledge, that was the last
\nwolf killed in Somerset County.
\nMr. Collins is an archeological explorer in his own right. He once ran
\nacross some carvings on the side of a ledge near the shore of Chase Pond. They
\nseemed to represent a caribou and other details of a hunt. Because the ledge was
\nnear a clearly distinguished animal trail, once used by caribou, and because near
\nby is a huge mass of charcoal, Mr. Collins thinks he ran across an Indian camping
\nground, and that the rock carving may well have been made before the first
\nwhite.man came to that region.
\n*****
\nMrs. Milton Ellis of Cornish, whose late husband, professor of English at
\nthe University of Maine, was a far better authority on words than I am, sends me
\na clipping from the Bangor Daily News, which contains the first instance I have
\never seen in newsprint of the verb “to colden”, I have heard it in colloquial
\nspeech, but I have never before seen it in print. In an article headlined “University
\nof Maine Develops Short Season Tomato”, the News said: “A new breed of
\ntomato which will develop in the short growing season in northern Maine, where
\nthe St. John Valley towns colden down quickly following the brief open period,
\nis announced by the Uni versi ty ‘s Department of Horticulture.”
\n*****
\nMrs. Hannah Burrill of China writes me that the cemetery in that village to
\nwhich I referred a few weeks ago is still called Sugar Loaf. She says it is now
\n1-121
\ncompletely filled, and the new cemetery is on the China Neck Road.
\n*****
\nIt was cheering to lear~ last week that in East Vassalboro lives a man,
\nonly a little older than I, who spent his boyhood in the same Maine town where
\nwe both engaged the regular’ pastime of going down to the depot to see the evening
\ntrain come in on the narrow guage. He- is Leonard Weymouth, better known to my
\ngeneration as Grover Weymouth, and he recalls many old-time incidents which may
\nbe interesting to people here in Central Maine, though they may never have seen
\nthat little village of Grover’s and mine up in the foothills of the White Mountains.
\nHe recalls the old-time school lyceums, where were conducted debates, spelling
\nmatches, dramatic skits, and that good old climax, the reading of verses
\nburlesquing faculty and students. He mentions one heated debate — both he and
\nI have forgotten the question debated — when my opponent was a spirited orator
\nwhom we used to call “Doc” Lombard. The nick-name was well chosen, for Doc is
\nnow one of Boston’s foremost cancer specialists.
\nDid you have those old lyceums in Central Maine? In our town the whole
\ncommunity used to turn out. After the formal debate, the question was opened
\nto the house, in true “Town Meeting of the Air” fashion. Then it was that debate
\nreally started. Doctors, lawyers, merchants, farmers got in their say. I
\nwonder if Grover recalls how the last word was usually spoken by the Rev. Luther
\nMCKenney, the Universalist minister, who in that staunch Republican town had the
\ndubious distinction of having served in Congress as a Democrat?
\nMr. Weymouth had one distinction I would give a lot to have shared with him.
\nTwo summers he worked in the office of the old B & SR railroad. More intimately
\nthan I, he knew the man who served as the road’s president, general agent, train
\ndispatcher, ticket seller and bill collector for many years — a man of whom we
\nkids stood’in awe, because his crabbed face was accompanied by an even more
\n1-122
\ncrabbed manner. Whenever, loafing around the station, we saw his square-topped
\nderby coming around the corner, it was the signal to run.
\nHow many of you remember the old square-topped derby? It was a hat of
\ndistinction in our country towns, almost as distinguiShed as the tall silk hat
\nof Fifth Avenue. Grover may be right when he says, except for the railroad superintendent’s,
\nthere was only one other in our town. It was worn by the Congregational
\nminister, who also sported a flowing beard parted in the middle, and
\nin winter a huge ulster with attached cape and enormous overShoes. But I think I
\nrecall one other square-topped derby,on the head of the man who came nearest to
\nbeing the town squire — a position that had disappeared officially before I
\nwas born. This man, a lawyer known allover western Maine, had for years been
\nthe rural magistrate.
\nsquare-topped derby.
\nI am sure that Judge Walker strolled our streets in a
\n*****
\nSpeaking of the ministers in our boyhood days, I wonder if yours had the
\nmarvelous vocabularies that some of ours possessed. Even on the church calendar
\nsome of their notices would contain the most unusual assortment of sesquipedalian
\nwords. What does sesquipedalian mean? Well, it means just as much to you
\nas the vocabulary of those preachers meant to us. We came away from those sermons
\nfeeling like the darky in the story. He applied to the court for a divorce.
\nThe judge asked kindly, “Well, Sam, what seems to be the trouble?” Sam replied,
\n“It’s this, Judge. That woman of mine talks all the time. She’s the talkinest
\nwoman in the whole world. She jest about drives me crazy.” “What does She
\ntalk about?”, asked the judge. “That’s jest it, judge”, replied Sam, “she don’t
\nsay.”
\nThe contributions of old-time sayings and expressions keep coming in. Emery
\nHegarty recalls two that he used to hear from the lips of an old lady long ago.
\nShe used to say, “If there ain’t a big dog waiting for you, there’ll be two
\n1-123
\nlittle ones”; and even more expressive was her saying, “The silent sow eats all
\nthe swill”.
\nAt the recent career conference at Colby College Dr. Stearns, the now retired
\ndean of the Tufts Medical School, asked me if I had ever heard the parlor
\ncalled the “foreroom”. He said it was a common term in the seaside town where he
\nspent his boyhood.
\nBob Barteaux, a student at Colby, says an aged relative of his always referred
\nto persons and animals for whom she felt either praise or pity as “blessed
\ncritter”.
\nDeafness has a lot of comparisons, but none more expressive than the one
\nheard on parts of the Maine coast IIdeafer’n a haddock”.
\n*****
\nHow many of you remember that pioneer of newspaper columnists, Newton Newkirk
\nof the Boston Post? His column was a lively medley of this, that and everything.
\nNewt had a penchant for verse of the Edgar Guest variety. He was no poet,
\nbut he had a sense of rhyme and rhythrn_akinto that of Arthur Griterman or Ogden
\nNash. I am indebted to Mrs. Rexford Oliver of the Second Rangeway, Waterville
\nfor an old Boston Post clipping of 1921, in which Newt lists many of these old,
\nexpressive comparisons. Here they are:
\n“Brighter than silver, brittle as glass,
\nBrown as a berry, bolder than brass.
\nFlat as a flounder, heavy as lead,
\nHoarse as a raven, deader than dead.
\nColder than charity, darker than pitch,
\nFair as a lily, worse than the itch.
\nBitter as gall, bald as a coot,
\nBlind as a bat, blacker than soot.
\n1-124
\nRound as an orange, rude as a bear,
\nSharp as a needle, fine as a hair.
\nSlow as a tortoise, sly as a fox,
\nSharper than vinegar, safe as the stocks.
\nPlump as a partridge, pale as a ghost,
\nHarder than iron, deaf as a post.
\nLight as a feather, limp as a glove,
\nLouder than thunder, sweeter than love.
\nCool as a cucumber, neater than wax,
\nPlain as a pikestaff, sharper than tacks.
\nOld as Methuselah, sound as a bell,
\nProuder than Lucifer, hotter than \u2022\u2022\u2022\u2022\u2022 n
\nThat’s all folks for tonight.
\n1-125
\nLITTLE TALKS ON COMMON THINGS
\n20th Broadcast March 27, 1949
\nWaterville is justly proud of its three championship basketball teams. They
\nare fine boys, real sportsmen — the fellows that compose all three of those
\nteams, and they have been coached by three sterling men, the kind of men every
\nfather and mother likes to have in contact with their son. These three teams
\nwill be jointly honored at a testimonial dinner this week.
\nThere is so much popular acclaim and so much glamor attached to championship
\nbasketball that some of our citizens may mistakenly believe that it is the
\nonly thing that has had any attention at the Waterville Senior High School this
\nwinter. I assure you that such is not the case. Last Friday it was my privilege
\nto attend another kind of testimonial dinner — a dinner in honor of the
\nboys and girls at Waterville High School who have just been elected to the CUm
\nLaude Society. Every year a group of seniors and juniors are chosen for this -the
\nhighest honor at the school. When the final group is chosen in senior year
\nnot more than ten per cent of the class can be selected and the total number is
\nusually less. It is a distinguished honor to be a member of CUm Laude, comparable
\nto membership in Phi Beta Kappa in the colleges. The faculty committee of selection
\nchooses the members on the basis of a carefully devised system which considers
\nthe three S\u00b7 s of the Cum Laude triangle — scholarship, service and sincerity.
\nAt an assembly on Friday afternoon the whole school paid honor to the nine
\nseniors and eleven juniors initiated into the society under the direction of
\nMiss Mary Warren, chairman of the faculty conmdttee. Those twenty boys and girls,
\ntogether with nine more seniors who had become members in their junior year, sat
\non the High School stage in chairs arranged to form the CUm Laude triangle. Not
\n1-126
\nonly the parents and teachers, but all Waterville, should be proud of those 29
\nyoung citizens. They represent families of every status and varied occupation —
\na true cross section of the City. Sons and daughters of professional men, merchants,
\nmechanics, manufacturers and laborers sat together on that platform -living
\nevidence that scholarship, service and sincerity in this America of ours recognize
\nno distinctions’ . of social class or national origin. Here was young America
\nin its excellence.
\n*****
\nA listener wants to know the origin of the slang word “buck” for dollar.
\nIt comes from saw-buck, an old-time slang word for ten dollars, because X, the
\nsymbol for ten, is the shape of a saw-horse. As time went on, buck without the
\nprefix “saw” came to denote the unit of paper currency, the dollar. The expression
\n“pass the buck”, however, originates from the game of poker, which I believe
\nDrew Pearson recently alluded to as a presidential pastime at Key West.
\nIn poker the buck is a counter, possession of which by the dealer requires a
\njack pot. The buck goes to the winner of each jack pot. To pass the buck was to
\nshift the responsibility to the next player.
\nMany think of words as long ago made and fixed in the dictionaries. But
\nthe makers of dictionaries know better. They are constantly printing new editions
\nto keep up with new words. The newest dictionary is an edition of Webster’s
\nCollegiate, just published this month. It contains many interesting new
\nwords or new meanings of old words. For instance, what is a bazooka? First is
\ngiven the older meaning, which actually is not very old. It is “a sound contraption
\nused by Bob Burns, radio comedian “. Then comes the meaning that didn’ t
\neven exist before 1940: “a portable, electrically fired rocket launcher, whose
\nprojectile is effective against tank armor”.
\nThe new dictionary contains atomic bomb and atomic pile, as well as ash
\ncan, the slang for depth charge. It has DDT, the abbreviation for dichloro-
\n1-127
\ndipheQYl-trichloro-ethane, the new destroyer of insect pests. It tells us what
\na cyclotron is; it recognizes the well-known G. I.; it informs us that Kamikaze,
\nthe Japanese suicide pilot, is a word which in Japanese means divine wind. This
\nnew dictionary immortalizes Mae West by the definition “a yellow life-saving
\njacket, which is worn like a vest by pilots in flights over the sea”. Then it
\nadds another definition: “Slang. u. S. Army. A twin-turreted combat tank”.
\nHere you will also find Shangri-La, defined as “a nonexistent idyllic land
\ndepicted as a utopia in James Hilton’s “Lost Horizon’, 1933”. But alas, even
\nthis new dictionary does not refer to President Roosevelt’s Shangri-La retreat.
\nYes,words are being made faster than any dictionary can keep up with them. I
\nwant to give you just five examples of recent slang. How many of you know what
\nthey mean? Be-bop, browned off, dilbert, iron cow, gunk.
\n*****
\nMention last week of a monument to a wolf in the town of Moscow has brought
\nfrom six different listeners, in six different towns reached by this broadcast,
\nthe information that Maine also has a monument to a tree. The town of Mercer
\nonce claimed the biggest (or was it the oldest) elm tree in Maine. After the
\ntree had to be cut down, a monument was set up, in the shape of a section of
\ntree truck and was appropriately inscribed.
\nBy the way, what are the oldest and the biggest trees still standing in
\nWaterville? Was the big tree on Appleton Street Waterville’s biggest tree when
\nit stood there whole and unharmed? Where in the City is there a really big elm
\nelms the size of that giant which had to be felled when the Central Fire Station
\nwas erected? Some of our beautiful, though not the largest,elms came down when
\nthe service station was put up in front of the Elmwood Hotel. Fire stations and
\nservice stations are made by man, but only God can make a tree. The passing of
\nthose God-made trees is one of the prices for what we call urban progress. Growing
\nfrom a country town into a city is not all gain. Growing pains accompany
\n1-128
\nthe process.
\n*****
\nJudge Burgess of Fairfield reminds me of a picturesque old-time saying,
\n“tooth off the old rake”. We are all familiar with the much commoner “chip off
\nthe old block”, but somehow “tooth off the old rake” gives a homelier” more memorable
\npicture of the same idea.
\nBill Burgess — I think memory of the old Hebron days gives me that firstname
\nprivilege — relates a yarn told by his father that deserves a place in a
\nnational magazine where each week one reads about “the perfect squelch “. In
\nFairfield Center many years ago, so the story goes, there lived an old gentleman
\nwho was quite a character. One day a very dignified, frock-coated personage appeared
\nat the old man’s door. “I am the new Methodist minister”, said the caller.
\n“I thought I would call on you and leave a few tracts.” Doubtless the old feilow
\nin Fairfield Center knew perfectly well that the minister said tracts
\n(t-r-a-c-t-s), for there were pamphlets in the minister’s hands. But the old
\ngentleman preferred to hear the word as tracks, for he answered: “It’s all.right
\nwith me if you leave tracks, provided you leave ’em with the heels toward the
\ndoor”.
\nMore than once on this program we have said a good word for American private
\nenterprise, for those rights and opportunities of the individual that used
\nto mean so much in America. Some of my friends tell me that I am only whistling
\nin the dark, that the socialized state is so surely on the way that the old individual
\nenterprise is as dead as the dodo \u2022.
\nIn light of that sort of thinking it is interesting to note the experience
\nof Russia since the Revolution of 1917. In the early stages the Bolshevists were
\ndetermined to equalize society, to make no distinctions in wages and salaries
\nbecause of individual ability or enterprise. For four years they even tried to
\nabolish money. Lenin’s NEP (New Economic Policy) of 1921 not only introduced
\n1-129
\nmoney, but other practices of the hated capitalistic regime. Differential wages
\nrecognized the contribution of those who could contribute skills especially
\nneeded by the state. A ration card system allowed favored workers an extra share
\nof scarce commodities. The Marxist ideal of distribution according to need was
\ndisplaced by distribution according to individual contribution.
\nI suppose many of us think there are no such things as savings in Russia,
\nbut indeed there are. Because consumer’s goods are so scarce and because some
\nfavored individuals are paid high wages, there are not a few Russians who receive
\nmore money than they can spend. But unlike us in America, those Russians
\ncannot invest their savings in any way they please. They can only put them in
\ngovernment banks or buy government bonds. Since the government owns all the industries,
\nit finances those industries largely from the savings of the people.
\nThat is just the way private industry, in part, finances the means of production
\nand processing in the united States.
\nNow the point of this discussion, which I hope is not too heavy and unintelligible,
\nis this. Such a vital thing in our human relationShips is individual
\nenterprise that, in order to survive at. all, the Russian government not only
\nhad to recognize it, but exactly like the capitalistic economy which the Soviets
\nso ardently hate, they had to reward it. Is it too much to say that it will not
\nbe an economic utopia, but a kind of social Dark Ages, if the day ever comes
\nwhen individual worth and personal enterprise do not have their reward?
\n*****
\nYou heard Drew Pearson’s prediction that John D. McCloy will be a new member
\nof the President’s Cabinet. He gave the Commencement Address at Colby in 1947.
\n*****
\nWe musn’t let a Sunday pass without mention of at least one of those oldtime
\nthings. Tonight I am thinking about the old round crackers. We still have
\nthem, and we call them common crackers. They now come in neat packages of a single
\n1-130
\npound. They used to come in barrels, and in my father’s little country store
\ntheir sale was so large that he always had a hundred or more of those empty
\ncrackerba:r:rels for sale every fall when it came apple picking time.
\nTo ~y of our young, house-keeping couples today it seems grotesque
\nenough to think of any families ever having bought a whole barrel of flour.
\nWhat would they think of buying a whole barrel of common crackers? But people
\nactually did that, especially on the farms. The great boom in the cracker business
\ncame at haying time. The\u00b7. way to get your haying properly done was to set
\nup a barrel of cider and a barrel of crackers side by side in the shade of a
\nbig tree not too far from the mowing fields.
\nThere used to be two kinds of those old, round crackers — soft bake and
\nhard bake. The soft baked variety was a white-livered, doughy looking object
\nthat never appealed to my crusty taste, but a lot of folks preferred them. The
\nones I remember best were made in St. Johnsbury, Vermont, and called St. Johnsbury
\ncrackers. They came not only in barrels, but in big pasteboard cartons,
\nexactly a hundred crackers to the carton. They arrived at the store in huge
\nwooden boxes — four dozen cartons to the box — boxes nearly as big as a piano
\nbox. Wood was cheap in those days. At today’s prices that box would cost almost
\nas much as the crackers. What grand chicken houses and dog kennels and
\nchildren’s play houses those old St. Johnsbury cracker boxes used to make.
\nThe hard-baked crackers were my favorites. They were made by the old Huston
\nfactory in Auburn — beautifully browned and had a wonderful, snappy crunch.
\nThey went down fast with the old five cent a quart milk, but they went down even
\nfaster with the tangy home-made root beer.
\n*****
\nFor several weeks we wore out the narrow\u00b7 guage railroads, ripped up the
\ntracks and called ita day. Now let’s wake up the devotees of another old timer
\nthe covered bridges. Let’s see if all who listen to this program cannot contri-
\n1-131
\nbute something to our search. These are the things we want to know. Where are
\nthere old, wooden covered bridges still standing in Maine and still actually
\nin use on traveled roads? Let us see how large a list we can compile. Then
\nlet’s find all the reasons that have ever been given to explain why they built
\nthose bridges covered rather than left them open. Just jot down on a post card
\nany interesting thing you know about the old covered bridges and mail it to
\nErnest Marriner or to Station WTVL or to our sponsor, the Keyes Fibre Company_
\nAddressed in any of those three ways, your card will reach me. So for a few
\nweeks now covered bridges will be our quest.
\nWell, our time is up, and this must bridge you over until next Sunday_
\n1-132
\ntITTLE TALKS ON COMMON THINGS
\n21st Broadcast April 3, 1949
\nDoubtless many people sincerely believe that Negroes are a permanently inferior
\nrace. But any anthropologist, any serious student of racial groups and
\nrace histories, will tell you that there is no such thing as a superior race.
\nSo far as blood strains are concerned, they are just like morals — there
\nis so much bad in the best of us and so much good in the worst of us that it
\nlittle behooves any of us to talk about the rest of us. But when a member of the
\nNegro race makes outstanding, unprecedented achievement, when he succeeds where
\nwhite men have failed, he deserves being talked about with publicity and praise.
\nAfter the assassination of Count Bernadotte, who had again and again been
\nfrustrated in his zealous, sacrificing attempts to bring peace between Jews and
\nArabs in Palestine, his place as United Nations mediator for the Palestine dispute
\nwas taken by Ralph J. Bunche, an American Negro. His own nation — to say
\nnothing about the rest of the world — knew little about Dr. Bunche. Newspaper
\nreporters hurriedly dug up a few biographical facts. Dr. Bunche, it seems, was
\nan anthropologist, a scientist who deals with mankind as a biological and social
\nbeing. He holds the Doctor of Philosophy degree from Harvard, has been a professor
\nat Howard University in Washington, and served first the Office of War Information,
\nthen the State Department during the war. In 1946 he became director
\nof the division of trusteeShip of the United Nations.
\nBunche did not seek the job made vacant by Count Bernadotte’ s death i he took
\nit reluctantly as a high duty. Now the whole world knows him as the man who
\nbrought about the most successful feat of peace-making statesmanship in modern
\ntimes. Single-handed, and against powerful opposition, he persuaded the Egyptians
\nto enter on peace negotiations at Rhodes. Though they threatened to walk out
\n1-133
\nmore than once, Bunche’s patience and persistence kept Egyptians and Israelites
\nconferring when the whole press predicted the conference would go on the rocks.
\nOnly a few months ago we all expected long, bloody warfare — a terrible
\nHoly War — in the Middle East. We were told the entire Arab World would rise to
\nthe desert nomad’s blood-thirsty cries. We looked to see the River Jordan and
\nthe Sea of Galilee stained red with blood. But now Jew and Arab are making peace,
\nready to turn swords into plowshares and spears into pruning hooks, to make a
\nMiddle East in which both can live and let live. All because an American Negro
\nled the way.
\nIt has frequently been noted that the achievements of Negroes in this country,
\nhowever spectacular they may be, are usually confined to matters which concern
\ntheir own race. Perhaps only George Washington Carver accomplished much on
\nother than a racial basis. But not so with Ralph Bunche. His achievement is entirely
\noutside his own Negro people. He has proved himsel!f a statesman of the
\nfirst rank. No wonder the Christian Century, the great religious weekly magazine,
\nsuggests that Dr. Bunche be awarded the Nobel peace prize.
\nPerhaps Drew Pearson’s suggestion is even better: that Dr. Bunche be named
\nAmerican Ambassador to Moscow. Russian propaganda keeps pounding away at American
\nintolerance toward black-skinned citizens. It claims that Negroes, allover
\nthe United States, north as well as south, are daily lynched from the nearest
\nlamp post. To send Bunche to Moscow would be open disavowal of the Soviet’s claim
\nthat the U. S. Government itself mistreats American Negroes.
\nAs for this little weekly broadcast in Central Maine, we have more than once
\ncontended that tolerance and understanding are little things, but mighty important
\nthings. So we have been glad to devote \u00b7several minutes of this program to the
\npraise of Ralph Bunche, colored Ambassador of good will and maker of peace.
\n*****
\n1-134
\nThis broadcast had to be prepared before any except the earliest returns
\nhad arrived in response to our request for information on covered bridges in
\nMaine. Because your speaker had to make a business trip out of the State, earlier
\npreparation than usual of this week’s program was in order. Therefore our
\npromised detailed comment on covered bridges must go over until next week.
\nThere’s plenty of time for any listener to get in his contribution before next
\nSunday. Our question, repeated from last week, is this: Where in Maine are
\nthere covered bridges still in use on traveled highways? If you know of such a
\nbridge, jot its location down on a post card and mail the card to Ernest Marriner
\nor to Station WTVL or to our sponsor, the Keyes Fibre Company.
\n*****
\nDo you recall the story of the hired man who did such a fine job digging
\npost holes that the next day the farm owner set him to sorting a truck-load of
\npotatoes into three piles — big, medium and small. When the farmer went into
\nthe barn at noon, he found the hired man gazing vacantly into space, with three
\ntiny piles of potatoes in front of him, not more than a peck in each pile. “Why!”,
\nsaid the farmer I “I thought you were a fast worker. You put in those post holes
\nmighty fast yesterday. What’s the matter with you today?” “This is different”,
\nreplied the hired man. “When you dig post holes you don’t have to make those
\ndarned decisions.”
\nThat hired man might have liked to live in Russia. There the average citizen
\nhas a lot of decisions made for him. He is told what to like in music, painting,
\nliterature and the other arts. He is not bothered with conflicting schools
\nof economic thought. Nothing is tolerated which does not follow the party line.
\nThat’s all he has to do if he wants to keep alive and out of the forced labor
\ncamps. Life is pretty simple for people who don’t feel obliged to do their own
\nguessing.
\n1-135
\nBut strangely enough, if we can believe the official Soviet press — and
\nPravda is that official press the wisdom of the master guessers is not unanimously
\naccepted even in Russia. With bitter denunciation, calling it a crime
\nagainst the State, Pravda recently ranted against the automobile workers in Moscow
\nwho were taking seven hours to perform a certain operation which the master
\nguessers had set at four and one-half hours.
\nIn the same issue Pravda asserts that production figures in the United
\nStates are capitalist means of sweating workers and lowering their standard of
\nliving. How much better is the lot of the Russian worker where the laborer works
\njoyfully to meet production figures set by the people’s government.
\nWell, to say nothing of the mental gymnastics necessary to reconcile those
\nconflicting statements in the same issue, just how does Pravda answer the question
\nof a Russian worker who sees photographs of the parking lots around American
\nautomobile factories? For that question is sure to be: “Do you mean to tell
\nme those American laborers can actually afford to buy the things they make?”
\n*****
\nLast week the Trustees of the Waterville Public Library gave a testimonial
\ntea to artists. Those artists had just donated to the Library a series of their
\nown paintings, depicting scenes from well-known children’s stories, and the artists
\nwere all pupils of Mrs. Muriel Ragsdale at the Waterville Senior High
\nSchool. One painting showed the sisters in Little Women; another showed Robinson
\nCrusoe with his big palm-leaf umbrella; a third was an exquisitely done transparent
\nwater color of the dog Lassie; a fourth presented the boy and his pet deer
\nin “The Yearling”. One girl a lover of horses and a constant saddle rider
\nhad done a striking picture of Black Beauty. On a single panel another girl had
\npainted several characters from Alice in Wonderland; another had put Hansel and
\nGretel into a fascinating candy house. There were lots more of those pictures:
\nKing Arthur forging the sword Excalibur, the white snow queen, Tom Sawyer white-
\n1-136
\nwashing the fence, the Jungle Book, and others we cannot at the moment recall.
\nEvery one of them is worthy of mention and praise. All of the pictures will be
\nplaced on the walls of the children’s room at the Library, an inducement to present
\nand future generations of little folk to look inside the books that tell
\nabout these wonderful charac.ters.
\nHow many of you have seen the striking mural that decorates the wall at the
\nhead of the stairs leading from main building to gymnasium at Waterville Senior
\nHigh School? It is a real mural, not a single scene, but a composite painting
\nshowing various sununer activities at Lakewood. Striking is the word that describes
\nit. It stops you in your tracks. Its vivid colors, its life-like scenes,
\nits balanced assembly, make it a work of which a professional artist could be
\nproud. Yet it was done by Mrs. Ragsdale’s pupils at the school.
\nUnder Mrs. Ragsdale’s guidance the pupils are now working on a very ambitious
\nproject. They are doing murals to decorate the entire main corridor at the
\nschool. These murals will be a series depicting scenes and symbolism from the legends
\nof King Arthur and his Round Table, especially as that legend is treated by
\nTennyson in “Idylls of the King”.
\nWaterville is exceedingly fortunate to have a teacher of art like Mrs. Ragsdale,
\none who has not been bitten by the bugs of cubism and surrealism, who encourages
\nher pupils to depict scenes and people from life or fiction, rather than
\ndaub on canvas the insane splashings of disordered minds. We may be old-fashioned,
\nbut we prefer a picture like Lassie or Black Beauty, done frankly as illustration,
\nrather than distorted watches hanging on trees or females with radio towers for
\nlimbs.
\n*****
\nRather common on this program has been reference to workers and employers.
\nI wonder if members of the u. S. Congress ever consider themselves as employees
\n1-137
\nof the people, sent to Washington to produce legislation for the people’s good.
\nIf factory employees turned out production the way the Eighty-First Congress has
\nthus far been turning it out, they would be discharged with the consent and approval
\nof the unions.
\nThe filibuster was bad enough; and to the credit of all the New England
\nsenators, save the stubborn and contrary stiles Bridges, be it said the New Englanders
\ndid all they could to break it. But of all the farces seen thus far in
\nthe current Congress, the worst was the House debate on the Rankin pension bill.
\nRailroaded through committee by the high-handed tactics of the most bigoted and
\nintolerant Negro-hater in the Congress, this bill designed to cost the nation
\nuntold billions saw heated debate on the floor of the House, as one would expect.
\nBut the final vote is what makes one despair of reason and logic in our Congress.
\nThe amended bill failed of passage by only one vote, and surely very few Congressmen
\nvoted on it the way they really believe.
\nCertainly we must not forget the veterans, and plenty of existing legislation,
\nlike the G I Bill of Rights, testifies to the fact that we have not forgotten them.
\nIndeed we have done so much more for the veterans of World War II than we ever did
\nfor those of the First World War that few people object to increased bebefits for
\nthose older service men. But to provide for all veterans, even for those diShonorably
\ndischarged, the pensions suggested by Rankin’s spendthrift bill was unthinkable.
\nThere can be reason in all things. Let us have constantly improved veterans’
\nlegislation, but let it be reasonable.
\n*****
\nHas anyone lately cautioned you to relax? Doubtless we all need the caution.
\nWe do live at high tension. But there is another side to this matter. Take the
\ntension out of the mainspring of a watch and you have relaxed steel; you also have
\na useless piece of junk. A person can become so relaxed, so free from all disturbance,
\nthat he too is a useless piece of junk.
\n1-138
\nThis is the Lenten Season, the time of year when, of all times, we are most
\noften reminded of the words and deeds of the Man of Nazareth. What a disturbed
\nand seemingly unsuccessful life Jesus lived. Even when alone in the Garden, he
\nseemed not to be relaxed, but moved with compassion toward harassed and bewildered
\nhumanity. He carried tension to the end. And he died on a cross.
\nperhaps relaxation is not life’s greatest prize.
\n1-139
\nLITTLE TALKS ON COMMON THINGS
\n22nd Broadcast April 10, 1949
\nWhat do you know about corn, and I don’t mean radio programs? For one thing,
\nit is generally agreed that the finest sweet corn in the world is groWn in Maine.
\nIn the world’s markets Maine canned corn is even better known than Maine canned
\nblueberries. Even before the war cans of Maine corn were sometimes seen in such
\nunlikely places as Abyssinia and Madagascar, My Colby classmate, Robert Fernald,
\nis U. S. Consul in Tananarive, Madagascar, and he assures me that Maine corn is
\nnot an unusual item among the American goods Which reach that far-away island.
\nNow a curious thing about corn is that it has no wild counterpart. Corn is
\none of the few plants that grows only when cultivated by man. Yet corn, like every
\nother cultivated plant, must at some time have had a wild ancestor, but its dis-:covery
\nhas persistently eluded the botanists. Within the past week news has come
\nof What may be a missing link in this quest.
\nTwo Harvard explorers recently found, in a New Mexico cave, the most primitive
\ncorn yet discovered. In a layer of refuse, which geologists say is 4,000
\nyears old, they found cobs, husks and grains of very primitive corn. The ears are
\ntiny, about two inches long, and the kernels appear as irregular, single spots,
\nnot in orderly rows.
\nDid such corn once exist in a wild state? What difference does it make? Who
\ncares? The answers to those questions reveal your own philosophy of life. If
\nyou can see no value in anything that does not have immediate, practical ends, of
\ncourse you don’t care about the origin of corn. But if you believe that any discovery
\nWhich expands human knowledge is in the long run of value to present and
\nfuture generations, then you do care. The fact is that the final discovery of wild
\ncorn, if and When it comes, may answer many questions concerning the prehistoric
\n1-140
\nmen who used it, and the more .we know about the long, slow process by which man
\narose from primitive beginnings to modern civilization, the better we can understand
\nwhat kind of creature man really is and how his future progress can be best
\nassured.
\n*****
\nNow for the covered bridges. I fear we can’t finish the subject tonight, because
\nwe confront quite a search. Listeners have written and telephoned in even
\nlarger numbers than they did about the narrow guage railroads, and, as you might
\nwell suspect, the more they send in the more checking we have to do.
\nOUr best clue as to the number of covered bridges still standing in Maine
\ncomes from a listener who has helped us before, Emery Hegarty. He calls our attention
\nto an article in the Lewiston Journal on October 16, 1948 by Harry A. Packard.
\nThe article is devoted to the famous artist’s bridge in the town of Newry, said to
\nbe the most frequently painted covered bridge in our state. In the article Mr.
\nPackard says there are 37 covered bridges yet standing in Maine, seven of them in
\nOxford County alone. Unfortunately Mr. Packard does not name the 37 bridges; his
\narticle is devoted wholly to one bridge.
\nYou listeners have responded so helpfully that I wish we could name every one
\nof you who have turned in some information this week. But the list is too long even
\nto give hastily on this program. If I fail to mention your name it is not because
\nI did not notice your communication.
\nMore than thirty listeners call attention to the covered bridge at Stillwater
\nVillage, and Fred Dore of l5i College Avenue has taken the t~e to send me four
\nlarge hand-written pages by Adelbert M. Lakeman on history and legend connected
\nwith the Stillwater bridge. Mr. Lakeman says it is one of only three so-called
\ndouble barreled bridges still standing in New England. Both of the others are in
\nVermont.
\nThere used to be many of those double barreled bridges \u2022 Less than 15 years
\n1-141
\nago one crossed the Androscoggin at Turner. Most of the covered bridges had
\nwidth for only one team, and hence were one-way bridges. Some of them were wide
\nenough for teams to pass, but few of them had two actually separate tunnels —
\na long line of crossed timbers dividing the two sec;:tions. That is the way the
\nStillwater bridge was built more than a century ago, in 1835. During a freshet
\nthe very next year it fell into the stream and had to be rebuilt. But since that
\nyear, 1836, the bridge has stood — its whole 230 foot length — with only occasional
\nrepairs. Originally a toll bridge, it was purchased by the town for $2,000
\nin 1870, and for nearly 80 years has been free to all travel.
\nWhy did they ever go to the trouble and expense of the twin tunneled architecture?
\nWhy not just a wide bridge? Traffic was not dense enough on most of
\nthose bridges for the narrow passages of one-way structures to cause much delay;
\nso the mere desire for two-way traffic could not have been the reason. Mr. Lakeman
\ngives a more plausible explanation. Covered bridges were bad places for collisions,
\nand frisky horses were not so likely to shy at one another with a dividing
\nbarrier between them.
\nWhy did they build covered bridges anyway? That was apparently an easy question,
\nbecause more than forty listeners have sent in the right answer. It was not
\nto add weight to the structures in times of high water. It wasn’t, as a magazine
\narticle once seriously said, to keep the bridge free from difting snow. In winter
\nthey sometimes actually shoveled snow onto the bridge to give sleds traction. The
\nreal reason, of course, was to protect the timbers from rotting, and explains why
\nthose bridges have so long resisted rain, ice and snow.
\nWhat other covered bridges still stand in Maine? One crosses the Piscataquis
\nRiver between Dover-Foxcroft and Guilford. It can be seen from the main highway
\nbetween those towns, though it is on a less traveled road connecting the main
\nhighway with the so-called black road — also a tarred surface — from Dexter to
\nSangerville. Another crosses the Little Black River just before it enters the st.
\n1-142
\nJohn in Allagash Plantation. This is not far from the more famous Allagash River,
\nthe canoeist’s paradise.
\nThe Artists’ Bridge, to which we have already referred, crosses the Sunday
\nRiver at Ketchum, a tiny village in the town of Newry. Anyone who ever took the
\nmemorable drive from Rumford to Berlin, New Hampshire by way of upton and Eustis
\nwill recall the wonderful scenery both up and down river in the vicinity of that
\npicturesque bridge.
\nAnother covered bridge connects Maine and New Hampshire across the Ossiskee
\nRiver at Porter, but I have been unable to learn whether a second bridge still
\nspans the Ossiskee, or whether any of the old covered bridges, once so numerous
\non the Saco, still stand. I believe the so-called Upper Bridge at Andover still
\nremains. It is a ninety foot structure across the Ellis River, built in 1870,
\nand long a landmark in northern OXford County.
\nI was naturally pleased to see in the Lewiston Journal article a picture of
\nthe one covered bridge with which I was personally most familiar. It spanned the
\nSaco River at the foot of Walker’s Hill between Bridgton and Fryeburg, but it is
\nnow only a memory. It was replaced nearly a quarter century ago by a concrete
\nstructure. It was one of the longest covered bridges in western Maine, and it nobly
\nwithstood some mighty freshets.
\nNow this makes only six named bridges that still stand. To be sure Mr. Lakeman
\nrefers to the “ten or a dozen covered bridges left in Maine”, but Mr. Packard
\nmust have had good authority for saying there are 37. At any rate, there are surely
\nmore than six. Where are they?
\nAn interesting question we should like to see answered is, where in all the
\nworld is the longest covered bridge still standing and in use? I am told there
\nis a covered bridge 1,400 feet long on the Gaspe Peninsula in Canada. Does anybody
\nknow a longer one?
\nDid you know that in Winslow there were .0nce. th:tree_ covered bridges in sight
\n1-143
\nof each other? What a pity that we had no aerial photographs in the old days,
\nor no. vantage point from which all three could be focused into one picture. Both
\nat the Waterville Public Library and at the Waterville Historical Society are
\nblow-ups of an old picture of which a copy has just reached me from my friend
\nEdgar Brown, former postmaster and for many years secretary of the WatervilleWinslow
\nChamber of Commerce. That picture, taken in 1856, carries the caption:
\n“View of Waterville from Sand Hill, Winslow”. It shows two of the covered bridges
\n— the highway bridge, a double-barreled structure where the present steel and
\nconcrete bridge cr0sses the Kennebec, and above it the covered railroad bridge.
\nAn interesting feature of the old photo is an elevated sign spanning the highway
\nat the foot of Sand Hill. The sign reads: “Rail Road Crossing. Look OUt for
\nthe Engine When the Bell Rings”.
\nThe third bridge, not shown in this picture, was the last of the three to
\nsurvive. Crossing the Sebasticook in Winslow, it came down in 1902.
\nAdelbert Wright of the Maine Central yards tells me he knows the covered
\nbridge at Augusta was standing on July 4, 1896, because on that day he and his
\nbrother crossed it to attend Barnum’s circus in the capital city. Mr. Wright has
\nan interesting story about the covered bridge at New Sharon, which went out in
\nthe 1897 flood. His sister, who lived about a mile above Rome Corner on the New
\nSharon road, recalls that. her whole family rushed to the door to see what was
\nmaking such an awful racket one fall evening in 1896. It proved to be one of
\nthe first automobiles ever seen in that part of the country. Memory .says not whether
\nit was one of the early factory products, or a home-made vehicle such as the
\nWalker brothers put on the roads of my home town about the same time.
\nNext day Mr. Wright’s sister and her family learned what happened after the
\nauto went by their house. It had begun to rain, and the rain froze as it fell.
\nThe car made such slow progress that it was nearly mid-night when the passengers
\nreached the New Sharon bridge. They .crossedit but found the village hill so icy
\n1-144
\nthat the car couldn’t make it. So they backed down under the shelter of the covered
\nbridge and there spent the night out of reach of rain and sleet.
\n*****
\nThat’s enough about covered bridges for tonight, but we’ll return to the
\nsubject again when we learn where more of them are located. Let us turn now to
\nanother subject. Most Waterville people know that Colby College has a Paul Revere
\nbell. One of the last of the big bells that came from the foundry of the
\nman who took the famous ride hangs in the belfry of old South College on the College
\nAvenue campus. The building is the oldest Colby structure, erected in 1822,
\nand the bell adorned it only a few years later. Some day, surely, that historic
\nbell will be heard on Mayflower Hill.
\nMrs. Gertrude Taylor of .North Vassalboro says the last church bell made by
\nPaul Revere is now in the belfry of the Congregational Church at Benton Falls.
\nI believe Herbert Jones in his book “Maine Memories” gives an interesting account
\nof the adventures and difficulties encountered in getting that bell to Benton.
\n*****
\nJust one more topic tonight. We are told that nowadays one marriage in every
\nfour, after a very few years, ends in divorce. Nevertheless, look about you. You
\nwill find plenty of families where husband and wife have not only stood each
\nother, but have stood by each other for many years.
\nIt was my pleasure last week to see on the New York stage Howard Lindsey. and
\nDorothy Stickney in their new production “Life with Mother”, sequel to the more
\ncelebrated “Life with Father”. It has the same complicated \u00b7actions of the six
\nred-headed Days that gave the 6,000 audiences which saw its predecessor so many
\nhearty laughs. Father Day is just as domineering and Mother is just as adept at
\nhaving her own way with him. But even more than “Life with Father” , this sequel
\n“Life with Mother” impresses an essential, central theme. Here .are two married
\n1-145
\npeople who, in spite of differences and in spite of tempers, have maintained a
\nmutua1 affection which surmounts all difficulties and persists through life.
\n1-146
\nLITTLE TALKS ON COMMON THINGS
\n23rd Broadcast April 17, 1949
\nWe have no desire to add to the sentimentality that has characterized newspaper
\nand radio reports of the tragedy which made the headlines just a week ago.
\nWe would only point out the common truth it reveals: nothing pulls at the heart
\nstrings of us common folk as does injury to a little child. Our generation is
\naccused of being cold and unfeeling, but in reality we are just as inclined to
\nsympathy and concern as were our grandparents. In a week when two major disasters
\nsnuffed out multiple lives, it is interesting to note that what hit us hardest
\nwas the death in a deep well-pipe of one little child.
\nThere is something genuinely human about that seeming paradox, our relative
\ncallousness toward wholesale slaughters and our concern about a single life. That
\nwas the way Jesus acted and taught. His concern was for individual men and women
\n— for the one lost sheep and the one lost coin. It may be that not only human
\nnature, but divine will, also cares for the single life.
\nAt least two listeners doubt that any bridge on the Gaspe is 1,400 feet long.
\nNow I cannot vouch for that length, but I can vouch for the fact that several
\nwell known families in waterville originated on the Gaspe-Peninsula. Perhaps some
\nof them can tell us about the Gaspe bridge.
\nAt any rate Paul Glasgow, a college student now living at Fairfield Center,
\nand Mrs. Nellie Dunphy of Waterville, both insist that the longest covered bridge
\nis the huge 1,280 foot span over the St. John River at Hartland, New Brunswick.
\nAn anonymous listener sends me a picture of the Hartland bridge; the accompanying
\ntext says it is 1,282 feet, and at the end of the bridge is a sign: “Longest
\ncovered bridge in the world”.
\nWe picked up information about one more covered bridge in Maine. OUr atten-
\n1-147
\ntion is called to the covered bridge over Kenduskeag Stream on Harlow Street in
\nBangor. Is that the only covered bridge left in a large community?
\nLast week we mentioned an old-time warning sign at the Winslow end of the
\nnow extinct covered bridge over the Kennebec. Long after the coming of automobiles
\nan even more expressive sign was nailed to each end of the famous Columbia
\nBridge, a covered structure crossing the Connecticut River at Lemington,
\nVermont. The sign read: “Walk or Pay Two Dollars”. Now those are simple words.
\nA child knows what every one of those five words means. But what do they mean as
\nthey are put together here: walk or pay two dollars? Did they mean that you could
\nwalk across the bridge for nothing, but it would cost you two dollars to ride
\nacross? Hardly that. None of the old toll bridges had so high a fee. Two dollars
\nwas a lot of money among rural people a hundred years ago and few travelers could
\nspare it. No, the sign meant that you must walk your team across the bridge. If
\nyou trotted or ran the horses across, you would be fined two dollars.
\n*****
\nA Waterville man has just published a distinguished book. For more than a
\nquarter of a century a resident of this city, Carl J. Weber of Burleigh Street,
\nhas been writing books and he now has nearly a dozen to his credit. Known as the
\nworld’s leading authority on the English poet and novelist, Thomas Hardy, he has
\ngathered into the Robinson Treasure Room at Colby College not only the most completecollection
\nof Hardy items to be found anywhere in the world, but many other
\nunique collections.
\nProfessor Weber is somewhat of a literary detective and he is always turning
\nup something new. His book that has just come from the press is the only book ever
\npublished on its subject. It is called “A Thousand and One Fore-Edge Paintings.”
\nWhat is fore-edge painting? Don’t feel too chagrined if you can’t answer. I didn’t
\nknow either until a few months ago. It is painting on the edges of the leaves of a
\nbook. Most schoolboys know the trick of fanning the leaves, holding them firmly in
\n1-148
\nthat opened, spread position, then writing the owner’s name on the fore-edge.
\nWhen the ink dries and the leaves spring back into nonnal position, the writing
\non the edges all but vanishes, appearing as little more than a wavy line. But
\nalways thereafter, as long as the book holds together, one who spreads and fans
\nthe leaves, as the boy did when he wrote his name there, can see the clear design
\nof letters and name. One looks at a particular book and sees nothing on the
\nfore-edge except hazy, indistinct bits of color. He fans the pages and sees a
\ndistinct painting. When that happens, he has found a book with fore-edge painting.
\nIn his volume of two hundred pages \u00b7Professor Weber tells the enchanting
\nstory of the development of this peculiar art. He tells us about the artists i
\nbookbinders and publishers who played their parts in it: Daddy Gilpin, Edwards
\nof Halifax, Lewis of London, and many others.
\nThe book is richly embelliShed with 24 illustrations, exemplifying fore-edge
\npaintings of great variety and striking design. The frontispiece in full color
\nis a landscape of a country mansion, painted on the fore-edge of a Book of Common
\nPrayer, printed in Paris and sold by Edwards and Sons of Halifax in .1791.
\nProfessor Weber’s book is not only interesting reading; it is also a beautiful
\nexample of fine book-making. It is the kind of book one can cherish in the
\nhome for many years. Unlike the national commentator who immediately precedes me
\non this station, I am not given to prophecy. Until tonight I have never made a
\nprediction \u2022. But I will venture one now. Carl Weber’s “A Thousand and One ForeEdge
\nPaintings” will be selected as one of the fifty finest printed books of 1949.
\n*****
\nWho remembers the country peddlers? No one now living remembers the peddlers
\nof the early nineteenth century, made famous in fiction and historical narrative.
\nThat breed vanished so long ago that I believe they are not depicted in the CUrrier
\nand Ives prints, which included almost everything in the rural life of the
\nmid-century. Those early peddlers carried almost every non-perishable commodity
\n1-149
\npins and needles, notions and ribbons, yard goods, tinware, lanterns, brooms and
\nhundreds of other articles. Fifty years ago the country peddler with his horse
\nand cart had not entirely dis~ppeared, but he had become more specialized. The
\nso-ca11ed tin peddler lasted a long time. He was familiar on city streets as
\nwell as on the farms. He became the well-known rag man, with his cry “Any rags,
\nany bones, any bottles today”. Tinware was the stock which he bartered for rags.
\nThen there was the extract man. In my town lived one of those men, known all
\nover Cumberl~d County as Bennett Strout, the extract man. Before the day of modern
\nsynthetic flavoring, he made many of his essences out of natural products.
\nHe was especially proud of the quality of vanilla beans which he imported. After
\nthe snow mel ted from the roads and the mud was not too deep for travel, he would
\n”
\nload up his fancily painted cart, drawn often by a span of horses, and start off
\non a two weeks’ trip through the countryside. With only a day or two at home in
\nbetween, he would keep up these fortnightly trips until November snows made travel
\ndifficult. Then he would spend all winter making up supplies for the next summer’s
\nsales.
\nC10sely allied to the extract man was the medicine man. Not to be confused
\nwith the travelling shyster of the medicine show, palming off his worthless concoctions
\nfor a dollar a bottle, the regular medicine man, with his semi-annual
\nvisits, was an honest, respected and well known citizen. The one in my community
\nhad the gayest peddler’s cart of all the itinerant salesmen. Its big box body,
\nlike a fish cart, was painted in yellow and red and had turned posts, like barber’s
\npoles, rising from each corner. The horses wore harness with highly polished
\nbrass, and with red plumes over the bridles.
\nThe driver himself wore a Prince Albert coat and high winged collar, and he
\nspoke with great dignity and precision. Because of & home-made remedy which he had
\npatented, he was called Opodildoc Knight. He had other medicines too. For miles
\n1-150
\naround a favorite spring tonic was Knight’s Sassaparilla, a concoction whose vile
\ntaste was supposedly a guarantee of its curative value.
\nLong before the coming of chain stores, evidence of chain business had crept
\ninto the countryside. The early peddlers were an independent, individual lot
\neach owning his own business and frequently manufacturing his own wares. But not
\nso the Grand Union Tea man. He represented an organization; he was one of a chain.
\nHis big, green cart became a familiar object on the rural landscape, and the farm
\nfolk waited eagerly for his regular rounds.
\nThe meat man, the fish man, the fruit man and the vegetable man still remain.
\nAll four can yet be found in many rural regions of Maine. Not quite obsolete are
\nthe foreign peddlers of special wares: the Armenian rug peddlers, the Greek and
\nAlbanian women with their beautiful embroidery, and Italian salesmen of costume
\njewelry. The Indian basket weavers seldom go, any longer, from door to door.
\nBusiness is better and easier when they set up shop near some well traveled highway.
\nEven in my boyhood day, when telephones were rare and cOnmm1nication was geared
\nto the speed of horse and buggy, the peddlers were purveyors of news. They were an
\nimportant link between farm and town; to isolated rural families they brought the
\nlatest happenings from distant places and the juiciest~gossip from down the- valley
\nor over the hill. They played an important part in the development of our great
\ncountry, and some of them, like Johnny Appleseed, have made their way into folklore
\nand legend. May their memory long survive!
\n*****
\nOn this holiest day of the Christian year what have you been doing? Many of
\nyou have been to church, have heard the joyous Easter music, have listened to the
\nwords of hope. Others of you would have gone, if illness or other uncontrollable
\ncircumstances did not keep you at home. Perhaps others of you did not care to go.
\nThat is your privilege in this land of the free. But whatever your belief, however
\n1-151
\nfar you may feel removed from formal religion, or however close you may be to it,
\nyou cannot escape the gripping power that Easter has upon the minds and emotions
\nof men.
\nThe New Testament story tells us, “and the angel of the Lord rolled back the
\nstone from the door”. Vengeance and hate and spite had had their evil way. Mercy
\nand goodness and truth lay imprisoned within the tomb. But the executioners had
\nnot reckoned with the angel of the Lord. And the stone was rolled back from the
\ndoor. The stone of fear, binding men in craven servitude; the stone of prejudice,
\nmaking men always spillers of each other’s blood; the stone of despair, making men
\nto feel that the end of existence is a sealed tomb. The lesson of Easter, coming
\nas it does when nature herself bursts forth anew from winter’s bonds, is that the
\nevil, the frustration, the cynical despair that entombs mankind give way when the
\nangel of the Lord rolls back the stone from the door.
\n1-152
\nLITTLE TALKS ON COMMON THINGS
\n24th Broadcast April 24, 1949
\nperhaps none of our bits of nostalgia has brought more pleasing response
\nthan mention we made a few weeks ago of the common crackers. Mrs. Gertrude Taylor
\nof North Vassalboro wants to know if I remember the broken crackers, which could
\nbe bought at a reduced price. Indeed I do. They used to be in great demand at
\nThanksgiving time when housewives were all making stuffing for chickens. I say
\nchickens, not turkeys, for almost no one had turkey for Thanksgiving in our part
\nof Maine.
\nHenry Bonsall was for many years a Waterville grocer, into whose store in
\nthe block where the post office now stands I used to rush madly on emergency errands
\nfor Ma Jones’s Hanford House, where I waited on table in my student days.
\nMr. Bonsall insists that the usual name for the old common crackers was chowder
\ncrackers. But Mr. Bonsall misses my point about the two kinds. He says the second
\nkind was of smaller size and called butter crackers. I remember those’ also, but
\ninto my experience the butter cracker came much later than the two kinds to which
\nI referred. My two kinds were the hard baked and the soft baked — both the same
\nsize, but of very different consistency.
\nMr. Bonsall used to buy crackers in 25 barrel lots, assorted. The kinds were
\ncommon, butter, square oyster, round oyster, and the big square soda crackers. He
\nreminds me of something that I do well remember and ought to have mentioned before
\n— namely, that the barrels in which the crackers came packed were used flour
\nbarrels. There were always vestiges of flour sticking to the sides.
\nWhen Mr. Bonsall says the old price was three pounds for a quarter, he must
\nbe admitting that the cost of living was higher in Waterville than it was in
\nBridgton. Our standard price, year in and year out, was eight cents a pound.
\n1-153
\nMr. Bonsall gives us a clue to the time when flour in barrels began to pass
\nout. For many years he bought flour by the car load and sold it right out of
\nthe car in three days time. The farmers would come in, and each buy two or three
\nbarrels, paying largely in farm produce. Let’s have the finish in Mr. Bonsall’s
\nown words. He writes: “The last carload I sold was at the beginning of the First
\nWorld War”. That just about makes flour in barrels one of the lesser war casualties.
\n*****
\nIn many columns that have been written about Mr. Churchill’s recent address
\nin the Boston Garden, it seems to me that one passage has not been given deserved
\nattention. He said so much about the Communist menace, about the thirteen scheming
\nmen in the Kremlin, that a much more important statement has been overlooked. Mr.
\nChurchill is one of those men who believes that man’s basic problems are not solved
\nby arms and war. To fight against aggression may be a necessary duty, but the
\noutcome never solves humanity’s problems. Those of us who sincerely believe and
\nconstantly proclaim that the real problems of individual or nation are not economic,
\nbut spiritual, are heartened by Mr. Churchill’s words. This is what he said:
\n“Human beings and human societies are not structures that are built, or machines
\nthat are forged. However much the conditions change, the supreme question
\nis how we live and grow and bloom and die, and how far each life conforms to standards
\nwhich are not wholly related to space or time. The flame of Christian ethics
\nis still our highest guide. The fulfillment of spiritual duty in our daily life
\nis vital to our survival. Only by bringing it into perfect application can we hope
\nto solve for ourselves the problems of this world, and not of this world alone.”
\nMr. Churchill is profoundly right. Let us never forget that the ultimate
\nbasis of life is not material, but spiritual.
\n*****
\n1-154
\nMost of us manage to keep out of court, yet trials are common things. Some
\nkind of court, in this land of ours, is in session all the time. Foreigners are
\ncritical of what they call the slowness and technicalities of American justice.
\nThey tell us that justice is swifter and surer across the seas.
\nIt is with interest, therefore, that we heard last week about the longest
\ncase in the history of the courts of Ireland. It required 48 days of .continuous
\ncourt sessions, filled a book of 300 pages with the pleadings alone, and saw the
\nPresident of the High Court take four hours to read a 35,000 word decision dismissing
\nthe action. In other words, when it was allover, matters stood just
\nwhere they were before the case began. To get nowhere by that method the contestants
\nh~d spent 100,000 pounds, the equivalent of nearly half a million dollars.
\nCases in the English, Scottish and Irish courts are based largely on the
\nBritish Common Law; that is, the accumulated precedents on similar cases since
\nthe time of the Norman Conquest. This particular case was a suit brought by Foyle
\nand Bann Fisheries against more than eighty fishermen of County Donegal, who
\nclaimed a right to fish in the River Foyle. The company claimed the sole right to
\nfish in the river through letters patent granted before the year 1189. The Attorney
\nGeneral, on behalf of the eighty fishermen, argued that the company’s claim
\nwas contrary to Magna Carta. Before the case reached court at all, the lawyers
\non both sides spent two years of research into hundreds of documents from Magna
\nCarta to modern times. More than 300 documents were actually put into evidence,
\namong them the original texts of rare and priceless documents in Latin, German,
\nFrench, English and Irish.
\nSuch is one example of so-called sure and speedy justice across the seas. We
\nsuspect there are others. American courts may not be so bad, after all.
\n*****
\nWhat a common thing is time, so common indeed that we take it for granted.
\nThis is not the occasion to go into a discussion of the difficult but fascinating
\n1-155
\ntheory of the relativity of time — the Einstein view that time is not fixed and
\nabsolute, but depends on relative degrees of stability and motion. Suffice it to
\nsay that we have plenty of practical evidence that time means nothing to any of
\nus unless we can relate it to some fixed point. Everyone has had the experience
\nof waking up from sleep and wondering what time it is. Often, when we check by
\nwatch or clock, we find our guess has been wrong by several hours. In sleep,
\ntherefore, we have no recognition of the passage of time.
\nHow much faster time flies as we get older! How time drags for a little
\nchild! How aged and infirm seemed our parents when we were eight or nine years
\nold! How fast go the hours of a short vacation! How time drags when one sits on
\na jury in a tedious case! Yes, time is a relative thing.
\nThere are some curious facts about round-the-world time. One of these was
\nbrought home to me in striking manner in 1941. Just eight days before Pearl Harbor
\nI was called to the telephone at eight o’clock in the morning. The operator said,
\n“Manila is calling. Please hold the line.” In a few seconds the San Francisco
\noperator was instructing me to stand by, then the operator at Honolulu, and finally
\nthe operator at Manila, saying, “Your party is ready”. With complete distinctness
\nI then carried on a brief business conversation with my Manila caller.
\nWhen it was allover I asked myself the simple question, what time is it in
\nManila? As a matter of fact, I hadn’t the slightest idea. When I worked it out
\non an international time chart, what do you suppose I learned? Well, I learned
\nthis startling fact: at eight o’clock on Saturday morning, November 30, 1941 I
\nheard what my Manila caller said to me at nine o’clock the same Saturday night.
\nI heard what he said thirteen hours before he said it. Or didn’t I?
\nThe time difference from Waterville to Manila is eleven hours. Most of us
\nare aware of the time zones as we cross the United States. When it is noon in New
\nYork, it is one hour earlier — eleven o’clock — in Chicago; ten o’clock in Denveri
\nnine o’clock in San Francisco. Thus, as one continues west across the Pacific
\n1-156
\nthe time changes, so that noon in New York is 6: 30 AM in Honolulu and one A. M.
\nin Manila. So 8 A.M. in New York or waterville is 9 P.M. in Manila. But if each
\ntime zone west of New York is one hour earlier than the zone east of it, why isn It
\nthe Manila time 9 P.M. the previous evening, and why didnlt I hear what my caller
\nsaid eleven hours after he said it, instead of thirteen hours before he said it?
\nThe answer is that between Honolulu and Manila the traveler journeying westward
\ncrosses the International Date Line, and loses one day. If it is November 30
\nwhen he crosses the line, his next day is December 2. Journeying eastward he adds
\na day. If it is November 30 when he crosses the line eastward, the next day is
\nNovember 30 over again. Therefore, eleven time zones west of Waterville makes our
\n8 A.M. their 9 P.M., but it is 9 P.M. not of the evening before, but of our same
\nday.
\nSo, as absurd and impossible as it sounds, I like to speak of that telephone
\nexperience of mine in terms of paradox, and I repeat: I heard what my Manila caller
\nsaid thirteen hours before he said it.
\n*****
\nOne of life’ s common .things is the strange way far-off events and distant
\nplaces are linked together. So it is with the revolt of the Karens in far-away
\nBurma and the little city of Waterville, Maine.
\nAgainst the despotically inclined government of Burma, the government that
\ncame into power after expulsion of the Japanese conquerors, the Karens of the
\nnorthern Burmese hills have risen in revolt. The existing Burmese government got
\nits power by assassination and force, and both its leaders and its methods are
\nabhorrent to the democratic, Christian Karens.
\nHow do the Karens happen to be democratic and Christian? Because a hundred
\nand twenty-five years ago a young man named George Dana Boardman, the .firstgraduateof
\nwhat is now Colby College, left Waterville to join Adoniram\u00b7Judson in the
\nwilds of Burma. With Judson he carried Christianity to those wildest of wild
\n1-157
\nBurmese natives, the Karens of the hill country. There in the jungle Boardman
\nmet his death. Later his young widow married Judson and led the work that eventually
\nmade a whole people Christian. And Ann Boardman Judson was as democratic
\nas she was Christian. Democratic ways went together with Christian ways in all
\nher teaching.
\nToday, a century afterwards, the Christian Karens fight the cause of democracy
\nin Burma.
\n*****
\nExamples of the old-time experiences keep coming in. Two new ones of the
\npast week are the word “gunk” and the proverbial saying, “Far off cows have long
\nhorns.” Grover Weymouth of East Vassalboro, to whom I referred a few weeks ago
\nin connection with the narrow guage railroads, tells me that he has used the word
\ngunk as long as he can remember. It means something unpleasant or messy, or perhaps
\nsimply worthless. Mr. Weymouth says that a few years ago he was fishing in
\nChina Lake, when his hook got tangled up in marsh grass. Hauling in his line, he
\nlet loose with a verbal explosion about the gunk on his hook. A lady in the fishing
\nparty had never heard the word used before. She tried to find it in the dictionaries,
\nbut of course without success. Such words defy the makers of dictionaries.
\nAt any rate, I agree with Mr. Weymouth that it is a useful, expressive
\nword.
\nThe new proverb of the week is contributed by Miss Frances Moore of Waterville.
\nIt is “Far-off cows have long horns”. Miss Moore knew several elderly people
\nwho made common use of this proverb. When someone would tell a tall story, a
\nPaul Bunyan yarn about distant parts, or sometimes when one would tell just a
\nnaturally unbelievable tale, one of these old people would show his skepticism
\nby saying, “Far-off cows have long horns.”
\n*****
\n1-158
\nHere is a question for men of the radio audience. Each time a man shaves,
\nhow many strokes does he take with the razor? Now of course the exact number
\ndiffers among individual men, but what is it approximately? As a matter of fact,
\nI am assured the range between smallest and largest number of razor strokes among
\nindividuals isn’t very great, and it makes no difference what kind of a razor one
\nuses.
\n1-159
\nLITTLE TALKS ON COMMON THINGS
\n25th Broadcast May 1, 1949
\nConsistency,thou art a jewel, but one which few members of Congress ever
\nwear. How many a congressman can reconcile some of his votes either with his
\nparty platform or with his own conscience is beyond the comprehension of the
\nordinary citizen.
\nBoth the Republican and Democratic parties have in their platforms strong
\nplanks on the subject of civil rights. Both assert that no citizen should be denied
\nthe rights accorded to other citizens because of race, color or religion.
\nWhat is more, many Congressmen of both parties have made emphatic speeches
\nagainst racial and religious discrimination. One would suppose that any time when
\nthe filibustering Dixiecrats would let the issue come to a vote, discrimination
\nwould be hit an overwhelming Congressional blow.
\nNow let us see what actually happened. After debate lasting several days,
\nthe Senate finally came to a vote on various amendments offered to the Housing
\nBill. During that long night session of April 21, Senator Bricker of Ohio offered
\nthe following amendment, which I quote in its exact words in order that
\nthere be no misunderstanding or misrepresentation:
\n“In recognition of the fact that public policy requires equality of treatment
\nof all people and prohibits discrimination on account of race, color, creed,
\nnational origin or ancestry, in regard to public housing, every contract made
\npursuant to this act shall provide that the housing project to which the contract
\nrefers shall be operated without discrimination.”
\nWhen that amendment came to a vote, it was defeated 46 to 32, with 18 senators
\nnot voting. One would expect opposition from the hardened Dixiecrats like
\nEllender of Louisiana, Russell of Georgia and Eastland of Mississippi. But among
\n1-160
\nthose who voted against the Bricker amendment were Flanders of Vermont, Tobey of
\nNew Hampshire, Taft of Ohio, Morse of Oregon, Myers of Pennsylvania and Young of
\nNorth Dakota. stranger still were the negative votes of such men as Senator Humphrey
\nqf Minnesota, who led the fight for the civil rights plank at the Democratic
\nconvention last June, and of Senator Taylor of Idaho, who was Henry Wallace’s
\nrunning mate in the November election.
\nUnfortunately both Maine senators were absent when the vote was taken, excusably
\nabsent on necessary business. When the roll was called, Senator Saltonstall
\nof Massachusetts, in charge on the Republican side of the aisle, announced
\nthat Mr. Brewster and Mrs. Smith were both absent on official business, and that
\nif present and voting, both would vote yes; that is, in favor of the Bricker amendment.
\nJust before midnight that same night the Senate finally passed the
\nHousing Bill, and it contains no provision whatever against discrimination because
\nof race or religion.
\n*****
\nOne of our Winslow listeners, Mr. Clukey, adds notably to our list of covered
\nbridges, by calling our attention to two such bridges which still stood in the
\nsame community until within the past year. One was taken down less than a year ago;
\nthe other still stands. In the northwest corner of Maine, between the Rangeley
\nLakes and the New Hampshire border, is Lincoln Plantation with its little village
\nof Wilson’s Mills. Through this region flows the Magalloway River. It was crossed
\nby the two covered bridges Mr. Clukey mentions. The one still standing is called
\nthe Storey Bridge.
\nMr. Clukey mentions another practice of covered bridge days which we had
\nnever heard of before. He says that, in his native Vermont, people living near the
\nbridge kept their RFD boxes inside the bridge. A very sensible device to keep mail
\nfrom onslaughts of the weather, it must have been a convenience also to the mail
\ncarrier, who could take a breather under shelter of the bridge while he distributed
\n1-161
\nthe mail.
\n*****
\nWe are frequently reminded that just around the corner is the middle of the
\ntwentieth century. On this program devoted to common things it may be appropriate
\nto think a bit about some of the things we have that were unknown when this century
\nwas born. In 1900 there were not only no radios, there weren’t even movies.
\nThe airplane was unheard of; aviator was a word that belonged only in the Arabian
\nNights. Doctors of that day not only went without penicillin; they didn’t even
\nhave insulin. The ladies of 1900, in their big-sleeved shirt waists, visited no
\nbeauty parlors and read no cosmetic ads. Then men never went to Rotary or Kiwanis
\nor Lions or Exchange, because luncheon clubs were unheard of. Only in the larger
\ncities did people have luncheon anyway. Folks ate a good hearty dinner at noon
\nand supper at night. When our century dawned, there were no boy scouts and no
\nstate police, no chain stores and no self-service, no income tax and no surtax.
\nThey didn’t have that nuisance one encounters when he registers his car today,
\nthat nuisance which I once heard an indignant taxpayer call his exercise tax.
\nIn 1900 bobbing meant sliding down hill, not cutting a woman’s hair. In the
\nvocabulary of that day, unknown were the words cafeteria and automat, hitch-hiker
\nand high-jacker, jazz and juke-box. In Maine fifty years ago the word “drive” had
\nno connection with soliciting money. It meant either a pleasant experience with a
\nhorse or a tough experience getting logs down a stream.
\nTo how many people living today does the expression safety bicycle have any
\nmeaning? Even in 1900 it was a bit pass:, for I cannot remember ever hearing it
\nin my youth. And good reason why; for I have only the faintest recollection of
\nthe older, supposedly unsafe bicycles, with the tremendous front wheel and the
\ntiny rear wheel, and the rider mounted precariously high in the air. I can recall
\njust once when I saw one of those vehicles being ridden by a human being, and in
\nthe last decade of the nineteenth century, that rider was .even then a somewhat
\n1-162
\narchaic curiosity. Memories have to go back farther than mine, into at least the
\n1880’s, to recall those high-wheeled bicycles in any plentiful numbers.
\nAnyhow just about the time I was born along came the present type of bicycle,
\nhaving both wheels of equal diameter. When one fell from it he had not so far to
\nfall. It was, indeed, a less precarious thing to ride. In short, it was a safety
\nbicycle.
\n*****
\nMark Sullivan, popular historian of this century’s first quarter, claims that
\nit was the bicycle that started the revolution in women’s dress and women’s sports.
\nPrevious to the coming of the modern bicycle women’s only sport had been croquet.
\nWomen had, of course, ridden horseback, but only on sedate side-saddles and in a
\ncostume, the “riding habit”, in which the amount of covering and cloth was even
\ngreater than the long trains of ordinary dress.
\nSUddenly manufacturers began to make a safety bicycle adapted to women, by
\ninstalling nets to protect skirts from entanglement~with the whirling wire spokes.
\nGradually and daringly a few women began to wear shorter skirts, w~ighing the hems
\ndown with little strips of lead. When women took up tennis, modification of stays
\nand corsets was inevitable. Then the more daring females began to appear in
\nbloomers. It took years for the changes in dress to pass from specialized costumes
\nfor sport to ordinary wear.
\nIn 1900, for women as well as for men, Sunday best meant something in clothes.
\nBut as long ago as 1925 it had no meaning for American women. In that quarter of
\na century women in offices were as well dressed as women of leisure, Sunday or any
\nother day. The average working girl had so many changes of costume that, in June,
\n1925 the Detroit Free Press remarked: “Give women’s fashions time enough and they
\nwill starve all the moths to death.” The old timers, who didn’t like the changes
\na little bit, often let loose such sarcastic remarks as that of the old sailor who
\n1-163
\nsaid: “I s ‘pose the girls wear their dresses at half-mast as a mark of respect
\nfor departed modesty”.
\nWhen bobbing of women’s hair became a common fad, some indignant barbers,
\nwith more prejudice than business sense, put out signs reading: “Barber Shop
\nfor Men Only”.
\nWhat changes half a century has wrought on the farm as well as in the town.
\nIn 1900, though the mowing machine had come in, plenty of fa:rmers still cut huge
\nfields with the scythe. Oxen were still sharing the power task with horses. Every\u00b7
\n\u00b7fa:rm housewife had her own coffee-grinder, sausage grinder, and apple-parer, her
\nup-and-down churn, and her vat for making soap. When the fa:rmer and his wife
\nwent to town in winter, they rode in an open one-horse sleigh, Shielded from cold
\nby a thick buffalo robe. If their sleigh was one of the latest style, it was
\ncalled a cutter. Those journeys to town carried a memorable glamor unknown to
\na generation brought up with the automobile.
\n*****
\nLast week we referred to some curious facts about the common thing we call
\ntime. I suppose it was the railroad that first made time important to Americans.
\nTime in the pre-railroad days might well be described in the well-known language
\nof Octavus Roy Cohen’s fictional character Florian Slappey, “it’s what I ain’t
\ngotnothin’ else but”.
\nAfter the railroads had been perfected so that a train could actually go
\nfaster than a horse something which it definitely could not do at first —
\nto be on time meant to be on time for the train.
\nIf any great man was ever obl’ivious to the passage of time it was the nature
\nlover and he:rmit author, Henry David Thoreau. In Walden he wrote: “The
\ntrains come and go with such regularity and precision, and their whistle can be
\nheard so far, that the farmers set their clocks by them, .and thus one well regulated
\ninstitution, the railroad, regulates the whole country. ”
\n1-164
\nThe most punctual people on earth are said to be railroad men. As long ago
\nas 1833 modern time belts were established as a result of the railroads, but the
\nFederal Government ignored them for 35 years. Not until 1868, after the rail lines
\nhad spanned the continent, did we get official, government recognition of Eastern,
\nCentral, Mountain and Pacific time, with Maine even to this day feeling some
\neffects of a fifth zone, Atlantic time, in the eastern end of Canada. For 35 years
\nthe government listened to the pleas of local people for their own local times,
\nto the ranting of ministers against tinkering with God’s time. But finally the
\nspeeding iron horse won out, and people soon got used to our four national time
\nzones.
\n*****
\nAs I said when I talked about the narrow guage railroads, I am not a railroad
\nman. I just happened to be brought up in a narrow guage town. But there are a lot
\nof interesting facts about such a common thing as railroads, that even greenhorn
\npassengers like me are pleased to know. So next Sunday I shall speak again of
\nrailroads, not the old two-footers this time, but railroads of any size and any
\nguage — just plain railroads.
\n*****
\nLaura Knight of Fairfield, apropos of my talk on the old-time peddlers,
\nwants to know if I remember the old pack peddlers. Yes, I do recall a few of
\nthem — all foreigners, Italian or Armenian — carrying assortments. of dress
\ngoods and dressmaking wares. The older generation of native pack peddlers were
\nlong before my day. Mrs. Knight remembers a peddler who kept his goods tied up
\nin a huge piece of blue and white bed ticking. He would spread it all out on the
\ngrass in front of the house, if it was a fair day, or on the kitchen floor if it
\nrained. Too often the prospective customer had no money, and in great indignation
\nthe peddler would tie up his bundle and depart.
\n1-165
\nOccasionally two peddlers would meet in the same community. Each was sure
\nthe other was encroaching on his territory. They seldom came to blows, but they
\nused a very complete vocabulary in berating each other.
\nI am sure we are all grateful to Mrs. Knight for this interesting information
\nabout the old pack peddlers. Most women use every known device to conceal
\ntheir age, but Mrs. Knight is proud of hers. She tells me She is 78 years old, and
\nI can assure her that in spite of failing eyesight she still writes a fine letter,
\nand her memory of the old days and the old-time things is undimmed.
\n1-166
\nLITTLE TALKS ON COMMON THINGS
\n26th Broadcast May 8, 1949
\nThe past week has turned up an old-time expression that may be new to many
\nof our listeners. It contains the use of the word pie as a verb. We are reminded
\nof it by Mrs. Grace PUrington, a native of Fairfield, who recently resumed residence
\nin central Maine after many years in another state. She says that in her
\ngirlhood the family often visited the home of a rural relative, where according
\nto the custom of the time pie was served three times a day — breakfast, dinner
\nand supper.
\nAfter each person at the table had eaten his fill of the main course, the
\nman of the house would lean back in his chair and say, “Now pie ’em, Sarah”. In
\nother words, give ’em pie. That is the only connection in which I have ever
\nheard pie used as a verb.
\nWhen we referred to the peddlers who sold soft soap, we had no idea anyone
\nnow living remembered such a peddler. At least half a dozen people, including
\nMrs. PUrington, tell us that they remember a regular peddler of soft soap in Waterville
\nand Fairfield. He carried his commodity in a big barrel on a cart, and
\ndipped it out with a ladle, which he claimed held exactly a quart.
\n*****
\nEven in America of 1949, when travel by automobile and airplane have become
\nusual, the railroad is still a common thing , and I have not forgotten that I promisedto
\nsay something tonight about railroads — not the old narrowguage lines
\na1one, but the general subject of railroads.
\nThe mere statistics of American railroads are staggering. In spite of abandonment
\nof many branch lines, there are still 400,000 miles of railroad track in
\nthe United States. Every day 17,000 passenger trains and 24,000 freight trains
\n1-167
\npass over American rails. The roads are valued at 28 billion dollars, and the
\nwages of their employees total nearly four billion dollars a year. Some of you
\nmay be surprised to learn that, of our million railroad workers, 115,000 are
\nwomen. By the way, only once did I ever encounter a woman railroad conductor.
\nShe was a comely, efficient miss, punching tickets on a Pennsylvania train in
\n1943. Our railroads operate a huge publishing business, for they turn out 80
\nmillion copies of time tables every year.
\nOddly enough the first chartered railroad in the united States was not a
\nsteam road. The Baltimore and Ohio was the first to get a charter in 1827, but
\nat the beginning it operated with horse-drawn cars. So Charleston, South Carolina,
\nrather than Baltimore, has the honor of seeing the first steam road. Horatio
\nAllen, relative of the foster-father of the famous Edgar Allen Poe, had a locomotive
\nbuilt in New York, transported it by water to Charleston where, in December,
\n1830 it drew the first steam train in the United States the six miles from Charleston
\nto Hamburg.
\nThen the B & 0 staged a contest for the best steam locomotive. It was won by
\nPhineas Davis, a native of New Hampshire, then living in Pennsylvania. He called
\nhis engine “The York”, and it became the first of a long and celebrated line of
\nB & 0 engines.
\nIn the 1830’s there waged excited legal controversy as to what a railroad is.
\nIs it a public way like a highway, or is it a private way? Many lawyers claimed
\nthat the analogy of the turnpikes, and more especially of the canals, held for
\nthose new routes, the railroads. Just as anyone has the right to run a boat
\nthrough a canal if he pays the toll charges, so anyone had a right to run a train
\non a railroad track. It was Jonathan Knight, chief engineer of the B & 0, who
\nfinally convinced the courts that the fixity and rigidity of the railroad tracks,
\nmaking impossible the casual turning aside when one met another train, disputed
\ncompletely the analogy of highways and canals; and, since 1840, there has never
\n1-168
\nbeen any question that While a railroad is a public carrier, just as were the
\nold stage coaches and the wagon freighters, it operated on a private way.
\nDo you know why the cow-catcher was invented? The first locomotives did
\nnot have them, but from the beginning the crews were troubled by stray cattle
\non the tracks. It doesn’t take a very brilliant mind to figure out that the cowcatcher
\nwasn’t put on to protect the cows. It was invented to protect .the train.
\nIn the early days every time a train hit a cow, the train went off the tracks. So
\na device was conceived which would lift the animal and deflect it off the track
\nrather than pitch it under the wheels. It wasn’t always success.ful, as I can
\nwitness. I was once a passenger on the little Bridgton and Saco River line one
\nevening when, in the stretch of woods near Perley’s Mills, the train hit a moose.
\nResult: one very dead moose, but locomotive and one car off the rails. Perhaps
\nthe cow-catcher didn’t do its job that night because the animal was a bull moose.
\nIt was increasing freight business that caused the introduction of night
\ntrains, even on the short lines. Some of the roads scheduled all passenger trains
\nby day, all freight trains by night. This introduced the problem of light. Remember
\nthat any kind of lighting was a real problem in the 1830’s. It was before the
\n\u00b7discovery of petroleum and its use for oil lamps. Candles lighted the homes of
\nthe well-to-do; tallow wicks gave feeble light in the hovels of the poor. When
\nthe B & 0 first ran its trains, the invention of the headlight was many years in
\nthe future. The most common early device to provide light ahead of the train was
\nthe fire-car. Ahead of the engine was attached a flat car, covered with sand, on
\nWhich blazed a fi.re of pine knots. No wonder those early trains caused many fires
\nthrough the countryside.
\nA familiar expression of Civil War days shows how the times have changed.
\nThat expression was “to lie like. a time-t\u00ab;lble”. The old trains were seldom on
\ntime; a wait of several hours was not unusual. The fact that probably no one now
\nliving ever heard the expression “lie like: a time-t\u00ab;lble” actually .spoken is ample
\n1-169
\ntestimony to the efficiency and regularity of the modern railroad.
\nMost of you know that for many years there was no standard guage for our
\nrailroads. Often, when goods had to be transported by more than one line, they
\nwould have to be taken out of the cars of one road and packed into the cars of
\nanother road. I am familiar with that procedure, for it is exactly what had to
\nbe done with every pound of freight that came into Bridgton in my boyhood. Out
\nof the Maine Central cars at Bridgton Junction and into the tiny B & SR cars
\nwent every box and barrel. every bag of wool for the mills, every shovelful of
\ncoal. It was a tedious and costly procedure.
\nIn the early days the B & O’s guage was 4 feet 8 inChes; the Mohawk & Hudson’s
\nwas 4 feet 9 inches; the Camden and Amboy had 4 feet 10 inches; and the
\nCharleston and Hamburg 5 feet; while the New York and Erie had the extraordinary
\nwidth of 6 feet. standard guage was adopted in 1886, and all regular American
\nroads are now 4 feet 8t inches between the tracks.
\nWhy was the distance of 4 feet 8! inches adopted as standard? The answer
\ngives us a clue to another common thing — the strong hold which tr~dition has
\nupon us. The old Roman measure that gave the standard axle distance between the
\ntwo wheels of a Roman chariot, when converted into English measure, came out as
\nfour feet, eight and one-half inches.
\nuntil the coming of the Romans into Britain with Caesar’s legions, the British
\nIsles had no roads. As everyone knows the roads which the Romans built were
\nso strong and so permanent that many of their remains can be traced to this day.
\nThe wheels that first traveled those roads were the wheels of Roman chariots, and
\nthe ruts made by those wheels, generation after generation, for four hundred
\nyears, were either chariot wheel ruts, or ruts of wheels of the same axle width
\nas the chariot wheels.
\nTherefore, when railroads first came to Britain, it was natural to make them
\n1-170
\nthe width of tracks with which every Englishman was familiar, the tracks on the
\nold Roman roads and their later counterparts.
\nIn the days of early Ame~ican railroads, before the building of the great
\nBaldwin works, the best locomotives were imported from England, and those locomotives
\nwere all of 4 foot 8, inch guage. Many American roads were therefore
\nbuilt with the original idea of using British locomotives. Finally in 1886 the
\nAmerican people got fed up with the nuisance of different guages, and 4 feet 8l
\ninches became, standard guage for all broad-guage roads.
\n*****
\nI hope none of you have been foolish enough to count shave strokes, just
\nbecause of what I said last week. But, believe it or not, the average man takes
\napproximately two hundred razor strokes each time he shaves. The range is from
\nabout 150 to 250. If a man takes as few as one hundred regularly, day after day,
\nhe is unusual.
\n*****
\nMany of our listeners know that I have long taken a special interest in the
\nlife of Abraham Lincoln, especially in all that can be learned about him during
\nthose obscure years of his youth before he achieved fame. So on this Mothers’ Day
\nI think it is significant to point out that Abraham Lincoln was one of very few men
\nwho had two mothers, both of whom loved him dearly, and both of whom deeply influenced
\nhis life. Nancy Hanks, his own mother, and Sarah Bush, his step-mother,
\nmay both have been in his mind when he said, “All that I am and all that I hope to
\nbe, I owe to my angel mother.”
\n*****
\nNow for one last reminiscence tonight. Do you remmeber the old fire-horses?
\nCan any modern kid possibly get the thrill out of the big gasoline pumpers of
\ntoday that we used to get out of the old, big-stacked steamers drawn by horses
\nmadly dashing to answer an alarm? In the cities the fire engines were often drawn
\n1-171
\nby three horses abreast. I remember three coal-black beauties that used to haul
\none of Portland’s old engines. They were a magnificant sight on parade, and a
\nthrilling sight when they galloped wildly to a fire.
\nLast fall some Colby students got out one of Waterville’s old engines, got
\nup steam in it, and paraded it before the stands at the Colby-Bowdoin football
\ngame. For some time,I believe'” that old engine reposed in the open shed opposite
\nthe city home, on the site where the new Thayer Hospital will stand.
\nGone with a lot of other memories are the firemen’s big horses. But we can
\nall be grateful that the fire-fighter is more efficient and our property better
\nprotected in our mechanized day.
\n1-172
\nLITTLE TALKS ON COMMON THINGS
\n27th Broadcast May 15, 1949
\n‘By this time every listener to this program knows that I favor federal aid
\nto education. It is the only way we can secure reasonable equality of opportunity
\nto all the children of our nation. It does not follow, however, that every
\nproposed method to secure this desired end is equally good. Few right-minded
\ncitizens can favor any method that sets up a political grab-bag, whereby the
\nstates that have never done their financial best for their own schools keep on
\ndoing less and less, depending upon the Santa Claus in Washington to do more and
\nmore. By the phrase “economical best” I mean expenditures for education in relation
\nto state income; that is, in relation to ability to pay.
\nThere is also another difficulty about federal aid proposals. The formulas
\ndevised to determine how aid shall be apportioned among the states are often illadvised
\nand unsound. Probably few persons realize that the federal aid bill now
\nreceiving most attention in the Congress will be of net financial benefit to
\nvery few states. Too seldom, in looking for help from Uncle Sam’s treasury, do we
\nstop to ask where the good uncle himself gets the money. The present Senate Bill
\n246 is based on the federal income tax payments in the various states.
\nSenator Lodge of Massachusetts rendered valuable service when, last week in
\nthe Senate, he showed in plain dollars and cents what each state would receive
\nunder the federal aid plan and what it would cost each state to support the plan.
\nIn its first year of operation the plan would cost $208,083,\u00b7000. Where would the
\nfederal government get this money? From tax sources in the states themselves.
\nNow we certainly do not regard Maine as one of the wealthier states, and
\nwe are not at all proud of our low standing among the 48 states with respect to
\nour support of education. Yet, under this .particular federal aid plan, Maine
\n1-173
\nwould receive $945,000, while it would cost the taxpayers of Maine $1,206,000.
\nIn other words we would payout $261,000 more than we would get. Of course that
\namount is mere chicken feed compared to what the plan would cost the truly
\nwealthy states. It would cost Illinois $’13,635,000; California $13,869,000;
\nand New York $29,574,000. Only seventeen states would receive more than they
\npaid out; 31 states would lose. The gainers would be Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas,
\nGeorgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma,
\nSouth Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, utah, Virginia and west Virginia.
\nBy what possible stretch of the imagination can Texas be classed as a poor
\nstate? How can Virginia be called a poor state and Vermont a rich state? How
\ncan the oil state of Oklahoma be called poor and Maine called rich?
\nIn short, Senator Lodge points out that the formula devised to determine
\nrich states from poor states, in respect to the need for federal aid to support
\ntheir schools, is all wrong. For Texas to receive $41,000 more than it pays
\nout, while Maine pays out $261,000 more than it receives, simply does not make
\nsense.
\nMany well meaning people, especially.professional educators, are so eager
\nto see a program of federal aid to education get under way that they will support
\nany bill without the caution of careful\u00b7 examination. I too want to see a
\nprogram of federal aid, to equalize opportunity for all the children of all the
\npeople, but one doesn’t get a structure of equality by trying to build it on
\nthe sands of inequality. That is what Senate Bill 256 tries to do. In my opinion
\nit is not a good bill.
\n****.*
\nTo Daniel Webster — not the great orator of long ago, who once beat the
\nDevil in a court of law, but the present town.manager of Fairfield — we owe
\nthe first suggestion that has come to us concerning the origin of that pictur-
\n1-174
\nesque old Maine saying, “leaning toward Sawyer’s”. For those of you who never
\nheard that expression — and I suspect there may be many such — let me repeat
\nthat it refers to some material object that is tipping or badly askew, and in
\nits most common use refers to a tumble-down barn or set of buildings.
\nMr. Webster suggests that, just as in the case of “not worth a Hannah Cook”,
\nthe saying did not originate in a proper name at all but in a common word. Perhaps
\nit first referred to a tree which, as it was being cut down, perversely and
\nobstinately kept leaning the wrong way; namely, toward the sawyer, the man or
\none of the men who was sawing it. Because there were plenty of people named Sawyer,
\nthe term became confused with the family name, and when the expression
\nonce got into writing, it came to be spelled with a capital S. Whether or not
\nit is the correct explanation, Mr. Webster’s is at least both plausible and ingenious.
\nWe’ll see what the Dialect Society has to say about it.
\n*****
\nThere recently came to my attention a little pamphlet, yellowed with age
\nduring the past 97 years. It is entitled “By-Laws of the Town of Waterville,
\n1852”. That was more than thirty years before Waterville became a city; indeed
\nit was back before the Civil War in the real horse and buggy days. In fact I
\nsuspect there was more horse-back riding than buggy riding when this little book
\nwas printed by Maxham and Wing at the office of the old Waterville Mail.
\nI believe, long before the recent State Legislature got interested in fireworks,
\nthe old ordinance prohibiting their use within fifty rods of any street
\nor highway was still on the books, as it was in 1852, but it certainly was not
\nenforced. What is not so well known is the exception provided by the old by-law
\nof 1852. It reads: “The selectmen may, for military parades and musters, and
\nfor such other occasions as they may deem proper, from time to time, for one
\nday at anyone time, grant a dispensation from the operation of this section
\nand may then grant permission to any discreet person to superintend the firing
\n1-175
\nand discharge of cannon, guns, or fire crackers in a specified place.”
\nThe penalties for offenses were not excessive in 1852. Listen to this one.
\n“If any person shall, within said village, wantonly or unnecessarily fire or explode
\nany squib, cracker, serpent, fulminating powder or preparation of gunpowder
\nin any store, shop, barn, street, or public place, he shall for each offense
\nforfeit a penalty of 25 cents.”
\nHere is a by-law that reveals marked change in our common ways of living:
\n“Whoever shall presume to carry any fire from any building or place to another
\nbuilding or place, except in a safe and covered pan or other vessel, so as to
\nsecure the fire from the wind and from being scattered by the way, shall forfeit
\n50 cents.”
\nA common means of conveying articles from one place to another is revealed
\nby this by-law: “No person shall pass with any wheel-barrow upon any sidewalk in
\nsaid village, except for the purpose of passing directly across the sidewalk
\nfrom the street to some adjoining land, on penalty of 25 cents for each offense.”
\nThere were speed laws in Waterville a hundred years ago. “No person shall
\ndrive or ride any horse in any street of said village on the run, or at an immoderate
\npace, except in case of urgent necessity,. under penalty of one dollar.”
\nI suppose it was urgent necessity which permitted Hod Nelson to run his horse
\ndown College Avenue and Main St:eet that day when he hurried downtown after a
\nnew baseball to replace the one ball available when the Colby-Bowdoin game ~an
\nthe ball lost in the grass and bushes north of Shannon Hall.
\nCuriously enough it is a by-law concerning smoking which contains the one
\nreference in this volume to a necessary convenience of the old days which preceded
\nthe modern bathroom. “No person shall smoke or carry a lighted pipe or
\ncigar”” — note there is no mention of cigarettes; they had not yet been invented
\n“No person shall smoke or carry a lighted pipe or cigar wi thin or upon any
\nstreet, sidewalk, stable yard or outhouse within the village, on a penalty of
\n1-176
\n50 cents.”
\n*****
\nOn three old-time things our listeners have responded splendidly. They have
\nhelped us get a complete and accurate list of Maine’s narrow guage railroads~
\nthey have rounded up the old cattle pounds~ they have given us a respectable
\nlist of covered bridges that still stand in Maine. Now let us try again. OUr
\nnew subject is the old-time canals. Other states had bigger and more numerous
\ncanals. Maine had nothing to match the big Erie, properly called the Barge
\nCanal. But we certainly had a few that were important channels of commerce before
\nthe days of the railroads.
\nNow on this subject I am more ignorant than I was of the narrqw guage railroads.
\nI suppose I ought to be ashamed to admit it, but tonight I know of just
\none canal ever used in Maine for relatively long-distance commerce. This excludes
\nthe short connection canals inside some of our larger towns or cities, like Lewiston.
\nand Bangor. The canal I know was abandoned about the time I was born. It
\nwas not my birth, however, that put it out of existence, but rather the building
\nof the B & SR railroad. It was the old Presumpscot Canal which skirted the unnavigable
\nparts of the Presumpscot River so that boats could pass between Sebago
\nLake and the wharves at Portland.
\nWhen my father took over the old Dixie Stone general store in the upper village
\nat Bridgton in the middle 1880’s, every pound of freight that came into that
\nstore was either brought over the road or, during the months from May to October,
\nby boat from Portland through the Presumpscot Canal into Sebago Lake, up the
\nlength of that big lake, through the Songo, then called the Crooked River,
\nthrough the locks at Songo Locks, out into the widening Bay of Naples, through
\nthe draw-bridge into Long Lake to Bridgton Landing, two miles from the center of
\nthe village.
\nNext week I shall tell you the most interesting incident I ever learned
\n1-177
\nabout that old canal. I think you will agree it is a choice bit of Maine history.
\nNow where else in Maine were there once commercial canals? Let us
\nsee if the radio audience can come through with a gdod list.
\n*****
\nIt is almost time for the run of alewives at Damariscotta Mills. This is
\none of the memorable and unique sights in Maine. If there is any listener who
\nhas never seen it, don’t let another year go by without taking it in. There for
\nmore than countless centuries generation after generation of herring have laboriously
\nclimbed the steep falls from the salt water to the little inland lake,
\nfollowing nature’s mysterious but unavoidable urge to spawn in the fresh inland
\nwaters. Along those falls more than a hundred years ago man began to assist the
\ntiring fish, so that more young fish would come down the way to the sea, to return
\nin greater numbers of big herring the following spring.
\nSo from the middle of May to the end of June one of the grandest sights in
\nMaine is to see those struggling fish try again and again, with defeat after defeat,
\nto leap from one man-made pool to the next, up the long ladder of pools to
\nthe little pond at the top. Some of them never make it; some of them take days
\nto get out of a single pool; but by one super-effort, one gigantic leap, most of
\nthem finally make it.
\nIt is a great lesson for us humans. Most of us are not persistent fighters.
\nWe give up rather easily. But not so these fish. Fatigue, even to complete exhaustion,
\ncannot make them give up. Only death can make them stop. And the finest
\npart of the lesson is that most of them do win through to the goal.
\n1-178
\nLITTLE TALKS ON COMMON THINGS
\n28th Broadcast May 22, 1949
\nLet’s begin tonight with another reference to railroads. A whole volume
\ncould be written
\nsubject of rails
\nin fact, many pages have been written — on just the one
\nthe steel lines on which the trains travel.
\nIn the 1830’s when railroads first came to ~merica the rails were of rolled
\niron and weighed only 33 pounds. But iron rails had been used for a century before
\nthat. Those early rails were of cast iron, very short, three to six feet,
\nand made very bumpy tracks. The first Bessemer rail was rolled in the united
\nStates in 1865. It was not the heaviest rail of its time, for it weighed only
\n50 pounds, whereas the Pennsylvania Railroad already had 67 pound rails. Not
\nuntil 1900 did we get a hundred pound rail. The newest rails — they call them
\nthe 1950 rails
\n6 3\/4 inches.
\nweigh 152 pounds, have a height of eight inches and a base of
\nThe T-section rail is distinctly an American invention. Its inventor was
\nJohn Stevens of the old Camden and Amboy Railroad. In fact, Stevens was quite
\nan inventor. He perfected a multitubular boiler for marine engines, for which he
\npetitioned Congress to give him a patent in 1790. He succeeded and thus laid the
\nfoundation for our present patent system. Stevens was also the first man to apply
\nscrew propellers to ships, trying them out only a few days after Robert Fulton
\nmade his famous run on the Hudson in the first steamboat. In fact, Stevens bettered
\nFulton in that he made the engine himself, while Fulton’s boat had a British
\nengine. Stevens sent his boat from New York to Philadelphia, thus making the
\nfirst ocean voyage for any steamship.
\nIt was while crossing the Atlantic to England — this time in an old sailing
\nvessel — that Stevens designed the T-rail. Securing some blocks of wood from
\n1-179
\nthe ship’s carpenter, Stevens set to work with his pocket knife and carved out
\nhis conception of what a rail should be. His model bears remarkable resemblance
\nto a modern rail.
\n*****
\nWe hear a lot of controvers~al talk about freedom of speech or the lack of
\nit in Russia. Of one thing we may be sure: it isn’t safe to criticize the government
\nin the Soviet Union. Even some of the funny stories going the rounds
\nmake that point all too clear.
\nThe story goes that a Russian wolfhound, exiled in London, was lunChing with
\nan English bulldog. “Can’t offer you much”, said the bulldog. “Since the food
\nshortage started, Master even keeps the bones. This is a terrible country. How’s
\nthings in Russia?” “Wonderful”, said the wolfhound. “Big chunks of meat; juicy
\nbones.” “For heaven’s sakes, my friend”, asked the bulldog, “Why are you here?”
\n“Well”, replied the Russian dog, “a fellow likes to be able to bark once in a
\nwhile, doesn’t he?”
\n*****
\nNot long ago I warned you that some day I would “pull a boner”, make a mistake
\nof fact on this program. Well, it happened last week. My excuse is the same
\nas that of the dictionary maker, Samuel Johnson, who had defined “postern” as
\nthe knee of a horse. When a good lady asked him how he came to make such a\u00b7
\nmistake, Johnson replied: “Ignorance, Madame, sheer ignorance.” That, too, is
\nmy only excuse for saying the old Erie Canal is now called the Barge Canal. My
\ncolleague on the Colby faculty, Miss Marion Hockridge, knows New York State well,
\nand she informs me that most of the old Erie Canal is now filled in, that the
\npresent Barge Canal is a newer ditch which follows more closely the course of the
\nMohawk River. Ladies and gentlemen, I stand corrected.
\n*****
\nI promised you a story about the ol.d Presumpscot Canal, and here it is. Ad-
\n1-180
\nmittedly it deals with the canal rather indirectly, but except for the canal,
\nthere would be no story.
\nWhen my father took over the old Dixie Store at Bridgton in the middle of
\nthe 1880’s many of the old account books were preserved. Some of them went all
\nthe way back to the year when the store was first opened, which incidentally
\nwas the year of Abraham Lincoln’s birth, 1809.
\nAll through my school days I spent a great deal of time in that store,
\nbut it was not until the summer between my sophomore and junior years in college
\nthat I became interested in those old account books. One huge, leatherbacked
\nvolume was a stock book, covering the years 1822 to 1847. In it appeared
\nthe lists of merchandise received into the store from the outside. The more
\ncommon, and in volume the more important, items received in barter — the butter,
\neggs, potatoes, salt pork and cord wood taken in exchange for other goods
\nwere not included, only the items that came from wholesalers in Portland.
\nIdly perusing the pages of that old book, I encountered an interesting
\nand, at the time, an unexplainable, item. Regularly, once a month, from May to
\nOctober, the book showed receipt of one hogshead of Jamaica rum. Then, sometime
\nin November would appear the item, six hogsheads of Jamaica rum.
\nThe explanation was the Presumpscot Canal. When the lakes and streams
\nwere open, from May to October, the boats plied regularly from Portland to
\nNaples, Bridgton and Harrison by way of the old canal. When ice covered the
\nlakes, the only access to the inland towns was by tote team over snow-drifted
\nroads.
\nThe old account book made it obvious that the six hogsheads of Jamaica
\nrum received each November was the winter’s supply_ During the late spring,
\nsummer and early fall, one hogshead every month met the demand. Now for the
\ncurious item that I encountered. In 1834 I found the routine suddenly broken.
\nThe year 1833 had been just like the others before it — six hogsheads in
\n1-181
\nNovember, and one hogshead each month from May to October. And the year 1835
\nwas just the same. But in 1834 there came a break. When the first boats came up
\nthe lake in May, sure enough one of them brought for the D:btie Store one hogshead
\nof Jamaica rum just as usual. But on June 4, 1834 the old stock book recorded
\nthe receipt of four hogsheads of Jamaica rum. Then in July, August, September
\nand October appeared the usual one hogshead each month.
\nNow it took no exceptional detective to figure out that something unusual
\nmust have happened in Bridgton in 1834. Although I was curious I did not pursue
\nany systematic search at that time. But about ten years afterward, in the
\nColby College Library of all places, I quite accidentally ran across the answer.
\nIn June, 1834 one of the most prominent religious denominations held their state
\nConvention in Bridgton. people from allover the state came for a convention
\nlasting several days in that little CUmberland County town. The three extra
\nhogsheads of Jamaica rum were obviously to quench the thirsts of the ministers
\nand laymen at that convention.
\n*****
\nIn telling of this incident we are not trying to be humorous. If there is
\nhumor in the story, let it shine by its own light. The incident does point
\nclearly, however, to changing times and changing customs. Prohibition did not
\ncome to Maine until 1851, and then it was many years ahead of the rest of the
\ncountry. In 1834 nobody mentioned prohibition, and only a few people were
\naroused to the menace of alcohol. Stimulants, as they were most frequently
\ncalled, were expected at every occasion of church or state. House-raisings,
\nbarn-raisings, and even church-raisings were incomplete without plenty of rum.
\nWhen the minister called at a home, the mark of one’s proper training in etiquette
\nwas to offer him a glass of rum, or at least of hard cider.
\nWere there no drunkards, no confirmed alcoholics in the old days? Of
\ncourse there were. The chief cause of poverty in the early mill towns of Maine
\n1-182
\nand there was plenty of it — was not the low wages, but the demon rum.
\nMost thoughtful persons agree that one of man’s great unsolved problems
\nis the problem of alcohol. It still wrecks homes and blasts lives; it makes an
\notherwise careful driver a threat of death and destruction behind an automobile’s
\nsteering wheel. It makes nauseating spectacles out of ordinarily decent
\nmen and women.
\nWe have decided that prohibition is not the solution, but we have found
\nno substitute. We are making only a beginning in our attempts to educate young
\npeople about alcohol. The now famous Yale Institute of Alcohol Studies is one
\nstep in that direction; in Maine the school program of the Christian Civic
\nLeague is another good step. At the desperate end of the run, when the disease
\nof alcoholism has claimed its victim, Alcoholics Anonymous is doing excel1ent
\nwork.
\nBut meanwhile, newspapers, magazines and billboards blaze forth the most
\nalluring liquor advertisements. In the name of connnercial greed they call
\nupon us to drink more and more. Taverns and bar rooms multiply; the drunken
\ndrivers increase; the national liquor bill continues to soar. Let us not fool
\nourselves for a minute. Alcohol is still a major unsolved problem of American
\nlife.
\n*****
\nIn the early days of this program we once put in a good word for the farmers.
\nRecently we heard a pretty good story .about the modern farmer’S problem
\nwith hired help. An investigator from the Department of Agriculture found a
\nman hoeing corn in a big field. “Do you own this farm?”,he demanded. “Yes.”
\n“How big is it?” “Two hundred acres”. “What do you raise on it?” “Mostly
\ncorn –. and a few hogs.” “Do you have a hired man?” “Sure. Couldn’t run the
\nplace alone.” II How much do you pay him?” “Six dollars a day and found.” “How
\ncan you pay that much for help, raising nothing but corn and a few hogs, with
\n1-183
\nonly 200 acres on your whole farm?” “I can’t”, said the farmer. “Most of the
\ntime lim way behind with his pay.” “what happens then?” “Then I just owe him
\n— I give him a mortgage on the farm. n “But he’ll own the farm someday if that
\nkeeps up.” “Oh, that’s all right”, said the farmer. “He’ s already owned it
\nthree times. During the years he owns it I work for him. Then pretty soon I
\nown it again.”
\n*****
\nI suppose it wouldn’t be cricket to ask if that story reminds you of some
\nof our recent government economy, especially as it is revealed in the report of
\nthe Hoover Commission. Don’t read that report unless you are ready for a tragic
\nstory of waste and inefficiency.
\n*****
\nA very common thing is the oft-expressed wish that we had been living in
\nsome former exciting time. How wonderful it would have been to be a man of the
\nRenaissance, to have known Michaelangelo and Rafael, Savonarolla and the Borgias.
\nOh, to have lived in Stratford with Shakespeare, to have fre~ented the
\n*ermaid Tavern with Ben Johnson and Marlowe, or a century and a half later to
\nhave known Sam Johnson and his Boswell.
\nThat idle dreaming does no harm unless it keeps us from properly performing
\nthe present tasks. For the fact is we are living now. This is the only time on
\nearth we shall ever have. We had better make the best of it. There is something
\nvery wrong with our attitude toward life if we cannot muster the strength and
\nwisdom to confront it. Certainly we have a right to speculate; assuredly we
\nshould plan for the future. But an important lesson few of us learn is to live
\nfully and nobly one day at a time. Tomorrow never comes. When it gets here it
\nis today_
\n1-184
\nLITTLE TALKS ON COMMON THINGS
\n29th Broadcast May 29, 1949
\nSome ten days ago it was my privilege to be the guest speaker at the annual
\ndinner of the Maine Society of New York. There, I assure you, is a group of people
\nwho really love Maine. Although some of them have lived as long as thirty
\nyears in the vicinity of Greater New York, they have never lost contact with
\nMaine nor their genuine love for this, their native State.
\nThe first\u00b7 \u00b7course at that dinner was delicious lobster stew. To make stew
\nfor a hundred persons the Society had flown 150 pounds of fresh lobster down
\nfrom Maine. That was real lobster stew, not just the kind that a lobster is permitted
\nto breathe on, but literally filled with lobster meat. Now the average
\nNew York chef can’t make decent lobster stew any better than he can make genuine
\nMaine clam chowder. Even though he may know a lobster, he won’t let the crustacean
\nhave anything to do with a cow, for in his stew water and tomatoes take the
\nplace of milk and butter.
\nKnowing well this tendency of New York hotel chefs, the wife of the club
\npresident got up her courage, confronted the French chef at a mid-town Manhattan
\nhotel, and actually persuaded that haughty dignitary to use her own recipe for
\nlobster stew. Result: the kind of stew you expect at Penaquid, Camden or Matinicus,
\nbut seldom see in New York.
\nEleven of Maine’s sixteen counties were represented at that dinner. The town
\nwith the biggest representation was Islesboro, from which island village came
\nthree sisters whose husbands are now all business men of the New York area. Besides
\nMrs. Marriner and me there was only one person from Kennebec, and anyhow
\none is supposed to give the county of his Maine birth rather than that of later
\nresidence, so I really belonged with the Cumberland delegation.
\n1-185
\nHow those folks love to get back to Maine. Every last one of them is planning
\non at least two weeks in the old state this summer, and a few of them will
\narrive in mid-June to stay until mid-September.
\nWhat do you suppose they wanted most to talk about? It was the unusually
\nmild winter we had this year in Maine, especially in contrast with the deep snow
\nthat twice tied up Manhattan traffic. Said one loyal Maine man, “If this keeps
\nup, Maine will soon displace Florida as a winter resort.” Folks who still live
\nthe year around in Maine are pretty good boosters of our state, but if you want
\nto see real Maine enthusiasts, look up those folks who comprise the Maine Society
\nof New York.
\n*****
\nAn incident came to my attention in New York last week which shows that the
\ncliff dwellers in New York apartment houses miss other things besides woodsheds
\nand kitchen gardens. On a temporarily vacant lot in mid-town Fifth Avenue, surrounded
\nby swanky modern commercial buildings, and with the sky-reaching towers
\nof Radio City only a few blocks away, there now stands an exhibition single house
\nof the latest pre-fabricated variety. It is called the “Dream House” and is open
\nto the public at sixty cents a head. Passing that house on a Fifth Avenue bus,
\nwe heard a six-year old boy say, “Oh, Mummy, there’s a house.” And when the bus
\nhad passed well by the spot, the same voice said soberly, “Do you know, Mummy,
\nthat’s the first time I ever saw a house in New York.”
\n*****
\nNewspaper comment has been so diverse and controversial about the Pope’s socalled
\ncapitalism address, that we had better take note of what the leader of
\nthe Roman Church really said. Some papers tell us he denounced capitalism, others
\nthat he predicted its collapse; still others that he gave it a kind of left-handed
\nblessing. Now the confusion was undoubtedly caused by carelesSly attributing to
\nthe Pope words actually written by Count Torre, editor of a newspaper having a
\n1-186
\nsomewhat loose connection with the Vatican. For Count Torre had written for his
\nnewspaper these words: “Capitalism is a social disease and pestilence. The
\nchurch has fought throughout the centuries against this human passion for wealth.”
\nWithin a few days of Count Torre’s article, Pope pius gave an address in which he
\nsaid something quite different from the count’s words. For the Pope said, “Why not,
\nwhile there is still time, put things in order in a way to secure employer against
\nunjust suspicion and the worker against illusions which easily become social
\nperils?”
\nIn short, the Pope believes, as do many carefully thinking leaders in business
\nand industry, as well as many professional economists, that the worst enemy
\nof capitalism is not the red radical tinged with the ideology of Moscow, but rather
\nthe short-sighted and unreasonable business man who can think only of a way
\nback to disproportionate profits at the expense of exploited labor. The man who
\nwill not permit any change to meet a new day is the fellow who by his own iron
\ninflexibility plays constantly into the hands of those who preach that, since
\nsuch fellows will never change their minds, violent revolution is the only way.
\nSo the Pope’s words may well be heeded, for his words were addressed to business
\nmen, to leaders of management, because our quotation comes from his speech to
\nthe delegation of Roman Catholic employers assemoled from all Western Europe and
\nfrom Canada. It was these capitalists, these representatives of management, whom
\nthe Pope urged to put the economic house in order if capitalism is to survive.
\nThat the Pope believes the capitalist system ought to survive is shown by
\nfurther words in the same address. He said: “The proprietor of the means of production
\nmust always remain the master of his economic decisions. The economy is
\nnot by nature an institution of the statej it is, to the contrary, the living
\nproduct of the free initiative of individuals and of freely constituted groups.”
\n*****
\nWho among our listeners tonight ever heard of the Josias River? Did you
\n1-187
\nknow there is a stream by that name in Maine? Well, few people ever did know
\nit until that little creek flooded the floor of theU. S. senate with a deluge
\nof angry words a few days ago.
\nOne of the few economy-minded men in the Blst Congress is Illinois’ new
\nsenator, Paul Douglas. Last week he proposed to cut about $300 million from
\nthe $750 million civil functions bill, which calls for dams, harbors and flood
\ncontrol in nearly every one of the 48 states. Senator Douglas used no weasel
\nwords. He talked right out in meeting. This bill, he said, was just oozing with
\nfat. A dozen indignant senators defied him to name one single project in the
\nbill that wasn’t urgent. So Douglas opened a big atlas and turned to the map of
\nMaine. “This bill”, he said, “earmarks $33,000 to improve the Josias River in
\nMaine, and with a four-inch magnifying glass I can’t even find that river. I
\ncalled the Library of Congress for their big scale maps. Same result. I finally
\ncalled the National Geographic Society, but they couldn’t find the Josias River
\neither. So I gave up.”
\nOn to his feet sprang Maine’s Senator Brewster, who declared that the Josias
\nRiver flows through the village of Ogunquit. He added that Senator Douglas
\nprobably couldn’t find it because it was so over-shadowed by the $12 million of
\nappropriations for rivers and harbors in Illinois.
\nSenator Douglas said there was probably fat in those Illinois appropriations
\ntoo, and he would ~e glad to see 40 per cent of that fat pried out at
\nonce. Senator Douglas was pretty much alone in his attempts to stop the spendthrift
\nflow of the taxpayer’s money. Only Senator Tobey of New Hampshire had a
\nkind word for the Illinois freshman. Tobey said, “There is one senator who puts
\nthe welfare of the nation ahead of his own pet dams. We ought to sing the Doxology
\nto him.”
\n*****
\nHow many of you remember the old one-ring travelling circus? Waterville was
\n1-188
\nso long on the route of the big shows — Ringling’s and Barnum and Bailey’s -that
\none had to get into the smaller places to see the little circuses. Usually
\nthey had only one elephant, occasionally a mangy camel, and even mangier performers.
\nBut to us kids, in the country villages up-state, they were great shows.
\nWhat vast quantities of water we carried to those elephants and camels over our
\nboyhood yearsl How proudly we donned one of those faded coats of blue and red
\nand gold, usually several sizes too large, and carried a banner or a corner of
\nthe beautiful lady’s train in the grand street parade that swept down Main
\nStreet just before noon on circus day.
\nThe pink lemonade would now taste insipid; the peanuts would seem unbearably
\nstale; the clowns would appear unbelievably crude and not at all funny; today’s
\nyoung generation would call those trapeze artists and bareback riders downright
\nlousy and judging by some of the vermin we recall seeing around those old
\none-ring animal tents, perhaps they literally were.
\nBut childhood knows not such disillusioning realities. It is fortunately
\nprone to see the. silver lining, not the cloud; it keeps its eye not on the hole
\nin the doughnut, but on the rich, spicy doughnut around the hole. So, as I said
\nbefore, to us kids the old one-ring circus was quite some show.
\n*****
\nWe just can’t keep still about railroads. We’ve had our say about head
\nlights preceded by fire cars, about the origin of the cow-catcher, of modern
\nrails, and how we came to get the standard guage.
\nNow let us have a word about that very useful railroad device, the sandbox.
\nIt was first used on the Pennsylvania road in 1836, as one of many frantic attempts
\nto overcome a plague of grasshoppers. Those millions of insects so greased the
\ntracks that something drastic had to be done. The sandbox was the answer. A few
\ndays ago a local civil engineer said to me: “There are probably few engineers
\nliving today who could layout an original railroad line. Many of them could
\n1-189
\nre-route an existing line, but to lay a new one through woods and swamps,
\nhills and valleys, and across streams would stump them.” What a comment on
\nour changing ways of transportation. Those old engineers that surveyed the
\nlines for the transcontinental railroads would be equally lost trying to lay
\nout a modern airport. Next year, by the way, will be the fiftieth anniversary
\nof the last ride of the famous Casey Jones. It was on April 30, 1900 that he
\nrode that old Illinois Central locomotive 382 to his death. How many of you
\nremember Casey’s real name? It was John Luther Jones.
\nOn this radio station, situated near the very heart of the Maine Central
\nsystem, it may not be good taste to sing too loudly the praises of the Bangor
\nand Aroostook, but after all that fine, profitable road is in Maine too.
\nIn his “Story of American Railroads” Stewart Holbrook points out that in
\n1946 all but two of the B & A’s officials were New England Yankees, most of
\nthem State of Maine men by birth. On the board of directors were four Bangor
\nmen who had lived all their lives in that city; others still lived in their
\nnative towns of Presque Isle, Fort Fairfield, Limestone and Caribou. “Thus”,
\nsaid Mr. Holbrook, “the Bangor and Aroostook, unlike many other New England
\nroads, does not have to contend with the sinister forces so often charged to
\nabsentee ownership and control. The B & A probably has less bickering and
\ntrouble with its public than any road of comparative size in the country.”
\n1-190
\nLITTLE TALKS ON COMMON THINGS
\n30th Broadcast June 5, 1949
\nThis program has been going for six months without previous mention of one
\nof the most common and most picturesque of the old time things. It is certainly
\nright and proper that we devote a few minutes to the blacksmith shop. So far as
\nI am concerned, the word smithy belongs solely in poetry. No Maine Yankee
\nwould ever refer to the place as a smithy, though most Maine blacksmiths had
\njust as large and sinewy arms as did Longfellow’s character who pounded his anvil
\nunder the spreading chestnut tree.
\nIn my boyhood village I think the location of the blacksmith shops was unusual.
\nOf the five shops in that village, three stood almost side by side, on
\none short street called Depot Street, which ran from the post office to the narrow
\nguage railroad station.
\nWhen those forges were all going at once, when the sparks were flying from
\nall three anvils, it was a sight to be remembered. There were not only the sight
\nof flying sparks and the sound of hammer on ringing iron; there were also the
\nunforgettable smells: the choking stench of soft coal smoke, as the bellows fanned
\nthe mass into flames about the big tongs holding the horse shoe; the acrid
\nodor of iron-tinged steam when the hot shoe was cooled in the big tub of water;
\nthe nauseating whiff of singeing hoof when shoe was applied to uplifted foot
\nof old Dobbin. One spectacular bit of rigging the blacksmith shops of my village
\nlacked. They had no ox-sling. But I have seen those clever contrivances.
\nThe last one I saw was at West Kennebunk more than a quarter of a century ago.
\nDoes anyone know where today an ox-sling still stands, capable of use?
\nWhere were Waterville’s old blacksmith shops located? I don’t seem to recall
\nthem in my college days at the end of the first decade of this century.
\n1-191
\nprobably the reason is that the college boys of my time didn’t sport their
\nown horses the way today’s college boys sport their own automobiles. We had
\nno occasion to visit a blacksmith shop in the college town.
\nBut when I returned to Waterville in 1923 at least one of the old blacksmith
\nshops was still in use. It stood back of Sel Whitcomb’s house on Western
\nAvenue, opposite the Western Avenue School. That was my son’s first
\nschool, and he still thinks his kindergarten teacher, now Mrs. Francis Bartlett,
\nand the principal, Mrs. Laura Hall, were the finest teachers he ever
\nhad. More than once he was late getting home from school because of the fascination
\nof that old blacksmith shop. Where were other Waterville blacksmith
\nshops located? Who can tell us?
\n*****
\nAmong the old-time things now seldom seen is the hard yarn ball. I don’t
\nmean the gaudy colored hunks of soft yarn for babies, but what boys in the
\ncountry half a century ago used for baseballs. Few of us ever owned a genuine
\nleague baseball in those days. In fact, we never called those insecurable
\ntreasures “big league balls”. We always named them by their price, and spoke of
\nthem with awe as “dollar and a quarter balls”.
\nOf course a fifty cent baseball would last through an average kids’ game,
\nbut it was almost as easy to get a dollar and a quarter as it was to get fifty
\ncents. And if any lad was lucky enough to receive a fifty cent ball as a present,
\nhe didn’t relish seeing it banged to pieces in nine innings. As for the
\n5, 10 and 25 cent balls, they were looked upon with contempt by any accomplished
\nplayer ten years old. They would do to play pass with in the back yard, especially
\nif Dad would catch a few of your newly acquired curves after supper, but
\nthe first time a bat connected with one of those cheap balls, it changed from a
\nsphere into a wobbly ovoid.
\nSo we had recourse to the yarn ball. It had its faults. If carelessly made,
\n1-192
\nits yarn would begin to unwind, and a fast throw from shortstop to home plate
\nwould leave a comet’s tail of long unwinding yarn behind the ball. But an expert
\nmaker of yarn balls could perfect one that would hold together for a long
\ntime.
\nMy grandmother was such an expert. In order to give bounce and action to
\nher product, she would begin with a small India rubber ball, about the size of
\na bottle top. Those India rubber balls were common five cent articles in the
\nvariety stores at the turn of the century. Around that hard rubber grandmother
\nwould slowly and tightly wind good wo~len yarn. But her best trick was the
\nsewing. Most home-made yarn balls were sewn only when the winding was finished.
\nThreads were drawn back and forth to keep the yarn from unravelling. But grandmother
\nwould sew her ball at various stages in the winding process. When she
\nhad finished, there was a ball to be prized. Unless some batter walloped it an
\nunexpected clout, so that it was lost among the willows down by the brook, that
\nball would last all summer. Perhaps in some of the rural parts of Maine yarn
\nballs are still used, but I, at least, haven’t seen one for a long time.
\n*****
\nI spent Memorial Day at my favorite spot on the Maine coast, the beautiful
\nlittle village of New Harbor. For me there is no coast spot in Maine quite so
\nhomey and picturesque as New Harbor’s back cove, with its tiny lobsterman’s
\nhouses, its drying nets, its piled lobster traps, and its scores of little
\nboats anchored in the sheltered cove.
\nWe had dinner, of course, at Gilbert’s Lobster Pound, a mile away at Pemaquid
\nPoint. There we had the satisfaction of serving a Colby student his
\nfirst lobster boiled fresh from the water and his very first steamed clams.
\nHe ate them as if he had been used to them all his life — a brave feat, for
\nit takes a real man to swallow his first clam.
\nClam eating in America, so we are told, originated at Duxbury, Massachu-
\n1-193
\nsetts. Legend says that a daughter of John Alden, Ruth Alden Bass, a Duxbury
\nhousewife, noticed one day that pigs were busy along the shore rooting up clams
\nand eating them. Observing that, instead of hurting the pigs, the clams seemed
\nto make them happy, she got up her courage and tried them herself. Finding them
\nquite tasty, she served them to the family. Thus ultimately came steamed clams,
\nclam chowder, and fritters, though clams on the half shell probably led the way.
\nBy the way, about the best clam chowder one can find in restaurant service
\nthese days is regularly served on the Boston and Maine dining cars between Portland
\nand Boston. If you would like the recipe for that clam chowder, you will
\nfind it in the June issue of Yankee magazine.
\nSpeaking of that magazine, we want to take this occasion to thank Miss Mary
\nWoodman for her article in the June Yankee quoting us at length on the subject
\nof Maine dialect speech. She has written a better article about our stuff than
\nwe could have done ourselves. We are especially grateful to Miss Woodman for
\ngiving further currency to our unique discovery, “the fog has stems”, and to
\nour pet dialect word “smudgeon”.
\n*****
\nWe can’t leave Yankee magazine without reference to the unique feature of
\nevery issue, the Yankee Swappers’ column. Swappers’ advertisements are printed
\nfree of charge, provided they are genuine swaps. No offers for cash are accepted.
\nHere are a few samples:
\n“Do you have any pottery-making equipment I could use for a practically
\nnew ladies’ tennis racquet, press and water-proof cover?”
\n“Has an ex-GI any ornaments such as earrings or nose plugs from the South
\nPacific? Will swap auto radio, table radio or other things.”
\n“Have brand new, light tan, western saddle and would like to swap for
\nportable green house.”
\n“Will swap a Stewart guitar in good condition for an accordian.”
\n1-194
\n“Will swap wood range with attached oil burner for lawn mower, garden hose
\nand reel.”
\nDid you ever attend a swappers’ party? They are not very common in Maine,
\nbut are held frequently in rural New Hampshire and western Massachusetts. Such
\nparties were held last month in Alton and Andover, New Hampshire; in Franklin,
\nMassachusetts; and in Oak Lawn, Rhode Island. If you will send a stamped, selfaddressed
\nenvelope to Yankee magazine, Dublin, New Hampshire, they will send you
\na “Swapper Party Leaflet”.
\n*****
\nIt is hard to let one of these programs go by without mention of railroads.
\nMindful that two of my neighbors are retired railway mail clerks, let’s have a
\nfew words tonight about the railroad mail.
\nThe Railway Mail Service was founded by George Armstrong, assistant postmaster
\nat Chicago in 1864. He was not, however, the originator of the plan to
\nsort mail on a moving train. W. A. Davis of the St. Joseph, Missouri post office,
\nthought of that idea, and was given permission to try it out in 1862. It was Armstrong,
\nhowever, who worked out the plan for general adoption. Abraham Lincoln’s
\nfriend, Montgomery Blair, was Postmaster General. He was a man of vision, eager
\nto try new devices to speed up mail service in the fast growing country. The nation
\nwas at war; the mail load was increasing rapidly, and demands for speedier
\ndelivery were urgent.
\nUsing drawings supplied by Armstrong, the Chicago and Northwestern Railroad
\nconverted half a dozen old cars into the first railway mail cars. The trial on
\nthe C & NW was so successful that Armstrong was made special agent of the Post
\nOffice Department for Railway Mail Service, and told to put his plan into general
\noperation on all railroads that would accept it \u2022. His second mail-sorting run was
\nbetween New York and Washington. The mid-western roads were quick to follow, but
\nin the East, Armstrong met rugged opposition. The postmasters at Boston and Phil-
\n1-195
\nadelphia thought that sorting mail on the trains would somehow reduce the importance
\nof their terminal offices. But by 1868 New England and other parts of
\nthe cautious East were glad to have the new service \u2022
\n.:.
\nuntil 1869 when Armstrong became the first general superintendent of the
\nRailway Mail Service, there had been no uniform system. Each division, and
\noften each mail clerk, had its own method of sorting and distributing mail.
\nArmstrong divided the country into six divisions, put a man in charge of each,
\nand worked out an orderly system.
\nLong before President Cleveland organized the Civil Service, with its employment
\nand promotion on merit, Armstrong and his successor, George Bangs,
\nlaunched the merit system on the railway mail. Believing that no change in the
\nnational administration should affect these trained and specialized employees,
\nthey made promotions from the ranks, and could not be bullied into employing political
\njob seekers.
\nWhen we receive our daily mail, we may well remember that one reason why
\nwe get it so promptly and so regularly is not merely because of the loyalty and
\nefficiency of our own letter carrier and the men back in the local post office,
\nbut also because of the expert handling by the men who ride the trains. Even
\nairmail has not displaced these men. The magic of the moving train still lures
\nplenty of young men to fill the places of those Who, like Charles Crosby and
\nHersey Keene, have gone into well deserved retirement.
\n*****
\nEvery good. Irishman knows why there are no snakes in Ireland. Of course
\nSt. Patrick drove them out some 1,500 years ago. The Irish danders are sure to
\nrise at the recent scientific explanation advanced by a Yale biologist, Professor
\nEdward S. Deevey. Not only is Deevey himself of Irish descent, but Time
\nmagazine says he is even red-headed. Here is Deevey’s explanation of why there
\nare no snakes in Ireland.
\n1-196
\nOnce both Great Britain and Ireland were parts of the European mainland.
\nWhen what geologists call the fourth glacial period buried northern Europe as
\nwell as North America under billions of tons of ice, animal life either perished
\nor escaped southward before the advancing ice sheet.
\nWhen that glacial period drew to an end and the ice gradually melted, the
\nsea rose, leaving Great Britain and Ireland as islands now cut off from the
\nmainland of Europe. Before the rising sea had entirely severed the land bridge,
\nfast moving little animals — mice, rats, squirrels and the like — came galloping
\nacross from Europe to Ireland. But the snakes were slow movers. Before the
\nrising water had cut the land connections, these crawling reptiles had come only
\nas far as England; they never got the rest of the way to Ireland. And all good
\nIrishmen will doubtless argue that is as far as the snakes deserved to get.
\n1-197
\n.. :
\nLITTLE TALKS ON COMMON THINGS
\n31st Broadcast June 12, 1949
\nW. R. Collins of Belgrade, the man who gave us information about the monument
\nto a wolf in the town of Moscow, now sends in a miniature reproduction
\nof the first issue of the Kennebec Journal. Originally a weekly, that paper
\nwas first published on Saturday, January 8, 1825 with the promise that it would
\nappear each Saturday morning thereafter. The publishers were Russell Eaton and
\nLuther Severance, who in their first leading editorial issued a plea for that
\nfreedom of the press for which their Albion neighbor, Elijah Lovejoy, then a
\njunior at Waterville College, was to suffer a martyr’s death twelve years later.
\nThe editorial said: “A well conducted publication, which has obtained the reputation
\nfor a zealous regard for truth, must undoubtedly possess a considerable
\ninfluence on society; while a publication of opposite character, of which
\nit is confessed there are a great number, gives some excuse for those who would
\ncurtail the liberty of the press. There is no necessity, however, for government
\ninterference. The evil will cure itself. Error ceases to be dangerous when
\nreason is free to combat it. An honest and discerning community are better arbiters,
\nbetter guardians of public morals, than are the satellites of a throne
\nor even those elected officials whom the people delight to honor.”
\nIn 1825 Maine was not an industrial state, even to the degree it was fifty
\nyears ago. The original K J knew on which side its bread was buttered. It said
\neditorially: “If one part of the community deserves more attention than another,
\nit is the interest of the farmers. Theirs was the primeval employment of civilized
\nman. All the rest of society depends upon the farmers for the necessities
\nof life. In war they are the bone and muscle of the country. In peace
\nthey fill the horn of plenty with the abundance of their stores.”
\nWell, as we said several weeks ago, it is not out of place sfill to give
\n1-198
\nan occasional word of praise to the farmers, though we would hardly do it in
\nthe flowery rhetoric of 1825.
\nThat first K J was shy on local news. There is not a single item, except
\nthe ads, that stems directly from Kennebec County. There is a column on Congress,
\nincluding the item that the bill had been passed authorizing the President
\nto construct a military post road from Little Rock to Camp Gibson in the
\nTerri tory of Arkansas.
\nAnother item in that Congressional column is of present-day interest. It
\nsays: “A bill for the abolition of imprisonment for debt is again before the
\nSenate. ” This reminds us of the recent furor caused by the imprisonment of two
\nmen in Rutland, Vermont, and the spectacular release of one of them when an unexpected
\nbenefactor supplied the $2,500 which he owed. If one would judge by
\nthe newspaper accounts, it would appear that these two men were victims of outmoded
\nand cruel laws, put in jail because they owed somebody some money. We are
\nglad to take time on this program to call attention to the facts. One of those
\nprisoners had killed a man in an automobile accident, according to the account
\nin Life magazine, and the other had injured a person in another accident. The
\n. court held them responsible for claims of about $2,500 each. They said they
\ncould not pay it, and were therefore remanded to jail. We heartily subscribe
\nto Life’s closing comment on the cases. Here it is: “The nation’s press raised
\nsuch a howl that one well-wisher put up the money for Fugatt’s release. No one,
\nhowever, raised a howl about the families of the men they had struck. Neither
\ndid anyone appear to wonder why two young men could not have arranged to pay
\nthe debts that juries had decided they rightfully owed.”
\nNow let us turn to a few of the interesting ads in that first issue of K J
\nin 1825. “Smith L. Gale would respectfully inform his customers that he has removed
\nfrom his former place of business and has taken a stand in the lower
\nstreet in Augusta, opposite to Mr. Craig’s hatter’s shop, where he carries on
\n1-199
\nthe business of blacksmith and keeps constantly on hand a variety of the best
\nploughs and cast and blistered steel axes. He flatters himself that few smiths
\ncan surpass him in shoeing horses.”
\nCraig, the hatter, had no ad in this issue, but his competitors, Thwing
\nand parker, announced that they had “recommenced their business near the Kennebec
\nBridge where they intend to keep for sale an excellent assortment of first
\nquality waterproof hats”.
\nW. Dewey announced a fine stock of school books, including Morse’s Geography,
\nPike’s Arithmetic and Webster’s Spelling Books. He also sold “French
\nand American paper hangings and borders”. B. Davis and Company had for sale
\n“European, India and Domestic Dry Goods”, along with crockery and hardware.
\nThey offered it for cash, country produce, or upon liberal credit. They were
\nready also to pay cash for 500 red and gray fox skins.
\nChandler and Nason, who specialized in West India goods, wanted to buy
\nsix hundred thousand first quality shingles and 4,000 bushels of oats. E. Caldwell
\nwanted 200 cords of hemlock bark and fifty white ash barrel staves. Of
\ncourse Augusta had at least one hotel in those days. T. Hamlin informed his
\nfriends and the public that “the Kennebec Tavern is now well repaired and handsomely
\nfurnished”. Grateful for past favors, he respectfully solicited their
\ncontinuance.
\nAugusta then had not only a tavern but also a library. A public notice
\nread: “A meeting of the proprietors of the Common Library in the town of Augusta
\nfor the purpose of organizing themselves into a society, or body politic,
\nby the name of the proprietors of the Social Library, will be held in the Reading
\nRoom on Friday, the fourteenth of January, 1825 at six 0 I clock P.M. A
\npunctual attendance is requested. II
\nWe are indeed grateful to Mr. Collins for this very interesting old newspaper
\nof Central Maine.
\n1-200
\n*****
\nGeorge Seeley of Prospect Street, waterville, has gone to some trouble
\nand expense to supply us with detailed information about that longest covered
\nbridge in the world at Hartland, New Brunswick. Mr. Seeley was born and raised
\nwithin a few miles of that bridge. On Memorial Day this year he visited his old
\nhome and secured special photographs. These show what no commercial print reveals
\n— the original sign nailed above the more widely known sign shown on the
\npicture post cards. The latter reads: “Welcome to Hartland. You are now entering
\n\u00b7.:th:e longest covered bridge in the world, 1,282 feet”. The older sign above it
\nreads: “Twenty dollars fine for driving faster than a walk over this bridge.”
\nThe nearest rival to the Hartland bridge is a covered bridge in Scandanavian
\nNorway, about 1,100 feet long, and the third is said to be the bridge at Cap
\nChat, Quebec, exactly a thousand feet.
\nAlthough most communities spend money for snow removal, Hartland pays a
\nman about $150 every winter to throw snow onto the bridge, so that sleds and
\nsleighs can easily cross it.
\nThe story of the building of the Hartland Bridge is worthy of Yankee thrift.
\nIn fact, those Canadians of the lower St. John valley have the same reputation
\nfor careful use of money that the old-time Yankees have.
\nMost covered bridges are hoary with age. The Hartland Bridge is unusual for
\nits youth, since it was built only 29 years ago, directly after the first World
\nWar. In 1920 the old open wooden bridge collapsed from rotten timbers. Although
\nsteel was the logical material for a replacement, the war had made its price
\nprohibitive. So those thrifty New Brunswickers, who, even to this day, through
\nboom times and depressions, have never defaulted on their obligations, decided
\nto cut the garment to the cloth. The cloth was wood of which New Brunswick had
\nplenty. So the garment — the bridge — had to be of wood, but this time it had
\na cover to protect it from the elements.
\n1-201
\n*****
\nMany people have responded to the appeal for information about Waterville
\nblacksmith shops. Mr. Burleigh, the well known cattle raiser on the Augusta road,
\nwhose personal recollection of Waterville goes back three quarters of a century,
\nrecalls distinctly the location of several shops~ as does also Chester Hussey.
\nBut the best and most complete information comes from one of my nearest neighbors.
\nWhen I mentioned blacksmith shops last week I little realized that right
\naround the corner from me lived one of waterville’s old-time blacksmiths. He is
\nJohn Davidson, whose Shop was on Front Street, near what is now the Rollins and
\nDunham store. I believe he and Andrew Cote are the only survivors of Waterville’s
\nmany blacksmiths.
\nMr. Davidson tells me that Mr. Byrnes, another of Waterville’s blacksmiths
\nof years ago, died in another community and was brought here for burial only
\nlast week. The Byrnes shop was near the corner of Toward Street. Another shop,
\none of the oldest in Waterville, was on Silver Street near the famous livery
\nstable. There was another on Charles Street, which Chester Hussey thinks was
\nonce operated by one of the Byrnes family. (And, by the way, that name is spelled
\nB Y R N E S.) Another shop, long in existence, was on Common street, where
\nthe Masonic block now stands. Mr. Hussey recalls a shop on Chaplin Street, or
\nat least near it, operated by a man named Savage, but Mr. Davidson thinks the
\nshop referred to is really the one on Toward Street.
\nWhat surprises me most is Mr. Davidson’s assurance that, in his earliest
\nrecollection, there was no blacksmith shop operating in Winslow. Because that
\ncommunity is older than Waterville, I should have assumed that almost from the
\nearliest days the town had at least one blacksmith and continued to have one
\nuntil most such shops disappeared. Mr. Davidson does recall that at various times
\nsomeone started a shop in Winslow, and doubtless the town had blacksmith Shops
\nbefore Mr. Davidson’s day, but he is sure that, when he first opened his Water-
\n1-202
\nville shop, there was no blacksmith shop in Winslow.
\nDo you notice how inevitable it is that mention of blacksmith shops should
\nlead to mention of livery stables? What fond memories linger about those noble,
\nthough odorous, establishments. One of the most prominent citizens of Waterville
\nlikes to tell how his first job away from home was working in a livery
\nstable for the munificent wage of two dollars a week, making his bed in a little
\nalcove off the harness room and rustling his grub as best he could.
\nMy native town had three livery stables, of which one was regarded as especially
\nswanky, because it sported what we called the boat-landing stage. That
\nwas one of those old, swaying stage coaches, slung on huge leather springs,
\nwith seats on top as well as within. It carried passnegers from the boat landing
\non Long Lake — passengers who had made the famous steamer trip from Sebago Lake
\nStation up through the Songo Locks — and deposited those passengers at various
\npoints in Bridgton Village, having its terminus at the old Bridgton House, directly
\nacross the street from my father’s store at the top of the steep Main
\nStreet hill.
\n*****
\nNow we want to know two old-time items about Waterville. First, where were
\nits livery stables and who operated them? We know that one was on Silver Street
\nand another on Front Street. Was one also on Charles Street? Where were there
\nothers?
\nSecond, what stages came to or passed through Waterville? Was there a station
\nhere for change of horses? Were the stages the big closed kind such as I
\nhave just described, or were any of them — especially in the summer — the
\nfour-seated buckboards such as transported my high school baseball team forty
\nyears ago? Who will be the first to give us information on Waterville’s livery
\nstables and stages?
\n1-203
\n*****
\nRev. Milton McGorrill, whose family we have known since conunon days in
\nPortland a quarter of a century ago, delivered a sermon in his Orono churCh
\na few weeks ago, whiCh deservedly hit the headlines. Mr. McGorril1 urged the
\nformation of a state-wide non-political organization to determine the educational
\nneeds of Maine and to elect legislators to carry out a feasible, constructive
\nprogram to meet those needs.
\npeople are becoming aroused because of the failure of the recent legislature
\nto provide funds to get Maine out of the unenviable position of being
\ncalled “the Mississippi of the North”. Especially is there concern about failure
\nto implement with funds already existing legislation for community schools
\nand school construction. A Kennebunk woman is vehemently urging leading citizens
\nof Maine to petition the Governor to call a special session of the legislature
\nto levy taxes to meet these urgent sChool construction needs. We think
\nsuch strategy is mistaken. The legislature, rightly or wrongly, has acted.
\nThere are no new facts for them to consider.
\nMr. McGorrill’ s plan is better. Let a voluntary, state-wide organization
\ndevoted to getting all the facts about Maine education be organized. Then let
\nthat organization try to get men and women elected to the legislature ready
\nto support a definite, fair, workable program for adequate financing of education.
\nMr. McGorril1 admits that the. usual way to accomplish such a result is
\nto work through the existing organization of one of the present political parties.
\nHe pu~ls no punChes in saying that that cannot be done in the present
\nemergency. The Democrats, he says, stand no chance of election, and they know
\nit. On the other hand, the Republicans, he asserts, although they hold a monopoly
\non Maine legislation are (and I quote Mr. McGorrill’s words) “divided at
\nthe top, stubborn at the bottom, and vacillating in their leadership”.
\nWhat I have been saying for several years is unpopular with many of my
\n1-204
\nfellow Republicans, but I am saying it again right now. The principal reason
\nwhy Maine stands among the lowest of the states in support of education, why
\nit is so often compared to Mississippi, is because, like Mississippi, Maine
\nis a one-party state. The party in power never has enough effective opposition
\nto keep it on its toes.
\n1-205
\nLITTLE TALKS ON COMMON THINGS
\n32nd Broadcast June 19, 1949
\nA columnist in one of our Maine papers has been getting in some punches at
\nthe Congressional franking privilege. While we agree with him that the privilege
\nis often abused, we consider the particular incident which he selected
\nless objectionable than most of this free mail. It may not be smart politics
\nfor Congressman Nelson to send copies of the American Creed to all of this
\nyear’s crop of high school graduates in the second district, but that creed
\nis a good thing for every graduate to possess and to heed. To critics of Mr.
\nNelson’s act, it probably doesn’t occur that he has sent out those cards with
\nthe best of motives. Charlie Nelson is the sort of man who believes that these
\nyoung people, after twelve years ~ the public schools, are now ready for higher
\neducation or for the working world, ,~it:h a right to recognition by the man who
\nrepresents their district in the national legislature, recognition that not
\nonly congratulates them upon successful completion of the public schools, but
\nalso places before them the stirring, memorable words of the American Creed. If
\nthe franking privilege must be used at all, we can think of no better use for
\nit. More power to Charlie Nelson’s efforts to instill the American way of life
\ninto the hearts and minds of young Americans.
\n*****
\nAn anonymous listener sends in a post card asking how the old ox slings
\nworked. While we have seen those old slings, we never saw one in action, and
\nour general idea of its operation would probably sound so ludicrous to one who
\nreally knows that we won’t attempt a\u00b7description at this time. We promise,
\nhowever, to try to get accurate information on this subject and broadcast it
\nat a later date. By the way, how many shoes did an ox wear? Who can answer
\n1-206
\nthat one?
\n*****
\npeople who recall in great detail the location and personnel of the old
\nlivery stables greatly outnumber the folks who have accurate recollections of
\nthe blacksmith shops. Charles Leroy Jones of 70 Elm Street has good reason
\nto remember those stables, for he used their teams to court a girl in Oakland,
\na girl who became Mrs. Jones 46 years ago. As a matter of fact, I suppose
\nthat buggy-riding hireage is the relationship most men now over 50 once had
\nwith livery stables. My own such experience was with the somewhat rickety buggies
\nand the sleek roan horses from Glover’s Livery Stable in Hebron. The
\nusual ride was to South Paris, but occasionally we drove to Mechanic Falls,
\nleft the team there, and took the electric car line to Lewiston.
\nMr. Jones mentions of course the Jim Pray stable on Silver Street, where
\nthe State Theater now stands. That seems to be Waterville’s best known stable,
\nbut it apparently was not the earliest. Mr. Jones says the first livery he
\nrecalls was the well known Elmwood Stables, back of the Elmwood Hotel, where
\nthe Jackson Dairy now stands. When Mr. Jones first knew the place, it was conducted
\nby a Captain Jewell, whose successor was the famous hotel man, Charles
\nHill, brother of Dr. J. F. Hill and long the esteemed propietor of the Belgrade
\nHotel.
\nIra Mitchell, who lived at 113 Silver street, had a livery also on Silver
\nStreet, near the present location of the Hathaway Company. So Mr. Jones remembers
\ntwo stables very near each other on Silver Street. Charles Pillsbury,
\nwho lived at 220 Main Street, for a long time ran a stable just off Temple
\nStreet, in the rear of the former location of the Salvation Army. Chester Alley
\nof Boutelle Avenue says there was once a livery stable in the alley back of
\nwhere Dakin’s Store now stands on West Temple Street. We recall hearing of that
\nstable in another connection. It was not far from Buzzell’s Restaurant, and
\n1-207
\nlegend has it that Roscoe Buzzell used to set his pies on a shelf outside the
\nback door to cool. The fellows working at the livery stable took advantage of
\nthis opportunity to snitch an occasional pie.
\n*****
\nWe have no accurate information yet on Waterville stage coaches, but a
\nlistener has put us on track of a source where such information may be obtained.
\nSo that subject, too, must be deferred to a later broadcast.
\n*****
\nIs it too hot in these summer months to think seriously about a billion
\ndollars? Hot or cold, working time or vacation, a billion dollars is a lot of
\nmoney and, believe it or not, this particular billion dollars is yours and mine.
\nFor I want to discuss with you for a few minutes tonight the report of the now
\nfamous Hoover Commission on organization of the executive branch of the federal
\ngovernment.
\nEveryone knows, or at least suspects, that the various government departments
\nand agencies have so grown in numbers and size that they ~re almost hopelessly
\nentangled in expensive duplication, exhaustless red tape, and dubious
\nefficiency. In July, 1947, without a single dissenting vote in either house,
\nthe Congress created this commission. The choice of Mr. Hoover as its chairman
\nwas especially happy. Our only living ex-president, acknowledged as one of the
\nablest American administrators, he is the only man in the nation who knows from
\nintimate, responsible knowledge the problems which confront President Truman.
\nThe Commission has done a notable piece of work. Employed staff known as
\ntask forces gathered detailed, accurate information about what the commission
\ndefined as the 24 major problems of government and management. Based on these
\nfacts the commission has made its recommendations to eliminate some of the
\nbureaus and offices, to combine others, to redistribute many into more logical
\ndepartments. And here is the point: the new plan, if authorized and adopted,
\n1-208
\nwill save the taxpayers a billion dollars a year.
\nWhen Mr. Hoover was himself President, all departments and bureaus in the
\nExecutive Branch cost four billion dollars a year and employed 600,000 persons.
\nToday they cost 42 billion a year and employ 2,100,000 persons. What is worse,
\nthey are set up in 1,816 assorted departments, bureaus, sections and divisions.
\nThe result is not only duplication and waste; it is sometimes hopeless chaos.
\nThe report shows that exactly the same services can be better rendered
\nwith two hundred thousand fewer workers. One out of every ten employees is not
\nnecessary. When Mr. Hoover was asked if the present red tape prevents the discharge
\nof inefficient government workers, he said: “The whole Civil Service
\nhas been surrounded with a mass of red tape that makes it extremely difficult
\nto discharge anybody for sheer inefficiency. A supervising officer who wishes
\nto remove a government employee for inefficiency must present documentary proof.
\nThe employee then has four different appeals. The supervising officer must appear
\nfour times to prove his case, and the result is that few officers will
\ntake the time and trouble to do it. Why should he, as long as his own pay depends’
\non the fact that one of the bases of salary classification is the number
\nof employees under him’?”
\nThe report shows how utterly impossible it is for the President to know
\nwhat goes on in the agencies directly responsible to him. There are 85 agencies
\nreporting directly to the President, not to any department or cabinet member.
\nIf the President gave them each a half hour a week, he would put in a 42i hour
\nweek on administrative problems in the agencies alone, with no time for the
\nmajor problems of government policy.
\nSo far most of the public’s attention, in respect to reorganization of
\ngovernment agencies, has been focused on the new Department of Defense. In
\nlight of Secretary Forrestal!s physical collapse and subsequent suicide, Mr.
\nHoover’s words, spoken several months ago I are interesting. He said: “Large
\n1-209
\nareas of government work simply cannot be made to operate as now set up. I
\ndefy any man, as Secretary of Defense, to make that department operate economically
\nor efficiently under the present law and the present set-up. It has
\nalready exhausted one man trying to do it.” Mr. Hoover could now appropriately
\nstrengthen that last sentence and say, “It has already killed one man
\ntrying to do it.”
\nAt the start of this broadcast tonight we mentioned the franking privilege.
\nOf course that privilege contributes heavily to the annual deficit in
\noper~ting the postal service, but it is a minor contributing factor compared
\nwith the inefficiency of the whole postal set-up. The commission report pulls
\nno punches in telling us what is wrong with the post office. Its structure is
\nobsolete and over-centralized. A maze of outmoded laws, regulations and traditions
\nfreezes progress and stifles proper administration. Political appointment
\nof postmasters and other officials produces inefficiency and reduces the incentive
\nof promotion. How rapidly the post office is losing money is shown by a
\nfew impressive figures. In 1947 the deficit was 263 million dollars or 20% of
\nthe revenues. In 1948 it was 310 million dollars or 22% of revenue. In the
\nfiscal year ending June 30, 1949 the deficit is expected to exceed 500 million
\nor 30% of revenue.
\nThe Hoover Commission shows clearly that the one most necessary reform is
\nto take the post office out of politics. In the department, in spite of the
\nCivil Service system, there are still 22,000 political appointments. Naturally
\nthe commission would do away with the obsolete procedure of the confirmation of
\npostmasters by the Senate.
\nBut the trouble lies not wholly in the appointment system; the whole policy
\nof budget, accounting and audit must be overhauled. The post office is by
\nnature a business that is revenue-producing and ought to be, like any other business,
\nself-sustaining. It carries on numerous business-type transactions with
\n1-210
\nthe public. It must, therefore, be conducted from top to bottom by recognized,
\nmodern business methods.
\nThe experience of the federal government in many of its business enterprises
\nhas already pointed the way to the solution of these problems in the Post Office.
\nThe Government Corporation Control Act of 1945 provides for a business form of
\nbudget, accounting and aUdit, and gives modern business flexibility to the management
\nof those concerns. All that is necessary is to extend the provisions of
\nthat law to the Post Office.
\nSo much for the Post Office. Let us return for a moment to the general,
\noverall findings of the commission. Here they are:
\n“I. The executive branch is not organized into a workable number of
\nmajor departments and agencies which the President can effectively direct, but
\nis cut up into many agencies, which divide responsibility and can have no effective
\ndirection from the top.
\n“2. The line of command from the President down has been weakened, or
\nactually broken, in many places and in many ways.
\n“3. The President and the heads of departments lack the tools to frame
\nprograms and policies and to supervise their execution.
\n“4. The Government has not taken aggressive steps to build a corps of
\nadministrators of the highest level of ability with an interest in the program
\nof the Government as a whole.
\n“5. Administrative services, such as purchasing of supplies, maintenance
\nof records, and the operation of public buildings, are poorly organized,
\nresulting in extravagant waste.”
\nWell, what can you and I do about it? Remember it is our billion dollars
\nthat Mr. Hoover has shown us how to save. Let us see that our Maine Congressmen
\nand Senators know how the people at home feel about it. Let us tell them that
\n1-211
\nno selfish interests, no vested holdings of Washington brass, must get in the
\nway of this needed reform.
\n1-212
\nLITTLE TALKS ON COMMON THINGS
\n33rd Broadcast June 26, 1949
\nOur very first broadcast, 32 weeks ago, mentioned that commonest of disliked
\nthings, taxes. What is the outlook concerning taxes in the near future?
\nOf one thing we may be sure: high taxes are here to stay. The Government will
\nneed at least $35 billion a year for many years to come, just to pay running
\nexpenses and the huge interest on the national debt, without reducing that
\ndebt a dollar. If any reduction of the debt is attempted, the annual need will
\nbe nearer to $40 billion. It takes a lot of tax money to produce tha~ stupendous
\nfigure.
\nNevertheless it is predicted by competent observers that some tax reductions
\ncan be made, probably not in the income tax but almost certainly in some
\nof the excise taxes. Those taxes are becoming a noticeable hindrance to business
\nactivity out of proportion to their yield. perhaps the first to go will
\nbe the 3% tax on freight bills, because it unfortunately and unfairly pyramids
\nin its power to add to the cost of goods. Every time any raw material,
\npartly finished product, or finished article moves by freight, the tax is collected.
\nThe 15% tax on passenger fares, by bus, rail, boat or plane becomes increasingly
\nburdensome as business declines. That tax may be the second to go.
\nAlong with it the 25% tax on telegrams and long distance telephone calls may
\nbe cast aside, and perhaps the 15% tax on local telephone calls. Few people
\ncould ever see any sense in the tax on electric light bulbs, and most men resent
\npaying a tax on talcum powder and shaving lotion in the name of cosmetics. The
\nU. S. News predicts that 1950 may see the abolition of the excise taxes on cosmetics,
\njewelry and furs.
\n1-213
\n*****
\nNow tonight let’s get to work on those old ox slings. Mr. Lewis Whipple
\nhas supplied me with a picture of an ox sling in the old Sands blacksmith shop
\nat west Buxton. It is said to be over 200 years old. Mr. Carroll Otis of Oakland
\nhas gone to a lot of trouble making us a drawing of an ox sling showing
\nside and end views, and has written a fine description of its operation. It is
\ndifficult to show you how the apparatus worked without visual aid. You too
\nought to see the diagram or the picture. If we had television we might give
\nyou a clear idea. We must do the best we can with mere words.
\nFirst you have two rows of three heavy upright posts, and across the top
\nof each row a big beam. Suspended from the beams in the gap between the two
\nrows of posts are two leather belts, eight inches wide. The other end of these
\nbelts attaches by hooks to an 8-inch wooden roll.
\nNow an ox is an unpredictable and cantankerous creature. “Move” and “gee”
\nand “haw” and goad were necessary to get one inside such a contraption. So at
\nthe front end close to the floor was a 4 x 6 roll, to which was attached a
\nwindlass. A 3\/4-inch rope was tied to a chain round the ox’s neck and given
\nseveral turns around the roll. Then, by turning the windlass, the ox was literally
\npulled into the sling and its head was drawn firmly down to the roll.
\nNext the two belts were drawn under the ox’s belly and were attached to
\nthe hooks on the other roll which we first mentioned, up on one side, parallel
\nwith the ox. By levers, just wooden sticks stuck in holes in the roll, the roll
\nwas turned and. the animal hoisted up so that its feet just touched the floor.
\nNear the front a hardwood block about a foot high and 6 inches square was
\nmortised into the sill on either side, the top of the block sloping slightly
\ntoward the rear. On these blocks the blacksmith placed the ox’s forefeet for
\nshoeing. A chain held the foot firmly in place. Similar blocks in the rear took
\ncare of the hind feet.
\n1-214
\nYes sir, shoeing an ox was quite a chore. Not only did the blacksmith
\nhave to go through all these preliminaries, but he had to put on twice as many
\nshoes as on a horse, for old Alderman ox wore eight shoes.
\nMr. Otis adds the interesting information that only the outer shoe on
\neach foot was sharpened in winter, thus preventing the ox from caulking himself.
\nMr. Whipple has dug up startling information about the ox population in
\nMaine. In 1860 there were about 100,000 working oxen in the state, one for
\nevery five persons. Oxen outnumbered horses in every county except Aroostook.
\nThe score was pretty close in Waterville, which then included Oakland under the
\nname of West waterville. This town had 370 horses and 340 oxen. Winslow had 266
\nhorses and 376 oxen. Buxton, where the pictured ox sling still stands, had 382
\noxen. The record was held by the town of Waldoboro which had 986. That part of
\nthe state probably still has the most oxen. Ox teams may even today be seen at
\nwork in the town of Jefferson.
\nMr. Whipple tells of a memorable haul by oxen. In 1866 a heavy timbered
\nbarn 50 by 40 feet (and that’s quite a building) was hauled through the streets
\nof Solon on skids by 60 yoke of oxen. One hundred and twenty oxen on one haul.
\nThat is some team!
\n*****
\nWe must correct an error we made last week. The Charles Hill who ran the
\nElmwood Livery Stable was not the Charles Hill who operated the Belgrade Hotel.
\nBoth were named Charles, but they were no relation. We are reminded of a debate
\nin Congress a few years ago between Senator Brewster and Senator Happy Chandler,
\nnow the baseball czar. They brought up the Biblical story of Lazarus, or rather
\ntwo stories — one about Lazarus raised from the dead, the other about Lazarus
\nin Abraham’s bosom while the rich man languished in Hell. The debate ended by
\nthe President of the senate solemnly declaring, “The chair rules that there were
\ntwo different Lazaruses. II Well, those were two different Hills, both good citizens.
\n1-215
\n*****
\nHow much is a billion? We need a couple of striking illustrations to visualize
\nsuch a huge figure. Eighteen of those newest and speediest processing
\nmachines for plastics at the Keyes Fibre plant, if they operated twenty-four
\nhours a day seven days a week without stopping would turn out just about a
\nbillion pieces in one year.
\nHere’s another illustration. Suppose it were your job to hand out one
\ndollar bills, a bill every second of a forty-hour working week, and except for
\nyour Saturday and Sunday rest you never took a vacation. You wouldn’t live long
\nenough to hand out a billion one ~llar bills for that would take you 133 years.
\nSo when the Hoover Commission says its plan will save us at least four
\nbillion dollars a year, that is a great deal of money. In almost every state
\nthere has been formed a citizen’s committee to support the recommendations of
\nthe Commission. In Maine that committee is led by Dr. Charles Phillips, President
\nof Bates College, and its membership is composed of leading citizens in
\nbusiness, industry and the professions. Let all of us support their efforts.
\nWrite your Congressman that you want this saving made.
\nLet us look tonight at a few more items in the commission report. Last
\nweek we referred to the post office and the commission’s plan to save at least
\nhalf a billion dollars a year in that single department. Let’s see now what the
\ncommission says about the federal budget. It calls that instrument an “inadequate
\ndocument, poorly organized, and presenting no understandable or workable
\nplan for government expenditures.”
\nFor instance, the Veterans Administration has an appropriation item of
\nover a billion dollars for salaries and expenses, which indicates nothing of
\nthe work done by that organization. The Naval Hospital at Bethesda, Maryland
\nreceives allotments under twelve different appropriation titles. In no one
\nplace in the budget can he locate the cost of operating a naval hospital. The
\n1-216
\nBureau of Ships is financed by 27 different appropriations, many of which have
\nno connection with that bureau. Whereas the budget shows $26 million for the
\nForest Service, the total operating cost of that service is actually $43 million.
\nThe United States Government is the largest purchaser of supplies in the
\nworld; yet it has no central purchasing authority. Each agency buys as it pleases,
\nand many are not manned by competent, trained and experienced purchasers. Efficient
\npurchasing requires training and skill, as every business man well knows.
\nHalf of the several million orders that go out of government offices each
\nyear are for less than ten dollars, yet those orders require all the recording
\nand all the red tape of large purchases. The commission points out the astounding
\nfact that the cost of processing those orders amounts to more than the
\ncost of the goods. For every ten dollar purchase the average office processing
\ncost is twelve dollars.
\nThe not unexpected result of this unorganized buying is that every agency
\nhas excessive stocks of supplies, stocks which the commission estimates could
\neasily be reduced by nearly two billion dollars. In fact, improvement in purchasing
\nand supply management alone would save the nation about three billion
\ndollars a year.
\nperhaps the strongest attack of the commission falls upon the military.
\nListen to the commission’s words: “Military strength is important, but it is
\nonly one element in national security. National strength depends upon economic,
\npolitical and human values. The military arm of the government, in its new
\nstrength, must not grow into a thing apart. It must unequivocally be under the
\ndirection of the executive branch and be fully accountable to the President,
\nthe Congress and the people. II
\nEverybody knows that the worst feature of our national defense has been the
\ncontinued quarreling and lack of unity among the various branches of the service.
\n1-217
\nThe new act creating a Secretary of Defense has done something to remedy this
\ndeplorable condition, but things are by no means right yet. The Hoover Commission
\nfinds still much disharmony and lack of unified planning in the armed services.
\nIt finds inexcusable extravagance and waste. It finds that the new
\nNational Security organization lacks control authority and direction, is still
\nplagued by divided responsibility, and provides no clear civilian control. The
\nauthority of the Secretary of Defense is weakened by the rigid structure of a
\nkind of federation of Army and Navy rather than their unification. The commission
\nsays: “In direct proportion to the limitation and confusion of authority
\namong their civilian superiors, the military are left free of civilian control.”
\nIn short, teamwork is still sadly lacking, and too many brass hats are determined
\nthat the military shall on all matters be independent and not subject to the will
\nof the people.
\n*****
\nIt happens that this speaker knows more about one government organization
\nthan about all the others. Because we have been Veterans Coordinator, serving
\nas liaison agent between Colby Coll~ge and the Veterans Administration in respect
\nto veterans attending college under the so-called G I Bill of Rights, we
\nhave had occasion to watch the progress of veterans legislation in Congress,
\nand the operation of the laws by the V. A. offices. We have only the highest
\nrespect for the efficient, friendly management of the V. A. office at TOgus,
\nMaine, under the leadership of Col. Stoddard; and we cannot praise too highly
\nthe Togus Division of Rehabilitation and Education under Col. Earle Reed. But of
\nthe overall management on the national scale, of the orders and directives concerning
\nwhich Col. Stoddard and Col. Reed have no discretion, we cannot speak
\nso highly. Our own experience bears out some of the findings of the Hoover Commission
\nwith regard to the Veterans Administration. Let us take a look at those
\nfindings.
\n1-218
\nThe V. A. spends more money than any other federal agency except the military
\nestabliShment. It spends $5,350,000,000 a year, or 11 cents out of every
\ndollar going for all government expenses. That is an average of one thousand
\ndollars.for every veteran assisted. Of the whole 5 1\/3 billions, it spends
\n$859,000,000 for salaries, or 16% of its whole budget. The Commission points
\nto serious defects in V. A. Management. There are conflicting lines of authority
\nbetween Washington and the field. May we digress here for a personal comment.
\nEarly in 1946 this speaker made a public statement that was given wide
\npublicity. One clipping reached us, for instance, from a paper in st. Augustine,
\nFlorida. We then said, “We do not have a Veterans Administration in the United
\nStates i we have forty-eight veterans administrations.” How true the last three
\nyears have proved that statement to be. We have repeatedly tried to get Washington
\nto see sense in a plan which Togus would willingly allow, if the big
\nchiefs on the Potomac would agree. We have simply asked that a veteran attending
\ncollege, with clear intent to complete his course and get his degree at that
\ncollege, may accelerate his program by attending summer school in another
\nstate without transfer of his V. A. records to the second state. In other words
\nlet the college and the V. A. office in that state be permitted to farm the boy
\nout, as it were, for the summer in another state. But Washington says “no”.
\nA time-consuming and costly transfer of all papers must take place. When a
\nColby veteran attends Boston University for the summer, all his V. A. records
\nmust be transferred to Boston. When he returns to Colby in the fall, back the
\nwhole bunch of papers goes to Togus.
\nNow to what the Hoover Commission says. They find in V. A. too many organizational
\nunits. They find the whole system too complicated, with an excessive
\nvolume of written instructions that defy intelligent execution. There
\nare 665 varieties of technical bulletins, over 400 circulars, and 88 different
\ninstruction manuals. On veterans’ insurance the confusion and delay long ago
\n1-219
\nbecame a public scandal. The employee turnover has been out of all proportion
\nto the number of personnel. In short, the commission suggests that V. A. is
\nin for a complete shake-up and reorganization.
\nIf the few facts presented tonight do not convince you, we recommend that
\nyou read the summary of the report of the Hoover Commission, a large print,
\neasily read book which you will find at the Waterville Public Library.
\n*****
\nThis is our last broadcast for the season. We vacate the mike during the
\nsummer months quite as much to provide relief for you patient listeners as to
\nget relief ourselves. We are happy to announce that we shall be back with you
\nin September, again under the sponsorship of that progressive and friendly
\nfirm, the Keyes Fibre Company. In no small part we attribute the cordial reception
\nwhich you listeners have given to this program to the fact that it has
\nbeen completely free from advertising. You have heard no plugs or jingles in
\nbehalf of pie plates or plastic trays. Just the simple announcement, at the
\nbeginning and the end of the program, that it is made possible by the Keyes
\nFibre Company. If you think that company has rendered a public service by
\nthese thirty-two broadcasts, why don’t you tell them so. They know perfectly
\nwell that the program has little effect on their sales, and the only way in
\nwhich they can know that you have enjoyed it is for you to tell them so.
\nPerhaps after thirty-two weeks a kind of recapitulation is in order. What
\nhave we talked about? We have tried, first of all, to uphold and proclaim the
\nAmerican.way of life, the system of private enterprise upon which our strength
\nas a nation and our opportunities as citizens has been securely built. Then,
\nbecause we are surrounded on every hand by modern gadgets and ultra modern
\nways, we have cast many a nostalgic eye upon the old-time things. Please note
\nthat we have never suggested bringing them back, but our reason for mentioning
\nthem is more than mere reminiscence.
\n1-220
\nThe present is always the child of the past. Out of nothing, nothing
\ncomes, and the past, for most of us, is filled not. with great_events and ‘.
\neollossal possessions, but with little things , many of them things which the
\nyounger generation never knew, but out of which sprang the conveniences of
\nour modern day. Life is not a system of isolated lakes, it is a river flowing
\never onward to some eternal sea. We make no apologies for following that
\nriver back upstream, and on its banks we’ve found some interesting things:
\nthe narrow guage railroads, the old canals, the blacksmith shops and the
\nlivery stables, the barrels of flour and the old round crackers, and the
\ngrand old words and sayings of long ago.
\nFor us it has been a rich experience, and we have tried to share it with
\nyou. So, with many, many thanks to all of you, we say Goodbye until September.
\n1-221
\nLITTLE TALKS ON COMMON THINGS
\n34th Broadcast September 18, 1949
\nFriends of the radio audience, it is good to be back with you again, and I
\nam grateful to the Keyes Fibre Company for giving us another season’s opportunity
\nto continue our discussion of common things.
\nVacations are now among the common things, and I hope you have all enjoyed
\none since our last broadcast in June. But I know perfectly well some of you have
\nhad no vacation at all. I recall how indignant my mother used to get in my boyhood
\ndays when female relatives from the city used to talk about coming to Maine
\nfor their vacations. It was my mother’s firmly held notion that no housewife
\never had the right to a vacation. The man of the house might get time off from
\nwork, but the wife’s work went right on. Remembering those days, I want to ask
\nsome of you men who had a vacation this summer if you saw to it that your wife
\ngot one too.
\nuntil he was 55 years old my father never had a vacation. All through the
\nyears of his operation of the grocery store in Bridgton he worked 52 weeks a
\nyear. Once in those twenty-four years he was called to jury duty in Portland,
\nand he afterwards avowed that it broke his record for never taking a vacation.
\nTo him anything that took him away from the store, even jury duty, was vacation.
\nOf course working steadily without vacation ruined him. He lived only to
\nthe age of eighty-three. But perhaps that was because, after he moved to Massachusetts,
\nthe Boston vacation bug bit him, and he did come to Maine for two
\nweeks vacation every summer.
\nDon’t misunderstand me. We are not trying to do away with vacations.
\nWhat in the world would this land we used to call the Pine Tree State, but
\nnow goes by the name of Vacationland — what in the world would we do, if
\n1-222
\nthere were no vacations? We certainly aren’t going to bite the hand that feeds
\nus. But seriously we do assert that it is quite possible to make too much of
\nvacation, and talking about our own to other people can be quite as obnoxious
\nas talking about our surgical operation.
\n*****
\nI am told that ladies who have made either a hobby or a business of painting
\nscenes on such objects as dishes and trays have been hard pressed to find
\nsuitable material to take oil paints. Mrs. Josie Claflin of Western Avenue,
\nFairfield has solved the problem. She has recently sent me a little six by
\nfour tray on which she has painted in oils the well known scene of Portland
\nHead Light. Mrs. Claflin, now 78 years old, has long done painting as a hobby.
\nUnable to get the trays she used before the war, Mrs. Claflin finally saw the
\nnew plastic trays of Kys-ite, made by the Keyes Fibre Company. She writes: “I
\nthink hand-painted Kys-ite would make nice Maine souvenirs for Christmas gifts.”
\nYes, Mrs. Claflin, I think so too.
\n*****
\nThe many railroad fans who listen to WTVL will be interested to know that
\na few weeks ago I had my first ride on the Edaville Railroad, about which I
\ntalked last winter. What is more, I rode in the old narrow guage car called the
\nMt. Pleasant, in which I had ridden many miles on the old Bridgton and Saco
\nRiver road as a boy.
\nYou will recall that the Edaville is a six-mile, narrow guage road on the
\ncranberry plantation of Mr. Ellis Atwood at Carver, Massachusetts on Cape Cod.
\nMr. Atwood bought rolling stock and rails from the Bridgton and Saco River,
\npicked up other cars from the Sandy River and Rangeley Lakes, the Wiscasset
\nand Quebec, and the old Billerica roads.
\nMr. Atwood’s road winds around the cranberry bogs where at this season of
\nthe year we saw hundreds of pickers at work. That ride behind the tiny rebuilt
\n1-223
\nlocomotive brought back fond memories. As we slowed by the little station stops,
\nit was easy to imagine them as Sandy Creek, South Bridgton and Perley’s Mills,
\nand the illusion was heightened when over the terminal station we saw the sign
\nBridgton. The truth is that two separate buildings compose the terminal of Mr.
\nAtwood’s road. Over one is the sign Bridgtoni over the other is carabasset.
\nEveryone said the old narrow guage roads were doomed forever. Not only has
\nMr. Atwood put a new one in operation out of the remains of half a dozen defunct
\nones, but he has made it a financial success. The Edaville Road makes money
\nevery season. During the summer it carries thousands of sight-seers at 25 cents
\na headi it transports thousands of yards of sand for the cranberry bedsi it
\nhauls the pickers; and it carries hundreds of boxes of the harvested fruit. I
\nhope others of you will have a chance to ride on the Edaville Road. It will
\nbring to life again whatever one of the old roads was most familiar to you
\nthe Bridgton and Saco River, the Rangeley, the Wiscasset, or the Monson.
\n*****
\nOne of the commonest things in life is to look out for ourselves. We all
\nfavor economy in government as long as it doesn’t step on our toes. We are all
\nfor letting the other fellow do the economizing. It is folks whose toes are stepped
\non that prevent any real economy in government. The reorganizations recommended
\nby the Hoover Commission, designed to save from four to six billion dollars
\na year, are either modified or blocked completely by people who consider
\ntheir own gain bigger than the public welfare. Let us not too quickly blame the
\nmembers of Congressi it is their selfish constituents who bring pressure upon
\nthem, and those constituents are people just like you and me.
\nDoubtless it would be safer and just as easy to illustrate this difficulty
\nin government by examples from far away. We might talk about the pro-butter,
\nanti-oleo block from Wisconsin, the timber holdings of the Northwest, the
\ncotton growers of the South, or the cattlemen of the Great Plains. But no part
\n1-224
\nof the country is inunune. So let us bring it right home to ourselves in Maine.
\nIn 1948 Uncle Sam poured $67,000,000 into Aroostook County alone, to hold
\nup the price of potatoes \u2022. More than 30 farmers of Aroostook received more than
\n$100,000 apiece from the government, according to investigations made by the
\nWashington Post. The Post points out that Congress has held to the potato
\nprogram although it has been warned time and again against it.Even the larger
\npotato growers themselves have urged that price supports be cut. But Congress
\nhas held fast. Less than a month ago the House of Representatives, under the
\nleadership of Albert Gore of Tennessee, voted to keep supports.
\nPotatoes are grown in many states besides Maine; so pressure is brought
\non a lot of Congressmen. Nevertheless, it is time the American people woke up
\nto what this way of doing things means to all of us.
\nThe $67,000,000 handed out to Aroostook was only part of a cool 225 million
\ndollars whiCh was disbursed in the whole country to support the price of
\npotatoes alone. And remember that the potato was only one supported commodity.
\nThat 225 million is twice the cost of operating all the activities of the District
\nof Columbia; it is more than the cost of all the business of either the
\nDepartment of Commerce or the Department of Labor, and nearly the same as the
\nDepartment of Justice. It is more than one-fourth the entire cost of the huge
\nDepartment of Agriculture.
\nWe are not unaware that there is something to be said on both sides of
\ndisputed questions, and this program of price support is certainly subject to
\na lot of dispute. Most of us want to see the farmers, especially the small
\nfarmers, protected from disasters over which they have no control. But some of
\nus believe the present government program is not the way to do it.
\nHow this price support program works out in practice is made clear by the
\nMaine potato experience. First, the taxpayer is assessed for 67 million dollars
\nto purChase surplus potatoes from Maine growers so that the price of potatoes
\n1-225
\nsold on the market can be held up. Then the same taxpayer, in his capacity of
\nconsumer, is forced to pay the highest price he ever knew in peacetime for potatoes
\non his dinner table. Then, to cap the climax the high prices cut the
\nper capita consumption of potatoes to the lowest figure in American history
\n108 pounds as compared with 123 pounds in 1947 and 144 pounds in 1935 — thus
\nincreasing the quantity of surplus potatoes the government had to buy. The whole
\nthing just doesn’t make sense.
\n*****
\nGrover Weymouth of East Vassalboro, who more than once has supplied information
\nfor this program, now comes up with some interesting yarns about Ben
\nButler. General Benjamin F. Butler was probably at once the most efficient
\nand the most hated of Union generals in the Civil War. Many southerners hated
\nhim worse than they hated Sherman.
\nBecause Butler graduated from Colby in 1838 most Colby men and women
\nhave known the stories connected with the general’s college days, stories published
\na quarter of a century ago by Herbert C. Libby in his book of Colby
\nstories. How Ben destroyed the stolen sign and how he petitioned to be excused
\nfrom chapel because he knew he was already counted among the damned, not the
\nsaved, are familiar Colby yarns.
\nNow Mr. Weymouth brings up some stories of Butler’s later days as lawyer
\nand politician, in both of which fields his career was quite as stormy as it
\nhad been in the Army. While the following story may be fictional, those who
\nknew Butler are sure it could have happened. The story goes that one day two
\nprominent attorneys of Boston were crossing the Common and arguing about who
\nwas the best lawyer in Massachusetts. Suddenly one of them said, “Here comes
\nBen Butler. We’ll ask him.” They told Butler of their argument and asked him
\nwho, in his opinion, was the best lawyer in Massachusetts. Ben promptly replied,
\n“I am!” “That may be so”, said one of them, “but how are we going to prove it?”
\n1-226
\n“You don’t have to prove it”, said Butler, “I admit it.”
\nAnother story concerns Ben in the Massachusetts Legislature. Ben never
\nsmoked but he had the peculiar habit of chewing cigars constantly. His cigars
\nwere made especially for him with both ends solid. In the legislature a minister
\nfrom an up-state district sat next to Ben. For a couple of days the clergyman
\nwatched Butler chew on one end of a cigar for an hour, then turn it around
\nand chew on the other end. Finally, standing it as long as he could, the
\nminister. said: “Butler, you disgust me. A hog wouldn’t do what you are doing.”
\nBen responded with a question, “Do you chew tobacco?” “Certainly not”, was
\nthe disgusted reply. “Neither does a ‘hog”, said Butler. “So who’s most like
\na hog, you or me?”
\nWhen Butler was the military governor of Louisiana i~ the early days of
\nthe post-war reconstruction, the people of New Orleans vented their utmost wrath
\nupon\u00b7 him. He was accused of all manner of illegal and outrageous acts, of which
\nhistory has long since cleared him. Among the accusations was one that he personally
\nappropriated the magnificent solid silver from New Orleans mansions.
\nHence, the story of Ben Butler and the silver spoons became a part of American
\nfolklore.
\nMr. Weymouth has a delightful story connected with those silver spoons. It
\nseems that during one of his many political campaigns Butler was speaking in a
\ntheater. His opponents, in order to embarass him, hired a boy to climb up into
\nthe fly over the stage and lower a huge spoon on a string down in front of the
\nspeaker. Without batting an eye, Butler pulled out his pocket knife, grabbed
\nthe spoon, cut the string, and ranuned the spoon into his pocket with the words,
\n“That’s one I must have missed.” Needless to say, he, rather than the opposition,
\ncaptured the audience along with the spoon.
\n*****
\n1-227
\nYou will remember that, just as our program season closed last June, I
\nasked for information on old stage coach lines that once came into Waterville.
\nIt is true that one listener told me where I might get that information, but no
\none has yet submitted the information itself. Come now, who will be the first
\nto tell us about the old stage coach routes in this vicinity?
\n1-228
\nLITTLE TALKS ON COMMON THINGS
\n35th Broadcast September 25,\u00b7 .1949
\nIn spite of the recent welcome rain, we do not need to be reminded that
\nwe have just had an exceptionally dry sunnner. Those of us who lost most of our
\namateur gardens have probably complained bitterly, but the justifiable complaints
\nought to come from the drought-embattled farmers. Yet these sturdy
\nfolk take adversity pretty well in stride. The dry, rainless weeks cost many
\nof them a lot of money. Hundreds of them had to haul water many miles for
\nherds of thirsty cattle.
\nNow there is nothing new about these seasons of drought, even in Maine.
\nI recently chanced to see a copy of the Waterville Sentinel for December 28,
\n1871. In it I noted the following ingenious advertisement by a man whose family
\nname still marks the Waterville business district. The ad reads:
\n“The Great Drought of 1871 has proved a severe blow to many, but instead
\nof despairing and moving to Aroostook or out west, let us give old Kennebec
\nCounty one more trial. Meanwhile, keep it before the people that they can buy
\nof C. H. Redington furniture of every description from the best parlor suites
\nto the smallest chair. Carpeting, crockery, shades and curtain fixtures, caskets
\nand coffins, robes and shrouds.”
\n*****
\nWhen we recall the long hours that laborers worked fifty years ago, we
\nare likely to think of the eight hour day as a very modern innovation. Well,
\nhere’s an interesting historical item nearly a century and half old. waterville
\nwas set apart from Winslow and incorporated as a separate town in 1802. At the
\ntown meeting of 1803 the new town of Waterville voted (and I quote from the record)
\n“that the sum of $1. 25 be allowed for a man, $1. 00 for a pair of oxen, 50
\n1-229
\ncents for a plow, and 25 cents for a cart, for each day employed upon the
\nhighways, and that eight hours shall constitute a day’s work.”
\n*****
\nThe proponents of Federal Aid to Education do their cause no good by distorting
\nthe figures. The case for federal aid should be judged on its own merits,
\nand in working out a practical plan, it is of the utmost importance that we
\nmaintain and safeguard the American constitutional principle of separation of
\nchurch and state. Freedom for all religions, but state support of no sect or
\ncreed is a sacred American principle.
\nNow some educators are so anxious to get any plan of federal aid underway
\nthat they are careless with facts and figures. A report issued by the Senate
\nCommittee on Labor and Public Welfare, quoting the federal Office of Education,
\nsays: “According to census estimates for 1947 about four million children between
\nthe ages of five and seventeen attend no school whatever.”
\nThe head of one of the nation’s best known, private, small colleges decided
\nto test these figures. This man, President Lawrence Gould of Carleton College,
\nMinnesota, found that in many states compulsory education does not start
\nuntil the child is six years old, in a few states not until seven, and nearly
\nall the states end compulsion at 16 years or less.
\nThus President Gould found that, of the four million not in school,
\n2,063,000 were only five years old, and 1,406,000 had passed their sixteenth
\nbirthday; 156,000 more who were six years old were not required to attend school
\nbecause they lived in states where the beginning compulsory age is seven. This
\nleft only 379,000 instead of the alleged four million, and that former number
\nis further reduced by subtracting the mentally defective.
\nInstead of four million children who ought to be in school, but are not,
\nthe number is probably not more than 300,000. But we hasten to assert that
\n300,000 school children not in school are 300,000 too many. There is no need
\n1-230
\nfor proponents of federal aid to exaggerate the figures. We must find a way to .
\ngive every American child opportunity for free education. There is a good case
\nfor limited federal aid, provided its administration is left unrestrictedly in
\nthe hands of state and local authorities, but there is no case for another
\ngreat federal bureaucracy dictating to all our school systems.
\n*****
\nThrough the courtesy of Mrs. Ernest Whitman of Benton we have seen an interesting
\nlocal document written just a hundred years ago. It is a receipt for
\na year’s pass over the old covered bridge at Fairf leld. It reads: “Mr. Asa
\nGoodridge, with his girl, is permitted to pass the Fairfield Bridge from the
\nfirst day of April, 1849 to the first day of April, 1850 at the sum of one dollar,
\none half in advance and the residue on the first day of August, 1849, with
\nsingle horse and carriage, owned and driven by the above named, in his own business,
\nbut is not permitted to transport any kind of goods and wares for any
\nother persons, nor carry any other person free of toll. Received payment in
\nfull, 8th of August. William Bryant, Director.”
\n*****
\nWe are constantly on the alert for picturesque, old-time sayings. One of
\nthe best we have heard recently is the frequent reply of an old gentleman of
\nCumberland County whenever he was asked if he knew a person whom he happened
\nto know well. “Know him?”, the old gentleman would say. “Why, I could tell
\nhis hide in any tannery.”
\n*****
\nWe were somewhat surprised to read in the September 12th issue of Time
\nmagazine the use of the word boughten as an adjective. We thought that expression,
\nheard commonly in rural Maine a half century ago, had gone out of use, at
\nleast in newswriting. Yet here was a magazine of international repute, saying
\nof little Prince Charles of Edinburgh, “Without the moral support of his mother,
\n1-?31
\nPrincess Elizabeth, he stood up well under the ordeal of his first boughten
\nhaircut.”
\nBoth of the newest dictionaries, the American College Dictionary of 1947
\nand Webster’s New Collegiate of 1949 record the word “boughten” as an adjective,
\nand both give it the same meaning: “purchased, as opposed to homemade”.
\nIt is, of course, this use of the word that most Maine folks of my generation
\nhave often heard. “Aunt Mary’s got a boughten dress”. Once I even heard the
\nusual expression “store teeth”\u00b7 for false teeth changed to boughten, when an
\naged citizen said, “I can’t eat meat; my boughten teeth don’t fit too good.”
\nDid .Time magazine err in its use of boughten? According to both dictionaries
\nit did, for both label the word as dialect. And what is dialect? It is a
\nlocal or sectional form of a language, or the speech of a particular occupational
\nor social group. “Boughten” is therefore a word used still in some localities
\nor among some classes of people. It is no longer a generally recognized,
\nnational word.
\n*****
\nIn some respects this is indeed a topsy-turvy world. Take our present relations
\nwith England, for instance. We and the British speak the same language,
\nwe are both among the last strongholds of democracy. Britain was indeed once
\nour mother country. We have no intention of letting our British friends down
\nin their hour of economic crisis.
\nNevertheless, the strange web of events that has been woven since the close
\nof the recent world war puts our good old USA in a position of considerable inconsistency.
\nUnder the ECA we are in the peculiar situation of backing a socialist
\nwelfare state with free enterprise money. Yet Russian expansion forces
\n. us to go on with that inconsistent policy. We must help England readjust her
\neconomy. We must continue financial aid to do it. What England needs is huge
\nprivate investment. But not only are American investors in British industry
\n1-232
\nscared off by the methods of the present British Government, but British capital
\nitself seeks every chance to escape the restrictions against sending money
\nout of the country, and finds every possible loophole to invest in American industry.
\nNow that many parts of the world have become their own workshops, England
\ncan never again be the greatest exporting workshop of the world. Her whole colonial
\nsystem is being readjusted. But the socialist regime in England, which
\nregards investment as immoral and insists \u00b7on backing the welfare state to the
\npoint of national bankruptcy, is a weak instrument for carrying on the necessary
\nadjustments.
\nSome time between now and next June there will be a general election in
\nEngland. If we believe what we say when we praise democracy, we must uphold at
\nany cost the right of the British people to choose their own government. But
\nthat doesn’t prevent us from hoping that the British voters will look the hard
\nfacts square in the face and act on the logic of those facts.
\nThe London Economist recently reminded the present British goyernment that
\nit would have been out of power long ago if American capitalism had not been
\nwilling to subsidize it. The issue in our relations with Britain is bigger
\nthan the stability of the pound or the narrowing of the dollar gap. It is the
\ntremendously important issue whether a controlled economy can compete with a
\nfree economy_ “By their fruits ye shall know them.”
\n*****
\nWaterville folks have been getting their tax bills and on the whole the
\ncomments are favorable. The expert evaluators of local real estate have done
\na thorough, competent and scientific job. Of course some property owners find
\ntheir taxes increased, but the commendable frankness with which Mayor Squire,
\nthe assessors and the experts agree to meet all complaints with complete information
\nshould win every citizen’s approval.
\n1-233
\n*****
\nOn the very first of these broadcasts nearly a year ago we said that among
\nthe commonest and most disliked things on earth are taxes. Our generation is by
\nno means the first that has been plagued by them. In the Kennebec Journal of
\nJanuary 1, 1880 appeared the following advertisement: “All persons whose taxes
\nremain unpaid need not be surprised to receive a call from the collector or a
\nrespectful notice from the post office.”
\n*****
\nThere were other interesting ads in that issue of the old K. J. published
\nseventy years ago. C. C. Hunt, dealer in musical instruments, recommended an
\norgan in everY home. That was the heyday of the old parlor organ, and Mr. Hunt
\nmade the acquisition of one as painless as possible by offering it on the installment
\nplan at 25 cents a day.
\nUnder a picture of a set of false teeth, William McDavid advertised as
\nII surgeon and mechanical dentist II \u2022 He recommended the use of either American
\nred and black, or English imported red and white rubber for artificial teeth.
\nHe agreed also to fill teeth with gold, amalgam, os, or artificial gutta percha.
\n*****
\nDid you ever hear what started the movement to separate the western part
\nof Winslow on this side of the river into the new town of waterville? Believe
\nit or not, it was because the people on this side got tired of crossing the
\nriver to attend church. Remember there was no bridge, and they had to cross
\nthe hard way — the way workers at the H & W have done for so many years on
\nthe river back of the old Colby campus.
\nTo be sure, town meetings had something to do with the controversy, but
\nsave for exceptional emergencies they came only once a year. As early as 1791
\nonly twenty years after Winslow’s incorporation as a town, an attempt was made
\nto set up a separate town on the west side of the river. But the article in-
\n1-234
\ntroduced for that purpose at the town meeting was dismissed (or, as we would
\nsay today, tabled without action) \u2022 In 1793 the town voted that thereafter
\none-half of the preaching should be on the east side and one half on the west
\nside; also that town meetings should be held alternately on east and west sides.
\nEvidently this did not solve the problem, for eight years later, at the
\ntown meeting of 1801 it was voted to petition the General Court of the Commonwealth
\n(Maine was then a part of Massachusetts) to divide the town. The General
\nCourt agreed, and after waterville’s incorporation in 1802 Asa Redington, Justive
\nof the Peace, issued to Moses Appleton, constable, the warrant for waterville’s
\nfirst town meeting. Elnathan Sherwin, Asa Soule and Ebenezer Bacon were
\nthe first selectmen. OUt of reluctance to cross the river to go to church,
\nWaterville had been born.
\n1-235
\nLITTLE TALKS ON COMMON THINGS
\n36th Broadcast October 2, 1949
\nIn this day of fast transportation by land and air it is difficult to realize
\nthat, less than a century ago, inland waterways served an important and
\nsometimes sole means of transportation between two Maine localities. Last
\nspring I referred on this program to the importance of the Presumpscot Canal in
\nmaking possible a through water route from Portland to Raymond, Casco, Naples,
\nBridgton and Harrison.
\nMost Waterville citizens know the story of the founding of Colby College -how
\nJeremiah Chaplin, his family, and a handful of students, came in the sloop
\nHero from Boston to the head of navigation on the Kennebec, then by lon~ boat
\nup the river to Waterville.
\nWhat is not so well known to Maine people generally is that some method of
\nriver transportation was once common in every county in the state, even in
\nAroostook. When the Eaton grant, now a part of the town of Caribou, was laid
\nout in 1808, the deed conveyed by the General Court of Massachusetts contained
\nthese words: “Excepting and reserving for the use of the Commonwealth, and as
\na common highway forever, the main channel of the Aroostook River in its
\ncourse through this tract of land.” Indeed the Aroostook River was the only
\nline of transportation in that day. There wasn’t even a road into the tract,
\nand the river served as common highway for many years. Until 1830 there was no
\nroad north of Mattawamkeag. To get to what is now Caribou the prospective settler
\nwent by boat through New Brunswick up the St. John and Aroostook Rivers.
\nBy the way, that Eaton Grant in Aroostook got its name from Captain William
\nEaton, whose exploits Kenneth Roberts has made famous in his novel “Lydia
\nBailey” \u2022 It was Eaton who, in 1805, won a momentous victory over the Barbary
\n1-236
\nCoast pirates who had long preyed on American ships in the Mediterranean.
\nSnubbed by superior naval officers and neglected by Congress, Eaton was finally
\nrewarded by the General Court of Massachusetts with this gift of land
\nin the wilds of the District of Maine. Almost immediately Eaton sold a half
\ninterest to John Callender of Boston for $2,500. Callender’s half amounted to
\nsomewhat more than 5,000 acres. Think of it — fifty cents an acre for what
\nwas to be Caribou potato land.
\nWell, we started all this by talking about water transportation. Of course,
\namong Maine’s more than 2,000 rivers, some were never very important highways.
\nWe doubt whether the Messalonskee from Western Avenue to Rice’s Rips was ever
\na very important highway, but a lot of Waterville people can remember when, on
\na sunday afternoon, it was covered with canoes. Was it the automobile that
\nended canoeing on the Messalonskee, or was there some other reason? Who knows?
\n*****
\nCalifornia is making much this year of its centennial of the Forty-Niners,
\nthe adventurers who went to the coast in search of gold. But Maine too, as Hon.
\nEdward Chase of Portland recently pointed out, has reason for remembering 1849.
\nIn that year the efforts of determined Portlanders had succeeded, and the Atlantic
\nand St. Lawrence Railroad (later called the Grand Truck) was under construction
\nbetween Portland and Montreal. Maine railroads already had reached
\nWaterville via Lewiston, and another line was being built up the Kennebec.
\nMills were rising at Lewiston, where the water-power canal system was now complete.
\nGas light had just come to Portland and Lewiston. The lumber business
\ntook on a new lease of life, with railroad transportation to supplement the
\nwater routes. Now, as Mr. Chase emphasizes, these things did not just happen.
\nRisks were great and losses were common. It all required a high degree of confidence,
\nnot in everybody,but in the character of selected individuals. Confidence
\nwas established and maintained. The money was risked; the job did get
\n1-237
\ndone. But what did it was not government insurance, subsidies, and guarantees.
\nIt was not done by the pump-priming of deficit financing. It was accomplished
\nby the confidence engendered by direct and understandable relationships between
\nmen, in faith in the lessons of human experience. And not the least important
\nfactor is this. In 1849 security was sought through energy, men were
\nproud of how much work they could turn out in a day, and he who did the very
\nbest that he could might confidently hope for reward.
\n*****
\nWe hear much about the alleged pessimism among leaders of business and industry
\nconcerning the economic future of our country. It is heartening, therefore,
\nto see an acknowledged business leader like Lewis Rosenstiel, head of Shenley Industries,
\nsound a note of optimism. He insists the united States can have
\nannual national income of $300 billion by 1954. An increase of five per cent a
\nyear in total production will achieve that goal. Mr. Rosenstiel suggests a program
\nto bring about this result, including one item that may be subject to controversy.
\n“Give the American workingman”, he says, “the incentive of a five
\nper cent wage increase every year between now and 1954, and let him know that
\neach yearl s boost will follow if he increases his productivity by five per cent,
\nand you will find the volume of production rising at an astonishing rate. The
\nnational payroll during the peak year of 1948 was $140 billion. The suggested
\nfive per cent increase in wages, cumulated for five years, would increase the
\npayroll one-third by 1954, giving the nation’s workers $47 billion more to
\nspend. Other income would go up in the same proportion.”
\nHaving no right to pose as an economist, I don’t know whether Mr. Rosenstiel’s
\neconomic logic is sound or faulty. But I do know that bold measures of
\nsome kind must be taken to eliminate the depression psychology that is now
\nscaring so many of us. Certainly the way to win the peace in this present cold
\nwar is to make the whole world outside Russia so strong that the Russian people
\n1-238
\nthemselves will come to question their
\nown system as inadequate and insecure. The peace of the world will never be
\nmade secure by military force alone. Only an expanding world economy that offers
\na better standard of living can fight off the insidious infiltration of
\ncommunism.
\nWhatever plan we follow — Mr. Rosenstiel’s or some other — it -must be
\na cooperative plan in which industrial owner and manager, laborer, farmer, and
\nprofessional men work together to produce more goods for the people of the
\nworld. It is the most trite of economic truths that the world’s trouble is not
\nand has never been over-production; it is poor distribution and under-consumption.
\nThe purchasing power of the world’s people must be significantly increased.
\n*****
\nTwo weeks ago I promised you another Ben Butler story — one about Butler
\nand the silver spoons. His military governorship of Louisiana was so obnoxious
\nto the New Orleans’ aristocracy that they accused Ben of appropriating and
\nturning to his own profit the beautiful solid silver of some of those famous
\nNew Orleans homes. So all through the South Ben Butler became known as the hated
\nnorthern general who stole the New Orleans silver spoons. That he was completely
\ninnocent made no difference. The story was believed as gospel in all the South.
\nAfter the war Butler not only took up the practice of law in Massachusetts;
\nhe also became immediately and violently active in politics, and a dozen years
\nafter Appomatox, the time came when Butler ran for governor of the old Bay State.
\nThe campaign was bitter and personal; no holds were barred. The Marquis of
\nQueensberry rules that now govern a Truman-Dewey contest were sadly lacking in
\nthe late 1870’s. For reasons which we have no time to relate here, the region
\nof the Berkshires was strongly anti-Butler. When his speaking tour brought him
\ninto that region, Butler was sure to encounter heckling and perhaps outright
\n1-239
\ninterference. What happened at Pittsfield neither he nor the audience could
\nhave anticipated.
\nA group of Butler’s opponents, more clever than the general run, engaged
\na boy to climb into the scenic props and flies over the stage of the theater
\nwhere Butler was speaking. Ben was scarcely warmed up with his opening remarks
\nwhen down from above the stage dangled on a string a huge wooden spoon painted
\na glistening silver.
\nThe audience, catching on at once, let out a roar of laughter. But old
\nBen didn’t bat an eyelash. Calmly taking a pocket-knife out of those capacious
\ntrouser pockets of his, he grabbed the spoon, cut the string, and brandished
\nthe spoon before the audience with, “Well, well, here’s one I must have missed.”
\nIn a moment Ben’s quick wit and good nature had turned the audience from
\nhostility to approval. Contrary to the predictions of his most ardent supporters,
\nin the subsequent election, Ben carried the city of Pittsfield.
\n*****
\nMy friend Groves Weymouth says I missed the real point in my remarks about
\nvacations. His comment to end all comments on the subject is this: “Almost anybody
\ncan work, :put it takes a mighty good man to stand a vacation.”
\n*****
\nDid you go to church today? There was once a time here in Maine when it
\nwas the conunon thing for everyone to go to church on Sunday. Many years ago it
\nwas the custom in most New England communities to hold two preaching services
\nin each church, one in the morning and the other in mid-afternoon. Members of
\nthe congregation coming in by wagon or horseback from the whole countryside
\nbrought their luncheon and remained on the premises between services. In the
\nwinter they often spent the interval in homes near the church. Now most people
\nwho have heard about those old hours of church attendance and those long-winded
\n1-240
\nsennons, sometimes lasting more than two hours, suppose that the change was
\nmade directly to morning and evening services with which Protestants are familiar
\ntoday. That such is not ~e case is revealed by a glance at the Waterville
\nSentinel for December 7, 1883. Church notices listing the services for
\nthe following Sunday reveal that only two churches — the Congregational and
\nthe unitarian — had then caught up with modern practice, having their services
\nat 10:30 A. M., but even they differed on the hour of evening service,
\nthe Congos m~eting at 7:00 O’clock and the Unitarians at 7:30.
\nThe other Protestant churches — Methodist, Baptist and Universalist
\nhad no morning service; their first service was at 2:00 P. M. Methodists and
\nBaptists had evening services at 7. Only the Universalists had no evening
\nservice at all. This was long before the present important and prosperous local
\nEpiscopal church had become even a mission station in Waterville.
\nWaterville’s Catholic communicants today will be interested in the announcement
\nof Catholic services in the Sentinel of 1883. The beloved Father Charland
\nwas then, as he was many years afterward, the priest and pastor. The announcement
\nreads:
\n“Mass at 8:00 A.M. and 10:00 A.M. on every first and third Sunday in the
\nmonth, at ten-thirty only on every second and fourth Sunday. Sunday School at
\n3:00 P.M. Vespers at 4:00 P.M. Instruction in English every second and fourth
\nSunday, in French every first and third Sunday. II
\nMany distractions invitingly call us away from church attendance today.
\nPerhaps our grandfathers and grandmothers missed a lot of the comfort of modern
\ninventions and the fun of modern amusements, but perhaps we too are missing
\nsomething in not emulating their devotion and their zeal to the particular
\nchurch of our faith in this land where religious worship is unrestricted and
\nfree.
\n1-241
\n\u00b7 ,
\nLITTLE TALKS ON COMMON THINGS
\n37th Broadcast October 9, 1949
\nProbably no more bitter quarrels were ever fought out without bloodshed
\nthan were the controversies over the early railroads. There were battles over
\nroutes, terminals, width of guage, financial control, and many other matters.
\nThe Wiscasset and Quebec, the little narrow guage that finally ran only as\u00b7 far
\nas Albion, was no exception. Before the route and terminus of that road were
\nsettled, the air was blue with name-calling and invective.
\nMany years ago an Albion woman, using a government document, the Yearbook
\nof the U. S. Department of Agriculture, as a scrapbook, pasted into it along
\npoem, parodied on Longfellow’s Hiawatha. That poem, printed serially in some
\nMaine newspaper not identified on the clippings, told the story of the controversy
\nover the establishment of the little railroad from Wiscasset to Albion.
\nThe poem is much too long to quote in detail. Suffice it to say that it
\nrecounts chiefly a long-fought struggle about extending the little road to
\nBurnham Junction. The verses were apparently written by a Wiscasset man who
\nardently f~vored the Burnham terminus and who sings the praises of one Gitchie
\nAtwood and soundly damns the villainy of one he calls Sachem Wilson. He also
\nrefers to prophet Crosby. Was that one of the Albion Crosbys? Perhaps some
\nlistener knows. Let’s have the few lines in the poem which refer to him:
\n“prophet Crosby came among you
\nWith a plan for your salvation,
\nTo complete your road to Burnham,
\nHave two ends and two connections.
\nHonor be to prophet Crosby!
\nHe’s your friend and always has been.
\n1-242
\nIf he only had the money,
\n‘Nary red of yours he’d call for,
\nBut would straightway build your railroad
\nOUt of love for you, my people.”
\nOf Sachem Wilson the versifier says:
\n“Sachem Wilson came among you
\nWith a scheme for your damnation,
\nAnd I think it runs in this wise:
\nIf you’ll cough up all the interests,
\nThat you now have in your railroad,
\nHe will build a broad ~age for you;
\nBuild it up the spout or elsewhere.
\nGive him ninety days, he tells you,
\nTo collect his game and wampum;
\nDon’t make any further effort
\nTo get your road built into Burnham.
\nThen in ninety days he’ll own you, .
\nStocks and bonds and all equipment.
\nVerily — he is a DaileY.
\nListen not to Sachem Wilson. II
\nThe poem’s third and final installment (or canto, as the author calls it)
\nis headed “Burnham or Bust”. It ends with this impassioned appeal:
\n“We are tired of all this talking,
\nTired of the broad guage stories,
\nTired of the Sachem’s wisdom.
\nSo build your railroad up to Burnham.
\nGive us of your wealth, 0 China!
\nThe amount that you apportioned,
\n1-243
\nGive to us, 0 old Palermo,
\nAll that you’ve been asked to spare.
\nWhitefield, we expect to see you
\nWalk up and lay right down your share.
\nJefferson, Who’s interested?
\nSurely you will help us out;
\nFor Albion ha~ done her duty,
\nDone it nobly and with zeal,
\nShe’s a ready, willing worker,
\nWith your Prophet at her wheel.
\nBathe now in his plan to aid you,
\nWash the war paint from your faces,
\nSmoke the calumet together,
\nVote to build your road to Burnham.”
\nAlas, the heated imprecations of Sagittarius — that is the way the author
\nsigned the poem — fell on deaf ears. The road was never built through to
\nBurnham.
\n*****
\nOne of the new books this fall is an amusing and informative account of
\nthe woman who was the first to have her face appear in newspaper advertisements
\nallover the united States and eventually on a bottle label allover the world.
\nYes, you have guessed it; the woman was Lydia E. Pinkham.
\nAn Army chaplain, Captain William B. Adams, says when he went ashore on
\none of the first South Sea Islands to be liberated from the Japanese, he immed:'”
\niately took a lot of photographs. When he developed those films, he came upon
\none negative showing a woman standing outside a thatched jungle hut, surrounded
\nby her children and all her worldly possessions. Those possessions were meager
\nindeed, but amOng them proudly stood a familiar object — a bottle of .
\n1-244
\nLydia E. Pinkham’s Vegetable Compound.
\nAlthough everybody in this region has heard .of Lydia Pinkham, I suspect
\nfew realize how closely the operations of her company were related to the
\nState of Maine. When Daniel, the most adventurous and energetic of Mrs. Pinkham’S
\nthree sons, was trying to get sales of the compound well started in the
\ndrug stores of New York, in 1878, he wrote to his brother Will back in Lynn:
\n“We’ve got to make up $10,000 worth of pills and shove them into advertising
\ndown in Maine. If I were home I’d show you how to do it. Those Maine folks
\nwill buy if you spread the advertising on them thick. II
\nEvidently will took Dan’s advice, for later Dan wrote: “I’m glad 1;:0 see
\nthat you are going in so heavy down in Maine. Keep running that state to full
\ncapacity so that everybody that sees a paper in the whole state will surely
\nsee our ad.”
\nIn 1882 the two surviving Pinkham brothers and their sister Aroline, who
\na year before had been organized as a partnership, decided to form a corporation,
\nthe Lydia E. Pinkham Medicine Company. That company was incorporated
\nnot in Massachusetts, but in Maine, because, it is said, Maine at that time
\nhad more favorable tax laws for an enterprise which still consisted largely
\nof equipment and supplies, but very little cash. As a consequence of this incorporation
\nof the company in Maine, it was Maine courts that saw the bitter
\nlegal battles between quarreling Pinkham interests for more than thirty years.
\nLike most fond mothers, Mrs. Pinkham never suspected trouble among her
\noffspring, and when Aroline married gentle, Quaker-born Will Gove, Lydia was
\ndelighted with his cooperation in the business. But the old lady reckoned
\nwithout the influence of the third generation. For into that generation was
\nborn a spirited fighter, Lydia pinkham Gove. A graduate of Smith College in
\n1907, she was one of those determined bachelor girls of the early suffragette
\ndays. Until her death a few years ago she fought with every possible legal
\n1-245
\ndevice to dominate the company against her cousins, the Pinkhams. And of course
\nshe had to fight those battles in the Maine courts. After many attempts in
\ncourt to gain control of the company, Miss Gove finally agreed to a plan worked
\nout by the lawyers of both sides, a plan which someone has described as “a consummate
\nexample of studiously designed corporate deadlock”, The company’s 112
\nshares of stock were divided into 56 shares of Pinkham stock and 56 ,shares of
\nGove stock. Each group had authority to elect three directors. The president,
\nfirst vice-president and secretary must always be Pinkham stockholders elected
\nby Pinkham directors, while the treasurer, assistant treasurer and second vicepresident
\nmust always be chosen by the Gove directors. Certain powers were
\ngiven jointly to the president and the treasurer, but only the treasurer or
\nassistant treasurer could sign checks.
\nThat compromise was only asking for more trouble. Miss GOve, in her capacity
\nas treasurer, refused to sig~ checks for obligations incurred by Charles
\nPinkham in his capacity as president. When the case finally reached the Supreme
\nJudicial Court of Maine, Judge Sidney Thaxter, in a carefully worded decision,
\nsaid: “This arrangement, though it may have had virtue from a sentimental
\npoint of view, assumed a spirit of cooperation between the two groups
\nwhich has not in fact existed. It was designed to function in an atmosphere
\nof harmony which is sadly lacking. II
\nThe litigation finally ended in 1937 because Miss Gove overplayed her
\nhand. In 1934 a master appointed by the Maine court to determine the facts
\nconcerning Miss Gove’s petition for receivership of the company wrote in his
\nreport: “Lydia Gove stated to Arthur Pinkham that she was going to run the
\nbusiness, and that the Pinkhams must stop interfering with her”. But on the
\nwitness stand in 1937 Miss Gove testified that absolute equality between the
\ntwo families had always been intended. To her consternation the defense produced
\na letter written by her to a representative of the pinkham employees
\n1-246
\nonly a few months before. That letter said: “My mother’s mother, Lydia E.
\npinkham, arranged that the Gove interests should control the management of
\nthe Lydia E. Pinkham Medicine Company.”
\nObviously what she said in that letter and what she had. just said: on the
\nwitness stand could not both be true. The Gove suit was dismissed and somehow
\nthe Pinkham and Gove directors have managed to function peacefully ever
\nsince.
\nDo any of you remember this old popular song?
\n“Oh, we’ll sing of Lydia Pinkham
\nAnd her love for the human race.
\nHow she sells her Vegetable Compound
\nAnd the papers they publish her face.”
\n*****
\nWhen my family took residence in waterville 26 years ago one of the first
\nthings we noticed was the city’s casual and nonchalant attention to the safety
\nof its school children. We had just come from Portland where during the minutes
\nwhen children were crossing busy streets to and from school nearly the
\nwhole day-time police force was devoted to that job. I remember especially the
\ngenial six foot four officer who escorted children across Congress Street in
\nfront of the Lafayette Hotel. At every trip he had some youngster by the hand
\nand often some tiny tot in his arms.
\nThat system of police protection of school children accomplished a lot
\nmore than the children’s safety. On minds in the most impressionable years it
\nestablished the policeman not as someone to fear and dodge, but as a friend to
\nwhom a child can turn for help and guidance.
\nFor 26 years we have waited, sometimes a bit impatiently, for waterville
\nto wake up. We haven’t enough police officers. Special officers for school
\nhours would be too costly. Officers cannot be spared from the business section.
\n1-247
\nAll of these excuses leave us cold. If the school children of Augusta
\ncan have police protection — and they do have it — the citizens of Waterville
\ncan give that protection to their children too. We are pleased to learn
\nthat the Board of Education is making another attempt — at least its fourth
\nwithin our memory — to get action. Perhaps the new police commissioner will
\nsee the light. Waterville has decided by majority vote to do something about
\nits sewage before a disastrous epidemic strikes from the open sewers that its
\ntwo streams have become. Those sewers are scarcely more dangerous than the
\npoorly protected crossings that threaten the tiny tots in all sections of the
\ncity. The voluntary patrols set up in the schools are fine, but they are not
\nenough.
\nWhat’s that you say? You don’t see ariything to get excited about. Everything
\nseems to go along pretty well as it is. Maybe so. But you’ll feel very
\ndifferently about it if someday tragedy comes to your child.
\n1-248
\nLITTLE TALKS ON COMMON THINGS
\n38th Broadcast October 16, 1949
\nWe make no apology ~or talking on and on about railroads. Many listeners
\ntell us they can stand a lot more railroad stories. So here goes with the
\ngrand old story of the old Grand Trunk.
\nJohn A1fred Poor was born in Andover, in the northern end of OXford County,
\nup above Rumford in 1808. He taught school at Bethel, then became a lawyer in
\nBangor. He was a big man, six feet two, and weighed 250 pounds — not puffy
\nfat, but al1 bone and muscle.
\nPoor went to Boston to see his first train on the old Boston and Worcester
\nline on April 16, 1834. Though only 26 years old he there had a vision that
\nnever left him — the vision of a railroad system that would embrace all New
\nEngland. Early, half-hearted schemes of others had contemplated a railroad from
\nBelfast to Quebec, or from Portland to Lake Champlain.
\nPoor made a thorough personal study of the region between Portland and
\nMontreal, actually drew plans for a proposed railroad, and called it the Atlantic
\nand St. Lawrence. In 1843 Poor petitioned the Maine Legislature for a
\ncharter. By this time he had even expanded his already ambitious plan, for he
\nwas no longer content with a road from Portland to Montreal, but envisioned a
\nlater extension from Montreal to Chicago, and another line from Portland to
\nHalifax across the Province of New Brunswick.
\nHitherto railroads had been considered conveniences to old, settled communities.
\nPoor was the first man to plan a railroad for the development of
\nnew country. He engaged James Hall, a civil engineer, to survey a right of
\nway from Portland to Montreal. Hall recommended by-passing the White Mountains
\nby way of the Androscoggin River valley and the Dixville Notch. He estimated
\n1-249
\nthe cost from Portland to the Canadian border at $2,250,000.
\nMeanwhile a group of Montreal men, led by A. T. Galt, prepared to build
\nthe line from Montreal to the U. S. border.
\nThen the Boston financiers got busy. They wanted a road from Boston to
\nMontreal and this Portland scheme was getting in their way. Abbott Lawrence
\nand Harrison Gray otis secured a charter for a road they called the Boston,
\nConcord and Montreal.
\nPoor heard of the Boston plan on February 4, 1845, just as one of the
\nworst storms on record had started. Yet, shortly after midnight Poor started
\nout by horses and sleigh for Montreal. He sent a man ahead to arrange for relays
\nof horses. Finding one brave soul willing to accompany him, and against
\nthe protests pf friends and relatives, he set out.
\nFor a while the travelers held to the road, but soon found themselves
\nencountering unseen. stone walls, fences and woodpiles. The snow changed to
\nsleet, cutting men and horses alike. They took six hours to reach Teak’s tavern
\nin Falmouth, only seven miles from Portland. In the morning the snow
\nstopped but the cold increased. Nearly two feet of snow covered the road.
\nYet, before dark, they reached the Waterhouse Inn . at Paris. By that time
\nPoor had a frozen nose and frost-bitten ears.
\nThe next day, with Waterhouse breaking a road ahead, they reached Rumford
\nin the afternoon, where they got half a dozen men to ride ahead on horse
\nback and break a horse track to Andover. Beyond that town there was no road
\nor track of any kind. Here was real wilderness — the big woods.
\nFor the 40 miles from Andover to Colebrook Poor had to make his tedious
\nway without road breakers or even a road. He covered only two miles an hour.
\nAt Errol, New Hampshire came the great test. How would he get through the
\nDixville Notch? But luck was with him. At Errol four men agreed to help Poor
\nget over the height of land. At the entrance to the Notch, with temperature
\n1-250
\n18 degrees below zero, Poor encountered terrific gusts of wind. He later related
\nthat all he could see was “perpendicular mountains of snow”. With snaillike
\npace, a few feet at a time, Poor and his helpers finally got through the
\nNotch.
\nOn the fourth day out of Portland Poor reached Colebrook and went on at
\nonce over a road now broken out to Sherbrooke, Quebec. Then he drove all day
\nand all night to reach Montreal on Monday mo~ning, for Poor had learned that,
\nat ten o’clock on that morning of February 10, the Montreal Board of Trade
\nwould meet for a final decision on the Boston proposal.
\nArriving on time, but with nothing to spare, Poor presented strong arguments:
\nthe superiority of Portland Harbor; that Portland was 100 miles nearer
\nto Montreal than was Boston; that the route was easier.
\nWhile the Montreal Board still deliberated, unexpected assistance came
\nto Poor. William pitt Preble, determined as was Poor to get the road for
\nPortland, had started out only a day behind Poor, waiting only for the storm
\nto subside. In fact he had taken good advantage of Poor’s trail. Now here he
\nwas, before the Montreal Board, to support Poor’s case. Preble had brought
\nwith him a handsome charter, with its great red seal and its beautiful script,
\nfor the Atlantic and St. Lawrence Railroad, granted by the Maine Legislature
\nonly a few days before.
\nThe vote went for Portland. Ground was broken on July 4, 1846, but at the
\nend of two years only 50 miles of track had been laid in Maine, and only 30
\nmiles in Canada. Early in July, 1851, five years after breaking ground, the
\nroad entered New Hampshire, not through the Dixville Notch, but by way of Gilead
\nand Shelburne. Late in 1852 it crossed the Connecticut River at North
\nStratford and reached the border early in 1853.
\nIn July of that year the entire 292 miles were complete and the line was
\nleased to a new company, the Grand Trunk Railway of Canada, on a 999 year
\n1-251
\ncontract, on which the new company agreed to pay all outstanding bills and
\na six per cent dividend on the common stock. Nearly a hundred years afterward,
\nin .1946, Alvin Harlow wrote in his “Steelways of New England”: “The
\nAtlantic and St. La~ence Railway still has a corporate existence. Though
\nmost of the stock is held in England, some of it is still owned by Maine
\nresidents who receive that comfortable six per cent every year.”
\nNow Poor had on foot a much vaster scheme~The European and North American
\nRailroad. This was to extend from Portland across Maine through New
\nBrunswick to the farthest point in Nova Scotia. From there steamers would
\nrun to Galway, Ireland in five days. From Galway special trains would speed
\nacross Ireland to Dublin, then fast steamers would run to Holyhead, England,
\nand a final, fast rail jump would land the traveler in London in record time.
\nEven while working on his big. scheme, Poor was active in promoting other
\n\/
\nrailroads: the York and Cumberland, the Portland and Rochester, the Belfast
\nand Moosehead Lake, the Bangor and piscataquis. In 1870 he got a charter for
\na road with a prodigious name: the Portland, Rutland, Oswego and Chicago, and
\nwas working hard at it the day before he died.
\nJohn Poor was a railroad fanatic, but unlike many fanatics, he made some
\nof his dreams come true. Maine, very early in its history as a state, secured
\nvaluable ties of communication with the rest of the nation. And that accomplishment
\nwas made possible because neither blizzards nor Boston financiers
\ncould lick a man from Andover, Maine, a man named John Alfred Poor.
\n*****
\nDid you ever hear the story of the Loud’s Island duck? Well, Loud’s Island
\nis a mighty interesting place where, according to legend at least, anything
\ncould happen. That little island, scarcely a l.ong–stone’s throw off
\nshore from the little village of Round Pond on Route 32 between Waldoboro and
\nNew Harbor, was for many years not even in the United States. Through an un-
\n1-252
\nexplained error, it was left off the map when the U. S. Geological Survey
\ncharted the region. Hence from soon after the Civil War until 1905 the four
\nor five score inhabitants of the island refused to pay taxes to any government.
\nThey weren’t on the map, therefore they didn’t exist.
\nBut more about the history of Loud’s Island at another time. Just now we
\nare concerned wi ththe Loud’s Island duck. The oldest residents of the island
\nsay they had to doubt the Bible story about the whale swallowing Jonah, seeing
\nas how a whale’s throat ain’t built for any such job, and anyway how could
\na man get air to breathe inside a whale’S innards? But their experience with
\nthe duck .made them wonder whether Jonah might not have encountered a peculiar
\nkind of whale. Leastwise, Egbert was a peculiar kind of duck.
\nHe was a tame duck somebody first saw one fall when the hunting season
\nwas on. He came down near a house and the women folks, seeing\u00b7 he had a busted
\nwing, tended him till he was all right. They fussed over him and babied him so
\nmuch that, when he got well, Egbert wouldn’t leave. But instead of getting
\nsoft and easy-going, the longer he stayed, the meaner and uglier he was. He’d
\nchase every cat that came in sight, and there wasn’t a dog in the neighborhood
\nthat didn’t give him a wide berth. But his big, pet hate was the gulls. They
\nweren’t picking up any food in his harbor, not if Egbert knew it.
\nWell, Egbert was monarch of all he surveyed until the day he met up with
\nthe goose fish. Didn’t ever see one, you say? Well, sir, they’re a good
\nsized fish, thirty or forty pound, with little green eyes and looking something
\nlike an overgrown sculpin. Their mouth runs two-thirds the way to their tail,
\nwith little sharp teeth along the jaws, and they got about the littlest gullet
\nthat don’t fit that kind of mouth at all. Well, one day the tide was real low
\nand Egbert was paddling around sort of bossing things in general, when all of
\na sudden he give a flutter and a squawk, and then he just wasn’t there at all.
\nSomething had dragged him clear underwater.
\n1-253
\nSomebody grabbed a fish spear and ran down the wharf. Sure enough,
\nlying quiet on the bottom just at the end of the wharf was one of them big,
\nlazy goose fish. The water was clear and the fellow with the spear could
\nget good, straight aim. He eased the spear down slow then let mister fish
\nhave it, close to the tail. He figured Egbert was aboard, and he didn’t want
\nto drive the spear through him.
\nWell, they dragged that fish ashore and they could see a big lump in him
\nsquirming and heaving, so they cut him open mighty careful. Yes sir, there
\nwas Egbert, beat up some and looking llke a gnat in a rain barrel. But he
\nwas alive and gave the fellow that released him a good healthy nip to prove it.
\nThey wiped Egbert off and laid him out in the sun to get back his strength.
\nHe lay there for a while, muttering and cussing under his breath, now and again
\nstretching and shaking himself. pretty soon he stood up and took a quick
\nswipe at a kitten that had come too close. But he wasn’t yet fully recovered.
\nIt was a good six weeks before he risked swimming again, and then he stuck
\nmighty close to shore.
\nThe story sayeth not whether they changed Egbert’s name to Jonah.
\n*****
\nIt is not often that our quiet little city of Waterville gets attention
\nfrom the foreign press, but that is just what happened last week. Furor broke
\nout in London — or at least a tempest in a teapot — over the speech delivered
\nhere in waterville on October 7 by Mr. G. C. Cheliotti, managing director
\nof General Electric Limited. Mr. Cheliotti was the principal guest
\nspeaker at the Business Management Institute conducted at Colby College.
\nTo us who heard him, Mr. Cheliotti seemed unusually fair, going out of
\nhis way to speak kindly of the parties sure to contend against each other for
\npower in the coming general elections in England. In fact, before I had heard
\nof the furor in London, I had intended to mention Mr. Cheliotti on this pro-
\n1-254
\ngram, as a fine example of the well known British sense of fair play. And I
\nstill insist that he was such an example.
\nBut evidently the British do not think so. Same dozen irate letters have
\nreached the college and Waterville citizens. I have personally received one
\nsuch letter denouncing Mr. Cheliotti as a traitor to England and especially
\nto the BritiSh workers.
\nWhat happened? It seems that the London papers seized on certain statements
\nin Mr. Cheliotti’s speech and played them up with bitter exaggeration.
\nI understand that the Old Thunderer itself, the staid old London Times, played
\nup the speech with emphasis and with a stinging editorial. I have personally
\nseen a clipping from Lord Beaverbrook’s paper, the London Express, with a
\nfour-column headline. The burden of the British complaint is that Mr. Cheliotti
\nsaid the highly praised output of the British worker in war-time was much
\noverrated, that one trouble with the British people is their feeling of selfpity,
\nand that the seeds of the present economic distress lay deep in British
\npsychological failure to change stubbornly conservative ways after the first
\nWorld War, and was not to be blamed on the Labour Party.
\nEvidently Mr. Cheliotti is in for a hot time when he gets home. Meanwhile
\na lot of Englishmen who never before heard of Waterville, Maine now
\nknow there is such a place.
\n-1-255
\nLITTLE TALKS ON COMMON THINGS\u00b7
\n39th Broadcast October 23, 1949
\nLittle troubles — troubles about common things, not world problems -are
\nworrying most of the people of the world. Devaluation of the currency,
\nbalancing of exports and imports, management of foreign loans and gifts, are
\nquestions over the heads of the vast majority of the world’s population.
\nA survey made by one of our American economic organizations shows that
\npeople in foreign lands are talking and worrying about just the same sort of
\nthings that we ourselves talk and worry about: homes and jobs, family budgets,
\nthe high prices. In London, if people talk at all about devaluation of the
\npound, it is only in terms of its effect on prices — prices of the necessities
\nthey must have to keep alive. If the British worker ever mentions American
\naid, his ideas about it are very fuzzy, for he usually thinks of it as
\na loan that must some day be repaid with interest, whereas three-fourths of
\nit is outright gift. But anyway the whole business is too complicated for the
\naverage Englishman. He is sufficiently occupied with his personal anxieties. .
\nHow can he make both ends meet on an average industrial wage equivalent to $28
\na week? Even before the devaluation of the pound, food prices had risen since
\nlast April so as to increase a week’s food cost as much as a dollar for a
\nfamily of four. As winter approaches, there is increasing worry about housing
\nand fuel.
\nFrenchmen this autumn are moody and short-tempered. As they see the
\nthrong of tourists depart, what the French people worry about is not the latest
\nworld crisis, but the sudden renewed rise of food prices and the wretched
\nweather. The most serious drought since 1921 has crippled electric power, reduced
\nthe crops, and brought back the hated black market.
\n1-256
\nIn Western Germany, in spite of the news reports about political interest
\nand party strife, the average citizen has just one concern: how to get cash
\nfor the immediate wants of life. Strangely enough, this is a new problem for
\nGermans in the American and British zones. Only a year ago they had plenty
\nof cash, but nothing to buy. Now the shops are full of food and clothing, but
\nthe prices are out of the average earner’s reach. The people seem not all
\nthat grateful for American aid. We aren’t doing it to help them, they say, but
\njust to ward off Communism. And anyway, they insist, what difference does it
\nmake, if they can’t get the work to earn the money to buy shoes and bread?
\nIn Italy the people are so disinterested in politics that the political
\nparties are driven to sponsoring local fairs and sporting events to get a
\ncrowd. Politics is nothing compared with the problem of finding a way to make
\na living in a country where two million are without work and where no one sees
\nany possibility of new jobs even keeping up with the birth rate.
\nIn Japan the idea before the war was that an employed Japanese was sure
\nof a job for life. The Japanese worker now has a new problem — job security
\nand he is much more concerned about it than about American occupation,democratic
\ngovernment, or the status of the Emperor. In South America also people
\nare much too absorbed in making a living to worry about the state of the world.
\nIn Buenos Aires one hears little talk about anything except the high prices
\nand the shortage of apartments.
\nIn short, go the world around and you will probably find that everywhere
\nself-preservation is the first law of nature. The basic, animal needs come first
\nfor people everywhere.
\nGreat changes in history do not come about by great mass movements of
\nhumanity. They occur because a few people — few, but tremendously important
\ntake the long, not the short, view, are concerned not merely with bread and
\nbutter, but with what Whitehead called “the adventure of ideas”. It is not
\n1-257
\nmerely a spiritual leader, but a very wise man, who said: “Man does not live
\nby bread alone.”
\n*****
\nThat long serial poem signed Sagittarius, printed in a Maine newspaper
\nin the 1890’s was not the only attempt to put the Wiscasset and Albion narrow
\nguage railroad into verse. From another old scrapbook in the possession of
\nMr. Charles Crosby comes a poem, not about controversy over the road’s western
\nterminus, but a kind of idyllic ode, singing the praises of the little,
\ntwo-foot line. Let me read you just a part of it:
\n“On steamer wharf, by the calm, smooth bay,
\nWe jump on board our new railway;
\nUp Sheepscot Valley away we go,
\nBy rocky ways where the waters flow,
\nSuch varied scenes oft turned the lyre
\nOf Walter Scott with a poet’s fire.
\nBy ancient church on the distant hill,
\nThrough Alna cut, o’er the smiling rill,
\nAnd fair Whitefield, ‘mong daisies wild,
\nCharming the eye of woman or child.
\nAt Coopers Mills may we tarry long,
\nFor maidens fair inspire our song.
\nOn Windsor soil, by the shady groves,
\nAnd cooling founts where the squirrel roves,
\nOur fiery horse with a smoky tail
\nHolds back his way on the iron rail;
\nWhere swelling notes of the Crosby band
\nRoll o’er the track on pigeon Plains,
\nFor next we stop where Homer reigns,
\n1-258
\nA lonesome spot in the wilds of Maine,
\nBut booming now with flour and grain.
\nNow China Lake lies glassed below,
\nAs down the grade we coasting go;
\nSorrow and care will not hover o’er
\nThat pure, white church on the pebbly shore.
\nBy Lovejoy Pond with its cooling breeze,
\nWhere balm is found mid evergreen trees,
\nOUr puffing steed runs o’er the rail
\nBy Crosby’s house in the pleasant vale.
\nThe waving corn on Albion hills,
\nThe lowing herd by cooling rills,
\nThe leafy trees and the thorny thistle
\nAll hear the sound of the Crosby whistle.”
\n*****
\nThe economic prophets tell us that one of the sure signs of business depression
\nis a decrease in the marriage rate. They point out that, at the
\nbottom of the big depression in 1932, the number of marriages in the United
\nStates failed to reach a million for the first time in twenty years.
\nWhichever is the cause and whichever is the effect, the relationship between
\nthe two phenomena is evident. Fewer marriages mean reduced demand for
\nwedding presents, household furnishings, and other goods and services accompanying
\nthe formation of new families.
\nRecent statistics seem to belie the impression one gets by glancing at
\nthe society pages of the newspapers. Those pages give us the idea that marriages
\nare now more prevalent than ever. But such is really not the case.
\nThe war boom made 1946 a record high year for American marriage, the
\nnumber then reaching 2,291,000. In 1948 it had dropped to 1,992,000 and the
\n1-259
\nstatistical prediction for 1949 is 1,600,000.
\nReduced number of marriages means a reduced birth rate, and that is something
\nwhich lowers the demand for industry’s products for many years to come.
\nWhat about the effect on our schools? Educators have rightly pointed out that
\nthe rising war-time and immediate post-war birth rate has even now placed a
\nheavy burden on already overcrowded schools. The peak will be reachea in 1952
\nor 1953, when those 1946 babies enter the schools. But after that, in the
\nelementary schools (the grades below high school) the enrollment will steadily
\ndecrease until about 1970, when the 1946 babies are likely to increase the
\nmarriage rate and produce a new crop of potential school enrollment.
\n*****
\nIn all the heated talk about socialized medicine it seems to me one important
\npoint is being overlooked. That is the time-honored, intimate relation
\nbetween physician and patient. Even the clustering of doctors in the
\ncities at the expense of the rural districts and even the intense medical
\nspecialization of our day, have not erased the cherished relation between
\nthe doctor and the person who comes under his care. The family doctor is still
\nthe family’s friend, advising on all sorts of non-medical problems. The relationship
\nis one based on confidence and trust in a person, not a system. It
\nis something the proposed assembly-line, impersonal process of socialized
\nmedicine can never replace.
\n*****
\nWhen the noted Hindu scholar, Dr. Sarkar, was in Waterville recently, he
\nmade a significant statement: “While it is true that European peoples from
\nEngland to Greece are grateful for American aid, that aid has made them hate
\nAmericans. In every European nation today Americans are really hated.”
\nDr. Sarkar went on to explain that we Americans exercise noticeable lack
\nof tact and diplomacy in our dealings with foreign peoples. We talk about the
\n1-260
\nMarshall plan as charity and a dole for other nations instead of a means to
\nassure an outlet for American goods. However grateful an object of charity
\nmay be, he deeply resents being such an object, and not infrequently he comes
\nactually to hate the giver.
\nEven in England the common man in the street resents American aid, and
\nthe resentment is making him blind to his real troubles. His nation is far
\nfrom self-sufficient. She must import a third of her food, and all of her oil
\nand cotton. To pay for the imports she must export heavily_ But she cannot
\ndo that unless she can produce goods at a cost that will meet the competition
\nof world markets. She is finding that she cannot meet that competition if,
\nto the normal costs of production, she must add an ever-rising cost of “cradle
\nto the grave security”. Foreign buyers will not pay higher prices for English
\ngoods than they have to pay for the same goods in other countries, even to
\nmake a socialist dream come true in England.
\nThe English common man is seeing the cost of government become outright
\nprohibitive. Taxes in 1949 take over 40 per cent of total income. That the
\ncost of government must be carried by production and must be covered in the
\nselling price of goods is a simple economic reality. How then can British
\ngoods possibly meet foreign competition?
\nLife in the socialist manner simply costs more than England can afford to
\npay. If the British people want a socialist type of government, that is their
\nbusiness, but they have no right to ask people of a non-socialist country to
\npay for it.
\nDo you recall the statement once attributed to Lenin: “The united States
\nwill spend itself out of existence~? Well, it is interesting to note that
\nEuropean nations dependent upon us for aid are afraid of just that happening.
\nAn American professor, who spent last summer in Europe, writes:
\n“In every country that I visited informed and thoughtful persons repeat-
\n1-261
\nedly said that the worst catastrophe that could happen to the world would be
\na serious depression in the United States. Those people know that a contributing
\nfactor to such a depression would be the renewal of deficit spending by
\nour government. Rather than have that happen, those Europeans would prefer
\nto see aid to their own countries scaled down.”
\n1..,262
\nLITTLE TALKS ON COMMON THINGS
\n40th Broadcast October 30, 1949
\nYou often hear the remark, “What complicated lives we lead; how simply
\nour grandfathers lived”. Our technological age of electricity and petroleum,
\nof aviation and television, has brought us many complications, but the truth
\nis it has brought us a lot of simplicity as well.
\nIn grandmother’s day boiling water for the morning coffee was a complicated
\nprocess. Months before, grandfather had sawed and split the four-foot
\nsticks of cord wood; and had cut some of it up fine into kindling. On one of
\nthose winter mornings when ’twas so cold even grandpa’s cuss words would
\nfreeze in the air, he’d crawl out of bed down into the icy kitchen, lift the
\ncovers off the old cast iron cook stove, stuff in a little wad of paper and
\ncarefully cross-lay the sticks of kindling. Then, making sure the dampers
\nwere open, he would take off the shelf something few persons under forty years
\nof age have ever seen a Portland Star match. They came in attached sections
\ncalled cards — those smelly, old sulphur matches. When you struck one, a
\nburst of nauseating smoke preceded the blaze, and often you had to strike
\nseveral before you got any blaze at all. Those matches came six cards wrapped
\nin tissue paper, and twelve of those wrappers in a package, and the whole
\npackage cost eight cents. At least, that was the price in our old store in
\nBridgton. A mighty lot of matches for eight cents; but, believe me, grandfather
\nneeded a lot of them when about three out of four wouldn’t wo;-k.
\nPlease pardon the digression about matches, but I tell you grandfather
\nwould appreciate it, because it might have taken him that long to get one of
\nthose old Portland Stars to light. Well, when he did get it going, he touched
\nit to the paper, and soon the pleasant sound of a roaring wood fire filled the
\n1-263
\nroom. He didn’t immediately go out to the pump, thirty or forty feet from
\nthe back door, to get a pail of water. No one in those days was so foolish as
\nto leave no water in the house overnight. Such forgetfulness would be disastrous,
\nbecause the pump was sure to be frozen solid on such a morning. So
\ngrandpa just put the already filled tea-kettle on one of the front covers of
\nthe stove. By this time grandmother was in the kitchen. Indeed in some families
\nit had been she rather than grandfather who had built the fire, because
\nhe had early chores to do in the barn. Even if they lived in the village,
\nrather than on a farm, they usually had a horse and a cow.
\nNow it took time for those stove covers to heat up; it took even longer
\nfor the cold water in that tea-kettle to come to a boil. But, before that moment
\narrived, grandma had poured some of the heating water into the old,
\nblackened coffee pot. Then she put in generous spoonfuls of ground coffee,
\nperhaps ground in her own hand mill, but more probably in the big, two-wheeled
\nhand mill at the store. If they splurged a bit, that coffee was prime mocha
\nand java at 35 cents a pound. If they were comfortably financed, but thrifty,
\nit was a cheaper blend, like the yellow-canned Excelsior brand at 25 cents;
\nand if they had to economize sharply it was the rank old Rio (grandfather
\ncalled it Rio) at 18 to 20 cents a pound.
\nFinally when the coffee had boiled, grandmother poured it out into grandfather’s
\nbig mustache cup, using a strainer over the spout, to hold back the
\ngrounds. But same of those grounds always collected in the cup, and a few of
\nthem found their way into grandfather’s gullet.
\nHow different is grandaughter’ s way of making the morning coffee. A
\nturn of the faucet gives instantaneous hot water; a turn of the switch gives
\nimmediate heat in the chosen unit of the electric range; the hot water put
\ninto percolator or dripolator comes to a boil in a few seconds, seeps through
\ncoffee ground finer than the old hand mill could ever get it, and before
\n1-264
\ngrandson even has time to apply lotion to his electrically razored face, the
\ncoffee is ready to drink. Perhaps for grandaughter it has been even more simple
\nthan that; she may have merely plugged in an electric percolator in which
\nground coffee and water has been prepared the night before. Before grandpa
\nand grandma sat down to breakfast, someone of the family always braved the
\nbitter cold to go out to the pump. Taking the tea-kettle or a dish of boiling
\nwater from it, that person primed the pump, and brought a big pail of fresh
\nwater into the house. If it was Monday, and grandma was going to do the weekly
\nwashing, that trip from kitchen to pump had to be repeated many times.
\nFaucets and switches, thermostats and hundreds of other automatic devices
\nmake life pretty simple for us, compared with grandfather’s day, now don’t they?
\nThe truth, of course, is that life is always both simple and complex, simple
\nin some ways, complex in others.
\nWhat many of us fail to appreciate is the complicated, painstaking, often
\ndisappointing hours, days and years of thought, experiment and effort that have
\nmade possible some of the simple things we take for granted. If you want to
\nknow something about the time, money and brains that went into years of experiment
\nto bring two very common modern things, just read the story of celophane
\nand the story of nylon in this week’s issue of the Saturday Evening Post.
\nYou will find it in the fourth installment of a series on the fabulous DuPont
\nfamily.
\nOne item in the nylon story I cannot refrain from repeating. The wife of
\na DuPont executive wore the same pair of nylons daily for fifteen months, subjecting
\nthem to nightly washing, in order to find out how long’ they would wear
\nwi thout run or tear. The DuPonts say today’ s stockings won’t stand any such
\ntest, not because the material isn’t good, but because most women demand sheer
\nhosiery rather than service weight.
\n*****
\n1-265
\nLast week while in New York attending meetings of the College Entrance
\nExamination Board and the American Council on Education, it was my privilege
\nto take in the evening sessions of the famous Herald-Tribune Forum. For eighteen
\nyears, under the dynamic leadership of Mrs. Ogden Reed, widow of the
\nTribune’s most famous editor since Horace Greeley, that Forum has become a
\ngreat annual event of national and international importance. It was my good
\nfortune to attend it first in 1946, the year when the United Nations first
\nmet in New York, giving Mrs. Reed an opportunity to gather distinguished
\nspeakers from allover the world. We then heard Admiral Blandy, Vanever Bush,
\nand Barney Baruch on the problem of control of atomic energy. We listened to
\nthe impassioned words of that later tragic leader of Czechoslovakia, Jan Masaryk.
\nWe heard the venerable General Smith of South Africa, the young foreign
\nminister of Austria, the leader of the Labor Party in France, and were thrilled
\nby Walter Lippman’s memorable address on One World of Diversity.
\nThis year the Forum was devoted to the subject “What Kind of Government
\nAhead? The Responsibility of Every Citizen.” The scene of the Forum is one
\nof the most fashionable spots in New York — the ballroom of the Waldorf-Astoria
\nHotel. On the opening evening Mrs. Reed announced that people were
\npresent from every state in the union, from Alaska, Puerto Rico, Hawaii, Canada,
\nMexico and from 19 countries overseas. On one evening Mrs. Marriner and
\nI sat next to people from Illinois and Montana; on the next evening our seat
\nneighbors came from Georgia.
\nThe Forum consists of four sessions, three of which we attended. The
\nfirst was started by General Eisenhower on “The Individual’s Responsibility
\nfor Government”, followed by Professor Lindsay Rogers of Columbia University,
\nauthor of many books on American government and politics. The rest of the
\nevening was devoted to the Democratic party — its program and its claims
\nfor the voters’ support.
\n1-266
\nTheir opening speaker was senator Humphrey of Minnesota, the brilliant
\nyoung statesman who, more than any other man, had been responsible for the
\ncivil rights plank in the platform voted at the Philadelphia convention -the
\nplank which drove Dixiecrats into open revolt. The Dixiecrats got in
\ntheir word through Representative Howard Smith of Virginia, who made me think
\nI was listening to the Ku Klux Klan itself. He waved the old flag of white
\nsupremacy and states rights with vigor. Less bitter and more suave were the
\nwords of Franklin Roosevelt Jr., reminding one, both in personal appearance
\nand in speech, of his distinguished father.
\nTwo U. S. Senators have served as presidents of universities. Senator
\nFullbright, a Rhodes scholar, was once president of the University of Arkansas.
\nSenator Frank Graham has long been the distinguished head of the University of
\nNorth Carolina. Liberal and progressive,Graham is no Dixiecrat, by whom he is
\nbitterly denounced for his views on freedom of speech and on race relations.
\nHis calm, dignified address at the Forum was in pleasing contrast to the prejudiced
\ntirade of Representative Howard Smith.
\nFormer Governor of New York, Herbert Lehman, summed up the case for the
\nparty in what he called “A Blueprint for Democracy”, but the outstanding speech
\nof the evening was made by Governor Adlai Stevenson of Illinois, the man who
\nhas won deserved fame for putting honesty and efficiency into that one of our
\nstate governments which had perhaps the worst reputation of all 48. You felt,
\nas you listened to this man, that here was a politician whose commendable
\ndeeds backed up his impressive words.
\nAt the second session the Republicans had their turn. If it was a governor
\nwho made a hit for the Democrats, it was a senator who gave the best presentation
\nof the Republican case — Senator Cabot Lodge of Massachusetts. Widely
\nknown as the man who resigned his senate seat to become a front-line combat
\nofficer in World War II, he was again elected to the senate by a large majority
\n1-267
\nin a Democratic year. If the Republican party follows Lodge, it will follow
\nhim into a forward-looking, progressive program, not back into the exploitation
\nand the isolationism of the not so good old days, to which benighted
\nleaders like Col. McCormick would have us return.
\nI was proud of our own Senator Margaret Chase Smith, the only woman
\nspeaker at the Forum I s Republican session. After Senator Kem of Missouri had
\nlambasted the New Deal and the Fair Deal as entirely bad, and had insisted
\nthat the federal government should do nothing at all on health, education and
\nhousing~ and after Senator Morse advised measures that seemed no different
\nfrom the Democratic program than tweedledee seems different from tweedledumi
\nthen .Mrs. ~~mi:th showed i:he wisdom of a middle of the road position between
\nthose two extremes. She made it clear that social welfare legislation had begun
\nlong before the time of FDR, but that what has happened during the past
\n17 years is more than a mere expansion of welfare benefits. It is, in Mrs.
\nSmith I s opinion, a dangerous change in fundamental philosophy. Her view is
\nthat benefits should be based on proven need, not on the mere fact of existence.
\nShe believes that these government aids are not rights belonging to
\nevery American just because he lives in the united States, but are rights acquired
\nby misfortunes over which the individual has no control. If Mrs. Smith
\nhad her way, she would put’some toughness into the notoriously loose regulation
\nof certain government aids and subsidies.
\n1-268
\nLITTLE TALKS ON COMMON THINGS
\n41st Broadcast November 6, 1949
\nAmong the common things that have now all but disappeared is the big
\nsnow roller, so commonly seen on Maine winter roads half a century ago. A
\nWaterville man who travels constantly over the state in all seasons of the
\nyear assures me that nowhere in Maine is the snow roller still in use. All
\nroads are now plowed to give traction to motor vehicles.
\nWas it mere whimsical memory that brought snow rollers to mind this week?
\nNot at all. I chanced to look at some Grandma Moses Christmas cards, and on
\none of them appeared a picture of an old-time snow roller. It brought back
\nfond memories. My earliest recollection of the machine dates back to primary
\nschool days, for the first school that I attended was next door to the
\ntown hall, behind Which were sheds which housed the town’s road equipment.
\nOUtside those sheds, winter and summer, stood a big snow roller, and all of
\nus kids at that primary school made use of it at every recess. We climbed
\nto its top; we pretended to drive the four big horses that pulled it When
\nit went out on its mission; we played all sorts of games around its huge
\nside; and occasionally one of us fell off with more howls than bruises. “Keep
\naway from the snow roller or you’ll get killed”, was many a mother’s warning.
\nBut none of us ever did keep away, and none of us were seriously hurt.
\nPerhaps some of our younger listeners don’t know what a snow roller
\nlooked like. It consisted of two huge drums or barrels, six to eight feet
\nin diameter, to which a framework was fastened, so that When horses , attached
\nto the framework, pulled it along, the two big barrels, placed end to end,
\nrolled along over the top of the snow. The whole structure was weighted to
\nmake the rollers press the snow down as solid as possible. The object was
\n1-269
\nnot to get the snow out of the road, as we must do today, so that wheeled
\nmotor vehicles can travel. The obje~t was rather to keep the snow in the
\nroad, but pressed down so hard that it would make easy traction for the runners
\nof sleighs and sleds.
\nIn a winter when the snowfall was unusually heavy, the packed snow in
\nthe middle of the road would be two or three feet deep, while the loose snow
\nbeside the road might be four or five feet. It was not an uncommon experience
\nwhen one passed another team, to have the right runner of his own sleigh go
\noff the rolled part of the road, sink deep into the loose snow, while the
\nleft runner stayed supported by the hard packed road. It took some smart balancing
\nto prevent a spill.
\nI recall one occasion when I was driving a spirited horse from Bridgton
\nto Harrison. A mile west of Harrison Village, on what is known as Brickyard
\nHill, I had to turn out to pass another team. The sudden tilting of the sleigh
\nscared the horse, and she bolted. I landed in a drift head first, the sleigh
\nhit a stump, the horse broke away from the sleigh and kept running until she
\npulled up in front of a livery stable door in the village. No one was hurt,
\nbut the sleigh had to undergo major repairs.
\nSometimes a single snowstorm was so heavy that four horses could not
\npull the roller. Then six and even eight horses were used. After a big storm
\nit was a grand sight to see those eight big work horses pull the roller down
\nMain Street over the Tannery Bridge and down Depot Street to the narrow guage
\nrailroad station. Today is the day of the big motor side plows, the giant
\nrotary plows, and the mechanical snow loaders. Useful articles of modern progress
\nthey are, but none of them has quite the romantic touch of the old-time
\nsnow rollers which Grandma Moses has thoughtfully remembered on a Christmas
\ncard.
\n*****
\n1-270
\nMaine is getting free advertising just now in the New York subways. Last
\nweek on the Seventh Avenue line I saw the following sign: “Election Day. Tuesday
\nafter the first Monday in November, fixed since 1845 when Congress designated
\nit for choice of Presidential Electors. Date observed in every state
\nexcept Maine.”
\nThere is no logical, sensible reason Why we should be out of step with the
\nrest of the country in respect to our state elections. To hear certain politicians
\ntalk, you would think there was something, not only historic, but eternally
\nsacred about our September election. It has always been~ therefore it
\nmust always be. Every argument in favor of its continuance has long ago been
\nexploded in every other state. The cold figures show that it has never been a
\nbarometer to predict the November election in a presidential year. In 1936,
\nfor instance, the old slogan was corrected to read, “As Maine goes, so goes
\nVermont.”
\nBut logic and reason have very little to do with decisions on political
\nprocedure. I doubt very much whether any early change will be made in the
\ndate of state elections in Maine. We shall keep right on believing our way
\nis the best way and that it is the other 47 states which are out of step.
\n*****
\nListeners to these programs are well aware that I do not favor socialized
\nmedicine. I was naturally pleased, therefore, to hear opposition also
\nexpressed at the Herald-Tribune Forum by a veteran of World War II who has
\nthe respect and admiration of millions of Americans, for literally millions
\nhave seen his memorable performance on the movie screen. I refer to Harold
\nRussell, the armless veteran, who won the Academy.Award for his depiction of
\nthe disabled veteran in “The Best Years of our Lives”.
\nMr. Russell was emphatic in his opposition to the kind of medical service
\nwith which our British cousins seem to be getting quite fed up. Deeply
\n1-271
\nappreciative of what the government has done for him as one who suffered severe
\nloss in the war, Mr. Russell nevertheless has shown the world, with unusual
\ncourage and persistence, that even a person with most serious handicaps
\ncan still do much for himself.
\nMr. Russell said: “Private enterprise in the medical profession has not
\nfailed the American people. On the contrary, the strides it has made are the
\nenvy of the world. If there are not enough doctors or hospitals or nurses,
\nthe way to cure those conditions is not to force our people into a compulsory
\nplan of health insurance. There are better, more truly American ways for the
\nfederal government to help. Scholarships for medical education, subsidies to
\nhospitals, even support of voluntary health insurance are preferable to the
\nregimentation of government medicine.”
\nTonight at eight o’clock in the Women’s Union of Colby College Waterville
\ncitizens, as well as the medical profession itself, have an opportunity to hear
\nfirst-hand information about the workings of socialized medicine in England. A
\nphysician of that country, Dr. Ralph Campbell, will state the case against
\ngovernment-controlled medicine from his personal experience with it.
\n*****
\nLast week I told you a little about the first two sessions of the HeraldTribune
\nForum, those devoted respectively to the claims of the Democratic and
\nRepublican parties for voters’ support. One thing was made abundantly clear by
\nthose discussions. The young men and women in both parties have something to
\nsay and they must be heard. If either party fails to listen to the voice of
\nits younger element, it will pay a bitter price. It was obvious that the 3,000
\npeople in the Waldorf ballroom were much more responsive to the words of Cabot
\nLodge and Franklin Roosevelt Jr. than to those of Senator Kem and Representative
\nHoward Smith.
\nThe voice of Col. McCormick, summoning us back to an isolated America, is
\n1-272
\na voice crying in a very deaf wilderness today. The great army of voters in
\nboth major parties want a forward, not a backward, look. As indicated by the
\nForum’s title, they want to know “What Kind of Government Ahead?”, not “What
\nKind of Government Behind?”
\nFrankly it was somewhat refreshing when the final session of the Forum
\nturned away from party politics into the great non-partisan issues involved
\nin the Interdependence of World Problems. The outstanding speaker was a
\nwoman, Barbara Ward, assistant editor of the Economist of London, who spoke
\non Partnership for Survival. Her depth of understanding, her clarity of expression,
\nand her charming manner will make us long remember that this young
\nwoman had something to say and said it very well.
\nAnother woman speaker ran Miss Ward a close second — Dorothy Fosdick,
\ndaughter of the great preacher Harry Emerson Fosdick, who gave the commence.ment
\naddress at Colby College last June. Miss Fosdick, who spent many delightful
\nsummers on Mouse Island at the entrance to Boothbay Harbor, was a teacher
\nof political science at Smith College until, as she told the Forum, she decided
\nto get first-hand experience with government. She is now the only woman
\nmember of the policy Planning staff of our Department of State.
\nWe were eager to hear Mme. Pandit, the distinguished sister of Prime
\nMinister Nehru of India, because she is to visit Waterville this winter, when
\nshe speaks at Colby College on the Averill Lecture series. The high nobility
\nof expression and the profound sincerity of this woman, who is Indian Ambassador
\nto the united States, is revealed in words like the following from her
\nForum speech:
\n“Our Indian culture is based on the largest degree of tolerance for the
\nways and views of others; in our long history we have never been tempted to
\nimpose uniform ideologies or imperative precepts on either our own people or
\nother peoples of the world. More than a thousand years ago a great Indian
\n1-273
\nking abjured violence as an instrument of government, and during the last
\nthree decades we have had occasion to learn again the enormous efficacy of
\nnon-vio1ent methods on a mass scale. A devotion to truth presupposes a respect
\nfor what the other man sincerely regards as his truth, and a capacity to suffer
\nfor what you consider to be your own. truth.”
\nAs one listened to those.w0rds,he cou1d understand why this woman would
\nthree times go to prison in defense of her ideas.
\nOther speakers at that final session made their impressions: ~ohn Sherman
\nCooper, our new delegate to the united Nations; David OWen, the young
\nBritish assistant secretary general of the united Nations; Lucius Clay, hero
\nof the Berlin Air-lift; the brilliant young son of Count Sforza of Italy, who
\ntold us about the Council of Europe, that new organization that is patiently
\nworking toward a federation of the European states; and Louis Johnson, the
\nstormy petrel who is our Secretary of Defense.
\nGood as these speakers were, it was the women who made the most lasting
\nimpressions: Barbara Ward of England, Dorothy Fosdick of the United States,
\nand Mme. Pandit of India. perhaps, if the past quarter century has been the
\nage of the forgotten man, the next quarter century will be the age of the
\nrecognized woman.
\n1-274
\nLITTLE TALKS ON COMMON THINGS
\n42nd Broadcast November 13, 1949
\nI am not the only person interested in old-time things. There are others
\nwho can speak and write about them far better than I. One such person is Miss
\nFlorence Nelson of Livermore, Maine, whose new book I am pleased to commend to
\nyour attention. Under the imprint of the Falmouth Press in Portland, Miss
\nNelson has written a volume which she entitles “Lest We Forget”. That trite,
\nnostalgic title does not do the book justice, for its contents, though indeed
\nnostalgic, are anything but trite.
\nMiss Nelson is an accomplished writer, with a style that gives both
\nclarity and pungency to the scenes and incidents, the customs and objects,
\nthe anecdotes and sayings, which she brings to us from grandmother’s day_ Her
\npresent horne at Livermore is a Mecca for visiting artists, authors and teachers.
\nA former teacher of Latin, Miss Nelson has a background of sound classical
\neducation and wide travel from which to view in perspective the admittedly
\nnarrow scene of the old New England homestead of two generations ago.
\nShe is not writing from hearsay. From the broad perspective of a busy, erudite
\nand travelled life, Miss Nelson can now write about things of long ago,
\nII all of which she saw and part of which she was”.
\nWithin the first two pages of Miss Nelson’s book one encounters the Balm
\nof Gilead tree. What memories that revives! There was such a tree in my grandmother’s
\nyard at Bridgton. Among a lot of old snapshots is one of my brother,
\nthen five years old, standing with his little cart beside the huge trunk of
\nthat spreading tree. Under its shade the whole family, including all the inlaws,
\nused to gather on warm Sunday afternoons, after one of grandmother’s
\nenormous dinners.
\n1-275
\nWhat is the best proof that people lived on now abandoned spots where
\nnot even an old cellar-hole remains? Lilac bushes! It is the lilacs, says
\nMiss Nelson, that provide the best evidence of homes gone by.
\nOn this program I have previously referred to the amazement of mid-westerners
\nat what we Maine folk call a set of buildings. To be sure, the term
\nis now loosely used to denote all the near-by buildings on a place, including
\na barn across the road. But the phrase “set of buildings” originally referred
\nto house, sheds, and barn, connected in one long\u00b7line. The arrangement, admittedly
\ndangerous in case of fire, had the big advantage of permitting passage
\nfrom house to barn without going out-of-doors. An example of Miss Nelson’s
\ndelightful style is her witty and original simile taken from the old grammar
\nbooks. “A Maine set of buildings”, she writes, “is like a compound sentance,
\nwith the two principal clauses, barn and house, connected by the conjunction
\n‘and’ — the shed.”
\nI certainly recall that the parlor in old-time Maine homes was said to
\nbe reserved for weddings and funerals. I had forgotten what O. Henry would
\nhave called a third ingredient until Miss Nelson’s book reminded me. The parlor,
\nshe says, was reserved for weddings, funerals and the minister.
\nProbably that was true in most country homes, but not in the case of my
\nboyhood, because the one incident I best remember about a minister’s call
\nconcerned the combined living room – dining room, between the kitchen and the
\nparlor in our house, and it also concerned that brother who stood with his
\ncart under the Balm of Gilead tree. My paternal grandmother was a devout
\nMethodist who would never countenance a game of whist or even High Low Jack,
\nbut she was an inveterate player of solitaire. She knew she wasn’t supposed
\nto have playing cards in the house, but she probably rationalized that she
\nmust be allowed some liberties as a Methodist in a Universalist household.
\nOne day she was busy at her solitaire in the living room, with my bro-
\n1-276
\n.——‘-
\nther~ then four or five years old,playing on the floor. Suddenly my mother
\nrushed into the room saying, “Your minister’s coming up the street \u2022. I think
\nhe’s coming here. ‘.’ Hastily grandmother gathered up her cards,got out her
\nBible, and ordered brother to pick up his scattered blocks.
\nIn came the clergyman. Sober, religious conversation had scarcely begun
\nwhen my brother rushed up to grandmother, holding out a card in his hand.
\n“Here, grammy”, he said, “you forgot your ace of spades.”
\nMiss Nelson gives a description that would fit many an old-time Maine
\nparlor, certainly the one in my own boyhood home. Red ingrain carpet with a
\nrose pattern, partly covered with hooked rugs. Slippery, haircloth furniture
\nornamented with knit tidies. How I recall especially the uncomfortable old
\nsofa with springs that all but penetrated a youngster’s hide! The marbletopped
\ntable with the big family Bible. The shell that was said to hold yet
\nwithin itself the roar of the sea. The cardboard motto “God Bless OUr Home”.
\nThe what-not loaded with bric-a-brac. My own home had neither melodeon nor
\nparlor organ, which Miss Nelson mentions, but it did have the closed blinds
\nto keep the sun from fading the carpet and wall paper.
\nMiss Nelson says so much about the cellar that I thought I must call her
\nto task for not mentioning the old word cellar-way, which meant the commodious
\nentrance at the top of the cellar stairs. But, finally I caught her
\nusing the good old word. What a host of good things were stored in those
\ncellar-ways; pies by the dozen, pickles, jam, butter, milk, cheese, and hosts
\nof other goodies. In the cellar were the bins of apples and vegetables, the
\nbarrel of salt pork, and a lot of other necessities. But it was the cellarway
\nthat kept many things handy for both housewife and raiding youngsters.
\nAs for the attic, Miss Nelson says, “An attic in a New England homestead
\nwas often a history of New England told in things.” Speaking of the old
\nleather-covered trunks, she writes: “In one such trunk were a changeable
\n1-277
\ngreen and black silk dress and a shirred bonnet given a wife by her husband
\nif she would give up smoking. She had always smoked her little clay pipe
\nafter meals to aid digestion.”
\nAs for the woodshed, some of us remember it not as Miss Nelson does
\nfor its pleasant odor of curing wood and its big, frightening spiders, but
\nfor a use which she mentions all too casually. Perhaps some of us owe more
\nthan we realize to that occasional, but stern, command: “All right, son,
\ncome out into the woodshed.”
\nHow delightfully Miss Nelson writes of the hobbies of grandmother’s day~
\nthe making of patchwork quilts and crazy quilts, of hair wreaths and samplers,
\nof hooked rugs and braided rugs. How feelingly she pays respect to the old
\nwatering troughs, the ferries, and the wandering bands of gypsies.
\nWith one item Miss Nelson brings back a memory long forgotten: Larkin
\nsoap. Is there a man or woman who lived in a Maine country town fifty years
\nago who did not .at sometime ring door bells to sell Larkin Soap for the varied
\nand lurid premiums offered? Neither the Fuller Brush Man nor the Saturday
\nEvening Post boy ever quite replaced the Larkin Soap clubs.
\nThe old-time things I have mentioned tonight are only a few of those in
\nMiss Nelson’s splendid book. It is replete with fond and lingering memories.
\nI recommend it as the perfect Christmas gift for friend or relative who remembers
\nthe good old days.
\n*****
\nNow let us turn from old-time things to the foremost issue of our own
\nday — the threat of communism as it spreads through Asia. When we confront
\nthese problems, we over and over again see how easily the almighty dollar
\ngets in the way of the noblest ideals. While we would stop communism by diplomatic
\nmeans, we proceed to encourage it by economic means. Listen to what
\nthat competent and experienced correspondent, A. T. Steele, said at the
\n1-278
\nHerald-Tribune Forum:
\n“OUr trade with China is more important to the Communists than it is
\nto us. And the Communists are not doing badly, even without our government’s
\nrecognition. Published figures show that the Communists imported more than
\n$4,000,000 worth of goods into North China ports during the month of September
\nand exported more than $3,000,000 worth. Interestingly, the United States
\nwas well up in front in this commerce. In August more than 40 per cent of
\nTientsin’s trading going and coming was with our country.” It’s an old, old
\nstory. Patriotism exercises a slim hold where profits are concerned. We
\nshould not soon forget the scrap iron sold to Japan in the 1930’s, scrap
\niron that came\u00b7 back to us in the bodies of American boys kil’led far from
\nhome.
\nWhat a common thing is school. How unquestioningly we Americans take
\nit for granted. How hard it is for us to realize what lack of education means
\nto millions of people in the world. At the Herald-Tribune Forum Mrs. Brandon,
\nfamous correspondent just returned from Java, was asked the question, “What
\nfuture do you see for an independent Indonesia?” Because, as some of you
\nwill recall, I had been present at the meeting of the Security Council of the
\nU. N. last January, when our Mr. Jessup made his bitter denunciation of Dutch
\nobstruction to Indonesian independence, I was especially interested in Mrs.
\nBrandon’s reply. What future did she see for an independent Indonesia?
\nShe said: “The new independence must retain some sort of partnership
\nwith the Dutch. Need for Dutch assistance arises from the fact that Indonesians
\nlack training, knowledge and experience with government, business and
\ntrade. Less than eight per cent of the 78,000,000 people are literate. In a
\nnation where now only one person in twelve can read or write, education will
\nbe slow, expensive and difficult.”
\nEven in this land of knowledge and plenty — these bountiful United
\n1-279
\nStates — there is much to show that education is still slow, expensive and
\ndifficult. Progress means eternal vigilance and constant struggle against
\nignorance. One innate right of every child is the right to know. If peace
\nand harmony ever come to a war-torn world, they will come not through atomic
\nbombs and annihilation of enemies, but through education — through the
\nspread of knowledge that teaches us, as Mme. Pandit put it, to have respect
\nfor what the other fellow sincerely regards as his truth, and a capacity to
\nsuffer for what we consider to be our own truth.
\n*****
\nHow long has it been since cows were driven to pasture through the
\nstreets of Waterville or Bangor? No doubt there are men now living in both
\ncities who thus drove cows. If so, let’s hear from them. Harry Vose, the dry
\ngoods salesman, tells me that his brother Thomas used to drive cows from the
\ncorner of Western Avenue and pleasant Street in Waterville down Silver Street
\nand Lower Main Street, across the Ticonic Bridge, to pasture in Winslow.
\nHarry tells me of a man still living who used to drive a cow from the Western
\nAvenue end of Burleigh Street to pasture beyond Cool Street. Were cows ever
\npastured on the old circus field in the vicinity of what is now West, Bartlett
\nand Burleigh Streets? Who knows? Come forward, you old cow drivers, let’s
\nhear from you.
\n1-280
\nLITTLE TALKS ON COMMON THINGS
\n43rd Broadcast November 20, 1949
\nOne of the commonest things in life is food. Probably most of us pay too
\nmuch attention to it, digging our graves with our teeth or worrying about a
\nrestricted diet. In any event right now it costs a lot to feed a family. What
\nis the prospect for 19501
\nThe following predictions are not mine. I have neither inside information
\nnor peculiar wisdom on this subject of food prices. But I am inclined to give
\nyou predictions made by the journal, u. S. News and World Report, because I
\nhave found that magazine very reliable on practical economic analyses.
\nThe prediction is that the family’s food bill is going to be somewhat
\nlower next year. Housewives will have some of the grocery money to spend for
\nother things. Most meats, vegetables, and fruits will be cheaper. Supplies
\nwill be large, meaning lower prices in the stores. The chances are that $18
\nin 1950 will buy as much as $20 bought in 1949.
\nIn 1948 the average family spent 27.7 per cent of its net income on food.
\nThis year the percentage has dropped to 26.3. In 1950 it is expected to drop
\nto 25 per cent. If that happens, spending for food will be 2.6 billions less
\nthan it would be if present prices prevailed. It means that more will be left
\nover for other things the family needs, because 1950 wages are not expected
\nto drop below those of 1949 \u2022 In industry the big drop in take-home pay,
\ncaused by the reduction or elimination of overtime, had already occurred before
\n1949.
\nLet’s take a look at a few commodities. While in general meat will be
\nsomewhat cheaper, we shall see a shift in different kinds of meat. Pork will
\noffer the biggest bargains, with bacon and ham substantially lower. Beef will
\n1-281
\nbe no more plentiful than now, but its price will come down a little as it
\ncompetes with cheaper pork. Steak may come back to many tables.
\nLamb, on the other hand, will be scarce and will rise in price. Production
\nof sheep is at the lowest per capita rate in u. S. history. In dairy
\nproducts, butter, cheese and eggs will be cheaper, but the controlled price
\nof milk will probably keep its cost up to present level even though supplies
\nwill definitely be larger.
\nThe fruit situation is not uniform. Killing frosts cut the grapefruit
\ncrop to about a quarter of the normal amount, and prices may be higher. Oranges,
\nhowever, will be a lot cheaper when volume shipments get under .way in
\nDecember. The big crops of apples assures lower prices, and even bananas are
\nexpected to be a bit cheaper. Most vegetables, too, will be lower priced.
\nFrozen vegetables will be in record abundance and prices are certain to be cut.
\nOn one commodity the warning sign is already out. That is coffee. Drought
\nin Brazil and disasters in other regions have made a deep cut in world supplies.
\nPrices will climb steadily, forcing many families out of the market for
\nhigh grade coffee. Some alarmists predict that before next December coffee
\nmay be selling for a dollar a pound. Coffee, however, will be a glaring exception
\nto next year’s trend. It is really going to cost us less to eat next
\nyear.
\n*****
\nOne of the common words on people’ s lips today is the word “pension”. Of
\ncourse everyone wants it. The days when the unfortunate aged could only go to
\nthe poor house are happily over. Society rightfully recognizes the responsibility
\nfor those whom an increasingly competent and diligent medical profession
\nare causing to become an ever larger proportion of the population. But how to
\nmeet that responsibility is the problem. Certain big unions say industrial managementmust
\nbear the whole burden; plenty of thinking people demand contri-
\n1-282
\nbutions from both employer and worker.
\nWhichever method finally prevails, one thing is sure. This is a world
\nin which we do not get something for nothing. For every gain there is likely
\nto be a compensating .loss. Most of us are pleased to know and are proud of
\nthe fact that, even in this day of the titanic corporations like General
\nMotors and DuPont, General Electric and U. S. Steel, American Telephone and
\nTelegraph and the pennsylvania Railroad, there are still thousands of small
\nbusinesses in America. And it is an essential point in what we call the American
\nway of life that these small businesses shall survive and prosper.
\nRegardless of which side you take in the current government action against
\none of the great food chains, if you are a real American you are glad that
\nindependent merchants are still doing business in your town.
\nHas it occurred to you that universal adoption of business-financed
\npension plans, such as those for which many workers are now on strike,
\nwould work to the decided disadvantage of small business. Take a look at a
\nperiod only a little more than ten years ago. 1937 was a relatively good business
\nyear; the nation was recovering from the great depression. Yet in that
\nyear 57 per cent of all corporations reported deficits. In 1938 a recession
\nhad set in, and there were fears of real depression again. In that year 61
\nper cent of all corporate businesses were in the red. Under such conditions
\nany fixed charge, say 6 per cent of payrolls to carry pension plans, would
\nhit hardest the companies having most difficulty to stay solvent, and those
\nare always the small companies. Some of the proposed pension plans, therefore,
\nwould tend to squeeze the smaller and weaker companies; they would make the
\nstart of a new business more difficult than it already is.
\nSome kind of pension plan, giving reasonable security to the aged or the
\nincapacitated, is certain to come. In modern, highly industrialized society
\nit is a compelling must. But among the leaders of labor and of management
\n1-283
\nthere ought to be both the will and the wisdom to find a pension method that
\nwill not give the death blow to small business, which in spite of the great
\nachievements of the Fords, the McCormicks, the Firestones, the Carnegies,
\nand the Rockefellers, has always been the backbone of American commercial
\nlife.
\n*****
\nTo Emery Heggarty of Silver Street I am indebted for a chance to inspect
\nan old account book of 1889, the original contents of which represented a
\nsmall business in dry goods at Readfield, Maine. The sales accounts reveal
\nsome interesting prices of 60 years ago. Five dozen spools of Clark’s thread
\nwent for $3.00. Standard checked prints were 5! cents a yard. Brown cotton
\nwas 8 cents a yard, bleached cotton 9 cents. Good ticking brought twenty
\ncents a yard, and the same was true of heavy duck. The books give some idea
\nof the profits made on those sales. The dealer bought Merrimac prints for 7
\nCents_~ a yard:- & sold them for 8 cents, but he must have got a bargain on his
\nsupply of Hamburton prints, because he bought them for 6! cents and sold them
\nfor ten cents.
\nAt some time the book was apparently used as an album for postage stamps,
\nand on a single page one lone pasted stamp remains, a six cent revenue stamp
\nof long ago. But many listeners to this program who I know are interested in
\nrailroads would find the most interesting part of this old account book to be
\nthe two pages on which are listed the names of all the locomotives of the
\nMaine Central Railroad up to No. 66. The first five of those engines were
\nnamed respectively the Androscoggin, the Ticonic, the Timothy Boutelle, the
\nMorrill and the Penobscot. Many of them were named for towns: the Bangor, the
\nLewiston, the Farmingdale, the portland, the Bath, the Brunswick, the Richmond,
\nthe Augusta, the Gardiner, and the Hallowell. Among the persons remembered
\nin the engine names were R. B.Dunn, General Sherman, A. D. Lockwood, I. S.
\n1-284
\nCushing, Abner Coburn, Oliver Moses, David Putnam and Josiah Drummond.
\nEngine No. 39 was the Waterville, No. 40 was the Skowhegan and 52 was
\nthe Fairfield. The old book records that No. 64 was the Arthur Sewall, leaves
\nNo. 65 blank and gives No. 66 simply as MCRR.
\nMr. Heggarty has also shown me a copy of Goldthwait’s Rail Road Map of
\nNew England and Eastern New York, published in 1849 and advertised by the .
\nprinter as “compiled from the most authentic sources”. Only a small portion
\nof Maine is shown on this map, whose very northeast corner is Waterville.
\nThe Kennebec and Portland Railroad, now the Portland-Bangor main line of the
\nMaine Central, had not quite reached Augusta, but the Androscoggin and Kennebec
\n— what we now call the back road — ran all the way to Waterville. The
\nAtlantic and St. Lawrence — what we now call the Grand Trunk — was nearing
\ncompletion all the way from Portland to Montreal. The western division of the
\nBoston and Maine was then the York and Cumberland Railroad, while the eastern
\ndivision was the Portland, Saco and Portsmouth. There were 19 different railroads
\nin Massachusetts alone; the Vermont Central had already laid its track,
\nand the Rutland Railroad ran all the way to Burlington.
\nThink of it! All this in less than twenty years after the operation of
\nthe first successful short lines in South Carolina and in Maryland.
\n*****
\nWhat magazine or periodical was most commonly seen in the homes of half
\na century ago? It was indeed the Youth I s Companion. When, after more than a
\nhundred years, that publication. ended its days, many of us felt as if a beloved
\nfriend had gone. It had started long before my day, in fact away back
\nin 1827, and it was a Maine man, Nathaniel Willis of portland,who launched
\nthe paper on its memorable career. Miss Nelson, about whose book I spoke last
\nweek, assures us that the Youth’s Companion was always printed on Maine paper,
\nmade at one mill.
\n1-28\u00a7
\nWhen I first knew the magazine, it had the glossy yellow cover, without
\npicture, but with table of contents on it. Before I had entered high school,
\nhowever, the olive green cover, more familiar to the boys and girls of my
\ngeneration, had appeared. Not only did the Youth’s Companion have stories
\nthat appealed to young people. To read it was a kind of general education.
\nIts short articles, some of them only a paragraph or two in length, told us
\nabout all sorts of interesting things in a world we knew very little about.
\nFor the geographical span of a child’s life in the 1890’s was very narrow indeed.
\nThe kid who got forty miles away from home before he entered high
\nschool was regarded as a world traveler by his associates.
\nWhat the Companion’s many imitators failed to realize was that its editors
\ndemanded stories and articles of real literary merit. They refused to agree
\nwith the old conception of writing for children, that the author must write
\ndown to the child’ s intelligence. The Companion, while keeping much of its
\nmaterial within the vocabulary and understanding of children in the grades,
\nalways wrote up, not down. In every issue there was much to make a boy’s intellectual
\nreach exceed his grasp, and there is no better educational procedure
\nthan that of stretching of one’s brains.
\nIf I seem to imply that the Youth’s Companion was enjoyed solely by children,
\nthere are many listeners who will call me to task. Let”me forestall
\nsuch a protest right now. The Companion was read by everybody in the family.
\nSomet~es the kids had a hard time getting a look at each issue on the day it
\narrived in the mail. Father or mother would be buried in it about the time
\nJunipr wanted it himself.
\nI think the favorite stories, if one could take a vote of all ages who
\nread the Companion at the turn of the present century, would be C. A. Stephens’
\nstories of the Old Farm. How well we came to know every field and building,
\nalmost every tree and stone, on that farm; and what grand characters were the
\n1-286
\nold squire, his motherly wife, and the host of brothers, sisters, uncles,
\naunts and cousins that made up the dramatic personnel of those grand stories.
\nBrought up within a few miles of ‘Stephens” ‘palatial home at the foot
\nof Pennesseewassee Lake, near Norway Village, I heard a lot about him as a
\nwriter, traveler and editor. Home folks were somewhat awed by his opera singer
\nwife, and they seldom caught a glimpse of him. For a man who wrote stories
\nabout democratic sociability and the New England hospitality, Stephens had the
\nlocal reputation of being an aristocrat, if not. actually a snob. But that man
\ncertainly could write.’- After Stephens’ death, John Clair Menot, the only
\nCompanion editor whom I ever knew personally, told me that in the vaults of
\nthe old Companion Building on Columbus Avenue in Boston were unpublished manuscripts
\nof -Stephens t ,_ ,; , – stories in such profusion that they could continue
\nto publish one every week for ten years.
\nThe Companion has gone, and nothing ever quite took its place, though
\nits imitators, from St. Nicholas to Jack and Jill, have been numerous. Most
\nof them have been short-lived. Much of the confusion and perplexity of our
\nday stems from the fact that people, even young people, have so little in
\ncommon. No unity holds us together. Half a century ago all boys and girls
\nwho could read and write had a common unifying force – the Youth’s Companion.
\n1-287
\nLITTLE TALKS ON COMMON THINGS
\n44th Broadcast November 27, 1949
\nI promised you that tonight we should hear more about cows in the streets
\nof waterville. No subject mentioned on this program has brought a more generous
\nresponse. If I mention only a few names, it is not because other contributions
\nhave not been valuable, but simply because we haven’t the time for
\nmore.
\nThe first person to call me — even before I had left the studio two
\nweeks ago — was Chester Hussey of Walnut Street, who has more than once supplied
\nme with information for these programs. Mr. Hussey says that sixty years
\nago cows were pastured on what was then a vacant lot on the east side of Elm
\nStreet, directly opposite the entrance to Winter Street.
\nTed Branch thinks there is something wrong about Mr. Hussey’s memory,
\nei ther of time or location. Ted says his memory goes back well beyond sixty
\nyears and he can recall no cows pastured on that section of Elm Street. But
\nMr. Hussey is sure that, between the Abbott house on the corner of Elm and
\nSpring Streets and the Smith house at Elm and Temple Streets, was a vacant lot
\nthat stretched back of the Congregational Church all the way down to the rear
\nof buildings on Charles Street. Temple Court was then only a lane through the
\npasture. Were cows pastured there in 1895? Can anyone support Mr. Hussey’s
\ncontention?
\nMr. Branch was himself a cow driver of experience. He is the man who used
\nto drive cows from the corner of pleasant Street and Western Avenue out to
\npasture beyond the Messalonskee.
\nA lot of people remember when the land between the Hayden Brook gully
\nand the Messa10nskee was known as Burleigh Field, and there seem to be scores
\nof citizens who attended circuses there. But I was especially pleased to re-
\n1-288
\nceive a call from the man whose father purchased that field and gave it its
\nbest remembered name. Mr. Hall Burleigh of the Augusta Road tells me that
\nthe land between Gilman Street and western Avenue on one axis and between
\ngully and stream on the other axis was once two distinct lots with a board
\nfence, running from gully to stream, dividing them. Mr. Burleigh recalls
\nthat he and his brother John, as young fellows, had the job of tearing down
\nthat old fence after their father bought the two lots.
\nThe old name of Western Avenue was Mill Street and at one time there
\nwere at least four different factories operating on the stream near what is
\nnow the Western Avenue bridge. One of those was the first factory in this
\npart of the state to make the old brimstone matches that I talked about a
\nfew weeks ago.
\nBut let’s get back to the cows. Lucien Audet of the Exchange Hotel calls
\nmy attention to Mr. Boudreau, a resident of the hotel, a man over 80, who recalls
\nthat back in days when the old covered bridge connected Waterville with
\nWinslow, fully 70 years ago, cows used to be driven from Pleasant street to
\nWinslow for pasture. Mr. Boudreau once sold pond lilies, two for a nickel,
\non waterville’s Main Street. Where did he get his stock in trade? From the
\nswamp between Charles and Elm Streets.
\nIn spite of all these responses, I do not yet have the answer to my original
\nquestion. That question was, how long has it been since cows were driven
\nto pasture through the str~ets of Waterville? A local citizen whom I consider
\nto be still a young lady recalls distinctly that her father kept a cow in the
\nfamily barn on Silver Street, not far from the corner of Spring Street, and
\nshe naturally assumes that Bossy must have been driven somewhere to pasture.
\nBy my figuring that urbanized cow of downtown Silver Street must have been
\ncropping grass in some pasture as late as 1915. Can anybody beat that?
\nOf all the communications that have reached me about cows, I now come to
\n1-289
\nthe best. I think you will agree that it is a grand story, because it not
\nonly deals with old-time things and ways, but it is a wonderful example of
\nwhat American democracy really means. It is the story of one of Waterville’s
\nbest known business men, Mr. Napoleon Marshall. Fifty-five years ago Mr. Marshall,
\nthen eleven years old, drove three cows from a barn on Ash Street
\ndown across Ticonic Street, up Kelsey to Upper Main Street, and into a pasture
\nacross the street from the Bartlett homestead. The pay was 25 cents per
\nweek, but Mr. Marshall says what appealed to him even more were the good
\nthings to eat, provided to a growing boy by the wife and daughters of the
\nman who owned the cows. Sometimes young Marshall would show up at the house
\nright after dinner. The good lady would make him lie down on the lounge -notice
\nthe word, not couch or divan, but that good old piece of furniture
\ncalled the lounge. She would make him lie down for res.t, then stuff him with
\ncake or cookies and milk before he went after the cows. In 1895 the owner
\npresented the boy with a heifer calf, and Marshall was then the proudest
\nyoungster in the neighborhood. For seven years that good Jersey supplied
\nmilk to the Marshall family.
\nNow I told you this story had special significance as an instance of
\ntrue American democracy. You will note that up to this point I haven’t named
\nMarshall’s employer, the owner of the cows. It was Samuel Osborn, the negro
\njanitor of Colby College. An ex-slave, finding freedom and respected standing
\nin this Maine town, far from his land of servitude, was an employer now.
\nHe could pay a white boy 25 cents a week to take his cows to and from pasture,
\nand the white boy was proud to call that gracious colored gentleman
\nnot only his employer, but his benefactor and friend. That is real democracy.
\n*****
\nWhen I was a boy in high school favorite selections for speaking contests
\nwere taken from both the prose and the verse of Holman Day. It was then
\nthat I first encountered that rollicking ballad in which Day recounts how
\nthe steamboat Ezra Johnson tooted up the Kennebec, floated inland on an early
\nautumn dew, and came to rest on a Sidney farm. A lot of people have heard of
\nthat fictitious river boat, the Ezra Johnson, thanks to the popularity of
\nHolman Day.
\nThe time is approaching, however, when no one will remember a real Kennebec
\nsteamboat which had an experience something like the Ezra Johnson. for
\nthat real boat sailed the Kennebec just sixty years ago. Certainly there must
\nbe Waterville citizens who remember the boat, but I believe Dr. J. Fred Hill
\nand Fred J. Arnold were the last survivors of the joyous crowd that went on
\nthat vessel’s maiden voyage. She bore the proud, local name of The City of
\nWaterville, and the occurrences of her first trip would have provided Mark
\nTwain with a story equal to his best Mississippi River yarns.
\nIn the late 1880’s William T. Haines, later to be Governor of Maine, but
\nthen a waterville attorney, proposed that navigation between Hallowell and
\nwaterville be reopened in order to secure cheaper freight service. His plan
\nto build a steamer to make daily round trips between the two cities met with
\napproval. Waterville business men formed the Waterville Merchant Steamboat
\nCompany with L. H. Soper as president, and many merchants and professional
\nmen subscribed to the stock.
\nA contract was let to a boat builder at Brewer who in July 1890 had ready
\nfor delivery to the Waterville company a flat bottomed, keelless boat, 90
\nfeet long, with a 20 foot beam, powered by the most up-to-date steam engine
\nof the time.
\nJust who first suggested a big party cruise to bring the boat to Waterville
\nhistory does not record. Anyhow the stock holders agreed that it would
\nbe good publicity to have the sponsors themselves sail the boat down the Penobscot,
\nround the coast to the mouth of the Kennebec, and up the Kennebec to
\n1-291
\nWaterville. So it came about that forty of the more prominent stock holders
\ngathered at Brewer, having selected as skipper for the trip Erastus Warren of
\nWinslow, who had a reputation for being one of the best log drivers that
\never worked the Kennebec. Events were to prove that his knowledge of navigation
\nwas limited to keeping on a pine log as it shot down river rapids -no
\nmean accompliShment indeed, but hardly the training for piloting a 90
\nfoot keelless boat.
\nThe story goes that there was plenty of refreshment aboard, including
\nmuch in liquid form, though several of the touring stock holders were staunch
\nprohibitionists. At any rate, when the boat reached Rockland, the whole party
\nagreed that they were having a wonderful time. To be sure, the big sternwheeler
\nwas drawing more water than she should, and when she neared the Rockland
\nlanding and tried to give an appropriate salute, water spouted through
\nher whistle and the expected blast fizzled into a dud. The next evening they’
\nhad another celebration at Bath, where the City of Waterville, after a calm,
\neventless voyage along the coast, had tied up for the night. One day more
\nwould see the new boat at her home port of Waterville.
\nOn that last day fortune took another turn. Fog set in, as it often does
\nin dog days down river. Cruising aimlessly and sightlessly in Merrymeeting Bay
\nthe steamer came to a sudden stop. She had run onto a ledge. When the sun
\nbroke through the clearing mist, close by was the riverbank and a farmer
\nworking in a field. Captain Warren hailed him. The farmer ran to the river
\nbank and with frantic gestures yelled, “Get to tarnation out of there. It’s
\nfull of rocks.” That was no news to the joy riders, because the sunlight now
\nshowed them almost high and dry. Like Holman Day’s “Ezra Johnson”, the City
\nof Waterville had very nearly landed in a field.
\nAs a result of strenuous labor they finally got the steamer back into the
\nmain channel. probably, to accomplish that task, the party had changed from
\n1-292
\nthe tall silk hats and Prince Albert coats which they had worn the previous
\nev~ning at Bath.
\nBy noon they had reached Augusta, where a boisterous welcome was given
\nby officials and townspeople. Sure that they could reach Waterville before
\ndark, they started out again but got only a few hundred yards. For just under
\nthe Augusta railroad bridge they ran on to a gravel reef, where they had to
\nstay overnight. The next morning, with the aid of river drivers and horses,
\nthey managed to get free and headed for the locks on the east side of the
\nriver. By this time the party had enough of captain Warren’s navigation, so
\nthey demoted him to deck hand and selected a new skipper, Warren C. Philbrook,
\na young man who later was to be a distinguished justice of the Maine Supreme
\nCourt.
\nWhen the boat emerged from .the locks the new skipper met a real test.
\nWithout a keel the craft was poorly fitted to fight the stiff current just
\nabove the Augusta dam. The steamer started to move sideways, heading toward
\nthe dam, with the passengers getting more and more sure that they were in
\nfor a river bath. But Skipper.Philbrook and his crew won the day when the
\nship finally began to gain on the current, and the last leg of the journey
\nhome was under way.
\nFor the new steamer the company had built a brand new dock. The old
\ncity dock was located near Ticonic Falls, on the west bank, not far from
\nwhere the Lockwood storehouse now stands. The new landing place for the City
\nof Waterville had been erected farther down the river, on Pooler’s Point,
\nalmost exactly opposite the junction of the Sebasticook with the Kennebec.
\nAs word came that the new steamer, expected the day before but disappointingly
\ndelayed, was at last nearing Waterville, the whole town turned
\nout. When the big barge for that was what the square-boxed freighter
\nlooked like — came into view, a brass band burst into tune and cheers arose.
\n1-293
\nThe passenger stock holders smoothed out their Prince Alberts and polished
\nthe sheen of their silk hats. All was now ready for triumphant landing.
\nBut, alas, the bad luck that began two days before in Merrymeeting Bay
\nhad not yet departed. Just as the steamer started to turn from the Winslow
\nbank to head into her smart new landing, she again struck a ledge. And
\nthere, just off shore from the Winslow Congregational Church, she refused to
\nbudge. Her chagrined and disgusted stock holders could only take to row
\nboats and make an ignominious landing on the waterville side.
\nAs for the sequel, the Waterville Merchant Steamboat Company did operate
\nfor a brief period between this city and Hallowell, but that ill-fated steamer,
\nthe City of Waterville, last-of the river’s old stern-wheelers, never achieved
\nits goal of daily return trips between the two cities. After brief, in-.
\ntermittent use here on the upper river, under Captain Bradford Mitchell, it
\nwas sold to a Virginia firm, and stern-wheeled her way to a southern port,
\nnever to return.
\n1-294
\nLITTLE TALKS ON COMMON THINGS
\n45th Broadcast December 4, 1949
\nA very common thing is paper, and the mills of the united States and
\nCanada rollout 28 million tons of it every year. The average American uses
\n357 pounds of paper products, nearly a pound for every day of the year. Each
\nof J.some twenty big metropolitan newspapers uses enough newsprint every twelve
\nmonths to stretch a paper path, fifteen newstrips wide from the earth to the
\nmoon.
\nNow most of this paper is made from wood pulp, a product for which Maine
\nhas become justly famous. Maine’s paper mills are among the best in the nation.
\nBut modern scientific achievement has found other uses besides paper
\nfor Maine’s gigantic annual crop of pulpwood. Molded wood products, tire
\ncord, rayon and cellophane are only a few of the new synthetics. And right
\nhere on College Avenue in Waterville some of these new products are being made.
\nMore than 2,000 tons of wood pulp every month — 25,000 tons a year — finds
\nits way into the molded pulp food containers, the tableware and the fibrous
\nplastic products which the Keyes Fibre Company ships to every corner of the
\nunited States.
\nMaine industry, whose finish has been prophesied by doleful Cassandras
\nfor many a day, is still a very lively corpse and is destined to linger on as
\nlong as pulpwood floats down Maine rivers and as long as keen scientists in
\nMaine factories ponder over their test tubes.
\n*****
\nWhat did the school children of Maine learn about the world 116 years
\nago? The answer has been made accessible to me by Mr. Horatio Jolicoeur of
\nPleasantda1e Avenue, Waterville. In Mr. Jolicoeur’s possession is a copy of
\n1-295
\nMalte-Brun School Geography, publiShed in Hartford, Connecticut in 1833.
\nThe author points out that previously the child had first studied the
\nsolar system, then got down to earth. He says, “The common method of teaching
\ngeography requires the feeble intellect of childhood, with a small stock of
\nideas, and a very limited vocabulary, immediately to comprehend the solar
\nsystem; a task which demands the energy of a mature mind. In this new book
\nthe pupil is made to begin with the spot where he lives. He is then led to
\nadjacent towns, his whole native state, his own nation, and then to foreign
\nlands.”
\nMakers of school geographies in this middle of the twentieth century
\npride themselves on their objective honesty, their depiction of all places
\non the earth just as those places actually exist. Without doubt, Mr. S. G.
\nGoodrich, who arranged that 1833 edition of the Malte-Brun Geography, thought
\nhe was just as factual and objective. But he was a Connecticut Yankee, his
\nnation was only 46 years old; there is no evidence that he had ever travelled
\nwest of the Alleghenies; and he did a pretty good job at a~-chair geographic
\nwriting. But what he wrote — and therefore what boys and girls of
\nthe 1830′ s learned — about many parts of the world reflected more of the
\npopular imagination of the time than of objective fact.
\nOf Greenland this book says, “The people are of the same race as the
\nEskimos, dull in intellect and feeling. Children bury their parents to get rid
\nof the trouble of maintaining them.” The book devotes three pages to Brazil
\nand nothing to Argentina, because in 1833 there was no Argentina. It was then
\npart of what was called the united Provinces, including not only modern Argentina,
\nbut also Uruguay and Paraguay. Brazil was quite a country with an
\nassured future, the geographer tells us. But of the great fertile plain of
\nLa Plata, the foundation of the modern Argentine’s great wealth, he has only
\nthis to say: “Immense herds of horses and cattle may be seen in a wild state
\n1-296
\non the plains. The people take these animals with a rope called a lasso.
\nThis has a noose at one end, and is thrown by men on horseback with such
\nuunerring skill that the noose invariably catches the animal by the neck or
\nleg.”
\nThe writer acknowledges that Buenos Aires is quite a city, but he has
\nno kind words for it as a port for ships: “Few ships can reach it”, he
\nwrites, “because the river is full of rocks and shallows. Large vessels must
\nunload about ten miles from the city.”
\nAfter paying his respects to the dreary wastes of Lapland, the author
\nsays: “The people are exceedingly attached to their country and prefer it to
\nevery other. This doubtless arises from ignorance and the force of habit.”
\nIt is interesting to learn that “The Turks are believers in Mahomet, an
\nArabian who lived about 1,200 . years ago. He called himself the prophet of
\nGod, and under the pretended influence of divine inspiration wrote a book
\ncalled the Koran. Such are the indolent habits of the Turks that even a carpenter
\nsits at his work, and holds the board upright with his toes while he
\nsaws it.”
\nWe must recall that slavery was well established in America in 1833.
\nOnly a few ~rusading souls like William Lloyd Garrison and Elijah Lovejoy had
\ndared speak out against it. Four years after this book was published Lovejoy
\nwas to die at the hands of a mob for insisting on repeated publication of
\nhis anti-slavery views. Let us charitably remember the state of the negro
\nslave in America before we judge too harshly what this geography tells us
\nabout the negro in Africa. Here is the passage in the Mal te-Brun book:
\n“The most numerous people of Africa are the negroes. The physical properties
\nof the country perpetuate the indolent levity and childish carelessness
\nfor which the race is well known. Twenty days’ work in a year are enough
\nto supply the rice, millet and other products that make up their frugal fare.
\n1-297
\nTheir gross taste is not disgusted with the flesh of the elephant, even when
\nfull of vermin. They feed on the eggs of the crocodile and on his musky flesh;
\nmonkeys are generally used for food.
\n“Such is the negro. Having few wants, and those easily satisfied, he
\nlives a life of indolence and gaiety. A stranger to our feelings of ambition,
\nhe looks on life as a brief interval to be enjoyed while it lasts. He waits
\nfor sunset to begin his giddy dance, then keeps it up all night. Whatever
\nstrikes his irregular imagination becomes his fetish or the idol of his worship.
\nHe is unable to learn the simplest arts, as witness the fact that after
\nhundreds of years of opportunity he has not tamed the elephant. II
\nWe wonder if this old geographer was a free-trader. In writing about Japan
\nhe says, “The country has no taxes to interrupt the progress of trade.” The
\ntruth is that neither this geographer nor any other westerner knew much about
\nJapan. In fact what this book says about foreigners in Japan is especially
\ninteresting because it mentions a place made famous by the atomic bomb, Nagasaki.
\n“In Kuisiu is the harbor and town of Nagasaki. Here on a rock, 288 paces long,
\nlive a few Dutch people, in a state of seclusion and solitude, ignorant of all
\nthe rest of the world. They are the only foreigners permitted in the Japanese
\ndominions …
\nListen to this on the Philippines: “The Philippine Isles are said to be
\n1,200 in number. They abound in marshy, mossy ground and lakes. Although they
\nproduce quantities of rice, cotton, tobacco and tropical fruits, the native
\ntribes are so wild and the Spanish settlements so few, that they are unlikely
\never to be of commercial importance.”
\nOf the South Sea islanders, whose remote ancestors drove their light
\ncanoes across thousands of miles of ocean and perhaps erected the strange
\nstatues on Easter Island, this geographer has small respect. “These little,
\nfive-foot islanders”, says he, “are an inferior race, both in intellectual
\n1-298
\nand moral character, below all others on the earth. When encountered by the
\nfairer races, they have always retreated, incapable of maintaining their
\nground.”
\nOn a later program I propose to tell you some of the things this old
\ngeography tells about our own country, with due reference to the State of
\nMaine. Tonight’s references from the book have been to foreign lands. Now
\nthis is our question. Are today’s children taught any more objectively and
\nfactually about lands far away than were the youngsters of 1833? Sometimes
\nwe wonder.
\n*****
\nOn one of these broadcasts last winter I referred to the remarkable
\nprayers with which the Reverend Peter Marshall, Chaplain of the U. S. Senate,
\nopened the daily sessions of that most deliberative body in the world \u2022. Dr.
\nMarshall’s sudden death was a loss to the whole nation. Now, less than a year
\nafter his passing, the government printing office has brought out an attractive
\nneatly bound volume, containing in chronological order the prayers with which
\nDr.. Marshall opened the Senate from January 6, 1947 to January 24, 1949 -the
\nday before he died. On January 27 the vice-president presented Dr. Crawford
\nof Calvary Baptist Church in Washington to make\u00b7the opening prayer. Dr.
\nCrawford said “The prayer I shall offer this morning was written for this
\nsession by Dr. Peter Marshall, as one of the last things he did before he
\ndied. II Then Dr. Crawford read this typically Marshall prayer: “Deliver us,
\nour Father, from futile hopes and from clinging to lost causes, that we may
\nmove into ever-growing calm and ever-widening horizons. Where we cannot convince,
\nlet us be willing to persuade, for small deeds done are better than
\ngreat deeds planned. We know that we cannot do everything. But help us to do
\nsomething. For Jesus’ sake. Amen.”
\nIn that 80th Congress and in the opening days of the 81st, Peter Marshall
\n1-299
\nwas the conscience of the Senate. His voice was soft and gentle, but his words
\ncut cleanly through the pompousness and demagoguery on Capitol Hill. Senator
\nKilgore of West Virginia once said of him, “Peter Marshall expresses more feeling
\nand says more in his short prayers than all the Senators put together the
\nrest of the day.”
\nOn the day when Alben Barkley first took the chair as regular presiding
\nofficer of the Senate, following his inauguration as Vice President of the
\nUnited States, Peter Marshall prayed: “May he never feel lonely in this chair,
\nbut always be aware of Thy hand upon him and Thy spirit with him. When differences
\narise, as they will, may Thy servants in this chamber be not disturbed
\nat being misunderstood, but rather be disturbed at not understanding.”
\nDon’t think that Dr. Marshall’s prayers applied only to senators. They
\nhad a convincing universality, applicable to people in many walks of life.
\nJust see how the following sentences, taken from several different prayers,
\napply to you.
\n“Grant that we may like what we must do, since we know we cannot always
\ndo what we like.”
\n“If we need to make up our minds, Thou who didst make our minds can show
\nus how to make them up. n
\n“Today is the tomorrow we were worrying about yesterday, and we see how
\nfoolish our anxiety was.”
\n“May we be able to disagree without being disagreeable and to differ
\nwithout being difficult.”
\n“Save us from hot heads that would lead us to act foolishly, and from
\ncold feet that would keep us from acting at. all.”
\n“When we have the truth, let us not hit each other over the head with it,
\nbut rather use it as a lamp to lighten dark places, in order that we may all
\nsee where we are going.”
\n1-300
\n*****
\nA thrilling story about a Maine girl came to my attention recently.
\nMiss Martha Morrill of Sanford, a recent graduate of Colby College, now
\nteaching at the American College for Girls in Istanbul, Turkey, gave her
\nblood that a Turkish baby might live. Not yet accustomed to blood transfusions,
\nand fearing the results of blood-letting, the Turkish doctors have
\na hard time getting native blood; so they turn to British and American residents
\nin their country. After a Caesarean birth, almost half of the baby’ s
\nblood was removed and replaced by a transfusion of Miss Morrill’s blood.
\nThanks to a Colby girl 4,000 miles from her Sanford home, a little Turkish
\nbaby has a decent chance to grow to health and happiness.
\n*****
\nI can think of no. more fitting close to this broadcast on a Sunday evening
\nthan to quote Peter Marshall’s words about liberty, spoken in his Senate
\nprayer on March 19, 1947:
\n“Teach us that 1iberty is not only to be loved, but also to be lived.
\nLiberty is too precious a thing to be buried in books. It cost too much to be
\nhoarded. Make us see that our liberty is not the right to do as we please, but
\nthe opportunity to please as we do what is right.”
\n1-301
\nLITTLE TALKS ON COMMON THINGS
\n46th Broadcast December 11, 1949
\nLast week I said I would some day tell you what Mr. Jolicoeur’s old MalteBrun
\nGeography says about Maine. The very first section of that old book is devoted
\nto our state, which was only thirteen years old when the book was published.
\n“Maine”, says the book, “has very long wint~rs. The cold is extremely
\nsevere, and great quantities of snow fall. It has extensive sea coast with
\nmany harbors. The people, therefore, have generally neglected agriculture and
\nmanufactures, and devoted themselves to commerce. Many of the inhabitants of
\nMaine are engaged in cutting down the forest trees, and converting them into
\nlumber, which is shipped to the West Indies and exchanged for sugar and molasses.
\n” This old geography pays due respect to what was once another prominent
\nindustry of Maine — never so important as lumber, but one which gained our
\nstate considerable fame. It was an industry which people of the Kennebec valley
\nknew very well — the harvesting and shipping of ice.
\n“The people of Maine”, says the old geography, “occasionally ship cargoes
\nof ice to New Orleans and the West Indies. During the winter the extreme cold
\nin this state creates large masses of ice in the rivers; a ship is easily
\nsupplied with a cargo of it, and in the sultry climate of the West Indies nothing
\ncan be more grateful. The ice is exchanged for sugar, molasses, spirits
\nand other products of those islands.”
\n“Portland”, says this 1833 geography, “has 12, 600 inhabitants. Bath is
\na considerable town near the mouth of the Kennebec River with 3,800 people.
\nAugusta with 4,000 has a fine state house of granite. Machias is a place of
\nconsiderable trade with 1,000 inhabitants. Brunswick is the seat of Brunswick
\n1-302
\nCollege, a flourishing literary institution; at Waterville is a college supported
\nby the Baptists.”
\nin 1833.
\nThus was Maine presented to American school children
\n*****
\nMr. Robert Gay of Silver Street tells me that the old steamboat City of
\nWaterville seemed to have a habit of going aground. A clipping from the Biddeford
\nJournal, dated July 9, but unfortunately not naming the year, states
\nthat the City of Waterville, under Captain James Brown, lodged on a ledge off
\nStag Island in the Saco River. The passengers, numbering 125 and badly frightened,
\nwere taken off in row boats and brought back to Biddeford in wagons.
\nThe next day the steamer was pulled off the ledge by the tug “Joe Baker”. Mr.
\nGay thinks the City of Waterville was purchased by Biddeford interests before
\nit was finally sold for use in the South, but he is not sure. Perhaps someone
\nhas information-on that point~ and perhaps someone also can tell us the year
\nwas\u00b7 it 1891 or 1892 — when the City of Waterville went aground in the Saco
\nRiver.
\n*****
\nA little more than a year ago we were talking about cattle pounds. Frank
\nMcCallum of Park Street tells me that the cattle pound in Jefferson is 120
\nyears old; that it was built in 1829 by Silas Noyes for the munificent sum of
\n28 dollars.
\nSince we last talked about cattle pounds I have learned, to my amazement,
\nthat there used to be one within the city limits of Waterville. I am told
\nthat a pound long stood on Western Avenue (then Mill Street) just east of the
\nMessalonskee, near where Corson’s market was not long ago located. Just east
\nof that spot and running along the avenue for some distance toward Elm Street,
\nwas located Waterville’s first cemetery, according to Gene Crawford, who has
\na lot of accurate information about old scenes and landmarks in this vicinity.
\n1-303
\nMrs. Eugene Crawford, by the way, has one of the most unusual collections
\nit has ever been my privilege to see. It is a collection o,:f newspaper cartoons
\nof the Spanish-American War of 1898. A lot of people keep newspaper
\nclippings, but altogether too many such people fail to date their clippings.
\nFor instance that old clipping from the Biddeford Journal about the steamer
\nCity of Waterville is not dated. That’s why we’re having a little trouble
\nto find out in what year the incident happened.
\nBut Mrs. Crawford’s collection of cartoons are meticulously dated and are
\ncarefUlly arranged in chronological order. Here in pictured form is the story
\nof aroused public opinion for a war that ought never to have been fought. In
\nthese pictures are recalled the cry “Remember the Maine”; the charge at San
\nJuan Hill; Dewey at Manila Bay; the naval exploit of Hobson’s Choice; and the
\nsordid profiteering contracts that provided the rotting meat and the moldy
\nflour to the camp at Chicamauga. I doubt if there is another suCh collection
\nin existence. Certainly I have never heard of, much less seen, another complete
\ncollection of Spanish War cartoons from the sinking of the Maine to the
\ntreaty of peace.
\n*****
\nDid you ever hear of the Waterville bank robbery? About the time when
\nJesse James and his gang were terrorizing the Middle West, robbing banks and
\ntrains and payrolls, robbers not so glamorous nor so spectacular descended
\nupon Watervil.le. But unlike the James gang, they didn’t get away with any loot.
\nOn the evening of November 22, 1876 a lecture was scheduled in the Town
\nHall, now the notorious old armory about to be torn down. Early in the evening
\nfour men left their team at Luke Brown’s on the corner of Pleasant and Mill
\nStreets, saying they had come to town to attend the lecture. About half past
\nten Augustus Wood, the town night watCh, was approached by these men, who blindfolded
\nand gagged him, then led him to a shed in the rear of St. Francis church.
\n1-304
\nLeaving him gagged and bound, the men took his keys and returned to the bank.
\nTwo of the gang were climbing up to a rear window when George Vigue, a
\nprivate watchman, came toward the bank looking for Watchman Wood. L. D. Carver,
\nafterward Maine’s famous state librarian, had a room in the rear of the
\nbuilding. He was awakened and heard one of the robbers say, “There’s that
\ncussed night watchman. Let’s get him out of the way first.” Taking his pistol
\n— how he happened to have one handy the historian does not say Carver
\nrushed down stairs. Vigue, accosted by the robbers, broke away, as Carver
\nsaid afterwards “hollering like a loon”. The two robbers rushed back to their
\nteam, were joined by their two companions, and dashed off out of town.
\nA general alarm was rung. It was a student at Coburn Institute who found
\nWatchman Wood tied up in the shed — none other than J. Frederick Hill. I wonder
\nif anything happened in Waterville that J. F. Hill didn’t have a part in,
\nalways on the right side. The next morning Constable Levi Dow and young Fred
\nHill followed the trail as far as Augusta. For many years afterward Dr. Hill
\nquoted the remarkmade by that grand old schoolmaster, Dr. Hanson, then head
\nof the Institute, when Constable Dow came to the school to get Hill to go on
\nthe chase the morning after the robbery. “Well, Mr. Hill”, said Dr. Hanson,
\n“if you think you had rather be a detective than a scholar, you may go, and
\nyour present education is entirely sufficient for that business.”
\nNow, 73 years after the event, we may modestly ask, what would Alan Pinke;
\nrton and J. Edgar Hoover say about that?
\nbe a good detective?
\n*****
\nDoes it take no education to
\nAmong the common things about folks in Maine is the general belief in
\nother parts of the country that we are old fashioned and ultra-conservative.
\nIf to be old fashioned is to uphold the cherished American freedoms we ought
\nto be proud of it. In recent weeks, as I have traveled a bit about New England
\n1-305
\nand New York, I have noted th.t a lot of people are beginning to express the
\nsame apprehensions that disturb us old fashioned folks in Maine.
\nPeople are disturbed about the continuance of deficit spending in good
\ntimes. The economists whose logic is most persuasive and whose evidence is
\nmost conclusive are those who have long told us that government treasuries
\nat every level — city, state and nation — should accumulate surplus in
\ntimes of prosperity and spend it to provide employment and prevent social
\nmisery in times of adversity.
\nNow the Maine Yankee has been brought up to believe that you cannot get
\nsomething for nothing; that somehow, at some time, by somebody, everything we
\nget must be paid for. It is grounded deep in our Maine philosophy that Uncle
\nSam is not a mystical Santa Claus, that the billions of dollars poured out of
\nthe government till is really your money and mine. For in this democracy we,
\nthe people, are the government. It is our money that is being so lavishly
\nspent.
\nEveryone knows that a primary need in our American economy indeed in
\nthe whole world economy is to increase the purchasing power of the people.
\nBut purchasing power is not increased by taking more and more money out of
\nthe pockets of the people for government purposes. Every step in the great
\nfederal program of so-called welfare costs money. That money does not grow on
\ntrees; it must come from taxes. There are no federal aid funds except those
\ntaken from our pockets. In the last analysis government can’t do things for
\npeople. What we get doled out to us in one form has to be paid for in some
\nother form.
\nIt was my privilege last week to hear a powerful address by Harold Stassen,
\nformer governor of Minnesota and now president of the University of Pennsylvania.
\nwith straightforward courage, pulling no punches, Mr. Stassen pointed
\nout the dangers in the expanding program of federal aid, even federal aid
\n1-306
\nto education. He made it clear that, as philosophers long ago pointed out,
\npower corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. The surest way to lose
\nour liberties in this land of the free is to let it stop being the home of
\nthe brave — of men and women brave enough to fight even what today sometimes
\nlooks like a losing battle against the power-mad bureaucrats.
\nThe Government of the united States is not the president and his cabinet,
\nnot the fellows who tell the farmers how much they can plant, not the inspec.:…
\ntors who dictate the business man’s procedures, not the FBI protecting on the
\none hand and prying on the other, not the tax collector nor the welfare worker.
\nThe Government of the United states is the people, and if we ever forget that
\nfact American democracy is doomed.
\nNow we folks who burst into print or talk over the air waves about the
\nAmerican way of life are naturally derided and hated ‘by the give-away boys.
\nThey say we favor the robber barons, the exploiters of labor, the slave-makers,
\nand those who grind humanity into poverty and starvation. So let’s set the
\nrecord straight. Everybody wants a state of welfare. We want it just as much
\nas the other fellow. No people in this whole world have ever done so much by
\nvoluntary contributions, not only of money, but of time and effort, to alleviate
\nhuman misery as have the p~ople of the United States. Of course we
\nwant to see other people besides ourselves decently fed and clothed and
\nhoused.
\nThe difference between our thinking and that of the give-away boys is that
\nwe refuse to admit that the only way to achieve a state of welfare is through
\nthe welfare state. In fact we are trying to point out that the end of the welfare
\nstate is just the opposite from a state of welfare. It is indeed a state
\nof bankruptcy. A state of welfare means a state of security with fears of
\nwant and suffering reduced — and no state of security comes from a bankrupt
\nstate. In fact the biggest single factor in the rise of Hitler and Nazism in
\n1-307
\nGermany was the collapse of German currency in the 1920’s when it took a
\nWheelbarrow load of paper money to buy a loaf of bread.
\nA nation of free, unregimented people that has built up by private enterprise
\nand under the capitalist system the highest living standard of any
\npeople on the earth can and will provide for all of its deserving population
\na state of welfare without taking the road to both bureaucracy and bankruptcy
\nthat is the welfare state.
\n1-308
\nLITTLE TALKS ON COMMON THINGS
\n47th Broadcast December 18, 1949
\nWhat was going on in Maine 75 years ago? Thanks to Chester Hussey of
\nWalnut Street, I have had an opportunity to peruse in detail the p~ges of
\nthe Maine State Year Book for 1873-74. Already the volume had become known
\nby its modern name of the Maine Register, for that is the title given on the
\nspine of the book.
\nSidney Perham of Paris was then Governor of Maine; our U. S. Senators
\nwere Lot M. Morrill and Hannibal Hamlin. They served in a Senate of 74 members,\u00b7
\ninstead of the present 96, because no longer than 75 years ago, at a time that
\na few people still living can remember, there were only 37 states. Arizona,
\nColorado, North Dakota, South Dakota, Idaho, Montana, utah, New Mexico, Oklahoma,
\nWashington and Wyoming had not yet been accepted into the Union. In
\nfact one of them, Oklahoma, didn’t exist even on the map, because it was only
\na part of the great Indian Territory.
\nMaine then had five representatives to Congress; two more than we are
\nnow allowed. They were John H. Burleigh of South Berwick, William P. Frye of
\nLewiston, James G. Blaine of Augusta, Samuel F. Hersey of Bangor and Eugene
\nHale of Ellsworth.
\nAlthough in 1873 no Waterville man was on the Governor’s Council and
\nnone held any of the thirty appointive offices in the state government at Augusta,
\na Waterville citizen, Edmund F. Webb, was speaker of the Maine House
\nof Representatives, and only two years earlier, in the itmnediate1y preceding
\nlegislature, Reuben Foster, another Waterville man, had been President of the
\nMaine Senate.
\nBack there, 75 years ago, the closer political issues came home to the
\n1-309
\nvoter, the more he was interested. In the state election in September a
\ntotal of more than 127,000 votes were cast, but two months later, in the
\nNovember presidential election, only 90,000 went to the polls. For Governor,
\nPerham, .the Republican, got 72,000 to 55,000 for Kimball, .the Democrat, a
\nplurality of 17,000. For President, Grant got 61,000 to Greeley’s 29,000, a
\nplurality of 32,000.
\nAlthough it is diverting from our central topic of what was going on in
\nMaine 75 years ago, this mention of the 1872 elections leads us to set straight
\na wrong impression that many people have about political control in Maine before
\nthe Civil War. Today Maine is looked upon by the rest of the country as
\nan extremely conservative state, economically and politically. So it is carelessly
\nassumed that in the years before 1860 the conservative Whig party,
\nsupporters of Henry Clay and antagonists of Andrew Jackson and his successors,
\nmust have controlled a majority of Maine votes.
\nThe facts are exactly the opposite. In 1830 the state election had been
\nclose. By a plurality of less than 2,000 votes, Samuel E. Smith of Wiscasset,
\nthe Democratic candidate, had beaten the Whig incumbent, Governor Jonathan
\nHunton of Readfield. Judge Smith was a man of exceptional ability and wide
\npopularity. Under his leadership — he served three terms as Governor — the
\nDemocratic party gained an ascendency which was only twice interrupted in 25
\nyears. Those two interruptions are interesting because they reveal the bitter
\npolitical struggle that went on for a dozen years between two of the most
\nvigorous fighters of the old days of hard hitting politics. Those two men
\nwere John Fairfield of Saco and Edward Kent of Bangor. Fairfield, the Democrat,
\nwas elected Governor four times, and every time Kent was his opponent.
\nTwice only, in 1$37 and 1840, did Kent beat the Saco man; the first time by
\nonly 579 votes, the second time by only 567 votes in a total of 91,000. After
\nFairfield went to the U. S. Senate in 1843 and Kent died, the Democrats
\n1-310
\nelected their Governors by large majorities for ten successive elections. Not
\nuntil the sensational rise of the Know Nothing party in 1854 was their supremacy
\nupset. In that year Anson P. Morrill of Readfield, supported by Maine
\nboss of the Know Nothings, Solon Chase, famous owner of “them steers”, got more
\nvotes than did the Democratic and Whig candidates combined.
\nBy the next year, 1855, most of the Know Nothings and many of the Whigs
\nhad already joined the newly formed Republican party. It may be a fact, as certain
\nhistorians allege, that present Republican strength in Maine is because
\nthe party got an early start in this state. A year before General Fremont became
\nthe first Republican candidate for President, and five years before the
\nparty elected its first president, Abraham Lincoln, Maine had a Republican
\nGovernor. The insecurity of the party labels in those hectic times is apparent
\nwhen we note that Maine’S first Republican Governor was the same Anson P. Morrill
\nwho had been elected as the Know Nothing candidate the year before.
\nNow let us get back to our original topic of Maine in 1873. More specifically
\nlet us consider Waterville in 1873. In that year the Maine Register
\nrecorded among Waterville merchants and manufacturers just three names now
\nfamiliar: Arnold, Redington and Hathaway. The book lists Arnold and Meader,
\nhardware; C. H. Redington, furniture and crockery; and C. F. Hathaway, manufacturer
\nof shirts.
\nBy the way, as I sat in the big audience that so thoroughly enjoyed and
\nso enthusiastically applauded the Colby Varsity Show, I noted in the program
\nthe attractive advertisement of the present Hathaway Company, and I wondered
\nwhat the founder of the business would have thought. For C. F. Hathaway is
\nsaid to have been a very austere, ultra-puritanical man. He and his wife
\ndressed in the simplest black. It is even alleged that he would never permit
\nornamental buttons on either her clothes or his. He was devoutly, Calvinistically
\nreligious, regarded even in his conservative day as a stern fundamen-
\n1-311
\ntalist.
\nWhat would Mr. Hathaway have thought of the gay music, the witty dialog,
\nand the feminine dress that marked the excellent musical comedy for which two
\nWaterville boys, Kenneth Jacobson and Bob Rosenthal, were responsible; all of
\nthe play’s catchy music being the composition of Jacobs9n, and the book the
\nwork of Rosenthal. Well, you know perfectly well what Mr. Hathaway, or any
\nchurch officer of his time would have thought. He wouldn’t, for anything,
\nattend even the theater, to say nothing of a musical show. That sort.of thing
\nwas the sure road to hell.
\nBut what of Mr. Hathaway, if he were living today? We easily make the
\nmistake of thinking that people stand still even if the world does not. That
\nvery seldom happens. The truth is that times change because people change. No
\nmore stupid saying was ever voiced than the statement, “You can’t change human
\nnature.” Of course you can. It is .. changing: all the 1:iM. So as I looked
\nat the Varsity Show program, I am sure that my second thoughts about Mr. Hathaway
\nwere better than my first. If he lived in Waterville today, he would
\nprobably have enjoyed that Varsity Show just as much as any of the rest of us.
\nSo change the times \u2022 . Although only three names well recognized today appeared among the merchants
\nof 1873, there were names in other vocations that have long been honored
\nin this community. L. T. Boothby and E. R. Drummond were insurance agents,
\nand the latter was town clerk. Solyman Heath was president of the Ticonic National
\nBank.
\nThe selectmen were Reuben Foster, then president of the Waterville Savings
\nBank, Winthrop Morrill and Noah Boothby. The town had six doctors of whom
\none was Frederick C. Thayer. There were four lawyers, the other two besides Mr.
\nHeath and Mr. Foster being E. F. Webb and F. A. Waldron. A citizen whom everyone
\nknew in those days was C. R. McFadden. In 1873 he was postmaster, auctioneer,
\n1-312
\n\\
\nand dry goods merchant. One of the justices of the peace was ReubenW. \u00b7Dunn.
\nThat 75 year old Maine Register lists only six manufacturing plants in
\nWaterville. Besides C. F. Hathaway and Company, what was later to be the
\nWaterville Iron Works was listed as Webber and Haviland, machinery and castings.
\nThe other four were J. Furbish, doors, sash and blinds; I. S. Bangs, flour;
\nW. H. Dow and Company, furniture; and Roberts and Marston, boot-shanks. No
\nweaving of cotton and woolen textiles, no making of paper, no pie plates and
\nplastics, no spools and. dowels. In fact the factories were then commensurate
\nwith the size of the town, for the population totaled 4,852 and the valuation
\nof all property was less than two million dollars.
\nThe 1873 clergymen were H. S. Burrage at the Baptist, James Cameron at
\nthe Congregationalist, A. W. Pottle at the Methodist, J. o. Skinner at the
\nUniversalist and D. H. Sheldon at the Unitarian. The beloved Father Charland
\nhad not then come to st. Francis; the pastor there was Father Halde.
\nMentioning Colby College, then called Colby University, the 1873 Register
\nlists the entire faculty, consisting of just seven persons: James T.
\nChampl.in, president; Samuel K. Smith, rhetoric; John B. Foster, ancient languages;
\nMoses Lyford, mathematics; Charles E. Hamlin, chemistry; Edward W.
\nHall, modern languages; Julian D. Taylor, tutor. It is interesting evidence
\nof the long linkages of time that I personally knew two of those seven faculty
\nmembers, though it was long after 1873 before I knew them. They were Edward W.
\nHall and Julian D. Taylor. As many of our listeners know, Dr. Taylor was an
\nactive member of the Colby faculty for 68 years.
\n*****
\nNow, tonight, let us have a little bit more about that ill-fated steamer,
\nthe City of Waterville. The late J. F. Hill and the late Fred Arnold were not
\nthe last survivors of the maiden voyage of that unlucky steamer. One man still
\nliving also took that embarassing trip from Bangor to Waterville 60 years ago.
\n1-313
\nHe is Albert F. Drummond, retired head of the Waterville Savings Bank. He
\nmissed the Bangor celebration — said to have been a wild one — the night
\nbefore the sailing, but he arrived in Bangor on the morning train in time to
\njoin the party that started on the steamer for Waterville.
\nMr. Drummond says the City of Waterville was part of a great vision and
\nan ambitious plan of William T. Haines to make Waterville the head of navigation
\non the Kennebec. It couldn’t be done. Not only was the railroad, with
\ntwo approaches to Waterville from the west, getting the traffic, but above
\nAugusta the old Kennebec just wasn’t suitable for steamers large enough to
\nwarrant the expense of operation.
\n*****
\nMr. David Howard, manager of the Colby College bookstore, has very kindly
\ngiven me a memorable photograph of one of the old-time snow rollers. It shows
\na roller in front of the J. H. Crosby farm on the Sunday River in Newry, Maine,
\nand the original negative from which Mr. Howard has made a fine, clear print
\nwas taken in 1922. The snow was deep everywhere in Maine that yea~. I was
\nthen living in Portland, which had a record 126 inches of snow that winter. To
\nmake things worse, there was a serious coal strike, and fuel was hard to get.
\nThe unusually deep snow doubtless accounts for eight horses being hitched
\nto the roller. Besides the driver, two other men are perched atop the vehicle.
\nStanding beside it is a teen-age boy with a snow shovel, and three smaller
\nyoungsters are looking on. The nigh horse of the leaders is a handsome white
\nfellow. While all the other horses in the picture are hanging tired heads, he
\nholds his nobly erect, with alert ears turned forward and nostrils opened wide.
\nI should like to have driven that horse.
\n*****
\nAbout a dozen years ago it was my privilege to introduce to a waterville
\naudience the lecturer and author, Maurice Hindus, who spoke on Czechoslovakia,
\n1-314
\nsaying that the nation which Hitler’s legions had just overrun would surely
\nrise aga~n. Then in 1946 I heard that son of a Czech patriot father and an –
\nAmerican mother — Jan Mazaryk — tell the audience at the Herald-Tribune
\nForum how his country was already rising from the ashes of the war. Two years
\nlater Mazaryk was dead, disillusioned and frustrated by what had happened to
\nhis country. Now at the turn of the year into the middle of the twentieth
\ncentury, Czechoslovakia presents to all the world the sorry spectacle of what
\nhappens when Communists take over a country.
\nGovernment workers are immediately purged. Newspapermen must follow the
\nparty line or go to jail. Leaders of all political parties must accept merger
\nwith the Communist front or be liquidated. All the courts are staffed by Communists.
\nAll businesses with more than 50 employees are taken over by the
\ngovernment. All farms of more than 125 acres are operated directly by the government~
\nsmaller farmers are for.ced to join Communist cooperatives. Every
\nteacher must follow the party line or lose his job. Priests and ministers
\nmust become state employees or be accused of treason. Church property is
\nseized and church funds confiscated.
\nThat is what happened to the proud little country of which Maurice Hindus
\nspoke so feelingly here in Waterville a dozen years ago. That is what has
\nhappened to Poland and Hungary. That is what the Communists are determined
\nshall happen in Italy and France. perhaps it will. But on one point every good
\nAmerican is determined: it shall not happen here.
\n1-315
\nLITTLE TALKS ON COMMON THINGS
\n48th Broadcast December 25, 1949
\nLast week we told you a bit about Maine and especially Waterville in 1873.
\nWhat was going on in Maine at that Christmas season 76 years ago? All was not
\njollity and merry-making. Just ended with a verdict of guilty was one of
\nMaine’s most famous murder trials. John T. Gordon of Thorndike, accused of
\nthe brutal murder of his brother and sister-in-law, had attempted to cover his
\ncrime by setting fire to the house.
\nQUite unlike the manner in which the modern press covers a murder trial,
\nBelfast’s weekly newspaper, the Republican Journal, dealt with the trial in
\nmuch the same manner as the British press now covers a homicide trial in England;
\nnamely, by factual, detailed report of the actual testimony. For instance,
\nthis is the way the report of the prisoner’s own testimony begins:
\n“I am the accused in this trial. Was 29 ,years old November first. Was
\nborn in Thorndike. Have had six brothers, four older and two younger. Lived
\nat home most of the time until 21. Almon (the murdered brother) was three
\nyears older than I am. Don’t know when he was married. Was on good terms
\nwith Almon. They charged me nothing for my board.”
\nBrief, cryptic sentences and stilted language of this sort is not connected
\nnarrative. It represents, in newspaper fashion of the time, the summary
\nof what were really answers to lawyers’ questions. But by the time you
\nhave read fifteen columns of this sort of writing in two issues of the Journal,
\nyou get a very clear picture of the crime and what the many witnesses
\nthought about it.
\nWhen the account reaches the point where the editor has inserted a one
\nword sub-head “verdict”, you look for a quick statement of the finish. But
\n1-316
\nyou look in vain. A modern reporter would be much annoyed by the leisurely
\nmanner in which the old Belfast editor approaches the point. He says:
\n“The jury retired at 10 o’clock. At ten minutes past eleven an officer
\ncame in and whispered to the sheriff, and it became known that a verdict had
\nbeen agreed upon and that the judge had been sent for. Soon the Chief Justice
\ncame in and took his seat. Associate Justice Dickerson sat upon the platform
\napart from the Chief. The Attorney General sat with folded arms at his table.
\nThe venerable father of the murdered woman and her brothers were present. Soon
\nthe jury filed in. Stillness ensued while waiting for the prisoner’s counsel.
\n“The silence within the chamber became painful. The gathered throng were
\noppressed with the feeling that a human life hung on the issue. The bright sun
\nshone in at the window, lighting up the hall with a warm glow. From the street
\ncame the merry sound of sleigh bells and the shouts of boys at play.
\n“The clerk commenced to call the list of the jury, each meIllber responding
\nto his name, and the crier keeping the count. Then, addressing the foreman,
\nthe clerk inquired, ‘Have you agreed upon a verdict?’ ‘We have.’ ‘Prisoner,
\nstand up and look at the foreman. Mr. Foreman, do you find the prisoner guilty
\nor not guilty?’ In a subdued voice the response came, ‘Guilty of murder in the
\nfirst degree.’ ”
\nMurder was not the only news in Maine that week before Christmas 76 years
\nago. A heavy gale struck the port of Rockland, sending three ships on the
\nrocks and bringing two schooners together at the entrance to the harbor.
\nIn 1873 Calais and Eastport were great ports of entry for foreign goods.
\nThe Passamaquoddy Revenue District, which included both of those towns, collected
\n$93,000 in customs fees that year, while Bangor had only $17,000, Bath
\n$11,000, and all Aroostook only $13,000. What was once the very important
\nport of Castine accounted for a tiny $375, and the once-thriving shipping
\ncenter of Kennebunkport took in only $6.29. Even the loyal Republican Journal
\n1-317
\nhad to lament: “It will be seen that the government paid out in the Belfast
\nDistrict $567 more than it collected.”
\nJust before Christmas of 1873 the editor of a little paper called the
\nClipper was brought before the Lewiston municipal court for contempt, because
\nhis paper had referred slurringly to the judge. The editor was found guilty
\nand fined ten dollars.
\nOnly two days before that Christmas of 1873 a big storm hit Maine, wind
\nand sleet doing a lot of damage in the Kennebec Valley. A week later one
\nnewspaper dolefully remarked: “We have received report from Washington that
\nthe big storm of last week was predicted, but the storm got here before the
\nprediction did.”
\nMeanwhile down in Ellsworth the sheriff had been engaged in a lively
\nscuffle with a hundred women. Long in the habit of staying around for chat and
\ngossip after court adjourned, the women were indignant when the sheriff ordered
\nthem to disperse. When the officer called two deputies to his aid, the fun
\nreally began. The Ellsworth paper described the ensuing action as Ita good deal
\nlike driving flies from the room”. The women would pour down the gallery on
\none side and up the other, flee into the ante rooms and closets. As fast as
\na few of them went out the door, twice as many more came in. Finally, fearful
\nQf missing their dinners, the officers tried persuasion instead of force.
\nThose milder tactics worked. The hall was soon cleared and everyone was happy_
\n*****
\nWe hear many glowing stories about what Christmas was like in the old
\ndays. Wherever and whenever Christmas has been celebrated, it has always been
\na happy and merry festival. But it hasn’t always been celebrated at all,
\neven in our part of the world. That old 1833 geography, of which we have previously
\nspoken, has this to say:
\n“The inhabitants of New England spend very little time in amusements.
\n1-318
\nwith the exception of Thanksgiving, they have no national holiday in the
\ndiversions of which both men and women find gaiety and joy. The Fourth of
\nJuly is a political anniversary; in its ceremonies men alone are engaged.
\nThe grave habits of the people, derived from their ancestors, their strict
\nreligious notions, the necessity for constant industry, are all opposed to
\nscenes of thoughtlessness and gaiety.”
\nThat quotation makes it clear that as late as 1833 Christmas was not
\ncommonly celebrated in New England. But, perhaps even more significantly, it
\nreveals that in the author’s mind Christmas was associated with jollity and
\nmerry-making, and was not merely a religious event. Where did he get that
\nidea? From England, of course, where flourished the kind of Christmas Dickens
\nwould make famous a few years later in “The Christmas Carol”; the kind of
\nChristmas Washington Irving had already described in the “Sketch Book”.
\nThe New England Puritans did indeed abhor, jollity, and thus repudiated
\neven the festivals of the church which in any way allowed merry-making. They
\nwere just as bitter against May Day, with its dances around the May Pole, as
\nthey were against Christmas games and feasting.
\nThis attitude of solemnity and severity in respect to religion was by no
\nmeans new when the pilgrims and Puritans came to America. As long ago as 245
\nAD one of the church fathers, Origen, denounced the idea of keeping the birthday
\nof Christ “as if he were a king or a Pharaoh”.
\nNo one knows just h?w or why December 25 was selected to celebrate the
\nSavior’s birth. In fact, before the fifth century, there was no general agreement
\nas to when it should come in the calendar, whether on January 6, March 25,
\nor December 25. There was no record nor any reliable tradition to prove the
\nexact day of Jesus’ birth. Even the exact year is still in dispute, though the
\nweight of authority sets the year as 4 BC. By a curious twist of reckoning,
\nthe mistake made in the early use of the Gregorian calendar amounted to four
\n1-319
\nyears, so that historically we must now make the paradoxical statement that
\nChrist was born four years before Christ.
\nIn one of the works of Hippolytus, written about 202 AD, appears this
\nstatement: “Jesus was born at Bethlehem on Wednesday I December 25, in the 42nd
\nyear of Augustus. II But many of the early churches would not accept that
\ndate. In fact the Syrian and Armenian churches accused the Roman Christians
\nof idolatry, because December Q5 had Tong been celebrated by the Romans as
\n“natalisinvicti solis”, the birthday of the conquered sun. So those who
\ncelebrated January 6 as Christmas naturally held to it because they hated the
\nidolatrous sun-worshipers of December 25.
\nAlways from remotest antiquity the celebration of the Savior’s birth
\nseems to have been a feast, a time of rejoicing, never a fast or time of solemnity.
\nThere is nothing irreligious or unseemly about making Christmas a
\nmerry time. In spite of Origen’s denunciation the Christians kept right on
\ncelebrating it as a gay festival, and finally they united on the common date
\nof December 25.
\nJust as the Romans had a pagan festival on December 25, so had the ancient
\nBritons. Before Christianity came to the British Isles, December 25
\nmarked the beginning of the Anglian year, was called “mother’s night”, and
\nwas marked with ceremonies appropriate to a new year’s birth.
\nAfter the Puritans had come to America, their fellow believers back home
\nin England had beheaded King Charles, set up the protectorate under Cromwell,
\nand had put the strict Puritan beliefs into political practice. When Charles
\nII came to the throne, he restored the Christmas festival, but for many years
\nafterwards the Scots upheld the Puritan view and continued to ban Christmas.
\nOutside the Teutonic countries — that is, the countries whose languages
\nderive from the ancient Germanic tongues, and these include England and the
\nunited States as well as Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands and the Scandina-
\n1-329
\nvian nations — outside the Teutonic countries Christmas presents are unknown.
\nThe Christmas tree was common in medieval Germany, but not in England. There
\nit was the Yule log.
\nOne aspect of Christmas in my boyhood days I now greatly miss. I wish
\nthe practice could be revived. I refer to the Christmas bells. All Christmas
\nmorning every church bell in my boyhood town was rung at intervals all the
\nforenoon — not tolled, but loudly and gaily rung. The sounds carried far
\nover the crisp winter air. People who lived as far away as Hio Ridge, nearly
\nfour miles from Bridgton Village, used to say that they could often hear those
\nbells on Christmas morning.
\nIn my boyhood town there probably weren’t half a dozen people who had
\never heard the chimes of a carillon. The giant carillons of the big cities are
\nstill expensive and rare. The great carilloneers, who control the range of
\nbells from tiny to huge, are few. But modern electronics and modern magnification
\nof sound have made possible beautiful and relatively inexpensive carillons
\nlike that in the Lorimer Chapel at Colby College. Thus many people
\nwere able to hear the Colby chimes last evening and today, and to hear also
\nthe magnified notes of the beautiful Mellon organ, playing the familiar Christmas
\nmusic.
\nSo, as we near the end of this beautiful Christmas Day, Ernest Marriner
\nand the Keyes Fibre Company join in wishing you a very merry Christmas.
\n1-321
\nLITTLE TALKS ON COMMON THINGS
\n49th Broadcast January 1, 1950
\nHere we are at the time of beginning again, the time of new resolutions
\nand new hopes, the time when merchants take account of stock and when it is
\nwell for individuals to take account of their lives. This New Year’s Day is
\nespecially significant, because it marks the middle of the century. Those of
\nus who have lived through all of it know what a wonderful yet terrible half
\ncentury it has been. How peacably and comfortably it began back there in 1900,
\nwhen there were no automobiles, no airplanes, no radios, and no world wars. Our
\nlittle one-round skirmish with Spain was over, William McKinley was in the
\nWhite House, our troops were putting down insurrection in the Philippines,
\nbusiness was good, the savings banks paid four per cent interest, and there
\nwere very few divorces.
\nWhat changes the half century has brought, not only in material inventions,
\nin rapidity of communication, in the horrors of global war, but also
\nin the relationship of the American to his government. The Central Maine farmer
\nor merchant or manufacturer of 1900 believed in free enterprise and independent
\nresponsibility; for his American democracy was government of and by
\nthe people; he could not think of it as government simply for the people.
\nFrankly, the less he had to do with governments, the better he liked it.
\nNo one in his right mind thinks we are going back to those independent
\ndays. The changes that have come are to a degree inevitable results of the new
\ntechnology, creating new relationships between the individual and his government.
\nYet it is quite possible that the pendulum is swinging much too far in
\nthe direction of government for the people. The next half century may very well
\nsee renewed emphasis upon the duties and responsibilities of democracy, rather
\nthan upon its benefits. Social security provisions, minimum wage laws, and
\n1-322
\nother benefits will certainly continue, but they can permanently continue
\nonly if the voters in our democracy clearly understand that when a government
\nwhich claims to be for the people is no longer made up of the people and
\ncontrolled by the people, the real freedoms of those people are forever lost.
\n*****
\nOUr listeners are still calling me up about Waterville cows. ~ere are
\nmany who think that Napoleon Marshall was an unusually’\u00b7lucky; bs>y, if Samuel
\nOsborne paid him 25 cents a week for driving a cow to and from pasture. According
\nto the experience of other young cow drivers, 25 cents would seem to have
\nbeen millionaire wages. ‘ Bert Drwmnond who, seventy or more years ago, drove
\nHomer Percival’s cow to pasture in what is now Averill Field on the County
\nRoad, received ten cents a week. Warren Moses, former proprietor of the Appleton
\nInn, received two dollars for the whole season, from the time the cow was
\nfirst turned out to pasture to the time when she was put in the barn for the
\nwinter. He was customarily paid one-half of his wages the munificent sum
\nof one dollar — a few days before the fourth of July, so that he might do a
\nbit of celebrating on the national holiday.
\n*****
\nDid you know that once the Waterville-Winslow community had a benefactor
\nmuch like the Bible character Joseph? You will recall that by shrewd planning
\nJoseph, as Pharaoh’s prime minister in Egypt, had stored up grain in years of
\nplenty as protection against years of famine. Then, when the famine came, Jo-,
\nseph’s hungry brothers came down from Palestine to be fed.
\nWell, over on the Benton Road in Winslow still stands a corn barn, where
\nin 1815 the great-grandfather of Herbert Simpson, the present owner, had stored
\na quantity of corn. Then came the memorable and terrible year of 1816, the year
\nthat was afterwards called the year without a summer. There was frost in
\nevery month of that. year. The corn crop was a complete failure, and very little
\n1-323
\nelse was grown. Real hardship hit the settlements of the Kennebec Valley.
\nIn the spring of 1817 word got around that there was corn on one Winslow farm.
\nPeople came on horse back, even on foot, from as far away as forty miles to
\nget just enough corn for seed. A few brought money, others brought things to
\nbarter, most brought nothing at all. But no one was turned away empty-handed.
\nThrough the whole region from Ticonic Falls to Wesserunsett those hard-hit,
\nscattered farms of the early settlers could have another crop of corn, thanks
\nto the foresight and the generosity of that Winslow Joseph in Egypt.
\n*****
\nVery early in the half century that has just closed, one of our nation’s
\nmost aggressive and dynamic presidents entered the White House. In 1901 the
\nassassination of President McKinley brought Theodore Roosevelt into the presidential
\nchair. How well we now remember the independence and initiative with
\nwhich the first Roosevelt wielded his Big stick and flashed his toothy smile.
\nIt is hard, so long after the event, to realize that there were many who
\nthought that Theodore would only be another tool of Mark Hanna and the Ohio
\ngang. In that September of 1901, Senator Frye of Maine had said: “Business
\nmen of the country have confidence in President Roosevelt, and are going on
\njust the same as if President McKinley were alive.”
\nBut the editor of the Waterville Mail was a better prophet than Senator
\nFrye. In his issue of September 25, 1901 he wrote: “Roosevelt has a way of
\ntelling newspaper men just as much of his business as he thinks fit, and then
\nwith a pleasant smile shutting his mouth and the door on them simultaneously.
\nThings may not go so smoothly for business with this man as president. He is
\nlikely to show both Mark Hanna and Wall Street that he is his own master.”
\nThose well remembered attacks of the first Roosevelt on Big Business have
\nnot died down during the fifty years, but in spite of all the attacks big business
\nis bigger than ever. As we review the past half century, we have a
\n1-324
\nright to ask whether the bigness of business has really been harmful to
\nAmerican life. Big Business, we have persistently been told, is crushing out
\nsmall business. We are informed that four companies provide 92% of all our
\nelectric lamps, four others make 90% of all our cigarettes, and four others
\nproduce 80% of our soap. Pretty soon there will be.DO such thing as small
\nbusiness, the critics shout. That is just what they said fifty years ago.
\nThe truth is otherwise, as U. S. News and World Report so clearly pointed
\nout in a recent issue. Big business could not exist without little business;
\nit is in fact little business’s best customer. One big electrical manufacturing
\nfirm depends on 31,000 dffferent suppliers of materials and parts.
\nTo sell its products it uses more than 290,000 dealers — small business men.
\nOne of the big tobacco companies does direct buying and selling with 80,000
\nother firms, most of them small businesses.
\nBig business units, unless they become real monopolies, shutting off
\ncompetition, are by no means evil. Without them we could not have modern American
\nindustry and the world’s highest standard of living. Mass production
\ncould never have reached its present efficiency without huge reserves of capital
\nconcentrated in large units. One company spent $27 million in eleven years,
\ndeveloping a synthetic material before the product became commercially successful.
\nAnother company spent more than a million developing a garbagedisposal
\nunit which took fifteen years to find a market.
\nWe should remember these facts when loud voices in Washington say they
\nare going to put an end to Big Business, even if they have to socialize the
\nindustries to do it. And while you’re remembering those facts, just remember
\nsomething else as well. Right now, when we still think we are a long way from
\nthe socialized state, the biggest business in America is the government of the
\nUnited States.
\n*****
\n1-325
\nIn spite of the quantities of oil and natural gas now used in industry,
\nthe nation’s factories still depend chiefly upon coal. Coal is absolutely
\nessential to our biggest manufacturing process, the making of steel.
\nWhat is the coal situation now with the miners on Mr. Lewis’ three-day
\nweek? Obviously it is not what Mr. Lewis intended. Production stays relatively
\nhigh because the miners are working harder. Though they are fed up with
\nstrikes, they believe totally . in Mr. Lewis. So they will strike again if he
\ncalls them out. But meanwhile\u00b7 by working harder under the plan by which
\nmost mines’ pay, by the tonnage produced, not by the hours worked, the miners
\nare fattening their earnings against the day when Mr. Lewis may call them out
\nagain.
\nCoal stocks are ample. The steel companies say they have plenty and are
\nnot worried. Production keeps level with use. As long as the three-day week
\ncontinues, there will be no shortage.
\nThe coal operators are in no hurry to settle on Mr. Lewis’ exacting terms.
\nEven if they did, the miners would soon be worse off, because there would then
\nbe too much coal. One operator is on record as saying that a permanent 3; day
\nweek would supply all the coal the nation would need except in a rare emergency
\nlike war.
\nBut Mr. Lewis is a stubborn man. The miners know that they already owe
\nhim a lot. We’ll let Drew Pearson do the predicting on what Mr. Lewis will do,
\nbut it doesn’t take much of a prophet to hazard a guess. If only to save face,
\nMr. Lewis may well call another strike. John L. has a real decision to make.
\nHe must decide whether his true interest is the welfare of the mine workers
\nor to save . t.I’le face of John L. Lewis.
\n*****
\nRecently Sir Stafford Cripps, British Chancellor of the Exchequer, made
\na statement that every American as well as every Englishman ought to take
\n1-326
\nseriously to heart. Bear in mind that Sir Stafford is an officer of Britain’s
\npresent labor-socialist government and a staunch member of the British Labor
\nParty. A press interviewer asked Sir Stafford this question:
\n“As a general proposition, though it is politically popular, do you believe
\nthat social security can be made economically sound in a democracy where
\npeople can vote themselves bigger and bigger benefits?”
\nNote carefully Sir Stafford’s reply. He said: “That depends upon the
\nresponsibility of the democracy. If it takes an irresponsible view of its obligations
\nso that it only regards the treasury as a deep till into which it can
\nperpetually dip its hand, we had better give up democracy. But I believe, by
\ngiving the people information and knowledge of the ecomomic facts, responsible
\nleaders can instill into the voters the realization that they themselves are
\nin fact paying for their own social benefits through taxation, and they must
\ntherefore exercise restraint in the way they utilize those benefits and in the
\namount of their demands.”
\nThe give-away boys in Washington will do well to heed those words of Sir
\nStafford Cripps.
\n1-327
\n\u2022
\nLITTLE TALKS ON COMMON THINGS
\n50th Broadcast January 8, 1950
\nAn unusual and highly appreciated gift came to me on Christmas eve. It
\nwas presented by one of the most helpful of the listeners to this program,
\nMr. Chester Hussey of Walnut Street. It is a very old book, printed at Worcester,
\nMassachusetts in 1798. But it is more than just an old book; it is
\na precious historical record. Its title is “Constitutions of the Ancient
\nand Honorable Fraternity of Free and Accepted Masons”. If the book contained
\nonly the constitutions and regulations of early masonic lodges in this country,
\nit would be valuable enough, but its inclusion of a carefully compiled
\nand fully documented history of the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts enhances
\nits value.
\nThe book was compiled by Rev. Thaddeus Harris, who was then chaplain of
\nthe Massachusetts Grand Lodge and an influential member of the Massachusetts
\nHistorical Society. Mr. Harris had worked under instructions from’ a committee
\nof the Grand Lodge, all of whom were doubtless estimable gentlemen, but
\nonly one of whom gained a place in history. That one was Paul Revere.
\nNow all members of the Masonic order and many non-II\\embe.rs are aware that
\nthere are two so-called roads to the higher ranks of Masonry, roads known as
\nthe York Rite and the Scottish Rite, deriving their privileges respectively
\nfrom the Grand Lodge of England and the Grand Lodge of Scotland. What few
\nMasons know, and what this old book clearly reveals, is that while Masonry in
\nAmerica began under the York Rite by virtue of a charter from the Grand Master
\n\/
\nof Masons in England, it was a rival grand lodge of the Scottish Rite, chartered
\nlater by the Grand Master of Scotland, which numbered among its members
\nmost of the famous New Englanders of the Revolution. What is even more interesting
\nand suggestive of some historical perplexity is the fact that this
\n1-328
\ngrand lodge which contained the most distinguished New England patriots was
\nactually founded by the British Army stationed in Boston. In that army were
\nthree so-called travelling lodges of the Scottish Rite. They petitioned the
\nMost Worshipful George, Earl of Dalhousie, Grand Master of Masons in Scotland,
\nto charter a grand lodge in New England. The Grand Master sent them
\na charter, dated May 30, 1769, appointing as New England Grand Master a young
\nman of 29 years, Joseph Warren. So it came about that the hero of Bunker
\nHill, the man who said, “Don’t fire until you see the whites of their eyes II ,
\nwho still a young man of 35 died under the charge of British bayonets, was ,.
\nthe first Grand Master of the first Scottish Rite lodge in America.
\nIf, as legend long contended, any Masonic lodge of Boston was mixed up
\nin the famous Boston Tea Party, it must have been Paul Revere’s own lodge of
\nthe Scottish Rite. To that branch of Masonry belonged also Samuel Adams and
\nJohn Hancock, James Otis and Josiah Quincy. Masonry itself in America was
\nmuch older than the Grand Lodge of the Scottish Rite, with its dynamic patriot,
\nPaul Revere, and its martyred hero, Joseph Warren. The earliest American
\nmasonry is of the York Rite. As this old book puts it, “in consequence
\nof an application from several brethren residing in New England to the Most
\nWorshipful Anthony, Lord Viscount Montague, Grand Master of Masons in England,
\nhe was pleased in the year 1733 to constitute the Right Worshipful Henry
\nprice, Provincial Grand Master of New England. II Thus began St. John’ s Grand
\nLodge, from which derived most of the masonic lodges in the other American
\ncolonies.
\nFor instance, in the following year 1734, they granted a charter for a
\nlodge in Philadelphia, appointing as the first master of that lodge none
\nother than Benjamin Franklin. On March 20,1762 they issued a charter for a
\nlodge at Falmouth on Casco Bay, which was of course the present City of Portland.
\nThe old book also records: “In December, 1735 sundry brethren, going
\n1-329
\nfrom Boston to South Carolina, and meeting with Masons there, formed a lodge
\nat Charleston; from whence sprung masonry in those parts.”
\nThe Revolution seems to have hit the older York Rite Grand Lodge harder
\nthan it did the young Grand Lodge of the Scottish Rite. To discover reason
\nfor this would make an interesting bit of historical research, for it might
\nreveal much about relations between those lodges travelling in the,British
\nArmy stationed in Boston and the lodges that included men like John Hancock
\nand Paul Revere. At any rate this old book shows the records of the older
\nEnglish Grand Lodge closing at the minutes of the meeting and election of
\nofficers on January 27, 1775, and not resuming until February 17, 1787. Between
\nthe two minutes the historian has inserted these words: “On April 19th
\nhostilities commenced between Great Britain and America. From which period a
\nchasm is made in this history. War, with its attendant distractions, interfered
\nwith the peaceful plans of this philanthropic institution. Boston became
\na garrison and was abandoned by many of its former inhabitants. The regular
\nmeetings of the Grand Lodge were terminated, and the brethren held no
\nassembly until after the conclusion of the contest and the establishment of
\npeace. ”
\nOn the other hand the Scottish Grand Lodge kept going, after a fashion,
\nright through the turbulent days of the Revolution. The record states: “The
\npolitical events of the year 1775 produced affecting changes in the state of
\nmasonry. How to convene the Grand Lodge with regularity became a serious question,
\nespecially since with the death of Grand Master Warren at Bunker Hill
\nthe commission of Grand Master had died with him. Communications among the
\nbrethren were held at various times and places until on March 8, 1777, for
\nthe purpose of setting up a proper establishment and of softening the rigors
\nof a distressing war, they formed an independent grand lodge.” That lodge
\nsucceeded in holding regular meetings straight through the war.
\n1-330
\nIn 1792 the two grand lodges, York Rite and Scottish Rite, agreed to
\nunite into one independent grand lodge, which has ever since been k~own as
\nthe Grand Lodge of Massachusetts. The new constitution of the united lodge
\nwas dedicated to “our illustrious brother, George Washington, the friend of
\nmasonry, of his country and of man”. In 1794 the United Grand Lodge elected
\nas its master one who had served the old Scottish Grand Lodge successively
\nas junipr grand warden, senior grand warden and deputy grand master. He was
\nnone other than the silversmith and bell founder who had made the famous midnight
\nride 19 years before — Master Paul Revere.
\n*****
\nHow much do individual Americans spend in a year? About $180 billion,
\nan average of $1,200 for every man, woman and child in the United states.
\nThis is exclusive of taxes. In 1950 individual spending is expected to reach
\nthe highest level in our history. The prediction of both government and private
\nanalysts is that this year the total spendable funds will be boosted to an extent
\nof 2, billions by refund on veterans’ insurance and other factors. But,
\nlest we get too complacent,. what will corne after 1950? While the answer is
\nanyone’s guess, common sense tells us that there will corne a day when our people
\nwill have all the automobiles and appliances they can pay for, or even
\nmortgage the future for, as many of them do now. Steadily rising production
\nmay somewhere reach a saturation point. Then will come the real test to determine
\nwhether the united States had found the answer to stable prosperity. That
\nis why some of us keep shouting against continued government deficits in good
\ntimes. There can be no stable prosperity in a bankrupt state. If government
\nspending increases year after year in time of rising production, what is going
\nto happen when production begins to decline, when unemployment sets in? The
\nwise householder tries to have something laid aside for a rainy day_ Uncle
\nSam, on the contrary, seems to be ripping off the shingles in fair weather, to
\n1-331
\ngive the rain a better chance to soak the house.
\n*****
\nIn spite of the signs, that we are moving into the welfare state, there
\nare other signs that indicate the American people’s steadfast belief that the
\ncare of dependents rests first upon the head of the family, not on the welfare
\nworker in Augusta or Washington. This program is devoted to common things, and
\none of the commonest in our day is life insurance. It is one of America’s biggest
\nbusi~esses. A lot of us pay premiums regularly into the treasuries of the
\ninsurance compan’ies. While those companies wait for the day when they must
\nmake payment to our beneficiaries, what do they do with our money? Right now
\n49 companies have $52 billions of that money. They have invested $36 billions
\nof it in bonds, of which $14 billions is in government bonds. They have $10
\nbillions in mortgages, a billion in stocks, another billion in real estate,
\nand three billions in other assets.
\nPolicies now in force amount to more than $200 billions. The average amount
\nof insurance per family is $4,800. There are two policy holders for every family
\nin the country. Obviously the American people believe in life insurance.
\n***** .
\nOne of the most common, exciting incidents of half a century ago was the
\nrunaway horse. Several times a year such an occurrence would stimulate the rather
\ndull life of a country village. Even larger towns, like Waterville, had
\ntheir exciting runaways. One of my neighbors recently called my attention to
\nan item in the Waterville Mail of September 25, 1901. It reads:
\n“Saturday a horse belonging to C. A. Hill’s stable and attached to a buggy
\nstanding on Common Street near Main gave a sudden start, freed himself from the
\ncarriage, and ran up Main Street to his stable. When he started, a young lady
\nwas thrown violently out. She struck with some force, but except for the mud
\n1-332
\nwhich clung to her clothes, she apparently sustained no injury. She took
\nthe thing very calmly, got up and brushed herself as if it were a common
\noccurrence, said she was not hurt, and indulged in no hysteria.”
\nNow let us get back to some of those old-time happenings in Waterville
\nand vicinity. How many of our listeners remember the mail robbery at the
\nwaterville station about 60 years ago? Herbert Simpson of Winslow recalls it
\nwell, for he was one of the young boys who found letters scattered in the
\npine grove on the east bank of the river, where part of the H & W mill now
\nstands. A mail bag had been snatched from the station platform, carried across
\nthe river on the ice, and ripped open by the robbers in the old pine
\ngrove.
\n*****
\nMr. Simpson also remembers the spring and fall when the local people
\nwere frightened and mystified by weird sounds that issued from the river banks
\nabove the college. Frightened horses ran away, and posses spent many nights
\ninvestigating with lanterns, but the mystery, says Mr. Simpson, was never
\nsolved. However, Bert Drummond, who was himself in college a few years after
\nthe incident, says it was no mystery at all. The fact that the noises which
\nissued so weirdly on the spring air stopped during the summer. but resumed
\nin the fall, should have been enough evidence that college pranksters were at
\nwork. If one wants further evidence, let it be recalled that a young fellow
\nwho never let himself be left out of any lively event was then in college.
\nHe was J. Frederick Hill.
\n*****
\nThe copy of the waterville Mail to which I have already referred -issued
\nhalf a century ago — contained some interesting advertisements. Daily
\nsummer service was advertised for steamers from Augusta to Boston. In the
\nThayer block was a garment cutting school, which advertised: “Ladies can
\n1-333
\nreceive personal instruction drafting all styles of garments by accurate and
\nscientific measurements. Cording, tucking and featherboning taught without
\nextra charge.” Humphrey 1 s Medicine was advertised to “cure fever. infants’
\ndiseases, rheumatism, whooping cough, kidney disease, colds and grip”. The
\ngrand opening of Clukey-Libby Company’s new department store was announced.
\nWhen I first came to Waterville in 1909 that store was in full swing at the
\ncorner of Main and Silver Streets.
\n*****
\nThe railroads were having their troubles fifty years ago. That old issue
\nof the Waterville Mail contains the following item:
\n“The Maine Central has been having hard luck with its freight trains of
\nlate, and is not likely to have smooth sailing until all the cars are equipped
\nwith air brakes. Stopping the front end of a train while the rear end proceeds
\nmerrily along on its way is pretty sure to cause trouble.”
\n*****
\nWho can come up with the tallest story about fantastic animals of the
\nMaine woods? There are some great yarns about the rat-tailed bambaloosa and
\nthe purple fillyoo. Then there was the famous red-backed, horse-tailed buck,
\ncommonly known by Maine guides and shown by them to distinguished visitors from
\nout of state.
\nBut one of the most versatile of those animals was the ring-tailed plunkus
\nwhich my great grandmother used to tell about down on the old farm at West Gorham.
\nShe claimed that her uncle over in Buxton once tamed one of the critters
\nand used it for three seasons to thresh out his grain with its tail. Then the
\npoor critter died of the measles.
\n1-334
\nLITTLE TALKS ON COMMON THINGS
\n51st Broadcast January 15, 1950
\nOne of our commonest sayings is, “Time flies”. How fast the weeks go
\nby! I cannot make it seem possible that tonight’s is the fifty-first of
\nthese unimportant broadcasts on common things. Frankly the program was started
\nwith the idea that it might last for a dozen weeks, but certainly not
\nlonger. How the radio audience and our public spirited sponsor, the Keyes
\nFibre Company, have endured our simple, inconsequential talks for more than
\nfifty weeks passes comprehension.
\nBut, anyhow, we have passed the half-hundred mark in these broadcasts,
\nas we stand past the half-century mark in the calendar, and with our listeners’generous
\nindulgence we’re going right on toward the hundred mark.
\n*****
\nJust as we suspected there are a lot of men in this vicinity who once
\npumped the old pipe organs. One man who has had a lot of experience, not
\nonly with organ pumping, but also with other matters pertaining to church
\nlife in Waterville, is Frank Littlefield, present sexton of the Methodist
\nChurch. Mr. Littlefield says that, for a great period of time many years ago,
\nhe, Ted Branch and Harry Vose were the regular organ pumpers at three Waterville
\nchurches.
\nErnest Davis, sexton at the First Baptist Church, pumped the organ at
\nthe Freeport Baptist Church some fifty years ago. The pastor of that church
\nwas the greatly revered Dr. George Merriam, who was afterwards pastor of
\nBethany Church in Skowhegan for more than a quarter of a century — a remarkable
\nman, who had the distinction of occupying only three pastorates in his
\nactive ministry of more than sixty years.
\n1-335
\nAnother organ pumper was Edgar.Brown, former postmaster and former secretary
\nof the Chamber of Commerce. In the early years of this century he
\npumped the organ at the unitarian Church. Both Warren Philbrook, afterwards
\na justice of the Maine Supreme Court, and his wife were members of the choir.
\nEdgar used to take time out, actually leaving the building sometimes during
\nthe evening sermon, which usually lasted twenty minutes. That worked all
\nright until one evening when the minister cut his sermon shorter than usual.
\nAs Edgar went back into the church he heard the organ. Llewel.lyn Cain, the
\nbass singer in the choir, had noted Edgar’s absence and manned the pump.
\nEddie Osborne, the well known Maine Central Railroad employee, and son of
\nSamuel Osborne, the Colby College j ani tor whom hundreds of students knew and
\nloved, tells me that when he was a boy in Waterville High School, he pumped
\nColby’s first pipe organ. Colby men and women of my own student days remember
\nwell the organ that stood in the northwest corner of the old chapel in Memorial
\nHall. In my time Cecil Daggett usually played it, or some student acting
\nas understudy for Cecil. But twenty years earlier, when the organ was first
\ninstalled, the organist was Charles Spencer of the class of 1891, a man who
\nhas returned regularly for his class reunions at Colby, and Spencer’s organ
\npumper was Eddie Osborne, son of the college janitor. Charles Spencer, by the
\nway, was son of the man who had the longest service of any minister of the
\nlocal First Baptist Church, a pastorate of 21 years.
\nThe best reminiscences of organ pumping reach us from Eugene Crawford,
\nwho has more than once helped us with other items on this program. He offers
\nhimself as one of the oldest local members of the Ancient and Honorable Order
\nof Organ PUmpers, having been initiated into that company 69 years ago. Gene
\nwas one of the many pumpers of that day who did the job “free for nothing”.
\nSome of the fellows were luckier. Ernest Davis was paid tep. cents per hour.
\nEdgar Brown got 35 cents a Sunday for two services. But most of the boy
\n1-336
\npumpers, like Crawford, whose folks made them go to church, were glad to
\npump the organ to get out of sitting still in a pew and listening to a sermon.
\nMany a dime novel has been read in the pumping alcove behind the organ, but
\nthere is no record of anyone reading a dime novel in a pew.
\nIs organ pumping hereditary? Mr. Crawford’s son Earle, many years after
\nhis father’s experience, pumped the organ at the Waterville Universalist
\nChurch. Mr. Crawford recalls two choice incidents of his own organ-pumping
\ndays. In his boyhood church the choir sat back of the minister, between him
\nand the organist. At that time the minister was a solid expounder of hellfire
\nand brimstone, whose sermons could rival Cotton Mather’s famous eruption
\non “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”. One Sunday just as the minister
\nreached the most singeing and frying point of his firey sermon, a
\nprankish lady member of the choir lighted a bunch of those old brimstone
\nmatches we were talking about on this program a few weeks ago. Anyone who
\never smelled one of those old matches, much less a whole bunch of them, can
\nimagine what happened. There was no choir the next Sunday.
\nMr. Crawford’s second story concerns the new minister over whom dissention
\narose in the church. One of the trustees who opposed the new man
\nwent to the village bank and forbade them to pay the pastor I s salary. When
\nthe cashier informed him that the pastor had already been in and received his
\nsalary, the trustee exploded, “Don’t that man beat the devil”. To which the
\ncashier answered, “I thought that was what you hired him for”. Well, so
\nmuch for the old hand-pumped organs. If not already a lost art, organ-pumping
\nwill soon be that. The electric blower and the electric organ have put
\nthe old organ””pumper out of a job.
\n*****
\nDo you remember the old castoria ads? Here’s one that appeared in an
\nAugusta newspaper in 1889:
\n1-337
\n“When baby was sick we gave her Castoria.
\nWhen she was a child, she cried for Castoria.
\nWhen she became Miss, she clung to Castoria.
\nWhen she had children, she gave them Castoria.”
\nIt seems as if Castoria ran through families.
\n*****
\nNow we must get in a word about railroads again. Even in what seemed their
\nheyday, the old electric street railways were not always lucrative investments.
\nThe annual report of the Benton and Fairfield Railway for the year 1900
\nshowed gross earnings of $8,000, expenses of almost $7,000 and fixed charges
\nof $1,000, leaving a new balance of $19.11.
\nSpeaking of railways, Waterville is not the only locality where folks are
\nstill interested in the old narrow \u00b7guage railroads. A few weeks ago, down in
\nAugusta, a good story about the Sandy River and Rangeley Lakes line reached
\nthe\u00b7 columns of the Kennebec Journal. The story goes that one autumn morning a
\nsweet little old lady got on at Farmington and asked the conductor to let her
\nknow when they reached Madrid. The train was more heavily loaded than usual
\nand had difficulty getting up the steep grades. After much puffing and heaving
\nit finally reached Redding Siding. The conductor, who had been much concerned
\nabout the train’s progress, suddenly remembered the old lady. Madrid
\nnow lay some ten miles back. The conductor hurried up ahead and confided his
\nplight to the engineer. The two agreed that the honor of the road was at stake,
\nand there was nothing to do but back the train back to Madrid. So the engineer
\ninched the creaking cars backward down the line for ten slow miles. When they
\nfinally got back to Madrid the conductor entered the passenger car, tapped the
\nold lady on the shoulder, reached for her baggage to help her alight, and
\nsaid, “Madam, here we are at Madrid”. “Oh, no, don’t take my suitcase”, she
\nsaid. “I’m going through to Rangeley. Dr. Nichols told me to be sure to take
\n1-338
\nanother pill when we got to Madrid.”
\nThat story is good enough to have happened on any railroad, even on myoId
\nBridgton and Saco River. But the sticklers for fact won’t have it so.An irritated
\nand somewhat belligerent correspondent immediately wrote to the Journal,
\npointing out that there was no such station as Madrid on the Sandy River
\nline. The correspondent says, “There never was a Madrid station~ The Berlin
\nMills Company had a mill on the railroad between Phillips and Redington at
\none time, and I believe passengers sometimes\u00b7stopped there and drove by team
\nto Madrid. The train left Phillips in exactly the opposite direction from
\nthe carriage road that went to Madrid.” What about it, you old railroad fans?
\nDid or did not the Sandy River have a Madrid Station?
\nThe same correspondent says the legend that passengers used to fish out of
\nthe train wi.ndows in the passing trout streams is sheer myth. Even yarns about
\nwalking behi.nd the train as it puffed up grade is a figment of the imagination.
\nWell, now, we Cumberland County boys never handed anything to that Sandy
\nRiver line anyway. For a good, old, honest-to-goodness walking line, give us
\nthe Bridgton and Saco River. I can name you half a dozen other fellows besides
\nmyself Who have alighted from that train as it failed to make the grade
\nfrom Bridgton Junction to Rankin’s Mill, and have picked mayflowers while the
\ntrain backed down to the junction and got a fresh start. As it inched its way
\nby the spot where we got off, we’d climb aboard again. Now j9st let some
\nstern stickler for facts come along and tell me that’s all in my imagination!
\nWell, who has any more good narrow guage stories? We can still use them.
\n*****
\nIt seems to me that one of the nicest things said to and about us Americans
\nat this mid-point in the twentieth century was said by Allan Nevins, one
\nof our greatest living historians, in the New Year issue of Life magazine. I
\nhave no doubt many of you who are listening tonight have already seen that
\n1-339
\nexcellent article. If so, you will not mind my calling your attention again
\nto its inspired closing sentences. And for you who have not read the article,
\nthe statements should be equally welcome.
\nAs we see developing a more and more bitter struggle between independent
\nbusiness and socialistic enterprise, between earned economy and the welfare
\nstate, it is good for us to heed these words from the man who has twice won
\nthe Pulitzer Prize for American Biography_ He says:
\n“The American of 1950 does not expect worldly redemption by appeal to the
\nsingle authority either of Big Business or of Big Government. He is more and
\nmore aware that the traditional contradiction between the two is false. World
\nWar II dramatically demonstrated what the two, in alliance, could achieve. As
\nthe half century ends, the man of business realizes that he must display a
\nsense of responsibility about political affairs, even in remote areas of the
\nearth. The man of government realizes his own need for the talents and practical
\nexperience of the business man.
\n“The American of 1900 turned away from principles, from abstract ideals,
\nfrom absolutes and origins. He turned toward concreteness, toward fact, toward
\nthings of size and shape .and color, toward action and power.
\n“Of action and power the American of 1950 has had quite enough. But in
\nthe age of the atom, in the fresh memory of the Second World War, in the harrowing
\nmenace of a third, concreteness and facts seem less compelling and not
\nat all satisfying. To bury his dead with pride and dignity, to arm the living
\nwith hope as well as a gun, to comfort his brain as well as his stomach, today’s
\nAmerican seeks out fixed moral principles. He is doggedly determined
\nto probe for those absolute values — real, not pretended — by which he may
\nbe judged and which distinguish his cause from “the nation that is not holy”.
\n1-340
\nLITTLE TALKS ON COMMON THINGS
\n52nd Broadcast January 22, 1950
\nAllover the world legends and myths have long been taken for fact. Tell
\na story often enough and convincingly enough,’ and plenty of people will believe
\nit. It is even possible to tell an imagined yarn so often that the teller
\ncomes to believe it himself.
\nNot even conservative, hard-headed Yankee Maine is immune from these
\nill-founded beliefs. For instance, ever since I can remember anything at all
\nabout Maine history, I have been told that Freeport is the birthplace of
\nMaine, and like many of our listeners I have seen the marker in that town
\nthat so declares. But it just isn’t true.
\nThat the story is a mere legend, a kind of myth, was first brought to my
\nattention only a few months ago, in a conversation with our State Librarian,
\nMrs. Marion Stubbs. We had been chatting about Maine lore for ten minutes
\nwhen she asked, “Can you tell me where the story started that Freeport is the
\nbirthplace of Maine? You know”, she continued, “the documents of the Constitutional
\nConvention and of the meetings leading up to it do not mention
\nFreeport.”
\nThat was enough to set me off, and I was sure I had a good chance of
\nsuccess, for the wives of three members of the Colby College faculty all
\nspent their girlhood days in Freeport. Sure enough, one of those women brought
\nto my attention a book written in 1940 by Florence Thurston and Harmon Cross,
\na book entitled “Three Centuries of Freeport, Maine”.
\nNow local histories are not noted for their honest presentation of debunking
\nfacts, especially when such facts smash the old idols of local pride.
\nThis history of Freeport therefore deserves critical approval, for it bluntly
\n1-341
\ndeclares that there is no truth in the story that the State of Maine was born
\nin Freeport.
\nThe story, persistently circulated for more than a hundred years, has
\nbeen that the papers necessary to separate Maine from Massachusetts were signed
\nin the old Codman Tavern in Freeport on March 15, 1820 by commissioners empowered
\nto perform the act.
\nWhat are the facts? From 1784 to 1820 the separation issue was hotly debated.
\nIn 1791 a popular vote showed 2,084 in favor of separation and 2,438
\nopposed. Again in 1797 the people favored continuing the tie with Massachusetts.
\nBut, in a popular poll taken in 1816, ten thousand favored separation,
\nagainst seven thousand opposed. Nothing came of it, however, until 1819 when
\nelections for representatives from the District of Maine in the Massachusetts
\nLegislature were campaigned almost solely on the separation issue. As a result
\nevery Maine man in the Massachusetts Senate and 114 out of 127 Maine men in
\nthe Massachusetts House of Representatives came out flatly and emphatically
\nfor separation.
\nThe Massachusetts Legislature then voted to refer the subject to a joint
\ncommittee of Senate and House, on which Maine itself was well represented. Upon
\nrecommendation of that committee, the Legislature voted to let the District of
\nMaine cast a final, decisive vote on the question of separation. The vote provided
\nthat if a majority of 1,500 or more should favor separation, the Governor
\nof Massachusetts should proclaim the result and Maine would then choose
\nmembers of a convention to meet in Portland to draw up a state constitution.
\nPending the ratification of the new constitution by the people, the Constitution
\nof Massachusetts would apply to the new state. But, whatever the result
\nof the vote on the constitution, the District of Maine was to become a state
\non March 15, 1820, provided the consent of Congress was first obtained.
\nBy 17,000 voting in favor to only 7,000 against the District voted offi-
\n1-342
\ncially for separation. Governor Brooks of Massachusetts proclaimed the result,
\nand on March 3, 1820 President Monroe signed the bill making Maine a
\nseparate sovereign state. So, the provisions of the Massachusetts legislative
\nact having now been fulfilled, Maine became a state on March 15 of that
\nyear.
\nMeanwhile on October 17, 1819 the constitutional convention had held
\nits first meeting in Portland, and after much debate had selected the name
\nof Maine for the new state. They held other meetings before the constitution
\nwas finally drafted, but no meeting in Freeport.
\nHow then did the story ever bring Freeport into the picture? Irony of
\nironies, what actually happened was that a meeting of a group of men opposed
\nto separation was held in Freeport. Eighteen men from Cumberland, Kennebec
\nand Lincoln Counties, m~n whose names are all recorded and include such well
\nknown persons as Jacob Abbott of Farmington, Stephen Longfellow of Portland
\n(father of the poet), William Barrows of Hebron (founder of Hebron Academy) \u2022
\nand Benjamin\u00b7 Dunning of Bath. Those eighteen men met in a tavern at Freeport,
\ndrew up and signed a broadside against separation a few days before the matter
\nwent to popular vote in the fall of 1819. Far from signing any papers that
\nmade Maine a state, those men , who were not constitutional delegates or commissioners
\nof any sort, signed, in their private capacities, a paper intended
\nto prevent Maine from becoming a state. So, instead of declaring itself the
\nbirthplace of Maine, Freeport ought to proclaim itself as the town where Maine
\ncouldn’t be stopped from being born.
\n*****
\nThis is a census year. Again the census taker comes to our homes and asks
\na lot of questions. So efficient and so highly developed are the statistical
\nservices of the government that estimates are already being made of what the
\n1950 census will show. It will reveal that our nation now numbers 151 million
\n1-343
\npeople, an increase of 19 million in the past ten years. In 1940 we were told
\nthat population growth was slowing up, that the United States could not continue
\nto increase its people nearly so rapidly in the future. Instead of
\nseriously slowing up, the increase continued at such a rate that since 1940
\nwe have added more people than there are in all Mexico and nearly half as
\nmany as in all France. It is an increase equal to the total population of
\nfive cities as big as Chicago. Never before have so many people been added
\nto our population in any ten year period.
\nFor the first t~e in our history the 1950 census will show more women
\nthan men. In 1940 the nation had 66 million males and 65i million females.
\nIn 1950 we have 75,200,000 males, but 75,800,000 females. The relative increase
\nis in the number of women in the older age groups; there is actually
\na decrease in the proportion of unmarried women. There is no oversupply of
\nmarriageable girls. Today, on the average, women live longer than men, whereas
\nin pioneer days men usually outlived their wives.
\nElderly people past 65 made up 6.7% of the population in 1940; today
\nthey account for 7.5%. Young people under 20 likewise, though increasing in
\nabsolute numbers, have just held their own percentagewise. Now 52 million of
\nthem account for 34% of the total population, exactly as only 45 million of
\nthem did ten years ago.
\nThe trend which must receive increasing, hard-headed attention is the
\never-lessening proportion of the working age group. Considering the usual
\nworking age from 20 to 64, those persons, who formed 60% of the population
\nin 1940, have now fallen to 58%. It is members of that working group who must
\nsupport most of the people over 65 and under 20. As the working group forms
\na smaller and smaller fraction of the total population, ‘their financial burden
\nbecomes individually greater. Here is the heart of a major economic problem
\nin the United states. In the face of these shifting age groups, how shall
\n1-344
\nwe finance old age pensions and increased costs of educating the young without
\nplacing a crushing burden on the individual wage earner? Somehow in America
\nwe must find the answer to that question.
\nQuite a change has taken place in family incomes during the past ten
\nyears. In 1940 only two families in five had an income over $2,000 a year;
\ntoday three families in four have that income. The family income group from.
\n$2,000 to $3,000 has remained about the same proportion, 21% in 1940 and 20%
\nin 1950. But, where only one family in ten had income from $4,000 to $5,000
\nin 1940, the proportion is now two families in ten. In 1940 only one family
\nin twenty had income over $5,000; now one family in five has that income.
\nFigures, however, can be misleading. A lot of people insist that many
\nfamilies are little better off than they were before, when they had lower income.
\nWhen a skeptic and debunker of historical legends once said he doubted
\nwhether George Washington ever threw a dollar across the Rappahannock River,
\nhe was reminded that it might have been possible, because a dollar went farther
\nin those days. We won’t take any more time on that point tonight, but
\nin a week or two we shall show you that the facts clearly indicate that in
\nrelative income — that is, income related to prices — we are actually better
\noff today than we were twenty years ago.
\nAnother thing the 1950 census will make alarmingly clear. We are very
\nrapidly becoming a nation of city dwellers. Probably we need have no fear of
\nbecoming wholly such, for wherever we live we must somehow eat, and somebody
\nmust raise food to feed us. Of the hundred and thirty million people in the
\nUnited States in 1940, thirty million or nearly a quarter of them lived on the
\nfarms. Today only 28 million out of 151 million are farm dwellers, or less
\nthan a fifth.
\nWhat about homes? Have we made any dent in the housing problem in these
\nten years? In 1940 we had 34,800,000 dwelling units; today we have 48,800,000,
\n1-345
\nan increase which is more than double the increase in the number of families.
\nAs for home equipment, the 21 million homes having bathtub or shower in 1940
\nhave now increased to 31 million, and the 28 million homes with radios are
\nnow 40 million.
\nYes, indeed, the 1950 census is going to show a lot of interesting and
\nchallenging things about this America in which we live.
\n*****
\nA few weeks ago I mentioned an old record of Massachusetts masonry which
\nhad recently come into my possession. The donor, Mr. Chester Hussey, has now
\nfavored me again, this time with a book which answers a question that had long
\npuzzled. me — why are masons called “Free and Accepted Masons”? The marshall
\nof my own masonic lodge at the time of my initiation was a Civil War veteran
\nwho had held the office of marshall in that same lodge for forty years. I once
\nasked him why the term ‘~Free and Accepted Masons”? He had no idea.
\nOne of America’s most interesting and controversial clergymen of a generation
\nago was Joseph Fort Newton, a man who rather late in life left the ministry
\nof the Universalist Church and became an Episcopalian. Newton was always
\ndeeply interested in Masonry. In 1914, when he was pastor of a church in Iowa,
\nNewton wrote a book called, “The Builders — a Story and Study of Masonry”.
\nThen years later, when he was pastor of the Church of the Divine paternity in
\nNew York City, Newton revised and extended the book. It is that revised edition
\nWhich I recently received from Mr. Hussey. In it Newton makes completely
\nclear the reason for the two. adjectives qualifying the name of masons.
\nFree masons were originally operative masons, members of masonic lodges
\nwho practiced the trade of construction with stone and brick. For many years
\nperhaps for centuries — masonic lodges contained only operative members. Then
\nin the seventeenth century, in England at least, what were called speculative
\nmembers were admitted — men Who were not masons or in any other building
\n1-346
\ntrade, but men who were interested in the principles and ideals for which
\nmasonry stood.
\nThe operative members — the free masons — were called free because as
\nmaster workmen they were free to journey from town to town, to sell their
\nservices to any who would employ them. In medieval and early modern times
\nthat was a rare privilege. Most men had to stay put, in the towns where they
\nwere born or were placed in apprenticeship. Only the master workman in a
\nbuilding trade had the free right of travel.
\nSuch men became members of masonic lodges as free masons. Then when the
\nspeculative masons were admitted, they were called accepted masons, not masons
\nby right of trade and the master mason’s mark, but by virtue of being acceptable
\nto those operative masons, for association with them in the common principles
\nand common social tasks of the masonic fraternity.
\nHence to this day the masonic order, now spread allover the world, is
\ncalled “Free and Accepted Masons”.
\n*****
\nA hundred years ago a thriving and significant part of this community was
\nthe section still called Ten Lots. Now there must be many of our listeners who
\nknow interesting items about the Ten Lots neighborhood. Please write me or call
\nme, if you know any such items.
\nMr. H. F e. Sturtevant, who is one of the present residents of that section,
\ntells me that the neighborhood originally consisted of 2,000 acres of land,
\ndivided into ten lots of 200 acres each. He says the grant was made about 200
\nyears ago. Does anyone know the exact date, and who were the original owners
\nof the lots?
\nMr. Sturtevant lives in one of the oldest houses, the lumber for which
\nwas sawed at an old up-and-down saw mill on the pond back of\u00b7 the house, a pond
\nfed by what is now called Red Brook. Much of the stone work of the old dam
\n1-347
\nstill stands. Mr. sturtevant’s house truly goes back to colonial times. It
\nhas hand-made hinges and latches, and the huge hand-made locks with which
\nour Revolutionary fathers were familiar. In its construction both hand made
\nnails and wooden pegs were used.
\nNow let us see, in the next few weeks, how much information we can
\ngather about Ten Lots.
\n1-348
\nLITTLE TALKS ON COMMON THINGS
\n53rd Broadcast January 29, 1950
\nA lot of people now living remember Waterville’s great centennial celebrat
\nion of 1902, but to the younger folks it is only a legend. But, believe
\nme, it was a big occasion, lasting for three days from June 22 through June
\n24, with a variety of events to commemorate the hundredth anniversary of
\nWaterville’s incorporation as a town. For it was in 1802 that waterville finally
\nwon its independence from the parent town of Winslow and started off
\non its own career.
\nWe hear a lot about big parades in Waterville, such as that of last Armistice
\nDay, but modern parades are tiny, insignificant affairs, compared
\nwith the gigantic and luxurious procession that marched through Waterville
\nstreets on the morning of June 24, 1902.
\nThe city was crowded with visitors. The Maine Central ran special trains,
\nand the little narrow guage unloaded hundreds of festive-bound passengers at
\nits Winslow station. Recording the events, the Waterville Mail tells us that
\nout of town people began to pour in almost at sunrise. A well-loaded wagon
\n….. –.-\/
\nbrought in a Vassalboro party at 4: 30 in the morning. Says the Mail , “The
\nstreets were filled with marching men, hurrying horsemen, floats slowly getting
\ninto line, and crowds of people everywhere. The noise makers were out
\nin force. The country youth invested heavily in striped canes. City youths
\nand even men of mature years wore gaudy decorations pinned on their manly bosoms.”
\nThen the Mail adds a provoking sentence: itA collection of the badges
\nof 1902 would make an interesting display at the next centennial.”
\nNow the date for the 150th anniversary of Waterville’s incorporation is
\nonly two years hence. I wonder how many of those 1902 badges can be dug up for
\nthat occasion.
\n1-349
\nLet’s get on with the parade. The grand marshall was Dr. F. C. Thayer,
\nand promptly at ten o’clock he set the long line in motion. Chief of the first
\ndevision was Dr. Luther Bunker and providing music was the Waterville Military
\nBand under its famous leader, R. B. Hall.
\nThere were scores of decorated teams, one of which was driven by Miss
\nMarguerite Percival. Other young ladies rode horseback on spirited steeds.
\nThe Waterville Bicycle Club was out in force with 2l decorated vehicles. The
\nbusiness firms vied with one another to produce the most lavish displays of
\nfloats and other items. Otten’s Bakery — do you remember his place on Lower
\nTemple Street? — provided a huge float representing a baking shop, a Fleischmann’s
\nyeast cart, six decorated delivery teams, and a National Biscuit Company
\ndisplay. S. A. Dickinson had three floats; Redington and Company had two;
\nso also did Proctor and Bowie, one of them a representation of Fort Halifax.
\nH. L. Emery had a float with singing girls; Atherton Furniture Company dis:played
\ncarpets on a specially made float of eight wheels; Miss E. L. Lovering’
\ns contribution, carrying the children of John and Frank. Webber, was a rosedecked
\npony cart. A float showing flat boat days on the Kennebec attracted
\nmuch. attention. Other floats were provided by L. H. Soper, W. B. Arnold,. the
\nBay View Hotel, G. S. Flood and Company, Wardwell Brothers, and Green and
\nGreen, fuel dealers, and H. R. Dunham.
\nHollingsworth and Whitney showed, on its float, samples of paper made at
\nits mill, from a small sheet to a huge roll 140 inches wide and 40 inches in
\ndiameter. The Mail proudly announced that the roll of paper weighed 5,250
\npounds, and if unrolled would stretch for 7i miles. Whitcomb and Cannon showed
\nan attractive display of meats, with “Jimmie” behind the counter. Young and
\nChalmers had four teams, one of them showing how ice was delivered in 1850.
\nThe Mail fairly went into ecstasies about the presentation of Clukey and Libby.
\nSaid the newspaper: “Then came the float of the Clukey-Libby Company, one of
\n1-350
\nthe most elaborate in the procession. It was drawn by cream colored horses
\nwith white harnesses. It was beautifully draped, and in addition was ador:'”
\nned by the young ladies it carried. perhaps no one in the line was more
\nadmired. Behind the float marched 24 boys, w,earing long, linen dusters and
\ncarrying red umbrellas, advertising the same firm.”
\nThe parade concluded just as every parade I have ever seen in’ waterville,
\nand my parade recollections here go back only to 1910. Of course you
\nknow what I mean. Last but not least in that long procession which took forty
\nminutes to pass a given point came the Waterville Fire Department. And the
\nlast vehicle of all was “Old Boomer”, an imitation of the town’s first hand
\ntub.
\nThat, ladies and gentlemen, was a great parade. Of course there were
\nsports on the Centennial Program. One afternoon was devoted to a baseball
\ngame between Colby and the Waterville town team. Waterville won by a sizable
\nscore, and why shouldn’t they? For the Waterville pitcher was a rangy fellow
\nnamed Jack Coombs, who had just graduated from Coburn.
\nBy the way, there will soon appear in the Colby Field House the Colby
\ngraduation picture of Jack Coombs, made by Sam Preble in 1906. This picture
\nis a recent gift to the college from Chester Hussey of Walnut Street.
\nFor muqh of tonight’s information about the centennial celebration I am
\nindebted to a local man who has been my friend and fraternity brother since
\ncollege days, Attorney Lewis Lester Levine. It was his loan to me of a copy
\nof the old Waterville Mail which set me off on this subject of the centennial.
\nAmong out of town guests at that celebration is mentioned a family that
\nrings a clear bell of childhood memory. The Mail says I “Dr. and t1rs. F. E.
\nStevens of Bridgton are visiting friends here. They made the trip by the doctor’s
\nautomobile.”
\nNow by this time every listener to this program knows that Bridgton was
\n1-351
\nmy home town. I knew Dr. and Mrs. stevens very well indeed. In fact the doctor
\nowned the building in which my father’s store waelocated. From my earliest
\nrecollection he operated what we called the drug store on the hill, and
\nhe installed the town’s first soda fountain. He was not the first, but very
\nnearly the first Bridgton citizen to own an automobile. I wonder how long it
\ntook Dr. and Mrs. Stevens to drive from Bridgton to Waterville back there in
\n1902. Will anyone hazard a guess? That Bridgton couple were frequent visitors
\nin Waterville, for Mrs. Stevens was one of the Redington sisters.
\n*****
\nThat June week in 1902 saw the first general reunion of what later was
\nto be called Colby’s famous class of 1892. I believe that, of the enthusiastic
\nyoung business and professional men, just ten years out of college, who assem-.
\nbled for that reunion, only two are now living, Frank B. Nichols of Bath and
\nWilliam N. Donovan of Newton Centre, both of whom attended Colby’s 1949 Commencement,
\n57 years after their graduation.
\nThat same week saw, on the Colby campus, the celebrating of the 50th anniversary
\nof the Delta Upsilon fraternity. The anniversary poem was written
\nand read by none other than Maine’s poet-novelist, Holman F. Day, and the fraternity
\nhistory was given by Charles E. Gurney, who was later to be chairman
\nof the Maine Public Utilities Commission for many years, and for even longer
\nyears secretary of the Colby Board of Trustees.
\n*****
\nAn international event of some importa.nce, about to be held in 1902, filled
\nseveral columns of the Mail, in spite of its absorption with the Waterville
\nCentennial. That event was the coming coronation of England’s new king, Edward
\nVII. It was indeed a gala event for England, because thousands of her
\npeople had never seen a coronation. England had had none for 65 years. Edward’s
\nmother, the great Victoria, had been crowned in 1837.
\n1-352
\nBut an ironical twist of fate postponed Edward’s coronation for many
\nweeks, and the Waterville Mail got the news just in time to give it a couple
\nof inches of space and a headline in that issue of June 24, 1902. The item
\nsaid, “The coronation ceremonies have been indefinitely postponed. King Edward
\nwas operated on this morning for appendicitis, and at two o’clock was
\nresting satisfactorily.”
\n*****
\nWith the centennial behind them, Waterville people had other entertainment
\nahead. On July 5, 1902 Pawnee Bill’s Wild West Show hit town. It was
\nadvertised as “headed by the famed guide, scout, U. S. interpreter and Oklahoma
\nhero, Major G. William Lillie (Pawnee Bill). The hero’s 19 year old daughter,
\nMiss May Lillie, (Why didn’t they name her Calla?), was heralded as
\nthe champion girl horseback rifle shot of the world. A grand street parade
\nwould set the town kids gawk-eyed at ten o’clock.
\n*****
\nJust think of some of the food prices of 1902. Flour was $4.75 a barrel,
\ntea 35 cents a pound, sugar twenty pounds for a dollar. Lard was ten cents a
\npound, canned corn three for a quarter, rice four pounds for a quarter, red
\nsalmon two cans for a quarter, and pink salmon ten cents a can. Compared with
\nthe inflationary prices of 1950, W. P. Stewart then advertised best mocha and
\njava for 39 ,cents a pound, Boston blend for 23 cents, Excelsior blend for 16
\ncents, and two pounds of Rio for 25 cents.
\nAmong the classified ads was one for a girl to do general housework at
\ntwo dollars a week. P. P. Hill wanted two honest young men of good habits to
\nlearn the jeweler’s trade. An establishment on Temple Street offered window
\nshades for 22 cents, including fixtures and pull. And Atherton’s agreed to
\nstore stoves during the summer months for a modest fee.
\n*****
\n1-353
\nWe have often talked about words on this program, but I do not recall
\nthat we have ever mentioned the emotional power of words. Words in themselves,
\nentirely apart from their context, carry tremendous emotional power. A mere
\nword is capable of arousing us to anger and hate, zeal and ambition, thrill
\nand ecstaSy.
\nPlenty of words have low emotional power; they arouse very little, if
\nany, emotion. Such words as table, coat, walk, addition, percentage do not
\nstir us up very much. But notice what happens inside of you when you hear
\nany of the following words: honor, glory, death, dawn, sunset, stars.
\nThe poet knows what he is doing when he uses words of high emotional
\nimport. Shelley, writing of his fellow poet Keats, dead at the youthful age
\nof 26, might have said, “Adonais is dead and I long to join him.” But, instead
\nof that, he wrote, “The soul of Adonais like a star beacons from the .abode
\nwhere the eternal are”.
\nThe politician and others who seek to sway public opinion know very well
\nthe power of emotional words. It was not by accident that Roosevelt and his
\nadvisers hit upon the phrase “New Deal”, and, knowing perfectly well the favorable
\nconnection of the word “fair”, the Truman administration adopts the
\nphrase “Fair Deal”.
\nAnother of those powerful emotional phrases is “Welfare State”. Because
\neveryone, high or low, rich or poor, native-born or immigrant, wants to enjoy
\nin America a state of welfare, have enough to eat and to wear, a roof over
\nhis head, and be sure of the freedoms of speech, religion and movement, it is
\neasy to confuse state of welfare with welfare state.
\nThat phrase “welfare state” is now glibly used by thousands of people,
\nbut it is difficult to get any two persons to agree on just what they mean
\nby it. A few weeks ago Dr. Gallup tried to find out what the term meant to
\npeople. His pollsters learned that 64 per cent of the men and women ques-
\n1-354
\ntioned had no idea at all of its meaning. Three per cent thought it meant
\nsome kind of government control; five per cent said it meant socialism; about
\none person in every five said the welfare state means that the government
\ntakes care of the people. In spite of the fact that the term meant nothing to
\ntwo out of every three persons, it may be significant that to one out of every
\nfive it is equivalent to the hand-out state, the government that is all give
\nand no take, that provides for the citizen a rosy bed of privileges with no
\nthorns of responsibility.
\nNow I have just used another of those emotional phrases. You heard me say
\n“hand-out state”. That is an expression just as loaded with prejudice in one
\ndirection as “welfare state” is loaded in the other direction.
\nStop and think a minute. Every one of you has had some experience with
\nthe power of labels, the word tags that people pin on one another in praise or
\nblame. In 1920 all one needed to do to damn a person was to call him a Bolshevik.
\nIn 1950 the corresponding label is Communist.
\nThink of others of those damning labels: plutocrats, malefactors of great
\nwealth, robber barons, tycoons, crucifying mankind on a cross of gold. Then
\nthink of how much we used to hear about the forgotten man, the more abundant
\nlif.e, the century of the connnon man, two chickens in every pot, two cars in
\nevery garage, the honest dollar, the full dinner pail.
\nJust consider some of the phrases that greet you in every daily paper.
\nWhat do they mean, those glibly used words like inflation and deflation, high
\nvelocity money, deficit financing? We have even encountered the words reflation
\nand disinflation. Such is the confusing gibberish that plagues us. No
\nwonder Dr. Nourse, former chairman of the President’ s Committee of Economic
\nAdvisers, expressed complete discouragement “over the possibility of using
\nordinary words in the English language to carry meaning from one mind to another”.
\n1-355
\nSo let us beware of slogans and labels, of tag words and emotional phrases.
\nOn the subject of you and your government, whatever the slogans you most readily
\naccept about it, one plain truth is worth remembering. That truth is this:
\nwhat the government gives away\u00b7,”itmust~irst … take away.
\n1-356
\nLittle Talks on Common Things
\nVolume 2
\nLITTLE TALKS ON COMMON THINGS
\n54th Broadcast February 5, 1950
\nDo we Maine people boa~t enough about our vacationland state? The bragging
\nof Californians and Texans is proverbial. A few weeks ago, when the
\noleomargarine taxes were being hotly debated in the U. S. Senate, Senator Humphrey
\nof Minnesota said he supposed there ought to be separate oleo factories
\nin every state, because it would be unthinkable for Californians to eat Florida
\noleo.
\nAs for Texas, during the war a Texas family found itself in one of the
\nwar boomed factory towns of the Pacific coast and placed their ten year old
\nson in a sChool populated by children born in many different states. One day
\nthe teacher said, “Now, Children, in what you have just read there is a reference
\nto Waco County, Texas. You boys and girls come from many different
\nparts of the country. Some of you must know Texas. Who can tell me what part
\nof Texas Waco County is in?” The ten year old spoke up at once. “Waco County”,
\nhe said loudly and p~<k..al.y, II is in the northeast corner of my grandfather IS
\nranch” \u2022
\nWith our reputation for Yankee taciturnity and close-mouthedness, we just
\ncan I t do the job at bragging whiCh the Californians and Texans do. But we
\nought, without exaggeration or boasting, to tell a lot of folks some of the
\nreal facts about Maine.
\nNo wonder we are a well known vacation state, for within our relatively
\nsmall area of 33, 000 square miles are 2,465 lakes and ponds, more than 5, 000
\nrivers and streams, a hundred mountains more than 3,000 feet high, and 2,500
\nmiles of ocean front.
\nMaine has in Aroostook the largest county in the United States, with an
\n2-1
\narea larger than Rhode Island and Connecticut combined.
\nIt is not true that Maine doesn’t grow in population. It is true that
\nMaine’s best export is its pe0ple, who have found places of prominence all
\nover the world. But it is also.true that between 1940 and 1950 Maine increased
\nits population by nearly eight per cent. In the same ten years the number of
\n~ufacturing plants in Maine increased 46 per cent, and the number of production
\nworkers increased 22 per cent.
\nMany visitors who come to Maine in the summer and ride past our rock~
\nstrewn pastures and glacier-bouldered fields — especially if those visitors
\ncome from the black soil region of the mid-western prairies — ask the question,
\n“How in the world do Maine people get a living? . This kind of land
\nwouldn’t support a gopher in Iowa or Kansas. II
\nWell, let’s tell these visitors how Maine people do live. As a state,
\nMaine has five major sources of income: manufacturing, agriculture, commercial
\nfisheries, recreation and public service industries. In Maine are made
\nmore than a thousand different articles, from toothpicks to ships.
\nRecreation is by no means Maine’s largest business. It is indeed sizable
\nand significant, bringing $125,000,000 into the state every year. But
\nfarm income exceeds it with $200,000,000, and the value of Maine’s manufactured
\nproducts reaches a total of $850,000,000 a year.
\nMaine is strategically located on the Great Circle Air Route between the
\nunited states and Northern Europe, and by nautical mileage Portland is actually
\ncloser to the eastern ports of South America than is New York or even New Orleans.
\nAs for Maine folks making a living, the next time one of those mid-western
\nvisitors asks you in amazement how we keep alive up here in rock-bound,
\nrock-strewn Maine, you tell him that no less an authority than the U. S. Bureau
\nof Labor states that there are more than 10,000 ways of making a living
\n2-2
\nin Maine.
\n*****
\nFrank Littlefield was not only\u00b7an organ pumper; he was also an experienced
\nbell ringer. Most interestingly he tells me something which I venture
\nto say very few of our listeners ever knew. It is how the church bells of
\nwaterville used to be rung.
\nHalf a century ago the four Protestant churches whose bells were in
\nsound of each other were the Methodist, First Baptist, unitarian and Congregationalist.
\nThe Universalist, the Getchell Street Baptist and the Advent
\nchurches were too far from the center of town to be in the interesting,
\nconcerted plan for ringing the bells — for Mr. Littlefield assures us there
\nwas a plan for the ringing of those four mid-town bells from 9:15 to 10:15
\nevery Sunday morning. The order of ringing the various parts was first the
\nMethodist, then the Baptist, then the Unitarian and finally the Congregationalist.
\nThere were three parts to the plan. First, each bell in turn was rung
\nbriefly and then set. It was quite a trick to set a bell, and I wonder how
\nmany of our listeners know what that means. It means to turn the bell squarely
\nupside down and hold it there.
\nSecondly, in turn, each bell ringer released his set and gave two strokes
\nthree times. Thirdly, all the bells rang out joyously together.
\nMr. Littlefield says that the wife of Dr. Knox, who used to sing in the
\nMethodist choir, had a very keen ear for musical tones. She insisted that the
\nfour bells did not differ from each other by so much as half a tone.
\n*****
\nWhat about Madrid Station on the Sandy River railroad? That was the
\nquestion we asked a few weeks ago. Within 24 hours after our broadcast about
\nthe lady who asked the conductor to tell her when they got to Madrid, I had
\n2-3
\nfour different persons assure me that they had once lived in Franklin County
\nand therefore knew :what they were’,ta1king about. Well, believe it or not,
\ntwo of them said there was a Madrid Station, and two said there was not.
\nNow, within a few days, through Mildred W. Russell, I received a statement
\nby Victor Odlin of South Gardiner. Mr. Od1in says that for more than
\nthree years, from ,June 1896 to December, 1899, he was employed as’mi11 and
\nyard foreman of the Redington Lumber Company. Naturally he travelled the
\nlittle railroad line’ many times with loads of lumber and logs. He therefore
\nhas very vivid recollection of the stations.
\nMr. Odlin says that, from Phillips to Rangeley, the first stop was at
\nReed’s Mill in the town of Madrid. This was six miles out of Phillips. Four
\nmiles farther on was a stop at East Madrid, where a saw mill was located.
\nEight miles beyond that was the stop at Redington. After eight more miles
\ncame the stop at Dead River. Five miles from there was the end of the line
\nat Rangeley.
\nIf passengers on the Sandy River wanted to get to Madrid Village, they
\nhad to get off at Reed’s Mill or at East Madrid and go into the village ‘by team
\nor by a long hike.
\nAs for Redington, Mr. Odlin says, “At that time, fifty years ago, it had
\nabout fifteen families and a large boarding house, a regular school, and religious
\nservices twice a month.”
\nSo it is that Mr. Odlin, who worked in the vicinity, contends there never
\nwas a Madrid station. But he is wrong. The best evidence we know to settle the
\nquestion is an official time-table of the road. George Beach of the Rollins
\nand Dunham Company has shown me a copy of a weekly newspaper called “Rangeley
\nLakes”, published at Rangeley in January, 1896. At the top of the right hand
\ncolumn of the first page appear these words: “Phillips and Rangeley Railroad
\ntime-table. The only direct and all rail route to the Rangeley Lakes and
\n2-4
\nDead River region. Friday, November 1, 1895.” Then follows the table,
\nshowing Train No. 1 from Phillips to Rangeley, and Train No. 2 from Rangeley
\nto Phillips. And, clear for all to read, the stop between Phillips and Reed’s
\nMill is Madrid– not East Madrid or any other name, but simply Madrid. The
\nlisted stops from Phillips to Rangeley are given as Madrid, Reed’s Mill, Sander’s
\nMill, Redington Mills and Dead River. The up train left Phillips at
\n2:15 P.M., reached Madrid at 2:40, made a ten-minute stop at Redington Mills
\nfrom 3:45 to 3:55, reached Dead River at 4:30, and finally arrived at Rangeley
\nat 4:55 — two hours and forty minutes after leaving Phillips.
\nOf the many topics mentioned on this program, none has more clearly shown
\nthe trickiness of memory and confusion about names and places than this question
\nwhether there was or was not a Madrid Station. The confusion seems to
\nhave been caused by the fact that Madrid Station was considerable distance
\nfrom Madrid Village and probably at some time or other went by a different
\nname.
\nAbout a mile out of Redington was the top of Sluice Hill, the highest
\npoint between Phillips and Rangeley, about 2,000 feet above sea level. Here
\nthe grade is steep for such a small line, running for some distance at 600
\nfeet to the mile. In the summer of 1896 the Sandy River ran an excursion
\ntrain to Farmington for Foxpaugh’s Circus. On the way back the train had
\ntrouble on the steep grade at Sluice Hill. Getting near the top, the wheels
\nbegan to spin and the train stopped. The engineer backed down and tried it
\nagain. This went on for three times. Then, on the fourth try, the huskiest
\nof the many excursioners got off as the train slowed near the hilltop,
\ngrabbed on to the train wherever they could, and literally pushed it over
\nthe summit. Then it was an easy run into Redington. “It was a good thing we
\nhad a lot of husky men aboard on that trip”, says Mr. Odlin, ~for by the time
\nthe train made its fourth try at the hill we were almost out of both coal
\n2-5
\nand water. n
\n*****
\nWe hear a great deal of talk about how much better off people were in
\nthe old days when a dollar bought so much more than it does today. The truth
\nis that in terms of relative income people are better off today than they
\nhave ever been before in our nation’s history. By relative income is meant
\ntotal dollar income in relation to the cost of living.
\nLet’s take a look at the evidence furnished by the U. S. Bureau of Labor
\nStatistics. The average retail price of food, clothing, fuel and light, rent
\nand house furnishings have increased 69% in the past ten years, and 140%
\nsince 1913, which was 37 years ago. But accompanying that increase in living
\ncosts, the weekly take-home pay of all persons engaged in manufacturing -the
\ngreat army of American factory workers — has increased even more. In
\n1913 the factory worker’s average pay was $11.00 for a 50 hour week. In 1929
\nit was $25.03 for a 44 hour week. In 1939, just as we were emerging out of the
\ndepression years, it was down to $23.86 for a 38 hour week. Ten years later,
\nin 1949, it had jumped to $55.26 for a 39 hour week.
\nIn short, compared with the price increase of 69% since 1939, the factory
\nwage increase in the same period has been 131%. And over the long haul,
\nsince 1913, while the price increase has been 140%, the factory wage increase
\nhas been 500%.
\nThe Bureau of Labor Statistics uses a term familiar to all economists,
\nbut needing explanation for the general public. That is the term “real earnings”.
\nBy real earnings the Bureau means actual dollar earnings adjusted to
\nthe cost of living, what many of us usually speak of as the purchasing power
\nof the dollar. To give a simple example, suppose a worker receives fifty dollars
\na week and pays ten dollars a week rent. Then, while his wages remain
\nthe same, suppose his rent goes up to twelve dollars a week. His dollar,
\n2-6
\nwhich previously bought one-tenth of a week’s rent, now buys only one-twelfth.
\nHis rent dollar, in terms of real earnings, is now worth only 83 cents, because
\n83 cents was what would buy one-twelfth of a week’s rent before his rent went
\nup.
\nBut, on the other hand, suppose, while his rent went up from ten dollars
\nto twelve dollars a week, his pay went up from fifty to sixty dollars a week.
\nIn terms of rent alone each of his dollars buys only 83 cents worth of the
\nprevious rental, but he now has $1.20 in pay for every dollar that he had
\nbefore. A little simple arithmetic shows that he is now better off, in spite
\nof the increased rent.
\nThus, by this method of figuring adjustment of take-home pay to the cost
\nof living — not alone in rent, but in all other living costs — the Bureau of
\nLabor statistics shows us that in 1913 these adjusted real earnings were $16.10
\na week; in 1939 they were $24.00 a week; and in 1949 they had reached $32.80 a
\nweek. In short, real earnings have increased 25% since 1939 and have doubled
\nsince 1913.
\n*****
\nKennebec County, Maine has long been praised as a fine place to live. Almost
\nsixty years ago, when the huge two-volume history of Kennebec County was
\npublished under the general editorship of Henry D. Kingsbury, this central
\npart of Maine was subjected to high praise by Hiram K. Morrell, who wrote the
\nintroduction to the whole work. Even modern advertising would forego the kind
\nof ecstatic rhetoric that flowed from Mr. Morrell’s pen. Just listen to his
\nfinal paragraph in praise of the grand old County of Kennebec:
\n“Thus nature has in every way made generous provision in the valley of
\nthe Kennebec for the welfare and happiness of man. Of course man here does not
\nlive forever, but it is a proportionately cheerful and pleasant place to die
\nin. Skillful physicians and careful nurses smooth his pillow and ease his
\n2-7
\npains, till the grXffi messenger is almost tired of waiting, and when the inevitable
\nhas passed, genial and liberal clergymen will do the best that can-be
\ndone for him, and elegant undertakers will make his last ride the most expensive
\nhe has ever had; and when all is done, a monument of Kennebec granite
\nwill rear its lordly head above his peaceful grave, where after life’s fitfull
\nfever he sleeps well.”
\n2-8
\nLITTLE TALKS ON COMMON THINGS
\n55th Broadcast February 12, 1950
\nIt is not too early to initiate plans for two waterville anniversaries.
\nIn 1952 our city government should recognize, with appropriate ceremonies, the
\nl50th anniversary of Waterville’s incorporation as a town. For it was in 1802
\nthat the inhabitants of the growing community on the west side of the river
\nsecured their political independence from the parent town of Winslow.
\nWaterville is a much bigger city now than it was in 1902 when our centennial
\nwas held. Then they had a glorious three-day celebration with the
\nmammoth parade I told you about two weeks ago. perhaps we do things with more
\nrestraint in the middle of the century and we are unlikely to devote three
\ndays to honoring our 150 years of corporate existence. But we certainly must
\nhave a fitting celebration. Right now the city government ought to start
\nthinking about it.
\nFour years hence in 1954 comes an event of much greater significance -one
\nin which Waterville, Winslow, Fairfield and Oakland may all appropriately
\nunite. Nineteen fifty four is the 200th anniversary of the building of Fort
\nHalifax, and that is the most important slngle event in the history of this
\nsection of the Kennebec Valley_
\nIn 1661 the Colony of New Plymouth sold all the lands for 15 miles each
\nside of the Kennebec River, from what is now Merrymeeting Bay to the present
\nSkowhegan, to Antipas Bo!- es, Edward Tyng, Thomas Brattle and John Winslow.
\nThis tract was called the Kennebec Patent. Settlement was slow and insecure.
\nThe few hardy souls who ventured to make homes in the vicinity of Cushnoc
\nFalls (now Augusta) were constantly harassed by Indians until the building of
\nFort Western. The fate of settlers who came farther up the river to Ticonic
\n2-9
\nFalls was even worse. Their lives and fortunes were never safe from Indian
\nraids.
\nWhen, therefore, in 1749 a company was formed called the New Plymouth
\nCompany to encourage settlement on the Kennebec Patent, they petitioned the
\nnew governor of the Province of Massachusetts, William Shirley, to build a
\nfort at the junction of the Kennebec and Sebasticook Rivers. The bitter struggle
\nbetween the English and the French for control of North America was at
\nits height. Brunswick had been burned flat in 1722; Father Rasle had been
\nkilled at Norridgewock in 1724. Other settlements had been wiped out. Our
\nMaine historians tell us that in 1749 there were only two families of white
\npeople living above Merrymeeting Bay.
\nGovernor Shirley responded to the plea and appointed tQ build the fort
\nGeneral John Winslow, descendant of the John Winslow who had become one of
\nthe four proprietors in 1661. With 800 soldiers of the king he built a fort
\nconsisting of five buildings and a stockade 800 feet long. It is one of the
\ncorner blockhouses that still stands and that we call Fort Halifax today.
\nOf course Winslow got its name from the general who built the fort, but
\nthe actual master builder in charge of the workmen was a man who already lived
\nin Maine, Isaac Ilsley of Falmouth (which was, of course, the old name
\nfor portland) \u2022
\nAs soon as the fort was built General Winslow and his 800 men departed,
\nand in their place was put a permanent garrison of 80 men under the command
\nof Captain William Lithgow, for whom Winslow’s present Lithgow Street is
\nnamed. Here at last was protection for the settlers. Threatened by Indian
\nraids, they could take refuge within the stockade and have protection of the
\nsoldiers’ guns.
\nBy the accident of war and diplomatic negotiation, Captain Lithgow proved
\nto be the only commander that Fort Halifax ever had. Nine years after the
\n2-10
\nfort was built England and France signed the Treaty of Paris ending the French
\nand Indian wars. The fort was then dismantled, but its work had already been
\naccomplished. settlers were now numerous and their homes were permanent. Eight
\nyears later in 1771 there were enough of them to secure incorporation of the
\ntown of Winslow.
\nSo I vigorously contend that 1754 was the most important date in the history
\nof this region. The building of Fort Halifax made settlements possible.
\nTo Fort Halifax the communities of Winslow, Waterville, Oakland and Fairfield
\nowe their very existence.
\n*****
\nNow for a new topic of local historical interest. I am told that in certain
\nparts of the business section of Waterville are reservoirs or water storage
\nplaces long ago covered up or filled in. One of these is said to have been in
\nPost Office Square, another in castonguay Square. Who can give me information
\nabout them? Were they really large, stoned or bricked wells, fed by springs or
\nunderground veins; or were they receptacles into which water was poured and kept
\nfor use in fighting fires?
\n*****
\nA number of persons have asked me when certain modern conveniences first
\nappeared in Waterville. One such question is, “When did we first have city
\nwater?” Long before the splendid and epoch-making accomplishment of Harvey
\nEaton in forming the Kennebec Water District, assuring that what is happening
\nto New York City in 1950 can never happen to Waterville long before that —
\nthe waterville Water Company had been formed. As early as the 1870’s the need
\nfor a supply of water beyond the private wells was keenly felt. So in March,
\n1881 the Legislature granted a charter to the Waterville Water Company to lay
\npipes and furnish water to the town. Several years went by, and the company
\ncould not come to agreement with the town on terms, especially regarding the
\n2-11
\nsource of supply and the service of hydrants for fire fighting.
\nIn 1886 the town voted to accept the company’s proposal to introduce an
\nadequate supply of water into Waterville “for the extinguishment of fires and
\nfor domestic, manufacturing and other purposes”. It was agreed that the water
\nshould be taken from Snow Pond ~n Oakland and delivered through 14 inch pipes
\nto Pleasant Street, then graded in size so as to meet the requirements of the
\ndifferent streets. Finally it was agreed that the system should be finished by
\nDecember 31, 1887.
\nBut both the company and the peqple of waterville had reckoned without
\nthe folks of Oakland. The citizens of that town arose in wrath and passed the
\nfollowing vote: “The town of Oakland does hereby earnestly and emphatically
\nprotest against the taking of any water from Snow Pond by the Waterville Water
\nCompany, and that the selectmen b~ instructed to use every legitimate means in
\ntheir power to prevent the consummation of the subtle, underhand and wicked
\nscheme of said Water Company to rob the people of this town of their vested
\nrights and property. II
\nThe aroused citizenry of Oakland won their fight. In 1887 a new charter
\nwas granted to the water Company, providing that they should take the water
\nfrom Messalonskee Stream instead of Snow Pond. On May 5, 1887 the town of
\nWaterville and the waterville Water Company came to an agreement, and Charles
\nH. Redington was appointed chairman of a committee to locate fifty hydrants.
\nSo Waterville’s first municipal water supply came from Messalonskee
\nstream. I have found a number of citizens who, when told that fact for the
\nfirst time, say they just cannot believe it. But back in 1887 people didn’t
\nknow nearly so much about contaminated water as a carrier of dread disease as
\nthey know today. Yet some of them knew enough about it to make a determined
\nfight to substitute the pure water of China Lake for the polluted water of
\nMessalonskee Stream, and the victorious leader of that crusade was Waterville’s
\nhonored and greatly respected elder statesman, Harvey D. Eaton.
\n2-12
\n*****
\nIn his recent economic report to the Congress President Truman ~oke
\nan emphatic word for the free enterprise system that has been the bed-rock
\nof our American economy for two centuries. The President said: “Of all the
\ndynamic forces of expansion in America, one of the most important is business
\ninvestment. If we are going to attain the goal of a $300 billion nat~
\nional income in the next five years, we must equip ourselves with more and
\nbetter industrial tools.”
\nUnfortunately what the President did not say is that there is a definite
\nshortage of business funds to pay for more and better industrial tools.
\nA careful survey of business plans for new plants an4 equipment in 1950, made
\nby the famous McGraw-Hill Department of Economics, shows that all industry
\nmanufacturing, mining, transportation and utilities — plans to invest
\n$12,400,000,000 in new plant and equipment this year. And that is 13% less
\nthan was actually spent in 1949. The $6,300,000,000 which the manufacturing
\nindustries alone plan to spend for new plant and equipment in 1950 is 15%
\nless than their 1949 expenditures. With the need for more and better industrial
\ntools clearly evident, as President Truman points out, why are the industries
\nactually planning to ~end less?
\nThe answer is that they cannot get the money. Most companies cannot sell
\nnew common stock except at ruinously low prices. Investment capital is not
\nattracted.
\nWhat can be done about it? One way is to lower the taxes on business income
\nso as to release money for new plant and equipment. Perhaps an even better
\nway is to repeal the present double taxation of dividends, which are now
\ntaxed once as corporate income, then taxed again as personal income. Whatever
\nmethod is adopted, the main point must not be overlooked. If business cannot .
\nget enough new tools, five years from now we shall have not a higher, but a
\n2-13
\ndefinitely lower total income in the United States.
\nOn this program we do not pretend to economic wisdom. The confusing opinions
\nof the professional economists only confuse us the more. But old-fashioned
\nYankee common sense tells us that if President Truman or anyone else
\nwants expansion of industrial plant and equipment to assure that much talked
\nabout $300 billion national income in 1955, the money must be found to make
\nthe expansion. And that: money can be found only by ploughing in the profits
\nof industry or getting new investors to take risks which increasing government
\nregulations make them more and more unwilling to take. It is a problem not
\neasy of solution, but one which American ingenuity must somehow solve.
\n*****
\nSeVeral months ago I paid tribute to the Railway Mail Service, pointing
\nout that two of my neighbors are retired members of that honored brotherhood.
\nIt must have :peen with a feeling of sadness that the older men: of the RMS
\nlearned that this respected name would be heard no more. For on November 1,
\n1949 the Railway Mail Service went out of existence, and the Postal Transportation
\nService took .its place. Thus did Uncle Sam bow to the changing times.
\nThe Air Postal Transport had grown to such proportiqns that efficiency dictated
\na united postal service, including both rail and air. Hence the RMS is out
\nand PTS is in.
\nBut our reason for mentioning tonight these men who form the arteries of
\nthe postal service, whether by rail or air or any other method, is not to bemoan
\nthe passing of a name. It is rather to call attention to the stiff examinations
\nthese men must pass.
\nMany students in high school and college have just come through the ordeal
\nof mid-year examinations, and the glad news or the sad news is beginning
\nto reach the folks at home. The passing mark in most high schools is 70; in
\nmost colleges it is 60. What about the clerks of the Postal Transportation
\n2-14
\nService or the old Railway Mail Service? In the original examination for
\nappointment they must get at least 85 in postal laws, space regulations and
\njunction connections, and in the examination on mail routes no mark is acceptable
\nif it is less than 97. Each clerk must learn the names and routes of
\nfrom 4,000 to 8,000 different post offices.
\nUnlike men admitted to many other occupations, the postal transportation
\nclerk is examined not just to get the job, but repeatedly at intervals while
\nhe is on the job. He must not get rusty or careless. Records of the Post
\nOffice Department show that, on every such examination wbile in service, almost
\nall regular clerks made a:: grade better than 99, and some of them hit a
\nfull 100 over and over again.
\nOUr young people are irritated by examinations. They want to know what is
\nthe sense of such terrible ordeals. Perhaps many a teacher is hard pressed to
\ngive boys \u00b7and girls an acceptable answer. But not so the Post Office Department.
\nJust because Uncle Sam requires that 97% of perfection in frequent examinations,
\nyour letter, however crudely addressed and wherever mailed, seldom
\ngoes astray. In the shortest possible time it is delivered to the person
\nfor whom you intended it.
\nOf course the transportation men do not deserve all of the credit for this
\nachievement. The men and women in the post offices, from the tiny hamlets to
\nthe big cities, the postmen who trudge weary miles over icy and slushy streets,
\nthe rural carriers who encounter every hazard of tricky weather all these
\nefficient, 10yal people play their part so that “neither snow, nor rain, nor
\nheat, nor cold, nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion
\nof their appointed rounds.”
\n2-15
\nLITTLE TALKS ON COMMON THINGS
\n56th Broadcast February 19, 1950
\nTwo of our listeners have recently put into my hands historical material
\nof interest and importance — material which will serve as grist for this program
\nfor rna ny weeks to come. Mr. Robert Bradley of Elm Street has loaned me
\nhis set of the history of Kennebec County, published in two huge volumes in
\n1892. Doubtless many sets are still owned in Kennebec homes, but it is almost
\nimpossible to pick up a set in the book stores. In fact Mr. Bradley got his
\nset one volume at a time several years apart.
\nIt was from that history that I quoted a paragraph two weeks ago, the
\nflowery close of the introduction, telling all readers what a good place Kennebec
\nCounty is to die in, and how at the end elegant undertakers carry the
\nKennebecker on his last and most expensive ride.
\nThe editor of that history written 60 years ago was Henry D. Kingsbury,
\nwho himself wrote many of the sections, including those on Waterville, Winslow,
\nOakland, Sidney and Vassalboro. But he was ably assisted by other writers,
\nsome of whom gained far wider fame than the editor himself was ever to enjoy.
\nAn important and exceedingly interesting chapter was written by a young
\nman, then just beginning his career as teacher, philosopher and international
\nleader. The chapter is entitled, “The Society of Friends”, and it was written
\nby Rufus Jones.
\nThe chapter on the History of the Courts was written by William Penn
\nWhitehouse, who was to be one of the most distinguished of Maine’s able chief
\njustices of the supreme judicial court. A young Bowdoin graduate, John Clair
\nMinot, contributed the section on Belgrade. He was later to become the renowned
\neditor of the Youth’s Companion.
\nWe propose to dip often and deep into the pages of this county’s history,
\n2-16
\nand we shall share with you some of the catch that our dip-net brings up.
\nSo much for our debt to Mr. Bradley. An equally valuable loan has come
\nto us from Mr. Charles Libby of Upper College Avenue. It is a priceless and
\nutterly irreplaceable bound volume of the entire publication of the Rural
\nIntelligencer, a weekly newspaper published in Augusta in 1855 and 1856 by
\nMr. Libby’s ancestor, William A. Drew.
\nAs most of you know the newspapers of a hundred years ago used better
\npaper than is used today. This huge bound volume of Mr. Libby’s has between
\nits board covers 126 weekly issues of the Rural Intelligencer in perfect condition,
\nnot a page torn, not a line smudged or faded. It is just as easily
\nread today as when it was first printed, a decade before the civil War. Because
\nthese papers are now bound together in a volume, it is a bit difficult
\nto visualize how the individual issues came from the press, but apparently in
\ntwo uncut sheets, because the first issue carries the following instructions
\nto the reader: “Stitch or pin the back of this paper and cut its leaves before
\nyou sit down to read it.”
\nAmong the good, old, homey recipes listed in that issue of January 6,
\n1855 is this one: “Recipe to whiten the teeth: Mix honey with finely powdered
\ncharcoal and use the paste as a dentifrice. Those who have worn-down
\nteeth will be glad to learn that common carbonate of soda will make tough
\nbeef tender.”
\nprobably there are plenty of folks still living who can remember when
\ncentral heating was bitterly denounced as both extravagant and unhealthy, and
\nthere may be a few who can recall people who denounced bathrooms as the sure
\ncause of an early death. But I venture to say not a person now with us can
\nremember when anybody attacked the coming of stoves. But that is just what editor
\nDrew of the Rural Intelligencer did in his issue of January 20, 1855. The
\nnew air-tight stoves had evidently become his pet hate, and he let loose with
\n2-17
\nall the power of his pen. This is what he wrote:
\n“We are tempted to declare war against the whole stove system, now so
\ncommon in our towns, and even in the country. We believe that stoves cause many
\nof the diseases — particularly consumption — which have been making such
\nfatal progress of late. Our fathers before the Revolution used no stoves; they
\nwarmed themselves by the free air heated from an open fireplace; and who ever
\nheard of consumption among the Pilgrim Fathers?
\n“In rooms heated by open fire the air is always sweeter and purer, and
\nconsequently more healthy. But,\u00b7”j.:r:!-sitting rooms and parlors heated by stoves,
\nthe air is dull and heavy; and besides you must always have cold feet. What is
\nmore cheerless to approach when you are cold than a dark, black stove? We’re
\ngoing to be a lot poorer than we are now before we dispense with our open fire
\nto sit by in winter.
\n“Stoves are not economical. They cost a lot in the first place. Then quite
\nsoon they are broken, burned out or out of fashion. Then the wood must all be
\ncut short, split fine, and carefully seasoned; and when it is put in the stove,
\nthe draft eats it up faster than a man can prepare it, whereas an open fire
\nlets its big logs linger with glowing heat all day.
\n“And don’t forget the light you get from an open fire in a winter’s evening.
\nIt is easily equal to two oil lamps in the room. Health, pleasure and
\neconomy would be secured by casting our stoves to the moles and the bats and
\nreturning to the simpler habits of our hardier and happier ancestors. II
\nEditor Drew wouldn’t leave this subject of stoves alone. He returned to
\nit on January 27 with this comment:
\n“OUr article on the cheerless and unhealthy effects of air-tight stoves
\nbegins to take effect. An intelligent gentlemen in Richmond wrote us on Monday
\nthat, after reading what we said on the subject, he got up very early Monday
\nmorning and, before the rest of the family were up, he had removed the
\n2-18
\nair-tight stove from the sitting room. When, one after another, the members
\nof the family came into the room, each face gleamed with a radiant smile as it
\nwas lightened by the cheerful rays of a blazing fire from an open fire
\nframe. To all others who, like our Richmond subscriber, would not have smoky
\nhouses and scolding wives, we say, go thou and do likewise.”
\nEditor Drew was equally sure about the utter folly of anyone’s claiming
\nthat houses would some day be lighted by electricity. In his column headed
\n“Mechanic Arts” on January 27, 1855 he printed an engraving of an electric
\nlamp, said to have been developed in London. It was a crude device, worked
\nby approaching and withdrawing two opposed electrodes. It was exhibited one
\ndark night on the Duke of York’s monument, one of the highest places in London.
\nThe lamp astonished everyone by its brilliance, being seen distinctly at a distance
\nof nine miles.
\nBut Editor Drew was not unduly impressed. He wrote: “We have no faith
\nin electricity as a motive power, either for propelling machinery or for furnishing
\nlight. It cannot be done. No force is eliminated without a corresponding
\ndestruction of matter.”
\n*****
\nMore than once this program has gone on record as favoring reduction in
\ngovernment spending. A few months ago we referred to the report of the Hoover
\nCommission, which called striking attention to the extravagance and waste of
\nmany government agencies. Perhaps you recall that one item which we then mentioned
\nwas that Uncle Sam spends $10 to fill out forms for a single purchasing
\norder. Yet more than half of all government purchasing orders are to buy
\nthings that cost less than ten dollars. These orders run into several million
\na year. It just doesn’t make sense to pay ten dollars to cover red tape and
\nform-filling to make a one dollar purchase. But that is Lhe way the government
\nnow does it.
\n2-19
\nWe live in days of high real estate values. If you own a house, What do
\nyou consider it worth? Now that you have in mind the figure for your own house,
\njust take in this fact. In its latest budget requests the Army, now in peacetime,
\nasked for funds for houses — not barracks and camps — but officers’
\nhouses in Alaska at $58,000 per house.
\nHow much do you men pay for a winter suit of clothes? Well, the Army
\nasked for 829,000 tropical uniforms — uniforms for hot climate — at $129 a
\npiece.
\nIt is time indeed for you to think about what this Whole matter of Uncle
\nSam’s money means to you. Uncle Sam gets his money from taxes and those
\ntaxes come from you. The average citizen that’s you and I, folks — pays
\none dollar out of every five dollars that he earns for federal government
\ntaxes. That is in addition to all the local and state taxes Which he pays.
\nThe average American worker, in the factory, on the farm, in the mines, on
\nthe construction jobs, works 47 days every year just to pay his federal taxes.
\nOver the whole nation federal taxes amount to $300 per person, over
\n$1,000 a year per family. Income taxes we can all see and appreciate, but it
\nis the hidden taxes that fool us — the 20% on light bulbs, the 25% on cameras,
\nthe 20% on talcum powder, the 60% on cigarettes.
\nThe point we want to make tonight is that the purchasing power of your
\ndollar and therefore your standard of living are profoundly affected by taxes.
\nAnd those taxes are outrageously increased by extravagant, wasteful, useless
\ngovernment expenses.
\nWhose government expenses are we talking about? Yours. The government
\ndoesn’t belong to Harry Truman and Dean Acheson and Charlie Brannan; nor does
\nit belong to Robert Taft and Owen Brewster and Margaret Smith. The government
\nbelongs to you; you are the government. You can express yourself in fa~or of
\nbetter government at a better price.
\n2-20
\n*****
\nIn the old days people didn It have so many things, and they didn’t have
\nso many or such burdensome taxes. They lacked some of the fine comforts and
\nluxuries which the modern standard of living allows us, but when it came to
\nthe dining table a lot of them fared pretty well. They certainly didn’t spare
\nmaterials in some of that delicious old-time cooking. Let’s take a look at a
\ncouple of the old cooking recipes out of the Rural Intelligencer of 1855.
\n“Philadelphia sponge cake. Take ten eggs, one pound of sugar, one-half
\npound of flour and lemon juice to flavor.”
\n“Cocoanut cake. One pound of loaf sugar, one-half pound of butter, 3\/4
\npound of flour, six eggs and one large cocoanut grated.”
\n*****
\nDo you remember some of the muddy, ground-filled coffee that used to be
\npoured from the old coffee pots? Happy was the housewife who had found a way
\nto serve her guests clear, ground-free coffee. In a February, 1855 issue of
\nthe Intelligencer, Editor Drew told her how to do it. “When nothing else can
\nbe obtained”, he wrote, “mix a little Indian meal with the coffee before putting
\nit to boil.”
\n*****
\nWhere today can we get Nodhead apples? A few years ago I travelled many
\nmiles to buy a bushel. When I got them home, I found to my dismay that every
\nlast one of them was railroaded by worms. Evidently the tree had not been
\nsprayed. In skimming through the old Rural ,Intelligencer I was delighted to
\nlearn that what has always been to me the most tasty of all apples, the Nodhead,
\noriginated in York County, Maine. A man by the name of Jewett in Hollis,
\nNew Hampshire develpped it and made it famous in the Boston market, but Edith
\nDow insists that Jewett got his original seedlings in Eliot, Maine. Who knows
\nwhere there are first grade Nodheads today?
\n*****
\n2-21
\nDid you know that a paper was once published at New Sharon, Maine? It
\nwas published only once a month and it didn’t last very long, but while it
\nlasted for a few years about a century ago, it was quite a paper. It was devoted
\nto “agriculture, art, science, general intelligence, and news of the
\nmonth, both foreign and domestic”. It had descriptive sketches of travel and
\nadventure, poetry, horticulture, physiology and phrenology. Said the publisher,
\n“We intend to make our paper an interesting monthly visitor to one and
\nall. We shall converse on all subjects and be neutral on nothing, bound to
\nneither party nor sect. Terms, 25 cents per year, in advance; 35 cents payable
\nin six months; fifty cents if payment is delayed beyond a year.”
\nAt the bottom of his prospectus the New Sharon publisher presented a
\ncanny scheme for getting” attention. He wrote, “Newspaper publishers giving
\nthis prospectus room in their columns, and sending a copy to us, will receive
\na copy of the Advocate one year, gratis.”
\n*****
\nOne of these old newspapers contains a column of advice to husbands. “Do
\nnot speak of some virtue in another man’s wife, to remind your own wife of
\nher faults. Don’t try to entertain your wife by praising other women’s beauty;
\nshe will not be amused. Do not, too often, invite your friends to ride and
\nleave your wife at home. She might suspect you esteemed someone else more companionable
\nthan herself. Do not be stern and silent in your own house and remarkable
\nfor sociability elsewhere. You have no right to all the recreation
\nin the family; your wife needs some too. See that she gets it.”
\nThat was all considered to be good advice a hundred years ago. Isn’t it
\npretty good advice today? There are some things that not even the century of
\ntime can change.
\n2-22
\nLITTLE TALKS ON COMMON THINGS
\n57th Broadcast February 26, 1950
\nAlways the old gives way before the new. Modern progress erases one l\u00a5
\none the ancient landmarks. How saddened, perhaps even angered, some of the
\npeople who lived in Waterville a century ago would now be if they could hear
\nthe humorous and satirical remarks about what has been called the old barnory
\non Front street.
\nYes, the old Armory is coming down. It has served its day long and well.
\nIn fact it was forced to labor long past its usefulness, and now it doesn’t
\neven get a period of pensioned rest. Down it must come to make way for the
\nspeedy vehicles of a faster century.
\nIt is well for us to recall the eventful history of that old building,
\nfor what has been disparagingly called the old barnory was originally a church,
\nand, to the everlasting credit of Waterville, be it recorded that it was an
\ninterdenominational church.
\nWhen the town of Winslow, including what is now Waterville, was incorporated
\nin 1771 it became subject to the laws of Massachusetts governing all incorporated
\ntowns. Those laws required that every town support preaching and
\nschooling. This new town was so poor, however, that several times it failed
\nto raise the necessary money in town meeting to pay even an itinerant preacher,
\nand twice legal action against the town had been taken.
\nEarly preaching by travelling ministers was held in the homes or, in
\nwarm weather, out in a field. In 1794 the town voted to build a meeting house
\non the east side of the river. Then controversy began. The people on the west
\nside couldn’t see the justice of paying for a meeting house that they would
\nhave to cross an unbridged river to attend. But the east siders would have
\n2-23
\njust as good grounds for complaint if the church were built on the west side.
\nMeanwhile, with no church yet erected on either side, Rev. Joshua Cushman
\nwas called to the town as its first settled minister. His ordination took
\nplace under a large evergreen booth on the Plains. Where was Mr. Cushman to
\nhave his meeting house?
\nHarmony finally reigned when in March, 1796 the town voted to build a
\nmeeting house on the hill near or in Ticonic Village, and to carry out the
\nprevious vote to build one also on the east side.
\nThen one of Waterville’s most prominent pioneers, Dr. Obadiah Williams,
\nentered the picture. He offered to give the town the land which is now City
\nHall Park, or Castonguay Square. On that land Dr. Williams envisioned a
\nschool house, a meeting house and a court house.
\nControversy raged afresh between those who wanted the church up on the
\nheights toward Oakland and those who favored the river-bank site offered by
\nDr. Williams. While the west siders fought it out, the east siders got their
\nchurch, so that the first church building in town was that which later bec~e
\nthe Winslow Congregational Church on Lithgow Street.
\nFinally a church was built on the land given by Dr. Williams and was
\nready for use in June, 1798. It stood very nearly Where the present City Hall
\nnow stands. At first it had no basement, but for many years stood on wooden
\nblocks. It faced south toward What is now Common Street. That building, erected
\n152 years ago, is the building that” now must come down.
\nIn its earliest days the meeting house was available not only to Mr.
\nCUshman, but also to the various religious societies, whenever one of them
\ncould bring a preacher to the community. Congregationalists, Unitarians, Calvinist
\nBaptists, Free Will Baptists and Episcopalians had equal privileges in
\nits use.
\nThe old building was described by Mrs. Chaplin, wife of Colby’s first
\n2-24
\nPresident, in her 1818 diary: “The people of this village” — it had already
\nbeen separately incorporated as Waterville sixteen years before
\n“the people of this village do not seem to be such ignorant, uncultivated
\nbeings as some have imagined, nor are they destitute of places of worship.
\nWe were happy to find here two meeting houses, though neither of them elegantly
\nor completely furnished. The one in the village” — this is the old
\nbarnory she is talking about – “is about as large as ours in Danvers. The
\nframe is good and the floor pews are finished, but the gallery is still without
\npews. On our first Sabbath here Mr. Chaplin was asked to speak in the
\nmeeting house, and he did so; preaching on John 3:16.”
\nIn the early days town meetings were held in the meeting houses, and
\nhere Waterville’s first separate town meeting was held on July 26, 1802.
\nAfter the present churches were built and the edifice held fewer religious
\nservices, it continued to be the town hall, and then the city hall, until
\nthe present city building was erected in 1902, when the old building was
\nmoved to its present site on Front Street.
\nWhat stories the silent walls of the old Armory could tell if those walls
\ncould speak. Echoes of stern Puritan, hell-fire sermons, three hours long, the
\nmilder preaching of the unitarians with their belief in the perfectability of
\nman, the harangues of Federalists, Whigs, Know Nothings, Democrats, Republicans,
\nAbolitionists, and Sons of Temperance; the call to arms for 1812, for
\nthe Mexican War, for answer to Father Abraham’s plea for troops to put down
\nthe rebellion, the laugh of the minstrel, the pathos of Uncle Tom’s Cabin,
\nthe music of the dance, the tread of marching feet. On both its sites the old
\nArmory has seen the whole history of Waterville for a hundred and fifty years.
\nNow like the old brick and stone block where the post office stands,.like the
\ngiant elms that once covered the heater-piece in front of the Elmwood Hotel,
\nlike the ancient 18th century house where the Central Fire Station now stands,
\n2-25
\nlike the lofty tower of the Unitarian Church, the old armory too must go the ~
\nway of all things temporal and transient. In its passing let us give it a last
\nfond salute.
\n*****
\nHow many homes in this vicinity cherish relics from old Fort Halifax?
\nAllen Hackett of :Fairfield writes me: “In the spring of 1938 Anson Brackett,
\nhoeing in his garden, turned up a pear-shaped stone with a knob on the small
\nend, such as was used for a plumb bob in the old days when metal was more
\nprecious. The location of Mr. Brackett’s garden must be very close to the
\nnortheast blockhouse of the old fort, so there is a very good chance that it
\nwas a tool used in trueing up the palisades and block houses.”
\nMr. Hackett also tells me that there are remains of the old wells of the
\nfort under the piazza of Woodbury’s store. Now who else has information about
\nremains or relics of Fort Halifax?
\n*****
\nTwo weeks ago we referred to President Truman’s plea for plant and equipment
\nexpansion by industry, and we called attention to the fact that the money
\nsimply isn’t available for such expansion unless something is done about the
\ntax structure. Last week we emphasized the waste and extravagance with which
\ngovernment agencies spend your money_
\nFew people appreciate fully the seriousness of this problem. Unless industry
\ncan so operate as to provide the means to reproduce itself, our great
\nindustrial machine will gradually shrivel up and die. What do we mean by reproducing
\nitself? This is what we mean. Machinery, vehicles, buildings wear
\nout or become obsolete. They have to be replaced just the way you eventually
\nmust replace that pre-war automobile of yours. Probably you’re luckier than I
\nand have already bought your new car.
\nIndustry must constantly make similar replacements, and when it does that
\n2-26
\nnow it faces just the same problem that you face with the new car — greatly
\nincreased prices. You remember the answer which Alice got in Wonderland when
\nshe asked about running to get somewhere. “Here”, she was told, “we have to
\nrun as hard as we can to stay where we are. II
\nModern American industry must do better than that. It must, as President
\nTruman said, not merely replace worn-out plant and equipment; it must also expand
\nwith additional plant and equipment. Now where can the money be found
\nfor such expansion? It must come out of What the left-wing critics of American
\nfree enterprise think is so terrible, in other words from profits. If an
\nindustry can earn a profit, it not only can, but invariably does, plough a
\ngood part of that profit back into the industry for expansion and new equipment.
\nThat creates more jobs, distributes more payrolls to buy more consumer
\ngoods. One of the simplest facts of economics is that national prosperity
\ndepends upon the people’s ability to buy. It is assured payrolls that stabilize
\nthat ability.
\nNow all this cannot be done if industry has to submit to what is perilously
\nclose to confiscatory taxation. Every important industry gets its capital
\nfrom the sale of stocks and bonds, and investors are getting increasingly
\nvexed at the injustice of seeing dividends taxed twice, first against the corporation,
\nthen against the investor himself.
\nWhat can the average citizen do about it? How can he make it plain that
\nhe realizes the stake he has in the welfare of American industry even if he
\ndoesn’t have a dollar invested in its capital? He can register his belief
\nwhenever he has a chance to vote. But he says, I am just one person, and a
\nlittle fellow at that. My vote doesn’t count.
\nThat is not true. Your vote does count. And you never know when it will
\ncount decisively. Thomas Jefferson was elected President by a single vote in
\nthe electoral college; so was John Quincy Adams. Rutherford B. Hayes was like-
\n2-27
\nwise elected President by one vote; then his election was contested and referred
\nto an electoral commission. In the commission he again won by a single
\nvote.
\nOne solitary vote in the U. S. Congress gave statehood to California,
\nIdaho, Oregon, Texas and Washington. The single vote of William Pitt Fessenden
\nof Maine saved a President from impeachment. The Selective Service bill
\nof World War II passed the House of Representatives by just one vote. In
\n1944 one additional Democratic vote in each of Ohio’s 8,800 voting precincts
\nwould have defeated Senator Taft, and in 1948 one additional Repub-
\n1ican vote in each of the same precincts would have carried the
\nDewey.
\nstate for
\nSometimes this significance of a single vote comes home to a little fe1-
\nlow, as it once came home to this little fellow who is speaking to you tonight.
\nIn the spring of 1912 I was one of a few seniors at Colby College who
\nardently supported President Taft for renomination by his party. The Taft organization
\nin my home town knew that and called me home to vote in the caucus
\nwhich was to elect a delegation to the state convention. I arrived at the
\nvoting place just as the vote was being counted. Chagrined that I had arrived
\ntoo late to vote, I was greatly relieved when the vote was announced as a tie
\nand the chairman declared that another vote would be taken. Then the Roosevelt
\nforces ganged up on me, but it was no use. I knew what I had come for. And,
\nbelieve it or not, the second ballot elected the Taft delegation by a majority
\nof just one vote. And to make it an even better story, that delega~ion was
\njust enough to swing the vote in the state convention, instructing the Maine
\ndelegation for Taft. Your one, small vote does count.
\n2-28
\nLITTLE TALKS ON COMMON THINGS
\n58th Broadcast March 5, 1950
\nOn this program we have covered quite an expanse of time in our reference
\nto old time things. We have gone all the way from the building of Fort Halifax
\nin 1754 to the tearing down of the Waterville Armory in 1950, with many stopoffs
\nin between.
\nTonight let us give attention to an item whose existence began just 150
\nyears ago in 1802. It is the day book or journal kept by an Augusta merchant
\nof that time. It is now owned by Mr. Burleigh Nichols of Fairfield Center, who
\nhas kindly loaned it to me. So fascinating have I found it that I have been
\nthrough every one of its more than 300 pages.
\nThe original owner and writer of the journal’s items has not yet been definitely
\nidentified by name, but I hope Mr. Nichols and I will soon be able to
\ntell you who he is. Unfortunately a later generation has used about fifty
\npages of the journal as a scrap hook, mostly for poems clipped from the newspapers
\nof the 1870’s and 1880’s. What is worse, the first pages are entirely
\nmissing, probably torn out by some careless hand many years ago. The fir~t
\npage bearing a readable date is that for Wednesday, March 10, 1802; but it
\nand subsequent pages are so covered with pasted scrap-book clippings that no
\npage is clear with all its original items until that for Tuesday, August 31,
\n1802.
\nWhether the proprietor began his business in that year or whether there
\nwere preceding journals for the same business we do not know. In any event
\nthe entries from August, 1802 until May, 1810, when the journal ends, are alive
\nwith interest. Here is no dead record of business transactions; here, rather,
\nis real source history of the Kennebec Valley a century and a half ago.
\nTake for instance the matter of money and currency. From 1802 to 1805
\n2-29
\nevery item is recorded at a rate in shillings and pence, then carried out as
\ndollars and cents. For instance:
\n2 Ibs. coffee @ 1\/10 $ .60
\ni Ibs. tea @ 6\/3 .28
\n2 gal. molasses @ 3\/6 1.16
\n3! yd. india cotton @ 1\/3 .82
\n2 Ibs. tobacco @ 1\/2! .40
\n2 Ibs. sugar @ \/10 .28
\nOn the larger items we have no trouble figuring out this merchant’s rate of
\nexchange. When he lists 3 yd. linen @ 3\/ and carries out the total as $1.50,
\nand when he lists 2 BOY’s Hats @ 6\/ and enters the total as $2.00, it takes
\nno mathematical wizard to see that he figures the rate at six shillings to a
\ndollar. But, on the smaller items, he either didn’t stick to his rate or
\nhe got bogged down in arithmetic, because he variously totals 1\/6 as 24, 25
\nand 26 cents. As a general rule, however, he seems to have computed a single
\nshilling as 17 cents which, of course, is the nearest whole cent to one sixth
\nof a dollar. Ten pence was usually entered as 14 cents, and roughly one penny
\nwas thought of as 1 1\/3 cents, or 4 cents for 3 pence.
\nWe have already placed this old general store in space. It was somewhere
\non the west bank of the Kennebec River along what is now Water street in Augusta.
\nNow let us place it in time, for the mere date 1802 doesn’t mean much
\nto many of us.
\nEveryone knows something about Abraham Lincoln, and many of you know
\nthat he once ran a general store in partnership with another man in New Salem,
\nIllinois. That was in 1831, when Lincoln was 22 years old. And Abraham Lincoln,
\nafter a career that made him the best loved of all American presidents,
\nhas now been dead for 85 years.
\nJust let this sink in. The old store in Augusta which we are talking
\n2-30
\nabout tonight was being operated and the journal entries in the old account
\nbook to which I refer were being made, not only 29 years before Lincoln ran
\nthat frontier store in New Salem, but actually seven years before Abraham
\nLincoln was born.
\nWhen these charges were recorded against householders in the Kennebec
\nValley, George Washington had been dead less than three years. John Adams
\nwas President of the united States. For 18 more years Maine would still be a
\npart of Massachusetts. In the very year when these accounts began, Waterville
\nhad achieved its incorporation as an independent town. Maine’s oldest college,
\nBowdoin, was eight years old; the charter for the second college, Colby,
\nwas eleven years in the future. Deacon Barrows and Elder John Tripp at Hebron
\nwere just beginning the plans which resulted in the founding of Hebron Academy
\ntwo years later. There were no railroads, no steamboats, and very few turnpiked
\nhighways. Travel was by sail, clumsy cart or springless coach, by horseback or
\non foot. It took a long time and favorable wind to bring goods from the outside
\nworld to the wharves at Augusta.
\nSuch is the time when those old accounts were made. What did this oldtime
\nmerchant sell? In spite of the fact that it was a general store, as
\nwere all stores of the time in places so small as Augusta then was, and though
\nthere is wide variety in the items, their total number is not numerous. The
\nrange of things that Kennebec people could buy in 1802 was very narrow indeed.
\nThe accounts carry many mentions of molasses, sugar,. salt, coffee, tea
\nand raisins; but through the first ten years of entries there are exactly
\nthree mentions of flour. There are several charges of wheat and Indian corn,
\nan occasional bushel of rye, but flour was apparently a scarce and little
\npurchased commodity. In 1805 N. Malborn was charged with two hundredweight,
\nthree quarters, and 26, pounds of flour for a total of $11.94. We figure
\nthis out to be 301, pounds, or a little more than 1, barrels, as we measured
\n2-31
\nflour a century later in 1902. The price was therefore approximately eight
\ndollars a barrel. In fact, when sold in small quantities, the price was
\nnearly at the same rate, for we find a charge of 16 pounds of flour for 64
\ncents.
\nIn 1802 most of the clothes were made at home, on cloth from the spinning
\nwheels and hand looms, often from wool grown on the home farm. But this
\naccount book reveals that as early as the dawn of the 19th century people of
\nthe Kennebec Valley were beginning to buy cloth and sometimes whole garments
\nfrom the store. On November IS, 1802, for instance, Nathaniel Page of Belgrade
\nwent on quite a splurge. Perhaps he took his wife on this trip to Augusta. At
\nleast we like to think she went along and had the decisive voice in the selection
\nof the following items charged on that day to Nathaniel’s account:
\n3 yards ribbed velvet $ 4.50
\n1 yard satin 1.85
\n2 skeins silk and 2 of thread .25
\n2 yards india cloth .29
\ni yard sheeting .25
\n7 buttons .24
\n1 pair morocco shoes 1.17
\nIn fact on that trip from Belgrade to the Augusta store on that November
\nday 150 years ago, Nathaniel Page bought and had charged just one item for
\nhimself. It was an axe for 11 shillings’ 3 pence, or $1.87.
\nWhile some of the prices were very high by modern comparison, others
\nstrike ~s as inconceivably low. Just consider a few of them while your mouth
\nwaters:
\n9 lb. 10 oz. cheese @ \/8
\n1 quarter lamb
\n1 dozen eggs
\n$ 1.07
\n.27
\n.09
\n2-32
\n4; lb. butter
\n1 turkey, 6; lb.
\n1 goose, 6 lb. 6 oz.
\n1 cord wood
\n10 lb. sheeps wool
\n1 M shingles
\n3 “segars”
\n18 lb. dry fish
\n13; lb. veal
\nBy contrast consider these prices of 1802:
\n1 nutmeg
\n; lb. chocolate
\n1 lemon
\ni lb. pepper
\n6 yds. forest cloth @ 12\/
\n.59
\n.46
\n.35
\n1.50
\n.63
\n.95
\n.03
\n.36
\n.65
\n.12
\n.41
\n.10
\n.29
\n12.00
\nThe commonest ready-made article charged in these accounts was the shawl,
\nfor which the usual price was $1.17, but occasionally the camel’s hair variety
\nsold for as high as $3.00. Next in number to shawls were hats, but with
\none possible exception they were men’s hats, selling from 75 cents to $1.75.
\nThat one exception is the charge for 1 straw bonnet, $1.00. Of course the
\nword bonnet may have been used for men’s straw hats, but if so I have never
\nbefore encountered it.
\nThe three commonest items in the old journal, repeated again and again,
\nare cheese, rum and gingerbread. Yes, I said gingerbread. The storekeeper apparently
\nbought it in huge sheets from Thomas Dexter, who is repeatedly credited
\nwith the amount of $1.00 for 8 sheets of gingerbread. The storekeeper
\nthen sold it for 18 to 20 cents a sheet. Time and again a customer is charged
\nfor just three items: cheese, gingerbread and rum. He had ridden horseback or
\n2-33
\nwalked a long way to the store. When he got there he was hungry. He bought
\ngingerbread and cheese, and washed it down with the commonest beverage of
\nthe day — rum. The sales of rum are revealing of the old measures. While a
\nquart was one-fourth of a gallon as it is today, and a pint was one-half of
\na quart, a gill was not one-fourth, but was rather one-half, of a pint. The
\nprices for rum reveal this measure. One quart was 28 cents, one pint 14 cents,
\none gill 7 cents, and one glass 4 cents.
\nOn September 6, 1802 one citizen is thus charqed: one glass rum .04, two
\nglasses rum .07, your wife entertained at Soule’s .50. What a story is suggested
\nby those simple items. Sometimes the story doesn’t have to be suggested;
\nit is directly told, like this instance: ! pt. rum delivered to your wife .08.
\nQuery: why was the woman charged one cent more than the customary seven cents
\nfor that quantity?
\nAlthough most of the charges for rum are for small quantities, occasionally
\nthere is a big item, and one at least seems to have given the storekeeper
\na lot of trouble. On December 27, 1802 he entered against Benjamin DOW, Esq.
\n(the Esquire signifying a man of prominence, as indeed he must have been by
\nthe size of the purchase) — he entered against Dow a charge for 32 gals. rum,
\n$40.00, then wrote after the item ruefully, “the rum was delivered last January
\nand a note was taken, which note is now stolen”.
\nIn a later broadcast we shall have more to say about this old account
\nbook, for we have scarcely touched its surface tonight. What we want to emphasize
\nis that relics like this are historical source materials, revealing
\nthe folkways and customs, as well as the material objects of a by-gone day.
\nNotice how revealing is this simple account charged on January 24, 1806:
\n“widdow” Palmer 1 yard crape gauze
\n1 gal. rum
\n.58
\n1.00
\nThis clearly was the widow’s necessary outfit for the funeral.
\n*****
\n2-34
\nThis program has had much to say about economic problems of our day_
\nOpenly and without apology we have praised private enterprise and have condemned
\nthe socialistic state. As we read this old account book of 150 years
\nago we cannot but be impressed by two facts. First, human nature was much
\nthe same as it is now. Not everyone paid the storekeeper in 1802. Like the
\nmodern merchant, he had sometimes to bring suit. But the second fac~ is just
\nas important, and that fact is the undenied, unquestioned assumption on the
\npart of the debtor and creditor alike that the bill must be paid. In 1802
\nno one would have made fun of the remark credited to Calvin Coolidge about
\nthe British debt to us after World War I. When someone asked him if he expected
\nBritain to pay, he is said to have replied, “They borrowed the money,
\ndidn’t they?”
\nThe folks of the Kennebec Valley who traded at that old Augusta store
\nnever expected something for nothing. They intended to pay for what they
\ngot, though the wages of a skilled stonemason were recorded right in this
\nvery account book as only $1.00 a day. They didn’t expect Uncle Sam or the
\nGeneral Court up at Boston to take care of them. Was it a hard and rugged
\nlife? Of course it was. But it was a life not devoid of kindness and
\nsympathy. In this old account book occurs more than one item like this one
\nrecorded in the winter of 1804:
\nWilliam Bell, credit, to cancel his account
\n(his house burned)
\n*****
\n$ 7.24
\nWhat do the American people do with their money; that is, with the money
\nnot used for the necessities of life? U. S. News gives us some interesting
\nanswers to that question: 26 million families buy. automobiles, 39 million pay
\nlife insurance premiums, 36 million add to savings accounts or buy U. S. bonds,
\n23 million make payments on homes and farms, 5 million invest in small
\n2-35
\nbusinesses. U. S. News points out that this is a marked change from 1929.
\nThen everybody was playing the stock market. Today only 4 million people of
\nall our 150 million are buying corporation stocks. The average family is to~
\nday more interested in keeping its money safe than in making a quick profit.
\nOne expense the present-day American regards as a necessity rather than
\na luxury. Even in the\u00b7 group of families whose income is less than $1,000 a
\nyear, 23 per cent, almost one in every four, own cars. Or, at least, they
\nhave cars even if the loan company really holds title to most of them.
\n2-36
\nLITTLE TALKS ON COMMON THINGS
\n59th Broadcast March 12, 1950
\nSeveral persons have commented favorably on the time we devoted a few
\nweeks ago to pertinent facts about the State of Maine. One lady wrote that
\nthese things should be emphasized in our public schools. I think so too.
\nMaine is much more than a state of watermen, woodsmen and hunters, as Arnold
\nToynbee called us.
\nI have no intention of repeating tonight those facts about Maine which I
\ngave on a previous broadcast. I want rather, on this program, to point out a
\nfew interesting items in Maine history. For instance it occurred to me that
\nit might be well to find out which were Maine’s first ten incorporated towns.
\nAnd do you know that hasn’t been so easy a task as I thought. The names changed
\nso many times, the records are so much in dispute, and the authorities
\nso disagree that it has taken some digging to arrive at an accurate list.
\nI wonder if our present high school generation knows which is Maine’s
\noldest town. A little thought should prompt the guess that our oldest towns
\nare those nearest Boston, and that is the fact. The town just this side of the
\nPiscataqua River, across from the ancient Portsmouth, is indeed Maine’s oldest
\ntown. Kittery was, in fact, incorporated in 1652, only 22 years after
\nthe establishment of Boston. Our second town, York, was incorporated later
\nin the same year. In 1653 came Wells. Then we strike some confusion because
\nof changes in name. The fourth town was incorporated as Saco, but it was actually
\non what is now the Biddeford side of the river. Fifth was Kennebunkport,
\nwhich in its history has gone by four different names.
\nThe first five towns, therefore, were all in what is now York County.
\nThe first town to be incorporated in what is now Cumberland County was
\n2-37
\nScarboro in 1658, and soon after came Falmouth (not the present town of Fal~
\nmouth, but the old name for Portland) \u2022 Only one other town was incorporated
\nbefore 1700 – North Yarmouth in 1680.
\nBrunswick is one of Maine’s very old towns, but strange as it may seem
\nto present-day people, not so old as the now much smaller Georgetown. The
\nlatter in fact was the first town incorporated in the Androscoggin-Kennebec
\narea, getting its charter in 1716. Brunswick’s incorporation was in 1737,
\nmaking it the eleventh town, for meanwhile another York County town, Berwick,
\nhad been created in 1713.
\nMaine’s first ten towns, therefore, incorporated between 1652 and 1716
\n>.
\nh~!\\\\.
\nwere Kittery, York, Wells, Saco, Kennebunkport, Scarborcr,~Falmouth, North
\nYarmouth, Berwick and Georgetown.
\nWhat about the towns in Kennebec County? In what is now the County of
\nKennebec no town can-claim the sole honor of being the first. Four of them
\nwere incorporat~ on the same day, April 26, 1771. They were Hallowell, ,X
\nVassalboro, Winslow and Winthrop. The next town was Pittston in 1779. After
\nthose first five Kennebec towns twelve years elapsed before the incorporation
\nof the sixth, Readfield in 1791. After that new towns were created rapidly,
\nwith Monmouth, Mount Vernon and Sidney in 1792; Clinton, Fayette and Litchfield
\nin 1795; Belgrade and China in 1796; and Augusta in 1797.
\nBefore 1800, therefore, Kennebec had fifteen incorporated towns; but
\nnote that, of what are now the four largest in the County, only two had then
\nbeen separately incorporated: Hallowell and Augusta. Waterville and Gardiner,
\nalthough settled much earlier, did not get separate incorporation from
\ntheir parent towns until after the turn of the century.
\n*****
\nNow for another subject. When I occasionally present some of the statistics
\nfrom government or industrial reports, I try not to bore you with them.
\nI hope you agree that some of them are important, if we are to keep our
\n2-38
\nthinking straight about protecting and perpetuating the American way of life.
\nThe cash receipts from farming, according to figures supplied by the Department
\nof Agriculture, are impressive. In 1910 they were $5,793,000; in 1929
\nthey had risen to$ll, 296,000. In 1939 after the depression years they were
\ndown to $8,684,000. Last year, 1949, they had reached the previously unheard
\nof total of $30,803,000. Since 1929 labor income has increased 192%, business
\nand professional income 360%, and farm income 408%.
\nNow take a look at some of the figures regarding strikes. We have. seen
\nmuch in the papers lately about the severe loss to the miners by the prolonged
\ncoal strike. All the nation was affected, but it is the miners themselves who,
\nindividually, were hurt most.
\nThe whole industrial picture, according to the u. S. Department of Labor,
\nis this: in 1929 strikes affected 289,000 workers who lost 5 million man days;
\nin 1939 they hit 1,171,000 workers with 18 million man days lost; in 1949, even
\nbefore the coal strike got going at its worst, strikes had made idle
\n3,059,000 workers, who lost 53 million man days. In spite of those strikes,
\nthe industrial production index, using the year 1939 as the guage of 100, stood
\nat 170 in 1949. The great boom year of 1944, when production shot the index up
\nto 235, was in the past, but in 1949 we had the highest peace-time production
\nin our history.
\nJust one more item; then I will keep still about figures for the rest of
\ntonight’s program. But I do want you to let these particular figures sink in.
\nDuring the past ten years, while the population has increased 25% and prices
\nhave increased 69%, retail sales have increased 310%. Those sales shot up from
\n$42 billion in 1939 to $130 billion in 1948, and will exceed $120 billion for
\n1949 when that year’s figures are all in. Sometimes I wonder if we realize,
\nunder the private enterprise system of America, just what a wonderfully prosperous
\nnation we are.
\n2-39
\n*****
\nHow many of you know about a building you have probably passed and glanced
\nat many times a building with historical significance? It is located
\nat Riverside, four miles this side of Augusta, and before the construction
\nof the latest stretch of new highway, the main road from Augusta to
\nWaterville used to pass directly by it.
\nAt the place locally known as Brown’s Corner stands a big colonial house
\nflanked by two big barns and a shed. This house, still occupied, was once
\none of the best known taverns and stage stops between Portland and Bangor.
\nThere it stands, stately and impressive, on a hill on the \u00b7east bank of the
\nKennebec. Straight down to the river is the site of the old ferry which operated
\nacross the river until only a few years ago.
\nThe land on which the old tavern stands was deeded by the New Plymouth
\nCompany to Bunker Farwell of Vassalboro, who built the house and sold it to
\nBenjamin Brown of Bath. He operated it as a tavern for many years, and
\nmade it a famous stopping place for the traveler and change\u00b7 of horses for the
\nstage.
\nWooden pegs instead of nails fastened many of the beams and rafters.
\nBeautiful scroll carving may still be seen on the stair case. Waist-high
\nwainscotting decorates all the first floor rooms. There is a thick, handhewn
\nattic door. The huge beams and wide floor boards mark it as a very old
\nhouse.
\nBenjamin Brown grew very prosperous. Besides the tavern he had a general
\nstore, kept in the building which is now the hall of Cushnoc Grange. For
\n25 years he was postmaster at Riverside. He owned a big lumber mill and
\nbuilt ships for the Kennebec traffic.
\nIn the historical records of the state Brown is best remembered as the
\nprincipal founder of the insane hospital at Augusta. He donated the first
\n2-40
\n$10,000 toward its construction. In fact his portrait, like that of other
\nearly directors, hangs in the hospital chapel today.
\nThat portrait has a curious history. Although a man of wealth and prominence,
\nand living in a day when all such men had their portraits painted,
\nBrown was too busy and too constantly on the go to find time to sit for an
\nartist. After his death the hospital directors wanted his picture. His
\ndaughter, then living in Philadelphia, remembered that Judge James Dascombe
\nof Skowhegan greatly resembled her father. So up she carne, all the way from
\nPhiladelphia, bringing a ruffled shirt, a velvet coat, high collar and other
\nclothes that her father used to wear. She persuaded Judge Dascombe to don the
\ngarments. She combed his hair as her father’s used to be combed. Then the
\nartist went to work and did his job so well that few people who saw the portrait
\nof Innkeeper Brown, even in days when Brown himself was well remembered,
\nhad the slightest idea that they were really looking upon the features of another
\nman.
\n*****
\nAlthough Maine had for many decades very little foreign population, it
\nnow owes a great deal to those who have come here from foreign lands. Not
\nonly the French Canadians, but the Syrians and Lebanese have contributed to
\nthe advancement of Waterville.
\nSometimes a colony of immigrants takes over a whole community and
\nspreads its influence for years afterwards. Such was the Thomas colony of
\nSwedes who came to Aroostook in 1870. Eight miles northwest of Caribou they
\nsettled and called the settlement New Sweden. By 1873 their leader, W. w.
\nThomas, could report that the original 50 colonists had now expanded to 1,300,
\nand the Maine Register of 1873 proudly said of them: “These colonists have brought
\nwith them $60,000 in cash, have taken up 20,000 acres of land, and have thoroughly
\ncleared 600 acres.
\n2-41
\nThus began the towns of New Sweden and Stockholm in Aroostook County.
\nThe descendents of those Swedish settlers are now some of the County’s leading
\ncitizens, and many young men from those Swedish towns have achieved distinction
\nfar beyond the borders of Maine.
\nSomeone has said that the map of the world is pretty well peppered on
\nthe map of Maine. The number of our communities bearing foreign names is
\ntruly conspic.uous. Here in Waterville we have Italy on one side of us and
\nSicily on the other side, for to the west of us is Rome and to the east is
\nPalermo. But we have to cross Asia to get to Sicily, because between us and
\nPalermo lies China.
\nI was born in the midst of Scandanavia, Maine. Within 15 miles of my
\nbirthplace, in three different directions, were Norway, Sweden and Denmark,
\nbut in the fourth direction I too knew Italy, for the adjoining town to the
\nsouth was Naples. Once I got there it was only a step into Eastern Europe,
\nfor the town of Poland was near.
\nDuring the eight years that I lived:in that good old Biblical town of
\nHebron, over in Oxford County, I had Europe, Asia and South America within
\neasy distance. The nearest town was paris, off to the north was Canton, and
\na little farther away was Peru.
\nOver in Franklin County most of the towns bear old English names, but
\none at least, Madrid, is of no English origin. With or without its much disputed
\nnarrow guage railroad station, it is remindful of old Spain, even though
\nit is pronounced with the accent on the first syllable.
\nDown in Lincoln County the towns of Bremen and Dresden remind us of the
\nGerman settlements in that region; up in Aroostook Mars Hill testifies to the
\nreligious zeal rather than Greek relationship of the early inhabitants. The
\nsame is true of Canaan in Somerset County and Lebanon in York County. Bangor,
\n2-42
\nas I am sure many of you know, is named not for Bangor in England, but for
\nthe name of a hymn tune.
\n2-43
\nLITTLE TALKS ON COMMON THINGS
\n60th Broadcast March 19, 1950
\nOUr request for more information about relics of old Fort Halifax brings
\na response from the man whom I regard as the best informed person on the life
\nof the Abenaki Indians. He is John F. Hill, former Waterville business man,
\nnow living on a RFD route in Oakland.
\nJohn -Hill says that several years ago, while on one of his many expeditions
\nhunting Indian relics, he made an interesting find. In the bed of the
\nstream directly opposite the center of old Fort Halifax, he picked up an iron
\naxe, which his expert knowledge of Indian artifacts easily identified with
\nthe period of the French and Indian War. He knew that his find was one of
\nthe so-called trade hatchets supplied to the Indians by both English and
\nFrench at that time.
\nMr. Hill does not contend that the use of this particular trade hatchet
\nis known, but he points out that its location invites the plausible conclusion
\nthat it played an important part in the history of the old fort.
\nIn the course of his many years of relic hunting, Mr. Hill has found
\nthree of those old trade hatchets in widely separated areas of Maine. Besides
\nthe one picked up near Fort Halifax, he found another on the shore of Cobbossecontee
\nLake, and a third near the chain of ponds far up on the Arnold
\nTrail close to the Canadian border. John Hill has placed many of his Indian
\nrelics for permanent display in the Bates Museum at Good Will. There the
\nvisitor can see the trade hatchet which Mr. Hill found near Fort Halifax.
\n*****
\nAnother item concerning Fort Halifax comes to me as a deeply appreciated
\ngift from Mrs. Walter Scribner of Silver Court, Waterville. Mrs. Scribner is
\nwell known as Central Maine’s most expert mender of garments. Mr. Scribner f
\n2-44
\nequally well known as a garage operator, has recollections of Waterville
\nthat go back 75 years. For my collection of material about the old times
\nMrs. Scribner has presented an ancient map or plan of the Fort Halifax region.
\nIt is a surveyor’s map, beautifully done in three colors — black,
\nyellow and blue — on white, hand-made paper. Years ago — how many no one
\ncan guess — when the paper began to disintegrate, someone pasted the map
\non heavy wall paper. The upper right hand corner is gone, but it apparently
\ncontained nothing but unmarked paper, and the rest of the map is intact.
\nThe map is inscribed thus: “William Freeman’s property, sold Thomas
\nEaton, abutting his property. This plan represents Fort Halifax Farms and
\nthe Divisions as was set off by the Commission. The Freeman lots and house
\nlot laid down by a scale of 20 rods to an inch. A true copy by John Jones,
\nSurveyor. Augusta, February 22, 1 798 …
\nThe plan shows the house lots on the point of land at the tip of which
\nnow stands what is left of Fort Halifax. Facing the Kennebec are nine lots,
\nand facing the Sebasticook are six. Between them runs a road which must have
\nbeen very near the location of the present highway. Extending along this
\nroad and back up over the hill the map shows huge, undivided lots of 80 acres
\neach, belonging respectively to William Brown, the Merrick Heirs, the Hallowell
\nHeirs, William Whipple and the heirs of John Gardiner. The wide sweep
\nof the Kennebec just above the point, including the island near the Waterville
\nshore, is marked on the map as Great Bay, which explains why the street
\nwas named Bay Street.
\nThis map shows only the house lots on the north side of the Sebasticook.
\nThe earlier settlements were on the south side of that river and along the
\nKennebec, from what is now Lithgow Street all the way to the Vassalboro line.
\n*****
\nNot long ago the Mayor, Aldermen and Councilmen of Waterville completed
\n2-45
\nthe burdensome task of establishing the 1950 budget. The Committee on Appropriations
\nspent long, tedious hours listening to the pleas of the several municipal
\ndepartments.
\nWe owe a great deal to these men of the City Council. It is no fun to
\nbe forced to decide appropriations When, no matter how you decide, you are
\nsure to displease somebody. These city fathers of ours are conscientious men,
\ndoing their best to cut the garment of financial appropr.iations to the cloth
\nof financial resources.
\nIn 1950 our elected officers have dealt with a million dollar budget. It
\nmay be small comfort to them, but it is good for the rest of us to know what
\nkind of a budget the city had 56 years ago, in 1894. Waterville then had been
\nonly six years a city. Let’s see what money the city fathers then appropriated
\nand where they got it.
\nIn 1894 the total tax commitment was $98,580, divided roughly $73,000
\nreal estate, $20,000 personal property, and $5,000 polls. The tax rate was
\n20 mills. The year 1894 was a time of depression, and $16,000, or one sixth,
\nof the whole tax commitment remained uncollected at the end of the year.
\nThe poor we have with us always, and $10,000 was spent for their support
\nin 1894. The overseers said in their report: “The past year has been one of
\nthe hardest for the poor in the history of this city. Very little work has
\nbeen done by the city to furnish labor, except street work. The hard times
\ncontinued, large corporations doing only what was necessary, curtailing in
\nevery way. 190 persons have been helped besides those in the alms house. That
\nmeans many more, as some have large families. The year’s cost of the alms
\nhouse has been $1,472.57.We have cut and hauled 157 cords of wood.”
\nThe cost of the street department was almost exactly the same as that of
\nthe poor department, $10,000. The commissioner, Martin Blaisdell, received a
\nsalary of $750 per year. The big job of the year was replanking the Kennebec
\n2-46
\nbridge, part of the expense being borne by the town of Winslow. Edward Ware
\nwas paid $468 for the lumber to do that job. What would it cost today? The
\ndepartment spent $50 for a dump cart, $12.15 for granite, $15 for moving a
\nbarn at the gravel pit, and $1.25 for cutting limbs of trees.
\nHow the work on the streets was done 55 years ago is revealed by a few
\nitems taken from the department.’s 1894 inventory: 1 road machine, 2 dump
\ncarts, 2 sets forward wheels, 3 steel road scrapers, 2 plows, 3 four-horse
\nsnow plows, 4 sidewalk plows, 1 sod cutter, 3 wheelbarrows, 4 lanterns, 1
\nbush scythe.
\n1894 was a fortunate year for fires. The largest fire of the year caused
\na loss of only $250 in the basement of W. D. Spaulding’s store. Total expense
\nof the department was $7,500. The chief’s salary was $1,000. The largest single
\nitem of expense was to the Waterville Water Company — $1,105.
\nThe city report for 1894 reveals some interesting facts about the street
\nlights of that period. Compared with our street lights today, some of those of
\n1894 were pretty dim. On Winter Street were two lamps of only 20 candle power.
\nOn College Avenue, near the Perkins place, and on Temple Street were lamps of
\n32 candle power. But of course the principal lighting was furnished by the
\nold-fashioned arc lights of 1,000 candle power. There were 58 of those arc
\nlights scattered through the city, and in 1894 it cost $390 to supply them
\nwith carbons.
\nMaintenance of the street lights was in charge of Thomas Landry, who was
\nengaged for this job from April 1, 1894 to April 1, 1895 at a salary of $1,140,
\nbut two additional jobs supplemented his earnings a bit. He took care of the
\nfire alarm for $75, and he cared for the city’s parks for $100. Altogether it
\nwould seem to be quite a job for one man, and his total salary of $1,315 was
\nnot lavish. A few oil lamps were still in use in 1894. There was paid to
\nC. A. plummer $6.00 for the care of oil lamps on Pleasant Place.
\n2-47
\nThe police department under A. L. McFadden made 172 arrests in 1894,
\n111 of them for drunkenness. Arrests for serious crimes were one each for
\nforgery, embezzlement, threatening to burn buildings, and keeping a house
\nof ill fame, and four for breaking and entering.
\nEconomically 1894 must indeed have been a year of hard times, for 907
\npersons applied to the police department for lodging in the jail. In fact
\nthe chief said in his report: “The expense of the department has been increased
\nthe past year by the add1tion of a regular night watchman on the Plains,
\nalso by having 75 Italians to board three days in Augusta, Who came to our
\ncity without any means whatsoever, being unable\u00b7 to collect their wages from
\nthe contractor of the Wiscasset and Quebec Railroad Where they had been employed.”
\nAmong the well known names listed as policemen — perhaps they were parttime
\n— are S. E. Whitcomb, George L. Cannon and Frank Dusty.
\nThose were the days When, under local option, towns ran liquor agencies,
\nand Waterville had one. Its year’s sales were $4,870, just about one day’s
\ngood sale at the State Liquor Store today. The agency made a net profit of
\n$833. Salaries paid the three agents were respectively $268, $163 and $162.
\nExpenses included installation of a coal bin and repairing the roof. One item
\nmakes us raise our eyebrows a bit: “liquor furnished to paupers, $6.89.”
\nIn 1894 as now the schools called for the largest appropriation. But what
\na difference! The school appropriation by the city was then $17,500. Approximately
\n$6,800 came from the state, making the total school budget $24,300.
\nThe separate appropriation of $3,000 had been made for a new school
\nhouse. Does anyone remember where it was? The building committee spent
\n$659.43 more than the appropriation and, believe it or not, the difference
\nwas supplied from the regular school appropriation. In the new school house
\nRedington and Company furnished the seats and F. J. Goodridge supplied a clock.
\n2-48
\nChoosing from the list a few well remembered names, let us take a look
\nat the salaries our teachers then received. Dennis Bowman, principal of the
\nhigh school, got $1,200 a year, Minnie Smith had $560, Cora Lincoln $450;
\nLulu Morrill, Eva Towne, Alice Osborn and Sarah Lang each got:$360. The total
\nsalary account was $15,452.
\nFor conveying scholars the city paid $197.50. Just contrast that with
\nconveyance costs today. Fuel cost $1,700, and as late as 1894 it was still
\nmostly wood. Repairs cost $650, books $2,000, and all the janitors in all the
\nschools of the city received together only $1,630.
\nAmong the miscellaneous receipts was $135 for non-resident tuitions in
\nthe high school, $5.92 for the sale of pens, and $17.00 for blanks. Among the
\nitems of miscellaneous expense were $3.25 for thawing pipes, 75 cents for typewriting,
\n$1.70 for pitch pipes and $5.00 for removing ashes.
\nProbably the city fathers in 1894 had just as many headaches as the present
\ngovernment has in 1950, but how the present aldermen and councilmen would
\nlike to deal with those 1894 figures!
\n2-49
\nLITTLE TALKS ON COMMON THINGS
\n61st Broadcast March 26, 1950
\nLet us return for a few minutes tonight to the old account book of the
\nAugusta trader, whose interesting sales we talked about a few weeks ago. In
\nhis book I found frequent mention of a term I had previously seen only in one
\n\u00b7other place. The term is “Bohea tea”, which our Augusta merchant sold for 47
\ncents a pound. The only other place I ever saw that kind of tea mentioned
\nis in the autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. When Franklin took on the job
\nof supplying provisions for General Braddock’s ill-fated expedition, he listed
\namong the needed items 20 pounds of good Bohea tea.
\nWhen I mentioned rum as one of the three commonest items of sale in that
\nold store, I did not mean to imply that it was the only beverage sold. There
\nare several mentions of brandy, a few of gin, and in November and December the
\nitem “1 mug cider” is almost as frequent as “1 glass rum”.
\nOUr Augusta storekeeper sold a lot of horn combs. The charge was uniformly
\n11 cents a piece. As all readers of Colonial history know, glass beads were
\nvery much in demand for trading with the Indians. I had no idea how cheap
\nthose beads were as late as 1802 until I read this item in the storekeeper’s
\njournal: “4 strings beads, 12 cents”.
\nAs I turned the pages of that old book it suddenly occurred to me that,
\nal though I encountered many mentions of thread, I never saw the word “spool”.
\nThe unit is either skein or knot. Skein is still used, I believe, as a unit
\nfor yarn, but does anyone remember ever hearing the word “knot” as the old
\nstorekeeper used it in this charge: “Henry Bolster, 28 knots brown thread,
\n50 cents” ?
\nNowhere in the account book is there any record of a small quantity of
\n2-50
\nsalt. It is usually “1 bushel salt, 92 cents”. The smallest amount is one
\npeck. What kind of salt was that? Certainly not modern, refined table salt
\nas we know it. Nor was it neces\u00b7sarily rock salt or mineral salt. It may well
\nhave been what in my boyhood we used to call Liverpool salt, a somewhat powdery,
\noften soggy, unrefined salt.
\nSometimes a customer would get away with short payment. Then the storekeeper
\nwould make a careful notation of the lapse or error. For instance, on
\nNovember 2, l804.he made this entry: “Jeremiah Richards of Fayette, to short
\npay for knives and forks, 7 cents.”
\n“Due on one gal. molasses, 4 cents.”
\nIn April, 1805 Jeremiah Towle was charged:
\nNow let us take a fond, nostalgic glance at some of the sales seldom,
\nif ever, made in a store today. Our old-time merchant’S journal is filled with
\nsuch items as these:
\n1 pair boot legs $ 1.50
\n1 bed cord .50
\n1 cow bell 1.17
\n! lb. ink powder .17
\n1 pair specks .34
\n1 clay pipe .02
\n! lb. brimstone .04
\n1 string sleigh bells 1. 75
\n1 pair ox bows .42
\n7 flints .07
\n1 snuff box .10
\n1 slate and 2 pencils .27
\n4 gallons soap 1.00
\nOur Augusta merchant seems to have been a pretty good fellow, lending a
\nhelping hand as need arose. Often in his records we find mention of money
\n2-51
\nloaned, always in small amounts, seldom more than a dollar at a time. Sometimes
\nit was as small as this item entered on October 10, 1806: “Henry DOW, cash
\nloaned, 20 cents”. It would be interesting to know what Henry was going to
\ndo with that twenty cents. Perhaps he was going to buy a meal at Soule’s
\nTavern, where you’will recall the merchant paid for the entertainment of one
\nman’s wife while the husband was being charged for three successive purchases
\nof rum at the store.
\nEveryone my age is familiar with the expression “a dollar a day and
\nfound”. It is not often, however, that one sees any form of this expression in
\nwriting. But here, in this old book, is the entry on March 10, 1803: “John
\nSoule, credit, by finding Henry Babcock, 2 meals and lodging, 64 cents”. Incidentally
\nrates like that ought to make modern innkeepers ashamed of their
\nprices.
\nApparently our storekeeper was not averse to doing errands. In June,
\n1805 he entered these charges: “Jeremiah Glidden, to going to Vassalborough
\non your business, 50 cents; to wine .07”. Correct interpretation is impossible,
\nbut we’ll hazard a guess that the storekeeper, not Glidden, drank the wine, and
\nthat the 7 cents is part of what we would today call an expense account.
\nIt is evident that some of the old customers were slow pay, and occasionally
\nthe merchant had to swear out a writ, or bring suit. Whenever he did
\nthat, he added the’ cost of the writ to the customer’s account. Whether he was
\never able to collect through these suits is not clear. The records show
\nscrupulous honesty, as when he credits Nathaniel Shaw with 6 cents overpaid.
\nIn May, 1806 he wrote this item: “Nathaniel Folsom, 45 lb. rush iron, $2.70;
\n1 piece rush iron about 30 lb. The reason of this being charged in this manner
\nwas he took the wrong piece.”
\nAn interesting feature of this old account book is the merchant’s amazing
\nspelling. The point is not his misspelling of common words; that was ordinary
\n2-52
\nenough in 1802, and isn’t particularly unusual today. But this storekeeper’s
\nspelling reminds us of what many Shakespearean scholars assert about the Bard
\nof Avon. Shakespeare, it seems, could not make up his mind how to spell his
\nname. One authority says it appears in eleven different spellings. Likewise,
\nour Augusta merchant of 150 years ago could not decide how to spell the days
\nof the week. Saturday appears not only in its correct spelling, but also as
\nSaterday, Satterday, Saterdy and Satdy. Monday is sometimes Munday, sometimes
\nMundy, and at least once appears as Moonday. Of course Wednesday was the old
\nfellow’s worst stumbling block. Interestingly enough he sometimes spells it
\ncorrectly, but more commonly it appears as Wensday, Wensdy, and once as Wendsday.
\nThursday is often written Thirdsday, which by any reckoning it could not
\npossiLly be. Probably the writer never thought of it as actually the third
\nday of the week, because a few pages later he spelled it Thirstday. perhaps
\nthat was a day when he got in a new barrel of rum.
\nWhen I first mentioned this old account book, I told you it is a valuable
\nhistorical record. Many of you are aware of my interest in old-time words and
\nsayings of our Maine dialect. Our good storekeeper’s fantastic spelling gives
\nus interesting clues to the old-time pronunciation. When he records the sale
\nof 1 arthen ware jug, it is clear that folks of that time pronounced earth as
\narth. When he writes boot legs as “Boot laigs” I we know he pronounced the words
\neggs and legs just the way a lot of Maine folks still pronounce them, to the
\namusement of people from other states. When he makes a charge for 1 yard narrer
\ntape and another 1 axle for wheelbarrer, we know how he and his neighbors pro~
\nnounced the words ending in “ow”. “Mending chimley, 50 cents” shows that the
\npronounciation of chimney still occasionally heard was common a century and a
\nhalf ago. But when he charges a customer 80 cents for “I cagg and brass lock
\nwith same”, we cannot be sure whether he pronounced keg as kaig or kag. In my
\nboyhood I heard both pronounciations.
\n2-53
\nOUr final word tonight about the old-time Augusta merchant calls attention
\nto his practice of selling goods on trial and taking other goods on consignment.
\nOn July 10, 1805 appears this item: “Samuel Babcock, 1 gunlock to
\nhave to try and to take mounting if it fits, $3.00” On August 3 of the same
\nyear is entered: “Joseph Ham, credit by 1 pair boyls boots, $3.33; to be returned
\nto him if no sale.”
\n*****
\nSome people tell us that we live in a world where the fellow who shouts
\nthe loudest gets the most. All around us we hear individuals and groups making
\ndire threats of what they will do to us if they don I t have their way.
\nIt might be well if we occasionally looked to see how much substance lies be~
\nhind a threat.
\nA man driving a buggy.down a steep hill met a farmer with a load of hay.
\nBoth stopped their teams and the man in the buggy shouted, “Turn out — turn
\nout — or I III treat you the way I did a man I met a mile back.” The farmer,
\ndeeply concerned, pulled his team out into the ditch, endangering his whole
\nload. Then as the buggy drew past, he timidly asked, “What did you do to the
\nfellow you met back there?” nOh”, came the reply, “I turned out for him”.
\n*****
\nEd Chase, the well known legislator and business man of’Portland, calls
\npertinent attention to some good sized holes in the social security bag. He
\npoints out that a great illusion of. our times is the notion that future security
\ncan be assured by paperwork and bookkeeping. We have created a system
\nby which the government extracts a percentage of our wages in return for a
\npromise that when we reach a certain age we shall be paid so much per month.
\nNo one has any idea whether, when the time comes, the amount will buy what
\nit buys today. The plain fact is that what we have really done is to hire a
\nhorde of bookkeepers whom the rest of us must support. Under such a system
\n2-54
\nsocial security has no reliable security in it.
\nWhat Mr. Chase is trying to make us see is that, just as it used to be
\nalleged that a country can have a sound economy if all the people took in
\neach other’s washing, so our country now seems to be moving toward a state
\nof paper prosperity based on taking in each other’s bookkeeping.
\n*****
\nA lot of us are too indifferent to the destructive forces at work on the
\nAmerican system of economy. It reminds us of the story about the ant hill on
\nthe golf course. A round, white object came rolling along one day and stopped
\non top of the ant hill. A hundred ants quickly assembled to inspect this object
\nat close hand. Suddenly a terrific blow fell. When the dust settled, the
\nobject was still there, but half the ants were dead. The remainder reassembled
\nto continue the inspection. A second blow fell, leaving the white object still
\nin place, but killing all but two of the ants. Then one of the survivors said
\nto the other, “If we want to stay alive, maybe we’d better get on the ball.”
\n*****
\nTea is a very common thing, though with us it is less common than with
\nour British friends. Although, a hundred and fifty years ago, the merchant in
\nthat cld store in Augusta sold very few articles for human consumption, compared
\nwith the numerous articles today, one of his few commodities was tea.
\nNevertheless tea as a drink known to the western world is not very old.
\nprobably Shakespeare never tasted it. In the very year when Charles II restored
\nthe monarchy after the interruption of Cromwell’s commonwealth — the year
\n1660 — Samuel Pepys wrote in his famous diary: “I did send for a cup of tea
\n(a China drink) of which I had never drank before.”
\nThose of my generation who worked in the grocery stores of half a century
\nago were familiar with not only the China teas, but with the thin, wiry
\nleaves of Ceylon tea, and the coppery green leaves of Japanese tea. In those
\n2-55
\ndays we hadn I t heard much about the now common India tea.
\nIt is a fact, however, that until the time of our own Civil War, tea
\nwas produced exclusively in China and the island of Formosa. Since 1860 the
\nplant has been introduced into India and Pakistan, Java and Sumatra, Japan
\nand East Africa.
\nTea experts insist that the finest tea is grown at the highest.altitudes
\nand that if the leaves are picked 24 hours too early or 24 hours too late,
\nits flavor will be inferior. Many of them also maintain that the finest
\nflavored tea is produced in Darjeeling in the foothills of the Himalayas. To
\nthis\u00b7 day many British people, when they provide for an important social occasion,
\ninsist on serving Darjeeling tea.
\n2-56
\nLITTLE TALKS ON COMMON’THINGS
\n62nd Broadcast April 2, 1950
\nI suspect that, hidden away in the attics of many Central Maine homes,
\nare numerous old-time school books. For instance, I have an arithmetic
\nprinted by the well known firm of Smith and Sale at Portland in 1811. It is
\nold enough to have a usage that appears very strange to every person now living.
\nThat is the use of the connna instead of the dot as a decimal point,
\nto show the division especially between dollars and cents.
\nMr. C. E. Glover, retired superintendent of the Waterville schools, has
\nshown me a school book that is even older than myoId arithmetic. It is a
\nreader owned by Samuel Bancroft of Pepperill, Massachusetts, and the owner
\nhas written on the fly-leaf the following words: “Samuel Bancroft’s book and
\nproperty. Price 2\/6. Pepperill, January 8, 1811.”
\nThe book was eight years old when it came into Samuel’s possession, for
\nit was published in Worcester in 1803 by one of the most noted distributors
\nof books in the early days of our Republic — Isaiah Thomas, Jr.. The. title
\npage anno~nced “PUbLished aceerc1ing \u00b7to act of,C proprietor of the copyright. Sold’wnolesaleand retail by him in Worcester,
\nand by all the princi.pal booksellers in the united States.”
\nMore easily recognized by the modern generation is the name of the printer,
\nE. Merriam and Company, Brookfield. That is the original plant of the
\nfamous Merriam family whose business continues to this day as G. & C. Merriam
\nand Company, Springfi.eld, Mass. Every modern schoolboy knows them as the publishers
\nof all authentic editions of the Webster dictionaries.
\nThe author of this old reader, now owned by Mr. Glover, was Daniel Adams,
\nwho it seems wrote such other texts as “The Scholar’s Arithmetic” and “The
\nThorough Scholar”. To this 1803 book he gave the title, “The understanding
\n2-57
\nReader, or Knowledge Before Oratory; .. being a new selection of lessons suited
\nto the understanding and capacities of youth, and designed for their improvement
\nin reading, in the def~nition of words, and in spelling.”
\nThis book is no primer, no first introduction to reading. Yet the modern
\neducational psychologist would hardly call it “suited to the understanding and
\ncapacities of youth”. Just note this passage on “Storms” which young Sam Bancroft
\nevidently had to tackle:
\n“Seeing in the carpet of variegated vegetables which cover the earth a
\nproximate cause in the warmth of the sun and the moisture from the clouds, man
\nwent from these to an acquaintance with that perpetual circulation subsisting
\nbetween the ocean and the mountains through the instrumentality of the atmosphere,
\nand by the medicine of the rivers to the ocean again. But the philosophy
\nof this vivifying phenomenon is spoken of as inscrutable.”
\nThat is tough reading for anybody, to say nothing of a boy in the oldtime
\ncommon schools.
\nThe selected readings in this old book are indeed of wide variety. Animals
\nare given due recognition; there are selections on the beaver, the camel, the
\nlion, the tiger, the fox and the elephant. There are five essays on “The
\nHostilities of Animals”, which come’ to the conclusion that man is the most rapacious
\nof all animals — a conclusion that the second World War has tragically
\nborne out.
\nFrom the Bible is taken the entire book of Esther, Paul’s defense before
\nAgrippa, and the story of the Resurrection. Some of the sketches are very practical,
\nlike “On the Boiling of Potatoes” and “A Surprising CUre for the Gout”.
\nBut by far the largest number of selections are the moral essays for which all
\nthe old readers, even through the time of the mid-century McGuffie’s, were
\nfamous. Some of the titles are “Life is a Flower”, “Rules for Moderating our
\nAnger”, “Frailty of Life” and “Neighbor Winrow’s Advice to Haymakers on Drinking”.
\n2-58
\nUsers of school books a century ago commonly inscribed some appropriate
\nrhyme within the covers. Sam Bancroft was no exception. On the back fly-leaf
\nhe has written: “Steel not this book for fear of shame, for in it is the
\nowner’s name”. And here in the book, one of whose three major claims was to
\nteach spelling, Sam Bancroft has spelled steal “s tee 1”.
\nHow many of you have ever seen a three dollar bill? Mr. Glover has one.
\nIt is a bank note issued by the Phoenix Bank of Hartford, Connecticut in 1818.
\nIt is one of those old plain paper bank notes, printed on one side only, with
\nthe number of the note and the signatures of officials written in ink. The denomination
\n-~ three dollars — is a part of the original printing, showing
\nclearly that such three dollar notes were regular currency.
\nQuite by coincidence, soon after we had seen Mr. Glover:’ s specimen, we
\nencountered evidence that three dollar bills were still in regular circulation
\nas late as 1855.
\nEditor Drew of the Rural Intelligencer — the Augusta newspaper Where, you
\nwill recall, we found the editorial against stoves — well, Editor Drew cautioned
\nhis subscribers about how to send him the money for their subscriptions.
\nHis rates were $1.50 a year if paid in advance, $1.75 on six month’s credit,
\nand $2.00 on a year’s credit. The editor said: “Let us understand the terms;
\nthen there will be no partiality and no cause for complaint. The great discount
\nis made for the sake of encouraging payments in advance, which are best
\nfor all concerned.”
\nSo on February 27, 1855 the Rural Intelligencer carried the following notice:
\n“Some of our subscribers r in forwarding us their nine shillings for a
\nyear’s subscription, have enclosed in their letter a single dollar bill and
\nfifty cents in silver, paying the postage in advance of 3 cents. But in every
\nsuch case our faithful P. M. has noticed that the weight of the coin subjects
\nthe letter to double postage, and therefore has obliged us to pay five
\n2-59
\ncents more. When one subscriber cannot unite with another so as to send us
\nthree dollars in one bill, they should send fifty cents in P. o. stamps.”
\nThere indeed is evidence of the customary circulation of three dollar bills
\nas late as 1855. Does anyone know when they finally went out of existence?
\n*****
\nNow let’s spend a minute or two with that topic of federal government
\nspending, to which we have referred before. When. the present fiscal year ends
\non June 30, 1950 our government will have spent $46 billion in these twelve
\nmonths. The biggest business in the world today is the govermnent of the
\nunited states.
\nWhere does this money go? $17 billion goes for pensions, subsidies, and
\nother benefits paid directly to individual citizens. $10 billion goes for govermnent
\n,salaries, $4 billion for interest, and $2 billion for loans.
\nA factor too often overlooked is that the govermnent today is the nation’s
\nbiggest business customer. This year it will spend $10 billion for goods.
\nThat is business pump priming on a gigantic scale.
\nNow to people who get from the government more than they put back in
\ntaxes, this is all to the good. But to millions, like many of you who are
\nlistening to this program, govermnent spending is only a drain. There are
\nonly two ways to meet these huge government expenses; higher taxes or bigger
\ndeficits. Somewhere there is a limit even to a government’s ability to keep
\nborrowing and to keep piling up deficits. Hence the threat of higher taxes
\nwill linger on for many years unless expenditures are cut.
\nBut that is not all of the story. The more things govermnent does, the
\nmore goods it buys, the more surely is every increase a step toward the socialistic
\nstate. The piper always calls the tune, and it is getting to be
\nalarmingly true, in widening areas of life, that the govermnent in Washington
\nplays the pipe for all of us.
\n2-60
\n*****
\nBy this time our listeners know that I am quite a railroad fan. My
\nfriend Gene Winslow of the Maine Central will also tell you that I have a high
\nregard for railroad labor — for the engineers and firemen, the conductors
\nand trainmen, the\u00b7 section hands and shop crews, and by no means least for
\nthe employees in the ticket offices, including my friend of long standing,
\nMr. McCrillis, and the courteous young lady who assists him in the Waterville
\noffice.
\nTonight I want to tell you why I have a high regard for the labor organizations
\nof the railroad men. Coercion, whether by labor or by management
\nand both have sometimes used it — is not the American way. Volition, free
\nbargaining, and the spirit of compromise must be our guiding principle if we
\nare to escape eventual government seizure of properties and the socialization~
\nof industry.
\nAs David Lawrence has shrewdly pointed out, the Railroad Labor Act, whatever
\nmay be its faults, and it doubtless has some, is still the best piece of
\nlabor legislation ever written in America. In substance it calls for impartial
\ninvestigation and fact-finding. It provides that work cannot be stopped while
\nthese procedures are being carried on.
\nWhy not extend these provisions to all major industries whose shut-down
\nimperils national health and safety? If any labor union or any employer rejects
\nwhat public opinion considers a fair settlement proposed by a truly impartial
\nfact-finding board, then and only then is seizure or compulsory arbitration
\njustified as a measure of last resort. Railroad labor and management
\nhave set a pattern Which the whole nation may well. follow.
\n*****
\nIn recent weeks we have said a lot about old-time doings in Kennebec
\nCounty and in mentioning the old stores, the old city reports, and other items
\nwe have given attention to a lot of things that are now no more. Some of
\n2-61
\nthose things deserve special mention all by themselves. For instance, there is
\nthe fringed-top surrey so lovingly revived in the musical comedy “Oklaho~”.
\nAs late in our history as my own boyhood days, the use of a fringed-top surrey
\nwas a mark of distinction. Of course anyone who owned a horse and buggy was
\none notch in the social scale above the mere pedestrian, but the limit of most
\nfamilies was the two-seated democrat wagon, from which both seats were removable,
\nconverting it into a cart.
\nThe surrey, however, was limousine deluxe, a two-seated pleasure carriage,
\nwhose body was not a plain box, but had stylish cutouts before each seat. In
\nplace of the plain wooden sides to the seats, there was open grillwork. The
\ndashboard was low and curved with a gay, jaunty air. The fringed top, supported
\nby four steel rods, afforded protection from the sun, but not from the
\nrain. A man didn’t use his surrey if it looked like rain. Even if he had rain
\ncurtains to put on the sides, he knew they were scanty protection from Maine
\nshowers. Yes, fifty years ago, the surrey was an important symbol of the amenities
\nof life.
\nThen there were the old fashioned woven hammocks ~ Advertisements of them
\nused to fill several pages of the Sears Roebuck catalog. Here is the actual
\nwording of one of those ads: “Woven as close as the finest tapestry, with all
\nthe beauty and color in design of an oriental rug. Spreader at head and foot.
\nFine heavy fringe. 40 x 80 inches. Upholstered and enameled button tufted
\nthrowback tassel bar. Price $ 2 \u2022 50. II
\n*****
\nA lot of people are glad that rocking chairs have not entirely disappeared,
\nthough they are getting more and more scarce in the furniture stores.
\nWe think of rocking chairs as the peculiar perquisite of women, especially
\nthose travelling rockers which work their way clear across a room while the
\noccupant knits and rocks. Let me remind you that a lot of men also like rock-
\n2-62
\ning chairs. One of them recently wrote to a country newspaper in Maine:
\n“There are so many uncontrolled alarms and diversions in the world today
\nthat a man needs the gentle, soporific movement of a favorite rocking chair
\nto keep his balance.”
\n*****
\nDid you ever hear of the Staper Society S tap e r? Well,’ Staper
\nis one of those telescope words, made up of the first letters of a long
\nname. In this case it is the society to Advance Pie Eating Right. The
\nStapers want to bring back the old custom of the way the real, old-time
\nNew Englanders used to eat pie. Say the Stapers, “Most people have the
\npoint of the wedge toward them when they eat a piece of pie. That is not
\nright. You should have the point directly away from you. Start with the outside
\ncrust first. Then you finish off with a good big mouthful of the best
\npart of the pie.”
\n2-63
\nLITTLE TALKS ON COMMON THINGS
\n63rd Broadcast April 9, 1950
\nThis is the great, sacred day of the Christian year. I hope most of
\nyou have been to church today; but, if you have not, you have perhaps listened
\nto the glorious Easter music and heard a stirring Easter message on
\nthe radio. Yet there are some interesting things about Easter that are
\nnot familiar to many people.
\nFirst of all, though Christianity gives Easter its best and most profound
\nmeaning, certain fundamental ideas and ideals told in the Easter message
\nare found in many of the world’s religions. Easter, more than any other
\nfestival of the church, contains ideas and truths that go back to the dimmest
\nrecords of man’s history
\nfar-away prehistoric man.
\nconceptions that have come down to us from
\nBefore it can come to life as a plant, the seed must be buried in the
\nearth. Before it can soar aloft on its brilliant butterfly wings,’ the caterpillar
\nmust enter the long sleep in its chrysalis tomb. Before the awakening
\nof spring, the earth is shrouded in the cold death of winter. Jesus once
\nsaid: “Unless a grain of corn fall into the ground and die, it remains alone.
\nBut if it d:les, it brings forth much fruit. II Thus Christ summed up the strange
\ntruth so hard for us to understand, the truth that life is ever dependent
\nupon death.
\nA multitude of grains are gathered together and die under the grinding
\nstone, and out of this death comes bread, the staff of life. Then that bread
\nis buried in the human body that it may live and grow. Then that body itself
\nreturns to the earth, where its chemicals give life once more to ‘the buried
\nseed. That is the great cycle of life. Without death it cannot continue.
\n2-64
\nVery few people, even educated people, think with abstract ideas. Only
\nwhen the great abstractions are turned into concrete images do we comprehend
\nthem at all. And the more primitive, the less cultured, a people, tlle more
\ncolorful those symbols are sure to be. That is the way myths and legends are
\nbuilt up into dramatic rituals and the beautiful symbols of cultured art.
\nMany people think a myth is just a made-up yarn of fiction. Not so. A
\nmyth is much more than that. It is an attempt of primitive man to explain
\nsome strange phenomenon of nature, like thunder, or growing plants, or recurrent
\nfloods, or the last great mystery of death.
\nThe oldest myths behind the great central truth of the Easter story concern
\nour favorite symbol of Easter, the egg. Just as it is the first memory
\nof Easter that most of us carry from our own childhood, so it takes humanity
\nback to the oldest known civilizations on earth, Egypt, Mesapotamia, and
\nIndia.
\nIn Egypt the God Geb produced a mighty egg, from which the whole universe
\nwas born. Out of this egg came the phoenix, the fabulous bird which was the
\nsymbol of the sun. In the myth the phoenix died by setting fire to its own
\nnest and burning itself to ashes. In those ashes was an egg from which the
\nphoenix hatched again. The Hindu and Mesapotamian stories are similar.
\nNow the point is that the human mind is of the same essential nature
\nin all times and places. Hidden in its unconscious depths are the profound
\ntruths of God, and those truths find expression in symbols that are remarkably
\nalike in all parts of the earth.
\nWhy should our modern Easter be associated with these ancient myths?
\nBecause there is an obvious parallel between the rising of Christ from death
\nand the rising of the universe from the original darkness of chaos. Between
\nthe phoenix myth and our Easter there is an even more striking parallel. Both
\nemphasize the profound truth that out of sacrifice and seeming defeat come
\n2-65
\nvictory and life. The phoenix rises from the ashes, Jesus from the tomb.
\nIt is no accident that Easter annually comes near the vernal equinox.
\nIt is not a fixed date, like Christmas, because in ancient times it was
\nassociated with the lunar as well .as the solar calendar, with the moon as
\nwell as the sun. Hence the date of Easter is the first Sunday after the first
\nfull moon following the 21st of March, the date of the spring equinox.
\nLong before the time of historical records, the ancient legends assure
\nus that the quarter of the sun’s journey which lies between the spring equinox
\nand the summer solstice has always been a season of religious rites
\nconnected with the sowing and the fruition of crops. Not only is there striking
\nsimilarity between seed and living plant on the one hand, and the entombed
\nJesus and the risen Christ on the other hand, but we are also reminded
\nthat Jesus likened himself to the vine and ordained that the blood of
\nthe cruShed grape Should be the sacramental symbol of his own blood in celebration
\nof the Lord’s Supper. The fact that bread is made from ground
\ncorn and wine from crushed grapes has long been connected in religious symbolism
\nwith the idea that eternal life is the result of sacrifice — of
\nlife-giving death.
\nDo not misunderstand our meaning. We are not suggesting that the Christ
\nstory is a mere survival of old myths tacked on to the true history of a
\nGalilean prophet. We are rather emphasizing the fact that Christ brought in
\ndefinite, human historical manner the same divine truth that the old myths
\nsought more feebly to explain. Christianity sees Christ as God in human form
\n— the complete embodiment of the ideal pattern or divine law by which the
\nuniverse and man are created and have meaning — in Short, the incarnation
\nof what Christians for twenty centuries have called the Word of God.
\nIf then the Word of God is the design in the mind of the Architect of
\nthe Universe, there is every reason to expect resemblances between the life
\n2-66
\nof Christ and all the processes of nature that are found in the heavens, on
\nthe earth, in man himself. That is why Christ rose from the dead with the
\nascending sun and at the season when crops rise from the ground. For the
\nworks of the Creator are all of one piece. Behind Christ and the crops and
\nthe seasons and the inner workings of the human mind is one spirit, one
\nrythro, one moving purpose, one God.
\nAs the centuries roll by, numerous customs and folk-ways come to sur~
\nround all the religious rites and festivals. Easter is no exception.
\nEggs have been a part of the Easter folk-ways for many centuries. Sometimes
\nthey are left white or brown, sometimes they are gaily dyed. In parts
\nof Eastern Europe they are elaborately painted with crosses. In France children
\nmaking their first confession on Holy Saturday take a present of eggs
\nto the priest. In other countries children hunt for eggs in the garden. In
\nour own national capital they\u00b7 roll them on the White House lawn. Today, not
\nonly in America, but in Europe as well, candy eggs are prevalent.
\nThen there is the Easter bunny. He came to America long ago from Central
\nand Western Europe. His origin is one of those peculiar twists of language,
\nwhere one word that sounds like another confuses the first thing with the
\nsecond. In many parts of Europe, even to this day, the last sheaf of grain
\ntaken at the harvest is called the hare, and its cutting is called “cutting
\nthe tail of the hare”. An Easter hare hunt — hunting rabbits, not grain
\nsheaths — was observed in England from remote Anglo-Saxon times, and in Hungary
\nand South Germany it has long been the custom for children to put an
\nimage of a rabbit in the basket prepared for the Easter eggs. There is little
\ndoubt that the rabbit became associated with eggs and growing grain because
\nof the two meanings of the word hare.
\nThen there are Easter hot cross buns. In the time of Samuel Pepys, three
\nhundred years ago, peddlers went through the London streets on Good Friday
\n2-67
\nmorning, crying:
\n“Hot cross buns, hot cross buns,
\nOne a penny, two a penny, hot cross buns;
\nSmoking hot, piping hot,
\nJust come out of the baker’s shop;
\nOne a penny poker, two a penny tongs,
\nThree a penny fire-shovel, hot cross buns.”
\nThese buns, or spiced rolls, with a cross originally indented on the top,
\nnow made of sugar frosting, were eaten by almost every inhabitant of England
\non Good Friday morning. The custom probably originated nearly 600 years ago
\nwhen in 1361 at st. Albans Abbey one of the monks baked buns of this form as
\ngifts for the poor.
\nAt the time of Chaucer, about 1400, there were many beliefs about good
\nluck and good health associated with hot cross buns. Unlike common bread, they
\nwere supposed to keep a long time without mold. They were grated into medicines,
\nused as charms against shipwreck, for keeping rats out of the grain, and as
\ngood luck talismans,the way American negroes cherish a rabbit’s foot.
\nEaster has always been a time of rejoicing, and strange as it seems to us
\ntoday, some of the playfulness and jollity that usually goes with rejoicing
\nwas once carried on in the church itself. At one time a kind of Easter game
\nwas played in the choir by the clergy. It may even have been played with eggs.
\nIn the records of Chester Cathedral in England is found this interesting account:
\n“The bishop and dean took eggs into the cathedral and, at certain stages
\nof the service, engaged in an egg-tossing match with the choristers.” In the
\ncourse of time these games were withdrawn from the sanctuary and became popular
\negg-throwing and egg-rolling games on the village greens.
\nSeveral authorities maintain that it is an old Easter custom that accounts
\nfor the origin of pariSh houses, the sOCial halls that now adjoin so many
\n2-68
\nchurches of all faiths. An important festive event of Easter 500 years ago
\nwas the Easter Church Ale, a distribution and drinking of ale after the prin-:cipal
\nEaster service, the money thus derived being used for repairs to the
\nchurch fabric. It is not hard to understand how these church ales degenerated
\ninto disorderly affairs, so that they had to be put out of the church
\nitself. As-a result church houses were built or rented adjoining the church,
\nand were equipped with kitchens and dishes. Some of those houses became taverns
\nbut the majority became the pariSh house or social hall for the church community.
\nAllover the united States, and in many parts of Europe, the Easter service
\nis the occasion of popular services, held on some convenient hill. This
\nis the outstanding Protestant contribution to Easter. It has no part in the
\nhistorical liturgy of the church, but is a popular expression of the people.
\nSome deep seated instinct of devotion drives modern man out of his comfortable
\nbed into the dim light of early morning to herald the risen Christ.
\nWhether or not you have been to church today, you cannot escape the
\nmighty significance of Easter. The new life which the risen Christ brings to
\nman is not just ordinary, biological life. The gift of Easter is not mortal
\nlife, but spiritual life. And this gift comes as the fruit of death. The passage
\nfrom Good Friday to Easter Sunday is the passage from the gloom of
\ndeath to the dawn of real life.
\nTo admit that desperate clinging to one’s mortal life is a futility and
\nan illusion seems complete violation of common sense. It looks like the end
\nof faith and hope alike. But what did the Master say? “Except a grain of
\ncorn fall into the ground and die, it remains alone; but if it die, it brings
\nforth much fruit.” “Whosoever would save his life shall lose it, and he that
\nloses his life shall find it.” The King of Kings is born in a manger. He dies
\nupon a thief’s cross. Then he rises from the tomb. Why? Because, by that
\n2-69
\nstrange contradiction, he fulfills the seed time and the harvest, the setting
\nand the rising of the sun, the never-ending cycle of the seasons
\nin a word, he brings real, eternal life to man.
\n2-70
\nLITTLE TALKS ON COMMON THINGS
\n64th Broadcast April 16, 1950
\nOn two previous programs we have mentioned the account book of an Augusta
\nmerchant, whose records began in 1802. We turn again to that old book
\ntonight, for it reveals that in November, 1806 the merchant gave up his
\nbusiness of operating a general store and turned to the business of a sort
\nof combination blacksmith and hardware dealer. After the autumn of 1806
\nthe account book contains no more mention of\u00b7molasses and tea and rum, no
\nmore such items as thread and brimstone and forest cloth.
\nAs a blacksmith our merchant seems to have had no uniform price for
\nshoeing a horse. It may have depended on a number of things — the size of
\nthe shoes, whether all were new or some only reset, and how long the job took.
\nAt any rate in one instance he recorded, “shoeing horse all round, $1.67”;
\nanother record says, “Josiah Mitchell, to shoeing your horse, 67 cents”. Occasionally
\nhe records the rate in English money, as when he says, “Jonathan
\nBallard, to shoeing horse, 6 shillings, $1.00”; but to Simeon Paine on the
\nsame day the charge was, “to shoeing horse, 6\/6, or $1.50”. On December 15,
\n1806 both James Bridge and Moses Pollard got their horses shod for 75 cents,
\nbut on the same day it cost Robert Waite $1.25.
\nNaturally the blacksmiths of 1806 shod a lot of oxen. What a priceless
\nrelic this fellow’s ox sling would be if it were still standing. On November
\n25th he charged James Bridge 21 shillings, or $3.50 for shoeing oxen. Two
\nweeks later he charged Robert Hannaday $2.00 for shoeing his yoke, and for
\nsome unrecorded reason Samuel Page paid only $1. 00 for his. There are very
\nfew charges for shoeing oxen in any of the four years from 1806 to 1810 except
\nduring the month of November, just before the oxen went to work in the
\nwoods. It was then that the farmers got out the big pines that were floated
\n2-71
\ndown the Kennebec for many purposes of lumber, most notably masts for the
\nships that left the yards all the way from Hallowell to Bath.
\nPerhaps some of the older blacksmiths now living remember certain expressionswhich
\noccur in this account book, but I confess many of them are
\nentirely new to me. In one instance the blacksmith enters a charge for
\n“upsetting” an axe, in another for “laying” an axe. We cannot get quite what
\nhe means by “forging 3 pallets for clock” or “upsetting a broad chisel”.
\nOVer and over again occurs the item “one shave, $1.17”. This puzzled me
\nfor a long time. OUr blacksmith had not turned barber. His price was too high
\nfor that, and in 1806 very few men were shaved by barbers, nor did it seem to
\nmean a draw shave or shingle shave. Suddenly it occurred to me what he meant.
\nHis one shave was one shaft for a wagon.
\nSome of this old merchant-blacksmith’s charges are very interesting:
\n“bracer for a sleigh, 50 cents; making 122 pounds of chain, $7.32; drawing a
\nhook, 3 cents; bailing one large kittle, 67 cents; mending a plow share, $1.50;
\nthimba11s for a whee1barrer, 15 cents; mending a bayonet, 50 cents; tongue for
\na bell, 25 cents; making a barking iron, $1.00.” How many of you know what a
\nbarking iron was? That’s one of the few old-time things I happen to know.
\nNow I’d like to see how many listeners can send in a letter or post card telling
\nme what it was. Let me repeat the question. What was a barking iron?
\nOUr blacksmith charged fifty cents for forging two steel hammers, 20
\ncents for a holdback iron for a shay, 10 cents for a hoop for a tub, and 25
\ncents for “putting an eye to an auger”.
\nI have often heard an axle called an ex, but I had never before seen it
\nin writing. But this old book contains the charge, “Joseph Barton, to altering
\nex to your carriage, 50 cents”.
\nJust as this man, when a storekeeper, went on errands to Vassalboro -you
\nwill recall that on one of those errands he charged 7 cents worth of wine
\n2-72
\nto the expense account — so as a blacksmith he found time for other duties.
\nIn October, 1808 he recorded, “to my fees as juryman at inquest on the body
\nof James Springer, $1.50”. Perhaps he employed someone to take over his shop
\non such occasions, for on another date he writes, “Abia1 Pitts, credit by one
\nday I s work in my shop, $1.25.” On the same day he recorded one of the book I S
\nmost unusual items: “Ephraim Ballard, to new steeling his compasses, 25
\ncents”. On November 5, 1807 he records: “Adam pitts begun to work for me at
\nten dollars per month, one half cash, the other in goods.” For some reason
\nhe paid Adam on the same day, but it was a meager amount, for the record reads:
\n“Adam Pitts, to cash, 4 cents”. On November 15 he made a payment to Adam in
\ngoods, for the account then says: “Adam Pitts, to paid you in leather at
\nJames Childs, at cash price, $1.00”. On the 19th he charged Adam with a
\nquarter pound of tobacco and one gallon of molasses, Whether from stock left
\nover from the old store or purchased elsewhere he does not say. Perhaps his
\nstrangest combination of payment to Adam was on November 22, when he charged
\nthis helper 50 cents for towels and shoes. These surely were horse shoes.
\nEvidently Adam was trying to set up for himself, because in 1808 we find
\nhim charged with 4 sets of shoes and 3 sets of nails, with 10 horse shoes,
\nwith 30 pounds of iron, and with one heavy sledge. Then all mention of Adam
\npitts disappears from the record. He was evidently now out on his own.
\nBy the end of 1807 our blacksmith was owning real estate and renting it.
\nAgainst Andrew Plummer he had a charge of nine month’s house rent at 15 shil~
\nlings a month, a total of $22.50 for renting the house for three quarters of
\na year.
\nSomebody in the blacksmith I s family had the unusual name of Parthenia,
\nfor this same Andrew plummer is credited with 67 cents for making a pair of
\nshoes for Parthenia.
\nwas probably a child.
\nSince that was a low price, even for those days, Parthenia
\n2-73
\nIn the summer of 1808 our enterprising blacksmith was taking in boarders.
\nThe record reads: “Jacob Buffington, begun to board him on Saturday,
\nthe 6 of August at 12 shillings per week. John Dawson, began to board him on
\nMonday, the 8 of August at 12 shillings per week.”
\nApparently this blacksmith sometimes served as a deputy sheriff. In
\nNovember, 1808 he entered a charge of $1.00 for “my fees on a writ of replevin
\nof Elizabeth Finney on Thomas W. Smith”. On May 2, 1810 he charged Ephraim
\nDutton $2.38 “for fees on your writ on Savage Bolton by agreement”.
\nThe last item in that fat old account book reads as follows: “Capt.
\nSamuel Smith of Belgrade, to 2 broad hoes, $2.00; credit by one bushel of
\ncorn, $1.00”.
\nThus we come to the end of this amazing, first-hand historical record
\nof Kennebec County 150 Years ago. In April, 1802 the writer of the old
\naccounts started with Jonathan Ballard owing him 10 cents for one mug of
\ncider. Eight years later he closed the book with Captain Smith of Belgrade
\nturning in enough corn to pay for one broad hoe, but still owing for the
\nsecond.
\nIndeed this book is an intimate, homey picture of old times in the
\nKennebec Valley a century and a half ago. We only wish we were able to do
\nit better justice. Again our thanks to Burleigh NiChols of Fairfield Center
\nfor loaning us this remarkable and historically valuable book.
\n*****
\nNow let us turn to a subj ect muCh more pertinent to our own times -the
\ncost of our military defense. However much we detest war and yearn for
\nlasting peace, most of us are not willing to see our country sold out to obnoxious
\nun-American ways of life just because we fail to provide adequate
\ndefense. All but a few unrelenting pacifists believe that we ought to maintain
\na strong army, navy and air force.
\n2-74
\nIn all common sense we know that the maintenance of such a force costs
\na tremendous amount of money. What common sense doesn’t dictate, however, is
\nthat the brass hats of the military should have everything they ask for, unquestioned
\nand unexamined.
\nIt is high time the American people realized just what kind of national
\ndefense we get for every dollar the military brass hats expend. Now 14 billion
\ndollars — the size of the present total appropriation to be spent in
\none year for the nation’s defense — is a tidy sum. Are you ready for a shock?
\nHere it is. More dollars of those 14 billion are earmarked for non-military
\nspending than for anything or any measure that gives us actual defense. For
\nevery two men in uniform the services employ one civilian. Of the men in uniform,
\nonly one in three is in a fighting unit. While 6 billion dollars are
\nbeing s:r;:e.nt for planes, guns, tanks, ships, equipment, supplies and the pay
\nand support of men in combat units, 8 billion will go for overhead and for
\nthings only remotely connected with keeping our country safe.
\nOf course combat troops require supply and service troops and Civilian
\nworkers behind them. Everybody knows that. But to contend that 518,000 fighting
\nmen now in service require 968,000 additional servicemen and 841,000civilian
\nemployees is open to serious question.
\nIn 1941 before P.earl Harbor only one civilian for every four men in uniform
\nwas needed in the Army and Navy combined. At that time the total of men
\nin the armed services was almost exactly the same as now, but the dollar outlay
\nwas less than half the present spending, although billions were going for
\nstock-piling in preparation for expected war. Instead of 14 billion, the ser~
\nvices then spent 6 2\/3 billion.
\nThose are the straight facts. From one civilian to four service men the
\nyear before the war we have come to one civilian to every two service men four
\nyears after the war. The great increase in military costs, presenting such a
\n2-75
\nstaggering burden to every taxpayer, is accounted for in no small measure
\nby increased ~enditures that have no direct relation to our nation’s defense
\nand security.
\nWhenever one raises his voice against this wasteful and needless spending,
\nthe gold braid in Washington ang-rilydenounces him as a pacifist. The
\ngenerals and the admirals can do no wrong, or can they? We look to them to
\ndefend us from the dire threat of foreign attack, and we are willing to pay
\nany reasonable bill to get it. But when we see those generals and admirals
\nspending our money to pad the payrolls with superfluous personnel that add
\nnothing to our defense, we have the ordinary citizen’s American right to protest.
\n2-76
\nLITTLE TALKS ON COMMON THINGS
\n65th Broadcast April 23, 1950
\nWhen I recently mentioned three dollar bills, little did I think that I
\nshould ever own one. William Kenworthy, who probably knows more about old
\ncoins and currency than any other person in Central Maine, has most generously
\ngiven me an unusually fine specimen of a three dollar bill. Unlike most
\nexamples of old currency, this bill has not been worn to tatters. It appears
\nas new as the day it was printed.
\nI prize it not only because it is such a perfect specimen of a form of
\ncurrency long since abandoned, but also because it is a note issued by a
\nMaine bank, the washington County Bank of Calais, whose president, directors
\nand company promise to pay three dollars to the payee or bearer on demand.
\nAs was the case with all of these old bills, this one has its number, 1252,
\nentered in ink, and the names of the president and cashier are original signatures,
\nnot facsimiles. The date? Well, it was almost 116 years ago. It
\ntoo is written on the printed bill in ink — August 1, 1834.
\nThe printed designs on this old bill are also interesting. In the center
\nare mingled scenes representing education, industry, transportation, and agriculture.
\nOn the left margin is the bee hive, the universal symbol of industry;
\non the ,right margin is a man with a sickle and a woman binding a
\nsheaf of grain — agriculture again.
\nAll the printing is on one side; the reverse is plain white paper. In
\nfact the stock is very ordinary paper and the printing would be a simple job
\nfor a modern counterfeiter. Yet these simply printed bills were once circulated
\nfreely. Were people more honest a hundred years ago, or were they
\njust more gullible? Perhaps a lot of counterfeit money circulated undiscovered
\nin those days.
\n2-77
\n*****
\nThe subject of narrow guage railroads has not been exhausted, in spite
\nof our many references to it on this program. Tonight we have new information
\non the narrow guage nearest Waterville, the old Wiscasset and Quebec, the
\nroad that never got nearer to Quebec than the village of Albion.
\nMr. Burleigh Nichols of Fairfield Center, who has already been so helpful
\nwith items from the old days, has shown us a map, inscribed as follows:
\n“Map of the proposed Kennebec and Wiscasset Railroad. Col. A. W. Wildes,
\nC. E. Lithographed by J. E .. Tilton & Co., Boston.” Unfortunately the map
\nis not dated, but it must have preceded the building of the road from
\nWiscasset to Albion by several years, because the map surprisingly shows that
\nwhat later became the Kennebec Central, from Gardiner to Togus, was anticipated
\nby the original plans for the K & W. The map shows the main line of
\nthe road charted not from Wiscasset to Albion, but from Wiscasset to Augusta.
\nLike the actual line that was finally built, the mapped route\u00b7 follows the
\nSheepscot River through Alna, Puddle Dock, Head Tide and King’s Mills to Turner’s
\nCorner, when it swings sharply to the west to Togus and then on to Augusta.
\nThe map shows a connecting spur directly from King’s Mills to Togus,
\nby-passing Turner’s Corner. Another short branch is shown from Turner’s Corner
\nto Cooper’s Mills. But the map gives no indication that anyone had then suggested
\nbringing the road to Winslow instead of Augusta, or of going beyond
\nCooper’s Mills to Albion, and even on to Burnham.
\nThe spur line from King’s Mills to Togus was mapped to pass along the
\nnortheast shore of Joy’s Pond on the border of Whitefield and Pittston. The
\nbroad guage with which the road was to connect at Wiscasset was, of course,
\nthe Knox and Lincoln.
\n*****
\nWe hear a lot about the American food surplus and its huge cost of four
\n2-78
\nbillion dollars in this fiscal year alone. Do you know that it costs $200
\nmillion a year just for storage? That arrbunts to about $23,000 an hour.
\nTake note of some of the gigantic quantities which the government had
\nin storage on January 31, 1950: a hundred million pounds of butter, 75
\nmillion pounds of dried eggs, 275 million pounds of dried milk, a billion
\npounds of potatoes, 625 million pounds of peanuts, 60 million pounds of
\ndried fruits.
\nAn article in Life magazine a few weeks ago told this story of surplus
\nfood far better than I can tell it. I hope a lot of you read that article.
\nIf you did, I don I t think you found it funny. When we think of the way unemployment
\nhas already begun to hit our large cities, when we think of American
\nchildren already going to school hungry, when we know there are a lot of American
\nfamilies finding it hard to buy food for three square meals a day,
\nthis surplus food situation is not only wretched, expensive economy; it is
\ndownright tragic. If another depression descends upon us, we shall face that
\ninexcusable paradox of bread lines wading knee deep in surplus wheat.
\nThe complaint many of us have about this agricultural program is that
\nso many of us who are just consumers have to pay twice; once when we buy the
\ngoods at artificially high prices, and again as taxpayers to provide the money
\nfor the government to keep prices high. Some of us feel that we are being
\nground pretty fine between the upper mill stone of high prices and the lower
\nmill stone of government subsidies.
\n*****
\nNow for one or two facts that everyone ought to know about our State of
\nMaine. Maine’s tree is not the Norway pine, nor any other kind, except the
\nwhite pine. whose straight trunks were so highly prized in colonial days to
\nmake masts for His Majesty’s ships. It is the white pine one sees displayed
\non the state seal. So far I am sure you can all say, “We ‘ve always known that.
\n2-79
\nIt’s no news to tell us why Maine is called the Pine Tree State.”
\nVery good; but can you tell me what is our state flower? I’m sure some
\nof you know, but I am equally sure that many of you haven’t the faintest
\nidea. Well, it is the white pine cone and tassel; that is Maine’s floral
\nemblem.
\nThen there are official state birds. What is ours? It is the chickadee,
\nand a very appropriate selection to accompany the white pine. Do you know
\nwhat more than one metropolitan newspaper has called the “Flower Garden of
\nNew England”? It is Aroostook County, Maine in potato blossom time. Who of
\nour listeners can add to my collection of items about Maine trees? Let me
\ngive you just a few of those items tonight, then let us see how many you can
\nadd. I hope to get many letters on this subject.
\nDown in Kennebunk they have what are called the Lexington Elms, because
\ntradition has it that they were planted on the 19th of April in 1775. In the
\nnext town of Wells is an elm which was willed to the State of Maine, with a
\nfund to care. for it. In Portland is a tree which grew from a scion cut from
\nthe famous Washington elm in Cambridge, Mass. In Kennebunk, as in many other
\nNew England towns, there is a Lafayette Elm, which was on the lawn of the
\nStorer Estate when General Lafayette was entertained there in 1825, the year
\nthat he dedicated Bunker Hill Monument. The Lafayette tree in Kennebunk, like
\nthe tree in Wells, was long ago deeded to the town. It has a spread of 131
\nfeet, and at its base has a circumference of 171 feet. Now what interesting
\ntree items can any of you supply?
\n*****
\nA danger of our time is the increasing spread of the belief that we must
\nall get more and give less. We cannot escape the fact that the present economic
\nstrength of America, giving us the highest standard of living in the
\nworld, was created by men and women who gave to the limit of their strength.
\n2-80
\nSomehow the freedom that we must win back in America is the freedom to
\nwork and create to the limit of our capacity, and to enjoy the rewards of
\ncreative work, not be rewarded for refusal to work.
\nIt is true that a hundred and fifty years ago right here in Waterville
\nand Winslow the folks decided to pay the minister not to preach to them and
\nto move out of town. But paying people for not working ought still to be,
\nas it was then, so rare as to cause extraordinary comment.
\nLike any other nation, the united states can suffer a great disaster
\nfrom war or pestilence, but if the spirit of freedom to work and create remains
\nsound, we could soon rebuild stronger and finer than before. But if
\nthat spirit of freedom should perish because of the spread of the something
\nfor nothing belief, rebuilding would be impossible, because it could not be
\ndone without individual effort and personal sacrifice.
\n*****
\nEver since the government impounded the gold, took it out of circulation,
\nand buried it at Fort Knox, a lot of people ask what is it worth to us. Will
\ngold buy anything?
\nWell, it will buy just as much as it ever would. Somebody with a mathematical
\nmind tells us that, if all the gold in the world were melted down into
\na solid cube, it would be about the size of an eight-room house. But with all
\nthat gold a man could not buy a friend, or character, or peace of mind, or a
\nclear conscience, or a sense of eternity. There are a lot of precious things
\nthat gold never has bought and never can buy.
\n*****
\nEvery teacher and a lot of other people are frequently amused by the
\nboners which school pupils and college students make on examination papers.
\nSometimes these answers are not boners at all, but very clever wording of
\nwhat is in the student’s mind. For instance we are all familiar with the
\n2-81
\nboy’s definition of a horse — an animal with four legs, one under each corner;
\nand we recall the rather impressive definition of a skeleton — a person
\nwith the insides out and the outsides off.
\nRecently the New York Board of Regents published some of the amusing
\nanswers found in the mid-year examinations, last February, in New York high
\nschools. Here are a few from papers in English: “He tried in vain and was
\nsuccessful.” “He WafS a great sailor when men were made of iron and ships were
\nmade of wood. It “One should learn the ropes, which is something you grasp
\nthrough experience.” “The Duke takes poison, but Henrietta must go the hard
\nway, die of old age.” “MacBeth is an interesting play, because I got excited
\nin many parts at the same time MacBeth did.”
\nFrom the history papers these sentences were gleaned: “Rousseau introduced
\nthe gellatine, which was used to cut off the heads of many people. II “Salt
\nLake City is a place where the Morons. settled. ” “Two French explorers of the
\nMississippi were Romeo and Juliet.”
\nIn mathematics we learn that “a converse in geometry is approaching a
\ntheorem from the rear”, and that “two right angles in the same plane, placed
\nwith their backs together, equal a straight an~1:e, and their bottoms form a
\nstraight line.”
\nWe learn also that “typhoid fever can be prevented by fascination”, that
\n“maple syrup is made by sterilizing sap”, that “on Washington’s trip across
\nthe Delaware two men were frozen to death, but they reached the other. side
\nin safety”, and one student,asked to define a sensation in psychology, wrote:
\n“A sensation is that state of public mind which exists in a given corranunity
\nwhen one man’s wife runs off with another man.”
\nThe question, “Name three Greek educators and tell what each taught, elicited
\nthis answer: “Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. Socrates taught Plato, and
\nPlato taught Aristotle.” perhaps the most amusing of the answers were two from
\n2-82
\nliterature. One of them says: “The House of Seven Gables was a house with
\na broad door through which the Gables entered and had rooms under the roof
\nwhere the little Gables slept”. The other prize answer is this one: “Priscilla,
\nMiles Standish’s loveress, was a very sweet girl dressed in the simple
\nDutch costume consisting of .a white cap and apron.”
\n*****
\nReligion is a common thing. Everybody has some brand of it, for even
\natheism, disbelief in any God at all, is a kind of religion of its own — it
\nis a belief in not believing.
\nNow your kind of religion is your business alone; under the American
\nConstitution you have the right not only to believe as you choose, but also to
\nworship as you choose.
\nThe other day I was reading about that notorious bandit and train robber,
\nJesse James. Jesse, I read, was a deeply religious man. He read the Bible
\nregularly, liked to sing in church choirs, and did not smoke, drink or swear.
\nHe was intensely loyal to his friends and always refused to rob a preacher.
\nYet at the same time he not only held up trains and robbed the passengers,
\ncleaned out banks and express companies, but he killed first and talked afterwards,
\nsometimes killed for sheer revenge, and at least once out of simple excitement.
\nHuman beings are a queer mixture. Not many of us mix our religion with
\nbanditry and killing, but a lot of us mix it with disharmony and unhappiness.
\nThe test of our religion is not what we do with it, but what it does to us.
\n2-83
\nLITTLE TALKS ON COMMON THINGS
\n66th Broadcast April 30, 1950
\nWe frequently lament Maine’s standing today among the 48 states in respect
\nto support of education. It was not so in 1855. That old Augusta newspaper,
\nthe Rural Intelligencer — the same one in Which we found the editorial
\nstand against stoves — proudly pointed out the following facts about
\neducation in Maine a hundred years ago. Said the editor:
\n“OUr free schools educate more persons at public expense than any other
\nstate in proportion to population. The number in Maine is 60,212; in New Hampshire,
\n7,705; in Connecticut 10,912. In Maine only one adult in a hundred
\ncannot read and write; in Massachusetts it is three in a hundred; in Virginia
\nnine in a hundred; in North Carolina 14 in a hundred. Pay earned by Maine
\nfarm laborers is higher than in any other state except Massachusetts. In
\nMaine it is $13 a month, in Ohio $11.10, in Virginia $8.43, in Alabama $9.62.”
\nEditor Drew went on to point out that of all the states Maine and Rhode
\nIsland stood highest in freedom from crime. Said the editor proudly: “It is
\nclear that Maine is one of the best, if not the very best state in the Union
\nfor a man to live Who would rear his family among those social, educational
\nand moral influences which secure for life the best of its charms.”
\nNinety-five years after Editor Drew penned those lines, we still think
\nMaine is the best of all states to live in, but we hang our heads in shame
\nwhen the educational statistics of the 48 states are laid before us. Only the
\ndeep South stands worse than Maine in public support of education.
\n*****
\nIn that year 1855 Governor Anson Morrill became chief executive of Maine.
\nOnly six years later the whole nation would be involved in a bitter civil war\u00b7–
\n2-84
\nnot a war against a foreign nation, but the worst of all kinds of war -killing
\nof citizen by fellow citizen, of brother by brother. In the Kennebec
\nValley of 1855 did that awful conflict cast any looming shadows before? Yes,
\nindeed. In his inaugural address Governor Morrill spoke out emphatically
\nagainst Henry Clay’s Compromise of 1850, the compromise which gave a green
\nlight to the extension of slavery into certain territories. Maine had been
\nborn as a part of the famous Compromise of 1820. She had secured her admission
\ninto the Union largely on the deal that demanded another free state to offset
\nthe admission of Missouri as a slave state. There was good reason for
\nMaine to espouse the anti-slavery cause.
\nBut she had been slow to do so. with the Yankee conservatism that characterized
\nMaine folk then, as it characterizes them now, they had held aloof
\nfrom the raging controversy. But in 1855 Governor Morrill spoke out. Maine,
\nhe said, could not support the Compromise of 1850, despite its sanction by
\nDaniel Webster, nor would Maine recognize the legality of the Fugitive Slave
\nLaw. The governor said: “However desirous our people have been to refrain
\nfrom discussing or agitating the question of slavery, lest such agitation
\nmight impair the permanence of the Union, the time has now come when that
\nquestion must be met and discussed in our national and state councils with the
\nsame freedom with which we discuss other questions.”
\nDiscussion did become more open and more violent, and in a few years
\nMaine boys were laying down their lives at Bull Run and Chancellorsville, at
\nCedar Mountain and Gettysburg.
\n*****
\nA lot of ordinary people like me, who can lay no claim to expert knowledge
\nof the intricate workings of money, credit and currency, are asking
\nwhat this talked-of dollar shortage is all about. Because a dollar is something
\nthat I usually don’t have, I can describe my kind of dollar shortage,
\n2-85
\nbut that of course isn’t what the newspapers are talking about. So I thought
\nI would look into this matter and see if I could tell you anything about it.
\nIn the ordinary course of trade, the way a nation gets money to buy
\ngoods from another nation is just the way you and I get money to buy goods
\nof another person. We sell goods that we have, or we sell our labor or
\nservices for money, and we can then buy goods with that money. If a nation
\nhas to buy more than it can sell, it is just like you or me when we do the
\nsame it is in trouble.
\nIn the 35 years from 1914 to 1949 the amount of goods and services that
\nthe United States sold abroad amounted to $270 billion, while our purchases
\nfrom other countries amounted to only $170 billion. Thus we sold $100 billion
\nworth more than we bought.
\nIt is obvious that the foreign nations had to find some way to get those
\nhundred billion dollars that we could not take their goods to meet. If we
\ncould not take that amount in trade, what could those nations do?
\nFirst, they sold their gold and silver assets held in this country to
\nthe tune of $16 billion. Secondly, they got about a billion from the World
\nBank. Third, they received $10 billion by remittances from American individuals
\nand organizations, and $10 billion more from investments of U. S. business
\nand individuals in foreign industries. That makes a total of $37 billion,
\nleaving $63 billion still to account for.
\nNow listen. That $63 billion came from U. S. Government aid; $18 billion
\nin loans, and $45 billion in outright grants or gifts. In other words
\nwe gave outright to foreign nations almost half the difference between our
\nown sales and purchases.
\nAfter 35 years the problem is even farther from solution than it was a
\nthird of a century ago. The world is more desperately short of dollars today
\nthan ever before. The prospect is that the United States will continue to
\n2-86
\nsell more than she buys for many years to come. We certainly don’t know the
\nanswer, but we have the temerity to ask how long Uncle Sam can keep on playing
\nSanta Claus to all the world.
\n*****
\nSome time ago, you will recall, we were seeking information about oldtime
\nblacksmith shops in this vicinity. My young friend Brian Alley, the Waterville
\nboy who is an authority on narrow gauge railroads, recently asked
\nwhy I didn’t settle the question, since the needed information is available
\nin print. Brian proved his point by bringing me a copy of the Maine Register
\nof 1903, in which are listed the Waterville blacksmiths.\u00b7 of half a century ago.
\nThere were eight of them: John Davidson, Front Street; J. L. LaBranch, Charles
\nStreet; Joseph Loubier, Gray Street; Morris McNelly, Silver Street; Louis Poulin,
\nParis Street; Omer Poulin, Water Street; A. I. Trafton, Front Street.
\nUnfortunately the information i~ the Maine Register is not always accurate.
\nSometimes information from the various towns and cities was supplied to
\nthe editor carelessly and superficially. It is therefore possible that this
\nlist of waterville blacksmiths is not complete. All we say is that, if there
\nwere others besides those eight blacksmiths, they were not recognized or listed
\nin Maine’s official publication.
\nWhat about WinSlow? Were her blacksmith shops all closed by 1903? No.
\nThe Maine Register of that year records one Shop on the east side of the rive~,
\noperated by A. M. Ballentine.
\nFairfield had two blacksmiths at that time, F. T. Brown and A. V. Worthing.
\nOakland did a big business in iron work and horse shoeing, for it had five
\nsmithies then at work: W. H. Prentiss, Gilman and Booker, E. A. Watson, J. T.
\nFlynn and F. H. Abbott~
\nNot many of our listeners ever heard of the blacksmith shop where, as a
\nboy, I used to “see the flaming forge and hear the bellows roar”. It was the
\n2-87
\nshop of Ernest Burnham on Depot Street in Bridgton. In fact that short
\nstreet between the post office and the narrow guage station in Bridgton
\nboasted three blacksmith shops in 1903, and though the town was less than
\na third as large as Waterville in population, it had altogether seven
\nblacksmiths.
\nBy the way, I think one of the most memorable odors from the boyhood
\ndays of men my age is the smell of heated iron pressed to a horse’s hoof.
\nThe pungent reek of smoke when the smith plunged the hot shoe into a tub of
\nwater was one sort of smell, but the much stronger and longer remembered odor
\narose when that only sligl\\tly cooled iron was placed against the hoof, as
\nthe smith fitted the shoe.
\nThat same copy of the Maine Register, printed 47 years ago, gives us
\ninformation also about the old livery stables. The Elmwood Stable was then
\nrun by Silas Small, while Charles A. Hill, the liveryman we mentioned a
\nyear ago, operated a stable at 12 Mechanic Square. There were, in fact, ten
\nlivery stables in waterville in 1903. Two of them were almost directly oppo~
\nsite each other on Silver Street, where Ira Mitchell had one at No. 22 and
\nA. E. Sawyer operated one at No. 23. Charles Perry ran a stable on Percival
\nCourt; C. Witham and Son had one in the rear of 57 Temple Street; W. M.
\nWilshire had his in Railroad Square; L. W. Rollins’s was at 29 Front Street;
\nF. M. Hanson’s on Union Street; and there was one on the Plains, operated by
\nJ. E. Pooler at 57 Water Street.
\nWaterville had fourteen barbers in 1903, of Whom I think only one remains
\n— that beloved and respected veteran of the shears and clippers,
\nVictor Robichaud. Felix Audet, at the Elmwood Hotel barber shop, must be
\ngetting pretty close to fifty years as a Waterville barber. If he was practicing
\nthe trade in 1903, however, it was before he had a shop of his own.
\nLouis Breton of the Giguere shop on Main Street is another man who has been
\n2-88
\nbarbering for many years.
\nSpeaking of the Elmwood, this year 1950 is its hundredth anniversary.
\nIt was in 1850 that this venerable hostelry first opened for business under
\nthe proprietorship of Seavey and Williams.
\nIt was not the first tavern on the same spot. There in what was simply
\na large dwelling house Deacon Abial Follansbee had conducted a “Temperance
\nHotel” before the Civil War. Destroyed by fire in 1878, the Elmwood was rebuilt
\nlarger and better than before. In his centennial history of 1902 Dr.
\nWhittemore said of the Elmwood: ‘.’It has furnished a pleasant home to its
\nmany city boarders, a fine headquarters for convention delegates, a worthy
\nplace of entertainment for commencement dignitaries, and the scene of many
\nfestal occasions when clubs and college societies have celebrated after their
\nfashion. ”
\nWhen I entered college in 1909; for dining purposes the Elmwood was overshadowed
\nby the new, luxurious, gaudily ceilinged dining room at the Hotel
\nGerald in Fairfield, and it was there that I attended my fraternity initiation
\nbanquet. Four years later, when I was graduating, the Gerald was forgotten
\nand banqueters usually sought the Elmwood again.
\nAnother Waterville centennial of 1850 is the drug store now operated by
\nRobert Dexter, so long conducted by his immediate predecessor, Jim Allen.
\nAccording to available records, and they are not many, the first drug store in
\nWaterville seems to have been opened by Dr. Moses Appleton, who came here in
\n1796. Whether he had a separate apothecary shop or dispensed drugs from his
\nresidence is not entirely clear. Dr. Appleton, though a graduate of Dartmouth
\nand once a school teacher in Boston, was a man who clung long to the old customs.
\nFor many years after others had abandoned the practice, he wore his
\nhair down his back in an old fashioned queue. The story is that one day the
\ndoctor went to a colored barber named Decatur on Water Street to have his hair
\n2-89
\ntrimmed and dressed. The doctor fell asleep. Suddenly he awoke,with a start
\nand shouted to the barber, “Look out for my queue”. Decatur replied, “You
\nis too, late, suh. It’s gone.” The doctor had been the victim of a quicker
\nand more painless amputation than any he had ever inflicted on a patient.
\nDr. Appleton made some curious notations in his fee books. One such note
\nthat he wrote in 1799 read: “It is agreed with Jabez Mathews that he pay me
\nat the rate of two cords of wood per annum in consideration of being supplied
\nwith materials for keeping his family cured of the itch.”
\nNOW, as old Sam Pepys would say, “and so to bed”.
\n2-90
\nLITTLE TALKS ON COMMON THINGS
\n67th Broadcast May 7, 1950
\nMy question about a barking iron has brought over fifty letters, post
\ncards and telephone calls. One of those calls came from one of waterville’s
\nbest known and best loved citizens, Dr. George Averill. When he was a boy
\nand ,young man up in Lee and Lincoln in northern Penobscot County, the doctor
\nworked more than once on a barking crew. He not only knows what a barking
\niron is; he’s used one.
\nJothan Hobbs of Fairfield has used a barking iron many times. He has
\nwritten me a careful description of the barking crew’s work, which in all details
\nbears out Dr. Averill’s oral description of the process.
\nA barking iron is a tool used for removing bark from trees. Another name
\nfor it is a spud or spudder. About half of the letters and post cards I have
\nreceived on this subject say that the barking iron or spud was used to remove
\nbark from trees used for pulpwood. It seems that the term spud or barking
\niron does name the tool used for that purpose, but what I had in mind was its
\nuse in procuring hemlock or oak bark for tanning. In peeling pulpwood the
\nbark is of no use; it must simply be gotten rid of. But among the old barking
\ncrews the primary purpose was to get the bark for its very important use
\nin tanning leather.
\nA barking crew was made up of four men. First there was the chopper, who
\nfelled the hemlock tree. Then the limber or knotter, with quick, dextrous
\nstrokes of the axe cut off limbs and knots. The third man was the ringer and
\nsplitter. He carried an axe with a handle exactly two feet long. Two lengths
\nof his axe made a four foot length of tree, which he marked with a quick V cut.
\nWhen the whole tree was thus measured, the bark was cut through, circling the
\ntree at each cut; then a lengthwise cut with axe held slantwise loosened the
\n2-91
\nbark enough for the fourth man to get to work with the spud or barking iron
\nand remove the four foot lengths of bark from the tree. The sections of bark
\nwere then placed on the ground, tipped against the trunk and left to dry.
\nWhen it had dried out, the bark was placed on a brush pile to keep it up from
\nthe ground until it could be hauled off to the tannery.
\nMr. Hobbs recalls that mosquitoes were the great pests of the barking
\ncrews, and that the man who didn’ t smoke carried big supplies of oil of pennyroyal
\nto fight the stinging insects.
\nI must mention one post card that reached me from Bangor. I especially
\nprize it because it comes from Robert Trefethen, grandson of Professor Henry
\nTrefethen, the man who worked so hard and patiently trying to teach me mathematics
\nin Colby College forty years ago.
\n*****
\nAnother question I recently asked was this: nWhat is meant by upsetting
\nan axe?” You will recall that the old account book kept by an Augusta blacksmith
\nin 1806 had numerous charges for upsetting an axe. The fir~t person to
\nanswer the question was the manager of this station, the president of the
\nKennebec Broadcasting Company, Carleton Brown. He was closely followed by our
\nneighborhood postman, Clifton Ellis. Then came a letter from Lloyd Collins
\nof Oakland, which explains the process so clearly that I want to quote it
\nword for word. Mr. Collins writes:
\n“When an axe has been used a long while and the bit or cutting edge gets
\nthick, if there is sufficient steel left, it is upset or heated and hammered
\ndown thin again. Then it is reground and hardened. If the steel is nearly
\ngone, then it is cut off and a new bit is laid or welded onto the poll or head,
\nand a nearly new axe is the result. The first process is upsetting an axe. The
\nsecond is laying an axe.”
\nThanks a lot, Mr. Collins. I did know what a barking iron was, but in
\n2-92
\nrespect to upsetting and laying axes my education had been sadly neglected
\nuntil your letter set me straight.
\n*****
\nI want to say a few words tonight about gambling. I am preaching no sermon;
\nI am not telling anyone what to do with his money. I just want to give
\nyou some straight facts about one of the biggest menaces to the American way
\nof life.
\nGambling today has replaced illegal liquor as the happy hunting ground
\nof America’s top criminals. Into this lawless business the people are pouring
\nmore than ten billion dollars a year. Profits by the big gambling operators
\namount to at least a billion dollars a year.
\nNow that excellently informed journal, U. S. News and World Report,
\npoints out the startling and despicable fact about the gambling situation
\nin this pungent sentence: “The protection of these profits can be assured
\nonly by political organizations that dominate police forces.”
\nA few weeks ago, when Charles Binaggio was found dead in his Kansas
\nCity political club, attention was vigorously called to the connecting links
\nbetween the criminal and the political worlds. state senators, state and
\ncounty office holders, ward leaders and gangsters were alike present at Bin~
\naggio’s funeral. How came such a mingling to see this gangster buried? This
\nis the story. A gambler aspires to political leadership. He reaches out and
\ntries to run a city and a state. Vote frauds and stolen ballot bo~es are
\nmere incidents. Other gamblers pour money into campaign funds, hoping offficials
\nwill let them operate. The ties of crime and politics are thus firmly
\nknit.
\nOff-track horse race betting amounts to over three billion dollars a
\nyear. Sports pools take another three billion; the numbers game accounts for
\n2-93
\nat least a billion; slot machines grab a couple of billion; gambling houses
\nmake off with another billion.
\nThe arrDunt of money sometimes handled by a single top flight gambler
\nis enormous. One New York bookmaker paid back income taxes of 30 million
\ndollars covering a twelve-year period. A front man for a New Jersey gambling
\nhouse made deposits of five million dollars a year. Slot machines in a single
\nstate turned up for one man — as his share among several in a syndicate
\nan income of a million dollars a year.
\nNo wonder these gamblers are willing to pay high for their political
\nties. Says the California Crime Study Commission: “No group of organized
\ncriminals has ever been able to achieve profits and prominence without the
\nfriendship and toleration, if not the actual assistance, of public officials.”
\nTo that statement the Chicago Crime Commission adds this: “Handbook operators
\nin Chicago boast that they can produce two hundred thousand votes and unlimited
\nfinancial support toward election of candidates favorable to them.”
\nAccording to the California Commission, the slot machine racket reached
\nsuch a bold stage that an association of coin-machine manufacturers actually
\nconducted courses for selected members on how to influence public officials.
\nThe courses discussed ways of buying protection, such as paying fixed sums,
\nor a perc~ntage of the profits, or making campaign contributions before or
\nafter elections. The Commission found it common practice to pay ten to twenty
\nper cent of gross profits for protection. Lawyers for the association are
\nalleged to have told members that they could pick the courts and judges before
\nwhom cases would be tried, and that association had a pipe line into
\nevery state capitol and even into the national capitol in Washington.
\nIt all makes a sordid story of an outstanding menace to the American
\nway of life. Money talks. The big gamblers have the money. They are making
\nit talk in ways that determine the actions of government in many an American
\n2-94
\ncity. Thank heaven we have not yet seen signs of its satanic influence in
\nthe government of Waterville. If we have any sense, we shall see to it that
\nthe gambling interests do not get a hold in this city.
\nSomebody will say that I am getting excited about something people will
\ndo anyway. That’s not what I am excited about. My concern is about the modern,
\n1950 fact, that gambling, as the boys who follow the ponies and the boys
\nwho play the nUIr.bers racket. use the word, is undermining our political struc’-“\u00b7
\ntu~e, sapping at the very roots of our American life. And don’t take my word
\nfor it. Read that carefully documented and unassailable article in U. S. News
\nand World Report for April 21, an article whose title is this:”Politics Hides
\nGambling Rackets That Take Billions from the Public”.
\n*****
\nWal ter Heath of Front Street has turned up in the attic of the family
\nhome, which is one of Waterville’s residential landmarks, an account book
\nthat is six years older than the one kept by the Augusta merchant of 1802,
\nwhom we have talked about on several broadcasts.
\nWe. cannot be sure of the identity of the storekeeper. Written on one
\ncover in badly faded ink are words which appear to be “George Fabyan of Winslow”.
\nOn the other cover the words are “George Fabyan Day Book 1797”. The
\nname George Fabyan does not appear in Dr. Whittemore I s centennial history of
\nwaterville nor in Kingsbury I s history of Kennebec County. If he was an early
\nresident of Winslow and a merchant, his name ought to appear on the early
\ntax lists, collected and published by Kingsbury.
\nAt any rate, whoever made the early entries in this old book, he was
\ndoing business here in 1796, six years before the town of Waterville was
\nset aside from the parent town of Winslow. The evidence is rather clear that
\nhis place of business was on this side of the river, while the names of those
\nearly settlers along the river on the Winslow side — the Pattees, the Howards,
\n2-95
\nthe Lithgows — appear very seldom in the accounts. Frequent customers were
\nWaterville’s noted physician and benefactor, Obadiah Williams, Squire Isaac
\nTemple, who built a big house at what is now the corner of Front and Temple
\nStreets; and Captain John MCKechnie, who made the survey of house lots to
\nwhich some of the oldest Waterville deeds go back. Captain John is said to
\nhave built the first two-story house in Waterville, not far from where the
\nstore of the waterville Hardware Company is now located.
\nOne of the earliest entries in the old book refers to the grandfather
\nof the man who was Waterville’s first U. S. Senator. In 1848 Wyamn B. S.
\nMoor went to Washington as a senator from Maine. His grandfather, Daniel
\nMoor, was one of Waterville’s earliest settlers. So in this account book
\nwe read: “Daniel Moor, to my horse to ride six miles, 50 cents.”
\nNames distinguished in Waterville history appear here as purchasers of
\nrum and brandy, cloth and crockery, sugar and salt, psalm books and dictionaries,
\nbandana handkerchiefs and ginger bread. There was Dr. Moses Appleton,
\nwho had his home where the Marionite Catholic Church now stands, and who gave
\nhis daughter the lot on the opposite corner, where her husband, a fellow named
\nPlaisted, built the house now occupied for many years by the Heath family.
\nOne of the oddest items in the book concerns Dr. Appleton. It is worded: “Dr.
\nMoses Appleton, to cash you took of Benj. Spear for pack of cards, 50 cents.”
\nOther customers were Daniel Wyman, and Reuben Kidder, the Chases — Captain
\nBenjamin and his son John –, Benjamin Furbush and Asa Crosby, Ahijah
\nsmith and Benjamin Runnels, fellow trader James McKim, and Waterville’s first
\nselectman and first town meeting moderator, Elnathan Sherwin.
\nLet’s take a look at a few of the accounts:
\nJune 10, 1796
\nDavid Berry
\nBy 1 day’s work getting logs out of Sebasticook River $1.00
\n2-96
\nTo 1 pair Worsted stockings
\n1 Psalm book
\nI Large Butter Pot
\nIsaac Temple, Dr.
\nTo paid Parker for odds between hogs
\nTo 1 bottle Sephalin Snuff
\nJames McKechnie
\nTo 4 gal. West Indies Rum
\n1 gal. N. E. Rum
\nTo be paid in rum or cash
\nChristopher Jenkins, Dr.
\nTo paid Daniel Goodwin and indorsed on note I
\nhave paid said Goodwin
\nCredit, by 2 months work, ~ day short @ $10 per
\nmonth
\nFamily Expenses
\n8 lb. Lamb
\n~ doz. Cucumbers
\n$ 1.50
\n.50
\n.34
\n1.00
\n.35
\n3.21
\n19.63
\n.56
\n.05
\nNot often do these old books contain items about themselves, but very
\nearly in this book, on February 2, 1796, appears this item:
\nJabish Matthews, Cr.
\nBy Account Book, 84 cents.
\nApparently George Fabyan, or whoever the trader was, paid Jabish Matthews
\n84 cents for this very book.
\nIndeed Walter Heath’s attic find is a mine of information about Waterville
\nbefore 1800, and some evening you shall hear more about it.
\n2-97
\nLITTLE TALKS ON COMMON THINGS
\n68th Broadcast May 14, 1950
\nExcept in libraries and special collections one seldom sees a newspaper
\nthat was printed before the Revolution, but Mr. Johnson Parks of Western
\nAvenue, Waterville, has at least one copy of such a paper. It is the Boston
\nEvening Post, dated December 18, 1769, more than 180 years ago. Even earlier
\ncopies doubtless exist somewhere, for this particular issue is Number 1786.
\nThe paper has no mast-head, so it is impossible to tell how often it was published,
\nwho was its editor, or what was the subscription rate. As was the custom
\nin those days, long term credit was given to subscribers, and apparently
\nthe publisher of the Post was getting somewhat annoyed by the practice, for
\nin the lower right hand corner of the first page appears the notice: “All
\npersons indebted for this paper, whose accounts have been above 12 months
\nstanding,are requested to make immediate payment.”
\nThe paper is a four-page sheet, 16 inches by 10, three columns to a page.
\nThe leading article under the heading “Journal of the Times” is devoted to
\nthe pressing question of treatment of the American colonies by the British
\ncrown and parliament. Among other things the article says: “Americans (note
\nthe word American was already being used in 1769) are too enlightened a people
\nto be imposed upon by the arts and unfair practices of a British minister
\nwho appears lost both to a sense of his own dignity and to true national interest.
\nThe effect of Lord Hillsborough’s letter to the Governor of Rhode Island,
\nwarning that no measures can be taken to question the authority of Britain
\nover the colonies, has been treated with due contempt. His Lordship’s
\npromise to take off certain duties is not to be trusted, as past experience
\nbears witness. The merchants of Massachusetts as well as those of Rhode Island
\n2-98
\nwill not be thus shaken from their pledged agreement not to import foreign
\ngoods until the revenue acts are repealed.”
\nThus in a single newspaper, printed 180 years ago, we see a contemporary
\naccount of the seeds of the American Revolution. Exactly five years and four
\nmonths were to elapse before Master Paul Revere would wait on the Charlestown
\nshore to note whether one or two lanterns shed their gleam from the steeple
\nof Old North Church and start on his ride to alarm the countryside to
\nfire the shots heard round the world.
\nThe third page of this paper is almost wholly devoted to advertisements,
\nmost of them public notices or auction sales. Among the former are two adjacent
\nnotices supporting what I said on this program several weeks ago; namely,
\nthat there were two competing grand lodges of Masons in Boston before the Revolution.
\nOne notice reads: “The brethren of the ancient and honorable society of
\nfree and accepted masons are hereby notified that the Right Worshipful John
\nRowe, Esq., Grand Master of Masons in North America, designs to celebrate the
\nfestival of St. John the Evangelist on Wednesday the 27th instant, at the
\nBunch of Grapes Tavern in King Street, where the brethren are desired to attend
\nat one o’clock on the said day. By order of the Grand Master, Abraham
\nSavage, Grand Secretary. N. B. Dinner precisely at two o’clock.”
\nThe other notice says: “Notice is hereby given by the most ancient and
\nhonorable fraternity of free and accepted masons that the feast of st. John
\nthe Evangelist will be celebrated by the Right Worshipful Master and brethren
\nof the Lodge of St. Andrew in Boston, on Wednesday the 27th instant, at
\ntheir hall. Tickets to be had of Brother James Carter and at said hall. N. B.
\nThe brethren are desired to attend precisely at 11 o’clock A.M. Dinner will be
\non the table by two.”
\nThus at the December festival of Masonry in old Boston in 1769 the bro-
\n2-99
\nthers of the Scottish Rite got a two hour start on their brothers of the York
\nRite, who did not convene until one o’clock, though both parties sat down to
\none of those huge colonial dinners at the same hour of two o’clock.
\nIn another column is the obituary of Samuel Kneeland, Boston’s famous
\nprinter, who had died at the age of 73. It had been exactly fifty years
\nearlier that an even more famous printer, Benjamin Franklin, then only 13 years
\nold, had put out his brother’s paper in Ben’s name in order not to violate
\nthe Governor’s edict that James Franklin should no longer publish the New
\nEngland Courant.
\nIn another item we learn that Captain Nixon, in a brig belonging to Rhode
\nIsland was to sail from London to Portsmouth in New Hampshire some time in
\nNovember, full freighted with gOOds for that place. We also learn that New
\nJersey men are not to be outdone by those in New England in so virtuous an
\nact as the killing of those ‘destructive vermin called squirrels, for a whole
\nNew Jersey town had assembled and killed 1,600 of the creatures.
\nIn those days duels, instead of being outlawed, were faithfully reported
\nin the press. We read: “On the 31st of October last, Lieut. Goodacre of the
\n9th Regiment was shot through the body at st. Augustine in a duel with a gentleman
\nfrom Pensacola, and died a short time after.”
\nNow let’s take a look at one of the auction sales of 1769. The notice
\nsays: “On Thursday, December 21, at 11 o’clock forenoo~, will be sold by public
\nauction at the auction block opposite the west end of Faneuil Hall Market,
\nseveral genteel suits of wearing apparel, plain and trimmed with lace,
\nHolland jackets, nankeen and silk breeches, a silver-hilted sword and shield,
\na pair of silver mounted pistols, a silver watch and other articles.”
\nWilliam Jones, at his shop opposite the Town House, advertised finest
\nFlorence oil in honest flasks, choice new currants, cinnamon, nutmegs, turkey
\nfigs, all recently imported in the ship Betsy from London. Jones also
\n2-100
\nsold the conventional drugs of the day: balsam of honey, Jesuit’s drops, female
\nelixir, and the inevitable castor oil.
\nFour merchants advertised spermacetti candles, and Barnabas Clarke had
\njust put in a big supply of choice Jamaica \u00b7sugars to be sold by barrel or
\nhogshead, both Jamaica and Grandes rum, pepper by the bag, rare ginger, Durham
\nmustard by the box, and the very best of Bohea tea, concerning which
\nClarke’s ad carefully stated that it was imported before the merchants’
\nagreement not to import dutiable goods.
\nLearning was never neglected in Boston. In 1769 Harvard was al~eady 133
\nyears old, about the same age that Colby is now. So it is not unexpected to
\nfind in this old newspaper the announcement of a new and accurate spelling
\ndictionary, lately published in London, neatly bound in red, at a price of
\none shilling six pence, boasting to teach the parts of speech and pronunciation
\nof every word and syllable in the English tongue. It was for sale by
\nall booksellers in Boston who had made proper arrangements with the man who
\nheld the London sales rights, Isaac Fell of Pater Norter Row, the very man
\nwho was the origin of the famous ditty that begins, “I do not like thee, Dr.
\nFell”.
\nAn expression still familiar in rural areas and among older people is
\n“Not worth a continental”. When folks of my grandfather’s generation wanted
\nto denounce anything as flagrantly worthless they declared it “not worth a
\ncontinental”. As I am sure most of you know, the expression originated out
\nof the comparative worthlessness of the American continental currency at the
\ntime of the Revolution and during the early years of the Republic.
\nThe story goes that a steamboat going down the Mississippi loaded with
\ncordwood in the early days of steamboating on the big river tied up at a town
\nwharf. A merchant hailed the captain, shouting: “Want to sell your wood?”
\n“Sure”, replied the captain. “Will you pay specie or paper?” “Paper”, yelled
\n2-101
\nthe merchant, “good Ohio paper. How’ 11 you trade?” “Well, seeing’s you want
\nto pay in paper, I’ll trade cord for cord.”
\nIn the collections, even the small collections, of the numismatists,
\nthere is usually at least one example of old-time paper money, but many of
\nthese are not strictly continentals~that is, they were not issued before the
\nsigning of the American Constitution. Mr. Johnson Parks has shown me a fine
\nexample of true Continental currency — one item that preceded not only the
\nConstitution, but the Declaration of Independence as well. It is a half dollar
\nbill issued by the Provincial Convention of Maryland at Annapolis on December
\n7, 1775. On the face of the bill is the usual statement of promise to
\npay in gold or silver, at the rate of four shillings six pence to the dollar.
\nOn the back is the seal of Maryland, the name of the printer, and the words,
\n“equal to two shillings three pence sterling”.
\nIf the present policies of government spending are not soon checked, some
\nof our currency may come to be “not worth a continental”.
\n*****
\nIt now looks as if the present Congress intends to do nothing about the
\ncuts in excise taxes already agreed to by the Ways and Means Committee of the
\nHouse of Representatives. Those cuts would mean lower prices and real savings
\nto the consumer. The Committee proposed to wipe out altogether the 20% tax on
\nadmissions to concerts, charity shows, county fairs, and high school sports,
\nas well as the 20% tax on baby powder and baby lotions, on handbags and purses,
\nand on light bulbs and tubes. They agreed to cut from 20% to 10% the taxes on
\ngeneral admissions, on trunks and suitcases, and cosmetics; from 25% to 10% the
\ntax on telegraph \u00b16lls; and from 15% to 10% the taxes on household phone bills
\nand on travel tickets. Something seems now to have snagged this program, but
\nthere is still a chance to revive it, if interested citizens will urge their
\nCongressmen to action.
\n2-102
\nLITTLE TALKS ON COMMON THINGS
\n69th Broadcast May 21, 1950
\nIn response to my request for more information about Maine trees, Mrs.
\nBasil Larkin of waterville has loaned me her cherished personal copy of
\nMiss Louise Helen Coburn’s book “The Trees of Coburn Park”. Mrs. Larkin
\nwas once Miss Coburn’s secretary, and her copy of the book was a personal
\ngift from the author.
\nLouise Helen Coburn of Skowhegan was not only poet, essayist and historian;
\nshe was also an informed botanist, with special attention to trees.
\nFrom the time when the Coburn family first established the park beside the
\nbend in the Kennebec at Skowhegan, Miss Coburn took an active interest in
\nevery tree planted on those beautiful acres. In 1928 she wrote the book to
\nwhich we now refer.
\nAt that time,Miss Coburn shows, there were 108 different kinds of trees
\nin Coburn Park. Perhaps others have since been added. Of the 108 trees,
\n30 are conifers and 78 broadleaved trees. Thirty-five of the 108 are original
\ngrowers in the locality; 51 are either indigenous to Skowhegan or completely
\nnaturalized in the town. Of the imported trees, 17 are from the
\neastern part of the united States, four from the Rocky Mountains, 20 from
\nEurope and Western Asia, and six from Japan.
\nMiss Coburn’s book not only describes each species of tree with botanical
\ndetail, but also contains much interesting historical information. For
\ninstance, she says the Norway pine has nothing to do with Scandanavian Norway,
\nbut got its name because the first trees of this species which were
\nshipped to Kew Gardens in England came from Norway, Maine. The Norway pine
\nis strictly an American tree.
\n2-103
\nMiss Coburn pays tribute to the historical importance of the Red Spruce,
\nthe tree that Holman Day crowned with the title King Spruce. She says this
\ntree is found in a comparatively narrow area, covering New Brunswick, a small
\npart of southern Quebec, the interior hilly parts of New England, New York ‘
\nand Pennsylvania, and southward along the slopes of the Alleghany Mountains.
\nIt is the most valuable timber tree of our Northeastern forests. In 1672
\nJohn Josselyn, a 17th century traveler, published in London a book of his
\ntravels in New England, in which he said, “The Maine spruce furnishes the
\nbest yards and topmasts in the world.” The French traveler Michaud, visiting
\nthis country in 1806 said that in the dock yards of the United States,
\nthe spars were usually of spruce from the District ‘of Maine, and that it was
\nexported for the same purpose in great quantities to the west Indies and to
\nLiverpool. The pioneers along the Kennebec built their cabins of spruce logs,
\nas woodsmen do today.
\nBecause I so well remember the Balm of Gilead tree in my grandmother’s
\nyard at Bridgton, I note with interest what Miss Coburn says about that tree.
\nIt is, of course, a species of poplar that has its buds saturated with a
\nsticky substance that is so highly aromatic that the odor of the tree is perceptible
\nto the passer-by. Although the tree is not planted in dooryards as
\noften as it used to be, Miss Coburn says that in 1928 several fine specimens
\ncould still be seen in Skowhegan dooryards. She invites her readers to
\nsee the beautiful Balm of Gilead in Coburn Park near the pavilion close to
\nthe highway.
\nSo, if you want to see more than 100 different varieties of trees, all
\nwithin a few hundred feet of each other, pay a visit to Coburn Park at the
\neast end of Skowhegan Village, where the Kennebec takes a wide bend before
\nits turn southward to Fairfield and Waterville.
\n*****
\n2-104
\nJerry Frank, a senior at Colby College, has called my attention to what
\nthe local census, taken in connection with the Federal census, showed about
\nWaterville in 1840, a hundred and ten years ago. Jerry dug it up in an old
\ncopy of the watervillonian, published June 19, 1841. The statistics were
\nfurnished the paper by Moses Healy, Esq. These figures provide a revealing
\npicture of what waterville was like tw~nty years before the Civil War.
\nThe population was 2,971. Humans were greatly exceeded by sheep, which
\nnumbered 4,895, with 1,861 lambs still further increasing the wooly population.
\nThere were 1,611 neat cattle and 400 spring calves for stock, and 445
\nhorses.
\nNow come some astounding figures. Raised within the limits of Waterville,
\nwhich then included Oakland, were 6,280 bushels of wheat, 13,091 bushels of
\noats, 1,695 of barley, 704 of rye, and 30 of buckwheat, with the biggest crop
\nof all being 18,345 bushels of Indian corn.
\nThose Waterville sheep produced 14,944 pounds of wool. The land produced
\nnot only grain, but also 4,680 tons of hay, and 53,938 bushels of potatoes \u2022.
\nWaterville farmers sold 3,286 cords of wood, in addition to what they used
\nat home. There were 41 persons employed in lumbering, who brought out of the
\nwoods $76,500 worth of lumber. Twenty-nine men were employed in carriage
\nmaking, sell ing their product for $15,550. Six persons worked at making
\ncutlery, sold for $4,600. In all of Waterville’s factories in 1840 the total
\ninvested capital was $147,000.
\nThe number of retail stores of all kinds was 39, employing 76 people.
\nThe total capital invested in those stores was almost as large as the capital
\nin Waterville factories — $133,000.
\nIt is clear that, despite the marty saw mills and grist mills using the
\nwater power of Kennebec and Messalonskee, Waterville was an agricultural community
\nin 1840. A lot of manufacturing still went on in the homes, as it had
\n2-105
\ndone in the 18th century, before the Industrial Revolution. Squire Healy told
\nthe Watervillonian that in 1840 the goods manufactured in Waterville homes
\nsold for $3,404.
\n*****
\nWhen the old timers of this region used the expression “from China to
\nthe sea”, they meant from China, Maine to Belfast, Maine. Belfast is still
\nthe nearest seaport to Waterville, although in the old days the easiest route
\nto the sea was down the Kennebec, through Merrymeeting Bay, past Bath and
\nWoolwich, to the open ocean.
\nA century ago Belfast was an important port on Penobscot Bay. That is
\nmade clear by a quick glance at a Belfast newspaper of a century ago. It is
\nthe Waldo Signal of May 1, 1845, published by Charles Giles, with office
\nat the Sign of the Eagle, Main Street, Belfast. The masthead asserts that
\nthe paper is devoted to literature, morality, general intelligence, agriculture,
\npolitics and domestic economy. Subscription rate was “One dollar and
\nseventy-five cents per annum, payable within the year; two dollars at the
\nexpiration of the year, which will positively be exacted. Advance payment,
\none dollar and fifty cents per annum, seventy-five cents for six months.
\nCountry produce taken in payment at market prices.”
\nLocal fervor had been aroused by President Polk’s appointment of M. N.
\nLowney as Collector of the Port of Belfast. It seems that Mr. Lowney, on his
\nway to New York as a delegate to the Presidential Convention had said on a
\nstop-over in Boston, “If Mr. Van Buren is not nominated I will leave the
\nParty.”
\n“This is the man”, wrote Editor Giles, “who now has the fattest political
\njob in Waldo County. What.kind of bargain did Mr. Lowney make in Washington,
\nthat the President whose nomination he opposed now rewards him with a
\njob that belongs to a more loyal man?”
\n2-106
\nA letter to the editor, signed by a man in Camden, was equally wrathful.
\n“What think you”, he wrote, “of the restoration of the Van Buren dynasty
\nin Waldo County? Is the democracy of the county eternally to be saddled
\nwith this death-blight? Mr. Polk has been grossly deceived. A bu’sy and
\nimportant port like Belfast should not be under the control of such a renegade.”
\nMaine Democrats were fighting among themselves in 1845. The Belfast
\neditor refers to the two factions as “sound” Democrats and “terrified”
\nDemocrats. He predicted that their eventual fate would be that of the Kilkenny
\ncats. Nothing would be seen but their tails.
\nIn 1845 agitation had started against the use of friction matches because
\nthey were alleged to cause so many disastrous fires. Editor Giles did
\nnot propose doing away with matches altogether, but he did say: “Any person
\nwho neglects to keep matches in a covered tin box should be required to go
\nback to flint and steel.”
\nA hundred years ago they were already talking about a railroad down
\nin Belfast. There was strong agitation for a line from Belfast to Quebec,
\npassing through the towns of Burnham, Plymouth, Detroit, St. Albans, Newport,
\nand Skowhegan. A correspondent in St. Albans urged Belfast folk to get
\nbusy. He wrote to Editor Giles: “Your business men are asleep. While they
\nhave been content to barter in fish on a small scale, and deal in a few dead
\ntrees from the back towns, other places are getting ahead of you. We understand
\na railroad will soon come to waterville. Do you propose to let that
\ntown get the business which you could easily obtain?”
\nWell in 1849 the railroad did come to Waterville, and in due time it
\ncame to Belfast also. Now in 1950 that Belfast railroad is one of the most
\nuniquely operated and one of the few municipally owned railroads in the United
\nStates.
\n2-107
\nOn this program we talk so much about the old times of the 1840’ sand
\n1850’s that it is interesting to see in this old Belfast paper of 1845 a
\ncolumn headed “The Olden Time”. The column refers to a Philadelphia ‘paper’s
\nreminiscences of George Washington when the General had resided in Philadelphia
\nas the first President of the united States fifty years ago. People
\nstill remembered Washington’s eating habits, for instance. Thursdays were
\nguest days at the President’s dining room. Dinners in those days were lavish
\nand consisted of many courses. At a single dinner as many as a dozen kinds
\nof meat and game might appear. Washington, however, generally partook only
\nof a single dish and that of the simplest kind. If offered something that was
\nexcessively rich or unusual he would say, “This is too good for me”. He had
\na silver pint cup or mug of beer placed by his plate, which he drank while
\ndining. He took one glass of wine during dinner and another immediately
\nafter. He then retired from the table and left his secretary to play host
\n“until the wine-bibbers of Congress had satisfied themselves with drinking.”
\nDeep sea fishing called for varied supplies in 1845. The fleets that went
\nout from Gloucester had\u00b7 nothing on the Belfast boats so far as supplies
\nwere concerned, if we may judge from the advertisement of William Witherbee
\nand Company in this old newspaper. Witherbee announced for sale at his store,
\nNo. 3 water Street, Castine, “an extensive supply of articles for the fishery,
\nconsisting of Liverpool salt, beef and pork, lard, flour, pilot bread, rice,
\ncorn, Indian meal, white beans, molasses, tar and pitch, Russia and cotton
\nduck, Manila and tarred cordage, bolt rope, hawsers and cables, hemp and cotton
\ncod lines, cod hooks and leads, and first quality fishing boots.”
\nOther ads in the same paper offer a thousand pounds of live geese feathers,
\nwarranted kiln dried, and of the very best quality; isinglass for lanterns;
\ngreen window curtain paper I plain and printed. One firm advertised
\nfire buckets, saddles, harnesses, trunks, valises, carpet bags and satchels.
\n2-108
\nAnother offered bathing tubs and vapor bath apparatus. Their feature was the
\nBates Patent Sliding Top Chamber Shower Bath.
\nThe usual public notices, seen so commonly in the newspapers of a century
\nago, were not missing from the Waldo Signal. One of these announced that the
\nsummer term of the public schools in Districts 4 and 5 would commence on Monday,
\nMay 12, 1845. Jonathan Frohock announced the economic freedom of his son
\nwith this public notice: “This certifies that I have this day given to my son,
\nJonathan L. Frohock, the remainder of his time to act and trade for himself. I
\nshall claim none of his earnings and pay no debts of his contracting after
\nthis date.”
\nIn another public notice H. A. Lowell wanted it distinctly understood
\nthat the inhabitants of the town of Freedom had contracted with him to support
\nJacob Doten and family, paupers of said town, and that Lowell now forbade all
\npersons to furnish supplies to the Doten family because he had made ample provision
\nfor their support at his own table in Freedom.
\n*****
\nWhile all the world talks about a coming third World War, among all
\npeople everywhere is a great yearning for peace. Interestingly enough, it is
\nnot a clergyman, but a layman, who suggests that the only sure guide to peace
\nis the moral law. That layman is Henry Luce, head of the great publishing
\norganization that produces Time, Life and Fortune magazines. Says Mr. Luce:
\n“There is certainly no easy road to peace, no well paved Route 1, Route 2 or
\nRoute 3. Peace is a place across a vast jungle of human interests, conflicts,
\npassions, errors, fears and hopes. But there is a guide through that jungle.
\nIt is the moral law. II
\nMr. Luce quite rightly points out that, divided as the different sects
\nsurely are, on one thing they are united: our firm belief that God, the creator
\nof man, also created a moral law for man’s government and endowed man with
\n2-109
\na conscience to apprehend that law. On that belief the government of the
\nUnited States itself was founded. It provided the basis of unity when our
\nforefathers framed the . Constitution in 1787. That basic belief in moral
\nlaw is taught by Protestant, Catholic and Jewish religions alike.
\nThe Difficulty — the great obstacle in the way of peace — is that
\nwhile we Americans hold to that faith in moral law, there are others who do
\nnot so hold. In fact it is precisely that belief which the men who now govern
\nRussia relentlessly attack. Stalin and the men of the Politburo say
\nthey have no objection to religion as a personal matter. They permit churches
\nto stay open. But what they cannot permit, what they dare not tolerate, is the
\nidea that their government, all government, is subject to a higher law, the
\nmoral law.
\nAs far apart as we and the Russians are today on this acceptance or rejection
\nof the validity of moral law, I believe Mr. Luce is profoundly right.
\nAlthough Communist tyranny can stand between nations and the moral law, it
\ncannot stand between men and the moral law. The yearning of men for liberty
\nand justice cannot be repressed. The hunger and thirst for righteousness is
\nuniversal. In the long run man or nation that flouts the moral law is doomed.
\nWe must be determined to do all in our power, taking advantage of every constructive
\nidea, to lessen the tensions and to restore people’s confidence
\nallover the world. And we must do it, not because we are afraid, not lest
\nsome enemy overtake us, but because it is right. Greater than armies and
\nnavies, more powerful than atomic bombs, is the power of moral law, giving
\nall men the conviction that wrong cannot permanently conquer, and that two
\nwrongs never make a right.
\n2-110
\nLITTLE TALKS ON COMMON THINGS
\n70th Broadcast May 28, 1950
\nOf all the old newspapers that have recently come to my attention, by
\nfar the most important historically is an old copy of the Boston Gazette,
\ndiscovered and shown to me by a friend of long standing, Waterville carpenter
\nCharles Rhodes. Although itself a facsimile copy of the original, it
\nwas obviously made many years ago, and was carefully preserved under glass.
\nThere is reason for that careful preservation, for it is an original source
\ndocument of outstanding historical importance. What important historical
\nevent do you think this paper records? It is none other than the Boston .
\nMassacre of MarCh 5, 1770.
\nEvery schoolboy knows the story of the incident which caused the marker
\nto be placed in the pavement of the square back of the old State House, between
\nWaShington Street and Faneuil Hall — the marker where one may still
\nread that here BritiSh troops fired on Boston citizens, killing five of them,
\none a colored man named Crispus Attucks.
\nMany a historian has treated the incident in the 180 years since its
\noccurrence. That faithful old historian whose books many a man and woman now
\nin middle life read in”their schooldays — David S. Muzzey — says about the
\nBoston Massacre: “Two British regiments were sent to Boston to awe the inhabitants
\ninto obedience. Roughs baited the redcoats in the streets, pelting
\nthem with brickbats and calling them “lobsters” and “bloody-backs”. In the
\nriot that followed in MarCh, 1770, five men were killed. The funeral of these
\nvictims was made the occasion for a popular demonstration engineered by Samuel
\nAdams.”
\nNot so well known, because the old history books were silent about it,
\n2-111
\n\u00b7 was the fact that the lawyer who defended and won acquittal of Captain Preston,
\ncommander of the British troops involved, was John Adams, the Boston
\nattorney who was to become the second President of the united States.
\nIn the cooling process of 180 years most historians no longer call it
\na massacre, but an unfortunate incident of heated times when tempers were
\ngetting short and passions ran high. That a Boston crowd of not too respectable
\npersons continuously baited the British troops is certainly true,
\nbut the wisdom of bringing the two regiments to Boston in the first place
\ncan be seriously questioned.
\nNow , within the past month, has come to my hands, not the erudite research
\nof modern historians, but contemporary information about that Boston
\nincident, printed in the Boston Gazette of March 12, 1770, exactly one week
\nafter the massacre occurred.
\nThe Gazette was a small, four-page paper. The inside pages, 2 and 3,
\nof this issue of March 12, 1770, have deep, black mourning borders around all
\nsix columns, and five of those columns are devoted to the troublesome times
\nwhich culminated in the massacre and the burial of four of the victims. The
\nfifth did not die of his wounds until a week later.
\nThe first column of page 3 contains a drawing of four coffins, decorated
\nwith skull and crossbones, and bearing respectively the initials S.G., S.M.,
\nJ.C., and C.D., standing for Samuel Gray, Samuel Maverick, James Caldwell and
\nCrispus Attucks. This is the Gazette’s account of the funeral:
\n“Last Thursday, agreeable to a general request of parents and friends,
\nwere carried to their graves in succession the bodies of Samuel Gray, Samuel
\nMaverick, James Caldwell and Crispus Attucks, the unhappy victims who fell in
\nthe bloody massacre of the preceding Monday evening.
\n“On this occasion most of the shops in town were shut, all the bells
\nwere ordered to toll a solemn peal. The procession began to move between the
\n2-112
\nhours of 4 and 5 in the afternoon. Two of the unfortunate sufferers, James
\nCaldwell and Crispus Attucks, who were strangers, were borne from Faneuil
\nHall, attended by a numerous train of persons of all ranks. The other two,
\nSamuel Gray and Samuel Maverick, were taken respectively from the houses of
\nMr. Benjamin Gray and Mrs. Mary Maverick, each followed by relations and
\nfriends. The several hearses, forming a junction at King Street, the theatre
\nof that inhuman tragedy, proceeded from thence through the Main Street,
\nlengthened by an immence concourse of people, so numerous as to be obliged
\nto follow in ranks of six, and brought up by a long train of carriages belonging
\nto the principal gentry of the town. The bodies were deposited in one
\nvaul t in the Middle Burying-ground. The aggravated circumstances of their
\ndeath, the distress and sorrow visible in every countenance, together with
\nthe peculiar solemnity with Which the Whole funeral was conducted, surpass
\ndescription.”
\nIn a riot like that Which came to be called the Boston Massacre it is
\nvery difficult to tell exactly What happened, especially 180 years after the
\nevent. The Gazette was clearly prejudiced against the British troops and re-
\nI
\nluctant to believe ill of the townsmen, even the town toughs. Yet as one
\nreads the Gazette’s account written When the tragedy was only a week old, he
\ncan see that the mere presence of armed soldiers of the king in Boston was
\nbound to make trouble.
\nIndeed trouble had been fomenting for many weeks. As the Gazette puts it:
\n“Many have been the squabbles between our youth and the soldiery, and the latter
\nbeing so often worsted in these encounters has served to irritate them
\nto worse behavior. Citizens have been picked with bayonets, even our magistrates
\nhave been assaulted, and now four of our inhabitants lie dead from the
\nfire of soldiers’ muskets.”
\nThe Gazette points out that the events which led up to the massacre had
\n2-113
\nculminated in the riot at Gray’s Rope-walk, about which historians have since
\nwritten much. There on Saturday, February 24, 1770 fist-fights broke out between
\nhalf a dozen young men of the town and an equal number of soldiers. In
\na few minutes these numbers were swollen to several hundred. In the end the
\nsoldiers got the worst of it and dispersed to their barracks. No shot was
\nfired. Says the Gazette: “That defeat was humiliating. Divers stories were
\ncirculated among the soldiery that served to inflame them further. One rumor
\nwas that a certain Sergeant Chambers, represented as a sober man, had been
\nmissing since the event and must therefore have been murdered by the townsmen.
\nAn officer of distinction so far credited this report that he insisted on
\nsearching Mr. Gray’s Rope-walk for the body. On Monday this so-called sober
\nsergeant was found unhurt in a house of pleasure.”
\nAt this point the Gazette editor throws his opinion into the news account.
\nHe writes: “We do not pretend to say that there was any preconcerted
\nplan to kill our citizens, but we venture to declare, as appears probable
\nfrom their conduct, that some of the soldiery aimed to draw and provoke the
\ntownmen into squabbles, and that they intended to make use of other weapons
\nthan canes and clubs.”
\nNow what actually happened on the evening of March 5, 1770? Here is the
\nway this Boston newspaper told the story one week after the event.
\nitA few minutes after 9 o’clock, four youths named Edward Archbald, William
\nMerchant, Francis Archbald and John Leech, Jr. came down Cornhill together,
\nand separating at Dr. Loring’s corner, Edward and William were passing
\nthe narrow alley leading to Murray’s barracks, in which a soldier was
\nbrandishing a broadsword of an uncommon size against the walls, out of which
\nhe struck fire plentifully. A person of mean countenance armed with a large
\ncudgel bore the soldier company. Edward warned~William to look out for the
\nsword, on which the soldier turned around and struck Archbald on the arm,
\n2-114
\nthen puShed at Merchant and pierced through his clothes inside the arm close
\nto the arm-pit, and grazed the skin. Merchant then struck the soldier with
\na short stick he had. Meanwhile the other person who was with the soldier
\nran to the barracks and brought out two more soldiers, one armed with a pair
\nof tongs, the other with a shovel. He with the tongs pursued Archbald back
\nthrough the alley and laid him over the head with the tongs. The noise
\nbrought people together, and John Hicks, a young lad, coming up, knocked the
\nsoldier down, but let him up again. More lads, gathering, drove the soldiers
\nback into barracks, where the boys stood for some time, as it were to keep
\nthem in. Then ten or twelve soldiers came out with drawn cutlasses, clubs and
\nbayonets, and set upon the unarmed boys and young folks, who stood them a
\nlittle while, but finding the inequality of their equipment, dispersed.
\n“On hearing the noise, one Samuel Atwood came up to see what was the
\nmatter, and entering the alley from Dock Square, heard the latter part of the
\ncombat. Meeting the dozen soldiers rushing down the alley toward the square,
\nhe asked them if they intended to murder people. “Yes”, they shouted, “root
\nand branch”. Whereupon one of them struck Mr. Atwood with a club, which was
\nrepeated by another. Retreating, Mr. Atwood met two officers and said, “Gentlemen,
\nwhat is the matter?” They answered “You will see by and by.” The
\nsoldiers proceeded into King Street, where they attacked single and unarmed
\npersons till they raised much clamor. Thirty or forty persons, mostly lads,
\nwere by this means gathered in King Street. Captain Preston with a party of
\nsoldiers with charged bayonets came from the main guard, the soldiers
\npuShing their bayonets and crying, “Make way!”. As they continued to push
\nthe people off, the latter began to throw snowballs. On this the Captain
\nconunanded the soldiers to fire, and more snowballs coming, he said, “Fire,
\nbe the consequence what it will!” One soldier then fired, and a townsman
\nwith a cudgel struck him over the hands with such force that he dropped his
\n2-115
\nmusket. The townsman rushed on and aimed a blow at the captain’s head, which
\ngrazed his hat and fell pretty heavy upon his arm. The soldiers continued the
\nfire, successively, until 7 or 8, or some say 11, guns were discharged. By
\nthe maneuver three men were laid dead on the spot, and two more were struggling
\nfor life.
\n“Mr. Benjamin Leigh, now undertaker in the Delph Manufactory, interposed,
\nand after some conversation with Captain Preston relative to his conduct, advised
\nhim to draw off his men, with which request the captain complied.”
\nSo much for the Gazette’s story. History records what followed: the orderly
\ninvestigation culminating in the withdrawal of the regiments from Boston,
\nthe trial of Captain Preston, John Adams’ staunch legal defense of the British
\ncaptain, and his acquittal by a jury of Boston citizens.
\nEven the prejudiced Gazette reveals that there were two sides to the affair.
\nNot all of Boston condemned the captain nor blamed his soldiers for starting
\nthe trouble. Far down in the lower left corner of page 3 the Gazette printed a
\npublic notice, one which I have never seen mentioned by any historian, yet it
\nreveals clearly that not all Boston citizens wanted to see Preston punished for
\nthe death of the massacre victims. Here is the notice, as it appeared word
\nfor word in that paper on March 12, 1770:
\n“Boston Jail, Monday, 12th March 1770
\n“Permi t me through the channel of your paper to return my thanks in the
\nmost public manner to the inhabitants in general of this town, who, throwing
\naside all party and prejudice, have with the utmost humanity and freedom
\nstepped forth advocates for truth, in defence of my injured innocen~e, in
\nthe late unhappy affair that happened on Monday night last; and to assure them
\nthat I shall ever have the highest sense of the justice they have done me,
\nwhich will be ever gratefully remembered by their much obliged and most obedient
\nhumble servant, Thomas Preston.”
\n2-116
\nLITTLE TALKS ON COMMON THINGS
\n71st Broadcast June 4, 1950
\nOn this program two weeks ago we were talking about the year 1845. As
\na consequence someone asked our distinguiShed waterville citizen, Harvey D.
\nEaton, whether the original portion of his house on Silver Street was standing
\nas long ago as 1845. Mr. Eaton replied that it probably was, because
\nonly two years after that in 1847 the man who lived in it was murdered.
\nThat is how we come to refer tonight to Waterville’s famous murder of
\n1847. Waterville has been remarkably free from capital crime. In fact, Dr.
\nWhittemore states in Chapter III of the Centennial History of Waterville:
\n“On September 30, 1847 occurred the first and only murder in the entire history
\nof waterville.” Dr. Whittemore wrote that in 1902. Ho’tl.” many murders
\nhave occurred here in the succeeding 48 years? I recall three: the Abie Le~
\nvine murder, the killing of a taxi driver, and the brutal slaying of the little
\nProulx girl. Perhaps there have been more. At any rate it says something
\nfor our times when we note that in the first century of its history
\nWaterville had only one murder, while it has had three murders in the past
\ntwenty years.
\nIn a town as small as waterville was in 1847 any serious crime was noteworthy.
\nA capital crime was a sensation. When both the murdered man and his
\nalleged slayer were prominent persons in the community the sensation assumed
\ngrand proportions.
\nOne of Waterville’s most famous early families was that of Mathews. Jabez
\nMathews, founder of the Waterville branch of the family, was born in Gray
\nin 1743. He had seen this little conununity before he settled here, because he
\nhad been in Col. Ward’s division of Benedict Arnold’s army when the bateaux
\n2-117
\nloaded with those troops went up the Kennebec in 1775. A quarter of a century
\nlater in 1794 Jabez came to Winslow with his two sons, Simeon and John. For a
\ntime he kept a tavern in a house on the north side of Silver Street near the
\ncorner of Main Street. Later he lived in a small house on the east side of
\nSilver Street near the Fred Arnold property. Jabez’ son Simeon went into partnership
\nwith Nathaniel Gilman in a store on Main Street near Where the Montgomery
\nWard building now stands. It was he Who built the big house on Silver
\nStreet so long owned and occupied by the Terry family. It was Simeon Mathews
\nalso Who is said to have planted the long line of elm .trees on the west
\nside of Silver Street from the Elm Street corner to the head of Gold Street.
\nThe second son of Simeon Mathews, and grandson of the original Jabez,
\nwas Edward E. Mathews, born in Waterville in 1822. His older brother William
\nstarted one of Waterville’s early newspapers, the Yankee Blade, in 1842. Almost
\nimmediately William took his brother Edward into partnership, and the masthead
\nof the Yankee Blade announced its publishers as W. and E. Mathews,
\ndoing business at the southwest corner of Main and Silver Streets. Here too
\nEdward started one of Waterville’s earliest bookstores. So Edward Mathews was
\nan established business man of Waterville by the time he was 25 years old in
\n184_7.
\nOn the morning of October 1, 1847 the body of Edward Mathews was found in
\nthe cellar of what was then Shorey’s clothing store, on the site now occupied
\nby the Peavey Building or possibly by the latest addition to the Federal Trust
\nCompany. There were no marks of violence on the body. Expert toxicologists
\nwere not then known in this part of New England, but scientific advice was at
\nhand in the person of Rev. Justin Ralph Loomis, professor of Chemistry and
\nNatural History at Waterville College. His examination revealed that Mathews
\nhad died of prussic acid. The authorities soon learned that, on the previous
\nevening, Mathews had paid a visit to a room in the near-by Williams House
\n2-118
\noccupied by Dr. ValorUs Coolidge, a successful young physician, who was
\nstraightway accused of the crime.
\nThe trial was held at Augusta in March, 1848. One of the prosecutors
\nwas Lot M. Morrill, who six years later would be the new governor so loudly
\npraised by Editor Drew in the Rural Intelligencer. Hon. George Evans and
\nEdwin Noyes conducted the defense. After being out 24 hours, the jury brought
\nin a verdict of guilty.
\nNow this story has been retold in some detail more than once. On its
\nhundredth anniversary in 1947 both the Waterville Sentinel and the Lewiston
\nJournal devoted some space to it. In a number of Waterville homes are copies
\nof a ballad that went the rounds at the time. Verses of that sort were commonly
\ncirculated in connection with all hangings for murder. Readers of Mary
\nEllen Chase’s biography of Jonathan Fisher will recall that the stern, Puritanical
\nBlue Hill preacher had an interesting and somewhat profitable sideline
\nof writing and selling broadside sheets containing verses about murders
\nand hangings.
\nWhat I want to know now is, can anyone show me a contemporary account of
\nthe murder of Edward Mathews or the trial of Dr. Coolidge? Do there exist
\nearly copies of the Eastern Mail containing those accounts? In April, 1847
\nCharles F. Hathaway, founder of the Hathaway Shirt industry, had started a
\npaper called the Waterville Union, but it lasted only 14 weeks. The Union
\nplant was taken over by Ephraim\u00b7 :rvaxh3rn, .:v;ho, on July 19, 1847 published the
\nfirst issue of the Eastern Mail from the third floor of the Boutelle Block
\non Main Street. We believe the paper was issued every week without interruption
\nuntil the name was changed in 1863 to the Waterville Mail. So, if
\nanyone knows where there are copies of the Eastern Mail for the fall of
\n1847 and the spring of 1848, I should like to see them.
\n*****
\n2-119
\nLet us now take a few minutes for a more timely subject. Let’s jump
\ncomplete1y over the years from 1847 to 1950. Those of you Who are waiting
\npatient1y for delivery of a new car may be interested to know what the
\nChrysler strike cost.
\nIn substance the Chrysler workers traded nearly a thousand dollars
\neach in 10st wages for pensions some of them will never get. The strikers
\nwon a funded pension they could have had three weeks earlier. The overall
\nlosses amounted to a billion four hundred million dollars in wages and
\nsales. Twenty-nine millions were lost by some 50,000 workers Who were not
\non strike at’all, the men in parts plants Who had to be laid off as a result
\nof the strike.
\nThe loss was not confined to the strikers and the workers in affected
\nplants, and I want you to get this: assessments levied on auto workers not
\non strike amounted to seven million dollars. Other unions dipped into their
\nreserves to contribute several hundred thousand dollars. Even the taxpayers
\nwere directly hit to the tune of two million dollars in relief p~yments to
\nDetroit strikers.
\nWe do not question the workingman’s right to collective bargaining nor
\nto the final weapon of the strike. It is a debatable question, however, when
\nand Where he ought to use that costly weapon.
\n*****
\nNow back to some of the old-time scenes in Waterville. Our town was
\nfounded much too late to partake of the witchcraft furor that blackened New
\nEngland in the seventeenth century. But in the early days of the community
\nbelief that certain people possessed supernatural powers had not disappeared.
\nSuch a person was Aunt Hannah Cool, whose name appears as one of the customers
\nof the old storekeeper whose account book Walter Heath still possesses.
\nIn the early years of the 19th century there stood on the south side of
\n2-120
\nSilver street, near where it is joined by Kennebec Street, a building,the
\nfirst floor of which was used as a tannery. The tanner had a double occupation,
\nbecause in addition to his tanning business he was a Free Baptist
\npreacher. That preacher-tanner, Elder Jeremiah Powers, was very fond o.f
\nfishing, but he was also embued with superstit\u00b7ious beliefs, including witchcraft.
\nOne night he went fishing with a neighbor and didn’t get a bite. He
\nlaid their bad luck to the magic of Aunt Hannah Cool, saying they should
\nhave promised her the first fish before they set out. “She bewitched the
\nfish away from our hooks”, said Elder Powers.
\nAunt Hannah lived in a low, unpainted house on Silver Street. Her garden
\nwas full of roots and herbs which she carefully prepared into medicines
\nfree for\u00b7all sufferers. She is said to have had a piercing eye and a sort
\nof eerie look, but even that description may be prejudiced. Aunt Hannah was
\nanything but a witch. Her deeds of kindness are recounted to this day. She
\nbrought up a homeless orphan, and she tended the sick without thought of
\nrecompense. Yet this woman was regarded by some of her own townsmen, even by
\na preacher, as in league with the Devil, and quite able to bewitch the fish
\nif she disliked the fisher.
\n*****
\nWe recently made it clear that Waterville a hundred years ago was predominantly
\nan agricultural community. We gave some figures about the wheat,
\ncorn and oats then raised in this town. Now another of those old account
\nbooks gives witness to the same general fact — the agricultural character
\nof the vicinity. This is a book of accounts kept by a Waterville blacksmith
\nin 1833, and like the account of the Augusta merchant I told you about, this
\nbook too is the property of Burleigh Nichols of Fairfield Center. On November
\n16, 1833 this blacksmith entered the following charge against Josiah Morrill:
\n2-121
\nSharpening 32 harrow teeth
\nSharpening 3 plows
\nSharpening and pinting 2 plows
\nMaking 17 harrow teeth
\nOther charges to various customers run:
\nMaking pitch fork
\npulling off horse shoes
\nMaking 23 nails
\nBailing tea kittle
\nMaking cant irons
\nMaking mill bar
\n$ .65
\n1.00
\n1.50
\n1. 70
\n1.00
\n.06
\n.17
\n.25
\n1.42
\n.50
\nTwo words used by this blacksmith have me puzzled: gripe and snickel.
\nBy gripe he may have meant some kind of handle or part for the hand to grasp,
\nsince the dictionary gives as one of the old meanings of gripe, a handle or
\nhilt. At any rate his entries are
\nGripeing a harrow
\nGripe on wagon spring
\n1 gripe
\nGripeing 2 plows
\n.50
\n.04
\n.25
\n.70
\nOn April 24, 1833 he charged Daniel Dexter 33 cents for making a snickel,
\nand on June 13 he entered against Stephen Denton: 1 snickel, 28 cents.
\nNow who can set me right on those two words? What was a gripe? What was
\na snickel?
\n2-122
\nLITTLE TALKS ON COMMON THINGS
\n72nd Broadcast June 11, 1950
\nWe had originally intended that tonight’s broadcast would be our last
\nuntil September, but we have agreed to continue for two more weeks. On June
\n25, two weeks from tonight, we shall suspend the program until fall.
\nMaine should be very proud of Senator Margaret Smith, and not merely
\nbecause she rated the leading article in this week’s issue of Time, and had
\nher picture on the cover of News Week.
\nJust because she seldom speaks on the floor of the Senate, when she does
\nspeak, unlike many of her colleagues, she has something to say. What she
\nsaid last week rightfully made the front page headlines allover the country.
\nIt was time somebody said it, but it took a lot of courage. The sniping,
\npetty politics touched off by the McCarthy charges has gone altoge.ther too
\nfar. Ordinary Americans back home in every one of the 48 states are confused,
\nsaddened, and disgusted by the way the politicians of both parties have played
\npblitics with American security on the one hand and the American right to
\nfreedom from the slanderous tongue on the other hand.
\nDid you read what Mrs. Smith said? Let me quote a few sentences. “I speak”,
\nshe said, “as a Republican. I speak as a woman. I speak as a United States
\nSenator. I speak as an American. I think”, she continued, “it is high time
\nfor the United States Senate and its members to do some soul-searching — for
\nus to weigh our consciences on the manner in which we are performing our duty
\nto the poeple of America — on the manner in which we are using or abusing our
\nindividual powers and privileges. I think it is high time that we remembered
\nthat the Constitution speaks not only of freedom of speech, but also of trial
\nby jury instead of trial by accusation.”
\nMrs. Smith’s was an earnest, plain-spoken plea for integrity and sanity in
\n2-123
\nour efforts against Communism. She condemned with equal vehemence the whitewaShing
\nof suspected traitors on the one hand, and the unsupported accusations
\nof a witch-hunt on the other hand. There was real punch in her words
\nwhen She said: “Today our country is being divided by the confusion and suspicions
\nthat are bred in the united States Senate to spread like cancerous
\ntentacles of “know nothing, suspect everything” attitudes. The Democratic
\nparty has initially created the confusion by its complacency to the threat
\nof Communism here at hame, by its oversensitiveness to rightful criticism.
\nBut certain Republicans have added to the confusion by political exploitation
\nof fear, bigotry, ignorance and intolerance. Democrats and Republicans
\nalike have unwittingly played into the Communist design of “confuse, divide
\nand conquer”.
\nYes, we assert unhesitatingly and emphatically, Margaret Smith’s speech
\nof June 1, 1950 was one of the few really great speeches delivered in the
\nunited States Senate in modern times, easily the greatest since Senator Vandenberg
\nmade his impassioned plea for the united Nations charter. Mrs.
\nSmith’s was a speech that rose above party and prejudice, above all the
\npettiness of name-calling and white-waShing. It was the utterance of a true
\nAmerican. We are indeed proud that this cpurageous speech was made, this act
\nof high Americanism taken, by the lady Senator from Maine, who cames from
\n. this very Kennebec Valley, to which this weekly program has been so largely
\ndevoted.
\n*****
\nThose old reservoirs under the Waterville streets have a long and honorable
\nhistory. I have thus far been unable to learn when they were first constructed.
\nBut just before his death Gene crawford, who mapped the locations
\nof all of them, assured me that there were eleven, same of them very old. For
\nsentimental or other reasons voiced by the local firemen same years ago when
\n2-124
\npermanent surfaces were put on certain streets, at least three of those old
\nreservoirs were not filled in, but were left just as they were, except that
\nthe covers were reinforced, or double covers were placed.
\nOne of the most neatly constructed is in front of the Sacred Heart
\nChurch on Pleasant Street. It is built of brick, much as were the old cisterns
\nboth inside and outside many farm houses. It was spring fed, but even
\nif it had been artificially filled it was so well built that it would hold
\nwater for some time. One of the biggest of those old reservoirs was in City
\nHall Square, now Castonguay Square. It has never been filled in. When it was
\nlast opened, everyone wondered why it hadn’t caved in long ago, for its top
\nwas made of wood logs. Now it has a secure, solid cover. It is 35 feet in
\ndiameter and 12 feet deep — when last opened it still had six feet of water
\nin it.
\nMr. Crawford believed most of the reservoirs were self-filling, but some
\nof them may have had water poured into them, hauled up from the Kennebec or
\nthe Messalonskee.
\nWhat is even more interesting is the information that there was a public
\nwater supply of a kind long before the Waterville Water Company took water
\nfrom the Messalonskee, as I told you several weeks ago. Preceding that event
\ncame the activities of the Ticonic Aqueduct Company. On the Bangs lot on
\nCollege Avenue, where the new market has just been\u00b7 constructed, was a very
\nold and very bountiful spring. So sure of the fact was Mr. Crawford that he
\nwarned the builders of the modern structures in that vicinity that they would
\nsurely strike water which would hamper their operations. They scoffed at the
\nidea. But sure enough, they did strike such a flow of water that they had to
\npipe it off into the city sewer before they could resume building.
\nThat tremendous spring was the source of supply for the Ticonic Aqueduct
\nCompany. The original aqueduct is said to have been simply bored logs like
\n2-125
\nthe old wooden pipes that used to carry water from well to barnyard trough
\non many a farm. Later the rotting wood was replaced by lead pipe and it
\nwas a piece of the lead pipe of that old aqueduct which Mr. Crawford found
\nleading into the reservoir in City Hall Square when he opened up that big
\nreceptacle some thirty years ago.
\n*****
\nIt was last November when Mr. H. F. Sturtevant first wrote me from his
\nhome out at Ten Lots. At that time I put on the air an urgent request about
\nthe origin and develoment of that neighborhood, but I got no response at all.
\nNow Mr. Sturtevant writes me again, eager to know where there is any record
\nof the founding and early history of his community. He says that some 150
\nyears ago 2,000 acres of land were taken in that region, divided into ten
\n200-acre lots, and thus settled. Mr. Sturtevant once had an historical sketch
\nof the community, loaned it to a newspaper for publication, but it was unfortunately
\nlost before a published record could be made.
\nMr. Sturtevant says tradition has it that the first settlers at Ten
\nLots came up the Kennebec River to what is now Waterville and thence blazed
\na trail through the woods to their 200-acre allotments.
\nOn his place Mr. Sturtevant has a number of old-time things that I am
\ngoing out to see some day this summer: old fashioned two-tine hay forks,
\ndoors with hand-made locks and hinges, and other relics from the days of long
\nago.
\nMr. Sturtevant remembers much about the old preaching services at Ten
\nLots. The pioneers there were staunch, religious people, and the records of
\nseveral Waterville churches show that more than one revival had its origin
\nat Ten Lots. Although the earliest of those revivals was long before Mr.
\nSturtevant’s time, he recalls many traditions about them, handed down from
\nthe folks who lived there when George Washington was still alive. One of the
\n2-126
\nproudest traditions of Ten Lots is that for several years its preacher
\nwas Samuel Francis Smith, author of “America” — the same Samuel Francis
\nSmith who was once the pastor of Waterville’s First Baptist Church and a
\nprofessor at Colby College.
\nNow among our listeners tonoigbt there must be someone who knows where
\nwe can find recorded, accurate information about Ten Lots. During the summer
\nwe want to make a thorough investigation, and we need your help, so that
\nwhen we come back on the air in the fall, we can give you the straight facts
\nabout the history of that interesting community.
\n*****
\nTwo subjects we ought to discuss next fall are the \u00b7qpauta~qua and the
\neven earlier Lyceum Lecture courses. Just by way of a starter, let’s right
\nnow take a look at the Lyceum course of lectures offered in Waterville in
\nthe winter of 1888. It consisted of five lectures for which the patron bought
\na course ticket for one dollar. On January 18 Rev. Theodore Gerrish gave a
\nlecture on the Battle of Gettysburg, to which the weekly waterville Sentinel
\ndevoted a full column. On January 25 Rev. O. P. Gifford spoke on “The Problem
\nof Life”. That certainly was a convenient lecture title. Under it the lecturer
\ncould talk about almost anything under the sun.
\nRev. George A. Crawford gave a lecture on February 7 about “The Land of
\nthe Rising Sun”, Japan, from which country he had recently returned. The next
\nweek Hon. A. G. Hall talked on English cathedrals. For the final lecture the
\nwomen of the town, according to the Sentinel, turned out in large numbers, for
\non February 20 Mrs. Mary Livermore spoke on the subject “Concerning Husbands”.
\nIs there anyone now living who attended any of those lectures in 1888?
\nFor several weeks in that winter of the big blizzard the weekly Sentinel
\ncarried an ad which must bring back a lot of memories to our older citizens.
\nLet me read that ad to you.
\n2-127
\n“Take the First Horse Car which leaves Waterville Post Office and in
\nfive minutes you will be in front of the nicest and lowest priced house
\nlots ever offered in the Waterville market. City water is close at hand, and
\nthe land is well-drained. These lots, remember, are right on the line of
\nthe horse railroad soon to be. Hall and Philbrook, Arnold Block, Waterville.”
\n*****
\nIn 1888 Waterville boasted a big, open air skating rink. Wall and Branch,
\nits propr~etors, advertised two acres of solid ice, lighted by electricity,
\nneat and warm rest rooms, refreshments and hot coffee. The rink was situated
\non the Gilman Bog, directly back of the Congregational Church. Entrance was
\nfrom Temple Street near Main. The proprietors assured the public that the
\nrink was in every way fit for ladies and children. Season tickets were $3.00
\nfor gentlemen, $2.00 for ladies and children. Skates could be rented or purchased
\non the spot.
\nIce hockey was then called polo. A news item tells us that “A game of
\npolo is advertised for tonight between the Granite Cities of Augusta and the
\nElites of Waterville at the Elite rink. There will be skating before the
\ngame, which will begin at nine, and a dance afterwards with music by Scribner’s
\norchestra. ”
\nThe following week’s Sentinel proudly proclaimed the victory of the
\nElites over the Granite Cities, and reported that the dance was a gala event
\nlasting into the wee small hours.
\n*****
\nIt was in 1888, as most of you know, that Waterville became a city. What
\nperhaps most of you don’t know is the long, bitter fight lasting many years,
\nbefore it adopted a city charter. On January 26, 1888 the Sentinel told the
\nwhole story. Three days before, on January 23, occurred the last town meeting,
\ncalled especially to vote on the proposed charter. L. D. Carver, S. S. Brown,
\n2-128
\nF. A. Waldron and C. H. Redington were chosen ballot clerks, and were charged
\nwith the duty of seeing that all votes were legal and properly checked. The
\nvoters deposited simple Yes or No ballots. When the vote was counted, the charter
\nhad been adopted by 543 to 432. The church bells were rung and the proponents
\nof a city government held a big celebration.
\nThe opposition had indeed been bitter and both sides had worked strenuously
\nto get out the vote. The resulting total of 975 ballots was 200 more
\nthan had been cast in the previous charter contests. In fact there had been
\nthree of those previous futile attempts to make Waterville a city, all tried
\nat the regular town meeting in March. In 1884 the vote was 223 for and 344
\nagainst; in 1885 it was 337 for and 394 against~ A year later in 1886 little
\ninterest was aroused, for the total vote was smaller than the year before,
\n265 Yes and 344 No. The proponents decided not to bring the matter up at
\nthe regular meeting in 1887 but to prepare for a special election in January,
\n1888. Their strategy was crowned with success.
\n*****
\n2-129
\nLITTLE TALKS ON COMMON THINGS
\n73rd Broadcast June 18, 1950
\nAmong the men upon whom Colby College conferred honorary degrees at the
\nrecent Commencement was my friend Jim Connolly, about whom I was privileged
\nto write a little book last spring. My “Jim Connolly and the Fishermen of
\nGloucester” was no best seller. No one thought it would be, least of all its
\nauthor. But even its limited circulation and the kindly reviews it received
\ndid remind folks that a very popular writer of the early 1900’s is still
\nliving. It even brought me a personal, hand-written letter from the President
\nof Ireland.
\nOn June 12, 1950, a few months before his 82nd birthday, and nearly
\nhalf a century after the publication of his first books, “Jeb Hutton” and
\n“Out of Gloucester”, Colby College made James Brendan Connolly a Doctor of
\nHumane Letters. The Harvard Athletic Association also belatedly recognized
\nanother of Jim’s achievements. A few weeks ago they awarded him the Harvard
\nH and the big sweater that goes with it. That award is the culmination of an
\nironical story. In 1896 Jim,a freshman at Harvard, asked for leave of absence
\nto compete in the first revival of the Olympic Games at Athens. The
\nstern Harvard authorities said “No”. So Jim left the college — left it for
\ngood — and went to Athens anyhow. There, as thousands of Americans are by
\nthis time aware, he won the first track event in the Olympics, the hop, step
\nand jump. It was Jim Connolly who caused the American flag to be the first
\nto wave from the peak of the victory pole in the old Greek city where Pheidippides
\nhad ended his heroic run 25 centuries before.
\nThis is the irony of it: that 54 years had to go by before the Harvard
\nAthletic Association got around to recognizing Jim’s achievement.
\nJim Connolly had a fine time in Waterville last week. He looks his age,
\n2-130
\nbut walks and acts like a man of fifty. And What stories he can tell in the
\nmost animated conversation — stories of deadly storms and terrible fogs on
\nthe Grand Banks, stories of the laden schooners racing home to get first market
\nfor the fish, stories of life with the Norwegian fishermen inside the
\nArctic Circle, stories of the great regatta races, and heroic tales of danger
\nand sacrifice.
\nA lot of good sea stories have seen the printed page, and a lot of great
\ncharacters of the sea have become familiar, from Captain Ahab to Tugboat
\nAnnie. But no stories are better told and no characters are more gloriously
\nalive than those of James Brendan Connolly, published in nearly thirty books
\nin the first quarter of this century.
\n*****
\nWe have ‘ been having a lot of fun talking about such old-time things
\nwith such unremembered names as gripes and snickels, barking irons, and upsetting
\naxes. We are still on the watch for these old-time expressions and
\nthe things they describe. The latest one we encountered was entirely new to
\nus, and we believe it will be new to most of you. It is a “thorough stay”.
\nWho can tell me what it is? It is so rare that I think I ought to give you
\nat least an indication of the general category in which it belongs. The term
\n“thorough stay” does not mean an extended visit, nor does it-mean staying in
\none place a long time. It is a term connected with one of the oldest trades
\nin Maine, the great lumber industry. It describes an actual object once used,
\nbut long since abandoned. What was that object? Come on, now, Who will be
\nthe first to tell me? What was a thorough stay?
\nSpeaking of lumbering, some of the stories about prodigious feats in
\nthe Maine woods put the Paul Bunyan yarns to shame. Let me tell you\u00b7just one
\nincident — not a lumberman’s campfire yarn,half fact, half fiction — but an
\nactual, authenticated occurrence in the Maine woods.
\n2-131
\nMany years ago a railroad was laid between Eagle Lake and Umbazookus
\nLake in the Allagash region north of Moosehead, for the purpose of transporting
\nthe logs across the land divide, and so get them into the waters
\nemptying south into the Penobscot rather than north into the St. John. Now
\nhere is the remarkable incident. Two locomotives, weighing 200 tons each,
\nwere somehow brought through the woods from Quebec to Eagle Lake. How was
\nit done? No one now living seems to know. But the fact is abundantly authenticated.
\nThose two locomotives did get there and were used for years
\non the little railroad, whose roadbed can still be seen. What was the feat
\nof engineering that got those locomotives through the dense wilderness of
\nnorthwestern Maine? History is silent. Perhap~ some day the discovery of
\nan old letter or diary will solve the mystery.
\n*****
\nMany of our Central Maine citizens, perhaps some who are listening tonight,
\nhave had the tremendous thrill of seeing our north woods from the
\nair. It is an experience that I have not yet enjoyed; I have it still to
\nlook forward to. But one of my neighbors was taken in a private plane a
\nfew days ago and flown allover the mass of lakes that dots our northern
\nwoods from Moosehead to the Canadian border — great bodies of water like
\nChesuncook, Caucmagomac, Eagle and Chamberlain, and literally hundreds of
\nsmaller lakes and ponds. And between these great bodies of water lie immense
\nstretches of woodland.
\nAnd here is an amazing fact. In the dense heart of those woodland areas,
\nfar from the reach of the old timber roads, still stands many a king pine
\nthose giants of the forest, 250 to 350 years old, lifting their conical
\ntops far above the surrounding trees. We understand a project is on foot
\nto fell some of those giant pines and bring their lumber out to civilization.
\nPonderous and mighty bull-dozers will break through the forest to the 10-
\n2-132
\ncation of several concentrations of these old trees. They will be cut into
\nhauling lengths and brought out over the ways cleared by the bull-dozers.
\nBut don’t worry. They won’t all disappear this year or next. Those
\ngreat king pines-are widely scattered over many square miles between Moosehead
\nand the St. John River, between Rockwood and st. Zacharie, Quebec. If
\nyou fly over the forest ten years from now, some of them will still, be there,
\njust as they were there when Benedict Arnold led his luckless march through
\nforests farther to the southwest, on his way to the Plains of Abraham and
\nthe Citadel of Quebec.
\n*****
\nThere is a suspicion that young people now in college are radical reds,
\nthat they have little use for capitalism, private enterprise, and the accustomedways
\nof American life. The suspicion is simply not sustained by the
\nfacts. Recently a class at Colby College had an opportunity to write a brief
\nstatement on a choice of several propositions. One of those propositions was
\nthis: “I would rather be a hungry American than a well-fed Russian”. About
\nthis proposition, as about all the others, the class was told that they
\ncould take either side; that they could defend the proposition or they
\ncould attack it.
\nIt is significant, in the first place, that of 150 boys and girls in the
\nclass, 62 elected to write on this proposition rather than on one of the others.
\nAnd everyone of the 62 supported the proposition. Admitting that they had
\nnever been and hoped never to be hungry Americans, and admitting further that
\nhunger makes people do a lot of unexpected things, these college students
\nnevertheless made it clear that they prize American freedom above full stomachs
\nwithout that freedom. Many of them said that, having the individual
\nfreedom that still belongs to an American in spite of modern, mechanized society,
\nthey felt sure they could find a way to get food if they really became
\n2-133
\nhungry. And all of them said that the lack of freedom in a totalitarian
\nstate like Russia means that even if one is well-fed today, the government
\ncan take it all away tomorrow.
\nIf you hear anyone say that modern college students are willing to
\nsellout to Communism, or are inclined to dance to the Kremlin’s tune, you
\njust tell that accuser that he doesn’t know What he is talking about.
\n*****
\nIn our search for old-time facts about Waterville and other parts of
\nthe Kennebec Valley, we have frequent reason to praise those old folks Who
\nhad the good sense to set down precious recollections in writing before they
\npassed to the Great Beyond. One such treasury of recollections was published
\nin the weekly waterville Sentinel of February 16, 1888, when Isaiah Marston,
\nthen 84 years old, told What Waterville was like in 1834. That was when the
\ntown itself was only 32 years old. Waterville College (now Colby) had grad,.. .
\nuated its first class only 12 years earlier. Maine had been a state only 20
\nyears. Andrew Jackson was President of the nation.
\nLet us see What Mr. Marston, himself born in Waterville in 1806, had to
\nsay about our town as he remembered it in 1834. It was in that year that, as
\none of the selectmen, Mr. Marston helped layout Pleasant Street, from Mill
\nStreet (now Western Avenue) to what is now the railroad freight yard. He says
\nthere was then only one house on the street, which stood on the site now
\noccupied by the Richards house near the corner of Sheldon Place. In laying
\nout the street, they had to open a way through an ancient log fence, and
\nthey had to build other fences, because most of the land was pasture.
\nMr. Marston could remember When there was no dwelling house whatever
\non the Plains, and none south of Col. Sherwin’s on Sherwin Street. He could
\nrecall when the North Kennebec Cattle Show was held Where Center Street now
\nis, and present day people regard Center as avery old street. Mr. Marston
\n2-134
\ntells us that in 1835 a regimental muster was held west of Main Street,
\nopposite the Elmwood Hotel. In the eastern part of the muster field, the
\npart nearest Main Street, where the Thayer Hospital and several fine residences
\nnow stand, was a deep ravine.
\nBuilding lots went cheap in the old days. Elah Esty paid $25 for a big
\nlot at the corner of Silver and Mill Streets. Mr. Marston’s father paid
\n$800 in 1850 for several acres of land between Chaplin Street and what is
\nnow High Street. At that time the now thickly settled area along Ticonic
\nStreet had only one house. Mr. Marston says that at the end of the Civil War
\nthere was not a building on Boutelle or Morrill Avenues, and that he had a
\nChance to buy the big field where the high school now stands for $125 an acre.
\nRemember that Mr. Marston was born in 1806. So he was quite right when
\nhe told the Sentinel that he could remember when Waterville had no railroad,
\nno college, no newspaper, no factories, and only one church — the one built
\nby the town on the common, and only one cheap, little schoolhouse on the
\nsame lot. Mr. Marston proudly recalled that he went to Mr. Jewett’s singing
\nschool in that old schoolhouse in 1814.
\nIn 1888 the aged Mr. Marston had fond memories of the old days, but no
\nlonging to return to them. He was proud of Waterville’s growth and glad that
\nhe had lived to see his little town become a lively manufacturing city.
\n2-135
\nLITTLE TALKS ON COMMON THINGS
\n74th Broadcast June 25, 1950
\nNot all of the people who knew Waterville intimately a half century
\nago now live in this vicinity. It takes Franklin Johnson’s favorite club,
\nthe Colby Old Timers, to bring back to Waterville a lot of those fine people
\nwith memories of by-gone days in the Kennebec Valley. The Old Timers
\nconsist of Colby alumni who have been out of college fifty years or more.
\nThis year they gathered nearly fifty strong for their annual reunion in
\nconnection with the Colby Commencement. The new initiates in the club,
\nthe Class of 1900, provided the largest class group, with such well known
\npersons as Fred Lawrence of Portland, Frank Severy, oil field engineer of
\nCalifornia, and Charles Towne, long an administrator in the schools of Providence,
\nRhode Island.
\nThe graduate out of college the longest number of years was Robie Frye,
\nwho graduated from Colby 68 years ago in 1882. He looks and acts not more
\nthan 60 years of age, but next December Mr. Frye will celebrate his ninetieth
\nbirthday. He was glad to see Jim Connolly, the writer of sea stories,
\nhonored by Colby, because for many years Mr. Frye and Jim’s brother worked
\nside by side in the Boston Custom House.
\nRunning Mr. Frye a close second for honors was John Cummings of the
\nclass of 1884, who saw his 88th birthday last week. Mr. Cummings led a
\nlong and distinguished career as a Baptist missionary in Burma, spending many
\nyears in Karen country, where that first graduate of Colby, George Dana
\nBoardman, had preceded him 60 years before. In 1915 the King of England bestowed
\nupon Mr. Cummings the Kaiser-i-Hind medal for distinguished public
\nservice in Burma.
\nTwo Waterville residents represented the class of 1887 at the Old
\nTimers’ dinner: Harvey D. Eaton and Joel Larrabee. The latter is looked
\nupon as a mere youngster among the Old Timers, because he will be only 85
\nnext November. Younger still is Bert Drummond, who represented the class of
\n1888. Bert won’t be 85 until next May.
\nSorely missed were two old Waterville boys of the class of 1889,
\nCharles Hovey Pepper and Edward F. Stevens. Present at many Colby Cummencements
\nand always together, these two devoted sons of Waterville and of Colby
\ncould not attend this year. Pepper was born in Waterville in 1864, the
\nson of Colby’s Civil War president, George Dana Boardman Pepper. After
\ngraduating from the college, Charles studied art in Paris, Berlin and
\nVienna, traveled throughout the Orient, became an expert on Japane\u00b7se
\nprints, and was a portrait artist of repute. HeP?inted the portrait of
\nArthur J. Roberts, which hangs at the head of the main staircase in the
\nRoberts Union on Mayflower Hill.
\nStevens, though born in Burma, spent many years in waterville. He became
\nthe illustrious head of the Library School at Pratt Institute and a national
\nauthority on printing and binding of fine books.
\nThe Old Timers were delighted to have brought to their attention some
\nitems from the Waterville Weekly Sentinel, published during the months of
\nJanuary and February, 1888. They remembered well the names of the merchants
\nwhose ads then appeared, the Waterville citizens whose names then made news,
\nand especially the college happenings which were recorded in a weekly column
\nheaded “The Bricks”.
\nThe big news at the college was Charles Pepper’s departure for a trip
\nto Europe for his health. It proved to be the beginning of a career in art,
\nnot merely a regaining of such health that Mr. Pepper still lives today. But
\nwhen he left Waterville on January 19, 1888 to take a transatlantic boat
\n2-137
\nfrom Boston, none of his college mates knew that a future prominent artist
\nwas given a send-off. A few days before his departure all of his classmates
\nand a few other friends gathered at his home for a farewell party. They
\nhanded him a package of letters, with the date when to be opened written
\non the outside of each, so that he would have a new letter to read each day
\nof his voyage across the Atlantic. On the day of his departure all members
\nof his class were at the railroad station, and sent him on his way with class
\nand college yells. Probably they sang the old song “Phi\u00b7 Chi”; as they did on
\nmost occasions. Never have I heard Phi Chi more lustily sung than it was by
\nthat group of Old Timers at their 1950 reunion, led by that old-time glee
\nclub chorister, Franklin Johnson.
\nIt is a pity that modern Colby students don’t know the resounding, marching
\nwords of Phi Chi. The song was still very much in vogue during my own
\nstudent days from 1909 to 1913, but when I returned to take up residence in
\nwaterville in 1923 it had disappeared. What put Phi Chi out of existence?
\nWas it one of the casualties of the First World War? Who knows?
\nThose Colby Old Timers were indeed interested in some of the old news
\nitems about Waterville, not merely about Colby. Here are a few of the items
\nthat appeared in that winter of 1888.
\n“The Salvation Army have received an addition to their band in the shape
\nof a powerful, if not very accomplished, cornetist.”
\n“A Leap Year skate was held at the ice rink last Tuesday. Gentlemen
\nwere appropriately escorted by their lady friends. A band furnished music,
\nand no accidents have been reported.”
\n“Agents of the Horsford’ s Bread preparation have been in town giving
\nexhibitions of the excellence of that article in the manufacture of different
\nkinds of bread and pastry. At Lane and Walls’ and L. W. Rogers’ stores
\nthey have turned out delicious griddle cakes and hot biscuits for the benefit
\n2-138
\nof the public, thereby giving any hungry man an excellent opportunity to
\nprocure a square meal gratis.”
\n“W. H. Dow’s horse, hitched in front of Perkins’ store last evening,
\nbecame frightened at children passing with sleds and started ahead, colliding
\nwith the hitching post. The shafts and harness were broken and the
\nhorse, thus freed, took to the sidewalk on the opposite side of the street
\nand perambulated on his way, pedestrians respectfully moving aside for his
\nbenefit.”
\nRunaways were frequent occurrences on Waterville streets that winter
\nof 1888. The next week after the item about Dow’s runaway horse, the Sentinel
\nprinted the following: “A runaway stirred up things for a few minutes
\nTUesday afternoon. Allie Moore was trying out the paces of one of Charles
\nHill’s horses down the tempting smoothness of Main Street, and as he was
\nscooting along at a 2:30 clip by the Arnold block, his sleigh struck the
\nsled of John Britt standing there. In a twinkling the sleigh was demoralized,
\nas were also the trousers of the driver.”
\nThen for the third successive week the Sentinel came up with another
\nrunaway item: “Runaways are vary numerous but none the less very exciting.
\nA horse belonging to Prunella Jones, left standing in front of the Plaisted
\nBlock, started and tore down Main Street Saturday afternoon, causing a general
\nstampede. The pung attached to him collided with a stone post in front
\nof Redington’s and came to grief. The horse continued his mad career, frightening
\nWilliam Barton’s horse, which also started down Water Street but was
\nstopped without damage. The Jones horse then jumped over the fence surrounding
\nthe lot where the old Continental Hotel formerly stood, jumped back again
\nand fell on the sidewalk in front of Dunn Block, where he was finally subdued
\nafter making things very lively for a few minutes.”
\n**.***
\n2-139
\nBy the way, was Waterville’s Main Street ever properly spelled
\n“M A I N E”? The spelling in those 1888 issues of the Sentinel is not uniform.
\nOn about half of the items it is Main Street, the way it is spelled
\nfor most of such streets allover the united States. But in the other half
\nof those numerous 1888 items, it is Maine Street, with an lie”. Which
\nspelling was then correct? Did the editor have good reason sometimes to
\nwrite M a i n e?
\nSo far as we know there is only one M a i n e Street in this state. That
\nis the principal street in Brunswick, which is properly and officially
\nspelled M a i n e.
\n*****
\nMany Maine towns have streets named for towns to which the street leads
\nor toward which it goes. Augusta thus has Bangor Street; my horne town of
\nBridgton has Portland Street; Portland itself has Deering Avenue; Lewiston
\nhas both Sabattus Street and Lisbon Street. Waterville has Oakland Street,
\nbut it led to the Fair Grounds, not to Oakland. The way to that town, formerly
\nWest Waterville, is of course an entirely different thoroughfare, the
\nOakland Road.
\n*****
\nLast week we asked the question, “What is a thorough stay?” Well, here
\nis the answer. A thorough stay is a round piece of hard wood about three feet
\nlong, used in the old lumbering days to fasten together the long ,soft wood
\nlogs of a boom. One of these, water logged and embedded in the bottom of the
\nlake, was recently dug out near the old landing at Chamberlain Lake and
\nbrought back to waterville by my neighbor, who made that thrilling flight
\nover the north woods by air.
\nIn the old days iron or steel chains were scarce and eXPensive. These
\n2-140
\npieces of hard wood were fastened to the. logs instead, and they are said
\nto have held the booms just as fast as the big chains now do.
\n*****
\nWe have talked so much in recent weeks about things of the long ago that
\nit is time we reminded ourselves that life is filled with common things today.
\nOne of those common things — a common experience of most of us — is
\nat sometime in life to lose your pocket book. According to the June issue\u00b7
\nof Kys-Items, the plant publication of the Keyes Fibre Company, a most unusual
\nvariation of that experience happened a few weeks ago to Randy Getchell,
\na grinder man at the Shawmut Mill of Keyes Fibre. Mr. Getchell and his wire
\nwent fishing at a spot off the Unity Road, and before they set out, Mr. Getchell
\ncommitted his wallet to his wife for safekeeping. They had to go through
\na cow pasture and crawl through a fence to get to the pond. When they
\narrived, Mrs. Getchell found that the wallet was missing. On the way back
\nthey made a thorough search, and near the fence through which they had crawled
\nthey found — No, they \u00b7didn It find the wallet. But there on the ground
\nwas the change, the zipper that closed the wallet, and a tiny scrap of leather.
\nThe rest of the wallet and its paper contents, including currency and
\nthree U. S. savings Bonds, were gone. Watching them nearby was a soulfullooking
\ncow contentedly chewing her cud. All she had left the Getchells were
\nthe metal scraps from her unorthodox dinner.
\n*****
\nMost of you know that Maine was once a banner ship-building state. Even
\nin our own day we are proud of the enviable record made by the Bath Iron
\nWorks and their ship yards during two World Wars. But a hundred years ago
\nMaine really built ships. Here is the record for the year 1854 — ninety-six
\nyears ago. _ Bath then led the state with 93 launchings in that one year.
\nWaldoboro came next with 89. Belfast had 49, Eastport 41, and Portland 40.
\n2-141
\nThirty-six ships first touched the water at Ellsworth, 31 at Machias, 26 at
\nCastine, 16 at Wiscasset, 12 at Kennebunkport, six at York and Kittery and
\ntwo at Saco. That makes a .total of 468 ships launched in Maine in 1854.
\nThat is more ships than were put to sea between 1789 and 1847 bY all the
\nstates of the Union in those 58 years all put together, and more ships than
\nwere built in anyone year in the Whole British Isles.
\nDo some of the oThissions surprise you? They do me. There is no mention
\nof Freeport or South Freeport, Whose yards I supposed were booming at that
\ntime. Apparently no ships were launched at South Thomaston, which had a very’
\nfamous yard. And what happened to the big yard at Harpswell, celebrated in
\nthe novels of Elijah Kellogg?
\n*****
\nThis is our last broadcast of the season. During the summer we shall
\ngive you a rest from these old time things. But on September 17 we shall be
\nback on the air again. Right now we want to express our gratitude to the many
\nlisteners Who have provided material for this program. You have made it your
\nprogram, not mine. Without you to provide the grist, the mill could not
\ngrind. As you go on digging up the old newspapers, old account books, old
\nrecords and old letters, I think we can learn together that there is much
\nto give us pride in the Kennebec Valley heritage.
\nIf the revival of these old-time incidents and legends has any value
\nat all, it is in their challenge to the present generation to make this valley
\nin the last half of the 20th century the same kind of bulwark of freedom,
\nenterprise and neighborly kindness that the settlers around Fort Halifax made
\nit two centuries ago.
\nAnd so we say Good~By until September.
\n2-142
\nLITTLE TALKS ON COMMON THINGS
\n75th Broadcast September 17, 1950
\nHere we are again, beginning another season of these talks on common
\nthings, that have somehow, unintentionally but irresistably, become talks
\non old-time things. We make no promises about the content of this season’s
\ntalks. Just as we have done in the past, we shall let you listeners pretty
\nmuch decide. It is you who have made :the continuance of these programs possible.
\nIt is you who have furnished material, corrected our mistakes, given
\nus valuable pointers. We are grateful to you, and both your broadcaster and
\nthe Keyes Fibre Company want this to continue to be your program, not ours.
\nYou hear quite enough about war on the newscasts and from the commentators.
\nYet on this program we cannot ignore it altogether. Of all common
\nthings, what a tragedy it is that one of the commonest is war. It is now
\nso common that we can’t even wait for a new generation, but the same boys
\nmust twice endure the horrors of modern combat. Every sensible person knows
\nthere ought to be some way to avoid this savagery. We cannot believe that
\nthe common people of Russia want war any more than do the common people of
\nAmerica. Yet the governments of nations, blind leaders of the blind, keep
\non killing not merely boys in unifonn, but women and children behind the
\nlines. In our time no war, however necessary and however provoked, is good.
\nWhen will we finally get it into our heads that war itself is evil that
\nnot the immediate enemy alone needs to be conquered, but the institution of
\nwar itself.
\nWhat a mad world this is! Only a few years ago we were loudly praising
\nour Russian allies who fought so bravely at Stalingrad. And how we hated the
\ninhuman brutality of the savage little yellow men of Japan. That was less
\nthan ten years ago. Now look at us. As we approach a third world war, see
\n2-143
\nwhom we number among our allies: Japan and Spain. Those we called savage
\nlittle yellow men have suddenly become good boys, and our great democracy
\nmakes a diplomatic bed-fellow out of the fascist dictatorship of Franco’s
\nSpain.
\nIf any of you understand all this, I wish you would tell me about it.
\nIs there no such thing as consistency in government? Does democracy mean
\none thing in 1940 and something else in 1950? Frankly, I don’t know. What
\nI do know is that our boys are dying on the battlefield, and I hope with
\nall my heart that God will show us a way to stop that slaughter soon.
\n*****
\nHaving gotten that off our chest, let’s get back to some of the things
\nwe were talking about last spring. You will perhaps recall that one of our
\nlast programs referred to that unique railroad, built far in the wilderness
\nof Maine’s northern lakes — a railroad that few Maine people have ever seen.
\nWe asked for more information about it, and listeners have kindly responded.
\nMaurice Coughlin of Oakland has loaned us a copy of the Northern for
\nNovember, 1926. That is the magazine published by the Social Service Division
\nof the Great Northern Paper Company. In the issue of November, 1926 the
\nleading article is entitled, “Another Advance Step in Woods Transportation.
\nThe Great Northern Paper Company Builds a Railroad from Eagle Lake to Chesuncook
\nLake. II
\nThis article describes how the road was built and names many men who
\nhad a leading part in its construction. It gives due credit to that modern
\nPaul Bunyan of the Maine and Canadian woods, Edward LaCroix. But the article
\nfails to answer the question I asked last spring; namely, how did they get
\nthose heavy locomotives in from the regular railhead to the lakes? All we
\nare told is (and I quote): “All of the material for the ChesutAcook end of
\nthe road arrived at Greenville and its conveyance from that point to the
\n2-144
\nterminal was a job in itself. On the road special equipment for handling it
\nwas sometimes needed, as for instance the large eight-wheel trailer which
\nwas used to move the locomotive.” That doesn’t tell us very much.
\nNOW, thanks to one of our Waterville listeners, Raymond Vigue of Water
\nstreet, we have not only the answer to how they moved the locomotives, but
\nmany other details not included in the magazine article.
\nMr. Vigue shows that an important factor in the story of this unique
\nrailroad is the private highway leading from the Canadian boundary at Lac
\nFrontiere to Churchill Dam, or to what is more correctly called Churchill
\nDepot Camp. That road, extending 45 miles through the Maine wilderness, is
\nfamiliar to many Maine fishermen and to others who have taken the famous Allagash
\ntrip. I have never been over the road, but I came very near travelling
\nit in 1941. My son was then, for the fourth time, taking the Allagash trip
\nwith a single companion, who was a good canoeist, but who had no experience
\nwith Maine waters. As usual my son planned to start the trip at Caucmogomac
\nLake, make the long carry into Allagash Lake, down the stream into Chamberlain
\nLake, through Indian Pond into Eagle Lake, then through Churchill Lake into
\nthe Allagash.
\nDo you remember how dry it was in 1941? Every Maine lake revealed rocks
\nand shallows never before seen. Could these two canoeists get beyond the dam
\nat Churchill Lake? Was there enough water to get them on down the Allagash?
\nIf there was, I would meet them at Fort Kent. If not, I must make the 200
\nmile drive to Lac Frontiere, obtain the necessary permit to use the private
\nroad, then travel those long, lonesome 45 miles to Churchill Dam.
\nBelieve me, that summer I had reason to be grateful to Patrolman Thibodeau
\nof the Waterville police. I was worried lest a message sent me by my
\nson should fail to reach me, and that I should arrive at Fort Kent only to
\nfind that I must now travel nearly 500 miles to get to Churchill Dam.
\n2-145
\nPatrolman Thibodeau solved my problem. He asked me to come to his house
\nwhen he was off duty, and from there he called his brother, who was fire
\nwarden at Churchill Dam. What a relief when the brother said: “Those two
\nboys went through day before yesterday. By this time they are half way
\ndown the Allagash.” So I drove to Fort Kent where those two boys met me on
\nthe dot.
\nI have told this incident at length, in diversion from our main story
\nabout the railroad, in order that you may comprehend the size of the Maine
\nWilderness, and the immense distances that must be traveled to reach points
\nnot far apart, as the crow flies.
\nWhat started us off on this diversion was the 45 mile road from Lac
\nFrontiere to Churchill Dam. The first sixteen miles of that road, to the
\npoint where it crosses the st. John River, were built in 1924, and during the
\nthe next two years the remaining 29 miles were completed.
\nThe man whom we have called the Paul Bunyan of the Maine woods, Edward
\nLacroix, is of course a Canadian citizen, from St. George, Quebec. In the
\nearly 1920’s Mr. Lacroix owned an extensive tract of timberland in Aroostook
\nand Piscataquis Counties. So extensive was this tract that it covered many
\nentire townships. It was in what is commonly called the Allagash Country,
\none of the wildest and most remote, uninhabited sections of the whole United
\nstates. It was covered with forests of virgin spruce and pine.
\nWhen Mr. Lacroix started lumbering in this region he confronted a major
\nproblem. How would he get the long logs and pulpwood from the Allagash-St.
\nJohn watershed to waters which emptied the other way into the Penobscot? Lacroix
\nand his associates hit upon a private railway system, isolated and completely
\ndisconnected from any regular railroad. The main line was 16 miles
\nlong, connecting Eagle and Chesuncook Lakes. Construction was started in 1926
\nand finished in the fall of 1928. That was before the day of the gigantic,
\n2-146
\nmodern bulldozer, and the clearing, grading, and rail laying was all done
\nby men and teams. Many trestles had to be built, the longest being a wooden
\nstructure of 1,700 feet across the tip of Chamberlain Lake. In addition to
\nits four rock piers, its supports were huge spruce logs, driven into the mud
\nof the lake bottom. Mr. Vigue tells us that tree-length logs with butt diameter
\nof nearly two feet were driven sometimes as deep as 40 feet before
\nsolid bottom was reached. The cross ties and supporting beams were axe-hewn
\ntimbers cut near by.
\nRolli~g stock, says Mr. Vigue, consisted of four locomotives, all of
\nwhiCh were converted from coal to fuel oil. Remember this was in 1928, long
\nbefore the coming of the Diesels or any general use of oil-burning engines.
\nFire from locomotive sparks was a real hazard, and everything possible had
\nto be done to prevent it. So, ‘far ahead of his time, Mr. Lacroix converted
\nthe locomotive coal tenders to fuel oil tanks. The two main-line locomotives
\nweighed 75 tons and 100 tons. The larger had formerly been the property of
\nthe New York Central, and the smaller came from the Quebec Central. The other
\ntwo engines were much smaller about 20 tons each — and were powered by
\ngasoline engines. They were used only as switching engines, one located at
\neach end of the ma1nline.
\nA total of 45 pulpwood cars of standard size transported the 4-foot
\npulpwood. They were equipped with rack bodies, the sides of which swung open
\nat the bottom to speed up unloading.
\nWell, it’s about time we answered that question of how this heavy rolling
\nstock, especially the locomotives, was brought in to the terminal. Remember
\nthe nearest regular line railroad was fifty miles away. Here is Mr.
\nVigue’s explanation.
\nThe locomotives and cars were dismantled at Lac Frontiere, and were reassembled
\nat the new railhead at Eagle Lake. Special sleds, designed for
\n2-147
\nheavy loads, were built to carry the truck Wheels, frames, boilers, and tenders,
\nas well as the many tons of steel rails.
\nHow were these sleds hauled? Without the genius of a Waterville inventor
\nthe job could not have been done. The Lombard log-hauler provided
\nthe indispensible traction. It was those Lombard tractors that hauled the
\nsled trains carrying the dismantled parts of Mr. Lacroix’s locomotives.
\nBecause the hauling was done in winter, the St. John could be crossed
\non the ice. But sometimes the heavy loads broke through, causing damage and
\nloss. But it was not until 1931, three years after his railroad had been
\ncompleted, that Mr. Lacroix bought the steel bridge Which spanned the Chaudiere
\nat St. George, Quebec, moved it in small sections to the st. John, and
\nthere reassembled it to connect the two sections of his highway from Lac
\nFrontiere to Churchill Dam. That bridge, 400 feet long and 9 feet wide,
\nstanding fifty feet above the water still does service today.
\nGetting in the steel rails was no small job of itself. There were 6,500
\nof them, 30 feet long and weighing 1,800 pounds a piece.
\nThat little road was a part of the gigantic operations carried on by Mr.
\nLacroix in the AllagaSh region during the decade before the Second World War.
\nAt one time 4,000 men were on his payroll in the Churchill-Chesuncook area,
\nand he used 780 horses in his peak season of 1929. Fifty cooks prepared
\nfood in the widely scattered camps. Tote teams hauled supplies day and night,
\nseveral of them hauling only fodder for the horses. Butter, eggs, pork,
\nbeans, and other foods were bought in carload lots at Chicago and shipped
\ndirect to Lac Frontiere.
\nAlthough pulpwood was the principal product, and most of it went over
\nthe new railroad into Penobscot waters, the long log operations were still
\namong the largest in the country. The annual average of long logs was 25
\nmillion feet, and in one year the cut exceeded 40 million feet. These all
\n2-148
\nwent down the AllagaSh and St. John Rivers to the Lacroix mills at Keegan,
\nMaine, over 200 miles away. In twelve years the total drive from the Allagash
\nforest to Keegan was over 2! billion feet.
\nSuch is the story — or rather only part of the story — of the unique
\nrailroad in the Maine wilderness. And I know of no better way to close the
\nnarrative than to tell of Mr. Lacroix’s tribute to a Waterville man. Mr. Lacroix
\nhas often said that without the Lombard Traction Engine, his railroad
\ncould not have been- built. “It never occurred to me that the project was
\nfeasible”, he said, “until I saw those huge tractors prove their worth under
\npractically impossible conditions.”
\n2-149
\nLITTLE TALKS ON COMMON THINGS
\n76th Broadcast September 24, 1950
\nWhen our broadcasting season closed last spring we had left unanswered
\nthe question about Ten Lots. What is the story of that settlement? How did :it
\nget its name? How did it happen to play a prominent part in the early history
\nof Waterville?
\nGathering the” exact facts about that interesting settlement has not
\nbeen easy. Mr. H. F. Sturtevant, descendant of the most prominent of the early
\nsettlers, has been most helpful, putting me in touch with several persons
\nwho have documentary information to support their own memories.
\nIn a short article in the Portland Sunday Telegram of August 13, 1950
\n(this year) the reporter states: “The community of Ten Lots was settled in
\n1784 When a colony of Quakers contracted with the Plymouth Colony of Massachusetts
\nfor an 8,000 acre tract of land to be located by their agent. The agent,
\nElihu Bowman, surveyed and charted the tract. Then the Quakers came. There
\nwere only three families settled there at the time. Later ten other families
\nmade application to the colony, and another grant of 2,000 acres was procured.
\nThis has been known ever since as Ten Lots.”
\nNow none of my sources — and I think they go back pretty accurately to
\nthe old settlers say anything about Quakers. It is, of course, possible
\nthat one or two Quaker families had preceded the official Ten Lot settlers,
\nand did live somewhere in the vicinity. But if that is true, Rufus Jones
\nought to have heard about it. In 1892,\u00b7 when Kingsbury produced his History of
\nKennebec County, he asked the young principal of Oak Grove Seminary to write
\na chapter on the Society of Friends. That young principal was the man destined
\nto become the greatest Quaker of our times, Rufus Jones. In careful detail
\nhe wrote for Kingsbury I s history the story of Quaker settlements and the
\n2-150
\nestablishment of Friends’ meetings in Kennebec County. He makes no mention
\nof Ten Lots. When we recognize the care with which Dr. Jones always assembled
\nhis historical data, that silence is significant. Of course, Ten Lots
\nis now in Somerset County, but that was not true when the settlement was
\nmade.
\nMrs. Electa Mitchell of Oakland, though now entirely without her eyesight,
\nhas gone to the trouble of typing me an account of Ten Lots, which
\nshe obtained many years ago from Mrs. Alice Gilman, a descendent of the same
\nLot Sturtevant who was H. F. Sturtevant’s ancestor.
\nAs Mrs. Gilman told the story\u00b7 to Mrs. Mitchell, Lot Sturtevant was a
\nRevolutionary soldier. “After receiving his discharge from the army, he came
\nto Maine with two other young men. They came up the Kennebec River by canoe.
\nWhen they reached the mouth of the Messalonskee Stream, they decided it
\nwould be interesting to follow it. They were looking for good corn land,
\nand held the belief, common in those days, that reddish rocks indicated good\u00b7
\nsoil for corn. Along the shore, near what is now Ten Lots, they found such
\nrocks. Moreover the land sloped to the east. Here was the place to settle.”
\nInteresting as is the account attributed to Mrs. Gilman, it is at variance
\nwith the documentary evidence. The best of that evidence is a paper
\nread before the Pine Tree Club of Watertown, Massachusetts, in 1896 by Martha
\nSturtevant Coolidge, grandaughter of Lot Sturtevan~. For the principal facts
\nin this paper I am endebted to Mrs. E. P. Chaney of Freeport, grand niece of
\nMrs. Coolidge.
\nMrs. Coolidge wrote this paper when she was 76 years old, and of course
\nit is possible that some of the facts originally told her by her grandfather
\nand other elderly neighbors had been dimmed by the years \u2022. At. any rate she
\ntold a different story from Mrs. Gilman’s. Her grandfather, she says, joined
\nthe Continental Army in 1776, when he was only 16 years old. His father and
\n2-151
\ntwo older brothers also fought in the Revolution. Lot w~s honorably discharged
\nfrom the army in 1780. He and nine other men secured a grant from the
\nproprietors of the Kennebec Purchase. Probably this was one of those Revolutionary
\ngrants common at the time. There was very little
\nthe soldiers, but there was plenty of land.
\ncash to pay
\nSo Lot S~urtevant and his nine companions came to Maine to take up their
\nclaim. They came, of course, by boat along the coast to the mouth of the
\nKennebec, then up the river to the head of navigation at Ticonic Falls. They
\nprobably spent several days in the town of Winslow, which had sprung up not
\nonly around Fort Halifax, but across the river as well.
\nMrs. Coolidge says, “They penetrated the woods and about five miles west
\nof the river found a stretch of country with an immense growth of hard wood.
\nThey chose it for their own and pitched their tents, all ten adjoining one
\nanother. From the beginning the ten adjoining tracts of land were called Ten
\nLots.”
\nNow in respect to the way these settlers penetrated the woods, Mrs. Gilman
\nmay be right. Mrs. Coolidge implies, but does not state, that they went
\non foot. It is more likely that they went by canoe up the Messalonskee to the
\nvicinity of Rice’s Rips. But it is not likely that they picked a settlement
\nbecause of reddish rocks. They were taking up land already surveyed with lots
\nalready charted.
\nHaving found the place, Lot Sturtevant and his nine companions built log
\ncabins, planted corn and flax, and one after another returned to Massachusetts
\nto marry and bring back the girls who had been waiting for them.
\nThe names of Lot’s nine companions were apparently unknown to Mrs. Coolidge,
\nbut there must be some record about them. Mrs. Chaney, my Freeport
\ncorrespondent, says she had long been convinced that one of Lot’s brothers
\nwas one of the ten. She says that when she was a small child and stayed with
\n2-152
\nher grandmother at Ten Lots, nearly every house was owned by a sturtevant.
\nYet a good many years had already gone by since the original settlement, and\u00b7
\nthe descendents of Lot’s eight children would fill many houses. Lot’s son,
\nReward Sturtevant, had eleven children, among them the Mrs. Coolidge who
\nwrote the 1896 paper. Another of ReWard’s children was Mrs. Chaney’s grandfather,
\nReward Augustus Sturtevant, who brought his bride to Ten Lots in 1866.
\nI am sure my listeners all know that the great benefactor of Oakland
\nwas Milton LaForest Williams. It was he who built the lovely little chapel
\nat Ten Lots in memory of his grandfather, Asa Bates. Was a Bates one of the
\nten original settlers, or did that family come later?
\nMrs. Chaney\u00b7 tells an interesting story about Mr. Williams’ first trip
\nto New York. Determined to go there, he was trying to raise the money. He
\napproached Reward Sturtevant, Mrs. Chaney’s grandfather, who paid him $13 for
\na few sheep. As all Oakland knows, Mr. Williams made a fortune in New York.
\nHe not only gave Oakland a high school and Ten Lots a chapel, but he remembered
\nthe old friends and neighbors at Ten Lots. To Reward Sturtevant he gave
\na thousand dollars for every dollar Mr. Sturtevant had paid him for the sheep,
\na splendid gift of $13,000, coming to Mrs. Chaney’s aged grandfather just
\nbefore his death in 1919, When he was 90 years old.
\nThe original chapel is said to have been built at Ten Lots in 1836. It
\nwas from the first a union church, but its association with the Baptists was
\nvery close. As one of the tablets on the front of the chapel testifies, Samuel
\nFrancis Smith, author of America, was its early minister. Smith had become
\npastor of the First Baptist Church in Waterville and Professor of Modern
\nLanguages at Colby in 1834. Like most of those early pastors, he ministered
\nto more than one church, and from 1838 to 1842 he regularly preached at Ten
\nLots as well as at his principal church in Waterville.
\nVital interest in religion at Ten Lots had long preceded the building of
\n2-153
\nthe 1836 chapel. The old records of Waterville’s First Baptist Church, to
\nwhich I have had frequent access, make that point clear. In that church’s
\nthird pastorate, that of Rev. Harvey Fitts in 1830, ten persons from Ten
\nLots united with the Waterville church, seven of them being members of the
\nBates family. Of this incident, Mrs. Minnie Philbrick, the church historian,
\nwriting a hundred years later said: “In 1830 a revival sprang up, beginning
\nas has many another at Ten Lots. These new members formed a strong corps
\nof helpers, and their relatives and descendents are still in our church and
\nhold the same high ideals as those who first came to us in 1830.”
\nIn his “Personal Recollections”, written when he was a very old man in
\n1890, Samuel Francis Smith said: “I found my congregation at Waterville somewhat
\npeculiar, being made up of three elements — the college, the village
\npeople, and the families from the farms in different directions for five
\nmiles. In 1838 there was a season of deep religious interest which had its
\norigin in the families at Ten Lots and thence extended to other parts of the
\ntown. The singing of familiar hymns had a large place in the social services,
\nespecially at Ten Lots. There was no visible excitement and no sensational
\ndisclosures. The spirit spoke with still small voice, and human hearts listened
\nand obeyed.”
\nI’m sure this isn’t the last we shall hear about Ten Lots. There is much
\nmore than the names of Lot Sturtevant’s nine companions still to be learned.
\nWho will help us?
\n*****
\nWe have just a few minutes left to turn to a contemporary subject. In
\nthese very troublous times, when the cold war of diplomacy and economics has
\nturned to the hot zing of bullets and the crash of bombs, it is well for us
\nto reflect how the Russian government has maneuvered this situation so that
\nnot a single Russian soldier faces our troops in Korea. That is the Russian
\n2-154
\nstrategy — to take over, by native communist domination the government of
\none nation after another. Then, when a situation like that in Korea forces
\nu. N. intervention, it is the natives, not the Russians, who fight the u. N.
\nforces.
\nSo, just for a moment, notice how Stalin and his Kremlin company proceed
\nto take over a country. Let us look at Rumania. In 1940 Rumania with a population
\n6f 16 million had less than a thousand Communists. In 1945 Soviet
\ntroops occupied Rumania and forced King Michael to name a Communist stooge,
\nPeter Groza, as prime minister. By 1946 the Communist government had broken.
\nup the big estates, given land to the peasants and increased wages; had, in
\nshort, made their usual bid for popularity. Opposition parties were still
\ntolerated. But in 1946 all voters were ordered to approve a single slate of
\ncandidates picked by the Communists. Russian managers now ran Rumania’s industries.
\nIn 1947 the Communist government adopted another well known Russian
\ndevice — they put on a nation-wide purge of non-Communist leaders,
\njailing thousands and executing more than a hundred. King Michae~ was forced
\nto abdicate.
\nIn 1948 the Rumanian parliament, without debate, approved by 414 votes
\nto none, the new Rumanian constitution. Under it, Stalin’s friend, Mrs. Aria
\npauker, got full power. In 1949 Moscow ordered a Rumanian party purge, ousting
\nall who deviated from the party line. Leaders of the church were especially
\npersecuted. Rumania’s entire economy was now run from Moscow.
\nIn this autumn of 1950 what is the situation? All opposition to Moscow’s
\nwill has disappeared. Rumania can at any time be incorporated into the Soviet
\nunion by a mere telephone call from Moscow.
\nThat is quite a story of ten short years. In 1940 less than a thousand
\nCommunists in Rumania; in 1950 completely Communist, and, what is more,
\n2-155
\ncomplete Russian domination of the country. That, my friends, is the way
\nJoe Stalin takes over a nation in these very troublous times.
\n2-156
\nLITTLE TALKS ON COMMON THINGS
\n77th Broadcast October 1, 1950
\nThis year of 1950 marks the one hundredth anniversary of a well known
\nWaterville store. In the hundred years that store has changed hands several
\ntimes, but it has always been a drug store. I refer to Dexter’s Drug Store
\non Main Street, known for many years as Allen’s Drug Atore, and earlier still
\nby the names of other proprietors.
\nThe store was started in 1850 by William Dyer, and Mr. Dexter has kindly
\nlet me examine the first prescription book. Unfortunately Prescription No.
\n1 is not dated, nor is No.2, but No. 3 was made out for John Richards on
\nMay 22, 1850; so presumably the store was opened in May of that year. Most of
\n.the prescriptions bear the name of the person to whom delivered, often written
\nin pencil at the bottom of the document, but none of the first ten are
\nsigned by a physician or even bear a doctor’s name. On Prescription No. 11
\nappears the name “Dr. Boutelle” in different handwriting from the prescription
\nitself. This physician was the son of Waterville’s leading citizen of the
\ntime, Squire Timothy:.;Boutelle.
\nMany prescriptions in 1851 and 1852 bear the name of Dr. J. F. Noyes, who
\nhad opened his medical practice in Waterville in 1849. Almost as frequent is
\nthe name of Dr. Joseph Potter. It was with him that Dr. V. P. Coolidge, the
\nnotorious Waterville murderer, at one time studied medicine. Other doctors
\nWhose names occasionally appear on the old prescriptions are Dr. Robert Davis,
\nDr. Nathan Pulsifer and Dr. Byron Porter, Who purchased and occupied the mansion
\non Silver Street Which had been built by Simeon Mathews, and Which in
\nlater years was the home of George Fred Terry.
\nIn the 1850’s prescriptions were apparently issued and filled rather
\ncasually. In those days death-dealing drugs could be bought freely and without
\n2-157
\nquestion. The druggist often issued prescriptions of his own. Dyer ,for
\ninstance, seems to have had his own remedy for whooping cough. The prescriptions
\nabound in opium, laudanum, and chloroform. Many contain more harmless
\nolive oil. Was that to assure getting some of the nauseous concoctions down? The
\ncommon herbs 1ike wintergreen, peppermint’and sassafras were used again and
\nagain. Of the chemicals potassium is mentioned most often. Camphor was a
\ncommon ingredient, as was also spirits of ammonia. That old favorite of my
\nchildhood, ipecac, was prescribed very frequently. Some of the drugs we encounter
\nrarely nowadays, but seen often in these old prescriptions, were
\naqua rosa (water of rose), nux vomica, pulverized aloes, gentian, and gum
\narabic. Surprising are the number of prescriptions which call for elixir of
\nvitriol. One interesting item calls for syrup of squills, wine, and tincture
\nof opium compound. In our boyhood we were familiar with ipecac and squills,
\nbut this is the first time we have seen squills without ipecac. This prescription
\nsounds like squills to strike at the disease, opium to deaden
\nthe pain, and wine to get it down.
\nAbout the Dexter Drug Store there is a more interesting item than that
\nit is a hundred years old. It is the oldest existing business building on Main
\nStreet. No less an authority than our IlII1ch revered citizen, Harvey Eaton,
\nis quoted as saying that , with the exception of the building in which the
\nDexter Drug Store is now located, he personally has seen erected every other
\nbuilding between the Lockwood Mills and the Elmwood Hotel. Since Mr. Eaton
\ncame to waterville in 1881, this means that no other building on the street
\nis more than 70 years old.
\nIn the original prescription book of the Dexter store the prescriptions
\nwere written on slips of paper about 4 x 2 inches in size and then pasted into
\nthe book. As was common in those days, a previously used book was the medium,
\nnot new white pages. And this old book over whose pages the prescriptions are
\n2-158
\npasted interests me very much, for just enough of those pages remain unpasted
\nand unmarred to reveal what it originally was. It was obvously the account
\nbook of the town liquor agent, who in the decade before Maine’s prohibition
\nlaw of 1851 was authorized to dispense wine and spirits.
\nWho were the liquor agent’s customers? One of the most frequent was
\nProfessor Loomis of Waterville College (now Colby) who won fame by identifying
\nthe poison in the stomach of the murdered Ed Mathews. In 1844 and 1845
\nProfessor Loomis bought rum by the half gallon, brandy by the quart, and gin
\nby the pint. On June 21, 1844 Professor Keeley bought40 cents worth of
\nbrandy. Dr. Nathaniel Boutelle was a frequent customer, as were also such
\nwell known worthies as Joshua Bates, Samuel Robinson and Ansel Shorey. On
\nJuly 27, 1844 the Congregational Society purchased one quart of wine, surely
\nfor sacramental purposes. Although the names of women purchasers do occur,
\nthey are more frequently covered by the one word “lady”. On a single page
\nthis word occurs three times, once for wine and twice for brandy.
\nBut of all the names in the liquor agent’s book those that interest me
\nmost are V. P. Coolidge, the murderer, and Edward Mathews, the murdered man,
\nof Waterville’s famous murder of 1847. Mathews’ name occurs just once, when
\nhe bought a quart of wine for 13 cents on February 17, 1844. But Dr. Coolidge
\nwas a frequent customer. Most of his purchases were wine, which he bought
\nmost often by the pint, but occasionally by the quart. In 1844 he bought a
\nquart of wine every month from May to October, with an occasional pint between
\ntimes. In November he paid 31 cents for a pint of brandy.
\n*****
\nI don’t pretend to know much about the war in Korea, and I can’t find
\nthat anyone knows with any accuracy what really got us into this situation.
\nIt is easy to cast blame according t~\u00b7one\u00b7s political leanings, and I for one
\ndeeply deplore the partisan politics on both sides that has been injected into
\n2-159
\nthe problem. For a serious international pcoblem it indeed is. Only one
\nthing seems to me clear — namely, the issue that has so strikingly divided
\nthe military from the state department. And that issue is whether, with all
\nour resources, we can effectively wage war on two sides of the world at the
\nsame time. Now five years after VJ Day of World War II, it is no secret that
\nour Pacific operations were long slowed up because of our commitments in
\nEurope.
\nIn a powerful article in his syndicated column on September 5 of this
\nyear, Walter Lippman pointed out that Gener~l Marshall, more than any other
\nliving man, faced the practical question daily of nourishing two wars simultaneously.
\nIn 1947, after the war. ‘was over, he made the crucial decision to
\nsave Europe by proposing what became the Marshall Plan and to give up Chiang
\nKai Shek by rejecting the Wedemeyer report. General Marshall, after a long,
\n,close, personal investigation of China, concluded that Chiang could not be
\nsaved except at the exhorbitant price of an American protectorate over China,
\nand American intervention in the Chinese Civil War. We could save Europe,
\nGeneral Marshall decided; only at great cost could we save China, and we
\ncould not possibly save both Europe and China. Mr. Lippman concludes in these
\nwords:
\n“This kind of choice always confronts us, with MacArthur and the military
\non one side and General Marshall’s successors in the state department on the
\nother side. It is a question that cannot be settled finally and absolutely.
\nWe have vital interests in both directions, and among reasonable and responsible
\nmen the question is not the one or the other, the Pacific or the Atlantic,
\nbut of priority at any given time and of calculated risk. We must continually
\nface the problem, for whether we like it or not, geography has made the
\nthe united States a continental island, facing Europe across the Atlantic and
\nAsia across the Pacific.”
\n2-160
\n*****
\nDid you ever have trouble with railroad freight? Well, they had trouble
\nin the early days of Maine railroads. In 1855 Editor Drew published the follow::
\ning in his Rural Intelligencer at Augusta:
\n“Last Saturday our friends Adams and Morrill of Westbrook sent us by
\nrailroad a’package containing two large grape vines, one twining honeysuckle,
\none Chinese wisteria, and a stalk of Egyptian corn. They reached us on the
\nfollowing Thursday, very well dried up, having evidently been exposed all the
\nweek to wind and sun, with a freight bill for us to pay for the care, or want
\nof it, which was taken to kill them.”
\nEditor Drew had other complaints. He objected to the spelling of our
\nstate name. He insisted it should be spelled M E Y N E, for that was the spelling
\nof the French province in Charles I’s time and is the spelling in the
\ncharter given to Fernando Gorges. Drew accepted the common interpretation
\nthat Charles I named this New England province for his queen, who came from
\nMeyne in France.
\nMainland.
\nThe prevailing opinion today is that it was simply the
\n*****
\nBefore the advent of standard time railroad passengers had a lot of
\ntrouble. Editor Drew commented: “The New York Central arranges its timetables
\naccording to the Albany meridian, and woe to ‘the-Buffalo or Rochester man Who
\nregulates his arrival at the depot by the sun in his own sky, as he will then
\nbe 12 or 15 minutes behind time.” The explanation of the editor’s comment is
\nthat each degree of longitude makes four minutes difference in time, and in
\nthose days every city in the country set its own local time by its own longitude.
\nAnother of Editor Drew’s complaints concerned a stray horse. He wrote:
\n“The person who turned his horse into our wheat field on Monday evening last,
\n2-161
\nwith a view to his filling himself during the night, is kindly informed that
\nthe next time he performs this neighborly office, he will find his horse in
\nthe city pound.”
\nMay 26, 1888 was an important day in the U. S. Postal Service. On that
\nday registered letters were first introduced, at a fee of 25 cents.
\nThe year 1888 was not only the year of the big blizzard; it also was
\nthe year of a big flood on the Kennebec. And most unusually, it came in
\nJune, long after the clogging ice had left the river. On June 10th it carried
\nout 130 feet of the Augusta dam, which had been built in 1835 at the
\nthen huge cost of $300,000. One newspaper said of it: “This dam is the
\nlargest in the state, in the nation,in the world, so wide is the Kennebec at
\nthis place, the whole waters of which are thus forced to create power for
\nthe use of man.” Repairs after the 1888 flood took all summer and cost
\n$30,000.
\nAugusta was originally called cushnoc, and after its creation as a separate
\ntown was named Harrington. Why was the name again changed? Because the
\nwise-cracking gentry of Hallowell, who deeply resented the building of the
\n1797 bridge at the Fort (now Augusta) rather than at the hook (Hallowell),
\nbegan at once to refer to the new town as Herring Town. That was more than
\nthe up-river folks could stand; so the name was changed to Augusta.
\n*****
\nNot long ago, in an old-time newspaper, I ran across the meaning of the
\nword refugee as it was used in Maine in the l850\u00b7s. It seems that most of the
\nTory families, which fled New England at the time of the Revolution, went for
\nrefuge to the neighboring province of Nova Scotia, which did not unite with the
\nthe other colonies for independence. Said this 1854 newspaper: “Those who
\nfled and their descendents we still call refugees. 11
\n***.**.
\n2-162
\nDo you want some home-made vinegar? Editor Drew told you how to make
\nit in 1855. Take three gallons of rain water, one quart of molasses and one
\npint of yeast. Mix and let it set. It will ferment and turn to vinegar in four
\nweeks. He claimed that was a quicker way than waiting for cider vinegar.
\n*****
\nLast winter you may recall that I had a good word for Nodhead apples. I
\nwas therefore delighted to run across a letter by John C. Jewett of Machiasport,
\nwritten to a Maine newspaper in 1856. This is what he wrote:
\n“The Nodhead apple had its origin in the orchard of my grandfather, Deacon
\nStephen Jewett of Hollis, New Hampshire. The name originated as follows:
\nAs the Rev. Dr. Cummings of Billerica, Masaachusetts, who was my grandfather’s
\nhalf-brother, was on a visit to grandfather’s farm, he was one day eating
\nsome of that new tree’s first fruit, accompanying each bite with a satisfied
\nnod of his head. My grandfather at once decided to call the apple the Nodhead.
\nI have heard my grandfather relate this circumstance so many times while I
\nlived with him from 1807 to 1813, that I have no doubt of its accuracy. When
\nI was last in Hollis in 1832, with feelings almost of reverence I visited that
\noriginal Nodhead tree, which then was showing signs of decrepit old age.”
\n*****
\nwell, I guess that’s enough for tonight. So we’ll say goodnight until
\nnext week and the Coolidge-Mathews murder case, which will then be our principal
\nsubject.
\n2-163
\nLITTLE TALKS ON COMMON THINGS
\n78th Broadcast October 8, 1950
\nIt was nearly two years ago When, one night on this program, I put in
\na good word for Maine farmers. Some of you will recall that I quoted Arthur
\nRoberts, the late President of Colby College, as once saying, “Farming in
\nMaine isn’t an occupation; it’s a misfortune.”
\nIn light of statements of that sort, it is interesting to note the figures
\nrecently released by the Maine Department of Agriculture. In 1949 the
\ncash receipts of Maine farmers totaled $180,944,000. And the cash receipts
\nby no means tell the whole story. For example, the Maine hay crop annually
\nbrings in only two million dollars in cash, but its value as harvested and
\nfed to the animals on Maine farms is twenty millions.
\nBy far the larger part of Maine farms are operated by the owners. Of
\nour 42,184 farms, only 1,337 are operated by tenants, only 211 by managers.
\nAbsentee owners therefore control only 3! per cent of the Maine farms.
\nMaine farmers cwn 15,000 tractors and 19,000 trucks. More than 30,000
\nMaine farms have electric distribution lines within a quarter of a mile, and
\n90 per cent of those farms use electricity.
\nWe often hear that Maine is too far from the markets to be an important
\nagricultural state. What is the fact? It is this: Two-thirds of the population
\nand three-fifths of the wealth of the entire North American continent
\nis within 500 miles of Maine.
\n*****
\nSo much for Maine farmers. The time has now come to keep our promise
\nto you patient listeners and turn to Waterville’s famous murder case of 1847.
\nWe are going to devote a portion of three consecutive programs to that murder,
\ntonight and the following two Sundays. Tonight we shall deal with the murder
\n2-164
\nitself, next Sunday we shall tell about the trial, and two weeks hence we
\nShall take up the most interesting feature of all, telling you What happened
\nafter the verdict was in.
\nWe referred briefly to the case on one of our broadcasts last spring.
\nSince that time we have learned a lot more about it. We have not been content
\nwith reports made long afterward, like the feature articles in the press
\nas recent as 1948. Not even the review of the case in the Waterville Mail in
\n1888 contented us. We just had to take time to seek out the contemporary accounts
\nin the newspapers of the time.
\nThe sheer mass of those newspaper stories astounded us. We have read
\nmore than 300 columns of print on that murder — accounts in the old Waterville
\nEvening Mail, in the Portland Argus, in the Northern Tribune of Bath,
\nin the Boston Gazette, and in other papers. And best of all, we have talked
\nwith and received invaluable assistance from the man Who probably knows more
\nthan any other living person about that old-time murder. He is Doane Eaton,
\nretired u. S. Army engineer, now living at Cornville, Maine. Mr. Eaton tells
\nme that he believes more than a thousand columns were printed in the contemporary
\npress about that murder. He knows that reporters came not only from
\nmost of the Maine papers and from Boston, but even from New York and Philadelphia.
\nThe railroad had just been completed from Portland to Augusta; it
\ndid not reach Waterville until two years later. When the murder trial was
\nheld in Augusta 102 years ago, the railroad dispatched a special train from
\nAugusta to Portland at th~ end of each day of the trial, to take the reporter’s
\nstories to the waiting newspapers.
\nNow let’s get down to the story. What happened to Shock not only Waterville,
\nbut the whole country on the evening of September 30, 1847? ValorUs
\nP. Coolidge was a young doctor, 26 years old, who had been practicing in Waterville
\nfor several years. He had learned the art under the tutelage of Dr.
\n2-165
\nPotter and had attended medical lectures in Philadelphia. He was born in
\nCanton, Maine, where his parents and at least one brother still lived in
\n1847. He was unmarried and boarded at the Williams House, pictures of
\nwhich may be seen at the Waterville Historical Society and on the wall of
\nthe Reference Room at the Waterville Public Library. His office was on the
\nsecond floor of No. 27 Main Street, in a building which stood where a
\npart of the present building of the Federal Trust Company now stands.
\nOn the morning of October 1, 1847 Dr. Coolidge, having gone out of town
\non a very early call, returned to find the town in an uproar. When he reached
\nthe Williams House, where he not only boarded, but also kept his horses,
\nhe immediately joined other Waterville physicians in an inspection of the
\nbody of a prominent young citizen. Let us see what the Waterville Mail of
\nOctober 7, 1847 had to say about what had happened:
\n“Between 7 and 8 o’clock on Friday evening last, the dead body of Mr.
\nEdward Mathews was found in the rear of Mr. shorey’s clothing store, Pray’s
\nBuilding, Main Street, under circumstances which indicated beyond question
\nthat he had been murdered and robbed. There were several severe wounds on the
\nhead, some marks of violence on the throat, and a cut across the thigh near
\nthe groin, apparently made in cutting open the pantaloons pocket.
\n“On inquiry it was ascertained that Mr. Mathews had about his person, at
\nnine o’clock the previous evening, $1,500 to $1,800 and a gold watch, for
\nwhich, no doubt, the murder was committed.
\n“A jury of inquest was summoned as soon as a coroner could be obtained
\nfrom a neighboring town, which has continued in session to the present time,
\nand may still sit for some days.
\n“We forbear, for the present, giving any of a thousand stories and surmises
\nwhich are afloat, or anything that has been developed, so far as have
\nbeen made public, before a jury. Strange facts are said to have been dis-
\n2-166
\nclosed, but under present circumstances we can rely upon nothing so far as
\nto make it public. No arrest has yet been made, though it need not be concealed
\nthat suspicion is very decided in one direction.”
\nSuch is the factual, cautious account in the Waterville Mail that citizens
\n:r ead avidly six days after the crime. Of the murdered young man, 25 .,
\nyears old, the Mail had this to say:
\n“Edward Mathews was a young man of enterprise and highly esteemed, and
\nwas in partnership with Mr. Soule of Clinton in a store at that place. He
\ncame from Clinton to Waterville on Thursday morning for the purpose of completing
\ncertain negotiations relative to the money of which he was robbed,
\n$1,500 of which he took from the Ticonic Bank during the day. He was seen
\nby numerous individuals, arid at various places, between 7 and 9 o’clock.”
\nNot then reported by the Mail, but well known by the citizens, was the
\nfact that, in addition to his Clinton partnership, Edward Mathews was in the
\ncattle business, buying beef cattle and driving them to the market at
\nBrighton, Massachusetts. Though not a man of wealth, he frequently had considerable
\nsums from the cattle business. More than once he had borrowed
\nmoney from the Ticonic Bank to finance these transactions.
\nOn Sunday — the third day after the murder — an autopsy was performed.
\nThe physicians present were Doctors Sidney, Thayer, Plaisted, Noyes, Boutelle
\nand Coolidge. Dr. Thayer, the grandfather of our famous Dr. Frederick Thayer,
\nseems to have been in charge. Yet young Dr. Coolidge took an active part.
\nIt was he who removed the contents of the stomach into a wash basin. Later
\nDr. Thayer suggested that those contents should undergo chemical analysis.
\nSomeone said, “We’d better send them to Bowdoin”. Dr. Noyes said, “We don’t
\nneed to do that. We have a perfectly good chemist right here in Waterville. II
\nSo they called in Professor Loomis of Waterville College (now Colby). He made
\na thorough chemical analysis, and declared that he found fatal amounts of
\n2-167
\nprussic acid.
\nSo it came about that, on October 6, the coroner’s jury rendered a
\nverdict that Mathews had come to his death by poison, or by blows inflicted
\non the head, or by both, by a person or persons unknown. The jury further
\ndeclared that the poison was prussic acid, administered in brandy, the effect
\nof which is known to produce almost instantaneous convulsions. terminating
\nin death, sometimes in so short a time as four or five minutes. The
\njury believed, but were not sure, that the blows had been inflicted after
\ndeath.
\nIt was clear that the murder had not been committed where the body was
\nfound, just inside the entrance to the basement under Shorey’s clothing shop.
\nNor had it been committed on the street or anywhere out of doors, for there
\nwas no mud or dirt on the boots or clothes. There was no indication that the
\nbody had lain or been dragged on the ground, or that any scuffle had occurred.
\nOn October 7 the grand jury at Augusta brought in an indictment against
\nDr. Valorus P. coolidge for the murder of Mathews, and the next day he was
\narrested by Officers Norris, Nudd and Miller, acting for County Sheriff L. D.
\nMoor. Let us see what had caused this sudden turn of events, just too late
\nto reach the Waterville Mail of October 7, though the next week’s issue on
\nOctober 14 told the story in great detail.
\nYoung as he was, Dr. Coolidge was not only a doctor, but an instructor
\nof would-be doctors as well. Two young men studied in his office, one of
\nwhom is unimportant to this story. But the other, Thomas Flint, sealed Dr.
\nCoolidge’s doom. ~wenty-four year old Flint was the son of State Senator
\nFlint of Anson. For a week after the fateful night of September 30th he kept
\nsilent, but then sent word to his father that he wanted to see the senator.
\nThe elder Flint came to Waterville and, closeted in a room at the Williams
\nHouse, extracted from his son an amazing story.
\n2-168
\nThe young man said that about nine o’clock on the evening of September
\n30, Dr. Coolidge came to the door of Flint’s room at the Williams House,
\nand asked Flint to accompany him to the office, which was but a few steps
\ndistant. They went together to the office, which consisted of two large rooms,
\nfront and rear, on the second floor. After entering the front room, Dr.
\nCoolidge locked the door, and immediately told Flint that he was going to
\nreveal a mystery in which his very life was involved. He then proceeded to
\nsay that Mathews came in a short time before, that the doctor gave him a
\nglass of brandy to drink, whereupon Mathews immediately fell into an apoplectic
\nfit, and was lying in the other room. The doctor said the affair would
\nruin both him and Flint if the body was found in the office; so they must
\ndispose of it. Coolidge said the night was not dark enough to take the body
\ninto the street or throw it into the river. So Flint was persuaded to help the
\ndoctor carry the. body down two flights of stairs into the basement.
\nSuch was Flint’s story to his father. Was he telling the truth? What
\nabout the $1,500 to $1,800 Mathews was said to have had? For that we must
\nwait until next week, for it all came out in the trial.
\nCoolidge was brought before Justice Tenney of the Maine Supreme Court
\nat Augusta on October 24, 1847, and pleaded not guilty. The judge announced
\nthat trial would take place at the January term of court, and Coolidge was
\nmeanwhile remanded to the county jail at Augusta. When the trial opened on
\nJanuary 26, 1848, Dr. Hill testified that a very important witness, Cyrus
\nWilliams, proprietor of the Williams House, was too ill to appear. So the
\ntrial was postponed to the second Tuesday in March, and at that point we
\nshall resume the story next week.
\nAs a final touch tonight, let it be known that the body of Edward Mathews
\nlies in a well marked grave here in Waterville. Undoubtedly he was at
\nfirst buried in the old churchyard where is now Monument Park on Elm Street.
\n2-169
\nOur older inhabitants well know that the Elm Street cemetery was abandoned
\nin the decade before the Civil War. I can now be more definite than that.
\nI can tell you when the first burial in Pine Grove Cemetery took place. It
\nwas that of Charlotte Sutton Lowe, who died on November 29, 1851.
\nOn October 3, 1847 the funeral of Edward Mathews was held in the
\nWaterville Universalist Church. Sometime after 1851 his body was taken up
\nfrom the old Elm Street burying ground and deposited in a lot belonging to
\nMiss A. Mathews in the new Pine Grove Cemetery. Here are the exact words of
\nthe burial record, still kept at the office of Pine Grove.
\n“Name – Mathews, Edward Estey
\nResidence – Waterville, Maine
\nAge – 25 years
\nDate of death – September 30, 1847
\nCause – Murdered by Dr. Coolidge
\nBuried – October 3, 1847
\nLot 379. Grave 3.
\n2-170
\nLITTLE TALKS ON COMMON THINGS
\n79th Broadcast October 15, 1950
\nLast week we left the Coolidge murder case with the victim buried and
\nthe accused lodged in the County jail at Augusta, awaiting trial. On March
\n14, 1848 that trial began. The court house at Augusta proving too small for
\na case that had aroused so much interest, the trial was held in the Congregational
\nChurch, which had been prepared for the purpose by the erection of
\nsuitable platforms for the Court, counsel and witnesses. When the doors were
\nopened there was, as one newspaper put it, “a tremendous rush of spectators,
\nquickly filling all seats, and leaving many unable to enter.” Several papers
\ncommented on the unseemly conduct of the usually staid Augusta matrons, who
\nhad gathered outside the doors before daylight and who did not hesitate to
\nuse hat pins on the men who got in their way.
\nAs was then customary, more than one judge sat at this trial. presiding
\nwas Chief Justice Whitman, and accompanying him were Judges Shepley and Wills.
\nThe case for the State was in charge of Attorney General Samuel Blake of Bangor,
\nassisted by Lot M. Morrill of Augusta. That Attorney General has long
\nsince been forgotten, but his young assistant went on to fame, for Lot. M.
\nMorrill became Governor, U. S. Senator, and Secretary of the Treasury.
\nIt took all the morning and part of the afternoon to secure a jury. Expecting
\nmany objections and excuses, the Court had ordered a panel of 100
\nprospective jurors. Theodore Allen, the second man called, precipitated a
\nlong argument between Mr. Morrill and Edwin Noyes of Waterville who, with
\nGeorge Evans of Gardiner, was handling the defense. Mr. Noyes contended that
\nany man who had formed a hypothetical opinion on a case was thereby unfitted
\nto serve on the jury. The Court disagreed. Mr. Noyes had to use one of his
\nperemptory challenges to keep Allen off the jury, though another Allen
\n2-171
\nJoseph B. — had already been accepted. The twelve good men and true who
\nmust decide the fate of Dr. Coolidge were Francis Haines of East Livermore,
\nforeman; Joseph Allen of Monmouth, Hiram Averill of Pittston, Brown Baker of
\nGardiner, Jonathan Clark of China, Daniel CUnningham of Windsor, Ozem Doust
\nof Vienna, David Elliott of Readfield, Isaac Farr of Gardiner, Harrison
\nGould of Leeds, William Greene of Pittston and Harrison Ham of Wales.
\nThanks to Mr. Doane Eaton, I have had a chance to read carefully a photostatic
\ncopy of the grand jury’s indictment of Valorus P. Coolidge, in the
\nhandwriting of the scribe who made those court records a hundred years ago.
\nThat grand jury left nothing to chance. They brought four counts against
\nthe young Waterville doctor: first, that he killed Mathews by.a blow on the
\nhead; second, that he mixed prussic acid with brandy and gave the mixture to
\nMathews who drank it; third, that he killed Mathews with a mixture of hydrocyanic
\nacid and brandy; and fourth, that the doctor mixed prussic acid with
\nbrandy which Mathews was about to drink and did drink.
\nNow of course prussic acid is only the popular name for hydrocyanic acid;
\nso counts 2 and 3 are the same. Count 4 was phrased so that Coolidge could be
\nconvicted even if it could not be proved that he had given Mathews the drink,
\nbut only that he had mixed it before Mathews drank it.
\nOf course all this was couched in the cumbrous, legal language of the
\ncourts. For instance, the actual wording of the first count is thus: “Valorus
\nP. Coolidge, with force and arms, in and upon the body of Edward Mathews
\nthen and there in the peace of the state being, feloniously, wilfully and of
\nhis malice aforethought, did make an assault, and that he, the said Valorus.
\nP. Coolidge, with a certain stick of wood, which he, the said Valorus . P.
\nCoolidge, then and there in his right hand had and held, the afo~esaid Edward
\nMathews, in and upon the head of him and near the top thereof, then and there
\ndid strike, penetrate, wound, bruise and fracture, giving the said Edward
\n2-172
\nMathews one mortal wound, bruise and fracture of the length of three inches,
\nof the width of two inches, and of the depth of one inch — of which said .mortal
\nwound, bruise and fracture the said Edward Mathews then and there instantly
\ndied. II
\nA lot of wordage that proved futile, because on that first count the
\njury found Dr. Coolidge not guilty. He did not kill Mathews by a blow on the
\nhead. Medical evidence clearly Showed that the blow had been struck after death.
\nIt was reported that the state had more than one hundred witnesses ready
\nto testify. At any rate sixty of them were actually called to the stand.
\nMost of them only corroborated the testimony of more important witnesses, but
\nsome of them were vital. Professor Loomis of Waterville College explained in
\ndetail how he was sure that the stomach of the murdered man contained prussic
\nacid, and cross examination failed to Shake him.
\nThe trial had scarcely gone into its third day when it became apparent
\nthat Dr. Coolidge owed money to almost everyone in Waterville. And it was
\nequally apparent that more than one of those creditors thought he was the
\nonly man from whom the doctor had borrowed.
\nThe doctor owed William Tobey $115, and had once offered Tobey 10 per
\ncent interest for a loan of $500, but Tobey didn’t bite. Coolidge owed $200
\nmore to David Smi1ey~ $200 to Isaac Britton~ $125 to Daniel Moor, one hundred
\nof which had been borrowed at 12% and on pledge of secrecy. He owed $100 to
\nWarren Doe, $150 to John Philbrick, $180 to James Goodwin, $350 to John Richards,
\nand $100 to Robert Drunnnond. On September 30, 1847, the day of the murder,
\ntwo of Coolidge’s nc~es — one for $100 and a second for $300 — were
\noverdue at the Ticonic Bank.
\nThe caShier of that bank, Augustine Perkins, testified that on September
\n30 Edward Mathews had applied for a loan of $1,500 at about 10 o’clock in the
\nmorning, that he had taken a blank note and went \u00b7out to get signers. He had
\n2-173
\nreturned about 3 P.M., presenting as co-signers John Mathews and Charles K.
\nMathews. Discounting the note for 60 days, the bank had handed over to Edward
\nMathews $1,484.25.
\nNow I have more than once heard it said that one thing which convicted
\nCoolidge was the knowledge by John and Charles Mathews that Edward wanted
\nthe money to loan to Dr. Coolidge. Right here it must be said that there
\nexists no official record of the testimony in the Coolidge trial. We are
\ndependent entirely upon the reporters of various newspapers. But on this
\npoint those reporters agree. Not one of them says that, in their testimony,
\neither John or Charles Mathews gave any reason why they signed Edward’s note
\nfor $1,500. It seems to have been a straight business transaction, in which
\na somewhat mysterious mortgage deed played a part.
\nNo, it was not the borrowed money, but motive, opportunity and the clinching
\ntestimony of Thomas Flint that secured the doctor’s conviction.
\nYoung Flint told his story much as we outlined it in last week’s broadcast.
\nHe had gone to the office with Coolidge; he had helped the doctor carry
\nthe body down to the cellar; he had helped hide the money and had later burned
\nit. Damaging as this testimony was, it had certain omissions. Flint did not
\nsay that at any time Coolidge confessed to him that he killed Mathews. He insisted
\nthat he was not afraid of Coolidge, that, as today’s slang would put
\nit, Coolidge “had nothing on him”.
\nIn his final summing up, the Attorney General made the most of Flint’s
\ntestimony. He said: “Can the jury possibly decide that Flint’s conduct on
\nthat evening destroys the credibility of his story? Look at the relation of
\nthe two parties. The prisoner was a man of high standing and large practice.
\nFlint had then no suspicion of murder; he believed the doctor’s story. Place
\nyourself at his age and in his relation to the prisoner, and what would you
\nhave done? As mature men of principle you might have ruShed to the door and
\n2-174
\nproclaimed the fact that a man had died there. But as a young man who looked
\nupon the doctor as a benefacter you might have done as he did. Flint had no
\nreason to implicate the prisoner by making up this story. He could make up
\na better story than that. He could say that the prisoner confessed the murder
\nto him. But Flint does not say that. He has simply revealed the truth,
\nnot to implicate the prisoner, but because, on reflection and under the advice
\nof his father, he deemed it his duty to God, his country, and his conscience
\nto tell the truth …
\nThe defense consisted chiefly of an attempt to discredit Flint’s story.
\nThe testimony of Oliver Paine implied that Flint could not have been in the
\noffice with Coolidge when he claimed he was on that evening of September 30,
\nbecause Paine swore that he had seen Flint elsewhere at the time. Other witnesses
\nemphasized Flint’s early statements that he not only knew nothing about
\nthe crime, but also was sure that it was not committed in Coolidge’s office.
\nAt 5:30 P.M. on the- eighth day of the trial, the case went to the jury.
\nAt nine o’clock the next morning the jury was still out. At 11:30 the Court
\ndirected that the jury be brought in. The foreman stated that he feared
\nthere was no prospect of the jury agreeing. In answer to the; judge \u2022 s questions,
\nthe foreman said there was no point of law requiring to be cleared up.
\nThe disagreement was, rather, as to the weight of testimony sufficient to
\nrender a verdict. The court directed that the jury make further attempt to
\nagree until 3 o’clock.
\nAt 3 0′ clock the officer attending the jury reported that the jury had not
\nyet agreed, but might come to agreement in another half hour. At 4 o’clock
\nthe jury came into court. The names were called and all answered. The verdict
\nrendered was that, upon the first count of the indictment the prisoner is not
\nguilty, and upon the last three counts he is guilty of murder in the first
\ndegree.
\n2-175
\nThe judge asked Coolidge if he had anything to say. Coolidge replied
\nthat he was an innocent man, that there is another and higher court before
\nwhich he must stand and where false testimony will not avail. He said it
\nwould avail nothing for him to state what he knew, but that when he departed
\nhe might leave it in writing. He bade his friends and enemies an affectionate
\nfarewell, and said he was ready to receive his sentence.
\nOn the next day,’ March 24, 1848, Chief Justice Whitman pronounced sentence:
\n“ValorUs P. Coolidge: a jury, after an impartial investigation,
\nhave pronounced against you a verdict of guilty of the crime of murder, and
\nthe court deems your guilt legally established. How inadequate your temptation!
\nHow awful your deed! It is a case unparalleled in the history of
\ncrime, and affords a woeful instance of the frailty of human nature. But our
\nstatute is conceived in mercy. You are not to be hurried at once from time to
\neternity. You cannot be executed short of a year from this time, and that
\nspace, it may be hoped, will be devoted to your contemplation of your forlorn
\ncondition. And may contrition and repentance then make you a fit subject for
\nthe mercy of an offended God.
\n“Valorus P. Coolidge, we sentence you to be hanged by the neck until
\nyou be dead, and for this purpose that you be conveyed to the State Prison at
\nThomaston, in the County of Lincoln, and until this sentence of death shall
\nbe inflicted upon you, that you there be put to hard labor in solitary confinement.”
\nThus ended the Coolidge trial. But the case itself was not finished. For
\nwhat happened after the trial listen to our broadcast at this same time next
\nweek.
\n2-176
\nLITTLE TALKS ON COMMON THINGS
\n80th Broadcast October 22, 1950
\nLast Sunday the close of our broadcast left Dr. Valorus P. Coolidge convicted
\nof murder, and sent to the state prison at Thomaston, there to await execution by
\nhanging a year later. The date of sentence was March 24, 1848; so that on some
\ndate subsequent to March 24, 1849 the execution was expected.
\nThe case against Dr. Coolidge had been almost completely circumstantial, except
\nfor the testimony of Flint. If Flint was telling the truth, ‘there could be
\nlittle doubt of the doctor’s guilt. As one reads the testimony a hundred years
\nafterward, one is struck by the poor case put up by the defense. They called few
\nwitnesses, and some of those few turned out, under cross-examination, to be good
\nwitnesses for the other side. Yet there was something about that trial something
\nnot made clear in the newspaper accounts — which caused the jury to stay out
\nfor 22, hours, and three times report to the judge that they saw no chance of coming
\nto a verdict. Something caused doubts in the minds of sever~l of those worthy
\ncitizens of Kennebec County. Was it the appealing looks and polite manner of the
\nhandsome prisoner for more than one reporter commented on Coolidge’s handsome
\nface? Were there attempts to tamper with the jury in the prisoner’s favor?
\nAfter the verdict, out before sentence was pronounced, Mr. Blake, the Attorney
\nGeneral, told the court that he had just had placed in his hands a note found near
\nthe jury room, under such circumstances as to make it probable that it contained
\nhighly improper matter intended to influence the jury. The judge, receiving the
\nletter, stated that it was addressed to the foreman of the jury, to whom it was
\npassed with directions to return it to the court if it were not on private business.
\nAfter opening the letter the . foreman stated that it was not on private business,
\nbut was addressed inside “To the Gentlemen of the Jury”, and was anonymous.
\nThe foreman did not read the letter, but returned it to the court. The judge
\n2-177
\nthen delivered it to the Attorney General, with directions not to let it pass out
\nof his hands, but to take such measures regarding it as law and justice demand.
\nThe judge refused to declare a mistrial because he was convinced that the jury
\ndid not see the contents of the letter.
\nAs for what was in the letter and how it got to the jury room, we have only
\nthe statement of a newspaper reporter, who wrote to his paper: “The letter is in
\na lady’s handwriting and contains an appeal to the sympathies of the jury in behalf
\nof the prisoner.”
\nCoolidge case.
\nThis was not the last time a lady was to figure in the
\nI had been told that the case was appealed, but that no record existed of
\ncourt action. Imagine my delight, therefore, when I found appended to the indictment
\nand its accompanying record the following statement, in the handwriting of the
\nsame court scribe who wrote the indictment itself. Here are the words: “And now,
\nafter verdict and before sentence is passed, the said Coolidge, against whom a verdict
\nof guilty of murder in the first degree has been rendered, comes and moves
\nthe court, here, that the said verdict may be set aside, and a new trial upon the
\nindictment may be granted to him, for the following reasons, viz: that papers important
\nfor his defense were, immediately upon the finding of the bill of indictment
\nagainst him, taken from his possession by order of the prosecuting officer on the
\npart of the Government, and have been ever since withheld from him and from his
\ncounsel; that among those papers was a letter from one Doctor Potter of Cincinnati
\nin Ohio, the substance of which is stated in the affadavit of Samuel B. Norris,
\nthereto annexed; that among them also were other letters from Dr. Potter upon the
\nsubject of land speculations, the exact contents of which are not recollected; that
\nthese letters are withheld from the inspection of the prisoner and his counsel, so
\nthat they are not able to state the contents of them; that upon a new trial the
\nsaid Coolidge will be able to produce the said letters and to prove that they were
\nwritten to him by said Potter, and that the remedy spoken of in one said letter
\n2-178
\nand referred to by said Norris was prussic acid.”
\nSo much for the official language. Exactly what had happened? Those unemotional,
\nfactual newspaper accounts — so unlike the spectacular, detailed emotionalism
\nin which today’s press dresses up a murder trial — those accounts
\nmake it clear that excitement prevailed and tempers were frayed when this plea
\nfor a new trial was laid before the court.
\nMr. Evans, one of Coolidge’s attorneys, told the judge he wished to make
\ninquiry of the Attorney General concerning the missing letters. The judge
\ngranted the request, and Mr. Evans said that, since the jury went out, he had
\nlearned that among the Doctor’s private papers was a letter, in which the writer
\nspeaks of the use of prussic acid for cataract of the eye — that the strongest
\nkind must be used and advising Dr. Coolidge to try experiments. The Attorney
\nGeneral replied that he believed there were one or two letters in his possession
\nfrom a person named Potter, but he did not believe there was anything relating to
\nprussic acid in those letters.
\nThen Mr. Evans said he was not satisfied with Mr. Blake’s reply, and would
\nprove to the court that such letters had certainly existed. The Attorney General
\nthen showed his anger by saying that since Mr. Evans questioned his word and even
\nimputed to him the crime of concealing evidence, he would withdraw his previous,
\ncourteous offer to let Mr. Evans inspect any and all letters taken from Coolidge’s
\nperson and office.
\nMr. Evans then produced an affadavit signed by James B. Norris, one of the
\narresting officers, that when he took Coolidge into custody, Norris had taken from
\nCoolidge’s person three letters, one of which was from Dr. Potter and mentioned a
\nnew remedy for some disease of the eye, and advised Coolidge to try the remedy
\nfirst on the eye of a dog. Mr. Evans said Dr. Hill had seen this letter, but he
\nis now absent from town. The court decided to postpone sentence until the next
\nmorning, in order to give Mr. Evans time to get a statement from Dr. Hill.
\n2-179
\nThe following morning Mr. Evans stated that he had nothing further to offer
\nin behalf of the motion for a new trial, that the recollection of Dr. Hill did
\nnot support the information which Evans had previously received. The Attorney
\nGeneral then said that the letters from Dr. Potter contain nothing of importance
\nto the prisoner, but do contain reflections on some of the most respectable citizens
\nof Waterville, which can do no one any good. Right there, the attempt for a
\nnew trial collapsed. The judge denied the petition and proceeded to pronounce
\nsentence upon the unhappy Coolidge.
\nCoolidge is said to have written many letters from his Thomaston cell, at
\nleast one of which is preserved at the Waterville Historical Society. He had not
\nbeen long in prison before it was reported that he had conceived and nearly carried
\nout a diabolical attempt to murder Flint and fix the Mathews crime on him.
\nA letter was forged, purporting to be from a man who claimed to have received
\na confidential confession from Flint, just before the latter’s proposed suicide.
\nThe plan was to have this letter found in Flint’s pocket. This all came to light
\nthrough the alleged discovery of a letter by Coolidge to his accomplice, a released
\nThomaston convict, arranging for the latter to murder Flint and make it
\nappear to be suicide.
\n“Get him in Bath, if possible”, wrote Coolidge, “if not, in Anson. Ask him to
\nexamine you for a disease, and when he is about it, stun him with a blow on the
\nback of the neck, then pour contents of the vial into his mouth. Lay him with back
\nof neck against round of a chair, as if he hit it when he fell, thus explaining the
\nneck bruise. Lay beside him the vial with a little acid left in it. Take the cars
\nthe next morning and be off where no one can find you. After I am set at liberty,
\nyou will write me a letter as I can pay you the $1,000. Sign your name John Howard
\nand direct your letter to me at North Livermore, Maine.”
\nDid Coolidge actually write that letter? Many people thought he did, but
\nthere is no direct evidence. In fact, there is no evidence that the so-called
\n2-180
\n“Flint Plot” letters ever existed at all, except in the imagination of someone
\nWho wanted to keep the case alive. Yet it is possible — even plausible — that
\nthe imprisoned doctor did plot against the life of the man whose testimony had
\nconvicted him.
\nIn October, 1848 the Governor and Council had commuted the sentence from
\nhanging to life imprisonment. When the plot to kill Flint came to light the next
\nspring, Coolidge was removed to a solitary cell, where two days later he was found
\nin convulsions and died after a few minutes. Medical examination revealed no
\ncause of death. So stated many Maine papers, including the Waterville Mail which,
\non May 24, 1849, told the above story and said that the prison warden confirmed
\nCoolidge’s death as having occurred on May 18.
\nNow our story begins to assume the proportions of a full-fledged mystery.
\nCoolidge’s brother came to the prison from the family home in Canton and claimed
\nthe body. In Canton it was buried in the family lot, but after a short time the
\nfather became suspicious and ordered exhumation. He then discovered that the body
\nhad ten whole fingers, whereas his son had lost a finger in boyhood. The father
\ndeclared the body to be not that of Valorus Coolidge and refused to have it returned
\nto the family lot. There is not a word of evidence to support that story.
\nIn all the thousands of words written about the trial, there is not one which indicates
\nthat Coolidge had a missing finger.
\nI told you a woman would again enter this case. Well, here she is. Though no
\nproof can be found, the story persists to this day that a very attractive young
\nwoman appeared at Thomaston with a sizeable amount of gold, that she offered Warden
\nCarr the gold and her own hand in marriage if he would free Coolidge. The Lewiston
\nJournal said that the woman was Coolidge’s sister. It is a fact that Warden
\nCarr soon resigned and left the state, but it is only rumor that h~ and the woman
\nwere afterwards married.
\nFor many years stories sprang up that Coolidge had been seen alive at places
\n2-181
\nfar removed from Waterville or Thomaston. Remember this was the time when there
\nwas great agitation against secret societies, and somebody started the rumor that
\nCoolidge had escaped through the influence of the Odd Fellows. He was reported
\nseen on a Mississippi steamboat, in California, in China and in Paris, France.
\nPeople living in Winslow today recall the old people telling of a Winslow
\nman writing from California that he. had seen Coolidge in the gold fiel’ds. Then
\nthey tell how, a few weeks after he wrote that letter, the Winslow man was found
\ndrowned under suspicious circumstances.
\nThis sort of rumor is not unusual. It is the kind that keeps popping- up
\nabout John Wilkes Booth, the murderer of Lincoln, in spite of the evidence that
\nBooth was certainly shot and killed by the pursuing posse. So far as these Coolidge
\nrumors appeared in print, their earliest mention seems to have been in Dr.
\nMann’s Screamer, a newspaper published in Skowhegan to promote the practice of
\nDr. Mann. The most complete printed statement of these various rumors, including
\nthe last report of the death of a man alleged to be Coolidge in Alameda
\nCounty, California, is contained in a 40-page pamphlet in the archives of the
\nMaine Historical Society in Portland.
\nNow we come to the strangest fact of all. Although there are no records at
\nCanton showing any burial of Coolidge there, and although no one now living recalls
\nanything about the case, even any stories handed down from their grandfathers,
\none amazing fact has come to light. In Canton in the year 1854 there was
\nborn a child named Valorus Coolidge. Six years after the doctor’s conviction for
\nmurder, a child born in the community of the doctor’s own birth and where he had
\nlived until of voting age, had been given the doctor I s name of Valorl1s What
\nCanton Coolidge would name a child for a convicted murderer? There’s a fact to
\ngive you murder mystery fans something to chew on.
\nWhat really happened to Dr. Coolidge? Was he hanged? The warden was reported
\nto have told friends after his departure from the state that he had executed
\n2-182
\nCoolidge in spite of the commutation of sentence. Did Coolidge commit suicide
\nin Thomaston? Did he die a natural death there? Or did he escape?
\nThere is very small chance that anyone will ever know the answer. The
\nstate of Maine tried for fifty years to determine which one of those four possibilities
\nwas true. The prison records, if they ever existed, could not be
\nfound. Not one of the many rumors could be substantiated. What became of ValorUS
\nP. Coolidge, the convicted murderer of Edward Mathews, remains an unsolved
\nmystery.
\n2-183
\nLITTLE TALKS ON. COMMON. THINGS
\n8lst Broadcast October 29, 1950
\nCommon things sometimes lead to uncommon results. No better illustration
\ncan be found of that truth than an incident in the life of Martin Keyes, founder
\nof the Keyes Fibre Company, and maker of the first papyrus pie plates in the
\nworld.
\nThis past week has seen the hundredth anniversary of the birth of Martin
\nKeyes, for he was born at Lempster, New HampShire on October 25, 1850. When he
\nwas a young man, working for the Indurated Fibre Company in northern New York,
\nthe mills made large quanti ties of maple veneer. Mr. Keyes observed that the
\nworkmen in the mills often ate their lunches off of pieces of this veneer, using
\nthem as plates.
\nOf course many men had observed the same thing before. It takes more than
\nobservation to get uncommon results out of common things. It takes inventive
\nimagination, and that was just what Martin Keyes had. Why not make plates out
\nof maple veneer, thought Mr. Keyes. So he steamed the veneer and formed it into
\na plate. Then he hit upon a better idea — forming pulp on a die — and
\nmaking a papyrus plate.
\nPaper plates are pretty common things today, but they were unheard of when
\nMartin Keyes first noticed that workmen ate their lunches off pieces of veneer.
\nThe great paper products industry — a result important to the economy of thousands
\nof American families — came from that common observation by a remarkably
\nuncommon man.
\n*****
\nA few weeks ago we mentioned p\u00b7ine Grove Cemetery, saying that the first recorded
\nburial there was in 1851. The father of a man still living cleared the
\nland for that cemetery. Mr. T. G. Burleigh of Roosevelt Avenue assures me that
\n2-184
\nhis father, Hall Burleigh, and Augustus Getchell cleared the cemetery land
\nwith oxen in 1850 and 1851.
\n*****
\nIf Longfellow, is generally considered Maine’s greatest poet, Edwin Arlington
\nRobinson ran him a close second, and there are many persons who consider
\nRobinson the greater poet of the two. James Humphry, Librarian of Colby College,
\nhas rendered a service to thousands of Robinson lovers by his recent publication
\nof a carefully annotated list of the volumes in the poet’s personal
\nlibrary. A product of the Anthoensen Press of Portland, noted for the excellence
\nof its printing, Mr. Humphry’s little book is the latest volume issued by
\nthe Colby College Press.
\nperhaps many of my listeners do not know that the Treasure Room of the Colby
\nCollege Library is open to the public, and that Professor Carl Weber, Colby’s
\ncurator of rare books and manuscripts cordially welcomes visitors. Why don’t
\nyou go out to Mayflower Hill some afternoon and see the precious collections of
\nMaine authors, such as Robinson, Sarah Orne Jewett and Jacob Abbott?
\n*****
\nExcept for mention of the 1855 freshet which carried away the Augusta dam,
\nwe have hitherto neglected the subject of floods on the Kennebec. So let us
\ngive that subject a little attention tonight.
\nIt was nearly fifteen years ago that the Kennebec suffered its latest and
\nperhaps its biggest flood. Every Waterville person over twenty years old must
\nremember it well. All day of Thursday, March 19, 1936 hundreds of anxious citizens
\nwent frequently to the rear of the buildings on lower Front Street, or to
\nthe slope back of the college, to watch the rapidly rising waters. Everyone expected
\nthe railroad bridge to go out. Though weighted with flat cars loaded
\nwith stone, the piers themselves seemed to be giving way, as water gushed not
\nonly around them, but through them.
\n2-185
\nBut the railroad bridge stood. It was the highway bridge that went out,
\nand strangely enough it did not carry with it the adjoining span of the electric
\nrailway bridge. That abandoned bridge for the electric car tracks proved
\nour salvation during the tedious wait for a new highway bridge, for one way
\ntraffic continued across the electric car bridge all through the summer.
\nThat 1936 flood was certainly Maine’s worst. It did more damage than any
\nprevious flood, because there was more damage to do. It destroyed more than
\n$20,000,000 worth of property, rendered 8,000 people homeless. Winslow’s gas
\nlines and household water were cut off. Water stood five feet deep in the business
\ndistrict of Gardiner. The town of Bingham was completely surrounded by
\nthe flood. The fear of epidemic added to the people’s anxiety.
\nPsychologically the most agonizing part of that 1936 flood was that, When
\nfolks thought it was allover, the worst was yet to come. Wednesday, March 11
\nsaw a heavy blanket of snow over the whole state. That evening it began to
\nrain, and continued in such downpour all day Thursday that roads began to be
\nflooded and there were many serious washouts. On Friday the waters of both the
\nAndroscoggin and the Kennebec rose more than a foot an hour. A dangerous ice jam
\nformed at Vassalboro.
\nSaturday was fair, but the waters raged so devastatin~ly that the railroad
\nbridge at Brunswick and the highway bridge at Richmond went out. By night the
\nWhole Kennebec Valley between Augusta and Richmond was isolated.
\nSunday was fair and much warmer. The water began to recede. The flood was
\nover, and people set about the task of repairing the damage. No one thought much
\nof it When intermittent showers fell on Monday. But when showers and fog continued
\non Tuesday and the weather reports forecast more heavy rain, folks became
\nalarmed again. Their fears were justified. All day Wednesday the rain fell. On
\nThursday morning it was still raining and the high temperature was helping also
\nto loosen the upriver ice. It was that ice that did the great damage. Few things
\n2-186
\n— even the pieces of bridges — that got in its path could withstand it. A
\nmonth after that wild night of March 19 huge ice cakes, capable of supporting
\na big house, could still be seen on the west side of the highway above Hinckley.
\nOn Friday morning, after the Ticonic Bridge went out, the Kennebec at
\nWaterville had risen to twice the height it had reached on the previous Friday.
\nIt was not until Sunday that the waters began to go down.
\nDid the 1936 flood bring the highest water ever known in Waterville? We
\nare not sure. Won’t some of our Hollingsworth friends Or other persons who
\nhave kept records of the h~gh’water tell us?
\nthe water so high as the flood of 1936?
\nDid any other flood ever send
\nHow far back do accurate records of the Kennebec floods take us? Fortunately
\nwe have the painstaking research of a competent investigator to help us answer
\nthat question. In 1891 Timothy Otis Paine, at the request of the Hollingsworth
\nand Whitney Company, made an exhaustive study of whatever could be
\nlearned about floods on the Kennebec.
\nMr. Paine had been born in 1824 in a house on the hill above the Sebasticook
\nin Winslow. He lived there until 1856 when he went to Massachusetts. In
\nNovember and December of 1891 he was employed by Engineer H. F. Mills, on behalf
\nof H & W, to visit his old home in Maine, to go among the aged farmers on
\nthe Kennebec from Winslow to Fairfield and, with his own knowledge of Kennebec
\nfreshets, to fix as many high water marks as possible.
\nPaine’s notes, still carefully preserved by H & W, clearly show that Winslow
\nwas a good place to study the high waters. Paine wrote: “When Moosehead
\nLake sends out a great freshet, Winslow at the Fort catches it; it comes into the
\nstores and dwellings on the lowland. For this reason there have always been
\nmany high water marks at the village. Waterville, on higher ground, has poorer
\nflood records than the mother town of Winslow.”
\nMr. Paine found that the greatest freshet of which there was record since
\n2-187
\nWinslow became a town in 1771 was the freshet of 1832. Mr. Paine wrote: “The
\nfreshet of 1832 has always been the base to which all freshets are referred by
\nthe older people. Ever since my boyhood I have always heard people say, “The
\nfreshet this year comes wi thin so many feet or inches of the freshet of 1832. II
\nAs Mr. Paine patiently accumulated information on all the recorded floods,
\nhe became convinced that 1832 saw the record high water during the 120 years
\nbetween 1771 and 1891. Mr. Paine had himself seen that freshet when he was
\nnearly eight years old. He stood at the sitting-room window of his home and
\nwatched the waters reach their height. He saw them come up over the lowlands
\naround what is now Lithgow Street, then creep up to the foot of the hill. At the
\nsame time another boy of 14, Winslow Simpson, was watching the flood at the flat
\nwhere the H & W mills now stand. Still living in 1891, Winslow Simpson fixed
\nthe high water mark of 1832 by a sawdust line left by the waters in the graveyard
\non the flat opposite Colby College. Mr. Paine accepted that mark as authentic,
\nbecause he writes: “The sawdust and drift line of a freshet is made
\nby nature herself. It is a contour line admitted into the courts of the world,
\nand may be seen and traced for many years.”
\nWhen Mr. Paine began his investigations in 1891, he recalled that no one
\nhad ever ascertained any generally accepted reason why the 1832 freshet was so
\ngreat. There had been rumors that the cause was known but had been kept secret.
\nRumor persisted for some time that the dam at the foot of Moosehead Lake had
\nburst, and that the builders kept silent for fear of having to pay damages.
\nMr. Paine speedily spiked that rumor, because he proved that no dam existed
\nat the foot of Moosehead in 1832. Mr. Walter Getchell, a very old man in
\n1891, told Mr. Paine that in the 1″832 flood a northeast wind blew every. day for
\nfifteen days, and not one of those days was without some rain. It was Mr. Getchell’s
\nopinion that the continued heavy wind blew the water out of Moosehead
\nLake and made the ’32 freshet especially high. That explanation did not satisfy
\n2-188
\nMr. paine, and it was only after he had interviewed many old timers and made
\nmany measurements that he hit upon the real reason for the 1832 height.
\nUnlike the freshet a century later in 1936, the 1832 high waters were not
\naccompanied by ice. May 22nd was too late in the season for ice flows. But
\nMr. Paine proved conclusively that the high waters were caused by an obstruction.
\nWhen flood waters encounter any natural obstruction, Mr. Paine.pointed
\nout, they pile up the logs, lumber, trees and floating debris into all the essentials
\nof a dam, which lifts the top water behind it into a rapidly filling
\npond. Such an obstruction is Bunker Island at Fairfield. The 1832 logs on the
\nKennebec were several feet through, strong enough to jam everything into a hopeless
\nsnarl between the abutment and pier of a bridge. When the water rises high
\nenough to force this natural dam to give way, a vast mass of driftwood pushes
\ndown the river before a great wall of water which would continue a roaring torrent
\nuntil it reached the broader expanse of the bay below Ticonic Falls. Mr.
\nPaine describes what happened in 1832 in the following picturesque language:
\n“The high water marks of the 1832 flood at Winslow reveal the vastness of
\nthe clog and clutter let loose at Fairfield on the midnight of May 21, when
\neverything there gave way and poured down like a great wood and water pudding,
\nshouldering both shores and riverbed, leaving logs on the hill fields, packing
\nsolid the pond-hole near what is now the H & W mill, and getting ripped to
\npieces in the college rip.”
\nWhat happened therefore to make 1832 the greatest of Kennebec floods for
\nmore than a century was this. At sundown on May 21 the Kennebec was alive with
\nmoving masses of logs, washed out bridges, buildings, uprooted trees, and all
\nsorts of floating wreckage. Bunker Island and the piers and abutments of the
\nFairfield bridges halted this mass so that some of it formed a huge raft in the
\nnaturally made pond. Soon after midnight this whole raft let loose down the
\nriver.
\n2-189
\n“Therefore”, says Mr. Paine, “the ’32 flood, from Fairfield down to
\nTiconic Dam, was a series of log and rubbish ponds, the dams of logs now fixed,
\nnow moving, keeping the water not only higher than any freely moving flood had
\never raised it, but higher than any Kennebec freshet had ever raised it before.”
\nNext week we shall tell you about Winslow’s famous freshet oak, about the
\nhigh water marks on the old covered bridge across the Sebasticook, and how high
\nthe water used to come around Bassett’s store. Perhaps we can also find time
\nnext week for mention of a few other big floods, especially those between 1891
\nand 1936. At any rate we shall have more high water next Sunday .evening.
\n2-190
\n\u00b7 LITTLE TALKS ON COMMON THINGS
\n82nd Broadcast November 5, 1950
\nLast week we promised you more information about old-time floods on the
\nKennebec. Here it is. Winslow’s famous freshet oak stood at a distance which
\nis described by T. o. Paine as 363 steps below Ticonic Bridge. The tree no
\nlonger stands. In August, 1942 H. B. Pratt, Jr. and L. A. Fitch noted that
\nthe tree had recently been cut down. The annular rings in the stump were so
\nclear, however, that Mr. Pratt could count 183 of them, showing that the tree
\nwas standing from the earliest days of Winslow’s incorporation as a town. Logs
\ncarried by freshets marked that tree at various heights. On one side of the
\ntree was a deep gash, shaped like a new moon. This was identified as work of
\nthe great ice freshet of 1869. During a whole century no scar was higher, except
\nan older one, fully a foot above. That was the log-made scar of the champion
\nof all Kennebec freshets, the flood of 1832, which we described in detail
\nlast week.
\nWhen Mr. Paine was making his investigation of Kennebec freshets, Charles
\nGetchell went with him to the freshet oak, which was then still standing. He
\npointed to the highest scar and said: “The’ 32 freshet was up there. The ground
\nis about as it was then. Mr. William Redington said to my father, William Getchell,
\nwho stood near by, ‘The freshet was there’, and where Father showed him,
\nMr. Redington painted a red mark. I was then ten years old, and I could just
\nreach Mr. Redington’s mark.” Mr. Getchell also told Paine that in 1832 the oak
\nwas round, straight and smooth, and that its great and highest scar was certainly
\nmade by the great freshet of 1832.
\nHow many of my listeners remember the old covered bridge across the Sebasticook
\nnear Fort Halifax? In 1887 that bridge withstood a big freshet. The high
\n2-191
\nwater mark was above the floor of the bridge, so that no logs could pass under,
\nand a huge jam piled up in the river between the dam and the bridge. Mr. John
\nRunnels told Paine that the water stood at its height for three hours, and the
\nbridge would certainly have gone out under the battering of logs if the drop had
\nnot come very rapidly and the logs went through with a rush.
\nIn 1887 the railroad bridge across the Sebasticook was down stream from the
\nhighway bridge, just as it is now. The railroad bridge formed a sort .of boom,
\nwhich obstructed the logs, except in a narrow channel close to the pier. A crew
\nof men worked frantically to keep the logs in that channel and save the bridge.
\nA large hemlock log, fourteen inches in diameter, lodged on the bottom chord at
\nthe south end of the bridge. It took mighty high water to lodge a big log in that
\nplace.
\nPlenty of my listeners remember Bassett’s store in Winslow. It was only nine
\nyears ago, in 1941, that it was moved a few rods south to the position where it
\nnow stands, below the gasoline station near the corner of Lithgow Street and the
\nAugusta Road. Josiah Bassett told Mr. Paine, “The freshet of 1887 landed big
\nlogs up in the field back of my store. Water came up to within 20 feet of the
\nnortheast corner of the building.” But Mr. Bassett said he had been told that the
\n1832 flood touched the floor of the store.
\nOn lower ground, east of the Bassett store, once stood a cooper shop, in
\nwhich at the time of the 1832 flood was located the Winslow post office. This is
\nwhat Josiah Bassett wrote for Mr. Paine in 1891: “A high water mark of the 1832
\nfreshet was cut on the old time post office partition in my father’s cooper shop
\nabout 18 inches above the floor. There were two steps into the shop, one stone
\nstep and the threshold on the sill. The shop was torn down by my brother Benjamin
\nmany years ago, and its precious mark is now lost.”
\nAnother old mark was on the Eaton store, at the head of what was known as
\nEaton’s Landing. This was a two-story building with four-sided roof. Mr. Bassett
\n2-192
\nwhen a small boy, had heard Solomon Eaton say that in the 1832 flood a canoe
\nentered his store and its bow shot over the counter.
\nWinslow Simpson told Mr. Paine his recollections of the freshet of 1869.
\nJust as in 1832, said Mr. Paine, a long, heavy, northeast wind blew the water
\nout of Moosehead Lake. That accounted for the tremendous swell of water which
\nMr. Paine saw cover the intervales belonging to his father, Frederic Paine and
\ntheir neighbor, Nelson Dingley_ “The wind would pack and pile the river, and
\nget up a great, surging body full of all kinds of trash. Old pig pens, old
\nmills on the river, all clustered together, were crowded in among the logs. Once
\nI saw a load of lumber on a cart with a dog sitting on top of it, all going madly
\ndown the river.”
\nOne amazing feature of the ’32 freshet concerned a flock of sheep. They
\ngrazed on the lower end of the flat just above the Pond Hole, near where the H &
\nW Mill now stands. They slept under a flat boat turned bottom up. That flock of
\nsheep, without leaving the flat, lived through the flood.
\nFortunately Mr. Paine put into the record an explanation of the phrase “Pond
\nHole”. He wrote: “It is important to know that the word ‘hole’ often meant a very
\nbad place. This meaning comes from the use of the term in Ezekiel, Chapter 8: ‘He
\nbrought me to the door of the court; and when I looked, I beheld a hole. Then he
\nsaid to me, Son of Man, go in and see the wicked abominations that they do here. \u2022
\nI found my walk up through the Pond Hole a difficult one. The hole was a gully or
\nravine, cluttered, clogged and tangled, full of trees, rocks, bushes, and all sorts
\nof trash — a very hole of a place. II
\nIt was Winslow Simpson who assured Mr. Paine that the river rose 26 feet in
\nless than 12 hours in the great freshet of 1832. Mr. Simpson’ s father, who lived
\nto be 104 years old, used to keep a record of all freshets by marks on a cedar tree
\nat the foot of Simpson’s Landing. A larg~ limb shot out horizontally from the main
\ntrunk. No freshet recorded by the elder Simpson quite reached that limb, except
\n2-193
\nthe tremendous flood of 1832. The mark which Simpson placed to show how far up
\nthe tree the water then came was well above the limb. On May 23, 1832, the day
\nafter the flood was at its height, measurements taken from that mark showed a
\nrise of 26 feet in the flood waters. Long before the elder Simpson’s death, the
\ncedar was cut down and its valuable record of flood marks was lost.
\nMr. Paine felt that stories about the 1832 freshet had been somewhat exaggerated.
\nHe collected evidence to show that, while it was probably the highest, the
\n1832 flood did not rise much higher than many other freshets between 1761 and
\n1891. Mr. Paine wrote: “In Nathaniel Dingley’s front yard, and between the Winslow
\npost office and the railroad bridge, I can stand and, on my own body, mark
\noff with considerable accuracy, all the freshets since 1761. No freshet can I
\ncall great unless it wets my feet, as I stand inside Mr. Dingley’s gate. Some
\nfreshets in the ’30’s and 140lS would then come to my knees, the great flood of
\n’32 coming only a little higher, not more than half way to my hips. When I was a
\nboy, I used to be disgusted with a freshet that was even a few inches lower than
\nthe last.”
\nEvidence that the freshet of 1936 was higher than even the big flood of 1832
\ncomes to me in the form of a photograph, looking west down Lithgow Street past the
\nBassett house. The whole area is completely flooded. No street can be seen at
\nall. The water covers almost up to the sill of the northeast window of the first
\nfloor. Now Mr. Paine’s little book quotes Josiah Bassett as saying that no flood
\nhad ever cov.ered the floor of that old house — then called the Eaton house — but
\nthat the 1832 flood came to the under side of the floor beams. The 1936 waters
\ncame higher than that.
\nWe shall welcome anything more our listeners can tell us about Kennebec
\nfreshets, especially any facts or measurements that relate the flood of 1832 to
\nthe better remembered flood of 1936.
\n*****
\n2-194
\nWhen I talked about the Coolidge murder case, little did I think that any
\nproperty which once belonged to the murderer was still in existence. But I now
\nhave in my custody what are declared to be the saddle bags used by Dr. Valorus
\nP. Coolidge when he was practicing in Waterville. These saddle bags came, some
\nfifty years ago, into the possession of a Mr. Merrill of Fairfield, and were by
\nhim passed on to another person, whose name I am not at liberty to mention.
\nMr. Merrill’s nephew, Judge William Burgess of Fairfield, says he knows nothing
\nabout the history of these saddle bags, but he is joining me in the search
\nfor proof that they actually belonged to the murderer, Coolidge. We shall let you
\nknow what we discover.
\n*****
\nWhen the consuming public got jittery after the Korean War started and proceeded
\nto raid the stores for certain commodities, the story goes that a certain
\naged lady, who has long lived alone, ordered from her grocer 25 pounds of coffee
\nand a hundred pounds of sugar. “Why, Aunt Mary”, said the grocer, “what can you
\npossibly want with so much coffee and sugar?” “Young man”, said Aunt Mary, “don’t
\nyou know there’s a war on? I’m going to build up my inventories before a lot of
\ngreedy people start hoarding.”
\nNot long ago Ben Fairless, the distinguished head of U. S. Steel, told a gathering
\nin Philadelphia that even in the heavy industries and the building trades
\nthere are unfortunately too many Aunt Marys. That, said Mr. Fairless, is the only
\nway one can explain why today our nation is using 100 million tons of steel to
\nproduce a smaller quantity of goods than it manufactured out of only 88 million
\ntons seven years ago.
\nBut Mr. Fairless made it equally plain that hidden inventories do not alone
\nexplain our shortage of steel, nor do war demands of the government complete the
\nexplanation. He points to the undeniable fact that strikes have cost the American
\npeople 29 million tons of steel production since VJ-Day in 1945. Now right here
\n2-195
\nin Waterville we are getting first-hand knowledge of What a construction strike
\ncan mean.
\nMr. Fairless made no accusations. He refused to place the blame on anyone.
\nHe said, “I believe that any man who, in this critical hour,. impugns the motives
\nor the patriotism of any group of Americans, is playing the Kremlin’s dirty game.”
\nMr. Fairless went on to say: “Some men tell us that those strikes occurred
\nbecause management was stubborn and unyielding. Others say that labor was willful
\nand headstrong. As an interested party, I am not qualified to judge which is
\nright. But of one thing I am sure. If the patriotic men of steel — the men who
\nmake it and the men who manage it — are fully determined to put America’s security
\nabove all else, any problem they ever face can be settled peaceably, with
\npatience, forbearance arid reason.”
\nThese are hopeful words in a critical time.
\n2-196
\nLITTLE TALKS ON COMMON THINGS
\n83rd Broadcast November 12, 1950
\nFaith — the sUbstance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not
\nseen faith is reputed to be not such a common thing today as once it was.
\nWhether that is true or not, it is worthy of note that there is taking place
\nin waterville right now a tribute to a man of unrelenting faith. The citizens’
\ncommittee in charge of the local campaign to complete the ~oving of Colby College
\nto its Mayflower Hill site is making that campaign a personal tribute to
\nFranklin W. Johnson.
\nFrank Johnson describes himself as an unrepentent optimist. He is more
\nthan that; he is a man of deep, persistent faith. The optimist may sometimes
\nbe like the postman on the old Jack Benny program, who used to reiterate in
\nmournful tones, “Keep smiling”. But the man of faith knows there are plenty of
\ntimes when he can’t smile, when optimism is not enough, when even grim determination
\nand downright hard work seem fruitless. It is then that persistent,
\nabiding faith sees its most effective hour. Without it defeat is sure.
\nFrank Johnson means a lot to waterville besides giving it the new Colby.
\nNearly half a century ago he was principal of Coburn, and he has maintained
\nactive interest in that fine old school through all the years. Only a few days
\nago he attended a meeting of the school’s executive committee and helped lay
\nplans for Coburn’s 1951 summer school and the ensuing school year.
\nHe has had a prominent part in many community enterprises: the Boy Scouts,
\nthe Boys’ Club, the YMCA, the Thayer Hospital. He has probably served actively
\nand ardently on the boards of more educational, religious and charitable institutions
\nthan has any other citizen of Waterville.
\nHe was the first president of the Maine Teachers Association today the
\nmost powerful educational group in the state. He is a life member of the National
\n2-197
\nEducational Association. Most of you know Frank Johnson as a planner of
\nbuildings and a raiser of funds, and he is that indeed. But I don’t want you
\nto forget that he is also a teacher — one of Maine’s really great teachers.
\nAnd it is because he is a great teacher that he would never for a moment relinquish
\nhis determination and zeal for the new Colby. That beautiful site,
\nthose fine buildings, the increased endowment are all for one purpose — that
\nboys and girls for generations to come may have the right kind of log for future
\nMark Hopkinses to sit on.
\n*****
\nI want to congratulate the people of Getchell’s Corner on the restoration
\nof the village church. Perhaps some of my listeners Who do not live in Vassalboro
\nfail to recognize the name Getchell’s Corner. Well, that is What some of
\nus have known only as Vassalboro Village, and in fact its post office name has
\nlong been Vassalboro. It is the original Vassalboro settlement on the banks of
\nthe Kennebec, between Winslow and Augusta, as distinguished from the later settlements
\nof North and East Vassalboro in the same town.
\nThe village church has long been falling into decay, and services in it became
\nless and less frequent. A group of citizens decided that the community
\nmust not be without religious services. They have repaired th~ building, getting
\ngenerous support not only from local people, but from many former residents now
\nfar away. And on the last Sunday in October, two weeks ago, they made fitting
\ncelebration of their success. More than two hundred people crowded into the little
\nchapel to worship under the leadership of a man Who had been their minister
\nthirty years ago. Rev. Arthur MacDougal, the noted fisherman pastor at Bingham,
\ncame back to Vassalboro for this occasion. In simple, appealing words he talked
\nto them about the love of God, which, working through the lives of devoted people,
\nassured just such results as the restoration of the chapel and the continuance of
\nworship in the village.
\n2-198
\nIf you think religious interest is dead, that the church has no message for
\nour modern day, you should have been, as I was, at Vassalboro on the evening of
\nOctober 29.
\n*****
\nOur elder statesman, Hon. Harvey Eaton, quite rightly called me to task for
\nnot mentioning the pumpkin freshet on last week’s broadcast. Now the truth is I
\nhad heard of the pumpkin freshet but could not date it. My recorded information
\ndid not say which one of the many fall freshets was given that name.
\nMr. Eaton assures me it was the fall freshet of 1869. He remembers it well
\nbecause he was 7 years old at the time. The waters, not only of the Kennebec,
\nbut also of the Sandy River and the Carrabassett, rose suddenly to freshet height
\nthat autumn, while the pumpkins still lay unharvested in the fields. The waters
\nswept through many a corn field, ripped the pumpkins from the vines, and sent
\nthem tossing down the swollen streams. Hence the name pumpkin freshet.
\n*****
\nIt seems that when I mentioned my possession of the saddle bags belonging to
\nthe murderer Coolidge, I had nothing to brag about. For in the home of Howard
\nSimpson of Winslow is the very desk used by Coolidge in the office Where the
\nmurder took place. That desk stood in the second floor room over Shorey’s Tailor
\nShop at No. 27 Main Street on the evening when Ed Mathews drank the brandy
\ncontaining the fatal dose of prussic acid. At that same desk the next mo:r::ning
\nyoung Flint, Coolidge’s apprentice, whose testimony later convicted the doctor,
\nsaw Coolidge writing the item that he had loaned Mathews $200 the previous evening.
\nFor nearly a century the desk has now been in the possession of the Simpson
\nfamily.
\n*****
\nDid you know that Vassalboro once had a newspaper?
\ntell you about it.
\n*****
\nNext week I intend to
\n2-199
\nMore than a year has passed since I last saw one of those weekly newspapers
\nfrom rural Scotland, and I feared I was not going to see any more of them. But
\na few days ago my friend John Burgess again handed me three issues of the good,
\nold Peebleshire News for August 11, 18 and 25 of this year.
\nIt is evident that the Peebleshire folk, good Scots that they are, don’t
\nlike the ways of the Labor government of Britain. They are especially irked by
\nthe delay, red tape, and non-performance that follow the fine promises from
\nLondon.
\nIt seems Peebles folk have long been promised a new bridge over the Tweed.
\nThe government hemmed and hawed about the national share in this project. So a
\nnative of Peebles, now resident in South Africa, came forward with an offer of
\nfive thousand pounds toward the cost of the structure. Then the government wanted
\nto know whether the bridge would be used primarily for business or pleasure, and
\ndecided that it ranked a low priority on steel. Finally London said they would
\nallow a pre-stressed concrete bridge, but it would cost 20% more than steel and
\nthe town would have to pay the difference. Peebles had been promised the bridge
\nto be completed in 1949. In August, 1950 the editor of the News was still calling
\nthe government to task for its continuous hedging. The editor commented ruefully,
\n“We still hope the bridge will be built while the present generation is still
\nalive.”
\nWe’ve been talking about many old things on this program — things that happened
\na hundred, or, as in the building of Fort Halifax, even two hundred years
\nago. The events we’ve talked about — the Coolidge murder trial, the founding of
\nTen Lots, the incorporation of Winslow — seem a long; long time ago. But they
\nwere recent compared with something that made contemporary news in that Scottish
\nnewspaper last August.
\nAt Broughton, near Peebles — and Peebles, by the way, is just about as far
\nfrom Edinborough as Waterville is from Augusta — at nearby Broughton restoration
\n2-200
\nhas just been completed of a building that dates back not 100 or 200 years, but
\n1,400 years.
\nThe restored building is called a cell, for it was first used as the home
\nof a hermit monk of the fifth century — a time when very few Christians had
\ncome to Scotland. It is a small structure, 14 by 8i feet and 8 feet high. It had
\nof course fallen into ruin with the years. In the fifteenth century, when its
\nwalls were already a thousand years old, it was made part of a Norman church. By
\nthe time of the Reformation in 1560 this church was already badly in need of repair.
\nIn 1805 it was abandoned entirely. So when Scottish antiquarians carefully
\nexamined the ruins and dug down to the original foundations, they found one
\nend of the building much older than anyone had suspected. Experts identified it
\nas a monk’s cell of the fifth century, and it has now been carefully restored.
\nThe editor of the Peebleshire News is a good friend of the United States. In
\nall three of those August issu.es he was carrying on a hot debate with one John
\nMacKay. MacKay began it by writing to the editor, protesting against the united
\nKingdom’s expenditures for armament and defense. When he got on the subject of
\nthe United States, MacKay really let loose. He wrote: “Why is this country hitched
\nto Wall Street, that great American institution of money-lenders and war-mongers?
\nAre the youths of Scotland to be sacrificed for American dollars? America seeks
\nworld domination, and our government is prepared to help.”
\nThe editor replied rather mildly by saying: “Mr. MacKay deplores aggression,
\nbut he shuts his eyes totally and completely to the major cause, not the American
\ndollar but the attack on South Korea by North Korea. Mr. MacKay is perfectly aware
\nWhich is the mightiest armed force in the world today, and until that country will
\ncooperate, we must keep our powder dry.”
\nMacKay came back the next week with more than a column of print, revealing
\nat last What he had had in mind all the time: –“HOW can Russia be looked upon as
\nthe enemy prepared for war against this or any other nation?” That question was
\n2-201
\nthe burden of his song. “The North Korean Army”, he wrote, “crossed the border
\nin self defense, because the South Koreans were all ready to cross in the other
\ndirection. ”
\nWhen ~tr. MacKay had thus revealed himself as a Scottish spokesman for the
\nKremlin, the Peebleshire editor felt called upon to speak more sharply than he
\nhad done the week before. He wrote: “Mr. MacKay indulges liberally in quotations
\nfrom the pro-Soviet press. That does not make the quotations true. Take Mr.
\nMacKay’s own closing statement, ‘The enemy of mankind is not Soviet Russia but
\nAmerican \u00b1mperialism’. Any person similarly minded could quote that statement;
\nthousands even might quote it. But the statement would still remain just what it
\nis, an unsupported opinion, the invention of Mr. MacKay.”
\nIt is heartening to all of us, and especially to the many loyal Americans of
\nScotch ancestry in this vicinity, to know that across the seas by the banks of
\nthe River Tweed in bonnie Scotland, are men who can still rise to the defense of
\nAmerica when she is scurrilously attacked.
\n2-202
\nLITTLE TALKS ON COMMON THINGS
\n84th Broadcast November 19, 1950
\nThe present campaign is by no means the first time that the citizens of
\nwaterville have rallied to the needs of their college. For 135 years the people
\nof this community have rightly considered the college theirs, although legally
\nit is a privately operated institution.
\nThe charter granted to the Maine Literary and Theological Institution by
\nthe Massachusetts Legislature in 1813 did not provide for locating the college
\nin Waterville. On the contrary, the land allotted for the new institution was
\nin Township No.3, fifteen miles above Bangor on the Penobscot River. That site,
\nthen far out in the wilderness, was obviously so unsuitable that, in 1816, the
\ntrustees of the as yet unbuilt college obtained the right to locate and establish
\ntheir buildings in any town within the limits of Kennebec or Somerset Counties.
\nThree towns actively competed for the new college — Farmington, Bloomfield
\nand Waterville. Does Farmington surprise you? It need not, because there was
\nthen no Franklin County. Bloomfield was, of course, the old name of Skowhegan.
\nCredit for bringing the college to Waterville has long been given chiefly to
\nTimothy Boutelle, and it was indeed he who collected the subscriptions and issued
\nreceipts for them. But it seems reasonably clear that the man who gave the movement
\nits start was Dr. Obadiah Williams. If they could have been contemporaries,
\nObadiah Williams and Franklin Johnson would have made a great team. Both men of
\nvision and foresight, both devoted to the welfare of the community, both undaunted
\nby adversity, both such optimists that they believed the impossible only takes a
\nlittle longer than the difficult; one of them planned for a college in Waterville,
\nthe other made the little, struggling institution a college with a new site and a
\nnational reputation.
\n2-203
\nYou will perhaps recall an earlier broadcast in which I told how Obadiah
\nWilliams gave to the town the site of the City Hall and its park. It was on
\nthat site that the first meeting house on this side of the river was erected
\nthe building that was to serve nearly a century and a half successively as a
\nchurch, town house and armory. Dr. Williams was by all odds Waterville’ s lea’:’
\nding citizen until his death in 1799, fourteen years before the college trustees
\ngot their charter.
\nBorn in Antrim, New Hampshire in 1752 young Williams had participated in the
\nbattle of Bunker Hill, and afterwards served as surgeon in General Stark’s regiment
\nthroughout the Revolution. The first Maine town to benefit by his practice
\nwas Sidney, where he stayed until 1792. He then came to Waterville, married a
\nWaterville qirl and became the father of five boys and two girls. He built the
\nfirst frame house in Waterville.
\nSuch was the good physician who in 1788 wrote to Dr. Whittaker of Canaan
\nabout his plans for an advanced educational institution in Winslow, for not until
\nfourteen years later did Waterville become a separate town.
\nWhen in 1816 a committee of the trustees reported in favor of Bloomfield,
\nWaterville citizens remembered how hard Obadiah Williams had worked to interest
\npeople in a college, and they determined not to be unmindful of his memory. They
\npersuaded the trustees to locate the institution in Waterville provided the people
\nof the town would raise a suitable sum of money. Over $2,000 was subscribed,
\nbut in 1816, just as today, it is easier to get pledges than to collect them.
\nNine men came forward and guaranteed the subscriptions, some of which were in
\namounts as small as fifty cents. Two of those nine men were Waterville’s leading
\ncitizens of the time, Nathaniel Gilman and Timothy BOutelle.
\nBelieve me, the men Who\u00b7\u00b7 were determined to have the college in Waterville
\nwere glad to get those fifty cent subscriptions. And it is just the same today.
\nNo one need refuse to give to a worthy community cause for fear that a small gift
\n2-204
\ndoes not help or will not be appreciated. It is the accumulation of many small
\ngifts that brings success to\u00b7’ every such enterprise. What a thrill those small
\ngivers of 1816 must have had when they talked about their college.
\n*****
\nI haven’t forgotten that last week I promised to tell you about Vassalboro’s
\nnewspaper. It was a very interesting sheet and one of its editors was a woman
\nvery well known to many of you who are listening tonight.
\nIn March, 1886 there appeared in Vassalboro Volume I, Number 1 of the Clarion,
\npublished by S. A. and N. C. Burle~gh. The first named editor was Samuel
\nAppleton BurleIDgh, who about eight years later would graduate from Colby College.
\nIn 1886 he was only fifteen years old and his associate editor, N. C., was his
\neven younger sister, Nettie Burleigh.
\nThat first issue of the Clarion was a tiny, four-page sheet, 6 by 5! inches.
\nThe enterprise of the young editors was shown, however, in their publication of
\nthree display ads; one announcing that Lizzie Taylor, fashionable dressmaker,
\nmade cutting and fitting a specialty at North Fairfield; another that the Lang
\nFarm at Vassalboro had Plymouth Rocks for sale, also eggs for setting; and the
\nthird ad stated that Miss Mary Morrison of Vassalboro had a good, second-hand
\nDavis Machine for sale. There was space for a fourth ad, but the young editors
\nevidently failed to sell it, for they printed therein “This space is reserved
\n\u00b7for our patrons”.
\nEvery proprietor of a new paper in those days took pains to announce his
\nplans and policy in the first issue, and these youngsters were no exception.
\nThis is what the first column of page one announced:
\n“To our patrons: With this our first issue we launch our little bark upon
\nthe boundless sea of literature, trusting in the charity of our fellow voyagers
\nto overlook anything that resembles incompetency and to encourage our labors so
\nfar as they meet with approval. OUr object is the dissemination of truth and
\n2-205
\ntemperance, and the advancement of scientific and practical knowledge among our
\nfellow men.”
\nThe Burleigh children announced their advertising rates as 10 cents an inch,
\n45 cents a column, 85 cents a page. They proposed to publish the paper monthly.
\nThe only local news in that first issue concerned the opening of the spring term
\nat Oak Grove and an entertainment by the ladies of the Congregational Society.
\nNow it is not unusual for children to start a paper, especially if someone
\ngives them a printing press, but it is not so usual for such a paper to continue
\npublication. I suppose most of the Burleigh neighbors expected Sam and Nettie
\nsoon to tire of the press in the upstairs room of the house. How surprised folks
\nmust have been to see that little paper not only keep on month after month, but
\nincrease in size and actually achieve a circulation of more than a thousand
\ncopies. By June, 1888 its crude, childish printing had disappeared, and a neat
\nfour-pager, ten by eight inches, three columns to a page, heralded Volume 3, No.
\n1 of the Clarion.
\nThe ads were now numerous. Hall and Meader, with stores both at Vassalboro
\nand North Vassalboro, carried the biggest ad — two columns of four inches. Their
\nad ends with this interesting postscript: “We shall cut prices on fertilizers,
\nif other firms do”. Mrs. H. C. Minot of Belgrade evidently did a good business
\nin bees and honey, but she also had a sideline, for in a separate ad she announced
\nthe Novelty Slate Pencil Sharpener at 7 cents, two for 12 cents. The original
\nsubscription rate of the Clarion had been 20 cents a year. Success had now permitted
\nan increase to 30 cents a year.
\nThere were two full columns of locals in that issue of June, 1888, one of
\nwhich announced that Mr. Will Yates had again sailed for Africa, where he would
\nspend the summer. First strawberries of the season were on the market at 16
\ncents a quart. In fact a box on page 3 is headed “Vassalboro Market, Retail Prices
\nCUrrent”, followed by “Potatoes, $1.00 a barrel; flour, $5.75 a barrel; corn,
\n2-206
\n80 cents a bushel; eggs, 14 cents a dozen; butter, 20 cents a pound; dry hard
\nwood, $5.00 a cord; soft wood, $3.75 a cord.”
\nIn 1888 the Burleigh brother and sister were eager to get news from surrounding
\ntowns. They published an ad of their own, which reads:
\n“Wanted — correspondents in different parts of Vassalboro, China, Winslow
\nand Sidney, to send US news items. We will furnish writing material and stamps,
\nand will send the Clarion free.”
\nSo, on through 1889, 1890 and most of 1891 the Clarion continued its monthly
\npeal. By that time Sam Burleigh was in college, and he launched a more ambitious
\npublication. On September 1, 1891 appeared’Vol. 1, No.1 of the Kennebec Valley
\nNews, published at Vassalboro. Evidently Sam Burleigh had not thought of the
\nClarion as a newspaper, but rather as a monthly periodical of literature, for his
\nannouncement of the Valley News reads: “At last our dreams are realized and Vassalboro
\nhas a newspaper. Here we are! Another literary infant thrust upon the
\nmercies of a cold world. We don’t propose to pander to the whims of anyone, be
\nthey male or female, saint or sinner, prohibitionist, Democrat or Republican. We
\nshall try to help warm this cold world by turning into it the gulf stream of
\ncharity and benevolence.”
\nThe Valley News was no tiny monthly; it was a full-sized, four page weekly,
\npublished every Tuesday. Evidently Sam Burleigh had good connections in Waterville,
\nfor his first issue was full of Waterville ads. Sam Preble or rather
\nPreble and Jordan — offered life size crayon portraits at $6.00; Harriman Brothers
\ncalled attention to their fine collection of jewelry; S. A. Estes announced
\nthat his store in the Plaisted Block was the place to buy boots, shoes and rubbers;
\nbut on the same page the Loud Brothers printed a bigger ad, saying “Look here!
\nWhy don’t you buy your boots and shoes at Louds?” Hanson, Webber and Dunham
\nwanted Vassalboro readers to try the new Royal Atlantic cooking range; F. A.
\nRobbins on Silver street wanted the Vassalboro folks to bring their furniture to
\n2-207
\nhim for upholstering. Dolloff and Dunham at 40 Main Street offered men’s,
\nboy’s and children’s suits, odd pants and overcoats at greatly reduced prices
\nto close them out and make room for fall goods. H. B. Tucker and Co. asked:
\n“Did you ever know that there is a drug store in Arnold Block, waterville?
\nWhen you are sick do you have Mr. Tucker and Mr. Larrabee, both registered
\napothecaries, put up your medicine? If not, you had better begin right away, and
\nget fair prices on all goods, not be robbed on goods you know little about.”
\nBy 1888 the safety bicycle, as distinguished from its big front-wheeled
\npredecessor, had come to Central Maine. Sam Burleigh himself was agent for the
\nColumbia, which his pictured ad announced as the best wheel for business or
\npleasure. He also offered two second-hand Columbias for sale cheap_
\nSuch is a part, and only a part, of the fascinating story of Vassalboro’s
\nnewspaper started by two very enterprising children 64 years ago.
\n2-208
\nLITTLE TALKS ON COMMON THINGS
\n85th Broadcast November 26, 1950
\nOne of the commonest things for all of us is pride in our own state. Let’s
\nbegin tonight’s broadcast with a few facts about Maine. Do you know what is
\nMaine’s largest crop? It is trees. Forest trees occupy 84 per cent of the
\nland area of our state. From the days when they produced the best masts for
\nHis Majesty’s ships down to the present day of sawed lumber and pulp wood, they
\nhave been Maine’s abounding source of wealth.
\nDid you know that nearly seven per cent of Maine’S total area consists of
\nlakes, ponds and rivers? To say nothing of the waters that comprise our incomparable
\nocean front, we are near the top of all the states in respect to inland
\nwaters. That’s why we’re the great Vacationland of the nation.
\nIs Maine doing anything to preserve its wild life? Indeed, yes. OUr state
\nhas more than 50 game preserves and sanctuaries, varying from small, fenced
\nareas to the 141,000 acres of Baxter State Park. And in Acadia’s 28,000 acres
\nwe have one of the few national parks in the East.
\nWhen one fishes a closed brook or kills an animal in a game preserve, he is
\nof course breaking the law. But he is doing something else quite as reprehensible.
\nHe is stealing the property of every man, woman and child in Maine. In
\nthis country our common law is based not only on British precedent, but also on
\na fundamental document, the Magna Carta, which holds that all fish and game in
\ntheir natural habitat are public property, not the possession of whomever happens
\nto own the land.
\nEvery loyal citizen of Maine should take active interest in the persistent
\nattempts by state authorities to conserve our natural resources. Reforestation,
\nfire protection, game preserves, closed streams, fish hatcheries and fish stocking
\nare all important. It is a remarkable fact that, although Maine saw the earliest
\n2-209
\nsettlements on the Atlantic seaboard, save only that at st. Augustine, our
\nstate remains one of the few in the whole nation with natural resources that
\ncan not only be maintained, but can actually be increased if all of us citizens
\nwill get behind the plans for conservation.
\n*****
\nthroUgh the courtesy of Mrs. Christine Hume of Fairfield I have had the
\nprivilege of examining both the account book and the diary kept by her greatgrandfather,
\nWilliam Bryant, a prominent citizen of Fairfield in the first half
\nof the nineteenth century.
\nThis man, who meant so much to our sister town, was born in Sandwich, Mass.
\nin 1781. He died in 1867 at the age of 86 at the home of his daughter, Susan
\nTotman, on Bunker’S Island. He came to Fairfield in 1817 and lived in the Emery
\nHouse at Nye’ sCorner, just south of the old cemetery. Nye’ sCorner, as I am
\nsure many of you know, is where the road from Fairfield Center to Hinckley joins
\nthe Fairfield-Skowhegan highway, just south of the present site of the Good Will
\nHomes and School.
\nWilliam Bryant married Lydia Haley from Rhode Island. They had five children.
\nMary, the oldest, born in 1810, married William Connor and was the mother of
\nMaine’s Governor, Selden Connor. Harriet, the second child, married into the
\nDrew family. Then came the twins, SUsan and Cyrus, born in 1818. Susan’s marriage
\nlinked the Bryants with the Totmans, as her sister Mary’s had linked them
\nwith the Connors, and the result was that her twin brother Cyrus was operating
\nthe lumber interests of either Connors or Totmans most of his life. The fifth
\nchild was Samuel. Every large family usually has one wanderer, a boy with
\nitChing feet who is determined to see the world and seek his fortune far from
\nhome.
\nWilliam Bryant’s diary has in it the makings of a complete novel. What a
\nstory could be written around its varied and picturesque items. And not the least
\n2-210
\nsparkling of those items concern young Samuel.
\nUp in the Moosehead region the Connors, Nyes and Totmans did a lot of
\nlumbering. One of those regions was called “the sapling”. On February 15,
\n1842 Mr. Bryant wrote in his diary an item that showed that young Sam, or, as
\nhis father more often called him, Haley, had a mind of his own. Though he was
\napparently starting out on the usual occupation of a Fairfield youth of 19, his
\nway of doing it caused the anxious father to write as follows:
\n“Samuel Haley started for the saplin with William Connor about 8 o’clock.
\nIt growed cold most all day, and was a terrible tedious day to ride against the
\nwind. I fear ~at Haley got frost bitten, for he had not any outside coat except
\na short jacket, because he could not be plagued with any.”
\nEvidently Samuel Haley did not like it on the sapling with William Connor’s
\nhalf dozen six-ox teams, for he was home again in three weeks, though the Connors
\ncrew stayed in the woods until April.
\nSix years went by, with Samuel coming of age, working at odd jobs for the
\nConnors and the Totmans, occasionally helping with a neighbor’s haying, and doing
\nwhat he had to do on the home farm. Although the father makes no comment about
\nit, we can read between the lines and picture hard-working, home-loving Cyrus
\ngetting more and more put out with his younger brother, who was daily itching to
\nset off for distant parts.
\nOn October 22, 1848 father William wrote in the diary: “Samuel left home
\nthis evening to take the five o’clock boat at Waterville. He is going to the
\nState of pennsylvania with several young men, logging, running and sawing.”
\nSomething went wrong, for on January 25, 1849 the diary recorded: “Samuel
\nreturned from Pennsylvania.” Just that and nothing more. No hint as to why he
\nreturned, or whether the fatted calf was killed, or how the elder brother greeted
\nhim. But anyhow he was back home, with the itchiness apparently out of his feet,
\nready to settle down on the Nye’s Corner farm.
\n2-211
\nRemember this was in January of 1849. Something happened in that year to
\nstir the imagination and tickle the feet of every young man bitten by the bug
\nof wanderlust. Gold was discovered in California. On August 6, 1849 William
\nBryant wrote in his diary: “We suppose that Randall Hall, Daniel Hall, John
\nNye, Marquis Cayford, and John Hodgdon sailed this day from Bangor for California
\nin the ship.”
\nWhy Samuel Bryant was not also in the party we do not know. Perhaps something
\nin the Pennsylvania experience made him reluctant to break away again so
\nsoon. Perhaps an anxious mother persuaded him to stay \u2022. The father’s diary tells
\nus nothing about it except by its silence. Sam’s name is not mentioned among
\nthose who even planned to take ship from Bangor.
\nBut on December 28, 1852 the father had something to record about young
\nSamuel Haley, who was then 29 years old. This is what we read in the diary:
\n“samuel left home this day to sail in the ship Baltimore from New York to Port
\nPhillip, Australia, in quest of gold. The following went with him: Bartlett Nye,
\nB. H. Brown, Rodney Wyman, Briggs Emery, George Holland, Edward Philbrook, and
\nThomas Judkins.” On the margin of the same page, opposite the appropriate names,
\nMr. Bryant later recorded that Wyman returned home in 1856, Briggs died in California,
\nand Holland died in Australia. Of his own son, Samuel Haley Bryant, not
\nanother word.
\nThe diary continues until the spring of 1867, a few weeks before Mr. Bryant’s
\ndeath. Yet among all the remaining entries the only mention of Samuel is a
\ntouching reference to the dying mother calling for and embracing her son’s tintype
\nminiature.
\nStill preserved in the family is an old envelope addressed to Mr. Samuel H.
\nBryant, Melbourne, Australia, care of Adams Express, to remain till called for.
\nIt is postmarked Kendalls Mills, January 5. Unfortunately the postmarks of that
\ntime seldom included the year, and it is missing in this case. In the upper right-
\n2-212
\nhand corner is written in numerals “45”, which is apparently the postage.
\nWhether this envelope actually reached Samuel in Australia and somehow
\nfound its later way back to Fairfield, whether it was returned unclaimed, or
\nwhether it never went to Australia, we do not know. The name and address are in
\nthe father’s handwriting, but the words “care of Adams Express” have been
\nwritten in by another hand.
\nDid Samuel Bryant ever return home? Does anyone of the many surviving
\nFairfield relatives know the answer?
\n*****
\nWe have said that William Bryant was a prominent man. In January I 1889,
\ntwenty-two years after his death, the Fairfield Journal said the following
\nabout him: “William Bryant, Esq. was a very prominent citizen at Nye’ sCorner
\nfor many years. He kept a hat store and manufactured hats. He was chairman of the
\nSelectmen, also a very correct accountant. It was said of him that he could tell
\nthe financial standing of the town any day of the week and any hour of the day.”
\nIn 1865, two years before he died, Mr. Bryant recorded in the diary a statement
\nof his public offices. He wrote: “I attended the General Court (that is,
\nthe legislature) in Boston two sessions, 1819 and 1820. I was chosen to the
\nMaine Legislature in 1826 and 1828. I was elected selectman of Fairfield nineteen
\ntimes.”
\n*****
\nHistorians like to cull the old diaries for record of great events. They
\nare usually disappointed. These Maine farmers and traders were not unmindful of
\nnational affairs. Some of them were indeed deeply immersed in politics. But
\nthey were first of all intent on getting an honest living and getting their children
\ncomfortably started on useful, worthy lives. They were folks who very
\nstrictly minded their own business, and minded it well.
\nKnowing this trait of the rural diarists, we did not expect to find mention
\n2-213
\nof many national events in William Bryant’s book. But one thing did surprise
\nus, and it has surprised us in the case of at least three other diaries that
\ncover the years of the Civil War. From 1861 to 1865 you can read these diaries
\nincluding William Bryant’s and scarcely know that a war was going on. Yet many
\nyoung men of Fairfield served in that war. Somehow it wasn’t so important as
\nthe weather, the crops, the winter lumbering, and the family happenings.
\nMr. Bryant makes just two references to the war. The first is when he notes
\nin 1862 that Selden Connor has left for Fort Monroe. The other is dated May 10,
\n1865 and reads: “General Lee, the rebel, surrendered his army this day.”
\nIn contrast to this brevity and silence about the great war between North
\nand South, Mr. Bryant wrote on March 4, 1857: “This day Mr. Buchanan enters upon
\nthe duties of his office as President of the United States. We shall soon know
\nwhat to depend upon respecting his stand between freedom and slavery. We cannot
\nremain muCh longer as we are now. It belongs to the free inhabitants to choose
\nwhom they will serve, Freedom or Slavery. I say no union with slavery as things
\ngo at this time. No more slave states north or south hereafter. What will Buchanan
\ndo about the great question? Let us wait and see.”
\nEighteen years earlier, in 1839, Mr. Bryant’s pen was stirred into action
\nabout another incident which hit Maine muCh closer than did the opening weeks of
\nthe Civil War. Let us have that 1839 occurrence in Bryant’s own words:
\n“February 23, 1839. All is bustle here respecting the northeastern boundary.
\nTwo hundred men started about a fortnight ago to drive off trespassers. The
\nGovernor informs us that other militia to the amount of 1,500 have marched for
\nthe boundary line, and he has called for a draft of 8,000 more. My wife is fixing
\nCyrus’ stockings and washing them with tears. But Cyrus has returned home and
\ngot clear of the draft this time.”
\nThis reference is, of course, to the Aroostook War, a bloodless but exciting
\nmatter while it lasted. The Hay-Ashburton Treaty settled the boundary peaceably
\n2-214
\nand it has remained unfortified by either Canada or the United States to this
\nday.
\nThere is much more of interest in William Bryant’s diary, and a lot to be
\ngleaned from his account book — the only accounts of an old-t~e hatter that I
\nhave ever seen.
\nof it next week.
\nBut that’s all we have time for today, so you shall have more
\n2-215
\nLITTLE TALKS ON COMMON THINGS
\n86th Broadcast December 3, 1950
\nOne of the most penetrating commentators on the life of our times is Ed
\nChase of Portland. He ought to have a wider audience than the news letter sent
\nout weekly to the customers of his securities business.
\nEven the most elementary student of biology knows about mutation, the
\nchanges which take place to bring varied forms of plant and animal life. Let
\nme pass on to you what Ed Chase said recently about differentiation of species.
\n“It has long been an American Article of Faith that athletic games exercise
\na beneficient influence in the formation of character. Tangible evidence of this
\nfaith will be found in the proportion of the educational plant facilities which
\nis devoted to athletics. The weight of this evidence, as indicated by expenditure
\non athletic construction and instruction, seems to justify the belief that
\nof all the competitive sports, football must do the most for character.
\nBut until quite recently the conviction that a superior type emerges from
\nthe gridiron environment seemed likely to remain in the domain of faith. No one
\nhad ever proved beyond question that football players are destined to become
\ndifferent from other men in particular and desirable traits.
\nNow we have the two-platoon system. Each school has one first team specializing
\non offense and another trained for defense. If there is anything in the
\ntheory that football produces a type, then there should be a perceptible variation
\nin species, when we vary the environment. Ten years from now, as we observe
\nthese men in after-life, we may expect to find not only differing physical traits,
\nas in the use of hands, but also differing mental attitudes, as between a disposition
\nto confidence on the one side and suspicion on the other. Notably, their
\nconceptions of progress should be quite different. Surely then it will be hardly
\nnecessary for the psych~atrist to ask: ‘Which team were you on?’
\n‘2-216
\n“But if it should turn out that there isn’t any difference, we might have
\nto review our educational policy. We might even shift the competitive emphasis
\nfrom the gridiron to the classroom. What a disaster that would be, or wouldn’t
\nit?”
\n*****
\nWhile that journal of Fairfield’s prominent citizen of the mid-nineteenth
\ncentury is still fresh in mind, let’s have a bit more of it.
\nNow William Bryant was first of all a farmer and he gave much attention to
\nthe crops he raised on the big farm at Nye’ sCorner. As you have heard me say
\nbefore on other occasions, the principal crop of Central Maine at that time was
\ncorn. But large quantities of wheat and oats were also raised. As now, .the hay
\ncrop was important, but for a different reason. Now it is to feed the big herds
\nof milk cattle, for whose product the Hood or Whiting collectors come to the
\nfarmer’s very barn door. In William Bryant’s day comparatively little of the hay
\nwas used to feed milk cows. The great bulk of it went to the horses and oxen. The
\noxen far outnumbered the horses. We noted last week that it was not unusual for
\nWi11iam Connor to start out for the sapling with six teams of six yokes each. That
\nmeans 72 oxen for just one lumbering operation.
\nSo year after year William Bryant notes in his diary his attention to hay,
\nwheat, oats and corn — especially corn.
\nIt seems that Mrs. Bryant had some kind of formula for predicting the kind
\nof summer each year would bring. It was something like the modern predictions
\nbased on Ground Hog Day which, I believe, is February 2nd. Mrs. Bryant’s fateful
\nday was January 25.
\nOn January 25, 1843 Mr. Bryant wrote in his diary: “Clear, fair and cold.
\nAccording to my wife’s system we shall have a good corn season, notwithstanding
\nthe Millerites are preaching that the world is to be destroyed in April.” That is
\none of the few references I have ever seen in a private diary to the followers of
\n2-217
\nthe fantastic Miller, who predicted the end of the world for April, 1843. The
\nbelievers donned white clothes and assembled on roofs or heights of land to
\nawait the end. Their disillusionment broke up the sect so that a generation
\nafterward few remembered the furor they so briefly caused.
\nBut to get back to Mr. Bryant’s corn. What about the boom year his wife
\nhad predicted? On May 19 he wrote: “stephen Nye and Joseph Hubbard finished
\nplanting my corn this day. They dropped the seed directly on the hog manure
\nbefore they put on any earth, and if the corn comes up well I shall think I have
\nbeen too particular in planting corn. If they are right I have been wrong all my
\nlife. But I think it will not come up. I have about determined to plant it over.”
\nOn May 29 he had come to a decision, although he does not say whether it
\nwas because the first planting showed no signs of breaking the soil. He merely
\nwrote: “We began to plant our corn over this day. I soaked the seed in strong,
\nwann pickle.”
\nTwo weeks later on June 16 he noted that the corn had come up, but poorly.
\n“My corn”, he said, “has not looked so slim for a great number of years.”
\nOn July 6 the corn was about 6 to 8 inches high. On the 19th it had begun
\nto spindle, but Mr. Bryant lamented, “Some of it stands almost still.” On August
\n4th he was very pessimistic, noting, “Corn almost eat up by wonns.” A week later
\non August 10 he wrote dolefully, “Two-thirds of my corn has silked, the rest
\nspoiled by worms.”
\nWhen September was ushered in Mr. Bryant recorded: “I don’t think I have
\ngot one ear of corn filled.” On september 26 he .wrote what seemed to be the sad
\nclimax: “I have cut up for fodder the most of my corn.” But this was not the
\nend, for on October 20 there was held in William Bryant’s barn what he called
\n“the biggest huskin party I have ever had, with over a hundred bushels husked”.
\nEvidently his pessimism somewhat outran the\u00b7 facts.
\nHaving told you recently .about the freshet of 1832, .1 was interested in Mr.
\n2-218
\nBryant’s reference to that event. He wrote: “The winter of 1831-32 was the
\ncoldest known for many years and continued to the 11th day of April. After a
\nwarm spell it grew cold again on the 23rd. That morning my well was scum over
\nand manure froze in the barn. Planted some corn on May 11. On May 19 it began
\nto rain and rained powerfully through the 21st. On the 22nd was the highest
\nfreshet ever known on the Kennebec.”
\nMarch of 1846 saw another freshet mentioned by Mr. Bryant. On March 27 he
\nwrote: “The river raises fast, and I think we shall have the highest freshet
\nsince 1832. Now at 11 o’clock the water is over the Corner bridge. The ice is
\ndammed up below Noble’s ferry. II
\nMost of the bridges across principal rivers were then toll bridges. That the
\ntoll keepers sometimes enlisted their relatives for a spell of duty is shown by
\nMr. Bryant’s entry of November 16, 1848: “Thanksgiving Day. My wife spent the
\nday at Nahum Totman’s and attended at the toll house until I went there and took
\nmy dinner. Now in the evening we are home alone.”
\nThat touch “home alone” has a note of sadness. Samuel Haley had just departed
\nfor Pennsylvania. Cyrus and his wife were with her people in Vassalboro. The
\nthree girls were all married and in homes of their own. A lot of people know just
\nhow William and Lydia Bryant felt at the end of that Thanksgiving Day a hundred
\nyears ago.
\nMr. Bryant did not fail to notice one of Waterville’s most eventful days.
\nOn November 27, 1849 he recorded: “The cars arrived in waterville this day for
\nthe first time. A great day for Waterville.” That, of course, was the coming of
\nthe first railroad line, the Androscoggin and Kennebec, linking Waterville with
\nLewiston — an event whose hundredth anniversary was appropriately mentioned by
\nthe Waterville Sentinel a year ago, but otherwise went unnoticed and unsung. I
\nfear we waterville folks aren’t strong on anniversaries. What about the Hundred
\nand fiftieth anniversary of Waterville’s incorporation? Are any plans being made
\n2-219
\nfor that?
\nOne small item in Mr. Bryant’s diary shows a future governor of Maine in
\nan embarassing situation. On February 27, 1845, according to Mr. Bryant, Greteon
\nWells’ colt met with a fright, run into William Connor’s entry, and knocked down
\nhis wife and son Selden.” It was probably one of the few times anybody or anything
\nknocked Selden Connor down, until a Civil War shell severed his foot.
\nThe Connors then lived in the house now owned and occupied by Dr. William
\nBovie, just off High Street in Fairfield. That house has one of the largest and
\nmost spaciously arranged-brick ovens you will find anywhere in Central Maine.
\nWages weren’t high in those days, but when one could work out for cash it
\nwas decidedly welcome. Most work was in exchange for commodities, and long were
\nthe credits extended on both sides. On April 25, 1842 Cyrus Bryant started for
\nthe Dead Water in Vassalboro to work for Nahum and Ezra Totman at $14 a month. On
\nthe same day the father recorded: “OWen Spalding began to work for me for 4
\nmonths at $6.50 per month. Cyrus was now his own man and could demand wages. Apparently
\nit was better to let him work away from home and hire a replacement at
\nless than half of Cyrus I earning wage.
\nNot often does one get a chance to determine from these old records how
\nearly children worked for wages, but fortunately William Bryant kept a set of
\naccounts as well as a diary. In fact the diary begins at one end of the big book.
\nThen, turn the book upside down, and at the other end you find the beginning of
\nthe accounts.
\nThe first mention of a son’s wages is on June 11, 1832 when, we read, “Herman
\nNye, to Cyrus planting one day — 25 cents.” Cyrus was then just 13 years
\nold. A year later an entry reads: “Charles Pishon. to Cyrus and my oxen to haul
\nlumber out of the river.” That was a real job for a 14 year old boy. In 1833
\nthe father collected from Isaac Chase 50 cents for Cyrus 2 days haying. In 1834,
\nwhen Cyrus was 16, Mr. Bryant collected from Thomas Connor 25 cents for Cyrus
\n2-220
\nhoeing corn one day.
\nWhen the younger brother Samuel was 14, in 1837, the father received from
\nWilliam Connor $26.00 for Sam’s four months’ wages.
\nIn our day it seems excessively harsh for a father to take and keep the
\nwages of his growing boys, but that was the universal custom a hundred years ago.
\nEvery father controlled a son’s wages until the boy reached 21. There was nothing
\nharsh or unseemly about what every family recognized and practiced. When these
\nmodern 75 cents an hour grammar school kids get their snow shoveler’s pay it takes
\na mighty brave father to get any share of it.
\nAs we noted last week, William Bryant lived through the Civil War. After his
\nwife died in 1858 he missed her greatly, and he himself was not nearly so active.
\nYet much of the old pride remained. On January 5, 1861 he wrote: “I am 80 years
\nold this day. I have not lost a tooth nor had the toothache for over 12 years.
\nMy hair is almost as black as when I was young. But I feel weak and not worth
\nInUch. II
\nAs the years went by he felt himself growing weaker. “December 25, 1865,
\nChristmas. A fair day. I am very feeble. I was taken bleeding of the nose for
\nthe third time in one week.” “December 27 I am failing.” “March 10, 1866 —
\nI fear I am failing and I think I shall not be here long.” “March 31 — I feel
\nI shall not write much more in this book.” But on his 86th birthday in 1867,
\nsomething of the old vigor reasserted itself for he then wrote: “I am 86 years
\nold this day. I am not smart, but I saw wood, sleep and eat well.”
\nEarly in life Mr. Bryant became a staunch Universalist. The diary’s first
\nmention of that denomination, which was to become so prominent in Fairfield, was
\non May 10, 1838: “Levi Barrett preached at the ferry school house the third
\ntime. The first universal preacher at this place that almost all admire to hear.”
\nOn December 18 of the same year Mr. Bryant and George Drew went to the meetinghouse
\nto hear the Universalist, Mr. Henry, preach, and the diarist recorded a
\n2-221
\ncold time coming home. In 1842 the whole family attended a three day meeting
\nof Universalists at Canaan. On January 19, 1858 the diary tells us: “Universalist
\nlevee at Bunker’s Hall. Was so crowded we had to. stand on our feet,
\nwhich was very tiresome.” One summer Susan was off to Vassalboro for a brief
\nvisit and then on to Augusta for the Universalist convention. There is something,
\ntherefore, peculiarly fitting about the last entry in William Bryant’s
\ndiary. It is dated February 6, 1867 and consists of one short sentence: “I
\ncan’t go to meeting this day.” Soon afterwards this great citizen of Fairfield
\nwas stricken with paralysis and on June 15, at the home of his daughter Susan,
\nhe died.
\nMemorial windows to William and Lydia Bryant, as well as those in memory
\nof Nahum and Susan Totman, were removed from the Fairfield Universalist Church
\nwhen that society dissolved, and were appropriately reset in the Methodist Church,
\nthe oldest church edifice in Fairfield Village.
\n2-222
\nLITTLE TALKS ON COMMON THINGS
\n87th Broadcast December 10, 1950
\nThat economic philosopher of Portland, Maine, Ed Chase, whom I have more
\nthan once quoted on this program, had something to say the other day about 2 plus
\n2. Everybody, says Mr. Chase, recognizes that 2 plus 2 equals four, and 2 plus 2
\nplus 2 equals six. But, says he, keep on writing 2 plus 2 plus 2 plus 2 on and
\non to the point where the answer is no longer clear at a glance, and see how
\ngullible folks can be. Put down almost any number as the supposed total, and a
\nbig majority of readers will never question it.
\nBut, says Mr. Chase, there is always an intelligent minority which comprehends
\nand accepts the whole only as the sum of all its parts. In the existence
\nof that minority Mr. Chase sees hope of our national economic survival. It is
\nthey who understand that the total resources of the United States is only equal
\nto the sum of the resources of all its subdivisions.
\nOUr listeners have long ago sensed that we are not in sympathy with a lot of
\nthe claims for huge federal spending of money. We are not so stupid as not to realize
\nthat some communities must have help, just as some individuals must be
\naided, in our highly complex inter-dependent society. But we cannot go along with
\nthe argument that the federal govermnent can easily afford to do for all the
\nstates what no one state can afford to do for itself. Just examine that argument.
\nWhat else can it mean except, let the money come from the surplus by which the
\nwhole of our national resources exceeds the sum of all the parts of our national
\nresources? There just isn’t any such excess.
\n*****
\nMany thrilling accounts have appeared in print about the great ice harvests
\non the Kennebec. Some of them are almost poetic, such as the chapter in Robert
\nCoffin’s “The Kennebec” in the Rivers of America series.
\n2-223
\nThere has recently come to my attention a volume called “Picturesque Gardiner”,
\nan illustrated book about the industries, attractions and surroundings
\nof our neighbor city down the river. This book, loaned to me by James Wing of
\nthe H & W Company, was published in Gardiner in 1896 and was part of the publicity
\nof the lively Gardiner Board of Trade.
\nThe volume has some excellent pictures of the harvesting, storage and shipping
\nof Kennebec ice. There is a full-page scene of ice cutting in front of the
\nhuge plant of the Knickerbocker Ice Company; pictures of the trim, fast, threemasted
\nand four-masted schooners that carried the ice to distant ports; a view
\nof the Cochran-oler plant with its capacity of 175,000 tons. Altogether there
\nare pictures of the ice houses and ships of six companies with total storage capacity
\nof 600,000 tons.
\nThe first ice is said to have been shipped from the Kennebec in 1826. It was
\ncut in front of Gardiner and placed on board the brig Orion, which had been hauled
\nup at that river port for winter quarters. The next spring the owners took the
\nvessel along the coast, without selling the cargo until they got to Baltimore,
\nwhen the whole lot went for $700.
\nIn 1869 the Gardiner publication announced: “Today the largest and most convenient
\nice houses in the world line both banks of the river, with a total storage
\nof 1,500,000 tons. More than a third of this capacity is at Gardiner and Randolph.
\nThe average harvest, compared with that first $700 cut in 1826, is now, 70 yep.rs
\nlater, $2,000,000.
\nGardiner pioneers in the ice business were Tudor, Tiffany, Page and Cheesman.
\nBy 1896 outside interests had control, the largest being the Knickerbocker Company
\nof Philadelphia. The Morse Ice Company had already come in with small holdings,
\nbut it was twenty years later when the Bath tycoon, Charles D. Morse, became
\nthe ice king of America.
\nWhat would those men of 1896 think if they could see their river in winter
\n2-224
\ntoday? Electric refrigeration has done to their ice what the internal combustion
\nengine has done to the horses that used to dot the river by hundreds when
\nthe ice was being cut. Truly, other times, other ways.
\n*****
\nSo many people have asked for a broadcast of the old ballad that celebrated
\nthe murder of Edward Mathews by Dr. V. P. Coolidge, that I have decided to give
\nit to you tonight. No one knows Who wrote this ballad. It first appeared in the
\nform of a handbill of the ‘kind that, Mary Ellen Chase says, her Elu’e ‘!ill I parson
\nused to write, print and sell at hangings. It has been reprinted from time to
\ntime in the newspapers during the last hundred years, but the original handbills
\nare rare.
\nI am fortunate enough to have seen and copied one of those original sheets,
\nand it is from that earliest text that I read the poem tonight. The handbill is
\nheaded “The Waterville Tragedy! or Death of Edward Mathews by Valorus P. Coolidge.
\nTune — Mary’s Dream.”
\nIndulgent friends and strangers too,
\nA thrilling tale I’ll tell to you;
\n‘Twill grieve your hearts the thing to hear,
\nAnd many an eye will drop a tear.
\nA mournful tragedy of late
\nA young man’s life did terminate;
\nThe murderer I s hand has laid him low,
\nWhich makes our hearts with grief o’erflow.
\nPoor Edward Mathews, where is he?
\nSent headlong to eternity.
\nThe mortal debt by him is paid,
\nAnd in his narrow bed is laid.
\n‘2-225
\nNo more will anguish seize his soul!
\nNo more will poison fill his bowl!
\nNo more will friendship clutch his throat,
\nAnd o’er his mangled body gloat.
\nOh, v. P. Coolidge, how could you
\nSo black a deed of murder do?
\nYou, on your honor did pretend
\nTo be his dearest earthly friend.
\nFor weeks and months you laid your plan
\nTo kill your friend and fellow man;
\nYou thought the thing to safely do,
\nTake both his life and money too.
\nYou knew to Brighton he had gone,
\nAnd watched each hour for his return;
\nThe pay for cattle which he drove
\nYou swore within yourself to have.
\nYou failed in that, but did succeed
\nBy promising a mortgage deed,
\nOf everything you here possessed,
\nSo that he could in safety rest.
\nThe money from the bank he drew,
\nAnd brought with faithfulness to you;
\nNot dreaming of your vile intent,
\nAlone into your office went.
\n2-226
\nYou said, “Dear Mathews, worthy friend,
\nOur friendship here shall never end,
\nA glass of brandy you must drink.
\n‘Twill do you good I surely think.”
\nHe drank the liquor you had fixed,
\nWith prussic acid amply mixed,
\nThen cried, “0 Lord, what can it be?
\nWhat poison have you given me?”
\nYou grasped his throat and stopped his breath,
\nuntil your friend lay still in death;
\nThen with a hatchet bruised his head,
\nAfter he was entirely dead.
\nHis money then you took away,
\nAnd hid his watch out in your sleigh;
\nThen called for your confederate
\nAnd all your doings did relate.
\n“I have a secret, Flint”, you said,
\n“And if by you I am betrayed,
\nThe State will me for murder try
\nAnd on the gallows I must die.
\n“Poor unsuspecting murdered friend,
\nMy earthly race must sh0rtly .end,
\nAnd I must stand before my God
\nAnd feel his mighty. chastening rod.
\n2-227
\n“0, Edward Mathews, could you know
\nThe scathing pangs I undergo,
\nYou surely would look down from Heaven
\nAnd say, ‘Let Coolidge be forgiven’.
\n“I see thy murdered form displayed,
\nWhen night has cast its sable shade
\nAround my dark and lonesome cell.
\nSuch horrid feelings none can tell.
\n“When sleep, that harbinger of rest,
\nHas spread its mantle o’er my breast,
\nMy thoughts will wander back to thee
\nAnd see thee die in agony.
\n“0, youthful days forever past,
\nI thought thy joys would ever last;
\nIf I had worlds, them would I give,
\nIf I once more this life could live.
\n“But all in vain, the die is cast,
\nThe prison walls will hold me fast
\nTill to the scaffold I am led,
\nTo yield that life I’ve forfeited.
\n“Take warning now by me I pray.
\nLet right and justice guide your way;
\nMay Heaven’s choice blessings to you flow
\nAnd save you from a murderer’ s woe. II
\n*****
\n2-228
\nBrought up in a small town and in a small business, I have a strong
\nliking for the small, independent business man. But I cannot go a10ng with some
\nof the bureaucrats in Washington who condemn all big business simp1y because it
\nis big. To hear those fellows talk about mergers, you would .think that a merger
\nof companies was something sinister and evil. They talk continuously about how
\nthe big corporation has swallowed up the little fellow.
\nI have no doubt there have been cases of the ruthless strang1ing of competition,
\nbut for every such case there are numerous cases where mergers have
\nbrought strength and new resources to all parties to the combination.
\nWhat is the United States, anyway? Is it not itself a merger of thirteen
\noriginal colonies into a federa1 union? Does anyone regret or now denounce
\nthat merger? Why then are po1itical mergers good, but industrial mergers bad?
\nBy what reasoning does a government whose motto is “E Pluribus Unum” (one out of
\nmany) pass a law making the economic observance of that motto a crime? To abolish
\nmergers in order to protect competition is no more sensible than to burn
\ndown the house in order to get rid of the rats.
\n*****
\nI don’t intend for a minute to 1et you forget that I was brought up in the
\nhorse and buggy age. I am stil1 fond of horses, and I was delighted to see the
\nfo1lowing item in the September 29th issue of that good old Scotch newspaper,
\nthe Peebleshire News: “Sandy, the horse which draws the milk-f1oat of the Cooperative
\nSociety in Selkirk, has just returned to his normal milk round after
\nspending three weeks in Edinburgh, performing in the Tattoo whi<;ili was presented
\nnightly at the castle during the festival period. Sandy was one of four horses
\nchosen to pull the landau which carried Lord and Lady Montrose in the Installation
\nof the Governor tableau. Last year this horse was chosen for a pageant representing
\n“Transport through the Ages”, and this year Sandy came to the rescue
\nWhen the organizers could not find a grey horse elegant enough to fill the bill.
\n2-229
\nSandy fitted the part perfectly. Now he has returned to his milk round.”
\nThat item, believe me, brought back fond memories — memories of my favorite
\nhorse, Old Charlie, who like Sandy was a big grey of elegant appearance.
\nI have a picture of Old Charlie all dressed up and hitched to a decorated
\ngrocery wagon, ready to take his proud place in the Bridgton Fourth of July
\nparade of 1906.
\nHe was unbelievably smart, that Old Charlie. Not only would he back between
\nthe shafts of a wagon without guidance — a lot of horses could do that
\nbut he could do a regular stunt that I have never seen duplicated. Between my
\nfather’s store and the next building was a space exactly ten feet wide. All
\nfreight brought to the store was unloaded on a platform that jutted out from the
\nside of the store some thirty feet back from the street. Every time we hauled
\nfreight from the narrow guage freight house to the store the team had to be
\ncautiously backed into that narrow space to the end of the platform.
\nAt the risk of being accused of telling Baron Munchausen yarns, I seriously
\ndeclare that Old Charlie could and regularly did back the wagon up to that plattorm
\nwithout a hand on the reins. Many a time I have driven him up the steep
\nhill from the narrow guage yards, with a heavy load, turned him about to face
\nthe street in front of the areaway, jumped off the team, thrown the reins over
\nhis back, and said, “All right, Charlie, back her up.” And without touching a
\nwheel to either building, Charlie would back up true to the platform.
\nThat ought to start some of you listeners with some of your own horse
\nstories. Let’s have them.
\n2-230
\nLITTLE TALKS ON COMMON THINGS
\n88th Broadcast December 17, 1950
\nA few weeks ago I asked if anyone knew what became of Samuel J3ryant, the
\nwandering son of William Bryant, the Fairfield diarist. Apparently Samuel Bryant
\ndied in Australia. At any rate Nahum Totman, who married Samuel’s sister, recorded
\nin a memoir of his own, written in 1898, that Samuel was heard from in
\nAustralia as late as 1890. Mrs. Gladys Totman Everett of Hallowell assures me
\nthat her mother corresponded with Samuel through many years, and she is certain
\nthat he never returned to the States. When Nahum Totman heard from him in 1890,
\nSamuel would have been 67 years old, for he had been 29 when he left for Australia
\nin 1852. With the well known Bryant longevity he might have lived into the twentieth
\ncentury, but as yet I have not been informed of the date of his death.
\n*****
\nWe have recently been dealing with account books’ and diaries. What are called
\nmemoirs by common folk of 19th century Maine are not so common, and it is a real
\nfind to get hold of a good one. Such was a sketch of his life written at the age
\nof 76 ‘by Asa Burnham, who for thirty years lived on and developed a farm in Winslow,
\nand to whom many of the Winslow Cushmans are related.Mr. Burnham wrote this
\nmemoir on September 6, 1864.
\nBorn in New Hampshire in 1787 the son of a Revolutionary soldier, Asa became
\na resident of the District of Maine before he was two years old. The town was Parsonfield,
\nwhich Asa’ s memoir tells us was then “in the forest”.
\nYou will recall how William Bryant, the Fairfield diarist, collected his son’s
\nwages until the boys reached 21. Likewise Asa Burnham wrote: “I lived with my
\nfather and served my minority and, as I believe, faithfully. Then father gave me
\nand brother Noah an old farm which he bought of Dennis Newbegin for $1,000. He
\nalso deeded to me one acre of land, on which I built a large, two-story house and
\n2-231
\nbarn.”
\nDirectly in front of his Parsonfield house Asa set out apple trees. Are
\nthere still farm houses where apple trees can be seen in the front yard in any
\nquantity? From his front yard trees Asa said he often made as many as twenty
\nbarrels of cider and half a ton of dried apples, which he sold in Portland for
\nfive cents a pound. He even sold applesauce, which he delivered as far away as
\n35 miles at $5.00 a barrel. Like my own great-grandfather, who used to drive an
\nox-team regularly between West Gorham and Portland, Asa Burnham made frequent
\ntrips by ox-team from Parsonfield to Saco, Kennebunk or Portland, anyone of those
\ndestinations taking four days for the round trip.
\nI don’t recall any reference in the Fairfield diary to the old apprentice
\nsystem, familiarly called the “bound out” system. But Asa Burnham makes vivid
\nmention of it. He wrote: “I needed help on my farm. After taking a little boy
\nseven years old and keeping him, whose name was John Johnson, five or six years,
\nI hired Asa Parks for a few years. Then I took B.enjamin Jordan, 14 years old of
\nNewfield. He was bound to me by his guardian. I engaged to give him 14 months
\nschooling and when he became 21 years of age, to give him $80. He served out his
\ntime faithfully, was a good boy, and obtained a good English education in our school
\ndistrict in the town of Parsonfield.”
\nAsa Burnham, who was to gain quite a reputation as schoolmaster and school
\ncommittee member after he came to Winslow, had tried his hand at teaching before
\nhe left Parsonfield. He records proudly that he was the first to introduce the
\nstudy of English grammar into that school district. Concerning his preparation for
\nteaching, Asa says: “When I was 17, I went to Brentwood, N. H., to attend for
\nthree months a school kept by William Graves on sunny days. In 1808 I attended
\nFryeburg Academy one term, likewise on sunny days.”
\nApparently Asa was much interested in penmanship, for he tells us he took
\ntwelve lessons on the Rockwood system, and claims to have been so materially benefitted
\nthat he gave lessons in the system himself, at one dollar a scholar. Then
\n2-232
\nhe shifted to the Dunton system, and claimed even more marked improvement.
\nLike most men of his time, Asa Burnham was deeply religious and staunch in
\nhis churchly duties. He was instrumental in starting the first Sabbath School
\nin Parsonfield. Of that experience he wrote: “We were poorly qualified for
\nteachers or superintendents, but done the best we could, giving select portions
\nof scripture for the children to commit and recite, which they generally did in
\na commendable manner. We also taught the ten commendments and the Assembly
\ncatechism. For a while I catechised the scholars in my day school, until opposed
\nby Elder Buzzel, a Freewill Baptist minister, who said he wanted the children to
\nhave religion but not learn it.”
\nAlthough harassed by debt and even defrauded, Asa subscribed four dollars for
\nthe support of the Gospel in Winslow in 1826. What is more, when Winslow was without
\na minister, as too often proved to be the case, Asa took his turn with other
\nneighbors in what he called “assuming ministerial positions”. Minister or no minister,
\nhe was one of those sturdy Winslow men who were determined to have the church
\nopen every Sunday.
\nIt was in 1824 that Asa Burnham settled in Winslow, having found the Parson-
\n. field farm inconvenient, as he puts it. The most interesting part of his memoir
\nconcerns the hard luck of his business dealings before he finally cleared the
\nfarm of debt and could truly call it his own. Because those dealings concerned
\ntwo of the wealthiest men of the upper Kennebec in those days, they are somewhat
\nrevealing. The two men were Nathaniel Gilman of Waterville and Benjamin Brown of
\nVassalboro. But let’s have the story in Asa Burnham’s own words:
\n“In June, 1824 I went to Winslow to purchase a farm of Jacob Hardon, who
\nsaid he had bought the farm of Nathaniel Gilman of Waterville and paid for it in
\nmoney. This I afterwards found to my sorrow was not true. On the contrary, Gilman
\nhad Hardon’s note for $500, secured by a mortgage on the place. On June 16 I
\npaid Hardon$600 and gave him my notes amounting to $1,350.
\n2-233
\n“When I later learned of Gilman’s claim and charged Hardon with unfair and
\nunkind treatment, he said: ‘You shall not suffer. I have fine timber on the farm,
\nand have agreed with Gilman to take it to Augusta to pay my notes and take up the
\nmortgage. ‘”
\nHere let us interrupt Asa’s own narrative to say that he seems not to have
\nbeen too smart in dealing with men like Hardon, for he actually helped Hardon get
\nout the timber and market it at Augusta, only to see Hardon make off with the
\nmoney without paying Gilman. Though Asa reprimanded Hardon again, doubtless more
\nsharply this time, the best he could get was the promise of 50 additional acres,
\nwhich he did not want, and which he later found was likewise mortgaged. “Hardon”,
\nAsa wrote, “also turned over to me two old lame horses and an old wagon, and several
\nnotes against poor men from which I finally realized a little in stock and
\nmoney.”
\nThe memoir continues dolefully: “In consequence of all this I had to go beyon.
\nci my means. I used all my skill and energies to meet these unforeseen difficulties.
\nI made up quite a raft of lumber, which Mr. Gilman engaged to take delivered
\nat Augusta, which he did at a low price, so that I paid a considerable part of my
\nnotes. Gilman was a hard ticket. Finally my brother Rice befriended me, took a
\ntransfer of the mortgage and paid Gilman the remainder. Meanwhile the mortgage on
\nmy purchase of Jacob Hardon was assigned to Benjamin Brown of Vassalboro.
\n“Being disappointed in obtaining money of Huckins and Lougee, I was sued by
\nBrown and all my property attached. The officer with the writ arrived before the
\ndun. So I went down to Augusta and gave a confession note with costs amounting to
\nten dollars. Had to deal with another hard, oppressive man, even harder than Gilman.
\nBrown done this purposely to give his son business. Son Theodore was a lawyer,
\na chip off the old block, and it hurt to be obliged to pay his fee in the suit.
\nBrother Rice again assisted me, paid the balance due Brown and loosed me from the
\ngrasp of the tyrant. After paying Brother Rice annual interest for several years,
\n2-234
\nby untiring exertion and by selling part of the land, I finally succeeded in
\ngetting out of debt. 11
\nIt seems to me Asa’s opinion of both those prominent men may\u00b7have been unfair.
\nI don’t know much about Brown, but I do know that Nathaniel Gilman had a
\nreputation as a fair, honest, public-spirited citizen.
\nI had always supposed that a hay rack, or what some part of New England
\ncalled a hay wagon, was a very old and very common vehicle. So I was surprised to
\nread in Asa Burnham’s memoir that he and John Pease made the first hay rack ever
\nseen in Winslow. He comments: “Old men denounced them, saying we would never get
\nthe hay out of them once we got it in. We showed how wrong they were and hay racks
\nsoon came into general use.”
\nAsa claimed that he and Jonathan Garland made the first horse rakes ever used
\nin Winslow. This was before the days of the revolving rake, and had teeth on one
\nside only.
\nMore than a third of Asa Burnham’s memoir is devoted to the Coolidge-Mathews
\nmurder case, in which Asa himself was a witness. On the Whole, the facts as he relates
\nthem coincide with the testimony before the court, but in a few instances his
\nmemory was faulty, or he gave way to the rumor of the times. In all fairness we
\nmgst note that the memoir was written 17 years after the murder, during which time
\nlegend and hearsay had perverted some of the facts. Asa is mixed up about the amount
\nof money involved and where Mathews got it, about Coolidge’s attitude when the autopsy
\nwas performed, about who saved the contents for Professor Loomis’ examination.
\nHe goes much faz~er than did any of the reporters who commented on the ladies at
\nthe trial, for Asa wrote: “The ladies in the galleries sent down bouquets on the
\ncriminal’s head, for Coolidge was handsome to behold, Which attracted their attention
\nand admiration. With many of these ladies, if such they can be called, Coolidge
\nhad been particularly, if not criminally, intimate.”
\nIn 1854, thirty years after he had come to Winslow, Asa Burnham moved to Bangor
\n2-235
\nwhere, with his sons, he took over a place on Ohio street a mile northwest of
\nthe County courthouse. During his thirty years in Winslow he had been town clerk,
\njustice of the peace, and member of the school committee — a worthy citizen of
\nworthy days.
\nLITTLE TALKS ON COMMON THINGS
\n89th Broadcast December 24, 1950
\nInformation keeps springing up about Ten Lots. Mrs. Charles Heald of North
\nFairfield has loaned me a copy of the Waterville Mail for September 30, 1881,
\nWhich contains an account of the golden wedding anniversary of Asa and Azuba
\nBates. In 1831 Asa Bates had married Azuba Sturtevant, and the newspaper reporter
\npointed out that the couple had been known in Waterville longer than the
\nvenerable Waterville Mail itself. A poem, written for the occasion by one of Mr.
\nBates’ five sons-in-law, fills nearly a column in the old newspaper. The reporter
\nentered into the jovial spirit of the occasion, closing his story with these
\nwords: “I will give the names of the couple’ s children. It is customary, I believe,
\nWhen doing so, to give also their ages. But your correspondent might get
\nhis scalp into difficulty if he meddled with the ages of seven women in one family.
\nSo he must ask the reader to be content with the names and present residence of
\nthe Bates children, of Whom nine are now living. They are Ellen, wife of G. A.
\nMower of Dexter; Erastus of West Waterville; Lizzie, wife of W. A. Farr of Melrose,
\nMass.; Martha, wife of S. T. Hersom of New London, N. H.; Mabel, wife of W. H. Fersenden
\nof Boston; Mary, wife of C. E. Whiting of Norridgewock; Henry of West Waterville;
\nJulia of Boston; Lillian of West Waterville.”
\nMrs. Heald has an old-time photograph taken at that golden wedding anniversary,
\nshowing Mr. and Mrs. Bates and all nine of the children, in the costumes in which
\nall well-dressed folks appeared in 1881.
\nMy neighbor, Jerry Bridges, an executive of the Lockwood Mills, quite rightly
\ncalls me to task for putting Ten Lots in Somerset County. He quite rightly points
\nout that the county line runs right through Ten Lots, and that most of the original
\nhomes, as well as the beautiful Williams Chapel, are and always have been in Kennebec
\nCounty. Since that is true, I am more puzzled than ever to know Why Rufus Jones
\n2-237
\nmentions no Ten Lots Quakers in his chapter on the Friends in Kingsbury’s History
\nof Kennebec County.
\n*****
\nChristmas did not receive much attention here in the Kennebec Valley a hundred
\nyears ago. Let us see how William Bryant of Fairfield, who kept a diary from
\n1836 to 1865, recorded the annual events of Christmas Day.
\nOn December 25, 1836 Bryant wrote: “Rain and warm. High freshet. Ice
\nstarted down between 9 and 10 o’clock.” Other entries were as follows. December
\n25, 1837: “Went to Waterville with Gideon Wells on business. The first thawey day
\nfor a week past.” December 25, 1838: “Killed two small-boned hogs, very fat,
\nweighed about 300 pounds each.” Mr. Bryant tells us that on December 25, 1839
\nWilliam Connor started for the woods, taking Bryant’s oxen among the many teams.
\nThe next year the only comment on Christmas Day is: “Very tough, northeast snow
\nstorm”.
\nOn the next Christmas, 1841, Bryant evidently worked hard all day. He says:
\n“We have had a hard time breaking a wood road in my swai1 to get alders for wood.”
\nThere is no entry for December 25 in either 1842 or 1843. But when Christmas came
\nin 1844 Sanmel Haley Bryant, the son who later went away to far-off Australia,
\nnever to return, had then “started with William Connor’s two six-ox teams, to go
\n10 or 12 miles above The Forks on 10,000 acres”. On December 25, 1845 Bryant
\nnoted a “terrible southeast rain storm”. In 1846 there is no record for Christmas
\nDay, but five days earlier Cyrus and Olive, the oldest son and his wife, had gone
\nto Vassalboro, where Olive was to spend the winter. On December 25, 1847 the record
\nstates: “Cyrus started for the woods for D. Chase and L. Webster on wheels.”
\nIn 1848 the day got this item: “Very little snow on the level, but slick sleighing.
\n”
\nOn December 25,1851 Bryant wrote: “Very high northwester and cold. I returned
\nfrom Norridgewock with a bad cold.” On Christmas Day, 1852 William Connor’s
\n2-238
\nox teams were again on the way to the woods, on a day of light rain and sloshy
\ntravelling. Three days after that uncelebrated Christmas, Samuel Haley Bryant
\nleft home for Australia.
\nThere was no wheeling and no slush on Christmas Day of 1853, for Bryant tells
\nus that “It began to snow last evening between five and six o’clock and snowed all
\nnight and all the forenoon until twelve o’clock; the snow fell in heaps.” Five
\ndays later he wrote: “Roads still drifted and full of snow.”
\nOn December 25, 1855 it commenced snowing at 10 A.M. No mention of any
\nChristmas observance, but a solemn announcement that “Charles Bradbury was killed
\nlast Saturday by running foul of another wagon.”
\nOn Christmas Day in 1857 there was, according to Bryant, the first good
\nsleighing of the year, so good that William Connor could start for the woods on
\nrunners. That was apparently noteworthy, for Connors’ start for the Moosehead
\nwoods had for several previous seasons been on wheels.
\nNot until 1865, after the Civil War was over, does William Bryant’s diary
\nmake any mention of Christmas. On December 25, 1865 he wrote: “Christmas. Fair
\nand cold. I am very feeble, was taken bleeding at the nose for the third time in
\none week.”
\nNow how could a man keep such a journal for thirty years and tell us nothing
\nof Christmas trees and Christmas gifts, and most of all of Christmas home-comings?
\nThe answer is hard for young folks of our time to understand. For all the years
\nbetween 1835 and the Civil War, neither William Bryant nor anyone else in the Kennebec
\nValley put up a Christmas tree or gave a Christmas present. In other words,
\nChristmas was not celebrated at all.
\nHow do we account for this? The answer is found in the long domination of
\nPUritan thought and customs over New England life. In 1664, soon after the Puritan
\ninfluence obtained control of the British government, an Act of Parliament
\nmade the celebration of Christmas illegal. Even earlier the first settlers of the
\n2-239
\nMassachusetts Bay Colony had frowned upon all festivals. The May Pole at Merrymount
\nhad met their stern disapproval. Only two special days did they recognize,
\nThanksgiving and Fast Day, and both of these were solemn occasions. Games and
\nsports were strictly forbidden on those days, just as they were on Sunday. Such
\nthings as Christmas trees and Christmas presents were regarded as devices of
\nthe Devil to lure tempted souls to perdition.
\nAlthough the Puritan influence was less strong in parts of the rural province
\nof Maine than it was on the shores of Boston Bay, it was strong enough for
\nthe opposition to festivals to last well into the nineteenth century. Hence we
\nare not surprised to find William Bryant’s diary utterly without even the word
\nChristmas until 1865.
\n*****
\nNow let us see\u00b7 how Americans of olden times knew the Christmas story. That
\nbeautiful story, as Luke tells it with the shepherds and the manger, and as Matthew
\ngives it with the wise men and their precious gifts, was first brought to
\nAmerica in Bibles printed in foreign lands. The Pilgrims brought copies of the
\nso-called Breeches Bible, which got its name because the verse in Genesis that
\nnow uses the word “aprons” was translated: “Adam and Eve made for themselves
\nbreeches. ” The Boston Puritans, at least those who came later than Winthrop ‘s
\nfirst little band in 1630, had copies of the King James Bible, which to this day
\nremains the most famous and the most commonly used of all English Bibles. It
\nwas the great accomplishment of seventy scholarly translators, working under the
\nsponsorship of King James I, the earliest of the Tudor kings. It was finished in
\n1611, which makes that date one of the most important in history. So it was not
\nlong before the colonists in America knew the Christmas story in the words that
\nare familiar to\u00b71 ills’ today.
\nStrangely enough, when the Bible was first printed in America, it was not
\nprinted in English. The first Bible printed in the colonies was in the languag~
\n2-240
\nof the Massachusetts Indians. Product of the little print shop of Samuel Green
\nand Marmaduke Johnson of Cambridge in 1663, it was the famous translation by Rev.
\nJohn Eliot. His was a prodigious undertaking, for he not only had to make the
\ntranslation into a new and difficult language, but he had actually to create a
\nwritten form for that language which, like most of the Indian tongues, had never
\nbefore been reduced to writing. In spite of the fact that Eliot converted 11,000
\nIndians, organized 24 congregations, trained twenty Indian preachers, and saw
\none of them receive a B. A. degree from Harvard in 1665, today no person living
\ncan read the language of Eliot’s Bible.
\nNot even the second Bible printed in America was in English. The German
\nBible, the memorable work of Martin Luther, was reprinted by Christopher Saur of
\nPennsylvania in 1743, in the original German because, said the preface, “so many
\npoor Germans come to this country who do not bring Bibles with them”. It was the
\nLuther Bible, either brought from Germany or purchased in Philadelphia, that the
\nGerman colonists of our own Maine town of Waldoboro so devoutly used.
\nAnother Bible printed in America came from the shop of Robert Aitken of
\nPhiladelphia in 1782. In the midst of the Revolution the Continental Congress
\ntook time to pass a resolution commending “the pious and laudable plan of Mr.
\nAitken to publish the Bible.” Aitken’s Bible of 1782 seems to have been the only
\none ever sponsored by the Congress of the united states.
\n*****
\nThere are many interesting facts concerning Christmas carols. A very old
\ncarol, not one of those most familiar today, beginning in its English version
\nwith “Now sing we, now rejoice; now raise to heaven our voice”, was originally
\nassociated verbally with macaroni, for in its early form it was what is called a
\nmacaronic, a mixture of two languages, in this case Latin and German.
\nIn the 18th century there were two distinct meanings of the word macaroni
\nthe common meaning we retain today, a paste of Italian origin prepared from Wheat
\n2-241
\nflour in the form of dried hollow tubes ~ and another meaning, an English dandy
\nWho affected foreign ways, the meaning given it in one line of Yankee Doddle.
\nWhether the two meanings ever had anything in common, no one knows. From the
\nlatter meaning, however, we (Jet the word macaronic, Which means a mixture of
\nlanguages, though it was first used solely to mean a mixture of some other language
\nwith Latin.
\n“Come hither ye faithful, truumphantly sing”, is one of the most translated
\nof all the carols. Originally in Latin, it is now sung in 119 languages and dialects.
\nA much more familiar carol, “Joy to the world, the Lord is come”, as we
\nsing it today in Waterville, is the combined work of four different nationalities:
\nDavid, or some other Hebrew psalmist ~ Isaac Watts, the English hymnologist;
\nHandel, the German composer ~ and Lowell Mason, the American hymn writer. The
\nbeautiful carol, “It came upon a midnight clear”, is one of the few distinctly American
\ncarols that have won wide fame in other lands. Its words are by Dr. Edmund
\nSears and its music is by Richard Storrs Willis.
\n*****
\nIn thousands of churches today congregations have listened to the words of
\nLuke’s gospel, “And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly
\nhost, praising God, and saying, -, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace,
\ngood will toward men’ “. How ironical those words sound in this hour of a great
\nworld crisis. Peace on earth. Anything but assured peace is the lot of all the
\nearth tonight. The threat of the hammer and the sickle stands in the way of
\npeoples who would have all men free.
\nIt is not new in world history, this crisis of 1950. I have just been reading
\nWill Durant’s gigantic book, “Age of Faith”. In it he shows us What happened
\nagain and again to nations: to the once mighty power of Rome, to the sweeping
\nmight of the Mongol hordes under Genghis Khan, to the once dominant might of the
\nArabic world. Nations died, nations _were born, the tides of conquest ebbed and
\n2-242
\nflowed, but through it all the faith was triumphant. The angel voices on the
\nhills of Bethlehem could not be silenced.
\nA better transl.ation of the Greek text of Luke’s gospel gives us not “peace
\non earth, good will toward men”, but “peace on earth toward men of good will”.
\nThat is our supreme need in this hour of trial — men of good will in Tokyo_ and
\nPeiping, in Downing Street and-the Elysee, in the White House and the Kremlin.
\nGive us, we pray, 0 Lord, in this awful hour, in all the world’s nations, men of
\ngood will.
\nAnd so, to all our listeners, up and down this old valley of the Kennebec,
\nwe can and do sincerely wish you not so much a merry Christmas as a Christmas of
\nChristian Good Will.
\n2-243
\nLITTLE TALKS ON COMMON THINGS
\n90th Broadcast December 31, 1950
\nEven in the midst of the greatest crisis our nation has known since 1860
\nour government can continue a lot of foolish expenditures. No sensible American
\ndenies the necessity for appropriating billions for defense. We must have an
\nincomparab~y strong Army, Navy and Air Force. But that is all the more reason
\nWhy some of the luxuries of peace time ought to be eliminated by the federal
\ngovernment just as th~y will have to be eliminated in your family and mine as
\nwe increasingly feel the pinch of higher taxes.
\nThe other day in the U. S. Senate Senator Tobey of New Hampshire called
\nattention to one of those silly inconsistencies that cost the taxpayer unnecessary
\nmillions every year. The Senator pointed out that, on the one hand, the
\nDepartment of Agriculture is spending money to teach the people how to raise
\nmore cats, while the Division of Wild Life is spending fully as much telling
\nthe people how to exterminate cats.
\nNow Senator Tobey’s exposure would be just a humorous anecdote if it did
\nnot illustrate all too plainly how costly it is to have different agencies in
\nour government at cross purposes, the right hand not knowing what the left hand
\nis doing.
\nAt this time of crisis, instead of forgetting about the Hoover Commission’s
\nreport, which I discussed on this program last winter, we ought to consider it
\nmore important than ever. Never has there been a time When economy in the ordinary
\nexpenditures of government is so badly needed, for the very reason that
\nwe need that wasted money to keep America free.
\n*****
\nOn several occasions we have mentioned one or another of the old-time Kennebec
\nsteamboats. We once referred to the whole fleet of boats equipped and
\n2-244
\noperated by the Vassalboro tycoon,Benjamin Brown. We also told the story,
\nwith its tragic and humorous overtones, of the maiden voyage of the City of
\nWaterville from Bangor to the Elm City. Tonight we want to devote a few minutes
\nto more thorough consideration of Kennebec steamboats.
\nIn 1943 Mrs. Eleanor Sager Adams of Gardiner found in the attic of her home
\na handwritten manuscript entitled “Reminiscences of Steamboating”, wr~tten by
\nJason Collins. We do not know when this was written, but the latest date mentioned
\nin the account is 1902. Mr. Elliott Hale of the Kennebec Water District
\nhas kindly furnished us with a copy of Jason collins’ manuscript, and it furnishes
\nthe principal source of tonight’s remarks about the old steamboats.
\nCUriously enough the man who. is credited with the first steam craft on the
\nKennebec River did not live on the Kennebec. He was Jonathan Morgan, a lawyer
\nof Alna, one of Maine’s most interesting old towns, situated between Gardiner
\nand Newcastle. Morgan’s scow, propelled by steam, was the first steamboat of
\nany description on the Kennebec. The year was 1818.
\nOnly a year later, in 1819, a sailing packet boat towed from Boston to the
\nmouth of the Kennebec a small steamer called the “Tom Thumb”. It was a sidewheeler,
\nthirty feet long, and all open with engines exposed to the weather. When
\nthe “Tom Thumb” steamed up to Bath against the tide, she created a sensation
\namong people along the river. Word of her coming preceded her just long enough
\nto gather the whole citizenry of Bath down to the wharves.
\nMr. Collins himself saw the “Tom ‘lhumb” in t834; so he must himself have
\nbeen well along in years in 1902, the last date mentioned in his account. He
\nsays when he saw the steamer she was towing the ship “Constitution” from Gardiner
\nto Bath, and he adds: “Incredible as it now seems, she took six days to make the
\ntrip”.
\nWaterville enters the picture by name in 1823, when Capt. Samuel Porter
\nbuilt at King’s Wharf in Bath a steamer which was christened “waterville”. If our
\n2-245
\nconjecture is right that she was the first steamboat ever built at a Kennebec
\nyard, Waterville holds\u00b7 a\u00b7\u00b7 distinct. honor in the river’s steamboat history. It
\nis somewhat of an anti-climax to report, however, that the 1823 steamer “Waterville”
\nnever tied up at one of those old slips down below what are now the
\nLockwood Mills. Her route was between Bath and Augusta. She never came above
\nthe Cushnoc Rapids.
\nThe same Captain Porter operated a steamer named the “Patent” between Boston
\nand Portland. In 1824 he extended her route to Bath, where she connected
\nwith the steamer “Waterville” for Augusta. It was 126 years ago, therefore,
\nthat the first steamboat service was established bet”‘e\u00b7en the Kennebec ports and
\nBoston.
\nThe first steamer to go above Augusta was the “Ticonic”, a stern-wheeler
\nbuilt in 1832 on the lot in the rear of the present Gardiner National Bank. She
\nwas hauled across the street and launched in the river at that spot. Mr. Collins
\nsays he attended the launching and remembered it vividly.
\nThe “Ticonic” was built to run between Gardiner and Waterville. On her
\nmaiden voyage to our City of the Elms she was greeted with cheers, ringing of
\nbells, and the firing of cannon. At a huge public dinner, the crew and the
\nowners were feted and congratulated. The “Ticonic” might have continued on her
\nGardiner-Waterville route for many years, had not the hand of inevitable progress
\ninterfered. A dam was built at Augusta. To be sure, a canal and lock was
\nconstructed around the dam, so that small boats could pass, but the “Ticonic”
\nwas too big. Waterville had to bid her good~bye. Before she quit the upper
\nstretch, however, the “Ticonic” had become part of a run connecting Waterville
\nwith Boston. The Boston steamer came to Bath, from where the “Hancock” ran to
\nAugusta, there connecting with the “Ticonic” for Waterville.
\nBy 1836 the need was clear for a steamer to run from Gardiner straight
\nthrough to Boston without any change at Bath. The leading spirit in this plan
\n2-246
\nwas Captain Nathaniel Kimball, who is perhaps the most famous of all Kennebec”
\nsteamboat men. with the help of R. H. Gardiner, David Bowman, Edward Swan, Col.
\nJohn Stone and other prominent citizens, Captain Kimball formed a company and
\nsecured stock subscriptions of $40,000. Such was the beginning of the direct
\nline to Boston, which was still running when Mr. Collins wrote his reminiscences.
\nThat first through-to-Boston steamer was named the “New Ehgland” and was personally
\ncommanded by Captain Kimball. The fare to Boston, inclduing meals, was
\nfour dollars.
\nThe life of the steamer “New England” was regrettably short. On the night of
\nJune first, 1838, on the way to Boston, she collided with the schooner “Curlew”,
\nand so quickly filled with water that her passengers were transferred to the
\nschooner. The latter sailed for Portsmouth, the port nearest to the collision.
\nCaptain Kimball and his crew remained by the wreck until the following noon, when
\nthe steamer rolled over and floated bottom up. She was later towed to Portsmouth,
\nbut lost her engine on the way and proved to be a total loss.
\nBy 1840 the formidable opposition of the Vanderbilts confronted the local
\nsteamboat owners. Commodore Vanderbilt outfitted the steamer “Augusta” and put
\nher on a regular run between Hallowell and Boston. Meanwhile Captain Kimball and
\nParker Sheldon had replaced the ill-fated “New England” with a new boat called
\nthe “Huntress”. Because the “Huntress” proved to be a faster boat than the “Augusta”,
\nCommodore Vanderbilt decided to put on the river a boat that no one could
\nbeat. That boat was christened the “C. Vanderbilt” and had the reputation of
\nbeing the fastest boat on the Atlantic coast.
\nThe rivalry between the “Huntress” and the “Vanderbilt” was much like that
\nbetween the Mississippi steamers of Mark Twain’s day. Each boat had its ardent
\nsupporters along the river. When the Captain of the “Vanderbilt” challenged Captain
\nKimball for a trial of speed from Boston to Gardiner, the skipper of the
\n“Huntress” was quick to accept. Every member of both crews put up money on the
\n2-247
\noutcome, and Com. Vanderbilt himself is said to have ventured a few dollars in
\njudicious wagers.
\nThose old steamers were wood burners and the crew of the “Huntress” went
\nto a lot of trouble to secure just the wood they needed for pushing the boilers
\nto their utmost. When the boats left their Boston moorings, the “Vanderbilt”
\ntook a quick lead, but when she reached Boston Light she found the “Huntress”
\nalongside. Before Eastern Point was passed the “Huntress” was ahead. All night
\nlong the two boats were in sight of each other, so closely were they matched.
\nGreat excitement prevailed on both craft; no one had a thought of sleep. What
\nrejoicing there was in Gardiner when the “Huntress” arrived three quarters of a
\nmile ahead of the “Vanderbilt”. She had made the trip from Boston to Gardiner in
\nten hours and forty-five minutes, a record that stood for more than sixty years.
\nCom. Vanderbilt did just what one would expect of him. Convinced that he
\ncould not get a boat fast enough to beat the “Huntress”, he bought the “Huntress”
\nhimself. Then he turned around and told the old company that they must take the
\nsteamer and give him a bonus of $10,000, upon his agreement to withdraw forever
\nfrom the line, or he would put the “Huntress” back on the route himself and ruin
\ntheir business, because no boat could beat the “Huntress”. The company accepted
\nthe wily commodore’s terms, and the “Huntress” returned to the river with her old
\nofficers.
\nIn 1841 another port got a chance to rival Boston for the Kennebec travel.
\nIn that year the Eastern Railroad reached Portsmouth, and a . steamer called the
\n“N. Y. Beach” ran between Hallowell and Portsmouth, where train connections to
\nBoston enabled the traveler to reach the Hub several hours earlier than by the
\nHallowell-Boston steamer. P’ortsmouth lost this remunerative traffic a few years
\nlater, when the railroad reached Portland.
\nFrom 1843 to 1850 steamboat passengers on the Kennebec had a wonderful time.
\nThe toughest of cut-throat competition lowered the rates to a point where at one
\n2-248
\ntime one of the lines actually granted a round-trip rebate greater than the oneway
\nfare. It all began when Capt. Sanford of New York put on the steamer “Splendid”
\nbetween Hallowell and Boston, in opposition to the regular line. Mr. Collins
\nsays that on some trips passengers paid Whatever they pleased, and that one man
\nbragged about going all the way from Gardiner to Boston for twenty-five cents.
\nThen in 1845 prominent citizens of Gardiner and pittston entered the competition
\nwith their “People’ s Line”. Their steamer had a grand old American name,
\nthe “John Marshall”, but the venture did not prove profitable, and by 1850 the
\nold company once more controlled the river traffic.
\nPerhaps the most memorable voyage of the fastest and most famous of all Kennebec
\nboats, the “Huntress”, was made on July 2, 1847, When she made a special
\ntrip, bringing President Polk and his cabinet with many other prominent men,
\nfrom Portland to Hallowell. Reaching Hallowell at midnight, the distinguished
\ncompany transferred to carriages for the trip to Augusta, where they spent the
\nnight. After visiting the State House and attending a banquet, the entire company
\nwere guests of R. H. Gardiner at “Oaklands”. They then left for Portland on
\nthe\u00b7 “Huntress”. At the Hallowell wharf before their departure speeches were made
\nby President Polk and Hon. George Evans.
\nTen years before President Polk’s visit, in 1837, the first steam ferry boat
\nwent into operation on the Kennebec. It ran between Gardiner and Pittston. She
\nwas built entirely in Gardiner, even her machinery being made by the Gardiner
\nfirm of Holmes and Robbins. She was called the “Kennebec” and continued in service
\nuntil the building of the Gardiner bridge in 1852.
\nJason Collins, writer of the “Reminiscences” began his own steamboat service
\non the ill-fated “New England” as an engineer’s helper. He was in continuous service,
\non one boat or another, from 1836 to 1849, between his home port of Gardiner
\nand either portland or Boston. In 1849 he entered the employ of Com. Vanderbilt as
\nengineer of the “Independence”. While in New York, superintending the installation
\n2-249
\nof that steamer\u00b7s engines, Mr. Collins watched daily the building of Vanderbilt\u00b7s
\nfamous yacht “America”, first winner of the racing cup.
\nHis service on the “Independence” took Jason Collins far from his beloved
\nKennebec, for in July, 1850 that vessel was at San Francisco, having made the
\nvoyage around the Horn. She had been held up a month at Rio de Janeiro because of
\nyellow fever which cost the lives of four of her crew. Then the “Independence”
\nwent on a regular run between San Francisco and Nicaragua, until in 1853 she ran
\non a coral reef off st. Margarita Island, took fire, and was a total loss, 245
\nof her passengers and crew going to their deaths. Engineer Collins was one of
\n255 survivors. Some evening on this program I hope to find time to tell you ‘Jason
\nCollins\u00b7 thrilling story of that shipwreck.
\nRight here we must leave the account of Kennebec steamboat days. But I assure
\nyou there is more to come. We have brought the account only up to 1850. In spite
\nof the coming of the railroad, there was plenty of steamboating after that. So be
\nready for more of this subject some Sunday soon.
\n2-250
\nLITTLE TALKS ON COMMON THINGS
\n9Ist Broadcast January 7, 1951
\nIt was twelve years ago that I had the pleasure of introducing Maurice Hindus
\nto a Waterville audience. He spoke from the platform of the Senior High School on
\none of Herbert Libby’s popular lecture series. Those were dark days for Hindus’
\nnative Czechoslovakia. Hitler had just taken over the country, and the storm
\ntroopers held the people under the military heel of Nazi oppression.
\nHindus said with great vehemence: “The Czech people will rise again. That
\ntremendous urge for freedom cannot be kept down.” Hindus was sure the Czechs
\nwould win their independence again, as they had once won it under the elder Masaryk.
\nSix years ago in New York I heard the younger Masaryk tell the Herald-Tribune
\nForum why his government in CzeChoslovakia, freed by allied arms, was now turning
\nin friendship toward Russia rather than toward the West. Though most of his listeners
\nfelt he was wrong, they knew he was honest and sincere.
\nI wonder what Hindus thinks today about Czechoslovakia I s new freedom. We know
\nwhat Jan Masaryk thought about it, for two years ago, in disillusionment and discouragement,
\nhe committed suicide. His trusted Russians had grossly betrayed the
\ntrust.
\nWhat is happening today in Czechoslovakia, which American G.I.’s helped liberate
\nfrom the Nazi oppressor in 1945, is a warning to every nation, even our own,
\nwhose people are determined to stay free. Allover Czechoslovakia today, from the
\ncapitol at Prague to the smallest village, appears the ominous sign “Narodni Podnik”,
\nmeaning national enterprise. Gone is the personal pride of the small shopkeeper,
\ngone the family pride in ownership. For gone is private corporate enterprise,
\nfounded and nurtured over the years from the savings of honest, frugal Czechs.
\nWell do the Communists know that control over men’s lives begins with control
\n2-251
\nof the means of livelihood. Economic freedom dies first; then, after it, all
\nfreedom dies. From economic control it is only one step to complete, oneparty
\npolitical control, only one more step to thought control under the dread
\nthreat of the military police and the neighborhood spy. Beyond that is slavery.
\nLet us take warning from that sign allover Czechoslovakia. We must not
\nhave — not even under the pretense of united defense effort — Narodni Podnik
\nin America. We must continue determinedly to insist that the best guarantee of
\nthe freedom, the dignity, the welfare and the security of every man, is the preservation
\nof the American system of private enterprise. We must ever beware of
\nincreased largesse from the Handout state, and the subtle, insidious trend to
\nbelieve that the government in Washington owes every citizen, regardless of his
\nown efforts, complete care from cradle to grave.
\nHitler was unable, through force of arms, to carry his kind of National Socialism
\nto British soil. Yet Britain surrendered to the socialistic theory and
\npractice of government without firing a single shot. Winston Churchill’s warning
\nwent unheeded, when he said: “The Scoialist program means that the reward of
\nsociety must be equal for those who try and for those who shirk, for those\u00b7who
\nsucceed and for those\u00b7 who fail.” If that sounds alluring and just what many Americans
\nwant, let’s remind ourselves of what G. B. Shaw, himself a socialist,
\nsaid: “Continuous industrial serVice will one day be made compulsory. The right
\nto work will become the obligation to work wherever the State puts us to work.”
\nThat is what Britain is beginning to learn, what Czechoslovakia has learned
\nto her bitter sorrow — that the communist design begins with the socialist incentive
\nof welfare promises, continues with control of the economic life, and ends
\nwith coercion, with the destruction of every cherished freedom.
\nNo, we must not, we shall not, have Narodni Podnik in America.
\n*****
\nWhen we talked about William Bryant’s diary conunents on the Aroostook War in
\n2-252
\nour broadcast a month ago, little did we realize that there was still living in
\nMaine a man who was born in the very year that Bryant made that diary record, the
\nyear 1839.
\nYes, I know it sounds impossible, for 1839 was III years ago. But a month
\nago there was still living in Houlton a man named Jeremiah Campbellton who was
\nborn in a wilderness cabin near what is now Van Buren on August 15, 1839. On
\nDecember 23, two week.sago, Mr. Campbellton died at a nursing home in Houlton.
\nHe was said to be the oldest man in New England.
\nWhen only seven years old Mr. Campbell ton had seen his parents massacred
\nin a raid of the Micmac Indians from Canada. He was taken captive and lived with
\nthe Micmacs for six years. Although then only 13 years old, with the help of an
\nIndian maiden he contrived his escape and made his way back to one of the white
\nsettlements in Aroostook.
\nJeremiah Campbellton became a hunter and guide for the intrepid pioneers who
\n\\ settled Aroostook, a sort of Kit Carson of the northern border. He was said to
\nknow intimately every nook and cranny of the northeast woods. He long claimed
\nthat he turned the first Shovelful of earth for construction of the Bangor and
\nAroostook Railroad. He fought in both the Civil and SpaniSh-American Wars and in
\nhis last years humorously referred to himself as a former G. I.
\nFor 54 years Mr \u2022. Campbellton had the companionship of his wife, the mother
\nof his sixteen children. Yet so long was his life that he survived her by 28
\nyears, during the last 25 of which he was totally blind.
\nA true child of the wilderness, Mr. Campbell ton never learned to read and
\nwri te, but he spoke fluently four languages: English, French, Italian and Micmac.
\nSuch was the man born in that long, long time ago in 1839, when William
\nBryant devoted a page of his diary to the start of the Aroostook War.
\n*****
\nAn amateur social historian like myself, who delves into the doings of Ken-
\n2-253
\nnebec Valley people years ago, is grateful for a newspaper custom long since
\nabandoned. We refer to the lengthy, detailed discussion of social events.
\nThe waterville Mail changed from a weekly to a daily newspaper in January,
\n1896, just 54 years ago. I am sure many of you will be interested to know how
\nthe Mail of February 26, 1896 reported a reception held in Soper Hall on Main
\nStreet on the evening of February 25. It was conducted by the Delta Kappa Epsilon
\nfraternity, which was then already half a century old at Colby. The guest
\nof honor was President William R. Harper of the University of Chicago, who was
\nlater proved to be here, not for the principal purpose of honoring the Dekes, but
\nto lure President Nathaniel Butler away from Colby to the University of Chicago,
\nwhere he became the distinguished dean of the graduate school. President and
\nMrs. Butler were of course in the receiving line at Soper Hall, as were also other
\ndistinguished citizens and alumni of the fraternity.
\nThe Mail devoted two first page columns to the event, and one of those
\ncolumns is filled entirely with the names of lady guests and descriptions of
\ntheir gowns. At the risk of omitting some name that ought to be mentioned, we
\ncannot resist the temptation to give you a few of the well-remembered names listed
\nin. that social column of the Waterville Mail 54 years ago:
\nSarah Lang- black satin, jet and lace
\nAnnie Knight – light blue silk lace, pink roses
\nAlice purinton – light blue albatross, pearl trimming
\nMiss Dunn (was this Miss Florence or Miss Mabel?) – blue silk,
\nwhite lace trimming, carnations
\nGrace Lord – blue crepon
\nMrs. F. C. Thayer – figured silk, white lace
\nMary Abbott – old rose silk and chiffon
\nOphelia Ball – black lace and jet
\nMrs. A. F. Drummond – dark red silk and roses
\n2-254
\nGrace Illsley – white silk and lace
\nMrs. Frank Redington – white moire and lace
\nMrs. F. J. Arnold – Dresden silk, pearl garniture
\nAnnie Dorr – pink chiffon
\nMrs. A. J. Roberts – pink silk and white lace
\nMrs. J. F. Hill – pink silk, lace garniture
\nMrs. George K. Boutelle – Dresden silk and Chiffon; diamonds
\nThat’s the way the proud old waterville Mail handled big social gatherings
\nhalf a century ago.
\n*****
\nBack there in 1896 the bicycle had just come into its glory. The Waterville
\nAssociation of Wheelmen had been formed. Their tour.s and their contests aroused
\nmuch attention. The April 6 issue of the Mail carried no less than six separate
\nads for bicycles. A. F. Drummond at the Savings Bank was agent for the Victor;
\nF. Blanchard sold several makes, including the Eagle and the Eclipse; S. A. Dickinson
\nhandled the Silver King; R. E. Lincoln sold the Dayton; Learned and Brown
\ndistIibuted the Columbia. C. H. Robinson and Co. of Boston advertised a bicycle
\ncalled Robinson’S Crusoe for $65 — $10 down and $2 a week. It had barrel hubs
\nand large tubing. A bicycle bell was thrown in free.
\nI find no mention of my own boyhood favorite, the Iver Johnson. Perhaps 1896
\nwas a bit early for that make, because I owned my first Iver Johnson and my first
\nbicycle in 1901.
\nIn the spring of 1896 the Waterville Mail ran one of those well known populari
\nty contests, for which a bicycle was the’ .prize. The contest ran for a month.
\nSubscriptions and single coupons from daily copies of the Mail counted specified
\nnumbers of points, and could be entered for any lady school teacher in Kennebec
\nand Somerset Counties. Who was the most popular schoolmarm in the two counties?
\nTo decide that question was the point of the Mail ‘s contest. The prize bike was
\n2-255
\nproperly decorated and displayed in the store window of J. F. Larrabee on Main
\nStreet.
\nAlthough teachers from Fairfield, Oakland and Skowhegan were entered, the ….
\ncontest soon settled down to a hard-fought race among four Waterville teachers: Sarah.
\nLang,Clara Dolley, Emma Knauff and Elizabeth Manley. First one of the four
\nwould lead, then another. The result was in doubt until midnight of May 9,
\nWhen a distinguished board of judges counted all the votes and declared the winner
\nto be Miss Elizabeth Manley.
\n*****
\nWhen I read the Mail’s account of the opening of the Olympic Games in Athens -it
\nwas in the Mail of April 6, 1896 — I was disappointed to see no mention of my
\nfriend Jim Connolly, still living at the age of 82 in Boston. In my little book
\n“Jim Connolly and the Gloucester Fishermen” I told how Jim had been the winner of
\nthe first event in those revived Olympics. The Waterville Mail of April 6 said
\nonly: “The American contestants won in throwing the discus as well as in the hop,
\nstep and jump.”
\nOn the next day, however, the April 7 issue of the Mail did better. It carried
\nhalf a column describing the pageantry of the opening of the games in the
\npresence of the King of Greece. In telling What happened in the early events, it
\nsaid: “J. B. Connolly, an American, won the hop, step and jump, covering 13.71
\nmeters.” Not a word of how Connolly had been refused leave of absence from Harvard
\nto compete in the Olympics, how he had given up his Harvard career, joined
\nthe Olympic team at his own expense, and how finally he had become the first victor
\nin the first Olympic contest in more than 2,500 years. The world was to
\nlearn that story much later. On April 7, 1896 the Waterville Mail missed it entirely.
\nBut the Waterville Mail was a grand old paper just the same. We are sorry
\nthat it had finally to go the way of all flesh.
\n2-256
\nLITTLE TALKS ON COMMON THINGS
\n92nd Broadcast January 14, 1951
\nIf you are not one of the ten million Americans who have already read the
\narticle entitled “How a Democracy Died” in Life magazine for January 1, I recommend
\nthat you read it at once — not just skim it, but read it thoroughly and
\ncarefully. I will venture the guess that too many of Life’s readers, as soon as
\nthey discovered that the article dealt with Greek states that went out of existence
\nmore than 2,000 years ago, never read the article at all. But I assure you
\nit is not only worth reading; it should make every intelligent American sit up
\nand take notice. For what happened to Athens in the fifth century before Christ
\ncan happen to the united States in the twentieth century.
\n“We know”, says the author of the Life article, “that history does not consist
\nof a series of pat and perfect analogies.” Yet by merely telling the story
\nof the annihilating war between Athens and Sparta, he reveals all too clearly
\nthat the conditions which underlay the destruction of the great Athenian state
\nare the very conditions which confront America today.
\nIt has now become a very trite saying that the only lesson taught by history
\nis that it teaches no lesson. Men simply refuse to heed the warnings flashed by
\nprevious events. Yet it is never too late to keep trying, and Life has done a
\ndistinct, patriotic service in bringing to the attention of its huge reading public
\nthis obvious warning from history. What is that warning?
\nJust as today all the world seems at the mercy of two great powers, seeming
\nwith every passing day more and more likely to fight each other, so in the fifth
\ncentury B. C. the Mediterranean World was at the mercy of Athens and Sparta, two
\nstates drawing nearer and nearer to war. Only a short time earlier the two Greek
\nstates had been allies to stop the Persian invasion, just as the two great contending
\npowers today were once allied to stop the Nazi menace.
\n2-257
\nsparta was a dictatorial, military state, afraid of the spread of democratic
\ninstitutions, and determined to stop them by force. Athens was the world’s
\nfirst democracy, interested more in the expansion of trade than in military might.
\nShe had no imperial ambitions; she wanted only to live and let live.
\nBut the menace of militaristic Sparta grew greater and greater. The alliance
\nthat had defeated the Persians broke up, and Sparta began to draw about her a
\ngroup of satellite and dependent states. To meet this threat Athens formed her
\nfriendly states into the Delian League — a sort of fore-runner of the Atlantic
\nPact. Now many of these Athenian friends did not want war even to ward off a
\nSpartan attack. They wanted to conduct their own affairs in peace. But the expansion
\nof Athenian interests had gone too far to retreat. The frontier was no
\nlonger the Grecian shore-line, but far distant islands in the vast Mediterranean.
\nHer economic life and her democratic ideals had a stake in lands far away from
\nhome. Doesn’t that sound familiar?
\nThe war which was to destroy Athens did not begin between her and Sparta. It
\ntoo had its Korea. In the little distant colony of Spidamnus revolution broke
\nout, one side supported by Corinth, a satellite of Sparta, the other side aided by
\nCorcyra, an ally of Athens. The Athenian interests won, and were again victorious
\nin a similar revolution at Potidaea. Sparta was now determined to take things
\nout of the hands of its satellites and fight Athens to a finish.
\nThen Athens faced the problem that always faces a peaceful democracy of great
\npower. First, not being militaristic, she had no great army like Sparta’s, but
\nbeing a trading people, she did control the sea. Second, Athens had to pay the
\nprice of power, and that price is the distrust of lesser, friendly states. Again
\nand again in history the smaller nations have stood in fear, sometimes turned to
\nhatred, of the big nation that befriends them. So proud was Athens of its own
\njustly renowned democratic institutions that it forgot that not all the different
\npeoples of the world might equally respect and revere those institutions. Third,
\n2-258
\nit sbnply could not conceive the possibility of defeat. Athenians had always
\nwon; they always would.
\nIn light of that kind of situation, fear building upon fear, but paradoxically
\nsurmounted by unreasonable over-confidence, it should not surprise us that
\nAthens, not Sparta, made the first outright attack. She decided to destroy the
\nSpartan colony of Syracuse in Sicily, 400 miles away from Athens. The attempt
\nmet with ignominious defeat. But there was still the great Athenian navy. It
\ncould still lick the whole maritime world in the opinion of all good Athenians.
\nThen, one terrible day, in the Hellespont, not far from Istanbul in modern Turkey,
\nthe Spartans by superior stratagem wiped out the whole Athenian fleet.
\nBlockaded now by land and sea, Athens was slowly reduced to starvation. She
\ncould do nothing but yield. The Athenian democracy was over; it was the beginning
\nof the death of Greece.
\nNow, I beg you, read the whole article in Life magazine for yourself. And
\nafter you have read it, think about it.
\n*****
\nLet us turn now to some thoughts not quite so sober and alaDming. Let us
\ntake a look at a few more of those items scattered through the 309 issues of the
\nfirst volume of the Waterville Evening Mail in 1896. The first issue of the Mail,
\nas a daily, appeared on January 29 of that year. Its first editorial said: “The
\nwaterville Evening Mail hereby puts out its hand in greeting to the public, in the
\nhope that it may speedily become the public’s good friend, esteemed and valued for
\nits sterling quality. The purpose is to give Waterville and the other prosperous
\ntowns of central Maine an evening paper interesting to its readers and servicable
\nto the c01lDll\\lni ties it represents.”
\nOne of waterville’s leading merchants, David Gallert, lined himself up with
\nthe new paper in this movement of progress. His ad on page one said: “Progress
\nin the front rank. The old Mail tells now the news eve:r:y day. And every day from
\n-2-25.9
\n,,”,”-‘ – ,.
\nnow on the oldest Dry Goods House in Waterville, that of David Gallert, noted
\nfor its fair dealings, will tell Kennebec and Somerset customers something reliable.”
\nIf anyone thinks college students are destructive in their pranks today, he
\nought to read the Mail of half a century ago. On February 3, 1896 the Mail carried
\nthis i tam:
\n“Saturday night, when the juniors and freshmen returned from their banquet
\nat Hager’s, they found the north end of South College — that, by the way, is the
\nsection in which I lived for three years as a student, but some years later than
\n1896 securely barricaded and a wily soph at every window with a pail of water.
\nSome of the more daring members of the Class of ’99 procured a pickaxe and a crowbar,
\nand with their pockets loaded with coal, proceeded to attempt an entrance.
\nFinally amid showers of coal and broken glass the door was battered down and the
\nfreshmen, followed by nearly every one in college, poured into the hall.”
\nAt that very time a prominent evangelist was holding meetings in Waterville.
\nThe very day after the South College riot, he held a most successful meeting at
\nthe college chapel, warning a large number of student converts. Whether any of
\nthe rioters were among them, the record saith not.
\nThat particular evangelist, like most of his kind, was a bitter foe of dancing.
\nAlong with card playing, it was one of the Devil’ s chief inventions. The
\nmail devoted a whole column to one of the evangelist’s attacks on dancing in one
\nissue, took him to task as too extreme in the next issue, and in the third issue
\ngave a detailed account of a very successful masked ball held at City Hall. It
\nwas attended not only by Waterville’s elite, but also by many guests from Augusta.
\nSome of the characters represented in fancy dress and masks were a Maine farmer,
\na Spanish prince, Richard III, Uncle Sam, a Chinese mandarin, an Indian chief,
\na gypsy, an Irish colleen, and the inevitable Topsy of Uncle Tom’s Cabin.
\nThat the evangelist’s extreme views about card playing were not shared by
\n2-260
\nthe waterville SChool Board or by the citizenry as a whole, whose overwhelming
\nviews any school board must alertly heed, is evidenced by the fact that a week
\nafter the evangelist left town a Waterville teaCher, Miss Sarah Lang, won first
\nprize at a big whist party given by Mrs. Lewis Burleigh at Augusta.
\nMany of our older listeners remember Colby’s popular Negro janitor, Sam Osborne.
\nIt was in 1896 that Sam got his uniform. On January 29 the Mail announced:
\n“Sam Osborne, the well known janitor of Colby University, will appear in a few
\ndays attired in a regular uniform. This move, while it is a source of pleasure
\nto all interested in the college, is only in keeping with the example set by other
\ninstitutions. Nearly all have their janitors in uniform. Sam’s will be made of
\nblue cloth, adorned with buttons of the college gray. He has been measured for
\nthe suit and is anxiously awaiting the tailor’s finishing touChes.”
\nTwo weeks later, on February 10, the Mail heralded the grand result. It said:
\n“Janitor Sam Osborne of Colby University appeared this morning in his new uniform,
\nand he never looked happier and more contented. The uniform is of dark blue cloth,
\ntrimmed with silver buttons. The coat is a straight front sack, similar in style
\nto the Pullman car porter’s coat. The head-gear is square topped, low cap with
\nstraight visor, over which are the words ‘Janitor Colby Univ.’ in silver letters.
\nAltogether it is a neat uniform and is admired by faculty and students as much as
\nby Sam himself.”
\nOn February 20, 1896 Redington and Company carried in the Mail a huge twopage
\nad, one page headed by a cut of the Redington block on Silver street, followed
\nby these words:
\n“We have been in business since 1869. The style and title of Redington and
\nCompany was adopted in 1882. The Silver Street block was built in 1893. It is
\nclassed by commercial travelers as the best store of its kind in the state, with
\none exception. We do not claim this, but others do for us. What we do claim is
\nthat we do as much for the public in a business way as any firm, and put an honest
\n2-261
\ndollar in our own pocket at the same time.”
\nSome of the commodities mentioned in that big ad are indeed interesting.
\nThere were baby carriages with, so said the ad, “colors to please the eye and
\nstop the children’s cry”. Bed springs were offered at a price range from 75
\ncents to $6.00. Chairs were from 25\u00a2 to $50. Oak and cherry clothes poles
\n(another name for hat racks) went for $1.17. Straw matting and Chinese goat rugs
\nwere in demand. Cradles of beautiful design were ready for the new population.
\nWillow rockers were favorites in every home. But the Redington pride was its
\nnewly acquired carpet sewing machine, which permitted the firm proudly to proclaim:
\n“Carpets sewed while you wait”.
\nThere were other memorable ads back there in 1896. More than a year ago
\nyou heard me lament the passing of the good old Mocha and Java coffee for the
\nmodern exotic blends. So I like the ad of C. E. Mathews in the Mails of 1896:
\n“Boston Java coffee mixed with Arabian Mocha makes the finest cup of coffee obtainab1e.
\nThis coffee is used at nearly every banquet and public supper in Waterville.”
\nAs for the Redington firm, it became justly disturbed at the claim made by
\nsome prospective customers that they could purchase goods so much more cheaply in
\nBoston. Redingtons ran an especially effective ad on February 27: “Our prices
\nare always as low as the lowest. We publish in this connection a letter from the
\nlargest carpet house in Boston. This letter was sent us in reply to an inquiry by
\none of our customers, who, on being told our price was $1.25 a yard for a certain
\ngrade of carpet, stated he could get the same thing for 87t cents in Boston. This
\nis the letter:
\n“‘Messrs. Redington and Company, Waterville, Maine. Gentlemen: In regard to
\nthe Lowell Brussels, would say that, while at different times we have advertised
\nthese goods at 77\u00a2, 87t\u00a2 and other low prices, at retail, in every case they have
\nbeen undesirable pat~erns and goods we have been glad-to get rid of at those prices.
\n2-262\u00b7
\nOn the new patterns our price is $1.35. Yours truly, T. O. Callaghan and Company.’
\n“The above”, said the Redington ad, “speaks for itself. We can and do make
\nprices as low as any firm in the U. S.”
\nA fitting close to our program tonight is to quote what the Mail had to say
\nabout a man who is now one of our most respected elder citizens and one whose
\npersonal friendship I have long cherished. This is what the Mail said on January
\n2, 1897: “Mr. Frank B. Hubbard, the new agent of the Maine Central R.R., has got
\nhis office harness well strapped on and it fits him so nicely that he appears like
\nan old timer in the job. Mr. Hubbard is a man eminently fitted for the position to
\nwhich he was recently promoted, as he began at the bottom round of the ladder in
\nR.R. business, and has by his own energy and faithfulness made his way up to his
\npresent responsible position.”
\nIt is good to know that Mr. Hubbard was appreciated by the Maine Central and
\nits waterville citizens half a century ago, just as he was appreciated by Colby
\nCollege a quarter of a century later and by all of his many friends in this year of
\n1951, 54 years after he became head of the Maine Central’s waterville office.
\n2-263
\nLITTLE TALKS ON COMMON THINGS
\n93:cd Broadcast January 21, 1951
\nA few weeks ago Ernest R. Breech, executive vice-president of the Ford Motor
\nCompany, told the Economic Club of Detroit about America’s secret weapon. It is
\nno new gun or plane or bomb. Mr. Breech says America’s secret weapon, long underestimated
\nby our enemies, is the spirit of American industry. Last spring after
\na large group of representatives of British industry had visited American
\nplants the London Times said: liThe group has learned lessons not confined to
\ntechniques of productive processes, valuable as these are. They have seen managers,
\ntechnicians and floor workers enthusiastic in applying knowledge and skill, with
\nan outlook on productivity and a way of life Which constitute a challenge to the
\nworld. II
\nThat sort of thing, so impressive to the British visitors, is quite beyond
\nthe comprehension of any avowed Communist. America’s industrial strength today is
\nnot in our material advantages nearly so much as it is in our spiritual advantages.
\nNot machines, not numbers of men, make the difference, but the point of view.
\nThose British visitors found that production in our steel mills and our cotton
\nfactories is over 50 per cent higher than in the same industries in Britain.
\nThey found American forges producing four times as many forgings per houri and in
\nthe building industries an output per man hour twice the British output.
\nMr. Breech contends that this difference is due to the spirit of American industry,
\nwhich he says shows itself in three ways: willingness to take risks, as
\nno state controlled industry can do; willingness to accept change, without which
\nthere is no progress; and the acceptance of competition.
\nMr. Breech concluded his address with these words: liThe voluntary will-to-do
\nof the American people, the potential energy represented by the spirit of American
\n2-264
\nmanagement, and the loyalty of American workers — these things are far more powerful
\nthan even atomic bombs.”
\n*****
\nThinking it was time someone had a good word for the commonest family name
\nin America, H. Allen Smith has written a most amusing book entitled “People Named
\nSmith”. There are a million and a half Smiths in this country, and the wonder is
\nthat, until H. Allen came along, nobody wrote a book about them. Nor does that million
\nand a half include such sideline families as the Smi tts, the Schmidts, and the
\nSmeds, not even the Smythes. With becoming scorn the author casts out what he calls
\nthe Almost Smiths, the sons and daughters of mothers whose maiden name was Smith.
\nHe feels just as bitter about the real Smiths who changed their names to something
\nelse. Those Smiths, for instance, who are now Mary Pickford and Sugar Ray Robinson.
\nprobably H. Allen Smith is right, rather than finicky, about his exclusio~s for, if
\nhe hadn’t drawn a pretty straight line, he would have included nearly all of us.
\nThere are very few people in this country who cannot claim a Smith somewhere in the
\nfamily tree.
\nH. Allen has done a fine job digging up unusual given names which parents have
\nadded to children born simply Smith. His favorite is Light Green Smith, which isn’t
\nquite fair, for it is the name of a prize pig. Other good ones are Oceanwave Smith,
\nWanton Q. Smith, OVer Night Smith, 5\/8 Smith, Xenophon P. Smith, and Leonides
\nD’ Entrecasteaux Smith, a Tennessee lawyer who named his children Keilash Smith” and
\nUcal Smith. But the prize should be awarded to Glen E. smith of Georgia, who was
\ndetermined to name his first boy by some name never before given to a Smith. By a
\nstroke of genius he succeeded, for he named “the child Smith Smith.
\n*****
\nOn New Year’s Eve we brought our story about Kennebec steamboats up to 1850,
\njust a hundred years ago. In that year a new boat, the T.”P. Secor, was placed on
\nthe line between Hallowell and Bath, where ~e made daily connections with the
\n2-265
\nrailroad which had then reached the Sagadahoc County seat. Shortly afterward,
\nwhen the Portland and Kennebec Railroad reached Richmond, the Secor carried
\npassengers only the short distance between Richmond and Augusta.
\nIn 1852 the Boston line, plying between Boston and Hallowell, put on the
\nbiggest steamer seen on the river up to that time. It was called the “Ocean”
\nand did a brisk passenger business until the stormy night of Novembe~ 24, 1854,
\nwhen she collided with the CUnard steamship “Canada”, just outside Boston harbor.
\nThe Ocean naturally got the worst of the collision. She took fire and burned to
\nthe water’s edge. Nine lives were lost. This was 44 years, almost to a day, before
\nthe terrible Thanksgiving eve disaster of the steamer Portland.
\nCaptain Nathaniel Kimball of Gardin.er, the man who had done more than any
\nother individual to keep the Kennebec boats under local management, and who had
\nhimself seen 18 active years of piloting steamers on the river, retired as a boat
\ncaptain in 1853, though he still retained a financial interest in the line and
\nacted as its general manager until 1860.
\nIn 1855 Captain James Collins, relative of Jason Collins, the writer of the
\nreminiscences of Kennebec Steamboating, piloted on the river a new boat built to
\nreplace the ill-fated Ocean. This boat was called the “Governor” and for two
\nyears, until 1857, she was the only boat on the locally managed line.
\nBut in 1856 a palatial steamer called the “Eastern Queen” was built in New
\nYork. She cost $100,000, a tremendous sum for those days. A new company was
\nformed to finance her, of which Jason Collins himself was a stockholder, along
\nwith Capt. Nathaniel Kimball, William Bradstreet and William Grant. Two Boston
\nfinanciers, Isaac Rich and Nathaniel Stone, had large interests, but no control.
\nIn the spring of 1857 the Eastern Queen, commanded by Capt. James Collins,
\nformer master of the Governor, began her trips from Hallowell to Boston. She did
\na huge business for three seasons, then was partially burned in March, 1860,
\nwhile laid up in winter quarters at Wiscasset. She was rebuilt in yards at East
\n2-266
\nBoston and resumed her trips the day before the presidential election of Abraham
\nLincoln in November, 1860.
\nIn the spring of 1861, on the death of James Collins, Jason Collins himself
\ntook command of the Eastern Queen. The Civil War was now on, and the Queen was
\npromptly chartered by the g0vernment for the General Burnside expedition to Hatteras.
\nWith Jason Collins still in command the Queen sailed from New York on
\nDecember 11 with the 24th Massachusetts Regiment, accompani~d by Gilmore’s band.
\nAfter disembarking those troops at Annapolis, Captain Collins took on the 4th
\nRhode Island Regiment, sailed on to Hatteras Inlet, arrived at the agreed anchorage
\na few days later, and waited until February 5th before the signal was given
\nfor the first division to get under way. The Eastern Queen was honored by being
\nmade the flagship of the division and carried on board the division commander,
\nGeneral Parks. She headed quite a fleet — first the gunboats, then the flagship
\nEastern Queen, then the transports carrying 12,000 troops altogether a line of
\n75 ships. Off Roanoke Island the troops were disembarked in whale boats, under
\nprotection of the Federal gun boats shelling the woods. The next morning the Confederate
\nforts were captured.
\nAll that winter of 1861-62 the Eastern Queen continued to carry troops, frequently
\nin the midst of grave danger. But she came through unscathed. In July,
\n1862 she resumed her old route on the Kennebec. She was indeed welcomed home, for
\nthough the river had been open for more than two months, the ste~oat service to
\nBoston had been totally interrupted for the first time since its establishment.
\nBut the Eastern Queen was not finished with the war. In November, 1862 she
\nwas again chartered, this time to take part in the expedition of General Banks to
\nNew Orleans. They left New York on December 6, under orders for 24 hours continuous
\nsteaming, and with further sealed orders to be opened after 24 hours in the
\npresence of the commanding officers of the troops. When those orders were opened,
\nthey found their destination was Ship Island. That was the rendezvous of numerous
\n2-267
\nships for Banks’ great attack. All that winter the Queen was engaged in transporting
\ntroops, supplies and dispatches from New Orleans to Baton Rouge and Pensacola.
\nWhen spring came the Queen again returned to the Kennebec, and this time
\nwithout interruption she Dema~ned on the Boston to Hallowell route until 1870.
\nShe was then sold to New York interests and her name was changed to the “Tamlapas”.
\nShe ran from Havana, Cuba to various Mexican ports and was finally lost in a Caribbean
\nhurricane in 1878.
\nIn 1864 the Government offered for sale the blockade runner “Scotia”, which
\nhad been captured by a Federal gunboat. Kennebec interests bought the boat and
\n. placed her on the route from Hallowell to Portland. The venture proved unprofitable,
\nthe Scotia was sold, set off on the long voyage to China, and was never
\nheard from again~
\nThe Kennebec Company held a monopoly of the river traffic to Boston until
\n1865 when an opposition line, started at Bath, put the steamer “Daniel Webster” on
\nthe Boston route. Then the most expensive boat put on the river up to :that time
\nwas built in New York for $180,000. She was called the “Star of the East”. With
\nsuch a boat the Kennebec Company hoped to give the Bath Company very stiff competition.
\nThe new boat was connnanded by Capt. Jason Collins, who turned over his old
\ncommand, the Eastern Queen, to Captain Samuel Blanchard. The Star was the most
\nfinely equipped boat running out of Boston for any port.
\nIn 1866 there were four boats making daily trips between Hallowell and Boston.
\nOn one day the Eastern Queen would leave Boston while the Star left Hallowell. Then
\nthe following day each would return to its starting point. The same was true of the
\ntwo boats of the Bath line, the Daniel Webster and the Eastern City. Passengers and
\nshippers of freight could choose between two boats of competing lines every\u00b7 ~ay at
\neither end of the trip. The competition exceeded that of the early 1850’s. Fares
\nto Boston were reduced to 25 cents. Excitement was intense. Crowds of people who
\n2-268.
\nhad never hoped to see Boston took the trip. Some of them were on a steamboat
\nfor the first time. At times the biggest boat, the Star of the East, carried more
\nthan a thousand passengers. When the winter’s ice closed the season of 1866 the
\nBath Company had had enough. They never put their two boats back on the river,
\nand the Kennebec Co~pany returned to its monopoly of the traffic for more than
\nforty years.
\nAfter 1870 the daily trips stopped. For the next 19 years the Star of the
\nEast was the only boat on the route between Hallowell and Boston. She made only
\ntwo round trips a week, but those were very profitable and paid the owners handsome
\ndividends.
\nIn 1889 the modern steamer “Kennebec” was built at Bath for the old Kennebec
\nCompany. She was launched from What was known as the New England Shipyard in the
\npresence of more than 5,000 people. On board were the Governor and his staff and
\nI
\nmany other prominent guests. The boat was owned almost completely by persons
\nliving in cities and towns along the Kennbec River.
\nOur informant, Jason Collins, whose reminiscences of steamboating Mrs. Adams
\nfound in her Gardiner attic only seven years ago, supervised the building of that
\nboat and became her captain. On July 1, 1889 she made her first trip from Hallowell
\nto Boston and was still in operation, though under different command, when Mr.
\nCollins wrote the memoir.
\nAlthough ice closed the river above Merrymeeting Bay, and sometimes all the
\nway above Bath, steamers ran between Bath and Boston year round. In 1897 the Kennebec
\nCompany built the steamer “Lincoln” for the winter route from Bath to Boston
\nand the summer route between Bath and Boothbay Harbor.
\nFor half a century the Kennebec Steamboat Company, so notably started by
\nCaptain Kimball, and so gloriously continued by the Collinses, James and Jason,
\ndominated the river, conquering the competition, not only of the Bath Company,
\nbut also of intruding Boston interests, and even the mighty power of Commodore
\n2-269
\nVanderbilt.
\nJust as the new century got under way, in 1901, the Kennebec Company sold
\ntheir steamers, wharves and other property to the Eastern Steamship Company. At
\nlast the trend of big business mergers had caught up with the Kennebec steamboats.
\nMen of the Kennebec Valley no longer controlled the line. Its future destiny lay
\nin Boston hands.
\n2-270
\nLITTLE TALKS ON COMMON THINGS
\n94th Broadcast January 28, 1951
\nAn interesting subject is Indian place names. It is difficult to be certain
\nof the meanings which the Kennebec Indians attached to various places. As a rule
\nthey never had names for any large area or extent, either of land or water. There
\nnever seems to have been one name for all of the Kennebec River. They had different
\nnames for spots and places along its banks.
\nChamplain in 1605 was the first to hear the Indian word which he put into
\nEnglish as QUinaibequi. It was the Indian’s name for the narrow, windy passage
\nfrom Bath to Sheepscot Bay on the lower reaches of the river. For the Indians’
\nfrail canoes this was a place of danger, where the water boiled and eddied with
\nthe tides. Hence to the Indians it was the abode of the sea monster, Quinaibick
\nsea monster in Chippewa.
\nWhen the English came they named the whole river Sagadahoc, but for some
\nreason, above Merrymeeting Bay Champlain’s name stuck. When the Indian wars
\nwiped out most of the settlements on the lower part of the river, the name Sagadahoc
\nfaded out and the new settlers came to use the name Kennebec to designate the
\nwhole river.
\nThere was long a tradition that the word Sebasticook is a comparatively modern
\nIndian corruption of the French pronunciation of st. John the Baptist’s
\nplace, or the place where lived an Indian who had been baptized by a French Missionary
\nand christened St. John the Baptist. Apparently Kingsbury, the author of
\nthe standard history of Kennebec County, believed that story, for he printed it
\nas fact in his history.
\nStudents of the Indian languages know better. They are familiar with the
\nword element SEBES, which recurs in numerous place names, and always seems to indicate
\n“almost through”. Sebasticook thus obviously meant a route to other waters
\n2-271
\nby a short carry. This version of the word is supported by the fact that the
\nstream we know as the Sebasticook was part of the canoe route, with carries,
\nfrom the Penobscot to the Kennebec and thence on to Quebec.
\nTiconic is probably an old Indian plural of the word for stream (ticus), and
\nprobably in this region originally designated the junction of the Sebasticook and
\nMessalonskee with the Kennebec.
\nThe most probable meaning of the word Messalonskee is “much clay”. Cobbossecontee
\nis a compound of the Indian words kabbasch (sturgeon) and Kahnti (plenty).
\nJust as Cobbossecontee means plenty of sturgeon, so Damariscotta, a corruption of
\nthe older Madamascontis, means plenty of alewives.
\n*****
\nSome of us are interested in the different names given to the same thing in
\ndifferent parts of the English speaking world — as, for instance, pail and bucket,
\nspider and frying pan, hay rack and hay wagon. Do you know what they call a rummage
\nsale in Great Britain? I didn’t until I recently saw the expression in that
\nfavorite Scotch newspaper of mine, the Peebelshire News. It seems that September
\nis the favorite month for these sales, and one issue of the News in that month advertised
\nno less than five jumble sales. One announcement said: “A jumble sale
\nis to be held in the Masonic Hall, Peebles, next Saturday. The secretary will be
\ngrateful to those who care to present gifts or jumbles.”
\nBoth words, rummage and jumbles, have appropriate origins. The verb rummage
\nmeans to search thoroughly, and the first meaning of the noun was a thorough
\nsearch. By extension it then came to mean articles turned up as a result of a
\nsearch, then to mean articles turned up as by-products of a search for something
\nelse. It was only a step to the present meaning of miscellaneous articles or odds
\nand ends.
\nIt is possible, however, that the expression rummage sale comes from a different
\nsource. The French word “arrumage” was the term for goods stowed in the
\n2-272
\nhold of a Ship, and the term rummage sale seems to have first been applied to the
\nsale of unclaimed goods at a Wharf or warehouse.
\nThe origin of the word Jumble is even more interesting for it is one of those
\nwords we call a telescope or a blend — the subtle combination of two older words.
\nJumble is a combination of join and tumble, and its first meaning as a verb was
\njust that to join something together in a tumbled, confused mass. The modern
\ndictionaries therefore give as the first meaning of Jumble, to mix in a confused
\nmass; throw together without order. The noun easily came to mean a confused mixture
\nor medley,\u00b7 a hodgepodge or a mess.
\nWell, take your choice. OUr British cousins prefer jumble sales; we like
\nruIlJIllage sales. But you’ll probably find the same kind of cast-off garments and
\nold furniture, whichever word you use.
\n*****
\nThe PeebelShire News informs me that they have been having quite a controversy
\nto determine Which is the oldest church bell in Scotland. Yetholm church claimed
\na bell in continuous use since 1643. That brought a quick response from the people
\nof Eddleston, in PeebleShire, who proudly pCinted to the still legible inscription
\nof the bell in Eddleston church. The inscription was in low German and can be
\nroughly translated, “I was made in the year of our Lord 1507”. That aroused the
\ngood folk of Manor PariSh, also in Peebleshire, Who said they could prove they had
\nthe oldest bell in continuous use in all Scotland, for the Manor Church bell bears
\nan inscription Which reads: “In honor of Saint Gordian in the yea~ of our Lord
\n1478.” The town of Crail thought their neighbor Yetholm exceedingly presumptuous
\nto brag about a bell cast as late as 1643. Why, right in Crail, they said, were
\ntwo bells older than that one cast in 1620, the other in 1614. What is more,
\nsaid Crail, their 1614 bell hangs in a church tower that was built in the 12th
\ncentury.
\nNow by what right do I drag into this program remarks about church bells in
\nScotland? Because I think it is time we gathered some information about old bells
\n2-273
\nof the Kennebec Valley. I know about the Paul Revere bell at Colby College, but
\nI would like to know the stories about the bell in the Waterville Baptist Church,
\nin the Universalist Church, and in other churches and schools up and down the
\nValley. For instance, what became of the bell in the Unitarian Church when that
\nbuilding was torn down? If you listeners will help with information, we can have
\na program soon on old bells of the Kennebec.
\n*****
\nThe lot of the prisoner of war has never been happy, but probably not until
\nWorld War II did it reach diabolical depths of unspeakable horror. The prison camps
\nof Germany and Russia, especially those in which they imprisoned their own citizens
\nwere scenes of infamous terror. Never was man’s brutality toward man so grossly
\nrevealed as at Dachau and Schlongarten.
\nBut even 85 years ago it was no picnic to be a prisoner of war. A lot has
\nbeen written about the suffering of northern prisoners at Libby and Andersonville,
\nand much of it was perhaps exaggerated. We ought to be impressed, therefore, as
\nWaterville folks were impressed in 1864, by what a Waterville man wrote about his
\nlife in Danville Prison.
\nAbner Small was only a boy when the war broke out, but with other Waterville
\nboys he enlisted in the Third Maine Volunteers. So distinguished was his service
\nthat he rose to the rank of Major of the 16th Maine and became that famous regimentis-
\nhistorian.
\nMajor Small fought in the bloody battles of Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville
\nand Gettysburg, and well into the long campaign in the Wilderness, until he was
\ncaptured in August, 1864. His impressions of life in Danville Prison are neither
\nexaggerated nor bitter. They are simply revealing. He wrote:
\n“OUr quarters were so crowded that none of us had any more space to himself
\nthan his body occupied a strip of bare, hard floor, six feet by two. We lay
\nin long rows, two rows of men with their heads to the side walls, and two with
\n2-274
\ntheir heads together along the center of the room, leaving narrow aisles between
\nthe rows of feet. The wall spaces were greatly preferred, because there a man
\ncould sit up and brace his back against the wall during the long day or longer
\nnight.
\n“When I was captured I was the proud possessor of \u00b7a new staff uniform ornamented
\nwith gold lace. Five months later my most intimate friends would not have
\nrecognized the ragged tramp Who sat naked on the floor of Danville and robbed the
\nlegs of his trousers in order to reseat them. OUr nerves were worn ragged; the
\nslightest provocation would cause a quarrel. I saw two cavalry officers come to
\nbloody blows over a few rusty cans.
\n“There were attempts to escape and. even we who did not make the attempt
\nwere in danger because of those who did. When the cry ‘Turn out the guard’ resounded
\nthrough the prison, I was never more conscious of being in the presence
\nof death. The fear in battle is nothing compared to the glimpse of eternity when
\none looks into the black muzzle of a gun held by a prison guard.
\n“As our money gave out we sold anything we had to get more. Boots, spurs,
\nwatches, rings, jack knives, buttons were all commodities of trade. Then When we
\ngot the debased Confederate currency in exChange for these possessions, we were
\nagain Cheated by the outrageous prices of those permitted to sell to us at the
\nprison gates.
\n“It is hard to keep decent.\u00b7 Some of our men are almost stark naked, and all
\nof us are alive with vermin. Most of all we dread the dysentery of whiCh many of
\n.our men have already died. Life becomes more and more unbearable, and our only
\nhope is for a general exChange of prisoners between North and South.”
\nNot since the Civil War has the civilian population of our country seen war
\nat first hand. We have not had the tragic experience visited upon so many civilians
\nin Europe in both World Wars, nor have we known the awful helplessness of Koreans
\ntwice driven from their homes within a few months. It is well to remind ourselves
\n2-275
\nof what some American families in our own Southland suffered in the 1860 IS.
\nDolly Lunt was a Maine girl who went south to Covington, Georgia to teach
\nschool. There she married a planter, Thomas Burge. When Sherman I s Army made
\nits devastating march from Atlanta to the sea, she was a widow managing her own
\nGeorgia plantation. \u00b7Her diary records what happened when the invading army
\nreached her home:
\n“My yards were full of soldiers. To my smoke-house, my dairy, pantry, kitchen,
\nand cellar, like famished wolves, they came, breaking locks and tearing down partitions.
\nThe thousand pounds of meat in my smoke-house was gone in a twinkling -my
\nlard, butter, eggs, preserves all gone. My fat turkeys, hens and chickens grabbed
\nup, my young pigs shot down in the yard. They took everything all the
\nhorses, even myoId mare Mary, now too old and stiff for work, and my dear old
\nbuggy horse, Old Dutch, who has so many times quietly waited at the block for me
\nto mount or dismount. And they took all my Negro boys, who have faithfully served
\nme through all this terrible war.
\n“Even the Negroes I cabins have been rifled of every valuable. I was not personally
\nmolested, but almost everything I owned was taken away — all the last
\nclothes, the~recious tapestries, the fine paintings ripped out of their frames.
\n“As night came on the sky all around was lit with the flames of burning
\nbuildings. Dinnerless and supperless as we were, it was nothing to the fear of
\nbeing driven out homeless to the dreary woods. I did not go to bed for I knew I
\ncould not sleep. I kept walking to and fro, watching the fires in the distance
\nand dreading the approaching day, knowing it could only be a continuation of
\nhorrors.”
\n*****
\nThe Un.ited States Post Office Department has a proud record for the prompt
\nand regular delivery of mail. We take this splendid service so much for granted
\nthat we forget it took a long time to develop and perfect the system to its pre-
\n2-276
\nsent efficiency.
\nEditor Drew of the Rural Intelligencer, down in Augusta in 1855, was peeved
\nbecause he got so many complaints from subscribers about his paper’s late arrival
\nor sometimes complete failure to arrive at all.
\nlished the following editorial:
\nSo on April 21, 1855 he pub-
\n“We assure our friends in Livermore that copies of our paper for the various
\npost offices in that town are mailed in the Augusta post office every Friday before
\nnoon, in season for the train that leaves here for Portland and Boston at
\nten minutes before one o’clock. We can do no more than commit the papers to the
\npost office in season. If we could jump into the bag with the papers, we would
\nsee where the delay arises, and would appear as an angry spirit to the postmaster
\nwho does not do his duty.”
\n2-277
\nLITTLE TALKS ON COMMON THINGS
\n.95th Broadcast February 4, 1951
\nIn the course of the years I have found many cynical people when you mention
\nto them the public philanthropies of modern industry. They too often consider
\nsuch good works as all bearing the spectacular marks of the elder Rockefeller’s
\ndistribution of dimes, forgetting the enormous benefit to humanity of the Rockefeller
\nFoundation. These cynics are sure that when any industrial firm today
\ngives away money, there is either a string attached to it or the company has some
\naxe to grind.
\nOne of the commonest distribution of grants by big business today i~ to colleges
\nand universities for scientific research. Of course, say the cynics, these
\ncompanies are interested in letting the scientists find ways for the company to
\nmake more money by selling more products to more people who can’t afford them.
\nThat opinion is grossly unjust. One of America’s biggest businesses, still
\nlargely under control of the family in which it originated is the E. I. du Pont de
\nNemours and Company, the company which, is sometimes said to be the State of Delaware.
\nFor many years Du Pont has made unrestricted grants to universities for
\nscientific research. For the coming academic year 1951-52, in spite of the nation’s
\nabsorption in defense production and Du Pont is one of the big defense
\nproducers — they will provide $400,000 to more than twenty universities.
\nAs long ago as 1918 Du Pont began to make these grants to encourage graduate
\nresearch in chemistry, and through the years has extended the grants to other
\nfields of science. The grants are given outright to universities for unrestricted
\nuse in scientific research. The universities themselves select the projects
\nand maintain complete freedom in the publication of results. Whatever is discovered
\nbelongs to the whole scientific world through the university; it is not the
\nproperty of Du Pont.
\n2-278
\nThe Delaware company is only one of many large industrial firms in America
\nwhich by suCh grants are keeping scientific researCh at top quality in our universities.
\nSuch a policy Shows that industria11eaders are well aware of the
\nnation’S need for independent, unrestricted researCh.
\n*****
\nMr. and Mrs. A. F. Drummond have made to Colby College a gift in whiCh I know
\nmany of my listeners will be interested. It is a map of Waterville in the year
\n1853, and it is now on exhibition in the main foyer of the Miller Library on Mayflower
\nHill.
\nStrangely enough the map was not printed in Maine, but in New York City by
\nthe engraving firm of Prescott and Edwards at 71 Wall Street. It contains something
\nI have never before seen on these old maps — the subscribers’ names printed
\non the map itself, with eaCh subscriber’s occupation after his name. Many of those
\nnames will ring the bell of memory among the older people who hear them mentioned
\ntonight. Among those map subscribers of a century ago were Samuel Appleton, postmaster;
\nTimothy Boutelle, counselor at law; N. R. Boutelle, physician; W. M. Bates,
\nornamental printer; J. T. Champlin, professor at Waterville College; Nathaniel
\nGilman, opposite whose name is set no occupation, but simply the words “New York”.
\nMr. Gilman had left Waterville for the big city some time earlier, but his continued
\ninterest in our town was Shown not only by his large real estate holdings here
\nbut also by his willingness to subscribe for this map.
\nOther subscribers were D. J. Leighton, West India goods; Daniel Moor, saw
\nmills and steam boat; E. Noyes, superintendent of the Androscoggin and Kennebec
\nRailroad; W. A. Stevens, marble manufacturer; S. Wing and Brothers, daguerrean
\nartists; and C. K. Mathews, book seller, brother of the Edward Mathews whom Dr.
\nCoolidge had murdered six years before.
\nAs for the map itself, it is very revealing. In the course of the past two
\nyears I thought I had come to learn a lot about old Waterville, but this map held
\n2-279
\nmany surprises — plenty of information of which I had not been aware. For instance,
\nI had no idea that Winter Street did not always run all the way through
\nfrom Elm to Pleasant streets. Both are very old streets, and I supposed of course
\nthat Winter was from the first a short connecting street between two long streets.
\nBut the 1853 map tells us that such an assumption is wrong. Winter then was a
\ndead-end street, running from Elm to a point almost opposite where my own house
\nnow stands at Number 17. Between the dead end and Pleasant street was a vacant
\nlot. Of course I knew, as many of my listeners do, that West Winter Street, from
\nPleasant to Burleigh came much later, but how many of you ever suspected that originally
\nthe east end of Winter Street didn’t go all the way through to Pleasant?
\nPark street was then called Church Street, and Western Avenue, of course,
\nwas Mill Street. The site of the present Monument Park is shown simply as an
\nunmarked green patch. Just about the time this map was made the old cemetery on
\nthat spot was abandoned, the bodies moved to the new Pine Grove Cemetery, and the
\nplace converted into a park, where some 15 years later .the Civil War monument was
\nerected.
\nI have often wondered where the original Androscoggin and Kennebec Railroad
\njoined tracks with the Portland and Kennebec. The A and K, you will recall, I have
\nmentioned several times on these broadcasts, for it was the first railroad to
\nreach Waterville, opening here in 1849. Not until six years later did the P and K
\nreach Waterville. Why the promoters of that road built two expensive covered
\nbridges, one at Augusta and the other at Waterville, instead of coming straight up
\nthe Sidney side of the river is not entirely clear. Legend has it that one of the
\nprominent backers was a bridge builder who sold the new railroad a bill of goods,
\nbut the more probable explanation is that Vassalboro was then an important and thriving
\nvillage, with at last three prosperous manufacturing plants, and with easy access
\nto the growing inland villages to the east.
\nAt any rate the railroad bridge at Waterville was finally built in 1854, ex-
\n2-280
\nactly one hundred years after the building of Fort Halifax, and early in 1855
\nthe first train from Augusta crossed it into Waterville. The old station of the
\nP and K was near the Head of the Falls at the foot of Temple street, while the
\nolder station, that of the A and K, was not far from the site of Waterville’s
\npresent railroad station.
\nNow anyone who goes down on the riverbank back of the old college buildings
\ncan plainly see the road-bed, where once ran the tracks of the extension of the
\nPortland and Kennebec to Bangor — a road known as the Penobscot and Kennebec. It
\nhad always been clear to me that the tracks of the A and K must have joined those
\nof the P and K somewhere in Waterville, for before 1860 there are records to show
\ntrains going through from Lewiston to Bangor.
\nMr. Drummond’s 1853 map gives us the answer. It shows just one railroad crossing
\nover College Avenue, exactly where the present upper crossing now is. Just
\nbeyond, in what are now the Maine Central yards, the A and K tracks, having crossed
\nCollege Avenue, joined the P and K tracks that came up the river bank from the
\nbridge. Years afterward the riverbank tracks and the Temple Street station were
\nabandoned, the lower College Avenue crossing was built, and Waterville got a union
\nstation.
\nWhere Coburn Institute now stands was an older building marked on this map as
\n“The Academy”. Farther down Elm Street at the corner of School Street, where the
\nD’Orsay house now stands was another school building marked “The Institute”. All
\nthis calls for an explanation.
\nWhat is now Coburn Classical Institute was founded in 1829 as waterville Academy.
\nIt flourished for a time, but declined in the 1830’s so that in 1840 it suspended
\noperations, without teachers or pupils. A rival school had already sprung
\nup, called the Waterville Liberal Institute, and is said to have attracted many
\nstudents away from the Academy. The rivalry was doubtless enhanced because the
\nLiberal Institute was sponsored by the Universalists as the Academy had been by the
\n2-281
\nBaptists. Friends of the older school were determined, however, that it should
\nnot die. In 1841 they obtained an Act of the Legislature, incorporating Waterville
\nAcademy under a board of trustees, of whom the best remembered were Samuel Plaisted,
\nEdwin Noyes, Harrison Smith and Stephen Thayer.
\nIt was not the act of incorporation, however, which gave the old Academy the
\nvigor to make it a great and lasting school. It was rather the coming of a new
\nprincipal, James H. Hanson, whose name and fame were to be identified with the
\nschool long after Abner Coburn had built the new building and seen the name changed
\nin his honor.
\nThere was not room in Waterville for two college preparatory schools. One of
\nthem had to go. That it was the old Institute that died and the Academy (the new
\nCoburn) that lived is no reflection on the Universalists and no special credit to
\nthe Baptists. Unfortunately the old Institute had no genius like Dr. Hanson to
\nassure its success and perpetuity. While the old school at the corner of Elm and
\nSchool Streets lasted, however, the Universalists had the satisfaction of saying
\nthat while the Baptist society in waterville had the college for its mother, the
\nUniversalist society had the Liberal InstitUte for its child.
\nThe old map gave me another surprise; in 1853 the entrance to the Universalist
\nChurch and the church tower faced across Silver Street to the east, not south toward
\nthe triangle between Silver and Elm Streets.
\nI got a thrill when I saw plainly marked on the map a building I have mentioned
\nseveral times on this program — the old brick schoolhouse on College Avenue, directly
\nacross from the end of Getchell Street, where the north end of the American
\nLegion building now stands.
\nHere’s another surprise. In 1853 the part of water Street that extends from
\nBridge Street to Main Street did not exist. That was a closed lot. Teams coming up
\nWater Street went around the lots where Lockwood Park is now, just the way the new
\nrotary traffic now takes automobiles. In those days it was a more gradUaJ.:1 curve,
\n2-282
\nnot a sharp turn from.Bridge Street into Lockwood Street as now.
\nA glance at that old map of 1853 reveals at once how, in Waterville’s very
\nearly days when the town was a part of Winslow, the one road came up the river
\nbank over the plains and on into. Front Street before lower Main Street was ever
\nconstructed. By 1853 when this map was drawn, Main Street did show all the way
\nfrom Lockwood Street to the Main Street railroad crossing, but it is easy to see
\nhow the direct route once ran from Water to Front Streets.
\nSurely many of you know that until fairly recent years there were buildings
\non Lockwood Park. The largest faced the end of Main Street and was visible all
\nthe way down that business thoroughfare. Part of it was once a hotel, and it always
\ncontained stores.
\nWhere the James Hotel now stands were the shops of the A and K Railroad. I
\nshall have an interesting story to tell about those shops on a later program.
\nWhat was known for years as the Noyes house, the present home of the YMCA
\nand earlier quarters of the BOyS Club, on Temple Street is marked on the 1853 map
\n“T. Boutelle”. It was indeed the old home of the famous Squire Timothy Boutelle,
\nand became the inheritance of Squire Boutelle’s daughter, Mrs. Edwin Noyes, whose
\nhusband, starting as a law student in the Boutelle office, had become in 1853, as
\nthe list of map subscribers shows, superintendent of the Androscoggin and Kennebec
\nRailroad.
\nOn that old map the house where Harvey Eaton now lives is plainly marked “C.
\nMathews”. This was, of course, Charles, the brother of the murdered Edward Mathews.
\nSince Edward had lived with his brother, Mr. Eaton is quite right in saying that he
\nlives at the same residence once made famous by Waterville’S first victim of
\nmurder.
\n2-283
\nLITTLE TALKS ON COMMON THINGS
\n96th Broadcast February 11, 1951
\nDid you ever stop to think what a common and valuable thing is discont.ent?
\nYes, I said valuable, for all progress, all advancing change is the result of
\ndiscontent. The person who is thoroughly contented with things as they are is out
\nof place in a changing world. There is a vast difference between the agitating
\nchanger, who wants to sever all contact with the past, who wants not only a New
\nDeal but a new pack every time he turns around — there is a vast difference between
\nthat sort of social radical and the man who accepts gradual, natural change
\nas the law of life and therefore shows a hearty discontent with things as they are.
\nThis America of ours was made by dissatisfied people. They wanted freedom
\nfrom oppression and they got it. They wanted elbow room, and a vast continent was
\nopen to them. They wanted a higher level of living, and they kept getting it,
\nhigher and higher. If we ever think we have arrived at where we want to be, we
\nshall stop being Americans. Americans are constantly discontented.
\nThere are benighted employers who like to keep reminding American factory
\nworkers that they are better off than working men in Britain or France or Italy or
\nChina. What they say falls on deaf ears. The American worker doesn’t care about
\ncomparisons with the rest of the world; what he wants is to be better off than he
\nused to be. He wants to keep climbing up on the American escalator.
\nBut the lUnerican factory worker is not the only American. The American with
\nmoney to invest is an American too. If he doesn’t get a fair return on his invested
\nmoney, he can protest just as loudly as the workman who feels that he doesn’t
\nget a fair return for his time and effort.
\nNow there are certain economic facts that are plain for anyone to see. The
\nmore invested money a country has, the more earned money it gets. Wages go up in
\nstrict proportion to the increased investment of new capital and th.e increased
\n2-284
\ninstallation of new machinery and new power.
\nWhere does the capital come from that makes these increases possible? There
\nwas a time when it came chiefly from the savings of individuals outside the industries
\nthemselves. That is still a significant source of capital, but it is no
\nlonger the largest source. Most of the capital used to expand and develop modern
\nindustry in America comes from a source that is hated and denounced by the social
\nradicals. It comes from profit. Expansion in our princiapl industries is made by
\nplowing in the profits of the industries themselves.
\nProfits mean increased investment. Increased investment means increased wages.
\nTherefore profits bring increase of wages. If you think that is old fashioned economics,
\nread what a prominent modern economist one respected by his whole profession
\n— had to say in a recent issue of the Harvard Business Review. There
\nDr. Sumner Schlichter explained in careful and unimpeachable detail the connection
\nbetween larger profits and larger payrolls. He insists that l.abor and capital had
\nboth better awaken to the fact that the conditions which cause larger profits,
\nhigher wages and increas.ed employment are the same conditions.
\nBy this time some of you are asking why this lecture on economics? Why
\ndoesn’t he get on with some more stories of old days in the Kennebec Valley. I’ll
\ntell you why. It is because the wealth and strength of our Kennebec Valley was
\nbuilt by people who understood the values of those sound economic principles which
\nsome of the modern economic theorists would cast idly aside. The Hallowells and the
\nGardiners, the Kings and the Sewalls, the Lithgows and the Conys, the Boutelles and
\nthe Gilmans, the Totmans and the Coburns — all the leading men of industry up and
\ndown the Valley knew that progress and business success depended upon teamwork of
\ncapital and labor. Those men never shunned hard work themselves, and their workmen
\nwere encouraged to invest their savings in the Valley’s growing industries.
\nIn fact the industrial team is more than a span; it is a triple rig. Besides
\nthe investor and the worker, there is the manager, whose lot it is to be much
\n2-285
\nof the time criticized by both — by investor because profits are not larger, by
\nworker because wages are not higher. And it is just as true now as it was a hundred
\nyears ago, when the Connors, the Nyes and the Totmans logged the big “Saplin”
\nup by Moosehead Lake, that it takes all three to make American business, and,
\nremembering that fact, therefore the American citizen feels a kind of snug contentment
\nin the midst of natural, persistent discontent.
\n*****
\nWe have been giving a lot of attention lately to Fairfield. Let’s give Vassalboro
\na hearing again tonight. We haven’t mentioned that good town since we talked
\nabout Sam Burleigh’s newspaper.
\nA hundred and twenty-five years ago a kind of all-around business man kept an
\naccount book a:f:; Getchell’s Corner. The entries in that old book run from May 20,
\n1824 to October 8, 1825. There is no inkling of the writer’s name, though the book
\nbears the names of persons who owned it years afterward. One of those names reads
\n“Hattie Gray, Oak Grove”. Another reads “Mary Ennna Smiley, Vassalboro, Maine”.
\nAlso written on a fly-leaf are the words “Oak Grove Seminary, November 29, 1870”.
\nOn the leather cover of the old book is written “No.5”.
\nThe man who kept this book in 1824 obviously had varied business interests. He
\nhad a potash factory; he owned river boats; he controlled fish seines; he dealt in
\ngroceries and dry goods; he notarized documents.
\nFrequent entries in the book are headed “Long Boat”. Apparently he operated
\none of those old craft that carried freight up and down the river, as well as passengers.
\nThey were poled along close to the bank, sometimes even pulled along by
\noxen. It was in such a craft that Jeremiah Chaplin and his family came to Waterville
\nafter they left the Sloop Hero at Augusta.
\nThe Vassalboro business man enters many instances of credit to people who
\nboarded his boatmen. Other items charge the Long Boat with furnished supplies; as
\non May 20, 1824 when the boat is charged for ! bushel of potatoes, 13 cents; and
\n2-286
\n4 3\/4 pounds of pork, 47 cents. On the same day he charged William Crosby 75
\ncents for a rafting oar. This may have been for use on Crosby’s own craft, but
\nit is quite as likely that Crosby was charged with replacement of one of the merchant’s
\noars which he had broken.
\nThe most common name in the accounts, as the older vassalboro residents would
\nnaturally suspect, is ~acob Southwick, for in 1824 he was indeed the leading citizen
\nof Getchell’s Corner. He too operated boats and on July 10, 1824 the book
\ncarries the following charges for one of Jacob’s boats:
\n“8 lb. Spikes
\n7i lb. Nails
\n8i qt. N. E. Rum
\n1 qt. W. I. Rum
\n21 ft. Plank
\n10 lb. SpaniSh Brown
\n1 3\/4 gal. Sperm Oil
\n1 Paint BruSh
\n60 lb. Resin
\n.80
\n.75
\n1.00
\n.31
\n.45
\n.50
\n1.17
\n.67
\n2.40”
\nEspecially interesting is the evidence that one of this ledger maker’s enterprises
\nwas hand-hewn lumber. Not once, but several times in the book we encounter
\nitems like this: 5 horse loads chips, 31 cents.
\nI was surprised to find in this account book a reference to apples sold by
\nthe pound. Not until after the first World War did I ever see apples sold in any
\nform except measured in the familiar peck and half-peck round measures. So I was
\nsurprised to see in the account book this entry: “February 7, 1824, Edward Starr,
\n9i lb. apples, 46 cents”. Then it occurred to me that this entry didn’t refer to
\nwhole apples at all. Of course it meant dried apples, the sale of which was connnon
\nduring late winter and spring months in the old days.
\nIn season when the fish were running, that was one of the Vassalboro merchant’s
\n2-287
\nbiggest enterprises, and this old account book casts interesting light on the once
\nthriving fish industry of the Kennebec. The book never mentions salmon, although
\nwe know they continued to come up the river until after the dam was buH t at Augusta.
\nThe fish in which this man dealt were herring and shad.
\nIn the spring of 1824 the season opened on May 19 with a good price, $2.75 a
\nhundred for herring, and ten cents a piece for shad. These people who weighed
\ndried apples only counted herring and shad. They sold the fish by the piece, regardless
\nof weight. The next day, May 20, the price had dropped to $2.00 a hundred
\nfor herring and 8 cents a piece for shad. Before the season closed on June 10 the
\nprice had dropped to one cent a piece for herring and four cents for shad. Then
\nas the run thinned out, it went up again to the original price of $2.75 and 10
\ncents.
\nAn idea of the size of the fish run on the Kennebec in those days 125 years
\nago can be gained from the fact that, between May 24 and June 10 in 1824, this one
\ndealer sold 26 barrels of herring and about 500 shad. Apparently he did not buy
\nthe fish from fishermen, but operated his own seine, hiring men to do the actual
\nwork; for on June 18 he credited John Dennett with $4.00 for fishing. That was
\neight days after the season closed, and may well have been Dennett’s wages for the
\nWhole season. On July 6 he entered a bigger credit for Nathaniel Hosmer. It reads:
\n“By his part of all fish taken in the sein $53.27”. In July our merchant had no
\nmore fresh herring, but was then selling smoked herring for one cent each.
\nThis dealer not only operated his own seine. He also outfitted other fishermen.
\nIn May, 1824 he made the following entry in the accounts: “Daniel Marshall,
\nsalt, rum, etc. for his fishermen, $5.83; credit, by boarding Reuben Patridge 39
\nweeks and 5 days while attending store up to lOth May 1824”.
\nIn April, 1825 he sold to Jacob Southwick 2 qt. Boiled Oil, 58 cents. The
\nsame commodity is often charged to other customers. That fact, and the reference
\nto sperm oil in the list of items for Southwick’s long boat, to which we referred
\n2-288
\na few minutes ago, leads one to conjecture that 1825 was about the time when
\nfolks of the Kennebec Valley were changing from candles to oil lamps for illumination,
\njust as three-quarters of a century later they changed from oil to electricity.
\nNumerous items show his dealings in potash. In June, 1825 he makes several
\ncharges for pearl ash at 17 cents a pound. It was on July 6, 1824, apparently,
\nthat he bought this business from Daniel Marshall, whom he credits on that day with
\nPotash Arch and Chimney, $24.00; three potash kettles, $112.50; one ladle, 50 cents;
\none’ spud, 25 cents; 7 1eaches, $21.00; two receivers, $1.50.
\nThe keeper of this old book also dealt in dry goods. The mere names of the
\ncloth that he sold make an interesting catalog: muslin, calico, dimity, cambric,
\ngingham, diaper, sheeting, stripe, duck, devry, shirting, quality and “linnen”.
\nHe sold lots of o1d time remedies; and that families often consumed these in
\nquantity is revealed by an item of June 10, 1825, when he sold to Elijah Pope a
\nbottle of castor oil for 84 cents. In 1825 84 cents would buy a lot of castor
\noil. It was Jacob Southwick, the village squire himself, who on June 3, 1825
\nbought a bottle of opodeldoc for 42 cents. An ounce of ipecac cost 50 cents, an
\nounce of nitre two cents, a bottle of oil of spruce 20 cents, a pound of logwood
\nsix cents.
\nIn July it took a lot of liquid refreshment to get in the hay, and evidently
\nthe biggest crop was Jacob Southwick’s. Five times in that month are items, each
\nof which reads, “Rum for haymakers”. It looks as if customers sometimes helped
\nthemselves to refreshment. How else should one interpret this item: “Aug. 8,
\n1825 — John Littlefie1d, 2 bottles Rum, taken and not charged the last two weeks,
\n44 cents”.
\nThis dealer managed to dispose of anything that came into his hands. In July,
\n1825 he made this charge: “Daniel Marshall, to damaged bacon delivered to Getchell,
\n22 cents”. He must have made many a shrewd bargain. In August, 1825 he
\n2-289
\npaid John Gray $4.67 for making 14 pairs of shoes. In June he collected $1.50 from
\nBE?:njamin Jacobs for “trip in boat to Hallowell”, where he apparently was going
\nanyhow with a load of goods. But perhaps his neatest bargain had been a year
\nearlier, in June, 1824 when on one day he sold Jacob Southwick a merino sheep
\nfor $3.50 and on the very next day sold him 3! lb. of Merino wool for $2.10. It
\nis evident that he sheared the sheep before he delivered the animal to Southw~ck.
\n2-290
\nLITTLE TALKS ON COMMON THINGS
\n97th Broadcast February 18, 1951
\nSometimes we seem to forget that this program bears the title “Little Talks
\non Common Things”. We spend so much time talking about the things, common and uncommon,
\nof long ago days, that we need occasionally to refer to some common
\nthing of our own time.
\nI don’t recall that we have previously mentioned that very common household
\nthing, glycerin. At least it was very common not so long ago. Between 1942 and
\n1945 we were constantly reminded of the importance of glycerin in winning the war.
\nAs everyone knows it is highly important in the making of explosives.
\nFormerly glycerin was collecteq bit by bit throughout the world as a by-product
\nof the manufacture of soap. We all recall the fat-saving campaign during
\nthe war. Today it is quite different. Glycerin is produced from the products of
\nthe great oil industry, and it can be made in almost unlimited quantity.
\nVery common things are the insect pests that eat up our gardens. Every season
\nsees some new insect killer put on the market.” How are these pest killers
\nmade? The new fungicides and insecticides, the materials to treat seeds to insure
\nbetter germination and the nitrogenous fertilizers to stimulate their growth all
\ncome from the great petroleum industry — the same folks who refine the gasoline
\nthat is pumped into your car.
\nWe are reading lately about the new amino acids, the building blocks of the
\nproteins, and the research scientists tell us that from the oil industry will come
\nthese new aminos to supplement the existing proteins of the vegetable and animal
\nworld.
\nWe are now told that nearly half of all the products of the organic chemical
\nindustry are derived from oil. The petroleum industry is growing to be more and
\n2-291
\nmore like the old woman who lived in the shoe, so abundant and varied are her
\nchildren.
\n*****
\nIn these days when the papers carry so many items about commercialized amateur
\nathletics, it is easy to think the practice is new and previously unheard of.
\nBut it is very old indeed. The columns of the Waterville Mail in 1896 make it
\nclear how the accusations flashed back and forth among the schools and colleges
\nhalf a century ago.
\nOn January 3, 1896 there appeared in the Mail a letter to the editor signed
\nanonymously “An Honest Sport”. There had evidently been published in Harper’s
\nWeekly an article that attracted a lot of attention. Its reference to non-students
\nplaying on the high school teams of Portland and Bangor had brought Maine some national
\nbut undesirable publicity. The letter to the Waterville Mail, alluding to
\nthe Harper’s article, went on to say:
\n“The Bangor papers take exception to the article and claim their team has
\nbeen run on the square. Perhaps the athletic standards in the Queen City have
\nbeen improved, but we do know that in former years the studies of some of their
\nplayers came under the heads of recess and football. Why Portland and Bangor were
\nselected in the Harper’s article we do not know. Certain it is that any other two
\nschool elevens in the state could have been taken as bad examples. Probably nowhere
\nin the Union are school athletics in a more unsavory state than they are
\nin Maine today.
\n“It is pleasant to say, however, when we turn to the Maine colleges, that we
\nfind conditions IIDlch improved. But there is room for still more improvement. One
\ncollege already imagines that the 1897 baseball pennant waves over her diamond
\nbecause two or three New England League players will enter that college next spring.”
\nThe Bangor Commercial picked up that letter with delight. The Commercial said:
\n2-292
\n“It is seldom that the Waterville Mail allows any belaboring of\u00b7Colbythrough
\nits columns, but we notice in that paper a most sensible communication from a
\nwriter Who signs himself ‘An Honest Sport’. While he doesn’t mention Colby, we
\nall know what college expects baseball players from the New England League.”
\nThe waterville Mail immediately retaliated: “The article referred to is
\nnot aimed at Colby and has no reference to the athletic situation there. It has
\nparticular reference to the fitting schools, the academies of Maine. We are not
\naware that Colby needs any reproof for failure to encourage purity in athletics.
\nIf all the other Maine colleges were as faultless in this respect, there would
\nbe little ground for criticism.”
\nWhen games were played in any of the sports back there in the 1890’s, feeling
\noften ran high. The Waterville Mail carried a stern protest about tactics in the
\nColby-Maine football game in 1896. Although Colby had won the game 10 to 0, the
\nMail commented: “Hook, Colby’s quarterback, had one of his arms roughly twisted
\nby a Maine player, an act that had no excuse and which furnished an example of
\ndirty football Which was in striking contrast to the gentlemanly manner in which
\nthe Colby men treated their opponents. II
\nThat blast was too much for the Bangor Commercial. They let loose with the
\nfollowing barrage: “The State College boys did well in Saturday’s game. They had
\nto play Colby’s mercenary team. Messrs. Scannell and Gibbons are not novices. One
\nof them is an employee of a waterville hotel. It is a pity to have such hired
\nsluggers introduced into Maine football. President Butler of Colby knows this is
\nnot honorable. We hope that Colby team will this year be wiped from the face of
\nthe earth, and that Messrs. Scannell and Gibbons will come in for all the extra
\npunches that can be introduced into the rough and tumble of the game.”
\nThe Mail had its come-back all ready: “Messrs. Scannell and Gibbons came to
\nColby from Phillips Exeter Academy. If one of them helps pay his way through college
\nby working in a hotel, it is a more honorable business than are the sneers of
\n2-293
\nthe falsifying writer in the Bangor Commercial. Those two fellows are bona fide
\nstudents and honorable young men. The Commercial’s insult to President Butler and
\nto Colby is beneath contempt.”
\nI know from experience that feeling between the academies was even more
\nfierce at times than between the colleges. Not only did I see the great battles
\nbetween Hebron and Coburn, and between Hebron and Kents Hill, during lJl.y eight
\nyears as a teacher at Hebron, but I caught a glimpse of the bitterness of those
\nconflicts even before I ever saw the Hebron campus.
\nWhen I was in college an annual spring event was the baseball tournament of
\nthe so-called Colby Junior League. The league was comprised of the four Colby prep
\nschools, Coburn, Hebron, Higgins and Ricker. The tournament consisted of three
\ngames, the preliminaries being drawn by lot, then the two winners playing each
\nother for the championship.
\nA lot of hard feeling was caused by college students, not graduates of any
\none of the schools, siding with one school — in succeeding years not by any means
\nthe same school — and going out in large numbers to cheer that school to victory.
\nThe college played favorites, said the partisans of the other schools; the tournament
\nwasn’t fair. At any rate, feelings finally ran so high that the annual
\ntournament was abandoned.
\nWell, as I said, my personal experience verifies the fact that those prep
\nschool contests were heated affairs. One spring in my college days Coburn had
\njust defeated Hebron in the finals of the tournament on a Saturday afternoon. I
\nhad returned to the fraternity house and was standing by a second floor window
\noverlooking the walk When I heard loud and high-pitched voices in angry argument.
\nAs anyone within half a mile could hear, the bone of contention was the game that
\nhad just ended. I stuck my head out the window to see if I recognized these arguing
\ncombatants, now verbally playing the game allover again. I was amused, but
\nin light of What went on in those days, not wholly surprised, to see that the
\n2-294
\nembattled conversation was between George Stanley Stevenson and William E. Sargent,
\nrespectively the dignified principals of Coburn and Hebron.
\n*****
\nAll the \u00a3uror over athletics half a century ago was not confined to the
\nschools and colleges of Maine. On June 22, 1897 the Waterville Mail commented as
\nfollows: “In his recent lecture in this city, President Gates of Amherst incidentally
\nreferred to the fact that the captain of the Amherst football team has
\nbeen dismissed from college for failure to maintain proper standing in his studies.
\ncaptain Callahan, who was referred to, is said to be one of the finest centers in
\nthe whole list of college players, and it turns out that Amherst’s loss is Yale’s
\ngain, for Callahan has entered the New Haven institution. He can’t play on the
\nYale team under the rules, however, until the season of 1898. Perhaps a year’s
\nretirement from football will give him the scholastic standing he lacked at Amherst.
\n*****
\nBack there in the 1890’s the big football game of the year was not Colby’s
\ngame with any of the other Maine colleges; it was the annual Thanksgiving Day
\ncontest between Coburn and waterville High School. In 1896 that game was played
\non November 26, which is regarded as a rather late date for football in Maine.
\nCoburn won the game 6 to 4. On Friday the waterville Mail devoted three first
\npage columns to the battle. “The conditions for football playing”, said the Mail ,
\n“were the worst ever seen in this city. Instead of frozen ground, the teams had
\nto play on ice covered with snow, and it was wonderful how the men kept their feet
\nas well as they did. A drizzling rain that froze as it fell continued throughout
\nthe game.”
\nAl together it proved a gloomy day for the high school, but somewhat comforting
\nby two winning points for Coburn.
\n*****
\n2-295
\nLess than one per cent of humanity have caused most of the world’s major
\ntroubles. And did you ever stop to think that those trouble-makers have all been
\nembued with a hatred of the basic truth of Christian democracy — the truth that
\nevery human being is a child of God, deriving his human rights from God, not from
\nthe State? Whenever a Caesar or an Alexander, a Napoleon, a Hitler or a Stalin
\nsets out to enslave mankind, he knows that he can succeed only by eliminating religion
\nand erasing.all reference to the fact that man gets his rights from God,
\nand that the ultimate purpose of government is to protect those rights down to
\nthe last and ‘weakest individual. If the conquest-bent dictator can wipe out that
\nprecious heritage that has comedown through 1,900 years, he knows his victory is
\nwon.
\nperhaps you don’t belong to any church. perhaps you haven’t been inside a
\nchurch for a long time. Perhaps you just doni t like the churches. Well, that is
\nyour privilege as a free American; but you may not always be a free American unless
\na great many people continue to believe in and support the church.
\nFor it is the church that, year in and year out, generation after generation,
\nkeeps alive the precious truth on which our forefathers founded the government of
\nthe United States; that all men are created equal and are endowed by their creator
\nwith the inalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
\nIn this time of world crisis, when the very foundations of Christian democracy
\nare threatened, we ought to take seriously to heart the words spoken 250
\nyears ago by William Penn: “Those people who are not governed by God will be
\nruled by tyrants.”
\n2-296
\nLITTLE TALKS ON COMMON THINGS
\n98th Broadcast February 25, 1951
\nAmong the commonest words on everybody’s lips these days is the word “security”
\n\u2022 I suppose if all the men and women in the world could put into a single
\nwOrd their greatest desire, that one word would be security.
\nBut it is quite another matter to determine what security really is. When
\nis a man or woman secure? Men once thought it was a material thing, so they built
\nmoated castles and turreted walls. But from the Great Wall of China to the
\nMaginot Line, physical defenses have never spelled security. Nor can it be found
\ntoday in jet planes and guided missiles and atom bombs.
\nThere have been other times and other places in which security was thought to .
\nlie in law. “If we can only get a law passed”, people said, “we’ll have no more
\ntrouble. ” Well, the Medes and the Persians passed such laws that men called them
\n“the laws of the Medes and the Persians, which altereth not”. But where are the
\nMedes and the Persians today? Their inalterable laws did not make them secure.
\nprobably most people think that money is security. “If we only had money”,
\nthey say, “we WOUld. have no fear”. But money can be lost, inflation lowers its
\nvalue. Security is not spelled in dollars and cents.
\nBy this time we know, with sad disillusionment, that security does not come
\nby political promises. We are not so ready today to follow the “vote-for-me-and-Iwill-
\ntake-care-of-you” politician. There is no security in the privileges
\nthat arise out of political power.
\nIf security is none of these things, what is it? Security is not outside,
\nbut inside. It is not material, but spiritual. It is something that lives in the
\nheart.
\nDid you see the heart-warming movie “I Remember Mama”? You won’t soon for-
\n2-297
\nget the story of that Norwegian family living in San Francisco — living always
\non the ragged edge of poverty. But they knew Mama had a bank account in the big
\nbank downtown, kept for an emergency. Emergenqie~ came, but they always found
\na way to meet them without turning to the bank account. Yet just knowing it was
\nthere held the family together and gave them strength. Years passed and the children
\nprospered. At last they said: “Now, Mama, we don’t need to worry about living
\nexpenses any more. You go downtown, take all the money out of the bank,
\nand spend it on yourself.” Then Mama confessed that there had never been any bank
\naccount.
\nSecurity is in the heart.
\n*****
\nWe want to tell you tonight about another small-town newspaper. A north Kennebec
\ntown that once had a newspaper was Clinton. The Clinton Advertiser was started
\nin 1877 by a man of several undertakings. Indeed he was Clinton’s undertaker, as
\nwell as furniture dealer, Benjamin Foster. After a time he took into partnership
\nMiss Etta Pratt, and until 1903 the Advertiser was published every week by Foster
\nand Pratt. After Miss Pratt’s death, Foster sold the paper to a more recent undertaker
\nand furniture dealer of Clinton, Marcellus Cain, who published the Advertiser
\nfor five years, selling it in 1908 to William Tracey. Tracey kept the paper going
\nfor about a year. He is quoted as saying there was more glory than dollars in
\nprinting a paper in Clinton. Anyhow the paper last appeared in 1909.
\nWe think those publishers did very well to keep a paper going, week after week,
\nin so small a village as Clinton, foi32 years. They deserve a lot of praise for
\ntheir persistence, and probabl~ all of them were out of pocket in their laudable
\nattempt to give Clinton a newspaper.
\nFor my information about Clinton’s paper I am indebted chiefly to Mrs. Lillian
\nBrown of Clinton, who has kindly sent me a copy of the Advertiser dated October 11,
\n1888.
\n2-298
\nThree columns of the second page are devoted to short paragraphs under the
\nheading “Home Items”. Some of them are not what a modern paper would call news,
\nbut they show that people in 1888 were talking about the same subject that claims
\nour attention today. I quote from the Clinton paper: “When is it going to clear
\noff? is the question asked by nearly everyone you happen to meet”. Another paragraph
\nlater on: “The steady rain of the past few days has caused the river to rise
\nto a very high pitch for the time of year. II
\nAnother: “So much stormy weather has greatly hindered the work on the Free
\nBaptist Church, which it was hoped to have finished before cold weather. It will
\nbe ready to receive the plastering the first of next week.”
\nAs for the news items, Mrs. Elvin Jaquith had made over a hundred dollars
\nworth of cheese; Secretary Gilbert of the Maine Board of Agriculture met with
\nClinton farmers; Mrs. Lucy Witham of Richmond committed suicide by taking “Rough
\non Rats”; and Rev. Osgood, presiding Elder of the Methodist District, preached on
\n“The Interest Felt by Angels in Man’s Salvation”.
\nAs usual with these old newspapers, the ads are the best revealers of the
\ntimes. Dodge and Jaquith, dealers in Clothing, Shoes, Crockery and Glassware,
\nevidently sold other articles as well, for in a part of the paper separate from
\ntheir regular ad they announced the arrival of a lot of very nice, pure tea.
\nB. T. Foster, publisher of the paper, ran a full column ad of his own, setting
\nforth his fine assortment of lounges, chamber sets, looking glasses, crockery, curtains,
\ncaskets and burial shrouds. The last item of his ad reads: “A good cloth
\ncovered casket. $12 and upwards.”
\nTwo carriage manufacturers advertised their skills: W. I. Brown and S. W.
\nSteward. L. Wright, the blacksmith, wanted folks to know that he now ran the shop
\nformerly occupied by C. Jaquith. Making use of that apocryphal yarn about George
\nWashington and the cherry tree, J. P. Billings showed an amusing wood-cut, and
\nunder it the words: “I cannot tell a lie, either; I did it with one of Billing’s
\n2-299
\naxes. All kinds of edge tools manufactured by J. P. Billings, Clinton, Maine.”
\nG. H. piper thought, now the crops were in, it was time he got paid for
\nthe spring fertilizer. He advertised: “Notice. All parties indebted to me for
\nphosphate please settle their account on or before November first.”
\nI think the ad of D. G. Webber, Clinton’s dentist, is the only instance I
\ncan recall of a dentist announcing as follows: “Gas free for extracting teeth …
\nNot all the ads originated in Clinton. Tuttle and Frazier, in the Burgess
\nBlock, Corner of Main and Bridge streets, Fairfield., had a full column ad in
\nbaseball jargon headed “A Base Steal Stopped”. They said: “In our game against
\ncompetitors, the latest feature is the clever stopping of a base steal, by whiCh
\nour opponents schemed to steal our trade by a sharp, secret cut in prices. But it
\ndidn’t work. The pennant will go to the firm that undersells every other and
\nknocks all competition flat. That firm is Tuttle and Frazier. We don’t need base
\nsteals. We’re making clean hits. Hit No.1 — A sweeping reduction in swmner
\nshawls and mantles. Hit No. 2 — Chevot shirting for working men and boys, to be
\nsold regardless of cost.”
\nAnother Fairfield firm, D. W. Allen and Co., also advertised for the Clinton
\ntrade, offering kitchen ranges from $18 to $45, as well as a splendid assortment
\nof parlor heating and oven parlor stoves. The pride of their collection, however,
\nwas a stove called the sub Base, Which burned wood and was guaranteed to keep a
\nsteady fire as easily as a coal stove. This stove, proudly said Allen, would keep
\nplants from freezing, maintain even temperature in a sick room, and keep everybody
\nin the house warm and comfortable.
\nWe are grateful to Editor Foster for printing on his front page casual items
\nof Clinton in the long, long ago. In this particular issue of 1888 he was concerned
\nwith town meetings in the 1840’s and results of the Clinton vote in the September
\nstate elections.
\nThe record is sprinkled with names that meant a lot to Clinton a hundred
\n2-300
\nyears ago — names that are still well remembered in the town. Among them are
\nPhilander Soule, Francis Low, Samuel Burrill, RiChard Wells, John Stinchfield,
\nMathew Pratt, John Totman and Sargent Jewell.
\nThe Hunters were a famous Clinton family. There were James, David and Z:irnti,
\nand doubtless several others, back there in 1846, when James Hunter won his famous
\nlaw suit against the Town of Clinton. A raft of lumber, being floated down
\nthe Sebasticook by its owner, James Hunter, had run against the abutment of the
\nbridge with suCh impact that the raft broke up and the lumber went its wild, unChaseable
\nway down the Sebasticook and the Kennebec. Hunter claimed damages of
\nthe town, and, believe it or not, he collected.
\n*****
\nKnowing that some of my listeners are interested in unusual items from the
\nworld of books, I want to tell you about a book 1,200 years old that has never
\nbeen printed.
\nSome time in the eighth century the monks of Kells in Ireland produced by hand
\nwhat has become one of the world’s most famous illuminated manuscripts of the
\ngospe1s. It has long been considered one of the world’s most beautiful books.
\nAlthough many attempts have been made to reproduce by hand the rich illumination
\nthe drawn pictures, the laviSh capital letters and the ornamental page borders
\nthey have never been successfully duplicated. Since 1661 the book has been
\nkept at Trinity College, Dublin.
\nNow at last, thanks to modern methods of color photography and color printing,
\na Swiss publiSher, after four years of patient experiment, has produced a method
\nthat makes possible printed copies of this rare old book. The printing is being
\ndone at Berne, Switzerland, but don’t be too eager to own a copy. Only 120
\ncopies will be for sale and the price will be $450 a copy.
\nThe original hand-written manuscript of the Book of Kells contained 344 pages
\nand a binding of riCh gold. Some time in the eleventh century, when William the
\n2-301
\nConqueror’s Normans were invading England, thieves stole the book and stripped
\noff the binding. That gold binding was all they wanted; the precious book itself
\nthey threw away. It was later found under a pile of sod, with five pages
\nmissing. It is the remaining 339 pages that are now being printed.
\nSome idea of the color problem facing the printer is shown when we learn
\nthat the original book contains more than 650 distinct shades. Yet the 48 pages
\nwhich will be reproduced in full color will have the exact shades of the original.
\nIf you can’1::. own one of those $450 copies, perhaps you may some day visit
\nDublin and see the original book. If you do that, you will see only two pages. In
\nthe Trinity College library the book lies open. Every morning an assistant turns
\nover a new page. Any visitor who wants to see the whole book must\u00b7 come back for
\n170 successive days.
\n*****
\nMore than a year ago on this program I talked a bit about folk-etymology,
\nthe process by which people fit strange words into familiar moulds — sparrow
\ngrass for asparagus, cutlash for cutlass. I told you how folk-etymology accounted
\nfor such words as primrose and rosemary (neither of which are roses), and for
\npantry and buttery .(which have nothing to do with pans or butter), and I referred
\nto a few family names that originated by the same process. One of those names
\nwas Simpson, as applied to families of French-Canadian descent.
\nSimpson is a very old English name. How did French-Canadian families happen
\nto have it? I told you that Dr. Julian Taylor, whose memory of Waterville went
\nback to years before the Civil War, once assured me that the French-Canadian family
\nname of Simpson was the English way of trying to say Sans Souci. The name Sans
\nSouci was very strange to English ears, but it sounded something like Simpson;
\nso Simpson the Sans Soucis in New England became.
\nNow Joseph Bolduc of Elmhurst Street, who has a rich fund of historical knowledge
\nand is a man very well worth knowing, comes forward with a more complete
\n2-302
\nand very interesting explanation. Whether the explanation is fact or mere legend
\nout of old French Canada doesn’t matter much. It makes a good story anyhow.
\nIt seems that long ago there came to Canada two brothers named Bureau,
\nwith land grants from the Crown of France. One brother, thrifty and industrious,
\nlocated on good, fertile land, took good care of it, and prospered. The other
\nbrother, happy-go-lucky and easy-going, took up a piece of swampy, brushland
\nnearer town, failed to clear it properly, and gradually found himself in poorer
\nand poorer circumstances. That happy-go-lucky brother came in time to be called
\nby his neighbors Bureau Sans Souci (Carefree Bureau). By the time the next generation
\nhad grown up the Bureau part of the name was dropped, and Sans Souci became
\nthe recognized family name. Generations later, when the Sans Souci, no longer
\nimpoverished and thriftless, like the first possessor of the name, but hardworking
\nimmigrants with ambition and zeal, came to New England, folk-etymology
\nchanged the Sans Souci to Simpson.
\n2-303
\nLITTLE TALKS ON \u00b7COMMON THINGS
\n99th Broadcast March 4, 1951
\nIt is a good American trnt to distrust people who acquire too much power.
\nThe Famed Boston Tea Party was born in a distrust of monopolies, especially a
\ngovernment monopoly. Raving been fed up on monopolies in Old England, the colonists
\nof New England jealously guarded the rights of the colomal legislatures
\ngranted them in the royal Charters and by later precedents.
\nWhen the representatives of the several colonies gathered to write the COnstitution
\nof the new federal government they were careful to WTite into it these
\nwords: ‘~e powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution are
\nreserved to the states respectively, or to the people.” Not only did they
\nzealously guard the rights of the several states, they set up the further
\nsafeguard of dividing the powers of the federal government into three branChes,
\neach a check on the others. They further saw to it that, while population should
\ndecide the number of representatives in the lower house of the Congress, each
\nstate should have the same number in the upper house.
\nNow notice how dictatorship, anywhere in the world, always acts. When Hitler
\nbecame Chancellor, his first official act through his stooges in the Reichstag
\nwas to abolish the powers of the little German states. Lenin, tolerant toward the
\nRussian provinces, was scarcely in his grave when Stalin took away their powers.
\nl’bbody is so foolish as to claim that a new Hitler or Stalin will do the same
\nin the United States. But a lot of honest, straight-thinking Americans are worried
\nabout the growing trend to place more and more power in the hands of a few
\nmen in Washington. That is what this debate about troops to Europe is all about.
\nThat is why some people oppose the molmting billions of federal aid to the states,
\nfor he who pays the piper calls the tune.
\nMore than a century ago Thomas Jefferson said: “When all government shall be
\n2-304
\ndrawn to Washington as the center of power, it will render powerless the checks
\nprovided of one government on another and will become as oppressive as the
\ngovernment from which we separated. tt
\nA century after Thomas Jefferson, General Eisenhower said: “The concentration
\nof too much power in centralized government need not be the result of violent
\nrevolution. A paternalistic, hand-out govermnent can gradually destroy the will
\nof the people to maintain any high degree of local responsibility. II
\nEvery time we run to Augusta instead of solving a problem at home, every
\ntime Augusta turns to Washington for help, government gets farther and farther
\nremoved from the grass roots. Of course certain matters must be the concern of the
\nfederal government, but not all matters. Because charity begins at home, it doesn’t
\nhave to stay there. But let it all drift off t.o Washington and not even charity
\nis left any longer at home.
\nSo it seems appropriate that we turn our attention tonight to the good old
\nsubject of town meetings.
\n*****
\nIt is town meeting time again. Tomorrow the citizens of many Maine towns
\nwill assemble for the annual meeting. Other towns will meet a week later. A few
\nhave even abandoned the traditional Monday date and hold their meetings on Saturday.
\nBut, by and large, allover rural New England, the firs t Monday in March is
\nstill town meeting day.
\nMany men of my age think that town meetings have grown genteel and sophisticated,
\nlike most other gatherings since the days of our youth. With the town
\nbudget committees meeting in advance to recommend or oppose articles in the warrant,
\nwith the voting for town officers by Australian ballot, sometimes on a
\nseparate day from that on which the articles in the warrant are considered, with
\nthe presence of women voters, and with even the introduction of amplifying
\nequipment into some of the town halls, we old-timers insist the town meeting,
\n2-305
\nlike the old gray mare, ain’t what she used to be. But perhaps we are just getting
\nold and forgetful. The old town meetings may have been more dignified and
\nless riotous than we seem to remember them.
\nMy earlies t: recollection goes back not merely before the days of printed
\nballots, but before any written ballots at all. Town officers were elected
\nmerely by show of hands, or by having the voters file past tellers. And many
\na row was caused right there. In one town I well :remember what caused the introduction
\nof the check list. A candidate for first selectman knew he was
\ngoing to have a bard fight. So he rounded up some recently arrived workers in
\na local mill, rushed them past the teller for his side, and won the election.
\nSomebody soon found out that those rounded-up voters not only had not established
\nresidence in the town but actually badn’t yet been naturalized as citizens
\nof the United States. Rather than let an embittered citizenry take the case
\nto the courts, the selectman resigned. The next year ., and ever since, that
\ntown has used the legal voting list to check the voters for town offices.
\nIn the old days the moderator had a real job. By the time I was old enough
\nto be elected mocierator of an Oxford County town — that was only thirty years
\nago — the town meetings had calmed down a lot. Except for being challenged to
\na fist fight by an irate voter whose motion I had declared out of order, I didn’t
\nencowter anyth:i.ng very exciting at that 1920 meeting. A couple of constables
\nrushed the irate and somewhat inebriate protester out of the hall and the meeting
\nwent on about its business.
\nBut that was well on into the twentieth century. Before 1900 town meetings
\nwere tougher. To begin with, it was always a kind of holiday. I say a f’ktnd”
\nof holiday, for there was none for the clerks in the stores. It was one of
\ntheir busiest days. Many of the men coming in from the tams to town meeting
\nbrought their women-folk along, and those women had saved up egg and butter
\nmoney for many weeks for this grand event. If a store clerk got to town meeting
\n2-306
\nlong enough to vote for officers he was lucky. He seldom got in his vote on
\nany article in the warrant,unless the proprietor of the store had an interest
\nin the article.
\nMost women of the village had no time for shopping that day. Their place
\nwas in the kitchens of grange hall and church vestry. For promptly at twelve
\no’clock noon, down came the moderator’s gavel as he declared the meeting in recess.
\nThen the arguing, sometimes very boisterous crowd, suddenly realized that
\nthey were hungry and off they trooped to their favorite church or to the
\ngrange hall. No one dining place was ever big enough to accommodate them all,
\nand sometimes a fellow had to go to two or three before he could find a seat.
\nBut the food was tasty and abundant in all the places, and he fOmld one about
\nas good as another. What food it was – the heaping bowls of bakA!d. beans, great
\nloaves of brown bread baked in five pound lard pails, apple pies, mince pies,
\nsquash pies, custard pies, cream pies, cut in real, man-sized pieces, not in
\nthose tantalizing little samples one now gets in a restaurant. And coffee
\ngallons upon gallons of it — made in those enormous, old fashioned coffee pots
\nand served in those huge, straight-sided white mugs that would hold a full pint.
\nWhat did that meal cost the hungry voter? I recall very well how, in 1898, one
\nchurch was very nearly boycotted because it raised the price to 25 cents. When
\nthe good women realized that the voters were passing them by, they quickly
\nput out a big sign announcing reduction of their price to the conventional 20
\ncents.
\nWhether it was the presence of women voters or simply a change in rural
\ncustoms, something happened about thirty years ago to take the sawdust off the
\ntown meeting floor. That sawdust was just. as much a fixture of town meeting as
\nit was the inevitable accompaniment of the meat market. Smoking was not permtted
\nin the town hall because of the fire hazard, but that generation was a
\ngeneration of chewers and the sawdust served a useful purpose. Praise be, with
\n2-307
\nall their habits, that is one with which the younger generation is not cOJlllllOD.ly
\nafflicted. Only in the South do you any longer see the advertising signs for
\nEating Tobacco. Along with the old-time snuff it is gradually disappeariDg from
\nNew England.
\nI xemember some of the prominent town meeting characters very well, and I
\nsuspect they wem types whose counterparts could at that time be found in, almost
\nevery town. Them was. the -Beverend Hacywho spoke fmquently and pompously
\nwith a kind of Daniel Webster oratory. He could lend polish and importance to
\nthe simplest subjects. Once the town was contemplating the purchase of a new
\nsnow roller. Disgusted with the economy-miuded folks who wanted to pass over
\nthe article, the Reverend Hac launched iDto a flowery tribute to sleigh bells
\non the snow and their inevitable disappearance unless the roads wem well rolled.
\nThe only trouble with Hac was that he was that ram specimen, a Democrat, in a
\nstaunch Republican town. He had mpresented a New Hampshim district in the
\nnational Congress when Grover Cleveland was Pftsident, and he never let folks
\nforget it, not even his Sunday parishioners. In town. meeting he was listened
\nto with reasonable- politeness, but the votes usually went the other way.
\nThen there was Uncle Brad, who was just naturally &gin everything. His
\npet hate was the schools. Be had a natural gift for scathing sarcasm and I
\ncan still see him waving those lanky arms as he fought the introduction of music
\ninto the- curriculum. ”They want to take valuable school time away from mading,
\nwriting and ciphering to teach my Silas to sing. Why, Godfmy mighty, that’s
\nlike tryiDg to teach a sow to lay eggs.”
\nOnce, through aGE aCCident, Une-le Brad arrived at a meeting late. ‘~t
\nthey trying to do now?” he asked as, out of bmath, he nudged his way into the
\ncrowd. ”They want to tumpike an old- road”, someone said. Uncle Brad got the
\nfloor at once- and denounced the waste of Iloney spent modernizing old roads that
\nhad ao- use anyhow. Not until the next speaker got the floor did Uncle Brad learn
\n2-308
\nthat be bad been denouncing a plan to iaproft the roac:l past his own fame
\nThea. there was Joe. Joe was the perpetuaf seconder of motions. No sooner
\nwould anyone make a motion than Joe would second it. T~e moderator ouly wasted
\nhis breath by regularly pointing out that Joe had already seconded a 1IIIOtion on
\nthe other side. He kept right on with the practice, to which be gaft his own
\npeculiar pronunciation, for he.always said, “1 second the emotion”. There
\nwas indeed a lot of emotion in the way he said it.
\nJust once was Joe caught napping. He got engaged in a discussion with another
\nfellow while the ‘Eeting was trying to decide who should collect the taxes.
\n-The job usually went to the lowest bidder, and the fellow who wanted the job
\nbadly had underbid everybody else by offeriug to collect for half a cent on the
\ndollar.
\nODe of those wags that inhabit every tOWD. saw J~ ‘SabsOJ:ptiClll and said,
\n”1 move Joe collect them for nothiug”. Catching the spirit of the occasion,
\nthe moderator asked, “Does anyone second the motion’l” Joe hadD It heard the
\nmotion, but he heard the moderator’s question, aDd rose to the bait. ”1 second
\nthe emotion”, he shouted. The moderator then declamd the motion out of order
\nand the half-cent bidder got the job. But Joe never heard the last of it.
\n‘l’he town aetiugs fifty\u00b7 years ago were not all hUllor, explosive oratory
\nand big dinn.em. Huch sound bus1sss was done aDd a lot of leftl-headed d1scussion
\ntook place. We should thaDk. a beneficent Providence or our New England
\nluck or sOlllethiug that the\u00b7 town meeting still survives. It is all we
\nhave left of real democracy in America. It is the only legislatift body on
\nearth where every voter, regardless of education or wealth or family status,
\ncan have his say. When the town meeting decides an issue it is literally the
\nwill of the people. We must never let the town meeting die.
\n*****
\n2-309
\nWe are pleased to leam that Clinton’s little paper “The Advertiser” is
\nremembered in other places besides Clinton. Mrs. Lucy Roberts of North Vassalboro
\nhas loaned me fiVe issues of the little paper, which had been preserved by
\nher mother many’ years ago.
\nUsually my interest in these old-time village newspapers is confined to
\nthe local items, but occasionally one of the boiler-plate pieces attracts my
\nattention. What those rural editors called boiler-plate was material all formed
\nand ready’ to print, which was\u00b7 fumished them by some syndicate, and which
\nthey used to fi11 up the colUIIIDS.
\nSuch a piece of boUer-plate occupied much of the first page of the Clinton
\nAdverti_r on Nowmber 10, 1892. It is entitled “Geman Ideas about America”
\nand 18 a memorable example of ethnocentrism. That’s a big, hard word, but a
\ngood one to know and remember. Ethnocentrism is the belief that the ways, customs
\nand cultuJ:e of one’s own COUlltry or ODe’S own part of the coUlltry ate superior
\nto all other peoples and places.
\nConsidering the plight\u00b7 of GermaDS today, it is interesting to know what
\nthey thQught of us fifty years ago. Says the article:
\n”Though no longer considered a race of Indians, Americans ate supposed to
\nbe a very UIlcivilized race of white men. Yet Germans believe that in the course
\nof time those savage traits of character will disappear and Americans will become
\nas polished as are the GexmaDS. Living as we do among Negroes and IndiaDS,
\ncompelled to’ defend ourselves with pistols and bowie knives, surroUllded by deserts
\nand mOUl1taiDS, the GeDUlDS consider it remarkable that we are far enough
\nadvanced to publish newspapers, and with great condescension they applaud the
\nrapidity of our progress. It
\nLocal matten, I still insist, provide the cream in those old newspapem.
\nBoiler-plate, e’Vell on what the 1890 Gemans thought of us, is only the skilllled
\nmilk. So I was pleased to note in the Clinton Advertiser of March 20, 1890 that
\n2-310
\na Clinton schoolteacher had the courage to defend herself against criticism contained
\nin the report of the school supervisor. She wrote: “How could a supervisor
\nbe so blind to h:l.s duty as to retain the services of a teacher whose manner,
\nhe claims, was boisterous and whose services were useless to the school.
\nHe says that parents felt the same way. How could they, when no word of complaint
\ncame to me during the whole term? If complaints were made and were
\njustified, why did not the superv:l.sor get rid of the bo:i.sterous teacher? On
\nthe contrary, he made not a single complaint to me during his calls at the
\nschool. The comments in his report are unjust and undeserved.”
\n2-311
\nLITl’LE TALKS ON COMMON THINGS
\nlOOth Bro.dust March 11, 1951
\nTo H.roun-.l-hshid, C.liph of Bagdad, Sheherezade told her stories for a
\nthous.nd and one nights. Tbese yarns of mine have been spun for only a hundred
\nnights, yet you good listeners have already done a lot better than the Arab lis-
\n.. , .. \u00b7teaer- \u00b7did for the slave girl.. For you have cooperated in keeping this program.
\ngoing. More than a hundred of you have contributed items of interest and historical
\nvalue, and lam deeply grateful.
\nBut you and I alike should remeaber what we owe to three other factors.
\nFirst, to the men of genius and science who have made possible radio c:ommunication,
\nthe great IIodern industry represented here tonight by Mr. Carpenter. Second,
\nto Station WTVL, the success of which in our community has been due almost entire1y
\nto the vision, enterprise and determination of Mr. Carleton Brown. And
\nthird, to the Keyes Fibre Company, whose vice-president and general superintendent,
\nMr. Parsons, has so graciously recognized this hundredth broadcast. This
\nprogram. cannot possibly have added a Dickel to the sale of Chinet and Savaday
\ndishes. It was DOt intended to do so. It has not been trying to give anybody
\nsofter hands or a cooler throat. It has been simply a public service, evidence
\nthat a great iDdustrial company, instead of believing nthe public be damned”
\nbelieves “the public be served”. I want the officers of the Keyes Fibre Company,
\nseveral of whom are in this room from which I broadcast toDight, to know that I
\nam personally grateful for their sponsorship.
\n*****
\nFrom time to time we have talked about low prices of many years ago. Some
\nof those prices of the Augusta merchant of 1802 sound completely fantastic today:
\nbutter, 10 cents a pound; eggs, 8 centS a dozen; geese, 6 cents a pound;
\nveal, 4 cents a pound; cheese, 7 cents a pound; and good, hard wood, three dol.:'”
\n2-312
\nlars a cord.
\nBut in the old days there were times and places where abnormally high
\nprices prevailed. A listener has recently sent me an old clippiug of 88 years
\nago showing prevailing market prices in Richmond, Virginia on April 6, 1863.
\nApples, $50 a barrel; butter, $3 a pound; COrD, $7.50 per bushel; candles, $3
\nper pound; coffee, $4.50 per pound; flour, $36 per barrel; sugar, $1.30 per
\npound. With military victory still a possibility, the South was already financially
\ndoomed.
\n*****
\nI was recently banded an interesting item picked up at the Meader house
\non Main Street in Waterville, when the contents of that old home were recently
\nremoved. It is a time table of the old horse-car railroad between Watervill.e
\nand Fairfield. The cover reads: “1888 Time Table of the Waterville and Fairfield
\nStreet Rail.road, presented by P. S. Heald.” In the middle ‘Of the page is a picture
\nof a street-car drawn by two horses.
\nOne thing about that lorse-car time table surprises me greatly. That is
\nthe large number of Sunday trips. The cars ran every hour from. 9 A.M. t’O l. P.M.
\non Sunday, then every half hour from 1:00 to 9:30 P .H. \u2022 But interestingly
\nenough, the half hour trips are marked w:lth an asterisk, notiug “Does not run
\non stormy days”. Now wby was that? This is a sU’llllBer time table; dated Jul.y
\n16, 1888. So the reason could DOt have been snow block1ug the tracks. My own
\nguess is that in 1888 the picnic and res’Ort center of Bunker’s Island in Fairfield
\nwas in full SWing, and ‘On rainy Sundays there was no ueed of half h’Our
\ntrips to that resort. Can anyone confirm or refute that guess of mine. Is there
\nanyone still living who ever rode on those old horse-cars? I thiuk them must
\nbe. Well, let’s start right now and rouud up the horse-car riders’ club.
\n*****
\nThose of you who listened to this program a year ago learned that I was a
\n2-313
\nstrong advocate of the Hoover COIIIIIlission. Mr. Hoover has lately become so much
\ninvolved in the controversy about sending troops to Europe that too many people
\nhave forgotten about that commission whose report pointed the way to saving six
\nbillion dollars a year in goverument expe1l8es.
\nWe are told that we must scrape and save and sacrifice in order to provide
\nthe money to save our nation from the enemy that would destroy us. Most of us
\ndo not begrudge that money \u2022 We are ready to provide whatever is needed to defend
\nour country.
\nBut the very government leaders who tell us that we mus t have added billions
\nfor defense, tell us also that non-essential goverDJDent expenses must be
\ncut. That is logical and sensible. If the householder must cut his non-essential
\nexpenses in order to pay his taxes, his government ought to cut its own nonessential
\nexpenses as well.
\nBut what is actually the case? IDStead of putting the sensible recommendatioDS
\nof the Hoover Commi.ssion into action, instead of cutting uon-essent1al
\nexpenses, the departments and bureaus and agencies in Washington are doing just
\nthe opposite.
\nA few days ago in the House of Representatives, Congressman Shafer of
\nMichigan pointed out that new civilian employees are baing added to the government
\npayroll at the rate of 1,000 a day, and that the Department of DefeDSe ac ….
\ncounts for less than a third of those new employees. To the already huge army
\nof 2,181,000 civilians on the federal payroll, the govermaent expects to add
\n500 ,000 by the end of June, 1951.
\nRow let us take a closer look at this waste and extravagance with the taxPayer’s
\nmoney. The Bureau of Indian Affairs has 18,565 employees, an average of
\nODe bureaucrat for every thirty Indians in the United States. In a small agency
\nlike the Price and Cost of Living Division of the Department of Labor, theN
\nare five branches subdivided into ten sections. One of those ten sections is
\ncalled the Statistics Services Section, which in turn is broken down into three
\n2-314
\nunits, six sub-units and 17 supervisory units. The Federal Supply Office of
\nthe Geueral Services Administration is divided into 4 branches, 17 sectioas, 27
\nuui ts, 24 sub-units, and 13 groups. No wonder the Hoover COIIIIId.ssion said:
\n“I’he overall job of an agency is usually broken down into such segaents
\nthat it is difficult to detemiue the precrise division of responsibility. A
\nsection increases and subdivides until it reaches the stage of a separate agency.
\nThen the vicious circle begins allover again. tI
\nFurthermore, many of those employees don’t work vel:)’ hard. As in most occupations,
\nthe top men do work long, hard hours, and have to make many tough
\ndecisions. But not so the great mass of government workers. A recent investigation
\nshowed that 425 purchasing employees in four goverament agencies averaged
\nonly 1.4 orders a day.
\nThe same investigation showed a shocking waste of man-hours. A study of
\n48,000 employees in four agencies revealed an. average absentee record of seven
\nwork-weeks (35 days) a year.
\nA lot has been said about our government’s need of publicity. Take a look
\nat the facts. The American people are supporting 45 ,000 Federal employees who
\nare engaged in dispensing information, publicity and propaganda. Remember that
\nthe Hoover Commission called much of this activity by the unsavol:)’ name of
\nthought control. Many of those 45,000 employees are used solely to further administration
\nideas, stir up pressure gmllps to influence legislation, and get
\nthe American mind ready to take what the bureaucrats give us. The State Department
\nalone employs at home and abroad 5,029 persons in publicity work, at a
\ntotal salary cost of $14,000,000.
\nA lot of us have been interested in the Voice of Amadea, by which we try
\nto let the peoples of Europe and Asia know the truth about Amedcan democracy.
\nIt originated as a wise, determined effort to offset the vicious Soviet propaganda
\nof lies. But what has happened to the Voice of America?
\n2-315
\nIts 13,000 man operating force is larger than the combined full-time
\nstaffs of the Associated Press, the National Broadcasting Campau, and MetroGoldwyn-
\nMayer. Even if the Voice of America has some good effect, as it probably
\ndoes, we are paying the price of a seven-course meal for an appetizer.
\nThe President of the United States has asked you and .. to accept saving
\nand scrimping, lower living standards, austerity of daily life, as part of our
\npatriotic job. But there is no W’cation that the merry bureaucrats in the
\nPresident’s own branch of the Federal government have any funny notions about
\ncutting expenses. Big goverument in Washington — in this hour of our nation’s
\ncritical need for defense — is riding high, wide and handsome, and we taxpayers
\nare paying the fare.
\nNow I assure you this is all quite different from the way the old-timers
\nof the Kennebec Valley looked on government expenses, local, state or national.
\nDuring William Bryant’s long tenure as first selectman of Fairfield, his neighbors
\nsaid, he could tell you the exact financial standing of the town any hour
\nof any day of au, week in the year. Waste or extravagance with town money was
\nto him unthiDkable.
\nWhen the settlers up and down the Kennebec went through that winter of
\nsuffering, following the year of no summer in 1816, they didD’t expect handouts
\nfrom Washington bureaucrats more numerous than the farmers themselves. The
\ngenerosity of neighbor Deacon Simpson of Winslow saw them through. When Jacob
\nSouthwick of Vassalboro set up his potash plant, his fish seine, his long boat
\nand his village store, he didD’t apply for any aFC loan with or without a mink
\ncoat. He did his own financing the hard way, by loans from men whom he knew,
\nwho trusted him, and whom he paid a hundred cents on the dollar. When Martin
\nKeyes was trying to get the money to produce the paper plates, which his ingenious
\ninvention made possible, he didn’t go to a Congressman or a five-percenter.
\nHe went to his neighbors, Lawrence, Page and Newhall. With the help of those
\n2-316
\nfolks right at home he started what is today the great Keyes Fibre Company.
\nWhen shrewd Silas Hutchins of Waterv1.lle wanted to be sure of medical attention
\nfor his family, he wasn’t looking for Socialized medicine, operated by still
\nanother army of bureaucrats. He went at it the independent Yankee way, so that
\nDr. Hoses Appleton recorded-‘in ‘llis ‘account book: ”Received of Silas Hutchins,
\nwinter’s supply of wood for my house, as per our contract to cure your family
\nof the itch. II
\nThis Kennebec Valley of ours is only a small part of the vast continent,
\nbut in its develop-.ut it is typical of all America. It grew, as did the whole
\nnation, because men and women worked and saved, not loafed and squandered; because
\nthey put first things first, and insisted that non-essentials must wait
\nuntil the necessities were secured. ‘lbey had a horror of debt, and got out of
\nit just as fast as they could. And most of all, tht;y believed that the basic
\ncenter of government is not Washington, not the state capitol, but the local
\ncommunity, where solid, independent citizens, jealous of their rights and their
\nfreedom, make sure that, in government as well as families, income always exceeds
\nexpenses by at least a little margin, and that what isn’t essential is
\n. gone without.
\n*****
\nNot very often does one hear today the comment of a Maine selectman of
\nmany years ago. Somebody proposed a costly piece of road building. ”’Twould be
\na good thing if we could afford it”, he said. ‘lben he added a bit of wisdom we
\nmight well heed today: ”But nothing’s a good thing if you can’t afford it.”
\nPerhaps even better than that saying is one attributed to an old-time
\nMaine citizen upon whom. a very slick book agent was trying to plant one of
\nthose big, one-volume books of reference which college boys used to peddle during
\nthe summer. “Don’t you want this beautiful, useful book?”, pressed the
\nagent. ”Sure tt, said that good citizen of Central Maine, If’ course I want it.
\n2-317
\nBut, young man, you just remember that up in this part of the country every
\nwant ain’t a need. If
\n2-318
\nLITTLE TALKS ON COMMON THINGS
\nWIst Broadcast March 18, 1951
\nI had hoped tonight to finish the subject of Paul Revere bells. I can’t
\nquite do that, because I am still trying to get hold of a copy of a very rare
\npamphlet published about 40 years ago, in which an investigator by the name of
\nDr. Arthur Nichols listed all the Paul Revere bells that minute search could uncover.
\nAs soon as I can get a look at that rare pamphlet I’ll tell you what
\nbells NiChols was able to locate in Maine.
\nTonight, however, we can advance the subject a bit farther because of information
\nsupplied by interested listeners. Mr. Foster of the Redington Museum.
\nis sure there is a Paul Revere bell in the city hall at Bath. There is said
\nto be another at Castine and still another at Machias.
\nSome of these present bells attributed to Paul Revere are not originals,
\nbut later recasts of bel1s once made by Paul and his sons. Such a recast is
\nthe bell at Waterford Flat. When the old church there was burned, the bell was
\nbadly damaged though not completely melted. What was left of it was salvaged,
\nnew metal added, and the whole recast. The same happened to the bell in the
\nUnion Church at Solon. The story of that old bell comes to us through Mr. Lewis
\nWhipple.
\nEarly in the nineteenth century a Paul Revere bell was hung in the tower
\nof Solon’s Union Church. The tragedy that overtook that old bell came in an hour
\nof triumph. On a July day in 1863 Solon heard the news of the Union victory at
\nGettysburg. In joyous celebration all the church bells rang out. Now the ringers
\nof the old Paul Revere bell in the Union Church were determined that the
\nnewer Methodist bell should not outdo their bell in loudness or in length of
\nringing. In their ardor the ringers cracked the Paul Revere bell. Somewhat
\nmuted and badly out of tune it clanged sadly on for thirty years. Then it was
\n2-319
\ntaken down and recast. Bung again in the church tower, its clear tones are
\nstill heard every Sunday in Solon.
\nThe person, however, who has given me most thorough information about Paul
\nRevere bells in Maine is F. L. Butterfield of China. Mr. Butterfield apologizes
\nfor his penmanship, but I assure you, in spite of his 82 years, his handwriting
\nis much plainer than mine or that of half the students at Colby College or Waterville
\nHigh School.
\nMr. Butterfield says there is a Paul Revere bell in Christ’s Church at
\nGardiner — the old Gardiner family church; another in the old Knox Meeting
\nHouse at Thomaston; and a third in the old church at the corner of Park and
\nPleasant Streets in Portland – DOW the Gmek Church of that city; and a fourth
\nwas long ago taken from the ancient Congregationalist Church in Falmouth and
\nset,\u00b7\u00b7 up in the Advent Church in Westbrook.
\nMr. Butterfield wants to know if we have learned the name of the last steamboat
\non our part of the river. Yes, as we said a few weeks ago, the last boat
\nto make regular trips was unquestiouably the City of Waterville. Mr. Butterfield
\nalso wants to know the name of the City of Waterville’s immediate predecessor.
\n‘Hr. Butterfield says he used to see that boat close to where the
\nLockwood Mill No. 2 now stands. Does anyone remember its name?
\nNow to get back to the Paul Revere bells. My neighbor and former colleague
\nat Colby, Professor George Parmenter, calls my attention to a fact which I
\nshould have remembered, but dicln ‘t. It is that Esther Forbes, in her notable
\nbook “Paul Revere and the World He Lived In”, tells about that very Paul Revere
\nbell in Farmington that I mentioned vaguely on this program a few weeks
\nago. I asked if there is a Paul Revere bell at Farmington. Paul’s best biographer
\nsays there certainly was one there when Paul himself was still aliw.
\nPaul seems to have been someWhat careless in the way he handled the business
\ntransactions regarding his bells. He seldom had a written contract or any
\n2-320
\npayment in advance. In 1808 he went so far as to deliver a bell to a young man
\nwhose name. he did not even record or later remember. He had taken no receipt for
\nthe bell, but had simply let the young man cart it away. Six months later he
\nbegan to wonder whether he was going to get his money. So on July 1, 1809 he
\nwrote a letter to a man he knew in Farmington, Maine. That letter has been pre …
\nserved, and this is what it says:
\nnOn the 24th of November last we delivered a bell to a young gentleman who
\nsaid he was empowered to purchase a bell by the Trustees of Farmington Academy.
\nWe delivered to him a bell weighing 495 pounds. At 42 cents a pound, the price
\nwas $207.90. Tbe young man did not leave his name, but said he would call again
\nfor the bill. As we have not seen him since, nor heard from the Trus tees, we
\nwill thank you to require them to write us whether they received the bell or
\nwhether they gave any person an order to purchase it.”
\nThe immediate result of that letter was what Miss Forbes calls a dignified,
\nSinister s:llenee. By this time Paul was really getting mad. He again wrote his
\nFarmington friend, Mr. Supply Belcher: “Are any of those Academy Trustees
\ngentlemen, or are they persons who care little or nothing for character?”
\nNeither Paul nor Hr. Belcher could get anything out of the Trustees, but
\napparently Mr. Belcher informed Paul that the bell actually had arrived and now
\ncalled the Academy pupils to classes, and he gave Paul the names of the Trustees.
\nBy this time two years had gone by and Paul had some excuse for wri ting
\nthe fo1low:1ng sharp letter:
\n“We think it extraordinary that gentlemen of your respectability will not
\nso far respect your own credit as not to notice in any way our letters to you.
\nYou know you have a bell, you know who it was purchased of, who purchased it
\nand on what terms, and you hear that bell every Sabbath call you to the House of
\nGod, and you all J,tnow that bell is not paid for. lIlat am we to think of the
\ngentlemen who compose the Trustees of Farmington Academy?”
\nNow we know those Academy trustees were not dishonest. They weren’t trying
\n2-321
\nto cheat Paul Bevere. They simply didn’t have any money. Miss Forbes suggests
\nthat ”probably their flesh did creep as Paul’s unpaid-for bell solemnly called
\nthem to the worship of God and their children to academy classes”. At any rate
\nthey eventually paid the bill.
\nIt is interesting to note how Paul Revere began to cast bells. His father
\nwas an iron founder, whose business came to be called ”Revere f s Furnace,”. Paul
\nDOt only learned that trade, but was also trained as a silversmith. That led
\nhim to consider the foundry as a place for something more artistic than simple
\niron castings. Someone called his attention to a need at his own church in Boston.
\nWhen the British troops occupied Boston during the early part of the Revolution,
\nthey tore down the Old North Church for firewood, but they did not
\ndestroy the bell. That bell, recovered when the British evacuated Boston, was
\nhung in the tower of the Second Church, where Paul was a member. In 1792 the
\nbell cracked, and bad to be recast. EveryOne thought it would have to be sent to
\nEngland; no workman on this side of the Atlantic could do the job. But Master
\nPaul Bevere was determined to recast that bell. He succeeded, and in the fall
\nof 1792 into the tower of Second Church went a bell marked: “‘!he first bell
\ncast in Boston, 1792, P. Revere”.
\nThat set Paul up as a bell-maker. He and his two SODS, according to the investigator
\nNichols, cast 398 bells in the 34 years between 1792 and 1826. A
\ngood many of those bells mus t sooner or later have reached Maine.
\nThe most famous of Paul’s bells is not, however, in Haine, but where it
\nought to be, right in his own city of Boston. In the tower of King’s Chapel on
\nbusy Tremont Street, right around the corner from the Parker House, bangs Paul
\nRevere fS largest and most famous bell – a huge bell weighing 2,437 pounds, and
\nwith a tone so completely individual that it can be recognized many miles _81.
\nClose as it is to the bell of the Old Park Church, no listener on a Sunday mor-
\n2-322
\nning would ever confuse the two, as that biggest of Paul Revere bells calls
\nworshippers to the service of a liberal religion, while the. Park Street bell
\ncalls them to the hell-fire sermons of Brimstone Corner.
\n*****
\nIs spite of all the excuses that come out of Washington, SODle of us are
\nstill old-fashioned enough to believe that one way to reduce the expense of
\nnon-defense items in goverument is to stop the senseless waste caused by conflicting
\nagencies. A Missouri famer asked the Department of Agriculture for
\nadvice on fertilizer. He got aDSwers from five bureaus in the department, all
\nthe answers conflicting with each other. More than fifty federal agencies have
\na hand in transportation, while our traditional transportation system puts up
\na continuous fight for survival. Twelve different agencies deal with hOUSing,
\n37 with public health, 16 with preservation of wild life.
\nWe are indeed the richest nation on earth, but even we cannot afford to
\nkeep on\u00b7 playing tag among the conflicting agencies that all claim jurisdiction
\nover the same field. Every loyal American should question the vast waste in
\npeace-time departments of government, the mounting proposals for new schemes to
\nspend more money.
\nEven if there wem no waste in these departments, there is another truth
\nwe had better get firmly in our heads. It is this: We simply cannot have all
\nof everything we want while we spend billions for bullets instead of for butter.
\nAnd, as long as the threat of cODlDlUl1ist-doainated world looms over us, those
\nbilliODS for bullets must be sp~t.
\n*****
\nAs the town’ meetings go merrily on during this month of March, it is
\nintemsting to note what the town of Oakland was cODSidering in town meeting 70
\nyears ago, or rather 69 years ago, to be exact. In 1882 Oakland was officially
\nthe Town of West Waterville. The warrant for their town meeting of that year
\n2-323
\ncontained the following items: Article 9, to see if the town will vote to
\nraise a sum of money for the support of a free high school; Article 10, to see
\nif the town will authorize the several school dis tricts to choose their agents
\nfor the eDSuing year, in district meetings lawfully assembled; Article 12, to
\nsee if the town will raise a sum. of 1Iloney to improve the fire department; Article
\n14, to see if the town will vote to tax dogs; Article 16, to see if the
\ntown will vote to assess the property of any cotton manufacturing establishment
\nto be located in West Waterville, at a named sum only, until said company commences
\nmanufacturing; Article 19, to see if the town will vote to furnish
\nsCbool books to pupils at cost; Article 20, to see if the town will vote to
\nsell the old hearse and buy ruDDers for the new one \u2022
\n. Of those articles, probably 19 and 20 strike most strangely on the modern
\near. In 1882 free text books had not reached the schools. It was really quite
\nan advance over the old method of requiring each parent to purchase his child’s
\nbooks where and how he could to the proposal in Article 19 of the 1882 meeting
\nto have the town buy the books at wholesale and sell them. to the pupils wi thout
\nprofit. Many a year was to elapse before Oakland or any other town was to
\n. furnish textbooks free.
\nArticle 20 reveals a CODIIlon practice in Maine towns three quarters of a
\ncentury ago. Not the local undertaker, but the town, owned the hearse used for
\nall burials. Some of those old town hearses were elaborate affairs with plumes
\non each corner and fine carving on the panels. Even in the smallest towns the
\ndriver usually wore a tall silk hat.
\nWhat did it cost to govem the Town of Oakland in those days? Well, in
\n1881, exactly 70 years ago, the total appropriaticma were $13,527. The total
\nvaluation was $615,000, of which $433,000 was real estate and $187,000 personal
\nproperty. The tax rate was twenty mills.
\nThe town had eleven school districts, the biggest of which was of course\u00b7
\n2-324
\nDist nct No.1, in the heart of the village. Its cost exceeded that of all the
\nother tea districts together, for lts expenditures were $1,418, whlle all the
\nothers together spent only $1,177. Apparently the high school had only one
\nteacher, A. P. Soule, who received the munificent sala1:Y of $165 a term for
\nthree terms a year, annual pay of $495. To operate all the schools of Oakland -all
\neleven elementary districts plus the high school — cost in 1882 a total
\nof $3,090.
\nEvea in those days Oakland had its paupers. ‘!heir support cost nearly
\nhalf as much as to run all the schools of the town, $1,295. Back there 70 years
\nago it was very unusual to find a town that spent more for schools than it did
\nfor roads, but Oakland could claim that proud distinction. Compared with the
\nthree thousand for schools, only $2,200 went for roads.
\n‘!hanks to a tabular statement in the town report of 1881, we know just
\nwhat wages each teacher received. Here are a few samples. Nellie Ham, at upper
\npr1ma1:Y, got $3.00 a week and board computed at $2.00; Grace Dudley, at the Intermediate
\nSchool, got $5.00 a week and board; FaDIlie ~ton at the Grammar
\nSchool got $7.00 and board. The highest paid teacher was, of course, Allen
\nSoule at the high school, who got $14 a week \u2022
\n. By no meaDS was Miss Ham. ‘s sala1:Y the lowest in town. Mary Downs in District
\nNo. 6 received $2.00 a week and board reckoned at $1.40; Sarah Hallett in
\nNo. 7 got $2.50 and board at $1.25; but the worst case was that of Belle Soule
\nin No.4, who got the princely pay of $1.50 a week and board at $1.35.
\nWhen we coulder that the school year then consisted of three tems of ten
\nweeks each, a total of thirty weeks, we can well understand that a teacher had
\nto have other employment simply to keep alive.
\n2-325
\nLI’l’TLE TALKS ON COMMON THINGS
\n102nd Broadcast April 1; 1951
\nThanks to Mr. Jotham Hobbs of Fairfield, I have had a chance to examine a
\ncopy of Appleton’s Railway Guide for the year 1864. It contains, as the title
\npage says, “time tables, stations, distances, and connections upon all the railways
\nthroughout the United States and the Canadas, together with 75 railway maps,
\ndelineating the principal routes east, west, north, and south”.
\nBy 1864 the Androscoggin and Kennebec from Portland to Waterville via Lewiston,
\nand its counecting road, the Penobscot and Kennebec, from Waterville to Bangor,
\nhad become the Maine Central, but the road from Portland via Augusta to Waterville
\nand on to Skowhegan was still a separate line, the Portland and Kennebec
\nRailway. In 1864 Hollis Bowman was president of the Maine Central and C. M.
\nMorse of Waterville was its superintendent. B. H. Cushman of Augusta was Superintendent
\nand General Manager of the Portland and Kennebec.
\nThere was only one train. daily each way between Portland and Waterville via
\nLewiston, but two trains each way between Waterville and Bangor. Likewise there
\nwere two trains each way on the other road between Portland and Augusta, but
\nonly one between Augusta and Skowhegan via Waterville. One way fare from. Portland
\nto Bangor via Lewi6ton was $5.00; from. Portland to Skowhegan via Augusta it
\nwas $3.00. Way fares were three cents a mile. The running time from Portland
\nto Bangor was 6~ hours; from Portland to Skowhegan 5 hours.
\nSome of the stations on the P & K bear names unfamiliar to mauy people today.
\nBetween Freeport and Brunswick was a station called Oak Hill. Fairfield
\nStation is listed as Kendall:’s Mills ,Shawmut as Somerset Mills, Hinkley as Pishon
\nFerry. On the other road, however, the stations are almost exactly the SSE as
\ntoday. Those between Waterville and Bangor were Kendall’s Mills, Clinton, Burnham,
\nPittsfield, Newport, East Newport, Etna, Can.l and Hermon Pond. You will
\n2-326
\nnote there was then no station at Benton, and none at Northern Maine .Junction,
\nbecause there was no such junction, 1864 being much earlier than the building of
\nthe Bangor and Aroostook.
\nAnother Maine railroad listed in the guide is the Androscoggin Railway, from
\nBrunswick to Farmington. The stations were Little River, Lisbon, Crowley’s, Sabbatusville,
\nLeeds Crossing, Leeds Center, North Leeds, Strickland’s Ferry, East
\nLivermore, Livermore Falls, North .Jay, .Jay, Wilton, East Wilton and Farmington -a
\ntotal distance of 63 miles, for which the fare was $2.25.
\nAnother road was called the Calais, Baring and Lewey’s Island Railway. Its
\noriginal line was six miles between Calais and Baring; the later extension from
\nBaring to Princeton was 17 miles. The time table announced that the trains connected
\nat Calais and Princeton with steamboats to and from Portland and Boston.
\nw. W. Sawyer of Calais was the road’s superintendent.
\nStill another road was the l3angor, Old Town and Milford, a thirteen mile line
\non which the fare was 40 cents. It ran three daily trains each way, the first
\nleaviDg BaDgor at 6:00 A.M., and the last returning at 6:30 P.M.
\nA noticeable feature of all these early railroads of Maine is that none of
\ntheir passenger trains reached their terminus later than 7: 30 P.M.
\nIn 1864 the Grand Trunk extended as far west as Toronto and Detroit. I thad
\nfour di viaiODS, one of which (the Portland division) was the line so well
\nknown to Maine people from Portland to Montreal. .Just beyond Island Pond, Vermont
\nwas a station called Boundary Line, and twenty miles farther into Canada was
\nthe station of Waterville. Forty 1Diles this side of Montreal was Britannia Mills.
\nThe time table announced, ”’Xrains are run between Portland and Island Pond by
\nPortland time, between Island Pond and Montreal by Montreal time.”
\nI suspect few people now living ever heard of the Portland and Oxford Central
\nRailway. About it in 1864 the guide made the following a tatement: “This
\nroad ia now open between Mechanic; Falla and Sumner (55 miles) .”and is in progress
\nto Canton Point on the Androscoggin River. The intermediate stations are West
\n2-327
\nMinot, Bearce Road, Eas t Hebron, Buckfield, Sumner and Hall t s Mills. At )fec:hanic
\nFalls this road” connects with the Grand TrUDk. No time table received’.’ The modem
\ntraveler will recogu1ze” this old Portland and Oxford Central as the begiuning of
\nwhat later became the Runford Division of the Maine Central.
\nOf course 1864 was long before the coming of Maine’s ten famous narrow guage
\nrailroads, all of them now extinct.
\nNow bear in mind that this guide covers all the railroads in the Un.ited
\nStates. There was no railroad yet through to the coast, though the Un.ion Pacific
\nwas fast nearing completion. In 1864 the farthest west one could get by continuous
\nrail j,ouraey was St. Joseph, M:1ssouri, and the statement of the North M:1ssouri
\nRailway in this old guide we find especially interesting: “All persoas going
\nWest into Northem Missouri, to St. Joseph or the State of Kansas, and all points
\nwest of that state, should be careful on purchasing their tickets to see that they
\nare by the North Missouri Railway. ‘!hus the traveler comes through St. Louis, the
\nGreat City of the West. Connection is made at St. Joseph with the Missouri River
\nPacket Company’s line of splendid steamers for all points on the Missouri River.
\nAlso steamers to Leavenworth and Kansas City, and stages to all points in the inte
\nrior of Kansas.”
\nAnother western road, the Mississippi and Missouri, an extension of the Rock
\nIsland road, extended to Council Bluffs, Iowa, across the river from Omaha, Nebraska,
\nalmost due north of St. Joseph. So, by either road, the traveler could
\nget about the same distance west.
\nI am sure all of my listeners know that the early railroads were richly endowed
\nwith lands by a generous government, and the guide statements of all the
\nwestern roads contain offers of land. The North Missouri said: “On this line
\nthe road lands are low and exceedingly fertile. No better lands in Illinois and
\nIowa are selling for four times our price for these lands. Persons residing on
\nthis line can get their products to market every day of the week except Sunday.”
\n2-328
\nI am sure you haven’t forgotten what was going on in our nation in 1864 –
\na great fratricidal war between North and South. Now there were plenty of railroads
\nin the South. What about their time tables in 18641 ‘l’here just wet:en’t
\nany. Most of the Virginia roads were by that time in Northem hands or completely
\ndisrupted by the war. The same disruption was true throughout the
\nSouth. The guide gives the list of stations of as many as forty Southe~ roads,
\nbut no train times. A mmber of the lines, especially in Westem Virginia, Kentucky
\nand Tennessee are labeled flU. S. Military Railway”.
\n*****
\nAn interesting old newspaper was the Portland Tr8DScript. Through the
\ncourtesy of Hrs. Grace Thompson I have had the pleasure of going through two
\nyears of that old weekly paper, the years 1842 and 1843. Unlike most of the papers
\nof that time — and this was especially true of the Augusta and Waterville
\npapers — the Transcript was not a political paper. It took pride in the fact
\nthat it represented no party. Its editor was Olarles P. Ills ley , and he called
\nhis eight page sheet “A weekly journal devoted to literatut:e, news, etc.1f It
\ncontained a lot of literature and a lot of etc., but precious little news. Host of
\nits so-ca1led news items were in fact editorial eouaents on the news rather than
\nfactual accounts.
\nIn 1842 the railroad reached Portland, and that must have been a big event.
\nBut Editor Illsley was not exhilarated; he was only peeved. Be wrote: lYe see
\nby the papers that the railroad was opened with jollification on Monday last. We
\nnotice a1s0 that gentlemen of the press were invited. The directors, however, took
\ngood care to extend courtesies to the gentlemen of the political press only. We
\ntrust their aiggared courtesy was not owing to the presumption that there are no
\nother gentlemen of the press save those who wallow in the mire of poUties. It
\nIt was in 1842 that William Mathews, older brother of the Edward Mathews who
\nwas murdered by Dr. Coolidge five years later, started the Waterville paper called
\n2-329
\nthe “Yankee Bladen. The Portland Transcript took note of its new contemporary in
\nthese words: ”Mr. Mathews’ Yankee Blade is a neat folio sheet and is of true stuff~
\nhighly tempered, keen as a razor, and we trust it will continue its way deep into
\npublic favor. We like the fresh, independent style of its editor. Success to him.”
\nEditor Illsley apparently liked our Kennebec Valley. In his issue of June 11,
\n1842 we find the following account:
\n“The editor of the Maine Cultivator says he has been invited by all the editors
\nthis side of the Connecticut to send them a Kennebec salmon. To do this
\nwould be too much of a tax on his generosity. He however extends an invitation to
\nus, saying, tWe wi1l entertain you with the fattest salmon the market affords. Besides,
\nif you have never seen Old Kennebec, you have not seen the garden of Maine.
\nWe have not only the best salmon in the world, but the fairest country, the noblest
\nriver, the best farms, the prettiest villages and the handsomest maidens. fit
\nEditor I11s1ey replies: “It would be a pleasure to accept his offer. We
\nsubscribe to all he says about Old Kennebec. We have been there frequently, have
\ntasted its salmon and feasted our eyes on its lovely maidens. If ever we should
\npull up stakes, we know not a place where we would so soon pitch our tent as in
\nthe delightful Valley of the Kennebec.”
\nA marriage notice in the old Transcript intrigues me. It says: “Married in
\nBrunswick, June 18, 1842, Mr. William Thompson to Miss Elizabeth Marriner”. I
\nwonder if Miss Elizabeth could have been any relative of mine.
\nThere are a lot of items in the Transcript that deal with marriage, but none
\nmore unusual than two which appear on the same page of the issue for September 17,
\n1842. One item reads: ”Married in Athens on Monday, August 8 at 10 0 f clock P.M.
\nby C. H. Herrick, Esq., Henry Stimson and Charity FoX.” The other item is this
\none: “Caution. The public are cautioned against harboring or trusting my wife
\nCharity, lately Charity Fox, as she has refused to live with me, and I will pay
\nno debts of her contracting. Henry Stimson. Athens, August 12, 1842.11
\n2-330
\nA vel:)’ short marriage indeed. Henl:)’ may have been chiefly to blaa, but
\nit is also possible that the girl was moxeFox than Charity.
\n*****
\nWhen we were telling you about William Bl:)’ant’s diary, we quoted his xeference
\nto the disillusioned Hillerites, when their pmdiction of the end of the world
\nin April, 1843 failed to come true. But in an issue of the Portland Transcript -that
\nof August 27, 1842 — we find the most amusing item we have ever encountexed
\nabout the Millerites. Bere is Editor Illsley’s ca.ent: ”’l’he Millerites axe pmphesying
\nthat the world will come to an end next April. Yet at the same time, in
\nthis month of August, 1842, they am taking subscriptions for a newspaper one
\nyear in advance. What’s the matter? Don’t they believe their own prophesy?”
\nAlthough Editor Illsley claimed non-partisanship on political issues, he
\nwas not without bias. On September 10, 1842 he wrote: ”It has been said that
\nPxesident Tyler intended to travel through the States; but it is now said that he
\nis not coming. Well, who cams? We would not give a fig to see his ugly mug.”
\nBow many of you xemember Portland’s old United States Hotel? The building
\nstill stands, facing Monument Squaxe, and now houses Edwards and Walker Barclwaxe
\n. Company. On his fxequent trips to Portland to visit the wholesale grocers, my
\nfather always stopped at the United States Botel. For many years it was Kaine’s most
\nfamous hostelry.
\nWell, Editor Illsley was present at the opening of that hotel, and he tells
\nus about it in his issue of October 29, 1842: ”Messrs. Dunlap and Kingsbul:)’ have
\ntaken the establishment long known as the Cumberland House and have xechristened
\nit the United States Botel. They have mpapered, repainted, recarpeted and mfurnished
\n— in a word, have regenerated the whole place so as to make it rank A No.
\n1. Those who want mgalement, xefmshment, mpose and mclusion should drop in on
\nour friends Dunlap and Kingsbul:)’. It was our privilege to be invited to the opening
\ndinner which they gave to prominent citizens and all repmsentatives of the
\n2-331
\nloca1 press. It was a magnificent affair — a menu of twelve courses and the finest
\ndecorations. Take our word for it~ as the man said of the fat oyster, it oPened
\nrich. II
\n2-332
\nLITTLE TAlKS ON COMMON !’UUtGS
\n103rd Broadcast April 8, 1951
\nHow difficult it was, in the days before the building of the railroads, to
\ntravel between places in Maine that are now within two or three hours ride of
\neach other is shown by an exchange of remarks a hundred years ago between the
\neditors of the Skowhegan Clarion and the Portland Gazette. The Clarion editor
\nhad said: ”We owe Brother Illsley of the Portland Gazette something for the excellent
\nstories that have graced his columns. We have on hand a fine, plump
\nturkey, and frankly we don’t care for turkey \u2022 So we will make Brother Illsley a
\npresent of it if he will tell us how to send it to him.”
\nTo this offer Editor Illsley replied from his Portland sanctum thus: “‘Bow
\nare we going to get at that turkey, or rather how is the turkey going to get to
\nus? Can the postmaster at Skowhegan send it to us under a government frank?
\nWe fear not. Nor can it conveniently be stuffed into a newspaper wrapper. Can’t
\nSOllIe traveler be coaxed iuto packing it in his trunk as he journeys thither?
\nWon t t the geual stage driver help us out in our extremity? Confound it! A
\nfine, plump turkey held out to us and we cannot reach it.”
\nThe railJ:oad reached Portland from. Boston in the fall of 1842. It was built
\nrapidly, for in April it had come only as far as Newburyport. By the end of May
\nit had reached Portsmouth, and in NoVember came to Portland.
\nBefore the railroad came, Portlanders had long been going on picnics, though
\nthe word picnic was just coming into use. There was, in fact, considerable dispute
\nabout its spelling. The Portland Gazette commented editorially in 1843:
\n”The Augusta Age, speaking of Pic Hie (sic) celebration in that place on the
\nFourth of July, adopts the spelling Pick Nlc. The Kennebec Joumal spells it
\nPick Nick. We spell it Pic Nic. We have seen it in a Philadelphia paper spelled
\nas one word, picnic. But we shall keep on correctly making it two words.”
\n2-333
\nAs a matter of fact, we know that picnic is not a very old word. It
\nappears to be a modification of the French pique-Dique, mock excitement, but
\nits exact origin is unknown. In Germany in 1750 it was a fashioa.able, social
\nentertaimuent to which each person present contributed a share of the provisions.
\nIts first mention in English writing was in 1800. How it came to apply
\nto out-of-door, mcreational meals no one knows.
\nThe favorite picDic spot in Portland was Deering IS Oaks, refermd to by
\nLongfellow in his nostalgic poem ”My Lost Youth”. Outside the city the points
\nthat drew summer picnickers were the islands in Casco Bay and grounds below
\nthe twin cities near the mouth of the Saco River.
\nWith the coming of the railroad, Saco saw a big picnic boom. Excursions
\nwem run from Portland all through the summer of 1843, and many summers afterward.
\nOn July 30 the Gazette mcorded: “Some hundred or more of our ladies
\nand gentlemen visited Saco last week on a picnic excursion.”
\nThe greatest railroad excursion out of Portland in 1843, however, was the
\ntrip to Boston for the dedication of Bunker Hill Monument. Hom than a thousand
\nMaine people made that trip. Tie railroad having an insufficient number of
\npassenger cars for the special train, many of the passengers crowded into
\nfreight cars of the old flat-car type, along the sides of which crude benches
\nhad been placed. The train left Portland at 4 A.M. on the morning of June 16,
\nwith Editor Illsley one of the passengers. It took Dine hours to mach Boston.
\nPutting up at hotels for the night, the Maine folks wem out early the
\nnext moming for the events on Boston Common. Tlete was a big parade, in which
\nthe Maine band, according to the Gazette, showed up every bit as good as the
\nfamous Massachusetts band of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company. Editor
\nIllsley paid tribute to the marching Irish, but said they couldn’t hold a
\ncandle to the elaborate display of the MasODS, who were out in aprons and full
\nregalia. Let’s get a description of the scene on the Common in the editor’s
\n2-334
\nown words:
\n”Every inch of ground was occupied. We edged our way a while among the
\ncrowd, but were soon convinced that the hope of a man of our height seeing anything
\nof the show there was preposterous; so we backed out and took our
\nstation in the street to watch the procession. After kicking our shins for an
\nhour or more, amusing ourselves by looking at the sea of heads which rolled
\nby in one ceaseless stream., the clash of cymbols, the bugle’s blast, and the
\ntrumpet 1S blare announced the procession. It
\nI told you last week that Editor Illsley didn’t think much of President
\nJohn Tyler. His feeling is emphasized by the following passage in his accotmt:
\ntfGreat curiosity, of course, was manifested to see the President of the
\nUnited States. Be came in an open barroche, accanpanied by his two sons and the
\nPresident of the Bunker Hill Association. His appearance exe! ted respect ful
\nattention, but nothing more. Some of the papers spoke of the loud and repeated
\napplause bestowed upon him. We did not hear any. A few faint cheers were raised,
\nhalf a dozen feminine handkerchiefs were waved languidly. It was clear that
\nwhile the office commanded the people’s respect, the man had not their hearts.
\nThe universal impression was that his presence threw a chill on the enthusiasm
\nwhich the occasion seemed so naturally calculated to call forth. There were no
\nhearty outbursts such as greeted the survivors of the Revolution, justly the
\nreal heroes of the day. A friend of ours compared Mr. Tyler to an iceberg, casting
\na freezing influence on all arotmd him. n
\nThe procession was so long that, when the front was ascending Btmker Hill
\nin Charlestown, the rear had not left Washington Street.
\nMr. Ills ley’s accotmt runs to three columns in the Gaze tte of June 24,
\n1843. Interesting as it is, it contains a notable omission, explained by the
\nfact that our editor missed the main event. He says: ”Not expecting to get
\nwithin gun shot of hearing distance of the orator, we did not go to Bunker Hill
\n2-335
\nfor the oration, but went to see the monument the following day. fI
\nLike so many of us who do not appreciate a great event until long after the
\nopportunity has passed, Editor Illsley did not know what he had missed 7 and in
\nhis l.ong account he doesn’t even mention the orator by name. Probably, years
\nafterward, he wished he had at least tried to get near the speaker’s stand,
\nfor on that 17th of June in 1843, 68 years after the battle, the address of
\ndedication of the lofty granite monument was delivered by Daniel Webster, and
\nhis speech was one of the most famous orations in American history.
\nNor does the Gazette mention the famous scene of 18 years before, when on
\nthe fiftieth anniversary of the battle, the corner stone of the monument was
\nlaid, and the same Daniel Webster delivered what schoolboys came to call the
\nFirst Bunker Hill Oration, and when at the orator’s side sat the greatest foreign
\nfriend of the new nation, the Marquis de Lafayette.
\n*****
\nWe haven’t mentioned murder on this program since last October, when for
\nthree weeks we told you about the slaying of young Edward Mathews and the trial
\nof his murderer, Dr. Valorus P. Coolidge. Ton:t.ght we want to tell you about
\nthe first murder trial held under the constitution of the United States, for
\nthat trial was held in Maine, while we were still part of Massachusetts, 30
\nyears before we became a separate State.
\nOn July 10, 1789 Captain Henry Jordan of Cape Elizabeth was coming home in
\nhis schooner Betsey when, ten miles out of Falmouth (then the name of what is
\nnow Portland) he sighted and hailed another schooner. Her master, Captain
\nThomas Bird, said she was the Rover, from the coast of Africa, bound for the
\nnearest American port.
\n“I am bound for Falmouth”, said Captain Jordan. “That’s the nearest port
\nthere is, not more than ten miles. If you aren’t acquainted with this coast,
\njust follow in my wake and It 11 pilot you in. tI
\n2-336
\nBoth ships came into Portland Harbor and anchored near the Cape Elizabeth
\nshore. Within a few days an air of mystery surrounded the Rover. She bad
\nbrought no cargo and seemed to be loOking for none. Ber whole crew consisted
\nof only three men. Several weeks elapsed, and the crew showed no sign of
\nmoving the sbip, spending most of their time wandering about Cape Elizabeth
\nand Falmouth. No one could discover that they bad any definite object.
\nIt so happened that in that month of July 1789 the Supreme Judicial Court
\nof Massachusetts was holding a .saion at Falmouth in the Dis trict of Maine.
\nWhen mysterious rumors about the Rover reached the ears of the Court, the judges
\ndeemed it their duty to make inquiry. They accordingly sent for Robert Jordan
\nand William Dyer, two young men of Cape Elizabeth, who had become friendly
\nwith the crew of the Rover and had visited the ship.
\nNow I am interested in that William. Dyer, because I think he may have
\nbeen a relative of mine. My paternal grandmother was a Dyer from Cape Elizabeth,
\nand the commonest names of the place were Jordan and Dyer. There were so many
\nWilliam Dyers, in fact~ in my grandmother’s time that they wete called Henry’s
\nWilliam, Eli fS William, Jabez’ William, etc. to distinguish them from one another.
\nAt any rate my William Dyer and his friend Robert Jordan had indeed heard
\nstrange talk aboard the Rover, especially when members of the crew were in their
\ncups. Young Dyer became convinced that there had been foul play aboard the
\nship and that :Bird was not originally the captain. Dyer related an incident
\nthat added to his convinced opinion. He said that one evening the two young men
\nand the crew bad consumed all the liquor in the cabin~ and Captain Bird told the
\nman Hanson to go into the bold and bring up a bottle of wine. Hanson didn’t want
\nto go. Captain Bird chided him and asked him what he was afraid of. “Are you
\nafraid you will see Connor?” sneered Bird. Then Bird himself jumped up and
\nwent into the hold, Coming back with a bottle of wine. Hanson asked him if he
\n2-337
\nbad seen anything of Connor down tbem. Whemupon Captain Bird told Hanson to
\nsbut up or be t d throw the bottle at his head.
\nNaturally young Dyer became curious as to who was Connor and what had
\nhappened to him. ‘!he COlllFt also was cur.:l.ous, and issued a warrant for the arres
\nt and examination of the crew. Then followed such a chase as would have
\ndelighted the heart of that old sea dog, my friend, Jim Comolly, who wrote so
\nmany spirited yarns about the racing schoonets.
\nBefore the rowboat bearing the posse could mach the Rover, her crew
\nhoisted sail and started for the mouth of the harbor. The officer of the pursuing
\nboat ordemd two more of his men to lay down their guns and put out a
\npair of extra oars. ‘!be six oarsmen now buckled down to their work and sent
\nthe craft leaping through the water.
\nBy this time the Rover was under full sail, but could not take advantage
\nof the wind until she rounded the point at the entrance to the harbor.It became
\nclear that if she got to the point befom the rowboat overtook her, she would
\nget away.
\nJust befom the race reached the narrows between Cape Elizabeth and Bouse
\nJ;sland, the rowboat came alongside, and the officer commanded Captain Bird to
\nheave to. The order was not obeyed, and the officer commanded two of
\nhis men to train their guns on Bird. ‘!he latter then darted from the helm
\nand leaped down the companionway. His two companions speedily followed him,
\nleaving the Rover to steer her own course. ‘!he vessel, no longer obeying a
\nsteersman, soon rounded to, and the men from the rowboat clambemd aboard.
\nLooking down into the cabin, they saw B1rd amed with a musket, and the
\nother two with cutlass and handspike, bidding defiance to their captors. The
\nofficer closed the hatch, and with the help of some of bis men who understood
\nhandling a vessel, soon tacked up the harbor and made fas t to one of the wharves
\non the Falmouth side. There, before some fifty armed men, Bird and his coq\u00bban-
\n2-338
\nions called it a day and meekly surrendered.
\nExamined separately, the three men showed no confidence in each other,
\nand each patently feared that the others would betray him. Pieced together,
\ntheir several stories agreed on essential points. The schooner belonged to one
\nHodges in England and was commanded by Captain Ccmnor. They had been trading
\nfor some time off the coast of Africa. Besides Thomas Bird, the other men ofthe
\ncrew were Hans Hanson, a Swede, and Mathew Jackson, who said he bailed
\nfrom Newton, Massachusetts.
\nThey agreed that Captain Connor was a vety brutal shipmaster, abusing his
\nmen beyond endurance, and that finally they had sought revenge by taking his
\nlife. Hanson and Jackson said that Bird had fired the fatal shot, while Bl.rd
\ncontended that Hanson was the killer. All three agreed that the murder had taken
\nplace in the cabin and that the weapon was a loaded musket which Captain
\nConnor kept there. They took the body on deck and threw it into the. sea.
\nAfraid to return to England with the schooner, they decided to come to
\nthe Un1ted States, dispose of such articles as they had on board, sell the vessel
\nat the first opportwity, separate, and go to their respective homes.
\nUpon this examination and confession, the court committed them to the Falmouth
\njail for murder committed on the high seas. At that time the supreme
\njudicial courts of the several states, with the judges of admiralty, were by an
\nordinance of the old Congress, author1zed to try piracy and felony c01lllll1tted on
\nthe high seas. But before the next session of court in Falmouth the new Congress,
\nunder the new federal Constitution, had passed the act establishing the
\nU. S. Courts, committing the trial of crimes on the high seas to the circuit
\ncourt of the United States. That court held no session in Falmouth until 1790.
\nIn June of that year Bird and Hanson were tr1ed, Jackson having turned state’s
\nevidence.
\n2-339
\nCrowds attending the trial were so large that the court adjoumed to the
\nFirst Parish Meeting House. The jury acquitted Hanson, but found Bird guilty of
\nmurder. On June 25, 1790 he was hanged in public at a gallows on MUI1joy Hill.
\n2-340
\nLI’rfLE TALKS ON COMMON THINGS
\n104th Broadcast April 15, 1951
\nMany times I have told you this program is made possible by the constant
\nstream of helpful contributions which pours in from listeners. A few weeks ago
\nI asked who knew anything about the opening of the resort area on Bunker Island
\nin Fairfield. Mrs. Mildred Pettee of Oakland Street, Waterville, has kindly
\nsent me an item taken from the Bangor Daily News of August 15, 1889. It 1:eads:
\nliThe Watervil1e Horse Railroad Company opened the Bunker Island Park last evening.
\nFully 2,000 people from Waterville and Fairfield were present. The city
\nband of Waterville gave a fine concert and afterwards furnished music for dancing
\nin which over a hundred couples participated. The grounds are fitted up in
\na most convenent manner. A long pavilion, 40 x 50 feet, furnished ample space
\nfor dancing, while within a few feet of it is erected a bandstand. On the point
\nof the island the company has built a little observation house, and scatteted
\nallover the park are a large number of folding settees. A baseball ground and
\na tennis lawn have also been laid out. The island makes an admirable summer
\nresort for local people who are wearied with a day’s toil or seek cool shelter.
\nThe horse rai1road will undoubtedly make a big go of Bunker Island Park.”
\nThere is the proof we sought — proof that the Bunker Island resort was
\nconnected with the horse railroad. Mr. Ralph Patterson of Fairfield assures me
\nthat his town’s well known resident and builder of the residence called the
\n“Cas-tIe in Spain” was promoter both of the horse railroad and of Bmker Island
\nPark. That man was Amos Gerald, among whose other interests were the Central
\nMaine Fair and Cascade Park, between Waterville and Oakland, which was in its
\nheyday when I was a student in college. It was Amos Gerald who built the Fairfield
\nand Shawmut , Railway, had a hand in promoting Merrymeeting Park
\nDear Brunswick, and may have been interested in the interurban electric lines
\n2-341
\nthat connected Bath, Brunswick, Lewiston, Gardiner, Augusta and Waterville. Quite
\na man was Amos Gerald, even if he did put that hideously ornate ceiling on the
\ndining room of the Gerald Hotel, now one of the rooms where the Lawries display
\ntheir furniture.
\n*****
\nWhen I last talked about Kennebec ice, little did I realize that there
\nexists a documented chart of all ice houses on the river in 1882. Through the
\ncourtesy of a listener I have had a chance to examine carefully that old chart.
\nThe listener prefets to remain anonymous. I can only say that this is not the
\nfirst instance of his help. It was the same man who put me on track of the
\nsaddle bags owned by Coolidge, the murderer.
\nThis old chart is a valuable historical item. It bears the heading, “1882.
\nIssued by T. B. Chase and Son, Dealers and Brokers in Ice, 51 Commercial Street,
\nBoston, and Gardiner, Maine.” On the left hand side is a map of the Kennebec
\nRiver from the Augusta Dam to Bath, showing boat channels, position of buoys,
\ndepth of water, position, capacity and ownership of ice houses. In the lower left
\nhand comer is a list of tow boats on the river. There were nine owned by the
\nKnickerbocker Company: Adelia, Resolute, Knickerbocker, Popham, S. J. Macy, City
\nof Lynn, American Union, Clara and Clarita. There were two operated by the
\nKennebec Company: the Charlie Lawrence and the Stella.
\nOn the right hand side of the chart are listed the names and capacity of
\ncommercial ice houses on the Penobscot and Cathance Rivers, and at ports along
\nthe coast from Biddeford to Vinal Haven.
\nNow this old chart explains something that has troubled me. Some time ago
\nI referred to the Knickerbocker Ice Company of New York. Three different persons
\nhave called me to task, saying they remember well the wagons of the Knickerbocker
\nIce Company in the streets of Pbiladelphia. Yet they admit that Knickerbocker
\nis a good old New York name. It was Washington Irving’s Diedrich Knick-
\n2-342
\nerbocker who became to New York what John Bull is to England.
\nThis chart clearly shows that there were two companies. The KnickeIbocker
\nIce Company of New Yotk was in 1882 the smaller company, so far as its Kennebec
\nhouses were concemed, having only two with a combined capacity of 58,000 tons.
\nTie larger company was called the Philadelphia Knickerbocker Company and had six
\nbig houses with a total capacity of 188,000 tous. It boasted one of the largest
\nhouses on the river, in the town of Pittston, where 65,000 tons of ice could be
\nstored under one roof. But not even that huge capacity was the rlver’s record.
\nThat was held by the ice bouse of Abram Rich at Farmingdale, where winter after
\nwinter were stored 80 ,000 tons. Haynes and IEWitt had a house at Richmond that
\nheld 62,000 tons, and 50,000 tons could be stored by the Baltimore firm of Ober
\nand Son at Richmond.
\nAltogether, between the Augusta Dam and Bath there were 41 ice houses from
\nwhich ice was shipped to distant ports. Those 41 were in addition to the countless
\nsmall houses used for storage of ice for local use. The Philadelphia Knickerbocker
\nCompany was by far the largest operator, but not to be scoffed at were
\nthe four big houses of Russell Brothers on both sides of the river at Richmond
\nand Dresden. Interests from the national capital centered at Pittston, where the
\nGreat Falls Company of Washington and the Independents of Washington together
\naccounted for 100,000 tons of ice a year.
\nAmong these giants, controlled from the big cities, the local operators
\nstrove valiantly for control of what was left of the holdings which had once
\nbeen entirely in neighborhood hands. The Kennebec Ice Company, awned by Gardiner
\nand Augusta interests, had big houses at Richmond and Pittston. Even the small
\noperators hung tenaciously on: G. E. Weeks~ with a house just below the Augusta
\nDam for a mere 2,000 tons; C. A. and J. D. White, storing 5,000 tons at Farmingdale;
\nGeorge Brown, with his little 2,000 tons near the entrance to Mer’IYmeeting
\nBay; and Thompson Brothers, with the smallest house of all, storing only
\n2-343
\n1,500 tons opposite Swan Island.
\nThanks to this chart we know that the Kennebec held the record for the harvest
\nand export of Maine ice. For, here recorded, is a complete list of all
\ncommercial companies in Maine which shipped ice out of the state.
\nOn the Penobscot River were 15 companies, storing and shipping in 1882 a
\ntotal of 146,000 tons. On the cathance River were 12 companies with 39 ,000 tons.
\nAlong the coast from. Biddeford to Vinal Haven were 34 companies with 349,BOO
\ntons. And on the Kennebec were 41 companies with the huge total of 1,029,200
\ntons. The grand total for Z,Jaine’s exported ice in 1882 was 1,563,000 tons, and
\nthat is a lot of ice.
\n*****
\nPerhaps you are getting tired or just plain sore to have me keep referring
\nto prices in the old days. I cannot refrain, however, from. bringing to your attention
\nthe cost of painting a house half a centuxy ago. I have before me an
\nold account form, showing the cost of painting the big two-stoxy house at 275
\nMain Street, Waterville, opposite the end of Boutelle Avenue. ‘!be owner engaged
\nthe well remembered local firm of Spaulding and Kenniston to paint that house in
\nMay, 1900. Here is what their bill called for:
\n100 lb. lead $ 6.00
\n4 gal. oil 2.40
\nColor for blinds 1.50
\nPriming for blinds 2.00
\nPaint for steps and floors 2.00
\nPaint for sash .20
\nTotal for material 14.10
\nLabor for painting house 25.00
\nLabor for hanging blinds 5.00
\nTotal for labor 30.00
\nComplete cost of job $ 44.10 2-344
\n*****
\nDuring the pas t month I have seen the homes of four of the fOlmders of our
\nnation: George Washington, our first president; Thomas Jefferson, author of the
\nDeclaration of Independence; James Monroe, prcmolmcer of the independence of the
\nwestern hemisphere from the domination of Europe; and John Marshall, the great
\nchief justice who, more than any other man, molded legal precedent in the nation.
\nI also walked the same streets where once walked George Hason, author of the Virginia
\nBill of Rights, which became the model for the first ten amendments to _our
\nfederal constitution, the document which we call the American Bill of Rights.
\nIn a vehicle which. his ingenious mind would readily comprehend, though the internal
\ncombustion engine was undreamed of in his day, I rode through Benjamin
\nFranklin’s long, straight Chestnut Street in Philadelphia, devoutly wishing that
\nold Ben were with us again to resolve some of the hopeless confusion that now
\nbefuddles the national capital.
\nAnd I had some serious thoughts as I contemplated the lives of those men
\nof Revolution and Construction, those men who risked all to face the anger of a
\nBritish king, and succeeded in what we today know to be a harder task than winning
\na war, the task of winning the peace. For out of thirteen bickering, jealous,
\nquarreling colcmies, those men and their gallant compatriots from Massachusetts
\nto Georgia made a united nation.
\nBut it was not their political achievement, their successful statesmanship,
\nthat focused my attention on my recent visit to the old colcnial capital
\nof Virginia. It was rather the evidence which surrounds the visitor at every
\ntum that those great Americans of the late eighteenth century were, above all
\nelse, broadly educated men. They were not men of fixed specialization, ignorant
\n~f, and uninterested in all fields except their own specialty. Washington
\nsurveyor, fanner, professional soldier, statesman, courtier — was a man who
\nread books on many subjects, who liked to talk about music and art, about philosophy
\nand religion. Mason knew the law; he was a master of jurisprudence
\n2-345
\nbut he also knew flowers and trees and birds, and he was absorbed in several aspects
\nof medicine. John Marshall, giver and interpreter of our laws, was a
\ngreat classicist, to whom Latin and Greek were as familiar as English, but he
\nalso carried on interesting experiments in what he called natural philosophy,
\nand what we would call physics and chemis try.
\nProbably the outstanding examples of liberally educated Americans of all
\ntime were two of those fO\\mding fathers, Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin.
\nEither could have been called the American Leonardo da Vinci, for as with the
\ngreat Florentine no subject the mind of man could touch was foreign to their
\ninterest. Everyone knows that Franklin was printer, scientist, author, editor,
\ninventor, statesman and diplomat. He signed both the Declaration of Independence
\nand the Constitution, secured the friendship of France for the colonial
\ncause, reconciled the belligerent Philadelphia merchants and the peace-loving
\nQuakers, and was a great national figure; but he also identified lightning with
\nelectricity, made the Franklin stove, organized America’s first municipal
\nfire department and first public library, started the academy which was to become
\nthe great University of Pennsylvania, and in his famous Junto Club was ever
\nready to discuss intelligently any subject \\mder the Slm.
\nThose of you who have visited Jefferson’s stately home at Monticello have
\nseen with your own eyes the numerous objects which sprang from his inventive
\ngenius. For this statesman and political philosopher was not only an architect,
\ndeSigning his own Monticello and the magnificent buildings of the University of
\nVirginia; he also made clocks and thermometers, double doors both of which swung
\nopen when one was turned, musical instruments, revolving tables and desks, laborsaving
\ndevices for cooking and othe r household tasks.
\nYes t these American forefathers of ours were broadly educated men. They
\nhad succeeded in doing what we so much yeam to have the modern college do for
\nits students — make them not narrow specialists, but truly educated men and
\nwomen. We think that we live very busy lives, but perhaps by the standards of
\n2-346
\nWashington and Jefferson our lives are merely hectic rather than busy. They too
\nwere busy men. But, when we read their diaries and their notebooks, and the
\nlong, seemingly leisured letters that comprise their correspondence we know
\nthey did something too few of us ever deign. to do — they took time to think.
\nThat is the lesson 1 brought back from Old Virginia — the lesson that
\nperhaps the great changes in modem civilization, the multitude of its technological
\ngadgets, don’t make so much difference as we like to think. In 1951,
\nas in 1776, we still need men of broad understanding who take time to think.
\n2-347
\nLittle Talks on Common Things
\nVolume 3
\nLI ‘fiLE TALKS ON COMMON THINGS
\n105th Broadcast April 22, 1951
\nThe persistent rain and high water of recent weeks have brought many reminders
\nof the flood of 1936 and, to old timem, have aroused memories of earlier
\nfloods. In the Kennebec Valley ~ have been fortunate this year. The recently
\nconstructed dams and storage basins have done much to save us from overwhelming
\nwaters.
\nIt is not so in other parts of the country. Before the recent devastating
\nfloods hit the Mississippi, the Red River of the North and other mighty
\nstreams, damage had been done in areas much nearer to Maine. On a recent trip I
\ndrove in ignorance into the little village of Mountain View, New Jersey, twenty
\nmiles north of Morristown. We were told that the bridge across the river had
\nbeen open less than an hour, after being closed for three days. As we approached
\nthe bridge we saw the reason. Great lakes of water stretched out over the fields
\nin all directions. Many homes stood with water up to the second story. Nmnerous
\nmotor cars stood nearly submerged. Trains crawled over rails a foot under water.
\nWe were told that a thousand persons were homeless in that rural area, so extensive
\nand so violent was the damage.
\nIt is natural, therefore, that on this program our thoughts should again
\nturn to old time floods on the Kennebec. Mr. Alex Herd of Winslow has shown me
\nimpressive photographs of the flood of 1901, a Kennebec deluge that happened
\nhalf a century ago.
\n‘!be Waterville Mail called it the womt freshet since 1832. You will recall
\nthat the 1832 flood was one I talked about a few months ago, when I posed the
\nquestion, which brought the highest water, the freshet of 1832 or the one 104
\nyears later in 1936. At any rate, it seems likely that, of the freshets on the
\nKennebec in the last 150 years, that of 1901 was at least the third highest and
\n3-1
\none of the most devastating.
\nOne of Mr. Herd’s pictures shows the plant of Edward Ware and Company with
\nnter nearly to the top of the first floor windows. Another shows houses at the
\nHead of the Falls half way submerged. A third shows a building near the junction
\nof the Sebasticook and the Kennebec with all except its roof under water. Perhaps
\nthe best picture is of the old covered bridge across the Sebasticook showing
\nthe roachfay completely under water and the waves washing over the flooring
\nof the bridge.
\nThat 1901 flood came, not in the spring, but at the beginning of winter,
\njust a week before Christmas. On December 13 — a fateful Friday, the 13th, it
\nwas — the weather tumed unseasonably warm. All day Saturday the snow melted
\nfast, and there was a lot of it, because since Thanksgiving the snow storms had
\nbeen frequent and heavy. Saturday night it began to rain, and for 48 hours a
\ndrenching downpour continued. The river rose suddenly and rapidly.
\nMr. S. I. Abbott of the Lockwood Mills then told the Waterville Mail that
\nthe deepest water he had ever previously seen over the dam, in his 26 years with
\nthe company, was 13 feet, but on the moming of December 16, 1901, he measured
\n15 feet. The oldest residents declared that the island near the bridge was
\nnever so deeply under water since 1832.
\nThe night of Sunday, December 15 had seen damage begin. Tm Ticonic footbridge
\nwent out at 2 :00 A.M. Daylight revealed that the approach from the foot
\nof Temple Street to the toll house waS still intact, but at 7 :30 the toll house
\nalso started down the river. It started right side up and moved along in a dignified
\nmanner until it reached the railroad bridge. The floor of that bridge
\nacted like a knife to cut the roof off the floating toll house, and ~ the time
\nit reached the Ticonic Dam, it was a complete wreck.
\nBy Monday noon the situation at the Lockwood Mill was serious. The entire
\nmill was shut down, and the canal dam suffered bad damage. In even worse condi …
\n3-2
\ntion was Hollingsworth and Whitney, for the water had invaded their buildings
\nin such volume that all work had stopped for two weeks.
\nAs for householders near the river, the Waterville Mail said, in its issue
\nof December 16: liThe residents of the Head of the Falls are suffering as they
\nusually do when a freshet comes. People living on the river bank began moving
\nout and getting to higher ground last evening. Before the foot bridge went out
\nsome of the tenements were in danger, and this forenoon two or three feet of
\nwater stood on the ground floor of most of them. One house was entirely surrounded
\nby water several feet deep. It was fastened by a rope to a stout tree a
\nrod or two up the river, though the tree stood as deep in the water as did the
\nhouse.”
\nFlood conditions don’t trouble us much today in what we call the gully between
\nPleasant and West Streets, and on south, east of the lower end of Burleigh
\nStreet. The years have seen much of that gully filled in, . including a complete
\nfill to enable Winter Street to cross it. But in 1901, when its old name of
\nHayden Brook was familiar to every resident, people who lived near the gully
\nknew when there was a flood. Early Sunday aftemoon in that December of 1901
\nwater began flowing into some of the houses in the Hayden Brook district. The
\nculverts were entirely inadequate. The sudden flow of water was blocked, rather
\nthan carried off, by the culverts. Washouts resulted all the way from Ash
\nStreet to Western Avenue.
\nOn the Messalonskee water was up to the floor of the Gilman Street bridge,
\nand a crew of men worked all night to keep the bridge from going out.
\nOn the Sebasticook the well known high water mark on the Bassett Store was
\ncovered by water. The store was entirely surrounded and could be reached only
\nby boat. The covered bridge over the Sebasticook was moved from its foundations,
\nbut did not go out. Cars loaded with iron held in place the two railroad bridges.
\nIn Winslow the Reynolds saw mill could be reached only by boat. Out ~f\u00b7 the
\n3-3
\nmill yards no less than 300,000 feet of lumber floated down the river.
\nAll day Monday Waterville was cut off from telephone communication wi th
\noutside communities. Water backing into the power plants put out all of the
\ncity’s electric lights, stopped the wheels of the street railway line, and disrupted
\nthe facilities of the Union Gas and Electric Company.
\nPeople waited in vain for mail and passenger transportation. Not a train
\ncould get into Waterville over any of its connections for three days.
\nWhat the 1901 flood did to the town is revealed by the very form in which
\nthe Waterville Mail published its issue of Monday, December 16. TheMail was,
\nas most of you know, an evening paper, of full newspaper size, usually of eight
\nand sometimes twelve pages. This flood issue of December 16, 1901 is a little
\nfour-page sheet, 11 by 8~ inches. For the size and format, the edi.tors gave the
\nfollowing explanation:
\n“This morning we gave up all idea of getting out an issue today. The electric
\ncompany informed us that they were practically dead to the world and would
\nnot be able to turn a wheel before Tuesday, perhaps much later. Finally the largest
\njob press in our office was rigged up for foot power, and we decided to
\npublish a paper in this abbreviated form. It will be noted that it contains no
\nadvertising at all. For that omission we ask the indulgence of our advertisers.
\nWe hope to get out a regular edition tomorrow, but we make no promise about it.”
\n*****
\nVery seldom do I recommend a book on this program. That is not because I do
\nnot encounter a lot of books I should like to recommend. I t is, rather, because
\nI realize that reading is largely a matter of taste. In choice of books, as in
\nalmost no other field, one man’s meat is another man’s poison.
\nNevertheless I cannot refrain from recommending the newest book about the
\nman whom, in the early days of this program, I called the greatest man Maine ever
\nproduced. I refer to the man who was until recently the constant summer resi-
\n3-4
\ndent of his old home village of South China~ Dr. Rufus Jones.
\nThe best biography I have read for many a day has come from the press
\nduring the past month. It is called, “Rufus Jones, Master Quaker”, and was .
\nwritten by David Rerishaw. lifelong intimate friend of Dr. Jones. Like his
\nsubject, Herishaw is a Quaker and a graduate of Haverford College. Unlike
\nRufus, Reds haw hailed from Kansas and chose journalism rather than teaching
\nas a career. Herishaw is yotmger than Jones, in fact was a student of Rufus I
\nat Haverford, graduating from there in 1911, whereas Dr. Jones’s own class
\nwas 1885.
\nWith great understanding Herishaw depicts the South China background that
\nhad such life-long effect on Dr. Jones; the tremendous influence of father,
\nmother and aunt; the determination to go to college; the decision to be a teacher;
\nand the even more momentous decision to lead the Quaker people tMay from
\nascetic avoi.dance of the world into application of Quaker principles to world
\naffairs \u2022
\nIn one chapter Mr. Herishaw tells the thrilling story which I once heard
\nfrom Dr. Jones’s own Ups, how he and two other members of the Friends Service
\nCommittee faced. the Gennan Gestapo.
\nAfter repeated rebuffs they finally were received at the chief offices of
\nHitler’s secret\u00b7 police. They were escorted through seven corridors, past cordon
\nafter cordon of armed guards, and hearing each door locked behind them. Dr.
\nJones presented a document, saying the Quakers had no political aims, only a desire
\nto feed hungry Jewish children. The Gestapo officers read the document
\nand seemed i.mpressed. Then their leader said, ”We are now withdrawing to report
\nto our chief. In about 20 minutes we shall tell you his decision.”
\n‘1l e Quakers were then left alone in the bi.g room. v..”hat did they do? They
\ndid a typically Quaker thing. They held a prayerful period of complete silence.
\nIt was lucky they did, for they later learned that a concealed microphone would
\n3-5
\nhave inforned the Gestapo of any conversation.
\nDr. Jones and his fellow Quakers won their request. They found the way opened
\nfor extensive relief among the suffering German Jews. Dr. Jones always contended
\nthat he could never fully explain the inconsistency and the mystery of that decision.
\nWhy should Hitler’s Gestapo, which was itself deeply involved in causing
\nthe tragic situation the Quakers sought to relieve, why should that hard-boiled
\ngang receive Dr. Jones. listen to his plea, and actually grant his request? Dr.
\nJones often said he could think of only one plausible explanation. Perhaps some
\nof those Gestapo officers had been among the very children whom Quaker relief
\nhad fed and kept alive after the first World War.
\nNext week I propose to devote a part of this program to the Quakers of the
\nKennebec.
\n*****
\nIn all that we read and hear about the Kefauver investigation of crime in
\nthe United States, we hear much emphasis about what government ought to do, and
\nvery little about what you and I ought to do. I wonder if all this emphasis
\nisn’t a symptom of the way we have been turning for the past twenty years. In
\nalmost every phase of our lives we increasingly expect the government to take care
\nof us. Less and less are we willing to face responsibility for outselves. We want
\nthe govemment to feed us, house us, tend us. bury us. And when we see something
\nwrong in the nat ion, we look to the gove romen t to fix it.
\nSo it is small wonder that we shriek for legislation to stop the great crime
\nrackets that the Kefauver Connnittee has uncovered.
\nWe need to be reminded that legislation of itself never cured any evils. We
\nhad better place the emphasis in another place. It is wrong-doing, evil. what our
\ngrandparents used to call by the no longer fashionable word “sin”, that is the
\nroot of the trouble. Just so long as individual American citizens patronize the
\nnumbers racket, place their bets on the horses, or play the slot machines, human
\n3-6
\ngreed and natural ingenuity are going to provide the racketeers. Let more of
\nus have the courage to stand up and say that gambling itself is wrong.
\n3-7
\nLI’ITLE TALKS ON COMMON THINGS
\n106 th Broadcast April 29, 1951
\nI think we cannot repeat too often the facts about who owns the big industrial
\ncompanies. We hear so much talk about a few industrialists holding the
\ndestiny of all America in their hands, that many people have come to believe
\nthat a few people actually own the whole country.
\nOne of the big companies that is submitted to a lot of vilification and
\nharsh cd ticism is E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company of Wilmington, Delaware.
\nWho owns that great company? On March 31, 1951 DuPont stock was owned by
\n131,421 shareholders, an increase of more than 15,000 over the previous year.
\nNow get this: 44 per cent of all the stockholders are women.
\nIsn’t it plain as day that a company like DuPont needs brainy, efficient
\nmanagement? If its management is not efficient, the families represented by
\nmore than 130,000 persons suffer loss, and of those losers, 52,000 are women.
\n*****
\nEvery time our federal government decides to step in and do something more
\nfor us, it usually also does something to us. Coercion is an ugly word; it is
\nquite different from persuasion. Can you force your neighbor to do anything if
\nhe knows that you cannot injure him in his person, his property, or his good
\nname? Neither can government force us to do its will except by its powerful
\nthreat to injure us — its power to make us pay fines, serve in prison, even
\ngive up our lives.
\nGovernment is society’s jealously guarded monopoly of coercion, and we
\nwould not have it otherwise, because we rely on government. for our fundamental
\nsecurity — on local government for security against thieves. and. murderers, on
\nnational government for security against the tyranny of a foreign power. But,
\nwithin the framework of that security, we prize something else that is charac-
\n3-8
\nteristically American — we prize fteedom. And every time the govemment in
\nWashington steps in to do the things that voluntary associations of men and
\nwomen have traditionally done for themselves and for each other, and ought
\nstill to do, another measute of freedom is lost, and another step on the road
\nto totali tarian government has been taken.
\nI, for one, am not teady to believe that the gteat majority of Americans
\nwant either an authoritarian government, threatening all life for us, nor a
\nsocialist government trying to do everything for us. We want a govemment
\nwhich assures a good measute of indiv1d,ual freedom, and no glowing promises
\nof security can take fteedom’s place.
\nfrfrfrfrfr
\nAlong with the test of America, and indeed of all the world, the Kennebec
\nValley owes much to the Society of Friends, commonly called the Quakers. Only
\nlast week I repeated to you my conviction that, of all sons of Maine, the one
\nmost deserving of a statue to represent our state in the national capitol’s
\nHall of Fame is Rufus Jones. It is fitting, therefote, that we should devote a
\npart of the program tonight to the society of which Dr. Jones was the most illustrious
\nmodern member, and what that society had to do with the development
\nof our Kennebec Valley.
\nIn 1775, the same year that heard the death-dealing shots at Lexington and
\nConcord, starting the War of the Revolution, thete came to Newport, Rhode Island
\na man who hated war and spread the gospel of peace. He was Dav:l.d Sands. He came
\nto Newport to attend the Friends Meeting, for he was alteady known as a Friends
\nmniste r at Cornwall, New York. At Newport Sands made his decision to travel
\nthrough the scatteted settlements of northern New England, visit the few Quaker
\nfamilies he could find, and help them establish groups of their teligious faith
\nand even make the fonnal foundation of Friends Meetings.
\nIt was in the midst of the Revolution in 1777 when Sands reached the Dis;..
\n3-9
\ntrict of Maine. Forttmately he kept a joumal, so we know what happened when he
\nreached the upper Kennebec. He wrote:
\n”We had many meetings, though always passing through a wildemess cOtmtry.
\nWe had two meetings at the house of Remington Hobbie at a place called Vassalboro
\non the Kennebec River. We next proceeded up the river for two days t
\nthrough great fatigue and suffering, having to travel part of the way on foot,
\nfinally coming to a Friend’s house, there being no other habitation within 45
\nmiles. ”
\nThe seeds sown by David Sands bore fruit. In 1780 the first regular Friends
\nMeeting in our region was established at Vassalboro. As one historian put it,
\n“As the settlers increased, many embraced the peculiar views of the Quakers.”
\nHow did the Friends happen to be called Quakers? George Fox, founder of
\nthe movement, called his followers Children of the Light. The name Quaker was
\nalmost certainly given them in derision. In his joumal Fox wrote: “Justice
\nBennett, in 1650, was the first that called us Quakers, because we did bid him
\ntremble at the word of the Lord.” On the other hand, Robert Barclay’s book entitled
\n“Apology” states that the Quakers got their name ”because of the trembling
\nFriends sometimes experienced in their meetings”.
\nAlthough they never disclaimed the name Quakers and indeed came eventually
\nto take pardonable pride in it, they have always preferred and still prefer the
\nname Friends. They are, and long have been, officially the “Religious Society of
\nFriends” \u2022
\nTie Friends Meeting House at Vassalboro Was opened in 1786. In 1788 was
\nconfirmed the first marriage to be held in it. This was actually a double wedding,
\nfor on the same day two sisters were married according to the Quaker custom;
\nSarah Taber marrying Joseph Howland and Lydia Taber marrying Pelatiah Hussey.
\nPresent as a w1.tness at that first wedding in the Friends Meeting House
\nwas Remington Hobbie, the good Quaker at whose home David Sands had stopped in
\n1777. 3-10
\nA week ago little did I .think I should ever see the signature of Remington
\nHobbie. much less see it on an original marriage document of a Quaker wedding.
\nBut only a few days ago I did see that signature, and I saw it on what I regard
\nas a precious historical\u00b7 document of ancient Vassalboro.
\nThe document to which I refer is owned by Mr. Edward J. E.stes of Mohegan
\nStreet, l-linslow, and it is the official statement of a Quaker marriage at Vassalboro
\nin 1791. It is not a photostat, not a copy, but the original document
\nwith the names of 36 witnesses appended by their own hands.
\nNo minister officiated at that or any other true Quaker marriage. The bride
\nand groom perform the ceremony themselves. This is the way Mr. Estes’ old document
\nreads:
\n”Peleg Dileno of Vassalborough, son of Peleg DUeno of Vassalborough, in
\nthe County of Lincoln and State of Massachusetts Bay, and Sarah his wife, and
\nRuby Hoxie, daughter of Hezekiah Hoxie of Vassalborough afo-resaid, and Elizabeth
\nhis wife, having declared their intention of taking each other in marriage before
\nseveral monthly meetings of the people called Quakers, in the county aforesaid,
\naccording to the good order used among them, their proceeding after due inquiry
\nand deliberate consideration thereon, were allowed by the said meeting,
\nthey appearing clear of all others and having consent of parents.
\n“Now these are to certify all whom it may concern, that for the full accomplishment
\nof their said intentions this 27th day of the seventh month in the year
\nof our Lord 1791, they the said Peleg Dileno and Ruby Hoxie appeared at a public
\nassembly of the aforesaid people and others in their meeting house in Vassalborough,
\nand the said Peleg Dileno, taking the said Ruby Hoxie by the hand did
\nopenly declare, as followeth: Friends, I take this my friend Ruby Hoxie to be
\nmy wife, promising through divine assistance to be unto her a loving and faithful
\nhusband until it shall please the Lord by death to separate us. And then
\nthe said Ruby Hoxie did in like manner declare as follows: Hy friends, I take
\n3-11
\nthis my friend Peleg Dileno to be my husband, promising through divine assistance
\nto be unto him a loving and faithful wife until it shall please the Lord by
\ndeath to separate us — or words of the like import.
\n“And the said Peleg Dileno and Ruby Hoxie, as a further confirmation thereof
\nhave hereunto set their hands, she after the custom of marriage assuming the
\nname of he r husband.”
\nNow all through the document the name is spelled DILENO. But the signatures
\nof bride and groom stand out clearly Peleg DELANO Jr. and Ruby DELANO. The scribes
\nof that time were never careful about spelling, and it is not unusual to find
\ntwo or even three different spellings in the same document.
\nNow what makes this old marriage document of great local value historically
\nare the signatures of those 36 witnesses, for they show us clearly who was who in
\nFriends Meeting at Vassalboro in 1791. Rem. J. Hobby is certainly David Sands’
\nRemington Hobbie. There were several Tabers; besides the women were Silas, Jacob
\nand Bartholomew. There were a number of Husseys, including the well known patriarch
\nof the family, Isaac. Of course the Hoxies were there, for one of their
\nkin was the bride. Hezekiah, Silas and Abel Hoxie all signed the docwnent. There
\nwere three Bowermans — David, Elizabeth and Peace; two Sleepers — Moses and
\nHannah; only one of the Howlands — Joseph. And the first name, leading all the
\nother 35 is that of Vassalboro’s great pioneer, Joshua Fry.
\nHow did Mr. Estes come by this valuable document? He isn’t quite sure. He
\nonly knows it was in an old desk brought to Winslow by his mother many years ago.
\nThe Estes family goes back many generations in Estes is still a vigorous man of only 71, but his father, a veteran of the Civil
\nWar, was bom in 1840. After the war the veteran and his father, Edward Estes’
\ngrandfather, conducted a hay and grain business at Getchell’s Comer. Somewhere
\nin the past Mr. Estes t branch of the family was related to the Hoxie’s and into
\nthe Estes family, by some now unremembered route, came the marriage doc\\Dllent of
\n3-12
\nRuby Hoxie, written and signed when George Washington was President of the United
\nStates.
\nI hope the diversion to that fine old marriage document has interested you
\nas much as it did me. Now let’s get back to the story of the development of the
\nQuaker movement in our vicinity. We had left that story with the opening of the
\nFriends Meeting House in 1786 and the double marriage held in it in 1788. By
\n1790 a number of Friends had settled in the eastern part of Vassalboro, near the
\noutlet of China Lake. In 17,98 a. meeting house was built there, called East Pond
\nMeeting, to distinguish it from the River Meeting. For many years the Vassalboro
\nmonthly meeting alternated between the two meeting houses — the older one
\nat Vassalboro and the newer one at East Vassalboro.
\nIn 1831 was built the well known brick meeting house at East Vassalboro.
\nIn 1803 Abel Jones had come to China from Durham and had joined a small band of
\nFriends on the east sn-ore of the lake. In 1806 he married Susana Jepsen. the
\nfirst Friends marriage in O1ina. On the east shore, about three miles from the
\nnorth end of the lake, a Friends meeting house, known as the Pond Meeting House
\nthe first in China — was built in 1807.
\nPrior to 1795 the Friends Quarterly ~eting at Salem included all Friends
\neast of Boston. That meeting did hold one session a year at Falmouth (the old
\nname for Portland) to accomodate the gtowing number of Friends in Maine. In
\n1795 a regular Quarterly Meeting was established at Falmouth, and by 1813 the
\nsociety had become so numerous in Vassalboro and China that Vassalboro Quarterly
\nMeeting was established and continued to flourish. The Vassalboro Quarterly
\nMeeting had thus been in existence for seven years when Maine became a State,
\nand it was that meeting which secut:ed the passage of Article 7, Section 5 of the
\nConstitution of Maine, which to this day exempts members of the Society of
\nFriends from military service of the State.
\nOn a later program I want to tell you mot:e about those early Quakers of the
\n3-13
\nKennebec, especially about their staunch religious beliefs which won the respect
\nof all their neighbors. And I want to tell you about some of them who,
\nas individuals, became nearly as distinguished as did Rufus Jones. But tonight
\nwe have left only time to quote what was said of them in 1892 by the young man
\nwho was then principal of Oak Grove Seminary. For that young principal was Rufus
\nJones himself. In those days, long before he had become the great Quaker of
\ninternational fame, he wrote of those founders of the Kennebec Society of Friends:
\n“These people were with very few exceptions ignorant of book education. The
\nBible was, in many cases, their only book. The heroes of faith pictured in the
\nOld Testament were the only heroes they ever heard of. David and Isaiah were
\ntheir poets. The Bible furnished their only history and their only ethics; it
\nwas the child’s reader and spe,lling book. But with all their days devoted to
\nstubborn toil, with all the scarcity of books and their difficulty in reading,
\nthese people of the wilderness grew refined and took on a culture and a grace
\nadmired by all who knew them.”
\n3-14
\nLI TTLE TALKS ON COMM:>N THI NGS
\n101th Broadcast May 6, 1951
\nWherever we see the ugly hand of corruption and political Influence at work,
\nthis program wi II continue to make a loud protest. Our government is so big and
\nso confusing, at this mid-point in the 20th century, so bound up with red tape,
\nso crowded wi th bureaucrats just getting in each other’s way, that we can’ I II
\nafford to add the obnoxious fl ve-percenters and the gi vers of fur coats and deep
\nfreezers to what Is al ready bad enough.
\nThe revelations of what has been going on in just one state — Mississippi -make
\nus wonder what Is happenl.ng in the other 41 states. Before the Congressiooal
\n)( conmittee,) witnesses testl fled that party contributions were not on Iy necessary to
\n. get a job, but that there were standard price-tags on various jobs. To become an
\nRFD mal I carrier cost S150; to get Into the revenue office cost Sl,OOO. One
\nwitness told the committee he has been a chump about an $600 to get Itj then found out the particular job wasn’t going to exist.
\nA small town businessman testified that he paid $300, then stopped payment
\non the check. He related a talk with a member of the state party conmittee. The
\ncommitteeman told him that rationing was just around the corner, and that the
\ncommittee was looking for someone to set up as comty supervisor. A donation of
\n$300wQuhf be appreciated.
\nOne memer of the Senate investigating group questioned a woman menDer of
\nthe state party committee in Mississippi. This was one of his questlons~ “Did you.
\nunderstand, when you recommended a person who gave you a requested contribution,
\nthat the federal agenc.y would appoint that person to the job?” “Of oourse”, she
\nrep lied, “that was the who Ie Idea”.
\n3-15
\nIt Is a sorry situation indeed when there Is a price list placed on government
\njobs. I wonder if I am alone In be Ileving the time has come for a whole
\neth i ca I tone-up, a co~ lete mora I revl va I In our natl ona I Ii fee
\n*****
\nIn the more than one hundred broa,dcasts on this program, I don’t recall
\nthat we have ever mentioned the Kennebec Valley fire fighters. So let’s get in a
\nfew words tonight about the Waterville Fire Department.
\nBetween the b u I I di n g of Fort Ha I i fax In 1754 and the organ i zat i on of the
\nfirst fire company in 1809, the communliy springing up on both sides of the river
\nmust have seen a lot of fires. Everything was then built of wood, and the lumber
\nmt lis along the river bank added to the plies of easi Iy combustible material.
\nPerhaps, hidden away In Waterville and Winslow attics are accounts of early fires.
\nCan anyone dig up an authentic record of fl re in Watervi lie or Wins low previous
\nto 18091
\nI t was I n that yea r that the firs t fire depa rtment was estab I i shed on the
\nwest side of the river. Elnathan Sherwin, James Wood, Moses Dalton, Asa Reding …
\nton, and Eleazer Ri p ley were elected fl re wardens. Those were the days of bucket
\nbrigades, when the only way a fire could be fought In this locality .wasby passing
\na long a I ine of buckets fl lied from some reservoi r or stream, or sometimes from
\nthe ri \\Ie.r.
\nJust when the f1 rst hand-pump engine was installed here is not clear. All
\nthat we know is that Ab i J ah Smi th, Nehemi ah Getche I I, James Stackpo Ie and TI mothy
\nBoutelle were menDers of the fire company at the time. If, as we suspect, it is
\nthe younger, not the older, James Stackpole who is meant, the fl rst of those four
\nto die was Ab I jah Smf th in 1841. A II I can say about it ton i ght is that, some
\ntime between 1809 and 1841 Waterville bought a fire engine, which was simply a
\nbig tub .Into which water was poured from palls, and was pumped out by an ordinary
\nsingle handled old-fashioned pump, through a very short and very leaky hQse. That
\n3-16
\noriginal piece of fire fighting apparatus In Watervl lie was called the “Bloomer”.
\nActually the old Blooner was probably In operation before 1836, for In that
\nyear begl n “the first records of the Waterville FI re Departnent wh I ch are sti II
\nprase rved. Whethe r it was ca lied Engi ne Company No 1 of the Ti con I c VI II age Corporation
\nquite so early as 1836 Is not entl rely clear, but that was the name It
\ncertainly had before 1850.
\nSome time about 1854, Engine Company No.3 was organized. It secured a
\nfirst-class Button hand engine, which on July 4,1854 began a long career as
\nchampion stream thrower among all the engines entered In those fiercely fought
\ncontests among the old engine companies. On that fourth of July In 1854, just a
\nhundred years after the bui I di ng of Fort Ha I i fax, No. 3’s crew brought home from
\nAugusta a handsone silver trumpet as the winner’s prize. Five years later the
\nengi ne set a state record of 212 feet, 9 1 nches. That fi ne 01 d hand-engine
\nstayed in Waterville unti I 1891, when she was sold to an organization in Newton,
\nMass., and was rechristened the ”Nonantum”. Under the new name the old pumper
\nsurpassed even her Maine records. In a muster held in Providence in 1892 she
\np layeda stream of 250 feet, 7 inches.
\nNo.1 and No.3 were therefore the fl rst fl re companies in Watervi lie. No.2
\nJoined them,.:i.n 1878. It was located at the south end of the city. Unfortunately
\nearly records of any engine, if at first they had any, are not preserved, but we do
\nfind a record that No.2 company sold a hand-tub engine to parties in Bath for the
\nsum of $75 in 1889.
\nWhat a pity that Yankee fruga Ii ty di ctated the sa Ie of most of these 0 I den ..
\ngines. Wha”t a pity that Tlconlc No.1 could not still be seen in Waterville,
\namong other p recl ous re I i cs of the cl ty. One must go to Ellsworth to see that 01 d
\nengine, for it was sold to that Hancock County town in 1888.
\nWatervi lie’s fi rst steam fl re engine was purchased in 1884. A prime mover in
\nthe project to get it, as he was a promoter of so many worthy public projects,
\n3-17
\nwas Dr. F. C. Thayer. In fact the company was named for him, and the F. C. Thayer
\nFire Engine Canpany laid Its hand-tub aside. It was not long before the last of
\nthe hand apparatus left the \u20acity for good.
\nI have previously mentioned the old reservoirs scattered about the city,
\nsome of which are said to be stl II capable) of use. Before his death Gene Crawford
\nhad made a very carefu I mapp i ng of those reservoi rs, the best known of wh i ch is
\nnear the present War Memori a I in Castonguay Square. We are told that 22 of those
\nold reservol rs were In use as late as 1887, when a municipal water supply was fi rst
\nbrought I n from the Messa lonskee Stream. I t was that year of 1887 that saw the
\ninstallation of 50 hydrants on Watervi lie streets.
\nAs late as 1880 some of the clumsy, 01 d leather hose was stili In use. The
\nrecord shows that in that year the town owned 1,300 feet of leather hose, 1,000
\nfeet of rubber-lined linen hose, and 1,100 feet of rubber-lined cotton hose.
\nThere seems TO have been little party politics in the FI re Department unti I
\n1888, when WaterY’ lIe became a city. The new charter called for the annual elec …
\ntlooof a chief engineer and two assistants. If the party in control changed at
\nthe spring election, the employed drivers had to get out, and the personnel of each
\ncompany from top .TO bottom was reorgan t zed. What happened was the contemporary
\nexistence of two sets of firemen, who served according to their political aftU ….
\nlations. Not unti I 1907 was the charter amended. Since that date a Watervi lIe
\nfireman, when once chosen, may serve unti I he wishes to withdraw, or has preferred
\ncharges proved against him. As a result the efficiency of our fire canpanies was
\ngreatly improved. More and more as men came to be chosen to fl II company vacancies,
\njust two questions were asked: “Wi II this man respond promptly to every
\nfl re call?”, and ”Wi II he stay on the job unti I it is finished?”
\nMoST of this information has been provided me by Ralph Gi Iman, present chief
\neng! neer of the Watervi lie Fi re Department. Now I am sure sane of our listeners
\ncan tum up a lot more information. Among the things we hope sti J I to mention
\n3-18
\nsome evening are a few of Watervi tJe’s spectacular fires. In Dr. Whittemore’s
\nCentennial History appear these two short sentences: “The great fl re of 1849
\nswept the business section of the town, about the wharves and mi lis. The Moors
\nwere the heaviest losers. fI We hope to learn and pass on to you a lot more about
\nthat fire of 1849. Another great mi II fire occurred in 1859, when mi lis and
\nmachinery were destroyed in three plants — those of Daniel Moor, W. and W. Getche
\nI I, and Furbush and Drummond.
\n00 any of you remember Waterville’s part in the famous Bangor fire of 1911?
\nI t came near the end of my sophomore year in co liege I and I was one of the Co Iby
\nstudents who managed to hitch a ri de to Bangor on the train that took the Watervi
\nlie apparatus to the big fl reo
\nNot until after 1900 did Watervi lie own any fl re horses. As early as 1885
\ntwo hired horses had been placed in the old fire station on Main Street, and in
\n1886 the first swing harness was installed. Those fine old grays that some of us
\nso much admired, they and their successors passed out of the picture in 1927, when
\nthe department became completely motorized.
\n1’m sure a lot of my Ii steners don ‘t want th is subject abandoned here. So
\nbeg of you, gi ve me a II the in formati on you can about 0 I d fire compan i es, 0 I d
\nhand tubs, old steam fire engines, old fire horses, spectacular fires — anything
\nthat pertains to fire fighting In Watervi lie and vicinity.
\n*****
\nThrough the kindness of Dr. O’Hara, Dean of the Tufts 0>1 lege Medical School,
\nhave just seen an old folder entitled “Trolleying through the Heart of Maine”.
\nIts cover carries a picture of one of those old, open, summer-time trolley cars
\nwith seats clear across the car. Over the trolley is the design of a heart shCMing
\nthat part of Maine from Old Orchard to Watervi lie, and as far west as Mechanic
\nFalls and Turner. The inside spread is a picture map of the entire area, showing
\nthe ral troads, steamship routes and the interurban trolley I ines. The folder is
\n3-19
\nnot dated, but It was printed before the construction of the interurban trolley
\nline between Portland and lewiston. It does show the once familiar trolley
\nlines all around the ifllllBdiate vicinity of Portland, and the Interurban lines
\nfrom Portland to Old Orchard and Biddeford; to Westbrook, Gorham and South Windham;
\nto Yarmouth, Freeport, Brunswick and Bath; between Brunswick and Lewiston; fran
\nlewiston to Sabbatus, Tacoma Lake, Gardiner, Augusta and WatervIlle; fran Lew-
\nIston to Mechanic Falls and Turner; and from Augusta to’ Is land Park and Winthrop.
\nThe rest of the folder Is giwn up to descriptloos of trips, routes and
\nfares. On the Lewiston, Augusta an:d Waterville line the complete round trip
\nfare was $2.00 and the total round trip running time was seven hours. The round
\ntrip fare fran Usbon Falls to Bath was 70 cents; from Lewistoo to Medlan,lc Falls
\nI twas 40 cents, and to Turner 50 cents.
\nBut the folder’s feature announcement conoerns the Triangle Trolley,Trlp.
\nThe announcement reads: “This Is one of the most delightful trips In Maine.
\nStarting from any point on the L.A. and W. Street Raf Iway between Bath and Lewis …
\nton, you take the trolley vi a Tacoma Lakes and Spears Comer to Gardiner. From
\nWaterville the trip Is via Winslow and Augusta to Gardiner. At Gardiner you leave
\nthe trof ley and, take the Eastern Steamship Company’s steamer, leaving Gardiner at
\n3:45 P.M. for the sail down the Kennebec River to Bath,stopping atQ:tdar Grove
\nand Richmond en route. You arrive at Bath at 6:00 P.M. in time to connect with
\n:” ( ..
\nthe trolley leaving for Brunswick and Lewiston at 6:30. The most enJoyable way
\nto make this trip from points west of Tacoma is to leave your hane In the forenoon
\nand trolley to Tacoma,spendl ng the time until noon In boating and other p feasures
\nand having a fine dinner at Tacoma Inn, then taking the trolley after dinner for
\nGardlne,r. To make the day even more complete, after arrival at Bath, one may
\ntrolley to New Meadows, haw supper at the Inn, and trolley hane In the evening.”
\nComplete fare for that triangle trip, Including both trolley and boat tickets,
\nwas one dollar.
\ncar days.
\nPeople got a lot of pleasure for a little money in the old trolley
\n3-20
\n1I TILE TALKS ON COMMON TH I NGS
\nlOath BrQadcast– May 13. 1951
\nA listener recently asked me whether consumption of alcoholic beyerages was on
\nthe increase I n the Un i ted States today. The I i staner sent me some figures for
\n1911. In that year the total consumption of distilled spirits amounted to
\n135,000,000 gallons, and the \u00b7beer consumed fi lied two bl Ilion gallons.
\nNow, be I I eve It or not, accord I ng to the Worl d Almanac dt stl I led liquor production
\nin the United States reached its height in spite of seyere restrictions In
\nthe last year of the Second World War, 1945, when the Bureau of Internal Revenue
\nreported taxes paId on the production of 1,175,000,000 gallons. In 1946,1947 and
\n1948 the figures dropped until In 1948 they were down to 420,000,000. Then In 1949
\nthey shot up. aga I n to 450,000,000. I have not seen the figures for 1950.
\nNow these figures are badly misleading. The gallons of liquor on which federal
\ntaxes are paid fal I far short of the total consumption., They take no account
\nof the vast quantity of Imported liquor, and they Ignore the completely Incalculable
\namountof illegally made liquor. At any rate we can assure our listeners that consumption
\nhas not decreased since that boom year of 1911 in the lIquor industry. One
\nthing Is sure; we would be very much better off If we had a lot less of It. If it
\nI s any comfort to fo I ks who wou I d I I ke to see more sob ri ety, we do have the figures
\nfor retail sale of liquor in the three years of 1947, 1948 and 1949. While prices
\nI n genera I ,. Ii q uor inc I uded, have been goi ng up, the tota I do II ar reta i I sa les of
\nliquor have been going down. The total in 1947 was $1,916,000,000; in 1948 It had
\ndropped to $1,854,000,000; and In 1949 I t had taken an even sharper drop to
\n$1,760,000,000.
\nThe figures for tobacco p-roductlon are rather interesting. If you want to
\ncheck my accuracy about them, take a look at page 665 of the World Almanac for 1951.
\n3-21
\nI tis i ncredi b Ie to me that In 1948 more snuff was produced in the Un I ted States
\nthan in 1920; but here are the fl gures: for 1920 they were 34,349,000 pounds; for
\n1948 they were 40,809,000 pounds. The production of plug, twist and fine cut tobacco
\nhave stead! Iy aecreased since 1920, as has also the production of cigars.
\nI tis of course the boom In ci garettes that accounts for the ove ra II ! ncrease. From
\n47 billion In 1920 the annual manufactur:’E) of the little coffin-nails has grown to
\n387 billion. In 1948 a total of a billion and a half pOlllds of leaf tobacco saw
\nmore than th ree-fourths of I t go Into ci garettes.
\nI never fully realized what tobacco could mean to the whole economy of.a people
\nuntil I recently visited Colonial Williamsburg. The life of that Virginia
\ncapita I of 200 years ago, so carefully and beautl fully restored by Mr. Rockefe Iler’s
\nmillions, depended entl rely on the tobacco plant and the success of Sir Walter Ra ..
\nleigh In making Its use popular In England.
\nI n Willi amsburg they te II you frank Iy why they honor S I rWa Iter, though he
\nnever set foot on Amari can shores. They know Just wtly the prl ncl pa I I nn was ca lied
\nthe Raleigh Tavern, why portraits of Sir Walter and his Lady are prominently dis ..
\nplayed In the old capitol building. It was not because he helped found the abandoned
\nlost colony down the Bay at Roanoke Island, nor because he had some Interest
\nIn the plans for Jamestown. It was because he made tobacco popular at the court of
\nGood Queen Bess, and soon afterward wi th a II gentlemen of Merrie England.For tobacco
\nbecame the life blood of Virginia. Some of those Williamsburg Inhabitants of 1951
\nwi II tell you they are very sure they know why Virginia In 1751 could have a Jef …
\nferson, a Madl son, a Mason and a Monroe. Because she was the home of the wealthbringing
\ntobacco, they will tell you, Virginia just had to be the Mother of Presidents.
\n*****
\nA lot of our people stili seem to think the Labo.r Government of Britain has
\nbeen badly used and gross Iy mi srepresented. Perhaps It has, but weQJght not to be
\n3-22
\ndeaf to such remarks as those made by an ordinary English merchant in a small town~
\na man who all his life had hated the reactionary Tories — a man who looked for
\nbetter days under labor rule. That man sal d: ”The outstandi ng feature of our socfalistgovernment
\nis its glaring inefficiency. Under our old system, If a COlli””
\npany became too inefficient, it fal led and something else took Its place. When
\nyou abol ish profi t as a yardsti ck of efti clency I what do you put in r ts place?”
\nWe I I, what do you?
\nEvery critic of capitalistic society has pointed to it as a gross example of
\nman’s inhumanity to man, arrogant exploitation of human life. Socialism, they
\nsaid, would cure all that. But what of England today? The outstanding characterIstic
\nof the present British government is its growing callousness toward the very
\nthing it most loudly professes — ordinary hUman welfare. It is the beginning of
\nthe same kind of callousness that marks Stalin’s Politburo or Mao’s government in
\nChina. Take the British food situation, for instance. Vegetables that people a
\nfew miles away sorely needed have been allowed to spoil in the fields. One British
\nhousewi fe raised this piercing lament: “Ask Mr. Atlee why our chi Idren don’t get
\nas good food as we got in the worst days of the war”.
\nRegardless of what happens to the individual, the system must have Its way. A
\nBritish social worker on the government payroll was recently showi,ng a foreign tra ..
\nveler a group of big, government houses under construction. “Didn’t you tell me”,
\nthe trave ler asked, “that some fami I ies are re luctant to move Into these apartments?”
\n”Yes”, said the social worker, “they don’t like giving up their smallapantment
\nhouses, where the man had a bit of a garden to putter about in the evening. But this
\nis the way we are going to do it. We ‘I , make them learn to like it.”
\nThere you have it — the fundamental disregard of human rights and human preferences.
\n“Take it and like It”. That is socialism In action in Britain. Do you want
\nit in Ameri ca1
\n*****
\n3-23
\nIt has been some time since we referred to homely old Yankee expressions
\nI ike “leaning toward Sawyer’s” and “not worth a Hannah Cook”. let’s dig out a
\nfew more of those spri ghtl y, tangy say I ngs toni ght.
\nAf1er what we have been through with the weather this spring, we ought to
\napprecl ate grandpa’s meanl ngfu lsi mi Ie I “I t’s longer than a wet week”. When you
\ncan’t find some jill> lement that you’ve put away, dl d you eve r say of the hi dl ng
\np lace, “It’s as handy as a pocket In another man’s shl rtlt?
\nUp In my native part of Maine the old folks didn’t talk about March coming
\nin like a lion and going out like a lamb. “March is much more liable”, my grandfa
\nthe r Wh I tney used to say, “much more I I ab Ie to come I n like a I i on and go out
\nIi ke the devi In.
\nWhen someone would say of a new storekeeper or a new minister or even of a.new
\nsecond wife, ”Well, a new broom sweeps clelan”, my great;’;:grandmother Blake, whom
\nI remember well because she lived until I was twelve years old — my great-grandmother
\nwould speak up sharp and clear: “Sure, a new broom sweeps clean, but an
\nold one knows the corners best.”
\nThrough the ages, in all lands, there have been caustic proverbs to describe
\npersons of rather poor In1elligence. Here are a few of the good old crisp ones
\nfrom wes 1e rn Ma f ne: “He chops with the head of his axe” j “He hasn’t got a b ral n
\nIn his body nor any place to put one”; “He don’t know nawthln and allus will”. Or
\ntake this one: “You say she’s got brain fever? Can’t be. How can an angleworm
\nhave water on the knee?”
\nThe bigoted person of unyielding opinion Is said to be “so narrer-minded he
\ncan see through a keyhole with both eyes”. And I have always liked an expressfon
\nthat shows how clearly the old timers understood the connection between poverty
\nand laziness: “It’s a poor back that can’t press Its own shl rt.”
\n*****
\nDoes anyone know the date and other facts concerning a wedding that is said
\n3-24
\nto have taken place on the old covered bridge over the Sebastlcook at Winslow?
\nThat brIdge went out In the freshet of 1901; so the date must have been earl ter
\nthan that. The story goes that one day~ as SquIre Josiah Bassett was leaving his
\nWI ns low home to go to Watervl lie on bus I ness. he” met a young coup Ie Just after he
\ncrossed the bridge. “Aren’t you Squire Bassett?”, the young man asked. The
\nSqutre admitted his identity. ”We’re looking for you”,went on the young man. “We
\nwant to get married.”
\nSquire Bassett was In a hurry. He had a lot of business to do tn Waterville.
\nBut he cou I dn ‘t res i st the young b rt de’s appealing face \u2022 So he came to a qui ck
\ndecision. He wasn’t going all the way back to his hOll19 on Lithgow Street; he
\nwasn’t even goi ng back to the Bassett store. But he wou I d accommodate the coup Ie.
\n“Let’s go back to the brl dge”, he sai d. So there, under the she Iter of the COyered
\nbridge, he pronounced the words which made the couple man and wife.
\nThat. In substance. is the story. Did It really occur? When? At what time
\nof day? What were the names of the brl de and groom? Who were the legal witnesses?
\n.Can anyone put us on track of the answers? Who has any definite, dated
\nInformation about that wedding on the Winslow covered bridge?
\n*****
\nI have devoted time on this program to several Kennebec tOtlns. Next week it
\nIs Benton’s tum. There’s a grand town that deserves your attenti on. It is
\nBenton next Sunday.
\n*****
\nS I nee I have been referring to Rufus Jones, the great Quaker leader, some
\nlisteners have asked me wh i ch of Dr. Jones’ many books I II ke best. We II, I must
\ncon fess that I have not read them all , but of the ha I f dozen wh i ch I have read, I
\nlike best “A Small Town Boy” and “A Call to What is Vital”. The latter was published
\nonly a few months before he died, but because it contains his completely
\nmatured philosophy of life and the rich harvest of all his living, I think it is
\n3-25
\nhis best writing.
\nSomething of that phi losophy was revealed by the impression made on him when
\nhe was on Iy nine years 01 d. Ft re almost comp lete Iy destroyed the vi II age of
\nSouth Chi na. He te lis us that, the night after the fi re, as he wa I ked a long the
\nstreet and gazed at the smoldering houses, the gaunt lone chimneys, and the
\ngapl ng ce II ar holes, he fe It sorneth ing had gone out of h is life, never to return.
\nThen, as the long years ‘rolled by, he came to see In that boyhood fire the evidenca
\nof how fleeting and transitory, how soon wiped out, are many things we hold
\nimportant, and how much greater, therefore, I s our need for someth ing that cannot
\nbe wIped out. Rufus Jones found that something in unalterable faith in a living
\nGod. He knew the mean ing of the comforting hymn, “Death and decay in all around
\nsee; 0″ thou who fadest not, abide with me.”
\nDr. ,Jones .. ,was master of memorable Illustrations. He often compared man’s experienca
\nwith God to that of a person climbing Mount Everest. “At fi rst”, he
\nsaid, “there are many routes which gradually converge, and up to a cartaln point
\nthere are many ways to trave I (by way of beauty, or of truth, or of goodness),
\nbut at the very last for the final climb there Is only one way, the way of prayer.
\nThe mystl c has been there, and he comes to te II us that beyond the conjectures
\nand inferences about the reality of God is the consciousness of enjoying His presenca
\n\u2022
\n”Have a sense of what is vi ta I”, the Apost I e Pau I w rote to the church at
\nPhilippi. If you want to know what that vltal’Hving Is, read Rufus Jones’ last
\nbook, “A Call to What Is Vital”.
\n3-26
\nL I IT LE TALKS ON COMMON TH I NGS
\n109th Broadcast May 20, 1951
\nTtlere are probably several Waterville families who CQuid have been called
\ntrolley car fans half a century ago. know one of those families who were so
\nfond of trolley rl des that husband and:’ wi fe took many long trips entl rely by
\ntrolley. One of their longest was from Waterville to ‘” Lynn\u00b7” Massachusetts, every
\nfoot of the way by success I ve changes of tro I ley car.
\nWhen that couple were married in 1903, they took a two weeks’ honeymoon
\nthrough various parts of Central and Weste~n Maine without using the Maine Oen~
\n“,” .’
\ntra I Road except for the return journey from Gard I ner to Watervl lie. The I r trl p
\n.1: .~ .: .
\nbegan by team from Waterville to\/}\u00b7 Augusta, then out to T99uS by trolley, f,rom
\nTogus to Gardl ner by the 01 d Kennebec Centra I narrow gauge, then by boat, to
\nBath, by trolley to Brunswick, Auburn, Lewiston, Portland, Old Orchard and Btdde.:;.\u00b7\u00b7
\nI, ~” ‘,’ …
\nford; side trips to various towns, and eventually by trolley to Gardiner, where
\nt~y ~ok their one broad gauge rai I road ride on the whole trip back to Waterville.
\nThat couple, married 48 years ago, are well known and great\u00b7ly respected
\ncitizens of. Watervl lie, Mr. and Mrs. Harry Vose.
\n*****
\nIn light of the ceaseless wrangling about hours of business for the Water ..
\nvi lie stores”It is Interesting to see how they handle such matters In a.small
\ntown in Scotland. I have already told you that I see quite regularly the weekly
\nissues of the Peeb lesh I re News, loaned me by the courtesy of that f.1 ne son of
\nPeebles, John Burgess. The News of March 23 of this year devoted two entire
\ncol urnns to a meet I ng of the Peeb les Shopkeepers and Merchants Associ ati’on.
\nAt that meeting someone made a motion that shopkeepers who desired to re …
\nmain open on Wednesday afternoons during the summer months should be “I lowed to
\ndo so. A member then pol nted out that such a vote would requl re an amendment
\n3-27
\nto the by-laws, which speci fical Iy cal led for Wednesday afternoon closings
\nthroughout the year. Another member called attention to the statutory act,
\npassed by Parliament, requiring the shopkeepers in any locality to show a twothi
\nrds majorl ty J n each trade before putting into effect any change I n the exIsting
\nplan of half holiday in each week, and to give six weeks’ notice of such
\nchange to all clerks.
\nThe meeting voted to refer the matter to a conmlttee for consideration and
\nprompt report. They agreed that tl:le statute woul d be obeyed, and that a II merchants
\nwould be bound by the outcome.
\nIt is both a virtue and a fault of the New England Yankee that he is deter\u00b7
\nmi ned to protect and preserve his i ndi vi dua I independence. But even we Yankees
\nare smart enough to know that, in order to get a long together, we must have the
\nfreedom of democracy, not the freedom of anarchy. There come ti mes when, for
\nthe sake of the common we I fare, we must bow to the wi ” of the major! ty. Where
\nthose Scotch merchants have the better of us Is In their abi Iity to enforce upon
\na re I uctant mi norlty the wi II of the majori tv. When wi II our Watervi lie storekeepers
\nwake up to the same need?
\n*****
\nLast wi nter I wrote a letter to the editor of that Peeb lesh ire News, praising
\none of his editorials which upheld the United States vigorously against
\nvicious attacks from certain quarters of England and Scotland. One never knows
\nhow a letter like that will get around. I n the Peeb lesh f re News of March 23
\nappears another letter wri tten by an aged son of Peeb les now Ii vi ng I n Los Ange
\nles. He wrote: ”We out here on the Pad fl c Coast of the Un I ted States were
\nmuch interested in the letter of Dean E. C. Marrl ner of Co Iby Co liege, Waterville,
\nMaine. We are as far from that 0011 lege as you are in Scotland. But the
\nunusual thing about a letter from Waterville is that the News is read in all
\ncorne rs of the wor I d. Dean Marri ne r menti oned the Burgess fami Iy, we I I known to
\n3-28
\nne In rtPf young days. Far away In the Mohave Desert in California, I have a young
\nfriend naned Carolyn Burgess. On my next, visit to her town I shall ask her If
\nshe I s a re I at:. w of the 0 I d Peeb les family and of the p resent Burgesses of Waterville,
\nMaine.”
\n*****
\nI thas been some tl me s I nee we have mentioned the Kennebec town of Benton.
\n:,’,:
\nIt is thei r turn toni ght, and for the i nformatl on wh I ch I pass on to you about
\nthat town I am I ndebted to Mr. Chester E. Basford of Benton Station, who was the
\nchairman of the committee which arranged the celebration of Benton’s one hundredth
\nannt versary In 1942.
\nThe original, Incorporated name of the town, when,lt got Its charter tn
\n1842 was Sebasti cook. How the name happened to be changed In 1850, to honor the
\ngreat Democratic Senator from Ohio, Thomas H. Benton, Is not entirely clear, but
\nthat comMiilitywhi,ch was to become, a strong center of Republican polities In later
\ndays was, at any rate, ~amed for a prominent Democrat.
\nThe tatn was ort gina Ily a part of Cltnton,and events which led up to the
\nseparation Incl uded bt tter strl fe between Benton Falls and Hunter’s Mills over
\nthe annual election of selectmen. Hunter’s Mi lis was the old nane of Clinton
\nVillage. The original selectmen of the new town In 1842 were Daniel Brown” An …
\ndrew RI chardson and Andrew Grant. Benton ,!s fi rst representatl ve to the Leg’s …
\nlature w\u00b7as Orrin Brown. A lot of men have gone to Augusta to represent Benton
\nsince then, but I am told that the only man from Benton who ever serwd In the
\nState Senate Is Ralph W. Pillsbury.
\nIn the old days Benton Falls was quite a place. The David Reed home, nat
\nowned by Dick Dyer, publicity man for Colby College, was a well known Inn on the
\nstage route from Port land to Bangor. Here Maine’s on Iy vi ce-p res I dent of the
\nUnited States, H~nnibal Hamlin, was a frequent visitor. Here were held community
\nneettngs of all kinds from pol itlcal gatherings to religioUs services. Here, from
\n3-29
\nthe bar which stl II remains In the front room, the genial landlord dispersed
\nhis beverages.
\nHann I ba I Hamli n had other associ atlons with Benton bes I des stopping at
\nthe David Reed tavern. In 1874 he was elected president of the Kennebec Fibre
\nCompany, whIch started what was long to continue as Benton’s principal industry,
\nthe paper ml II at Benton Falls, now unhapp I Iy defunct. The treasurer and general
\nmanager of The ml II was Col. Francis E. Heath of Watervl lie. He used to
\ndri ve dally from\/hi s home In Waterville to the mill at Benton Falls. His team
\nwas a sprightly pair of horses, and alongside ran his constant co.,.,anlons, two
\nbeautiful seTter dogs. Col. Heath Is said fo have enjoyed especially fine relationships
\nwith his employees, a policy carried on and even Increased by his son
\nand successor in the bus I ness, Edward W. Heath.
\nIn 1899 was built one of the most un’.;que electric railroads in the country,
\nfrom Fal rfle I d to Benton Fa lis. On Iy Inci denTa lIy meant to carry passengers ~ Its
\nrna In purpose was to transport the products of The. ml II to the steam ral I road. The
\nI I tt Ie road was known as the lib roan stl ck tra in”. I t had a sing Ie car for passengers,
\nwhat carne to be called a funny Ii tt Ie car, wi th motorman and cooductor a II
\nthe sane man ..
\nThe Congregational Church at Benton Falls c\u00b7laimS file taSf f)etl cast at the
\nPaul Revere foundry In Canton, Mass. This was In 1828, several years after
\nPaul’s own deaTh. There 15 a legend, for which no-historical proof exists, that,
\nwhen the bell was being removed from the flat boat which had brought It up the
\nSebastlcook River, It was dropped overboard, and that Its 720 pounds gave quite
\na task to many. men and oxen before It was finally hauled up to what was then the
\nnew dlurch. For 123 years that Pau I Revere be I I has hung and swung I n the be 1-
\nfry of the old meeting house at Benton Falls.
\nwonder t f any other Kennebec town outs I de of Benton has a memori a I school
\ndesk? I n the. schoolhouse of what was long ca lied Dlstrl ct No. 5 at Benton Fa lis,
\n3-30
\nis a desk bearing a memorial tablet. It reads: “Asher C. Hinds, 1863-1919.
\nScholar, statesman, parI iamentarian, when a boy studied at this desk.” Asher
\nHI nds was one of Benton’s most noted sons. He 1 s sti II known as the greatest
\nof Cong ress i ona I pa r I I amenta ri ans, se rv in gin th at cap aci ty un de r the two
\ngreat czars of the nati onal House of Representatives, Speakers Thomas B. Reed
\nand Joseph G. Cannon. So, 21 years ago, In 1930, the peop Ie of Benton honored
\nthe memory of Asher Hinds by placing a marker on his old desk In the Benton
\nFa II s school house.
\nHow grateful we should be to the good folks of a hundred years ago who
\npatiently kept diaries. Such a man was Wi I Ii am K. Lunt JI who was just starting
\nin the business of what was to make him Benton’s most famous storekeeper when
\nhe recorded in his diary: “December 31,1842. This is the last day of the old
\nyear; tomorrOil begins the new. It fl nds me in bus I ness for myse If, and I hope
\nby strict attention to business, I shall gain the favor, goodwi II and patronage
\nof my townsmen as well as personal friends.” William Lunt was 21 years old when
\nhe wrote those diary lines. He kept that store at Benton Falls unt! I old age
\ncompelled his retirement. At one time he had a rival in Leonard Alexander, but
\nhow much a rival may be judged from a story Benton people used to delight in
\ntelling. One day a nei ghbor chi Id came Into Mr. Alexander’s store and sai d,
\n“Alec, give me a cent.” ”Why, Edna,”, said Mr. Alexander, “what do you want of
\na cent?”, at the same time pull lng a penny out of his pocket and handing it to
\nthe little girl. The chi Id grasped the coin and started for the door. Turning
\na roun d, as she was about to cross the th resho I d, she sa i d: “I’m tak i ng It ove r
\nto Bi II Lunt’s store; he gives more for a cent than you do.’!
\nDoes anyone sti II I iving remember Benton’s old merry-go-round? Near where
\nthe Foot Hill Cab I n now stands, near the east end of the three brl dges, there
\nstood, sixty years ago, the home of James F. Tibbetts. About 1890, when Mr.
\nTibbetts was a mil Iwright In the old Toiman mills, he decided to bui Id a merry ..
\n3-31
\ngo-round. It was the fl rst constructed In Maine, and Mr. Tibbetts took a tour
\nof the Maine fairs. It had no prancing or flying horses, but only chariots with
\nseats. In the center sat a Fat rfleld man, Nate Tuttle, turning a wooden crank,
\nproviding the motive pOfer. Mr. Tibbetts’ most famous passenger Is said to have
\nbeen the heavy-weight champion of the world, John L. SUllivan, who proved hlmoself
\na better prize-fighter than merry-go-round rider, for his ride on Mr. Tib ..
\nbetts merry-go-roUAd at the Unity Fair made John L. sea-sick.
\nOne of Benton’s great ciTizens died only a few months ago. He was John Reed,
\nwho had been born in the George W. Reed home In Benton, had been a pupil In the
\nsame No.5 schoolhouse that has the Asher HI nds memoria I desk, and had married
\nEll zabetb” granddaughter of the fi rst Asher Hinds, who had bul It at Qentoo Fa lis
\nthe attracti:’te. spacious dwelling where the Hinds ,fami Iy were so long to live. In
\nrecent yea rs thl s has been the grac I ous home of John and E I I zabeth Reed, for back
\nto the old, home they came on Mr. Reed’s retirement from a distinguished career.
\nGraduating fran the University of Maine In 1889, with a degree In Clvi I Englneerlng,
\nhe turned at once to rail road construction, working for various roads on the
\nAtlantic seaboard until 1901. Then began his notable career In foreign lands.”He
\nbul It the first electric rai Iways in New Zealand and In the Phi lipplnes, and made
\na survey and cost ana Iys Is of the much hera lded Tr.ans-Andean Rai I road In SO’uth
\n, …. :.,’.
\nAmerica. For seven years he was engaged in the Federal Valuation of Railroads.
\nHe was one of America’s greatest railway constructloo engineers.
\nLike most Maine towns, Benton once had an academy. On the site of ‘he present
\nNo.5 Schoolhouse at Benton Falls stood what was known In 1842 as, the CI in ..
\nton Academy.Op.ened in 1830, I t carried on for 00 Iy 28 years. I t was bul It by a
\ncompany of citizens, who intended to make it a female seminary. Unable to com-plete
\nthe job, the company irurned the building over to the Methodist society,
\nwhich finished It and opened a co-educatlonal academy. When the building was
\ndestroyed by fire In 1870, its use as an academy had already ceased, but for
\n3-32
\nseveral years its new owners had reserved the right to hold a high school In It
\ntwo terms each year. Whether such high school terms were ever held, after the
\nacademy ‘offlcl.aIIY ceased to function, we do not know.
\nAnyhow, Benton I s one of the Kennebec Va II ey ‘s fine 0 I d towns I with a
\nmemorable history and a prosperous present. All Kennebec citizens may be proud
\nof It.
\n3-33
\nII TILE TALKS ON OOMt\u00ablN THI NGS
\n110th :,Broadcast May 27, 1951
\nSome time ago we passed on to you several interesting items from Drew’s
\nRural Intelligencer, published in Augusta In 1855. In all fairness, It is time
\nthat, – we ca lied attenti on to the fact that an Augusta newspaper stl II pub” shed
\ntoday was In ci rculation even earlier than 1855. I refer to the Kennebec Journal.
\nI have before me right now a copy of the Journal which is Vol. IX, No. 24,
\ndated Wednesday morning, March 2, 1853.
\nAt a time when most newspapers were weeklies, the Kennebec Journal In 1853
\nwas a I ready on I ts way to becoml ng a dally, though I t had not quite reached that
\nd I sti ncti on. I twas pub I I shed, th ree ti mes a week, on Monday, Wednesday and Frl,;;;
\nday. A greater part of thIs Issue of March 2nd Is taken up wIth the happenings
\nIn the Maine legislature. There was sharp controversy between House and Senate
\non a proposa I to grant al d to the Passamaquoddy I ndi ans to bui I d houses and
\nbarns. Advocates pointed out and, mind you, this was a hundred years ago, that
\neven then the Indians’ hunting and fishing rights were giving out; they had be …
\ncome poor and needy. The Indians remaining at Pleasant Point were vagrant paupers,
\ngettl ng thel r I i vi ng by makl ng baskets, wanderi ng about from p I ace to p I ace;
\nbut those who were already at the place where the proposed resolve would aid
\nothers to settle were relatively prosperous. Opponents said those Indians were
\nnatura Ily sh i ftless and unre Ii ab Ie, that they wouldn’t stay on good Icilnd I f put
\nthere, and any money spent helping them bui Id houses and barns was, Just so much
\npoured down the drain. Finally humanitarian Interests prevailed and the,bill
\nwas passed.
\nThe ,!-buse had Just cast their votes for Major General of the 8th Division
\nof the StateMi litia, electing E. C. Belcher with 69 votes to 45 forL,.D. Palner.
\n3-34
\nSome joker cast one VOTe for the Baskahegan Grant. IT wou I d be I nterestl ng to
\nknow how that term originated. Where was Baskahegan and what was its grant?
\nSorre of the petiTions presented in that 1853 Legislature strike us as very
\nstrange today. At thaT time one secured a divorce, not in the courts, but by
\npetitioning the legislature. $0 one of the 1853 petitions was that of Calvin
\nHopkins for divorce. Isaac Bragg petitioned to construct a plank road from Bangor
\nto Old Town. Samuel Chase petitioned for remuneraTion for clothes lost by
\nhis ward George Minot~ in the burning of the Insane Hospital. John Dulin petitioned
\nfor the right to change his name.
\nIn one column of This issue of March 2, 1853 appears this jovial account of
\nthe State Prison: “This institution for gentlemen who have been unfortunate in
\nbusiness operations appears to be in its usual flourishing condition. Seventythree
\nof these unfortunate individuals are now avai ling themselves of the quiet
\nand wholesome Influence of this sequestered retreat, occupying their time princi
\npa Ily In contemp I at i on and cobb II ng.”
\n*****
\nSome of the bewildering doings in Washington have led to the remaking of
\ncertain dictionary definitions. Perhaps you would like to know what some good
\nEnglish words have come to mean in the national capital.
\nA lip rogram” I s any ass I gnment that cannot be CO”” leted by one telephone ca II.
\nAn “expediter” is one who confounds confusion with commotion whi Ie riding fast
\ntrains or faster planes and staying at the best hotels. On that basis you could
\nmake your own definition of an “efficiency expert”. He, of course, is a man who
\ntrains expediters; and a “coordinator” is one who has a desk between two expediters.
\nThe good old verb “to activate” means to make a lot of carbons and add a
\nlot of names to a memorandum. The phrase “under consideration” means “Never
\nheard of it”; “under active consideration” means ”We’re looking in the fi les for
\nit”. “In transmittal” means “We’re sending It to you because we’re tired of
\n3-35
\nbe Ing hounded about It j it’s your turn A~”. A “conference” is a p lace where
\nconversatl(i)n Is substituted for the dreariness of labor and the loneliness of
\nthought. A “modification of pollcy”means a co~lete reversal whIch nobody
\nadmits. “Synthesis” Is a co~ounding of detal led bewl lderman1- Into a vast but
\ncomfortable confusion which offends no one. “Research work” means hunting for
\nthe fellow that moved the files; as for the research itself, copying from one
\nbook is plagiarism; copying from two books is research. And the poor “economic
\nexpert”, the new definition for him is a man who tells you wha1- to do with the
\nmoney you would not have if you had followed his advice.
\n“‘ . :;.
\n*****
\nSome day an unbiased, objective study will be made of Father Rasle of col ..
\nonlal days in Norridgewock, and his part In the Indian wars of the l8thcentury.
\nSo bitter was both the national and the religious feuding generated and perpetuated
\nth rough the years by the vi 0 lent death of Father Ras Ie, and the passage of
\ntime has obscured so many of the facts that It Is difficult to tell what part the
\nmissionary father really played In the politIcal and military 51-rIfe between the
\n“. ‘”
\nEnglish and the French, In theIr bItter contest for control of the North American,
\ncontinent.
\nI n any event, because Fa the r Ras Ie was such a noted pe rson I n the 0 I d days
\nof the Kennebec Va Iley, we owe him attention on th i s program.
\nThe flrst French miss I on on the St. lawrence began as early, as HH4 under
\nthe patronage of Champlain. In 1625 three Jesuits set up a mission with Quebec
\nas Its center \u2022\u2022 The first mission church was bui It opposite the mouth\u00b7.of.,the
\nChaudiere, was endowed by a French countess, and was given the name of St. Jo..-
\nseph ofSlllery. Its first missionary of consequence was Father Gabriel Druillettes,
\nwho patiently learned the language of the Algonquin Indians.
\nWhen the Abenakis of the Kennebec first came In contact wl1-h the Jesuits Is
\nuncertai nj but I t was sure Iy as early as 1631, when a party of Kennebec I ndi ans
\n3-36
\nwent ‘to Quebec to buy beaver skins to sell to the Plymouth traders. We knOt that
\nin 1640 aA Algonquin from Quebec brought his fami Iy to Old Point at Norri dgewock,
\nand In 1642 an Abenaki chief was taken to Quebec for Christian baptism.
\nIn 1646, when the Abenakis requested that a priest be. sent to them, Father
\nOJ”uil fe’ttes left Quebec on August 29 of that year, went up the Olaudiere 90 mi les
\nto Lake Megantic, crossed the di vide to the head waters of the Kennebec, ~nd in
\nthe middle of September reached Old Point at Norridgewock, which was then the
\nprl nci pa I upper vi “age of the Abenakis.
\nFathe r Druil1ettes di d not rema in at 01 d Poi nt .He went on dOtn the ri ve r to
\nCushnoc (the Dresent site of Augusta) where he was kindly received by John Winslow;
\n‘then he took the long trip dOtn to the mouth of the river and along the
\ncoast ‘to Castine, to confer with the Capuchin priests there. On his return he did
\nnot go back 10 Norridgewock, but set up his first mission at an Indian village
\nabout a mile above the Cushnoc tradl ng post, at Gilley’s Point. He ca lied that
\nmission ”The Mission of the Assumption on the Kennebec”. In 1647 Father Oruillettes
\naccompanied the Abenakls on their winter hunt to tIoosehead Lake.
\nAfter he returned to Quebec in the spring of 1647 it was three years before
\nhe again returned to Maine. Then he went far beyond the Kennebec waters. He went
\nto BostOR and to Plymouth, to plead with the English settlements there for aid
\nto his I ndian friends against the marauding I roquols. In 1651 he went as far as
\nNew Haven on the same errand, but he was ob I i gad to record in his Journa I that
\n“Christi an New Eng land woui d not be roused to protect the Christian I zed I ndrans
\nof the Kennebec.”
\nIn 1685 the Quebec mission was moved across the St. lawrence to a point a
\nfew miles up the Chaudiere, and its name was changed to the “Mission of St. Fran …
\ncis de Sa les”. Soon afterward Jesuit priests from that mission traveled a long
\nthe Kennebec and built a chapel at Old Point, thus reviving the mission that had
\nbeen closed there for thi rty years.
\n3-37
\nFather Rasle came to the Old Point mission in 1693. One historical faction
\ncontends that his mission was entirely rellglous~ to continue the conversion of
\nthe Indians and hold them true to the faith and ceremonies of the Roman church.
\nAnother group of historians decJare that Father Rasle’s reasons for coming to
\nOld Point were more pol itical than religious. As one historian puts it, “French
\nstatesmen and Canadian governors sought through the machinery of the church to
\nmanipulate the Indian tribes of Maine against the English.”
\nIn 1694 the English stupidly arrested and imprisoned Sonescen, Chief of the
\nAbenakls, thus inflaming the tribe to war on the side of the French. Dreadful
\nmassacres ensued. What are spoken of as six separate Indian wars occurred In the
\nnext 30 years, though I t was a II a part of the long strugg Ie between the French
\nand English for supremacy. Each side paid the Indians for the other sides’
\nscalps. Both French and English kept prodding the tribes to kill the white men
\non the othe r side.
\nIn the midst of this hatred and bloodshed stood the priest. Was he merely a
\nreligious leader of the Indians, or was he a national patriot of New France? The
\nEnglish were sure he was the latter, and In 1721 the General Court at Boston de,..
\nmanded of the Kennebec I ndi ans that they hand over Father Ras Ie to English arrest.
\nThe Indians refused. So In December, 1721 Col. Westbrook led a battalion of 230
\nsoldiers on snowshoes up the Kennebec. At Old Point they found Father Rasle’s hut
\ndeserted and the priest hiding in the forest. They seized his books and personal
\neffects, including his precious manuscript of a dldtionary of the Abenaki tongue,
\nand his strong box. believe those two items are now preserved In the Maine
\nHistorical Society at Portland.
\nThe raid by Col. Westbrook, though unsuccessful, had terrible repercussions.
\nThe Abenakls; now thoroughly aroused, went on the warpath. They ki lied and scalped
\nand burned. The worst disaster was the burning of the enti re settlement that later
\n3-38
\nbecame the town of Brunswick and the slaughter of some forty of Its Inhabitants.
\nActi ng quick Iy, the government at Boston offered a reward of 200 pounds for
\nFather Rasle, dead or alive. On August 19,1724 Captain Moulton, with a party of
\n208 men, started out from Fort RI chmond, determined to capture Father Ras Ie.
\nLaavi ng the i r boats aT Ti con i c Fa II s, the Mou I ton party went ove rl and the twenty
\nmi les to Old Point above Norridgewock. Inexplicably they were able to take the
\nI ndi an vi Ilage by surpri se. Let us nON have the story as to I din Coverse Francis’
\n“Life ofSebast,j,an Rasle”:
\n“The Indians rushed out of their huts in terror and dismay, the warriors
\nseizing their guns and fired them wildly. The soldiers poured Into the Indian
\nranks volley after vol ley. The hope less survi vors scattered to the she Iter of
\nthe woods, on Iy to encounter ambuscades of sol diers. At the fi rst onset, Father
\nRasle ran out of his dwelling to the place of the vi I I age cross. A few terror
\nstricken followers had gathered about him, as if to shield him or be shielded by
\nhis priestly person. Suddenly the soldiers caught sight of his clerical dress and
\nrecognized him as the person upon whom the hate of all New England was concentrated.
\nSelecting his breast as a target, they sent a shower of bullets that laid
\nhim life less bes i de the miss i on cross.”
\nThus died the most famous of those sturdy, devout Jesu I ts who mi n istered to
\nthe Maine Indians in the 18th century. Whether he died a martyr to his faith, or
\nas a French plotter against the English, historians wi II continue to dispute for
\nmany years to come. On one point the disputants firmly agree: Father Rasle was
\na man of unflinching determination and courage.
\n3-39
\nLI TT LE TALKS ON COMMON TH I NGS
\n111 th Broadcast June 3, 1951
\nFrom time to tf.me on this program we have mentioned old-time newspapers from
\nmany parts of Maine — Waterville, Augusta, Bangor, Portland, and fnom such sma I 1-
\ner p I aces as CI i nton, Chi na and Vassal boro. I th Ink th Is is the fl rst”,\u00b7, t.f.me,
\n,however, that we have called attention to a Belfast paper.
\nTt!anks to one of our regu I ar II steners, Bi II Flaherty, custodl an of the
\nKeyes Science Building at Colby College, I have recently seen a copy of a Bele
\nfast newspaper printed’ almost a hundred years ago. It is Vol. 24, No. 21 of
\nthe Republ ican Journal published by Wing and Moore at Belfastc on Friday morning,
\nJune 11, 1852.
\nlike all papers of the time, as we have previously reminded our IIs~ners,
\nthis Belfast paper had several rates of subscript.fon. If paid In advanc~, the
\nrate, was,$1.50 a year; If paid within’ the year, but not In advance, It was
\n$2.00. Unlike, the situation today, the posta’i laws did not require paYll1l;lnt of
\nnewspaper subscriptions in ad”‘ance nor did they require stopplng”‘j a subscriber’s
\nreceipt ,of copJes if he fell Into arrears. Subscribers often refused to retnOve
\npapers from the post office, and the law protected the publisher until all arrearages
\nwere paid, when of course the subscriber could cancel his subscriptton.
\nCourt costs and lawyer’s fees were too expensive, however, for the average small
\ntown publ I sher to brl ng suit for h is money, with the result, that many a paper
\nwent Into bankruptcy because folks just didn’t pay. Eventually the present, much
\nneeded law, requiring subscriptions In advance, was passed. But in 1852 the Belfast
\nRepub I i can Journa I pub I I shed under I ts tit Ie head on the front page these
\nwords: “No paper discontinued until all arrearages are paid. All letters and
\ncorrmunlcatlons, to secure attention, must be postpaid.”
\nThat I ast sentence revea I s another nu I sance of a hundred years ago — sendl n9
\n3-40
\nletters with postage to be paid by the receiver. I f you wanted to vent your wrath
\non s~one with whom you had quarreled down In Portland, let us say, from your
\nhome’l n Watervl lie you could send him a postage collect letter — write him a voluminous
\ndocument of a dozen or more pages, weighing several ounces. You not
\nonly could get the satisfaction of telling him, in ali kinds of language. just
\nwhat you thought of him, but you cou I d make him. pay for the p rl vi lege of readl ng
\nIt. He had to’; pay postage on your vituperative letter.
\nBut It was not a II one way. The fe I low down I n Portland coul d stt II retal tate.
\nHe couid write an even longer letter, use heavier paper than yours, and
\nmake you pay the postage.
\nOf cours~, human curiosity being what it Is, most letters were delivered and
\npaid for, but occasionally a cantankerous soul would let letters pile up In the
\npost office rather than pay the postage to get them. Such a man was one of Abraham
\nLincoln’s customers when Lincoln was the young postmaster at New Salem,
\nIllinois. Lincoln finally took a pig In payment for the postage, sold the pig to
\nthe fa ther. of Ann Rut ledge, and when he had to make up to the government the ml s …
\nsing postage on his customer’s accumulated letters, Lincoln found he had lost 32
\ncents on the dea I \u2022
\nMany generati ons of patrons have known the Amari can House at Be I fast. In 1852
\nIt had Just been taken over by Holmes and Baker. Thet r advert I sement in the Repub
\nI I can Journa I announces that they “have I mproved the House I n every part, new Iy
\nf Ittl ng, pal ntl ng and paperl ng the rooms, and dec lare It, I n respect to accomoda …
\ntions and table., second to no public house In Maine”.
\nAppended to th I s Amari can House ad is the earl i est reference to what came to
\nbe called summer boarders that I have ever seen in any.Malne newspaper. It would
\nbe inTeresting to learn how early the vacationing or resort or sumter boarder
\nbusiness started in our state. r think I shall try to find the time some day to
\nascerTain Just.when our great vacation Industry first began, and I shal L appreciate
\n3-41
\nri ght now, any I nformati on that our II steners can gi ve.
\nNow here is what that Ameri can House ad of 1852 has to say: “To those who
\nare looki ng for a pleasant resort duri ng the warm months, we woul d say that Be 1-
\nfast, in its scenery, air, location, etc. is one of the finest places In the
\nstate. ”
\nWhenever see one of these old newspapers I search diligently for unusual
\nadverti semen”ts, and I like to pass those un i q ue 0 I d-ti me ads on to you. How’s
\nth is for an odd one, from th is Be I fast paper of 1852:
\n“Picked up adrift. By the subscriber, in Penobscot Bay, on Sunday, May 30,
\n1852, a raft of logs. The said raft contains 53 sticks, supposed to be intended
\nfor wharf timber, and is rafted with chains. The owner is requested to prove
\nproperty, pay charges and take them away. Harri son Sma II , South Prospect, Mal ne. n
\nHere’s anQther good one:
\nlIThis wi II certify toall whom it may concern, that I have this day sold to
\nmy mi nor sons, E II Rack’ I ff and Joseph Rack I I ff, the I r tl me durf ng thei r mi nori ty
\nto act and transact bus I ness for themse I ves I n like manner as though they were of
\nage, and I shall claim none of their e’arnings, nor pay any debts of their contracting
\nafter this date. Stephen T. Rackliff, Unity, Maine, May 18,1852.”
\nLast Monday evening, speaking at the 125th anniversary of the founding of
\nthe Watervi lie Universalist Society, I had occasion to mention the great Universal
\nist, Hosea Ballou. was therefore especially interested to find this small,
\nwe II-h i dden pa ragraph in the Be I fast Repub II can Journa I of J una 11, 1852:
\n“We learn “that Rev. Hosea Ballou, senior pastor of the Second Universalist
\nSociety, on School Street in Boston, died on June 7th at the age of 81 years. He
\nhad been pastor of the same church s i nee 1817 and, at the ti me of his death, was
\nthe oldest mini ster in Boston. He was Justly regarded as the patriarch of the
\nUn i versa list Ch urch.”
\nNow the point of that Item, as it concerned Central Maine, lies in the fact
\n3-42
\nthat it was Hosea Ballou who, as guest preacher at an annual meeting of the Universalist,
\n\u00b7 Association in Oakland In 1823 converted to the Universalist\u00b7 faith
\nJedl ah Morrill of Watervl lie, and it was Jedl ah Morrill who became the foremost
\nearly supporter and benefactor of the Waterville Universalist Society which, after
\n125 years of sign I fl cant.”, service to th I s commun,1 ty” he Id a f itt Ing ce lebratlon
\nthis week.
\n***** .,., ,
\nhave read more Than once In old papers and letters that the graftl ng of
\napple trees took hold very slowly In Maine, and that the reason was cider. A
\nhundred and twenty five years ago, when the Waterville Baptist Meeting House was
\ndedicated, when tile Waterville Universalist Society was founded, and when John
\nQuincy Adams was President of the United States cider was the universal rural
\nbeverage In Ma I ne. I f you Judged by the accounts of the 0 I d-tl\u00b7me storekeepers,
\nyou would think everybody drank rum all the time, but that Is not true. Rum came
\nfrom the West\u00b7 Indies; it cost money. Cider could be made right at home. Very
\nse I dom does cl der appear I n the 01 d account books, because there was no sa Ie for
\nIt In Ma Ine stores; everybody made h Is own. Househol ders put, I n a wi nter supp Iy
\nof cider just as they did pork, butt-er and cheese. Furthermore, although there
\nwas sma II market\u00b7 for it I n I oca I stores, It\u00b7 brought $6 to. $8 a barre I I n the
\nBoston market. In 1826 it- was chiefly the newer towns of Franklin and Somerset
\nCounties that shipped cider to Boston, and It was a Farmington editor. of 1850
\nwho commented shrewd I y: “When ci der I s the most\u00b7 prof I tab Ie product of the orchard,
\nthere I s no inducement to graft trees or seek the best tab Ie frul ts.”
\nWhat a difference Today, when Maine apples are known allover the country as
\nthe finest, cleanest table fruit.
\nSpeaking of apples” by 1890 Northern Kennebec had quite a reputation for that
\nfruit. By no means did Monmouth and Winthrop lead the county in apple production
\nat that t I me \u2022 The I a rge st Kennebec orch a rds 60 yea rs ago we re those of J. M. P t ke
\n3-43
\nof Wayne and Cook Brothers of Vassalboro, each of which had over 3,000 trees. The
\nlargest orchard nursery was operated by Bowman Brothers at Si dney, with 75,000
\nnursery trees.
\n*****
\nWe have said a lot about old-time farms and farming, but very little about
\nfarm tools and mach,fnery. We owe that subject a few words tonight. We cherish
\nhighly the gift of an old two-tine hay fork, hand-made certainly as long ago as
\n125 years, presented to us by that constant listener and contri butor to thf s program,
\nMr. H. F. Sturtevant of Ten lots.
\nUntl I at I east 1840 a II the forks, scythes, sick les, axes, hoes and rakes
\nwere made by hand by the vi Ilage blacksmith. In 1841 Jacob Pope of Hallowell
\nstarted making the first spring steel hay forks ever made in Maine. The business
\ngrew in prosperity and was continued by Mr. Pope for thirty years. As early as
\n1820 Elias Plimpton of Litchfield had made hoes by machinery, but few farmers used
\nthem until after 1840. At North Wayne In 1840 the first scythes ever made by
\nmachinery In Maine were produced by R. B. Dunn.
\nOne of the toughest jobs on the old farms was threshing out the grain. Using
\nthe hand f lai I, hours on end, was a muscle breaking job. In 1826 the same Jacob
\nPope of Hallowell, who made the fi rst steel hay forks, invented a hand operated
\nthreshing machine. Hiram Ballou of Livermore, about the same time, invented a
\nth resh I ng cy Ii ndar, operated by horse power attached to an 0 I d ci dar mi II sweep 1
\nthe horse traveling In a circle. Then in 1833 Samuel lane of leeds made an endless
\nchaf n one-horse power machi ne wi th a hi gh-geared cy II nder. By the next year, 1834,
\nwhen the Pitts and Wh I tman fami lies of Wi nth rop both made simi I ar mach I nes and not
\nvery di fferent from lane’s and Pope’s, the law suits started over patents. The best
\nof these mach i nes consl sted of a wi nder end less chaf n of wood, mounted on wh I ch two
\nhorses, instead of one, trod on and on, I I ke a squi rre lin a cage; and two horses,
\nI nstead of one, near Iy doub led the mach i ne ‘s speed.
\n3-44
\nBy the time the law suits were settled the McCormicks, forerunners of the
\ngreat- I nternational Harvester, had adapted most of the principles and garnered
\nmost of the prof! ts.
\nIn 1877 Moses Bliss of Pittston invented a rrovable hay press. In the sane
\nyear Samuel Lane of Hallowell brought out- a popular corn she I ler. Maine never
\nI acked I nventi ve gan i us, and what more feas I b Ie way to make Its i nf luence fe It
\nthan ri ght at home on the farm. Much of the greatness of our Mal ne fore fathers
\nlay Indeed in the I r marve lous power of adjustment, to fl nd new ways to meet new
\nneeds of new days.
\n3-45
\nLlTILE TALKS ON COMK>N THINGS
\n112th Broadcast J una 10, 1951
\nOn this program we have frequently referred to old diaries, account books,
\nJournals and letters. Tonight, for the first time, we turn to another kind of
\nhistorical record of the Kennebec Valley, an old hotel register. Thanks to Mrs.
\nJohn Pi per, we have had a chance to exami ne thorough Iy the regl ster of the
\nForks Hotel for the years 1872 to 1874. Even today The Forks, 24 mIles aboye
\nBingham, where the Dean River Joins the Kennebec, Is an interesting place. It is
\na common resort of hunters and fishermen, and maintains some of the most accomp
\nI I shed gui des I n the north woods.
\nOnly five years ago Wateryi lie had a unique and Important connection with
\nThe Forks. A contract was arranged by which all the chi Idren of high school age
\nwere sent to Coburn Classical Institute. The gi rls In this group were housed In
\nwhat was formerly the Ware House, now the George otis Smith house on Park Street.
\nAs long ago as 1872 a few people from out of the state came to The Forks for
\nhunting and fishing. Summer seems to have been the time of their appearance, at
\nleast those who registered with landlord A. D. Murray at The Forks Hotel. Whether
\nG. F. Seave’rof Boston who registered on May 13, 1872 with Gen. R. B. Shephard of
\nSkowhegan, came on pleasure or business we do not know, but it seems clear that
\ntwo men who registered on July 16 were not on business bent. They were Charles
\nTheodore Russe I I, Jr. and WI II i am E. Russe II wh 0 set down the I r res f dances as
\nHarvard College, Canbridge. Vacationing also were G. E. White and mother of
\nBoston, who fl rst registered on August 17 for supper, lodgi ng and breakfast, and
\nagain on AugUST 20. On the 21st came Miss L. A. DaYls from New York City, and
\non the 25th a party of four men from Ebston. Throughout September scattered reg …
\nistratlons from Boston fi II the register.
\n3-46
\nBut altogether the out-of-state registrations are very few. The old book Is
\nfilled chiefly with persons engaged in lumbering, from the big operators to the
\nhusky men who cut the t”lmber and ran the drives down the rushing streams. The
\nvery first entry In the book Is Sam L. Whitten and two horses, Skowhegan. On
\nthat fl rst page a Iso is a record that will stl r memod es I n at least one Waterville
\nman. It reads: t’H. Whipple and one horse, Solon.” On March 13,1872 ap ..
\npea red W. B. Snow of Skowhegan with four oxen. On the same day Fa i rf I e I d made
\nIts first entry with A. Drew of Kendalls Mills. By the middle of March business
\nwas picking up. On the 16th came F. Stewart with four rnan and sewn horses; on
\nthe 18th Will iam Grant” with nine men; on the 19th O. Clark with nine men, ten
\noxen and two horses. Watervi lie appears for the fi rst tl me on Apri 14th, when
\nErnest Getche II arri ved.
\nSome of th~ old n~s are Interesting. Jackman Is always referred to as
\nJackmantown, Fairfield as Kendal Is Mills, Oakland as West” Waterville. There are
\nsewral references to “Main River”, variously spelled “Main” and “Maine”. This
\nseems to Imply that part of the Kennebec above The Forks, but I am not sure. It
\nmay have some other meaning. Coburn, Olnsmore, Square Town, Burnham Depot, Sandy
\nBay, and Cleaveland are s.ome of the res I dences gl van. Moose Ri ver Is invari ab Iy
\nspelled “Mo()S” and Pari in Pond, “Parlen”. Scores of patrons put down their address
\nSimply with the single word “Canada”.
\nThe truth is that very few people actually signed the register themselws.
\nThe proprietor or one of his employees evidently wrote In t”he names, for whole
\npages appear in the same handwriting. The spellings are at times weird. St. AIbans
\nappears as one word “Stalbons”. Belgrade Is “Bellgrad”, Watervi lie is1:’Watervil”.
\nCaratunk Is spelled at least five different ways. But always landlord
\nMurray found. some way TO des i gnate his guest – .. as when he put down “4 of Coburn’s
\nmen”, or “Cleaveland’s -teamster”.
\n3-47
\nOccasionally when a guest personally signed the register he spread him.-self.
\nOn June 8, 1814 we read: “James Welch, mas~r driver on Dean River”.
\nOn Apri I 9, 1812 Land lord Murray gave a ba II, and the attendance was du Iy
\nrecoraed. I nei denta Ily th f sis the fl rst record of women regl sterl ng at the hotel,
\nthough many came afterwards. The Ham family was very much in evlaence.
\nThere were Roscoe Ham and lady, Moses Ham and lady, Charles Ham and lady; Joseph
\nDurgin and lady came up from Bingham. There were Fords and Taylors, Halls and
\nWI “i amses, Dud leys and Thompsons, Fardys and Smiths.
\nOn Iy one coup Ie stayed overn I ght, E. Ha II and lady. We wonder how much
\nquiet sleep the good woman got that night, for lodged In the same building were
\neleven lumbermen, most of them from Canada. Nine of them are named, the others
\ndescribed simply as “two Frenchmen”.
\nIndian guests were not unknown, though seldom named. On May 22nd the regis …
\nter records E. L. Tucker and one Indian, East Branch. There are very few references
\nto children, but In July, 1812 appeared S. M. Perkins of New York with two
\nboys. What a time those Manhattan youngsters must have had on the edge of the
\nMaine wilderness 80 years ago.
\nWhen the spring drhe was underway The Forks Hotel was a busy place, but
\nthere is no evidence that the little vi II age saw the wild carousing and the ta ….
\nvish spending that made Bangor notorious. Landlord Murray ran a strictly temperance
\nhote I, but probably he had Just as hard a time as any other proprietor
\nin Maine of those days in keeping his inn free of bootleg liquor. The fact that
\nwhole faml lies, I Ike the Wymans of Malden, Mass., a father, mother and two daugh …
\nters, came In three success I ve summers proves th~t The Forks Hotel was a hi gh
\ngrade, respectable hostelry. I suspect there were many like them scattered all
\nover Maine I n those days when General Grant was Pres i dent of the Un I ted States.
\n*****
\n1.\u00b7\u00b7\u00b7::.. ,,…
\n3-48
\nAs the time nears for opening of the harness racing season In Maine, It Is
\nappropriate that we recall some of the old-time Maine racers. I suspect that few
\nof our listeners realize that Kennebec County was once the most famous breeding
\nground of race horses in the whole nation, quite as famous as the Kentucky Blue
\nGrass regi on is in our own day. Through the second and th I rd quarters of the
\n19th century the fame of Kennebec horses spread throughout the land, but It was
\nin the last quarter of the century that the county gained world-wide fame 1 when
\nthe WaTerville horse, Nelson, established the world record of 2:10 at Grand Ra …
\npi ds, M I ch i gan \u2022
\nI T was more than a hundred and forty years ago, in 1819, when the Kennebec
\nAgricu I Ttlral Society offered a I iberal premium for bringing a good stock horse
\ninto the county. The first great horse t:ehlnd the Maine breed was “Imported Mas ..
\nsenger”, who founded a race of trotters that long had no superiors. That great
\nhorse was brought from England to New York State in 1791.
\nThough “Imported Messenger” himself never saw Maine, his son “Winthrop Messenger”
\nwas brought from Oneida County, N. Y. to Winthrop by Alvin Hayward in
\n1819. That horse died at Anson In 1834, but before h is death he had bred .a line
\nof troTters that won fame throughout the nation. In 1852 Sanford Howard, a noted
\nauthori 1″y. on race horses, wrote: “Mal ne has furnished nearly all the trotting
\nstock of any note in the country.” And, in that respect, we may be sure that
\nMaine meant Kennebec County. Thompson’s History of Maine horses says: “ToWln …
\nthrop Messenger Maine is more largely indebted for the superior speed of her horses
\ntha n to any othe r source.”
\nThe first famous horse to claim WatervIlle as home was Emperor, bred by Samuel
\nPullen in 1827. Two horses, Winthrop Morri II,-\u00b7Iocally known as “Slasher”,
\nand WinThrop Boy were brought to Waterville by Asher Savage in 1862. Thomas Lang
\nstarted his famous stud farm at Vassalboro in 1859. He started with three stal …
\nlions, Genera I Knox, Bucepha I us, and Black Hawk Te legraph.
\n3-49
\nGenera I Knox was one of the most remarkab Ie horses ever owned in Kennebec
\nCoun ty . He cau sed more money for pu rchase of horses to corne Into Ma I ne from
\nother states than did any other horse. In 1871 Lang sold him for $10,000, which
\nwas a huge pri ce for any horse I n those days.
\nIt was in 1882 that Charles, better known as Hod, Nelson established Sunny …
\nside Farm. Bes ides his most famous Nelson, he owned Susie Ietely and interest-
\nI ng Iy. Although I am acquainted wi th very few i ndi vi duals named I n the col UIIlS of
\nJune 7th, I found the stories of absorbing interest. Roger Brace and Harold Todd,
\nJr. c1eserve highest praise for turning out such a fine paper.
\n*****
\nOur brief talk last week about the old race horses stirred up a lot of interest
\nand has brought in a lot of new Information, at least new tome. A man still
\nliving In Watervll Ie was one of the old time breeders and trainers of race horses.
\nHe is Mr. Thomas BurleiJgh of Roosevelt Avenue. He was the owner of a famous horse,
\nSt. Croix, the first horse to lower Nelson’s three year old record from 2:26 3\/4
\nto 2 :26*- Mr. Burletgh assures me th,a’ both Ne Ison ‘s Grand Rap ids record of 2: 10
\nand his Rigby Park record of 2:09 were made with the old high-wheel sulkies. Some
\nprofessor of physics ought to figure o,u t what Nelson could have done wfth~one of
\nthe modern, low-wheeled, pneumatic tire sulkies.
\nMrs. Burleigh has among her many keepsakes of old days In Vassalboro a most
\nInteresting newspaper account of the homecoming of that famous horse, General
\nKnox, from a tri umphant tour of the MI dd Ie West. As I to I d you last week, Genera I
\nKnox was the most famous of the three horses with which Col. Thomas Lang started
\nhis stud farm at Vassalboro in 1859.
\nIt was Just after the elvt I War in 1867 that General Knox went on his great
\nwestern tour. When the train bringing him back to Vassalboro arrived at the
\nrai I road station near Getchell’s Comer, a huge crowd was on hand to we I come the
\nhero. A school holiday had been declared. Arches had been erected and decorated,
\nand the whole length of the triumphal proceSSion from Getchell’s Corner to North
\nVassalboro was lined with carriages that had come from the whole surrounding area,
\nand ind~d from as far away as thi rty to forty mf les. The school chi Idren marched
\nall the way between the two vi II ages, as did two brass bands. Seldom did any human
\nhero from the wars receive such a mlgh1y welcome as greeted that horse on
\n3-53
\nthat day.
\nE. P. Mayo, then the editor of Turf, Farm and Hone, put into print in 1902
\nan Interesti ng story about Genera I Knox. Mr. Mayo then sal d that the most remarkab
\nIe race ever trotted over the Watervi lie track was the contest between
\nGeneral Knox and another celebrated horse, Hiram Drew. It occurred on October
\n22, 1863, when the elvi I War was at its height. Contemporary reports tell us
\nthat people aTtended from every one of Maine’s sixteen counties. It was a conventional
\nthree heats out of five battle. It looked as if the Vassalboro horse
\nwas badly beaTen when the Drew horse won the fi rst two heats. Then General Knox
\nShOtted his meTtle by winning the next two. The fi fth heat was preceded by feverish
\narguments and more feverish betting. Great was Col. lang’s pride when
\nhis famous General came hone the victor.
\nCol. Lang was a I ibera I patron of the Kennebec fai rs. In 1859 the North
\nKennebec Agri cu Itural Society, wh I ch had been incorporated in 1847 wi th headquar …
\nters at Watery) lie, passed a vote of thanks to Col. lang for his I iberality in
\nalways giving to the society all purses won by his horses.
\nI be I ieve Watervi lie’s ti rst regu latlon ova I race track was constructed at.
\nthe south end of the city in 1854. It was there for many years that the Watervi
\nlie Horse Associ at ion he Id 1 ts annua I exh I bi ti on.
\nWatervi lie was indeed quite a horse town. As late as 1900 Mr. Mayo could
\nwrl te: ”Watervi lie has for more than a century been prominent as a center for the
\nbreeding and ownership of valuable horses, and it seems appropriate that she
\nshould have within her limits today (remember this was In 1900) one whose name
\nis known not only through the length and breadth of this country but even across
\nthe sea. We refer to the veteran Nelson, now in his twentieth year, with his
\nworld’s record of 2:09.”
\n*****
\nMrs. Bickford of App leton Street has let me examine some old letters that
\nhave been in her fami Iy for many years. They are letters addressed to Seth Webb,
\n3-54
\nEsq., most of them to him at Knox, Waldo County, Maine; but a few of them carry
\nthe address Freedom, Ma I ne.
\nThe letters were all written by Samuel Webb, andhow the correspondence
\nstarted is explained in the letter of October 17, 1848. Writing from Baltimore
\nto Knox, Maine, Samuel addresses Seth in these words: “Allow me to introduce
\nmyse I f as Samus I, the sl xth of that name of the Weymouth b ranch of the Webb family.
\nI haw heard of your visit to Weymouth and regret I was nat there to
\ngreet you. My father heis often spoken of our distant relatives, the descsndarits
\nof the fi rst Samue I,. who left Weymouth for Maine. I have often resolved to
\nvisit some of you and hope stili to ~o so.”
\nSamue I asked Seth many quest Ions about the fami I y and re I ated one touch Ing
\nIncident. It seems that, when the first Webb to come to Maine left Weymouth, he
\nleft behl’nd in the care of relatives two sons, the chi Idren of his first wife. The
\n“. ::
\nnew wi fe apparently didn’t care to take them along to the Maine wi ldemess.
\nAccording to the account In Samue I ‘s fi rst letter to Seth, twenty years af-
\n“‘, “.
\nter the father~,s departure for Maine, those two sons went to Gorham .. to.see him.
\nThink of i.ltr From Gorham to Weymouth Is only a few hours’ Journey by modern
\nautomobile. But It took the Webb sons several days to make the trip, and so in ..
\nfrequent wascommun icatlon in those days that they had not seen thei r father for ,
\na II of the twenty\u00b7 yea rs \u2022 “.:,
\nNow let us have the story in the very words in which Samuel told It to Seth:
\n“As the sons approached the I r father’s res I dence in Gorham”, wrote Samue I ,. “they
\nJ .. ;i ‘,~. “,’
\n; ….. ..
\nmet with one of the I r half-brothers, told him who they were, but asked him not to
\nlet the i r father knOllr of the I r coming. The hal f-brother went on before them. It
\nwas nearlytwiJlght, and their father was standing In the door as.Samueland
\nThomas came up. .They wished to see I f their father would recognize them. They
\nspoke to him as I. f they were strangers, asked him questions about the farm and
\nthe town. He obviously had no idea who they were. Finally the half … brother could
\n3-55
\nhold In no longer, but burst out: ‘Father, don’t you know them? They are Samuel
\nand Thomas.’ ‘Oh, Samue I and Thomas’, cried the 01 d man, as he threw h Is arms
\naround them and wept I I ke a ch lid,! How the stepmother greeted the young men whom
\nshe had left behind in Weymouth 20 years before the letter does not say.
\nAlready, when he wrote Seth from Baltimore, Samuel Webb was on his way to
\nnew fields of adventure, just I ike many another New Englander In 1848 and ’49.
\nFor only four months after that first letter Samue I wrote Seth from New Orleans.
\nSamuel explains what he is doing: Ifl am on ‘rtf way to upper California over land
\nby way of the City of Mexico. As the journey Is long and dangerous, I could not
\nleave without expressing to you my heart-felt Interest in yourself and family.
\nSince I last heard from you, a son has arrived to bless us, and agreeable to universal
\nusage in our family, he too is called Samuel. This boy, who has just opened
\nhis bright eyes upon me, I leave behind with his mother. These are no small
\ntrials, but I go in the hope that I shall, in a few years, return to pass the
\nrest of rrtf days on the dea r 0 I d homes tead I n Weymouth. ”
\nWhat Samue I wrote Seth from San Franci sco, how he dl d I ndeed return to Weymouth,
\nand how after silence of eight years the correspOAdence was resumed in the
\n1860’s, we must reserve for a later broadcast. For tonight let us remember
\nmerely that these are samples of neny such letters of their days, letters that
\nshow the closeness of famt Iy ties spanning the breadth of a continent and making
\nlife richer for-the I r endurance.
\n*****
\nIt hardly seems possible that tonight completes 113 of these little talks on
\ncommon things. They have been very, very common. None of them has had any lasting
\nSignificance, yet they have all had a purpose. By this time you know pretty
\nwe II what that purpose has been — to ca II repeated attent i on to the fact that
\nwhat we ca” our Ameri can way of II fe comes out of a herl tage we must not Ignore
\n— that here In Maine, yes right here in the Kennebec Valley men and women long
\n3-56
\nago laid the foundations of integrity, kindness and sympathy; of zeal, ambition
\nand hard work; of fami Iy loyalties and religious devotion — in short, the things
\nand the only things thaT can keep America strong.
\nSo we bid you good-bye unti I September 16.
\n3-57
\nLI TILE TALKS ~ COt44ON TH I NGS
\n114th Broadcast September 16, 1951
\nIt is good to be back on the air again and greet our many friends of the
\nradio audience. Except for one quick trip to Connecticut, I haven’t been out~
\nside of Maine all summer. Although I have been at Ifff office a part of nearly
\nevery week-day, I have had a lot of leisure time and a very enjoyable July and
\nAugust. When peop Ie ask me why I d I dn It take a month’s vacation far away from
\nMaine, I think the answer of the proper Bostonian lady on Beacon HI II fits my
\ncase very well. ”Why should I travel?” she asked. “I am already here.” Yes,
\nWhy indeed should a Maine man go away from Vacationland In the summer? The time
\nfor us to take our vacations Is In the winter or spring. That’s what I did when
\nI went to Wi II iamsburg last April.
\n*****
\nWhat a lot of griping we heard all summar about our Watervi lie streets. The
\nsidewalk superintendents who were sure they could do the reconstruction faster
\nthan it was done were numerous and vociferous. But Mayor Squire and his city go-
\n. vernment gave clear and unanswerab Ie exp lanati ons of the seeming de lay. The
\n,;
\ntrouble with many of us is that we want the things we want without Inconvenience.
\nThen when once we get those things, we forget all about the inconvenience. What
\na comfort it is to ride over Charles street or Getchell Street or up North Main
\nStreet today.. Now. really, wasn It it worth wai tlng for? Some day we I II be
\nab Ie to say the same about Pleasant Street, Boul8 lie and Rooseve I t Avenues.
\n*****
\nI hope many of you had a chance to atl8nd the Lakewood lJ:teafe~ffi\u00b7i5 summer.
\nIt was one of Lakewood’s most successful seasons. Apart fran the guest stars,
\nwho a I ways add I uster to the various plays, the regu lar co~any was the best
\nsi nee the days of Arthur Byron, Thurston Ha” and Jessamine Newcomb. But I won-
\n3-58
\nder how many agree with me that, In sp i te of good act ing, the plays themse I vas,
\nby and large, aren’t so good as were the plays of twenty years ago. As drama,
\ntoday’s plays are too often frivolous and inconsequential, and sometimes outright
\nboresome. The outstanding production of this Lakewood season was “Miss
\nMabel”. It was not solely the superb acting of Li II ian Gish that delighted
\nthe huge aud ience, but qui te as much the fact that R. C. Sherrl ff had gi ven
\nMiss Gish a real drama in which to reveal her talents. The psychological prob …
\nlem posed by that play Is one that the professors of ethics can quarrel about for
\nsome time. Is intention to murder justi fied, if murder is the on Iy way to accomplish
\na known good which Is completely unselfish and can in no way benefit the
\nperpetrator? Many a person who saw that p lay at Lakewood must have asked hi,”,”
\nself, what would I have done In Miss Mabel’s place?
\n*****
\nMrs. Thomas Burleigh of Roosevelt Avenue has shown me a prized copy of the
\nWatervi lie Journal of September 23, 1834, publ ished by Mr. Burleigh’s ancestor,
\nJohn Burleigh. The Journal was one of Watervi lie’s earliest newspapers, a weekly,
\nand this particular copy Is No. 40 of Volume One. John Burleigh had evidently
\ngot enough of the newspaper game in Waterville, for he published in his paper
\nthe following announcement:
\n“Printing establishment for sale. The subscriber, wishing to close his business
\nin this vi I lage, the ensuing winter, and knowing from experience that It
\nrequl res a long time to sett Ie newsplaper bills, offers for sa Ie the prJ ntlng of ..
\nfice of th’l!s paper. Possession will be given at any time. Also for sale, the
\nhouse he occupies; it being large and near the Academy, is well sl tuated for a
\nboarding house. (Signed) John Burleigh.”
\nMrs. Burleigh has a lot of information about the old shipyard at Vassalboro.
\nThe most famous ship ever bui It there was said to be the Ocean Bi rd, a brig
\n3-59
\nlaunched In 1848. It was the only ocean ship ever to leave Vassalboro, and
\nthrongs of peop Ie congregated to see her start on her mal den voyage. She was
\nowned by John D. Lang, grandfather of Miss Sarah Lang, Watervt lie’s beloved
\nschool teacher who died only a few months ago. The ship’s master was Captain
\nGustavus Dickman. Mrs. Burleigh has a copy of the articles of agreement by
\nwh I ch the crew signed on. Pa rt of i t reads as fo I lows: “I t i sagreed between
\nthe master, seamen or mariners of the Brig Ocean Bird of Vassalboro, whereof
\nGustavus Dickman Is the present master, now bound from the Port of New York to
\nthe morih of the Zambia River In Africa, from thence on a general freighting and
\ntrading voyage of the term of six calendar months, that no sheath knives or profane
\nlanguage shall be allowed on board.”
\nFor wages the second mate got $20 a month; the seamen $.15 a month. On the
\nreturn voyage the log showed that a negro boy agreed to serve on the Ocean BI rd
\nfor one year at a month Iy wa!!J8 of 25 cents. That return cargo I nc I udad 8,000
\nbushels of peanuts, said to have been the first peanuts ever brought to the Unl …
\nted States.
\n*****
\nI recent I y encountered a curi ous Item ina copy of the Bangor News prJ nted
\nmore than fi fty years ago. Let me read you tbat I tern: “Probab Iy there Is not
\nanother case in the history of our state simi lar to one that occurred recently
\nin Bangor. There a woman married a widower with three chi Idren. The man is one
\nwho never worries over his debts; in fact he is Inclined to take his ease and
\nlet some other fellow do the rushing around. When he married the second time,
\nhe stl II owed the undertaker for his first wife’s funeral. The new wife did not
\nlike the idea of that long unpaid bill. So she found work washing clothes at
\nthe unde rtake r’ s home, unt I I she had worked off the fu II amount of the b I II. We
\nwonder If in all Maine there Is another case where a second wife paid fora
\nfl rst wi fe’s funera I.”
\n*****
\n3-60
\nThe most talked about incident of the summer did not take place in Washington
\nor Korea, In Berll n or I ran, or even I n San Francisco, but at a quiet p lacs
\non the west bank of the Hudson above New York. Lots of we II knCMn un J ve rs I ti es
\n— VI rginla and Stanford .. for instance — have the honor system, whereby students
\npledge themselves neither to give nor receive assistance in examinatloos,
\nand to report to the honor commi ttee of fe II ow students any vi 0 I at Ions .. they see.
\nViolaTions do occur .. and the student honor committees do dismiss fellow students,
\nbut The newspapers never hear of It.
\nWhether i t w~s because so many a total of ninety — were involved .. or be …
\ncause high pressure football played apart, or for some other reason, the auth …
\noritles at West Point decided to make public the violation of the cadets’ own
\nsystem of honor code. A I most at once every man on every\u00b7 Mal n Street fn Amari ca
\nfelt free to express his unlnfonned opinion. Some of the most asinine remarks
\nabout the Incident were voiced on the floors of Congress.
\nFor rmt part, I refuse to argue whether West Point should or should not have
\nan honor \u00b7system, or whaT Its penalNes should be. I want merely to set the re …
\ncord straight by pointing out a few facts. First, the honor system at West Point
\n: ‘\\.
\nis nOT something Imposed by superior authority. It exists through no order from
\nthe Pentagon .and through no choice of the commandant of the Academy and his staff.
\nIt was created by the Cadet Corps I tse If, and has been carried on wi th the full
\nconsent and enthusiastic approval of each succeeding generation of cadets. Second,
\nalthough nhiety is a large number to be Involved In the vlolatioo, let’s give
\nsome of our attention to the two thousand mdets who we re not I nvol ved. And
\nthird, there Is strong significance In the action taken unanimously by the honor
\nboard of the cadets themselves, who Insisted that they so strongly believed in
\nthe worth and efficiency of the honor system that they woul d themse Ives resign
\nfrom West Point In a body unless the violators of the code left the Academy.
\nMany people are telling us that the incident at West Point is Just a sample
\n3-61
\nof the moral break-dOltn in our whole nation, and there is much to support that
\nview. The b ri bi ng of p layers by the gangsters of the betting fraternity has
\ndone irreputable damage to intercollegiate basketball. The Kefauver Committee,
\nabout whose work I want to talk to you some night, has revealed not only the
\nsuspected I Inks between crime and government, but an unsuspected tie between
\ncrime and legitimate business.
\nIt is Indeed proper that, when we think of the West Point cadets, we remember
\nthat they attend a government school, whose conmanding offi cer Is responsible
\nto the Secretary of the Army, who in tum Is responsible to the Secretary
\nof Defense, who finally has responsibility directly to the President of the United
\nStates. It is equally proper that we consider what kind of example is set
\nthose West Po J nt cadets by the Wh I te House and the Pentagon. ‘n the Wh ite House
\nthe President directs an institution that can set the tone for the nation. Now
\nin that same Wh I te House Is MaJ. Gen. Harry Vaughan, the Pres I dent’s mi Ii tary
\naide, concerning whom there Is recorded testimony that he helped friends who
\nwanted government favors. He helped them get priority flights to Europe, per ..
\nmits to bui Id race tracks, to import molasses. He received gifts of deep freezers,
\nwhich he passed on to members of the cabinet. Only John Snyder of the
\nTreasury Department refused the Vaughan gifts.
\nOne of Gen. Vaughan’s friends was the notorious John Maragon who was convicted
\nof perjury in connection with the disclosures of Vaughan’S favors. Maragon
\nwent to jai I, but Vaughan went up the ladder from Brigadier General to
\nMaJ or Gene ra I \u2022
\nThe President’s aide on matters of appointments is one Donald Dawson. U. S.
\nNews and Wor I d Report for August 17 poi nts out that Dawson has tw ice spent rentfree
\nvacat i ons ina $30 a day Flori da hote I — a hote I that rece fved a big loan
\nfrom the reconstruction Finance Corporation.
\nEverybody wonders how Mrs. Merl Young, the White House stenographer, got her
\n3-62
\nroyal pastel mink coat, worth $9,500. They know only that while Mr. YOLWlg ostensib
\nIy bought the coat for $8,540 from a New York furrier who also borrowed
\nfrom the RFC, the price was charged to an associate who also had dealings with
\nthe RFC. But nobody wonders about General Davi d Crawford ~t the Detroi t Tank
\nArsenal, who al lowed a defense contractor to pay his Washington hotel bill and
\nhand him expensive gifts, or about General Feldman, head of the Army Quartermaster
\nCorps, who was involved with the notorious five percenter, James Hunt. No–
\nbody wonders, because Generals Crawford and Feldman are back In their old posts
\nwi th the same high rank.
\nOccasionally th Is moral de I inquencv f sso flagrant that not ewn the high ..
\nest influence can cover it up. General Bennett Myers, deputy chief of Army
\nAI r Force Procurement, was caught awarding contracts to a fl rm that he owned
\nhimself. He served a sentence for inducing a wliness to comnlt perjury, and he
\nnow faces charges of I ncome tax evas Ion.
\n~. ,:J”‘:’ .r
\nNow the point I want to make Is not the obvious one you are expecting. For
\nyou expect me to say, what can we look for In the behavior of West Point 08-
\ndats, when responsible officials In the very government that runs West Point
\nact as we have Just described? Isn’t It In the whole American air today to say,
\n“Anyth I n9 goes I f you can get away with It?”
\nNo, that is not my point at all. What I want to say Is this. I f we be …
\nIleve our nat ion Is I n danger of mora I decay, if we want to see less of trimming
\nand corruption and deceit In high places, let us thank our lucky American ,stars
\nthat we have left in th Is Ameri ca at least one p lace where a man ‘sword Is stl II
\nhis bond, where honor is placed above gain, and where violation of man’s own
\nagreed codewf II not be tolerated. More power to that great institution — the
\nU. s. Mi litary Academy at West Point!
\n, ‘j 3-63
\nLITTLE TALKS ON COMMON TH I NGS
\n115th Broadcast September 23, 1951
\nWe hear a lot of talk about InflatIon, but I find very few people who understand
\nmuch about it. I confess that I am quite Ignorant when It comes to the
\nconfusing complexities of that subject. Yet I think there are some things about
\nI t even I can understand.
\nI n the first p I ace, It doesn’t take an I nte I I ectua I gen I us to know that a
\ndollar doesn’t buy as much as It did a dozen years ago. It Is true that, In
\nmany occupations wages have a Ii ttle more than kept pace wI th the cost of living.
\nBut even In faml II es I ucky enough to get those I ncreased wages, In f I atl on has
\nbeen tearing down the family’s future securl tv. A II one has to do to understand
\nthat fact is to take a look at elderly people, especially widows,.trytng to
\nI I va on the I ncome of f I xed cap ita I. Take the case of a man who retl red In
\n1939, with a pension, social security benefits and savings to give him and his
\nwife a modest, but adequate Income for the rest of their lives. What are they
\nfaced by In 19511 Inflated prices have knocked their well laid plans Into a
\ncocked hat. They have had to gt ve up many of the comforts they had ri ghtfu Ily
\nearned. They have had to accept a drastically reduced standard of living.
\nDo you own any U. S. savi ngs bonds that you bought In 19411 I n that year
\nyou paid $75 for a bond that now, In 1951, has come due for a full $100. But the
\npurchasing power of $100 today Is only what $55 was In 1941. So In buying power
\nyour bond Is actually worth $20 less than you paid for It. This Is not an argument
\nagainst government bonds. They are stt II one of the best ways of saving
\nfor a ral ny day. My pol nt I s mere Iy that i nf latl on hurts everybody, him who
\nsaves as we II as him who must pay the groce r and the I and lord.
\nDo you have a $5,000 I I fe I nsurance pol i cy that you took out 20 years ago?
\nI f your estate had got that money In 1940, the $5,000 woul d have bought just
\n3-64
\nabout the same amount of goods as It would when you took out the polIcy. But not
\nso in 1951. That $5,000 Is worth only $2,750 In terms of 1940 buying power.
\nAnother fact that seems obvious to me Is that many people Ignore the dangers
\nof inflation because there is so much money floating around. But the simplest
\ndefinition of Inflation Is that It is too many dollars chasing too few
\ngoods. The money supply outstrips the goods available. The demand for goods
\nhard to get raises the prices. Between 1939 and today industrial production In
\nthe united states has doubled, but in the meantime the money supply has trebled.
\nHow dl d that happen? There were two major causes. The lesser of these was the
\nflood of prl vate loans made for installment credit; the greater was the borrowing
\nby the federal government to cover deficit spending. Next week I want to tell
\n.you some facts about th is government spendi ng.
\n*****
\nHave annual festivals In our local communities become, like the trolley car
\nand the “opry house” road shows, things of the past? We agree with a local c0.lumnist
\nwho some months ago lamer:lted the passing of the annual Old Home Week in
\nlocal communities.
\nIn sp i te of our des I re for constant change and our dread of repeti ti on In
\npub I Ic events, there is something to be said for traditions that I Ink the pre'”
\nsent wi th the past and pol nt toward the future. Perhaps because the tams of
\nEurope are so much older than ours, the tradition of annual festivals has a
\nstronger hold there than In America. Almost the sole survival of our important
\nlocal festivals, annually repeated, is the Mardi Gras at New Orleans.
\nBecause so many of my listeners came from Scotland or descend from Scotch
\nancestry, and because we all know these Scots are such fine citizens, want to
\nte I I you about the annua I festl va lin the Scotti sh tC*n of Peeb les, some forty
\nmi les south of Edinburgh. Peeb les is the ancestral home of the WaterY Ille-Wlnslow
\nfamily of Burgess, and it is a very ancient town. Its castle goes back to
\n3-65
\nthe 13th cen1″ury, and its present town government deri ves from a charter of King
\nJames I of Scotland, creating Peebles a Royal Burgh. It Is by no means a town
\nthat Is dead 1″oday, g loryl ng I n a lost and near ty forgotten glory. It is one of
\nthe most Important Industrial centers on the Scottish border, boasting several
\nmills where some of the finest woolen goods in the world are produced. In fact
\nthe cloth called iweed derives Its name from the river on which Peebles Is
\nsituated.
\nNOt many (l)f the old towns of England and Scotland hold annual festivals,
\njust as do many towns on the continent. Of those In Scotland none Is more famous
\nthan the Beltane Festival, held at Peebles In the month of June. It lasts
\nan entire week and Includes events of great solemnity as well as sports and hilarious
\nrecreation.
\nIt Is a glorious Old Home Week, as we II as a gay time for the local citiZens.
\nFormer Peebleans come from allover the world. This year they assembled
\nfrom the Unl1″ed States, Canacila, New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, India,
\nBurma, South Ameri ca, Egypt and the Stldan.
\nMuch at1″entlon Is given to the children. The Beltans Queen is a girl
\nchosen from what we would call the upper grades of elementary school, and her
\nmaids of honor and male courtiers are young 91 rls and boYs. After a whole week
\nof festivities the climax Is the cr(l)wning of the queen on Saturday. The costu ….
\nming is grand and decorative, with all the pomp and medieval garb of the guards
\nat London Tower or Buckingham Palace. The town provost, whom we would call the
\nmayor, and the bal I ie, who WQuld be our sheri ft, all appear in rich robes of of …
\nflce, and the burgh halberdlers, in thel r splck and span Uniforms, proudly carry
\nthei r halberds, authentic rei ics of the famous Battle (l)f Bannockburn.
\nA feature of the week Is the ceremony known as the RI ding of the Marches.
\nthis Is headed by a man elected as comet of the year. He Is usually a man In
\nthe early twenties, who comes from one of the older local families. He exercises
\n3-66
\nthe privi lege of naming a young lady as comet’s lass. She is attended by the
\nho I de rs of the same hono r for the two pre v I ous yea rs, an d his etten dants a re the
\ntwo previous comets, called respectively his right hand and his left hand supporters.
\nWith a troop of followers the cornet makes the famous Ri ding of the Marches.
\nOriginally this represented riding around the marches, that is, the boundaries
\nof the royal burgh, and it is said to represent the route once taken by a Scottish
\nqueen. In recent years the route has been changed, so that convenient roads,
\nrather than the actua I boundaries are traversed on horse back by the c0lll>any.
\nFe I iglous ceremonies, as one would expect who knOits Scotland, playa prominent
\npart In the week’s festival. In fact they begin on Sunday with a colorful
\nservice at Cross KI rk, one of the 01 dest churches In Scotl and st! II in cont in ..
\nuous use, and an appropriate sermon by its warden. On Saturday the queen is
\ncrowned on the steps of the Parish Church.
\nLet us see how the Peeb lesh ire News descri bes the scene of the crown i ng:
\n“The gaT Iy garbed court and their assembled elders are now all attention. A fanfare
\nof trumpets — the Be Itane Queen app roaches. The Cornet and his supporters
\nprovi de a mounted escort, and cheer follows cheer as the Queen’s car draws forward.
\nThe Sword-Bearer, First Courtier, and Second Courtier, with courtly mien
\ndescend the steps. The sailors come to attention and present arms. The Queen is
\naccompanied by her chief maid of honor and six bewigged and properly arrayed
\npages. Sedately they gather the Queen’s long, flowing robes, and very gracefully
\nQueen I rene occupies her throne.”
\nEveryone of his local readers knows that the reporter is writing about
\nyoung chi Idren, for the Queen herself is only 13 years old, and nany of her attendants
\nare younger. But those readers also know the reporter is not trying to
\nbe funny. He knows that the crowning of the Beltene Queen is serious business.
\nThe origin of the name Beltane we do not know, though it Is probably
\n3-67
\nassociated with sane particular spot In the vicinity where in the middle ages or
\nIn late Norman times an annua I fal r was he Id. I suppose you all know that
\nour county and state fa I rs descend from the vi II age fa irs common for centuries
\nin the British Isles. They have been Immortalized in such writings as the
\ndrama ”Ba rthol emew Fa I rtf \u2022 Somet I mes they occurred more often than once a year,
\nbut the annual fairs were more famous. They were always markets, where all
\nsorts of goods were exchanged, and quite natura Ily there came to cl uster about
\nthem the Jugglers, clowns, forttlne te Ilers, and games of chance or skill that
\nhave so persisted that, with pari-mutuel betting on the horse races, they have
\na II but submerged the ort gl na I mean I ng of the fa Irs. What a farce It is to pre …
\ntend that most of our Matne fairs promote and exalt agriculture. To be sure,
\nthey keep up a pretence of exhibits, some of them worth seeing. But almost no one
\ncares any longer who ra I ses the bl ggest sow or the best marked sheep, or even who
\nmakes the best pie.
\nIt would be an Interesting expert~ent to try one of the old-time fairs, such
\nas used to be held at North Waterford not far from my native town. Several times
\nI haw pe~led and pushed my bicycle overl[ those Waterford hills to attend that
\nfair. No horse racing, no stock cars, no.flreworks, no midway. JUst exhibits of
\nstock and produce, and the exquls1ite work of the housewives; Just a few booths
\nfor hot dogs and lemonade, a home-made Afr~can dodger, a dart game, and plenty of
\nItinerant salesmen of the novelties seen at the fairs for a century. The contests
\ntoo were decic:ledly home made — horse and oxen pull lng, foot races In the
\ndusty road, wrestling matches and weight lifting, and a tug of war. The base …
\nball game was a scrub affair, played In a nearby pasture with sawdust filled
\ngrain sacks for bases and such a mound between first and second base that the
\nfirst baseman could Just see the second baseman’s head.
\nBut what a good time everybody had at what Waterford peop Ie called thel r
\nWorld’s Fair. Nobody has a better time today, even at Skowhegan, with all the
\n3-68
\nmarva lous new entertai nment wh i ch that modern fal r provl des.
\nWell, let’s get back to that Beltane Festival. It has a long and honored
\nhistory. In 1621 King James VI, recognizing and approving grants made by his
\npredecessors to the Royal Burgh of Peebles, did grant to the burgh the right to
\nhold several fairs, the best known of which was the Beltane Fair. Hence on June
\n23 of this year at old Mercat Cross In Peebles the Town Clerk read the festival
\nproclamation, closing with these words:
\n“It is appointed by the Magistrate and Councilo.rs of this burgh that the
\nfair be held on the day of the crowning of the Beltane Queen, Saturday, 23rd
\nJune, 1951. Therefore, In our Sovereign’s name, and by authority of the magistrates
\nand councilors, I proclaim the said fair to Instantly begin and continue
\nfor 24 hours, with power and liberty to all His Majesty’s subjects to trade and
\ntraffic one with another without let or molestation, charging them not to trouble
\nor molest one another for old or new quarrels, they paying the customs, use
\nand wont. Once. Tw Ice. T hri ce \u2022 God save the Ki ng! ”
\nQuite a lot of fuss to make over an old time custan and over a lot of children!
\nWell, perhaps It is, but we rather like what the editor of the Peebleshlre
\nNews says about that: “Some folks tell us that Peebles brings its childhood Into
\ntoo much prominence. We do not agree. Not only are the chi Idran our citizens of
\ntomorrow; they deserve recogn I tl on In thel r own rl ght. It was a better man
\nthan any of us who once said, ‘A little chi Id shall lead them’.”
\n*****
\nHow much I s a b I II i on dol lars? The way Congress passes the approprl atl on
\nb I I I s nowadays, peop Ie ta I k about b I II ions as they once ta I ked about thousands.
\nLet us see for a moment I f we can visua I I ze a bill I on dollars \u2022 Now suppose a
\nperson had a bl II i on dollars I n the year that Christ was born. Then suppose that
\nperson had gone on living and was stili alive today. Now suppose also that he
\nwas a very lavish spender, disposing of a thousand dollars a day, every day of
\n3-69
\nthe year. He never added to his capital, he got no interest, he Just depleted\u00b7
\nhis fortune by a thousand dollars a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.
\nNow get this: In the year of 1951, nineteen and a half centuries after he
\nstarted his thousand dollars a day spending, our hypothetical bl II lonai re would
\nsti II have 189 years to go before he disposed of all his money. That’s right – …
\nIt wou Id take 2,740 years to get rl d of a billion dollars at the rate of a
\nthousand do liars a day.
\n3-70
\nLITTLE TALKS ON COMMON THINGS
\n116th Broadcast Septemer 30, 1951
\nYou have often heard me speak of my nat I va town of Brl dgton. We II, th I s
\nsummer It showed Its superiority over my adopted city of Waterville, and Ironically
\nenough paid tribute to this Kennebec city. Watervl lie people have missed
\nthe I r summer band concerts. It seems there were no funds to provl de such a
\nluxury. But Bridgton, with only about one-seventh of Waterville’s population,
\nconducted all summer weekly concerts by the Bridgton Convnunity Band. At one of
\nthose concerts e I gbt of the eleven se lecti ons were compos f tl ons of R. B. Ha II,
\nWatervl Ilets famous bandmaster and composer. In a little town In Cumberland
\nCounty one cou I d hear Ha II’s sp I rlted marches, but In his own cl tv’ of Watervl lie
\nthe band wassi lent.
\n*****
\nDo any of you follow one or more of the rural Maine weekly newspapers? In
\nthem you can fi nd many an amusing item. Here are a few that I recently gleaned:
\n“Grandma Wi IkfAs was being escorted home from baby-sitting by her son-inlaw
\n0ne night last week, when she heard a noise ahead of her In the driveway.
\nShe asked him what It was. He said It was nothing but a tree squeak. Grandma
\nturned on her flashlight and two tree squeaks ran grunting across the lawn. She
\nsays, since her son-In-law is a country boy, he must know what he is talking
\nabout, but them tree squeaks looked an awful lot like hedgehogs to her.”
\nClassified ad: ”We specialize in Italians and hot dogs.”
\nThe correspondent for one of the small communities to one Maine weekly
\nwrites: ”When I went for the cows Saturday night I found Old Roxie choking on
\nwhat from the looks of th i ngs I took to be an app Ie. So I rus:hed back to the
\nbarn for a piece of garden hose I keep for just such cases. I ran down the cow
\n3-71
\nrun from the barn and down the lane to where Old Roxie stood. Major, our coil ie
\ndog, was right with-me~ Just as I was going to prod the piece of hose down
\nRoxie’s throat to push the apple down, I fell over the old dog. It tickled Old
\nRoxi e so she coughed up the app Ie \u2022 ”
\nThe same correspondent also writes: “By way of the grapevine I hear that
\nthe culprits who scattered nails on the road up this way were caught. One of
\nthem got the seat of h t s pants warm Iy tanned.”
\n*****
\nOur hopes that Congress wou I d reduce the app rop ri at i onsfor waste fu I gove rnment
\nspending have not been realized. The same old pork barrel legislation went
\non all sumner. Senator Douglas, Senator George and a few others tried vallantly
\nto stem the t I de, but to no a va I I \u2022
\nNow the point about this reckless government spending that we can’t seem
\nto get through our heads is that it Is our money the spendthrifts are throwing
\naround. This spending is a hidden drain on every fami Iy pocket-book.
\nBut there Is another point equally important. In time of national emergency,
\nwhen the very safety of our nati on I s at stake, unnecessary spending by government
\nagencies is a veritable fifth column working from within to do the very
\nthing Stalin most wants to see done — break the back of the American economic
\nsystem.
\nNot one American in a hundred realizes that tax collections In 1949 — before
\nKorea — exceeded the highest peak of tax collections during World War II.
\nThe war peak In taxes was reached in 1945, when ta~s totalled $52,500,000,000.
\nIn 1949 the take was 55 b I II ion do II ars, and the Korean campat gn had not yet
\nstarted.
\nNow just think that over. In 1949 you and’ were contributing to federal,
\nstate and local governments more money than we did when our country was fighting
\na global war with 11,000,000 men under arms.
\n3-72
\nLast year In addition to income taxes the average fami Iy paid $700 In other
\ntaxes, most of .them hi dden and I ndl rect.
\nTwenty years ago the spending of our federal government amounted to less
\nthan two-th I rds of the I ncome of the res I dents of Ca II forn fa. In 1949 that spend
\nI ng was equa I to the ent ire I ncome of a I I the states west of the Mi ss i ss I pp i \u2022
\nYou have heard me complain before on this program about the huge number of
\n. government employees. To say there are more than two million of them doesn’t
\nmean much. So let’s put it in a more concrete picture. Those employees, whose
\nsa I ar i es you and I pay, occupy floor space equa I to 170 Emp i re State Bu i I dings,
\neach 102 stories high.
\nIt is an old saying that what we don’t know won’t hurt us, but in this matter
\nof taxes what we don’t know does hurt us a lot. It Is not the state sa les
\ntax, that we hear so much griping about, which really hurts. That is a visible,
\nunderstandable tax, whether we approve of it or not. But it is the hidden taxes
\nthat pile up all along the way from the raw material, through manufacturing pro …
\ncesses, on the transportation and distribution of articles, right down to the
\nfinished product on the retai ler’s shelves.
\nHere are a few facts you will find hard to believe, but The National Tax
\nFoundation, which keeps up a constant study of taxes, assures me they are true.
\nThere are more than 100 taxes on a dozen eggs sol d In a ci ty; there are 116
\ntaxes on a man’s suit of clothes; but as usual the woman beats the man, because
\nthere are 150 different taxes on a woman’s hat.
\nThe 56 billion dollar appropriation for the armed services will bear some
\nscrutiny, because those biggest of all our spenders, the procurement divisions
\nof Army, Navy and Air Force are no models of frugality. Yet few of us will
\nquarrel with the fundamental prinCiple that we must expect to spend a lot of
\nmoney for national defense. The taxpayer, on the other hand, has every right to
\nask: “Is the money being spent as efficiently as possible?”
\n3-73
\nNost government agencies are monopolies. ‘They have no cofl1)etitlon and thus
\nno fear of 1051 ng money or of gol ng out of bus I ness. The resu It Is almost unbel
\nievable inefficiency. For instance, while private Insurance com;>anles handle
\n1,762 policies per man year, the Insurance Service of the Veterans Admin istratlon
\nis on Iy 25% as efficient as the prl vate compan les, hand I ing on Iy 450 pol i cles per
\nman year. Patients having tonsils removed In ci vii ian hospitals stay an average
\nof one and one-ha I f days. I n the Army and Navy hosp I ta Is the average stay Is 16
\ndays. Does it make sense to an ordinary business man that the Army should take
\n288 separate steps to process a simp Ie order for buying onions, putting that
\norder through 18 subdl vis Ions and havl ng I t handled by messengers 110 times?
\nEvery business and professional person knows the importance of records. Of
\ncourse the government must keep records. But what can we say of a record system
\nso great and so comp Ii cated that more than one government agency has not on Iy ad …
\nml tted, but has rl ghteous Iy avowed, that it Is eas ier for them to start an Investigation
\nallover again than it is to find the papers on the same subject once
\nInvestigated and completed? Yet, what can we expect when the government uses
\n18,500,000 cubic feet c:I storage space for records which, according to fl ling experts,
\nare nearly half of them completely worthless? Those dead records occupy
\nthe equivalent of six Pentagon Buildings, and the Pentagon Is the largest office
\nbuilding In the world.
\nThe simple fact is that government spending today Is so big we must all pay
\nthe bi II. It Is our money they are spending, not somebody else’s. No one Is
\ngetting a free ride. When wi II the American people rwally wake up to what is
\nhappening?
\n*****
\nThe footba II season has now begun, and we are remi nded of intercollegiate
\nfootball in Maine, as reported in the. newspapers of half a century ago. At that
\ntime each Maine college played two games with each of the ather three colleges,
\n3-74
\nfill ing out the season with games against the preparatory schools.
\nIn 1896 the Colby schedule carried ten games. Besides the six with Bates,
\nBowdoin and Maine, Colby played Andover, Exeter, Berwick Academy and a university
\nthat has since abandoned football, M. I. T. That ten game schedule began
\non September 30 and closed on November 18. Only three games were played on
\nSaturdays; seven were played on Wednesdays. Two games were played In the second
\nweek in October; two I n the last week of that month. On October 7 Colby played
\nM. I. T.; then th ree days ,I ater, on Octobe r 10, went up aga I nst Ma I ne. On Octo-ber
\n28 the team met Exeter; then on Iy three days later on the 31st took on
\nMaine for the second time.
\nSometi mes the games were not so long as they are now, but without the forward
\npass and the open field plays, the bodi Iy contact was terrific. The old
\nflying wedge, which was sti II in existance in my high school days, was a human
\nbattering ram that gave both offense and defense a lot of punishment.
\nThe game with M. I. T. In 1696 consisted of only 30 minutes of playing time,
\ntwo 15 minute halves. Colby won 4 to 0, which was the score of one touchdown,
\nmade by Colby’s right halfback Gibbons.
\nColby was dol ng we II that year, for on Iy three days after the M. I. T. game,
\nher eleven beat Mal ne 10 to o. But the team struck troub Ie when they met Bowdoln.
\nThe Brunswick boys were victorious 12 to O. The Watervi lie Mall sai d of
\nthe contest: “Colby was fal rly beaten. Her men were outplayed at every point
\nby the Bowdoin footballists. Colby’s line was easy for the Brunswick boys, who
\nalso made long gains around the ends. Colby’s interference was pretty rocky. It
\nwould be unwise, however, for Colby to lose heart over the defeat. let It be
\nthe first and last of the season. There is stuff In the Colby eleven to beat
\nBowdoin yet. When the Bowdoin team comes here next month, she should be paid in
\nhe r own co in. ”
\nSo the Colby crowd waited eagerly for November 11, whIch was then, of
\n3-75
\ncourse, Just an ordinary day, not Armistice Day. t’eanwhl Ie something went wrong
\nafter the Bowdoin game so tllat the Colby coach resigned in a huff. So Marshall
\nof Dartmouth departed and Hopkins of Brown took his place. In those days athletlcs
\nwere distinctly student activities; the college administration did not
\nemp loy the coaches; they were hi red and pai d enti re Iy by the Ath letic Associ ation.
\nThat policy explains the following report In . The Waterville Mail of O~:,
\ntober 29, 1896:
\n“At a meeting of students yesterday afternoon iT was decided to engage W. B.
\nHopkins of Brown to coach the football team for the remainder of the season.”
\nApparently Hopkins put new life Into the team. On October 31, when he had
\nbeen on the campus only two days, they defeated Maine 4 to O. Then on November
\nI’
\n4 they beat Bates 8 to o. So on November 11, when the Brunswl ck hosts invaded
\nWatervi lie, the Co Iby team was at the peak of form. To the amazement of Impar’;’
\nti al spectators they he Id the much superior Bowdoin team to a tie score of 6 to
\n6. It was not an official victory, but It was a mora lone.
\n*****
\nIs college football better or worse than it was tn 1896? There are argu …
\nments on bothsldes of that question. In these days when the sport has become
\nso highly commercialized, there is something to be said for the old days.when
\nthe game belonged to the boys.
\n*****
\nTo remi nd us of how some of ollr common th Ings were greeted by our grandfathers,
\nwhen those th I ngs were new, let me read you a brief statement in the
\nMa i ne Farmer’s A Imanac for the year 1878:
\n”Wi II wonders never cease? We have regarded the electric te legraph as the
\ngreatest wonder of our age, but now comes a greater wonder yet – the telephone.
\nNot ma\u00b7n;r Signals, but the very sounds of the human voice, are reproduced so that
\nwe have the curious phenomenon of two persons sl tuated at a distance of many
\n3-76
\nmiles from each other carryl ng on a conwrsati on and recogn I z tng each other’s
\nvoices as well as If they were In the same room. During the first pub’ Ic exhl …
\nbltlon of the Instrument, a ballad sung by a young lady del ighted an audience
\nsix miles away.”
\nWhat would that young lady of 1878, to say nothing of the Almanac writer,
\nthink If they could see television today?
\nNext week , have a rea’ treat for you. I want to ta’ I you then about the
\ndiary of a Forty-NI ner, the fl rst-hand record of a Maine man who went to Ca 11-
\nfomla in search of gold. And with that promise, I bid you good night.
\n3-77
\nLI n LE TALKS ON COMK>N TH I NGS
\n117th Broadcast October 7. 195.1
\nGovernment spending, which I talked about last week, is really getting
\npretTy bad, when one of the outstanding leaders of the administration for\u00b7ces in
\nthe Senate demands a halt. That Senator is the veteran Tom Connally of Texas,
\ncha i roon of the Senate Commi ttee on Fore I go Re I at Ions. He says the recent I y
\npassed Foreign Aid Bill ought to have been cut by at least a bIllion dollars.
\nLogically and wisely Connally contends that we cannot abandon foreign aid altogeTher,
\nfor it is only a form of insurance for our own defense against the
\nSoviet menace. But with equal logic the senator shows hOil much of the socalled
\neconomic aid has been wasted and how some of it has actually been chan.”.
\nneled to help Russia. Mind you this is not the opposition party – … men like
\nBrewSTer and Wherry and Bridges — speaking, but that hardened old war horse of
\nthe party in power, Tom Conna Ily of Texas. Perhaps he can at last beat some
\nsense into the free-spende rs in the executi ve departments.
\n*****
\nIt is a thri Iling experience to read the original, hand-written diary of a
\nForty-Niner, one who took the long over-land journey across the continent a hundred
\nyears ago to the gold fields of Cal itornia. It is even more thri II Ing to
\nknow that the diary was written by a man who later became one of Waterv! lie’s most
\nprominent lawyers and most loyal citizens. Through the courtesy of Mr. Walter
\nHeath” it has been my unusua I p r I v i I ege to read the da i I Y record kept by his
\ngreaT-grandfather, Solyman Heath. Walter’s descent from Solyman comes through
\nSolyman’s son Francis, a Colonel in the Civi I War, and whom some of our oldest
\nresidents remember driving dally to his mill at Benton, accompanied by his two
\nbeaUTiful dogs. His son, Edward, Walter’s father, carried on the Benton business
\nfor many years.
\n3-78
\nSolyman did not live In Watervi lie when he followed the lure of gold to
\nCalifornia. He was then a resident of Bel fast. He had been born at ClaremonT,
\nN. H. in 1804 and, after graduating from Dartmouth College, entered the profession
\nof law. He was already 45 years old when he started to cross the continent,
\nthe father\u00b7 of several children, some of them already in their teens.
\nFor some reason Solyman Heath decided to take his son Wi Illam with him on
\nthe long journey. What an experience for a 15 year old boy! That boy, though
\ndestined to die a hero’s death at an early age on the field of battle, did survive
\nthe rIgors of that terrIble trip across plains and mountains, worked a
\nwhile In a San Francisco store, then sl ipped off to China, from which distanT
\nland the anxious father soon had him returned by the intercession of the U. S.
\ngovernment.
\nWhen The fami Iy came to Watervl lie in 1951 — Solyman having meantime returned
\nto Belfast via the Isthmus of Fa nama — William went to Colby College and
\nwas graduated I n the famous c I ass of 1855 I a c I ass that lost th ree men on the
\nbattle fie I d and that boasted such prominenT fi gures as Reuben Foster, Water …..
\nvi lie attorney who served both as Speaker of the House and Pres i dent of the
\nSenate in the Maine Legislature; 01 iver Gray who served with distinction as a
\ncolone I In The Confederate Army and I ater founded Arkansas’ fl rst school for the
\nblind; John lamb, professor of Mathematics at Bates College; Joseph Pettengi II,
\njudge of the Kansas Supreme Court; and Larki n Dunton, renowned head of the Boston
\nNorma I Schoo I for 30 years.
\nWi \/liam Heath, like his father, became a lawyer and practiced in Minneapolis
\nfrom 1856 to 1858, served as U. S. Consul at M:>ntreal the next year, then
\nset up his law practice in Rockland. That practice was Interrupted by the Ci vi I
\nWar. Company H of the 3rd Maine Volunteers was recruited In Waterville, with
\nWilliam Heath as its captain and his brother Francis as its first lieutenant.
\nBoth brothers rose rapidly in the service, William becoming Lt. Col. of the 5Th
\n3-79
\nMaine. He was killed In action, gallantly leading his men, at the battle of
\nGaines’ Hi II, Virginia in June, 1862. “After the war the Waterv’ lie Post of GAR
\nwas named the WI II jam 5. Heath Post in his honor.
\nNow let us geT Wi Illam and his father started on thei r toilsome Journey to
\nthe gol d fie Ids. The diary i tse I f does not begl n unT i I 50 lyman Is beyond the
\nMississippi. But on the first Inside page of the liTTle book is the following
\nundated passage:
\n“I n Ba Itlmore stopped at U. S. Hote I, where found a we II-kept house wi th
\npol ite and attentive servants. At Harper’s Ferry, where darkies cut antics,
\nplayed on cymbals and shouted lusti Iy, all because an opposition eating house
\nhad been established at half prices. At Cumberland nothing very striking but a
\nwant of accomodations in Two stages. Agents of the di He rent stage I ines to
\nPittsburgh vied for passengers, which is exceedingly foolish inasmuch as both
\nI I nes are actua II y one and the same th I ng. The trave Ie r does not II ke to be
\ntreated ike a dog or a villain. Over the Allegheny Mts. we were transported at
\na rapid rate. The road is In tolerable order, but since the nation has given up
\nthe charge of it, i-t Is not much cared for.”
\nThen appear Three single line items, reading:
\n“14th left Baltimore for Cumberland.
\n“15th reached Pi ttsburgh.
\n“16th -to Whee ling.”
\nThen fol lows s t lence unti I the dai Iy Journal begins on May 5, 1849. The
\nfirst entry reads: “Arrived at Waynes Landing, Independence. Overflowing with
\npeople, our company stored away in the attic with thirty others. We found our
\nbedding and lodged on the floor.”
\nFrom the forego i ng items it is not hard to work out 50 I yman Heath I s route
\nto the poi nt where The Journa I begi ns. There is some evl dance, from other
\nsources, that he sa i led from Be I fast to Boston, from whence he took one of the
\n3-80
\nregular packet boats to Baltimore. The 14th, the date he records as leaving
\nBaltimore, must have been ~he 14th of April, for the Intervening time Is about
\nright to bring him to Independence on May 5th.
\nFrom Baltimore, as his brief pre-Journal passage makes clear, he went by
\nstage coach intervals to Wheeling in what Is nat West Virginia, passing over
\nthe Alleghenies to Pittsburgh on the way. At Wheeling he mUst have taken a boat
\ndown the Ohio River and ~hen a short distance down the Mississippi to St. louis.
\nThere he would take one of the many boats going up the Missouri to Independence
\n(President Truman’s home ~own), not far from Kansas City a~ ~he western extremity
\nof the state.
\nThe route taken by Hea~h ‘s party — he had evl dently Joined a bi g wagon
\ntrain of emigrants at Independence — was by no means through unexplored country.
\nI t was a we II-marked and we I I-known tra I I th rough the South Pass of the
\nRocky Mauntal ns. It struck out from I ndependence across northeast Kansas,
\ncrossing the Kansas River, the Big Vermillion, and the Big Blue before going into
\nwhat Is now Nebraska. Then the route followed the valley of the’Platte River
\nnorthw.est to Fort Kearney, now the cl ty of Kearney, Nebraska.
\nWhere the north and south forks of the Pj.atte unite to form the main rIver,
\nthe trail crossed the sou~h fork and continued west along the bank of the north
\nfork. It crossed the Nebraska-Wfomlng border near Scott’s Bluff, where Is now
\nthe famous Scotts Bluff Na~ional Monument. From there it went on to one of the
\nmost famous trading and cavalry posts in the whole western country, Fort laramie,
\nwhich readers of Parkman’s Oregon Trail wi II remember as one of the most vivid
\nof the many frontier scenes depicted by that gifted New England writer. In western
\nWyoming, near the Utah border, is the South Pass, the discovery of which In
\n1836 had enabled the first reasonably safe crossing of the Rockies by wagons.
\nPass J ng just north of GreaT Salt ‘lake, the route runs down a fork of the Humboldt
\nRiver in Nevada, across the desert In the northwest part of that region,
\n3-81
\nalong the rim of the great Carson Sink, and onto the Carson River 9Ft the NevadaCa
\nI I forni a border. Then comes the last c limb across Call foml a mountains to the
\npo I nt where the wate rs run I nto the Pac I f I c. The re I t was on I y a few days’
\nJourney to what men called “the diggins”, the rich new gold fields east of Sacramento.
\nHealth left Independence on May 5; it was October 13 when he reached the
\ngold fields. A Journey that a person In an automobile can now make in three days
\nand that an airplane can cover In five hours had taken Heath’s par-tyflve months
\nand o.i ne:days, nearly ha I f a year.
\nIt was a Journey where death constantly stalked thetraLI. I n fact the
\nmost corrmon words in Solyman Keath’s carefu Ily kept Journal are the words dted
\nand dead and death. As every reader of western literature knows, there were the
\ndangers of Indian raids, of the loss of food and eqUipment when crossing the
\nhundreds of streams, of maddening thirst In the desert, of failing into mountain
\nchasms or being crushed by giant s I I des of snow and rock. But the enemy that
\nc I a imad most Ii ves, as the wagons made thei r tedious way westward, was not the
\nI nd I an, was not hunger nor th I rst. I t was an enemy se Idom ment loned In the
\nsTories of the pral rie schooner days. It was the dread cholera.
\nHeath’s party was only nine days out of Independence when cholera struck
\nthem. Heath writes: “Bob, our only teamster who had been through before to California,
\ndied today of cholera. Sick only a few hours.” The next day he re ..
\n-,’
\ncords: “Passed a new grave of some emigrant, then two dead bodies left unburied,
\nwith a feather bed ripped open and feathers scattered all aroll1d.”
\nOn the 18th they left two of their number behind with one team’s crew to
\ncare for them. The next day Heath wrote: “The team left behind yesterday with
\ntwo sick men came in at ten 0′ clock at night with the report that both men had
\ndied and were immediately burled. Five of our company are already dead, and we
\nhave come less than 50 m lies from Independence. Yet it has not had a parti c Ie
\n3-82
\nof Influence on the great body of the camp. No one thinks of turning back.”
\nOn May 20th Heath makes It cl ear that the ravages of the dread dl sease did
\naffect some of the parties. He wrote: ”While we were at tea, a six-ox team
\nwith a fami Iy drove up from the Kansas Ri ver, bound for the States. They had
\ngone 15 mi I es beyond the Kansas, bound for Ca II fom I a, but the man and leader
\nhad died of cholera, and the wi fe deci ded to return.”
\nHeath says that the extreme ravages of the disease were attributed to the
\nalmost consTant rain. They had no completely fair day for weeks on end, and
\nstreams were frequent Iy so swo lien they had to waf t severa I days before they
\ncou I d cross.
\nOn May 25th they encountered another returning party, this time a train of’
\nthree teams, Flot Just a single famll’y. They had turned back because the leader
\nhad died of cholera. After that the returning teams became almost a dally occurrence
\nunTil they reached Fort Laramie, many days’ Journey from Independence.
\nOn the 27th he recorded: “~ath a II around us. I n the Kentucky tra in a few rods
\nsouth of ours and in another camp a few rods east, death entered and took from
\neach a viCTim. They were buried this morning without coffins. They were sick
\nonly a few hours, and without preparation were launched into eternity. With what
\nfeelings they left I am not infonned, but these things seem to have little Inf
\nI uence on The I i vi ng.”
\nOn the last day of May, Heath’s train suffered its seventh death from cholera,
\nand on the next day Heath’s own teamster succumbed to the disease. HeaTh
\nends his day’s acCX)unt with his oft repeated mournful line: “Slow progress because
\nso weT. If
\nOn June 4 came a cheeri ng remi nder of home, for they were vis I ted by a man
\nfrom a neighboring camp who, It turned out, was born in Belfast. But he brought
\nno cheerful news. He said that one of his company had been stricken with cholera,
\nand They were so short-handed they had to leave h 1m by the sl de of the
\n3-83
\nroad. The man had suffl cient strength to craw I two mi les to a creek.
\nof emigrants passed, but refused to take him along. After two days,
\ncompany did pick him up, but he died that night.
\nTwo trains
\na th i rd
\nHeath’s own “train seemed to have a high regard for a man whom he calls simply
\nMr. Smith. He is, In fact, the only man in the whole journal to whom Solyman
\n91 ves the ti t Ie of Ml ste r. He was, says So lyman, a Presbyteri an and a Mason.
\nSo, when cholera claimed Smith as the train’s tenth victim, Heath was able to
\nwrite: “Mr. Smith was one of very few men who were buried In a coffin. The
\nbreak-down of a wagon furnished the wood. He was given full Masonic burial.”
\nAnd at that Mason i c funera I we leave Sol yman Heath ton I ght. Next week we
\nshall follow him further on his westward way.
\n3-84
\nLITTLE TALKS ON COMMON THINGS
\n118th Broadcast October 14 .. 1951
\nI have no doubt you are getting tired of my harping on government spending,
\nbut It Is a subject that won’t bear letting up. It behooves every one of us to
\nkeep I n formed of the as to und i ng facts.
\nEveryone of us wants to see the nation strongly and securely defended, and
\nwe are willing to pay a high price for that security. But is there no limit to
\nwhat we can or ought reasonab Iy to do? The cost of 9i rdi ng our nation for possible
\nwar is already going sky high. Four years of peace may be almost as expensive
\nas was the whole cost of World War II. In fiscal year 1950 we spent
\nnearly 23 bi 1 lions for defensej in 1951 it mounted to 61 bi II Ions; in fiscal 1952
\na I ready author! zed are 108 b I I lions, and the end is not yet Ins i ght.
\nNow the least we can ask of such huge spendi ng is that it get one hundred
\ncents worth for every dollar. And the way the money is thrown around — at
\nthe Li mestone Ai r Base, for Instance, to take on Iy one case near home — It is
\nat least a fai r question whether a lot of it isn It wasted. And how about that
\nhuge ci vi I i an personna I I n the Pentagon? For everyone of them that rep I aces a
\nuniformed soldier we have only praise, but any visitor to the great five-sided
\nbui Iding can see a lot of idle sitting around. As one Congressman said the
\nothe r day, the bus i es t p I aces i n the Pentagon are the coffee counte rs.. at any
\nhour of the day.
\nWe are to I d that, even if we keep out of war .. we must expect to spend
\ntwenty per cent of the nat” i ona I income for de fense. That means that eve ry worker
\nin Ameri ca must work one day in every fi ve for the mil i tary p rotecti on of the nation.
\nSurely that is not t”oo high a price to pay to save our country, but it is
\ntoo high a price if waste and Inefficiency is the method, for that way the country
\ncan not be saved.
\n3-85
\n*****
\nLast week we left Solyman Heath on the pral rles attending a Mason I c funera I.
\nBy that time some of the company were getting enough. On June 8th Solyman wrote
\nin his Journal: “One of our teamsters has been discharged for fomenting discontent.
\nThere has been a lot of growling, but I think very few are sympathetic
\nwith It.”
\nSolyman himself was getting somewhat calloused by the experience, though he
\nwas sometimes so sick — but not with cholera — that he could not wrIte in the
\nJournal for several days and had to cover the elapsed time in one day’s account.
\nYet f tis wi th a touch of unca I loused sy~athy that he records the e lewnth
\ndeath. tIft took”, he writes, “a young lady only 18 years old, married Just before
\nwe left Independence. was present at the wedding and recall with what
\neagerness she looked forward to gohlen California.” But on the same day he
\ntells us that he passed a tent, where four men with spades waited for a sick man
\nto die, that they might bury him. “Such”, says Solyman, “Is the estimate of
\nI I fe on the p I a I ns. ” Then he adds, w f thout apparent emot I on, ”The sick man was
\nnamed Harlow from Belgrade, Meine.”
\nThe re seemed to be no end to the p I ague. On June 24, when they had\u00b7 been on
\nthe westward trek for 49 days, it sti II\u00b7 stalked their camp. On that day Heath
\nwrote: ”We have just passed eleven graves, all occasioned by cholera. We had
\nsupposed we had passed beyond Its ravages, especially since we have had drier
\nweather, but we are horribly mistaken.” On that night they made near famous
\nChimney Rock their fortieth ca~ since leaving Independence. Forty camps in 49
\ndays shows that they had indeed had to rema in I n some of the camps more than one
\nday.
\nYet they had now seen the worst of the disease. Only an occasional mention
\nof it from here to the end of the Journey, and no more deaths among thel r own
\ncompany.
\n***** 3-86
\nAll of Heath’s Journal is by no means so grim and ghoulish as the passages
\nhave Just been talking about. At the risk of making the whole program morbid
\nand doleful I have carried you through Solyman Heath’s experience with cholera
\nbecause that is’ the only way I thiFlk you can get the picture of hOff It haunted
\nthe emi grants’ steps day after wearl some day.
\nBut now let us take a look at some of So lyman’s more cheerfu I passages. He
\nnever got over his wonder at the vast expanse of the prairie, the beauty of
\nthe colored cliffs, the seeming closeness of the starry sky at night.
\nOn May 26 he wrote: “Ever since leaving the creek, we have been on high
\nroiling pra i ries. From some of the hi ghest e levatl ons the view has liIeen en …
\nchanting. A Maine farmer placed here could ask for nothing tetter.”
\nOn June 5th he set down th I s account: ”Have seen many ante lope and some
\nelk. Wonderful country, but no inhabitants. Not a Single wigwam In sight. Desolation
\nreigns on one of the fairest regions on the face of the earth. Yet In
\nthe past few days we have traversed enough of ri ch soi I to furnish bread for the
\nwhole world. When shall this land be settled? That Is an Interesting question .. ”
\nOn June 11th he wrote: “Country covered wi th beautl fu I cactus. What a
\nmagn I fl cent plant!”
\nOn June 24th they ca””ed near the famous Chimney Rock. “At our distance”,
\nwrote Solyman, “it truly resembled a giant chimney shooting 300 feet into the
\nair. It Is of sandstone and has a large crack, Indicating that this remarkable
\nobject of the plains wi II disappear in a few years.” We II, solyman, a hundred
\nyears have gone by sl nce you looked on Ch I rnney Rock, and I t is stl II there.
\nOn the 25th our diarist was given to a bit of rei igious reflection. “Today
\nwe got our first f~r glimpse of the Rocky Mountains”, he writes. “How far away
\nwe do not know. Distances are deceptive on the plains. A bluff that appears to
\nbe not more than a mi Ie away may be six or eight miles. To a rei igious mind the
\nprairie views afford the very highest themes for reflection. Whether one gazes
\n3-87
\nupon the unbroken, treeless prairie, or turns upon these gigantic, broken,
\nstorm-beaten cliffs, one Is led Immediately to the contemplation of the Divine,
\nand feels his own weakness and littleness amidst this wonderful display of
\nomnipotence. Yet how few who have beheld this have given a thought to the AIml
\nghty Arch I tect.”
\nOf the Black Hills $olyman writes: ”These hills present a beautiful, deep
\ncolor, such as I have never seen before, and the shapes are conti nuous Iy changIng
\nlike the figures of a kaleidoscope.” Two days later he tells us: “We have
\nbeen proceeding over a region which had evidently been swept by the ocean. The
\nregion is terribly dry. The greatest droughts we ever have In Maine are pleasant
\nShowers co~ared to the burning on the Upper Platte. The moisture has evaporated
\nfrom my skin, rrrf face and hands are cracked, and It seems as though’ would dry
\nup. Yet I con fess I tis a reg Ion of magn I f i cent beauty. ”
\nOn Jlllly 17 he says: “We are in sight of the Wind River Mbuntains, a magnlflee.
\nnt outline spotted allover with snow. We b,egin to take courage, In the
\nprospect of soon reach Ing waters that run the other way.”
\nThe hot sp rings 0 f Wyomi I’Ig we re anothe r nove I expe ri enea \u2022 ”We came”, he
\n. says, “to some hot spri ngs covering a quarter acre. The water bubb led up fran a
\nmarshy place. In some spots It was much hotter than in others. We parboiled
\nbeans there for supper. I washed my hands and face .11’1 one of the springs, but
\nwi th some dl fficulty because the water was so hot. less than a hundred yards
\ndistant was a spring of the clearest, coldest water, wonderful to drink. Within
\nsuch proximity are heat and cold, even at the surface of the earth.”
\nThe next day $olyman found at the base of a mountain a I arge stream of hot
\nwater, in which he took what he termed “a delicious waSh, the temperature being
\nabout that of high-toned dish wate r.” Then he adds, “last 1’1 f ght at our ca”1l
\nwater froze an Inch thick.” That was on August 18th. They were Indeed high up
\nin the Rockies.
\n3-88
\nMany persons have an entirely wrong picture of these journeys across the
\ncont-inent in the prairie schooner days. They think of a fam; Iy starting out
\nalone with wa~on and oxan, or perhaps horses, and making their lonely hazardous
\nway across the plains and the mountains. The truth Is that the journey, though
\nhazardous, was anything but lonely. The emigrant had plenty of company. By the
\ntime that Solyman Heath reached Independence in May, 1849 emigrant trains were
\nleaving the Missouri town every two or three days. A train might be composed of
\nas many as fifty wagpns, though thirty was a more usual number. Often the persons
\nI n one of the trai ns numbered 200, and there were trat ns that had doub Ie
\nthat number. There were whole faml lies — men, women and chi I dren. There were
\nsingle, unattached males. There were the professional teamsters, and In some
\ncases even slaves. Solyman Heath found plenty of other people to talk with all
\nthe way to California.
\nTravel In those bands or trains was necessary, not only as protection against
\nhosti Ie Indians, but to insure safety for those whose wagons broke down or whose
\ndraft ani rna I s di ed or strayed away. Then it was very important to have someone
\nalong who, If not a regular doctor, at least knew something about the care of the
\nsick.
\nSolyman Heath’s journal gives us striking information about the numbers of
\npeople who were lured to Call fornia by the discovery of gold at Sutter’s Mill.
\nOn June 5, SOlyman set down this record: “Met three teams returning. Said they
\nhad lost most of their oxen by stampede and had to turn back. They told us that
\nthere are more than 5,000 wagons ahead of us, that 4,000 had passed Fort Kearney
\nin the last month.”
\nWhen, on the national holiday of July 4, they crossed the south fork of the
\nPlatte, Solyman wrote: “We were determined to get ahead of the mass waitl ng at
\nthe upper crossing. There are said to be over 2,000 wagons waiting there to get
\n3-89
\nacross. So we took the lighter passenger wagons across on a ferry farther down
\nstream, and the baggage wagons managed to get across with great difficulty some
\ndistance above, but not so far as the upper crossing where the congestion existed.”
\nCross I ng the Platte was a major event of the tri p and dese rvi ng of recogn.tion
\non the holiday. So Heath tells: “It being the Fourth of July, a dozen of
\nour passengers ce lebrated, after the cross I ng, with a large a Ilowanceof whiskey,
\nbrandy, songs and wit, which latter grew keen as the bottle went around. A due
\nquan-tlty of powder was exploded, with the usual noise that characterizes the
\nhoi i day in the States.”
\nIn a group of people, living closely together under such trying circumstances
\nfor several months, peace and harmony did not always reign. You will
\nreca I I that they had to di scharge a teamster because he was foment.og dl scontent.
\nIt was only three days after that Fourth of July crossing of the Platte that
\nsome-thlng really exciting occurred. Solyman thought It worth a detailed account
\nin his precious Journa I. ”We came near”, he te lis us, “havi ng a dl:l8l In caq> between
\nan Englishman and a Frenchman. The former called the latter an S .O.B.,
\nand -the Frenchman demanded satisfaction. They had no seconds, but went out some
\n30 rods, armed with pistols. Naturally most of the ca~ followed along. After
\ngetting on the ground, the Englishman recanted his charge, and they walked back
\nagain, as whole as they went out, to the great amusement of the passengers.
\nWhen they got back the Eng II shman sa i d: ‘Gent I emen, I do not th Ink Mr. LaMa 1-
\npheu is an S.O.B.; I think he is a pretty good bas.’ Thus the matter ended, with
\nthe parties good friends.” Evidently that word beginning “bas” was no insult at
\na II.
\nHowever plentiful the co~any and however exciting the Journey, Solyman
\nwould\u00b7 have been less than human had he nat suffered occasional pangs of homesickness.
\nYet he entll’Q’Sts such fee I I ngs to the Journa I on Iy after he has been
\ntwo fu II months out of Independence, and more than th ree months from home. On
\n3-90
\nJuly 5 he wrote: “last night I lay In the light of soft. mellow moon, thinking
\nof home, wi fe and chi Idran. These thoughts cheer rather than depress me.
\nlove to contemp late the probab Ie enjoyment of each member at home.”
\nJuly 15 was, for some reason not clear to us, an espeCially trying day for
\nSolyman. That night the journal received these words: “Our Journey Is becoming
\ntedious. It is altogether too long. and the food is much too monotonous. Already
\nthree months have passed since I left horne, and It all seems like a dream.
\nI often wonder how those at home have fared, for no word from them has reached
\nme. ”
\nWith those thOtlghts of home we leave Solyman Heath ton.igi!t, promising you
\nthat next week we shall get” him through to the gold fields.
\n3-91
\nLI TT LE TA LKS ON COMMON TH I NGS
\n119th Broadcast October 21. 1951
\nIn recent weeks I have so often opened this program with crftlcal remarks
\nabout our lavish government spending, I want to sound tonight a more cheerful
\neconomi c note. U. S. News and World Report assures us that the cost of Ii ving
\nis not likely to rise much in the next few months. Mi Ik may be up a cent a
\nquart, bread may cost a cent a loaf more. But meat is as high as, It is likely
\nto go. I n fact by winter pork and ch Icken will be p lenti fu I and a bit cheaper.
\nShoes are se II ing s low at present prl ces, the new prf ces on woolen sui ts are not
\nas high as expected, and cotton products of all kinds are so abundant that their
\nprices are not likely to advance.
\nSo keep your chin up. Our dollar may stili be worth 50 cents by mld-winter.
\n*****
\nNow I et us get 50 I yman Heath on toward his Ca I I forn i a goa I \u2022
\nAs ml ght be expected, good news or good traw ling er:ll I wned 50lyman’s spl rIts,
\nJust as bad traveling, bad food and bad news depressed them and turned his
\nthoughts toward home. On July 25 he wrote: “We learr:l that San FrancIsco Is
\nblockaded by Smith to keep out the foreigners, and there Is a good deal of
\ntroub Ie with them In the dl ggi ns. A II around our ca~ is desol ati on and ever ..
\nlasting barrenness. Thoughts of home constantly with me today.” The entry for
\nAugust 28 reads: “Last night some discouraging news from Cal ffornla spread
\nthrough the camp, wh f ch had percepti b Ie effect on a II of us. Have I come so far
\nfrom my home and loved ones for naught?” Then on the very next day Solyman wrote:
\n“Tonight we had some reliable good news, which has had a marked effect. Such Joy
\nI have seldom seen. On Iy two days I ater the news was mi xed: “We have rece
\nI ved”, wrote Heath, “both favorab Ie and un favorab Ie reports from Ca I i forn I a
\ntoday. Plenty of gold, out sickness devastating.”
\n3-92
\nIt was natural that a man from Maine, where springs and streams and lakes
\nsupply abundant water, should hays something to say about the lack of thet
\nblessed commodity on the western plains. On May 18, only two weeks out of Independence,
\nSolyman wrote: “We have traveled today over apparently limitless, but
\nwaterless pralr.!e. At last we came to Bu II Creek, where near two Indian lodges
\nwe found a fine spring, and took what we wanted to quench our thirst. No New
\nEngland man eysr understood the worth of water until orosslng the plains.”
\nOn September 9, as they came to the Nevada desert and passed the horrlb Ie
\nSink, Solyman let us know how much he disliked tt, in no uncertain terms. “The
\nearth is widely covered with a white crust”, he wrote. “It Is entirely destitute
\nof ysgetatlon. Everything around us looks I ike a dried up lake. Here we are
\nwithout a drop of water for animals or men. What water there Is contains huge
\nquantit ies of sa It. We trave I two hours, then rest, and so continue untl I we
\nreach drinkable water, which is said to be 25 mi les distant as I write these lines.”
\nThaT was September 9. Two days later Solyman was able to say: ”We hays at
\nlast passed the 60 miles of desert. A II day long we had no drfnkab Ie water. At
\nfive o’clock we reached some wellS, which had a pittance, but It was salt and
\nsuJph,urous. Both passengers and animals have suffered intensely from thirst,
\nmade worse because the day was terrib Iy hot.”
\nWhaT relief Solyman and his company must hays felt when they came at last
\nto the Ca rson RI ys r \u2022
\nBesides thirst and tasteless food and frequent lack of grass for the horses
\nand oxen, there were the repeated passages of hills and mountains. After having
\nmade the difficult ascent and descent of the South Pass of the A:>ckies, how discouraged
\nthe emigrants must have felt when they found crossing the Sierras even
\nharder.
\nOn September 24 Solyman ta Iked with two men who had passed the canyon of
\nthe Sierras and had returned. They tol d him It is a very hazardous passage.,
\n3-93
\nmuch harder to make with wagons than any of the heights In the Rockies. On the
\nnex1″ day Solyman’s party got three miles into the canyon and there had to camp.
\n”We could not get through”, Solyman recorded. “With the greater part of the
\ntrain we could go only three miles.” But on the next day they did ge1″ through
\nwhat Solyman agreed were the worst p laces he had ever seen for wagons. “We have
\nascended steep hills fl lied with boulders,” he wrote, “the mules often tumbling
\ndown. We passed over ledges whf ch looked forml dab Ie even for a foot passenger.
\nWe managed to get over the first ridge with loss of only two wagons. The whole
\ncanyon Is strewn with the wrecks of wagons, harnesses and dead animals. Never
\ndo I wish to go over that grollld again.”
\nBut they were not over the worst of It ye1″. On the next day Solyman wrote:
\n“Ano1″her ridge now lies before us, specked with snow. We are now twen1″y miles
\nfrom 1″he grand summit, to reach which wi I I cost much patience and tol n’ And
\nplen1″y of tol I 1″hey did have. They lost three more wagons, one man broke his
\nleg, four mu les were ki I led, before they made the passage, less than a ml Ie long,
\nto the summit, where the waters on 1″he other side flowed to the Pacific.
\nIf Solyman had read Keats, which few Americans had in 1849, he might well
\nhave canpared h Imse I f with the discoverer who first saw the blue Pacl f Ic from
\nthe peak in Darien.
\nOne would 1″htnk they would now find easier traveling, but not so. On the
\nvery day after 1″hey found the waters flowing westward, So\/yman tells us:
\n“Reached the most difficult ridge we have yet encountered ~- five miles of the
\nroughest climb. Wagons repeatedly upset, two broken into kindling. We passed
\nsnow banks 15 feet deep, but so hard packed that the heels of my boots would not
\nmake half the impression on it that they made on the earth. At last we reached
\nthe western s lope and once more camped on grass.”
\nHeath had no encounters with Indians on the war path. Most of the Indians
\n3-94
\nwere friendly, and often they passed through known Indian country without seeing
\na sing I e red man. On I y ten days out of I ndependence they saw two I nd I an lodges I
\nbut did not go near them. Two days later they camped In Pottawatomle Indian
\nterritory, but saw no I ndl ans. On the next day, however, Heath reported: “Th1i”ee
\nI ndi ans were prow Ii ng about our camp last night, probab Iy to stea I horses.”
\nBy the first of June they were in Pawnee country, but according to Heath,
\n“No Pawnees have yet showed themselves. It Is understood they are at war with
\nthe Comanches.”
\nOn June 3rd they got a scare. They were overtaken by another company, who
\nreported a man had been found scalped. A few hours later, Heath’s own company
\nfound a body In the same condition.
\nOn June 8 Heath wrote: ”We have had no trouble with Indians, but we met
\nanother emigrant train that had exchanged shots with Pawnees, who stole some of
\nthei r oxen.” I n fact, when the I ndl ans were hostl Ie, they seemed bent on stampedf
\nng “horses and cattle I n order to get the anima Is, rather than I ntendl ng any
\npersonal harm to the travelers.
\nWhen they reached Fort Laramie in Wyoming, Heath was able to record: “We
\nhave seen no sign of Indians for the past week. It is hard to believe we are In
\nIndian country.” They had passed through the vast Sioux territory without seeIng
\na Sioux. But In Nevada they encountered the friendly Shoshones. Heath says
\nof them: “Our camp was visited today by Indians of the Shoshone tribe; not grave
\nand taciturn like the other Indians we have seen, but volatl Ie and laughing.”
\nHeath was so I nte res ted I n certa I n I nd I an customs th at he recorded them at
\nlength. On May 27 he wrote: “Today we encountered the grave \u00b7of an I ndi an ch lef.
\nThe burial place is fenced around and covered with logs. The body does not appear
\nto be under the earth at all, but is placed in an easy, recl inlng posture,
\nwith the face toward the setting sun. The body is covered allover with cloth,
\nand a bow and arrow rest at Its s I de.”
\n3-95
\nThe account on June 22 is even more detailed: ‘~e saw today how the Sioux
\ndispose of their dead~ In a large oak tree, forty feet from the ground, was a
\nwicker basket, and in it a body with all its property. There were many ornaments,
\nand what was rather strange, a tin dipper. The basket was covered with
\nbuffalo skins, all nicely painted, and showed a becoming respect for the dead.
\nSuch trees the Indians never cut down, and their indignation is aroused if they
\nfi nd the trees have been disturbed by emi grants. The trapper of whom we bought
\nsome skins thought a white man had married a Sioux and that we had passed today
\nthe tree where her corpse was elevated. Some fool ish trave lers had vio lated
\nthe sanctity of the grave by cutting through the skins that covered the remains,
\nand it is by no means improbable that some Innocent white man wi II lose his Ii fe
\nfor this violation.”
\nEvery American school chi Id, though he or she may never have seen an Indian,
\nknows how Indian babies are carried, but the practice was so new to Solyman Heath
\nthat he recorded it with great astonslhment. ”We saw two squaws riding on one
\npony. They cerrled a baby about four months old. It was tied firmly toa board,
\nlaced up tight In some kind of skin, and hung to one side of the saddle. The
\nboard was so arranged that the chi Id could be quieted by a motion, when, like
\nour chi Idren, It began to cry. It was the most singular contrivance I ever saw
\nand looked mi ghty uncomfortab Ie.”
\nSolyman Heath’s journal ends so abruptly that it leaves many questions unan~
\nswered. With the help of Walter Heath, I shall try to find some of the answers,
\nbut events of this kind that happened a hundred years ago are dffffcuitto reconstruct
\nunless there is a carefully written record.
\nIt was on October 7 — five months and two days after leaving Independence
\nthat Heath reached the upper diggins in California. This is his record:
\n”We reached the upper diggins about noon, where we found most of our people who
\nhad gone on ahead of the wagons from the Carson RI ver. I got dinner at a tavern
\n3-96
\nof the poorest kind, but it went well, for I sat In a chair and at a table with
\na cloth on it for the first time in five months. had some good bread, apple
\nsauce, a pickle, and coffee — but at the high price of one dollar. The valley
\nis full of ca””s, and all folks are busy digging. Some of our folks have al’-.
\nready done remarkab Iy we II .”
\nThe next day Heath was at a p lace called Weaver Creek, where he found a
\ngood boa rd I ng house at th ree do I I ars a day. Of the ye I low meta I he wrote: “Go I d
\nIs plenty, but to get It is work of rather disagreeable kind.”
\nEvidently the wagon train was stili going deeper into California to the
\nlower gold fields, for on October 12 he had a rather trying experience. He
\nwrote: “I walked ahead of the train to the Jobnnon town and got my dinner.
\nThere I found three of our men, packed with their bedding, saying the train had
\ngone the other way and left us in the lurch. Noth I ng to do but go ahead on foot.”
\nBut on the next day Solyman had hitch-hiker’s luck, even though the day,
\nFriday, the thirteenth of October, was ominous for all superstitious people. It
\nwas “the day when S~\u00bbyman wrote the last entry In the journal. It reads: “Su~
\nceeded In getting a ride most of the way down to the city. Found the city with
\nno place to lodge. Boarding is high, lodging higher, and as yet I have not been
\nab Ie to find any of our fol ks. Drank strong Iy of brandy and found my legs a
\nIi tt Ie better.”
\nWhat was the Mormon town to wh I ch So lyman wa I ked ahead? What was the ci tv
\nwhich be’, finally reached? Was ItSacramantoj was it more likely one of those
\nmushroom gold towns that had the word City attached as part of Its name; or was
\nIt perhaps San Francisco Itself?
\nAnd, biggest question of a II, why does the diary end here? There are severa
\nI b lank pages left In the book. In fact just under the entry for October 13
\nappear the words “Saturday, October 14”, but nothing else. Old Solyman start
\n3-97
\nto wrt fa someth I ng there, and why dl d he stop?
\nWhat success did Solyman have In California? How soon did he return to
\nMaine? These are questions we hope some day to answer, and if we succeed we
\nshall share those answers with you.
\n3-98
\nLITTLE TALKS ON COMMON THINGS
\n120th Broadcast October 28, 1951
\nWhen I talked recently about myoid time visits to the North Waterford Fair,
\nhad no Idea it was sti II called the “World’s Fair”. Mr. J. E. Shields, RFO
\nNO.3, Waterville, assures me that it Is. He sends mea newspaper ad of this
\nyear 1951 which reads: “Now hear this! At North Waterford — World’s Fair.
\nFriday and Saturday, September 28 and 29. Farmer’s Day Friday, Horse Pulling
\nat 1:00 P.M. Midway — Shows — Freddie’s Beano. Dance both nites to Judkins’
\nOrchestra.”
\nMr. Shields tells me that he too often attended the North Waterford Fair,
\nbut I I ke me he has not attended Its I nce it was moved off Ma I n Street.
\n*****
\nA good friend has taken me to task for talking in too general terms about
\ngovernment spending. ‘~hy don’t you get down to brass tacks and be specific
\nabout I t?” he asks. A” ri ght, here goes.
\nI suggest we can get a long very we II wi thout government loans for snake
\nfarms and fur ranches. I question the value of American tax-payers providing
\nski-lifts in Austria, Cadi I lac cars for officials in Athens, and lavish enter~
\ntalnment of visiting delegations of all sorts from foreign lands, with hundreds
\nof our own officials getting In free on the food, the wine, and the shows.
\nWe are getting so accustomed to the Santa Claus state that we cannot see
\nthe harm it is doing to the very people it seeks to help. Not long ago the London
\nEconomist, by no means a Tory paper, made a study In England of the Income
\nand outgo of low income fami lies — those receiving less than $1,400 a year.
\nThat careful investigation revealed whi Ie the handout benefits of Britain’s welfare
\nstate amount to 57 sh ill i ngs a week, on an average, for each of these low
\nincome fami lies, the taxes required to pay for those benefits cost the very same
\n3-99
\n,faml lies 67 shillings a week. In other words they could ha’ye bought for themse
\nI ves the very same handouts for ten sh III I ngs a week I ess than they were payI
\nng I n taxes to get the handouts.
\nWe are Indeed a very rich country, undeniably richer than Britain, but ordinary
\nconmen sense tells us that there Is a saturation point somewhere. Even to
\ncome anywhere near ba lanei ng the present natlona I budget, the Treasury needs ten
\nbillion dollars of additional revenue. Now suppose the Congress decided on the
\ni nconeel vab Iy drasti c measure of confl scat I ng a II I ncome above $10,000. Even
\nthat unheard-of measure would yield only 3! bi Illons. To get the needed ten
\nbi I lions would mean confiscation of every dollar of everybody’s Income above
\n$4,000 a year.
\nI cannot be too emphatic about this. Reckless government spending with Its
\nconsequent burden of taxation Is drying up the sourees of new investment, Is
\ngiving to self-perpetuating government agencies more and more power, Is taking
\naway from the peop Ie the chance to provi de for the I r 0 I d age. Every year the
\ngovernment is claiming a larger and larger share of the national Income for Its
\nown governmenta I purposes. I f there I s any truth I n the maxim that the best
\ngovernment is that which governs least, we have a government that grows steadily
\nworse and worse. Free Institutions died in Nazi Germany because the state became
\nall powerful. That must not happen In America. It will not happen If the
\nconmon people, the ordinary voters of America, will resist the somethlng-fornothing
\nfallacies of the Santa Claus state.
\n*****
\nA long time ago on this program I said something about big trees. I have
\nrecently learned that a new claimant has appeared fonthe title of Biggest Tree
\nIn the World. It is the Tule cypress of Santa Maria del Tule, six miles from
\nOaxaca in Southern Mexico. It is so large that 28 persons, touching fingertips
\non outstretched arms, can barely encircle it. Five feet above the ground its
\n3-100
\ngirth Is 113 feet? and its d I arrete r Is 36 feet.
\nThe Tule cypress makes no claim to being the tallest tree, because it is
\nactua lIy broader than it is ta II. Its hei ght Is 140 feet, but its branches
\nspread for 150 feet. Many experts believe the Tule cypress to be the world’s
\noldest living tree, perhaps as much as 6,000 years old. It has outlived conquests,
\nrevolutions, natural cataclysms, even civilizations. There in southern
\nMexico may today exi st the 01 dest I i vi ng th i ng on earth.
\n*****
\nThrough the courtesy of Mr. and Mrs. Harry Vose of Waterv! I\/e I have seen
\nsome very old papers from the town of Swanvi \/Ie. That pretty \/Itt Ie town near
\nBe I fast was Mrs. Vose’s ancestra I home, and 134 years ago her great-grandfather
\nJacob Earres was the Swanvl lie tax co I lector \u2022
\nThe fact is that in 1817 there was no Swanville. It was Swan Plantation,
\nnot an incorporated town, and as a plantation had no local taxes, but under the
\nlaws of that time its Inhabitants did have to pay state and county taxes. So In
\nthe spri ng of 1817 the assessors, James Leach and Joseph Smart issued the following
\nwarrant to Jacob Eames, Col lector of Taxes of Swan Plantation:
\n“In the name of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, you are required to levy
\nand collect of the several persons narred in the list herewith committed unto you,
\neach one his respect i ve proport I on of the tax or assessment of $21 .23 granted
\nand agreed upon by the General Court at Boston on the 16th day of February, 1817,
\nfor defraying the necessary charges of securing, protecting and defending the
\nsarre. II
\nJacob Eanes collected the whole amount, and among other papers I was shown
\nthe receipt for $21.23 issued to him by the treasurer of the Commonwealth, Daniel
\nSargent, on December 12, 1817.
\nThe lists committed with the warrant are two, both in the same little black
\nbook. One list is the state tax, the other the county tax. I am sure you wi II
\n3-101
\nbe Interested to know how much Individual taxpayers had to pay. The basis of
\nboth state and county tax consisted of three factors: polls, real estate and
\npersonal property. The poll tax was five cents for the county and three cents
\nfor the state. The man who paid the biggest tax In Swan Plantation In 1817 was
\nJohn Brown 3rd, whose county tax was 51 cents and his state tax 34 cents, a
\ntotal tax of 85 cents. Most of the taxpayers paid less than 50 cents, a few of
\nthem only the combined poll tax of eight cents.
\nCollector Eames seemed to have made a bit on the county tax. He collected
\n$32.38 and turned over to the county treasurer $30.68, apparently receiving a
\nconmlssi on of $1.70 for rounding up that tax collection from more than a hundred
\nd I ffe re nt taxpaye rs \u2022
\nI th I nk somebody overcharged Jacob Eames for his rum, for a rece Ipt dated
\nIn 1804, the very year when the account books of an Augusta merchant show that
\nrum was selling for a dollar a gallon, reveals that Jacob paid $5.25 for 3i
\nga lions of West I ndl es rum. There ought not to have been fl fty cents a ga lion
\ndifference In the price between Augusta and Belfast. Somebody got cheated.
\nMost interesting of all the Swanvl lie papers which Mrs. Vose showed me was
\na letter wri tten In 1803 by a son of Jacob Eames from Provi dence College – …. not
\nthe present college of that name, but the much older Rhode Is land Institution
\nthat Is now Brown University. The subject of the lettar Is the same as that
\nreceived even today by hundreds of fathers with boys In college, but the language
\nwould startle a modern youth quite as much as it would his father.
\nsuppose everyone knows that, ear Iy I n the nineteenth century, boys and
\ngirls, young men and young women, writing letters to the I r parents, followed
\ncarefully the Emi Iy Post rules of that day, which required a very formal and
\ndlgnl fled sty Ie even in the most Intimate letters. Young Eames’ letter is worth
\nyour hearing just as he wrote It; so here it is:
\n3-102
\n“Honored Sir: In a mixture of prosperity and very distressing adversity,
\nseize this opportunity to Inform you that I enjoy a tolerable measure of bodily
\nhealth, though very far from being so In my mind, and I entertain the pleasing
\nhope that this letter will find you In the same enjoyment. I have been very
\nhappy, as after much trouble and pains, I found myself at last In college. But
\nalas! Money is wanting, and I am afraid the want for a little will ruin rrPf
\nfuture happiness and prosperity. When I set out “to go to college, I laid out
\n“to fit myself and maintain myself in college for one year. I should have done
\n“this I.f I could only get my Just dues. But my uncle has not been In a capacity
\nto pay me but a very little. Consequently I am behind two quarters, amounting
\nwith other things to not less than $70. The fl rst quarter I pal d with money
\ngot by keeping school. At college a year is divided Into three parts called
\nquarters, and It is the law of the college that each scholar shall square off at
\nthe end of each quarter. But they had so much pity on me as to wait untl I the
\nexpl ration of this Quarter, and there is no probability that they wi II give way
\nany longer. Wha”t can I do? I am without friends to afford me any assistance.
\nA kind and affec”tlonate parent you have always been to me. I think you did in
\nsome measure app robate my gol ng to co liege. I ndeed I di d not expect the need of
\nass I stance so soon, but if you ever planned to gi ve me any assi stance, It coul d
\nnever be more seasonab Ie than now. You yourse I f must see that I stand in indis …
\npensable need of help Immediately. A part would be better than none, though I
\nbe I leve the college wi II demand the whole or expel me. I have briefly stated
\nmy circumstances, and I presume you will find them as I have represented them.
\nThe time my payment will be out Is the latter part of September. I hope, si r,
\nyou will not fa i I me at that tl me. My most sincere regards to mamma and brothers
\nand sisters. Yours affectionately, J. Eames.”
\nAs I have mentioned before, letters at that time had no envelopes. en what
\nwould have been “the open face of the folded letter Is written the address: To
\n3-103
\nJacob Eames, Belfast, Maine. Then down in the left hand corner are these words:
\n“To be forwarded with dispatch.”
\nNow comes the Ironical touch to this different kind of touch. Postage in
\nthose days was paid by the receiver, not the sender. The postage on this letter
\nIs clearl y gi ven as twenty cents. So the 01 d man actua Ily had to pay twenty
\ncents for the privilege of being hit up by his son for $70.
\n01 d Jacob send the money? We wish we could say that he did, for we think
\nthe boy wrote a very appealing letter. But 148 passing years since 1803 have
\ndimmed the record. We do not know what response young Eames received in his
\nvery distressing circumstances that made him not so well in mind.
\n*****
\nSxlty years after that letter from a college boy, S. M. Mi Iler, Jacob Cunningham
\nand Miles Stackpole issued a warrant for a special town meeting in
\nSwanville on November 21, 1863. The purpose, as stated In the warrant, was to
\nsee what sum of money the town wou Id vote to raise to pay bounty to vol unteers
\nthat should enlist to make up the town’s quota of ten under President Lincoln’s
\nca II for vol unteers. The tatn voted to pay each YO I unteer $200.
\nNow remember that the CI vi I War had then been gol ng on for two and a ha If
\nyears. Gettysburg had been fought, the Emancipation Proclamation had been issued,\u00b7
\nand of course more than one Swanville youth had already joined the Union forces.
\nYet, just before Thanksgiving In 1863 that tiny Hancock community had to furnish
\nten more men for the army.
\nThe elvi I War, judged by its Impersonal statistics, was a mere skirmish com …
\npared with today’s titanic combats. But it was blood and tears to communities
\nI ike Swanvi lie. Those ten who made up that November quota were just as precious
\nto mothers and wi vas and sweethearts as are our own boys today.
\n3-104
\nLlTILE TALKS ON CO~ON THINGS
\n121 st Broadcast Novemb_er 4, 1951
\nEveryone Is fami liar with the words in Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, “Of
\nthe people, by the people, for the peoplelf \u2022 Did you ever ask yourself what that
\nfirst phrase means? What is government of the peop Ie?
\nMost of us can make a good try at explaining what we mean by government by
\nthe peop Ie and government for the peop Ie. When we speak of government by the
\npeop Ie, we mean government that I s democratic iR form, where tho votes of the
\npeople, either directly as In the town meeting, or Indirectly through their popularlyelected
\nrepresentatives decide on the actions government shall take on
\nall sorts of matters affecting tho Individual.
\nGovernment for the people Is familiar enough, because it Is all the rage
\ntoday. The we I fare state is government for the peop Ie run wi I d. I nits best
\nsense government for the peop Ie means a government that Is beneft oenti n operation,
\nthat gives true consideration to the welfare of all the people, not the
\nwe I fare of some of the peop Ie.
\nBut what in the world Is government of the people? Recently I found a
\nclosely analyzed, penetrating answer to that question in the latest book of one
\nof the world’s greatest living phi losophers, George Santayana. In his 1951 book
\nentitled tlDomlnations and Powers”, Santayana says: “lincoln could not have meant
\nby his phrase ‘of the people’ a mere vague anticipation of the other two phrases.
\nHe did not mean simply that people require a government. What he meant was that
\nthe government, to be preserved, must be not only delOOcratlc In form and beneficent
\nIn action, but precious and dear in Itself, popular and homely, the People’s
\nOwn Government. No government, therefore, of aristocrats; no kings, no
\ngreat landowners, no bureaucrats. Let a II off I cl a Is be pial n men, drawn for a
\nshort period of service by the general voice of their comrades, from the plough,
\n3-105
\nthe mine, the workshop, and the office. And, since power corrupts, let them
\nreturn soon to the I r 01 d occupati ons.”
\nThese words of SanTayana’s are worth our ca 1m ref lectl on. ‘n th I s day,
\nwhen the processes of government have become exceedingly complex, when the public
\nhas come more and more to trust the judgment of the life-long office holders,
\nIt is well for us to ask this question: “How long, under these circumstances,
\ncan government of the peop Ie remal n the peop Ie’s own government?”
\nI suppose a lot of you don’t agree with me, but it is my firm conviction
\nthat every tl me we transfer a loca I prob lem from Wateryi lie to the state leg} slature,
\nand every time we let the federal government in WaShington step In to
\ndo what a state ought to do for I tse If, we drl ve another naf I I n the coffl n
\nof gove rnment of the peop Ie.
\n*****
\nMrs. Bessie Proctor of Winslow is the owner of a rare and very Interesting
\nlittle book, published in our own State of Maine 119 years ago. It is indeed a
\nlittle book, only 5t by 3t Inches and less than a quarter of an inch thick. Yet
\nIt conTains 114 closely printed pages of what we, a century later, find to be
\nfascl naTi ng information.
\nThe book Is entitled “The Maine Register and United States Calendar for the
\nYear of Our Lord 1832~ It was published in Portland by G. Hyde and Company,
\nwith the press work being done In the prlntshop of the Portland printer,A. Shirley.
\nOn both the cover and title page appears a Iso the name of the centra I
\nMaine distributor of the volume, Glazier, Masters and C0lll>any of Hallowell.
\nThe first dozen pages are devoted to the almanac for the twelve months of
\n1832, and as is sti II customary in some of the almanacs of our own day, opposite
\nsevera I dates I n each month are named hi stori ca I events that occurred on those
\ndates. As mi ght be expected, some of these events referred to famous battles of
\nthe War of 1812 or the Revolution. For instance, opposite January 8 we read
\n3-106
\n”Battle of New Orleans, 1815″, and oppos ite January 18 “Battle of Cowpens, 1781”.
\nBut there were events other than war that had Important niches I n the memory of
\nfo I ks In 1832. For Instance, the I tem for January 19th reads “Co I d Fri day of
\n1810”, while January 31 says “Cold Tuesday of 1815”. For March 4 the notation
\nis “FI rst Congress met 1789”, wh i Ie March 23 records an i ncl dent now forgotten
\nby all save meticulous historians: “Penguin taken 1815”. The Item for June 18
\nIs of course the Battle of Waterloo, and July 4 is quite fittingly “Independence
\n1776”, but we wou I d today make I itt Ie Qf the I tems for the next two days, July
\n5 and 6. The former reads “Algiers taken 1830″, and the latter says ”Battle of
\nChippewa 1814″. The almanac edlter .considered an appropriate item for July 10
\n“Columbus born 1447”. So short a time before were stlrrln.g events In France
\nthat July 29 tells us “Charles X dethroned 1830”.
\nThe item for August 31 reveals the old custom of local time rather than our
\npresent standard time. The Item reads “Sun and clock together”. Apparently
\nthat was so unusual that It warranted a record. September 14 records the burning
\nof Moscow In 1812, November 24 the Peace of Ghent 1814, and December 20 the land …
\nIng of the Pilgrims In 1620. The Item for the last day of the year, December
\n31, is “Montgomery killed 1775″.
\nSo f leett ng I s fame, so forgetfu I are the sons of men, that many of these
\nrecorded events mean very Ii tt Ie to us today.
\nIt Is interesting to see how the county seats have changed since 1832. This
\nold book gl ves the dates and p I aces of a II court sess i ons for that year. Somerset
\nCourt-was held not at Skowhegan, but at Norridgewock, which In 1832 was not only
\ncounty seat, but nad the largest population in the county. Hancock Court met
\nat the old town of Castine, not at Ellsworth. In fact, instead of 16 counties,
\nMaine had only ten In 1832 — some of them, Lincoln, Penobscot and Washington,
\nfor Instance, being very large. The six counties not known In 1832 are Androscoggin,
\nAroostook, Franklin, Piscataquis, Sagadahoc and Knox.
\n3-107
\nIn those days the Courts of Probate met not only at the county seat, but at
\nother convenient places in each county. Besides at Augusta, the Kennebec Probate
\nCourt met at Monmouth, Mt. Vernon, Farmington and Winslow; the Lincoln court
\nat Wiscasset, Topsham, Bath, Nobleboro, WaldOboro, Warren, Thomaston and Richmond.
\nWaterville was well represented in public affairs in 1832. Timothy Boutelle
\nwas a member of the state senate and H. Dearborn was in the house. Asa Redington
\nwas chairman of the county cOlmlissioners. Justices of the Peace and Quorum were
\nMoses Appleton, Asa Redington, Ebenezer Bacon and David Wheeler. William Dorr
\nand Thomas Ki mba II were deputy sheri ffs. Attorneys at the common p leasl were
\nJames Stackpole and W. A. Evans.
\nSome of the unique offices listed are inspectors of lime and lime-casks,
\nprovers of fire-arms, commissioner of wrecks, pi lots of Quoddy Bay, inspectors
\nof pot and pearl ashes, inspectors of butter and lard.
\nThe Maine Medical Society, in addition to the usual offices of presiding
\nsecretary, etc., lists seven of its members as censors. It doesn’t say hO’l act!
\nve they were. Remembe r it was 15 years later, in 1847 I when one of the i r number
\nwas censorable enough to be convicted of murder — the notorious Dr. Coolidge
\nof Watervi lie.
\nA short section of the book is devoted to colleges. Under this heading were
\nI isted not only Bowdoin and what is nCM Colby, but also Maine Wesleyan Seminary
\nat Readfield (now Kents Hi II School), the Bangor Theological Seminary, and the
\nBangor C I ass i ca I School.
\nWhen the book went to press, Bowdoin was without a president, Wi IIiam Allen
\nhaving resigned In 1832 after a presidency of eleven years. The Bowdoin faculty
\nconsisted of six persons, of whom one held the two posts of professor of modern
\nlanguages and librarian, Henry W. Longfellow. The total number of students was
\n156.
\n3-108
\nSeven years before this 1832 date, there had been established at Bowdoin
\nthe Maine Medical School. Today In 1951 Maine has nomedfcal school and the es …
\ntablishment of a good one would admittedly be so costly that we are not likely
\nto get one soon, despite interest of the Maine Medical Association. It didn’t
\ncost much to start a medical school In 1825. This old Maine Register tells us
\nthat the Maine tledicalSchool was Incorporated with a grant of $1,500 and a
\npromise of $1,000 annually from the state. The first named of Its four professors
\nwas John de la Mater, professor of the theory and practice of physic.
\nThis medical school is one of the few topics to which the register devotes
\nan entire consecutive paragraph, rather than a mere list of Items. The
\nparagraph reads: ”The med f ca I lectures commence about the 20th of February and
\ncontinue three months. The fees of admissi\u00b7on are $50. Graduating fee, including
\ndiploma, $10. The medical library is already one of the best in the United
\nStates, and continues to be enriched by new works, both foreign and domestic.
\nIt contains 2,700 volumes, embracing all the more important works In medicine
\nand collateral branches. During the interval between the annual courses of
\nlectures the medical students may attend the college course of lectures on mine
\nra logy and natura I ph I lospphy \u2022 ”
\nPresident of the Phi Beta Kappa Society at Bowdoin in 1832 was none other
\nthan Stephen Longfellow, father of the young professor and librarian. For the
\nannua I meet I ng I n that year Congressman George Evans was the orator and Henry W.
\nLongfe I low was the poet.
\nLess space Is devoted to Watervl lie Co liege than to I ts twenty year sen lor,
\nBowdoin. Colby’s first president, Jeremiah Chaplin, st!” headed the college In
\n1832. It had the same nUnDer of faculty members as Bowdoin, six, of whom the
\nbest remembered in story and legend is George Keely, professor of mathematics.
\nThe number of students is not stated, but Commencement Is gl van as the last Wednesday
\nIn July. Watervi lie’s famous lawyer and landowner, Timothy Boutelle, was
\n3-109
\ntreasurer of the corporation and president of the associated alumni, not one of
\nwhom had then been out of college so long as our class of 1940 today.
\nThe Maine Wesleyan Seminary at Kents Hi II had apparently gone in for other
\nfields besides the academic. Alden Packard headed its agricultural department
\nand Wi Illam Reed is listed as superintendent of the mechanical department. In
\nfact its academic staff consisted of only three persons, who are designated respectively
\nas principal, instFuctor in the languages, and assistant in English.
\nThe Bangor Classlca I School was evidently a preparatory school for Bangor
\nSemi nary. I t was under the same board of trustees. The statement te lis us: “To
\nsuch as have the ministry In view, tuition Is offered gratuitously. To all
\nothers, and It is open to any young man of good moral character, the tuition Is
\n$16 a yea r \u2022 ”
\nWages and sa I aries were low t n those days, but so a Iso was the cost of living.
\nProbably President Andrew Jackson’s $25,000 a year was more than equivalent
\nof President Truman’s salary today. The Governor of Maine got $1,500, the
\nChief Justice $1,800, the Justices of C9mmon pleas $1,200. The vice president
\nof the United States received $5,000, and each cabinet member got $6,000, except
\nthe Attorney Genera I, whose sa J ary was on I y $3,500. Tlite sen I or ass t stant postmaster
\ngeneral got $2,500, and the federal superintendent of mails $1,700, with
\n8,450 post offices under his Jurisdiction. At the Portland District Court the
\npresiding justice got $1,800. Our foreign diplomats were used a_little better.
\nOur envoys plenipotentiary to foreign countries received $9,000 outfit and
\n$9,000 annual salary. The poor secretary of legation, doing most of the work In
\nthe foreign embassies, got only $2,000 a year.
\nIn 1832 the Watervi lie postmaster was He J I Chase, and at West Watervi lie
\n(now Oakland) the office was in charge of E. Hallet. F. Payne conducted the
\nWins I ow post offi ce, and the one at Kenda lis Mi lis (Fal rfle J d Village) was under
\nW. Loring. J. Locke ran the office at Bloomfield (now Skowhegan).
\n3-110
\nOne page of our little book gives Maine oensus figures for 1830. The total
\npopulation was 393,383, with 1,207 negroes, 223 of whom were In Kennebec County.
\nNo county had fewer than 20 blacks, and there were nearly 500 in Cumberland.
\nLincoln, which then covered a vast territory, had almost as many people as Cumberland,
\n57,000 to 60,000, and Kennebec was a close third with 52,000. The smallest
\ncounty was Washington, with 21,000 people.
\nOne of the most interesting pages in the book pertains to the Canada Road.
\nIt ran from Augusta up the west side of the Kennebec, through Sidney to Watervi
\nlie, thence to Fairfield Center and Norridgewock to Madison, Solon and Bingham.
\nLast spring I told you about the tavern conducted at The Forks In the 1870’s.
\nThat was by no means the first inn at the junction of the two rivers. For the
\nnext stop above Moscow is given as Temp Ie’s Tavern, Forks of Kennebec and Dead
\nRivers. Then Baker’s House, Parlin Pond; Holden’s House, Moose River; Hi Iton’s
\nHouse, Main Branch of the Penobscot; Highlands or Canada Line; and Jona’s Camp.
\nMoscow is named as the last@ incorporated town in Maine on the road. There is no
\nmention by name of what is now Jackman. The book tells us: “Between Jona’s
\nCamp and Owen’s are severa I log houses, some of wh i ch a’re tenented and some abandoned.
\nThe trave ler wi II fl nd the sett lers dl sposed to afford every accomodati on
\nin their power. Owen’s House, the next stop after Jona’s Camp, is 66 miles from
\nQuebec. The traveler pursues his course on the easterly bank of the Chaudiere,
\nthrough a delightful country, and over excellent road. The settlements are of
\nFrench origin, and connected throughout, more so than in the interior of our own
\nstate. Moreover the people are in every respect hospitable and interesting to
\nthe trave ler.”
\nOwen’s House was situated at the junction of the Chaudiere and River de
\nloup, in the Parish of St. Charles. The stopping places between there and Quebec
\nwere,~st.Joseph’s Parish, Ste. Marie Parish, St. Henry Parish, and Point levi, on
\n3-111
\nth Iss J de of the St. Lawrence, opposi te the 01 d City of Quebec.
\nAltogether we have found this a most fascinating little book, and we are
\nvery grateful to Mrs. Bessie Proctor for giving us an opportunity to examine It.
\n3-112
\nLITTLE TALKS ON COt+1ON TH I NGS
\n122nd Broadcast NovembAC 11, 1951
\nI s there no way to stop, or at least di mi ni sh, the waste and extravagance
\nof our government? LIsten to this glaring example. The War Assets Administra~
\ntion had some storage space going to was1e In an Army carq> In the Middle West.
\nThe Commodity Credit Corporation was, at the same time, looking for space to
\nstore fl va to ei ght mil Ii on bushe Is of gral n. FI va men, who knew of the sf tua …
\ntlon and who also knew how slow and stupid the officials of different government
\nagencies are in dealing with each other — those five men got busy. They first
\nleased the ArTttf camp space from the War Assets Administration. Then they tum …
\ned around and sub leased it to the CommodltyCredi t Corporati on, at a profit of
\n$382,000. The whole proceeding took them less than a week. A right smart prof
\nI t for a week’s wC!>rk.
\nNow don’t miss the main point of this story. That space didn’t belong to
\nthe War Assets Administration; it belonged to the United States of America, and
\nwhat is the Uni ted States? It Is you and I, the peep Ie who pay the taxes to buy
\nthe space originally. That army camp surplus storage space belonged to you and
\nme. The inefficiency, the callous Indifference, of the men who operate our government
\nagencies, mi Iked you -and me and the other taxpayers of America of
\n$382,000 for property that we already owned.
\n*****
\nIt is Impossible to keep up with the numerous alphabetic agencies that now
\nInfest Washington. How we used to laugh about them back in the 1930’s, the WPA,
\nthe NYA, the NRA and a few others. The cartoonists had a field day with !hem.
\nHumorous verses and witty stories about them went the rounds. NOt these expand ..
\ning and overlapping agencies are so many and so costly they aren’t funny any
\n3-113
\nlonger.
\nRecently U. S. News and Worl d Report pub II shed a two page spread under the
\nheading ”Washington Alphabet”. The magazine makes no attempt to gIve a co~lete
\nlist, for in the Pentagon alone there are more than 1,500 approved abbreviations.
\n50 U. S. News Ii sts only those abbrevi at Ions wh I ch the average ci tl zen ought to
\nknow in order to understand dally newspaper accounts. The I ist contains only
\n113 of the thousands of alphabetical agencies which infest our government. Many
\nof them are of course faml liar to a II of us. We a II know the Wacs, the Waves
\nand the Wafs. We have heard a lot about the RFC (the Reconstruction Finance
\n.Corporation) and the NLRl (National Labor Relations Board), Right here In Water …
\nvi lie we have a unit of the ROTC, and this radlo.station is subject to control
\nby the FCC (the Federal Comnunl cat I ons Convni 55 Ion).
\nBut how many of you ever heard of the FNMA (Federa I Natl ona I Mortgage Association),
\nentirely separate from the HLBB (Home Loan Bank Board), which is In
\nturn quite separate from the HHFA (Housing and Home Finance Agency), which again
\nhas nothing to do with the PHA (Public Housing Administration)?
\nThis alphabet soup’has become so thoroughly stirred that sometimes exactly
\nthe same set of letters refers to two different agencies. For instance, DMA may
\nmean Defense Manpower Admi n I strati on or Defense MI nerals Adml n Istrati on. OSC may
\nrefer to the Office of Secretary of Commerce or the Office of 5011 Conservation.
\nWhen GPO Isn’t the General Post Office It is the Government Printing Office.
\nBut why go on? U. 5. News po I nts out that these agencl es I many of wh I ch we
\nhave never even heard of, will spend 69 billion of our dollars between July 1,
\n1951 and June 30,1952. The s<:,d truth is simply this: our government is trying
\nto do so many things which private enterprise once did and might stl II do, and
\nis creating so many conflicting and overlapping agencies to do them, that it is
\nImpossible for the right hand to know what the left hand is doing.
\n*****
\n3-114
\nYou will recall that last winter I devoted several broadcasts to the entrancing
\ndiary of William Bryant, Fairfield pioneer. I became curious to know
\nwhere Wi I II am Bryant is buried. No one of the living relatives seemed to be
\nsure. So I made the rounds of the rural burying grounds in Fairfield. thought
\npe rhaps t"h i s grand 0 I d pi onee r of the town lay in the Ii tt Ie cemete ry at the
\nJunction of the Skowhegan and Fairfield Center roads, not far from his home between
\nthere and Pishon's Ferry. But I could not find the marked grave of any
\nBryant there. The same proved true of the little cemeteries In the northern and
\nwestern parts of the town.
\nM:lanwhi Ie I thought I would take a look at the grave of Wi IIlam's son Cyrus
\nBryant, who himself lived to the age of 85 and whom older people stili living in
\nFa i rfle I d remember very we II. Severa I persons tol d me they were sure Cyrus Bryant"
\nis buried in the village cemetery at Fairfield.
\nSo one day this summer I found the graves of Cyrus Bryant and his wi fe Olive,
\nin the older part of the Fairfield Village Cemetery. Cyrus outlived the Vassalboro
\ngirl who became his wife by more than eleven years. She had died in 1892,
\nwhi Ie h~ lived untl I 1903. It must have been a great blow to Cyrus and Olive
\nwhen they lost their only son. For beside them In the cemetery lot lies Fred L.,
\nson of C. F. and O. P. Bryant, died November 24,1886, aged 25 years.
\nWhat" was my surprise and delight when, a few lots away from that of Cyrus,
\nencountered two other headstones, marking graves I had been seeking allover
\nFairfield. One of those stones reads: "William Bryant, died June 15, 1867, aged
\n86 years, 5 months." The other stone has this Inscription: IILydia, wife of Wi 1-
\nlaim Bryant, died May 22, 1858, aged 77 years, 3 months, 22 days".
\nSo quite fittingly, right there at Kendal Is Mills lies Wi IIlam Bryant, not
\nfar from the old town hall whose records he knew so we II, and even nearer to
\nthe bridge where his wife took toll on a long-ago Thanksgiving Day, and nearer
\nstill to the highway over which he drove the youngest son Haley down to Water-
\n3-115
\nvi lie, to start him on the long voyage to Australia from which Haley would never
\nreturn. And beside him lies lydia, who had a system of predicting the corn ha,…..
\nvest, who shed Tears as she darned Cyrus' socks for his draft ca II to the Aroostook
\nWar, and who died clutching a tintype of wandering son Haley in her hand.
\nThey have lain in the Fairfield Cemetery a long time now — she for 93
\nyears, he for 84. They were never wealthy, never prominent, scarcely known
\nolftside their own community. But they were the sTaunch, honest, religious folk
\nwhich has made Maine character a mark of distinction allover the world.
\n*****
\nIt is easy for us to consider the present Time as a very special time of
\ntroubles. With The long-drawn-out, fruitless struggle In Korea, with the vastly
\nmounting national debt, with the great burden of increaSing taxes, we do Indeed
\nhave plenty of Troub Ie. am not re lenti ng one iota on what I haw sal d and
\nshall keep on saying about the senseless, almost criminal waste In federal expenditures.
\nBUT I will admit that for myself, as well as for all ofyol:J, It
\nmay help us feel a liTtle beTter to take a brief, backward look.
\nThl ngs do seem preTty tough for us here I n Waterville in 1951. But just consider
\nfor a moment what was happening here seventeen years ago In 1934. That
\nwas when I i vi ng was so cheap — porter house steaks 29 cents a pound, a suit of
\nclothes $20, a good rent $25 a month. Yes, 1934 was at the height of the great
\ndepressi on.
\nMr. lewis Whipple, who was treasurer of the City of Watervi lie In that year,
\nhas shown me a page of the Watervf lie Senti ne I for September 5, 1934. On that
\nsingle page are revealed that the city was nearly bankrupt, that the mayor had
\njust died, that the previous winter had ki lied thousands of central Maine's app
\nIe trees, and 1"hat the workers at the lockwood MI lis were on strl ke.
\nThe city's Total apor:'oPN TH I NGS
\n123rd Broadcast November 18, 1951
\nWhen new taxes are contemplated, most of us howl loudly, “Leave us alone;
\nlayoff the little fellow; soak the rich.” Even more loudly we demand that the
\nbl g corporat J ons be soaked long and hard. What we forget and ought especl a II y
\nto remember is that if the power to tax is the power to destroy, the saying applies
\nequally to individuals and to corporations.
\nRecently Congress has been facing the question, hON much of the defense cost
\nshould business firms continue to bear? There is a saturation point beyond
\nwh I ch the burden becomes so great that the powe r to tax becomes the powe r to destroy.
\nFor too tight a squeeze on profits definitely undercuts the capacity of
\nprivate industry to finance new plants and equipment needed for the defense effort.
\nIndustry admits that in World War II it received significant plant expansion
\nhelp from the government, and it admits that some of those RFC lOans were
\nnot too savory. But today — unlike 1943 and 1944 — private Industry Is financing
\nalmost all of the huge program to exp’and production. And about two …
\nthirds of the money that has been plowed Into the expansion and improvement of
\nour Industrial machine since 1945 has come out of profits.
\nThe busi ness corporations of America must have fal r treatment, as fal r as
\nthat given individuals under the tax laws, or else the private enterprise system
\nin Amerl ca I s doomed.
\n*****
\nMrs. Theodore Kloss of W8st Street has shown me an old scrap book of cooking
\nrecipes. The book was put together some time between 1860 and 1870 by some
\nancestors of Mrs. Kloss in Maine’s Penobscot tc.” of Bucksport. The recipes are
\nall cl ipped from newspapers and are grouped together by subjects. They begin
\nwith meats. Fi rst appears a picture of a cow with the various beef cuts clearly
\n3-120
\nmarked. Then come direct Ions for com I ng bee f, pick I I ng tongue, smok’ ng hams,
\ntrying lard, salting pork, and making sausage.
\nIn those days long before modem refrigeration, folks found clever ways to
\nkeep meat. One of the pasted Items in Mrs. Kloss’ book is headed, “Beef-steak
\nfor Winter Use.” It goes on to state: “Cut the steaks large and have ready a
\nmixture of salt, sugar, and finely powdered saltpeter. Sprinkle the bottom of
\na large Jar with salt, lay In a piece of s1eak, and sprinkle over It some of the
\nmixture, then put in another steak, sprinkle, and so on unti I the Jar Is filled.
\nSprinkle the mixture on the top, then cover with a p late with a weight on It,
\nand set in a cool, airy place, where It will Rot freeze. This needs no brine,
\nas I t makes its own. Twenty to th I rty pounds may be kept pe rfect Iy sweet In
\nthis way.”
\nMeat was not expensl va when this scrapbook was made. One long cl ipping,
\nexto I ling the vi rtue of young pi g pork over fat hog, menti ons that butchers were
\nthen pay i ng three cents a pound on the hoof for bee f, and on Iy H cents for hogs.
\nTwo pages are devoted to a long clipping headed, “A Lesson in Carving”, giving
\ndetal led instructions how to carw every variety of meat. Gentlemen carvers all,
\nlisten to this advice! “Many authorltte~ lay down the rule that one must never
\nstand when carving. I f a person Is tailor the chai r quite high, there Is no
\ndoubt that It may be more graceful for the carver to keep his seat, especially
\nwhen the p Ieee de resl stance is sma II and eas I Iy carved. But when he confronts
\na large piece of beef, mutton or ham, it Is certainly easier and we believe more
\ngraceful to carve s …. anding. Anyhow, If fashion and common sense here come Into
\nco Iii s Ion, we prefer the latter.”
\nA fte r meats, the next sect i on of the scrapbook Is given ove r to soups, If t …
\nerally scores of recipes for soup of every variety and description. Then come
\ndirections for making hash — meat hash, fish hash, red flannel hash, and just
\n3-121
\nplain hash. There are several pages devoted to sandwiches. Yes Indeed, the
\nsandw I ch was known and we I I II ked long before 1860.
\nThere are numerous recl pes for cooking fish — not mere I y the sa It water
\nvarieties Ii ke cod, haddock, ha II but and f lotllder, but dl rect ions for baking
\npickerel, frying brook trout, and salting deJtm barrels of fresh water smelt.
\nthis scrapbook Is not a complete cook book. It Is devoted entirely to the
\ncobkllilg of meat, fish, soups and eggs. It does not contain recipes for making
\nbread, biscuits, or pastry of any kind. Probably the housewife had plenty of
\nthose recipes tucked away In a drawer or pasted In some other book.
\n*****
\nYou may recall that, when I talked about the first prescription book at the
\nhundred year old drug store now operated by Robert Dexter, I tol d you what Interested
\nme more than the prescriptions was the book In whIch the prescriptions
\nwere pasted, for that book proved to be the acoounts of Watervl lie’s Ilqoor
\nagency for the years 1845 and 1846.
\nLikewise, the book In which Mrs. Kloss’ recelpes are pasted Interests me
\neven more than do the recipes themselves. That book Is called the “Maine Subscribers
\nBusiness Directory for 1861″. By counties, and by toms within each
\ncounty In alpbabetlcal order, are given the names of persons of varlolils occupa …
\ntlons. Unfortunately the pasted recipes cover the pages devoted to both Cu”…
\nbe r I and and Kennebec Co un”” I es, so I do not know who got the t r names ment i oned
\nIn Waterville or In my n, ative town of Bridgton. But the Fal rfleld entries are
\nIntact, and they are amazingly Interesting. Do you remember my telling about
\nthe old photograph taken from the hili In Benton and showing …. he triple span of
\ncovered bridges across the Kennebec at Fairfield? You may recall that I expressed
\nrrrf own surprise a …. the number of ml lis visible .in …. hat picture. This
\nold bus I ness di rectory conta i ns the names of eight dl fferen …. factories at Ken~
\ndalls Mills alone. They were operated-respectively by William Connor, E. and
\n3-122
\nN. Totman, Gibson and Newhall, Fogg Hall and Co., Samuel and Crowell Taylor,
\nH. C. Newhall, 51 las Bates, Moses Fogg and J. and J. Foss.-
\nOther names that have come down to our am day were Vickery and Lawry, dry
\ngoods; Stephen Wing, furniture and crockery; Samuel Eilts, lumberman; Charles
\nPiper, teacher and fanner; Edward Rollins, dealer In stoves; Joseph Nye, deputy
\nsheri ff; Wi II i am P. Nye & Co., dry goods — and perhaps most Interesting of all,
\nhere recorded In the old directory fs the father (j)f the man who, fn our day, was
\nhero of that best-seller, “Cheaper by the Oozen”, for here recorded is J. H.
\nGf Ibreth, stoves, hardware, iron and steel, proprietor of the Island Nursery \u2022
\nAs one g lances over the lists for various Ma Ine towns, one Is struck by the
\nuniqueness of some of the occupations recorded. In Swanville, for Instance,
\nthe re was WI II I am Smart, ax hand Ie man, and J. Q. Adams (doubtless named for the
\nPresident John Quincy Adams), who was listed as stave and shingle man. In Unity
\nR. B. Hussey was farmer and blaster, Benjamin Chandler was keeper of temperance
\nhouse, and H. B. Rice was harness maker and trimmer. Over in Steuben G. W.
\nMcCurdy was a horse tamer, Will iam Dyer was a boat caulker, A. E. Trundy was
\nfarmer and bootmaker. In Calais Wi II iam Marsh was a boom man, and In Topsfield
\nthe entry after the name of Lonna Bean is “for the mite society”.
\nUp in Harvey Eaton’s town of Cornvi lie, James Frost was selectman, overseer
\nof the poor, and mechani Cj George Sanford was fanner “and brlckmaker; Wi II fam
\nRichards was fanner and stone cutter; and about every thl rd man In town was
\nlisted as farmer and dea ler in stock.
\nUp in little Concord, across the river from Bingham, there must have been
\na lot of sheep f n the 1860 ‘s, for no less than seventeen men are II sted as far.,..
\nmers and wool growers. In Canaan C. H. Smith was proprietor of the stage line,
\nAbe I Prescott was tanner, currier, harness and shoe man, and Jesse Dorman was
\nmanufacturer of satfnet, carder and cloth ler.
\nOver in Searsport Walter Nichols was soldiers’ pension agent; Isaac Blethen
\n3-123
\ndealt In corn, flour, glass and crockery ware; Emery Sawyer was a general soliciting
\nagent; and D. S. Simpson was a cabinet maker who also sold fUrniture
\nand paper hangl ngs.
\nA parT of th Iso I d di rectory Is devoted to genera I i nformatl on. There f s,
\nfor Instance, a section on Maine’s principal rivers. Of the Kennebec it says,
\n“This river, by Its two principal branches, the Dead and the Moose Rf,vers, rises
\nin the norThwestern highlands near the sources of the Androscoggin. Moose
\nRiver, after an easterly course of about 70 miles, enters Moosehead Lake. It
\nIs boatable nearly its whole length. The Dead River branch has a longer course
\nand joins The main river about 20 mi les south of the lake. The river bears the
\nname of Kennebec only from the lake, and after a course from that point southerly
\nfor a hundred and fl fty miles through a ferti Ie and picturesque country,
\nit jo I ns the sea at Georgetown and Ph I ppsburg. The tl de rI ses to Augusta, to
\nwhich it is navigable for small vessels; to Bath ships of large draught ascend.
\nTo The Forks of the Dead Ri ver the ascent is 570 feet, to Anson 407, to Watervi
\nlie 219. At these points and some others there are rapids and falls. The level
\nof Moosehead Lake is 960 feet above sea level. The territory Included In
\nthe whole Kennebec basin Is 5,300 square miles.”
\nA page Is devoted to Maine lakes. This was long before the days of our
\nvacation bus I ness; so note how lightly the writer s I ips over the Belgrade Lakes.
\nHe says, “I n the mntral and more cultivated parts of the state are numerous extensive
\nponds, which furnish many faci lities for trade and intercourse to the
\nI nhab ItanTS on thel r borders. Among these are the Pushaw, Sebec, Newport, the
\nBe I grade and W I nth rop ponds.”
\nInteresting is the section devoted to Maine’s schools and colleges. In the
\n396 towns of Mal ne, with thel r 628,000 I nhab i Tants, there were in 1861 a tOTal
\nof 4,146 school districts, but only 3,946 schoolhouses. The aggregate expendl …
\nture for school purposes by all towns, diSTricts, and the state Itself was
\n3-124
\n$616,000.
\nI am sure many of our listeners can, It ke me, remember when norma I tral nl ng
\ncOlilrses were taughT in the academies of the state as well as In the established
\nnormal schools. That all began In 1860; so this old subscribers directory In
\n1861 was gl vi ng a f rash accQunt of someth I ng b rand new In Ma f ne e ducat i on. The
\nstate had appropriated $3,600 for the establishment of oor”lllal schools in 18 exIsting
\nseminaries and academies which agreed to introduce a department for the
\nInstruction of teachers. The directory proudly reported that, only one year
\nafter passage of The act, 566 persons were availing Themselves of this plan.
\nEighty-nine of them were enrolled In the nonnal course at Kents HI I I, 53 In the
\nMaine state Seminary at Lewiston, 23 at Hampden Academy and lesser numbers at
\nBridgton Academy, Eastern Maine Conference Seminary aT Bucksport, in the academies
\nat Thomaston, Newcastle, Paris, Bloomfield, Freedom, Eliot, LImerick, North
\nYarmouth and Presque Isle, and in New Sharon High School. It Is especially
\nnoteworthy that the boys exceeded the gl rls. Prepari ng to be teachers in those
\nnorma I courses we re 303 rna les and 263 fema les.
\ntiThe advantage of education in Maine”, says this report of 1861, “are not
\nlImited to common schools. There are two col leges, we I I endowed and furnished
\nwith able InstrUCTors and suitable apparatus; these are the college at Waterville
\nand Bowdoin College at Brunswl ck.” Of our own col lege the report says: ”Waterville
\nCollege was incorporated in 1820, and was established by the Baptist de ..
\nnomination, but is open to all sects and classes. It has received donations
\nfrom the State as weI I as from Individuals. The number of students in 1860-61
\nwas 122. Its library contains ten thousand volumes. The President is James T.
\nChamplin, D. D., who Is assisted by four professors and one tutor.”
\nAnother section of the directory is devoted to a list of Maine newspapers.
\nThere were then sf x dally papers in the state, two in Port land, two In Bangor,
\nand one each in BaTh and Lew I ston. The Kennebec Journa I was then stl” a weekly
\n3-125
\npaper, as was also the Eastern Mal I in Watervi lie. The PorTland dal lies were
\nthe Eastern Argus, which fifty years ago the Republicans in my boyhood town used
\nto call “the lying Argus”, and the Portland Advertiser. The Bangor papers were
\nthe Whig and Courier and the Evening Times. The Bath paper bore the same name
\nthat I t does today and that i t did un de r the long ed i torsh i p of Frank N i ch 01 s -the
\nBath Times; and the lewiston paper, forerunner of what was long Maine’s best
\nknown evening news sheet, was then called the lewiston Falls Journal.
\nThe weekly papers were nurnerous In Maine ninety years ago. There were the
\nAroostook Times, the Oxford Democrat, the Piscataquis Observer, the Somerset
\nFarmer, the Port I and Transcri pt, the Be I fast Repub II can Journal, the Bri dgton
\nReporter, the Ellsworth American, many of which are sti II known today. But long
\nsince gone and all but forgotTen are the Saco Democrat, the Paris Pioneer, the
\nSkowhegan Clarion, the Richmond Rising Sun, and the Dexter Gem and Gazette.
\nThere were plenty of religious weeklies, which ran the alphabet from the Augusta
\nAge, through the Maine Evangelist to Zion’s Advocate. AT Mt. Vernon was
\npublished a monthly called the Young Folks’ Monitor, whi Ie down In Portland they
\nhad another way of taking care of the young folks through the Maine Teacher.
\nYes, there was a lot of publishing in Maine a century ago.
\nOne section of this old directory Is headed “Population of some of the principal
\ncities and towns of the United States”. This Is an eye opener, for in
\n1860 there were only eight cities on the whole country with more than a hundred
\nthousand people. They were, in order, New York, Philadelphia, Brooklyn, Baltimore,
\nBoston, New Orleans, St. louis and Cincinnati. Chicago had only 80,000.
\nPortland was larger than Worcester; louisville, Kentucky had more people than
\nWashington, D. C.; and New Bedford was larger than Dayton, Olio. Cleveland was
\na mere pigmy compared with Cincinnati, having only 43,000 peop Ie to the latter’s
\n160,000. In fact in 1860 San Francisco had considerably more people than Cleveland,
\nbut los Angeles isn’t even mentioned.
\n3-126
\nNe~ week I want to te II you about some of the advertiserrents I n that 01 d
\ndi rectory of 1861.
\n3-127
\nLI TTLE TALKS ON COMMON TH I NGS
\n124th Broadcast November 25, 1951
\nAgain our distinctly American festival of Thanksgiving has come and gone. I
\nwonder whaT folks of fifTy years ago would have said if they had been told ThaT
\nIn 1951 chicken and turkey would be cheaper than beef, pork and ham. They JusT
\nwouldn’t have believed it.
\nIn my boyhood turkey was a Thanksgiving luxury. Only the town’s wealthy
\nelite cou Id afford one; and when I say wea I thy I mean a fami Iy that had an an-\u00b7
\nnual Income above a thousand dollars. At my father’s store we used to measure
\nthose faml lies by their purchase of eggs. When, about this time of year, the
\nprice of eggs rose to 36 cents a dozen, we used to say now only so and so can
\nafford them.
\nMy faTher sold hundreds of chickens every Thanksgiving, but I do not recal I
\nhis ever having a turkey In the store in those years between 1900 and 1912, when
\nI knew tbe p lace best. I do recall going home from college fn 1910 and eating
\nturkey at my grandmother’s on Thanksgl ving Day, but that was a very special oc-
\n. caslon, tor my aunt was being married, and the groom fumished the turkey.
\nWere Thanksgiving Days colder fifty years ago than they are now? Frankly
\ndon’t remember much snow at Thanksgiving, but I can remember good skating. The
\nfancy, boarded, out-door rinks of our day were then unknown. So I am not talking
\nabout flooded back-yard areas. am talking about frozen pauls and streams. Of
\ncourse we never had Thanksgl ving skating on HI gh I and Lake or on the main channe I
\nof Stevens Brook. But we did skate, many a Thanksgiving aftemoon, on the pooled
\nI n lets of The stream and on the big bog near The tannery.
\nJ(.jst once I remember snow for Thanksgiving. I’ve told you about it before.
\nIt was the Terri flc storm when the steamer Portland went dOffn. was seven
\n3-128
\nyears 01 d, and I reca II the snow banks higher than my head where my uncle p I led
\nthe snow as he shoveled grandma’s paths.
\nWhether in colder or wanner weather than half a century ago, Thanksgiving
\nIs sti II the great American home gathering fest I va I. Long may it survl ve as the
\ngracious annual symbol of the American home!
\n*****
\nCongress adjourned about a month ago, not to resume its sessions unti I January.
\nWhat d t d the first sess i on of that 82nd Congress acco~ II sh?
\nIt appropriated 89 billIon dollars, 61 bIll f on of them for defense. It authorized
\n7i billions of aid to foreign countries. l”t approved the building of 6
\nbl Ilion dollars’ worth of army, navy and air bases abroad. It approved expansIon
\nof the Air Force from 95 groups to 140. It extended controls oVer prices, wages
\nand materials. It uncovered scandals in RFC, the Bureau of Internal Revenue,
\nand other agencies. It changed the Taft-Hartley Act to permIt union shops wlth-
\n;,.”i ~:. ‘”,. ”
\nout plant elections.
\nThe 82nd Congress has thus far fat led to do any”thlng about the national
\ngamb I I ng menace; l”t has not gl van statehood to A I aska and Hawa I I; It has done
\nnothing about the 5″t. Lawrence Waterway; It has taken no action on Federal AId
\nto Education; It has not transferred to the states “the titles to tidelands; it
\nhas not yet abol ished the Reconstruction Finance Corporation; it has not tumed
\nits hand on the preSSing question of civl I rights.
\nU. S. News and World Reports sums up the case as follows: “Congress adJourns
\nwi th the Fa i r Dea I left on Ice, new wei fare plans she I vad. But by Its
\nactions the .Unlted 5″tates will be made the world’s stroogest power., Mi I itary
\naid abroad wi II be immense. Business wi II continue “to live lI’lder controls, but
\nwith safeguards against abuse. Money will flow In a free and easy way, with 89
\nbillions to spend.”
\n*****
\n3-129
\nWhen I talked last week about the old directory which contained Mrs. Kloss’
\ncooking recipes. I told you I regretted that many pages had been tom out as
\nwe II as others pasted over. What was my de I ight when, two days after the broadcast.
\nMr. Lewis Whipple left at my door a complete unmarred copy of that same
\nold directory. I shall refer to it again In a few weeks, but tonight I want to
\ncall your attention only to some of the advertisements In the back of the book.
\nThere are 80 pages of advertising. Many of them are full-page ads of Maine
\nhotels. One was the Preble House, which I am sure our older listeners remember
\nwe II. I t stood on the northeast comer of Congress and Preb Ie Streets where now
\na large office bui Idlng rears Its head. This 1860 ad says of that famous hotel:
\n“Preb Ie House, Portland, Me I ne. Th Is new hote I is now camp le1ed and open for
\nthe accommodat Ion of trans i ent and pe rmanent boarders. I tis the largest hote I
\nIn the state, possessing all the modern Improvements and is fl rst class in
\nevery appointment. Charles M. Adams, proprietor.”
\nThe picture of the Augusta House in I ts ad In th I s book looks much as that
\nfamous hotel looks today. It was then run by Harrison Baker, who announced that
\n“porters are In attendance to convey passengers and baggage to the House from
\nal I rail road and steamboat stations free of charge.”
\nU. M. Thayer advertised another hotel In Augusta, the Kennebec House, on
\nthe corner of Water and Winthrop Streets. “This house”, he announced, “has been
\nnewly flttea up, enlarge(i, and elegantly furnished, and possesses all modem Improvements
\nfor the conven lence and comfort of I ts guests. A I arge I Ivery stab Ie
\nIs connected with the house. Stages leave here from all towns in this viCinity.”
\nARothe r hote I, whose picture looks Just as I used to know the p I ace forty
\nyears ago, is the Stoddard House at Farmington. In 1860 Its original proprietor,
\nS. F. Stoddard, was\u00b7still alive. “This hotel”, says his ad, “situated on Broadway
\nIn the beautiful village of Farmington, the shire tom of Franklin County,
\nand the terminus of the Androscoggin Rai I road, wi II be found a pleasant and at-
\n3-130
\ntracTive resort at all seasons of the year. Mr. Stoddard, with an experience
\nof twe lve years as I and lord and proprietor, Is competent and ever ready to attend
\nto The call, wants and comfort of company in the best possible manner. Guests
\ntaken to and from the depot free of charge.”
\nI ~gret to say that wh i Ie many of those hote I ads take a fu II page, that
\nfor The Elmwood in Waterville occupies only one inch of one column. IT says
\nsimply: “Elmwood Hotel, Waterville, Maine. J. L. Seavey, proprietor. Comer
\nof Main and College Streets, near the depot.”
\nOne of the most lavish ads is that of the Bethel House, west side of the
\ncommon, Bethe’, Ma I ne. W. J. LoveJoy, the prep rletor, announced that he had
\n!lrecently remodeled this well-known house, and refurnished it throughout with
\nnew furn i ture. A carri age is inconstant attendance at the depot to convey passengers
\nto the House. Mr. Lovejoy Is also agent for the British and American
\nExpress Co. He also runs a mall coach from Bethel to Errol, N. H. via Newry,
\nGrafTon, Upton, Umbagog Lake, and Cambridge on Tuesday and Friday of each week.”
\nAnother picture that looks very fami liar is the Thorndike H9tel in fbckland.
\nAway back there in 1860 I t had an enTrance on the come r of Sea Street as we II
\nas one on Main Street. Other hote Is advertised in the dl rectory, some of them
\nremembered, some long forgotten, are the Columbian House at Bath, the Penobscot
\nHouse at Hampden Corner, the York Hotel In Saco, the Eveleth House at WinterporT,
\nthe Waldo House at Frankfort, The Maine Hotel at Damariscotta, the Commercial
\nHouse in Rockland, and the Mansion House at Morri II’s Corner.
\nAs you might expect, I. M. Singer Co. of Broadway, New York, took a fuJ I
\npage TO advertise their sewing machines, but even more space — two full pages
\nwas Taken to advertise Wi II lams and Orvis’s unequa led doub Ie-thread fami Iy sewing
\nmachines for $25, guaranteed to be the equal of the more expensive machines.
\n“We have demonstrated”, says the ad, “that as good a machine, for all practical
\nuses can be made for $25 as for $150.” This was a slap at the best of the
\n3-131
\nSinge rs, wh I ch cos t $150.
\nSe I dom nowadays do we eve r see an adva rt i se r re fe r by nama to a compet I tor,
\nbut they pulled no punches back in 1860. Th is Wi II iams and Orvl'”\u00a7’ iI’:-_: ”We
\nhave compelled other manufacturers of sewing machines to reduce their prices.
\nDuring the three years that we have been in business, the Grover and Baker Co.,
\nWheeler, Wilson and Co., Singer and Co., and all other responsible manufacturers
\nhave reduced the price of their cheapest machines from $75 to $40. We produced
\nso good a mach ine that our competl ~rs had to take the hint. But let the pub II c
\nremember that our machines are stili the best and are $15 cheaper than the
\ncheapest of any othe r manufacture r. ”
\nDo you knat that grand old Portland firm of Kendall and Whitney? Well, they
\nwere in business ninety years ago. They advertised as wholesale and retal I dealers
\nIn agrlcu-Itura I Imp lements, woodenware and seeds. I th ink I had never knatn
\nthe fl rst names of those partners unti I I saw them In th Is ad. They were Hosea
\nKen da II an d Anwn i Wh I tney \u2022
\nA fu II page Is gi van to the ad of J. D. Cheney, manufacturer of ne lodeons
\nand harmoniums at 135 Middle street, Portland. He advertised an Harmonium with
\ntwo banks of keys, of 41 octaves each, four fu II sets of reeds and one and onehalf
\noctaves in pedals. It had ten stops and included all the varieties of the
\nthousand dollar pipe organ.
\nSanborn and Carter of Port land announced that they had for sa Ie the fu II
\nseries of Greenleaf’s mathematics books — not only the well-known arithmetic,
\nbut also the Treatise on Algebra and the Elements of Geometry and Trigonometry.
\nDi d you ever hear hat George C. Shaw started bus iness in Portland? When
\nwas a res I dent of that city In 1921 the re we re two I arge George C. Shaw ma rkets,
\none in Congress Square and one on Preb Ie Street Just around the comer
\nfrom ~nument Square. But in 1860 the Shaw business was much more modest. His
\nad in the old directory reads: “China Tea Store. New Teas! New Teas! No.
\n3-132
\n135 Middle Street, Portland. Choice tea and pure coffee. A good assortment of
\nsugars cheap. China Tea Co., George C. Shaw, proprietor.”
\nPredecessor of the famous fish firm of George C. Lord Company of Portland
\nwas the fl rm of Dana and Company. They wanted the pub II c to know, not on Iy that
\nthey had been in business for fifty years, but that they had plenty of stock for
\na I I cus tome rs \u2022 The i r 1860 ad says: “Our us ua I stock I s as fo I lows 300,000
\nIbs. large cod, 100,000 Ibs. medium cod, 200,000 Ibs. pollock, 5,000 boxes herring,
\n1,000 bbls. mackerel, plenty of tongues and sounds, napes and fins, and
\n100 bbls. tanners’ oi I. Of salt we have 40,000 bushels of Turks Island, 40,000
\nbushels of Liverpool, and 2,000 bags of Ground Butter salt.”
\n, was pleased also to see among these 1860 ads that old friend, Ayer’s
\nSarsapari Ila, “For the cure of scrofula, eruptions, ulcers, pimp les, blotches,
\ntumors, salt rheum, deb) Ilty, dyspepsia and indigestion.”
\nOn the inside back cover Is the sort of ad you never see today. Our papers
\nare filled with real estate ads, to be sure, but none like that which the Ulinols
\nCentral Railroad Co. presented In this 1860 directory. It reads: “Rich, rolling,
\nprai rie lands. Farms for one thousand dollars in the most ferti Ie state in the
\nUnion. Rich prairie land at the low price of $12 an acre. That we have sold
\nover a thousand of these tracts a I ready th i s season is best proof of the ri chness
\nand great va I ue of these I I , i no I s lands. The I I II nol s Centra I R. R. was
\nfinished in 1856, but It through a sparsely settled country. This season, after
\nonly four years, it takes to market over 13,000,000 bushels of grain, besides
\nmany cattle and hogs. The lands now offered for sa Ie are adjacent to the raj I,..
\nroad. A tract of 80 acres will make a good, comfortab Ie honestead.”
\n*****
\nAs we come to the c lose of Thanksg I vi ng Week, I et me ca II your attention to
\nthe Thanksgiving proclamation issued by the Governor of Maine 121 years ago. Mrs.
\nWi liard Rockwood of Lawrence Street has shown me a framed copy of that proclama-
\n3-133
\ntion signed by Governor Jonathan Dunton at the Counci I Chamber of the State
\nCapitol In Portland on October 26, 1830, proclaiming Thursday, December 2 as a
\nday of thanksgiving and praise, and requesting the people of Maine on that day
\nto assemb Ie at thei r usua I p I aces of pub Ii c worsh I p, to render thanks to the
\ngreat gl ver of a II gl fts.
\nI did not realize that, in such proclamations in the early years of Maine’s
\nstatehood, the Governors paid attent.ion to events abroad, but listen to these
\nwords of Governor Dunton’s 1830 proclamation:
\n”Wi th i n less than a year we have seen the banner of the cross float trf umphantly
\nover the regions of infidelity. We have seen the proud ottoman, whose
\nmountain barriers have for ages defied the power of Invadi n9 armies, become a
\nhumb led pri nce, and Greece, in whose fate Chri sti an and ph i I anthrop ist have taken
\nso lively an Interest, disenthralled from his power. In another part of the globe
\nwe have seen an infidel nation of pirates driven from their stronghold. Wherever
\nwe turn our eyes, we see the i ron rod of the oppressor and “the crimson spear of
\nthe conque ror broken be fore the breath of him who ru las the dest I ny of nat i ons. 11
\nSo a hundred and twenty one years ago for the conquest of Christian arms
\nand for the peace and liberty in our own United States, Governor Dunton asked
\nthe people of Maine to be duly thankful.
\n3-134
\nLI TTLE TA LKS ON COM~ TH I NGS
\n125th Broadcast Oecermer 2, 1951
\nWhat is the principal cause of extravagant government spending? It Is
\ntime we faced squarely up to that question, and we don’t like the answer. Because
\nthe answer is human selfishness. Because you and I want some special
\nbene fit for ourse I ves or our own I oca I I tv more than we want the we I fa re of a II
\nthe peop Ie, we expect representati ves to the legl s lature or our Congressmen to
\ntrade the I r vote for another fe I low ‘s pet project I n return for a vote for ours.
\nMaIne people want some bIg spending done on QuoddYi Kansans want subsidIes
\non wheat; Montana wants another big dam. So the log roiling gets under way.
\nI n both houses of Congress the very same men who cry loudest for cutting down
\nexpenses vate for one need less project after anothe r because on Iy by so voting
\ncan they get votes for projects wanted I n the i r own states, good or bad. Attempts
\nto consolidate the very expensive work of the Veterans Administration have been
\nconstantly thwarted because of selfish interests. Naturally no state wants to
\nlose a veterans hospital, but the government has the clear duty to choose the
\nmost efficient plan of operation, regardless of what happens to one hospital.
\nLet me give you an example of this sort of thing nearer hane. The State of Maine
\nnow operates fiw teacher-trainIng institutions for the preparation of elemen …
\ntary school teachers. Not one of those schools is fl lied, and three of them
\ncould each accommodate twIce as many students as they have. Maine needs five
\nteacher-training institutions about as much as a chicken needs five legs. But
\nyou Just try to close one of those schools. You would have half the population
\nof the town where the school is located weeping down your neck. No, I suspect
\nwe shall go right on speriding for five of these schools many years before any
\nlegis lature has the courage to close one or more of theM,.,;”
\nNow It is not the legis lators and the Congressmen who are to b I arne; it is
\n3-135
\nyou and I. We a re the ones who I ns I stth at our rep resentati ves act that way i f
\nthey want to stay In offl ce. So there Is a lot of truth I n what E. A. Evans
\nwrote In the New York World-Telegram way back last spring. ThIs is what he said:
\n“Suppose citizens bombarded their Congressmen with letters saying, In effect:
\n‘Forget our states, our districts’ special benefits for a while. It won’t
\nruin us to do without federal money you’ve been trying to get for us. But inflation
\ncan ruin us un less Congress stops mere Iy talking about government economy
\nand does something about It. That’s the job we want you to help do for us.’
\nWell, some Congressmen might drop dead of surprise. But those who survived the
\nshock might slash a whale of a lot of unnecessary spending out of the national
\nbudget. It’s worth tryl ng.”
\nOf course, nobody paid t.h8 slightest attention to Mr. Evans’ suggestion.
\nHow do I know that? Because the words I have Just quoted were reprinted In the
\nJuly issue of the Readers Digest, where, I’ll bet, among some ten million people
\nwho regularly see that magazine, more than half the folks I istening to this
\nbroadcast read them. And what did you do about It?
\n*****
\nOn several occasions I have mentioned the old-time schools of Watervi lie
\nand sane of the other Kennebec towns, but I do not reca” that I haw sa i d anythi”
\n9 about the Fai rfle Id schools of long ago.
\nRecently, through the courtesy of Mr. Jotham Hobbs of Fairfield, an elderly
\ngentleman with whom I had a delightful visit last summer, I had opportunity to
\nexamine a report of the supervisor of schools of the tOoln of Fairfield almost a
\nhundred years ago. It was the report for the year ending March 1, 1858.
\nlet us see what the Fal rfle Id schools were like in that year when out in
\nIII inols was he I d the most famous series of poll tica I debates in our history,
\nthose between Stephen A. Douglas and Abraham lincoln. Fairfield wasn’t much interested
\nin those far-away debates, he Id to determine who shou Idrepresent
\n3-136
\nIllinois in the U. S. Senate. Fairfield folks had concems of their own, among
\nthem the ca~ of the town’s schools.
\nIt didn’t cost much to run the schools a hundred years ago. In 1858 the
\ntown of Fairfield appropriated $1,500 for all of its schools; the State contributed
\n$386, making the total school expenditure for Fairfield $1,846. That
\namount was divided among 25 school districts. There were usually a summer term
\nand a winter term in each district, but sometimes a district had only one term
\nIn the year, and in the various districts the length of the term differed
\nwidely. In the rural districts, removed from the settlements like Kendall’s
\nMill s or Somerset MI lis (the 01 d names for Fal rfi e I d Vi II age and Shawmut), a
\nchi Id was lucky if he got more than a dozen weeks of school in a whole year.
\nAt Kendall’s Mi lis In 1857-58 there was a winter term of eight weeks, a
\nsummer term of ten weeks, and — what was unusual for those times — a fall
\nterm of six weeks — a total of 24 weeks. On the other hand in District No.3
\nat Nye’s Corner, there was only a summer term of ten weeks — only that one term
\nIn the district during the entire year. In District No.4 at Plshon’s Ferry
\n(now Hinckley) there were a summer term of seven weeks and a winter term of five
\nweeks. In District No.9 at Fairfield ~eting House (at what is now Fairfield
\nCenter) the~ were a twelve-week summer term with 72 pupils, and a winter term
\nof nine weeks. District NIO. 6 at Quakertown had winter and summer terms of
\neight weeks each.
\nThe supervi sor of school s — the man who submi tted th is report for the 25
\nschoo I districts to the town — was E. K. Boyle. I n that far-off day he had
\nmuch to say about the disadvantages caused by having so many small schools. The
\nschool bus was then 75 years in the future; so Supervisor Boyle had no solution
\nto the problem. But he presented the problem frankly In these words: “One
\nof two conditions must exist in our more sparsely populated districts; either
\nsome of the scholars must walk to a school at considerable distance from their
\n3-137
\nhomes, where they can have decent advantages for learning, or they have a poor
\nsubstitute for a schoolhouse nearby, where term after term a mere handful of
\nscholars assemble to drag out five or six hours a day, without any suitable
\nteacher, or any advantages to make the school hours interesting and profitable.
\nThere are too many schools scattered over this town. It is better for a scholar
\nto walk two mi les to attend a ,,::’School of sufficient numbers to make him emulous
\nof keepi ng pace wi th the smartest schol ars, than to wa I k ha I f a mi Ie to attend
\na school where he is the only scholar in a class.”
\nThese oid-time school reports were decidedly frank in their conments, and
\nthis one of Falrfie Id in 1858 is no exception. Of District No.3 the supervisor
\nsaid: “In this district Is nothing that can be dignified by the name of schoolhouse.
\nIn the district are some fine scholars, though most of them are young;
\nand they go to school in 8 bui Id1ng hardly fit for a sheep pen. What seats they
\nhave in the building are entirely unsuited to convenience or health, and in cold
\nweather nothing has power to render it comfortable against the cold except a
\ngigantic fire apparatus capable of warming all out of doors. If the powers of
\nevil could invent some prison-house, and make it as repulsive as possible to
\nthe free and Joyous spirit of a child, they could not hope to surpass this
\nschoo I house. II
\n“In District ‘No. 4”, continues the report, “there is another hut in which
\nthe scholars attend school. It is not quite so bad as that in No.3, but it is
\nbad enough, and the schools in this district can never be the kind to keep young
\npeople out of state prison or county Jail until there is a more suitab Ie bui 1-
\nding.”
\nNot all that Supervisor Boyle says atJout the teachers are words of praise.
\n“In Miss Fossett’s school at Kendall’s Mi lis”, he wrote, “there was manifest,
\ntoward the close of the term, a lack of interest among the scholars.;’ Mr. Norton’s
\nschool”, says the supervisor, “was not very profitable. He is quite young
\n3-138
\nand is too I nexperl enced to take charge of a schoo I. Mr. Johnson worked hard,
\nyet he wanted much of the energy requisi te to the successful management of a
\nschool of this size. Irregularity of attendance had very injurious results,
\nand Mr. Johnson did little to cause the pup! Is to have a des I re to attend.
\nJames Freeman Is a young man of good parts, excellent character, and a fine
\nscholar. His discipline was not so good as could be wished, but his system of
\ninstruction was excel lent. We noted to our regret, when we visited the school,
\nthat The younger scholars seemed fl lIed with an Inordinate desire to exhibit
\nthe I r powers of locomoti on.”
\nThe supervisor Is even more critical of the school at Fa! rfield Center
\ntaughT by I. N. Richardson. “On our first visit to the school”, he says, “It
\nappeared satisfactory; the teaching seemed active and the scholars industrious
\nand orderly. Having occasion to visit the school again, at the request of parents
\nIn the district, we found it, so far as progress is concerned, stationary
\n— the scho lars drl vi ng around at random among the i r books and stud I es, like a
\nship set afloat without helm or rudder. Satisfied that the school was doing
\nthe scholars little good, we advised the teacher to leave, which he accordingly
\n. did.”
\nSupervisor Boyle often tempered his praise of a teacher. In Miss Rebecca
\nNorton’s school at Ohio HIli, he admitted were to be found some of the best mathematl
\nclians and best grammarians in town. “The scholars he17e”, he wrote, “rank
\nfar above the average il,n other districts. Yet”, he added, “there Is one great
\nfau It I n Miss Norton as a teacher, and that is want of energy.”
\nThe suprevisor had an eye out for likely teacher material, however. He noted
\nthat MI ss Marl a Lawrence at Oistri ct No. 7 was “a young I ady possess i ng a
\nrefined and critical mind, who with experience will make a grand teacher.”
\nMr. Boyle complains that It Is hard to get reports from the school districts.,
\neven accurate word-of-mouth Information about the schools. ‘~e visited the
\n‘_, 3-139
\nschoolhouse at Somerset Mi lis three times during the winter term,” he says, “but
\neach time we found no school in session. It was with this school as with many
\nothers; we had to guess when it would commence, when it would be keeping, and
\nwhen it was like Iy to be comp leted.”
\n“In District No.7”, the supervisor says, “we understand a winter term was
\ntaught by Mr. Newell Hoxie, but since we had no notice of its commencement or
\nclose, we did not visit it.” Of District No. 10, Mr. Boyle wrote: “We have now
\nreceived a register iaforming us that there has been a winter term taught by
\nMiss Marinda Jewett. It was our first notice of the existence of such a school,
\nand it was therefore not visited.”
\nWhat we today consider essential school statistics are missing from this
\nreport. It gives us no inkling of the total number of pupils in the town:’,s 25
\nschool districts. Only occasionally does it give the enrollment in anyone
\nschool. The whole thing was quite haphazard, and the school supervisor evidently
\nhad trouble finding out whether some of the schools held sessions at all,
\nto say nothing of how many pupi Is attended. It is difficult to determine how
\nmuch the teachers were paid, but the average appears to have been about two
\ndollars a week. One interesting fact brought out by this old-time report is
\nthat, in the summer term, all the teachers were women, whi Ie in the winter term
\nall but six were men. Those male teachers were supplied by students from the
\ncolleges, all of which had a long winter vacation for the sale purpose of giving
\nthe i r students a chance to earn someth i n9 toward the i r co liege expenses by teaching
\na term in the oommon schools. If the pay was two dollars a week, they
\ncouldn’t have earned much toward college expenses. True enough, but they could
\nhave made a start, for tuition at Colby was then $15 a term.
\n*****
\nAmong the possessions of Mr. Jotham Hobbs, who showed me this Fai rfield
\nschool report for 1858, is a letter written to an ancestor of his concerning
\n3-140
\nteaching school in Fai rfield. The letter was indeed written in the very year
\nwe have been talking about, for it Is dated Apri I 21, 1858. It reads: “Mr.
\nHobbs. Dear SI r: Upon reflection with regard to the school In your district,
\nhave come to The cone I us i on that I cannot take I t for less than three doll ars
\na week. I would like it at that price, but should not feel that I was doing myself
\njustice to take IT for less. If you wish Ire to have it, please let me
\nknow th is week. Yours tru Iy, Jenny T. Ware.”
\n3-141
\nLITILE TALKS ON COMMON THINGS
\n126th Broadcast
\nSome of you wi II remember how Waterville was honored last June by the pre-
\nSence of Mrs. Gi Ibreth at the Colby Commencement. Mrs. Gilbreth, you know, was
\nthe heroine mother of that very popu lar book “Cheaper by the Dozen”, written by
\nher son and her daughter. What I find unfami I I ar to many Watervl lie peop Ie is
\nthe fact that Mrs. Gi Ibreth~s famous husband, Frank Gilbreth, world-renowned industrlal
\ncounselor, came from Fairfield, Maine. To be sure, he left town when
\nhe was a young chi Id, but back In the 1870’s the Gi Ibreth family was very well
\nknown i n Fa i rf I e I d.
\nThrough the courtesy of Mr. Stephen Wing of the Watervi lie Savings Bank, I
\nhave had opportunity to examine several letters signed by Frank Gt Ibreth’s father,
\nJ. H. Gilbreth. They are all on the Gilbreth printed letter-head, which
\nreads as follows: “J. H. Gi Ibreth, dealer since 1855 In Hardware, Farmers’ and
\nMechanics’ Tools, iron, steel, stoves, paints, oils, varnishes, and building material.
\nManufacturer of tin and sheet iron ware. Corner Main and Bridge
\nStreets, Kendalls MI J Is, Maine. Also proprietor of the Fairground Farm (130
\nacres) where can be seen Gi Ibreth Knox stock. Also pure Jersey stock, and Cheshire
\nand Yorkshire swine from the best families in the country.”
\nThese particular letters deal with Mr. Gi ‘breth’s attempt to clean up a
\nmatter of land purchase. On May 5, 1871 he wrote to Wi” jam Dyer, president of
\nthe Waterville Savings Bank: up lease do me the favor to write me the amount you
\nand the trustees thought proper for me to pay to have a quit claim of the lot of
\nland and bui Jdings east of the Main Street or County Road, as it is called, at
\nthe Bodfish farm. If you forgot to present the subject to the trustees, please
\nth ink of I t at your next meet I ng. ”
\n3-142
\nOn September 23, when Mr. Gf Ibreth was about to start on a journey, he
\nwrote to Mr. Dyer a letter which contains a final sentence that Is typical of
\nthe Implicit honesty of business men of that time. He wrote: “I could not get
\nto WaTervi I Ie this afternoon unti I after your business hours at the bank, so
\nam sending you the Winslow mortgage by mai I as collateral with his notes you
\nhaw. must leave on a trip early tanorrow morning. If this is not all satls …
\nfactory, of course I wi II do what is satisfactory.”
\nThe last of the three letters is dated December 12. It 1s signed “Solon
\nBunker for J. H. Gi Ibreth” and reads: “Mr. Gi Ibreth has been quite sick since
\nyou were here and wishes me to say that he needs the money very much.”
\nThIs is all a bit confusing, and we can only conjecture what it was all
\nabout. We think, however, that Mr. Gilbreth succeede\u20acl In straightening out com…
\npletely his affairs with the Watervi I Ie Savings Bank.
\nIt is a long tl me since I have seen any stationery It ke that on wh I ch the
\nGi Ibreth letters are written, though I saw lots of It as a boy. I t is fol ded
\ninto four pages, like modern socIal stationery, except that It is ruled. At the
\ntop of the fi rst page is printed the letter head. And now canes the odd point
\nwith which many of you may not be fami I jar. The enti re fourth page is devoted
\nto advertisements. I know in Bridgton fifty years ago that was the way many
\nbusiness men paid for their stationary — by seiling advertisements to be placed
\non it by other business men — I suspect that was done. in Fai rfie Id, when J. H.
\nGi Ibreth provided himself with this stationery about 1870.
\nWho were some of the dea lers who carried ads on the back of Mr. Gi Ibreth’s
\nletters? . There were F. Kendrick and Brother, manufacturers of carriages and
\nsleighs; Frank P. Wing, dealer In furniture, feathers, and caskets; Tukey and
\nJames, who made curtain fixtures; E. H. Evans, the druggist, who also sold books,
\nfancy goods, and jewelry; J. F. Dealy, the meat man; and S. S. Brown, counselor
\nat law. Since in 1870 Kendal Is Mi lis was a famous center for lumber and wood
\n3-143
\nproducts, the ads of the lumber dealers and ml II operators predominate. There
\nare no less than seven of them: N. Totman and Son; Newha II and Gibson; E. Totman
\nand Co.; John Phi Ibrook. Woodman, Lawrencs and Co.; Emery, Bradbury and Co.;
\nand C. and J. M. Fogg.
\nBut the most Interesting ad of all is one printed upside down in the lower
\nleft-hand corner. It was obviously placsd there by Mr. Gilbreth himself. It pic,..
\ntures a trotter, harnessed to a high-whee led su I ky lead ing a heat of nine entries
\nto the wire in front of the judges’ stand at a race track. Beneath the p icture
\nis printed: “Gi Ibreth Knox, 2:26 3\/4; best half In a race, 1 :10*; best
\nquarter, 34i seconds. The sire of Lothair, sold for $5,000 when three years old.
\nGi Ibreth Knox was awarded the two highest prl zes at the New Eng land Fa I r In 1869.
\nFirst prize, Maine State Agricultural Society, 1868. J. H. Gilbreth, his owner,
\nis also a dealer in hardware, stoves, agricultural tools, etc. and is agent for
\nthe CI ipper Mowing Machine for six counties. Comer of Main and Bridge Streets.”
\n*****
\nInasmuch as we have started out with Kendalls Mills tonight, let us keep on
\nwith some more facts about the tQl\/n of Fairfield. It was originally In both of
\nthe same countids’;wlth Watervl lie. Did you catch what I said — both of the same
\ncounties? For Waterville and Fairfield alike were originally In Lincoln County,
\nwhich covered at one time a huge tract of land noW divided Into six counties, an\u20ac!
\nparts of a seventh and an eighth. Kennebec Comty was formed in 1799, and from
\nthat year unti I 1809, both Waterville and Fairfield were in Kennebec. Then,,\u00b7
\nwi th the organ I zing of Somerset County in 1809, the county I ine passed between
\nWatervi lie and Fal rfie Id, p lacing the latter in the new county.
\nLI ke Waterville and Wi ns low, the land ti ties of Fai rf ie I d go back to the
\nyear 1661, when Artemas Boris, Edward Tyng, Thomas Bratt Ie and John Wins low purChased
\nfran the Plymouth Colony what Is known as the Kennebec Patent. It embraced
\nall the land west of the Kennebec River between Topsham and Norridgewock and
\n3-144
\ncartal n lands on the east sl de of the rl ver above Augusta.
\nMore than a century later, In 1781, John Winslow, a descenoant of one of
\nthe four who purchased the Plymouth rights, granted, together with his associates,
\nheirs of the other purchasers, a cartaln tract of land to Joseph Nye of
\nSandwich, Massachusetts, and Joseph Dirnmock of Falmouth, tvlassachusetts. tt .was
\ndescribed as “a parcel of land lying on the west side of the Kennebec River
\nabove Fort Halifax and Tlconlc Falls, In the coun.ty of Lincoln, containing by
\nestimaNon 11,700 acres, exclusive of roads. For that tract, covering nearly
\nall of the territory now occupied by the t~n of Fairfield, Nye and mirriffioc~”paid
\n1,800 pounds, lawfu I s II ver money. One hundred and twenty years earl fer, the
\nfirst John Winslow and his three associates had paid 400 pounds for the entire
\nvast tract from Topsham to Norridgewock. But of course that was only shortly
\nafter the notorious purchase of Manhattan Island by the Dutch for $24.
\nUnder the terms of the purchase Nye and .Dirnmockwere r~uired::-!to layout” a
\nroad, eight rods wide, to be completed across the tract within five years, and
\nkept fit for trne I I ng by carts. They were a I so requi red to di vi de the tract
\ninto sixty lots and obtain settlers.
\nNye and Dimmock proceeded to sell lots to acquaintances in Falmouth” Sandwich,
\nand other Massachusetts t~ns, at a price of thirty pounds per lot. Among
\nthose first settlers were three Nyes, four Bowermans, five Tobeys, two Lawrencas,
\ntwo Blackwells, two Atwoods, and such other well known Fairfield names as Wing,
\nKendall, Shepard, Emery and Holway.
\nIn the early days the largest settlement was not at what is now Fairfield
\nVillage, but at Fairfield Center, with North Fairfield running it a close second.
\nOn what was I ater known as the Abe I Hoxie farm, was born A I den Bowerman, the
\nfirst white child born in Fairfield.
\nThere had been seft lers near the ri ver, however, not far fran the present
\nFairfield Village, as early as 1776, when one who Is called in the records Peter
\n3-145
\nPushard (was he actually the first of the Pishons of Plshon Ferry fame?) built
\na log house not far from where the Fairfield rai I road station now stands.
\nFourteen years later, in 1780, 93neral Wi II iam Kendall bui It another log
\ncabin south of Pushards. He also built a bulkhead across the mi II pond and
\nerected a small grist mi II, bringing his mi II stones up from Gardiner as far as
\nTI con I c Fa lis by boat, and from there to Fat rfie I d by ox team.
\nGeneral Kendall is said to have been Fairfield’s first freemason, becoming
\nsuch in 1804. On his death in 1827 he was buried with masonic service in the
\n01 d cemetery on Emery Hi II. He was the first of Fa i rfie I d ‘s many mi II operators,
\nnot only grinding grain but also sawing lumber in considerable quantity_ When
\nwe remember that General Kendall had come to Fairfield in 1780, It Is remarkable
\nto note that his son, George Kendall, lived unti I 1900, dying at Fairfield in
\nthat year, six months after he had passed his one hundredth bi rthday. He is one
\nof the few men I have ever heard of whose life spanned exactly all the years of
\nthe nineteenth century.
\nFairfield was incorporated as a town in 1788, thus making it 17 years
\nyounger than Wi ns low, but fOurteen years 01 der than Watervi lie.
\nThe fl rst tow,n meeting was he Id at the home of Seth Fuller on August 19,
\n1788. The first selectmen were Josiah Burgess, Elihu Bowerman and Joseph Town.
\nSamue I Tobey was both town clerk and treasurer. Lemue I Tobey and Danle I Wyman
\nwere elected tithingmen. The importance of lumber to the tewn was shown by the
\nchoosing of James Lawrence, Daniel Shepard, Jonathan Emery, and John Nobel as
\nsurveyors of lumber. Gideon Holway was constable, and Thomas Blackwel I was
\nelected to an office common in old England but less common in American towns,
\nthat of hog reeve. J ames Huston was appo i nted to see that “the snares we re not
\nmade waste of”. Does anyone know what that meant?
\nThe records of that first town meeting In Fairfield show that the custom
\nof letting out the collection of taxes to the highest bidder goes back at least
\n3-146
\nas far as 1788. For at Fa I rf ie Id in that year Joshua B I ackwe II offered TO
\ncollecT the taxes at ten pence upon the pound, and the tam voted to accept
\nhi 5 offer, although the clerk wrote It “except”. That clerk was authorl zed
\nto provl de h imse If with BOoks for the town and to bring in The charge at some
\nfuture meeting for the town TO pay.
\nWe have some know ledge of what taxes Collector B I ackwe I I had to round up,
\nfor ten yea rs I ate r taxes we re assesse d on 90 Fa i rf i e I d res I dents. The highest
\ntax paid by anyone of the 90 was $3.23.
\nAs we have said the fi rst houses were log cabins. The fl rst frame house is
\nsaid TO have been built by Gideon Holway near what was called the Moosehorn, and
\nthe fl rst frame house In Fa I rfie Id Vi II age was the Wi II iam Emery house, where
\nBenedict Arnold spent several days waiting for his bateaux to be tarred before
\nhis expediTion continued up the river.
\nIT was five years after incorporation as a town that for the first Time
\nFairfield raised money to support schools. The amount was 25 pounds to be paid
\nin grain and produce.
\nAfter Genera I Kenda II ‘5 mills there were severa I smal I saw ml lis erected,
\nand beTween 1820 and 1830 developed the big block of saw mills for which Kendalls
\nMills became famous. These were completely destroyed by fire In 1853 at
\na loss of $100,000. They were rebui It, even expanded, as photographs taken in
\nthe 1870’s clearly show. Another devastaTing fire in 1895 wiped them out, and
\non Iy a few were ever rebu i It.
\nThe fi rst store in the vi I I age was rtJ1 by that giant of a II trades, Genera I
\nKendall, and the first post office was in the store next north of Lawry Brothers.
\nFrom 1848 to 1873 the toll bri dge was operated by Capta in Wi II iam Bodf ish.
\nDid you know that Fairfield once had an academy? In 1857 a school called
\nBunker’S Seminary operated in a brick building at the comer of Lawrence Avenue
\nand Newha II Street.
\n3-147
\nlowe so much to Mr. Stephen Wing for a large part of this information about
\nold-Time Fairfield, that I want to conclude this program by paying respects to
\nhis family line, which goes back to the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
\nOnly two years after Winthrop had founded that colony in 1630 a widON, Mrs.
\nDeborah Wing, came to Boston In the ship “Wi “lam and Frances”, with her four
\nSons and her father. They settled at Saugus and founded the Wing family in
\nAmerica.
\nAs time went on, one of the Wings moved to Sandwich, where he became a
\nneighbor of the Nyes. By 1700 some of the fami Iy had come to Maine, settling
\nchiefly in the general area of LlverlYPre, Wayne, Canton and Peru.
\nStephen I s a name that frequent Iy appears in the Wing genea logy. From one
\nof Deborah’s sons, Stephen, bom in England in 1621, dONn to the present Steve
\nWing of Fai rHe Id, there are nine generations and five of the nine names are
\nStephen. The present Stephen :Wing’s father was named for a president of the
\nUnited States, for he was called Frankl in Pierce Wing.
\nAnd with that sa lute to the Wings Ib i d you good: IJ 19ht \u2022
\n3-148
\nliTTLE TALKS ON COMMON THINGS
\n127th Broadcast December 16, 1951
\nMrs. E. H. Rockwood, whose copy of Governor Dunton’s 1830 proclamation I
\ntold you about a few weeks ago, has shown me other documents of surprising Interest.
\nMrs. Rockwood’s father, Horace Lovering, came to Waterv! lie In 1886 to
\nbegi n a long career wi th the Mal ne Centra I Ra I I road. He came from the Eastern
\nRailroad, later merged with the Boston and Maine, where he was clerk. The interes
\ntl ng documents I n Mrs \u2022 Rockwood t s possess I on are two huge sheets, one a
\nmonthly report, the other an annual report, showing the performance of locomotives
\non the Eastern Rai I road In 1882. 8eisdes the signature of Mr. Lovering,
\nthe papers bear the signatures of A. Pillsbury, master of rolling stock, and
\nCharles S. Sergeant, auditor.
\nThese documents are amaz I ng examp les of beautl fu I penmansh I p. Many persons
\nwho have seen the papers refuse to be I I eve that they are hand-wri tten, but careful
\nexamination, showing erasures and corrections, reveals that indeed they were
\ndone by hand — and the hand was that of Mr. Horace Loveri n9, whose letters and
\nfigures look like meticulous steel engraving.
\nWhen did the railroads completely substitute coal for wood as a fuel? I
\nshould certainly have guessed that the conversion became complete, except on
\nobsolete branch lines, long before 1880; but such was not the case. During the
\nyear ending September 30 .. 1882, the consumption of wood by all locomotives of
\nthe road was 9,,514 cords. To be sure the road used 56,000 tons of coal in the
\nsame period, but nearly ten thousand cords was a lot of wood. Wood was already
\nprov! ng more expens I ve than coa I, as we I I as be I ng more cumbe rsome to carry, for
\nwhl Ie the rai I road paid $4.94 per ton for its coal and $3.38 per cord for its
\nwood, it got 41 miles to a ton of coa I and on I y 26 mi les to a cord of wood.
\n3-149
\nIn 1882 the Eastern Rai I road had two divisions. The longer was called the
\nEastern and Portland Division and Branches; the shorter was the COOlpany Division.
\nTotal wages paid TO englnemen and firemen for the whole road, switching engines
\nand a II, was a I itt Ie over th I rteen thousand doll ars \u2022
\nAnother interesting point was that in 1882 the rai I roads were sti II using
\n-tallow for certain lubrications. That year the Eastern used 15,000 pints of
\n01 I and 51 pounds of tallow. A printed heading tells us that one pound of tallow
\nwas equal to one pint of oi I. Some of the other printed heads read: ”Headlight
\noil not I nc I uded in mi les run to a pint of oi I ; one passenger car I s rated
\nequal to three loaded freight cars, when one engine hauls both; five empty
\nfre I ght cars rated equa I to three loaded fre i ght cars.”
\nThis ‘-882 report lists 104 locomotives operated by the Eastern. They are
\nconsecutl ve Iy numbered from one to 104. May we assume that those were the acTua
\nI engi ne numbers? I f so, the road’s or! gl na I Engl ne No. 1 was stl II I n operation.
\nAt any rate No.1 on This list Is the smallest of the 104, weighing
\nonly 17!- tons, conTrasted with No. 98’s 41 tons. IT had four drives of 50-inch
\ndiameter and had been made by Hinkley and Wi Iliams. About twenty of the engines
\nhad been made In The Eastern’s own shops, though the largest were products of
\nThe R. I. LocomoTive Works.
\nIn 1882 No.1 was a switch engine at Salem, and Its engineer was H. F.
\nCarleton. Big Nt:). 98 ran between Boston and Portland In charge of F. Carter.
\nhave a Iways been struck by how many ral I road engl neers bear old Amari can names,
\nand In this reporT of Horace Lovering’s we find the fami liar names of Adams,
\nHayes, Brown, Gray, Page, Fuller, Franklin, Dodge, Thomas, Emery and Lormard,
\nand of course half a dozen Smiths. The old American fami lies certainly took to
\nrai lroading.
\n*****
\nBi II Flaherty, custodian of the Keyes Science Bui Iding at Colby College,
\n3-150
\nhas given me a copy of a True collector’s Item — the specia I issue of the Bangor
\nCommercl a I printed on The occasion of the famous Bangor fl re (;11 1911. I t Is
\nprinted on coated paper wiTh very clear cuts, shOflng the fi re at various stages
\nand the burned districts after the fire was over.
\nI am sure many of our listeners remember that fi re we I I. I was a sophomore
\nin Colby at the time, and it was an exciting event, because the W:lterville Fire
\nDepartment went to the scene by special train. A vast area on the east side of
\nthe Kenduskeag Stream and up over the hi II all the way to Broadway was swept by
\nthe flames. The damage exceeded three ml II Ion dollars. NOT only business
\nblocks and residences, bUT also several churches were deSTroyed. The state milI
\ntl a was ca lied out, and aT the he Ight of the conf lagratl on the city was under
\nmartial law to prevent lOOTing. The city was without electric power or telephone
\nservice for days; The electric railroad line to Old Town and other points
\nwas totally disabled.
\nA visitor to Bangor Today would never realize the awful destruction of that
\nwindy April night forty years ago. A new and much better Bangor arose like a
\nphoenix from the ashes. One result was Bangor’s attractive and convenient civIc
\ncenter, where are now located the Post Office, the high school and the public
\nlibrary.
\n*****
\nA very unusual prinTed item is owned by Mr. Jarvis Thayer of Pleasant
\nStreet. It Is a pamphleT of 24 pages, printed in Portland at the office of Thomas
\nBaker Walt In 1791, and sold by him at nine pence a copy. like nearly all
\nthe printed wor;ks::,of thaT day, It bears a long title: “A narrative of the extraordinary
\nsufferings of Mr. Robert Forbes, his wife and five chi Idren, during
\nan wnfortunate Journey through the wi Iderness from Canada to the Kennebec River
\nin the year 1784; In which three of their children were starved to death. Taken
\npartly from the mouths of the survivors and partly from an Imperfect Journal,
\n3-151
\nand comp lied at the I r request.”
\nIt is an amazing story for which the author, Arthur Bradman 1 vouches the
\nsolemn truth In a one-page appendix.
\nUnder the ,guidance of what The narrative calls three Dutchmen, Mr. Forbes
\nwith his wi fe and fi ve chi Idren set out from Nouve lie Bois on the Chaudlere RIver.
\nWinter still held on In thaT region, for it was the 17th of March, 1784.
\nThe ch I I dren we re Mary aged 7, Peggy 5, Katha r Ine 3, Robe rt 15 monThs and the
\noldest, John, a lad of 13.
\nTheir goods, provisions and The four youngest chi Idren were hauled on hands
\nI eds ca lied I nd I an s Ie I ghs. The adu I ts and the boy John made the i r way on snowshoes.
\nAfter nine days of difficult traveling, they were obliged TO leave the
\nri ver valley and soon found it imposslb Ie to get the sleds any farther over the
\nrough terrain. So they decided to leave the woman and four children in a rudely
\nconstructed camp whl Ie the others pushed on to what was various Iy called lake
\nChaudiere and Megantlc Pond. Now let us pick up the story In the writer’s own
\nwords.
\n“The next morning, to the dismay of Mr. Forbes, the three Dutchmen took to
\nThemselves the provisions and al I the baggage of any consequence, and frankly
\nTold Forbes that they had no intention of returning with him to his family, but
\nwould now leave him and make thei r own way through to the Kennebec. Notwithstanding
\nForbes’ importunities, They left him with only one poor axe, a small
\nfi relock, and two I ittle loaves of bread, Here was a fami Iy, now without
\nguides or compass 1 and destitute of provisions, nine days’ Journey from the
\nnearest Inhab I tants of Canada and not less than 150 mi les from any dwe II iogs on
\nThe Kennebec.”
\nThey had to make the Important decision which way to go. Because he had
\nfound a not long deserted camp aT Megantic Pond, Mr. Forbes thought the Indian
\nwho had lived there might stili be in the viCinity. If they could find that In-
\n3-152
\ndian, they might find both food and guidance to the Kennebec. So they decided
\nto go on. The oldest girl — though on Iy seven — now had to join her mother
\non foot, while the oldest brother tried to haul one child on a sled as Mr.
\nForbes hau led the other two.
\nBecause of a raging storm it took them three days to reach the Pond, where
\nMr. Forbes had hidden the two loaves of bread. Hew relieved the family were
\nwhen they did find the Indian, who proved to be a Christianized Indian called
\nJohn BapTist, whom they had known before in Canada. John had shortly before
\nKi lied a moose and gave the Forbes fami Iy a II the meat they cou I d carry, and
\nagreed to pi lot them to the Kennebec. But be,f.ore they could start out the In'”
\ndian’s squaw was taken violently i II and he could not leave her. So he made for
\nForbes a crude map on a piece of bark, marking carefully the bends, falls and
\ncarryl ng p I aces a long the ri ver.
\nTheir relief caused by the new provisions and the Indian’s help was short
\nlived. They found traveling very difficult — rocky ledges, high mountains, and
\nsteep preci pi ces block i ng the I r way. Long before they got to the ma In ri ver,
\ntheir provisions again got perilously low. So they decided that Mrs. Forbes and
\nthe young children should remain in the forest In a hastily constructed camp
\nwhi Ie husband and son kept on until they should find a habitation, secure aid,
\nand return for those left behind.
\nIt was on April 12 when Mr. Forbes and John left Mrs. Forbes and the small
\nchildren. Ten days later the travelers had not yet reached any settlemenT, but
\nthey did encounTer two hunters, JonaThan Crosby and Luke Sawyer, who supp lied
\nthem wi Th food and conducted them to The sett lement at Seven Mi Ie Brook, a short
\ndistance above Norri dgewock.
\nThree men of the settlement agreed to return with Mr. Forbes to rescue the
\nwife and chi Idren. After thirteen days the party returned, unable to find Mrs.
\nForbes. It was now 24 days since Mr. Forbes had left his family, with only a
\n3-153
\npound of moose meat and half a pound of tallow. Everyone, therefore, believed
\nthey mwst be dead.
\nBy th Is tl me the Kennebec and Its tributaries were in fu II flood. Mr.
\nForbes could not prevai I on the settlers to help him make further search untf I
\nthe waters abated, for they said, ”What is the use of our risking our lives when
\nwe know your famt Iy cannot possibly be living?”
\nOn May 28 a party led by James McDona Id of Seven Mile Brook di d set out to
\nseek the remains of Mr. Forbes’ fami Iy. Now let us pick up the narrative again
\nIn the words of the old pamphlet:
\n“On the second day Qf June they arrived at the place where Mrs. Forbes and
\nhe r ch i I d ren ha d been left. He re, to the I rg reat as ton i shmen t, they foun d the
\nmother and one of her chi Idren al ive. It was now 50 days since they had been
\nleft with nothing besides the small quantity of moose meat and tal, low. Nor had
\nthey found any other nourishment except cold water and the ins I de bark of the
\nfir tree. And in addition to this, they had been forty-eight days .wlthout fire.”
\nAll the chi Idren had lived for 38 days after Mr. Forbes departure; then
\nthe youngest was first to succumb; wi th in two more days Katharine and Mary died.
\nIt was fi va-year old Peggy who proved strongest of the ch I Idren, and who was
\nfound alive with her mother.
\nThe rescuers carried Mrs. Forbes and the chi Id on a bier by land and in a
\ncanoe by water unti I they arri ved safely at Norri dgewock.
\nNow remember that this pamphlet is a contemporary account. It was published
\nnot as a legend, years after the event, but as a recent occurrence only
\nseven years after the Forbes family’s harrOlting experience. On the final page
\nthe author has pri nted the fol lowi ng postscript:
\n“Mr. Forbes and his wife with their two surviving children, one born only
\na month after her rescue, are now I lying ir:’l the town of New Gloucester about 25
\nmiles fran Portland. Mrs. Forbes, far from the emaciated state in which her
\n3-154
\nrescuers found her, is now a I arge and corpu lent woman. And the ch i I d, to
\nwhich she give birth soon after her arrival at Norridgewock, Is a healthy and
\nvery promising boy.”
\n*****
\nThis program in the course of a year uses a lot of words, probably far too
\nmany. But I hope even we are more economical of words than are some of the
\nfolks down in Washington. Listen to this contrast. Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address
\ncontains 266 words; the Ten Commandments have 297 words; the Declaration
\nof Independence took 300 words; and the order of the Office of Price Stabilization
\non the price of cabbage contains 26,911 words.
\n3-155
\nLITTLE TALKS ON COMMON THINGS
\n128th Broadcast
\nEach year on th i s parti cu lar Sunday we devote our program large Iy to
\nChri stmas.
\nOf course Christmas, as we know it, began as a Christian memorial of the
\nbirth of Chr I st, and we depa rt fa r from its true sp’ rit I f we fa i I to recogn i ze
\neach Decembe r 25th what the pe rson and the teach i ngs of Jesus mean to us today.
\nYet the actual festival which became Christmas began at least two thousand years
\nbefore Jesus was born. It was, in certain pre-Christian lands, the annual festival
\nwhich renewed the world for another year.
\nAs I am sure most of you know, one of the oldest civilizations in the
\nworld was thriving 4,000 years ago between the rivers, for “between the rivers”
\nis what the word Mesopotamia means. The rl vers were the Ti gris and the Euphrates.
\nOn the banks of one rose the ancient city of Nineveh; on the other grew
\nup historic Babylon. In the northern part of that pear-shaped land between the
\nrivers was Chaldea, from whose very ancient town of Ur Abraham set forth into
\nthe land to the westw’ard, the land that came to be called Palestine.
\nTo the Mesopotamians the New Year was a tine of crisis. After the crops
\nhad been harvested the empty bra-ln fie Ids told that Ii fe was dying. Then the
\ngod Marduk who had, according to Mesopotamian legend, routed the monsters of
\nchaos, bui It an orderly world and created man — Marduk had again to do b:lttle
\nwith the monsters so that death might not become complete. Thus he renewed the
\nworld every year.
\n‘n th i s annual struggle man conca I ved it his duty to he Ip as best he cou I d
\nto purify himself of the evi Is which his sins of the past year had brought upon
\nhim; to renew the strength which the year had drained away; and, if possible,
\n3-156
\nto find a substitute who could take the consequences of the sins which he had
\ncommitted. This last was, of course, the idea of the scapegoat. If you are at
\nall familiar with the Old Testament you know tow often the scapegoat — the ene
\nwho bares blame for others I deeds — is referred to.
\nNow it is interesting that this old New Year festival in Babylon lasted exactly
\n12 days, just as the Christmas season has always lasted in England. Because,
\n\/Ike the old year, the king was supposed to die in order that he might
\naccompany Marduk into the underworld of the monsters and battle by his side. Apparently
\neven those tough-minded Babylonians and Assyrians, to whom all human
\nlife seems to have been notoriously cheap, couldn’t quite stomach the idea of
\nki II i ng off a king every year; so they estab I I shed the custom of a mock king.
\nAn ordinary fellow, sometimes actually a criminal, was dressed up in royal robes.
\nHe was feasted and honored, granted every known luxury; then he was stripped
\nof his royal garb and immediately executed.
\nAs the festival went on, the ceremonies were meant to show that Marduk was
\ngradua I I Y P reva iii ng ove r the forces of death, and the I ast days of the twe I ve
\nwere given over to wi Id rejoicing, as at the modern Mardi Gras in New Orleans.
\nThe Babylonian festival observed an interesting custom. Masters and slaves
\nexchanged places; the slaves commanded, the masters obeyed.
\nMarduk and his fellow gods have long ago disappeared, but to this day —
\nin the Balkans, in Central Europe and in England — there is sti II an end-ofthe-
\nyear festival of twelve days, with troops of masqueraders and carol-singers,
\nnot so different from those which the ancient tablets depict as celebrating in
\nthe streets of Baby Ion 4,000 years ago. Ch i I dren in the Ba I kans st i I I recl te
\nmagic verses as did the chi Idren of Nineveh. Just as in old Babylon, a wooden
\nimage of Marduk’s opponent was burned in a bonfire, so in Rumania and Bulgaria
\na young man of the fami Iy chops down a speci a I tree and brings home the log to
\nbum in the fireplace with a definite, special ritual.
\n3-157
\nOut of the land between the rivers the festival of the year’s renewal
\nspread westward — first to Greece, then to Rome. In ancient Italy the festival
\nwas called the Saturnalia, in honor of Saturn, god of the seed-time. It belQan
\nabout the middle of December and continued untl I the first of January. In Its
\nmidst came December 25, the day, according to Roman calculation, when the sun
\nwas seen for the shortest time, and after which he would appear longer and longer,
\nand impart strength to the grat Ing th Ings of earth.
\nWhen we cons I der that I t was the period of the Satumal ia, with Its emphasis
\non December 25, that became our Christmas, it is somewhat Ironical that
\nthe early Christians in Rome didn’t think much of the Satumalla. It probably
\nwas a boisterous, h ilari ous kind of Mardi Gras. Yet modem schol ars be I ieve it
\nwasn’t so wi Id as early Christian: writers represented it. Most of the people
\nwere simply merry, not debauched. They masqueraded in the streets, ate big
\ndinners, visited friends, and exchanged gifts. They decorated their houses
\nwith boughs of laurel and other trees, with lighted candles and lamps. As master
\nof the festival and lord of the reve I they chose a slave, remindful of the
\ntime 2,000 years before In Mesopotamia when masters and slaves exchanged places.
\nNow to the early Christians the most important thing that had ever happened
\nwas the coming of Christ. It was the beginning of a new era. Although no one
\nknows for certa In the exact day on wh Ich Jesus was born, the ear Iy Christian fathers
\nsettled on December 25. The bi rthday of Christ thus became in danger of
\nbeing swal lowed up In the pagan merry-making of the fbman Satumal la. So the
\nChristian fathers set out to make Christmas a strictly religious celebration.
\nEventually the fbmans became Christians, but as we all know too well today, the
\nSatuma I la remained. The merry-making, the gl ft-giving, and finally the conmerclal
\nIzlng of the great Christian festival have done much to obscure Its true
\nsignificance. But thanks to the Christian Church — Protestant and Catholic – ..
\npeep Ie are every year reminded that December 25 Is more than a holiday, a holy
\n3-158
\nday, the birthday of the Savior of Men.
\nThe Roman Empire fell in ruins, but Christmas and Its festival did not die.
\nAll through the Middle Ages it was remembered and observed. In all the medieval.
\nwalled towns of Europe holly, Ivy and evergreens were str:ung up, candles
\nwere I it, and mummers c lowned through the streets. The peop Ie chose ~Dot”\u00b7~~, ,
\na mock king, as had the Babylonians 3,000 years before, but a lord of Misrule,
\nan Abbot of Unreason, who presided over the Feast of the Fools. The old fbman
\nSatumal ia was far fromltarned; the early Christian fathers would never have re”‘”
\ncognized this festival of the Middle Ages as the Christmas they intended.
\nAll the Norse lands, where the Vi kings he Id sway a thousand years ago, seem
\nto ha ve known the bo is fa rous rout of the twe I ve nights. Those 01 d Norsemen knew
\na vast di fference between summer and winter, far greater di fference than Mesopotamian
\nor Greek or Roman ever experienced.
\nBy October the harvest was In, the cattle housed. Ahead stretcR the long
\nmonths of cold. There is not enough fodder for all the animals. It is time to
\nthin out the herds and preserve the meat. It is just the time to invite friends
\nand ne I ghbors to a feast. But some of the meat must be ofte red to the gods
\nto Odin and Freia; otherwise +hev wi II not give us a goodly new year.
\nOdin was the god of the ferocious Norse warriors, and he was the leader of
\nthe Wutende Heer, the tumUltuous army host, perhaps best translated as the raging
\nrout. I n tenth century Norway It re fe rred to the who Ie season from Ha I 10000een
\nto the end of winter.
\nIt was in Northern Europe that Santa Claus was born. They called him, as
\nyou knOll, st. Nicholas. Unl ike our Santa Claus, the European st. Nicholas today
\nwears a broad-brimmed hat and rides a faithful olB white horse. In fact, to
\nEuropean children St. Nicholas dces not come on Olristmas eve, but on the eve of
\nDecember 6th, which is known in many lands as st. Nicholas’ Night.
\nInterestingly enough there was a real st. Nicholas. He lived in the last
\n3-159
\nquarter of the third and the first Quarter of the fourth centuries. Sti II a
\nyoung man, he was made Archbishop of Myre, and died on December 6,326. He is
\nthe saint of sailors, for whom In danger he Is the last and only help. Since I
\nI n the m I dd Ie ages fIB rchants we re the us ua I passenge rs on sh Ips, St. N I cho I as
\nbecame the patron saint of merchant travelers. Even pirates claimed his protecti
\non.
\nSomehow he became also the protector of chi Idren. He developed the habit
\nof slipping gifts to them in the dark of the night, and in lands where there
\nwere big chimneys and open fi replaces, the story grew that he came down the
\nchimneys with his bag of gifts.
\nWhat was the origin of the Christmas tree? No one knows the rLgtJt answer,
\nbut we do know enough about it to get rid of some of the wrong answers. One legendary
\naccount of the Christmas tree has it that Martin Luther was out walking
\none night, and seeing the stars as suggestion of lights, he placed candles on a
\nfl r tree to brighten up Christmas for his own chi Idren. Others have it that the
\nYule log is the ancestor of the Christmas tree. An old medieval legend contends
\nit is the symbo I of the Tree of Ll fe that stood in the Garden of Eden. In
\nfact; as late as the 18th century, in parts of Germany one could buy little fig.:.:
\nurines of Adam and Eve and the serpent to p lace under the Christmas tree.
\nWe now know that none of these theories about the origin of the Christmas
\ntree can be true. We know, for instance, just how the tree got mixed up with
\nAdam and Eve. December 24, on the medieval church calendar, was Adam and Eve’s
\nDay. As was customary with the miracle and mystery plays in the Middle Ages, the
\nlegends of the Garden of Eden were p lay-acted in the castle court yard or the
\nmarket square. The actors trooped through the town, with Adam carrying the
\nTree of Life, on which apples were hung. The Christmas tree itself is much
\nolder than the Adam and Eve mystery plays, but It is easy to see how the Tree
\nof LI fe of the December 24th festi va I became mixed up with the Christmas tree
\n3-160
\nof Decenter. 25th.
\nOne th Ing we do know: the Christmas tree Is one certain contribution of
\nthe common peop Ie to the features of Christmas. Not the church, not the nobi I.:..
\nIty, not the legends of the meisterslngers or the gleemen, but the practice of
\nthe peasants created the use of Ch’rlstmas trees. The fl rst printed reference
\nto what must have been long a custom is found in a forest ordinance in Alsace,
\ndated 1561, which says: “No peasant shall have for Christmas more than one bush
\nof more than e’ ght shoes’ length.” But an 0 I d book of 1605 has th I s sentence:
\n“At Christmas time In Strasburg fir trees are set up In the rooms, and on them
\nare hung roses cut from many-colored paper, app les, wafers, gl It and sugar.”
\nIn many European countries the tree is not stood in a noom; It is hung, and
\nhangi ng the tree seems to be a very 01 d custom Indeed. A tree-ti p was hung sometimes
\nfrom the rafters, sometimes In the window, sometimes over the doorway, upside
\ndown. Wherever it hung, the tree was always decorated in gay colors.
\nHow did the Christmas tree come to America? It is pretty well authenticated
\nthat no Christmas tree was set up in America until it was erected in the caRl>
\nof an enemy. For it was the Hessian soldiers, mercenaries of the British crown
\nin the American Revolution, who set up the first Christmas tree in Philadelphia
\non the December 25th when Washington’s ragged army was close to starvation at
\nVal ley Forge. The Hessians had known the use of the Christmas tree in their
\nGe rman home I and.
\nThere is a lovely Viking legend which tells us that, sometime In the ninth
\ncentury, the Lord sent to earth his messengers, Faith, Hope and Charity, to select
\nthe fi rst Christmas tree. They chose the bal sam fl r because it bore so
\nmany crosses on every tree and branch, and it was high as hope and wide as
\nlove.
\nBut the most beautiful story of all comes out of medieval Germany. On a
\nChristmas eve long, long ago, says the story, a fierce blizzard raged about a
\n3-161
\nwoodsman’s cottage deep in a lonely forest clearing. A timid knock was heard
\nat the door. When the woodsman opened It, on the th resho I d stood a sma I I ch I I d,
\nhungry, cold, exhausted. The fami Iy took him In, warmed him, fed him, and put
\nhim to bed. I n the morn I ng the ch i I d sa I d: “The re is noth I ng I can give you
\nbeyond what you already have except one thing.” Then from a fir tree he broke
\noff a branch and handed It to the woodsman. “See this evergreen tree, how it is
\ngreen and al.ive at Christmas time, when all the world seems empty and dead. Let
\nit be to you a sign of faith that does not die.” And that, says the old story,
\nIs the way the, Christ chi Id chose the fl r as the fi rst Christmas tree.
\n*****
\nIn the midst of our holiday festivities, let us not forget that a fervent,
\nalmost desperate financial campaign Is sti II going on to save the American legion
\nBuilding. Operation Fescue Is now In charge of Harold Hersom. He and his
\ncommittee are working hard during these days when most of us are celebrating. It
\nis the bus I ness not on Iy of the veterans of two worl d wars, but of a II the
\ncitizens of our community, to decide promptly and vigorously whether they want
\na community building as a memorial to our soldier dead, or whether the building
\nmust be turned over to commercial purposes. Doane Eaton woke people up to the
\nneed. He started Operation Rescue. Now Harold Hersom is trying to rescue the
\noperation. Who is going to rescue him?
\n3-162
\nLI TTLE TALKS ON COMMON TH I NGS
\n129th Broadcast December 30, 1951
\nRecently, when I was riding up and down an escalator In a Boston department
\nstore, I got to Th Inking aboUT esca lator clauses In American industry. The me>tive
\nbehind those escalator clauses, now affecting more than three mil lion workers,
\nIs laudable. It is, of course, an attempt TO keep real wages reasonably
\nin paee with money wages — That is, to keep the money received consistent with
\nthe cost of commodities.
\nThe PresidenT’s Council of Economic Advisors said, ”The maintenance of real
\nwages during inflaTion cannot in fairness be dlsal lowed.” thaT statement may
\nwell be open to debate. In fact It might more truthfully be said that The maintenance
\nof real wages during inflation cannot be allowed.
\nBy th Is tl me most peop Ie know why we are havl ng Inf latl on. S I nee we cannot
\nincrease our total production fast enough to meet defense needs In addition to
\nclvi lian needs, That means increasing scarcity of goods in clvi lian demand. But
\nthe money rece I ved by the workers for the product I on of defense materl als Is
\n\u00b7avallable In ever increasing amount to compete for the goods that are in scarce
\nsupply. More money Is put inTO the hands of the people to buy less goods. So
\nprices go up. ThaT is inflation.
\nNow if anyone group of people enjoys wage escalators that automatically
\ngear wages to the cost of living, they enjoy discrimination aT the expense of
\nthe rest of the people. If the favored group, having a retenTion of real wages,
\ncan buy goods at i”f lated pri cas without any sacri fl ee, they are gi van unfai r advantage
\nover the many mill ions of other Americans. That is an unfai r distribUtion
\nof the sacri fices we are al I expected to make because of defense mooi Ilza …
\ntlon.
\nThe on Iy rea I I y fai r way to hand Ie inf lation I s to prevent it. But once
\n3-163
\nit is under way, the burdens should be reasonablv distributed among al I groups
\nof our peop Ie.
\n*****
\nlet us take another look toni ght into that old Subscri ber’s Bus i ness Di rectory
\nof 1861. That is the book which fl rst came to my attention through Mrs.
\nTheodore Kloss showing me her copy In which were pasted those Interesting cooking
\nrecl pes.
\nsame book.
\nThen Mr. lewis Whipple shQled me a complete, unmutllated copy of the
\nI t was then that I learned the book had apparent Iy been pub fished
\nthrough subscriptions, and that only those business and professional men who
\nsubscribed got their names in the book.
\nWhat was my delight to find under Bridgton the name of Dixie Stone, dry and
\nWest India goods, groceries, paints, 01 Is, and crockery. Dixie Stone was the
\nman who, for more than fl fTY years, conducted the store that came into my father’s
\nhands in 1890. It was Dixie who used to bring Jamaica rum up through the Presumpscot
\nCanal and over the lakes to Bridgton landing. I never heard of his seiling
\ngingerbread, as did that merchant down In Augusta early In the century, but
\nbefore Maine adopted prohibition in 1851 he certainly sold a lot of Jamaica rum.
\nBy the time my father acqui red the store, that business was done. The nearest he
\ncame TO it was J,amaica ginger.
\nWhat would strike many of us today as strange, even eccentric, was my father’s
\nprejudice against cigarettes. All his life he never smoked and never Touched liquor.
\nBut in his store he sold plug tobacco, twist tobacco, fine cut tobacco, and
\ncigars. But no cigarettes. No sir, not one of those coffin nails would go over
\nhis counter. By the time when he closed out the business in 1912 and moved to
\nMassachusetts, cigarette smoking had become common and accepted, but sti II no cigaretTe
\nwas ever sold in that store as long as he owned it.
\nEccentric as it all seems today, it would take a very bold man to assert
\nunreservedly that my father was wrong. What has the cigarette really added to
\n3-164
\nAmerican clv’ I I zat i on?
\nNow let’s get back to the Subscribers’ Directory. Here’s a look at the
\nWaterville pages. The listof those subscribers Is lead by Edwin Noyes, Supt.
\nof the A. K. and P. K. R. R. The second name is that lawyer whose 4ger diary
\nentertained us a few weeks ago, Solyman Heath. Other names are N. K. Boutelle,
\nphysician; John Ware, President, A. K. and P. K. R. R.; A. A. Plaisted, cashier
\nof Tlcon Ic Bank; Webber and Hav! land, i ron founders; C. K. Mathews, brother of
\nthe man whan Dr. Coolidge murdered; C. Wi lIiams, proprietor of the Wi lIiams
\nHouse, where the autopsy on Ed Mathews’ body was performed. Some unusual occupations
\nin the Waterville list are George H. Atkins, oyster saloon; S. C. Lassell,
\nforger for locomoti ves; Laforest Simpson, gunsml th.
\nDown In Vassalboro some of the labe Is were even more unusual. Everybody
\nknew the boat builder, J. D. Lang, who is I isted simply as manufacturer. But who
\nremembers Henry Goddard, mop handle man; Hi ram [be, plowman; and T. B. Nichols,
\negg man?
\nBelieve it or not, in the Sidney list is a man labeled as shipmaster. He
\nwas Charles Coffin.
\nPage 121 was missing from Mrs. Kloss’ copy of the directory; so when I referred
\nto the Fairfield subscribers listed on page 120 knew nothing about
\nthose on the missing page follOWing. Mr. Whipple’s copy brought them to light.
\nThere I found myoid acquaintance of the Bryant diary, Wi lIiam’s oldest son Cyrus,
\nwho is I isted in 1861 as farmer. John P. Connor is given the same occupation.
\nGeorge Woodworth was then the Fairfield station agent and John Nobel was postmaster.
\nUnusual occupations showed up in Fairfield as well as in other towns.
\nH. B. Maynard was bateau bu i I der and Henry Coil um was ti np late worker. Dan ie I
\nChase is listed simply as captain.
\nUp I n Skowhegan Coburn and Wyman were the most prominent attorneys. Abner
\nCoburn, benefactor of Coburn Classical Institute and one-time governor of Maine,
\n3-165
\nwas president of the Skowhegan Bank. Alonzo Coburn, on the other hand, is listed
\nsimply as fanner. The town had a saddler, William Tucker.
\nRecall ing the wonderful trips I used to have as a boy, going with my father
\nto the wholesale grocery houses in Portland, I was curious to see which of
\nthose fi rms knew so well at the turn of the century were In existence as long
\nago as 1861. I found Just one company that had the same name In 1861 that it had
\nin 1900 — Charles McLaughlin and Co. But the beginnings of other familiar firms
\nwere apparent in the earlier names. J. and D. W. True was of course the later
\nD. W. True Co. Davis, Twitchell and Chapman became the Twitchell Chaplin Co. W.
\nand C. R. Mi II i ken turned into the Mi III ken Tom I inson Co.
\nIt is interesting to note that at least four business houses operating in
\nPortland in 1861 are sti II operating there under the same names 90 years later in
\n1951. They are Kenqall and Whitney, Emery and Waterhouse, James Bailey an’dCa.
\nand H. H. Hay.
\nwas p leased to note among the names of Portland attorneys one Watervi lie
\nman and another who had a lot to do with Watervi lIe a dozen years before. The
\nfirst was Josiah Drurrmond,one of the most famous of Waterville attorneys, and
\nthe outstanding Masonic leader of Maine, who by 1860 had moved to Portland. The
\nother was George Evans, the Gardiner attorney who had defended Coolidge at the
\nmurder trial of 1848.
\nOf the eleven Portland hotels listed in the 1861 directory Just one is in
\nexistence today — the Falmouth. The old U. S. Hotel is now the Edwards and
\nWalker store In Monument Square, and the Preble House was torn down to make way
\nfor a business block. I have no idea what became of the American House, the International
\nHouse, and the Commercial House, to say nothing of George Hay’s Temperance
\nHouse, J. P. Miller’s Albion House, and John Holtt’s Grand Trunk House.
\nMy paterna I grandmother was a Dyer, and th Is 0 I d directory 9i ves a lot of
\nspace to both the Dyers and the Marriners at Cape Elizabeth. Silas and George
\n3-166
\nMarri ner were bOTh sh i pbull ders; Jabez Marriner kept the genera I store; Mi Iton
\nDyer was town clerk, but a II the other nine Dyers named In the di rectory were
\nfarmers.
\nIn the Gorham section of the directory 1 found the name of my maternal
\ngreat-grandfather, Eben Blake, and of his father Ithial Blake. I never knew
\ngreat-grandfather Eben, but I did know his wUe, great-grandmoTher Sa\u00b7r.ah, who
\nIi ved to the age of 92, when I myse 1 f was 12 years 01 d. She was a great story . r’
\nteller about the old days in what was then wi ldemess at West Gorham, and some
\nof her most thri 1 ling yams concerned great-grandfather Eben’s experiences driv
\nng an ox-team between Standish and Portland. Once, according to her account,
\na wi Idcat attacked the oxen; on another tri p the team was stal ked for miles by
\nwol ves. But somehow great-grandfather a Iways managed to come through Slafe.
\nIn 1860 no less than five railroad lines ran out of Portland: the Grand
\nTrunk with a staTion on India Street; the Portland, Sam and Portsmouth, with
\nits depot on Commerci a I Street; the Kennebec and Portland, wh I dl had Its sta ..
\ntlon on Kennebec Street close by the station of the York and Cumberland on the
\nsame street; and the Androscoggin aAd Kennebec, which used the Grand\u00b7 Trunk station
\non India Street. This was long before the days of Portland’s Union Station,
\nand in fact before the bui Idlng of the Portland and Ogdensburgll which became the
\nMountain Division of the Maine Central.
\n***~~
\nIt’s a long time since said anythIng on this program about my favorite sub~
\nject of word origins and word uses. Let’s turn to a few of those tonight.
\nThe word staTionery, strangely enough ll originates from a custom when few people
\ncould read and write. Scriveners — often they were clerical monks — set
\nup what they ca lied stations I n the churchyards and market squares, where they
\nread letters ser:1T to people who could not read, and wrote letters at the people’s
\ndictation. In time, as more people learned to write, paper and other materials
\n3-167
\nwere sold at these stations, and the dealers became known as stationers.
\nThe word academy had its origin In Greek mythology. Helen, stolen by Theseus
\nI was recovered by Leda, her mother, wi th the aid of an Athen ian named Academus.
\nThe gratefu I Spa rtans purchased a grove on the outski rts of Athens and
\npresented it to their benefactor. It later became a public garden called the
\nGrove of Academus. Late in the fourth century before Christ, Plato lived in a
\nhouse adjoining this grove, where he often walked and talked with his pupils.
\nHe did th i s for forty years; so peop Ie came to ca II Plato’s schoo I the Academi a,
\nacademy.
\nOne of the interesting things that has happened to a few English words concerns
\nnouns beginning with N. As time went on the initial N of a few of these
\nnouns was slipped off to join the article Aj hence a napron became an apron, a
\nnauger became an auger, and a numplre an umpire. Even adder used to be nadder.
\nDo you know how we got the term blackmail? It was this way. Robbers along
\nthe Engl ish-Scottish border levied tribute on merchants and travelers in exchange
\nfor protection. In Scotland the term for rent was mail. Rent or mail
\nmight be paid In silver, orin cattle or grain. Si Iver rent was white mall. Payment
\nin cattle or grain was black mai I. These robbers preferred payment In cattle
\nand grain, to feed their men and horses. Hence enforced payment for protection
\nor the withholding of damaging information came to be called blackmail.
\nMost people know that the King James Bible, in the thirteenth chapter of
\nFirst Corinthians, says “faith, hope, charity”, whereas the revised versions say
\n“faith, hope, love”. Clearly what we understand by spiritual love comes much
\nnearer the mean lng than does the word charity. How did chari ty ever get into
\nthe trans I ati on I n the first p lace? The Greek word Is agape. When St. Jerome
\ntrans I ated the New Testament into Lat! n in the fourth century, he was determined
\nto avoid the Latin amor as a translation of agape, because in Latin amor was
\nnot only the general word for love, but also represented the God of erotic
\n3-168
\npassion. So Jerome subst’rtuted carltas — a very unfortunate choice, because
\nin 4th century latin it was a colorless, vague word, simp Iy a substantive from
\nthe adject i ve cara, dear or precl ous — so that the usua I mean I ng of carl tas was
\ndearness or preciousness.
\nFran caritas we get our English word charity, which has always meant about
\nWhat It means today — the merciful giving of alms.
\nThe term criss-cross Is of extreme Iy Interesting orig in. You probably knO*
\nthe old folded boards from which children learned the alphabet two centuries ago
\nwere called hom books. Invariably the first-fold was decorated with a cross. It
\nwas usually placed Just before the letter A. Sometimes the whole alphabet was
\nar-nanged In the form of a cross. The cross ttse I f was called the Olrlst cross,
\nto distinguish it fran the letters that followed, and the row of letters forming
\nthe alphabet was called the Christ Cross row. Just as tn the modem pronunciations
\nof Chris-tian, Christmas and Christopher, Christ Cross was always prooounced
\ncriss-cross. Ultimately It took on the meaning of a series of crossing lines.
\nSome words of dignified meaning today had very low origil’ls. The next time
\nyou hear anyone bragging about being a constable, remind him that the word origina
\nIly meant tender of the stab Ie, and when you see anyone perked up about being
\na steward, tell him the first stewards were sty wards, keepers of the pigs.
\nAnd with -these words about wo rds, we bid you goodn i ght \u2022
\n3-169
\nLITTLE TALKS ON COMMON THINGS
\n130th Broadcast
\nAs we enter into.,the new year of 1952, It seems as if public “”,rality had
\nnever sunk so low. The scandals in the Bureau of Internal Revenue. the influence
\npeddlers in Washington, the raw deals in the RFC, al I bring to light a
\ncondition of graft and corrupti,on that extends widely through our government.,
\nWhy is this the case? What is happening to personal confidence and public trust?
\nI t takes ne i ther a soci a I ana Iyst nor a psych I atri st to te II us what is
\nfundamentally the trouble. It is the old story of human greed and human frai Ity,
\nbut it is a new story of the kind and quantity of temptation. It is the price -an
\nextremely high price — that we are thus paying for the extension of government
\npower into almost every phase of our lives.
\nWe have no excuse for the businessman who bribes a public official or even
\none who pays fees to the five percenters who claim influence in the agencies or
\neven I n the Whi te House I tse If. We do not excuse; we mere I y seek to exp I ai n why
\nthe temptation placed upon them is greater than businessmen have ever known before.
\nToday a businessman can be fined or sent to jai I for working his employees
\ntoo long, for paying them either; too much money or not enough, for charging too
\nhigh prices. He can be given or denied loans. He can prosper with the help of
\ngovernment al lotted materials or go broke because the materials are denied him.
\nHis tax deductions for business expenses can be accepted or turned down. Intricate
\nlaws govern his business activities.
\nNow the point is “that all of these regulations over the businessman are administered
\nby human beings persons who can be harsh or lenient, watchful or
\nneglectful, play fair or play favorites.
\nTo “the bus i nessman a contract or tax adjustment may mean thousands of dol-
\n3-170
\nlars. It may keep him in business or drive him out of it. How great then is the
\ntemptation to use a favor or a fee where the hand of an equa Ily human and fa I Ii
\nb Ie off i c I a lis ready to rece I ve It.
\nMeanwhi Ie the government I tse If is spendl ng bl “Ions upon b I “Ions in the
\narmament program. The present Truman administration in six short years has spent
\n304 billions. Congressional Investigations have shown that by no means all of
\nthe orders rep resented by these b I I lions were p I aced on merl t or for the lowest
\nprice. Those investigations have all too clearly revealed that, as spending
\ngrows, political pull, strategically placed mink coats, TV sets, airplane trips,
\nand free vacations accompany the growth.
\nOf course we need a deeper sense of moral I ntegrlty in pub Ilc life. But let
\nus not forget that it gets harder and harder to maintain that integrity if we
\nkeep on putting more and more power in the hands of government officials. As men
\nin the Wash I ngton agenci es get more and more opportun I ty to reward or p un I sh ,
\nmore and more control over the datdy lives of all of us, the greater Is the temptation
\nto reach those officials by favors, gifts, or outright bribes.
\nIt is not a pretty picture that the investigators are turning up day by day:
\nthe picture of unsavory Individuals, some even with prison records, able to get
\nchoice licenses, able to line up scarce materials, because they are very chummy
\nwith officials of high rank. Not only must we try to have honest officials; we
\nmust also find some way to keep so many officials from getting so much power.
\n*****
\nThi sis the year when we ce leb rate the 150th ann I versary of the i ncorporatlon
\nof Watervi lie as a town. The Citizens Conmlttee of 100, appointed by the
\noutgoi ng mayor I Hon. Russe II Squl re, under authorl ty voted by the Ci ty Government,
\nwill hold Its first meeting In the administration of the new mayor, Hon. Richard
\nDubord. That meeting wi II be held in the Municipal Court Room, City Hall, Thurs-
\n3-171
\nday evening of this week at 7:30. It is an II’fl)0rtant meeting, for the committee
\nmust decide what kind of celebration shall be attempted, when it\u00b7 shall be held,
\nand of what the program shall consist. Every member of the committee should make
\na spec I a I effort to be present.
\n*****
\nAs a chi Id I somehow escaped what so many of my conte~oraries endured -repeated
\ndoses of Mrs. Winslow’s soothing syrup. We nCffl know that this patent
\nmedicine never cured anything, that it simply drugged infants into such a stupor
\nthat they stopped cryi ng. But our grandmothers certain Iy swore by it.
\nA I ittle booklet called Mrs. Wins low’s Domestic Receipt Book was recently
\nshown me by Mrs. Mary Stob ie. I tis for the year 1876, though the i nscrl pti on
\nreads: “This book wi II be Issued annually, with entirely new receipts. By preservl
\nng the I ssues and sewi ng them together, you will have I n a few years the
\nbest collection of receipts in the country.”
\nOn the Inside cover the old-time remedy Is heralded with these words: “Mother!
\nMother! Mother! Are you disturbed at night and broken of your rest by a
\nsick chi Id suffering and crying with the excrutiatlng pain of cutting teeth? If
\nso, go out at once and get a bottle of Mrs. Wins low’s Soothing Syrup. It wi II
\nrelieve the poor little sufferer immediately — depend upon it. It gives rest to
\nthe moTher and relief and health to the chi Id, operating like maolc.”
\nThe book let seems to have been the joint prt>duct of Jeremiah Curti s & Sons
\nand John L. Brown & Sons, both of whom he I d severa I patents for madi ci nes. So we
\nfind Brown’s Bronchial Troches for coughs and colds, especially recommended for
\nsingers and public speakers; Brown’s Vermifuge Comfits and Worm lozenges, guaranteed
\nto get worms out of chi Idren’s intestine.1 tracts; and Brown’s Household
\nPanacea and Family Liniment, which was sure to cure cramp in the limbs, rheumatism
\nin all Its forms, neuralgia, worms, tooth ache, sore throat, pain in the
\nstomach, bi Iious col ic, cholera, chapped hands, spinal comPlaints, chills and
\n3-172
\nfever. It was, says the ad, purely vegetable and all-healing.
\nNow let’s take a look at some of the recipes in this 1876 publ icatlon. Some
\nof them certainly provided for healthy appetites of big fami lies. Here, for instance,
\nare the Ingredients of a single cake: one pound of flour, one pound of
\nbutter, one pound of brown sugar, ten eggs, two pounds of currants, one-half
\npound of cl tron, nutmeg and cinnamon to taste.
\nHere’s another cake: one pound of flour, one pound of sugar, one-half
\npound of butter, four eggs, one cup of cream, one pound of raisins, nutmeg and
\ncl nnamon.
\nHere’s one ca lied imperl a I cake: one pound of flour, one pound of sugar,
\none pound of butter, one pound of raisins, stoned and chopped, one -half pound
\nof blanched almonds, one-quarter pound of ci tron, eight eggs, two g lasses of
\nWine.
\nThese were all what we would call fruit cakes and expected to be rather
\nrich, but qere is one with no fruit at all. It is called Rai I road Cake: one
\npound of flour, one pound of sugar, eight eggs, one-half pound of butter, one
\nteaspoon cream of tartar.
\nHow many of you ever heard of pork and apple pie? Here is the recipe: line
\na tin basin with pastry. Nearly fl II It with quartered apples; spice with pepper,
\nand cover with thin slices of salt pork. Put a paste on top and bake an
\nhour I n a mode rate oven.
\nAmong the miscellaneous — not the cooking — recipes is this one: How to
\ncure sma II pox without ca I ling a doctor. For adu Its gl ve one tab lespoon of
\nbrewer’s yeast in 3 tab lespoons of sweetened wate r th ree t I mas a day, and keep
\nthe patient on a mi Ik diet. Th is wi II cure without leaving a pock mark.
\nWhat a time our grandparents used to have with tough meat! No wonder the
\nold recipe books contain many d I recti ons for tenderl zing meat. Here is one: To
\nthose who have worn down their teeth masticating poor, old, tough, cow beef, we
\n3-173
\nwi II say that carbonate of soda will be found a remedy for the e’li I. Try it, all
\nyou who love delicious, tender dishes of beef.
\nApparently artl ficfal coloring of butter was uncommon in 1876. A quarter of
\na century later I can remember some of the colorless butter that came into my
\nfather’s store from the surrounding farms, but by that time'” the best butter
\nmakers were using the vegetable coloring that came In small bottles. But back
\nin 1876 we find this recipe to make ye Ilow butter in winter: put in the yolks
\nof eggs just before the butter comes, near the end of the churning. This practice
\nis kept by many as a great secret, but its great value requires publicity.
\nThat centennl a I year of 1876 was a year of financia I depress ion. Consequently
\nwe are not surprised to find in the booklet this heading: “A Few Hints
\nfor Hard Times”. Here are the hints: Rutabaga, grated and prepared as you dp
\ncabbage, makes an excellent substitute for that article. Today, when cabbage is
\nabout as cheap as turnips, that advice strikes us as strange.
\nHere’s another: pumpkin pies can be made wlthout”‘- mt Ik, by using water instead.
\nWe think they are as good as when made of milk. Custards can also be
\nmade with water, instead of mi Ikj also puddings, especially the baked India
\npudd I ng. Just add a few pieces of butter.
\nDid you ever hear of “almacks”? I cannot find the word in any dictionary.
\nAnyhow, here In the 1876 Receipt Book is a redpe for almacks: Take 4 dozen
\nrl pe plums and sp lit them; two dozen app les and two dozen pears, pee led and
\ncored. Stew all together without water. When well b~tended, take out the
\nplum stones and stir in three’~ pounds of sugar. Boi I gently, stf rring often,
\nfor an hour. Then spread on flat di shes, and dry et ther in the sun or in a cool
\noven. When nearly dry, mark it in square cakes. Sounds rather good at that,
\nthose a I macks.
\n*****
\n~ome ti me ago on “th is program I referred to the Canada Road. At that time
\n3-174
\nI did not know it was Lewis Whipple’s grand uncle, Jim Jackman, who supervised
\nthe clearing of that famous road in 1828.
\nBefore that date cattle raised in the settlements north of Skowhegan, as
\nwe II as those a II a long the Kennebec down to Merrymeeting Bay, were dri ven to
\nthe Brighton Market near Boston. For Instance in 1817 when Abner Coburn, the
\nbenefactor of Coburn Classical Institute, was 14 years old, his father collected
\na drove of catt Ie in the settlements above S,kowhe:gan, and young Abner was one
\nof the drovers, trudging on foot from Skowhegan to Boston and back home again.
\nNot unti I Uncle Jim Jackman cleared the Canada Road from The Forks north of
\nthe Bingham Purchase to the Canadian line, and a road was brought south from the
\nSt. Lawrence to meet it, were Somerset cattle driven to the nearer and more
\nprofitable Quebec market.
\nIn 1827 the Maine Legislature appropriated money and contracted with Uncle
\nJim Jackman to supervise the road building. Sumner Wh ipp Ie, who was born in
\n1817 and lived unti I 1902, wrote for the old Somerset Reporter several articles
\nabout the old days in what is now Jackman. He says he was told the following incident
\nby an old man, Charles Grant, who as a young fellow had worked on the
\nroad.
\nWhen the job was nearing the Canadian I ine and they were getting an opening
\nwide enough for a team to go th rough, the crew ran short of rum. Capt. Jackman
\n— as Uncle Jim was usually called — ordered a man to go to Canada for a supply.
\nThe man returned wi th a barre I of rum and there was rejoicing in the camp. It was
\na very hot day, and the sun was pouring down into the opening they had cut in
\nthe forest, and the work of removing roots, stumps and boulders was arduous. The
\nmen de~nded frequent rest. But Capt. Jackman kept them going with, “Boys,
\nwe’ll take another dri nk of rum and then a II get to work, because we must hurry
\nup and finish this road. We must have it to get the silver through. We need
\nthat si Iver very much.”
\n3-175
\nThe reference to silver is verified by SurmerWhipple’s recorded memories
\nof his own ch I I dhood \u2022 “The Humph reys, then II v I n9 InS kowhegan”, he w rote In
\none of those old Somerset Reporter articles, “dealt in horses and cattle. As
\nthey came horne from Quebec they s topped at father’s a I I night. When they came
\nin, they brought thei r saddle bags. In the evening they talked of the succsss
\nwho! ch was I n the sadd Ie bags, all in s i I ver. The ch I I dren had to see I f they
\ncould lift It. I, being the oldest of a large family, could do so ($1,000 In
\nsilver weighs approximately 64 pounds), but when about half way down the line
\nof children they came toone who could not 11ft it, nor could any of the smaller
\nones. ”
\nNot only cattle, but dried app les and other produce went over the new road
\nto be exchanged for precious si Iver in Quebec. In lent the Maine fishermen
\nreaped a harwst, for Sumner Whipple tells us, “Then the Frenchmen, unable to
\neat meat during the 40 days of Lent, came in long trains to purchase our cured
\nand ~alted fish.”
\nCaptain J 1m Jack..” after the road was built, saw the need for a tavern
\nin that region. So he bui It a house in the southeast part of Jackman Plantation,
\nsawing out the boards with a whipsaw — a very slow procsss. Here he
\nIlwd for 15 years. After he was 75 years old he went to California, but returned
\nafter a few years, settled up his affairs in Maine, and went to Kansas
\nto live with his daughter, Mrs. Solon Ward. There he died at the age of 83.
\nAI I that is left of J 1m Jackman’s 01 d home bes I de the Quebec highway, a
\nshort di stance beyond Parlin Pond, Is a c:e liar hole. The once cult I vated
\nfields have reverted to wi Iderness, but along the Canadian border, men say,
\nsti II sta Iks the ghost of J 1m Jackman, shouting to his road crew, “Hurry up, we
\nmust f In I sh the road and get the silver through.”
\n3-176
\nLITTLE TALKS ON COMKlN THINGS
\n131st Broadcast January 13, 1952
\nIt looks as if we are In for another round in the spiral of inflation, as
\nwages and prices chase each other upward. As raises and bonuses go to Industrial
\nworkers, it Is hard for the boss to get any credit for the raJ1se. All the
\nboss does Is pay the bill. Because of recent federal laws, it Is no longer possible
\nfor an employer, with a union in his plant, to pay a Christmas bonus of
\nhis own free will. He cannot raise wages, share profits, or pass out other benefits
\nto his workers on his own volition. He must first consult the union. If
\nhe doesn’t, he may find the government on his neck.
\nIt Is even questionable whether an employer can present Christmas hams or
\nturkeys to his employees. It all depends on how the NUB interprets its atn rulings.
\nThe ruling says an employer is free to make a genuine Christmas gift,
\nbut It does not say how much he can spend for It before he begins to break the
\nru les.
\nA genul ne ra i se can a Iso get an emp lover in wrong with NU~. I f wage ta I ks
\nare deadlocked, he cannot give a pay raise untl I the deadlock Is broken. Even a
\nraise required by law to meet the minimum pay rule of the Wage-Hour Act may have
\nto be discussed with the union. More than once the NUB has Insisted that, before
\nbringing the pay rate up to the 75 cent minimum, the employer must first
\nnotify the union, thus giving the union a chance to get credJet for the raise.
\nNow this radio program is not opposed to organized labor. We believe that
\norganizations of workers and organizations of employers are both Justified In
\nour modern industrial society. What we are talking about is the increasing tendency
\nfor government to give all the benefits to one side. Equal treatment of
\nboth employers and workers Is the only hope of halting the upward inflation
\nsp I ra I of wages and prl ces.
\n3-177
\n*****
\nThis program devotes so much time to the good old days, f suppose many of
\nyou think I long for those old days to return again. Not so, I assure you. The
\nother night, as I was putting up my car, I thought how simpler It was than put.,.
\ntl ng up my veh I cle of 40 years ago. I wou Id get tack from that 01 d grocery
\nroute from Bridgton to Sandy Creek after seven o’clock, and before I could have
\nmy supper I must wash off the ice-crusted fetlocks of the horse, put a double
\nblanket on him, warm h Is mash and feed h 1m. Then I must water him and bed him\u00b7
\ndown before I could go to bed myself, completely exhausted — because that old
\nnag and I had started out together at ha I f past s r x on that wi nter morn I ng.
\nAn automobile eats a lot when it Is traveling, but It doesn’t eat and
\ndoesn’t need bedding down when Its trip is done. What Is more, a horse wasn’t
\nsomething you could park like a car beside the curb and, barring thieves, be
\nsure to find It when you returned. You had to tie a horse to a hitching post or
\na tree, and If you tried the latter, the tree’s atner might sue you for damages,
\nfor, un” ke a car, a horse will gnaw at a tree trunk. And the 01 d-sty Ie hi teh”,
\nIng weight wasn’t always securllty. We had one old gray mare who would drag a
\ntwelve pound weight with her mouth, a quarter of a mile while the driver was deIi
\nverlng a sing Ie basket of groceries.
\nHow would the average citizen of 1952 like to go back to the days of perpendicular
\nroads, unmanageable horses, and the occasional hazard of parachut-
\nI ng out of the wagon seat? A II was not s unsh I ne and roses I n the good 0 I d days.
\n*****
\nNevertheless we are going to keep right on talking about some of the interesting
\nhappenings of the long, long ago.
\nLast week we told you about the building of the Canada Road from The Forks
\nto the Canadian line above Jackman. That leads us to a discussloo of some of the
\nold stage routes and highway connect ions I n other parts of Maine before the
\n3-178
\ncomi ng of the ra II roads. You wi II reca II that I t was not unt, I 1842 that the
\nrailroad reached Portland, six years later when it got as far as Lewiston, and
\nalmost exactly the mid-century, December 1849, when it reached Watervi lie.
\nBy what routes did people travel early in the century? That 1813 almanac,
\nto which I referred a few weeks ago, gives the route from Portland to Caratunk
\nFalls, and it is quite a different route from the way one would travel between
\nthe two places today. It didn’t go anywhere near either Brunswick or Lewiston.
\nIt went from Portland to Falmouth to Gray, then to New Gloucester, Poland and
\nMinot. From there it went to Tumer, Livermore and Jay; then to Wi I ton ,and Farmington;
\nthen to Mercer and St)arks, and on to Norridgewock, Anson and Caratunk
\nFalls. Notice that the route never crossed the Kennebec, but kept west of the
\nrive r a I I the way.
\nThe most favored route from Boston to Bangor was called the Upper Road. It
\nwent through Medford, ~ading, Andover, Haverhl II, Plaistow, KI ngston and Exete
\nr — a common route today — then across to Portsmouth, by fe rry ove r the PI scataqua
\nto Kittery, and over the old post road through York, Wells, Kennebunk,
\nSaco and Scarboro to Portland. Then It followed the st! II well known route to
\nFalmouth, North Yannouth, Freeport, Brunswick, Topsham, Bowdoin, Gardiner, Hallowell
\nand Augusta. But it did_not pass tlirough ~elther’-Waterville or Winslow.
\nAt Vassalboro it turned east to Harlem (what Is now called China Village), from
\nthere to Fa i rfax (modem A Ib Ion), then to Un Ity, then over the Di xmont Hi 115 to
\nHampden and Bangor. The distance from Boston to Bangor by that route was 234
\nmi les.
\nBy 1813, however, the almanac was announcfng that the best road from Boston
\nto Portland was not the Upper Road, but a newer route, past Lynnfield Hotel,
\nTopsfield Hotel, Newburyport, Hampton Falls, Greenland, Dover, Somersworth, Berwi
\nck, ():)UghTY’S Fa lis, We lis, Kennebunk, Saco and Stroudwater — 112 mi les from
\nBoston to Portland — almost exactly the mi leage of the old Eastern Division of
\n3-179
\nthe Boston and Ma i ne \u2022
\nAs long ago as 1813, seven years before it became a separate state, Maine
\nwas al ready prosperous. Its seven banks had capital of $1,320,000. Its 87 post
\noffices did a good business. Education had taken finn hold, for there were already
\n19 academies, situated at Berwick, Limerick, Portland, Bridgton, Gorham,
\nWiscasset, Warren, Newcastle, Bath, Hampden, Be I fast, BI ueh III, Fryeburg, Hebron,
\nHallowell, Bloomfield, Monmouth, and Farmington.
\nIn that part of Massachusetts whf,ch is In the territory of the present
\nCommonwea Ith, there were 14 counties and 296 tams in 1813. It Is a I most incredible
\nto note that Maine then had more than two thirds as many towns, 204,
\nand more than half as many counties, eight. Every Maine school chIld knows that
\nour state now has sixteen counties. What were the eight counties In 18131 They
\nwere, in order fran the New Hampshi re border, York, Cumberland, Uncoln, Oxford,
\nKennebec, Somerset, Hancock and Washington.
\nKennebec County then had 31 towns, the names of some of which sound very
\nstrange 10 modem ears. Yes — rl ght here In Kennebec County were the towns of
\nDearborn, Fairfax, Harlem, Kingsville and Malta. In 1813 Kennebec also includedsome
\nof the prominent towns now in Franklin County1: Farmington, Wi Iton,
\nCheste rvi lie and Temp Ie.
\nTravel was so difficult in 1813 that the county courts were held not merely
\nat the county seats, but at several places In each county. In Kennebec, for
\ninstance, 1813 sessions of court were scheduled for Augusta, Monmouth, Mt. Vernon,
\nReadfield, Waterville, Winslow and Vassalboro. The Somerset courts sat at
\nNorridgewock and Canaan, not at Bloomfield — for Norridgewock was then the
\ncounty seat. The Lincoln county courts were widely scattered, sitting at Wiscasset,
\nNewcastle, Wa I doboro, Warren, Dresden, Bath and Topsham.
\n*****
\nSome of those old academies mentioned In 1813 were sti II going strong half
\n3-180
\na century later. In that 1860 directory we referred to a few weeks ago is an
\nadvertisement of Gorham Seminary — a gl rls’ school fomed to comp lement the
\nold Gorham Academy. That old academy building, by the way, stili stands, pretty
\nm\\JCh Intact, on the grounds of the present State Teachers College at Gorham.
\nThat 1861 seminary ad Is quaintly fascinating. listen:
\n‘~y an aCT of the last legislature the Maine Female Seminary and Gorham
\nMa Ie Academy have become one Inst Itutlon known as Gorham Seminary. The seminary
\nbui Iding wi II, as heretofore, be a boarding school for\u00b7 young ladies, as the union
\nis to effect only recitations and other general exercises. The building Is
\nheated ent Ire Iy by furnaces, from wh Ich hot at r Is takeD–to each r:oom separate Iy,
\nthus obviating the {nconvenience of stoves, and securing a more equable and more
\nhealthy temperature. The school year Is divided into four terms of eleven weeks
\neach. J. B. Webb, principal. tt
\n*****
\nAfter the rai I road was pushed beyond Port land Into Central Maine, the ads
\nproudly announced how fast a person could go from one point to another. In that
\n1860 directory a Boston and Maine ad said: “Portland and Boston. Two trains
\ndally In each direction. Leave Portland 8:45 A.M. and 2:30 P.M.; leave Boston
\n7:30 A.M. and 2:30 P.M.” Now qet this: “On Saturdays passengers on the 2:30
\nt ra I n from Boston can go as far as Augusta the same night.”
\nBut in 1860 the favorite mode of travel between Maine and Boston was not
\nra i I road but steamboat. The Portland and Boston Steamboat Line advertised its
\nthree new sea-golng steamers, the Forest City, the Lewiston and the Montreal.
\nThe fare between Portland and Boston was $1.25 In cabin, $1 .00 on deck.
\nEven 1860, to say nothing of 1813, was before the days of Standard Time.
\nThat 1860 dl rectory gives the follOo\u00b7ling local time as faster than Port I and time:
\nAugusta 1 minute, 39 seconds; Watervl lie 2 minutes, 16 seconds; Bangor 5 minutes,
\n50 seconds; Houlton 9 minutes, 32 seconds; and Eastport 13 minutes, 10 seconds.
\n3-181
\nEven Cape Elizabeth’s and Yarmouth’s ti~s are glwn as different fran Portland’s,
\nthe former 13 seconds faster, the latter 16 se:conds \u2022. -~,– .. –:f-
\nOf times given as slower than Portland, Saeo was 44 seconds, KennebUnk 55
\nseconds, with Boston s lower by 3 minutes, 15 seconds.
\nMy native town of Bridgton, according to the statistics in the 1860 directory,
\nhad lost population in the ten years since 1850, failing from 2,710 to
\n2,558. But the 01 d town had 402 oxen as compared wi th 232 horses and 597 mi Ik
\ncows.
\nWatervi I Ie, on the other hand, had Increased its population from 3,900 to
\n4,400. It was one of The few towns east of Portland that, In 1860, had more
\nhorses than oxen — 370 to 340. It had not so many milk cows as had Bridgton,
\nonly 589, but It raised nearly three times Bridgton’s production of wool
\n8,867 pounds to 2,300. Watervi lie just edged out frriI native town in the production
\nof cheese, 10,500 pounds to 10,395. But Bridgton was ahead In the produc-i
\ntlon of butter, 54,785 pounds to 53,105.
\nA tremendous amount of butter came from those 01 d farm chums In 1860. I became
\ncurious to see wh I ch was the I argest butter-producing town at that time In
\nMaine. You would never guess. It was the tiny town of Greenwood — a tewn which
\nmany central Maine people have never heard of,-though many folks know two of the
\n, .~. .
\ntown’s vUlages, BryanT’s Pond and Locke’s Mills. Yes, it is the little town
\nbetween Paris and Bethel. That town of Greenwood, which had only 878 people in
\n1860, produced and marketed 171,828 pounds of butter in a single year, 195
\npounds for every man, woman and chi Id in the town. Second came Waldoboro with
\n129,000pounds; third was Augusta wiTh 107,000. Then came Wells, over in York
\nCounty, with 95,000; Then Gorham with 91,000; and sixth was Vassalboro with
\n84,000. Those six towns alone pnoduced 678,000 pounds of butter.
\n3-182
\nllTILE TALKS ON COMMON THINGS
\n132nd Broadcast January 20, 1952
\nNot al I the scandals about the income tax concern the Collectors of Internal
\nRevenue and their employees. Among the tax payers themselves are plenty of
\ncrooks. Tax ch i se If ng is big bUS iness. I t costs the government a b i ilion and
\na half dol lars every year. The Investigations, long overdue, are at last making
\nita II too c I ear that ce rta I n taxpayers who know the ropes, or at leas t who know
\nthe right people, have been managing to beat the tax laws year after year.
\nNow the tax dodger’s work Is comi ng out I nto the open for a II of us to see.
\nThe Bureau of Internal Revenue is now wise to most of the tricks, and U. S.
\nNews and World Report issues a timely warning that anyone who thinks he can get
\naway with it Is in for an unhappy surprise. Inflating deductible business costs,
\nside payments that fail to show up in business records, under-counter -dealings,
\ncash transactions without the passing of any paper, kick-backs from salaried
\nemployees — these and many other sharp practices are well known to the revenue
\noffl cers.
\nBut even if you can get away with it, think twice before you try it. Suppose
\nevery citizen in America were that kind of cheater. What sort of nation
\nwould we then have?
\n*****
\nI am interested to learn that the Watervi lie Rotary Club wi II produce, with
\nlocal talent, next Wednesday evening in the American legion Bui Idlng, that exciting
\npopular play “The Night of January 16th”. My own interest in that play
\nstems from the fact that it marked my one and only personal appearance on the
\nstage of the lakewood Theater. When ”The Ni ght of January 16th” was produced
\nthere, a few years ago, I was chosen to serve as foreman of the Jury on the
\nopening night. Yes, the Jury for that play is chosen from the audience. Who wi II
\n3-183
\nbe the twelve members of the jury when Rotary puts on the play next Wednesday
\neveni ng?
\n*****
\nOne of the richest mines of historical information about the Kennebec Valley
\nhas been accumulated through the years in the home of Arthur Ellis of Fairfield.
\nBefore her death a few years ago Mrs. Ellis was one of the region’s best
\nknown historians and genealogists. She collected, arranged, and preserved many
\nprecious documents of the old days.
\nIt was my privi lege a few weeks ago to spend an afternoon with Mr. EI lis
\n— a very rewa~dingexp~r}Eince. Thou9h_ nea,:_’ y_ 85 years 0 I d, Mr. Ell is reta i ns
\nan alert mind and an extraordinary memory for facts, names and relationships
\nof long ago. Living in the house where he was born in 1863, Mr. Ellis is sur~
\nrounded by hundreds of mementos of the old days — the cruel looking gadget with
\nwhich his great-grandfather used to pul I teeth, scrap books galore, legal documents
\nand letters that go back more than a hundred years.
\nMr. Ellis’ mother was a Howard, and her grand:f;ather — Mr. Ellis’ great—::-i
\ngrandfather — was one of the most prominent residents of Sidney in the early
\ndays, Dr. Ambrose Howard. Genealogists have long known that the family names of
\nHoward and Hayward are the same. In the year 1635 two brothers, John and James
\nHayward came from Somersetshlre, England to what is now Danbury, Mass. Soon John
\nwent to I ive in Bridgewater in the family of Captain Mi les Standish. James went
\nto Bermuda and was never heard from again.
\nJohn Hayward’s son Jonathan was a major of mi litla. His son Abia’ graduated
\nfrom Harvard in 1729 and became a physician. He changed the fam; Iy name to
\nHoward. His son Daniel married a Hayward just before the Revolution In 1772. It
\nwas his son Ambrose Howard, great-great-grandson of the original immigrant, who
\ncame to Sidney late in the 18th century as the town’s first physician. Not only
\nwas Ambrose Howard a doctor; he was also storekeeper, postmaster and justice of
\n3-184
\nthe peace. He died In 1835 and I want to tell you tonight about his wi I I and
\nthe Inventory of his estate.
\nAmbrose Howard’s wi I I was signed in Sidney on March 4, 1834, a little more
\nthan a year before his death. The witnesses were John Sawtelle, Edwin Arnold,
\nand Columbus Howard. In usual legal language the wi I I begins: “I, Ambrose Howard
\nof Sidney in the County of Kennebec and the State of Maine, physician, do
\nmake and pub I ish th Is, my last wi I I and testament.”
\nMuch has been made of an item in Shakespeare’s wi tI, wherein he bequeathed
\nto his wife his second best bed. Ambrose HOWard did better than that. The
\nfirst item of his wi II reads: “I give to my wife two of the best feather beds,
\nbedsteads, cords, under beds, bolsters and pillows. I give her two of the best
\ncoverlets and two of the bedsteads, al I the woolen blankets, and al I sheets and
\npi I low cases, and al I the towels and table cloths. I give her four of the best
\nbed comforters. I give her six of the best dining chairs, one large and two
\nsmall rocking chairs. I give her a bureau, two blue chests, all the fancy baskets
\nand bandboxes, and my traveling trunk. I give her one 3! foot table, one
\ntable with a drawer and lightstand. I give her one dozen best teaspoons, half a
\ndozen best tablespoons, and a dozen best knives and forks. I give her one
\nwater pa I I and one mi I k pa I I, two sma I I wash tubs and one pounding barre I, one
\nmeat tub and one Iron-bound butter firkin. I give her one pair wrought-Iron and
\nirons, one crane, and six pot-hooks, one fire pan and tongs. I give he r one
\ncow, one large looking-glass, two of;'”the best wooden trays, al I the best earthen
\nplates, one sma I I meat dish, one pudding dish, and one large pewter platter, all
\nthe sma I I glass bottles, one three-pint green glass bottle. I give her one soap
\nbarre I, one wooden mortar, and two of the best lime cas.ks, the two best cand lesticks,
\nthe best pair of snuffers, and the candle box. I give her one bushel basket,
\none cross-hand led peat basket, and one pa I r of sma I I s tee I yards. ”
\nMore than a hundred years after that wi I I was written, it certain Iy strikes
\n3-185
\nus as strange to see bequeathed to a wife the kind of property we today take for
\ngranted as belonging to her anyway — bed clothes, table linen, dishes, knives
\nand forks. But those old timers like Ambrose Howard knew both the law and the
\ncustom. If they waAted a surviving wife to have any of the household articles,
\nthe surest way was to particulari ze them, Item by Item, in the wi II.
\nWhen Ambrose Howard made th I s wi \/I, his 01 dest son ,Erasmus Darwin Howard,
\nwas seeking his fortune in far-away New Orleans, and on sane future pragr:am I
\nwant to tell you about a letter which Erasmus Darwin wrote his father in the same
\nyear, 1834. But. tonight we are talking about the father’s will. He remembered
\nthe absent son: “I give to my oldest son, Erasmus Darwin Howard, a note Which
\nhe gave me for $268.40, dated May 1, 1832, payable on demand with Interest annually.
\ngive him an order he drew on me In favor of Daniel Ormoby, dated
\nAprl I 28, 1828. give him an account I have against him, the balance due on
\nwhich Is $308.62. I give him Paley’s Moral and Political Philosophy, Darwin’s
\nLoononla In two volumes, Foster on Popular Ignorance, and six volumes of the
\nNew York Mad I ca I Rapos I tory. ”
\nNext comes the daughter, Marla Dunbar Brown. In June, 1828, he had loaned-)
\nMarla a hundred dollars. He now declared her released from the debt. He gave
\nher an additional hundred dollars, to be paid $50 a year, In each of the first
\ntwo years following his death. And for good measure he also gave Marla one CCN.
\nLike most of the careful businessmen of a century ago, Dr. Howard wanted
\nto make sure that his debts were cleared. He didn’t take any chance on his executor
\nsett II ng the debts I n hi s own way from the res i due of the estate, but
\nrather he laid down specific directions: “It Is my will that the half of the
\nml lis that I bought of Wi II iam Lovejoy and wife, and the mill house and the store
\nstand I ng near It, be sol d to pay a debt lowe to Samue I Dunbar, Esq., and the
\nsurplus, if any, be appropriated to pay my other debts. It Is my wi \/I that a
\ndebt of about $300, due me from William and Hiram Lovejoy, be collected and let
\n3-186
\nout on undoubted security on interest payable annually, punctually collected
\nand paid to my wife so long as she remains my widow.”
\nIt was the second son, Barnabas Dunbar Howard, who was made executor of
\nhis father’s estate. He was apparently the doctor’s favorite, for to him was
\nleft “a II the rest, resl due and rema inder of my property whether real or persona
\nI, not disposed of the foregoing bequests, after paying my Just debts and
\nfunera I cha rges.” Since no rea I estate, except the ml II, ml II house and store
\nhave been mentioned, we may assume that the doctor’s dwel ling went not to his
\nwIfe, but to this son Barnabas.
\nThe doctor also wanted to make sure that Barnabas had proper facilities
\nfor cultivating the mind. One item in the will provides: “It is my wi” that my
\nmedical library be sold, and that my executor appropriate the proceeds to pur~.1
\nchase such books and periodical publications as are calculated to Improve his
\nown min d and the min ds of his fam I I Y \u2022 ”
\nAccompanying the will, preserved among Arthur Ellis’ papers, is a complete
\ninventory. The big foolscap sheet is headed, “Inventory of the estate of Ambrose
\nHoward, late of Sidney, tn the County of Kennebec”. The whole estate was
\nappraised at a little more than $5,000, which was a comfortable amount in those
\nearly days of the Kennebec Valley. The items run to four long pages, and lists
\nobjects valued as little as twenty cents. Naturally the larger items of real
\nestate come first. They were one undivided half of home and farm bui Idings,
\nvalued at $1,000; one undivided half of saw and grist mill with all the machinery,
\ntools and land attached, valued at $950. Another dwelling house with outbui
\nIdings and land was set down at $200; the store with land at $200; four acres
\nof wi Id land at $20. His principal pew in the Baptist Meetinghouse was valued
\nat $37.50, another pew at $8, and one-fifth interest in eight undivided pews at
\n$10.
\nNext comes the I I vestock: a horse at $30, a cow at $22, a two year old
\n3-187
\nhei fer at $16, four ca Ives at $6 rap iece, and eight sheep at $2 ! ap iece.
\nThe farm machinery Included four ploughs, two harrows, one cart and rigging,
\na wood sled, a wagon sled, six ox chains, one ox yoke, one cart tongue, axes,
\nwedges, forks, hoes, rakes, scythes, a wheelbarrow, a horse trace, and a grindstone.
\nAlthough five hay forks were put down at 25 cents apiece, one manure
\nfork was valued at a dollar. Except for the cart, which was entered at $18, the
\nentire outfit of farm tools was valued at less than $40.
\nThere was, however, a chaise and harness, said to be worth $45, a buffalo
\nrobe at $2.50, and a saddle and bridle at $1.00. A winnowing machine was entered
\nat $6.00.
\nThink of the price of lumber today, then note this entry: “215 feet clear
\npine boards, $4.30”. Two white oak plank — we are not told the length — were
\nI I sted at $1 .00. Among the sma II i terns I s a cod line at 20 cents. Does th Is
\nmean a fish line, or is It somethl ng else? I f the former, what was a doctor up
\nIn Inland Sidney doing with a cod line?
\nOnly $42 was allowed for four stoves and thei r funnels. In spite of the
\ngreat length of this inventory, it amazingly contains no furniture except a
\nwriting desk, val ued at $1.75, but it does carefully list bed spreads, quilts,
\ncoverlets, blankets, sheets and pillow cases. Two spinning wheels are valued at
\n$1.25, one winder at 40 cents, two tenters at 50 cents, and two cheesehooks at
\n42 cents.
\nThe doctor’s entire wearing apparel is apprai~sed at $36.76, and his library
\nat $75. Especially interesting is the list of his professional Items: “phials
\nand contents $3.60, medicine $8, saddlebags and contents $6, Instruments for extracting
\nteeth $2.50, case of Instruments $2, a mortar and pestle $1.50.”
\nThe appraJsers took due account of the doctor’s debtors, some of whom owed
\nhim substantial amounts. The Interest was faithfully computed and Included. We
\nhave already seen that his son Erasmus Darwin Howard owed him nearly $600; son
\n3-188
\nBamabas owed $25.60. The Haywards — you will recall that Hayward and Howard
\nwere or I gina I I Y the same name ,. so these Haywards we re p robab lyre I at I ves — the
\nHaywards owed Dr. Ambrose right and left. Ezra owed him $52.59; Edmund $12.85;
\nSamuel $26.13. The Hutchlnsons, the Arnolds, the Perrys, the Smi leys, the Reyno
\nIds, and the Lovejoys were a I lin the doctor’s debt, though some of the amounts
\nwere very sma II. Seth Pe rry, for instance, is recorded as ow ing Dr. Howard $1.02.
\nSeveral Items in the long inventory I am not able to identify. I have no
\ndoubt some of my I i stene rs can te II me what exact I y they we re. Anyhow here they
\nare: a rockeriron, an fron squim, a junk bottle, a clock reel and a close stool.
\n*****
\nWe have Just time enough left for a few more words about words.
\nI am frequent Iy asked the origin of the word “fan” as app I ied to a follower
\nor supporter. We cannot be quite sure how it originated. Some people contend
\nthat it referred to the palm-leaf fans commonly used In those hot open stands of
\nthe baseball parks in the 1880’s. Others hold that fan is a contraction of fancy.
\nAt any rate a . hundred years ago an ardent follower of any sport was called
\na fancy. The most probably explanation is that it is a contraction of the adjective
\nfanatic.
\nThe origin of the word “fanatic” itself is more interesting. The Roman General
\nSulla, whi Ie on his famous campaign against Mithradates in Asia Minor, had
\na dream that the goddess Be Ilona urged him to return to Rome to foresta II p lotting
\nenemies. His success, on following her advice, caused him to erect a temple
\nor fane in her honor. He brought priests from Asia Minor to establish sacred
\nrites. and conducted worship for Bellona. Those rites were scenes of religious
\nfrenzy, tearing of clothes, self-mutilation, and scattering of blood on the
\nspectators. The Romans called such frenzy “fanaticiesll , inspired by the fane.
\nFinally, tonight, you may be interested to know that glamour and grammar are
\nword relatives. In days when most people could not read or write, grammar —
\n3-189
\nLatin grammar, of course, for that was the only kind studied all through the
\nMiddle Ages — was supposed to be able to work magic. In England a person who
\ncould work magic with Latin mumbo-jumbo was called a grammary. In Scotland he
\nwas a g lamer. About 1800 5 i r Wa Iter Scott brought the Scott i sh vers i on, wh i ch
\nhe spe lied “g lamour”, into genera I use as a synonym for cham. But bear in mind
\nthat the word charm Itself originally meant working magic. As time went on the
\nEnglish word “grammar” came to be associated with linguistics, the study of
\nwords; whi Ie glamour came to have its present meaning. So perhaps you may some
\nday yet come to see some glamour in grammar.
\nAs we close tonight, let’s have two or three more of those interesting word
\norigins we occasionally talk about.
\nWhat is the origin of “dumbbell”, the exercising device, and what is its
\nre lation to the s lang term “dumbbe II”, a s low-witted person? I n the e I ghteenth
\ncentury it became fashionable for persons In the upper classes of English
\nsociety to strive to atta In the muscu lar deve lopment of the be II-ringers, who
\nwere famous for their strong ams. So at first a device was made to simulate
\nthe bell-ringers gallery without the bells. Joseph Addison, the essayist and
\nfounder of that early and most famous periodical, the Spectator, had one of
\nthese devices in his bedroom. It consisted of a rope, attached to weights, runn
\ni ng over a pu Iley from the ce i I I ng. A wooden bar, knobbed at both ends to keep
\nthe hands from s II pp lng off, was knotted to the other end of the rope and hung
\njust within reach of the person about to take the exercise. He could thus duplicate
\nthe bell-ringer’s motions and regulate the weight in order to demand various
\ndegrees of strength. Since there was no bell, it was called a “dumb bell”.
\nlater it was discovered that the rope and pulley was excess baggage; that the
\nsame resu It cou I d be obta i ned by simp I y I I ftl ng the bar.
\nThis kind of dumbbel I has nothing to do with the slang phrase, however. That
\nslang was originally directed only at the female sex, because it is a corruption
\n3-190
\nof “dumb belle” — a young woman, beautiful but dumb — and In time it lost its
\nsex distinction and became applied equally to slow-witted men.
\nIs there any connection between infant and infantry? Yes, indeed there Is.
\nIn medieval Italy the personal attendant of a knight was called an “infante”,
\nprobably because he was likely to be little more than a boy. A collection of
\nthese retainers was called Infanteria — infantry. By the way, the origin of
\n“infant” is from the Latin “in fans”.– not speaking.
\n3-191
\nLlTILE TALKS ON COMMON THINGS
\n,
\n133rd Broadcast January 27,1952
\nIn the midst of the mounting evidence of graft, bribery, and corruption in
\nthe federal government today, it Is well to remind ourselves that no political
\nparty has a monopoly of this evl I. Twice before In our history scandals have
\nrocked the government, and on both of those earl ier occasions the Republicans
\nwere in power. Clearly It is not either political party, as such, that is
\nto blame for the corruption, but the men and the methods that control the party
\nin power under given circumstances.
\nThe first great Washington scandal came in the administration of Ulysses
\nS. Grant, who was president for eight years from 1869 to 1877. Though himself
\nhonest and scrupulous, Grant headed a regime in which graft was rampant. Before
\nthe Investigations were over, not only department employees and bureau heads
\nhad been implicated, but seven cabinet officers, a White House secretary, half
\na dozen members of Congress, and several relatives and in-laws of the President
\nhimself. Grant had been president only six months when Black Friday hit the
\nNew York Stock Exchange. That panic resulted In an attempt by Jim Fisk and Jay
\nGould to corner the nation’s supply of gold. They thought they had been able
\nto reach and fix A. R. Corbin, the President’s brother-In-law, who was Secretary
\nof the Treasury.
\nThen wholesale bribery was revealed in the New York customs house, followed
\nby the multi-ml Ilion dollar scandal of the company organized to build the Union
\nPac i f I c Ra I I road. One of the p remote rs of th I s company was Cong res sman Oakes
\nAmes of Massachusetts, who engineered gifts of Union Pacific stock to fellow
\nCongressmen I n exchange for the I r votes. One of the bene factors was S chy Ie r
\nColfax, Vice-President of the United States.
\nA I I th i s had occurred be fore the elect i on of 1872 when Grant was a cand I …
\n3-192
\ndate to succeed himself. His reelection was at once taken as free license to
\nplunder. He had done nothing 10 chase the crooks out of his first administration.
\nAt once the Navy Department began an orgy o,f squandering on ship repair
\ncontracts. The whiskey ring, led by Grant’s own private secretary, Gen. O. E.
\nBabcock, plundered the government of more than four mill ion dollars in taxes.
\nWar DepartmenT officials got mixed up in the Illegal, but highly profitable,
\nsale of weapons to France in the Franco-Prussian War. Shakedowns and kickbacks
\nwere the common thing In trade with Indians; bribery and blackmal I accompanied
\nthe collection of back taxes for the Treasury. Before Grant left office In the
\nspring of 1877, the scandals had implicated his attorney general and his secretary
\nof the Navy, War and Interior. There was scarcely any agency of the federal
\ngovernment in Grant’s admin I stration that was not Invol ved in an t rregu I arlty
\nof some sort.
\nAlthough no persons now alive remember from any personal recollection at
\nthe time the scandals of the Grant regime, the Harding scandals are vivid In the
\nmemory of a lOT of persons of my age. Whi Ie Harding was alive the corruption was
\npretty well covered up, but soon after his death the scandals broke wide open.
\nThe Veterans Bureau showed graft In hospital contracts, and its head, Col.
\nCharles Forbes, was convicted of fraud. Then the Teapot Dome scandal broke.
\nSecretary of The Interior, A Ibert Fa II, became party to a scheme to lease the
\nva I uab Ie 011 depos its in Wyoming to private interests led by Edward I\u00bbherty and
\nHarry Sinclair. Fall’s payment for his official part in the deal was to be
\n$300,000. He was convicted of accepting a bribe and went to prison.
\nThomas Mi Iler, custodian of alien property after World War I, was convicted
\nof accepting $50,000 from the former German owners of a 6 mi II ion dollar property,
\nfor enTering into a deal to hand the property back to them. When Jess
\nSmith, a close associate of Attorney General Daugherty, committed sui ci de, the
\ninvestigators Thought they had better take a look in that dl rection. They found
\n3-193
\n$50,000 of the a lien property account had found Its way into Jess Smith’s bank
\naccount. Then they learned that the Attorney General had control of the Smith
\nbank account.
\nNow the present scandals in the Truman administration are following the
\n01 d fami liar pattern. Notice that both the others followed immediate Iy after
\nthe c lose of a great war, the Ci vi I War and Wor I d War I. Another great war
\nhas now been fought. like his predecessors, Mr. Truman Inherited a government
\nwith suddenly expanded powers and greatly expanded personnel. That sort of
\nthing necessitates delegation of more and more responslbl Ifty, and less opportun
\ntty to check on the subordinate’s performance.
\nBut there is more to It than that. Thus far Mr. Truman has shown no evidence
\nof being any more energetic and determined to clean up the corruption In
\nhis administration than Grant and Harding were to clean up theirs. All three of
\nthese presidents have a tendency to protect their appointees. All three appointed
\nto new positions men who were forced to resign from others. It seems
\nmore than I d Ie rumor that Tom Murphy refused the profi,fered Job to head a cleanup
\nIn ‘Bstigatlon because the President’s closest advisers persuaded him not to
\ngive Murphy a free hand in naming his associates and employees In the pending
\ninvestigation.
\nThe honest and painstaking President Hayes cleaned up the Grant mess and
\nwon back for the federal government the people’s respect. After Calvin Coolidge
\nappointed independent, non-political prosecutors to clean up the Hardl~g oil
\nscandals, the confidence of the nation returned. It can indeed be done again.
\nIt I s not too late for Presl dent Truman h imse’ f to do it. I f he fa I Is, another
\nHayes or another Coolidge will surely come along.
\n*****
\nSo many I isteners have responded to my request for information about a
\nclock reel that I am really ashaned of my i~orance in asking the question.
\n3-194
\nIt appears there are a dozen or more old clock reels in the homes of this area,
\nand one of them is on publ Ie exhibition at the Redington Museum of the WateNrf\\’-‘
\nvi lie HI storlea I Soc lety.
\nA clock reel was an old-time device for winding, and at the same time
\nmeasur ing, yam. The cl rcumference of the ree I was so arranged that, when a
\nknot of yam had been measured off, the reel gave a sharp click, the way a
\nclock strikes. Knowing how many kmots made a skein, the operator had only to
\ncount the clicks to measure the skeins of yarn.
\nMany I isteners have told me what a rocker Iron Is. I think the clearest
\nexplanation is one written me by Mr. Jotham Hobbs of Fairfield. He says: “A
\nrocker Iron is a piece of iron fastened on the under side of the rocker, or
\nfrontal beam, of a cart or sled, to turn on a similar piece of Iron fastened
\non the front axle, held together by a king Din to permit free movement.”
\nA Junk bottle, Mr. Hobbs fa lis me, Is a strong glass bottle for porter or
\nale. But not a soul has come forward with Information about an Iron squim.
\n*****
\nWe have devoted time lately to Fairfield, Sidney, Vassalboro, Oakland and
\nClinton. It is time we turned again to Watervi lie’s mother town of Winslow.
\nThrough the courtesy of Mrs. William Abbott Smith, I have seen the Winslow
\nschool report for 1879. The report is signed by the Supervisor of Schools,
\nA I den Bassett, who was, I am to I d, the father of my ne i ghbor, Mrs. I ra Be Iyea.
\nWinslow had 18 school districts In 1879, and some of them were in nearly
\nas bad shape as those school districts In Fairfield that I told you about a
\nfew weeks ago. Supervisor Bassett summed up the situation In these words: “The
\nsuccess attending our schools is as good as can be expected when we consider
\nthe fact that, in our eighteen districts, more than thirty different teachers
\nhave been employed. There is no uniformity in textbooks, even within the same
\nschool. In some of the schools the teachers have hurried their pupils over the
\n3-195
\npages and they had little or no understanding of the principles.”
\nSupervisor Baseett had something to say about parents who side with their
\nchildren against every teacher. He wrote: “In a well regulated school, govern ….
\nment Is one of the first requisites. Children sent to school are expected to
\nobey a II the rules of the teacher, which are essential to the good of the scholar
\nand the sChool. But on entering some schools, we find scholars who think
\ntheir wishes should be consulted In regard to this and that; and finding, for
\nonce In their lives, that their feelings are not regarded, they enter a complaint
\nto their parents, who think there is no one perfect but their own children.
\nThe parent sympathizes with the child, is sure the teacher is wrong,
\nand won’t send the chi I d to that teacher. The ch i I d stays at home and the par.;,\u00b7,
\nent thus breaks the state law.
\n“Parents should see that their children are at school regularly and punctually.
\nWhen absence or tardiness cannot be explained by sickness, parents are
\nat fault. They should avoid speaking I II of the teacher in the presence of ‘ .
\ntheir chi Idren, for if the chi Id sees that his parents have no confidence In
\nthe teacher, the schools falls to benefit him. The school does not depend upon
\nteacher or supervl sor; as are the parents, so is the schoo I.”
\nEach of the 18 districts had an agent, who really ran the school, with only
\nvery general responslbi I ity to the supervisor. Some of those agents are we II
\nremembered Winslow names: George Blackwe II in District 1 j Henry Pollard in District
\n4; Wi II iam Warren in No.7; John Webber in No.9; W. V. Hayden In No. 12;
\nAlvah Wheeler In No. 15; and A. E. Ellis in No. 18.
\nAs I have told you before when I talked about old school reports of other
\ntowns, I am always amazed at the frankness with which those reports talk about
\nthe teachers. Of Miss Eastman’s school this Winslaol report says: “I was not
\ntold when the school would close, and I vIsited it but once. At that time the
\nappearance of the school was not flattering to Miss Eastman.” That was the fall
\n3-196
\nterm. Miss Eastman gave way to a Miss Flagg in the winter term, of whom the
\nsupervisor wrote: “The scholars could not pass a good examination, and the
\norder was not so good as It shou Id be In a we II regu lated school.”
\nOf Miss Merrill In District No.6, the supervisor was doubtful but not
\nwholly condemnatory. “This was Miss Herri II’s first school”, he reported. “She
\nlabored hard, and with experience she may make a good teacher. In some branches
\na fa Ir degree of improvement was made.”
\nHe gave even more praise to Miss Lunt in District 7. He said: “Miss Lunt
\nIs a graduate of Portland High School. She labors hard and is a good Instructor.
\nThe school passed a good examination at the close of the term.” Then the supervisor
\nmakes iT appear that what he Is really doing Is damning with faint praise,
\nfor he says: “If I was to find any fault it would be that the teacher is a
\nliTtle too mi I d in government.”
\nMiss Murray In District 8 got off even worse: “At each visit”, said the
\nsupervisor, “The school seemed well disposed, but was not studious, and I think
\nbUT little proficiency was made in the studies.”
\nEven in District 10, where the teacher was a daughter of the district agent,
\nthe supervisor minced no words. ”I was called to vIsit this school, and after
\nexamln ing I t I thought it was not a profitab Ie term, and I advised the teacher
\nto close it.”
\nOf the teacher in District 2, The report says: “Although she had taught
\ntwo schools previous to this, she lacked judgment as a teacher, and but little
\nor no good res u Ited from th is schoo I \u2022 ”
\nOf Miss Harding in District 11, the supervisor. commented: “She offered
\nass i stance to The pup i Is wh lie recl tlng, so that they rather depended on her.
\nConsequently The examination was not satisfactory. But, as this is Miss
\nHarding’s firST school, she no doubt wi II do better next time.”
\nBy no means were all of these criticized teachers women. The supervisor
\n3-197
\ncould be just as harsh when dealing with a man. This is what he wrote about
\nWi II lam Furber In District 15: “At my fIrst visit, the school was In perfect
\norder, and the recitations were prompt; but soon afterward there seemed to be
\na disposition with soma of the scholars to break up the school. I was called
\nto visit the school twice, and the last time expelled two scholars. Mr. Furber
\nhad lost control, but after my Interference things went more smooth Iy. He may
\nyet make a successful teacher.”
\nWhen you encounter a report in which a supervisor gives adverse opinions
\nso frankly, you are incl fned to pay more attention to those whom he praises.
\nYou get the Impression that his praise, like his blame, is completely sincere.
\nTo MIss Minnie Smith in District No.5 he gtves very high praise. “I visited
\nthe school near the commencement of the term”, he says, “and was pleased with
\nthe order and instruction. The parents and scholars speak very highly of Miss
\nSmith as a teacher, and I have reason to be Ileve the term was successfu I. Mlss
\nSmith Is a graduate of the Waterville Classical Institute.”
\nOf Marcia Varney in District 3, the supervisor says: “She exhibits superIor
\nqua II ties as an instructor, and her schoo I was we II prepared, the scholars
\nshowing that they had been well disciplined in their studies.”
\nHigh praise went to George IFlles in District 8: “The district was fortunate
\nin securing Mr. Ff les, who has taught this school several times successfully.
\nHe is an active, hard working teacher, and gives his scholars many
\npractlca I questions to sol vee The scho I ars are to be commanded for the I r gent
\nleman Iy conduct.”
\nMiss Jennie Davies also met with Mr. Bassett’s approval. “Miss Davies is
\na good Instructor and gave universal satisfaction. She teaches her scholars to
\nbe respectfu I in the I r address, wh Ich I s too much neg lected by teachers generl'”
\nally. This school was studious and passed a good examination.”
\nHow well were these teachers paid? The highest paid teacher was Joseph
\n3-198
\nGarland In District 18, who got $11 a weekj George Files in District 8 got $8
\na week; R. O. Jones in District 2 got $6; Wi Illam Furber In No. 15 got $5.
\nMiss MIAnle Smith was the highest pa I d woman teacher, gatt Ing $5 a week
\nin cash and board valued at $1.75 a week, a total of $6.75. The lowest paid
\nteacher was a girl in District 10, who got only $2.00 a week in cash and board
\nva lued at $1.25. That poor gi rl may have gone hungry more than once, because
\nthe prevailing board rate throughout Winslow’s 18 school districts In 1879 was
\n$2.00 a week. Most of the teachers, In fact, received $3.00 a week in cash
\nand board valued at $2.00.
\nEven as late as 1879 there were large faml ffes on our Maine farms. Those
\nold district schools were by r:1O means so small as one might Imagine. If the
\nwhole enrollment had been gathered into one school, there would have been 321
\npupils under one roof. That Is an average of 18 pupils to every one of the 18
\ndistricts. There were In fact 48 pupi Is In Ofstrict 18; 29 in District 7; 27
\nin District 12. Onty two districts — No. 13 and No. 16 — had fewer than ten
\npup i Is.
\nWe II, anyhow, teach ing schex> I was a pretty tough Job seventy years ago.
\n3-199
\nLITTLE TALKS ON COMMON THINGS
\n134th Broadcast February 3L.J…952..
\nWhat a vast quantity and variety of those old a Imanacs must have been ci rculated
\nby the patent medicine companies a hundred years ago. An almanac was
\nthen almost as common a medium of advertising as calendars were in my boyhood.
\nI wonder if anyone in Central Maine has a collection of those old advertising
\nalmanacs, especi a Ily the patent medi ci ne ones. I f so, I shou Id like to hear
\nabout it.
\nOne Interesting copy that recently came to my attention was Wright’s Pictorial
\nFami Iy Almanac for the year 1854. This almanac was apparently the annual
\npublication of Dr. Wi lIiam Wright of 169 Race Street, Phi ladelphla. The work
\nwas printed by Brown’s Steam Power Printing Office, Ledger Building, Phlladelphia.
\nThrough some sort of connections Dr. Wright had set up distribution offices
\nat 165 Chambers Street, New York, and at 10 Tremont Street in Boston.
\nIn his foreword Dr. Wright acknowledges the popularity of an almanac for
\nadvertising purposes. He says: “This being the most popular medium of advertising
\nat the present time, I cordially acquiesce in the necessity which calls
\nfor it, and have taken some pains to meet it. I have endeavored to make the
\nastronomical calculations entirely reliable and accurate, the medical matter
\nuseful, and the miscellaneous matter and the illustrations entertaining. It only
\nremains to send it forth on its mission, and In so doing I ava! I myself of the
\nopportunity of returning in proper person my most sincere thanks for the kind
\nappreciation of my medicines which has brought them into almost universal use,
\nand of giving assurance that no efforts of mine shal I be wanting to sustain
\nthe I r reputati on.”
\nDr. Wright apparently didn’t much care how his almanac was distributed,
\nprovided it got around. His obvious, sole purpose was to give it the widest
\n3-200
\npossible circulation In order to make his medicines better known and to increase
\ntheir sales. On the back cover he published the following notice to
\ndealers: “This almanac wi” be supplied to agents as usual, without any cost
\nother than the expense of transportation fnom Phi ladelphla, to indemnify which
\nthey may, at’ the I r opti on, se II the a Imanac at the pri ce fixed upon the ti tie
\npage.” ”Orders should always be sent
\nconsiderably In advance of the time they wi II be wanted, so as to prevent disappointment.
\nWhen agents are located off the regular rai I road and e<press
\nroutes from Ph i I ada I ph i a, arrangements sholill d be made to have the a I manacs :' ,.,
\npacked with other goods to be forwarded from the Atlantic cities. others than
\nagents wi Ilbe supplied with almanacs at the rate of 25 copies to the dozen
\nboxes of pi lis o'f syrup purchased. Booksellers, periodical agents, postmasters,
\nand peddlers, who buy none of the pills or syrup, will be supplied at the rate
\nof one dollar per hundred."
\nOn one point Dr. Wright was very modern, far ahead of his time. The gulllbl
\nIity of people is amazing, and in spite of plenty of scientific evidence that
\nno one cou I d p red I ct the weathe r more than a few days in advance, in th Is en-
\nI I ghtened year of 1952, there are plenty of peep Ie who have fa I th I n what an
\nalmanac says about the coming year's weather. Yet a hundred years ago Dr.
\nWright published on the inside back cover of his almanac these words: "Nothing
\nis sa i d about the Weather th Is year I n our a Imanac. I t Is on I Y just to state
\nto the public that they know about the weather for the coming year as we do. No
\nmathematician or astronomer, however able, can possibly cypher out the weather.
\nWhen such predictions are seen in almanacs, they should be regarded as mere
\nguess work, entitled to no confidence, and as likely to fail as to be true."
\nDr. Wright claimed for his almanac the amazing circulation of half a mil-
\nI i on cop ies. I nteresting to us is his fi gure for Ma ine — equa I to h Is comb lned
\nc I rcu latlon in New Hampsh I re and Vermont. Wh I Ie he cl aimed 10,000 for each of
\n3-201
\nthose states, he said he circulated 20,000 in Maine. He claimed 150,000 for
\nthe two states of New York and Pennsyl~nia, but what Is more astounding, he
\nsaid he circulated 10,000 copies in California, 5,000 in Texas, 5,000 in Iowa,
\n15,000 in Missouri, 2,000 in Arkansas, and even 5,000 In the West Indies.
\nOne table in this almanac gives the population of some 60 American towns
\nand cities for the two censuses of 1830 and 1850. Among the 60 places there are
\nonly two in Maine — Portland and Bangor. In those twenty years Portland had
\ngrown from 12,000 to 20,000; Bangor from 2,800 to 14,000. Boston had mone than
\n135,000 people as early as 1850; New York's population had already passed half
\na million. Philadelphia, on the other hand, was then smaller than Boston, while
\nBa It i more was cons I derab Iyl arger. On Iy 40,000 peop Ie lived In the national
\ncapital, Washington, fewer than 30,000 lived in Chicago, and only 17,000 In
\nCleveland. The six largest cities in order of size In 1850 were New York, Baltimore,
\nBoston, New Orleans and Cincinnati; and those were the only cities that
\nhad mone than a hundred thousand peop Ie. Ne I ther San Francisco nor any ather
\np lace in Ca II forn ia I s even manti oned. The sma I lest p lace listed among the
\nsixty is Nashville, Tennessee, with its meager 10,000 people in 1850.
\nWhat did Dr. Wright's almanac advertise? A whole page is devoted to
\nWright's Indian Vegetable Pills of the North American College of Health. The ad
\nsays: "The hand of a benef I cent creator has planted every country with its own
\nproper antidotes against effects of soi I and climate upon the human being. The
\naboriginal Indians, taking advantage of that fact, possessed a vigor of constitution
\nunsurpassed by any other race. It is from such roots and plants as gave
\nhealth to the Indians that Wright's Indian Vegetable Pi lis are compounded'! Some
\nof the diseases they were promised to cune or relieve were asthma, dropsy, dyspepsia,
\nfits, ague, gout, jaundice, neuralgia, small pox and yellQlt fever. The
\nother product was Wright's Indian Vegetable Syrup, which contained the same ingredients
\nas were in the pi lis. You could thus have the cure in solid Or
\n3-202
\nliquid form; you paid your money and took your choice.
\nDr. Wright graclflously allowed a little space to other advertisers though,
\nas explained In his announcement of advertising rates, he strictly barred the
\nads of any other med ica I men. There is a ha I f page ad of the 00 II ar Newspaper
\nof Phi ladelphia, proclaimed as the cheapest family paper in the U. S. The sub,..
\nscription rate was indeed only a dollar a year. For that small amount the !"-':-r',~
\nreader was proml sed 52 issues of stories and nove lettes, articles on agricu Iture
\nand news — a II pri nted on a par r of mammoth printing mach Ines costing $45,000
\nand capable of turning out 20,000 impressions an hour.
\nAnother ad was headed: "A sure way to get rich. Freedley's Practical
\nTreatise on Busi ness. The best book on money making ever pub Ifshed. Prlce,
\n$1.00. Don't fail TO get this book; It will pay you well."
\nAnother ad told the readers that book agents were wanted. "Persons in every
\ntown and vi IIage of the U. S. may hear of safe, pleasant and profitable employment
\nIn the circulaTion of new and useful pictorial works."
\nAnthony SchmidT of 409 Main Street, Buffalo, advertised that he dealt In
\nGerman and English books, mantle-piece clocks, fine pictures and picture frames,
\nlooking glasses, toys, wax candles and tapers.
\nWe have often mentioned the Inconvell'lence caused by the different local ,.
\ntimes a hundred years ago. Dr. Wright attempts to dispel some of the confusion
\nwith a statement addressed Simply, "To the Reader". It says: "There are two
\nkinds of time used In conmon almanacs for the sun's rising and setting. One Is
\nclock time, and the other Is apparent or sun time. Clock time Is always right,
\nwhi Ie sun time varies every day, and Is alternately too fast or too slow. According
\nto apparent time, the sun will always rise or set at six o'clock when it is
\nat the equinox, but this Is never the case according to clock or true time. If
\nthe sun was In the meridian, the noon mark, at 12 o'clock every day, apparent
\ntime would be true. Peep Ie ~enerally suppose it Is 12 o'clock when the sun is
\n3-203
\nIn mid-heaven. This Is a mistake. The sun is so Irregular that It does not
\ncome to the meridian oftener than four times in,a whole year. When the sun Is
\nat the noon mark, It Is noon, but not 12 o'clock very often.-
\n''The var I att on of the s un makes a d I ffe rence between I t and a II true t I mepieces,
\nand produces two ktnds of time. The sun cannot, therefore, be depended
\nupon for correct time, without applying to it what Is termed the equation of
\ntime, or the difference between clock and sun. Add to apparent time when the
\nsun Is slow, and subtract when It is fast. This almanac Is In clock time."
\n*****
\nAs the 1952 presidential campaign gets under way, some amusing verse from
\nthe pen of Representative Ed Chase of Portland may weI} I claim our attention. Ed
\nChase being a staunch Republican, this is distinctly Republ ican verse, but I am
\nsure whatever your poll tics, you wi II find I t rather pat.
\n"Ma I den-coy In his I vory tower,
\nDraftable maybe, Is Eisenhower.
\nParty pros we II versed In craft
\nBeat the sticks on behalf of Taft.
\nSix or eight of lesser size
\nCherish the hope of compromise.
\nWatching rivals torn asunder,
\nHumb ler fol k are prone to wonder,
\nFinding quite hard to understand
\nWhy supp Iy shou I d exceed demand."
\n*****
\nHow we" do you know your own state of Ma ine? I want to te" you ton ight
\nabout some of Maine's unusual place names, and I assure you that no longer ago
\nthan 1910 — a I ittle more than 40 years — every one of those p laces was the
\nofficial name of a post office in our state. Old you ever hear of Letter C?
\n3-204
\nThat was a post office In an unorganized township in the Rangeley region. In
\n1910 It had a population of seven persons. Its settlement is now called Middle
\nDam.
\nMaine once had a place named for a fish. In the town of Kennebunkport
\nThere was a post office called Alewives. ~deration was once the official name
\nof West Buxton. Ketchum is a settlement In RI ley Plantation north of Rumford.
\nDown In Washington County In the town of Cooper is a place called Cedar, while
\nCoal-Kiln Corner Is in the town of Scarborough. Eureka Is a place right near
\nWate rv I I Ie — one of the sett I emen ts I n the town of Sidney.
\nEveryone knows that Maine is covered with place names taken from Europe,
\np I aces like Norway, Sweden, DEmma rk and Nap les, four of the tCMns that border
\nmy native Brldgtonjnames from Asia, like China and Canton; names from Africa,
\nI ike Carthage; names fran South America, I ike Peru; and numerous names from the
\nBible, like Bethel, Canaan, GI lead, Hebron, Lebanon, Mars HIli and Shi loh. I
\nwonder, however, If you know that in Maine there Is a Jerusalem, an Eqypt and
\na Corea. Jerusalem Is a settlement 30 mi les north of Farmington; Egypt is a
\np lace in the town of Franklin; and Corea (spe lied with a C, not a K) Is In the
\ntown of Gouldsborough.
\nIn spite of the long boundary line between Maine and Canada, there is, so
\nfar as I know, just one p lace off Icl ally ca lied Boundary. I tis a sett lement
\nin the town of Bridgewater. Lynchtown, an unorganized tCMnship embracing Parmachenee
\nLake, had eight peop Ie In 1910. It probab Iy got I ts name from some
\nfamily named Lynch, not from a necktie party. Tim was once an offici.al post
\noffice In the town of Eustis; Pea Cove is a p lace in Old Town. But I think of
\nall the Maine post offices listed In 1910, the prizes are taken by Mosquito and
\nSunshine. Yes, forty years ago, mall could actually be addressed to Mosquito,
\nMaine in Forks Plantation, or to Sunshine, Maine on Deer Isle.
\nWe have many names of British origin dotting the map of Maine. We expect
\n3-205
\nthem and take them for granted. But did you eve r not ice how many names we have
\nof German origin, in spite \u00b7of the fact that almost the only German settlement
\nin early Maine was at Waldoboro? Yet, scattered over Maine, we have Bremen,
\nBrunswick, Dresden, Frankfort, Lubec and Vienna.
\nLege:nd has It that the town of Pol and, where the Ri ckers dew loped the
\nfamous spring, owes its name neither to the European country nor to a fami Iy of
\nthat name, but to a famous Poland China boar, owned there In pioneer days, the
\nsire of the best pigs In the region for many years.
\nI suppose there are even more picturesque names of Maine localities which
\nnever got into the records because they never had a post office. I wish you
\nfolks would help me make a collection of those old names. Off hand, as we close
\nthe program tonight, I think of two: Hungry Hollow and Monotony. Hungry Hollow,
\nwhen I was a teacher at Hebron 35 years ago, was a well known, but decidedly
\nrun-down hamlet between South Paris and West Paris. Monotony was the fitting
\nname for an i sol ated, dreary collecti on of ha I f a dozen houses on the southern
\nedge of Fryeburg. Now who wi II add names to this collection?
\n3-206
\nL1TILE TALKS ON COMMON THINGS
\n135th Broadcas"t Februa ry 10, 1952
\nNow that Congress is aga i n In sess Ion, we are al I i nte rested to know what
\nlegislation it wi II pass. Unlike the program that precedes this one on the air,
\nover this station, we are not given to predictions of things to come. We can
\nonly tell you what leading members of Congress themselves say about legislation
\nahead.
\nSenator George and Representative Doughton, the leading authorities on
\ntaxation within the Congress, both state emphatically that taxes will not be
\nraised again in 1952, and we may look for no further change in social security
\nand we I fare laws.
\nOn foreign policy that veteran senator, Tom Connally, chairman of the Senate
\nCommittee on Foreign Relations, says foreign econanic aid wi II end in 1951,
\njust as originally planned, but that military aid will probably continue. He
\nsays there wi I I be no Ambassador to the Vat I can, that the Senate w I II never ap.,.
\nprove It. The Japanese Peace Treaty will be ratified, but the St. Lawrence Seaway
\nIs a dead issue.
\nOn mill tary affai rs Senator Russe II, chaf rman of the Armed Services Com ..
\nmfttee, hopes "there wi II be early enactment of Universal Military Training, but
\nno Senator or Representative is bold enough to predict its passage. Propone\u00b7ntst:,,of
\nUMT know that they have a fight on their hands. There are a lot of people
\nin the United States who do not want to see us tied to a permanent ml litarlzation
\nof youth, and those peop Ie have strong support in the Congress.
\nAs for labor, not even the bitterest enemies of the Taft-Hart ley Act four
\nyears ago now expect its repea I. They admit that I t has worked rather we 1\/
\nand needs minor amendments, rather than repeal. As for oommunism within the
\n3-207
\nranks of labor, Representative Barden, chairman of the House Cormlittee, says:
\n"I think CIO and AFL have done a good job of cleaning house, and they found that
\nindeed some house cleaning was needed. Unfortunately there are still a few
\nun ions In wh i ch the colTmun i sts hoi d power. II
\nWhat about government controls? Representative Spence, chairman of the
\nHouse Commi ttee on Bank i ng and Currency, fee I s sure that we do not now have
\nsuffidient control to fight inflation and sti II carryon defense production at
\na high level. That, as we have more than once pointed out on this program, is
\nthe crux of the problem. How can Increased defense production and decreased
\nclvi I ian production do otherwise than bring higher and hi gher prices as long as
\nthe workers have more and more money to spend for fewer goods? Let us repeat
\nagain what we have tried to emphasize before: No partial control solves that
\nkind of problem. You can't solve it by freezing prices and profits, and letting
\nwages alone. You can't accomplish much by control of processing and trade without
\ncontro I ling raw mate ria Is at the i r source. I f we have a s i tuat i on that demands
\nall-out control, let's have It. If we have no such situation, take off
\nall controls and let free enterprise do\u00b7cky Mountains in search of
\nthe buffalo and other game of the Far West”. But what Howard calls a “Provi ..
\ndence -that watches over the strangers in a strange land” Intervened. At last
\nhe found a job in New Orleans. Before leaving Maine he had learned the carpenter’s
\n-trade, and in those days every carpenter worth his salt was a’-cabinet
\nmaker. Howard was no exception. He found a room for which he had to pay what
\nwas then an exhorbitant rental of ten dollars a month, and determined to set
\nup In business as a cabinet maker and joiner. He got his chest of tools and a
\nfew other possessions trucked up from the ship, where they had lain since his
\narriva I. Then he obtained sufficient lumber to construct a work bench and began
\nwork on the most essential articles of furniture for his own needs — bedstead,
\nchai r and tab Ie. Then he te II s hi s father about hi s first work for pay in New
\nOrleans:
\n“The first job I performed was working the molding 00 the mislon (sic)
\nchannels of the ship Ceylon, which I wrought entirely by hand, as I could find
\nno sui-table molding tools In this city. I had scarcely finished that job when
\nthe sh i p was run into by another vesse I, wh i ch carried away her starboard mt d-
\n3-210
\nship works. That gave me another job of three or four days.
\n“After fi nishing on board the Ceylon and arranging my shop and household,
\napp lied to my I and I ady for further patronage. She is a French lady, an 01 d
\nrna I d of about 45 years — and a much better woman than anyone wou I d expect to
\nfind renting quarters in New Orleans. She gave me encouragement, and a few days
\nlater gave me a job repairing another house that belonged to her. That job gave
\nme emp loyment for near Iy a month. Then she recommended me to other members of
\nher fami Iy who in turn recommended me to their friends. Thus, through the kindness
\nof Mi ss 5T. Vertorby, I have prospered.”
\nOther men from Maine were down there in New Orleans, and young Howard made
\nthe close acquaintance of John Cottle of Windsor, Maine, a lad of 19, who had
\ngraduated from Ch I na Academy, served an apprent i cesh I pin Bangor, and had come
\ndown to New Orleans, as he said, “to make five or six hundred dollars and return
\nhome in the spring with enough money to set up in business for himself near
\nhis father’s p I ace in Wi ndsor.” Li sten to what Howard wrote about young Cott Ie
\nand his hopes of fortune: “Poor disappointed youth of self-sufficiency and
\nvanity. After six weeks of wading through the mud — spending nearly all his
\nfunds and meeting with a continual series of disappointing expectations — he
\nwas tempted through despair to try his fortune with his last money on the roulette.
\nThe result was what common sense might suppose, Finding him destitute,
\nI invited him TO live with me. He was with me about five weeks before he obta
\ni ned any bus i ness, and he rendered me some ass is tance on the heavi es t work on
\nmy job. Finally he obtained employment in a baking establishment at $25 per
\nmonth. Then the bakery burned, but he fortunate I y got another job where he is
\nnow recei vi ng $30 a mnth.”
\nAfter Cott Ie got settled on hIs job, Howard took in another Mal ne youth,
\nNathan Sims of Union, who, I Ike Cottle, had graduated from China Academy, and
\nhad then determi ned to go to sea. So he sh ipped on the bark Tamerand of Thom-
\n3-211
\naston for New Orleans and thence to Europe. But on the voyage from Maine to
\nNew Orleans, Sims learned~ as Howard puts it, that “his constitution was not
\nat all adapted to a sea-faring life.” So he obtained the captain’s leave to
\nstay In New Orleans rather than sail across the Atlantic. Howard describes
\nSims as “a young man of good sense about 23 years old, having a good English
\neducation with principles and habits of the old Puritan stamp.”
\nYoung Howard was concerned about some of the financial affairs he had left
\nunsett I ed InS i dney \u2022 He gave his fathe r the fo II ow i n9 Ins truct ions: “The ha rness
\nand saddle were company property with bi II of sale to Elisha Hayward. The
\ncrosscut saw belonged to Sawyer and myself in common. The Smith Co. papers
\ndelivered to Mr. Ames, who Is treasurer. Please inform me In your next letter
\nwhether you have settled with Newell and Henry Lovejoy. Ask Sawtelle and Bailey
\nif S’alwyer has taken up rrrt note. lowe Char les Ham I I n a sma II trl fIe, or he
\nowes me, I do not know wh i ch \u2022 I a I so owe Asa Red i ngton five sh i I I I ngs that I
\nough t to have pa i d \u2022 P I ease attend to these ob I i gat Ions on my beh a I f. It
\nYou have heard me say on several occasions that these old letters were
\nmal led without postage stamps and no envelopes were used. The letter itself
\nwas ingeniously folded and the address written on the outside. This letter of
\nE. D. Howard’s is long — writte n on pages one, two and three of a foolscap
\nsize sheet, with the fourth page left blank to make the outside folding and
\ncarry the address of the letter. Now comes a practice with which I had never
\nbeen fam; I iar in such old-time letters. Having finished the third page, Howard
\ngoes back to page one and continues the letter between the already written lines
\nof that page. I assure you that practi ce does not make the letter any eas ler
\nto read 118 years later, but I finally managed to decipher It, as I have been
\nte I I I ng you.
\nNow why didn’t Howard simply use another half sheet of foolscap, fold It
\ninside the four page sheet, and thus save his father the trouble of making out
\n3-212
\nthat inter-lined script? Interestingly enough I found what is probably the
\nanswer in that 1813 edition of the Farmers Almanac, loaned me by Mr. Lewis
\nWhipple. In that old almanac are published the rates of postage. Thl$ is the
\nway they read:
\n“For every letter of single sheet, delivered by land, 40 mi les, 8 cents;
\n90 mIles, 10 cents; 150 miles, 12i cents; 300 mi les, 17 cents; 500 mi les, 20
\ncents; more than 500 miles, 25 cents. Every double letter, of two sheets, Is
\nto pay double the said rates, every triple letter, triple the rates. Every ship
\nletter, originally received at an office for delivery, 6 cents per sheet.’T
\nThere you have It. Letters” for which the receiver, not the sender, always
\nhad to pay postage, were charged for, not by weight, but by the number of
\nsheets. So, mindful of his father’s pocket book, young HC\u00bbIard economically used
\njust one sheet of paper, managing to get five pages of writing on three pages,
\nby going back and writing between the lines of pages one and two. A young man
\nwith that kind of Yankee thrift deserved to prosper in New Orleans.
\n3-213
\nLITTLE TALKS ON COMMON THINGS
\n136th Broadcast
\nOne does not have to go back a hundred years to find entertaining items in
\nthe rural newspapers. I never tire of reading some of the country correspondence
\nin our Maine weeklies today. let me give you a sample of one correspondent’s
\nwork in a Maine weekly newspaper dated January 4, 1952.
\n“Mrs. R. L. has been very sick the past two weeks. Can’t seem to find out
\nJust what the trouble Is. She is sti II feeling so miserable that she can only
\nstay up a short time and then crawls back into bed again.”
\n”We have a modern Scrooge in our neighborhood. FreddIe took Bi t I A. to
\nthe County seat to do his shopping one day and promised to take hIm the next
\nday to the doctor if our car would start. In the meantime Bi II asked Scrooge
\nIf he’d help Freddie start the car. Scrooge said No. Seems like some people
\ncan’t ever be agreeable, even around Christmas time.”
\n“We sure got left out the other night when we all tUrned out to see Santa
\ndown at the vi Ilage. Nine famt I ies from this neighborhood took all the kids
\nand grown-ups down those five mi les, then there wasn’t any party after all. It
\nhad been postponed, but no one down in the village had the kindness to let us
\nknow. ”
\n*****
\nMrs. Mary Stobie has produced for me another of those Mrs. Winslow Race
\nipt Books, th i s one nine years 0 I der than the issue , referred to a few weeks
\nago. This issue of 1867 has exactly the same kind of cover as the issue of
\n1876, but many of the recipes are different. For instance, I did not know that
\ncommon hard crackers were ever made at home. I ignorant Iy thought there was
\nno such thing as those round, common crackers unti I they were factory, or at
\nleast bakery, made. But Mrs. Winslow gave the folks in 1867 a recipe for hard
\n3-214
\ncrackers. Here it is: ”Warm two ounces of butter in as much skimmed milk as
\nwill make a pound of flour into a stiff paste. Beat It with a rolling pin and
\ncut it Into thin biscuits. Prick them full of holes with a fork. About six
\nminutes wi II bake them.”
\nLook at the ingredients of what folks in 1867 called a cheap, common cake.
\nHow cheaply could you make it today? t lb. of butter, 2 lb. of flour, 4 eggs,
\nI lb. of sugar, 1 pint of mi Ik, rind of a lemon, 1 lb. of currants. What the
\nbook calls a better common cake contained a whole pound of butter, 2 Ibs. flour,
\n2 Ibs. currants, a pound of sugar, a quarter pound of a Imonds, a ha I f pound of
\nraisins, a good lot of cinnamon, allspice, cloves, lemon peel and a whole dozen
\nof eggs.
\nI have often heard my father, who was born in 1861, say that In his boyhood
\nhe never saw granulated sugar, that fully refined granulated came Into the
\ncountry stores of Ma ine we II I nto the 1870 ‘s, and was not too common when, in
\n1881, he went to work In a market near Metropol itan Boston In Watertown, Massachusetts.
\nThis recipe book of 1867 proves beyond dispute that the sugar referred
\nto is not fine, granulated sugar as we know it today.
\nOne recipe is headed “To clarify sugar for sweetmeats”, and it begins,
\n“Break as much as required in large lumps”. Another recipe says, “Take an
\nequal weight of sugar in large lumps”. Another says,\u00b7 “Take six ounces of finely
\npounded sugar”. Still another: “Take a large piece of double refined sugar.”
\nMy father could remember those Irregular shaped lumps of sugar, but he said
\nthey seemed to him thoroughly white. Probably by his time most of the sugar was
\nwhat Mrs. Winslow’s book calls double-refined. But my grandmother could well re_
\nmember\u00b7 the dirty-looking ye Ilowi sh sugar that everybody used. She once tol d me
\nthat her mother, down In Cape Elizabeth, always had a huge lump of that yel lewish
\nsugar hung over the dining table, suspended from the cei ling by strings.
\nFrom that lump the diners chipped off tiny pieces for their tea and coffee. In
\n3-215
\nsunmer the lump was surrounded by netting to keep off the files.
\nMany th I ngs that we pick up ready made at the store, wi thout the s I I ghtest
\ninconvenience, our grandparents went to much trouble to make at home. Today
\nthere are plenty of preparations to apply to chapped hands. But this is how
\nMrs. Wins low in 1867 tol d home fol ks to make the I r own app I I cat Ion for chapped
\nhands: “Mix a quarter pound of unsalted hog’s lard, washed first In common wa ..
\nter and then In rose water, with the yolks of two new-laid eggs and a spoonful
\nof honey. Add as much oatmeal or almond paste as wi I I work into a paste.” It
\nIs Interesting to note that this recipe contains two ingredients that were later
\nheralded In a famous patented skin cream — honey and almonds.
\nIf you ran out of ink In 1867 and didn’t want to buy the poor stuff they
\nthen sold for Ink In the stores, you of course made a new supply for yourself.
\nBut you had better not be In a hurry. The recipe tells you why: “Take a gallon
\nof rain water and three quarters of a pound of blue galls bruised. Infuse them
\nthree weeks, stirring dally. Then add four ounces of green copperas, four
\nounces of logwood chips, six ounces of gum arabic, and a wine glass of brandy.”
\nThe 1876 recipe book says nothing about Mrs. Winslow, but tn 1867 her re.,.
\nmedles were new enough to warrant some word of Identification. So a half page
\nIs devoted to telling the public that “Mrs. Winslow is a lady who, for upwards
\nto thirty years, has untiringly devoted her time and talents as a female phy …
\nsician and nurse, principally among chi Idren. In consequence of her famous
\nSoothing Syrup she Is becoming world-renowned as a benefactor of the race. Chi 1-
\ndran especially rise up and bless her. In this city of Phi ladelphla vast quan …
\ntlties of her soothing syrup are used dally. Mrs. Winslow has immortal ized her
\nname by this Invaluable article, since she has saved thousands of chi Idren fran
\nan early grave.”
\nAnd with that epitaph we say goodbye to Mrs. Winslow’s Soothing Syrup.
\n*****
\n3-216
\nDid you ever hear of One-Eleven Cigarettes? I never did untf I a few weeks
\nago, when Pau I Marshall, a student at Col by Co1 lege, brought me an empty wrapper
\nof that old brand. He says it was found between the floors of the old
\nUnitarian Church, here in Waterville, when that edifice was torn down to make
\nway for the block now housing the First National Store, Penney’s and Western ~ir.,.~.~.
\nAuto. It was apparently a standard package, containing 20 cigarettes, and Its
\nprice was 15 cents. So it must date back fairly early in ciga’rette making days,
\nbecause fO cents was the price of the favorite brands around 1910. It was a
\nproduct of the American Tobacco Company, which printed on the wrapper’a guarantee
\nthat “if for any reason this package Is unsatisfactory, you can get your
\nmoney back f rom the dea ler”. On the face of the package I s an In d I an head, and
\nbeneath it the numerals “111”. Under that are the words “One-Eleven Cigarettes”.
\nOn the reverse side one discovers why these cigarettes were called One-Eleven or
\n111. For on that reverse side is printed “111 — one for mildness, Virginia;
\none for mellowness, Burley; one for aroma, Turkish. Now who is there among our
\n‘I i steners who remembers One Eleven Cigarettes?
\n*****
\nMore than once on this p~gram we have talked’ about the old steamboats, especla
\nII y about the City of Watervi lie, and the big boats that raced between Ha I …
\nlowe II and Boston. But I don’t th ink we have ever ment loned the first steamboat
\nthat ever came to Maine. It was a tiny vessel named the Tom Thumb, and it put
\nfA at Bath in the summer of 1818, only eleven years after Robert Fulton had
\npushed his Clermont up the Hudson from New York to Albany. The salt-water farmers
\nof the Kennebec Jeered at the Tom Thumb, Just the way the Dutch farmers of
\nthe Hudson had laughed at “Fu I ton ‘s Folly”. The queer mach lnery that drove her
\nside wheels easily Induced laughter. But the Tom Thumb proved a success. She
\nkept going on short trips out of Bath for ten years, taking excursions up and
\ndown the Kennebec between Bath and Augusta.
\n3-217
\nExcept on the ocean and on the Great lakes, steamboat days of any kind are
\non Iy legend to the younger gene rat I on today. Never again can we have the thrill
\nof that wonderful trip fran Boston to Bangor, with all the beauty and variety of
\nPenobscot Bay.
\nWhen steamboats were first bui It, there seems to have been little thought
\nof their replacing sail as cargo carriers, just as with the first automobile,
\nthere was no thought of trucks. So between 1815 and 1825 there were put on the
\ncoastal and inland waters many small steamboats whose chief business was running
\npleasure excursions. Such a boat was the Kennebec which, strangely enough
\nnever operated on the Kennebec River. In the newspapers of 1822 Captain Seward
\nPorter announced that the Kennebec would operate excursions between Portland and
\nNorth Yarmouth regularly all summer. They were venturesane souls who dared voyage
\non that boat. She was made from the hul I of an 01 d flat-bottomed scow and
\nwas equipped with an engine that was always breaking down, and a boi ler that
\nwas always in danger of blowing up. She lasted for nearly a dozen years, however,
\nbefore she ran on a ledge and sank. Fortunately she was then running with no
\npassengers, and her crew of three men got ashore safely.
\nI t was a long time before the strict maritime ru les for safety oontrolled
\nthe steamboats, and many lives were lost because of careless operation and lack
\nof safety methods. But I f safety was di sregarded, looks and appearance became
\nImportant very early. By 1830 many of the boats were painted white and green,
\nwith stripes of brown and yellow, even gold. Paddlewheels were red and prows
\ncarried ga I Iy co Jored figureheads. Passengers rode on neat Iy ra i led decks under
\nbright striped awnings. But it was years later than 1830 before any boat
\nhad a decent lavatory. When the weather was rough, comfort went with the wind.
\nThe companies made much of the fine meals served on board, but some of the patrons
\ncomplained that even if they felt well enough to partake of a meal, the
\nfare was invariably the same — ham and eggs.
\n3-218
\n*****
\nAmong the Ken nebec towns that once had a newspape r was the town of Ch i na.
\nhave recently seen Vol. 3, No. 44 of The Orb, published at China, Maine on
\nNovembe r 3, 1 836 \u2022 do not need to te II you that, in those days, most of the
\nnewspapers were violently partisan, and the Orb was no exception. November 3,
\n1836 was just four days before the preSidential election, and In heavy black
\ntype two columns wide and a full colurm long, the Orb came out for its candidate.
\nHe re I wo rd for word, I sits st.atement:
\n“Ship Ahoy! From whence come ye? From the country of monarchy and oppress
\nIon. Where boun d? To the port of I I berty and prosperity. See then that ye
\nfall not out by the way. Be it remembered by every elector of the State that
\non Monday, November 7, they are notified to meet In their several towns and
\ncities, to exercise one of the first rights guaranteed to any people by our
\nconstitution \u2022\u2022\u2022\u2022\u2022 Fellow citizens, with a faithful citizen at the helm, our Ship
\nof State has for the last eight years been safe Iy conducted through storms and
\ntempests, and our good captain is about to resign his command, and you are to
\nelect a suitab Ie person to fi II the Important station. Martin Van Buren has
\nbeen named as a candidate for the exalted station, and the candidates for electors
\nare named under our editorial head. They are all good rre;n and true, and
\nwill, we trust, race I ve the undi vi ded vote of the Democracy of the State.”
\nThe captain who had reSigned his command was, of course, Andrew Jackson.
\nThe Orb was obvious Iy a (Smocratlc paper, strong Iy supporting Jackson. I n fact
\nmost of the pape rs and most of the peop Ie In Ma I ne were on that side of the political
\nfence. The old Federalists and the new Whigs stood little chance in
\nMa i ne be fore 1 840 \u2022 I n fact when ou r Massach use tts ne I ghbor, John Qu I ncy Adams,
\nwas elected Pres i dent in 1825, Ma ine di d not give him her vote.
\nIn 1836 the China Orb proved to be on the winning side, for Van Buren was
\nelected by a SUbstantial majOrity. It was a different story when Old Tlppe-
\n3-219
\ncanoe, Wi Iliam Henry Harrison, entered the 1>icture In 1840 and became the
\nfirst Wh i g presf denT.
\nIn 1836 Maine was entitled to ten presidential electors, and among the
\nsuccess fu I Democrat I c cand i dates for that off I ce we re Raue I W I II i ams of Augusta
\nand John Hamblet of S610n. Maine then had five Congressional Districts — not
\ncalled by number as they are n()w, first, second and third, but by names: the
\nWaldo District, the Cumberland District, the Lincoln District, the Washlngtoo
\nDistrict, and the Penobscot and Somerset District. The Orb’s supported candidate
\nfor Congress from the Lincoln District, which then included Watervi lie,
\nwas Jonathan Cilley.
\nIt t s sanetlmes surpri 51 ng to us who have so long been used to Maine’s
\nfairly stable population, to real ize how fast other states have grown In comparI
\nson wi th Maine. Wh lie Mal ne had ten presi dentia I e lectors In 1836, New Hampshire
\nhad only seven and Connecticut only eight. Eight was also the number for
\nNew Jersey, whl Ie I I Iinois had only five and Missouri only four. Even Louisiana
\nwith Its very old city of New Orleans had only half as many electoral votes as
\nMaine. Now In 1952 there are very few states of the present 48 which do not have
\nmore electoral votes than ours. That is the price we pay for a stable population
\nwith very little increase In a hundred years.
\nLike most of Maine weekly papers a century ago, the Orb contained very
\nlittle local news. One local item tells us that a fulling mill in Vassalboro,
\nbelonging to John Rowe, had burned the previous Saturday night. Another fire had
\ndestroyed a one-story, doub Ie house, on what was ca lied the Feed farm, be long Ing
\nto Col. Phil ip Morri II, a half mi Ie from Bel fast Village. It was said to have
\nbeen one of the oldest frame houses in that town.
\nLet’s close our program tonight with the solemn note which the editor of
\nthe Orb strikes regarding manners and morals. He was evidently one of those
\nstraight-laced Puritans pretty convnon a century ago. Here Is his editorial:
\n3-220
\n“A romp, as some girls are called, is a good natured sort of girl with
\nlittle mind and less taste. When she is merriest she Jumps the highest; when
\nshe is grave aAd sober she is a fool, because a romp has little intellect. A
\ncountry romp is pleased with a ditch, because it gives her a chance to Jump
\nacross it, and she loves app les in the orchard, because she can cI imb trees to
\nget them. A town romp is a great talker of scandal whi Ie she employs her
\nclenched hands beating her listener’s shoulders. Romping is bad business. It Is
\nat variance with decency of taste. The manners of a romp are the fondl ings of
\na bear. I would have all such females picked out of society and sent up the
\nMissouri to colonize a new Amazonian land. If they did not clvi lize the Indians
\nsomewhat, they would fight them, and that would answer the same purpose.”
\n3-221
\nLI TT LE TALKS ON COMMON TH I NGS
\n137th Broadcast February 24, 1952
\nCan you remember way back to those days when we used to look upon Franklin
\nRoosevelt as the champion government spender? Poor Mr. Roosevelt! If he
\nwere only around today, wouldn’t he think he had been a miserly skinflint compared
\nto his successor?’! As AI Smith used to say, take a look at the record.
\nIn all of the 156 years that the U. S. Government had been In operation
\nbetween 1789 and the death of President Roosevelt on April 30,1945, the fed ….
\nera I government took from the peop Ie and the corporations total taxes of 248
\nbillion dollars. In the six years from May 1,1945 to June 30,1951 the pre,..
\nsent adm I n I strat ion took I n taxes $260 bill Ion – … twelve b 1111 on more than the
\npreceding 32 administrations had taken in a century and a half. Yet, despite
\nthe staggering amount taken In taxes, the present administration closed its
\n1951 books in the red by $7,470,000,000 — a deficit twelYe times as great as
\nthat of 1950.
\nBut the worst Is yet to come. The deficit for the current year ending
\nJune 30, 1952 is estimated at $8,200,000,000. For 1953 it will Jump to
\n$14,400,000,000.
\nOn June 30, 1951 the tota I federa I debt was $252 billion; next June it
\nwill be $260 bill ion, and In June, 1953 it will be $275 bi Ilion ..
\nEverybody knows we are a rich country. But how rich? Rich enough 10
\nspend and spend and spend and tax and tax and tax and still owe 275 billions
\nof debt? Somewhere there Is a limit, and when It comes, beware the crash!
\n*****
\nNumerous I isteners have told me during the past week that they expect me
\nto talk about big snow s10rms of the past and compare them with the little
\nflurry we had last Monday. don’t want to disappoint those listeners entirely,
\n3-222
\nbut I’m not going to make any comparisons between particular blizzards past
\nand present. I want to make just these brief comments about big storms In
\ngenera I.
\nFirst, our individual memories are tricky. Most of us remember a big
\nstorm because of some unusual personal experience connected with it, and because
\nwe have no such personal experience connected with another storm, we
\nforget al I about it. I simply do not remember any big storm in 1935, but the
\nWatervll Ie Sentinel of that year carries the undeniable record of a huge
\ncrippling blizzard. But I certainly remember the storm of February 28,1920,
\nwhich began with rain freezing solid, then topped it with 18 inches of snow.
\nWhy do I remember that storm? Because my son was born that day, and I spent
\n15 anxious hours on a train from Portland to Boston, and didn’t see my son In
\nthe Waltham hospital untl I more than 24 hours after he had come into the world.
\nMy second comment is that we are today more helpless In a big storm than
\nour grandparents were. In our recent storm we were fortunate not to lose electric
\ncurrent. But only last winter, within five mi les of America’s greatest
\ncity, peop Ie litera II y had to go to bed to keep warm. Not an 0 i I burner cou Id
\nfunction, there were no I ights, no telephones, no milk deliveries, no transportation.
\nFifty years ago a big storm was no such problem. The storm didn’t put
\nout the kerosene lamps or shut off the telephone, because in most homes there
\nwasn’t any_ The house didn’t get cold, because there was a wholerwlnter’s .
\nsupply of wood out in the shed. Nobody went hungry, because mother had a whole
\nbarrel of flour in the pantry and vegetables and fruits of her own canning In
\nabundance. As for mi Ik, if the family lived in the vi I I age and didn’t have a
\ncow, someone put on snowshoes and went to a neighbor in the village who did
\nhave one. Yes — we pay a price for our advancing civi lization. The more we
\nhave, the more dependent we are.
\n3-223
\nMy third and final comment on big storms concerns the children. That is
\nsomething that hasn’t changed with the fifty years. They don’t depend on elec~
\n. tric current or Internal combustion engines. They get out their steds and have
\na grand time. We who are older and who think we are so much wiser than any
\nchild may well take note of this: In a battle between nature and civi Ilzation,
\na chi Id’s sympathy Is always with nature.
\n*****
\nOne who delves into the old records about the common folk of the Kennebec
\nValley in by-gone days, as I love to do, is again and again Impressed by the
\nva I uab Ie service rendered by persons who persuaded aged peop Ie to put into
\nwriting, before it was too late, their recollections of pioneer days. We ought
\nto do more of that sort of persuading in our own day. Right here In Water”
\nville are men and ~omen who ought to put Into written form thei r recollections
\nof sixty and seventy years ago — recollections that may otherwise pass into
\noblivion.
\nHence I am very grateful tonight that a little more than a hundred years
\nago, In 1848, a man and wife, John and Abigail Nichols, finally induced one of
\nthe first settlers of Fairfield to record his memory of the early days. The
\nsettler, then an aged man, had come to the wi Iderness that later became Fa I rfield
\nIn 1782. He was Elihu Bowerman who, with his two brothers, settled In
\nthe Vicinity of North Fairfield, became a prominent citizen and officer of the
\ntown, and was the man who made the survey Into lots of the Nye and Dimick purchases
\n-~ those original sixty lots, of which the ten in the southwest corner
\nstl II bear the community name of Ten Lots.
\nSo let us give attention tonight to what Elihu Bowerman wrote Mr. and Mrs
\nNichols about that earliest settlement of Fairfield. Some time in October, 1777
\nMr. Bowerman’s father, a soldier In the Revolution, became so III with dysentery,
\na common camp disease, that he was sent home for rest and recovery. At
\n3-224
\nthe same time his mother’s mother was taken violently III. Grandmother and
\nfather died within three days of each other, leaving Mrs. Bowerman with nine
\nchi Idren, the oldest only 14 years of age. That oldest was Elihu, and on
\nhim fell the responsibility as male head of the fami Iy. For six years, unti I
\n1782, when he was 20 years old, he faithfully worked to help his mother keep
\nthe fam i I y together in the i r Mas sach usetts home.
\nFor some time, apparently, there had been talk of migrating to the Dis ..
\ntrict of Maine, and in the spring of 1782 Elihu, with the young wife whom he
\nhad recently acquired, came to Fort Halifax. With him also were his two brothers
\nHarper and Zachary.
\nOn what is now the Watervi lIe side of the river Elihu hired a room in a
\nprivate family, where his wi fe could lodge, whi Ie he and his brothers struck
\nfarther up the river into the wi Iderness. After Elihu had paid his wife’s
\nroom rent for a per i od in ad,vance, he says that the tota I cap I ta I wi th wh I ch
\nthe three Bowerman brothers struck out up Martin Stream was only 25 cents. The
\nonly way they could get food was either out of the forest, or by working out
\nfor one or more of the 01 der !=iett lers down ri ver near Watervi lie. During the
\nsummer, Elihu says, he and his brothers worked out about two-thirds of the
\ntime, for which they were paid in provisions, never in money; and the rest of
\nthe time they felled trees on their own lot and prepared to build a log house
\nin the fal I. When autumn came they did put up the log house and covered it with
\nbark, using bark a Iso, liidd over the bare ground, for a f Iocr.
\nTheir mother was not we”: so It was decided that Harper should spend the
\nwinter with her. On the other hand, the log house seemed now ready for a woman,
\nand Eli hu ‘s wi fe moved out of her Waterville room into the log dwe II fng
\non Martin Stream. Elihu says they were not without furniture, but all of it
\nmade only four loads on a hand sled.
\nt n the preceding summer the brothers had ra ised a few potatoes on the farm
\n3-225
\nof Remington Hobbie,the Vassalboro Quaker whom we have previously mentioned
\non this program. Mr. HOOble allowed the brothers to store their potatoes in
\nhis cellar, but the early winter was very severe, and before January the potatoes
\nwere a II frozen.
\nlet us now turn to Elihu Bowerman’s own words in his statement to the
\nNichols: “Our provisions were all gone”, he writes, “and we had nothing left
\nto purchase more with. But soon I met a man In Winslow that would let me have
\ncorn and wait for his pay unti I spring. That corn, with about 25 pounds of pork
\nand some smoked herring, with the frozen potatoes, were all the provisions we
\nhad for the whole winter. We got our corn ground and carried It home on our
\nbacks, a di stance of 17 mi les. The on Iy bread we had for 16 months was made
\nby mixing a little of this corn meal with our frozen potatoes, then baking the
\nmixture like johnny cake over our open fire. We had no vegetable sass of any
\nk I n’d.
\n“late in the winter we hau led about 700 feet of boards four miles on our
\nhand sleds from a saw mi II to our house, put some of them on the roof in the
\nparts where it leaked through the bark worst, and the rest of them on the floor.
\nThat board floor was a lot warmer than the bark on the cold ground. We had no
\nnails and not a square of glass in that log house. It was a hard winter, but
\nnever once did I wish myself back in my native land, nor did my wife once murmur
\nor complain. It was a hard life, but we were not discouraged.”
\nA II that wi nter the iron Iy beverage other than water was boxberry tea,
\nwithout milk or sugar. How they must have relished the coming of maple sugar
\ntime. “That spring”, wr6te Elihu, “we made plenty of sap sugar, which was
\nthe first sugar of any kind on our table.”
\nThat pioneer life was hard on women. Elihu’s wife had not seen another
\nwoman for six months, when in March she decided that the time had come to pay
\na visit to a neighbor who I ived a mi Ie and a half away. So. Mrs. Bowerman put
\n3-226
\non snowshoes and went to see her neighbor. She made a nice long cal I -~
\nsix hours — and came back in fine spirits.
\nWhen the snow was gone and spring had really come, the Bowermans got
\npossession of two cows, so that mi Ik and butter were then added to the sugar
\nwhich the maple trees had supplied. Those cows had no fenced pasture, but
\nran in the woods, and Eli hu says he chased those creatures hundreds of mi les
\nthat first summer, often going barefooted, though he was a grown man.
\nLiving conditions were much improved by the fall of 1783. By that time
\nthe brothers had burned two acres of fe lied trees, cleared the ground of logs I
\nsowed rye, planted corn, potatoes and beans. So, writes Elihu, “in the fall
\nof that year we had plenty of rye and corn meal, some potatoes and other sass,
\nwith mi Ik, maple sweet and butter as much as we could desire.”
\nWhen winter came, Elihu decided he must make sure how his mother fared
\ndown in Massachusetts. He made the long journey only to find her, as he had
\nsuspected, in t I I hea Ith and having a hard time financially. So he persuaded
\nher to sell the property and come to live with him in the Maine wilderness.
\nElihu disposed of the old home for $700, his mother getting her legal third,
\nand the rest d i v i ded among the nine ch i I dren \u2022
\nFor manv years Elihu’s mother had been used to living in a frame house
\nand in the midst of neighbors. When she got her first sight of Elihu’s log
\ndwelling on Martin Stream, she expressed her disappointment. She told Elihu
\nthe p lace looked more like a cow shed than a house. But when she was f Ina II V
\nse’ttled in the house, with most of her chi Idren around her — for now all but
\ntwo of the nine had come to Fairfield, and three besides EI ihu had homes of
\ntheir own near by — it seemed to her, as Elihu puts it, “like Joseph’s meeting
\nwith his brothers in the land of Goshen.” The elderlv Mrs. Bowerman accepted
\nthe wi Iderness and the log house grateful IV, for it brought her fam! IV
\ntogethe raga in.
\n3-227
\nElihu says that by 1785, when his sister Waite married Benjamin Swift
\nand settled two mi les away, allof his brothers and sisters except one sister
\nwho had recently died, were now married and in their own cabins between his
\nhouse and the Swifts. This gave his mother opportunity to visit with all of
\nher living children, and it meant a lot to the old lady unti I her death In
\n1794 at the very advanced age of 95.
\nHow did Eli hu Bowe rman happen to come to the Kennebec Va II ey I n the first
\nplace? Soon after his father’s death in 1777, although Elihu was only a boy
\nof 14, he was determined to get Into a region where land was cheap and opportunity
\nfor its development good. So he says: “It was in 1700 that I made my
\nfirst journey TO the Kennebec on the lookout for land.” That summer he
\nworked for John Taber at Vassa I boro. Taber persuaded the youth to attend
\nFriends Meeting at the home of Charles Jackson, a little below Vassalboro town
\nlanding. At that time no member of the Bowerman family had Quaker Inclinations.
\nAlthough the Bowerman manuscript does not say 50 exp I icftly, the reader
\ncan eas I I y I mp I y that the Bowe rman fam Ily got the i r chance to sett Ie In th I s
\nreg ion through the kind Iy he I p of the Vassal boro Quakers — Jackson, Taber and
\nperhaps most of all Remington Hobbie. They helped the Bowermans get their
\nland and unquestionably helped them in many ways through the first, most difficult
\nyears. And it was because of them that the Bowermans became resolute
\nQuakers and finally established the active and Influential Friends Meeting at
\nNorth Fairfield. But at first, of course, they had to go far to attend a
\nmeeting. In fact, Elihu says he subscribed $6.00 which he earned by working
\nIn the hay field for a Sidney farmer at 75 cents a day.
\nThe Friends of Fairfield were thus attached to the Vassalboro Quarterly
\nMeeting, and It was quite a journey to attend services there. Elihu wrote,
\n“At that time our roads were no better than cow paths, and we had no horses.
\n3-228
\nMen and w.ornen had to go on foot to attend meet i ng at Yassa I boro, an d a fte r
\nthe meeting corne back on foot to Fairfield, a distance of 14 miles. In winter,
\nbefore we had horses, I have known our young men to take the ox sled
\nand some of our women on it, and carry them to Vassalboro meeting. They went
\nand came as lively and cheerful as though they had been in a superfine four~
\nwheel carriage.
\n“After we obtained horses, the trip to Vassalboro was faster, but there
\nwere sti II no real roads, only beaten trails. Of course there were no bridges.
\nWhen the water was low in the Kennebec and the Sebasticook, we often rode
\nacross. Sometimes, when the water was half way up a horse’s side, a woman
\nwould have a man on each side of her to prevent her falling off into swift
\nwater. remember that once a man and a woman, riding on the same horse, both
\nfe II off, but fortunate Iy Into shoa I water. They went back to shore, wrung
\nout their clothes as best they could, and rode on nine mi les to meeting with””
\nout dry cloth ing.
\n‘~here we usually crossed the Sebasticook was a narrow ledge with uneven
\nbottom. The water ran swift oVer the ledge, and on Its lower side” where the
\nhorse had to go, was four or five feet deep. It was a dangerous place” especially
\nfor a woman.
\n“At our Kennebec crossing the bottom was covered with small, round rocks.
\nIt was not easy footing for a horse. We started diagonally down, then in the
\nmiddle of the river turned diagonally upstream to a sma I I island, then
\nstraight across on the treacherous round rock bottom. We took this route
\nscores of times, often in miserable weather; yet’ never heard man or woman
\nspeak of the danger or show any fear.”
\nAfter ten years the settlers at North Fairfield decided they ought to
\nhave a meeting house of +heir own. On the knoll where in 1952 the Friends
\nMeeting House at North Fairfield still stands there was then an unoccupied
\n3-229
\nhouse of two rooms. There the Friends convened. On bus lness meeting days the
\nmen and the women separated. On one such day, while the men conducted business,
\nthe floor gave way and let them down a foot or more. That experience, wrote
\nEI ihu, “set us thinking how we could get a better meeting house. At last we
\nconcluded to bui Id a house 25 feet square. We infor,med our Vassalboro
\nFriends of the plan. Eefore building we decided we needed a larger house, so<\/p>\n\n
Little Talks on Common Things Volume 1 Little Talks on Common Things INTRODUCTION Dean Ernest C. Marriner of Colby College in Waterville, Maine researched, wrote and delivered for 35 years his radio program entitled “Little Talks on Common Things”. Broadcast on radio station WTVL in Waterville, sponsored through all those years by Keyes Fibre Company, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":405,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"builder_content":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/13352"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/405"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13352"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/13352\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}