Two of our listeners have recently put into my hands historical material of interest and importance — material which will serve as grist for this program for rna ny weeks to come. Mr. Robert Bradley of Elm Street has loaned me his set of the history of Kennebec County, published in two huge volumes in 1892. Doubtless many sets are still owned in Kennebec homes, but it is almost impossible to pick up a set in the book stores. In fact Mr. Bradley got his set one volume at a time several years apart. It was from that history that I quoted a paragraph two weeks ago, the flowery close of the introduction, telling all readers what a good place Kennebec County is to die in, and how at the end elegant undertakers carry the Kennebecker on his last and most expensive ride.<\/p>\n
The editor of that history written 60 years ago was Henry D. Kingsbury, who himself wrote many of the sections, including those on Waterville, Winslow, Oakland, Sidney and Vassalboro. But he was ably assisted by other writers, some of whom gained far wider fame than the editor himself was ever to enjoy. An important and exceedingly interesting chapter was written by a young man, then just beginning his career as teacher, philosopher and international leader. The chapter is entitled, “The Society of Friends”, and it was written by Rufus Jones.<\/p>\n
The chapter on the History of the Courts was written by William Penn Whitehouse, who was to be one of the most distinguished of Maine’s able chief justices of the supreme judicial court. A young Bowdoin graduate, John Clair Minot, contributed the section on Belgrade. He was later to become the renowned editor of the Youth’s Companion. We propose to dip often and deep into the pages of this county’s history, and we shall share with you some of the catch that our dip-net brings up. So much for our debt to Mr. Bradley. An equally valuable loan has come to us from Mr. Charles Libby of Upper College Avenue. It is a priceless and utterly irreplaceable bound volume of the entire publication of the Rural Intelligencer, a weekly newspaper published in Augusta in 1855 and 1856 by Mr. Libby’s ancestor, William A. Drew.<\/p>\n
As most of you know the newspapers of a hundred years ago used better paper than is used today. This huge bound volume of Mr. Libby’s has between its board covers 126 weekly issues of the Rural Intelligencer in perfect condition, not a page torn, not a line smudged or faded. It is just as easily read today as when it was first printed, a decade before the civil War. Because these papers are now bound together in a volume, it is a bit difficult to visualize how the individual issues came from the press, but apparently in two uncut sheets, because the first issue carries the following instructions to the reader: “Stitch or pin the back of this paper and cut its leaves before you sit down to read it.”<\/p>\n
Among the good, old, homey recipes listed in that issue of January 6, 1855 is this one: “Recipe to whiten the teeth: Mix honey with finely powdered charcoal and use the paste as a dentifrice. Those who have worn-down teeth will be glad to learn that common carbonate of soda will make tough beef tender.”Probably there are plenty of folks still living who can remember when central heating was bitterly denounced as both extravagant and unhealthy, and there may be a few who can recall people who denounced bathrooms as the sure cause of an early death. But I venture to say not a person now with us can remember when anybody attacked the coming of stoves. But that is just what editor Drew of the Rural Intelligencer did in his issue of January 20, 1855. The new air-tight stoves had evidently become his pet hate, and he let loose with all the power of his pen. This is what he wrote:<\/p>\n
“We are tempted to declare war against the whole stove system, now so common in our towns, and even in the country. We believe that stoves cause many of the diseases — particularly consumption — which have been making such fatal progress of late. Our fathers before the Revolution used no stoves; they warmed themselves by the free air heated from an open fireplace; and who ever heard of consumption among the Pilgrim Fathers? “In rooms heated by open fire the air is always sweeter and purer, and consequently more healthy. But,\u00b7”j.:r:!-sitting rooms and parlors heated by stoves, the air is dull and heavy; and besides you must always have cold feet. What is more cheerless to approach when you are cold than a dark, black stove? We’re going to be a lot poorer than we are now before we dispense with our open fire to sit by in winter.<\/p>\n
“Stoves are not economical. They cost a lot in the first place. Then quite soon they are broken, burned out or out of fashion. Then the wood must all be cut short, split fine, and carefully seasoned; and when it is put in the stove, the draft eats it up faster than a man can prepare it, whereas an open fire lets its big logs linger with glowing heat all day. “And don’t forget the light you get from an open fire in a winter’s evening. It is easily equal to two oil lamps in the room. Health, pleasure and economy would be secured by casting our stoves to the moles and the bats and returning to the simpler habits of our hardier and happier ancestors. Editor Drew wouldn’t leave this subject of stoves alone. He returned to it on January 27 with this comment:<\/p>\n
“Our article on the cheerless and unhealthy effects of air-tight stoves begins to take effect. An intelligent gentlemen in Richmond wrote us on Monday that, after reading what we said on the subject, he got up very early Monday morning and, before the rest of the family were up, he had removed the air-tight stove from the sitting room. When, one after another, the members of the family came into the room, each face gleamed with a radiant smile as it was lightened by the cheerful rays of a blazing fire from an open fire frame. To all others who, like our Richmond subscriber, would not have smoky houses and scolding wives, we say, go thou and do likewise.”<\/p>\n
Editor Drew was equally sure about the utter folly of anyone’s claiming that houses would some day be lighted by electricity. In his column headed “Mechanic Arts” on January 27, 1855 he printed an engraving of an electric lamp, said to have been developed in London. It was a crude device, worked by approaching and withdrawing two opposed electrodes. It was exhibited one dark night on the Duke of York’s monument, one of the highest places in London. The lamp astonished everyone by its brilliance, being seen distinctly at a distance of nine miles. But Editor Drew was not unduly impressed. He wrote: “We have no faith in electricity as a motive power, either for propelling machinery or for furnishing light. It cannot be done. No force is eliminated without a corresponding destruction of matter.”<\/p>\n
More than once this program has gone on record as favoring reduction in government spending. A few months ago we referred to the report of the Hoover Commission, which called striking attention to the extravagance and waste of many government agencies. Perhaps you recall that one item which we then mentioned was that Uncle Sam spends $10 to fill out forms for a single purchasing order. Yet more than half of all government purchasing orders are to buy things that cost less than ten dollars. These orders run into several million a year. It just doesn’t make sense to pay ten dollars to cover red tape and form-filling to make a one dollar purchase. But that is Lhe way the government now does it.<\/p>\n
We live in days of high real estate values. If you own a house, What do you consider it worth? Now that you have in mind the figure for your own house, just take in this fact. In its latest budget requests the Army, now in peacetime, asked for funds for houses — not barracks and camps — but officers’ houses in Alaska at $58,000 per house. How much do you men pay for a winter suit of clothes? Well, the Army asked for 829,000 tropical uniforms — uniforms for hot climate — at $129 a piece.<\/p>\n
It is <\/em>time indeed for you to think about what this Whole matter of Uncle Sam’s money means to you. Uncle Sam gets his money from taxes and those taxes come from you. The average citizen that’s you and I, folks — pays one dollar out of every five dollars that he earns for federal government taxes. That is <\/em>in addition to all the local and state taxes Which he pays. The average American worker, in the factory, on the farm, in the mines, on the construction jobs, works 47 days every year just to pay his federal taxes. Over the whole nation federal taxes amount to $300 per person, over $1,000 a year per family. Income taxes we can all see and appreciate, but it is <\/em>the hidden taxes that fool us — the 20% on light bulbs, the 25% on cameras, the 20% on talcum powder, the 60% on cigarettes.<\/p>\n The point we want to make tonight is <\/em>that the purchasing power of your dollar and therefore your standard of living are profoundly affected by taxes. And those taxes are outrageously increased by extravagant, wasteful, useless government expenses. Whose government expenses are we talking about? Yours. The government doesn’t belong to Harry Truman and Dean Acheson and Charlie Brannan; nor does it belong to Robert Taft and Owen Brewster and Margaret Smith. The government belongs to you; you are the government. You can express yourself in fa~or of better government at a better price.<\/p>\n In the old days people didn It have so many things, and they didn’t have so many or such burdensome taxes. They lacked some of the fine comforts and luxuries which the modern standard of living allows us, but when it came to the dining table a lot of them fared pretty well. They certainly didn’t spare materials in some of that delicious old-time cooking. Let’s take a look at a couple of the old cooking recipes out of the Rural Intelligencer of 1855. “Philadelphia sponge cake. Take ten eggs, one pound of sugar, one-half pound of flour and lemon juice to flavor.” “Cocoanut cake. One pound of loaf sugar, one-half pound of butter, 3\/4 pound of flour, six eggs and one large cocoanut grated.”<\/p>\n Do you remember some of the muddy, ground-filled coffee that used to be poured from the old coffee pots? Happy was the housewife who had found a way to serve her guests clear, ground-free coffee. In a February, 1855 issue of the Intelligencer, Editor Drew told her how to do it. “When nothing else can be obtained”, he wrote, “mix a little Indian meal with the coffee before putting it to boil.”<\/p>\n Where today can we get Nodhead apples? A few years ago I traveled many miles to buy a bushel. When I got them home, I found to my dismay that every last one of them was railroaded by worms. Evidently the tree had not been sprayed. In skimming through the old Rural ,Intelligencer I was delighted to learn that what has always been to me the most tasty of all apples, the Nodhead, originated in York County, Maine. A man by the name of Jewett in Hollis, New Hampshire develpped it and made it famous in the Boston market, but Edith Dow insists that Jewett got his original seedlings in Eliot, Maine. Who knows where there are first grade Nodheads today?<\/p>\n Did you know that a paper was once published at New Sharon, Maine? It was published only once a month and it didn’t last very long, but while it lasted for a few years about a century ago, it was quite a paper. It was devoted to “agriculture, art, science, general intelligence, and news of the month, both foreign and domestic”. It had descriptive sketches of travel and adventure, poetry, horticulture, physiology and phrenology. Said the publisher, “We intend to make our paper an interesting monthly visitor to one and all. We shall converse on all subjects and be neutral on nothing, bound to neither party nor sect. Terms, 25 cents per year, in advance; 35 cents payable in six months; fifty cents if payment is delayed beyond a year.” At the bottom of his prospectus the New Sharon publisher presented a canny scheme for getting” attention. He wrote, “Newspaper publishers giving this prospectus room in their columns, and sending a copy to us, will receive a copy of the Advocate one year, gratis.”<\/p>\n One of these old newspapers contains a column of advice to husbands. “Do not speak of some virtue in another man’s wife, to remind your own wife of her faults. Don’t try to entertain your wife by praising other women’s beauty; she will not be amused. Do not, too often, invite your friends to ride and leave your wife at home. She might suspect you esteemed someone else more companionable than herself. Do not be stern and silent in your own house and remarkable for sociability elsewhere. You have no right to all the recreation in the family; your wife needs some too. See that she gets it.”That was all considered to be good advice a hundred years ago. Isn’t it pretty good advice today? There are some things that not even the century of time can change.<\/p>\n Year: 1950<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Read the script for “Little Talks” program #56, broadcast on February 19, 1950<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":405,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1153,35296],"tags":[],"builder_content":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7097"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"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=7097"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7097\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7097"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7097"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7097"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n