I suspect that, hidden away in the attics of many Central Maine homes,\u00a0are numerous old-time school books. For instance, I have an arithmetic\u00a0printed by the well known firm of Smith and Sale at Portland in 1811. It is\u00a0old enough to have a usage that appears very strange to every person now living.<\/p>\n
That is the use of the connna instead of the dot as a decimal point,\u00a0to show the division especially between dollars and cents.<\/p>\n
Mr. C. E. Glover, retired superintendent of the Waterville schools, has\u00a0shown me a school book that is even older than myoId arithmetic. It is a\u00a0reader owned by Samuel Bancroft of Pepperill, Massachusetts, and the owner\u00a0has written on the fly-leaf the following words: “Samuel Bancroft’s book and\u00a0property. Price 2\/6. Pepperill, January 8, 1811.”<\/p>\n
The book was eight years old when it came into Samuel’s possession, for\u00a0it was published in Worcester in 1803 by one of the most noted distributors\u00a0of books in the early days of our Republic — Isaiah Thomas, Jr.. The. title\u00a0page anno~nced “PUbLished aceerc1ing \u00b7to act of,C<::mgress by Isaiah ThoIiias:, Jr.\u00a0proprietor of the copyright. Sold’wnolesaleand retail by him in Worcester,\u00a0and by all the princi.pal booksellers in the united States.”<\/p>\n
More easily recognized by the modern generation is the name of the printer,\u00a0E. Merriam and Company, Brookfield. That is the original plant of the\u00a0famous Merriam family whose business continues to this day as G. & C. Merriam\u00a0and Company, Springfi.eld, Mass. Every modern schoolboy knows them as the publishers\u00a0of all authentic editions of the Webster dictionaries.<\/p>\n
The author of this old reader, now owned by Mr. Glover, was Daniel Adams,\u00a0who it seems wrote such other texts as “The Scholar’s Arithmetic” and “The\u00a0Thorough Scholar”. To this 1803 book he gave the title, “The understanding\u00a0Reader, or Knowledge Before Oratory; .. being a new selection of lessons suited\u00a0to the understanding and capacities of youth, and designed for their improvement\u00a0in reading, in the def~nition of words, and in spelling.”<\/p>\n
This book is <\/em>no primer, no first introduction to reading. Yet the modern\u00a0educational psychologist would hardly call it “suited to the understanding and\u00a0capacities of youth”. Just note this passage on “Storms” which young Sam Bancroft\u00a0evidently had to tackle:<\/p>\n “Seeing in the carpet of variegated vegetables which cover the earth approximate cause in the warmth of the sun and the moisture from the clouds, man\u00a0went from these to an acquaintance with that perpetual circulation subsisting\u00a0between the ocean and the mountains through the instrumentality of the atmosphere,\u00a0and by the medicine of the rivers to the ocean again. But the philosophy\u00a0of this vivifying phenomenon is <\/em>spoken of as inscrutable.”<\/p>\n That is <\/em>tough reading for anybody, to say nothing of a boy in the old-time\u00a0common schools.<\/p>\n The selected readings in this old book are indeed of wide variety. Animals\u00a0are given due recognition; there are selections on the beaver, the camel, the\u00a0lion, the tiger, the fox and the elephant. There are five essays on “The\u00a0Hostilities of Animals”, which come’ to the conclusion that man is the most rapacious\u00a0of all animals — <\/strong>a conclusion that the second World War has tragically\u00a0borne out.<\/p>\n From the Bible is taken the entire book of Esther, Paul’s defense before\u00a0Agrippa, and the story of the Resurrection. Some of the sketches are very practical,\u00a0like “On the Boiling of Potatoes” and “A Surprising CUre for the Gout”.<\/p>\n But by far the largest number of selections are the moral essays for which all\u00a0the old readers, even through the time of the mid-century McGuffie’s, were\u00a0famous. Some of the titles are “Life is a Flower”, “Rules for Moderating our\u00a0Anger”, “Frailty of Life” and “Neighbor Winrow’s Advice to Haymakers on Drinking”.<\/p>\n Users of school books a century ago commonly inscribed some appropriate\u00a0rhyme within the covers. Sam Bancroft was no exception. On the back fly-leaf\u00a0he has written: “Steel not this book for fear of shame, for in it is the\u00a0owner’s name”. And here in the book, one of whose three major claims was to\u00a0teach spelling, Sam Bancroft has spelled steal “s tee 1”.<\/p>\n How many of you have ever seen a three dollar bill? Mr. Glover has one.<\/p>\n It is a bank note issued by the Phoenix Bank of Hartford, Connecticut in 1818.<\/p>\n It is one of those old plain paper bank notes, printed on one side only, with\u00a0the number of the note and the signatures of officials written in ink. The denomination\u00a0-~ three dollars — is a part of the original printing, showing\u00a0clearly that such three dollar notes were regular currency.<\/p>\n Quite by coincidence, soon after we had seen Mr. Glover:’ s specimen, we\u00a0encountered evidence that three dollar bills were still in regular circulation\u00a0as late as 1855.<\/p>\n Editor Drew of the Rural Intelligencer — the Augusta newspaper Where, you\u00a0will recall, we found the editorial against stoves — well, Editor Drew cautioned\u00a0his subscribers about how to send him the money for their subscriptions.<\/p>\n His rates were $1.50 a year if paid in advance, $1.75 on six month’s credit,\u00a0and $2.00 on a year’s credit. The editor said: “Let us understand the terms;\u00a0then there will be no partiality and no cause for complaint. The great discount\u00a0is made for the sake of encouraging payments in advance, which are best\u00a0for all concerned.”<\/p>\n So on February 27, 1855 the Rural Intelligencer carried the following notice:<\/p>\n “Some of our subscribers r in forwarding us their nine shillings for a\u00a0year’s subscription, have enclosed in their letter a single dollar bill and\u00a0fifty cents in silver, paying the postage in advance of 3 cents. But in every\u00a0such case our faithful P. M. has noticed that the weight of the coin subjects\u00a0the letter to double postage, and therefore has obliged us to pay five\u00a0cents more. When one subscriber cannot unite with another so as to send us\u00a0three dollars in one bill, they should send fifty cents in P. o. stamps.”<\/p>\n There indeed is evidence of the customary circulation of three dollar bills\u00a0as late as 1855. Does anyone know when they finally went out of existence?<\/p>\n Now let’s spend a minute or two with that topic of federal government\u00a0spending, to which we have referred before. When. the present fiscal year ends\u00a0on June 30, 1950 our government will have spent $46 billion in these twelve\u00a0months. The biggest business in the world today is the govermnent of the\u00a0united states.<\/p>\n Where does this money go? $17 billion goes for pensions, subsidies, and\u00a0other benefits paid directly to individual citizens. $10 billion goes for government\u00a0,salaries, $4 billion for interest, and $2 billion for loans.<\/p>\n A factor too often overlooked is that the govermnent today is the nation’s\u00a0biggest business customer. This year it will spend $10 billion for goods.<\/p>\n That is business pump priming on a gigantic scale.<\/p>\n Now to people who get from the government more than they put back in\u00a0taxes, this is all to the good. But to millions, like many of you who are\u00a0listening to this program, govermnent spending is only a drain. There are\u00a0nly two ways to meet these huge government expenses; higher taxes or bigger\u00a0deficits. Somewhere there is <\/em>a limit even to a government’s ability to keep\u00a0borrowing and to keep piling up deficits. Hence the threat of higher taxes\u00a0will linger on for many years unless expenditures are cut.<\/p>\n But that is <\/em>not all of the story. The more things govermnent does, the\u00a0more goods it buys, the more surely is every increase a step toward the socialistic\u00a0state. The piper always calls the tune, and it is getting to be\u00a0alarmingly true, in widening areas of life, that the govermnent in Washington\u00a0plays the pipe for all of us.<\/p>\n By this time our listeners know that I am quite a railroad fan. My\u00a0friend Gene Winslow of the Maine Central will also tell you that I have a high\u00a0regard for railroad labor — <\/strong>for the engineers and firemen, the conductors\u00a0and trainmen, the\u00b7 section hands and shop crews, and by no means least for\u00a0the employees in the ticket offices, including my friend of long standing,\u00a0Mr. McCrillis, and the courteous young lady who assists him in the Waterville\u00a0office.<\/p>\n Tonight I want to tell you why I have a high regard for the labor organizations\u00a0of the railroad men. Coercion, whether by labor or by management\u00a0and both have sometimes used it — <\/strong>is not the American way. Volition, free\u00a0bargaining, and the spirit of compromise must be our guiding principle if we\u00a0are to escape eventual government seizure of properties and the socialization~\u00a0of industry.<\/p>\n As David Lawrence has shrewdly pointed out, the Railroad Labor Act, whatever\u00a0may be its faults, and it doubtless has some, is still the best piece of\u00a0labor legislation ever written in America. In substance it calls for impartial\u00a0investigation and fact-finding. It provides that work cannot be stopped while\u00a0these procedures are being carried on.<\/p>\n Why not extend these provisions to all major industries whose shut-down\u00a0imperils national health and safety? If any labor union or any employer rejects\u00a0what public opinion considers a fair settlement proposed by a truly impartial\u00a0fact-finding board, then and only then is seizure or compulsory arbitration\u00a0justified as a measure of last resort. Railroad labor and management\u00a0have set a pattern Which the whole nation may well. follow.<\/p>\n In recent weeks we have said a lot about old-time doings in Kennebec\u00a0County and in mentioning the old stores, the old city reports, and other items\u00a0we have given attention to a lot of things that are now no more. Some of\u00a0those things deserve special mention all by themselves. For instance, there is\u00a0the fringed-top surrey so lovingly revived in the musical comedy “Oklaho~”.<\/p>\n As late in our history as my own boyhood days, the use of a fringed-top surrey\u00a0was a mark of distinction. Of course anyone who owned a horse and buggy was\u00a0one notch in the social scale above the mere pedestrian, but the limit of most\u00a0families was the two-seated democrat wagon, from which both seats were removable,\u00a0converting it into a cart.<\/p>\n The surrey, however, was limousine deluxe, a two-seated pleasure carriage,\u00a0whose body was not a plain box, but had stylish cutouts before each seat. In\u00a0place of the plain wooden sides to the seats, there was open grillwork. The\u00a0dashboard was low and curved with a gay, jaunty air. The fringed top, supported\u00a0by four steel rods, afforded protection from the sun, but not from the\u00a0rain. A man didn’t use his surrey if it looked like rain. Even if he had rain\u00a0curtains to put on the sides, he knew they were scanty protection from Maine\u00a0showers. Yes, fifty years ago, the surrey was an important symbol of the amenities\u00a0of life.<\/p>\n Then there were the old fashioned woven hammocks ~ Advertisements of them\u00a0used to fill several pages of the Sears Roebuck catalog. Here is the actual\u00a0wording of one of those ads: “Woven as close as the finest tapestry, with all\u00a0the beauty and color in design of an oriental rug. Spreader at head and foot.\u00a0Fine heavy fringe. 40 x 80 inches. Upholstered and enameled button tufted\u00a0throwback tassel bar. Price $ 2 \u2022 50.”<\/p>\n A lot of people are glad that rocking chairs have not entirely disappeared,\u00a0though they are getting more and more scarce in the furniture stores.<\/p>\n We think of rocking chairs as the peculiar perquisite of women, especially\u00a0those travelling rockers which work their way clear across a room while the\u00a0occupant knits and rocks. Let me remind you that a lot of men also like rocking chairs. One of them recently wrote to a country newspaper in Maine:\u00a0“There are so many uncontrolled alarms and diversions in the world today\u00a0that a man needs the gentle, soporific movement of a favorite rocking chair\u00a0to keep his balance.”<\/p>\n Did you ever hear of the Staper Society S tap e r? Well,’ Staper\u00a0is one of those telescope words, made up of the first letters of a long\u00a0name. In this case it is the society to Advance Pie Eating Right. The\u00a0Stapers want to bring back the old custom of the way the real, old-time\u00a0New Englanders used to eat pie. Say the Stapers, “Most people have the\u00a0point of the wedge toward them when they eat a piece of pie. That is not\u00a0right. You should have the point directly away from you. Start with the outside\u00a0crust first. Then you finish off with a good big mouthful of the best\u00a0part of the pie.”<\/p>\n Year: 1950<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Read the script for “Little Talks” program #62, broadcast on April 2, 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\/7118"}],"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=7118"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7118\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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