On two previous programs we have mentioned the account book of an Augusta\u00a0merchant, whose records began in 1802. We turn again to that old book\u00a0tonight, for it reveals that in November, 1806 the merchant gave up his\u00a0business of operating a general store and turned to the business of a sort\u00a0of combination blacksmith and hardware dealer. After the autumn of 1806\u00a0the account book contains no more mention of\u00b7molasses and tea and rum, no\u00a0more such items as thread and brimstone and forest cloth.<\/p>\n
As a blacksmith our merchant seems to have had no uniform price for shoeing a horse. It may have depended on a number of things — the size of\u00a0the shoes, whether all were new or some only reset, and how long the job took.\u00a0At any rate in one instance he recorded, “shoeing horse all round, $1.67”;\u00a0another record says, “Josiah Mitchell, to shoeing your horse, 67 cents”. Occasionally\u00a0he records the rate in English money, as when he says, “Jonathan\u00a0Ballard, to shoeing horse, 6 shillings, $1.00”; but to Simeon Paine on the\u00a0same day the charge was, “to shoeing horse, 6\/6, or $1.50”. On December 15,\u00a01806 both James Bridge and Moses Pollard got their horses shod for 75 cents,\u00a0but on the same day it cost Robert Waite $1.25.<\/p>\n
Naturally the blacksmiths of 1806 shod a lot of oxen. What a priceless\u00a0relic this fellow’s ox sling would be if it were still standing. On November\u00a025th he charged James Bridge 21 shillings, or $3.50 for shoeing oxen. Two\u00a0weeks later he charged Robert Hannaday $2.00 for shoeing his yoke, and for\u00a0some unrecorded reason Samuel Page paid only $1. 00 for his. There are very\u00a0few charges for shoeing oxen in any of the four years from 1806 to 1810 except\u00a0during the month of November, just before the oxen went to work in the\u00a0woods. It was then that the farmers got out the big pines that were floated\u00a0down the Kennebec for many purposes of lumber, most notably masts for the\u00a0ships that left the yards all the way from Hallowell to Bath.<\/p>\n
Perhaps some of the older blacksmiths now living remember certain expressions which\u00a0occur in this account book, but I confess many of them are\u00a0entirely new to me. In one instance the blacksmith enters a charge for\u00a0“upsetting” an axe, in another for “laying” an axe. We cannot get quite what\u00a0he means by “forging 3 pallets for clock” or “upsetting a broad chisel”.\u00a0Over and over again occurs the item “one shave, $1.17”. This puzzled me\u00a0for a long time. OUr blacksmith had not turned barber. His price was too high\u00a0for that, and in 1806 very few men were shaved by barbers, nor did it seem to\u00a0mean a draw shave or shingle shave. Suddenly it occurred to me what he meant.\u00a0His one shave was one shaft for a wagon.<\/p>\n
Some of this old merchant-blacksmith’s charges are very interesting:\u00a0“bracer for a sleigh, 50 cents; making 122 pounds of chain, $7.32; drawing a\u00a0hook, 3 cents; bailing one large kittle, 67 cents; mending a plow share, $1.50;\u00a0thimba11s for a whee1barrer, 15 cents; mending a bayonet, 50 cents; tongue for\u00a0a bell, 25 cents; making a barking iron, $1.00.” How many of you know what a\u00a0barking iron was? That’s one of the few old-time things I happen to know.<\/p>\n
Now I’d like to see how many listeners can send in a letter or post card telling\u00a0me what it was. Let me repeat the question. What was a barking iron?\u00a0Our blacksmith charged fifty cents for forging two steel hammers, 20\u00a0cents for a holdback iron for a shay, 10 cents for a hoop for a tub, and 25\u00a0cents for “putting an eye to an auger”.\u00a0I have often heard an axle called an ex, but I had never before seen it\u00a0in writing. But this old book contains the charge, “Joseph Barton, to altering\u00a0ex to your carriage, 50 cents”.\u00a0Just as this man, when a storekeeper, went on errands to Vassalboro -you\u00a0will recall that on one of those errands he charged 7 cents worth of wine\u00a0to the expense account — so as a blacksmith he found time for other duties.<\/p>\n
In October, 1808 he recorded, “to my fees as juryman at inquest on the body\u00a0of James Springer, $1.50”. Perhaps he employed someone to take over his shop\u00a0on such occasions, for on another date he writes, “Abia1 Pitts, credit by one\u00a0day I s work in my shop, $1.25.” On the same day he recorded one of the book I S\u00a0most unusual items: “Ephraim Ballard, to new steeling his compasses, 25\u00a0cents”. On November 5, 1807 he records: “Adam pitts begun to work for me at\u00a0ten dollars per month, one half cash, the other in goods.” For some reason\u00a0he paid Adam on the same day, but it was a meager amount, for the record reads:\u00a0“Adam Pitts, to cash, 4 cents”. On November 15 he made a payment to Adam in\u00a0goods, for the account then says: “Adam Pitts, to paid you in leather at\u00a0James Childs, at cash price, $1.00”. On the 19th he charged Adam with a\u00a0quarter pound of tobacco and one gallon of molasses, Whether from stock left\u00a0over from the old store or purchased elsewhere he does not say. Perhaps his\u00a0strangest combination of payment to Adam was on November 22, when he charged\u00a0this helper 50 cents for towels and shoes. These surely were horse shoes.<\/p>\n
Evidently Adam was trying to set up for himself, because in 1808 we find\u00a0him charged with 4 sets of shoes and 3 sets of nails, with 10 horse shoes,\u00a0with 30 pounds of iron, and with one heavy sledge. Then all mention of Adam\u00a0pitts disappears from the record. He was evidently now out on his own.\u00a0By the end of 1807 our blacksmith was owning real estate and renting it.\u00a0Against Andrew Plummer he had a charge of nine month’s house rent at 15 shillings a month, a total of $22.50 for renting the house for three quarters of\u00a0a year.<\/p>\n
Somebody in the blacksmith I s family had the unusual name of Parthenia,\u00a0for this same Andrew plummer is credited with 67 cents for making a pair of\u00a0shoes for Parthenia.\u00a0Since that was a low price, even for those days, Parthenia was probably a child.\u00a0In the summer of 1808 our enterprising blacksmith was taking in boarders.\u00a0The record reads: “Jacob Buffington, begun to board him on Saturday,\u00a0the 6 of August at 12 shillings per week. John Dawson, began to board him on\u00a0Monday, the 8 of August at 12 shillings per week.”<\/p>\n
Apparently this blacksmith sometimes served as a deputy sheriff. In\u00a0November, 1808 he entered a charge of $1.00 for “my fees on a writ of replevin\u00a0of Elizabeth Finney on Thomas W. Smith”. On May 2, 1810 he charged Ephraim\u00a0Dutton $2.38 “for fees on your writ on Savage Bolton by agreement”.\u00a0The last item in that fat old account book reads as follows: “Capt.\u00a0Samuel Smith of Belgrade, to 2 broad hoes, $2.00; credit by one bushel of\u00a0corn, $1.00”.<\/p>\n
Thus we come to the end of this amazing, first-hand historical record\u00a0of Kennebec County 150 Years ago. In April, 1802 the writer of the old\u00a0accounts started with Jonathan Ballard owing him 10 cents for one mug of\u00a0cider. Eight years later he closed the book with Captain Smith of Belgrade\u00a0turning in enough corn to pay for one broad hoe, but still owing for the\u00a0second.<\/p>\n
Indeed this book is an intimate, homey picture of old times in the\u00a0Kennebec Valley a century and a half ago. We only wish we were able to do\u00a0it better justice. Again our thanks to Burleigh NiChols of Fairfield Center\u00a0for loaning us this remarkable and historically valuable book.<\/p>\n
Now let us turn to a subj ect muCh more pertinent to our own times -the\u00a0cost of our military defense. However much we detest war and yearn for\u00a0lasting peace, most of us are not willing to see our country sold out to obnoxious\u00a0un-American ways of life just because we fail to provide adequate\u00a0defense. All but a few unrelenting pacifists believe that we ought to maintain\u00a0a strong army, navy and air force.\u00a0In all common sense we know that the maintenance of such a force costs\u00a0a tremendous amount of money. What common sense doesn’t dictate, however, is\u00a0that the brass hats of the military should have everything they ask for, unquestioned\u00a0and unexamined.<\/p>\n
It is high time the American people realized just what kind of national\u00a0defense we get for every dollar the military brass hats expend. Now 14 billion\u00a0dollars — the size of the present total appropriation to be spent in\u00a0one year for the nation’s defense — is a tidy sum. Are you ready for a shock?\u00a0Here it is. More dollars of those 14 billion are earmarked for non-military\u00a0spending than for anything or any measure that gives us actual defense. For\u00a0every two men in uniform the services employ one civilian. Of the men in uniform,\u00a0only one in three is in a fighting unit. While 6 billion dollars are\u00a0being s:r;:e.nt for planes, guns, tanks, ships, equipment, supplies and the pay\u00a0and support of men in combat units, 8 billion will go for overhead and for\u00a0things only remotely connected with keeping our country safe.\u00a0Of course combat troops require supply and service troops and Civilian\u00a0workers behind them. Everybody knows that. But to contend that 518,000 fighting\u00a0men now in service require 968,000 additional servicemen and 841,000 civilian\u00a0employees is open to serious question.<\/p>\n
In 1941 before P.earl Harbor only one civilian for every four men in uniform\u00a0was needed in the Army and Navy combined. At that time the total of men\u00a0in the armed services was almost exactly the same as now, but the dollar outlay\u00a0was less than half the present spending, although billions were going for\u00a0stock-piling in preparation for expected war. Instead of 14 billion, the services then spent 6 2\/3 billion.\u00a0Those are the straight facts. From one civilian to four service men the\u00a0year before the war we have come to one civilian to every two service men four\u00a0years after the war. The great increase in military costs, presenting such a\u00a0staggering burden to every taxpayer, is accounted for in no small measure\u00a0by increased ~enditures that have no direct relation to our nation’s defense\u00a0and security.<\/p>\n
Whenever one raises his voice against this wasteful and needless spending,\u00a0the gold braid in Washington ang-rilydenounces him as a pacifist. The\u00a0generals and the admirals can do no wrong, or can they? We look to them to\u00a0defend us from the dire threat of foreign attack, and we are willing to pay\u00a0any reasonable bill to get it. But when we see those generals and admirals\u00a0spending our money to pad the payrolls with superfluous personnel that add\u00a0nothing to our defense, we have the ordinary citizen’s American right to protest.<\/p>\n
Year: 1950<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Read the script for “Little Talks” program #64, broadcast on April 16, 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\/7121"}],"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=7121"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7121\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}