My question about a barking iron has brought over fifty letters, post cards and telephone calls. One of those calls came from one of Waterville’s best known and best loved citizens, Dr. George Averill. When he was a boy and ,young man up in Lee and Lincoln in northern Penobscot County, the doctor worked more than once on a barking crew. He not only knows what a barking iron is; he’s used one.<\/p>\n
Jothan Hobbs of Fairfield has used a barking iron many times. He has written me a careful description of the barking crew’s work, which in all details bears out Dr. Averill’s oral description of the process. A barking iron is a tool used for removing bark from trees. Another name for it is a spud or spudder. About half of the letters and post cards I have received on this subject say that the barking iron or spud was used to remove bark from trees used for pulpwood. It seems that the term spud or barking iron does name the tool used for that purpose, but what I had in mind was its use in procuring hemlock or oak bark for tanning. In peeling pulpwood the bark is of no use; it must simply be gotten rid of. But among the old barking crews the primary purpose was to get the bark for its very important use in tanning leather.<\/p>\n
A barking crew was made up of four men. First there was the chopper, who felled the hemlock tree. Then the limber or knotter, with quick, dextrous strokes of the axe cut off limbs and knots. The third man was the ringer and splitter. He carried an axe with a handle exactly two feet long. Two lengths of his axe made a four foot length of tree, which he marked with a quick V cut. When the whole tree was thus measured, the bark was cut through, circling the tree at each cut; then a lengthwise cut with axe held slantwise loosened the bark enough for the fourth man to get to work with the spud or barking iron and remove the four foot lengths of bark from the tree. The sections of bark were then placed on the ground, tipped against the trunk and left to dry.When it had dried out, the bark was placed on a brush pile to keep it up from the ground until it could be hauled off to the tannery.<\/p>\n
Mr. Hobbs recalls that mosquitoes were the great pests of the barking crews, and that the man who didn’t smoke carried big supplies of oil of pennyroyal to fight the stinging insects. I must mention one post card that reached me from Bangor. I especially prize it because it comes from Robert Trefethen, grandson of Professor Henry Trefethen, the man who worked so hard and patiently trying to teach me mathematics in Colby College forty years ago.<\/p>\n
Another question I recently asked was this: “What is meant by upsetting an axe?” You will recall that the old account book kept by an Augusta blacksmith in 1806 had numerous charges for upsetting an axe. The first person to answer the question was the manager of this station, the president of the Kennebec Broadcasting Company, Carleton Brown. He was closely followed by our neighborhood postman, Clifton Ellis. Then came a letter from Lloyd Collins of Oakland, which explains the process so clearly that I want to quote it word for word. Mr. Collins writes:<\/p>\n
“When an axe has been used a long while and the bit or cutting edge gets thick, if there is sufficient steel left, it is upset or heated and hammered down thin again. Then it is reground and hardened. If the steel is nearly gone, then it is cut off and a new bit is laid or welded onto the poll or head, and a nearly new axe is the result. The first process is upsetting an axe. The second is laying an axe.”<\/p>\n
Thanks a lot, Mr. Collins. I did know what a barking iron was, but in respect to upsetting and laying axes my education had been sadly neglected until your letter set me straight.<\/p>\n
I want to say a few words tonight about gambling. I am preaching no sermon; I am not telling anyone what to do with his money. I just want to give you some straight facts about one of the biggest menaces to the American way of life. Gambling today has replaced illegal liquor as the happy hunting ground of America’s top criminals. Into this lawless business the people are pouring more than ten billion dollars a year. Profits by the big gambling operators amount to at least a billion dollars a year. Now that excellently informed journal, U. S. News and World Report, points out the startling and despicable fact about the gambling situation in this pungent sentence: “The protection of these profits can be assured only by political organizations that dominate police forces.”<\/p>\n
A few weeks ago, when Charles Binaggio was found dead in his Kansas City political club, attention was vigorously called to the connecting links between the criminal and the political worlds. state senators, state and county office holders, ward leaders and gangsters were alike present at Binaggio’s funeral. How came such a mingling to see this gangster buried? This is the story. A gambler aspires to political leadership. He reaches out and tries to run a city and a state. Vote frauds and stolen ballot boxes are mere incidents. Other gamblers pour money into campaign funds, hoping officials will let them operate. The ties of crime and politics are thus firmly knit.<\/p>\n
Off-track horse race betting amounts to over three billion dollars a year. Sports pools take another three billion; the numbers game accounts for at least a billion; slot machines grab a couple of billion; gambling houses make off with another billion. The arrDunt of money sometimes handled by a single top flight gambler is enormous. One New York bookmaker paid back income taxes of 30 million dollars covering a twelve-year period. A front man for a New Jersey gambling house made deposits of five million dollars a year. Slot machines in a single state turned up for one man — as his share among several in a syndicate an income of a million dollars a year. No wonder these gamblers are willing to pay high for their political ties. Says the California Crime Study Commission: “No group of organized criminals has ever been able to achieve profits and prominence without the friendship and toleration, if not the actual assistance, of public officials.” To that statement the Chicago Crime Commission adds this: “Handbook operators in Chicago boast that they can produce two hundred thousand votes and unlimited financial support toward election of candidates favorable to them.”<\/p>\n
According to the California Commission, the slot machine racket reached such a bold stage that an association of coin-machine manufacturers actually conducted courses for selected members on how to influence public officials. The courses discussed ways of buying protection, such as paying fixed sums, or a percentage of the profits, or making campaign contributions before or after elections. The Commission found it common practice to pay ten to twenty per cent of gross profits for protection. Lawyers for the association are alleged to have told members that they could pick the courts and judges before whom cases would be tried, and that association had a pipe line into every state capitol and even into the national capitol in Washington. It all makes a sordid story of an outstanding menace to the American way of life. Money talks. The big gamblers have the money. They are making it talk in ways that determine the actions of government in many an American city. Thank heaven we have not yet seen signs of its satanic influence in the government of Waterville. If we have any sense, we shall see to it that the gambling interests do not get a hold in this city.<\/p>\n
Somebody will say that I am getting excited about something people will do anyway. That’s not what I am excited about. My concern is about the modern, 1950 fact, that gambling, as the boys who follow the ponies and the boys who play the nuIrbers racket. use the word, is undermining our political structure, sapping at the very roots of our American life. And don’t take my word for it. Read that carefully documented and unassailable article in U. S. News and World Report for April 21, an article whose title is this:”Politics Hides Gambling Rackets That Take Billions from the Public”.<\/p>\n
Walter Heath of Front Street has turned up in the attic of the family home, which is one of Waterville’s residential landmarks, an account book that is six years older than the one kept by the Augusta merchant of 1802, <\/em>whom we have talked about on several broadcasts. We. cannot be sure of the identity of the storekeeper. Written on one cover in badly faded ink are words which appear to be “George Fabyan of Winslow”. On the other cover the words are “George Fabyan Day Book 1797”. The name George Fabyan does not appear in Dr. Whittemore’s centennial history of waterville nor in Kingsbury’s history of Kennebec County. If he was an early resident of Winslow and a merchant, his name ought to appear on the early tax lists, collected and published by Kingsbury.<\/p>\n At any rate, whoever made the early entries in this old book, he was doing business here in 1796, six years before the town of Waterville was set aside from the parent town of Winslow. The evidence is rather clear that his place of business was on this side of the river, while the names of those early settlers along the river on the Winslow side — <\/strong>the Pattees, the Howards, the Lithgows — appear very seldom in the accounts. Frequent customers were Waterville’s noted physician and benefactor, Obadiah Williams, Squire Isaac Temple, who built a big house at what is now the corner of Front and Temple Streets; and Captain John MCKechnie, who made the survey of house lots to which some of the oldest Waterville deeds go back. Captain John is said to have built the first two-story house in Waterville, not far from where the store of the W0aterville Hardware Company is now located.<\/p>\n One of the earliest entries in the old book refers to the grandfather of the man who was Waterville’s first U. S. Senator. In 1848 Wyamn B. S. Moor went to Washington as a senator from Maine. His grandfather, Daniel Moor, was one of Waterville’s earliest settlers. So in this account book we read: “Daniel Moor, to my horse to ride six miles, 50 cents.” Names distinguished in Waterville history appear here as purchasers of rum and brandy, cloth and crockery, sugar and salt, psalm books and dictionaries, bandana handkerchiefs and ginger bread. There was Dr. Moses Appleton, who had his home where the Marionite Catholic Church now stands, and who gave his daughter the lot on the opposite corner, where her husband, a fellow named Plaisted, built the house now occupied for many years by the Heath family. One of the oddest items in the book concerns Dr. Appleton. It is worded: “Dr. Moses Appleton, to cash you took of Benj. Spear for pack of cards, 50 cents.” Other customers were Daniel Wyman, and Reuben Kidder, the Chases — Captain Benjamin and his son John –, Benjamin Furbush and Asa Crosby, Ahijah smith and Benjamin Runnels, fellow trader James McKim, and Waterville’s first selectman and first town meeting moderator, Elnathan Sherwin. Let’s take a look at a few of the accounts:<\/p>\n June 10, 1796<\/p>\n David Berry<\/p>\n By 1 day’s work getting logs out of Sebasticook River $1.00<\/p>\n To 1 pair Worsted stockings\u00a0\u00a0 $ 1.50<\/p>\n 1 Psalm book\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 .50<\/p>\n I Large Butter Pot\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 .34<\/p>\n Isaac Temple, Dr.<\/p>\n To paid Parker for odds between hogs\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 1.00<\/p>\n To 1 bottle Sephalin Snuff<\/p>\n James McKechnie<\/p>\n To 4 gal. West Indies Rum<\/p>\n 1 gal. N. E. Rum<\/p>\n To be paid in rum or cash<\/p>\n Christopher Jenkins, Dr.<\/p>\n To paid Daniel Goodwin and indorsed on note I<\/p>\n have paid said Goodwin\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 3.21<\/p>\n Credit, by 2 months work, ~ day short @ $10 per<\/p>\n Month \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a019.63<\/p>\n Family Expenses<\/p>\n 8 lb. Lamb\u00a0\u00a0 .56<\/p>\n 1 doz. Cucumbers\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 .05<\/p>\n Not often do these old books contain items about themselves, but very early in this book, on February 2, 1796, appears this item: Jabish Matthews, Cr. By Account Book, 84 cents. Apparently George Fabyan, or whoever the trader was, paid Jabish Matthews 84 cents for this very book. Indeed Walter Heath’s attic find is a mine of information about Waterville before 1800, and some evening you shall hear more about it.<\/p>\n Year: 1950<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Read the script for “Little Talks” program #67, broadcast on May 7, 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\/7128"}],"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=7128"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7128\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7128"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7128"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7128"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}