The persistent rain and high water of recent weeks have brought many reminders\u00a0of the flood of 1936 and, to old timem, have aroused memories of earlier\u00a0floods. In the Kennebec Valley ~ have been fortunate this year. The recently\u00a0constructed dams and storage basins have done much to save us from overwhelming\u00a0waters.<\/p>\n
It is not so in other parts of the country. Before the recent devastating\u00a0floods hit the Mississippi, the Red River of the North and other mighty\u00a0streams, damage had been done in areas much nearer to Maine. On a recent trip I\u00a0drove in ignorance into the little village of Mountain View, New Jersey, twenty\u00a0miles north of Morristown. We were told that the bridge across the river had\u00a0been open less than an hour, after being closed for three days. As we approached\u00a0the bridge we saw the reason. Great lakes of water stretched out over the fields\u00a0in all directions. Many homes stood with water up to the second story. Nmnerous\u00a0motor cars stood nearly submerged. Trains crawled over rails a foot under water.<\/p>\n
We were told that a thousand persons were homeless in that rural area, so extensive\u00a0and so violent was the damage.<\/p>\n
It is natural, therefore, that on this program our thoughts should again\u00a0turn to old time floods on the Kennebec. Mr. Alex Herd of Winslow has shown me\u00a0impressive photographs of the flood of 1901, a Kennebec deluge that happened\u00a0half a century ago.<\/p>\n
The Waterville Mail called it the womt freshet since 1832. You will recall\u00a0that the 1832 flood was one I talked about a few months ago, when I posed the<\/p>\n
question, which brought the highest water, the freshet of 1832 or the one 104\u00a0years later in 1936. At any rate, it seems likely that, of the freshets on the\u00a0Kennebec in the last 150 years, that of 1901 was at least the third highest and\u00a0one of the most devastating.<\/p>\n
One of Mr. Herd’s pictures shows the plant of Edward Ware and Company with\u00a0nter nearly to the top of the first floor windows. Another shows houses at the\u00a0Head of the Falls half way submerged. A third shows a building near the junction\u00a0of the Sebasticook and the Kennebec with all except its roof under water. Perhaps\u00a0the best picture is of the old covered bridge across the Sebasticook showing\u00a0the roachfay completely under water and the waves washing over the flooring\u00a0of the bridge.<\/p>\n
That 1901 flood came, not in the spring, but at the beginning of winter,\u00a0just a week before Christmas. On December 13 — a fateful Friday, the 13th, it\u00a0was — the weather tumed unseasonably warm. All day Saturday the snow melted\u00a0fast, and there was a lot of it, because since Thanksgiving the snow storms had\u00a0been frequent and heavy. Saturday night it began to rain, and for 48 hours a\u00a0drenching downpour continued. The river rose suddenly and rapidly.<\/p>\n
Mr. S. I. Abbott of the Lockwood Mills then told the Waterville Mail that\u00a0the deepest water he had ever previously seen over the dam, in his 26 years with\u00a0the company, was 13 feet, but on the moming of December 16, 1901, he measured\u00a015 feet. The oldest residents declared that the island near the bridge was\u00a0never so deeply under water since 1832.<\/p>\n
The night of Sunday, December 15 had seen damage begin. Tm Ticonic footbridge\u00a0went out at 2 :00 A.M. Daylight revealed that the approach from the foot\u00a0of Temple Street to the toll house waS still intact, but at 7 :30 the toll house\u00a0also started down the river. It started right side up and moved along in a dignified\u00a0manner until it reached the railroad bridge. The floor of that bridge\u00a0acted like a knife to cut the roof off the floating toll house, and ~ the time\u00a0it reached the Ticonic Dam, it was a complete wreck.<\/p>\n
By Monday noon the situation at the Lockwood Mill was serious. The entire\u00a0mill was shut down, and the canal dam suffered bad damage. In even worse condition was Hollingsworth and Whitney, for the water had invaded their buildings\u00a0in such volume that all work had stopped for two weeks.<\/p>\n
As for householders near the river, the Waterville Mail said, in its issue\u00a0of December 16: liThe residents of the Head of the Falls are suffering as they\u00a0usually do when a freshet comes. People living on the river bank began moving\u00a0out and getting to higher ground last evening. Before the foot bridge went out\u00a0some of the tenements were in danger, and this forenoon two or three feet of\u00a0water stood on the ground floor of most of them. One house was entirely surrounded\u00a0by water several feet deep. It was fastened by a rope to a stout tree a\u00a0rod or two up the river, though the tree stood as deep in the water as did the\u00a0house.”<\/p>\n
Flood conditions don’t trouble us much today in what we call the gully between\u00a0Pleasant and West Streets, and on south, east of the lower end of Burleigh\u00a0Street. The years have seen much of that gully filled in, . including a complete\u00a0fill to enable Winter Street to cross it. But in 1901, when its old name of\u00a0Hayden Brook was familiar to every resident, people who lived near the gully\u00a0knew when there was a flood. Early Sunday aftemoon in that December of 1901\u00a0water began flowing into some of the houses in the Hayden Brook district. The\u00a0culverts were entirely inadequate. The sudden flow of water was blocked, rather\u00a0than carried off, by the culverts. Washouts resulted all the way from Ash\u00a0Street to Western Avenue.<\/p>\n
On the Messalonskee water was up to the floor of the Gilman Street bridge,\u00a0and a crew of men worked all night to keep the bridge from going out.<\/p>\n
On the Sebasticook the well known high water mark on the Bassett Store was \u00a0covered by water. The store was entirely surrounded and could be reached only\u00a0by boat. The covered bridge over the Sebasticook was moved from its foundations,\u00a0but did not go out. Cars loaded with iron held in place the two railroad bridges.<\/p>\n
In Winslow the Reynolds saw mill could be reached only by boat. Out of the\u00a0mill yards no less than 300,000 feet of lumber floated down the river.<\/p>\n
All day Monday Waterville was cut off from telephone communication with\u00a0outside communities. Water backing into the power plants put out all of the\u00a0city’s electric lights, stopped the wheels of the street railway line, and disrupted\u00a0the facilities of the Union Gas and Electric Company.<\/p>\n
People waited in vain for mail and passenger transportation. Not a train\u00a0could get into Waterville over any of its connections for three days.<\/p>\n
What the 1901 flood did to the town is revealed by the very form in which\u00a0the Waterville Mail published its issue of Monday, December 16. TheMail was,\u00a0as most of you know, an evening paper, of full newspaper size, usually of eight\u00a0and sometimes twelve pages. This flood issue of December 16, 1901 is a little\u00a0four-page sheet, 11 by 8~ inches. For the size and format, the edi.tors gave the\u00a0following explanation:<\/p>\n
“This morning we gave up all idea of getting out an issue today. The electric\u00a0company informed us that they were practically dead to the world and would\u00a0not be able to turn a wheel before Tuesday, perhaps much later. Finally the largest\u00a0job press in our office was rigged up for foot power, and we decided to\u00a0publish a paper in this abbreviated form. It will be noted that it contains no\u00a0advertising at all. For that omission we ask the indulgence of our advertisers.<\/p>\n
We hope to get out a regular edition tomorrow, but we make no promise about it.”<\/p>\n
Very seldom do I recommend a book on this program. That is not because I do\u00a0not encounter a lot of books I should like to recommend. I t is, rather, because\u00a0I realize that reading is largely a matter of taste. In choice of books, as in\u00a0almost no other field, one man’s meat is another man’s poison.<\/p>\n
Nevertheless I cannot refrain from recommending the newest book about the\u00a0man whom, in the early days of this program, I called the greatest man Maine ever\u00a0produced. I refer to the man who was until recently the constant summer resident of his old home village of South China~ Dr. Rufus Jones.<\/p>\n
The best biography I have read for many a day has come from the press\u00a0during the past month. It is called, “Rufus Jones, Master Quaker”, and was\u00a0written by David Rerishaw. lifelong intimate friend of Dr. Jones. Like his\u00a0subject, Herishaw is a Quaker and a graduate of Haverford College. Unlike\u00a0Rufus, Reds haw hailed from Kansas and chose journalism rather than teaching\u00a0as a career. Herishaw is yotmger than Jones, in fact was a student of Rufus I\u00a0at Haverford, graduating from there in 1911, whereas Dr. Jones’s own class\u00a0was 1885.<\/p>\n
With great understanding Herishaw depicts the South China background that\u00a0had such life-long effect on Dr. Jones; the tremendous influence of father,\u00a0mother and aunt; the determination to go to college; the decision to be a teacher;\u00a0and the even more momentous decision to lead the Quaker people tMay from\u00a0ascetic avoi.dance of the world into application of Quaker principles to world\u00a0affairs.<\/p>\n
In one chapter Mr. Herishaw tells the thrilling story which I once heard\u00a0from Dr. Jones’s own Ups, how he and two other members of the Friends Service\u00a0Committee faced. the Gennan Gestapo.<\/p>\n
After repeated rebuffs they finally were received at the chief offices of\u00a0Hitler’s secret\u00b7 police. They were escorted through seven corridors, past cordon\u00a0after cordon of armed guards, and hearing each door locked behind them. Dr.\u00a0Jones presented a document, saying the Quakers had no political aims, only a desire\u00a0to feed hungry Jewish children. The Gestapo officers read the document\u00a0and seemed impressed. Then their leader said, ”We are now withdrawing to report\u00a0to our chief. In about 20 minutes we shall tell you his decision.”<\/p>\n
‘1l e Quakers were then left alone in the bi.g room. v..”hat did they do? They\u00a0did a typically Quaker thing. They held a prayerful period of complete silence.<\/p>\n
It was lucky they did, for they later learned that a concealed microphone would\u00a0have informed the Gestapo of any conversation.<\/p>\n
Dr. Jones and his fellow Quakers won their request. They found the way opened\u00a0for extensive relief among the suffering German Jews. Dr. Jones always contended\u00a0that he could never fully explain the inconsistency and the mystery of that decision.<\/p>\n
Why should Hitler’s Gestapo, which was itself deeply involved in causing\u00a0the tragic situation the Quakers sought to relieve, why should that hard-boiled\u00a0gang receive Dr. Jones. listen to his plea, and actually grant his request? Dr.\u00a0Jones often said he could think of only one plausible explanation. Perhaps some\u00a0of those Gestapo officers had been among the very children whom Quaker relief\u00a0had fed and kept alive after the first World War.<\/p>\n
Next week I propose to devote a part of this program to the Quakers of the\u00a0Kennebec.<\/p>\n
In all that we read and hear about the Kefauver investigation of crime in\u00a0the United States, we hear much emphasis about what government ought to do, and\u00a0very little about what you and I ought to do. I wonder if all this emphasis\u00a0isn’t a symptom of the way we have been turning for the past twenty years. In\u00a0almost every phase of our lives we increasingly expect the government to take care\u00a0of us. Less and less are we willing to face responsibility for\u00a0ourselves. We want\u00a0the govemment to feed us, house us, tend us. bury us. And when we see something\u00a0wrong in the nat ion, we look to the government to fix it.<\/p>\n
So it is small wonder that we shriek for legislation to stop the great crime\u00a0rackets that the Kefauver Connnittee has uncovered.<\/p>\n
We need to be reminded that legislation of itself never cured any evils. We\u00a0had better place the emphasis in another place. It is wrong-doing, evil. what our\u00a0grandparents used to call by the no longer fashionable word “sin”, that is the\u00a0root of the trouble. Just so long as individual American citizens patronize the\u00a0numbers racket, place their bets on the horses, or play the slot machines, human\u00a0greed and natural ingenuity are going to provide the racketeers. Let more of\u00a0us have the courage to stand up and say that gambling itself is wrong.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Read the script for “Little Talks” program #105, broadcast on April 22, 1951<\/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":[786,35296],"tags":[],"builder_content":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7221"}],"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=7221"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7221\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}