From time to tf.me on this program we have mentioned old-time newspapers from\u00a0many parts of Maine — Waterville, Augusta, Bangor, Portland, and fnom such sma I 1-\u00a0er p I aces as CI i nton, Chi na and Vassal boro. I th Ink th Is is the fl rst”,\u00b7, t.f.me,\u00a0,however, that we have called attention to a Belfast paper.\u00a0Tt!anks to one of our regu I ar II steners, Bi II Flaherty, custodl an of the\u00a0Keyes Science Building at Colby College, I have recently seen a copy of a Belefast newspaper printed’ almost a hundred years ago. It is Vol. 24, No. 21 of\u00a0the Republ ican Journal published by Wing and Moore at Belfastc on Friday morning,\u00a0June 11, 1852.\u00a0like all papers of the time, as we have previously reminded our IIs~ners,\u00a0this Belfast paper had several rates of subscript.fon. If paid In advanc~, the\u00a0rate, was,$1.50 a year; If paid within’ the year, but not In <\/em>advance, It was\u00a0$2.00. Unlike, the situation today, the posta’i laws did not require paYll1l;lnt of\u00a0newspaper subscriptions in ad”‘ance nor did they require stopplng”‘j a subscriber’s\u00a0receipt ,of copJes if he fell Into arrears. Subscribers often refused to retnOve\u00a0papers from the post office, and the law protected the publisher until all arrearages\u00a0were paid, when of course the subscriber could cancel his subscriptton.<\/p>\n Court costs and lawyer’s fees were too expensive, however, for the average small\u00a0town publ I sher to brl ng suit for h is money, with the result, that many a paper\u00a0went Into bankruptcy because folks just didn’t pay. Eventually the present, much\u00a0needed law, requiring subscriptions In advance, was passed. But in 1852 the Belfast\u00a0Repub I i can Journa I pub I I shed under I ts tit Ie head on the front page these\u00a0words: “No paper discontinued until all arrearages are paid. All letters and\u00a0corrmunlcatlons, to secure attention, must be postpaid.”<\/p>\n That I ast sentence revea I s another nu I sance of a hundred years ago — sendl n9\u00a0letters with postage to be paid by the receiver. I f you wanted to vent your wrath\u00a0on s~one with whom you had quarreled down In Portland, let us say, from your\u00a0home’l n Watervl lie you could send him a postage collect letter — write him a voluminous\u00a0document of a dozen or more pages, weighing several ounces. You not\u00a0only could get the satisfaction of telling him, in ali kinds of language. just\u00a0what you thought of him, but you cou I d make him. pay for the p rl vi lege of readl ng\u00a0It. He had to’; pay postage on your vituperative letter.\u00a0But It was not a II one way. The fe I low down I n Portland coul d stt II retal tate.\u00a0He couid write an even longer letter, use heavier paper than yours, and\u00a0make you pay the postage.\u00a0Of cours~, human curiosity being what it Is, most letters were delivered and\u00a0paid for, but occasionally a cantankerous soul would let letters pile up In the\u00a0post office rather than pay the postage to get them. Such a man was one of Abraham\u00a0Lincoln’s customers when Lincoln was the young postmaster at New Salem,\u00a0Illinois. Lincoln finally took a pig In payment for the postage, sold the pig to\u00a0the fa ther. of Ann Rut ledge, and when he had to make up to the government the ml ssing postage on his customer’s accumulated letters, Lincoln found he had lost 32\u00a0cents on the dea I \u2022<\/p>\n Many generati ons of patrons have known the Amari can House at Be I fast. In 1852\u00a0It had Just been taken over by Holmes and Baker. Thet r advert I sement in the Repub\u00a0I I can Journa I announces that they “have I mproved the House I n every part, new Iy\u00a0f Ittl ng, pal ntl ng and paperl ng the rooms, and dec lare It, I <\/em>n respect to accomoda\u00a0tions and table., second to no public house In Maine”.\u00a0Appended to th I s Amari can House ad is the earl i est reference to what came to\u00a0be called summer boarders that I have ever seen in any.Malne newspaper. It would\u00a0be inTeresting to learn how early the vacationing or resort or sumter boardr\u00a0business started in our state. r think I shall try to find the time some day to\u00a0ascerTain Just.when our great vacation Industry first began, and I shal L appreciate\u00a0ri ght now, any I nformati on that our II steners can gi ve.<\/p>\n Now here is what that Ameri can House ad of 1852 has to say: “To those who\u00a0are looki ng for a pleasant resort duri ng the warm months, we woul d say that Be1fast, in its scenery, air, location, etc. is one of the finest places In the\u00a0state. ”<\/p>\n Whenever see one of these old newspapers I search diligently for unusual\u00a0adverti semen”ts, and I like to pass those un i q ue 0 I d-ti me ads on to you. How’s\u00a0th is for an odd one, from th is Be I fast paper of 1852:<\/p>\n “Picked up adrift. By the subscriber, in Penobscot Bay, on Sunday, May 30,\u00a01852, a raft of logs. The said raft contains 53 sticks, supposed to be intended\u00a0for wharf timber, and is rafted with chains. The owner is requested to prove\u00a0property, pay charges and take them away. Harri son Sma II , South Prospect, Mal ne. Here’s anQther good one:<\/p>\n “This wi II <\/strong>certify toall whom it may concern, that I have this day sold to\u00a0my mi nor sons, E II Rack’ I ff and Joseph Rack I I ff, the I r tl me durf ng thei r mi nori ty\u00a0to act and transact bus I ness for themse I ves I n like manner as though they were of\u00a0age, and I shall claim none of their e’arnings, nor pay any debts of their contracting\u00a0after this date. Stephen T. Rackliff, Unity, Maine, May 18,1852.”<\/p>\n Last Monday evening, speaking at the 125th anniversary of the founding of\u00a0the Watervi lie <\/em>Universalist Society, I had occasion to mention the great Universal\u00a0ist, Hosea Ballou. was therefore especially interested to find this small,\u00a0we II-h i dden pa ragraph in the Be I fast Repub II can Journa I of J una 11, 1852:<\/p>\n “We learn “that Rev. Hosea Ballou, senior pastor of the Second Universalist\u00a0Society, on School Street in Boston, died on June 7th at the age of 81 years. He\u00a0had been pastor of the same church s i nee 1817 and, at the ti me of his death, was\u00a0the oldest mini ster in Boston. He was Justly regarded as the patriarch of the\u00a0Un i versa list Ch urch.”<\/p>\n Now the point of that Item, as it concerned Central Maine, lies in the fact\u00a0that it was Hosea Ballou who, as guest preacher at an annual meeting of the Universalist,\u00a0\u00b7 Association in Oakland In 1823 converted to the Universalist\u00b7 faith\u00a0Jedl ah Morrill of Watervl lie, and it was Jedl ah Morrill who became the foremost\u00a0early supporter and benefactor of the Waterville Universalist Society which, after\u00a0125 years of sign I fl cant.”, service to th I s commun,1 ty” he Id a f itt Ing ce lebratlon\u00a0this week.<\/p>\n have read more Than once In old papers and letters that the graftl ng of\u00a0apple trees took hold very slowly In Maine, and that the reason was cider. A\u00a0hundred and twenty five years ago, when the Waterville Baptist Meeting House was\u00a0dedicated, when tile Waterville Universalist Society was founded, and when John\u00a0Quincy Adams was President of the United States cider was the universal rural\u00a0beverage In Ma I ne. I f you Judged by the accounts of the 0 I d-tl\u00b7me storekeepers,\u00a0you would think everybody drank rum all the time, but that Is not true. Rum came\u00a0from the West\u00b7 Indies; it cost money. Cider could be made right at home. Very\u00a0seldom does cider appear I n the 01 d account books, because there was no sa Ie for\u00a0It In Ma Ine stores; everybody made h Is own. Househol ders put, I n a wi nter supp Iy\u00a0of cider just as they did pork, butt-er and cheese. Furthermore, although there\u00a0was smaII market\u00b7 for it I n I oca I stores, It\u00b7 brought $6 to. $8 a barre I I n the\u00a0Boston market. In 1826 it- was chiefly the newer towns of Franklin and Somerset\u00a0Counties that shipped cider to Boston, and It was a Farmington editor. of 1850\u00a0who commented shrewd I y: “When cider I s the most\u00b7 prof I tab Ie product of the orchard,\u00a0there I s no inducement to graft trees or seek the best tab Ie frul ts.”<\/p>\n What a difference Today, when Maine apples are known allover the country as\u00a0the finest, cleanest table fruit.\u00a0Speaking of apples” by 1890 Northern Kennebec had quite a reputation for that\u00a0fruit. By no means did Monmouth and Winthrop lead the county in apple production\u00a0at that t I me \u2022 The I a rge st Kennebec orch a rds 60 yea rs ago we re those of J. M. P t keof Wayne and Cook Brothers of Vassalboro, each of which had over 3,000 trees. The\u00a0largest orchard nursery was operated by Bowman Brothers at Si dney, with 75,000\u00a0nursery trees.<\/p>\n We have said a lot about old-time farms and farming, but very little about\u00a0farm tools and mach,fnery. We owe that subject a few words tonight. We cherish\u00a0highly the gift of an old two-tine hay fork, hand-made certainly as long ago as\u00a0125 years, presented to us by that constant listener and contributor to thf s program,\u00a0Mr. H. F. Sturtevant of Ten lots.\u00a0Until at I east 1840 a II the forks, scythes, sick les, axes, hoes and rakes\u00a0were made by hand by the village blacksmith. In 1841 Jacob Pope of Hallowell\u00a0started making the first spring steel hay forks ever made in Maine. The business\u00a0grew in prosperity and was continued by Mr. Pope for thirty years. As early as\u00a01820 Elias Plimpton of Litchfield had made hoes by machinery, but few farmers used\u00a0them until after 1840. At North Wayne In 1840 the first scythes ever made by\u00a0machinery In Maine were produced by R. B. Dunn.<\/p>\n One of the toughest jobs on the old farms was threshing out the grain. Using\u00a0the hand flaiI, hours on end, was a muscle breaking job. In 1826 the same Jacob\u00a0Pope of Hallowell, who made the fi rst steel hay forks, invented a hand operated\u00a0threshing machine. Hiram Ballou of Livermore, about the same time, invented a\u00a0thresh I ng cy Ii ndar, operated by horse power attached to an 0 I d ci dar mi II sweep 1\u00a0the horse traveling In a circle. Then in 1833 Samuel lane of leeds made an endless\u00a0chaf n one-horse power machi ne wi th a hi gh-geared cy II nder. By the next year, 1834,\u00a0when the Pitts and Whitman fami lies of Wi nth rop both made simi I ar mach I nes and notvery di fferent from lane’s and Pope’s, the law suits started over patents. The best\u00a0of these mach i nes consl sted of a wi nder end less chaf n of wood, mounted on wh I ch twohorses, instead of one, trod on and on, I I ke a squi rre lin a cage; and two horses,\u00a0I nstead of one, near Iy doub led the mach i ne ‘s speed.\u00a0By the time the law suits were settled the McCormicks, forerunners of the\u00a0great- International Harvester, had adapted most of the principles and garnered\u00a0most of the prof! ts.<\/p>\n In 1877 Moses Bliss of Pittston invented a rrovable hay press. In the sane\u00a0year Samuel Lane of Hallowell brought out- a popular corn she I ler. Maine never\u00a0I acked I nventi ve gan i us, and what more feas I b Ie way to make Its i nf luence fe It\u00a0than ri ght at home on the farm. Much of the greatness of our Mal ne fore fathers\u00a0lay Indeed in the I r marve lous power of adjustment, to fl nd new ways to meet new\u00a0needs of new days.<\/p>\n Year: 1951<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Read the script for “Little Talks” program #111, broadcast on June 3, 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\/7235"}],"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=7235"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7235\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7235"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7235"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7235"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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