\nAgain our distinctly American festival of Thanksgiving has come and gone. I\u00a0wonder whaT folks of fifTy years ago would have said if they had been told ThaT\u00a0In 1951 chicken and turkey would be cheaper than beef, pork and ham. They JusT\u00a0wouldn’t have believed it.\u00a0In my boyhood turkey was a Thanksgiving luxury. Only the town’s wealthy\u00a0elite cou Id afford one; and when I say wea I thy I mean a fami Iy that had an an-\u00b7\u00a0nual Income above a thousand dollars. At my father’s store we used to measure\u00a0those faml lies by their purchase of eggs. When, about this time of year, the\u00a0price of eggs rose to 36 cents a dozen, we used to say now only so and so can\u00a0afford them.\u00a0My faTher sold hundreds of chickens every Thanksgiving, but I do not recal I\u00a0his ever having a turkey In the store in those years between 1900 and 1912, when\u00a0I knew tbe p lace best. I do recall going home from college fn 1910 and eating\u00a0turkey at my grandmother’s on Thanksgl ving Day, but that was a very special oc-\u00a0. caslon, tor my aunt was being married, and the groom fumished the turkey.<\/p>\n
Were Thanksgiving Days colder fifty years ago than they are now? Frankly\u00a0don’t remember much snow at Thanksgiving, but I can remember good skating. The\u00a0fancy, boarded, out-door rinks of our day were then unknown. So I am not talking\u00a0about flooded back-yard areas. am talking about frozen pauls and streams. Of\u00a0course we never had Thanksgl ving skating on HI gh I and Lake or on the main channe I\u00a0of Stevens Brook. But we did skate, many a Thanksgiving aftemoon, on the pooled\u00a0I n lets of The stream and on the big bog near The tannery.<\/p>\n
J(.jst once I remember snow for Thanksgiving. I’ve told you about it before.\u00a0It was the Terri flc storm when the steamer Portland went dOffn. was seven\u00a0years 01 d, and I reca II the snow banks higher than my head where my uncle p I led\u00a0the snow as he shoveled grandma’s paths.\u00a0Whether in colder or wanner weather than half a century ago, Thanksgiving\u00a0Is sti II the great American home gathering fest I va I. Long may it survl ve as the\u00a0gracious annual symbol of the American home!<\/p>\n
Congress adjourned about a month ago, not to resume its sessions unti I January.\u00a0What d t d the first sess i on of that 82nd Congress acco~ II sh?\u00a0It appropriated 89 billIon dollars, 61 bIll f on of them for defense. It authorized\u00a07i billions of aid to foreign countries. l”t approved the building of 6\u00a0bl Ilion dollars’ worth of army, navy and air bases abroad. It approved expansIon\u00a0of the Air Force from 95 groups to 140. It extended controls oVer prices, wages\u00a0and materials. It uncovered scandals in RFC, the Bureau of Internal Revenue,\u00a0and other agencies. It changed the Taft-Hartley Act to permIt union shops wlth-\u00a0out plant elections.<\/p>\n
The 82nd Congress has thus far fat led to do any”thlng about the national\u00a0gamb I I ng menace; l”t has not gl van statehood to A I aska and Hawa I I; It has done\u00a0nothing about the 5″t. Lawrence Waterway; It has taken no action on Federal AId\u00a0to Education; It has not transferred to the states “the titles to tidelands; it\u00a0has not yet abol ished the Reconstruction Finance Corporation; it has not tumed\u00a0its hand on the preSSing question of civl I rights.<\/p>\n
U. S. News and World Reports sums up the case as follows: “Congress adJourns\u00a0wi th the Fa i r Dea I left on Ice, new wei fare plans she I vad. But by Its\u00a0actions the .Unlted 5″tates will be made the world’s stroogest power., Mi I itary\u00a0aid abroad wi II be immense. Business wi II continue “to live lI’lder controls, but\u00a0with safeguards against abuse. Money will flow In a free and easy way, with 89\u00a0billions to spend.”<\/p>\n
When I talked last week about the old directory which contained Mrs. Kloss’\u00a0cooking recipes. I told you I regretted that many pages had been tom out as\u00a0we II as others pasted over. What was my de I ight when, two days after the broadcast.\u00a0Mr. Lewis Whipple left at my door a complete unmarred copy of that same\u00a0old directory. I shall refer to it again In a few weeks, but tonight I want to\u00a0call your attention only to some of the advertisements In the back of the book.\u00a0There are 80 pages of advertising. Many of them are full-page ads of Maine\u00a0hotels. One was the Preble House, which I am sure our older listeners remember\u00a0we II. I t stood on the northeast comer of Congress and Preb Ie Streets where now\u00a0a large office bui Idlng rears Its head. This 1860 ad says of that famous hotel:<\/p>\n
“Preb Ie House, Portland, Me I ne. Th Is new hote I is now camp le1ed and open for\u00a0the accommodat Ion of trans i ent and pe rmanent boarders. I tis the largest hote I\u00a0In the state, possessing all the modern Improvements and is fl rst class in\u00a0every appointment. Charles M. Adams, proprietor.”<\/p>\n
The picture of the Augusta House in I ts ad In th I s book looks much as that\u00a0famous hotel looks today. It was then run by Harrison Baker, who announced that\u00a0“porters are In attendance to convey passengers and baggage to the House from\u00a0al I rail road and steamboat stations free of charge.”\u00a0U. M. Thayer advertised another hotel In Augusta, the Kennebec House, on\u00a0the corner of Water and Winthrop Streets. “This house”, he announced, “has been\u00a0newly flttea up, enlarge(i, and elegantly furnished, and possesses all modem Improvements\u00a0for the conven lence and comfort of I ts guests. A I arge I Ivery stab Ie\u00a0Is connected with the house. Stages leave here from all towns in this viCinity.”<\/p>\n
ARothe r hote I, whose picture looks Just as I used to know the p I ace forty\u00a0years ago, is the Stoddard House at Farmington. In 1860 Its original proprietor,\u00a0S. F. Stoddard, was\u00b7still alive. “This hotel”, says his ad, “situated on Broadway\u00a0In the beautiful village of Farmington, the shire tom of Franklin County,\u00a0and the terminus of the Androscoggin Rai I road, wi II be found a pleasant and at \u00a0tracTive resort at all seasons of the year. Mr. Stoddard, with an experience\u00a0of twe lve years as I and lord and proprietor, Is competent and ever ready to attend\u00a0to The call, wants and comfort of company in the best possible manner. Guests\u00a0taken to and from the depot free of charge.”<\/p>\n
I ~gret to say that wh i Ie many of those hote I ads take a fu II page, that\u00a0for The Elmwood in Waterville occupies only one inch of one column. IT says\u00a0simply: “Elmwood Hotel, Waterville, Maine. J. L. Seavey, proprietor. Comer\u00a0of Main and College Streets, near the depot.”\u00a0One of the most lavish ads is that of the Bethel House, west side of the\u00a0common, Bethe’, Ma I ne. W. J. LoveJoy, the prep rletor, announced that he had\u00a0!lrecently remodeled this well-known house, and refurnished it throughout with\u00a0new furn i ture. A carri age is inconstant attendance at the depot to convey passengers\u00a0to the House. Mr. Lovejoy Is also agent for the British and American\u00a0Express Co. He also runs a mall coach from Bethel to Errol, N. H. via Newry,\u00a0GrafTon, Upton, Umbagog Lake, and Cambridge on Tuesday and Friday of each week.”<\/p>\n
Another picture that looks very fami liar is the Thorndike H9tel in fbckland.\u00a0Away back there in 1860 I t had an enTrance on the come r of Sea Street as we II\u00a0as one on Main Street. Other hote Is advertised in the dl rectory, some of them \u00a0remembered, some long forgotten, are the Columbian House at Bath, the Penobscot\u00a0House at Hampden Corner, the York Hotel In Saco, the Eveleth House at WinterporT,\u00a0the Waldo House at Frankfort, The Maine Hotel at Damariscotta, the Commercial\u00a0House in Rockland, and the Mansion House at Morri II’s Corner.<\/p>\n
As you might expect, I. M. Singer Co. of Broadway, New York, took a fuJ I\u00a0page TO advertise their sewing machines, but even more space — two full pages\u00a0was Taken to advertise Wi II lams and Orvis’s unequa led doub Ie-thread fami Iy sewing\u00a0machines for $25, guaranteed to be the equal of the more expensive machines.\u00a0“We have demonstrated”, says the ad, “that as good a machine, for all practical\u00a0uses can be made for $25 as for $150.” This was a slap at the best of the\u00a0Singe rs, which\u00a0 cost $150.\u00a0Se I dom nowadays do we eve r see an adva rt i se r re fe r by nama to a compet I tor,\u00a0but they pulled no punches back in 1860. Th is Wi II iams and Orvl'”\u00a7’: ”We\u00a0have compelled other manufacturers of sewing machines to reduce their prices.<\/p>\n
During the three years that we have been in business, the Grover and Baker Co.,\u00a0Wheeler, Wilson and Co., Singer and Co., and all other responsible manufacturers\u00a0have reduced the price of their cheapest machines from $75 to $40. We produced\u00a0so good a mach ine that our competl ~rs had to take the hint. But let the pub II c\u00a0remember that our machines are stili the best and are $15 cheaper than the\u00a0cheapest of any othe r manufacture r. ”<\/p>\n
Do you knat that grand old Portland firm of Kendall and Whitney? Well, they\u00a0were in business ninety years ago. They advertised as wholesale and retal I dealers\u00a0In agrlcu-Itura I Imp lements, woodenware and seeds. I th ink I had never knatn\u00a0the fl rst names of those partners unti I I saw them In th Is ad. They were Hosea\u00a0Ken da II an d Anwn i Wh I tney \u2022<\/p>\n
A fu II page Is gi van to the ad of J. D. Cheney, manufacturer of ne lodeons\u00a0and harmoniums at 135 Middle street, Portland. He advertised an Harmonium with\u00a0two banks of keys, of 41 octaves each, four fu II sets of reeds and one and onehalf\u00a0octaves in pedals. It had ten stops and included all the varieties of the\u00a0thousand dollar pipe organ.\u00a0Sanborn and Carter of Port land announced that they had for sa Ie the fu II\u00a0series of Greenleaf’s mathematics books — not only the well-known arithmetic,\u00a0but also the Treatise on Algebra and the Elements of Geometry and Trigonometry.<\/p>\n
Di d you ever hear hat George C. Shaw started bus iness in Portland? When\u00a0was a res I dent of that city In 1921 the re we re two I arge George C. Shaw ma rkets,\u00a0one in Congress Square and one on Preb Ie Street Just around the comer\u00a0from ~nument Square. But in 1860 the Shaw business was much more modest. His\u00a0ad in the old directory reads: “China Tea Store. New Teas! New Teas! No.\u00a0135 Middle Street, Portland. Choice tea and pure coffee. A good assortment of\u00a0sugars cheap. China Tea Co., George C. Shaw, proprietor.”<\/p>\n
Predecessor of the famous fish firm of George C. Lord Company of Portland\u00a0was the fl rm of Dana and Company. They wanted the pub II c to know, not on Iy that\u00a0they had been in business for fifty years, but that they had plenty of stock for\u00a0a I I cus tome rs \u2022 The i r 1860 ad says: “Our us ua I stock I s as fo I lows 300,000\u00a0Ibs. large cod, 100,000 Ibs. medium cod, 200,000 Ibs. pollock, 5,000 boxes herring,\u00a01,000 bbls. mackerel, plenty of tongues and sounds, napes and fins, and\u00a0100 bbls. tanners’ oi I. Of salt we have 40,000 bushels of Turks Island, 40,000\u00a0bushels of Liverpool, and 2,000 bags of Ground Butter salt.”\u00a0, was pleased also to see among these 1860 ads that old friend, Ayer’s\u00a0Sarsapari Ila, “For the cure of scrofula, eruptions, ulcers, pimp les, blotches,\u00a0tumors, salt rheum, deb) Ilty, dyspepsia and indigestion.”<\/p>\n
On the inside back cover Is the sort of ad you never see today. Our papers\u00a0are filled with real estate ads, to be sure, but none like that which the Ulinols\u00a0Central Railroad Co. presented In this 1860 directory. It reads: “Rich, rolling,\u00a0prai rie lands. Farms for one thousand dollars in the most ferti Ie state in the\u00a0Union. Rich prairie land at the low price of $12 an acre. That we have sold\u00a0over a thousand of these tracts a I ready th i s season is best proof of the ri chness\u00a0and great va I ue of these I I , i no I s lands. The I I II nol s Centra I R. R. was \u00a0finished in 1856, but It through a sparsely settled country. This season, after\u00a0only four years, it takes to market over 13,000,000 bushels of grain, besides\u00a0many cattle and hogs. The lands now offered for sa Ie are adjacent to the raj I,..\u00a0road. A tract of 80 acres will make a good, comfortab Ie honestead.”<\/p>\n
As we come to the c lose of Thanksg I vi ng Week, I et me ca II your attention to\u00a0the Thanksgiving proclamation issued by the Governor of Maine 121 years ago. Mrs.\u00a0Wi liard Rockwood of Lawrence Street has shown me a framed copy of that proclama \u00a0tion signed by Governor Jonathan Dunton at the Counci I Chamber of the State\u00a0Capitol In Portland on October 26, 1830, proclaiming Thursday, December 2 as a\u00a0day of thanksgiving and praise, and requesting the people of Maine on that day\u00a0to assemb Ie at thei r usua I p I aces of pub Ii c worsh I p, to render thanks to the\u00a0great gl ver of a II gl fts.<\/p>\n
I did not realize that, in such proclamations in the early years of Maine’s\u00a0statehood, the Governors paid attent.ion to events abroad, but listen to these\u00a0words of Governor Dunton’s 1830 proclamation:<\/p>\n
”Wi th i n less than a year we have seen the banner of the cross float trf umphantly\u00a0over the regions of infidelity. We have seen the proud ottoman, whose\u00a0mountain barriers have for ages defied the power of Invadi n9 armies, become a\u00a0humb led pri nce, and Greece, in whose fate Chri sti an and ph i I anthrop ist have taken\u00a0so lively an Interest, disenthralled from his power. In another part of the globe\u00a0we have seen an infidel nation of pirates driven from their stronghold. Wherever\u00a0we turn our eyes, we see the i ron rod of the oppressor and “the crimson spear of\u00a0the conque ror broken be fore the breath of him who ru las the dest I ny of nat i ons. 11<\/p>\n
So a hundred and twenty one years ago for the conquest of Christian arms\u00a0and for the peace and liberty in our own United States, Governor Dunton asked\u00a0the people of Maine to be duly thankful.<\/p>\n
Year: 1951<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Read the script for “Little Talks” program #124, broadcast on November 25, 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\/7262"}],"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=7262"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7262\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}