What a vast quantity and variety of those old a Imanacs must have been ci rculated\u00a0by the patent medicine companies a hundred years ago. An almanac was\u00a0then almost as common a medium of advertising as calendars were in my boyhood.\u00a0I wonder if anyone in Central Maine has a collection of those old advertising\u00a0almanacs, especi a Ily the patent medi ci ne ones. I f so, I shou Id like to hear\u00a0about it.\u00a0One Interesting copy that recently came to my attention was Wright’s Pictorial\u00a0Fami Iy Almanac for the year 1854. This almanac was apparently the annual\u00a0publication of Dr. Wi lIiam Wright of 169 Race Street, Phi ladelphla. The work\u00a0was printed by Brown’s Steam Power Printing Office, Ledger Building, Phlladelphia. \u00a0Through some sort of connections Dr. Wright had set up distribution offices\u00a0at 165 Chambers Street, New York, and at 10 Tremont Street in Boston.<\/p>\n
In his foreword Dr. Wright acknowledges the popularity of an almanac for\u00a0advertising purposes. He says: “This being the most popular medium of advertising\u00a0at the present time, I cordially acquiesce in the necessity which calls\u00a0for it, and have taken some pains to meet it. I have endeavored to make the\u00a0astronomical calculations entirely reliable and accurate, the medical matter\u00a0useful, and the miscellaneous matter and the illustrations entertaining. It only\u00a0remains to send it forth on its mission, and In so doing I ava! I myself of the\u00a0opportunity of returning in proper person my most sincere thanks for the kind\u00a0appreciation of my medicines which has brought them into almost universal use,\u00a0and of giving assurance that no efforts of mine shal I be wanting to sustain\u00a0the I r reputati on.”<\/p>\n
Dr. Wright apparently didn’t much care how his almanac was distributed,\u00a0provided it got around. His obvious, sole purpose was to give it the widest\u00a0possible circulation In order to make his medicines better known and to increase\u00a0their sales. On the back cover he published the following notice to\u00a0dealers: “This almanac wi” be supplied to agents as usual, without any cost\u00a0other than the expense of transportation fnom Phi ladelphla, to indemnify which\u00a0they may, at’ the I r opti on, se II the a Imanac at the pri ce fixed upon the ti tie\u00a0page.” <That price, by the way, was two cents.> ”Orders should always be sent\u00a0considerably In advance of the time they wi II be wanted, so as to prevent disappointment.\u00a0When agents are located off the regular rai I road and e<press\u00a0routes from Ph i I ada I ph i a, arrangements sholill d be made to have the a I manacs :’ ,.packed with other goods to be forwarded from the Atlantic cities. others than\u00a0agents wi Ilbe supplied with almanacs at the rate of 25 copies to the dozen\u00a0boxes of pi lis o’f syrup purchased. Booksellers, periodical agents, postmasters,\u00a0and peddlers, who buy none of the pills or syrup, will be supplied at the rate\u00a0of one dollar per hundred.”<\/p>\n
On one point Dr. Wright was very modern, far ahead of his time. The gulllblIity of people is amazing, and in spite of plenty of scientific evidence that\u00a0no one cou I d p red I ct the weathe r more than a few days in advance, in th Is en-\u00a0I I ghtened year of 1952, there are plenty of peep Ie who have fa I th I n what an\u00a0almanac says about the coming year’s weather. Yet a hundred years ago Dr.\u00a0Wright published on the inside back cover of his almanac these words: “Nothing\u00a0is sa i d about the Weather th Is year I n our a Imanac. I t Is on I Y just to state\u00a0to the public that they know about the weather for the coming year as we do. No\u00a0mathematician or astronomer, however able, can possibly cypher out the weather.\u00a0When such predictions are seen in almanacs, they should be regarded as mere\u00a0guess work, entitled to no confidence, and as likely to fail as to be true.”<\/p>\n
Dr. Wright claimed for his almanac the amazing circulation of half a mil-\u00a0I i on cop ies. I nteresting to us is his fi gure for Ma ine — equa I to h Is comb lned\u00a0c I rcu latlon in New Hampsh I re and Vermont. Wh I Ie he cl aimed 10,000 for each of\u00a0those states, he said he circulated 20,000 in Maine. He claimed 150,000 for\u00a0the two states of New York and Pennsyl~nia, but what Is more astounding, he\u00a0said he circulated 10,000 copies in California, 5,000 in Texas, 5,000 in Iowa,\u00a015,000 in Missouri, 2,000 in Arkansas, and even 5,000 In the West Indies.<\/p>\n
One table in this almanac gives the population of some 60 American towns\u00a0and cities for the two censuses of 1830 and 1850. Among the 60 places there are\u00a0only two in Maine — Portland and Bangor. In those twenty years Portland had\u00a0grown from 12,000 to 20,000; Bangor from 2,800 to 14,000. Boston had mone than\u00a0135,000 people as early as 1850; New York’s population had already passed half\u00a0a million. Philadelphia, on the other hand, was then smaller than Boston, while\u00a0Ba It i more was cons I derab Iyl arger. On Iy 40,000 peop Ie lived In the national\u00a0capital, Washington, fewer than 30,000 lived in Chicago, and only 17,000 In\u00a0Cleveland. The six largest cities in order of size In 1850 were New York, Baltimore,\u00a0Boston, New Orleans and Cincinnati; and those were the only cities that\u00a0had mone than a hundred thousand peop Ie. Ne I ther San Francisco nor any ather\u00a0p lace in Ca II forn ia I s even manti oned. The sma I lest p lace listed among the\u00a0sixty is Nashville, Tennessee, with its meager 10,000 people in 1850.<\/p>\n
What did Dr. Wright’s almanac advertise? A whole page is devoted to\u00a0Wright’s Indian Vegetable Pills of the North American College of Health. The ad\u00a0says: “The hand of a benef I cent creator has planted every country with its own\u00a0proper antidotes against effects of soi I and climate upon the human being. The\u00a0aboriginal Indians, taking advantage of that fact, possessed a vigor of constitution\u00a0unsurpassed by any other race. It is from such roots and plants as gave\u00a0health to the Indians that Wright’s Indian Vegetable Pi lis are compounded’! Some\u00a0of the diseases they were promised to cune or relieve were asthma, dropsy, dyspepsia,\u00a0fits, ague, gout, jaundice, neuralgia, small pox and yellQlt fever. The\u00a0other product was Wright’s Indian Vegetable Syrup, which contained the same ingredients\u00a0as were in the pi lis. You could thus have the cure in solid Or\u00a0liquid form; you paid your money and took your choice.<\/p>\n
Dr. Wright graclflously allowed a little space to other advertisers though, \u00a0as explained In his announcement of advertising rates, he strictly barred the\u00a0ads of any other med ica I men. There is a ha I f page ad of the 00 II ar Newspaper\u00a0of Phi ladelphia, proclaimed as the cheapest family paper in the U. S. The sub,..\u00a0scription rate was indeed only a dollar a year. For that small amount the !”-‘:-r’,~\u00a0reader was proml sed 52 issues of stories and nove lettes, articles on agricu Iture\u00a0and news — a II pri nted on a par <\/em>r of mammoth printing mach Ines costing $45,000\u00a0and capable of turning out 20,000 impressions an hour.\u00a0Another ad was headed: “A sure way to get rich. Freedley’s Practical\u00a0Treatise on Busi ness. The best book on money making ever pub Ifshed. Prlce,\u00a0$1.00. Don’t fail TO get this book; It will pay you well.”\u00a0Another ad told the readers that book agents were wanted. “Persons in every\u00a0town and vi IIage of the U. S. may hear of safe, pleasant and profitable employment\u00a0In the circulaTion of new and useful pictorial works.”\u00a0Anthony SchmidT of 409 Main Street, Buffalo, advertised that he dealt In\u00a0German and English books, mantle-piece clocks, fine pictures and picture frames,\u00a0looking glasses, toys, wax candles and tapers.<\/p>\n We have often mentioned the Inconvell’lence caused by the different local ,.\u00a0times a hundred years ago. Dr. Wright attempts to dispel some of the confusion\u00a0with a statement addressed Simply, “To the Reader”. It says: “There are two\u00a0kinds of time used In conmon almanacs for the sun’s rising and setting. One Is\u00a0clock time, and the other Is apparent or sun time. Clock time Is always right,\u00a0whi Ie sun time varies every day, and Is alternately too fast or too slow. According\u00a0to apparent time, the sun will always rise or set at six o’clock when it is\u00a0at the equinox, but this Is never the case according to clock or true time. If\u00a0the sun was In the meridian, the noon mark, at 12 o’clock every day, apparent\u00a0time would be true. Peep Ie ~enerally suppose it Is 12 o’clock when the sun is\u00a0In mid-heaven. This Is a mistake. The sun is so Irregular that It does not\u00a0come to the meridian oftener than four times in,a whole year. When the sun Is\u00a0at the noon mark, It Is noon, but not 12 o’clock very often.-<\/p>\n ”The var I att on of the s un makes a d I <\/em>ffe rence between I t and a II true t I mepieces,\u00a0and produces two ktnds of time. The sun cannot, therefore, be depended\u00a0upon for correct time, without applying to it what Is termed the equation of\u00a0time, or the difference between clock and sun. Add to apparent time when the\u00a0sun Is slow, and subtract when It is fast. This almanac Is In clock time.”<\/p>\n As the 1952 presidential campaign gets under way, some amusing verse from\u00a0the pen of Representative Ed Chase of Portland may weI} I claim our attention. Ed\u00a0Chase being a staunch Republican, this is distinctly Republ ican verse, but I am\u00a0sure whatever your poll tics, you wi II find I t rather pat.<\/p>\n “Ma I den-coy In his I vory tower, How we” do you know your own state of Ma ine? I want to te” you ton ight\u00a0about some of Maine’s unusual place names, and I assure you that no longer ago\u00a0than 1910 — a I ittle more than 40 years — every one of those p laces was the\u00a0official name of a post office in our state. Old you ever hear of Letter C?\u00a0That was a post office In an unorganized township in the Rangeley region. In\u00a01910 It had a population of seven persons. Its settlement is now called Middle\u00a0Dam.<\/p>\n Maine once had a place named for a fish. In the town of Kennebunkport\u00a0There was a post office called Alewives. ~deration was once the official name\u00a0of West Buxton. Ketchum is a settlement In RI ley Plantation north of Rumford.\u00a0Down In Washington County In <\/em>the town of Cooper is a place called Cedar, while\u00a0Coal-Kiln Corner Is in the town of Scarborough. Eureka Is a place right near\u00a0Wate rv I <\/em>I Ie — one of the sett I emen ts I <\/em>n the town of Sidney.\u00a0Everyone knows that Maine is covered with place names taken from Europe,\u00a0p I aces like Norway, Sweden, DEmma rk and Nap les, four of the tCMns that border\u00a0my native Brldgtonjnames from Asia, like China and Canton; names from Africa,\u00a0I ike Carthage; names fran South America, I ike Peru; and numerous names from the\u00a0Bible, like Bethel, Canaan, GI lead, Hebron, Lebanon, Mars HIli and Shi loh. I\u00a0wonder, however, If you know that in Maine there Is a Jerusalem, an Eqypt and\u00a0a Corea. Jerusalem Is a settlement 30 mi les north of Farmington; Egypt is a\u00a0p lace in the town of Franklin; and Corea (spe lied with a C, not a K) Is In the\u00a0town of Gouldsborough.<\/p>\n In spite of the long boundary line between Maine and Canada, there is, so\u00a0far as I know, just one p lace off Icl ally ca lied Boundary. I tis a sett lement\u00a0in the town of Bridgewater. Lynchtown, an unorganized tCMnship embracing Parmachenee\u00a0Lake, had eight peop Ie In 1910. It probab Iy got I ts name from some\u00a0family named Lynch, not from a necktie party. Tim was once an offici.al post\u00a0office In the town of Eustis; Pea Cove is a p lace in Old Town. But I think of\u00a0all the Maine post offices listed In 1910, the prizes are taken by Mosquito and\u00a0Sunshine. Yes, forty years ago, mall could actually be addressed to Mosquito,\u00a0Maine in Forks Plantation, or to Sunshine, Maine on Deer Isle.<\/p>\n We have many names of British origin dotting the map of Maine. We expect\u00a0them and take them for granted. But did you eve r not ice how many names we have\u00a0of German origin, in spite \u00b7of the fact that almost the only German settlement\u00a0in early Maine was at Waldoboro? Yet, scattered over Maine, we have Bremen,\u00a0Brunswick, Dresden, Frankfort, Lubec and Vienna.\u00a0Lege:nd has It that the town of Pol and, where the Ri ckers dew loped the\u00a0famous spring, owes its name neither to the European country nor to a fami Iy of\u00a0that name, but to a famous Poland China boar, owned there In pioneer days, the\u00a0sire of the best pigs In the region for many years.<\/p>\n I suppose there are even more picturesque names of Maine localities which\u00a0never got into the records because they never had a post office. I wish you\u00a0folks would help me make a collection of those old names. Off hand, as we close\u00a0the program tonight, I think of two: Hungry Hollow and Monotony. Hungry Hollow,\u00a0when I was a teacher at Hebron 35 years ago, was a well known, but decidedly\u00a0run-down hamlet between South Paris and West Paris. Monotony was the fitting\u00a0name for an i sol ated, dreary collecti on of ha I f a dozen houses on the southern\u00a0edge of Fryeburg. Now who wi II add names to this collection?<\/p>\n Year: 1952<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Read the script for “Little Talks” program #134, broadcast on February 3, 1952<\/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":[787,35296],"tags":[],"builder_content":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7285"}],"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=7285"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7285\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n
\nDraftable maybe, Is Eisenhower.
\nParty pros we II versed In craft
\nBeat the sticks on behalf of Taft.
\nSix or eight of lesser size
\nCherish the hope of compromise.
\nWatching rivals torn asunder,
\nHumb ler fol k are prone to wonder,
\nFinding quite hard to understand
\nWhy supp Iy shou I d exceed demand.”<\/p>\n
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