One does not have to go back a hundred years to find entertaining items in\u00a0the rural newspapers. I never tire of reading some of the country correspondence\u00a0in our Maine weeklies today. let me give you a sample of one correspondent’s\u00a0work in a Maine weekly newspaper dated January 4, 1952.\u00a0“Mrs. R. L. has been very sick the past two weeks. Can’t seem to find out\u00a0Just what the trouble Is. She is sti II feeling so miserable that she can only\u00a0stay up a short time and then crawls back into bed again.”<\/p>\n
”We have a modern Scrooge in our neighborhood. FreddIe took Bi t I A. to\u00a0the County seat to do his shopping one day and promised to take hIm the next\u00a0day to the doctor if our car would start. In the meantime Bi II asked Scrooge\u00a0If he’d help Freddie start the car. Scrooge said No. Seems like some people\u00a0can’t ever be agreeable, even around Christmas time.”<\/p>\n
“We sure got left out the other night when we all tUrned out to see Santa\u00a0down at the vi Ilage. Nine famt I ies from this neighborhood took all the kids\u00a0and grown-ups down those five mi les, then there wasn’t any party after all. It\u00a0had been postponed, but no one down in the village had the kindness to let us\u00a0know. ”<\/p>\n
Mrs. Mary Stobie has produced for me another of those Mrs. Winslow Race\u00a0ipt Books, th i s one nine years 0 I der than the issue , referred to a few weeks\u00a0ago. This issue of 1867 has exactly the same kind of cover as the issue of\u00a01876, but many of the recipes are different. For instance, I did not know that\u00a0common hard crackers were ever made at home. I ignorant Iy thought there was\u00a0no such thing as those round, common crackers unti I they were factory, or at\u00a0least bakery, made. But Mrs. Winslow gave the folks in 1867 a recipe for hard\u00a0crackers. Here it is: ”Warm two ounces of butter in as much skimmed milk as\u00a0will make a pound of flour into a stiff paste. Beat It with a rolling pin and\u00a0cut it Into thin biscuits. Prick them full of holes with a fork. About six\u00a0minutes wi II bake them.”<\/p>\n
Look at the ingredients of what folks in 1867 called a cheap, common cake.\u00a0How cheaply could you make it today? t lb. of butter, 2 lb. of flour, 4 eggs,\u00a0I lb. of sugar, 1 pint of mi Ik, rind of a lemon, 1 lb. of currants. What the\u00a0book calls a better common cake contained a whole pound of butter, 2 Ibs. flour,\u00a02 Ibs. currants, a pound of sugar, a quarter pound of a Imonds, a ha I f pound of\u00a0raisins, a good lot of cinnamon, allspice, cloves, lemon peel and a whole dozen\u00a0of eggs.<\/p>\n
I have often heard my father, who was born in 1861, say that In his boyhood\u00a0he never saw granulated sugar, that fully refined granulated came Into the\u00a0country stores of Ma ine we II I nto the 1870 ‘s, and was not too common when, in\u00a01881, he went to work In a market near Metropol itan Boston In Watertown, Massachusetts.\u00a0This recipe book of 1867 proves beyond dispute that the sugar referred\u00a0to is not fine, granulated sugar as we know it today.\u00a0One recipe is headed “To clarify sugar for sweetmeats”, and it begins,\u00a0“Break as much as required in large lumps”. Another recipe says, “Take an\u00a0equal weight of sugar in large lumps”. Another says,\u00b7 “Take six ounces of finely\u00a0pounded sugar”. Still another: “Take a large piece of double refined sugar.”<\/p>\n
My father could <\/em>remember those Irregular shaped lumps of sugar, but he said\u00a0they seemed to him thoroughly white. Probably by his time most of the sugar was\u00a0what Mrs. Winslow’s book calls <\/em>double-refined. But my grandmother could well re_\u00a0member\u00b7 the dirty-looking ye Ilowi sh sugar that everybody used. She once tol d me\u00a0that her mother, down In Cape Elizabeth, always had a huge lump of that yel <\/em>lewish\u00a0sugar hung over the dining table, suspended from the cei ling by strings.\u00a0From that lump the diners chipped off tiny pieces for their tea and coffee. In\u00a0sunmer the lump was surrounded by netting to keep off the files.<\/p>\n Many th I ngs that we pick up ready made at the store, wi thout the s I I ghtest\u00a0inconvenience, our grandparents went to much trouble to make at home. Today\u00a0there are plenty of preparations to apply to chapped hands. But this is how\u00a0Mrs. Wins low in 1867 tol d home fol ks to make the I r own app I I cat Ion for chapped\u00a0hands: “Mix a quarter pound of unsalted hog’s lard, washed first In common water and then In rose water, with the yolks of two new-laid eggs and a spoonful\u00a0of honey. Add as much oatmeal or almond paste as wi I I work into a paste.” It\u00a0Is Interesting to note that this recipe contains two ingredients that were later\u00a0heralded In a famous patented skin cream — honey and almonds.<\/p>\n If you ran out of ink In 1867 and didn’t want to buy the poor stuff they\u00a0then sold for Ink In the stores, you of course made a new supply for yourself.\u00a0But you had better not be In a hurry. The recipe tells you why: “Take a gallon\u00a0of rain water and three quarters of a pound of blue galls bruised. Infuse them\u00a0three weeks, stirring dally. Then add four ounces of green copperas, four\u00a0ounces of logwood chips, six ounces of gum arabic, and a wine glass of brandy.”\u00a0The 1876 recipe book says nothing about Mrs. Winslow, but tn 1867 her re.,.medles were new enough to warrant some word of Identification. So a half page\u00a0Is devoted to telling the public that “Mrs. Winslow is a lady who, for upwards\u00a0to thirty years, has untiringly devoted her time and talents as a female phy …\u00a0sician and nurse, principally among chi Idren. In consequence of her famous\u00a0Soothing Syrup she Is becoming world-renowned as a benefactor of the race. Chi 1dran especially rise up and bless her. In this city of Phi ladelphla vast quan …\u00a0tlties of her soothing syrup are used dally. Mrs. Winslow has immortal ized her\u00a0name by this Invaluable article, since she has saved thousands of chi Idren fran\u00a0an early grave.”<\/p>\n And with that epitaph we say goodbye to Mrs. Winslow’s Soothing Syrup.<\/p>\n Did you ever hear of One-Eleven Cigarettes? I never did untf I a few weeks\u00a0ago, when Pau I Marshall, a student at Col by Co1 lege, brought me an empty wrapper\u00a0of that old brand. He says it was found between the floors of the old\u00a0Unitarian Church, here in Waterville, when that edifice was torn down to make\u00a0way for the block now housing the First National Store, Penney’s and Western ~ir.,.~.~.Auto. It was apparently a standard package, containing 20 cigarettes, and Its\u00a0price was 15 cents. So it must date back fairly early in ciga’rette making days,\u00a0because fO cents was the price of the favorite brands around 1910. It was a\u00a0product of the American Tobacco Company, which printed on the wrapper’a guarantee\u00a0that “if for any reason this package Is unsatisfactory, you can get your\u00a0money back f rom the dea ler”. On the face of the package I s an In d I an head, and\u00a0beneath it the numerals “111”. Under that are the words “One-Eleven Cigarettes”.<\/p>\n On the reverse side one discovers why these cigarettes were called One-Eleven or\u00a0111. For on that reverse side is printed “111 — one for mildness, Virginia;\u00a0one for mellowness, Burley; one for aroma, Turkish. Now who is there among our\u00a0‘I i steners who remembers One Eleven Cigarettes?<\/p>\n More than once on this p~gram we have talked’ about the old steamboats, especla\u00a0II y about the City of Watervi lie, and the big boats that raced between Ha I …\u00a0lowe II and Boston. But I don’t th ink we have ever ment loned the first steamboat\u00a0that ever came to Maine. It was a tiny vessel named the Tom Thumb, and it put\u00a0fA at Bath in the summer of 1818, only eleven years after Robert Fulton had\u00a0pushed his Clermont up the Hudson from New York to Albany. The salt-water farmers\u00a0of the Kennebec Jeered at the Tom Thumb, Just the way the Dutch farmers of\u00a0the Hudson had laughed at “Fu I ton ‘s Folly”. The queer mach lnery that drove her\u00a0side wheels easily Induced laughter. But the Tom Thumb proved a success. She\u00a0kept going on short trips out of Bath for ten years, taking excursions up and\u00a0down the Kennebec between Bath and Augusta.<\/p>\n Except on the ocean and on the Great lakes, steamboat days of any kind are\u00a0on Iy legend to the younger gene rat I on today. Never again can we have the thrill\u00a0of that wonderful trip fran Boston to Bangor, with all the beauty and variety of\u00a0Penobscot Bay.<\/p>\n When steamboats were first bui It, there seems to have been little thought\u00a0of their replacing sail as cargo carriers, just as with the first automobile,\u00a0there was no thought of trucks. So between 1815 and 1825 there were put on the\u00a0coastal and inland waters many small steamboats whose chief business was running\u00a0pleasure excursions. Such a boat was the Kennebec which, strangely enough\u00a0never operated on the Kennebec River. In the newspapers of 1822 Captain Seward\u00a0Porter announced that the Kennebec would operate excursions between Portland and\u00a0North Yarmouth regularly all summer. They were venturesane souls who dared voyage\u00a0on that boat. She was made from the hul I of an 01 d flat-bottomed scow and\u00a0was equipped with an engine that was always breaking down, and a boi ler that as always in danger of blowing up. She lasted for nearly a dozen years, however,\u00a0before she ran on a ledge and sank. Fortunately she was then running with no\u00a0passengers, and her crew of three men got ashore safely.<\/p>\n I t was a long time before the strict maritime ru les for safety oontrolled\u00a0the steamboats, and many lives were lost because of careless operation and lack\u00a0of safety methods. But I f safety was di sregarded, looks and appearance became\u00a0Important very early. By 1830 many of the boats were painted white and green,\u00a0with stripes of brown and yellow, even gold. Paddlewheels were red and prows\u00a0carried ga I Iy co Jored figureheads. Passengers rode on neat Iy ra i led decks under\u00a0bright striped awnings. But it was years later than 1830 before any boat\u00a0had a decent lavatory. When the weather was rough, comfort went with the wind.<\/p>\n The companies made much of the fine meals served on board, but some of the patrons\u00a0complained that even if they felt well enough to partake of a meal, the\u00a0fare was invariably the same — ham and eggs.<\/p>\n Among the Ken nebec towns that once had a newspape r was the town of Ch i na.\u00a0have recently seen Vol. 3, No. 44 of The Orb, published at China, Maine on\u00a0Novembe r 3, 1 836 \u2022 do not need to te II you that, in those days, most of the\u00a0newspapers were violently partisan, and the Orb was no exception. November 3,\u00a01836 was just four days before the preSidential election, and In heavy black\u00a0type two columns wide and a full colurm long, the Orb came out for its candidate.<\/p>\n He re I <\/em>wo rd for word, I sits st.atement:<\/p>\n “Ship Ahoy! From whence come ye? From the country of monarchy and oppress\u00a0Ion. Where boun d? To the port of I I berty and prosperity. See then that ye\u00a0fall not out by the way. Be it remembered by every elector of the State that\u00a0on Monday, November 7, they are notified to meet In their several towns and\u00a0cities, to exercise one of the first rights guaranteed to any people by our\u00a0constitution \u2022\u2022\u2022\u2022\u2022 Fellow citizens, with a faithful citizen at the helm, our Ship\u00a0of State has for the last eight years been safe Iy conducted through storms and\u00a0tempests, and our good captain is about to resign his command, and you are to\u00a0elect a suitab Ie person to fi II the Important station. Martin Van Buren has\u00a0been named as a candidate for the exalted station, and the candidates for electors\u00a0are named under our editorial head. They are all good rre;n and true, and\u00a0will, we trust, race I ve the undi vi ded vote of the Democracy of the State.”<\/p>\n The captain who had reSigned his command was, of course, Andrew Jackson.\u00a0The Orb was obvious Iy a (Smocratlc paper, strong Iy supporting Jackson. I n fact\u00a0most of the pape rs and most of the peop Ie In Ma I ne were on that side of the political\u00a0fence. The old Federalists and the new Whigs stood little chance in\u00a0Ma i ne be fore 1 840 \u2022 I n fact when ou r Massach use tts ne I ghbor, John Qu I ncy Adams,\u00a0was elected Pres i dent in 1825, Ma ine di d not give him her vote.<\/p>\n In 1836 the China Orb proved to be on the winning side, for Van Buren was\u00a0elected by a SUbstantial majOrity. It was a different story when Old Tlppe-\u00a0canoe, Wi Iliam Henry Harrison, entered the 1>icture In 1840 and became the\u00a0first Wh i g presf denT.\u00a0In 1836 Maine was entitled to ten presidential electors, and among the\u00a0success fu I Democrat I c cand i dates for that off I ce we re Raue I W I II i ams of Augusta\u00a0and John Hamblet of S610n. Maine then had five Congressional Districts — not\u00a0called by number as they are n()w, first, second and third, but by names: the\u00a0Waldo District, the Cumberland District, the Lincoln District, the Washlngtoo\u00a0District, and the Penobscot and Somerset District. The Orb’s supported candidate\u00a0for Congress from the Lincoln District, which then included Watervi lie,\u00a0was Jonathan Cilley.<\/p>\n It t s sanetlmes surpri 51 ng to us who have so long been used to Maine’s\u00a0fairly stable population, to real ize how fast other states have grown In comparI\u00a0son wi th Maine. Wh lie Mal ne had ten presi dentia I e lectors In 1836, New Hampshire\u00a0had only seven and Connecticut only eight. Eight was also the number for New Jersey, whl Ie I I Iinois had only five and Missouri only four. Even Louisiana\u00a0with Its very old city of New Orleans had only half as many electoral votes as\u00a0Maine. Now In 1952 there are very few states of the present 48 which do not have\u00a0more electoral votes than ours. That is the price we pay for a stable population\u00a0with very little increase In a hundred years.<\/p>\n Like most of Maine weekly papers a century ago, the Orb contained very\u00a0little local news. One local item tells us that a fulling mill in Vassalboro,\u00a0belonging to John Rowe, had burned the previous Saturday night. Another fire had\u00a0destroyed a one-story, doub Ie house, on what was ca lied the Feed farm, be long Ing\u00a0to Col. Phil ip Morri II, a half mi Ie from Bel fast Village. It was said to have\u00a0been one of the oldest frame houses in that town.\u00a0Let’s close our program tonight with the solemn note which the editor of\u00a0the Orb strikes regarding manners and morals. He was evidently one of those\u00a0straight-laced Puritans pretty convnon a century ago. Here Is his editorial:<\/p>\n “A romp, as some girls are called, is a good natured sort of girl with\u00a0little mind and less taste. When she is merriest she Jumps the highest; when\u00a0she is grave aAd sober she is a fool, because a romp has little intellect. A\u00a0country romp is pleased with a ditch, because it gives her a chance to Jump\u00a0across it, and she loves app les in the orchard, because she can cI imb trees to\u00a0get them. A town romp is a great talker of scandal whi Ie she employs her\u00a0clenched hands beating her listener’s shoulders. Romping is bad business. It Is\u00a0at variance with decency of taste. The manners of a romp are the fondl ings of\u00a0a bear. I would have all such females picked out of society and sent up the\u00a0Missouri to colonize a new Amazonian land. If they did not clvi lize the Indians\u00a0somewhat, they would fight them, and that would answer the same purpose.”<\/p>\n Year: 1952<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Read the script for “Little Talks” program #136, broadcast on February 17, 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\/7289"}],"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=7289"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7289\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7289"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7289"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7289"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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