Have you been to church today? Of course you went two weeks ago on Easter\u00a0Sunday. Everybody goes to church then. But did you go today? Now I don’t\u00a0propose. To have any argument with the fel low who says he can worship God in the\u00a0great out-of-doors just as wei I as he can in a church. I want him to ask what\u00a0he would think likely to happen in our nation if nobody went to church. There\u00a0may be a more definite relation between church attendance and pUblic morality\u00a0than some of us like to admit.<\/p>\n
It is not the existence of corruption and scandal in our government that\u00a0offers The greatest danger. It is rather the fact that so many people are today\u00a0taking it for granted that because corruption, graft and bribery do exist,\u00a0There is something pardonable about those practices. No one ever got that Idea\u00a0in church. The truth simply is that the church is sti II the great bulwark of\u00a0moral ity in America. Entirely apart from the salvation of our personal souls,\u00a0on grounds of public welfare alone, we cannot let the church continue to diminish\u00a0in its influence for good. Old you go to church today?<\/p>\n
My anonymous correspondent who gave us such complete information about 111\u00a0Cigarettes has written me again. Except that he lives in Augusta, and like myself\u00a0has fond recollection of the narrow guage rai I roads, I have few clues to\u00a0his identity. But I am sure you join me in thanking him for his help on this\u00a0program.<\/p>\n
In writing about the narrow guage roads this fellow makes a pretty good\u00a0point. He says we find so many people interested in them today, not merely because\u00a0they have now disappeared and there is a I ways a bit of nos ta I 9 i a oonnected\u00a0with by-gone things, but even more because, when they were in their heydey,\u00a0their very uniqueness gave everyone the urge to try at least one ride on the\u00a0midget train.<\/p>\n
Our informant also points out that, to avoid expensive excavation and\u00a0grading, the roadbed usually went around even the smaller hillocks and straddled\u00a0shallow valleys by means of pile trestles. Hence such names as “Meandered”, or\u00a0the even more expressive “Little Wiggler”, given as a nickname for such a road.\u00a0Then this 111 fellow, who stili conceals his Identity, reveals that he was\u00a0once a regular commuter on a famous narrow guage I ine that I have not previously\u00a0mentioned, because it was not one of the narrow guages of Maine. refer to the\u00a0Revere Beach and Lynn road, which in its period of existence surely carried more\u00a0passengers than al I the Maine narrow guages combined.\u00a0Not on I y did that 0 I d road ca rry a lot of da i I y commute rs between Lynn and\u00a0Boston and the way stations; it also had a lot to do with the development of\u00a0Revere Beach as Boston’s Coney Island. My uncle was for many years a member of\u00a0a group who made regular trips from Boston to the old race track at Revere,\u00a0where some of the most noted harness races in New England were conducted. Those\u00a0trips to and from the races were always made on the old narrow guage.<\/p>\n
Our informant adds some information about the Kennebec Central, the narrow\u00a0guage I ine from Randolph to Togus. He says that supplies for the National Sol~\u00a0diers Home at Togus were shipped by water, over the Eastern Steamship Line, to a\u00a0wharf on the east side of the Kennebec River, opposite Gardiner, in the town\u00a0of Randolph. There the goods were transferred to the Kennebec Central and carried\u00a0over its I ittle two-foot track to Togus.\u00a0We are told also that the Kennebec Central boasted of a nicely bal lasted\u00a0roadbed — an unusual feature, because equipment of those “little wigglers” was\u00a0so I igh-t that -thei r road bui Iders seldom paid much attention to ballast. Our informant\u00a0also recalled that the Kennebec Central’s stations and other buildings\u00a0were replete with gingerbread trimmings, and even its roundhouse was an orna~\u00a0mented brick structure. The locomotives too were lavishly adorned with heavy\u00a0brass trimmings.\u00a0Before the coming of the e lectri c road, passenger traff ic on the Kennebec\u00a0Central was sufficient to require three coaches on every train. A remembered\u00a0feature of the stations was the pot-bell ied stove placed in the middle of the\u00a0waiting room floor, just as It was in the bigger stations on the broad-guage\u00a0roads.<\/p>\n
Our unnamed Informant writes: “Probab Iy you’ve heard that the roll ing\u00a0stock of the Albion and Wiscasset R.R. at last reports was doing al I right on\u00a0a cranberry farm on Cape Cod.”\u00a0Now the Cape Cod road he refers to I s the famous Edavi lie R. R. at Carver,\u00a0Massachusetts. Before the death of its bui Ider and owner, Ellis Atwood, about\u00a0a year ago, I was honored with a life-time pass on that little Edaville line,\u00a0simply because Mr. Atwood knew of my interest in narrow guage roads and that\u00a0was born in the town where he got his track and most of his rolling stock.<\/p>\n
Mt. Atwood bought enough of the rai Is of the old Bridgton & Saco River to\u00a0lay the five mi les of track through his cranberry bogs. He got two of that\u00a0road’s locomotives and several of its cars, including the old passenger car\u00a0named the Pond i cherry, in wh i ch I rode many ti mes as a boy, and in wh i ch I aga in\u00a0rode over Mr. Atwood’s little line in the summer of 1949. From the Sandy River\u00a0and Range ley Lakes he got two coaches, a caboose, and the on I y par lor car ever\u00a0used on any narrow guage road in the U. S. From the narrow guage at Monson he\u00a0got two locomotives. His two snowplows, his flanger, and the one caboose came\u00a0from the Bridgton and Saco River. Mr. Atwood’s own records show that the only\u00a0item he acqui red from the Watervi lie, Wiscasset & Farmington (which our informant\u00a0refers to as the Albion and Wiscasset) was the old No.3 coach of that line.<\/p>\n
Mr. Atwood a Iways regretted that his interest In bui Idlng a narrow guage\u00a0road came too late for him to acqu ire the biggest narrow guage looomoti ve ever\u00a0bui It. That was the Sandy River No. 23, which was scrapped when that road\u00a0folded up in 1935.\u00a0once told you my own tal I story about getting off the old Bridgton and\u00a0Saco River to pick neyflowers, whi Ie the train backed down from the grade to\u00a0Bridgton Junction, in order to get another start to enable it to reach the top\u00a0of the grade. Th is fe II ow whom I ca I lour 111 correspondent has a better yarn,\u00a0and in tell ing it, by the way, he reveals his age as 57. He says when he was\u00a014 years old in 1909, he was one of a group of kids who tried to slow down the\u00a0Kennebec Central by sitting on the steps of the rear coach and dragging their\u00a0feet in the coarse grave I 0 f the road bed. “S uff ice I t to sayll, he wr I tes, “we\u00a0were only successful In kicking up a huge cloud of dust. That quickly brought\u00a0the brakeman to the rear door, and reluctantly we scrambled back into the coach\u00a0and exam I ned our bad I y scuffed shoes.”<\/p>\n
Mrs. Edna Parsons, who I ives on the east bank of the Kennebec above Hinckley,\u00a0near where the CarrabassettStream enters the ri ver, gi ves us . very interesting\u00a0information about the so-cal led French Settlement in that neighborhood.\u00a0Mrs. Parsons says that, while she can find no proof that a settlement of\u00a0French immigrants ever existed near her present home on the Kennebec, the age\u00a0and persistence of the legend that there was such a settlement leads her to beIleve\u00a0that tangible evidence about it wi I I some day be found.<\/p>\n
Mrs. Parsons was born near her present home, attended Good Wi II High School\u00a0and says that at a very early age she often heard the term French Settlement and\u00a0wondered what it meant. She says her father to I d her some Frenchmen once lived\u00a0there.\u00a0When Mrs. Parsons returned to Hinckley as a school teacher, she became in,…\u00a0terested in the question allover again. What her father had told her was\u00a0evidently not a fact known to him, but only what he had heard a generation older\u00a0than his sometimes say.\u00a0Mrs. Parsons did a lot of research about early habitations near Pishon’s\u00a0Ferry, and worked this material into a pageant given in her school. Her father\u00a0is sti I I living. Though of advanced age, his mind is active and his memory keen.<\/p>\n
Time and again he has gone over the list of people who lived on what was called\u00a0the French Settlement, now called Oxbow, and he cannot recall a single French\u00a0name. There were Rowes, Rickers, Burri lis, Barretts and Eldrldges. Some of\u00a0those names go back to the beginning of the English-American settlement at\u00a0Pishon’s Ferry in 1792. Was the little place above the ferry called the French\u00a0Settlement before or after that date? That is a point which puzzles both Mrs.\u00a0Parsons and me_<\/p>\n
It is known that the Pishon fami Iy was of French extraction, of Acadian\u00a0stock from Nova Scot i a, descendants of those peep Ie who we re ex i led from the I r\u00a0homes in Evange line days.\u00a0Mrs _ Parsons says most of the present rHfnck ley and Skowhegan peop Ie discredit\u00a0the idea that there ever was a real French settlement above Pishon’s\u00a0Ferry, that there is not a scrap of evidence that any French people lived in\u00a0that region unti I about 35 years ago, well within the present century. Yet ~~rs.\u00a0Parsons’ aged father says that, when he was a,1 ittle boy living at Pishon’s\u00a0Ferry, the old people always called the Oxbow region the French Settlement.\u00a0A II the 01 der peop Ie knew where it was, but no one remembered how it got its\u00a0name.\u00a0The only French person whom Mrs. Parsons has ever known personally as a\u00a0res i dent of what is ca lied the French Sett lement dese rves ment i on in his own\u00a0right, for he has made a discovery that connects with an interesting item in\u00a0the industrial history of the Kennebec. This man is Simon Gagnon, and he has\u00a0apparently found the source of iron used by the old operators of the forge that\u00a0was worked on the Carrabassett just above its entrance into the Kennebec~ about\u00a0a hundred years ago. Farmers In the area stJ I I P low up 01 d charcoa I pits where\u00a0the charcoal to run the furnace was made. Unti I a few years ago the location\u00a0of the forge was recognizable by the refuse slag, but today even that has\u00a0been pretty thoroughly cleared. away.<\/p>\n
I fear this program must take the blame for a calamity. Hearing my remarks\u00a0some weeks ago about General Kendal I and the Emery HI II Cemetery, one of our women\u00a0listeners decided to take a look for herself. Quite justly she now calls me \u00a0to task for fai ling to mention a very important fact; namely, that the Emery\u00a0Hi II Cemetery is teeming with poison ivy. The good lady writes: “I found out\u00a0the hard way because I am now covered with ivy poison. The next time you talk\u00a0about these old cemeteries~ please find out if there is poison ivy around. I\u00a0know what poison ivy looks I ike, but who can keep an eye out for it and examine\u00a0tombstone inscript-ions at the same time’?”<\/p>\n
It- is too late now to do more than wish the lady a speedy recovery from the\u00a0ivy rash. My profession has kept me much In ivy-covered hal Is, but now 1’1 I\u00a0have to be watchfu I for ivy-covered graves and i vy-f i lied ce II ar holes.<\/p>\n
As a final item tonight I want to know who can tell me the year when\u00a0the ai rship caught fi re at the Central Maine FaJ r. It was before the day of\u00a0airplanes, because the picture I have seen is of a cigar-shaped dirigible on\u00a0the ground, and another picture of it in the air. It was called the Strobel\u00a0Air Ship. I understand, whi Ie showing at the Central Maine Fair, this dirigible\u00a0caught fire and burned, but with what results to its one man crew’ do not know.<\/p>\n
Who can te II me just what did happen and in what year’?<\/p>\n
Year: 1952<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Read the script for “Little Talks” program #146, broadcast on April 27, 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\/7319"}],"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=7319"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7319\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}