Almost every day we see some reference in the press to the vast amount of\u00a0money in circulation. For every dollar the average adult had in 1940, he has\u00a0$2.64 now and will have $2.80 by the end of this year. In 1940 the nation’s\u00a0total supply of currency and bank deposits stood at 70 billion dollars. By\u00a0the end of the war in 1945 it had risen to 150 bill ion. In another five years\u00a0by 1950 it was up to 170 billions. Last July it had reached 185 billion and\u00a0by next January will be close to 200 billion, an increase of 185 percent.<\/p>\n
That all sounds very fine, but it takes no account of how much or how \u00a0little a dollar will buy. The question really is, how much purchasing power\u00a0does the average man have compared to what he had thirty years ago? You recall\u00a0the remark of the fellow who first questioned the story about George Washington’s\u00a0throwing a silver dollar across the Potomac, or was it the Rappahannock?\u00a0The fellow first declared it an impossible feat, pondered a minute,\u00a0then said: “Well ,it may be true. A dollar would go a lot farther in those\u00a0days.”<\/p>\n
Now it is time to keep my promise of last week and start the story of an\u00a0astounding journey on horseback from Maine to Virginia 160 years ago. That\u00a0journey was made by the ancestor of a Waterville woman, the distinguished historian of the First Baptist Church.\u00a0Mrs. A. F. Drummond of Burleigh Street is a member of the famous Prince\u00a0family, \u00a0whose members are scattered far and wide over the land. Hezekiah Prince,\u00a0a member of that family long ago, came to Thomaston, Maine when he was 21 years\u00a0old. Except for a few clothes, his only property was his chest of tools. He\u00a0first lived at the home of Isaiah Tolman in the first licensed tavern in what\u00a0is now the city of Rockland.<\/p>\n
That first winter Hezekiah burned a kiln of lime and took the product to\u00a0Boston for sale. He became a prosperous and influential citizen. He was selectman\u00a0for many years, and for three years represented the town of St. George\u00a0in the Massachusetts legislature. He was noted for his interest in mathematics\u00a0and astronomy. After Maine became a state he served in the legislature\u00a0at Portland, then became a member of the Governor’s Council. He is said to\u00a0have been the man who did most to get rid of the state lottery. He died at\u00a0Thomaston in 1840.\u00a0Hezekiah Prince was only 22 years old and had been only a year in Thomaston\u00a0when he decided to pay a visit to his many relatives between Maine and Vir<\/em>ginia.<\/p>\n There may have been nothing unusual about that decision; but what was\u00a0unusual was his determination to make the whole journey on horseback. The common mode of travel between Penobscot and Chesapeake Bayst in those days, was\u00a0by water. But several of Hezekiah’s relatives lived some distance from the\u00a0sea. Perhaps there were other motives. Anyhow, by horse Hezekiah made that\u00a01,200 mile journey.\u00a0He left Thomaston on Sunday morning, November 3, 1793 and fortunately kept\u00a0a diary of the whole Journey. On that first day he recorded: “At Mill River\u00a0met Jr. Dunton, the contractor, and went with him to see the mansion being\u00a0erected at St. George’s River by General Henry Knox.” Then Hezekiah rode on\u00a0to Warren and Waldoboro,\u00a0<\/em>where he stayed the first night. Early the next morning he passed through the German colony, which he found thriving. It was on\u00a0the third day, however, before he reached what he calls Noble’s Bridge in Dam”\u00a0ariscotta.<\/p>\n Why was Hezekiah’s progress so slow? Because there were very few roads,\u00a0even what we have in the back country today — narrow, unpaved highways. Only\u00a0near the larger towns were there any roads at all. Not until four years after\u00a0Hezekiah took this Journey were wheeled vehicles able to run between Boston\u00a0and New Bedford. Land communication was on foot or horseback over bridle\u00a0paths marked out by spotted trees. In Maine’s newer settlements the old tndian\u00a0trails were the only overland routes.<\/p>\n From Damariscotta Hezeklah says he rode seven miles to the head of Sheeps gut.\u00a0Now, strangely enough, Hezeklah says not a word about how he crossed the Kennebec, but he did cross it, for we next find him in Gardiner which he calls\u00a0!~ba~y_”. “There are saw rn1 “s atCobasy owned by Mr’. Gardiner”, he wrote.\u00a0”They are carried on by Benjamin Shaw at whose house we stopped. In the evening\u00a0quite a party gathered! We had dancing, singing anr:;t games, quite a lively time, which we enjoyed in spite of our fatigue!”<\/p>\n The next day he rode four miles up the river to Hallowell, mentions the\u00a0fact that an academy started’ there ‘two years before was now nearly completed,\u00a0then rode on to Chandler’s Tavern in Winthrop for dinner. From Winthrop he\u00a0tells us his route. ran almost directly south. ”The farmhouses”, he wrote,\u00a0“mostly buT It ofl09S, sometimes were within neighborly distance of each other, but more often several miles intervened between nearest neighbors. Beside cornfield or potato patch the ruddy~faced man and boys would hold me for\u00a0a moment’s chat or a word of news. The apple orchards were loaded with fruit,\u00a0and I was treated to mug after mug of cider and apple jack.” He says he crossed\u00a0the Androscoggin at Bakertown. Since that is the of name for Poland, we might\u00a0suspect Hezekiah’s sense of goegraphy if we did not know that in 1793 the town\u00a0of Bakertown included all the land that is now in the three towns of Poland,\u00a0Minot and Auburn.<\/p>\n Hezekiah was bound for Hebron where he had a sister. He writes of this\u00a0little Oxford town which this broadcaster knew so well 35 years ago: “Hebron\u00a0was settled mostly by people from Plymouth Colilnty. It was Incorporated last year and was formerly called Shepardstown from the proprietor Alexander Shepard of Plymouth. Here’ kept Thanksgiving with my sister, her husband and\u00a0their eight chiidren.”\u00a0He says that he and his sister then went to Bucktown to see another\u00a0brother. That would be what we know as Buckfield. “These people”, wrote Hezeklah,\u00a0“appear to be contented and happy in their forest homes”. Then he\u00a0proceeds to set down his sentiments about the life of those backwood settlements.\u00a0“I much admire”, he wrote, “the kind neighborly feeling that exists.\u00a0They are like one large family. They assist each other in all their heavy work, uniting their labor in husking bees, house building, and woods clearing.<\/p>\n Whe’n one farmer kills a cow or hog, the others take the parts that can be\u00a0spared, and the butchering is thus timed for the convenience of the whole community. Farm hands are paid from eight to ten dollars a month, and female\u00a0help gets fifty cents a week. There are no regular mails or post offices, except in the larger towns, and letters are carried by private parties and delivered\u00a0as opportunity offers. Spelling schools and singing schools are the indoor\u00a0sports; \u00b7the outdoor amusements are gunning parties, sleigh rides and coasting\u00a0on bobsleds.”<\/p>\n The next day after leaving Hebron he records: “Travelling being very bad,\u00a0we put up at Gray, having come but 28 miles. It the next day he went on through\u00a0Portland and Westbrook all the way to Wells. He writes: If we arrived at Wells\u00a0at 7 P.M., having rode 40 miles. This town was incorporated many years ago.\u00a0A Baptist Church under Elder Lord was organized this year.” Let me interrupt the diary here to say that I remember that Old Baptist meeting house. It stood\u00a0on what is now the road between Wells Corner and Sanford, about a little east\u00a0of the little village of High Pine. When I first saw it, the building had been\u00a0closed for many years and was already going to ruin. It finally burned or was torn down about twenty years ago, and now only the stone foundation remains.<\/p>\n Hezekiah Prince adds in his diary the pertinent information that it was\u00a0in Wells that Rev. John Wheelwright had settled in 1643, when he and his sister-in-law Anne Hutchinson were banished from Boston because of their religious belief.\u00a0From Wells Hezekiah pushed on to Dover, Durham, Newmarket and Exeter\u00a0a good trip of 42 miles. Here he ran across the trail of other members of the\u00a0Prince family, for on a window of the aid house built by Peter Gilman in 1650\u00a0he found these words scratched by a diamond: HHon. Peter Gi Iman, Esq. and Mrs.\u00a0Jane Prince were married September 1761; Chandler Robins and Janice Prince were\u00a0married October 1761; Thomas Cary and Deborah Prince were married September. Apparently he crossed the Merrimac at Haverhill, for he speaks of dining\u00a0at the Haverhill ferry. His next stop was Wilmington, from whence he started\u00a0at daybreak and made the sixteen miles to Boston in three hours, going through\u00a0Woburn, Medford and Charlestown. In Boston Hezekiah stopped with his cousin,\u00a0James Prince, who was a U. S. marshal.<\/p>\n James and another cousin, Thomas, showed Hezekiah the sights of the city,\u00a0which already in 1793 boasted a population of 20,000. He visited the site of\u00a0the new state house on Beacon HiII, though work had progressed only so far as\u00a0digging away the top of the hill. The new bridge to Cambridge caused enthusiastic\u00a0comment. “This famous bridge”, says the diary, “is over 7,000 feet\u00a0long and about 40 feet wide; it stands on 180 pj\u20acrs; when finally complete it\u00a0will cost $116,000.”<\/p>\n At Cambridge Hezekiah visited the Harvard buildings, talked with President\u00a0Willard, and called on a man named Craigie, who lived in an elegant house surrounded\u00a0by t’r:ees and beautiful shrubs. This was of course Craigie House, a\u00a0mansion to be made even more famous long after Hezekiah died by a man who was\u00a0not born until 14 years after Hezekiah had his talk with Craigie. That man\u00a0also came from Maine. His name was Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.<\/p>\n There in historic old Cambridge let us leave Hezekiah Prince tonight.<\/p>\n Next week we shall see him forward on his journey to Virginia.<\/p>\n This week marks a great event in the history of religion. Next Tuesday all over the English-speaking world , will be celebrated the most important English\u00a0translation of the Bible in the past 341 years. The Bible with which most\u00a0Protestants are familiar was translated by a group of seventy scholars under a\u00a0commission from King James of England in 1611. That is the King James Bible,\u00a0not what is sometimes wrongly called the St. James Bible.\u00a0An American revised version appeared in 1881 and other versions attempting\u00a0to put the Bible into modern English have come from private sources. But\u00a0not since 1611 has all EngIish-speaking Protestantism united in an attempt to\u00a0secure a Bible in modern English.<\/p>\n The local celebration of this great event will take the form of a union\u00a0service conducted by the Waterville Area Council of Churches in the Congregational Church.\u00a0Catholics too are interested in this occasion, for their church has selected\u00a0the date to recognize the 500th anniversary of the first printed book,\u00a0the Latin Bible from the press of Johann Gutenberg of Germany.<\/p>\n Actually no one knows exactly when that first printed Bible appeared, or\u00a0whether it was the work of Gutenberg or one of several other claimants. But\u00a0historical research shows Gutenberg is the most likely person to be acclaimed\u00a0the inventor of movable type and the printer of the famous Gutenberg Bible,\u00a0today the most expensive book in the world. $0 few copies, about twenty, are\u00a0still in existence that no private book collector can afford one, and most of\u00a0the copies are already in libraries and museums. The most perfect copy in this\u00a0country is in the Library of Congress, and here is a good copy at Yale. If\u00a0you would like to buy one as a gift to the Treasure Room at Colby College, I\u00a0am sure it would be welcomed, but the gift would cost you at least a quarter\u00a0of a million dollars.<\/p>\n The date fixed by most historians for the appearance of the first printed\u00a0Bible is 1456, which would make this year four years too early for the 500th\u00a0anniversary. But letters of indulgence were certainly printed on the Mainz\u00a0press by Gutenberg or one of his fel low workers as early as 1454, and it is not\u00a0improbable that some parts of his Bible had already been set and run off by\u00a01452, because he is known to have contemplated the great task as early as 1450.<\/p>\n At any rate Catholics and Protestants alike are thinking of the Bible this\u00a0week~ Catholics of the printed version of the Latin Vulgate text, from which\u00a0are derived all modern Catholic Bibles in any language; Protestants of the new\u00a0English version of 1952, which derives from the great tradition of Wyclif,\u00a0Tindale and the scholars of King James.<\/p>\n By the way, how long is it since you have read any part of the Bible? Why\u00a0not open the great book at random and read a passage tonight?<\/p>\n Year: 1952<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Read the script for “Little Talks” program #155, broadcast on September 28, 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\/7346"}],"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=7346"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7346\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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