\nThe pessimists among us declare that the day of opportunity has gone, that\u00a0gigantic corporations so control Industry that the Individual no longer stands\u00a0a chance for adventure and advancement. It is not so. Industry itself Is constantlyon\u00a0the watch for brain power and ingenuity. Because the alert young\u00a0men are aware of this, they know the need of adequate preparation. Going to\u00a0college Is not simply the thing to do for the able youth. It Is the road to\u00a0effective participation in our society, both as a worker and as a citizen.<\/p>\n
Note what has happened in one single Industry since 1920 — the making of\u00a0chemicals. Before 1920 we had very few trained chemists in industry, and those\u00a0with advanced degrees were as rare as I umps of radi urn. At that time Germany\u00a0led the world in scientific education, and if one wanted to study advanced\u00a0chemistry, he went to Berlin or Vienna. In 1920 fewer than 50 doctor’s degrees\u00a0In chemistry were awarded by all the unlverstties in America, and most\u00a0of those went to men who Intended to teach chemistry in colleges. In 1953 American\u00a0universities awarded more than 600 doctorates In chemistry, with many\u00a0of the recipients planning on careers in the great chemical Industries of our\u00a0nati on.<\/p>\n
And don’t forget how those chemical Industries have developed — Dupont,\u00a0Nati ona I Chemi ca I, and a II the rest, to say noth I ng of the cheml ca I research\u00a0di vi sions of sma Iler compan ies like our own Keyes Fibre. Thl s opportuni tv for\u00a0young men and women is the result of the American system of private enterprise.<\/p>\n
Mr. D. E. Decker of C linton gl ves us amazi ng i nformatl on about old time methods\u00a0of packing eggs for shipment to the Boston market. He has sent me a 75\u00a0year old circular published on April 12, 1878 by A. W. Butler and Company, oommission\u00a0merchants of Boston. Here is what the old ci rcular says about eggs:<\/p>\n
“No article shows so much depreciation from injudicious management and unski 11-ful hand Ii n9 as do eggs. I n the fi rst place, the eggs must be fresh. The motton\u00a0of the cars over long distances so muddles all eggs not entirely fresh\u00a0that they wi II appear cloudy and sta Ie and will soon spoi I. Do not hoi d lots\u00a0after they are packed. Ship them at once whi Ie they are fresh. For packing,\u00a0use very strong, STiff barrels. Put a little long, soft straw, two or three\u00a0Inches thick, over The bottom of the barrel. Cover this with fine, ki In-dried\u00a0cut straw or hay, to the depth of another two or th ree inches. Then p I ace a\u00a0I aye r of eggs on the irs ides, even I y embedded t n the packi ng, with the ends\u00a0toward the barre I, but at least an I nch from the staves. Cover the I ayer with\u00a0more cut straw, pack I ng I tin between the eggs with the hand. Shake the barre I\u00a0gently after each layer is put in. Place three inches of packing over the top\u00a0layer of eggs, cover th is wi th long straw, as in the bottom, ft Iii n9 it so\u00a0high that the barre I head must be pressed in p lace by a lever or other mechanlca\u00a0I power. Don’t try to crowd too many eggs I nto the barre I. For an ordl nary\u00a0f lour barre I 65 to 70 dozen are qui te sufti cient.”<\/p>\n
Evidently, in The early days of rai Iroadlng, eggs were sometimes shipped\u00a0by frel ght, because the last sentence of the I tem I n the ci rcul ar says: “I n\u00a0warm weather eggs sent from a distance should be forwarded by express.”<\/p>\n
Mr. Decker says this method of shipping eggs In barrels Is too old even\u00a0for his reco Ifectl on, wh I ch dates back at least to 1890. He says, “When I was\u00a0a young man around 1 890, I used to pack eggs I n boxes wh i ch he I d about 100 dozen,\u00a0us i ng straw Jus T as the artl c Ie descr I bes \u2022 I neve r saw eggs packed In\u00a0barrels, but I can see how it can be done.”<\/p>\n
What were the Boston cOlTlTllssion merchants paying for farm products In\u00a0that spring of 18781 Fresh laid Eastern eggs were bringing 12 cents a dozen;\u00a0choice dairy but1er 28 cents a pound; maple sugar 8 cents a pound and maple\u00a0syrup 50 cents a gallon; New England dried app le~ 5 cents a pound; potatoes 35\u00a0cents a bushel; choice lambs 10 cents a pound; choice veal 9 cents; choice hind\u00a0quarters of beef 10 cents; dressed hogs 5 cents; corn 55 cents a bushel; oats\u00a040 cents; spring chickens, live, 10 cents a pound; wi Id pigeons $1.25 a dozen.<\/p>\n
A Ithough the heyday of the potash industry was long past, ashes were sti II\u00a0in demand as la1e as 1878. The Boston merchants paid 5 cents a pound for pearl\u00a0ashes and 4 cents for pot ashes.<\/p>\n
Inland Maine has had its legendary Paul Bunyans, its giant woodsmen and\u00a0log dri vers, but down On the coast they a Iso te II stories about pretty rugged\u00a0characters. As you drive on Route 32 from Waldoboro to New Harbor, you pass\u00a0through the town of Bremen. There in a little country cemetery lies the body\u00a0of Captain Tucker, who owed much to a local Paul Bunyan charac1er named John\u00a0Poland. suspect the man came from Loud’s Island, Just off shore from the\u00a0mainland village of Round Pond, because Poland Is a prominent Loud’s Island\u00a0name.<\/p>\n
During the War of 1812 Captain Tucker gathered three or four sai lors, including\u00a0John Poland, and suggested they board Tucker’s schooner, go out and capture\u00a0the first Eng Ii sh vesse I they shou I d encoun1e r. Near Monhegan they sigh ted\u00a0an English ship. As they drew near, they saw that she carried a larqe crew,\u00a0aga i nst wh I ch the i r ha I f dozen men seemed pretty feeb Ie \u2022 When the Eng I i shmen\u00a0demanded that Tucker surrender, Tucker maneuvered his schooner alongside the\u00a0Briti sher. Meanwh i Ie Poland shouted orders to an i maginery crew.<\/p>\n
Poland was a huge man, over seven feet tall, 250 pounds of bone and muscle. \u00a0His strength was prodigious. When Tucker orderedgrappling irons thrown out,\u00a0Poland, knowing well that they had no grappling irons, promptly picked up an\u00a0anchor that 1en other men could scarcely lift and threw it over on to the\u00a0Eng II shman ‘s deck.\u00a0“Fi re when you are ready, Poland” 1 shouted Tucker. And what do you sup~\u00a0pose they fired? Not guns, nor cannon, nor even pistols. They fired pump\u00a0tacks. Numerous kegs of those tacks were on board. Tucker’s man empTied keg\u00a0afTer keg of them on to the Briti sh deck.<\/p>\n
In those days British tars habitually went barefoot. Soon curses and\u00a0groans fi lied the air. Spri ngi ng over the rai I, Pol and and Tucker had the\u00a0enemy at their mercy. Thinking a large American force manned Tucker’s schooner,\u00a0the English put up little fight. Armed with two sticks of cordwood, one in each\u00a0hand, Poland belabored the already tack-pestered British crew. They were soon\u00a0dri ven be low decks and the hatches battened\u00b7 down. Proud Captai n Tucker sa I led\u00a0his pri ze into the port of New Harbor.<\/p>\n
A few years ago on th i s program I to I d you about So lyman Heath’s memorab Ie\u00a0journey across the continent to the gold fie Ids of Cal i fornla, a journey made\u00a0in The ve ry year of 1849. Recent Iy , have learned that as I ate as 1892 there\u00a0was sti II living at Hinckley a man in,:hls 80’s who was said to be the last of\u00a0our Kennebec 4gers. It would be interesting to knOll how many young men from\u00a0the Kennebec Valley yielded to California’s lure of gold. We suspect there were\u00a0many more than people have been inclined to believe. Every time we see an old\u00a0diary or letter or newspaper clipping about some boy of this region who went\u00a0to Cal ifornia in ’49 or 150, we find in It mention of the names of neighbors\u00a0and acqua i ntances who a I so made the journey. Young men went from Wate rvi lie\u00a0and Fairfield, from Norridgewock and Skowhegan, from Sidney and Belgrade. AItogeThe\u00a0r as many as a hundred of them may have left Kennebec homes for the di stanT\u00a0gold fields. Some traveled as did Solyman Heath by prairie schooner across\u00a0the plains. others encountered the fever-infested jU!1gles of Panama, half a\u00a0cenTUry before the cana I was bui It. And a few made the long, hazardous voyage\u00a0around Cape Horn.<\/p>\n
Orlando Bowman of Hinckley was one of those who, like several members of\u00a0the Hoxie fami Iy, went by way of the Isthmus of Panama. Bowman was only nineteen\u00a0years old when he made that Journey. Returning to Hinckley, he married\u00a0EI len Goodw i n of Fai rfie Id, and they had a happy life together for 52 years.\u00a0After his wi fe’s death, Orlando made his home with his son-in-law Ernest Joy.\u00a0A point of interest about this last of our 4gers is his relationship to\u00a0the Fairfie Id pioneer, EI ihu Bowerman. H:! was the man whom I have mentioned\u00a0several times on this program — the man whose fami Iy starved in their first\u00a0rugged winTer at North Fairfield in 1794.<\/p>\n
It seems that, as the years went by, severa I branches of the Bowermans\u00a0changed the name to BOfIman, and pronounced It variously as “Boman” and “Bauman”.<\/p>\n
Orlando Bowman, the 4ger, was a grandson of Elihu Bowerman, the pioneer. His\u00a0father was Joseph Bowerman, who seems to have been one of the family who changed\u00a0his name from Bowerman to Bowman. Orlando himself was the first master of\u00a0VI ctor Grange of Fa I die Id Center, that fi ne organ I zatl on wh Ich won so many\u00a0prizes at The 1952 sesquicentennial here In Watervi lie.<\/p>\n
An unnamed inqui rer asks if know where the Reverend Adams, Getche II Corner’s\u00a0famous preacher of the early 1800’s, preached in Winslow on the occasion\u00a0that I quoted from the Adams memoi rs a few weeks ago. I twas in the old Congregational\u00a0Church on Lithgow Street. Though several times remodeled, the fundamental\u00a0structure of that church is the same as when it was fi rst built more\u00a0than 150 yea rs ago.<\/p>\n
I am to I d that the house now situated at 24 Monument Street in W Ins low\u00a0was once used as a church. Does anyone know about that? I f the house was so\u00a0used, what was the religious denomination?<\/p>\n
Did you know That Colby Col lege once operated a printing press? That was long ago, when the name was Waterv! I Ie Col lege and the number of students was\u00a0very smal I. Our record about this matter bears the date of 1838. In fact in\u00a0that year the college press changed hands twice in rapid succession. On April\u00a021 President R. E. Pattison, on behalf of the prudential committee of Watervi\u00a0lie Col lege acknow ledged receipt of $100 in cash and $200 in promissory notes\u00a0fromA. S.Patten, Samuel Palmer, IsaacBlethan and J. R. Leighton, for which\u00a0President Pattison handed over what he called “our press and the type belonging\u00a0to the saffe”, On May 15th of the same year the four buyers transferred the\u00a0press to G. V. Edes, who himself seems to have had intermediaries, for the document\u00a0reads: ‘”lie hereby transfer al lour rights and interests in and to our\u00a0printing press to G. V. Edes by virtue of a bill of sale, in consideration of\u00a0an obligation given us by Sewell Cochran, Daniel Bryant, Charles Wingate, G. W.\u00a0Sawyer and S. P. Brown to release us from our liabi lities as sureties on two\u00a0notes for two hundred dol lars payab Ie to the Trustees of Watervi I Ie Col lege.”<\/p>\n
Apparently the college finally got the two hundred dollars due on the notes\u00a0signed by Patten and his three partners, but even on that point the record Is\u00a0not clear. Perhaps the initial $100 in cash was all the money that President\u00a0Pattison and his board ever saw for the old printing press.<\/p>\n
You will perhaps recall my surprise at learning of the popularity in Scotland,\u00a0a generation ago, of a song called “Riding Down from Bangor”. f’Iore recently\u00a0I have been interested to learn that this particular song has been a topic\u00a0of controversy in the columns of the Harvard Alumni magazine. Four of the\u00a0latest issues, carrying letters on the subject of the song, have been called to\u00a0my attenti on by Professor Mi Iton of the Eng Ii sh D3partment at Colby Co liege.<\/p>\n
It seems that The song which begins “Riding down from Bangor on an Eastern\u00a0train” was written by Louis Osborne of Harvard’s Class of 1873, whi Ie he was a\u00a0sophomore at Harvard in 1871. The ori gl na I vers i on of the words was pub II shed\u00a0in the Harvard Advocate on November 10, 1871, but with no music. Words and music\u00a0together seem to have been fl rst pub I I shed not In th I s country, but in Scotland.\u00a0They first appear in the Scottish Students’ Song Book in 1897. Although\u00a0many books of American college songs were published between 1870 and 1900, “RIdi\u00a0ng Down from Bangor” I s not I n any of those co Ilecti ons.<\/p>\n
How did the song get to Scotland and become popular there? This recent\u00a0Harvard correspondence has unearthed the i nterestl ng fact that Loui s Osborne,\u00a0who became a minister, left a Chicago pastorate, took his famlly abroad, and\u00a0lived for six months near Ed i nb urgh, Scot I and. I tis qui te poss i b Ie that. the\u00a0author himself Introduced the song to students at the universities of Edinburgh\u00a0and st. Andrews.<\/p>\n
You w I II reca II that an important pol nt in the 0 I d ba II ad concerns a tunnel\u00a0on the railroad line down from Bangor, and there is no tunnel between Bangor\u00a0and Portland. Aware of the long tunnel near the Salem station of the Boston\u00a0and Maine, I hesitated to say that the song referred to that tunnel, because\u00a0of the word “down”. One does not go “down” to Boston from Bangor and\u00a0Portland; he goes “up” to Boston. Yet the first line of the song slays:”Rldlng\u00a0down from Bangor on an Eastern train, after weeks of hunting in the woods of\u00a0Maine”. In the Scottish Students’ Song Book the word “Eastern” is spelled with\u00a0a capital “E”. Now the early name of the rai I road from Boston to Portland via\u00a0Sa lem and Portsmouth was the Eastern Ra i I road, and on Iy a few years ago it was\u00a0stili ca lied the Eastern Oi vi s Ion of the Ebston and Maine.<\/p>\n
Imagine my delight, therefore, when I learned that the original version\u00a0of the song, published in the Harvard Advocate in 1871, read: “Riding up from\u00a0Bangor on an Eastern tra In”. The tunne I where the student fe II ow captured\u00a0the gl rl ‘s earrl ng in hi s beard was the Eastern Rai I road’s Sa lem tunne I.<\/p>\n
Year: 1954<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Read the script for “Little Talks” program #228, broadcast on May 23, 1954<\/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":[749,35296],"tags":[],"builder_content":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7420"}],"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=7420"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7420\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7420"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7420"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7420"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}