Whe n you he a r peop Ie comp I a i n about Ma i ne roads I <\/em>jus t rem i nd them of the progress we are ‘mak i ng to get better and bette r highways. Qui te as I de from the to J I turnpike and the new toll bridges at Augusta and Bangor, every year sees Improvements in our free, trunk-I I ne roads, and eve r- I ncreas I ng extens I on of the b I ack-topped roads into rura I areas.<\/p>\n I do not need to remi nd you that, I n area, Ma i ne I s ‘a big state. I t takes a lot of road to cover It. NON here I s the start I I ng fact. Wh I Ie Ma I ne has a mi I e of road for every 39 people In the state, Massachusetts has a mile for every 217 of her people. In other words Massachusetts has six times as many people to support every ml Ie of her highways as we have in Ma I ne. No wonder we need a substanti a I revenue from the tax on gasoline sold to summer tourists. In proportion to our population we are doing a better job on our highways than are many other states.<\/p>\n Is Maine gaining or losing population? The Bureau of the Census has just made a report which results from the statistical studies which the Bureau is constantly making between the careful nose-countlngs every ten years. This new report shows that s I nee 1950 on Iy three states have actua Ily lost In tota I popu lati on. They are Arkansas, New Hampshire and West Virginia. Maine has gained very little — only 0.4% — but at least she hasn’t lost. It is interesting and perhaps surprising to note that whi Ie Maine has gained 4,000 people since 1950, New Hampshire has lost 3,000, whi Ie Vermont has gained 5,000. What is the Census Bureau’s estimate of Maine’s 1954 population? It is 916,000.<\/p>\n How long wi J I New York continue to be the nation’s most populous state? In 1950 New York was 4,400,000 ahead of Pennsylvania, with California pressing as a close third only 65,000 behind Pennsylvania. Now in 1954 California has forged a mi Ilion and a ha I f ahead of Pennsy I vania and is on Iy three mi J Jion beh ind New York. In the past four years California’s population has increased 17%, whi fe New York’s has increased on Iy 4%. I f that rati a of increase keeps up, Ca Ii fom i a may we II be our most populous state when the census of 1960 is taken \u2022.<\/p>\n Percentagewise, however, the largest population Increase since 1950 was not made by Cal ifornia. On that basis, three states did better. Both Arizona and Nevada added more than 33% to their population, whi Ie Florida jumped from 2,700,000 to 3,400,000 — a gain of 26%. The largest gain of any New England state was Connecticut’s ten per cent.<\/p>\n Through the ki ndness of Mrs. Russe II Weeks of Benton I have seen a copy of a letter written more than 200 years ago, written actually nine years before Fort Halifax was bui It, for the letter bears the date 1745. It seems that the original of this leTter written by a girl, living with grandparents on Nantucket Island, to her mother living somewhere in the wi Iderness of Maine, was long ago lost, but the copy owned by Mrs. Weeks is accompanied by at least “parti al authent i cati on” \u2022<\/p>\n As late as 1859 the original letter was apparently in the possession of Mrs. Peggy Glover of Nantucket, who was a granddaughter of Nathanie I Starbuck, Jr., whose female cousin, Ruth Starbuck Wentworth, was the writer of thJs preci ous letter.<\/p>\n That the reST of Ruth’s immedi ate family had left Nantucket for a home we now know was i\u00b7n Ma i ne, I s made apparent by the open i ng sentence. The letter begins:<\/p>\n “Starbuck Plantations, near Madaket, Nantucket Island, September 20th, 1745. My dear Mother: It seems a very long time since you and my honored father and my beloved brothers and sisters started for your home. and I think of you every day as marching and marching, following the lonely trail through the i ntermi nab Ie forest.<\/p>\n “The principal news I have to tell you is that my cousin, Nathaniel Starbuck, Jr., has returned to Boston after his last long voyage to China, and is now hourly looked for here. Uncle Nathaniel keeps saying, ‘The boy wi II have many s tor ies to te II ‘. Aunt Content f Ii ts about with a sm i Ie on her face> concocting the favorite dishes of her returning son. Dear Grandma knits and knits because, she says, ‘Nathaniel never wore any stockings that I didn’t make for him; and I must have a supp Iy ready for his next voyage.'”<\/p>\n This letter, which is unusually long, was like many letters of the time, the originals of which have been preserved, in that it was not written all in one day. In a later paragraph we learn that cousin Nathaniel had arrived and every eveni ng the nei ghbors gathered around the kitchen fi re to hear of his adventures in foreign lands and his experiences on stormy seas.<\/p>\n Now what makes this old letter not just a fami Iy document, but historically important, is that it tells how the first tea came to Nantucket. Less than 25 years after this letter was written, tea would become so important a commodity in the colonies that the British government would put a special tax upon it, the colonists would resist the tax, and finally at Boston would dump a load of it into the harbor. This letter shows how fast things we have long taken for granted did once develop. Only 25 years before the Boston Tea Party, tea itself was unknown on Nantucket Island. listen to the story which this old letter te lis us.<\/p>\n “In one of my cousin’s sea chests was a large box of tea, the fl rst ever seen on this island. It is real China tea, which Nat himself procured in Chinq. It is of a green color with little shriveled leaves, and when eaten dry has a spicy taste. Cousin Nat has gone to Boston, but expects to return soon, bringing with him his friend Captain Macey for a short visit.!!<\/p>\n Capta in Macey di d come to Nantucket, fe II in love with Ruth Wentworth, the writer of the letter,.and later married her. In this long letter Ruth tells about a dinner party at the Nantucket home, and especially about what they did with the tea. Let us now have it in Rtlth’s words:<\/p>\n “Aunt Content has been much pestered in her mind because she knows not how to cook and serve the tea, and after her neighbors had arrived for the dinner, she confided to them her perplexity. Hey all gathered around the tea chest, smelling and tasting the fragrant herb. One woman said she had heard it ought to be wei I cooked. Another said a Boston lady who had drunk tea had told her it needed a great dea I of siteep i ng. So Aunt Content hung her big f i ve-ga lion ket-tle on the crane, put in about three gallons of water, then dumped in a bowl fu I I of tea leaves. Aunt Esther and Lydi a swung the crane over the fi re and stayed in the kitchen to keep the kettle boi ling. vJhi Ie was setting the table I heard Lydia say, ‘I have heard that, when it is drank, it gives a brilliancy to the eyes and a freshness to the complexion. am afraid Content didn’t put in enough leaves.’ So they put in another bowl full of the tea. \\’1hen it had boi led for about an hour, Cousin Nat and Captain Macey arrived. The tea, which had boiled down to about a gallon, was poured into Grandma’s large silver tankard and carried to the tab Ie.<\/p>\n “After Grandpa had asked the bless i n9, Aunt Content said to Nat,’ I have made a dish of tea for you, but I may not have prepared it right. What is your opi nion?’ Nat looked and sni ffed at the tea and rep I ied, ‘~~other, a spoonful of this beverage would nearly kill any of us here at the table.’ Captain Macey then sa i d, ‘Don ‘t throw it away, Mrs. Wentworth. Keep it for a dye to color wcx>lens. If this young lady will help me, I will teach her how to make the first dish of tea ever drunk in Nantucket.’<\/p>\n “When dinner was over, they all remained at the table except Captain Macey and myself. We searched for a suitable vessel in which to make the tea. At last I saw Uncle Nathaniel’s large gray stone pitcher. Into it the Captain told me to put as much of the tea as I could pinch between thumb and forefinger for each person, and an addl tiona I pinch for the pitcher. Then he told me to pour on it boiling water sufficient for all, and set the pitcher on the coals untl I It came to a gentle boll. The Captain then poured the tea into Grandpa’s silver tankard and carried it to the tab Ie. Then I poured It Into porri ngers for the guests. It takes such a small quantity of the leaves to make a dellcl.ous beverage that I think we have enough to last untl I Cousin Nat returns again from China.”<\/p>\n At the end of the letter Ruth Wentworth told her mother about her determination to marry Captain Macey. But she was a dutiful eighteenth century daughter.<\/p>\n She would not marry without her parents’ consent, and it was unthinkable to expect that consent unti I they had seen the prospecti ve son-i n-Iaw. That eighteenth century convention explains Ruth’s words. Here they are:<\/p>\n “A I I the Starbucks except Aunt Esther, who dec I ares that I ought to be put back Into pinafores, have 91 ven thei r consent that I sha II be marrl ed and sal I away in my husband’s sh i p to fore I gn lands, to see for myse I f a I I the beautiful and wonderful things of which, In this sea-going family, I have so long heard. But I will not be married unti I I have your and Father’s consent. So there is a company being made up to go with Cousin Nat and Captain Macey through the winter snow to your far away home, and it will be my Captain himself who wi II take this long letter to you. I hope you and Father will be kindly dls- \/ posed toward th is gent leman, for he is of good repute. I f I can have your consent and blessing, I shall be very happy.<\/p>\n ”The Captain laughingly declares that am sending him off on a quest I ike a knight of old to prove his love. cannot help thinking it strange his wanting to marry me. When I told him so one day, he replied gravely that it was a lion account of the tea wh I ch got Into his head. T hat may indeed be true, for after I drank it, I was flighty and could hardly close my eyes all night long.<\/p>\n Even dear Graridma says she wou I d not answer for what she ml ght be led to do, if she drank tea every day. I am sending you, along wiTh other sma'” I articles, a quanti ty of th i 5 famous tea. Take care how you use it. I!<\/p>\n That, in subsTance, was a letter written by a young lady on Nantucket lsI and 209 years ago.<\/p>\n Year: 1954<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Read the script for “Little Talks” program #241, broadcast on November 21, 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\/7461"}],"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=7461"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7461\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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