J’.bre than once lately I have referred to the interest business men are i.\u00a0taki ng in the cause of education. It is hearteni ng to some of us who have spent\u00a0a I ite-time in classroom and laboratory, trying to help young people to better\u00a0and fu Iler lives, to have American bus i ness taki ng the side of the schools. I nstead\u00a0of calling for less money for education in order to reduce their taxes,\u00a0America’s i ndustri a I leaders ca II for bigger spendi ng to support our schoo1s.<\/p>\n
In a recent pub I ication, under the heading !llndustry Opposed Neglecting\u00a0Our Schools”, the National Association of Manufacturers had this to say:\u00a0“Twenty-two years from now our country wi II be 200 years 01 d. Even today, America’s\u00a0leaders of 1976 are studying in our schools and colleges. Industry beIieves each c i tl zen s hou I d do what he can to II gh ten the I’oad, to support and\u00a0encourage the teacher in America, to be an active and sympathetic front of education.<\/p>\n
Industry acknow ledges that one of education’s most press ing prob fems\u00a0is finance. Many teachers are underpaid, and the schools’ physical plants need zxpansion. Through contributions by private individuals, organizations, clubs\u00a0and associations, through the growing practice of corporate giving, and through\u00a0sufficient allocation of tax funds, adequate financial support must be provided\u00a0to maintain and Improve our schools in face of a rising population. This Is an\u00a0obligation in which American industry must have a part.”<\/p>\n
Speaking of the National Association of Manufacturers, one of the finest\u00a0statements of our greatest national need that I have ever seen in print comes\u00a0from the pen of Charles Sligh, former president of the N. A. M. this is the\u00a0way he puts It:<\/p>\n
“No factory can turn out the comnnd ity known as courage. No assemb Iy line\u00a0can produce a series of moral principles. No machine tool can stamp out suppiies of integrity and honor, of faith and perseverance, of a sense of responsibility to the pub I ic Interest. These th ings must come from with in each of us.\u00a0Only as we bui Id as individuals from within wi II we be able to go forward together\u00a0— toward a greater America. and the promise of tonnrraol.”<\/p>\n
Wi ns low once di d have a tin mi ne. That is a fact, and there are persons\u00a0sti II I i vi ng who remember that mi ne. It was located, and its entrance can sti II\u00a0be seen, on the east side of the Augusta Road, In the gully through which flows\u00a0the Garland Brook. For the benefit of our I isteners who are not famil iar with\u00a0that name, let me say I refer to the deep gully which the automobile rider enters\u00a0with dip and then rise, only a few hundred yards beyond the poultry processing\u00a0plant and the drive-in theater just out of Wins 1011 village on the road\u00a0to Augusta.<\/p>\n
Albert Chamberlain of Winslow remembers that the mine was operating when\u00a0he was a small boy. Mrs. Thomas Burleigh learned about the mine from Sam Chaffee,\u00a0on whose land the mine was sunk. Herbert Simpson has often visited the\u00a0spot. Several persons tell me it has long been believed that the vein of tin\u00a0extends across the river onto the Sidney side. But, as we have found to be\u00a0the case in our investigation of simi lar subjects, it is to a man who patiently\u00a0kept a scrap book that we are in debt for the most detailed information.<\/p>\n
This time the man with the scrap book is Daniel Wing of Winslow. He has\u00a0given me the delightful opportunity to examine that whole book, for which I am\u00a0extremely grateful. But his chief purpose in letting me see It was to call my\u00a0attention to a newspaper clipping concerning Winslow’s tin mine. That clipping\u00a0indeed te II s an I nterestl ng story.<\/p>\n
In 1867 a tired fox hunter, who had some years ear I ler gone to Ca I I forn i a\u00a0with the 4gers, and therefore knew something about metals In the soil, kneeled\u00a0beside Garland Brook to drink from the cool water. As he rose to his feet, he\u00a0noti ced a pecu I iar rock formation in the bed of the rock. He fol lowed the\u00a0quartz vein to the other side of the stream, and picked up a few pieces of loose\u00a0rock. Subsequent analysis revealed that the rock contained a heavy percentage\u00a0of tin. Dr. A. C. Hamlin of Bangor, a man who showed a I ife-Iong interest in\u00a0Maine minerals, succeeded in interesting Boston investors in the formation of\u00a0the Maine Tin Mining Company, to develop the veins of tin on the Chaffee farm.<\/p>\n
Purchasing mineral rights of the owners, pay\u00b7lng $100 to get waivers of\u00a0rights from every nei ghboring farmer, and emp I oyi n9 sane th I rty men, the company\u00a0proceeded to sink a shaft no feet deep, near where the fox hunter had picked up\u00a0the pieces of tin-bearing rock. The crew erected a bunkhouse and blacksmith\u00a0shop, and operated the mine for about a year. Then the whole enterprise collapsed.\u00a0The end came sudden I y, accord i ng to Sam Cha ffee \u2022 As he used to te I I the\u00a0story, a member of the company left its Boston offi ce with payroll and supp lies\u00a0for the mine, but he never arrived in Winslow. He absconded with the money and\u00a0the workmen went unpaid. The mine was abandoned and was never reopened.<\/p>\n
As Interesting as is Sam Chaffee’s account, less gifted story tellers insisted\u00a0that the mine did not close down in a year, but kept running with small\u00a0output until about 1885. Indeed, if the mine opened in 1867 or 1868 and closed\u00a0within a year, even as old a gentleman as Mr. Chamberlain couldn’t have seen it\u00a0in operation in his boyhood. It is Indeed probable that tin was extracted fran\u00a0the mine’s yield for some fifteen years or more, and that what finally closed\u00a0the mine was that the general contour of the region and the low quality of the\u00a0ore, made the expense of continued operation prohibitive.<\/p>\n
There Is more to the story than I have dug out of the old tin mine bes’ide\u00a0Garland Brook, and on a later Sunday even ing I’ll te II you more about it.<\/p>\n
A I istener wants to know what has become of the old Boston crackers. Why,\u00a0bless you, they are still with us, or at least something like them. In neat\u00a0packages the stores now se II Common Crackers. Tney are tastier and not so tough\u00a0as the Boston crackers of 50 years ago, but II ke them, the present crackers are\u00a0round and th i ck and break eas i I Y into ha I ves for conven i ent use as chowder\u00a0crackers. Di d you know that in the heyday of the Boston crackers, the housewife\u00a0sometimes split them to make plum pudding?\u00a0The same I istener wants to know how long since have seen a dry codfish\u00a0hanging in a girocery store. I refer this listener to page 116 of HKennebec Yesterdays”.<\/p>\n
There he wi II read my honest Maine disdain of the 1Ot\/ly Massachusetts\u00a0cod. Let me repeat what I wrote in the book: “The sovereign Commonwealth of\u00a0Massach usetts w I I I a Ilow no one to th i nk of sa It fish except in te rms of the\u00a0sacred cod, but that didn’t daunt Maine folk half a century ago. Good rViaine pollock\u00a0salted just as well, weren’t so heavy, and tasted better. Those salt fish\u00a0reached the store in hundred pound bales, which were immediately opened and the\u00a0fish then hung from rafters by their tails. Common crackers and milk made a ‘\u00a0good dish anyhow, but to be a real treat they needed, as apple pie needs cheese,\u00a0the addition of rich yellow flakes from salt pollock.l1<\/p>\n
That’s my stand. Salt fish to me is ~~alne pollock, not Massachusetts cod.<\/p>\n
But indeed, it has been a long time since I have seen It hanging from the rafters\u00a0in any country store.<\/p>\n
Some time ago I referred to the Dinsmores of Anson, one of whose descen-:-i dants is the manager of this radio station WTVL. Ton ight want to te II you about a letter written by a member of that Dinsmore fami Iy 120 years ago. From far away New Orleans in 1835 Robert Dinsmore wrote a long letter to his wife Esther in Anson, Maine. Robert was a poet at heart. Just note the romantic flavor of his opening sentence: “Dear wife, I have just been repairing my oId si Iver pen and find that it loves to write so well I conclude to let it run a while after my thoughts, and the first thing I thought of was home and you.”<\/p>\n
Robert found expenses high in New Orleans, just as Erasmus Howard had found them a few years earl ier when, from the same southern city, he wrote to his doctor father in Sidney. He managed to get board for five dollars a week with a private fami Iy, because he couldn’t stand the rate of ten dollars in the regular boarding houses.<\/p>\n
Robert tells about a trip up the Mississippi to Natchez, where he stopped<\/p>\n
with Theophi Ius Ti Iton, who was making good lOOney getting out timber and putting<\/p>\n
I t up into frames for bu i I dings. On th is job Theoph i I us used four s I aves, two\u00a0of whom he owned, whi Ie he hired the other two by paying their owners $35 a\u00a0rronth. Robert noted that Theoph II us a Iso owned one fema Ie slave, and tht the\u00a0total value of his three slaves exceeded $4,000. Robert envied Tilton’s success\u00a0pointing out that, starting with almost no capital five years earlier, the man\u00a0had already accumulated a respectable estate.<\/p>\n
He knew his wife would not bel,leve such a yarn, but Robert assured her that\u00a0in New Orleans cammon laborers got the huge wage of forty dollars a month. Robert\u00a0saw an unusual opportunity for women. He wrote: ”There is great encouragement\u00a0for girls to come here from the north, as they can make a fortune by their I a;”,\u00a0bor in a short time, or there Is three chances to one that they can marry a man\u00a0of fortune, because men here are much more numerous than werren. Let these girls\u00a0come, for it will give those left beh ind in Maine a better chance to get married\u00a0at home.”<\/p>\n
Robert continued his remarks about prices: “Who ever heard of beef selling\u00a0so high — 25\u00a2 a pound? But that is the outrageous price they get for it here.<\/p>\n
Who would think of paying $2.50 for a tur-key? But folks here do pay that unheard\u00a0of price.”<\/p>\n
Perhaps Robert was subtly trying to induce his wife to join him in New\u00a0Orleans by means of the follONlng words: “Raising pouttry In this country is\u00a0no bad business. As there Is no winter, they need but tittle feeding, and a hen\u00a0wi II raise three or four litters of chickens in a year. I think a woman might\u00a0make $500 a year at this business if only she had a small capital to begin with,\u00a0and was not so ch i cken-hearted as to be afra i d to commence the bus iness.”<\/p>\n
Robert attended a masquerade ball, which was clearly one of the balls of\u00a0the pre-Lenten season that later became the celebrated Mardi Gras. Let us see\u00a0how Robert Oi nsmore descrl bed his ba II. ‘IThe ha II, 40 feet w I de and 150 feet\u00a0long, was I I ghted by 125 b rill I ant gas I I ghts \u2022 One end was occup i ed by the\u00a0sta i rway and bar, where refreshments were served. A man cannot be admitted unti\u00a0I he pays a dollar. If he has overcoat or cloak, he must leave it. Then he\u00a0must be searched for weapons and leave any at the door. In attendance were\u00a0500 persons. Some of the ladies’ dresses and jewelry cost over $3,000. Some\u00a0were dressed I ike queens, others I ike servants, each one different from the\u00a0rest. Many represented some national dress, and to cap It all, each one had\u00a0on a mask, no two of which looked alike. Some of the masks made white girls\u00a0look black, whi Ie others made b lack girls look white. Some were very handsome\u00a0and some very ugly, even hideous and frightful. There were about twice as many\u00a0men as women, not more than a quarter of the men masked. Many attended on Iy out\u00a0of curiosity. The dancing was not uniform, but each couple according to their\u00a0own national mode of dancing. As the assembly was composed of nearly all national\u00a0ities, each acting as its members pleased, everyone had a good time. II\u00a0We wonder what was the reacti on of Esther 01 nsmore back home In Anson,<\/p>\n
Maine, when she received this letter from the silver pen, which, when Its o.-tner\u00a0let it run on, ran for two pages about the good time he had without her at a\u00a0New Orleans masquerade bal I.<\/p>\n
Year: 1954<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Read the script for “Little Talks” program #246, broadcast on December 26, 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\/7476"}],"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=7476"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7476\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7476"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}