President Eisenhower’s illness makes it highly improbable that he wi I I be\u00a0a candiclate for a second term. But even before his coronary attack, many people\u00a0believed he was too old to run again. Even the President himself warned his\u00a0party leaders that he would be 70 years old before he could finish a second\u00a0term \u2022<\/p>\n
Now this al I raises the question: How old is old? Admitting that the\u00a0American presidency is an exacting job, cal ling for a healthy man, what is the\u00a0experience in other nations? In some of those other countries the job of government\u00a0head is like walking a tight-rope, and that certainly would seem to be\u00a0no job for old age. But, as AI Smith used to say, let us look at the record.\u00a0Winston Churchi I I, acknowledged to be the greatest statesman of our times,\u00a0served as Prime Minister of Britain ten years after he was 70 — not continuously\u00a0for those ten years but, what is more important, returned to power again\u00a0after he was 75.<\/p>\n
A man who had already suffered the harrowing demands of the presidency,\u00a0Herbert Hoover, kept on doing important tasks for the government unti I his completion\u00a0of the final report of the Hoover Commission a few days after his 81st \u00a0birthday.<\/p>\n
Konrad Adenauer, the strong man of Germany, staunch friend of the West, is\u00a0nearly 80. Part of the Soviet starl ing and procrastinating about German unity\u00a0is bui It on thei r hope that old age wi II soon get Adenauer out of the way_\u00a0One nat i on whe re the king is no figurehead is Norway. The re the roya I duties\u00a0are constant and important. King Haakon has ruled over that nation for 13\u00a0years since his 70th birthday_ In fact that birthday came right at the time\u00a0when Norway was under the iron heel of Hitler, and Haakon was a king in exi Ie.\u00a0Unlike a much younger monarch, the King of Belgium, the old king of Norway never\u00a0bowed to the Naz is, kept constant I yin touch with the Norwegi an res i stance, and\u00a0triumphantly saw his country’s liberation in 1945.<\/p>\n
Whether or not you approve of Syngman Rhee., pres i dent of the Repub Ii c of\u00a0Korea, you must admit that he is a vigorous, dynamic leader at the age of 80.<\/p>\n
Contrary to popular bel ief, the American presidency has not been a ki Iler\u00a0of its men. Almost half of our presidents, 15 of the 33, have lived beyond\u00a0their 70th year after leaving the White House. The longest lived of them all.,\u00a0John Adams, died at the age of 90, on the same July fourth that saw also the\u00a0death of Thomas Jefferson at 83. James Madison lived to be 85, John Quincy\u00a0Adams 80, Martin Van Buren 79 and Andrew Jackson 78.<\/p>\n
Finally this fact mayor may not be significant: Since Zachary Taylor~\u00a0more than a hundred years ago, no President of the United States has died of\u00a0natural causes whi Ie he was sti I I in office.<\/p>\n
No one now living remembers the sensation caused by a young lady at Kents\u00a0Hi II Seminary 90 years ago, but whi Ie it lasted, the fvlary Louise Greene case\u00a0was a cause ce I eb re th rough out Ma i ne . On a hi I lin Aub urn the re s ti I I stands\u00a0a gran i te monument with th is i nscri pt i on: “M. Loui se Greene, age 22 years,\u00a0daughter of Jonas and L. M. Greene of Peru, Maine. A student five years at\u00a0Kents Hi II, a member of the graduating class of 1866, who perished here in May,\u00a0with i n two weeks of graduati on. A martyr to the prej udi ce and capri ce of man.!l<\/p>\n
The story of Mary Loui se Greene i nvo I ved the reputati on of a ce lebrated\u00a0school and the honor of its principal, the love of a father for his daughter\u00a0and his hatred of that school principal because the girl had quite correctly\u00a0been discipl ined for a confessed offense.<\/p>\n
Today, 90 years afterwards, our information about the case comes chiefly\u00a0from the files of the Lewi ston Journa I. On May 29, 1866 the Journa I noted ina\u00a0short paragraph the fact that a young, unnamed woman was missing.<\/p>\n
On June 2 appeared an editorial headed r!fvlissing; A Sad Case”, naming the\u00a0young woman as Mary Louise Greene, a senior at Kents Hi I I. On June 9 the paper\u00a0informed its readers That the authorities had learned of the purchase of poison\u00a0by the missi ng gi rl. Dai Iy from June 10 to 13 the Journal recorded continued\u00a0search for the missing student. On the 14th it announced that the search had\u00a0been abandoned. Perhaps no one would ever know what happened to Louise Greene.<\/p>\n
Four months later, on October 13, a body, identified as that of the missing\u00a0Louise Greene, was found in Auburn, at the spot where the monument now stands.\u00a0The next spring The girl’s father, Jonas Greene, published a pamphlet entitled\u00a0“The Crown Won but not \\A\/orn”. Here in the words of that pamphlet is the\u00a0father’s own account of that tragedy:<\/p>\n
Han May 23, 1866 Mary Loui se Greene, a student at The Fema Ie Co liege at\u00a0Kents Hi II.. left that i nsti tuti on ina wretched state of mi nd, trave led to Lewiston,\u00a0was seen weeping in Auburn, purchased poison, and mysteriously disappeared.\u00a0Her father, for many anxious weeks, searched in and around Lewiston\u00a0for his lost chi Id. He employed detectives, circulated handbi 115 and photographs\u00a0a II over the sTate. The kind peop Ie of Lewi ston, Auburn and Li sbon generously\u00a0assisted him in searching the woods, the canals and the river — all\u00a0to no purpose. Finally her bJeached remains were accidentally discovered in a\u00a0lonely spot in the forest in Auburn, the following October.”<\/p>\n
You wi J I note thaT Father Greene sa i d that Loui se left Kents Hi I J ina\u00a0wreTched state of mi nd. What had caused that wretched STate? Loui se had entered\u00a0the school in 1861. After a preparatory course of “two years, she entered\u00a0what was then ca lied The Fema Ie Co liege Department, whe re she conti n ued until\u00a0May, 1866. Ouri ng the I ast year of her stay she had frequent Iy broken the ru Ie\u00a0requ i ri ng no student to I eave the Hill wi thOUT per’lIIi 5S i on.<\/p>\n
In Apri t, 1866 Principal Torsey had a serious talk with the girl concerning\u00a0her attitude toward the school’s regulations. On the evening of May 21st Dr.\u00a0Torsey was informed that Louise Greene had taken articles of clothing and money\u00a0belonging to other students. Two days later the girl confessed to the principal\u00a0that she did take the clothes and tbe-money. As a result of that .intervielt\/,\u00a0Miss Greene agreed to leave the school.<\/p>\n
Lou i se Greene was no ch i I d. A I ready 22 years 0 I d, she was fu I Iy responsible\u00a0for her actions. She told Dr. Torsey she would go to her uncle’s home in\u00a0Lewiston and would write her father from there. Dr. Torsey told her he could\u00a0not consent to such a course, that she was of age and could go to her uncle’s\u00a0if that was her decision, but that she could not do so with Dr. Torsev’s approva\u00a0I. Fi na Ily Lou ise agreed to go to her own home in Peru, and it was arranged\u00a0for her to leave Kents Hi I I ear I y that afte rnoon.<\/p>\n
About two o’clock on that May 23rd, Dr. Torsey learned that the girl had\u00a0indeed left the Hi I I, but for Lewiston, not for Peru. He immediately sent a\u00a0student with Miss Greene’s sister to her parents’ home in Peru, instructing the\u00a0sister, who was a I so a Kents Hi ” student, to te I J her father the whole story.<\/p>\n
Loui se Greene’s wretched state of mi nd on May 23, 1866 was therefore that\u00a0she was charged with theft by the school authorities, that she confessed to the\u00a0theft, that she was of age, agreed of her own accord to leave the school, and\u00a0now had to face her father. Rather than face him, she started for Lewiston.<\/p>\n
On the train from Readfie Id to Lewiston the gi rl wrote a letter to her\u00a0younger sister, the gi r I whom Pri nci pa J Torsey had directed to te II the story\u00a0at home. In that letter Louise said: T7Or. Torsey informed me this morning that\u00a0I had better leave today; ‘not expulsion’, he said, ‘we won’t cal J it that .. but\u00a0you had better go home’. My bitterest agony is for the dear ones at home, on\u00a0whom must fal I some share in this disgrace. Satan, or some evi I spirit, must\u00a0have led me into this. can feel myself really gui Ity of but one crime\u00a0taking five dollars from Miss Church. had no intention of stealing the\u00a0clothes. For every article I took I had lost one in the wash. My lost ones\u00a0were unmarked. Was it strange that I should take others, also unmarked, in\u00a0the i r stead? Y?<\/p>\n
On the same train Louise wrote another letter, addressed jointly to all\u00a0her schoolmates at Kents Hi I I. It said about the same as the fetter to her\u00a0sister, attempting to explain the possession of another’s clothes, but confessing\u00a0to taking the five dol lars.<\/p>\n
When Jonas Greene learned of his daughter’s departure from the Hi II, he\u00a0naturally bent every effort to find her. He eventually got into a bitter controversy\u00a0with Dr. Torsey, whom he charged with cruelty and with responsibi lity\u00a0for the girl’s death. Public opinion, as usual, took sides, and the trustees\u00a0of Kents Hill f i na I Iy fe It ob Ii ged to make pub Ii c answer to Greene’s charges.<\/p>\n
Greene had published a pamphlet. Now the trustees brought out o~e of their own.\u00a0It took up each of Greene’s complaints and made candid answer to al I of them.<\/p>\n
It showed conclusively that Louise had confessed to theft, had left the school\u00a0by her own decision, had agreed to go home to Peru, but had gone to Lewiston\u00a0instead, and that she was of legal age to make her own decisions.<\/p>\n
The bitterness of the Greene fami Iy toward Dr. Torsey is revealed in a note\u00a0written to the principal on the day after the girl’s body was found. This note\u00a0was written, not by the angry father, but by the usually more even tempered mother.\u00a0There is no evenness of temper in her words to Dr. Torsey. She wrote:<\/p>\n
“S i r: The vi cti <\/em>m of your vengeance, persecuti on and tyranny was found dead in\u00a0Auburn yesterday. Our opinion of you is that you are a base scoundrel and a\u00a0black-hearted murderer.<\/p>\n JlIjst a year later the mother wrote to Dr. Torsey again: ~IOne year ago\u00a0today, Louise received her death-blow from you,. fleeing from your presence as\u00a0from a tiger. We sti I I think you a black-hearted murderer. Nothing but the\u00a0influence of a rich, powerful and corrupt Methodist denomination could save you,\u00a0in th i sinh uman tragedy, from un i versa I condemn at ion.<\/p>\n Near Iy a century has passed since the scanda I at Kents Hi I I. We can now\u00a0look back upon it objectively and say what a pity that this tragic young woman’s\u00a0mistake and misfortune had to be dragged for months through the public\u00a0press because of her father’s unfounded attacks on the head of her schoo I. A II\u00a0those attacks accomplished was to make what was already shameful for the fami Iy\u00a0much more than it need have been.<\/p>\n Ti me i s the great hea Ie r . The part i c,i pants have a I I been long in the i r\u00a0graves, and The whole sad affair is forgotten, save for the words on the Auburn\u00a0monument, “A martyr to the prejudice and caprice of man.”<\/p>\n Last week I asked whether anyone had ever heard of a poor auction in Maine.\u00a0Immediately Mr. R. B. Cates of Col lege Avenue,. Watervi lie, comes up with the\u00a0information. He has discovered that at a town meeting held in the town of Unity\u00a0in 1804 — a century and a ha I f ago — the fo I low i ng votes were passed:<\/p>\n VOTed, that the poor be sold to the lowest bidder.<\/p>\n VOTed, to set up the Widow Hopkins at auction, she being one of the\u00a0poor of the Town. This was done and the bid was four cents a week for her keep.<\/p>\n I am ashamed to say that is worse than anything Samuel Hopkins Adams records\u00a0as having happened along the Erie Canal in his grandfather’s day. Think\u00a0of it! Four cents a week! What miserable,. starvation usage that poor widow\u00a0must have suffered. How proud the town fathers of Unity must have been at their\u00a0four cent barga i n t\u00a0D. E. Decker of Clinton also remembers his father’s telling about poor\u00a0auctions in that town. One such auction, according to Mr. Decker’s father,\u00a0concerned an aged pauper whom the successful bidder kept out of doors sawing\u00a0wood unti I the poor man’s feet were frozen.<\/p>\n Wel” anyhow, the poor auction has long been a past, not a present, disg~~.<\/p>\n Year: 1955<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Read the script for “Little Talks” program #278, broadcast on November 6, 1955<\/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":[1],"tags":[],"builder_content":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7557"}],"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=7557"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7557\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7557"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7557"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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