\nNext week wi II be the 300th broadcast of “Little Talks on Common Things”.\u00a0We shal I celebrate the event by giving special attention to the company which\u00a0has sponsored this program from the beginning, the Keyes Fibre Company. That\u00a0we do so is my suggestion, not that of the company. Not once during the eight\u00a0years that th i s program has been on the ai r has the Keyes management asked me\u00a0to make any menti on of the company or its products, and am sure you wi I I agree\u00a0that few sponsored programs begin or end with so little mention of the sponsor.<\/p>\n
So it is Ernest Marriner and not Keyes who has decided to devote next week’s\u00a0program to one of Watervi I Ie’s fi nest i ndustri a I organ i zati ons. On the program\u00a0with me next Sunday will be Mr. Wa II ace Parsons, Pres i dent of Keyes Fi b re, and\u00a0Mr. Ralph Robbins, president of the union which represents the workers at Keyes.<\/p>\n
Management and I abor wi II be on the same program, our 300th broadcast. I hope\u00a0you wi II be Ii steni ng.<\/p>\n
Now let us finish the story about Edward Lovejoy, son of Colby’s martyr,\u00a0Elijah Parish Lovejoy, who in 1837 was ki lied defending his press in Alton,\u00a0I I I i no is.<\/p>\n
After his mother’s death and his own marriage, Ed Lovejoy says he had an\u00a0annual income of about $4,000, equivalent to about $15,000 today. But it seems\u00a0it was not enough. He wrote to his uncle, Henry Hammond, “We lived expensively.<\/p>\n
was extravagant in rrtf <\/em>expendi tures, and after my rrother’s death I became\u00a0di scontented, wanted to acqui re a fortune speedi Iy and go trave ling. I had become\u00a0disgusted with the law, because I regarded many of our judges as venal\u00a0and unjust. again went into mining on a large scale and with disastrous\u00a0results. Immense fortunes had been made in Virginia City and friends urged me\u00a0to join them there. Without any reasonable investigation I closed out everything\u00a0and went to Virginia City in the fal I of 1877. When I arrived, I found\u00a0the bottom had dropped out of the market and my friends were all broke. It required\u00a0strong influence to obtain even a day’s work on the streets. I started\u00a0to run a smal I hotel, but found it a losing venture and gave it up without a\u00a0do II ar. I knocked around from pi I I ar to post unti I the summer of 1880, when\u00a0went to work on the construction of a new rai I road as a common laborer. I was\u00a0fortunate enough to attract the attention of the president of the road, and in\u00a0a week I was given charge of a gang of men as their foremen. When the road began\u00a0running, the president appointed me agent at Wabuska, Nevada, furnished me\u00a0with materi a Is to bui I d a house, and recommended me favorab Iy so that I was ab Ie\u00a0to get cred it to put ina stock of goods and start a store. So here I came to\u00a0Wabuska, where I am now postmaster, We lis Fargo express agent, and owner of an\u00a0estab I j shment where I keep a sma II stock of goods, entertai n trave lers and\u00a0operate a bar.”<\/p>\n This is the story of how the son of Elijah Parish Lovejoy rose to a respected\u00a0place in the California bar and ended his career tending quite a different\u00a0kind of bar in a Nevada town. He was the last of Elijah Lovejoy’s immediate\u00a0line. Though he was married, it was late in life and to a woman ten years older\u00a0than himself. They had no chi Idren, and there are now no living descendants of\u00a0EI ijah Parish Lovejoy.<\/p>\n On thi s program and in “Kennebec Yesterdays” have many ti mes menti oned\u00a0the cabins of the early settlers, but I don’t think I have ever described one\u00a0in detai I. It is time we knew what those primitive one-room cabins looked like.<\/p>\n Those cabins were usually not more than 20 feet long and 16 or 18 feet\u00a0wi de. Posts, beams and rafters were frequent Iy of oak, and the logs that made\u00a0the walls were calked with moss. After a saw mi II had been bui It in a comTlunity,\u00a0the roof was often covered with slabs, but in the earliest times it was thatched\u00a0when a settler coul d get marsh grass or straw, but more often, like the wa lis,\u00a0it was made of logs, smaller than the side logs, but calked in the same way,\u00a0resulting in a leaky roof whenever it rained. Most of the early cabins had a\u00a0cat-and-clay chimney. That was made by driving into the ground four crotched\u00a0sticks for the corners of the fireplace. Bars were laid in the crotches; and\u00a0on those bars, which were high and commonly of wood, was laid a mixture of clay\u00a0and chopped straw. Lengthwise in that mixture was laid a stick about an inch\u00a0in diameter, which was then covered with the mixture. Thus were bui It the\u00a0sides of the chimney. In a few days the clay was hardened by the heat. Flat\u00a0stones were placed agai nSt the wa I I logs to prevent them from taki ng fi re. Long\u00a0back-logs for the fireplace were slipped in under the bars on which the cat-andclay\u00a0chimney rested.<\/p>\n At first there were no glass windows. Besides a door, the early cabins\u00a0often had only one opening, a glassless window with a sliding shutter. A crane\u00a0was made by extending a pole across the fireplace and resting its ends on\u00a0crotched sticks driven into the ground, for the ground itself was the cabin\u00a0floor, and those floors cou I d get terri b Iy co I din wi nter. No wonder many a\u00a0pioneer housewi fe kept after her husband unti I he coul d get out the boards to\u00a0bui Id a plank floor.<\/p>\n The cabi ns had very Ii tt Ie furni ture — just sene sort of homemade tab Ie,\u00a0stools but no chairs, and the crudest of beds. A lot of space was taken up by\u00a0the loom and sp’i,nning wheel. In these one-room cabins often lived six or\u00a0ei ght persons, though most of them were ch i I dren. Sma II wonder that an enterpriSing\u00a0settler not only put in a floor as soon as he could, but bui It a larger\u00a0cabin with at least two rooms and a garret and oi Jed paper or isinglass in the\u00a0windows.<\/p>\n Some of the 01 d records te II us what the pioneer bri des took into a cab in\u00a0when they started housekeep i ng. One such dowry, down in Knox CounTy, cons i sted\u00a0of a coverlet, a pair of sheets, a chest with one drawer, a mirror about 8 by\u00a010 inches, a tea kettle, a spider, two pewter pitchers, three knives and three\u00a0forks, three plates and three cups and saucers from an 01 d set of crockery, and\u00a0th ree wooden trenche rs to eat from regu I ar I y \u2022 The crocke ry was on I y for company\u00a0occasi ons.<\/p>\n Did you ever hear of the method used by our Maine pioneers to save labor\u00a0in clearing land for crops? When a large stand of trees, an acre or more, was\u00a0to be cleared, the settler observed the direction in which the trees leaned. He\u00a0se I ected a I arge tree at the head of th is stream of lean i ng, mak i ng sure that\u00a0the chosen tree was a Ii tt Ie elevated and had heavy, wi de-b ranch i ng limbs. That\u00a0tree was ca lied the dri ver. The other trees were then cut about ha I f through.<\/p>\n When the driver was then cut through, it fell against other trees, starting a\u00a0chain reaction that brought the whole group down at once. Thus a lot of labor\u00a0was saved.<\/p>\n When we cons i der the cost of I umber today, it is hard for us to comprehend\u00a0its comparative uselessness to the early settlers. Of course they used it for\u00a0cabins, for furniture, for sleds and carts, for boats and rafts, and they used\u00a0a lot of it to cook their meals and keep themselves warm. But there was not only\u00a0plenty of wood; there was far too much of it. The trees were in the way; the\u00a0precious land was needed to grow grain and potatoes and hay. Hence the pioneer\u00a0years in Maine saw almost unbelievable waste of the primeval forest.<\/p>\n After the trees, often fe lied by that chain reaction method, had been left\u00a0to dry for some time, the whole area, called the “cut-down” or “fe II-piece!T was\u00a0set fire. It burned for several days, sending up dense clouds of smoke that\u00a0dri fted for many mi les. Someti mes the fi re spread far beyond the cut-down, and\u00a0a genuine forest conflagration ensued. It would run over dry grass-fields\u00a0faster than a horse could gal lop, would destroy cattle, barns, houses, and\u00a0sometimes human lives. Nothing but a deluging rain could stop it.<\/p>\n Yet, dangerous as the burning of the cut-downs was, it was the quickest\u00a0and surest way for the settler, even working every day from daylight to dark,\u00a0to get land for his crops. As soon as the heat would permit it, the settler\u00a0and his boys would enter the cut-down and proceed, with the aid of oxen, to\u00a0pullout the blackened and not wholly burned logs. These were stacked in pi les\u00a0and reburnt. But sti II many stumps and big blackened logs remained on the\u00a0piece. Sometimes it took years before time and weather had weakened the strength\u00a0of the huge stumps, so that they could again be set fire and at last uprooted\u00a0from the soi I.<\/p>\n The kind of havoc I have described lasted wei I into the nineteenth century,\u00a0even in southern and central Maine. But through it al I, many a tree found valuable\u00a0use. In colonial days tal I pines, with graceful trunks rising a hundred\u00a0feet without limb or knot, were marked with the king’s broad arrow to be converted\u00a0into masts for His Majesty’s ships. Almost as soon as it had a grist\u00a0mi II, each community acquired a saw mi I I, and sometimes both were served by\u00a0the same mi I I wheel. The log houses did not continue for many years. The old\u00a0up-and-down saw mi I Is made possible the fine frame houses that were bui It in\u00a0many a Maine vi Ilage a century and a half ago.<\/p>\n More than once I have referred to old almanacs, not only the standard ones\u00a0like Thomas’s and Robinson’s, but the many put out by makers of patent medicines\u00a0and other concoctions in the 1870’s and later. But I think I have never before\u00a0mentioned the almanacs published by political parties. In my collection is one\u00a0such party almanac, the Whig Almanac of 1845. That was the year when a 36 year\u00a0old lawyer in Springfield, Illinois, by the name of Abraham Lincoln, was first\u00a0coming into prominence as a leader of the Whigs. Two years later he would be\u00a0representing his district in Congress and be violently opposing our war with\u00a0Mexico.<\/p>\n The cover of this almanac carries a statement by the national leader of\u00a0the Whig party, Henry Clay. The Democrats had won the election of 1844 and had\u00a0put James K. Polk in the White House; so it is not strange to see Henry Clay’s\u00a0set of noble principles preceded by a decidedly partisan statement of the almanac’s\u00a0editor. It says: “The Whig Party beaten, not conquered; overborne by\u00a0fraud, not vanqui shed by argument nor outnumbered by lega I voters.”<\/p>\n In 1845 slavery had not become the burning issue that it was to reach ten\u00a0years later when Abraham Lincoln would be talking about a house divided against\u00a0itself. Henry Clay’s statement of principles says not a word about the subject.<\/p>\n What they do declare for is a sound currency, not left to the whims of the several\u00a0states, but backed firmly by the national government; further restriction\u00a0on the use of presidential veto, restraint against interference in free elections,\u00a0and a proposal that has been repeatedly put forth even as late as the\u00a01950’s — namely, to limit the presidential office to a single term.<\/p>\n Because the almanac gives election returns of every county in the nation for\u00a0the presidential contests of both 1840 and 1844, we are able to note how the\u00a0counties of Maine voted in comparison with other parts of the Union. The Whigs\u00a0had been victorious in 1840, electing Old Tippecanoe, Wi I liam Henry Harrison. In\u00a0that year Maine cast one of the closest presidential votes in its history, 46,612\u00a0for Harrison, and 46,201 for Van Buren. Four years later something happened\u00a0to cause many voters to stay away from the polls. Instead of the total vote\u00a0of nearly 93,000 of 1840, the 1844 total reached only 84,000, and Polk, the Democrat,\u00a0carried Maine with a sma I ler vote than that with which Van Buren had\u00a0lost the state in 1840. It is i nte rest i ng to note that, in 1844, just one\u00a0Maine county went for Henry Clay over Polk, and that county was our own Kennebec.<\/p>\n Whi Ie other counties went for Polk, some of them by a two to one majority, Kennebec\u00a0cast 5,200 votes for Clay and only 3,600 for Polk.<\/p>\n Like Maine, New Hampshire also went Democratic in 1844, but Vermont stood\u00a0firm for the Whigs, just as she stands firmly Republican today. Rhode Island,\u00a0where on I y 12,000 votes we re cas t, was a I so for Clay, as we re both Massachusetts\u00a0and Connecticut. So we see that, of the six New England States, only Maine and\u00a0New Hampshire deserted the Whig banner which both had fol lowed in 1840.<\/p>\n By this time regular listeners to this program know of my interest in old\u00a0advertisements. So you wi II not be surprised that I find especially interesting\u00a0the ads published on the back of this old Whig Almanac of 1845. They are\u00a0al I advertisements for books. First is Farnham’s Travels, described as an account\u00a0of journeys over the Great Western P lai ns and the Rocky Mountai ns to Oregon\u00a0Terri tory. Then comes Ell sworth ‘s Reports, descri bed as gi vi ng an account\u00a0of recent improvements in the mode of bui Iding houses, making fences, raising\u00a0grain, disposing of hogs, preserving pork, raising si Ik, al I complete with a\u00a0treatise on agricultural geology.<\/p>\n Speci a I attenti on i s ca I led to Gri ff i th ‘s Lectures on Chemi stry. He re ,\u00a0says the ad, are famous lectures on the chemistry of the four ancient elements\u00a0— fire, air, earth and water. The printed lectures, the ad boldly tells us,\u00a0are founded on oral lectures delivered before f-Br Majesty the Queen. The book\u00a0a I so conta i ned an account of “ph i I osoph i ca I expe ri ments i I I ustrai’ i ng the curi ous\u00a0phenomena of e lectri ci ty, ga Ivani sm, magneti sm, chemi stry, opti cs and heat”. The\u00a0p rice wa s one do I I a r \u2022<\/p>\n And with that introduction to science, as readers found it 110 years ago,\u00a0we must say good night for old times’ sake.<\/p>\n Year: 1956<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Read the script for “Little Talks” program #299, broadcast on April 1, 1956<\/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":[790,35296],"tags":[],"builder_content":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7620"}],"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=7620"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7620\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7620"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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