In these days when we hear so much about anti-democratic practices and racial\u00a0<\/em>discrimination in col lege fraternities, refreshing news comes from the campus\u00a0of Rutgers Un i vers i ty in New Jersey. I n the fa I f of 1947 twe I ve undergraduates,\u00a0nine of whom were ex-service men, decided that the existing fraternities\u00a0were not in keeping with the democratic traditions of Rutgers’ founders. So\u00a0they organized their own fraternity group, without any restrictions except character\u00a0and individual worth. Today in that fraternity’s membership are an Indonesian\u00a0Chinese, a Japanese, an Albanian, a Korean and four Negroes. Commenting\u00a0on the success of the new fraternity, which for four successive years has\u00a0stood highest in scholarship of al I the fraternal groups at Rutgers, the New\u00a0York Times said: “If all fraternities operated on the same basis as Gamma\u00a0Sigma at Rutgers, there would be far less reason for criticism of the fraternity\u00a0system on the grounds that it produces unwholesome social by-products in the\u00a0forms of snobbery, rac i a I p rej ud ice, and undemocrat i c d i scr i mi nati on.”<\/p>\n Only a few times in our more than 300 broadcasts have we mentioned the\u00a0beautiful and thriving Franklin County town of Farmington. want to pay some\u00a0attenti on to that town ton i ght. A few weeks ago Gera I d Breton of Autumn Street,\u00a0Watervi lie, loaned me a copy of the Farmington Chron’icle dated September 14,\u00a01865 –M,.2Jmost 90 years ago.<\/p>\n JI’U.’;,.~.-‘.t\u00a0That paper was then published by L. N. Prescott and J. S. Swift, at $2.00\u00a0a year, or $1.50 if paid in advance. Less than six months befqre this particular\u00a0issue came from the press, the bitter and bloody Civi I War had at last ended.<\/p>\n In November, 1864 Abraham Lincoln had been reelected by a coalition of\u00a0Republicans and Union Oemocrats~ and the coalition had cal led itself the Union\u00a0Party.<\/p>\n That party was sti II strong in Maine in the September state election of\u00a01865. Governor Cony ~ who had been elected over the Democrat Judge fh.Jard l::\u00a5\u00a0nearly 9~000 majority in 1864~ defeated the judge again in 1865 by over 10,000\u00a0votes. In its September 14th issue the Farmington Chronicle gave the complete\u00a0election returns from Franklin County. Farmington itself supported the Union\u00a0ticket by better than two to one; New Sharon did the same by four to one, and\u00a0Wilton by three to one. The only towns in the county to go Democratic rather\u00a0than Union were Madrid and New Vineyard.<\/p>\n Franklin County in 1865 sent a solid Union delegation to the State Legislature,\u00a0although only the year before~ in Strong, a Democrat had defeated the\u00a0Union candidate.<\/p>\n The year 1865 saw the first unsuccessful attempt to lay the Atlantic cable\u00a0by the big~ i II-fated~ luxurious steamship Great Eastern. The history of that\u00a0fabulous vessel, first published as one of the New Yorker magazine’s famous\u00a0profi les, appeared as a book about a year ago; and attracted wide and favorable\u00a0attention. Probably many of you listeners read it.<\/p>\n Well~ anyhow~ 90 years ago up in Farmington peop Ie were interested in the\u00a0laying of the Atlantic cable. The Chronicle reported: “The English journals\u00a0are fi I led with the subject of the lost telegraph cable, and varied opinions are\u00a0expressed as to future moves. The p reva iii ng fee ling is one of conf i dence in\u00a0the ultimate success of the Atlantic telegraph line. Probably nothing wil I be\u00a0done to recover the cable this season~ for the Great Eastern has moorings at\u00a0Shearness. Capta in Anderson ~ her commander, says it wi II requi re two months to\u00a0provide proper gear for lifting the cable. He suggests that a new cable should\u00a0be made and laid next May, and the old one then picked up and repaired. He\u00a0thinks it useless to try to lay the cable during the winter months.”<\/p>\n It is hard for us, ninety years later, to realize what that cable meant.\u00a0Many years earlier, the great Wi Iliam Pitt had risen in the House of Commons to\u00a0. protest against the government’s oppressive legislation toward the American coloni\u00a0es. One of his most powerfu I arguments had been, “Three thousand mi les of\u00a0ocean roll between England and America. When Parliament decides on relief for\u00a0the colonies, it wi II take another month for the colonists to learn of your\u00a0action.”<\/p>\n Today when wireless messages by telegraph and telephone flash allover the\u00a0world, it is indeed hard for us to realize what a tremendous difference in communication\u00a0between the Old World and the New was made by that first Atlantic\u00a0Cab Ie.<\/p>\n When that 1865 issue of the Chronicle appeared, Farmington had no public\u00a0library. There was a small Circulating library for the members of the Phi 10-\u00a0mathean Society, which had voted to donate its books as a nucleus for a public\u00a0library. It wasn’t meant to be a free library, of wh i ch there were indeed very\u00a0few in the whole nation in 1865. Listen to the terms which the Phi lomatheans\u00a0laid down. “Anyone paying $10 at one time becomes a member of the Farmington\u00a0Library Association, the holder of a share in the library, and shal I have permanently,\u00a0without further payment, the right to take out books. Anyone paying\u00a0one. dollar wi II be entitled for one year to take out books. Subscriptions for\u00a0a shorter ti me wi II be rece i ved. When the library has so much increased as to\u00a0render it just and proper to do so, the Association may increase the price of\u00a0future shares and subscriptions, or may I imit the number of shares.-”<\/p>\n The list of recently added books, which accompanies the Association’s\u00a0statement in the Chronicle, reveals something about best sellers of 90 years\u00a0ago. Among them was just one book we I I known today: “The Autocrat at the\u00a0Breakfast Table” by Oliver Wendell Holmes. Other books on the list, long since\u00a0lost in oblivion, were ”The Boy’s Own Toymaker”, “History of the Discovery of\u00a0America”, “Parlor Magic’!, ‘?Small ‘s Anatomy and Physiology” and a book bearing.\u00a0the all iterative title “Fruits, Flowers and Farming”.<\/p>\n The late 1860’s were the days of big religious camp meetings. One such,\u00a0accordi ng to the Farmi ngton Chron i c Ie, assemb led each summer at East Li venTPre.<\/p>\n In That summer of 1865 the meeting saw the setting up of sixteen big Tents, representing\u00a0Farmington, Strong, Wi Iton, Wayne, Winthrop, Livermore, and other\u00a0towns as far away as Fairfield. The Chronicle’s correspondent commented: “The\u00a0ci rcle of tents has been moved north of the former spot to ground where the\u00a0shade i s much th i cke r \u2022 ”<\/p>\n The pri nci pa I preacher seems to have been Rev. John A lien, known as “Camp\u00a0MeeTing Johnf!. There were morning, afternoon and evening sermons every day for\u00a0a week. On Friday, the Chronicle tel Is us, there were 4,000 people in attendance.\u00a0”The day”, says the Chron i c Ie, “was very warm and the dust was suffocati\u00a0ng.”<\/p>\n That then old time camp meetings were frequently scenes of disorder is\u00a0shown by the fo I low i ng statement i n the Ch ron i c Ie’s account: “The meet i ng was\u00a0comparatively free from noise and disturbance, owing to the prompt and efficient\u00a0action of the police. One rum seller was arrested and paid his fine. Let this\u00a0be a warn i ng for the next year. T!<\/p>\n A Farmington resident wrote the Chronicle a letter telling about his recent\u00a0tr i p to Lew i ston \u2022 Among othe r th i ngs he sa i d, “Lew i ston needs a I a rge r an d more\u00a0commodious post office, or at least a sign on the one they have, so that a stranger\u00a0can know it when he comes to it. I have visited the Maine State Seminary,\u00a0recently changed to Bates College. This is a fine institution in a beautiful\u00a0locality, but I did not find the attendance as large as I expected. They talk\u00a0of dividing the college, one part to be located in Pittsfield, for females only,\u00a0leaving only males at Lewiston.” Then the letter writer puts in a plug for coeducation.\u00a0“I do not believe in separating the sexes. Their society is a\u00a0restra i nt upon each other.”<\/p>\n The writ’er admits, in spite of the reputat’ion of Bates as a more orderly\u00a0p I ace than Bowdoin, th at what he ca I I s “co I I ege scrapes” do occas i ona II y occ ur\u00a0at the Lew i ston co I lege. He says, “A fine bust of Pres i dent Cheney was c I andestinely\u00a0taken from the bui Iding and no tidings were heard of it for some time. \u00a0It fi na Ily showed up in Barnum’s Museum in New York.”<\/p>\n Like most of the newspapers of a century ago, the Farmington Chronicle in\u00a01865 contained some interesting ads. Here is one of the neatest dunning notices\u00a0I have ever seen: “When accounts of large amount have been sutfered to remain\u00a0unti I my capital is about equally divided between myself and my creditors, no\u00a0one should feel hurt at being politely invited, as I now write those indebted\u00a0to me, to ca I I and settle, and much ob Ii ge your obedi ent servant, o. H. Chandler.”<\/p>\n John Knowlton advertised wheel hubs of various kinds. Z. Knowles warned\u00a0folks against’ giving credit to his son, who had left home. Cyrus Gardner, the\u00a0pound keeper, advertised that he held three yearling cattle, two steers and a\u00a0he i fer. Owner cou Id have them by payi ng costs and damage.<\/p>\n James Welch wanted 300,000 hoops and 100 hoop poles, and was ready to pay\u00a0cash for them. T. M. Davis advertised a strange combination: corn, rye, pIaster\u00a0and tar. Dr. Randall, the dentist, assured the public that he had been in\u00a0practice since 1847 over the harness store of Wi I liam Tarbox, sign of the golden\u00a0tooth. Lawry, the photographer, would supply you with a dozen pictures for\u00a0$1 .25.\u00a0The Civi I War had just ended and claim agents were numerous. Three of them\u00a0had ads in this single issue of the Chronicle. They were ready to help the exsoldiers\u00a0get’ pensions, bounties, arrears of pay, and prize money. The agents\u00a0would even advance money pending the settlement of claims.<\/p>\n So much for what interested people in Farmington ninety years ago. Let us\u00a0close tonight with reference to an era longer ago than 1865, to a time when the\u00a0nation was new and George Washington was President. A few weeks ago we told\u00a0you what the Maine log cabins were like. In the earliest settlements life was\u00a0pretty rough and clothing of both sexes rather nondescript. But as the farms\u00a0were gradually cleared, homespun clothes were common. So let us see how Maine\u00a0women in the rural set~lements dressed in 1800.<\/p>\n Most Maine farms of any consequence had a field of flax. I remember seeing,\u00a0as a sma I I boy, a bundle of flax tied up and dried through the years, in\u00a0the barn chamber of my great-grandfather’s big barn at West Gorham. Well, when\u00a0the flax matured, women pulled it from the ground and bound it in such bundles\u00a0as the one I saw in that barn. They then beat out the seeds and spread the bundles\u00a0in parallel rows in a field. After several weeks, when wind and rain had\u00a0decomposed the stalks, the flax was again brought to the barn. In later winter\u00a0the dried stalks were broken into fragments, leaving whole the fibres of the\u00a0cuticle. Those fibres were then cleaned by a process called “swingling”,\u00a0twisted up in small handfuls and taken into the house. The next process was\u00a0ca I I ed “buck ling”, by wh i ch the “ha i r J” or long fib res we re separated from the\u00a0“tow” or short fibres. The long fibres were then put on the distaff and spun\u00a0on a foot-whee I. Th is formed the warp, wh i Ie the tow formed the woof. Put th us\u00a0into the loom, the result was linen cloth. Sometimes it was mixed with wool,\u00a0gi vi ng ri se to the Term linsey-woolsey.<\/p>\n Gowns, as women’s dresses were then called, being usually open in front,\u00a0over several enveloping petticoats, were easi Iy thrown over the head as hoods\u00a0in cold or rain. Only the plainest of vegetable dyes could be obtained, but\u00a0those ingenious seamstresses of the pioneer cabins worked wonders with their\u00a0linsey-woolsey.<\/p>\n And with that Tribute to our great-grandmother dressmakers, we must say\u00a0good night for old Times’ sake.<\/p>\n Year: 1956<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Read the script for “Little Talks” program #303, broadcast on April 29, 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\/7630"}],"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=7630"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7630\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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