Wei I, here we are again, resuming these little talks after a respite during\u00a0July and August. Tonight’s broadcast begins the tenth year of this program, and\u00a0as you know, it has, since its start, had one continuous sponsor, the Keyes\u00a0Fibre Company. Have you noticed that this is one of the few radio programs that\u00a0has never been interrupted by advertising? It has never had one of those si Ily\u00a0singing commercials. It has never urged you to buy anything. As the program\u00a0opens, you are told that it is presented as a public service by the Keyes Fibre\u00a0Company, makers of Chi net and Savaday plates and dishes and Keysite plastic\u00a0tableware. Then at the end you are told that the program has come to you by\u00a0courtesy of Keyes. That has been the complete extent of the sponsor’s statements\u00a0on this program. I submit that, carried on continuously for nine years\u00a0and now entering its tenth, that is a kind of radio advertising a lot of people\u00a0commend.<\/p>\n
Are you going to vote tomorrow? Of course there are no candidates to vote\u00a0for, no offices to fi I I. So why bother to go to the pol Is? What difference\u00a0does it make? It makes a lot of difference. The exercise of the referendum,\u00a0the right of the people to give final approval or disapproval to certain acts\u00a0of the legislature, is a democratic right which we must not take lightlv. If it\u00a0turns out that few people care enough about the issues to vote, the time may\u00a0come when none of the legislative measures wi I I be submitted to referendum, and\u00a0we shal I indeed be subjected to government by the few regardless of the wi I I of\u00a0the many.<\/p>\n
I am not tel ling you how to vote tomorrow. I am simply urging you to vote\u00a0as your conscience dictates on the five referendum items. The state is not\u00a0te I ling you; it i s ask i ng you i f you app rove an eventua I <\/em>borrowi ng of $24 mi II\u00a0i on by the state so that we can be assured of federa I funds for interstate\u00a0highways. You are asked whether the State’s credit shall be placed behind\u00a0mortgage guarantees for new industrial plants. Do you approve a single, fouryear\u00a0term for governor? Shall the election date be changed from September to\u00a0November? Sha J I the State fi nance ferry servi ce to certai n Penobscot Bay i slands?<\/p>\n Finally, there is a local issue. Shall ~Jatervi lie have a full-time\u00a0tax assessor?\u00a0Everyone of these issues has been fully ai red in the .newspapers and over\u00a0radio and television since the legislature adjourned last May. There has been\u00a0a chance for every voter to make up his or her mind about them. If you stay\u00a0away from the polls tomorrow, that in itself is your vote that you do not care\u00a0about democratic government, that you don’t want the people to decide. So go to\u00a0that extra bit of troub Ie to vi sit your po I ling p I ace, mark Yes or No on each of\u00a0the questions on the ballot, and deposit it in the bal lot box. Have you got\u00a0what our forefathers cal led the good old Maine gumption? Wei I, then, show it:\u00a0vote tomorrow!<\/p>\n Last spring I devoted some time on this program to the Aroostook War of\u00a01839. I want to tell you tonight about a Winslow family that took part in\u00a0those troublesome days in Maines northernmost county. One of the early settlers\u00a0of what is now the town of Caribou was Ivory Hardison. His son Jacob, some\u00a0twenty years afterward, wrote an account of the whole experience. Let me now\u00a0give it to you in Jacob Hardison’s own words. He wrote:<\/p>\n T’ln the spring of 1839 my father, Ivory Hardison, and myself, then a boy \u00a0of 15, wi th a coup Ie of other men, left our home in Vii ns low to seek a new home\u00a0in the wi I de rness of Northe rn A roes took. As the re was no road from Hou I ton to \u00a0Presque Isle at that time, our only way was to take the Aroostook road leading\u00a0from Mattawamkeag and go through Patten to Township 15, Range 5. From there to\u00a0Ashland there was only a winter road. Over those roads we managed., with considerable\u00a0difficulty, to haul our supplies. At last we reached ~\u00b71asardis, the\u00a0end of the road” having been five days on the way from Patten, 35 mi les.<\/p>\n !t\\ve soon decided to go farther down the Aroostook River; so, sending our\u00a0team back to Patten, we bui It a raft. Packing our supplies on it, we set adrift \u00a0to seek a place that suited us for settlement. We reached the mouth of Presque\u00a0Isle stream in one day. Here we met Mr. Cunningham, who was surveying on Letter\u00a0H” Range 2, the area afterwards known as Caribou. So we landed at an old lumber\u00a0camp, occupied during the previous winter by Canadian lumbermen, who had\u00a0abandoned it on hearing news of the approach of Maine troops. They left tons\u00a0of fine timber on the landings.<\/p>\n !fA fter the sign i ng of the \\’\/ebster-Ashburton Treaty, my father got c I ai m to\u00a0a fine lot of this abandoned timber. By merely paying the stumpage, he was able\u00a0to float it all down the river and sell it profitably at St. John.<\/p>\n “Going a mi Ie and a half west of this camp, we bui It a bark shelter. Then\u00a0we joined a survey party to layout a road from Caribou to Presque Isle. In the\u00a0fal I of 1839 we returned to \\~inslow and in the spring of 1842 father and I returned\u00a0to Aroostook. During our absence a road had been partly bui It between\u00a0Houlton and Presque Isle, and we came that way. But we found that new road so\u00a0bad that we had to leave our wagon and pack all our supplies, including corn\u00a0and wheat, on our horses. Upon reaching the Aroostook River at Maysvi I Ie, we\u00a0fol lowed it down to our new home. We burned and cleared the chopping we had cut\u00a0in 1839, and on the cleared space we planted our wheat and corn. We then bui It\u00a0a log house of squared timber, and placed in one end a huge stone fireplace.<\/p>\n “Having harvested our small crops, in early December we started for China._\u00a0Maine, where the fami Iy was then staying. On February 14, 1843 we again set\u00a0off for Aroostook, this time with all members of the fami Iy — Father, Mother,\u00a0and seven chi Idren. As no road had yet been opened from Presque Isle to Caribou,\u00a0we drove down the Aroostook River on the ice. On February 23 we reached\u00a0our Aroostook home. Although we had no neighbors within four mi les, we were\u00a0al I content, for we were indeed monarchs of al I we surveyed.<\/p>\n ilSoon after our arr iva I, the snow became so deep that we cou I d not get out\u00a0of the clearing, because we had no snowshoes. Our supplies began to run short,\u00a0but fortunately we sti I I had the corn we had raised the year before. For six\u00a0weeks al lour bread was made from corn ground in a sma I I coffee mi’ I. But we got\u00a0through the winter somehow.tf<\/p>\n That is the story of how one fami Iy settled in Northern Aroostook, right\u00a0at the time when Daniel Webster and Lord Ashburton were going through the long\u00a0arguments that finally settled the disputed boundary line. The Hardisons made\u00a0their new home right where the thriving business section of Caribou vi I lage now \u00a0lies, and they settled there when, as Jacob put it, there were no neighbors\u00a0within fou mi les. This was in the early 1840’s, when Winslow, the place which\u00a0they left to go to the northern wi Iderness, had been an incorporated town for\u00a070 years and Watervi lie was a thriving business community of 3,500 people. We\u00a0think of al I of Maine being settled by folk from Massachusetts and other parts\u00a0of the Atlantic seaboard. Jacob Hardison’s account shows that some of our Maine\u00a0settlements were made by people who moved into~hem from the older towns within\u00a0Maine itself.<\/p>\n Did you ever see an unprinted newspaper? Well, there are such, done by\u00a0hand in just a very few copies, to be circulated among a select group of individuals. \u00a0They thrived in the middle of the nineteenth century, and a few specimens\u00a0of one of them were recently presented to the Colby Col lege Library by Howard \u00a0Mott of Sheffield, Massachusetts. They carry the title nThe Chatham Seed,\u00a0and were probably the work of a group of young men or older boys. The place of\u00a0publication, the fictional Chatham, is not identified, but the contents of the\u00a0paper make it clear that it was some town on the Kennebec River above Bath. My\u00a0guess is that it was Hallowell.<\/p>\n Of the three copies now at Colby, only one is dated — January 12, 1848,\u00a0but since that one has no volume and number designation, we cannot tel I how old\u00a0the paper was at that time. Another of the copies is designated as Volume I,\u00a0Number 4, but it carries no date. The third copy has neither date nor volume\u00a0number.<\/p>\n To -some extent the paper was a burlesque. It had a lot of fun with some\u00a0things and people in town, especially through its made-up, boisterous adverti\u00a0si ng.<\/p>\n The paper’s masthead dec I ared that the pub I i cati on was “devoted to temperance,\u00a0science, the arts, I iterature and news; advertisements inserted at usual\u00a0rates. Pub I i shed at No.3 Larboard Row. G. Shepard & F. Crosby, pub I i shers.\u00a0C. Drummond, editor.”<\/p>\n The ki nd of jolly writi ng that fi lied the Bee’s pages is shown by the foiI \u00a0owi ng Pub I i c Noti ce: “The Reverend Bi shop Crosby (we i denti fy hi m as one of\u00a0the publishers) is now in the city and wi I I be very happy to attend marriages,\u00a0christenings, parties, etc. free of charge. re wi II lecture before the Lyceum,\u00a0preach on Sundays, and go to the theatre in the evenings. Next Tuesday he wi II\u00a0deliver a lecture on Chatham Academy, its uses, the memorable day it was fini\u00a0shed, its exhibitions, etc. Then he wi II close with a very pathetic address\u00a0upon the difficulty and dangers the founders confronted in bui Iding it, and upon\u00a0the lives of the first young gentlemen who left that school and are now settled\u00a0in different parts of the wor Id as DO’s, MD’s, I awyers and sadd Ie makers.”<\/p>\n Here are some of the shorter ads:<\/p>\n “For sa Ie at great barga ins: leather meda Is, 3 boot legs, 19 chai r bottoms.\u00a0Purchasers are i nvi ted to ca II at Coo, Drummond & Company.”<\/p>\n ‘~Lost! A pair of nice elastic drawers, slipped off as I was promenading\u00a0on Main STreet. Please I~ave at No.4 Tin Pot Alley.ff<\/p>\n HFourid! A pair of damaged ladies si Ik gloves, also a black gentleman’s\u00a0coat. I nqu i re at No. 3 Chatham Row.<\/p>\n “Found! An old pair of black stockings without any heels. Looked as if\u00a0they had been well worn. For further particulars inquire of the editor.~’\u00a0tTF i r_s t rate oy ste rs for sa I e at No. 3 Ch atham Row. They wi I I save the\u00a0purchaser much troub Ie, as they have been killed three weeks. They wi II not\u00a0jump abouT in the fryi ng pan. A I so a good lot of parti a Ily chewed tobacco.”<\/p>\n uThe undersi gned has lost a va I uab Ie horse. The fi nder wi II be handsome Iy\u00a0re\\a{arded. The horse is brindle colored with white feet and has the spring halt\u00a0slightly in the nigh hind leg. If left at Timothy Doolittle’s it wi” greaTly\u00a0ob I i ge the ri ghtfu I owner, I chabod Crane.”<\/p>\n Next week I shall give you the Chatham Bee’s more serious account of what\u00a0it ca lis a Water Excurs i on and sha II then let you know how I deduce that th is\u00a0hand-writTen burlesque of a newspaper was produced at Hal lowe II. And now, as we\u00a0close ton i ght I want to te I I you how the famous Siamese Twi ns of more than a\u00a0century ago appeared in one Maine town. Some of you, from your reading about\u00a0them, wi I I remember that those physically united twins from Siam were named Engand Chang. On July 13, 1838 a newspaper in Eelfast, the Waldo Patriot, printed\u00a0the fol lowing advertisement:<\/p>\n “The united brothers, Eng and Chang, respectfully inform the ladies and\u00a0gent lemen of Be I fast that they will be in that p I ace on Fri day and Saturday,\u00a0July 13 and 14. They wi II receive visitors at the Eagle Hotel from 2 to 4 in\u00a0the afternoon and from 7 to 9 in the evening. Admission 25 cents. Pamphlet\u00a0containing an historical account of the twins, with many particulars never before\u00a0published, can be purchased at their room. Price, with an engraved like-\u00a0ness, 12t cents, with a lithograph, 18* cents. No readmission into the room.ll\u00a0And with that solemn reminder, we bi~d you good night for old times’ sake.<\/p>\n Year: 1957<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Read the script for “Little Talks” program #345, Broadcast September 8, 1957<\/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":[761,35296],"tags":[],"builder_content":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7757"}],"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=7757"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7757\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7757"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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