<\/p>\n
A few months ago there passed away a citizen of this community whom I like to think of as the Cornelia Otis Skinner of Waterville. Many people knew Miss Exerene Flood as an elderly woman interested in the cultural affairs of our city, especially in the Waterville Public Library. Many knew that she had a better knowledge of the American theater than any other person in town. But only a few of our oldest people remember Miss Flood as the Cornelia Otis Skinner of her day.<\/p>\n
When I was a student at Colby, Miss Flood seldom appeared on the stage, but she was then in great demand as a drama coach. For many years she directed the productions of the Colby Dramatic Club. Through all the years of this century, even up to the time when she had passed her eightieth birthday, Miss Flood went each winter to New York and saw every important Broadway play. In the early 1900’s she went about the northeastern states giving dramatic recitals. Like Cornelia Otis Skinner, Miss Flood gave an entire evening’s entertainment alone. Her advertising circular of those years had on its cover a photograph showing her as a tall, erect, and strikingly attractive young woman. This circular announcement was headed by an endorsement from Clayton Gilbert, Director of the Dramatic Department of the New England Conservatory of Music. He said: “Miss Exerene Flood excels in character delineation from standard and well known authors. She combines an interesting personality with keen appreciation of the lights and shades of characters as they appear upon the stage of life. She gives a unique program which always meets with the hearty approval of the audience.”<\/p>\n
Miss Flood’s circular of 1900 announced seven subjects, from which an organization wishing to employ her could choose. Two were from Shakespeare: Twelfth Night and As You Like It. Two were from the 18th century playwright, Richard Sheridan: She Stoops to Conquer and The Rivals. Another was a play called Tom Pinch, and a sixth was Love Stories from Dickens. But the program which I should have most liked to hear was called Stories of the Pine Tree State.<\/p>\n
It is an old cliche that a talented person is likely to be honored everywhere except in his own community, but that was not true of Exerene Flood. In 1904 the Waterville Sentinel said of a recital she had just given in our city hall: “Miss Flood is certainly one of the finest speakers ever heard in Waterville, and she is always assured of a packed house whenever she chooses to appear in her home city.”<\/p>\n
When Miss Flood gave her rendition of The Rivals in Malden, Massachusetts, the local newspaper said: “Her varied rendition of the ten characters, all so different from each other, elicited from the large audience frequent outbursts of applause.” A Patterson, New Jersey paper said of her: “Miss Flood gives us a merry heart that does us good like medicine.”<\/p>\n
Those of us in Waterville who knew Miss Flood best in her later years came to look upon her as a person of great poise and almost stern dignity, yet even we often caught the twinkle in her eye with which her older friends must have been long familiar. The audience at her recitals appreciated her humor. The Kennebec Journal said: “She kept the audience convulsed with laughter.” The Portsmouth Herald put it: “Miss Flood swayed the sensibilities of her audience as she ran the whole gamut of expression and feeling in her portrayal of the efforts of a woman at a crowded benefit performance to hold a seat for a delayed friend.” The Chicago Chronicle said: “In quaintness of speech and facial expression Miss Flood rivals the late Sol Smith Russell, and her portrayals are like his — sympathetically true and close to the heart.”<\/p>\n
So, on this program devoted to things of long ago, I am glad to pay tribute to a gracious woman whom many of us knew — Miss Exerene Flood.<\/p>\n
Now let us turn to a Waterville organization that flourished nearly a century ago, in 1866. In that first year after the Civil War a group of young men in Waterville started the Young Men’s Debating Society for the purpose, as their constitution put it, “of improving the members in debating, social advancement and general literature”. It had 22 charter members, among whom were three of the Balentine family, prominent in Waterville since the dawn of the 19th century.<\/p>\n
Two of the club members are remembered by plenty of people living today. One was H. R. Mitchell, a Baptist preacher who was long associated with the Waterville Sentinel and was perhaps as well known for his starting the firm of Mitchell florists. The other was J. Colby Blaisdell, by whose will Colby College, the Waterville Public Library, the local Baptist Church and other institutions in the community profited richly.<\/p>\n
The Hitchings family, who early in the 19th century had built on the Messalonskee a mill for the manufacture of wool carding machines, was represented by Edson F. Hitchings. The Soule family, whose leading member was the local attorney Jonathan G. Soule, had three young men in the new society: R. O. Soule, Allen Soule and James Soule. The Stevens family, whose ancestor had built one of the earliest homes on Silver Street, was representaed by B. H. Stevens; and the big family that had supplied the original name for what is now Smithfield was represented by A. W. Dearborn.<\/p>\n
The Society’s first meeting was held on November 20, 1866, but the records do not tell us where they met. It was evidently in some sort of hall other than a dwelling, because at that meeting they voted to appoint a committee to determine “the best method of furnishing the society with lights and wood and taking care of the house”.<\/p>\n
A week later they conducted the regular program laid down in their by-laws as the procedure for each meeting. It began with a declamation, followed by a debate with two members on each side of a chosen question. The first question which the society debated was,”Resolved, that the condition of the freedmen is worse now than it was before emancipation”. The decision was in the negative by the close vote of five to four. That is significant. Right here in Waterville, from the year after the Civil War had closed, were four intelligent young men who decided, after listening to the debate, that the Negro was worse off than he had been when he was a slave; for debates in those days were not settled on the basis of arguments presented, but on the merits of the question.<\/p>\n
In the 1860’s late hours were not popular in Waterville. The evening meetings of that debating society convened at half past six and they usually adjourned before 8:30.<\/p>\n
What did people think about the conscientious objector in 1866? What then was the relationship of church to state? On December 14 the Debating Society discussed the question, “Resolved, that a man is justified in obeying a law of his country which he believes to be morally wrong.” When the vote was taken, it was 19 to 7 in the negative. Those young men stoutly held that a man’s moral and religious scruples came ahead of the demands of the state.<\/p>\n
Other memorable decisions made by the society on public questions followed. They voted 15 to 7 that the nation’s early settlers had not been justified in taking land from the Indians by force. Despite a rising tide of unemployment, as allover the nation machines began to displace men, they held by 22 to 8 that inventions are beneficial to the working classes. And, most surprisingly, on February 1, 1867 they voted 15 to 12 that the right of suffrage should be immediately extended to women. But they would not agree that tobacco chewing is a more pernicious habit than rum drinking.<\/p>\n
In March the society instructed their treasurer to purchase a lamp, two gallons of oil, an oil can, hinges and a lock for a melodeon box. Several members were selected as the society’s musicians and it was voted that “the musicians be required to furnish us with music at every meeting”.<\/p>\n
There never was a society or club that did not get into frequent parliamentary wrangles. That was true of this old debating society. The record of their meeting on December 13. 1867 tells us the story: “Voted to elect officers this evening by hand vote. After the voting had ended, the question arose whether the new officers had been legally elected. The President decided that a vote to elect them by hand suspended Article 8 of the Constitution, which provided that all officers shall be elected by ballot. When the President declared the officers legally elected, the question arose whether the President had authority to suspend an article in the constitution. The President replied that not he, but the society by its vote to elect by show of hands, had suspended the constitution. An appeal was taken from the decision of the chair and the President was overruled. A new election by ballot was then held and the same officers that were chosen by the hand vote were then legally elected.”<\/p>\n
Although the society was obliged frequently to assess its members for some unusual expense, it never had to raise money to bury dead horses: that is, to payoff accumulated debts. Perhaps that unusual success was due in no small measure to the financial ability and the high integrity of its treasurer, J. Colby Blaisdell.<\/p>\n
In 1868, three years before Mary Low became the first woman to enroll at Waterville College, the Young Men’s Debating Society admitted women to membership and changed its name to the Waterville Literary Society. Women were not permitted to participate in the debates, however. Their function was to provide the strictly literary features of the program, the declarations and the literary paper. Some of the Waterville girls who were early members of that society were Dora Perry, Kate Emery, Almeada Dearborn, Geneva Ricker, Anna Hitchings, and Almeda Hamlin. A very active member, whose name appears frequently in the records was Lizzie Blaisdell, sister of J. Colby Blaisdell. It is in the house on Winter Street originally built for Miss Blaisdell, who was a local milliner, that for the past thirty years I have made my home.<\/p>\n
On December 18, 1868 the society voted to have a Christmas tree, or to extend an invitation for all who felt friendly toward the project to assemble on Christmas Eve and participate in a program. Lizzie Blaisdell was made chairman of the committee on arrangements.<\/p>\n
In January, 1871 the society had several really hot sessions. On January 2 they appointed a committee to decide whether the society’s president should be impeached. A week later the committee reported in favor of an impeachment trial and drew up the following indictment against the president:<\/p>\n
“He has shown his want of interest in our welfare by repeatedly absenting himself from meetings on frivolous pretense.<\/p>\n
“He has shown his want of energy by taking no part in the society’s affairs.<\/p>\n
“He has grossly neglected his duty by frequent absence when his presence was vital.”<\/p>\n
The society voted to postpone the trial for a week; then they postponed it another week. Finally the record for January 27 tells us: “A motion was made to proceed with the impeachment and seemed to be carried by a voice vote; but the ayes and nays being called for, the motion was defeated and the meeting broke up without adjourning.” That was the end of the attempt of the old debating society of Waterville to impeach its president.<\/p>\n
For the records of that old society I am indebted to Ernest Lewis of the Pond Road, Sidney, whom I sincerely thank as we say Goodnight for Old Times Sake.<\/p>\n
Year: 1960<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Read the script for “Little Talks” program #444, Broadcast on January 24, 1960<\/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":[766,35296],"tags":[],"builder_content":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8047"}],"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=8047"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8047\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8047"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8047"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8047"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}