<\/p>\n
Today when Maine’s representation in the lower house of the Congress is reduced to only two members, and when little fuss was made about the reduction, it is interesting to note how different it was more than 90 years ago in 1871. In that year the usual redistricting occurred as a result of the census of 1870. It was feared that the rapid growth in other states would cause Maine to lose a representative at that time. But so powerful was the influence of men like Hannibal Hamlin, Joshua Chamberlain and James G. Blaine, that the House of Representatives decided to increase its membership, and Maine kept its number of Congressmen.<\/p>\n
What was that number? Not the three from which reduction has just been made to two in 1962, but five. Yes, Maine had five members in the national House in 1870, and that was actually fewer than the state had once enjoyed. When Maine was accepted into the Union as an independent state in 1820, it was assigned seven representatives, and it retained that number until 1851, when reduction was made to six. Then the 1860 census, following the removal of many Maine residents to the West, caused still another reduction and Maine had only five representatives. The influence of Maine’s great statesmen warded off another reduction in 1871, but they couldn’t prevent it ten years later, when the number of Maine Congressmen became four. In fact the same four men represented the Maine districts continuously from 1883 to 1897: Thomas B. Reed, Nelson Dingley, Charles Boutelle and Seth Milliken.<\/p>\n
When I was old enough to know anything about politics, Maine still had four Congressmen. I then lived in the First District, and my Congressman was Amos Allen, the man who succeeded Tom Reed. Allen’s home was in Alfred, and it <\/em>was his rare personal qualities that won him the congressional seat in a district usually dominated by Lewiston and Auburn. The Third District, in which Waterville was then located, was represented by Edwin C. Burleigh of Augusta, and the Fourth District by Frank Gurnsey of Dover.<\/p>\n When one considers the influence of Aroostook County in Maine politics for many years, it is interesting to note that, previous to 1910, there Was not a single Maine Congressman from Aroostook.<\/p>\n Comparisons of population and representation are certainly odious to Maine. It does no good to dwell on those older days, when Maine had so much more influence in Washington, but it does no harm to bring them to mind. In 1870 the nation’s largest states were New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Illinois in that order. Texas was 17th in population, and California, now ranking second in the whole nation, was then 22nd. In 1871 Maine was entitled to more representatives in Congress than either California or Connecticut. And think of Florida. That state then had just one Congressman. The Union then had 37 states. The Dakotas, Colorado, Idaho, Wyoming and Montana were still territories, and Washington was then a part of Oregon. Much later came the states of Utah, Oklahoma, Arizona and New Mexico, not to mention the two latest additions of Alaska and Hawaii.<\/p>\n Now let us turn to another subject. In 1870, when a person wanted to change his name, he did not go to court. He had to petition the State Legislature. A standing committee in the Maine Legislature was its committee on Change of Names.<\/p>\n An issue of the Kennebec Journal in the winter of 1871 contained an account of the capture of Paris by the Germans in the Franco-Prussian War. It read: “The gates of the Tuileries and the Louvre are closed and several statues on the Place de la Concorde are draped in black. The most striking part of the military spectacle was the German march along the Champs’ Elysees. When the line passed under the Arc de Triomphe, it was received by the crowd with whistling, screaming, and derisive shouts. Though in some cases the German,troops were shoved and pushed by the crowd, they behaved splendidly. It was hard for the French to admit their bitter defeat.”<\/p>\n What a change had taken place in military chivalry during the years between 1870 and 1946. When Hitler1s storm troopers entered Paris in 1940, you could not imagine any Frenchman bold enough to hiss openly, to say nothing of shoving and pushing. Such a heckler’s life wouldn1t have been worth a French sou. He-would have been spiked instantly by a German bayonet. In 1940 Parisians had to suffer their bitter humiliation in silence.<\/p>\n In 1871 the Kennebec Journal announced that Maine1s largest city, Portland, had 3,411 dwelling houses, 46 miles of streets. Surprisingly while Portland’s mainland territory comprised only 1,666 acres, the islands within the incorporated city covered 2,963 acres. In 1871 Portland was proud of its new post office and its new custom house.<\/p>\n That issue of the Kennebec Journal contains the account of an unusual accident: “Miss Lucinda Hopkins of Weeks Mills came near being burned to death by setting fire to a frizzled jute switch she wore on her head in a loose flowing manner. She was at a party and was arranging her hair by light of a candle when the switch caught fire and burned like a torch. Although the young lady’s hands and arms were badly burned, as she frantically tried to stop the flames, she is expected to recover. Another member of the party, Mr. Owen Rowe, smothered the blaze with a coat.”<\/p>\n In 1871 the Somerset Railroad from Oakland to Bingham was under construction. The newspaper said of it: “We learn that the contractors of the Somerset R.R. will start laying tracks as soon as the frost is out of the ground. The grading is already finished as far as North Anson.”<\/p>\n Now let us go forward eleven years to see what the then weekly paper, the Waterville Sentinel, had to say in 1882. George Colby had just bought the Moor house on Pleasant Street for \u00a73,250. The Leslie store next to Soper’s had been purchased by Mrs. :,S. E. Percival and Miss Emma Pray as a millinery establishment. Mr. F. H. Hanson had received from his friends the gift of a pair of gold-rimmed spectacles. West Waterville was going to have an iron bridge near the plant of the Dunn Edge Tool Company. It would be 124 feet long. A. W. Ayer, Supt. of the new Somerset R.R. had purchased the New Portland stage line and would run it to Tim Pond during the summer.<\/p>\n Rather interesting is the account of an old-time baseball game. You will note quite a difference from baseball games of today. The account said: “It was arranged last week that the young business men of Waterville should play a game of ball on May Day. It was not to be modern baseball, which breaks fingers and knocks out teeth, but a good old-fashioned game of round ball, sometimes called rounders, played with a ball made for the occasion and of about the consistency of a bag of soft soap. Dr. Benson and Dr. Jones were appointed captains to choose up. The old game calls for eight, not nine men, on a side. Dr. Benson had on his team such well known men as E. D. Robinson, S. W. Bates and Willard Dunn. Dr. Jones had among his players A. H. Plaisted, A. Webb and Frank Redington. A.t 2 P.M. on May Day the teams and a crowd of spectators assembled on Nudd Field. The players were dressed in the ordinary boiled shirt of commerce and high standing collars. The losing team Was obligated to give the winners a banquet at the Elmwood, and both sides were determined to win. Roundball has peculiarities quite different from baseball. The batter runs on any kind of hit ball, for there is no such thing as a foul. He can be put out between bases by having the ball plugged at him and hitting him. Benson’s team won by a score of 94 to 89, a close as well as hilarious game.”<\/p>\n That Sentinel story was evidently written by a Benson partisan, for it said: “Everybody on our side did first rate. After the opposing pitcher, Frank Redington, had lured our Luce off base and had plugged him in the back, our pitcher plugged Neal Marston twice and Plaisted once, so we were three to one over them on plugging.”<\/p>\n Considering the kind of publicity Colby College gets today, with its Ford grant, its January program, and its many lectures and concerts, note what, was considered Colby news in 1882: “Excursions are now in order for the Class of 1882.<\/p>\n “Fasher of 1882 is at the Bricksmaldng up back work in order to graduate with his class.<\/p>\n “The gymnastic classes are preparing for a public exhibition in June.<\/p>\n “A slight ripple of excitement was caused on the campus the other evening by the appearance of the freshmen with canes, but after a heated parley they agreed not to carry them again in public out of respect for sophomore dignity. Recent legislation of the faculty on the subject of cane rushes has considerably dampened the bellicose propensities of the sophomores.”<\/p>\n In 1882 it was considered entirely ethical for doctors to advertise. Dr. F. C. Thayer announced that his office was at the corner of Main and Temple Streets, where he kept regular office hours from 11 to 12 and 1 to 3. Some of the other ads of that time are interesting. M. E. Chase taught voice culture at his home at the corner of Pleasant and School Streets. H. T. Hanson made wheels, spokes, rims and shafts for all manner of wheeled vehicles. J. M. Wall operated what he called a package and baggage wagon. He said: “Packages left at any of the stores on Main Street will be delivered to any part of the city for five cents each. I make two trips a day, at 11 A.M. and 5 P.M.” C. R. Nelson and Co. advertised the patent reflex grate, by which all sifting of ashes and poking of fire could be eliminated.<\/p>\n Today’s ads seldom mention a competitor’s product, but in the 1880’s the ads were more blunt. Witness this one by G. H. Mathews in the Sentinel in 1882: “Notice! Guff, Fleischman.& Co.’s ad in the last number of the Sentinel claims their yeast to be the original and only compressed yeast on the market: Now I want to say that I have used in my bakery three different manufacturers’ yeasts the Vienna, the Boston, and Guff and Fleischman’s. I long ago settled upon the Boston as best in every respect. I have sold this yeast at my corner market in Waterville for the past five years. Mr. Crockett, our city baker, uses no other. I have supplied him ever since he has been in Waterville. Enquire for Boston Compressed Yeast and take no other.<\/p>\n Now Mathews may have been quite right in his claim for the superiority of Boston yeast. But I have to admit that I don’t remember that product at all. Of course my recollection on yeasts sold in grocery stores goes back only to a time about twenty years later than Mathews’ ad, but in the early 1900’s I remember in our old Bridgton store just two yeasts — Fleischman’s fresh yeast cakes, delivered three times a week because they did not keep long, and Magic Yeast, a big compressed cake that must have been something like the Boston yeast that Mathews praised so highly.<\/p>\n Year: 1962<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Read the script for “Little Talks” program #547, Broadcast on October 14, 1962<\/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":[1182,35296],"tags":[],"builder_content":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8204"}],"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=8204"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8204\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}