Faneuil Hall

1895

The Old Cradle of Liberty, the Pride of the "Hub."

Fanuuil hall, the old "Cradle of Liberty," was presented to the town of Boston by Peter Faneuil for the free use of the people. It was completed in September, 1742, and was 100 feet long and 40 feet wide, only half its present width, but large for those days. Three days after its completion it was formally accepted in public meeting and a vote of thanks passed to the donor. It was also voted that the hall should be called Faneuil hall forever. Peter Faneuil died six months after, and his funeral eulogy was the first public oration delivered in the hall.

"May liberty always spread her joyful wings over this place," said Master Lovell of the Latin school in his oration. It was a prophecy; but, sad to say, the prophet afterward turned Tory and loft Boston when it was evacuated by the British. The interior of the hall was destroyed by fire in 1763, but the town immediately voted to repair the damage. The first gathering on the day of the Boston tea party was held here, but the hall was too small to hold them all, and the meeting was adjourned to the Old South church.

During the siege of Boston the hall was turned into a theater by the British. The merchants of the city gave Lafayette a dinner here in 1784. In 1806 the hall was enlarged from 40 to 80 feet in width, and a third story was added. The hall is still used for public meetings and is also used as the rendezvous of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery company, whose history dates back to 1673. — Boston Traveller.

Boston's Tremont House

1895

A Pamphlet Printed In 1830 Describes What Was Then a Wonder.

A curious relic has been found recently in the shape of a pamphlet describing the Tremont House, probably the only copy in existence, which was published in 1830 by Gray & Bowen of Boston.

It contains 94 pages and is finely illustrated, 74 pages being devoted to cuts and plates. Excavation was begun in June, 1828, by a company incorporated by the legislature in 1824-5, and on the July 4th following the cornerstone was laid by the Massachusetts Charitable association. The building was completed in August, 1820, and opened in October.

The dining room was heated from two open fireplaces and was regarded as a very fine apartment in those days. The reading room was free to guests, but a small annual subscription was required from others.

Rainwater was used in the kitchen from a reservoir in the yard, and a well was also drawn upon in the belief that it was inexhaustible. A cistern was placed in Tremont place, another in the cellar and two in the attic. Lead pipes were used and at that time were considered wonderful, as was also the use of mortar in the flooring.

It was considered to be extremely well guarded against fire, and the staircases were thought so wide that inmates could easily escape by them, no matter how rapid the conflagration might be.

The doric portico and stained glass skylight were the two features in which the greatest pride was taken, and the description closes by saying that up to the time of writing the patronage received by the house warranted the belief that it would be beneficial as well as ornamental to the city.

The book is valued at $100. It was published "to satisfy a curiosity which numerous inquiries for a description of the Tremont House were supposed to indicate." — Boston Globe.

A Composition

1895

An exchange reports that a small boy in one of the Germantown (Pa.) public schools wrote a composition on King Henry VIII which reads as follows: "King Henry 8 was the greatest widower that over lived. He was born at Annie Domino in the year 1066. He had 510 wives besides children. The first was beheaded and afterward executed and the 2d was revoked. Henry 8 was succeeded to the throne by his great-grandmother, the beautiful Mary, queen of Scots, sometimes called Lady of the Lake or the Lay of the Last Minstrel."

Story Good, but Dates Wrong

1895

Daniel Webster's son Edward must have been a precocious youth, if we are to credit an incident which Dr. Hale related in The Old South Meeting house as connected with the delivery of Webster's address at Plymouth Dec. 22, 1820, "Webster had just asked, in his solemn and impressive manner, 'Will any man dare to say?' when Edward, unused to hearing his father opposed, piped up, 'No, pa.' "

Such anecdotes are enjoyable if they are unquestioningly accepted. It does not really matter greatly that the youthful Edward was then of the infantile age of only 6 months and 2 days and the further fact that the Plymouth address contains no such interrogatory as "Will any man dare to say?" The point of the anecdote is just as good, although the dates are out. Possibly it was due to one of those errors of memory whose origin, as Professor Power Cobbe tells us in "Fallacies of the Memory," is "but a simple result of permanent mental laws." — Boston Transcript.

Vice President King

1895

He Took the Oath of Office Abroad, but Did Not Live to Serve.

William Rufus King, born April 6, 1786, died April 18, 1853, was a vice president of the United States who never served in that capacity and one who took the oath of office on foreign soil, something which can be said of no other executive officer who has over been elected by the people of this country. King was an invalid, but his friends urged him to take second place on the ticket with Pierce in 1852.

Both were elected, but Mr. King's health failed so rapidly that he was forced to go to Cuba some two months before inauguration day. Not having returned to the United States by March 4, Congress passed a special act authorizing the United States consul at Matanzas, Cuba, to swear him in as vice president at about the hour when Pierce was taking the oath of office at Washington.

This arrangement was carried out to a dot, and on the day appointed, at a plantation on one of the highest hills in the vicinity of Matanzas, Mr. King was made vice president of the United States amid the solemn "Vaya vol con Dios" (God will be with you) of the creoles who had assembled to witness the unique spectacle. Vice President King returned to his home at Cahawba, Ala., arriving at that place April 17, 1853, and died the following day. His remains wore laid to rest on his plantation, known as Pine Hills. — Chicago Times.

Patriotic New Englanders

1895

The First Person Who Fell In the War of the Revolution.

Hezekiah Butterworth, in "The Patriotic Schoolmaster," says the first person to fall in the war of the Revolution was not Crispus Attucks, but a boy. If Attucks, who fell by an accidental encounter, merits a monument as the first who fell for liberty, so does this boy.

There were a few merchants in Boston who continued to sell taxed articles. They came to be despised and hated. The boys, in their hasty patriotism, made on a placard a list of the names of those who imported and sold proscribed articles and put it on a pole that bore a wooden head and hand. They set this image up before an importer's door, with the wooden hand pointing toward it, and this made the importer angry, and he fired a musket into the crowd of boys. Christopher Gore, afterward governor of Massachusetts, was slightly wounded.

Little Christopher Snyder, a boy whose mother was a widow, and who had followed the spirit of the times, fell mortally wounded. They took up his form and bore it away, and the whole city wept. Never in America was there a boy's funeral like his. They made for him a patriot's coffin and bore his form to the Liberty Tree, which stood near the present corner of Washington and Essex streets. On the coffin was this motto, "Innocence itself is not safe." The boys of nearly all the schools, some 600 in number, gathered around the body as an escort. The bells tolled, business was closed, and some 1,500 people followed the first martyr to the grave.

As the procession marched not only the bells of Boston, but those of the neighboring towns, were heard tolling. It was almost spring, and there was a mellowness in the air. That procession was a prophecy of events to come, a protest against the injustice of the royal power. The sons of liberty should remember little Snyder's grave.

Broadway Glacier

1895

A FAMOUS OLD HOTEL AND THEATER SUCCUMB TO IT.

Memories of the Glorious Career of the Old Metropolitan and Niblo's Garden. Reminiscences That Will Interest Others Besides New Yorkers.

Thirty years ago the Metropolitan hotel was the focus of the town. The gilded youth went there for late suppers. The most noted politicians of the Tweed ring poured out champagne there. Its birds were always well cooked, its steaks were marrowed to a turn, its oysters had the call, and its whisky was famous.

It was the plaza for the actors until long after the war. They stood in clusters all round its steps and held council in its vestibule, for all the noted chophouses were in the neighborhood.

Round the corner, in Houston street, were the House of Lords and Clifton's, and up on the other end of the block was the Revere House. From that corner down you could meet on a pleasant day all the famous actors in town — E. L. Davenport, Tom Placide, Burton, Dion Boucicault, James W. Wallack, Charles Fisher, John Brougham, Rufus Blake and a double score of others. If any of them got up as far as the Metropolitan Opera House, it was behind a fast team, and they found themselves in the country.

When the Metropolitan was opened in 1852, it was the town talk. It was inaugurated with a stupendous banquet. Stephen A. Douglas and Tom Benton and Sam Houston were there. Voluminous descriptions of the hotel appeared in the newspapers of that date. People stood in crowds and looked up at it from the other side of the street. It was thought by conservative people to be a most unwarranted piece of extravagance. But the Metropolitan became at once one of the most popular hotels in the city. And its complement of 1,000 guests did not fall off while the Lelands had charge of it.

Before and during the war it was customary for the reporters to go to the Metropolitan every night to get the news. It was jammed with people on the night of the cable celebration and on the day that Sumter was fired on. There was, in fact, no such center above it on Broadway, and its walls must have rung with the voices of many great captains and celebrated beauties.

There are people in New York who can remember when Niblo had a garden there. There are many more who can remember the first theater which went by the name of the garden, and how the American institute was wont to hold its fairs there, and the original Christy minstrels, before they got into Mechanics' hall, really caught the small town there, and how for several seasons the concert hall was the resort of our small musical population.

Then later the theater spread out into a great auditorium, and Mr. A. T. Stewart bought the property and had a private box connected with a parlor, and finally came Jarrett and Palmer to take the management, and then bloomed upon the world the "Black Crook" and the "White Fawn," spectacles whose like had never been seen, and which rolled up fortunes for everybody connected with them.

But at this time the theater was in the full swing of popular success. The enormous success of the "Black Crook" had secured all the commercial visitors in town. It was denounced by the pulpit, but never waned in attractiveness for years. Agents were kept in Europe to snap up every specialty they could find, and such was the pliability and capacity of the performance that it swallowed up everything, from a performing goat to a prima ballerina assoluta.

Bonfanti was then in her prime and became the rage of the town. Pauline Markham was in full girth of glory and led the Amazons.

If some one will lay hold of the still virile beard of the venerable Commodore Tooker, he will reminisce for an hour on the palmy days of Niblo's. All the historic Thespians of the pave will tell of the days of William Wheatley and the production of the "Duke's Motto," a play which made the most extraordinary kind of a hit, and how after that Forrest came with the "Broker of Bogota," one of the best original American dramas of its era.

When Jarrett and Palmer took hold of Niblo's Garden, a change came over the house. Then opened the era of Terpsichore, and for years the place was given over to a voluptuous orgie of bacchantes and spectacle. There were long rows of the handsomest women in the world in the corridors on Tuesday mornings to draw their salary.

After the "Black Crook" wore itself out there were spasmodic efforts to call back the old dramatic prestige of the house. Charles Fechter made his American debut there, playing Hamlet in a blond wig and failing to please the public. It was there that Boucicault brought his "Formosa" from London after declaring that he was going to open "a new path for the drama through the sewers," and the play was damned on the first night.

The Metropolitan has succumbed to the inevitable. Broadway is a glacier, not a rock. It moves slowly north with all its gayety, its groups, its centers. Everything historic melts and vanishes. Every old stager has marked the shifting of the centers. Thirty years ago the focus of Vanity Fair was there between Houston and Prince streets. When Rachel came to this country, she got no higher than Houston street. And when the war was over the meeting place of all the lions, the swells, the flaneurs, was between the St. Nicholas and the Metropolitan.

Those blocks thundered and palpitated with the life that has gone up to Thirty-ninth street. First the crowd jumped to Union square, then it went to the Fifth Avenue hotel, then to the Hoffman House, then to the Coleman, then to the Grand, then to — well, you will have to take a cable car to find it now. — Nym Crinkle in New York World.

Sins of Alexander III

1895

In his zeal to stamp out disaffection Alexander III reintroduced the knout, discontinued in a previous reign, and practically abolished trial by jury. In 1888 he sanctioned an order, signed by Galkin Vrasskoi, head of the central prison department, declaring that henceforth "no difference shall be admitted in favor of political prisoners in respect of punishment," and that "flogging with the rod and with the whip shall be admitted." This annihilated the distinction up to then maintained between political offenders and ordinary criminals, since it gave to the executive officer of prisons the right to flog "politicals" in his charge, and it was under this order, sanctioned by the czar, that Mme. Sigida received the brutal beating that ended in her death.

Another reactionary feature of prison administration for which the government of Alexander III was responsible is the introduction of imprisonment by administrative order. Previous to 1886 the administrative exile of political suspects to various places of residence in the provinces and to Siberia was common enough, but in that year was begun the practice of committing these suspects to jail and holding them there without trial as "a preventive measure," at the will and caprice of the executive. A new prison in St. Petersburg, known as "The Cross," has been designated to meet the case of this kind of offenders — that is, of people who have not committed any crime, but are simply suspected of being about to become "politically untrustworthy." — Edmund Noble in Donahoe's Magazine.

Thirteen Old Newspapers

1895

According to the census made by the editor of the Rutland (Vt.) Herald, there are but 13 American newspapers which have reached the century mark. The names of these papers and the dates when they were founded are as follows:

1756—New Hampshire Gazette, Portsmouth, N. H.
1758—Newport Mercury, Newport, R. I.
1764—Connecticut Courant, Hartford.
1771—Massachusetts Spy, Boston and Worcester, Mass.
1779—New Jersey Journal, Elizabeth, N. J.
1785—Augusta Chronicle, Augusta, Ga.
1786—Hampshire Gazette, Northampton, Mass.
1790—Salem Gazette, Salem, Mass.
1792—Greenfield Gazette, Greenfield, Mass.
1792—New Jersey State Gazette, Trenton.
1792—The Guardian, New Brunswick, N. J.
1793—Portsmouth Journal, Portsmouth, N. H.
1794—Rutland Herald, Rutland, Vt.

The Continuity of History

1895

A month ago I stood in the cathedral of Lisieux, in which, when the mortar of the church was hardly dry, Henry II of England married Eleanor of Aquitaine. That marriage gave the kings of England a great domain in France and entailed long wars between the two countries. This struggle, lasting throughout the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, was the chief cause of the baronial anarchy which culminated in the wars of the roses. The Tudor despotism was the outcome of those wars, and in trying to maintain that despotism the Stuarts lost their throne. The revolution which overthrew the Stuarts gave supremacy to parliament and led directly to the union.

Finally the parliament of Great Britain, after proving its capacity by creating the British empire and defeating Napoleon, formed the model for constitutional government throughout the civilized world. Thus the effects of the marriage of Henry II are felt to this day throughout the civilized world. And so we may — nay, we must — treat any great historical event until the ages are "bound each to each by natural piety." This is what is meant by the continuity of history. — National Review.

The History of Quinine

1895
How the Use of the Drug Supplanted the Practice of Bleeding Patients.
In 1830, when the French were conducting a campaign of conquest in Algeria, the mortality among the troops and colonists there was frightful. France was being continually called upon for fresh levies of men and youths to supply this terrible loss, chiefly through fever incidental to the climate and the life the French in Algeria were leading. At that time the practice of bleeding still prevailed. "Bleed them until they are white," was the injunction which Broussais, the medical master of the French, gave to his followers when the condition of the soldiers was reported to him. At Bona in one year, out of an effective force of 5,500 men, 1,100 died of illness in the hospital.

At that time the effects of a sulphate of quinine were known, but few physicians ventured to employ it. Maillot had interested himself in the new remedy, and going to Bona in the medical service of the government he resolved to see if it would not reduce the frightful mortality, which was 1 to every 3-1/2 men who entered the hospital. At first he employed the quinine merely as an adjunct to the bleeding. He soon found that bleeding was killing the men, and that quinine was saving them. Little by little he left off bleeding, to the great scandal of the medical profession. Exactly in proportion as the bleeding ceased the deaths in the hospital decreased. In two years the deaths fell off from 1 in 3-1/2 of all who entered the hospital to 1 in 26 and finally to 1 in 46.

Maillot quite naturally enough grew to be the opponent of bleeding, but he was so ceaselessly vilified by members of the medical profession that he became imbittered toward his colleagues. Nearly 30 years passed before Maillot saw the complete triumph of his ideas. Doctors continued to bleed their patients heartily for all manner of ills. But in 1860 Maillot was made commander of the Legion of Honor and chief of the medical staff of the French army, and his influence with others in bringing about a virtual revolution in the practice of medicine was fully recognized. — Pearson's Weekly.

Comment: Ask your doctor if bleeding is right for you!

An Easy Shave

1895

"An easy shave?" The words come trippingly, as if the art, or rather mystery, of shaving were facile. From the very earliest ages the problem of shaving, like all really great problems, has perplexed thoughtful men. Why our Paleolithic ancestors began to shave is unascertained. It seems so easy to let the chin alone. There may have been some religious reason, or sexual selection may have intervened. Woman may have preferred a beardless wooer. Yet this is contrary to all analogy.

When Alma Venus behaved in the manner so poetically described by Lucretius, "the most eloquent of blasphemers," then the wanton lapwing procured for himself another crest, and the peacock spread abroad the splendors of his tail. The beard in man is averred by philosophers to have a corresponding moral. But man, being reasonable, must needs cut his beard off. To run in the face of nature has ever been his way of asserting his independence and demonstrating the lordship of reason.

Ere metals were invented, ere fire subdued the copper to his will, man plucked his beard out, or he tooled with a sharp shell. A soapless shave with a shell — it cannot be called easy, and travelers have described the agonies of the brave. Conceivably, man shaved because the beard might be caught hold of by an enemy with the left hand, while with the right he drove the pointed flint under the fifth rib. For whatever reason, man in the bronze age shaved with a bronze razor, as if we should do so with a paper cutter. The process must have been slow and painful, as much so as tattooing, but fashion was all powerful. — Saturday Review.

The Wedding Ring

1895

The ring was considered a badge of servitude by some and was for that reason given by the man to his wife, like our forefathers, who were accustomed to give the future son-in-law one of the bride's shoes as a sign of authority over her. It was reputed to be accompanied by a tap on the head of the bride with the said shoe by the husband in order to assert his prerogative. The ring was used in ancient times as a sign of contract, and from that fact, according to the antiquary Brand, it was nearly abolished by the Puritans of Cromwell on account of its heathenish origin. Butler, in his "Hudibras," refers to it:

Others were for abolishing
That tool of matrimony, a ring,
With which the unsanctified bridegroom
Is married only to a thumb,
As wise as ringing of a pig
That used to break up ground and dig.

The circlet of love withstood the assaults of the sanctified Roundheads, and Cupid's yoke did and does still have sway. An old Latin writer thus describes the ring: "(1) It is circular, because its form importeth that mutual love and hearty affection should always exist between the giver and Wearer. (2) Its rotundity exemplifieth that the loving joys of courtship and matrimony should be forever, their continuity remaining as unbroken as the circlet itself." — Chambers' Journal.

Passages From The Early History of Brownfield

Maine/New Hampshire, 1916

By Hon. Eli B. Bean.

Schools.

After the settlement of a portion of the sixty families Brown had obligated himself to settle in his grant of land, and these had erected for themselves log cabins and commenced clearing the then unbroken forest, those families located near each other began to think about schools for their children. Under such circumstances as they were then situated the question of establishing schools and erecting suitable houses for same was a problem hard to solve. Yet it was boldly and firmly met with all the means in their power and with partial success, in many cases the mothers and older children acting as teachers and some portion of the larger houses, or some out building, serving as a school room for the time being. The hardships and privations endured by those pioneers of our township would quite discourage the people of the present generation. Yet they were ever sustained with the hope of making a home for their young families. The first building erected for a schoolhouse was situated not far from the present junction of the road from Denmark, with the road to Fryeburg at East Brownfield railroad crossing, and was built prior to the incorporation of the town. It was at this schoolhouse where the first town meeting for the election of town officers was held after its incorporation in 1802. In 1806 a town meeting was again called to meet at this "schoolhouse near John Bolt Miller's" and no further mention is made of the house, either for school purposes or town business.

In 1803 the town voted to raise fifty dollars for school purposes, but there is no record of it having been expended, or, if expended, where or how. At the same town meeting the Selectmen of the town (Joshua Ames, Cyrus Ingalls and Lieut. John Goodenow) were directed to divide the town into school district and they reporting the following:

District No. 1. Beginning at Timothy Gibson, Esq., and to include all the inhabitants on and about "Beech Hill" and on the main road as far as Wilson Howard's, including Josiah Spring and his neighborhood that are in Brownfield to be one district. We recommend two schoolhouses to be built in the most convenient places to accommodate the inhabitants of said district.

District No. 2. Beginning at Benjamin and George Lord's and including the settlement on towards Fryeburg (east side Saco river) as far as school rights of land, so called, now owned by Lieut. Joshua Ames and John Howe, and we do recommend one schoolhouse to be set in the most convenient place to accommodate the inhabitants of said district.

District No: 3. Beginning at Lieut. Joshua Ames' and John Howe's land, as mentioned in the second district, and on the main road to Fryeburg line. Lieut. Asa Osgood and others in that neighborhood, also all those persons on the west side of the river, below Wilson Howard's, we recommend to draw their money, providing they will lay it out for schools in said town.

In March, 1804 it was voted to raise one hundred and fifteen dollars for support of schools in town and that each district should build their own schoolhouses. At the town meeting held in March, 1805, the town voted not to raise any money for school purposes, but at a second meeting called in April the same year, they appeared to repent of such action, and the town voted to raise $115 for schooling the present year. From this date on until 1820 the town raised various sums for schooling from $115 to $250 annually.

NO schoolhouses were built in districts No. 2 and No. 3 prior to the change in town lines in 1807 and their schools were kept in private houses. At the first town meeting held in Brownfield in 1807, after a portion of the town had been annexed to the towns of Denmark and Hiram, and the north part of Porterfield annexed to Brownfield, the town selected Timothy Gibson, Esq., John Sands and Nathaniel Merrill as a committee to divide the town into school districts and they reported as follows in October of same year and their report then accepted:

District No. 1 Beginning at Timothy Gibson Esquire's, and extending to Wilson Howard's.

District No. 2. Beginning at William Merrill's and extending to John Sand's on the Merrill road to take in Mr. Thompson and David Mansfield and "athuat" Sheppard's river so as to embrace Timothy Gibson, Jr.

District No. 3. To take all on the south side of Sheppard's river to Porter line.

District No. 4. To take all on the north side of Sheppard's river.

At the same meeting the town voted to allow any person to send their scholars to either school they chose, but that each district should retain their own school money.

School district No. 2, the Centre district, was the first to build a schoolhouse under the new organization of the town. In 1808, the district voted to build a schoolhouse and locate it "on the ridge at the foot of Dugway hill, below John Sand's" the size of the house to be twenty-two feet by twenty-six feet square, and voted to raise two hundred dollars for that purpose, selecting John Sands, Lieut. James Steele as a committee to build the house. Timothy Gibson, Jr., was clerk of the district meeting. As many of the inhabitants in the district wished to pay their tax in labor or material, a vote was taken to establish the price the committee were to allow for such as furnished. The same year (1808) District No. 1 voted to build a house, locating it in the centre between Esq. Timothy Gibson's and Wilson Howard's. The house was erected near the Maj. Stickney homestead. Daniel Gibson was clerk of the meeting and Timothy Gibson, Esq., Wm. Webster and John Stickney, selected as building committee, and one hundred and thirty dollars raised for the purpose, the house near John B. Miller's having been destroyed or abandoned.

The frame of the house was erected by Daniel Gibson for which the committee paid him thirty dollars. The following year, Dec. 30, 1809, the district voted to raise 85 dollars to finish the house and have the committee call on the Selectmen to furnish a school teacher as soon as they think proper. No record of any school in this district for the years 1808 and 1809, but they probably had schools kept in private houses during those years.

There is mention of school in 1810, when Maj. John Stickney was paid two dollars per week for board of teacher (probably Sally Mansfield) and tuition, and the district "voted to have a lock on schoolhouse, and allow any denomination go into the house to worship God."

District No. 3 voted to build a school in 1809 and locate it on land deeded to the district by Andrew Wentworth, near the Wentworth homestead. Luke Mills, Ichabod Ricker and Isaac Merrill were chosen committee to build the house. Most of the orders given by the building committee for labor and materials are now in good condition and on file with the town papers in Selectmen's office.

In 1811 an effort was made to have the town assume the expense of the schoolhouses already erected in Districts 1, 2 and 3, and finish the same for schools, also "to build such other schoolhouses in town as may become necessary." The town voted not to build any schoolhouses, but voted to aid District No. 2 to rebuild, contributing one hundred dollars for same, conditioned that the town could hold their town meetings there and that the house be free for each religious denomination to hold Sunday meetings, each denomination to have its equal share of the time. The size of the house to be 28 feet by 30 feet square, and to locate same in the forks of the road in front of Dr. Hadley's.

It was in this house Rev. Jacob Rice, the first settled in town, was preaching when he was stricken with heart failure and died within a few hours afterwards at the house of Dr. Hadley.

W. S. H.

—The Fryeburg Post, Fryeburg, Maine, Sept. 12, 1916, p. 3.

Agriculture of Maine

1916

By B. Walter McKeen.

XX. Advanced Agricultural Thinking

The Board of Agriculture held its winter meetings for 1872 at Paris January 23rd to 26th inclusive. The attendance was not what it had been the last years and some disappointment resulted. More talent was gathered for these meetings than for any Other session. Upon the list of the members of the Board there appears for the first time, the name of Elisha E. Parkhurst, of Presque Isle, the pioneer in the spraying of potatoes for blight. Mr. Parkhurst's work along this line preceded that of any experiment station and formed a foundation for what has been done since to overcome this trouble. The writer has been over the piece of land, with Mr. Parkhurst, where this early spraying was done, and it was with some degree of deserved pride that he related all the circumstances to me. The name of S. L. Boardman, who at that time was the editor of the Maine Farmer, appeared as a member at large, appointed by the Governor and council.

The first vote of the Board required the agricultural societies receiving aid from the state, to expend one-fourth of the money in premiums for farm improvements, these premiums to be in the fall of 1874. By this vote, the money heretofore devoted to the encouragement of wheat culture was turned in another direction and the attempt to keep Maine in the column of wheat growing states was abandoned. It may be of interest to note some of the crops of wheat grown that year as recorded in the reports of the secretaries of the various agricultural societies. These are as follows:

"A. Hunter, Strong, 29 bushels on one acre. F. N. & C. Frye, Fryeburg, 115 bushels on 7 1-2 acres. Peter C. Barker, Orrington, 58 bushels, on one acre (this was known as "Lost Nation" wheat). A. J. Wiggin, Stetson, 71 1-2 bushels on two acres. Edward Jay, Patten, 31 bushels on one acre. W. Vickery, Unity, 44 1-8 bushels on one acre." When we consider that flour had averaged for the whole year to sell for $15 per barrel, and that conservative estimates placed the cost of imported flour for the year 1868 as high as $9,750,000, it seems a pity that interest couldn't have been maintained in the cultivation of wheat.

To give a somewhat local flavor to this paper, which may be interesting to my older readers, I am going to quote from the report of the West Oxford society, as made for the year by its Secretary, Dr. D. Lowell Lamson. He says: "Corn crop very good. From statement made to the committee, the following are selected and noted here: J. G. Swan, Denmark, 75 bushels per acre: cost of crop, $49.00 per acre; value of same, including fodder, $111.75; net profit, $62.75. A. O. Pike, Fryeburg, 91 bushels on 1 1-2 acres, cost of crop $89.00, value including fodder, $134.00, net profit, $45.00. A. H. Evans, Fryeburg, raised 90 bushels rutabagas in 1-8 of an acre. The society voted to expense $1,200.00 in and about the grounds, which will bring it into debt again. Amount of premiums paid, $362.20." As a comparison, premiums paid in 1915, were $1,296.00

Secretary Goodale and Professor Fernald were appointed a committee to attend a National agricultural convention, called by the commissioners of agriculture, to meet in Washington, February 15th. As far as the writer knows, this was the first meeting of its kind ever called and possibly it was the beginning of the Farmer's National Congress which has now become a power for good.

The public exercises begun with an address by Governor Perham, in which he spoke in a general way of the interests of agriculture and gave statistics to prove its importance to the state. President Allen, of the State College, followed the Governor in an address outlining the aims and methods of the college and from this address I will quote one paragraph:

"The Maine State College is not a professional school to prepare the students exclusively for any trade or occupation in life. It is not designed alone for those who are to be farmers and mechanics. It does not teach fully the art of farming, or any of the useful arts. Its design is to lay the broad, deep foundations of a liberal education which is best adapted to industrial pursuits, so that into whatever department of industry its graduates may enter, they will be successful business men, farmers or mechanics, and also intelligent, educated men; prepared to lead and guide the thought and intelligence of the whole community where they dwell." If the thoughts contained in that paragraph could have been kept in the minds of the people of the state during the years the college was struggling for existence, it would have been much better for all concerned.

A new departure was made in the subjects treated at these meetings when Professor Fernald was asked to read a paper on protection from lightning. Other states had been drawn on for talent and T. S. Gold, Secretary of the Connecticut Board of Agriculture, gave a lecture on orchards and fruit culture. In this lecture, the apple maggot was discussed. The speaker said he had not reached Maine and that the state was fortunate. But, like other pests, he did not pass Maine by, and soon many of her fall varieties of apples were badly infested with the maggot. Hon. John Stanton Gould, of New York, gave a lecture on the management of meadows and pastures. In this, we find the first mention of the Thomas smoothing harrow, as it is known today. Its use as a tillage implement is recommended. From this lecture probably sprung the practise of "harrowing" corn, now quite commonly adopted in the state. Mr. Gould also speaks of the relations of railroads and transportation companies to agriculture. This is the first time I have seen this matter treated before the Board or the farmers, and it is to be regretted that no copy of the lecture appears.

To those who are familiar with the great number of books of the present day which treat of the various branches of agriculture it may seem strange that Secretary Goodale couldn't find but two at that time that he would recommend. These were Practical Dairy Husbandry by X. A. Willard, and How Crops Grow by Professor S. W. Johnson of the Sheffield Scientific school of Yale to call "Walter culture" and notes that Maine was the pioneer in calling attention to the possibilities of the culture of fish, which was first done in his report for 1864. Since then, Congress has recognized its importance and, pending the adoption of a bill carrying a limited appropriation, listened to a speech by representative Roosevelt, of New York. This speech, the Secretary uses entire. He adds in a foot note that much progress has been made in stocking New England waters with salmon and shad.

The Autumn session of the Board was held at Skowhegan, October 9th, 10th and 11th. The attendance was not as large as it had been at some of the other meetings. The first business of the meeting was to listen to the report of the committee which attended the National agricultural convention. This report was made by Professor Fernald, and while it is not within the province of this paper to give it in detail, we may note some of the subjects that received attention. They were the expediency of seeking further grants of land from Congress. The establishing of experimental farms. Best methods of cooperating with one another and with the college of agriculture. The preservation of timber lands. The necessity for a general plan for a meteorological observation and crop reports, and a general system of communicating the same by telegraph. The distribution of valuable plants and seeds by the Department of Agriculture was urged, and special request was made that samples of the Threadwell and Diehl Winter wheats, such as are grown in Michigan, be distributed throughout New England.

Following the regular business of the session, the Junior class of the college of agriculture gave a class exercise designed to exhibit the character of the instruction given at the Institution. From a lecture on "Life's Callings" by Hon. C. J. Morris we cull the following figures, the contemplation of which should give every Maine farmer cause for serious thought and reflection: "The average per acre value of the nine principle crops in all the states, viz: corn, wheat, oats, barley, buckwheat, potatoes, tobacco, and hay is $18.71, being 84 cents per acre short of the average for Maine. Maine is ahead of the other New England states in the yield and value of her corn crop, and she is but nine tenths of a bushel short of the average yield of the six largest corn growing states in the Union, and exceeds these states in the per acre value of her crop $23.26. Maine's wheat crop exceeds the average yield of the six largest wheat states two and four tenths bushels per acre, and $14.00 per acre in the valuation."

The session closed with an address by Hon. S. L. Boardman on the power and influence of the agricultural press. As a whole, the crops for 1872 seem to have been fairly satisfactory. There were no insect pests and no serious droughts. The returns for the crops grown seem to have been satisfactory.

—The Fryeburg Post, Fryeburg, Maine, Sept. 12, 1916, p. 5.

The Game of Chess

1901

The game of chess differs in the various countries of the world. Thus, in the Hindoo game, four distinct armies are employed, each with their king, each corps counting among its fighters an elephant and a knight which slay but cannot be slain. The Chinese game of chess, which boasts of the title of choke-choc-kong-ki (the play of the science of war), has a river running through the center of the board, which their elephants, equivalent to our bishops, cannot cross, and there is a fort which their kings cannot pass.

Under the Sanskrit name of chaturanga a game essentially the same as modern chess was played in Hindustan nearly 5,000 years ago. From Hindustan the game is said to have been carried to Persia and thence to Arabia. The Arabs introduced it into Spain and the rest of western Europe during the eighth century, where it became the principal pastime about the year 1000.

England Makes Apology

1916

Washingon, Sept. 20 -- Great Britain today formally expressed to the United States regret for the action of a British destroyer in holding up and examining the Philippine steamer Ceb within the territorial waters of the Philippines.

Because of a heavy fog, it was explained, the destroyer's commander did not know the vessel was so near shore.

In the absence of Ambassador Spring Rice, Colville Barclay, counsellor of the British Embassy, called at the State Department at the request of Sec. Gray and presented the explanation and expression of regret. Department official said later the incident was regarded as closed.

Dollar Rules in Finance

1916

Paris, Sept. 19. — Max Hoschiller, in an article in the Temps, contrasts America's financial position now in respect to foreign countries with what it was before the war. The article says:

"Then the United States was sending to Europe from $200,000,000 to $300,000,000 in interest on its borrowings, $150,000,000 to $200,000,000 spent by tourists, $100,000,000 to $150,000,000 to expatriates and $20,000,000 to $40,000,000 in ocean freights.

"Since the war the United States has imported $730,000,000 in gold and has paid back a considerable amount of its previous borrowings, has increased its foreign trade by $2,250,000,000 yearly and has loaned to foreign countries $1,470,000,000 so that the dollar now has replaced, to a considerable extent, the old sovereignty of the English pound abroad.

"Whether the United States will retain, with her deficient financial organization, the position recently won, will depend upon American financial and commercial policies. The arrival in France of an American commercial mission is an indication that Americans are realizing they must follow the law of exchanges between countries, buying in general, as much as they sell."

Bell's Report on Villa

1916

Washington, Sept. 21. — The most detailed account yet received of the fighting at Chihuahua City last Saturday, when Villa celebrated the Mexican Independence day by a successful assault on the Carranza garrison, reached the war department today from Bridg. Gen. George Bell, commander of the El Paso military district. It asserts that Villa personally led the attacking forces; that he took and held numerous important buildings in the city for several hours; that he was joined by a thousand or more men of the Carranza garrison, and retired, promising to return soon, and taking with him a large quantity of captured arms, ammunition and artillery.

No official would predict what effect the incident may have on the negotiations at New London, which embrace General Carranza's request that American troops be withdrawn from Mexico. It was deemed certain, however, that no agreement could be reached by the commissioners until it was known precisely to what extent the situation in Northern Mexico had been altered by the Chihuahua City developments and until it was made clear what the Carranza government would do to cope with the new situation.

Germany Will Protest Against Tanks

1916

London, Sept. 23. — An exchange telegraph despatch from Geneva says it is understood there that the German government proposes to lodge a complaint with the International Red Cross against the use of the so-called "tanks." The complaint will be on the ground that the use of these new engines of war is contrary to recognized methods of civilized warfare.