Turner's Public Spirit, April 5, 1924
A look back in time to a century ago
By Bob Oliphant
Center. The Tadmuck club will hold their next meeting at the Congregational church on Tuesday afternoon, April 8, at 2:45. There will be a musical program by Mrs. Thomas Whitney Surrette, followed by a club tea, with Mrs. William R. Carver as hostess.
The W.C.T.U. met at the home of Mrs. Clarence Whitney on Wednesday afternoon.
The Oratorio society held a rehearsal at the Congregational church on Thursday evening. It is quite essential that there be a large attendance at all rehearsals as there will be only six more before the concert which the society is planning to give later in the season.
The Alliance will hold an all-day session with Mrs. Benjamin Prescott on Thursday, April 10. The annual business meeting will be held, and the speaker of the afternoon will be Rev. Frank B. Crandall, who will take for his subject, “The bible—a book for every day.”
A committee of more than 300 prominent men and women of Greater Boston, headed by Mrs. Walter Pratt, chairman, have planned a patriotic week celebration from April 19 to May 4 for the purpose of raising funds to carry on the work of the Army and Navy club at 10 Park square, and for the disabled veterans still in the hospitals. In connection with this celebration the committee has planned a membership campaign during which time patriotic celebrations, rummage and food sales, bridge and Mah Jong parties, etc., will be held in the thirty different towns and cities of which Westford is one. Mrs. Addie Buckshorn is in charge in Westford and started the benefit by holding the first in a chain of whist parties on Monday.
The funeral of Miss Ella F. Hildreth was held from her home last week, Rev. Edward Disbrow conducting the services, and interment was in the Lowell cemetery. The pall-bearers were Charles L. Henry, Clarence and Alfred Hildreth.
Miss Elva and Edith Judd spent the weekend in Carlisle.
Miss Lillian Sutherland has been substituting at Forge Village recently.
Plans are being perfected for the Tadmuck club assembly which will be held in the town hall on Friday evening, April 11, and promises to be one of the social events of the season. Every third dance will be a waltz; there will be novelties and a prize dance. Refreshments of ice cream and cake will be on sale. While the dance is private in a certain sense, any holder of an invitation may invite one or several friends to attend. Mrs. Robert Prescott is chairman of the committee, assisted by Mrs. A. W. Hartford, Mrs. Addie Buckshorn, Mrs. Alice Wells and Mrs. William E. Wright.
The [illegible words] conducted by Miss Lucinda Prescott at the home of Mrs. Harry Stiles on every Thursday afternoon is proving very successful.
The dogs of the town are supposed to be in quarantine for rabies, according to a recent order issued by the selectmen, the latest victim of the disease being a Graniteville dog, which succeeded in biting some persons before it was finally put out of the way. Although there have been several cases of rabies in town within the past few years, fortunately up to the last case the police always succeeded in shutting the animals up or putting them out of the way before any serious damage was done.
Recent visitors of Mr. and Mrs. J. E. Knight were Mrs. H. K. Ranney and Mr. and Mrs. Ralph Yetton and family, of Wayland, Mr. and Mrs. John Sharp, of Lowell, and Mrs. Charles Campbell, of Hudson, N.H.
The regular monthly supper and entertainment were held in the Congregational church on last week Friday evening. The supper was excellent and the entertainment, which proved very enjoyable, was as follows: Songs, Misses Elva Judd and Lillian Sutherland; piano solo, Miss Elizabeth Hildreth; reading, Mrs. Warren Hanscom; tableau, “Bachelor’s dream,” with Perry Shupe as the bachelor, assisted by several others. The chairman of the committee was Mrs. Perley Wright, assisted by Mrs. William Roudenbush, Mrs. Clarence Whitney, Mrs. Perry Shupe, Mrs. Charles Wright and Mrs. Arthur Burnham.
The Y.P.R.U. of the Unitarian church will hold their regular monthly meeting at the close of the church services on Sunday afternoon.
The young people’s choir of the Unitarian church will meet at the home of Mrs. Alice Wells on Saturday evening at 7:30, at which time the Easter music will be rehearsed.
April was ushered in with a good, old-fashioned snowstorm, necessitating the use of the snow plow on the second day of the month.
The millinery class, under the auspices of the Extension Service, will be held on April 14 in Library hall, from ten in the morning to four o’clock in the afternoon. Mrs. Joseph R. Draper will have charge of the class, with the help of an assistant. A small fee will be charged to cover the expenses of the assistant. Bring frame and materials for covering it and all necessary sewing materials. Box luncheon at noon. The class is open to everyone. More particulars may be obtained from Miss May E. Day. It is also desired that the names of those wishing to attend should be reported. Visitors are cordially welcome.
The question heard on all sides is “When is that special town meeting to be held?” referring to the one demanded by citizens for March 15.
More Impetigo has been reported at the William E. Frost school, but it is hoped that there will be no more serious infection from it.
The firemen held another of their enjoyable suppers on Tuesday evening with twenty-two members and guests present. The committee was composed of Leonard W. Wheeler, Guy Rockwell and Everett Miller. Another supper is planned for the month of May.
About Town. The first thunder shower of the season passed over the Stony Brook valley on last Saturday, about midnight.
And so congress has refused to appropriate $50,000,000 to finance the scheme to assist the wheat farmers to change over from wheat to dairying, for up rises the cotton farmers and asks for $50,000,000 to help them shift over, and apparently there was no terminal to the promised shift-overs, and most sanely wise congress refused to open the door to all demands. Let them stand and knock, for if it is opened to wheat, up comes cotton, oranges, apples and potatoes, milk and mouse traps generally.
We received a telephone message from George W. Trull, of North Tewksbury, Tuesday, informing us and others that the farmers’ institute listed for April 2 has been postponed until Tuesday, April 8, at the Village church in North Tewksbury; afternoon and evening, with supper at six o’clock. Entertainment follows, with Miss Crosby, of Boston in the role of reader.
Arthur J. O’Brien, one of the peaceable citizens of the Stony Brook valley, started something on last Saturday by planting peas. The Old Oaken Bucket farm [of the author], by yeoman work, not to be outgeneraled by the suddenness of this unexpected start, countered by planting sweet corn, and this has started the alarm for a general rush along the line for the next early catch-as-catch-can and the mud, dust and snow are all balancing partners in the air.
Burton K. Wheeler[1] [U.S. Senator, Democrat from Montana, 1923 to 1947], head push searchlight for symptoms of smoke to lead to clues to dead men’s testimony as to who are infallible crooks, has been ill. There are some symptoms that the importance of his office has gone to his head and produced that incurable complaint known as ego. “This committee will not be bulldozed.” Don’t let counsel ask a simple question in cross-examination for fear it will reduce your bump of ego.
While we never yet have voted to nominate Lieut.-Gov. Alvin T. Fuller for any office, we are clearly for him in the present contest for governor. He is the plain people’s candidate of the every-day overalls type, as against dress goods and dress parade, and if there is one sound reason why he should not be nominated I would like to have it ignite with my thinking apparatus.
New York state apparently is taking the lead in reforestation of idle land this spring. Orders for trees already on file in the offices of the conservation commission show that more land will be reforested this year in New York state than any preceding year and the movement will be limited only by the ability of the state to furnish planting stock. The commission has available about 1,000,000 more trees than it had at this time last year. Town forests are planning on the income to be devoted to the support of schools.
Perry T. Snow [grandson of Samuel L. Taylor, the author of this section of the Wardsman] is spending the short vacation from Lawrence academy at the home of his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Frederick A. Snow, West Chelmsford.
Mrs. William R. Taylor [daughter in law of Samuel L. Taylor], who has been visiting her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Carlos D. Cushing, in Miami, Fla., for a six-weeks’ stay, returned home last Sunday, just in time to miss our first thunder shower, but in plenty of time to catch winter monopolizing the lap of spring with an April snowstorm. Mrs. Taylor’s visit was prompted by an urgent desire to see her mother, who was injured in an automobile accident.[2] She left her mother improved enough to take a trip to Miami beach and accompanying her on the way home as far as Jarnsville [sic, probably Jonesville is meant], Fla., where they spent a delightful week with Mrs. Taylor’s brother, Warren Cushing. Mrs. Taylor reports oranges as expensive in Sunkist Florida, where they are raised, as they are in Westford.
The first and second degrees were conferred on a class at the meeting of the Grange on Thursday evening. The third and fourth degrees will be conferred on Thursday evening, April 17; the third degree by the ladies’ degree staff.
Daylight savings goes as a referendum on the ballot at the presidential election on a question of repeal. Until repeal we shall ignore the sun as the natural timekeeper the last Sunday in April. While the principle of daylight saving is correct, and all the dairy farmers and worried mothers [paper torn, line missing] for children cannot disprove it, shall Massachusetts go it alone? We will think it over.
The next meeting of the reading circle will be held in the library on Wednesday afternoon, April 9, at 2:30. “Patelin,”[3] from the famous fifteenth century French farce, will be the play under consideration. This adaptation is to be found in the second volume of the Little Theatre Classics, edited by Samuel A. Eliot, Jr. Mr. Eliot is a grandson of ex-President Eliot of Harvard, and is in charge of dramatics at Smith college. If there is time the second in the series of Carveth Wells’[4] adventure in the jungle of Malaga, as presented in the Asia Magazine, will be read. Mr. Wells recently lectured in Lowell before a delighted audience.
Back-Log club, Littleton, repeats play, April 10. Benefit Athletic ass’n.
Church Notes. First church (Unitarian)—Sunday services at 4 p.m. Special music by chorus under the direction of Miss Eleanor Colburn, soprano. Preacher, Rev. Frank B. Crandall, the minister. Subject, “Prophecy and the passion of Jesus.” Church school at 3.
There will be a rehearsal of the choir at the home of Mrs. Alice Wells on Saturday evening, April 5, at 7:30, to rehearse the Easter music. A full attendance is desired.
The Y.P.R. will meet Sunday following the service.
Graniteville. Miss Elizabeth Sullivan, of Manchester, N.H., has been a recent guest of Mrs. Edward Healy.
Oscar Milot left here this week to enlist in the navy. He will be stationed at Newport, R.I., for the next few months.
The usual Lenten devotions were held in St. Catherine’s church on Wednesday and Friday evenings. Rev. Fr. Glynn, of Cambridge, preached the sermon at the Wednesday evening service.
The weather man certainly had his April fool joke when he sent that old-fashioned blizzard on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning. It begins to look as though we will have snow until the first of June.
Miss Ruby McCarthy, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. R. J. McCarthy, has recently completed her course in nursing at the Lowell General hospital.
Joseph Oliver has recently returned from the Lowell General hospital, where he was operated upon for appendicitis.
The ice has entirely disappeared from the mill pond, which is usually the local sign that spring is here.
The members of the senior class of Westford academy will soon begin rehearsals on the three-act comedy “Getting acquainted with Madge.” This play will be presented early in May at the Westford town hall.
The special town meeting to be called in the near future at Westford will doubtless be largely attended by the voters, as the questions to be discussed at that time are of vital interest to all.
See “If winter comes” at the Strand, Ayer, Monday and Tuesday, April 7 and 8.
Ayer
News Items. Fisher Buckshorn, Charles Colburn, Leon Hildreth, Philip Prescott and Gordon Seavey, of Westford, attended a dancing party in Hardy’s hall on last Saturday evening.
Real Estate Transfers. The following real estate transfers have been recorded from this vicinity recently:
Westford, Daniel A. Connell to Jess Dupuis; August Y. Sandberg to Jekob [sic] Britko et ux; Charles Saubowski [sic, probably Sabiowski] to Jan Lewkowicz et ux., land on Main street.
[1] “Burton Kendall Wheeler (1882-1975) was an attorney and an American politician of the Democratic Party in Montana, which he represented as a United States senator from 1923 until 1947. …
As a freshman senator, Wheeler played a crucial role in exposing the Harding administration’s unwillingness to prosecute people involved in the Teapot Dome scandal.” en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burton_K._Wheeler.
[2] About Town. In reporting last week of the return of Mrs. W. R. Taylor from a visit to her mother, Mrs. Carlos D. Cushing, in Miami, Fla., your correspondent erroneously reported Mrs. Cushing ill as the result of being injured in an automobile accident. Her illness was the result of pneumonia. The Westford Wardsman, April 12, 1924.
[3] This play is undoubtedly La Farce de maître Pathelin, author unknown, which dates to fifteenth century France. See en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Farce_de_maître_Pathelin.
[4] “Grant Carveth Wells (1887-1957) was a British adventurer, travel writer, and television personality in the mid-twentieth century. Wells was the author of eighteen travel-related books.” See en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carveth_Wells.