Turner's Public Spirit, January 3, 1925

A look back in time to a century ago

By Bob Oliphant

Center.  The Ladies’ Aid of the Congregational church will hold an all-day meeting at the Congregational church on Thursday, January 8.  Each person attending is requested to bring a lunch.  The officers of the society for 1925 are Mrs. J. K. Felch, pres.; Mrs. Harry Ingalls, vice pres.; Mrs. A. H. Sutherland, sec.; Mrs. George F. White, treas.; Mrs. William Roudenbush, Mrs. George F. White, directresses of embroidery work; Mrs. Harry Ingalls, Mrs. Mervin Steele, Mrs. Perry Shupe, sewing.

Hiram Taylor, of the academy faculty, has been spending his vacation at his home in Worcester.

Perry Rowe, principal of the William E. Frost school, has been spending his vacation at his home in Boothbay Harbor, Me.

John G. Fletcher, M.I.T., has been spending the holidays as the guest of his parents, Mr. and Mrs. J. Herbert Fletcher.

The Alliance of the Unitarian church will hold an all-day meeting in the church on Thursday, January 8.  The speaker of the afternoon will be Miss Mary G. Balch, and the members are looking forward to an interesting talk.  The hostess of the day will be Mrs. Benjamin Prescott.

The funeral of Mrs. Margaret Barnes, who passed away at the home of her son Percy, Lowell, was held on Monday afternoon.  The services were conducted by Rev. Percy Kilmister[1], of Concord, N.H., formerly of Graniteville.  Mrs. Barnes was the wife of Harvey W. Barnes, who was for several years superintendent of the Westford town farm.

Master Richard Hildreth is the guest of his grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. George Lawrence, of Westboro.

Miss Lilly Perry, of Radcliffe college, is the guest of Mr. and Mrs. Fred L. McCoy.

Mr. and Mrs. McCoy and family spent Christmas day as the guests of Mr. and Mrs. Louis Robbins, of Watertown.

Mr. and Mrs. Alfred W. Hartford spent Christmas in Melrose.

Miss Blanche Lawrence, of the William E. Frost school faculty, has been spending her vacation with relatives in Boston.

Ralph Cutting has returned to his home from St. John’s hospital.

Mr. and Mrs. Perley E. Wright entertained a large gathering on Christmas day.  Among those present were Mr. and Mrs. Ralph Anderson and son Robert, of Hartford, Conn., Mr. and Mrs. Forrest Anderson, Mrs. Youlden, Webster and Miss Eleanor Youlden and Dr. and Mrs. Benway, of Somerville, and Mr. and Mrs. Perry Shupe, of this town.

Miss Edna Currier is the guest of her grandfather, Wayland Balch.

Recent guests of Mr. and Mrs. Perry Shupe have been Miss Eleanor Youlden, Miss Doris Baker, Mr. and Mrs. Webster Youlden and Francis McCall, all of Somerville.

Rev. Edward Disbrow of the Congregational church was remembered generously at Christmas.

Some of the children who were to take part in the Christmas exercises at the Congregational church were unable to be present owing to the icy condition of the roads.

Christmas Party.  The Christmas tree and exercises of the Union Congregational Sunday school were held on Wednesday evening of last week.  The exercises were preceded by a supper at six o’clock.  Mrs. Edith Blaney was in charge of the supper.  The program was interesting and consisted of the following members: “Christmas memories,” with Mrs. Edward Disbrow as grandma, while Miss Astold Whitman made a charming fairy.  They were assisted by children of the Sunday school as the carolers; recitations, Rita Edwards, Roger Bosworth, Elizabeth Bosworth, Vivian Hildreth, Olive Hanscom, Phyllis Wright; Mother Goose sketch, “Christmas in Mother Gooseville”—Mother Goose, Viola Day, assisted by Elaine Cram, Willard Mann, Joseph Perkins, Billy Prescott, Ruth Hanscom, Doris Peterson, Charlotte Foster, Helen Sullivan, Bessie Young, William Harrington and Ruby Harrington; song, primary class; song, school.

At the close of the exercises Santa Claus, impersonated by Ellis Cram, made his appearance and presented the gifts and candy.  The committee in charge was composed of Mrs. Harry Ingalls and Miss Mabel Prescott, assisted by Mrs. Perry Shupe, Miss Alice Swenson and Miss Lillian Sutherland.

School Exercises and Tree.  The pupils of the William E. Frost school had their Christmas exercises and tree at the town hall on last week Tuesday afternoon, at which the following program was presented: Song, “It came upon the midnight clear,” school; song, “Winds through the olive trees,” girls of grades seven and eight; play, “A Christmas carol” (Dickens), groups from grades seven and eight; song, “Silent night,” grades seven and eight; song, “Carol Brothers’ carol,” boys, grades three and four; exercise boys, grades three and four; recitations, Richard Hildreth, Astrid Whitman, Joseph Ackerman, Ada Cutting, John Buckley; exercises, “Evergreen wreaths” ten girls from grades three and four; song, “Dolly’s rock-a-bye,” girls from grades three and four; song, “Hark, the herald angels sing,” school; play, “Christmas secrets,” grades five and six; solo, “Jesus was a little child”; recitation, “I’ve learned how to spell,” Everett Miller; song, “Better be good,” group from grades two and three; toy Symphony orchestra, William Prescott, grades one and two; flag salute, school; “Star Spangled Banner,” orchestra and school.

Each child received a Christmas gift, a box of candy and fancy crackers.  These were made possible through the generosity of the Abbot Worsted Co.

About Town.  Someone has a botanical astronomical question conundrum which they would like someone to answer.  Someone observed in last week’s issue that someone alluded to the days having lengthened one minute at the down setting of the sun, but they continue to shorten it in the morning.  Here is the conundrum: Why do the days continue to lengthen at night and shorten in the morning?  Now on natural principles we should say for every minute that the sun sets later it would rise the same number of minutes earlier, but it don’t, and why don’t it?  Can anyone answer it?  If not, someone has handed in an answer which reads, “Because the earth, like some folks has a decidedly eccentric orbit.”  Whom are they hitting at, anyway?  It is liable to back-fire on them.

West Chelmsford Grange entertained the children of the village on last week Tuesday evening with the following program: “Greetings,” Lillian Kershaw; recitation, “The naked doll,” Etta Gilson; song, “Have you seen Santa?” Raymond Vennard; recitation, “What I want from Santa,” Betty de la Haye; recitation “Santa’s the wise old owl,” George Parkhurst; song, “We are so proud,” Donald Smith, Donald Lupien and George Reid; recitation, “A visit from Santa,” Charles de la Haye; recitation, “Hark, the sleigh bells,” John Trull.  The committee in charge were Mrs. Beatrice Ollson, Mrs. Harriet de la Haye, Mrs. Mary Kershaw and John Vinal.  Ice cream was served.  Every child lugged home a smile and gave evidence of wishing Santa to be a monthly visitor instead of yearly.

Without receiving an encore or stopping for one, someone is willing to repeat “under the auspices of Middlesex-North Agricultural society,” a program of information, fellowship, entertainment, and the second farmers’ institute meeting will be held in Kitson hall, Y.M.C.A. building, John street, Lowell, Saturday, January 3, opening at 10:30.  Morning discussion upon “Best methods in town government.”  All towns in Middlesex-North district are invited to send representatives to take part in considering this topic.  Dinner at 12:30.  An unusual entertainment for the afternoon is promised by Geoffrey O’Hara, composer-recitalist.  Public invited.

Christmas services were held in the Methodist church, West Chelmsford, last Sunday.  In the evening the pageant, “The prophetic child,” was presented before a large congregation.  A number of pictures portraying the Christmas scenes occupied the pulpit area and with the Christmas tree furnished an ideal background for the characters, who appeared in beautiful costume as follows: Joseph, Bayard C. Dean; Mary, Mrs. Elizabeth Smith; angels, Ethel Carlson, Ruth Ryan; Spirit of Youth, Edna Reis; three women of Bethlehem, Annabel Carlson, Ethel Carlson and Martha Reis; shepherds, Warren Dean, Stanley Snow and Emil Haberman.

Over 4000 died in Massachusetts in 1923 from cancer.  We worry over trying to find a remedy.  Why not do a little worrying over causes?  A little less pig pork, hog ham dam that is loaded with cancer from the front end of his nose to the rear of the tail end of affairs.

Mrs. Alma Decatur Pruderhoff [sic, Prud’homme], of California, is visiting her old home at the Capt. Peletiah Fletcher place on the Lowell road [54 Lowell Rd.].  It is fifteen years since she made a visit home.

Miss Luanna B. Decatur [sister of Alma], who has been spending Christmas-New Year’s holidays at the parental home on the Lowell road, has returned to her teaching duties in New Rochelle, N.Y.

The proposed raise in telephone rates is considered double-refined honey, so much as that some of us are voluntarily listing ourselves in the peaceful abodes of reconciliation and without the aid of telephone missionaries, and all this in comparison of the proposed plan to discontinue one-half the trackage of the Boston and Maine railroad.  Why there should be so much bow-wow-wowing of idolatry worship over the brain that devised this plan is beyond the “comprestanding” of some who belong to the $14,000,000,000-in-debt fraternity.  The brains of a grasshopper could devise as much, and all this for the stockholders’ end of tear up, but what about the public end of discontinuance?  Oh, that’s so, come to meditate on an old reminiscence concerning the welfare of the public.  “The public be damned.”

The W. R. Taylors and the Old Oaken Bucket Taylors expended and expanded Christmas at the Frederick A. Snows in West Chelmsford.  There was a Christmas tree, although argued stoutly, loudly, lengthwise and otherwise against trespassing on the rights of the forest by one of the recipients of the tree, who was as pleased as a kindergarten youthful kid to get his share from the picking of the tree.  It was a sunny, hilarious time, and everybody received something and some got several somethings.  The writer, with grateful memory or something of that sort, acknowledges a year’s subscription to “The American Magazine,”[2] one of the best for variety on the American continent, and also a full grown man’s snow shovel.

Mrs. Susan B. Chandler, of Dunstable, celebrated the 100^th anniversary of her birth on Tuesday at the home of her daughter, Mrs. Albert S. Gould, with whom she has made her home for many years.  The occasion was made a happy one for the celebrant, who received many callers who presented her many gifts and flowers profusely and postcards and congratulatory messages from distant friends and relatives.  She was born in Winthrop, Me., December 20, 1824, and is the widow of Harrison Chandler, who died many years ago.  Mrs. Chandler is bright and active for one of her years and in excellent health.  She spends her time in knitting, sewing and also helps in the household duties.  She is devoted to reading, and besides her books she finds much pleasure in daily perusing the items of the daily papers.  There are many among her friends who declare that she plays a shrewd game of checkers.

Ancient History.  Through the mind-reading courtesy of Dr. F. Earland Gilson, of Groton, I received on my writing desk Christmas noon a copy of “The history of Shirley,” by Ethel Stanwood Bolton, whom I don’t know.  Like all little children I went right for the “pictures.”  The first picture that someone knew was Rev. Seth Chandler, the old-fashioned gentleman of substantial culture and substantial swallow-tail coat, and all the rest of his wearing apparel, including stovepipe hat that figuratively was of the swallow-tail type and most befitting his old-fashioned, rugged, honest personality.  To his credit be it said he was chummy with Emerson and a chamber in the Chandler house at Shirley Center is named the Emerson chamber.  Someone heard Rev. Seth Chandler preach in the First Parish church in Westford on two different occasions, and said he impressed him as a man of decided personality and refined and cultured, and one who had read extensively and of a variety.  His picture in the history is of a much younger person than when someone heard him preach in Westford.[3]

In passing from the minister to the saw and grist mills and other mills, which furnished motive power to run these mills, someone wishes to read a lesson for meditation that applies in all New England.  Listen, while we quote from this history: “One can find dams and mill sites on streams that have grown so small as to be dry half the year.”  This can be duplicated all over New England, where once there was abundant water to turn large water wheels.  Much of the time now there is not water enough now to turn even a toy water wheel.  Such is the effect of the rashness and wastefulness of chopping down indiscriminately our water protecting forests we thoughtlessly exchanged for fishless dry brooks.

Potato Embargo.  England has got going on “safety first” and served an embargo on American potatoes on account of potato-bug-blight and various other prespective [sic] threatenings.  Someone in Westford is financially interested in this embargo because he advised a farmer in Littleton to hold, hold, hold, and the aforesaid advisor gave the advised a warranty deed that he would make financial rebuttal or something of that sort of the difference between what potatoes were selling for at that time.  The advisor informs the correspondent if said deed has not been recorded he is going to write a new warrant and insert an embargo clause.

Potatoes in Aroostook are now tumbling for someone to pick up, and the old saying, “It never rains unless it pours,” and “Troubles never come singly” is exemplified from the southland who are raising potatoes on a large scale and compete with New England in the selling of the same.  They have been prospering, but 1923 was a trifle shady; 1924 was almost a total eclipse, with nothing made and much that was close to a loss as a result of an over-acreage.  You can read the effects of 1924 where they are going to roost in 1925—a very much reduced acreage and a proportionate reduction in demand for Aroostook seed, with a prospect of planting their own.  And so these southern potato troubles come home to roost at the Aroostook roost and also increase the liability of the Westford financial rebuttal act.

A $14,000,000,000 Debt.  Here is a plan to revive business: “Three hundred millions of savage and barbaric people still wear radically no clothes.  Here is an item that visibly concerns the textile community.”  A returned missionary summed the situation up this way: “The problem in heathen lands is to get the people to want more, and in civilized lands to get the people to want less.”

Before we attempt to clothe the savages to boost our textile affairs, would it not be good home wisdom to study the causes of why there is a debt of $14,000,000,000 holding down the ability of the farmers to buy the very manufactured goods that it is proposed to try and stretch onto happy savages, who if they don’t know ideals of civilization, neither do they know of its cancers and epileptic fits and eleventeen varieties of hydrophobia, etc., including the personal liberty craze?

No, sir, Mr. Whoever You Be, let us try and equalize conditions so that there will no $14,000,000,000 debts on any one industry, and that the foundation on which all else rests in prosperity or potatoes to downfall.  No one expects or asks to equalize brain capacity—nature will not encourage any such lunacy—but it is not lack of brain capacity that the farmer is going it on the down and out grade.  Let us apply the emergency brakes to find out the cause of the down-grade.  One cause is clear—we have got to quit farming on land in the west and south on land we do not own, while we let land we do own remain in semi-idleness or turn it to a pasture for grasshoppers, woodchucks, etc.

We do not raise the easily-raised old-fashioned yellow corn in quantity enough to keep one chicken without its nursing its mother.  This is old-fashioned stuff, of course, and we had rather be a stockholder in a $14,000,000,000 debt and pay $3.00 for a bag of corn we might have raised than be called old-fashioned.  Hurrah, some folks have raised a year’s supply of corn!  So let corn soar—they are not going to sore up with the corn as it soars up, and under the soaring sore circumstances they are just brimming, bubbling over with old-fashioned delight, and the hens join in the chorus with cackles of delight.

1. T. E. Wins. It is proper, prudent and wise at the close of the year to take account of stock. I have been led to this by the reference of V. T. E. in his last communication to: “We had always understood him to be a conservative of conservatives—a firm believer in things as they are.”  A specific, true-to-life definition of conservative is a stationary pessimist; a conservative of conservatives is a dead one, all but his automatic breathing which he can’t help and he will not be missed when he quits that.  A conservative is one who believes in preserving the deer and wild turkeys and shooting the rattlesnakes and wild cats, except for a few for the Emersonian hermit on Mt. Monadnock[4].
2. T. E., I plead guilty to the charges. Give me a light sentence, for I have got company coming out to see me, for I have been warned in a more reliable way than dream warning that a telephone missionary is coming to see me and bring a referee with him, and all I ask of said missionary is that he send me a pre-paid postcard warning me about when I may expect him so that I can be loaded for my experience in using warmed-over hot air.

Petty Slip-ups.  Arthur J. O’Brien is teaming hay for W. R. Taylor and sawing wood for his waterless neighbors.  Oh, how kind to keep us warm with wood and dry without water.  Of course, we have a little ice on hand, but we want to keep the milk from souring and so “here we is” betwixt and between and a missionary coming to see us.

Our beloved President Coolidge, like our former President Woodrow Wilson, is being held up for some slip-ups in his use of the English language.  Here is a sample “slip-up,” due to the efficient supervision of the secretary of war: “Owing” should have been used instead of “due.”[5]  Well, now see here, you purists of pure, whom “Satan finds some mischief still for idle hands to do,” we had a civil war that cost the lives of 600,000 men and millions of money, and yet the poorest of poor English played no part in precipitating that war, not even one life was sacrificed because of poor English or even one percent added to our debt because of poor English.  The world has been riddled and honeycombed with wars and rumors of wars, and other evils too numerous to list, and none of these evils are traceable to the ungrammatical use of language or cured by the grammatical use of language, and instead of a united effort to discover the causes of these evils that have robbed the world of its usefulness and trying to remove them we split hairs over the English language.

“Strain at a gnat and swallow a camel.”[6]  As good and efficient, business, sensible man as President Coolidge is, it is well and appropriately charged up, “Satan finds some mischief still for idle hands to do.”

Another ungrammatical slip-up or slip-down that President Coolidge made was the use of the word “less” when “fewer” is meant.  Oh, dear, is this the nearest to a flaw you can find in the President’s conduct, or is it the most your over-strained brain is capable of comprehending as an error?  This recalls the hair-splitting in the days of the old Stony Brook school.  One teacher would declare a certain expression grammatical and at the next term another teacher would declare it ungrammatical, and the same variation with the school committee.  Now you know the old saying about when doctors disagree what becomes of the patient?[7]—and that is just what did happens.  While the scholars were being questioned on disputed grammar they were heading prematurely towards the cemetery as the result of a clearly unbalanced diet and unsanitary water in the land where sunny fruits grow and sanitary water sings its health song in our rocky, babbling brooks.  Some more of your “strain at the gnat” wisdom.  I am of the opinion, but not too positive of it, that much that is taught in the public schools of today could be thrown out of the window and something more vital in ideal living lugged in at the door to the advantage of health, intellect and morals, and this of no school or town in particular, but of the system in general.

Personal Liberties.  I acknowledge Christmas remembrances that stirred the spirit and nourished the palate from the old First Parish [Unitarian] church and likewise ditto from the Union [Congregational] church.  I also desire to acknowledge remembrances from up-town friends of “good wishes.”  Dr. Frank Crane is also a contributor to “good wishes.”  The title of his contribution is “Ten common lies,” and I am going to quote one lie each week, commencing with the tenth, until all of the ten lies are provided with an explanation: “Personal liberty. There is no such thing, except on a desert island or in a state of savage nudity.  No civilization is possible except by the sacrifice of personal liberties.  No happiness is possible except the limitations of personal liberties.  No society or law or order is possible except upon the surrender of certain personal liberties.”

Where and how is it possible for all of this defiance of constitutional national prohibition got its right to it below the belt of personal liberty?  Some of us would like to have them explain with something more effectual than the bleating of a hungry, thirsty calf.  This class of defiants ought to be returned to their original residential residence under the early frog pond tadpoles and start life over again, and as they individually emerge to man life again each individual would demand and get labeled “all personal liberties reserved.”  This motto wouldn’t develop civilization enough to make and wear even a garter; one grand tumble of tumult into the ditch, “blind leading the blind.”  One advantage in this “all personal liberties reserved,” it would never develop brains enough to make a cider mill and so it would frustrate the only personal liberty that they went back under the tadpoles for.  The rest of personal liberties are not worth the price of the ink that lists them as per their shrieks.

Our Resources.  Here is something that has been aired in a small way by small fellows: “Washington, December 29—Cooperation between nations and between the scientists, law-makers and the public was the keynote of the formal opening tonight of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, which began today its seventy-ninth general convocation.  The principal speaker was Secretary Charles E. Huse, who emphasized the value of international cooperation in scientific attainment.  Dr. Charles D. Walcott, the retiring president of the association, spoke on “Science and service.”  Dr. Walcott discussed domestic problems and declared that the United States’ natural resources, minerals, forests, fur and game animals, agricultural soils, range lands, fish, birds and water resources all have been exploited recklessly and wastefully.  The point has been reached where it is evident that the resources have a limit.  Expansion cannot continue indefinitely nor can even the present scale of consumption be maintained as population increases unless steps are taken to replenish the supply.  The pressure of scarcity and increasing costs of exploitation demand the elimination of waste, the intensive utilization of the resources that are left and the discovery or creation of new supplies.

“To obtain the results desired it is evident that masses of humanity have yet to be educated in the scientific method of thought and action, not only in darkest Africa but here in the United States, and in all countries.  This is the greatest [need] immediately before us.”

Church Notes.  First church (Unitarian)—Sunday service at 4 p.m.  Preacher, Rev. Frank B. Crandall, the minister.  Subject, “The time of beginning.”  Church school at 3.

On Sunday the preacher will point out the significance of the new year and every other time of beginning in their importance to the individual and to institutions.

Graniteville.  Motion pictures were shown here on Thursday evening.  This was an extra bill, owing to the holiday.

Owing to New Year’s falling on Thursday, the regular meeting night of Court Graniteville, F. of A., no meeting was held.

All the schools in town will reopen for the regular sessions on Monday after the Christmas vacation.

Both masses in St. Catherine’s church last Sunday morning were celebrated by the pastor, Rev. A. S. Malone.

Matthew F. Downes [sic, Downs], ninety-nine years of age, Westford’s oldest citizen, with his daughter, Mrs. Florence Hutchins, of the Groton road have recently returned from an enjoyable visit spent with Mr. Downes’ granddaughter, Mrs. Harold Blades, in Framingham.  The trip was made by auto.

Word has recently been received here of the death of Mrs. Walter K. Putney, whose funeral took place from her home in South Weymouth on last Saturday.  Mrs. Putney, formerly Miss Beatrice Parker, of this village, was a woman of beautiful character, and beloved by all who knew her.  Her many friends here deeply regret her passing after a long illness.  She leaves her husband and two sons.  The deepest sympathy of Graniteville residents is extended to the family in its bereavement.

Miss Catherine Conley is spending a few days with relatives in Lynn.

Mrs. Mary Doyle, of Dorchester, is visiting Mr. and Mrs. Harry Coon.

Excellent skating has been enjoyed on the mill pond for the past few days.  In fact, one could skate on the streets without any trouble before the sanding was done.

Ayer

News Items. Mrs. Walter C. Sargent, soprano, served as soloist in a program given Thursday evening by the Abbot Worsted Co. band at Forge Village.

Rev. Frank B. Crandall, captain in the chaplains’ corps, U.S. army, officers’ reserve corps, has been elected chaplain of the New England chapter of the Sojourners’ club, an army and navy Masonic club, composed of men who now hold or have held commissions in the army or navy and having headquarters in Boston.

 

[1] Born in 1897 in Haworth, Keighley, Yorkshire, England, Rev. Percy Aquila Minchin Kilmister was working as a 14-year-old “bobbin setter” in a worsted mill per the 1911 Haworth England census. On July 19, 1920, the young 23-year-old minster, then of Concord, N.H., married Westford native Alice May Gilson in Westford.

[2] The American Magazine was founded in June 1906, a continuation of failed publications purchased a few years earlier from publishing mogul Miriam Leslie. It succeeded Frank Leslie’s Popular Monthly (1876–1904), among others, and was published through August 1956. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_American_Magazine.

[3] Center. Fifty years ago [July 1868] in the pleasant summer time, Ai Bicknell and Sarah F. Whitney, both of Westford, were united in marriage by Rev. Seth Chandler, of Shirley. They lived for the first five years of their married life in Townsend and then came back to Westford, where they have lived ever since. Westford Wardsman, July 20, 1918.

[4] In 1846 Emerson wrote the rather long poem “Monadnoc,” which can be read in his 1899 book, Early Poems of Ralph Waldo Emerson. See https://emersoncentral.com/texts/poems/monadnoc/. “The poem uses the mountain to explain the Transcendentalists’ view of Nature as our teacher.” Quoted from https://monadnockcenter.org/back-in-time-for-dinner-with-ralph-waldo-emerson/.

[5] In his State of the Union Address of December 3, 1924, President Coolidge said “Due to the efficient supervision of the Secretary of War the Army of the United States has been organized with a small body of Regulars and a moderate National Guard and Reserve.” He was criticized for not starting the sentence with “Owing.”

[6] This quote comes from Matthew 23:24, “Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel.” KJV

[7] The old saying is “when doctors disagree, the patient suffers.”