Turner's Public Spirit, March 21, 1925

A look back in time to a century ago

By Bob Oliphant

Center.  The next meeting of the Tadmuck club will be held at the Unitarian church on next Tuesday afternoon.  Elizabeth F. Macdonald, of Modern Priscilla Proving Plant, will be the speaker.  Miss Hazel Tuttle will be the soloist.  Tea will be served with Mrs. A. W. Hartford as hostess.  Twenty-two members visited the Modern Priscilla Plant last week and report a splendid time.  Other members will be given an opportunity to visit the plant next month.

Elizabeth Heywood Hildreth, wife of Charles L. Hildreth, passed away on Wednesday.  She was born in the town in 1879, being the daughter of the late George W. and Mary Mellon [sic, Mulhern] Heywood.  She was a graduate of Westford academy and Lowell Normal school, and for several years before her [1907] marriage to Mr. Hildreth was engaged in teaching.  Besides her husband she leaves a son, Roger H. Hildreth, and a brother, Albert Heywood, and two nieces, Misses Alice and Dorothy Heywood.  Although of a home-loving nature, she leaves a wide circle of friends by whom she will be greatly missed.  Funeral services at the house and home on Saturday afternoon at two o’clock.  Friends invited.  Burial private.

The millinery class under the direction of the County Extension Service will meet in the library on Thursday, April 2.  Mrs. Draper has charge of the class which is open to everyone.  Those who wish to make hats are requested to notify Miss May E. Day.  Visitors are welcome; come and bring your lunch.

At the last meeting of the Alliance, held on March 12, plans were perfected for the Easter sale to be held on April 9.

The next supper given by the Ladies’ Aid of the Congregational church will be held on April 3.  Mrs. Phonsie Isles and Mrs. Mervin Steele will be in charge of the supper, and there will be an entertainment in charge of Miss Edith A. Wright.

Mrs. Frank C. Wright, who is at the Groton hospital, is reported as gaining rapidly.

Among those reported on the sick list this week with bad colds were Master Albert Hildreth and Raymond Desmond, son of Mr. and Mrs. David Desmond.

George Kimball, son of Mr. and Mrs. George A. Kimball, is ill with the mumps.

Miss Eleanor S. Colburn, of Concord, N.H., spent the weekend at her home.

A farewell party was tendered to Mr. and Mrs. Ellis Cram at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Sargent last week Friday evening.  It was a neighborhood affair and all present enjoyed themselves thoroughly.  Dancing was enjoyed, music being furnished by Henry Fletcher, violin, and Ellis Cram [paper town, line or two missing] the evening Harlan Knowlton, in behalf of their friends, presented Mr. and Mrs. Cram with a silver pie and jelly server.  Refreshments were served.  Mr. and Mrs. Cram are to move to Medford, where Mr. Cram has accepted a position in a garage.  Both will be greatly missed in town, especially in church and Grange circles, where Mr. Cram has been active.

The cafeteria lunch, social and entertainment given by the Laymen’s league in the town hall on Tuesday evening drew out a good attendance, considering the inclemency of the weather.  The lunch was especially good, and a great variety was furnished the patrons.  An entertainment, “Wanted, a confidential clerk,” was given, those taking part being Charles Robinson, Warren Hanscom, Joseph Walker, Benjamin Prescott, Arthur Hildreth and Charles Robey.  After the play, cards and dancing were enjoyed.  The lunch committee was composed of Andrew Parfitt and Alfred Hartford, and Warren Hanscom was in charge of the entertainment.  An efficient corps of helpers assisted.  Four of the men, David L. Greig, Everett Miller, Fisher Buckshorn and Leon Hildreth, added to the merriment by their make-up, each being elaborately gowned in female attire.  The committee is to be congratulated upon the success of the affair.

Mr. and Mrs. Hugh Ferguson are reported on the sick list.

Miss Lucinda Prescott has resumed her duties in Framingham after having been at her home for some time, owing to the illness of her mother.

Leslie R. Smith, Past Master of the State Grange, was the speaker at the meeting of the Grange on Thursday evening.  Refreshments of ice cream and cake were served.

About Town.  Mrs. Frank J. Shay [sic, Shea] is ill with a bad cold at her home on Cold Spring road.

Fisher Buckshorn is taking the farm census.[1]

In the town hall on Monday evening the Extension service movies will exhibit “Just folks.”[2]

Warren Sherman, on the Cold Spring road, had the misfortune on Monday afternoon to lose 300 incubator chickens by having the brooder catch fire, burning chickens, brooder and the brooder house.  The fire department responded promptly, but the fire was too far advanced to prevent the losses that occurred.  Young Sherman had recently bought the chickens and the brooder of W. Otis Day, the successful poultry man, who lives a short distance to the west.

There will be a special town meeting in the lower town hall on Monday evening at eight o’clock to act on the following article, which in substance reads: “To see if the town will authorize the selectmen to reimburse the state for land damages or water drainages that the state may pay in repairs on the Littleton road via East Littleton station to the Littleton town line, near Littleton Common.”  While this is not the exact wording of the article it’s the whole show with many of the legal “whereas” embellishments left off.  The show occurs the same evening as the Extension Service movie picture show.  Two shows the same evening in the same hall and free admission to both is unusual enough to fill the hall for both shows.

The Old Oaken Bucket farm still has ice in his henhouse and yard.  Any henhouse that has ice in it has proof of good ventilation.

Frederick A. Snow, of West Chelmsford, has been drawn on the jury.

The Old Oaken Bucket farm sowed an acre of grass and clover seed St. Patrick’s day.  The spring wheat planned to be sowed at this time has been replanned to be sown later on account of the depth of the surface frost and the depth of submerged spots.

Your correspondent was correctly misinformed when he wrote up about J. Willard Fletcher having planted peas.  He passed the word down the brook that he has not planted any peas yet.

Monday morning the thermometer registered 8 above zero at the Old Oaken Bucket farm and early peas trying to boost that crust to get to market.

We have received several illustrated postal cards from Florida from our level-headed townsman, Horace E. Gould.  He claims not to be able to find any forty-foot snakes, but he has found Jonah and the whale—a fish fourteen feet long, hooked perpendicular to the line, and Jonah, six feet, six inches tall, standing beside it.  It surely am some fish and some Jonah.  Next best and nearest to snakes forty feet long is an alligator twenty-four feet long, watching his chance to come the Jonah act.

George W. Polley is expending the winter in Atlanta.  He writes on an illustrated postal card of the Flat Iron building, which is eleventeeen and a half stores high.[3]  This is a very interesting city of about 250,000 inhabitants.  There has been no snow this winter and he has spent a very pleasant two months there.  March 8 the farmers were planting and in the southern part of the state planting of some crops was finished.  He probably refers to early Stony Brook peas.

Old folks’ dance, Littleton town hall, March 26.  Hibbard’s orchestra.

I wish to repeat that the fourth and last farmers’ institute of the season will be held this Saturday at the Y.W.C.A. building, Kitson hall, John street, Lowell.[4]  The morning session will be devoted to round table farm conference talks.  In the afternoon there will be something new in diversion.  Prof. LeBear, a specialist as a mental analyst, will speak and also delineate persons who are agreeable to being read.  Come and be examined to see how smart you ain’t.

The United States senate seems to be developing a bump for poetry, but unless it’s better in quality let us hope there will not be a bumper crop.  Senator Norris of Nebraska is the latest arrival in the class of “it.”  It’s all about Vice President Dawes’ hurried ride to reach the senate in time to break the tie vote on confirming the nomination of Charles H. Warren for attorney-general.  As Vice President Dawes is closely related to William Dawes of horseback-ride fame to Concord and Lexington [in 1775], Senator Norris touches his own poetic brain along the thought of that ride and uses seventy-five times to describe the Dawes’ ride the last two lines of said supposed-to-be poem condensing the strenuousness of the ride: “Let it be said in letters both bold and bright, Oh, hell and Maria he has lost us the fight.”[5]

1. R. Taylor has bought four acres of the unsold part of the Walker farm. When the Downings sold the Walker farm to Mr. Reynolds, the present owner, there were four acres not included that was not expected [to] belong to the Walker farm. The deeds disclosed the fact that it did.  Hence this sale with right of way from the lot to Main street, near the former Walker house.  This lot is wedged in between the Read-Drew farm [164 Main Street], Walker and Haley farm and Tadmuck brook.  It is covered with birches and some white pine lumber.  It is the intention of the present owner to cut down the birches and reset to white pine trees in the interest of forestry and parks.

The Ellis Cram family, who for several years have been in the employ of the Read-Drew farm, are to leave and move to Medford.  They are handy useful and most gentle people, and mixed with all this [paper torn, line or two missing] worthwhile mixture attached to it.  We need more social builders like them in town.  Life with them sparkled with a something more inspiring than the exclusive dollar vision.  We shall miss their music and their cheery approaches of life.

1. L. Taylor [70 Lowell Road] has conveyed a small tract of land to W. R. Taylor. This land was once a part of the Levi T. Fletcher farm [120 Lowell Road], two miles west of the farm at Brookside now owned by Miss Ella T. Wright. The lot under consideration lieth between the Lowell road and the Frances Hill road that connects the Stony Brook road at the residence of W. R. Taylor [23 Stony Brook Road] with the Lowell road at the Capt. Peletiah Fletcher place [54 Lowell Road].  On this lot is the cellar of the oldest tavern in town, kept by Thomas Read, a relative of the Zaccheus Read family.  The recent purchaser of this lot intends to devote it to orcharding and white pine forestry.  Tadmuck brook, which passes through it, may possibly be used as a park for fish and water fowl.

The Middlesex County Extension Service is to present a motion picture show in the town hall Monday, March 23, which Director Parkes says is exceptionally good for a mixed program.  The feature pictures are “Just folks,” from the poem by Edgar Guest and “Beethoven’s moonlight sonata.”  The Grangers will be interested in the two reels called “Touring with the Grangers,” which shows scenes in New England and New York taken on the recent trip last summer.  In addition there will be an excellent comedy.  No admission is charged at the door.

There will be a dancing party in the town hall on Friday evening, March 27.  Miner-Doyle’s orchestra.  Fund to go to the republican town committee.

Charles G. Carter, accompanied by Rev. Frank B. Crandall, Alfred W. Hartford, Charles L. Roudenbush and Percy Rowe, motored to Lowell last week Thursday evening and attended a communication of Ancient York lodge of Masons.

Wages.  A large industrial concern would like to locate in Lowell.  It likes the environment, but Massachusetts labor legislation is a serious objection.  That’s just the who’s who of much and most of our “go south” transition trouble at the present.  What’s the matter with us?  Our mothers, many of them, worked in these mills fourteen hours a day and for less money than the present eight hours.  They lived wisely and left a legacy of sensible frugality and died in the bloom of happy old age.  Now we are so tired out with eight hours of mill work that all we can do at the end of the day’s work is to tramp the streets and chase the movie pictures.  A little more of this brainless business of labor legislation and we shall all have to leave the state and turn it over to forests and woodchucks, while we set up a New England in the south.  To ignore the conditions that have already forced transition and those in the prospective stage is the ostrich with its head in the sand.  There are too many ostrich labor leaders trying to lead off while ignoring the laws of that compelled transition.  Get your heads out of the sand and face conditions that exist by the evolution of changed conditions and not be so senseless in your upper air temple as to even hint at a strike when some of the mills in Lowell ran themselves into a hopeless debt in competing with the south with present wages.

“The wages of sin is death.”  And the wages of the ostrich with its head in the sand is always financial death if it doesn’t come out of its hiding and face daylight facts.

Death of Noted Painter.  In the recent death of Willard Leroy Metcalf, ranked by most critics as the leading American landscape painter and as one of the three or four outstanding figures in the art world of today, American ideals have been depleted in the higher aesthetic realms of the spirit.  The loss will be most visibly noticeable because the aesthetic realm of the spirit is never crowded.

Willard L. Metcalf was the son of Greenleaf Willard and Jane (Gallop) Metcalf and was born in Lowell on July 1, 1858, and died at his hotel in New York city in his sixty-eighth year.  He was a graduate of the Lowell public schools and one of the distinguished graduates of our old, historic Westford academy.  After graduating he was apprenticed to the studio of George L. Brown, a landscape artist in South Boston.  No one knows how hard he worked.  He got up at six o’clock every morning and walked ten miles to the fires in the studio and to sweep it out.  But the thorough training in drawing and the fundamentals of art which he learned from Mr. Brown were the cornerstones upon which his future success were built

During his apprenticeship he continued his studios in the Lowell Institute, the Boston Normal Art School and the Boston Art Museum school.  In 1881 he went to the southwest with Howard Cushing (Mr. Cushing is a brother of Hon. Grafton D. Cushing, former speaker of the Massachusetts house of representatives) to collect specimens of birds and to do exploration work for the Smithsonian Institution.

His life in the Latin quarter there was for some time one of utter poverty.  He studied under Boulanger and LeFebvre in the Academy Julien and frequented restaurants with other penniless art students living on three cents a day.  Gradually his work began to attract the attention of his masters and he was able to augment his funds by the occasional sale of a picture.  In 1888 one of his painting was hung in the Salon and was given honorable mention.  Ten years later he returned to New York and entered the field of magazine and book illustrating.  His work was always serious and he earned a comparatively large income.  When he was forty years old he abandoned the field and went to Maine, where he spent a year, painting continuously.  His pictures attracted attention and began to sell.  In addition to the honorable mention accorded Mr. Metcalf at the Paris Salon he was awarded a medal at the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893; honorable mention at the Paris Exposition in 1900; the Temple gold medal from the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in 1907; the Corcoran gold medal and first prize from the Corcoran Art Gallery in 1907; the Harris silver medal and prize at the Chicago Art Institute in 1920; a gold medal at the International Exposition in Buenos Aires in 1910; the gold medal of honor from the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine arts in 1911; the Sespan gold medal from the same institution the next year, and the gold medal of honor in 1915.

Mr. Metcalf’s painting was noted for the color composition and feeling for beauty.  Most of his later work depicted rugged New England landscape especially in Vermont and New Hampshire, and for the past ten years even his smallest paintings have brought not less than $2000.  Two years ago his “Benedict,” the painting of an old New England meeting house at Kennebunkport, Me., bathed in moonlight, sold for $13,000, the largest figure one of his painting ever brought.

He leaves two children, Rosalind, twelve years of age, and Addison, nine years of age.  They are both in school in Virginia and were not present at the funeral, which was held on last week Friday at St. George’s Episcopal church, Sturvesant [sic, Stuyvesant] Place, New York.

Corrections.  We wish to make some corrections in our cemetery [illegible word] of last week [“Churchyard Chiselings”].  We own up to all the errors but one.

First, as regards the private burial lot west of the house of Arthur G. Hildreth on Hildreth street, in conversation with the Hildreth family they informal me that instead of several of the Abijah Hildreth family being buried there, only one was buried there, Harriet Susanna Hildreth, wife of George E. Burt.  She was buried there at her own request and several years later the body was removed to Westlawn cemetery, Westford.  The town historian says that she died in Harvard in 1849.  Hildreth relatives in Westford inform me that she died in Westford, and the fact that she was buried in a lot close to the house would seem to substantiate that it was here that she died.

Error No. 2 was clearly mine in regard to the children of Asia Hamlin.  Evidently I used a punctuation mark between Nathan and Sumner, which made it appear as two separate persons.  It should have read Nathan Sumner, as Asia Hamlin had no child named Sumner.

The third and most serious error relates to the Cyrus Hamlin family, where it says that of the four children of Cyrus Hamlin all are laid to rest in Fairview cemetery, Westford, except Katherine, who is buried in California.  If that was my error I made it when in full knowledge of the fact that she is still living in California.  But I will assume the responsibility for the error as they generally deal leniently at the printing end of my nonsense.

We Disagree.  I read with interest and semi-agreement the communication of V. T. E. entitled “The salary grab.”  I fully agree with him on the manner of its accomplishment.  There is too much of the sneak thief method of getting what you want, not only in salary grabs, but in the rider amendments generally, of which there is no more affinity between them than there is vinegar and honey.  So far I agree with V. T. E. and that which he wrote so truthfully and interestingly about this whole incident.

On the merits of increase in salary I must dissent from V. T. E.  Of course, it was poor judgment to bring it up at this point when economy is the word everywhere, and the only justification for it now is that it has long been overdue if we can believe the uncontradicted and universal testimony that no person of ordinary means can afford to go to congress as the salary is insufficient to live on.

To illustrate, I have heard the names of some capable men from this very congressional district mentioned as possible candidates, and the reply has always been “I cannot afford to go.”  The salaries we pay our officials are some ways yet from being wastefully extravagant.  Chief Justice Taft of the supreme court gets only $15,000, and the others $12,000.  Cabinet officials, as I quote from memory, have only a salary of $7500 (perhaps it has been raised).  Is it any wonder that such men as Charles E. Hughes leave the cabinet for “private practice?”  Of course, our congressmen could live cheaper.  They could live in a cheaper rented house, a one-story bungalow type or log cabin type, such as some of their ancestors were raised in.  They could do with less hotel life, less expensive social life.  They could carry a lunch of crackers and cheese to the capital and eat it there instead of going “out to dinner.”  I have no doubt but what our congressmen could live on the salary that they had before the rise without even getting down to the cracker and cheese-log cabin style which I have prescribed.

I feel that until we, the people, can trim our wings to less lofty altitudes of social life and keep nearer the simplicity of “ye good old-fashioned days of ye little red schoolhouse” we have no case against congress.  If they do not do anything worse than raise their salaries so that they can live the same as the rest of us are trying to do, they ought to be encored instead of censured.

I have received no enjoyment in writing this piece, but I have felt that for the good of the cause it’s time that V. T. E., I & Co., disagreed.

Business Transition.  Now that representative citizens of Lowell as a committee are to confer with the managers of the cotton mills of Lowell in an effort to see what can be done to relieve the pressure looking towards the cotton mills moving to the south we are told that there is no necessity for alarm.  Do not be pessimistic.  They will not move south, or else the words of one of the committee that “It is resurrecting skeletons to talk about the mills going south.”  “What new is there about the southern bugaboo that should cause Lowell its present worry about Lowell mills leaving?”

And all the fresh optimism before this committee have even met the mill agents.  It is splendid, hopeful and helpful to be optimistic when it is a cloudless sky or even threatening to be slightly crazy, but when the sun is obscured altogether or clearly threatens to be, can you fool yourself enough with optimism to say that the sun does shine when it does not?  If you can you may take your place with Joshua of old who commanded the sun to stand still and it obeyed him. [See Joshua 10:12-14.]

Can you put off a threatening fire by being optimistic and shouting “There isn’t any fire”?  If you can, optimism is the cheapest fire apparatus ever called to put out a fire.  Optimism, contrary to proven adverse facts, has sent many a concern and individual down into the financial dumps.  Optimism always counts the chickens before they are hatched and they will all hatch.  Pessimism will not admit that any of them will hatch and the most efficient, workable judgment is midway between.

Here is something for consideration, who are all optimism.  The title is “Lawrence concern may move south.”  “Rumor had it yesterday that one of the great cotton manufacturing concerns of Lawrence will shortly announce the purchase of a site in the south for extensive development of the cotton mill business in that section.  The start will be made by shifting perhaps 25% of the spindles to the south.  If the plan turns out well 50% more will be transferred, it is said.”  This is no funny sleight-of-hand diversion play.  It is the sober facts of the transition of business caused by changed conditions.  This transition has been working for years in the method of transportation from stage coach to railroads, from railroads to electric cars, from electric cars to the trackless bus and family automobile, hence steam and electric cars are tearing up and abandoning their tracks, and only in its infancy in abandonment.  Why not be optimistic and throw your judgment and the facts overboard?

Our northern cotton mills will get legislative relief or it’s only a question of time when they will go south, where they do not need relief.  Labor leaders affirm that this scare is only an attempt to break down wages and still further pauperize the laboring class.  Now while my sympathies at all times are with the honest, temperate labor, American business is not justified in getting its business cue or labor its laboring cue from leaders who ignore the law of supply and demand and equally important law of transition who are as lacking in business brains as a class in kindergartenism.

Church Notes.  First church (Unitarian)—Sunday service at 4 p.m.  Preacher, Rev. Frank B. Crandall, Minister.  Subject [paper torn, two lines missing].

On Sunday the preacher will interpret the narrative of the feeding of the multitude, as contained in the traditional gospel [John 6.1-14.] for the fourth Sunday in Lent, pointing out that the story is of spiritual significance and is addressed to the understanding of the mystic and not a tale of magic on the level of materialism intended to enlarge the credulity of materialists.

Supper and Entertainment.  The Westford chapter of the Unitarian Laymen’s League achieved a big success with the supper and entertainment given Tuesday evening in the town hall.  In spite of unfavorable weather there was a large attendance.  The supper was served in cafeteria style and the rule was self-service.  The menu included chicken patties, cold meats, baked beans, mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese, frankfurters, potato salad, rolls, fancy pies, doughnuts, cheese, ice cream and coffee.  The serving force included Fisher Buckshorn, David Greig, Warren Hanscomb, Alfred W. Hartford, Leon F. Hildreth, William Parfitt and Frank W. Wright.  J. Herbert Fletcher served as cashier.  The feature of the supper was the costumes worn by Messrs. Buckshorn, Greig and Hildreth.  They were gowns and wigs which gave them a dainty and demure feminine appearance.

An excellent one-act play, “The confidential secretary,” was given following the supper.  Charles Robinson made a big hit as the prospective employer and always had a proverb up his sleeve.  Warren Hanscomb, as his Irish office-man, ushered in the applicants, Arthur G. Hildreth, Benjamin Prescott, Charles Robey and Joseph Walker, all of whom individually made a hit with the audience.  Cards and dancing to the radio followed the play.

Graniteville.  The Abbot Worsted soccer team by being defeated by the Fore River club at Boston on last Saturday is eliminated for further honors in the state cup series.

The members of Cameron circle, C. of F.A., held a well-attended and interesting meeting in their rooms on last Monday evening.  Much business of importance was transacted and during the session the following delegates were elected to represent the local circle at the grand circle convention to be held in Swampscott next May: Miss Laura McCarthy and Miss Emma Wood; alternates, Mrs. Alma Benson and Miss Emily Hanson.

1. Henry Harrington, who has been on the sick list for the past few days, is now feeling much improved.

The ice has gone out of the mill pond and it now looks as though spring is just around the corner.

James H. Fitzgibbons, principal of the Sargent school here, has been on the sick list for the past few days.

The night school session closed here recently and the pupils celebrated the event by holding a delightful party in the Abbot hall on Thursday evening of last week.  During the evening dancing was enjoyed and several amusing games were played.  A very pleasing entertainment was given that consisted of piano solos by Miss Jeanette Ledric and Catherine Wood; songs by Mrs. Hattie Maloy, Miss Isabelle Boyd and Miss May Wood.  During the evening refreshments were served.  The whole affair proved to be a great success.

The bowling game seems to be the popular indoor sport here at present.

Groton

High School Notes. The following schedule for the baseball season of the high school team was drawn up at a meeting of the school baseball league as follows: … May 15 Westford at Groton; … June 8, Groton at Westford; …  Here’s wishing them as good success as last year’s champions.

Ayer

News Items.  Mrs. Austin Lawrence (Mary Spaulding) of Westford, formerly of this town, is at the Ayer Private hospital for an operation for appendicitis.

1. E. S. [Order of Eastern Star] Whist Party. The military whist party given by Ida McKinley chapter, O.E.S., on Thursday evening was a social and financial success. Shirley, Westford and Graniteville were represented.

Real Estate Transfers.  The following real estate transfers have been recorded from this vicinity recently:

Westford—Edward H. Russell to Albert E. Mountain, land on Tadmuck road.

[1] “The Census of Agriculture, taken every five years, is a complete count of U.S. farms and ranches and the people who operate them. The Census looks at land use and ownership, operator characteristics, production practices, income and expenditures, and many other areas.” From US Dept. of Agriculture Census of Agriculture Historical Achieve at https://agcensus.library.cornell.edu/census_parts/1925-massachusetts/.

[2] “Just Folks” was a series of two-reel film subjects based on the poems of Edgar A. Guest (1881-1959) and produced in 1923 by Atlas Studio of Newton, Mass. Just Folks was the title of a 1923 book of Guest’s poems. See https://www.bratsofboston.com/Atlas%20Studio.html.

[3] The 11-story Flatiron Building, completed in 1897, still stands at 84 Peachtree Street NW in downtown Atlanta. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flatiron_Building_(Atlanta)#.

[4] The Lowell YWCA moved into the new building on John Street in 1905 and remained there until 1976 when it moved to its present location at 206 Rogers Street, formerly Rogers Hall, an historic girls’ school. See https://libguides.uml.edu/ywca.

[5] Mr. Warren failed to be confirmed by a vote of 39 to 41. “In the aftermath of the vote, Sen. George Norris (R-Neb.) revised Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s poem, ‘The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere,’ into a comic description of Dawes’ frantic and ultimately vain journey. It could have been titled ‘The Midday Ride of Charles Dawes.’ The final stanza read:

Hurrah, Hurrah for Dawes!

Hurrah for this high-minded man!

And when his statue is placed on high,

Under the dome of the Capitol sky,

The great senatorial temple of fame —

There with the great General’s name,

Be it said in letters bold and bright,

“Oh, Hell an’ Maria, he has lost us the fight.”

“Dawes had been a brigadier general in the U.S. Army during World War I. A descendant of Paul Revere’s fellow rider William Dawes, he had been sworn into office a week earlier. He was known for his colorful expressions, particularly ‘Hell an’ Maria.’”