The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1864-01-25
AUGUSTA, Jan. %, 1864.

L
To the Editor Of the Press
| Every body knows the story of the old
cynic Diogenes going about with lighted
lantern in the daytime to see IL he could find
man. The light of the sun in the soft cline
of Greece, brilliant as it was, proved too pale
and feeble for even his keen sight and he was
| consequently obliged to resort to artificial
means to intensity il. Whether he ever dis
covered the object of his search, tradition is
silent, but as this circumstance is quoted as
one Of the most remarkable proofs of the wis
dom of this famous Grecian philosopher, we
must conclude that If he was successful it was
because he lighted his lantern and thus provi-
ded himself with more light than nature had
been in the habit of furnishing.
Times have changed since the Golden Age
of Greece in many wonderful respects, and
what was mysterious and unfathomable to the
sages of those days is now familiar to the
most common minds. No one nowadays
| would need lantern or even a rushlight to
| discover man, particularly ii he be a Port
land man. There is such lack Of any air of
selfgratulation about these latter, such q
want Of assumption Of superiority over their
| equals and even betters who come from else
where, that they are unmistakable. They do
not appear to be continually thanking God in
their actions that they are Portlanders,-resi-
dents of the natural seaport" the great en-
| trepot to the Canadas, in whose harbor the
Great Eastern first rode at anchor in Amer-
ca, and the only respectable city in the United
States. No matter whether your Portland
wight be a barber, a well-to do loafer, soul
lion or newspaper correspondent, the first
breath proceeding out VI his mouth blows
aside the lion skin, and discloses the ears Pc
culiar to the animal. / therefore hazard
nothing in asserting that your able cores
pendent "Spurwink' is Portland man, So
journing for season in our midst, and while
walking about under the skin of Kenne-
becker, he disarranges his covering at every
step and discloses his real character.
In his spirited reply 10 my letter of the
18th published in Tuesdays Press, he labors
hard to show that he knows everything about
the subject in question, and succeeds remark
ably well in showing that he knows nothing
about it, at the same time proving formda-
BILE rival tothe Irishman who fired at part
ridge and shot himself. He is evidently some
young and Jealous member of one of the
branches of the Legislature (perhaps the
third branch) who is here to effect the remov-
al of the capital to Portland, and who thinks
that everything he can say against Augusta is
so much gained in favor OF his own city.
Hence he has been laboring to show that Au-
gasta is worse than Sodom and Portland
better and purer place than Eden.
am aware that hotels and boarding hous-
es in Augusta are well filed, but / do not
know nor does "Spurwink, that good board
is not to be obtained at reasonable rates.
Board is of course higher than it was last
| winter, here as well as elsewhere, but does it
follow from this that it is exorbitant? re-
member perfectly well perhaps he is not old
enough to remember SO far back when the
high price of board in Portland was one of
the principal arguments in favor of moving
the capital to Augusta; and remember also
that at that time the people of Portland
avowed their willingness to have the removal
made, for among the many annoyances to
which the country members subjected the
| polished residents of that city, was that they
hung about the wharves with straws in their
hands and sucked molasses from the hogs
heads, and that the "outs" resulting from this
practice was a heavier burden than they could
patiently bear. Let Portland remember
lie
seat of government, that country members
still form majority of the Legislature, that
| straws are as plenty as in 1880, and molasses
| is as largely imported there as of yore.
/ once Travelled as far as Portland myself
During my sojourn there on particular oc.
casion, regiment returned home from the
seat of war and waited there to be mustered
out of service; and that one regiment with
what it brought there, so crammed the hotels
that on the second day 1t was impossible to
procure respectable hotel accommodations
| What is TO be inferred II there were three or
four regiments there? 1t is a fact patent to
all, that Augusta is better supplied with ho-
tells according to the demand than Portland
is, notwithstanding one of the principal ho-
| tells here has been burnt within about year
and never been rebuilt.
That all citizens of Augusta are what they
should be, do not pretend TO say. l am
aware there are the same manifestations of
the weakness and depravity of human nature
here as elsewhere, that land-sharks and social
pirates are not rare in this vicinity and that
many transactions have occurred here, which,
receiving their deserts would be punished by
the whippng-post and the halter. For such
deeds and their perpetrators, offer no ex-
cuse, nor do desire any one to aid in prevent
ing their being brought to light. But when
the good deeds Of good men and women in
| Augusta are distorted and made to appear in
false light, / do consider the duty of
every good citizen of the State to repel the
SANDER and offer what words he can in their
vindication.
The ladies OF Augusta have been exceed
ingly and proyerbially liberal in donations of
money, boxes of articles, &C., for sick and
wounded soldiers, for the Sanitary Commits
sion and for the poor freedmen of the South
! They do not get up masquerade balls with