The news., 1882-12-19
IIFE ~ 4 MAINE CoAsT yIII.AeE

space of generation by emigration.
There is steady annual exodus of
the bright active, ambitious young
men and women to better fields.
Only the dollards remain on the
native soil. And queer commu-
nifty these latter make.
The chief feature Of this life is its
total lack of concentration. What
little there is of individual energy
is diffused over the whole sphere of
activity. The jeweler of the town
is also the barber, the general me-
chanic, and the tinker; he likes to
''hay it" a little, to "fish it" little,
to ''berry it" little and to raise
little garden truck. He is sam
pie, and pleasant one of all his
fellows. IF they are tradesmen,
they keep little Of everything; if
day laborers they want to shift
around into dozen or more varie-
ties of work during the year. No
one works hard. Fish, CLANS and
vegetables are the food staples. Per-
haps it is impossible to base labor
upon these; perhaps it is the lazy
atmosphere; perhaps, again it is in
the breed. But whatever the cause,
the result is very clear; no Castin-
ian knows what the word work"
means. The stores open in an in
dolent manner at 9 or so in the
morning. They close with more
promptness at noon; reopen slowly
about two hours later, and thence
forward are likely to shut up at any
time. There is a delightful uneer-
tainty in every phase of what they
call business. 1t is the exception to
find a merchant in his own store, even
in the busiest times; the tinsmith,
his boy will tell you, may be over
at the butchers, perhaps you can
find him in the drug store, possibly
he is on the wharf, there is chance
of encountering him at the hotel.
What is true of the tinsmith is true
Of all the others. The leading man
ufacturing establishment Of the VII
lage-almost the only one-is a
canning factory, where Holsters,
mackeral, CLAIMS, etc, are put up for
the market. There is steady
demand for the goods Of this factory
to which it seems Indifferent. When
the village boys feel like working at
that particular thing, the factory
opens and stays open until the boys
take notion to go fishing or haying
or minting. Then wholly. regard
less Of the state of the market, the
factory stops. Here labor is auto
cratic. Ii chooses its owlf times,
hours and fields When il is leth-
argic no inducement is strong
enough, no emergency grave enough
| to stir it into action.
| There is absolutely no enterprise
or suggestion Of enterprise, among
| the natives. The lobster pots are
set in the same places, the mackeral
boats go to the same coves year after
year. II the HOLSTERS do not come
into the pots, if the mackeral do not
bite, 50 much the worse; nobody
looks for them anywhere else. Once
on a time Castine had a good deal
| of business; now she has next to
none. Nobody thinks of asking,
why, or at least of going out after
the retreating trade and striving to
bring it back. Traffic is altogether
local now, and as narrow and short
ranged as may be, a Castine man,
with $500 worth Of fish on hand,
which were on the verge of faint
found another willing to purchase.
There was q difference of $40 be-
tween their views and no sale was
made that day. Next day there
was only difference Of $1S, but no
sale. That night the owner Of the
fish had to throw them into the
sea. He was rather proud than
otherwise of his refusal to be cheat
ed out Of $1S though, The people
| there know no steak-cut save the
round steak. They buy that be-
cause there is no bone it. The por-
terhouse is sold for roasts; they like
ii better for steaks they say, but
cannot afford to buy 50 much bone.
Living however,is exceedingly cheap
there, and all through the section
cheaper-than in any other part of
the country, perhaps.
The social side of this village life
is very meagre and cold. The
women rule matters here very gen
orally. The men of snap and stuff
having sought their fortunes else
where, those who remain are easily
governed by their wives, mothers
and sisters. This fact accounts for