Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1885-10-03

ionged to Mrs. Frances Hoyt, Winthrop.
Miss Cora Blaisdell, this city. exhibited a
nne specimen of lustra painting work a
handsome thing was a piece of cotton en-
oroidery from Mrs. E. H. Wiggin, Mt. Yer
non, an old lady 70 wears of age
The Gate Receipts.
The amount of money taken at the gate
was as follows: First day, s546,27: second,
s24l.90; third. s204.40. Total s99257, the
largest ever received.
Awards and the Address
At 10 o'clock the awards of the committees
were read from the stand, the Winthrop
Band, which was engaged for the day, fur
nishing the music. This process occupied
about an hour. At the close. President E
NJ. Smith of the Maine Wesleyan Seminary
delivered the annual address, Rev Mr.. Her
rick of Mt. Vernon previously offering
prayer. The address was one of much merit,
giving satisfaction to all who heard it, FIRE.
quent favorable comments were made at the
close. Mr.. Smith said:
There is propablv no State in the Union that
has lost by enumeration during the last few
decades, so large percentage of her hest
sons as the State of Maine They are To be
found in other parts of New England, in the
Middle States and in the far West The
State of Rhode Island has an organized asso-
citation OF the sons of Maine, which numbered
ten years ago several thousand even in
that little State. Maine has furnished a large
part of the bone and muscle, the heart
and brain and the conscience of the whole
country. The rural districts of the State have
been the heaviest losers. until some of
them are we'll nigh depopulated In A
certain neighborhood not thirty miles from
where stand. there were. thirtv-fye wears
ago. within two miles from each other. Ell yht
noble farm houses. each surrounded by well
titled acres. well stocked. thrifty orchards
and forests; TODAY. two of these houses re-
IN ain in a dilapitated condition. The rest are
in ruins. the orchards in decay. and the land
deserted 1t is to be hoped that this case is
without parallel. There are causes of
this movement of population from
the rural districts Prominent among
them is doubtless the general
tendency of population through
out New England. towards the cities and
large villages. Manufacturing. trade.
and the attractions of great CEN
tres have drawn the peop,e away from the
farms This is to be regretted, We well
know what would become of our cities were
not their depeneratinp currents freouentIv
replenished by the pure. vigorous stream
from the country. Another cause is that the
relative advantages and disadvantages of our
own State as compared with other portions
of the country, have been wrongly estimated.
1t has been the fashion to speak disparagiug
ly of Maine. at is a good State to be born
in, good place to emigrate from" it has
been said, and many have accepted the SLAM
der i'm lied in those words. without discover
ing that il is baseless On the other hand
the far West has been seen chiefly in
Imagination and the picture of it
has contained only such things as
western circulars and newspapers have
found it to their advantage to supply. Here,
the western fever has run very high
Still another cause is to be found in the char
acter of our people. Our Young men are in
dependent, ambitious, energetic and fearless,
not afraid of either hardship or hard work.
If they can do better somewhere else they
are ready to try it. Our severe climate and
rocky soil have developed rugged virtues,
and these very virtues have made our sons
ready to leave Us. But notwithstanding all this
there are Just as good Fl sh still IN our lakes as
have been transferred to other waters, We
have given other States some of their fore
most men, but we have others left just as true
and just as able. Names agricultural inter
ests have passed the low water mark, and the
tide is now rising. The returns from all sec
tions show it. But the newspapers have
furnished you with an abundance of figures.
Let us give YOU some reasons for believing
that these returns do not indicate mere
temporary prosperity. The first is that man
sustains a natural relationship to the soil. He
was taken out from it, is made of it, and re-
turns to it. Man loves the soil. If he leaves
it for the city, it is only that he NAV get rich
faster, and then return again to the country.
A large part of our city friends hope to spend
their last DAYS in some rural home. Cicero
declared long ago that "Agriculture is de-
light to cultivated minds" To such there
are few higher lows than to render nature
more productive, and to mold her into forms
of beauty. The aristocracv of Rome. the
gentry of the old world. and the noble men of
the new, have delighted in their villas and
farms. Men are also made more manly by
the ownership of land. Hence the superiori-
ty of our farmers who own the soil they till
to the peasantry of Ireland. the serfs
of Russia and the slaves of the South.
If England could divide the soil of Ireland
among the Irish people, giving each little.
she might then hone to solve the Irish prob
lem. We are beginning to realize that there
GRO far cl;m ates so favorable unop tho ub,,lo