The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1886-07-07
CORTLAND WEDNESDAY MORNING.

clothing hung from nails wherever convent
| ent, and in the garrett were the family beds.
Sometimes rough board partition divided
| the garret, but this was rare. If there was
| a cellar there was no window to give light,
| and the sides had to be banked up in the
winter with turf or pine boughs to make the
cold blasts endurable. The houses of the
rich had two stories, with four rooms on the
| first flOOr and four chambers on the second
| with sometimes a porch, wherein to do the
| cooking. These houses had good cellars.
| The chimneyS rested on arches, and the
| spaces under the arches were utilized for
| Jams and preserves and such like delights.
| There were other hOnses, very few in num-
Der, perhaps not more than two or three,
| built within year or two, which were still
| finer, The first brick house, the Longfell0w
house, had just been finished. Out of doors,
| the contrast with the present day was still
| more marked We were not with
| in a quarter of a century of brick side
| walks. Perhaps there were few fiagstOnes
| In front of the dwellings of the rich though
| Boston eight years later had none, and there
may have been some board walks but the
! people must have got about for the most part
| on trodden paths. Fancy the early. spring
| time and the mud puddles; and the a1tectlon-
brotherI At night there were no lights out
of doors. If you wanted such comfort you
carried it yourself. 1t was not until 1910
that the town ventured upon the unexampled
luxury of furnishing oil for forty lamps
which were subscribed for by the inhabitants
| and then the fire wards in solemn assembly
| thought these lamps would need to be lighted
| only hundred nights in year. But hun
| dred years ago street lamps were not neces-
| sary. There were no amusements. There
| was not even fire engine for the boys
| to run with. There was no theatre. Even
twenty years after the town solemnly repro
bated the designs of certain evil minded per
sons who contemplated play house, and
the legislature was to be asked to prohibit its
erection There were no hacks. Not ship
was owned in town. There was no light
house on Portland. Head, and there were
only 68 arrivals and 80 clearances that year.
The first bank had yet to be Incorporated
thirteen years afterwards Four or five let
ters came into town every week and as many
went out. The roads were so bad that the
mail was sometimes delayed over a month.
1t took five or six, days to get to Boston.
"Now," says Willis in 1888 with commend
able pride, ''now the the mail is dispatched
every day, performing the distance in 16 or
II hours" little dreaming that we should
reduce the time to three hours and half.
My successor, if the world has luck, will
state it in minutes or perhaps in seconds.
We had one newspaper. published once
week on half sheet. People who did not
go foot went on horseback. Even if man
owned chaise he was careful about taking
it out.
There was only one church, which stood
where the First Parish now stands. but was
hroadside to the street, Sunday must have
been hard day to get through. There were
nc fires in the church. In the coldest winter
it vas unheated. Little foot stoves with
glowing embers in them were all that miti-
gatel the most arctic severity. The sermons
were probably long, the prayers certainly
We're. The pews were square, the partitions
being nearly as tall as man. Everybody
stood.ltD at prayers. The seats were hinged so
that they could be turned up for convenience
of Leaning And certainly the lay Christian
OnQht Inv had hat 10
edit. 1t Was aprovision in favor of life. When
you read tbs quaint entry in Parson Smiths
Journal Mafeh 10, 1740: Had uncommon as
slstance;, wa an hour in each Of the first
prayers, yol cannot repreSS the feeling
inquiry wheth,r the poor parishioners also
had uncommon assistance" To us in these
soft and degenerate days it does really seem
as if poor unassisted human nature could
not have stood it.
The rich of that day we're well dressed
having wigs and three coriered cooked hats
and much affluence Of stye Everybody,
rich and poor, wore breeches. Captain Jo- |
seph Titcomb,-on whom be leace-tirst of |
men wore pantaloons in Portl,ad in 1880. |
Homespun must have been much worn and
suspenders not at all. The rich mist have
been able to fare sumptu0usly every day for |
to be had for money. The poor could have
had very little white bread. Rye and Indian
with corn bread must have been large plrt |
of their diet with hasty pudding and mola- |
ses: The drinking habits were more, than
bad. 1t was quite respectable to get drunk, !
The rich got drunk and even the clergy at
ordinations sometimes forgot dec0rum,
which is probably the clerical name for the
same thing. 1t was quite point with the
poor man of those days to get drunk on Sat-
urday so that he might have Sunday to sober
off in Liquors were furnished at funerals
and there must have been scandalous scenes,
for the selectmen in 17SS, earnestly recon-
mend" that the custom cease. The dead were
Commodore Preble was buried in 1907, there
was not a carriage in the procession. Of
schools there was only one in the town and
$50 was the expenditure for education that
year. Cleanliness had not been reduced to
science and vermin of one syllable were not
unknown. Cotton was not yet grown In the
United States. There were no steam engines
in America and no lucifer matches anywhere
on the earth.
have thus given you a rough and imper- !
feet picture mo one knows better than how |
imperfect it is) of Portland and its life hun
dred years ago. Between that day and tbs |
you can each for yourself make the compGi- |
son. Is there one who listens tome to-dayEho |
is not glad that his lot has been cast in the |
Portland of today rather than on the Mex IN |
1856? And yet you will net go half through
the next political campaign without fearing
some praiser of the daysgone by, on either
side bemoaning himself Ver the degeneraey OF
Our times You will lear the phrasSSS, 'ne
poor poorer and the rth richer roihllns III
! long ceased to be bs0es and suckllngs, that
out of their mouth is perfected no praise OF
God The rich hive grown rlcner put 81
| have also the per. Richer In rights ana
nrivileges. richf in comforts and in happl-
ness. / hold him to be heathen and 2
publican whodoubts that under the law OF
| nature the epbodiment of which IS COD, tne
progress of ne poor keeps more than equal
| nace with tie progress of the rich. Far
enough inieed are we from perfection. But
| whoever doubts progress DOUBTS Gou.
| iWheneser,' says the president, OF the
| great Pennsylvania railroad, whenever we
cease y spend money on capital account TINS TINS
| for lfogress, agitation grounded on SOUND
| reabns or false ones on wise reasons or silly
ans ceases the race will have got ready to
| diyappear from the earth.
| Look around you and see what hundred
,ears in this little peninsula has done for
| the comfort of us all. The streets and side
walks and narks belong to rich and poor
alike. In 1896 what but an errand OF mercy
or necessity would have tempted strong
man to struggle with the mud and darkness
of an April night in the journey from the
head of High street to the foot OF india?
| In 1886 any girl can go at night from MunJoy
| to Bramhall dry shod, lighted on her cheer
| ful way by the blaze of electric lamps. When
| | thus think of the progress Of the last GEN.
| tury and the sure progress OF the next, L
| hope to be forgiven for the deep-seated envy
with which regard the happy Portlander
| of 1886.
| L have no design to give you history OF
| Portland tonight. That history has been
| written by Mr. Willis and Mr.. Goold, and
| its earlier scenes have had full justice done
| them by Mr. Baxter And why should try to
| do ill what they have done so well? My only
| design, by some glances here and there, is to
show to our own people how well worthy OF
| study is the history of their own city. Here,
| where we lead our prosaic, everyday lives,
| have happened events as tragic, scenes as
thrilling as ever adorned the stories OF those
| Old World cities, for the sight OF when we
| cross the rolling ocean. The quaint old let
| tiers reveal love as tender and true, courage
l las ..alaTnted and steadfast, and patriotism
| as lofty and ennODnng as my which have
been celebrated in story and in song. Great
| deeds thrill us wherever done,-great words
wherever spoken; for human nature is
broader than place and wider than kinship,
but where great deeds have been done and
noble words spoken at our very homes, on
our very hearthstones and by our own kith
and kin the thrill of pride becomes more
| positive because more personal. Who is
there of you lwho hear me today who does
not read with redoubled emotion, born of
this sentiment of home and kinship, how
this town waited with uneasy expectation
and excited hope the issue of that gallant
little sea fight in which the prowess of Eng
| land and the courage of America were
measured against each other by the brave
sailors on the Enterprise and the Boxer?