Thomas County cat. [volume] (Colby, Kan.) 1885-1891, 1888-09-20

ON THE MAINE COAST.
sssr6y Farmers and sailors VINO ca. y.
Trusted Under An Circumstancea.
They are Ill farmers. but thew are
also all sailors and fishermen. They
are the best sailors in the world. /
have met them in scores Of foreign
ports. and my friendships along this
northeast coast all date from such
meetings. Born beside, or on. the
water. their whole lives are instinct
lively. hereditarily. q part OF the sea:
and no one need fear for our nations
prowess upon the ocean, when such
need shall arise, while this practically
unknown race Of men cling to their
rugged island homes. The women and
lads do all that is done, or nearly so,
upon land, and snug and thrifty farm
ers they are; while every woman of
sixteen or sixty is as much master of
sea-lore as any brother or husband
upon the coast. They live as in q
happy dream. Their summers are
such seasons of beauty and grandeur
as we of the interior, and of the crowd
ed cities, never may know. Their
winters are idyllic ingle-side periods
of home rest beside blazing chimneys
where the howlings Of the sea but give
Eest to safety. snugness and content
True. they labor, and in a way that
many would deem severe. but their
needs are little, their vanity less.
their ambition beyond everyday du-
ties, nothing. From Portland to the
Penobscot. past Monhegan Island. and
old Pemaquid. which in the dim days
was far more important port than
Boston. have at various times visited
more than hundred shore and island
settlements. In every one of these.
save here and there where the rich
pleasure-seekers of the great cities
have brought the defilement of their
eXtravagances, one will find homes
built from one hundred to two hum
years ago, men and women of from
eighty to one hundred years of age
who could toss you or l over
their heads, and ways and customs
of plain. patient, pious life of which
this age and time know naught of save
through the ancient chronicles. And
there is bluff and kindly communism
among these simple folk which reaches
.ko 1,o,r h GOVT c,,ra1x- IN, Sc oon@or,,l,
ton. They brave the same dangers:
were born into the same endless duties
and experiences; and every act and
fact of life that touches the interest or
heart Of one affects the other. Their
home life, though simple and frugal. is
ample and comfortable. Their social
life has few demands and fewer drearv
sadnesses. They are all admissively.
rather than aggressively, piOus. They
are invariably temperance disciples,
believing implicitly in the inspiration
OF the Maine liquor laws trainers and
The extreme seventies of prohibition;
but you will always find a drop of COM
forting ''grog" in their cabins or
''cuddies." Their whole and ultimate
shrine is their humble home and what
it holds. The husband adores his wife
and children, whom he rails at with
tremendous objurgations. while both
he and they know his affectionate
rawlings are to be regarded as lightly
as the hoarse songs of the sea upon
the crags. So mutely. blindly. ire
vocably as lovingly, they are all at
tached to the home-spot, be it in cove,
on crag, in hulk of stranded vessel, or
huge-timbered. colonial habitation be-
hind the headland. Contemplating
them from every side of their habit
and nature. one comes to wonder if
there may not be some subtle influence
not yet divulged floating in upon them
with all the other magic of the sea,
whose loving wand bends outer en-
vironments with their inner selves,
until character is permanently cast in
gentlest mold.-EdQar l.. Wdkenaan, in
st. Louis Republic.
D