Morning journal and courier., 1888-07-20

sacred to valor and sacrifice. Climb to the peak of that ancient observatory and see what panorama of historic scene and host of historic presenees will fit before you. At your feet once stood Fort Sumner. Just below the cliff was ill-fated Fort Loyall where flame and massacre came. Steward are the channel entrances, old Portland Head light, the crumbling forts, ScamMal, Preble and Gorges, Half Way Rock light, White Head cove and passage, and away to the east the three hundred and sixty-fVe is- lands of Casco bay. There in the ofng the Enterprise" and "Boxer" fought to the death recalled by Longfellow. ~--
 remember the sea-aght far away.
 How 1t thundered OCT the tidei
 fn tbeir eIe sVes perIookine ii tie tTauou bay
 Where they in battle died
 and you will find their graves down there in the old Eastern cemetery, with those of the glorious Preble and score more heroes, to- day as then. Beyond, little nearer the wharves, is where stood the historic Mars ton tavern where the captured Mowett was entertained royalty, and came back few months later to burn Portland for it's hos pitality. Down there at "the Neck" over two hundred and fifty years ago, bluff old Sir Ferdinand Gorges gave Portland Gt was Caseo then) her first court of record through his nephew, Captain William Cor ges. You can see where once was the self same rope-walk from which Longfellow built ''The. Rope Walk" for the world. And not far away is the site of the pot- tery which inspired ftKeramos" and where
 Sang the potter at his task
 Beneath the blcsseming hawthorn tree-
 Here beneath you Longfellow was born, bit beyond, Willis and Fanny Fern; while up Middle street 8 little way was where good old Nat Willis served the Lord with out ceasing, published daily paper lit tie time and got into jail for his pains. Here and there are such rows of elms as are not surpassed in all New England, and under their ample shade the great square, rigged houses, homes of retired sea captains, old and bold; who have cruised in all known waters, nodding and dreaming now, and in fancy sailing over and over the old courses, snug and tidy in their home harbor here, but a trife unsteady and doubtful in their reck- oning toward the sailors snug harbor be-
 yond. Off up the sea coast past grim Port land Head, Old Orchard Beach peeps 1oving- 1y from it's summer nest, and beyond, only seyenty-6ve miles away, your fancy almost sees Salem where the first minister ever set
 tied at Portland was hung as witch for his very sweetness and amia6:Aty. Over to the northeast lies the sweet vale of> of>Presu,nI= scot, with it's voieeful river murmuring
 idyllio days of it's source, great Sebago,
 where Hawthorne dreamed and wandered,
 and darkening above looms Blackstrap mon
 ument. To the westward still, behind the city, are "The Oaks" where Longfellow
 built his dreams when a boy; and away to the northwest, four score or more miles,
 with their ghostly peaks piercing and blend
 ing with the plumy summer clouds, rise the White Mountains
 The eternal hills which once with fervid eyes The Indian saw within the havening West,
 And called ''The Crystal Mountains,' peetwise, Dreaming that hitherward lay paradise!
 Along the entire Maine coast, among its scores of bays, it's hundreds of coves and its thousands of islands, are found surpassing grandeur in scenery, stores of uneQualleo i historic interest, and studies of men and character of unusual winsomeness. Passing Bath, which modern thought only recalls as the shipyard of our country. but from whose docks and stays have slipped to their virgin plunge in brine nearly all those famous craft which won us freedom during the revo- Iution and glory in 1872, old Boothbsy, the Ne-Krangen of the aborigines, is nest of shoreside peace and noble uncut book of tradition. Here grim Weymouth, in the "Archangel," furnished by Lord Arundel, came in 1905, "where it pleased God to send us. far beyond our expectations" as the an-
 cient narrative relates. The region round about was once made dukedom, later 6
 province and finally became the historic Lag
 adahoo county of Maine. It was once sold for 'ftwenty good beaver skins" But here are kind of folk worth going long way to know and study. They are not ignorant of the elementary principles which their little schools furnish in the drowsy, nasal mono- tone manner of olden instruction; but they are as guiltless of knowledge of the great human activities of today as they are of wrong. They are all farmers; but they are also all sailors and fishermen. They are the best sailors in the world. I have met them in scores of foreign ports, and my friend ships along this northeast coast all date from such meetings. Born beside or on the L I-.sn 1Ia zI~ hereditarily, part of the sea; and no one need fear for our nations prowess upon the ocean when such need shall rise, while this practically unknown race of men cling to l their rugged island homes. The women and lads ae all that is done, or nearly so, upon land, and snug and thrifty farmers they are; while every woman Gf sixteen or sixty is aa much master of sea lore ss any brother or husband upon the coast. They live as in a happy dream. Their summers such sea ! sons of beauty and grandeur as we of the in- terior, and of the crowded cities, never may know. Their winters are idyllic ingle-side I periods of home-rest beside blazing ch1m- neys where the howlings of the sea but give Kest to safety, snugness and content. True they labor, and in 8 way that many would deem severe, but their needs are little, their vanity less, their ambition beyond every day duties nothing. From Portland to the Pc nobscot, past Monhegan island and old Pe- maquid, which in the dim days was a far more important port than Boston, 1 have at various times visited more than an hundred shore and island settlements. In everyone of these, save here and there where the rich pleasure-seekers of the great cities have | brought the defiIement of their extrava | gauces, one will find homes built from one tc I two hundred years ago, men and women oi 1 from eighty to one hundred years of age who | could toss you or 1 over their heads, anG l ways and customs of plain, patient, pieus l life of which this age and time know naught | save through the ancient chronicles. AnG l there is a bluff and kindly communism | among these simple folk which, reaches tc l our heart surely in its contemplation TheI l. brave the same dangers; were born into tht same endless duties and experiences; and ev' I cry act and fact of life that touches the in I terest or heart of one affects the other | Their homo life, though simple and frugal l is ample and comfortable. Their social life | has few demands and fewer dreary esdnesses They are all admissively rather than aggres sively pious. They are invariably temper ance disciples, believing implicitly in the in spirstion of the Maine liquor laws framer 1 and the extreme seventies of prohibition l but you will always find drop of comfort ing "grog" in their cabins or "cuddies. 1 Their whole and ultimate shrine is theil
 humble home and what it holds. The bus I band adores his wife and children, whom ht rails at with tremendous objurgations, while both he and they know his affectionate ray ings are to be regarded as lightly as tht
 hoarse songs of the sea upon the crags. &
 mutely, blindly, irreyocably as lovingly they are all attached to the home spot, be i in cove, on crag, in hulk of stranded vesse or huge timbered, colonial habitation be hind the headland. Contemplating then from every side of their habit and nature
 one comes to wonder if there may not b
 some subtle influence not yet divulged float ing in upon them with all the other magic o
 the sea, whose loving wand blends outer en vironment with their inner selves until char
 acter is permanently cast in gentlest mold
 EDGAR l.. WAKEMAN. l RATHER.