The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1890-01-04


last gem in this collection was brought forth
good many years ago but 1t is rot lost its
point yet. 1t occurred in the time when
plumbago was a new thing. A certain small
boy had the day before the brilliant remark
was made, been looking at some pictures in a
volume descriptive of the journeys of Living
stone. One Of them was of boat on one of
the African lakes, propelled by long sweep
at the stern instead of the ordinary side oars.
The youngster had never seen sculling before
and 1t made an impression of his mind. The
next morning hesheard his father and mother
talking about plumbago which they said was
a new kind of ore. ''Yes," he said, II know
what it is. 1t is great big car that they
stand up and use in the back of the boat
instead OF at the side" To this day that
young man says he can remember the shouts
of laughter that the remark caused. The Sc
examples only show the endless possibili-
ties of the English language as net to catch
the tongues of the unaware.
As was walking down Congress street
the other day at about noon saw ahead of
me boy who had a bag such as the carriers
of papers use slung across his shoulders. 1
saw that frequently he would draw out of
the bag and scatter about on the sidewalk,
square pieces Of paper that found contained
the advertisement of certain business house
in the city. While he was thus industriously
spreading the fame of his concern abroad
there were two smaller boys follow
ing who as industriously gathered
up what he sowed and stuffed them
In their pockets. Being curious to learn
what particular branch of juvenile industry
was to be benefited by the liberality of the
business house accosted the two boys and
asked. Il am getting them for my big
brother" said one 'to play hare and hounds
with. He takes them So" folding the square
twice as he spoke ''and tears them up for
scent I've got more than ten bushels
guess since began" Here, thought, is ar
other instance of the value of advertising.
Beside the good that the company would
derive from the leaflets that the boys did
not pick up, there came the renewed health
and strength to the hares ard hounds, result
irg from those that they did. Who says
that corporations have no souls?
listened with interest the other day to an
earnest discussion between two newspaper
men on the subject of what one of them
called the decadence of the local department
OF this city. He bemoaned the loss of the
good old times of ten and twenty years ago
when he said the local department of the
papers chrOnicled real things instead of say
ing that the Snn and Planets Insurance
Company had hung out new sign, or that
Mrs. Robert Washburn was visiting her
father in Eastman for few days. To this
the other replied that the local department
was not wholly lost yet in his judgment. He
said that sprinkled in among the items
Of which the first complained were a num-
Der, and he was inclined to think an increas-
ing number of reasonably important facts.
1t is not very long, he said, since have seen
In the papers the announcement of an eleva-
tor system to cost millions, and 1t is even
more recently that the sulphite fibre people
have sent large contract to Portland, which
Tread about In the papers.
The first speaker was not convinced, yet
the discussion closed here. Although of
course, cannot speak as one having author
ity, because have not at any time within
the last twenty years been in the business of
gathering local items. yet as one who has
kept the run of events more or less carefully
"in me diary" and elsewhere during that
time 1t seems to me that the second speaker
was in the right. Local items do not as
understand it grow in the wilderness. There
must be men and women and cats and dogs to
furnish the subjects for the paragraph or else
there is no paragraph Logically, the more
people and cats there were, the more items
there will be, and think that the man who
sighed for the good old times will see If he
drops into figures that the present is the
time OF action rather than the good old
times. To be sure if he had gone back Is
years or little further it would have been
necessary to have acknowledged the corn for
those were the times that tried mems souls
and their credulity as well and while the
telegraph side of the papers was taken up
with news from the seat of war, the local
department managed to get up some sus-
picious vessel in the offng, or some dark
stranger enveloped in cloak who was seen
just after nightfall rapidly turning corner,
almost every day.
A glance at the figures of the city's growth
it seems, would have convinced our friend
that he was In the wrong. Never before
have so many railroad trains run in and out
of the city as at the present time. There
are more horse cars, more hacks, more strang-
ers In town, more public gatherings, more
arrests by the police, more steamers arriving
more books lent out of the public library.
mere children attending the public schools
and In short, there is larger city called
Portland than there was ten or twenty years
ago, ana where there is growth there must
be more going on even if it is of mild type
OF events. from the point of view of the local
editor. e..s. 1855.
Twas walking up Congress street the other
day with my friend the Major when we
passed an elderly man who was very much
down at the heel. / made some remark
about him when Major said that man ia an
unappreciated genius. When he went to
school he was called wonder. He was ex.
pected to astonish the world with his literary
productions but he has failed to meet the ex-
pectatioDs OF his friends. On this account
ne has grown odd and perhaps a trife off in
his balance mentally. l remember almost
the last week of school that cur English
teacher paid him a most glowing tribute on
account OF composition which he wrote.
She said that with cultivation his talents
would make him famous" Perhaps" sug-
gested, This talents are like the century plant
and have not reached their time of blooming
yet" NO." replied the Major, ''that isn't
it at all. His head was turned with the
praise he received he thought that he was
destined to achieve success at a bound and
the failures that attended the few attempts
that he had made to WOO the tickle goddess
disheartened him." The Major began to
talk of something else and the unappreciated
genius slipped out Of my mind. saw him a
short fina of ri in tho puhlio 4 ihrorx,