Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1894-12-27


Dec. lG.I
fancy for most of us, ! must be tread
ing very familiar path. To separate
Ellsworth life from country life requires
a strain upon the Imagination in some
places certainly, and yet there Is diff
ference in tho way people live in
sparsely settled community from that of
even a small co immunity like our own,
congregated into a small space. As for
myself feel that / belong to the life OF
which I shall speak, having spent the
Of the rural districts, among whom l
have some of the warmest friends ! know,
and for whom | have an Astounding and
abiding interest and sympathy.
On street corner OF our city Few
weeks back stood youth of perhaps
twenty years. His properly cut and
creased pantaloons, his immaculate shirt
and smooth fiaxen locks, his waxed mus
tache and supercilious air, marked him
as ethyl red-and, perhaps, 1ll-bred.
The manner in which he said, "Look at
that chap from the country, betrayed
his feeling of superiority, il not contempt.
A week or two ago we had among us a
gentleman W HON DR.. Fields calls one OF
the ablest thinkers OF our times. 1t was
nv privilege to drive with him for some
miles into one OF our outside districts.
His deep interest in the habits OF the
methods of living, their feuds, their
pleasures, their passions, their sorrows,
betrayed the opposite extreme to that
above referred to. And these two repre-
sent the extremes OF the two classes, one
OF whom finds little pleasure or has little
care for the life of their fellowmen; the
other finding the deepest interest in all
that concerns human conduct ana human
motives.
You remember some OF you, he hit Mrs.
FhnrI Hos Stttt or
(although it is right to say hat his friends
declare she did not comprehend him
rightly) after a conversation with him at
Washington; she wrote to a paper, MIR.
Sumner says, he cares only for princl-
pies, not hing for individuals at all. y.
B.-rhe Almighty has not yet got 50
far"
Some OF you may care to know my
observation of the
SOCIAL LIFE OUTSIDE OUR VILLAGE,
and to you | address myself | want
to speak very frankly. l want to say
that if, in some things | seem to be
severe, thnt ] am speaking as one among
them, and that should speak full more
severely were able and were speaking
OF city life. | want to say also that 1
have found it imposs BILE to speak of these
people Wit h their habits and motives and
convict ions, without entering more or
less upon the religious and intellectual
side, as they are so closely interviewer
with their social life as to be part of 1t.
In doing this must call your attention
to two things. First, | have only done so
so far as it seemed to me to be necessary
to elucdate the subject upon which |
have written; second, that | have SAID
nothing but What | sincerely believe to
be true. If you disagree, you quarrel with
the facts as believe they exist, not with
me. NV belief in the Church OF Christ is
at least too strong for me either on the
one hand to believe that any Just crltl-
Cistn of its followers Will harm it, or, on
the Their, to allow me TO speak aught but
the truth concerning it.
Ii is impossible to give correct idea OF
our county or State by describing any
one town or locality. For instance, it Is
probably true that the average lnteIll-
gence OF Iamoiue is equal or superior to
hat of Ellsworth. There are more men
in hundred who read Carlyle or Emer-
son, Spencer or Tennyson, than in our
own city. while there are communlt IS IN
which none of these are read, or seldom.
1t is supremacy interesting, rs We'll as
surprising, to see the vital differences in
the social atmosphere, for instance, in
different sections of our county-the
r. hospitality that prevails in one neigh
borhood, the high regard for truth in an
other, the financial integrity i'll another,
and so on.
BY your leave | will contine the details
OF much that | shall say to the little
town of Hancock, with whose people
am universally acquainted and where
lived more than half my life. Yet 1t
must be understood that many of my
conclusions, and some of my facts, are
drawn from other sources, as am some-
what familiar with the people in dozen
or more similar towns. | find tendency
among those unacquainted with the
country to underestimate the idea and
practice of pleasure in these districts.
Il, -, ! kot Il I hoe ttr,,t,,
for eight or nine mont hs-hard, unremlt-
ting toll is herue. The social pleasures
are eschewed; no time now for anything
but livelihood. Almost every man,
woman and child is up with the sun, toll
till late at night. in bed almost as soon
as the days work is done, and SO on till
winter, when the work slackens, the long
evenings come, the social spirit awakens,
the schools begin, common and high, in
the towns that have availed themselves
of the law, the lyceums open, generally
there Is one at the centre, meeting one
evening in each week.
THE LYCEUMs.
remember how, winter after winter,
this was true in several towns about here,
and the custom, which lapsed for few
years, is being revived. The different
teachers heartily join in the contest; the
fairness and mechanics are all there, and
many take part; interest prevails every
where; the room is crowded. Three or
more dispGtants on each side have been
appointed at prey ious meeting to open
the questions which usually are tremen-
dous ones -'Capital Punishment "Wo-
man Suffrage" Nv hich the Greater Evil,
IntemptrGnCe or FalSehoOd?' etc. 1t is
an interesting and a stimulating spec
tatte ,hc Elauuatvs OF nul mai sc nUOis and
academies, the different teachers of town
schools, the sca captains, the farmers, the
mechanics, all alive and keenly wRtchful
Ia. !, of ~ i,..,