The Portland daily press., 1895-06-22
TWELVE PAGES.

examples of the depths to which ''dema
goguery" and "cheap politics. might
lead. They held their tongues and tenn
pers while the August suns baked the
patches and the Colorado beetles gnawed
the sickly vines. Time and again they
b elieved the weather was to spoil the OK
pertinent, and some of them now admit
their hopes were only realized by the an
swer of the prayers of their pastor.
The rain came at the last moment. The
vines sprouted as if by magic. They bios
somed long after the country potato had
ripened, and in week the committee
leaped from derision and ignominy to
fam e. All the land talked Pingree potato
patches and the following cities have
this year erected green monuments to
their memory by creating municipal po-
tato depa1 tments:
Rochester, N. Y; Milwaukee, Wis.
Kansas City, Mo Duluth, MINI;
St. Louis, Mo-; Omaha Neb.; Boston,
Mass. NJ innea polls; Mimi New York
land, Ohio; Washington, D. c.; Lincoln,
Neb:; Jackson, Mich. !; Grand Rapids,
Mich; Providence, r. Newport, R.
l.; Columbus, Ohio; Memphis, Tenn;
Nashville, Tenn. Haverhill, Mass. Paw
tucket. B l.; Youngstown, Ohio; Lock
Seattle Wash Tacoma, Wash /; San
Francisco, Cal. ST. Paul, Mimi. Long
Island City, N Y; Philadelphia, Pa
Richmond, Va. Toledo, Ohio; Scranton
Pa. Pittsburg, Pa. {; Brockton, Mass.
Steubenville, Ohio; Brooklyn, N. Y;
Albany, n. Y. Syracuse, N: Y; Bing-
| n ron, aIyvo
| Wash. New Orleans La Denver, Cl
| Mayor Pingree, who never misses an
opportunity to assist the poor man, took
extra precaution this spring to keep from
his plan any room for a charge of political
| buncomb. He named sixteen men from
all races, creeds and parties as members of
the board, more than doubling the repre-
sentation on the first board. His message
| to the council asked for pubic money, only
ten times as much as he himself had con-
tributed the first year. A city employe
was made secretary, in addition to his
other work, and now the entire city
watches the rain and sunshine with the
anxiety of farmer. All the inhabitants
remember the official gardens, fand if the
prayers of the few pastors saved last
! years crop, the combined hopefulness
and good wishes of $50, 900 people will GER
tainly bring rich harvest.
! Detroit's grand boulevard skirts most
of the patches, and the drive is lined with
carriages in the evening, bringing the rich
! to witness the enthusiasm of the poor
The long stretches of patches, now begin.
ming to be green with the promising crops,
are dotted with fathers, mothers, sons and
daughters, working with all manner of
implements, desperate in a determination
to help themselves. Old women, wrink-
led and feeble from the poverty slums of
| Europe, toll side by side with their Grip
| pied husbands or lusty sons. One section
shows a group of thirty widows hoeing
and planting with the care of a botanist,
and arranging the beds in order. like the
| figures of old fashioned carpet They
barely know the English language. Block
after block from the Polish district spends
| all the hours of daylight on the farms.
Many man, with his dinner pail. drags
himself to the garden after his days
work, spending half the moonlight night
in filling the trenches he made the NOR
ing before.
Germans invariably refused to apply to
the poor board for ground They willing
ly paid the fee of so cents to save their
pride. The list of farmers contains but
few colored people, while 80 per cent. of
the 1, $50 are from central and eastern Eu-
rope. The prediction of quarrels and dis
sessions have not been fulfilled, while the
stealings have been no greater than would
be natural among an equal number of cit
liens of the same classes in ordinary life.
One death has occurred, case in which
man so years old worked from daylight
until noon, with nothing to eat. He was
| found dead under the sign of the subur-
ban real estate dealer who owned the
acres.
| Mayor Pingree has already devised i'm
provements in the department for next
year. The commission will try to get the
| lands year in advance, that the street
sweepings may be dumped on them in
| the winter, as fertilizers The average
has been fifteen bushels of potatoes to
each family, and one of the most treas
ured documents in the mayors posses
sion, framed and hung in his office, is
the diploma from the State fair awarding
premiums on vegetable exhibits to the
municipal potato department and the
poor men it benefited. This year he will
hold a little fair of his own, because he
says he is convinced the more man
knows the better is his citizenship. He
has no fears from the man who spends
his spare hours in the open fields trying
to capture the prize for the biggest "Pin-
gree or most rotund cabbage raised in
his ward
Anthony J. Drexel Biddle of Philadel-
mia who was married Tuesday last to