Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1896-02-05

doubled for the public good, If its eff
cheney is to be proportional to its more
public prominence. Now. it may be
asked. what is there for historical
society in this county to do2 Has not the
mine been worked TO II non paying basis
Has not the historic field been thoroughly
cleaned" To allow this would be
assuming too much There are doubtless
yet many facts of interest and Importance
which diligence may discover to Illustrate
the past of the county but it is not with
the past alone, nor chiefly, that IA society
like this should concern itself. History
is being made today, which deserves II
record, as much AS in any day siuce this
State was freed from its last glacial drift.
History is now being recorded instead CT
imagined. 1t is being photographed in
stead of sketched from traditions. 1t
takes In all the landscape instead of the
pinnacles only; the people rather than the
rulers alone. Never was 1t truer than
today that history" AZ Carlyle says,
sis the result of innumerable biogra-
phies.H Men and women of genius, Of
philanthropy Of influence in shaping
society; events, social, moral, political,
scientific, are rising and following each
other in bcwildering confusion to catch
and preserve, in authentic form, the
memory and work of these men and
women and Il record Of the events which
are weaving the local history of the time
is responsible duty which the society
may perform III or well.
The Yankee has heretofore had little
reverence for the past. His instincts are
! fay or h1p ri ion, to
fore ours has been able to trace its origin
with such absolute certainty. 1t rests
upon hard prosaic facts. 1t has been
enough for US to know that our fathers
and mothers have come to these shores
from various countries 1--WE prefer British
origin,) during the last 275 years From
the first they turned to the future with
passionate hope. The dead past might
bury its dead; theirs was to act in the
living present. They had stout hearts
because they knew that God ruled at
least for them. They soon nado the
natives their enemies in their assumption
of dominion. To their practical minds
the best Indians were dead Indians A
happy and peaceful future was impossible
mid the disputed claims of lurking
savages. The picturesqUencss Of the
native races had no charms for them.
Not as painted braves, feathersd chiefs
and beaded maidens Of Pocahontas
loyalty to friends; but as INDECENT, trench
erous and vile. They soon came to regard
them as a nightmare in their dream CT
empire and very much in the way This
lack in our history of background OF
myth and mystery has greatly hapdi
capped the literature of the land. IL has
not been aided or enriched by super
natural origin of the people. No myth: ca
heroes were the progenitors of our FIRST
men and women. We claim for them nc
descent from Viking or wolf nurtureC
ancestors. We have only men and women
for our progenitors; not better nor worse
perhaps, than ourselves, but knowing fal
less about many things; if not ours is al
the shame. We are beginning to rest ;
little. The fight for existence is less in
!, tense than it was with our fathers. We
have more knowledge OF the world, oil
men and their motives; a more sympa
thetic view a more fraternal feeling il
affecting our attitude toward our fellow:
and the public Society is moro united
{ and is more readily induced to Join for ;
common good. 1t is beginning to dis
} cover the past its meaning, its grandeur
The public is even warming toward thu
Indian foes of our fathers. The huntins
j and hunted savages Of tbesa valleys ar
assuming, in tbs melowing years. the
5 proper place in the background of on
! rough provincial story. 1t is found, a
: last, that we, also, have poetic past sur
. passing in attractiveness the twiligh
e mysteries of old world traditions; a pas
c of the immemorial duration of race
! extinct, and of a later race wonderful il
+ its traits, by nature kind, simple stocis