Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1896-10-24

4 -''sN~
whole neighborhood without a COW, ant
there never was a piece of fulled cloti
made in Norridgewock.' There wer,
| then 70 families in town, or over 4o'
Inhabitants. The greater part hat
lived there twelve or fifteen years
| Continuing the paper states that ever
at the close of the last century there
| was often much suffering for want OF
food in many places in what is now
Maine. The writer states that he knew
a large family about that time living
near Pennington, which lived mostly
corn on his shoulder Is miles to
mill to have it ground. The paper also
states that lin 1888, the money in the
town of Norridgewock was less than
two cents to each Individual; now"
QS6S) by the valuation, there is $24O
per capita
From such conditions by means of
the thrift, energy and tenacity which
then characterized them and which
must have been intensified by the ex-
periences to which they were subjected
the people of this State have attained
prosperity and many of them because
they have chosen to lend from their
small and hard earned savings are now
being denounced as money changers,
shylocks extortioners and as likely to be
responsible for an uprising of the
South and West in rebellion.
A few weeks ago the Journal re-
marked that many in this State would
be inclined to hesitate about believing
all the tales of woe concerning the suf-
fering in the West, and that they had
contributed their money to its upbuild-
ing and in altogether too many instances
We're never likely to see it again. We
received letter from Maine boy who
had taken up his home in Utah depre-
eating such words as we used and at
tributing to the spirit, he thought he
saw therein, accountability for grave
troubles yet to come. He misappre-
hended the spirit. evidently, and pre-
sumably because the Journal also re-
marked that those who had endured
that sort of experience with the West
were now looking at home for opportu-
mites to place their money to better
advantage.
The number of those who get some
thing for nothing is exceedingly small:
the communities that prosper without
undergoing more or less privaton are
indeed rare, and those usually squan-
der their opportunities until suffering
and hardship must be gone through
with in order to get back to a normal
condition. OF course we would not ar
que that all the thrift and endurance
OF pioneer life has been confined to
Maine or New England but this part
of the country has surely had it's share
of it. The stories of the experiences
of the hardy. bold men of heroic mold
who faced the dangers of the great
West are among the most thrilling and
inspiring of any told in the English
language. But we have yet to learn
that any of them expected the govern
nent to provide way in which they
might cheat nature or shuttle off their
obligations The elder Harrison lived
in log house but neither he nor his
descendants have intimated that they
ever held any grudge against the East
because at that time there were those
in the East living in affluence.
There was time when cities sprung
up on the Western prairies like mush-
room. This would not have been possible
but for Eastern capital nor were such
, privations required of the pioneers who
surveyed and sold the corner lots as
were endured by the good citizens of
Norridgewock century before. We
are glad that the conditions were so
favorable and the Eastern investors
who had entrusted their capital to hon
est men, and there are very many such
in the West, often had. occasion to re-
| joice in big dividends and security of
principal. But there were other cities
| springing up with like marvellous rap
| idity that went down with equal ce-
lerity. The Eastern capitalists, those
who from seven cents per capita had
accumulated several hundred dollars to
lend and had been so unfortunate as
to invest in these transient metropol-
ises, were too frequently forced to rely
in old age upon the muscle and econ
omy acquired by their early training.
yet are not disposed to blame the West
for their misfortunes. They had TAX
en- chances and lost But too often.
as they learned, the promoters
of those gilded schemes in some way
managed to make money out of those
bubbles, and now when that class of
spectators and boomers are found
shouting for cheap dollar to pay debts