The Republican journal., 1896-07-30
BY THE SEA.
4 Tribute to the Maine Coast from the Pen of
kev. ]. E. I. sawyer, Editor of the Northern
Christian Advocate.

tnristlan ADVOCATE.
Tie writer annually spends few days
Oh the Maine coast. During recent years
been brief, but their manifold delights
make the whole year brighter There was
time when had the Unreasonable priv
ilege Of spending the whole year in this
realm of beauty and wonder. In my boy
hood l knew all the lights along the shore
from hittery to Quoddy. l know the
principal ones we'll yet, and can tell the
location OF a steamer by them in a dark
night, il it be not also foggy one. Those
who are not familiar with the Maine coast
cannot imagine its wonderful beauty, va
rlety and grandeur. The distance from
It's westward to its eastward point by a
line drawn off shore and regardless of the
contiguration of the coast-line is only two
hundred and fifty miles. but if that line
be followed the distance is twenty five
hundred miles. The picturesque bays and
coves are innumelable, and every bay and
winding inlet is spangled with islands,
pNeNNtNt
George and the fairy like loneliness OF the
thousand Islands with the majesty Of the
sea, and the combination will give some
conception OF this marvelousIy lovely
region,
The meadows sloring to the sea have
not yet this season been touched by the
mower S scythe, and they are as full of
bloom and fragrance as the infrequent but
most lovely meadows among the Alps.
/ he summer foliage Of the hard wood
trees IS more delicately green here by the
sea than it is inland. and even the ever
greens are brightly, softly green instead
vi dark. The verdure all summer is like
that OF May and early June elsewhere.
NJ inst stopping place in my present
little tour was on the kennebec river. AS
we entered the river in the gray of early
dawn the binds We're singing in the forests
on either hand The glorious stream was
as smooth as a mirror, and as quiet as a
mountain lake, but as we neared Bath the
tumult OF cannon and fire crackers and the
multitudinous clangor of the church bells
frightened away the silence, for it was the
morning OF the Fourth of July.
Ny host during my stay at Bath, the
Hon. Charles Davenport, my dear friend
for more than half my life, was born the
same year as Alfred Tennyson, Oliver
Wendell Holmes, Darwin, Lord Hough-
ton and Gladstone. the year 1909. AL
though more than eighty-seven years of
age he gets into and out of his buggy like
a boy, is the active president of two banks
as well as the manager of several large
ships and of much important business be-
sides. There is not a buster business man
IN the city. There is none whose iudg-
ment and financial sagacity is esteemed
above lis even now. He seems to bear
his heavy responsibilities without weari-
ness, though he tolls many hours daily at
his desk. He still leads the choir in the
Beacon street Methodist Episcopal Church
and teaches class in the Sunday school.
Although he has been active in Sunday
school work ever since he was youth.
and has for much of his lifetime been
teacher, he still carefully studies his les
son weekly as l can testify from personal
observation.
The companion OF my railway ride from
Bath to Portland was one Of the most
famous of American Ship masters. Capt.
Thomas 7. Gibbons, for whom the great
sailing ship John Z. Kelley was built and
whose able seamansllip and gallantry in
taking the ship Triumphant safely into
san Francisco after shr mad been dismast-
ca was formally recognized by the national
board OF underwriters, who gave him
gold watch suitably inscribed. As we are
ola Ilcnds nltjcn uf our talk was OF other
days and mutual acquaintance, but not
the least interesting part vi ii was con
eelhIAg lie Pitcairn island community,
VIII " hltA lie has been especially familiar
lpI many years, having called at the island
many times III Ills long voyages aud hav-
lng received many letters from the chief
81 Is inhabitants, to whom he has rem
deled many services.
only nine miles from Bath is Bruins
WICK, where Mrs Harriet Beecher Stowe
wrote Uncle Tom Cabin. The cottage
that was then hel home is still standing.
Not many miles away is Orrs island. the
scene OF her loveliest story. bold, ro-
mantle point of land, uplifting a crown of
rich eeergreens and forest trees over per-
pendicular cliffs, ''all glorious with ma
iestic pines, all musical with the caresses
81 tie sea- waves, with numberless shelly
coveS, and tiny beaches among the silver
shadows. Here one may see not only
the places where Pearl and Sally played,
the ravine which was the rendezvous of
the smuggler captain, and the secluded
thlcket where Moses read the letter of
Parson Sewall, but also the old houses
which We're the homes of the original
types OF several of the characters of the
story, Aunts Roxy and Ruey, Captain Kit
fridge and the Pennels
Since leaving Bath | have spent day at
Rockland and Camden and the remaining
time at this most delightful locality on
Penobscot bay, taking long walks, idling
on the cliffs, picking and eating the
abundant field straw berries that tempt
my appetite as / wander through the
meadows and pastures, meeting friends
whom have known and loved from boy
hood, enjoying all the while feast of
beauty that will gladden. my memory and
quicken my imagination for year to
come.
The white Lighthouse that in the after
noon sunshine shows so distinctly on a
beautiful headland some eight miles dis
tant across the bay in southerly direc-
ton is at the entrance to the harbor of
IaStne, whose romantic history of the |
last three hundred years is to-day being
commemorared with grand celebration. |
at which that gifted son of Castine, Noah
brooks, presides, and in which the nation
al government shows its interest by the
presence and participation of the fleet
white cruiser Columbia. The great ship
made beautiful picture as she came up
the bay yesterday afternoon. In other
days have wandered over Castine's fair