The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1898-05-05

| III which are made lime and mackaral
| barrels.
1hls was our muscle developipg head
quarters between hoeing and having to
prevent undue hilarity. A sort of sub,ti-
| tute Tor modern base ball and foot ball
which were not then included in our list
OF amusements Thus the last wears of
I our tine before leaving home were divid-
ed, IN summer between farming and COOP
oiinS' ahu III winter, coopering and peda-
| goging.
When my senior brother had left home
grasped the coopering industry in cam
est. 10 get my stock from first hands
! and drive the middlemen out of the bust
ness L bought my lumber on the stump,
cut and drew it to the mill in winter, where
II was sawed into slaves and heading,
lhls numbering term, in connection with
the short term of country school, occu-
pied my time during the autumn and Win
| ter months.
The barrel stock thus prepared in win
ter was made into barrels and marketed
during the spring and summer months
The market for lime barrels was at Rock
land, Me-. distance of % miles One
OF the bright features of this barrel max
ing business Was the custom of working
III the shop as many hours as the sun
would furnish light, and drawing the
barrels to market in the night time. This
custom was established because the profits
OF the business, working 10 hours per day,
We're too small for the accumulation of a
circus fund. III those days young man
in the country, with no circus fund, was
| not allowed to occupy an aristocratic posi-
ton in society.
Railroad facilities did not connect my
lucrative business with the market, SO the
motive power for marketing my goods
was horsepower, plain and simple. One
hundred of these barrels was the average
load for two horses. The necessary life
sustaining outfit for man and beast for the
trip was a twin cold lunch; bag of hay
and two feeds of grain. The bag of hay,
in addition to its life sustaining proper
ties, made an ingenious device for uphol-
steering the soft side of two barrels in a
horizontal position for a seat for the
driver. The regular schedule time for
starting to market was sunset. This,
however, varied in the circus season. An
evening circus performance within ten
! mile drive WIS never allowed to pass un-
noticed, in which case the start for mar
ket was made about midnight. Think of
the advantage afforded in such trip in
bright starlight night for studying as
tronomy. In my dreams used to watch
the flies walking about on bald headed in
| habitants of the fixed stars. Several
miles of this drive was over what was
called the Camden Turnpike, very mar
row road almost overhung in many places
by huge cliffs and boulders of the Cam
den mountains on one side and the waters
of Lake Meguntieook on the other. The
stories | had had heard when a small boy
about bears, panthers and wild cats that
inhabited these hills did not increase the
enjoyment of the occasion.
l was not overburdened with the kind
of courage necessary for the enjoyment of
midnight encounters with the above nam
ed because | was born too late to enter
/ the Civil War. Many times has the hay
seed in my hair been suddenly disturbed
by imaginary sounds of ferocious animals,
which on sober reflection proved to be the
distant hooting of an owl or the rustling
in the grass Of the harmless little mouse.
Poets have been inspired by the natural
scenery of this locality, but let me assure
the reader that their inspiration came
under different circumstances 1t is all
right for the city dude who has not been
brought up ON bear stories to MARBLE
poetry in broad daylight in the left ear of
his best girl, but let him go it alone with
IA load of lime barrels over this lonesome
thoroughfare, in the dead hours of the
Dight, and he will find his stock of poeti-
cal inspiration handicapped. 1t is one of
those experiences which a cowardly man
who has not been there cannot compre-
bend. Occasionally | now have what ap-
pears to be an unpleasant task. To re-
move that unpleasant feeling have only
to recall those midnight excursions alone
through the solemn stiffness of the 'tCam-
den Turnpike" Such experiences did
not increase my love for my vocation. All
the while | kept posted on the success
my elder brother was having in the cloth
ing business.
Three years after he left home, I, too,
firmly resolved to graduate from the IA
miliar paths of the old homestead ana en-
bark in city life. | was then 26 years
! old. | came direct to Lawrence, and have
since been told that my personal appear
ance showed that my life thus far had not
| been wasted on etiquette. | nad been
fairly well bred for country boy, but
was not polished. | had been taught that
, to earn my pie and eat it from my fingers
was more honorable than to let some
other fellow earn it for me, and eat it with
fork The foundation to my parental
teaching was obedience and self-reliance
and | believe that pretty nearly covers the
ground.
This was about all had to recommend
me as clothing merchant, for couldn't
tell the difference between a seven dollar
broadcloth and printed satinet which is
worth nothing but sells for about thirty