Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1899-03-13

Hats of to William bootnpy OF
Leeds, who will be 50 years old next
August. He has voted every year IN
Leeds for the past 81 years and was al
the polls among the first, last MONDAY.
We smile now and then at the
scribe" of the weekly papers, but we
make our bow to the man IN Mexico
who thus concludes a paragraph about
a sick neighbor who Is behind with MS
winter work: Ellis circumstances are
sufficient to demand the sympathy and
aid that all should be willing to extend
to a deserving neighbor Our axe is
sharp and team ready at any time.
Let's all turn out and give the more
unfortunate a lift. We don't know
how soon our own turn with misfort-
une may come"
Although relies Of the Spanish war
are most in evidence just now, Maine
people have by no means lost interest
in those of an earlier day. and the UNI
ty man who lately found in Eastport
soil an old cannon ball supposed 10
have come from the British warshipS
when they captured that town from
the Americans at the time of the
Revolution. wouldn't swap 1t for any
number of brand new soldiers buttons.
At a meeting of the local order Of
the Golden Cross in Grange hall in
Phillips the other evening. dialogue
was announced. apparently as part
of the evenings entertainment, and
when Sir knight Benjamin c. Powers.
Miss Esther A. Wilbur and George A.
Lakin, Esq, took their places in the
centre of the hall. no one present sus-
pected that the words spoken during
that dialogue were making man and
wife two well-known people whose
names had not been connected matri-
monially When it was all over. how
over, the audience showed itself equal
to the occasion and feature of
wedding supper that followed was the
presentation to Mr.. and Mrs. Powers
in the behalf of the order, OF a very
pretty glass set. The contracting part
les are well known in Madrid where
both reside. Mr. Powers Is 81 years
old, a well-to-do farmer, and his bride
is % years old.
New York newspapers give consider
able space to reports of the sermon by
DIR. Hyde. president of Bowdon col
lege. preached at the Plymouth church.
Brooklyn, a week ago last Sunday.
The theme was: -Four aspects of
modern life-wealth. pleasure, politics
and faith" Touching on the war with
Spain, Mr.. Hyde pointed out that our
brief enmity toward Spain ended with
the cessation of hostilities, and In
criticising the war department said:
1.-The men the nation blames most bit
terly today are those who dared to
stand in places of great responsibility,
and then. to use the mildest term the
whole vocabulary of whitewash af
fords. failed to grasp the situation, in
which the lives Of these men and the
fortunes of the nation by their author
ity We're placed. If any great lasting
good comes out of this war with Spain.
it will be the recognition of the truth
that the man who puts himself or helps
to put others in positions of public re-
sponsibility for which he or they are
unfit is guilty of the only form of trea-
son a great Republic has to fear"
The town of Holden is the owner Of 4
hearse that is out of job. 1t is
good hearse, only six years old, clean.
bright and as good as new: but IN
spite of its apparent attractiveness
and in spite of the fact that it cost the
town $3.50, it has not carried a coffin or
led funeral procession for more than
four years. Until five years ago, it was
the most popular and widely employed
hearse in northern Hancock county.
and was hired by people in Eddington.
Dedham and Clifton. One day the
driver. having taken a body to Brook
lin for interment. saw chance to turn
an honest dollar by bringing back
load of salt fish. Then the trouble be-
gan. The fish didn't harm the hearse
any, and the hearse didn't hurt the
fish, but when the story got out the
usefulness of the hearse was gone.
Those who had friends to bury sent to
Bangor, ten miles away, and paid $40
or SIS for hearse sooner than have
the local hearse for nothing The
town had the hearse newly painted
and vanished, hoping to remove the
pIcJuulCc, Uut the HSu story nelQ on.
and the village boys threw stones at
the hearse house to show their con-
tempt. In a year or so the feeling
against the hearse became so strong
that men declared in their wills that
their heirs should be disinherited in
case the testarOrs were carried to the
grave in the Holden hearse. Those
who didn't wish to mention the hearse,
got around it by demanding that their
bodies should be conveyed in a hearse
from Dedham or Bangor. These wills
were filed in the probate office in Ban
gor. and before the property could be
divided the heirs were obliged to prove
that the request regarding the hearse
had been fulfilled. The affair has
caused no end of trouble and expense,
but in spite of the time that has
elapsed the feeling is stronger today
than 1t was five years ago. This spring
there was an article in the town war
rants "to see if the town will vote to
sell the hearse." 1t was adopted.