The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1899-07-03

men and goes into insolvency. OF course,
il doesn't assign in favor of some pre-
ferred creditor, and of course, the bank
ruptcy proceedings are not aired before
commissioner or a judge of the probate
court but similar results are obtained by
more dignifiec method, which is tech
nically known as reverting to plantation
form of government.
There are at least a score of towns in
Maine whose citizens are seriously con-
templating the REIMBURSEMENT of their
articles of Incorporation and becoming
plantations. OF course, they will have
to apply to the Maine legislature for per-
mission, and the average Maine lawmaker
isn't fond of advertising the poverty of
his state by official enactment, but if the
residents of these towns can prove that
their population is falling off and that
their taxes are increasing beyond the
limit of endurance, satisfying everybody
that there is no other means of escape,
then the town ceases to exist by act OF
legislature and a new plantation is born.
Though the abandoned farms in Maine
have not been so widely advertised as
they nave III MdSSdCiluS6llS anu 4NNW
Hampshire. there are plenty of deserted
and windowless houses in the pine tree
state plenty of rare old orchards where
the spruces and gray birches overtop the
gnarled apple trees and plenty Of wide
meadow lands that once yielded hay and
potatoes, which now give no better crops
than hoopoles at $l.75 a thousand and
lean gray rabbits at 4 cents head.
The abandoned farm is the first symptom
Of a towns financial decay, the incipient
tremor which ends in total paralysis and
death.
FARMS NEVER WORKED.
AS a matter of fact the farms which
Were cleared up along the borders of the
New England forest belt We're never car
ried on for Legitimate agricultural pur-
poses. The men who grubbed the stumps
and built the huge, unShapely wooden
houses were lumbermen. They steriliz d
and exhausted the virgin soil in order to
grow hay and oats fer feeding to their
teams in the woods and for the purpose
of producing pork and beans, which
should supply muscle to the sWampers
and wood choppers. The land was sap
ped year after year to save expense in
camp and when the last pine and spruce
tree had been cut down and marketed
the farm was run out and worthless.
The town assessors didn't know how
badly off the owners of these farms were,
or if they knew they didn't consider the
changed environment when making up
the valuation. Those square twO-stOry
houses, filled with bedrooms enough to
hold a whole camps crew, and tn Sc
long low rooted barns, containing stalls
for 100 oxen, were property costing thou
sands of dollars and should be taxed.
Perhaps the house contained no more
than a poor old couple who lived and slept
rf,otr fhn in h1lil m
rats and mice; possibly the huge barn
held one 2-year-old heifer and a lean
long-noSed shoat The place should be
valued in proportion to what it has cost
and no man should live in big house
without paying for the luxury in taxes.
The result was as inevitable as mathe-
mates. a few years, a very few years
of farming on land that was bolted to-
gether with witchgrass roots, of moving
where the man had to hitch leather
strap from his shoulder to the end of his
snath to keep his scythe from escaping
in the thin grass and of cultiVatng lano
where the rank roman NORWOOD over
topped the beans and potatoes in the
rows. A short experience of this kind OF
agriculture, where unpaid store bills
mounted up and where house roofs leak
ed for want of shingles and old barns
blew down in autumn gales-a brief
agony of fighting with poverty and
despair ana the CURTAIN was IuIlB QOWl
upon the saddest of New England TRACE
dies.
SAD PRIVATION.
Those who succumbed first Jared best
for in the early stages of the abandoned
farm malady the proprietors could mort
gage their farms, thereby gaining money
to support them In responsibility unit
plying death relieved them from care
and Cancelled all indebtedness. TIL sc
who held out longer until the tax rate
mounted beyond endurance found 1t i'm
possible to get anybody who would adj
vance money on a mortgage. Then come:
the sorrow which is more bitter thar
death. The New England country resi-
dent is proud and self-reliant. He may
shave to a fraction of a cent on a baske
of eggs, and on rare occasions he may
cheat a little in horse trade, but hi:
fiber is spun from honest goods
Meanness he may tolerate, but h,
despises dishonesty and he abhors char
ity. His one desire is to pay as he goes
Therefore, when a family becomes re-
duced to extremity, when there are NJ
longer credits at the store nor funds a
home nor prospect of relief from mort
gage, the head of the family went to tn,
selectmen of the town and made a full
disclosure. He told them just how h,
was situated. Unless he had help hi.
family would be hungry inside of {
month He belonged to an old and hon
orable family that had never begotteI
a pauper in ten generations. Therefore
he would kill his wife and commit sui
eide sooner than become one of tn,
towns poor. Under these conditions h
had come to make a business offer
the town would agree to support him an,
mother during the remainder of thei
lives he would make out a free gift dee,
of his farm and all he owned in pay
ment for the same.
Knowing that the man told the trutl
and feeling sure that he and his famil.