The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1901-01-21
NAMES POVERTY BELT.
Tales of Bitter Di-tres. From some
Rural Towns.

| Rural Towns.
| BANGOR. Ne. Jan. 20-The bankruptcy
| OF the town OF Somerville, in Lincoln
| County. and the distressing conditions
| prevailing in the town OF Otis, In Han
| cock County. where the chatteis OF ei;i-
zens have been levied on to pay town
debts. are notable examples of the hope
| less decay into which many OF the smaller
places in rural Maine have fallen.
dozen or more towns today are so near in
solvency that their inhabitants are seri-
ously considering the advisability CT sur
rendering their charters and returning to
the plantation form of government. In
many towns once prosperous. the farms
have become run out. and as no manufac-
| lures have been established, abandonment
and decay quickly folloY. and the young
| men and often the young women go away
to find in more prosperous places The
means OF getting a living.
The time ives when the owners of these
run-out farms could raise enough by
mortgage to keep them along for few
| years, perhaps until death should call
| them. but now days this would be very
| difficult in any case, and impossible for
| the most part. Some of the old folks
| have sons who have prospered in the
/
| comfortable support: the others are
poor as they can we'll be and keep out of
| the almshouse. A case that occurred IN a
small Maine town not long ago will serve
| TO illustrate the depths OF this rural
poverty.
A sturdy old farmer, whose place had
| run out and whose stock had dwindled TO
almost nothing, realized, after a particu-
iarly poor harvest, that starvation stared
him and his wife in the face. and that he
must do something at once. He was too
| old to go out to work: he was willing.
| but no one would hire him. So he went to
the selectmen and laid his poverty bare
| to them. He was an honest and proud
man. and in ten generations his family
had never burdened the public with
pauper. He said that il the town would
support him and his wife while they lived.
he would make out to the town free gift
deed OF his farm and all upon il. said
he:
This is all can do. I would rather
kill my poor wife and commit suicide my
self than to take so much as single
meal at the towns expense. We shall not
live long ard we shall not need much.
The farm will be enough to make the
town whole. Take my offer. or we shall
be hungry, and maybe worse will happen
within a month
The selectmen knew the spirit of the
old man, ard they also knew that he was
telling the truth, SO they accepted his
offer. Thus. undoubtedly. a tragedy was
| averted-one OF those crimes in lonely
places for which Maine has lately been
noted. But this practice was followed in
| other cases. with the result that the town
soon had upon its hands dozen families,
and nothing to Offset the expense OF their
support except lot Of abandoned farms
that yielded little or nothing. Taxes went
went up steadily as long as the practice
continued, and then the selectmen We're
forced to call a halt in that form Of
philanthropy. After that the poor people
who wanted 70 mortgage or give their
farms TO the town In consideration of life
long support were obliged to go to the
almshouse or-eommit suicide. 1t is
fact that several suicides came about in
this way.
The town where all this occurred. In
spite of The most careful economy in pub
lie expenditures fell behind every year.
and the tax rate reached IL per cent.
Well-to-do people moved away as fast as
they could fleeing from the place as
though it had been stricken with a pesti-
lence, and soon all that were left were
few whose wealth -as in stccks and bonds
that the assessors could not get at, those
who had sons away who contributed to-
ward their support. and those who re-
ceived pensions.
In this extremity the only thing to be
done was to revert to the plantation form
of government and to do this it was
necessary that the towns valuation
should be less than $40 900. The town as
SCISSORS could easily scale down the val
uation to less than $40 COO but their val
ution is not fnal-it must be approved by
the State assessors. In order. then, to
force down the valuation, many of the
well-to-do inhabitants moved all their
live stock into an adjoining town, tore
down their buildings. and sowed the lands
with oats and buckwheat, year after year.
without ever returning anything in the
way of dressing to make up the loss to
the soil. In that way the valuation of the
town was reduced in about four years to
less than $40. 900. and the place became a
plantation. Then the expatriated citizens
returned and again took up their former
abodes rid of pauper taxes.
Prosperity runs in two belts in Maine.
On the coast and along the navigable
rivers are towns rich from manufaetur-
ing, commerce. and the fisheries: far back
are more towns where numbering yields
good returns, and between the two is re-
gion lacking all of these sources of
wealth-the region of the rocky and often
abandoned farms In this poverty-striek-
en- belt are situated Somerville and Otis,
and many more like them. The belts form
a sandwich of distress between slices of
prosperity.