Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1902-02-22
A MAINE CITY.
A Bright Writer Describes
City Of "Cumnor."
It is RockIanJ Under a Very Thin
Disguise.
Tho Social Democracy CT the City Par
ticuiarly Emphasized.

thing about social democracy. West
it's everybody" they say. Even so
wise and witty i writer as MISS Helen
Marie bennett dwells with ferVor On
the absence of social lines IN a
South Dakota town, and the delight
fl! ease with which every man stands
confidently on his own feet in society
or out. cheerfully Gisrcgarding stand
ards 81 birth and breeding. Judged
solely by his qualities as a good fellow
ard useful citizen. She evidently
thinks it a unique state of things; and
,3 lar rs Boston standards go, she is
probably right. But Boston standards
its social ones 1t least-dCn't go
everywhere. There are small cities
in Maine, for instance, that flourish
yet IN as joyous state of Western"
democracy as if prairie dogs dug
holes in their back yards and coyotes
hUwled through their streets. The one
community that | know best may
serve as a type Of them all. / will
call it Cumnor, because, SO far as |
know, there is no town of that name
in Maine, writes Elizabeth Jayne
Clark in the Boston Transcript.
.Cumnor, though technically a city
and containing 5000 souls, comes very
near meriting Mr.. J. +. Chamberlin's
! Characterization of a small Vermont
| town: probably still the most demo-
| cratic society in the respects of it's
| political arrangements and the customs
Of personal intercourse in the United
| States" Like the dWcllers in the
! Vermont town, we of Cumnor are still
| undisturbed by the intrusion of any
considerable poor foreign or rich Yam
| llee element. Foreigners we have, Of
| course, for ours is a seaport town
a few Italians, one or two Syrians,
some Swedes and NorWegians, besides
| the ever present Irish. These last,
| however, have been with us 50 long
! that they count almost as original set
!! Hers. For our town is not an old one
| not even middle-aged, as New Eng
| land towns go-and when our chief
supporting industry started up there
were the Irish-gay, Industrious, frugal,
adaptable-ready to cast their lot in
| with ours ana become useful citizens.
our great industry, by the way-l will
call it shipbuilding, though that isn't
it's of a sort to employ men only
and those in respectable, clean, out-of-
| door labor, we'll paid, and requiring in
|
strength and skill. we have only one
factory. ana that a small one, for the
| manufacture of certain articles of
clothing. Therefore, we attract no
hordes of French Canadians, contract
| labor Italians or the like who are
bound to form a permanent lower class
| in any community. Our Irish, Italians
and Swedes all come from the ranks
| ,,,I f..y, .,p trlI n
what we are descended from ourselves.
| There is no large class OF capitalist
employers for employees to pit them
! selves against perpetually. Oh, yes,
we have occasional strikes, of course.
and certain unassuming heads of the
| ship building industry have been
| greatly amused at times to find them
selves referred to in perfervid pamph-
| lets as "bloated bondholders.' But
the excitement soon subsidies, for the
great majority of our workmen are
| really extravagantly well paid ana
their wives and children, instead of
| toiling their pale lives out in the DIN
of factories, have leisure to go to
school, to belong to clubs, and to walk
abroad and spend the good mans
wages on comfortable clothes and
| abundant food.
\ The standard Of living is not so
| widely different among employers ana
| employed There are no large for
| tunes among us-the valuation of the
| whole little city, l believe, is only
about $4,000 000-and there is, compar-
atively very little bitter poverty Few
| Of such fortunes as there are have
been inherited, and there are almost
no hereditary business positions. Ii
| often happens that father Will give
his son modest amount of money to
start in business with, or that, If liv-
| ing. he may be able to help the son fl
nancially from time to time II he
gets into straits. But the son is ex-
pected, on his part, to contribute good,
hard work. business sense, and
STRAIGHTFORWARD dealing, otherwise he
stands no more chance of success than
the fellow who has hewn his own
sturdy way. There are no hereditary
| advisers to stand by and prop up the
business if it totterS, there is no OBJ
seauious public to buy of a firm whose
dealings look unsatisfactory, just be-
| cause it is used to seeing that same
firm name over the door for genera
| tons.
And we have no leisure class at all,
| to set up conventional standards Tor
our manners and morals. We are, as
have said. comparatively new COM
| n:unity. made up of eX-farmers ana
| tradespeople. There are no time-hon-
ored names among us, to cast halos
| a, ound their possessors. We have
started in. once or twice. on the pro-
duction of old families, but with no sue
cess at all. Cumnor air seems hostile
In the fine flower of aristocracy. the
scions of a would-be stately house nave
either drunk themselves to death Ton,
YES. that is sadly possible in Maine, l
do assure YOU'D, lost their small Ior-
tunes and gone to work cheerfully III
minor business positions, or else de-
lparted for the West, to grow up Win
the country" Then, too, as we nave
missed having a moneyed class, we
have also grown up without any
aristocracy of intellect. We have col
lege-bred men, able lawyers. skilled
physicians, and scholarly clergymen.
But they do not flock by themselves,
ana we think neither more nor less Oh
them for these educational accidents.
If we like the minister's sermons anu