The silver messenger. (Challis, Idaho) 1890-1912, 1902-01-07
VOTERS HOLD OFFICE
Maine Town Where There Are No
Political Job Hunters.
OHly Really Perfect Place for Patron
q iR the COUntrY-Every
Voter tn Perkins Is Pro-
vided with a Berth.

Unique among all the towns OF the
state and nation Perkins, bearing the
honored name of Col. T. H. Perkins,
founder of the deaf and dumb home at
South Boston, Mass, has an office for
every voter, and on election day every
citizen suffragist draws some prize. 1t
may be a selectman's berth or it may
be a job as fence viewer, but there Is
an official plum for everybody, and
thus this little republic of 70 souls and
16 voters has solved the eternal prob
lem Of popular government, says the
Boston Evening Record.
The presidency may be thrown INTO
the house of representatives, a dis
gruntled senator may overturn the
affairs of his state, but in Perkins
vocabulary there is no such word as
disappointed office seeker. There is
patronage for all. and it is the only
real land where milk and honey flow
in ceaseless streams into the very
mouths of the men who want a place.
Every office holder Is his own constit-
uent, and the ship Of state sails Sc
renely over calm seas L the harbor of
political content.
Aside from the fact that there are
only is voters in Perkins, with a pop
ulation of 70, the town has other at
fractions which combined with its po-
litical perfection make it a veritabpe
beauty spot in the American
wealth.
Perkins as a town is confined within
the shore line of Swan island, washed
on all sides by the waters of the Ken
nebec, whose channels on either side
are navigable to steamers of appreci-
able drauRht. About four miles long
and one mile in width, it lies like a
bower, its inhabitants at peace with
themselves, for every voter gets an
office, and at peace with the world be-
:ause there is no discomfort to carry
abroad.
This summer many Boston people
have visited the town, which is reached
by an oldfashioned chain ferry across
the Kennebec channel. 1t was in Per-
kins that Miss Dumaresq, who became
the wife of Col. Perkins, of Perkins
deaf and dumb institute fame, was
born, and here she used to make a pill
grimage to her old home until recent
years. Many other old Boston fam
lilies, from the Bowdoins to the
Holmeses, have family traditions
which cluster around the island town.
History says hat Aaron Burr met a
beautiful Indian girl with French
blood in her veins on one visit to Maine.
and had by her a daughter, who was
the n soul on earth to be faithful
to him at the time of his demise, when
the world knew him not. The town is
rich in Indian legend and lore, and
some terrible tragedies have occurred
on its verdant slopes. Capt. James
Whidden, of the Massachusetts militia,
and his family OF 10, so the story goes,
were wiped out in a single night by
some of the N~orridgewock tribe in
1850, those who were not tomahawked
being carried to a worse fate as cap-
tives to Canada. The great sachem
Abbagadassett is said to have had his
wigwam on the island in years of his
power. and when Arnold made his trip
up the Kennebec in his inwsion of the
northern country he rested for the
night in the now prosaic town of Per-
kins.
What has conduced to its present
ideal political state the residents know
not. Whether out of the bloody an
a OF the past has come the brotherly
love and perfect government of to-
day no one will say. but Perkins stands
before the world politically and social
ly the modern Garden of Eden.