Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1915-02-24
The Governors Reception.
Sidney, Me-, February %. 191

Sidney, Me-, February %. 1915.
Editor Kennebec Journal:
I went to the Governors reception
last week, the first occasion of the
kind that / have honored with my
presence in years; and even as the
white unsmirched sheet of paper pre-
sents with clear cut vividness thu
impression of the intaglio plate. so
that mind that has not become cloyed
by familiarity with occasions u
pomp and circumstance receives and
reflects with greatest clarity of def
milton the Kaleidoscope imagery
etched thereupon by the brilliancy OF
an affair like this and perhaps I got
some impressions of some features OF
the fete that got by the reporters who
put up the news story for you-im-
pressions, the telling Of which might
interest some Of the thousands Of
your readers who were not there.
AS farmer of naturally retiring
disposition l felt some trepidation as
I entered the portals Of the capitol for
I expected to find the bong tong Of
the State within and as the subtle
attempts of this class of our pOpula-
ton to get into that social coterie to
which I belong have always been
kindly but firmly repulsed, I feared
they might feel that I would insist
upon the enforcement of the lines of
caste on this occasion also and leave
the State house in a body; but no
such thing happened, and, indeed If
many members of the aforemention ID
tong were there they had thawed to
such an extent that they were I'M
recognizable as such. That nobility
Of bearing and dignity of mein which
are supposed to distinguish those born
to environments of pink and purple
ease We're not present in sufficiently
voluminous gobs to be felt in any ap-
preciable degree.
Instead I saw around me only the
wholesome good looks, the happy
abandon and good nature of the com
mon folks; the ineradicably provincial
mannerisms of the hopeleSSly
bourgeois-so I began to feel quite at
home. No seats had been provided
other than the regular settees along
the walls in the Hobbies and as there
We're wouldbe settists far in excess
of the accommodations. there seemed
to be an unofficial system of recipro-
cal succession which operated with
grea ter satisfaction than might have
been expected in the premises be-
cause of the great good nature per-
vading the gathering.
The rise and set manoeuvre had
little of military precision in tit
was of that nature designated as
RI co Of 81
every man for himself and the women
for equal suffrage, first last and all
the time, and the shame Of it is that
they should have had to do more than
suggest that they wanted it and
Hold on--Tm skidding-my chains
must be Off; this is the Governors
reception, not a suffrage rally. Well,
as I was saying when my gear slipped,
though the turn and turn about seat
holding movement lacked system it
caused no friction nor unpleasantness,
such was the great good nature thar
pervaded the big gathering and.
wearying of waiting for someone who
got a crouch instead of a seat to start
something, l assembled the stairs and
fell into the long line waiting to give
the grip to Oak and Ira and Bert.
The forward movement was as slow
as the proverbial growth of dead
pine with little to interest or amuse
along the way and the way seemed
long indeed. The only sight that re-
lieved the monctony was that of a
lone, self conscious senator who had
seated himself in the presidents chair
in the senate chamber and was,
thought, trying to Danish from his
subconsciousness the reminiscent rat
tie of crockery and to imagine himself
the present Official occupant of the
chair. but failing miserably in his at
tempt to simulate a figure that would
make Apollo feel like hiding himself
in the charitable folds of a horse
blanket; a face that, in it's weird
pulchritude rises gloriously trium-
plant above that necessity which
gave birth to our laws of copyright.
and a mind as exalting and comfort
ing in it's influence as the pure SYM
bolism of the Triune Sisterhood.
Leaving behind me this somewhat
depressing spectacle l drifted along
with the human stream and soon
came to the door of the executive Of
iICe anu There HiSt odhley SuItAS lol
the first time. can say for Governor
Curtis what would not be true Of many
public men: his facial ability to live
up to the pictures of him that have
been printed in the papers and posted
In the windows is convincingly dem
onstrated by near view Of the man.
His face presents not displeasing
contrast in black and white-black
eyes natural hue) somewhat deep
set and heavily Swallowed by over
hanging broWs-(or this shaded area
may have been caused by the nature
Of the business with which he has so
long been intimately associated), and
a skin of singular pallidness.
! grasped his hand-a warm, plump
hand it is, ard soft, carrying in it's
velvety palm no suggestion of the
horse shoe clout that laid William
Tecumseh on the rosined canvas Of
our political arena in semi slumber
while above the recumbent form Of
our fallen hero, in the short interval
Of surcharged silence that preceded
the thunderous outburst of cheering
by the Liquor Interests, the gaunt
arm Of the forelocked referee rose
and fell in nine isochronal beats.
Our hand shake was Of the two
cycle type-on the up stroke 1 said