Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1919-04-23
NEW PLACE :
IN THE WORLD
BIZ Eperett ". Lord. |

day, Mr., White, the principal of the
Ellsworth high school, dismissed the
school nearly an hour before the usual
noon closing time so that the scholars
might have an opportunity to witness the
launching of tine "Harry w. Haynes" a
three masted schooner of some 800 tons.
He justified this unusual procedure by
saying that this launching, the first that
had taken place in Ellsworth for many
years, would probably be the last launch
ing OF vessel of any consider BILE size
from any Ellsworth shipysrd.
/ believe that his prophecy has held
true until this day. Yet few years be-
fore that time it was the proud boast of
our modest little city that no other port
of the United States figured more promi-
nentIy in the list of shipping annually
published by the government. 1t was
true that the name "Ellsworth" as the
home port appeared on the stern Of hun
dreds OF small schooners, and on no in
considersb bic number of squsre-rigged
craft, which bore the American flag over
all the ocean highways OF the worlds
commerce.
[ do not know how many ships, great
and small, may hail from Ellsworth to-
day. | suspect they could almost be
counted on one mans fingers, for in this,
as in other respects, Ellsworth has fol-
lowed the trend of all the nation.
Our attention has been turned from
foreign fields, our energies have been d.
ID 70 nd nd inf
velopment. The young men whose fathers
manned the brave feet of Maine built
barKs and schoouers have sought their
fortunes in the great West, in mines and
forests and fields and factories; they have
helped to develop the nation, but they
have not carried it's fame abroad. They
have lost the ancestral taste for salt water,
but they have never ceased to revere the
noble fathers whose exploits are q glorious
memory, whose honor is an everlasting
inspiration. They were men, those fathers
OF ours, men to whom God had given
wisdom and courage and strength, sui
fcient to enable them to conquer sea and
wind, to bring prosperity from far-off
shores, and to leave to us a heritage IN
surpassed in the story OF the world. We
can hope for no higher acclaim than
to be counted their worthy sons.
Our city is microcosm in which the
nation is reflected. For nfty years
Apericans have persistently closed
their eyes to the outside world. America
led in forcing Japan to join the family
OF nations, yet until the days just past
we refused to take our own place in that
family. Even when our merchant feet
WAS sailing the seven seas we maintained
other nations, built about us a wall of
separation compared with which the
Great Wall OF China was but a feeble
barrier.
Placed in land of plenty, national and
individual wealth came to Americans
with but moiety Of the effort required
OF other peoples. lnvigorated by the
healthful climate, encouraged to great
achievement by the limitless extent OF his
horizon, the typical American was a man
who thought quickly and acted promptly.
free man politically, he acknowledged
no human superior. 1t was but natural
result Of this attitude that the American
should consider in his own land one man
to be as good as another, if not, indeed,
as one of our Irish citizens put it, stSome
times dom sight better" 1t was also
natural, if not inevitsb BILE, that he should
consider an American as the peer of the
highest in other lands, though to other
dc ha h,t
WINGED OF American political superiority,
he neither asked for nor regarded sug-
gestions from men OF other nationality.
Our nation has lived through a period
of youthful braggadocio upon which we
now look with a feeling OF mingled
amusement and regret. Our great men
shared this sentiment with all their fell
lows. Emerson quotes Thoreau as saying
Massachusetts,, alone, in its fora, en-
braces most OF the important plants of
Americas stateme Mt to which we can
subscribe only if we relegate to unim-
portance all of our tropical and SUBJ
tropical products. The utterances of our
statesmen teemed with spread eagleism;
tie boasttuiness of Americasn became a
world recognized trait.
This was the typical American attitude.
1t induced love OF home and national
loyalty blind to all faults. Its narrowest
limits were reflected in provincial clamors
for state rights. Had the North ana South
known each other better, and been more
accustomed to giving heed to affairs be-
yond their immediate borders, the great
Civil war need never have occurred.
They did not know each other.
A few years ago l was travelling in the
South. One night, at country hotel in
small Alabama town, was the center
of group Of native Alabamsns, who
seemed to enjoy my peculiar northern
twang. Hardly could / speak sentence
but someone commented on my pro-
nunciation of some word, so different
from theirs. 1 noted the difference, too.
and preferred to ignore it, but at length
/ said:
There is a difference, OF course, hut
rhera ouuht moi to he. ua hova the carve