October 28, 1904

Autumn is once more with this. Once more we are permitted to witness the dying robes of Nature’s glory. Once more we see the fading leaf falling from the parent stem, lightly floating under atmospheric pressure and falling by the wayside. We see the maple in its pretty panorama of variegated colors, and all this beautiful scenery teaches us the melancholy factor we are one year older, than when the leaves stated last autumn. From Golconda’s mines[i] we gather the diamonds; from Ceylon’s shores we gather the pearls; and-there may be truthfully said that from the shade trees of town, the busy housewife is now gathering up the faded souvenirs of summer that are strewing her sidewalk, are have been whirled into eddies around the front porch. (Or perhaps her masculine femininity—her husband–is doing it for her.) Yet with all of the accumulations of debris that autumn leaves and it’s trained, we must say we love this season, as we do all other seasons, in its season. It is superb! Grand! Sublime! And we would willingly say, as Heloise said to her lover[ii], “if there is the word that more true, more tender, and more strongly expressive of what I feel, that word I would choose.” Heloise loved her lover, and may we not be permitted to love autumn with an equal affection as permeated the breast of the Greek maiden[iii]? We have been permitted to witness several of the grand displays of autumn, many of which we can go back to in reminiscence, and quote with Burns:

“Still o’er these scenes of my memory wakes,
and fondly broods wish miser care;
Time but the impression deeper makes,
As streams their channel deeper wear.”[iv]

But this autumn will soon be gone and remembered only, perhaps, in the record of the meteorological department; yet there may some incidents yet occur that will make it memorable in the history of some prominent individuals. We have no desire to dabble in politics in a local letter, and for fear we are digressing toward that all important and up-to-date subject, we will desist from this item “until a more convenient season” and a more propitious location.

Miss Fritzi Scheff[v] may boast of her pleasing attitude at the Chestnut Theater[vi], Viola Allen[vii] of her wealth of golden tresses, but the darndest fools that ever came under our observation, claimed a nativity in Milton and are known as the “Milton Town Council.” We have never expected this August body to know, or be versed in all mysteries of hydraulics, and hydrostatics, yet we did entertain a certain amount of respect for their natural common sense. (The reader will understand the grammar in the above without explanation).

Apropos: the well that has been digged and the curb that has been settled, which the writer took much pains against his natural common sense to eulogize, has proved a magnificent failure. The storm of Friday morning filled the well and overspread Handy Prettyman’s field. And now Town Council want to engage two men at $25.00 a month to keep the well bailed out.

Most assuredly we have the greatest respect for our officers. Individually and collectively, in their personality, they’re gentlemen, and above any suspicion of wrongdoing. But we submit, is it a possible to get a good man into a place which is not competent to fill? or does not take interest enough in his work to properly adjudicate its requirements? We think so. For instance, the writer may make some smattering as a newspaper correspondent, but it wouldn’t do to put me at work in a powder mill, for I should blow the whole thing to smithereens before one can say “Jack Robinson.”

With all respect, we must say as we have formerly written tunnel to the branch. The work can be done and a good job out of it for $200; and expenses have been half that amount already, and no results. It is not always a question of economy to do the cheapest way. This miscarriage of judgment was the people’s talk on Friday after seeing results. Yet we and others who have a right to express an opinion, might have done the same as Town Council under similar circumstances. Let us be just.

Perhaps nothing is ever given such an impetus to business in every grade as has the advent of the steamer Mary M. Vinyard to the people of Milton and suburbs. Naturally, to plunge into an enterprise without knowing where the remuneration in dollars and cents are coming from, requires vim, courage and last, but not the least, a good application of common sense and “goose grease.” This is a portion of the people of Milton have demonstrated themselves as having been worth. The trade of the town and the traffic of the lower peninsula during the six months is to known to need comment. Even greater things are in store for us of Milton. Even now we can see the farmer who has made a “speck” by shipment, walking around dressed like a citizen soldier; and the young girls who come into town with their eggs and poultry, have been enabled to get good prices, and are dressing nicely. Some of them even have got gold bowed glasses, The [metamorphosis] in Milton is complete; perhaps this change is due, in the main, to certain men in town noted for vim and who are indefatigable in their efforts to bring about the best interests of Milton—its successes, capabilities and general possibilities. We, all of the pretty town on the waters of the Broadkiln, and the shores of Lake Fanganzyki, rejoice in our present status, and anticipatory of what we shall be. Somewhere the reader will find in the “Book of Books” between Genesis and Revelation, something like the following: “Ear hath not heard, eye hath not seen, neither hath entered into the heart of man to conceive the glory that is in reversion for the faithful.”[viii]

This quotation from “holy writ” may be prophetic of Milton’s futurity. With our best men at the wheel as a Board of Trade managers what possibilities may we of the Bank of the Broadkiln not expect? Certainly everything that vim, courage and capital can do! Put your shoulder to the wheel, brother!

The numerous dogs that are in the vicinity of town, are a menace to some and also to persons. Only a day or two since the writer came across two of these dogs after a rabbit. The rabbit showed itself along the railroad tract, and we threw a chunk at the dogs, and diverted them from the rabbit. They did not get him.

It is now affirmed that Sunday marriages are illegal and cannot stand the test of law. It is also said that a marriage in a balloon requires a great deal of jurisprudence to make it legal, provided there is a question of divorce pending.

The S. S. T. T. & D. Co. was unusually late in opening on Thursday morning. Joe had not been “to the organization,” but he had been to Dover all the same the day previous.

James H. Warrington is having his residence, store and other buildings at Federal and Wharton Streets repainted.

There was a hegira from Milton on Wednesday. As the many persons represented various political complexions, it was impossible for the writer to make a definite surmise. But from what we could gather we infer Dr. Chandler is not in it.

Miss Amy Palmer has tendered her resignation as “hello girl” at the Milton phone exchange. The resignation to take effect as soon as a successor can be found.

Saturday registration completed the work in Broadkiln. There are now 666 qualified voters possibly a full registration.

Our Milton ladies, who are attending the World’s Fair[ix], are expected home this week.

Mr. Myers Reynolds, of Washington, D. C., has been the guest of Mr. and Mrs. Burton M. Robinson, of near town. He came to register and left on Tuesday for his place of business.

Captain E. N. Lofland has painted the upper saloon of his yacht this week.

The managers of the race track are getting arrangements in lovely order for the expected trials of speed.

A barber shop is being built by Thomas Douglass on the property he recently purchased on Union Street north. The efficient barber, John Megee[x], will remove therein as soon as the building is finished.

Henry B. Macklin died at Ellendale on Monday of general debility, aged 79 years, 9 months and 20 days. Funeral services were held at Ellendale Church on Wednesday afternoon and interment made in the Redmens cemetery. Rev. Mr. Taylor officiated, and S. J. Wilson & Son inhumed the body.

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[i] The Golconda region is known for the diamond mines that have produced some of the world’s most famous gems, including the Koh-i-Noor, the Hope Diamond and the Nassak Diamond. For more information, see the Wikipedia article.

[ii] Presumably the reference is to the medieval French abbess Héloïse and Peter Abelard, her seducer, secret lover and eventually husband. For more information on this famous and complex story, see the Wikipedia article.

[iii] The reference to “the Greek maiden” in the same breath as the reference to Héloïse is confusing and probably an error on Conner’s part.

[iv] Quotation from the poem To Mary in Heaven, by Robert Burns (1759–1796); written in September, 1789, on the anniversary of the day on which he heard of the death of his early love, Mary Campbell

[v] Fritzi Scheff (1879 – 1954) was an American actress and vocalist.

[vi] The Chestnut Street Theater in Philadelphia

[vii] Viola Emily Allen (1867 –1948) was an American stage actress who played leading roles in Shakespeare and other plays, including many original plays. She starred in over two dozen Broadway productions from 1885 to 1916. Beginning in 1915, she appeared in three silent films. For more information, refer to the Wikipedia article.

[viii] Quotation from the New Testament, 1 Corinthians 2:9

[ix] This was the Louisiana Purchase Exposition (St. Louis World’s Fair), an international exposition held in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1904.

[x] John Megee was Viola Megee’s father; she was one of Fannie Leonard’s Sunday school students and her name appears on the Sunday school window on the East Wall of the Milton M. P. Church