May 24, 1907

A few years ago we recommended Milton to those persons afflicted with nervous disorders, as a quiet place for recuperation; a place far removed from the busy world, and the hum of industry; a place where one could bask his life away in glorious ease, without the fear of anything to molest or disturb his meditations. Now all this is changed. The ermin[i] that was formerly a characteristic of the citizen, as well as of the town, has passed away, and in its place we have the bustle of a busy city. All branches of industry are active, and only impeded by the lack of force and the want of material. The shirt and overall factory has been running on full time all of the year; the carpenter business is employing many men on various jobs; the fishing industry is at its zenith; the milling interest was never better; the Telephone Company has recently been running more wires and putting in more phones; the Electric Light Company has wired the town for fifty sixteen candlepower lights, and five thirty-two candlepower lights; beside stores, offices, and private residences, galore. O, yes! Times are changed, and Milton has changed with them. The old town has arisen from the depression of years and is taking its place where it rightly belongs amongst the thrifty and progressive towns of the peninsula.

Trout have been plentiful the past week, and are selling at a more moderate price. Indeed, when trout are offered at 25 cents a pair, cabbage at four cents a pound, and asparagus at 15 cents a bunch, then people, even the poor ones, can afford to live on chicken at 10 cents a pound and beef steak at 12½ cents a pound, provided they can get the wherewith to get either. The latter mentioned menus is, undoubtedly, the cheaper. Since the advent of trout, shad have declined in price.

It is a fad among the ladies of Milton to tell what a man has been eating by smelling his breath. In a drug store, recently, a bright young lady said to the pharmacist, “I know what you have been eating! I smell your breath! You have been eating ham!” “Well Miss_______,” said I, “That’s different from my diagnosis of the other morning, I smelt his breath at that time and thought he had been eating whiskey.

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[i] It is not clear what Conner meant to say here