Fryeburg Academy - Academy Bell Yearbook (Fryeburg, ME)

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THE ACADEMY BELL 21 l'eople had made him seem that way. jim was astounded at the wonderful generosity. lle thanked Mr, Thomp- son as politely as he could in his ex- citement. Mr. Thompson seemed to understand and only smiled and he went to the door with jim. jim called up the manager of the liund Committee and told him. The manager said that it really was the Mr. Thompson that the men had been talk- ing about. jim was too excited to go to Miss lxt-nnerson's then. lle went to his rooms to think it all out, pleading a headache to Miss Kennerson by phone. The next day jim received notice that he was elected president of the club. jim could not understand why everyone thot that that was such a great feat. After that time he and lllr. Thompson were great friends. jim had really broken the thickening wall between lllr. Thompson and the rest of the world. D. lj., '26, FRYEBURG This pleasant peaceful village is in the fertile Saco River meadows. james Ripley Osgood, well known in Boston literary circles fifty years ago. for his connection with the Atlantic and later with Harpers Magazine and Kate Putman Osgood, writer of verse, were born and spent their youth- ful years in the large house on the left, now marked Ye Inn. Commander Robert li. l'eary spent a year or more in Fryeburg .after graduating from Bowdoin, and is now an occasional visitor to the village. Fryeburg was granted to General joseph Frye of Andover, Mass., a vet- eran of the French wars. For many years it was the only town near the White Mountains and thrived as the market town of the countryside. Dan- iel NN'ebster taught at the Fryeburg Academy, eking out his slender salary of 3350. a year by copying deeds for the county register. llowells opened A Modern lnstance here and Ur. llolmes introduced a Fryeburg char- acter in Elsie Yennerf' THE BOSTON AND MAINE RAIL- ROAD STRIKE. The first nation-wide railroad strike ever called by union-heads was called on july I, 1922. The men who struck were the shopmen and yard workers. They were led to believe that this would cripple the service so much that the railroad heads would be forced to yield to their demands. This did prove to be the case on many of the larger, more eliicient roads, but on the smaller roads where poor service was common they stood the shock better and hired strike-breakers to carry on the work as best they could. This soon broke the strike and the strik- ers were forced to go back to their jobs or lose them. The one exception to this was the lloston and Blaine system 'in New ling- land. The strike-breakers who did go to

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20 THE ACADEMY BELL coming along the hall. XN'hat could he say? just then he noticed the name, lirown, on the door. A brilliant idea came to him. l'erhaps he could make a dignified departure after all. The door opened and he found himself face to face with a very stately, digni- Iied woman. james took off his hat and bowing, said politely, l low do you do. ls Mr. Thompson in? There! of course if Mr. Brown lived there, there would not be any Mr. Thompson. He was wait- ing for the woman to say, No, so that he could leave, when she said, Yes, come right in. XX'hat should he do? She was going into a waiting room. expecting him to follow. Of course he must. There was nothing else to do. Could he frame up something about his father and this Mr. Thompson having been friends in college? No. he could not. lle knew he was no good at blufling. The woman was saying, Sit right down. lIe'll be right in. Absently jim sat down, still searching his brain franti- cally for an excuse to get out of the place. lle shoved his right hand into his pocket--to aid him in thinking better, perhaps. lint if that was the reason, he did it in vain. XYhat would happen? he asked himself. Well, he would soon know, for he could hear some one coming into the room. Prob- ably it was Mr. Thompson. Yes, it was. lle was coming into the room. jim wondered what he would say. He must break that embarrassing silence. lle took his hand out of his pocket, un- consciously taking out the booklets of the Orphan Clulfs work in it. He had forgotten all about the fund in his ex- citement but now as he remembered it he gave a sigh of relief. At least, he could pretend that he came for that. After what seemed to jim an hour, he heard himself saying, How do you clo, Mr. Thompson, l am a representa- tive of the Orphans Club. There is great need of another home for the or- phans in this city. The club is trying to raise money to build one. l wonder if you would consider giving some- thing toward it? Mr. Thompson seemed very much interested in jim's description of the club's plan, and listened to him grave- ly. NYhen jim had finished, he thot for a minute, then said: Yes, my boy, l'll gladly give you some money. l have always felt that I should like to. l have the name around here of being rather stingy and grouchy. and none of the boys ever ask me to help any of their good causes along, XYhen l was younger and just starting in business, l had to be rather hard on the boys to get rid of them. Then they started passing by me. l thot nothing of that at first, but in the late years it has sort of hurt my feel- ings. You find out just how much it will cost to build the home. At the end of a month l will give what is needed to put with what you already have by that time. jim suddenly realized that this must he the stingy Mr. Thompson that the boys had been talking about. He wasn't really stingy at heart, after all.

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22 THE ACADEMY BELL worlv were ot' :L noiuleseript elizirnctei' :nul were ineliiu-cl Io lu- troulmlesonu-. The strikers of eonrse resentefl the preseneeol' llu- strilve-lwrezilaers :nul tlu- tension rt se to :t high piteh. l'ielteting was :nteinptetl :it voneorfl :nul tlu- ipiztrrels which :trose Iroin this were so severe that tlu- Stutt- liuzlrrl wzts eullerl nlll. 'llllj' pzitrollecl tlu- streets :nul rznlrozul propertj lor two weeks. :tnfl tlu-n luoth the state :nul eitj' reluseil to pzij' for nu-ir serviees. 'l luis eltusecl still more troulile. ln l.owell :nul North llilleriezt, Nlzissw- .-Iiusetts, tlu- largest numoer ot men were tnrown out of work. Ut lliotl men who wznueil out oi tlu- linu-iuezt shops only si-ten retnriu-cl in :i periotl ol Ciglll niontns. 'llu- nu-n on Iiotli sules were pezteenhle though picketing was strict :tiul notn sules guzirrleil tlu-ir own interests. llu- strike hzis lu-en lmrolten, hut not us eoinpu-ten' :is one might suppose iroin tiu- llllblillgllllllll puhhslu-tl ny the rzui- iwuuis. lIll'j' eiznni that the service is us Qlltlfl :is it was lu-lore the strike. If you wish Io know the trutli ztsu any engiiu-er on tlu- rozul. lle will tell you that he e:in't get the power from :in engine just ont ol ine shop toclztj' that he used to get from :in engine just rezulj' to go uiuler repztirs. 'I here is no cloulit that the rail- rozul is suliering. l flo not iu-eil to iniply, however, that tlu- rnilrozuls eztn not get lmctek lo their fornu-r st:tiulztrcl. 'flu-j' :ire rzipiclly doing so, 'liliev might or might not have been lu-tler ulli if they hzul yielclecl to the de- inznuls of the union. 'lflizit no one can tell. llu- two inznn enuses lot' tlu- strike were tlu- witluh':iw:tl of seniority rights :nul the ten per cent eut in wages. llu- witlulrzlwztl ot seniority rights was ln' fur the more serious of these two :nul wus really the mztin ezuise of tlu- strike. Seniority rights represent. in hrief, tlu- prefereiu'e given to tlu- inen who have lieen longest in tlu- serviee of the coin- pnny. 'lihese rights :ire governefl ln' :L general set of rules with speeiztl rules to tit speeizil eases in flllil-Cl'L'Ill itulustries. ln the rznlrozul shops at nizin haul to work through his :tpprenteeship zuul then work tout yt-:mrs :is ll lnztehnnst hetore he se- curecl seniority rights. 'l'lu-n when :i joli was open those nu-n who wnntefl it pan .n their Imicls zuul tlu- ntztn who hzul lu-en longest in tlu- serviee of the eoinpztnj' ns 21 skilled worker got the first ehztnee. lle hzul seven clztys in which to inztlie gmail :nul it lu- tznletl tlu- next niztn got h.s elizuiee. lt wats only just that they should have throu--'h these privileges. lint it was A :ilxuse thu they were clepriverl of thein. .Xt the present time there :Lre disputes going on znnong lzihor leziclers :is to whether they shall give tip the strike. 1 H' eourse the strike is zt tlezul issue zuul the lmest thing the unions can clo is to form- :illy ezill the strike hroken zuul give those nu-n who so tlesire 11 elizuiee to go lrztek to xvorli. 'FIIEUDORI-I liorsxois '24 THE PASSION PLAYERS OF OBER-AMMERGAU. Ulmer-.Xiniiiergzut is at smztll village in tlu- inountznn valley ot the .Xnnncr. in upper liZlYill'l2l.i2llDUllI forty-live miles to the southwest ol' Xlunich. The interest