VOTERS HOLD OFFICE

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 352, 5 February 1903, Page 6

VOTERS HOLD OFFICE

Milne Town Where There Are No Political Job Hunters. •■lt R**ilT Ptri»« Place for Patron- „ mm* *■ *■• Coon try—Every t Totav lm Pcrktaa la ProT**«* with aßcrlb. . f1 .,.. ; -V-VAi n .>■ Caique among all the towni of the etate and nation Perkins, bearing the honored name of Col. T. H. Perkins, founder of the deaf and dumb home at South Boston. Mass., has an office for every voter, and on election day every catien suffragist draws some prize. It mar be a-selectman's berth or it may be a job as fence viewer, but there is •n official plum for everybody, and thus this little republic of 72 souls and 16 voters has solved the eternal problem of popular government, says the Boston Evening Record. The presidency may be thrown into the house of representatives, a disgruntled senator may overturn the affairs of his state, but in Perkins* vocabulary there is> no such word as disappointed office seeker. There is patronage for all. and it is the onry real land where milk and honey now in ceaseless streams into the very mouths of the men who want a place. Every office holder is his own constituent, and the ship of state sails serenely over calm, seas to the. harbor of political content. Aside from the fact that there are only 16 voters in Perkins, with a population of 72. th«» town has other attractions which combined with its political ptrfection make it a. veritable beauty spot in the American commonwealth. Perkins as a town is confined within the shore line of Swan island, washed on all sides by the waters of the Kennebec, whose channels on either side are navigable to steamers of appreciable draught. About four miles long and" one mile in width, it lies like a bower, its inhabitants at peace with themselves, for every voter gets an office, and at peace with the world because there is no discontent to carry abroad. This summer many Boston people have visited the town, which is reached by an old-fashioned chain ferry across the Kennebec channel. It was in Perkins t'rat Miss Dumnresq, who became the wife of Col. Perkins, of Perkins deaf and dumb institute fame, was born, and here she used to make a pilgrimage to her old home until recent years. Many other old Boston families, from the Bowdoins to the Holate-ses, have family traditions which cluster around the island town. History says that Aaron Burr met a beautiful Indian girl with French blood in her veins on one visit to Maine, and had by her a danghter. who was the one soul on earth to be faithful to him at the time of his demise, when the world knew him not. The town is rich in Indian legend and lore, and some terrible tragedies have occurred on its verdant slopes. Capt. James Whidden. of the Masaschusetts militia, and his family of 13, so the story goes, were wiped out in a single night by pome of the Norridgewock tribe in 3750. those who were not tomahawked being carried to a worse fate as cap- . tives to Canada. The great sachem Abbatradassett is said to have had his wigwam on the island in years of his power, and when Arnold made his trip up the Kennebec in his invasion of the northern country he rested for the night in the now prosaic town of Perkins. What has conduced to its present ideal political state the residents know not. Whether out of the bloody annals of the past has>come thebrotherlv love and perfect pnvprnment of today no one will say. hut Perkins stands before the world politically and socially the modern Garden of Eden. Motor* That Failed. A moving story is now being told in Paris, writes a correspondent, of the sad issue to a project for developing the French Soudan by moans of motor cars. A company was formed about n year ago to make money by undertaking to purvey supplies to all the stations of the Soudan, Niger and Senegal in automobiles. Sixty were built at a cost of £4BO each—strong wagons of ninehorse power fit for rough colonial wear and tear. Unhappily one detail had been overlooked. There are no roads in these far regions, and, after experiences too painful to relatp, the cars had all to be abandoned in the wilds, where they still lie, so many objects of curious interest to the jackals. The upshot is that thpy still lie imbedded in the sands, and anvbody who wants £25,000 worth of motors can have them for the fetching—from the African bush.