Document text
Roaldus Richmond
44poe4els
F•41•110,1-Wri'berreioe4r
THE MAYOR
NAL-kA.4_,
Re.corde.c) In
*Red Siction Nes
_ _
The off be was overheated and dingy, with law books stacked ceiling.
high along the walls, The afternoon light 1/1111 a dim blur through the two
windows and the noises of Main Street rose vague and discordant. The man
behind the littered desk was surprisingly young.looking, pleasant -.faced with
a grave assured manner. His sandy hair was in slight disorder, but his voice
had a calm confidence. His father had been the mayor, when Barre was having
growing pains. Be had followed in his father's footsteps Dartmouth, law
school, and the mayorships Liberal, progressive and broad.minded, you
stinctively 'rew that le would be at home with any class of people, as friend-
ly toward the man in the streets as to the man in the bank president's ohair.
"The story :1•' Barre granite," he mused. "Nhich side is it you want?
the proletarian or the bourgeoise? Yes, of course you want both sides if you
want the true picture..."
From time to time as Mayor Duncon talked he extracted and lit a cigarette
from a crumpled pack. Occasionally there was an out -cropping of dry whillsical
humor. One could see the pages turn in the Book of Barre, settlement, growth
and industry, social and civic history, as he mentioned stiff-necked Yankees,
money.grvbing land.owners, the methods of big business, the foreign influx
through the deoades,and the arbiters of D. A. R.
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The Scotch and Italians)la said,came to Berre about the same time, around
1C96. All skilled workers. Some of the hand.carvers were real artists.
Now there probably aren't more than a dozen -or -so hand...carvers left here. And
nobody to replace them when they're gone. Modern machinery had done away
with them. Talk to Ardini, the statue.cutter„ about that phase of it. He
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was a good mans did some very fine work, but maohinery put him out of the
picture completely. Naturally he'd bitter about it likes to talk about
it. Be's SO.dyears old now but still able-bodied, strong enough to go out
and do his day's work.
Practically a11 the Italians came from northern Italy. A higher class
by far than the southern Italians you find in Yassachusetts and New York. And
they're very scornful of the southerners considers themselves superior in
every way. The older people still speak Italian almost exolusively. But
their children have grawn away from it, become Americanised. Yamy of the
second generation speak little or no Italian at all. There has been a good
deal of inter -marriage between the Italians and Scotch df the youngelm generation.
And of course both have inter*married with native Yankee stock to some extent.
Among the other races there has been less mingling. In general the Italians
are iedifferent to organised religim. Some of the women remain faithful
but the men have drifted away frcm it.
The panish element came from the quarries of northern Spain
Santander. The Swede* have perhaps been best assimilated Into community life
adapted themselves more rapidly and entirely. There are some Syrians,
mostly shop-kepers. And tihter than a Yankee trader.
Roughly YArre is di7ided into two sections. The foreign elenent at
the north end, the natives at the south. The division at Depot Square down
here is known as The Deadline." Some of the foreignerm have lost caste
with their awn people by moving up to the south side, try ng to become
completely American and sever all ties with their awn race. This is resent
ed by people rightfully proud of their nationality.
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The Italians are anti..Fasoist but pro*Italian if you see what I moan.
That is, they are opposed to Mussolini's internal policies, but they are
strongly Italian when it comes to international affairs. They are proud of
and loyal to Italy even while they condemn Mussolini over their wine and
grapia.. There WAS a lot of feeling here over the war in Spain, and it was
al,cost one hundred percent Loyalist. This spring about 30 Spanish refugees
arrived here and went into hiding. But the Customs Officers came and routed
them out. Father Lobo was hero a priest with Loyalist sympathies, and
that was bad over there. He was too well known and I think his presence here
led to the overtaking of them all. I tot myself in bad with the local clergy
by calling on the Father a fine man.
0
It's too bad some of the old*time granite men aren't left. They were
real men in those days. Old Jim Revise up on the hill, and old Jim Carvell,
the hard..boiled railroad engineer who came here with nothing and built up a
fortune. Old Jim Carwell was a character, stewed to the gills all the time,
ours:ng and swearkng wherever he was, ready to 1.1:t his money on the line
for fight or fun. Rough and ready, two-fisted heomen fighters, they were
the ones who built up the fortunes that the second generation is spending
today. There are all kinds of legends about them, and men in the industry
still talk of the two old nms...
°Yodern machinery came in and silicosis slaughtered family after family
through ruthlessness of bit industry. The safety devices now are far from
perfect. In fact it will be ten or twenty years before they are right. And
they come too late to save the en who worked in the sheds before. ,That
dust is already in their lungs... Even if they leave the sheds, as many of them
do, the damage is thine. It will get them. Some go fast and others linger on
for years.
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it. There was a Burns Clyb that was very active too, but that died alsosil
Mayor Duncon lit another cigarette with his left hand, and went on to
not with deliberAe care the men who would be good informants on the different
racial groups that have contributed to Barre granite. Be smiled slightly as
he soid: "But don't tell him you know me. Ever since that Catholic school
business he and I don't jibe." Then he was quite grave in sayings "She's
a D. A. R., but she's a very nice type of woman..."
The depression saved Barre from the fate of Rutland marble. The big
money interests were working in, spreading their tenacles toward monopoly.
But they just got started when the depression hit them and knoOkid than out.
Monopoly is again on the increase through the absorbing of smaller companies.
The trend is in that direction without a doubt. 'hell, it's hapooned all over
the country.
I sup,ose it's too much to hops it can't happen hero...
The Mayor stood up and thoughtfully turned to the windows overlooking
the 1411n Street of his town. "There's an old lady in that house over there,"
he said, pointing to a gableftend brick structure of Georgian architecture with
a fanlight over the entrance. It looked out«of.place on that busy street
crowded with effioe buildings, department storesaasoline stations, and beer
taverns. But it hold a grave dignity and pride in the midst of rude confusion.
The time.atikined brick house belonged to a more gracious era.
"Her father came here about 06150..1&40* and built that house. For some
MIS:.CC) years she has been sitting there in the old family home in the heart
of Barre. She refuses to leave it. She's bee!1 offered as much as $100.000
for the property. From those windows she has seen Barre grow from a little
rural frontier village to what it is today. The Mayor was thoughtful as he
atared across the rauccous traffic of :tan Street at the faded brick house.
"Yes, she could tell you what granite has done to Barre a. if she wanted to
talk about it."