CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Joe Lincoln’s keen interest in anything having to do with the Cape was expressed in the following letter to the editor of the Boston Traveler on December 26, 1935, in which he wrote:

“The preserving of Cape Cod as Cape Cod is, in my opinion, a vitally important subject for consideration by Cape people. We are adding to our summer population each year. The great majority of the visitors to our county have been attracted to it because of its simplicity, the charm which is its own. There are thousands of seaside resorts, but only one Cape Cod.

“It seems to me that every Cape Codder and lover of the Cape should realize how important it is to save our towns and villages from becoming mere copies of towns and villages elsewhere. We come to the Cape in the summer to get away from all we remember and love Cape Cod as it used to be, we love it as it now is. We do not want to be an imitation of anything. An original is always better than a copy. And this is not entirely a sentimental consideration.

“In my opinion for Cape Cod to lose its individuality would be very disastrous from a business standpoint. Cape Cod all-the-year residents, its shop-keepers and business men and hotel keepers, should, I am convinced, do everything in their power to save the old buildings and landmarks, to preserve the genuine Cape Cod flavor where it is possible. They will profit materially by doing so, I am sure. I am a Cape Codder born and bred, and even now I spend almost half of each year on the Cape.

“I want to keep on doing so. My summer neighbors are, many of them, importations--they came to the Cape almost casually, were attracted by the charm and individuality I have mentioned, came again and again, and, at last built homes here. And they are now as staunch lovers of Barnstable County as the rest of us. They are the sort of people we want here as summer residents; they bring their families here, they spend their money here. If Cape Cod becomes something other than the Cape Cod they know and love, they will continue to do none of those things. So, when any movement is on foot to save and preserve the real Cape Cod it should have the support of us all. Let’s get together and work for that end. That the work will be worth working for I am certain. This letter is longer than I meant it to be. I apologize for the length but--well, you see, Cape Cod, its people, its welfare and its future are pet subjects of mine.”

The removal of the oldest windmill on the Cape, a 300-year-old structure at West Yarmouth, had set Joe Lincoln and the Cape Codders thinking that it was about time for them to band together to save the old landmarks of the Cape. The windmill which was bought by Henry Ford was moved off the Cape to be added to his collection of Americana.

Joe Lincoln was appreciated by his neighbors in Massachusetts as few other writers have been during their life time. On September 30, 1941, hundreds of his admirers attended a luncheon in his honor at the Copley-Plaza and sponsored by the Boston Herald. The luncheon which marked the publication of his book “The New Hope,” took place in the ball room of the hotel with many noted speakers including his son Freeman, Dr. Claude M. Fuess, headmaster of Phillips Andover Academy, who was toastmaster, Governor Saltonstall, Mayor Maurice J. Tobin of Boston, Alice Dixon Bond, Herald literary editor, and Joe Lincoln himself. Dozens of other guests who attended made the list look like a special edition of “Who’s Who”.

One of the interesting side lights which the affair brought out was that the author himself did not have a complete set of his own books. However, Harry M. Fletcher, head of The Traveler printing shop and a rabid Lincoln fan and one of the first to make reservations for a ticket to the luncheon disclosed that he had a complete set of Lincoln books, something which few others on hand were able to boast.

According to newspaper reports of the affair the audience was as typically New England as the characters Mr. Lincoln bequeathed in his 46 books since the publication of “Cape Cod Ballads” in 1902. Dr. Fuess, the toastmaster, read congratulatory messages from the governors of the other New England states and described Mr. Lincoln as “A prophet not without honor in his own country.”

Personal tributes were extended by Governor Saltonstall on behalf of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and Mayor Tobin for the city of Boston. There was a table of Mr. Lincoln’s 1885 classmates at Williams Grammar school in Chelsea, where the author edited a paper while in school.

Freeman Lincoln, junior partner of his novelist father, made a gracious speech which he concluded with delightful imaginations and likened his “New England Conscience” to a game of bridge “before bridge became blitzkrieg” in which the cautious player “reserved” his bid.

Lincoln told a number of amusing stories about the casual wit of New Englanders and explained how he came to write about “Our People.” “When I was a boy,” he said, “the favorite indoor sport in winter was talking about the neighbors, so when I started to write I wrote about those same neighbors.”

“Our casualness is salted with what we claim to be a special brand of dry New England wit--a definite way of saying things.” And with that he told a group of New England stories; one of the man in New Hampshire running down hill because he was too lazy to hold back, another, of the Vermont housewife whose husband hung himself before doing his chores, and a tombstone on the grave of a prating wife which read “Quiet At Last.”

Then in a serious vein he said, “It was so kind of the Boston Herald to bring this group together. What can I say--nothing, I’m sure. I’ll try to pack into two words what I am thinking and say from the bottom of my heart, thank you.”

Governor Saltonstall said in part:

“The people of the Commonwealth--and I like to include myself among them--read Mr. Lincoln’s books because he always writes a good story. But that is only one reason. As we have grown older, we have realized that a Joe Lincoln story has other and, perhaps, more important qualities; an appreciation of the best and most enduring elements of the New England way of life, an ability to find the good which is in all of us. Mr. Lincoln, as you see, enjoys life, and he understands how to pass that enjoyment on to his readers. Massachusetts has given a great many writers to its reading public. But Joe Lincoln is the writer who, more than any other, has given Massachusetts to its readers.”

Mayor Tobin entered a claim in his speech for Boston in the prestige of the author, explaining that at one time Mr. Lincoln “was in business in our city.” The Mayor urged Mr. Lincoln to “for our sake, please continue to write your delightful stories, or we will be disappointed if we are unable to find your books on the shelves of our libraries.”

Alice Dixon Bond, literary editor of The Herald, wound the titles of Mr. Lincoln’s books into an engaging and cleverly concise story, which can readily be followed by readers of Mr. Lincoln.

She said: “He has gone back to ‘Cape Cod Yesterdays’ and found ‘The Ownley Inn’ in ‘Our Village’ which is situated near the ‘Rugged Water’ of ‘Fair Harbor’. ‘All Alongshore’ you will find ‘Partners of the Tide’, ‘Cap’n Eri’, ‘Mr. Pratt’, ‘Keziah Coffin’, ‘Galusha the Magnificent’ and even ‘Queer Judson’.

“When ‘Storm Signals’ flew, ‘The Depot Master’ and ‘The Postmaster’ and sometimes ‘Dr. Nye’ would gather at ‘Cy Whittaker’s Place’, and ‘Mr. Pratt’s Patients’ would be left to the tender mercies of ‘Cap’n Warren’s Ward’. ‘The Big Mogul’ of the town was ‘The Aristocratic Miss Brewster’ although ‘Aunt Lavinia’ owned ‘The Old Home House’ and considered everyone else ‘Back Numbers’.

“It was a town of political differences, of obstinacies and generosities, of strong loyalties and clannish insularity. ‘The Rise of Roscoe Paine’ was attributed by some to ‘The Peel Trait’ of perseverance but others thought it due to ‘Thankful’s Inheritance’, which was so helpful in ‘Extricating Obadiah’ from the clutches of ‘A Hall & Company’ and the machinations of ‘The Portygee’.

“When Christmas day drew near and the great ‘Head Tide’ could be seen full and deep ‘Out of the Fog’, ‘Silas Bradford’s Boy’, who lived in ‘Blair Attic’ would walk with ‘Cap’n Dan’s Daughter’ along the curving shore, letting their fresh young voices soar above the pounding surf in old ‘Cape Cod Ballads’ or ‘Rhymes of the Old Cape’. He called her his ‘Storm Girl’, but when the wind was ‘Blowing Clear’ they would drop in at ‘The Managers’ who were known as ‘The Woman Haters’, and there with ‘Shavings’ on the floor and ‘Kent Knowles, Quahaug’--he got his name because of his trade--to join them, they would plan their future, full of ‘The New Hope’ which the world needs so much.”

=Transcriber’s Notes=

Perceived typographical errors have been silently corrected.