Author: starrandrea

By Andrea Starr | June 21, 2019

I had occasion recently to visit a friend at her home in the Jamaica Plain district of Boston, MA. Among the several interesting things that we did was take a walk through Forest Hills Cemetery.

The cemetery was consecrated in 1848, and consists of 248 acres of cemetery paths and lanes. It has also a beautiful pond inhabited by turtles, geese, and other wildlife. Visitors may obtain maps at its main entrance that show the locations of at least some of the more famous people who are buried there.

It was certainly a pleasant walk and there is much to see in the way of monumental and funerary sculpture.

Joseph Warren (1741-1775)

Joseph Warren was a physician and patriot leader. He was a founding member of the Sons of Liberty, and president of the Massachusetts Provincial Congress. He was killed leading militiamen at the Battle of Bunker Hill.

William Dawes, Jr. (1745-1799)

William Dawes was one of three dispatch riders that set out to warn that the British were marching on Lexington and Concord in April 1775. The other two riders were Paul Revere and Samuel Prescott.

William Lloyd Garrison (1805-1879)

William Lloyd Garrison was an early and fervent abolitionist. He is best known as publisher of the radical anti-slavery newspaper The Liberator, which was published between 1831 and 1865, and as a founder of the American Anti-Slavery Society.

That which is not just is not law. – William Lloyd Garrison

Lysander Spooner (1808-1887)

Lysander Spooner was also an abolitionist, as well as a lawyer and entrepreneur, but is best known as a legal theorist, scholar, and writer.

Those who are capable of tyranny are capable of perjury to sustain it. – Lysander Spooner

Edward Everett Hale (1822-1909)

Edward Everett Hale was the son of a Boston editor, as well as being nephew and namesake of famous orator Edward Everett. (Who spoke at length at Gettysburg before Abraham Lincoln delivered his short address). He was himself a teacher, minister, abolitionist, and writer. He was a founder of the Unitarian Church, chaplain of the U.S. Senate, and he wrote the famous patriotic short story Man Without a Country. (There is a statue of him in Boston’s Public Garden).

I am only one, but I am one. I cannot do everything, but I can do something. And because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do the something that I can do. – Edward Everett Hale

Jacob Wirth (1840-1892)

Jacob Wirth was a German immigrant who founded in 1878 the Boston restaurant – one of its oldest – that bore his name. It closed its doors in 2018.

Grace S. Allen (1876-1880)

Grace Sherwood “Gracie” Allen was nearly five when she died. Her grave is marked with a portrait statue of her by sculptor Sidney Morse, who was a poet, editor, and friend of Walt Whitman. It is a soft white marble, which tends to fare poorly over time, but this one is encased in glass and is very well preserved. It is certainly worth a look.

Eugene O’Neill (1888-1953)

Eugene Gladstone O’Neill was a famous playwright. He was several times winner of the Pulitzer Prize. His play Long Day’s Journey into Night is considered one of the finest American plays of the twentieth century.

His last words: “I knew it. I knew it. Born in a hotel room and died in a hotel room.”

E.E. Cummings (1894-1962)

Edward Estlin Cummings was an innovative and famous poet.

His grave was not easy to find. Admirers leave things there. I have heard they leave coins, stones, and scraps of poetry. On my visit there several pens had been placed beside the marker.

I wouldn’t give an inch of New Hampshire for all the rest of New England. – e.e. cummings

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Thanks to Ms. Bristol, who helped me with my research. She observes also that Lewis W. Nute‘s first Boston employer, the ship chandler Thomas Simmons, is buried in Forest Hills, as is the White Mountain School artist, Frank H. Shapleigh, who painted pictures of  Nute’s West Milton farmstead.

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References:

Find a Grave. (2004, November 5). Grace Sherwood Allen. Retrieved from www.findagrave.com/memorial/9756383/grace-sherwood-allen

Find a Grave. (2009, July 12). William Dawes, Jr. Retrieved from www.findagrave.com/memorial/39370673/william-dawes

Find a Grave. (2000, December 31). William Lloyd Garrison. Retrieved from www.findagrave.com/memorial/384/william-lloyd-garrison

Find a Grave. (2000, December 31). Rev. Edward Everett Hale. Retrieved from www.findagrave.com/memorial/433/edward-everett-hale

Find a Grave. (2000, December 31). Eugene Gladstone O’Neill. Retrieved from www.findagrave.com/memorial/768/eugene-gladstone-o_neill

Find a Grave. (2007, April 8), Lysander Spooner. Retrieved from www.findagrave.com/memorial/18821908/lysander-spooner

Find a Grave. (1998, June 12). Dr. Joseph Warren. Retrieved from www.findagrave.com/memorial/3066/joseph-warren

Find a Grave. (2007, April 10). Jacob Wirth. Retrieved from www.findagrave.com/memorial/18850724/jacob-wirth

Forest Hills Cemetery. (2019). Forest Hills Cemetery. Retrieved from www.foresthillscemetery.com/

Wikipedia. (2019, June 26). E.E. Cummings. Retrieved from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._E._Cummings

Wikipedia. (2020, June 21). Eugene O’Neill. Retrieved from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugene_O%27Neill

Wikipedia. (2019, April 26). Forest Hills Cemetery. Retrieved from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forest_Hills_Cemetery

Wikipedia. (2020, January 29). Jacob Wirth Restaurant. Retrieved from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacob_Wirth_Restaurant

By Andrea Starr | October 26, 2019

I took in change something new or, if you prefer, something very old. It is actually something very old in concept, ancient even, but in a new form.

I accepted a Utah Goldback bill as change in a transaction. It looks like a sheet of mylar with a picture and printing on one side only. The sheet or note contains within it 1/1,000th of an ounce of pure gold. Gold’s spot price is running at about $1,500 per ounce these days, so, doing the math: $1,500/1,000 would have a spot value of about $1.50. Gold in a measured amount, in a durable form, such as a coin, or such as this note, would have a higher than spot value. Say about $2.50.

What Is Money?

For something to be “a money,” it must possess certain fundamental characteristics.

Money must be durable. One might be glad to take something perishable in trade, such as a pound of hamburger, a bushel of apples, or some pretty posies, but those things could not constitute a money. They are not durable. Those items might function as a “currency,” or something that passes “current,” which is to say something transitory or perishable whose value is in the moment.

Money must be fungible. That is to say, every unit of money should be equivalent to every other unit of money. One 1/1,000th of an ounce of gold is the same as every other 1/1,000th of an ounce of gold.

Money must be valuable. That is to say, it must be intrinsically valuable in and of itself. Beads and trinkets, cowrie shells, Monopoly money, or other printed pieces of paper might pass as currency, but lack the intrinsic value of a money.

(We should have a nice chat sometime about Bitcoin. I believe it to be a currency, but not a money. Am I wrong?).

Money must be portable. A ton of copper or iron is durable, fungible, and even valuable, but it is not very portable, not without heavy equipment anyway. A high value to weight (or bulk) ratio is necessary for portability.

Money must be acceptable. If nobody will accept your purported money in an exchange, as I did with this Utah Goldback, then it will not function as a money.

Why This Money?

The Federal Reserve Note (FRN) with which we are all familiar is not a money, it is a currency. It fails to be a money on account of not being intrinsically valuable and not being durable, i.e., not retaining its value over time (due to overprinting). It is a piece of paper backed only by legal tender laws.

For that reason, the FRN is frequently termed a “fiat” currency, from the Latin word fiat: “let it be done,” “by command,” or, if you will, “abra-ca-dabra.” Once upon a time it was backed by gold, but severed its last tenuous link to intrinsic value in 1973. That has allowed since for a steady devaluation through overprinting. The current dollar lacks even the spending power of 5¢ from 1973. That is where your “vanishing middle class” went. And the presses are running still.

The State of Utah passed its Utah Legal Tender Act in 2011. This allowed for gold and silver to be used again in Utah as an additional legal tender. The State of Utah may pay its citizens in gold or silver, and its citizens may pay the State of Utah, or pay each other, in gold or silver. Additional taxation, based upon gold or silver having been classed as commodities, rather than money, was cancelled.

And now Utah Goldback has arisen as a privately produced money, which was the original and proper state of things. It satisfies the provisions of the Utah Legal Tender Act. Having gold embedded within it, it will function also as a reliable store of value, as opposed to inflationary fiat currencies. (NH legislators take note!).

References:

Goldback. (2019). One Goldback: $2.60. Retrieved from goldback.com/

UPMA. (2019, July 24). Welcoming the Utah Goldback. Retrieved from www.upma.org/newsroom/2019/7/24/welcoming-the-utah-goldback

Tucker, Jeffrey A. (2012, February 7). It’s a Jetson’s World: 28. Halloween and Its Candy Economy. Retrieved from mises.org/library/28-halloween-and-its-candy-economy

Wikipedia. (2019, October 12). Fiat Money. Retrieved from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiat_money

Wikipedia. (2019, October 10). List of Community Currencies in the United States. Retrieved from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_community_currencies_in_the_United_States

Wikipedia. (2019, August 23). Utah Legal Tender Act. Retrieved from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utah_Legal_Tender_Act

By Andrea Starr | September 7, 2018

Mount Major (elevation 1,785 feet) is a mountain located in nearby Alton, NH, south of Lake Winnipesaukee and northeast of Straightback Mountain in the Belknap Range.

Mount Major’s parking lot and trailhead are about 20 miles from the intersection of NH Route 75 and NH Route 125 in Milton. Proceed on NH Route 75 towards and through Farmington to NH Route 11. Turn right on NH Route 11 towards Alton. Take the third exit off the Alton rotary and continue on NH Route 11 through Alton village, Alton bay, and Alton. The Mount Major parking lot will be on the left, although it is not uncommon for overflow parking to take place on either side of the road.

There is a signboard with trail maps and several porta-potties in the parking lot. Dogs are permitted on the trails (clean up after them). Good shoes with some ankle support would be useful, a canteen or water bottle too. A light jacket, tied around the waist or stowed in a small backpack, might be welcome at the top. It can be cooler there, due to brisk winds.

The Mount Major Trail (blue blazes) ascends the mountain from the north side. Its length is 1.5 miles and rises about 1,100 feet. It has a gradual rise for about half the trip. Turn left (with the blue blazes) at the Brook Trail junction. This is a popular hike – you will not be lonely.

The Brook Trail (yellow blazes) continues around the base of the mountain to where it connects to the Boulder Loop Trail (orange blazes). The initial stretch of Mount Major Trail (blue blazes), then continuing on the Brook Trail (yellow blazes), and finally the Boulder Loop Trail (orange blazes) make a giant loop around the base of the mountain without ever ascending it.

Continuing up the Mount Major Trail (blue blazes) towards the summit, the ground rises more steeply for the remaining half. As you approach the summit, with still a ways to go, you will break through the trees briefly onto a smooth ledge where Lake Winnipesaukee can first be seen in the direction of Moultonboro. It’s a great photo appetizer.

Excelsior! The summit is an open ledge-y area. It has the remains of a small stone shelter hut (Mr. Phippens’ Hut) there. Vandals destroyed it. (Now a monument to crass stupidity). Its roof is gone and large granite slabs have been toppled from its walls on one side. They do function well as picnic benches.

There is a panoramic view of Lake Winnipesaukee, stretching from Moultonboro bay in the northwest, across the White Mountains towards the north, Wolfeboro village along the lake’s northern side, and the long, thin Alton Bay to the northeast. The mountains are reflected in the lake. Fantastic!

You might just pick out Milton in that general direction with the aid of a topographic map. (I forgot mine). Even the eternal center-insert map from the Weirs Times or Cocheco Times would help identify features, such as the many islands and bays in the lake below.

The MV Mount Washington may be seen traveling on the lake if your visit happens to coincide with its schedule.

Facing away from the lake, you will see the higher Straightback Mountain (elevation 1,911 feet). Mount Major’s peak is elevated 188 feet above the connecting “col” or ridge between them. There are trails to its peak also, more difficult ones, but that is another story. This view is a vast expanse of beautiful rolling wooded ridges and valleys.

One may return the way one came or depart instead down the opposite side (blue blazes still) to the Boulder Loop Trail (orange blazes) and along it back to the parking lot.

References:

Belknap Range Trails. (n.d.). Belknap Range Trails. Retrieved from belknaprangetrails.org/mt-major/blue-trail/

Collins Dictionary. (2018). Excelsior. Retrieved from www.collinsdictionary.com/us/dictionary/english/excelsior

Wikipedia. (2018, September 8). Col. Retrieved from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Col

Wikipedia. (2018, February 3). Mount Major. Retrieved from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Major