AUGUST has been a month of fires.

The extended drought has caused our lowland rivers to dwindle into mere brooklets, winding across a sandy waste, and has robbed us of our highland streams, leaving beds of jagged rock stretching along the green mountain sides like gaping scars under the blistering sun. This same drought has seeped the moisture from every object and left forest, field and roof the easy prey for the first spark of fire.

The fire was not long in making its appearance. As a people dwelling in a peaceful valley hears the first rumors of an approaching enemy and see reflected along the horizon the red glare of burning villages, so the people of northern New Hampshire awoke to find clouds of smoke forming a haze over their villages and heard with growing alarm of the forest fires raging in different parts of the state. For six days the people of Waterville and Sandwich battled with a devastating conflagration, while the whole Pemigewasset valley lay smothered in smoke. No sooner had this outbreak been checked, leaving thousands of acres of charred mountain-side and having caused the loss of one life, than the attention of the state was turned to Belmont where mill buildings as well as woodland were destroyed. Meanwhile the north wind was constantly bringing

evidences of activities of the fire demon in the north country beyond Dixville and over the Canada line, while thousands of dollars worth of sawed lumber was wiped out in a fire near Orfordville.

Then, to employ the simile further, the warfare was carried into the heart of the state and the people were stabbed into a terrified awakening by swift and dreadful raids. On August 2, during the lunch hour, fire suddenly broke out around the eaves of the beautiful Profile House in Franconia Notch and within four hours the entire hotel, as well as the colony of cottages about it, was burned to the ground. Three hundred guests including Gov. Channing Cox of Massachusetts and several other people of note, were obliged to seize their personal effects and escape. Three hundred other people, the employees of this beautiful mountain establishment, were thrust out of employment. Property of untold value was burned and still more stolen. All of which is insignificant compared with the fact that an institution which has been a pride of New Hampshire since 1852 was lost. With lightning rapidity the marauder struck again, for during the early hours of the next morning the Mount Livermore House at Squam Lake was burned with a loss of one hundred thousand dollars.

The Weirs Encampment

THE

HE actual physical fires, however, are not the only ones which have been burning within New Hampshire in the month that has past. The fires of patriotism which, according to Congressman Wason, "smoulder latent in the hearts of New Hampshire's stalwart sons," have been flaming up with renewed brightness. The cause for this new birth of public sentiment is the annual convention of the New Hampshire Veteran's Association at the Weirs, August 13 to 16. Here the veterans of three wars gathered for the forty-seventh encampment since the association was first founded by the G. A. R. The activities at Camp Joseph H. Killourhy reached their climax on Thursday afternoon when a huge gathering of citizens, both soldier and civilian, gathered to hear a distinguished list of speakers. The guest of honor from outside the state was Theodore Roosevelt, Jr., veteran of the World War and Assistant Secretary of the Navy. It was an item of interest that Mr. Roosevelt's distinguished father spoke from the same platform twenty years before. Secretary Roosevelt delivered a forceful speech upon the Americanizing and democratizing effects of the war, and upon the necessity for a continuation of this work by the American Legion. The speaker's personality and mannerisms which reminded many of the late President Roosevelt were very attractive and secured for him a hearty and enthusiastic reception. Governor Fred H. Brown in a brief address pled for a more general Americanism. Ex-governor John H. Bartlett, with tears in his eyes, called for a rebirth of devotion to New Hampshire, while Senator George H. Moses, casting rather contemptuous glances at Gov. Bartlett's white flannel trousers, took issue with him and declared himself to be optimistic regarding the future of our state. Congressmen Wason and Rogers spoke at the end of the program.

Anniversaries and

Old Home Day Celebrations THIS is the Old Home season and

during the week of August 19 to 26 local patriotism, love of home, tender memories, and fond reminiscences have been the fires which have warmed the cockles of New Hampshire hearts. The most important celebrations of course were the Tercentenary Anniversaries at Portsmouth and Dover. For one entire week these two cities were replete with pageants, concerts, historical addresses, band music and soft drinks. We are told by those who witnessed the pageantry of the celebration that their portrayal of the scenes of early settlements was very impressive indeed. The whole state has pictorial proof of the beauty of the costumes and the realism of the characters. Undoubtedly their presentation of the early scenes and struggles of the founders of our state was very genuine, but we suspect that if the two cities had seen fit to stage for the public even one incident of the long battle which has been waged between them to determine which was the real "First Settlement of New Hampshire," it would have surpassed all the rest of the program. Seriously, however, the gathering of able men at these celebrations, the wealth of sentiment stirred by them, and the faithful toil of those who have prepared and directed them must be a source of helpful inspiration. This week marked the opening of the Portsmouth bridge by a simple but impressive ceremony in which Gov. Brown of New Hampshire and Gov. Baxter of Maine clasped hands at its

center.

Jaffrey, Whitefield and Milford celebrated their sesqui-centennial anniversary and sixty-eight other New Hampshire towns have welcomed back their old friends and former inhabitants at Old Home Day celebrations. It is fortunate, perhaps, that the radio has not yet been sufficiently developed to make

broadcasting stations common.

For if it had been so developed the old Granite. State would have been a perfect Babel of voices. Outcries for and against prohibition, League of Nations, partisanship, government ownership of public utilities, the state development of water power and the bounty on hedge-hogs would have resounded from one end of the state to the other, forming one confused uproar. Imagine "listening in" on George H. Moses, the irreconcilable, at Whitefield, Rev. Raymond H. Huse, the World Court proponent, at Concord, and Raymond Stevens, the League of Nations orator of Landaff, at the same time, having your ear saluted by interruptions. from Andrew Felker preaching prohibition and Robert P. Bass urging development of the state's water power.

Un

questionably the squeakings and wailings

of the receiver would be a relief. It is well to remember that under cover of the cannonade of oratory these Old Home Days have been marked by the warm handclasp of old friends and the re-awakening of public interest.

IN

President Harding's Death N the early part of the month amid the excitement and hurry of preparation and the lighthearted buoyancy of the vacationist, there came a note of sadness which caused the people of New Hampshire to pause and reflect sadly upon the serious things of life. This was occasioned by the death of our late President, Warren G. Harding. In response to the request of President Coolidge, almost every city and town in the state held fitting memorial services. The Governor issued a proclamation expressing the and appreciation of the people, and the Mayor of every city prescribed various forms of public mourning. All these things, however, constituted only the official expression appropriate to the solemn occasion. Far more important and more significant were the little incidents and words upon the streets and in the public places of our cities and towns.

love

It

Vermont was once known as the "New Hampshire Grants" and the boundaries of colonial Massachusetts extended to Winnipesaukee. Therefore, New Hampshire shares with these states a sense of proprietorship over proprietorship over our new president.

If a reversal of the old saying "that the rats forsake a sinking ship" is true, his future is indeed bright for our political stages from the highest to the lowest are vieing with each other in endorsing him and are already, according to the Concord Monitor accusing each other of being "band-wagon jumpers." Without intending any reflection upon them we feel that New Hampshire's real feeling for the president is not political but patriotic. His quiet strength appeals to the people who are all expressing their confidence in him. With the sad memory of our last two presidents who were broken by the responsibilities of the position and its constant storm of criticism, we are all "band-wagon jumpers" in that New Hampshire citizens of all parties. pledge their loyal support to President Calvin Coolidge. -N. H. C.