University of Maine - Prism Yearbook (Orono, ME)

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“They had what they called a cow-catcher It looked like a big snow scoop, only it was made of heavy wire Some of the students years ago used to ride on it lor nothing Yuh It was nothing to see 15 on a cow-catcher, riding for nothing The conductor didn't dare to go out and say anything to 'em. 'cause he might get a bat in the mouth They done with the street cars October 1, 1934, the same year the mill shut down. 'Cause the mill here was using a lot of the power you know When they shut the mill down and everything, they had all kinds of power to spare. And the town was building up. and they were just putting the lights in 'most all these houses around town here in 193-1 So they done away with the street cars to save the power for lights. They sold all the streetcars. The streetcars went to Brazil On the darker side, violence occasionally flared up Sever- al murders have occurred since Wild Bill came to town 61 years ago. One involved a I MO student. A student shot a girl on the toll-bridge here, the bridge going to college. She was going with this Chinese boy She threw him over for another one So he didn't shoot the boy, he just shot her. at nine o'clock at night, when the moon would come up He sat up on the bridge, so he could see her under the light, when she came, and he shot her They were in court quite a while over it This w as in 1915 6

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Another murder involved a feud between two mill workers “There was this old widower, a beater-engineer at the paper mill He made sure the paper was ready to go through the machine That was in 1919 He had a housekeeper living in his house. The widower come home one night from work, and this young man. he must have been going with her. When the w idower come home and caught him in the house, he put him out. and put the shoes to him and kicked him and everything. The young man. when he was out of the house, told the widower right then. He threatened the old man. You old son-of-a-whore. when I catch you again I'm going to kill you ’ That would stand up in court now. So where the young man threatened to kill him. the wid- ower was pretty nasty in the mill I was on the same shift he was And there was an old fellow, used to work there When he didn't have nothing to do he would sit down and read The w idower would go out and give him a broom, and make him sweep the floors. Oh. he pushed him and shoved him. and this old man. he was about 65 years old, but you could work, them days. The old man got mad at the w idower. He decided he was going to kill him So he moved to Banger. He practiced quite a while. He fired 300 shells with a revolver. He had an old policeman's badge, and lie used to go into Mt. Hope Cemetery and put it on a headstone, so it wouldn't hurt nothing When he was good enough, he came up to Orono. He came up from Banger in a streetcar, and he got off down there In Highland Ave. He waited for that old widower to come into work at quarter past eleven. I was one of the first men that found him the night he got shot We came up over the hill just 10 minutes after him. up Highland Ave. He was grunting just like a little pig The old man emptied the gun on him w ith a 22 pistol He put through three bullets, right in his upper stomach and his chest The w idower wasdving, but he was dying slow , and he w as laying in the grass They arrested the young man because he’d threatened the widower He did three months in jail The old man was still free He set out to commit suicide. He went down on the steamboat wharf (in Bangor) and he had a piece of train rail, and a piece of wire. He was going to slide it over and go w ith it. drown himself.