The old custom of teaching little girls to sew is being revived in Lewiston and Auburn families and the way some of the little folks take to it is almost marvelous and the stitches of some of these beginners would put to shame many a woman in the two cities. Perhaps the reason that the little five and six year olds like sewing so much better than their mothers and grandmothers did when they were young is because they are not made to do dreary miles of over-and-over on prosaic patch-work, but are allowed to make dainty trifles, either useful or ornamental, for the little folks, perhaps even more than grownups, like variety.

50 Years Ago, 1955

President Eisenhower appealed for bipartisan harmony and told the new 84th Congress both parties are “on trial” in the free world’s struggle to win enduring peace and prevent an atomic “holocaust.” In a State of the Union message noting the shift in control of Congress from Republicans to Democrats, the President declared America’s prosperity outlook “is good” – that “business activity now surges with new strength” and that personal income after taxes is “at record level.”

25 Years Ago, 1980

The “Fiercest Fire That Ever Burned in the City of Lewiston” devastated City Hall 90 years ago. A special morning edition of the Lewiston Evening Journal, outlined the fire’s cause and destruction 12 hours after flames erupted in an old elevator wall during a poultry show. Lamenting the “Total Loss of Our Grandest Architectural Pile,” The Journal devoted almost the entire front page of its Jan. 8, 1890, edition to what was, at that time, the “most destructive fire that ever visited Lewiston.” Built in 1872, for $250,000 – bricks then cost a penny a piece – City Hall was Lewiston’s most valuable structure; containing a public library as well as the police station.