The fire drills in the Auburn schools would seem to prove that the children were not in much danger from fire. The children are timed from the time of the striking of the gong until the last child is out. No one but the principal knows when the gong is to be struck. The children go directly out of doors, not stopping for wraps. They are supposed to go as quickly as possible but are obliged to keep in step with the drum. The record made at the Webster grammar school, where there are over 460 pupils, at the different drills this year, is as follows: 1 min. 46 sec., 1 min. 42 sec., 1 min 48 sec., 1 min 34 sec.

50 Years Ago, 1955

Augusta – A bill to guard children against accidental entrapment and death in abandoned iceboxes or other airtight containers was signed into law today by Gov. Muskie. The icebox bill provides a fine up to $50, imprisonment up to 30 days or both for discarding an icebox or other container in which a child could become trapped and suffocate.

More than a score of Maine tobacco retailers and jobbers, meeting yesterday at the DeWitt Hotel, agreed to oppose a pair of bills filed at the State Legislature which would put back the tax on cigars and tobacco. William T. Davis, Lewiston tobacco retailer, said the group would oppose the bills next Thursday at a hearing in Augusta. An estimated $600,000 revenue derived from the tax would be used to establish a State School Building Fund, according to the bills filed by Rep. Eben L. Elwell, Waldo County Democrat.

25 Years Ago, 1980

Maine won the nation’s annual pothole prize Tuesday but the man in charge of the highways called it all a little overdramatic. The Road Information Program, or TRIP, a Washington based industry group, said that with a pothole rate of 108 per mile of paved highway, Maine ranked worst, in a survey of 33 states. It said to repair Maine’s potholes with asphalt filler would cost $6.4 million.


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