Last evening the Lewiston police were notified that Minot St. Clair Francis, the negro desperado who escaped from the State prison last Monday, and for whose capture dead or alive a reward of $200 was offered, was reported in Woolwich, apparently endeavoring to make his way across the Kennebec river in the direction of Bath and might reach this city early today. All of the officers were notified to be on the lookout for the mad desperado.

It is believed that Francis’ objective point is Canada and that he will come to Lewiston hoping to be able to elude his pursuers and quietly leave town via the Grand Trunk.

50 Years Ago, 1956

The U.S. Weather Bureau will close the books at midnight tomorrow on one of the mildest hurricane seasons in history.

Only one hurricane struck the United States during the June-to-November season and damage was so small it was offset by the benefit of drought-breaking rains.

The season contrasted sharply with that of 1955, when hurricanes set a property destruction record of two billion dollars in the Western Hemisphere and killed at least 1,518 people.

25 Years Ago, 1981

The Saudis sell us oil, the Japanese automobiles, the Brazilians coffee. And it looks as though for some time to come we will be buying our city centers and shopping malls from the Canadians.

In less than a decade since moving south, a dozen huge Canadian development firms – with billions of dollars, a lot of daring and a knack for the spectacular – have helped give a facelift to Urban America.

The real estate giants are the new vanguard of investors from Canada who have sunk at least $10 billion into the American economy, currently at a rate of about $1 billion a year.

Right now the two biggest Canadian builders are starting up a pair of billion-dollar mega-projects on opposite coasts – Battery Park City in New York and California Center in Los Angeles.