Tea drinking was regarded as one of the feminine vices of a hundred years ago. The female spectator of that period observes: “The tea table costs more to support than would maintain two children at nurse. It is the utter destruction of all economy, the bane of good housewifery and the source of idleness.”

• You won’t get any injury from a live wire if you go to sleep before you touch it, or if you make haste to swallow a dose of chloroform when you see it (the wire) coming your way. There! we gleaned all that information by reading about the latest experiments in science. So if you happen to meet a live wire, you will know what to do.

50 years ago, 1958

St. Mary’s General Hospital officials were informed yesterday of final approval of federal aid in the construction improvements now being undertaken by the hospital. The Department of Health, Education and Welfare approved federal aid in the amount of $65,681. Sister St. Benjamin, hospital administrator, last night confirmed receipt of the approval.The federal contribution will be used for equipment in the clinical, diagnostic and treatment departments in the new addition. Total cost of the work is set at $2,686,984.

25 years ago, 1983

To help improve the long-range stability of the Social Security system, one provision of the recent Social Security amendments gradually raises the age at which unreduced retirement benefits are payable from the present level of 65 to 67 by the year 2027, says Perry Monroe, Social Security field representative in Lewiston-Auburn.

When the new law is fully phased in, a person could receive benefits at 62, as now, but the benefit rate will be lower than the rate payable at 62 under the present law. Now a person retiring at 62 gets 80 percent of the amount payable at 65. When the increase in the retirement age becomes fully effective, a worker retiring at 62 will get a benefit equal to 70 percent of the age 67 benefit.

MIAMI – A “pot luck” breakfast party at the Dade County courthouse put 32 people in the hospital suffering nausea and dizziness after they bit into brownies laced with marijuana, authorities said. “The old demon weed was in the brownies,” said Miami fire department operations officer Joe Dalman. “Both the weed and the seeds.” One clerk was arrested and charged with possession and delivery of the narcotic-flavored confections.