Looking back

100 years ago, 1909
According to all reports, the prospects for a new cotton mill in Lewiston are very encouraging. The purchase by the Bates, Androscoggin and other corporations of the control of the Lewiston Bleachery & Dye Works is said to have been the initiative step toward the building of a new cotton mill in this city. If the new mill is built as planned, it will be of sufficient size to give employment to between 3,000 and 4,000 persons. This would mean a big business boom for these cities.

50 years ago, 1959
Bates College students haven’t been seen piling into telephone booths or small foreign cars, but a recent campus prank brought to light this weekend shows they’re also prone to spring fever antics.
One of the college’s bell ringers went to Hawthorne Hall one morning last week to sound the 6:30 a.m. “wake-up” bell. He pulled the rope and the air was “shattered” by complete silence.
It seems that a group of students had climbed into the belfry and detached the bell’s clapper and hid it.
The bell ringers, taking their task seriously, climbed into the belfry and batted the bell with a makeshift clapper until the regular clapper could be re-installed. And it didn’t miss a scheduled ringing.

25 years ago, 1984
The Lewiston-Auburn Transit Committee Thursday voted to allow Hudson Bus Lines to eliminate a route in Lewiston and cut back on a route in Auburn.
Beginning in June, buses will no longer run along Webster Street from Pine to Mitchell streets in Lewiston. Transit Planner Marc Jaffee told the LATC that the route had approximately five regular riders.
At the same time, buses will no longer travel north from the Auburn Mall on Center Street to the Lake Grove extension, because this route served only one or two individuals.