(Editor’s note: Current commentary in italics, otherwise copy is reprinted just as it was in the August 8, 1895 edition of the RANGELEY  LAKES newspaper).

I hate my TV. I turn it on to get the weather and the unrelenting PAC funded political ads fill my living room with insults and lies about the opposing candidate and then a new ad runs with a candidate sharing how much the other side is lying about them.  It is no surprise that there has always been, liars, but according to this Rangeley Lake steamboat captain, the worst offender is the Trout fisherman…

“The trout liar,” said Captain Herbert, “is the gem of all fishers. He is the saddle rock liar; a moose among antelopes; Hyperion to satyr; he is the long-tailed comet among quiet twinklers. The trout liar must be born with a peculiar fitness for the task, and then he must be educated to it and devote himself to trout lies as a life work. There are several kinds of trout liars. The liar of weight who never catches more than half a dozen trout a day, but they each weigh anywhere from five to ten pounds. Then there is the liar of numbers, who always catches many dozen in one hour and twenty-eight minutes. And there is the liar of places, who knows hidden pools, dark and still, in the rocks, that are just boiling over with trout; and he takes you under many oaths of secrecy, and by stealthy, circuitous routes, to these places, and you fish in them for eight mortal hours without a nibble. But you can never corner a trout liar. Arithmetic, fact, science, probabilities, precedent, general principles, and the eternal fitness of things may combine in overwhelming array to prove him the awfulest liar in America! It doesn’t disturb him. He lies on calmly, confidently, enthusiastically, always locating the scene of his lies so far away that he is pretty certain you will never go there.”

This little excerpt caught my eye. It tells of a waterfall I have not seen before. I assume that it is out on the U.S. Navy’s training area in Redington where the railroad came through the mountains from Phillips. Sluice hill is mentioned often in the old papers as being a very steep grade on the line…

Lorelei Cascade

This beautiful little cascade situated on top of Sluice hill on the Phillips & Range- ley road is to be fixed up in fine style. This week Charles Allen, Mell Cushman and Eld. Roberts put in a little work clearing out the old logs and brush at the top. Supt. Davis is to have it all cleared away and stairs built, and the passengers given a chance to go down and see it.

Sluice Hill is mentioned again in this portion of the paper. At the time, there was mostly cleared pasture around Rangeley and cows outnumbered people at least 30 to 1…

Railroad Notes

Chasing cattle with a train of twelve loaded cars, and a coach, coming down Sluice Hill grade, on the P. & R., is very exciting, but the thought of the result, should the engine catch one of them, adds a feeling not akin to pleasure. Last week the afternoon train had that experience. When coming round a curve at good speed the engineer discovered several cattle a short distance ahead. The whistle for down brakes, meant more to the brakeman than it would on any other portion of the road, and it is doubtful if Bob McMullen, Chas. Allen and Conductor Smith ever set brakes quicker and ran from car to car faster, than they did at that time. The train was stopped but the whistle had to be repeated before the cattle took to the woods. A railroad man’s life is not all pleasure.

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