What follows are some clippings from the pages of the November 29, 1895 edition of the RANGELEY LAKES newspaper.
(Editor’s note: Contemporary commentary in italics, otherwise copy is reprinted just as it was in 1895).
What follows is the last stanza of a poem called “Thanksgiving” by Elizabeth Akers Allen that appeared on Page 1.
For all the gifts of the teeming earth.
For every blessing the autumn sends.
For love, for pleasure, for tears, for mirth,
For faithful hearts and for loyal friends,
For household circles still fond and whole,
Let everyone in his own best way,
With grateful thought and with humble soul,
Yield thanksgiving and praise today.
Editor Harry P. Dill had a weekly contribution of “shorts” he entitled…
’TWIXT YOU AND ME”
There was trouble in the Middle East back then too. Its odd that the editor just assumed that the atrocities being committed by the Turks against his Christian Armenian population was well known fact. Between 1894 and 1896 the Hamidian massacres took place, named after the Ottoman Sultan Abdül Hamid II, during whose reign they were carried out. In fact, this glib two-liner below became far less cute, when just a few weeks later, several massacres in towns with Armenian communities took place. This culminated in December 1895, when nearly 3,000 Armenians Christians who had taken refuge in the cathedral of Urfa were burned alive. Terrible and I can only imagine Harry regretted this…
The Turk’s a deader!
The Sultan continues insultin’
If the turkey lives through today, he is reasonably certain of a good living till Christmas.
Venison with partridge on the side is a very acceptable camp substitute for the conventional turkey.
I love deer steak and partridge (Ruffed Grouse) but NO Turkey?
(Have you heard? College students liked to Party a bit, even in 1895. Yes, I was surprised too)
Yale is not so bad as it is painted.
No, but there has been some mighty mean work when the students, “painted ’er red.”
It was only a year or two ago that the papers were overrun with sarsaparilla testimonials
(advertisements) of their cure-all qualities. Now it’s the sarsaparilla that is in trouble. “Physician heal thyself.”
It is now claimed that the roar of a waterfall is due to the explosion of hundreds of thousands of bubbles, says an exchange. There is also a roar at the bursting of financial bubbles. He nailed that one!
A doctor has discovered the curious fact that the skull of a man who has died from delirium tremens contains alcoholic vapor. A small opening in the skull soon after death, permits it to escape, when it can be ignited, and burns with a bluish flame. — Popular Science News. This explains why a drunken man is so light-headed. And that there was some very strange “research” going on.
On Page 5, there was a short article covering the moving of what was then a 3-story hotel, The Rangeley Lake House. The entire building was jacked up and moved using 40 plus teams of draft horses to a prime location on the eastern point of land on City Cove. Quite an undertaking at the time and it was a smart “move”. The hotel would be added onto several times in the coming years and became one of the most popular summer resorts in the nation. The final rendition was so large that the dining room could accommodate over 200 people!
The New Rangeley Lake House.
Now you can see pretty near how it is going to look; the last section has reached its position and is firmly joined to its former mate; the cottage, that obstructed the view from the street, has been moved up the hill to a more commanding spot, and the new- hotel is “Monarch of all I survey.” The work has been faithfully done, and will stand as a monument, to which Mr. Cain can point with pride whenever his services are sought for similar work.
The carpenters and masons are rushing work and the interior will soon be ready for the finishing touches of the painter’s brush.
The new location of the cottage is remarkably fine, being some distance north east of the hotel on higher ground. A street will be built from the hotel past the cottage and continuing to the Main street above the schoolhouse. Along this (Cottage) street will be built the hotel cottages.
This piece from Page 6 “looked back” with a peek at what a proper Thanksgiving dinner consisted of in the “olden-days” of the 1840’s…
In the days of the good old Thanksgiving, a well spread table was not considered complete unless it was provided with all of the following dishes. Here is an old-fashioned Thanksgiving menu:
Oyster Stew
Roast turkey – Roast Chicken – Sparerib – Sausages. Head cheese. (Brains…YUCK!)
Mashed potatoes – Hot slaw – Boiled onions – Turnips – Pickles – Raised biscuits – White bread with Currant jelly, Preserves.
Honey in the comb – Fruit cake – Doughnuts.
Mince, Apple, Custard and Pumpkin pies.
Cheese. Apples and nuts. Cider. (Quite the Spread)
And finally, some local news and gossip from the back pages…
Bears are going to be plenty in the back woods this fall. The mountain ash berries are the thickest they have been known to be for years. This mountain ash is a favorite food of moose, and is always peeled by them in the winter, and at times they ride it down to get the berries. It grows tall and slender and when loaded with damp snow often bends over so as to bring the berries within reach of deer. Partridge and other birds feed on them almost exclusively, while they last; foxes, sables, fishes and bears are very fond of them. The taste to man is very disagreeable. —Dan Hayward
(The author’s name is misspelled. Daniel E. Heywood (1869-1911) was a lead guide for John Danforth at Camp Caribou on Parmachenee Lake for some time. He was a regular contributor to “Forest & Stream” the leading national sporting paper of its day. He would later become a highly regarded self-trained naturalist and one of the first practitioners of nighttime wildlife photography. We have two of his original signed vintage photos at Outdoor Heritage Museum. Sadly, Heywood succumbed from Consumption (Tuberculosis) at the young age of 42 and his grave is located in Rangeley’s Evergreen Cemetery.
Haley pond was frozen over Friday morning, Nov. 22. (No climate change then!)
C. W. Barrett is busy preparing for his next season’s boat building. He built upwards of thirty last year and intends to go way above that number this winter. (Barrett is widely considered as the most accomplished builder of our iconic Rangeley Boat. The Historical Society is fortunate to have 3 in our collections)
Heaven help the man that has to go through Rangeley after dark these nights! It is so dark you can’t see the sidewalk and so muddy you can’t follow the road.
The growth of Rangeley may be seen from the fact that in former years the Oquossoc House could accommodate all that came, while now nearly every night guests have to be roomed out.
(Can you imagine? “No room at the Inn? Well just come and bunk with us stranger”.)
Mr. Barrett informs us that near Gull Pond is a spring that throws out a stream of water that would fill a three-inch pipe. This would give a supply sufficient for the town for several years. (Don’t tell Poland Spring about this!)
Happy Holidays Everyone!
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